Tactical Voting in Plurality Elections

How often will elections end in landslides? What is the probability for a head-to-head race? Analyzing ballot results from several large countries rather anomalous and yet unexplained distributions have been observed. We identify tactical voting as the driving ingredient for the anomalies and introduce a model to study its effect on plurality elections, characterized by the relative strength of the feedback from polls and the pairwise interaction between individuals in the society. With this model it becomes possible to explain the polarization of votes between two candidates, understand the small margin of victories frequently observed for different elections, and analyze the polls'' impact in American, Canadian, and Brazilian ballots. Moreover, the model reproduces, quantitatively, the distribution of votes obtained in the Brazilian mayor elections with two, three, and four candidates.     

Action of phospholipases on the cytoplasmic membrane of Escherichia coli. Stimulation by melittin

The emission maximum of the single tryptophan residue of melittin was measured in the presence of phosphatidylethanolamine liposomes and Escherichia coli cytoplasmic membranes. In both cases, the fluorescence maximum was shifted to shorter wavelengths indicating a transfer of the indole ring to an apolar environment. E. coli membranes were labelled in position 2 of their phospholipids with [¹⁴C]oleic acid. These membranes were used for measuring the activity of an endogenous phospholipase A₂. A slow hydrolysis is observed, which can be accelerated by adding melittin. The extent of the stimulation depends on the molar ratio of melittin to membrane phospholipid. Under suitable conditions, the initial rate of hydrolysis is six to seven times higher in the presence than in the absence of melittin. The action of the phospholipase A₂ from bee venom is also stimulated by melittin. An identical stimulation was observed with either E. coli membranes or pure phosphatidylethanolamine liposomes as substrate.     

Schiffs bases and derived secondary amines as plant growth inhibitors

Seventy-two Schiffs bases, 44 corresponding secondary amines, and 12 N-acetylated compounds were tested on their growth activity. Eighty-one compounds were active as growth inhibitors in at least one of three bioassays.     

Thermodynamic cycle-perturbation study of the binding of trifluoroacetyl dipeptide anilide inhibitors with porcine pancreatic elastase

The variety of results of crystallographic studies of the serine proteases complexed with isocoumarin inhibitors presents a challenging problem to modeling methods and molecular energetics. Therefore, the thermodynamic cycle-perturbation technique has been used to study a model system of elastase and two peptidic inhibitors. Using the program AMBER, the technique correctly predicts changes of the binding constants for the trifluoroacetyl dipeptide inhibitors in comparison with available experimental (kinetic and crystallographic) data. However, the absolute values obtained are shown to be sensitive to the specific electrostatic interaction potential parameters used in the simulations. The reader and user are cautioned that thermodynamic cycle-perturbation results may be too optimistic by underestimating the accuracy of free energy values. This is especially a matter of concern for those cases where a direct comparison with experimental values is not possible, viz., (1) the stimulation of binding of novel compounds, (2) structurally uncertain binding sites, or (3) structurally different binding modes. With our best 4-31G* ESP (electrostatic potential) charges we were able to reproduce experimentally determined free energy differences (delta delta A) with an accuracy of about 1.5 kcal/mol. Dynamically induced structural changes in the binding site of elastase, and particularly changes in hydrogen-bond patterns of the binding site, are also reported.     

Bacteriophage-resistance mechanisms examined by transfection of Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis 4513-5 mediated by high voltage electroporation

Summary Phage adsorption tests and transfection by electroporation were carried out to decide whether phage-resistance in Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis strain 4513-5 is based on intracellular or extracellular mechanisms. Using high voltage (12.5 kV/cm) electroporation, untreated phage DNA was introduced into phage-sensitive and phage-resistant cells. Since phages showed low adsorption frequencies on resistant bacteria, resistance is localized in the cell wall preventing phage DNA from entering the cell. This is the only mechanism responsible for the resistance of L. lactis subsp. lactis 4513-5 against its homologous phage P4513-K12 and non-homologous phages P05M-13 and P05M-47, but not against phage P530-7 and phage P530-12. In the case of the latter two phage strains, intracellular resistance mechanisms are involved and discussed.     

Selective Brain Cooling Reduces Water Turnover in Dehydrated Sheep

In artiodactyls, arterial blood destined for the brain can be cooled through counter-current heat exchange within the cavernous sinus via a process called selective brain cooling. We test the hypothesis that selective brain cooling, which results in lowered hypothalamic temperature, contributes to water conservation in sheep. Nine Dorper sheep, instrumented to provide measurements of carotid blood and brain temperature, were dosed with deuterium oxide (D₂O), exposed to heat for 8 days (40◦C for 6-h per day) and deprived of water for the last five days (days 3 to 8). Plasma osmolality increased and the body water fraction decreased over the five days of water deprivation, with the sheep losing 16.7% of their body mass. Following water deprivation, both the mean 24h carotid blood temperature and the mean 24h brain temperature increased, but carotid blood temperature increased more than did brain temperature resulting in increased selective brain cooling. There was considerable inter-individual variation in the degree to which individual sheep used selective brain cooling. In general, sheep spent more time using selective brain cooling, and it was of greater magnitude, when dehydrated compared to when they were euhydrated. We found a significant positive correlation between selective brain cooling magnitude and osmolality (an index of hydration state). Both the magnitude of selective brain cooling and the proportion of time that sheep spent selective brain cooling were negatively correlated with water turnover. Sheep that used selective brain cooling more frequently, and with greater magnitude, lost less water than did conspecifics using selective brain cooling less efficiently. Our results show that a 50kg sheep can save 2.6L of water per day (~60% of daily water intake) when it employs selective brain cooling for 50% of the day during heat exposure. We conclude that selective brain cooling has a water conservation function in artiodactyls.