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Background The relationship between occupational exposures to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and cardiovascular effects among hairdressing assistants has not been well characterized. Aims To investigate whether or not exposure to VOCs was associated with autonomic dysfunction, inflammation and oxidative stress in hairdressing assistants. Methods We recruited 62 young healthy assistants working in different hair salons in Taipei. Blood samples were taken from each assistant and heart rate variability (HRV) indices were recorded. VOCs were measured at each assistant's workplace. Mixed-effects models were used to examine the association between blood markers, HRV and VOCs. Results Exposure to VOCs was associated with increases in serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as well as decreases in HRV indices. The effect of VOCs exposure on the health parameters measured in this study was greatest during the days on which the subjects were working. Conclusions Occupational exposure to VOCs in hair salons can lead to increases in serum CRP and 8-OHdG levels and decreases in HRV indices. Time spent away from the workplace could modify the effects these exposures have on the health parameters described above in these assistants.

A double beam image (DBI) technique is coupled in the two-stage accelerating mechanism to simultaneously improve the spectra and maximum energy of the proton beam. A proton beam with a narrow-spectrum center at 5.4 MeV and a long tail up to 14.4 MeV is generated in the experiment. Experimental and simulation results show that spatial collineation, time synchronization, and real-time monitoring are needed for optimum two-stage proton acceleration and are realized by the DBI technique to a certain extent in our experiment. This DBI technique can be used to achieve optimum two-stage acceleration in a feasible manner and will allow precise manipulation of multistage acceleration to improve the energy and spectra of particle beams.

Ti-6Al-4V alloy is an attractive material in many industries due to its unique and excellent combination of strength to weight ratio and their resistance to corrosion. However, because of its low thermal conductivity and high chemical reactivity, Ti-6Al-4V alloy is generally classified as a difficult-to-cut material that can be characterized by low productivity and rapid tool wear rate even at conventional cutting speeds. It is well known that tool wear has a strong relationship with the cutting forces and a sound knowledge about correlation between cutting forces variation and tool wear propagation is vital to monitor and optimize the automatic manufacturing process. In the present study, high-speed end-milling of Ti-6Al-4V alloy with uncoated cemented tungsten carbide tools under dry cutting conditions is experimentally investigated. The main objective of this work is to analyze the tool wear and the cutting forces variation during high-speed end-milling Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The experimental results show that the major tool wear mechanisms in high-speed end-milling Ti-6Al-4V alloy with uncoated cemented tungsten carbide tools are adhesion and diffusion at the crater wear along with adhesion and abrasion at the flank wear. The cutting force component in the negative y-direction is more dominant of the three components and displays significantly higher magnitudes than that of the other two components in x- and z-directions. The variation of cutting force component Fy has a positive correlation with the tool wear propagation, which can be used as a tool wear indicator during automatic manufacturing process.

By adopting an equivalent geometry model of chip, a finite element model was developed to study the mechanism of chip formation during high-speed milling of alloy cast iron. Several key technologies such as material constitutive model, friction model, chip separation criteria, chip damage criteria, heat dissipation, and transfer were implemented to improve the accuracy of finite element simulation. Saw-tooth chip of alloy cast iron was observed. The chip shape and cutting force agreed well with experimental results. The simulation results show that the maximum cutting temperature produced with appearance of saw-tooth chip crack, and it is located on the chip-tool contact surface. The saw-tooth chip is caused by double actions of thermoplastic instability and plastic instability. The chip saw-tooth degree decreases when increasing the rotating speed, while it increases when increasing the feed speed. This work provides a useful understanding for chip formation process and helps to optimize machining parameters and process of high-speed milling of alloy cast iron.

This article presents the design and analysis of a novel dynamic stiffness tuning vibration absorber working with Magnetorheological elastomers (MRE). In this design, the MRE worked in a shear mode, but its MR effect was significantly enhanced by dynamically squeezing the sample thickness with an embedded piezoelectric (PZT) actuator. With this design, both the quasi-static magnetic field and the PZT driven dynamic squeeze strain in the direction of particles chain were properly adjusted to control the vibration of the primary system. The vibration suppression capabilities were theoretically analyzed by the harmonic analysis. A combined control strategy (the tuning strategy and the ON—OFF strategy) and the control system were developed to suppress the vibration of the primary system. The simulation results indicate that the proposed MRE-PZT-based dynamic stiffness-tuning dynamic vibration absorber (DSTDVA) exhibits more effective suppression capabilities than those conventional MRE-based quasi-static tuned vibration absorbers; the stronger the enhanced effect of squeeze strain on MRE's shear storage modulus is, the more effective vibration suppression capabilities the proposed MRE-PZT-based DSTDVA has.

A two-element array antenna using rectangle patch elements for UWB application is proposed. A novel Marchand balun is chosen as the feeding structure. This balun excites signals of Equi-amplitude and 180 degree phase difference. The radiation pattern of the antenna is omnidirectional at H-plane and bidirectional at E-plane. The measured VSWR is less than 2 over the frequency bandwidth (3–11 GHz). The simulated gain is 2.8–8.49 dB, especially increased at higher frequencies because of the array factor effect. The measured results are in good agreement with the simulated results.

During high-speed machining Ti-6Al-4V alloy, high-temperature at the tool–chip interface and the concentration gradient of chemical species between tool material and workpiece material support the activation of diffusion process, and therefore the crater wear forms on the rake surface of the cutting tool at a short distance from the cutting edge. In this paper, the diffusion analysis was theoretically proposed. The constituent diffusion at the contact interface between tool material and Ti-6Al-4V alloy at high-temperature environment, the crater wear on the rake surface of the tool, and the chips collected from high-speed milling Ti-6Al-4V alloy with straight tungsten carbide tools were analyzed by the scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The constituents inside the tool could diffuse into the workpiece and the diffusion layer was very thin and close to the interface. Compared with the diffusion of tungsten and carbon atoms, the pulling out and removing of the tungsten carbide (WC) particles due to cobalt diffusion dominated the crater wear mechanism on the rake surface of the cutting tool.

Split-ring resonators (SRRs) are introduced to the design of multilayer filter. Considering the magnetic resonance of SRR, careful examination of SRR orientations to the external stimulation is presented through full wave analysis. With the skew-symmetric feed scheme, the compact multilayer filters have two transmission zeros. Compared with the conventional microstrip filter, the proposed filter acquires significant size reduction and improved selectivity.

A printed antenna having a low profile and a broad bandwidth is presented. The antenna consists of a loop structure constructed with two-layered meander strips. The loop structure and meander strips are used to enhance the impedance bandwidth and reduce the antenna size, respectively. A prototype of the proposed antenna with a small antenna height of 5 mm is constructed and tested. The measured results show that the antenna has a bandwidth of 30.2% (643 MHz) according to −10 dB return loss in 2.1 GHz band. In addition, effects of the main geometrical parameters on the performance of the antenna are also investigated.

A novel compact circularly polarized microstrip antenna using left-handed transmission lines is proposed in this paper. The antenna consists of a microstrip patch unit and two left-handed transmission line (LHTL) units. The microstrip patch unit is a square patch with a small square slot embedded in the center. The left-handed transmission line units located in the center of the square patch is composed of lumped elements, which work as 3 dB power dividers and 90 degrees phase shifters. The microstrip antenna is fed by a single probe, and the two inner adjacent sides of the square patch are connected to the LHTL units for orthogonal excitation. The measured results agree with simulated results, which show that the impedance bandwidth defined by VSWR less than 2.0 is 61 MHz (2481–2542 MHz). The front-to-back ratio on the pattern is larger than 15 dB and the axial ratio in the up hemisphere less than 2 dB. The proposed antenna has the attractive features such as compact size, low axial ratio, and simple str...

Mutual coupling between antennas on a complex platform (e.g., battleplane, aerotransport) is successfully predicted by Cascade Equivalence Approach (CEA). Based on the Huygens' Principle and Equivalence Principle, the originally examined area is divided into three ones and results obtained in the first subarea are regarded as equivalent driving source for the next. The validity as well as efficiency of this approach are then verified by numerical examples. Finally, CEA is employed to solve the mutual coupling between two antennas on an electrically large fighter plane which is hardly solve by any other algorithm at current computer configuration.

This paper presents a novel low-profile bifilar spherical helical antenna, which is a partition detruncated from the bifilar spherical helical antenna with constant ratio between adjacent two helixes. Radiation properties of the antennas are calculated and measured, results of which indicate that this antenna can provide a directivity of > 6 dB and an axial ratio of < 3 dB over a very wide band. The radiation patterns have broad beam and 20 dB front-to-back ratio, showing that it is of great value in satellite communication applications.

This paper presents two kinds of magnetorheological elastomers (MREs). One is composed of appropriate silicon rubber, carbonyl iron particles and some other materials. It is cured under a strong magnetic field at a room temperature. Its shear modulus change from 0.34MPa at zero magnetic field to 3.34MPa at 1T magnetic field, the relative MR effect reaches 878%. Such high MR effect has not been reported until now. The other is composed by appropriate natural rubber, carbonyl iron particles and some other materials. After the compositions are mixed in a two-roll mill, they are cured under a strong magnetic field according to a temperature profile. The increment of its modulus reaches 3.6MPa, and the relative modulus increment is 133%. Their mechanical properties are also evaluated. All observed results show that the fabricated MREs are utilizable. They have successfully been utilized to adaptive tuned vibration absorbers, which will serve for vibration absorption of vehicles.

With the rapid development of sequencing technologies, an increasing number of sequences are available for evolutionary tree reconstruction. Although neighbor joining is regarded as the most popular and fastest evolutionary tree reconstruction method [its time complexity is O(n(3)), where n is the number of sequences], it is not sufficiently fast to infer evolutionary trees containing more than a few hundred sequences. To increase the speed of neighbor joining, we herein propose FastNJ, a fast implementation of neighbor joining, which was motivated by RNJ and FastJoin, two improved versions of conventional neighbor joining. The main difference between FastNJ and conventional neighbor joining is that, in the former, many pairs of nodes selected by the rule used in RNJ are joined in each iteration. In theory, the time complexity of FastNJ can reach O(n(2)) in the best cases. Experimental results show that FastNJ yields a significant increase in speed compared to RNJ and conventional neighbor joining with a minimal loss of accuracy.

Taiwan is an economy which is highly dependent on energy imports. A change in oil price not only affects the cost of production, but also the economic growth. Since the year 2000, the crude oil price has risen and become an unstable factor for economic development. In response to the rapid rising of emerging economies and the competitive international economic environment, Taiwan is facing a moment of industrial restructuring. Energy-saving technologies and improved efficiency might play important roles. It is necessary for Taiwan to improve its industrial productivity and production technology to contribute to the global warming problem. From crude oil intensity and change in spillover effects of crude oil price, the authors might detect whether industrial production efficiency and adaptability to energy and production technology improves or not. Based on the input–output table showing the monetary value of inputs to each sector and each row represents the value of each sector’s outputs during the periods of 1981 to 2011, the present study employs the industry-related price model and factor decomposition model to investigate the change in Taiwan’s reliance on crude oil through crude oil intensity. Although efforts have been made to advance technology and improve energy dependence, the results of this study indicate that imported crude oil intensity and price responsiveness have actually increased. Thus, the speed of improvement in energy technology is insufficient to keep up with the extent of economic growth.

To estimate the probability of N2 lymph node metastasis and to assist physicians in making diagnosis and treatment decisions.We reviewed the medical records of 739 patients with computed tomography-defined stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that had an exact tumor-node-metastasis stage after surgery. A random subset of three fourths of the patients (n=554) were selected to develop the prediction model. Logistic regression analysis of the clinical characteristics was used to estimate the independent predictors of N2 lymph node metastasis. A prediction model was then built and externally validated by the remaining one fourth (n=185) patients which made up the validation data set. The model was also compared with 2 previously described models.We identified 4 independent predictors of N2 disease: a younger age, larger tumor size, central tumor location, and adenocarcinoma or adenosquamous carcinoma pathology. The model showed good calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow test: P=0.923) with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.748 (95% confidence interval, 0.710-0.784). When validated with all the patients of group B, the AUC of our model was 0.781 (95% CI: 0.715-0.839) and the VA model was 0.677 (95% CI: 0.604-0.744) (P =0.04). When validated with T1 patients of group B, the AUC of our model was 0.837 (95% CI: 0.760-0.897) and Fudan model was 0.766 (95% CI: 0.681-0.837) (P0.01).Our prediction model estimated the pretest probability of N2 disease in computed tomography-defined stage I NSCLC and was more accurate than the existing models. Use of our model can be of assistance when making clinical decisions about invasive or expensive mediastinal staging procedures.

A typical aluminum alloy, AA7075, was immersed in the EXCO solution, and its corrosion properties during different immersion time were measured repetitively using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique (EIS). The EIS data a were simulated using equivalent circuit with ZView program. The results show that once the exfoliation occurs, the low frequency inductive loop in the Nyquist plot associated with the relaxation phenomenon of reaction intermediates disappears, and the Nyquist plane is mainly composed of two capacitive arcs in the high frequency range and low frequency range respectively. The former originates from the original corroded surface, while the latter from the newly formed interface by exfoliation corrosion (EXCO). With the increased immersion time, the high frequency capacitance arc decreases gradually, while the low frequency capacitance arc increases gradually. From the beginning of immersion up to 9 hours, charge transfer resistance gradually decreases, illustrating the acceleration of the corrosion rate, whereas the proton concentration decreases steeply, indicating the cathodic process is pre-dominant. Then the corrosion rate decreases gradually corresponding to the exhausting of proton ions. The results also show that the exfoliation corrosion is developed from pitting corrosion through intergranular corrosion to general corrosion at the end.

Temperature dependent dielectric constant measurements have been performed on ⟨001⟩ oriented 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3PbTiO3 crystals. These investigations have revealed an irreversible secondary transformation between a normal ferroelectric state and a relaxor ferroelectric state with increasing temperature. The results demonstrate that the anisotropy of the high performance piezocrystal state is only locked in under application of field.

This study is on a new approach for fabrication of poly-Si thin films. Aluminum-induced crystallization of a-Si film has been achieved by thermal annealing only at around 400 °C. The Experimental results reveal that the Al on top of a-Si arrangement has more evident effect in crystallization enhancement than that with Al under a-Si, and the resultant poly-Si films show preferred (400) crystal orientation. It is verified that aluminum can cause lateral crystallization of a-Si film. No preferred orientation was noticed from lateral crystallization samples.

Properties of the potential electrochemical noises (EN) generated during the corrosion process of aluminum alloys AA2024(T3), AA7075 (aged at 121degreesC/35 h + 160degreesC/20 h) and pure aluminum in 3wt% (mass fraction) NaCl solution were investigated in this study. During the initial stage of immersion, the EN amplitude of AA2024 is the largest while the EN amplitude of pure aluminum is negligible. The amplitude of the EN generated by these materials decreases with immersion time except the EN of AA2024 after extremely long immersion time (38 days in this study). Surface morphology corresponding to different stages of immersion and different types of EN were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) analysis. The result shows that the micro-galvanic cells formed by the constituent particles and the alloy matrix play an important role on the corrosion process of the aluminum alloys and the EN behaviors of AA2024, AA7075 and pure aluminum is proved to be strongly related to the type and intensity of corrosion process.

The strain-stress ( k- †) response characteristics of d001 ¢-oriented crystals of Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 -PbTiO 3 have been investigated. A stress-induced ferroelastic transformation has been observed under uniaxial stress. The k- †response was fitted with a Landau phenomenological model based upon a bilinear gradient coupling between ferroelastic strain and ferroelectric polarization.

This investigation studied the effects of rare earths (RE) and chromium on the high temperature oxidation resistance and aqueous corrosion resistance of iron base self-fluxing alloy coatings. Four coatings were prepared through smelting-atomizing and oxide-acetylene flame spraying. The properties of the coatings were evaluated by cyclic oxidation tests, weight loss experiments, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic scanning technique, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX). The addition of RE greatly enhanced the oxidation resistance of the coatings. This effect was attributed to the fact that RE changed the ion diffusion patterns of the coatings in the process of scale forming, resulting in more protective scales with high adhesion. The increase of chromium content in the coatings enhanced the corrosion resistance of the coatings in nitric acid solution, but in hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid solutions the result was reversed. Rare earth addition had a beneficial effect in sulfuric acid and nitric solutions, but in hydrochloric acid, the samples with RE had a corrosion rate slightly higher than that of the samples without RE addition. These results are explained by the effect that the addition of RE minimized the cathodic area of the coatings.

Compositional modifications of ferroelectric BaTiO 3 were systematically investigated for Nb +5 substituents ( x ). Relaxor ferroelectric behavior was induced for x S 4 at%.

Crater-like structures are experimentally studied with an ultrashort, ultraintense laser pulse with an intensity of 1.5 × 1018 W/cm2, irradiating borosilicate glass targets, which extends laser-induced craters to the region of relativistic intensities. The morphology of the crater-like structures is measured accurately using a three-dimensional laser scanning confocal microscope and a scanning electron microscope. The experimental results indicate that a circular bowl shape is formed with a depth-to-diameter ratio of about 1/5, which is similar to that of meteorite impact craters. A plasma fireball model is applied to analyze the experimental results. Studies show that catastrophic asteroid strikes may be investigated by irradiating foils with intense laser pulses.

In view of the landing site positioning of the lunar probe, this paper proposes a positioning reduction method based on VLBI tracking data, and applies VLBI delay-observation data from more than three baselines to complete positioning reduction with the distance between the lunar lander and the center of the earth as a constraint. Simulation results show that the positioning accuracy of landing point of the lunar lander can reach 100 m if the standard deviation of the VLBI delay-observation noise is less than 1 ns (0.3 m). This method also supports positioning reduction of other deep space probes' precise landing.

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) plays important roles in the regulation of genes expression and contribute to the growth of cancer cells. The present study aimed to investigate the function of HDAC5 in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).The expression of HDAC5 in human hepatocellular carcinoma tissues and cells was detected. MTT assay was used to measure the proliferation of HCC cell lines. siRNA technology was employed to down-regulate the protein expression of HDAC5 and Six1.Western blot showed that the HDAC5 expression was increased in human HCC tissues. The mRNA and protein levels of HDAC5 were up-regulated in human HCC cell lines. MTT assay showed that over-expression of HDAC5 promoted cell proliferation in human HCC cell lines. Down-regulation of HDAC5 caused a significantly inhibition of liver cancer cells proliferation. Furthermore, we found that HDAC5 promoted the Six1 expression both at the mRNA and protein levels in HCC cell lines.The current study demonstrated for the first time that HDAC5 promoted HCC cell proliferation through up-regulation of Six1 expression and might provide novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of HCC.

Pitting corrosion of aluminum alloy 2024-T3 in NaCl solution was studied using electrochemical noise technique. The spectral analysis results showed that the more positive the values of cut-off frequency(f(c)), the slope of high-frequency linear part of SPD (k) and white noise level(W) are, the more easily the pit initiates, but none of them can be used to depict the corrosion process individually. Two new parameters(S-E and S-G) were derived by using dimensional analysis method, and the value of S-E characterize the severity of pitting of corroding material. While the meaning of the other parameter(S-G) remains for further investigation.

