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Cameras cannot capture the same colors as those seen by the human eye because the eye and the cameras' sensors differ in their spectral sensitivity. To obtain a plausible approximation of perceived colors, the camera's Image Signal Processor (ISP) employs a color correction step. However, even advanced color correction methods cannot solve this underdetermined problem, and visible color inaccuracies are always present. Here, we explore an approach in which we can capture accurate colors with a regular camera by optimizing the spectral composition of the illuminant and capturing one or more exposures. We jointly optimize for the signal‐to‐noise ratio and for the color accuracy irrespective of the spectral composition of the scene. One or more images captured under controlled multispectral illuminants are then converted into a color‐accurate image as seen under the standard illuminant of D65. Our optimization allows us to reduce the color error by 20–60% (in terms of CIEDE 2000), depending on the number of exposures and camera type. The method can be used in applications in which illumination can be controlled, and high colour accuracy is required, such as product photography or with a multispectral camera flash. The code is available at https://github.com/gfxdisp/multispectral_color_correction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last 25 years have seen the development of a significant literature within the subfield of econophysics which attempts to model economic inequality as the emergent property of systems of stochastically interacting agents. In this article, the literature surrounding this approach to the study of wealth and income distributions, henceforth the “random asset exchange” literature following the terminology of Sinha (Phys Scr 2003(T106):59, 2003), is thoroughly reviewed for the first time. The foundational papers of Drăgulescu and Yakovenko (Eur Phys J B 17(4):723–729, 2000), Chakraborti and Chakrabarti (Eur Phys J B 17(1):167–170, 2000), and Bouchaud and Mézard (Physica A 282(3):536–545, 2000) are discussed in detail, and principal canonical models within the random asset exchange literature are established. The most common variations upon these canonical models are enumerated and the successes and limitations of such models are discussed. The paper concludes with an argument that the literature should move in the direction of more explicit representations of economic structure and processes to acquire greater explanatory power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate whether dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) has the potential to non-invasively detect microenvironmental condition by quantitatively measuring blood perfusion, vessel wall permeability, and vascularity, and to elucidate the possible correlations between DCE-MRI quantitative parameters and the expression level of hypoxia, vascularity, and cell proliferation related molecular biomarkers. In this prospective single center clinical study, 58 patients diagnosed with cervical cancer underwent DCE-MRI before anticancer treatment were enrolled. Ktrans, K ep , V e , and V p were generated from Extended Toft's model. Then patients conducted colposcopy biopsy within 1 week after DCE-MRI. Pretreatment expression levels of HIF-1α, VEGF and Ki-67 were assessed and scored by immunohistochemistry on colposcopy obtained tumor specimens. In HIF-1α low-expression group, Ktrans (p=0.031) and K ep (p=0.012) values were significantly higher than the high-expression group. In VEGF high-expression group, Ktrans (p=0.044) and V e values (p=0.021) were significantly higher than the low-expression group. In Ki-67 high-expression group, Ktrans (p=0.026) and K ep (p=0.033) were significantly higher than the low-expression group. Multiple linear regression analyses and Pearson correlation revealed that Ktrans independently negatively correlated with HIF-1α expression, V e independently positively correlated with VEGF, and K ep independently positively correlated with Ki-67. The area under the ROC curves of Ktrans for HIF-1α, V e for VEGF, and K ep for Ki-67 were 0.728, 0.743, 0.730, respectively. Our results suggest that DCE-MRI quantitative parameters could be potentially used as imaging markers for non-invasively detecting microenvironmental hypoxia, vascularity and proliferation in cervical cancer patients. • Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) could non-invasively detect cancer related molecular biomarkers. • DCE-MRI could discriminate different molecular biomarker expression level. • Ktrans, V e , and K ep were correlated with hypoxia-inducible factors-1-alpha, vascular endothelial growth factor, and Ki-67 expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the feasibility of non-enhanced and free-breathing whole-heart magnetic resonance coronary angiography (MRCA) using multishot gradient-echo planar imaging (MSG-EPI). In total, 29 healthy volunteers were recruited for free-breathing whole-heart MRCA acquisition using the MSG-EPI sequence and fast gradient echo (GRE) sequence. After the examination, the actual scanning times, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the left main (LM) coronary artery, subjective quality scores for each segment, and evaluable length of the coronary artery were recorded and statistically analysed. There was no significant difference between the SNR LM of the MSG-EPI sequence and fast GRE sequence (p= 0.130), but the CNR LM of the MSG-EPI sequence was higher (p= 0.001). The subjective quality score of the mid- and distal left anterior descending branch as well as the distal circumflex branch of the coronary artery in the MSG-EPI sequence was higher than that in the fast GRE sequence (p= 0.003, 0.001, and 0.003, respectively). The evaluable length of the left anterior descending branch and the circumflex branch was better using the MSG-EPI sequence than that of the fast GRE sequence (p= 0.015 and < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, the scanning time of the MSG-EPI sequence was 54.5% less than that of the fast GRE sequence (p< 0.001). The MSG-EPI sequence improves the subjective and objective image quality of MRCA as well as reduces the scanning time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To determine risk factors for portal venous system thrombosis (PVST) after partial splenic artery embolisation (PSAE) in cirrhotic patients with hypersplenism. Between March 2014 and February 2022, 428 cirrhotic patients with hypersplenism underwent partial splenic artery embolisation and from these patients 208 were enrolled and 220 were excluded. Medical records of enrolled patients were collected. Computed tomography (CT) images were reviewed by two blinded, independent radiologists. Statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS. Progressive PVST was observed in 18.75% (39/208) of cirrhotic patients after PSAE. No significant differences in peripheral blood counts, liver function biomarkers, and renal function were observed between the patients with progressive PVST and the patients without progressive PVST. The imaging data showed significant differences in PVST, the diameters of the portal, splenic, and superior mesenteric veins between the progressive PVST group and non-progressive PVST group. Univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated portal vein thrombosis, spleen infarction percentage, and the diameter of the splenic vein were independent risk factors for progressive PVST. Seventeen of 173 (9.83%) patients showed new PVST; the growth of PVST was observed in 62.86% (22/35) of the patients with pre-existing PVST. Spleen infarction percentage and the diameter of the splenic vein were independent risk factors for new PVST after PSAE. The present study demonstrated portal vein thrombosis, spleen infarction percentage, and the diameter of the splenic vein were independent risk factors for PVST after