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Purpose The purpose of the current study was to explore the functions and potential mechanism of miR-451a in breast cancer (BC). Methods Quantitative reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to analyze the expression of miR-451a in human normal mammary cells (MCF-10A) and BC cells. Colony formation assay, terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl transferase mediated nick end labeling assay and transwell assays were conducted to validate the effect of miR-451a on proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of BC cells, respectively. RNA pull-down, RNA immunoprecipitation and luciferase reporter assays were applied to investigate the upstream and downstream mechanisms of miR-451a in BC cells. Results MiR-451a was expressed at a low level in BC cells. Overexpression of miR-451a repressed BC cells proliferation, migration and invasion. Moreover, long non-coding RNA AC092127.1 acted as a sponge of miR-451a to enhance the expression level of AE binding protein 2 (AEBP2) that was demonstrated to be the target gene of miR-451a in BC cells. Finally, rescue experiments validated that miR-451a and AEBP2 involved in AC092127.1-mediated BC cell growth, migration and invasion. Conclusion In a word, AC092127.1/miR-451a/AEBP2 axis contributes to BC cell growth, migration and invasion. Our results may help to find novel potential targets for BC treatment.

There are inevitable defects for direct composition control in distillation processes, and temperature inference control is an alternative means. To make the temperature of an intermediate stage st...

As a typical cold storage media working at sub-zero temperature, NaCl-water solution as a phase change material (PCM) with -21 oC melting point has been selected in this study. 0.0625 vol.%-0.5 vol.% multi-wall carbon nanotube (MCNT) was dispersed in the NaCl-water basefluid via ultra-sonicating to make nano-suspension. The viscosity of MCNT-NaCl-water was measured and the experimental results fitted well with the modified Krieger-Dougherty (K-D) model. The structure of MCNT cluster was derived from the fitting of viscosity data, showing that the lower the temperature, the larger the cluster size could be. Benefited from the MCNT cluster parameter, the thermal conductivity of MCNT-NaCl-water was predicted by modified Hamilton-Crosser (H-C) model, in which the MCNT cluster was considered as a whole part with its equivalent thermal conductivity. In addition, thermal conductivity experiment was also conducted to compare the measured value with the calculated value. The results indicated that the traditional H-C model underestimates the measured thermal conductivity by a large margin while the approach proposed in this paper shows good accuracy. Moreover, it is also found that MCNT will improve the thermal conductivity more significantly at low temperature than at high temperature.

Graphene is receiving significant attention for use in optoelectronic devices because it exhibits a wide range of desirable electrical properties. Although modified graphene that is fabricated on quantum dots (or similar integration strategies) has shown promise, it has not met the requirements for high-speed applications and highly sensitive detection. Herein, we report ion-modulated graphene composite nanostructures that were incorporated into photodetectors. We focus on the dynamical properties of the novel photodetectors, and they exhibit extraordinary photoelectric performances (photoresponsivity ∼1 A/W, response time ∼100 μs) over a broad range of wavelengths from 405 to 1064 nm (the maximum external quantum efficiency is greater than 300% at 635 nm with a 10 kHz chopping frequency). A theoretical model is proposed in this paper, and it is in good agreement with our experimental results. The dynamic analyses further confirmed the dissociation and recombination of ion-electron bound states to be responsible for the fast and sensitive photoresponse from the composite samples. Although ion-modulated optoelectronic nanomaterials are rarely studied, they require further exploration as they offer new insights and alternatives in nanomaterial research.

Study Design: Meta-analysis. Objective: To systematically compare the effectiveness and safety of vertebral augmentation procedure (VAP) with non-surgical management (NSM) for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebrate compression fractures (OVCFs). Methods: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses with the comparison between VAP and NSM were identified to extract randomized controlled trials from electronic database. Additionally, recently published RCTs were identified. Two researchers independently extracted the data. The primary outcome of this meta-analysis was pain relief evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS). Results: Twenty RCTs involving 2566 patients with painful OVCFs were included. Significant differences were found between percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) and conservative treatment (CT) in VAS at each time point during follow-up period. The differences of VAS were not significant between PVP and sham procedure at most time points during follow-up period. In subgroup analysis based on fracture type and fracture location, significant differences of VAS were found between PVP and CT and were not found between PVP and sham procedure. In subgroup analysis of duration of back pain, significant differences were found between PVP and CT in VAS at 1 week, 3 month and 1 year. And the differences of VAS were not significant between PVP and CT at 1 month and 6 month. Conclusion: BKP is considered sufficient to achieve good clinical outcomes. PVP is associated with on beneficial effect on treatment of painful OVCFs compared with sham procedure. The indication and timing of VAP need further research. More independently high-quality RCTs with sufficiently large sample sizes reporting cost-effectiveness are needed.

