Modeling longitudinal data on health aging and life span

We address comments from the three discussants of our paper, paying particular attention to the properties of our model likely to be of interest in new applications to complex dynamic systems.     

On Regioselectivity of Aldol Condensation of Aromatic Aldehydes with Borate Complex of Acetylacetone

While cinnamoyl acetone 1 is obtained in good yield by a condensation of 3 molar excess of a borate complex of acetylacetone with benzaldehyde, products of Knoevenagel condensation 2 are predominantly obtained with furfural and 5-substituted furfurals. Cinnamoyl acetone 1 can be further condensed with furfural to form unsymmetrical curcuminoid 5. Compound 2a does not produce any new products under the same conditions. Compounds 3 and 5 are good inhibitors of growth of protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis.     

EPR dose reconstruction of two Kazakh villages near the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) dose reconstruction has been performed on archived tooth samples from residents of two villages near the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site in Kazakstan. The context of this work is a large multidisciplinary study of thyroid disease prevalence and radiation dose among long-term residents of villages near that nuclear test site, in which EPR is used for biodosimetric validation of the gamma-ray component of dose reconstruction algorithms applied to the data for various villages whose residents were exposed to radioactive fallout during 1949–1962, the period of above-ground atomic bomb testing. The tooth samples, nine from the village of Kainar and 23 from the village of Znamenka, were extracted in 1964 and 1967, respectively, and stored indoors in closed boxes in Semipalatinsk. According to provided information, some time in the past, the teeth from Kainar were heated to 80°C for one day. Experiments carried out on 12 teeth from US sources to determine the effects of long-term storage and heat treatment found that EPR assay findings were not compromised for storage times less than 35 years and annealing at temperatures below 200°C. For tooth enamel samples prepared from molars and premolars the average reconstructed gamma dose was 390±70 mGy for Kainar residents and 95±40 mGy for Znamenka residents.     

The Lorentz force and energy-momentum for off-shell electromagnetism

The kinematics of pre-Maxwell electrodynamics is examined and interpretations of these fields is found through an examination of the associated Lorentz force and the structure of the energy-momentum tensor.     

PHOTOINITIATION OF ONE ELECTRON REACTIONS IN DIPEPTIDES AND PROTEINS CONTAINING TRYPTOPHAN AND TYROSINE

A radical transformation of the type Tr?-TyrOH → TrpH-TyrO?, previously observed by pulse radiolysis, has been detected following 265 nm laser excitation of oxygen saturated neutral aqueous solutions of TrpH-TyrOH, TyrOH-TrpH and cyclo-TrpH-TyrOH. A similar process was observed after photoexcitation of the proteins α-lactalbumin and α-chymotrypsin.     

Technological Aids in the Teaching of Mathematics∗

In learning mathematics a relationship needs to be known as a detail and this also needs to be understood relative to the over‐all pattern and structure of mathematics. For some users of mathematics, techniques can be developed for presenting formulae sequentially so that they are available for term‐by‐term substitution, but the needs of creative mathematical thinkers are not met in this way. Present human resources are one mathematics graduate per 500 secondary school pupils and one mathematics graduate per 1300 students in further education. There is a pressing need to supplement these teaching resources by aids made available by educational technology, and also for research into suitable student terminals. Sequentially presented material is already available but there is a great need for visual material which can be presented synoptically. It is suggested that a steering team could mobilize many units where there are mathematicians and audio‐visual facilities to provide a large library of linking sequences to be available at computer‐controlled student terminals, relating each formula or relationship to other aspects of mathematics so that its place in the whole structure of mathematics is presented. Examples are given. There is also a need to devote some resources to the study of the effectiveness of particular diagrams and the order of presentation of visual materials since some current researches indicate these may be critical factors.

     

Average life of oxygen vacancies of quartz in sediments

Average life of oxygen vacancies of quartz in sediments is estimated by using the ESR(electron spin resonance) signals of E' centers from the thermal activation technique. The experi-mental results show that the second-order kinetics equation is more applicable to the life estima-tion compared with the first order equation. The average life of oxygen vacancies of quartz from4895 to 4908 deep sediments in the Tarim Basin is about 10~(18) a at 27℃.