PSAE in cirrhotic patients with hypersplenism. • 18.75% of patients with hypersplenism had progressive PVST after PSAE. • There are three independent risk factors for progressive PVST after PSAE. • 9.83% of patients showed new PVST; 62.86% showed the growth of pre-existing PVST. • There are two independent risk factors for new PVST after PSAE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The austenitizing of steel plays an important role in improving its properties. Studying the kinetics of austenitizing of steel has certain theoretical significance for practical production. In this article, the Differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) was used to measurement the enthalpy change for the austenitizing process of 1Cr13 steel at different heating rates. The kinetic parameters were obtained based on the data of the enthalpy change for the austenitizing process of 1Cr13 steel. The result is shown that the activation energy of austenitizing process of 1Cr13 steel is dependence of the phase transition fraction. The kinetics mechanism function of the austenitizing process is nucleation and growth model, [-ln(1-α)]2/3. The value of the pre-exponential factors is 8,617*1080s-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goji berry is an important cash crop of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China. In the summer of 2019 and 2020, a root rot outbreak appeared in Zhongning County Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The correct identification of the causal agent is very important for prevention and cure of this root rot disease. The rotten root samples of symptomatic trees were dug for strain isolation using tissues separation method. The fungi were identified based on both morphological characteristics and molecular signatures. Five healthy 1‐year‐old goji berry cv. 'Ningqi‐7' seedlings inoculated with F. redolens QT114 showed root rot symptoms and F. redolens was re‐isolated from the rotted roots of inoculated seedlings. This is the first report of F. redolens causing root rot of Chinese wolfberry (L. barbarum L. cv. 'Ningqi‐7'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanomechanical resonators (NMRs), as the quantum mechanical sensing probers, have played the important roles for various high-precision quantum measurements. Differing from the previous emission spectral probes (i.e., the NMR modified the atomic emission), in this paper we propose an alternative approach, i.e., by probing the scattering spectra of the quantum mechanical prober coupled to the driving microwaves, to characterize the physical features of the NMR embedded in a rf-SQUID based superconducting qubit. It is shown that, from the observed specifical frequency points in the spectra, i.e., either the dips or the peaks, the vibrational features (i.e., they are classical vibration or quantum mechanical one) and the physical parameters (typically such as the vibrational frequency and displacements) of the NMR can be determined effectively. The proposal is feasible with the current technique and should be useful to design the desired NMRs for various quantum metrological applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prolonged drought can negatively impact a variety of plant physiological processes. We conducted a drought experiment on one-year-old plants of Glycyrrhiza uralensis to characterize how gas exchange, chlorophyll fluorescence, the activities of antioxidant enzymes, and growth responded to droughts of varying magnitudes. Plants grown under control (no drought stress) and three droughted conditions, differing in their duration (7, 14 and 21 days). Net photosynthetic rate (Pn), transpiration rate (E), and stomatal conductance (gs) were significantly lower with increasing water stress. The moderate (14 days) and severe (21 days) water stress treatments resulted in lower Pn, as well as stomatal limitation of photosynthesis during the morning but nonstomatal limitation during the afternoon. Meanwhile, the increase in F0 and decrease in Fm, ΦPSII, and Fv/Fm further suggested that photosynthetic capacity of G. uralensis leaves was reduced and PSII partially inactivated during the day under drought. These patterns indicated that drought damaged PSII of G. uralensis leaves. However, part of the damage to PSII might be alleviated under mild or moderate drought, but it was not reparable under severe drought. Water stress decreased the Pn-PAR curves of G. uralensis and led to higher LCP and RD and lower Pmax and LSP. Together, these results suggest that drought stress weakened the light adaptability of leaves and reduced the efficiency of light transformation. In addition, the activities of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT)) were elevated in G. uralensis under moderate (14 days) and severe (21 days) water stress during first 14 days but were significantly reduced after that time. These results suggest that protective enzymes were activated early to resist the damage caused by drought stress but that prolonged stress caused accumulation of reactive oxygen species that exceeded the capacity of the antioxidant system, resulting in cellular damage. Water stress also reduced plant growth (lower plant height, basal diameter and crown area) and yield (smaller roots, stems, leaves, and total biomass). Moreover, water stress led to yellowing, wilting, and senescence of leaves and suppressed growth of main roots. We found that the drought treatment lasting 21 days is the moisture threshold of G. uralensis, and that longer droughts in the Hexi Corridor can cause G. uralensis to wither and die. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important aspect in groundwater remediation is to understand changes of multiphase fluid front morphology and stagnant regions on macro scale. However, the prediction of those changes during two-phase flow remains a challenging task due to the interplay of various physical factors. Recent laboratory experiments have demonstrated tracers' ability to predict deformation in the front of a two-phase flow system by utilizing a new reactive tracer known as, the kinetic interface sensitive tracer (KIS). This research employs a reactive transport model coupled with a macro-scale two-phase flow model to numerically analyse how viscosity ratio, capillary number, and heterogeneities on the tracer's signal and its impact the frontal deformation. One homogeneous and two heterogeneous types of porous media are considered. The background porous medium is a fine-grained, low-permeability medium, with a coarser, high-permeability lenses, generating heterogeneous material properties. The high-permeability lenses account for 25 % of the total model area and are arranged in either periodic or random patterns. The findings are evaluated using four parameters (effective front length, swept area, front roughness, and transition zone length). The flow patterns dominating the shape of the front are characterized by the viscous and capillary forces i.e. capillary number and the viscosity ratio between the two fluids. The results show that changes in flow regimes can be quantified using effective front length, thus employing the effective front length the viscous fingering regions can be quantified. Furthermore, front roughness and transition zone length are extracted and their relevance to the by-passed zones is presented. The slope of the reactive KIS tracer breakthrough curve, plotted on a phase diagram, can also be used to predict the existence of the by-passed zones for a low viscosity ratio. Finally, changes in front roughness and transition zone length induced by the inclusions are correlated to the slope of the KIS tracer BTC. The findings of this study can contribute to a better understanding of the impact of different flow regimes on the KIS tracer breakthrough signals and the linkages between the tracer signals and the front sizes. • Linear relationships between the slope of the tracer breakthrough