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The constant/variable amplitude loading fatigue test with interior inclusionfine granular area-fisheye induced failure under R=0 were carried out on carburized Cr-Ni steel. The results showed that the fatigue life under variable amplitude loading is longer than that under constant amplitude loading in very-high-cycle fatigue regime under same maximum stress level, and the surface morphology of fine granular area under variable amplitude loading is coarser than that under constant amplitude loading under same order of magnitude of fatigue life. Simultaneously, it can be determined that the formation micro-mechanism of fine granular area is caused by the continuous deboning due to stress concentration around interior micro-defects. Furthermore, the life prediction model based on double nonlinear fatigue damage, which considers the coupling effect of local equivalent stress (surface residual stress and local stress concentration effect), loading sequence, failure mechanism and nonlinear characteristics of fatigue damage under constant/variable amplitude loading is established, and predicted life has good accuracy within the factor-of-three lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock grazing exclusion is the most widely used grassland restoration strategy. However, the impacts of long-term grazing exclusion remain unknown. To clarify the impacts of long-term grazing exclusion on plant and soil features, we examined the plant biomass, plant diversity, and the physical, chemical, and enzymatic soil properties of an area with a history of 40 years of grazing exclusion within the Xinlin Gol grassland of China. Our results showed that grazing exclusion increased the plant diversity and biomass effectively, especially the gramineous, forb, and shrub biomass and the forb and shrub diversity. In addition, grazing exclusion reduced the bulk density of the soil, increased its water content, amount of organic matter, and available nitrogen content, and slowed down the decreasing trend in the amount of total nitrogen with the increase in soil depth. Plant biomass and litter mass was identified as important to connecting plant features and soil nutrient content. In particular, shrub biomass and diversity characteristics were positively correlated with each other, and had the closest coupling with soil properties among all plant functional groups. After considering the results, we concluded that grazing exclusion can be effective in restoring a natural grassland environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neutron detection technology is a powerful method for characterizing fundamental and industrial materials, such as magnetic materials, nanomaterials, polymers, and biological substances. A compact pulsed neutron source is desired, as the traditional way of producing high-yield neutrons depends mainly on large-scale accelerators or fission reactors. Here, we propose a scheme to generate a high-yield pulsed neutron source by using a > 100 fs relativistic laser pulse interacting with a micro-structure assisted pitcherâ€"catcher target. Three-dimensional particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo hybrid simulations demonstrate that an energetic deuterium ion beam with a cutoff energy of 75 MeV and a 7.23 % laser-to-deuterium energy conversion efficiency can be obtained with a laser pulse of intensity 1.37 Ă— 10 20 W cmâˆ'2, duration 330 fs, power 34 TW and energy 6.7 J. When they strike the following lithium fluoride converter of thickness 2 cm, a large number of neutrons are thus produced via a 7Li(d,n) nuclear reaction. The neutron yield is up to 109 and its pulse duration is as short as 20 ps. This scheme could be realized in laboratories with current hundreds-of-terawatt or multi-petawatt laser facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to further improve the penetration power of the multi-explosive formed warhead, tantalum is used to design a multi-explosive folded warhead. Firstly, using numerical simulation, the design parameters of the damage element of two different forming methods are obtained. Then the formation process, flight process, and penetration process of the projectile were calculated respectively. Finally, the static explosion experiment of the warhead was carried out. The results show that the calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental results. There was no break during the formation of the penetrator. It can be folded to form a rod-shaped penetrating body with a high aspect ratio, which can penetrate a Q235 steel target with a thickness of 30mm at a distance of 3 meters. Tantalum material is used as a shaped charge liner, which has a much higher penetration power and stronger aftereffect than copper and pure iron. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gd2O3 has been considered as a kind of good host material for photoluminescence. The method of laser ablation in liquid (LAL) is increasingly used for the preparation of Gd2O3 because it is green and usually simple. In this work, monoclinic Gd2O3:Tb3+/Eu3+ nano-phosphors were successfully synthesized by LAL method. The morphology, structure, and optical properties of the nano-phosphors were discussed. The color of fluorescence of Gd2O3:Tb3+/Eu3+ nano-phosphors were successfully turned by controlling the content of Tb3+ and Eu3+. The results show that the synthesized Gd2O3:Tb3+/Eu3+ nano-phosphors are potential to be applied to display, lighting, biological imaging or other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an effective approach for determining the manufacturer of oxytetracycline based on terahertz time-domain spectroscopy and chemometrics. The applied method allowed detection and distinction of oxytetracycline tablets produced by four Chinese manufacturers. Absorption spectra within the frequency range of 0.2–1.6 THz were acquired for analysis, and principal component analysis (PCA) and t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) were implemented for dimensionality reduction. The obtained data were input into different classifiers, namely, grid-search support vector machines (SVM), genetic algorithm-SVM, particle swarm optimizations (PSO–SVM), decision trees, and random forests. The results indicated that the absorption spectra of oxytetracycline produced by the four manufacturers could be differentiated, and that t-SNE outperformed PCA in terms of dimensionality reduction. The optimal classifier was obtained by combining t-SNE and PSO–SVM, and this approach demonstrated the highest cross validation accuracy (98.33%), an average training set accuracy of 97.72%, and an average test set accuracy of 94.25%. The novel approach described herein achieved rapid classification of oxytetracycline and allowed accurate tracing of the manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation and stopping of a laser-driven two-component ion beam are investigated by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation and an extended stopping model. It is found that a two-component ion beam with the tunable composition ratio can be obtained from the two-species-ions sandwich target interacting with a relativistic laser pulse. When the generated proton beam mixed with a certain portion of carbon ions is transporting in fully ionized dense plasma, the beam stopping power is significantly enhanced compared to a pure proton beam. The maximum penetration depth is sharply reduced, and the Bragg peak with a higher magnitude appears earlier at the end of their paths, which is beneficial for achieving more localized energy deposition. The effect of heavy ion mixing on proton beam driven fast ignition is also discussed. A simple theoretical model is established, indicating that the required ignition time is relatively delayed for a heavy-ion doping case. For a small hot-spot size, it is possible to achieve the fusion ignition for a low mixed ratio. However, it is difficult to maintain a high fuel temperature due to the growing energy loss originating from mechanical work and thermal conduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-quality lead sulfide (PbS) thin films were successfully synthesized by chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) results indicated that the films had face-centered cubic (FCC) structures with strong (200) preferred orientation and high-quality crystals. The band gap of the films was about 0.65eV, which had an obvious broadening. Then I-V characteristic curve and relative response were measured, respectively. It was found that the films had good photosensitivity. Since the films had high crystallinity and preferred orientation, it was expected to achieve better practical effects in the field of infrared applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sulfonamides are used as antibacterial drugs for decades. 3-bromo-N-(3-fluorophenyl) benzenesulfonamide is synthesized by the amidation reaction. The structure of the title compound is confirmed by FTIR, 1H and 13C NMR, and MS spectroscopies. At the same time, the single crystal of the compound is analyzed by X-ray diffraction and the conformational analysis is performed. Density functional theory (DFT) is used to further calculate the molecular structure, and the results are consistent with the X-ray diffraction results. In addition, DFT is also used to calculate and analyze the electrostatic potential and the frontier molecular orbital of the molecule, which provides some references for the analysis of the physical and chemical properties of the molecule. In addition, vibrational frequencies are analyzed, revealing some physicochemical properties of the title compound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theory for controlling avalanche process of carrier during short pulse laser irradiation is proposed. We show that avalanche process of conduction band electrons (CBEs) is determined by the occupation number of phonons in dielectrics. The theory provides a way to suppress avalanche process and a direct judgment for the contribution of avalanche process and photon ionization process to the generation of CBEs. The obtained temperature dependent rate equation shows that the laser induced damage threshold of dielectrics, e.g., fused silica, increase nonlinearly with the decreases of temperature. Present theory predicts a new approach to improve the laser induced damage threshold of dielectrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axial loading fatigue tests of carburized 12Cr steel alloy in long‐life regime were performed under stress ratios of −1 and 0. Fatigue fracture can be divided into surface failure, interior failure without fine granular area (FGA), and interior failure with FGA. By considering the effects of the tensile limit, the evaluation of maximum crack sizes (inclusion sizes and FGA sizes), and residual stress distribution, the fatigue strength prediction model of carburized 12Cr steel alloy for inclusion‐FGA‐fisheye induced failure in low stress level region can be established. By comparing the predicted results evaluated by generalized extreme values (GEV) with generalized Pareto (GP), the GP distribution is more suitable to predict the fatigue limit of the carburized 12Cr steel alloy. Furthermore, by using the relationship between inclusion sizes and FGA sizes, the fatigue limit prediction model for the design of components can be established, and the result is extremely accurate for the carburized 12Cr steel alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nonperturbative quantum theory for phonon-assisted photon absorption of conduction band electron in intense laser was developed. By carrying out the calculation in fused silica at wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared in terawatt intensity laser, we show that the nonperturbation approach can make a uniform description of energy absorption rate at both short wavelengths and long wavelengths on terawatt per centimeter square intensity laser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate advantages of robot-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) over video-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (VAMIE) in treating esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by applying propensity score-matched analysis. From April 2016 to January 2018, consecutive patients undergoing a McKeown RAMIE or VAMIE for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were prospectively included for analysis. Baseline data, pathological findings, and short-term outcomes of the two groups (RAMIE group and VAMIE group) were collected and compared. Propensity score-matched analysis was applied to generate matched pairs for further comparison. Finally, we included a total of 151 patients (RAMIE group: 79 patients, VAMIE group: 72 patients) for analysis. In the analysis of unmatched cohort, RAMIE yielded a significantly larger number of total dissected lymph nodes (mean: 20.6 ± 8.8 vs. 17.9 ± 7.7; P  = 0.048) and abdominal lymph nodes (mean: 9.5 ± 6.8 vs. 7.4 ± 5.1; P  = 0.039) than VAMIE. However, there was no significantly different risk of major complications between the two groups. In the analysis of matched cohort, RAMIE still yielded a significantly larger number of total dissected lymph nodes (P  = 0.006) and abdominal lymph nodes (P  = 0.042) than VAMIE. There was still no increased risk of postoperative major complications in the RAMIE group compared to the VAMIE group. Moreover, RAMIE was found to yield significantly more left recurrent laryngeal nerve lymph nodes (mean: 1.0 ± 1.8 vs. 0.4 ± 0.8; P  = 0.033) than VAMIE without increasing the