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An analytical method based on ICP-MS was developed for the determination of Ti in food simulants (3% (w/v) aqueous acetic acid and 50% (v/v) aqueous ethanol). The method was used to determine the migration of Ti from nano-TiO2-PE films used for food packaging into food simulants under different temperature and migration time conditions. The maximum migration amounts into 3% (w/v) aqueous acetic acid were 1.4 ± 0.02, 6.3 ± 0.5 and 12.1 ± 0.2 μg kg−1 at 25, 70 and 100°C, respectively, while into 50% (v/v) aqueous ethanol, the maximum migration amounts were 0.5 ± 0.1, 0.6 ± 0.03 and 2.1 ± 0.1 μg kg−1 at 25, 70 and 100°C, respectively. Increasing the additive content in the film promoted migration of nanoparticles. The results indicated that the migration of nanoparticles might occur via dissolution from the surface and cut edges of the solid phase (film) into the liquid phase (food simulant).

The functional significance of noncoding transcripts is currently a major question in biology. We have been studying the function of a set of antisense transcripts called COOLAIR that encompass the whole transcription unit of the Arabidopsis floral repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). Alternative polyadenylation of COOLAIR transcripts correlates with different FLC sense expression states. Suppressor mutagenesis aimed at understanding the importance of this sense-antisense transcriptional circuitry has identified a role for Arabidopsis cyclin-dependent kinase C (CDKC;2) in FLC repression. CDKC;2 functions in an Arabidopsis positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb) complex and influences global RNA polymerase II (Pol II) Ser(2) phosphorylation levels. CDKC;2 activity directly promotes COOLAIR transcription but does not affect an FLC transgene missing the COOLAIR promoter. In the endogenous gene context, however, the reduction of COOLAIR transcription by cdkc;2 disrupts a COOLAIR-mediated repression mechanism that increases FLC expression. This disruption then feeds back to indirectly increase COOLAIR expression. This tight interconnection between sense and antisense transcription, together with differential promoter sensitivity to P-TEFb, is central to quantitative regulation of this important floral repressor gene.

Molded pulp product is widely used in distribution chains as a cushioning packaging of industrial products due to its favorable cushioning capability. How to evaluate the cushioning capability of molded pulp product is the key issue many scholars are interesting in. The load carrying capacity and energy absorbing of the molded pulp products used in the cushion packaging of mobile phones both in the static compression and dynamic impact were investigated in this paper by applying the experiment and finite element analysis. The static compression was conducted with the compression speed of 12 mm/min corresponding to the nominal strain rate 3.8 × 10 −3 s −1 , and the dynamic impact tests were conducted with three drop heights of 25, 50 and 80 cm corresponding respectively to the nominal strain rates 4.2 × 10 1 , 6.0 × 10 1 and 7.5 × 10 1 s −1 . The high speed camera was used to record the dynamic impact process and deformation. The finite element model of molded pulp product was built, and the stress and displacement nephograms, the dynamic impact deformation process, the load–displacement curve and the energy absorption curve of the molded pulp product were archived. The comparison between the finite element analysis and the experiment was made. The load–displacement curve of the finite element analysis is in agreement with that of the experiment in the static compression, and the energy absorption curves of the finite element analysis with different nominal strain rates are in agreement with that of the experiment in the area of the point of optimum energy absorption. However, a growing gap between the finite element analysis and the experiment appears with the nominal strain rate increasing, which may be induced by the use of the static stress–strain curve of the material in the finite element analysis of dynamic impact. The molded pulp product experiences the process from structural deformation, local stress concentration, first local buckling, redistribution of stress, global buckling, to structural dilapidation and densification. Two obvious buckling processes occur because of its complicated structure and two layers in structure. However, some additional local buckling also occur before the global buckling of structure in the case of dynamic impact with higher nominal strain rate. The deformation processes of molded pulp product from the finite element analysis and the experiment recorded by high-speed camera are coincident. With the nominal strain rate increasing, the yield stress of molded pulp product increases obviously, and the shoulder point of the energy absorption curve moves upward to the right. The yield stress under the dynamic impact at a drop height of 80 cm increases 59.4% compared with that under the static compression, and the corresponding optimum energy absorption increases 85.4%. The effects of strain rate on the load carrying capacity and the energy absorption of molded pulp product are remarkable. The results can be applied to the design of molded pulp products.

Four cyclohexanol analogues, dendrodochols A-D (1-4), were isolated from a Dendrodochium sp. fungus associated with the sea cucumber Holothuria nobilis Selenka collected from the South China Sea. The structures were elucidated by means of detailed spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configurations were assigned using a solution TDDFT/ECD calculation approach and the modified Mosher's method. In an in vitro bioassay, these compounds exhibited no growth inhibition activity against the A549 and MG63 cell lines. Dendrodochols 1 and 3 exhibited modest antifungal activity against Candida strains, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Trichophyton rubrum, whereas 2 and 4 showed no activity against the tested strains.

