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This paper presents a series of novel designs for dual-band bandpass filters (BPFs) with excellent in-band and out-band filtering performances. By imbedding the spiral-line resonator into the coupling open-loop structures and adjusting the symmetrical structure, the second-order quad-mode BPFs are designed and then the fourth-order oct-mode dual-band BPFs. The final two designs possess eight resonant modes in the passband and also four/eight transmission zeros in the stopband, achieving a high transition-band selectivity with the roll-off rate over 1000 dB/GHz, broad out-band rejection from 1.5 GHz to 5.3 GHz (lower than 30 dB), and strong isolation between dual bands with the suppression level of 30 dB, operating at 3.2/3.4 GHz and 3.2/3.5 GHz respectively. Measured results agree well with simulations and prove the validity of the asymmetry feeders for multi-transmission-zero characteristics.

The high geological background and the residual pollution of historical zinc smelting in the karst area of northwest Guizhou has led to serious soil heavy metal pollution. In order to understand the characteristics of soil heavy metal pollution in agricultural land, wasteland, and forestland, 126 surface and profile soil samples were collected from a typical zinc powder factory-polluted small watershed in Weining County, Northwest Guizhou Province. The concentrations and distribution characteristics of Cd, As, Pb, Cu, and Zn in soils were studied. The results showed that the average

In this paper, a compact and low-loss diplexer is designed and fabricated using integrated passive device (IPD) technique. This IPD-based diplexer can be utilized in antenna system for WLAN...

To investigate the changes in the size of the penis after radical prostatectomy (RP) and the possible influencing factors.This study included 45 cases of RP for PCa performed by the same surgeon from January to June 2019. Before and at 2 weeks after surgery, we measured the stretched penile length (SPL), flaccid penile length (FPL) and penile circumference of the patients. We conducted an IIEF-5 questionnaire investigation on the preoperative characteristics of the patients and their attitudes towards postoperative penile rehabilitation. We also analyzed the factors associated with the postoperative changes in the size of the penis.Compared with the baseline, the postoperative SPL (［9.72 ± 1.87］ vs ［7.80 ± 1.57］ cm, P = 0), FPL (［6.26 ± 1.14］ vs ［5.13 ± 1.10］ cm, P = 0) and penile circumference (［7.69 ± 0.83］ vs ［7.26 ± 0.78］ cm, P = 0.012) were decreased significantly, by (1.92 ± 0.12) cm, (1.13 ± 0.09) cm and (0.43 ± 0.08) cm, respectively. The age of the patients was significantly correlated with the change of the FPL (P = 0.042), but not the other factors with the change of the penile size. Twenty-six (57.7%) cases of severe and moderate ED were observed in the patients postoperatively. Those with better preoperative sexual function took a more positive attitude towards penile rehabilitation and treatment postoperatively (n = 3, 75.0%).The penile size of the PCa patient is decreased markedly after radical prostatectomy, with a significant correlation between the patient's age and the postoperative change of the flaccid penile length. The patients with better preoperative sexual function are more likely to seek penile rehabilitation and treatment postoperatively.

Most of the humidity or gas sensing researches focus on the optimization of sensitive materials, while the studies of microwave detection focus on its sensitive-field control. It is necessary to implement the cooperative study on microwave detection with different types of sensitive materials for a better understanding of the operation mechanism as well as providing a way for performance enhancement. This study presents the double split-ring resonator as the sensitive electrode, where various sensitive materials, including polymer by pure Polyimide (PI), ceramic composite by PI-TiO2, metal composite by PI-Ag composite, are respectively tested as the sensing materials. The S-parameter is tested as the humidity indicators after coating on the sensitive regions with a strong electric-magnetic field. Owing to the improved dielectric properties by doping strong-polarity TiO2 nanoparticles into PI, the higher sensitivity with the maximum of 880.0 kHz/%RH and 0.322 dB/%RH is realized. The introduction of Ag nanoparticles facilitates the water vapor adsorption and desorption showing the sensitivity of 330.0 kHz/%RH and 0.149 dB/%RH, due to the high active-site density and surface roughness. By analyzing variations in resonant frequency and return loss, the microwave sensing mechanism of different sensitive materials is fully discussed from the perspective of polarization, dielectric property, and sensitive area.

