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The generation of three-mode continuous-variable entanglement in a quasiperiodically optical superlattice is studied theoretically in this paper. This work is based on the previous experiment result in which three-color light generated from a quasiperiodically optical superlattice through a stimulated parametric down-conversion cascaded with a sum-frequency process. The degree of quadrature phase amplitude correlations, a nonclassical characteristic, among the three mode was discussed by a sufficient inseparability criterion for continuous-variable entanglement, which was proposed by van Loock and Furusawa.

The study of phonon-polariton Raman scattering continues to be a challenge, in part because of the difficulty of measuring relatively low intensity of scattered signals. This paper reports the experimental results on phonon-polariton Raman scattering in a hexagonally poled $\mathrm{Li}\mathrm{Ta}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ crystal, showing the anti-Stokes and Stokes Raman signal intensities are significantly enhanced by cascading a couple of quasi-phase-matching processes where the coherent polariton fields are driven and the enhanced scattering signals are further amplified.

Background: Monitoring of iodine nutrition depends chiefly on the urinary iodine concentration in representative samples from the population. International groups have recommended school-age children as a convenient group for surveys, because of their accessibility and young age, but the relevance of this group to others, especially pregnant women, is not well established. Objective: The purpose was to compare different approaches to assessing iodine nutrition within communities, especially for pregnant and lactating women. Design: In an urban and a rural site from each of the 11 Chinese provinces, covering a wide geographic and socioeconomic range, we measured the iodine content of household salt and drinking water, the thyroid volume in school children, and the urinary iodine concentration in five population subsets; in some sites we also assessed iodine in breast milk and thyroid size in adult women. Results: The median urinary iodine concentrations for pregnant and lactating women were well below those ofthe schoolchildren from the same community in most study sites, the difference between medians, at overall level, being about 50 μg/l for the pregnant and 40μg/l for the lactating, respectively. When ranked by median urinary iodine concentrations at overall level, the order of the groups was: all infants, schoolchildren, women of childbearing age, lactating women and pregnant women in both urban and rural sites. This relative distribution was constant among the study sites. From it, we derived a relationship to predict the median values for other groups, based on the data of schoolchildren. The median iodine content of salt was 30.9 ppm in urban sites and 31.3 ppm in rural sites, respectively, close to the nationally mandated 35 mg/kg. Water had low iodine content (3.7 μg/l) in both urban and rural sites except in a rural site from Tianjin. Ultrasonography showed that 6.5% of 1329 children in urban sites and 5.3% of 1431 children in rural sites had thyroid enlargement. Breast milk had a median iodine content of 135.9 μg/l in the urban and 157.5 μg/l in the rural. The goiter prevalence by palpation was low (2.0%) among all women examined (3367), but higher in pregnant women (2.7%) than in lactating women or other adult women. Conclusions: An effective iodized salt program has brought iodine sufficiency to most of China, but pregnant women in some areas may still risk deficiency and need further supplements. We suggest other countries and international agencies pay more attention to pregnancy, where iodine deficiency has its worst consequences.

Amylose content (AC), gel consistency (GC) and gelatinazation temperature (GT) are three important traits that influence the cooking and eating quality of rice. The objective of this study was to characterize the genetic components, including main-effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs), epistatic QTLs and QTL-by-environment interactions (QEs), that are involved in the control of these three traits. A population of doubled haploid (DH) lines derived from a cross between two indica varieties Zhenshan 97 and H94 was used, and data were collected from a field experiment conducted in two different environments. A genetic linkage map consisting of 218 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci was constructed, and QTL analysis performed using QTLMAPPER 1.6: resolved the genetic components into main-effect QTLs, epistatic QTLs and QEs. The analysis detected a total of 12 main-effect QTLs for the three traits, with a QTL corresponding to the Wx locus showing a major effect on AC and GC, and a QTL corresponding to the Alk locus having a major effect on GT. Ten digenic interactions involving 19 loci were detected for the three traits, and six main-effect QTLs and two pairs of epistatic QTLs were involved in QEs. While the main-effect QTLs, especially the ones corresponding to known major loci, apparently played predominant roles in the genetic basis of the traits, under certain conditions epistatic effects and QEs also played important roles in controlling the traits. The implications of the findings for rice quality improvement are discussed.

