Physiological and behavioral effects of coniferyl benzoate on avian reproduction

Various plant secondary metabolites related to cinnamic acid are of interest because of their repellency to birds and their occurrence in ecologically important food items. Coniferyl benzoate (CB), a phenylpropanoid ester that occurs in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is of particular ecological interest because of its effect on ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) feeding behavior and its possible influence on the population dynamics of this bird. During detoxification processes, CB and other analogous compounds are metabolized into by-products, such as ferulic acid (FA), that can cause anti-reproductive effects. We tested whether consumption of CB produces antire-productive effects similar to FA using male and female Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix) as avian models for ruffed grouse. The parameters we investigated included: the production, morphology, and development of eggs; reproductive characteristics influenced by estrogen; serum prolactin levels; and male reproductive behavior. Dietary CB did not produce antireproductive effects similar to FA at intake levels that Japanese quail and ruffed grouse would freely consume. Consumption of CB by Japanese quail significantly reduced egg production and body mass but did not affect male reproductive performance. Coniferyl benzoate's effect on egg production may be explained by lower energy acquisition and retention rather than endocrine changes per se. Contrary to previous reports, it is unlikely that FA, or similar compounds act directly as estrogen mimics or antagonists. Although, CB did reduce egg production in quail, it is unlikely that it would affect egg production in wild ruffed grouse. Detoxification costs and the effects of CB on nutrient utilization may explain why ruffed grouse avoid high dietary levels of CB.     

PMMA‐modified divinylester/styrene resins: Phase diagrams and morphologies

Binary and ternary experimental cloud‐point curves (CPCs) for systems formulated with a low molar mass synthesized divinylester (DVE) resin, styrene (St), and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were determined. The CPCs results were analyzed with the Flory–Huggins (F‐H) thermodynamic model taking into account the polydispersity of the DVE and PMMA components, to calculate the different binary interaction parameters and their temperature dependences. The St‐DVE system is miscible in all the composition range and down to the crystallization temperature of the St; therefore, the interaction parameter expression reported for a higher molar mass DVE was adapted. The interaction parameters obtained were used to calculate the phase diagrams of the St‐PMMA and the DVE‐PMMA binary systems and that of the St‐DVE‐PMMA ternary system at three different temperatures. Quasiternary phase diagrams show liquid–liquid partial miscibility of the St‐PMMA and DVE‐PMMA pairs. At room temperature, the St‐DVE‐PMMA system is miscible at all compositions. Final morphologies of PMMA‐modified cured St‐DVE materials were generated by polymerization‐induced phase separation (PIPS) mechanism from initial homogeneous mixtures. SEM and TEM micrographs were obtained to analyze the generated final morphologies, which showed a direct correlation with the initial miscibility of the system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 4539–4549, 2006     

Fat-simulating and accelerating solvents for polyolefins and MWD of solvent extracts of polyethylenes

Migration kinetics of straight-chain oligomers and antioxidants from several polyolefins at different temperatures into various solvents have been studied by radioactive tracer techniques. Anhydrous ethanol appears to be a well suited food-oil or liquid-fat simulant for extracting different types of migrants from polyolefins. Pure and mixed triglycerides are also good oil or fat simulants, but the triglycerides offer no simpler analytical procedures than the use of oil or fat themselves. n-Octanol may also be considered as a reasonable oil or fat simulant; however, its action depends somewhat on the choice of migrants. The accelerating action of n-heptane over that of oil or simulants is quantitatively demonstrated. The accelerating effects are greater for migration systems with lower diffusion coefficients. The diffusion coefficients for migration into n-heptane are about 20 times greater than the diffusion coefficients into ethanol or oil for otherwise identical migration systems yielding diffusion coefficients of about 10^?7 cm²s^?1 into oil or ethanol. For systems yielding diffusion coefficients into oil or ethanol of about 10^?12 cm²s^?1, the corresponding diffusion coefficients into n-heptane are about 1000 times greater. The molecular weight distributions (MWDs) of the n-heptane and ethanol extracts of polyolefins have been analysed. n-Heptane can not only accelerate the migration of the individual migrant but also remove oligomer species that are slightly soluble or present at low levels in the oil or simulant extracts.     

2-Layer Right Angle Crossing Drawings

A 2-layer drawing represents a bipartite graph where each vertex is a point on one of two parallel lines, no two vertices on the same line are adjacent, and the edges are straight-line segments. In this paper we study 2-layer drawings where any two crossing edges meet at right angle. We characterize the graphs that admit this type of drawing, provide linear-time testing and embedding algorithms, and present a polynomial-time crossing minimization technique. Also, for a given graph G and a constant k, we prove that it is $\mathcal{NP}$ -complete to decide whether G contains a subgraph of at least k edges having a 2-layer drawing with right angle crossings.     

