Minimal inhibition concentrations of selected antibiotics for strains of Staphylococcus aureus

Minimal inhibition concentrations (MIC) of gentamycin (Ge), neomycin (Neo), rifampicin (Rif), ampicillin (Amp), lincomycin (Lin), erythromycin (Ery), and streptomycin (STM) were determined by the agar dilution technique using 46, 130, 131, 125, 140, 139 and 142 strains of Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. The strains, selected from the collection of the authors' laboratory, were isolated from mammary gland secretions of cows affected with clinical or subclinical mastitis. The following ranges of MIC (micrograms/ml) were assessed for the antibiotics under study: Ge 0.125-0.50, Neo 0.06-0.50, Rif 0.0039-0.030, Amp 0.015-1.00, Lin 0.25-1.00, Ery 0.06-0.25, STM 0.50-64.0. Modal MIC (micrograms/ml) were as follows; Ery 0.125 (86%), Lin 0.5 (71.4%), Rif 0.007 (68.7%), Ge 0.25 (56.5%), STM 1.00 (54.2%), Neo 0.25 (53.8%), Amp 0.06 (41.6%). The order of efficiency expressed in MIC 90 (micrograms/ml) was as follows: Rif (0.015), Ery (0.125), Ge (0.25), Neo (0.25), Amp (0.5), STM (4.0).     

Phase transformation and densification during pressureless sintering of Si3N4 with MgO and Y3Al5O12 additives

The - transformation of Si₃N₄ during liquid-phase sintering appears to be controlled by the growth of the -Si₃N₄ grains in the direction perpendicular to thec-axis in the case of MgO additive. The diffusion through the liquid is the rate-controlling step in the case of the Y₄Al₅O₁₂ additive. The density of the sintered body at the solid skeleton stage was influenced by the change in the - transformation rate and/or by a change of the transformation mechanism. The indirect proportionality between the -phase content in the starting powder and the density at the solid skeleton stage was found. The microstructure of the sintered body is influenced by both the -phase content in the starting powder and the chemical composition of the additive. Fine, uniform microstructure with a high aspect ratio of -grains is obtained, when the -phase content in the starting powder is as small as possible and when the - transformation is controlled by grain growth.     

Carcass traits and meat quality of male lambs fed monensin or lasalocid

Male lambs, crossbred Merino × Ille de France, were fed a diet supplemented with 31 mg monensin or 32 mg lasalocid per kg of feed dry matter from an initial body weight of 23·6–23·9 kg to the slaughter weight of approximately 40 kg.

Carcass traits and meat quality were evaluated after slaughter; the values obtained were compared with those of the control group fed the same diet without the ionophore supplement.

There were few significant differences among the individual groups in carcass value, sensoric and technological properties of meat and of its composition. However, the lasalocid-fed group seemed to be somewhat better in muscling and in the composition of meat.     

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.     

Scrolls and nested tubes in multiwall carbon nanotubes

Recent high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HREM) studies of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) reveal a class of defects analogous to edge dislocations in a crystal. These defects are believed to mark the transition from scrolls on one side to nested tubes on the other. On the tube side, layer spacing becomes irregular. Analysis of the helicity of the tubes shows a strong correlation between diameter and helicity. This suggests that the organizing principle for the tubes is not Van der Waals forces, as in the case of graphite or turbostratic carbon, but preservation of helicity. Based on these observations and total energy calculations, the authors speculate that graphene monolayers initially form scrolls and subsequently transform into multiwall nanotubes through the progression of defects. Scrolls and nested tubes thus coexist within a single MWNT.     

HamleDT: Harmonized multi-language dependency treebank

We present HamleDT—a HArmonized Multi-LanguagE Dependency Treebank. HamleDT is a compilation of existing dependency treebanks (or dependency conversions of other treebanks), transformed so that they all conform to the same annotation style. In the present article, we provide a thorough investigation and discussion of a number of phenomena that are comparable across languages, though their annotation in treebanks often differs. We claim that transformation procedures can be designed to automatically identify most such phenomena and convert them to a unified annotation style. This unification is beneficial both to comparative corpus linguistics and to machine learning of syntactic parsing.     

The potentiometric behaviour of copolymers of methacrylic acid in water-ethanol solutions

Summary The synthesis is reported of copolymers of styrene with methacrylic acid and of methyl methacrylate with methacrylic acid by radical copolymerization, of copolymers of methyl methacrylate with methacrylic acid by partial alkaline hydrolysis of poly(methyl methacrylate), and of block copolymers of styrene with methacrylic acid. Modified titration curves of all these copolymers were recorded in water and water-ethanol solutions. In a solution containing 50 mass.% ethanol, only small differences could be observed between the potentiometric behaviour of the individual copolymers and polymethacrylic acid. Also, there were no essential differences in any of the solvents used between the potentiometric behaviour of block copolymers of styrene with methacrylic acid, on the one hand, and polymethacrylic acid, on the other. On the contrary, maxima and minima were always observed on the modified titration curves of statistical copolymers with a higher content of the hydrophobic comonomer in solutions with a high water content. Thus, using the modified titration curves, it is possible to decide whether a given copolymer is of the block or statistical type.     

Large deformation measurement by holographic interferometry

Summary The use of holographic interferometry for the measurement of large deformations is described. From the nature of holographic interferometry it is evident that large deformations exceed the wave length of the light source used by at least ten times of this size. To obtain holographically identifiable values of large deformations, a method of successive partial lighting is used. It shows how it is possible to keep all the advantages of the holographic method and use it even under conditions which apparently exceed its possibilities of application.     

Conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy of the surface crystallization of the Fe75Co9B16 amorphous alloy

Using a new design of helium-methane gas-flow detector of conversion electrons for Mössbauer spectroscopy, non-uniform nucleation of the primary -Fe-Co phase on both contact and free surfaces of the Ar(+H₂) annealed amorphous Fe₇₅Co₉B₁₆ alloy was observed in its early crystallization stage. In this state the amount of crystalline phase on the contact ribbon side surpasses that on the free one by a factor of three, whereas no traces of volume crystallization were observed in the transmission spectra. By applying ion implantation to both ribbon surfaces, a slight reduction of the crystalline phase contribution was found. Magnetic domain structure observations were performed in order to evaluate the influence of surface crystallization on magnetic properties.