BACKGROUND The Youth Physical Activity Promotion (YPAP) model provides an integrated approach to understanding the predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors influencing physical activity (PA) behavior. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an adapted version of the YPAP model for explaining PA among Portuguese schoolchildren. METHODS A random cross-sectional sample of 683 children (...

Viral self-assembly is of tremendous virological and biomedical importance. Although theoretical and crystallographic considerations suggest that controlled conformational change is a fundamental regulatory mechanism in viral assembly, direct proof that switching alters the thermodynamic attraction of self-assembling components has not been provided. Using the VP1 protein of polyomavirus, we re...

OBJECTIVE In this postmodern society, people tend to abandon conventional medicine for alternative medical systems, such as acupuncture. What are the reasons for this defiance regarding modern rationality and individualist success? Who turns to acupuncture? METHODS This study (n=89) examined whether world views opposed to the predominance of rationality (i.e., mistrust of science, spiritualit...

Viral self-assembly is of tremendous virological and biomedical importance. Although theoretical and crystallographic considerations suggest that controlled conformational change is a fundamental regulatory mechanism in viral assembly, direct proof that switching alters the thermodynamic attraction of self-assembling components has not been provided. Using the VP1 protein of polyomavirus, we re...

L ook carefully at a solitary animal and you will find that it is not so alone after all. Animals play host to entire ecosystems that teem with diverse life. Some of the microbes that live on (or in) animals are beneficial to their host. However, these microbes' more sinister brethren, parasites and pathogens, cause damage and disease. Between these two extremes is a class of organisms that, it...