Effects of copper ions on the characteristics of egg white gel induced by strong alkali.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Yaoyao; Zhao, Yan; Xu, Mingsheng; Chen, Zhangyi; Wang, Shuzhen; Tu, Yonggang

2017-09-01

This study investigated the effects of copper ions on egg white (EW) gel induced by strong alkali. Changes in gel characteristics were examined through texture profile analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and chemical methods. The value of gel strength reached its maximum when 0.1% copper ions was added. However, the lowest cohesiveness values were observed at 0.1%. The springiness of gel without copper ions was significantly greater than the gel with copper ions added. SEM results illustrated that the low concentration of copper ions contributes to a dense and uniform gel network, and an open matrix was formed at 0.4%. The free and total sulphhydryl group content in the egg white protein gel significantly decreased with the increased copper. The increase of copper ions left the contents of ionic and hydrogen bonds basically unchanged, hydrophobic interaction presented an increasing trend, and the disulfide bond exhibited a completely opposite change. The change of surface hydrophobicity proved that the main binding force of copper induced gel was hydrophobic interaction. However, copper ions had no effect on the protein component of the gels. Generally, a low level of copper ions facilitates protein-protein association, which is involved in the characteristics of gels. Instead, high ionic strength had a negative effect on gels induced by strong alkali. © 2017 Poultry Science Association Inc.

Generation of stable mixed-compact-toroid rings by inducing plasma currents in strong E rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jayakumar, R.; Taggart, D.P.; Parker, M.R.; Fleischmann, H.H.

1989-01-01

In the RECE-Christa device, hybrid-type compact toroid rings are generated by inducing large toroidal plasma currents I rho in strong electron rings using a thin induction coil positioned along the ring axis. Starting from field-reversal values δ ο = 50 - 120 percent of the original pure fast-electron ring, the induced plasma current I rho raises δ to a maximum value of up to 240 percent with I rho contributing more than 50 percent of the total ring current. Quite interestingly, the generated hybrid compact toroid configurations appear gross-stable during the full I rho pulse length (half-amplitude width about 100 μs)

Wolbachia symbiont infections induce strong cytoplasmic incompatibility in the tsetse fly Glossina morsitans.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Uzma Alam

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Tsetse flies are vectors of the protozoan parasite African trypanosomes, which cause sleeping sickness disease in humans and nagana in livestock. Although there are no effective vaccines and efficacious drugs against this parasite, vector reduction methods have been successful in curbing the disease, especially for nagana. Potential vector control methods that do not involve use of chemicals is a genetic modification approach where flies engineered to be parasite resistant are allowed to replace their susceptible natural counterparts, and Sterile Insect technique (SIT where males sterilized by chemical means are released to suppress female fecundity. The success of genetic modification approaches requires identification of strong drive systems to spread the desirable traits and the efficacy of SIT can be enhanced by identification of natural mating incompatibility. One such drive mechanism results from the cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI phenomenon induced by the symbiont Wolbachia. CI can also be used to induce natural mating incompatibility between release males and natural populations. Although Wolbachia infections have been reported in tsetse, it has been a challenge to understand their functional biology as attempts to cure tsetse of Wolbachia infections by antibiotic treatment damages the obligate mutualistic symbiont (Wigglesworthia, without which the flies are sterile. Here, we developed aposymbiotic (symbiont-free and fertile tsetse lines by dietary provisioning of tetracycline supplemented blood meals with yeast extract, which rescues Wigglesworthia-induced sterility. Our results reveal that Wolbachia infections confer strong CI during embryogenesis in Wolbachia-free (Gmm(Apo females when mated with Wolbachia-infected (Gmm(Wt males. These results are the first demonstration of the biological significance of Wolbachia infections in tsetse. Furthermore, when incorporated into a mathematical model, our results confirm that Wolbachia can

Construction of radiation - induced metastasis model in vivo

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Jong Kuk; Jang, Su Jin; Kang, Sung Wook; Kim, Jae Sung; Hwang, Sang Gu; Kang, Joo Hyun [Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

