Structure and explosive sensitivity relation in ring-substituted arylammonium perchlorates

The thermal and explosive characteristics of ring-substituted arylammonium perchlorates have been studied by differential thermal analysis, explosion delay, and impact-sensitivity measurements. The decomposition and dissociation temperatures, as well as activiation energy for explosion, increase with increasing basicity of the corresponding arylamine. These parameters, when plotted against σ, the Hammett substituent constant, show a linear relationship in the case of meta- and para-substituted derivatives. The results indicate that a proton transfer from arylammonium ion to perchlorate ion is involved in the decompostion and also in the explosion process of these arylammonium perchlorates.

Relation between Tc and hole concentration in superconducting cuprates

The superconducting transition temperature, Tc, of several series of cuprates shows a nonlinear dependence on the hole concentration, nh, determined by chemical titrations. The tc becomes maximum when nh is in the 0.12-0.15 range in cuprates containing a single Cu-O layer and around 0.2 in cuprates containing two Cu-O layers.

Relation between effective atomic charge and chemical shifts in X-ray absorption spectra of transition-metal compounds

Chemical shifts of K absorption discontinuities, Delta E, of several manganese, iron and cobalt oxides with the metal in the formal oxidation states between +2 and +4, have been measured. These data, together with data in the literature on other compounds of these metals, can be fitted into the expression Delta E=aq+bq2, where q is the effective atomic charge on the metal. Theoretical considerations also support this functional relationship between Delta E and q.

The management of large mammals in relation to male strategies and conflict with people

Many large mammals such as elephant, rhino and tiger often come into conflict with people by destroying agricultural crops and even killing people, thus providing a deterrent to conservation efforts. The males of these polygynous species have a greater variance in reproductive success than females, leading to selection pressures favouring a ‘high risk-high gain’ strategy for promoting reproductive success. This brings them into greater conflict with people. For instance, adult male elephants are far more prone than a member of a female-led family herd to raid agricultural crops and to kill people. In polygynous species, the removal of a certain proportion of ‘surplus’ adult males is not likely to affect the fertility and growth rate of the population. Hence, this could be a management tool which would effectively reduce animal-human conflict, and at the same time maintain the viability of the population. Selective removal of males would result in a skewed sex ratio. This would reduce the ‘effective population size’ (as opposed to the total population or census number), increase the rate of genetic drift and, in small populations, lead to inbreeding depression. Plans for managing destructive mammals through the culling of males will have to ensure that the appropriate minimum size in the populations is being maintained.

An Examination of How Entrepreneurs Can Improve Their Position in Relation to Investors

Previous research has been inconclusive regarding the impact of those who invest in entrepreneurs. Consider for a moment how potentially important they are to entrepreneurs. They for example decide who deserves funding, how much time they contribute to their portfolio firms, how they grant entrepreneurs access to their networks, and help entrepreneurs acquire additional funding. In sum, investors potentially have a great impact on the success of entrepreneurs. It is therefore important that we better understand the environment, relationships and context in which parties operate. This thesis contains five articles that explore investors’ and entrepreneurs’ relationships from various viewpoints, in theoretical frameworks, and use a variety of data and research methods. The first article is a literature review that summarises what we know of venture capital, business angel and corporate venture capital funding. The second article studies the entrepreneurs’ investor selection process, its consequences, and identifies key factors that influence the process. Earlier, the common approach has been to concentrate research on the investors’ selection policy, not the entrepreneurs’. The data and conclusions are based on multiple case studies. The article analyses how entrepreneurs can ensure that they get the best possible investor, when it is possible for an entrepreneur to select an investor, and what are the consequences of investor selection. The third article employs power constructs (dependency, power balance/imbalance, power sources) and analyses their applicability in the investor-entrepreneur relationship. Power constructs are extensively studied and utilised in the management and organisation literature. In entrepreneur investor relationships, power aspects are rarely analysed. However, having the ability to “get others to do things they would not otherwise do” is a very common factor in the investor-entrepreneur relationship. Therefore, employing and analysing the applicability of power constructs in this setting is well founded. The article is based on a single case study but suggests that power constructs could be applicable and consequently provide additional insights into the investor-entrepreneur relationship. The fourth article studies the role of advisors in the venture capital investment process and analyses implications for research and practice, particularly from the entrepreneurs’ perspective. The common entrepreneurial finance literature describes the entrepreneur-investor relationship as linear and bilateral. However, it was discovered that advisors may influence the relationship. In this article, the role of advisors, operating procedures and advisors’ impact on different parties is analysed. The fifth article concentrates on investors’ certification effect. The article measures and demonstrates that venture capital investment is likely to increase the credibility (in terms of media attention) of early stage firms, those that most often need additional credibility. Understanding investor certification can affect how entrepreneurs evaluate investment offers and how investors can make their offers appear more lucrative.

