Many animals use sound to communicate with each other, and hearing is particularly important for survival and reproduction. In species that use sound as a primary means of communication, their hearing is typically most acute for the range of pitches produced in calls and speech. Human is one such species and Fig. 1 shows a human ear consisting of the outer, middle and inner ear. The eardrum of ...

The Kresge Hearing Research Institute-3 (KHRI-3) antibody binds to a guinea pig inner ear supporting cell antigen (IESCA) and causes hearing loss. To gain insight into the mechanism of antibody-induced hearing loss, we used antibody immunoaffinity purification to isolate the IESCA, which was then sequenced by mass spectroscopy, revealing 10 guinea pig peptides identical to sequences in human ch...

PURPOSE Virulent gene expression in Staphylococcus aureus is controlled by regulators such as the accessory gene regulator (agr). Strains can be divided into four major agr groups (agr I-IV) on the basis of agrD and agrC polymorphisms. The purpose of this study was to define the proportion of agr I, II, and III polymorphisms and to compare the clinical characteristics between group I and non-gr...

BACKGROUND: Super absorbent polymers (SAP) by increasing the capacity of water storage and nutrition materials, reduction of wasting water and evaporation from the surface of soil improve crop production under water stress condition. Bio-fertilizers have the significant advantages to chemical fertilizers; for instance, they do not produce toxic and bacterial substances in the f...

rRNA-based molecular phylogenetic techniques were used to identify the bacterial species present in the ear fluid from a female patient with otitis externa. We report the identification of Staphylococcus intermedius from the patient and a possible route of transmission. Analysis of 16S ribosomal DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms indicated that the dominant species present was S. int...

of the right ear, cutting into the maxillae to a depth of about two inches. The hard palate was not injured. There was actually a false joint, the lower portion being moveable on the upper segment, as if the superior maxillae were in two pieces, which, of course, was the case. The man while asleep was struck with the <f kussa," but the blow woke him, and he got up and struggled with his assaila...

Identifying palindromes in sequences has been an interesting line of research in combinatorics on words and also in computational biology, after the discovery of the relation of palindromes in the DNA sequence with the HIV virus. Efficient algorithms for the factorization of sequences into palindromes and maximal palindromes have been devised in recent years. We extend these studies by allowing...

One of the most powerful tools in quality control is the statistical control chart. First developed in the 1920's by Walter Shewhart, the control chart found widespread use during World War II and has been employed, with various modifications ever since. The drawbacks to multivariate charting schemes is their inability to identify which variable was the source of the signal. The multivariate ex...

Telomere length and the rate of telomere shortening have been suggested as particularly useful physiological biomarkers of the processes involved in senescent decline of somatic and reproductive function. However, longitudinal data on changes in telomere length across the lifespan are difficult to obtain, particularly for long-lived animals. Quasi-longitudinal studies have been proposed as a me...