Regulation of gene expression at transcriptional and post-transcriptional level involves the interaction between short DNA or RNA tracts and the corresponding trans-acting protein factors. Detection of such cis-acting elements in genome-wide screenings may significantly contribute to genome annotation and comparative analysis as well as to target functional characterization experiments. We pres...

Chimeric constructs containing the promoter and upstream sequences of Ha hsp17.6 G1, a small heat shock protein gene, reproduced in transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) its unique seed-specific expression patterns previously reported in sunflower. These constructs did not respond to heat shock, but were expressed without exogenous stress during late zygotic embryogenesis coincident with seed ...

The Epstein-Barr viral (EBV) genome of approximately equal to 170 kilobase pairs (kbp) is maintained as a plasmid in human B lymphoblasts transformed by the virus. We have identified a cis-acting element within 1.8 kbp of the viral genome that allows recombinant plasmids carrying it to be selected at high frequency and maintained as plasmids in cells latently infected by EBV. This functional el...

Eukarya and Archaea possess scores of RNA-guided nucleotide-modification complexes that target specific ribonucleotides for 20-O-methylation or pseudouridylation. Recent characterization of these RNA-modification machines has yielded striking results with implications for their evolutionary origins: the two main classes of nucleotide-modification complex in Archaea share a common ribonucleoprot...

The purpose of this paper is to review and further develop the subject of variational integration algorithms as it applies to mechanical systems of engineering interest. In particular, the conservation properties of both synchronous and asynchronous variational integrators (AVIs) are discussed in detail. We present selected numerical examples which demonstrate the excellent accuracy, conservati...

The purpose of this paper is to study the behavior of elastic-plastic stresses under severe drag braking. A railway wheel performs three tasks, aiding in trian movement, supporting the car load, and acting as a brake drum. Finite element computer programs are developed for elasto-plastic stress analysis. An attempt is made here to find an improved fillet profile of the wheel with the intention ...

This study used particle swarm optimization (PSO) to determine the optimal values of effective design variables acting on the stress distribution around a quasi-triangular hole in an infinite orthotropic plate. These parameters were load angle, hole orientation, bluntness, fiber angle, and material properties, which were ascertained on the basis of an analytical method used by Lekhnitskii [3]. ...

Parson's suggestion that difficulties in achieving adequate sex-role identification is a significant source of male antisocial behavior, leads to the hypothesis that father absence during early childhood will be related to antisocial acting out. A comparison of the responses of 51 "father-absent" male medical students to an anonymously administered antisocial behavior scale with those of 89 com...

The promoter elements in the Dictyostelium actin 15 and actin 6 genes required for full growth phase expression were identified by assaying promoter/luciferase reporter constructs. We find that these promoters contain common cis-acting elements, an actin upstream activating sequence (UAS) and sequences proximal to the transcription start site that overlap with a poly(dT) region. The actin 15 pr...

In vivo, negative autoregulation of the strong major immediate early promoter (MIEP) of human cytomegalovirus requires the viral immediate early 2 protein (IE2) and a cis element located from position -13 through position -1 relative to the transcription start site. We have established an in vitro transcription system that reproduces the specificity of IE2-mediated negative autoregulation. The ...