The DIGIT (Database of ImmunoGlobulins with Integrated Tools) database (http://biocomputing.it/digit) is an integrated resource storing sequences of annotated immunoglobulin variable domains and enriched with tools for searching and analyzing them. The annotations in the database include information on the type of antigen, the respective germline sequences and on pairing information between lig...

The aim of this paper is to establish sufficient local conditions for the uniqueness of solutions to Nonlinear Complementarity Problems (NCP) and Mixed Complementarity Problems (MCP). Our main theorems state that for NCP and MCP defined by continuously differentiable functions, the solution is unique if the Jacobian of the function is a partial P-matrix at each solution. These theorems generali...

We study deviations from tri-bimaximality (TBM) and quark-lepton complementarity (QLC) in a model independent way. The current neutrino experimental data is well approximated by tri-bimaximal generation mixing but the QLC relations are not satisfied with each data of 1σ level. This means that there exist deviations from the complementarity. The same fact for the TBM might be checked in the futu...

Almost four decades ago, Porter (Porter, 1970) and Edelman (Edelman, 1970) established the structure of antibodies (immunoglobulins). This discovery dramatically improved the understanding that antibodies function as both receptor and effector molecules. Humoral or antibody-mediated immunity requires noncovalent contact between antigens (ligands) and antibodies (receptors). Hypervariable region...

Recently, we have used synthetic peptides corresponding to the complementarity-determining regions (CDR) of Ig molecules to induce antiidiotypic antisera. Peptide PSH3, representing the third CDR of the IgM rheumatoid factor (RF) Sie heavy (H) chain, induced a private antiidiotype that reacted with only one out of five IgM-RF. Peptide PSL2, corresponding to the second CDR of Sie light (L) chain...

12.2 Biological Crusts of Arid Regions ............................. 346 12.2.1 Characteristic Species ................................................... 346 12.2.2 Taxonomic Problems in Describing Crust Cyanobacteria ...................................................... 347 12.2.3 Environmental Factors .................................................. 348 12.2.3.1 Light .......................

The presence of N sequences in the complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) of the rearranged immunoglobulin H chain is developmentally regulated: N regions are generally present in the DJH joinings of adult B cells but are often absent in fetal B cells. Analysis of the CDK3 in 61 B precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemias indicated that 87.5% of the leukemias obtained from children ~3 yr old...