Introduction The incidence of stroke sequelae among patients is as high as 70%–80%. Flexor spasm is the most common stroke sequela, presenting a heavy burden to the patients and their families. This study will evaluate the results of randomized controlled trials to determine the efficacy and safety of hand manipulation acupuncture for the treatment of upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke. Methods Eight databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed, Wanfang Database, and Web of Science, will be searched using English and Chinese search strategies. In addition, manual retrieval of research papers, conference papers, ongoing experiments, and internal reports, among others, will supplement electronic retrieval. All eligible studies published on or before January 15, 2021 will be selected. To enhance the effectiveness of the study, only clinical randomized controlled trials related to the use of manual acupuncture for the treatment of upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke will be included. Analysis The Fugl-Meyer upper extremity assessment will be the primary outcome measure, whereas the Wolf Motor Function Test, Modified Ashworth Scale, arm movement survey test table, and upper extremity freehand muscle strength assessment scores will be the secondary outcomes. Side effects and adverse events will be included as safety evaluations. To ensure the quality of the systematic evaluation, study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment will be independently performed by two authors, and a third author will resolve any disagreement. Ethics and dissemination This systematic review will evaluate the efficacy and safety of manual acupuncture for the treatment of upper limb motor dysfunction after stroke. Since all included data will be obtained from published articles, it does not require ethical approval and will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. INPLASY registration number: INPLASY202110071.

In modern hybrid electric vehicles, wide-input-range intermediate bus converters (IBCs) are essential in 48V power systems [1]. To increase the power efficiency, e-mode GaN FETs have been adopted in the IBCs [2, 3], as they offer much smaller on-resistance and thus conduction loss than silicon power FETs. However, even with GaN FETs, hard-switching (HS) power converters would still suffer from considerable turn-on V-I overlap loss and dV/dt kickback at high input voltages, degrading the light-load power efficiency, limiting the switching frequency (f SW ) to 100s of kHz, and compromising the converter reliability. To address these issues, different soft switching schemes have been adopted to enable zero-voltage switching (ZVS) in HV power converters [4, 6]. Conventional ZVS scheme [4, 5] can guarantee fixed switching frequency over a wide input range as compared to its resonant-based counterpart [6]. In [4], although a proper gate driver is reported to minimize the reverse conduction loss of the GaN-based ZVS converter, the converter light-load power efficiency is still considerably degraded by the power loss of the ZVS branch. This is because the fixed large continuous inductor current ripple of the ZVS branch for the maximum load case has to be utilized for ensuring full ZVS of GaN FETs for all different load conditions. This large current ripple becomes excessive and results in substantial power loss in high f SW when the load decreases, diminishing the benefit of switching loss removal via the ZVS operation.

Vapor Compression Refrigeration Systems (VCRS) are widely used to provide cooling or freezing for domestic/office buildings, supermarkets, data centres, etc., which expend 15% of globally electricity and contribute to ∼10% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. It is reported that cooling demand is expected to grow tenfold by 2050. Therefore, it is critical to improve the efficiency of the VCRS. In this paper, a comprehensive review of advanced and hot technologies is conducted for the VCRS. These technologies include radiative cooling, cold energy storage, defrosting and frost-free, temperature and humidity independent control (THIC), ground source heat pump (GSHP), refrigerant subcooling, and condensing heat recovery. Radiative cooling could produce a cold source ∼8 °C lower than the surroundings, which reduces the electricity consumption of the VCRS by ∼21%; cold energy storage is used to shift the peak cooling load, and as a result, the electricity consumption and operation cost of the VCRS could be reduced by ∼12% and ∼32%, respectively; frosting is a big issue of the VCRS especially for freezing applications, and more than 60% of electricity consumption for defrosting could be saved with the advanced defrosting and frost-free technologies; THIC deals with the building sensible load and latent load separately, which not only increases the COP of the VCRS by ∼35%, but also improves the building thermal comfort; GSHP uses the ground as a low-temperature cooling source for condensing the refrigerant in the VCRS in summer, which decreases the condensing temperature by ∼5 °C and correspondingly increases the COP of the VCRS by ∼14%; refrigerant subcooling and condensing heat recovery can increase the refrigerating capacity and achieve multi-functions of the VCRS, respectively. The review is summarized in terms of the technology classification, basic ideas, advantages/disadvantages, current research status and efforts to be made in the future.

A counter-flow heat pump driven liquid desiccant dehumidification (HPLD) system is considered as an energy-efficient approach for the humid air handling process, with advantages in terms of higher efficiency and simpler configuration. It is found that the adoption of a multi-stage heat pump cycle can improve the system performance, and then experimental tests for the system performance of the HPLD system with a two-stage heat pump cycle are investigated in the present study. The effects of solution flow rate, air inlet parameters including outdoor air and indoor exhaust air, and supplementary water capacity for the system on the system performance are elucidated according to the experimental results. It is found that the solution flow rate could affect the heat recovery performance between outdoor air and indoor exhaust air, and the performance of the heat pump. Thus, there exists an optimal solution flow rate for this counter-flow HPLD system, and the coefficient of performance of the system (COPsys) can be as high as 6.5 under the experimental condition. Besides, the increase of outdoor air inlet parameters and the decrease of indoor exhaust air inlet parameters with enough indoor exhaust air flow rate for the system have favorable effects on the system performance, due to the promotion to the heat recovery performance of the system. And more supplementary water capacity to remove the redundant heating capacity of the system would also improve the system performance mainly through lowering the condensing temperature. However, supplementary water capacity cannot be added too much for the system due to the dehumidification demand. Furthermore, the coefficient of performance of this counter-flow HPLD system is approximately 30% higher than that of a cross-flow HPLD system, handling more dehumidification demand.

