Golden Line Research Articles

Street robbery around the Golden Line in Mexico City: a quasi-natural experiment between metro stations and bus stops

Street robbery around the Golden Line in Mexico City: a quasi-natural experiment between metro stations and bus stops

Parotocinclus jacksoni, a new hypoptopomatine catfish (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Rio Mamanguape basin, north‐eastern Brazil

A new species of Parotocinclus is described from the Rio Mamanguape basin, in the State of Paraíba, north-eastern Brazil. The new species can be distinguished from all of its congeners, except for P. bahiensis, P. cesarpintoi, P. jumbo, P. nandae and P. spilosoma, by the presence of an abdomen covered by a few small and dispersed platelets (vs. an abdomen entirely covered by large plates in adult individuals or the absence of plates in that region). The new species differs from those mentioned above with respect to several features, such as an exposed pectoral girdle and supporting odontodes medially and laterally, the number of premaxillary and dentary teeth, odontodes covering only the lateral portion of the cleithrum and the absence of irregular golden lines on the head and body (colour in vivo). The new species was collected only in the upper and middle portions of the Rio Mamanguape basin, suggesting a geographic distribution restricted to the Caatinga biome.

LEUCAENA LEUCOCEPHALA SEEDMEAL IN THE DIETS OF LAYING HENS AND ITS EFFECT ON EGG YOLK PIGMENTATION


 
 
 
 The performance of layers on various dietary levels of Leucaena leucocephala seedmeal (LSM) was investigated. One hundred and fifty Dutch Golden Line pullets in their third month of lay, were randomly allotted to five treatments, in which LSM was incorporated at levels of O, 2, 4, 6 and 8%. The study lasted thirteen weeks: ten weeks on experimental and three weeks on basal diets. Egg yolk color, average daily feed intake, percent egg production, egg weight, feed conversion ratio and liveweight gain were performance indices. Egg yolk color was significantly (P < 0.05) enhanced by LSM (at all levels) over control. Layers on 2% and 4% LSM produced significantly (P < 0.05) more eggs than hens on 0, 6 and 8% LSM; the highest production was recorded by hens on 4% LSM. This trend was maintained even after treatment withdrawal. Eggs from pullets on 4% and 6% LSM were significantly (P < 0.05) heavier than eggs from the rest of the treatments. Although the difference between 4% and 6% was not significant the heaviest eggs were collected from birds on 4% LSM. Data collected in this study tend to recommend incorporation of LSM in layers' diets at levels not more than 4%.
 
 
 

Synchronicity Rectangle for temporal gait analysis: Application to Parkinson’s Disease

Human walking and running gaits are represented by the same temporal model. The golden ratio ϕ - namely, the largest solution to the equation x2=1+x - is associated with all of the four eigenvalues of such a model. An eigenspace of dimension two, named symmetry plane, is determined. It contains an eigenspace of dimension one, named golden line, on which the ratio between stance and swing durations is equal to ϕ for walking and to ϕ−1 for running. The Synchronicity Rectangle is defined, whose sides are: the normalized distance of the gait from the symmetry plane and the normalized distance from the golden line of the gait projection on the symmetry plane. It constitutes a new comprehensive geometric representation of walking and running gaits. The area of such a rectangle computed for an averaged gait is illustratively shown to discriminate between patients affected by Parkinson’s Disease and healthy subjects: its mean value is significantly higher for patients affected by Parkinson’s Disease; high Sensitivity and moderate Specificity, along with relatively large likelihood and odds ratios, are obtained.

Teaching Creative Writing: In Pursuit of the Golden Line

A writing teacher shares ideas for achieving mastery with students.

Palmar Xanthomata in a Resolving Cholestatic Liver Injury

A 63-year-old woman, otherwise healthy, experienced a severe drug-induced liver injury attributed to an herbal supplement, and 5 months later sent a picture of “bright golden lines” in the creases of her hands that had appeared over several weeks (Figures A and B). There were no other lesions on her skin or face. She began the supplement 7 months prior for “overall health,” became icteric 2 months later, and then discontinued the supplement. When the lines appeared, she was asymptomatic and no longer jaundiced, though her liver biochemistries remained abnormal: total bilirubin had improved from 22.4 to 1.1 mg/dL, alanine aminotransferase from 1327 to 228 IU/L, aspartate aminotransferase from 1691 to 301 IU/L, and alkaline phosphatase from 1694 to 804 IU/L.