A two-element ultra wideband array antenna with a 5.8 GHz band-notch function is proposed. A novel Marchand balun feeding structure is chosen for its great merit of the equi-amplitude and 180° phase difference signals, making the omni-directional of radiation pattern much better. A simple u-shape slot is inserted into the radiating patch to create a frequency band-stop characteristic. The measured VSWR less than 2 is from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz, and the frequency notch band is from 5.7 to 5.9 GHz. The measured results agree well with the simulated. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1537–1539, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24384

There are now many research groups employing fluoride fibre in fibre lasers designed for high power emission at emission wavelengths in the 3 μm region and beyond. To create efficient and therefore high power output from fluoride-based fibre lasers our research group has explored a number of options. In this presentation, I will discuss these methods and offer some general rules-of-thumb that are applicable to the use of fluoride fibre.

Theoretical formulae for intermodal radiation impedances (including self- and interaction radiation impedances) are derived for a bilaminar rectangular plate which is mounted on a non-rigid baffle and immersed in a fluid. Green function and Fourier transform methods are used to solve the governing vibration equation. Numerical calculations of the intermodal radiation impedances of a square plate are presented for different baffle impedances, and the effects of baffle impedance on the acoustic radiation impedance are discussed. The results show that intermodal radiation impedances are strongly dependent on the baffle impedance. For different baffles, the frequency characteristics of the intermodal radiation impedances vary. For certain baffle impedances they are highly frequency dependent at low frequencies but asymptotically approach a constant at high frequency. It is concluded that it is possible, by means of a judicious choice of baffle material, to control sound radiation in the near field.

Tin‐modified lead zirconate titanate thin layers were prepared by a sol‐gel method. A room‐ temperature antiferroelectric (AFE) phase composition Pb0.99Nb0.02[(Zr0.58Sn0.42)0.96Ti0.04] 0.98O3 was prepared and examined for weak‐ and high‐field dielectric properties as a function of temperature, with emphasis on field‐induced AFE‐ferroelectric (FE) switching characteristics. Thin layers processed with a lead oxide cover coat were found to be free of any secondary phases and showed improved properties. Room‐temperature values of dielectric constant K’=390 and saturation polarization Ps=20 μC/cm2 were obtained with field‐induced strains up to 0.15% in submicron grain structures.

A new molecular structural characterization (MSC) method called the molecular vertex eigenvalue correlative index (MVECI) is constructed and used to describe the structures of 122 alkylbenzene compounds. Through multiple linear regression (MLR) and stepwise multiple regression (SMR), a quantitative structure-retention relationship (QSRR) model with correlation coefficient (R) of 0.995 is obtained. Through partial least-square regression (PLS), another QSRR model with correlation coefficient (R) of 0.991 is obtained. The estimation stability and prediction ability of the two models are strictly analyzed by both internal and external validations. For the internal validation, the cross-validation (CV) correlation coefficients (RCV) of the two models are 0.993 and 0.988. For the external validation, the correlation coefficients (Rtest) of the two models are 0.996 and 0.995, respectively. The results show that the stability and predictability of the models are good, and the molecular vertex eigenvalue correlative index can successfully describe the structures of alkylbenzene compounds.

Using 3' and 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques, the full-length cDNA sequence of the AnmanSA, a gene that encodes an acidophilic beta-mannanase of Aspergillus niger LW-1 (abbreviated to AnMan5A), was identified from the total RNA. The cDNA sequence was 1417 bp in length, harboring 5'- and 3'-untranslated regions, as well as an open reading frame (ORF) which encodes a 21-aa signal peptide, a 17-aa propeptide and a 345-aa mature peptide. Based on the topology of the phylogenetic tree of beta3-mannanases from glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 5, the AnMan5A belongs to the subfamily 7 of the GH family 5. Its 3D structure was modeled by the bitemplate-based method using both MODELLER 9.9 and SALIGN programs, based on the known beta-mannanase crystal structures of Trichoderma reesei (1QNO) and Lycopersicon esculentum (1RH9) from the GH family 5. In addition, the complete DNA sequence of the Anman5A was amplified from the genomic DNA using the pUCm-T vector-mediated PCR and conventional PCR methods. The DNA sequence was 1825 bp in length, containing a 5'-flanking regulatory region, 2 introns and 3 exons when compared with the full-length cDNA.

