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Additional file 1. Materials and Methods. Fig. S1. Severe GVHD associated with higher LDH and ferritin in blood. Fig. S2. The incidence and persistance of GVHD according to the degree of HLA matching. A Early GVHD in patients receiving haploidentical donor cells and matched unrelated donor or matched sibling donor cells (MUD/MSD). B Late-onset GVHD in patients receiving haploidentical donor cells and matched unrelated donor or matched sibling donor cells (MUD/MSD). C Persistence of early GVHD between patients receiving haploidentical donor cells and MUD/MSD cells. D Persistence of late-onset GVHD between patients receiving haploidentical donor cells and MUD/MSD cells. Fig. S3. EBV and CMV viral load in the plasma. A Copy numbers of CMV DNA in plasma of individual patients. B Copy numbers of EBV DNA in plasma of individual patients. Fig. S4. Kaplan-Meier curves of duration of response after CD7 CAR T-cell therapy. A Kaplan-Meier curves of duration of response in all responded patients after CD7 CAR T-cell therapy. B Kaplan-Meier curves of duration of response in subgroups according to SCT after CD7 CAR T-cell therapy. Fig. S5. Representative staining of T, NK and NKT cells in the peripheral blood of a patient. Fig. S6. CD4+ and CD8+ T cell ratio in the peripheral blood of all patients. Fig. S7. Characterization of CD7- T cells from patients post CD7 CAR T-cell therapy. A CD45RA, CD62L and CD95 expression on CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from E018 at month 20 post CD7 CAR T-cell therapy and a healthy donor, as determined by flow cytometry. B T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing data, including the sum of the sequencing reads, TCR clones reconstructing from the sequencing reads and shannon entropy as an index of TCR Vβ usage diversity from indicated patients and healthy donors. C The number of T cells secreting IFN-γ in PBMCs from indicated patients, and healthy donors, after stimulation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA, as positive control), cytomegalovirus (CMV) or Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) peptide, as determined by IFN-γ ELISPOT assay. Table S1. Adverse events of special interest in all 20 treated patients and by subgroups. Table S2. The degree of HLA matching and GVHD. Table S3. Chimerism status after CAR T-cell infusion in all 20 treated patients.

RE-Ba-Cu-O (RE denotes rare earth elements) single-grain superconductors have garnered considerable attention owning to their ability to trap strong magnetic field and self-stability for maglev. Here, we employed a modified melt-growth method by adding liquid source (LS) to provide a liquid rich environment during crystal growth. It further enables a significantly low maximum processing temperature (Tmax) even approaching peritectic decomposition temperature. This method was referred as the liquid source rich low Tmax (LS+LTmax) growth method which combines the advantage of Top Seeded Infiltration Growth (TSIG) into Top Seeded Melt-texture Growth (TSMG). The LS+LTmax method synergistically regulates the perfect appearance and high superconducting performance in REBCO single grains. The complementary role of liquid source and low Tmax on the crystallization has been carefully investigated. Microstructure analysis demonstrates that the LS+LTmax processed GdBCO single grains show clear advantages of uniform distribution of RE3+ ions as well as RE211 particles. The inhibition of Gd211 coarsening leads to improved pining properties. GdBCO single-grain superconductors with diameter of 18 mm and 25 mm show maximum trapped magnetic field of 0.746 T and 1.140 T at 77 K. These trapped fields are significantly higher than those of conventional TSMG samples. Particularly, at grain boundaries with reduced RE211 density superior flux pinning performance has been observed. It indicates the existence of multiple pinning mechanisms at these areas. The presented strategy provides essential LS+LTmax technology for processing high performance single-grain superconductors with improved reliability which is considered important for engineering applications.

Flower color is one of the most important qualitative characteristics of ornamental horticultural plants, which mainly depends on anthocyanins and carotenoids. Modification of flower color in ornamental plants involves many aspects, including complicated structural gens, transcription factors and metabolic pathways. Anthocyanins are important secondary metabolites in the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, which mainly derive from six anthocyanidins. Anthocyanin has antioxidant activity, protects plants and performs some other functions. Studying the genes and regulatory factors in the biosynthesis pathway will contribute to cultivating novel flower color plants and to improving plants’ resistance. To date, a series of structural and regulatory genes that are involved in anthocyanin synthesis and color formation have been reported, whose functions have also been revealed. Some color-related transgenic flowers have been successfully obtained. Carotenoids are the source of the yellow pigments in the petals of many flowers. The carotenoid biosynthesis pathway as well as its major enzymes and genes are conducive to regulate its biosynthesis via genetic engineering methods and thereby changing the color of flowers. In this paper, we review the plant flower color in terms of mechanisms of plant pigment formation, classification of flower color, biosynthesis pathway, and genes related to anthocyanin formation. Subsequently, we analyze the regulating mechanism of the expression of these genes, including transcription regulation and post-transcription regulation. The methods and achievements in flower color improvement in recent years are summarized. Finally, analyzing the molecular regulatory network in flower color formation provides a theoretical basis for the improvement and modification of flower color.