The schoolboys’ revenge: how the golden line entered classical scholarship

AbstractThe golden line, a Latin versification exercise in British classrooms since at least 1612, appears to have no basis in the classical tradition. It was resisted by the academy for decades — if not centuries. Then, as Latin versification ceded its central role in schools and universities, resistance withered. New generations of scholars had never encountered the golden line as a composition exercise, and they saw instead the golden line as a critical tool for interpreting Latin poetry. After the 1950s, the golden line spread to Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, and beyond. A classroom exercise helped shape scholarship worldwide. Yet the golden line is an even more striking example of scholarship from below, because it thrived due to its documented appeal to the students who identified and composed them. From the 1600s until today, students have expressed pride and joy in identifying and composing golden lines. Student preferences often shape pedagogical canons and classroom practice, but the golden line went still further. Today, Latinists worldwide analyse poets of the classical canon by counting and discussing their golden lines. Student preferences for a school exercise have changed not only pedagogy but scholarly practice.

Three Nearby K-Giants with Planets: Accurate Determination of Basic Parameters, Including an Analysis of Metallicity Based on Fe I Lines

Fundamental parameters are determined for three bright, nearby K-giants, {\beta} Gem (K0 III), {\mu} Leo (K2 III), and {\alpha} Tau (K5 III). It is notable that around all three stars the giant planets have been found. Our results are compared with published high-precision data for benchmark stars included in the Gaia project. Very good agreement was obtained for all three giants with these data for the basic parameters Teff, logg, and M. Special attention was devoted to analysis of the Fe I lines which are the basis of a simultaneous determination of the metallicity index [Fe/H] and microturbulent parameter Vt. The equivalent widths W of the Fe I lines are automatically measured from published spectra for the benchmark stars. An analysis of Fe I lines from the list of "golden lines" selected in a study of benchmark stars led to the conclusion that the excitation potential El of the low level of the lines plays an substantial role in determining [Fe/H] and Vt. It is shown that in the case of the early K-giants {\beta} Gem and {\mu} Leo for lines in the range of W from 100 to 300 m{\AA} there is a dependence of the [Fe/H] and Vt values on El. It is shown that a correct accounting for it leads an ambiguity in the determination of [Fe/H] and Vt for {\beta} Gem and {\mu} Leo. In the case of the coolest K-giant {\alpha} Tau (Aldebaran) with a temperature Teff = 3920K, this effect seems to be less pronounced. Recommendations are given for the Fe I lines selection for [Fe/H] and Vt determination. It is sonfirmed for the example of the three stars studied here that the non-LTE effects in the Fe I lines for the K-giants with normal metallicity are very minor, so they cannot be the reason of the revealed ambiguity in [Fe/H] and Vt values. The low ratios of the carbon 12C/13C and oxygen 16O/17O isotopes confirm that all three giants passed the phase of deep convective mixing.

Flow cytometric analysis of Xenopus laevis and X. tropicalis blood cells using acridine orange

Automated blood cell counters can distinguish cells based on their size and the presence or absence of a nucleus. However, most vertebrates have nucleated blood cells that cannot be counted automatically. We established an alternative automatic method for counting peripheral blood cells by staining cells with the fluorescent dye acridine orange (AO) and analysing cell populations using flow cytometry (FCM). As promising new animal models, we chose Xenopus laevis and three inbred strains of X. tropicalis. We compared the haematological phenotypes, including blood cell types, cell sizes, cellular structure, and erythrocyte lifespans/turnover rate among X. laevis and the three inbred strains of X. tropicalis. Each cell type from X. laevis was sorted according to six parameters: forward- and side-scattered light emission, AO red and green fluorescence intensity, and cellular red and green fluorescence. Remarkably, the erythrocyte count was the highest in the Golden line, suggesting that genetic factors were associated with the blood cells. Furthermore, immature erythrocytes in anaemic X. laevis could be separated from normal blood cells based on red fluorescence intensity. These results show that FCM with AO staining allows for an accurate analysis of peripheral blood cells from various species.