risk of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis. Therefore, RAMIE may have the advantage of lymphadenectomy over VAMIE without increasing any risk of postoperative major complications. Further well-conducted studies, however, are needed to confirm our conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract During the Late Pleistocene, strong erosional riverine environments led to the widespread occurrence of landslides along the river valleys in southwestern China. Such landslides along the middle reaches of the Dadu River often caused large-scale dammed lakes. In this study, the typical large-scale Jiajun landslide and its associated dammed lake were investigated. The relatively complete sedimentary sequence of the lake was examined and multi-depositional characteristics were found. Analysis of the history of the dammed lake revealed the relationship between its formation and the river valley erosion. The evolution of the dammed lake was reconstructed based on changes of the sedimentary environments. We concluded that the lake experienced two stages of high-lake-level stable lacustrine sedimentation during this period, a two-stage large-scale dam breach, and retention periods lasting more than 100 years. The relationship between the formation of the ancient barrier lake and the river valley erosion in the middle reaches of the Dadu River is indicative of the erosive and depositional environments. The evolution of the ancient dammed-river landslide valley had considerable effect on valley erosion and the sedimentary environment of the Dadu River. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoindentation experiments are performed at the vicinity of grain boundaries, in Fe-Si tricrystals, to illustrate the existence of a critical stress at which slip transmission occurs across grain boundaries. Such a critical stress can be considered as a grain boundary yield stress and can be quantified within the framework of conventional gradient plasticity theory, enhanced by introducing a new mechanically induced “interface energy” term. The present study takes a first step in trying to provide a physical interpretation for this “far from thermodynamic equilibrium” interface energy term by conducting nanoindentation tests in three Fe-3wt%Si tricrystals, each of which had three distinct types of grain boundary misorientations, namely 22.5°, 42.0° and 44.6°. By relating the experimentally measured grain boundary yield stress to the predictions of interfacial gradient plasticity, it is possible to determine the interface parameter (ξ), which provides a measure of the resistance to slip transmission for each grain boundary examined. In particular, microscopic arguments from standard dislocation theory reveal that ξ depends on both the grain interior properties and the grain boundary structure. The internal length is shown to depend on multiple characteristic lengths of the microstructure, while a new expression is deduced for relating the Hall-Petch slope to both the interface parameter and internal length. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken to develops a new sludge dewatering technology based on polyethylene glycol solution dialysis. This method significantly reduced the final water content of sludge when compared to conventional dewatering methods. It was found that when the osmotic pressure difference between the polyethylene glycol solution and the sludge reached 8 MPa, the moisture content in the sludge was reduced to 28.6%, facilitating deep dehydration. To further improve the dehydration effect and explore the technical feasibility of dialysis dehydration, a dehydration experiment was designed using the polyethylene glycol solution dialysis method combined with external pressure. By applying external pressure to the dialysis membranes, the particles in the sludge were compacted, which reduced the internal voids of the sludge and propelled continuous water discharge. The results demonstrated that the dehydration effect was significantly improved when compared to single dialysis. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe and quantitatively analyze the microstructure of the sludge before and after dehydration and to compare the variations in sludge microstructure throughout the dehydration process. The relationships between the sludge moisture content and the porosity and pore equivalent diameter were obtained. This demonstrated the effectiveness of the dewatering experiment using sludge dialysis combined with external pressure. This study also investigates the dehydration mechanism of this method during the sludge dehydration process. This study provides a novel solution for sludge volume reduction that can be applied to sewage treatment in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which described the near-threshold transverse modes in AlAs/GaAs/InGaAs vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with different Bragg reflector systems. Temperature dependence of the lasing mode; Aspects of the lasing behavior; Experimental details; Results and discussion; Conclusions.

The Chang 7 Member of the Yan-Chang Formation (Yan-Chang #7 Member), which is located in the central south of the Ordos Basin (China), is assessed for its potential as a shale gas resource. The characteristics and spatial variability of mineral components in this continental shale formation play a crucial role in evaluating and characterising the shale reservoirs. We collected 64 shale core samples from 30 representative sampling sites located in the central south of the Ordos Basin using X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy to study the mineral compositions, vertical/planar variations of minerals, and the major controlling factors that result in such variations. Based on the relative fractions of the dominant minerals, the shale rocks can be classified into four categories: quartz-rich (type #1), illite/chlorite-rich (type #2), illite-smectite mixed-layer-rich (type #3) and feldspar-rich (type #4). In general, type #1 is mainly located in the northwest of the study area, type #4 is mainly located in the south of the study area, and types #2 and #3 are sandwiched between types #1 and #4. In the centre of the basin, the illite content increases with burial depth and the conversion from smectite to illite, which is experimentally confirmed in this study, enhances the surface porosity of shale. The major factors influencing the properties and spatial variability of the mineral components include sedimentary environment, provenance and diagenesis. Compared with marine shales in China (e.g. Longmaxi marine shales), the Yan-Chang #7 Member continental shale has a higher clay content, but lower calcite, dolomite and pyrite contents. The brittleness indexes of type #1 shale in Wuqi and its surrounding areas are marginally higher than that of Longmaxi marine shales, which makes the type #1 shale in the Wuqi and its surrounding areas slightly easier to fracture than the Longmaxi marine shales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Sinocyclocheilus zhenfengensis sp. nov. is a new species from an underground water environment in a karst cave located in Beipanjiang River of the Pearl River Basin in Shuangrufeng (Double Breasts Hill) Scenic, Etian Village, Zhexiang Township, Zhenfeng County, Guizhou Province, Southwest China. The new species has eyes, its body is completely scaled, an anteriorly directed bulge has formed on the back of its head, and a long pectoral fin exceeds the pelvic fin insertion. The body of the new species is apparently similar to that of S. bicornutus, but differs in scale rows above the lateral line, scale rows below the lateral line, snout length, and eye diameter. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the cytochrome b gene using the maximum parsimony (MP) and Bayesian inference (BI) methods indicates that S. zhenfengensis is closely related to S. bicornutus, S. tianeensis, S. jiuxuensis, and S. altishoulderus; however, it differs in terms of eye size, lateral line scales, scale rows above and below the lateral line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a super sub-Nyquist Hadamard single-pixel terahertz (THz) imaging system in which the THz waves are modulated by a digital micromirror device and a laser driver. Spatial coding of the THz radiation is performed using the cake-cutting (CC)-order Hadamard basis. THz images are reconstructed from a series of coding sequences of the measurement intensity. We prove that with the use of super sub-Nyquist sampling, single-pixel THz imaging with 87% fidelity and a signal-to-noise ratio of more than 23 dB can be achieved using 10% of the CC-order Hadamard basis patterns. The total variation regularization algorithm is shown to have higher robustness to noise than the Hadamard transform and thus offers a good technical solution for single-pixel THz imaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate secondhand smoke exposure (SHS) of children at home and the prevalence of parental smoking after implementation of the new tobacco control law in Macao. This study explored whether the smoking ban in public places in Macao has decreased the prevalence of smoking or led to increased SHS exposure of children at home. As smokers cannot smoke in public places any more, they may smoke at home more frequently; a displacement effect of smoke-free legislation. Study design: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: This study surveyed 337 fathers and 538 mothers. Questions from a subset of key questions from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (2nd edition) were applied to assess the SHS exposure of children and the prevalence of parental smoking since the smoking ban. A classification tree analysis was used to analyse the factors increasing SHS exposure of children. Results: The prevalence of SHS exposure in children at home was 41.3%. The prevalence rates of paternal and maternal smoking were 43.7% and 3.8%, respectively. Compared with data reported by the Health Bureau of Macao SAR in 2011, the prevalence of parental smoking and the prevalence of SHS exposure of children at home have not decreased since the smoking ban. Analysis of the factors increasing the prevalence of SHS exposure of children indicated that fathers with an education level below high school were more likely to contribute to this increase, compared with fathers with a high school education or more (48.2% vs 32.4%, respectively). In addition, fathers represented the majority of smokers at home, accounting for 92.0% of 415 smoking parents. The prevalence of paternal smoking (82.0%) in the group of children with SHS exposure was much higher than that in the unexposed group (16.7%, Chi-squared test = 367.199, P = 0.000). The SHS exposure of children increased consistently with the decrease in paternal education level. This was consistent with the increasing prevalence of paternal smoking as paternal education level decreased. SHS exposure was most common among children whose fathers had an education level below high school and whose mothers were aged ≤29 years (75.0%). Conclusions: This study did not find any decline in the prevalence of parental smoking after the smoking ban. These parents were more likely to smoke at home after the ban, leading to more frequent SHS exposure for their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Siwanli landslide is located in the middle section of the Dadu River in the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in a complex regional geological environment. Strong erosion of the river valley has caused numerous rockfalls and slides on both sides of the valley since the Late Pleistocene. A large number of landslide deposits provide the opportunity for examination of the sedimentary and erosional environment along the Dadu River. Identifying the spatial and temporal characteristics of the large, ancient landslides in the Dadu River valley can help improve understanding of the formation mechanism and evolutionary process of ancient and recurrent landslides. In this paper, the formation mechanism of the ancient, complex, and multistage Siwanli landslide is discussed, as well as an important link between river erosion and the formation and evolution of the landslide. In the first stage, the initial landslide blocked the Dadu River, forming a barrier lake, and multistage landslide dam breaches occurred. The entire landslide dam experienced creep deformation, and local minor multistage sliding occurred at the front and middle parts of the initial landslide. Subsequently, a large landslide formed at the scarp of the initial landslide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidation reactions of titanium metallocarbohedrenes (Met–Cars) and their derivatives are studied using a SIDT–LV (selected ion drift tube with laser vaporization source) and a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, both operated at near thermal energies. A surprising finding is the selective and sole production of Ti8C+12 in the reactions of neutral metal–carbon species with oxygen. However, no Met–Car ions are formed when these neutral Met–Cars derivatives are interacted with other potentially reactive neutral molecules, including N2O and Cl2. The mechanisms for this oxidation induced ionization are discussed in light of oxidation induced excitation and thermionic emission. © 1996 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the hardness and elastic modulus of a:C-Nx films deposited on Si(111) wafers at ambient temperatures by reactive magnetron sputtering of C in a mixed Ar/N2 discharge. Increase in hardness and elastic moduli exhibited by nitrogenated films compared to the amorphous carbonated films.

