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3 simultaneously occupies the heme iron-binding domain and the ASD-binding site of aromatase by a highly efficient dual-binding pattern to aromatase, exerting synergistic antitumor action of cisplatin and aminoglutethimide with low-toxicity.

On the basis of the famous A–D–A-type non-fullerene acceptor IT-4F, this work investigates the effects of introducing methyl groups and substituting dicyano with O on optoelectronic properties and photovoltaic performances.

Non‐small‐cell lung cancer (NSCLC), with its aggressive biological behavior, is one of the most diagnosed cancers. Tumor‐associated inflammatory cells play important roles in the interaction between chronic inflammation and lung cancer, however the mechanisms involved are far from defined. In the present study, by developing an orthotopic NSCLC mouse model based on chronic inflammation, we proved that an inflammatory microenvironment accelerated the growth of orthotopic xenografts in vivo. Tumor‐associated macrophages, the most abundant population of inflammatory cells, were identified. Treatment with macrophage‐conditioned medium (MCM) promoted the growth and migration of NSCLC cells. Using bioinformatics analysis, we identified downregulated PP2Ac expression in NSCLC cells upon treatment with MCM. We further confirmed that this downregulation was executed in an NF‐κB pathway‐dependent manner. As IκB kinase (IKK) has been proved to be a substrate of PP2Ac, inhibition on PP2Ac could result in amplification of NF‐κB pathway signaling. Overexpression of PP2Ac, or the dominant‐negative forms of IKK or IκB, attenuated the acceleration of growth and metastasis by MCM. Using bioinformatics analysis, we further identified that CXCL1 and COL6A1 could be downstream of NF‐κB/PP2Ac pathway. Luciferase assay and ChIP assay further confirmed the location of response elements on the promoter regions of CXCL1 and COL6A1. Elevated CXCL1 facilitated angiogenesis, whereas upregulated COL6A1 promoted proliferation and migration., Tumor‐associated macrophages, the prominent type of inflammatory cells in non‐small‐cell lung cancer, can promote the growth and metastasis of cancer cells. Overexpression of PP2Ac, or the dominant‐negative forms of IKK or IκB, attenuated the acceleration on cancer cell growth and metastasis by TAMs. CXCL1 and COL6A1 could be downstream of NF‐κB/PP2Ac pathway. Elevated CXCL1 facilitated angiogenesis, whereas upregulated COL6A1 promoted cancer cell proliferation and migration.

Objective To observe the effects of electroacupuncture on urodynamics and intramedullary apoptosis related factor B cell lymphoma gene-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2 related protein X (Bax) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in neurogenic bladder rats after supersacral spinal cord injury. Methods A total of 60 female SD rats, SPF grade, were randomly selected, 12 rats in the blank group and 12 rats in the sham operation group, and the remaining 36 rats were made models. Of these 36 rats, 24 rats meeting the model standard were randomized into the model group and electroacupuncture group, with 12 rats in each group. The neurogenic bladder models after supracacral spinal cord injury were prepared by the Hassan Shaker spinal cord transection method, via combining the previous model study experience. At the end of spinal shock stage, “Dazhuī (大椎GV14)” “Zhōngji (中极CV 3) ” “ Ciliao (次髎BL 32) ”, and “Sānyīnjiāo (三阴交SP 6) ” were selected for electroacupuncture. Observation on the histomorphological changes of bladder detrusor and spinal cord in rats was conducted by HE staining. The apoptosis rate of spinal cord cells was measured by TUNEL assay. The maximum bladder volume and compliance were measured by urodynamics test. The protein expressions of Bcl-2, Bax, and BDNF in spinal cord tissues were measured by Western blot assay. The expressions of Bcl-2, Bax, and BDNF mRNA were measured by RT-PCR assay. Results ① The results of HE staining showed that compared with the blank group and sham operation group, in the model group the bladder epithelial cell structure was destroyed, the detrusor muscle fibers proliferated, and there were severe bleeding changes, the spinal cord tissue was disordered, the structure was destroyed, the cell space was enlarged, and accompanied by a large number of inflammatory cell infiltration and cystic cavity formation. Compared with the model group, in the electroacupuncture group, the intact bladder epithelial cells increased, the detrusor muscle fiber proliferation decreased, the bleeding changes decreased, the complete structural area of spinal cord tissues increased, the cell space decreased, the levels were clearer, and the cystic cavity decreased. ② The results of TUNEL assay indicated that the TUNEL positive rate of spinal cord cells in the model group was significantly higher than that in the blank group and sham group (both P Conclusion Electroacupuncture at “GV14” “CV3” “BL32”, and “SP6” can promote the repair of bladder detrusor, improve the maximum bladder volume and compliance of bladder, promote morphological repair of bladder detrusor, reduce spinal cord cell apoptosis rate, thus to restore the function of bladder. This is maybe related with the electroacupuncture's two-way regulatory mechanism of increased expression of protein and gene of Bcl-2 and BDNF and decreased expression of protein and gene of Bax in spinal cord tissues.

