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The spectral-element time-domain (SETD) method, which has an explicit solution scheme, is proposed to analyze ferrite RF devices. First, the time-domain expression of the ferrite tensor permeability is derived. Then, the Helmholtz equation is expressed as time-domain convolution form. For the SETD method, high-order orthogonal Lagrange interpolation polynomial is used as a basis function and curved hexahedrons are used to mesh the computational space. The general electric field iterative formula is derived according to the SETD method. In the formula, the explicit solution scheme is preserved and the CPU time can be saved spontaneously. Two classical numerical results demonstrate the ability and accuracy of this method.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a life-threatening event. Even with timely treatment, acute ischemic myocardial injury and ensuing ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI) can still be difficult issues to tackle. Apart from radiological and other auxiliary examinations, laboratory tests of applicable cardiac biomarkers are also necessary for early diagnosis and close monitoring of this disorder. Heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP), which mainly exists inside cardiomyocytes, has recently emerged as a potentially promising biomarker for myocardial injury. In this review we discuss the sensitivity and specificity of H-FABP in the assessment of myocardial injury and IRI, especially in the early stage, and its long-term prognostic value in comparison with other commonly used cardiac biomarkers, including myoglobin (Mb), cardiac troponin I (cTnI), creatine kinase MB (CK-MB), C-reactive protein (CRP), glycogen phosphorylase isoenzyme BB (GPBB), and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT). The potential and value of combined application of H-FABP with other biomarkers are also discussed. Finally, the prospect of H-FABP is summarized; several technical issues are discussed to facilitate wider application of H-FABP in clinical practice.

Motion intent recognition as a key technology to help wearers control the exoskeleton of lower extremities has received extensive attention in recent years. The surface electromyography (sEMG) signal of the lower limbs is the most commonly used identification signal source. The traditional recognition method is to extract the feature manually and then use the machine learning method to train the model. The recognition accuracy depends on the prior knowledge, and the manual extraction feature is more troublesome. This paper uses a CNN-RF combined model to recognize five movements (stand, sit, walk, up and down stairs). Convolutional neural network (CNN) has autonomous learning ability automatically extracts features and can combines with traditional random forest (RF) model for training. Firstly, real-time experimental data was extracted by four-channel sEMG sensor and gyroscope, then the convolutional neural network automatically extracted features, finally the feature vector was fed to the random forest model for training. The experiment achieved a high accuracy on the test set and the training speed also meets real-time requirements, which proved the superiority of the method.

BACKGROUND Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a member of the genus Begomovirus within the family Geminiviridae, is an important pathogen of tomato in many tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. TYLCV is exclusively transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci in a circulative manner. The viral coat protein (CP) has been assumed to play important roles in the entry of TYLCV into the insect midgut cells. RESULTS Testing the hypothesis that CP plays an important role in TYLCV acquisition by B. tabaci, a soluble form of the CP was expressed and purified. The purified recombinant CP made it possible to examine the function of TYLCV CP without other viral proteins. In an in vivo binding assay, specific binding of TYLCV CP to B. tabaci midguts was detected when purified CP was fed to B. tabaci. In addition, real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of virus titre revealed that B. tabaci fed with purified CP had reduced the level of virus in their midgut compared with those fed with bovine serum albumin or maltose-binding protein. These results suggest that binding of TYLCV CP to the B. tabaci midgut specifically inhibits virus acquisition. CONCLUSIONS The findings that TYLCV CP binds to B. tabaci midguts and decreases virus acquisition provide direct evidence that CP mediates the attachment of TYLCV to receptors on the epithelial cells of the B. tabaci midgut. © 2014 Society of Chemical Industry

Due to the space constraints and obstacles, the traditional industrial manipulator is too difficult to achieve some tasks, such as the gluing for the wing bulkhead of the aircraft and the maintenance for cooling pipes of the nuclear power plant, etc. Continuum manipulator, inspired by the trunk and the tentacle, proves to be very effective for above-mentioned tasks. A novel octopus-like biomimetic robots, is proposed in this paper, which is consisting of continuum joints and discrete joints, and provide a host of benefits, such as the large space of movement, the high flexibility and the heavy load. A novel analytical approach for solving kinematics of the octopus-like arm manipulator with mixed joints is presented in this paper. Based on the bionic mechanism of the continuum manipulator constructed from mixed joints, the robot configuration is established. In this paper, we present a detailed formulation and explanation of a novel kinematic model for the continuum robots with mixed joints. The modeling method based on the Denavit–Hartenberg parameters(also called DH parameters) is used to depict the motion of robot. The robot is comprised of the continuum joint and the rotated joint, so the kinematic model of continuum joint is crucial for constructing that of the whole robot. The continuum joint is equivalent to a section of elastic body, whose D-H parametors can be obtain from the constant-curvature method. Then the forward kinematics of the whole robot can be builded in a D-H frame. Research results will create a new modeling method for the octopus-like continuum manipulators with mixed joints, which can give a new approach for the design on the biomimetic manipulators operating in the unstructured envirement.

To explore an economical and efficient molluscicidal method suitable for large area of nursery stock field.Two nursery stock fields with Oncomelania hupensis were selected as experimental sites, and an experimental group and a control group were set. In the experimental group, the molluscacide and herbicide were alternately used (a purification molluscicidal method) during the period of May to October, 2011. In the control group, grass shoveling and soil burying combined with molluscacide were used in the same period. The snail control effects of the two groups were observed and the costs of the two methods were analyzed.No living snails were found in both experimental and control groups three consecutive years after the snail control intervention above mentioned. The costs of snail control intervention in the experimental group and control group were 0.90 and 1.80 Yuan/m2, respectively.The effect of the purification molluscicidal method in nursery stock field is satisfying, and the cost is lower.

To evaluate the molluscicidal effect of black plastic film combined with carbon amide.In Jiangdong Town, Jinhua City, the field with Oncomelania hupensis in the history was selected as experimental area and divided into 3 groups: Group One was administered with black plastic film combined with carbon amide; Group Two was administered with simple black plastic film; and Group Three was a control group.On the 3rd, 7th, 15th, 20th and 30th day after the experiment, the mortality rates of 0. hupensis of Group One were 86.0%, 88.0%, 100%, 100% and 100% respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the control group (all P0.05). The differences of mortality rates between Group One and Group Two were statistically significant on the 3rd and 7th day after the experiment (Group One was superior to Group Two).The bladk plastic film combined with carbon amide can improve the molluscicidal effect.

To explore a high molluscicidal efficient method in special Oncomelania hupensis snail environments.In 2005 and 2006, in large special environments (rubble creek beaches and seepage barren hills with snails), the mechanical soil-buried method (excavator digging to bury deep snails) and manual soil-buried method were used respectively, and the results were compared for the cost-effectiveness.With the mechanical soil-buried method in 2006, the investment was 0.78 yuan/m2, and the compression rate of snail areas was 100%; with the manual soil-buried method in 2005, the investment was 1.34 yuan/m2, and the compression rate of snail areas was 20.26%. The former was much better than the latter.In the large special environments with snails, the mechanical soil-buried method is superior to manual soil-buried method.

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), a member of the genus Begomovirus within the family Geminiviridae, is an important pathogen of tomato in many tropical, subtropical and temperate regions. TYLCV is exclusively transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci in a circulative manner. The viral coat protein (CP) has been assumed to play important roles in the entry of TYLCV into the insect midgut cells.Testing the hypothesis that CP plays an important role in TYLCV acquisition by B. tabaci, a soluble form of the CP was expressed and purified. The purified recombinant CP made it possible to examine the function of TYLCV CP without other viral proteins. In an in vivo binding assay, specific binding of TYLCV CP to B. tabaci midguts was detected when purified CP was fed to B. tabaci. In addition, real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of virus titre revealed that B. tabaci fed with purified CP had reduced the level of virus in their midgut compared with those fed with bovine serum albumin or maltose-binding protein. These results suggest that binding of TYLCV CP to the B. tabaci midgut specifically inhibits virus acquisition.The findings that TYLCV CP binds to B. tabaci midguts and decreases virus acquisition provide direct evidence that CP mediates the attachment of TYLCV to receptors on the epithelial cells of the B. tabaci midgut.

