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Thermal homeostasis is an essential physiological function for preserving the optimal state of complex organs within the human body. Inspired by this function, here, we introduce an autonomous thermal homeostatic hydrogel that includes infrared wave reflecting and absorbing materials for improved heat trapping at low temperatures, and a porous structure for enhanced evaporative cooling at high temperatures. Moreover, an optimized auxetic pattern was designed as a heat valve to further amplify heat release at high temperatures. This homeostatic hydrogel provides effective bidirectional thermoregulation with deviations of 5.04 °C ± 0.55 °C and 5.85 °C ± 0.46 °C from the normal body temperature of 36.5 °C, when the external temperatures are 5 °C and 50 °C, respectively. The autonomous thermoregulatory characteristics of our hydrogel may provide a simple solution to people suffering from autonomic nervous system disorders and soft robotics that are susceptible to sudden temperature fluctuations.

BK002 consists of Achyranthes japonica Nakai (AJN) and Melandrium firmum Rohrbach (MFR) that have been used as herbal medicines in China and Korea. AJN and MFR have been reported to have anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and anti-cancer activities, although the synergistic targeting multiple anti-cancer mechanism in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) has not been well reported. However, the drug resistance and transition to the androgen-independent state of prostate cancer contributing to CRPC is not well studied. Here, we reported that BK002 exerted cytotoxicity and apoptosis in CRPC PC3 cell lines and prostate cancer DU145 cell lines examined by cytotoxicity, western blot, a LIVE/DEAD cell imaging assay, reactive oxygen species (ROS) detection, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and transfection assays. The results from our investigation found that BK002 showed more cellular cytotoxicity than AJN and MFR alone, suggesting that BK002 exhibited potential cytotoxic properties. Consistently, BK002 increased DNA damage, and activated p-γH2A.X and depletion of survivin-activated ubiquitination of pro-PARP, caspase9, and caspase3. Notably, live cell imaging using confocal microscopy found that BK002 effectively increased DNA-binding red fluorescent intensity in PC3 and DU145 cells. Also, BK002 increased the anti-proliferative effect with activation of the C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) and significantly attenuated PI3K/AKT expression. Notably, BK002-treated cells increased ROS generation and co-treatment of N-Acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), an ROS inhibitor, significantly preventing ROS production and cellular cytotoxicity, suggesting that ROS production is essential for initiating apoptosis in PC3 and DU145 cells. In addition, we found that BK002 significantly enhanced miR-192-5p expression, and co-treatment with BK002 and miR-192-5p inhibitor significantly reduced miR-192-5p expression and cellular viability in PC3 and DU145 cells, indicating modulation of miR-192-5p mediated apoptosis. Finally, we found that BK002-mediated CHOP upregulation and PI3K downregulation were significantly reduced and restrained by miR-192-5p inhibitor respectively, suggesting that the anti-cancer effect of BK002 is associated with the miR-192-5p/PI3K/CHOP pathway. Therefore, our study reveals that a combination of AJN and MFR might be more effective than single treatment against apoptotic activities of both CRPC cells and prostate cancer cells.

Semitransparent organic solar cells (ST-OSCs) are considered to be an influential tool for aesthetic and economic building-integrated photovoltaics, which can be fabricated by the printing technology. A poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and ionic liquid (IL) composite has been considered as an electrode for ST-OSCs because of its high electrical conductivity, high transparency, and printability. However, we found that the introduction of IL into the PEDOT:PSS solution for enhancing its electrical conductivity results in (1) nonreliable printing of PEDOT:PSS/IL composite films because of gradual gelation of the mixture solution and (2) the production of chemically reactive ion pairs during ion exchange between PSS and IL, which induces the oxidation of the underlying organic semiconductors during printing. To solve these problems, we developed a sequential printing method using pristine PEDOT:PSS and IL solutions to retard ion exchange, thus preventing chemical doping of organic semiconductors by newly generated ion pairs. Finally, by using only solution processes, we demonstrate efficient ST-OSCs with a printed PEDOT:PSS/IL composite as the top electrode, exhibiting a power conversion efficiency of 6.32% at an average visible transmittance of 35.4%.