This paper is a continuation of the previous research. The refrigerator-truck system is treated as a two-substructure multi-coordinate coupled system, which is composed of a refrigerator substructure and a truck substructure coupled by numerous packaging units. Applying the two-substructure multi-coordinate coupled inverse substructure method to a product-transport system, the paper makes an analysis of the dynamic characteristics for the refrigerator-truck system. In order to validate the method in the refrigerator-truck system, the measured system-level frequency response functions (FRFs) were used to predict the substructure-level FRFs that were compared with those directly measured and found to be in agreement in trend. To evaluate the vibration transmissibility of packaging units, the concepts of the vibration contribution, vibration contribution ratio, overall vibration contribution and overall vibration contribution ratio to product response through each packaging unit are introduced. The vibration contributions to the refrigerator through four coupling points almost coincide with each other in the whole frequency domain. However, the vibration contribution ratios are different at each frequency. The overall vibration contributions to the refrigerator through the frequency domain 10 to 50 Hz through four coupling points are respectively 9.4, 7.5, 9.8 and 11.2 mm/N, and the overall vibration contribution ratios are respectively 0.25, 0.20, 0.26 and 0.29. The vibration transmissibilities of four coupling points are similar. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mulberroside A is a natural polyhydroxylated stilbene compound present at relatively high abundance in the roots and twigs of Morus alba L. It is known for its nephroprotective, hypoglycemic, and antidiabetic effects. Because its metabolite, oxyresveratrol, possessed purported anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects, we proposed that mulberroside A may elicit neuroprotective effects that can be used in the treatment of brain ischemic injury. Therefore, we decided to investigate the pharmacological properties of mulberroside A in primary culture of rat cortical neurons after oxygen-glucose deprivation followed by reperfusion (OGD/R), evaluating its ability to counteract the hypoxia-ischemia impairment. The results showed that mulberroside A elicited neuroprotective effects comparable to nimodipine. The mechanistic studies showed that mulberroside A decreased the expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6 and inhibited the activation of NALP3, caspase-1, and nuclear factor-κB and the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases, the c-Jun N-terminal kinase, and p38, exhibiting anti-inflammatory antiapoptotic effects. Our results also further demonstrate that the proinflammatory cytokines of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α are promising targets for treatment of cerebral ischemic injury. Although further investigation is required for its development, all of these findings led us to speculate that mulberroside A is a candidate for the treatment of ischemic stroke, which would act as a multifactorial neuroprotectant.

The printed packaging was divided into ink layer and paper layer. The migration model was developed based on penetration and Fick's second law. hm and KF,P at the interface of the paper and the food were considered in the model. After the penetration of the ink, the distribution of the contaminant in the paper layer was discrepant for paper with different thickness. The model could be simplified to be single-layer or two-layer packaging model in special cases. Three special cases of the model were validated: (1) special case 1 of the model was a single-layer model just considering hm at the interface. This special model was compared with the classical model; (2) special case 2 of the model was also a single-layer model validated by experimental data in reference; and (3) special case 3 was the two-layer model validated by experimental data in reference. The model was proven to be effective by above validation. Practical Applications The use of migration models to evaluate the safety of plastic food packaging is economical and time-saving compared with the experiments. As the second important packaging material, paper packaging is widely used for its environmental friendliness. However, up until now, there is no general migration model of paper packaging. A migration model of the contaminants from the inks on paper packaging was developed to predict them in different packaged food under certain migration conditions. Diffusion, partition and mass transfer coefficients were introduced to the model for better prediction. The simplified model can be used for other packaging materials and single or multilayer packaging. This model can help to design packages with acceptable migration of the contaminants.

Monte Carlo (MC) method is a well known calculation algorithm which can accurately assess the dose distribution for radiotherapy. The present study investigated all the possible regions of the depth-dose or lateral profiles which may affect the fitting of the initial parameters (mean energy and the radial intensity (full width at half maximum, FWHM ) of the incident electron). EGSnrc-based BEAMnrc codes were used to generate the phase space files (SSD=100 cm, FS=40×40 cm 2 ) for the linac (linear accelerator, Varian 21EX, 6 MV photon mode) and EGSnrc-based DOSXYZnrc code was used to calculate the dose in the region of interest. Interpolation of depth dose curves of pre-set energies was proposed as a preliminary step for optimal energy fit. A good approach for determination of the optimal mean energy is the difference comparison of the PDD curves excluding buildup region, and using D (10) as a normalization method. For FWHM fitting, due to electron disequilibrium and the larger statistical uncertainty, using horn or/and penumbra regions will give inconsistent outcomes at various depths. Difference comparisons should be performed in the flat regions of the off-axis dose profiles at various depths to optimize the FWHM parameter.

Multifunctional silica nano-vehicles (SiO2@indol-IL) and magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@indol-IL) were constructed through the Schiff bases condensation of indole-3-carboxaldehyde and 4-acetyl-N-allyl pyridinium chloride (ILs) with the amine groups of silica and magnetic nanoparticles. SiO2@indol-IL can inhibit the proliferation of HepG-2 cells in 48 h. Fe3O4@indol-IL can mimic the function of catalase to disproportionate H2O2 to O2, and has obvious effect on the proliferation of HepG-2 cells in 72 h. Moreover, the two nanoparticles show some inhibition on the expression of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF-1α), glucose transporter (GLUT1) and the production of lactate in HepG-2 cells. Therefore, we deduced that indole conjugated silica and magnetic nanparticles could be used as inhibitors of HIF-1α or GLUT1.

