Competitiveness of entrepreneurs and salaried workers

We measure the willingness to compete of entrepreneurs and salaried workers in an experiment. Participants can choose between a piece-rate and a tournament scheme either in private or in public. We find that in the private condition entrepreneurs are less competitive than salaried workers, but that in the public condition this ordering is reversed. Survey data suggest that perceived norms of appropriate behavior, along with beliefs about the instrumental value of competitiveness for professional success, can explain why entrepreneurs are more competitive when decisions are publicly observable. We also find that the latter condition improves the quality of experimental decisions

A high-reflectivity, ambient-stable graphene mirror for neutral atomic and molecular beams

The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters Volume 99, Issue 21, 21 November 2011, Article number 211907 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/99/21/10.1063/1.3663866We report a He and H2 diffraction study of graphene-terminated Ru(0001) thin films grown epitaxially on c-axis sapphire. Even for samples exposed for several weeks to ambient conditions, brief annealing in ultrahigh vacuum restored extraordinarily high specular reflectivities for He and H 2 beams (23 and 7 of the incident beam, respectively). The quality of the angular distributions recorded with both probes exceeds the one obtained from in-situ prepared graphene on Ru(0001) single crystals. Our results for graphene-terminated Ru thin films represent a significant step toward ambient tolerant, high-reflectivity curved surface mirrors for He-atom microscopyWork performed in part at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which issupported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886. Work supported by the Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia through projects CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 on Molecular Nanoscience (CSD 2007-00010), FIS2010-18847, and byComunidad de Madrid through the program NANOBIOMAGNET (S2009/MAT-1726)

Spawning and early development of captive yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares)

In this study we describe the courtship and spawning behaviors of captive yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), their spawning periodicity, the influence of physical and biological factors on spawning and hatching, and egg and early-larval development of this species at the Achotines Laboratory, Republic of Panama, during October 1996 through March 2000. Spawning occurred almost daily over extended periods and at water temperatures from 23.3° to 29.7°C. Water temperature appeared to be the main exogenous factor controlling the occurrence and timing of spawning. Courtship and spawning behaviors were ritualized and consistent among three groups of broodstock over 3.5 years. For any date, the time of day of spawning (range: 1330 to 2130 h) was predictable from mean daily water temperature, and 95% of hatching occurred the next day between 1500 and 1900 h. We estimated that females at first spawning averaged 1.6−2.0 years of age. Over short time periods (<1 month), spawning females increased their egg production from 30% to 234% in response to shortterm increases in daily food ration of 9% to 33%. Egg diameter, notochord length (NL) at hatching, NL at first feeding, and dry weights of these stages were estimated. Water temperature was significantly, inversely related to egg size, egg-stage duration, larval size at hatching, and yolksac larval duration

Nanoscale Au-In alloy-oxide core-shell particles as electrocatalysts for efficient hydroquinone detection

The presence of hydroquinone (HQ), a phenol ubiquitous in nature and widely used in industry, needs to be monitored because of its toxicity to the environment. Here we demonstrate efficient detection of HQ using simple, fast, and noninvasive electrochemical measurements on indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes modified with nanoparticles comprising bimetallic Au–In cores and mixed Au–In oxide shells. Whereas bare ITO electrodes show very low activity for the detection of HQ, their modification with Au–In core–shell nanoparticles induces a pronounced shift of the oxidation peak to lower potentials, i.e., facilitated oxidation. The response of the different electrodes was correlated with the initial composition of the bimetallic nanoparticle cores, which in turn determined the amount of Au and In stabilized on the surface of the amorphous Au–In oxide shells available for the electrochemical reaction. While adding core–shell nanostructures with different compositions of the alloy core facilitates the electrocatalytic (reduction-) oxidation of HQ, the activity is highest for particles with AuIn cores (i.e., a Au:In ratio of 1). This optimal system is found to follow a single pathway, the two-electron oxidation of the quinone–hydroquinone couple, which gives rise to high oxidation peaks and is most effective in facilitating the electrode-to-analyte charge transfer and thus detection. The limits of detection (LOD) decreased when increasing the amount of Au exposed on the surface of the amorphous Au–In oxide shells. The LODs were in the range of 10–5–10–6 M and were lower than those obtained using bulk Au.2022-07-72022-07-07Research carried out in part at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under Contract DE-SC0012704. EB- 14, University of Valladolid (PIF-UVa) Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad – FEDER (Grant CICYT AGL2012-335

Dutch parallel corpus: a balanced parallel corpus for Dutch-English and Dutch-French

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Metabolic response of early-lactating cows exposed to transport and high altitude grazing conditions

