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Understanding the underlying physics of interactions among various quasi-particles is a fundamental issue for the application of spintronics and photonics. Here the observation of a coupling between the small polarons in the nanoscale ultrathin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) films and the acoustic phonons in the SrTiO3 (STO) substrate using ultrafast pump–probe spectroscopy has been reported. According to the temperature- and wavelength-dependent measurements, the amplitudes of the acoustic phonons are suppressed by tuning the small polarons absorption. This shows a coupled relationship between the acoustic phonons and the small polarons. At the probe photon energy of 1.55 eV where the polaron absorption is dominant, the acoustic phonons become unobservable. Furthermore, by performing the pump fluence dependent measurements on the LSMO films with different thicknesses, smaller acoustic phonon amplitudes are found in the thinner film with stronger small polaron binding energy. Such a coupled nature can be utilized to manipulate the small polarons using the acoustic phonons or vice versa, which is of great importance in device applications of colossal magnetoresistance materials.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4), a key gene that contributes to the susceptibility and clinical course of cancer, is an important down-regulator of T cell activation and proliferation. The +49A/G polymorphism is commonly studied because of its association with cancer risks. However, other polymorphisms, such as −1722T/C and −1661A/G, have not been studied in detail. We performed a meta-analysis using 43 eligible case–control studies with a total of 19,089 patients and 21,388 controls to examine the association between CTLA-4 +49A/G, −1722T/C, and −1661A/G polymorphisms and cancer risk. We searched the PubMed and EMBASE databases for all articles published up to July 17, 2013. Individuals with the +49 A allele (AA/AG vs. GG, odds ratio (OR) = 1.21, 95 % confidence interval (95 % CI) = 1.16–1.27) and −1661 G allele (AG/GG vs. AA, OR = 1.52, 95 % CI = 1.34–1.73) had increased cancer risk. However, no significant association between cancer risk and the −1722T/C polymorphism was found (CC/CT vs. TT, OR = 1.04, 95 % CI = 0.92–1.16). In subgroup analysis for the +49A/G polymorphism, increased cancer risk remained in the subgroups of Asians (OR = 1.25, 95 % CI = 1.18–1.31), patients with breast cancer (OR = 1.28, 95 % CI = 1.15–1.42), and patients with lung cancer (OR = 1.20, 95 % CI = 1.07–1.35). For the −1661A/G polymorphism, increased cancer risk remained in the subgroups of Asians (OR = 1.52, 95 % CI = 1.34–1.73), patients with breast cancer (OR = 1.48, 95 % CI = 1.07–2.03), and patients with oral cancer (OR = 3.16, 95 % CI = 1.84–5.45). However, no significant increase in cancer risk was found in the subgroups for the −1722T/C polymorphism. In conclusion, the results suggest that +49A/G and −1661A/G polymorphisms in CTLA-4 are risk factors for cancers, whereas the −1722T/C polymorphism is not associated with an increased risk of cancer.

Treatments for periodontitis are not absolutely perfect, and a vaccine against Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) could become a valuable adjunct therapy for periodontitis.In this study, a vaccine of peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) from P. gingivalis was evaluated in P. gingivalis-induced murine lesion and periodontitis models. The prevention of alveolar bone loss analysis determined by micro-computed X-ray tomography (micro-CT), and histological assays. Furthermore, the induction of immune response of mouse anti-PAD done with ELISA and Western Blot analysis.Compared with animal immunization with incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA) alone, PAD group significantly inhibited (P0.05) bone resorption. ELISA and Western Blot showed that PAD induced response involving immunoglobulin G1 (Ig G1) predominantly.These results suggest that PAD could be a candidate antigen for a vaccine against P. gingivalis infection.

High quality c-axis-oriented Ca3Co4O9 thin films have been grown on Si substrates using pulsed laser deposition under different oxygen pressures. The morphology and interface structure of the films have been investigated. It is shown that the films grow in such a way that the c-axis lies parallel to the substrate surface so as to minimize interface stress. Compared with their polycrystalline bulk counterpart, the thin film samples have a larger Seebeck coefficient and a lower resistivity. As a result the power factor increases significantly and reaches 0.21 mW/m K2 at room temperature.

