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Neonatal brachial plexus injury (NBPI) causes disabling and incurable muscle contractures that are driven by impaired growth of denervated muscles. A rare form of NBPI, which maintains afferent muscle innervation despite motor denervation, does not cause contractures. As afferent innervation regulates various aspects of skeletal muscle homeostasis through NRG/ErbB signaling, our current study investigated the role of this pathway in modulating contracture development. Through pharmacologic modification with an ErbB antagonist and NRG1 isoforms, we discovered that NRG/ErbB signaling does not modulate the development of contractures in neonatal mice. Instead, ErbB inhibition impeded growth in nondenervated skeletal muscles, whereas increased ErbB activation exacerbated denervation-induced skeletal muscle atrophy. This potential regulatory effect of NRG/ErbB signaling on neonatal muscle growth warrants deeper investigation.

Wireless physical layer key generation technology can effectively solve the problem of key distribution and management in traditional security mechanisms, and thus has been widely studied. In this paper, we propose a physical layer key generation scheme based on frequency hopping, which improves the key generation efficiency under the condition of static wireless channel with low physical layer key generation efficiency and low randomness. In addition, we apply the moving average and principal component analysis (PCA) of preprocessing methods to the channel characteristics, and perform double-threshold quantization to improve the consistency of the key generation. Finally, we verify the proposed key generation scheme on the hardware platform consisting of STM8L101 and CC1101. The experimental results show that when the frequency hopping step is 200KHz, the key agreement rate is higher than 99% and the key generation efficiency is 88%.

Muscle contractures are a prominent and disabling feature of many neuromuscular disorders, including the 2 most common forms of childhood neurologic dysfunction: neonatal brachial plexus injury (NBPI) and cerebral palsy. There are currently no treatment strategies to directly alter the contracture pathology, as the pathogenesis of these contractures is unknown. We previously showed in a mouse model of NBPI that contractures result from impaired longitudinal muscle growth. Current presumed explanations for growth impairment in contractures focus on the dysregulation of muscle stem cells, which differentiate and fuse to existing myofibers during growth, as this process has classically been thought to control muscle growth during the neonatal period. Here, we demonstrate in a mouse model of NBPI that denervation does not prevent myonuclear accretion and that reduction in myonuclear number has no effect on functional muscle length or contracture development, providing definitive evidence that altered myonuclear accretion is not a driver of neuromuscular contractures. In contrast, we observed elevated levels of protein degradation in NBPI muscle, and we demonstrate that contractures can be pharmacologically prevented with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib. These studies provide what we believe is the first strategy to prevent neuromuscular contractures by correcting the underlying deficit in longitudinal muscle growth.

Physical-layer secret key generation (PSKG) leveraging reciprocal wireless channel has been widely studied in pairwise communication scenarios as it addresses the key distribution problem in traditional security mechanisms. However, PSKG encounters the challenges of low key agreement, information leakage and high system cost when it is extended to produce a secret key for a group of users. In this paper, we propose a lightweight Group secret key generation approach leveraging Non-reconciled received Signal Strength (GNSS). Specifically, pairwise bit sequences with high similarity are firstly extracted and then a group key is securely shared with the protection of these pairwise bit sequences, which prevents the information leakage and sophisticated information reconciliation. Detailed algorithms of GNSS for star and chain networks are presented. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate that GNSS can provide high key agreement, thus enabling key generation technology to be used in a group communication scenario.

Numerical methods were carried out on a turbocharger compressor with inlet bent pipe to research a novel clocking effect between the inlet bend and the volute. It was found that the clocking effect with 3.4 percent of variations (1.9 percentage points) in compressor efficiency positively exists at the research point near chock. The reason for the changed efficiency loss is that the inlet bend induces a serious distortion of approaching flow to impeller inlet on one hand, and the downstream volute causes a circumferentially non-uniform distribution of pressure in vaneless diffuser. By adjusting the clocking positions between inlet bend and volute, not only is the unsteadiness of the flow rate through single impeller channel changed, but the uniformity of the incoming flow at the vaneless diffuser inlet is modulated as well. It is the dominant reason for the novel clocking effect that the bad uniformity causes more flow loss in both diffuser and volute.