Investigations have shown that the collective motion appears not only in nucleus-nucleus but also in p-p collisions. The best tool for depicting such collective motion is relativistic hydrodynamics. In this paper, the collective motion is assumed to obey the hydrodynamic model which integrates the features of Landau and Hwa-Bjorken theory and is one of a very few analytically solvable models. The fluid is then supposed to freeze out into charged particles from a space-like hypersurface with a fixed time of tFO. The investigations of present paper show that this part of charged particles together with leading particles, which, by conventional definition, carry on the quantum numbers of colliding nucleons and take away the most part of incident energy, can give a proper universal description to the pseudorapidity distributions of charged particles measured in both nucleus-nucleus and p-p collisions at currently available energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of wetland plants on metal status in the rhizosphere is species specific. The present study aimed to address the effects of different chemical speciations on metal redistribution and verify changes in metal speciation in the rhizosphere caused by wetland plants based on different radial oxygen losses. The presence of wetland plants increased the redox potential and led to the redistribution of metals in the rhizosphere across different chemical speciations. Associated metals such as Pb and Zn were correspondingly released or co-precipitated, influencing their solubility. The higher the root oxidisation ability of the plant, the greater the effect. However, the presence of wetland plants also transformed metals (Pb and Zn) to a more stable fraction (residual), leading to a lower potential metal bioavailability and leaching process in the long run. Knowledge of these variables and the time-dependent metal behaviour revealed by this study is crucial for the remediation of mine tailings using wetland plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of the biology of the predator Clitostethus brachylobus Peng, Ren & Pang 1998 (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) under different temperature regimes was carried out. It was performed at seven constant temperature regimes (14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, and 32°C), under which C. brachylobus was fed with Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) nymphs reared on Hibuscus rosa-sinensis plants. Results indicated that developmental period of different immature stages decreased with increase in temperature from 17 to 29°C and above 29°C, of eggs, and pupa decreased, while those of the four larval instars increased. Accumulated survival rates were significantly higher at the temperature of 23 and 26°C than at other temperatures. Highest fecundity of C. brachylobus females (252.40 eggs) was recorded at 26°C. Based on these results, life table of C. brachylobus was cons tructed for temperatures in the range of 17-29°C. The innate capacity for increase (rm) and the finite rate of increase (λ) reached their maximu m at 26°C, while the maximu m value of reproductive rate (R0) was obtained at 23°C. The mean length of a generation (T) decreased with increasing temperature. The lower development thresholds of C. brachylobus for the total pre-imaginal development was 9.58°C, whereas the number of degree-days required for the development from egg to adult emergence was 276.5 degree days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Peripheral blood monocytes (PBMs) are an important source of precursors of osteoclasts, the bone-resorbing cells and the cytokines produced by PBMs that have profound effects on osteoclast differentiation, activation, and apoptosis. So PBMs represent a highly valuable and unique working cell model for bone-related study. Finding an appropriate working cell model for clinical and (epi-)genomic studies of human skeletal disorders is a challenge. Peripheral blood monocytes (PBMs) can give rise to osteoclasts, the bone-resorbing cells. Particularly, PBMs provide the sole source of osteoclast precursors for adult peripheral skeleton where the bone marrow is normally hematopoietically inactive. PBMs can secrete potent pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, which are important for osteoclast differentiation, activation, and apoptosis. Reduced production of PBM cytokines represents a major mechanism for the inhibitory effects of sex hormones on osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption. Abnormalities in PBMs have been linked to various skeletal disorders/traits, strongly supporting for the biological relevance of PBMs with bone metabolism and disorders. Here, we briefly review the origin and further differentiation of PBMs. In particular, we discuss the close relationship between PBMs and osteoclasts, and highlight the utility of PBMs in study the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying various skeletal disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variants in the EIF4G1 gene have been recently identified to be responsible for autosomal dominant PD ( PARK18), but its role in the PD-related neurodegeneration is unclear. Several EIF4G1 mutation/variants were found to be associated with PD, and functional studies have suggested that these variants may impair the ability of cells to rapidly and dynamically respond to stress, thus probably participating in the development of PD, and these indicated that EIF4G1 variants may play an important role in pathogenicity of PD, although the frequency is low. Further studies involving large sample size of patients with PD from diverse populations, as well as studies of EIF4G1 expression and in scaffold function, are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influences of the cell-wall angle on the indentation resistance of the re-entrant hexagonal honeycombs with negative Poisson's ratio are studied by employing both the numerical tests and the theoretical analysis. In the numerical tests, two groups of honeycombs are investigated, i.e. the same-density group and the same-cell-wall group. It is shown that the honeycomb's indentation resistance increases with the cell-wall angle in the same-density group, while the cell-wall angle plays a minor role in the same-cell-wall group. The theoretical analysis is employed to explain the phenomena. The effect of the negative Poison's ratio is calculated to increase with the cell-wall angle. The average stress of the re-entrant honeycomb during compression is deduced as a function of the cell-wall angle and the cell-wall size or the honeycomb's relative density. The analytical results are consistent with the numerical tests and give an explanation