2011-05-15

In treatment of cancer, distant metastases are important limiting factor because an estimated 50% of all cancer patients will develop metastases, and the metastases are major causing of cancer treatment failure. Recently a few reports indicated {gamma}-radiation induced an increase of invasiveness of several cancer cells. In this study, we had tried to show the possibility that radiation could also induce metastasis in vivo system. To prove our hypothesis, we constructed primary tumor by using C6-TL transfectant cell line expressing HSV1-tk and firefly luciferase (fLuc), and then {gamma}-radiation was treated to xenografts locally. Treatment of {gamma}-radiation to primary C6-TL xenografts of mice reduced size of xenografts and elongated survival of mice than those of mock control mice. But we also show that {gamma}-radiation treatment was followed by the growth of dormant metastases in various organs including lung and intestine after 2-4 weeks of {gamma}-radiation treatment. When bioluminescence imaging indicated growth of tumor in organs in mice, we sacrificed the mice and repeat acquired bioluminescence imaging after repeatedly. These images presented tumor growth locations exactly in organs. Because metastatic tumor candidates have morphology of foci, biopsies were performed for histological analysis or PCR analysis to confirm metastases. In most foci, histological analysis indicated several features of typical cancer tissue and PCR analysis showed present of fLuc gene in metastases. Detection of fLuc gene in metastases indicated these foci were originated from primary C6-TL xenografts, and the results suggest that {gamma}-radiation could promote metastasis in vivo as well as in vitro system. Although we need to understand changes of intracellular signaling or physiological phenomena of the radiation-induced metastasis yet, these results also imply that {gamma}-radiation treatment only to cancer patients need to pay attention carefully, and development of new

Spin-orbit-induced strong coupling of a single spin to a nanomechanical resonator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pályi, András; Struck, P R; Rudner, Mark

2012-01-01

as a realization of the Jaynes-Cummings model of quantum electrodynamics in the strong-coupling regime. A quantized flexural mode of the suspended tube plays the role of the optical mode and we identify two distinct two-level subspaces, at small and large magnetic field, which can be used as qubits in this setup......We theoretically investigate the deflection-induced coupling of an electron spin to vibrational motion due to spin-orbit coupling in suspended carbon nanotube quantum dots. Our estimates indicate that, with current capabilities, a quantum dot with an odd number of electrons can serve...

The I kappa B kinase inhibitor ACHP strongly attenuates TGF beta 1-induced myofibroblast formation and collagen synthesis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mia, Masum M.; Bank, Ruud A.

2015-01-01

Excessive accumulation of a collagen-rich extracellular matrix (ECM) by myofibroblasts is a characteristic feature of fibrosis, a pathological state leading to serious organ dysfunction. Transforming growth factor beta1 (TGF beta 1) is a strong inducer of myofibroblast formation and subsequent

Characteristic of Noise-induced Hearing Loss among Workers in Construction Industries

Science.gov (United States)

Naadia Mazlan, Ain; Yahya, Khairulzan; Haron, Zaiton; Amsharija Mohamed, Nik; Rasib, Edrin Nazri Abdul; Jamaludin, Nizam; Darus, Nadirah

2018-03-01

Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) is among the most common occupational disease in industries. This paper investigates NIHL in construction related industries in Malaysia with particular emphasis on its relation with risk factors. The objectives of this research were to (1) quantify the prevalence of NIHL in construction related industries, and (2) assess the relationship between hearing loss and risk factors and it's characteristic. The study was conducted using 110 NIHL compensation record collected from Social Security Organisation (SOCSO), Malaysia. Risk factors namely area noise, age, temperature, smoking habit, hobby, diabetic and cardiovascular disease were identified and analysed. Results showed that there was no direct relationship between area noise with hearing impairment while there was only low relationship between age and hearing impairment. The range for area noise and age were between 70 to 140 dB(A) and 20 to 70 years, respectively. The other risk factors classified as categorical data and analysed using frequency method. Grade of impairment does not depend solely on area noise but also in combination with age and other risk factors. Characteristic of NIHL prevailed in construction related industries were presented using scatterplots and can serve as a references for future hazard control on site.

