Development of categorization and reasoning in the natural world: Novices to experts, naive similarity to ecological knowledge.

Two experiments investigate the role of similarity and causal-ecological knowledge in expert and novice categorization and reasoning. In Experiment 1, university undergraduates and commercial fishermen sorted marine creatures into groups; although there was substantial agreement, novices sorted largely on the basis of appearance, whereas experts often cited commercial, ecological, or behavioral factors, and systematically subdivided fish on the basis of ecological niche. In Experiment 2, experts and novices were asked to generalize a blank property or novel disease from a pair of marine creatures. Novices relied on similarity to guide generalizations. Experts used similarity to reason about blank properties but ecological relations to reason about diseases. Expertise appears to involve knowledge of multiple relations among entities and context-sensitive application of those relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinetics of CO-CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> reaction with CaO-SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-FeOx melts

Measurements of the rate of interfacial reaction between CO₂-CO mixtures and CaO-SiO₂-FeOx slags have been made using the ¹³CO₂-CO isotope exchange technique. Ranges of slag compositions from 0 to 100 wt pct ‘FeO’ and CaO/SiO₂ between 0.3 and 2.0 were examined in the experiments. For each slag, the dependence of the apparent rate constant on temperature and equilibrium oxygen potential was studied. The relationship between the rate constant and oxygen potential was found to be in the form k _a=k _a ^o (a_o)^-α. The parameter a, with values between 0.5 and 0.9, was dependent on the slag composition. The activation energy of the reaction was independent of iron oxide content and dependent on slag basicity.     

Agglomeration of Non-metallic Inclusions at the Steel/Ar Interface: Model Application

Inclusion agglomeration is an important element in several industrial problems during steelmaking, such as nozzle clogging. In parallel work by the authors, a revised Kralchevsky-Paunov model has been established and the performance of this model has been validated against the experimental data from in-situ observations using confocal laser scanning microscopy. In this work, the revised model has been applied to quantitatively evaluate the attractive capillary force for the agglomeration of various inclusions at the interface between Ar and liquid iron/steel. A parametric study of the effects on the capillary force of the inclusion density, contact angle between the inclusion and liquid steel, and the surface tension of the liquid metal are quantitatively investigated. The results show that inclusion density and contact angle have a more marked effect on the capillary force than surface tension of liquid metal. Moreover, the inclusion agglomeration behavior in the liquid iron/steel matrix is discussed. The coagulation coefficient of various inclusions is calculated. Both the calculation results of the attractive capillary force of inclusions at the interface between Ar and liquid iron/steel and coagulation coefficient of inclusions in the liquid iron/steel matrix can offer a close agreement; moreover, the order of magnitude of inclusion agglomeration tendency is suggested. By using the coagulation coefficient, the inclusion collision volume and collision rate are calculated and the effects of inclusion composition, size, and number density are investigated. The evaluation results show that the tendency for affecting inclusion collision is inclusion number density > inclusion size > inclusion composition.     

Model of Inclusion Evolution During Calcium Treatment in the Ladle Furnace

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - Calcium treatment of steel is typically employed to modify alumina inclusions to liquid calcium aluminates. However, injected calcium also reacts with...     

Aerobic marine bacteria and the corrosion of carbon steel in sea-water

Comparisons have been made of corrosion rates calculated from polarization measurements of 1016 carbon steel specimens exposed to aerated sea-water drawn fresh from a local tidal channel and water from the same source, but Millipore filtered to remove living microbiota. No significant differences were found in the corrosion rates in the two environments. Aerobic bacteria capable of forming mucusoid material on sea-water plate count agar were obtained from the oxides on the surface of carbon steel exposed to untreated sea-water, but no coherent “slime film” was observed by dye stain, light microscopy, or scanning electron microscopy. Simulated “slimed” specimens showed significantly lower calculated corrosion rates. Scanning electron micrographs of oxide accumulations are shown.     

The role of the N-(hydroxymethyl)melamines as antitumour agents: mechanism of action studies

The hexamethylmelamine analogue trimelamol (tris-hydroxymethyl[trimethyl]melamine) and its equicytotoxic stable analogues CB 7547, CB 7639 and CB 7669 have been used to clarify the mechanism of action for the N-(hydroxymethyl)melamines as antitumour agents. Two main mechanisms have been proposed and explored: (i) formation of a reactive iminium species forming covalent adducts with DNA; and (ii) local formaldehyde release leading to cytotoxic damage. 32P-postlabelling and thermal denaturation experiments showed these compounds to be interactive with cytosine and guanine. Trimelamol gave rise to DNA-interstrand crosslinks in naked plasmid DNA and in cultured cell lines, whereas the analogues failed to do so under a variety of experimental conditions. Along with our observations that cell lines with acquired resistance to the N-(hydroxymethyl)melamines showed no significant cross-resistance to classical bifunctional alkylating agents, DNA crosslinking may play only a minor role in their mechanism of action. In cultured cell lines treatment with formaldehyde, trimelamol and CB 7639 gave rise to high levels of DNA-protein crosslinks with a gradual disappearance over a 24 hr period. Along with our earlier observation that resistance to trimelamol coincides with cross-resistance to formaldehyde, we conclude that formaldehyde-release may be an important factor in their cytotoxicity. Further, the cytotoxicity of trimelamol or formaldehyde towards human ovarian cancer cells was not influenced by glutathione depletion. As the precise mechanism of action for the N-(hydroxymethyl)melamines is apparently not shared by many commonly used anticancer agents, this may confer their broad-spectrum activity versus heavily pretreated tumours.     

