Efficient synthesis of benzothiazine and acrylamide compounds

This article describes the synthesis of the new (2Z)-2-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-6-nitro-4H -benzo[1,4]thiazin-3-one, (2Z)-2-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-methyl-6-nitro-4H-benzo[1,4]thiazin-3-one, (2Z)-6-amino-2-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4H -benzo[1,4]thiazin-3-one, (2Z)-6-butylamino-2-(4-methoxybenzylidene)-4-methyl-4H-benzo[1,4]-thiazin-3-one and (2E)-N-alkyl-N-(2-hydroxy-5-nitrophenyl)-3-phenylacrylamides and the spectroscopic data. The arylidenebenzothiazine compounds were prepared using the Knoevenagel condensation with substituted benzaldehydes in the presence of sodium methoxide in DMF. The presence of a nitro substituent in the 4-position, water and a slightly acid reaction medium in this condensation caused the rupture of the benzothiazine ring and subsequent formation of the phenylacrylamide compounds. A crystallographic data was presented for (2E)-3-(4-bromophenyl)-N-dodecyl-N -(2-hydroxy-5-nitrophenyl) acrylamide.

Synthesis, antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of 5-benzylidene-2-[(pyridine-4-ylmethylene)hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-one and 2-[(pyridine-4-ylmethylene) hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-one derivatives

A new series of 5-benzylidene-2-[(pyridine-4-ylmethylene)hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-ones 4a-l have been synthesized. These compounds were designed by a molecular hybridization approach. 2-[(Pyridine-4-ylmethylene)hydrazono]-thiazolidin-4-ones 3a-d were also obtained and used as intermediates to give the target compounds. The in vitro antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities were evaluated for both series. The intermediate 3b showed considerable antibiotic activity against B. subtilis and C. albicans. In the cytotoxic activity compounds 3b (IC50= 4.25 ± 0.36 µg/mL) and 4l (IC50= 1.38 ± 0.04 µg/mL) were effective for inhibition of human erythromyeloblastoid leukemia (K-562) and human lung carcinoma (NCI-H292) cell lines, respectively.

Self-condensation of n-(N-propyl)butanimine: NMR and mass spectral analyses and investigation by theoretical calculation

The stability of N-propylbutanimine (1) was investigated under different experimental conditions. The acid-catalyzed self-condensation that produced the E-enimine (4) and Z-inimine (5) was studied by experimental analyses and theoretical calculations. Since the calculations for the energy of 5 indicated that it had a lower energy than 4, yet 4 was the principal product, the self-condensation of 1 must be kinetically controlled.

Effect of population densities of Heterodera glycines race 3 on leaf area, photosynthesis and yield of soybean

The effect of Heterodera glycines on photosynthesis, leaf area and yield of soybean (Glycine max) was studied in two experiments carried out under greenhouse condition. Soybean seeds were sown in 1.5 l (Experiment 1) or 5.0 l (Experiment 2) clay pots filled with a mixture of field soil + sand (1:1) sterilized with methyl bromide. Eight days after sowing, seedlings were thinned to one per pot, and one day later inoculated with 0; 1.200; 3.600; 10.800; 32.400 or 97.200 J2 juveniles of H. glycines. Experiment 1 was carried out during the first 45 days of the inoculation while Experiment 2 was conducted during the whole cycle of the crop. Measurements of photosynthetic rate, stomatic conductance, chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf color, leaf area, and chlorophyll leaf content were taken at ten-day intervals throughout the experiments. Data on fresh root weight, top dry weight, grain yield, number of eggs/gram of roots, and nematode reproduction factor were obtained at the end of the trials. Each treatment was replicated ten times. There was a marked reduction in both photosynthetic rate and chlorophyll content, as well as an evident yellowing of the leaves of the infected plants. Even at the lowest Pi, the effects of H. glycines on the top dry weight or grain yield were quite severe. Despite the parasitism, soybean yield was highly correlated with the integrated leaf area and, accordingly, the use of this parameter was suggested for the design of potential damage prediction models that include physiological aspects of nematode-diseased plants.

