Search

We report on the development of a high-resolution and highly efficient beamline for soft-X-ray resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) located at Taiwan Photon Source. This beamline adopts an optical design that uses an active grating monochromator (AGM) and an active grating spectrometer (AGS) to implement the energy compensation principle of grating dispersion. Active gratings are utilized to diminish defocus, coma and higher-order aberrations as well as to decrease the slope errors caused by thermal deformation and optical polishing. The AGS is mounted on a rotatable granite platform to enable momentum-resolved RIXS measurements with scattering angle over a wide range. Several high-precision instruments developed in house for this beamline are briefly described. The best energy resolution obtained from this AGM-AGS beamline was 12.4 meV at 530 eV, achieving a resolving power 42,000, while the bandwidth of the incident soft X-rays was kept at 0.5 eV. To demonstrate the scientific impacts of high-resolution RIXS, we present an example of momentum-resolved RIXS measurements on a high-temperature superconducting cuprate, La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. The measurements reveal the A$_{1g}$ apical oxygen phonons in superconducting cuprates, opening a new opportunity to investigate the coupling between these phonons and charge density waves., 9 pages, p figures, submitted to J. of Synchrotron Radiation. Revise expression

A new space program (PGM) scheme is proposed to achieve reliable triple-level-cell (TLC) 3-D NAND flash memory. Considering the lateral diffusion issue of stored electrons in the nitride storage layer, the proposed scheme stores electrons in the nitride layer of the space region between adjacent cells to suppress the lateral movement of trapped electrons in the programmed target cells. The effect of the space PGM can be sustained until 104 s at 90 °C and up to 1k read cycles at 25 °C. The programmed space region of the nitride layer improves the retention characteristics of the cells in the PGM state by 40% and remarkably reduces the V th redistribution.

Super-steep switching is successfully demonstrated using positive feedback (PF) in fabricated diode-type 3-D NAND flash memory strings. Thanks to the PF, the subthreshold swing (SS) measured in a cell of a string during read operation is less than 1 mV/dec at turn-on voltage (V on ) regardless of the polarity and the amount of the charge stored in the cell. This string has memory characteristics similar to conventional FET-type string while keeping much better SS than that of the FET-type string even after program/erase (P/E) cycling.

Charge spreading behavior within a few seconds, referred to as early retention, was comprehensively investigated in 24 word-line stacked tube-type 3D NAND flash memory. We thoroughly explored the charge spreading behavior from the perspectives of both electron and hole spreading in 3D NAND flash memory with different charge trap layer thicknesses at various programming and erasing levels for solid and checkerboard patterns to provide guidelines for minimizing and optimizing the charge spreading.

Oral Diseases (2011) 17, 187–193 Objectives: To investigate the level and interrelationship of nerve growth factor (NGF) and sensory neuropeptides [substance P (SP), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)] in plasma and saliva of chronic migraine patients, and to analyze the association between pain intensity and their concentration. Materials and methods: Plasma and resting whole saliva were collected from 33 chronic migraine patients and 36 control subjects. NGF, SP, and CGRP concentrations were measured by enzyme immunoassay and pain intensity of each subject was measured using the Graded Chronic Pain Scale. Results: Chronic migraine patients showed higher NGF and neuropeptide levels in both plasma and saliva compared to the control subjects. Plasma NGF, and plasma and saliva levels of SP and CGRP were highly associated with pain intensity. There was a significant positive correlation between NGF and both neuropeptide levels in plasma, and between the neuropeptide levels in both plasma and saliva. Plasma levels of SP and CGRP were significantly correlated with their saliva level. Conclusions: The increased production of NGF and sensory neuropeptides may play an important role in the maintenance of pain in chronic migraine and analysis results of human saliva could act as an index of disease state and therapeutic outcome.

To determine the stress state of a wire rope is tedious although analytical solution of a simple rope subjected to static load is available. While facing the problems involving complex ropes, it is usual practice to take approximations based upon the concepts of an average stress state for the constitutive ropes or for every wire. For a statically loaded cable superimposed with a tensile impulse, practically in sudden lifting of a heavy weight, the coupled axial-shearing strain waves in the cable has rarely been studied and explored through analytical approaches. Based on Costello’s force-deformation relationship and elastic wave propagation theory, analysis procedures and results are presented in this paper. Time-dependent coupled axial-torsional displacements and axial-shearing strain waves in a simple straight wire rope, due to a longitudinal impact at one end, are obtained. At the instance of the strike, a pair of coupled primary axial-torsional waves is created and begins to travel in the cable indep...