Radio frequency (RF) fingerprint identification of wireless communication equipment has developed rapidly. It is to extract the equipment's RF fingerprint from the equipment's communication signals, so as to realize the identification and authentication of the equipment. In this paper, we propose a novel method for identifying pseudo-Global Positioning System (GPS) signal based on RF fingerprint. In our proposed method, we apply the Doppler frequency shift as RF fingerprint, the pseudo GPS signal and the real GPS signal is identified by extracting the Doppler frequency shift from the signal. And the experimental results show that the Doppler frequency shift can be used as RF fingerprint to identify the pseudo GPS signal well.

Physical-layer secret key generation (PSKG) technology based on reciprocal wireless channel has been widely studied in point-to-point (P2P) scenarios as it can effectively solve the key distribution problem in traditional security mechanisms. However, the computation and energy cost of PSKG is high when it is extended to group key distribution. The problem of applying PSKG to ensure group secret communication remains open. In this paper, we propose a lightweight group key distribution (LGKD) method for a star network topology environment. In our proposed method, center node and each child node first extract high correlated channel characteristics instead of generating identical P2P keys, respectively. Then, the group key is broadcasted to each child node protected by the P2P channel characteristics with high similarity. Our simulation results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of our proposed group key distribution method.

Variable geometry turbine (VGT) has been widely applied in internal combustion engines to improve the engine transient response and torque at low speed. One of the most popular variable geometry turbine is the variable nozzle turbine (VNT), in which the nozzle vanes can be rotated along the pivoting axis and thus the flow passage through the nozzle can be adjusted to match with different engine operating conditions. One disadvantage of the VNT is the turbine efficiency degradation due to the leakage flow in the nozzle endwall clearance, which is needed to allow the nozzle vanes to rotate without sticking. Especially at small nozzle open condition, there is large loading on the nozzle and high pressure gradient between the nozzle pressure and suction side. Strong leakage flow exists inside the nozzle endwall clearance from pressure side to suction side, leading to large flow loss and turbine stage efficiency degradation. In the present paper, a novel split sliding variable nozzle turbine (SSVNT) has been proposed to reduce the nozzle leakage flow and to improve turbine stage efficiency. The idea is to divide the nozzle into two parts: one part is fixed and the other part can slide along the partition surface. The mechanism of nozzle flow passage variation in SSVNT is different from that of the traditional pivoting VNT. The sliding vane and the fixed vane together form an integrated vane. The flow of the turbine is determined by the passage of the integrated vanes. When moving the sliding vane to large radius position, the nozzle flow passage opens up and the turbine has high flow capacity. When moving the sliding vane towards small radius position, the nozzle flow passage closes down and the turbine has low flow capacity. As the fixed vane doesn’t need endwall clearance, there is no leakage flow inside the fixed vane and the total leakage flow through the integrated vane can be reduced. Based on calibrated numerical modeling, the analysis results showed that there is up to 12% turbine stage efficiency improvement with the SSVNT design at small nozzle open condition while maintaining the same flow capacity and efficiency at large nozzle open condition, compared to the conventional VNT. The mechanism of efficiency improvement in the SSVNT design has also been discussed.

Purpose We used an established mouse model of elbow flexion contracture after neonatal brachial plexus injury (NBPI) to test the hypothesis that preservation of afferent innervation protects against contractures and is associated with preservation of muscle spindles and ErbB signaling. Methods A model of preganglionic C5 through C7 NBPI was first tested in mice with fluorescent axons using confocal imaging to confirm preserved afferent innervation of spindles despite motor end plate denervation. Preganglionic and postganglionic injuries were then created in wild-type mice. Four weeks later, we assessed total and afferent denervation of the elbow flexors by musculocutaneous nerve immunohistochemistry. Biceps muscle volume and cross-sectional area were measured by micro computed tomography. An observer who was blinded to the study protocol measured elbow flexion contractures. Biceps spindle and muscle fiber morphology and ErbB signaling pathway activity were assessed histologically and immunohistochemically. Results Preganglionic and postganglionic injuries caused similar total denervation and biceps muscle atrophy. However, after preganglionic injuries, afferent innervation was partially preserved and elbow flexion contractures were significantly less severe. Spindles degenerated after postganglionic injury but were preserved after preganglionic injury. ErbB signaling was inactivated in denervated spindles after postganglionic injury but ErbB signaling activity was preserved in spindles after preganglionic injury with retained afferent innervation. Preganglionic and postganglionic injuries were associated with upregulation of ErbB signaling in extrafusal muscle fibers. Conclusions Contractures after NBPI are associated with muscle spindle degeneration and loss of spindle ErbB signaling activity. Preservation of afferent innervation maintained spindle development and ErbB signaling activity, and protected against contractures. Clinical relevance Pharmacologic modulation of ErbB signaling, which is being investigated as a therapy for congestive heart failure, may be able to recapitulate the protective effects of afferent innervation in spindle development and contracture prevention. Muscle spindle preservation may also have implications in proprioception and motor learning, both of which are impaired in NBPI.

