A Scanning Electron Microscope and in Vitro Study of Meliola palmicola

The genus Meliola contains about 1,000 species of epiphyllic plant parasitic fungi that produce mycelia with characteristic capitate and mucronate hyphopodia. Growth of these fungi in culture or as artifical inoculations on leaves has never been reported. This paper presents some observations on the morphology of the fungus as seen with the scanning electron microscope (SEM), and some results obtained in culture studies

DD-optimal saturated designs: a simulation study

In this work we focus on saturated $D$-optimal designs. Using recent results, we identify $D$-optimal designs with the solutions of an optimization problem with linear constraints. We introduce new objective functions based on the geometric structure of the design and we compare them with the classical $D$-efficiency criterion. We perform a simulation study. In all the test cases we observe that designs with high values of $D$-efficiency have also high values of the new objective functions.Comment: 8 pages. Preliminary version submitted to the 7th IWS Proceeding

Enumeration of regular fractional factorial designs with four-level and two-level factors

Designs for screening experiments usually include factors with two levels only. Adding a few four-level factors allows for the inclusion of multi-level categorical factors or quantitative factors with possible quadratic or third-order effects. Three examples motivated us to generate a large catalog of designs with two-level factors as well as four-level factors. To create the catalog, we considered three methods. In the first method, we select designs using a search table, and in the second method, we use a procedure that selects candidate designs based on the properties of their projections into fewer factors. The third method is actually a benchmark method, in which we use a general orthogonal array enumeration algorithm. We compare the efficiencies of the new methods for generating complete sets of non-isomorphic designs. Finally, we use the most efficient method to generate a catalog of designs with up to three four-level factors and up to 20 two-level factors for run sizes 16, 32, 64, and 128. In some cases, a complete enumeration was infeasible. For these cases, we used a bounded enumeration strategy instead. We demonstrate the usefulness of the catalog by revisiting the motivating examples.Comment: 37 pages, 1 figure, 13 table

Classification of the Fungi lmperfecti

In recent years, some dissatisfaction has been expressed concerning the commonly used classification of the Fungi Imperfecti. The discontent with the present system has arisen from the fact that the characteristics used to delimit taxa (i.e. spore color and septation, arrangement of the conidiophores, etc.) often results in the separation of morphologically similar genera, while at the same time placing together what seem to be unrelated genera. The present system was proposed by Saccardo when the major interest in the Fungi Imperfecti was in their role as plant pathogens. Now these fungi are being studied more intensively than ever before, not only as plant pathogens, but also with reference to the other roles which they play in nature. Members of the imperfect fungi have been found to be among the most common of the soil fungi; they have been found to play a major role in the decomposition of military equipment; they have long been known to play an important role in food spoilage; recently, the biochemical activities of many of these fungi have been recognized as having industrial value

Bayesian D-Optimal Choice Designs for Mixtures

__Abstract__ Consumer products and services can often be described as mixtures of ingredients. Examples are the mixture of ingredients in a cocktail and the mixture of different components of waiting time (e.g., in-vehicle and out-of-vehicle travel time) in a transportation setting. Choice experiments may help to determine how the respondents' choice of a product or service is affected by the combination of ingredients. In such studies, individuals are confronted with sets of hypothetical products or services and they are asked to choose the most preferred product or service from each set. However, there are no studies on the optimal design of choice experiments involving mixtures. We propose a method for generating an optimal design for such choice experiments. To this end, we first introduce mixture models in the choice context and next present an algorithm to construct optimal experimental designs, assuming the multinomial logit model is used to analyze the choice data. To overcome the problem that the optimal designs depend on the unknown parameter values, we adopt a Bayesian D-optimal design approach. We also consider locally D-optimal designs and compare the performance of the resulting designs to those produced by a utility-neutral (UN) approach in which designs are based on the assumption that individuals are indifferent between all choice alternatives. We demonstrate that our designs are quite different and in general perform better than the UN designs

Structural properties of hard disks in a narrow tube

Positional ordering of a two-dimensional fluid of hard disks is examined in such narrow tubes where only the nearest-neighbor interactions take place. Using the exact transfer-matrix method the transverse and longitudinal pressure components and the correlation function are determined numerically. Fluid-solid phase transition does not occur even in the widest tube, where the method just loses its exactness, but the appearance of the dramatic change in the equation of state and the longitudinal correlation function shows that the system undergoes a structural change from a fluid to a solid-like order. The pressure components show that the collisions are dominantly longitudinal at low densities, while they are transverse in the vicinity of close packing density. The transverse correlation function shows that the size of solid-like domains grows exponentially with increasing pressure and the correlation length diverges at close packing. It is managed to find an analytically solvable model by expanding the contact distance up to first order. The approximate model, which corresponds to the system of hard parallel rhombuses, behaves very similarly to the system of hard disks.Comment: Acceped in Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experimen

Unified theory for Goos-H\"{a}nchen and Imbert-Fedorov effects

A unified theory is advanced to describe both the lateral Goos-H\"{a}nchen (GH) effect and the transverse Imbert-Fedorov (IF) effect, through representing the vector angular spectrum of a 3-dimensional light beam in terms of a 2-form angular spectrum consisting of its 2 orthogonal polarized components. From this theory, the quantization characteristics of the GH and IF displacements are obtained, and the Artmann formula for the GH displacement is derived. It is found that the eigenstates of the GH displacement are the 2 orthogonal linear polarizations in this 2-form representation, and the eigenstates of the IF displacement are the 2 orthogonal circular polarizations. The theoretical predictions are found to be in agreement with recent experimental results.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

The political economy of competitiveness and social mobility

Social mobility has become a mainstream political and media issue in recent years in the United Kingdom. This article suggests that part of the reason for this is that it can serve as a mechanism to discuss policy concerns that appear to be about social justice without questioning important aspects of neo-liberal political economy. The article charts the policy rhetoric on social mobility under both New Labour and the current Coalition Government. It is argued first that under New Labour the apparent commitment to social mobility was in fact subsumed beneath the pursuit of neo-liberal competitiveness, albeit imperfectly realised in policy. Second, the article suggests that under the Coalition Government the commitment to raising levels of social mobility has been retained and the recently published Strategy for Social Mobility promises that social mobility is what the Coalition means when it argues that the austerity programme is balanced with ‘fairness’. Third, however, the Strategy makes clear that the Coalition define social mobility in narrower terms than the previous government. It is argued here that in narrowing the definition the connection with the idea of competitiveness, while still clearly desirable for the Coalition, is weakened. Fourth, a brief analysis of the Coalition's main policy announcements provides little evidence to suggest that even the narrow definition set out in the Strategy is being seriously pursued. Fifth, the international comparative evidence suggests that any strategy aimed at genuinely raising the level of social mobility would need to give much more serious consideration to narrowing levels of inequality. Finally, it is concluded that when considered in the light of the arguments above, the Strategy for Social Mobility – and therefore ‘Fairness’ itself – is merely a discursive legitimation of the wider political economy programme of austerity