Characterisation and identification of proteinaceous binding media (animal glues) from their amino acid profile by capillary zone electrophoresis

A capillary electrophoretic method for identifying different species of proteinaceous binders--collagen, egg white, and milk casein--is described. It allows characterisation of the proteins on the basis of the amino acid profiles obtained after their acidic hydrolysis. The profiles of the underivatised amino acids are recorded directly by capillary zone electrophoresis at pH 2.26 with the aid of a conductivity detector, thus eliminating the need for a derivatisation step. Identification is carried out by means of different relative peak areas of the amino acids. A scheme is given for identification, which is based on the main markers, hydroxyproline, proline, glycine, glutamic acid, and serine and valine.     

Degeneracy pressure of electrons: a new effect for Pb islands grown on Si(1 1 1) substrate

We have found that the degeneracy pressure of electrons (DPE) inside Pb islands grown on a silicon substrate plays a crucial role in stabilizing the islands. In most cases, at a metal-semiconductor interface charge spilling takes place due to the difference of Fermi energies between the two materials, which makes DPE decrease along with the energy of the system. Based on this new effect, calculations of energy as a function of height are carried out for Pb islands grown on Si(1 1 1)-() and -(7 × 7) phases, which have most stable heights of 5 and 7 monolayers (ML), respectively. Our results explain why these most stable heights are observed. Using this new effect supplemented with experimental data, all the preferred heights of the Pb islands on Si(1 1 1)-(7 × 7) can be explained too.     

Modeling and Analyzing Cultural Influences on Project Team Performance

Research on international joint ventures (IJV) finds managers experience difficulties in working with cross-cultural teams. Our research aims to understand how cultural differences between Japanese and American firms in IJV projects effect team performance through computational experimentation. We characterize culture and cultural differences using two dimensions: practices and values.Practices refer to each cultures typical organization style, such as centralization of authority, formalization of communication, and depth of organizational hierarchy. Values refer to workers preferences in making task execution and coordination decisions. These preferences drive specific micro-level behavior patterns for individual workers. Previous research has documented distinctive organization styles and micro-level behavior patterns for different nations. We use a computational experimental design that sets task complexityat four levels and team experience independently at three levels, yielding twelve organizational contexts. We then simulate the four possible combinations of USvs.Japanese organization style and individual behavior in each context to predict work volume, cost, schedule andprocess quality outcomes. Simulation results predict that: (1) both Japanese and American teams show better performance across all contexts when each works with its familiar organization style; (2) the Japanese organization style performs better under high task complexity, with low team experience; and (3) process quality risk is not significantly affected by organization styles. In addition, culturally driven behavior patterns have less impact on project outcomes than organization styles. Our simulation results are qualitatively consistent with both organizational and cultural contingency theory, and with limited observations of US-Japanese IJV project teams.This paper won the best Ph.D. student paper award at NAACSOS 2004, Pittsburgh PA. NAACSOS is the main conference of the North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science.Tamaki Horii is a Ph.D. candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University. His research focuses on various aspects of cultural and institutional influences on team performance. He is currently developing new models to capture and distinguish the cultural factors that emerging in global projects. He received a MS in Architecture at the Science University of Tokyo and a MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University.Yan Jin is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at University of Southern California and Director of USC IMPACT Laboratory , and a visiting Professor of Civil Engineering Department at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Naval Engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1988. Prior to joining USC faculty in the Fall of 1996, Dr. Jin was a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University. His current research interests include design methodology, agent-based collaborative engineering, and computational organization modeling. Dr. Jin is a recipient of National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1998), TRW Excellence in Teaching Award (2001), Best Paper in Human Information Systems (5th World Multi-Conference on Systemic, Cybernetics and Informatics, 2001), and Xerox Best Paper Award (ASME International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology, 2002).Raymond E. Levitt is a Professor of Civil Engineering Department at Stanford University, a Professor, by Courtesy, Medical Informatics, an Academic director of Stanford Advanced Project Management Executive Program, and a Director of Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects (CRGP) . His Virtual Design Team (VDT) research group has developed new organization theory, methodology and computer simulation tools to design organizations that can optimally execute complex, fast-track, projects and programs. VDT is currently being extended to model and simulate service/maintenancework processes such as health care delivery and offshore platform maintenance. Ongoing research by Professor Levitts Virtual Design Team research group attempts to model and simulate the significant institutional costs that can arise in global projects due to substantial differences in goals, values and cultural norms among project stakeholders.     