Chemische Methoden der Abwasser-Aufbereitung

Chemical methods of waste-water treatment. Chemical methods of waste management by oxidation can be considered for particular effluents whose constituents are degraded too slowly in conventional sewage treatment plants or which interfere with the biodegradation of other substances. Of these methods, those we have to choose from today are, in order of increasing operating temperature: oxidation with hydrogen peroxide – wet oxidation at high pressure – evaporation and combustion. None of these methods is fundamentally better than the others, i.e. none has a maximum ecological benefit coinciding with a minimum economic impact. Detailed experimental work is required to establish the limits and possibilities in each case and thus to form a basis for useful comparisons. Thermal processes are normally ruled out for low concentrations of degradable constituents in waste water because the specific energy costs per unit volume are too high; this is where hydrogen peroxide may offer advantages, especially when the proportion of these constituents fluctuates. With higher concentrations, wet oxidation can be employed; evaporation and combustion are suitable if there is also a high concentration of inorganic salts.     

Das spezifische Brechungsinkrement eines statistischen Methylmethacrylat/Benzylacrylat/Styrol-Terpolymeren

The specific refractive index increments of a random methylmethacrylate/ benzylacrylate/styrene-terpolymer and of the three corresponding homopolymers was measured in several solvents and at six different wavelengths. With the known terpolymer composition and the specific refractive index increments of the homopolymers the specific refractive index increment of the terpolymer is calculated by means of an equation formerly derived. Calculated and experimental values are compared.     

15 years of processing and dissemination of SPOT-VEGETATION products

Throughout the VEGETATION programme, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) uninterruptedly hosted the prime user segment of both VEGETATION 1 and VEGETATION 2 multispectral instruments on board the Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre 4 (SPOT 4) and SPOT 5 satellites. Operational since the launch of SPOT 4 in March 1998, and foreseen to continue at least until the end of the SPOT 5 mission (anticipated in spring 2014), this user segment comprises a processing facility (PF), actively receiving, processing, correcting, archiving, and distributing the VEGETATION data and derived added-value products. First and foremost, the VEGETATION programme has been serving the needs of operational users – both institutional and commercial – requesting data in near-real time. However, scientific and educational users too benefited significantly, in particular from VEGETATION’s unique time series of the Earth’s land cover, and more specifically the vegetation cover. Over the years, the centralized archive houses processed data covering the equivalent of 11,000 times the Earth’s surface, and delivered more than 50 terapixels to around 10.000 users. As such, VEGETATION’s mission is a prime example of what Europe wants to achieve through the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative: truly operational services providing reliable and up-to-date information.

This article describes the processing facility, the way the data and products are archived, the different dissemination channels as well as the data policy adopted and the users served. One of the recent evolutions, the development of an entirely new product distribution facility (PDF), implemented as part of the Project for On-Board Autonomy – Vegetation (PROBA-V) user segment is discussed.     

Scalable Realistic Rendering with Many‐Light Methods

Recent years have seen increasing attention and significant progress in many‐light rendering, a class of methods for efficient computation of global illumination. The many‐light formulation offers a unified mathematical framework for the problem reducing the full lighting transport simulation to the calculation of the direct illumination from many virtual light sources. These methods are unrivaled in their scalability: they are able to produce plausible images in a fraction of a second but also converge to the full solution over time. In this state‐of‐the‐art report, we give an easy‐to‐follow, introductory tutorial of the many‐light theory; provide a comprehensive, unified survey of the topic with a comparison of the main algorithms; discuss limitations regarding materials and light transport phenomena and present a vision to motivate and guide future research. We will cover both the fundamental concepts as well as improvements, extensions and applications of many‐light rendering.     

Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues

This paper explores the question of how foresight and futures research can identify and address ethical issues in the field of Information Systems (IS). Starting from the premise that such IS are part of socio-technical systems, the interaction between technology and human actors raise ethical concerns. Early recognition of these concerns can address ethical issues and improve the use of the technology for a range of social and organisational goals. This paper discusses research conducted in two futures research projects. Both projects investigated emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ethics. The first project established approaches for identifying future technologies and their related ethical concerns. This led to the identification of 11 emerging ICTs and their associated ethical concerns. The second project took these general ethical concerns and focused on their role in IS. Specifically, how IS professionals view future emerging technologies, their associated ethical concerns, and how they think these concerns could be addressed. The key findings are that IS professionals are primarily interested in the job at hand and less so in the ethical concerns that the job might bring; ethics is a concern that is best left for others to deal with. This paper considers the implications of research on ethics in emerging ICTs and draws general conclusions about the relevance of future technologies research in IS.