BACKGROUND: Some species of the whitefly Bemisia tabaci complex cause tremendous losses to crops worldwide through feeding directly and virus transmission indirectly. The primary salivary glands of whiteflies are critical for their feeding and virus transmission. However, partly due to their tiny size, research on whitefly salivary glands is limited and our knowledge on these glands is scarce. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We sequenced the transcriptome of the primary salivary glands of the Mediterranean species of B. tabaci complex using an effective cDNA amplification method in combination with short read sequencing (Illumina). In a single run, we obtained 13,615 unigenes. The quantity of the unigenes obtained from the salivary glands of the whitefly is at least four folds of the salivary gland genes from other plant-sucking insects. To reveal the functions of the primary glands, sequence similarity search and comparisons with the whole transcriptome of the whitefly were performed. The results demonstrated that the genes related to metabolism and transport were significantly enriched in the primary salivary glands. Furthermore, we found that a number of highly expressed genes in the salivary glands might be involved in secretory protein processing, secretion and virus transmission. To identify potential proteins of whitefly saliva, the translated unigenes were put into secretory protein prediction. Finally, 295 genes were predicted to encode secretory proteins and some of them might play important roles in whitefly feeding. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The combined method of cDNA amplification, Illumina sequencing and de novo assembly is suitable for transcriptomic analysis of tiny organs in insects. Through analysis of the transcriptome, genomic features of the primary salivary glands were dissected and biologically important proteins, especially secreted proteins, were predicted. Our findings provide substantial sequence information for the primary salivary glands of whiteflies and will be the basis for future studies on whitefly-plant interactions and virus transmission.

Based on the principles of color recognition and the characteristics of color, a color recognition system which adopted the S7505 sensor and the SCM has been designed. This system combined full spectrum light source with narrow-band multi-color RGB Silicon Photodiode, thus, the color can be collected and processed in printing reliably and the color information of object also can be recognized more accurately and conveniently. The experiment demonstrated that the method which we proposed can accomplish the color measurement accurately and implement the detection of three primary colors.

To study the mechanism of marcosomia by investigating insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF(2))imprinting status, expression level and the promoter usage in the placenta of macrosomia.We selected heterozygous cases for Apa I polymorphism in exon 9 of IGF(2) gene and then analyzed its imprinting status in 168 placentas of macrosomia and normal pregnancies. IGF(2) transcription levels and promoter usages in macrosomic and normal placenta were evaluated by using semi-quantitative RT-PCR assay.Thirty specimens of macrosomic placenta and 30 of normal placenta were identified as heterozygous for IGF(2). All of the heterozygous specimens showed maintenance of imprinting. The expression of placental IGF(2) mRNA (2.2 +/- 1.2) was significantly higher in macrosomia than that of normal weight group (1.6 +/- 0.6, P0.05). Of four promoters, P4 was the most powerful, P3 was the second, and P2 was weakest. Transcripts from P1 were the fewest, and they were only detected in two specimens. The value of P4 was 2.06 +/- 1.26, P3 0.99 +/- 0.72, P2 0.20 +/- 0.20 in macrosomia group and P4 2.05 +/- 1.27, P3 0.98 +/- 0.80, P2 0.19 +/- 0.17 in normal group. There were no significant differences between two groups (P0.05).It is possible that over expression of IGF(2) in placenta contributes to macrosomia while the promoter usage and imprinting status are not associated with macrosomia.

To investigate the value of real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR in diagnosis of Down syndrome with uncultured amniotic cells.The uncultured amniocytes of 80 fetuses who were confirmed disomy 21 by chromosome analysis and 5 fetuses detected trisomy 21 and peripheral blood samples of 7 children diagnosed as Down syndrome were collected to extract gDNA and the real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR method was used to detect the original copies of Down syndrome critical region gene(3) (DSCR(3)) and GAPDH gene and then the ratio of DSCR(3)/GAPDH was calculated.The PCR product ratios of DSCR(3) to GAPDH in trisomy 21 from amniocytes and peripheral blood were ranged from 1.64 to 1.98 while in the normal control the ratio was only from 0.46 to 1.30.Real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR is a valuable method for rapid and accurate prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome in uncultured amniotic cells.