The aims of this study were to measure the normal concentration of nerve growth factor (NGF) in healthy human saliva and to investigate the effects of age and gender differences on saliva NGF level.Resting whole, stimulated parotid, and stimulated submandibular/sublingual saliva were collected from 127 healthy volunteers with ages ranging from 20 to 81 years. The saliva NGF concentration was measured by enzyme immunoassay.The mean concentrations of NGF were 901.4 +/- 75.6 pg ml(-1) in resting whole saliva, 885.9 +/- 79.9 pg ml(-1) in stimulated parotid saliva, and 1066.1 +/- 88.1 pg ml(-1) in stimulated submandibular/sublingual saliva. The stimulated submandibular saliva showed lower NGF concentrations with increasing age (rho = -0.296, P = 0.001). The NGF concentrations of resting whole saliva (P = 0.025) and stimulated parotid saliva (P = 0.005) were significantly higher in women than men. The NGF concentration of stimulated submandibular saliva was significantly higher than stimulated parotid saliva (P = 0.005) and significantly correlated with stimulated parotid saliva NGF level (rho = -0.244, P = 0.008). We found measurable concentrations of NGF in all three sources of saliva; the concentration was affected by the source for the stimulated parotid and submandibular saliva, age for stimulated submandibular saliva, and gender difference for resting whole saliva and stimulated parotid saliva.

Capsaicin, the pungent component of the red pepper, has been used as an analgesic in a variety of pain conditions, but sensory impairment after long-term treatment has been concerned. This study investigated the influence of topical capsaicin on various types of sensations including pain in the facial areas innervated by the mental nerve, and also evaluated whether the measurement of cutaneous current perception threshold (CPT) is reliable for the quantification of sensory change following capsaicin application. Twenty healthy subjects were given topical capsaicin cream (0.075%), which was applied to the mental area unilaterally, four times daily for 2 weeks. Burning sensation after capsaicin application gradually decreased with repeated applications. Repeated topical capsaicin resulted in reduced sensation to mechanical, heat and cold pain without changing non-painful tactile sensation. It also resulted in increased CPTs at 5 Hz and 250 Hz stimuli but no change in the CPTs at 2000 Hz from the first evaluation after capsaicin treatment and throughout the treatment period. This study demonstrated that topical capsaicin treatment for the management of chronic localized pain can be safely applied to the face without affecting non-painful normal sensations, and that CPT testing is a clinically useful tool for the quantification of sensory changes following capsaicin application.

An integrated design method for a high-precision/speed servomechanism including interactions of mechanical and electrical subsystems is proposed in this article. On the basis of the multiobjective optimization method, a non-linear optimal design procedure of the mechanical subsystem is performed simultaneously through the design process of the electrical subsystem satisfying the desired performance. Mechanical and electrical constraints have been formulated according to design requirements. Both mechanical and electrical parameters are considered as design variables. Validity of the integrated design problem is verified on the different application areas. Parametric studies of the design variables have also been conducted in this article. Case studies show that the integrated design method for an x-y positioning system satisfies the desired high-precision/speed performance.

This paper proposes a developmental procedure of a real-time thermal error compensator for a high-speed machine tool (HSMT). A vertical-type HSMT having a slant column with lightweight moving slides is used to investigate thermal characteristics. Since spindle speed is very fast in the HSMT, a large amount of thermal drift error occurs within a few minutes of operation. Owing to tooling problems of the high-speed spindle, axial offset errors also appear on the machined surfaces. If-then rules and thermal mode approaches are applied to remove defects of the machined surfaces. An infinite impulse response filter is used to compensate for surface roughness of the machine surface. A personal-computer-based error compensation scheme has been developed for the real-time thermal error compensation. Compensation interval of the developed compensator is selected to satisfy correction requirement of thermal errors of the HSMT. Experimental results confirm the validity of the developed compensator and show that the accuracy of machined surface is dramatically improved.

SUMMARY Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently emerged infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, but its immunopathological mechanisms have not yet been fully elucidated. We investigated changes in plasma T helper (Th) cell cytokines, inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in 20 patients diagnosed with SARS. Cytokine profile of SARS patients showed marked elevation of Th1 cytokine interferon (IFN)-γ, inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6 and IL-12 for at least 2 weeks after disease onset, but there was no significant elevation of inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α, anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, Th1 cytokine IL-2 and Th2 cytokine IL-4. The chemokine profile demonstrated significant elevation of neutrophil chemokine IL-8, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and Th1 chemokine IFN-γ-inducible protein-10 (IP-10). Corticosteroid reduced significantly IL-8, MCP-1 and IP-10 concentrations from 5 to 8 days after treatment (all P

