Effects of Temperature, Relative Humidity and Moisture Content on Seed Longevity of Shrubby Russian Thistle （ Salsola vermiculata L,）

Salsola vermiculata is a highly palatable shrub and widely used in rangeland rehabilitation programs, but has short seed longevity. To identify the most cost effective storage method for S. vermiculata, experiments were carried out to test the effects of fruit bracts （wings）, temperature regimes, seed moisture and packaging methods on storage life. Seed samples were removed from storage at monthly intervals for testing and towards the end of the experiments samples were transferred from hermetic to ambient storage conditions and tested for germination. Experiment 1 continued for 1,140 days, Experiment 2 for 720 days. For de-winged seed, high moisture content increased seed longevity, suggesting that desiccation susceptibility is one of the causes of limited longevity in this species. Most longevity regression lines of winged seeds had negative intercepts suggesting increase in germination resulting from gradual dormancy-breaking. Drying and packaging alone increased longevity by 7.6 and 3.8 times in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Samples kept at lower temperature and lower moisture treatments survived longer under ambient conditions. Increased longevity by drying and vacuum packaging alone can provide simple, cost effective and environmentally friendly options for rangeland rehabilitation programs.

Rorty＇s Point of Departure from Mainstream Pragmatist Approach to Epistemology

Our main focus in this paper is to try to show Rorty＇s point of departure from mainstream pragmatist treatment of epistemology. In his pragmatic approach to epistemology, Rorty urges that a good pragmatist should abandon epistemology as a foundational and rational discipline and instead opt for conversation, the view that knowledge is an expression of judgment of a historically conditioned social group） According to Rorty, the view that we should disentangle ourselves from rigid canons of epistemology is the quest of classical pragmatism traceable to the writings of William James and John Dewey. On this showing, Rorty argues that conversationalism is consistent with mainstream or original pragmatism. Contrary to Rorty＇s claim we try to show, in the following pages, that his pragmatic approach to epistemology is a deviation from mainstream pragmatism. We establish that mainstream or classical pragmatists do not repudiate epistemology.

Vail’s Story Retold： Applications of John Steinbeck’s Realistic Prose to Reconstructing Growth and Change of a Colorado High Mountain Town

Vail, a ski area in Colorado established in 1962, has undergone many changes since its inception. How to explain the growth of an ever expanding urban corridor （“Vail Valley”） in the Colorado High Country, with considerable implications for the social and built-up environment and the surrounding wilderness？ It is argued here that Steinbeck’s writings – as laid out, for instance, in Cannery Row - could offer a strategy to reconstruct the events and developments that transformed the Vail ski resort destination over the past decades. Eight chapters lay out major themes of the Vail Story, from “Vail before Vail” to “Vail after Vail.” Quotations from Steinbeck’s novels and from other writers in the analysis of his works introduce a given theme. The discussion of the beginnings of the ski area and the town, the staging of Vail mega sports events like three world alpine ski championships and the changing directions and policies of the ski corporation result in a narrative closely aligned with the style of Steinbeck’s realistic prose.

Experimental study on the degradation of Rhodamine B by hydrodynamic cavitation technique

Hydrodynamic cavitation is a new technique in wastewater treatment processes. The degradation of Rbodamine B was studied on a 220 liters hydrodynamic cavitation setup using multiple hole orifice plates in this paper. The experimental results showed that Rhodamine B was really decomposed by hydrodynamic cavitation. Some factors influencing degradation effect i.e. geometric parameters and operation conditions also were discussed. It was concluded there was the optimal ratio of total area of holes to crosssectional area of the pipe and the rate constant increased with a reduction in the value of the modified cavitional number.

Giorgio Vasari＇s The Conception of Our Lady： A Divine Fruit

The theme of the Conception of the Virgin Mary fascinated 16th-century Mannerist painters, as manifested in Giorgio Vasari＇s many drawings and paintings and also the numerous replicas in drawings, paintings, and engravings made after his paintings by his contemporary artists. This essay focuses on Vasari＇s complex iconography of The Conception of Our Lady of 1540 at SS. Apostoli in Florence, Italy. In his documentation of the painting, Vasari never referred to or entitled the painting as an Allegory of the Immaculate Conception or Immaculate Conception but coined it as The Conception of Our Lady （Concezione di Nostra Donna） as it will be referred in this essay. Vasari＇s complex iconography derived from the writings of the A retine canon Giovanni Pollastra. The Virgin Mary is depicted as a victorious symbol of grace and salvation, triumphing over evil. Rejoicing angels surround her with scrolls containing Latin inscriptions, QUOS EVE CULPA DAAVIT/MARIAE GRATIAE SOLVIT, ECCE AGNIU[S] and UNIUS ONNOSTAA. These joyful words allude to the restoration of the fate of Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge in Paradise. A sinuous serpent coils around the fig tree, while tied-up Old Testament and New Testaments wait for forgiveness and salvation. Three considerations are addressed in this essay： （1） discussion of Vasari＇s recorded commissions; （2） stylistic observations and influences; and （3） interpretation of the imagery, that is, some observations on the symbolism of the painting.

