Raman spectral analyses of carbonaceous material (CM) extracted from pelitic samples along two sections traversing the metamorphic belt of Taiwan were carried out in the present study. The results show similar spectral variations of CM with metamorphic grade as those documented in the literature. However, continuous sampling from zeolite facies through prehnite–pumpellyite facies to greenschist facies metamorphic rocks in the present study does reveal some interesting features on the Raman spectra of CM that were not noted before. Both the Raman D (disordered‐)/O (ordered‐) peak area (i.e. integrated intensity) ratio and the D/O peak width (i.e. full width at half maximum, FWHM) ratio of the CM decrease with progressive metamorphism, but the most prominent change in the D/O peak area ratio occurs in samples of lower greenschist facies metamorphic grade, while the most significant decrease in the D/O peak width ratio occurs in samples near the boundary of prehnite–pumpellyite facies and greenschist facies. This phenomenon is interpreted as a result of the decoupling of the changing rates of in‐plane crystallite size and degree of defects of CM with progressive metamorphism. It is postulated that the Raman spectrum of CM can serve as a metamorphic grade indicator to distinguish samples of prehnite–pumpellyite facies metamorphic grade from those of greenschist facies metamorphic grade.

We consider the NP-complete problem of finding an enclosing rectangle of minimum area that will contain a given a set of rectangles. We present two different constraintsatisfaction formulations of this problem. The first searches a space of absolute placements of rectangles in the enclosing rectangle, while the other searches a space of relative placements between pairs of rectangles. Both approaches dramatically outperform previous approaches to optimal rectangle packing. For problems where the rectangle dimensions have low precision, such as small integers, absolute placement is generally more efficient, whereas for rectangles with high-precision dimensions, relative placement will be more effective. In two sets of experiments, we find both the smallest rectangles and squares that can contain the set of squares of size 1 × 1, 2 × 2, . . . , N × N , for N up to 27. In addition, we solve an open problem dating to 1966, concerning packing the set of consecutive squares up to 24 × 24 in a square of size 70 × 70. Finally, we find the smallest enclosing rectangles that can contain a set of unoriented rectangles of size 1 × 2, 2 × 3, 3 × 4, . . . , N × (N + 1), for N up to 25.

No abstract

Background: Group IIA secreted phospholipase A 2 (hGIIA) is a bifunctional protein that regulates arachidonic acid metabolism by both catalysis-dependent and catalysis-independent mechanisms. Results: Selective inhibition of the catalysis-independent signaling function perturbs a hGIIA-vimentin interaction in rheumatoid synoviocytes. Conclusion:The signaling and catalytic functions of hGIIA are pharmacologically separable. Significance: Functionally selective inhibitors of hGIIA may provide new avenues for investigation and treatment of immunemediated inflammation.

No abstract