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Superhydrophobic TC4 Ti alloy is essential for economical use in modern machinery. Herein, a novel superhydrophobic pattern textured TC4 Ti alloy surface with a self-assembled molecular film was fabricated by an efficient nanosecond laser ablation (laser surface texturing (LST)) and a facile chemical modification method. Further, the transformation of the surface morphology and chemical composition was analysed. Upon adjusting the laser fluence, scanning velocity and scanning distance, the maximum water and saline contact angles of the laser surface textured and chemically treated surface reached 155.5 ±0.8° and 152.5 ±1.3°, respectively. The tribological behaviour of the patterned surfaces was investigated under dry-sliding and liquid-sliding conditions. High density textures exhibited the greatest potential for lubrication under water and saline lubrication conditions. In a dry environment, a scattered-line pattern textured surface also showed a friction reducing effect, similar to that under saline sliding conditions. Finally, the anti-wear mechanism was further explained considering the morphology and wettability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that synthetic hydrogels are investigated extensively in tissue engineering for their tunable physicochemical properties but are bioinert and lack the tissue-specific cues to produce appropriate biological responses. The authors we have developed a modular hydrogel cross-linker that can be functionalized with small peptide-based cues and large macromolecular cues simply by mixing PdBT in water with the appropriate biomolecules at room temperature.

We report a continuous wave (CW) and passive Q-switching operation of a Nd:YAG ceramic laser at 1112 nm by using a concave-plane cavity, which has not been found in the previous literature but of great potential. A maximum output power of 1.36 W was obtained at the pumped power of 11.30 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 12.0% and a slope efficiency of 15.1%. We inserted the Cr4+:YAG saturable absorber with initial transmission of 80.0% into the cavity and the maximum average output power of 713 mW was realized at the pumped power of 11.20 W, the minimum pulse width is 8 ns with the pulse repetition rate of 10.8 KHz, corresponding to the signal pulse energy and the maximum peak power of 66 μJ and 8.25 kW, respectively. These unique strengths of Nd:YAG ceramic laser at 1112 nm thereby open up new opportunities in light source to integrated optical processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If adolescents do not receive appropriate assistance in quitting smoking, they are highly likely to become regular smokers when they enter adulthood. Thus, an effective smoking-cessation program is required. A program was designed based on both the smoking-cessation barriers reported by students and effective strategies derived from the literature. We assigned 143 student smokers from 6 vocational high schools to intervention (n=78) and comparison groups (n=65). Data were collected at the baseline, the end of the program, and 1- and 4-month follow-up time points. For the intervention group, the smoking-abstinence rates confirmed using the urine cotinine test were 22.73% at the end of the program and 20.75% at the 4-month follow-up point. Days smoked in the past month, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence score of the intervention group decreased at all of the time points. The group differences in these variables were statistically significant; the magnitude of effect sizes ranged from 0.44 to 0.95. Multicomponent programs addressing smoking-cessation barriers that students encounter can help adolescents quit smoking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The entanglement dynamics of three-qubit states under an XY spin chain at finite temperature with three-site interaction is investigated. It is shown that the three-site interaction does not affect the behavior of quantum phase transition (QPT) induced by the external magnetic field and does not induce new critical regions in the XY model. In addition, concerned with the effect of the three-site interaction on the entanglement evolution, we find the three-site interaction can not only enhance but also suppress the decay of the entanglement between the three-qubit system, which depends on the initial states of the system and the parameters related with the environmental spin chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differentially expressed genes in eggplant ( Solanum torvum SW) during root infection with Verticillium dahliae were identified using cDNA-amplified restriction fragment polymorphism (cDNA-AFLP) approach. A total of 140 differential transcript-derived fragments (TDFs) were isolated, in which 79 TDFs were up-regulated, and 34 TDFs were down-regulated after inoculation. BLAST analysis showed that 51% of these TDFs belonged to function-known genes. Further analysis on six TDFs (TDF11, TDF14, TDF16, TDF25, TDF26, and TDF39), which represented different expression patterns, was done. TDF11, encoding cytochrome c oxidase, appeared in 24 h after inoculation; TDF14, encoding retrotransposon protein, disappeared in 6 h after treatment; TDF16, encoding bZIP transcription factor, began to express only in 72 h after inoculation; TDF25, encoding senescence-associated protein, was present between 6 and 24 h; TDF26, encoding cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, and TDF39, encoding metallophosphoesterase, were up-regulated during the entire period after inoculation. Results obtained demonstrated that the defense of S. torvum against V. dahliae is a complex multigene process, which studying is helpful for better understanding verticillium wilt resistance of S. torvum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two wavelength converters based on cascaded harmonic and difference frequency generation using a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide under continuous-wave pumping or pulsed-wave pumping are demonstrated. The converted spectra, the temporal waveforms for 40 G non-return-to-zero pseudorandom binary sequence, are observed and compared to evaluate the performance of these two wavelength converters. The difference of bit transferring road and conversion process between two wavelength converters leads into different results. The information converting is completely transparent in the continuous-wave pumping wavelength conversion, whereas it is changed in pulsed pumping application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the thermal entanglement in the two-qubit Heisenberg XXZ model with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, and teleport an unknown state using the model in thermal equilibrium state as a quantum channel. The effects of DM interaction, including Dx and Dz interaction, the anisotropy and temperature on the entanglement and fully entangled fraction are considered. What deserves mentioning here is that for the antiferromagnetic case, the Dx interaction can be more helpful for increasing the entanglement and critical temperature than Dz, but this cannot for teleportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel planar monopole antenna for the digital video