The Effects of Ultraviolet Light on Anthocyanin Accumulation in the Adventitious Roots of Sedum wrightii (Crassulaceae)

Several studies have supported the idea that anthocyanin accumulation may be a possible protection mechanism in plants against DNA damage caused by ultraviolet radiation (UV). This study explored the accumulation of anthocyanins in the adventitious root tips of Sedum wrightii using the following treatments: UVA, UVA+low UVB, and UVA+high UVB. Following exposure to UV radiation, samples were analyzed for anthocyanin accumulation using an ethanol extraction procedure. Using ELISA, additional root samples were analyzed for indicators of DNA damage: cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and pyrimidine (6-4) pyrimidone dimers (6-4 PPs). The anthocyanin concentrations were significantly higher in the UVA + high UVB treatment than the other groups. The ELISA resultsshowed that a difference occurred between the control and the treatments of UVA, UVA+low UVB and UVA+high UVB for CPDs and between the control and the UVB treatments for 6-4 PPs. Anthocyanins accumulated with increased UV exposure. However, additional research is needed to determine the significance of anthocyanins in the adventitious root tips of S. wrightii

The enemy within:designing a cell-based gameplay system for cancer education

This paper outlines the design and preliminary evaluation of The Enemy Within, a browser-based game produced to raise awareness of the nature of cancer as a progressive disease. Aimed at high school and young adult audiences, the ambition with the game is to make visible to players the myriad ways in which healthy cells can mutate and ultimately inherit hallmarks of cancer, whilst also demonstrating how both real-world behaviours and underlying genetics impact both positively and negatively on cell health

Economic Impact of Wildlife-Based Tourism in Northern Botswana

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Are Police Officers Bayesians? Police Updating in Investigative Stops

Theories of rational behavior assume that actors make decisions where the benefits of their acts exceed their costs or losses. If those expected costs and benefits change over time, behavior will change accordingly as actors learn and internalize the parameters of success and failure. In the context of proactive policing, police stops that achieve any of several goals — constitutional compliance, stops that lead to “good” arrests or summonses, stops that lead to seizures of weapons, drugs, or other contraband, or stops that produce good will and citizen cooperation — should signal to officers the features of a stop that increase its rewards or benefits. Having formed a subjective estimate of success (i.e., prior beliefs), officers should observe their outcomes in subsequent encounters and form updated probability estimates, with specific features of the event, with a positive weight on those features. Officers should also learn the features of unproductive stops and adjust accordingly. A rational actor would pursue “good” or “productive” stops and avoid “unproductive” stops by updating their knowledge of these features through experience. We analyze data on 4.9 million Terry stops in New York City from 2004–16 to estimate the extent of updating by officers in the New York Police Department. We compare models using a frequentist analysis of officer behavior with a Bayesian analysis where subsequent events are weighted by the signals from prior events. By comparing productive and unproductive stops, the analysis estimates the weights or values — an experience effect — that officers assign to the signals of each type of stop outcome. We find evidence of updating using both analytic methods, although the “hit rates” — our measure of stop productivity including recovery of firearms or arrests for criminal behavior — remain low. Updating is independent of total officer stop activity each month, suggesting that learning may be selective and specific to certain stop features. However, hit rates decline as officer stop activity increases. Both updating and hit rates improved as stop rates declined following a series of internal memoranda and trial orders beginning in May 2012. There is also evidence of differential updating by officers conditional on a variety of features of prior and current stops, including suspect race and stop legality. Though our analysis is limited to NYPD stops, given the ubiquity of policing regimes of intensive stop and frisk encounters across the United States, the relevance of these findings reaches beyond New York City. These regimes reveal tensions between the Terry jurisprudence of reasonable suspicion and evidence on contemporary police practices across the country

What You Need to Know About Moving Collections and Acquisitions Into an E‐Dominant Model!

Two different University of Maryland Libraries discuss how they have moved to an e‐dominant model, the reasons why, and the new acquisitions strategies libraries can use in crafting an e‐dominant collection. Whether your organization is a large ARL library like University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) Libraries or a nontraditional online library like the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Library, there are many strategies for taking advantage of the new acquisitions environment and rethinking how to build collections in an e‐dominant world. At UMD, adopting an e‐dominant model has been a gradual change over time, allowing the library staff to develop new ideas about collection development and experiment with new tools and techniques for acquiring and managing the libraries’ collection. As these changes have unfolded over time, staff began to develop a more comprehensive and holistic picture, becoming more aware of how their own work with e‐resources impacts our colleagues, our patrons, and the wider library community. At the UMUC Library, the electronic resources management staff developed an e‐model initiative that represents a fundamental shift for electronic resources management at UMUC. Electronic resources have become a critical, important, and fully integrated component in course development for the university and this is driving the direction of collection development for the Library. The main thrust of this shift has been the establishment of an E‐Resources Initiative to replace the use of textbooks in print with e‐resources, primarily open access, embedded within the learning management system (LMS) course modules