Iminosemiquinone-linker-based conductive metal-organic frameworks (c-MOFs) have attracted much attention as next-generation electronic materials due to their high electrical conductivity combined with high porosity. However, the utility of such c-MOFs in high-performance devices has been limited to date by the lack of high-quality MOF thin-film processing. Herein, a technique known as the microfluidic-assisted solution shearing combined with post-synthetic rapid crystallization (MASS-PRC) process is introduced to generate a high-quality, flexible, and transparent thin-film of Ni

BK002 consists of

Underwater cutting of 50 and 60 mm thick stainless steel plates with a 6-kW fiber laser was performed as a fundamental study for application to dismantling nuclear facilities. For this purpose, an underwater cutting head was developed by upgrading our previously developed in-air cutting head. A waterproof function was added while the optical design of the in-air cutting head was maintained. In the developed head, a single supersonic minimum length nozzle was applied without any complicated nozzle features because it was enough to make a local-dry-zone. With this head, cutting tests were performed for pierced and non-pierced specimens. The pierced specimen showed a slightly better cutting performance than the non-pierced specimen. However, the cuttings were adequate for both types of specimens with thicknesses of 50 and 60 mm. In the cutting results for the non-pierced specimens, the maximum cutting speeds were 80 mm/min for the 50 mm thickness and 40 mm/min for the 60 mm thickness. To the best of our knowledge, the results from this study show the best cutting performance in terms of speed and thickness for the same laser power among the reported results of underwater laser cutting. The kerf width was also measured for each cutting. As in ordinary laser cutting, the kerf widths were narrow. For the cutting at each maximum speed, the kerf widths for the 50 mm thickness were 1.6 mm for the front surface and 0.7 mm for the rear surface, and the kerf widths for the 60 mm thickness were 1.5 mm for the front surface and 1.2 mm for the rear surface. It is expected that the results of this study will contribute to the continued development of underwater cutting research for dismantling nuclear facilities.

We have generated high-power deep ultraviolet laser pulses from a Yb-doped rod-type fiber laser through sum-frequency generation (SFG) based on lithium triborate (LBO) crystals. The 1030 nm nanosecond laser pulses from the fiber laser are frequency-tripled to 343 nm pulses with two LBO crystals, and the residual 1030 nm fundamental laser pulses are mixed with the 343 nm pulses in an LBO crystal for the generation of 257 nm pulses. The maximum 257 nm radiation power is 12 W with a repetition rate of 500 kHz, and the conversion efficiency from 1030 nm to 257 nm is 12%. It is observed that the power of 257 nm radiation is limited by the temperature increase in the LBO crystal used for the SFG.

The cutting performance of thick steel plates and large size pipes with a 10 kW fiber laser was studied for the dismantling of nuclear facilities. First, thick steel plates of up to 100 mm were tried to be cut at a high speed. For the thickness of 100 mm, both stainless steel and carbon steel plates were cut at maximum cutting speeds of ∼30 mm/min. And narrow kerf widths of less than 5 mm were obtained for all cutting tests. Second, a 150-mm thick stainless steel plate near the cutting thickness limit was attempted to be cut. The specimen was able to be cut even with a low cutting speed of 3 mm/min. To the best of our knowledge, this thickness is the largest among the published reports with a laser power of 10 kW. And this corresponds to a cutting capability in which most thick structures in a nuclear reactor can be cut. In addition, large size stainless steel pipes were also attempted to be cut. For a 165 mm diameter pipe, it was possible to be cut at high speed by one scan at a speed of 50 mm/min and round trip scan at a speed of 100 mm/min. This result implies that high-speed cutting was also possible for most pipe-type components inside the nuclear reactor. As a result, our 10-kW laser cutting system showed very efficient cutting performance in terms of the cutting speed and thickness. Moreover, the cuttings showed narrow kerf widths of less than 5 mm even for very thick steel of up to 150 mm in thickness. In the future, it is expected that the results of this work will contribute to cutting thick metal structures as basic research data in the dismantling of nuclear facilities using a laser. In addition, it is also expected that this work will contribute to other industrial fields requiring a thick steel cutting technique.