Azygos venous blood flow as an index of blood flow through the gastroesophageal collaterals and varices is of value in the prediction of gastrointestinal bleeding. Measurement of azygos venous blood flow has been achieved by non breath-hold (NBH) cine phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging. The objective of this study was to compare the faster breath-hold (BH) phase-contrast technique with the standard (NBH) cine phase-contrast technique in the measurement of azygos blood flow. Thirty-two cirrhotic patients with esophageal varices were examined by magnetic resonance imaging using a BH technique and a NBH cine phase-contrast technique to measure the flow velocity, flow volume and calibre of the azygos vein at the mid-right atrial level. The flow values were obtained on the velocity image of the phase-contrast study. Values obtained from the two methods were evaluated statistically for the strength and significance of correlation by the Pearson test. Measurement by the BH method performed at full-inspiration as well as end-expiration was also obtained in 15 healthy volunteers. The breath-hold phase-contrast method has significant but weak correlation with non BH cine phase-contrast method in the measurement of azygos venous blood flow volume (r = 0.55, p0.01) and flow velocity (r = 0.43, p = 0.01). However, the calibre of the azygos vein gave a strong correlation in these two methods (0.82). In the subgroup of patients whose azygos blood flow velocity was greater than 7.4 cm/s, the correlation of azygos blood flow volume is strong (r = 0.80, p0.01). The azygos vein calibre remains highly correlated between the BH and NBH method, in both high flow velocity (r = 0.73) and low flow velocity (r = 0.83) groups. Breath-hold sequence leads to higher values for flow velocity and flow volume in the cirrhotic patients and also the control group. In patients with portal hypertension, BH 2D phase-contrast (PC) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) could give a comparable estimation of the calibre of the azygos vein as the NBH 2D cine PC MRA but not for azygos flow volume. In patients with high azygos flow velocity, the strong correlation in flow volume between the BH and NBH method suggests that the BH method may be a time-saving alternative to the NBH method.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a highly infectious respiratory disease, to the best of our knowledge caused by a hitherto unknown corona virus. The virus has spread from South East Asia to many countries of the world. Three case reports of patients from the Prince of Wales Hospital of The Chinese University of Hong Kong demonstrate typical clinical courses. Fever, cough, in most cases non-productive, myalgia, chills, and rigor are the leading symptoms. Leucopenia and thrombocytopenia are the most prominent laboratory parameters, increased values for lactatedehydrogenase (LDH) reflect a more severe clinical course. Advanced age and coexisting conditions seem to influence the prognosis unfavourably. The chest roentgenogram may be normal initially but at a later stage progressive consolidations in the majority of peripheral parts of the lung are observed, which cannot be differentiated from pneumonias of other origin. Even young patients can enter a stage of respiratory compromise rather fast. A therapy against the cause of the disease is not known. Empirical therapy with ribavirin in combination with high dose corticosteroids have proved successful. The disease may progress into respiratory failure comparable with an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Mortality is around five to ten per cent. Stringent hygiene and quarantine measures are mandatory to prevent the further spread of this threatening disease.

The aim of this study was to identify the salivary components present in the pellicles formed on self-curing resin and to investigate the qualitative variations in adsorbed salivary pellicle compositions according to different exposure time to saliva. Experimental pellicles were formed by the incubation of polymerized resin particles with fresh human parotid or submandibular-sublingual saliva for either 20 min or 2 h. Pellicles were extracted using formic acid and lyophilized, they were then subjected to sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting to identify the adsorbed salivary components. The amino acid profiles of the 2 h-pellicles were analysed and compared with those of fresh glandular salivas. There was a difference in the 2 h-pellicle components on the self-curing resin compared with those of other dental materials as well as tooth enamel. The amino acid profiles of the 2 h-pellicles were also different from those of fresh glandular salivas. In the case of submandibular-sublingual saliva, the components of the 2 h-pellicle showed a different pattern compared with those of the 20 min-pellicle. However, there was no significant difference between the components of the 2 h- and 20 min-pellicles in the case of parotid saliva. A distinct difference was found in the surface binding affinities of immunoglobulin (IgA) from different glandular salivas. The findings of this study provide information concerning the initial bacterial adhesion on the surfaces of self-curing resin.

The aim of this study was to subjectively determine the distribution of anaesthesia by mapping areas of sensory loss following inferior alveolar nerve block. Fifty healthy dental students were the subjects of this study (men 32, women 18). They were asked to draw the anaesthetized area on a diagram of the face and tongue 20 min after inferior alveolar nerve block. They evaluated the degree of anaesthesia by touching their faces and moving their tongues. All of the 50 subjects reported anaesthesia in the facial area. Of these, 21 (42%) reported the cutaneous distribution of anaesthesia on mental nerve territory only. Seventeen subjects (34%) reported anaesthesia on mental and buccal nerve territory. Nine subjects (18%) reported anaesthesia on mental, buccal, and auriculotemporal nerve territory. Two subjects (4%) reported anaesthesia on mental and auriculotemporal nerve territory and one subject (2%) on mental, buccal and infra-orbital nerve territory. Forty-seven of the 50 subjects (94%) reported anaesthesia of the tongue with the various degree of anaesthesia according to the area. Of these, 17 subjects (34%) reported strong anaesthesia on the anterior area and weak anaesthesia on the middle part of the tongue. Nineteen subjects (38%) reported strong anaesthesia of the lateral area and weak anaesthesia on the medial area, and 11 subjects (22%) reported anaesthesia on only the lateral side of the tongue. Three subjects (6%) reported no anaesthesia of the tongue. The distribution of anaesthesia of the facial and glossal regions determined subjectively after inferior alveolar nerve block, varies significantly between individuals.

To measure spin-polarized core-level electron spectra, a spectrometer equipped with a highly efficient retarding-potential Mott spin polarimeter using undulator-based soft-x-ray beamlines has been set up. With a thin film of Au as a target this polarimeter has an efficiency estimated to be ∼2×10−4. The performance of this system for spin-polarized spectroscopy has been tested using core-level spin-polarized photoemission of magnetic and nonmagnetic thin films excited with linearly and circularly polarized light, respectively. Measurements using a new spin-resolved absorption technique are also discussed.

