It is demonstrated that cyclones evolve in a way different from that of anticyclones in rotating shallow water. The anticyclones merge and eventually take circular coherent forms, but cyclones are elongated with active enstrophy cascading. This asymmetric evolution is strengthened with increasing surface displacements. When the initial surface displacement exceeds a certain critical value, the initial elongation of a cyclonic ellipse ends up with splitting in two cyclones. This splitting of the cyclonic ellipse is always associated with the first appearance of a saddle point inside the core, due to irrotational, ageostrophic motion. The appearance of the saddle point inside the core seems to be a necessary condition for splitting of the core of the cyclonic ellipse with surface displacements. The linear stability analysis of the elliptical vortex is consistent qualitatively with both of the simulation results and the kinematic axisymmetrization/elongation principle.

The complete amino acid sequence of ribonuclease (RNase MC) from the seeds of bitter gourd (Motttordica ch=anria) has been determined, This has been achieved by the sequence analysis of peptides derived by enzymatic digestion with trypsin. lysylendopeptidase. and chymotrypsin, as well as by chemical cleavage with cyanogen bromide. The protein contains 191 amino acid residues and has a calculated molecular mass of 21259 Da.Comparison of this sequence with sequences of the fungal RNases. RNase T2, and RNase Rh, revealed that there are highly conserved residues at positions 32-38 (TXHGLWP) and 81-92 (FWXHEWXKHGTC).Furthermore. the sequence of RNase MC was found to be homologous to those of Nicotiatta alutn S-glycoproleins involved in self-incompatibility sharing 41% identical residues.

The effects of six lipophilic vitamins: tretinoin (ATRA), vitamin D(3) (VD(3)), VE, VK(1), VK(3), and VK(5) on cell proliferation and apoptosis in human A375 melanoma cells were investigated. VD(3), VK(3), and VK(5) were found to inhibit cell proliferation significantly at concentration ranges of 10-100 μmol/L (p<0.01), while the other vitamins did not show inhibitory effects at 100 μmol/L. VK(3) and VK(5) showed the strongest effects with IC(50) values of less than 10 μmol/L. Dacarbazine slightly inhibited the proliferation of A375 cells at a concentration range of 25-100 μmol/L, but the effects were not statistically significant. VK(3) and VK(5) increased annexin-V positive apoptotic cells, as well as activating caspase-3, in A375 cells. Our findings showed that VD(3), VK(3,) and VK(5) inhibited the growth of dacarbazine resistant human melanoma cells, while ATRA, VE, and VK(1) had little effect on the cell growth. The effects of VK(3) and VK(5) were observed at concentrations lower than 10 μmol/L, which are suggested to have resulted from apoptosis-induction in the melanoma cells.

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