Energy conservation strategies among American college students

This research compares both attitudes and recycling behaviors in a sample of college males and females (N = 302), a demographic group whose behaviors and willingness to adopt environmentally sound policies will become the dominant force for environmental reform in the USA in approaching decades. Consistent with prior research, women were significantly more likely to support strategies for energy conservation and were much more apt to always recycle. Among males (but not females), frequent recyclers of plastic were more supportive of energy conservation strategies, while for women, the link between attitudes and behavior is weaker, perhaps due to women’s purported community-welfare orientation. In addition, because the strategies that received the most support from both sexes, walking to work or school, and purchasing and cooking with local produce, may reflect the resulting health benefits as much as concern for environmental sustainability, we should consider marketing the link between environmental altruism and personal wellbeing among young populations.     

Effects of input level and crop diversity on soil nitrate-N,extractable P,aggregation, organic C and N,and nutrient balance in the Canadian Prairie

A field experiment was conducted from 1995 to 2006 on a Dark Brown Chernozem (Typic Boroll) loam soil at Scott, Saskatchewan, Canada to determine the influence of input level and crop diversity on accumulation and distribution of nitrate-N and extractable P in the soil profile, and soil pH, dry aggregation, organic C and N, and nutrient balance sheets in the second 6-year rotation cycle (2001–2006). Treatments were combinations of three input levels (organic input under conventional tillage—ORG; reduced input under no-till—RED; and high input under conventional tillage—HIGH), three crop diversities (fallow-based rotations with low crop diversity—LOW; diversified rotations using annual cereal, oilseed and pulse grain crops—DAG; and diversified rotations using annual grain and perennial forage crops—DAP), and six crop phases including green manure (GM), chem-fallow or tilled-fallow (F). Amount of nitrate-N in 0-240 cm soil was usually highest under the HIGH input-LOW crop diversity treatment and lowest under the ORG input-DAP crop diversity treatment. The distribution of nitrate-N in various soil depths suggested downward movement of nitrate-N up to 240 cm depth, especially with LOW crop diversity compared to DAP crop diversity, and with HIGH input. In some years, the ORG input systems had higher nitrate-N than the RED or HIGH input systems, which was attributed to low extractable P in soil for optimum crop growth and reduced nutrient uptake with ORG input management. Extractable P in soil was higher by a small margin for HIGH or RED input relative to ORG input in the 0–15 cm layer, suggesting little downward movement of P. Crop diversity did not affect extractable soil P due to the low baseline levels of P in this soil. The proportion of fine dry aggregates (<1.3 mm, erodible fraction) in 0–5 cm soil was highest with LOW crop diversity-HIGH input system, and lowest with DAG diversity-RED input system. The opposite was true for large aggregates (>12.7 mm). Wet aggregate stability was higher for RED input compared to ORG and HIGH input, which was attributed to the increase in the concentration of organic C in aggregates in the RED input system. Amount of light fraction organic matter (LFOM), light fraction organic C (LFOC) and light fraction organic N (LFON) in 0–15 cm soil was higher for RED input compared to ORG and HIGH inputs, and higher for DAG and DAP crop diversities than for LOW crop diversity. Soil N and P were usually deficient under ORG input management, but large amounts of N and P were unaccounted for, or in surplus, under RED and HIGH inputs, despite a marked increase in plant N and P uptake and crop yield compared to ORG input. Overall, our findings suggest that soil quality can be improved and nutrient accumulation in the soil profile can be minimized by increasing cropping frequency, reducing/eliminating tillage, and using appropriate combinations of fertilizer input and diversified cropping.     

Maintenance strategies for routing indexes

Query processing in large-scale unstructured P2P networks is a crucial part of operating such systems. In order to avoid expensive flooding of the network during query processing so-called routing indexes are used. Each peer maintains such an index for its neighbors. It provides a compact representation (data summary) of data accessible via each neighboring peer. An important problem in this context is to keep these data summaries up-to-date without paying high maintenance costs. In this paper, we investigate the problem of maintaining distributed data summaries in P2P-based environments without global knowledge and central instances. Based on a classification of update propagation strategies, we discuss several approaches to reduce maintenance costs and present results from an experimental evaluation.     

