Migration efficiency of paired sperm in the tract of the peri-ovulatory female grey short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica)

American marsupials are the only mammals known to ejaculate paired spermatozoa, which confer a motility advantage in vitro over single spermatozoa in viscous environments. In the only American marsupial examined, the Virginian opossum (Didelphidae), relatively low numbers of spermatozoa are ejaculated (106), but transport is extremely efficient with ~1 in 20 spermatozoa reaching the site of fertilization compared to ~1 in 10,000 in the rabbit. This study examined the post-copulatory distribution and state (paired or single) of spermatozoa at various times in the female reproductive tract of another didelphid, the polyovular grey short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). After a single mating, the reproductive tracts of 19 females were dissected at 0.5 (n=4), 6 (n=4), 12 (n=3), 18 (n=3) and 24h (n=5) post coitum (p.c.). Each tract was dissected into 8 major anatomical sections and spermatozoa were recovered by flushing. Mating occurred 5.4 ± 0.4d (mean ± SEM; n=19) after pairing, copulation lasted 4.4 ± 0.2 min (n=18) and ovulation occurred 18.0 - 24.1h p.c. (n=5). Shortly after mating (0.5h p.c.) the tract contained 1.2 ± 0.2g of seminal gel (n=2) and 2.0 ± 1.3 x106 spermatozoa (n=3; 38% of which were paired) found predominantly in the anterior vaginal culs de sac. A uterine sperm reservoir was never observed, but spermatozoa reached the isthmus and ampulla within 6 and 18h p.c. respectively. Paired spermatozoa localized almost exclusively in the isthmus from 6h p.c., and pairing decreased to only 4% of the total sperm population in the tract by the start of ovulation. In total ~1 in 300 ejaculated spermatozoa (~6.5 x103; n=9) reached the oviduct. In conclusion, sperm pairing appears to confer effective colonization of the isthmus in M. domestica and, like the Virginian opossum, transport of spermatozoa is relatively efficient

Co-creation of Value in IT Service Processes Using Semantic MediaWiki

Abstract: Enterprises are substituting their own IT-Systems by services provided by external providers. This provisioning of services may be done in an industrialized way, separating the service provider from the consumer. However, using industrialized services diminishes the capability to differentiate from competitors. To counter this, collaborative service processes based on the co-creation of value between service providers and prosumers are of huge importance. The approach presented shows how the co-creation of value in IT-service processes can profit from social software, using the example of the Semantic MediaWiki

Distribution of doped Mn at the \Sigma 3 (112) grain boundary in Ge

Using first-principles density functional theory method, we have investigated the distribution and magnetism of doped Mn atoms in the vicinity of the 3 (112) grain boundary in Ge. We find that at low concentration, the substitutional sites are energetically favorable over the interstitial ones for Mn. The binding energy of Mn varies with lattice sites in the boundary region, and hence a non-uniform distribution of Mn nears the boundary. However, the average of their segregation energy is quite small, thus no remarkable grain boundary segregation of Mn is predicted. Due to volume expansion at the grain boundary, the spin polarization of Mn is slightly enhanced. Overall, we find that the magnetism of Mn-doped Ge is not sensitively dependent on the grain structure.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Suppression of Jahn-Teller distortion by chromium and magnesium doping in spinel LiMn2O4: A first-principles study using GGA and GGA+U

The effect of doping spinel LiMn2O4 with chromium and magnesium has been studied using the first-principles spin density functional theory within GGA (generalized gradient approximation) and GGA+U. We find that GGA and GGA+U give different ground states for pristine LiMn2O4 and same ground state for doped systems. For LiMn2O4 the body centered tetragonal phase was found to be the ground state structure using GGA and face centered orthorhombic using GGA+U, while for LiM0.5Mn1.5O4 (M= Cr or Mg) it was base centered monoclinic and for LiMMnO4 (M= Cr or Mg) it was body centered orthorhombic in both GGA and GGA+U. We find that GGA predicts the pristine LiMn2O4 to be metallic while GGA+U predicts it to be the insulating which is in accordance with the experimental observations. For doped spinels, GGA predicts the ground state to be half metallic while GGA+U predicts it to be insulating or metallic depending on the doping concentration. GGA+U predicts insulator-metal-insulator transition as a function of doping in case of Cr and in case of Mg the ground state is found to go from insulating to a half metallic state as a function of doping. Analysis of the charge density and the density of states suggest a charge transfer from the dopants to the neighboring oxygen atoms and manganese atoms. We have calculated the Jahn-Teller active mode displacement Q3 for doped compounds using GGA and GGA+U. The bond lengths calculated from GGA+U are found to be in better agreement with the experimental bond lengths. Based on the bond lengths of metal and oxygen, we have also estimated the average oxidation states of the dopants.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figure

The Intentional Use of Service Recovery Strategies to Influence Consumer Emotion, Cognition and Behaviour

Service recovery strategies have been identified as a critical factor in the success of. service organizations. This study develops a conceptual frame work to investigate how specific service recovery strategies influence the emotional, cognitive and negative behavioural responses of . consumers., as well as how emotion and cognition influence negative behavior. Understanding the impact of specific service recovery strategies will allow service providers' to more deliberately and intentionally engage in strategies that result in positive organizational outcomes. This study was conducted using a 2 x 2 between-subjects quasi-experimental design. The results suggest that service recovery has a significant impact on emotion, cognition and negative behavior. Similarly, satisfaction, negative emotion and positive emotion all influence negative behavior but distributive justice has no effect

The Theory/Applications Balance in Management Pedagogy: Where Do We Stand?

