Humbling of world's AIDS researchers

Resonant states and wavepacket super-diffusion in intra-chain correlated ladders with diluted disorder

In this work, we study a tight-binding Hamiltonian model system of a binary correlated ladder with diluted disorder. We introduce intra-chain correlations between the on-site potentials by imposing that ϵ(i, s) = - ϵ(i, - s) where s = ± 1 indexes the two ladder chains. Further, we consider each ladder chain as composed of inter-penetrating ordered and random sub-chains. We show that the presence of a random on-site distribution in one of the inter-penetrating chains leads to Anderson localization except at a specific symmetric pair of energy eigenmodes. Further, by integrating the time-dependent Schroedinger equation, we follow the time-evolution of an initially localized one-electron wavepacket. We report that the remaining delocalized resonant modes are responsible for a super-diffusive spread of the wavepacket dispersion while the wavepacket participation function remains finite. A scaling analysis of the wavepacket distribution shows that it obeys a universal scaling form with the development of a power-law tail followed by a super-diffusively evolving cutoff. We obtain three exponents characterizing this super-diffusive dynamics and show that they satisfy a simple scaling relation.

Hierarchical structure analysis describing abnormal base composition of genomes

Abnormal base compositional patterns of genomic DNA sequences are studied in the framework of a hierarchical structure (HS) model originally proposed for the study of fully developed turbulence [She and Lévêque, Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 336 (1994)]. The HS similarity law is verified over scales between 10(3)bp and 10(5)bp, and the HS parameter beta is proposed to describe the degree of heterogeneity in the base composition patterns. More than one hundred bacteria, archaea, virus, yeast, and human genome sequences have been analyzed and the results show that the HS analysis efficiently captures abnormal base composition patterns, and the parameter beta is a characteristic measure of the genome. Detailed examination of the values of beta reveals an intriguing link to the evolutionary events of genetic material transfer. Finally, a sequence complexity (S) measure is proposed to characterize gradual increase of organizational complexity of the genome during the evolution. The present study raises several interesting issues in the evolutionary history of genomes.

Recognition of an organism from fragments of its complete genome

This paper considers the problem of matching a fragment to an organism using its complete genome. Our method is based on the probability measure representation of a genome. We first demonstrate that these probability measures can be modeled as recurrent iterated function systems (RIFS) consisting of four contractive similarities. Our hypothesis is that the multifractal characteristics of the probability measure of a complete genome, as captured by the RIFS, is preserved in its reasonably long fragments. We compute the RIFS of fragments of various lengths and random starting points, and compare with that of the original sequence for recognition using the Euclidean distance. A demonstration on five randomly selected organisms supports the above hypothesis.

Measure representation and multifractal analysis of complete genomes

This paper introduces the notion of measure representation of DNA sequences. Spectral analysis and multifractal analysis are then performed on the measure representations of a large number of complete genomes. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the multifractal property of the measure representation and the classification of bacteria. From the measure representations and the values of the D(q) spectra and related C(q) curves, it is concluded that these complete genomes are not random sequences. In fact, spectral analyses performed indicate that these measure representations, considered as time series, exhibit strong long-range correlation. Here the long-range correlation is for the K-strings with dictionary ordering, and it is different from the base pair correlations introduced by other people. For substrings with length K=8, the D(q) spectra of all organisms studied are multifractal-like and sufficiently smooth for the C(q) curves to be meaningful. With the decreasing value of K, the multifractality lessens. The C(q) curves of all bacteria resemble a classical phase transition at a critical point. But the "analogous" phase transitions of chromosomes of nonbacteria organisms are different. Apart from chromosome 1 of C. elegans, they exhibit the shape of double-peaked specific heat function. A classification of genomes of bacteria by assigning to each sequence a point in two-dimensional space (D(-1),D1) and in three-dimensional space (D(-1),D1,D(-2)) was given. Bacteria that are close phylogenetically are almost close in the spaces (D(-1),D1) and (D(-1),D1,D(-2)).

