Search

Apple canker has decreased yields of the economically important apple (Malus domestica) crop in China in recent years. Pathogen identity is highly challenging and the disease is poorly understood. Specimens of 339 fungi were isolated from apple trees in the primary apple-producing region in the Tarim Basin during the current study. In total, nine species of Cytospora and five species of the family Botryosphaeriaceae were identified by morphological observation and multilocus phylogenetic analyses: internal transcribed spacer (ITS), actin, translation elongation factor (TEF), and β-tubulin (TUB) gene regions for Cytospora and ITS, TEF, and TUB for Botryosphaeriaceae. Cytospora pyri from the Cytospora genus was the dominant species causing apple canker in the Tarim Basin. C. melnikii, C. tritici, C. euonymina, Diplodia seriata, and Botryosphaeria dothidea have been described as the cause of apple canker in China. Apple (Red Fuji) branches were utilized to assess the pathogenicity of 24 representative fungal isolates from the 14 species, and branches from seven distinct woody plants (Korla pear, walnut, Chinese date, Xinjiang poplar, sand jujube, Populus euphratica, and willow) were utilized to analyze the host range. The main pathogenic fungal species of apple canker around the Tarim Basin were identified and biological characteristics explored. Pathogen diversity and regional source diversity were assessed with host range and pathogenicity. The aim was to provide a theoretical foundation for the prevention and treatment of apple canker.

The softening of a hot-deformed die steel under thermocycling used in thermal fatigue tests is studied. The changes in the microstructure, in the dislocation structure and in the hardness of the surface layer and of the core of the thermocycled sample are analyzed. It is shown that the thermocycling process is accompanied by softening of the hot-deformed die steel, because the total concentration of structural flaws grows or decreases in turns at a general tendency to lowering.

The electromagnetic stirring (EMS) effects on peritectic solidification kinetics of undercooled liquid Fe-Ti alloys have been investigated by electrostatic levitation(ESL) and electromagnetic levitation (EML) methods assisted with in-situ diagnostic techniques. The high-sensitivity pyrometer and high-speed camera were employed to monitor the complete solidification process for levitated liquid Fe59Ti41 alloy in undercooling ΔT range of 0 K to 213 K. Theoretical calculations showed that there existed EMS inside electromagnetically levitated alloy melts, and the internal fluid flow dynamics depended on levitation height and melt undercooling. As ΔT rised, the primary dendrite growth velocity V increased according to a power function. Meanwhile, the peritectic recalescence degree ΔTpr and the peritectic recalescence rate Rpr were enhanced gradually, whereas the peritectic recalescence time tpr and the peritectic solidification time tps were shortened linearly. The comparison between ESL and EML experiments revealed that the EMS resulted in four respects of influences including (1) dendrite growth effect, (2) concentration field effect, (3) peritectic reaction effect and (4) microstructure evolution effect. In contrast with ESL, the V of Fe50Ti50 alloy measured by EML was slightly larger at small undercoolings, indicating the EMS affected dendrite growth processes. The solute concentration $$ C_{\text{L}}^{*} $$ around primary Fe2Ti dendrites for electrostatically levitated liquid Fe59Ti41 alloy deviated far away from original composition, while the EMS homogenized concentration field and the $$ C_{\text{L}}^{*} $$ variation was weak under EML condition. Both tpr and tps in the absence of EMS were longer that those in the presence of EMS, and it was demonstrated that the EMS accelerated peritectic reaction. Except for microstructure refinement, the EMS modulated the microstructure type and also changed the faceted-growth mode of intermetallic compound phases.

