Search

Glandularia tenera (syn. Verbena tenera) is an herbaceous perennial ornamental plant used in gardens as an edging plant with beautiful white, red, or purple flowers. In autumn 2020 and 2021, severe powdery mildew infection was observed on G. tenera cultivar Xianghe in Renming Botanical garden in Shangqiu, Henan province, China (34.4568° N, 115.6640° E). Approximately 80% of leaves on each plant were symptomatic, and about 90% of the plants were infected. Powdery mildew colonies appeared as white spots on the adaxial surface of the leaves and stems of the plants in the initial infection stage. Later, mycelial growth was amphigenous, thick, forming irregular white patches, and effused to cover the whole leaf surface. Finally, leaves turned yellow and senescence occurred. Samples of symptomatic leaves were stained with trypan blue and examined under a Leica DM2500 microscope. Microscopic observations showed that conidia on infected leaves were hyaline and ellipsoid to oval with fibrosin bodies, measured 25 to 37 × 14 to 23 μm with a length/width ratio of 1.4 to 2.0. Conidiophores were unbranched, straight, 80 to 210× 10 to 14 µm in size, and produced two to five immature conidia in chains. Foot cells of conidiophores were cylindrical with slight constrictions at basal septa, and followed by one to three short cells. Fungal hyphae were septate, branched, and flexuous to straight and 4 to 7µm wide with indistinct to slightly nipple-shaped appressoria. Chasmothecia were not observed. These morphological characteristics were identical with the previous description of Podosphaera xanthii (Castagne) U. BraunShishkoff (Braun and Cook 2012). To confirm the identification, the sequence of ITS1-5.8s-ITS2 region of rDNA for the isolate SQVT was amplified from conidia collected from infected leaves with universal primers ITS1 and ITS4, sequenced and analyzed using the BLASTn search of GenBank. Amplicon was 565 bp (OM293967) and showed 99.82% similarity with sequence of P. xanthii from Eclipta prostrate (MT260063) in China (Xu et al. 2020), from Youngia denticulate (AB040351) in Japan (Hirata et al. 2000), and 99.65% with sequence of P. xanthii from V. brasiliensis in Korea (Cho et al. 2014). The domains D1 and D2 of the 28S rDNA for the isolate SQVTPX-1 was amplified with primer NL1/NL4. Amplicon was 613 bp (ON259308) and showed 100% similarity with sequence of P. xanthii from V. brasiliensis (AB936277) (Meeboon and Takamatsu, 2015). Pathogenicity tests were conducted by gently pressing the infected leaves onto leaves of five healthy G. tenera cultivar Xianghe plants. Five non-inoculated plants served as controls. Plants were maintained in a greenhouse at 25 ± 2°C. Eight days after inoculation, symptoms similar to those observed under natural conditions developed on the inoculated leaves of G. tenera plants, whereas the control plants remained symptomless. The fungus on inoculated leaves was morphologically identical to that first observed in the field. P. xanthii is a cosmopolitan powdery mildew fungus, parasitic on numerous plant species, especially Cucurbitaceae and Compositae plants. The pathogen has been reported infecting V. bonariensis (Hong et al. 2021), V. × hybrida in China (Zhuang 2005), and V. brasiliensis in Korea (Cho et al. 2014). Interestingly, G. tenera plants infected by P. xanthii were adjacent with V. × hybrida plants infected by P. xanthii in Renming Botanical garden. Incidence of P. xanthii on G. tenera add information on pathogen's host range and help us develop comprehensive survey and effective management of the disease. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. xanthii on G. tenera in China (Farr and Rossman 2021). Braun, U., and Cook, R. T. A. 2012. Taxonomic Manual of the Erysiphales (Powdery Mildews). CBS Biodiversity Series No. 11. CBS, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Cho, S. E., et al. 2014. Plant Dis. 98: 1159. Farr, D. F., and Rossman, A. Y. 2021. Fungal Databases, Syst. Mycol. Microbiol. Lab., ARS, USDA. Hong, Q. Q., et al. 2021. Plant Dis. 105: 3297. Hirata, T., et al. 2000. Can. J. Bot. 78: 1521-1530. Meeboon, J. and Takamatsu, S. 2015. Mycoscience . 56: 243-251. Xu, D. D., et al. 2020. Plant Dis. 104: 3263. Zhuang, W. Y. 2005. Fungi of northwestern China. Mycotaxon, Ltd., Ithaca, NY.

This study was a prospective single arm trial conducted in Zhejiang Jinhua Guangfu hospital from February 2018 to June 2020. A total of 39 patients (32 males and 7 females) with esophageal cancer, aged from 44 to 82 (69±9) years were enrolled. Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging(MR-DWI) was implemented to evaluate the changes of apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC) value before and after chemoradiotherapy. The results showed that the ADC value after chemoradiotherapy was higher than that before treatment[(2.03±0.42)×10⁻³ mm本研究采用前瞻性单臂试验的方法，选择自2018年2月至2020年6月在浙江金华广福医院接受放化疗的39例食管癌患者，男32例，女7例，年龄44~82（69±9）岁。用磁共振扩散加权成像（MR-DWI）检测患者治疗前后表观弥散系数（ADC）变化。结果显示治疗后ADC值较治疗前显著性升高［（2.03±0.42）×10⁻³ mm

A new supramolecular complex [Cd(dcbpy)(im)2(H2O)2] · 3H2O (H2dcbpy = 4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine, im = imidazole) has been prepared under hydrothermal conditions. Its crystal structure is determined with single crystal X-ray diffraction. Cd2+ atom is six-coordinated by one dcbpy ligand, two imidazole and two water molecules. Each [Cd(dcbpy)(im)2(H2O)2] unit is connected to neighboring units through intermolecular O–H···O hydrogen bonds to form a three-dimensional supramolecular network structure. A topology method has been used to simplify the network. The stability and luminescent properties of the complex obtained have been investigated.

The results have been achieved by adjusting the structure to improve the performance of micro injection molded isotactic polypropylene products. Annealing was adopted to optimize the performance of isotactic polypropylene micro injection molded gears. It was found that the annealing temperature shows greater influence on the crystalline structure of the micro injection molded gears than annealing time. The layer mechanical properties were greatly improved after annealing, about 1.7-fold for modulus and 1.9-fold for hardness of the micro injection molded gears relative to the unannealed sample. This is due to the fact the state of molecular chain aggregation tends to be consistent after high temperature annealing in the micro injection molded isotactic polypropylene gear sample.

Herba eupatorii, one of the most important Chinese medicinal herbs, belongs to the Asteraceae family. In June 2012, a previously unknown disease, tentatively identified as powdery mildew, was observed on H. eupatorii growing in Shangqiu, in eastern Henan Province, China. Symptoms began as white mycelium partially covering upper leaf surfaces; as the disease progressed, it spread to cover entire leaf surfaces. The infected leaves became yellow and necrotic at advanced stages of infection. Specimens consisting of infected leaves were maintained at the Plant-Microbe Interaction Laboratory at Shangqiu Normal University. Microscopic observations of the morphology of the fungus revealed oval primary conidia measuring 18 to 27 × 15 to 22 μm. A long unbranched germ tube that germinated laterally from the ends of conidia was observed in some samples. Conidiophores were cylindrical, simple unbranched, and composed of a basal cell with a swollen base and three to six barrel-shaped conidia formed in chains, measuring 112 to 180 × 9 to 12 μm. Mycelial appressoria were nipple-shaped. Chasmothecia were not observed in the collected samples. To verify the identity of the fungus, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rDNA was amplified with ITS1 and ITS4 primers (3) and sequenced. The sequences were deposited as GenBank Accession No. JX546297. Comparison with sequences in the GenBank database revealed that the ITS sequence was 100% homologous with the sequence of Podosphaera fusca on Calendula officinalis (AB525914) (2) and Syneilesis palmata (AB040349) (1). The ITS sequence analysis verified that the causal agent was P. fusca, which is reported to be a cosmopolitan powdery mildew fungus, parasitic on numerous plant species in the Asteraceae family. Koch's postulates were completed by inoculating healthy H. eupatorii plants with a conidial suspension (prepared in distilled water) of 105 conidia/ml collected from infected plants. Five plants were sprayed until the suspension ran off the leaves, while five additional plants were sprayed with distilled water as a control. Plants were maintained in a climate cell under the following conditions: day, 24°C, 16 h; night, 20°C, 8 h; 85% humidity. After 10 days, inoculated plants developed symptoms similar to those observed in the field, whereas control plants remained healthy. Further examination showed that the inoculated plants were infected by P. fusca. To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. fusca affecting H. eupatorii in China. Because there are no fungicides labeled for use on this plant, the appearance of powdery mildew caused by P. fusca could result in substantial production loss of H. eupatorii. References: (1) T. Hirata et al. Can. J. Bot. 78:1521, 2000. (2) S. Takamatsu et al. Persoonia 24:38, 2010. (3) T. J. White et al. Page 315 in: PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. M. A. Innis et al., eds. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1990.