Resolving Insolubilia： Intemal Inconsistency and the Reform of Naive Set Comprehension --An Addendum

A further reformulation of Naive Set Comprehension related to that proposed in ＂Resolving Insolubilia： Internal Inconsistency and the Reform of Naive Set Comprehension＂ （2012） is possible in which contradiction is averted not by excluding sets such as the Russell Set but rather by treating sentences resulting from instantiation of such sets as the Russell Set in their own descriptions as invalid. So the set of all sets that are not members of thernselves in this further revision is a valid set but the claim that that set is or is not a member of itself is not validly expressible. Such an approach to set comprehension results in a set ontology co-extensive with that permitted by the Naive Set Comprehension Principle itself. This approach （that may be called Revised Set Comprehension Ⅱ） has as strong a claim to consistency as that formulated in ＂Resolving Insolubilia： Internal Inconsistency and the Reform of Naive Set Comprehension.＂

The Free-Flowing Voice and its Connection With the Mother Tongue

Does the native tongue confer greater authenticity and connection？ And how does this connect with languages acquired later in life？ From thirty years of directing, training, and auditioning actors from a range of ethnicities, I have believed that the mother-tongue has a particular and organic connection for an actor, one difficult to achieve in any other language. This belief was confounded in a laboratory conducted with Romanian actors, March 2013. The work was performed in both English and Romanian and it was with a sense of shock that I observed that the work was more vital, compelling, and physically and vocally engaged when they spoke in English. What were the factors at play here and what are the implications for future work？ Patsy Rodenburghas written of the giddy delight children find in language. Under what conditions does the native tongue evoke that ＂giddy delight＂ and where and when does it become an obstacle to such pleasure？

Ecologically Based Strategies for Pest Control in Grassland Ecosystems

The researches were carried out in 2007, 2008 and 2009 at Cluj-Napoca （Romania）, in laboratory and field conditions （grassland ecosystems）, in four experiments. Our purpose was to study and use some ecological pest control methods based on indirect and direct strategies： （1） the harmful fauna monitoring in grassland ecosystems and useful fauna identification （by visual control, manually collecting, striking method on a tarpaulin）; （2） the use of some physico-mechanical and biotechnical methods （use of barriers-vessels, repellents, attractant traps-alimentary, visual） to control the pests. The researches concerning the indirect strategies, carried out from Mars 2007 to September 2009. There were identified 28 pest species and 29 useful ones. The direct strategies to control the pests consisted of 3 experiments. The use of colored traps with water （August 2008） on a meadow with ryegrass and clover, in 6 variants （white, silver, orange, green, blue and red） ＋ control （yellow）, recorded a very good efficacy at all variants excepting the red trap （variant 6）. The use of repellents （August 2008）, absinth decoction （against aphids and ants）, bracken extract （against aphids and snails）, common tansy decoction （against ants and soil pests） and kaolinite （against a large amount of pests）, recorded good results removing the pests. The attractant traps with alimentary baits （beer）, meant the use of 10 vessels on a 1000 m2 area, which captured 200 slugs （August 2009）. All three methods recorded a good efficacy against the pests.

Remuneration Reforms in Public Sector： A Case of Russian Healthcare

In 2008 remuneration reform for public sector was introduced in Russia. Its main idea was to implement P4P principle well-known in business, including more flexible approach to wage setting. This paper presents an attempt to estimate an influence of the new remuneration system （NRS） on earnings level, inequalities and job motivation. The estimates are based on microdata of monitoring survey of healthcare economic problems conducted in Russia in 2009 and 2010. The extended specification of Mincer earning equation and probit-models were used. One could observe increasing wage rates and earning inequalities within healthcare institutions adopted NRS though worker＇s experience and regional economic differences remain significant wage determining factors. As it occurs, NRS is widely adopted by large regional and central hospitals while smaller health care institutions show less enthusiasm in implementing reform. Obviously, the larger institutions have more money and better educated administrative staff to introduce the new system. Those chief physicians who adopted NRS point out a positive correlation between earnings and individual input. At the same time, those committed to old principles of wage setting more often note declining job turnover. This latter result could possibly indicate negative personnel sorting, less productive workers tending to stay with employer who doesn＇t assess their performance. As concerns anticipated NRS results such as increasing motivation and quality of health services, the evidence is still ambiguous.