High quality Ca 3 Co 4 O 9 thin films have been grown epitaxially on single crystal Al 2 O 3 substrates with pulsed laser deposition. Nb was implanted into the Ca 3 Co 4 O 9 films using an ion beam injection technique. The microstructure of the thin films has been investigated by XRD, SEM and AFM. The epitaxial thin films were grown with the c -axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. The effect of Nb doping by ion beam injection was verified using resistivity measurements at room temperature. Resistivity and the Seebeck coefficient were also measured in the temperature range 150–380 K. The results indicate that the power factors of Ca 3 Co 4 O 9 thin films increase when doped with Nb. When the concentration of doped Nb was 3.65 × 10 19 atoms/cm 3 , the power factor of the thin films reached 0.10 mW/m K 2 at room temperature, and it approached a maximum of 0.17 mW/m K 2 at 380 K.

Oxidative stress leading to retinal nerve cells (RNCs) apoptosis is a major cause of neurodegenerative disorders of the retina. 17β-Estradiol (E2) has been suggested to be a neuroprotective agent in the central nervous system; however, at present, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood, and the related research on the RNCs is less reported. Here, in order to investigate the protective role and mechanism of E2 against oxidative stress-induced damage on RNCs, the transmission electron microscopy and annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide assay were applied to detect the RNCs apoptosis. Western blot and real-time PCR were used to determine the expression of the critical molecules in Bcl-2 and caspase family associated with apoptosis. The transmission electron microscopy results showed that H(2)O(2) could induce typical features of apoptosis in RNCs, including formation of the apoptosome. E2 could, however, suppress the H(2)O(2)-induced morphological changes of apoptosis. Intriguingly, we observed E2-mediated phagocytic scavenging of apoptosome. In response to H(2)O(2)-induced apoptosis, Bax, acting as one of the pivotal pro-apoptotic members of Bcl-2 family, increased significantly, which directly resulted in an increased ratio of Bax to anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 (Bax/Bcl-2). Additionally, caspases 9 and 3, which are the critical molecules of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway, were activated by H(2)O(2). In contrast, E2 exerted anti-apoptotic effects by reducing the expression of Bax to decrease the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 and impeded the caspases 9/3 activation. Moreover, LY294002, a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor, could sharply block the effect of E2 in reducing the percentage of apoptotic cells resistance to H(2)O(2). And the attenuation of Bax, the reduced activities of caspases 9/3 and the impeded release of mitochondrial cytochrome c mediated by E2 resistance to H(2)O(2) damage were significantly retrieved by LY294002 administration. Taken together, E2 protects the RNCs against H(2)O(2)-induced apoptosis by significantly inhibiting the Bax-involved mitochondrial apoptosis via the activation of PI3K/Akt signal pathway.

Graphene has proved to be an excellent broadband saturable absorber for mode-locked operation of ultrafast lasers. However, for the mid-infrared (mid-IR) range where broadly tunable sources are in great needs, graphene-based broadly tunable ultrafast mid-IR lasers have not been demonstrated so far. Here, we report on passive mode-locking of a mid-IR Cr:ZnS laser by utilizing a transmission-type monolayer graphene saturable absorber and broad spectral tunability between 2120 nm and 2408 nm, which is the broadest tuning bandwidth ever reported for graphene mode-locked mid-IR solid-state lasers. The recovery time of the saturable absorber is measured to be ~2.4 ps by pump-probe technique at a wavelength of 2350 nm. Stably mode-locked Cr:ZnS laser delivers Fourier transform-limited 220-fs pulses with a pulse energy of up to 7.8 nJ.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are representative one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. Both materials have been widely employed in the generation and modulation of ultra-short light waves. While the number of reports on pulsed laser demonstrators is on the rise, the understanding of the exact physical mechanisms governing the nonlinear optical response remains a subject less well studied and understood. Nanotube chirality inhomogeneity, defective states and ambient effects in TMDCs also pose further experimental challenges in fully resolving the photophysics of these low-dimensional materials. Here, we combine several ultrafast nonlinear optical characterization techniques performed over broad spectral range (covering the important range extending from visible to the mid-infrared) to resolve the intrinsic photoresponse of 1D and 2D semiconductors. The unique optical responses revealed from our findings provide important new design guidelines for 1D and 2D semiconductor based nonlinear optical devices.

In this paper, an active output feedback fault-tolerant control design for submarine vertical movements is proposed. An unknown input disturbance observer is given first, and then an observer is designed to diagnose all of actuator faults by decoupling external disturbance from actuator faults. Then a fault parameter tracking law is designed to estimate the fault parameters of bow and stern planes. Finally, an adaptive H ∞ dynamic output feedback fault-tolerant control scheme is designed by using the estimated fault parameters of the bow and stern planes. Simulation results show that the proposed control scheme is effective in the both pitch and depth control when the bow and stern planes suffer from unknown faults.