Correlation property of length sequences based on global structure of the complete genome

This paper considers three kinds of length sequences of the complete genome. Detrended fluctuation analysis, spectral analysis, and the mean distance spanned within time L are used to discuss the correlation property of these sequences. The values of the exponents from these methods of these three kinds of length sequences of bacteria indicate that the long-range correlations exist in most of these sequences. The correlations have a rich variety of behaviors including the presence of anti-correlations. Furthermore, using the exponent gamma, it is found that these correlations are all linear (gamma=1.0+/-0.03). It is also found that these sequences exhibit 1/f noise in some interval of frequency (f>1). The length of this interval of frequency depends on the length of the sequence. The shape of the periodogram in f>1 exhibits some periodicity. The period seems to depend on the length and the complexity of the length sequence.

Factorial moments analyses show a characteristic length scale in DNA sequences

A unique feature of most of the DNA sequences, found through the factorial moments analysis, is the existence of a characteristic length scale around which the density distribution is nearly Poissonian. Above this point, the DNA sequences, irrespective of their intron contents, show long range correlations with a significant deviation from the Gaussian statistics, while, below this point, the DNA statistics are essentially Gaussian. The famous DNA walk representation is also shown to be a special case of the present analysis.

Nonlinear modeling technique for the analysis of DNA chains

Using a simple computational procedure, we examine DNA chains from different species in order to prove their nonlinear deterministic structures. This procedure applies a nonlinear modeling technique based upon quantitative comparison of the neighborhoods from similar DNA subsegments of size d. Our results reveal that noncoding regions exhibit a deterministic signature at sizes larger than a characteristic dimension d(c). Applications to evolutionary categories and recognition of different DNA regions are discussed.

AIDS and transfer factor: myths, certainties and realities

At the end of the 20th century, the triumph of biology is as indisputable as that of physics was at the end of the 19th century, and so is the might of the inductive thought. Virtually all diseases have been seemingly conquered and HIV, the cause of AIDS, has been fully described ten years after the onset of the epidemic. However, the triumph of biological science is far from being complete. The toll of several diseases, such as cancer, continues to rise and the pathogenesis of AIDS remains elusive. In the realm of inductive science, the dominant paradigm can seldom be challenged in a frontal attack, especially when it is apparently successful, and only what Kuhn calls "scientific revolutions" can overthrow it. Thus, it is hardly surprising that the concept of transfer factor is considered with contempt, and the existence of the moiety improbable: over forty years after the introduction of the concept, not only its molecular structure remains unknown, but also its putative mode of action contravenes dogmas of both immunology and molecular biology. And when facts challenge established dogmas, be in religion, philosophy or science, they must be suppressed. Thus, results of heterodox research become henceforth nisi-i.e., valid unless cause is shown for rescinding them, because they challenge the prevalent paradigm. However, when observations pertain to lethal disorders, their suppression in the name of dogmas may become criminal. Because of the failure of medical science to manage the AIDS pandemic, transfer factor, which has been successfully used for treating or preventing viral infections, may today overcome a priori prejudice and rejection more swiftly. In science, as in life, certainties always end up by dying, and Copernicus' vision by replacing that of Ptolemy.

A quantitative test of long-range correlations and compositional fluctuations in DNA sequences

Recent findings concerning long-range correlations and fractals in intron-containing DNA sequences of living organisms are tested qualitatively and quantitatively. Extending previous studies, we demonstrate that these findings are trivially equivalent to variations of the base-pair composition in different regions of a DNA sequence. It is shown explicitly that a well-defined scaling or fractal exponent does not exist anywhere. Comparisons of natural DNAs with computer-generated, artificial sequences are made. The present study reveals that certain natural DNA sequences (especially those with compact genomes) do have stochastic characteristics which are intrinsically different from artificial sequences. The results for 21 DNA sequences of various types from widely different taxa are reported.

Statistical mechanics in biology: how ubiquitous are long-range correlations?