Barium (Ba) and its stable isotopes are powerful geochemical tracers for the recycling of subducted materials into the convective mantle. However, this requires a good understanding of the behavior of Ba isotopes during subduction-zone fluid processes. Here we present the first integrated study on Ba isotopes for two eclogite-vein systems (Ganghe and Hualiangting) that formed at high-pressure (HP) and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic conditions from the Dabie orogen, central China. The Ganghe system displays constant δ 138 / 134 Ba (−0.01‰ to 0.03‰) in the UHP eclogites but relatively high δ 138 / 134 Ba (0.17‰) in the HP vein. In contrast, in the Hualiangting system, δ 138 / 134 Ba of the UHP eclogites vary from −0.14‰ to 0.05‰, while δ 138 / 134 Ba of the multiple HP veins and the retrograded amphibolites range from −0.17‰ to 0.34‰ and from −0.11‰ to 0.46‰, respectively. The combined results suggest that Ba isotopes can be considerably fractionated during subduction-zone fluid processes. HP-UHP metamorphic dehydration of the eclogites during the early stages of exhumation can produce an isotopically heavy initial vein-forming fluid due to the preferential leaching of epidote enriched with heavy Ba isotopes from the host eclogites. However, such processes have limited effects on the bulk eclogites because the Ba-rich phengite exists as a residual phase. During vein formation, light Ba isotopes are preferentially enriched in minerals relative to the fluids, resulting in the residual fluids with high δ 138 / 134 Ba. In addition, the fluids released from the gneisses have negative δ 138 / 134 Ba which is different from the eclogites, indicating that Ba isotopes can be used to trace the source of the metasomatic fluids. This study demonstrates that the UHP metamorphic rocks and HP veins can record Ba isotope fractionation during subduction-zone metamorphism and fluid-rock interaction, and recycling of the metamorphic rocks could modify Ba isotopic composition of the mantle wedge and arc volcanics.

Optimized hygroscopic film preparation and high-precision manufacturing guarantee the humidity sensor expected properties on sensitivity, hysteresis, response/recovery speed, reliability, etc. This paper demonstrated a comprehensive prioritization scheme on the premise of industrial production. Raw materials mixtures such as pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA)/p-phenylenediamine (p-PDA), and PMDA/oxydianiline (ODA) were investigated to solve the issue of film surface collapse. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) is adopted as an additive to enhance the film reliability (maximum of 0.15 % measurement error rate in 120 h continuous testing) as well as assistance in the film coating process. Rutile TiO2 with the average particle size of 0.33 μm was employed as doping elements to reduce the hysteresis to 0.95 % relative humidity (RH), increase the sensitivity to 0.94 pF/% RH, and limit the response/recovery time within 40 s. The film-growth quality and the consistency of production performance were assured by the integrated-passive-device (IPD) fabrication process.

A new theory of designing dual-band power divider (PD) based on Wilkinson structure is presented in this paper. Because of the utilization of coupled lines, the proposed PD is with a high design freedom that many transmission line (TL) combinations can be used for a fixed frequency ratio k (ƒ2/ƒ1). Meanwhile, since the lengths of the conventional coupled lines used are extremely long, the slow-wave structure is introduced, which configuration results in a property of designable length and compact size because of the improved space efficiency. After analysing the even- and odd-mode circuits, precise design formulas are derived and further verified for the frequency ratio from 1.5 to 6.0 using NI AWR simulator under the consideration of the largest realizable TL impedance as 128 Ω. For verification, two PDs with the same centre frequency of 1.0 GHz and 4.0 GHz but different TL configurations are designed based on the proposed design theory. According to the experimental results, both fabricated PDs have good performances as expected, such as low in-band insertion loss (S21), wide isolation, and relatively better out-of-band rejection than majority of previous studies that the maximum S21 between the two passbands is larger than 6 dB, while previous studies are around 4 dB.

Deformed low-grade metabasites from the western segment of the Beihuaiyang zone in the Hong’an orogen, central China can be divided into two types, i.e. meta-gabbro and meta-basalt. These lithologies have been studied by using whole-rock elemental and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic analyses, and zircon SHRIMP U-Pb dating. Concordant zircon U-Pb ages of 631 ± 5 Ma and 623 ± 14 Ma are obtained for the meta-gabbros, consistent with a previously reported U-Pb age of 635 ± 5 Ma. The meta-basalt was dated to have a protolith age of middle Neoproterozoic (∼750 Ma) and a metamorphic age at ca. 240 Ma. The all studied metabasites occur as block or slice within a metamorphosed Ordovician volcanic zone (originally named as the Dingyuan Formation) and are in tectonic contact to each other. The gabbro and basalt emplaced at ∼630 Ma and ∼750 Ma, respectively in a continental rifting setting, whereas their present country rocks were erupted at ∼465 Ma in an arc setting. The Pb-isotope compositions of the low-grade meta-gabbros and meta-basalts are similar to those from the Dabie ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) meta-igneous rocks with an upper continental crust affinity. The protolith ages of the studied relatively low-grade meta-basic rocks are in good agreement not only with ages for two episodes of middle and late Neoproterozoic mafic and felsic magmatism in the Suizhou to Zaoyang areas at the northern margin of the South China Block, but are also in agreement with the protolith ages of UHP meta-igneous rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt. Therefore, these Neoproterozoic low-grade metabasites are considered to be exotic and they may have been detached and offscraped from the subducting upper crust of the South China Block at shallow depths during continental collision in the Triassic. They were subsequently exhumed in the initial stage of continental subduction, and thrusted over the Paleozoic metamorphosed rocks in the southern margin of the North China Block or as foreign slices within the UHP metamorphic zone. They are a kind of the accretionary wedge involved in the Paleozoic oceanic subduction, and Triassic crustal detachment and tectonic overthrusting during the early stage of continental subduction.

