Group decision-making processes often turn into a drawn out and costly battle between two opposing subgroups. Using analytical arguments based on a master equation description of the opinion dynamics occurring in a three-state model of cooperatively interacting units, we show how the capability of a social group to reach consensus can be enhanced when there is an intermediate state for indecisi...

The kinetics of actin unfolding induced by guanidine hydrochloride of different concentrations was studied. The parametric representation of the kinetic dependencies of tryptophan fluorescence intensity changes recorded at two wavelengths allowed us to detect and characterize a new essentially unfolded kinetic intermediate. Its characteristics suggested that this intermediate state is a premolt...

this guide to the identification of iranian freshwater snails has been prepared with aim of helping individuals involved in field work, but who have had no specialized training in taxonomy to differentiate snail specimens which they collect to certain groups by means of simple identification key. the guide pays special attention to the principal snail groups which transmit human schistosomiasis...

We present an analysis of CCD photometric observations of the eclipsing novalike cataclysmic variable DW UMa obtained in two different luminosity states: high and intermediate. The star presents eclipses with very different depth: ∼ 1.2 mag in the high and ∼ 3.4 mag in the intermediate state. Eclipse mapping reveals that this difference is almost entirely due to the changes in the accretion dis...

With a view to explaining the structure-affinity properties of the ligands of the protein FKBP12, we characterized a binding intermediate state between this protein and a high-affinity ligand. Indeed, the nature and extent of the intermolecular contacts developed in such a species may play a role on its stability and, hence, on the overall association rate. To find the binding intermediate, a m...

background and aims: infectious bursal disease (ibd) is an acute contagious viral disease of birds worldwide. the causative virus induces a persistent immune suppression following destroy b lymphocytes precursors in bursal lymphoid follicles. vaccination is the main strategy for prevention of the disease in commercial poultry industry. materials and methods: to produce a live vaccine against th...

We have investigated the folding dynamics of Thermus thermophilus cytochrome c(552) by time-resolved fluorescence energy transfer between the heme and each of seven site-specific fluorescent probes. We have found both an equilibrium unfolding intermediate and a distinct refolding intermediate from kinetics studies. Depending on the protein region monitored, we observed either two-state or three...

At present it is unclear which interactions in proteins reveal the presence of intermediate states, their stability and formation rate. In this study, we have investigated the effect of substitutions of hydrophobic amino acid residues in the hydrophobic core of protein and on its surface on a molten globule type intermediate state of apomyoglobin. It has been found that independent of their loc...

representation of internal version state Correct_State Give_State state of version 1 state of version 2 state of version 3 Give_State Give_State Correct_State Correct_State Figure 2. Faulty version recovery based on the intermediate state representation. We can envisage several approaches to presenting the internal states of different versions in a uniform way. One idea is to use components of ...

A two component system can be fully operational, in two states of intermediate degradation, or fail. Each component is protected by a defender which maximizes its reliability weighted against the defense costs, and attacked by an attacker which maximizes its unreliability weighted against the attack costs. The system reduces to the series system when the values of the two intermediate states eq...