Background: We have shown that human stromal cells (HS5) treated with small extracellular vesicles (EV) derived from plasma of myeloma (MM) patients (MM-EV) promoted adhesion of human MM cell lines (HMCL), with preliminary proteomic profiling of MM- vs healthy donors HD-EV revealing enrichment of factors implicated in cell migration and adhesion. Aims: 1) Demonstrate that MM-EV induce the formation of a tumour microenvironment (TME) favouring MM progression; 2) identify the protein content of MM-EV promoting this; 3) discover signaling drivers of EV-mediated functional remodelling of HS5 towards a pre-metastatic phenotype. Methods: EV were enriched from 1mL plasma using a commercial kit. We performed: proteomic profiling of EV [x10 HD, x8 MM, x4 asymptomatic MM, x10 premalignant stage MGUS]; phosphoproteomic profiling and gene expression analysis by RNA sequencing of HS5 cells pre-treated with MM- vs HD/MGUS-EV; functional studies (co-culture HS5:HMCL). Results: HS5 cells treated with MM-EV induced HMCL proliferation (p =.0026) and drug resistance (p =.0013) to anti-MM drugs (proteasome inhibitors) when compared to untreated HS5-cells.412 proteins were quantified by proteomic profiling of EV with 8/13 corresponding to universal cancer EV markers (Hoshino et al, Cell 2020). Gene ontology analysis of identified proteins (G:Profiler; p 1.5-fold change, p phosphatases, translation and transcription regulators. 624 gene terms were differentially expressed between HS5 pre-treated with MM- vs HD-EV (GSEA, FDR < 0.05), including epidermal growth factor (EGF), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFA), epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling. Conclusion: In this first of its kind studies in MM we show that MM-EV may play a key role in disease progression by re-programming the TME. Ongoing studies will indicate: the value of MM-EV as biomarkers; whether targeting interactions MM-EV:HS5 could enforce current therapeutic strategies. Citation Format: Antonia Reale, Rong Xu, Irena Carmichael, Haoyun Fang, Jaynish S Sha, Tiffany Khong, Nicholas Bingham, Malarmathy Ramachandran, Maoshan Chen, David W Greening, Andrew Spencer. Myeloma-derived circulating extracellular vesicles affect human stromal cell behaviour and promote tumor progression: A multi-omic approach [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 2366.

This study reports for the first-time antioxidant activity and flavonoid composition of KP onion landrace which is useful for future breeding programs and to obtain geographical indication (GI) tag for the benefit of farmers. The present study was aimed to determine antioxidant capacity and flavonoid composition of bulbs of red onion (

Water vapor exchange is a key component in terrestrial surface water balance. However, the biophysical regulation processes that control evapotranspiration (ET) in semiarid farmland areas have not been fully resolved. In this study, seasonal and interannual variances in ET and their environmental controls from 2009 to 2011 were investigated in a semiarid, rain-fed farmland using eddy covariance. One moderately dry year (2010) and two extremely dry years (2009 and 2011) were observed; however, 2009 (an extremely dry year) had the same weather condition as that of 2010 (a moderately dry year), and 2011 set out as different from the other two years. The results indicated that the maximum daily ET in the 2009 (4.4 mm d−1) and 2010 (4.7 mm d−1) growth seasons was higher than that in 2011 (3.0 mm d−1). Cumulative annual ET values were 310.6, 318.0, and 210.2 mm in 2009 to 2011, which were 109%, 96%, and 72% of the precipitation (PPT) received, respectively. The contribution of PPT in summer to the annual ET was more than that in autumn, and the extremely dry climate during the pregrowth stage and early spring period restricted the annual ET in 2011. The lowest annual ET in 2011 was caused by low daytime ET rather than nighttime ET. The strong power relationship (R2 = 0.85) between the decoupling coefficient (Ω) and the canopy conductance (gc) indicated that ET was sensitive to gc, and gc control on ET increased as the day progressed. The physiological controls of ET were associated closely with soil moisture, and drought had a strong effect on the ET response to environmental factors, such as incoming shortwave radiation and vapor pressure deficit. These results have important potential implications for understanding and modeling water cycle feedback to the increasing drought climate in the Loess Plateau characterized by serious soil and water loss.