To understand Si isotope fractionation during metamorphic fluid activities in the subduction zone, this study presents the Si isotopic compositions of two high- to ultrahigh-pressure (HP–UHP) eclogite–vein systems from the Ganghe and Hualiangting areas in the Dabie orogen, eastern China. The results show that Si isotopes are significantly fractionated between the veins and their host eclogites in both areas. The δ30Si values of Ganghe eclogites range from −0.50‰ to −0.39‰, higher than that of the studied omphacite−epidote vein (−0.63 ± 0.07‰). The Hualiangting eclogites have δ30Si values of −0.36‰ to −0.29‰, whereas the δ30Si values of the Hualiangting multi-stage veins show greater variation, from −0.45‰ to +0.05‰, revealing significant Si isotope fractionation during metamorphic fluid evolution and vein formation. For the Hualiangting and Ganghe samples, the enrichment of heavy Si isotopes in minerals follows the order of δ30Siphengite (−0.01 to +0.13‰) ≈ δ30Siquartz (−0.14 to +0.10‰) > δ30Siomphacite (−0.63 to −0.33‰) ≈ δ30Siepidote (−0.60 to −0.30‰) ≈ δ30Sikyanite (−0.42 to −0.28‰) > δ30Sigarnet (−0.92 to −0.44‰). The Si isotope fractionation between metamorphic minerals was generally consistent with the equilibrium Si isotope fractionation factors calculated by the first-principles methods. These results suggest that the vein minerals are likely in Si isotopic equilibrium with each other. The δ30Si of the Hualiangting veins are linearly correlated to SiO2 contents with a steeper slope than that of the magma differentiation trend. By also considering the mineralogy of the veins, we conclude that this linear relationship reflects the sequential variation of mineral composition on the Si isotope signature of the veins. The SiO2 content and δ30Si of veins increased with continuing crystallization from the fluid, and the δ30Si of the fluid also increased. The results suggest that Si isotope data can be used to constrain element recycling and metamorphic fluids activities in the subduction zones.

DNA N

High-temperature (HT; >850°C) metamorphism in continental collision orogens, particularly for those ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks, has become one of the remarkable topics in Earth science. It has bearing on the element and isotope behaviors of UHP rocks, their partial melting and related geodynamic effects during exhumation. In this paper, five representative continental collision orogens with typical HT/UHP rocks, including the Dabie orogen in China, the Kokchetav in Kazakhstan, the Caledonides in Greenland, the Rhodope in Greece, and the Erzgebirge in Germany are introduced, and their HT/UHP metamorphism and evolution processes are summarized. In addition, metamorphic P-T-t paths, multistage exhumation processes, and partial melting and preservation and retrogression of UHP index minerals during exhumation and their possible mechanisms are discussed. On this basis, the forthcoming key fields and scientific subjects of HT/UHP rocks within continental subduction channel are proposed.

In human cells, DNA 5-methylcytosine (5mC) modification plays an important role as an epigenetic mark. However, DNA N6-methyladenine modification (6mA), which is predominantly present in prokaryotes and a limited number of eukaryotes, is considered to be absent in human genomic DNA. Here, we show that 6mA is present in human genome, and we identified 881,240 6mA sites whose density is about 0.051% of the total adenines in the human genome DNA, but more than 0.18% in the mitochondrion genome. [G/C]AGG[C/T] was the most significant motif associated with 6mA modification. 6mA sites are enriched in the exon coding regions (P=0.02) and associated with transcriptional activation (P