curve and the front length are found. • The linkage between the bypass regions and the KIS tracer's breakthrough curve is elaborated. • Effects of heterogeneity on the front morphology are more significant at higher capillary numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the effects of Huaier polysaccharide (HP) in doxorubicin-induced myocardial injury in mice. The content of HP in Trametes robiniophila Murr medicinal fungus determined by the phenol-sulfuric acid method was 85.25%. In the in vitro model, the viability of H9c2 cells was significantly increased after HP treatment compared to the control, while doxorubicin (DOX) decreased this parameter. The inhibitory effect of DOX on cell viability was attenuated after HP treatment. In the in vivo model, the body weight of mice in DOX and DOX+HP groups was significantly decreased compared to the control group. ECG showed significantly elevated ST segment in the DOX group, while in the DOX+HP group, ECG was close to normal. The levels of cardiotoxicity markers cTnI and lactate dehydrogenase in the DOX+HP group were significantly lower than in the DOX group. In the DOX group, the myocardial tissue had obvious structural disorder and interfibrillar vacuoles. In the DOX+HP group, the cardiomyocytes were neatly arranged without interfibrillar vacuoles. The expression of the ferroptosis marker glutathione peroxidase 4 was increased in the DOX+HP group compared to the DOX group. Thus, our study reveals that HP attenuated DOX-induced myocardial injury in mice probably by regulating ferroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we mainly investigate relationship between fractal dimension of continuous functions and orders of Weyl fractional integrals. If a continuous function defined on a closed interval is of bounded variation, its Weyl fractional integral must still be a continuous function with bounded variation. Thus, both its Weyl fractional integral and itself have Box dimension one. If a continuous function satisfies Hölder condition, we give estimation of fractal dimension of its Weyl fractional integral. If a Hölder continuous function is equal to 0 on ℝ / [ a , b ] , a better estimation of fractal dimension can be obtained. When a function is continuous on ℝ and its Weyl fractional integral is well defined, a general estimation of upper Box dimension of Weyl fractional integral of the function has been given which is strictly less than two. In the end, it has been proved that upper Box dimension of Weyl fractional integrals of continuous functions is no more than upper Box dimension of original functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we mainly investigate relationship between fractal dimension of continuous functions and orders of Weyl fractional integrals. If a continuous function defined on a closed interval is of bounded variation, its Weyl fractional integral must still be a continuous function with bounded variation. Thus, both its Weyl fractional integral and itself have Box dimension one. If a continuous function satisfies Hölder condition, we give estimation of fractal dimension of its Weyl fractional integral. If a Hölder continuous function is equal to 0 on ℝ/[a,b], a better estimation of fractal dimension can be obtained. When a function is continuous on ℝ and its Weyl fractional integral is well defined, a general estimation of upper Box dimension of Weyl fractional integral of the function has been given which is strictly less than two. In the end, it has been proved that upper Box dimension of Weyl fractional integrals of continuous functions is no more than upper Box dimension of original functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The IFA production rate increases with decreasing grain size. • The IFA production rate for fingering is larger than that for stable displacement. • The disconnected IFA depends on the average volume of the clusters. • For stable displacement, the connected IFA is larger for larger grain sizes. • For fingering, the connected IFA is smaller for larger grain sizes. This study investigates the capillary-associated interfacial area during primary drainage in unconsolidated porous media for different mean grain diameters, employing pore-scale numerical simulation with the phase-field method. Five, two-dimensional porous media are generated with the same grain/pore size uniformity, but different mean grain diameters, ranging between 0.24 mm and 0.94 mm. Three cases are considered, representing stable displacement, crossover zone and viscous-fingering regimes. The findings reveal that the capillary-associated interfacial production rate increases with decreasing grain size. Specifically, the capillary-associated interfacial production rate is higher for the viscous-fingering regime compared to the stable displacement. The maximum capillary-associated interfacial area obtained for different grain sizes agrees with the correlation established in our previous study using the kinetic interface-sensitive tracer. Furthermore, the capillary-associated interfacial area is divided into two parts: one related to the disconnected water clusters and the other related to the connected water. The disconnected capillary-associated interfacial area correlates with the average volume of the clusters, following an exponential function. Furthermore, the average volume of the clusters depends on both, the grain size and displacement regime. Moreover, it is found that the displacement regime has a great impact on the connected capillary-associated interfacial area. For stable displacement, the connected capillary-associated interfacial area is larger for larger mean grain diameter. In contrast, for fingering, the connected capillary-associated interfacial area is smaller for increasing mean grain diameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before a car-following model can be applied in practice, it must first be validated against real data in a process known as calibration. This paper discusses the formulation of calibration as an optimization problem and compares different algorithms for its solution. The optimization consists of an arbitrary car following model, posed as either an ordinary or delay differential equation, being calibrated to an arbitrary source of trajectory data that may include lane changes. Typically, the calibration problem is solved using gradient free optimization. In this work, the gradient of the optimization problem is derived analytically using the adjoint method. The computational cost of the adjoint method does not scale with the number of model parameters, which makes it more efficient than evaluating the gradient numerically using finite differences. Numerical results are presented that show that quasi-Newton algorithms using the adjoint method are significantly faster than a genetic algorithm and also achieve slightly better accuracy of the calibrated model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the rough differential equation dY = f(Y)dω, where ω = (ω, ω) is a rough path defined by a Brownian motion ω on ℝm. Under the usual regularity assumption on f, namely, f ∈ Cb³ (ℝd, ℝdxm), the rough differential equation has a unique solution that defines a random dynamical system φ0. On the other hand, we also consider an ordinary random differential equation dYδ = f(Yδ)dωδ, where ωδ is a random process with stationary increments and continuously differentiable paths that approximates ω. The latter differential equation generates a random dynamical system φδ as well. We show the convergence of the random dynamical system φδ to φ0 for φ → 0 in Hölder norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The kinesin superfamily of proteins (KIFs) are microtubule motor proteins that use the hydrolysis of ATP to power directional movement along microtubules. KIFs induce microtubule depolymerization to regulate the length and dynamics of microtubules in a variety of cell processes and structures, including the