The social vocalization repertoire of east Australian migrating humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae)

Although the songs of humpback whales have been extensively studied, other vocalizations and percussive sounds, referred to as "social sounds," have received little attention. This study presents the social vocalization repertoire of migrating east Australian humpback whales from a sample of 660 sounds recorded from 61 groups of varying composition, over three years. The social vocalization repertoire of humpback whales was much larger than previously described with a total of 34 separate call types classified aurally and by spectrographic analysis as well as statistically. Of these, 21 call types were the same as units of the song current at the time of recording but used individually instead of as part of the song sequence, while the other 13 calls were stable over the three years of the study and were not part of the song. This study provides a catalog of sounds that can be used as a basis for future studies. It is an essential first step in determining the function, contextual use and cultural transmission of humpback social vocalizations.     

Particle interactions in kaolinite suspensions and corresponding aggregate structures

The surface charge densities of the silica face surface and the alumina face surface of kaolinite particles, recently determined from surface force measurements using atomic force microscopy, show a distinct dependence on the pH of the system. The silica face was found to be negatively charged at pH>4, whereas the alumina face surface was found to be positively charged at pH<6, and negatively charged at pH>8. The surface charge densities of the silica face and the alumina face were utilized in this study to determine the interaction energies between different surfaces of kaolinite particles. Results indicate that the silica face-alumina face interaction is dominant for kaolinite particle aggregation at low pH. This face-face association increases the stacking of kaolinite layers, and thereby promotes the edge-face (edge-silica face and edge-alumina face) and face-face (silica face-alumina face) associations with increasing pH, and hence the maximum shear-yield stress at pH 5-5.5. With further increase in pH, the face-face and edge-face association decreases due to increasing surface charge density on the silica face and the edge surfaces, and decreasing surface charge density on the alumina face. At high pH, all kaolinite surfaces become negatively charged, kaolinite particles are dispersed, and the suspension is stabilized. The face-face association at low pH has been confirmed from cryo-SEM images of kaolinite aggregates taken from suspension which show that the particles are mostly organized in a face-face and edge-face manner. At higher pH conditions, the cryo-SEM images of the kaolinite aggregates reveal a lower degree of consolidation and the edge-edge association is evident.     

(TMTSF)2(2,5-Tcnqbr2): Structure and Physical Properties

The 2:1 charge-transfer salt (TMTSF)₂(2,5-TCNQBr2) has been prepared and its physical properties investigated. Its crystal structure consists of segregated stacks of TMTSF donors (ring-over-bond overlap pattern; mean interplanar spacing of 3.6A) and chains of edge-on and disordered 2,5-TCNQBr2 acceptors. Infrared data are suggestive of unit charge on the 2,5-TCNQBr2 molecule and, therefore, half charge on the TMTSF donor. Resistivity data are successfully interpreted on the basis of a percolation construction. Magnetic data are also presented.     

Betti numbers of Stanley–Reisner rings determine hierarchical Markov degrees

There are two seemingly unrelated ideals associated with a simplicial complex Δ: one is the Stanley–Reisner ideal I _Δ , the monomial ideal generated by minimal non-faces of Δ, well-known in combinatorial commutative algebra; the other is the toric ideal I _M(Δ) of the facet subring of Δ, whose generators give a Markov basis for the hierarchical model defined by Δ, playing a prominent role in algebraic statistics. In this note we show that the complexity of the generators of I _M(Δ) is determined by the Betti numbers of I _Δ . The unexpected connection between the syzygies of the Stanley–Reisner ideal and degrees of minimal generators of the toric ideal provide a framework for further exploration of the connection between the model and its many relatives in algebra and combinatorics.     

Palladium-catalyzed allylic cross-coupling reactions of primary and secondary homoallylic electrophiles

The Pd(0)-catalyzed allylic cross-coupling of homoallylic tosylate substrates using boronic acids and pinacol esters is reported. The reaction uses 2-(4,5-dihydro-2-oxazolyl)quinoline (quinox) as a ligand and is performed at ambient temperature. The scope of the reaction is broad in terms of both the boronate transmetalating reagent and the substrate and includes secondary tosylates. Mechanistic studies support an alkene-mediated S(N)2-type stereoinvertive oxidative addition of unactivated primary and secondary alkyl tosylates.     

A two-dimensional laser diameter gauge

A two-dimensional diameter control apparatus has been devised and constructed on the laser scanning principle, which uses a reference grating to determine the outer diameter of an object as well as the position of the scanning beam.     

Parametric ranked set sampling

Ranked set sampling was introduced by McIntyre (1952,Australian Journal of Agricultural Research,3, 385–390) as a cost-effective method of selecting data if observations are much more cheaply ranked than measured. He proposed its use for estimating the population mean when the distribution of the data was unknown. In this paper, we examine the advantage, if any, that this method of sampling has if the distribution is known, for a specific family of distributions. Specifically, we consider estimation of and for the family of random variables with cdf's of the formF(x–/). We find that the ranked set sample does provide more information about both and than a random sample of the same number of observations. We examine both maximum likelihood and best linear unbiased estimation of and , as well as methods for modifying the ranked set sampling procedure to provide even better estimation.This paper has been prepared with partial support from the United States Environmental Protection Agency under Cooperative Agreement Number CR821801-01-0. The contents have not been subjected to Agency review and therefore do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.     

THE PHOTOTOXICITY OF PHENYLHEPTATRIYNE: OXYGEN-DEPENDENT HEMOLYSIS OF HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES AND INACTIVATION OF Escherichia coli

Abstract— Phenylheptatriyne (PHT) plus near-ultraviolet light(320–400 nm; NUV) hemolyzed human erythrocytes in an oxygen dependent manner. When the phototoxicity of PHT plus NUV was tested with a series of Escherichia coli strains carrying all four possible combinations of genes controlling excision proficiency ( uvrA6 vs uvrA ⁺) and catalase activity (HPII, katF vs katF *), the membrane was found to be an important lethal target. Consistent with this observation. PHT plus NUV did not induce histidine independent ( his-4 ⁺) mutations in the four tester strains (RT7h-RT10h). Using tester strain RT10h, it was shown that there was no inactivation by PHT plus NUV in nitrogen. Results of experiments with an E. coli fatty acid auxotroph (K1060) treated with PHT plus NUV are also consistent with membrane proteins being the chief targets for attack. Radicals were formed during the photolysis of PHT plus NUV in aqueous solutions, both in the presence of air and under nitrogen. Since PHT plus NUV did not hemolyze erythrocytes or inactivate E. coli cells under nitrogen, these radicals are not cytotoxic.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic monitoring of metabolic products resulting from the treatment of mouse hepatoma cells with N6-cycloalkylated nucleosides.

High-performance liquid chromatography was used to analyze cell lysates and growth medium of mouse hepatoma cells, separately treated with N6-cyclopropyl-, N6-cyclobutyl-, and N6-cyclopentyladenosines, in an effort to gain insight into the mechanism by which these modified nucleosides exert their cytotoxic effect(s). The corresponding 5'-monophosphate of the respective modified nucleoside was detected in the separate cell lysate samples. Both the modified nucleoside and its corresponding 5'-monophosphate were detected in the separate growth medium samples and their relative concentrations therein were determined. These results indicate that the cytotoxicity of these N6-cycloalkylated nucleosides may be attributed to their 5'-monophosphates within the cells.