A variety of deep-seated xenoliths occur within the Mesozoic Jiagou dioritic porphyry in the southeastern margin of the North China Craton (NCC). In this study we present a combined petrologic, geochronological, Hf isotope and geochemical study on the different types of xenoliths and use these data to better constrain the composition and age of the deep crust beneath the area. Most of the xenoliths are mafic meta-igneous rocks, among which garnet-bearing lithologies are common. The xenoliths can be classified into three broad petrographic groups: spinel-bearing garnet clinopyroxenite/phlogopite clinopyroxenite/spinel pyroxenite (Group 1), garnet amphibolite or hornblendite/garnet granulite/mafic gneiss lacking pyroxene (Group 2), and garnet-bearing felsic (intermediate-acid) gneiss (Group 3). Among these, the mafic–ultramafic rocks constitute the dominant category. The protoliths of the studied xenoliths range from basalt through andesite to dacite. Geochemical and Hf-isotope data indicate that most xenoliths belonging to Groups 2 and 3 resemble magmatic rocks formed at convergent continental margin arc setting. A few of them (mostly belonging to Group 1) represent mantle-derived products. Multiple metasomatic imprints, with contribution from subduction-related or mantle-derived fluids or melts have been recognized from the multistage mineral assemblages and ages. SHRIMP zircon U–Pb dating, Hf isotope and geochemical data offer evidence for subduction-related adakite-like and arc-related rocks in the southeastern margin of the NCC at ca. 2.5 Ga and 2.1 Ga, and confirm the occurrence of high-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism at ca. 1.8 Ga. These data suggest an episodic growth of Precambrian lower crust beneath this region in response to two stages of subduction–accretion and one vertical accretion of mantle-derived basaltic magma at the base of the lower crust. Additionally, a previously unknown late mantle-derived basaltic magmatism at 393 ± 7 Ma has also been recognized. The data presented in this paper demonstrate that the deep crust beneath the southeastern margin of the NCC is composed of hybrid protoliths derived from Paleozoic, Paleoproterozoic and late Neoarchean sources.

We report zircon U-Pb geochronology, geochemistry and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope data from mafic granulites and garnet amphibolites of the Wuhe Complex in the southeastern margin of the North China Craton (NCC). In combination with previous data, our results demonstrate that these rocks represent fragments of the ancient lower crust, and have features similar to those of the granulite basement in the northern margin of the NCC. A detailed evaluation of the Pb isotope data shows that Pb isotopes cannot effectively distinguish the role of the Yangtze Craton basement from that of the NCC basement with regard to the source and generation of magmas, at least for southeastern NCC. The age data suggest that the protoliths of the granulites or amphibolites in the Wuhe Complex were most likely generated in Neoarchean and that these rocks were subjected to Paleoproterozoic (1.8–1.9 Ga) high-pressure granulite facies metamorphism. This study also shows that the Precambrian metamorphic basement in the southeastern margin of the NCC might have formed in a tectonic setting characterized by a late Neoarchean active continental margin.

In the present study, two gneiss xenoliths from the Mesozoic Jiagou intrusion at the southeastern margin of the North China Craton (NCC) are examined for in situ zircon SHRIMP U–Pb dating in combination with zircon trace element and Hf isotope analyses. Cathodoluminescence (CL) images and trace element data reveal that most zircons from the dated samples display distinct core–rim structures, i.e., magmatic cores and metamorphic rims. The cores show typical igneous characteristics with oscillatory growth zoning and high rare earth element (REE) contents, whereas the metamorphic rims are characterized by spherical to oval shape, and high and homogeneous luminescent intensity. Zircon SHRIMP U–Pb dating results suggest that the xenoliths formed at 2.55–2.64 Ga and experienced high-grade metamorphism at 2.48–2.49 Ga. The lower HREE contents, negative Eu anomalies, high Th/U ratios (generally >0.5) and high Ti-in-zircon temperatures (>800 °C) of metamorphic zircon rims suggest that the 2.48–2.49 Ga event represents an episode of granulite facies metamorphism. These results demonstrate that the lower-crustal rocks in the studied area experienced late-Neoarchean magmatism and subsequent metamorphism. Positive ɛHf(t) values of +2 to +5, with model ages younger than 3.0 Ga and formation ages of 2.55–2.64 Ga for igneous zircons from the xenoliths indicate that they were derived from juvenile crustal sources and strongly suggest the existence of significant late-Neoarchean crustal growth in the region.