A hypothesis on a specific sequence-dependent conformation of DNA and its relation to the binding of the lac-repressor protein

The structure and properties of the double-helical form of the alternating copolymer poly(dA-dT) are considered. Different lines of evidence are interpreted in terms of a structure in which every second phosphate-diester linkage has a conformation different from that of the normal B form. A rationale for this “alternating-B” structure is given which provides an explanation for the effects of chemical modifications of the T residues on the binding of the poly(dA-dT)· poly(dA-dT) to the lac repressor of Escherichia coli.

Relation-Aware Isosurface Extraction in Multifield Data

We introduce a variation density function that profiles the relationship between multiple scalar fields over isosurfaces of a given scalar field. This profile serves as a valuable tool for multifield data exploration because it provides the user with cues to identify interesting isovalues of scalar fields. Existing isosurface-based techniques for scalar data exploration like Reeb graphs, contour spectra, isosurface statistics, etc., study a scalar field in isolation. We argue that the identification of interesting isovalues in a multifield data set should necessarily be based on the interaction between the different fields. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by applying it to explore data from a wide variety of applications.

Interest in university studies : Its role and relation to other motivational variables

This dissertation empirically explored interest as a motivational force in university studies, including the role it currently plays and possible ways of enhancing this role as a student motivator. The general research questions were as follows: 1) What role does interest play in university studies? 2) What explains academic success if studying is not based on interest? 3) How do different learning environments support or impede interest-based studying? Four empirical studies addressed these questions. Study 1 (n=536) compared first-year students explanations of their disciplinary choices in three fields: veterinary medicine, humanities and law. Study 2 (n=28) focused on the role of individual interest in the humanities and veterinary medicine, fields which are very different from each other as regards their nature of studying. Study 3 (n=52) explored veterinary students motivation and study practices in relation to their study success. Study 4 (n=16) explored veterinary students interest experience in individual lectures on a daily basis. By comparing different fields and focusing on one study field in more detail, it was possible to obtain a many-sided picture of the role of interest in different learning environments. Questionnaires and quantitative methods have often been used to measure interest in academic learning. The present work is based mostly on qualitative data, and qualitative methods were applied to add to the previous research. Study 1 explored students open-ended answers, and these provided a basis for the interviews in Study 2. Study 3 explored veterinary students portfolios in a longitudinal setting. For Study 4, a diary including both qualitative and quantitative measures was designed to capture veterinary students interest experience. Qualitative content analysis was applied in all four studies, but quantitative analyses were also added. The thesis showed that university students often explain their disciplinary choices in terms of interest. Because interest is related to high-quality learning, the students seemed to have a good foundation for successful studies. However, the learning environments did not always support interest-based studying; Time-management and coping skills were found to be more important than interest in terms of study success. The results also indicated that interest is not the only motivational variable behind university studies. For example, future goals are needed in order to complete a degree. Even so, the results clearly indicated that it would be worth supporting interest-based studying both in professionally and generally oriented study fields. This support is important not only to promote high-quality learning but also meaningful studying, student well-being, and life-long learning.

Minimal sets of generators for the relation ideals of certain monomial curves

Let O be a monomial curve in the affine algebraic e-space over a field K and P be the relation ideal of O. If O is defined by a sequence of e positive integers some e - 1 of which form an arithmetic sequence then we construct a minimal set of generators for P and write an explicit formula for mu(P).

Xenon in sodium Y zeolite. 2. Arrhenius relation, mechanism, and barrier height distribution for cage-to-cage diffusion

Various geometrical and energetic distribution functions and other properties connected with the cage-to-cage diffusion of xenon in sodium Y zeolite have been obtained from long molecular dynamics calculations. Analysis of diffusion pathways reveals two interesting mechanisms-surface-mediated and centralized modes for cage-to-cage diffusion. The surface-mediated mode of diffusion exhibits a small positive barrier, while the centralized diffusion exhibits a negative barrier for the sorbate to diffuse across the 12-ring window. In both modes, however, the sorbate has to be activated from the adsorption site to enable it to gain mobility. The centralized diffusion additionally requires the sorbate to be free of the influence of the surface of the cage as well. The overall rate for cage-to-cage diffusion shows an Arrhenius temperature dependence with E(a) = 3 kJ/mol. It is found that the decay in the dynamical correction factor occurs on a time scale comparable to the cage residence time. The distributions of barrier heights have been calculated. Functions reflecting the distribution of the sorbate-zeolite interaction at the window and the variations of the distance between the sorbate and the centers of the parent and daughter cages are presented.

