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Fang Shan,1 YuJuan Liu,1 Haiying Jiang,2 Fei Tong2 1Department of Physiology, Hexi University Medical College, Zhangye, 2Department of Pathology and Pathophysiology, Provincial Key Discipline of Pharmacology, Jiaxing University Medical College, Jiaxing, People’s Republic of China Abstract: Here, we describe a bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) nanocarrier based on glycyrrhetinic acid (GA)-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-b-poly(L-lysine) (PLL). A protein nanocarrier was synthesized, characterized and evaluated as a BMP-2 delivery system. The designed nanocarrier was synthesized based on the ring-opening polymerization of amino acid N-carboxyanhydride. The final product was measured with 1H nuclear magnetic resonance. GA-PEG-b-PLL nanocarrier could combine with BMP-2 through electrostatic interaction to form polyion complex (PIC) micelles. BMP-2 could be rapidly and efficiently encapsulated through the GA-PEG-b-PLL nanocarrier under physiological conditions, exhibiting efficient encapsulation and sustained release. In addition, the GA-PEG-b-PLL-mediated BMP-2 delivery system could target the liver against hepatic diseases as it has GA-binding receptors. The anti-hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury (anti-HI/RI) effect of BMP-2/GA-PEG-b-PLL PIC micelles was investigated in rats using free BMP-2 and BMP-2/PEG-b-PLL PIC micelles as controls, and the results showed that BMP-2/GA-PEG-b-PLL PIC micelles indicated significantly enhanced anti-HI/RI property compared to BMP-2 and BMP-2/PEG-b-PLL. All results suggested that GA-PEG-b-PLL could be used as a potential BMP-2 nanocarrier. Keywords: GA-PEG-b-PLL, PIC micelles, BMP-2, HI/RI&nbsp

The lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) system is an important part of the experimental advanced superconducting tokamak (EAST). The reliability of the LHCD is the precondition and key point of stabilization of EAST experiments. In the complex electromagnetic environment, the reliability of signals transmission is particularly important. With the development of field programmable gate array technology, the paper presents a new method of photoelectric isolation. Experiments show that the method has a very good effect and also holds huge capacity.

The lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) system has been playing an important role in EAST experiments. In recent EAST experiment which lasts 4 months, a 2.45 G 4 MW LHCD system has been successfully applied in the practice. 20 continuous wave klystrons are the core components of the LHCD system. In LHCD, fast protection system and slow protection system are designed to protect klystrons together. Experiments have shown that the multiple protection systems can effectively enhance the safety of klystrons. The paper will describe the two protection systems in details and its components.

The present study was to evaluated the antioxidant capacity and the effect to the D - galactose senile mice of buckwheat vinegar which maked by sprouting buckwheat, divided healthy Kunming male mice into blank, positive control, model and three dose groups of vinega made by stirring buckwheat randomly. After 6 weeks, it was determined the activity of antioxidant enzyme and malondialdehyde in mice with different doses groups. The results showed that: the stirring buckwheat vinegar exhibited strong 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (IC50 was 0.58*10-2 ) and total antioxidant capacity (210.58 mmolFe2SO4•ml-1 ); the vinegar can droped the level of MDA and improved the activity of SOD in liver of D - galactose senile mice. The low-dose group can improved the activity of SOD in serum. However, for the aging mice, the buckwheat vinegar had no effect on behavior when they were in the new environment, the ability of reduced the activity of TChE in brain and the level of MDA in serum was not significant, at the same time, the activity of GSH-px in the serum couldn't be enhanced.

With the widespread use of mobile devices, universities are speeding up the construction of digital campus. Mobile digital campus system described in this paper contains campus view, voice campus navigation, voice dialogue, information query, campus news, books query, study BBS and other functions. Its key technology combines the query with voice, maps and other features forms an integrated Android mobile application platform with powerful function and program scalability.