Radial flow Variable Nozzle Turbine (VNT) enables better matching between a turbocharger and engine, and can improve the engine performance as well as decrease the engine emissions, especially when the engine works at low-end operation points. With increased nozzle loading, stronger shock wave and clearance leakage flow may be generated. The shock wave consequently introduces strong rotor-stator interaction between turbine nozzle and impeller, which is also a key concern of impeller high cycle fatigue failure. With the purpose of developing a shock wave free or low shock wave intensity turbine nozzle, the influence of grooved vane on the shock wave characteristics is investigated in present paper. A Schlieren visualization experiment was first carried out on a linear turbine nozzle with smooth surface and the behavior of the shock wave was studied. Numerical simulations were also performed on the turbine nozzle. The predicted shock wave shape, position and intensity were compared against the Schlieren images. Guided by the visualization and numerical simulation, grooves were designed on the nozzle surface where the shock wave was originated and numerical simulations were performed to investigate the influence of grooves on the shock wave characteristics. Results indicate that for a smooth nozzle configuration, the intensity of the shock wave increases as the expansion ratios increase, while the onset position is shifted downstream to the nozzle trailing edge. For a nozzle configuration with grooved vane, the position of the shock wave onset is shifted upstream compared to the one with a smooth surface configuration, and the intensity of the shock wave as well as the static pressure distortion at the nozzle vane exit plane are significantly depressed.

A turbocharger compressor with a wide flow range and a high efficiency is important to the application of advanced clean combustion technologies, such as homogeneous charge compression ignition and low-temperature combustion, in diesel engines. Self-recirculation casing treatment is one of the techniques that can extend the compressor surge margin without much efficiency penalty. The underlying physics of the self-recirculation casing treatment technology were investigated with computational fluid dyamics modeling and bench testing in this study. It is identified that, if the bleed slot of the self-recirculation casing treatment is located upstream of the impeller passage’s throat area, self-recirculation casing treatment improves the surge margin but the throat still limits the maximum flow capacity of the compressor. On the other hand, if the bleed slot of the self-recirculation casing treatment is located at the impeller passage’s throat area, the self-recirculation casing treatment improves the maximum flow capacity but results in a significant compressor efficiency penalty in the low-flow range. An active self-recirculation casing treatment design was proposed. The active self-recirculation casing treatment design extends the compressor flow capacity and improves the surge margin without an efficiency penalty through dual bleed slots with one upstream and the other downstream of the leading edge of the splitter blades. In the choke condition, the upstream bleed slot will be closed; near the surge condition, the downstream bleed slot will be closed. In the middle flow range, both bleed slots are closed. Both the numerical data and the bench testing results show that the maximum flow rate could be extended by about 15% and the surge margin by about 20% without an efficiency penalty. The mechanism of the performance improvement is also numerically studied.

With high spatial resolution of ultrasonic location and high sensitivity of optical detection, ultrasound-modulated optical tomography (UOT) is a promising noninvasive biological tissue imaging technology. In biological tissue, the ultrasound-modulated light signals are very weak and are overwhelmed by the strong unmodulated light signals. It is a difficulty and key to efficiently pick out the weak modulated light from strong unmodulated light in UOT. Under the effect of an ultrasonic field, the scattering light intensity presents a periodic variation as the ultrasonic frequency changes. So the modulated light signals would be escape from the high unmodulated light signals, when the modulated light signals and the ultrasonic signal are processed cross correlation operation by a lock-in amplifier and without a chopper. Experimental results indicated that the signal-to-noise ratio of UOT is significantly improved by a lock-in amplifier, and the higher the repetition frequency of pulsed ultrasonic wave, the better the signal-to-noise ratio of UOT.

