Research into antiviral agents directed at hepatitis C virus (HCV) proteins is commonly based and tested on a single genotype, namely, genotype 1. This is despite the high level of variability of the RNA virus and the frequency of infection with genotypes other than genotype 1. The systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) is a novel in vitro approach used in this study ...

NGST is capable of reaching the main sequence turnoff of the oldest stellar populations (MV = +4.5) out to a distance ≈ 2 Mpc. There is now evidence that the oldest, most metal poor star clusters are coeval to within 1 Gyr over a 200 kpc radius centered on the Milky Way. NGST can be used to make an equally definitive test of this in the halo and globular cluster system of M31, NGC 147, 185, and...

The basal respiration rate at 10°C (R10) and the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q10) are two premier parameters in predicting the instantaneous rate of soil respiration at a given temperature. However, the mechanisms underlying the spatial variations in R10 and Q10 are not quite clear. R10 and Q10 were calculated using an exponential function with measured soil respiration and soi...

Since ‘nice’ and ‘interesting’ can hardly be treated as mathematically formulated features, let us discuss the permutability property. We shall explain it in more detail for the classical example of surfaces with constant negative Gaussian curvature (K-surface) with their Bäcklund transformations. Let r : R → R be a K-surface, and r10 and r01 two K-surfaces obtained by Bäcklund transformations ...

1. The thermal dependence of passive electrical properties was determined for twitch fibres from the white region of the iliofibularis (IF) muscle of Anolis cristatellus (15-35 degrees C) and Sceloporus occidentalis (15-40 degrees C), and for twitch fibres from the white (15-45 degrees C) and red (15-40 degrees C) regions of the IF of Dipsosaurus dorsalis. These species differ in thermal ecolog...

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) infects ∼1.4 million people annually and, although there is a vaccine, there are no licensed therapeutic drugs. HAV is unusually stable (making disinfection problematic) and little is known of how it enters cells and releases its RNA. Here we report a potent HAV-specific monoclonal antibody, R10, which neutralizes HAV infection by blocking attachment to the host cell. Hi...