As the topic of Talent Development (TD) gets more research attention in Western business, the need for understanding the nature and the scope of TD activities in an Eastern business context increases. This study investigated the perceptions of HR managers in Chinese firms of the value of different TD practices with Chinese firms, with specific attention to the perceived value of the MBA as a TD practice. Adopting a semi-structured interview method, this qualitative research involved sixteen interviews with HR managers from MNCs (Multi-national companies), Locals (Local private companies) and JV (Joint ventures) in Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai. A five-dimension model of human capital: scholastic capital, social capital, culture capital, inner-value capital and market-value capital, developed by Useen & Karable (1986) and Baruch (2009) was adopted as the theoretical model to guide the evaluation of HR managers’ perceptions of the MBA. The first finding of this study revealed that although, all 16 participants’ organisations adopted an “exclusive-developable” perspective towards talent and TD, there was a lack of clarity about how to define “talent”. Each of the HR managers preferred their own ways to identify the potential of talent. HR managers from Local firms mostly focused on measurements carrying strong features of organizational culture, while the MNC respondents stressed the importance of psychological assessment with quantitative measurements. The second finding indicated a number of TD practices implemented in these organisations, among which “on-the-job training” appeared to be the most widely adopted and the most effective method. Although MBA sponsoring program has become less popular than it used to be, findings showed an overall improvement in all five human capital dimensions gained from MBA. Of the five values, scholastic capital and social capital were perceived as the highest values received. Meanwhile, findings also suggested a decline in culture capital and market-value capital value of MBA in the past 5-10 years. In general, compared with MNC counterparts, Local HR managers perceived higher value from MBA programs. Another noteworthy finding was that both national culture and institutional culture influenced TD implementation as well as the perceived value gained from the MBA. In particular, Confucian values, such as “respect education and scholars” and “importance of Guanxi” played an important role on talent strategies and TD practices in China. However, Western management values has also a significant impact on the business management philosophies of the Chinese organisations, especially within the MNCs. Considering the lack of empirical studies in a Chinese context and lack of focusing on HR professionals’ perspectives in this field, this study can contribute to ongoing research and practice of TD. The implications may help to position and redesign future TD programs in Chinese and Eastern context. It may also provide insights for MBA providers to reorganize the curriculum to address changing perceptions of the value of the MBA.

In the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase globally in the use of mobile devices and mobile technologies. While mobile technologies have played a significant role in communications generally within business settings, the increasing use of mobile devices for employee's learning and development in workplace has caused much attention for researchers and human resource development (HRD) practitioners. This study aims to gain a greater understanding of the key characteristics of m-learning in a Chinese business setting, which is the world's largest market for mobile devices and mobile technologies. A mixed methods research approach of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed, which involved an online survey of 665 responses and semi - structured interviews with 40 employees from four business organisations in China. A number of findings were discovered from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses. First, the conditions appear favourable for m-learning to flourish in Chinese business settings, in terms of the high mobile device penetration, heavy mobile usage, and the increasing adoption of m-learning at workplace. Second, this study find s that employees in the Chinese business setting have generally positive perceptions of using mobile devices for learning. Third, this study identifies 19 themes of personal benefits and 17 organisational benefits of m-learning perceived by the respondents, which can be classified into three central themes: "Autonomy", "Real-world Relevance" and "Collaboration and Networking". Fourth, this study highlight s four concerns and three improvement areas of adopting m-learning in a Chinese business context. Fifth, while there are similarities between the characteristics of Chinese m - learning and the m - learning in the Western context, this study indicates a number of important differences; for example, the perceived importance levels of the affordances of m-learning, the ranking of the central themes regarding m-learning, and the perceived organisational benefits of m-learning. Based on the finding s of this study, the key characteristics of m-learning in a Chinese business setting are identified and the relationship between Chinese m-learning and Western m-learning is discussed.

