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Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship Background Pulmonary transit time (PTT) is a quantitative biomarker of cardiopulmonary status. Rest PTT was previously shown to predict outcomes in specific disease models, but clinical adoption is hindered but challenges in data acquisition. Whether evaluation of PTT during stress encodes incremental prognostic information has not been previously investigated as scale. Objectives To compare the prognostic value of stress and rest PTT derived from a fully automated, in-line method of estimation using perfusion CMR, in a large patient cohort. Methods A retrospective two-center study of patients referred clinically for adenosine stress myocardial perfusion assessment using CMR. Analysis of right and left ventricular cavity arterial input function curves from first pass perfusion was performed automatically, allowing the in-line estimation of both rest and stress PTT. Association with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) was evaluated. MACE was defined as a composite outcome of myocardial infarction, stroke, heart failure admission and ventricular tachycardia or appropriate ICD treatment (including ICD shock and/or anti-tachycardia pacing). Results 985 patients (67% male, median age 62 years (IQR 52,71)) were included, with median left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 62% (IQR 54-69). Median stress PTT was shorter than rest PTT 6.2 (IQR 5.1, 7.7) seconds versus 7.7 (IQR, 6.4, 9.2) seconds. Stress and rest PTT were highly correlated (r = 0.69; p Conclusions In this 2-center study of 985 patients, we deploy a fully automated method of PTT estimation using perfusion mapping with CMR and show that both stress and rest PTT are independently associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. In this patient cohort, there is no clear incremental prognostic value of stress PTT, over its evaluation during rest. Figure 1. Stress and Rest Pulmonary Transit Time estimation using myocardial perfusion CMR Figure 2. Event-free survival curves for major adverse cardiovascular events (Heart failure hospitalization, myocardial infarction, stroke and ventricular tachycardia/ICD treatment) according to mean rest PTT (8.05seconds) and mean stress PTT (6.7seconds). Log-rank for both p

Bacterial communities in anode microbial fuel cells (MFC) obtained from anaerobic digester sludge in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (Nanjing, China) were investigated. Glucose, propyl alcohol and methanol were used as sole carbon source in two-chamber MFC. The results showed that a reproducible cycle of power production can be formed in MFC fed with 3 substrates and glucose-fed MFC had the highest peak power density of 1499 ± 33 mW/m3, followed by methanol- (1264 ± 47 mW/m3) and propyl alcohol-fed MFC (1192 ± 36 mW/m3). Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Verrucomicrobia, Proteobacteria, Synergistetes and Armatimonadetes were dominant phyla in 3 MFC. Firmicutes was the most dominant phylum in glucose-fed MFC samples and Bacteroidetes prevailed in methanol- and propyl alcohol-fed MFC. These data indicate that propyl alcohol and methanol along with glucose can be used as substrates of MFC.

The microstructure and 650 °C tensile behavior of Ti-6·5Al-2Sn- 4Zr-xMo-2Nb-1W-0·2Si high temperature titanium alloys with different contents of Mo were systematically investigated. The results showed that Mo was mainly solubilised in β phase, and the concentration of Mo in α phase was much less than Nb. Microstructure observations indicated an obvious reduction in the size of transformed β structure (βt), primary α phase (αp) and the thickness of secondary lamellar α phase (αL), with the increase of Mo addition. It was also observed that adding more Mo could improve ultimate tensile strength and elongation (EL) at 650 °C, but reduce the yield strength (YS). Deformation behaviors of the alloys with different contents of Mo were researched by the analysis of respective dislocation morphologies. Compared to the 2% Mo alloy, the 4% Mo alloy had more β phase, smaller αp and finer αL, which could activate more dislocation slip systems and cross slip due to their excellent accommodative deformation capa...