We developed a high-power dual-wavelength green pulsed laser that generates 528-nm and 535-nm laser pulses which overlap completely in time and space. Two single-frequency seed lasers of 1056 nm and 1070 nm are combined and amplified to 140 W through a series of ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers including a rod-type fiber amplifier, and the amplified laser pulses of two wavelengths are frequency-doubled, respectively, by two consecutive lithium triborate crystals. The total green power is more than 80 W at a 400-kHz repetition rate, and the power ratio between the two green wavelengths can be adjusted.

Skin conductance is an important bio-signal and generally measured between two fingers using a commercial Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) sensor. In this study, an ultra-thin (6 μm thick) and highly flexible GSR (f-GSR) sensor was developed for application to wearable devices. The f- GSR sensor consists of a Ag-Au core-shell nanowire array embedded in polyimide matrix. Since the nanowire array is vertically aligned in the matrix, the f-GSR sensor has anisotropic electrical conductivity, i.e., electrically conducting in the thickness-direction and electrically insulating in the in-plane direction. Results show that after the nanowire tips contacted skin they did not degrade during repeated measurement for three months, indicating the mechanical and chemical stability of the f-GSR sensor. The f-GSR sensor exhibits significantly better sensitivity than a commercial sensor: the f-GSR sensor can detect an NaCl solution mimicking human sweat in the concentration range of 10−6 to 1 M. The f-GSR sensor is expected to be used in wearable or patch healthcare devices.

This paper proposes a method of using internet of things (IoT) technology and walkie-talkies to notify factory operators of information about the manufacturing system of the factory. The proposed automatic notification system consists of walkie-talkies, manufacturing IT systems, and a device called the walkie-talkie automatic notification device based on IoT. The role of the walkie-talkie automatic notification device is to act as a gateway that sends information from the manufacturing IT systems to walkie-talkies as voice automatically. It is based on Raspberry Pi 3 hardware. We designed a simple automatic notification system that does not require extra infrastructure costs by using walkie-talkies that are in widespread use at manufacturing sites. This makes it possible to convey information about the machines in a factory or give other instructions to operators easily and efficiently.

A study was conducted to improve the cutting performance of a 60-mm thick stainless steel plate using a 6-kW fiber laser. Two techniques for improving the initial cutting performance were evaluated by preheating the work piece with a waiting time and step-like cutting speed increase. Both techniques showed improved cutting results compared to constant speed cutting. Among them, the method with a step-like cutting speed increase showed the better result in terms of cutting performance. As a result, a 60-mm thick stainless steel plate was cut at a maximum cutting speed of 72 mm/min with a preheating cutting speed of 24 mm/min. In order to confirm the effect of preheating, an additional experiment was performed to measure the temperature variation during the cutting process. Through this experiment, preheating temperature conditions were found to allow the specimen to be cut. It is expected that the results of this work will contribute to improving the cutting performance of thick metal structures in various industrial fields, as well as the dismantling of nuclear facilities using lasers in the future.

A cutting study with a high-power ytterbium-doped fiber laser was conducted for the dismantling of nuclear facilities. Stainless steel and carbon steel plates of various thicknesses were cut at a laser power of 6-kW. Despite the use of a low output of 6-kW, the cutting was successful for both stainless steel and carbon steel plates of up to 100 mm in thickness. In addition, the maximum cutting speeds against the thicknesses were obtained to evaluate the cutting performance. As representative results, the maximum cutting speeds for a 60-mm thickness were 72 mm/min for the stainless steel plates and 35 mm/min for the carbon steel plates, and those for a 100-mm thickness were 7 mm/min for stainless steel and 5 mm/min for carbon steel plates. These results show an efficient cutting capability of about 16.7 mm by kW, whereas other groups have shown cutting capabilities of ∼10 mm by kW. Moreover, the maximum cutting speeds were faster for the same thicknesses than those from other groups. In addition, the kerf widths of 60-mm and 100-mm thick steels were also obtained as another important parameter determining the amount of secondary waste. The front kerf widths were ∼1.0 mm and the rear kerf widths were larger than the front kerf widths but as small as a few millimeters.

