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In this paper, we show that electrically excited mechanical resonances can be tuned with a single dc magnetic field in strip-ring magnetoelectric composites, namely, ferrite-lead zirconate titanate (PZT) and nickel-zinc (Ni-Zn) ferrite. A theoretical model is presented to describe the magnetically tuned electromechanical resonances in the piezoelectric-magnetostrictive heterostructure, where the piezoelectric and magnetostrictive phases are coupled through normal stresses instead of shear stresses, which usually act in layered composites. As we have used only dc magnetic field that tuned electromechanical resonances, the adjustment manner can simplify application in transducers for magnetoelectric energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel actinobacterium strain, designated HUAS 2-6 T, was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Camellia oleifera Abel collected from Taoyuan County, Northwestern Hunan Province, South China. This strain was subjected to a polyphasic taxonomic study. Strain HUAS 2-6 T is characterized by morphology typical of members of the genus Streptomyces, with deep purplish vinaceous aerial mycelia and deep dull lavender substrate mycelia. Strain HUAS 2-6 T, based on the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, exhibited the highest similarities to S. puniciscabiei S77T (99.31%), S. filipinensis NBRC 12860 T (99.10%), S. yaanensis CGMCC 4.7035 T (99.09%), S. fodineus TW1S1T (99.08%), S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T (98.76%), S. achromogenes JCM 4121 T (98.69%), S. barringtoniae JA03T (98.69%), and less than 98.70% with other validly species. In phylogenomic tree, strain HUAS 2-6 T was clustered together with S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T, suggesting that they were closely related to each other. However, average nucleotide identity (ANI) and digital DNA–DNA hybridisation (dDDH) between them were much less than the species cutoff values (ANI 96.7% and dDDH 70%). Moreover, in phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics, strain HUAS 2-6 T is distinct from S. broussonetiae CICC 24819 T. On the basis of the polyphasic data, strain HUAS 2-6 T is proposed to represent a novel species, Streptomyces camelliae sp. nov. (= MCCC 1K04729T = JCM 35918 T). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing building information modeling (BIM) application in the construction industry worldwide has driven research in both the technological and managerial aspects. Existing managerial studies have not fully addressed individual perceptions of BIM implementation, especially architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) students' opinions related to BIM implementation or industry practice. As future industry professionals, AEC students' perceptions and expectations have not been compared with those of industry professionals. Adopting the student population from Swinburne University of Technology as the case study, this research initiated a questionnaire-based approach followed by statistical analysis. In all, responses of 257 AEC students to three major perception-based categories, namely BIM's usefulness, students' desired BIM-related jobs, and challenges during BIM implementation, were collected. The overall sample analysis revealed that students favored BIM-based jobs related to engineering design and project management, and they perceived less usefulness of BIM in assisting facility management and quantity surveying. Subgroup analysis showed that certain perceptions in BIMpractice would be affected by students' field of study, prior industry experience, and gender. For example, male students generally held more positive views on BIM's applicability and usefulness. AEC students in this study showed certain discernment in identifying certain contemporary BIM-related practices. However, they also had different views on challenges compared to industry professionals due to AEC students having less industry experience. In-depth discussions were provided on how these subgroup factors affected students' perceptions. This empirical study of student perceptions in BIM practice provides insights to both BIM educators and AEC employers in terms of optimizing BIM education resources between industry practice and academic research, awareness of subgroup differences in their perceptions and motivations, and similarities and differences between AEC students and industry practitioners. Based on the current findings, future research could focus on cross-institutional comparison of students' BIM-based perceptions by considering more subgroup factors. This study could also lead to future pedagogical research in adopting BIM in different project sectors (e.g., building and infrastructure). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess the predictive value of angiogenic miRNAs for disease- free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In total, 196 patients with NSCLC (tumor lymph nodes metastasis (TNM) stage I-III) were enrolled and peripheral blood samples were collected. Total RNA was extracted from blood samples, and the relative expression levels of candidate miRNAs were evaluated by real time- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The median follow- up period was 56.7 months, and the final follow- up date was in August 2016. The median DFS of all patients was 30.0 (14.0-49.0) months, whereas the median OS was 41.5 (23.0-58.0) months. Furthermore, the 5-year DFS and OS rates were 11.3% and 32.3%, respectively. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) curves showed that high plasma miR-18a (P < 0.001), miR-20a (P < 0.001), miR-92a (P < 0.001), miR-126 (P < 0.001), miR-210 (P = 0.003), and miR-19a (P = 0.027) expressions levels correlated with a worse DFS. Moreover, patients with high plasma miR-18a, miR-20a, miR-92a, miR-210, and miR-126 expression levels had a shorter OS than patients with low expression levels of these miRNAs (all P <= 0.001). Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that high plasma expression levels of miR-18a, miR-20a, and miR-92a as well as lymphatic node metastasis (all P < 0.001) were independent risk factors for both DFS and OS in patients with NSCLC. Thus, the circulating miR-18a, miR-20a, and miR-92a levels may serve as novel and promising prognostic biomarkers in patients with NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparation and Supercooling Modification of Salt Hydrate Phase Change Materials Based on CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2 Salt hydrates have issues of supercooling when they are utilized as phase change materials (PCMs). In this research, a new method was adopted to prepare a salt hydrate PCM (based on a mixture of calcium chloride dihydrate and calcium chloride anhydrous) as a novel PCM system to reduce the supercooling phenomenon existing in CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2. Six samples with different compositions of CaCl2 were prepared. The relationship between the performance and the proportion of calcium chloride dihydrate (CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2) and calcium chloride anhydrous (CaCl2) was also investigated. The supercooling degree of the final PCM reduced with the increase in volume of CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2 during its preparation. The PCM obtained with 66.21 wt %CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2 reduced the supercooling degree by about 96.8%. All six samples, whose ratio of CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2 to (CaCl2 plus CaCl2·2H2O/CaCl2) was 0%, 34.03%, 53.82%, 76.56%, 90.74%, and 100% respectively, showed relatively higher enthalpy (greater than 155.29 J/g), and have the possibility to be applied in buildings for thermal energy storage purposes. Hence, CaCl2·2H2O plays an important role in reducing supercooling and it can be helpful in adjusting the solidification enthalpy. Thereafter, the influence of adding different percentages of Nano-SiO2 (0.1 wt %, 0.3 wt %, 0.5 wt %) in reducing the supercooling degree of some PCM samples was investigated. The test results showed that the supercooling of the salt hydrate PCM in Samples 6 and 5 reduced to 0.2 °C and 0.4 °C respectively. Finally, the effect of the different cooling conditions, including frozen storage (-20 °C) and cold storage (5 °C), that were used to prepare the salt hydrate PCM was considered. It was found that both cooling conditions are effective in reducing the supercooling degree of the salt hydrate PCM. With the synergistic action of the two materials, the performance and properties of the newly developed PCM systems were better especially in terms of reducing the supercooling degree of the PCM. The novel composite PCMs are promising candidates for thermal energy storage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances have substantially increased the number of genes that are statistically associated with complex genetic disorders of the CNS such as autism and schizophrenia. It is now clear that there will likely be hundreds of distinct loci contributing to these disorders, underscoring a remarkable genetic heterogeneity. It is unclear whether this genetic heterogeneity indicates an equal heterogeneity of cellular mechanisms for these diseases. The commonality of symptoms across patients suggests there could be a functional convergence downstream of these loci upon a limited number of cell types or circuits that mediate the affected behaviors. One possible mechanism for this convergence would be the selective expression of at least a subset of these genes in the cell types that comprise these circuits. Using profiling data from mice and humans, we have developed and validated an approach, cell type-specific expression analysis, for identifying candidate cell populations likely to be disrupted across sets of patients with distinct genetic lesions. Using human genetics data and postmortem gene expression data, our approach can correctly identify the cell types for disorders of known cellular etiology, including narcolepsy and retinopathies. Applying this approach to autism, a disease where the cellular mechanism is unclear, indicates there may be multiple cellular routes to this disorder. Our approach may be useful for identifying common cellular mechanisms arising from distinct genetic lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose an analytical framework to build a microfluidic microsphere-trap array device that enables simultaneous, efficient, and accurate screening of multiple biological targets in a single microfluidic channel. By optimizing the traps' geometric parameters, the trap arrays in the channel of the device can immobilize microspheres of different sizes at different regions, obeying hydrodynamically engineered trapping mechanism. Different biomolecules can be captured by the ligands on the surfaces of microspheres of different sizes. They are thus detected according to the microspheres' positions (position encoding), which simplifies screening and avoids target identification errors. To demonstrate the proposition, we build a device for simultaneous detection of two target types by trapping microspheres of two sizes. We evaluate the device performance using finite element fluidic dynamics simulations and microsphere-trapping experiments. These results validate that the device efficiently achieves position encoding of the two-sized microspheres with few fluidic errors, providing the promise to utilize our framework to build devices for simultaneous detection of more targets. We also envision utilizing the device to separate, sort, or enumerate cells, such as circulating tumor cells and blood cells, based on cell size and deformability. Therefore, the device is promising to become a cost-effective and point-of-care miniaturized disease diagnostic tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we represent the performance of an ejector used in the CO2 heat pump water heater system by means of experimental and theoretical studies. This work accounts for the effects of primary flow pressure, entrained flow pressure and back pressure on the entrainment ratio in off-design conditions. The performance of the ejector is experimentally investigated in a CO2-ejector test rig. Using ejector characteristic-curve equations, we provide predictions in good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, the model predictions will be utilized as a design tool for optimizing the performance of next generation ejector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The rapid growth and new development of internet technologies have provided many significant opportunities for cost reduction and service improvement for the supply chain. However, the adoption of the interact technologies in agribusiness supply chains (SC), especially the flesh produce supply chain, is still slow and far behind other sectors. This paper is about the EU funded project VEGNET (Enhancing Vegetable Supply Chain Management with internet Technologies) which aims to accelerate the speed of internet adoption among fresh produce supply chains involving small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper first introduces the project's objectives and approaches. It then presents some key findings from a survey conducted with United Kingdom SMEs in fresh produce supply chains. These findings provide actual insights into the current internet and software usage of the United Kingdom SMEs and help to reveal gaps between Europe and China. Findings and implications from the project's other activities, such as case studies and surveys in China are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Perioperative pain after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) may seriously affect the rapid recovery of patients. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the combined use of adductor canal block (ACB) and local infiltration anesthesia (LIA) can further reduce postoperative pain and improve early functional recovery. Materials and methods: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing ACB + LIA and LIA alone in primary TKA. The primary outcomes were visual analog scale (VAS) scores at rest and walking, morphine consumption, range of motion (ROM) at 24 and 48 h postoperatively and distance walked. The secondary outcomes were the length of stay, the incidence of nausea and vomiting, and the total complications. Subgroup analyses were performed on the VAS at rest and walking, morphine consumption, and distance walked at 24, 48, and 72 h postoperatively. Results: A total of 10 RCTs involving 797 patients were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The results demonstrated that the combined application of ACB + LIA had a lower resting VAS at 24 h postoperatively (p = 0.02) and the walking score at 24 (p = 0.0002) and 48 h (p = 0.02) postoperatively compared with LIA alone. Similarly, the combined ACB + LIA group also had less morphine consumption at 48 h postoperatively (p = 0.0005) and had a higher ROM score at 24 h (p = 0.01) postoperatively compared to the LIA group. There were no statistical differences in length of stay, distance walked, and incidence of nausea and vomiting. Conclusion: The current meta-analysis showed that ACB + LIA significantly reduced postoperative walking pain and morphine consumption and promoted rapid recovery in the early postoperative period. There is no statistical difference in the length of stay and ROM after 72 h in the two groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to growth in population, Individual persons with disabilities are increasing daily. To overcome the disability especially in Locked in State (LIS) due to Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), we planned to design four states moving robot from four imagery tasks signals acquired from three electrode systems by placing the electrodes in three positions namely T1, T3 and FP1. At the time of the study we extract the features from Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) and trained with Optimized Neural Network model to analyze the features. The proposed network model showed the highest performances with an accuracy of 93.86 % then that of conventional network model. To confirm the performances we conduct offline test. The offline test also proved that new network model recognizing accuracy was higher than the conventional network model with recognizing accuracy of 97.50 %. To verify our result we conducted Information Transfer Rate (ITR), from this analysis we concluded that optimized network model outperforms the other network models like conventional ordinary Feed Forward Neural Network, Time Delay Neural Network and Elman Neural Networks with an accuracy of 21.67 bits per sec. By analyzing classification performances, recognizing accuracy and Information Transformation Rate (ITR), we concluded that CWT features with optimized neural network model performances were comparably greater than that of normal or conventional neural network model and also the study proved that performances of male subjects was appreciated compared to female subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the central nervous system (CNS), the myelin sheath ensures efficient interconnection between neurons and contributes to the regulation of the proper function of neuronal networks. The maintenance of myelin and the well-organized subtle process of myelin plasticity requires cooperation among myelin-forming cells, glial cells, and neural networks. The process of cooperation is fragile, and the balance is highly susceptible to disruption by microenvironment influences. Reactive microglia play a critical and complicated role in the demyelination and remyelination process. Recent studies have shown that the voltage-gated proton channel Hv1 is selectively expressed in microglia in CNS, which regulates intracellular pH and is involved in the production of reactive oxygen species, underlying multifaceted roles in maintaining microglia function. This paper begins by examining the molecular mechanisms of demyelination and emphasizes the crucial role of the microenvironment in demyelination. It focuses specifically on the role of Hv1 in myelin repair and its therapeutic potential in CNS demyelinating diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance analysis of a supercritical organic Rankine cycle system driven by exhaust heat using 18 organic working fluids is presented. Several parameters, such as the net power output, exergy efficiency, expander size parameter (SP), and heat exchanger requirement of evaporator and the condenser, were used to evaluate the performance of this recovery cycle and screen the working fluids. The results reveal that in most cases, raising the expander inlet temperature is helpful to improve the net power output and the exergy efficiency. However, the effect of the expander inlet pressure on those parameters is related to the expander inlet temperature and working fluid used. Either lower expander inlet temperature and pressure, or higher expander inlet temperature and pressure, generally makes the net power output more. Lower expander inlet temperature results in larger total heat transfer requirement and expander size. According to the screening criteria of both the higher output and the lower investment, the following working fluids for the supercritical ORC system are recommended: R152a and R143a. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]