Background: Most nursing records in Taiwan have been computerized, resulting in a large amount of unstructured text data. The quality of these records has rarely been discussed. Purpose: This study used a text mining method to analyze the quality of a nursing record system to establish an auditing model and associated tools for nursing records, with the ultimate objective of improving the quality of electronic nursing records. Methods: This study utilized a retrospective method to collect the electronic nursing records of 6,277 patients who had been discharged from the internal medicine departments of a medical center in northern Taiwan from January to June 2014. SAS Enterprise Guide Version 6.1 and SAS Text Miner Version 13.2 software were used to perform text mining. Nursing experts were invited to examine the electronic nursing records. The text mining results were compared against a benchmark that was developed by the experts, and the efficiency of SAS Text Miner was examined using the criteria of specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy. Results: In this study, 27,356 nurse-formulated events were used in the analysis. The results of the nurse-formulated events showed an 8.08% similar error with system-formulated events, 29.72% were identified as necessary and appropriate names, 17.53% were retained, 10.15% involved error event names, and 34.52% were not classified. In this study, the sensitivity of SAS text mining in the training (testing) data set was 96% (95%), and the specificity and accuracy were both 99% (99%). Conclusions: The results of this study show that text mining is an effective approach to auditing the quality of electronic nursing records. SAS Text Miner software was shown to identify inappropriate nursing record content quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, the results of this study may be included in in-service education teaching materials to promote the writing of better nursing records to improve the quality of electronic nursing records.

The synthesis of hexafluoropropylene oxide in fixed-bed reactor using HFP as raw materials and molecular oxygen as oxidant is studied in the present paper. The selectivity of HFPO on the Ag/γ-Al2O3 catalyst prepared by impregnation can get 41.8%. The influence of the Ag/γ-Al2O3 catalyst modified by impregnation-sedimentation method and first group metal salts on synthesis reaction was investigated, as well as process conditions.

The tartary buckwheat [Fagopyrum tataricum (L.) Gaench] bran, which is an important by-product during the production of tartary buckwheat tea, is a good source of flavonoids but has not been made full use of. Some studies reveal its antioxidant activity. However no research is found for its antibacterial activities against Propionibacterium and Staphylococci species. The 60% (v/v) EtOH extract of the tartary buckwheat bran (TBBE) was prepared at room temperature and the flavonoids content was determined by HPLC. Rutin (541.3 ± 9.3 mg/g), isoquercetin (9.33 ± 0.16 mg/g) and quercetin (66.3 ± 1.14 mg/g) were detected in the TBBE. The inhibition zone of TBBE against four bacterial strains varied from 7.6 mm to 11.6 mm; minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) values were from 512 μg/mL to 2048 μg/mL. IC50 of DPPH scavenging activity and relative ORAC values were 8.36 ± 0.27 μg/mL and 11,090 ± 1278 μmol TE/g, respectively. For the constituents of TBBE querectin showed higher antioxidant and antibacterial properties than TBBE and its glycosides (isoquercetin and rutin). These results suggest that TBBE might be useful to develop new types of antibacterial substance and new skin care cosmetics to prevent or improve acne.

A facile approach for prepar ing stearoyl diethanolamide was reported. The as-synthesized product was further applied for the protection of car bon steel from corrosion solution. On the basis of orthogonal experiments, optimal reaction conditions were investigated. The results show that the yield rate can be up to 84.6% under a condition of molar ratio of stear ic acid to ethylenediamine is 1:1.7, the reaction time and temperature are 4 h a nd 175 °C, respectively. The optimal concentration and potential corrosion-inhibiting mechanism were al so investigated by using scanning electronic microscopy, weight loss and electrochemical analysis. The presented synthesis route is facile which enable it to be promisingly applied for production widely. Furthermore, the excellent corrosion-inhibiting properties of st earoyl diethanolamide also indicate that it can be a fascinating candidate for protecting steels from corrosion in oil exploration and transportation.

Toxascaris leonina is a common parasitic nematode of wild mammals and has significant impacts on the protection of rare wild animals. To analyze population genetic characteristics of T. leonina from South China tiger, its mitochondrial (mt) genome was sequenced. Its complete circular mt genome was 14,277 bp in length, including 12 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 2 non-coding regions. The nucleotide composition was biased toward A and T. The most common start codon and stop codon were TTG and TAG, and 4 genes ended with an incomplete stop codon. There were 13 intergenic regions ranging 1 to 10 bp in size. Phylogenetically, T. leonina from a South China tiger was close to canine T. leonina. This study reports for the first time a complete mt genome sequence of T. leonina from the South China tiger, and provides a scientific basis for studying the genetic diversity of nematodes between different hosts.