Interview

Interview Charles Martin (bio) Ever since I first heard Charles Martin read, I've admired the crisp lucidity of his craft. But while preparing for our talk, which took place on September 8, 2017 at his home in Syracuse, New York, I started to suspect that he values a looser kind of insight too, like what Paul Klee described as "exactitude winged by intuition." I began by asking about a discovery he made in his early studies of Catullus—how a certain poem called "poem 64" was arranged symmetrically. Charles explained that this technique arose during a time when people were still writing poems on scrolls, so it made sense to try things like that since you could hold the two scenes together. The scene on the outside could be juxtaposed against its corresponding scene on the inside. But with books, he explained, we don't have that luxury … unless you tear the pages. Eric Berlin: So is symmetry something that listeners and readers can sense instinctively? Charles Martin: Not always. Dylan Thomas wrote a poem called "Prologue" at the beginning of his collected poems, and it's done in a chiasmic arrangement where A, the first line, rhymes with A, the last line, and it spans two or three pages so that by the time reader gets to the last line he's not going to remember oh, that's rhyming with the first line. As a structural device, chiasmus has its limitations over a period like that. James Merrill has a wonderful poem called "Pearl," a late poem, which is arranged chiasmically so the first and last lines rhyme, [End Page 417] and it's only about 30 lines long so it fits on a page, and readers will notice that, I think. Some will at least! EB: So there's a scope to the perception of symmetry. Within a single line maybe, like the so-called "golden line," which Ovid sometimes used, "in which a pair of adjectives and their respective nouns at either end enclose a verb in the middle." CM: Certainly, Latin readers would have responded to that and approved of that kind of thing, because you can hold it in your mind if it's a line long. EB: So what is it about symmetry that you think affects readers? Is it the presence of mind that we sense in it? CM: Probably so. But there are certain limitations to that, because the reader doesn't always get it. One of Catullus's editors noted that in a poem of his where he was supposed to be dying and he's calling out to Lesbia, most likely, to condemn her heartlessness, if you read down the left-hand side you find an anagram that translates "by nature, as hard as bronze." So here he is dying, and he still has the wit to put in a little acrostic verse. But it took about 2,000 years before anybody noticed that. So the little hidden stuff, the arrangement, the symmetrical arrangement of a long poem probably goes past most people. When I pointed out the symmetry in "poem 64," I got a lot of pushback. EB: You've said, "the poet's one who brings order to the world's waste bit by bit, letter by letter, And each laboriously traced / on his own flesh, until he's dressed in / an artful weave of self-expression." Whether that order is perceived by the reader or not, does it serve a purpose in the building of the poem? CM: I think it has to. You know, a lot of these things, even the order that Marianne Moore creates with her syllabic arrangement, may not [End Page 418] be apparent to anybody else. But it's got to be apparent to her as she writes the poem. As a result, it does create an order for that poem. EB: How do you avoid contrivance when you're consciously building formal structures out of words? CM: I don't know entirely that you do. That's one of those questions [laughing] that I would probably dodge. EB: So, how do you think readers react to form differently than...

Managers’ beliefs about marketing research and information use in decisions in context of the bounded-rationality theory