Background Past research in population health trends has shown that injuries form a substantial burden of population health loss. Regular updates to injury burden assessments are critical. We report Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 Study estimates on morbidity and mortality for all injuries. methods We reviewed results for injuries from the GBD 2017 study. GBD 2017 measured injury-specific mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) using the Cause of Death Ensemble model. To measure non-fatal injuries, GBD 2017 modelled injury-specific incidence and converted this to prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs). YLLs and YLDs were summed to calculate disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Findings In 1990, there were 4 260 493 (4 085 700 to 4 396 138) injury deaths, which increased to 4 484 722 (4 332 010 to 4 585 554) deaths in 2017, while age-standardised mortality decreased from 1079 (1073 to 1086) to 738 (730 to 745) per 100 000. In 1990, there were 354 064 302 (95% uncertainty interval: 338 174 876 to 371 610 802) new cases of injury globally, which increased to 520 710 288 (493 430 247 to 547 988 635) new cases in 2017. During this time, age-standardised incidence decreased non-significantly from 6824 (6534 to 7147) to 6763 (6412 to 7118) per 100 000. Between 1990 and 2017, age-standardised DALYs decreased from 4947 (4655 to 5233) per 100 000 to 3267 (3058 to 3505). Interpretation Injuries are an important cause of health loss globally, though mortality has declined between 1990 and 2017. Future research in injury burden should focus on prevention in high-burden populations, improving data collection and ensuring access to medical care. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

Background: While there is a long history of measuring death and disability from injuries, modern research methods must account for the wide spectrum of disability that can occur in an injury, and must provide estimates with sufficient demographic, geographical and temporal detail to be useful for policy makers. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 study used methods to provide highly detailed estimates of global injury burden that meet these criteria. Methods: In this study, we report and discuss the methods used in GBD 2017 for injury morbidity and mortality burden estimation. In summary, these methods included estimating cause-specific mortality for every cause of injury, and then estimating incidence for every cause of injury. Non-fatal disability for each cause is then calculated based on the probabilities of suffering from different types of bodily injury experienced. Results: GBD 2017 produced morbidity and mortality estimates for 38 causes of injury. Estimates were produced in terms of incidence, prevalence, years lived with disability, cause-specific mortality, years of life lost and disability-adjusted life-years for a 28-year period for 22 age groups, 195 countries and both sexes. Conclusions: GBD 2017 demonstrated a complex and sophisticated series of analytical steps using the largest known database of morbidity and mortality data on injuries. GBD 2017 results should be used to help inform injury prevention policy making and resource allocation. We also identify important avenues for improving injury burden estimation in the future. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC B Y. Published by BMJ.

The Inconel 600 alloy was highly undercooled and its S/L interface migration during recalescence was observed in real time by using the electromagnetic levitation (EML) system. The characteristic of S/L interface migration and the dendritic growth velocity are strongly dependent on undercooling. At a small undercooling, the γ phase nucleates and grows to the undercooled melt with a sharp interface, and the corresponding microstructure appears as dendrite with strong texture. Nevertheless, once the undercooling exceeds the critical undercooling the sharp S/L interface transforms to a planar shape, which is attributed to the formation of equiaxed grain with a diffused orientation distribution. The 60° annealing twins are generated only when the undercooling is larger than 130 K, due to the obvious recrystallization and sufficient driving force. Besides, the compressive tests were performed on the bulk Inconel 600 alloy samples. The results demonstrate that the elastic modulus is affected little by the undercooling, however, the yield strength obviously increases with the enhancement of undercooling. The strengthening mechanism is mainly ascribed to the formation of sub grain boundaries and annealing twins.

To investigate the microstructural dependence of magnetic property for hypereutectic Co62Mo38 alloy, it was sufficiently undercooled by electromagnetic levitation (EML) and drop tube (DT) techniques. The maximum liquid undercoolings attained as 232 K (0.13 TL) at levitated state and 313 K (0.18 TL) under microgravity condition, respectively. At small undercoolings, the final microstructure consisted of lath-shaped primary e-Co7Mo6 dendrites and interdendritic (α-Co + e-Co7Mo6) eutectics. As the undercooling increased, the volume fraction of α-Co phase decreased continuously, leading to a reduction in saturation magnetization. Meanwhile, the coercive force exhibited a downward trend due to the coarsening of α-Co grain. Once the undercooling exceeded 271 K, the equiaxed growth of e-Co7Mo6 compound was induced. In this case, the value of saturation magnetization abruptly increased with the increase of alloy undercooling, whereas the coercive force was further reduced.

