Production, reproduction, and reversion of protoplast-like structures in the osmotic strain of Neurospora crassa

Protoplasts devoid of cell walls have been produced in Bacillus megaterium and certain other Gram-positive species of bacteria.(1) Structures resembling protoplasts but not completely devoid of cell walls have also been produced in Escherichia coli and some other Gram-negative bacteria.(2) Those from Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria are alike in that they are spherical in shape and are lysed by osmotic shock. Bacterial protoplasts have already proved to have many useful applications among others, in the extraction of cellular constituents, in studies of the biosynthesis of enzymes and other macromolecular substances, and in host-parasite interrelations.(3

An elegant solution to the Medvedev-Putin policy. CEPS Commentary, 27 May 2011

All of Russia is now absorbed in the burning question of who will stand for President in 2012. Kremlinologists at home and abroad are desperately trying to read the meaning of indirect remarks and hints from the President and Prime Minister. Michael Emerson writes in this Commentary that it would be condescending if not insulting for the Russian people for Medvedev and Putin to settle the matter in a private conversation, after which one of them announces that he will back the other. In his view, the ideal solution would surely be for both Medvedev and Putin to stand for President

Alfred Henry Sturtevant (November 21, 1891-April 6, 1970)

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of Sturtevant's scientific contributions to the development of present-day genetic concepts. Even so I am reluctant to attempt any such evaluation. Memories of a warm personal relationship extending over nearly fifty years distract me from strict objectivity. In any case, at the time (1913) of Sturtevant's earliest and perhaps most fundamental discovery (1) I was too young to appreciate its impact on contemporary biological thought. I doubt that a valid estimation of the worth of a particular contribution can be had without an understanding of the state of knowledge and interpretations generally held by scientists at the time. I do, however, vividly recall the extreme skepticism with which many biologists viewed genetic interpretations five, or even ten, years later, and I suspect that not all who accepted Mendelian interpretations could appreciate the importance of Sturtevant's deductions. It is fortunate for us that Sturtevant's penchant for accurate reporting overcame his innate modesty sufficiently to give something of his own assessment of the relation of his work to the particular time-in "A History of Genetics" (2), especially in the chapter titled "The Fly Room" which has been separately issued (3). It is also fortunate that a number of his most noteworthy publications were reissued in a single volume in commemoration of his seventieth birthday (4). As pointed out by a number of reviewers of this volume, some of whom were Sturtevant's contemporaries, it is remarkable that a single individual should have made so many fundamental contributions

The Shaping of a Policy Framework for the Wider Europe. CEPS Policy Brief No. 39, September 2003

[From the Introduction]. With the enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25, the new Wider Europe debate – interpreted in the broad sense as in this paper – rises high up on the EU agenda, complementing the draft Constitution prepared by the European Convention. Together they are defining what the EU is to be. The Convention is defining the EU from the inside. The Wider Europe debate is seeking to define it by reference to its outer edges and wider neighbourhood. Already in March 2003, the European Commission published a first policy communication on the subject. This has been followed by the document on European security strategy submitted to the European Council in June 2003 by Javier Solana, the optique of which is different, but whose content overlaps with the Wider Europe. These two documents may be viewed as ‘white’ or ‘green’ papers of the EU institutions. They are important references, yet highly preliminary and incomplete. The present document sketches a more structured policy framework, and makes proposals for how this might be further developed

Bright solitons in a quasi-one-dimensional reduced model of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive short-range interactions

We study the formation and dynamics of bright solitons in a quasi-one-dimensional reduced mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii equation of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate with repulsive short-range interactions. The study is carried out using a variational approximation and a numerical solution. Plots of chemical potential and root mean square (rms) size of solitons are obtained for the quasi-one-dimensional model of three different dipolar condensates of 52Cr, 168Er and 164Dy atoms. The results achieved are in good agreement with those produced by the full three-dimensional mean-field model of the condensate. We also study the dynamics of the collision of a train of two solitons in the quasi-one-dimensional model of every condensate above. At small velocities (zero or close to zero) the dynamics is attractive for a phase difference {\delta} = 0, the solitons coalesce and these oscillate forming a bound soliton molecule. For a phase difference {\delta} = {\pi} the effect is repulsive. At large velocities the collision is independent of the initial phase difference {\delta}. This is quasi-elastic and the result is two quasi-solitons.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

European Neighbourhood Policy:Strategy or Placebo?. CEPS Working Documents, No. 215, 1 November 2004

The EU now faces an existential dilemma in the apparent choice to be made between over-extending the enlargement process to the point of destroying its own governability, versus denying one of its founding values to be open to all European democracies and possibly generating negative effects from the exclusion of countries in its neighbourhood. The newly emerging European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) seeks a way out of the dilemma. This policy seems to pass through a familiar three-stage process for major EU initiatives: first the important idea enters political discourse, second the EU institutions take modest initial actions that are not up to the task and third, the EU accepts the need for credible action at a level commensurate with the challenge. The ENP has passed rapidly from the first to the second stage, with potential to move to the third stage, without it yet being clear whether the institutions will now go on to sufficiently develop their proposals. This issue presents itself as one of the most precise and significant challenges facing the new Commission presided by Mr Barroso. The new member states represent the EU’s newest resource, which could greatly contribute to a successful ENP