Noise-induced hearing loss in construction workers being assessed for hand-arm vibration syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

House, Ronald A; Sauvé, John T; Jiang, Depeng

2010-01-01

Construction workers are at risk of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) but often have no periodic audiometric testing. The participants were construction workers assessed for Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) at the Occupational Health Clinic, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario. Audiometry was offered and 169 of the 191 workers assessed for HAVS agreed to have the audiometric test. The objective was to examine the prevalence of hearing loss in these 169 workers and to determine the effect on hearing of duration of work in construction (as a proxy for noise exposure) and the severity of vibration white finger (VWF) which previous studies have suggested is a marker for increased individual susceptibility for NIHL. VWF was measured by the Stockholm vascular scale. All participants were men, median age of 57 (range: 28-75), median number of years worked in construction of 35 (range: 4-52). All of the Spearman rank correlations between years worked in construction and the hearing levels at each audiometric frequency were statistically significant (p hearing loss at or above the level at which a workers' compensation pension would be granted in Ontario and the prevalence of this auditory outcome had a statistically significant increase as years worked in construction increased. Multivariate linear regression indicated that VWF also had a statistically significant effect on hearing loss for all audiometric frequencies combined after controlling for years worked in construction. Improved prevention of hearing loss in construction workers is needed.

ITER towards the construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimomura, Y.

2005-01-01

The ITER Project has been significantly developed in the last few years in preparation for its construction. The ITER Participant's Negotiators have developed the Joint Implementation Agreement (JIA), ready for finalisation following selection of the construction site and nomination of the project's Director General. The ITER International Team and Participant Teams have continued technical and organisational preparations. Construction will be able to start immediately after the international ITER organisation is established, following signature of the JIA. The Project is strongly supported by the governments of the Participants as well as by the scientific community. The real negotiations, including siting and the final details of cost sharing, started in December 2003. The EU, with Cadarache, and Japan, with Rokkasho, have both promised large contributions to the project to strongly support their construction site proposals. Their wish to host ITER construction is too strong to allow convergence to a single site considering the ITER device in isolation. A broader collaboration among the Parties is therefore being contemplated, covering complementary activities to help accelerate fusion development towards a viable power source, and allow the Participants to reach a conclusion on ITER siting. This report reviews these preparations, and the status of negotiations

Construction of compact FEM using solenoid-induced helical wiggler

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohigashi, N.; Tsunawaki, Y.; Fujita, M.; Imasaki, K.; Mima, K.; Nakai, S.

2003-01-01

A prototype of compact Free-Electron Maser (FEM) has been designed for the operation in a usual small laboratory which does not have electric source capacity available enough. The electron energy is 60-120 keV. As it is lower, stronger guiding magnetic field is necessary in addition to wiggler field. To fulfil this condition a solenoid-induced helical wiggler is applied from the viewpoint of saving the electric power of restricted source capacity. The wiggler, for example, with the period of 12 mm creates the field of 92 G in the guiding field of 3.2 kG. The whole system of FEM has been just constructed in a small-scale laboratory. It is so small to occupy the area of 0.7x2.9 m 2

Solid-state dewetting and island morphologies in strongly anisotropic materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang, Wei; Wang, Yan; Zhao, Quan; Srolovitz, David J.; Bao, Weizhu

2016-01-01

We propose a sharp-interface continuum model based on a thermodynamic variational approach to investigate the strong anisotropic effect on solid-state dewetting including contact line dynamics. For sufficiently strong surface energy anisotropy, we show that multiple equilibrium shapes may appear that cannot be described by the widely employed Winterbottom construction, i.e., the modified Wulff construction for an island on a substrate. We repair the Winterbottom construction to include multiple equilibrium shapes and employ our evolution model to demonstrate that all such shapes are dynamically accessible.

Effects of intravenous hyperosmotic sodium bicarbonate on arterial and cerebrospinal fluid acid-base status and cardiovascular function in calves with experimentally induced respiratory and strong ion acidosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Berchtold, Joachim F; Constable, Peter D; Smith, Geoffrey W; Mathur, Sheerin M; Morin, Dawn E; Tranquilli, William J

