Application of Neomysis awatschensis as a standard marine toxicity test organism in China

The small mysid crustacean Neomysis awatschensis was collected in the west coast of Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao, China in 1992 and acclimated and cultured in laboratory conditions since then. Standard acute toxicity tests using 4-6 d juvenile mysids of this species were conducted and the results were compared with Mysidopsis bahia, a standard toxicity test organism used in the US in terms of their sensitivities to reference toxins, as well as their taxonomy, morphology and geographic distributions. Because of its wide distribution along the Chinese coast, similar sensitivity to pollutants as M. bahia, short life history, small size and the case of handling, this study intended to use N. awatschensis as one of the standard marine organisms for toxicity testing in China. The species were applied to acute toxicity evaluations of drilling fluid and its additives I organotin TPT and toxic algae, and to chronic ( life cycle) toxicity assays of organotin TPT and a toxic dinofalgellate Alexandrium tamarense, respectively. Using N, awatschensis as a standard toxicity testing organism in marine pollution assessment in China is suggested.

Immune condition of Chlamys farreri in response to acute temperature challenge

The effects of acute temperature challenge on some immune parameters of haemocyte in Zhikong scallop, Chlamys farreri, recognised as a temperature sensitive bivalve species, were evaluated over a short period of time. Scallops were suddenly transferred from 17 degrees C to 11 degrees C, 23 degrees C and 28 degrees C for a period of 72 h. Total haemocyte count (THC), percentage of phagocytic haemocytes, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, acid phosphatase (ACP) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities (in both haemocyte lysate and cell-free haemolymph) were chosen as biomarkers of temperature stress. Results demonstrated that the percentage of phagocytic haemocytes and ACP activity in cell-free haemolymph of scallops challenged at 28 degrees C for 72 h significantly decreased. By contrast, reactive oxygen species production by haemocytes increased when compared to the initial values. It is concluded that haemocyte activities of C. farreri appear to be compromised when scallops were transferred from 17 degrees C to 28 degrees C. Meanwhile, no obvious negative effect of acute temperature stress was detected on haemocyte activities of C. farreri challenged at 11 degrees C, which highlighted the high tolerance of scallops to acute decrease of seawater temperatures. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Studies on the hemolytic activity of tentacle extracts of jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye: Application of orthogonal test

The present work is first reporting the hemolytic activity of venom from jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum Kishinouye extracted by different phosphate buffer solutions and incubated at different temperature according to the orthogonal test L6(1) x 3(6). Of the seven controllable independent variables, incubated temperature and phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF) had strongest effect on the hemolytic activity. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Methane aromatization in the absence of an added oxidant and the bench scale reaction test

A bench scale reaction test for methane aromatization in the absence of an added oxidant was performed and its reaction result evaluated based on the carbon balance of the system. The result was compared with those obtained from the micro-reaction test to ensure the accuracy of the internal standard analyzing method employed in this paper. The catalytic performances of modified Mo/HZSM-5 catalysts were examined. It was found that pre-treatment by steam on HZSM-5 weakened the serious deposition of coke, and pre-impregnation of n-ethyl silicate on HZSM-5 could improve the conversion of CH4, but had little effect on coke formation. A low temperature activation procedure including pre-reduction of the catalyst with methane prevents the zeolite lattice from being seriously destroyed by high valence state Mo species when the Mo loading is high. It was suggested that Mo2C species detected by XRD spectra was the active phase for CH4 aromatization.

烟草依赖者的注意偏向研究

Relapse has been a great challenge in clinical treatment and experimental studies of drug addiction. Recent studies suggest that psychological dependence may play a major role in addiction relapse, even more important than physiological dependence. Then a fundamental question arises: how to measure the psychological dependence? How to examine whether an addict has psychologically quitted when leaving drug rehabilitation centers? Self-report, a commonly used evaluation approach, is inevitably vulnerable to various cognitive influences, particularly in explicit tasks. Therefore, an objective index is necessary to evaluate the subliminal psychological drug dependence level. The objective of the current study was to develop such a psychological paradigm to probe the unaware attentional bias of in smoking addicts. Experiment 1 adapted the interocular suppression technique of binocular rivalry to study the attentional bias to cigarette pictures in smokers and age-matched nonsmoker. Results show that the smokers demonstrated similar attentional bias in both visible and unaware conditions, while non-smokers showed attentional bias only in the visible condition, and there was a significant interaction between experiment conditions and subject groups. These results provide compelling evidence for addiction-specific attentional bias in cigarette smokers, by minimizing the influence of confounding conscious factors. Furthermore, attentional bias of smokers in unawareness state was negatively correlated with their cigarette dependence levels, while their pre-test cigarette craving levels was positively correlated with their attnetional bias in the visible condition. This pair of correlations further demonstrated the advantages of unawareness state in disclosing stable dependence states, therefore supporting the effectiveness of the paradigm used in this study. Another interesting finding of Experiment 1 is that non-smokers also showed attentional bias in the visible condition. To exclude the possibility that the attentional bias found in experiment 1 was task-specific, experiment 2 adapted the most commonly-used visual dot probe task with smoking scenes as in relevant reference. The result in experiment 1 was well replicated, i.e., nonsmokers in experiment 2 also showed significant attentional bias to smoking-related stimuli, We interpenetrate this interesting finding as an effect of environmental influence, as the participants of the current study live in a highly smoking-exposed and smoking-encouraged environment, which is quite different with the participants of studies reported in the literature. A series of questionnaires and scales administered in the current study indeed show that most smokers smoked due to influence of the environment. They also acknowledged that smoking as an important media of social communication in China, and even considered that away from the smoking environment would effectively help them to quit. The current study also found that the disgust level towards cigarette pictures and smoking-related scenes of non-smokers was positively correlated with their attnentional bias in the visible condition of experiment 1. It is likely that in a highly smoking-encouraged environment, the remaining few on-smokers have severe disgust to cigarettes and smoking scenes; and their attentional bias might be caused by disgust avoidance. In conclusion, the current study represents the first study showing the existence of unaware attentional bias to smoking related stimuli in cigarette smokers by applying the interocular suppression paradigm, providing a reference to study of dependence of other drugs. The current study also found that our non-smoking participants also showed attentional bias to smoking related stimuli, which may be due to the possible influence of highly smoking-exposed environment of our participants.

