Genetic analysis of fruit shape traits at different maturation stages in sponge gourd

The fruit shape is important quantitative trait closely related to the fruit quality. However, the genetic model of fruit shapes has not been proposed. Therefore, in the present study, analysis of genetic effects for fruit shape traits （fruit length and fruit perimeter） in sponge gourd was conducted by employing a developmental genetic model including fruit direct effects and maternal effects. Analysis approaches of unconditional and conditional variances were applied to evaluate the genetic behavior of fruit shape traits at economical and physiological maturation times. The results of variance analysis indicated that fruit length and fruit perimeter were simultaneously affected by fruit direct genetic effects and maternal effects. Fruit direct genetic effects were relatively more important for fruit shape traits at whole developmental period. The gene expression was most active at the economical maturation stage （1-12 d after flowering） for two shape traits, and the activation of gene was mostly due to direct dominance effects at physiological maturation stage （13-60 datter flowering）. The coefficients due to different genetic effects, as well as the phenotypic correlation coefficients, varied significantly between fruit shape traits themselves at various maturation stages. The results showed that it was relatively easy to improve fruit shape traits for industrial purpose by carefully selecting the parents at economical maturation stage instead of that at physiological maturation stage.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Mrakia psychrophila</Emphasis> sp. nov., a new species isolated from Antarctic soil

The yeast strain （Y18） was isolated from a soil sample collected from Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica. The strain is a psychrophilic yeast with optimum and maximum growth temperatures of 10 ℃ and 18 ℃, respectively. Teliospores were formed after 7 d on malt agar, when the germination of teliospores was observed. Both inositol and D-glucuronate were assimilated. Positive results of the DBB （diazonium blue B） color reaction, urease test, and starch formation were observed. The major CoQ is Qs. All results indicated that Y18 belongs to the genes of Mrakia. The 18S rDNA sequence analyses showed that Y18 is closely related to Mrakiafrigida. DNA-DNA relatedness study, and some biochemistry characteristics indicated that Y18 represents a new species for which Mrakia psychrophila sp. nov. is proposed.     

Phonological processing and emergent literacy in younger and older preschool children

Phonological awareness, phonological memory, and phonological access to lexical storage play important roles in acquiring literacy. We examined the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of these phonological processing abilities (PPA) in 389 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the validity of each PPA as separate from general cognitive ability and separate from each other. Multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) with mean structure demonstrated that older preschoolers have better developed latent PPA than younger preschoolers but that the structure of PPA is equivalent. RAN was found uniquely associated with letter knowledge and text discrimination in younger preschoolers, and PA was found uniquely associated with word reading skills in older preschoolers. Finally, general cognitive ability was only indirectly associated with emergent literacy via PPA. These results highlight the importance of PPA in the early literacy development of English-speaking preschool children.     

Resistance partial factor and reliability of cast ball-and-socket support joint

Considering the uncertainty of material performance, geometric characteristic and analysis method, the analysis of statistical parameters of the resistance of cast ball-and-socket support joints and the reliability analysis are carried out by JC method (improved first-order second-moment method) based on the relevant experimental data. Results show that the resistance partial factor of the joint increases with the increase of the reliability index. The resistance partial factors are suggested corresponding to the reliability index under different load combinations. Moreover, the suggested resistance partial factor is adopted in reliability design, and it is found that the reliability index of the joint is larger than the target reliability index. The optimal load combination is the one in which live load plays an important control role. Finally, based on the suggested resistance partial factors, the reliability analysis of cast ball-and-socket support joints of a project is conducted.     

Let's Talk About Maths: The Role of Observed “Maths‐Talk” and Maths Provisions in Preschoolers' Numeracy

Developmental cognitive neuroscience highlights the importance of interactions between children and their environment. As young children spend increasing time in childcare, it is key to investigate the impact of “maths‐talk” and maths provisions in preschools. Qualitative insights from early educators indicate a greater bias toward counting activities than would be expected given the Early Years curriculum. In addition, we quantified the observed breadth of preschool practitioners' maths language (e.g., place‐value language), setting‐based maths provisions (e.g., quality of maths‐related activities), and their relation with children's early numeracy skills. In settings with greater practitioners' breadth of maths language, children display greater cardinality skills although our data call for the further investigation of parental socioeconomic status and education. We conclude with a discussion on the need to operationalize children's maths learning environments as diversely as possible. Enriching practitioners' skill sets may be an effective and needed way of improving early maths outcomes.     

Boundary-Work in the Health Research Field: Biomedical and Clinician Scientists’ Perceptions of Social Science Research

Funding agencies in Canada are attempting to break down the organizational boundaries between disciplines to promote interdisciplinary research and foster the integration of the social sciences into the health research field. This paper explores the extent to which biomedical and clinician scientists’ perceptions of social science research operate as a cultural boundary to the inclusion of social scientists into this field. Results indicated that cultural boundaries may impede social scientists’ entry into the health research field through three modalities: (1) biomedical and clinician scientists’ unfavourable and ambivalent posture towards social science research; (2) their opposition to a resource increase for the social sciences; and (3) clinician scientists procedural assessment criteria for social science. The paper also discusses the merits and limitations of Tom Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work for studying social dynamics within the field of science.

Rethinking Polanyi’s Concept of Tacit Knowledge: From Personal Knowing to Imagined Institutions

Half a century after Michael Polanyi conceptualised ‘the tacit component’ in personal knowing, management studies has reinvented ‘tacit knowledge’—albeit in ways that squander the advantages of Polanyi’s insights and ignore his faith in ‘spiritual reality’. While tacit knowing challenged the absurdities of sheer objectivity, expressed in a ‘perfect language’, it fused rational knowing, based on personal experience, with mystical speculation about an un-experienced ‘external reality’. Faith alone saved Polanyi’s model from solipsism. But Ernst von Glasersfeld’s radical constructivism provides scope to rethink personal tacit knowing with regard to ‘other people’ and the intersubjectively viable construction of ‘experiential reality’. By separating tacit knowing from Polanyi’s metaphysical realism and drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of ‘imagined communities’, it is possible to conceptualise ‘imagined institutions’ as the tacit dimension of power that shapes human interaction. Whereas Douglass North claimed institutions could be reduced to rules, imagined institutions are known in ways we cannot tell.     

Broadway productions and the value of a Tony Award

This article investigates the effect of a Tony nomination or win on the demand facing a Broadway production using a panel of weekly revenues for Broadway productions from 1996 to 2007. Our results indicate that the effect of a nomination or win is positive in the week of the announcement and gradually increases in successive weeks, presumably due to publicity and word-of-mouth. Winners experience an increase in demand as late as 1 year later when awards are publicized for the following season. Moreover, nominees that do not win the award are penalized heavily in the weeks following the Award announcements. We find that winning a Tony Award increases a production’s revenues by 12% in the week immediately following the Awards.

Revealed word-of-mouth demand and adaptive supply: survival of motion pictures at the Australian box office

This study considers a frailty duration approach to modelling the life-length of a sample of 360 films that went into wide release at the Australian box office from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2005. The analysis extends previous research by considering a range of film-specific covariates relating to distribution, production, consumer signals, and weekly performance. In particular, it is shown that film success (defined in a duration context) responds to previewing, advertising, critical reviews, and US box office—but not to production budget, star power or opening-week screens. The study also reveals that it is appropriate to account for unobservable heterogeneity between films in the choice of empirical methodology.