Molecular and Biological Characterization of a Cryptosporidium molnari-Like Isolate from a Guppy (Poecilia reticulata)

Histological, morphological, genetic, and phylogenetic analyses of a Cryptosporidium molnari-like isolate from a guppy (Poecilia reticulata) identified stages consistent with those of C. molnari and revealed that C. molnari is genetically very distinct from all other species of Cryptosporidium. This study represents the first genetic characterization of C. molnari

Polymer Nanotechnology: the Quest for Motility

We ask the question "what will a realistic nanobot look like?". The answer is something like a bacterium (such as e. coli) or a sperm. Both of these have a propulsion mechanism (a flagellum), a capsule containing a chemical payload and a system of sensors to detect food or the target for the payload. It is be soft and wet, just like biology, and to exemplify this we have built a series of biomimetic devices. Our progress in the development of responsive polymer-based molecular devices is be discussed with examples of vesicles of controlled size, synthetic muscles & flagella, and microparticles fitted with a jetpack. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3501

IN THE MUSEUM

With the help of a generous donation from Miss Joan Law, the Museum of Classical Archaeology has recently acquired a small Roman bronze ithyphallic herm of Pan holding a pedum or shepherd’s crook (Figs. 1 & 2) from the 1st or 2nd century CE. 1 The bottom-most part of the base has broken off, but the object is otherwise in excellent condition with slight patination. The base is rectangular up to the waist. The buttocks are not sculpted but simply indicated by a single incised line. From the waist up the details, such as the musculature, face and hair, are very finely rendered. The figure arches his back and raises his right hand to his forehead while his left hand supports a pedum. He is bearded with short unkempt hair and visible horns

IN THE MUSEUM

Two Egyptian artefacts from the first millennium BC have recently been acquired by the Museum of Classical Archaeology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, courtesy of a kind donation by Miss Joan Law. At a time when academia in South Africa is placing considerable emphasis on African-oriented scholarship, it is appropriate that the museum has on display a large selection of small Egyptian artefacts dating from as early as the 4th millennium BC. These items are of particular interest for teaching as they reflect a variety of different aspects of Egyptian life

IN THE MUSEUM

Thanks to a generous donation by Ms. Joan Law, the Museum of Classical Archaeology has been able to purchase five Roman coins. Each of the coins illustrates an interesting aspect of Imperial culture and may be used to illustrate various aspects of Roman history. Furthermore, although the extent to which the iconography on coinage was under direct imperial control is debatable, a comparison with current imperial iconography and sentiment can be illuminating in assessing the public image of the emperor

Recent experiments on a small-angle/wide-angle X-ray scattering beam line at the ESRF

Recent results using a new combined small-angle/wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) beam line at the European Synchrotron Radiation Source (ESRF) will be presented. This beam line is specifically designed to be able to handle complicated sample environments required to perform time-resolved experiments mimicking processing conditions used in material science. Besides the attention that has been given to the interfacing of these sample environments to the beam line data acquisition system also the developments in detector technology will be discussed. The influence that a high count rate and low noise WAXS detector can have on the accuracy of experimental results in polymer crystallisation will be shown. It is shown that it is feasible to detect crystalline volume fractions as low as 10(-3)-10(-4) in polymeric systems

Flow-induced crystallisation of polymers from aqueous solution

Synthetic polymers are thoroughly embedded in the modern society and their consumption grows annually. Efficient routes to their production and processing have never been more important. In this respect, silk protein fibrillation is superior to conventional polymer processing, not only by achieving outstanding physical properties of materials, such as high tensile strength and toughness, but also improved process energy efficiency. Natural silk solidifies in response to flow of the liquid using conformation-dependent intermolecular interactions to desolvate (denature) protein chains. This mechanism is reproduced here by an aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) solution, which solidifies at ambient conditions when subjected to flow. The transition requires that an energy threshold is exceeded by the flow conditions, which disrupts a protective hydration shell around polymer molecules, releasing them from a metastable state into the thermodynamically favoured crystalline state. This mechanism requires vastly lower energy inputs and demonstrates an alternative route for polymer processing

Implications of the CP asymmetry in semileptonic B decay

Recent experimental searches for $A_{SL}$, the CP asymmetry in semileptonic B decay, have reached an accuracy of order one percent. Consequently, they give meaningful constraints on new physics. We find that cancellations between the Standard Model (SM) and new physics contributions to $B^0 - \bar B^0$ mixing cannot be as strong as was allowed prior to these measurements. The predictions for this asymmetry within the SM and within models of minimal flavor violation (MFV) are below the reach of present and near future measurements. Including order $m_c^2/m_b^2$ and $\Lambda_{QCD}/m_b$ corrections we obtain the SM prediction: $-1.3 \times 10^{-3} < A_{SL} < -0.5 \times 10^{-3}$. Future measurements can exclude not only the SM, but MFV as well, if the sign of the asymmetry is opposite to the SM or if it is same-sign but much enhanced. We also comment on the CP asymmetry in semileptonic $B_s$ decay, and update the range of the angle $\beta_s$ in the SM: $0.026 < \sin2\beta_s < 0.048$.Comment: 16 pages, a sign typo in eq.(11) fixed, to appear in Phys. Rev.