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The reliability of sonar systems in the littoral environment is greatly affected by the variability of the surrounding nonlinear ocean dynamicS. This variability occurs on multiple scales in space and time, and involves multiple interacting processes, from internal tides and waves to meandering fronts, eddies, boundary layers, and strong air-sea interactionS. We utilize our high-resolution MSEAS-PE ocean modeling system to hindcast the ocean physical environment off the New Jersey continental shelf for the end of June 2009, and then utilize our new MSEAS probabilistic acoustic NAPE and WAPE solvers in a coupled ocean physics-acoustic modeling fashion to predict the transmission and integrated transmission losses, respectively. The coupled models are described, and their predictions verified against independent ocean physics observations and sound propagation measurements from acoustic sources and receivers in the region. Our high-resolution ocean simulations are shown to substantial reduce the RMSE and bias of the coarser simulationS. Our acoustic simulations of deterministic and stochastic TL fields also show significant skill.

To produce a thermostable and neutral phytase (phy) of Bacillus subtilis E20 in Escherichia coli HMS174 and evaluate its efficiency in improving growth performance. The phy C of B. subtilis E20 was expressed in E. coli HMS 174, and then the 42-kDa recombinant phy C was purified by Ni-NAT and analysed by SDS–PAGE. The recombinant phy C had optimal ranges of pH of 6 ~ 7 and temperature of 50 ~ 60 °C. A thermostability analysis showed that the enzyme is a thermostable phytase, and around 33% of residual activity was detected after being incubated at 90 ~ 100 °C for 10 min. The recombinant phy C-pretreated soybean meal for feed preparation improved white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, growth and feed efficiency. Overall, the neutral and thermostable phy C is suitable for aquafeed, and it is able to improve the nutritional utilization, resulting in enhanced shrimp growth and reduced feed costs.

We demonstrate stable, long-term trapping of fermionic $^6$Li atoms in an optical lattice with MHz trap frequencies for use in a quantum gas microscope. Adiabatic release from the optical lattice in the object plane of a high-numerical-aperture imaging system allows a measurement of the population distribution among the lowest three bands in both radial directions with atom numbers as low as $7\times 10^2$. We measure exponential ground band heating rates as low as 0.014(1) s$^{-1}$ corresponding to a radial ground state $1/e$ lifetime of 71(5) s, fundamentally limited by scattering of lattice photons. For all lattice depths above 2 recoil, we find radial ground state lifetimes $\ge 1.6 \times 10^6$ recoil times., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 3 pages supplemental material

This paper proposes a robust adaptive controller using a feedforward Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy approximator for a class of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) non-linear plants that is highly unknown. Different to typical fuzzy approximation approaches, the desired commands are taken as input variables of a T-S fuzzy system. Meanwhile, the unknown feedforward terms required during steady state are adaptively approximated and compensated. This allows a simpler architecture during implementation and drops the typical boundedness assumption on fuzzy universal approximation errors. Furthermore, according to H/sup /spl infin// control techniques, non-linear damping design, and sliding mode control, the controllers are synthesised to assure either only the disturbance attenuation, the attenuation of both disturbances and estimated fuzzy parameter errors, or globally asymptotic stable tracking. A linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique then provides a straightforward gain design. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out on a two-link robot to illustrate the expected performance.

An approach combining least squares methods and finite element methods (FEM) is presented for subsequent photoelastic stress analysis of orthogonal 3D textile composites withR and α obtained in Part 1. Through this approach, these photoelastic stresses are obtained over a region of interest as if the composites were homogeneous materials. The least squares method is used for requiring the solution strain fields to best correlate with the distribution of the two photoelastic strain data of ɛ x − ɛ y and γ xy calculated directly from the measuredR and α. The FEM uses the homogenized composite properties to construct the nodal force equilibrium equations as constraints in the least squares formulation. As a result of combining this least squares method and FEM with lagrange multipliers, a linear system of equations is formulated with the unknown nodal displacements. Once these nodal displacements are solved, the strains and stresses can be calculated through FEM formulations. This approach is tested with the two experimental results completed in Part 1 for the aluminum and composite plates. The stresses obtained for the aluminum plate show close agreement with those obtained with the plain FEM computation. In the case of the orthogonal 3D composite plate, the local variations as observed inR and α are already necessarily eliminated from these solved photoelastic stresses. Furthermore, these stresses also match well with those computed with the plain FEM from the homogenized composite properties.

