The Effect of Sound Frequency and Intensity on Yeast Growth, Fermentation Performance and Volatile Composition of Beer

This study investigated the impact of varying sound conditions (frequency and intensity) on yeast growth, fermentation performance and production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in beer. Fermentations were carried out in plastic bags suspended in large water-filled containers fitted with underwater speakers. Ferments were subjected to either 200–800 or 800–2000 Hz at 124 and 140 dB @ 20 µPa. Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to identify and measure the relative abundance of the VOCs produced. Sound treatment had significant effects on the number of viable yeast cells in suspension at 10 and 24 h (p < 0.05), with control (silence) samples having the highest cell numbers. For wort gravity, there were significant differences between treatments at 24 and 48 h, with the silence control showing the lowest density before all ferments converged to the same final gravity at 140 h. A total of 33 VOCs were identified in the beer samples, including twelve esters, nine alcohols, three acids, three aldehydes, and six hop-derived compounds. Only the abundance of some alcohols showed any consistent response to the sound treatments. These results show that the application of audible sound via underwater transmission to a beer fermentation elicited limited changes to wort gravity and VOCs during fermentation.

Toward a Historically Accountable Critical Whiteness Curriculum for Social Work

Whiteness—distinct from individuals who identify as white—is a social construction; and social constructions, by definition, can be disassembled. Whiteness is also wholly constituted by and inseparable from white supremacy, and thus exists purely as racial injustice. These are historical facts. Consequently, racial justice demands that whiteness be dismantled and abolished. Social work, as a profession committed to racial justice, is directly implicated in this imperative. Yet, due to misunderstanding and unawareness, the above facts register with most social workers as exaggerated claims, baseless untruths, or ideological propaganda. Social work requires a historically accountable critical whiteness curriculum in order to correct this pervasive misunderstanding and to facilitate informed participation in the pursuit of racial justice in a way that accurately apprehends the nature of whiteness. This curriculum, introduced here, explores the history and invention of whiteness in global, U.S., and social work contexts; examines the integral role of education in deploying and maintaining whiteness; and considers reconstruction and abolition as alternative modes of responding to whiteness as a social problem. The curriculum ultimately shows abolition to be the only historically and theoretically consistent response to whiteness, leading to a call for abolition as praxis and for further curricular development.

Stellar dynamics in the periodic cube

ABSTRACT We use the problem of dynamical friction within the periodic cube to illustrate the application of perturbation theory in stellar dynamics, testing its predictions against measurements from N-body simulations. Our development is based on the explicitly time-dependent Volterra integral equation for the cube’s linear response, which avoids the subtleties encountered in analyses based on complex frequency. We obtain an expression for the self-consistent response of the cube to steady stirring by an external perturber. From this, we show how to obtain the familiar Chandrasekhar dynamical friction formula and construct an elementary derivation of the Lenard–Balescu equation for the secular quasi-linear evolution of an isolated cube composed of N equal-mass stars. We present an alternative expression for the (real-frequency) van Kampen modes of the cube and show explicitly how to decompose any linear perturbation of the cube into a superposition of such modes.

Consistency and inconsistency between instance and category modal inferences from conditionals

For the modal meanings of conditionals with the form if p then q, there are three existing psychological accounts: the original suppositional theory, the original and revised mental models theory. They imply different modal meanings of if p then q. Alternatively, we propose a revised suppositional theory with the unique prediction that the set from which the instance referred to by a true conditional was randomly drawn, necessarily includes pq cases, and possibly includes ¬pq / ¬p¬q cases, but impossibly includes p¬q cases. One experiment investigated whether category modal inferences from a conditional would be consistent with preceding instance modal inferences from it. The results revealed that (1) previous instance inferences did not affect subsequent category inferences; (2) relevant cases pq and p¬q tended to elicit consistent response patterns, but irrelevant cases ¬pq and ¬p¬q tended to elicit inconsistent response patterns; (3) the overall response pattern of category inferences is consistent with only the prediction of the revised suppositional theory. The latter implies that only the pq possibility is required by a true conditional, but the ¬pq / ¬p¬q possibility is unrequired. On the whole, these findings favor the revised suppositional theory over the other accounts.

Philosophy and Kabbalah. Elia Benamozegh (1823–1900), a Progressive/Traditional Thinker

Elia Benamozegh (born—1823 in Livorno and died—1900 in Livorno)—philosopher, biblical exegete, teacher at the Rabbinical College—was an original and fruitful thinker. At a time when the Jewish kabbalah, or esoteric tradition, was considered by the protagonists of Jewish studies as the result of an era of intellectual and religious decadence, Benamozegh indicated it to be the authentic theology of Judaism. In numerous works of varying nature, in Italian, French and Hebrew, the kabbalah is studied by comparing it with the thought of Spinoza and with German idealism (Hegel in particular), and, at a later stage, also with positivism and evolutionism. Benamozegh formulated a pluralistic religious philosophy open to progress by constantly referring to the first phase of Vico’s historicist philosophy and above all to the work of Vincenzo Gioberti. We can read this philosophy as an original and consistent response to the challenges of Modern, secularized thought.

