Building a cell and anatomy ontology of Caenorhabditis elegans

We are endowed with a rich knowledge about Caenorhabditis elegans. Its stereotyped anatomy and development has stimulated research and resulted in the accumulation of cell-based information concerning gene expression, and the role of specific cells in developmental signalling and behavioural circuits. To make the information more accessible to sophisticated queries and automated retrieval systems, WormBase has begun to construct a C. elegans cell and anatomy ontology. Here we present our strategies and progress

Transmission of Renormalized Benzene Circuits

The renormalization equations emerge from a Greenian-matrix solution of the discretized Schrodinger equation. A by-product of these equations is the decimation process, which enables substituted-benzenes to be mapped onto corresponding dimers, that are used to construct the series and parallel circuits of single-, double- and triple-dimers. The transmittivities of these circuits are calculated by the Lippmann-Schwinger theory, which yields the transmission-energy function T(E). The average value of T(E) provides a measure of the electron transport in the circuit in question. The undulating nature of the T(E) profiles give rise to resonances (T=1) and anti-resonances (T=0) across the energy spectrum. Analysis of the structure of the T(E) graphs highlights the distinguishing features associated with the homo- and hetero-geneous series and parallel circuits. Noteworthy results include the preponderance of p-dimers in circuits with high T(E) values, and the fact that parallel circuits tend to be better transmitters than their series counterparts.Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl

All for All

A review of Michael Ashburner's book Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome Was Sequenced