Pulsed lasers operating in the mid-infrared (3–20 μm) are important for a wide range of applications in sensing, spectroscopy, imaging and communications. Despite recent advances with mid-infrared gain platforms, the lack of a capable pulse generation mechanism remains a significant technological challenge. Here we show that bulk Dirac fermions in molecular beam epitaxy grown crystalline Cd3As2, a three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal, constitutes an exceptional ultrafast optical switching mechanism for the mid-infrared. Significantly, we show robust and effective tuning of the scattering channels of Dirac fermions via an element doping approach, where photocarrier relaxation times are found flexibly controlled over an order of magnitude (from 8 ps to 800 fs at 4.5 μm). Our findings reveal the strong impact of Cr doping on ultrafast optical properties in Cd3As2 and open up the long sought parameter space crucial for the development of compact and high-performance mid-infrared ultrafast sources., Mid-infrared pulsed sources are technologically important for sensing and spectroscopy but their implementation is challenging due to the lack of a tuneable optical switch. Here, the authors address this limitation by engineering the band structure of an emerging Dirac semimetal, Cd3As2.

On the problem of preventing and reducing flight accidents, the incipient fault detection for an airfoil has important significance of enhancing the safety and reliability of aircrafts. Because offline detection approaches cannot detect small incipient faults in time, a new online frequency domain analysis method based on near flutter analysis of an airfoil is proposed. With this approach, fault detection can be accomplished by limited samples online. Small faults of an airfoil which is hard to detect in normal conditions is amplified by the near flutter condition through this method. Then amplified signals are processed through the frequency domain analysis method. So we built a simulation model for two-dimensional pitch and plunge apparatus to verify the fault detection method. Finally, the simulation results show that the approach based on near flutter analysis not only can detect incipient faults, but also can detect different fault conditions of an airfoil.

Understanding of the fundamental photoresponse of carbon nanotubes has broad implications for various photonic and optoelectronic devices. Here, Z-scan and pump-probe spectroscopy performed across 600-2400 nm were combined to give a broadband 'degenerate' mapping of the nonlinear absorption properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). In contrast to the views obtained from non-degenerate techniques, sizable saturable absorption is observed from the visible to the near-infrared range, including the spectral regions between semiconducting excitonic peaks and metallic tube transitions. In addition, the broadband mapping unambiguously reveals a photobleaching to photoinduced absorption transition feature within the first semiconducting excitonic band ∼2100 nm, quantitatively marking the long-wavelength cut-off for saturable absorption of the SWNTs investigated. Our findings present a much clearer physical picture of SWNTs' nonlinear absorption characteristics, and help provide updated design guidelines for SWNT based nonlinear optical devices.

The excessive apoptosis of retinal nerve cells (RNCs) could cause a variety of retinal neurodegenerative diseases which could result in the irreversible blindness. In this study, the experiment models of H2O2 and light-induced oxidative insult in the retina of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat were used. We demonstrated the role of toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) in apoptosis and immune-inflammation induced by oxidative stress insult. Meanwhile, we also tried to elucidate the modulating mechanism of 17β-estradiol (E2) resistant to TLR2 induced by oxidative stress insult. The cell apoptosis induced by oxidative stress was examined by annexin V-FITC/propidium iodide (PI) assay using flow cytometry and the expressions of TLR2 and inflammatory cytokines were determined by real-time PCR and western blotting. Peptidoglycan (PGN) as the ligand of TLR2 and small interfering RNAs of TLR2 (siTLR2) were used to determine the role of TLR2. From the results, firstly, we demonstrated that E2 could reduce the expressions of TLR2 and inflammatory cytokines including TNF-ɑ, IFN-γ, and IL-1β induced by oxidative stress; secondly, the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) could not influence the effect of E2 on reducing TLR2 expression induced by H2O2 in RNCs; thirdly, PGN could promote the damage effect of H2O2 by transforming RNCs from late apoptosis to necrosis, however, E2 could decrease the cell apoptosis mediated by PGN; and finally, the apoptosis of RNCs and the expressions of the inflammatory cytokines induced by H2O2 administration were significantly inhibited after TLR2 interference. In summary, E2 reduces the TLR2-mediated immune-inflammation, thereby protecting RNCs against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis via a PI3K-independent signaling pathway. The present results provide evidence that inhibiting of TLR2-mediated immune-inflammation might be a possible therapeutic way to exert auxiliary role on E2 neuroprotection.