The Effect of Informing Participants of the Response Bias of an Automated Target Recognition System on Trust and Reliance Behavior

Objective To determine how changing and informing a user of the false alarm (FA) rate of an automated target recognition (ATR) system affects the user’s trust in and reliance on the system and their performance during an underwater mine detection task. Background ATR systems are designed to operate using a high sensitivity and a liberal decision criterion to reduce the risk of the ATR system missing a target. A high number of FAs in general may lead to a decrease in operator trust and reliance. Methods Participants viewed sonar images and were asked to identify mines in the images. They performed the task without ATR and with ATR at a lower and higher FA rate. The participants were split into two groups—one informed and one uninformed of the changed FA rate. Trust and/or confidence in detecting mines was measured after each block. Results When not informed of the FA rate, the FA rate had a significant effect on the participants’ response bias. Participants had greater trust in the system and a more consistent response bias when informed of the FA rate. Sensitivity and confidence were not influenced by disclosure of the FA rate but were significantly worse for the high FA rate condition compared with performance without the ATR. Conclusion and application Informing a user of the FA rate of automation may positively influence the level of trust in and reliance on the aid.

Observations of Tidal Flat Sedimentation within a Native and an Exotic Spartina Species

Field measurements of bed elevation and related wave events were performed within a tidal marsh, on two cordgrass species, Spartina anglica (exotic) and Spartina maritima (native), in the Bay of Arcachon (SW France). Bed- and water-level time series were used to infer on the sediment behavior patterns from short to long term. A consistent response was found between the bed-level variation and the wave forcing, with erosion occurring during storms and accretion during low energy periods. Such behavior was observed within the two species, but the magnitude of bed-level variation was higher within the native than the exotic Spartina. These differences, in the order of millimeters, were explained by the opposite allocation of biomass of the two species. On the long term, the sedimentation/erosion patterns were dominated by episodic storm events. A general sediment deficit was observed on the site, suggested by an overall bed-level decrease registered within both species. However, further verification of within species variation needs to be considered when drawing conclusions. Despite possible qualitative limitations of the experimental design, due to single point survey, this work provides original and considerable field data to the understanding the different species ability to influence bed sediment stabilization and their potential to build marsh from the mudflat pioneer stage. Such information is valuable for coastal management in the context of global change.

Development Of A Calibration Source For Measurement Of Gaseous Oxidized Mercury In Ambient Air

A HgCl₂ containing diffusion source was evaluated for its potential usefulness as a calibration source for gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) measurements. Unlike previous calibration sources described in the literature, this source made use of a flow rate of at least 1 L min-¹, and was maintained at a temperature of as low as - 15oC. Under these conditions, the source was found to emit GOM at an environmentally relevant level of 0.0905 pg s-¹, with a GOM fraction of approximately 78%. The source was found to have a consistent response to temperature, a steady state emission level of Hg could be rapidly established and the source was temporally stable. Duplicate sources were compared with one another and found to emit similar levels of Hg under identical sampling conditions. Various methods of cleaning HgCl₂ contaminated items were tested, with the most successful method using a stannous chloride wash solution.

Development Of A Calibration Source For Measurement Of Gaseous Oxidized Mercury In Ambient Air

A HgCl₂ containing diffusion source was evaluated for its potential usefulness as a calibration source for gaseous oxidized mercury (GOM) measurements. Unlike previous calibration sources described in the literature, this source made use of a flow rate of at least 1 L min-¹, and was maintained at a temperature of as low as - 15oC. Under these conditions, the source was found to emit GOM at an environmentally relevant level of 0.0905 pg s-¹, with a GOM fraction of approximately 78%. The source was found to have a consistent response to temperature, a steady state emission level of Hg could be rapidly established and the source was temporally stable. Duplicate sources were compared with one another and found to emit similar levels of Hg under identical sampling conditions. Various methods of cleaning HgCl₂ contaminated items were tested, with the most successful method using a stannous chloride wash solution.

Once-Weekly Nocturnal Ocular Choroidal Vascular Decongestion by Topical Long-acting Timolol Ophthlamic Solution Applied to Headache-Ipsilateral eye to Prevent Weekend-Migraine Attacks: Smartphone-app

This clinical study evaluates over medium-to-long term the hypothesis that intermittent spontaneous ocular choroidal vasculature-related congestive and nociceptive corneoscleral envelope distention have a pathogenetic role in genesis of episodic lateralizing migraine headache attacks. No neuro-anatomic or -physiologic difference prevails between the three divisions of the trigeminal nerve, but migraine dominantly affect the ophthalmic division. Use of topical ophthalmic solution for managing acute headache attacks of migraine has given contradictory results in controlled trials. I report the distribution of weekend-migraine headache attacks on a single‐participant (N=1) level for 2 patients over a 3-year period (2017-2020) without misuse of any recreational drug other than caffeine on week-days. After a run-in basal period of 6-months recorded on their Smartphones app, with their informed consent, a trial was carried out with topical long-acting β-blocker timolol maleate 0.5% w/v ophthalmic solution once weekly on Saturday night just before sleeping with no other advice to promote nocturnal sleeping or early awakening the next morning; only alcohol binge was proscribed. No week-end attacks of lateralizing migraine headache were reported in the 2 patients over a period of 3- years, a long-term consistent response. The biologically-plausible and defensible mechanistic link between migraine, intraocular pressure, ocular choroidal vasculature, nociceptive corneoscleral envelope aberration, and the pharmacologic basis for therapeutic ocular hypotension for prophylaxis of migraine headache attacks is elucidated for the first time in migraine literature.