Characterization of vitrinite concentrates. 1. Fourier Transform infrared studies

A set of 21 vitrinite concentrates have been characterized by FTIR. Hydroxyl groups have been quantitatively determined by combining acetylation with FTIR procedures. Methods for the determination of extinction coefficients for various bands are discussed. Values are calculated by equating total hydrogen from elemental analysis to the fraction of hydrogen present as hydroxyl, aromatic CH and aliphatic CH groups. The variation in values of the extinction coefficients for aromatic and aliphatic CH bands are determined as a function of assumed values for the extinction coefficient of the OH bands. Large variations in the latter do not greatly affect calculated values of aliphatic and aromatic CH groups. The distribution of hydrogen between OH, aromatic CH and aliphatic CH groups is determined.     

Personal contact, individuation, and the better-than-average effect.

Research in which people compare themselves with an average peer has consistently shown that people evaluate themselves more favorably than they evaluate others. Seven studies were conducted to demonstrate that the magnitude of this better-than-average effect depends on the level of abstraction in the comparison. These studies showed that people were less biased when they compared themselves with an individuated target than when they compared themselves with a nonindividuated target, namely, the average college student. The better-than-average effect was reduced more when the observer had personal contact with the comparison target than when no personal contact was established. Differences in the magnitude of the better-than-average effect could not be attributed to the contemporaneous nature of the target's presentation, communication from the target, perceptual vividness, implied evaluation, or perceptions of similarity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Corrective Cultures: Romeo and Juliet, Jane Brown and the media

In this paper I offer a reading of the coverage in the popular press (tabloid and broadsheet) of the Jane Brown/Romeo and Juliet scandal, which hit the headlines in the United Kingdom (and was extensively reported in other Anglophone countries such as New Zealand, Australia and the USA) in January and February 1994. The paper traces the cultural and political contexts of the affair, arguing that the press coverage needs to be understood as part of a broader policing of the boundaries of sexuality, of education and of local authorities. As such, it is not an isolated incident, but one which contributes to the construction of lesbians and gays and of 'political correctness' as popular folk devils. Furthermore, it is argued that these constructions are intertwined with racist discourses through which lesbian and gay activism and antiracist activism are tied together, but often as conflicting in complex and contradictory ways.     

Design and synthesis of aryl ether inhibitors of the Bacillus anthracis enoyl-ACP reductase

The problem of increasing bacterial resistance to the current generation of antibiotics is well documented. Known resistant pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus are becoming more prevalent, while the potential exists for developing drug-resistant pathogens for use as bioweapons, such as Bacillus anthracis. The biphenyl ether antibacterial agent, triclosan, exhibits broad-spectrum activity by targeting the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway through inhibition of enoyl-acyl carrier protein reductase (ENR) and provides a potential scaffold for the development of new, broad-spectrum antibiotics. We used a structure-based approach to develop novel aryl ether analogues of triclosan that target ENR, the product of the fabI gene, from B. anthracis (BaENR). Structure-based design methods were used for the expansion of the compound series including X-ray crystal structure determination, molecular docking, and QSAR methods. Structural modifications were made to both phenyl rings of the 2-phenoxyphenyl core. A number of compounds exhibited improved potency against BaENR and increased efficacy against both the Sterne strain of B. anthracis and the methicillin-resistant strain of S. aureus. X-ray crystal structures of BaENR in complex with triclosan and two other compounds help explain the improved efficacy of the new compounds and suggest future rounds of optimization that might be used to improve their potency.     

基于自动驾驶系统的轻量型卷积神经网络优化

计算机视觉技术大量应用于自动驾驶系统,主要解决物体识别与物体分类问题,本文根据任务提出了一种轻量化的神经网络结构.为解决训练数据规模不足的问题,采用了改进型数据增强算法,使训练数据成倍增加.同时为解决使用数据生成器作为验证集,无法使用tensorboard的问题,提出了解决方案,通过卷积网络可视化方法详细研究了神经网络处理图像信息的原理并提出了优化方法.训练后的模型在验证集上准确率达到了97.5%,满足了自动驾驶系统对分类任务准确率的要求.     

Imaging of zymogen granules in fully wet cells: evidence for restricted mechanism of granule growth

The introduction of wet SEM imaging technology permits electron microscopy of wet samples. Samples are placed in sealed specimen capsules and are insulated from the vacuum in the SEM chamber by an impermeable, electron-transparent membrane. The complete insulation of the sample from the vacuum allows direct imaging of fully hydrated, whole-mount tissue. In the current work, we demonstrate direct inspection of thick pancreatic tissue slices (above 400 mum). In the case of scanning of the pancreatic surface, the boundaries of intracellular features are seen directly. Thus no unfolding is required to ascertain the actual particle size distribution based on the sizes of the sections. This method enabled us to investigate the true granule size distribution and confirm early studies of improved conformity to a Poisson-like distribution, suggesting that the homotypic granule growth results from a mechanism, which favors the addition of a single unit granule to mature granules.     

Acquisition and transfer of attention allocation strategies in a multiple-task work environment

OBJECTIVE: Payoff effects on strategy development and change were assessed in a synthetic work environment, SYNWORK1. BACKGROUND: Many work settings require several tasks to be performed concurrently. It is important to know how the strategies used in performing the respective tasks vary with payoffs. METHOD: Sixty students performed four tasks in SYNWORK1, for which points are received for correct responses and lost for incorrect responses. Individual-task payoffs were varied between participants and were changed after 8 and 12 sessions to examine the effects of a previous strategy on development of a new strategy. RESULTS: Participants were sensitive to initial payoffs and modified their strategies when payoffs changed. However, residual effects of prior payoffs were evident. CONCLUSION: Payoffs for multiple-task environments need to be explicit, and practice should be provided for strategy development. When payoffs change, strategies adopted reflect current and previous payoffs. APPLICATION: The findings can be applied to the design of payoff schedules for multiple-task environments.     

The role of ECL2 in CGRP receptor activation: a combined modelling and experimental approach

The calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor is a complex of a calcitonin receptor-like receptor (CLR), which is a family B G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and receptor activity modifying protein 1. The role of the second extracellular loop (ECL2) of CLR in binding CGRP and coupling to Gs was investigated using a combination of mutagenesis and modelling. An alanine scan of residues 271–294 of CLR showed that the ability of CGRP to produce cAMP was impaired by point mutations at 13 residues; most of these also impaired the response to adrenomedullin (AM). These data were used to select probable ECL2-modelled conformations that are involved in agonist binding, allowing the identification of the likely contacts between the peptide and receptor. The implications of the most likely structures for receptor activation are discussed.