Aging is a very important issue not only in dermatology, but also cosmetic science. Cutaneous aging involves both chronological and photoaging aging process. The evaluation and classification of aging is an important issue with the medical cosmetology workers nowadays. The purpose of this study is to assess chronological-age-related and photo-age-related of human skin. The texture features of skin surface skin, such as coarseness, contrast were analyzed by Fourier transform and Tamura. And the aim of it is to detect the object hidden in the skin texture in difference aging skin. Then, Support vector machine was applied to train the texture feature. The different age’s states were distinguished by the support vector machine (SVM) classifier. The results help us to further understand the mechanism of different aging skin from texture feature and help us to distinguish the different aging states.

An effective measure to improve the surge margin of a centrifugal compressor, without sacrificing efficiency, is to implement a recirculating casing treatment inside the compressor cover. However, introduction of an additional sound propagation path directly over the rotating impeller blades exposes the inherently unsteady internal flow-field as an added potential noise source, which is of concern for automotive applications. The present study conducts performance and acoustic measurements of a new compressor which was designed to achieve high isentropic efficiency over a wide flow range, featuring an impeller with splitter blades and a vaneless diffuser. A dual-port active casing treatment (ACT) was also incorporated into the compressor cover to independently extend both the low and high flow rate operating regions of the compressor. The slot of the first (surge) port is positioned between the main and splitter blades of the impeller, similar to passive casing treatments that are already widely adopted. This port extends the low-flow boundary of the compressor operating range by reducing flow separation on the suction surface of the main blades near the shroud. The slot of the second (choke) port is located just behind the splitter blades, and it is studied in both the open and closed positions. This second port allows for increased air flow near choke, due to the slot position just downstream of the aerodynamic throat of the compressor. The current ACT design leaves the surge port open at all times, while the choke port is only opened when the compressor operates near choke conditions. In addition to comparing experimental results from this new compressor in both configurations (choke port open and closed), measurements from a comparable (baseline) compressor without splitter blades and a single-port shroud are utilized to assess the acoustics of the new design. Acoustic measurements were completed over the low to mid-speed operating range, which is a region heavily weighted in customer drive cycles for light and medium duty vehicles. The conscientious design of the impeller and surge slot of the new compressor to minimize flow separation on the suction surface of the inducer blades is shown to not only improve efficiency and extend the low-flow operating range, but (with the choke port closed) broadband noise is significantly reduced in the mid to high flow rate operating region. At low flow rates, the new compressor (with the choke port closed) is slightly louder than the baseline compressor at the inlet duct measurement location, but essentially equal to the baseline compressor at the external microphone location near the compressor inlet duct opening. When the choke port of the new compressor is open, broadband noise increases slightly relative to the closed configuration. More importantly, the peak sound pressure level at (main) blade-pass frequency is reduced by opening the choke port, and the operating region of elevated tonal noise shifts from mid to high flow rates.

In our study, the skin canceration processes induced by UVB were analyzed from the perspective of tissue spectrum. A home-made Raman spectral system with a millimeter order excitation laser spot size combined with a multivariate statistical analysis for monitoring the skin changed irradiated by UVB was studied and the discrimination were evaluated. Raman scattering signals of the SCC and normal skin were acquired. Spectral differences in Raman spectra were revealed. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) based on principal component analysis (PCA) were employed to generate diagnostic algorithms for the classification of skin SCC and normal. The results indicated that Raman spectroscopy combined with PCA-LDA demonstrated good potential for improving the diagnosis of skin cancers.

The Songnen Plain in Northeast China, one of the key national bases of agricultural production, went through remarkable land use/cover changes in recent years. This study aimed to explore the long-term land use/cover changes and the effects of these changes on the environment. The Landsat-based analysis showed that, during 1986–2000, cropland, built-up land and barren land had increased, among which cropland had the largest increase of 9,198km2 with an increase rate of 7.5%. Woodland, grassland, water body and swampland had decreased correspondingly, among which grassland had the most dramatic decrease of 6,127km2 with a decrease rate of 25.6%. The transition matrix results revealed that grassland, woodland and swampland were the three main land use types converted to cropland. Climate warming created the potential environment for the conversion of grassland and swampland into cropland. Land resources policy made by central and provincial governments of China affected the pattern and intensity of land use. Land use/cover changes accompanied by climatic variation brought out a series of environmental consequences, such as sand desertification of land, land salinization and alkalinization, grassland degradation, and more frequent floods. Under this circumstance, optimized land use structure and restoration measures are needed.