2005-01-01

The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of hyperosmotic sodium bicarbonate (HSB) administration on arterial and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) acid-base balance and cardiovascular function in calves with experimentally induced respiratory and strong ion (metabolic) acidosis. Ten healthy male Holstein calves (30-47 kg body weight) were instrumented under halothane anesthesia to permit cardiovascular monitoring and collection of blood samples and CSE Respiratory acidosis was induced by allowing the calves to spontaneously ventilate, and strong ion acidosis was subsequently induced by i.v. administration of L-lactic acid. Calves were then randomly assigned to receive either HSB (8.4% NaHCO3; 5 ml/kg over 5 minutes, i.v.; n=5) or no treatment (controls, n=5) and monitored for 1 hour. Mixed respiratory and strong ion acidosis was accompanied by increased heart rate, cardiac index, mean arterial pressure, cardiac contractility (maximal rate of change of left ventricular pressure), and mean pulmonary artery pressure. Rapid administration of HSB immediately corrected the strong ion acidosis, transiently increased arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (P(CO2)), and expanded the plasma volume. The transient increase in arterial P(CO2) did not alter CSF P(CO2) or induce paradoxical CSF acidosis. Compared to untreated control calves, HSB-treated calves had higher cardiac index and contractility and a faster rate of left ventricular relaxation for 1 hour after treatment, indicating that HSB administration improved myocardial systolic function. We conclude that rapid i.v. administration of HSB provided an effective and safe method for treating strong ion acidosis in normovolemic halothane-anesthetized calves with experimentally induced respiratory and strong ion acidosis. Fear of inducing paradoxical CSF acidosis is not a valid reason for withholding HSB administration in calves with mixed respiratory and strong ion acidosis.

Dynamic Test Method Based on Strong Electromagnetic Pulse for Electromagnetic Shielding Materials with Field-Induced Insulator-Conductor Phase Transition

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yun; Zhao, Min; Wang, Qingguo

2018-01-01

In order to measure the pulse shielding performance of materials with the characteristic of field-induced insulator-conductor phase transition when materials are used for electromagnetic shielding, a dynamic test method was proposed based on a coaxial fixture. Experiment system was built by square pulse source, coaxial cable, coaxial fixture, attenuator, and oscilloscope and insulating components. S11 parameter of the test system was obtained, which suggested that the working frequency ranges from 300 KHz to 7.36 GHz. Insulating performance is good enough to avoid discharge between conductors when material samples is exposed in the strong electromagnetic pulse field up to 831 kV/m. This method is suitable for materials with annular shape, certain thickness and the characteristic of field-induced insulator-conductor phase transition to get their shielding performances of strong electromagnetic pulse.

Photocatalytic activity of silver oxide capped Ag nanoparticles constructed by air plasma irradiation

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Yingcui; Wu, Qingmeng; Li, Huanhuan; Zhang, Bing; Yan, Rong; Chen, Junling; Sun, Mengtao

2018-04-01

We construct a kind of structure of silver oxide capped silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by cost-efficient air plasma irradiation, and study its visible-light driven photocatalytic activity (PA). By controlling the oxidization time, the relationship between the intensity of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and the PA is well established. The PA reaches the maximum when the LSPR of AgNPs is nearly completely damped (according to absorption spectra); however, under this condition, the LSPR still works, confirmed with the high efficient selective transformation of p-Aminothiophenol (PATP) to p, p'-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB) under visible light. The mechanism of the LSPR damping induced PA improvement is discussed. We not only provide a cost-efficient approach to construct a LSPR strong damping structure but also promote the understanding of LSPR strong damping and its relationship with photocatalysis.

Strong mechanically induced effects in DC current-biased suspended Josephson junctions

Science.gov (United States)

McDermott, Thomas; Deng, Hai-Yao; Isacsson, Andreas; Mariani, Eros

2018-01-01

Superconductivity is a result of quantum coherence at macroscopic scales. Two superconductors separated by a metallic or insulating weak link exhibit the AC Josephson effect: the conversion of a DC voltage bias into an AC supercurrent. This current may be used to activate mechanical oscillations in a suspended weak link. As the DC-voltage bias condition is remarkably difficult to achieve in experiments, here we analyze theoretically how the Josephson effect can be exploited to activate and detect mechanical oscillations in the experimentally relevant condition with purely DC current bias. We unveil how changing the strength of the electromechanical coupling results in two qualitatively different regimes showing dramatic effects of the oscillations on the DC-voltage characteristic of the device. These include the appearance of Shapiro-type plateaus for weak coupling and a sudden mechanically induced retrapping for strong coupling. Our predictions, measurable in state-of-the-art experimental setups, allow the determination of the frequency and quality factor of the resonator using DC only techniques.

Self-induced steps in a small Josephson junction strongly coupled to a multimode resonator

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, A.; Jensen, H. Dalsgaard; Mygind, Jesper

1991-01-01

An equally spaced series of very large and nearly constant-voltage self-induced singularities has been observed in the dc I-V characteristics of a small Josephson tunnel junction strongly coupled to a resonant section of a superconducting transmission line. The system allows extremely high values...... of the coupling parameter. The current steps are due to subharmonic parametric excitation of the fundamental mode of the resonator loaded by the junction admittance. Using an applied magnetic field to vary the coupling parameter, we traced out half-integer steps as well as the mode steps known from more weakly...