In underwater laser cutting of steel plates thicker than 40 mm, the initial cutting speed was previously limited to 5–10 mm/min, because the generated melt could not be smoothly blown near the start point. Oblique cutting was considered a way to overcome this problem and speed up the initial cut. For this reason, underwater laser cutting tests were conducted to verify the improvement in initial cutting performance of thick steel plates through oblique cutting. First, constant speed cutting tests at oblique angle of 5° were performed on stainless steel plates. Compared to straight cutting, this method allowed initial cutting speed to be significantly increased. The maximum initial cutting speeds were 50, 25, and 15 mm/min for thicknesses of 48, 57, and 67 mm, respectively. When the oblique angle further increased to 15°, the initial cutting speed reached the maximum cutting speed achievable for each thickness. Therefore, there was no longer a need for 2-step cutting with low initial cutting speed. The maximum cutting speeds at the oblique angle of 15° were 100, 50, and 15 mm/min for thicknesses of 48, 57, and 68 mm, respectively. Additional cutting tests were performed for carbon steel plates. Due to the material properties of carbon steel, its cutting speed must be lower than that of stainless steel; however, all specimens were successfully cut at the oblique angle of 15°. The maximum cutting speeds of carbon steel plates were 40, 15, and 7 mm/min for thicknesses of 48, 59, and 69 mm, respectively.

Video monitoring environment of underwater cutting objects is rapidly deteriorated due to the increasing water turbidity in proportion to cutting operation. Precise monitoring of the cutting area is one of keys to improve work efficiency. In this paper, we studied a visibility improvement technique based on an artificial neural network for monitoring objects in a turbid underwater cutting site. In order to improve visibility in turbid water, a deep learning neural network that learned two types of visibility enhancement process was adopted. The first type is to train to restore an ideal underwater image with the best visibility from a turbid underwater image, and the second type is to train to restore an image with improved visibility using the conventional visibility improvement technique. We adopted two types of training real images based on the GAN (generative adversarial networks) model for the corresponding turbid input images. The first training image is the histogram-equalized image of a clear underwater image. If the first training image does not exist, an image with improved visibility by using histogram equalization for the turbid input image itself was used as the second training image. Experiments demonstrated that the trained neural network provided significantly improved clarity in turbid images compared to that of the conventional improving technique.

A high-speed fiber laser cutting technology of thick steels for dismantling tasks was achieved using a 6-kW fiber laser system. At first, a new cutting head for efficient cutting of thick steels was developed, which was composed by a collimator with a focal length of 160 mm and mirror-type focusing objects with a long focal length of 600 mm. The long focal length of the focusing object made it possible for the beam size to be small through the thick cutting material and the cutting efficiency was expected to increase compared with the short focal length. In addition, folding the beam facilitated the compact cutting head with a size of 160 mm (width) × 80 mm (height) × 640 mm (length) and a weight of 6.9 kg. In the cutting experiment, the laser beam was delivered to the cutting head by a 25-m long process fiber with a core diameter of 100 μm. The cutting performances were studied against the thicknesses of stainless steel plates. A maximum cutting speed of 72 mm/min was obtained for the 60-mm thick stainless steel plate cutting and the cut specimen showed an excellent kerf shape and a narrow kerf width. To the best of our knowledge, this cutting speed was higher than other previously reported results when cutting with a 6-kW laser power.

