A common strategy to identify new antiparasitic agents is the targeting of proteases, due their essential contributions parasite growth and development. Metacaspases (MCAs) are cysteine proteases present in fungi, protozoa, plants.

A complete analysis of the macroand microzooplankton of a warm monomictic lake indicates that Protozoa dominate the community numerically. During winter mixis, ciliates are found at densities of 1-8x 103.1iter-' and constitute up to 32% of the zooplankton community biomass. With summer stratification crustaceans decline, while both the relative and absolute abundance of protozoans and rotifers ...

Arti cial evolution can automatically derive the con g uration of a recon gurable hardware system such that it performs a given task Individuals of the evolving popu lation are evaluated when instantiated as real circuits so if constraints inherent to human design but not to evolu tion are dropped then the natural physical dynamics of the hardware can be exploited in new ways The notion of an a...

This article examines re search evidence for the popu lar idea that humor and laughter have beneficial ef fects on physical health. Poten tial theoretical mechanisms for such effects are discussed first. Empirical evidence for benefi cial effects of humor and laughter on immunity, pain tolerance, blood pressure, lon gevity, and illness symptoms is then summarized. Overall, the evidence for heal...