The 5' nontranslated region (NTR) and the X tail in the 3' NTR are the least variable parts of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome and play an important role in the initiation of RNA synthesis. By using subgenomic replicons of the HCV isolates Con1 (genotype 1) and JFH1 (genotype 2), we characterized the genotype specificities of the replication signals contained in the NTRs. The replacement of ...

We report an analysis of low-temperature measurements of the conductance of partially disordered reduced graphene oxide, finding that the data follow a simple crossover scenario. At room temperature, the conductance is dominated by two-dimensional (2D) electric field-assisted, thermally driven (Pollak-Riess) variable-range hopping (VRH) through highly disordered regions. However, at lower tempe...

The E2 glycoprotein of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major target of the neutralizing antibody (NAb) response with the majority of epitopes located within its receptor binding domain (RBD; 384-661). Within E2 are three variable regions located at the N-terminus (HVR1; 384-411), and internally at 460-480 (HVR2) and 570-580 [intergenotypic variable region (igVR)], all of which lie outside a conser...

The adaptive humoral immune response is responsible for the generation of antimicrobial proteins known as immunoglobulin molecules or antibodies. Immunoglobulins provide a defense system against pathogenic microbes and toxins by targeting them for removal and/or destruction. Historically, antibodies have been thought to be composed of distinct structural domains known as the variable and consta...

This paper presents a method for annotating coding and noncoding DNA regions by using variable order Markov (VOM) models. A main advantage in using VOMmodels is that their order may vary for different sequences, depending on the sequences’ statistics. As a result, VOMmodels are more flexible with respect to model parameterization and can be trained on relatively short sequences and on low-quali...

With the Assessment System for Sustainable Buildings for Federal Buildings (BNB), Germany is pioneering the implementation of certification systems for Sustainable Buildings in Europe. Using BNB methodology and tools, building products are not assessed as individual products, but looked at within the context of the entire building and its parts. The most important impacts of the building on the...