Using the Reinhart-Rogoff dataset, we find a debt threshold not around 90 per cent but around 30 per cent, above which the median real gross domestic product (GDP) growth falls abruptly. Our work is the first to formally test for threshold effects in the relationship between public debt and median real GDP growth. The null hypothesis of no threshold effect is rejected at the 5 per cent significance level for most cases. While we find no evidence of a threshold around 90 per cent, our findings from the post-war sample suggest that the debt threshold for economic growth may exist around a relatively small debt-to-GDP ratio of 30 per cent. Furthermore, countries with debt-to-GDP ratios above 30 per cent have GDP growth that is 1 percentage point lower at the median.

We have developed a high-power single-frequency pulsed fiber laser system utilizing a Yb-doped rod-type large-pitch photonic crystal fiber. The maximal peak power is 33 kW with a 0.4-mJ pulse energy and a 70-MHz linewidth, and the average power is 60 W at a 150-kHz repetition rate. At a higher repetition rate, the average power can be increased to 190 W, which is limited by the onset of transverse-mode instability in the large-pitch photonic crystal fiber. The output beam is linearly polarized and shows a good beam quality with a M2 value of 1.2.

Solid-state neutron detectors offer an alternative to 3He based detectors, but suffer from limited neutron efficiencies that make their use in security applications impractical. Solid-state neutron detectors based on single crystal silicon also have relatively high gamma-ray efficiencies that lead to false positives. Thin film polycrystalline CdTe based detectors require less complex processing with significantly lower gamma-ray efficiencies. Advanced geometries can also be implemented to achieve high thermal neutron efficiencies competitive with silicon based technology. This study evaluates these strategies by simulation and experimentation and demonstrates an approach to achieve >10% intrinsic efficiency with

The deuterium–tritium (D–T) reaction has been identified as the most efficient reaction for fusion devices. Deuterium can be obtained by heavy water electrolysis. Heavy water (D 2 O) with a high purity level is necessary for nuclear fusion application. A D 2 O isotopic analysis is thus very important. A system for a heavy water analysis was built and a newly designed isotopic analysis experiment was carried out. We tried to analyze the D 2 O purity using Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and newly introduced off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS). We found that the OA-ICOS based on measurement via laser absorption spectroscopy shows very high sensitivity. We ameliorated the sensitivity by an order of magnitude of more than 10 3 –10 5 . We could make the apparatus smaller by employing very tiny diode laser and fiber optics elements of a DFB (Distributed Feedback) type. Consequently, our device has advantages in terms of maintainability and mobility even in a radioactive environment. This new method could be used for an accurate isotopic analysis in the future.

A compact and portable leak sensor based on cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy has been newly developed for a detection of heavy water leakage which may happen in the facilities using heavy water such as pressurized heavy water reactor (PHWR). The developed portable sensor is suitable as an individual instrument for the measuring leak rate and finding the leak location because it is sufficiently compact in size and weight and operated by using an internal battery. In the performance test, the minimum detectable leak rate was estimated as 0.05 g/day from the calibration curve. This new sensor is expected to be a reliable and promising device for the detection of heavy water leakage since it has advantages on real-time monitoring and early detection for nuclear safety.

Scaling factors have been applied to the estimation of the spectroscopic constants of pure isotopologues of two polyatomic molecules: ammonia (NH 3 ) and formaldehyde (HCHO). Vibrational frequencies and rotational constants of four isotopologues of each molecule have been calculated using the resolution-of-the-identity second-order coupled cluster (RICC2) and coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) methods with the aug-cc-pVDZ and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets. It has been observed that the scaling factors for the vibrational frequencies and rotational constants of the isotopologues are dependent on the isotopic mass. With the given scaling factors calculated at the CCSD/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory, the experimental spectroscopic data are reproduced with an error range of 0.6% for the D 13 CD 16 O isotopologue. In addition, the spectrum of H 13 CH 16 O is accurately predicted with the scaling factors calculated from the other isotopologues. The estimated spectrum is in good agreement with the experimental spectrum.

