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This paper presents three strategies for modeling the regional empirical T m (the weighted mean temperature of the atmosphere) to obtain more accurate determinations in a regional empirical model that is better adapted to the geographical and climatic characteristics of the applied area. The proposed models utilize data from four radiosonde stations in Guangxi, at Nanning, Guilin, Wuzhou and Baise, over an 11 month period (from Jan. to Nov. of 2011). The experimental results demonstrated the following: (1) there is no significant difference between monthly and annual regression results at each site; (2) it is more reasonable and feasible to use the proposed regional Hybrid model for the area far away from the radiosonde site; (3) from the analysis of the possible temperature conditions, the precision of the proposed regional Hybrid model is higher than that of the well-known Bevis formula and of some other existing models and can reach an accuracy within 1 mm for the GPS-derived PWV estimates for the applied region.

Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is known to promote the proliferation, migration and survival of synovial cells and plays an important role in the occurrence, development and pathological process of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of the present study was to observe FAK changes in synovial cells of rats with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) and after intervention with disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) alone or in combination in a CIA female SD rat model induced by collagen type II. The rats were randomized to 8 groups: normal control group, CIA model control group, methotrexate (MTX, 0.9 mg/kg/w) group, cyclophosphamide (CTX, 24 mg/kg/3 w) group, leflunomide (LEF, 1.2 mg/kg/d) group, MTX + CTX group, LEF + CTX group, and MTX + LEF group. They were intervened with DMARDs alone or in combination for six weeks. The experiment lasted a total of 9 weeks in vivo. Articular inflammation was measured during the process of drug intervention in terms of the degree of swelling degree in the right hind foot using a venire caliper. All animals were sacrificed by breaking the neck after 9 weeks. Then, the ankle was fixed, decalcified, embedded, and HE stained, and prepared into slices to observe pathological changes in the synovial tissue. FAK expression in synovial cells was assayed by immunohistochemistry and the mean optical density (OD) value was measured using the HPIAS-2000 image analysis system. It was found that FAK expression was negative in normal control group, positive in CIA model control group, and decreased in the three DMARD combination treatment groups significantly as compared with that in the three single-drug groups (P < 0.05). FAK expression in LEF + CTX group or MTX + CTX group decreased more significantly than that in MTX + LEF group (P < 0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference between LEF + CTX and MTX + CTX groups. The arthritis index and pathological change in the synovial tissue in LEF + CTX group or MTX + CTX group were improved more significantly than those in MTX + LEF group or single-drug groups. Our results showed that FAK expression was positive in CIA rats, indicating that it played an important role in the pathogenesis of RA, and that intervention with DMARDs could reduce the FAK expression in synovial cells of CIA rats. We hope these findings would contribute to the treatment of RA and other rheumatic diseases by reducing adhesion, proliferation and migration of synovial cells and inhibiting the over-expression of FAK.

An IR study of the conformational disorder in the part of the hydrocarbon chain nearest the ester group in gel-phase lipid bilayers is presented. The infrared method for determining the conformation of the CH2−CH2 bond attached to the ester group is discussed and applied to a number of representative gel-phase 1,2-diacylphosphatidylcholine fully hydrated dispersions, including symmetric and mixed-chain PCs in their gel and subgel phases. The effect on chain conformation of the headgroups PC, PE, and PA- was explored. Only two conformations of the alkyl chains were found: a planar (all-trans) chain and a nonplanar chain that is all-trans except for the CH2−CH2 bond nearest the ester group. Concentrations of the two conformers were also determined. The overall concentration of the planar form always exceeds 50% but varies significantly depending on the lipid involved. In two cases, the concentration of the planar conformer was estimated for both the SN1 and SN2 chains.

Detections and manipulations of quantum optical state at single-photon level have received much attention in the current experiments. Here, by numerically calculating the time-evolved Wigner functions, we investigate the dynamics of the typical non-classical state, i.e., few-photon superposition states in a dissipating optical microcavity. It is shown that the negativity of their Wigner function vanishes with dissipation. But this does not imply that all the non-classical features of the dissipative quantum state disappear. In fact, it is shown that the value of the second-order correlation function g(2)(0) (which serves usually as the standard criterion of a typical non-classical effect, i.e., the anti-bunching of photons, if g(2)(0)g(2A)(0) varies with the cavity dissipation and thus could be used to describe the physical effects of the dissipative cavity. Finally, we discuss the experimental feasibility of our proposal with a practically-existing cavity QED system.