The Drosophila gypsy retrotransposon disrupts gene activity by blocking the interactions of distal enhancers with target promoters. This enhancer-blocking activity is mediated by a 340 bp insulator DNA within gypsy. The insulator contains a cluster of binding sites for a zinc finger protein, suppressor of Hairy wing [su(Hw)]. Recent studies have shown that a second protein, mod(mdg4), is also i...

Insulator elements mediate intra- and inter-chromosomal interactions. The insulator protein CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) is important for insulator function in several animals but a report in BMC Molecular Biology shows that Caenorhabditis elegans, yeast and plants lack CTCF. Alternative proteins may have a similar function in these organisms.

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Irregularity in charge distribution of an insulator may lead to accelerated aging and electrical breakdown. However, knowledge of charge distribution on the insulation surface is still insufficient albeit has gained worldwide attention. The insufficiency is particularly on the charge profile along the string insulator under AC excitation. Therefore, charges distributions on the surfaces of glas...

The insulator of transmission lines is one of the most important infrastructures, which is vital to ensure the safe operation of transmission lines under complex and harsh operating conditions. The glass insulator often self-shatters but the available identification methods are inefficient and unreliable. Then, an automatic identification and localization technology of self-shattered glass insu...

Ceramic insulators are widely used in transmission as well as in distribution lines. As outdoor insulators, the ceramic insulators are subjected to environmental stresses. In particular case, the insulators may severe high pollution exposure. Under the polluted condition, high leakage current will flow on the insulator surface and dry band arching may take place. The phenomena may initiate the ...

2014 Fe1+xNb3-xSe10 with x = 0.32, 0.38 and Cr1.45Nb2.55Se10 were prepared by heating in evacuated silica tubes. The structure was determined by Weissenberg photograph. The metal-insulator transition of Fe1+xNb3-xSe10 and of Cr1.45Nb2.55Se10 was studied by measurements of resistivity, and magnetic susceptibility. The metal-insulator transition is correlated with the CDW which depresses the cond...

We consider a heterostructure of a metal and a paramagnetic Mott insulator using an adaptation of dynamical mean-field theory to describe inhomogeneous systems. The metal can penetrate into the insulator via the Kondo effect. We investigate the scaling properties of the metal-insulator interface close to the critical point of the Mott insulator. At criticality, the quasiparticle weight decays a...

In conductor-insulator composites in which the conducting particles are dispersed in an insulating continuous matrix the electrical connectedness is established by interparticle quantum tunneling. A recent formulation of the transport problem in this kind of composites treats each conducting particle as electrically connected to all others via tunneling conductances to form a global tunneling n...

Chromatin insulators protect erythroid genes from being silenced during erythropoiesis, and the disruption of barrier insulator function in erythroid membrane gene loci results in mild or severe anemia. We showed previously that the USF1/2-bound 5'HS4 insulator mediates chromatin barrier activity in the erythroid-specific chicken β-globin locus. It is currently not known how insulators establis...