The demand for efficient and environmentally-benign electrocatalysts that help availably harness the renewable energy resources is growing rapidly. In recent years, increasing insights into the design of water electrolysers, fuel cells, and metal–air batteries emerge in response to the need for developing sustainable energy carriers, in which the oxygen evolution reaction and the oxygen reduction reaction play key roles. However, both reactions suffer from sluggish kinetics that restricts the reactivity. Therefore, it is vital to probe into the structure of the catalysts to exploit high-performance bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts. Spinel-type catalysts are a class of materials with advantages of versatility, low toxicity, low expense, high abundance, flexible ion arrangement, and multivalence structure. In this review, we afford a basic overview of spinel-type materials and then introduce the relevant theoretical principles for electrocatalytic activity, following that we shed light on the structure–property relationship strategies for spinel-type catalysts including electronic structure, microstructure, phase and composition regulation, and coupling with electrically conductive supports. We elaborate the relationship between structure and property, in order to provide some insights into the design of spinel-type bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts.

A novel metal–organic framework based on Co(II) ions as nodes {[Co2(bptc)(DMF)2(H2O)]DMF·H2O}n (1) was prepared and structurally characterized via the reaction of a rigid 3,3,5,5-biphenyltetracarboxylate (H4bptc) and Co(NO3)2·6H2O under the solvothermal conditions. The photocatalytic performances for complex 1 toward organic dyes degradation were studied. In the biological section, the treatment activity of the synthetic compound against renal failure patients combined with Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation was evaluated, the related mechanism of the new compound was explored at the same time.

By using a mixed-ligand approach, a new Cu(II)-based coordination polymer (CP) with the chemical formula of {[Cu(tci)(bpy)(NO3)·DMF·0.5CH3CN}n (H3tci = tri(2-carboxyethyl) isocyanurate, bpy = 4,4-b...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal gastrointestinal tumours, the most common pathological type is pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD). In recent year, immune imbalanced in tumour microenvironment has been shown to play an important role in the evolution of tumours progression, and the efficacy of immunotherapy has been gradually demonstrated in clinical practice. In this study, we propose to construct an immune-related prognostic risk model based on immune-related genes MMP14 and INHBA expression that can assess the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients and identify potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer, to provide new ideas for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. We also investigate the correlation between macrophage infiltration and MMP14 and INHBA expression. First, the gene expression data of pancreatic cancer and normal pancreatic tissue were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA) and The Genotype-Tissue Expression public database (GTEx). The differentially expressed immune-related genes between pancreatic cancer samples and normal sample were screened by R software. Secondly, univariate Cox regression analysis were used to evaluate the relationship between immune-related genes and the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. A polygenic risk score model was constructed by Cox regression analysis. The prognostic nomogram was constructed, and its performance was evaluated comprehensively by internal calibration curve and C-index. Using the risk model, each patient gets a risk score, and was divided into high- or low- risk groups. The proportion of 22 types of immune cells infiltration in pancreatic cancer samples was inferred by CIBERSOFT algorithm, correlation analysis (Pearson method) was used to analyse the correlation between the immune-related genes and immunes cells. Then, we applied macrophage conditioned medium to culture pancreatic cancer cell line PANC1, detected the expression of MMP14 and INHBA by qRT-PCR and Western blot methods. Knock-down MMP14 and INHBA in PANC1 cells by transfected with shRNA lentiviruses. Detection of migration ability of pancreatic cells was done by trans-well cell migration assay. A subcutaneous xenograft tumour model of human pancreatic cancer in nude mice was constructed. In conclusion, an immune-related gene prognostic model was constructed, patients with high-risk scores have poorer survival status, M2-phenotype tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) up-regulate two immune-related genes, MMP14 and INHBA, which were used to establish the prognostic model. Knock-down of MMP14 and INHBA inhibited invasion of pancreatic cancer.