This study describes a prediction model for the impact vibration of raised access floors by a Finite Element Method (FEM) numerical analysis. The residual ratio of the natural frequency of the peak wave is 1.3% and the residual ratio of the maximum vibration acceleration is 0.8%, which indicates the accuracy in application of the numerical model. With the validated numerical model, this study evaluates the influence on the vibration of various construction parameters. It is shown that the panel material, bracing, and panel thickness may reduce the impact vibration.

An ultra-high resolution and high flux 6 m cylindrical grating monochromator (6 m-CGM) undulator beamline, covering the photon energies from 5 to 100 eV, has been designed and constructed at SRRC. Two branches, housing separate entrance slits chosen to provide different incident angles, are used to optimize the overall performance. In each branch, two cylindrical gratings are used with the grating included angle set at 150° and 130°, respectively, to cover low (5–30 eV) and high (15–100 eV) photon energy. Movable entrance and exit slits are used to enhance the beamline performance. The energy resolving power with both slit openings set at 10 μm is expected to reach 90,000 and 40,000 in the low and high energy branches, respectively. A photon flux of 6×10 10 and 3×10 11 photons/s/200 mA can be obtained at the respective energy resolving power of 90,000 and 40,000.

A high performance wide range elliptically polarized undulator beamline is under commissioning at SRRC. The dragon-type design with two independent entrance slits has been employed to cover photon energies from 60 to 1400 eV. The energy resolution of the beamline has been measured using Ar, N 2 , and Ne absorption spectra. The photon flux as a function of energy has been recorded by photodiode and gives an average of flux greater than 1×10 12 photons/s/200 mA with both slits set at 10 μm. Based on spin polarized photoemission and magnetic circular dichroism results, the degree of polarization calculated from the spin-polarized resolved spectrum is estimated to be better than 95% in the first harmonic undulator radiation.

A novel high resolution, high flux bending magnet beamline with an energy range from 5to 40eV has beenconstructed at SRRC. This Dragon-like beamline, which horizontally collects 50mrad of synchrotron radiationfrom a bending magnet source, uses four cylindrical gratings with an included angle of 1408 and a movablecurved exit slit. The average photon flux with an energy resolving power of 1000 is about 2 1210 photons/s,which is among the highest of all existing VUV bending magnet beamlines. An energy resolving power of24000 at 6.8eV has been obtained from the Schumann–Runge bands (B 3 P u 3XP g ) absorption spectra ofO 2 gas. A photon flux of 3 10 9 photons/s is measured at the energy resolving power of 24000. This high fluxbending magnet beamline offers excellent opportunities for VUV experiments with a wide range spectrum. # 2001ElsevierScienceB.V.Allrightsreserved. PACS: 33.80. b;39.30.+w;42.79.Dj;51.50.+vKeywords: Beamline;Highflux;Highresolution 1.IntroductionAhighfluxandhighresolutionbendingmagnetbeamlinewithanenergyrangefrom5to40eVhasbeenconstructedatSRRC[1]fortheexperimentsofdilutesystems,oflowsignal-to-noiseratio,andexperimentswhichrequirelowenergyphotonsandverygoodenergyresolution.Theopticallayoutofthis beamline is shown in Fig.1. This beamlinecollects 50mrad of horizontal radiation from abending magnet source. Similar to the Dragon-type beamline, a 6m-CGM is arranged betweenpre-andpost-focusingmirrors.Wehaveadoptedseveralspecialfeaturesincludingamodifiedplane-elliptical horizontal pre-focusing mirror (HFM),one movable entrance slit, and one curvedmovableexitslittooptimizethebeamlineperfor-mance.Fourcylindricalgratingswithanincludedangle of 1408 are used to cover the entire energyrange interested. Two horizontal refocusing mir-rors(HRFM1andHRFM2)areusedtodeliverthe photon beam to two separate experimentalstationsthroughthehigh-andlow-energybranch,respectively. The beamline is expected to deliverphoton fluxes of 1 10

The influencing factors of floor impact sound, are characteristics such as the impact source, floor vibration reaction, and sound radiation. In this article, computerised simulation is utilised to explore the influencing factors of floor impact vibration, including slab with beam, floor thickness, compression strength of concrete, etc. Based on the finite element method (FEM), which is frequently used by structure designers in Taiwan, this research establishes an effective convenient method of predicting the impact vibration characteristics of slabs with various boundary conditions. By means of the computerised simulation and measurements in the field, the validity of the research methods is confirmed. Then, how the floor impact characteristics is influenced by various factors is investigated with different computerised models. It is shown that the floor vibration will be decreased by increasing floor thickness, and also by changing the position and the numbers of the beam. However, the vibration insulation of the floor is not improved significantly when the compression strength of concrete is increased.

The design, construction and commissioning of a beamline and spectrometer for inelastic soft X-ray scattering at high resolution in a highly efficient system are presented. Based on the energy-compensation principle of grating dispersion, the design of the monochromator–spectrometer system greatly enhances the efficiency of measurement of inelastic soft X-rays scattering. Comprising two bendable gratings, the set-up effectively diminishes the defocus and coma aberrations. At commissioning, this system showed results of spin-flip, d–d and charge-transfer excitations of NiO. These results are consistent with published results but exhibit improved spectral resolution and increased efficiency of measurement. The best energy resolution of the set-up in terms of full width at half-maximum is 108 meV at an incident photon energy tuned about the Ni L3-edge.

