Anharmonic force constant calculations

The relationship of the anharmonic force constants in curvilinear internal coordinates to the observed vibration-rotation spectrum of a molecule is reviewed. A simplified method of setting up the required non-linear coordinate transformations is described: this makes use of an / tensor, which is a straightforward generalization of the / matrix used in the customary description of harmonic force constant calculations. General formulae for the / tensor elements, in terms of the familiar L matrix elements, are presented. The use of non-linear symmetry coordinates and redundancies are described. Sample calculations on the water and ammonia molecules are reported.

Inspecting the teaching of singing in the teacher training colleges of England, Wales and Scotland 1883-1899

This paper investigates the links between the teaching of singing, training and inspection during the late Victorian era. It utilises as a primary source the annual inspection reports of the music inspector, Sir John Stainer. More specifically it focuses upon the musical background of the students in the training colleges of England, Wales and Scotland, the methods employed to teach sight singing and voice production, the vocal repertoire and preparation for the teaching of singing in schools. Finally, some comparison is made with the present day and the relationship between the teaching of singing, training and inspection.

Control strategy for Boolean input systems

The purpose of this paper is to design a control law for continuous systems with Boolean inputs allowing the output to track a desired trajectory. Such systems are controlled by items of commutation. This type of systems, with Boolean inputs, has found increasing use in the electric industry. Power supplies include such systems and a power converter represents one of theses systems. For instance, in power electronics the control variable is the switching OFF and ON of components such as thyristors or transistors. In this paper, a method is proposed for the designing of a control law in state space for such systems. This approach is implemented in simulation for the control of an electronic circuit.

Variation in the sensitivity of Callosobruchus (Coleoptera: Bruchidae) acetylcholinesterase to the organophosphate insecticide malaoxon: effect of species, geographical strain and food type

BACKGROUND: Bruchid beetles, Callosobruchus species, are serious pests of economically important grain legumes; their activity in stores is often controlled by use of synthetic insecticides. Esterases are known to be involved in insecticide resistance in insects. However, there is dearth of information on esterase activity in the genus Callosobruchus. In this study we investigated the effect of species, geographical strain and food type on the variation of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity and its inhibition by malaoxon (malathion metabolite) using an in vitro spectrophotometric method. RESULT: AChE activity varied significantly among species and strains and also among legume type used for rearing them. Generally irrespective of species, strain or food type, the higher the AChE activity of a population, the higher its inhibition by malaoxon. C. chinensis had the highest AChE activity of the species studied and in the presence of malaoxon it had the lowest remaining AChE activity, while C. rhodesianus retained the highest activity. CONCLUSION: A firsthand knowledge of AChE activity in regional Callosobruchus in line with the prevailing food types should be of utmost importance to grain legume breeders, researchers on plant materials for bruchid control and pesticide manufacturer/applicators for a robust integrated management of these bruchids.

On the time-dependent analysis of Gamow decay

Gamow's explanation of the exponential decay law uses complex 'eigenvalues' and exponentially growing 'eigenfunctions'. This raises the question, how Gamow's description fits into the quantum mechanical description of nature, which is based on real eigenvalues and square integrable wavefunctions. Observing that the time evolution of any wavefunction is given by its expansion in generalized eigenfunctions, we shall answer this question in the most straightforward manner, which at the same time is accessible to graduate students and specialists. Moreover, the presentation can well be used in physics lectures to students.

A very rare self-assembled ribbon of fused cyclic water pentamers encapsulated in a Cu-II based metal-organic framework

A metal organic framework of Cu-II, tartarate (tar) and 2,2'-bipyridyl (2,2'-bipy)], {[Cu(tar)(2,2'-bipy)]center dot 5H(2)O}(n)} (1) has been synthesized at the mild ambient condition and characterized by single crystal X-ray crystallography. In the compound, the Cu(2,2'-bipy) entities are bridged by tartarate ions which are coordinated to Cu-II by both hydroxyl and monodentate carboxylate oxygen to form a one-dimensional chain. The non-coordinated water molecules form ID water chains by edge-sharing cyclic water pentamers along with dangling water dimers. It shows reversible water expulsion upon heating. The water chains join the ID coordination polymeric chains to a 31) network through hydrogen-bond interactions.

Collaborative personal profiling for web service ranking and recommendation

Web service is one of the most fundamental technologies in implementing service oriented architecture (SOA) based applications. One essential challenge related to web service is to find suitable candidates with regard to web service consumer’s requests, which is normally called web service discovery. During a web service discovery protocol, it is expected that the consumer will find it hard to distinguish which ones are more suitable in the retrieval set, thereby making selection of web services a critical task. In this paper, inspired by the idea that the service composition pattern is significant hint for service selection, a personal profiling mechanism is proposed to improve ranking and recommendation performance. Since service selection is highly dependent on the composition process, personal knowledge is accumulated from previous service composition process and shared via collaborative filtering where a set of users with similar interest will be firstly identified. Afterwards a web service re-ranking mechanism is employed for personalised recommendation. Experimental studies are conduced and analysed to demonstrate the promising potential of this research.