Diphenyl sulphox1de complexes of thorium(IV)

Thorium(IV) is known to form high coordination-number complexes. An attempt has therefore been made to determine the effect of anions on the coordination complexes of diphenyl sulphoxide (DPSO) with thorium(IV). The complexes formed have the formulae [Th(DPSO)6](ClO4)4, [Th(DPSO)4Cl4], [Th(DPSO)4Br4], [Th(DPSO)6I2]I2, [Th(DPSO)4(NCS)4]and [Th(DPSO)3(NO3)4]. In all the complexes, DPSO is coordinated to the metal ion through its oxygen. The electrical conductances in nitrobenzene and in nitromethane, and ebullioscopic molecular weights in acetonitrile, show that the perchlorate and iodide complexes behave as 1:4 and 1:2 electrolytes, respectively; while the other complexes are monomeric and non-electrolytes. The infrared spectra of the solid complexes indicate the ionic nature of the perchlorate, the bidentate nature of the nitrate and the coordination of the thiocyanate through its nitrogen. [Th(DPSO)4Cl4], [Th(DPSO)4Br4]and [Th-(DPSO)3 (NO3)4]decompose endothermically while [Th(DPSO)6](ClO4)4 and [Th(DPSO)4(NCS)4]decompose exothermically, both in air and in nitrogen. The perchlorate complex has octahedral symmetry around the thorium, the halo- and the thiocyanato complexes are 8-coordinate, probably with square antiprismatic structures, while the nitrate complex is 11-coordinate

An electron diffraction investigation of the molecular structure of trichloroacetonitrile

The molecular structure of trichloroacetonitrile has been studied by electron diffraction by the visual interpretation of sectored photographs. These parameters were obtained: C-N = 1.165 ± 0.025, C-C = 1.465 ± 0.025, C-Cl = 1.765 ± 0.01 A., and < CCCl = 109.5 ± 1°.

The Negative News Threshold - an Explanation for Negative Skewness in Stock Returns

A vast literature documents negative skewness and excess kurtosis in stock return distributions on several markets. We approach the issue of negative skewness from a different angle than in previous studies by suggesting a model, which we denote the “negative news threshold” hypothesis, that builds on asymmetrically distributed information and symmetric market responses. Our empirical tests reveal that returns for days when non-scheduled news are disclosed are the source of negative skewness in stock returns. This finding lends solid support to our model and suggests that negative skewness in stock returns is induced by asymmetries in the news disclosure policies of firm management.

The Hybrid Consumer: Exploring the Drivers of a New Consumer Behaviour Type

A dramatically different consumption pattern seems to be emerging among a vast group of consumers. This may mean that conventional consumer stereotypes and segmentation theory are becoming outdated. The so called hybrid consumers seem to increasingly opt for both premium and budget alternatives in various product and service categories while mid-priced alternatives are losing share in their consumption basket. Although this type of polarisation, or dispersion, is already recognized as an important change, hybrid behaviour is still largely under-researched. The present study aims to analyze the possible drivers of hybrid consumption and by identifying typical categories and situations of trading up versus trading down derive tentative characteristics of hybrid consumption for further research on the topic. A tentative pattern of hybrid consumption was identified, which relates trading up to high-involvement, discretional spending and trading down to low-involvement necessities. However, it was also found that hybrid consumption transcends product category boundaries and may thus be less straightforward than previously perhaps assumed. In addition, a purchase pattern continuum was developed, accounting for various degrees of hybrid consumption.

Trapped waves in the neighborhood of a sonic-type singularity

A model equation is derived to study trapped nonlinear waves with a turning effect, occurring in disturbances induced on a two-dimensional steady flow. Only unimodal disturbances under the short wave assumption are considered, when the wave front of the induced disturbance is plane. In the neighbourhood of certain special points of sonic-type singularity, the disturbances are governed by a single first-order partial differential equation in two independent variables. The equation depends on the steady flow through three parameters, which are determined by the variations of velocity and depth, for example (in the case of long surface water waves), along and perpendicular to the wave front. These parameters help us to examine various relative effects. The presence of shocks in a continuously accelerating or decelerating flow has been studied in detail.