In recent years, the role of high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) protein and its receptors in autoimmune diseases has received increasing attention. It has been documented that HMGB1 is associated with disease activity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). This study was undertaken to determine the potential role of receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), one receptor for HMGB1, in the pathogenesis of SLE. Plasma levels of soluble RAGE (sRAGE) from 105 patients with clinical diagnosis of SLE and 43 healthy controls were determined by ELISA. Associations between sRAGE levels and clinical, laboratory characteristics were assessed. The data showed that plasma levels of sRAGE in patients with SLE were significantly lower than those in healthy controls (HC) (P = 0.003). Plasma sRAGE in patients receiving short-period treatment showed an immediate decrease compared with the untreated patients (P = 0.023). In contrast, plasma sRAGE in patients receiving long-period treatment were significantly increased compared to those with short-period treatment (P = 0.000) and comparable with those in HC (P = 0.305). The significant decreased levels of sRAGE in patients with SLE suggest the potential association of RAGE signalling and SLE clinical pathology, whereas, long-period antilupus treatment may counteract the decreased sRAGE levels in patients with SLE.

The complete gene (PG37 lipI) encoding an alkaline lipase (PG37 LipI) was cloned from the genomic DNA of Penicillium cyclopium PG37. The cloned PG37 lipI is 2020 bp in length, consisting of 632 bp of the 5' flanking promoter region and 1388 bp of the downstream fragment that contains 6 exons and 5 short introns. The promoter region harbors putative TATA box, CAAT box and several transcription factor binding sites. The open reading frame (ORF) encodes a PG37 LipI of 285 amino acid residues, which was predicted to contain a 20-aa signal peptide, a 7-aa propeptide and a 258-aa mature peptide with a conserved motif Gly-X-Ser-X-Gly. However, PG37 LipI shows only 32%, 30%, 28% and 26% identity with lipases of Aspergillus parasiticus, Penicillium camembertii, Thermomyces lanuginosus and Rhizomucor miehei, respectively. It was predicted that the main secondary structures of PG37 LipI are alpha-helix and random coil. Three amino acid residues, Ser132-Asp188-His241, compose the enzymatic active center in the tertiary structure.

This article describes a computer model, SICGE-IESOM model, which is composed of SICGE, IESOM and linkage module. SICGE model is one of energy-economyenvironment integrated assessment model, based on GEMPACK software, used to analyze the impact of carbon tax policies on Chinese macro economy. IESOM, based on GAMS software, is used for describing energy system. In linkage module, bidirectional connections between SICGE and IESOM are set up through variables such as energy service demand, technical variables and investment cost. Three scenarios are simulated to analyze the effect of carbon emission mitigation. The results indicate mitigation will cause GDP loss, affect residential consumption; emission reduction will decrease carbon emission intensity, ease energy supply pressure, accelerate the development of non-fossil energies, improve industry structure, and downsize energy-intensive industries.

Inverse gas chromatographic data have been obtained for polystyrene, polycarbonate, and two substituted amines used as additives in the polymers. Surface energies have been determined and evaluations made of acid/base interaction parameters and Flory–Huggins χ values for the surface bounded interphase. It was shown that acid/base considerations are implicated in the miscibility of these polymer/additive systems. Surface energy analyses showed that surface and bulk compositions in blends differed whether or not the blend components were miscible. Composition differences were the result of thermodynamic drives to minimize surface free energy. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

China has the largest number of 300MW circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers in the word within, built in a short period of several years. Now, there are 13 CFB units in operating and other about 50 CFB boilers under construction or will be under construction soon. Summarization and analysis of the operational performance of the 300MWe CFB units are conducted. The reliability, economy and emission of these unite are introduced. The problems in these units are summarized. Some advices for improvement and future research are given.