In this paper, the effect of heat treatment (solution treatment and artificial aging) on the microstructure and properties of as-cast Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg aluminum alloy and its composite reinforced with 1.5 wt.% SiC particles was studied. The results showed that at 520 &deg, C the optimal solution time for the aluminum alloy and its composite is 9 h and 6 h, respectively. After solution treatment, the microstructure of these two materials consists of a uniform distribution of nearly spherical eutectic Si and skeletal &gamma, phase, furthermore, the composite eutectic Si phase is smaller and &gamma, phase is more dispersed. After artificial aging at 175 &deg, C for 6 h, the microstructure of the composite is more dispersed and finer than that of the aluminum alloy on the whole and Al2Cu is precipitated. After heat treatment, the microhardness, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation of the aluminum alloy and its composite are higher than those of the as-casts. At the same time, the morphology of tensile fracture surface changes very much from a large area of cleavage plane to a large number of dimples and the tearing ridges become thicker for both the aluminum alloy and its composite.

Three-tower suspension bridges with unequal-length main spans more easily adapt to different terrain features and therefore, have broader application prospects. However, due to the unique “central tower effect” of the three-tower suspension bridge, it is required that the lateral stiffness of the central tower in the longitudinal direction of the bridge girder should be neither too large nor too small. To calculate the reasonable range for the central tower stiffness in the three-tower suspension bridge with unequal-length main spans, this study proposes an analytical algorithm based on the segmental catenary theory. Firstly, hanger tensile forces under the joint action of dead and live loads are calculated. Next, the governing equations for the main cable shape of each span are constructed for the following conditions: closure of elevation difference, closure of span length, moment balance of splay saddle, and conservation of unstrained length of the main cable. The solutions of the derived set of simultaneous equations are obtained for (i) deflection-to-span ratio limit of the stiffening girder and (ii) anti-slip control between the main cable and saddle conditions, which yield the lower and upper limits of reasonable stiffness of the central tower, respectively. This study discusses a three-tower suspension bridge spanned as 248 m + 1060 m + 1360 m + 380 m. The calculation is performed for the two cases of the live load application: (i) to the longer main span and (ii) to the shorter main span. The results obtained proved the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The following findings are reported: The upper and lower limits of reasonable central tower stiffness are derived from the above two cases, respectively. Therefore, it is not sufficient to consider only the former case when calculating the central tower stiffness of the three-tower suspension bridge with equal-length main spans. The dead-to-live load ratio and friction coefficient between the main cable and saddle also strongly influence the central tower stiffness: their increase can expand the reasonable range of the latter but if they are too small, no such optimization can be provided.

Bousigonine A (1), an unprecedented eburnamine-voaphylline type dimeric indole alkaloid, and Bousigonine B (2), the first example of eburnamine-eburnamine-aspidospermine type trimeric indole alkaloid were isolated from Bousigonia mekongensis. Their structures were elucidated mainly by spectroscopic analysis and compared to published data. Their preventing high glucose-induced podocyte injury activity were evaluated for the first time, and compound 1 exhibited significant effect with EC50 value of 2.5 μM.

An investigation on the migration of five chemical additives from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) into food simulants was undertaken to determine the partition and diffusion coefficients between PET/food simulants. The migration tests were carried out using three simulants (20%, 50% ethanol and isooctane) in contact with PET samples at different time-temperature conditions, the concentration of additives in polymer matrix and food simulants were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results confirmed that the partitioning of plastic additives was affected significantly by the temperature and simulants’ properties, the polarity and molecular weight of substances can also have influence. The diffusion coefficients of plastic additives were spread between 9.8 × 10-15 and 1.4 × 10-8 cm2 s-1, which deviated from the calculated values by Piringer model and Welle model. The obtained activation energies of five additives were close to or smaller than 100 kJ mol-1. It indicated that the PET samples in the experiments were influenced (swelling for example) by the food simulant, especially at high temperature. In this situation, the derived diffusion coefficients might be greater than the actual values. The influence of food substance on plastic additives’ partition and diffusion should be pay more attention in future work.

Recently, fibroblast growth factors are identified to play a vital role in the development and progression of human pancreatic cancer. FGF pathway is critical involved in numerous cellular processes through regulation of its downstream targets, including proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. In this review article, we describe recent advances of FGFR signalling pathway in pancreatic carcinogenesis and progression. Moreover, we highlight the available chemical inhibitors of FGFR pathway for potential treatment of pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, we discuss whether targeting FGFR pathway is a novel therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer clinical management.

Reasonable selection and optimization of cutting parameters is an important part of the study on large diameter Fresnel lens mold process, which has a direct impact on the dynamic stability of processing state and processing quality of the large diameter Fresnel lens mold. Through a large number of experiments, we analyzed and summarized the influence law of spindle speed, feed and cutting speed on the dynamic stability of large diameter Fresnel lens mold processing state; The experiments show that when the cutting speed is more than 120m/min and the feed is about 1μm/r ~1.5μm/r , the continuous chip forms , breaks easily, the relative vibration amplitude between workpiece and tool is low, the cutting process is continuous and stable, and the machined surface quality is fine. The experiment results provide an important basis for the actual production of large diameter Fresnel lens mold.

The contraction ratio of lower bucket is an important parameter of the series jet characteristics of the allotypic hybridtype flip bucket (AHFB). Due to the effect of contraction in lower bucket and diffused in upper bucket, the jet flows cross and impact in the space domain. Systematic hydraulic model tests were developed to describe the rule of water-diversion and pressure distributions. This paper presents the variation of jet trajectory length and the local scour of this combined bucket. Based on these, the variation laws and estimation equations for hydraulic characteristics with different contraction ratio are proposed.

Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with SiC particles (SiCp) were prepared by electromagnetic stirring. This article aims to study the effects of SiCp addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of SiCp/ZL105, finally leading to expended range for ZL105 alloy application. Microstructural studies were carried out by optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive spectrometer. Tensile and hardness tests were conducted in order to identify mechanical properties. It was found that addition of 1.5 wt% SiCp causes the refined microstructure (including primary α-Al and eutectic Si) and reduced secondary dendrite arm spacing of α-Al matrix (12.6 μm). Compared to the ZL105 alloy, the ultimate tensile strength, elongation, and hardness of the composite with 1.5 wt% SiCp were increased by 24.6%, 37.3%, and 27.0%, respectively. The improved mechanical properties can mainly be attributed to the refinement of primary α-Al and eutectic Si, and uniformed dispersion of SiCp. Furthermore, the effects of voltage and agitation frequency of magnetic field on microstructure of composites were discussed.

Abscisic acid (ABA) has been demonstrated to be involved in iron (Fe) homeostasis, but the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. Here, we found that Fe deficiency induced ABA accumulation rapidly (within 6 h) in the roots of Arabidopsis. Exogenous ABA at 0.5 μM decreased the amount of root apoplastic Fe bound to pectin and hemicellulose, and increased the shoot Fe content significantly, thus alleviating Fe deficiency-induced chlorosis. Exogenous ABA promoted the secretion of phenolics to release apoplastic Fe and up-regulated the expression of AtNRAMP3 to enhance reutilization of Fe stored in the vacuoles, leading to a higher level of soluble Fe and lower ferric-chelate reductase (FCR) activity in roots. Treatment with ABA also led to increased Fe concentrations in the xylem sap, partially because of the up-regulation of AtFRD3, AtYSL2 and AtNAS1, genes related to long-distance transport of Fe. Exogenous ABA could not alleviate the chlorosis of abi5 mutant resulting from the significantly low expression of AtYSL2 and low transport of Fe from root to shoot. Taken together, our data support the conclusion that ABA is involved in the reutilization and transport of Fe from root to shoot under Fe deficiency conditions in Arabidopsis.

In this work, we have evaluated the effect of high volume fraction of B 4 C particles (>20 vol.%) on the microstructure and mechanical behavior of Al-2024 matrix composites. The composites were fabricated by mechanical milling of the matrix and the reinforcements together followed by hot extrusion. Mechanical milling resulted in significant grain refinement of the Al-2024 matrix phase (∼35.4 nm), while hot extrusion provided the combined advantage of homogenous dispersion of the reinforcement in the matrix as well as clean and strong interface between the two phases. After consolidation at 823 K, the grain size of the Al matrix has grown up partially, while the grains around B 4 C particles are still at nano-scale because of the large difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) between the matrix and the reinforcement. The microhardness and compression strength of the composites reinforced by the B 4 C particles are 260 and 950 MPa, respectively, which are almost twice as high as that of the matrix. The superior mechanical properties are attributed to the refined microstructure of the matrix and the homogeneous dispersion of the B 4 C particles.

The aim of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of a siRNA cocktail targeting Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) on cell proliferation, induced apoptosis and the expression of VEGF and HER2 in human gastric carcinoma cell. The silencing rate of pre-designed siRNAs that targeted VEGF and HER2 was detected by Real-time Quantitative PCR (RT-QPCR) analysis. Furthermore, the best silencing siRNA that targeted VEGF and HER2 was prepared as a cocktail to co-knockdown VEGF and HER2 expression at both mRNA and protein levels which were detected by RT-QPCR and Western blot analysis. Cell proliferation inhibition rates were determined by CCK8 assay. The effect of siRNA cocktail on cell apoptosis was determined by flow cytometry. The migration inhibition of siRNA cocktail was analyzed by wound-healing assay. The ability of VEGF to induce endothelial cells to proliferate was examined in HUVECs by the method of tube formation assay. The pre-designed siRNAs could inhibit VEGF and HER2 mRNA level. siRNA cocktail, and co-downregulation of VEGF and HER2 result in significant inhibition of gastric cancer growth and migration in vitro. The inhibition of VEGF and HER2 expressions can induce apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells.

The electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID) grinding technology was adopted for ultra-precision grinding experiments of GCr15 bearing steel. The experiments show that: grinding depth, electrolysis gap and wheel peripheral velocity are the main factors to affect the surface quality. With the electrolysis gap of 0.5mm, the grinding depth of 0.1μm, and the wheel peripheral velocity of 18m/s, the grinding effect can achieve optimal and the machined surface roughness can obtain Ra0.006μm.

In this paper, the ultra-precision mirror polishing technology was adopted for mirror processing experimental study of Aluminum Alloy mobile phone shell. The experiments show that: polishing pressure, Grinding disc speed, the texture and hardness of polishing pad and abrasive particle size are the main factors to affect the surface quality. Through to optimize these parameters matching combination, can effectively improve the surface quality and reduce the surface roughness and obtain surface roughness is Ra0.026μm.

ELID grinding technology applied to difficult-to-machine materials’ precision and ultra-precision processing has obtained good results. Based on the existing experimental results of ELID grinding, according to the structure characteristics of the existing grinding machine, we designed and developed a special ELID grinding machine in order to greatly improve the machining precision and automation degree of the existing grinding machine and achieve precision and ultra-precision processing of difficult-to-machine materials.

Source water polluted by algae, ammonium and organic matter has been studied for many years. Sudden pollution incidents of source water have been reported across the whole country. Seasonal variability of rainfall across China has resulted in floods or droughts, thus incurred the high concentration of algae, ammonium and organic matter, causing severe challenges to the conventional water purification facilities. However, the conventional water treatment process is often unavailable to keep the safety of source water for drinking when sudden pollution occurs. Meanwhile, byproducts are often to be found over the whole treatment process, it is high time that researchers took effective measures to deal with this problem. In the present work, an overview of the recent research dealing with source water suddenly polluted by algae, ammonium and organic matter is presented.

In order to obtain approximate solution of natural frequencies for the free vibration of anisotropic circular cylindrical shells made of GFRP (glass fiber-reinforced plastic) with symmetric boundary conditions, Loves theory and energy method are used. Computation results show that the fundamental natural frequency comes from different vibration modes while the winding angle varies, the effect of number of axial half waves is stronger than number of circumferential waves on natural frequency of free vibration of anisotropic circular cylindrical shell.

This paper introduces the ELID grinding parameters expert system. When we use this system, input machining parameters of the machined material and the requirement of processing precision, then it can speculate ELID grinding process parameters and electrolytic parameters for material. This system has a great practical value for the optimization of ELID grinding process, reducing processing cost and improving efficiency.

Some damage phenomena often happens in deep mining, in order to study and solve that difficult problem, three finite models are established. The shear stress, minimum principle stress, and maximum principle stress and displacement distribution is analyzed. Some useful results are got, and it has some reference value to tunnel mining engineering.

Washing is the most practical way to remove pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. Two commonly used kitchen dishwashing liquids (detergents) in Chinese market were tested for enhanced removal of chlorpyrifos (CHP) and chlorothalonil (CHT) in cherry tomatoes by soaking the cherry tomatoes in the detergent solutions. The critical micelle concentrations of detergent A and detergent B were about 250 mg L(-1) and 444 mg L(-1), respectively. Detergent A had a higher solubilizing ability for pesticides and hence washing effectiveness than detergent B. The apparent solubility of CHP increased with increasing detergent concentration, while that of CHT remained comparatively invariant independent of detergent concentration within the tested range. The apparent solubility of CHP was also consistently higher in solutions of both detergents as compared to CHT. Due probably to its lower logKow value, CHT was more readily washed off cherry tomatoes than CHP. In terms of washing, a duration of 10-20 min was sufficient for removal of pesticides on cherry tomatoes in distilled water and detergent solutions. The effectiveness of removing pesticides increased with increasing detergent concentration from 50 mg L(-1) to 5 g L(-1), with up to 80% CHT and 42% CHP removed. Multiple washing further increased pesticide removal. Adding 10% acetic acid to lower pH or increasing washing temperature favored pesticide removal, but 10% NaCl produced the shielding effect and substantially reduced the effectiveness of detergent A for pesticide removal.

The product and vehicle, through a packaging, constitute a complex product-transport system in logistics. It is very important to obtain the frequency response functions of the product-transport system and its substructures for the design of product packaging. In this paper, the product-transport system is treated as a two-substructures multi-coordinate coupled system. It is composed of a product substructure and a vehicle substructure, which are connected by a packaging structure consisting of many packaging units. The multi-coordinate coupled inverse substructure method is developed and used to analyse the dynamic characteristics of the product-transport system. To verify the validity of this method for the product-transport system, the experiment of a physical prototype is conducted. The results show that the predicted substructure-level frequency response functions are in accordance with the measured. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Based on a step-by-step decoupling method, an inverse substructuring method is developed for the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of a single-coordinate coupled three-substructure system. The closed-form analytical solution to inverse substructuring analysis of the system is derived. The proposed method is validated by a lumped mass-spring-damper model, the predicted frequency response functions (FRFs) of substructures and the coupling stiffness; in addition, the most relevant system-level FRFs are compared with the direct computations, showing exact agreement. Finally, the sensitivity of the proposed method to measurement error is studied. The method developed offers an approach to extract the unknown substructure-level FRFs and coupling stiffness from system-level FRFs purely for single-coordinate coupled substructures.