We present the results obtained by commissioning a wide-range, 6-meter SGM, bending magnet beamline located at SRRC. The beamline is based on the Dragon-type design and delivers photons over a wide spectral range of 10–1500 eV. Two movable entrance slits in conjunction with a shared movable exit slit are employed to accommodate the requirement of different grating included angles for low- and high-energy branches. Gas-phase photoabsorption measurements performed on various gases validate that the resolution is at least 20 000 in the low-energy branch and 8000 in the high-energy branch. The resolution data compare well with the theoretical calculations.

The purpose of this study was to develop 3-axis Magnetic Resonance (MR) compatible motion measurement system which can measure motion signals without deteriorating MR image. 3-axis accelerometer was used to measure motion signals and velcro was used to attach accelerometer module to finger or wrist. To minimize mutual interference effect between MR imaging system and motion measurement system, amplifier circuit was made of analog devices and amplifier was located at the shielded case which was made of copper and aluminum. Motion signal was modulated to optic signal by using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) and modulated optic signal was transmitted to outside MR room by using Light Emitting Diode (LED) and optic cable. Measurement of 3-directional acceleration was possible with 3-axis accelerometer. It was verified that functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) and motion signals were measured simultaneously and stably.

A vacuum‐ultraviolet bending‐magnet beamline for circular dichroism (CD) experiments has been designed. To maximize the photon flux and minimize the focused beam size, a cylindrical mirror and a cylindrical grating with independent optical functions are utilized. The beamline can collect a 30 mrad horizontal by 7 mrad vertical solid angle of synchrotron radiation. By using a 600 grooves/mm grating, the calculated photon flux is greater than 1×1013 photons/sec and the focused beam size is 0.4 mm×0.65 mm for the spectral range from 130 nm to 330 nm with the energy resolving power set at 1000. The linear polarization degree is better than 75% and can be increased to 90% by reducing the vertical acceptance angle down to 2 mrad. In addition to the high flux mode described above, this beamline can also be operated in a high resolution mode. By using a 1200 grooves/mm grating, a resolving power greater than 10,000 can be achieved for the spectral range from 180 to 330 nm. This beamline can provide photon flux as...

This paper addresses an integrated information mining techniques for broadcasting TV-news. The utilizes technique from the fields of acoustic, image, and video analysis, for information on news title, reporters and news background. The goal is to construct a compact yet meaningful abstraction of broadcast TV news, allowing users to browse through large amounts of data in a non-linear fashion with flexibility and efficiency. By using acoustic analysis, a news program can be partitioned into news and commercial clips, with 90% accuracy on a data set of 400 hours TV-news recorded off the air from July 2005 to August of 2006. By applying additional speaker identification and/or image detection techniques, each news stories can be segmented with a better accuracy of 95.92%. On screen captions and screen characters are recognized by video OCR techniques to produce the title of each news stories. Then keywords can be extracted from title to link related news contents on the WWW. In cooperation with facial and scene analysis and recognition techniques, OCR results can provide users with multimodal query on specific news stories.

A dedicated small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) beamline using a new X‐ray source generated by an In‐Acromat superconducting wiggler (IASW6) insertion device is under construction at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC). The IASW6 with peak magnetic field of 3.1 T, magnet period of 6.1 cm, and total length of 96 cm, can provide a photon flux ∼ 1012 – 1013photons/s/0.1%bw in the energy range of 5 – 23 keV. Taking the central 0.2 mard horizontal radiation fan from the source with a beam divergence of 200 and 392 μrad in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively, the dedicated SAXS beamline is oriented for nano to meso‐structural research in soft matter, including liquid crystals, macromolecular solutions, polymers, as well as in nanoparticles, ceramic, and alloys. The SAXS beamline adopts the design of the double‐monochromator used in the beamline SIYBLS at ALS, which integrates a Si(111) double crystal monochromator (DCM) and a Mo/B4C double multilayer monochromator (DMM) into one cradle for fast exchange between the two monochrmators. Equipped with a collimating mirror (CM) and a toroidal focusing mirror (FM) with 1:1 focusing ratio, this beamline provides two types of SAXS measurements: high‐Q resolution and high flux, by using either the DCM or DMM. The SAXS beamline also provides energy scan with an energy resolution from 1 to 10 eV for anomalous SAXS (ASAXS) measurements. A specially coated reflecting mirror is also installed after FM to provide a suitable photon beam for grazing incident SAXS of liquid surfaces. Ray tracing simulation results show that at 8 keV and with DCM, a high quality photon beam of beam size (0.5 mm) and beam divergence (± 50 μrad) with a flux of ∼ 1011 photons/s can be obtained for high‐Q resolution SAXS measurement. The photon flux can be increased by one order of magnitude when the DMM is used; however, the beam size and divergence are both slightly increased.