Vertebral fractures are the most common osteoporotic fractures. To perform percutaneous vertebral body cement augmentation, it is essential to accurately identify the affected vertebrae. The study evaluated the role of radionuclide bone imaging in identifying fresh osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures. A prospective study of 39 patients with acute osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures was carried out. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and radionuclide bone imaging to determine if the fractures were fresh, followed by percutaneous kyphoplasty for the fresh fractures. The positive rate on radionuclide bone imaging was 92.1% (82/89), and the positive rate on MRI was 93.3% (83/89), with no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05). Eighty-one vertebrae had the same positive identification by both radionuclide bone imaging and MRI, and 5 of the same vertebrae were diagnosed negative by both techniques. One patient with positive radionuclide bone imaging was negative according to MRI, and 2 patients were entirely positive by MRI but negative by radionuclide bone imaging. A kappa test showed good consistency between the 2 methods for detecting the affected vertebrae (Kappa = 0.751, P < 0.01). Radionuclide bone imaging is as sensitive as MRI in the diagnosis of fresh osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture, making it an effective method for detecting affected vertebrae for percutaneous vertebroplasty.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy for solid carcinomas.We performed a computerized search of phase II/III clinical trial databases of CIK cell-based therapy using a combination of the terms 'cytokine-induced killer cells', 'tumor' and 'cancer'.Treatment with CIK cells was associated with a significantly improved half-year survival (P = 0.003), 1-year survival (P = 0.0005), 2-year survival (P0.01) and mean survival time (MST) (P0.001). Patients in the CIK group showed a prolonged half-year progression-free survival (PFS) (P0.01), 1-year PFS (P0.01) and median time to progression (MTTP) (P0.001). A favored disease control rate (DCR) was observed in patients receiving CIK cell therapy, while the objective response rate (ORR) was not altered (P = 0.05) compared with the non-CIK group (P = 0.007). CIK cell therapy could also reduce the adverse effects of grade III and IV leukopenia caused by chemotherapy (P = 0.002) and diminish hepatitis B virus (HBV)-DNA content (P0.01). However, the incidence of fever in the CIK therapy group was significantly higher than in the non-CIK group (P = 0.02). The percentage of CD3(+), CD4(+), CD4(+)CD8(+), CD3(-) CD56(+) and CD3(+) CD56(+) T-lymphocyte subsets in the peripheral blood of cancer patients was significantly increased, whereas the percentage of CD8(+) T-lymphocyte cells was significantly decreased in the CIK group compared with the non-CIK group (P0.01).CIK cell therapy has demonstrated a significant superiority in prolonging the MST, PFS, DCR and quality of life (QoL) of patients.

In this paper, a genetic algorithm-support vector regression (GA-SVR) coupled approach was proposed for investigating the relationship between fingerprints and properties of herbal medicines. GA was used to select variables so as to improve the predictive ability of the models. Two other widely used approaches, Random Forests (RF) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) combined with GA (namely GA-RF and GA-PLSR, respectively), were also employed and compared with the GA-SVR method. The models were evaluated in terms of the correlation coefficient between the measured and predicted values (Rp), root mean square error of prediction, and root mean square error of leave-one-out cross-validation. The performance has been tested on a simulated system, a chromatographic data set, and a near-infrared spectroscopic data set. The obtained results indicate that the GA-SVR model provides a more accurate answer, with higher Rp and lower root mean square error. The proposed method is suitable for the quantitative analysis and quality control of herbal medicines. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To investigate the efficacy of autologous cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy combined with chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for the treatment of stage IV gastrointestinal (GI) cancer in the first-line setting.Thirty-three patients diagnosed with stage IV GI cancer were divided into chemotherapy plus CIK group (chemo-CIK, n = 16) and chemotherapy-alone group (chemo-alone, n = 17). Autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated by flow cytometry, cultured in vitro to induce CIK cells, and transfused into patients on days 14 and 16 of the first and second chemotherapy cycles.The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.6 months for patients in the chemo-CIK group and 3.83 months for those in the chemo-alone group. The difference was borderline significant (P = 0.06), indicating a potential advantage for combined CIK cell transfusion with chemotherapy in improving PFS. A favored objective response rate was also observed in the chemo-CIK group than in the chemo-alone group. This study also revealed that CIK cell transfusion restored the cellular immunity in these GI cancer patients. The percentage of natural killer T cells, NK cells, CD3(+) T cells, and T-cell subgroups CD4(+) proportion in the peripheral blood of cancer patients significantly increased after the CIK cell transfusion, while the change in T-cell subgroups CD8(+) and CD4(+)/CD8(+) did not differ significantly.The study showed that the addition of CIK cell transfusion to traditional chemotherapy in the first-line setting was associated with a prolonged PFS and enhanced T-lymphocyte subset activity, supporting a potential treatment choice for advanced GI cancer patients.

The studied eclogite is located in the Luotian dome in the southwestern part of the North Dabie Complex Zone (NDZ), central China, and is a portion of deeply subducted mafic lower continental crust of the South China Block. Petrologic analysis suggests that the eclogite underwent ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) and high-pressure eclogite-facies metamorphism, and subsequent HP granulite-facies overprinting and amphibolite-facies retrogression during continental subduction and exhumation. As a result, multiple decompression textures were produced, suggesting a multistage exhumation history from eclogite-, to granulite-, to amphibolite-facies conditions. A striking feature of this eclogite is the widespread exsolution of different phases: oriented needles of rutile + clinopyroxene + amphibole + apatite in garnet; quartz + amphibole + hypersthene + sodic plagioclase in clinopyroxene, and pyrrhotite in apatite. Most importantly, we provide for the first time conclusive evidence of quartz pseudomorphs after coesite in garnet and relic coesite (confirmed by in situ Raman spectroscopy) in zircon. In addition, there are two groups of apatite: one is fluor (F)-apatite that occurs as inclusions in garnet or in matrix, which is rich in F (∼3 wt.%), lakes exsolution features and formed at UHP metamorphic conditions; the second is associated with the oriented pyrrhotite exsolution and formed during decompression. Microtextural and petrologic analysis suggests that the eclogites from the southwestern segment of the NDZ are similar to eclogites from the northern segment of the NDZ (e.g., Huangweihe and Baizhangyan) and underwent UHP metamorphism with a peak pressure >5–7 GPa. These results, combined with published geochronological data, imply that the NDZ experienced Triassic UHP metamorphism as a coherent unit.

