What is the free energy source enabling high-fidelity DNA polymerases (pols) to favor incorporation of correct over incorrect base pairs by 10(3)- to 10(4)-fold, corresponding to free energy differences of ΔΔGinc∼ 5.5-7 kcal/mol? Standard ΔΔG° values (∼0.3 kcal/mol) calculated from melting temperature measurements comparing matched vs. mismatched base pairs at duplex DNA termini are far too low...

Real-time systems for monitoring and therapy planning, which receive their data from on-line monitoring equipment and computer-based patient records, require reliable data. Data validation has to utilize and combine a set of fast methods to detect, eliminate, and repair faulty data, which may lead to life-threatening conclusions. The strength of data validation results from the combination of n...

Salamanders are acknowledged to be the closest postural model of early tetrapods and are capable of walking both in a terrestrial environment and while submerged under water. Nonetheless, locomotion in this group is poorly understood, as is underwater pedestrian locomotion in general. We, therefore, quantified the movements of the body axis and limbs of the California newt, Taricha torosa, duri...

Viruses from extreme environments are still largely unexplored and may harbor unseen genetic potential. Here, we present a first glance at the morphological diversity of virus like particles (VLPs) from an environment that is extreme in more than one respect: two recently discovered hydrothermal vent fields on the East Scotia Ridge in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. They are the southernmos...

" Oroxylum indicum " Vent (Syonakh) belonging to the family Bignoniaceae, has been used in several traditional Ayurvedic and folk medicines. The decoction of this root bark used in jaundice treatment by tribal people. As a result of these findings the present study was undertaken to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of crude aqueous extract of root bark of " Oroxylum indicum " Vent against...

Criteria for the evaluation of dental implant success are proposed. These criteria are applied in an assessment of the long-term efficacy of currently used dental implants including the subperiosteal implant, the vitreous carbon implant, the blade-vent implant, the single-crystal sapphire implant, the Tübingen implant, the TCP-implant, the TPS-screw, the ITI hollow-cylinder implant, the IMZ den...

The aim of this paper is to review some of the economic drivers of large scale bioregionalisation, using examples from deep sea hydrothermal vent communities, the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, and Australia. These economic drivers are mainly recent conservation efforts, while early 20th century bioregionalisation was driven by 19th century taxonomy and exploration to assess available biological ...

I studied the ontogenetic development of body shape and the influence of food availability on the development of body shape in hatchling striped plateau lizards (Sceloporus uirgatus) over the first seven to eight weeks of their life. Body mass showed positive growth relative to snout-vent length. Head width, head length, and femur length showed negative growth relative to snout-vent length. No ...

Organisms at hydrothermal vents inhabit discontinuous chemical 'islands' along mid-ocean ridges, a scenario that may promote genetic divergence among populations. The 2003 discovery of mussels at the Lost City Hydrothermal Field provided a means of evaluating factors that govern the biogeography of symbiotic bacteria in the deep sea. The unusual chemical composition of vent fluids, the remote l...