A high‐throughput Protein Crystallography beamline BL13B1 was constructed on a high‐field (3.2 T) superconducting magnet, multi‐pole (28 effective poles) wiggler (SW6) fan of the NSRRC storage ring. This field increase the critical energy from 2.14 keV for a 1.25 T normal conducting magnet to 4.82 keV. The 28 poles device, of period 60 mm, is capable to provide an intense X‐ray beam up to 19 keV that allows a hard x‐ray program to be developed on the relatively low energy National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) ring (1.5 GeV). BL13B1 operates over the energy range from 6.5 keV to 19 keV (1.92 angstrom to 0.65 angstrom). Optimized for MAD experiments, it is also suitable for monochromatic crystallography. The principal components of the beamline include a front end, vertically collimating premirror, double‐crystal silicon (111) monochromator with a fixed‐height exit beam, and a toroidal focusing mirror. The end station is equipped with a state‐of‐the‐art ADSC Quantum315 CCD area detector, a high precision single‐phi axis goniometer, a sample cooling system (∼100 K), a robotic sample changer for automatically sample mounting and centering, user‐friendly data acquisition software (BLU‐ICE), and powerful data processing software (HKL2000). The design and performance characteristics of this beamline will be described.

To accommodate the growing number of users in the soft X‐ray spectroscopy research at NSRRC, we have developed a modified Dragon‐type beamline, namely the active grating monochromator (AGM) beamline. In this beamline, a selected photon beam of 9 mrad radiation fan in the horizontal direction from a bending magnet is focused horizontally by a tangential elliptical mirror to a position 1.7 m after exit slit, and vertically by a cylindrical vertical focusing mirror (VFM) onto the entrance slit. After the entrance slit, the photon beam is energy‐dispersed and vertically focused by an active grating onto the fixed exit slit. During the energy scan, the radius and shape of the active grating are adjusted accordingly, and therefore the defocus and coma aberrations terms can be effectively eliminated, and hence the energy resolution is optimized. Following the exit slit, the dispersed photon beam is refocused by a toroidal mirror onto the sample. Shadow ray‐tracing program is employed to simulate the beamline per...

To fully utilize a hard X‐ray source generated by a 5‐Tesla superconducting wavelength shifter (SWLS) that shifts the critical energy of synchrotron spectrum from 2.1 to 7.5 keV, we have designed and constructed three hard X‐ray beamlines, BL01A, BL01B, and BL0IC. BL01A is a white light beamline for phase‐contrast X‐ray image applications. The spatial resolution of phase‐contrast X‐ray image is 1 μm. The photon flux can saturate a camera of 700‐microns field‐of‐view within 10 ms. BL01B equipped with a double crystal monochromator (DCM) and a toroidal focusing mirror, which provides photon beams with energies from 5 to 20 keV, is adequate for scattering related experiments and hard X‐ray microscopy. The energy‐resolution ΔE/E is 1 × 10−3. The photon flux is optimized to be 4.5 × 1011 photons s−1 with 200 mA ring current, which outcasts the flux of the wiggler beamline BL17B by 110 times at 15 keV. BL01C equipped with a DCM and both collimating and focusing mirrors, covering photon energies from 6 to 33 keV, is ideal for EXAFS and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) experiments. The average photon flux is 3 × 1010 photons s−1 with 200 mA ring current. The energy‐resolution is between 1.7 × 10−4 and 3.0 × 10−4. In this article, we will present the measured performance of these beamlines.

A high-flux and high-resolution VUV beamline (4–40 eV) has been designed and is under construction at SRRC. This beamline, which collects 50 mrad of horizontal radiation, uses a 6 m cylindrical-grating monochromator with an incident angle of 70° instead of the conventional normal-incidence-monochromator (NIM) design. Special features, such as movable entrance slit, bendable vertical focusing mirror and movable curved exit slit, are employed to enhance greatly the beamline performance. With both slit openings set at 10 µm, the energy-resolving power can reach as high as 70000. Photon fluxes of 1 × 1013 and 1 × 1010 photons s−1 are calculated for energy-resolving powers of 1000 and 40000, respectively. The best image size at the sample position is smaller than 0.45 × 0.2 mm.

By using two aspherical variable‐line‐space active gratings and applying the energy compensation principle, we have designed a very efficient active grating monochromator — active grating spectrometer (AGM‐AGS) beamline system for the photon demanding inelastic soft‐x‐ray scattering experiments. During the energy scan, the defocus and coma aberrations of the AGM can be completely eliminated to make the focal point fixed at the sample position and to maintain high spectral resolution for the entire spectral range. The AGS, which has an optical system identical to that of the AGM, but positioned reversely along the optical path, collects the photons emitted from the sample with a nearly identical energy spread as the AGM and focus them onto a position sensitive detector located at the exit slit position. The ray tracing results show that the efficiency of the AGM‐AGS is two orders of magnitudes higher than that of conventional design while maintaining a very high spectral resolution.