Two correlative methods are developed for the computer-aided photoelastic analysis of orthogonal 3D textile composites comprising 6 mm×6 mm highly heterogeneous unit cells in-plane. The first method, presented in Part 1, is used for the whole-field determination of isochromatics and isoclinics; the second method, presented in Part 2, is applied for subsequent photoelastic stress analysis. Part 1 delineates precisely how one circular polariscope and two plane polariscope photoelastic images are implemented to extract the isochromatic parameterR and isoclinic parameter α using the digital image processing technique. The photoelastic experiments were performed with orthogonal 3D textile composite as well as aluminum plates containing a hole under the uniaxial tension loading. The obtained values ofR and α, for the case of the aluminum plate, are smoothly distributed over the field and show consistent agreement with those computed from finite element analysis (FEM). In the case of the composite plate, the global distribution ofR and α also agree well with FEM results employing the homogenized composite properties. However, bothR and α exhibit local variations according to the 3D fabric structure, and the varying amplitude of α is relatively larger than that ofR.

Data recorded by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, frequency deviations derived from a CW-HF Doppler sounding system, and geomagnetic field strength variations obtained from ground-based magnetometers were analyzed to study the ionospheric and geomagnetic solar flare effects. A model of flare radiation was constructed from synthetic flux intensities and satellite X ray observations, and corresponding ionospheric frequency deviation and electron density at various altitudes were calculated. The evolution of solar EUV and X ray radiation and associated maximum values responsible for frequency deviation and geomagnetic field strength for various flux intensities of the excess solar radiation were studied in detail. It was found that during a solar flare, not only the magnitude of solar radiation, but also the rate of its change dramatically affects the maximum ionospheric frequency deviation. However, the results confirmed that only the intensity of solar radiation determines the magnitude of geomagnetic field strength.

Background Obesity has been found to be associated with an increased risk of psoriasis in general population. However, studies addressing the relationship between obesity and clinical severity of psoriasis are still scarce, especially in Asian people. Objectives In this study, we investigated the relationship between levels of obesity and the clinical severity of psoriasis in Taiwanese psoriasis patients. Methods This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study. A total of 399 patients with chronic plaque psoriasis were recruited. Their body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared and was categorized into four groups (BMI

What are the immediate and long term outcomes of patients who had rupture of the left ventricle after mitral valve replacement?A retrospective study with a 20-year follow-up.Experience in a single tertiary referral cardiothoracic surgery hospital.20 out of 3105 patients that received mitral valve replacement.All these 20 patients received re-exploration for a trial of repair of left ventricular rupture either by an internal or an external or a combined repair.Operative mortality and long term outcome of the survivals.Most patients (16.80%) were female and had rheumatic mitral valve disease. The mean age of the patients was 58.1 years. All patients underwent attempted repair, usually by removal of the prosthesis and reconstitution of the ventricle from within the left atrium (75%). Thirteen (65%) patients died. Two late deaths were of unrelated cause. One surviving patient developed a late ventricular false aneurysm but did not undergo repeat surgery. One patient developed severe mitral regurgitation due to tissue failure of the bioprosthesis 12 years after surgery and she underwent a successful reoperation.We believe that all patients should be placed back on cardiopulmonary bypass for an internal repair. The long term outcome of the survivals is satisfactory.

To review the results of complete surgical resection of pulmonary metastasis -- a ten-year experience.Retrospective analysis of all patients with lung secondaries who received complete surgical resection of pulmonary metastases (from 1984 to 1995) in Grantham Hospital, Hong Kong. Sixty patients over a 10-year period were studied.Eighty thoracotomies were performed with 88 tumour nodules excised. The follow-up period ranged from 5 months to 111 months.Thirteen (14.8%) specimens were found to have tumour size greater than 5.0 cm. This may reflect late detection of metastatic tumour and probably accounts for the higher percentage of our patients receiving more major lung resections (63.3%) than just wedge resections (36.6%). The mean survival period for the subgroup with hepatocellular carcinoma was 28.2 months and for the nasopharyngeal carcinoma group was 25 months. The mean survival of the whole group was 26.4 months.The favourable outcome for hepatocellular carcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma could be due to the result of selection of patients with more favourable prognosis for surgery. The latent period, using 12 months as a break-off point, did not affect patient survival in our study.