Fluctuation-dissipation relation for nonlinear Langevin equations

It is shown that the fluctuation-dissipation theorem is satisfied by the solutions of a general set of nonlinear Langevin equations with a quadratic free-energy functional (constant susceptibility) and field-dependent kinetic coefficients, provided the kinetic coefficients satisfy the Onsager reciprocal relations for the irreversible terms and the antisymmetry relations for the reversible terms. The analysis employs a perturbation expansion of the nonlinear terms, and a functional integral calculation of the correlation and response functions, and it is shown that the fluctuation-dissipation relation is satisfied at each order in the expansion.

Recovery of tropical rainforest avifauna in relation to vegetation succession following shifting cultivation in Mizoram, north-east India

1. Recovery of rainforest bird community structure and composition, in relation to forest succession after slash-and-burn shifting cultivation or jhum was studied in Mizoram, north-east India. Replicate fallow sites abandoned after shifting cultivation 1, 5, 10, 25 and approximate to 100 years ago, were compared with primary evergreen and semi-evergreen forest using transect and quadrat sampling. 2. Vegetation variables such as woody plant species richness, tree density and vertical stratification increased with fallow age in a rapid. nun-linear, asymptotic manner. Principal components analysis of vegetation variables summarized 92.8% of the variation into two axes: PC1 reflecting forest development and woody plant succession (variables such as tree density, woody plant species richness), and PC2 depicting bamboo density, which increased from 1 to 25 years and declined thereafter. 3. Bird species richness, abundance and diversity, increased rapidly and asymptotically during succession paralleling vegetation recovery as shown by positive correlations with fallow age and PC1 scores of sites. Bamboo density reflected by PC2 had a negative effect on bird species richness and abundance. 4. The bird community similarity (Morisita index) of sites with primary forest also increased asymptotically with fallow age indicating sequential species turnover during succession. Bird community similarity of sites with primary forest (or between sites) was positively correlated with both physiognomic and floristic similarities with primary forest (or between sites). 5. The number of bird species in guilds associated with forest development and woody plants (canopy insectivores, frugivores: bark feeders) was correlated with PCI scores of the sites. Species in other guilds (e. g. granivores, understorey insectivores) appeared to dominate during early and mid-succession. 6. The non-linear relationships imply that fallow periods less than a threshold of 25 years for birds, and about 50-75 years for woody plants, are likely to cause substantial community alteration. 7. As 5-10-year rotation periods or jhum cycles prevail in many parts of north-east India. there is a need to protect and conserve tracts of late-successional and primary forest.

Relation between integral and partial properties of ternary solutions along different composition trajectories

The relations between partial and integral properties of ternary solutions along composition trajectories suggested by Kohler, Colinet and Jacob, and along an arbitrary path are derived. The chemical potentials of the components are related to the slope of integral free energy by expressions involving the binary compositions generated by the intersections of the composition trajectory with the sides of the ternary triangle. Only along the Kohler composition trajectory it is possible to derive the integral free energy from the variation of the chemical potential of a single component with composition or vice versa. Along all other paths the differential of the integral free energy is related to two chemical potentials. The Gibbs-Duhem integration proposed by Darken for the ternary system uses the Kohler isogram. The relative merits of different limits for integration are discussed.

The beta-glucoside genes of Klebsiella aerogenes: conservation and divergence in relation to the cryptic bgl genes of Escherichia coli

The ability to metabolize aromatic beta-glucosides such as salicin and arbutin varies among members of the Enterobacteriaceae. The ability of Escherichia coli to degrade salicin and arbutin appears to be cryptic, subject to activation of the bgl genes, whereas many members of the Klebsiella genus can metabolize these sugars. We have examined the genetic basis for beta-glucoside utilization in Klebsiella aerogenes. The Klebsiella equivalents of bglG, bglB and bglR have been cloned using the genome sequence database of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Nucleotide sequencing shows that the K. aerogenes bgl genes show substantial similarities to the E. coli counterparts. The K. aerogenes bgl genes in multiple copies can also complement E. coli mutants deficient in bglG encoding the antiterminator and bglB encoding the phospho-beta-glucosidase, suggesting that they are functional homologues. The regulatory region bglR of K aerogenes shows a high degree of similarity of the sequences involved in BglG-mediated regulation. Interestingly, the regions corresponding to the negative elements present in the E. coli regulatory region show substantial divergence in K aerogenes. The possible evolutionary implications of the results are discussed. (C) 2003 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Elsevier Science B.v. All rights reserved.