As the number falls,alternatives to the Hagberg–Perten falling number method: A review

This review examines the application, limitations, and potential alternatives to the Hagberg–Perten falling number (FN) method used in the global wheat industry for detecting the risk of poor end-product quality mainly due to starch degradation by the enzyme α-amylase. By viscometry, the FN test indirectly detects the presence of α-amylase, the primary enzyme that digests starch. Elevated α-amylase results in low FN and damages wheat product quality resulting in cakes that fall, and sticky bread and noodles. Low FN can occur from preharvest sprouting (PHS) and late maturity α-amylase (LMA). Moist or rainy conditions before harvest cause PHS on the mother plant. Continuously cool or fluctuating temperatures during the grain filling stage cause LMA. Due to the expression of additional hydrolytic enzymes, PHS has a stronger negative impact than LMA. Wheat grain with low FN/high α-amylase results in serious losses for farmers, traders, millers, and bakers worldwide. Although blending of low FN grain with sound wheat may be used as a means of moving affected grain through the marketplace, care must be taken to avoid grain lots from falling below contract-specified FN. A large amount of sound wheat can be ruined if mixed with a small amount of sprouted wheat. The FN method is widely employed to detect α-amylase after harvest. However, it has several limitations, including sampling variability, high cost, labor intensiveness, the destructive nature of the test, and an inability to differentiate between LMA and PHS. Faster, cheaper, and more accurate alternatives could improve breeding for resistance to PHS and LMA and could preserve the value of wheat grain by avoiding inadvertent mixing of high- and low-FN grain by enabling testing at more stages of the value stream including at harvest, delivery, transport, storage, and milling. Alternatives to the FN method explored here include the Rapid Visco Analyzer, enzyme assays, immunoassays, near-infrared spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging.     

Electron traps created in gate oxides by Fowler–Nordheim injections

Two types of electron traps, donor-like and acceptor-like, are created in the gate oxide of metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors by Fowler–Nordheim electron injections. Electrical properties (areal density, capture cross-section, centroid) of each type of trap are determined by using the avalanche electron injection method and by combining capacitance–voltage and current–voltage measurements. These properties are measured with regard to the Fowler–Nordheim fluence up to breakdown and for both injection modes (electrons injected either from the gate or from the substrate of capacitors).     

Religion's role in adjustment to a negative life event: Coping with the loss of a child.

Parents (N?=?124) who had lost an infant to sudden infant death syndrome were interviewed 3 wks and 18 mo postloss. Two components of religion (religious participation and religious importance) were assessed, and their relations with 3 coping-process variables (perceived social support, cognitive processing of the loss, and finding meaning in the death) were examined. Greater religious participation was related to increased perception of social support and greater meaning found in the loss. Importance of religion was positively related to cognitive processing and finding meaning in the death. Furthermore, through these coping-process variables, religious participation and importance were indirectly related to greater well-being and less distress among parents 18 mo after their infants' deaths. Results suggest that further study of the social and cognitive aspects of religion would be profitable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rheological properties of hyperbranched polymer/poly(ethylene terephthalate) reactive blends

The rheological properties in solution, in shear and in uniaxial elongation of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) reacted together with hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) were investigated. Two different PET grades, of low and high molecular weights, were compounded with sub‐ to over‐stoichiometric concentrations of HBPs of second and fourth pseudo‐generation, and subsequently subjected to a solid‐state polycondensation (SSP). The formation of microgels, which occurs at high HBP concentration, gave rise to a large increase in melt elasticity and a related decrease in melt strength. At low HBP concentrations, the complex viscosity of the unreacted HBP/PET was considerably reduced, thus demonstrating a lubrication effect of the HBP molecules. During SSP, the intrinsic and shear viscosities exhibited a gradual increase, which was similar for both PET and HBP/PET blends, and was correlated to an increase in molecular weight, through linear‐chain extension and branching reactions. The elongational viscosity of the reactive blends was also increased as a function of reaction time, and this increase was much larger in the case of the HBP/PET blends. A 400% increase in melt strength of the PET was obtained by combining SSP and trace amounts of an HBP of second generation, without any decrease in drawability.     

