Abundance anomalies of carbon and nitrogen in the IUE spectra of Algol-type interacting binaries

There are two primary ways in which the products of nucleosynthesis in stellar interiors may appear at the surface of a star. These are mixing and/or loss of the original unburned stellar envelope. In interacting binaries, overflow can contribute dramatically to envelope loss. The simplest abundance anomalies to be expected from nuclear burning of hydrogen, helium, or carbon would be under or over abundances H, He, C, O, Ne, and Mg. In addition, it is expected that carbon is initially severely depleted, while nitrogen is enhanced during hydrogen burning via the CNO cycle in stars above two solar masses. Other, more subtle anomalies are also expected, and elements heavier than magnesium can be created during very late evolution by nuclear burning in massive stars. Consequently, it is expected that abundance anomalies of various kinds should occur in interacting binaries where one or both stars have lost significant amounts of mass

Mass flow in the interacting binary TX Ursae Majoris

Twenty-two far-ultraviolet and 23 near-ultraviolet high resolution IUE spectra of the interactive Algol-type binary TX Ursae Majoris (B8 V + F-K III-IV) were analyzed in order to determine the nature of the mass flow occurring in this system. Absorption features due to high-temperature ions of Si IV, C IV, and N V are always present. The resonance lines of Al III, Fe II, Mg II and Si IV show strong phase and secular variations indicative of gas streaming and circumstellar/circumbinary material. Radial velocities as high as 500 to 600 km/sec are present. The gas flow is particularly prominent in 1985 between phases 0.7 and 0.0. The system is more active than U Sagittae and as active as U Cephei

Exploring the Drugs-Homicide Connection

Although research generally assumes a close relationship between drugs and violence, very little is known about the many different roles drugs can play in criminal events. Drug related as an event classification scheme is relatively common in homicide research, as well as other areas of inquiry, and is usually understood to be an important component in the causal processes of criminal events. Yet such classification schemes often suggest a simple, unidimensional construct. In reality, drug-related crimes are com-plex events. The purpose of this researchwas first to disaggregate the concept of drug-related homicide by providing an event classification scheme that conceptualizes the diverse roles drugs play in drug-related events.Acategorical coding scheme is presented that is similar to that proposed by Goldstein (1995) and later tested by Brownstein and colleagues (Brownstein & Goldstein, 1990; Brownstein, Baxi, Goldstein, & Ryan, 1992) that specifies three distinct types of homicide events. Included among these are (a) events that involved no evidence of illicit drugs associated with the homicide event, (b) those that involved the presence of drugs or drug use at the scene as well as events where either the victim and/or offender were buying or selling drugs (we term this peripherally drug-related homicides), and (c) events where the sale or use of drugswas the motivating feature of the homicide event. In some situations, there may be overlap between categories b and c; however, category c is distinct in that it includes features of motivation. The second purpose was to determine the relative importance of various situational and contextual characteristics of homicide events in understanding different types of drug-related events. Delineating these features will be an important step in filling in the gaps of knowledge about the assumed relationship between drugs and violence

Mass loss in the interacting semi-detached binary delta librae

The interacting Algol-type binary Delta Librae (AOV + G: V) has been observed with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite. More than fifty high resolution spectra in the far-ultraviolet and mid-ultraviolet spectrum have been analyzed in order to model the mass flow in the Delta Librae system. The resonance lines of Si IV and C IV are present in absorption and vary in strength both secularly and with phase. The radial velocities of the Si IV and C IV absorption lines generally follow the orbital motion of the primary star but deviate by typically a few tens of kilometers per second in the direction of the observer. The presence of Si IV and C IV features indicates the existence of a region considerably hotter than the normal AOV photosphere and, since these lines are present at all phases, this region must be fairly extensive. These results are interpreted in terms of a 'pseudo-photosphere' around the equatorial region of the AOV star, created by matter being accreted from the G-type companion. The widths of the Si IV and C IV absorption features imply that some of the matter lost by the G-star leaves the system entirely