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to diagnose two types of causal relationships from the perspective of the structural equations model. First, the relationship is analysed between managers’ beliefs regarding the use of marketing information in making decisions and the rational premises of decision validity. Next, the rational premises of decision validity are considered in reference to managers’ abilities to select appropriate information from marketing research reports. Taking into account all of the above premises, the author in the empirical research conducted here introduced the following two research hypotheses which state that: H1: the high level of managers’ beliefs about the usefulness of information from marketing research does not yet positively influence their way of reasoning and making decisions in the light of the bounded-rationality theory. H2: managers who do not use the bounded-rationality criteria of decision assessment, lack of the analytical approach in solving decision problems, also reflect the inability of selecting proper information from a marketing research report.Design/methodology/approachIn the conducted empirical research, that is, in the process of gathering the information, the internet questionnaire survey was used, which included the author’s own version of items measuring respective latent variables. Next, to the chosen group of the respondents (invited to the survey through the two social networking sites: LinkedIn and Golden Line), a direct link to the questionnaire was sent via personal e-mails. The method of providing answers to the questions in the online survey included indicating by the respondents the answers on a seven-point Likert scale for the statements which were expressed in agree/disagree format. The whole empirical research was conducted between March 1 and August 31 in 2014, and the process of choosing the appropriate respondents to the sample was conducted with the use of the two techniques: judgemental sampling and snowball sampling. The final size of sample equalled n=213 and its structure included the individuals in companies, who have borne the responsibility mainly for the organisation and planning of strategic and tactic marketing activities. In short, the sample structure consisted of the respondents responsible for decision-making processes and included: marketing directors (45 per cent), product managers (27 per cent), managing directors and chief executive officers (20 per cent), as well as marketing executives (8 per cent).FindingsOn the basis of findings and the obtained empirical results it is argued that decision makers in companies, despite their strong declarations regarding the use of marketing information, in reality prefer to act in a non-analytical way when making choices. Managers, when faced with difficulties in information processing, adopt simple solutions in solving decision problems which are much closer to the irrational sphere of making choices. Thus the full potential of information that is available to them from marketing research is not even considered. This irrational behaviour in decisions as well as the lack of analytical thinking result in further consequences pertaining to the way that information is selected.Practical implicationsIn spite of all theoretical arguments supporting the bounded-rational theory of making choices, the irrationality or, simply, the non-analytical thinking in decision-making processes in organisations takes place. The inability to use effectively information by managers in companies and failure to scrutinise their own processes of decision making on the basis of logic and reasoning is admittedly the Achille’s heel of many information users. Using information from marketing research in decisions, as well as undertaking the sequence of steps to ensure the valid decision-making process, seems to be a huge problem for managers. Taking into account, the empirical research findings, one can argue now that in spite of the managers’ conviction about the usefulness of the information from marketing research, that is, despite their declarations pertaining to use of information in decision-making processes, such information is in practice often ignored and not taken into account.Originality/valueIn the paper the author explains why, as is supported by empirical evidence, managers in companies decide to conceal their real beliefs concerning the usefulness of marketing information. Taking this into consideration, the indirect question of the empirical research conducted here is whether managers ever seriously consider marketing research results when making decisions?