Investigations concerning the work function of doped graphite

In order to reduce the burning off of electrodes in electric arc furnaces, it is necesary to decrease the specific thermal load at the tip in the arc attachment area. This can be achieved by minimizing the work function of the electrode materials, whereby the peak temperature is reduced. The work function of doped graphite electrodes was investigated under conditions prevailing during standard industrial practice in order to achieve transferrable results. The measurement equipment developed to meet this requirement is based on a design first proposed by Bade and Yos. By measuring the peak temperature of the electrode and its current density, the value of the work function of the material was calculated with a modified Richardson equation. Starting from materials with well-known values of the work function, to verify, the accuracy of the experimental method and the mathematical model, those of pure and dopedgraphites were determined. The additives, oxides as a rule, result in a significant reduction in electron work function in the case of magnesium, calcium and cerium oxides.     

Production of highly charged argon ions from a room temperature electron beam ion trap

In this work.highly charged ions have been extracted from the advanced Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS-A) developed in a scientific cooperation between the Dresden University of Technology and the DREEBIT GmbH Dresden.The charge state distributions of ions extracted from the EBIS-A are measured in and extracted in the leaky mode.3×105 Ar18+ ions per pulse are extracted in the pulse mode.The ion charge state distribution is a function of the ionization time.     

The Shockley-type surface state on Ar covered Au(1 1 1): High resolution photoemission results and the description by slab-layer DFT calculations

We present a combined experimental (angle resolved photoemission: ARUPS) and theoretical study of the Shockley-type surface state in the L-gap of the (1 1 1)-face of Au covered with one monolayer of Ar. As known also from other systems consisting of rare-gas monolayers on noble metal (1 1 1) surfaces, the adsorbed rare-gas shifts the Shockley-state towards the Fermi level and increases the spin-orbit splitting, whereas the effective band mass remains unchanged. We analyze the observed changes by a comparison with ab initio slab-layer calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT), both within the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). Although the attractive van der Waals interaction between rare-gas and substrate is not properly considered in DFT there are considerable hybridization effects which allow to describe such weakly bound adsorbates quantitatively. We show to what extent the various DFT calculations correspond to the experimental results. Furthermore, we discuss the importance of lattice relaxation and the exact absorption position into the calculations.     

Be(0001)薄膜中的量子尺寸效应与吸附氢的第一性原理计算

通过基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法对铍自由表面的电子结构及表面原子氢的吸附能作了详细计算，给出Be(0001)薄膜的电子结构、表面能、电子功函数、层间弛豫等物理量随厚度变化关系，同时讨论了原子氢在Be(0001) 表面的吸附性质，给出了吸附能及局域电子态密度随铍薄膜层厚的变化关系，体现了铍薄膜的量子尺寸效应.     

基于U-net和可见光谱图像的黄瓜褐斑病分割

褐斑病是黄瓜主要真菌性病害之一,适宜条件下,特别是在昼夜温差大及饱和湿度条件下发病迅速,病情加重,导致黄瓜减产,造成经济损失.对黄瓜褐斑病进行病斑分割与提取,可以为后续的病害识别与诊断提供有效依据,具有重要意义.结合黄瓜褐斑病可见光谱图像,利用U-net深度学习网络构建黄瓜褐斑病语义分割模型,实现了病斑分割.首先在采集...     

“I am more of a visual learner”: The disciplinary values and identities in school mathematics learning and group work

This article depicts the disciplinary values and identities that students (re)construct in the realm of school mathematics. Video-based interactional analysis and video-mediated interviews were conducted in the context of group work in a school with a high percentage of immigrant students whose first language is not English. By adopting the framework of figured worlds, we identified figured disciplinary values where the visualization approach tended to be devalued compared to the calculational approach. The group that was not overly constrained by this figured disciplinary value attended more to the contributions made non-verbally and non-symbolically. Some immigrant students in this study identified themselves with the figurative identity as a “visual learner” that constrained their participation in group problem solving and influenced their overall relationship with the discipline of mathematics. The findings underline the importance of attending to the opaque values students project onto ways of engaging in mathematics.