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In this paper we demonstrate an optical storage medium having advantages of ultrahigh contrast, superior stability, and broadband working wavelengths. Combining a single shot of deep-ultraviolet (UV) laser illumination with a Au particle-assisted etching process, we formed broadband antireflective, one-dimensional silicon nanowire arrays (SiNWs) with selectively at specific positions. Optical measurements and three-dimensional finite-difference time domain (3D-FDTD) simulations revealed ultrahigh reflection contrast between the Au and the SiNWs for both far- and near-field regimes. Relative to typical organic-based storage media, Au films and SiNWs are more stable, both chemically and thermally; therefore, we suspect that this new storage medium would exhibit high stability toward moisture, sunshine, and elevated temperatures.

In this paper, we report a new optical data storage method: photomodification of hollow gold nanoparticle (HGN) monolayers induced by one-shot deep-ultraviolet (DUV) KrF laser recording. As far as we are aware, this study is the first to apply HGNs in optical data storage and also the first to use a recording light source for the metal nanoparticles (NPs) that is not a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) wavelength. The short wavelength of the recording DUV laser improved the optical resolution dramatically. We prepared HGNs exhibiting two absorbance regions: an SPR peak in the near-infrared (NIR) region and an intrinsic material extinction in the DUV region. A single pulse from a KrF laser heated the HGNs and transformed them from hollow structures to smaller solid spheres. This change in morphology for the HGNs was accompanied by a significant blue shift of the SPR peak. Employing this approach, we demonstrated its patterning ability with a resolving power of a half-micrometer (using a phase mask) and developed a readout method (using a blue-ray laser microscope). Moreover, we prepared large-area, uniform patterns of monolayer HGNs on various substrates (glass slides, silicon wafers, flexible plates). If this spectral recording technique could be applied onto thin flexible tapes, the recorded data density would increase significantly relative to that of current rigid discs (e.g., compact discs).

The cDNA encoding the calmodulin (CaM) protein was isolated from the mycelia of Magnaporthe grisea PO-041 strain by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR and named MgCaM. High similarities in sequence to other reported CaMs suggested that CaM is highly conserved. The MgCaM gene was expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 using a pET32a(+) plasmid. MgCaM with or without a Trx tag exhibited a Ca(2+)-dependent electrophoretic migration shift, suggesting that the activity of MgCaM depends on the presence of Ca(2+). Western blot analysis showed that Trx-MgCaM possessed specific immunoreactivities and could be specifically recognized by an anti-AtCaM2-Ig polyclonal antibody raised against AtCaM2 of Arabidopsis. Immunocytolocalization of MgCaM indicated that the number of gold particles was the most in germ tubes, next to conidia, followed by appressoria and the mycelia from liquid media, and the least in the aerial hypha from solid media. Also, in the germ tube, mycelium from liquid media and appressorium, the density of gold particles in the cell wall was markedly higher than that in the cytoplasm. In conidia, the number of MgCaM particles in the cytoplasm was obviously higher than that in the cell wall. However, in the aerial hypha, MgCaM only distributed at the cytoplasm and no gold particle was detected in the cell wall.

1. The present study was designed to investigate whether the M(3) muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR) is associated with beta-catenin in the ventricular myocardium during ischaemic myocardial injury and to determine the possible mechanism/s involved. 2. Rat hearts were subjected to coronary artery ligation for 1 and 6 h or 1 month to establish a myocardial ischaemia (MI) model. In the acute MI model, 16 rats were randomized into four groups: (i) control; (ii) ischaemia (rats were subjected to 20 min coronary occlusion); (iii) choline (10 mg/kg, i.v., choline chloride, an M(3) receptor agonist, was administered 15 min before occlusion); and (iv) 4-diphenylacetoxy-N-methylpiperidine methiodide (4-DAMP; 0.12 mg/kg 4-DAMP, an M(3) receptor antagonist, was administered 20 min before occlusion, followed 5 min later by 10 mg/kg, i.v., choline chloride). Immunochemistry, western blot analysis and immunoprecipitation were used to determine the expression and localization of beta-catenin and the M(3) mAChR. 3. Myocardial ischaemia caused a time-dependent increase in the expression of beta-catenin. Moreover, a physical association was found between beta-catenin and the M(3) mAChR in intercalated discs. This association was enhanced by prolonged ischaemia. Administration of choline before ischaemia not only increased beta-catenin expression, but also strengthened the association between beta-catenin and the M(3) mAChR. However, blockade of M(3) mAChR by 4-DAMP completely inhibited the effect of choline on the expression of beta-catenin. In addition, MI increased phosphorylation of the M(3) mAChR. 4. The results indicate that increased beta-catenin activity is associated with M(3) mAChR during MI. This association is likely to play a role in heart signal transduction during ischaemia between neighbouring ventricular myocardiocum.

Objective: To assess the association of male infertility with CAG repeat polymorphism of the androgen receptor (AR) gene by meta-analysis., Methods: We identified the case-control studies on the relationship of male infertility with CAG repeats of the AR gene by searching Medline/PubMed and CBM databases, and conducted meta-analysis on the data obtained with the RevMan 4.2 software., Results: Thirty-two eligible articles were selected in this study, including 3,153 idiopathic infertile men and 2,314 controls. The combined data statistics showed that all the infertile men had a significantly higher mean of CAG repeats than the controls (SMD = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.17-0.37, P < 0.01). The specific SMD between the infertile patients and controls was 0.29, 95% CI: 0.08-0.50 for the azoospermic men, 0.27, 95% CI: 0.13-0.41 for the moderate oligozoospermic men, and 0.18, 95% CI: 0.02-0.33 for the severe oligozoospermic cases. The results of sensitivity analyses were consistent with those mentioned above., Conclusion: The increased length of CAG repeats in the AR gene may be correlated with the risk of the impairment of spermatogenesis.

According to the major pollution sources of urban water environment, 10 indexes such as industrial sewage quantity were closen to establish evaluation indexes system about the types and influencing factors of the typical and medium-small-sized cities in the southern China. Case studies of 16 typical and medium-small-sized cities were taken in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hubei and Anhui provinces. Combined with SPSS 11.0 cluster analysis results, city types were divided in reference to the values of water resources comprehensive pollution indexes and economical development indexes. The driving forces about city water environment pollution were studied by principal component analysis method. The result indicates that the 16 cities belong to two categories and four sub-categories, which are rich economy as well as light pollution of water environment and poor economy as well as heavy pollution of water environment. The influencing factors of water environment pollution are in sequence of industrial water pollution, agricultural no-point source pollution and urban domestic water pollution. The main factors of water environment pollution influenced I category cities, II as well as IV category cities and III category cities are industrial water pollution, urban domestic pollution and agricultural no-point source pollution respectively.

Based on the relationship between district GDP and sewage disposal, the water environment protection effect in 3 cities, Suzhou, Nanjing and Xuzhou, with different economic development degrees in Jiangsu Province was dynamically analyzed. The economy in Suzhou was well developed, where the foreign capital proportion was in a high level. Its GDP per capita was 53,800 yuan in 2005 and the sewage disposal grew linearly when its GDP increased in the study time period. Nanjing was less developed than Suzhou, and the state-owned enterprises in large and medium sizes were in a high percentage. Its GDP per capita was 37,100 yuan in 2005, while the sewage disposal reduced linearly when its GDP increased in the study time period. The economy in Xuzhou is under-developed, where coal-based heavy industry was the most important one. The GDP per capita in this city was 13,200 yuan in 2005 and the sewage disposal fluctuated when its GDP increased in the study time period. According to the relationship between economic development and sewage disposal in different cities, we suggested that the water environment protection in Suzhou should focus on the control of both water pollutant total emission and emission concentration, the major work in Nanjing should focus on adjusting the industrial structure and meanwhile controlling the total emission of water pollutants, while in Xuzhou the water pollutant emission concentration should be firstly controlled.

Objective: The 4- and 16-hydroxylated metabolites of estrogens have been implicated in carcinogenesis, whereas its 2-hydroxylated metabolites have been shown to have antiangiogenic effects. We aimed to examine whether the polymorphisms of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) involved in the estrogen metabolism are associated with endometrial cancer risk., Methods: Polymerase chain reaction-restrictive fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis was used to study the variant allele frequency distributions of COMT Val158Met genetic polymorphism in a population based case-control study with 132 endometrial cancer cases and 110 controls. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated by unconditional logistic regression after adjustment for known or suspected risk factors for endometrial cancer., Results: The most frequent genotype was COMT(Val/Val) (47.2%, 52/110) in control group and COMT(Val/Met) (58.3%, 77/132) in endometrial cancer group. The difference between the two groups was of statistical significance (P < 0.05). Compared with COMT(Met/Met) genotype, the COMT(Val/Val) genotype was inversely correlated with endometrial cancer risk, and the adjusted OR value was 0.262 (95% CI: 0.080 - 0.862, P = 0.027)., Conclusions: Among the genotypes in women in South China, genotype COMT(Val/Val) is mostly seen, followed by COMT(Val/Met), and COMT(Met/Met) is the least in control group. The endometrial cancer susceptivity of genotype COMT(Val/Val) carriers may be lower than COMT(Met/Met) carriers.