Two Articles by Ritwik Ghatak

Two Articles by Ritwik Ghatak Moinak Biswas Ritwik Ghatak (1925–1976) was born in Dhaka, now in Bangladesh (referred to as East Bengal in the essays here), and moved to West Bengal around the time of India’s independence and the Partition (1947). He started off as a writer of short stories and became seriously involved in the new theater spawned by the leftist cultural movement, which around 1944 had taken the form of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). The IPTA mobilized an unprecedented range of artists and writers from various fields, leaving its impact on almost every aspect of cultural practice around the middle of the twentieth century, including the Bombay cinema of the 1950s and 1960s. Ghatak’s involvement in film began in 1949 as an assistant director and screenwriter. He would soon adopt filmmaking as his profession, [End Page 11] even though he continued to write, direct, and act in plays. His first film, Nagarik (The Citizen, 1953) never saw the light of day in his lifetime. After a stint in Bombay as a screenwriter for Filmistan Studios, he returned to Bengal to make his second feature, Ajantrik (The Unmechanical, 1958), which firmly established him as a foremost director, alongside Satyajit Ray. The period between 1958 and 1962 was his most productive, when he made Bari Theke Paliye (Running away from Home, 1959), and the three Bengal Partition films—Meghe Dhaka Tara (Cloud-Capped Star, 1960), Komal Gandhar (The Gandhar Sublime, 1961), and Subarnarekha (The Golden Line, 1962). Meghe Dhaka Tara was the only popular success that Ghatak ever saw in his life. The other films not only were commercial failures but also met with critical censure, often from his comrades in the leftist circle, for obscurity, lack of coherence, and—more damaging—sentimentalism. A long period of stillborn projects, unfinished films, and delayed releases followed, which contributed to the alcoholism and nervous disorders that dogged Ghatak for the rest of his life. During 1964 and 1965 Ghatak taught in the new state film school in Pune, earned a reputation as a legendary teacher, and inspired a group of young filmmakers who would become prominent practitioners of the Indian new wave in the 1970s (Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, and John Abraham, among them). He managed to make two more feature films (Titas Ekti Nadir Nam [A River Called Titas, 1973] and Jukti Takko ar Gappo [Arguments and a Story, 1974]) before his death at the age of fifty. Ghatak’s work remained largely unrecognized until a critical revival started in the 1980s. The new critics undertook a reappraisal, among other things, of the complex role of melodrama and narrative experimentation in his films as well as the role of historical imagination and Indian aesthetic traditions in his method. In the absence of a hospitable critical environment, Ghatak wrote some extraordinary commentaries on his own cinema. A definitive anthology of his English writings was belatedly published in 2000 and a complete Bengali collection (from which I have chosen the two pieces here) in 2005.1 The essays and interviews, crucial for an understanding of his work, mainly appeared in film society magazines, the present texts being no exception. Both of the essays were written in 1963. The third Partition film, Subarnarekha, had been recently completed. After the abject rejection of Komal Gandhar by both audiences and critics, Ghatak was facing a challenge to even find a release for what is often considered his most mature work. Written in days of deep despondency, Ghatak, the self-professed Marxist, tried to explain his method in these essays to whoever was ready to consider the question of artistic practice outside the narrow confines of official leftist principles. In the first essay, he draws on Joseph Campbell’s Masks of God, published three years earlier, to explain his principle of using archetypal forms.2 As such, he joins a line of twentieth-century artists and critics who came under the influence of C. G. Jung. The interest in the collective unconscious was to stay with Ghatak, a source of puzzlement to his colleagues. But more than a belief in a system, it was a useful tool for him to formulate...

Rhabdosargus niger (Perciformes: Sparidae), a new sparid species from Indonesia, with taxonomic status of the nominal species synonymized under Rhabdosargus sarba

A new sparid Rhabdosargus niger is described on the basis of three type specimens collected from off Kalimantan, Indonesia. The species can be differentiated from all known congeners by the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin rays XI, 13, anal-fin rays III, 11, scale rows below lateral line 11½–12½, scale rows between the fifth dorsal-fin spine base and lateral line 5½, pored lateral-line scales 53–55, head and body silvery-black, pelvic and anal fins dusky gray, and no golden longitudinal lines on the body. Partial sequences of mitochondrial COI gene (571 bp) strongly supported the distinctiveness of R. niger within the genus. Taxonomic status of the nominal species synonymized under Rhabdosargus sarba (Forsskal 1775) is discussed and the key to the species of Rhabdosargus is provided.

Art of Arrangement Based on Golden Ratio and Line Segment

Art of Arrangement Based on Golden Ratio and Line Segment

Acoustic horns optimization using finite elements and genetic algorithm

In this work the optimization of shape (geometry) of acoustic horns is analyzed. The finite element method is employed for calculating the sound pressure and optimization methods of zero order (Golden Line Search Method and Genetic Algorithm, GA) are used to obtain the optimal geometry. The shape of the horn is approximated locally using polynomials with C1 continuity with the objective to get a few design variables, to obtain smooth contours at each iteration and to eliminate the regularization of the common mesh in this type of optimization. It was also studied the influence of the size of the domain (environment) in the optimized geometry of the horn. The numerical results show the efficiency of this approach and it was also found (at least from the engineering point of view) that the solution is not unique to the geometry of the horn to single-frequency.

Artificial Propagation and Larvae Cultivation of <I>Sinocyclocheilus tingi</I>

The Fuxian golden line (Sinocyclocheilus tingi) is a famous fish endemic to Fuxian Lake. From March to April 2009, four breeding experiments were undertaken. 40 females and 20 males were injected with hormones. 19 females and 15 males bred successfully, accounting for 47.5% of females and 75.0% of males. A total of 25 547 eggs were obtained and subjected to dry-fertilization, with 16 810 eggs being fertilized with a 65.8% success rate. 6 040 larvae were obtained with a 23.6% hatching rate. 3 056 larvae survived 20 days of cultivation with a 50.6% survival rate. Reproductive dysfunctions are major constraining factors to low Induced spawning of S. tingi in a captive environment. Artificial conditions that did not reflect the necessary natural environment of the fish may have also been a factor. This paper also addresses the issue of massive larvae mortality. Determining the constraints of artificial propagation is critical to the transfer of this species into cultivation fish. The presented success in propagation of S. tingi will contribute to understanding its biology and protection from extinction.