mitotic and meiotic spindles and centriole and interphase microtubules. KIF plays a significant role in the transport of organelles, protein complexes and mRNAs. The brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens) is a major insect pest in rice paddy fields. Ovarian development is regulated by multiple factors, including endocrine factors. The role of KIFs in brown planthopper ovarian development remains unknown. We found that downregulation of KIF2A significantly compromised the development and eclosion of the brown planthopper, delayed ovarian cell cycle progression, disrupted ovarian development, reduced the expression of MCM genes required for DNA replication and significantly reduced the number of nuclei in the follicles. We also found a significant reduction in Vg mRNA and protein levels. We conclude that downregulation of KIF2A disrupts the cell cycle progression of cells. Alternatively, the ovarian phenotype could be an indirect effect of a compromised trophic cord. In summary, KIF2A regulates ovarian development via modulating cell cycle progression and/or vitollogenin transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments were conducted to develop and assess a method by which the water content of a lettuce canopy can be nondestructively detected and estimated using a combination of spectra, RGB images, and canopy temperature. To this end, 130 lettuce samples grown in four different substrate water content levels were collected for data acquisition. In the spectroscopy procedure, five spectral intervals (380 variables) were selected by backward interval partial least squares and were further reduced to 48 wavelength variables, chosen using a genetic algorithm based on Savitzky–Golay smoothing and log (1/R) transformation. Then, 967, 1170, 1221, 1406, 1484, 1942, and 1985 nm optimum spectral variables were selected by the successive projection algorithm. Thirteen plant features were extracted from top- and front-view RGB images. These features comprised morphological, color, and textural features. An empirical crop water stress index was established based on dry and wet reference surfaces via thermal imagery. Subsequently, a principal component analysis was applied to the spectral variables and the image features, and an extreme learning machine was used to construct the multisensor and single-sensor models. The results show that the multisensor model had a correlation coefficient of prediction of 0.9018, which was found to be approximately 9.4 and 15.7% better than that of the spectral and image models. This work demonstrates that integrating spectra, RGB images, and canopy temperature with suitable algorithms offers a high potential for use in the nondestructive measurement of water content in lettuce, considerably improving accuracy over that using a single-sensor modality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional analytical method has difficulty in accurately modelling cutting chatter. This paper constructs the vibration datasets of different chatter states and establishes a machine learning (ML) model for chatter identification, treating physical vibration signal as the input. Specifically, the cutting vibration signal was converted into the time-frequency spectrum, which was then classified by a selfdesigned deep residual convolutional neural network (DR-CNN). After that, the cutting vibration signal was broken down into chatter bands through variational mode decomposition (VMD). The information entropies of the chatter bands were calculated as cutting chatter features. Next, support vector machine (SVM) was introduced to classify the extracted features and used to create an online cutting chatter identification algorithm. The proposed method achieved a much higher mean identification accuracy (92.57%) than the traditional identification method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to clarify the role of mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX) pathway upregulation in photoprotection under chilling stress in Rumex K-1 leaves. Malate--oxaloacetate shuttle's activity and AOX pathway's capacity were synchronously enhanced with light intensity increase both in control and chilling-treated leaves. Besides, the AOX pathway was upregulated more significantly when irradiated by light in chilling-treated leaves than that of control. These results suggested that excess reducing equivalents generated by photosynthesis were exported from chloroplasts and oxidized by the AOX pathway at a potentially higher rate in chilling-treated leaves than in control, which avoided the overaccumulation of excess reducing equivalents under light conditions. Also, inhibition of the AOX pathway led to more severe accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in chilling-treated leaves than that in control. Therefore, the mitochondrial AOX pathway was specifically upregulated and employed for sinking excess reducing equivalents produced by photosynthesis, which protected photosynthetic apparatus from photodamage under chilling stress in Rumex K-1 leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five fast radio bursts (FRBs), including three apparently non-repeating ones, FRB 180924, FRB 181112, and FRB 190523, and two repeaters, FRB 121102 and FRB 180916.J0158+65, have already been localized so far. We apply a method developed recently by us to these five localized FRBs to give a cosmology-insensitive estimate of the fraction of baryon mass in the intergalactic medium, f IGM. Using the measured dispersion measure (DM) and luminosity distance d L data (inferred from the FRB redshifts and d L of Type Ia supernovae at the same redshifts) of the five FRBs, we constrain the local |$f_{\rm IGM} = 0.84^{+0.16}_{-0.22}$| with no evidence of redshift dependence. This cosmology-insensitive estimate of f IGM from FRB observations is in excellent agreement with previous constraints using other probes. Moreover, using the three apparently non-repeating FRBs only we get a little looser but consistent result: |$f_{\rm IGM} = 0.74^{+0.24}_{-0.18}$|⁠. In these two cases, reasonable estimations for the host galaxy DM contribution (DMhost) can be achieved by modelling it as a function of star formation rate. The constraints on both f IGM and DMhost are expected to be significantly improved with the rapid progress in localizing FRBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nickel-based single crystal turbine blades produce random crystal orientation deviations during casting, which affect its resonance characteristics. The influence of random orientation deviations on the blade dynamic frequency was studied based on the Euler angle rotation, and the influence rule was revealed using a three-dimensional diagram. The Campbell diagram was used to analyze the influence of random orientation deviations on the blade resonance characteristics. The results provide distribution diagrams of the blade resonance margin and the crystal orientation range corresponding to the unsatisfied safe margin. The effect of orientation deviations on the blade resonance margin is so serious that it must be considered during blade vibration design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A dynamic switching model between flexible-route and fixed-route modes is proposed. • We apply a policy on pre-positioning of idle vehicles based on queuing system. • The design of a fleet-based strategy by using two vehicle sizes is suggested. • The method can be used in shared autonomous vehicle fleets for the timing of decisions. A novel approach to dynamic switching service design based on a new queuing approximation formulation is introduced to systematically control conventional buses and enable provision of flexible on-demand mobility services. This new approach guides smart vehicles in a service area that needs last mile transit services via either traditional buses, which provide fixed-route services, or flexible-route on-demand mobility