Measurement of collagen synthesis by cells grown under different mechanical stimuli

INTRODUCTION: The use of scaffolds in tissue engineering is essential to provide cells with a matrix for cell proliferation and differentiation resulting in tissue regeneration. Normally this process involves seeding cells onto an artificial biodegradable scaffold providing mechanical support for cells until there is sufficient extracellular matrix deposition (ECM) to replace the artificial scaffold. Collagen is the bulk protein found in the ECM and measurement of its synthesis is the most direct, absolute indicator of ECM production

On becoming irrelevant:an analysis of charity workers’ untold epic stories

While the nature, character and function of stories are variously theorized in organizational storytelling literature, little research has tried to unpack how organizational narrative domain may transform over time. Attending to the contextual transformation of organizational story space can reveal how popular stories at one epoch could be reformulated, ignored, or forgotten all together during another epoch. Drawing on ethnographic data of a children’s charity in UK, which experienced a stage of rapid professionalization, specialization, and bureaucratization, I examine the influence of this restructuring initiative on the organizational narrative domain. It was shown that the professionalization of the charity starved the old stories of the oxygen of relevance. The memories of the old pioneers, from the days of stress and violence, became less welcome as the organization turned increasingly managerial in character. The notion of ‘irrelevancy’ is further developed drawing on the work of Maurice Halbwachs, and its implications are elaborated building on storytelling research

Investigation of the influence of Ceratophyllum demersum to refine diluted compost latex

Water pollution has always been a major problem in the environment. Polluted water is harming for human health and need to clean water from pollution factors. One of the economic and rapid methods forelements removal is displacement metals by biosorption. The purpose of this study was refining diluted compost latex by Ceratophyllum demersum that was diluted 200 times with distilled water. Diluted compost latex (DCL)accompany with aquatic plant Ceratophyllum demersum was located in bottles which were 6 liter in four replication. The experimental performed at the open air of Khorasgan (Isfahan, Iran) University area for 18 dayswithout aeration. Result of Chemical oxygen demand (COD) indicates that the COD was decreased from 728 mg/L to 189.5 mg/L. Also, this investigation was demonstrated that the amount of ammonium in diluted compost latex was decreased from 60 meq/L to 13.33 meq/L. The amount of nitrate in diluted compost latex has decreased from 90 meq/L to 26.66 meq/L, and the amount of Phosphorous was declined from 1.2 meq/L to 0.21 meq/L. EC of diluted compost latex was reduced from 1.02 ds/m to 0.74 ds/m. All of the consequences which were mentioned indicated that this aquatic plant (Ceratophyllum demersum) is one of the best natural ways to refine Polluted water

Calibration of a Temperature-Radiation Evapotranspiration Equation for Utah

Two reference crop evapotranspiration (ETr) equations were calibrated to the reference crop of alfalfa using 45 meteorological datafiles from 13 scattered sites in Utah and four sites in the neigboring states of Idaho and Wyoming. The calibrations were done against the Kimberly version of the Penman ETr formula. The first equation required measured inputs of mean air temperature and solar radiation. It was referred to as the Temperature- Radiation ETr equation (ETr= CT x T x Rs). The second equation required measured inputs of mean minimum and mean maximum air temperatures. It was referred to as the New Hargreaves equation (ETr= K x T x TD0.5 x Ra). CT and K coefficients were found by minimizing a certain objective function which took into account 5-day sums and seasonal sums of ETr. General formulas were derived for estimating CT and K coefficients for any site in the intermountain west area for which the longitude, latitude, elevation, mean longterm July minimum temperature and mean longterm July maximum temperature were known. The average CT and K found for the study sites in Utah were 0.00999 and 0.001074 respectively

Reverse Peace Corps: A Proposal on the Recruitment of Third World Nationals as Peace Corps Volunteers Assigned to the United States

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength. (Orwell 1949, p. 5). Indeed, in 1960, when President Kennedy announced his future plans for a Peace Corps of young Americans, there were already an estimated 10,000 Americans working in the Third World country of Vietnam in the capacity of military advisors . By 1963 there were 17,000 such Americans in Vietnam and another 7,000 Americans in 44 other Third World countries working as Peace Corps Volunteers (Rice 1985). In 1835, reflecting on the then young America, Tocqueville stated that of all nations, those most fond of peace are democratic nations and that of all armies, those ardently desirous of war are democratic armies (Tocqueville 1945, Vol. II p . 266). This duality in American character was reflected in U.S. foreign policy during Kennedy\u27s term of office with the coexistence of the U.S. military presence in Vietnam and the creation of the Peace Corps and the sending of its volunteers to various Third World countries including Vietnam. Such duality has persisted to the present. The recent Persian Gulf War, with approximately 600,000 American military personnel sent to that region to assist the Saudi Arabian Government in defense of its homeland ... all in the cause of peace (The New York Times 1990, Aug. 9) transpired while other U.S. employees such as the 6,300 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) were working in other developing countries around the globe in non-military capacities

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation’s foci are the Central Asian states of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, two postcommunist states that are similar in territorial and population size; per capita income; history of Soviet subjugation; pro-Russian sentiments; reliance on remittances; and ratification of liberal treaties, including the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (UNCAT). Related to the latter, the two states distinctively differ vis-à -vis allowance of independent monitoring of places of detention and ratification of UNCAT’s Optional Protocol (OPCAT). Although torture remains problematic in both states, Kyrgyzstan shows more promise in institutional attempts to combat its practice, including collaboration with international bodies, such as the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan ratified UNCAT in the mid-1990s, but only Kyrgyzstan ratified OPCAT (in 2008), and by 2014 formulated its UN-sanctioned National Prevention Mechanism (NPM), a body (in the case of Kyrgyzstan, made up of government and civil society entities) meant to pay unannounced visits to places of detention as a torture prevention instrument. This dissertation reasons that Kyrgyzstan’s relative progress in the liberal antitorture norm is explained through its political culture as manifested in its nomadic past; its historical memory of resistance (as demonstrated by the 1916 Ürkün incidence); less deference to authority (as demonstrated by two “revolutionary” regime changes in 2005 and 2010); and higher degree of syncretism in religion, with the Kyrgyz practice of Islam, as compared to Tajikistan, being far less dogmatic and more pragmatic. The dissertation also argues that Tajikistan’s abysmal record of progress in adhering to UNCAT and its unwillingness to ratify OPCAT, nor allow other bodies, such as the ICRC, access to its places of detention, is linked to its political culture of subservience to authority, the country’s historical memory of defeat (as demonstrated by the anti-Soviet Basmachi losses during the 1920s and 1930s), and the ethnic Tajiks’ far more dogmatic adherence to Islam. Tajikistan’s lack of progress in the liberal antitorture norm is also explained through the Afghanistan contagion effect, which served as a catalyst for the 1992-1997 Tajik civil war that stymied the country’s socioeconomic and political progress. The ongoing malicious drug trade emanating from Afghanistan has also more negatively affected Tajikistan, which shares a 1,350 km border with Afghanistan, than Kyrgyzstan, which shares neither a direct border with Afghanistan nor, as opposed to Tajikistan, has strong cultural ties with Afghanistan