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Laboratory-simulated rainfall experiments were conducted to quantify the effects of patterns of Artemisia capillaris on runoff and soil loss. The spatial variability of soil erosion and deposition were also preliminarily analyzed using classic statistical and geostatistical methods. Simulated storms (90 mm/h) were applied on a bare plot (CK) and three different plant patterns: a checkerboard pattern (CP), a banded pattern perpendicular to the slope direction (BP), and a single long strip parallel to slope direction (LP). Each patterned plot underwent two sets of test—intact plants and roots only, respectively. All treatments had three replicates. The results showed that A. capillaris of different patterns can effectively reduce runoff and sediment. Compared with CK, the intact plant plots had a 12% to 25% less runoff and a 58% to 92% less sediment. The contributions of roots and canopies of A. capillaris to the reductions in runoff and sediment were different. Roots contributed more (46%–70%) to the sediment reduction, whereas canopies contributed more (57%–81%) to the runoff reduction. BP and CP exhibited a preferable controlling effect on soil erosion than LP. Coefficient of variation indicated that soil erosion, expressed as probe height difference (Δh), was strongly variable. Geostatistical analysis revealed that semivariograms of soil erosion can be fitted with spherical or exponential models and showed a moderate or strong spatial dependence. Interpolation using kriging demonstrated a spatial similarity among the treatments. Erosion (Δh > 0), primarily 0- to 2.67-mm level, spread over the bare plot. For intact plant experiments, the erosion area was relatively smaller than that for CK, and no significant differences were observed between erosion and deposition (Δh < 0) area. The erosion area increased after removing vegetation canopies.

Vegetation cover is an important factor for erosion control. Laboratory-simulated rainfall experiments were conducted to quantify the effectiveness of patchy distributed Artemisia capillaris in retarding overland flow velocity. Simulated storms (60, 90, 120, and 150 mm h−1) were applied on a bare plot (CK) and four different plant patterns, a banded pattern perpendicular to the slope direction (BP), a single long strip parallel to slope direction (LP), small patches distributed like a checkerboard (SP1), and small patches distributed like a letter “X” (SP2). All treatments had three replicates. Each plot underwent two sets of experiments, intact plant plots and root plots (the above-ground parts were removed, only roots were reserved), respectively. Results showed that flow velocity increased with rainfall intensity, and the lower slope velocity (Vl) was higher than the upper slope velocity (Vu). The removal of grass shoots increased flow velocity. Compared with bare soil plot, intact plants reduced mean flow velocity by 14%–60%, whereas the reduction declined to

In this paper, nanocapsules containing n-octadecane with an average 50 nm thick shell of poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and a core/shell weight ratio of 80/20 were synthesized by the direct miniemulsion method, respectively. The average size of the capsules is 140 nm and 119 nm, respectively. The chemical structure of the sample was analyzed using Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Crystallography of nanocapsules was investigated by X-ray diffractometer. The surface morphology was studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The thermal properties and thermal stability of the sample were obtained from Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). The temperatures and latent heats of melting and crystallizing of PEMA nanocapsule were determined as 32.7 and 29.8 °C, 198.5 and −197.1 kJ/kg, respectively. TGA analysis indicated that PEMA/octadecane nanocapsule had good thermal stability. The nanocapsules prepared in this work had a much higher encapsulation ratio (89.5%) and encapsulation efficiency (89.5%). Therefore, the findings of the work lead to the conclusion that the present work provides a novel method for fabricating nanoencapsulated phase change material, and it has a better potential for thermal energy storage.

The use of microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs) is one of the most efficient ways of storing thermal energy. When the microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) is dispersed into the carrier fluid, microencapsulated phase change slurry (MPCS) is prepared. Due to the relatively large surface area to volume MPCM and its large apparent specific heat during the phase change period, better heat transfer performance can be achieved. Therefore, MPCS can be used as both the energy storage and heat transfer media.\ud \ud This paper studies the thermal and rheological properties of a series of prepared MPCS. In the experiment: MPCS fabricated by dispersing MPCM into water with an appropriate amount of surfactant. The mass ratio of MPCM to water and surfactant was 10:90:1, 25:75:1, 35:65:1 in prepared MPCS samples, respectively. Then the thermal conductivity and specific heat of MPCS were measured by the Hot Disk. The melting/crystallizing temperature and fusion heat/crystallization heat of the phase change materials were obtained from a DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) during the heating/cooling process. Physical properties, such as viscosity, diameter and its size distribution of MPCS were investigated by a rheometer and a particle characterization system. Meanwhile, the chemical structure of the sample was analyzed using Fourier Transformed Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).\ud \ud The results showed that the thermal conductivity and the specific heat of MPCS decreased with particle concentration for the temperatures below the melting point. Overall, the MPCS can be considered as Newtonian fluid within the test region (shear rate >200 s−1 and mass fraction

