Improved sample treatment protocol for accurate detection of live Salmonella spp. in food samples by viability PCR

Culture-based detection is still considered as the standard way for detection of Salmonella in foods, although molecular methods, such as viability PCR (vPCR), have been introduced to overcome some disadvantages of traditional culture methods. Despite the success of the vPCR methodology, the problem of false-positive results is a major drawback, especially when applied to environmental samples, hindering the interpretation of the results. To improve the efficiency of vPCR, many approaches have been introduced by several authors during the last years. In the present work, the combination of PEMAX dye, double tube change, and double photo-activation step was established as a strategy to improve vPCR protocol. By combining these approaches, we developed an improved sample treatment protocol able to neutralize DNA signals of up to 5.0×107 dead cells/sample from both pure culture and artificially contaminated food samples. Our results indicate that vPCR can work reliable and has a potential for high throughput detection of live Salmonella cells in food samples, minimizing false-positive signals

Collective flow and multiparticle azimuthal correlations

The measurement of azimuthal distributions in nucleus-nucleus collisions relies upon the assumption that azimuthal correlations between particles result solely from their correlation with the reaction plane (i.e. flow). We show that at SPS energies, the ansatz is no longer valid, and two-particle correlations due to momentum conservation, final state interactions or resonance decays become of the same order as those arising from flow. This leads us to introduce new methods to analyse collective flow, based on a cumulant expansion, which enable to extract smaller values than those accessible to the standard analysis.Comment: 6 pages, no figure; Proceedings of the XXX International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics (ISMD 2000), Tihany (Hungary), October 9-15, 200

Flow analysis from cumulants: a practical guide

We have recently proposed a new method of flow analysis, based on a cumulant expansion of multiparticle azimuthal correlations. Here, we describe the practical implementation of the method. The major improvement over traditional methods is that the cumulant expansion eliminates order by order correlations not due to flow, which are often large but usually neglected.Comment: 6 pages revtex. Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Physics of the Quark-Gluon Plasma, Palaiseau, France, 4-7 Sept. 0

Thermalization and elliptic flow at RHIC

We discuss signatures of thermalisation in heavy ion collisions based on elliptic flow. We then propose a new method to analyse elliptic flow, based on multiparticle azimuthal correlations. This method allows one to test quantitatively the collective behaviour of the interacting system.Comment: 6 pages, talk given at XXXI International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Sept 1-7, 2001, Datong China. URL http://ismd31.ccnu.edu.cn

The Biodiversity of Freshwater Fishes and Different Measures Applied for its Conservation in Vietnam

Article信州大学理学部附属諏訪臨湖実験所報告 9: 13-18(1995)departmental bulletin pape

Community Leaders\u27 Perceptions of Their Leadership Behaviors and Practices Used to Influence K-12 Public Education: A Q Methodology Study

This Q methodology study focused on the perspectives of diverse community leaders concerning how their perceptions of leadership behaviors and practices were used to influence K-12 public education. The leaders’ perspectives were identified, described, analyzed, and compared with others who shared similar views through the use of Q methodology. Through purposeful and snowball sampling, a diverse group of community leader participants first responded to an open-ended questionnaire, inviting them to provide the leadership behaviors and practices they use to influence K-12 public education. This process of concourse development resulted in a total of 263 statements. These statements were then systematically reduced to 42 statements to be used in the Q sample, or research instrument. The Q sample represented the broad perspectives of the opinion domain and specifically addressed the content of the research question: How do community leaders perceive that their leadership behaviors and practices are used to influence K-12 public education? In the second stage of this Q methodology study, 45 community leader participants sorted these 42 statements to best reflect how they believed they most influenced public education. Following each sort, participants provided a rationale for their ± 4 statements which were used to further inform the data interpretation. These 45 Q sorts were then correlated to one another, and these intercorrelations were factor analyzed. Four factors were then rotated and extracted for this study. These four factors were analyzed abductively through examining the holistic placement of statements within their respective factor arrays, the descriptive comments provided following the Q sorts, and the demographic characteristics of the participants who comprised each factor. As a result of this analysis, the four factors were named: (a) Voice the Story and the Needs of My Underserved Community, (b) Provide Resources, Advocacy, and Grassroots Mobility, (c) Learn About Educational Issues to Lobby and to Serve, and (d) Build Supportive and Personal Relationships with Key School Stakeholders to Stay Informed

Transverse energy fluctuations and the pattern of J/Psi suppression in Pb-Pb collisions

The NA50 collaboration has recently observed that the J/psi production rate in Pb-Pb collisions decreases more rapidly as a function of the transverse energy for the most central collisions than for less central ones. We show that this phenomenon can be understood as an effect of transverse energy fluctuations in central collisions. A good fit of the data is obtained using a model which relates J/psi suppression to the local energy density. Our results suggest that the J/psi is completely suppressed at the highest densities achieved in Pb-Pb collisions.Comment: v2, 4 pages, LaTeX, 3 eps figures include

J/Psi suppression in central Pb-Pb collisions

We discuss the recent NA50 J/Psi production data in Pb--Pb collisions, in particular the second drop at high transverse energies which correspond to the most central collisions. Using a model which relates the J/Psi suppression to the local energy density, we show that the data can be explained by taking into account transverse energy fluctuations at a given impact parameter. Predictions of this model for RHIC are briefly discussed.Comment: to appear in the Proceedings of Quark Matter'200

An Investigation into Conceptual Metaphors Denoting Life in American and Vietnamese Short Stories

Metaphor has attracted the attention of scholars interested in language for more than 2000 years (Ning Yu, 1998). Traditionally, metaphor was viewed as a matter of language, only used in literature to embellish discourse (Kovecses, 2010). However, cognitive linguistics presents a different view of metaphor, stating that metaphor is pervasive and essential in language and thought (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). It is defined as understanding one abstract conceptual domain (target domain), in terms of another concrete one (source domain). The concept of life has been one of the most common target domains, which is hard to fully comprehend without establishing a set of mappings, i.e. a set of systematic correspondences, between this undelineated notion and other better-known ones. Therefore, this study attempts to probe into conceptual metaphors denoting life in nineteen American and nineteen Vietnamese short stories from 1975 to 1991 in the light of Lakoff and Johnsons framework (1980). The two sets of collected data, specifically 89 illustrations in English and 114 in Vietnamese, are compared and contrasted to find out the similarities and differences in the use of these conceptual metaphors between two languages, in the hope to contribute to foreign language teaching, learning, and translating proces