services. We also include dynamic pre-positioning of idle vehicles in anticipation of new customer arrivals, and relocation of vehicles to rebalance the use of vehicles in the system, which can have a sizable effect on energy and environmental conservation. Using a New York City transit dataset, the proposed strategy for non-myopic switching between flexible-route and fixed-route service and re-positioning of idle vehicles improves social welfare by up to 32%, while the impact of the proposed strategy on vehicle miles traveled is shown to be as high as 53% over that of the current transit service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hot electron bolometer (HEB) with Johnson noise readout is an attractive technique for radiation detection due to its high sensitivity, wide operating temperature range, and large dynamic range. In this paper, we present the development of a terahertz HEB based on Johnson noise readout. The HEB consists of a titanium microbridge connected to two high-energy-gap niobium contacts for confining hot electrons. We measured the thermal conductance and noise equivalent power (NEP) of the HEB at different bath temperatures. We find that the thermal conductance due to the electron–phonon interaction increases with temperature as T2.5. At 3.0 K, the thermal conductance is found to be 37.9 ± 1.4 nW/K and the electrical NEP is as low as 23.0 ± 0.8 pW/ Hz . In addition, we find that the HEB works efficiently up to 15 μW input power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forecasting of forest fire area is of great significance to effectively control the spread of forest fire. In this paper, the forest fire spreading velocity model and the forest fire spreading simulation technology based on huygens principle are used to estimate the forest fire area. Firstly, binocular camera is used to collect the firing state data of wild forest fire, and segment the firing image, extract the firing line, locate the firing line and calculate the three-dimensional coordinates of the firing line pixels according to perspective projection model. Secondly, the forest fire spreading velocity model based on Wang Zhengfei's model is redesigned. The model parameters of forest fire area were optimized by gradient method. The prediction accuracy is much higher than that of the model before optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fully leaky guided optical modes are used to explore the director profile in a twisted nematic liquid crystal cell built using a pair of high-index glass plates. This allows access to the pseudocritical angles corresponding to the liquid-crystal indices. Optical data is recorded over a range of angles of incidence with the cell subject to ac voltages. At higher-applied fields, the director in the cell center aligns almost homeotropically. Then the two surface regions become elastically decoupled, the directors at the surfaces realigning along the original alignment axes. Beyond the pseudo-critical angle corresponding to the low index of the liquid-crystal two minima of the polarization conserving transmission signal, for transverse electric polarization, T[sub ss] (over a particular range of incidence angles) are found as the cell rotation angle is changed. These two minima give the original alignment directions of the director, the easy axes, at the two substrates, information vital to the measurement of the torsional anchoring energies at the interfaces of the cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined the optics of reflective bistable twisted nematic (BTN) liquid crystal display for general values of twist angle and polarizer angle. Parameter space for reflective BTN; Brightness and efficiency of reflective BTN modes; Reflectance spectra; Conclusions.

Presents information on a study of pure indium arsenic (InAs) epitaxial layers of high quantum efficiency which have been grown by liquid phase epitaxy using gadolinium gettering of the growth solution. Experimental procedures; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

Water stress is the major environmental stress that affect agricultural production worldwide, especially in arid and semi-arid regions. This research investigated the effect of water stress on common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.) grown in the West Lake Wetland of Zhangye City, China. We designed with four water treatments (100, 95, 85 and 75% of water field capacity, i.e. CK (100%), mild (95%), moderate (85%) and severe (75%) water deficit regimes). The effect of water stress on photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters was investigated. There was a midday depression in net photosynthetic rate (Pn) for CK, mild and moderate drought, but not for severe drought. Stomatal limitation was dominant for mild treatment. But under severe drought stomatal limitation to photosynthesis was dominating in the morning and nonstomatal limitation was dominating in the afternoon. Compared with CK treatment, Pn, stomatal conductance (gs), intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci), transpiration rate (E) and water use efficiency (WUE) were always lower at drought stress. This result suggests that water stress caused the photosynthesis of common reed to be completely blocked and the common reed was a drought-sensitive plant. We found 75% is the moisture threshold for common reed. The decrease in Fm, Fv, Fv/Fm and increase F0 suggested that Rubisco activity reduced and PSII partially inactivated during the day under drought. However, part of this inactivation of PSII might be alleviated under mild or moderate drought, but severe drought cannot. Drought stress also affected the photosynthesis Pn-PAR response curve. Drought stress increased LCP, RD and decreased LSP, Pmax and AQY. This indicates that when common reed suffers from drought, the utilization range of light intensity become narrowed and photosynthetic ability or adaptability to light reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The gut microbiota has a great effect on the health and nutrition of the host. Manipulation of the intestinal microbiota may improve animal health and growth performance. The objectives of our study were to characterize the faecal microbiota between wild and captive Tibetan wild asses and discuss the differences and their reasons. Methods and Results: Through high‐throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA V4‐V5 region, we studied the gut microbiota composition and structure of Tibetan wild asses in winter, and analysed the differences between wild and captive groups. The results showed that the most common bacterial phylum in Tibetan wild ass faeces samples was Bacteroidetes, while the phylum Firmicutes was dominant in captive Tibetan wild ass faecal samples. The relative abundance of Firmicutes, Tenericutes and Spirochaetes were significantly higher (P < 0·01) than in the wild groups. Conclusions: Captivity reduces intestinal microbial diversity, evenness and operational taxonomic unit number due to the consumption of industrial food, therefore, increasing the risk of disease prevalence and affecting the health of wildlife. Significance and Impact of the Study: We studied the effect of the captive environment on intestinal micro‐organisms. This article provides a theoretical basis for the ex‐situ conservation of wild animals in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of practical importance to ensure the data quality from a milk-recording system before use for genetic evaluation. A procedure was developed for detection of multivariate outliers based on an approximation for Mahalanobis distance and was implemented in the Nordic Holstein and Red population. The general target of this procedure is based on the Nordic Cattle Genetic Evaluation yield model, which is a 9-trait model for milk, protein, and fat in the first 3 lactations. The procedure is based on the phenotypic correlation structure as a function of days