An erbium-doped superfluorescent fiber source utilizing a double-pass backward configuration is analyzed when a polarizer is inserted into an erbium-doped fiber to obtain polarized output light. Such a polarized configuration is simulated and experimentally confirmed to have the following characteristics: high polarization power conversion efficiency, pump-power-independent mean-wavelength operation, and low sensitivity to polarizer insertion loss.

A finite deformation theory of elasticity and a theory of nonlinear photoelasticity are applied to describe the wavelength shifts of cladding-mode resonance in corrugated long-period fiber gratings under torsion. The deformation of fiber is found by use of the Murnaghan model of a solid elastic body. The quadratic photoelastic effect that is proportional to the second-order displacement gradient is investigated and compared with the classical photoelastic effect. The electromagnetic field in the twisted corrugated structure is presented as a superposition of circularly polarized modes of the etched fiber section. The wavelength shift is found to be proportional to the square of the twist angle. As predicted by our theory, a wavelength shift of the same nature has been found in a conventionally photoinduced long-period fiber grating.

The detached root cap cells from maize seedlings comprised of round-shaped cells, ellipse-shaped cells and longitude-shaped cells. By using fluorescein-iso-thiocyanate-phalloidin(FITC-Ph) as fluorescent probe and treatment with cytochalasin B (CB) or HMC toxin, a host-specific toxin from Bipolaris (Helminthosporium) maydis race C, the distribution and variation of microfilaments (MFs) in detached cells were investigated. The results were as follows (i) the round-shaped cells had intense fluorescence, but the network of MFs was not distinct. There was clear MFs network in the cytoplasm of both ellipse-shaped and longitude-shaped cells. The distribution of MFs in detached cells seemed to be relevant to their shape and vigor. (ii) the fluorescence of detached cells of Charrua cytoplasmic male sterility(cms-C) maize was decreased after treatment with HMC-toxin. The cause of this outcome was unclear. We only obtained the pictures of the distorted protoplast membrane and dead cells owing to treatment with HMC-toxin. The distribution of MFs of detached cells of Normal(N) cytoplasmic maize was not affected by HMC-toxin, and their protoplasts shank slightly. (iii) CB could change the distribution of MFs in detached cells of both cms-C maize and N maize to disordered arrangement.

The beam-propagation method (BPM) is employed to analyze the coupling behavior of our scheme proposed previously, which combines a lensed fiber and a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) [Chen and Wang, Appl. Opt. 39,4490-4500 (2000)]. The influences of a core within the fiber lens are investigated. As for the fiber dependence of our coupling scheme, two typical fibers are studied: dispersion-shifted and single-mode, step-index fibers. With the BPM, the optimal coupling efficiencies for various source waists with corresponding lens radii and working distances are determined. We also compare the results with those obtained by use of the ABCD method and found that the BPM gives better agreement with experimental results.

An approach is presented to the design of binary long-period fiber grating (LPFG) filters based on the Gel'fand-Levitan-Marchenko (GLM) inverse-scattering method and genetic algorithm optimization. The nonuniform coupling strength of the binary grating can be realized by varying the local duty ratio. A coupled-mode theory combined with the Poisson sum formula for treating the binary index perturbation is developed for the application of the GLM synthesis method. Since the coupled-mode theory, which smears out the discrete coupling nature, can be regarded only as an approximation to the modeling of a binary LPFG, we use instead the transfer-matrix model to analyze the coupling behavior of a nonuniform binary LPFG. Based on the synthesized grating patterns from the GLM method, a real-coded genetic algorithm with the transfer-matrix model is used to compensate for the discrepancies resulting from use of the coupled-mode theory and to optimize the design. We exemplify the above procedure by designing a flatband LPFG filter and a high-visibility all-fiber Mach-Zehnder filter.