Test Generation Guided Design for Testability

This thesis presents a new approach to building a design for testability (DFT) system. The system takes a digital circuit description, finds out the problems in testing it, and suggests circuit modifications to correct those problems. The key contributions of the thesis research are (1) setting design for testability in the context of test generation (TG), (2) using failures during FG to focus on testability problems, and (3) relating circuit modifications directly to the failures. A natural functionality set is used to represent the maximum functionalities that a component can have. The current implementation has only primitive domain knowledge and needs other work as well. However, armed with the knowledge of TG, it has already demonstrated its ability and produced some interesting results on a simple microprocessor.

Electrode catalysts behavior during direct ethanol fuel cell life-time test

In the present paper, a 60 h life-time test of a direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) at a current density of 20 mA cm(-2) (the beginning 38 h) and 40 mA cm(-2) (the last 22 h) was carried out. After the life-time test, the MEA could not achieve the former performance. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) were employed to characterize the anode and cathode catalyst before and after the life-time test. The XRD and TEM results showed that the particle size of the anode catalyst increased from 2.3 to 3.3 nm and the cathode from 3.0 to 4.6 nm. The EDX results of PtSn/C anode catalysts before and after the life-time test indicated that the content of the oxygen and tin, especially the content of the platinum, decreased prominently after the life-time test. The results suggest that the agglomeration of electrocatalysts, the destruction of the anode catalyst together with the fuel/water crossover from anode to cathode concurrently contribute to the performance degradation of the DEFC. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Girolando breed genetic improvement program - Sire summary - Progeny test results - July/2015.

The Girolando breed progeny test was established in 1997, as a result of the partnership between Girolando and Embrapa Dairy Cattle. In 2007, the Programa de Melhoramento Genético da Raça Girolando? PMGG (Genetic Improvement Program of the Girolando Breed) was implemented. Besides interacting with previously existing initiatives of the Girolando Breeders Association, such as the genealogical register service, the progeny test and the dairy control service, the PMGG launched the Linear Evaluation System (SLAG). The main objectives of the PMGG comprises identification of genetically superior individuals, the technically-oriented multiplication of genetics, the evaluation of economic traits and the promotion of sustainable dairy activities. The program have yielded impressive results. The Girolando breed semen sales increases faster than any other breed in Brazil.

Test document - Investigation into the supply and demand of breakfast muffins in Paris hotels.

This survey was undertaken by the film crew accompanying Cary Grant when making the film "Charade" in 1963.

On the use of qualitative reasoning to simulate and identify metabolic pathways

King, R.D., Garrett, S.M., Coghill, G.M. (2005). On the use of qualitative reasoning to simulate and identify metabolic pathways. Bioinformatics 21(9):2017-2026 RAE2008

Moving Communities of Practice forward: the challenge for the National electronic Library for Health and its Virtual Branch Libraries

Yeoman, A., Urquhart, C. & Sharp, S. (2003). Moving Communities of Practice forward: the challenge for the National electronic Library for Health and its Virtual Branch Libraries. Health Informatics Journal, 9(4), 241-252. Previously appeared as a conference paper for the iSHIMR2003 conference (Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Health Information Management Research, June 1-3, 2003, Boras, Sweden) Sponsorship: NHS Information Authority/National electronic Library for Health

A 3-min all-out test to determine peak oxygen uptake and the maximal steady state

Burnley, M., Doust, J., Vanhatalo, A., A 3-min all-out test to determine peak oxygen uptake and the maximal steady state, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 38(11):1995-2003, November 2006. RAE2008