The CaCu 3 Ti 4 O 12 (CCTO) single crystals could be grown from the melt with the nominal composition of Ca:Cu:Ti=1:59:20 in a platinum (Pt) crucible using a self-flux method. The flux-grown CCTO single crystals have well-developed {100} habit planes, and their compositions are close to the ratio of Ca:Cu:Ti=1:3:4. Interestingly, flux-grown CCTO single crystals exhibited two different back reflection Laue patterns; one exhibited only [100] cubic Laue patterns, and the other showed not only [100] cubic Laue patterns but also the satellite spots related to the twin boundary, implying that twin-free CCTO single crystals can be grown by the self-flux method. Both the dielectric constants and losses of twinned CCTO single crystal are significantly higher than those of untwined CCTO crystal at relatively low frequency regime (

A mW-class continuous-wave single-frequency tunable mid-infrared beam was produced at 4 μm via difference frequency generation (DFG) of two near-infrared beams at about 850 nm and 1056 nm. The pump and the signal beams of 1Wand 5.5 W, respectively, are incident onto a MgO-doped periodically-poled congruent lithium-niobate crystal (MgO-doped PPCLN) for the DFG process. This system produces an idler beam with powers of approximately 0.95 mW at 4.47 μm and 1.9 mW at 4.0 μm. We investigate the mid-infrared beam characteristics, such as the power, beam quality, tuning range and so on.

A solid solution alloy of Ir–Au has been theoretically predicted to be an excellent catalyst for dissociating hydrogen, equivalent to Pt. However, Ir and Au atoms are known to be thermodynamically immiscible. In this work, we show that the thermodynamics of the Ir and Au binary system can be changed by nanoscale effects and that electrochemically synthesized Ir–Au alloys have a solid-solution structure with a wide range of compositions. This work is expected to open up the potential synthesis of new catalytic materials.

A micro-beam scanning X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been utilized to obtain information about the attachment of ligand to nanoparticles in solution by measuring the ligand components relative to nanoparticle components. CdSe/ZnS core/shell nanoparticles capped with three different kinds of ligand molecules are drop-casted on a substrate and led to dry into self-agglomerated micropatterns. Those specimens are mapped out by element-sensitive XPS imaging. The spatial correlation between surface ligand molecules and core nanoparticle atoms is statistically analysed using Pearson correlation function, which provides with a useful assessment of the ligand binding to nanoparticle surfaces. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The catalyzed solution-liquid-solid (SLS) growth has been well developed to synthesize semiconductor nanowires with controlled diameters. The SLS growth occurs in the longitudinal direction of nanowires, due to the directional anisotropy driven by the metal catalysts where chemical precursors are introduced. In the present study, we report a selective, template-free, and environmentally-friendly electrochemical flow-based solution-solid (electrochemical flow-SS) growth of the Cu2O nanorod array. The anisotropy for directional growth without any catalysts is generated by the electrical field in a flowing electrolyte of ultra-dilute CuSO4. The filamentary anisotropy originates from electric field enhancement on pyramidal nanocrystals in the electrolyte of low ionic conductivity (13 μS cm(-1)). The Cu2O and Cu nanorods are able to be selectively synthesized by controlling the electrolyte pH and oxygen dissolution into the electrolyte. The synthesized Cu2O nanorod array shows excellent electrochemical properties as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries; the specific capacities increase from 323 to 1206 mA h g(-1) during 500 cycles. The capacity enhancement is due to the phase transformation from Cu2O to CuO, nano-restructuring of nanorods into fragmented nanoparticles, and the progressive generation of an electroactive polymeric gel-like layer on the surface of the nanoparticles. The electrochemical flow-SS growth of Cu2O nanorods is expected to contribute to further development of other functional nanorods.

The laser cutting of 60-mm-thick stainless steel using a 6-kW fiber laser was performed to investigate the effect of the geometric nozzle configuration on the operating tolerance of the stand-off distance. The stand-off distance is the distance between the nozzle tip and the top surface of the steel plate. Two types of nozzles—a subsonic nozzle with a convergent geometry and a supersonic nozzle with a convergent-divergent geometry—were used to comparatively evaluate the flow behavior through interferometric analysis. A laser cutting experiment was conducted in accordance with the interferometric analysis, focusing on the stand-off distance variation. The stand-off distance was varied from 1 to 60 mm in consideration of the melt-removal capability of the applied cutting nozzles. The throat diameters of the nozzles were 2 and 3 mm. According to the results, the supersonic nozzle has a better operating tolerance of the stand-off distance for the laser cutting of 60-mm-thick stainless steel.