Sequence specificity in spermine-induced structural changes in CG-oligomers

The role of spermine in inducing A-DNA conformation in deoxyoligonucleotides has been studied using CCGG and GGCC as model sequences. It has been found that while CCGG adopts an alternating B-DNA conformation in low salt solution at low temperature, addition of spermine to this medium induces a B --greater than A transition. In contrast, the A-DNA-like structure of GGCC in low salt solution at low temperature does not change under the influence of spermine. This suggests a sequence-dependent behaviour of spermine. Further these results suggest that the A-DNA conformation observed in the crystals of d(iCCGG) and d(GGCC)2 might have been due to the presence of spermine in the crystallization cocktail.

Työ- ja pääomapanokset maidontuotannon kannattavuustekijöinä - asema- ja automaattilypsytilojen vertailu

Maatalousyrittäjä toimii muuttuvassa toimintaympäristössä, jonka muutokset asettavat yrittäjälle ja yritykselle haasteita ja vaatimuksia. Tuotantoteorian mukaisesti maatalousyrittäjän oletetaan maksimoivan voittoa ja/tai minimoimaan kustannuksia. Tavoitteen saavuttamiseksi yrittäjä sopeuttaa tuotosmääriään ja panoskäyttöään vallitsevien olosuhteiden mukaan. Tuotantoteknologialla voidaan puolestaan vaikuttaa siihen, millaisia panoksia tuotoksen aikaansaamiseksi tarvitaan. Maidontuotannossa lypsyjärjestelmä on yksi keskeinen teknologiavalinta. Kannattavuus on Suomessa kriittinen tekijä maataloustuotannon kilpailukykyä ja pitkän ajan toimintaedellytyksiä ajatellen. Yhtenä merkittävänä tuotantokustannuksiin vaikuttavana tekijänä maidontuotannossa voidaan pitää keskimäärin korkeaa työkustannusta tuoteyksikköä kohden. Rakennekehityksellä tavoitellaan suurtuotannon etuja ja yksikkökustannusten alentamista. Yrityskoon kasvattamisen yhteyteen liittyy usein uuden tuotantoteknologian käyttöönotto. Uudella teknologialla ja siihen sijoitetulla pääomalla korvataan yhä kallistuvaa työpanosta. Uutta teknologiaa edustavat mm. automaattinen lypsyjärjestelmä. Keskeisintä kehityksessä on, että viljelijöiden on ollut mahdollista vähentää työn määrää tuotettua yksikköä kohti. Tämä on helpottanut tilakoon kasvua ja samalla on ollut mahdollista kasvattaa työmenekin silti olennaisesti kasvamatta. Ensimmäiset automaattilypsyjärjestelmät otettiin Suomessa käyttöön vuonna 2000 ja vuoden 2009 lopussa niitä oli jo 563 laitetta yhteensä 465 maidontuotantotilalla. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tutkia asema- ja automaattilypsyä käyttävien tilojen tuottavuus- ja kannattavuuseroja ja miten investoinneilla pystytään korvaamaan työtä. Aineistona käytettiin maatalouden kannattavuuskirjanpitoaineistoa vuosilta 2005- 2008. Tutkimusaineistossa olivat mukana kaikki tilat, joilla tutkimusjakson alussa oli automaattinen lypsyjärjestelmä tai jotka siirtyivät siihen ajanjakson aikana. Automaattilypsytilojen vertailuryhmänä olivat maidontuotantoon keskittyneet samaan kokoluokkaan kuuluvat asemalypsytilat. Lypsyjärjestelmän valinnan maidontuottaja tekee omista lähtökohdistaan. Tässä tutkimuksessa tehty lypsyjärjestelmän taloudellinen valintaperusteiden tarkastelu osoittaa, että uuden teknologian käyttöönotto on haasteellista. Valinnan taustalla olevat odotukset eivät välttämättä toteudu ainakaan heti investoinnin jälkeisinä vuosina. Työn tuottavuus, määriteltynä työtuntia kohden tuotettuina maitokiloina, oli automaattilypsytiloilla parempi kuin asematiloilla. Pääoman tuottavuus, määriteltynä lypsykarjatalouden pääomaa (1000 €) kohti tuotettuina maitokiloina oli puolestaan asemalypsytiloilla parempi kuin automaattilypsytiloilla. Asemalypsytiloilla nettotuottavuus, työn sekä pääoman nettotuottavuudet olivat parempia kuin automaattitiloilla. Automaattitilojen kokonaistuottavuuden muutos oli 7,49 %, kun asematiloilla se oli vain 2,30 % tutkimusajanjakson aikana. Lehmää kohti työkustannukset pienenivät ja maksettujen korkojen määrät kasvoivat kummallakin lypsytavalla. Verrattaessa työkustannusten ja maksettujen korkomenojen muutosta voitiin havaita, että työkustannukset eivät automaattilypsytiloilla kuitenkaan pienentyneet niin paljon, että ne olisivat kattaneet maksettujen korkomenojen lisäyksen. Kannattavuuskertoimen perusteella kumpikaan tilaryhmä ei saavuttanut asettamiaan tavoitteita oman työn palkkavaatimuksen eikä oman pääoman korkovaatimuksen suhteen. Asemalypsytiloilla kannattavuus oli parempi ja yrittäjäntappio oli alhaisempi kuin automaattitiloilla.