A Superconducting Wavelength Shifter (SWLS) insertion device with peak field of 6 Tesla has been installed in the Taiwan Light Source (TLS) storage ring to increase the critical energy of the radiation spectrum from 2 keV to 9 keV. We are constructing three hard X‐ray beamlines BL01A, BL01B and BL01C to utilize the photon source generated by this insertion device. The beamline BL01B is a DCM X‐ray beamline with a toroidal focusing mirror, which provides monochromatic photon beams with energies from 5 keV to 20 keV for X‐ray scattering experiments. At the sample position, the expected photon flux is about 7×1011 photon/sec/200mA with an average energy resolution (ΔE/E) of 1×10−3 and the focused beam size is about 1 mm × 0.4 mm. The beamline BL01C is a standard DCM X‐ray beamline with both collimating and focusing mirrors, which will deliver monochromatic photon beams with energy ranging from 6 keV to 33 keV for EXAFS and powder diffraction. At the sample position, the expected photon flux is 1×1011 photon/sec /200mA with an average energy resolution (ΔE/E) of 1.6×10−4 and the focused beam size is about 0.9 mm × 0.2 mm. The beamline BL01A is a white‐light beamline reserved for other applications. Both BL01A and BL01B beamlines have been constructed and are in commissioning. An average photon flux of 3×1011 photon/sec has been obtained at beamline BL01B.

Two high‐performance asymmetric‐cut curved crystal monochromator (ACCM) side‐branch x‐ray beamlines have been designed to fully utilize the sideway output of a superconducting multipole wiggler (SMPW) source for protein crystallography research. Each of the two ACCM beamlines collects 1 mrad of radiation in the horizontal direction. One of them is located at 4 mrad and the other at 3 mrad away from the centerline of the radiation fan of the wiggler output. These two beamlines will deliver photon flux, through a 100 μm pinhole, of greater than 1×1011 photons/sec with energies from 12 keV to 14 keV and resolution (ΔE/E) of 1.5×10−3 for standard monochromatic crystallography experiments. A Rh‐coated, water‐cooled vertical focusing mirror is placed upstream of the ACCM to simplify the energy tuning mechanism and to reduce the heat load of the crystal by cutting off the photon beams at energies above 15 keV. Considering that existing ACCM designs with bender either have insufficient cooling efficiency or are difficult to manufacture, we designed a special cost‐effective ACCM that comprises a crystal plate affixed to a water‐cooled, bendable Cu substrate, where heat conducts through a paste‐like alloy. With this design, the monochromator will provide high photon flux and resolution while maintaining excellent stability.

The performance of the 1 m Seya–Namioka monochromator (1 m‐SNM) beam line at SRRC has been measured and reached the designed goal. The beam line throughput (photon flux) has been measured by a calibrated silicon photodiode and is close to the theoretical values. The resolving power of this beam line has been measured from the studies of the core absorption of Ar and Ne and the Rydberg states of Mg vapor gas, and has reached the theoretical values. The improvement of the cooling system of the first mirror is also described.

The 6 m low‐energy spherical grating monochromator (6 m‐LSGM) beamline at SRRC is at its commission stage. The 6 m‐LSGM beamline, which covers photon energies from 15 to 200 eV, is based on Dragon concept with spherical gratings and movable exit slit. Some of the commission data will be presented in this paper. The photoabsorption spectra of Ar, He, and Kr have been recorded with resolution so far unattained in the vacuum ultraviolet region.

The layout and first data on the performance of the soft x‐ray bending magnet beamline 6 m high energy spherical grating monochromator (6m‐HSGM) at SRRC are described. The 6m‐HSGM beamline, which covers photon energies from 110 to 1500 eV, is based on the Dragon concept with spherical gratings, and a movable exit slit. During the first performance tests, core‐excitation thresholds of Ar and Ne, and K thresholds of N and O for gas phase CO, N2, and O2 have been recorded with resolutions which rank among the best reached so far in the soft x‐ray region.

There are many reasons that can degrade the image quality performance in a projection system, such as environment temperature, MTF of projection lens, structure of Lcd panel, EMI on the PCB and driver scheme... etc. Image quality is a function of all these parameters. In this article, the authors would like to estimate the image quality of a projection system under driver schemes and design parameters from the system point of view. The relationships between the voltage difference applied on liquid crystal (LC) cell and defect phenomenon are also revealed. This gives a clear-cut for different image defect (ex: flicker) and its causality. In the present time, ITRI/OES were modeling the LCOS Panel pixel with SpiceTM and ASAPTM for the estimation of image quality during the design of the optical engine.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Epinephrine injection is an effective, simple, and economical method of endoscopic hemostasis for bleeding peptic ulcers. We measured catecholamine levels in 18 patients with actively bleeding ulcers (8 gastric ulcers and 10 duodenal ulcers) treated by endoscopic injection. Injection of epinephrine (1:10,000 IU) was given until bleeding from the ulcers stopped. Catecholamine levels were assayed by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Immediately after the injection the plasma level of epinephrine rose by four to five times above the basal level and returned to the baseline in 20 minutes. Norepinephrine levels were not significantly raised in these patients. No cardiovascular complications were seen. Although adverse cardiac events have not been recorded, it seems prudent to monitor these patients closely during and immediately after epinephrine injection.

A feedback system is designed and built to automatically correct the long‐term instability of the photon beam generated from the synchrotron radiation storage ring. This feedback system is composed of a stepping motor‐controlled mirror‐alignment mechanism, a photon‐beam‐position monitor, a high precision current amplifier, and a PC‐controlled CAMAC interface system. The details of the system design as well as the motorized mirror‐alignment mechanism are presented in this article.

