2,4-Pyridinedicarboxylic acid (PDCA) is a structural analog of 2-oxoglutarate and has been shown to inhibit 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases by competing with 2-oxoglutarate, and ethylene production in detached carnation flowers by competing with ascorbate on 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) oxidase action. In the present study, the inhibition of ACC oxidase action by PDCA was confi...

In the art gallery problem the goal is to place guards (as few as possible) in a polygon so that a maximal area of the polygon is covered. We address here a closely related problem: how to place paintings and guards in an art gallery so that the total value of guarded paintings is a maximum. More formally, a simple polygon is given along with a set of paintings. Each painting, has a length and ...

A series of enigmatic ninthor tenth-century wall paintings from Nishapur in eastern Iran seems to have been imbued with amuletic, apotropaic, or talismanic properties. Recapitulating while exaggerating some of the properties of marble, the paintings also include anthropomorphic and vegetal imagery. Their idiosyncratic iconography seems to highlight a tension between physis and technē that may b...

Indeterminate art invokes a perceptual dilemma in which apparently detailed and vivid images resist identification. We used event-related fMRI to study visual perception of representational, indeterminate and abstract paintings. We hypothesized increased activation along a gradient of posterior-to-anterior ventral visual areas with increased object resolution, and postulated that object resolut...

We compare the properties of intensity and color edges in photographs of real scenes and paintings. We demonstrate that paintings contain significantly more color-only edges, whereas the amount of intensity-only edges does not differ significantly between the two classes. In addition, color edge strength is significantly higher for paintings. The differences between paintings and photographs ar...

I. Action at a Distance. Imagine a table with a tablecloth draping to the floor. There is a vase on the table. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the vase moves. What would be your reaction? My guess is that you would wonder what was the cause of the movement. Perhaps there is a motor under the table connected by a hidden wire to the next room where someone flipped a switch. Perhaps the motor is...

InP optical constants between 0.75 and 5.0 eV determined by variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry" (1995). Faculty Publications from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. 59. Using variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) InP optical constants for photon energies have been determined in the range from 0.75 to 5.0 eV, which includes the fundamental gap at 1.35 eV. Ab...

We localized regions in the fusiform gyrus and superior temporal sulcus that were more active when subjects viewed photographs of real faces than when they viewed complex inanimate objects and other areas in the parahippocampal gyrus and the lateral occipital lobe that showed more activity during the presentation of nonface objects. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging was then u...

Electrolyzed anode water (EAW) markedly extended the vase life of cut carnation flowers. Therefore, a flower-senescence hormone involving ethylene decomposition by EAW with potassium chloride as an electrolyte was investigated. Ethylene was added externally to EAW, and the reaction between ethylen and the available chlorine in EAW was examined. EAW had a low pH value (2.5), a high concentration...