The dividing wall column (DWC) is considered as a major breakthrough in distillation technology and has good prospect of industrialization. Model predictive control (MPC) is an advanced control strategy that has acquired extensive applications in various industries. In this study, MPC is applied to the process for separating ethanol, n-propanol, and n-butanol ternary mixture in a fully thermally coupled DWC. Both composition control and temperature inferential control are considered. The multiobjective genetic algorithm function “gamultiobj” in Matlab is used for the weight tuning of MPC. Comparisons are made between the control performances of MPC and PI strategies. Simulation results show that although both MPC and PI schemes can stabilize the DWC in case of feed disturbances, MPC generally behaves better than the PI strategy for both composition control and temperature inferential control, resulting in a more stable and superior performance with lower values of integral of squared error (ISE).

A theoretical scheme used for manipulating the orientation of LiH molecules with phase-jump laser pulse is proposed. The time-dependent quantum wave packet method is used to numerically compute the wave-function of molecules by including both vibrational and rotational degrees of the freedom. The effect of asymmetric phase jump pulses on molecular orientation can be well understood by a train of HCPs kicking the molecule. The effective orientation of molecules can be achieved by phase-jump laser pulse. The maximal orientation degree, 0.757, and the longest orientation duration, 0.365 ps, are given by optimizing the parameters of phase-jump laser pulse. The molecular orientation is influenced significantly by phase and phase-jump time. Also the molecular orientation is dependent on pulse frequency, peak intensity and system temperature.

A phase change material (PCM) based portable box for cold chain transportation applications was studied. A composite containing paraffin-based PCM (RT 5), fumed silica and graphene was used. The chemical compatibility of ingredients, and the thermal properties and cyclability of the composite PCMs were investigated. An in-situ X-ray Diffractometer (XRD) was used to study the solidification behaviour of the PCM composites. An experimental rig was built to compare the charging time, cooling duration and energy efficiency of the portable box containing the composite PCMs. The results showed that the composite PCMs had good cyclability and chemical stability. An addition of 4 wt.% fumed silica was able to eliminate the PCM leakage. By adding 1 wt.% of graphene, the thermal conductivity of composite increased by 55.4%. When using composite PCMs, the charging time of the box was reduced by 6.25%. Besides, the portable box could provided a temperature environment of 2~8 °C for up to 11.5 hours. The charging and overall energy efficiency increased by 6.09% and 12.58%, respectively. The results also show substantial evidence that the use of silica and graphene enhances the nucleation process of phase change kinetics and reduces the PCM supercooling.

A novel heat pump-assisted azeotropic dividing wall column (HP-ADWC) has been proposed for the separation of a maximum-boiling ethylenediamine (EDA)/water system in this paper. Compared with conventional azeotropic distillation (CAD), HP-ADWC allows 42.93% energy savings and 24.36% total annual cost (TAC) savings if the payback period is assumed to be 8 years. To achieve the energy and economic benefits, this novel design must be controllable. However, it is challenging to control this complex and highly integrated HP-ADWC process since there are more interactive variables and fewer degrees of freedom than classic DWC process. In this paper, the dynamic controllability of HP-ADWC is studied by Aspen Dynamics and an effective control structure named CS4 is proposed, which works pretty well for the disturbances in both feed rate and feed composition.

We investigate theoretically the formation of ultracold Cs2 molecules via photoassociation (PA) with three kinds of pulses (the Gaussian pulse, the asymmetric shaped laser pulse SL1 with a large rising time and a small falling time and the asymmetric shaped laser pulse SL2 with a small rising time and a large falling time). For the three kinds of pulses, the final population on vibrational levels from v′ = 120 to 175 of the excited state displays a regular oscillation change with pulse width and interaction strength, and a high PA efficiency can be achieved with optimised parameters. The PA efficiency in the excited state steered by the SL1-pulse (SL2-pulse) train with optimised parameters which is composed of four SL1 (SL2) pulses is 1.74 times as much as that by the single SL1 (SL2) pulse due to the population accumulation effect. Moreover, a dump laser is employed to transfer the excited molecules from the excited state to the vibrational level v″ = 12 of the ground state to obtain stable molec...

This chapter concerns mainly the integration of cryogenic energy storage (CES) with nuclear power plant (NPP) for load shift. It starts with an introduction to the CES technology including basic principle, development history, process diagram, performance evaluation, and applications. Data obtained during an operation of the world first CES pilot plant (350 kW/2.5 MWh) are presented to illustrate the potential use of the CES in electric power grids. This is followed by the comparison of the CES technology with two other major large-scale energy storage technologies, pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage, demonstrating clear advantages of the CES technology in terms of energy density, no geographic and geologic constraints, and flexibility. The integration of the CES technology with NPPs is then discussed. Such an integrated system could be operated in three modes of electric energy storage, electric energy release, and conventional operation, offering significant cost-effective load-shift capabilities and flexibility. Thermodynamic analyses suggest that the integrated system could deliver 2.7 times the NPP rated power and achieve a round-trip efficiency of the CES at ~ 71%.

The mechanisms of four-color ( ω ± 2 ω ± 3 ω ± 4 ω ) laser-induced field-free molecular orientation based on the polarizability and hyperpolarizability are explored. The CO molecule is used as a computational example. It is shown that the degree and direction of the molecular orientation can be coherently manipulated by changing the polarization direction of the odd- and even-order harmonics of the four-color laser pulse. When relative amplitude σ 1 = σ 2 = σ 3 = σ 4 = 1, the molecular orientation reaches the maximum. By modulating the phase of the odd- and even-order harmonics of the four-color laser pulse, enhancement and suppression of molecular orientation can be effectively controlled. The laser field peak amplitude is an important parameter to control the molecular orientation. Moreover, the combination of two four-color pulses can significantly increase the degree of molecular orientation.

