Discovery of insect anti-juvenile hormones in plants.?2U

Two simple chromenes with anti-JH activity have been isolated and identified from the bedding plant Ageratum houstoianum. By contact and fumigation these compounds induce precocious metamorphosis and sterilization in several hemipteran species of insects. Certain holometabolous species are sterilized, forced into diapause, or both. Each of these biological actions is equivalent to removal of the corpora allata, which produce the JH's, and is reversible by treatment with exogenous JH. Thus, the action of these compounds is to stop the production or depress the titer of the JH's. To our knowledge, this is the first discovery of anti-JH, and we hope it will guide the way to the emergence of a fourth generation of safe and insect-specific pesticides.     

Histometric study of meat products. A literature review

In the present paper, the literature on the development of methods for histometric monitoring the quality of meats is reviewed. The value of specific techniques, statistical interpretation of results and the practicability of automation of histometric analysis are examined more closely. It is concluded from the study of the literature that histometric examination of meats allows an objective assessment of volume percentages of tissue components. When a distinct difference in contrast between various tissues is achieved by specific staining methods, developments in the field of image analysis systems will allow automation of the quantitative histological examination of meats.     

Linear response algorithms for approximate inference in graphical models

Belief propagation (BP) on cyclic graphs is an efficient algorithm for computing approximate marginal probability distributions over single nodes and neighboring nodes in the graph. However, it does not prescribe a way to compute joint distributions over pairs of distant nodes in the graph. In this article, we propose two new algorithms for approximating these pairwise probabilities, based on the linear response theorem. The first is a propagation algorithm that is shown to converge if BP converges to a stable fixed point. The second algorithm is based on matrix inversion. Applying these ideas to gaussian random fields, we derive a propagation algorithm for computing the inverse of a matrix.     

多壁碳纳米管湿敏传感器的研究

传感器的基底为Al板电化学氧化成Al2O3绝缘层模板,上面真空溅射了叉指金电极,在电极之间旋涂微量多壁碳纳米管的水悬浊液,干燥后作为敏感膜.室温下测试传感器暴露在不同湿度的电阻变化,发现吸附了H2O后传感器的导电能力降低,且下降的幅度与被测湿度有良好的梯度关系.同时该多壁碳纳米管再经缩合剂EDC修饰后旋涂于电极上形成的敏感膜对湿度呈指数级变化.对它们的湿敏响应的机理进行了一些初步的探讨.