The studied ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) eclogites, located in the southwestern part of the North Dabie complex zone (NDZ) in central China, represent deeply subducted mafic lower continental crust of the South China Block and display a multiple metamorphic evolution. However, the exact timing of the UHP metamorphism in the NDZ is poorly constrained, and thus impedes our understanding of the tectonic evolution of this area. In order to constrain the ages of peak UHP metamorphism and subsequent retrogression during continental subduction and exhumation, zircon from the eclogites in the NDZ has been investigated by a combined petrological, trace element and U–Pb isotopic study. In combination with petrological data, the present zircon SHRIMP and LA-ICPMS U–Pb dating provides precise constraints on the timing of multistage metamorphic events on the eclogites in the region. The U–Pb isotope in zircon from the eclogites records the times of multiple discrete events in the history of the rock such as Neoproterozoic, 238 ± 2 Ma, 222 ± 4–227 ± 2 Ma, 210 ± 4–215 ± 2 Ma, 199 ± 2 Ma and 176 ± 2–188 ± 2 Ma. Neoproterozoic ages defined by relic igneous cores represent their protolith time and the other age-groups reflect their metamorphic records by CL images, low Th/U ratios and mineral inclusions. By U–Pb age, trace element and mineral inclusion of zircon, at least two episodes of eclogite-facies metamorphism have been identified from the eclogites, best estimated at 226 ± 3 and 214 ± 3 Ma, respectively. The younger ages of 199 ± 2 and 176–188 Ma most likely record the granulite-facies overprinting and amphibolite-facies retrogression occurring during exhumation whereas the age of 238 ± 2 Ma probably reflects the prograde metamorphic timing prior to the UHP metamorphism. Thus, Neoproterozoic mafic lower continental crust was subducted to depths greater than 120 km (corresponding to the lowest pressure for diamond formation) and suffered from UHP metamorphism at 226 ± 3 Ma. Then these UHP metamorphic rocks were exhumed to about 60 km depth at 214 ± 3 Ma and experienced high-pressure quartz eclogite-facies retrograde metamorphism, and subsequently to lower- and upper-crustal levels and overprinted by granulite- and amphibolite-facies metamorphism, respectively.

Based on detailed field investigations and petrographic observations, we discovered Neoproterozoic-emplaced granite from the metavolcanics of the Dingyuan Formation in the western Beihuaiyang zone, the Dabie orogen. This study reports the results of zircon U-Pb dating and preliminary petrographic observations on two metagranite samples. The studied rocks experienced epidote-amphibolite facies metamorphism and strong structural deformation. Their U-Pb ages are 726 ± 6 and 758 ± 12 Ma, respectively, similar to those for the Luzhenguan complex in the eastern segment of the Beihuaiyang zone. In combination with previously determined 635 ± 5 Ma low-grade metagabbro, this study suggests the occurrence of at least two types of Neoproterozoic intrusive rocks in the Beihuaiyang zone, the northern margin of the South China Block (SCB): 726–758 Ma metagranite and 635 Ma metagabbro. These rocks occur within the metamorphosed Ordovician volcanic zone (originally named the Dingyuan Formation) and are in tectonic contact to each other, but they formed in different tectonic settings. The protolith ages for the Neoproterozoic low-grade metaigneous rocks are in good agreement not only with ages for two episodes of mid- and late-Neoproterozoic mafic and felsic magmatism in the Suizhou and Zaoyang area, Hubei Province, but also agree with protolith ages of ultrahigh-pressure metaigneous rocks in the Dabie-Sulu orogenic belt. In view of their tectonic relationships to country rocks, it appears that these Neoproterozoic low-grade rocks are exotic and they may have been detached and scraped from subducting SCB crust in the early Triassic during the initial continental subduction, and thrusted over Paleozoic metamorphosed rocks in the southern margin of the North China Block during continental collision.

The finite element method (FEM) is a mathematical technique using modern computer technology for stress analysis, and has been gradually used in simulating human body structures in the biomechanical field, especially more widely used in the research of thoracolumbar spine traumatology. This paper reviews the establishment of the thoracolumbar spine FEM, the verification of the FEM, and the thoracolumbar spine FEM research status in different fields, and discusses its prospects and values in forensic thoracolumbar traumatology.

Zircon SHRIMP U-Pb dating was performed for olivine gabbro at Wangmuguan in the Beihuaiyang zone of the Dabie orogen and its country rock (garnet-bearing epidote-mica-quartz schist). The results show that the gabbro was crystallized at 635 ± 5 Ma, in the late Neoproterozoic rather than in the late Paleozoic as previously suggested; its country rocks formed at 464±7 Ma, younger than the enclosed gabbro. The U-Pb age for the gabbro is in good agreement with ages for tuff interbedded with sediments from the Doushantuo Formation in the South China Block and late-Neoproterozoic basic dyke swarms distributed on a large scale over areas of Suizhou to Zaoyang of Hubei Province in the northern margin of the South China Block. This suggests a large-scale magmatic activity occurred at the late Neoproterozoic in the South China Block, so that the gabbro at Wangmuguan in the western segment of the Beihuaiyang zone is geotectonic affinity to the northern margin of the South China Block. Since the olivine gabbro occurs within the schist of Ordovician protolith with tectonic contact between them but forming in different tectonic settings, it is concluded that the late-Neoproterozoic gabbro was detached from the Precambrian basement of the South China Block during the Triassic subduction of the South China Block, and tectonically thrusted over the metamorphosed rocks in the southern margin of the North China Block.

Plasmons induced by topological insulator (TI) Bi 2 Se 3 micro-ribbon arrays have been experimentally observed recently ( Nature nanotechnology 2013, 8, 556-560 ). In this letter, the surface plasmons excited by TI Bi 2 Se 3 micro-disk arrays are investigated by the methods of full-wave numerical simulations. Numerical simulation results show that thin Bi 2 Se 3 micro-disk arrays can support dipolar plasmon resonances in the terahertz (THz) regimes and the absorptions can be tuned by the structure parameters. In addition to the plasmon mode, two phonon-mode responses are also observed, which confirms the experimental results of micro-ribbon arrays. Our work further proves that TI can be a good candidate of plasmonic platform.

Messaging of course has always been a core feature of the Internet. Jabber is a compelling IM solution that is well-suited to meet today's and tomorrow's IM needs. The Jabber system is technically simple, flexible, and surprisingly intuitive. Jabber's open standards are its primary political and business advantage, its use of XML as its standard data format is its crucial technical advantage. A Jabber server is developed and implemented in Java that complies with the Jabber protocols in this paper.

With the development of Internet, people transmit a large number of digital image every day on the Internet. At the same time, people also begin gradually focusing on the digital image data transmission security issues. First of all, this paper introduces some common image encryption algorithm. Secondly, focusing on the chaotic image encryption technology and focusing on the three-dimensional mapping of Lorenz maps. Finally, the process and results of Lorenz instance.

The antisense fragment targeting the aberrant splice sites of the beta-thalassaemia allele, IVS-2-654 C-->T (beta654), pretranscript was cloned into the mammalian expression vector, pcDNA3. The recombinant construct, pCMVA, was then used to repair the defective splicing of the beta654 mutant pretranscript in cultured beta654 erythroid cells by the lipofectin-mediated DNA transfection method. The total RNA was extracted at given time points after transfection and the effect of antisense RNA was studied by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-mediated mRNA quantitative assay, as well as globin chain microbiosynthesis. The antisense fragment transcribed from pCMVA effectively improved the beta654 splicing pattern in cultured erythroid cells. The level of correctly spliced transcript increased from 0.19 (day 0 after transfection) to 0.58 (day 8) in beta654/beta654 homozygous erythroid cells, and from 0.45 (day 0) to 0.83 (day 8) in beta654/betaA heterozygous erythroid cells, as determined by the ratio of normally spliced beta-globin transcript over total beta-globin transcript. Correspondingly, the ratios of globin chain biosynthesis (beta/alpha) increased from 0.16 (day 0) to 0.52 (day 8) in beta654/beta654 erythroid cells, and from 0.39 (day 0) to 0.84 (day 8) in beta654/betaA erythroid cells. Antisense RNA had no significant effect on the splicing pattern in betaA/betaA erythroid cells. The splicing pattern in transfected cells with pCMVA showed significant changes compared with that in untransfected cells and that in transfected cells with the control antisense fragment (human SRY gene sequence). In addition, we did not observe side-effects on cytological features after the introduction of pCMVA. All these results indicated that the antisense RNA transcribed from the mammalian expression vector pCMVA could efficiently and specifically suppress the aberrant splicing pattern of beta654 mutant pretranscript and restore the correct splicing pathway in vivo, leading to the improvement of globin chain biosynthesis in thalassaemic cells.

