No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Yuchanyan Cave in Daoxian County, Hunan Province (People's Republic of China), yielded fragmentary remains of 2 or more ceramic vessels, in addition to large amounts of ash, a rich animal bone assemblage, cobble and flake artifacts, bone tools, and shell tools. The artifacts indicate that the cave was a Late Paleolithic foragers' camp. Here we report on the radiocarbon ages of the sediments based on analyses of charcoal and bone collagen. The best-preserved charcoal and bone samples were identified by prescreening in the field and laboratory. The dates range from around 21,000 to 13,800 cal BP. We show that the age of the ancient pottery ranges between 18,300 and 15,430 cal BP. Charcoal and bone collagen samples located above and below one of the fragments produced dates of around 18,000. These ceramic potsherds therefore provide some of the earliest evidence for pottery making in China.ancient ceramics ͉ archaeology ͉ 14 C ͉ Yangzi River

No abstract

Oat (Avena sativa L.) kernel size uniformity is important to the oat milling industry because oat‐processing mills separate oats according to size to optimize dehulling efficiency. In this study, we compared two different approaches for analyzing oat kernel size uniformity, namely the sequential sieving of oat samples with a gradient of slotted sieve sizes and digital image analysis. Image analysis of size fractions provided evidence that sieving separated oat kernels according to their depth, whereas, digital image analysis measured kernel length and width, and derived a measure of the area of the oat kernel image. Samples identified by sieving with superior uniformity were those with greater proportions of large kernels. Histograms of oat kernel sizes derived from digital image analysis suggested oat kernel sizes were (within a genotype and location) composed of bimodal populations. A new statistical analysis allowed for the derivation of means and variances of each of these subpopulations, the numerical balance between the two subpopulations, and the extent of bimodality. Oat samples with lower levels of bimodality tended to be of higher test weight and groat percentage and thus, of better milling quality. Both methods appear satisfactory for evaluating oat kernel size uniformity, although the sequential sieving method is likely to be more useful to breeding programs because of its relative technical ease and simplicity.

The hotel industry in China is currently going through fundamental reform in ownership structure and development. A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis as reforms go forward reveals development opportunities as well as vulnerabilities to internal organizational and external environmental changes. Notable strengths include a growing market and the government’s push to upgrade all hotel standards. Weaknesses include an overleveraged industry that has long been operated inefficiently by government entities. New and reinvigorate operators have great opportunities in this situation, as do those who offer ancillary services and management education. The greatest foreseeable threat is an economic slowdown or other event that interferes with tourist growth. With the 2008 Olympiad to be held in Beijing and a World Expo slated for Shanghai in 2010, such a downturn would most likely be temporary—meaning that the Chinese hotel industry has excellent prospects overall.

No abstract