We investigate theoretically the field-free orientation of CO molecules induced by a single-cycle THz laser pulse train. It is shown that the molecular orientation can be obviously enhanced by applying the pulse train. The laser intensity and pulse number have some effects on the molecular orientation. The high degree of field-free molecular orientation |⟨cosθ⟩|max=0.9246 is obtained at temperature T=0 K. The variations of the maximum orientation degree with the experimentally available pulse number and peak intensity are given. Temperature T has a considerable influence on the field-free molecular orientation. The maximal field-free molecular orientation at T=0, 10, 20 and 30 K for N=14 and E0=1.8 MV/cm are |⟨cosθ⟩|max=0.9188, 0.7338, 0.6055 and 0.5154 in order, and the corresponding effective duration times of molecular orientation are Δt=0.759, 0.432, 0.297 and 0.117 ps.

This paper presents a new technique to improve the power efficiency for high-voltage non-isolated DC---DC converters running at high switching frequencies. A passive-saving two-phase quasi-square-wave zero-voltage-switching (PS-TPZVS) cell that consists of an auxiliary inductor and a capacitor sharing between two phases of sub-converters is proposed to realize ZVS operation for all power FETs under different conditions. Compared to the traditional two-phase ZVS topology, the proposed design saves 1 auxiliary inductor and 1 auxiliary capacitor for establishing ZVS of power FETs, and thus reduces both the volume and power losses of the auxiliary circuitry. To verify the performances of the proposed PS-TPZVS cell, a 140-W 4-MHz two-phase QSW-ZVS converter is designed and verified by simulations to achieve peak efficiencies of 97 % with enhancement-mode GaN FETs and 95 % with power MOSFETs. The proposed PS-TPZVS cell can also be applied to various topologies of non-isolated DC---DC converters and extended into a 2 N-phase topology with only N additional branches of the proposed cell.

We study theoretically the photoionization dynamics of pre-oriented NaK molecule. Firstly, a THz laser pulse is utilized to orient the ground state molecule. And then the pump and probe laser pulses are used to excite and ionize the molecule, respectively. We study the influence of molecular orientation duration and degree on the ionization probability, angle-resolved photoelectron spectrum and photoelectron angular distribution (PAD). It is shown that we could obtain more stable ionization signal and PAD when the molecules are ionized in molecular orientation duration. We could increase the ionization probability and obtain more concentrated ionization signal and photoelectron distribution by increasing the orientation degree in the ground state. Moreover, we discuss the splitting pattern in the angle-resolved photoelectron spectrum.

Background Orthopedic operating room (OR) nurses entail specialized skills and training, which are not part of the regular curricula at most nursing college. Instead, many nursing students' exposure to orthopedic care in the orthopedic range is limited to occasional observational assignments. Additionally, teamwork is an important factor affecting the performance of the orthopedic OR nurses. This results in a knowledge gap in clinical nursing education. Problem and scripting based learning (PSBL) method is a crucial tool of pre-operative prepared improvement. It is easy for surgeon to record surgical video from his own field of vision by wearable technology (WT). Nevertheless, few studies related to combine WT and PSBL been done to investigate features underlying efficiency in training of novice orthopedic OR nurses. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of combining WT with PSBL in training of novice orthopedic OR nurses. Methods 20 operating room post-graduate-year-1 nurses from the First Hospital of China Medical University were randomly divided into two groups (“conventional training (CT)” group and “WT combining with PSBL” group). Initially the superior orthopedic operating room nurses who immediately followed each procedure filled out a feedback questionnaire of the novice nurses. After finished procedure, novice nurses had a basic understanding of each training method benefits and then filled out the questionnaires. Statistical analysis of the results was performed. Results Novice nurses of WT&PSBL Group got the better score in most of the preparedness and performance feedback statement. Mean scores of overall total preparedness and performance feedback statement of WT&PSBL Group was higher than CT Group (P ≤ 0.05). Based on summarizing the questionnaires, the novice nurse in WT- PSBL Group also made significantly better total score than “Conventional training” Group (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions WT&PSBL method, as a crucial tool for improving pre-operative preparedness and intra-operative performance, can cultivate novice orthopedic operating room nurses' ability to use prior knowledge and cognitive frameworks flexibly to deal with problems during performance. It plays a crucial role in training confident and safe orthopedic operating room nurses. Design Randomized controlled trial (RCT).

The Brillouin-scattering fiber-optic gyroscope (BFOG) is a new-generation miniaturized high-precision fiber-optic gyroscope. By focusing on the light characteristics of the BFOG resonator, we derive a recursive relationship for the intensity of light of different orders by using the coupled equations for stimulated Brillouin scattering. We then establish mathematical models of the light characteristics, threshold power analysis, and optimum resonance condition analysis. Based on these models, we derive a functional relationship between the incident pump light intensity, light intensity in the cavity, the intensity of each Stokes wave order, and emitted light intensity. Finally, we simulate and quantify the threshold power and resonance critical condition influenced by several main factors including the insertion loss, coupling coefficient, and transmission loss.

