Cascades of Violence

War and crime are cascade phenomena. War cascades across space and time to more war; crime to more crime; crime cascades to war; and war to crime. As a result, war and crime become complex phenomena. That does not mean we cannot understand how to prevent crime and war simultaneously. This book shows, for example, how a cascade analysis leads to an understanding of how refugee camps are nodes of both targeted attack and targeted recruitment into violence. Hence, humanitarian prevention also must target such nodes of risk. This book shows how nonviolence and nondomination can also be made to cascade, shunting cascades of violence into reverse. Complexity theory implies a conclusion that the pursuit of strategies for preventing crime and war is less important than understanding meta strategies. These are meta strategies for how to sequence and escalate many redundant prevention strategies. These themes were explored across seven South Asian societies during eight years of fieldwork

Under graduate Curriculum Integration: Bringing Students Together Through Research

At Georgia Gwinnett College we are integrating the undergraduate educational experience for our Bachelor of Science students in the Biology discipline. We are using the opportunities presented by the genetic information revolution to combine biology courses in a longitudinal and integrative research project aimed at cataloguing biological diversity over space and time on the developing Georgia Gwinnett College campus

The incidence of a superficial arterial pattern in the human upper extremities

The incidence of superficial arteries was studied in 68 (38 right and 30 left) upper extremities. One right limb of an adult male presented a superficial arterial pattern (2.63%, total 1.47%) resembling a superficial brachio-ulno-radial artery (SBUR). The median nerve crossed the superficial brachial artery (SBA) from the posterior to the medial side and again posterior to the same at the cubital fossa. The superficial brachial artery divided into superficial radial and superficial ulnar arteries, which coursed distally superficial to the muscles but deep to the deep fascia. The superficial radial artery passed deep to the extensor tendons of the thumb. The superficial ulnar artery gave only muscular branches in the forearm. The superficial radial artery gave origin to the radial recurrent artery and the common interosseous trunk. The latter gave origin to a palmar type of median artery, muscular branches, and an artery that divided into anterior and posterior ulnar recurrent arteries. It also gave origin to the anterior and posterior interosseous arteries. The latter provided the interosseous recurrent artery and a branch that coursed towards the olecranon process of the ulna. The knowledge of this variation is important since it may be compromised in surgical procedures of the upper limb

Partial purification and characterization of metalloprotease of halotolerant alkaliphilic bacterium Bacillus cereus from coastal sediment of Goa, India

We partially purified extracellular metalloprotease of a halotolerant alkaliphilic bacterium isolated from coastal sediment of Goa, India, which was identified as Bacillus cereus strain CS1 based on biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA sequence. Zymogram of partially purified enzyme clearly revealed two prominent protease isozymes of 210 and 215 kDa. Although, protease showed activity over a wide range of pH (pH 8 to 12) and temperature (30, 37, 45 and 50°C), optimum pH and temperature were 9 and 37°C, respectively. Protease exhibited extreme halotolerance upto 8% NaCl making it one of the industrially valuable enzyme. Among different carbon sources, glucose (1%) enhanced maximum enzyme activity (71U/ml), whereas, among the nitrogen sources, tryptone (0.2%) proved best to enhance enzyme activity (158U/ml). Ca++ ions enhanced protease activity by 7%, whereas, Cu++, Mg++, Pb++ and Hg++ ions inhibited activity by 91, 79, 87 and 77%, respectively. Among inhibitors tested, protease activity was significantly inhibited by Na2–EDTA as residual enzyme activity was only 21%, which clearly confirmed it to be a metalloprotease. The partially purified protease mixed separately with two detergents Rin and Wheel clearly demonstrated significant stain removing capability. Thus, protease produced by Bacillus is a potential candidate as an additive in detergent industry.Keywords: Halo-tolerant, isozymes, zymogram, metalloprotease.African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(31), pp. 4905-491

Efficient absolute aspect determination of a balloon borne far infrared telescope using a solid state optical photometer

The observational and operational efficiency of the TIFR 1 meter balloon borne far infrared telescope has been improved by incorporating a multielement solid state optical photometer (SSOP) at the Cassegrain focus of the telescope. The SSOP is based on a 1-D linear photo diode array (PDA). The online and offline processing schemes of the PDA signals which have been developed, lead to improvement in the determination of absolute telescope aspect ($\sim$ 0\farcm8), which is very crucial for carrying out the observations as well as offline analysis. The SSOP and its performance during a recent balloon flight are presented here.Comment: To appear in the February 2000 issue of the PAS

Coexisting pathology of ectopic pregnancy and dermoid cyst: An uncommon occurrence

Mature cystic teratomas (dermoid cysts) are common benign ovarian neoplasms. About 10% of dermoid cysts are detected duringpregnancy. Multiple gynecologic pathologies occurring together are uncommon, and both an ectopic pregnancy and dermoid cystare seen concurrently being unknown and poorly documented. Here, we report a case of ectopic pregnancy and dermoid cystoccurring simultaneously in a 30-year-old woman

Sequential entrapment of PNA and DNA in lipid bilayers stacks

Sequential immobilization of single stranded DNA and complementary PNA molecules in thermally evaporated fatty amine films is demonstrated and evidence for their in-situ hybridization is presented

Electronic structure and optical properties of Sn and SnGe quantum dots

Self-assembled quantum dots in a Si–Ge–Sn system attract research attention as possible direct band gap materials, compatible with Si-based technology, with potential applications in optoelectronics. In this work, the electronic structure near the point and interband optical matrix elements of strained Sn and SnGe quantum dots in a Si or Ge matrix are calculated using the eight-band k·p method, and the competing L-valley conduction band states were found by the effective mass method. The strain distribution in the dots was found with the continuum mechanical model. The parameters required for the k·p or effective mass calculation for Sn were extracted by fitting to the energy band structure calculated by the nonlocal empirical pseudopotential method. The calculations show that the self-assembled Sn/Si dots, sized between 4 and 12 nm, have indirect interband transition energies between 0.8 and 0.4 eV and direct interband transitions between 2.5 and 2.0 eV. In particular, the actually grown, approximately cylindrical Sn dots in Si with a diameter and height of about 5 nm are calculated to have an indirect transition (to the L valley) of about 0.7 eV, which agrees very well with experimental results. Similar good agreement with the experiment was also found for SnGe dots grown on Si. However, neither of these is predicted to be direct band gap materials, in contrast to some earlier expectations