This paper introduces a control strategy to reject voltage measurement errors in the three-phase PWM rectifier system. The dc offset and gain-error caused by the voltage measurement will cause the DC component and harmonic current to be injected into the three-phase input current and subsequently lead to voltage ripple at the dc output voltage. To address this problem, a new control strategy based on proportional-integral and quasi-resonant (PI-QR) controller is proposed. Because the gain of the ideal resonant controller is infinity great at the resonant frequency, zero steady-state error control can be achieved for sinusoidal signal of the resonant frequency. By connecting the resonant controller in parallel with the current loop proportional-integral controller and compensating the harmonic currents, the current waveform can be improved and the DC voltage ripple can also be suppressed with it. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed method are demonstrated by simulation results.

The report describes the EmoViz project for the Multimedia, Hypertext, and Information Access Capstone at Virginia Tech during the Spring 2018 semester. The goal of the EmoViz project is to develop a tool that generates and displays visualizations made from Facial Action Coding System (FACS) emotion data. The client, Dr. Steven D. Sheetz, is a Professor of Accounting and Information Systems at Virginia Tech. Dr. Sheetz conducted a research project in 2009 to determine how human emotions are affected when a subject is confronted with analyzing a business audit. In the study, an actor was hired to record a five minute video of a simulated business audit in which they read a pre-written script containing specific visual cues at highlighted points throughout the duration of the audit. Participants of the study were divided into two groups, each of which was given a distinct set of accounting data to review prior to watching the simulation video. The first group received accounting data that had purposely been altered in a way that would indicate the actor was committing fraud by lying to the auditor. The second group received accounting data that correctly corresponded to the actor’s script so that it would appear there was no fraud committed. All participants watched the simulation video while their face movements were tracked using the Noldus FaceReader software to catalog emotional states. FaceReader samples data points on the face every 33 milliseconds and uses a proprietary algorithm to quantify the following emotions at each sampling: neutral, happy, sad, angry, surprise, and disgust. After cataloging roughly 9,000 data rows per participant, Dr. Sheetz adjusted the data and exported each set into .csv files. From there, the EmoViz team uploaded these files into the newly developed system where the data was then processed using Apache Spark. Using Spark’s virtual cluster computing, the .csv data was transformed into DataFrames which helps to map each emotion to a named column. These named columns were then queried in order to generate visualizations and display certain emotions over time. Additionally, the queries helped to compare and contrast different data sets so the client could analyze the visualizations. After the analysis, the client could draw conclusions about how human emotions are affected when confronted with a business audit. EmoViz_Final_Presentation.pdf - PDF of final presentation EmoViz_Final_Presentation.pptx - PowerPoint of final presentation EmoViz_Final_Report.docx - Word document of final report EmoViz_Final_Report.pdf - PDF of final report EmoViz.tar - Compressed archive of python scripts

The compact and high efficiency coolers working in the liquid nitrogen temperature region play an important role in HTS Applications. Stirling type pulse tube cooler servers as a promising candidate for cooling HTS devices for its advantages such as low vibration, high reliability and low cost due to absence of the moving parts in the cold head compared with traditional coolers. However, phase shift mechanisms used in a conventional pulse tube cryocooler need to dissipate expansion power at the ambient end of the pulse tube, which leads to a lower thermodynamic efficiency than that of a Stirling cryocooler. In order to improve the efficiency and obtain a reliable cryocooler system, this article presents a pulse tube cryocooler which uses room temperature displacers as the phase shifter, which aims at providing more than 10 W cooling power at 77 K. The cryocooler with a model number of TC4189 consists of linear compressor, coaxial pulse tube and two dual-opposed ambient displacers. High pressure ratio and high frequency operation are used to increase the power density. The whole system has a total mass of 4.3 kg. At an optimum working point, a lowest no-load temperature of 44 K has been obtained and the cooling power at 80K reaches 15 W with an input electric power of 240 W, which means an efficiency of 17.1% of Carnot. The influence of displacers operating and structural parameters were investigated through simulations and experiments.