Every optical state polarization in Sagnac fiber optic current sensor (S-FOCS) is restricted in specific stage theoretically. However, complex transforming processes of optical state polarization induce illegal linear optical state polarization and illegal circular optical state polarization in Sagnac fiber optic current sensor, then, decrease performance of S-FOCS. According to the parameters of the optical components, we built Jones matrixes and the mathematical model of optical transmission in S-FOCS. Based on polarization state error models of Sagnac fiber optic current sensor, we made experiments to evaluate performances of several key components, including polarizer, quarter-wave retarder and sensing head, then, investigate the influence of several main polarization error factors on S-FOCS's performance practically. The result shows that the changing degree of polarization state causes bias instability, nonlinear of scale ratio, and random noises of S-FOCS, and influents S-FOCS's performance.

The mechanical strength of polymeric membranes is one of the limitations for their applications. Carbon materials are effective in reinforcing polymeric materials, but it is unknown whether they would degrade the membranes’ gas separation performance. In this paper, using brominated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (BPPO) as matrix, nanocomposite membranes of BPPO/graphene, BPPO/carbon back and BPPO/fullerene were prepared. The CO2 permeability and CO2/N2 selectivity of the nanocomposite membranes were studied. Different from the BPPO/carbon black and BPPO/fullerene membranes, the BPPO/graphene membrane was found having improved gas separation performance after incorporation 2 wt. % graphene.

Two integrated high-speed gate drivers to enable high-frequency operation of synchronous rectifiers in high-voltage switching power converters are presented in this paper. The first synchronous gate driver for a CMOS power train consists of a capacitively coupled level shifter (CCLS) that offers negligible propagation delays and no static current consumption, and requires only one off-chip capacitor to enable high-side power pMOS driving capability without any external floating supply. The second synchronous gate driver consists of a low-power high-speed dynamically controlled level shifter (DCLS) with a reliability-enhanced error-suppression technique for driving a dual-nMOS power train. In addition, a dynamic timing control (DTC) is developed to generate proper dead time for power FETs in order to enable soft switching operation of the converter under different input voltages for enhancing the converter reliability. The converter power efficiency can be also improved by minimizing both switching and short-circuit power losses under high-input-voltage conditions. Implemented in a 0.5 µm 120 V CMOS process, both proposed CCLS and DCLS have demonstrated to shift up 5 V signal to 100 V and 40 V, respectively, improving the FoM by at least 10 times and 2.9 times compared to respective state-of-the-art level shifters. The DTC circuit enables proper ZVS operation in a synchronous buck converter with the CCLS-based gate driver over a wide input supply range from 40 V to 100 V, providing a converter maximum power-efficiency improvement of 11.5%.

The vibrational state-selected population transfer from a highly vibrationally excited level to the ground level is of great importance in the preparation of ultra-cold molecules. By using the time-dependent quantum-wave-packet method, the population transfer dynamics is investigated theoretically for the HF molecule. A double-∑-type laser scheme is proposed to transfer the population from the ∣v=16〉 level to the ground vibrational level ∣v=0〉 on the ground electronic state. The scheme consists of two steps: The first step is to transfer the population from ∣v=16〉 to ∣v=7〉 via an intermediate level ∣v=11〉, and the second one is to transfer the population from ∣v=7〉 to ∣v=0〉 via ∣v=3〉. In each step, three vibrational levels form a ∑-type population transfer path under the action of two temporally overlapped laser pulses. The maximal population-transfer efficiency is obtained by optimizing the laser intensities, frequencies, and relative delays. Cases for the pulses in intuitive and counterintuitive sequences are both calculated and compared. It is found that for both cases the population can be efficiently (over 90%) transferred from the ∣v=16〉 level to the ∣v=0〉 level.

We investigate theoretically the photoassociation process of $^{85}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms driven by a short laser pulse at several millikelvins. At this temperature, the actions of the rotational barrier, weights of initial scattering states, and shape resonance emerge and have an influence on the thermally averaged photoassociation probability. The calculated thermal weighted population distribution of rotational states agrees well with photoassociation spectrum experiment. The thermally averaged photoassociation probability decreases with an increase in temperature.

We developed a new type of light field microscope with extended field-of-view. Using this new technique, we achieved whole larval zebrafish brain imaging at near single cell resolution and at 90 Hz volume rate. We demonstrated its applications in functional imaging of neural dynamics and fast imaging of circulating blood cells in larval zebrafish brain.

The formation of NaH molecules in the lowest rovibrational level of the ground electronic state is investigated using a pump-dump photoassociation (PA) scheme. In short-range region, two colliding atoms Na and H are efficiently associated into the NaH molecule in the rovibrational |0,0〉 state of the ground electronic state via the intermediately rovibrational |10,1〉 state of the excited electronic state. The changes of populations with the electric field amplitudes, frequency detunings, dump pulse duration and delay time between two laser pulses are calculated and discussed. The PA probability reaches 0.623 with a high state-selectivity.