A new type of conical second-harmonic generation was discovered in a 2D chi((2)) photonic crystal-a hexagonally poled LiTaO3 crystal. It reveals the presence of another type of nonlinear interaction-a scattering involved optical parametric generation in a nonlinear medium. Such a nonlinear interaction can be significantly enlarged in a modulated chi((2)) structure by a quasi-phase-matching process. The conical beam records the spatial distribution of the scattering signal and discloses the structure information and symmetry of the 2D chi((2)) photonic crystal.

To understand the types of gene action controlling seven quantitative traits in rice, we carried out quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping in order to distinguish between the main-effect QTLs (M-QTLs) and digenic epistatic QTLs (E-QTLs) responsible for the trait performance of 254 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from rice varieties Lemont/Teqing and two backcross hybrid (BCF1) populations derived from these RILs. We identified 44 M-QTL and 95 E-QTL pairs in the RI and BCF1 populations as having significant effects on the mean values and mid-parental heterosis of heading date, plant height, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, panicle length, spikelet number and spikelet fertility. The E-QTLs detected collectively explained a larger portion of the total phenotypic variation than the M-QTLs in both the RI and BCF1 populations. In both BCF1 populations, over-dominant (or under-dominant) loci were more important than additive and complete or partially dominant loci for M-QTLs and E-QTL pairs, thereby supporting prior findings that overdominance resulting from epistatic loci are the primary genetic basis of inbreeding depression and heterosis in rice.

A new type of conical second-harmonic generation was discovered in a 2D chi((2)) photonic crystal-a hexagonally poled LiTaO3 crystal. It reveals the presence of another type of nonlinear interaction-a scattering involved optical parametric generation in a nonlinear medium. Such a nonlinear interaction can be significantly enlarged in a modulated chi((2)) structure by a quasi-phase-matching process. The conical beam records the spatial distribution of the scattering signal and discloses the structure information and symmetry of the 2D chi((2)) photonic crystal.

To understand the types of gene action controlling seven quantitative traits in rice, QTL mapping was performed to dissect the main effect (M-QTLs) and digenic epistatic (E-QTLs) QTLs responsible for the trait performance of 254 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of "Lemont/Teqing", and two testcross (TC) F(1) populations derived from these RILs. The correlation analyses reveal a general pattern, i.e. trait heritability in the RILs was negatively correlated to trait heterosis in the TC hybrids. A large number of M-QTLs and E-QTLs affecting seven traits, including heading date (HD), plant height (PH), flag leaf length (FLL), flag leaf width (FLW), panicle length (PL), spikelet number per panicle (SN) and spikelet fertility (SF), were identified and could be classified into two predominant groups, additive QTLs detected primarily in the RILs, and overdominant QTLs identified exclusively in the TC populations. There is little overlap between QTLs identified in the RILs and in the TC populations. This result implied that additive gene action is largely independent from non-additive gene action in the genetic control of quantitative traits of rice. The detected E-QTLs collectively explained a much greater portion of the total phenotypic variation than the M-QTLs, supporting prior findings that epistasis has played an important role in the genetic control of quantitative traits in rice. The implications of these results to the development of inbred and hybrid cultivars were discussed.