The Ti–6.5Al–2Sn–4Zr–1Mo–3Nb–0.5W–0.2Si (1M3N0.5W) alloy is a novel two-phase high-temperature alloy for short-term use up to 700 °C. The effects of different heat treatment regimes on the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated through optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and tensile tests at the temperatures up to 700 °C. The results show that 1M3N0.5W alloy treated after single-stage annealing can get bimodal structure, which consists of equiaxed primary α (αp) phase and lamellar transformed β (βt) structure. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and 0.2% yield strength (YS) of the alloy at 700 °C are 473 and 310 MPa, respectively. The 1M3N0.5W alloy treated after solution and aging treatment can get Widmanstatten structure, which consists of coarse primary β-grain and secondary α-phase precipitated on the β-grain. Compared with single-stage annealed alloy, the UTS and YS of the solution and aging treated alloy are significantly improved at 700 °C, while the room-temperature plasticity is dramatically reduced.

Small crystal LTA zeolites were synthesised by a hydrothermal method without any organic additive at different aging temperature for 24 h. The as-synthesised samples were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The experimental results showed that the aging temperature was crucial to the crystallinity and morphology of the synthesised zeolite crystals. Samples aged at 30°C presented an average crystal size of 500 nm.

Flooding is one of the biggest natural disasters that occurs frequently around the world. It can occur without warning and the after effect of it leaves great damage to the surrounding environment and exposes life threatening to citizen. Therefore, early flood detection and monitoring system with the implementation of Internet of Things and Global Positioning System is proposed in order to reduce the risks that may cause flooding. The aim of this project is to provide the information of a current water level in a drain. When water level increases to a certain level, the system will send a warning notification to users indicating three categories of water level, which are safe, warning and critical level. This system contains an ultrasonic sensor to detect the current water level and at the same time allows users to observe the period of the water level from their phone so that users are more aware of when flooding ought to happen. Moreover, the system consists of a flooding avoidance method that requires the usage of a solenoid as a shutter valve of the drain and water pump to pump out excessive water flow to a suitable place for water release purposes.

In this paper, we propose a novel semi-supervised method based on two branch autoencoder (TBAE) for hyperspectral images. A branch is classification function, and another branch is decoder function. Both of functions promote each other in training process. The encoder is fit for both classifier and decoder. The encoder and the decoder guide feature extraction from unlabeled samples. The encoder and the classifier guide classification for all labeled samples. We can get more information from unlabeled samples for classification. Finally, we use convolutional autoencoder (CAE) to extend TBAE and obtain TBCAE. Compared with ANN and CNN, TBAE and TBCAE have a better performance in the case of a small number of labeled samples. Use different datasets to verify these methods and print visualization of hidden layer and the reconstructed data. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework obtains credible results with a small number of labeled samples.

One Sentence SummaryHPLC-MS metabolite profiling of maize seedlings, in combination with genome-wide association studies, identifies numerous quantitative trait loci that influence the accumulation of foliar metabolites.AbstractCultivated maize (Zea mays) retains much of the genetic and metabolic diversity of its wild ancestors. Non-targeted HPLC-MS metabolomics using a diverse panel of 264 maize inbred lines identified a bimodal distribution in the prevalence of foliar metabolites. Although 15% of the detected mass features were present in >90% of the inbred lines, the majority were found in

Our research studied the expression of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) SNHG7 in esophageal cancer cells and tissues. The effect of lncRNA SNHG7 on proliferation and apoptosis of esophageal cancer cells has been discussed.Si-SNHG7 was transfected into esophageal cancer cells, and qRT-PCR was performed to detect the expression of lncRNA SNHG7 in esophageal cancer cells and tissues. The effect of SNHG7 on the proliferation of esophageal cancer cells was measured by CCK8 assay and plate cloning assay, respectively. Flow cytometry was used to detect the effect of SNHG7 on the cell cycle and apoptosis rate of esophageal cancer cells. Changes in expression of downstream protein p15 and p16 after si-SNHG7 intervention were analyzed by qRT-PCR and Western blot.QRT-PCR showed that the expression of SNHG7 in esophageal cancer tissues and cells was significantly up-regulated. After the si-SNHG7 intervention, the proliferation of esophageal cancer cells was inhibited, the apoptosis rate increased, and the cell cycle was blocked in G1-G0 phase. QRT-PCR and Western blot showed that, after the si-SNHG7 intervention, the expression of p15 and p16 increased significantly.The expression of SNHG7 in the tissues and cells of esophageal cancer is significantly up-regulated. SNHG7 can partly promote the development of esophageal cancer by regulating the expression of p15 and p16.

Clothing, or “the second skin,” not only provides an additional shield for most parts of the body, but also creates a portable living microclimate that improves human survival. A growing interest in the use of antimicrobial active textiles/clothing has being developed as a desirable goal of prevention and nonpharmacological treatment for the management of atopic dermatitis and skin infective diseases. This review focuses on new development of antimicrobial active textiles using appropriate natural or special-treated fabrics coated with antimicrobial agents or using nanotechnology and nanomaterial in the care of atopic dermatitis or other skin diseases. Clinical evaluations of current available antimicrobial active textiles were summarized according to the aim, design, human subjects, intervention/control, duration, and SCORAD index and other outcomes. Lastly, evaluation of the safety of antimicrobial textiles for humans and the environment is also discussed.

Anisakidosis is an important fish-borne disease caused by the larvae of anisakid nematodes, which affects humans and a range of other animals. The accurate identification of members of this nematode group is central to investigating the epidemiology of the parasites and in the surveillance and control of anisakidosis. It is now well known that morphological identification alone does not allow specific identification, particularly of larval stages. To better understand the epidemiology of anisakid nematodes in southern Australian fishes and the potential risks posed to human health, a survey of 50 specimens of the commercially important fish, Sillago flindersi, from Bass Strait, Australia was conducted. We characterised anisakid larvae by PCR-coupled mutation scanning, sequencing and phylogenetic analyses of the first and second internal transcribed spacers (ITS-1 and ITS-2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA. This study revealed that 92% of the S. flindersi examined were infected with anisakids (n=194), which were represented by seven genotypes. Phylogenetic analyses of the genotypes defined herein, together with reference sequence for Anisakis pegreffii and Hysterothylacium sp. from public databases (i.e. GenBank), revealed the presence of A. pegreffii (n=24), Hysterothylacium larval type IV (n=90) and Hysterothylacium larval type VIII (n=80) in S. flindersi. Thus, the PCR-coupled mutation scanning approach employed herein is an effective tool for the genetic characterisation of anisakid nematodes for diagnostic and analytical purposes (nucleotide sequences reported in this paper are available in the GenBank database under accession nos. JN631796-809).

Using a ring-strip resistive anode and a pair of integrated spectroscopy amplifiers, a circular radius-sensitive microchannel plate (MCP) detector is developed for future studies of ion-atom collisions. The detector is tested by a 55Fe X-ray source and a radial resolution of 0.2 mm is achieved.

Pediatric cardiac arrest (CA) often leads to poor neurologic outcomes, including deficits in learning and memory. The only approved treatment for CA is therapeutic hypothermia, although its utility in the pediatric population remains unclear. This study analyzed the effect of mild therapeutic hypothermia after CA in juvenile mice on hippocampal neuronal injury and the cellular model of learning and memory, termed long-term potentiation (LTP). Juvenile mice were subjected to cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CA/CPR) followed by normothermia (37 °C) and hypothermia (30 °C, 32 °C). Histological injury of hippocampal CA1 neurons was performed 3 days after resuscitation using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Field excitatory post-synaptic potentials (fEPSPs) were recorded from acute hippocampal slices 7 days after CA/CPR to determine LTP. Synaptic function was impaired 7 days after CA/CPR. Mice exposed to hypothermia showed equivalent neuroprotection, but exhibited sexually dimorphic protection against ischemia-induced impairment of LTP. Hypothermia (32 °C) protects synaptic plasticity more effectively in females, with males requiring a deeper level of hypothermia (30 °C) for equivalent protection. In conclusion, male and female juvenile mice exhibit equivalent neuronal injury following CA/CPR and hypothermia protects both males and females. We made the surprising finding that juvenile mice have a sexually dimorphic response to mild therapeutic hypothermia protection of synaptic function, where males may need a deeper level of hypothermia for equivalent synaptic protection.