Miniature roses (Rosa hybrida L.) are a popular year-round potted plants. The pot roses are pinched (removal of the tips) after planting to increase the number of branching. However, the pinching causes leaf yellowing and abscission problems. Therefore, we investigated the effects of treatments with different concentrations of thidiazuron (TDZ), a non-metabolized cytokinin analogue, to prevent the leaf yellowing problem in pinched potted miniature rose plants. Spray treatment of potted miniature rose plants with TDZ applied three days after pinching, reduced leaf yellowing induced by pinching, and delayed the flowering time of miniature rose plants. We also found that application of TDZ five days after pinching resulted in compact plants with shorter shoots as TDZ concentration increased from 10 to 80 µM. Therefore, our results suggest that TDZ affects the regulation of growth and development including shoot elongation in potted rose plants, and provides a new tool for preventing leaf yellowing and controlling plant height in ornamental pot plants. © 2019 International Society for Horticultural Science. All rights reserved. Yükseköğretim Kurulu Prof. Dr. Fisun G. ?elikel is grateful to the Council of Higher Education (YO? K) in Turkey for providing the grant for the research program performed at the University of California Davis, USA. Plant materials were provided by a private farm (Nurserymen?s Exchange, Inc.) in Half Moon Bay, California, USA.

Introduction Due to lack of patient/health care provider awareness causing delayed diagnosis, the bleeding phenotype and provider interventions in adolescents with heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) and bleeding disorders (BD) may be different when compared to adults. Aim The aim of this study was to compare/characterize bleeding phenotype and provider interventions in postmenarchal adolescents

Introduction Prophylaxis is considered the optimal treatment for persons with moderate to severe haemophilia (factor activity between 1-5% of normal and

Based on recent results obtained by the authors on the inverse scattering method of the vector nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with integrable boundary conditions, we discuss the factorization of the interactions of N-soliton solutions on the half-line. Using dressing transformations combined with a mirror image technique, factorization of soliton-soliton and soliton-boundary interactions is proved. We discover a new object, which we call reflection map, that satisfies a set-theoretical reflection equation which we also introduce. Two classes of solutions for the reflection map are constructed. Finally, basic aspects of the theory of set-theoretical reflection equations are introduced., Comment: 29 pages. Featured article in Nonlinearity

In this paper, an investigation for the parameters of the inverted cavity-backed slot (ICBS) antenna is proposed. Typical numerical results are presented to show the effect of various cavity size, slot dimensions and feedline on impedance of the antenna. In addition, the design size of cavity, slot and feed line is suggested, which can be seen as design guidelines of the ICBS antenna.