Hemolin is hemolymph protein that is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily. Its induced expression after bacterial infection suggests that it functions in the immune response. In this paper, we describe the expression of the Manduca sexta hemolin gene at certain developmental stages in the absence of microbial challenge. Hemolin was present at a very low level in hemolymph of naive larvae until the beginning of the wandering stage prior to pupation, when its concentration in hemolymph increased dramatically. At the same time, hemolin could be found in the fluid contained in the midgut lumen. The appearance of hemolin mRNA in fat body and midgut at the beginning of the wandering stage correlated with the presence of hemolin in the hemolymph and midgut lumen. Hemolin was present in hemolymph through the pupal and adult stages. Hemolin was also present in newly deposited eggs, and persisted in eggs throughout embryonic development. A hemolin cDNA isolated from an adult fat body library had the same sequence as those previously obtained from larval libraries. Hemolin purified from hemolymph of bacteria-injected larvae, from hemolymph of naive wandering stage larvae and adult moths, and from midgut fluid of wandering stage larvae had the same apparent mass, which was consistent with the mass predicted from the hemolin cDNA sequence. Hemolin from hemolymph of wandering stage larvae did not contain any detectable carbohydrate, but hemolin from the hemolymph of bacteria-injected larvae and from naive adult moths was associated with carbohydrate, although of different amounts and composition. These results suggest that a single hemolin gene is developmentally regulated and is also induced when insects are exposed to microbial infection. M. sexta hemolin apparently lacks post-translational covalent glycosylation, but instead is associated under some conditions with non-covalently bound carbohydrates. Arch.

Paralytic peptide 1 (PP1) from a moth, Manduca sexta, is a 23-residue peptide (Glu-Asn-Phe-Ala-Gly-Gly-Cys-Ala-Thr-Gly-Tyr-Leu-Arg-Thr-Ala-Asp-Gly-Arg -Cys-Lys-Pro-Thr-Phe) that was first found to have paralytic activity when injected into M. sexta larvae. Recent studies demonstrated that PP1 also stimulated the spreading and aggregation of a blood cell type called plasmatocytes and inhibited bleeding from wounds. We determined the solution structure of PP1 by two-dimensional 1H NMR spectroscopy to begin to understand structural-functional relationships of this peptide. PP1 has an ordered structure, which is composed of a short antiparallel beta-sheet at residues Tyr11-Thr14 and Arg18-Pro21, three beta turns at residues Phe3-Gly6, Ala8-Tyr11 and Thr14-Gly17, and a half turn at the carboxyl-terminus (residues Lys20-Phe23). The well-defined secondary and tertiary structure was stabilized by hydrogen bonding and side-chain hydrophobic interactions. In comparison with two related insect peptides, whose structures have been solved recently, the amino-terminal region of PP1 is substantially more ordered. The short antiparallel beta-sheet of PP1 has a folding pattern similar to the carboxyl-terminal subdomain of epidermal growth factor (EGF). Therefore, PP1 may interact with EGF receptor-like molecules to trigger its different biological activities.

This study examined whether osteopontin (OPN), a molecule with monocyte chemotactic and adhesive activity, participates in macrophage-mediated renal disease, Accelerated anti-glomerular basement membrane glomerulonephritis was induced in groups of six rats. Animals were treated with a neutralizing anti-OPN or an irrelevant control antibody over days 0-7 (induction phase) or days 7-14 (established disease). Administration of the control antibody had no effect on the severity of the disease. In contrast, anti-OPN treatment significantly reduced glomerular injury (urinary protein excretion) and prevented a loss of renal function (creatinine clearance) during the induction of disease. This was accompanied by a significant reduction in renal macrophage and T-cell accumulation, T-cell activation, and histological injury (glomerular hypercellularity, segmental lesions, crescents, and tubulointerstitial lesions). An important finding was that anti-OPN treatment of established crescentic glomerulonephritis led to a significant reduction in glomerular injury and recovery of renal function in association with inhibition of macrophage and T-cell accumulation, T-cell activation, and histological damage. Anti-OPN treatment significantly inhibited the upregulation of OPN and its ligand CD44 but demonstrated no effect on upregulation of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression in the kidney. Interestingly, anti-OPN treatment significantly reduced skin swelling and leukocyte infiltration in the delayed type hypersensitivity response. However, anti-OPN treatment had no effect on the humoral immune response. In summary, this study has demonstrated that OPN plays a functional role in macrophage and T-cell accumulation and renal damage in both the induction and progression of a rat model of crescentic glomerulonephritis. Thus, OPN may be of pathological importance in human glomerulonephritis and in cell-mediated immune diseases generally.