"All for one and one for all" Kuinka yhteiskuntavastuu - viestintä on muuttunut suomalaisten pörssiyhtiöiden vuosikertomuksissa vuodesta 2004 vuoteen 2008

Tutkin kandidaatin tutkielmassani yhteiskuntavastuuviestintää suomalaisten pörssiyhtiöiden vuosikertomuksissa 2004. Tutkimus osoitti, että viestintä on hyvin eritasoista eri yrityksissä. Valveutuneet yhteiskuntavastuuviestijät käyttivät kolmen pilarin mallia kategorioidessaan toimintaansa. Selkeästi oli havaittavissa myös toimialakohtaisia eroja. Tässä tutkimuksessa jatkan samalla aihepiirillä selvittämällä sitä, kuinka Helsingin pörssissä listattujen yhtiöiden yhteiskuntavastuuviestintä on muuttunut kun verrataan vuoden 2004 ja 2008 vuosikertomuksia toisiinsa. Tutkimusmetodi on kvalitatiivinen. Diskurssianalyysin keinoin selvitän miten yritykset viestivät vastuullisuudestaan. Tutkimus osoittaa, että yhteiskuntavastuuviestintä ei ole edelleenkään jokaisen yhtiön intresseissä. Yrityksistä noin kaksi kolmesta viestii jotain yhteiskuntavastuun alueeseen liittyvää. Ward on hieman vähentynyt vuodesta 2004. Näistä yrityksistä vastaavasti noin kahdella kolmesta yhteiskuntavastuutoiminta on johdettua ja tavoitteellista tämä näkyy korkealaatuisena yhteiskuntavastuuviestintänä. Taantuma vuosikertomuksissa näkyi etenkin taloudellisen vastuun lisääntyneenä raportointina.

Heating control of an electrical motor

Electrical motors on a ship attackable to different factors which decrease these lifetimes. One of the main external factors on a ship which usually is a reason of the motor failure is a moisture condensation which decreases the motor winding insulation and increase a probability of the short circuit. Therefore, the protection against moisture is necessary for ship electrical motors. The motor should be protected against moisture all time when it does not operate. The necessity of such protection requires a lot of energy consumption. This master’s thesis is focused on the creation of the electrical motor thermal model and on the different methods of the motor protection against moisture analysis with energy consumption point of view.

On Undecidable Dynamical Properties of Reversible One-Dimensional Cellular Automata

Cellular automata are models for massively parallel computation. A cellular automaton consists of cells which are arranged in some kind of regular lattice and a local update rule which updates the state of each cell according to the states of the cell's neighbors on each step of the computation. This work focuses on reversible one-dimensional cellular automata in which the cells are arranged in a two-way in_nite line and the computation is reversible, that is, the previous states of the cells can be derived from the current ones. In this work it is shown that several properties of reversible one-dimensional cellular automata are algorithmically undecidable, that is, there exists no algorithm that would tell whether a given cellular automaton has the property or not. It is shown that the tiling problem of Wang tiles remains undecidable even in some very restricted special cases. It follows that it is undecidable whether some given states will always appear in computations by the given cellular automaton. It also follows that a weaker form of expansivity, which is a concept of dynamical systems, is an undecidable property for reversible one-dimensional cellular automata. It is shown that several properties of dynamical systems are undecidable for reversible one-dimensional cellular automata. It shown that sensitivity to initial conditions and topological mixing are undecidable properties. Furthermore, non-sensitive and mixing cellular automata are recursively inseparable. It follows that also chaotic behavior is an undecidable property for reversible one-dimensional cellular automata.

One reason, several logics

Humans have used arguments for defending or refuting statements long before the creation of logic as a specialized discipline. This can be interpreted as the fact that an intuitive notion of "logical consequence" or a psychic disposition to articulate reasoning according to this pattern is present in common sense, and logic simply aims at describing and codifying the features of this spontaneous capacity of human reason. It is well known, however, that several arguments easily accepted by common sense are actually "logical fallacies", and this indicates that logic is not just a descriptive, but also a prescriptive or normative enterprise, in which the notion of logical consequence is defined in a precise way and then certain rules are established in order to maintain the discourse in keeping with this notion. Yet in the justification of the correctness and adequacy of these rules commonsense reasoning must necessarily be used, and in such a way its foundational role is recognized. Moreover, it remains also true that several branches and forms of logic have been elaborated precisely in order to reflect the structural features of correct argument used in different fields of human reasoning and yet insufficiently mirrored by the most familiar logical formalisms.

