Background The lectins are an important class of proteins ubiquitous in nature, which plays different roles and functions in biological processes such as recognition molecules within the immune system in animals and as storage proteins or in defence mechanisms against pest and pathogens in plants. Oliveira et al. [1] showed that rats fed on a lectin-rich diet from Pachira aquatica seeds had a p...

Defensive chemicals in anuran skin secretions function in protection against potential predators. Although studies have demonstrated that particular chemicals are effective against certain predators, very little is known about how different chemicals from different species function against the same predators. Understanding how different chemicals function as a defence against similar predators ...

Recently it has been shown that smart cards as cryptographic devices are vulnerable to power attacks if they have no defence against them. Randomization on ECC scalar multiplication is one of the fundamental concepts in methods of defence against side-channel attacks. In this paper by using the randomization concept together with the NAF recoding algorithm, we propose an efficient countermeasur...

The subject of this work is the defence planning of a point target against an air attack. The defence system is decomposed into a number of sectors. A direct method of coordination is used at the upper level, while the sectors use a discretetime event-based model and the description of uncertainty by multiple scenarios of an attack. The resulting problems are solved using linear programming. A ...

The aim of the present study was to determine antioxidant defence mechanisms in the rat and Hymenolepis diminuta after long-term infestation. We determined levels of oxidative stress markers, and activity of antioxidant enzymes in the rat small intestine and in particular parts of H. diminuta. Observed changes in antioxidant enzymes activity in H. diminuta and the rat intestine indicate the def...

In addition to the role of the cell wall as a physical barrier against pathogens, some of its constituents, such as pectin-derived oligogalacturonides (OGA), are essential components for elicitation of defence responses. To investigate how modifications of pectin alter defence responses, we expressed the fruit-specific Fragaria x ananassa pectin methyl esterase FaPE1 in the wild strawberry Frag...

Early response to the exposure of cadmium includes the enhancement in lipid peroxidation with the concomitant impairment in antioxidative defence mechanism. This investigation deals with the delayed response of cadmium induced stimulation of endogenous defence response against its oxidative damage. The administration of cadmium led to an increase in the hepatic enzymatic and nonenzymatic defenc...

The wire syndrome shared by plants in New Zealand and Madagascar appears to have evolved convergently as a defence against herbivory from now extinct avian giants.

We designed a distributed security infrastructure with self-defence capabilities to secure networked resources in Grids and internet applications. This paper reports new developments in fuzzy trust management, game-theoretic Grid models, security-binding methodology, as well as new Grid performance metrics, defence architecture and mechanisms against intrusions, worms, and low-rate pulsing Dist...