We analyze microdata from Mexico's survey on household income and expenditures (ENIGH) to study the evolution of income inequality in Mexico over 2004-16, identify its sources, and investigate how it was affected by government social policy. We find evidence of only a small decline in inequality over this period. The observed decline may be attributed to government transfers, notably targeted cash transfers (Prospera) and non-contributory pensions. In 2016, those two programs accounted for more than two thirds of the reduction in the Gini coefficient due to government transfers. Other transfer programs such as farmland subsidies (Proagro), government scholarships, and non-monetary transfers for medical expenditures have not been as effective.

IntroductionImmune-mediated encephalitis can occur in the absence of measurable pathogenic antibodies in CSF or serum.Methods and resultsWe present the case of a 29-year-old Sudanese woman presented with four days history of meningism. She is three months post-partum with her fifth child and does not have significant past medical history. She is a current smoker with history of methamphetamine and heroin use until 5 years ago. There were no focal neurological deficits on examination. CT brain was normal and her CSF had 420×106/L leucocytes (Polymorphs 18, Mononuclears 402). Three days later, she deteriorated clinically with GCS 11 and developed left sided hemiplegia requiring intubation and ventilation in intensive care.The CSF culture along with autoimmune encephalitis panel, anti-neuronal antibodies, HSV, VZV, Enterovirus, cryptococcal antigen, TB quantiferon, HIV, Malaria were negative. Her immunology tests were unremarkable including rheumatoid factor, complements, anti-nuclear antibodies, dsDNA, PR3, MPO, RNP, Smith, Ro, La, Scleroderma 70 and Jo-1 antibodies. The MRI Brain showed persistent changes in right hemispheric cortical and subcortical gyriform FLAIR hyperintensities which were also present in DWI images. The EEG showed right temporo-occipital region 7–8 Hz rhythmic discharges with generalised diffuse slowing. She had right parietal lobe brain biopsy which shows perivascular and intramural inflammation by mononuclear cells almost comprised of CD3 T-cells consistent with encephalitis associated with secondary lymphocytic vasculitis. She was treated with intravenous pulsed methylprednisolone and IVIg followed by plasma exchange. Then given high dose oral corticosteroids with slow tapering and intravenous Cyclophosphamide four weekly. Significant neurological improvement noted over next 8 weeks with patient being alert and participating in ongoing multidisciplinary rehabilitation for hemiplegia.ConclusionA case of cerebral biopsy confirmed, CSF and serum antibody-negative encephalitis is presented.

In light of a recent development in a coolant leakage detection method for pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs), which utilizes a novel leak detector based on laser absorption spectroscopy, we report the successful application of the said detection method for the detection and location of leaks in the fuel channel closure plug of the PHWRs. This paper contains the results of real-world performance tests performed on operational commercial PHWRs, and shows that the newly developed laser leak detector was fully capable of finding leak locations as well as detecting leaks with a sensitivity of less than ∼1 g/h. Based on these findings, we believe the laser leak detector can be a reliable apparatus for the early detection of heavy water leakage at fuel channel closure plugs during the normal operation of PHWRs.

We suggest a facile and low-cost electrochemical growth mechanism that is generally applicable to the vertical growth of various one-dimensional (1-D) metal nanocrystals (Cu, AgCu and Au) without any templates or surfactants. At the initial deposition stage, hemispherical islands are uniformly formed on a substrate by repetition of nucleation and dissolution processes under a reverse-pulse potentiodynamic mode. 1-D growth then occurs due to a dissolution process as well as a filamentary effect, i.e., strong interface anisotropy enhanced by field enhancement at the top of the hemispherical islands in an ultra-dilute electrolyte having a low electrical conductivity of less than 100 μS cm −1 . The diameters of 1-D nanocrystals are controllable by the reduction potential and the electrical conductivity of the electrolyte. The 1-D Cu, AgCu, and Au nanocrystals have a multiply twinned crystal structure and grow in the 〈1 1 1〉-longitudinal direction.

