To understand how protein reduces the conformational space to be searched for the native structure, it is crucial to characterize ensembles of conformations on the way of folding processes, in particular ensembles of relatively long-range structures connecting between an extensively unfolded state and a state with a native-like overall chain topology. To analyze such intermediate conformations,...

Non-baryonic Dark Matter (DM) appears in galaxies and other cosmic structures when and only when the acceleration of gravity, as computed considering only baryons, goes below a well defined value a0 = 1.2 × 10 −8 cm s. This fact is extremely important and suggestive of the possibility of a breakdown of Newton’s law of gravity (or inertia) below a0, an acceleration smaller than the smallest prob...

We examine various physical processes associated with the formation of globular clusters by using the three-dimensional Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code. Our code includes radiative cooling of gases, star formation, energy feedback from stars including stellar winds and supernovae, and chemical enrichment by stars. We assume that, in the collapsing galaxy, isothermal cold clouds form ...

The glycoprotein Ib.IX complex is a major component of the platelet membrane. It mediates the adhesion of platelets to exposed subendothelium and provides an attachment site for the membrane skeleton on the plasma membrane. The present study was designed to characterize the structure of the glycoprotein Ib.IX complex. Electron microscopy of purified glycoprotein Ib.IX complex in detergent showe...

We present a study of the globular cluster systems of two edge–on spiral galaxies, NGC 4565 and NGC 5907, from WFPC2 images in the F450W and F814W filters. The globular cluster systems of both galaxies appear to be similar to the Galactic globular cluster system. In particular, we derive total numbers of globular clusters of NGC(4565) = 204± 38 +87 −53 and NGC(5907) = 170± 41 +47 −72 (where the...

This review presents the results of ongoing studies of the formation histories of metal-poor and metal-rich globular clusters and their host galaxies. I first discuss the strong observational evidence that the globular cluster systems of most elliptical galaxies have bimodal metallicity distributions. I then focus on new results for metal-poor and metal-rich globular cluster systems. Metalpoor ...

We have carried out a Chandra observation of the globular cluster M54. We detected 7 sources located within the half-mass radius of M54, at a flux limit of 1.5 × 10erg s cm in the 0.3−8 keV energy band. The spatial distribution and the colour/spectral properties of the 7 sources suggest that they are likely to be cataclysmic variables or LMXBs in the globular cluster. M54 shows the largest numb...

Impressive advances in the applications of bioinformatics for protein structure prediction coupled with growing structural databases on one hand and the insurmountable time-scale problem with ab initio computational methods on the other continue to raise doubts whether a computational solution to the protein folding problem--categorized as an NP-hard problem--is within reach in the near future....

We present velocity dispersion measurements of 14 globular clusters in NGC 5128 (Centarus A) obtained with the MIKE echelle spectrograph on the 6.5m Magellan Clay telescope. These clusters are among the most luminous globular clusters in NGC 5128 and have velocity dispersions comparable to the most massive clusters known in the Local Group, ranging from 10 – 30 km s−1. We describe in detail our...

We here present our first attempt to use Globular Clusters as tracers of their parent galaxy's formation history. Globular Cluster Systems of most early-type galaxies feature two peaks in their optical colour distributions. Blue-peak Globular Clusters are generally believed to be old and metal-poor. The ages, metallicities, and the origin of the red-peak Globular Clusters are being debated. We ...