in milk (DIM) and on computation of trait means and standard deviations within a production year, lactation, and DIM. For each record in the data, a Mahalanobis distance value was computed based on the trait mean and the covariance matrix for the actual production year, lactation, and DIM. A set of cutoff values, ranging from 10 to 100 with steps of 10, for discarding multivariate outliers was investigated. Prediction accuracy was calculated as the Pearson correlations between estimated breeding values predicted by full data set and estimated breeding values predicted by reduced data set for cows without records in the reduced data set and with 1 or more records deleted due to the editing rules on Mahalanobis distance. The results showed that, averaged over all scenarios, gains of 0.005 to 0.048 on prediction accuracy have been obtained by deleting the multivariate outliers. The improvements were more profound for progeny of young bulls compared with progeny of proven bulls. It is easy to implement this multivariate outlier-detection procedure in the routine genetic evaluation for different dairy cattle breeds; however, an optimal cutoff value for Mahalanobis distance needs to be defined to achieve an acceptable compromise between genetic evaluation accuracy and data deletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-step genomic prediction models utilizing both genotyped and nongenotyped animals are likely to become the prevailing tool in genetic evaluations of livestock. Various single-step prediction models have been proposed, based either on estimation of individual marker effects or on direct prediction via a genomic relationship matrix. In this study, a classical pedigree-based animal model, a regular single-step genomic BLUP (ssGBLUP) model, algorithm for proven and young (APY) with 2 strategies for choosing core animals, and a single-step Bayesian regression (ssBR) model were compared for 305-d production traits (milk, fat, protein) in the Finnish red dairy cattle population. A residual polygenic effect with 10% of total genetic variance was included in the single-step models to reduce inflation of genomic predictions. Validation reliability was calculated as the squared Pearson correlation coefficient between genomically enhanced breeding value (GEBV) and yield deviation for masked records for 2,056 validation cows from the last year in the data set investigated. The results showed that gains of 0.02 to 0.04 on validation reliability were achieved by using single-step methods compared with the classical animal model. The regular ssGBLUP model and ssBR model with an extra polygenic effect yielded the same results. The APY methods yielded similar reliabilities as the regular ssGBLUP and ssBR. Exact prediction error variance of GEBV could be obtained by ssBR to avoid any approximation methods used for ssGBLUP when inversion left-hand side of mixed model equations is computationally infeasible for large data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the development of a graphene-based hot electron bolometer with Johnson noise readout. The bolometer is a graphene microbridge connected to a log spiral antenna by Au contact pads. The Fourier transform spectrometer measurement shows the bolometer has high coupling efficiency in the frequency range from 0.3 to 1.6 THz. Using 300/77 K blackbody loads, we measure an optical noise equivalent power of 5.6 × 10−12 W/Hz0.5 at 3.0 K. To understand the thermal transport inside the graphene microbridge, we measure the bolometers with different microbridge lengths at different bath temperatures. We find that the thermal conductance due to electron diffusion is significant in the bolometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The poly(L-arginine)-graphene modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was fabricated and the electrochemical behavior of carmine and amaranth on this electrode was studied by cyclic voltammetric method. Compared with poly(L-arginine)/GCE and GCE, the poly(L-arginine)-graphene modified GCE improved the sensitivity for the determination of carmine and amaranth. The experimental results indicated that the oxidation peaks of carmine and amaranth were separated at 121 mV in phosphate buffer solution at pH 2.5. The linear range for the simultaneous determination of carmine and amaranth were 7.5 × 10-7-7.5 × 10-5 M. The detection limits were 7 × 10-8 M for carmine and 2.5 × 10-7 M for amaranth. The method has been applied to the simultaneous determination of carmine and amaranth in drinks with satisfactory results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a competitive on-demand mobility model using a multi-server queue system under infinite-horizon look-ahead. The proposed approach includes a novel dynamic optimization algorithm which employs a Markov decision process (MDP) and provides opportunities to revolutionize conventional transit services that are plagued by high cost, low ridership, and general inefficiency, particularly in disadvantaged communities and low-income areas. We use this model to study the implications it has for such services and investigate whether it has a distinct cost advantage and operational improvement. We develop a dynamic pricing scheme that utilizes a balking rule that incorporates socially efficient level and the revenue-maximizing price, and an equilibrium-joining threshold obtained by imposing a toll on the customers who join the system. Results of numerical simulations based on actual New York City taxicab data indicate that a competitive on-demand mobility system supported by the proposed model increases the social welfare by up to 37% on average compared to the single-server queuing system. The study offers a novel design scheme and supporting tools for more effective budget/resource allocation, planning, and operation management of flexible transit systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a hybrid model predictive control (MPC) based dynamic tolling strategy for high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes with multiple accesses. This approach preplans and coordinates the prices for different OD pairs and enables adaptive utilization of HOT lanes by considering available demand information and boundary conditions. It also addresses such practical issues as prevention of recurrent congestion in HOT lanes, ensuring no higher toll for a closer toll exit and fairness among different OD groups at each toll entry, as well as the fact that high occupancy vehicles (HOVs) have free access to the HOT lanes. Taking the inflows at each toll entry as the control, traffic densities and vehicle queue length as observed system states, and boundary traffic as predicted exogenous input, we formulate a discrete-time piecewise affine traffic model. Optimal tolls are then derived from a one-to-one mapping based on the optimal toll entry flows. By properly formulating the constraints, we show that the MPC problem at each stage is a mixed-integer linear program and admits an explicit control law derived by multi-parametric programing techniques. A numerical experiment is presented for a representative freeway segment to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results show that our control model can react to demand and boundary condition changes by adjusting and coordinating tolls smoothly at adjacent toll entries and drive the system to a new equilibrium that minimizes the total person delay. Under the optimal prediction horizon, the on-line computational cost of the proposed control model is only about 4% and 8% of the modeling cycle of 30 s, respectively, for two typical traffic scenarios, which implies a potential of real-time implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The main aim of this study was to investigate the ovarian reserve, menstruation, and lymphocyte subpopulation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients of childbearing age. Methods We enrolled 40 SLE patients