Pollen

This review deals first with basic knowledge about pollen, especially its biology, morphology and physiology, and then discusses the connection of pollen with medical problems such as hay fever (pollinosis). The next sections cover the historical development of methods for trapping and counting airborne pollen grains to produce reliable quantitative data, and the development of a European network of pollen-reporting stations.     

Pollen carryover and neighbourhood inRanunculus bulbosus

The pattern of gene flow has a major influence on the spatial scale of evolutionary processes. In plant populations pollen carryover will influence the pattern of gene flow. InRanunculus bulbosus L. pollen carryover was found to occur over a maximum of 5 flowers, with seed set per flower decreasing in a curvilinear fashion with increasing visit number in a sequence of visits by a bee after pollen pick-up from a donor plant. The effect of pollen carryover is to increase both neighbourhood area and neighbourhood size by two-fold.     

Pollen flight forecasting in Germany and in Europe

Every tenth person in Central Europe is a pollinosis patient. The time of ripening and release of pollen, as well as pollen flight, all depend on the weather. Because each year is different from every other, mean values from pollen calendars do not provide any practical help for allergy-sufferers. For this reason, in many European countries, measuring networks have been established during the last 10 years as a basis for forecasting the prevalence of airborne pollen for the following 2–3 days, in connection with the weather forecast. Cooperation and communication also exist on a European level, and a European Pollen Database has been established.     

Herbicidal pollution. Pollen damage by the herbicide vapours

Zusammenfassung Herbiziddämpfe reduzieren die Pollenfertilität vonSolanum melongena Willd.     

Immunoelectrophoretic analysis ofBrucella suis

Resumen Se encontraron 24 diferentes componentes antigénicos. Los conejos infestados producían anticuerpos detectables contra 6 componentes. El extracto acuoso debrucellas desecadas por acetona mostro ser el más adecuado para el diagnóstico serólogico.     

Cartesian analysis and synthesis

This paper aims to provide an explication of the meaning of ‘analysis’ and ‘synthesis’ in Descartes’ writings. In the first part I claim that Descartes’ method is entirely captured by the term ‘analysis’, and that it is a method of theory elaboration that fuses the modern methods of discovery and confirmation in one enterprise. I discuss Descartes’ methodological writings, assess their continuity and coherence, and I address the major shortcoming of previous interpretations of Cartesian methodology. I also discuss the Cartesian method in the context of other conceptions of scientific method of that era and argue that Descartes’ method significantly transforms these conceptions. In the second part I argue that mathematical and natural-philosophical writings exhibit this kind of analysis. To that effect I examine in Descartes’ writings on the method as used in mathematics, and Descartes’ account of the discovery of the nature of the rainbow in the Meteors. Finally, I briefly assess Descartes’ claim regarding the universality of his method.     

Electrophoretic analysis of clinical dextrans

Résumé On démontre que l'électrophorèse de dextrans cliniques peut être employée pour la détermination de leur poids moléculaire et de la polydispersité.     

Gas chromatographic analysis of ecdysone

Résumé Nous avons développé une méthode d'analyse micro-quantitative de l'ecdysone (hormone de la mue des insectes) par Chromatographie gazeuse. Elle permettera l'analyse chimique de l'ecdysone, qui a été dosée jusqu'à présent par des méthodes biologiques.

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Supported by a grant from the Authority for Research and Development of the Hebrew University and by the Israel Academy of Sciences.     

Immunelectrophoretic analysis of the lymph

Zusammenfassung Vergleichende immunelektrophoretische Untersuchungen des Blutplasmas, der Nieren-, Leber-, Darm- und Tr.-cervicalis-Lymphe zeigten mit Ausnahme der Leberlymphe in den Lymphproben die gleichen Proteinfraktionen wie im Blutplasma. Im Immunelektrophorogramm der Leberlymphe waren an den Stellen der - und-Globulinfraktionen mehrere Präzipitinstreifen sichtbar, die im Plasma bzw. in den Lymphproben anderen Ursprungs nicht vorhanden waren.     