Lime production represents the second largest contributor to industrial CO2 emission in China, but it has not been well addressed. Herein, an efficient and environment-friendly Limestone Calcination Process with CO2 Looping and Recovery (LCPCLR) is established to solve the associated environment issue. CO2 serves as heat carrier in the LCPCLR system, which provides heat for the limestone calcination. The limestone calcination occurs in pure CO2 environment, and the calcination temperature is around 900 °C when CO2 pressure (PCO2) is at ∼1 atm. CaCO3 decomposition is inhibited when PCO2 exceeds the CO2 equilibrium pressure (PCO2eq), and the inhibition can be solved by increase of temperature. PCO2/PCO2eq is suggested to be kept below 0.25 to achieve an efficient calcination process. Both higher temperature and larger gas-solid water equivalent ratio (ηg/s) can enhance the limestone calcination. To replace the pure CO2 with CO2/H2O(g) mixture as the carrier gas is a promising way to enhance efficiency of the calcination process. Through the LCPCLR, more alternative fuels can be used to reduce the operating cost, and CO2 emission is reduced by around 780 kg per ton of lime manufacturing.

The heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC) has huge potential on energy saving. A partially accurate model is proposed to describe this system with a reduced form. The new model improves the tracking accuracy of the dynamic behaviors at specific stages related to the distillation products so as to serve for an efficient nonlinear model-based control scheme. Estimates of the unmeasured model parameters are generated based on a limited number of temperature measurements, and the locations of these measurements are determined strategically by the combination of a weighted PCA (principal component analysis) method and a relative distribution index. A nonlinear control scheme is then formulated by combining the partially accurate model and the structure of an extended generic model control. The relative order of the HIDiC is reduced by the proposed model, and hence the number of the controller parameters are decreased. The proposed reduced-order control scheme is compared to two control schemes, namely a normal extended generic model control strategy and a classical PI controller, to evaluate the validity of the nonlinear model-based control for the HIDiC.

The internal thermally coupled distillation column (ITCDIC) is a frontier in the energy-saving distillation research. The process inside a high-purity ITCDIC is of great nonlinear dynamics, high sensitivity to disturbances and inverse response, which prevent the process from being commercialised. To obtain a satisfactory control performance, a dynamic matrix control (DMC) is presented. The benzene/toluene system is studied as a simulation example. The results are compared with a traditional PID and an adaptive multivariable generalised predictive control (AM-GPC) in detail. The performances in both servo and regulatory control confirm the accuracy and validity of the DMC for the high-purity ITCDIC process.

A flexible micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) array antenna is presented which is used in the space satellite communication system, and its bending properties are studied in order to maintain its radiation characteristics as its plane state after deployment from bending. The flexible MEMS array antenna on an LCP substrate is designed with a central frequency of 30 GHz, and its radiation characteristics are obtained with simulation. Moreover, the bending states of the array antenna in different curvatures are simulated, and the stress distribution and the strain distribution of the antenna are analyzed respectively. Simulation results indicate that the elastic bending curvature range of the flexible MEMS array antenna is between 0 and 0.0125, which satisfies the application requirements of antennas deployment from bending in the space satellite communication system.

The influence of the carrier envelope phase (CEP) on the field-free orientation of the NaI molecule is investigated theoretically. The molecular orientation steered by a single-cycle terahertz (THz) pulse is studied by solving exactly the time-dependent Schrodinger equation including the rovibrational degrees of freedom. We find that the field-free orientation is dependent on the central frequency and CEP of the single-cycle pulse. The CEP of single-cycle THz pulse affects the field-free orientation mainly via changing the population distributions of rotational states. By choosing the CEP of single-cycle THz pulse at the appropriate central frequency, the maximum value of the degree of field-free orientation, ⟨cosθ⟩, can reach 0.80. Moreover, we find that the duration of effective orientation (|⟨cosθ⟩| ≥ 0.5) is relatively long in certain regions of the laser central frequency and the CEP.

Ribs and clavicles in posterior-anterior (PA) digital chest radiographs often overlap with lung abnormalities such as nodules, and cause missing of these abnormalities, it is therefore necessary to remove or reduce the ribs in chest radiographs. The purpose of this study was to develop a fully automated algorithm to segment ribs within lung area in digital radiography (DR) for removal of the ribs. The rib segmentation algorithm consists of three steps. Firstly, a radiograph was pre-processed for contrast adjustment and noise removal; second, generalized Hough transform was employed to localize the lower boundary of the ribs. In the third step, a novel bilateral dynamic programming algorithm was used to accurately segment the upper and lower boundaries of ribs simultaneously. The width of the ribs and the smoothness of the rib boundaries were incorporated in the cost function of the bilateral dynamic programming for obtaining consistent results for the upper and lower boundaries. Our database consisted of 93 DR images, including, respectively, 23 and 70 images acquired with a DR system from Shanghai United-Imaging Healthcare Co. and from GE Healthcare Co. The rib localization algorithm achieved a sensitivity of 98.2% with 0.1 false positives per image. The accuracy of the detected ribs was further evaluated subjectively in 3 levels: "1", good; "2", acceptable; "3", poor. The percentages of good, acceptable, and poor segmentation results were 91.1%, 7.2%, and 1.7%, respectively. Our algorithm can obtain good segmentation results for ribs in chest radiography and would be useful for rib reduction in our future study.

We investigate theoretically the preparation of ultracold photoassociated Cs 2 molecules in the lowest vibrational level of the ground electronic state via the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) by solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation using the mapped Fourier grid method. A negative chirped laser pulse is used to produce the unstable photoassociated molecules in the excited electronic state. A dump pulse is utilized to transfer a partial population of the unstable photoassociated molecules to the vibrational v″ = 18 level of the ground electronic state. This part of population is then transferred to the v″ = 0 level of the ground electronic state by the pump and Stokes laser pulses via an intermediate state which is taken to be the v′ = 7 level of the excited electronic state, forming the stable photoassociated molecules. The population transfer efficiency from v″ = 18 to v″ = 0 in the ground electronic state reaches 96.2% via the STIRAP.

