Danse Macabre: Origins, Evolution, and Execution

The Danse Macabre is an allegory in which all living things -grand and otherwise -are equally escorted to death’s embrace. Most cultures, from ancient to contemporary, have a belief in an afterlife and interpreted death through funerary practices and religious artwork. Such spirituality associated with Danse Macabre is especially influential within the arts, such as visual storytelling. Two series in particular, FaustFall and Cardinal Junction, incorporate the Danse Macabre allegory through its implementation into accompanying concepts: like the Faustian archetype, the Gothic narrative, and the Byronic hero. Through exploring the Danse Macabre within their dystopian narratives, the notion of a hereafter is emphasized as an integral component within their natural laws. These spiritual ideals perpetuate the Christian concept of death and influence one’s uncertain thought towards dying as a respected inevitability within the natural cycle of creation

Effects of Hypoxia and Elevated Ammonia Concentration on the Viability of Red Snapper Embryos and Early Larvae

The effects of hypoxic conditions and elevated ammonia concentrations on the viability of embryos and newly hatched larvae of the red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) were investigated. In all experiments, tested levels of hypoxia or ammonia concentrationswere applied to embryos and unfed newly hatched larvae from three different spawns. Exposures began at 1 h post fertilization (pf) and lasted until all individuals in a group had expired. Survival rates were monitored daily in duplicates for each spawn in each treatment. Fertilized eggs exposed to 2 mg L-1 dissolved oxygen (29% saturation) showed complete mortality before hatch while 81% of embryos in control groups (\u3e85% saturation) hatched and subsequently maintained high survival until 5 days pf. Exposure to a moderate hypoxia (target 3 mg L-1, 43% saturation) reduced significantly the hatch rate and subsequent survival rates; the magnitude of the difference in survival rate between control and exposed groups increased from 10% at hatch to 45% at 5 days pf. When oxygen concentration was maintained high (83% saturation) until 36 h pf and then progressively reduced to reach 3 mg L-1 at 2 days pf, the survival of exposed embryos and larvae did not differ significantly from those recorded in control groups, although potential delayed or cumulative effects of the treatment after 4 days pf could not be evaluated in this experiment. Embryos exposed to 10 mg L-1 total ammonia (TA-N), which corresponded to unionized ammonia (UIA-N) concentrations ranging between 0.307 and 0.468 mg L-1 in the conditions of the experiment, exhibited significantly reduced hatch rates and complete mortality between 3 and 4 days pf; the latter period corresponds to the onset of exogenous feeding of red snapper. In contrast, control groups (TA-N \u3c 0.26 mg L-1, UIA-N \u3c 0.006 mg L-1) maintained high survival rates beyond 5 days pf indicating potential to successfully initiate exogenous feeding. Exposure to 1 mg L-1 TA-N (0.020 mg L-1 \u3c UIA-N \u3c 0.054 mg L-1) did not alter significantly survival with respect to control groups. Significant interactions between the spawn and the tolerance to hypoxia or elevated ammonia were detected in both experiments, indicating that variations among spawns need to be accounted for when determining safe levels for hatchery production. Statement of relevance Achieving a reliable supply of high quality eggs and larvae is one of the main challenges of the developing marine aquaculture industry. Most studies to date have focused on maternal determinants of egg quality but the viability of embryos and newly hatched larvae can be impacted after fertilization if environmental conditions become unfavorable due to intensive hatchery conditions; this topic is poorly documented in marine fishes to date. This study provides data on the effects of two major stressors acting under high density culture (hypoxia and elevated ammonia concentration) on embryos and newly hatched larvae of the red snapper; the results highlight the importance to consider variations among spawns/parents when determining safe levels for hatchery production and also the high sensitivity of red snapper to these stresses, suggesting that this topic should be investigated in other marine offshore species. Relevance of the research to commercial aquaculture. The research contributes to control egg quality. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Dynamics of a tunable superfluid junction

We study the population dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a double-well potential throughout the crossover from Josephson dynamics to hydrodynamics. At barriers higher than the chemical potential, we observe slow oscillations well described by a Josephson model. In the limit of low barriers, the fundamental frequency agrees with a simple hydrodynamic model, but we also observe a second, higher frequency. A full numerical simulation of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation giving the frequencies and amplitudes of the observed modes between these two limits is compared to the data and is used to understand the origin of the higher mode. Implications for trapped matter-wave interferometers are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; v3: Journal reference added, minor changes to tex