This centrifugal pump (CP) includes two parts: the blood pump and the driving apparatus. They are connected by six twin magnetic disc plates and driven by a magnetic DC motor (120W). The blood pump had six leaves deadlocked between two plastic discs. Six leaves were set at 30 degrees angles, separately. In the lower chamber of the CP, there was an inlay magnetic disc, which is connected with the disc leaves by an axis. This axis was sealed by silicon rubber and a ceramic ring. The priming volume of the blood chamber was 34 ml. In vitro testing showed that the free hemoglobin caused by the CP was much less than that caused by a roller pump after 180 min. The effect of this CP on blood cell damage was also studied in an animal model. Six goats were placed on cardiopulmonary bypass for 180 min. Perfusion flow rates were maintained between 1.5 and 2.5 L/min. The plasma free hemoglobin was lower in the CP group (6.04 mg/dL) than in the roller pump group (32.25 mg/dL), p0.01. The CP has been used in ten pediatric patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. The patients' ages were from three to five years, and body weights were from 15 to 20 kg. Perfusion flow rates were maintained between 1.8 and 2.5 L/min, and bypass times were from 30 to 50 min. The rotation speeds were from 2000 to 2500 rpm. All the patients recovered smoothly, and no hemoglobinuria occurred.

Aim To estimate the number of colon cancer patients in New South Wales (NSW) Australia requiring cancer care in the future. Methods Prevalence of first primary colon cancer was estimated and projected forward, by stage of clinical care (initial care, long-term survivors, monitoring, and last year of life), for 2007–2016. Then using data from a patterns of care study for colorectal cancer, we estimated the type and amount of treatments that will be needed by colon cancer patients in each stage of care. Finally, data on metachronous tumours or second primary colon cancers were used to estimate the additional number of patients who will require care. Results In NSW in 2006, there were 17 687 patients aged 18–84 years alive with a past diagnosis of colon cancer. By 2016, this number will have increased to 22 262. The expected numbers of patients vary by stage of care with the majority in the monitoring stage (41.4%) or being long-term survivors (40.7%). There will be at least 1389 men and 1135 women requiring initial surgery for colon cancer in 2016. Of these 431 men and 352 women will also require adjuvant chemotherapy. In addition, there will be 741 patients with metachronous tumours or second primary colon cancers who will also need care in 2016 with 56% of them in the monitoring stage. Conclusions These estimates reveal that in NSW the numbers of colon cancer patients requiring care for colon cancer are projected to rise by over 25% from 2006 to 2016.

Background Estimates of the fraction of patients cured from cancer provide important information to both patients and clinicians. But how reliable are the estimates? Methods Three statistical approaches, based on similar assumptions that a fraction of patients will be cured from cancer, were used to estimate the fraction cured. The first approach was CANSURV software and the second was developed by De Angelis et al (1999), both using grouped survival data. The third was published by Lambert et al (2007), requiring individual patient records. All three approaches fit mixture cure models; and CANSURV and Lambert9s implementation use maximum likelihood, while De Angelis9 implementation is based on non-linear least squares. Cansurv is a standalone program whereas the other approaches were implemented using SAS and Stata respectively. SEER-9 data for rectal cancer were used to illustrate the methods. Results As shown in the Abstract P1-63 table 1, estimates of the cure fraction were similar for the two approaches requiring grouped survival data while Lambert9s method provided lower a estimate for patients with localised disease. Discussion The three approaches provided similar estimates of the cure fraction for patients with regional and distant stage at diagnosis, however there are considerable differences in the estimates for patients with localised disease. Estimates of the cure fraction appear to depend on the choice of statistical model even when the underlying assumptions are very similar.

