Introduction. My research interests are mainly focused on concurrent approaches to global optimization problems. Optimization tasks have two main conflicting features: they are both very difficult and central to a lot of the applications computer science faces daily. The problems I’m most interested in stem out from biology, protein folding being the principal one1. The protein folding, or prot...

Recent experiments on the light receptor bacteriorhodopsin have revealed the protein conductive properties and connected them to its sensing action. In particular it was shown that the super-Ohmic I-V characteristic acquired in dark, changes in the presence of green light, with an enhancement of current at increasing bias values. Here we propose a current transport model for proteins able to re...

We report two patients with bacterial brain abscesses whose etiological diagnosis was correctly proposed by association of diffusion weighted images (DWI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) with conventional MRI. Both patients presented ring enhancing lesions with evidences of restricted diffusion. On MRS, the abscess caused by aerobic bacteria presented lactate and aminoacids peaks and ...

All vertebrates require certain amounts of energy, protein and ‘essential’ nutrients. Dietary sources of energy include carbohydrates, protein and fat. Dietary protein is necessary for satisfying an animal’s protein requirements. Certain dietary nutrients are classified as ‘essential’ because they are required for synthesis or functioning of crucial chemical compounds, yet they cannot be synthe...

The interaction of L-aromatic aminoacids with bases and nucleosides is described. Of these, L-tryptophan interacts more strongly with bases and nucleosides as indicated by nuclear magnetic resonance, circular dichroism and solubility measurements. A possible ring-ring type interaction between the aminoacid and bases or nucleosides is proposed; this interaction being such that the hydrodinamic b...

Glaucoma is now regarded as a neurodegenerative disorder. A number of theories including the mechanical and vascular models have been used to explain the pathogenesis of glaucoma. However, there is now increasing evidence of biochemical molecules which may play a part in it's causation. These biochemical mechanisms include the role of excitatory aminoacids, caspases, protein kinases, oxygen fre...