The β1,2-glucans produced by bacteria are important in invasion, survival and immunomodulation in infected hosts be they mammals or plants. However, there has been a lack of information on proteins which recognize these molecules. This is partly due to the extremely limited availability of the sequence-defined oligosaccharides and derived probes for use in the study of their interactions. Here we have used the cyclic β1,2-glucan (CβG) of the bacterial pathogen Brucella abortus, after removal of succinyl side chains, to prepare linearized oligosaccharides which were used to generate microarrays. We describe optimized conditions for partial depolymerization of the cyclic glucan by acid hydrolysis and conversion of the β1,2-gluco-oligosaccharides, with degrees of polymerization 2-13, to neoglycolipids for the purpose of generating microarrays. By microarray analyses we show that the C-type lectin receptor DC-SIGNR, like the closely related DC-SIGN we investigated earlier, binds to the β1,2-gluco-oligosaccharides, as does the soluble immune effector serum mannose-binding protein. Exploratory studies with DC-SIGN are suggestive of the recognition also of the intact CβG by this receptor. These findings open the way to unravelling mechanisms of immunomodulation mediated by β1,2-glucans in mammalian systems.\ud

The β1,2-glucans produced by bacteria are important in invasion, survival and immunomodulation in infected hosts be they mammals or plants. However, there has been a lack of information on proteins which recognize these molecules. This is partly due to the extremely limited availability of the sequence-defined oligosaccharides and derived probes for use in the study of their interactions. Here we have used the cyclic β1,2-glucan (CβG) of the bacterial pathogen Brucella abortus, after removal of succinyl side chains, to prepare linearized oligosaccharides which were used to generate microarrays. We describe optimized conditions for partial depolymerization of the cyclic glucan by acid hydrolysis and conversion of the β1,2-gluco-oligosaccharides, with degrees of polymerization 2-13, to neoglycolipids for the purpose of generating microarrays. By microarray analyses, we show that the C-type lectin receptor DC-SIGNR, like the closely related DC-SIGN we investigated earlier, binds to the β1,2-gluco-oligosaccharides, as does the soluble immune effector serum mannose-binding protein. Exploratory studies with DC-SIGN are suggestive of the recognition also of the intact CβG by this receptor. These findings open the way to unravelling mechanisms of immunomodulation mediated by β1,2-glucans in mammalian systems. Fil: Zhang, Hongtao. Imperial College London; Reino Unido. Jiangnan University; China Fil: Palma, Angelina S.. Imperial College London; Reino Unido. Universidade de Lisboa; Portugal Fil: Zhang, Yibing. Imperial College London; Reino Unido Fil: Childs, Robert A.. Imperial College London; Reino Unido Fil: Liu, Yan. Imperial College London; Reino Unido Fil: Mitchell, Daniel A.. University of Warwick; Reino Unido Fil: Guidolin, Leticia Soledad. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas ; Argentina Fil: Weigel, Wilfried. SCIENION AG; Alemania Fil: Mulloy, Barbara. Imperial College London; Reino Unido Fil: Ciocchini, Andres Eduardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas ; Argentina Fil: Feizi, Ten. Imperial College London; Reino Unido Fil: Chai, Wengang. Imperial College London; Reino Unido

Immune-driven dry eye disease primarily affects women; the cause for this sex-specific prevalence is unknown. Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) have distinct phenotypes that drive inflammation but also regulate lymphocytes and are the rate-limiting cell for generating anti-inflammatory lipoxin A4 (LXA4). Estrogen regulates the LXA4 circuit to induce delayed female-specific wound healing in the cornea. However, the role of PMNs in dry eye disease remains unexplored. We discovered an LXA4-producing tissue PMN population in the corneal limbus, lacrimal glands, and cervical lymph nodes of healthy male and female mice. These tissue PMNs, unlike inflammatory PMNs, expressed a highly amplified LXA4 circuit and were sex-specifically regulated during immune-driven dry eye disease. Desiccating stress in females, unlike in males, triggered a remarkable decrease in lymph node PMN and LXA4 formation that remained depressed during dry eye disease. Depressed lymph node PMN and LXA4 in females correlated with an increase in effector T cells (Th1 and Th17), a decrease in regulatory T cells (Treg), and increased dry eye pathogenesis. Ab depletion of tissue PMN abrogated LXA4 formation in lymph nodes, as well as caused a marked increase in Th1 and Th17 cells and a decrease in Tregs. To establish an immune-regulatory role for PMN-derived LXA4 in dry eye, females were treated with LXA4. LXA4 treatment markedly inhibited Th1 and Th17 and amplified Treg in draining lymph nodes, while reducing dry eye pathogenesis. These results identify female-specific regulation of LXA4-producing tissue PMN as a potential key factor in aberrant effector T cell activation and initiation of immune-driven dry eye disease.