A simple and high precision technique is developed for the monochromator alignment. The alignment setup is composed of two He/Ne lasers, a penta‐prism, a flat mirror, and other common alignment aids. The alignment principle and the setup is described. An example of how to align Synchrotron Radiation Research Center 1‐m‐Seya monochromator is presented as well.

A preliminary study of the correlation between acupuncture points (acupoints) for the treatment of eye disorders suggested by ancient Oriental literature and the corresponding brain localization for vision described by Western medicine was performed by using functional MRI (fMRI). The vision-related acupoint (VA1) is located in the lateral aspect of the foot, and when acupuncture stimulation is performed there, activation of occipital lobes is seen by fMRI. Stimulation of the eye by directly using light results in similar activation in the occipital lobes by fMRI. The experiment was conducted by using conventional checkerboard 8-Hz light-flash stimulation of the eye and observation of the time-course data. This was followed by stimulation of the VA1 by using the same time-course paradigm as visual light stimulation. Results obtained with 12 volunteers yielded very clean data and very close correlations between visual and acupuncture stimulation. We have also stimulated nonacupoints 2 to 5 cm away from the vision-related acupoints on the foot as a control, and activation in the occipital lobes was not observed. The results obtained demonstrate the correlation between activation of specific areas of brain cortices and corresponding acupoint stimulation predicted by ancient acupuncture literature.

A wide-spectral-range high-performance 6 m-spherical grating monochromator (6 m-SGM) beamline has been designed and is under construction at SRRC. Two different entrance slits, instead of additional mirrors, are used to optimize the overall performance. Six gratings are used to cover photon energies from 10 to 1500 eV. Movable entrance slits and bendable vertical focusing mirrors are used to enhance further the beamline performance. A bendable horizontal focusing mirror is used to improve the resolution and to focus the photon beam at the experimental station immediately after the exit slit. Several end-stations can be installed at the same time to utilize the beam time fully. The expected energy-resolving power, with both slit openings set at 10 µm, is up to 15 000 and 40 000 for the high- and low-energy branches, respectively. A photon flux of 1 × 1011 photons s−1 can be obtained with an energy-resolving power of 20 000.

The TPS-05A beamline is the first X-ray beamline at NSRRC built for micro protein crystallography experiment as well as one of the seven ID beamlines in phase I at the TPS synchrotron facility. A 2-meter in-vacuum undulator (IU22) serves as the photon source from which the harmonics #3 to #9 will provide brilliance of 1018−1020 photons s−1 mrad−2 mm−2 (0.1% bandwidth)−1 and photon flux of 1013−1014 photons s−1 (0.1% bandwidth)−1 in the required energy range of 5.7−20 keV (2.175−0.620 A) to cover MAD phasing experiments at 1 A and SAD phasing experiments at 2 A. The beamline optics consists of a cryo-cooled double crystal monochromator (DCM) and a pair of focusing K-B mirrors. Requirements from the user group include a target focus size of 50 μm × 50 μm (H × V) at the sample position, photon flux greater than 2 × 1012 photons s−1 at Se K-edge (0.9795 A), pinholes for adjusting the beam size down to 5 μm. Calculation of heat load for the first optical element, i.e. the first crystal of DCM, is included in this paper.

An ultrahigh resolution and high-flux undulator beamline U9-CGM, with a cylindrical grating monochromator and covering an energy range from 5to100eV, has been constructed. Two separate entrance slits are included to provide different incident angles, hence to optimize the overall performance. This beamline delivers an average photon flux of 6×1010photons∕s with the entrance and exit slit openings at 10μm. An energy resolving power of 110 000 with a photon flux of 1×1010photons∕s was obtained at 16eV with the 1800line∕mm grating and at 64eV with the 1600line∕mm grating, with the entrance and exit slit openings at 3 and 5μm, respectively. A differentially pumped gas cell is used to attenuate high-order light by up to four orders of magnitude. This beamline will be a powerful tool for research in ultrahigh resolution spectroscopy of atoms, molecules, and condensed matter.

Forty patients with acute calculous cholangitis had successful endoscopic drainage. Bile from nasobiliary drains and venous blood was collected at 0, 12, 24, 36 and 48 h after endoscopy. Endotoxin levels were measured by the chromogenic Limulus Amoebocyte Lysate assay. There was a significant reduction in both bile and serum endotoxin levels after endoscopic drainage (P < 0.001). Endotoxaemia occurred when bile endotoxin reached 10(3) EU/ml and rose exponentially beyond this threshold. Significant association was demonstrated between both bile and serum endotoxins to the clinical features of cholangitis (P < 0.05). No correlation was evident between serum endotoxin and the parameters of white cell count, serum bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase (r = 0.53, 0.00 and 0.00 respectively). Endoscopic drainage is effective in lowering bile and serum endotoxin levels and clinical signs and symptoms reliably predict endotoxaemia.

In this article we present a simple optical engine system that using the wired grid component to construct the LCOS engine. The performance of this optical engine (ITRIBOX) is suitable for the portable applications.