of childbearing age and 40 age-matched healthy controls. Anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) was tested by electrochemiluminescence, and lymphocyte subsets were tested by flow cytometry. Menstruation situation was obtained by interview. Results The AMH level of the SLE group was significantly lower than that of the control group (p < 0.001), which was negatively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR (r = −0.316, p = 0.047)) and disease activity (SLEDAI (r = −0.338, p = 0.033)). The AMH concentration of SLE patients with normal menstruation was higher than those with abnormal menstruation (p < 0.001). The percentages of CD4+ T lymphocytes and NK (natural killer) cells in the SLE group were significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.001). However, the percentages of B cells and CD8+ T lymphocytes in the SLE group were higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion Decreased AMH and high incidence of abnormal menstruation indicated that autoimmunity activities of SLE can impair the ovarian reserve of female patients. Lymphocytes in SLE patients were in a state of disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new framework for the design of a dynamic non-myopic inventory and delivery network between suppliers and retailers under the assumption of elastic demand—one that simultaneously incorporates inventory, routing, and pricing—is proposed. The developed queuing approximation method is based on optimal tolling of queues. We propose a dynamic approach for a supplier who has to deliver products to a number of retailers while maximizing social welfare through dynamic pricing that accounts for customer waiting times, inventory holding, lost-sales costs, and delivery costs. The proposed non-myopic model increases the social welfare by up to 17% compared to the marginal pricing case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine a model of a perfect competitive homogeneous good market with a network structure. Such a structure is typically important for energy resources: natural gas, oil and electricity. Local markets are connected by transmission lines with limited capacities and given cost functions for capacity increments. We consider the total welfare optimization problem and provide a method that determines optimal investments in the transmission system expansion for some types of the networks. In particular, we study the case where the market is divided into two submarkets with binding transmission line flow constraints between the submarkets. We obtain efficient algorithms for determination of the transmission systems optimal expansion. We conclude with the impact of the results and the outlook to future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis E ( HE) is a zoonotic viral disease caused by hepatitis E virus ( HEV). The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HEV infection among dogs and humans exposed to dogs in the south-west region of China. A total of 4,490 dog serum samples and 2,206 relative practitioner serum samples were collected from 18 pet hospitals and dog farms in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou province, and the anti- HEV IgG antibodies were detected by ELISA. The results showed that the total positive rate of anti- HEV antibodies was 36.55% with the highest rate in city stray dogs, and the differences in distinct species and growth phases were significant. The positive rate of anti- HEV antibody in veterinarian and farm staff-related practitioners was significantly higher than the general population. The finding of the present survey suggested that high HEV seroprevalence in dogs and humans exposed to dogs in the south-west area of China poses a significant public health concern. It is urgent to improve integrated strategies to detect, prevent and control HEV infection in dogs and humans exposed to dogs in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel method to measure the specific capillary-associated interfacial area (a wn) between non-wetting and wetting fluids by applying kinetic interface-sensitive (KIS) tracers under steady-state two-phase co-flow conditions. Seven column experiments were conducted with a column filled with glass beads (diameter d 50 = 170 μm), serving as the solid grain network of a porous granular material. The experiments were performed for two flow scenarios, i.e., five experiments were performed for drainage conditions (increasing non-wetting saturation) and two experiments for imbibition conditions (increasing wetting saturation). To obtain different saturation levels in the column and, consequently, different capillarity-induced interfacial areas between the fluids, the experiments were performed for different fractional flow ratios (i.e., the ratio between injection rate of the wetting phase and total injection rate). The concentrations of the KIS tracer reaction by-product were recorded at each saturation level and the corresponding interfacial area was calculated. As a result of the fractional flow condition a wide range of wetting phase saturation is created (0.3 < S w < 0.8). The measured a wn increases with decreasing wetting phase saturation for the range 0.55 < S w < 0.8, and then is followed by a drop in wetting phase saturation of 0.3 < S w < 0.55. A good fit for our calculated a wn is obtained (RMSE <0.16) using a polynomial model. Additionally, the results of the proposed method are compared to published experimental data and the method's main advantages and limitations are discussed. • A new method to assess the fluid-fluid interfacial area is employed by using the Kinetic Interface-Sensitive (KIS) tracer. • The measured interfacial area with the KIS tracer is consistent with data from studies using X-ray CMT. • The obtained a wn – S w relation matches a previous polynomial model, with a highest value at S w = 0.55. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability of SBRT/SRS is often hindered by dose-limiting toxicities to organs at risk (OAR). This work investigates the clinical potential of FLASH-RT for improving high-dose sparing of OAR, to enable SBRT/SRS that could otherwise fail to meet dose constraints with CONV-RT. CONV-RT (via Bragg peaks (BP)) and FLASH-RT (via transmission beams (TB)) are compared with pencil beam scanning proton therapy, i.e., CONV-RT planned with IMPT-BP, and FLASH-RT planned respectively with IMPT and SDDRO of TB. While IMPT only optimizes the dose distribution, SDDRO also optimizes the FLASH effect, i.e., to maximize the normal tissue volume receiving dose rate and dose thresholds pertinent to the FLASH effect, which was set to be 40Gy/s and 8Gy. The plan evaluation is based on the effective dose, i.e., the product of the physical dose and FLASH dose modifying factor, which was set to be 0.7 when normal tissues meet both dose rate and dose thresholds. CONV-RT (i.e., IMPT-BP) was compared with FLASH-RT (planned with IMPT and SDDRO respectively) for three clinical SBRT/SRS cases of lung, prostate, and brain. For fair comparison, all plans had the same clinical objectives and were after the same normalization of D95%=100% for PTV. The effective dose results are summarized in the table. (1) The CI values show that SDDRO had the best target dose conformality (note that 0.95 is optimal under D95%=100%). (2) The mean doses at PTV-10mm (10mm expansion of PTV) suggest that SDDRO had the fastest high-dose falloff for normal tissues adjacent to the target. (3) For the lung case, per RTOG 0618, the max dose constraint 27Gy for esophagus was only met by SDDRO (25Gy), not CONV-RT (35Gy) or IMPT (37Gy); the max dose constraint 30Gy for trachea and bronchus was substantially relaxed to 22Gy by SDDRO. (4) For the prostate case, SDDRO substantially decreased V32Gy to nearly 0cc. (5) For the brain case, compared to CONV-RT, SDDRO substantially decreased V12Gy from 44cc to 14cc; note that V12Gy≤15cc is required to reduce the likelihood of symptomatic