Here we develop an argument in support of sequencing a garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) genome, and outline a plan to accomplish this. This snake is a common, widespread, nonvenomous North American species that has served as a model for diverse studies in evolutionary biology, physiology, genomics, behavior and coevolution. The anole lizard is currently the only genome sequence available for ...

According to the snake detection hypothesis (Isbell, 2006), fear specifically of snakes may have pushed evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing pre-attentional visual detection of fearful stimuli. A previous study demonstrated that snake pictures, when compared to spiders or bird pictures, draw more early attention as reflected by larger early posterior negativity (EPN). Here...

Jay W. Fox and José María Gutiérrez recently finished editing a Special Issue on the topic "Snake Venom Metalloproteinases" in Toxins. The Special Issue covers a wide range of topics, including the molecular evolution and structure of snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs), the mechanisms involved in the generation of diversity of SVMPs, the mechanism of action of SVMPs, and their role in the p...

A snake crawling on horizontal surfaces between two parallel walls exhibits a unique wave-like shape, which is different from the normal shape of a snake crawling without constraints. We propose that this intriguing system is analogous to a buckled beam under two lateral constraints. A new theoretical model of beam buckling, which is verified by numerical simulation, is firstly developed to acc...

Field observations and experimental evidence refute previous objections to the coral snake mimicry hypothesis. Concordant color pattern variation spanning hundreds of miles and several presumed venomous models strongly suggests that several harmless or mildly venomous colubrid snakes are indeed mimics of highly venomous elapids.

This paper presents the application of active contour or snake for the segmentation of masses on breast ultrasound images and the characterization of the segmented masses as malignant or benign. Initially, the balloon snake is chosen to segment the masses. Comparison on the masses areas segmented by the balloon snake is done against the areas traced by radiologist. Experimental result shows tha...

Introduction In 2010, there were 4,796 snake bite exposures reported to Poison Centers nationwide (1). Health care providers frequently request help from poison centers regarding snake envenomations due to the unpredictability and complexity of prognosis and treatment. The Missouri Poison Center (MoPC) maintains a surveillance database keeping track of every phone call received. ESSENCE, a synd...

UNLABELLED Recent advances in proteomics enable deep profiling of the compositional details of snake venoms for improved understanding on envenomation pathophysiology and immunological neutralization. In this study, the venom of Australian tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) was trypsin-digested in solution and subjected to nano-ESI-LCMS/MS. Applying a relative quantitative proteomic approach, the ...

We design interpolation snakes (or I-Snakes ) for border detection in ultrasound images. We argue that interpolation snakes are better suited for ultrasound than other snakes because the control points are on the curve. This allows for arclength parameterization of the snake, and for spatial hard constraints by fixing one or more control points on the spline. Moreover, built into the snake ener...

This study presents an innovative automatic system for detecting the intima-media complex of the far wall of the common carotid artery by applying the snake techniques. Cohen's snake was modified and some criteria were added for our applications. In addition, the oscillating problem of using snakes was solved by properly choosing the time step from analysis of the frequency response of the filt...