A Fully Flexible Potential Model for Carbon Dioxide

A fully flexible potential model for carbon dioxide has been developed to predict the vapor-liquid coexistence properties using the NVT-Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo technique(GEMC).The average absolute deviation between our simulation and the literature experimental data for saturated liquid and vapor densities is 0.3% and 2.0%,respectively.Compared with the experimental data,our calculated results of critical properties(7.39 MPa,304.04 K,and 0.4679 g?cm-3) are acceptable and are better than those from the rescaling the potential parameters of elementary physical model(EPM2).The agreement of our simulated densities of supercritical carbon dioxide with the experimental data is acceptable in a wide range of pressure and temperature.The radial distribution function estimated at the supercritical conditions suggests that the carbon dioxide is a nonlinear molecule with the C O bond length of 0.117 nm and the O C O bond angle of 176.4°,which are consistent with Car-Parrinello molecular-dynamics(CPMD),whereas the EPM2 model shows large deviation at supercritical state.The predicted self-diffusion coefficients are in agreement with the experiments.

Objectivity on Quantum Events： The Principle of Complementarity and the Rortian Perspective

In this writing, I reconstruct the Principle of Complementarity in Quantum Mechanics, elaborated by Niels Bohr, and the conception of objectivity implied in it （and in Bohr＇s writings）. Then, I connect it with the epistemological pragmatism of the philosopher Richard Rorty. My aim is to reinterpret some issues of this quantum description that concern the category of objectivity from the Rortian perspective in a plausible way. This allows me to connect in a positive and a negative sense some quantum （and Bohrian） assumptions to the Rortian perspective, but mainly, it allows to reconsider the framework of scientific objects from the modern perspective to a new pragmatist and anti-essentialist point of view.

Hydraulic Installation for Water Aeration

This paper presents some problems related to water quality and the condition of lakes in Romania, as well as methods for improving the quantity of oxygen dissolved in water. A method for water aeration and the installation used to implement it are described and the associated advantages regarding the reduction in the level of eutrophication are highlighted. The hydraulic installation for improving the quality of water from lakes, basins, reservoirs or slow flowing rivers was designed and tested in our hydraulics laboratory during a research project. It is floatable, environmentally friendly, and energetically autonomous, being powered by photovoltaic panels, which together with rechargeable batteries can assure a continuous operation. This installation could also be used in early stages of wastewater treatment. Experimental results regarding the performance curves of the hydraulic installation are also presented.

Uranium enrichment determination by high-energy photon interrogation

Uranium enrichment determination by non-destructive assay is an important method in authenticating the nuclear warhead or uranium component in deep nuclear reduction verifications.In this paper,the feasibility of applying the high-energy photon interrogation to determine the uranium enrichment is studied.Simplified models are presented which were simulated by particle Monte Carlo transport code.The results indicate that the relation curves of the released neutrons and the enrichment of uranium objects are almost linear.For a uranium object of a given shape,the uranium enrichment can be obtained with the relation curves,which could be got in advance by calibration experiments or simulations.

Molecular simulations of methane, ethane and propane adsorption on TON

The aim of this study was to understand and characterize the adsorption of small alkanes, namely methane, ethane and propane, in zeolite TON through detailed Monte Carlo simulations. The isotherms of pure components were calculated and showed good agreement with experimental data. The adsorption positions, adsorption energy of pure components and isotherms of mixtures were also simulated and the results are discussed.

Managing hybridization of a recovering endangered species： The red wolf Canis rufus as a case study

Hybridization presents a unique challenge for conservation biologists and managers. While hybridization is an important evolutionary process, hybridization is also a threat formany native species. The endangered species recovery effort for the red wolf Canis rufus is a classic system for understanding and addressing the challenges of hybridization. From 1987-1993, 63 red wolves were released from captivity in eastern North Carolina, USA, to establish a free-ranging, non-essential experimental population. By 1999, managers recognized hybridization with invasive coyotes Canis latrans was the single greatest threat to successful recovery, and an adaptive management plan was adopted with innovative approaches for managing the threat of hybri- dization. Here we review the application and results of the adaptive management efforts from 1993 to 2013 by comparing： （1） the numbers of wolves, coyotes, and hybrids captured, （2） the numbers of territorial social groups with presumed breeding capabili- ties, （3） the number of red wolf and hybrid litters documented each year and （4） the degree of coyote introgression into the wild red wolf gene pool. We documented substantial increases in the number of known red wolves and red wolf social groups from 1987-2004 followed by a plateau and slight decline by 2013.The number of red wolf litters exceeded hybrid litters each year and the proportion of hybrid litters per year averaged 21%. The genetic composition of the wild red wolf population is estimated to include 〈 4% coyote ancestry from recent introgression since reintroduction. We conclude that the adaptive management plan was effective at reducing the introgression of coyote genes into the red wolf population, but population recovery of red wolves will require continuation of the current management plan, or alternative approaches, for the foreseeable future. More broadly, we discuss the lessons learned from red wolf adaptive management that could assist other endangered species recovery efforts facing the challenge of minimizing hybridization [Current Zoology 61 （1）： 191-205, 2015 ].