broadcasting (DVB) signal reception in the UHF band (470-862 MHz) and mobile communications in the GSM850/900 band (824-960 MHz) is presented. The proposed antenna consists of a modified planar monopole and a rectangular ground plane with two planar sleeves. By adjusting the sleeves, a wide bandwidth can be obtained easily. The influence of various parameters on antenna characteristics has been investigated. Simulated and measured results show a wide bandwidth of 735 MHz (465 MHz-1.20 GHz) with the VSWR less than 2.0 and omni-directional radiation properties. Details of the proposed antenna design and experimental results of the constructed prototypes are presented [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact ultra-wide band printed antenna with tri-band notched characteristic is proposed. Two different types of slot are used to obtain the three stopband. By using an H-shaped slot etched on the radiation patch, two notched band, 3.3–3.6 GHz for WiMAX and 5.15–5.825 GHz for WLAN, are achieved. U-slot defected ground structure is used to achieve another notched band at 8 GHz for some satellite service. Moreover, conceptual circuit model, which is based on the impedance of the proposed antenna, is also shown to discuss the principle of the triple band-notched characteristic. The proposed antenna yields an impedance bandwidth of 3.1–10.6 GHz with VSWR < 2, except the notched bands. The antenna is successfully simulated and measured, showing tri-band rejected characteristic can be obtained by using two different slots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Differential Evolution (DE) can solve multi-objective optimization problem in an extremely efficient manner. Based on thin wire modeling, method of moments code is developed for evaluating the antenna designs. DE is employed to optimize the geometric parameters of Yagi-Uda antennas. The length and spacing of Yagi-Uda antennas are optimized variables. The results clearly show that the DE is a robust and useful optimization tool for designing antennas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A full-length cDNA of a StCONSTANS-like ( StCOL) gene was cloned from potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) by RTPCR and RACE. The predicted amino acid sequence of this cDNA has a high degree of identity with other homologous members of the CO or COL family. Analysis of mRNA levels for StCOL shows that it is highly expressed in leaves and becomes weaker during tuberization; moreover, is independent of gibberellin A3 and sucrose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The moment method (MoM) based on volume-surface integral equation (VSIE) combined with the adaptive integral method (AIM) is applied to analyze antenna array radiation in the presence of arbitrarily shaped radomes. The application of AIM reduces the computational complexity of MoM, which leads eclectically large-sized radomes with metal reflecting ground can be analyzed accurately and efficiently. Some radomes terminated by metal plane is presented and the effect of the metal plane on the radiation of antenna is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An effective pre-conditioner for the method of moments (MoM) solution to the coupled volume-surface integral equation is presented to calculate electromagnetic scattering from conducting and dielectric targets. In this MoM solution to the integral equations, the target is discretized using triangular patches for conducting surfaces and tetrahedral cells for dielectric volume. Based on the characteristics of impedance matrix, an accurate method is used to improve the convergence speed when the iterative solver is employed. In comparison with other pre-conditioners, some numerical examples are also presented with high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Myocarditis, characterized by myocyte necrosis, fibrosis, and degeneration with mononuclear cell infiltration, always causes heart failure in patients. Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) is a pivotal kinase known to regulate inflammatory responses in cardiac diseases. Although previous research has suggested that PI3K was involved in cardiac diseases such as myocardial infarction, it is still unclear whether the inhibition of PI3K is essential for the treatment of myosin-induced myocarditis. The aim of this study was to explore whether pharmacological blockade of PI3K is able to protect mice against experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM). Materials and methods We used the cardiac myosin-induced murine EAM model to investigate the therapeutic effect of PI3K inhibitor LY294002 on autoimmune myocarditis in mice. Results LY294002 significantly alleviated EAM injury in mice, as indicated by the reduction of cardiac necrosis, inflammatory infiltrates, and CD3 + T cells. LY294002 also decreased the expression of p-Akt upon cardiac myosin treatment in the cardiac tissue of the mice. In the present study, LY294002 resulted in a moderate reduction in absolute CD4 + cell numbers and a significant decrease in the absolute numbers of CD8 + cells. Consequently, LY294002 increased the CD4 + /CD8 + ratio compared with peptide treatment alone. Conclusion This report provides evidence that PI3K inhibitor LY294002 has potent effects against cardiac injury caused by EAM, suggesting that it has therapeutic value for the treatment of myocarditis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new fitness function for the genetic optimization of broadband antennas is proposed. Compared with the previous fitness functions, the one presented in this paper takes not only voltage standing wave ratio and gain but also frequency into consideration. In practical communication system, higher gain needed in the high frequency band of the antenna, so it is more suitable. An impedance matching network for an antenna in 30 MHz to 88 MHz is studied lastly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method of moments (MoM) is presented to analyze variable thick wire structure (VTWS) antennas. For the symmetric property of VTWS the antenna can be modeled with rings, and the electric flux density on it can be expanded with sinusoidal interpolation basis function. Utilizing exact thick kernel together the VTWS antenna can be analyzed by MoM with much less time than other full wave methods. To verify the validity of this technique, a conical antenna is analyzed and fabricated. The good results show the efficiency and accuracy of the method presented. A more complicated VTWS antenna composed of cylindrical discal and curvilinear tapered sections is also carried out to verify the general adaption of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel swallow-tailed wideband planar monopole antenna with semi-elliptical base is presented. The impedance and radiation properties of the proposed monopole antenna are investigated experimentally. The study indicates that the proposed monopole antenna yields the maximum bandwidth from 1.22 GHz to more than 15 GHz for VSWR<2 with the optimum ellipticity ratio of the antenna's semi-elliptical base and the height of the feeding post. The radiation performance is also discussed and shown to be acceptable over a wide frequency range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]