An appraisal of scientific names used in the 1915 list of lichens of the Maltese Islands by Stefano Sommier and Alfredo Caruana Gatto

In 1915 Stefano Sommier and Alfredo Caruano Gatto published a list of lichens from the Maltese islands. Since then no other lists of local lichens have been published. This work reviews the lichen names appearing in the original checklist and, where relevant, alternative names are suggested based on contemporary usage.peer-reviewe

The information efficiency of the South African corporate bond market in relation to earnings announcements

Thesis (M.M. (Finance & Investment)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Wits Business School, 2016Corporate bonds issued by the four major commercial banks in South Africa, which account for 61% of the market, and their respective earning announcements in the period 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2014 were used to analyse the reaction of daily corporate bond prices to the earnings announcements of South African companies. The reaction of the daily corporate bond prices to earnings announcements was empirically analysed using cross sectional regressions. We concluded that on average the South African corporate bond market incorporates any new information from earnings announcements. We also investigated if the asymmetrical payoff structure of corporate bonds causes daily prices to be more sensitive to bad earnings announcements than good earnings announcements. Our investigation found that daily corporate bond prices are insensitive to both bad and good earnings announcements. Lastly, we analysed if the lack of infrastructure and liquidity in the corporate bond market hinders corporate bonds in incorporating information relative to the stock market, which has better infrastructure and liquidity. We observed that both corporate bonds and stocks on average incorporate new information from earnings announcements, irrespective of illiquidity and the absence of adequate infrastructure in the South African corporate bond market,DM201

A revised appraisal of scientific names used in the 1915 list of lichens of the Maltese Islands by S. Sommier and A. Caruana Gatto

In 1915, Stefano Sommier and Alfredo Caruano Gatto published a list of lichens from the Maltese Islands. This author published an appraisal of the scientific names used in their list in 2002. The present work aims to replace the previous work given the important changes which have occurred in lichen nomenclature.peer-reviewe

Stumpage Appraisal Using Tender Price in Pahang, Peninsular Malaysia

Previous studies have shown that tropical forests are under valued. This may result in unsustainable harvest, biased against conservation and low revenue to the government. A study was conducted m the state of Pahang, Peninsula Malaysia to determine the trend and patterns of tender prices based on 277 logging transactions between the period 1993 to 1998. An analysis was also conducted to compare the actual tender price offered by the concessionaires with the estimated tender price using residual value technique for three logging compartments. Data on tender prices were collected from the Pahang State Forestry Department sales record. For the comparative analysis of tender price between actual and estimated price, data were obtained from state-own logging enterprises. These include data on timber volume, log price, logging and actual tender price. The result indicate that the average tender price offered by the concessionaires is RM6,271.44 per hectare, and the highest average tender price IS RM14,236.51 per hectare. The highest average tender prices (RM10,558.76 per hectare) is in the District of Lipis, followed by District of Jerantut (RM8,996.21). In general, the tender price has shown fluctuating trends during the study period, mainly due to economic situation and demand supply situation of log. The result from comparative analysis indicates that the concessionaires are relatively over-estimate the stumpage value, ranging from 6.4 to 20.14 percent. The study suggests that tendering would indicate full market value of a logging compartment when it is used for timber production. The estimated tender price using the residual value technique can be used to set the floor price. Further research is needed to obtain a comprehensive tendering mechanism before Implementing any police reform on forest revenue system in the state

The Morphology and Ultrastructure of Baboon Muscle Spindles, Including Fusimotor Innervation

The work of this study was concerned with looking at baboon muscle spindles both morphologically and ultrastructurally to see if these were not in fact a closer working model for the human than cat spindles, as there is evidence both histological (Cooper and Daniel 1963, Swash and Fox 1972) and electrophysiological (Hagbarth 1981, Vallbo 1981) that there are differences between human and cat muscle spindles. Seven baboon lumbrical muscles were examined with the light microscope and the general morphology of muscle spindles determined. Twenty-seven of these were studied in more detail, particular emphasis being paid to the elastic fibre distribution within the spindles. Three spindles were also studied ultrastructurally, two of these having been used in earlier electrophysiological experiments. The results show that in terms of intrafusal fibre content and size, baboon muscle spindles are similar to those found in humans and cats. The elastic fibre distribution however, which is a useful means of identifying the static bag2 fibre in the cat, is not a reliable method in baboon spindles and in this respect is more like that found in human spindles. The M-line distribution in baboon spindles is similar to that found in other mammals and is a useful means of identifying the static bag2 fibre. The motor endings in baboon spindles are similar to those found in the cat but there may be a species variation in the nuclear chain fibre endings

