H ow do proteins fold spontaneously? The quest to answer this question has led to significant developments on theoretical, experimental, and computational fronts in the last decade (1–7). A combination of approaches has provided a detailed understanding of the nature of pathways and the transition states that the polypeptide chain encounters as it traverses the rugged energy landscape. Even as ...

It is important for biology to understand if observations made in highly reductionist laboratory settings generalise to harsh and noisy natural environments in which genetic variation is sorted to produce adaptation. But what do we learn by studying, in the laboratory, a genetically diverse population that mirrors the wild? What is the best design for studying genetic variation? When should we ...

In this report, we describe the inactivation and site-specific light induction of plasmid expression using a photosensitive caging compound. Plasmids coding for luciferase were caged with 1-(4, 5-dimethoxy-2-nitrophenyl)diazoethane (DMNPE) and transfected into approximately 1-cm diameter sites of the skin of rats with particle bombardment. Skin sites transfected with caged plasmids did not expr...

Mussel growers in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, currently use high-pressure water spraying (~700 psi) to mortally injure or dislodge invasive tunicates from mussel product and gear. An added benefit of this process may be the stimulation of byssal thread production, leading to improved mussel attachment. This study measured byssal thread abundance and thickness in cultured blue mussel Myt...

Common name Zebra-Muschel (German), moule zebra (French), racicznica zmienna (English, Poland), zebra mussel (English), dreisena (Lithuanian, Lithuania), svitraina gliemene (Latvian, Latvia), vaeltajasimpukka (Finnish, Finland), Zebramuschel (German, Germany), wandering mussel (English), tavaline ehk muutlik r?ndkarp (Estonian, Estonia), Dreikantmuschel (German, Germany), vandremusling (Danish,...

We present a study on the cooperative control of two autonomous surface vehicles performing a caging and transport mission on the water surface. The two vehicles, connected to each other by means of a floating flexible rope, are required to capture a floating target from a given location, and transport it to a designated position. We focus on the coordination and control strategy to meet these ...

We employ a discrete computational model to study the entanglement transition of non-cross-linked semiflexible fibers during isostatic compressions. We determine, as a function of the fiber aspect ratio, packing densities and caging numbers, i.e., the density and number of contacts per fiber at the entanglement transition. The caging number is found to be 8 for short fibers and to drop down to ...

This research represents the first attempt in Italy to develop a cage system for adult freshwater mussel stocking, for extensive farming, that was realized from 2003 to 2005 in NW Italy. Two autochthonous species of Italian freshwater mussel were used: Anodonta anatina and Unio mancus. 5133 mussels were collected and successively stocked in floating cages in 5 different sites in a lake. This st...

The indigenous South African mussel Perna perna gapes during periods of aerial exposure to maintain aerobic respiration. This behaviour has no effect on the body temperatures of isolated individuals, but when surrounded by conspecifics, beneficial cooling effects of gaping emerge. It is uncertain, however, whether the presence of the invasive mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis limits the ability ...

Aim The successful conservation of endangered mussel communities requires, in part, a thorough understanding of the processes that shape their distribution. Therefore, we tested the prediction that (1) the distribution of host fishes explains a significant amount of variation in mussel community composition. In addition, because mussel distribution also depends on spatial processes and environm...