Periodontitis is a severe inflammatory response, leading to characteristic periodontal soft tissue destruction and alveolar bone resorption. Baicalin possesses potent anti-inflammatory activity; however, it is still unclear whether baicalin regulates toll-like receptor (TLR) 2/4 expression and downstream signaling during the process of periodontitis. In this study, the cervical area of the maxillary second molars of rats was ligated and inoculated with Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) for 4weeks to induce periodontitis. Some rats with periodontitis were treated intragastrically with baicalin (50, 100 or 200mg/kg/day) or vehicle for 4weeks. Compared with the sham group, the levels of TLR2, TLR4 and MyD88 expression and the p38 MAPK and NF-κB activation were up-regulated in the experimental periodontitis group (EPG), accompanied by marked alveolar bone loss and severe inflammation. Treatment with 100 or 200mg/kg/day baicalin dramatically reduced the alveolar bone loss, the levels of HMGB1, TNF-α, IL-1β, and MPO expression, and the numbers of inflammatory infiltrates in the gingival tissues. Importantly, treatment with 100 or 200mg/kg/day baicalin mitigated the periodontitis-up-regulated TLR2, TLR4 and MyD88 expression, and the p38 MAPK and NF-κB activation. Hence, the blockage of the TLR2 and TLR4/MyD88/p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling by baicalin may contribute to its anti-inflammatory effects in rat model of periodontitis. In conclusion, these novel findings indicate that baicalin inhibits the TLR2 and TLR4 expression and the downstream signaling and mitigates inflammatory responses and the alveolar bone loss in rat experimental periodontitis. Therefore, baicalin may be a potential therapeutic agent for treatment of periodontitis.

An efficient and accurate algorithm for solving Helmholtz equation in 1-D is presented in this paper. The key point of this work is to derive the analytic form for the convolution of the Green’s function and a complex exponential function with a finite support domain. A linear subtraction skill is introduced to improve the sampling efficiency. Therefore, the convolution of any function with the Green’s function is given in a semi-analytic form, which can be computed in a fast way with the help of FFT or NUFFT.

2–5 μm saturable absorbers are highly desirable for constructing convenient mid-infrared ultrafast sources. We reveal that three-dimensional Dirac semimetal Cd 3 As 2 constitutes an ideal mid-infrared saturable absorber, with broadband operation and flexible parameter control.

This brief paper investigates the optimal selection of online controllers for a linear system with actuator faults in the framework of H"~ control. The occurrence of actuator faults is modeled as a Markov chain to predict future faults. A compatible relationship of H"~ controllers is proposed for successive fault modes. In order to shrink the set of all H"~ controllers, seven methods are presented to construct a small set of controllers for different demands. Then five selection schemes are proposed to choose a proper controller from a given set of controllers for a given fault mode. Another selection scheme and a pre-selection scheme are presented when there might be false fault detection and identification. Considered together, they provide a powerful solution for all kinds of demands. A motivating example is used to illustrate the proposed methods.

A fast Inverse Polynomial Reconstruction Method (IPRM) is proposed to e-ciently eliminate the Gibbs phenomenon in Fourier reconstruction of discontinuous functions. The framework of the fast IPRM is modifled by reconstructing the function in discretized elements, then the Conformal Fourier Transform (CFT) and the Chirp Z-Transform (CZT) algorithms are applied to accelerate the evaluation of reconstruction coe-cients. The memory cost of the fast IPRM is also signiflcantly reduced, owing to the transformation matrix being discretized in the modifled framework. The computation complexity and memory cost of the fast IPRM are O(MN log2L) and O(MN), respectively, where L is the number of the discretized elements, M is the degree of polynomials for the reconstruction of each element, and N is the number of the Fourier series. Numerical results demonstrate that the fast IPRM method not only inherits the robustness of the Generalized IPRM (G-IPRM) method, but also signiflcantly reduces the computation time and the memory cost. Therefore, the fast IPRM method is useful for the pseudospectral time domain methods and for the volume integral equation of the discontinuous material distributions.

