Structured RNA molecules play essential roles in a variety of cellular processes; however, crystallographic studies of such RNA molecules present a large number of challenges. One notable complication arises from the low resolutions typical of RNA crystallography, which results in electron density maps that are imprecise and difficult to interpret. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of com...

We show how the use of a parallel between the ordinary (+;) and the (max; +) algebras, Maslov measures that exploit this parallel, and more speciically their specialization to probabilities and the corresponding cost measures of Quadrat, ooer a completely parallel treatment of stochastic and minimax control of disturbed nonlinear discrete time systems with partial information. This paper is bas...

In order to investigate the genetic diversity of streptomycetes in an acid forested soil sample from Mt. Coot-tha, Brisbane, Australia, cells were mechanically lysed within the soil matrix and genomic DNA was isolated and purified. 16S ribosomal (r)DNA was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method using one primer conserved for members of the domain Bacteria and a second designed ...

The ecology of avian influenza (AI) viruses in wild aquatic birds of Asia is poorly understood, especially for the H5N1 high pathogenicity AI (HPAI) viruses. From March 2006 through November 2008, 20 AI viruses were isolated in the Crimea region of Ukraine with an overall frequency of virus recovery of 3.3%. All the viruses were isolated from three species of dabbling ducks: mallard (Anas platy...

Since our first identification of plasmid-mediated colistin resistance gene mcr-1 in 2015 (Liu et al., 2016), it has been described in human clinics, domestic animals, foods, and the environment worldwide (Schwarz & Johnson, 2016). Although it is still rare, the emergence of mcr-1 in wild animals is of great concern. We summarized two previous reports on mcr-1 in wild birds from Lithuania and A...

Avian haemosporidia have been reported in various birds of Japan, which is part of the East Asian-Australian flyway and is an important stopover site for migratory birds potentially carrying new pathogens from other areas. We investigated the prevalence of avian malaria in injured wild birds, rescued in Tokyo and surrounding areas. We also evaluated the effects of migration by examining the pre...

Since there is now a growing wish by referees to judge the underpinning data for a submitted article it is timely to provide a summary of the data evaluation checks required to be done by a referee. As these checks will vary from field to field this article focuses on the needs of biological X-ray crystallography articles, which is the predominantly used method leading to depositions in the PDB...

The reliability of information that animals use to make decisions has fitness consequences. Accordingly, selection should favor the evolution of strategies that enhance the reliability of information used in learning and decision making. For example, hosts of avian brood parasites should be selected to increase the reliability of the information they use to learn to recognize their own eggs and...

The crystallographic structure solution of nucleotides and nucleotide complexes is now commonplace. The resulting electron-density maps are often poorer than for proteins, and as a result interpretation in terms of an atomic model can require significant effort, particularly in the case of large structures. While model building can be performed automatically, as with proteins, the process is ti...

Waterbird feces (mainly mallard Anas platyrhynchos and coot Fulica atra) were collected from four wetlands in Southern Spain in the field or during capture (n = 558 and n = 59, respectively) to study lead (Pb) shot ingestion. Lead and aluminum (Al) concentrations along with Pb isotope signatures were used to identify sources of Pb exposure. The profile and concentrations of porphyrins and biliv...