CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES Waste Management: Creation of a State Superfund to Help Fund the Cost of Hazardous Waste Site Cleanup in Georgia

The Act creates the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund with monies collected from fees on generators and importers of hazardous and solid waste. The fund is to be used for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. The Act also identifies categories of persons jointly, severally, and strictly liable to the state for costs incurred by the state in the cleanup. Those persons are also liable for civil and punitive damages which will help fund the Trust. The Act also provides certain exceptions to liability. Finally, the Act calls for identification and listing of hazardous waste sites in Georgia

Nanoscale Fabrication by Intrinsic Suppression of Proximity-Electron Exposures and General Considerations for Easy & Effective Top-Down Fabrication

We present results of a planar process development based on the combination of electron-beam lithography and dry etching for fabricating high-quality superconducting photosensitive structures in the sub-100nm regime. The devices were fabricated by the application of an intrinsic proximity effect suppression procedure which makes the need for an elaborated correction algorithm redundant for planar design layouts which are orders of magnitude smaller than the backscattering length. In addition, we discuss the necessary considerations for extending the fabrication spatial scale of optical contactlithography with a mercury arc-discharge photon source down to the order of the exposure photon's wavelength ( sub-{\mu}m ), thereby minimizing the writing time on the electron-beam lithograph. Finally we developed a unique and novel technique for controlling the undercut during a planar lift-off fabrication procedure without cleaving the wafer.Comment: 10 figures, 51 reference

Finding needles in haystacks: linking scientific names, reference specimens and molecular data for Fungi

DNA phylogenetic comparisons have shown that morphology-based species recognition often underestimates fungal diversity. Therefore, the need for accurate DNA sequence data, tied to both correct taxonomic names and clearly annotated specimen data, has never been greater. Furthermore, the growing number of molecular ecology and microbiome projects using high-throughput sequencing require fast and effective methods for en masse species assignments. In this article, we focus on selecting and re-annotating a set of marker reference sequences that represent each currently accepted order of Fungi. The particular focus is on sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region in the nuclear ribosomal cistron, derived from type specimens and/or ex-type cultures. Re-annotated and verified sequences were deposited in a curated public database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), namely the RefSeq Targeted Loci (RTL) database, and will be visible during routine sequence similarity searches with NR_prefixed accession numbers. A set of standards and protocols is proposed to improve the data quality of new sequences, and we suggest how type and other reference sequences can be used to improve identification of Fungi

Pleosporales

One hundred and five generic types of Pleosporales are described and illustrated. A brief introduction and detailed history with short notes on morphology, molecular phylogeny as well as a general conclusion of each genus are provided. For those genera where the type or a representative specimen is unavailable, a brief note is given. Altogether 174 genera of Pleosporales are treated. Phaeotrichaceae as well as Kriegeriella, Zeuctomorpha and Muroia are excluded from Pleosporales. Based on the multigene phylogenetic analysis, the suborder Massarineae is emended to accommodate five families, viz. Lentitheciaceae, Massarinaceae, Montagnulaceae, Morosphaeriaceae and Trematosphaeriaceae

Unexpected Role of α-Fetoprotein in Spermatogenesis

BACKGROUND: Heat shock severely affects sperm production (spermatogenesis) and results in a rapid loss of haploid germ cells, or in other words, sperm formation (spermiogenesis) is inhibited. However, the mechanisms behind the effects of heat shock on spermatogenesis are obscure. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To identify the inhibitory factor of spermiogenesis, experimental cryptorchid (EC) mice were used in this study. Here we show that α-fetoprotein (AFP) is specifically expressed in the testes of EC mice by proteome analysis. AFP was also specifically localized spermatocytes by immunohistochemical analysis and was secreted into the circulation system of EC mice by immunoblot analysis. Since spermatogenesis of an advanced mammal cannot be reproduced with in vitro, we performed the microinjection of AFP into the seminiferous tubules of normal mice to determine whether AFP inhibits spermiogenesis in vivo. AFP was directly responsible for the block in spermiogenesis of normal mice. To investigate whether AFP inhibits cell differentiation in other models, using EC mice we performed a partial hepatectomy (PH) that triggers a rapid regenerative response in the remnant liver tissue. We also found that liver regeneration is inhibited in EC mice with PH. The result suggests that AFP released into the blood of EC mice regulates liver regeneration by inhibiting the cell division of hepatocytes. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: AFP is a well-known cancer-specific marker, but AFP has no known function in healthy human beings. Our findings indicate that AFP expressed under EC conditions plays a role as a regulatory factor in spermatogenesis and in hepatic generation

Franck-Condon blockade in suspended carbon nanotube quantum dots

Understanding the influence of vibrational motion of the atoms on electronic transitions in molecules constitutes a cornerstone of quantum physics, as epitomized by the Franck-Condon principle of spectroscopy. Recent advances in building molecular-electronics devices and nanoelectromechanical systems open a new arena for studying the interaction between mechanical and electronic degrees of freedom in transport at the single-molecule level. The tunneling of electrons through molecules or suspended quantum dots has been shown to excite vibrational modes, or vibrons. Beyond this effect, theory predicts that strong electron-vibron coupling dramatically suppresses the current flow at low biases, a collective behaviour known as Franck-Condon blockade. Here we show measurements on quantum dots formed in suspended single-wall carbon nanotubes revealing a remarkably large electron-vibron coupling and, due to the high quality and unprecedented tunability of our samples, admit a quantitative analysis of vibron-mediated electronic transport in the regime of strong electron-vibron coupling. This allows us to unambiguously demonstrate the Franck-Condon blockade in a suspended nanostructure. The large observed electron-vibron coupling could ultimately be a key ingredient for the detection of quantized mechanical motion. It also emphasizes the unique potential for nanoelectromechanical device applications based on suspended graphene sheets and carbon nanotubes.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure