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The reinforced concrete building considered in this study has 34 typical floors above a 2.7 m thick transfer plate and a three-level podium. The transfer plate is a reinforced concrete thick plate that transfers the loads from the walls at the typical floors to widely spaced columns in the three-level podium. A microconcrete model representing the high-rise building was constructed in 1:20 scale. Shaking table tests were conducted and the model was subjected to earthquake actions representing minor, moderate, major, and supermajor earthquakes for a region of moderate seismicity, with basic seismic intensity at the VIIth degree pursuant to GB50011-2001. Seismic performance was qualitatively assessed, and it is predicted that the prototype building will not collapse when subjected to major earthquakes. The majority of the damage and failure occurred at the story above the transfer plate. To minimize the damage, it is desirable to strengthen the walls between the 4th and 15th floors as well as reducing any change in stiffness within the transfer plate zone. Data obtained from the shaking table tests were analyzed. Spectral frequencies of the acceleration spectra estimated by the fast Fourier transform method and deformation measurements are good indicators on structural damage. Plots of acceleration against displacement would be useful in assessing the locations of structural damage. The use of the ratio of lateral stiffness to check the existence of a soft story may not be appropriate for high-rise buildings. However, story drift relates well with the degree of structural damage.

MgB2/Fe wires with different diameter were fabricated by using the in situ powder-in-tube method. Samples were sintered at 750 °C for 1 h in a flow of high purity argon gas. The phase composition is identical for all the wires. The Jc(B) values of these wires generally increase with decreasing diameter from 1.60 to 1.40 to 1.29 mm, but decrease significantly to the lowest value at a diameter of 1.20 mm. It is revealed that the optimum diameter of 1.29 mm, at which the MgB2/Fe wire possessed the optimal Jc(B) property, was determined by the variations of the green density of the Mg/2B mixture in the core and the relative thickness of the Fe sheath during the mechanical deformation process.

This paper reports the results of a study comparing the interactional dynamics of face-to-face and on-line peer-tutoring in writing by university students in Hong Kong. Transcripts of face-to-face tutoring sessions, as well as logs of on-line sessions conducted by the same peer-tutors, were coded for speech functions using a system based on Halliday's functional-semantic view of dialogue. Results show considerable differences between the interactional dynamics in on-line and face-to-face tutoring sessions. In particular, face-to-face interactions involved more hierarchal encounters in which tutors took control of the discourse, whereas on-line interactions were more egalitarian, with clients controlling the discourse more. Differences were also found in the topics participants chose to focus on in the two modes, with issues of grammar, vocabulary, and style taking precedence in face-to-face sessions and more “global” writing concerns like content and process being discussed more in on-line sessions.

The effect of polycarbosilane (PCS) doping on the superconducting properties and microstructure of MgB2 bulk has been studied in this paper. It is found that the lattice parameter a and the superconducting transition temperature decrease with increase of the doping level. However, the critical current density Jc is significantly enhanced and the Jc(B) properties are improved at low temperature. Microstructure analysis indicates that a lot of Mg2Si nanoparticles, including those 5?10?nm in size, and some lattice defects induced by the PCS doping exist inside the PCS doped MgB2 samples, which may be the main reason for the enhancement of the flux pinning property.

This paper draws from the fundamentals of the finite integral mesh free representation methods and of the rigid-plastic formulation for slightly compressible materials to the main aspects of computer implementation and modelling of bulk-metal forming processes. Fundamental research and development is based on the reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM) and the corrected smoothed particle hydrodynamics (CSPH) method. Special emphasis is placed on a wide range of theoretical and numerical subjects such as discretization procedures, numerical integration of the system matrices derived from the weak form, relief of volumetric locking, geometrical update of the deforming workpiece, and treatment of the frictional contact interface between the workpiece and tooling.

SUMMARY Infectious bursal disease (IBD) is a highly contagious immunosuppressive disease caused by a birnavirus destroying primarily the immature B lymphocytes in the bursa of Fabricius of young chickens. The conventional method of controlling IBD is to hyperimmunize hens, followed by vaccinating progeny after maternal antibody levels decrease. In recent years, in ovo technology has become an alternative choice of vaccination of broiler chicks against diseases. This field investigationcomparedtheselectedflock-raisingperformancesbetweeninovoinjectionofinfectious bursal disease virusimmune complex (IBDV-ICX) vaccine chicks andconventional IBD vaccination (non in ovo injection) chicks. The results showed that in ovo injection of IBDV-ICX vaccine could benefit livability (94.62%) and feed conversion ratio (1.73) significantly (P 0.05) but benefited production efficiency factor (P < 0.01) during the periodofmidwintertospring.Duetothepotentialforselectionbiasesofstudyflocks,thedata,which wereprovidedvoluntarily,increasingthestudypopulationisnecessaryforabetterunderstandingof the applications.

Background. The precise course of resolution of postoperative residual HFS after a single MVD has not been well categorised quantitatively in the literature. Not all patients with HFS were cured immediately after a single MVD; some of them exhibited a gradual disappearance of the HFS over a period of time. The time course of the gradual resolution of HFS is categorised and the situation of re-exploration in a few patients whose HFS persisted or recurred is determined. Methods. The results of 547 MVDs in 545 Chinese patients were reviewed using the database from the author’s personal records between January 1992 and December 2002. Different outcomes were observed and divided into four categories according to the variable convalescent period: type 1, spasm cured immediately; type 2, spasm persisted with milder severity and faded away gradually from 7 days to as long as 2 years; type 3, spasm ceased immediately but recurred after 3 days and ran the same course as in type 2; type 4, failed. Findings. Four hundred and seventy-nine patients followed a type 1 course, which constituted an 87.9% immediate success rate. Forty-one patients (7.5%) followed a type 2 course, including three whose spasm persisted for more than 2 years. Twenty-three patients (4.2%), including one with venous compression, followed a type 3 course with their spasm ceased within three months. All of them had typical vascular loop compression. Another patient with a venous contact failed to respond positively to the first MVD underwent re-operation within 2 months. Re-operation was also performed in one patient four days after the first MVD due to persisting and even more severe spasm. These two patients were categorized type 4 as they failed the first MVD (0.4%). Late recurrence was noted in five patients from 1 to 2 years after the first MVD, only one of whom underwent re-exploration and was then cured again. Conclusions. Approximately 80% of the patients with HFS achieved immediate excellent results after a single MVD, the rest of the patients exhibited residual but usually milder spasms, which resolved gradually over a period of time. According to the patterns of the residual or persisting spasms, the situation and timing of re-exploration can be determined without difficulty. The surgeon should be concerned about missing the responsible vessels in patients with typical HFS who completely failed the first MVD.

A new approach is put forwards for the numerical simulation of steady and non-steady state bulk metal forming processes. The approach is based on the utilization of the reproducing kernel particle method in conjunction with the flow formulation for slightly compressible rigid-plastic materials.The effectiveness of the proposed approach is discussed by comparing theoretical predictions with finite-element calculations and experimental data for three different bulk metal forming operations: flat rolling (under steady-state conditions), compression of rods and heading of cylindrical billets. The overall comparisons comprise a wide range of topics such as material flow, geometry, strain distribution and forming load/torque. It is shown that, the proposed approach is capable of efficiently handling large plastic deformations without the need of remeshing procedures and providing results that are in close agreement with both finite-element predictions and experimental measurements.

A new approach based on the utilization of the reproducing kernel particle method is put forwards for the numerical simulation of bulk metal forming processes. The approach is based on the utilization of the reproducing kernel particle method in conjunction with the flow formulation for slightly compressible rigid-plastic materials. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is discussed by comparing theoretical predictions with finite element calculations and experimental data. The later were obtained by means of simple metal forming experiments that were performed under laboratory-controlled conditions using aluminium Al6060 (natural aged). The overall comparisons comprise a wide range of topics such as material flow, geometry, forming load, strain and stress distributions. As results show, the proposed approach is capable of efficiently handling large plastic deformations without the need of remeshing procedures and providing results that are in close agreement with both finite element predictions and experimental measurements.

A38-year-old cadaveric kidney transplant recipient presented with fever, pneumonia, and mesenteric lymphadenopathy 9 months after transplant. Blood culture, bone marrow culture, and fine-needle aspiration cytology of mesenteric lymph nodes confirmed the diagnosis of disseminated Penicillium marneffei infection. He recovered after receiving parenteral amphotericin B followed by oral itraconazole therapy. P. marneffei infection is a dimorphic fungal opportunistic infection endemic in Southeast Asia, southern China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. It has been well reported in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients in the endemic areas, and also in other immunocompromised patients. This diagnosis must be considered for all febrile transplant recipients who have the relevant clinical features and travel history to Southeast Asia. Prompt treatment with anti-fungal therapy improves the survival and outcome of these patients.

This paper presents the experimental results obtained from the testing of nine 1:3 scale square-shaped column specimens. Characteristics of the specimens are low-lateral confinement, low-to-moderate shear span, and high-axial load. Detailing of the transverse reinforcement includes both 90° and 135° hooks. Specimens with low-shear span failed under shear in a brittle manner. Flexural failures were observed in specimens with moderate shear span and having a lateral confinement ratio of 0.003. Lateral confinement has significant influence on the ultimate drift, of which an increase from 0.001 to 0.003 could increase the ultimate drift capacity by up to 100%. Seismic performance of columns with low-to-moderate shear span may not be accurately reflected by the ductility factor. Better representation is provided by the ultimate drift ratio, and can be estimated by an empirical equation. The use of 90° hooks in detailing the transverse reinforcement leads to a 40% reduction on the ultimate drift capacity. Guidelines are also given to estimate the corresponding reduction on the ductility factor.

This paper reports on an experimental study. Twelve university students were asked (a) not to speak any English for one day (b) to record examples of English words that they wanted to use but could not; (c) to write up a two-page reflective diary; and (d) to share and discuss their thoughts, feelings and “rich” points of their experiences in a focus group interview. Before the day of the experiment, they were given training on how to record their own language date. A proforma was used to help them capture the key contextual information of a communicative event: who speaks what to whom when and where. The data are constituted by 12 reflective diaries in English and a transcription of the focus group interview conducted in Cantonese-English "mixed code." The results show that all student participants experienced communication problems and felt inconvenienced by not being able to express their ideas using English words that they were familiar with. Linguistic motivations are empirically supported: the putative Cantonese/Chinese equivalents were either nonexistent, unknown or unfamiliar to them, or perceived as semantically/stylistically infelicitous. English was used, sometimes unconsciously, despite the artificial “Cantonese-only” rule of speaking. These findings suggest that a theoretical model of code-alternation which lays claim to universal validity and explanatory adequacy would be inadequate without taking into account the bilingual's concern for referential meaning. Sociolinguistic and educational implications for the Hong Kong Speech community are briefly discussed in light of the findings.

This article reports on an empirical study exploring the effectiveness of giving oral remedial instruction to secondary and university students using a consciousness-raising approach. The focus of remedial instruction was three high-frequency lexico-grammatical anomalies: ‘pseudo-tough movement’, the verb concern and the related adjective concerned, and the connective on the contrary. The instrument consisted of two identical tests before treatment (pre-test) and after treatment (post-test), as well as a delayed post-test with different test items. The tests were also administered to some control groups, but while the experimental groups received treatment using a rigorous consciousness-raising approach, the control groups received a milder version of it. It is found that effective acquisition took place and both the experimental and control groups show significant improvement in their performance. Where conditions of treatment were the same, students in the experimental group slightly outperformed those in the control group, suggesting that a model of remedial instruction structured in the form of proceduralized steps supported by explicit rules is more manageable and therefore more conducive to acquisition.

FeSe Superconducting films were fabricated with a chemical transport deposition process. During the fabrication process, Fe foils were adopted as substrates and Se powders were put at one end of the tube furnace. During the heating process, Se powders were vaporized, and vaporized atoms were carried by Ar flow and deposited on the Fe substrates. With a heat treatment process under proper temperature, superconducting tetragonal β-FeSe phase can be obtained. The effects of key parameters, including the sintering temperatures and the distances between Fe substrates and Se source on the phase composition and morphology of the obtained films were systematically investigated. The superconducting transition temperature of 7.8 K was obtained on the optimized film. By further optimization of the heat treatment process, it is promising to fabricate FeSe films with higher superconducting phase content and better superconducting properties.

The Hengduan Mountains, with their strong altitudinal vegetation zonation, form a biodiversity hotspot which offers the potential for comparison between sites in order to understand how this zonation arose and how it has responded to climate change and human impacts through time. This paper is one of the studies covering a range of altitudes within this hotspot, and presents a 22 570 yr pollen record of vegetational and climatic change based on a core 320 cm in depth collected from Wenhai Lake on the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, one of the highest peaks in the Hengduan Mountains region of Yunnan, Southwest China. From 22 570 to 21 140 cal. yr BP, the vegetation was dominated by broad-leaved forest (comprising mainly Quercus, Betula and Castanopsis), accompanied by coniferous Pinus and Abies and the drought-tolerant herb Artemisia, indicating a cool and dry climate. In the period between 21 140 and 19 350 cal. yr BP, the vegetation was still dominated by broad-leaved forest but with a notable increase in pollen of aquatic plants, implying a relatively warm and moderately humid climate. The period 19 350 to 17 930 cal. yr BP was a transition stage from broad-leaved forest to needle-leaved forest, reflecting a warm-humid climate at the beginning and a cold-dry one at the end. Between 17 930 and 9250 cal. yr BP, needle-leaved forest and broad-leaved forest alternated in dominance in the early stages, with the former taking the predominant position by the end of the period, suggesting a climate fluctuating between warm-humid and cold-dry. From 9250 cal. yr BP to present, the vegetation has been dominated by needle-leaved forest (comprising mainly Pinus and Abies), coupled with broad-leaved forest (mainly Quercus and Betula), reflecting a transition in climatic conditions from warm-humid to cold-humid. During this period, human activity increased in this region, with impacts on the vegetation which may be evidenced by the distinct decrease in Pinus and Quercus pollen and an increase in Polygonaceae pollen in the upper 30 cm of the core. The marked decline in Quercus pollen, in particular, in the Wenhai core can be correlated with that observed in the Haligu core (situated about 2 km away) between 2400 cal. yr BP and the present.

Using evidence from the Hong Kong Chinese press, this paper shows that intra-sentential code-alternation may be due to linguistic, especially semantic, factors at work, which explain why the bilingual is reluctant to translate the English expressions into Chinese, resulting in code-alternation. This observation amounts to a challenge to a tacit assumption behind social or discourse-related explanations of code-alternation, that referential meaning may be kept constant and that code-alternated expressions in the guest language could always be ‘replaced’, paradigmatically or otherwise, by a semantically ‘equivalent’ expression in the host language. The basic premise of ‘translation equivalent’ is illusory. Given the strong social norms disapproving the use of English-only discourse for intra-ethnic communication in Hong Kong, it is argued that intra-sentential code-alternation typical of bilingual Chinese Hongkongers is more adequately explained by the bilingual's reluctance to translate the original English expressions into Cantonese or modern standard Chinese. In this light, Cantonese-English code-alternation in Hong Kong is most appropriately seen as the result of the Chinese bilingual's attempt to guard against unwanted semantic loss or gain.

We have studied the magnetotransport, magnetization properties, and microstructure of multifilamentary (Bi–Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3Ox (Bi-2223)/Ag tapes with varying filaments from 1 to 37 to explore the energy dissipation, reversible flux motion, and flux pinning related to the microstructure. Our results show that the dissipation is temperature, current, and magnetic field induced. The dissipation is thermally activated and the vortex liquid state is plastically deformed. The dissociation of vortex–antivortex pairs by current, magnetic field, and temperature plays a major role in enhancing the dissipation process, resulting in large broadening in the transition. We observed a reversible fluxoid motion of vortices. The critical current density follows an exponential dependence on the magnetic field. The weak links seem to be broken even for a field as low as 5 G even 12 K below the transition temperature. However, at low temperature, the weak links behave as superconducting. The microscopic characterizations show e...

This paper presents the use of fluorescent biofunctional nanoparticles (10–30 nm) to detect alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in a thin-channel magnetic immunoassay. We used an AFP model biomarker and s-shaped deposition zones to test the proposed detection method. The results show that the detection using fluorescent biofunctional nanoparticle has a higher throughput than that of functional microparticle used in previous experiments on affinity reactions. The proposed method takes about 3 min (versus 150 min of previous method) to detect 100 samples. The proposed method is useful for screening biomarkers in clinical applications, and can reduce the run time for sandwich immunoassays to less than 20 min. The detection limits (0.06 pg/ml) and linear ranges (0.068 pg/ml–0.68 ng/ml) of AFP using fluorescent biofunctional nanoparticles are the same as those of using functional microparticles within experimental errors. This detection limit is substantially lower and the linear range is considerably wider than those of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and other methods in sandwich immunoassay methods. The differences between this method and an ELISA in AFP measurements of serum samples were less than 12 %. The proposed method provides simple, fast, and sensitive detection with a high throughput for biomarkers.

This paper is a review of the major works in code-switching in Hong Kong to date. Four context-specific motivations commonly found in the Hong Kong Chinese press - euphemism, specificity, bilingual punning, and principle of economy - are adduced to show that English is one of the important linguistic resources used by Chinese Hongkongers to fulfill a variety of well-defined communicative purposes.

Urea and creatinine levels in spent hemodialysates showed only small declines in spite of incubation at 37° C for 36 hours. In the determination of dialysate-side solute removal, it would seem prudent to keep spent dialysate cold during collection to retard bacterial breakdown of these waste products.

Chinese Hongkongers express themselves increasingly in written Cantonese, resulting in the proliferation of Cantonese elements in the Hong Kong Chinese press. To overcome the orthographic gap, Hongkongers resort to phonetic borrowing and phonetic compound formation. Phonetic borrowing may be based on modern standard Chinese or on English. Script mixing is very common, suggesting that linguistic convergence has taken place. Eighteen months after the British handover to the People’s Republic of China, this situation remains unchanged. Standardization of Cantonese is desirable, but will be difficult to enforce. Despite the vitality of written Cantonese in Hong Kong, this paper argues against promoting Cantonese to the status of an official language.

Background and objective Repeated exposure of aerosolized antigen via respiratory tract can induce immunoglobulin (Ig) E isotype-specific tolerance to this antigen. However, the atopic individuals often produce a higher titre of IgE in response to airborne environmental allergens. The mechanisms of this differential regulation of airway allergen-specific immune responses are not fully understood. This study investigated the role of airborne endotoxin on the initiation of antigen-specific airway allergic responses. Methods ELISA methods for detection of isotypes of antigen-specific antibodies and competitive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction for detection mRNA of cytokines were used. In addition, Liu stain method was used to analyse the amounts of eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Results Mice pre-exposed with airborne endotoxin mounted significantly higher amounts of OVA-specific IgE antibody responses to inhaled OVA than those OVA-only sensitized mice. Inhaled endotoxin could downregulate repeated airway antigen exposure-induced IgE isotype-specific tolerance and increase antigen-induced lung eosinophils infiltration. Conclusions These data show that airborne endotoxin exposure could potentiate allergen-specific airway inflammation. The results should have potential implications for understanding the development of allergen-induced airway allergic responses.

To preliminarily study N2O emissions and the importance of environmental parameters on N2O flux from subtropical agroecosystem in China, N2O flux measurements were made at three cultivated agricultural lands in Guizhou Province, southwestern China. Based on the test and validation of daily N2O flux and its several associated variables between DNDC model and field measurements, DNDC model has been employed to estimate total N2O emissions from entire agricultural lands and its spatial distribution at county scale in Guizhou in 1995, and to assess the contributions of cropping practices on N2O emissions.

It is argued that most if not all of the pronunciation problems encountered by Cantonese learners of English may be adequately accounted for by the contrastive differences discussed in this paper. The phonological differences between the two languages are examined, ranging from their phoneme inventories, the characteristics of the phonemes, the distributions of the phonemes, syllable structure, to the function of tones and their respective rhythmic patterns. At the segmental level, substitution by a related sound in the native language, deletion and epenthesis are by far the most common strategies Cantonese speakers employ when speaking or reading English. Pronunciation problems are also found at the suprasegmental level, that is, in connected speech and rhythm, resulting in the impression of a somewhat unnatural, "flat and boring" foreigner accent.

This article presents two types of evidence obtained from the Hong Kong Chinese press before and after the handover – lexicosyntactic transference of English words and specific functions assigned t...

This paper reports a series of ethnographic studies conducted in Hong Kong to address the problem of divergence between school-based genres and genres of public discourse, with the goal of laying a foundation for addressing the question of what genres of discourse we should be teaching. Our main concern is to locate our students' writing within the highly complex matrix of genres of public discourse in Hong Kong. Based on the concept supported by our research findings that reading is a diverse, heterogeneous and changing social practice, a complex and interdiscursive research methodology has been employed in the project. Using four interpretive methodologies: genre analysis, ethnography of communication, contrastive rhetoric, and interactive sociolinguistic or ethnomethodological analysis, we have completed five studies comprising a participant-observation study, a pager survey, a scene survey, an event survey and a readership study. These studies show the complexity of relationships among the participants within the audience and in relationship to the texts of public discourse. The results, thus, lead us to the discussion of five key theoretical issues: (1) audience roles, (2) sites of engagement, (3) reading as social practice, (4) implied readership and (5) multilingual code mixing. Regarding practices of our students, our studies indicate that their non-school world of discourse practices is highly intertextual, polyvocal and polyfocal. Our research suggests that ma of our traditional academic concepts of genres and communication are in need of revision and focusing pedogogical goals on fixed genres may limit our students' productivity.

After briefly reviewing two research paradigms, Contrastive Rhetoric and New Varieties of English, this paper reaffirms the intimate relationship between language and culture and calls for the incorporation of L1 pragmatic norms and cultural values in the teaching of English as an international language (EIL) in the Asia-Pacific region. Since transfer may take place at the discourse/pragmatic level in the EFL learning process, apparent anomalies in rhetorical organization and the linguistic realization of speech acts which deviate from standard Anglo-American practice should be interpreted with care, for the perceived anomalies at the discourse level may sometimes be accounted for by the learner's resistance to adopt such norms. The legitimacy of the use of L1 pragmatic norms and cultural values in EFL should be acknowledged, and that native-speaker EFL instructors would benefit from raised awareness to such L1 norms and values, especially when they clash with those of English. Given the specific ...

In this paper, we describe the architecture and implementation of a framework to perform content-based search of an image database, where content is specified by the user at one or more of the following three abstraction levels: pixel, feature, and semantic. This framework incorporates a methodology that yields a computationally efficient implementation of image-processing algorithms, thus allowing the efficient extraction and manipulation of user-specified features and content during the execution of queries. The framework is well suited for searching scientific databases, such as satellite-image-, medical-, and seismic-data repositories, where the volume and diversity of the information do not allow the a priori generation of exhaustive indexes, but we have successfully demonstrated its usefulness on still-image archives.

This paper presents the evaluatian of a residue number system (RNS) based direct-sequence, code division multiple-access communication system with respect to bit error rote (BER), when the channel is modeled as a multipath Rayleigh fading and noncoherent square-law detection with equal gain combining (EGC) is emplayed. Bath the uncoded system and the well-known concatenated coded system with nonbinary Reed-Solomon (RS) codes as the outer codes and the so-coiled residue number system product codes (RNS-PC) as the Inner codes are concerned. Expressions of BER for both uncoded and concatenated coded systems are presented. Our results show that the proposed scheme constitutes a high efficiency parallel transmissian method for high-bit-rate COMA systems.

Western-style English names are very commonly used by Chinese Hongkongers to communicate with Westerners and among themselves. The inventory of traditional Chinese address forms does not favor the quick development of friendship and intimacy, which is somehow crucial in multicultural business transactions. The adoption of a Western name is largely motivated by a preference to switch to a reciprocal first-name address pattern typical of egalitarian interpersonal communication in the West, in order to speed up the process of getting acquainted, both in inter- and intra-cultural encounters. This pragmatic transference may be regarded as a result of bilingualism and biculturalism. Similar patterns and background of innovations in address forms have been noted in many Yoruba-speaking communities in West Africa.

Summary Background The group 7 mite allergens react with IgE in 50% of sera from allergic patients. Objective To determine the molecular and antigenic characteristics and heterogeneity of Der f 7 in mite extracts. Methods Monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) produced from mice immunized with recombinant Der f 7 were examined for crossreactivity to Der p 7 and then used for immunoblotting of 1 and 2-D gel electrophoresis. Deglycosylation was studied with N-glycosidase-F and N-terminal sequencing by Edman degradation. The epitopes of the monoclonal antibodies were compared by cross-inhibitory immunoassays. Results Immunoblotting of D. farinae extracts with all the anti Der f 7 MoAbs showed major reactivities at 31, 30 and 25 kDa. The strongest immunostaining was at 25 kDa which contrasted with Der p 7 where the 31 and 30 kDa bands were strongest. The relative strength of staining however varied between extracts. The 31 and 30 kDa components were glycosylation products of the 25 kDa form which had the N-terminal sequence predicted from cDNA analysis. Two MoAbs stained an 18 kDa band consistent with a degradation product. The 2-D gels showed that different components with pls from 5.6–6.4. Both species-specific and Der p 7 crossreactive MoAbs were produced and a two-site ELISA assay for detecting group 7 allergen was developed with MoAbs recognizing different epitopes. Conclusions Der f 7 has been defined by its natural N-terminal sequence and MoAbs. It apparently exists as different glycosylation and degradation products in mite extracts, the relative abundance of which differs with different preparations. A two-site ELISA to measure the allergen was developed.

We investigate the practices by which bilingual university students in Hong Kong appropriate texts in producing utterances, particularly written texts. Following Wertsch and his colleagues we ask: • To what extent do our students appropriate texts in constructing their own discourses? • What linguistic means do they use to do this? • What can these processes tell us about what they now can do with discourse representation; and • What do we need to teach them? This research shows that our students' writing displays considerable intertextuality and interdiscursivity. Responses to this writing in tutorial sessions indicate that they are skilled at orchestrating the multiple voices within their own discourses. The commonly stated concern that our students do not know how to do quotation and citation correctly is somewhat misplaced and researchers need to move the focus away from the mechanisms of citation and attribution to the social practices of textual appropriation.

To establish an animal model of spontaneous cervical lymph node metastasis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and obtain laryngocarcinoma cells with high metastatic potential, laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell line HEP-2 in logarithmic phase were inoculated under the lingual margin mucosa of nude mice. HEP-2 cells metastasized to the cervical lymph nodes were isolated, cultured, and re-inoculated under the lingual margin mucosa of nude mice twice. The tumor formation in the tongue and in the cervical lymph nodes was confirmed by pathological examination. Carcinoma cells' ability of invasion and migration was detected by transwell assay. Human specific Alu sequences were detected by PCR, which indicated that the tumor cells originated from human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cell line HEP-2. Finally, an animal model of spontaneous lymph node metastasis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma was successfully established. Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma cells with high metastatic potential to lymph nodes were obtained through repeated inoculations. .