We present a theoretical scheme used for achieving an efficient long-lived field-free molecular orientation by utilizing two modulated few-cycle THz pulses with an appropriate delay time. The exact numerical calculations are performed by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation including the vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom, with the LiH molecule as an example. The results show that the orientation degree and the orientation duration are strongly related to the period of envelope T p , the central frequency ω L and the phase of envelope ϕ of the modulated few-cycle THz pulses. A long-lived and efficient field-free molecular orientation can be realized by adjusting these laser parameters which is available in the current experiment. The effect of temperature on molecular orientation is also discussed.

Above-threshold dissociation (ATD) process of the molecular ions HD+ steered by a femtosecond laser pulse train (LPT) is investigated theoretically using the time-dependent quantum wave packet method. Energy-dependent distributions of ATD fragments are analyzed by using an asymptotic-flow expression in the momentum space. It is found that fragment kinetic energy spectra shift to low energy region with increasing pulse number of LPT. The photofragment branching ratio between the 1sσg and 2pσu dissociation channels is sensitive to the pulse number of LPT. The momentum distribution of the ATD fragments is discussed in detail.

We investigate theoretically the field-free molecular orientation driven by a modulated two-color laser pulse together with a delayed half-cycle THz pulse, with the LiH molecule as an example. The field-free molecular orientation and the population of the target state ( v = 1 , J = 1 ) are controlled by adjusting the phase of envelope ϕ and the period T p of the modulated two-color laser field. At T p = 7 ps, more molecules are populated to the target state and more efficient molecular orientation is achieved. The effect of temperature on molecular orientation is also discussed.

In this paper, an optical surface curvature measurement technique based on digital holography is proposed. Unlike the previous digital holographic methods, which only involve a small part of the measured data for parameter estimation, the proposed method adopts more of them using least square method. Hence, the analyzed result is not affected by data extraction direction and less sensitive to imperfect phase compensation. The proposed method is demonstrated with a sample of reflection mirror in laser resonator, and verified by comparing the measurement result with that of the white light interferometer.

Internal thermally coupled distillation column (ITCDIC) is a frontier of energy saving distillation researches, which is a great improvement on conventional distillation column (CDIC). However its high degree thermal coupling makes the control design a bottleneck problem, where data-driven model leads to obvious mismatch with the real plant in the high-purity control processes, and a first-principle model which is comprised of complex mass balance relations and thermally coupled relations could not be directly used as control model for the bad online computing efficiency. In the present work, wave theory is extended to the control design of ITCDIC with variable molar flow rates, where a general nonlinear wave model of ITCDIC processes based on the profile trial function of the component concentration distribution is proposed firstly; combined with the thermally coupled relations, a novel wave model based generic model controller (WGMC) of ITCDIC processes is developed. The benzene–toluene system for ITCDIC is studied as illustration, where WGMC is compared with another generic model controller based on a data-driven model (TGMC) and an internal model controller (IMC). In the servo control and regulatory control, WGMC exhibits the greatest performances. Detailed research results confirm the efficiency of the proposed wave model and the advantage of the proposed WGMC control strategy.

We have theoretically studied the dynamics of above threshold dissociation (ATD) in molecular ions HD+ using frequency chirped femtosecond laser pulses from numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation by using the three-dimensional time-dependent quantum wave packet method. Energy-dependent distributions of ATD fragments are analyzed by an asymptotic-flow expression in momentum space. Linearly positive and negative frequency chirped laser pulses are adopted. It is found that varying frequency chirped parameters can change branching ratios of the 1sσ g and 2pσ u dissociations channels. The concept of a light-induced potential is used to interpret the ATD process. The angular resolved energy distributions of the photofragments are also illustrated.

Internal thermally coupled distillation column (ITCDIC) is a frontier in the energy-saving distillation researches. One of the bottlenecks to prevent the column from being commercialised is the difficulty in control design due to the high sensitivity to disturbances, strong asymmetric nonlinearity and inverse response especially under high purity. An adaptive multivariable generalised predictive control (AM-GPC) strategy of ITCDIC process is proposed to solve the difficulties in high purity. The simulation results of AM-GPC are compared with single input and single output GPC (S-GPC), multivariable GPC (M-GPC), modified IMC (M-IMC) and traditional PID control in detail. The performances confirm the accuracy and validity of AM-GPC for the high-purity ITCDIC process. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering

The evaluation of the reliability of structural systems is of extreme importance in structural design, mainly when the variables are random. A method is presented to efficiently assess the random response of stochastic structures. The article uses two-level sampling method to partial fiber element. First, the homogeneous random field of concrete and rebar can be created by modified Latin-hypercube sampling. Then section discretization method is adopted to assign fiber random variables of concrete section fiber. The algorithm is then used to analyze the random response of a concrete beam, and the result proves that the method is efficient.