‘Webbed with Golden Lines’: Saul Bellow's Romanticism

Attaining prominence in the post-war era, Saul Bellow is one of the most widely read and intellectually eclectic novelists of the Jewish American School.1 Bellow's frequent references to Romanticism form a dominant design within his culturally diverse fiction.2 Taken from Bellow's Herzog, my title indicates the two levels on which Bellow's Romantic allusions operate. At one level, this ‘webbed’ pattern of ‘golden lines’ suggests how Bellow interlaces his own prose with the poetry and philosophy of British Romanticism to govern readers' responses to his portrayal of epiphanies. On another, Herzog's moment of inter-connected vision signals Bellow's investment in a Coleridgean and Wordsworthian imagination that reveals the all-pervasive spirit of the ‘[o]ne Life within us and abroad’3. This metaphysical dimension to Bellow's web of ‘golden lines’ finds a further affinity with Shelley's later notion of the ‘web of being’.4

‘Webbed with Golden Lines’: Saul Bellow’s Romanticism

Attaining prominence in the post-war era, Saul Bellow is one of the most widely read and intellectually eclectic novelists of the Jewish American School.1 Bellow's frequent references to Romanticis...

The Golden Staircase and the Golden Line

The Golden Staircase and the Golden Line

Four new African Mosquitos

♀. Head clothed almost entirely with broad flat scales, though there are a very few narrow curved ones and a few upright forked ones on the nape. Scales at the back of the head mostly light ochreous; a rather broad creamy mid-dorsal stripe, and a conspicuous silvery margin to the eyes; remaining scales on upper part of head forming two large but irregular patches of black; another small black patch low down among the creamy scales on each side. Clypeus bare, dark brown. Eyes well separated. Orbital bristles dark brown. Proboscis blackish, slender, slightly longer than the front femora. Palpi fully one-fourth as long as the proboscis, blackish, with the usual conspicuous silvery apical patch. Tori blackish, with a large patch of silvery-white scales. Thorax with the integument uniformly black. Mesonotum clothed mainly with rather large and coarse, dull brown, narrow, curved scales, those surrounding the ante-scutellar space golden-brown, but scarcely any broader than the others, and not forming definite lines; no mid-dorsal golden line; a small patch of board flat silvery scales in the middle of the front margin, and a small patch of narrower scales in front of the root of each wing; a pair of large crescent-shaped patches of broadly crescent-patches of broadly crescent-shaped silvery-white scales in the anterior half. Scutellum with the median and lateral bodies lobes completely clothed with silvery scales. Prothoracic lobes, pro-epimera bristles, and a large part of the pleurae clothed with silvery-white scales. About five pro-epimeral bristles, and about five post-spiracular; no lower mesepimeral. Abdomen clothed mostly with purplish-black scales; the first tergite, and a basal band on each of tergite, 2–7, creamy white; all tergites with large silvery basal lateral spots, and sternites with silvery basal bands. Eighth segment rather prominent; cerci very short. Legs rather slender. Front femora almost entirely black; mid fermora black except for a small white spot on the anterior side just beyond the middle, and a rather conspicuous silvery-white tip; hind femora all white on the basal fourth, the outer side silvery-white to a little beyond the middle and also rather broadly at the tip. Front and middle tibiae with a small white spot at the base beneath, hind tibiae entirely black. Front and middle tarsi black, with narrow white rings at the bases of the first two segments; hind tarsi with rather narrow white rings at the bases of the first three segments, fourth segment white except for the extreme tip, fifth all black. Front and middle claws toothed; hind simple. Wings normal, the scales ligulate and rather dense. Wing-length 4 mm.