for the phenomena in tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since a high-density polyethylene membrane has good mechanical properties and stable chemical properties, it is widely used in all kinds of anti-permeable layers. But for a sewage pool of a drilling engineering in the western desert oil field, it is not only facing a high temperature and drying environment, but also quite a complex drilling fluid composition. Yet an experimental study system on application has not set up in China. According to the working environment of the high-density polyethylene membrane, a series of aging tests are carried out in the paper. Measured the change value of the high-density polyethylene membrane, mechanical properties are expressed directly the aging properties of high-density polyethylene membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method based on microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was used to evaluate the effects of copper (Cu2+) on soil microorganisms. Soil spiked with 50-400 mg kg-1 of Cu2+ as CuCl2 was incubated for 24 hours before being packed into the MFC anode chambers and assayed for dehydrogenase activity (DHA), substrate-induced respiration (SIR) and microbial biomass carbon (Cmic). Soil was amended with 5% (w/w) glucose to accelerate 'start-up' and improve power generation, followed by 150 hours of operation. Anode biofilm and soil was extracted to recover total nucleic acids and the 16S rRNA gene was subjected to PCR-DGGE, sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. Results showed that increases in soil Cu2+ concentrations reduced voltage and postponed start-up. The quantity of generated electrons within 48 hours was 32.5 coulomb (C) in the without-Cu control and decreased with increasing Cu2+ concentrations (11.7, 7.7, 2.0 and 1.3 C under 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg kg-1 Cu2+, respectively). Cyclic voltammetry identified decreased soil electrochemical activity with increasing Cu2+ concentrations. The results indicate that Cu2+ reduced electrical signals by inhibiting the electrochemical activity, metabolic activity and biomass of microorganisms. The 16S sequences of recovered anodic bacteria were assigned to Firmicutes, including Bacillaceae, Acetobacteraceae, Clostridium, Bacillus and Sporolactobacillus. In general, the DGGE band intensity of anodic bacteria decreased with increasing Cu2+ concentrations, except for bands assigned to Firmicutes and Bacillus, which increased with increasing Cu2+ concentrations. We suggest that the short-term electrical signals generated from MFCs with contaminated soil can be used to assess the toxic effect of heavy metal pollutants on soil microorganisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of orally administered Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) on the jejunal health of weaned piglets that were unchallenged or challenged with porcine enterotoxigenic E. coli Abbottstown (EcA). A total of 40 weaned Landrace × Yorkshire piglets (5.83 ± 0.24 kg) were allocated to 4 groups with 10 barrows per group, following a 2 × 2 factorial design with 2 inclusion levels of EcN (daily oral administration of 2 mL sterile water or 2 mL EcN (10 9 cells/mL)) at 10:00 h) and 2 inclusion levels of EcA (daily oral administration of 2 mL sterile water or 2 mL EcA (10 9 cells/mL) at 14:00 h). Thus, there were four treatments: (1) control diet (C); (2) C + EcN (N); (3) C + EcA (A); (4) C + EcN + EcA (N + A). This experiment lasted for 21 d. The results indicated a significant interaction between EcN and EcA on growth performance and jejunal mucosal membrane integrity, morphology, immune parameters and the antioxidant capacity in 21-day-weaned piglets (P<0.05). The results that piglets in the A group had lowest feed conversion, daily weight gain, daily feed intake, jejunal villus height (P<0.05) among the 4 groups suggested that the oral administration of EcA decreased growth performance. The results that piglets in the A group had lowest mRNA levels of regenerating islet derived protein 3 gamma and transforming growth factor beta 1 (P<0.05), lowest protein levels of claudin-1, occludin, and zonula occludens-1 (P<0.05) and highest serum d -lactate concentration (P<0.05) among the 4 groups suggested that the oral administration of EcA damaged jejunal mucosal membrane integrity. The immune and antioxdant parameters results that orally administered EcA increased mRNA levels of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and toll-like receptor (TLR) -4 (P<0.05), increased the concentrations of IgM, IgG, IL-1β, TNF-α, sIgA (P<0.05), and TLR-4, and decreased activities of superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant (P<0.05) suggested that EcA could make the jejunal mucosal membrane inflamed in early weaned piglets. Orally administered EcN tended to improved growth performance, jejunal villus height, the immune and antioxdant function, jejunal mucosal membrane integrity in piglet unchallenged or challenged with EcA. This improvement of the jejunal health and growth performance of piglets challenged with EcA by oral administration of EcN could be attributed to increased defense against harmful bacteria and improved epithelial barrier function. These results demonstrated that EcN could be used in early-weaned piglets to prevent intestinal infection by the pathogenic bacteria EcA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compressive imaging has been intensively studied during the past few years, capable of reconstructing high-resolution images with sampling ratios far below the Nyquist rate. In contrast to previous works, a new l0- l2 minimisation approach is proposed for compressive imaging in this paper, regularised by sparsity constraints in three complementary frames. The new approach stems from the observation that images of practical interest may consist of different morphological components (e.g. point singularities, oscillating textures, curvilinear edges), and therefore, cannot be sparsely represented in one single frame. The alternating split Lagrangian method is further exploited to resolve the l0- l2 minimisation problem, leading to an efficient iteration scheme for compressive imaging from partial Fourier data. In addition, we analyse the convergence properties of the proposed algorithm and compare its performance against several recently proposed methods. Numerical simulations on natural and magnetic resonance images show that the proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of theoretical analyses and experimental investigations were performed to examine a pulsed fiber-laser tangential profiling and radial sharpening technique for bronze-bonded diamond grinding wheels. The mechanisms for the pulsed laser tangential profiling and radial sharpening of grinding wheels were