There are different names of the fire needle therapy in the Huang di nei jing (Inner Canon of Huangdi) such as Zu-zhen (), Cui-zhen (,), Fan-zhen (), Huo-cui (), Cui (,,), Cuici ,), Fan zhen jie ci (). It is claimed that the lance needle, the round sharp needle and the long needle recorded in this Classic are puncturing tools for the fire needle therapy. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing expanded the indications for the fire needle therapy and Huo-zhen () firstly appeared in the Jin kui yu han jing(Classic of the Jade Box and Golden Chamber). The application of the fire needle therapy had been further expanded to a lot of internal and external disorders form the Wei-Jin-Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There are more detailed records on the manipulation and the tools of the fire needle therapy during this period. In the 1970s, Huo zhen liao fa () was proposed and still in use today. However the Bai-zhen (plain needle) in ancient literature is equal to the filiform needle and should not be regarded as the former name of the fire needle.

Clinical hip abnormalities, secondary to recurrent joint and/or muscle bleeding in persons with haemophilia, have not been well characterized and have the potential for significant morbidity. We aimed to examine the prevalence of clinical hip abnormalities in the US haemophilia population and to explore associations between these findings and putative risk factors. We conducted a study of hip abnormalities of 8192 subjects aged 2-69 years with haemophilia A and haemophilia B (54% of haemophilia A and haemophilia B are severe) currently enrolled in the Universal Data Collection (UDC) database. Associations between hip abnormality and type/severity of haemophilia A/B, current age, history of high-titre (≥ 5 BU) inhibitor (HTinh), concomitant ankle (AA) and knee arthropathy (KA), overweight and obesity and prophylaxis were examined using logistic regression. Overall prevalence of hip abnormality at the last recorded UDC visit for all subjects was 16.7%. Haemophilia A (aOR = 1.3, 1.0-1.4), severe haemophilia (aOR = 1.3, 1.0-1.5), a history of HTinh (aOR = 1.4, 1.1-1.7), and concomitant AA (aOR = 1.7, 1.4-1.9) were each independently associated with hip abnormality. Older age (45-69 years) was significantly associated with hip abnormality prevalence only in subjects with KA (aOR = 3.4, 1.9-5.9). The presence of overweight (aOR = 1.4, 1.1-1.8) and obesity (aOR = 2.1, 1.6-2.8) was associated with hip abnormality only among subjects without KA. Hip abnormality prevalence was not influenced by prophylaxis (aOR = 0.9, 0.8-1.1). These data suggest that hip abnormalities in US patients with haemophilia are associated with haemophilia severity and type, HTinh, concomitant AA and, depending on the presence or absence of KA, advancing age and obesity.

We report the release of a new, large-fruited kiwifruit cultivar, ‘White’, selected from Actinidia eriantha. Fruit of ‘White’ had a mean fruit weight of 94 g, and a maximum fruit weight of 132 g at harvest in Zhejiang, China. The mean fruit weight is c. 2–4 times that of wild A. eriantha fruit found in Zhejiang and nearly 4 times that of ‘Bidan’, the only other registered A. eriantha cultivar. The fruit are oblong and the peelable skin is covered with dense white hair. The flesh of ripe fruit is green and has good eating quality but little juice. The soluble solids concentration was 14.7%, total sugar 9%, total acid 1.24%, and vitamin C 628.37 mg/100 g fresh weight. Its harvest season is during the last 10 days of October in the south of Zhejiang province, which is c. 2 weeks later than A. deliciosa ‘Bruno’ in the same area. It is sometimes referred to as the “banana kiwifruit” because the skin is easy to peel. This new cultivar has been registered in China (PVR No. CNA20050673.0).

Cr-containing steel panels have been exposed to marine atmosphere for 2 years. The phase constituents and the micro-structure of the rust layer have been characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results show that there are many cracks and pores in the rust layer on the surface of mild steel exposed for 2 years, resulting in a higher corrosion rate. But a compact rust layer with a phase constituent of alpha Cr substitute ferrite oxyhydroxide (α-CrxFe1-xOOH) has been formed on weathering steel panels with a Cr content more than 2 mass% exposed for 2 years. Furthermore, ion selective measurements showed that the rust layer of α-CrxFe1-xOOH can suppress the penetration of corrosive anions, and accordingly weathering steel panels have a lower corrosion rate in the marine atmosphere.