本文参照人本主义地理学的“地方”理论，从“再现”视角出发，以“地方再现”（the representation of place）为研究切入点，分别考察在文化寻根的语境之中，贾平凹和莫言如何通过语言之维和文学想象，建构出“商州”和“高密东北乡”这两个文学地理空间，并将二者进行了比较。本文认为，贾平凹对商州的再现，偏重于情感印象式，是意象叙事，而莫言对高密东北乡的再现，偏重于身体感官式，是感觉叙事。笔者从商州景观的再现和文学商州的变迁这两个方面来考察贾平凹对商州的书写，而对莫言的分析，则借助“感觉地理学”的启发，从视觉、听觉、嗅觉这三个身体感觉的维度考察莫言对高密东北乡的再现。笔者认为，对地方的再现是与两位作家的生存体验、审美体验、空间体验联系在一起的，是一种空间生产。 This dissertation, a comparative study on Jia Pingwa and Mo Yan, explores how Jia Pingwa and Mo Yan construct two literary spaces “Shangzhou” and “Gaomi northeast country” through language and literary imagination in the context of root-seeking, with the reliance on the theory of place in humanistic geography and theory of representation. I suggest that Jia Pingwa’s representation of Shangzhou with a focus on emotional impression is basically image narrative, whereas Mo Yan’ representation of Gaomi northeast country focuses more on senses and is a kind of sensory narrative. The study discusses Jia Pingwa’s writings from the perspectives of the representation of Shangzhou landscape and the transition of literary Shangzhou. And, inspired by sensuous geographies, the dissertation analyzes Mo Yan’ representation of Gaomi northeast country in the perspectives of vision, hearing, and smell. I argue that the representation of place is production of space under the influence of the authors’ living experiences, aesthetic experiences, space experiences. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (HSS)

Accurate measurement of temperature is essential for the safe and efficient operation and control of a vast range of industrial processes. Many of these processes involve harsh environments, such as high temperature, high pressure, chemical corrosion, toxicity, strong electromagnetic interference, and high-energy radiation exposure. These extreme physical conditions often prevent conventional temperature sensors from being used or make them difficult to use. Novel sensor systems should not only provide accurate and reliable temperature measurements, but also survive the harsh environments through proper fabrication material selections and mechanical structure designs. This dissertation presents detailed research work on the design, modeling, implementation, analysis, and performance evaluation of novel optical high temperature sensors suitable for harsh environment applications. For the first time to our knowledge, an optical temperature sensor based on the broadband polarimetric differential interferometric (BPDI) technology is proposed and tested using single crystal sapphire material. With a simple mechanically structured sensing probe, in conjunction with an optical spectrum-coded interferometric signal processing technique, the proposed single crystal sapphire optical sensor can measure high temperature up to 1600 oC in the harsh environments with high accuracy, corrosion resistance, and long-term measurement stability. Based on the successfully demonstrated sensor prototype in the laboratory, we are confident of the next research step on sensor optimization and scale-up for full field implementations. The goal for this research has been to bring this temperature sensor to a level where it will become commercially viable for harsh environment applications associated with industries. Ph. D.

In the paper, a self-lubricating sintering nickel matrix material has been developed and inserted into ball bearing as new solid lubricant at 600°C. For obtaining good lubricating property, some additives are added into the nickel matrix and sintered at elevated temperature. Research shown that CaF2 has great contribution to lubrication, but amount of CaF2 must be controlled, and that the lubricating behaviors can be further improved by adding a mixture of CaF2 and BaF2, but the proportion of CaF2/BaF2 should be also controlled so that a eutectic compound of Ni and CaF2/BaF2 can form during the sintering. In the paper, the high temperature selflubricating mechanism of the material has been investigated. Topography and compositions of surface film are analyzed by using SEM and X-ray. Based on good self-lubricating behaviors of the sintering nickel matrix material, an oscillating ball face bearing has be manufactured. Its service test result show that the bearing has a service life over 1.2×105 cycle numbers and lower friction coefficient μ=0.26-0.12 from room temperature to 600°Cat different loads.

