Concreteness, context-availability, and image-ability ratings and word associations for abstract, concrete, and emotion words.

Normative values on various word characteristics were obtained for abstract, concrete, and emotion words in order to facilitate research on concreteness effects and on the similarities and differences among the three word types. A sample of 78 participants rated abstract, concrete, and emotion words on concreteness, context availability,and imagery scales, Word associations were also gathered for abstract, concrete, and emotion words. The data were used to investigate similarities and differences among these three word types on word attributes, association strengths, and number of associations. These normative data can be used to further research on concreteness effects, word type effects, and word recognition for abstract, concrete, and emotion words

Induction of apple defense genes by Erwinia amylovora and biological control agents

Fire blight is a serious disease of apple and pear trees caused by the bacterium, Erwinia amylovora. This bacterium harbors a pathogenesis mechanism known as the Hrp secretory operon which induces some resistance genes and suppresses other resistance genes in the host plant following invasion. While previous researchers analyzed expression of defense genes in apple flowers on detached branches maintained in water (Venisse et al 2002), I used a novel method to examine gene induction in flowers on whole trees. In addition to an avirulent mutant of the pathogen, I also applied biological control agents of fire blight Pseudomonas fluorescens A506 and Pantoea agglomerans C9-1 to flowers to analyze the defense response of apple trees to nonpathogenic epiphytic bacteria. Plant resistance-related proteins were induced early after inoculation with the bacterial treatments, confirming that these genes are part of an immediate defense response. However, since the regulation of genes expressing enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway, chalcone synthase and chalcone isomerase, was not limited as a response to colonization by Erwinia amylovora, the expression of these genes may not be dependent on a hrp cluster. The difference in results from previous research may illustrate the variability of plant defense behavior in a changing environment

Bifurcated polarization rotation in bismuth-based piezoelectrics

ABO3 perovskite-type solid solutions display a large variety of structural and physical properties, which can be tuned by chemical composition or external parameters such as temperature, pressure, strain, electric, or magnetic fields. Some solid solutions show remarkably enhanced physical properties including colossal magnetoresistance or giant piezoelectricity. It has been recognized that structural distortions, competing on the local level, are key to understanding and tuning these remarkable properties, yet, it remains a challenge to experimentally observe such local structural details. Here, from neutron pair-distribution analysis, a temperature-dependent 3D atomic-level model of the lead-free piezoelectric perovskite Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 (NBT) is reported. The statistical analysis of this model shows how local distortions compete, how this competition develops with temperature, and, in particular, how different polar displacements of Bi3+ cations coexist as a bifurcated polarization, highlighting the interest of Bi-based materials in the search for new lead-free piezoelectrics

Imaging Sources with Fast and Slow Emission Components

We investigate two-proton correlation functions for reactions in which fast dynamical and slow evaporative proton emission are both present. In such cases, the width of the correlation peak provides the most reliable information about the source size of the fast dynamical component. The maximum of the correlation function is sensitive to the relative yields from the slow and fast emission components. Numerically inverting the correlation function allows one to accurately disentangle fast dynamical from slow evaporative emission and extract details of the shape of the two-proton source.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Hydrodynamic emission of strange and non-strange particles at RHIC and LHC

The hydrodynamic model is used to describe the single-particle spectra and elliptic flow of hadrons at RHIC and to predict the emission angle dependence of HBT correlations at RHIC and LHC energies.Comment: 6 pages LaTeX, 3 postscript figures. Proceedings for the conference "Strange Quark Matter 2003", Atlantic Beach, NC, March 12-17, 2003, to appear in J. Phys.

System-size dependence of the pion freeze-out volume as a potential signature for the phase transition to a Quark Gluon Plasma

Hanburry-Brown-Twiss (HBT) correlation functions and radii of negatively charged pions from C+C, Si+Si, Cu+Cu, and In+In at lower RHIC/SPS energies are calculated with the UrQMD transport model and the CRAB analyzing program. We find a minimum in the excitation function of the pion freeze-out volume at low transverse momenta and around $E_{lab}\sim 20-30A$GeV which can be related to the transition from hadronic to string matter (which might be interpreted as a pre-cursor of the QGP). The existence of the minimum is explained by the competition of two mechanisms of the particle production, resonance decays and string formation/fragmentation.Comment: 12 pages, 4 fig

SAMI - A new multi-object IFS for the Anglo-Australian telescope

SAMI (Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph) has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of galaxies, with spatially-resolved spectroscopy of large numbers of targets. It is the first on-sky application of innovative photonic imaging bundles called hexabundles, which will remove the aperture effects that have biased previous single-fibre multi-object astronomical surveys. The hexabundles have lightly-fused circular multi-mode cores with a covering fraction of ∼ 73%. The thirteen hexabundles in SAMI, each have 61 fibre cores, and feed into the AAOmega spectrograph at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). SAMI was installed at the AAT in July 2011 and the first commissioning results prove the effectiveness of hexabundles on sky. A galaxy survey of several thousand galaxies to z ∼ 0.1 will begin with SAMI in mid-2012

Translating Evidence-Based Guidelines into Practice—Are We Getting It Right? A Multi-Centre Prospective International Audit of Nutrition Care in Patients with Foregut Tumors (INFORM)

Malnutrition is highly prevalent in patients with foregut tumors comprising head and neck (HNC) and esophageal (EC) cancers, negatively impacting outcomes. International evidence-based guidelines (EBGs) for nutrition care exist; however, translation of research evidence into practice commonly presents considerable challenges and consequently lags. This study aimed to describe and evaluate current international nutrition care practices compared with the best-available evidence for patients with foregut tumors who are at high risk of malnutrition. A multi-centre prospective cohort study enrolled 170 patients commencing treatment of curative intent for HNC (n = 119) or EC (n = 51) in 11 cancer care settings in North America, Europe and Australia between 2016 and 2018. Adherence criteria were derived from relevant EBG recommendations with pooled results for participating centres reported according to the Nutrition Care Model at either system or patient levels. Adherence to EBG recommendations was: good (≥80%) for performing baseline nutrition screening and assessment, perioperative nutrition assessment and nutrition prescription for energy and protein targets; moderate (≥60 to 80%) for utilizing validated screening and assessment tools and pre-radiotherapy dietitian consultation; and poor (60%) for initiating post-operative nutrition support within 24 h and also dietetic consultation weekly during radiotherapy and fortnightly for 6 weeks post-radiotherapy. In conclusion, gaps in evidence-based cancer nutrition care remain; however, this may be improved by filling known evidence gaps through high-quality research with a concurrent evolution of EBGs to also encompass practical implementation guidance. These should aim to support multidisciplinary cancer clinicians to close evidence–practice gaps throughout the patient care trajectory with clearly defined roles and responsibilities that also address patient-reported concerns

Early (and Later) LHC Search Strategies for Broad Dimuon Resonances

Resonance searches generally focus on narrow states that would produce a sharp peak rising over background. Early LHC running will, however, be sensitive primarily to broad resonances. In this paper we demonstrate that statistical methods should suffice to find broad resonances and distinguish them from both background and contact interactions over a large range of previously unexplored parameter space. We furthermore introduce an angular measure we call ellipticity, which measures how forward (or backward) the muon is in eta, and allows for discrimination between models with different parity violation early in the LHC running. We contrast this with existing angular observables and demonstrate that ellipticity is superior for discrimination based on parity violation, while others are better at spin determination.Comment: 31 pages, 19 figures. References added, minor modifications made to section