Roman Chichester: a survey of its investigation

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Environmental attitude and water treatment behavior of residents of Kathmandu Valley

This paper tries to assess a correlation between the ever increasing environmental awareness and attitude and its practical consequences in influencing the household behavior in dealing with the treatment of drinking water. The paper uses a two-equation system and the fullinformation maximum likelihood method to jointly estimate the water treatment decision equation and the environmental attitude equation. In addition, the paper looks at the role of media’s public health awareness campaign in changing the household behavior. Preliminary results indicate that the environmental attitude and the media both play an important role to affect the household\u27s decision to treat drinking water

Manipulation of Retrograde Shear in the Superficial Femoral Artery in Recreationally Active and Exercise-Trained Men

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Optimization and transformation of Arundo donax L. using particle bombardment

An optimized particle bombardment protocol to introduce DNA into Arundo donax L. (giant reed) embryogenic callus cells was developed. The physical and biological parameters tested for optimal transient expression of ß-glucuronidase (GUS) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) genes were: helium pressure, distance from stopping screen to target tissue and vacuum pressure together with other factors such as gold microparticle size, DNA concentration and the number of bombardments. The highest transient GUS and GFP expression was obtained when cells were bombarded twice at 1100 psi, with 9 cm target distance, 24 mm Hg vacuum pressure, 1 mm gold particle size, 1.5 mg DNA per bombardment, three days pre-culture prior to bombardment and six days post bombardment culture. This is the first report of optimization of particle bombardment parameters for high-efficiency DNA delivery combined with minimum damage to target giant reed tissues.Key words: Arundo donax, particle bombardment, ß-glucuronidase (GUS), green fluorescent protein (GFP), transient gene expression, genetic transformation

Knowledge, attitude, belief and behavior of the Bagmati River users in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

To add to the existing state of knowledge, the present paper will list out the existence of other unidentified factors that may have a bearing on health outcomes. The relatively new branch of KABB (knowledge, attitude, belief and behavioral) studies tries to locate any differences, if they exist, in the awareness of the population about better health and behavioral practices. This paper seeks to understand the potential role being played by cultural and religious practices in explaining the inconsistency in individual’s knowledge and behavior

Schistosoma mansoni eggs modulate the timing of granuloma formation to facilitate parasite maturation and release

Schistosome eggs provoke formation of granulomas around them. For the host, the granulomatous response can be both protective and pathological. Granulomas are also postulated to facilitate parasite egg extrusion through the gut lumen, a necessary step for transmission. Using zebrafish larvae, we find that mature Schistosoma mansoni eggs recruit macrophages, which form granulomas within days. Inert egg-sized beads also rapidly induce granulomas through a foreign body response. Strikingly, immature S. mansoni eggs do not recruit macrophages. We distinguish mature and immature eggs via size analysis and find that only mature S. mansoni eggs are shed into the feces of infected mice. Importantly, analysis of egg sizes from previously reported data shows that humans also shed mature eggs only. Our findings support the model that the immunologically inert eggshell inhibits granuloma formation long enough for the parasite to mature. Then parasite antigens secreted through the eggshell trigger granulomas, facilitating egg extrusion

Focusing of timelike worldsheets in a theory of strings

An analysis of the generalised Raychaudhuri equations for string world sheets is shown to lead to the notion of focusing of timelike worldsheets in the classical Nambu-Goto theory of strings. The conditions under which such effects can occur are obtained . Explicit solutions as well as the Cauchy initial value problem are discussed. The results closely resemble their counterparts in the theory of point particles which were obtained in the context of the analysis of spacetime singularities in General Relativity many years ago.Comment: 14 pages, RevTex, no figures, extended, to appear in Phys Rev

Importance of B4 medium in determining organomineralization potential of bacterial environmental isolates

B4 precipitation medium has been used as the preferred medium for studying mineral precipitation using bacterial strains in vitro since pioneer studies were performed by Boquet and coworkers in 1973. Using this medium, several authors have demonstrated that some environmental isolates were able to precipitate minerals, yet others did not. The main goal of the current study is to understand whether pH and buffer conditions would have a significant effect on mineral precipitation results for environmental isolates grown on B4. For this study, a total of 49 strains isolated from natural environments from Puerto Rico were grown on B4 plates, and their CaCO3 precipitation potential was investigated. Our findings revealed a strong correlation between a lack of CaCO3 precipitation and the acidification of the B4 plates by the colonies. The ability to precipitate CaCO3 could be restored by buffering the B4 medium to a pH of 8.2. Buffering capacity of the medium was proposed to be involved in CaCO3 precipitation: acid-base titrations conducted on the individual ingredients of B4 showed that yeast extract has a poor buffering capacity between pH 6.5?7.5. This pH range corresponds to the pH of B4 plates 6.87 (�±0.05)] prior to the inoculation. This might explain why B4 is such a good precipitation medium: a small variation in the H+/OH? balance during microbial growth and precipitation produces rapid changes in the pH of the medium. Finally, an amorphous matrix was distributed within 90% of the examined crystals generated on B4 medium by the environmental strains. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Geomicrobiology Journal to view the free supplemental file.; B4 precipitation medium has been used as the preferred medium for studying mineral precipitation using bacterial strains in vitro since pioneer studies were performed by Boquet and coworkers in 1973. Using this medium, several authors have demonstrated that some environmental isolates were able to precipitate minerals, yet others did not. The main goal of the current study is to understand whether pH and buffer conditions would have a significant effect on mineral precipitation results for environmental isolates grown on B4. For this study, a total of 49 strains isolated from natural environments from Puerto Rico were grown on B4 plates, and their CaCO3 precipitation potential was investigated. Our findings revealed a strong correlation between a lack of CaCO3 precipitation and the acidification of the B4 plates by the colonies. The ability to precipitate CaCO3 could be restored by buffering the B4 medium to a pH of 8.2. Buffering capacity of the medium was proposed to be involved in CaCO3 precipitation: acid-base titrations conducted on the individual ingredients of B4 showed that yeast extract has a poor buffering capacity between pH 6.5?7.5. This pH range corresponds to the pH of B4 plates 6.87 (�±0.05)] prior to the inoculation. This might explain why B4 is such a good precipitation medium: a small variation in the H+/OH? balance during microbial growth and precipitation produces rapid changes in the pH of the medium. Finally, an amorphous matrix was distributed within 90% of the examined crystals generated on B4 medium by the environmental strains. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Geomicrobiology Journal to view the free supplemental file