Various speculative physics disaster scenarios have been proposed, but most can be defeated by the observable lack of large-scale disasters they predict. However, this paper introduces the “dark fire scenario” where baryonic matter is autocatalytically converted into dark matter. If this could happen, the resulting disasters would be quiet and hard to observe. Ruling out dark fire is challengin...

We explore the fate of the universe given the possibility that the density associated with ‘dark energy’ may decay slowly with time. We model decaying dark energy by a homogeneous scalar field which couples minimally to gravity and whose potential has at least one local maximum. Dark energy decays as the scalar field rolls down its potential and this allows for several interesting possibilities...

In order to fulfill Canada’s international disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, peacekeeping and peace enforcement roles, the Canadian Forces (CF) rely on a supply network to deploy and sustain its overseas missions. Warehousing, maintenance, transhipment and transportation activities are required to support missions. Currently, the CF supply network does not incorporate any permanent over...

This thesis surveys the current state of U.S. healthcare industry and discusses issues regarding business strategies for a hypothetical startup vendor in the healthcare IT field. Key growth drivers and current industry trends are outlined to lay the foundation for the need of integrated health information system. Industry analysis using Porter's Five Forces is performed to demonstrate the attra...

We report the twining handedness of Codonopsis pilosula, which has either a 9 leftor right-handed helix among different plants, among different tillers within a 10 single plant, and among different branches within a single tiller. The handedness was 11 randomly distributed among different plants, among the tillers within the same plants, 12 but not among the branches within the same tillers. Mo...

Protons migrate much faster than other ions through water, ice and water-lined membrane channels because they participate in hydrogen bonding and H/H20 exchange. Similarly, hydrogen bonding enables protons with amino, carbonyl, phosphoryl and sulfonyl residues to influence critically the charge, conformation and stability of proteins. Therefore, it is not surprising that regulation of proton co...

A defining moment in the history of active transport research came in August 1960, in a symposium at the Czeckoslovak Academy of Sciences, which became known among membrane biologists as the Prague Symposium (Kleinzeller and Kotyk, 1961). By that date, the enzymatic nature of sodium transport in animal cells had been demonstrated (Skou, 1957) and a generalized concept of transport-related, vect...