Mapping the Space of Genomic Signatures

We propose a computational method to measure and visualize interrelationships among any number of DNA sequences allowing, for example, the examination of hundreds or thousands of complete mitochondrial genomes. An "image distance" is computed for each pair of graphical representations of DNA sequences, and the distances are visualized as a Molecular Distance Map: Each point on the map represents a DNA sequence, and the spatial proximity between any two points reflects the degree of structural similarity between the corresponding sequences. The graphical representation of DNA sequences utilized, Chaos Game Representation (CGR), is genome- and species-specific and can thus act as a genomic signature. Consequently, Molecular Distance Maps could inform species identification, taxonomic classifications and, to a certain extent, evolutionary history. The image distance employed, Structural Dissimilarity Index (DSSIM), implicitly compares the occurrences of oligomers of length up to $k$ (herein $k=9$) in DNA sequences. We computed DSSIM distances for more than 5 million pairs of complete mitochondrial genomes, and used Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) to obtain Molecular Distance Maps that visually display the sequence relatedness in various subsets, at different taxonomic levels. This general-purpose method does not require DNA sequence homology and can thus be used to compare similar or vastly different DNA sequences, genomic or computer-generated, of the same or different lengths. We illustrate potential uses of this approach by applying it to several taxonomic subsets: phylum Vertebrata, (super)kingdom Protista, classes Amphibia-Insecta-Mammalia, class Amphibia, and order Primates. This analysis of an extensive dataset confirms that the oligomer composition of full mtDNA sequences can be a source of taxonomic information.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1307.375

Workload Analysis of Doctors at Puskesmas Using Workload Indicators of Staffing Need in Denpasar

Background and purpose: Ratio of health staff instead of workload have been used to determine quota of staff at primary health centers. There is no study assessing workload of functional medical doctors (general practioners) at primary health centers in Bali. The objective of this study were to describe functional medical doctors workload, the number and distribution which is needed in primary health centers in Denpasar.Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among functional medical doctors at 11 primary health centers across Denpasar. Data were collected by interview and participatory observation to the study participans. Data was analyzed using WISN English Version 1.1.132.0 software.Results: Among 34 study participans, majority were female (73.5%), aged 35-44 years (61.8%), working as a government employe (97.1%), with tenure of 6-10 years (55.9%) and almost all of them (95.6%) had additional duties besides providing medical care to patients. Results indicated that workload of functional medical doctors at primary health centers was high with WISN ratio 0.5-0.9 compared to the ideal ratio=1. Based on workload analysis shortages of functional medical doctors was found in all primary health centers in Denpasar.Conclusion: When using the ratio of functional medical doctors per population, the number was sufficient. However, when using workload analysis indicated shortage

Media Pembelajaran Pengenalan Penyakit Hiv/aids

Pembuatan Media Pembelajaran Pengenalan penyakit HIV/AIDS adalah sebuah aplikasi yang dapat digunakan untuk memberi informasi kepada para pengguna yang ingin mengetahui atau mempelajari bagaimana proses dalam pembelajaran pengenalan penyakit HIV/AIDS. Media pembelajaran ini membahas bagian-bagian dalam pengertian-pengertian seperti, pengertian HIV, pengertian AIDS, metode-metode penularan, gejala-gejala dan simulasi cara bekerjanya virus tersebut didalam tubuh. Pada media pembelajaran ini juga dilengkapi dengan latihan soal pilihan berganda yang terdiri dari 12 (dua belas) buah pertanyaan mengenai seluruh materi penyakit HIV/AIDS telah dijelaskan dalam materi sebelumnya. Hal ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi tingkat kejelasan dalam memahami materi yang telah disampaikan. Media ini dirancang dengan menggunakan perangkat lunak Adobe Flash CS3 Propesional dan di dukung oleh beberapa perangkat lunak pendukungnya seperti Adobe Photoshop CS3, dan Microsoft Word. Perangkat ini merupakan sebuah aplikasi yang digunakan untuk membuat presentasi yang lebih dinamis, karena didukung oleh animasi dan back sound, dengan begitu presentasi yang dirancang akan lebih menari

Fire resistant materials based on argilite or metakaolin as a refractory geopolymer

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