Photonic Structures in Biology: A Possible Blueprint for Nanotechnology

Nature has had millions of years to optimize photonic crystals - an endeavour mankind only really began in the 1980s. Often, we attempt to mimic and expand upon nature’s designs in creating photonic structures that meet our technology-driven needs. While this strategy can be fruitful in fabricating novel architectures, one has to keep in mind that nature designed and optimized these structures for specific applications (e.g., colouration, camouflaging, signalling), but certainly not for use in photonic chips and optical circuits. To take full advantage of biological structures as blueprints for nanotechnology, it is important to understand the purpose and development of natural structural colours. In this review, we will discuss important aspects of the design, formation and evolution of the structures embedded in beetle exoskeletons that are responsible for their striking colouration. In particular, we will focus on the purpose of structural colours for camouflaging, mimicry and signalling. We will discuss their evolutionary and ecological development and compare the development of beetles with and without structural colours. Examples of non-colour-related structural functionalities will also be introduced and briefly discussed. Finally, a brief overview of nature’s synthesis strategies for these highly evolved structures will be given, with particular focus on membrane assembly

Clinical Aspects of Primate Medicine

Despite the fact that importation of non-human primates for the pet trade was banned in 1976, many people continue to keep them as pets. Although the number of such pets has steadily declined, there are several reasons why clients should continue to be discouraged from owning primates as pets. Non-human primates have a high potential to be carriers of zoonotic diseases including hepatitis, tuberculosis, shigellosis, salmonellosis and Herpes B virus. They are also virtually impossible to toilet train. Additionally, many species are hard to handle, are destructive to property, and have a tendency to bite. Since there will always be a percentage of people who insist on having these exotic pets, the practitioner interested in exotics should be prepared to handle primates as patients. Both the proper equipment and adequate knowledge of their care are necessary. Unprepared and inexperienced clinicians could sustain severe bodily injury or contact zoonotic diseases if not versed in the handling of primates

Influence of Restaurant Reviews Upon Consumers

It is generally believed that restaurant reviews can influence consumers\u27 decisions in choosing a restaurant. A survey administered to a sample of 420 college faculty and staff members suggests that while most restaurant patrons may read reviews, they are not used as the sole selection criterion. Recommendations of friends, the restaurant\u27s current reputation, and perceived value may have greater influence upon the choice than does a re- view. The authors discuss the implications of both favorable and unfavorable reviews

Collaborative Musical Expression and Creativity Among Academics: When Intellectualism Meets Twelve Bar Blues

The Professors are a blues, rock, and sometime heavy metal band made up of communication professors from a number of New Jersey schools. Formed in 1995, the band has played in clubs in New York City as well as a number of academic venues, including the annual conference of the International Communication Association in Chicago in 1996 and the annual conference of the National Communication Association in New York City in 1998. The Professors have been featured in both local and national press, including the Chronicle of Higher Education. When we learned of the call for papers for this special issue of the American Communication Journal addressing the creative endeavors of Communication scholars beyond their regular research agendas, we were delighted to have the opportunity to reflect upon the place of musical creativity within our lives as working academics. What follows in this paper are the thoughts of a number of band members, past and present, who trace the relationship of the musical, the creative, and the intellectual in terms of their own personal histories and academic interests

Random and Correlated Phases of Primordial Gravitaional Waves

The phases of primordial gravity waves is analysed in detail within a quantum mechanical context following the formalism developed by Grishchuk and Sidorov. It is found that for physically relevant wavelengths both the phase of each individual mode and the phase {\it difference} between modes are randomly distributed. The phase {\it sum} between modes with oppositely directed wave-vectors, however, is not random and takes on a definite value with no rms fluctuation. The conventional point of view that primordial gravity waves appear after inflation as a classical, random stochastic background is also addressed.Comment: 14 pages, written in REVTE