Identification and Epidemiological Typing of Campylobacter strains isolated from Patients in Finland

C. jejuni constitutes the majority of Campylobacter strains isolated from patients in Finland, and C. coli strains are also reported. To improve the species identification, a combination of phenotype- and genotype-based methods was applied. Standardising the cell suspension turbidity in the hippurate hydrolysis test enabled the reliable identification of hippurate-positive Campylobacter strains as C. jejuni. The detection of species-specific genes by PCR showed that about 30% of the hippurate-negative strains were C. jejuni. Three typing methods, serotyping, PCR-RFLP analysis of LOS biosynthesis genes and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were evaluated as epidemiological typing tools for C. jejuni. The high number of non-typeable strains lowered the discriminatory ability of serotyping. PCR-RFLP typing offered high discrimination for both serotypeable and non-typeable strains, but the correlation between serotypes and RFLP-types was not high enough to enable its use for molecular serotyping of non-typeable strains. PFGE was a highly discriminative typing method. Although the use of two restriction enzymes generally increases the discriminatory ability, KpnI alone offered almost as high discrimination as the use of SmaI and KpnI. The characteristic seasonal distribution of Campylobacter infections with a peak in summer and low incidence in winter was mainly due to domestically acquired infections. Of the C. jejuni strains, 41% were of domestic origin compared to only 17% of the C. coli strains. Serotypes Pen 12, Pen 6,7 and Pen 27 were significantly associated with domestic C. jejuni infections, Pen 1,44, Pen 3 and Pen 37 with travel-related infections. Pen 2 and Pen 4-complex were common both in domestic and travel-related infections. Serotype Pen 2 was less common among patients 60 years or older than in younger patients, more prevalent in Western Finland than in other parts of the country and more prevalent than other serotypes in winter. The source of Pen 2 infections may be related to cattle, since Pen 2 is the most common serotype in isolates from Finnish cattle. PFGE subtypes among isolates from patients and chickens during the summer 2003 and from cattle during the whole year were compared. The analysis of indistinguishable SmaI/KpnI subtypes suggested that up to 31% of the human infections may have been mediated by chickens and 19% by cattle. Human strains isolated during two one-year sampling periods were studied by PFGE. Of the domestic strains, 69% belonged to SmaI subtypes found during both sampling periods. Four SmaI subtypes accounted for 45% of the domestic strains, further typing of these subtypes by KpnI revealed six temporally persistent SmaI/KpnI subtypes. They were only occasionally identified in travel-related strains, and therefore, can be considered to be national subtypes. Each subtype was associated with a serotype: Pen 2, Pen 12, Pen 27, Pen 4-complex, Pen 41, and Pen 57. Five of these subtypes were identified in cattle (S5/K27, S7/K1, S7/K2, S7/K5 and S64/K19), and two in chickens (S7/K1 and S64/K19) with a temporal association with human infections in 2003. Cattle are more likely potential sources of these persistent subtypes, since long-term excretion of Campylobacter strains by cattle has been reported.