To explore an innovative approach to prepare high-performance Mo-based refractory alloys, the rapid solidification mechanisms of undercooled Mo-40%Co hyperperitectic alloy were investigated by both electromagnetic levitation (EML) and drop tube (DT) techniques. During EML experiments, typical peritectic solidification still prevailed even at the maximum undercooling of 252 K (0.14 TL). The dendrite growth velocity of primary σ-Mo3Co2 compound varied with alloy undercooling by a power relation, which attained 24.3 mm s−1. As the bulk undercooling increased, the conspicuous dendrite fragmentation of primary phase took place, resulting in its grain refinement and volume fraction reduction. Meanwhile, the second recalescence degree exhibited a decreasing tendency, which indicated that the peritectic reaction was remarkably suppressed in the undercooled state. Under free fall condition, two critical diameters were determined for tiny alloy droplets and the corresponding undercooling thresholds were calculated as 361 and 443 K, respectively. When the alloy droplet was larger than 707 μm, the typical peritectic solidification proceeded and the final microstructure was composed of primary σ-Mo3Co2 dendrites and interdendritic e-Mo6Co7 peritectic phase. With the reduction of droplet diameter, the direct nucleation of peritectic phase was induced. In this case, the e-Mo6Co7 intermetallic compound regions appeared preferentially at the periphery of alloy droplets, whereas the typical peritectic microstructure filled in the center area. Once the droplet diameter decreased to 93 μm, the peritectic solidification characteristics disappeared completely and the metastable e-Mo6Co7 single phase became the unique growth morphology.

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical science. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press.

Virtual water is the volume of water that is used in the production process of acommodity (Allan,2003). Agricultural trade is by far the largest vehicle to move water virtuallyaround theworld. The effects ofwater scarcity in many countries and regions can be reduced throughopen farmtrade and specialization. Many world countries are now suffering water shortages andexpect worsening conditions in the future due to climate change, economic development and fooddemand increases . Therefore, this paper analyses about the most exporting water-intensive agricultural product and its virtual water content in the same using secondary data from various government data sources not only to find the virtual water content and also for the inhibition of the elixir of life.Hargreaves- Samani Method has been used for calculating the value of evapotranspiration and Allan, Hoekstra formula for finding virtual water value

A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs 4 (ADAMTS-4) can effectively degrade articular cartilage matrix proteoglycan and damage the intervertebral disc of spinal tuberculosis patients, resulting in deterioration of the physical properties of articular cartilage. Transforming growth factor β activated kinase 1 (TAK1) is similar to vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and closely related to a variety of pathophysiological processes. This study intended to explore the expression of ADAMTS-4, VCAM-1, and TAK1 in cartilage tissue obtained from spinal tuberculosis patients and their inter-relationships, aiming to provide new treatment approaches for spinal tuberculosis. Patients with spinal tuberculosis (N = 60) from the department of orthopedics and patients with traumatic spinal fracture (N = 60, controls) were recruited for the study. ADAMTS-4, VCAM-1, and TAK1 expression was detected by immunohistochemistry. SPSS 19.0 software was used for data processing and analysis. The score values of ADAMTS-4, TAK1, and VCAM-1 were 1.45 ± 0.10, 1.33 ± 0.09, and 1.54 ± 0.11, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in normal controls (P0.05). ADAMTS-4 showed positive correlation with VCAM-1 and TAK1. ADAMTS-4, TAK1, and VCAM-1 expressions increased in spinal tuberculosis patients. They could provide clinical reference for spinal tuberculosis diagnosis and new treatment strategies can be devised by focusing on their positive correlation.

Early indica rice was chemically modified via acetylation to make modified food starch products with high contents of resistant starch. High contents of RS 4 (type 4 resistant starch) of the products were measured. The result showed that the RS 4 content increased obviously via acetylation. Acetylated starch was studied by FT-IR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy), SEM (scanning electron microscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction) and DSC (differential scanning calorimetry). The starch granules were destroyed as observed by SEM. The X-ray diffraction data showed that the crystal structure of acetylated starch with low degree of substitution changed slightly and a part of crystallite structure (2 θ 18°) was destroyed when the acetyl content was more than 3.25%. The heat of crystalloid fusion, gelatinization temperature, and gelatinization enthalpy all decreased (DSC) as the degree of substitution increased. SEM, XRD and DSC indicated that the resistance to enzymatic degradation of acetylated starch depended on the degree of substitution and the integrity of starch granules.

Existing descriptions of ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca block focus on injection of local anaesthetic inferior to the inguinal ligament, relying on supra-inguinal spread to block the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve in the iliac fossa. In this study, we explored injectate spread and nerve involvement in a cadaveric dye-injection model, using a supra-inguinal ultrasound-guided technique that places local anaesthetic directly into the iliac fossa. Bilateral injections of 20 ml 0.25% aniline blue dye were made in six unembalmed cadavers. The femoral nerve was stained by the dye in all twelve injections. The lateral femoral cutaneous nerve was stained bilaterally in five cadavers, but the nerve was absent on both sides in the sixth cadaver. The ilio-inguinal nerve passed into the iliac fossa over the iliacus muscle in eight of the hemi-pelvi and was stained in seven of these occasions. We have performed more than 150 blocks in patients using this approach without complications. Injection using this technique in cadavers leads to extensive fluid spread throughout the iliac fossa. In patients this approach may allow a lower volume block of the femoral nerve and lateral femoral cutaneous nerve while still injecting at a distance from the femoral nerve.

Background: Noninvasive image-guided breast brachytherapy (NIIGBB) is an FDA-approved, commercially available (AccuBoost®, Billerica, MA) mammography-based, breast brachytherapy system whereby the treatment applicators are centered on the planning target volume (PTV) to direct 192Ir emissions along orthogonal axes. This study evaluates the feasibility, implementation, and early results of NIIGBB for breast tumor bed boost in combination with external beam whole breast radiation therapy (WBRT), as part of post-lumpectomy radiation. Material and Methods: A privacy-encrypted online data registry was created to collect clinical and technical information from 8 independent academic and community-based institutions. Data were collected from consecutive 110 individual women with early stage breast cancer after breast conserving surgery, who received adjuvant WBRT (mean dose 48.3 ± 2.5 Gy) and tumor bed boost with NIIGBB between July, 2007 and March, 2010. Of the patients, 74% had invasive cancer, with 80% ER+ and 34% HER2+. NIIGBB was delivered before, during, or after WBRT in 57%, 39%, or 4% of the patients. Patient age and lumpectomy cavity size ranged from 32-88 yrs and 0.1-5.3 cm, respectively. Boost dose was delivered in 1.9 ± 0.3 Gy/fx for a total of 12.9 ± 3.4Gy. Toxicity and cosmesis were evaluated after radiation therapy and graded according to the Common Toxicity Criteria (v3.0) and the Harvard scale. Median follow up was 6 months (1-17 months). Results: Grade 1-2 skin toxicity was observed in 18%, 7%, and 0% during the acute (1-3wks), intermediate (4-26 wks), and late-intermediate (>26wks) periods. There were no Grade 3 or higher skin toxicity events. At 6 months, for the entire cohort, cosmetic grading was excellent, good, fair/poor in 52%, 48%, and 0%. The breast compression achieved for each treatment session was remarkably consistent with a mean mammographic plate separation of 6.4 ± 0.3 cm. Breast compression was scored as “uncomfortable” when NIIGBB was delivered before or during WBRT. The mean total duration of set-up and treatment per fraction was 16.7 ± 2.1 min. For each patient, the fraction-to-fraction variability in estimated PTV was low as 69% of treatments were completed with the same applicator size. Discussion: These data indicate that NIIGBB is feasible and can be consistently implemented in a broad array of practice settings. Preliminary evaluation suggests that NIIGBB is associated with acceptably mild normal tissue toxicity and favorable early cosmetic results. The application of NIIGBB before completion of WBRT may be associated with better patient tolerance at the expense of slightly less favorable short-term cosmetic outcome. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P4-11-13.

The lack of knowledge on water flow and particle behavior of sandstone wastewater in sedimentation tanks of hydropower stations is a significant challenge for the design of these processes. In this study, the Euler-Lagrange two-phase model was applied to study the flow, sedimentation, and particle trajectories in a two-stage rectangular tank that is divided into two sections with different hydraulic retention times. The interfacial momentum transfer, buoyant force, and the collision force were considered, and the Lagrange approach was employed to determine the particle trajectories of the particles. The flow patterns, removal efficiency of the particles, and particle trajectories along the tank were investigated. The experimental and numerical results revealed that the two-stage rectangular tank is efficient in dealing with high turbidity sandstone wastewater. In addition, the simulated removal efficiencies were in good agreement with the experimental results. Last, the sensitivity of particle behavior to the collision force was studied, and the effect of the baffle length on particle settling in the rectangular sedimentation tank was evaluated.