The ultimate goal of an advanced turbocharger development is to have a superior aerodynamic performance while having the turbocharger survive various real world customer applications. Due to the uncertainty of customer usage and driving pattern, the fatigue life prediction is considered one of the most ambiguous analyses in the entire design and analyses processes of the turbocharger. The turbocharger system may have various resonant frequencies, which may be within the range of turbocharger operation for automotive applications. A turbocharger may operate with excessive stresses when running near resonant frequencies. The turbocharger may experience fatigue failures if the accumulative cycles of the turbocharger running across the resonant frequencies exceeds a certain limit. In this study, the authors propose an alternative approach to mitigate this kind of fatigue issues: i.e. engine system approach to improve turbocharger fatigue life via avoiding operating the turbocharger near resonant speeds for extended period of time. A preliminary numerical study was made and presented in this paper to assess the feasibility of such an engine system approach, which is followed by an engine dynamometer test for engine performance sensitivity evaluation when the turbocharger operation condition was adjusted to improve the high cycle fatigue life. The study shows that for a modern diesel engine equipped with electrically controlled variable geometry turbine and EGR for emission control, through the engine calibration and control upgrade, turbocharger operation speed can be altered to stay away from certain critical speeds if necessary. The combined 1D and 3D numerical simulation shows the bandwidth of the turbine “risk zone” near one of the resonant speeds and the potential impact on engine performances if the turbocharger speed has to be shifted out of the “risk zone.”

As inlet bent-pipes are often used in vehicle turbocharger compressors, understanding of the inlet bent-pipe’s effect on centrifugal compressor and the mechanism of flow loss is important to improve the turbocharger compressor performance. Experiment and numerical simulation were carried out on a centrifugal compressor with straight pipe and bent-pipe. Numerical simulated compressor performance was compared with test data obtained from compressor flow bench test and to validate the numerical method. The analysis is mainly based on numerical results and it indicated that the inlet bent pipe induces a serious distortion at impeller inlet and increases the risk of blade high-cycle fatigue. The level of distortion changes to be more serious as the operation point of compressor varies from design point to high load. When an impeller channel enters distortion, the larger pressure difference between inlet and outlet makes this channel get clogged and the flow rate through this channel is reduced. At design point the bent pipe mainly influences the flow loss in the inlet pipe and impeller while at high load more serious flow distortion induced by bent-pipe is able to extend its stronger effect to the downstream diffuser and volute.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Heavy EGR required on diesel engines for future emission regulation compliance has posed a big challenge to conventional turbocharger technology for high efficiency and wide operation range. This study, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored research program, is focused on advanced turbocharger technologies that can improve turbocharger efficiency on customer driving cycles while extending the operation range significantly, compared to a production turbocharger. The production turbocharger for a medium-duty truck application was selected as a donor turbo. Design optimizations were focused on the compressor impeller and turbine wheel. On the compressor side, advanced impeller design with arbitrary surface can improve the efficiency and surge margin at low end while extending the flow capacity, while a so-called active casing treatment can provide additional operation range extension without compromising compressor efficiency. On the turbine side, mixed flow turbine technology was revisited with renewed interest due to its performance characteristics, i.e. high efficiency at low-speed ratio, relative to the base conventional radial flow turbine, which is relevant to heavy EGR operation for future diesel applications. The engine dynamometer test shows that the advanced turbocharger technology enables over 3% BSFC improvement at part-load as well as full-load condition, in addition to an increase in rated power. The performance improvement demonstrated on engine dynamometer seems to be more than what would typically be translated from the turbocharger flow bench data, indicating that mixed flow turbine may provide additional performance benefits under pulsed exhaust flow on an internal combustion engine and in the low-speed ratio areas that are typically not covered by steady state flow bench tests.

A new hypothesis is presented for the superimposed effects of the blade pressure distribution in a multistage compressor. The effects of the unsteady pressure fluctuations on the blade surface are separated into three groups. The influences of the upstream or downstream rotors can be obtained by numerical simulation for the R/S or S/R configuration; the data produced by all the influences can be obtained from the R/S/R configuration. The effects of the blade counts and clocking on the superimposed effects, acting on the profile pressure distribution, are studied using a special data analysis method that had been previously developed by the authors. The results indicate that the blade counts of the upstream and downstream rotors determine the periods of the unsteady pressure fluctuations on the stator surface. The clocking moving blade rows modulate the relative superimposed phases and interactions between two rotors such that the unsteady pressure fluctuates with different amplitudes on the surface of the stator blade.Copyright © 2013 by ASME

