Morphogen gradients determine a range of cell fates by specifying multiple transcriptional threshold responses. In the dorsal ectoderm of the Drosophila embryo, a BMP gradient is translated into an activated Smad transcription factor gradient, which elicits at least three threshold responses - high, intermediate and low. However, the mechanism underlying differential response to Dpp is poorly u...

An attempt is made to 11;erstand the behaviors involved in two different self-control strategies: Zen meditation and behavioral self-management. The first technique is derived from the Eastern "religious-Philosophical"-tradition of Zen Buddhism; the other technique is derived from laboratory and field studies in Western settings. Using to s of naturalistic observation -and experimental analysis...

The maternal transcription factor Dorsal (Dl) functions as both an activator and a repressor in a context-dependent manner to control dorsal-ventral patterning in the Drosophila embryo. Previous studies have suggested that Dl is an intrinsic activator and its repressive activity requires additional corepressors that bind corepressor-binding sites near Dl-binding sites. However, the molecular id...

This article describes an ontology framework called bio-zen, which can be used for the representation of information from biomedical research on the Semantic Web. The ontology framework adheres to the OWL DL format and is based on existing foundational ontologies and metadata standards like DOLCE, SKOS and Dublin Core. It is optimised for the usage in distributed environments like the Internet....

The enlightenment from Zen’s perspective is the experiences of action that reveal a horizon of new consciousness. This event of enlightenment is the process of action rather than the outcome of action. Therefore, actions are not just the means to enlightenment but the very core of it. The actions of enlightenment from Zen’s perspective cannot be adequately described and explained in logical ter...

In vivo-applied sodium selenide or sodium selenite causes the appearance of zinc-selenium nanocrystals in places where free or loosely bound zinc ions are present. These nanocrystals can in turn be silver enhanced by autometallographic (AMG) development. The selenium method was introduced in 1982 as a tool for zinc-ion tracing, e.g., in vesicular compartments such as synaptic vesicles of zinc-e...