Graft-versus-host disease in solid organ transplantation is very rare, but the prognosis is poor when the condition causes pancytopenia. We report a case of graft-versus-host disease in a heart-lung transplant recipient who at 2 weeks after transplantation had development of features of graft-versus-host disease, including bone marrow aplasia, that could not be attributed to drugs or viral infections. The diagnosis was confirmed by skin biopsy and demonstration of chimerism of peripheral lymphocytes. Augmentation of immunosuppression with intravenous methylprednisolone resulted in improvement in liver function but had no effect on the pancytopenia. Mediastinal irradiation was given with increase in both white blood cell and platelet counts. Unfortunately the patient eventually died of gastrointestinal bleeding and fungemia.

A snore elimination device includes a base having a wrist belt so as to be connected to a user's wrist, and a cover is mounted on the base. A circuit board is received in the base and a power source is connected to the circuit board. A control arrangement is located on the circuit board and includes a sound magnifying circuit which magnifies the snores and sends the magnified snore to a sound transferring circuit which transfers the sound to a control circuit which activates a driving circuit and drives a vibration motor. The user receives the vibration and changes sleep poses.

The apparent association velocity constant (k'c) was determined before and after disruption of the red blood cell membrane in one of several ways: 1) radiation of the cells using a 137Cs source did not significantly alter k'c (95 +/- 39.3 and 118 +/- 35.5 mM-1.s-1), 2) incubation of the cells with sialidase produced no change in k'c (112 +/- 42.6 and 123 +/- 46.8 mM-1.s-1), 3) using papain for the incubation similarly produced no significant alteration in k'c (94 +/- 21.2 and 113 +/- 51.8 mM-1.s-1), 4) a radiomimetic agent p-chloromercuribenzene sulfonate likewise produced no significant alteration in k'c (128 +/- 16.3 and 122 +/- 3.5 mM-1.s-1), and 5) employing phospholipase C to disrupt the membrane k'c did not significantly change (115 +/- 15.3 and 112 +/- 8.7 mM-1.s-1). We conclude that either O2 traverses the membrane in a manner uninfluenced by the manipulations here employed, or that the membrane offers no significant resistance to the speed of O2 uptake.

A preparation of bacteriophage T4-induced deoxyribonucleotide synthetase complex is described. This very large complex of enzymes can be separated by centrifugation at 100,000 X g, by sucrose step gradient centrifugation, or with molecular exclusion columns. By direct assay and by unidimensional and two-dimensional acrylamide electrophoretic separations the following T4-coded enzymes were shown to be associated with the complex: ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase, dCMP deaminase, dCTP/dUTPase, dCMP hydroxymethylase, dTMP synthetase, and DNA polymerase. Other phage-coded prereplicative proteins related to DNA replication and other phage functions such as the proteins coded by genes 32, 46, rIIA, and rIIB as well as many unidentified proteins were also consistently associated with the isolated fractions. T4 DNA topoisomerase, a membrane-bound enzyme, was found in quantity in all purified fractions of the complex, even in preparations apparently free of membrane and of T4 DNA. The functional integrity of a segment of the complex was followed by measuring the conversion of [5-3H]CDP to the level of 5-hydroxymethyl dCMP. This series of reactions requires the actions of T4-coded ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase and its associated reducing system, dCTP/dUTPase and dCMP hydroxymethylase, 3H being lost to water at the last step. In this reaction sequence an intermediate, [5-3H]dCMP, is maintained at low steady state concentrations, and argument is presented that the synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides is channeled and normally tightly coupled to DNA replication. One of the primary characteristics of this complex is its ready dissociation of dilution into smaller complexes of proteins and to the free forms of the proteins. That the complex is held together by weak electrostatic forces was supported by its sensitivity to dissociation at moderate salt concentrations. Not only the enzymes required in deoxyribonucleotide synthesis but T4 DNA polymerase, T4 DNA topoisomerase, and a number of other proteins dissociate to varying degrees from the larger complexes under these conditions.