Combination of immune- and chemo-therapy has become a new trend in cancer treatment. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved immune-modulatory agent, thalidomide, can modulate the related proteins of upstream signaling pathway of programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), including nuclear transcription factor κB (NF-κB), hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), all acting as key antitumor target proteins. In this work, we conjugated thalidomide with oxidized cisplatin to construct multi-functional Pt(IV) prodrugs, named thaliplatins 4-6, to investigate the anti-tumor effect of immuno- and chemo-therapy. Among them, thaliplatin 6 exerted remarkable cytotoxicity against the tested cancer cell lines, showing 15-26 and 9-20 times higher IC

Pt(IV) anticancer compounds have been developed for several decades to overcome the drawbacks of their Pt(II) congeners, and the reduction of Pt(IV) to Pt(II) has been commonly regarded as a necessary step in the activation of Pt(IV) compounds prior to targeting DNA. However, blockage of glutathione (GSH) biosynthesis resulted in a slight effect on the cytotoxicity of oxoplatin in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, urging us to reconsider the mechanism of actions for the "inert" Pt(IV) complexes. Using X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES), our data demonstrated that Pt(IV) complex oxoplatin could bind to DNA in a tetravalent state. Both alkaline denaturing agarose electrophoresis and thermal denaturation-renaturation assay revealed that oxoplatin could rapidly produce stable interstrand crosslinks (ICLs), which can further translate into a fast cell-killing process in cancer cells. Using quantitative real-time PCR and immunofluorescence analysis, we also proved that Pt(IV) complex oxoplatin could induce a quick intracellular response of the FA/BRCA pathway in cancer cells that involves the DNA interstrand crosslinking repair system, and this quick response to ICLs was independent with the intracellular GSH levels. Cell cycle analysis showed that short incubation with oxoplatin can induce a strong S phase arrest in HeLa cells, indicating that the rapid interstrand crosslinks produced by oxoplatin might stall the replication fork, result in the double-strand breaks, and eventually induce cell death. Our results implied that, besides the reduction mechanism to release the Pt(II) congeners, direct and rapid interstrand cross-linking with DNA by Pt(IV) compounds might be a unique mechanism for Pt(IV) compounds, which may provide new insight for the development of next-generation platinum-based drugs.

Professor总结邵铭熙教授治疗乳腺癌关节疼痛经验。邵铭熙教授认为乳腺癌关节疼痛以肝脾肾三脏失调为本，风寒湿三邪外袭为标。强调辨证论治，将其分为肝郁气滞、痰瘀痹阻、气血亏虚、风寒湿痹4型。针灸治疗以合谷、太冲、外关为主穴，辨证配穴；强调针灸与推拿并用，补泻适度；重视少阳经，常配伍手少阳三焦经之外关、中渚，足少阳胆经之阳陵泉、足临泣；另强调局部与远端取穴相结合，多种中医疗法并进，增益其效。.

Background: Ginkgo biloba, a typical dioecious plant, is a traditional medicinal plant widely planted. However, it has a long juvenile period, which severely affected the breeding and cultivation of superior ginkgo varieties.Results: In order to clarify the complex mechanism of sexual differentiation in G. biloba strobili. Here, a total of 3,293 miRNAs were identified in buds and strobili of G. biloba, including 1,085 conserved miRNAs and 2,208 novel miRNAs using the three sequencing approaches of transcriptome, small RNA, and degradome. Comparative transcriptome analysis screened 4,346 and 7,087 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in MB _vs_ FB and MS _vs_ OS, respectively. A total of 6,032 target genes were predicted for differentially expressed miRNA. The combined analysis of both small RNA and transcriptome datasets identified 51 miRNA-mRNA interaction pairs that may be involved in the process of G. biloba strobili sexual differentiation, of which 15 pairs were verified in the analysis of degradome sequencing. Conclusions: The comprehensive analysis of the small RNA, RNA and degradome sequencing data in this study provided candidate genes and clarified the regulatory mechanism of sexual differentiation of G. biloba strobili from multiple perspectives.

To investigate the effect of GAPT, an extract mixture from Radix Ginseng, Rhizoma Acor tatarinowii, Radix Polygalae and Radix Curcuma (containing ingredient of turmeric), etc. on expression of tau protein and its phosphorylation related enzyme in hippocampal neurons of APPV717I transgenic mice. Sixty three-month-old APPV717I transgenic mice were randomly divided into model group, donepezil group [0.92 mg/(kg•d)], the low, medium and high dosage of GAPT groups [0.075, 0.15, 0.30 g/(kg•d), 12 in each group], and 12 three-month-old C57BL/6J mice were set as a normal control group, treatments were administered orally once a day respectively, and both the normal group and model group were given 0.5% sodium carboxymethyl cellulose solution. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blot analysis were used to detect the expression of total tau protein (Tau-5), cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) in hippocampal neurons of experimental mice after 8-month drug administration (11 months old). In the model group, the expression of Tau-5 and CDK5 were increased, whereas the expression of PP2A was decreased in hippocampal neurons, which were signifificantly different compared with that in the normal group (all P

Objective:This study aimed to investigate the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and physical activity (PA) in different domains among male coal miners of Shanxi Province in China.Method:The study was conducted from July 2013 to December 2013. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling method was used. Data regarding the general information of participants were collected by well-trained interviewers. MetS was defined according to IDF criteria. Self-reported PA was obtained with the IPAQ and categorized into three tertiles of intensity levels across occupation, transportation, household, and leisure-time domains. Univariate and multiple logistic regression analysis were applied to compute the odds ratios and their 95% confidence interval (CI).Results:A total of 3076 males aged 18–65 years old were recruited in this cross-sectional study. The prevalence of MetS was 40.5% in the study subjects. The percentages of vigorous-intensity PA in MetS and non-MetS groups were 70.07% and 62.92%, respectively. Participants spent most of their time on occupation (2034 MET-min/w) and transportation (693MET-min/w) domains. Higher-intensity levels in occupation domains were significantly associated with lower risk of MetS (OR: 0.759, 95% CI: 0.633–0.911; OR: 0.627, 95% CI: 0.516–0.762).Conclusions:Across four types of workers, the relationships between PA domains and MetS were different. For underground and underground auxiliary workers, the negative relationship was found between occupation PA and MetS. For office workers, the negative relationship was found between household PA and MetS. For ground workers, only leisure-time PA had positively related to MetS.

δ‑opioid receptor (DOR) belongs to the family of G protein‑coupled receptors (GPCRs). Numerous studies have shown that DOR is widely distributed in human peripheral tissues and is closely related to the development and progression of certain malignant tumours. However, there is controversy in the literature regarding whether DOR has an impact on the development and progression of human breast cancer. The present study comprehensively elaborates on the biological functions of DOR by determining the distribution of DOR expression in breast cancer tissues and cells and by further verifying the effects of DOR on breast cancer progression. DOR was found to be highly expressed in human breast cancer tissues and cells. In addition, the high expression level of DOR positively correlated with tumour grade and clinical stage and negatively correlated with breast cancer metastasis and prognosis. Upregulating and activating DOR promoted the proliferation of human breast cancer cells in a concentration‑dependent manner within a specific concentration range, whereas downregulating or inhibiting DOR activation significantly suppressed cell proliferation. The majority of tumour cells were arrested in G1 phase, and some cells exhibited apoptosis. DOR upregulation and activation induced protein kinase C (PKC) activation, resulting in increased phosphorylation levels of extracellular signal‑regulated kinases (ERKs). After inhibition of the PKC/ERK signalling pathway, the effects of DOR on breast cancer were significantly attenuated in vivo and in vitro. In summary, DOR is highly expressed in breast cancer and is closely related to its progression. These results suggest that DOR may serve as a potential biomarker for the early diagnosis of breast cancer and may be a viable molecular target for therapeutic intervention.

Reaction of copper(II) perchlorate with glutaroimide-dioxime (H3gido) in MeOH solution led to a quasi co-planar 12-metallacrown-4 complex [Cu5(Hgido)4(ClO4)2]·CH3OH(1). The structure of complex 1 has been confirmed by X-ray analysis: two types of similar 12-metallacrown-4 units are connected into 1D chain by perchlorate anions. The temperature dependent magnetic susceptibilities analysis indicates that the antiferromagnetic exchange interaction through the Cu(II)peripheral–Cu(II)central and Cu(II)peripheral–Cu(II)peripheral pathways are J1 = -41.3 and J2 = -14.2 cm−1, respectively. The field-dependent magnetization at 2 K confirms the ground state of St = 3/2.

A new meroterpenoid, named terretonin D1 (

To investigate the protective effect of exenatide (Ex) on the renal injury in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 2 groups:normal control group (NC group,Compared to the DM group,glycolipid metabolic abnormalities in the exenatide-treated groups were significantly ameliorated with lower levels of blood glucose,HbAlc, cholesterol and triglyceride (Exe-natide has the renal protective effect probably by the mechanisms of inhibition of AGEs production and reduction of oxidative stress in the renal tissues of diabetic rats.

The catalytic conversion of dinitrogen (N2 ) into ammonia under ambient conditions represents one of the Holy Grails in sustainable chemistry. As a potential alternative to the Haber-Bosch process, the electrochemical reduction of N2 to NH3 is attractive owing to its renewability and flexibility, as well as its sustainability for producing and storing value-added chemicals from the abundant feedstock of water and nitrogen on earth. However, owing to the kinetically complex and energetically challenging N2 reduction reaction (NRR) process, NRR electrocatalysts with high catalytic activity and high selectivity are rare. In this contribution, as a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate that both the NH3 yield and faradaic efficiency (FE) under ambient conditions can be improved by modification of the hematite nanostructure surface. Introducing more oxygen vacancies to the hematite surface renders an improved performance in NRR, which leads to an average NH3 production rate of 0.46 μg h-1 cm-2 and an NH3 FE of 6.04 % at -0.9 V vs. Ag/AgCl in 0.10 m KOH electrolyte. The durability of the electrochemical system was also investigated. A surprisingly high average NH3 production rate of 1.45 μg h-1 cm-2 and a NH3 FE of 8.28 % were achieved after the first 1 h chronoamperometry test. This is among the highest FEs reported so far for non-precious-metal catalysts that use a polymer-electrolyte-membrane cell and is much higher than the FE of precious-metal catalysts (e.g., Ru/C) under comparable reaction conditions. However, the NH3 yield and the FE dropped to 0.29 μg h-1 cm-2 and 2.74 %, respectively, after 16 h of chronoamperometry tests, which indicates poor durability of the system. Our results demonstrate the important role that the surface states of transition-metal oxides have in promoting electrocatalytic NRR under ambient conditions. This work may spur interest towards the rational design of electrocatalysts as well as electrochemical systems for NRR, with emphasis on the issue of stability.

Abies alba is native to the mountains of Europe and often used as Christmas trees. In this study, we reported the complete chloroplast genome of A. alba. The complete chloroplast genome is 121,243 ...

With the advent of the era of economic globalization and Internet information and the emergence of this emerging industry, e-commerce for modern business provides a completely new business platform, which has played a tremendous economic significance in promoting the potential engine of global growth for small and medium-sized enterprise's survival and development. The paper analyzed the current developing model and innovation of electronic commerce in our country’s small and medium-sized enterprises.

As is well known, the ocean plays a key role in global ecological environment. In this paper, we introduced the basic principle of monitoring oil spill by using SAR images. On the basis of that, we systematically analyzed the applicability of various methods for monitoring oil spill by using SAR images. The conclusion shows that the ANN method and the OTSU method have the advantages of timeliness and efficiency in oil spill monitoring, while the Markov Chain method cost more time due to its capability in reducing the effect of internal ocean wave.

This paper designs the virtual online platform of high precision machinery processing. And we use it to forecast the safety coefficient k and lift coefficient of auto machining process, and based on the safety coefficient and the lift coefficient we improve the automobile working procedure real-time, and obtain a reasonable body safety structure and external driving performance of the structure, which achieves good comprehensive design effect. At the end of this paper, we apply the system in the online virtual platform of computer higher occupation education. According to the cycle mechanism of the lift coefficient, we design the teaching task of cultivating innovative talents, and arrange the teaching tasks of applied science. It provides the theory reference for research on the higher occupation school personnel training.

The narrow distributed electrophoretic display microcapsules containing electrophoretic ink were prepared using coaxial jet method aided by gas spray. Experimental results showed the size and shell thickness of the microcapsules could be controlled by adjusting flow rates of core and shell fluids as well as gas. The as-prepared white and red microcapsules, with average size of 100 and 200 μm respectively, had high coating ratio (above 90%) and exhibited reversible response to DC electric field. Compared with the approach of other microencapsulation methods, the new technique not only has a simple procedure but also provides a more effective way of size control. This novel method is expected to prepare microcapsules with potential application in the fields of electronic paper and other material science.

A novel type of chiral N-substituted methacrylamide derivatives bearing an oxazoline pendant (OPMAM) had been synthesized. Radical polymerization were carried out to produced corresponding polymers with high specific rotation in moderate yields. The polymerization characteristics and the chiroptical behavior of the resultant polymers have been examined in detail by using HPLC and CD and UV-vis spectra. The polymers showed relatively high molecular weights(Mn=5000-15000). The abolutely value of the specific rotation of poly(OPMAM)s basically increased with increasing the molecular weights.

For the lack of computing, storage, information integration and other aspects in traditional electric power computing platform, it is necessary to introduce cloud computing to it and to build a cloud computing platform based on open source Hadoop to meet the requirements of smart grid. As the single point of failure of Hadoop cannot guarantee the high availability that electric power system requires, this paper gives a solution that based on hot standby mechanism and automatically failover controlled by Zookeeper, analyses availability and disaster recovery times to ensure the electric power system provides fast and accurate service.

Few studies have investigated gender differences in dietary intake. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine gender differences in dietary patterns and their association with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. The food intakes of 3794 subjects enrolled by a two-stage cluster stratified sampling method were collected using a valid semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and its prevalence was 35.70% in the sample (37.67% in men and 24.67% in women). Dietary patterns were identified using factor analysis combined with cluster analysis and multiple group confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the factorial invariance between gender groups. The dominating dietary pattern for men was the “balanced” dietary pattern (32.65%) and that for women was the “high-salt and energy” dietary pattern (34.42%). For men, the “animal and fried food” dietary pattern was related to higher risk of MetS (odds ratio: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.01–1.60), after adjustment for age, marital status, socioeconomic status and lifestyle factors. For women, the “high-salt and energy” dietary pattern was related to higher risk of MetS (odds ratio: 2.27; 95% CI: 1.24–4.14). We observed gender differences in dietary patterns and their association with the prevalence of MetS. For men, the “animal and fried food” dietary pattern was associated with enhancive likelihood of MetS. For women, it was the “high-salt and energy” dietary pattern.

Digital elevation model, the core data for 3-dimensinal visualization and spatial analysis, plays a key role in geosciences and GIS, and wavelet transform is an important tool for data compression. According to the characteristics of DEM data and wavelet transform, we proposed an approach to diminish boundary distortion in compressing grid DEM data with discrete wavelet transform, so that the compression performances are evidently improved. The experimental results indicate that not only higher compression ratios but also reconstructed DEM data with high accuracy are achieved by using the proposed approach.

Digester sludge and rumen fluid were explored as the inoculum sources of anaerobic reactors fed with aquatic plants. Methane and volatile fatty acid were both expressed in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) in this study. A higher product yield of 464.3 g COD/g total solid (TS) was achieved in the reactor inoculated with digester sludge compared to rumen fluid with a value of 362.8 g COD/g TS. In contrast, the maximum product formation rate was 120.4 and 207.2 mg COD/L/d in the reactors with digester sludge and rumen fluid, respectively. Steam-explosion pretreatment improved the product yield by 18.5% and 14.5% for reactors inoculated with rumen fluid and digester sludge, respectively, while the product formation rate was increased by 128.7% for the first case but had no significant change for the second case. This study indicated that the anaerobic reactor inoculated with rumen fluid had a higher product formation rate than that with digester sludge when feeding cellulose, untreated bulrush and steam exploded bulrush.

For broadband synthetic aperture radar applications, a compact broadband horn array antenna is investigated.Ridged waveguide and square horn are used for broadband operating, and the size of the array element is much smaller than the traditional horn. The measured operating frequencies covered all X-band, more than 40% at centered frequency about 10 GHz. A 4 × 8 array was tested, and the measured results showed that the scan angle can be more than 15°, and the side lobe levels are −12 dB. Details of the antenna design and experimental results are presented. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:829–833, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26634