Assembly of bacteriophage P22 procapsids has long served as a model for assembly of spherical viruses. Historically, assembly of viruses has been viewed as a non-equilibrium process. Recently alternative models have been developed that treat spherical virus assembly as an equilibrium process. Here we have investigated whether P22 procapsid assembly reactions achieve equilibrium or are irreversi...

The elasticity and mechanical stability of empty and filled viral capsids under external force loading are studied in a combined analytical and numerical approach. We analyze the influence of capsid structure and chirality on the mechanical properties. We find that generally skew shells have lower stretching energy. For large Föppl-von Kármán numbers gamma (gamma approximately 10(5)), skew stru...

Behavioural variation among conspecifics is typically contingent on individual state or environmental conditions. Sex-specific genetic polymorphisms are enigmatic because they lack conditionality, and genes causing adaptive trait variation in one sex may reduce Darwinian fitness in the other. One way to avoid such genetic antagonism is to control sex-specific traits by inheritance via sex chrom...

Empty mollusk shells may act as colonization surfaces for sclerobionts depending on the physical, chemical, and biological attributes of the shells. However, the main factors that can affect the establishment of an organism on hard substrates and the colonization patterns on modern and time-averaged shells remain unclear. Using experimental and field approaches, we compared sclerobiont (i.e., b...

In this study, the free vibration of partially fluid-filled laminated composite circular cylindrical shell with arbitrary boundary conditions has been investigated by using Rayleigh-Ritz method. The analysis has been carried out with strain-displacement relations based on Love’s thin shell theory and the contained fluid is assumed irrotational, incompressible and inviscid. After determining the...

This study identifies the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, which can be achieved by optimizing the use of residues in the life cycle of palm oil derived biodiesel. This is done through compilation of data on existing and prospective treatment technologies as well as practical experiments on methane potentials from empty fruit bunches. Methane capture from the anaerobic digestion of pa...

Political observers agree that parties in European parliamentary democracies are more likely than previously to give party members opportunities vote decisions about policies or personnel. Observers less agreed the implications of these apparent procedural trends. Some, including Peter Mair, saw them as evidence hollowing-out democracies; others have seen enhancing citizens’ for meaningful poli...

Gastropods are known for the presence of calcareous shells, even after their death. The diversity this resource can be reflected in local living gastropods. These shells used by hermit crabs as protection and against desiccation. Coastal lagoons biodiversity hotspots site recruitment continent-sea connectivity, is sometimes altered connectivity events with adjacent areas. Therefore, we sought t...

The terrestrial gastropod family Thysanophoridae is reported herein for the first time from Brazil. new record stems a 2015 survey in Reserva Biológica de Pedra Talhada, protected Atlantic Forest fragment Alagoas state, northeastern part of country. Only two empty juvenile shells were found, and specimens can be tentatively identified as Thysanophora cf. plagioptycha (Shuttleworth, 1...