The structure of an RNA sequence encodes information about its biological function. Dynamic programming algorithms are often used to predict the conformation of an RNA molecule from its sequence alone, and adding experimental data as auxiliary information improves prediction accuracy. This auxiliary data is typically incorporated into the nearest neighbor thermodynamic model22 by converting the data into pseudoenergies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe integration of an ingestible dosage form with sensing, actuation, and drug delivery capabilities can enable a broad range of surgical-free diagnostic and treatment strategies. However, the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a highly constrained and complex luminal construct that fundamentally limits the size of an ingestible system. Recent advancements in mesoscale magnetic crawlers have demonstrated the ability to effectively traverse complex and confined systems by leveraging magnetic fields to induce contraction and bending-based locomotion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe study the dissipative bistable Duffing oscillator with equal energy wells and observe fractal patterns in the parameter space of driving frequency, forcing amplitude, and damping ratio. Our numerical investigation reveals the Hausdorff fractal dimension of the boundaries that separate the oscillator's intrawell and interwell behaviors. Furthermore, we categorize the interwell behaviors as three steady-state types: switching, reverting, and vacillating.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentifying heritable factors that moderate the genetic risk for schizophrenia (SCZ) could help clarify why some individuals remain unaffected despite having relatively high genetic liability. Previously, we developed a framework to mine genome-wide association (GWAS) data for common genetic variants that protect high-risk unaffected individuals from SCZ, leading to derivation of the first-ever "polygenic resilience score" for SCZ (resilient controls n = 3786; polygenic risk score-matched SCZ cases n = 18,619). Here, we performed a replication study to verify the moderating effect of our polygenic resilience score on SCZ risk (OR = 1.
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