Low alloy steel panels, exposed in marine atmosphere for 4 years, formed a compacted rust layer which could suppress the penetration of corrosive electrolyte and lower the corrosion rate. But in practical applications, the protective reliability is limited by the mechanical properties of the rust layer under the action of various loads. This paper presented the first attempt to evaluate the variation of mechanical properties of the protective rust layer with the exposure term by means of micro-indentation testing. Based on the analysis of energy release during cracking, the fracture toughness and the adhesion strength of the rust layer were evaluated. Results showed that the fracture toughness and adhesion strength of the rust layer were improved with the prolongation of the exposure term, the adhesion strength of the rust layer was higher than the fracture toughness of the rust layer itself.

Silicon nitride films were deposited by helicon plasma enhanced radio frequency (rf) reactive sputtering. This technique was shown to produce films with low hydrogen and oxygen content at very low sputtering-gas pressure, with improved deposition rate compared with conventional rf reactive sputtering. Stoichiometric Si3N4 film with extremely low hydrogen content (

A combination of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), parallel electron energy-loss spectroscopy (PEELS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and transmission electron diffraction (TED) were used to investigate structural properties and nitrogen-loss characteristics of thin WNx films prepared by reactive magnetron sputtering of tungsten in an Ar–N2 gas mixture. XRD θ−2θ scans combined with plan-view and cross-sectional TEM showed that the as-deposited WNx films were amorphous in structure. Annealing of the as-deposited films at 600°C or above resulted in crystallization of the amorphous phases, forming either a two-phase structure consisting of W2N and b.c.c. W or a single-phase structure of W2N, which was related to the initial nitrogen concentration in the films. The 150-nm thick crystalline films near a stoichiometry of W2N had a columnar microstructure with an average column width of 15–20 nm near the film surface, whereas the column grains were larger for substoichiometric films. Thermal stability and nitrogen-loss characteristics of nitride films were also studied by in situ annealing in the TEM and PEELS system. The results indicate that between 600 and 800°C the W2N phase was stable. Nitrogen in the film started to evaporate to vacuum at approximately 820°C and was fully released after 900°C annealing.

An impulse thermal breakdown model is proposed to understand the breakdown mechanism of Al 2 O 3 thin film based metal-to-metal antifuses. In this model, the electric field dependence as well as the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity is considered. The I – V characteristic of the antifuses indicated that the conductivity of Al 2 O 3 rose greatly under high field. The threshold breakdown voltage of the antifuses was shown by experiment to be proportional to its insulator thickness and to the square root of the insulator resistivity. When breakdown of the antifuses was carried out by applying constant voltage pulse, the inverse square root of the time to breakdown was shown to be proportional to the amplitude of the pulse. All the experimental results were found to be consistent with the theoretical results of the model. In addition, an antifuse breakdown filament with a diameter of 150 nm was observed by using a scanning electron microscope.

On the basis of successful research into new metal–aluminium nitride (M–AlN) cermet solar selective coatings, a commercial-scale cylindrical direct current (dc) magnetron sputter coater has been developed for the deposition of these cermet solar coatings onto batches of tubes. The coater vacuum chamber has a diameter of 0.8 m and is 1.8 m in height. 32 glass tubes may be accommodated in the chamber. Stainless steel–aluminium nitride (SS–AlN) cermet material has been investigated as a solar absorbing layer. Three cylindrical post cathodes, consisting of stainless steel, aluminium and copper tubes, are installed in the chamber. During the deposition of an SS–AlN cermet layer, both the Al and SS targets are sputtered simultaneously in the gas mixture of argon and nitrogen. The nitrogen partial pressure is set sufficiently high at the aluminium target side to ensure that a nearly pure AlN ceramic sublayer is deposited by dc reactive sputtering. The planetary rotation of the 32 tubes results in a multi-layered system consisting of alternating SS and AlN sublayers. This multi-sublayer system can be considered as a macro-homogeneous cermet layer. Varying SS target current achieves different SS volume fractions in the cermet layers. A solar absorptance of 0.94–0.95 and emittance of 0.04–0.05 at room temperature has been achieved for the SS–AlN cermet solar coatings. These solar tubes are stable at 330–400°C. Using this commercial-scale coater, it should be possible to produce solar tubes stable at even higher temperatures (450–550°C), based on a high melting point transition metal–aluminium nitride cermet.