Strong monotonicity in mixed-state entanglement manipulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishizaka, Satoshi

2006-01-01

A strong entanglement monotone, which never increases under local operations and classical communications (LOCC), restricts quantum entanglement manipulation more strongly than the usual monotone since the usual one does not increase on average under LOCC. We propose strong monotones in mixed-state entanglement manipulation under LOCC. These are related to the decomposability and one-positivity of an operator constructed from a quantum state, and reveal geometrical characteristics of entangled states. These are lower bounded by the negativity or generalized robustness of entanglement

Construction and expression of pEgr-sHemopexin recombinant plasmid induced by ionizing radiation in vitro

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Guiquan; Jilin Univ., Changchun; Xu Chuanjie; Yang Wen; Piao Chunji; Dong Zhen

2005-01-01

Objective: To clone mouse secretable Hemopexin (sPEX) cDNA, construct pEgr-sPEX recombinant plasmid and detect the expression of recombinant plasmid in B16F10 cells. Methods: Hemopexin cDNA was amplified from the NIH3T3 cells by RT-PCR. After the cDNA identified by sequencing, the pEgr-sPEX recombinant plasmid was constructed and the plasmid was transfected into B16F10 cells with liposome and the expression of PEX induced by ionizing radiation in B16F10 cells was detected by Western blotting. Results: The sequencing results proved the cloned sPEX cDNA to be completely identical with that reported in the GenBank. The mouse sPEX cDNA was inserted correctly into expression vector and expressed successfully. Conclusion: The mouse sPEX cDNA is cloned successfully and it is confirmed that pEgr-sPEX possesses the radiation inducing expression characteristics in vitro. (authors)

Construction of recombinant plasmid pIRESEgr-IFN γ and its expression in Lewis lung carcinoma induced by irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang Wei; Li Xiuyi; Gong Shouliang; Sun Ting; Gong Pingsheng

2007-01-01

Objective: To construct the recombinant plasmid pIRESEgr-IFN γ and detect its expression in Lewis lung carcinoma induced by irradiation in vitro. Methods: The recombinant plasmid pIRESEgr-IFN γ containing Egr-1 promoter and IFN γ gene was constructed with gene recombinant technique. The plasmid was transferred into Lewis lung carcinoma by liposome in vitro. The correlations of dose- and time-effects in the expression of IFN γ gene induced by X-ray were detected by ELISA. Results: The identification with enzymes proved that Egr-1 promoter and IFN γ gene were inserted into vector pIRESlneo correctly. After X-ray irradiation with different doses, the expression of IFN γ in the supernatant of Lewis lung carcinoma transfected by pIRESEgr-IFN γ was significantly higher than that in 0 Gy group (P<0.001). After 5 Gy X-ray irradiation, the expression of IFN γ was the highest, being 4.39 times as much as that in 0 Gy group. The expression of IFN γ in the supernatant increased after 5 Gy X-ray irradiation, being 6.27 times as much as that in 0 h group 36 h after irradiation. Conclusion: The recombinant plasmid pIRESEgr-IFN γ is constructed successfully, and it has the property of enhancing the expression of IFN γ gene induced by irradiation. (authors)

Propranolol–induced Impairment of Contextual Fear Memory Reconsolidation in Rats: A similar Effect on Weak and Strong Recent and Remote Memories

Science.gov (United States)

Taherian, Fatemeh; Vafaei, Abbas Ali; Vaezi, Gholam Hassan; Eskandarian, Sharaf; Kashef, Adel; Rashidy-Pour, Ali

2014-01-01

Introduction Previous studies have demonstrated that the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist propranolol impairs fear memory reconsolidation in experimental animals. There are experimental parameters such as the age and the strength of memory that can interact with pharmacological manipulations of memory reconsolidation. In this study, we investigated the ability of the age and the strength of memory to influence the disrupting effects of propranolol on fear memory reconsolidation in rats. Methods The rats were trained in a contextual fear conditioning using two (weak training) or five (strong training) footshocks (1mA). Propranolol (10mg/kg) injection was immediately followed retrieval of either a one-day recent (weak or strong) or 36-day remote (weak or strong) contextual fear memories. Results We found that propranolol induced a long-lasting impairment of subsequent expression of recent and remote memories with either weak or strong strength. We also found no memory recovery after a weak reminder shock. Furthermore, no significant differences were found on the amount of memory deficit induced by propranolol among memories with different age and strength. Discussion Our data suggest that the efficacy of propranolol in impairing fear memory reconsolidation is not limited to the age or strength of the memory. PMID:25337385

Strong braking of m = 1 impurity-induced ‘snake’ in EAST sawtoothing plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ma, Tianpeng; Xu, Liqing; Hu, Liqun

2014-01-01

Strong braking of the m = 1 impurity-induced (e.g. molybdenum emission) density perturbation ‘snake’ was observed in EAST sawtoothing plasma. The shift of the peak positions of soft x-ray emissions due to the snake can be as high as 7 cm. Notable electron density fluctuations (δn e /n e0 can be as high as 8%) originating from this m = 1 snake are measured by a hydrogen cyanide laser interferometer. Due to mode coupling, synchronous locking of the m = 2 tearing mode and m = 1 snakes is expected to happen when the width of the m = 2 island exceeds a critical value. A critical width value of m = 2 for mode locking is calculated. The forced reconnection in the q = 2 surface is induced by a toroidal sideband of the m = 1 mode. (paper)

Second order approximation for optical polaron in the strong coupling case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bogolubov, N.N. Jr.

1993-11-01

Here we propose a method of construction second order approximation for ground state energy for class of model Hamiltonian with linear type interaction on Bose operators in strong coupling case. For the application of the above method we have considered polaron model and propose construction set of nonlinear differential equations for definition ground state energy in strong coupling case. We have considered also radial symmetry case. (author). 10 refs

Dengue E Protein Domain III-Based DNA Immunisation Induces Strong Antibody Responses to All Four Viral Serotypes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Monica Poggianella

Full Text Available Dengue virus (DENV infection is a major emerging disease widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world affecting several millions of people. Despite constants efforts, no specific treatment or effective vaccine is yet available. Here we show a novel design of a DNA immunisation strategy that resulted in the induction of strong antibody responses with high neutralisation titres in mice against all four viral serotypes. The immunogenic molecule is an engineered version of the domain III (DIII of the virus E protein fused to the dimerising CH3 domain of the IgG immunoglobulin H chain. The DIII sequences were also codon-optimised for expression in mammalian cells. While DIII alone is very poorly secreted, the codon-optimised fusion protein is rightly expressed, folded and secreted at high levels, thus inducing strong antibody responses. Mice were immunised using gene-gun technology, an efficient way of intradermal delivery of the plasmid DNA, and the vaccine was able to induce neutralising titres against all serotypes. Additionally, all sera showed reactivity to a recombinant DIII version and the recombinant E protein produced and secreted from mammalian cells in a mono-biotinylated form when tested in a conformational ELISA. Sera were also highly reactive to infective viral particles in a virus-capture ELISA and specific for each serotype as revealed by the low cross-reactive and cross-neutralising activities. The serotype specific sera did not induce antibody dependent enhancement of infection (ADE in non-homologous virus serotypes. A tetravalent immunisation protocol in mice showed induction of neutralising antibodies against all four dengue serotypes as well.

Semi-strong split domination in graphs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anwar Alwardi

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Given a graph $G = (V,E$, a dominating set $D subseteq V$ is called a semi-strong split dominating set of $G$ if $|V setminus D| geq 1$ and the maximum degree of the subgraph induced by $V setminus D$ is 1. The minimum cardinality of a semi-strong split dominating set (SSSDS of G is the semi-strong split domination number of G, denoted $gamma_{sss}(G$. In this work, we introduce the concept and prove several results regarding it.