Midgut proteins from the silkworms, Bombyx mori, fed on an artificial diet containing dried powder of the spiral blue-green alga, Spirulina platensis, had a very low fluorescence intensity. This indicated that chlorophyll in this alga is not utilizable for synthesizing the red fluorescent protein (RFP) which has been considered as an effective antiviral protein in silkworm midgut. Many electrophoretic bands of the midgut proteins from the mulberry-fed silkworms emitted red fluorescence under UV light. It is thus concluded that the RFP as a whole is more than one midgut protein. Enzymatic analyses showed that silkworms fed on mulberry leaves and artificial diets had similar protease activities, but they had different phospholipase C activities. Therefore, it is suggested that the antiviral activity of purified RFP in the silkworm gut juice is attributable to phospholipase C. RESUME Proteines antivirales de l'intestin moyen de Vers a Soie, Bombyx mori, eleves sur differents aliments. Les proteines de l'intestin moyen de Bombyx mori, nourri avec un aliment artificiel contenant de la poudre sechee de l'algue bleue spiralee, Spirulina pratensis, avaient une tres faible fluorescence. Ceci indique que la chlorophylle a de cette algue n'est pas utilisable pour la synthese de la proteine fluorescente rouge (RFP), consideree comme une proteine antivirale efficace de l'intestin moyen. Apres separation par electrophorese sur gel de polyacrylamine DISC plusieurs bandes de la proteine de l'intestin moyen de B. mori eleve sur murier emettaient une fluorescence rouge en lumiere U.V. On peut conclure que RFP est un complexe plutot qu'une proteine particuliere de l'intestin moyen. Les analyses enzymatiques ont montre que la phospholipase C et non les proteases ont une activite antivirale dans la RFP purifiee provenant de vers a soie nourris a partir de murier ou sur regime artificiel.

A preparation of bacteriophage T4-induced deoxyribonucleotide synthetase complex is described. This very large complex of enzymes can be separated by centrifugation at 100,000 X g, by sucrose step gradient centrifugation, or with molecular exclusion columns. By direct assay and by unidimensional and two-dimensional acrylamide electrophoretic separations the following T4-coded enzymes were shown to be associated with the complex: ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase, dCMP deaminase, dCTP/dUTPase, dCMP hydroxymethylase, dTMP synthetase, and DNA polymerase. Other phage-coded prereplicative proteins related to DNA replication and other phage functions such as the proteins coded by genes 32, 46, rIIA, and rIIB as well as many unidentified proteins were also consistently associated with the isolated fractions. T4 DNA topoisomerase, a membrane-bound enzyme, was found in quantity in all purified fractions of the complex, even in preparations apparently free of membrane and of T4 DNA. The functional integrity of a segment of the complex was followed by measuring the conversion of [5-3H]CDP to the level of 5-hydroxymethyl dCMP. This series of reactions requires the actions of T4-coded ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase and its associated reducing system, dCTP/dUTPase and dCMP hydroxymethylase, 3H being lost to water at the last step. In this reaction sequence an intermediate, [5-3H]dCMP, is maintained at low steady state concentrations, and argument is presented that the synthesis of deoxyribonucleotides is channeled and normally tightly coupled to DNA replication. One of the primary characteristics of this complex is its ready dissociation of dilution into smaller complexes of proteins and to the free forms of the proteins. That the complex is held together by weak electrostatic forces was supported by its sensitivity to dissociation at moderate salt concentrations. Not only the enzymes required in deoxyribonucleotide synthesis but T4 DNA polymerase, T4 DNA topoisomerase, and a number of other proteins dissociate to varying degrees from the larger complexes under these conditions.

In two patients, several chordae tendineae of the mural leaflet were preserved during mitral valve replacement. Hemorrhagic necrosis and spontaneous rupture of the preserved posterior papillary muscle led to disc entrapment and the death of both patients.

Ten male patients with extensive primary endodermal sinus tumor of the mediastinum were treated with chemotherapy (with or without surgical excision and radiation therapy) between 1977 and 1985. Three patients, treated with cyclophosphamide-vincristine-based chemotherapy, died 1.5, 2.5, and 6.0 months, respectively, after initial diagnosis. Of the seven patients treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy, one patient died of septicemia at 2.5 months after diagnosis and was disease-free at autopsy examination. Three other patients died of progressive disease at 7.0, 13.0, and 14.0 months, respectively. The three survivors remain alive at 17.0, 31.0, and 40.0 months from diagnosis; all are without evidence of disease. Of the three patients who underwent excision of the residual mediastinal tumor after cisplatin-based chemotherapy, persistent local disease was found in two patients. One of these two patients died of recurrent disease. All surviving patients had surgical resection of the tumor either before or after cisplatin-based chemotherapy, with or without radiotherapy and the timing of therapeutic interventions was guided by changes in the serum alpha-fetoprotein concentrations after initial therapy and during follow-up. Our experience suggests that the optimal management of patients with primary mediastinal endodermal sinus tumor requires an aggressive multidisciplinary approach guided by the extent of the tumor and the serum tumor marker levels.