The impact of atrazine on several biochemical properties of chernozem soil

The impact of the pesticide atrazine on biochemical processes in soil was investigated. Atrazine loadings of 8.0, 40.0 and 80.0 mg/kg soil were laboratory tested in an experiment set up on a clay loam soil. Dehydrogenase activity, change in biomass carbon, soil respiration and metabolic coefficient were examined. The samples were collected for analysis 1, 7, 14, 21, 30 and 60 days after atrazine application. The acquired data indicated that the effect of atrazine on the biochemical activity of the soil depended on its application rate and duration of activity, and the effect was either stimulating or inhibiting. However, the detected changes were found to be transient, indicating that there is no real risk of the compound disrupting the balance of biochemical processes in soil

"How May I Help You?": Modeling Twitter Customer Service Conversations Using Fine-Grained Dialogue Acts

Given the increasing popularity of customer service dialogue on Twitter, analysis of conversation data is essential to understand trends in customer and agent behavior for the purpose of automating customer service interactions. In this work, we develop a novel taxonomy of fine-grained "dialogue acts" frequently observed in customer service, showcasing acts that are more suited to the domain than the more generic existing taxonomies. Using a sequential SVM-HMM model, we model conversation flow, predicting the dialogue act of a given turn in real-time. We characterize differences between customer and agent behavior in Twitter customer service conversations, and investigate the effect of testing our system on different customer service industries. Finally, we use a data-driven approach to predict important conversation outcomes: customer satisfaction, customer frustration, and overall problem resolution. We show that the type and location of certain dialogue acts in a conversation have a significant effect on the probability of desirable and undesirable outcomes, and present actionable rules based on our findings. The patterns and rules we derive can be used as guidelines for outcome-driven automated customer service platforms.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, IUI 201

Policy committee for adaptation in multi-domain spoken dialogue systems

Moving from limited-domain dialogue systems to open domain dialogue systems raises a number of challenges. One of them is the ability of the system to utilise small amounts of data from disparate domains to build a dialogue manager policy. Previous work has focused on using data from different domains to adapt a generic policy to a specific domain. Inspired by Bayesian committee machines, this paper proposes the use of a committee of dialogue policies. The results show that such a model is particularly beneficial for adaptation in multi-domain dialogue systems. The use of this model significantly improves performance compared to a single policy baseline, as confirmed by the performed real-user trial. This is the first time a dialogue policy has been trained on multiple domains on-line in interaction with real users.The research leading to this work was funded by the EPSRC grant EP/M018946/1 ”Open Domain Statistical Spoken Dialogue Systems”.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IEEE via http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ASRU.2015.740487

A BAC-based physical map of the apple genome

AbstractGenome-wide physical mapping is an essential step toward investigating the genetic basis of complex traits as well as pursuing genomics research of virtually all plant and animal species. We have constructed a physical map of the apple genome from a total of 74,281 BAC clones representing ∼10.5× haploid genome equivalents. The physical map consists of 2702 contigs, and it is estimated to span ∼927 Mb in physical length. The reliability of contig assembly was evaluated by several methods, including assembling contigs using variable stringencies, assembling contigs using fingerprints from individual libraries, checking consensus maps of contigs, and using DNA markers. Altogether, the results demonstrated that the contigs were properly assembled. The apple genome-wide BAC-based physical map represents the first draft genome sequence not only for any member of the large Rosaceae family, but also for all tree species. This map will play a critical role in advanced genomics research for apple and other tree species, including marker development in targeted chromosome regions, fine-mapping and isolation of genes/QTL, conducting comparative genomics analyses of plant chromosomes, and large-scale genomics sequencing

Sastav sterolne smese algi jadranskog mora Ulva lactuca, Codium dichotomum, Cystoseira adriatica i Fucus virsoides

The sterol composition of two green algae and two brown algae from the South Adriatic was determined. In the green alga Ulva lactuca, the principal sterols, were cholesterol and isofucosterol. In the brown alga Cystoseira adriatica, the main sterols were cholesterol and stigmast-5-en-3 beta-ol, while the characteristic sterol of the brown algae, fucosterol, was found only in low concentration. The sterol fractions of the green alga Codium dichotomum and the brown alga Fucus virsoides contained practically only one sterol each, comprising more than 90 % of the total sterols (clerosterol in the former and fucoserol in the latter).Određen je sastav sterolne smese dve zelene i dve mrke alge iz južnog Jadrana. U zelenoj algi Ulva lactuca glavni steroli su holesterol i izofukosterol. U mrkoj algi Cystoseira adriatica glavni steroli su holesterol i stigmast-5-en-3ß-ol, dok je fukosterol, sterol karakterističan za mrke alge, nađen samo u maloj količini. Sterolne smese zelene alge Codium dichotomum i mrke alge Fucus virsoides sastoje se praktično samo od po jednog sterola, klerosterola u prvoj i fukosterola u drugoj, koji sačinjavaju više od 90 % sterolnih frakcija

Regioselektivnost konjugovane adicijena monoalkil-1,4-benzohinone

The regioselectivity of the reaction of conjugate addition of thiols, amines, methanol and hydrogen chloride with the monoalkyl-1,4-benzoquinones avarone and 2-tert-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone was investigated. It was shown that the regioselectivity of the reaction is influenced by the electrophilicity of position 5 in unprotonated 2-alkylquinones, the increased electrophilicity of position 6 in acidic medium, and by the acidity of the intermediate hydroquinones.Proučavana je regioselektivnost konjugovane adicije tiola, amina, metanola i hlorovodonika na monoalkil-1,4-benzohinone avaron i 2-tert-butil-1,4-benzohinon. Pokazano je da na regioselektivnost reakcije utiču elektrofilnost položaja 5 neprotonovanih 2-alkil-hinona i povećana elektrofilnost položaja 6 u kiseloj sredini, kao i kiselost intermedijernih hidrohinona

The impact of resistance training program on the muscle strength and bone density in adolescent athletes

© 2018 Saša Bubanj et al., published by Sciendo 2018. Strength training and other modes of physical activity may be beneficial in osteoporosis prevention by maximizing bone mineral accrual in childhood and adolescence. This study focuses on the impact of the nine-month long program of resistant exercises with different level of external loads (low, middle and high) on the lower limbs explosive strength and bone tissue density in athletes adolescents aged 17 to 18 years. Sixty healthy, male athletes and non-athletes, divided into experimental (ES, sprinters, N = 45) and control sub-sample (CS, non-athletes, N = 15), were included in study. ES examinees (EG1, EG2 and EG3) were subjected to the program of resistance exercises with low level (60% of the One Repetition Maximum-1RM), middle level (70% 1RM), and high level (85% 1RM) of external loads, respectively. Bone Density values were determined by the use of a clinical sonometer.,Sahara (Hologic, Inc., MA 02154, USA). Explosive strength values of hip extensors and flexors, knee extensors and flexors, and ankle plantar and dorsiflexors were determined by the use of accelerometer.,Myotest (Sion, Switzerland) and the means of Counter Movement Jump without arms swing (CMJ) and half squat. ANOVA method for repeated measures and ANCOVA method were used to determine significant differences and resistance program effects on the lower limbs explosive strength and bone tissue density. Resistance exercise does impact the explosive strength and bone parameters in a way to increase half squat 1RM values, but decreases CMJ values, and increases speed of sound (SOS), broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) and bone mineral density (BMD) values in athletes-adolescents, aged 17-18 years