The metabolic response of dairy cows to high as opposed to low altitude conditions (2000 m v. 400 m above sea level) was determined. In the first experiment, four cows were subjected to a series of measurements before, during and after transport from lowland to high altitude pasture. During transport, cortisol, l-lactate and non-esterified fatty acids were significantly elevated but decreased within 1 to 3 days to initial levels. After transport, β-hydroxybutyrate and the thyroid hormones immediately increased and returned within 3 weeks to initial levels. Plasma urea increased during transport and subsequently was at an intermediate level due to the different diet. There were no direct carry-over effects of transport on metabolic traits during pasturing. In the second experiment, three groups of six different dairy cows were either grazed in one of two consecutive years or kept inside (2nd year only). Lowland sojourn lasted for 4 weeks, and high altitude period for 8 weeks. At the end of high altitude sojourn, both outside and inside groups were found still to have significantly higher plasma cortisol values than at lowland. Thyroid hormones and ketosis related metabolites sharply increased at the start of the alpine period and were elevated for 1 to 3 weeks thereafter. According to the hormonal and metabolic profiles, the permanently housed cows did not benefit from the less adverse climatic conditions and the lower physical strain. Plasma urea closely reflected dietary changes in the ratio of nitrogen to fermentable organic matter. Plasma protein, albumin, creatinine, and liver enzyme activities were not affected by transport or high altitude sojourn in both experiments. The results indicate that the metabolic response to transport and high altitude conditions can be mostly explained by the efforts to cover the additional energy requirements. Overall the data suggest a wide but nevertheless limited ability of early-lactating cows to adapt to high altitude condition

Aqueous Processes and Microbial Habitability of Gale Crater Sediments from the Blunts Point to the Glenn Torridon Clay Unit

A driving factor for sending the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity rover to Gale Crater was the orbital detection of clay minerals in the Glen Torridon (GT) clay unit. Clay mineral detections in GT suggested a past aqueous environment that was habitable, and could contain organic evidence of past microbiology. The mission of the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument onboard Curiosity was to detect organic evidence of past microbiology and to detect volatile bearing mineralogy that can inform on whether past geochemical conditions would have supported microbiological activity. The objective of this work was to 1) evaluate the depositional/alteration conditions of Blunts Point (BP) to GT sediments 2) search for evidence of organics, and 3) evaluate microbial habitability in the BP, Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), and GT sedimentary rock

Taxonomic study of entomopathogenic nematodes (Nematoda : Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae) from Benin

A study on the biodiversity of entomopathogenic nematodes was conducted during 2010 and 2011 in South Benin. Soil samples from eight sites production of annual and perennial crops were analysed. We obtained 13.21 % of positive soil samples out of 280. We here report on the identification of six of these isolates. Molecular, morphometrical and morphological observations classified the isolates within the genus Heterorhabditis ; one isolate was conspecific with H. indica and two other isolates with H. sonorensis. More information is needed for effective identification of the remaining three isolates. Phylogenic analysis based on sequences of ITS regions of rDNA grouped our isolates with H. sonorensis and H. taysearae with bootstrap support values of 94 and 99 % in Maximum Parsimony and Neighbour Joining trees, respectively. Morphological characters of the infective juveniles and males did not correspond to those of H. taysearae, but were close to H. sonorensis. In contrast, the female of the H. sonorensis populations did show some minor differences with the originally described one. No progeny was obtained from the crossbreeding of Beninese isolates and H. taysearae. Crossing with an isolate of H. sonorensis would have been more conclusive, but no isolates were available even for specimen’s morphological comparison.Keywords : Survey, identification, Molecular, cross-hybridization, Heterorhabditis.Etude taxonomique desnematodes entomopathogenes (Nematoda : Steinernematidae, Heterorhabditidae) du BeninUne étude diagnostique réalisée sur les nématodes entomopathogènes (NEP) en 2010 et 2011 dans le Sud- Bénin sur huit sites de production de cultures annuelles et pérennes a conduit à 13,21 % d’échantillons de sols positifs sur 280. Le présent travail a porté sur l’identification de six des isolats de NEP extraits. Les études moléculaires, morphologiques, morphométriques et d’hybridation effectuées utilisant les stades développementaux des nématodes ont révélé un isolat d’H. indica, deux d’H. sonorensis. Pour les autres isolats, des informations complémentaires sont nécessaires pour une identification complète. Le séquençage et l’analyse phylogénétique de la région interspécifique de l’ADN ribosomal ont groupé nos isolats avec H. sonorensis et H. Taysearae dans les arbres de parcimonie maximale et de Neighbour Joining avec les supports respectifs 94 et 99 %. Les caractères morphologiques des juvéniles infectieux et des mâles ne correspondent pas à ceux de la première description d’H. taysearae, mais sont proches d’H. sonorensis. Cependant, certaines femelles avec bouchon copulatoire ne correspondent pas à H. sonorensis. Nos isolats n’ont pas été féconds avec H. taysearae. Un croisement avec H. sonorensis population type serait plus concluant, mais il n’y avait aucun isolat disponible dans la base de gènes.Mots-clés : Etude, identification, moléculaire, hybridation-croisée, Heterorhabditis

Immune-profiling of innate and adaptive immunity following three vaccinations of the MERS vaccine candidate MVA-MERS-S

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a respiratory disease caused by MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV). In follow-up to a phase 1 trial, we performed a longitudinal analysis of immune responses following immunization with the Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA)-based vaccine MVA-MERS-S encoding MERS-CoV-spike protein. Three homologous intramuscular immunizations were administered on days 0 and 28 with a late booster vaccination at 12±4 months. Vaccination with MVA-MERS-S revealed a benign safety profile. No serious or severe adverse events were reported. Here, we analyzed innate and adaptive immune responses to the MVA-MERS-S in ten vaccinees. For this approach, blood samples were collected frequently for a period of about three years. Serum, plasma and PBMCs were analyzed at multiple time points using different techniques, which allowed an in-depth characterization of immune responses elicited by MVA-MERS-S. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract