On an incompressible Navier-Stokes/Cahn-Hilliard system with degenerate mobility

We prove existence of weak solutions for a diffuse interface model for the flow of two viscous incompressible Newtonian fluids in a bounded domain by allowing for a degenerate mobility. The model has been developed by Abels, Garcke and Grün for fluids with different densities and leads to a solenoidal velocity field. It is given by a nonhomogeneous Navier-Stokes system with a modifed convective term coupled to a Cahn-Hilliard system, such that an energy estimate is fulfilled which follows from the fact that the model is thermodynamically consistent

Schweinepest-Überwachungsprogramm für Schweine in Freilandhaltung in schweinepestgefährdeten Gebieten

Ziel des Forschungsprojektes war es, ein auf der Polymerase-Kettenreaktion (PCR), einem modernen diagnostischen Verfahren, beruhendes Überwachungsprogramm für Schweinepest zu erarbeiten, das ethisch vertretbar sowie sicherer, effektiver und kostengünstiger sein soll als die zur Zeit praktizierten Überwachungsprogramme. Das Programm soll als ein präventives Tiergesundheitskonzept die Möglichkeiten der ökologischen und konventionellen Schweinehaltung verbessern und das Infektionsrisiko allgemein minimieren. Es wurde eine schweinepestspezifische PCR für die Diagnostik am lebenden Tier etabliert, die das Potential besitzt, die konventionellen diagnostischen Verfahren abzulösen. Die Methode eröffnet neue diagnostische Möglichkeiten, die einen Strategiewechsel in der Bekämpfung und Überwachung der Schweinepest ermöglicht. Eine Bekämpfungsstrategie wurde vorgeschlagen, die auf dem Erregernachweis mittels PCR fußt. Im Zentrum dieser Philosophie steht der Gedanke, dass die Seuchenfreiheit zukünftig anhand von Erregerfreiheit statt Antikörperfreiheit definiert werden soll. Die Erregerfreiheit kann mittels PCR überwacht und zertifiziert werden. Die Vorteile des Verfahrens können wie folgt zusammengefasst werden: - Eine erweiterte Bekämpfungsstrategie, die den direkten Erregernachweis mittels RT-PCR nutzt, führt zu keinem höheren Seuchenrisiko als die jetzige Strategie. - Impfmaßnahmen wären als zusätzliches Bekämpfungsmittel durchführbar und sollten als wichtiger Bestandteil integriert werden. - Es würden Herden gemaßregelt werden, in denen KSP-Virus nachgewiesen wurde. Das Keulen eines Großteils der Tiere würde entfallen. - Zertifizierte Erregerfreiheit nach RT-PCR-Untersuchung würde das Schlachten der Schweine und den freien Handel mit Schweinefleisch ermöglichen, unabhängig von der allgemeinen KSP-Situation im Land. - Serologische Nachweisverfahren können bei einer Nichtimpfpolitik oder einer Impfstrategie mit Markerimpfstoffen weiterhin eingesetzt werden. Abhängig von der allgemeinen Seuchensituation und von der Art des Betriebes wurden für die praktische Umsetzung des Bekämpfungsverfahrens unterschiedliche Modelle entworfen

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER MARKER AND MANDARIN CHINESE AFFIXOID

This study focuses on the recent morphological development -jie ‘sister’ in Mandarin Chinese. For example, in zhùpǎo-jiě 助跑姐 ‘a woman who ran up to pretend something’ -jie is an affixoid. Our data are taken from Taiwan News Smart Web (2019) and are examined within a semantic and morphological framework. The goal of the study is to investigate the semantic and morphological attributes of [X + jie] nominals and to find out social development the nominals revealed. The findings show that, semantically, [X + jie] refers to the outer appearance, emotion, and behavior of the targeted female. Morphologically, the nominals could be in sentential form and undergo omission, reversion, modification, etc. before reaching suffixation formatting with the affixoid. The high productivity of the gender marker -jie brings the social development of this Chinese speaking society to light. [X + jie] nominals demonstrate social activity, cultural organization, political event, and language contact in Taiwan

An Evaluation of Elemental Composition of Soils Associated with Ground Nesting Ants in the Family Formicidae in Somerset County, Maine

Ants are keystone organisms and engineers in many ecosystems, playing an important role in nutrient cycling and rearrangement of organic and inorganic materials through foraging, waste management and, in subterranean species, nest construction and maintenance. In this study, I conducted elemental analysis of soils for calcium, copper, iron, potassium, manganese and zinc in and around the colonies of subterranean nesting ants. The two-step analysis used in this study utilizes the efficiency of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometry to look for overall trends in elemental composition followed by Flame Atomic Absorbance (AA) to achieve higher resolution of select elements of interest as justified in XRF results. No relationships were found between concentration of elements with depth nor distance. Additional observations made throughout this research revealed significant taxon-specific differences in elemental concentrations

Testing for measurement equivalence of human values across online and paper-and-pencil surveys

The following study investigates the measurement equivalence of an online and paper-and-pencil (PAP) survey of human values. For this purpose, a total of 250 respondents completed the 21-item version of the Portrait Value Questionnaire either online (n=125) or by PAP (n=125). This questionnaire was developed by Schwartz (Advances in experimental social psychology, Academic Press, New York, 1992) and has been included in the European Social Survey since 2002 to test his theory of basic human values. Measurement invariance was tested via a multiple group confirmatory factor analysis. The assessment of invariance included the three levels of configural, metric, and scalar invariance, and the latent means of the values between both samples were compared. Results of this study show that the measurements are invariant at the three levels (configural, metric, and scalar), but there are latent mean differences between the values across the surveys. These differences may be partly explained by age and level of education differences between the two samples. Based on these findings we conclude that the methods of measurement are essentially invarian

German super and intensifiers in social communication

This study examines the intensifier super in German with data taken from Das Wortauskunftssystem zur deutschen Sprache in Geschichte und Gegenwart (DWDS, Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Geyken 2020). We inspect the morphosyntactic and semantic development of super, and aim to explore its delexicalization tendency. In closing, the development of intensifiers in social communication is presented. The results show that German super enjoys morphosyntactic flexibility. The meaning of this versatile intensifier shifts freely among various magnitudes of intensification, from 'more than', 'very', to 'top most', and even has gone lower than the reference point to mean 'actually not good'. German super has advanced itself in terms of linguistic performance and is gradually losing its role as an intensifier. A diachronic inspection of the use of German super attests linguistic revival in that from a rarely used intensifier, super escalates its use in the last decades in German society. Outer world influences have put super through lexical competitions. Reports on general intensifiers reveal the inner linguistic motivation of change that intensifiers own, and sociolinguistic factors such as gender, age and education background all contribute to the variability of intensifiers in social communication

Diversity of Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria in a Sample Aquaponics Ecosystem

In natural ecosystems, nitrogen-fixing bacteria act as the primary source of useable nitrogen for many plants by converting atmospheric N2 into ammonia. In an aquaponics system, however, the primary source of ammonia is provided by fish waste. We are investigating the effect of this ammonia saturation on the diversity of nitrogen-fixing bacteria in a sample aquaponics system. We seek to answer two fundamental questions: First, what nitrogen fixing microbes are present in these systems? Second, does the character of these microbial communities have any effect on plant growth? In order to answer these questions, we first determine whether nitrogen-fixing bacteria are present in the system by culturing resident bacterial populations on nitrogen-free media, isolating, and identifying these species. We then investigate the diversity of both cultured and non-culturable nitrogen-fixing bacteria via metagenomic analysis. Finally, we will investigate possible links between the characteristics of these microbial communities and plant health

Towards a property graph generator for benchmarking

The use of synthetic graph generators is a common practice among graph-oriented benchmark designers, as it allows obtaining graphs with the required scale and characteristics. However, finding a graph generator that accurately fits the needs of a given benchmark is very difficult, thus practitioners end up creating ad-hoc ones. Such a task is usually time-consuming, and often leads to reinventing the wheel. In this paper, we introduce the conceptual design of DataSynth, a framework for property graphs generation with customizable schemas and characteristics. The goal of DataSynth is to assist benchmark designers in generating graphs efficiently and at scale, saving from implementing their own generators. Additionally, DataSynth introduces novel features barely explored so far, such as modeling the correlation between properties and the structure of the graph. This is achieved by a novel property-to-node matching algorithm for which we present preliminary promising results