Le Istituzioni Virtuali sono un formalismo estremamente potente per descrivere relazioni sociali tra agenti autonomi, ma sono di difficile uso per non-esperti di tali tecnologie. In questo articolo descriviamo un estrattore semiautomatico di ruoli e relazioni tra concetti (e quindi, indirettamente, tra ruoli) a partire da testi scritti. Tale strumento potrà essere utilizzato dagli esperti del d...

The tra gene of Streptomyces lividans plasmid pIJ101 encodes a 621-amino-acid protein that can mediate both plasmid transfer and the interbacterial transfer of chromosomal genes (i.e., chromosome-mobilizing ability [Cma]) during mating. Here we report the results of in-frame insertional mutagenesis studies aimed at defining regions of Tra required for these functions. While hexameric linker ins...

The thermodynamic entropy of an ATM tra c stream is a useful tool for predicting cell-loss ratios and cell-delay. In [1] it was proposed that the entropy of a cell stream be estimated directly at a multiplexor; from this data, predictions can be made rapidly using algorithms which are simple enough to be executed on-they. Preliminary investigations using simulated data have suggested that the m...

Translational repression mediated by RNA-binding proteins or micro RNAs has emerged as a major regulatory mechanism for fine-tuning important biological processes. In Caenorhabditis elegans, translational repression of the key sex-determination gene tra-2 (tra, transformer) is controlled by a 28-nucleotide repeat element, the TRA-2/GLI element (TGE), located in its 3' untranslated region (UTR)....

We report here the complete nucleotide sequence of pEntH10407 (65 147 bp), an enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli enterotoxin plasmid (Ent plasmid), which is self-transmissible at low frequency. Within the plasmid, we identified 100 open reading frames (ORFs) which could encode polypeptides. These ORFs included regions encoding heat-labile (LT) and heat-stable (STIa) enterotoxins, regions encoding...

The transfer (tra) operon of the conjugative F plasmid of Escherichia coli is a polycistronic 33-kb operon which encodes most of the proteins necessary for F-plasmid transfer. Here, we report that transcription from PY, the tra operon promoter, is repressed by the host nucleoid-associated protein, H-NS. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays indicate that H-NS binds preferentially to the tra pro...

Œere has recently been a renewed interest in planning for pedestrian trac, primarily in connection to public transport interchange stations, since these are important for public transport to constitute an aŠractive alternative to car usage. Œis thesis concerns microscopic simulation of pedestrian trac, which is a promising tool for analyzing and predicting the trac situation in a given pedes...

[Purpose] It has been reported that exercises focusing upon the transversus abdominis (TrA) ameliorate low back pain (LBP). We investigated whether expiratory muscle training (EMT) can promote activity of the TrA to the same degree as the abdominal drawing-in manoeuvre (ADIM) in elderly individuals. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty-one elderly subjects (9 males, 12 females; mean age, 84.9 ± 6.6 ye...

The present study investigated whether a co-application of tramadol (TRA) and dihydroetorphine (DHE) would exert a synergy in analgesic effect and delay acute tolerance development. Intraperitoneal injection of TRA (in mg) and subcutaneous injection of DHE (in ng) were delivered in fixed proportions (1:6.25, 1:12.5, 1:25, 1:50, 1:100, and 1:200). The effect of analgesia was accessed by tail-fli...

Expression of functional TRA-2 protein in the male germline of Drosophila is regulated through a negative feedback mechanism in which a specific TRA-2 isoform represses splicing of the M1 intron in the TRA-2 pre-mRNA. We have previously shown that the mechanism of M1 splicing repression is conserved between distantly related Drosophila species. Using transgenic fly strains, we have examined the...