Previous studies have shown that core leptosporangiates, the most species-rich group of extant ferns (monilophytes), have a distinct plastid genome (plastome) organization pattern from basal fern lineages. However, the details of genome structure transformation from ancestral ferns to core leptosporangiates remain unclear because of limited plastome data available. Here, we have determined the complete chloroplast genome sequences of Lygodium japonicum (Lygodiaceae), a member of schizaeoid ferns (Schizaeales), and Marsilea crenata (Marsileaceae), a representative of heterosporous ferns (Salviniales). The two species represent the sister and the basal lineages of core leptosporangiates, respectively, for which the plastome sequences are currently unavailable. Comparative genomic analysis of all sequenced fern plastomes reveals that the gene order of L. japonicum plastome occupies an intermediate position between that of basal ferns and core leptosporangiates. The two exons of the fern ndhB gene have a unique pattern of intragenic copy number variances. Specifically, the substitution rate heterogeneity between the two exons is congruent with their copy number changes, confirming the constraint role that inverted repeats may play on the substitution rate of chloroplast gene sequences.

According to the purpose of the current resistance spot welding quality monitoring system, the existing technology can be divided into two categories of the quality evaluation and control, and in the two research fields with different analysis methods, the paper further analysis. On the basis of comprehensive analysis, the paper finally puts forward, choosing suitable modeling method and analysis method, the quality evaluation index in order to realize accurate measurement and precise result, it is the key point and difficulty in the next step work.

A new high-accuracy transfer function is selected, and an inverse sub-structuring method is developed for the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of a three-sub-structure coupled product transport system. The closed-form analytical solution to inverse sub-structuring analysis of multi-coordinate coupled multi- sub-structure product transport system is derived. The proposed method is validated by a lumped mass spring damper model; the predicted frequency response functions (FRFs) of sub-structures and the coupling stiffness, in addition to the most concerned system-level FRF, are compared with the direct computations, showing exact agreement. Then, FRF tests of a physical prototype of the multi-coordinate coupled product transport system with three sub-structures are performed to further check the accuracy of the suggested method. The method developed offers an approach to predict the unknown sub-structure-level FRFs and coupling stiffness purely from system-level FRFs. The suggested method may help obtain the main controlling factors and contributions from the various structure-borne paths for the product transport system, which may certainly facilitate the cushioning packaging design. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Whether aluminum toxicity is an apoplastic or symplastic phenomenon is still a matter of debate. Here, we found that three auxin overproducing mutants, yucca, the recessive mutant superroot2, and superroot1 had increased aluminum sensitivity, while a transfer DNA insertion mutant, xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolases15 (xth15), showed enhanced aluminum resistance, accompanied by low endogenous indole-3-acetic acid levels, implying that auxin may be involved in plant responses to aluminum stress. We used yucca and xth15 mutants for further study. The two mutants accumulated similar total aluminum in roots and had significantly reduced cell wall aluminum and increased symplastic aluminum content relative to the wild-type ecotype Columbia, indicating that altered aluminum levels in the symplast or cell wall cannot fully explain the differential aluminum resistance of these two mutants. The expression of Al sensitive1 (ALS1), a gene that functions in aluminum redistribution between the cytoplasm and vacuole and contributes to symplastic aluminum detoxification, was less abundant in yucca and more abundant in xth15 than the wild type, consistent with possible ALS1 function conferring altered aluminum sensitivity in the two mutants. Consistent with the idea that xth15 can tolerate more symplastic aluminum because of possible ALS1 targeting to the vacuole, morin staining of yucca root tip sections showed more aluminum accumulation in the cytosol than in the wild type, and xth15 showed reduced morin staining of cytosolic aluminum, even though yucca and xth15 had similar overall symplastic aluminum content. Exogenous application of an active auxin analog, naphthylacetic acid, to the wild type mimicked the aluminum sensitivity and distribution phenotypes of yucca, verifying that auxin may regulate aluminum distribution in cells. Together, these data demonstrate that auxin negatively regulates aluminum tolerance through altering ALS1 expression and aluminum distribution within plant cells, and plants must coordinate exclusion and internal detoxification to reduce aluminum toxicity effectively.

The practice of hybridization has greatly contributed to the increase in crop productivity. A major component that exploits heterosis in crops is the cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS)/nucleus-controlled fertility restoration (Rf) system. Through positional cloning, it is shown that heterozygous alleles (RsRf3-1/RsRf3-2) encoding pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins are responsible for restoring fertility to cytoplasmic male-sterile radish (Raphanus sativus L.). Furthermore, it was found that heterozygous alleles (RsRf3-1/RsRf3-2) show higher expression and RNA polymerase II occupancy in the CMS cytoplasmic background compared with their homozygous alleles (RsRf3-1/RsRf3-1 or RsRf3-2/RsRf3-2). These data provide new insights into the molecular mechanism of fertility restoration to cytoplasmic male-sterile plants and illustrate a case of overdominance.