Proceedings of the 1994 Monterey Workshop, Increasing the Practical Impact of Formal Methods for Computer-Aided Software Development: Evolution Control for Large Software Systems Techniques for Integrating Software Development Environments

Office of Naval Research, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, Naval Postgraduate School, National Science Foundatio

Rinodina gennarii Bagl., a new record of lichenized fungi for Antarctica

In a project aiming to determine the lichen biodiversity of James Ross Island which is located in the NE Antarctic Peninsula, 3 specimens growing on basaltic rocks were identified as Rinodina gennarii, a cosmopolite bipolar species which was never reported from Antarctica. This species is characteristic by having Dirinaria-type ascospores lacking a distinct torus and swelling around the septa in KOH. Detailed morphological and anatomical properties of this species along with photographs based on the Antarctic specimens are provided here. Our study and newly reported R. gennarii suggest that the lichen biodiversity of Antarctica is far from being fully known and detailed floristic and taxonomical revision studies should be carried to determine it

Cognitive Strategies for Coping with Stress in a Simulated Golf Task

This study examined the effectiveness of approach and avoidance strategies for coping with stress experienced during sports performance. Twenty two undergraduate female students whose ages ranged from 20 to 40 years participated in this experiment They were randomly assigned to four experimental groups to perform two different tasks (approach and avoidance tasks), With two coping strategies (approach and avoidance strategies) and two control groups The approach task was to putt fifteen golf balls on a man-made putting mat along a straight path, up an incline slope to reach a target hole. The avoidance task was to putt fifteen golf balls into an easy target while music and noise was played to distract subjects from the task. Subjects were then trained in either approach (mental rehearsal) or avoidance (attentional focus) strategies. The relationship between approach and avoidance coping strategies, the nature of the task, the appraisal of perceived demand and perceived capability, and their performance were examined

Stuffed MO layer as a diffusion barrier in metallizations for high temperature electronics

Auger electron spectroscopy was employed to characterize the diffusion barrier properties of molybdenum in the CrSi2/Mo/Au metallization system. The barrier action of Mo was demonstrated to persist even after 2000 hours annealing time at 300 C in a nitrogen ambient. At 340 C annealing temperature, however, rapid interdiffusion was observed to have occurred between the various metal layers after only 261 hours. The presence of controlled amounts of oxygen in the Mo layer is believed to be responsible for suppressing the short circuit interdiffusion between the thin film layers. Above 340 C, its is believed that the increase in the oxygen mobility led to deterioration of its stuffing action, resulting in the rapid interdiffusion of the thin film layers along grain boundaries

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Layered Double Hydroxides and Their Nanocomposites

A senes of hydrotalcite (HT) compounds of the type {Mg1_.rAl,(OH)2}[CO3]1.x12 mH2O had been synthesised using conventional co-precipitation method with Rd15 = Mg/ Al=1 to 10 m order to establish the relationship between composition and the basic properties it was found that pure HT compounds were obtained in the range of Rd15 =2 to 4. The materials were also synthesised by microwave-assisted method using a home cooking microwave oven at various ageing tunes, from 0 5 to 10.0 minutes.The discharged ratio of Rd15 = 3, 4, and 6 were chosen in this study. The resulting synthetic materials afford well-crystallised hydrotalcite even at a very short microwave exposure tune of about 60 minutes as compared With the conventional method that took about 18hrs. However, the conventional method gave good crystallimty. On the other hand, the microwave-assisted method gave better pore size distribution as compared to the conventional method. Better crystallImty was observed as the exposure time mcreased for all Rd15 Structural charactensations were done by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). The gram sizes and crystal stram of the materials using PXRD were calculated. Modification of hydrotalcite had also been done by replacing its among With anthraqumone-2,6-disulfanate ions (AQ26), which were present in the mterlayer of brucitelike ([Mg1-,AI.,(OH)2]") and [Zn1-.,Alx(OH)2]")..