The germline chromosomes in Paramecium and other ciliated protozoa contain regions of DNA that are excised and eliminated during the development of a new macronuclear genome. Paramecium tetraurelia internal eliminated sequences (IESs) are invariably flanked by a 5'-TA-3' dinucleotide sequence that is part of a larger 8-bp terminal inverted-repeat consensus sequence. Both features, the absolutel...

Based on the Green–Kubo relation from linear response theory, we calculated the thermal current autocorrelation functions from classical molecular dynamics ~MD! simulations. We examined the role of quantum corrections to the classical thermal conduction and concluded that these effects are small for fairly harmonic systems such as diamond. We then used the classical MD to extract thermal conduc...

Diffusion-weighted imaging(DWI)has revealed the reversal ofoften sizeable damage due to brainstem lesions in patients treated within 4.5 hours, and this reversibility of damage was strongly associated with early neurological improvement.1 In posterior circulation stroke, the reversibility of damage due to aDWI-detected lesion ispoorlydocumentedafter intravenous thrombolysis2 or intraarterial th...

A51-year-oldmanwith chronicpancreatitis presented with recurrent postprandial epigastric pain. Computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen revealed a9-mmpancreaticolith in the main pancreatic duct (MPD) of the head portion. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP)wasperformed to remove the pancreaticolith. After the pancreatic duct had been cannulated, sphincterotomy was performed. We ...

Over the past decade, many efforts have been made to identify MHC class II-restricted epitopes from different tumor-associated Ags. Melan-A/MART-1(26-35) parental or Melan-A/MART-1(26-35(A27L)) analog epitopes have been widely used in melanoma immunotherapy to induce and boost CTL responses, but only one Th epitope is currently known (Melan-A51-73, DRB1*0401 restricted). In this study, we descr...

Mutation plays a central role in all evolutionary processes and is also the basis of genetic disorders. Established base-substitution mutation rates in eukaryotes range between ∼5 × 10(-10) and 5 × 10(-8) per site per generation, but here we report a genome-wide estimate for Paramecium tetraurelia that is more than an order of magnitude lower than any previous eukaryotic estimate. Nevertheless,...

In most eukaryotes, small RNA-mediated gene silencing pathways form complex interacting networks. In the ciliate Paramecium tetraurelia, at least two RNA interference (RNAi) mechanisms coexist, involving distinct but overlapping sets of protein factors and producing different types of short interfering RNAs (siRNAs). One is specifically triggered by high-copy transgenes, and the other by feedin...

A51-year-old woman presented with significant weight loss and right upper quadrant abdominal pain. A computed tomography scan of the abdomen showed a large mass in the right lobe of the liver, with involvement of the right hemidiaphragm and right lower lobe of the lung (Figure 1A). A biopsy revealed poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. The patient was referred to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center fo...

A51-year-old woman with a 30-year history of recurrent epistaxis presented to the emergency department with a nosebleed. Her nosebleeds were initially mild but had gradually progressed in severity and frequency, and she had been admitted to hospital several times for cauterization. She also reported having very heavy menstrual periods in her 20s, for which she had had a hysterectomy at age 35. ...