To study the effect of spvB/spvC gene on Salmonella virulence and the Host immune.STM.211, STM.211-Delta;spvB, STM.211-Delta;spvC, STM.211-Delta;spvB.spvC and PBS were infected with 0.2 mL 10(5) CFU corresponding strain respectively by intraperitoneal. We observed the mental status, movement, diarrhea, weight, pelage changed hair of the infected mouse. Then the level of IL-10, IL-12, IFN-γ were detected by ELISA. Finally, we observe the pathological changes of liver and spleen with the general view and the microscope.Infection symptoms of STM.211, STM.211-Delta;spvB and STM.211-Delta;spvC were significantly worse than PBS group, but there was no significant difference between STM.211-spvB.spvC group and PBS group. The secretion of IFN-γ and IL-12 of STM.211, STM.211-Delta;spvB, STM.211-Delta;spvC group were significantly lower than those in the STM.211-Delta;spvB.spvC group (P0.05), but IL-10 secretion was significantly higher than STM.211-Delta;spvB.spvC group (P0.05). There were no statistical significance among the STM.211, STM.211-Delta;SpvB, STM.211-Delta;spvC groups (P0.05).Salmonella virulence can be affected obviously by spvB combined with spvC gene, but not by spvB or spvC. spvB/spvC gene can inhibit the TH1 cytokines (IFN-γ and IL-12) secretion but promote the TH2 cytokines (IL-10) expression, leading immune response trend to TH2 shift. It shows that spvB/spvC gene can help the bacteria evade the host immune defenses, leading to aggravation of infection.

This paper proposes an integrated design of active fault-tolerant H1 control in the presence of unknown actuator faults. An adaptive tracking law is designed by designing an auxiliary self-examination plant, so that actuator fault parameters and their boundaries are estimated accurately and the identification of each actuator fault is decoupled from exogenous disturbance and other actuator faults in a fault observer. With the information of fault diagnosis, especially the boundaries of estimation errors, an integrated fault-tolerant H1 control method is constructed to guarantee the overall H1 performance of the system in the presence of unknown actuator faults. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed approach is validated by stabilizing an F-16 fighter.

A new method for the synthesis of wideband frequency-invariant pencil-beam patterns with nonuniformly spaced linear arrays is proposed. This scheme is designed under the framework of fast multitask compressive sensing. The minimum spacing between antenna elements can be controlled to make sure that the obtained arrays are physically realizable. The results achieved are comparable to those obtained by the state-of-the-art techniques. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Fourier transform of discontinuous functions are often encountered in computational electromagnetics. A highly accurate, fast conformal Fourier transform (CFT) algorithm is proposed to evaluate the flnite Fourier transform of 2D discontinuous functions. A curved triangular mesh combined with curvilinear coordinate transformation is adopted to ∞exibly model an arbitrary shape of the discontinuity boundary. This enables us to take full advantages of high order interpolation and Gaussian quadrature methods to achieve highly accurate Fourier integration results with a low sampling density and small computation time. The complexity of the proposed algorithm is similar to the traditional 2D fast Fourier transform algorithm, but with orders of magnitude higher accuracy. Numerical examples illustrate the excellent performance of the proposed CFT method.

Bi2O2Se is emerging as a high mobility functional material for optoelectronics, but its fundamental optical properties remain less well studied. Here, ultrafast photocarrier dynamics in single crystal Bi2O2Se is investigated by pump fluence-dependent, broadband ultrafast spectroscopy. Our results reveal that bimolecular recombination plays an important role in the photocarrier relaxation process, and a room-temperature bimolecular recombination constant of (1.29 ± 0.42) × 10−9 cm−3 s−1 is obtained for Bi2O2Se. Such a level of the recombination constant combined with a high mobility (∼1006 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 200 K for Bi2O2Se) suggests that Bi2O2Se can be a promising material for photovoltaic applications.

WTe2 is a unique material in the family of transition metal dichalcogenides and it has been proposed as a candidate for type-II Weyl semimetals. However, thus far, studies on the optical properties of this emerging material have been significantly hindered by the lack of large-area, high-quality WTe2 materials. Here, we grow a centimeter-scale, highly crystalline WTe2 ultrathin film (∼35 nm) by a pulsed laser deposition technique. Broadband pump-probe spectroscopy (1.2–2.5 μm) reveals a peculiar ultrafast optical response where an initial photo-bleaching signal (lasting ∼3 ps) is followed by a long-lived photoinduced absorption signature. Nonlinear absorption characterization using femtosecond pulses confirms the saturable absorption response of the WTe2 ultrathin films, and we further demonstrated a mode-locked Thulium fiber laser using a WTe2 absorber. Our work provides important insights into linear and nonlinear optical responses of WTe2 thin films.

