A Framework Interpreting Bender Element Tests, Combining Time-Domain and Frequency-Domain Methods

Bender element (BE) testing is a powerful and increasingly common laboratory technique for determining the shear S-wave velocity of geomaterials. There are several advantages of BE testing, but there is no standard developed for the testing procedures or for the interpretation of the results. This leads to high degree of uncertainty and subjectivity in the interpretation. In this paper, the authors review the most common methods for the interpretation of BE tests, discuss some important technical requirements to minimize errors, and propose a practical framework for BE testing, based oil the comparison of different interpretation techniques in order to obtain the most reliable value for the travel time. This new procedure consist,, of the application of a methodical, systematic, and objective approach for the interpretation of the results, in the time and frequency domains. I he use of an automated tool enables unbiased information to be obtained regarding variations in the results to assist in the decision of the travel time. Two natural soils were tested: residual soil from Porto granite, and Toyoura sand. Specimens were subjected to the same isotropic stress conditions and the results obtained provided insights on the effects of soil type and confining stress on the interpretation of BE results; namely, the differences in testing dry versus saturated soils, and in testing uniform versus well-graded soils

Nutritional Quality of Leaves and Unripe Fruit Consumed as Famine Foods by the Flying Foxes of Samoa

Many tropical herbivores alter their diets throughout the year in response to different levels of food availability. Fruit bats, including Pteropus samoensis Peale and Pteropus tonganus Quoy & Gaimard, are phytophagous species that may increase their consumption of foods such as unripe fruit and leaves in periods of low fruit diversity and volume. These periods include the tropical dry season or following the frequent hurricanes that batter the Samoan Archipelago. We examined the nutritional composition of leaves and immature fruits and compared the levels of organic and mineral nutrients with those of ripe fruit. We used principal components analysis (PCA) to examine patterns of variation in nutrient components of leaves, unripe fruit, and ripe fruit, as well as to compare the mean levels of nutrients. Overall, unripe fruit provided levels of nutrients comparable with those of ripe fruit of the same species for many organic and mineral components. Unripe fruit were only half as rich in iron as ripe fruit, but unripe fruit had high levels of calcium compared with ripe fruit of the same species. Leaves are often cited as a rich source of protein for fruit bats, and our results were consistent with this suggestion. Leaves were also found to be rich in zinc, manganese, and calcium. Therefore, flying foxes and other herbivores probably do not avoid unripe fruits and leaves because of their low nutrient levels. It may be that these famine foods are not normally consumed because of the presence of secondary compounds, low concentrations of palatable sugars, or a distasteful and hard pericarp on unripe fruits

The quantitative soil pit method for measuring belowground carbon and nitrogen stocks

Many important questions in ecosystem science require estimates of stocks of soil C and nutrients. Quantitative soil pits provide direct measurements of total soil mass and elemental content in depth-based samples representative of large volumes, bypassing potential errors associated with independently measuring soil bulk density, rock volume, and elemental concentrations. The method also allows relatively unbiased sampling of other belowground C and nutrient stocks, including roots, coarse organic fragments, and rocks. We present a comprehensive methodology for sampling these pools with quantitative pits and assess their accuracy, precision, effort, and sampling intensity as compared to other methods. At 14 forested sites in New Hampshire, nonsoil belowground pools (which other methods may omit, double-count, or undercount) accounted for upward of 25% of total belowground C and N stocks: coarse material accounted for 4 and 1% of C and N in the O horizon; roots were 11 and 4% of C and N in the O horizon and 10 and 3% of C and N in the B horizon; and soil adhering to rocks represented 5% of total B-horizon C and N. The top 50 cm of the C horizon contained the equivalent of 17% of B-horizon carbon and N. Sampling procedures should be carefully designed to avoid treating these important pools inconsistently. Quantitative soil pits have fewer sources of systematic error than coring methods; the main disadvantage is that because they are time-consuming and create a larger zone of disturbance, fewer observations can be made than with cores

Hypertension and happiness across nations

In surveys of well-being, countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands emerge as particularly happy while nations like Germany and Italy report lower levels of happiness. But are these kinds of findings credible? This paper provides some evidence that the answer is yes. Using data on 16 countries, it shows that happier nations report systematically lower levels of hypertension. As well as potentially validating the differences in measured happiness across nations, this suggests that blood-pressure readings might be valuable as part of a national well-being index. A new ranking of European nations’ GHQ-N6 mental health scores is also given

Discovery of anti-cancer activity for benzo[1,2,4]triazin-7-ones : very strong correlation to pleurotin and thioredoxin reductase inhibition

The thioredoxin (Trx)-thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) system plays a key role in maintaining the cellular redox balance with Trx being over-expressed in a number of cancers. Inhibition of TrxR is an important strategy for anti-cancer drug discovery. The natural product pleurotin is a well-known irreversible inhibitor of TrxR. The cytotoxicity data for benzo[1,2,4]triazin-7-ones showed very strong correlation (Pearson correlation coefficients ~0.8) to pleurotin using National Cancer Institute COMPARE analysis. A new 3-CF3 substituted benzo[1,2,4]triazin-7-one gave submicromolar inhibition of TrxR, although the parent compound 1,3-diphenylbenzo[1,2,4]triazin-7-one was more cytotoxic against cancer cell lines. Benzo[1,2,4]triazin-7-ones exhibited different types of reversible inhibition of TrxR, and cyclic voltammetry showed characteristic quasi-reversible redox processes. Cell viability studies indicated strong dependence of cytotoxicity on substitution at the 6-position of the 1,3-diphenylbenzo[1,2,4]triazin-7-one ring.F.A. thanks the Irish Research Council (IRC) for a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship for Martin Sweeney and College of Science, National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) for a postgraduate scholarship for Robert Coyle. We thank the National Cancer Institute (USA), Development Therapeutic Program for providing us with a small quantity of pleurotin. P.A.K. thanks the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation [Grants: NEAYPODOMH/NEKYP/0308/02 and YGEIA/BIOS/0308(BIE)/13], the University of Cyprus (Medium Sized Grant), and the following organizations in Cyprus for generous donations of chemicals and glassware: the State General Laboratory, the Agricultural Research Institute, the Ministry of Agriculture, Medochemie Ltd and Biotronics Ltd. Furthermore, P.A.K. thanks the A. G. Leventis Foundation for helping to establish the NMR facility in the University of Cyprus.2018-05-3

One-pot hydrogen peroxide and hydrohalic acid induced ring closure and selective aromatic halogenation to give new ring-fused benzimidazoles

A new series of selectively dichlorinated and dibrominated five to eight-membered ring [1,2-a] fused benzimidazoles and [1,4]oxazino[4,3-a]benzimidazoles are synthesized in mostly high yields of >80% using the reaction of hydrogen peroxide and hydrohalic acid with commercially available o-cyclic amine substituted anilines. Domestic bleach with HCl is also capable of a one-pot ring-closure and chlorination