that act as posttranscriptional repressors by binding to the 3′UTR of target mRNAs (Lee et al. 1993; Reinhart et al. 2000; Bartel 2004; Kloosterman and Plasterk 2006). In animals, mature miRNAs are generated from a primary transcript (pri-miRNA) through sequential cleavage by nucleases belonging to the RNAse III family. Initially, Drosha cleaves the pri-miRNA and excises a stem-loop precursor (...

The phytochemistry of the genus Piper is rich in terms of numbers of compounds discovered, but given the diversity of this genus and the intraspecific diversity of secondary metabolites in those species that have been examined, Piper chemistry has not been adequately investigated. The natural products chemistry that has been elucidated is well documented and has been the subject of extensive re...

Autonomous vehicles have potential applications in many fields, such as replacing humans in hazardous environments, conducting military missions, and performing routine tasks for industry. Driving ground vehicles is an area where human performance has proven to be reliable. Drivers typically respond quickly to sudden changes in their environment. While other control techniques may be used to co...

The Staphylococcus aureus agr quorum-sensing system plays a major role in the transition from the persistent to the virulent phenotype. S. aureus agr type I to IV strains are characterized by mutations in the sensor domain of the histidine kinase AgrC and differences in the sequences of the secreted autoinducing peptides (AIP). Here we demonstrate that interactions between the cytosolic domain ...

RNA interference (RNAi) is a term used to describe the sequence-specific suppression of genes, initiated by doublestranded RNA (dsRNA) oligonucleotides homologous to the sequence of the silenced gene (Hammond et al., 2001). RNAi was first observed in Caenorhabditis elegans as a response to exogenously introduced long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) (Fire et al., 1998). While the mechanism of RNAi h...

Recently many studies on evolutionary algorithms using real encoding have been done. They include ant colony optimization (Socha & Dorigo, 2008), artificial bee colony algorithm (Akay & Karaboga, 2010; Kang et al., 2011), evolution strategies (ES) (Beyer, 2001), differential evolution (Das & Suganthan, 2011; Dasgupta et al., 2009; Kukkonen & Lampinen, 2004; 2005; Mezura-Montes et al., 2010; Nom...

Despite the appearance of bacterial strains resistant to all clinical antibiotics, including vancomycin (the ‘last resort’), development of new antimicrobial agents has slowed during recent decades. To aid design of new antibiotics, we must develop a detailed understanding of the mechanisms of antibiotic action and antibiotic resistance. Several classes of antibiotics target the ribosome and ri...