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FL: For me it provides us with an excellent opportunity to consider both the incredible foundation of international civil aviation standardization which ICAO has been able to help states achieve over the last seven and a half decades, so that international civil aviation may be developed in a safe and orderly manner, and that international air transport service may be established on the basis of equality of opportunity and operated soundly and economically, while at the same time appreciating its value as we look ahead today to a very exciting future for flight and to the many new technologies and challenges that the future doubling of air traffic volume poses. I think that the success of the Chicago Convention and of ICAO can be primarily attributed to the selection of responsibilities assigned to the organization and the flexibility that was written into the convention. For example, our auditing functions for safety and security oversight were in many ways a logical extension, albeit a significant one, of the information-gathering functions ICAO was already performing, and were complementary to the type of coordination problems ICAO was originally designed to solve. [Extracted from the article]

Sixty-three amide alkaloids, including three new, piperflaviflorine A (1), piperflaviflorine B (2), and sarmentamide D (4), and two previously synthesized ones, (1 E,3S)-1-cinnamoyl-3-hydroxypyrrolidine (3) and N-[7'-(4'-methoxyphenyl)ethyl]-2-methoxybenzamide (5), were isolated from the aerial parts of Piper flaviflorum and Piper sarmentosum. Their structures were elucidated by detailed spectroscopic analysis and, in case of 3, by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Most of the isolates were tested for their antifungal and antibacterial activities. Ten amides (6-15) showed antifungal activity against Cryptococcus neoformans ATCC 90113 with IC50 values in the range between 4.7 and 20.0 µg/mL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author talks about challenges faced by composer to create a piece for a traditional instrument like the pipa, and playing traditional Chinese music from the classical literati tradition.

Three kinds of expression vectors of a pollen-S determinant were constructed to provide a reference for molecular breeding of self-compatible (SC) Primus species. An S-haplotvpe-specific F-box (SFB) protein gene from the 'Xiaobaixing' apricot (Primus armeniaca) was cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) and 3'-rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (3-RACE). A 1136-bp sequence complementary to the 3'-end of the cDNA (GenBank accession number KP938528.2) with a 912-bp complete open reading frame (ORF) was obtained. The deduced amino acid sequence contained an F-box domain, two variable regions, and two hypervariable regions with structural characteristics similar to SFB in other Rosaceae plants. Sense, antisense, and RNA interference (RNAi) vectors for SFB were constructed by enzyme restriction. The target fragment was restricted using the corresponding restriction enzyme and then directionally inserted between the 35S cauliflower mosaic virus promoter and the nopaline synthase terminator (NOS-ter) of the expression vector pCAMBlA-35S-MCS-NOS-APm. The intron-containing hairpin RNA (ihpRNA) was obtained by fusion PCR. The constructed vectors were transferred into Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain LBA4404 by freezing/thawing. The RNAi vector of SFB was also transformed in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). The successful construction of these three expression vectors provides a basis for transforming 'Xiaobaixing' apricot and the breeding of SC Prunus cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of aroma of the 14 main apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars in Xinjiang was evaluated using high-performance solid-phase microextraction (HP-SPME) with gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). A total of 208 volatiles that include 80 esters, 25 aldehydes, 15 terpenes, 21 ketones, 39 alcohols, 27 olefins, and 1 acid were identified from these cultivars. The compounds propyl acetate, 3-methyl-1-butanol acetate, (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol acetate, d-limonene, β-linalool, hexanal, hexyl acetate, butyl acetate, β-myrcene, ethyl butanoate, and β-cis-ocimene were the major compounds responsible for aroma in these cultivars. GC-MS results showed that Kuchexiaobaixing, Guoxiyuluke, and seven other cultivars were characterized by a high level of esters and were considered to be fruity apricot aroma. 'Luotuohuang' and 'Heiyexing' accumulate high levels of terpenes and exhibited an outstanding floral aroma. Higher levels of alcohols and aldehydes were observed in 'Danxing', 'Sumaiti', and 'Kumaiti'. The latter are considered green aroma cultivars. These three types of cultivars with different aroma characteristics can be significantly differentiated by using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. The contributions of volatiles to the apricot aroma were assessed by using the partial least squares regression (PLSR) model. Esters, terpenes, and C6 components were shown to be responsible for the fruity, floral, and green character of fresh apricots, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first upper-limit measurement of the branching fractions of the isospin-violating transitions χc0,2 → π0ηc. The measurements are performed using 106×106 ψ(3686) events accumulated with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII e+e− collider at a center-of-mass energy corresponding to the ψ(3686) mass. We obtained upper limits on the branching fractions at a 90% confidence level of B(χc0 → π0ηc)<1.6 × 10−3 and B(χc2 → π0ηc) < 3.2 × 10−3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]