Music as a ‘Paper Bridge’ between Generations before and after the Holocaust

This chapter examines how music produced in Vilna before the war provided a bridge to the post-war Jewish generation in Poland. It analyzes the poem written by Kadya Molodowsky in 1942 about the bridge that ordinary people build with honest hands and in pureness of heart. It mentions the Jew's use of the word khurbn for the Holocaust, which is the same term used to describe the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The chapter focuses on performing artists and musicians from Vilna that aim to develop performance skills that are linked to general European music, which can be seen as an expression of post-Haskalah tendencies. It talks about Rafael Rubinstein, who became a director of the reactivated music institute in Russia and returned to Vilna after the Bolshevik revolution in order to aid the Jewish Music Institute.

In Vitro Seed Germination and Embryo Culture in Nothapodytes foetida (Wight) Sleumer

In vitro seed germination and embryo culture have been achieved in Nothapodytes foetida, this plant is known for its rich source of anticancer drug i. e., Camptothecin. In present study both normal and decoated seeds were subjected to different treatments viz., H2O, GA3, H2O2, H2SO4, chlorine water and mechanical scarification, further these were germinated on water agar medium (WA), filter paper bridge (FB), half strength MS (HMS) and full strength MS (FMS) medium. The highest percentage (69%) of germination was achieved from decoated seeds treated with 10mg/L GA3 and germinated on Filter Paper Bridge. And for embryo culture mature embryos were inoculated on MS medium containing various combination and concentrations of cytokinins (BAP, Kn and TDZ) and auxin (IAA and NAA) for rapid conversion into a plantlet. Among the different combinations of growth regulators; highest frequency (100%) of plantlet conversion was obtained on MS medium containing Kn (1.0mg/L) and NAA (0.2mg/L).

Bridge numbers for virtual and welded knots

Using Gauss diagrams, one can define the virtual bridge number vb (K) and the welded bridge number wb (K), invariants of virtual and welded knots satisfying wb (K) ≤ vb (K). If K is a classical knot, Chernov and Manturov showed that vb (K) = br (K), the bridge number as a classical knot, and we ask whether the same thing is true for welded knots. The welded bridge number is bounded below by the meridional rank of the knot group GK, and we use this to relate this question to a conjecture of Cappell and Shaneson. We show how to use other virtual and welded invariants to further investigate bridge numbers. Among them are Manturov's parity and the reduced virtual knot group ḠK, and we apply these methods to address Questions 6.1–6.3 and 6.5 raised by Hirasawa, Kamada and Kamada in their paper [Bridge presentation of virtual knots, J. Knot Theory Ramifications 20(6) (2011) 881–893].

A “paper bridge” system to improve in-vitro propagation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

The in-vitro culture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on excised roots, especially when performed on bi-compartmented Petri dishes, has proven to be an efficient system for the production of root-free fungal material. However, even after the contact between fungal hyphae and the excised roots in the proximal root compartment has occurred, up to several weeks may be required for the fungal runner hyphae to cross the median Petri dish wall and reach the distal fungal compartment. This delay is particularly long for the cultivation of slow-growing strains that usually colonize the substrate less aggressively. The delay is due to the difficulty the runner hyphae have in crossing the median Petri dish wall that separates compartments. To facilitate the passage of the fungus across the median wall, a “paper bridge” system has been devised and tested with a number of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal strains. This method substantially accelerated fungal propagation and simplified the manipulations necessary. The proposed paper-bridge system is described and its advantages discussed.