Preliminary characterization of a placental factor inhibiting breathing in fetal sheep

Previous studies have revealed a placental extract that inhibits breathing in fetal sheep. In the present study of 29 chronically instrumented sheep at 132+/-1 days of gestation, infusion of the 1-10 kDa extract inhibited breathing in 76% of the experiments whereas Krebs' solution inhibited it in 24%. It retained this activity after 6 months of freezing, after lyophilization, and upon lowering the pH during purification from 8.0 to 4.0, but it inhibited breathing in only 35% when the pH was lowered to 2.0. A significant dose-dependent effect was observed from a 16-fold dilution to a 4-fold concentration. Treatment of the extract with proteinase K or boiling reduced the activity to 30% or 26% inhibition, respectively. The activity was not adsorbed to an ion-exchange column at pH 7.0 or 8.0, but it was at pH 9.0 and it eluted with increasing NaCl concentrations. On a polyacrylamide gel the activity was eluted at a K(av) of 0.66 (82% inhibition), corresponding to between 2.5 and 4.5 kDa. These findings suggest that a peptide produced by the placenta, with a molecular mass between 2.5 and 4.5 kDa, inhibits fetal breathing.     

Studies on the puberty-controlling function of the mediocortical amygdala in the immature female rat

The puberty-controlling function of the mediocortical amygdala in immature female rats was investigated by lesioning this region at different ages and by studying the effects on the onset of spontaneous and experimentally-induced precocious puberty. At 21 days of age, bilateral lesions in the anterior mediocortical amygdala (AMCA) caused precocious puberty and enhanced the puberty-accelerating effect of bilateral lesions produced simultaneously in the medial preoptic area (MPA). Similar lesions, ineffective on day 26, delayed the onset of puberty when produced on day 32 in otherwise untreated rats. Lesions in the posterior mediocortical amygdala (PMCA) at 26 or 32 days of age postponed puberty in untreated rats and inhibited the advancement of their 1st pubertal ovulation that resulted from damage to the ventromedial-arcuate region (VAH) or daily administration of 0.05 mug estradiol benzoate (EB) per 100 g b.w. The results confirm earlier findings of different gonadotropin-controlling activities of the AMCA and PMCA in immature female rats and suggest maturational changes in the function of both areas. The gonadotropin-inhibiting action exerted by the AMCA at 3 weeks of age is lost when puberty approaches; a gonadotropin-stimulating activity seems to develop in both the AMCA and PMCA.     

Evaluation of methods for predicting the toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures

Risk assessments of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon mixtures are hindered by a lack of reliable information on the potency of both mixtures and their individual components. This paper examines methods for approximating the toxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) mixtures. PAHs were isolated from a coal tar and then separated by ring number using HPLC. Five fractions (A-E) were generated, each possessing a unique composition and expected potency. The toxicity of each fraction was measured in the Salmonella/mutagenicity assay and the Chick Embryo Screening Test (CHEST). Their abilities to induce ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase and to inhibit gap junction intercellular communication in rat liver Clone 9 cells were also measured. In the Salmonella/mutagenicity assay, fractions were predicted to have potencies in the order C > D > E > B > A. Toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) for fractions A-E were in the order E > or = D > C > B > A. TEF values were 20,652, 20,929, 441, 306, and 74.1 micrograms of BaP equiv/g, respectively. A lack of agreement between assay-predicted potencies and chemical analysis-predicted potencies was observed with other assays and other methods of calculation. The results demonstrate the limitations of using a single method to predict the toxicity of a complex PAH mixture.     

Visual Verification of Cancer Staging for Therapy Decision Support

It is generally accepted practice that each cancer patient case should be discussed in a clinical expert meeting, the so‐called tumor board. A central role in finding the best therapy options for patients with solid tumors plays the Tumor, lymph Node, and Metastasis staging (TNM staging). Correctness of TNM staging has a significant impact on the therapy choice and hence on the patient's post‐therapeutic quality of life or even survival. If inconsistencies in the TNM staging occur, possible explanations and solutions must be found based on the complex patient records, which takes the costly time of (multiple) physicians. We propose a more efficient visual analysis component, which supports a physician in verifying the given TNM staging before forwarding it to the tumor board. Our component comprises a Bayesian network model of the TNM staging process. Using information from the patient records and Bayesian inference, the models computes a patient‐specific TNM staging, which is then explored and compared to the given staging by means of a graph‐based visualization. Our component is implemented in a research prototype that supports an understanding of the model computations, allows for a fast identification of important influencing factors, and facilitates a quick detection of differences between two TNM stagings. We evaluated our component with five physicians, each studying 20 cases of laryngeal cancer.     

COCOON——新的质量的诞生

继FK4和FK5手动变形机相继于1967年和1971年投放市场之后,后续系列FK6于1973年面世.从那时起,FK6系列机型的效率随着市场需求的变化而不断改进.从1994年起,FK6-1000型投产,该机型目前仍是流行的机型.该机既可以配备UNITENS,也可以加装用于特殊工艺的元件.这种机器的上部结构也可以有不同截面设计,还有一种多锭机器.20世纪90年代中期,自动落纱机器投放市场.作为市场领军者,巴马格(Barmag)公司继AFK成功推出后又推出了最新产品--MPS.