This study was designed to investigate child abuse and sexual assault in the emergency medical treatment process, child abuse and sexual assault a total of 2014 years of the city informed of 82 accounted for 23 hospital. The use of teamwork and information systems intervention before and after, child abuse and sexual assault for the time required for medical treatment, the effectiveness of valuation step.Project object for child abuse and sexual abuse of patients in the emergency room. I Data were collected using direct observation and retrospective chart review method. The results show medical record was reduced from 11 to 4 step step; time from 1 hour 52 minutes to 46 minutes, greatly enhance emergency service satisfaction.

The extraction of flavonoids from peony leaves was studied recently. We carried out a research on the optimum technology of extracting flavonoids by single and orthogonal factor experiment. Finally we found the optimum conditions were: the ultrasonic temperature is 60 degrees, the ultrasonic time is 20min, the ultrasonic power is 600w, solid-liquid ratio is 1:25. Under this condition, the yield of flavonoids was 1.47% and the content was 8.34%.

Whole grain oats are widely regarded as conferring significant health benefits. Composite flour of whole grain oat flour, wheat flour, and tapioca starch in the ratio 1:1:0.16 was formulated to make oat noodles with the addition of gluten at various levels. The influence of gluten on pasting and gelling properties of composite flour, and on cooking, textural, and sensory properties of salted oat noodles was evaluated. Addition of gluten decreased the paste viscosity, reduced hardness and springiness of gel, reduced cooking yield, cooking loss, and broken ratio during cooking, and increased the tensile strength and firmness of cooked noodles. Scanning electron microscopy showed that gluten tightened the network of protein in the noodles by forming oriented fibrils. Addition of gluten had little effect on the color of raw and cooked oat noodles, which were somewhat yellow. Sensory evaluation indicated that addition of gluten could enhance the overall acceptability of cooked oat noodles. This study ...

The effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the crystallization behavior of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) has been investigated. The results have shown that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) act as an effective heterogeneous nucleation agent, inducing an increase in crystallinity and crystallite sizes. Comparing with the double melting peaks in pure PHBV, there is only one peak in the melting curves of nanocomposites. The isothermal crystallization kinetics of PHBV and its nanocomposite containing 0.5% CNTs were examined based on Avrami equation, indicating that the crystallization half-time decreases while the overall crystallization rate k increases dramatically with CNTs addition. The spherulitic nucleation and growth kinetics were also discussed grounded on Lauritzen–Hoffman equation. It is found that there is a spherulitic growth rates (G) maximum within selected temperature range in our study. Also, the temperatures corresponding to G maximum shift to a high level with addition of CNTs. The parameters of the equilibrium melting temperature $$ T_m^0 $$ , the nucleation parameter K g , the lateral surface free energy σ, the fold surface free energy σ e , and the work of chain folding q of PHBV and its composite containing 0.5% CNTs were all calculated. The reductions of K g , σ e and q values of nanocomposite are in agreement with the fact that the crystallization rate of PHBV increases greatly by addition of CNTs.

Community structure is an important characteristic in real complex network. It is a network consists of groups of nodes within which links are dense but among which links are sparse. In this paper, the evolving network include node, link and community growth and we apply the community size preferential attachment and strength preferential attachment to a growing weighted network model and utilize weight assigning mechanism from BBV model. The resulting network reflects the intrinsic community structure with generalized power-law distributions of nodes' degrees and strengths.

Disabled-2 (Dab2) is a clathrin and cargo binding endocytic adaptor protein and cell biology studies revealed that Dab2 plays a role in cellular trafficking of a number of transmembrane receptors and signaling proteins. However, little to nothing is known about its involvement or significance in

Let G = (V, A) be a digraph. A set T of vertices of G is a twin dominating set of G if for every vertex v ∈ V \ T. There exist u, w ∈ T (possibly u = w) such that (u, v), (v, w) ∈ A. The twin domination number γ*(G) of G is the cardinality of a minimum twin dominating set of G. In this paper we consider the twin domination number in generalized Kautz digraphs GK(n, d). In these digraphs, we establish bounds on the twin domination number and give a sufficient condition for the twin domination number attaining the lower bound. We give the exact values of the twin domination numbers by constructing minimum twin dominating sets for some special generalized Kautz digraphs.

The multiple (double) melting behaviour of annealed crystalline polymers including polyamide 6 (PA6), low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) was investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). It was found that the multiple melting behaviour can be observed frequently in DSC heating scans for annealed LDPE and PA6 samples, while it cannot be seen for annealed HDPE samples. The WAXD analysis was further performed to characterize the polymorphic structure of annealed samples. It was revealed that the presence of a low-temperature melting peak in annealed PA6 samples was not due to the melting of γ crystals. There was no certain connection between the multiple melting peaks and the melting of polymorphic structure of polymers. Considering the crystallinity difference between LDPE and HDPE samples, we proposed a viewpoint that the multiple melting behaviour was a prevalent phenomenon for annealed samples, providing that the original crystallinity was low. The multiple melting behaviour of annealed samples originated from the different distribution of the lamellar thickness. The high-temperature melting peak was attributed to the melting of thick lamellae generated during the primary crystallization of the injection molding process, while the low-temperature melting peak was attributed to the melting of thin lamellae formed during the secondary long-time annealing process.

Summary Thirty nine buckwheat cultivars were collected from China, of which twenty one were tartary buckwheat and others were common buckwheat. Flour samples from these cultivars were analysed for colour properties, nutritional composition and flavonoid content. Buckwheat cultivars exhibited high variations for each of these parameters. The flour of common buckwheat showed a higher whiteness index than that of tartary buckwheat and contained very low levels of flavonoids. On average, the tartary buckwheat flour contained a higher level of ash (2.38%) and lower levels of total starch (70.22%), amylose (22.32%), resistant starch (17.66%) than the common buckwheat flour (2.17%, 73.69%, 23.01%, 18.69% respectively) (P

Three flavonoids from tartary buckwheat bran, namely, quercetin (Que), isoquercetin (Iso) and rutin (Rut), have been evaluated as alpha-glucosidase inhibitors by fluorescence spectroscopy and enzymatic kinetics and have also been compared with the market diabetes healer, acarbose. The results indicated that Que, Iso and Rut could bind alpha-glucosidase to form a new complex, which exhibited a strong static fluorescence quenching via nonradiation energy transfer, and an obvious blue shift of maximum fluorescence. The sequence of binding constants (K(A)) was Que > Iso > Rut, and the number of binding sites was one for all of the three cases. The thermodynamic parameters were obtained by calculations based on data of binding constants. They revealed that the main driving force of the above-mentioned interaction was hydrophobic. Enzymatic kinetics measurements showed that all of the three compounds were effective inhibitors against alpha-glucosidase. Inhibitory modes all belonged to a mixed type of noncompetitive and anticompetitive. The sequence of affinity (1/K(i)) was in accordance with the results of binding constants (K(A)). The concentrations which gave 50% inhibition (IC(50)) were 0.017 mmol*L(-1), 0.185 mmol*L(-1) and 0.196 mmol*L(-1), compared with acarbose's IC(50) (0.091 mmol*L(-1)); the dose of acarbose was almost five times of that of Que and half of that of Iso and Rut. Our results explained why the inhibition on alpha-glucosidase of tartary buckwheat bran extractive substance (mainly Rut) was much weaker than that of its hydrolysis product (a mixture of Que, Iso and Rut). This work would be significant for the development of more powerful antidiabetes drugs and efficacious utilization of tartary buckwheat, which has been proved as an acknowledged food in the diet of diabetic patients.

Let G = (V,E) be a simple graph without isolated vertices. For positive integer k, a 3-valued function f: V → {−1, 0, 1} is said to be a minus total k-subdominating function (MTkSF) if \( \sum\limits_{u \in N(v)} {f(u) \geqslant 1} \) for at least k vertices υ in G, where N(υ) is the open neighborhood of υ. The minus total k-subdomination number γkt−(G) equals the minimum weight of an MTkSF on G. In this paper, the values on the minus total k-subdomination number of some special graphs are investigated. Several lower bounds on γkt− of general graphs and trees are obtained.

Different sample thicknesses were adopted to investigate the effect of temperature gradient on the development of β phase polypropylene (PP) in the compression-molded dynamically vulcanized thermoplastic elastomers (TPVs) based on PP/ethylene-propylene-diene rubber blend. Differential scanning calorimetry and wide-angle X-ray diffraction were employed to study the melting behavior and crystalline structures. The results indicated that the content of β phase increased with the sample thickness of TPV increasing, while the total crystallinity of PP almost kept constant. The simulation of the temperature field showed that there was a temperature gradient along the direction of sample thickness, and the strength of the temperature gradient increased with the thickness of TPV increasing. The reason for the change of β phase content was found to lie in the reduction of the entropy in the temperature gradient field, which was a result from the decrease of the molecular chain conformation.

The strain rate, temperature, and microstructure-dependent, tensile-yielding behavior of three semi-crystalline polymers, namely high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyamide 6 (PA6) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE), was investigated. It is found that, depending on the strain rate and temperature, the three polymers exhibit markedly different tensile deformation behavior, especially the shape of the stress-strain curves. LDPE exhibits a uniform extension and shows no obvious geometrically unstable effect, such as necking, during the overall tensile process. HDPE and PA6, on the other hand, show clear necking and cold-drawing phenomena during the uniaxial tensile process. When considering the effect of strain temperature on necking, significant differences between HDPE and PA6 emerge. For both, the heterogeneous necking disappears and homogeneous deformation occurs with increasing temperature. For HDPE, the homogeneous deformation takes place in the vicinity of the melting temperature, while for PA6, it t...

The focus of this study was the effect of spatial confinement on the development of nucleating agent-induced β phase polypropylene (PP) in the dynamically vulcanized thermoplastic elastomers (TPVs) based on dynamically vulcanized PP/ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (EPDM) blend. The melting behaviors, crystalline structures and the morphologies of the blends were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that the EPDM phase undergoes a series of changes from the dispersed phase to a continuous one, and again to the dispersed phase with increased content of curing agent, and the PP component always shows itself in a continuous phase. In this process, with the content of the nucleating agent unchanged, the content of β phase PP in the blends initially increases a little and then decreases with increasing PF (Phenolic resin) content. We believe spatial confinement provides a good explanation for the development of β phase PP.

Thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPVs) based on PP and EPDM (the ratio is 5:5) with different crosslinking degrees were prepared using different contents of phenolic resins, and then blended with polyamide 6 (PA6). The results indicated that with an increase in crosslinking degree, the double yielding phenomenon in PA6/TPV blends became more distinct, the yield stress of the first yield point and the yield stress difference of the two yield points decreased; however, the yield strain of the first yield point did not change with the increasing crosslinking degree of the TPV, but the yield strain of the second yield point increased, resulting in a more broadened yield region. The SEM results showed that with an increase in the crosslinking degree of TPV, the diameter of TPV increased in the core layer, and the orientation degree of TPV in the skin and subskin layer deceased, accompanying with a decrease of the ratio of length to diameter (L/D) of the droplets. The morphology evolution of the PA6/TPV blend during the tensile test was also studied, and the results agreed well with the model we proposed

Prospero-related homeobox protein (Prox1) plays essential roles in the development of many tissues and organs. In the present study, we show that Prox1 is modified by the small ubiquitin-like protein SUMO-1 in cultured cells. Mutation analysis identified at least four potential sumoylation sites within the repression domain of Prox1. Our data indicate that sumoylation of Prox1 reduces its interaction with HDAC3 and as a result downregulates its corepressor activity. These findings suggest that sumoylation may serve as a novel mechanism for the regulation of Prox1’s corepressor activity.Structured summaryMINT-6787569:PROX1 (uniprotkb:Q92786) physically interacts (MI:0218) with HDAC3 (uniprotkb:O15379) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)MINT-6787767:PROX1 (uniprotkb:Q92786) physically interacts (MI:0218) with SUMO-1 (uniprotkb:P63165) by anti tag coimmunoprecipitation (MI:0007)

Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is a major proinflammatory effector and regulatory cytokine produced by activated T cells and NK cells. IFN-gamma has been shown to play pivotal roles in fundamental immunological processes such as inflammatory reactions, cell-mediated immunity and autoimmunity. A variety of human disorders have now been linked to irregular IFN-gamma expression. In order to achieve proper IFN-gamma-mediated immunological effects, IFN-gamma expression in T cells is subject to both positive and negative regulation. In this study, we report for the first time the negative regulation of IFN-gamma expression by Prospero-related Homeobox (Prox1). In Jurkat T cells and primary human CD4+ T cells, Prox1 expression decreases quickly upon T cell activation, concurrent with a dramatic increase in IFN-gamma expression. Reporter analysis and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) revealed that Prox1 associates with and inhibits the transcription activity of IFN-,gammapromoter in activated Jurkat T cells. Co-immunoprecipitation and GST pull-down assay demonstrated a direct binding between Prox1 and the nuclear receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPPARgamma, which is also an IFN-gamma repressor in T cells. By introducing deletions and mutations into Prox1, we show that the repression of IFN-gamma promoter by Prox1 is largely dependent upon the physical interaction between Prox1 and PPPARgamma Furthermore, PPPARgammaantagonist treatment removes Prox1 from IFN-gamma promoter and attenuates repression of IFN-gamma expression by Prox1. These findings establish Prox1 as a new negative regulator of IFN-gamma expression in T cells and will aid in the understanding of IFN-gamma transcription regulation mechanisms.

The anti-glycation activity of four kinds of beans including mung bean, black bean, soybean and cowpea were evaluated. Aqueous alcohol extract of mung bean exhibited the strongest inhibitory activity against the formation of fluorescent advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) in a bovine serum albumin (BSA)-glucose model, and the inhibitory activities of extracts of the four beans were found to be highly correlated with their total phenolic contents ( R 2 = 0.95). Subsequent HPLC analysis of mung bean extract revealed two major phenolics which were purified and identified as vitexin and isovitexin by spectral methods. In the anti-glycation assays, both vitexin and isovitexin showed significant inhibitory activities against the formation of AGEs induced by glucose or methylglyoxal with efficacies of over 85% at 100 μM. In another assay, vitexin and isovitexin failed to directly trap reactive carbonyl species, such as methylglyoxal, suggesting that their anti-glycation activities may mainly be due to their free radical scavenging capacity.

In this study, we have investigated the effect of thermoplastic vulcanizates (TPV) content and characteristic on the double yielding of injection molded polyamide 6 (PA6)/TPV blends uniaxially tensile deformed at room temperature. The results indicated that the TPV content and characteristic showed a marked effect on the double yielding phenomenon. The morphological observation by scanning electron microscope (SEM) showed that the injection molded PA6/TPV blends displayed a typical skin–core structure with highly oriented TPV particles in the skin and sub-skin layers, and spherical TPV particles in the core layer. Combining the microscopic morphology and stress–strain behavior, a possible model for description of the double yielding behavior of the PA6/TPV blends was proposed. The first yield point might be caused by the deformation of the matrix and the dispersed phase in the skin and sub-skin layers, while the second yield point is correlated with the deformation of the dispersed phase in the core layer.

Two types of polypropylene (PP) with different molecular structure, namely, homogeneous PP (PPH) and PP block‐copolymer (PPC), were blended with a long chain, branched, low density polyethylene (LDPE) in a twin screw extruder and then injection moulded into test specimens; the mechanical properties and morphology of the blends are reported. The tensile strength, elastic modulus, flexural strength, and flexural modulus of the blends increased monotonically with increasing PP content, although exhibiting a slightly negative deviation from the rules of mixtures due to the relatively poor compatibility of the components, which caused the blends to separate into individual phases. Comparatively, these mechanical properties of the LDPE/PPH blend were much higher than that of the LDPE/PPC blend, which was attributable mainly to the fact that the mechanical properties of neat PPH are stronger than that of neat PPC. With respect to the impact strength of the blends, a maximum value appeared in LDPE/PPH blends when...

The effects of the draw temperature and the strain rate on the tensile deformation of polyamide 6 (PA6) were investigated using three PA6 samples with different initial shapes and physical dimensions. It is observed that the special double yielding phenomenon is indeed present in PA6, provided that certain temperature and strain rate are given, as well as the appropriate initial structure. The results also show that the dependence of the first yield stress on temperature is nearly linear while on strain-rate is logarithmic. The temperature and strain-rate sensitivity change at the draw temperature in the vicinity of the glass transition temperature of PA6. The double yielding of PA6 is not only the combination of two thermally activated rate processes depending on temperature and strain rate, but also associated with the initial structure of samples. The yielding manner for PA6 seems to be determined by the synergetic effect of both the deformation of amorphous and crystalline phases. Thus some special structure involving the crystalline and amorphous phases should come into being in PA6 exhibiting double yielding. Especially the important role of inter- and intra-link should be taken into account. The theory of partial melting–recrystallization cannot account fully for the double yielding of PA6.