Second harmonic generation microscopy (SHGM) was used to monitor the process of chronological aging skin in vivo. The collagen structures of mice model with different ages were obtained using SHGM. Then, texture feature with contrast, correlation and entropy were extracted and analysed using the grey level co-occurrence matrix. At last, the neural network tool of Matlab was applied to train the texture of collagen in different statues during the aging process. And the simulation of mice collagen texture was carried out. The results indicated that the classification accuracy reach 85%. Results demonstrated that the proposed approach effectively detected the target object in the collagen texture image during the chronological aging process and the analysis tool based on neural network applied the skin of classification and feature extraction method is feasible.

This study examined the effect of P85 (a pluronic block copolymer) and microbubble (MB) ultrasound contrast agents under ultrasound irradiation on gene transfection and expression. The pEGFP plasmids that can encode enhanced green fluorescent protein (pEGFP) served as a report gene and were mixed with different concentrations of MB/0.05% (w/v) P85. Then the plasmids were transfected into human hepatoma G2 (HepG2) cells. The HepG2 cells treated with MB/P85 or without treatment were exposed to ultrasound (US parameters: 1 MHz, 1.0 W/cm(2), 20 s, 20% duty cycle). Twenty-four hours later, the transfection efficiency was assessed by fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis. The cell viability was evaluated by Trypan blue exclusion test. The results showed that the gene transfection efficiency in HepG2 cells under ultrasound irradiation was significantly higher than that without ultrasound irradiation. HepG2 cells in the MB or P85 group in the absence of ultrasound expressed less amount of green fluorescent protein. The expression efficiency reached (22.14 ± 3.06)% and the survival rate was as high as (55.73 ± 3.32)% in the 30% MB plus P85 group. It was concluded that MB and P85 in the presence of ultrasound can enhance gene transfection and expression.

Comment to: Foggin, J.M. 2011. Rethinking “Ecological Migration” and the Value of Cultural Continuity: A Response to Wang, Song and Hu. AMBIO 40 (1). (This issue). In our Synopsis (Wang et al. 2010), we illustrated the background, the achievements, possible problems and some suggestions on the ecological migration (EM) project in the Three-River Headwater (TRH, Sanjiangyuan) region, an area of 363,000 km2 where 100,000 local herdsmen will eventually move out the core and buffer zones of the TRH reserve. Our main focus was that the EM project in the TRH region has made remarkable progress and may promote the sustainable development of the region if carefully managed. However, environmental and cultural consequences caused by EM can not be ignored. It is commendable that China has established impressive environmental goals and has tried to protect the environment. However, in some cases, the forces of environmental destruction have overwhelmed protection efforts and have made many of the goals empty slogans (Liu and Diamond 2008). The following factors may play a major role leading to the failure of an ecological conservation program: (1) inability to implement the environmental protection policy, (2) absence of accurate inventory and proper planning, and (3) lack of support for research to find solutions. As Foggin (2011) and Wang et al. (2010) discussed, the EM could bring some potential environmental challenges in areas of migration destinations. In addition, the approach used in the TRH region to remove herders out of the grasslands neglected the needs for grassland management. Livestock, in appropriate numbers, are good for the grasslands. Livestock eating and walking on the grass both stimulates growth and controls it. Without animal activity, the grass grows out of control. Also, after enclosure, grasslands are no longer fertilized by livestock excrement and over time only one or two species of grass will survive, homogenizing that population (Zhou 2006). Despite the top leadership’s intention to protect and recover China’s environment, the evaluation system is biased towards economic development. Unrealistic top-down environmental policies can only do harm to the environment. Local government officials often mechanically follow the orders from their superordinates, achieving tangible results. A push from the bottom is badly needed to attract the attention of local governments to the environment (Zhang and Wang 2010). There is encouraging news that economic growth is no longer the factor determining the promotion of local government officials for the TRH region, although only this measurement will not change the overall situation (Zhang and Wang 2010). In addition, environmental awareness has been increasing among China’s populace. The public demands the right to speak out about environmental issues and to be engaged in environmental actions (Liu and Diamond 2008). The fundamental aim of environmental protection is to improve the natural environment. However, we should not put it into practice at the cost of our cultural heritage. If environmental protection endangered cultural heritage, it will be compromised. EM might be a good way of reducing the human pressure on nature. However, as it is implemented, the colorful indigenous culture is under threat. Often the EM sites are the Chinese minority ethnic regions, they have formed their own ways of living for centuries. The cultural heritage is invaluable. Many indigenous people or ethnic minorities often have little power of discourse to choose the terms on which they wish to engage with the “outside world” (Foggin 2008). Wang et al. (2010) mentioned that possible efforts to retain Tibetan culture have been made during the EM. We think that the effectiveness of these efforts should be checked by time. As pointed out by Foggin (2008), any proposed solution to conservation or development problems must be viable within the present socio-political context of contemporary China. Increasing numbers of both people and livestock are the roots of the TRH region’s environmental degradation, which is combined with poverty. The succession of large-scale relocations is undoubtedly one of the best choices to recover degraded environment and alleviate poverty in the short term, as indicated by Abulizi and Chen (2007). As investigated by West (2009), many migrants in Inner Mongolia of China feel that their lives have improved in key areas such as access to healthcare and schooling and access to more goods and services. For the TRH region, more household interviews, field investigation, and participant observations are needed to explore the effects of the EM. Environmental protection is a big issue for China. Many forces (e.g., socioeconomic, political, demographic, and technological) influence the country’s environmental sustainability. There will be many more problems to deal with in environmental protection than the amount of problems previously faced by western countries. Today, when there is an urgent need for China to pay close attention to its environmental protection, what we need to do is not only make political and social efforts, but also pay attention to the cultural aspects of environmental protection. The arguments we mentioned above showed that the EM in the TRH region could be a good choice in a short term but is not a cost-effective alternative (in economic and environmental terms) in the long run. Local governments have realized this circumstance and decided that, 10 years later, people can choose to settle permanently in towns or go back to their grasslands. We argue that the wise way to change the present situation is to generate environmental education and change the people’s behavior. It needs the involvement and effort of the society rather than central and local governments. Even more important is to seek and give opportunity for local voices to be heard as often as possible. Under these circumstances, community co-management approaches could be trialed and popularized if proved by practice. Although it will not be easy to make these fundamental changes, there is hope that they can happen.