The use of latent heat storage, microencapsulated phase change materials (MEPCMs), is one of the most efficient ways of storing thermal energy and it has received a growing attention in the past decade. However, there is no complete overview of its utilization in thermal energy storage systems, and the information is widely spread in the literature. In this paper, a comprehensive review has been carried out for MEPCMs. Four aspects have been the focus of this review: fabrication and characterization of MEPCMs, applications of MEPCMs to the textile and building, fundamental properties of microencapsulated phase change material slurry (MPCS) and application of MPCS to the thermal energy storage system. Over 140 recent publications are referenced in this paper.

Vegetation and rainfall are two important factors affecting soil erosion and thus resulting in nutrient loss in the Chinese Loess Plateau. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of rainfall intensities (60, 100 and 140 mm h(-1) and vegetation (Caragana korshinskii) coverages (0%, 30% and 80%) on soil loss, nutrient loss, and the composition and volume fractal dimension of eroded sediment particles under simulated rainfall conditions. The results showed that vegetation cover, rainfall intensity and their interaction all had significant effects on sediment transport and the sediment-bound nutrient loss. Higher rainfall intensity and lower coverage led to higher sediment and nutrient losses. Positive linear relationships were observed between soil loss and nutrient loss. The treatments showed more significant effects on the enrichment ratio (ER) of nitrogen (ER(N)) than organic matter (ER(OM)) and phosphorus (ER(P)). Compared with the original surface soil, the eroded sediment contained more fine particles. Under the same coverage, the clay content significantly decreased with increasing rainfall intensity. The ER of sediment-bound nutrients was positively correlated with that of clay, suggesting that the clay fraction was preferentially eroded and soil nutrients were mainly adsorbed onto or contained within this fraction. There were increments in the fractal dimension of the sediment particles compared to that of the original surface soil. Moreover, the fractal dimension was positively correlated with clay, silt, and sediment-bound OM, N, and P contents, whereas it was negatively correlated with sand content. This study demonstrated that fractal dimension analysis can be used to characterize differences in particle-size distribution and nutrient loss associated with soil erosion.

With the expansion of the potential applications of carbon nanotubes (CNT) in biomedical fields, the toxicity and biocompatibility of CNT have become issues of growing concern. Since the immune system often mediates tissue damage during pathogenesis, it is important to explore whether CNT can trigger cytotoxicity through affecting the immune functions. In the current study, we evaluated the influence of CNT on the cytotoxicity mediated by human lymphocytes in vitro. The results showed that while CNT at low concentrations (0.001 to 0.1 mu g/ml) did not cause obvious cell death or apoptosis directly, it enhanced lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity against multiple human cell lines. In addition, CNT increased the secretion of IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha by the lymphocytes. CNT also upregulated the NF-kappa B expression in lymphocytes, and the blockage of the NF-kappa B pathway reduced the lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity triggered by CNT. These results suggest that CNT at lower concentrations may prospectively initiate an indirect cytotoxicity through affecting the function of lymphocytes.

Design and synthesis of integrated, interconnected porous structures are critical to the development of high-performance supercapacitors. We develop a novel and facile synthesis technic to construct three-dimensional carbon-bubble foams with hierarchical pores geometry. The carbon-bubble foams are fabricated by conformally coating, via catalytic decomposition of ethanol, a layer of carbon coating onto the surfaces of pre-formed ZnO foams and then the removal of the ZnO template by a reduction-evaporation process. Both the wall thickness and the pore size can be well tuned by adjusting the catalytic decomposition time and temperature. The as-synthesized carbon-bubble foams electrode retains 90.3% of the initial capacitance even after 70 000 continuous cycles under a high current density of 20 A g-1, demonstrating excellent long-time electrochemical and cycling stability. The symmetric device displays rate capability retention of 81.8% with the current density increasing from 0.4 to 20 A g-1. These achieved electrochemical performances originate from the unique structural design of the carbon-bubble foams, which provide not only abundant transport channels for electron and ion but also high active surface area accessible by the electrolyte ions.

Significant progress has been made into the elucidation of the etiology of mesothelioma at the level of the genes and miRNA. Nevertheless, researchers in this field remain unable to systematically construct a network that demonstrates the specific relationships between genes, miRNA and transcription factors (TFs). TFs are key regulatory elements that control gene expression. In the present study, according to the transcriptional regulatory rule, three regulatory networks were constructed using experimentally validated elements to explore the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. We focused on the regulatory relationship between the miRNA and its host gene, the miRNA and its target gene, and the miRNA and TFs. Expressed, related and global networks were constructed, and the similarities and differences between them were analyzed. Notably, the differentially expressed network used in the present study, which was based on experimentally validated data, contained numerous incorrect expression signal pathways for the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. In theory, if these errors are corrected, this cancer may be prevented or cured. Subsequent analysis of the differentially expressed nodes and pathways may help to explain the pathogenesis of mesothelioma. Notably, some of these exhibited a self-adaption relationship, which was detected by listing the upstream and downstream elements in a table with differentially expressed genes and miRNA. The findings of the present study demonstrated detailed transcriptional regulation, which may serve as a reference to aid further elucidation of the pathogenesis of mesothelioma.

Computation of optical flow is a fundamental step in computer vision applications. However, due to its high complexity, it is difficult to compute a high-accuracy optical flow field in real time. This paper proposes a parallel computing approach for fast computation of high-accuracy optical flow field. It is specially designed for Tilera, a typical many-core processor with 36 tiles. By efficiently exploiting the advantages of the mesh architecture of Tilera, and by appropriately handling the parallelism inherent in the optical flow computation, the proposed implemention is able to significantly reduce the computation time while keep a low power consumption. Experiment shows that, for a \(640 {\times } 480\) image, the computation time is only 0.80 seconds per frame. It is 2.56 times faster than on a typical CPU i3-3240 (3.4GHz), and the power consumption as less as 1/6. Experimental results also show that the proposed parallel approach is highly scalable for variable requirements on computation speeds and power consumptions, since it can flexibly selects a proper number of computing cores.

Graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN) monolayer in‐plane heterostructure offers a novel material platform for both fundamental research and device applications. To obtain such a heterostructure in high quality via controllable synthetic approaches is still challenging. In this work, in‐plane epitaxy of graphene/h‐BN heterostructure is demonstrated on Cu–Ni substrates. The introduction of nickel to copper substrate not only enhances the capability of decomposing polyaminoborane residues but also promotes graphene growth via isothermal segregation. On the alloy surface partially covered by h‐BN, graphene is found to nucleate at the corners of the as‐formed h‐BN grains, and the high growth rate for graphene minimizes the damage of graphene‐growth process on h‐BN lattice. As a result, high‐quality graphene/h‐BN in‐plane heterostructure with epitaxial relationship can be formed, which is supported by extensive characterizations. Photodetector device applications are demonstrated based on the in‐plane heterostructure. The success will have important impact on future research and applications based on this unique material platform.

The safety management of hazardous material transportation is important for the people's life, the environment and the economy. Currently, trajectory monitoring systems are set up to manage the hazard material transportation in China. However, the coordination among different departments of government on accident prevention, handling and investigation is still in low efficiency due to lack of means. This paper proposes a centralized monitoring and safety management system for all the users, including the transportation enterprise and every related government departments and service organizations. Based on the Internet-of-Things technologies, this system uses various methods to monitor the status of the person, the vehicle, the goods and the roads, so as to detect every sign before an accident try to avoid it. To elevate the efficiency of accident handling, this system coordinates every relevant department of the government to be alerted at the first time and react immediately according to the prepared emergency plan with full information of the site. This system also collects sufficient information for accident investigation. This system can improve the efficiency on accident prevention, handling and investigation.