High-spatial and -temporal resolution direct imaging of the plumes created in laser evaporation in ambient pressure helium was achieved for the first time with an ultrafast hard X-ray source. Picosecond and nanosecond laser pulses were used to evaporate a thin metal film in ∼1 atm of helium. The plumes, which contained atoms, ions, and possibly nanoparticles, were imaged with hard X-ray pulses emitted from a tungsten rod ultrafast hard X-ray apparatus. No evaporation was observed in the first nanosecond or so after irradiation with either picosecond or nanosecond ablation pulses. Approximately 10 jam thick plumes were clearly observed at ∼100 nanoseconds after laser irradiation. The corresponding slow speed of the plumes was attributed mainly to the high-pressure background gas. Attempts were made to identify the composition of these plumes with a dual laser pulse evaporation-ultrafast X-ray pulse imaging scheme.

In this study we have investigated the effect of mold temperature and moisture content on double yielding of virgin polyamide 6 (PA6) uniaxially deformed at room temperature. The experimental results have revealed that, to a certain extent, a limited increment in both mold temperature and moisture content will make the second yield process become more apparent. However, the double yielding behavior will disappear totally in the case of much higher mold temperature and moisture content. Instead, a typical single sharp yield or brittle fracture will be present in the former case, while in the latter case the samples only display a very broad yield, similar to a rubber-like deformation. Maybe two critical states will be in existence in PA6 exhibiting double yielding behavior, and the critical states are probably relevant with the concentration of the interlinks and intralinks, the lamellae perfection and the crystallite size. Particular emphasis should be placed on the role of interlinks and intralinks when considering the origin of double yielding of virgin PA6 since these links affect the stress transfer significantly. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1217–1225, 2007

Gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma (GCA) accounts for a majority of gastric cancer population and harbors unfavorable outcome. Ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) belongs to the deubiquitinating enzyme family, which could regulate cell growth in human cancers. In the present study, expression of UCH-L1 was evaluated in 196 GCAs by immunohistochemistry using tissue microarray and its function on gastric cancer cells was measured. UCH-L1 expression was increased in GCA specimens, compared with their normal tissues and UCH-L1 overexpression is tightly correlated with tumor size and overall TNM stage. Log-rank analysis showed that UCH-L1 positive is reversely associated with cumulative survival (P

This multiple-ethnic, community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the prevalence and distribution of congenital heart disease (CHD) in Xinjiang, northwestern part of China. Four major ethnics, Han, Uygur, Kazakh, and Hui Chinese in this region were investigated during February

Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 3 (CDKN3) has been reported to promote tumor genesis. The aim of this study is to investigate the possible mechanisms of silence of CDKN3 exerting the suppressive role on epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). To study the potential function of CDKN3 enrolled in the regulation of ovarian tumor, we monitored the EOC cells SKOV3 and HO8910 behaviors including proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis and invasion. First, we found that CDKN3 was frequently over-expressed in EOC. Functional studies showed that silence of CDKN3 inhibited cancer cell proliferation by promoting cell cycle progression in G1 phase, decreased cell invasion and promoted EOC cells apoptosis. Western blot analysis of CDKN3-silence cells revealed down-regulation of DNA-replication and cell cycle related proteins. And, a significant correlation level of CDKN3 was observed which has been demonstrated to be a novel oncogene. These findings indicated that CDKN3 might serve as a useful potential target for treatment of ovarian cancer.

We report the synthesis of tubular gold and silver nanoshells on silica nanowire core templates in solution. Silica nanowires were synthesized and characterized with optical and NMR methods. Gold nanoparticle seeds (2 to 3 nm) with weak repulsive surfactants such as tetrakis-hydroxymethyl-phosphonium chloride (THPC) were conjugated to the surface of these nanowires. A regrowth process was initiated from these nanoparticles on the surface of the silica nanowires dispersed in gold or silver stock solutions in the presence of reducing agents. Micrometers-long gold and silver tubular nanoshells (80-150 nm o.d.) were made, fully covering the silica nanowires.