Tax issues with regards to mergers and acquisition

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96891/1/MBA_Chung_Fall_2002Final.pd

A Natural Resource Condition Assessment for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Appendix 16 - Bats

Scope of Analysis North American bats are highly unique animals that have historically been overlooked by land managers and misunderstood by the public. Bats are unique as the only true flying mammals and due to their exceptionally long lives (5-15 years) and unusually low reproductive rates (typically one young per year) for their small size. Most North American bat species are insectivorous, serve as the primary predators of nocturnal insects, and can consume up to one-third of their weight in insects per night. Thus, bats play a role in regulating insect populations, insect-related ecological processes, and nutrient redistribution and cycling (Ross 1967) and are integral to the function and integrity of many ecosystems. Through this role, bats also provide tangible economic benefits. For example, Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) consume significant quantities of several moth species whose larvae are known agricultural pests (e.g. corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea) and provide significant economic value in pest control services to the agriculture industry (Cleveland et al. 2009). Because of their small size, the energetic demands of flight, a limited ability to store fat, and the seasonal abundance of their prey, bats have an annual energy budget that is difficult to balance (McNab 1982). Many species rely on hibernation as a critical strategy to survive the winter. In the fall, these bats accumulate up to 30% of their body weight in fat to prepare for the winter hibernation. During hibernation, bats lower their body temperature to 1-2 degrees above ambient, reduce their heart rate and respiration, and thus minimize their basal metabolic energy requirements. Bats emerge in the spring with depleted energy stores, and adult females may be pregnant from fall matings. During spring and summer, female bats feed heavily to replenish their energy reserves, gestate fetuses that grow to 10-15% of the female’s weight, and provide rich milk for growing pups. In the fall, adults and young-of-the-year forage heavily in preparation for the winter. Because of their tight energy budgets, bats require roosts with appropriate microclimates to minimize thermoregulatory energy requirements (Kunz 1982, Hill and Smith 1984). As such, reproductive success and overwinter survival of individuals and populations may largely depend on the availability of suitable roosts (Humphrey 1975). Not only do they minimize thermoregulatory requirements, suitable roosts also facilitate gestation in pregnant females and maximize growth rates of young pups. Many species often congregate into winter hibernacula or summer maternity colonies to reap thermoregulatory and other communal benefits. This colony roosting behavior also makes bats susceptible in large numbers to impacts such as disturbance, vandalism, cave and mine closures, destruction of roosts, disease, etc. The overall distribution and abundance of suitable roost sites (summer and winter) may ultimately determine the distribution and abundance of many bat species (Humphrey 1975). Based on physiological adaptations to water conservation of lack thereof, bats must find roosts and foraging areas that have water within an economical flight distance. Nonetheless, roost and foraging habitat may still be separated by significant distances (Pierson 1998, Chambers et al. 2006). Food availability also determines bat species distribution and habitat use. Although insects appear to be so abundant as to preclude competition between bat species (Ross 1967, Humphrey 1975), dietary partitioning among insectivorous bat species is evident from their wide range of sizes, flight styles, echolocating abilities, and the partitioning of vertical and horizontal space during foraging (Black 1974). Nonetheless, our understanding of the food habits and dietary preferences of different bat species is extremely limited

Liver cell line derived conditioned medium enhances myofibril organization of primary rat cardiomyocytes

Cardiomyocytes are the fundamental cells of the heart and play an important role in engineering of tissue constructs for regenerative medicine and drug discovery. Therefore, the development of culture conditions that can be used to generate functional cardiomyocytes to form cardiac tissue may be of great interest. In this study, isolated neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were cultured with several culture conditions in vitro and characterized for cell proliferation, myofibril organization, and cardiac functionality by assessing cell morphology, immunocytochemical staining, and time-lapse confocal scanning microscopy. When cardiomyocytes were cultured in liver cell line derived conditioned medium without exogenous growth factors and cytokines, the cell proliferation increased, cell morphology was highly elongated, and subsequent myofibril organization was highly developed. These developed myofibril organization also showed high level of contractibility and synchronization, representing high functionality of cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, many of the known factors in hepatic conditioned medium, such as insulin-like growth factor II (IGFII), macrophage colony-stimulating factor (MCSF), leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF), did not show similar effects as the hepatic conditioned medium, suggesting the possibility of synergistic activity of the several soluble factors or the presence of unknown factors in hepatic conditioned medium. Finally, we demonstrated that our culture system could provide a potentially powerful tool for in vitro cardiac tissue organization and cardiac function study.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH DE019024)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant HL092836)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH grant EB007249)Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) (Institutional Program)United States. Army. Corps of Engineer

The need for a definition of big data for nursing science: A case study of disaster preparedness

© 2016 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The rapid development of technology has made enormous volumes of data available and achievable anytime and anywhere around the world. Data scientists call this change a data era and have introduced the term âBig Dataâ, which has drawn the attention of nursing scholars. Nevertheless, the concept of Big Data is quite fuzzy and there is no agreement on its definition among researchers of different disciplines. Without a clear consensus on this issue, nursing scholars who are relatively new to the concept may consider Big Data to be merely a dataset of a bigger size. Having a suitable definition for nurse researchers in their context of research and practice is essential for the advancement of nursing research. In view of the need for a better understanding on what Big Data is, the aim in this paper is to explore and discuss the concept. Furthermore, an example of a Big Data research study on disaster nursing preparedness involving six million patient records is used for discussion. The example demonstrates that a Big Data analysis can be conducted from many more perspectives than would be possible in traditional sampling, and is superior to traditional sampling. Experience gained from the process of using Big Data in this study will shed light on future opportunities for conducting evidence-based nursing research to achieve competence in disaster nursing.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Design, engineering and utility of biotic games

Games are a significant and defining part of human culture, and their utility beyond pure entertainment has been demonstrated with so-called ‘serious games’. Biotechnology – despite its recent advancements – has had no impact on gaming yet. Here we propose the concept of ‘biotic games’, i.e., games that operate on biological processes. Utilizing a variety of biological processes we designed and tested a collection of games: ‘Enlightenment’, ‘Ciliaball’, ‘PAC-mecium’, ‘Microbash’, ‘Biotic Pinball’, ‘POND PONG’, ‘PolymerRace’, and ‘The Prisoner's Smellemma’. We found that biotic games exhibit unique features compared to existing game modalities, such as utilizing biological noise, providing a real-life experience rather than virtual reality, and integrating the chemical senses into play. Analogous to video games, biotic games could have significant conceptual and cost-reducing effects on biotechnology and eventually healthcare; enable volunteers to participate in crowd-sourcing to support medical research; and educate society at large to support personal medical decisions and the public discourse on bio-related issues