A highly accurate, fast algorithm is proposed to evaluate the flnite Fourier transform of both continuous and discontinues functions. As the discretization is conformal to the function discontinuities, this method is called the conformal Fourier transform (CFT) method. It is applied to computational electromagnetics to calculate the Fourier transform of induced electric current densities in a volume integral equation. The spectral discrimination in the CFT method can be arbitrary and the spectral range can be as large as needed. As no discretization for the Fourier exponential kernel is needed, the CFT method is not restricted by the Nyquist sampling theorem, thus avoiding the aliasing distortions that exist in other traditional methods. The accuracy of the CFT method is greatly improved since the method is based on high order interpolation and the closed-form Fourier transforms for polynomials partly reduce the error due to discretization. Assuming Ns and N are the numbers

This article presents an overview of the IEEE project 802.15.5 that targets providing mesh capabilities to both high-rate and low-rate wireless personal area networks. Low-rate mesh is built on IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, while high-rate mesh utilizes IEEE 802.15.3 MAC. We seek to share our insights and motivations of the approach adopted in the major components of the standard instead of presenting a la carte items drawn in the specification. We hope this article helps readers of the 802.15.5 standard to better understand the rationale and intent of the protocol design.

We investigated ultrafast carrier dynamics in Cd 3 As 2 at 2.6 μm. Single-exponential decay and saturable absorption features are observed. The ultrafast optical nonlinearity suggests that Cd 3 As 2 is useful for mode-locking lasers in the mid-IR range.

For modeling large-scale 3-D problems in electro-magnetic and elastic waves in the probing of complex media, the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method is widely used. However, there are still challenges in the high-frequency regime and extremely low-frequency regime, as well as in the accurate curved boundary treatment in this method. In this work, we report several new improvements in the FDTD method to address these challenging issues: (a) We have developed a high-order FDTD method for elastic waves to greatly reduce the numerical dispersion errors, and computer memory and CPU time requirements, with a novel treatment of the free ground boundary condition and the fluid-solid interface condition. (b) We have proposed a new numerical method, finite volume method and enlarged cell technique (ECT), to accurately and efficiently implement the free-surface boundary conditions in FDTD elastic wave simulations of an arbitrary ground-surface topography. (c) We have developed an implicit FDTD scheme that allows a time step increment many orders of magnitude beyond the stability condition in the explicit FDTD method for extremely low frequency electromagnetic probing of subsurface, based on the Crank-Nicolson scheme together with the perfectly matched layer. The efficacy of these methods and their large scale applications will be demonstrated in the presentation.

Viperin is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-associated protein that has been identified as an innate antiviral protein. Viperin expression can be largely upregulated by viruses, interferons, and oligonucleotides such as poly I:C and lipopolysaccharides. Viperin inhibits viral replication by interactiing with host cell proteins and several viral proteins, and disrupting the cell membrane system. It shows a broad-spectrum of antiviral activity. Some viruses have developed activities that counteract the action of viperin during a long- term period of evolution with hosts by impairing viperin expression. In addition to its antiviral effects, viperin has several other biological functions. This article review the basic characteristics of viperin and the state of current research into its antiviral effects, demonstrating the rapid progress that has been made in this field.

In order to effectively improve the efficiency and service level of port logistics, aiming to the scheduling of containers between container storage station and container terminal, this paper first develops a multi-objective scheduling model which attempts to minimize the wait time of ships in port and balance the load of the related logistics resource. Then, a discrete adaptive artificial colony algorithm is proposed to solve this model. Finally, a case study is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm.

The above analysis shows that the index as an analysis of factors, while using the BP(Back-Propagation) neural network risk prediction and evaluation model is rare in the field of risk research. Based on these conditions, we treat the strategic and operational risk problem of the enterprise as the supporting point, after careful research, providing solutions to such problems.