Ketamine alleviates bradykinin-induced disruption of the mouse cerebrovascular endothelial cell-constructed tight junction barrier via a calcium-mediated redistribution of occludin polymerization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Jui-Tai; Lin, Yi-Ling; Chen, Ta-Liang; Tai, Yu-Ting; Chen, Cheng-Yu; Chen, Ruei-Ming

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Ketamine could suppress bradykinin-induced intracellular calcium mobilization. • Ketamine induced B1R protein and mRNA expressions but did not change B2R protein levels. • Ketamine attenuated bradykinin-induced redistribution of occludin tight junctions. • Ketamine prevented bradykinin-induced breakage of the MCEC-constructed tight junction barrier. - Abstract: Following brain injury, a sequence of mechanisms leads to disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and subsequent cerebral edema, which is thought to begin with activation of bradykinin. Our previous studies showed that ketamine, a widely used intravenous anesthetic agent, can suppress bradykinin-induced cell dysfunction. This study further aimed to evaluate the protective effects of ketamine against bradykinin-induced disruption of the mouse cerebrovascular endothelial cell (MCEC)-constructed tight junction barrier and the possible mechanisms. Exposure of MCECs to bradykinin increased intracellular calcium (Ca 2+ ) concentrations in a time-dependent manner. However, pretreatment of MCECs with ketamine time- and concentration-dependently lowered the bradykinin-induced calcium influx. As to the mechanisms, although exposure of MCECs to ketamine induced bradykinin R1 receptor protein and mRNA expression, this anesthetic did not change levels of the bradykinin R2 receptor, a major receptor that responds to bradykinin stimulation. Bradykinin increased amounts of soluble occludin in MCECs, but pretreatment with ketamine alleviated this disturbance in occludin polymerization. Consequently, exposure to bradykinin decreased the transendothelial electronic resistance in the MCEC-constructed tight junction barrier. However, pretreatment with ketamine attenuated the bradykinin-induced disruption of the tight junction barrier. Taken together, this study shows that ketamine at a therapeutic concentration can protect against bradykinin-induced breakage of the BBB via suppressing calcium

Construction of PAH-degrading mixed microbial consortia by induced selection in soil.

Science.gov (United States)

Zafra, German; Absalón, Ángel E; Anducho-Reyes, Miguel Ángel; Fernandez, Francisco J; Cortés-Espinosa, Diana V

2017-04-01

Bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-contaminated soils through the biostimulation and bioaugmentation processes can be a strategy for the clean-up of oil spills and environmental accidents. In this work, an induced microbial selection method using PAH-polluted soils was successfully used to construct two microbial consortia exhibiting high degradation levels of low and high molecular weight PAHs. Six fungal and seven bacterial native strains were used to construct mixed consortia with the ability to tolerate high amounts of phenanthrene (Phe), pyrene (Pyr) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) and utilize these compounds as a sole carbon source. In addition, we used two engineered PAH-degrading fungal strains producing heterologous ligninolytic enzymes. After a previous selection using microbial antagonism tests, the selection was performed in microcosm systems and monitored using PCR-DGGE, CO 2 evolution and PAH quantitation. The resulting consortia (i.e., C1 and C2) were able to degrade up to 92% of Phe, 64% of Pyr and 65% of BaP out of 1000 mg kg -1 of a mixture of Phe, Pyr and BaP (1:1:1) after a two-week incubation. The results indicate that constructed microbial consortia have high potential for soil bioremediation by bioaugmentation and biostimulation and may be effective for the treatment of sites polluted with PAHs due to their elevated tolerance to aromatic compounds, their capacity to utilize them as energy source. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Determination of brace forces caused by construction loads and wind loads during bridge construction.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-04-01

The first objective of this study was to develop procedures for determining bracing forces during bridge construction. : Numerical finite element models and analysis techniques were developed for evaluating brace forces induced by construction loads ...

OBSERVATION OF STRONG - STRONG AND OTHER BEAM - BEAM EFFECTS IN RHIC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

FISCHER, W.; BLASKIEWICZ, M.; BRENNAN, J.M.; CAMERON, P.; CONNOLLY, R.; MONTAG, C.; PEGGS, S.; PILAT, F.; PTITSYN, V.; TEPIKIAN, S.; TRBOJEVIC, D.; VAN ZEIJTS, J.

