The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a United States federal law which was signed by the then-President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996. The law defines that marriage can only be between one man and one woman in regard to federal or inter state recognition purposes in the United States. Under this law, no U.S. State or political subdivision is required to recognize same-sex marriage from outside States. However, the Obama Administration, in 2011, announced that Section 3 was declared unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in courts. The Section 3 part of DOMA has been marked as not constitutional by eight federal courts as of 2012. Currently, 16 states and the District of Columbia perform same sex marriage, although that could change in upcoming years. On June 26, 2013, Section 3 of the act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Blake Lively
Blake Ellender Lively ("née" Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American movie, television, stage, voice actress and model who is known for her television role as Serena van der Woodsen in "Gossip Girl". She is also known for her roles in "Accepted", "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", "The Town", "Green Lantern", "The Age of Adaline", and "Savages".
Lively was born on August 25, 1987 in Tarzana, California. She studied at Beverly Hills High School. She married Ryan Reynolds in September 2012.
Queen Heonae
Queen Heonae(; 962-1029) was a queen of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea. She was also a politician. She was the second wife of the 5th king, Gyungjong. She was also mother of the 7th king, Mokjong, and the elder sister of the 6th king, Seongjong. Heonae ruled as Regent from 997 to 999 during the early years of her son King Mokjong's reign.
Transfection
Transfection is the process of deliberately introducing DNA or RNA into cells. The word is formed from
transformation and infection.
The term is used for:
Transfection can result in unexpected morphologies and abnormalities in target cells. Transfection with RNA molecules produces changes which cannot be permanently transmitted down a line of cells.
A DNA construct is an artificially constructed bit of nucleic acid which is going to be 'transplanted' into a target tissue or cell. It may include a DNA insert, which contains the gene sequence coding for a protein of interest.
The DNA insert is the heart of the molecular biology vector. This is a general term for a vehicle used to transfer foreign genetic material into another cell. Transfection of animal cells usually involves opening temporary pores (holes) in the cell membrane, to allow the cells to take up the vector.
Purity
Purity means that a substance is all the same. There are no contaminants or other things added. The word also means no badness in a person's character.
Purity may also refer to:
Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotics kill certain types of bacteria. Over time, those bacteria change to develop a resistance to the antibiotics. Called antibiotic resistance, this is one of the most serious problems facing modern surgery and medicine. It is also one of the best examples of evolution in action.
Antibiotic resistance spreads very quickly, far faster than microbiologists expected. "As long as new drugs keep coming, resistance is not a problem. "But there has not been a new class of antibiotics discovered since the 1980s"".
This was true until recently. Some scientists have developed new antibiotics to combat resistant bacteria. However, there is a lag-time of about eight years between discovery and possible availability for general use. The process is also extremely costly.
A well-known example of natural selection in action is the development of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms. Since the discovery of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, antibiotics have been used to fight bacterial diseases. Natural populations of bacteria contain, among their vast numbers of individual members, considerable variation in their genetic material, as the result of mutations. When exposed to antibiotics, most bacteria die quickly, but some may have mutations that make them slightly less susceptible. If the exposure to antibiotics is short, these individuals will survive the treatment. This selective elimination of maladapted individuals from a population is natural selection.
In Fleming's 1945 Nobel Prize lecture he said:
Maclyn McCarty explained what it was like before antibiotics:
The mechanisms of which the bacteria undergo to become antibiotic resistant are via genetic mutation and horizontal gene transfer.
All surgery that involves cutting open the body poses massive risks of infection. Antibiotics given before and after surgery allow surgeons to do operations that would have been deadly before. Open-heart surgery is one obvious example.
Cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy damage the immune system. Antibiotics are prescribed to boost the body's natural defences. Patients with organ transplants always use drugs to suppress the immune system, otherwise it attacks the transplant. Therefore, antibiotics are used to protect the body. Without effective antibiotics, both sets of patients might die from infections which their immune systems could no longer control.
Medical uses are also threatened. The number of tests coming back with resistance to carbapenems, one of the most powerful groups of antibiotics, has soared from a handful of cases in 2003 to more than 300 cases by 2010. "My lab is seeing an increasing number of resistant strains year on year," said Prof Neil Woodford, of the Health Protection Agency's antimicrobial resistance unit. Most cases are resistant to some drugs. Even worse, there are a few cases of strains which "no antibiotic can touch".
Many infections which were almost eliminated are coming back. The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly difficult to treat. Around the world, multi-drug resistant and extremely-drug resistant tuberculosis is a growing problem. Only a couple of drugs still work.
Infections that hit the elderly when they are in hospital are one of the main concerns. The greatest threat in the UK is opportunistic bugs which live in the gut such as "E. coli" and "Klebsiella".
They are now the most common form of infection which patients get in hospital. They show rising levels of resistance to antibiotics.
The UK Cabinet Office has issued a warning by the National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies. It says "the number of infections complicated by antimicrobial resistance could increase markedly over the next 20 years".
"Without effective antibiotics, even minor surgery and routine operations could become high-risk procedures, leading to increased duration of illness and ultimately premature mortality".
The WHO has issued similar assessments:
The WHO has now listed the world's most threatening superbugs. Antibiotic resistant infections are being seen all over the world.
Given enough time, and repeated exposure to the antibiotic, a population of antibiotic-resistant bacteria will emerge. This leads to what is known as an evolutionary arms race, or co-evolution, in which bacteria continue to develop strains that are less susceptible to antibiotics, while medical researchers continue to develop new antibiotics that can kill them. A similar situation occurs with pesticide resistance in plants and insects, and with malarial resistance to quinine.
A man in the UK has caught the "world's worst-ever case" of gonorrhoea, a sexually-transmitted disease. The main treatment by antibiotics azithromycin and ceftriaxone has failed to cure the disease. An authority said "This is the first time a case has displayed such high-level resistance to both of these drugs and to most other commonly used antibiotics".
New strains of Methicillin-resistant "Staphylococcus aureus" (MRSA) have emerged that are resistant the next generation of drugs.