The effectiveness of short-term literacy skills intervention on children at risk of reading and writing difficulties in Tanzania : a study of grade one children with dynamic assessment approach

The aim of the study was to create and evaluate an intervention programme for Tanzanian children from a low-income area who are at risk of reading and writing difficulties. The learning difficulties, including reading and writing difficulties, are likely to be behind many of the common school problems in Tanzania, but they are not well understood, and research is needed. The design of the study included an identification and intervention phase with follow-up. A group based dynamic assessment approach was used in identifying children at risk of difficulties in reading and writing. The same approach was used in the intervention. The study was a randomized experiment with one experimental and two control groups. For the experimental and the control groups, a total of 96 (46 girls and 50 boys) children from grade one were screened out of 301 children from two schools in a low income urban area of Dar-es-Salaam. One third of the children, the experimental group, participated in an intensive training programme in literacy skills for five weeks, six hours per week, aimed at promoting reading and writing ability, while the children in the control groups had a mathematics and art programme. Follow-up was performed five months after the intervention. The intervention programme and the tests were based on the Zambian BASAT (Basic Skill Assessment Tool, Ketonen & Mulenga, 2003), but the content was drawn from the Kiswahili school curriculum in Tanzania. The main components of the training and testing programme were the same, only differing in content. The training process was different from traditional training in Tanzanian schools in that principles of teaching and training in dynamic assessment were followed. Feedback was the cornerstone of the training and the focus was on supporting the children in exploring knowledge and strategies in performing the tasks. The experimental group improved significantly more (p = .000) than the control groups during the intervention from pre-test to follow-up (repeated measures ANOVA). No differences between the control groups were noticed. The effect was significant on all the measures: phonological awareness, reading skills, writing skills and overall literacy skills. A transfer effect on school marks in Kiswahili and English was found. Following a discussion of the results, suggestions for further research and adaptation of the programme are presented.

Karneval i klassrum – kunskap på hjul : en studie av elevers möten med clown analyserade med narrativ metod och poetisk etnografi

The aim of this study is to contribute to the knowledge about learning in and through art related to pupils’ study processes developing clown characters in secondary school. The pre understanding of this qualitative piece of micro ethnographic research is that the elaboration of clown has openness to play, creative activity and imagination. The art form clown inspires and motivates. The clown character creates a kind and friendly atmosphere, calls upon smile, which promotes learning. It is an art form promoting deep and personal reflection and evoking questions regarding identity formation. The pre understanding finally is that existential themes are brought to articulation in the art form clown. The problem formulation for the hermeneutic phenomenological study is an exploration of the meaning potential of an arts educational work with clown from the pupils’ as well as the teacher’s perspective. The study elaborates the following research questions: 1.) How are the pupils staging themselves in the work with clown? a) How are they constructing the clown character? b) How do they reflect upon their construction? c) What are the characteristics of the working process in the elaboration of clown? 2.) What is characteristic of the teacher’s contribution to the arts educational work? 3.) What is characteristic of the meaning making in the elaboration of clown? One group of 21 pupils and their drama teacher in a Swedish secondary school in six workshops (each one 90 minutes) elaborating the clown theme is the group under study through video observation, interviews, students’ logs and drawings, teacher log and researcher’s field notes. The theoretical framework comprises three perspectives on clown: a perspective on the culture of carnival, a drama education perspective and a performance perspective. Through a content analysis of texts about clown a set of characteristics for the clown is used as analytical concepts in the subsequent analysis of the pupils’ working process when they create three clown characters: August, the white clown and the bag lady. The results are presented as fictive narratives built on the video observations and the interviews. The presentation is brought to even more condensation through poetic ethnographic writing of haiku poems by the researcher. This ethnographic writing is idiomatic to the art form under study, and can be seen as a metaphorical meta commentary to the narratives. As a main result the researcher has developed a model describing the different aspects of the clown characters and the meaning potential of the clown as learning regarding exploration of identity and elaboration of existential questions regarding life, loneliness, love, religion and death.

The Changing Nature of Library Networks - Open Data or One Big Silo?

Anders Söderbäckin esitys Kirjastoverkkopäivillä 26.10.2011 Helsingissä.

