In 1994, its second full production year, field-grown meristemmed 'Black Mitchum' peppermint performed differently than in 1993, when compared with a non-meristemmed treatment in a field trial at the OSU-COARC. The difference between years may be partly attributed to better meeting the fertility and soil moisture needs of meristemmed plants in 1994. Plants were not moisture-stressed near harves...

In this essay, I mainly discuss how to price and hedge options in stochastic volatility (SV) models. The market is incomplete in the SV model, whereas it is complete in the Black-Scholes model. Thus the option pricing and hedging methods are a little different for the SV model and for the Black-Scholes model. The no-arbitrage argument and the risk-neutral valuation method are two general method...

Supersymmetry of five dimensional string solutions is examined in the context of gauged D = 5, N = 2 supergravity coupled to abelian vector multiplets. We find magnetic black strings preserving one quarter of supersymmetry and approaching the half-supersymmetric product space AdS3 × H near the event horizon. The solutions thus exhibit the phenomenon of supersymmetry enhancement near the horizon...

Avian eggs contain substantial amounts of maternal androgens. The concentrations of these yolk androgens are affected by the maternal environment, such as the level of social competition, parasite exposure or food conditions. Since yolk androgens have been shown to affect a wide array of offspring traits, they may adjust the chicks to the expected post-hatching environment, but experimental evi...

The effects of black rice anthocyanidins (BRACs) on retinal damage induced by photochemical stress are not well known. In the present study, Sprague-Dawley rats were fed AIN-93M for 1 week, after which 80 rats were randomly divided into two groups and treated with (n = 40) or without BRACs (n = 40) for 15 days, respectively. After treatment, both groups were exposed to fluorescent light (3,000 ...

This study describes a systematic approach of TiO2/carbon black nanoparticles with respect to the loading amount in order to optimize the catalytic ability of triiodide reduction for dye-sensitized solar cells. In particular, the cell using an optimized TiO2 and carbon black electrode presents an energy conversion efficiency of 7.4% with a 5:1 ratio of a 40-nm TiO2 to carbon black. Based on the...

We used molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structures and properties of Newton black films (NBF) for several surfactants: sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (C16TAB), and surfactin using film thicknesses up to 10 nm. By calculating the interface formation energy for various packing conditions on the surface pressure-area isotherm, we found that the ...

This study investigated the ameliorative effect of black rice anthocyanin (BACN) in senescent mice induced by D-galactose. The male mice were randomly divided into five groups, namely, the normal group, the model group and dosage groups (15, 30 and 60 mg kg(-1) of BACN). The model group and three dosage groups were continuously injected subcutaneously with D-galactose. The results suggested tha...

Oxidation of pollutants in waste water by photo-Fenton reaction has proven an ecofriendly and economical method. Oxidation of amido black – 10B, (an acid dye of azo series) using photoFenton reagent was investigated under ambient conditions. The effect of different parameters like the concentration of ferric ion, amido black10B and hydrogen peroxide, pH, light intensity etc. on the reaction rat...

The effects of copper toxicity on the photosynthetic activities of Avicennia germinans was investigated using two CuSO4 concentrations (0.062 and 0.33 M) added in Hoagland's solution in an aerated hydroponic system. Photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence were measured after 30 h of copper stress. Results obtained in this study show that increasing levels of Cu(+2) of 0.062 and 0.33 M Cu(+2...