Antifungal leaf-surface metabolites correlate with fungal abundance in sagebrush populations

A central component in understanding plant–enemy interactions is to determine whether plant enemies, such as herbivores and pathogens, mediate the evolution of plant secondary metabolites. Using 26 populations of a broadly distributed plant species, sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), we examined whether sagebrush populations in habitats with a greater prevalence of fungi contained antifungal secondary metabolites on leaf surfaces that were more active and diverse than sagebrush populations in habitats less favorable to fungi. Because moisture and temperature play a key role in the epidemiology of most plant–pathogen interactions, we also examined the relationship between the antifungal activity of secondary metabolites and the climate of a site. We evaluated the antifungal activity of sagebrush secondary metabolites against two fungi, a wild Penicillium sp. and a laboratory yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using a filter-paper disk assay and bioautography. Comparing the 26 sagebrush populations, we found that fungal abundance was a good predictor of both the activity (r ² = 0.36 for Saccharomyces, r ² = 0.37 for Penicillium) and number (r ² = 0.34 for Saccharomyces) of antifungal secondary metabolites. This suggests that selection imposed by fungal pathogens has led to more effective antifungal secondary metabolites. We found that the antifungal activity of sagebrush secondary metabolites was negatively related to average vapor pressure deficit of the habitat (r ² = 0.60 for Saccharomyces, r ² = 0.61 for Penicillium). Differences in antifungal activity among populations were not due to the amount of secondary metabolites, but rather to qualitative differences in the composition of antifungal compounds. Although all populations in habitats with high fungal prevalence had secondary metabolites with high antifungal activity, different suites of compounds were responsible for this activity, suggesting independent outcomes of selection on plants by fungal pathogens. The location of antifungal secondary metabolites on the leaf surface is consistent with their putative defense role, and we found no evidence supporting other functions, such as protection from ultraviolet light or oxidation. That the antifungal activity of sagebrush secondary metabolites was similar for two different fungi provides support for broad antifungal defenses. The incidence and severity of fungal disease in the field (caused by Puccinia tanaceti) were similar in moist and dry habitats, possibly reflecting an equilibrium between plant defense and fungal attack, as sites with greater fungal abundance compensated with more effective secondary metabolites. The geographic correlation between fungal abundance and antifungal secondary metabolites of sagebrush, coupled with our other data showing heritable variation in these metabolites, suggests that pathogenic fungi have selected for antifungal secondary metabolites in sagebrush.     

Green fluorescent antibodies: novel in vitro tools

We produced a fluorescent antibody as a single recombinant proteinin Escherichia coli by fusing a red-shifted mutant of greenfluorescent protein (EGFP) to a single-chain antibody variablefragment (scFv) specific for hepatitis B surface antigen (HepBsAg).GFP is a cytoplasmic protein and it was not previously knownwhether it would fold correctly to form a fluorescent proteinin the periplasmic space of E.coli. In this study we showedthat EGFP alone or fused to the N'- and C'-termini of the scFvresulted in fusion proteins that were in fact highly fluorescentin the periplasmic space of E.coli cells. Further characterizationrevealed that the periplasmic N'-terminal EGFP–scFv fusionwas the most stable form which retained the fluorescent propertiesof EGFP and the antigen binding properties of the native scFv;thus representing a fully functional chimeric molecule. We alsodemonstrated the utility of EGFP–scFv in immunofluorescencestudies. The results showed positive staining of COS-7 cellstransfected with HepBsAg, with comparable sensitivity to a monoclonalantibody or the scFv alone, probed with conventional fluorescein-labelledsecond antibodies. In this study, we developed a simple techniqueto produce fluorescent antibodies which can potentially be appliedto any scFv. We demonstrated the utility of an EGFP–scFvfusion protein for immunofluorescence studies, but there aremany biological systems to which this technology may be applied.     

Simultaneous reduction and carburization of ilmenite

Western Australian ilmenite was reduced using “Collie” coal at temperatures in the range 1587 to 1790 K to form carbon-saturated iron and titanium oxycarbide. The oxycarbide phase formed from Ti₃O₅ at temperatures below 1686 K and from Ti₂O₃ at temperatures above 1686 K. At 1686 K, both mechanisms occurred. The reaction rate was controlled by oxidation of carbon by carbon dioxide generated by reduction of the oxide phase. The final product at temperatures up to 1686 K was a fine dispersion of titanium oxycarbide in iron. At 1790 K, the reducing oxide tended to remain intact and formed a coarser distribution. In general, manganese impurities from the ilmenite were confined to the iron phase in the product, although some of the coarser oxycarbide particles formed at 1790 K contained trapped manganese at the internal pores.