In this research, a new structure and process integration for backside illuminated CMOS image sensor by using thin wafer handling technology is proposed. First of all, the wafer of CMOS image sensor is temporarily bonded to a silicon carrier wafer with thermal plastic material and ZoneBond technology. Then the CMOS wafer is thinned down to few microns to detect the light from the backside. After thinning process, the backside is permanently bonded to a glass carrier substrate with a transparent thermal set bonding material. By using a special trim from glass step, the temporarily bonded silicon carrier could be removed. Cu/Sn micro-bump is then fabricated at the front-side of the CMOS image sensor. No TSVs are needed in the proposed structure. A 300 mm silicon wafer with micro bumps bonded on 500 μm-thick glass wafer is demonstrated. Void free bonding is obtained by IR inspection both in temporary bonding and permanent bonding processes. The thickness of the silicon wafer is measured by IR system and the average thickness of the silicon wafer is 6.4 μm. After thinning, 1 μm TTV is obtained because the thermal plastic material flow during bonding process resulted in excellent planarization. From the cross sectional SEM image, Cu/Sn micro bump with thickness 4 μm/5 μm is formed at the front-side of the CMOS image sensor. The run-out issues from CTE mismatch is also discussed in this study.

Digital human models are frequently constructed with either MRI/CT images or cryo-section slices. In view of the current imaging techniques, lying-down is the most popular imaging position and consequently the constructed models by this approach dispose of the supine features. In contrast, many applications require the models with normal standing profile and reasonable internal tissue distribution. In this paper, we developed a method to adjust the profile of the lying- down Chinese anatomical models with the measurement data. Uniform morphing was applied for the internal tissues. The deformation was performed on slice-level with polar coordinate system. Matrix of feet was rotated by freeGLUT. The pre- and post-adjusted models were then utilized for electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure evaluation. At the last, discussion was made for the specification of the method as well as its applications.

Crack growth mechanisms have been investigated in 6061 aluminum alloy reinforced with alumina particles (Al 2 O 3 /6061 Al composites). This has led to the identification of six crack phases : unstable growth ; long crack growth ; near-threshold long crack growth ; short crack growth ; pre-cease short crack growth, and non-growth phases. A crack phase diagram for particulate-reinforced composites is presented here which displays the range of applied stress and crack length for each phase. Each phase boundary corresponds or relates to an overall material property. The inability of particles to resist long crack growth has been rationalized by the variation of crack tip-cyclic plasticity and fracture energy due to the presence of particles.

Multi-environment trials were conducted to investigate the quality potential of synthetic-derived cultivars (SDCs) and non-synthetic-derived cultivars (NSCs) in south-western China. The environmental effect was greater than genotypic for most protein quantity and quality parameters. The genotype effect was greater for falling number and the parameters from the rapid visco analyser (RVA). In terms of group means, grain protein content, wet gluten content, falling number, and RVA parameters were all significantly lower in SDCs than NSCs. No differences in the parameters reflecting dough strength (Zeleny sedimentation volume and farinograph parameters) were found between the two groups. Significant differences existed within each group, and the degree of variation was especially great in SDCs, among which Chuanmai 104 performed well in various quality parameters. Germination index at physiological maturity varied greatly among cultivars, with the lowest being Chuanmai 104, and the SDCs significantly lower than the NSCs. Although delayed harvest resulted in a significant reduction in falling number, partial SDCs such as Chuanmai 104 and Chuanmai 42 expressed relatively small reductions. In summary, SDCs exhibit a higher degree of variation in quality parameters; these findings indicate their large potential for breeding high-quality cultivars in south-western China.

International audience; Several low fluorine solutions containing different contents of fluorine were prepared by a chemical process. The fluorine contents in these solutions with respect to the conventional all-trifluoroacetate solution were calculated as 0%, 7.7%, 15.4%, 23.1%, 30.8%, 38.5% and 53.8%.YBa2 Cu3 O7−x (YBCO) films were deposited on LaAlO3 and CeO2/ MgO/ Al2 O3/ Hastelloy substrates using these low fluorine solutions. The phase formation, texture and microstructure of the YBCO films were characterized by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The decomposition mechanism of the low fluorine solution was also discussed. The results indicate that the ratio of F/Ba and the carbon content in decomposed powders could be controlled by adjusting the fluorine content in the precursor solutions. Fluorine had a great influence on the phase transformation, nucleation and growth of YBCO film during the crystallization process. The optimization of fluorine content was in the range of 15.4%– 23.1%, which contributed to the good texture, homogeneous microstructure and high Jc value of the YBCO crystallized films.