theoretically analyzed, and the four key processing parameters that determine the quality, accuracy, and efficiency of pulsed laser dressing, namely, the laser power density, laser spot overlap ratio, laser scanning track line overlap ratio, and number of laser scanning cycles, were proposed. Further, by utilizing cylindrical bronze wheels (without diamond grains) and bronze-bonded diamond grinding wheels as the experimental subjects, the effects of these four processing parameters on the removal efficiency and the surface smoothness of the bond material after pulsed laser ablation, as well as the effects on the contour accuracy of the grinding wheels, the protrusion height of the diamond grains, the sharpness of the grain cutting edges, and the graphitization degree of the diamond grains after pulsed laser dressing, were explored. The optimal values of the four key processing parameters were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The key processing parameters that influence laser dressing were proposed. [•] The effects of key parameters on the final results of ablation were summarized. [•] Laser dressing experiments were conducted on bronze-bonded diamond wheels. [•] The effects of laser dressing were observed using a 3D microscope system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The antimicrobial peptide buforin II contains residues Thr16 to Lys36 of buforin I and exhibits antimicrobial activity that is twice as potent as that of its parent peptide. Buforin II was expressed in Pichia pastoris FZM2009 as a fusion peptide linked to porcine interferon-α and tested as an alternative to antimicrobial growth-promoters in pig production. Fifteen Landrace×Yorkshire barrows (5.55±0.49kg), weaned at 21 days of age, were challenged with three enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains. The animals were randomly divided into 3 groups with 5 barrows in each, fed a maize–soybean meal diet, and orally dosed with 5mL sterile water (CON), 5mL buforin II (BF; 0.05mg/mL in sterile water), or 5mL colistin sulphate (CS; 0.5mg/mL in sterile water) twice daily for 21 days. Compared with CS and CON, oral administration of BF increased (P<0.05) daily weight gain, feed intake gain, and feed conversion. The expression of tight junction proteins and protective factors in the small intestine also increased in BF-treated piglets. Compared with the CON group, oral administration of BF and CS decreased (P<0.05) for the abundance of hemolytic E. coli in rectal swabs. Collectively, our results indicate that oral administration of buforin II protects small intestinal mucosal membrane integrity by increasing the abundance of tight junction proteins and enhancing the expression of protective factors, and can reduce hemolytic E. coli concentrations in the intestines of piglets. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper cokncerns itself with two-dimensional fundamental solutions for infinite and semi-infinite planes, subjected to point heat sources, of one-dimensional hexagonal quasi-crystals. From the basic equations for plane problem in the context of thermo-elasticity of QCs, the rigors operator theory and generalized Almansi's theorem are employed to derive the general solutions in terms of four quasi-harmonic functions. In the framework of the present general solutions, three concreted examples are investigated. Appropriate potentials are set by the trail-and-error technique, and corresponding fundamental thermo-elastic fields are obtained in a complete and exact fashion. Since the fundamental solutions are all in elementary functions, the present solutions not only bear theoretical merits, but also can serve as benchmarks to clarify various approximate methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the wind-induced vibration of a transmission tower-line system. A discrete stiffness method is applied to design the aero-elastic model on the basis of similarity theory. The dynamic characteristics of the single tower and the tower-line system are identified and the displacement responses at different positions are obtained under a variety of wind speeds. The mean and the RMS of the displacements as well as their spectra are discussed. Moreover, the test results and the codal specifications are compared in terms of the wind-induced vibration coefficient. The first natural frequency of the single tower is slightly larger than that of the tower-line system. But the damping ratio of the former is smaller than that of the latter, especially in the direction normal to the conductors. At the wind attack angle of 90°, the conductors significantly increase the longitudinal and lateral displacement RMS as well as the longitudinal mean displacement. And more complicated forms of vibration are aroused by the conductors, especially in the lateral direction. The wind-induced vibration coefficient show a notable rise at the position of cross arm, which cannot be characterized by Chinese code. Besides, the wind-induced vibration coefficient specified by the code is much smaller than test results thus the codal value seems to be unsafe for the UHV transmission tower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The viscosity of a typical endothermic hydrocarbon fuel (RP-3) at critical and supercritical conditions is measured using a novel viscosity measurement method by expanding the classical capillary method, and it can be applied to the viscosity measurement of single phase flow, including supercritical fluids. The measurement covers the temperature range of (298 to 788) K under pressures from (2.33 to 5) MPa. The uncertainty of the measurement is within ± (2.14 to 6.42) % (k = 2) according to error analysis. The results are fitted as polynomials to analyze deviations. Out of 219 points, 205 points are within the ± 5 % error band, which is 93.61 %. For all values, the average absolute deviation (AAD) is 2.01 %; the maximum absolute deviation (MAD) appears near the critical point, and the value is 8.83 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The isobaric specific heat capacity of kerosene RP-3 was experimentally measured using a vacuum flow-calorimeter in the near-critical and supercritical regions. During the experiments, the qualitative temperature changed from (292.1 to 823.9) K, and the operation pressure changed from (2.40 to 5.98) MPa. The operation pressure, fuel inlet and outlet bulk temperatures, mass flow rate, and heat power were measured using a pressure gauge transducer, K-type sheathed thermocouples, a Coriolis-force flow meter, and current and voltage meters, respectively. The estimated uncertainty of the measurement was lower than 2.11 %. The expanded accuracy of the measured method for the low temperature region was verified by the water at the pressure of 3.01 MPa; the high-temperature region was verified