This paper describes a PEM Fuel Cell Engine (FCE) with 40 kW stacks designed for a car. This was developed by DICP and Sunrise Power and is funded by the Chinese ''863'' key project. The FCE system construction, stack performance, specifications, and operating characteristics are explained. The efficiency of the FCE is analyzed. The net power output for this FCE is 27 kW and the efficiency is 35-38%. The utilization of air and hydrogen are more than 50% and 97%, respectively. (Abstract Copyright [2004], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The effects of different dry-heat (76°C) treatment times (12h to 72h) and initial seed moisture contents (3.2% to 9.4%) on seed germination and seed vigour of radish (Raphanus sativus L. var, longipinnatus Bailey cv. Xin Li Mei) were studied. At 3.2% seed moisture content, germination and vigour were maintained well after 48h drying, but vigour was reduced after 60h and germination after 72h. At 9.4% seed moisture content germination fell significantly after 36h and vigour was reduced after 12h. The recommended 48h dry heat treatment at 76°C reduced seed quality (germination and/or vigour) for all seed moisture contents above 3.2%, these reductions increased as initial seed moisture content increased.

The delayed damper (DD) is a new active vibration absorption technique that uses time-delayed partial state feedback to generate ideal resonance on a passive vibration absorber. It has many attractive features such as real-time unability, ease of implementation, and total suppression of vibration for resonate frequency disturbances. In this paper, a major advantage of engineering structures analysis is the reduction of the characteristic roots from infinite to finite numbers and consequent simplicity in the dynamic analysis of the controller. the dynamic model principle is employed to design controllers for the structure. The system is examined by simulation. It is shown that engineering structures control application for DD yields better vibration suppression considering the sampled control structure in implementations.

Unbonded laminated elastomeric bearings have been used widely for skewed highway bridges in China. This type bearing is likely to slip during an earthquake, which will lead to large girder displacement and collision phenomenon. In order to discuss the effect of different collision models and design parameters on the seismic response of skewed bridges in China, 3D beam-stick models of three-span highway bridges with skew angles varying from 0°to 60°are developed in this paper. The results show that the collision effect is the principal contributor to girder rotation. The collision model considered nonlinear property in this paper can capture the irregular behavior of skewed bridges correctly. The uneven collision phenomenon will be more obvious for changing the initial gap of shear keys, and the overall seismic responses are likely to become complicated. Then, an appropriate gap is recommended to reduce the seismic damage of skewed bridges.

NOx are main toxic by-products in the effluent gas whendecomposing volatile organic compounds in air by a packed-bed plasmareactor. Several types of materials such as 13X zeolite, BaTiO3and Pd/Pt catalysts have been selected to be packed in the reactor, andmethane decomposition and NOx by-products in discharged gases areinvestigated at different range of reaction temperature and dischargeenergy density at atmospheric pressure. The ratios of methane decompositionpercentage/NOx concentration are used to assess these packed bedmaterials and reaction conditions. The results show that usingPd/γ-Al2O3 with lower percentage Pd as packedbed, and discharging with lower discharge density at higher reactiontemperature can reduce NOx output effectively and greatly improveperformance of the reactor.

The electron acoustic images of domain structure BaTiO3 single crystal under the applied electric field have been observed with Scanning Electron Acoustic Microscope (SEAM). By increasing applied electric field, the growth and merging of domains were revealed. The successive images of domain movement in real time demonstrated the promising potential application of SEAM in the dynamic study of ferroelectric domains. The influence of the applied electric field on the incident electron beam was also discussed in this paper.

