An interesting characteristic of avian gliders is their ability to soar or remain aloft without flapping their wings for long periods. There are two ways to do this. In static soaring a bird maintains or gains altitude by gliding in air that has an upward velocity component equal to or greater than the bird's sinking speed. In dynamic soaring a bird uses changes in the horizontal wind-velocity ...

Kinesin and microtubule have been utilized for applications, such as molecular communication. In this paper, we describe a computer simulation which reproduced movements of microtubules gliding over kinesin-coated glass surfaces under external force. The simulation qualitatively reproduced experimental results of microtubule movements under external force. This simulation would enable understan...

Forceful retraction of a bacterial pilus has been directly observed for the first time. As retraction clarifies the basic mechanochemistry of single cell twitching and gliding movements, so cell-to-cell signalling by contact clarifies the coordination of multicellular gliding movements.

BACKGROUND Material wear testing is an important technique in the development and evaluation of materials for use in implant for total knee arthroplasty. Since a knee joint induces a complex rolling-gliding movement, standardised material wear testing devices such as Pin-on-Disc or Ring-on-Disc testers are suitable to only a limited extent because they generate pure gliding motion only. METHO...

BACKGROUND Many microorganisms, including myxobacteria, cyanobacteria, and flexibacteria, move by gliding. Although gliding always describes a slow surface-associated translocation in the direction of the cell's long axis, it can result from two very different propulsion mechanisms: social (S) motility and adventurous (A) motility. The force for S motility is generated by retraction of type 4 p...

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of evidence for the efficacy of tendon and nerve gliding exercises in the management of carpal tunnel syndrome. [Subjects and Methods] Four electronic databases were searched to identify randomized controlled trials on the efficacy of tendon and nerve gliding exercises for carpal tunnel syndrome. Quality assessment was conducted usin...

BACKGROUND Whereas most bacteria move by means of flagella, some prokaryotes move by gliding. In cyanobacteria, gliding motility is a slow uniform motion which is invariably accompanied by a continuous secretion of slime. On the basis of these characteristics, a model has been proposed in which the gliding motility of cyanobacteria depends on the steady secretion of slime using specific pores, ...

Several species of mycoplasmas glide on solid surfaces, in the direction of their membrane protrusion at a cell pole, by an unknown mechanism. Our recent studies on the fastest species, Mycoplasma mobile, suggested that the gliding machinery, localized at the base of the membrane protrusion (the "neck"), is composed of two huge proteins. This machinery forms spikes sticking out from the neck an...

The "scaly-tailed squirrels" of the rodent family Anomaluridae have a long evolutionary history in Africa, and are now represented by two gliding genera (Anomalurus and Idiurus) and a rare and obscure genus (Zenkerella) that has never been observed alive by mammalogists. Zenkerella shows no anatomical adaptations for gliding, but has traditionally been grouped with the glider Idiurus on the bas...

Arboreal animals negotiate a highly three-dimensional world that is discontinuous on many spatial scales. As the scale of substrate discontinuity increases, many arboreal animals rely on leaping or gliding locomotion between distant supports. In order to successfully move through their habitat, gliding animals must actively modulate both propulsive and aerodynamic forces. Here we examined the t...