Single and multiple electron capture processes are investigated in slow collisions between highly charged Xeq+ (q = 15–21) ions and molecular nitrogen. The formation of N 2 q + ions by electron capture, dissociation of molecular ion N 2 + and Coulomb Explosion of N 2 q + (1

Radarsat-2 Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR) remote sensing data were used to record soil surface moisture and evaluate the utility of a cross polarization (VV/VH) combination. Studies were conducted at Dingxi, in the semi-arid region of the Loess Plateau, China. We combined these data with MODIS optical data, used a Water-Cloud model to correct for the influence of vegetation, and then estimated the soil moisture under crop cover. For bare surfaces, the value of the cross polarization combination model was highly correlated to the measurement of soil moisture at 10~20 cm depth (R=0.75, P

The abundance of different ions produced by laser ion sources is usually analyzed by an electrostatic ion analyzer (EIA). Ion current intensities in the range of several mA/cm(2) at the position of the EIA have been achieved from the laser ion source developed by the Institute of Modern Physics; this indicates that a noticeable influence of space charge effect during the ion transmission will occur. Hence, while the parameters of the EIA or the beams are changed, such as ion species, current intensity, the ions' transmission efficiency through the EIA is different, which will result in an uncertainty in the estimation of the ions' yields. Special attention is focused on this issue in this paper. Ion's transmissions through the EIA under different circumstances are studied with simulations and experiments, the results of which are consistent with each other.

A mechanistic model of a seat cushion is developed. The work relates the kinematic motion of the seat to the geometric and constitutive properties of the cellular foam used in the seat. The model includes the influence of pneumatic damping caused by friction between the gas within the open-celled foam and matrix polymer. A continuous shape function is introduced to characterize the piecewise continuous stress–strain characteristic of flexible open–celled foam. After some simplification, a non-linear dynamic automotive seat cushion model is derived, which relies explicitly on the constitutive properties of polyurethane foams and on the geometry of the seat cushion. Experimental and analytical models of the two automotive seats are compared to verify the model. The comparisons indicate that the new model is able to predict the dynamic performance of an automotive seat cushion with fidelity.

SECRAL (superconducting ECR ion source with advanced design in Lanzhou) ion source has been in routine operation for Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) accelerator complex since May 2007. To further enhance the SECRAL performance in order to satisfy the increasing demand for intensive highly charged ion beams, 3-5 kW high power 24 GHz single frequency and 24 GHz +18 GHz double frequency with an aluminum plasma chamber were tested, and some exciting results were produced with quite a few new record highly charged ion beam intensities, such as (129)Xe(35+) of 64 eμA, (129)Xe(42+) of 3 eμA, (209)Bi(41+) of 50 eμA, (209)Bi(50+) of 4.3 eμA and (209)Bi(54+) of 0.2 eμA. In most cases SECRAL is operated at 18 GHz to deliver highly charged heavy ion beams for the HIRFL accelerator, only for those very high charge states and very heavy ion beams such as (209)Bi(36+) and (209)Bi(41+), SECRAL has been operated at 24 GHz. The total operation beam time provided by SECRAL up to July 2011 has exceeded 7720 hours. In this paper, the latest performance, development, and operation status of SECRAL ion source are presented. The latest results and reliable long-term operation for the HIRFL accelerator have demonstrated that SECRAL performance for production of highly charged heavy ion beams remains improving at higher RF power with optimized tuning.

A laser (Nd:YAG laser, 3 J, 1064 nm, 8-10 ns) ion source has been built and under development at IMP to provide pulsed high-charge-state heavy ion beams to a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) for upgrading the IMP accelerators with a new low-energy beam injector. The laser ion source currently operates in a direct plasma injection scheme to inject the high charge state ions produced from a solid target into the RFQ. The maximum power density on the target was about 8.4 × 10(12) W∕cm(2). The preliminary experimental results will be presented and discussed in this paper.

The crystal structure of the adipocyte lipid-binding protein (ALBP) with coordinated fatty acid shows the hydrophobic ligand bound within a water-filled central cavity with its carboxyl group engaged in a hydrogen bonding network involving, at least in part, the functional groups of residues R126 and Y128. We produced mutant forms of ALBP which altered these amino acids, expressed these in Escherichia coli as glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion proteins, and examined their ligand-binding properties using the fluorescent fatty acids cis-parinaric acid (c-PA) and 12-(9-anthroyloxy)-oleate (12-AO). The wild-type and all mutated forms of GST-ALBP displayed similar binding affinities for 12-AO, with Kd,app values ranging from 0.5 to 2.4 microM. The binding affinity of ALBP forms R126Q and Y128W for c-PA were reduced about 30-50-fold in comparison to GST-ALBP, while that for the double mutation R126L + Y128F was below the limits of detection. To determine if the hydrogen bonding system functioned in situ, Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell transfectants expressing wild-type ALBP demonstrated a moderate (1.5-2-fold) increase in the total rate of [3H]oleate uptake and trafficking into the esterified lipid pools over that of untransfected cells, while the rate of [3H]oleate uptake of the transfected CHOs expressing the R126L + Y128F mutation was identical to that of the control CHOs. In summary, these results suggest that the primary factor contributing to binding affinity of ALBP for fatty acids such as c-PA or oleic acid both in vitro and in situ is the hydrogen bonding network involving at least R126, Y128, and the lipid carboxyl group. However, a ligand with sufficiently large hydrophobic character such as 12-AO can bind in the absence of a functional carboxylate hydrogen bonding network, presumably due to stabilizing entropic interactions with other cavity atoms.

The main objective of the present study was to develop an orally disintegrating tablet formulation of domperidone and to study the functionality differences of superdisintegrants each obtained from two different sources on the tablet properties.Domperidone tablets were formulated with different superdisintegrants by direct compression. The effect of the type of superdisintegrant, its concentration and source was studied by measuring the in-vitro disintegration time, wetting time, water absorption ratios, drug release by dissolution and in-vivo oral disintegration time.Tablets prepared with crospovidone had lower disintegration times than tablets prepared from sodium starchglycolate and croscarmellose sodium. Formulations prepared with Polyplasdone XL, Ac-Di-Sol, and Explotab (D series) were better than formulations prepared with superdisintegrants obtained from other sources (DL series) which had longer disintegration times and lower water uptake ratios. The in-vivo disintegration time of formulation D-106 containing polyplasdone XL was significantly lower than that of the marketed formulation Domel-MT.The results from this study suggest that disintegration of orally disintegrating tablets is dependent on the nature of superdisintegrant, concentration in the formulation and its source. Even though a superdisintegrant meets USP standards there can be a variance among manufacturers in terms of performance. This is not only limited to in-vitro studies but carries over to disintegration times in the human population.

With the advent of nanometer technologies, the design size of integrated circuits is getting larger and the operation speed is getting faster. As a consequence, test cost is becoming unbearable with traditional test methods. The big challenge for design and test engineers is how to guarantee the required high levels of test quality and yield while keeping the test cost low. From a scan-based ATPG point of view, there are two main ways to reduce test cost. One way is to reduce test pattern volume and test run time. The problem is how to maintain the same test coverage with a smaller test pattern set. The other way to reduce test cost is to use lower-end testers, which are much cheaper but have limited memory, data channels, and clocking capabilities. This paper shares the experiences of a real case of how to significantly reduce scan test cost by using DFT techniques.

This paper gives a general approximation formula of the largest eigenvalue distribution in correlated MIMO (multiple input multiple output) Rayleigh channels. The proposed formula is given by improvement of SIMO (single input single output) based analysis method of MIMO systems, and applicable to any type of correlation including the case covariance matrix has degenerated eigenvalues for which conventional exact formula could not be used. The effectiveness of the proposed equation for various correlated MIMO channels is demonstrated through computer simulations. (5 pages)

In this paper, we describe about the statistical distribution of eigenvalues of correlation matrices in independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) MIMO Rayleigh fading channels. First, the statistical eigenanalysis of MIMO channel correlation matrices is carried out, and the exact expression of the marginal distribution of eigenvalues is presented. Then, a monomial approximation of above distribution with a simple form convenient for the calculation of MIMO performance is proposed based on the theory of space diversity in SIMO systems adopting maximal ratio combining. Through computer simulations, the effectiveness of the proposed approximation method is demonstrated