A transfer-matrix method is developed for modeling a corrugated long-period fiber grating. Cladding-mode resonance in such a corrugated structure can be controlled by the applied tensile stress based on the photoelastic effect. A first-order vectorial perturbation expansion is used to derive the mode fields of the two basic regions under the strain-induced index perturbation. Because the etched cladding radius is much smaller than the unetched radius, the effect of the corrugated structure on cladding modes cannot be treated as a small perturbation. Thus the conventional coupled-mode theory is inadequate for the modeling of such a structure. Based on a self-consistent mode-matching technique, mode coupling within the corrugated structure can be described by a set of transfer matrices. We apply the formulation to the calculation of the transmission spectra of a corrugated long-period grating and compare the calculated with the experimental results. The transfer-matrix approach is found to account well for the features of the transmission spectra of the corrugated long-period gratings.

A novel optical coupling scheme that uses a lensed fiber integrated with a long-period fiber grating (LPFG) is proposed. Two experiments are performed to demonstrate the validity of such a scheme in single-mode-fiber-single-mode-fiber (SMF-to-SMF) and laser-diode-single-mode-fiber (LD-to-SMF) coupling setups. The measured results show that for an appropriate lens radius the addition of a LPFG will lead to a higher coupling efficiency over a longer range of working distance than without the LPFG. Coupling efficiencies of approximately 78% and 35% are achieved for corresponding working distances of approximately 250 and 110 microm, 1-dB longitudinal tolerances of approximately 40 and 26 microm, and 1-dB transverse tolerances of approximately 7.6 and 2.6 microm for SMF-to-SMF and LD-to-SMF, respectively.

A systematic approach to the analysis of almost-periodic vertical-grating-assisted codirectional couplers with nonuniform duty ratios is presented. The Poisson sum formula is used to expand rigorously a nonuniform rectangular grating into a quasi-Fourier series, and local grating parameters such as period, width, and duty ratio can be defined unambiguously in such a procedure. On the basis of this expansion the coupled-local-mode formulation is the most natural extension for the analysis of such a nonuniform grating-assisted codirectional coupler filter. By transformation of the coupled-local-mode equations into the Zakharov-Shabat system the Gel'fand-Levintan-Marchenko inverse-scattering method is then used to synthesize special grating-assisted codirectional coupler filters. The design is illustrated by two typical examples: One is a third-order Butterworth filter, and the other is a linear filter.

We demonstrate a new bottom antireflective coating (BARC) layer for ArF excimer laser lithography. The antireflective layer is composed of hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) film, which is deposited by the conventional electron cyclotron resonance-plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition process. We obtain the appropriate HMDSO films for BARC layers by varying the gas-flow rate ratio of oxygen to HMDSO. Such a process has several advantages: high deposition rate, low process temperature, easy film removal, and reduced cost. Measured reflectances of less than 0.5% on both Al-Si and silicon crystal substrates have been achieved and agree well with the simulated reflectances. The swing effect is shown to be significantly reduced by addition of the HMDSO-based BARC layer.

The CHARGE association was described as a cluster of multiple congenital defects by Pagon et al in 1981. The underlining cause of this association is not yet clear. These defects include coloboma of the eye tissues (C), heart disease (H), atresia choanae (A), retarded growth and development and/or CNS anomalies (R), genital anomalies (G), ear anomalies and/or hearing loss (E). Here we report a case of CHARGE association in a 15-year-old female patient. She presented with unilateral ptosis and coloboma of the iris, choroid and retina, patent ductus arteriosus, growth and mental retardation, unilateral ear deformity and a hearing loss. A total of 124 cases have been reported up to now in the literature. We also discuss the frequency of the respective clinical symptoms and signs, and the leading causes of misdiagnosis. We emphasize the importance of ophthalmology and ENT consultations whenever a patient is noted to have multiple congenital anomalies, especially when a cardiac defect is present. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential for this rare association.

The search for a short-term mutagenicity test to identify potential carcinogens has yielded over 100 assay systems, including the Ames test. This paper continues the investigation of Travis et al. into the prediction of carcinogenic potency of known mouse carcinogens using different classes of short-term toxicologic data. We used four classes of short-term test data (mutation, toxicity, reproduction and tumorigenicity) from the Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) database. We conclude that mutation data alone are poor predictors of carcinogenic potency, accounting for only 21% of the observed variability in experimentally-determined mouse TD50 values. We further conclude that batteries of toxicologic data containing varying types of short-term data are excellent predictors of the carcinogenic potency of known mouse carcinogens: four types of short-term data account for 82% of the observed variability in experimentally-obtained mouse TD50 values. By using all available toxicological data, we obtained a strong correlation between toxicologic assay results and carcinogenic potency of known mouse carcinogens.