Is Big Data for everyone? The challenges of Big Data adoption in SMEs

The aim of this paper is to present an investigative study on the concept of Big Data and its challenges towards implementation in manufacturing SMEs. Big Data aims to facilitate the collaborative approach in SMEs through the creation of real time data visualization to address key challenges to many of the market variations for every sector SMEs. Although, earlier research studies have highlighted the importance of Big Data from technological perspectives, this study focuses towards SMEs due to its feasibility and flexibility within the market space. This research aims to investigate the use of case study approach for the re-use, adoption and understanding of strategic future direction from the findings. The findings and early analysis from this paper could be referred by researchers when addressing the use of big data analytics within manufacturing SMEs. Finally, the paper provides a key strategic point towards the exploration of Big Data within SMEs

Корекція якості систем стабілізації

Considered the methods of determining the desired frequency characteristics of the stabilizationsystems of the inertial control objects while the synthesis of their corrective devicesРассмотрены способы определения желаемых частотных характеристик систем стабилизации инерционныхобъектов управления при синтезе их корректирующих устройствРозглянуто способи визначення бажаних частотних характеристик систем стабілізації інерційних об’єктів керування під час синтезу їх коригувальних пристрої

Transverse Demagnetization Dynamics of a Unitary Fermi Gas

Understanding the quantum dynamics of strongly interacting fermions is a problem relevant to diverse forms of matter, including high-temperature superconductors, neutron stars, and quark-gluon plasma. An appealing benchmark is offered by cold atomic gases in the unitary limit of strong interactions. Here we study the dynamics of a transversely magnetized unitary Fermi gas in an inhomogeneous magnetic field. We observe the demagnetization of the gas, caused by diffusive spin transport. At low temperatures, the diffusion constant saturates to the conjectured quantum-mechanical lower bound $\simeq \hbar/m$, where $m$ is the particle mass. The development of pair correlations, indicating the transformation of the initially non-interacting gas towards a unitary spin mixture, is observed by measuring Tan's contact parameter.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted versio

Insecticidal activities of diketopiperazines of Nomuraea rileyi entomopathogenic fungus

Entomopathogenic fungi are fungal organisms extensively used in various parts of the world as biopesticides against insect pests that cause important economic damage. Various secondary metabolites produced by these fungi have many potential biological activities. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the insecticidal activity of extracts and pure compounds from Nomuraea rileyi (Farlow) Samson entomopathogenic fungi against Spodoptera frugiperda Smith (Lepidoptera), Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann (Diptera) and Tribolium castaneum Herbst (Coleoptera), three insect pests that generate serious economic losses in the northwest of Argentina. Diketopiperazines were extracted from the culture free supernatant of the media with ethyl acetate. Antifeedant properties were detected in all extracts under dietary choice conditions (300 ug/ g of diet). The maximum antifeedant activity was noted in cycles (Pro-Val) (86.02) and cycle (Pro-Phe) (73.47), while the rest of the extracts and metabolites exhibited varying degrees of moderate or less toxic effects. The maximum oviposition deterrence against C. capitata (55.86%) was recorded with cycle (Pro-Phe) at a 50 µm/cm2 dose. Culture medium extracts supplemented with insect remains and all pure compounds showed repellent action against T. castaneum. The main repellency was observed in phenylacetic acid and cycle (Pro-Val) with RI values of 42 and 41% respectively. The present study would suggest the possible utilization of entomopathogenic fungal metabolites as an effective agent for controlling insect pests that cause important economic losses

Liquid Crystal-Solid Interface Structure at the Antiferroelectric-Ferroelectric Phase Transition

Total Internal Reflection (TIR) is used to probe the molecular organization at the surface of a tilted chiral smectic liquid crystal at temperatures in the vicinity of the bulk antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition. Data are interpreted using an exact analytical solution of a real model for ferroelectric order at the surface. In the mixture T3, ferroelectric surface order is expelled with the bulk ferroelectric-antiferroelectric transition. The conditions for ferroelectric order at the surface of an antiferroelectric bulk are presented