The antisense fragments, which were available in in vitro system, were cloned into the mammalian expression vector pcDNA3, and were transfected into H654 cells, a mammalian cell line stably expressing the thalassaemic (IVS-2-654 C--T) human beta-globin gene. In these transfected cells, the level of correctly spliced beta-globin mRNA in total beta-globin mRNA (beta/(beta + beta*)) was improved from 0.07 (0 d) to 0.22 (3 d), and this effect persisted for up to 15 d post transfection. All the results demonstrated that antisense RNAs were able to be transcribed from the antisense fragment expression vectors stably and effectively suppressed aberrant splicing pattern of the mutated beta-globin gene (IVS-2-654 C--T) and restored correct splicing pathway. This work provided a novel approach with potential clinical significance to gene therapy of this kind of splicing mutants including beta-thalassaemia (IVS-2-654 C--T) by antisense RNAs.

To explore forensic identification of causality between injury and the consequence in cases of cervical spinal cord injury without fracture or dislocation.Twenty-five cases of cervical spinal cord injury without fracture or dislocation were collected. The age, mode of injury, imaging reports, cervical vertebral degeneration, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment and injury consequences were summarized. The causality between injury and its consequence were classified as direct cause, main cause, same cause, minor cause and no cause.Age, mode of injury, cervical vertebral degeneration and spinal stenosis were important factors in the analysis of causality. In the injured younger than 8-year-old trauma was generally the direct cause to the damage. While in other injured, it was needed to analyze the various factors comprehensively.Comprehensive analysis of age, mode of injury, cervical vertebral degeneration, spinal stenosis and other factors would contribute to accurate identification of the causality between the injury and the consequences in cases of cervical spinal cord injury without fracture or dislocation.

Most herbal medicines could be processed to fulfill the different requirements of therapy. The purpose of this study was to discriminate between raw and processed Dipsacus asperoides, a common traditional Chinese medicine, based on their near infrared (NIR) spectra. Least squares-support vector machine (LS-SVM) and random forests (RF) were employed for full-spectrum classification. Three types of kernels, including linear kernel, polynomial kernel and radial basis function kernel (RBF), were checked for optimization of LS-SVM model. For comparison, a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) model was performed for classification, and the successive projections algorithm (SPA) was executed prior to building an LDA model to choose an appropriate subset of wavelengths. The three methods were applied to a dataset containing 40 raw herbs and 40 corresponding processed herbs. We ran 50 runs of 10-fold cross validation to evaluate the model's efficiency. The performance of the LS-SVM with RBF kernel (RBF LS-SVM) was better than the other two kernels. The RF, RBF LS-SVM and SPA-LDA successfully classified all test samples. The mean error rates for the 50 runs of 10-fold cross validation were 1.35% for RBF LS-SVM, 2.87% for RF, and 2.50% for SPA-LDA. The best classification results were obtained by using LS-SVM with RBF kernel, while RF was fast in the training and making predictions.

The computation of Chinese sentence similarity has been widely used in many areas. However, due to the complexity of Chinese, currently, there have no corresponding algorithms to solve computation of sentence similarity at home and abroad. This paper presents a improved method of the computation of words similarity firstly, and then on this basis, the structure of semantic string has been given and calculating the impact factor of semantic string, lastly, the improved algorithm of computation of sentence similarity has been presented based on it. The experiment of a certain data sets shows that the improved algorithm is effective.

The iris recognition is a kind of the biometrics technologies based on the physiological characteristics of human body, compared with the feature recognition based on the fingerprint, palm-print, face and sound etc, the iris has some advantages such as uniqueness, stability, high recognition rate, and non-infringing etc. As we known, the traditional iris recognition is using Gabor wavelets features; the iris recognition is performed by a 256-byte iris code, which is computed by applying the Gabor wavelets to a given area of the iris. And the techniques like principal component analysis (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA) can produce spatially global features. Therefore in this paper we compare the feature extraction algorithm based on PCA, ICA and Gabor wavelets for a compact iris code. We use these methods to generate optimal basis elements which could represent iris signals efficiently. In practice the coefficient of these methods are used as feature vectors. Then iris feature vectors are encoded into the iris code for storing and comparing individual's iris patterns. At last, we did experiment to find the best experimental results.

To evaluate the radical debridement and single stage posterior spinal fusion and instrumentation for the treatment of spinal tuberculosis.From 1999 to 2004, 57 patients (29 males, 26 females) with spinal tuberculosis were operated at our department. The age range was 20 to 77 years old (mean: 39 years old). There were 30 cases of thoracic vertebra and 27 cases of lumbar vertebra. All the patients received a standard pre-operative 4 - 8-week anti-tuberculosis treatment.The follow-up period ranged from 1 - 4 years and 95.9% of patients achieved an excellent outcome. Solid bony fusion was seen at last in all cases. The mean post-operative kyphosis angle reduced to 20 degrees from 32 degrees pre-operation.Single stage anterior spinal fusion and instrumentation is curative for spinal tuberculosis.