Crystal structures and phase transformation of deuterated lithium imide, Li2ND

Half-Heusler compounds of Sn-doped TiCoSb “TiCoSn_xSb_1−x (x = 0.0, 0.01, and 0.05)” were prepared and their thermoelectric properties were measured above room temperature. From the EDX analysis, all the samples have three phases: the TiCoSn_xSb_1−x, Co-rich, and Ti-rich phases. The values of the thermoelectric power increase with Sn doping, and a positive thermoelectric power is obtained in the sample of TiCoSn_0.05Sb_0.95. The thermal conductivity decreases both with increasing temperature and with Sn content. The maximum value of ZT for p-type material is 0.030 at 988 K in the sample of TiCoSn_0.05Sb_0.95.     

The abject gaze and the homosexual body: Flandrin's Figure d'Etude

This article charts the history of the reception, reproduction and appropriation of a single image that has recently become a kind of "gay icon"--the Figure d'Etude in the Louvre, painted by Hippolyte Flandrin in 1835. Initially no more than a neo-classical academic exercise, the formal emptiness of this picture meant that it could be re-invested and reinscribed with new meanings and new titles at every turn. Emblematic of the anxious visibility/invisibility of the newly discovered homosexual body during a period when the gaze still had to be kept a dark secret, Flandrin's image only "came out" in its later photographic reworkings by Frederick Holland Day and Baron von Gloeden. After being reproduced for a specifically homosexual audience early this century, the popular Romantic pose of the young man curled-up in profile became a standard one, reappearing recently in the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe. The inactive, abject and inward-turned isolation of the figure with its narcissistic self-absorption makes it, in my view, a profoundly negative stereotype of the gay gaze and the homosexual body. Flandrin's figure nonetheless appears today on gay merchandise world-wide as a sign of our separate and secluded subject positions and our community's unwillingness to radically alter older imposed and inherited classical stereotypes.     

A typology of user liability to IT addiction

To date, information systems (IS) research mainly has provided a monolithic view of information technology (IT) use, considering it to be a desired behaviour with positive outcomes. However, given the dramatic increase in the use of technology during the last few years, susceptibility to IT addiction is increasingly becoming an important issue for technology users and IS researchers. In this paper, we report the results of a study that focuses on identifying variations in user liability to IT addiction, which reflects the susceptibility of individual users to develop IT addiction. First, a review of the literature in different disciplines (e.g. health, psychology and IS) allows us to better understand the concepts of IT addiction and liability to addiction. The literature review also provides an overview of the antecedents and consequences associated with IT addiction. Then, building on the analysis of 15 in‐depth interviews and 182 exploratory open‐ended surveys collected from smartphone users, we apply the concept of liability to addiction in the IT use context and propose a typological theory of user liability to IT addiction. Our typology reveals five ideal types; each can be associated to a user profile (addict, fanatic, highly engaged, regular and thoughtful ). Building upon both the extant literature and our results, we put forth propositions to extend the theoretical contributions of the study. We finally discuss the contributions and implications of our paper for research and practice.     

Numerical and experimental investigations of mixing in T-shaped and cross-shaped micromixers

Mass transfer within the T-shaped and cross-shaped micromixers has been studied using CFD and confocal laser scanning microscopy methods. The concentration profiles, based on flow regimes, were used to compare the T- and cross-geometries. The cross-shaped micromixer tends to intensify the mixing and this is occurring for lower flow rates in comparison to the T shape. The improvement made by the cross geometry is attributed to the stronger vortex stretching and high shear rate, which reduces the liquid transfer length. The presence of a single outlet in the T-shaped micromixer induces a smaller degree of freedom for the fluid. A higher pressure drop is calculated in T-shaped micromixer than in cross-shaped micromixer.     

Nutritional and nutraceutical comparison of Jamaican Psidium cattleianum (strawberry guava) and Psidium guajava (common guava) fruits

Psidium cattleianum (strawberry guava) is one of many underutilised edible fruits that grow wild in Jamaica, and could potentially be commercially exploited to yield health and economic benefits. In this study, the total phenolics, proximate contents, and antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities of P. cattleianum and P. guajava (common guava), a well-known species, were compared. Strawberry guavas were found to be superior to common guavas in antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, total phenolics and vitamin C content. They also possessed relatively high fibre content (24.9%). The hexane and ethyl acetate extracts of strawberry guavas showed cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme inhibitory activities of 18.3% and 26.5%, respectively (250 μg/mL), indicating anti-inflammatory activity. The EtOAc and MeOH extracts of P. guajava showed 56.4% (COX-2) and 44.1% (COX-1) inhibitory activity, respectively. Additionally, nine compounds were isolated from strawberry guava fruits, some of which demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity. These results indicate that strawberry guavas are beneficial for health.