Bamboos are ecologically and economically valuable plants. Young shoots of almost all species are edible, either raw or cooked, and are major components of Asian cuisine while culms are used for furniture or handicrafts as well as fuel wood. Symptoms indicative of phytoplasma disease were observed on Sasa fortunei (van Houtte) Fiori during a survey in Yangling, Shaanxi Province, China during 2007. Symptoms included internode shortening, a mosaic pattern on leaves of diminished size, stunted growth, and death of entire plants. Total nucleic acids were extracted from leaf veins of 10 diseased plants and 6 symptomless plants with a modified cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide (CTAB) method (1). Phytoplasma infection of plants was demonstrated by a nested PCR assay employing primer pair R16mF2/R16mR1 followed by R16F2n/R16R2 (2), which generated a 16S rDNA product of approximately 1.2 kb from all symptomatic plants only. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis by digestion of nested PCR products with restriction enzymes AluI and MseI indicated that S. fortunei plants contained group 16SrI (aster yellows), subgroup B phytoplasmas. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of phytoplasma 16S rDNA from S. fortunei (GenBank Accession No. FJ501958) revealed this strain to be very similar (99.7 and 99.6%, respectively) to phytoplasmas previously associated with Henon bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) witches'-broom (GenBank Accession No. AB242433) (4) and sasa (S. borealis) witches'-broom (GenBank Accession No. AB293421) in Korea but less so (98.6%) to bamboo (Phyllostachys spp.) witches'-broom (GenBank Accession No. AY635145) disease in China (3). To our knowledge, this is the first report of a ‘Ca. Phytoplasma asteris’-related strain infecting S. fortunei in China. References: (1) E. Angelini et al. Vitis 40:79, 2001. (2) D. E. Gundersen and I.-M. Lee. Phytopathol. Mediterr. 35:144, 1996. (3) C. Hong et al. Plant Prot. 31:39, 2005. (4) H. Jung et al. J. Gen. Plant Pathol. 72:261, 2006.

Neural computing technology is capable of solving problems involving complex pattern recognition. This technology is applied here to pharmaceutical product development. The most commonly used computational algorithm, the delta back-propagation network, was utilized to recognize the complex relationship between the formulation variables and the in vitro drug release parameters for a hydrophilic matrix capsule system. This new computational technique was also compared with the response surface methodology (RSM). Artificial neural network (ANN) analysis was able to predict the response values for a series of validation experiments more precisely than RSM. ANN may offer an alternative to RSM because it allows for the development of a system that can incorporate literature and experimental data to solve common problems in the pharmaceutical industry.

An engineered E. coli strain containing high expression level of CT-B subunits has been obtained by the application of recombinant DNA techniques. The B subunit can be secreted into the medium and reaches 20-40 micrograms/ml when this strain is incubated in a 50 l fermentation tank. The CT-B subunit purified with affinity chromatography in E. coli has the same characters as the natural CT-B subunit in molecular weight, N terminal amino acid analysis and antigenicity. The CT-B subunit has good immunogenicity and can be used as a preparation for protecting against diarrhea caused by V. cholera and enterotoxigenic E. coli. It can also be used as a vector for hepatins.

Simultaneous generation of noncollinear red, green, and blue light from a single hexagonally poled lithium tantalate is reported. It results from the frequency self-doubling optical parametric amplification process, a process of second-order harmonic generation cascaded optical parametric amplification in a single-pass setup. The temperature and spectrum detuning characters of each cascaded quasi-phase-matching process are studied. This unique red-green-blue light source has potential applications in laser display and other laser industries.

A recombinant plasmid pMM-CTB containing the gene for production of the nontoxic B subunit of Vibrio cholera was transferred into a safe, effective and attenuated oral vaccine Ty21a strain of Salmonella typhi. The resulting Ty21a (pMM-CTB) could steadily produce CT-B subunit that was secreted extracellularly and had the same antigenicity as CT-B produced by V. cholera. Furthermore, the characteristics of the antigenicity, the persistance in mice and the galactose sensitivity possessed in the strain of Ty21a were also retained in Ty21a (pMM-CTB). A bivalent vaccine containing Ty21a (pMM-CTB) and the killed whole cell of V. cholera was then constructed which had good immunogenecity for typhoid fever and cholera diarrhea.

The cloning in E. coli of a cholerae toxin gene that is A-B+ has been successfully constructed by using DNA recombinant techniques. E. coli cells carrying the recombinant plasmid pMM-CTB have been shown to produce a large amount of CTB subunits which are secreted as extracellular proteins.