Over the past decade, wireless multihop ad hoc networks have received a tremendous amount of research focus, at the core of which lies the design problem for efficient routing algorithms to meet various scenarios and applications. The axiom, "one size doesn't fit all," continues to stand firmly to this day. In light of this, we introduce a new routing design concept - the component approach. We examine existing routing protocols and break them down into smaller building blocks, namely, routing components. The component analysis and classification results show that most routing protocols can be functionally decomposed into several basic routing components. This fact indicates that it is feasible to design a component-based routing (CBR) protocol. With a different realization for each basic routing component, it is expected that the routing behavior of CBR can be tailored to different application profiles and time-varying environment parameters at a reasonable cost

To investigate the expression level of testis-specific calcium-binding protein CBP86-IV in normal and asthenozoospermic human sperm. The total RNA was extracted from human sperm, and target cDNA was obtained by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. Then the cDNA was used for quantitative PCR analysis and cloned into the prokaryotic expression vector pET-28a, respectively. The fusion protein was induced and expressed as inclusion body which was used to produce the polyclonal antibody against TSCBP86-IV. The protein expression level of TSCBP86-IV from normal human sperm and idiopathic asthenozoospermic samples was detected by the purified antibody. The experimental results showed that the protein expression of TSCBP86-IV was reduced in idiopathic asthenozoospermia and consistent with the transcriptional changing tendency which was detected by quantitative PCR analysis. The stable and reliable change of TSCBP86-IV may be taken as a new molecular marker for clinical diagnosis of idiopathic asthenozoospermia.

In this paper, we report a recent experimental observation of high field-emission current density (6.5 A/cm/sup 2/) from carbon nanotube emitters. Our research shows that it is beneficial for getting the high current density in our experiment that Au film was deposited onto Si substrate before evaporating a Ni catalyst dot onto the substrate. We compared the field emission characteristics of CNTs cathodes grown on the Ni films with different thickness of 50, 70, 100 nm.

This paper describes an AI planner assisted approach to generate test cases for system testing based on high level test objectives. We use four levels of test generation: the metaprocessor, the preprocessor, the AI planner, and the postprocessor levels. Test generation is based on an extended UML model of the system under test and a mapping of high-level test objectives into initial and goal conditions of the planner. Test objectives are derived from a series of interviews with professional testers. We suggest various options for test criteria related to test objectives. The AI planner was used to generate hundreds of test cases for a robot controlled tape silo. The planner generated tests within a reasonable time. It was successful for each test objective given.

The hot-carrier relaxation dynamics of Cd3As2 thin films has been investigated by using femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy in a transmission geometry. A comparative study of degenerate and non-degenerate experiments reveals that hot-carrier distribution in Cd3As2 is established with a time constant of ∼400 fs. Significantly, the broadband measurements allow the extraction of the time evolution of electron temperature and the carrier-phonon coupling factor g = 5.3 × 1015 W m−3 K−1 is deduced by a semiclassical two-temperature model. These results provide fundamental insights into the hot-carrier dynamics of Cd3As2.

We experimentally demonstrated a compact single-wall carbon-nanotube (SWNT)-based deep-red passively Q-switched Prsup3+/sup-doped ZBLAN all-fiber laser operating at 716 nm. A free-standing SWNT/polyvinyl alcohol composite film embedded between a pair of fiber connectors was employed as a saturable absorber (SA). The deep-red Q-switched operation is attributed to the combination of implementing a pair of fiber end-facet mirrors to achieve the linear laser resonator and incorporating a SWNT-SA into the cavity as a Q-switcher. Stable short-pulse generation with a duration of 2.3 μs was realized. When gradually increasing the incident pump power, the pulse repetition rate can be linearly tuned from 32.6 to 86.5 kHz, corresponding to a maximum average output power of 1.5 mW and the highest single-pulse energy of 18.3 nJ. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of SWNT-based SA for a Q-switched laser at a deep-red wavelength ∼716 nm.

In polymeric medium with random distribution of plasmonic spherical nanoparticles, we find that the real and imaginary parts of the effective permittivity form a circle. Though the effective permittivity depends on the permittivity of the host medium, the fill fraction of guest nanoparticles, the resonance frequency of plasmonic spherical particles and the frequency of incident wave, the center and the radius of the circle are only decided by the permittivity of the host medium and the fill fraction of guest nanoparticles. Numerical computations for different kinds of polymeric media and different fill fractions verify the results.

Advances in digital communications and signal processing have enabled the adaptation of advanced communication techniques in wireless LAN (WLAN) standards. Among those advanced techniques, multiple-input-multipleoutput (MIMO) is now part of the high throughput (HT) WLAN standard, a.k.a. IEEE 802.11n. With the completion of the IEEE 802.11n specification, the IEEE 802.11 working group (WG) is now working on a new amendment to achieve very high throughput (VHT) in the gigabit range.. The move to higher data rates is enabled by introducing wider bandwidth, downlink multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO), and higher modulation and coding schemes (MCS). This paper focuses the use of group membership and identifiers for managing downlink transmissions using MU-MIMO. Downlink MU-MIMO allows a WLAN access point to transmit to multiple stations simultaneously. Group Membership and identifiers are used to signal target stations together with their positions and the number of spatial streams intended for each of them in the downlink transmission. A description of the Group ID concept and its application to the VHT specification is discussed here. A method for assigning stations' position to Group IDs is introduced and its performance is examined.

