Recent analyses have revealed many functional microRNA (miRNA) targets in mammalian protein coding regions. But, the mechanisms that ensure miRNA function when their target sites are located in protein coding regions of mammalian mRNA transcripts are largely unknown. In this paper, we investigate some potential biological factors, such as target site accessibility and local translation efficien...

Levels of curation across biological databases are widely recognized as being highly variable, depending on provenance and type. In spite of ambiguous quality, searches against biological sources, such as those for sequence homology, remain a frontline strategy for biomedical scientists studying molecular data. In the following, we investigate the accessibility of well-curated data retrieved fr...

Curcumin is a bioactive compound from turmeric which has different biological properties and health benefits such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities. However, the low solubility, poor bioavailability, and rapid degradation under neutral or alkaline pH conditions or when exposed to light, limit the food applications of curcumin. These problems can be solv...

Computational systems biology is empowering the study of drug action. Studies on biological effects of chemical compounds have increased in scale and accessibility, allowing integration with other large-scale experimental data types. Here, we review computational approaches for elucidating the mechanisms of both intended and undesirable effects of drugs, with the collective potential to change ...

Paul Blainey is professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. In this contribution he describes three microfluidic technologies that he and his team has developed to extend the capability, accessibility, and applications of microfluidics: (1) Integrated microfluidic sample preparation for genomic assays, (2) hydrogel-based microfluidics for single-cell genome sequencing, and (3) an emulsion-based...

A classification of four possible routes of Darwinian evolution is presented. These are serial direct evolution, parallel direct evolution, elimination of functional redundancy, and adoption from a different function. This classification provides a conceptual framework within which to investigate the accessibility by Darwinian evolution of complex biological structures.

conclusions geographic accessibility of pharmacies at night and on holidays has to be addressed by provincial health policymakers. materials and methods the analysis was based on straight-line distance measurements. we considered 150, 300, 450, 600, and 750 m for pedestrians, and 1, 2, and 3 km for driving accessibility as the acceptable distances. we calculated the number and percentage of hou...

Accessibility and usability guidelines are available to design web sites accessible to blind users. However, the actual usability of accessible web pages varies depending on the type of information the user is dealing with. Museum web sites, including specimens and hall descriptions, need specific requirements to allow vision-impaired users, who navigate using a screenreader, to access pieces o...

The functional approach to typology often appeals to processing pressures in order to explain universals. This paper examines a case where the match between a processing asymmetry and a typological asymmetry is not one-to-one — a case where the functional approach appears to fail. For a particular typology of relative clauses, the psycholinguistic literature suggests two asymmetries: accessibil...

Accessibility and usability guidelines are available to design web sites accessible to blind users. However, the actual usability of accessible web pages varies depending on the type of information the user is dealing with. Museum web sites, including specimens and hall descriptions, need specific requirements to allow vision-impaired users, who navigate using a screen-reader, to access pieces ...