An in-depth analysis of existing, methods for prediction of dune steepness is presented. In particular, the expressions by Yalin and Scheuerlein (1988) and van Rijn (1982) are investigated. It is revealed that the expressions by these authors, which were developed on the basis mainly of laboratory data, do not adequately reflect the behavior of dunes occurring in rivers (characterized by large values of relative flow depth). A new expression for dune steepness is introduced with the intention of extending the applicability of previous expressions to river data. This expression is a generalization of the expression by Yalin and Scheuerlein (1988). The validity of the dune steepness expression introduced in this thesis is tested by using it in the determination of the friction factor. It is shown that the use of the dune steepness expression introduced herein yields an improved prediction of the friction factor. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 39-02, page: 0557. Adviser: Ana M. A. F. da Silva. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1999.

The Global Forest Products Model (GFPM) was developed to upgrade the FAO methodology for forest products outlook projections. Its purpose is to analyze and project the consumption, production, trade, and prices of forest products. The system deals with 180 individual countries, three classes of roundwood, sawnwood, three kinds of panels, three of pulp, waste paper, and three types of paper and paperboard. The system is built on market equilibrium theory, with imperfect foresight. The short-term equilibrium is modeled by price-endogenous linear programming determining production, consumption, trade, and market-clearing prices in any given year, subject to short-term capacities of production. Year to year changes are represented by equations predicting shifts in demand due to GDP growth, capacity expansion as a function of profitability, and technical change. The forecasts are conditional on exogenous estimates of timber availability in each country. Inertia constraints limit the short-term adjustment of trade in response to market forces. Results of applications of the model to forecast the situation in European countries until 2010 are described.

The Global Forest Products Model (GFPM) was developed to upgrade the FAO methodology for forest products outlook projections. Its purpose is to analyze and project the consumption, production, trade, and prices of forest products. The system deals with 180 individual countries, three classes of roundwood, sawnwood, three kinds of panels, three of pulp, waste paper, and three types of paper and paperboard. The system is built on market equilibrium theory, with imperfect foresight. The short-term equilibrium is modeled by price-endogenous linear programming determining production, consumption, trade, and market-clearing prices in any given year, subject to short-term capacities of production. Year to year changes are represented by equations predicting shifts in demand due to GDP growth, capacity expansion as a function of profitability, and technical change. The forecasts are conditional on exogenous estimates of timber availability in each country. Inertia constraints limit the short-term adjustment of trade in response to market forces. Results of applications of the model to forecast the situation in European countries until 2010 are described.

Based on the analysis of the mechanical structure principle of multi-wire saw, the wire-supplying system model is studied from a point of view of kinematics and factors that influence wire tension is investigated to overcome the deficiency in traditional multi-wire saw tension control system. A mechanical and electrical wire tension control scheme is proposed, in which torque motor is used to produce tension on wire instead of hammer, and intelligent controller is designed by using adaptive inverse algorithm to reduce the speed synchronization trace error of multi-motor system; The scheme reduces the wire vibration intensity greatly. The hardware platform of tension control system based on field bus is designed and realized. The test results of XQ300A multi-wire saw prove the feasibility and reliability of the system. The control scheme features high precision and easy realization of tension control,low wire-broken fault rate and convenient tensioning.

The initial part of this study involves developments made on an electrospray ionization (ESI) source installed on a large-scale double-focusing reverse-geometry two-sector mass spectrometer. The practical considerations and some basic theory have been given in this thesis for each of the improvements made to the ESI source13 '1. The process of partial re-designing the ion optical system showed that the ion beam was affected by both gas dynamics and by the field penetration from the lenses of the ion optical system in the region immediately after second skimmer. More than one order magnitude stronger ion signal intensities at the mass spectrometer final detector and easier ESI source operation conditions and stable ion signals has been achieved. Mass-analyzed ion kinetic energy spectroscopy (MIKES) of different charge- states of relatively small peptides (substance P and bradykinin) for collision-induced dissociation (CID) and the metastable dissociation was carried out successfully. The translational energy losses caused shifts in the fragment ion peaks in the CID spectra, compared with fragment ion peaks in the metastable dissociation spectra. A major part of the study concerned effects of ESI source condition on the charge state distributions of mass spectra. It has been shown that the ion optical effect of the potential difference (V HCT-S) between the heated stainless steel capillary (HCT) and the first skimmer in the intermediate-pressure region (capillary-skimmer region or orifice-skimmer region) of the ESI source was the main factor in determining the charge state distribution of the ESI mass spectra. The temperature of the HCT and the potential difference between the first skimmer and the second skimmer has been shown to be also important factors. The collision-induced dissociation (or so-called capillary-skimmer dissociation) effect of V HCT-S has been shown to be relatively low in this sector-mass spectrometer ESI source.