We present a novel clustering algorithm for tagging a face dataset (e. g., a personal photo album). The core of the algorithm is a new dissimilarity, called Rank-Order distance, which measures the dissimilarity between two faces using their neighboring information in the dataset. The Rank-Order distance is motivated by an observation that faces of the same person usually share their top neighbors. Specifically, for each face, we generate a ranking order list by sorting all other faces in the dataset by absolute distance (e. g., L1 or L2 distance between extracted face recognition features). Then, the Rank-Order distance of two faces is calculated using their ranking orders. Using the new distance, a Rank-Order distance based clustering algorithm is designed to iteratively group all faces into a small number of clusters for effective tagging. The proposed algorithm outperforms competitive clustering algorithms in term of both precision/recall and efficiency.

For the first time in the WLAN technology, multi-user downlink transmission will be made possible by the upcoming IEEE standard, 802.11ac. In this paper, we will report its current status, focusing on the MAC modifications and enhancements that are necessary to support the unique feature of downlink multi-user MIMO transmission. Specifically, the technique of TXOP sharing and its related issues and solutions will be discussed and illustrated.

The global is getting warm due to a great quantity of greenhouse gas which mainly consists of carbon dioxide emitted by human activities. As we all know, the majority of the total emission in greenhouse gas is emited by Industrial enterprises. Therefore, enterprises should take social responsibilities for global action against global warming. Based on the basis of introducing “carbon neutral” conception and connotation of enterprise environmental responsibility, the article indicates that enterprises can reduce energy consumption, cut down carbon dioxide emission, and eventually undertake their environmental duties by the way of smaller consumption of regular energies, technology innovation on “carbon neutral”, greening activities and construction of low carbon supply chain.

Global carbon trading market is growing stronger and will eventually surpass petroleum market to be the largest market in the world. As a major country of resource consumption, China has huge carbon trading market potential. Due to numerous uncertainties in Post-CDM Era, it's urgent for China to establish its own carbon trading system and participate in global carbon trading market. According to the above analysis, this paper has introduced four principles for establishing Chinese carbon trading system and finally presented concrete steps for establishing a system in details.

"carbon tariff" is a new kind of international trade tariff, which appears after countries have participated in the activity of reducing the discharge of greenhouse gases under the situation of global warming. The direct meaning of "carbon tariff" refers to impose particular carbon dioxide discharge tariff on the import of high-energy consuming materials. However, "carbon tariff" has other deeper meanings for the imbalances of technology and capital existing in carbon discharge and carbon neutralization[1] among countries. We should realize the necessity of carbon tariff scientifically and objectively, raise awareness intellectually, draw on the experiences of foreign carbon tariff collection, obey WTO rules, seriously analyze the practicability of the national carbon tariff collection, make analyses and researches on the range, program, form, tariff type and tariff rate of carbon tariff collection and establish a carbon tariff system in accordance with the actual situation of our country so as to deal with the carbon tariff problems in the national trade

Nonuniform sampling has many applications in signal processing. Explicit form expression is derived for nonuniform discrete Fourier transform (NDFT) in this paper. Numerical results verify its correctness. The proposed result provides an accurate form solution of the problem for the first time.

According to the low calculating speed of Chan-Vese model for image segmentation caused by the iteration in process of evolution in the whole image region, a fast medical image segmentation method based on improved incremental variational level set is presented in this paper, in which incremental mode is adopted to get average gray value in iteration and a progressive iterative formula is used as the modification of analytical formula, so that some fast algorithms such as narrowband method could be applied to increase the efficiency of segmentation which makes the model more practical.

For 3D medical images with strong similarities of interfacial gradients, a method is presented to bring local regional characteristics of segmented sections into adjacent sections waiting for segmentation and to guide the contour curves of the later to converge to actual boundary. The proposed method improves the stopping criterion of curve evolution through introduction of adjacent layer's prior information into edge detection function, so that introduces similarities of interfacial gradients into geodesic geometric flow as prior information to modify the leakage phenomena that exists in geometric active contour model when disconnected or weak edges appear in layers and improves the precision and stability of segmentation for 3D medical images.