Business schools are expected to be "professional" in the sense that their mission is primarily to prepare people to practice their skills in the business world. Various critics, however, claim that management professors overemphasize theory and research and neglect the practice and applications students need to transfer classroom theory to the world of practice. This study compared an earlier sample with a more recent sample of Academy of Management members concerning the relative emphasis they believed should be placed on theory and applications in management pedagogy and the techniques they used to bring applications into the classroom. Current respondents believed that more emphasis should be placed on applications than the earlier respondents. An unexpected finding, however, was that the more recent respondents reported a lower mean usage of pedagogical techniques that are appropriate for developing students' ability to apply course concepts than the previous group. Possible reasons for these incongruent findings are discussed as well as the implications for management pedagogy.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Nuclear Alpha-Particle Condensates

The $\alpha$-particle condensate in nuclei is a novel state described by a product state of $\alpha$'s, all with their c.o.m. in the lowest 0S orbit. We demonstrate that a typical $\alpha$-particle condensate is the Hoyle state ($E_{x}=7.65$ MeV, $0^+_2$ state in $^{12}$C), which plays a crucial role for the synthesis of $^{12}$C in the universe. The influence of antisymmentrization in the Hoyle state on the bosonic character of the $\alpha$ particle is discussed in detail. It is shown to be weak. The bosonic aspects in the Hoyle state, therefore, are predominant. It is conjectured that $\alpha$-particle condensate states also exist in heavier $n\alpha$ nuclei, like $^{16}$O, $^{20}$Ne, etc. For instance the $0^+_6$ state of $^{16}$O at $E_{x}=15.1$ MeV is identified from a theoretical analysis as being a strong candidate of a $4\alpha$ condensate. The calculated small width (34 keV) of $0^+_6$, consistent with data, lends credit to the existence of heavier Hoyle-analogue states. In non-self-conjugated nuclei such as $^{11}$B and $^{13}$C, we discuss candidates for the product states of clusters, composed of $\alpha$'s, triton's, and neutrons etc. The relationship of $\alpha$-particle condensation in finite nuclei to quartetting in symmetric nuclear matter is investigated with the help of an in-medium modified four-nucleon equation. A nonlinear order parameter equation for quartet condensation is derived and solved for $\alpha$ particle condensation in infinite nuclear matter. The strong qualitative difference with the pairing case is pointed out.Comment: 71 pages, 41 figures, review article, to be published in "Cluster in Nuclei (Lecture Notes in Physics) - Vol.2 -", ed. by C. Beck, (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2011

Production and Decay of D_1(2420)^0 and D_2^*(2460)^0

We have investigated $D^{+}\pi^{-}$ and $D^{*+}\pi^{-}$ final states and observed the two established $L=1$ charmed mesons, the $D_1(2420)^0$ with mass $2421^{+1+2}_{-2-2}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $20^{+6+3}_{-5-3}$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and the $D_2^*(2460)^0$ with mass $2465 \pm 3 \pm 3$ MeV/c$^{2}$ and width $28^{+8+6}_{-7-6}$ MeV/c$^{2}$. Properties of these final states, including their decay angular distributions and spin-parity assignments, have been studied. We identify these two mesons as the $j_{light}=3/2$ doublet predicted by HQET. We also obtain constraints on {\footnotesize $\Gamma_S/(\Gamma_S + \Gamma_D)$} as a function of the cosine of the relative phase of the two amplitudes in the $D_1(2420)^0$ decay.Comment: 15 pages in REVTEX format. hardcopies with figures can be obtained by sending mail to: [email protected]

Measurement of the branching fraction for Υ(1S)→τ+τ−\Upsilon (1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-

We have studied the leptonic decay of the $\Upsilon (1S)$ resonance into tau pairs using the CLEO II detector. A clean sample of tau pair events is identified via events containing two charged particles where exactly one of the particles is an identified electron. We find $B(\Upsilon(1S) \to \tau^+ \tau^-) = (2.61~\pm~0.12~{+0.09\atop{-0.13}})$. The result is consistent with expectations from lepton universality.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, two Postscript figures available upon request, CLNS 94/1297, CLEO 94-20 (submitted to Physics Letters B