In the modern motorcar production, more than 300 deep-drawn sheet metal parts are joined together by more than 3,000 spot welds on each car body. To check the spot welds within the framework of the quality assurance, different nondestructive test methods are available in addition to the destructive methods (tear down test, metallographic inspection): the chipping test and the ultrasonic test, w...

Fluorescein diacetate (FDA) was used as a vital stain to assay membrane integrity (cell viability) in mesocarp tissue of the developing grape (Vitis vinifera L.) berry in order to test the hypothesis that there is a substantial loss of compartmentation in these cells during ripening. This technique was also used to determine whether loss of viability was associated with symptoms of a ripening d...

Three rapid methods (spot test, disk, and tube) for detecting urease production in anaerobic bacteria yielded results faster than the conventional method. The results were more consistent with the disk and tube methods than with the spot test. Blood agar plate growth gave more consistent results than growth from chopped-meat slants.

Berries and berry extracts possess properties that make them important in the prevention of cancer. The high antioxidant levels of these extracts play a role, but components of the berries can have other effects on cell replication and survival. We chose to test the hypothesis that (i) although the antioxidant capacity of raspberry extracts is important for inhibiting the proliferation of tumor...

In vitro T-cell based interferony (IFNy) release assays (IGRAs), the QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube test (QFN-GIT) (Cellestis Limited, Carnegie, Victoria, Australia) and the T-SPOT. TB test (T-Spot) (Oxford Immunotec Limited, Abingdon, United Kingdom), are marketed as a substitute for the tuberculin skin test (TST). The specificity of these immunoassays has been optimised by using Mycobacterium tu...

V. vinifera L. 'Barbera', 'Croatina', 'Malvasia di Candia aromatica', growing in the Piacenza viticultural area (North-West Italy) at four elevations (150, 240, 320, 420 m a.s.l.), were tested at harvest for grape stilbene (trans-resveratrol, trans-piceid, cis-piceid) synthesis over three years (2000-2002). Meteorological data were recorded, as well as vine production and fruit quality paramete...

For any integer r we show that the notion of ω-prime to base a introduced by Berrizbeitia and Berry, 2000, leads to a primality test for numbers n congruent to 1 modulo r, which runs in polynomial time assuming the Extended Riemann Hypothesis (ERH). For r = 2 we obtain Miller’s classical result.

In this article we use structural econometrics to formally test whether the use of the alternative marketing arrangements (AMAs) by pork packers is the source of their market power on the spot (cash) market for live hogs. We specify the pork packers’ conjectures of the change in the industry total market procurement of live hogs through the spot market with respect to their AMAs stocks. The tes...

Objective: Yield components and genetic contribution have the most important in final yield and breeding programs of crop plants. For this purpose, 20 varieties of grapevines with Russia origin were evaluated in Urmia and Takestan research station (under full irrigation and drought stress). Methods: Twenty grapevine genotypes were evaluated in Urmia and Takestan research station (under full irr...

Chronic idiopathic constipation may be the result of an autonomic neuropathy. This hypothesis was tested in 23 constipated patients and 17 age matched controls, using the acetylcholine sweat spot test devised to test autonomic integrity in diabetes. Acetylcholine (0.01%) was injected in the dorsum of the foot painted with a mixture of starch and iodine. Active sweat glands appeared on the surfa...