This article discusses the design and construction of guarded hot plate instruments for measuring the heat flow through an evacuated space between plane-parallel glass surfaces. In this structure, the insulating region is surrounded by two pieces of relatively highly conducting material. High resolution measurements of heat flow using these instruments therefore requires the detection of quite small temperature differences (10−4 K) between the metering piece and the guard. The instruments are calibrated, and the linearity evaluated, by measuring radiative heat transfer through the evacuated space between uncoated soda lime glass sheets; this is because this heat flow can be calculated to high accuracy from the infrared optical properties of the glass. The level of parasitic heat flow in the instruments is estimated by measuring radiative heat flow between glass surfaces coated with very low emittance layers, such as evaporated gold. These instruments operate over a range of temperatures from 0 to about 70...

Accurate measurements are reported of the radiative heat transfer between parallel surfaces of uncoated and doped tin oxide coated glass. The infrared properties of the tin oxide coated glass are calculated by a novel approach by fitting a three parameter Drude model to reflectance measurements at a specified angle, and over a restricted range of wavelengths. Estimates of the radiative heat transfer between uncoated and coated glass surfaces are calculated from a consideration of the directional spectral emittances and the blackbody spectrum. This procedure gives results that are in more consistent agreement with experimental measurements than results obtained by considering the hemispherical total, or directional total emittances. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.

The substantial progress in the science and technology of vacuum glazing that has occurred over the past few years is reviewed. Vacuum glazing up to 1 m × 1 m in size has been produced with an air-to-air, mid-device thermal conductance as low as 0.90 W m−2 K−1, compared with 1.3 W m−2 K−1 for high performance double glazing. The mechanical tensile stresses in vacuum glazing due to pressure and temperature differentials are well understood, and appear to be tolerably small. The internal vacuum is high, and extremely stable over long times at moderate temperatures. The likely cost of volume production of vacuum glazing should be only slightly greater than for high performance double glazing.

Results are reported of the porosity and the microstructure of amorphous hydrogenated carbon films produced by direct current (d.c.) sputtering. The as-deposited films were initially slightly mesoporous. Heating the material in a vacuum, however, produced a highly porous material. The amount of porosity and the pore size distribution were directly related to the quantity of material which was outgassed during heating. The dependence on the baking temperature of the degree of sp2 hybridization in the films had the same form as the dependence of the porosity and of the quantity of outgassing. The plasmon-energy data for the films was related to the process of morphology and composition reconstruction during the heating. The outgassing quantity was strongly dependent on the oxygen content of the as-prepared material. The morphology changes in the material can be regarded as a carbon-activation process involving the incorporation of oxygen in the film during deposition, followed by the outgassing of carbon-oxygen compounds during heating in vacuum. Many of the properties of the hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C∶H) film were very similar to those exhibited by conventional activated carbons, and it is therefore concluded that the porous baked a-C∶H film is a form of activated carbon.

We investigate the Manakov model or, more generally, the vector nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation on the half-line. Using a B\"acklund transformation method, two classes of integrable boundary conditions are derived: mixed Neumann/Dirichlet and Robin boundary conditions. Integrability is shown by constructing a generating function for the conserved quantities. We apply a nonlinear mirror image technique to construct the inverse scattering method with these boundary conditions. The important feature in the reconstruction formula for the fields is the symmetry property of the scattering data emerging from the presence of the boundary. Particular attention is paid to the discrete spectrum. An interesting phenomenon of transmission between the components of a vector soliton interacting with the boundary is demonstrated. This is specific to the vector nature of the model and is absent in the scalar case. For one-soliton solutions, we show that the boundary can be used to make certain components of the incoming soliton vanishingly small. This is reminiscent of the phenomenon of light polarization by reflection., Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures, some clarifications in propositions 3.1 and 3.2, added appendix with detailed comparison between linear and nonlinear cases. Accepted in J. Phys. A

The coefficients of the simplest normal forms of both high-dimensional Neimark-Sacker and generalized Neimark-Sacker bifurcation systems were discussed. On the basis of the simplest normal form theory, using appropriate nonlinear transformations, direct computation and the second complete induction, the central manifold equations were further reduced to the simplest normal forms which only contained two nonlinear terms. Theorems were established for the explicit expression of the simplest normal forms in terms of the coefficients of the conventional normal forms of Neimark-Sacker and generalized Neimark-Sacker bifurcations systems.