Volume effects and associations in liquid alloys

The regular associated solution model for binary systems has been modified by incorporating the size of the complex as an explicit variable. The thermodynamic properties of the liquid alloy and the interactions between theA ?B type of complex and the unassociated atoms in anA-B binary have been evaluated as a function of relative size of the complex using the activity coefficients at infinite dilution and activity data at one other composition in the binary. The computational procedure adopted for determining the concentration of clusters and interaction energies in the associated liquid is similar to that proposed by Lele and Rao. The analysis has been applied to the thermodynamic mixing functions of liquid Al-Ca alloys believed to contain Al2Ca associates. It is found that the size of the cluster significantly affects the interaction energies between the complex and the unassociated atoms, while the equilibrium constant and enthalpy change for the association reaction exhibit only minor variation, when the equations are fitted to experimental data. The interaction energy between unassociated free atoms remains virtually unaltered as the size of the complex is varied between extreme values. Accurate data on free energy, enthalpy, and volume of mixing at the same temperature on alloy systems with compound forming tendency would permit a rigorous test of the proposed model.

Molecular phylogeny of Hemidactylus geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae) of the Indian subcontinent reveals a unique Indian radiation and an Indian origin of Asian house geckos

Represented by approximately 85 species, Hemidactylus is one of the most diverse and widely distributed genera of reptiles in the world. In the Indian subcontinent, this genus is represented by 28 species out of which at least 13 are endemic to this region. Here, we report the phylogeny of the Indian Hemidactylus geckos based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers sequenced from multiple individuals of widely distributed as well as endemic congeners of India. Results indicate that a majority of the species distributed in India form a distinct clade whose members are largely confined to the Indian subcontinent thus representing a unique Indian radiation. The remaining Hemidactylus geckos of India belong to two other geographical clades representing the Southeast Asian and West-Asian arid zone species. Additionally, the three widely distributed, commensal species (H. brookii, H. frenatus and H. flaviviridis) are nested within the Indian radiation suggesting their Indian origin. Dispersal-vicariance analysis also supports their Indian origin and subsequent dispersal out-of-India into West-Asian arid zone and Southeast Asia. Thus, Indian subcontinent has served as an important arena for diversification amongst the Hemidactylus geckos and in the evolution and spread of its commensal geckos. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Grain Growth in ECAE Processed Pure Magnesium

Grain growth kinetics was studied for commercially pure magnesium subjected to equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE). The specimens were ECAE processed upto 4 passes at 523 K following all the three important routes, namely A, 13, and C. Texture and microstructures of the samples were studied using Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) technique in a Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope (FEG-SEM). It was observed that the grain size significantly reduces after ECAE. ECAE process produces a slightly rotated B and C-2 fiber. Static annealing leads to normal grain growth with unimodal distribution of grains through out the temperature range. Average activation energy for grain growth in the temperature range studied is found to be less than the activation energy for lattice diffusion and grain boundary diffusion of magnesium. No significant change in texture during isochronal annealing for 1 hour i.e., the predominant deformation texture remains same.

A model for static foam drainage

A model for static foam drainage, based on the pentagonal dodecahedral shape of bubbles, that takes into account the surface mobility of both films and Plateau border walls has been developed. The model divides the Plateau borders into nearly horizontal and nearly vertical categories and assigns different roles to them. The films are assumed to drain into all the adjacent Plateau borders equally. The horizontal Plateau borders are assumed to receive liquid from films and drain into vertical Plateau borders, which in turn form the main component for gravity drainage. The model yields the liquid holdup values for films, horizontal Plateau borders and vertical Plateau borders as functions of height and time. The model has been tested on static foams whose cumulative drainage was measured as a function of time. The experimental data on the effect of foam height, initial holdup, surface viscosity, etc. can be explained by the model quantitatively.

The crystal structure of hydrated barium copper oxalate

BaCu(C2O4)(2) . 6H2O is triclinic, P (1) over bar, with a = 6.5405(9), b = 9.202(3), c = 10.939(1) Angstrom, alpha = 85.46(2), beta = 79.22(1), gamma = 80.45(2), V = 636.99(1) Angstrom(3), Z = 2, D-0 = 2.14, D-c = 2.465 g . cm(-3), R = 0.074, wR = 0.0746 for 2219 significant reflections \F-0\ greater than or equal to 6.0 sigma F-0. The barium has eleven coordinations and the coordination polyhedra is a capped antiprism. Six water oxygen atoms are coordinated whereas the other five are coming from the oxalate group. In the unit cell the molecule's form a polymeric network. One lattice water molecule belongs to the coordinating water. The barium oxygen distances vary from 2.75 Angstrom to 3.15 Angstrom.