The pathophysiology of paradoxical elbow flexion contractures following neonatal brachial plexus injury (NBPI) is incompletely understood. The current study tests the hypothesis that this contracture occurs by denervation-induced impairment of elbow flexor muscle growth. Unilateral forelimb paralysis was created in mice in four neonatal (5-day-old) BPI groups (C5-6 excision, C5-6 neurotomy, C5-6 neurotomy/repair, and C5-T1 global excision), one non-neonatal BPI group (28-day-old C5-6 excision), and two neonatal muscle imbalance groups (triceps tenotomy ± C5-6 excision). Four weeks post-operatively, motor function, elbow range of motion, and biceps/brachialis functional lengths were assessed. Musculocutaneous nerve (MCN) denervation and reinnervation were assessed immunohistochemically. Elbow flexion motor recovery and elbow flexion contractures varied inversely among the neonatal BPI groups. Contracture severity correlated with biceps/brachialis shortening and MCN denervation (relative axon loss), with no contractures occurring in mice with MCN reinnervation (presence of growth cones). No contractures or biceps/brachialis shortening occurred following non-neonatal BPI, regardless of denervation or reinnervation. Neonatal triceps tenotomy did not cause contractures or biceps/brachialis shortening, nor did it worsen those following neonatal C5-6 excision. Denervation-induced functional shortening of elbow flexor muscles leads to variable elbow flexion contractures depending on the degree, permanence, and timing of denervation, independent of muscle imbalance.

The clearance flow between the nozzle and endwall in a variable geometry turbine (VGT) has been numerically investigated to understand the clearance effect on the VGT performance and internal flow. It was found that the flow rate through turbine increases but the turbine efficiency decreases with height of clearance. Detailed flow field analyses indicated that most of the efficiency loss resulting from the leakage flow occurs at the upstream of the rotor area, that is, in the nozzle endwall clearance and between the nozzle vanes. There are two main mechanisms associated with this efficiency loss. One is due to the formation of the local vortex flow structure between the clearance flow and the main flow. The other is due to the impact of the clearance flow on the main flow after the nozzle throat. This impact reduces the span of shockwave with increased shockwave magnitude by changing the trajectory of the main flow.