In this paper, a dynamic model coupled with linear and nonlinear stiffness is proposed for nonlinear cushioning packaging system based on critical component. The approximate analytical solution for the nonlinear free vibration of the coupled system is derived by applying He’s variational iteration method. And the maximum dropping shock response of the critical component is obtained, based on which, the dropping damage evaluation parameters for cushioning packaging system are predicted, agreeing well with the reported experiment results. The results may lead to thorough understanding of the dropping damage mechanism of packaged products based on critical components.

In order to research welding technology of DX51D+Z cold rolled galvanized steel, using multivariate nonlinear regression orthogonal combination design method, adopted the shear load as quality indicators, counted welding current, electrode force, welding time, squeeze time and the interaction of them as factors, to built the nonlinear regression models, by adopting this model to forecast shearing load. The result shows that this model has high forecast precision.

Introduction Rheum palmatum is an important traditional Chinese medicine featuring anthraquinones with several activities. Generally, rhein, emodin, aloe-emodin, physcion and chrysophanol are used as chemical markers for the quality control of rhubarb products. Objective To develop a simple protocol for the quantification of rhein, emodin, aloe-emodin, physcion and chrysophanol in R. palmatum collected at different developmental stages. Methods 1H-NMR spectra were measured on samples dissolved in acetone-d6, quantification was carried out using the signals of H-4 of rhein (δH 8.36), H-7 of emodin (δH 6.68), CH2OH of aloe-emodin (δH 4.81), OCH3 of physcion (δH 4.02) and CH3 of chrysophanol (δH 2.50), which were well separated from other signals. Quantitative analysis was based on the relative ratio of the intensity of each compound to the known amount of internal standard maleic acid. Results The quantitative 1H-NMR (qHNMR) method developed showed good precision, trueness, linearity, repeatability and stability for the quantification of rhein, emodin, aloe-emodin, physcion and chrysophanol. This method was applied successfully to explore the seasonal variations of the five major anthraquinones in R. palmatum, and provided quantitative results in reasonable agreement with those obtained by the HPLC–UV method. Conclusion Compared with the conventional HPLC-based methods, the qHNMR analysis is rapid, reference-free and convenient with less sample pre-treatment. This technique should be a feasible choice for the quality control of R. palmatum. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Synovial fibroblasts (SF) play a central role in the inflammatory and destructive process in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). High-mobility group box chromosomal protein 1 (HMGB1) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) alone failed to induce significant changes in proliferation of cultured SF from RA patients, but premixed HMGB1 with LPS (HMGB1-LPS) significantly facilitated SF proliferation. HMGB1 alone failed to induce IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13 production in cultured SF but greatly enhanced LPS-induced expression of IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13 at both mRNA and protein levels. HMGB1-LPS synergistically upregulated TLR4 and receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE) expression on the surface of SF. Both blockers of TLR4 and RAGE significantly inhibited the synergistic effects of HMGB1-LPS on the production of IL-6 and MMPs, but blocking antibodies to TLR2 failed. HMGB1-LPS synergistically increased intracellular levels of phosphorylated p38 and phosphorylated IκB. Furthermore, both NF-κB inhibitor Bay11-7085 and p38 inhibitor SB203580 significantly suppressed the enhanced production of IL-6 and MMPs induced by HMGB1-LPS. In conclusion, HMGB1 acts in synergy with LPS to upregulate TLR4 and RAGE expression on the surface of SF in RA and then to augment IL-6, MMP-3, and MMP-13 production, which depends on p38 MAPK and NF-κB activation.

In order to research welding technology of DX51D+Z cold rolled galvanized steel, using multivariate nonlinear regression orthogonal combination design method, adopted the shear load as quality indicators, counted welding current, electrode force, welding time, squeeze time and the interaction of them as factors, to built the nonlinear regression models, by adopting this model to forecast shearing load. The result shows that this model has high forecast precision.

The design of the steering system is a very important part of the vehicle design, the steering system have a direct impact to the vehicle's handling and stability, the steering portability as well as the driver's work intensity and efficiency. The paper introduced the composition and characteristics of the vehicle's steering system. Analysis of the basic requirements and key technologies of the vehicle's steering. According to the applications and the advantages and disadvantages of the existing two-wheel steering system, advance a concept of four-wheel steering system, analysis of the structure of the four-wheel steering technology and the problems to be solved. In addition,studied the application situation of the power steering system in the vehicle steering mechanism from mechanical mechanics.

Vibration screener is an important mechanism which is widely applied to metallurgy, building materials, chemical industry, grain, mine, etc. On the basis of deeply studying work principle and support structure of vibration screener, the paper conducts ZKB Linear vibration screener as study object. According to mass of vibration, vertical stiffness, horizontal stiffness, vertical amplitude, horizontal amplitude, and free high of vibration screener support spring, the paper conducts the lightest weight of support spring and the biggest fatigue safety factor as the objective function of multi-objective optimization design to establish a series of constraints. Then using of the penalty function method of optimization theory , the paper gets the optimal design results of support spring and gives the optimal design dimensions, which provides a reliable design method of support spring for the future design of vibration screener and reduce the blindness of the design .