radiation necrosis per HyTEC reports. Compared to CONV-RT (i.e., IMPT-BP), FLASH-RT via SDDRO improved high-dose sparing of OAR, which can potentially enable proton SBRT/SRS that could otherwise fail to meet dose constraints, e.g., the reduction of V12Gy from 44cc to 14cc to meet V12Gy≤15cc for this case to be eligible for brain SRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the variability in the North African dust transport routes over the Atlantic (NAD routes) by extracting the dust transport central axis using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aerosol data for 2001-2015. The results showed that the NAD routes can be classified into two regimes, a southern route centered at the southernmost position of 6.08 ± 1.12°N during November to March and a northern route centered at the northernmost position of 18.21 ± 1.04°N during April to October. In the southern route, large intervariation was correlated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), but the ITCZ and NAO jointly explained only 38% of the variation. In the northern route, the ITCZ alone explained 67% of the intervariation. The extracted trends during 2001-2015 exhibited a northward shift of 1.68° for the southern route and of 0.52° for the northern route. The causes for the shift were also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) is introduced in recent studies to present the relationship between the flow and the density of the network in large urban regions (neighborhoods). The MFD can be also rescaled to approximate network outflow as a function of the vehicular accumulation of the system in the morning commute problem. In this research, we develop a bathtub model (macro-scale traffic congestion model) by combining Vickrey's (1969) model of dynamic congestion with the MFD to formulate the user equilibrium over the peak as an ordinary differential equation (ODE). This problem can be solved numerically to estimate the exact solution of the morning commute problem. Alternatively, the morning commute problem can be solved analytically by approximating the solution of the ODE using a well-behaved function. Here, we present a quadratic and also a linear approximation of the equilibrium solution for a semi-quadratic MFD, considering that the declining part of the MFD is shown to be well estimated by a quadratic function. To optimize the system, we present pricing strategies for network users (dynamic tolling) and employers inside the region (dynamic taxing) that can minimize the generalized cost of the system by keeping the outflow maximized over the peak. Finally, we compare the exact and the approximate solutions of the problem, and also the proposed pricing strategies of the region in a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

07g-3-00820 is a K-type contact binary system with a period of 0.2269551 days. This extremely short period makes this system a rare target whose period is close to the empirical limit (0.22 days). R c and I c light curves of this binary were obtained using the 1.0 m reflecting telescope at Weihai Observatory of Shandong University. A high mass ratio of q = 1.300 ± 0.006 and a low contact degree of f = 5 % ± 1.5 % were determined from a photometric study using the Wilson–Devinney method. The following parameters of this W-subtype shallow contact system were derived: M 1 = 0.621 ± 0.072 M ⊙ , M 2 = 0.807 ± 0.093 M ⊙ , R 1 = 0.634 ± 0.036 R ⊙ , R 2 = 0.710 ± 0.037 R ⊙ , L 1 = 0.270 ± 0.037 L ⊙ , and L 2 = 0.339 ± 0.048 L ⊙ . By analyzing the location of the two components on the mass-luminosity diagram, we provide a preliminary discussion on the properties and the state of evolution of this system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ratio of different AA in the diets of cows is vital to improve milk protein yield. β-Casein is one of the important milk proteins with high nutritive value. However, the suitable ratio of essential amino acids (EAA) for the expression of β-casein in the immortalized bovine mammary epithelial cell line is not fully characterized. This study employed response surface methodology to determine the optimal ratio of His, Lys, Met, and Leu on β-casein expression level in vitro and clarified the effect of the 4 EAA on β-casein via the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. A central composite design containing 5 axial points per EAA and 28 combinations of the 4 EAA was used in our study. The results of response surface methodology and the changes of the mTOR-related signaling proteins were determined by western blot. The results showed that β-casein level was significantly affected by all 4 EAA (R2 = 0.71). The optimum conditions for β-casein expression are found to be 5.47 mM of His, 7.48 mM of Lys, 1.17 mM of Met, and 8.21 mM of Leu (His:Lys:Met:Leu = 5:6:1:7) in the designed scope of concentration. The interaction of Leu and Met significantly affected β-casein expression (P < 0.01). The phosphorylation of mTOR (Ser2481), regulatory associated protein of target of rapamycin (Ser792), ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1 (Thr389), ribosomal protein S6 (Ser235/236), and eukaryotic elongation factor 2 (Thr56) was increased with the supplementation of either single EAA or an optimal combination of EAA. However, the phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 4E binding protein 1 (Thr37) was decreased with the addition of Lys, Met, or Leu alone. Furthermore, the phosphorylation (P) of eIF2α (Ser51) was decreased when Met was supplemented alone. Under the optimal mixture of 4 EAA, the phosphorylation of mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 signaling proteins was significantly greater than the single EAA supplementations and the expression of β-casein was 98% as high as the positive control (i.e., medium with all AA). A similar trend was found with P-ribosomal protein S6 kinase 1 and P-ribosomal protein S6. In conclusion, the extracellular concentrations of His, Lys, Met, and Leu at a ratio of 5:6:1:7 maximized β-casein expression in the immortalized bovine mammary epithelial cell line may occur via activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, it aims to propose effective approaches for hydro-forming process of bi-metallic composite pipe by assuming plane strain and elastic-perfectly plastic material model. It derives expressions for predicting hydro-forming pressure and residual stress of the forming process of bi-metallic composite pipe. Test data from available experiments is employed to check the model and formulas. It shows the reliability of the proposed model and formulas impersonally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel optical property of a conventional two-dimensional dielectric photonic crystal (PC) has been reported by establishing a Dirac cone at the Г point of its band structure: it manipulates waves as if it had zero refractive indices at the Dirac point frequency (Huang et al. in Nature Mater 10:582-586, 2011). However, this PC is not a real homogeneous material. What is the difference between it and a real zero-index material (ZIM) is a fundamental issue of physics itself and also crucial to their applications. In this paper, through investigating the dispersion relations and the transmission properties of this kind of PC, we found that under normal incidence, at the frequency of the Dirac point, this PC does behave like a ZIM material. However, under oblique incidence, nonzero transmittances are obtained even at large incident angles, which is quite different from the real ZIM. The physical reason of the transmission properties was also investigated. It was found that near the Г point, there is an additional flat dispersion surface which intersects with the Dirac cone at the Dirac point. It is this flat dispersion surface which supports the Dirac point energy to exist in this PC, resulting in the nonzero transmission under oblique incidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]