Noncoding RNAs must function in the crowded environment of the cell. Previous small-angle x-ray scattering experiments showed that molecular crowders stabilize the structure of the Azoarcus group I ribozyme, allowing the ribozyme to fold at low physiological Mg(2+) concentrations. Here, we used an RNA cleavage assay to show that the PEG and Ficoll crowder molecules increased the biochemical act...

Contour following is a standard activity in rotoscoping in the digital post production domain. An artist might need to cut out or edit an object separately from its background and it is left to the artist to manually create the cut out. Techniques for automatically tracing the edges of the object exist, but these operate with heavy manual intervention. The most recent technique called JetStream...

There is an increasing interest in combining different imaging modalities to investigate the relationship between neural and biochemical activity. More specifically, imaging techniques like MRS and PET that allow for biochemical measurement are combined with techniques like fMRI and EEG that measure neural activity in different states. Such combination of neural and biochemical measures raises ...

Changes in the reward context are associated with changes in neuronal activity in the basal ganglia as well as changes in motor outputs. A typical example is found in the caudate (CD) projection neurons and saccade parameters. It raised the possibility that the changes in CD neuronal activity contribute to the changes in saccade parameters. To examine this possibility, we calculated the correla...

esults: Chasing losses was associated with increased activity in cortical areas linked to incentive-motivation and an expectation of reward. y contrast, quitting was associated with decreased activity in these areas but increased activity in areas associated with anxiety and conflict onitoring. Activity within the anterior cingulate cortex associated with the experience of chasing and then losi...

We have obtained optical spectra of seven stars in the old galactic cluster M 67 that are unusual sources of X-rays, and investigate whether the X-ray emission is due to magnetic activity or to mass transfer. The two binaries below the giant branch S 1063 and S 1113, the giant with the white dwarf companion S 1040 and the eccentric binary on the subgiant branch S 1242 show magnetic activity in ...

Characterizing the impact of fluctuating enzyme conformation on enzymatic activity is critical in understanding the structure-function relationship and enzymatic reaction dynamics. Different from studying enzyme conformations under a denaturing condition, it is highly informative to manipulate the conformation of an enzyme under an enzymatic reaction condition while monitoring the real-time enz...

Sirtuins are NAD(+)-dependent histone and protein deacetylases, which have been studied during the last decade with a focus on their role in lifespan extension and age-related diseases under normal and calorie-restricted or pathological conditions. However, sirtuins also have the ability to regulate energy homeostasis as they can sense the metabolic state of the cell through the NAD(+)/NADH rat...

Development of new chemotherapeutic drugs is the need of the hour to improve tuberculosis control, particularly in the developing world. In the last fourty years no new compound has been brought to the market for the treatment of tuberculosis. However, in recent years there is an enhanced activity in the research and development of new drugs for TB. Some compounds are presently in clinical deve...

Caudal autotomy is an anti-predator behaviour that is used by many lizard species. Although there is an immediate survival benefit, the subsequent absence of the tail may inhibit locomotor performance, alter activity and habitat use, and increase the individuals' susceptibility to future predation attempts. We used laboratory experiments to examine the impact of tail autotomy on locomotor perfo...