The prone position (PP) improves ventilation homogeneity in acute respiratory distress syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the alleviation of ventilation inhomogeneity in PP was due to changes in regional lung compliance.Ten lung-lavaged piglets were mechanically ventilated in supine position (SP) and in PP. In each position, positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) was reduced from 20 to 6 cmH(2)O in steps of 2 cmH(2)O every 10 min after full lung recruitment. Respiratory mechanics, blood gas, haemodynamic data and whole-lung computed tomography scans were recorded at each PEEP. The compliances of normally aerated (C(normal)) and newly recruited (C(recruited)) lung regions were calculated. Open lung PEEP (OL-PEEP) was defined as the lowest PEEP to maintain full lung recruitment.At OL-PEEP, PP significantly increased normally aerated lung regions, decreased poorly aerated and hyperinflated lung regions and decreased tidal recruitment and hyperinflation. C(normal) was significantly reduced in PP compared with SP (12.8 ± 4.2 ml/cmH(2)O vs. 20.1 ± 6.2 ml/cmH(2)O, P0.001), whereas C(recruited) was increased in PP (13.9 ± 3.9 ml/cmH(2)O vs. 9.4 ± 2.4 ml/cmH(2)O, P0.001). C(normal) was correlated with hyperinflated lung regions at end-expiration (rho = 0.67) and end-inspiration (rho = 0.56) at OL-PEEP. C(recruited) was correlated with normally (r(2) = 0.36) and poorly aerated lung regions (rho = -0.58) at OL-PEEP.This surfactant-depleted model shows that the improvement of ventilation homogeneity in PP is related to an increase in C(recruited) and a decrease in C(normal).

Aim To evaluate the accuracy of high-frequency sonography on pretherapeutic T-staging in patients with laryngeal carcinoma. Materials and methods Thirty-six consecutive patients with laryngeal carcinoma undergoing surgical resection were included in this study. All patients underwent ultrasonographic examination and contrast-enhanced computed tomography before surgery. These imaging interpretations were evaluated independently and then compared with the reference of postoperative pathological examination. McNemar’s test was used for comparing the data obtained separately from ultrasonography and computed tomography. Results There was one T2 stage tumour of an aryepiglottic fold undetected by sonography. Sonography failed to stage five tumours correctly; the T-staging accuracy was 83.3%. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography failed to stage four patients correctly; the T-staging accuracy was 88.8%. There was no difference between the pretherapeutic staging accuracy of ultrasonography and contrast-enhanced computed tomography (p = 0.735). Conclusion Ultrasonography has a reliable pretherapeutic staging accuracy of laryngeal carcinoma. It can be a non-invasive complementary technique for pretherapeutic staging of laryngeal carcinoma.

The study of extragalactic planetary nebulae has made rapid progress in recent years with the help of high quantum efficiency detectors. A brief but distinctive phase in the late stage of stellar evolution, planetary nebulae (PNe) are not only interesting objects in their own right, but also are extremely valuable and unique tools for probing the host galaxies. Recent studies have used planetary nebulae as test particles to investigate the dynamics and mass distributions in the halos of early type galaxies.

Monocytes-macrophages are crucial players in specific and nonspecific immune responses to protect organisms from invasion of bacteria or viruses. In this study, monocytes in circulation from 2 lines of Silky and Starbro chickens with different disease resistance were separated and cultured in vitro. After identification with acridine orange (AO), Giemsa staining, and CD14 immunostaining, monocytes-macrophages were used for adherence and phagocytosis test. The overall percentages of adherence of Silky monocytes was 1.5 times greater than that of Starbro (P0.01), which were 26.85% +/- 8.24% and 18.34% +/- 8.15%, respectively (mean +/- SD). The monocytes-macrophages phagocytic index, phagocytic product, and percentage of phagocytosis in Silkies were greater than in Star-bros, respectively. The difference of phagocytic index was significant (P0.05), that is, 3.70 +/- 1.75 and 1.97 +/- 0.31, respectively (mean +/- SD). Then, 20 Silkies were divided into 2 groups according to phagocytic index: high phagocytic index (HPI) group and low phagocytic index (LPI) group, to study the relationship between phagocytic activity in vitro and pathogen clearance. After being challenged against Salmonella Pullorum C79-13, the Silky birds with HPI produced a 3-fold greater level of specific antibodies compared with those with LPI (P0.01), 50.21 +/- 6.67 and 16.85 +/- 4.52, respectively (mean +/- SD). In contrast to LPI birds, HPI birds shed less Salmonella Pullorum bacteria (P0.05), that is, 168.98 x 10(8) +/- 294.74 x 10(8) compared to 385.40 x 10(8) +/- 399.94 x 10(8) (mean +/- SD), and the shedding peak of Salmonella Pullorum in the test span appeared 4 d earlier. These results indicated that phagocytosis of monocytes-macrophages had strong effects on antibody titer and bacteria shedding postchallenge, which could be used to predict the disease resistance in animals.

Osteopontin (OPN) was shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of various inflammatory and fibrotic processes and elevated in fibrotic liver of mouse model. However, the significance of OPN in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-induced liver cirrhosis (LC) remains unclear and is therefore evaluated in this study.Thirty-nine patients with HBV-induced LC, 30 patients with HBV infection but without cirrhosis, 11 patients with HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 14 additional healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Plasma levels of OPN were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the relationship between OPN and clinical parameters was evaluated.When compared to HBV infection group (median 2.16 ng/ml), plasma levels of OPN were significantly increased in cirrhosis (4.52 ng/ml, p0.001) and cancer group (13.38 ng/ml, p0.001). The OPN level was correlated with the severity of liver damage according to Child-Pugh classification (p = 0.003). It showed at least comparable sensitivity and specificity to predict cirrhosis as aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index, a previously established non-invasive serum marker of cirrhosis.These data suggest that OPN could be used to evaluate the existence of LC, as OPN has previously been reported to be increased in the HCC; this unique feature makes OPN a promising candidate for prediction biomarker in the long-time surveillance of patients with HBV infection to evaluate the risk of cirrhosis and cancer.

The primary objective of this study was to determine the rate and extent of transdermal absorption for systemic delivery of diclofenac from Pennsaid (Dimethaid Research, Inc.) topical lotion into the systemic circulation after the lotion was applied to human volunteers, in an open treatment, non-blinded, non-vehicle controlled study. In addition, the in vivo metabolism of this topical diclofenac lotion has also been studied.Human volunteers were dosed with topical [14C]-diclofenac sodium 1.5% lotion on the knee for 24 h. Sequential time blood and urine samples were taken to determine pharmacokinetics, bioavailability and metabolism.Topical absorption was 6.6% of applied dose. Peak plasma 14C occurred at 30 h after dosing, and peak urinary 14C excretion was at 24-48 h. The urinary 14C excretion pattern exhibits more elimination towards 24 h and beyond, as opposed to early urinary 14C excretion. This suggests a continuous delivery of [14C]-diclofenac sodium from the lotion into and through skin which only ceased when the dosing site was washed. Skin surface residue at 24 h was 26 +/- 9.5% dose (remainder assumed lost to clothing and bedding). Extraction of metabolites from urine amounted to 7.4-22.7% in untreated urine, suggesting substantial diclofenac metabolism to more water soluble metabolites, probably conjugates, which could not be extracted by the method employed. Two Dimensional TLC analysis of untreated urine showed minimal or no diclofenac, again emphasizing the extensive in vivo metabolism of this drug. Treatment of the same urine samples with the enzymes sulfatase and beta-glucuronidase showed a substantial increase in the extractable material. Three spots were consistently present in each sample run, namely diclofenac, 3'hydroxy diclofenac and an intermediate polar metabolite (probably a hydroxylated metabolite). Therefore, there was significant sulfation and glucuronidation of both diclofenac and numerous hydroxy metabolites of diclofenac, but many of the metabolites/conjugates remain unidentified. CONCLUSIONS; There was a continuous delivery of diclofenac sodium from the lotion into and through the skin, which ceased after the dosing site was washed. The majority of the material excreted in the urine were conjugates of hydroxylated metabolites, and not the parent chemical, although further identification is required.

Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers are a promising type of semi-active control device for various dynamic systems. Recently, low-cost MR dampers without any sealing structure have been required. Motivated by the desire to overcome the need for the costly dynamic seals of conventional MR dampers, a new type of metal foam MR damper is proposed in this study and the dynamic response performance is also investigated. The metal foam is firmly adhered to a working cylinder to store the unexcited MR fluids. In the action of a magnetic field, MR fluids will be extracted from the metal foam and fill up the shear gap to produce the MR effect. Three time parameters related to response time are introduced to further describe the dynamic response process. The results show that, due to the period required for extracting the MR fluids out from the metal foam, the time to produce the damper force of the metal foam MR damper is longer than for conventional fluid-filled MR dampers. The response time of the metal foam MR damper will change with different currents and shear rates. Given a constant shear rate, in a small range of currents (0–1.5 A), the response time decreases rapidly as the operating current increases; however, there is a slower change rate in larger ranges. To evaluate the effect of shear rate on response time, shear rates ranging from 2 to 10 s−1 are tested, and the results demonstrate that with increasing shear rates the response time decreases.

The herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), used for control of weeds in agriculture, forestry, and rights of way, can accumulate as a residual chemical in soil. The objective was to determine percutaneous absorption of 2,4-D from soil, with emphasis on soil load and skin contact time. With control acetone vehicle, in vivo absorption of 2,4-D in the rhesus monkey was 8.6 +/- 2.1% of the dose, which compared closely to published human absorption of 6.0 +/- 2.4%. Percutaneous absorption from soil loads of 1 and 40 mg/cm2 were 9.8 +/- 4.0 and 15.9 +/- 4.7%, respectively, values similar to acetone vehicle. In vitro absorption in human skin calculated from skin contact accumulation over 24 h was 1.8 +/- 1.7, 1.7 +/- 1.3, and 1.4 +/- 1.2% for soil loads of 5, 10, and 40 mg/cm2, respectively. Thus, soil load did not affect 24-h percutaneous absorption. Current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommended calculated reductions due to soil load are not supported by these results with 2,4-D. Percutaneous absorption of 2,4-D from acetone vehicle for 8 h dosing period was 3.2 +/- 1.0%, one-third the value of 8.6 +/- 2.1% over 24 h. With soil vehicle, absorption for 8 h was only 0.03 +/- 0.02% for 40 mg/cm2 soil load and 0.05 +/- 0/.004% for 1 mg/cm2 soil load. Absorption for 16 h was 2.2 +/- 1.2%. Absorption over time was linear for acetone vehicle, where total dose is deposited on skin, but not linear for soil vehicle, which had an 8-h delay (lag time). This equates with a normal 8-h work day where most of the contaminated soil can be washed off the skin. The apparent partition coefficient of 2,4-D between soil and water changed over time. This suggests there is a "mobility" phase for 2,4-D in soil that will change with time. For soil vehicle, percutaneous absorption of 2,4-D was not linear in respect to soil load or to skin contact time. Calculation based on assumed linearity can falsely estimate potential human health hazard. Clearly, the dermatokinetics with soil and skin represent complex interactive forces that require detailed evaluation before overgeneralizing rules for interpretation in terms of risk assessment.

Photometry and kinematics of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC~5128 (Centaurus~A) based on planetary nebulae observations (Hui~\etal 1995) are used to build dynamical models which allow us to infer the presence of a dark matter halo. To this end, we apply a Quadratic Programming method. Constant mass-to-light ratio models fail to reproduce the major axis velocity dispersion measurements at large radii: the profile of this kind of models falls off too steeply when compared to the observations, clearly suggesting the necessity of including a dark component in the halo. By assuming a mass-to-light ratio which is increasing with radius, the model satisfactorily matches the observations. The total mass for the best fit model is $\sim4\times10^{11}M_\odot$ of which about 50\% is dark matter. However, models with different total masses and dark halos are also consistent with the data; we estimate that the total mass of Cen~A within 50~kpc may vary between $3\times10^{11}M_\odot$ and $5\times10^{11}M_\odot$. The best fit model consists of 75\% of stars rotating around the short axis $z$ and 25\% of stars rotating around the long axis $x$. Finally, the morphology of the projected velocity field is analyzed using Statler's classification criteria (Statler 1991). We find that the appearance of our velocity field is compatible with a type 'Nn' or 'Nd'., 13 pages, uuencoded compressed postscript, without figures. The full postscript version, including all 14 figures, is available via anonymous ftp at ftp://naos.rug.ac.be/pub/cena.ps.Z

Macrophage surrounded by transformed or untransformed lymphocytes is called immune island. Aimming at this problem, we made a survey of 120 pleural and peritoneal effusion smears with a variety of patients and discovered that this island appeared in 52 (43.3%) cases. The positive results existed in 11 of 14 (79%) cases with tuberculosis and 29 of 60 (48%) cases with malignant diseases. The average number of island on each positive smear (2.0cm x 2.5cm) is 59.6 +/- 12.8 in the former and 39.2 +/- 18.9 in the latter. The mechanism of this phenomenon may be due to the response to foreign stimulus from pathogenic and cancer antigen.