Modeling European industrial production with multivariate singular spectrum analysis: A cross‐industry analysis

In this paper, an optimized multivariate singular spectrum analysis (MSSA) approach is proposed to find leading indicators of cross‐industry relations between 24 monthly, seasonally unadjusted industrial production (IP) series for German, French, and UK economies. Both recurrent and vector forecasting algorithms of horizontal MSSA (HMSSA) are considered. The results from the proposed multivariate approach are compared with those obtained via the optimized univariate singular spectrum analysis (SSA) forecasting algorithm to determine the statistical significance of each outcome. The data are rigorously tested for normality, seasonal unit root hypothesis, and structural breaks. The results are presented such that users can not only identify the most appropriate model based on the aim of the analysis, but also easily identify the leading indicators for each IP variable in each country. Our findings show that, for all three countries, forecasts from the proposed MSSA algorithm outperform the optimized SSA algorithm in over 70% of cases. Accordingly, this new approach succeeds in identifying leading indicators and is a viable option for selecting the SSA choices L and r, which minimizes a loss function.     

The experimental analysis of tuberculous infections

Zusammenfassung Züchtet man Tuberkelbazillen nach den bis heute üblichen Methoden, so begegnet man immer wieder gewissen Schwierigkeiten, die sich nicht leicht beheben lassen: Die Bakterien wachsen nur sehr langsam; sie bilden Klumpen oder kompakte, an der Oberfläche der Kultur schwimmende Häute, die aus einem uneinheitlichen Gemisch verschieden alter, lebender und toter Bakterien bestehen; sie lassen sich nicht gut homogen in einer Aufschwemmung verteilen. Außerdem kann man nur sehr große Inocula mit Erfolg verimpfen, da kleinere Bakterienmengen in der Regel nicht angehen.Diese Umstände erschweren das experimentelle Arbeiten in vielerlei Hinsicht, und es wurde deshalb ein Züchtungsverfahren ausgearbeitet, welches es gestattet, ausgehend von sehr kleinen Inocula (10^–8 mg Bakterien) Kulturen zu bekommen, die sich in flüssigen Nährmedien innert weniger Tage unter homogener Trübung des Milieus entwickeln. Der wesentliche Bestandteil dieses neuen Mediums ist ein nichttoxisches Netzmittel, ein Ölsäureester, und zwar ein Polyoxyäthylenderivat von Sorbitmonooleat (Marken-name «Tween 80»). Dieser Stoff haftet mit Hilfe einer hydrophoben Gruppe am Tuberkelbazillus, mit seinen langen Alkoholketten macht er aber den Bakterienleib nach außen hydrophyl, so daß er in der wässerigen Lösung frei und homogen suspendiert bleibt und zudem leichter Nährstoffe aus der Lösung aufzunehmen vermag. Außerdem scheint die veresterte Ölsäure selbst auch das Wachstum zu fördern.Die so gewachsenen Tuberkelbazillen behalten ihre Virulenz über lange Zeit bei. Ferner lassen sie sich durch Immunseren agglutinieren, was neue diagnostische Möglichkeiten eröffnet. Außerdem ist es möglich, damit Hühnerembryonen und besonders Mäuse zu infizieren, die einen andern Typ von Tuberkulose entwickeln als nach Infektion mit gewöhnlich gewachsenen Tuberkelbazillen, nämlich eine rasch tödlich verlaufende Lungentuberkulose. Obwohl diese akut verlaufende tuberkulöse Infektion von zahlreichen Formen der menschlichen Erkrankung wesentlich verschieden ist, wird doch die Hoffnung ausgesprochen, daß damit dem Experimentator eine neue; praktische Versuchsanordnung zum Studium der Tuberkulose in die Hand gegeben sei.

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The observations and views reported in this article are the result of a program of investigation carried out at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, in collaboration with DrsBernard D. Davis, Gardner Middlebrook andCynthia Pierce.     

Flocking shape analysis of multi-agent systems

In this paper, we consider the shape control in flocking behavior of a multi-agent system with a virtual leader. Besides the traditional flocking control terms, which include a gradient-based term, a velocity consensus term and a navigational feed-back in general, a new piecewise smooth neighbor-based local controller is added to regulate the configuration to the desired flocking shape. All agent velocities approach the desired velocity asymptotically, while collisions among agents can be avoided. Furthermo...     

Singular analysis of two-dimensional bifurcation system

Bifurcation properties of two-dimensional bifurcation system are studied in this paper. Universal unfolding and transition sets of the bifurcation equations are obtained. The whole parametric plane is divided into several different persistent regions according to the type of motion, and the different qualitative bifurcation diagrams in different persistent regions are given. The bifurcation properties of the two-dimensional bifurcation system are compared with its reduced one-dimensional system. It is found...