We report the demonstration of a 16-channel optical/electronic selector for applications in fast packet-switched wavelength division multi-access networks. The selector chip has four differential transimpedance amplifiers with each amplifier shared by four photodetectors, giving a total of 16 channels selected by two stages of MESFET switches. The channel switching time is approximately 10 ns. No appreciable crosstalk is observed from neighboring channels in the first-stage switches, and a 0.35 dB crosstalk penalty is measured through the second-stage switches at a BER of 10/sup -9/ with -20 dBm average optical power in the interference channel. The selector can also be reconfigured as an unswitched four-channel array receiver. >

Fiducial grids have been applied to measure micro-deformation near interfaces in aluminum bicrystals and to study mechanisms of fatigue crack transfer across the interface under loading in a scanning electric microscope (SEM). Three types of aluminum bicrystals were designed to allow the primary slip to induce different incompatible plastic strain at the interface. An inclined notch was spark cut along the primary slip band on one edge of each specimen to initiate a crack smoothly. This paper also describes the means to produce fiducial grids of evaporated gold with 7-μm square mesh size and 0.3-μm line width in a place of interest on a specimen surface, usually ahead of a crack tip near the interface. Interface cracking and width increase of persistent slip band (PSB) induced by an approached transvese crack have been identified by comparing two photos of fiducial grid patterns taken, respectively, at maximum and minimum cyclic stress in a SEM. Grids were also used to measure both cyclic shear strain at a crack tip and crack growth rate, which decreases as the crack approaches an incompatible interface.

The Australian Epilachninae are reviewed. Epilachna dawkinsi is described. New synonymies established are: E. pardalis (Boisduval, 1835) with Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata (Fabricius, 1775); E. doryca (Boisduval, 1835) and E. philippinensis Dieke, 1947 with H. vigintisexpunctata (Boisduval, 1835); and E. terraereginae Blackburn, 1895 with H. suffusa (Crotch, 1874). Henosepilachna Li, 1961 is removed from synonymy with Epilachna Chevrolat, 1834. New combinations proposed are: H. vigintisexpunctata (Boisduval), H. cucurbitae (Richards, 1983), H. mjoebergi (Weise, 1923), H. urvillei (Montrouzier, 1861) and H. suffusa (Crotch), all transferred from Epilachna Chevrolat. E. undecimvariolata (Boisduval, 1835) recorded from Tasmania is shown to be a misidentification. A key to the two genera and 10 species known in Australia is provided. A lectotype is designated for Epilachna borealis (Fabricius, 1775), the genotype of Epilachna.

To define the risk factors for delayed graft function and study the impact of such delays on renal function and long-term allograft survival in renal transplant recipients.Single-centre retrospective study.Regional hospital, Hong Kong.Records of 118 Chinese renal transplant recipients from 1 July 1997 to 31 July 2005 were reviewed, and categorised into delayed and immediate graft function groups.Delayed graft function was observed in about 19% of patients, for which cold ischaemic time was an important independent predictor. For each additional hour of cold ischaemic time, the odds ratio increased for delayed function by 0.002 (95% confidence interval, 0.001-0.003; P=0.03). Multivariate analysis revealed that neither cold ischaemic time nor delayed graft function was associated with acute rejection. On the other hand, at 1 year both delayed graft function (odds ratio=18.5; 95% confidence interval, 2.6-130.5; P=0.003) and donor age (1.2; 1.1-1.3; P=0.003) were related to a glomerular filtration rate of less than 30 mL/min. When renal function between patients with and without delayed graft function during the first 3 years was compared, it was significantly better in those without delayed graft function. However, there was no significant difference in death-censored graft survival between delayed graft function and immediate graft function groups.Delayed graft function has a significant adverse effect on graft function at 1 year. Limiting cold ischaemic time is important as it is an independent predictor of delayed graft function.

Thin copper film has been successfully electrodeposited onto the Bi-Pb-Sr-Ca-Cu-O superconductor substrate from aqueous solution. The electrical and magnetic properties of copper-superconductor composite structure were evaluated by two- and four-point resistivity measurements and magnetic susceptibility data. The electrodeposition process was shown to have little effect on the intrinsic properties of the superconductor substrate from resistivity measurements. Almost no degradation of the bulk properties was observed from the magnetization data