The screener is widely use in metallurgy, mine, etc. Now the low productivity ratio and low efficiency influence a lot to the working of factories. In this paper, we analyze the motion of object on the screener, and then build the mathematical model to maximize the productivity ratio. Take the example of straight Line vibration screeners with mode ZKB. After maximizing with our method, the result shows that our method increases 21% in the productivity ratio, and the chance of object touching the screen holes increases 45%. This paper provides an effective method for the optimal design of screener in future.The results of this study can also be applied directly to enterprise product design.

The migration of styrene and ethylbenzene from virgin and recycled expanded polystyrene (EPS) containers into isooctane was investigated using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). EPS containers were in two-sided contact with isooctane at temperatures of 25 and 40°C. It was shown that recycled EPS gave greater migration ratios compared with virgin EPS, which indicated that styrene and ethylbenzene migrated more easily from recycled EPS. In addition, an analytical method to distinguish between virgin and recycled EPS containers was established by GC-MS followed by principal component analysis (PCA). The relative peak area of the identified compounds was used as input data for PCA. Distinct separation between virgin and recycled EPS was achieved on a score plot. Extension of this method to other plastics may be of great interest for recycled plastics identification.

Antimicrobial packaging materials (films or coatings) (APMs) have aroused great interest among the scientists or the experts specialized in material science, food science, packaging engineering, biology and chemistry. APMs have been used to package the food, such as dairy products, poultry, meat (e.g., beef), salmon muscle, pastry dough, fresh pasta, bakery products, fruits, vegetables and beverages. Some materials have been already commercialized. The ability of APMs to extend the shelf-life of the food depends on the release rate of the antimicrobials (AMs) from the materials to the food. The optimum rate is defined as target release rate (TRR). To achieve TRR, the influencing factors of the release rate should be considered. Herein we reviewed for the first time these factors and their influence on the release. These factors mainly include the AMs, food (or food simulant), packaging materials, the interactions among them, the temperature and environmental relative humidity (RH).

Acute toxic effects of potassium bromate, sodium bromate and potassium bromide on luminescent bacteria, water flea, green alga and zebrafish were studied using standard toxic testing methods. The results showed that the pollutants had no effect on the luminous intensity of luminescent bacteria. The 96 h EC5. of potassium bromate on Scenedesmus obliquus was 738.18 mg x L(-1), 48 h EC50 on Daphnia magna and Moina was 154.01 mg x L(-1) was 161.80 mg x L(-1), while 48 h LC50 was 198 52 mg x L(-1), 175.68 mg x L(-1), and 96 h LC50 on zebrafish was 931.4 mg x L(-1). The 96 h EC50 of sodium bromate on Scenedesmus obliquus was 540.26 mg x L(-1), 48 h EC50 Daphnia magna and Moina was 127.90 mg x L(-1), 111.07 mg x L(-1), while 48 h LC50 was 161.80 mg x L(-1), 123.47 mg x L(-1), and 96 h LC50 on zebrafish was 1065.6 mg x L(-1). But the effects of potassium bromide on the above several kinds of aquatic organisms were far smaller than those of potassium bromate and sodium bromate. The toxic effects on test organisms were due to the impacts of bromate after the comparison of different pollutants, and the effects were more obvious with the increase of exposure time. The order of sensitivity to the toxic effects of bromate was Daphnia magna, MoinaScenedesmus obliquuszebrafishChlorella vulgaris, luminescent bacteria.

Recently considerable researches have focused on monitoring vegetation changes because of its important role in regula- ting the terrestrial carbon cycle and the climate system. There were the largest areas with high-altitudes in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), which is often referred to as the third pole of the world. And vegetation in this region is significantly sensitive to the global warming. Meanwhile NDVI dataset was one of the most useful tools to monitor the vegetation activity with high spatial and temporal resolution, which is a normalized transform of the near-infrared radiation (NIR) to red reflectance ratio. Therefore, an extended GIMMS NDVI dataset from 1982-2006 to 1982-2014 was presented using a unary linear regression by MODIS dataset from 2000 to 2014 in QTP. Compared with previous researches, the accuracy of the extended NDVI dataset was improved again with consideration the residuals derived from scale transformation. So the model of extend NDVI dataset could be a new method to integrate different NDVI products. With the extended NDVI dataset, we found that in growing season there was a statistically significant increase (0.000 4 yr⁻¹, r² = 0.585 9, p0.001) in QTP from 1982 to 2014. During the study pe- riod, the trends of NDVI were significantly increased in spring (0.000 5 yr⁻¹, r² = 0.295 4, p = 0.001), summer (0.000 3 yr⁻¹, r² = 0.105 3, p = 0.065) and autumn respectively (0.000 6 yr⁻¹, r² = 0.436 7, p0.001). Due to the increased vegeta- tion activity in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 1982 to 2014, the magnitude of carbon sink was accumulated in this region also at this same period. Then the data of temperature and precipitation was used to explore the reason of vegetation changed. Although the trends of them are both increased, the correlation between NDVI and temperature is higher than precipitation in vegetation grow- ing season, spring, summer and autumn. Furthermore, there is significant spatial heterogeneity of the changing trends for ND- VI, temperature and precipitation at Qinghai-Tibet Plateau scale.