We use a complete and uniform sample of almost half a million galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to characterise the distribution of stellar mass in the lowredshift Universe. Galaxy abundances are well determined over almost four orders of magnitude in stellar mass, and are reasonably but not perfectly fit by a Schechter function with characteristic stellar mass m∗ = 6.7× 10 10M⊙ and wi...

BACKGROUND Controlled induced hypotension guarantees less blood loss and better visibility of the surgical site. The impact of hypotension on post-operative cognitive functions is still being discussed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of controlled induced hypotension on the cognitive functions of patients undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). MATERIAL...

The present investigation deals with the kinetics of submerged extracellular lipases fermentation by both wild and mutant strains of Rhizopus oligosporus var.microsporus in a laboratory scale stirred fermentor. Other parameters studied were inoculum size, pH, agitation and rate of aeration. It was found that the growth and lipases production was increased gradually and reached its maximum 9.07±...

Immunolocalization of mannans in the seeds of Brachypodium distachyon reveals the presence of these polysaccharides in the root embryo and in the coleorhiza in the early stages of germination (12h), decreasing thereafter to the point of being hardly detected at 27h. Concurrently, the activity of endo-β-mannanases (MANs; EC 3.2.1.78) that catalyse the hydrolysis of β-1,4 bonds in mannan polymers...

A new time-based flow injection on-line solid phase extraction method for chromium(VI) and lead determination using flame atomic absorption spectrometry was developed. The use of hydrophobic poly-chlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE)-beads as absorbent in on-line preconcentration system was evaluated. Effective formation of ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate complexes and subsequently retention in ...

Many multiply{imaged quasars have been found over the years, but none so far with image separation in excess of 8 00. The absence of such large splittings has been used as a test of cosmological models: the standard Cold Dark Matter model has been excluded on the basis that it predicts far too many large{separation double images. These studies assume that the lensing structure has the mass proo...

High-content screening microscopy relies on automation infrastructure that is typically proprietary, non-customizable, costly and requires a high level of skill to use and maintain. The increasing availability of rapid prototyping technology makes it possible to quickly engineer alternatives to conventional automation infrastructure that are low-cost and user-friendly. Here, we describe a 3D pr...

We present an analysis of a mosaic of ROSAT PSPC and Einstein Observatory IPC X–ray observations of 14 clusters and 2 groups of galaxies, enclosed in a sky area 15 × 20 centred on A3558 within the Shapley Supercluster region. From the mass of each cluster, extrapolated to a density contrast of 500, we define 4 large structures: (1) the core of the Shapley Supercluster with radius 13 h 50 Mpc; (...

Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis (B. t. i.) is being widely used in mosquito control programs. However, the large-scale production of this bacillus is expensive due to the high cost of the production medium. In this study, we attempted to develop a cost-effective medium, based on a locally available raw material namely coconut water which is available in plenty as waste product from coco...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of caffeine ingestion on cognitive and physical performances after 36h of sleep deprivation. In randomized order, thirteen healthy male physical education students (age: 21.1±1.1years, body mass: 77.1±7.2kg, height: 1.77±0.06m) completed four test sessions at 18:00h: after placebo or 5mg·kg(-1) of caffeine ingestion during a baseline n...