Aberrant expression of miR-1 has been implicated in various cancers. However, the mechanisms underlying the role of miR-1 in CRC progression still have not been clarified clearly. Here, we showed the decreased expression of miR-1 in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) tissues and cell lines. Ectopic introduction of miR-1 suppressed cell proliferation and migration, whereas miR-1 inhibitor performed contrary functions in CRC cells. Stable overexpression of miR-1 was sufficient to inhibit tumor growth and homing capacity in vivo. Proteomic analysis revealed that miR-1 modulated the expression of key cellular molecules and involved in the MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways by inhibiting phosphorylation of ERK and AKT. Meanwhile, miR-1 also reversed epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), which played a pivotal role in the initiation of metastasis. Further studies found that miR-1 can target the 3' untranslated region (3'UTR) of LIM and SH3 protein 1 (LASP1) mRNA and suppress the expression of LASP1, identified as a CRC-associated protein. In contrast to the phenotypes induced by miR-1 restoration, LASP1-induced cell proliferation and migration partly rescued miR-1-mediated biological behaviors. Our results illustrated that miR-1 play a critical role in CRC progression, which suggests its potential role in the molecular therapy of cancer. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-014-0244-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In this paper simulated rainfall experiments in laboratory were conducted to quantify the effects oƒ patchy distributed Artemisia capillaris on spatial and temporal variations oƒ the Darcy-Weisbach friction coefficient (f). Different intensities oƒ 60, 90, 120, and 150 mm h-1 were applied on a bare plot (CK) and four different patched patterns: a checkerboard pattern (CP), a banded pattern perpendicular to slope direction (BP), a single long strip parallel to slope direction (LP), and a pattern with small patches distributed like the letter ‘X’ (XP). Each plot underwent two sets oƒ experiments, intact plant and root plots (the above-ground parts were removed). Results showed that mean ƒ for A. capillaris patterned treatments was 1.25-13.0 times oƒ that for CK. BP, CP, and XP performed more effectively than LP in increasing hydraulic roughness. The removal oƒ grass shoots significantly reduced f. A negative relationship was found between mean ƒ for the bare plot and rainfall intensity, whereas for grass patterned plots fr (mean ƒ in patterned plots divided by that for CK) increased exponentially with rainfall intensity. The ƒ -Re relation was best fitted by a power function. Soil erosion rate can be well described using ƒ by a power-law relationship

SnOx is a promising high-capacity anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but it usually exhibits poor cycling stability because of its huge volume variation during the lithium uptake and release process. In this paper, SnOx carbon nanofibers (SnOx@CNFs) are firstly obtained in the form of a nonwoven mat by electrospinning followed by calcination in a 0.02 Mpa environment at 500 °C. Then we use a simple mixing method for the synthesis of SnOx@CNF@graphene (SnOx@C@G) nanocomposite. By this technique, the SnOx@CNFs can be homogeneously deposited in graphene nanosheets (GNSs). The highly scattered SnOx@C@G composite exhibits enhanced electrochemical performance as anode material for LIBs. The double protection strategy to improve the electrode performance through producing SnOx@C@G composites is versatile. In addition, the double protection strategy can be extended to the fabrication of various types of composites between metal oxides and graphene nanomaterials, possessing promising applications in catalysis, sensing, supercapacitors and fuel cells.

Rational engineering hierarchical 3D nanostructures with high visible-light photocatalysis and long-term cycling stability are of great importance in environmental purification and energy conversion. A novel and scalable approach is demonstrated to fabricate hierarchical plasmon-resonance-induced black Au–TiO2 nanorod arrays (NRAs) on flexible carbon cloth (CC). With the advantages of hierarchical morphology, plasmon-enhanced visible-light absorption, facile charge separation enabled by single-crystalline TiO2 and conductive substrate, the black Au–TiO2 NRAs on CC show more than 13 times higher visible-light photocatalytic efficiency enhancement compared to that of bare TiO2 NRAs. Meanwhile, the hybrid Au–TiO2–C system shows extremely high chemical and mechanical stability. The visible-light photocatalysis does not show any decrease after consecutive seven times test. More remarkably, after being continuously stirred in aqueous solution for 60 d, almost no decrease of photocatalytic activity is observed. The UV–vis absorption measurement, optical simulations, and the control experiment on hierarchical Au–SiO2@TiO2 NRAs reveal that the enhanced visible-light photocatalysis is caused by the plasmon-induced hot-electrons transfer from Au nanoparticles to neighboring TiO2 NRAs. The high visible-light photocatalytic performance and the excellent chemical/mechanical stabilities imply that the black Au–TiO2 NRAs on CC can serve as potential photocatalytic materials for large-scale applications in energy conversion and pollutants purification.

In this Letter we report a comparative study, in the infrared regime, of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) propagation in epitaxially grown Ag films and in polycrystalline Ag films, all grown on Si substrates. Plasmonic resonance features are analyzed using extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) measurements, and SPP band structures for the two dielectric/metal interfaces are investigated for both types of film. At the Si/Ag interface, EOT spectra show almost identical features for epitaxial and polycrystalline Ag films and are characterized by sharp Fano resonances. On the contrary, at the air/Ag interface, dramatic differences are observed: while the epitaxial film continues to exhibit sharp Fano resonances, the polycrystalline film shows only broad spectral features and much lower transmission intensities. In corroboration with theoretical simulations, we find that surface roughness plays a critical role in SPP propagation for this wavelength range.