The purpose of this opening talk is to describe examples of recent progress in applying statistical mechanics to biological systems. We first briefly review several biological systems, and then focus on the fractal features characterized by the long-range correlations found recently in DNA sequences containing non-coding material. We discuss the evidence supporting the finding that for sequences containing only coding regions, there are no long-range correlations. We also discuss the recent finding that the exponent alpha characterizing the long-range correlations increases with evolution, and we discuss two related models, the insertion model and the insertion-deletion model, that may account for the presence of long-range correlations. Finally, we summarize the analysis of long-term data on human heartbeats (up to 10(4) heart beats) that supports the possibility that the successive increments in the cardiac beat-to-beat intervals of healthy subjects display scale-invariant, long-range "anti-correlations" (a tendency to beat faster is balanced by a tendency to beat slower later on). In contrast, for a group of subjects with severe heart disease, long-range correlations vanish. This finding suggests that the classical theory of homeostasis, according to which stable physiological processes seek to maintain "constancy," should be extended to account for this type of dynamical, far from equilibrium, behavior.

Variations in base pair composition and associated long-range correlations in DNA sequences--computer simulation results

Recently, the possible occurrence of long-range correlations between nucleotides in DNA sequences of living organisms has excited considerable interest. Of particular importance is the claim that only intron-containing sequences exhibit these correlations. Different investigations, however, have disproved the claimed difference between intron-containing and intron-less DNA sequences. Moreover, very recent investigations pointed out that the long-range correlations appear only if relatively large variations in nucleotide composition along the DNA sequence are present. Furthermore, some examples demonstrated that these variations may have clear biological reasons. In this paper we investigate in detail, with the aid of computer simulations, the connection between compositional heterogeneity of a DNA sequence and the appearance of long-range correlations. As an explicit example, the DNA sequence of the lambda-phage is compared with different artificial sequences of similar compositional heterogeneity. The results demonstrate that the variations of the nucleotide composition along the sequence can fully account for all properties of the claimed long-range correlations. New results of extensive computer simulations are presented which clearly demonstrate how the apparent 'fractal' (or 'long-range-correlated') character of a sequence gradually evaporates, as the frequency of the compositional variations of a simulated sequence continuously increases.

AIDS acquired by drug consumption and other noncontagious risk factors

The hypothesis that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a new, sexually transmitted virus that causes AIDS has been entirely unproductive in terms of public health benefits. Moreover, it fails to predict the epidemiology of AIDS, the annual AIDS risk and the very heterogeneous AIDS diseases of infected persons. The correct hypothesis must explain why: (1) AIDS includes 25 previously known diseases and two clinically and epidemiologically very different epidemics, one in America and Europe, the other in Africa; (2) almost all American (90%) and European (86%) AIDS patients are males over the age of 20, while African AIDS affects both sexes equally; (3) the annual AIDS risks of infected babies, intravenous drug users, homosexuals who use aphrodisiacs, hemophiliacs and Africans vary over 100-fold; (4) many AIDS patients have diseases that do not depend on immunodeficiency, such as Kaposi's sarcoma, lymphoma, dementia and wasting; (5) the AIDS diseases of Americans (97%) and Europeans (87%) are predetermined by prior health risks, including long-term consumption of illicit recreational drugs, the antiviral drug AZT and congenital deficiencies like hemophilia, and those of Africans are Africa-specific. Both negative and positive evidence shows that AIDS is not infectious: (1) the virus hypothesis fails all conventional criteria of causation; (2) over 100-fold different AIDS risks in different risk groups show that HIV is not sufficient for AIDS; (3) AIDS is only 'acquired,' if at all, years after HIV is neutralized by antibodies; (4) AIDS is new but HIV is a long-established, perinatally transmitted retrovirus; (5) alternative explanations disprove all assumptions and anecdotal cases cited in support of the virus hypothesis; (6) all AIDS-defining diseases occur in matched risk groups, at the same rate, in the absence of HIV; (7) there is no common, active microbe in all AIDS patients; (8) AIDS manifests in unpredictable and unrelated diseases; and (9) it does not spread randomly between the sexes in America and Europe. Based on numerous data documenting that drugs are necessary for HIV-positives and sufficient for HIV-negatives to develop AIDS diseases, it is proposed that all American/European AIDS diseases, that exceed their normal background, result from recreational and anti-HIV drugs. African AIDS is proposed to result from protein malnutrition, poor sanitation and subsequent parasitic infections. This hypothesis resolves all paradoxes of the virus-AIDS hypothesis. It is epidemiologically and experimentally testable and provides a rational basis for AIDS control.