A time-to-digital converter (TDC) is described, integrated on a single field-programmable gate array device with 75 ps single-shot resolution (LSB). Multiple-shot measurement statistically improves resolution to about 5 ps. The circuit is based on a counter and a two-step cascading delay line method that uses only 24 delay cells to provide 128 LSBs in the interpolator that resolves the time interval within the reference clock cycle. The relevant calibration method is also presented to obtain the time parameters of the TDC at the current temperature and voltage. This TDC can measure time intervals from 0 to 1.3 ms and the maximum range is only limited by the range of the counter. The temperature dependence is 0.1 ps/°C.

40 patients infected with P. westermani were divided into 3 groups and treated with praziquantel (2-cyclohexylcarbonyl-1,2,3,6,7,11b-hexahydro-4H-pyrazino[2,1-a]++ +isoquinolin- 4-one) by 3 different dosages. Parasitological cure was achieved in 27/40 patients, i.e. 67.5%. Details are given in this short communication.

The residual stress and structural properties of tungsten thin films prepared by magnetron sputtering as a function of sputtering-gas pressure are reported. The films were analyzed in situ by a cantilever beam technique, and ex situ by x-ray diffraction, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron energy-loss spectrometry, and energy-filtered electron diffraction. It is found that the residual stress, microstructure, and surface morphology are clearly correlated. The film stresses, determined in real time during the film formation, depend strongly on the argon pressure and change from highly compressive to highly tensile in a relatively narrow pressure range of 12–26 mTorr. For pressures exceeding ∼60 mTorr, the stress in the film is nearly zero. It is also found that the nonequilibrium A15 W structure is responsible for the observed tensile stress, whereas the stable bcc W or a mixture of bcc W and A15 W are in compression. Cross-sectional TEM eviden...

A combination of energy-filtered electron diffraction, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction are used to establish that oxygen impurities incorporated in tungsten films prepared by magnetron sputtering in the early stage of the deposition play a dominant role in the formation of an amorphous phase. Energy-filtered electron diffraction data collected from a range of amorphous films were Fourier transformed to a reduced density function (RDF) and matched with an amorphous model. The results show that better agreement with the experimental RDF is achieved if the amorphous model consists of a random continuous matrix of clusters with W3O-like symmetry.

Thin tungsten nitride ( WN x ) films were produced by reactive dc magnetron sputtering of tungsten in an Ar–N 2 gas mixture. The effects of the variation of nitrogen partial pressure on the composition, residual stress, and structural properties of these films as well as the influence of postdeposition annealing have been studied. The films were analyzed in situ by a cantilever beam technique, and ex situ by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy(TEM). It was found that at N concentrations below 8 at. %, the films (typical 150 nm in thickness) were essentially bcc α-W. An amorphous phase was observed in the range of about 12–28 at. % N. When N concentrations reached ∼32 at. % or above, a single-phase structure of W 2 N was formed. Annealing of the as-deposited films resulted in crystallization of the amorphous or an improved crystallinity of the W 2 N structure, which was related to the N concentration. Stresses of all W and WN x films were compressive. As the N concentration was increased, the stress decreased and reached its lowest value for amorphous samples near 20 at. % N. Past this point, the compression of films rose again. These results can be ascribed to structural changes induced by the pressure-dependent variation in the average energy of particles bombarding the film during deposition. Cross-sectional TEM studies showed that all crystalline WN x films had columnar microstructures. The average column width near stoichiometry of W 2 N was ∼20±5 nm near the film surface.