To prepare stabilized TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) in aqueous media as a suspension of the primary particles, we attempted to optimize the conditions for dispersing stable, aggregated TiO2 NPs (A-TiO2 NPs) in aqueous HCl/NaOH solutions or 5 mM pH buffered aqueous solutions. The A-TiO2 NPs with a hydrodynamic diameter (or DLS size) of 150 +/- 20 nm could be dispersed at high concentration (63.5 +/- 0.5 mg/ml) in a 5 mM phosphate buffer (PB) solution of pH 8, and a primary TiO2 (P-TiO2) NP suspension (1.2 +/- 0.3 mg/ml) with DLS size of 30 +/- 5 nm could be separated from the highly concentrated A-TiO2 NP suspension by sonication and subsequent centrifugation. It was observed by comparing the UV-Vis absorption spectra of the A-TiO2 and P-TiO2 NP suspensions that the extinction coefficient of the TiO2 NPs in the aqueous suspension depended on the degree of aggregation. The stabilized P-TiO2 NP suspension in aqueous solution can be used to study nanotoxicity as well as to characterize the physicochemical properties of TiO2 NPs.

A method using a combination of a magneto-optical trap and a mass spectrometer, referred to as atom trap-mass spectrometry (ATMS), is employed for calcium-isotope analysis. A calcium magneto-optical trap with a Zeeman slower is used in the first isotope-selection stage of the ATMS. The trapped calcium isotope is ionized by using a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser, and the photoions are analyzed using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The isotope-selection characteristics of the combination method and further improvements in the method are discussed in this work.

Hierarchical SnO2 core–shell nanobranches are produced by thermal oxidization of hierarchical SnO nanobranches that are synthesized using a vapor transport method. The SnO nanobranches with a single crystalline tetragonal structure were heat-treated at 923 K in an ambient atmosphere and completely transformed to hierarchical SnO2 nanobranches with an orthorhombic crystal structure. The SnO2 nanobranches of a polymorphism have a core–shell structure in which SnO2 phase (P212121) is formed in the core and SnO2 phase (Pbcn) at the shell. The electrochemical capacitive properties of the SnO2 nanobranches are evaluated by cyclic voltammograms and galvanostatic charge–discharge measurements. Results show that the hierarchical SnO2 nanobranches have an excellent pseudocapacitive performance, i.e., the maximum specific capacitance of 40.5 μF/cm2 and long-term cycling stability up to 1000 cycles with the 8.9% loss of maximum specific capacitance.

Introduction Parity has been suggested as a possible factor affecting bone health in women. However, study results on its association with bone mineral density are conflicting. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and Korean online databases were searched using the terms “parity” and “bone mineral density”, in May 2016. Two independent reviewers extracted the mean and standard deviation of bone mineral density measurements of the femoral neck, spine, and total hip in nulliparous and parous healthy women. Results Among the initial 10,146 studies, 10 articles comprising 24,771 women met the inclusion criteria. The overall effect of parity on bone mineral density was positive (mean difference = 5.97 mg/cm2; 95% CI 2.37 to 9.57; P = 0.001). The effect appears site-specific as parity was not significantly associated with the bone mineral density of the femoral neck (P = 0.09) and lumbar spine (P = 0.17), but parous women had significantly higher bone mineral density of the total hip compared to nulliparous women (mean difference = 5.98 mg/cm2; 95% CI 1.72 to 10.24; P = 0.006). No obvious heterogeneity existed among the included studies (femoral neck I2 = 0%; spine I2 = 31%; total hip I2 = 0%). Conclusion Parity has a positive effect on bone in healthy, community-dwelling women and its effect appears site-specific.