by comparing the temperatures calculated from Cp integrating enthalpy with the temperatures measured in the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deng H, Gu S, Jankovic J. LINGO1 variants in essential tremor and Parkinson's disease. Acta Neurol Scand: 2012: 125: 1-7 © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S. The leucine-rich repeat and Ig domain containing 1 gene ( LINGO1), recently considered to be conferred increased risk of essential tremor (ET), has been also implicated in Parkinson disease (PD). As the two common movement disorders have overlapping clinical and pathological features, it has been postulated that the LINGO1 gene may play a role in the pathogenesis of the two diseases. Here, we review published reports of the LINGO1 variants in ET and PD in an attempt to better understand the molecular and pathogenic relationship of LINGO1 to the two disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lower molecular weight Z-Tetraol films exhibit increased mechanical spacing in the slider-disk interface due to a lower z-profile. An increased resistance to lubricant disturbance on the disk surface (e.g., lube moguls) with decreasing film thickness is attributed to an increasing contribution from the polar component of the disjoining pressure. Evaporative loss at temperatures typically encountered in a hard-disk drive also increases with decreasing molecular weight but is strongly dependent on the initial bonded fraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An aberrant proliferation of mesangial cells (MCs) is one of the more important features of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Adiponectin, an adipocyte-derived hormone, has been associated with type 2 diabetes, a known cause of DN. Recent studies have suggested that adiponectin has a protective effect on the kidney. To elucidate the potential protective mechanism of adiponectin on kidney, we investigated the effects of adiponectin on platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-induced cell proliferation and intracellular signaling pathways in cultured Human MCs (HMCs). PDGF-induced HMC proliferation was significantly inhibited by the co-treatment of adiponectin. Adiponectin alone had no effect on HMC proliferation. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and 40 S ribosomal S6 kinase 1 (S6K1) were activated by PDGF stimulation in HMCs. PDGF-induced mTOR and S6K1 phosphorylations were significantly attenuated by the cotreatment of adiponectin in HMC. Adiponectin alone had no effects on PDGF-receptor autophosphorylation by PDGF. We also confirmed that the inhibitory effect of adiponectin on PDGF-induced HMC proliferation was significantly suppressed by compound C, an adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor. From these findings, it is implied that adiponectin could attenuate renal dysfunction associated with MC disorders through AMPK-mTOR signal pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), a sensor node may not always be able to report all its readings to the sink node because of limited network resources. Thus, it is desirable to have an efficient data reporting strategy with high accuracy for data reporting in such networks. In this study, the authors study data reporting in a WSN with no a priori information on future sensor readings and analyse the rationale behind the widely used equi-interval data reporting strategy in terms of the accuracy in data collection. To support the equi-interval data reporting strategy, the authors propose an adaptive rate control algorithm to achieve the maximum data reporting rate under the bandwidth constraint, and further extend this algorithm to one that can adaptively adjust the reporting rate of a sensor based on the residual energy of the sensor in order to prolong the network lifetime. Simulation results show that the equi-interval data reporting strategy can achieve higher accuracy than other strategies and with the proposed rate control algorithms it can further improve the network performance in terms of data accuracy and network lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The clinical value of 131I-MIBG for targeted imaging and targeted radiotherapy is limited to neural crest-derived tumors expressing human norepinephrine transporters (hNET) protein. To extend 131I-MIBG-targeted therapy to other nonexpressed hNET tumors, this study investigated the hNET expression in vitro and in vivo in HepG2 hepatoma mediated by recombinant adenovirus encoding the hNET gene (Ad-hNET). For this purpose, the HepG2 cells showed a 4.87-fold increase in 125I-MIBG uptake after infection with Ad-hNET, and the uptake of 125I-MIBG could be specifically inhibited by maprotiline. Immunohistological analysis, in vivo biological study and 131I-MIBG scintigraphic imaging also revealed the high expression of hNET protein in hepatoma. This in vitro and in vivo studies demonstrate the feasibility of hNET gene transfer, meditated by adenovirus vector, could extend to tumors other than those derived from the neural crest, which provides a sound foundation for further investigation of hepatocellular carcinoma-targeted radiotherapy mediated by adenovirus transfection with hNET gene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bombyx mori, the wing cuticle protein gene BmWCP4 is expressed specifically in the epidermis at the onset and mid-stage of pupation and is responsible for the formation of the pupal cuticle during the larval-pupal metamorphosis. The gene consists of four exons and three introns and is present as a single copy in the genome. Its expression was up-regulated by 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) and the 20E-induced expression was suppressed by juvenile hormone (JH) III. The upstream regulatory sequence region of the BmWCP4 gene was cloned and the regulatory elements responsible for 20E induction were identified. Two cis-regulatory elements (CREs) bound by the transcription factors BmPOUM2 and BmβFTZ-F1 were identified that mediated 20E-regulated expression of this gene. An electrophoretic mobility shift assay detected two nuclear proteins isolated from the epidermis and the BmN cell line that specifically bound to the POU and βFTZ-F1 CREs, respectively. BmPOUM2 recombinant protein explicitly bound to the POU CRE. Developmental and 20E-induced expression of the BmWCP4, BmPOUM2 and BmβFTZ- F1 genes showed that BmPOUM2 and BmβFTZ-F1 were initially expressed, followed by BmWCP4. These data suggest that the 20E-induced expression of BmWCP4 is mediated by the transcription factors BmPOUM2 and BmβFTZ-F1 binding to their CREs in the regulatory sequence region of the BmWCP4 gene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Electroresistance (ER) effects were investigated for a full series of manganite ceramics La1−x Ca x MnO3 (0