The internal thermally coupled distillation column (ITCDIC) is a frontier in energy-saving distillation research. The process inside a high-purity ITCDIC is of great nonlinear dynamics, which trouble the conventional control schemes. A multivariable adaptive robust generic model control (ARGMC) is presented to solve the difficulties, where an ARX model is derived and a recursive least squares estimation (RLSE) method is introduced. The benzene/toluene system is studied as an illustrative example. The results of ARGMC are compared with the robust generic model control (RGMC) and traditional PID control in detail. The performances in both servo control and regulatory control confirm the accuracy and validity of ARGMC for the high-purity ITCDIC process.

We investigate theoretically the above-threshold ionization (ATI) of the polar NaK molecule exposed in few-cycle laser field by numerically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation including the vibrational and rotational degrees of freedom. The left and right ATI spectra are calculated by integrating the ionization continuum wave function over the left and the right half spheres along the laser polarization. We find that the left and right ATI spectra are asymmetric, and this asymmetry depends strongly on the molecular orientation and the carrier-envelope phase (CEP) of the laser pulse. Moreover, we also perform the calculation for different initially rotational states to study the effect of rotational temperature on the ATI dynamics.

Multiphoton ionization of the Na2 molecule by a single phase shaped fem- tosecond laser pulse has been theoretically studied using time-dependent quantum wave packet method including the effect of molecular rotation. We analyze the tempo- ral development of the population and further discuss the molecular motion by map- ping the rovibrational wave packet propagation in the excited state. The calculated results show a strong dependence of the kinetic energy-resolved photoelectron spectra on the laser chirp directions and the pulse duration. PACS: 33.80.Rv

Case-control study.To examine the association between the expression of aggrecan and the aggrecan gene variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism with symptomatic lumbar disc herniation (LDH) in Chinese Han of Northern China.Aggrecan fragments have been found in human degenerated discs, and an association between the aggrecan VNTR polymorphism and intervertebral disc degeneration has been previously reported in middle-aged Finnish men. However, the relationship between the munity of symptomatic LDH with the expression of aggrecan and aggrecan gene VNTR has not been well studied.The disease group consisted of 70 patients already diagnosed with symptomatic LDH. The control group consisted of 14 patients restricted to spinal trauma and 113 healthy blood donors without symptoms of LDH who were not diagnosed with LDH. Disc tissue samples were obtained from surgical operations, and blood samples were donated from all participants. The aggrecan expression in isolated tissues was assessed by Western blot using specific antibodies. The aggrecan gene VNTR region was analyzed by polymerase chain reaction.The aggrecan expression positive rate of control group was statistically and significantly higher (P0.001) than that of the disease group. Moreover, there was a statistically significant higher frequency of allele 25 or allele 21 in disease group compared with controls (P(A25) = 0.003416 and P(A21) = 0.000716). Compared with the participants with 2 alleles25 repeats, subjects with 1 or 2 allelesor = 25 repeats statistically and significantly overrepresented the disease group without the expression of aggrecan (P0.001).The findings suggest a relation between aggrecan and symptomatic LDH, where symptomatic LDH has a lower tendency of allele repeats. In addition, this study observed an association between the distribution of aggrecan gene VNTR polymorphism and the expression of aggrecan in symptomatic LDH.

The above threshold dissociation (ATD) of the HD+ molecular ion in a linearly polarized femtosecond laser field is theoretically studied using three-dimensional time-dependent quantum wave packet method. Based on the Born–Oppenheimer approximation (BOA), calculations are performed on two electronic states, the ground state 1sσ and the excited state 2pσ. The energy-dependent distributions of the dissociated fragments, resulting from the ATD, are calculated by using an asymptotic-flow expression in the momentum space. The numerical results demonstrate that, in the laser field of wavelength λ = 800 nm and full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) τ = 30 fs , only two-photon dissociation is observable at a weaker pulse peak intensity, 5.0 × 1012 W cm -2, while at an intense intensity, 1.5 × 1015 W cm -2, the dissociated fragments resulting from four-photon absorption dominates over the photodissociation process. These results are consistent with the experimental observation of Orr et al. [Orr PA et al., Phys Rev Lett98:163001, 2007]. The ac Stark-shift caused by intense laser field will change the kinetic energies of the fragments. The ATD phenomena are quantitatively interpreted in terms of the concept of light-induced potential. The molecular rotation and alignment have some effects on the kinetic energy spectrum of the dissociated fragments. The molecular rotation reduces the ac Stark-shift and broadens the peaks of kinetic energy spectra of the dissociated fragments. However, the intense laser field can effectively align the molecule and is helpful to increase the ATD probability. The ATD spectrum is related to the initial quantum numbers J0 and M0 of the molecule. The ATD spectrum of HD+ is calculated at a limited thermal temperature.

Three-peak Autler-Townes (A-T) splitting in the resonant multiphoton ionization photoelectron spectrum for a rotating Li2 molecular system in femtosecond pulse laser fields is studied by using two-dimension time-dependent quantum wave packet method. The A-T splitting results from rapid Rabi oscillation caused by intense femtosecond laser pulses. Because of the effects of molecular rotation and alignment, the Rabi oscillation in the population distribution will be damped in a certain degree. The three-peak A-T splitting can only be observed for a strongly aligned molecule with rapid Rabi oscillation. The three-peak A-T splitting dynamics can be affected by intensity, duration, temporal profile of laser pulse, and initial molecular rotational temperature. The conditions to observe the A-T splitting are discussed in detail. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010