In order to implement 3D measurement in different measurement systems with line structured-light sensor, the extrinsic matrix for transforming the position between the structured-light sensor and the measurement platform must be calibrated. An extrinsic calibration method, achieved by measuring the fixed point (the centre of a standard ball) of the measuring system with the sensor in different positions, was proposed. In order to calculate the coordinate of the ball centre in the laser plane frame more accurately, the images containing fewer pixels were filtered and the noise around the slice was removed. Experimental study was carried out on a four-axis coordinate measuring machine (CMM) with a ball supplied by CIMCORE and showed that the method is simple; it can also be used in a non-orthogonal measurement system.

The imaging and characterization of structure changes and wear behavior in WC+Co coating by SEAM was reported in this paper. The Results show that SEAM can provide some information undiscernible by other techniques. The results obtained by SEAM were compared with those obtained by SEM and Auger Electronic Spectrum, it shows that SEAM is very useful in the evaluation of coating and in the assessment of early wear processes.

Grains, grain boundaries, magnetic domain distributions, and their correlations in Fe81Ga19 alloys as-cast, annealed, and under compressive and grinding stresses were investigated using scanning electron acoustic microscopy (SEAM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM). For as-cast and annealed samples, the main domain structure obtained using SEAM is not clear. For samples under stresses, the main domains are obvious and regular. For the sample under compressive stress, its stripe domains array orderly and perpendicularly to the stress direction. The subdomains of as-cast sample observed using MFM show a clear dendritic structure. However, for the sample under compressive stress, the subdomains are irregular. These results may be helpful to understand the magnetostrictive behavior of Fe–Ga alloys under stress.

Contrast origin of magnetic domain structure imaged by scanning electron acoustic microscopy (SEAM) is studied by analyzing qualitatively the interaction between an incident electron beam and a sample. Some parameters related to the acoustic signal detected by a piezoelectric transducer are obtained through solving a vibration equation. Contrasted with magnetic domain structures of Terfenol-D and Fe81Ga19 alloys obtained by SEAM in linear and nonlinear (second harmonic) modes, imaging mechanism of magnetic domains is attributed to piezomagnetic coupling mechanism, magnetostrictive coupling mechanism, and thermal-wave coupling mechanism.

Introduction. Restitution of the intestinal barrier requires inter-enterocyte communication via the phosphorylated gap junction protein connexin 43. Experimental necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is characterized by elevated interferon gamma (IFN) and impaired restitution. We therefore hypothesized that IFN impairs gap junction (GJ) function and restitution by inhibiting phosphorylation of connexin43. We further sought to determine whether connexin 43 phosphorylation was altered in human NEC. Methods. Connexin 43 expression and phosphorylation was assessed in IEC-6 cells ± IFN (1000 u/ml) by SDS--PAGE and confocal microscopy. GJ function was detected by microinjecting IEC-6 cells ± IFN with the GJ tracer lucifer yellow (LY) and impermeant rhodamine dextran. GJ function was inhibited with oleamide (10 μM). In vitro restitution was assessed using time lapsed video microscopy of IEC-6 cells ± IFN migrating across a scraped wound. Small bowel mucosal scrapings were acquired from infants undergoing bowel resection for NEC and compared to specimens taken from infants without NEC. Data are mean ± SEM. Results. IFN significantly reduced phosphorylation of connexin 43 (band density relative to actin, Ctrl: 0.86 ± 0.3 versus IFNγ 0.37 ± 0.1, P P P Conclusion. IFN inhibits phosphorylation of connexin 43, leading to impaired inter-enterocyte communication and reduced restitution. The finding of decreased phosphoconnexin 43 in human NEC suggests that impaired inter-enterocyte communication may underlie the barrier dysfunction in this disease.