OCL Plus: Processes and Events in Object-Centred Planning

An important area in AI Planning is the expressiveness of planning domain specification languages such as PDDL, and their aptitude for modelling real applications. This paper presents OCLplus, an extension of a hierarchical object centred planning domain definition language, intended to support the representation of domains with continuous change. The main extension in OCLplus provides the capability of interconnection between the planners and the changes that are caused by other objects of the world. To this extent, the concept of event and process are introduced in the Hierarchical Task Network (HTN), object centred planning framework in which a process is responsible for either continuous or discrete changes, and an event is triggered if its precondition is met. We evaluate the use of OCLplus and compare it with a similar language, PDDL+

Wegener's granulomatosis and autoantibodies to neutrophil antigens

We report five cases of Wegener's granulomatosis all of whom had clinical and histological evidence of disease activity at presentation and in whom autoantibodies to neutrophil antigens were detected. This test may prove useful for the diagnosis of this serious condition and help to monitor disease activity during treatment

An evaluation of the status of living collections for plant, environmental, and microbial research

Citation: McCluskey, K., Parsons, J. P., Quach, K., & Duke, C. S. (2017). An evaluation of the status of living collections for plant, environmental, and microbial research. Journal of Biosciences, 42(2), 321-331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-017-9685-6While living collections are critical for biological research, support for these foundational infrastructure elements is inconsistent, which makes quality control, regulatory compliance, and reproducibility difficult. In recent years, the Ecological Society of America has hosted several National Science Foundation–sponsored workshops to explore and enhance the sustainability of biological research infrastructure. At the same time, the United States Culture Collection Network has brought together managers of living collections to foster collaboration and information exchange within a specific living collections community. To assess the sustainability of collections, a survey was distributed to collection scientists whose responses provide a benchmark for evaluating the resiliency of these collections. Among the key observations were that plant collections have larger staffing requirements and that living microbe collections were the most vulnerable to retirements or other disruptions. Many higher plant and vertebrate collections have institutional support and several have endowments. Other collections depend on competitive grant support in an era of intense competition for these resources. Opportunities for synergy among living collections depend upon complementing the natural strong engagement with the research communities that depend on these collections with enhanced information sharing, communication, and collective action to keep them sustainable for the future. External efforts by funding agencies and publishers could reinforce the advantages of having professional management of research resources across every discipline. © 2017 Indian Academy of Science

The development of the forms of responding to self-critical thoughts Scale (FoReST)

Background: Self-critical thoughts are a feature of many mental health problems. Adopting a psychologically flexible response to thoughts has been highlighted as a key determinant of wellbeing. But, the measurement of psychological flexibility (PF) in relation to self-critical thoughts is under-developed. This paper reports on the development of the Forms of Responding to Self-Critical Thoughts Scale (FoReST). Method: Study One involved the development and exploratory factor analysis of the FoReST in a convenience sample of 253 non-clinical adults. Study Two was a confirmatory factor analysis study of the FoReST in a sample of 110 University students. Study 3 explored the convergent and concurrent validity of the FoReST by examining associations with measures of similar constructs (PF, self-compassion, self-criticism) and relevant mental health measures (anxiety, depression, distress). Study 3 also explored the FoReST’s incremental validity for predicting depression and anxiety levels beyond an established measure of self-critical thinking. Results: In Study One, exploratory factor analysis produced a 9-item/2-factor solution (unworkable action and mindful acceptance). The measure demonstrated good internal consistency. In Study 2, the confirmatory factor analysis also indicated a 2-factor model (unworkable action and mindful acceptance) and overall internal consistency that was excellent. In Study Three, the FoReST demonstrated high convergent validity with similar measures, and good concurrent validity with mental health outcomes. Analyses also indicated good incremental validity for the FoReST for predicting HADS depression and anxiety scores. Conclusions: The FoReST appears to be a psychometrically sound measure suitable for measuring change processes in third wave therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness-based Interventions and Compassion Focused therapy

Evidence for dominant suppression of repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) in crosses with the wild-isolated Neurospora crassa strains Sugartown and Adiopodoume-7

A convenient assay to score repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) in Neurospora employs the erg-3 locus as a mutagenesis target. Using this assay we screened 132 wild-isolated Neurospora crassa strains for ability to dominantly suppress RIP. RIP was exceptionally inefficient in crosses with the wild isolates Sugartown (P0854) and Adiopodoume-7 (P4305), thereby suggesting the presence of dominant RIP suppressors in these strains. In other experiments, we found no evidence for dominant RIP suppression by the Spore killer haplotypes Sk-2 and Sk-3