In 2009, the development of Taiwan's economy was characterised by a sharp decline, stabilisation and gradual recovery, and its economic growth in the fourth quarter is expected to turn positive. Based on a summary of the major Taiwan economic indicators in the first eight months of 2009, the Taiwanese economy has picked up since its bottoming out in the first quarter, and its recovery accelerated in the third quarter. Looking forward to 2010, Taiwan's economic recovery is expected to speed up under the impact of the global economic recovery and accelerated cross-Straits economic cooperation. With the economic recovery, however, Taiwan should accelerate its economic restructuring and industrial upgrading so as to allow its recovery tendency could to stabilise. Keywords:cross-Straits economic cooperation; global economic recovery; Taiwan's economy

This paper presents the design and implementation of a p2p-based personal broadcasting system for consumer electronics. This system enables each user of a device to broadcast its local contents to other devices or play the contents broadcasted by other device using a p2p live streaming technology without any content server.

The chaotic characteristic of water ratio and oil output was determined with Lyapunov exponent in the situation of polymer flooding, the chaotic attractors in phase spaces were reconstructed, and space embed dimension was calculated, the chaotic neural network model was established. Finally, a new prediction method of water ratio and oil output was formed. Training process indicates the method has powerful approaching ability, classing ability and convergence. Actual experiment results verify validity and veracity of this method.

The collective electronic excitations in Al thin films with thickness down to mono-atomic layer were studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and angle-resolved high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy. Clear evidences for a coupling of the Al surface plasmon and Al/Si interface plasmon were observed for the film thickness below 3 ML, which induces a splitting of the normal Al surface plasmon mode. The experimental results can be well explained by a classical model for surface plasmon excitations.

The hybrid structure of nanoparticle-decorated nanotubes has the advantage of both large specific surface areas of nanoparticles and anisotropic properties of nanotubes, which is desirable for many applications. In this study, Ag nanoparticles on highly porous TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) on both internal and external sidewalls (Ag@TiO2@Ag NTs) are directly synthesized by emulsion electrospinning and thermal evaporation for the first time. The Ag@TiO2@Ag NT heterostructures, which have large surface-to-volume ratios, improved electrical conductivity, and an excellent material synergetic effect, demonstrate excellent electrochemical properties and superior photocatalytic performance. The new method for the synthesis of Ag@TiO2@Ag NT heterostructures can be applied to fabricate various types of other novel metal nanoparticles (for example Au and Pt) on highly porous nanotubes on both internal and external sidewalls. The possible growth mechanism and reasons for excellent electrochemical properties and superior photocatalytic performance were discussed in detail.

Herein, we report the synthesis of hierarchical small quantity Mo-decorated Co3O4 nanowire arrays on nickel foam substrates by a powerful two-step solution-based method. The “oriented attachment” and “self-assembly” crystal growth mechanisms are proposed to discuss the growth of the Mo-decorated Co3O4 heterostructures. This heterostructure material with a high specific surface areas provides an extraordinarily high area capacitance of 3.5 F cm−2 at a current density of 17 mA cm−2 (∼2000 F g−1 at a current density of 10 A g−1) in the initial cycles, compared with a bare Co3O4 nanowire array electrode with 2.2 F cm−2 at 17 mA cm−2 (∼1257 F g−1 at 10 A g−1), exhibiting a significant increase in the capacitance of around 60%. When the current density of the hybrid array is increased by 20 times (1.7 to 34 mA cm−2), more than 73% of the specific capacitance can be maintained, which shows a good rate performance. Such a growth approach offers a versatile technique for the design and synthesis of metal oxide hierarchical nanoarrays for electrochemical energy storage applications.

The Sr-induced reconstructions on Si(100) at elevated temperature were studied using scanning tunneling microscopy and reflection high energy electron diffraction. With the Sr coverage increasing from 0 to 0.5 monolayer, the surface exhibits phase transitions from 2×1-Sr to 2×3-Sr and then to 1×2-Sr. The bias-dependent, high resolution STM images unambiguously support a dimer-vacancy structural model for the 2×3-Sr phase. Furthermore, the coverage-dependent evolution of the surface from 2×3-Sr to 1×2-Sr can also be nicely explained by extending the 2×3-Sr model to the 1×2-Sr.

We report the growth of atomically smooth, single crystalline Bi2Se3 thin films on Si(111) by using molecular beam epitaxy. Scanning tunneling microscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, X-ray photoelectron emission spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to characterize the stoichiometry and crystallinity of the film. The film grows in a self-organized quintuple-layer by quintuple-layer mode, and atomically smooth film can be obtained with the thickness down to one quintuple-layer (~1nm).