CFD Modelling of Direct Contact Condensation in Suppression Pools by Applying Condensation Models of Separated Flow

The condensation rate has to be high in the safety pressure suppression pool systems of Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) in order to fulfill their safety function. The phenomena due to such a high direct contact condensation (DCC) rate turn out to be very challenging to be analysed either with experiments or numerical simulations. In this thesis, the suppression pool experiments carried out in the POOLEX facility of Lappeenranta University of Technology were simulated. Two different condensation modes were modelled by using the 2-phase CFD codes NEPTUNE CFD and TransAT. The DCC models applied were the typical ones to be used for separated flows in channels, and their applicability to the rapidly condensing flow in the condensation pool context had not been tested earlier. A low Reynolds number case was the first to be simulated. The POOLEX experiment STB-31 was operated near the conditions between the ’quasi-steady oscillatory interface condensation’ mode and the ’condensation within the blowdown pipe’ mode. The condensation models of Lakehal et al. and Coste & Lavi´eville predicted the condensation rate quite accurately, while the other tested ones overestimated it. It was possible to get the direct phase change solution to settle near to the measured values, but a very high resolution of calculation grid was needed. Secondly, a high Reynolds number case corresponding to the ’chugging’ mode was simulated. The POOLEX experiment STB-28 was chosen, because various standard and highspeed video samples of bubbles were recorded during it. In order to extract numerical information from the video material, a pattern recognition procedure was programmed. The bubble size distributions and the frequencies of chugging were calculated with this procedure. With the statistical data of the bubble sizes and temporal data of the bubble/jet appearance, it was possible to compare the condensation rates between the experiment and the CFD simulations. In the chugging simulations, a spherically curvilinear calculation grid at the blowdown pipe exit improved the convergence and decreased the required cell count. The compressible flow solver with complete steam-tables was beneficial for the numerical success of the simulations. The Hughes-Duffey model and, to some extent, the Coste & Lavi´eville model produced realistic chugging behavior. The initial level of the steam/water interface was an important factor to determine the initiation of the chugging. If the interface was initialized with a water level high enough inside the blowdown pipe, the vigorous penetration of a water plug into the pool created a turbulent wake which invoked the chugging that was self-sustaining. A 3D simulation with a suitable DCC model produced qualitatively very realistic shapes of the chugging bubbles and jets. The comparative FFT analysis of the bubble size data and the pool bottom pressure data gave useful information to distinguish the eigenmodes of chugging, bubbling, and pool structure oscillations.

Longitudinal distribution of bean seeds in horizontal plate meter operating with one or two seed outlets

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of horizontal plate meter with oblong holes operating with one or two seed outlets at different speeds over the accuracy of longitudinal distribution of common bean seeds (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). The experiment was performed in laboratory using the meter with one and two seed outlet points in relation to ten tangential disk plate speeds (0.03 to 0.30 m s-1). It was used a complete randomized design with four replications, summing up 80 experimental treatments. Tangential speed quantitative factor was estimated through a 2nd order polynomial regression. There was no significant difference in the behavior of the seed meter operating with one or two outlets in the metering of bean seeds in all tested speeds, with percentage of single seeds spacing over 60% in tangential speeds below of 0.24 m s-1.

Heat loss in one day old pullets inside a hatchery

After hatching, pullets are transported to brooding area and vaccinated. One day old chicks have not already developed thermoregulation ability; thus, brooding temperature variations may affect pullet quality leading to broiler meat production losses. This research aimed to calculate sensible heat loss in one day old pullets in hatching area and vaccination room. Ten one day old pullets were randomly selected from hatching area of a commercial hatchery. Infrared images were used to calculate bird surface temperature. Exposure areas for the two conditions were quantified, and both air temperature and wind speed was recorded. Total sensible heat loss was calculated as heat loss by radiation plus heat loss by convection. It was found that heat transfer occurs in different ways at different bird body parts. Total heat loss found for hatching baskets was equivalent to 0.81 J s-1 while for vaccination room was 1.16 J s-1. Pullet nutrition is based on energy loss from brooding to farm, and the overall pullet heat loss from hatchery to farm accepted is 13.95 J s-1. Thus, "starter feed" has relevant excess of energy input. These findings indicate that less energy can be used in initial feed, once heat loss is lower than assumed nowadays. Improved knowledge on these conditions may enhance broiler farm feeding strategies and economics during first rearing week.