2003-01-01

RHIC is currently the only hadron collider in which strong-strong beam-beam effects can be seen. For the first time, coherent beam-beam modes were observed in a bunched beam hadron collider. Other beam-beam effects in RHIC were observed in operation and in dedicated experiments with gold ions, deuterons and protons. Observations include measurements of beam-beam induced tune shifts, lifetime and emittance growth measurements with and without beam-beam interaction, and background rates as a function of tunes. During ramps unequal radio frequencies in the two rings cause the crossing points to move longitudinally. Thus bunches experience beam-beam interactions only in intervals and the tunes are modulated. In this article we summarize the most important beam-beam observations made so far

Rh-Catalyzed annulations of N-methoxybenzamides with ketenimines: synthesis of 3-aminoisoindolinones and 3-diarylmethyleneisoindolinones with strong aggregation induced emission properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xiaorong; Peng, Zhixing; Zhao, Hongyang; Zhang, Zhiyin; Lu, Ping; Wang, Yanguang

2016-08-23

Rhodium-catalyzed C-H activation/annulation reactions of ketenimines with N-methoxybenzamides furnished 3-aminoisoindolin-1-ones and 3-(diarylmethylene)isoindolin-1-ones. The synthesized 3-(diarylmethylene)isoindolin-1-ones exhibited aggregation induced emissions in aqueous tetrahydrofuran solution and strong green-yellow emissions in solids.

Construction of a fluorescent nanostructured chitosan-hydroxyapatite scaffold by nanocrystallon induced biomimetic mineralization and its cell biocompatibility.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Guancong; Zheng, Lin; Zhao, Hongshi; Miao, Junying; Sun, Chunhui; Liu, Hong; Huang, Zhen; Yu, Xiaoqiang; Wang, Jiyang; Tao, Xutang

2011-05-01

Biomaterial surfaces and their nanostructures can significantly influence cell growth and viability. Thus, manipulating surface characteristics of scaffolds can be a potential strategy to control cell functions for stem cell tissue engineering. In this study, in order to construct a hydroxyapatite (HAp) coated genipin-chitosan conjugation scaffold (HGCCS) with a well-defined HAp nanostructured surface, we have developed a simple and controllable approach that allows construction of a two-level, three-dimensional (3D) networked structure to provide sufficient calcium source and achieve desired mechanical function and mass transport (permeability and diffusion) properties. Using a nontoxic cross-linker (genipin) and a nanocrystallon induced biomimetic mineralization method, we first assembled a layer of HAp network-like nanostructure on a 3D porous chitosan-based framework. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analysis confirm that the continuous network-like nanostructure on the channel surface of the HGCCS is composed of crystalline HAp. Compressive testing demonstrated that the strength of the HGCCS is apparently enhanced because of the strong cross-linking of genipin and the resulting reinforcement of the HAp nanonetwork. The fluorescence properties of genipin-chitosan conjugation for convenient monitoring of the 3D porous scaffold biodegradability and cell localization in the scaffold was specifically explored using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Furthermore, through scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation and immunofluorescence measurements of F-actin, we found that the HAp network-like nanostructure on the surface of the HGCCS can influence the morphology and integrin-mediated cytoskeleton organization of rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Based on cell proliferation assays, rat BMSCs tend to have higher viability on HGCCS in vitro. The results of this study suggest that

A multi-subunit Chlamydia vaccine inducing neutralizing antibodies and strong IFN-γ(+) CMI responses protects against a genital infection in minipigs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bøje, Sarah; Olsen, Anja Weinreich; Erneholm, Karin

2016-01-01

Chlamydia is the most widespread sexually transmitted bacterial disease and a prophylactic vaccine is highly needed. Ideally, this vaccine is required to induce a combined response of Th1 cell-mediated immune (CMI) response in concert with neutralizing antibodies. Using a novel Göttingen minipig...... animal model, we evaluated the immunogenicity and efficacy of a multi-subunit vaccine formulated in the strong Th1-inducing adjuvant CAF01. We evaluated a mixture of two fusion proteins (Hirep1 and CTH93) designed to promote either neutralizing antibodies or cell-mediated immunity, respectively. Hirep1...

Dynamic high pressure induced strong and weak hydrogen bonds enhanced by pre-resonance stimulated Raman scattering in liquid water.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shenghan; Fang, Wenhui; Li, Fabing; Gong, Nan; Li, Zhanlong; Li, Zuowei; Sun, Chenglin; Men, Zhiwei

2017-12-11

355 nm pulsed laser is employed to excite pre-resonance forward stimulated Raman scattering (FSRS) of liquid water at ambient temperature. Due to the shockwave induced dynamic high pressure, the obtained Raman spectra begin to exhibit double peaks distribution at 3318 and 3373 cm -1 with the input energy of 17 mJ,which correspond with OH stretching vibration with strong and weak hydrogen (H) bonds. With laser energy rising from 17 to 27 mJ, the Stokes line at 3318 cm -1 shifts to 3255 and 3230 cm -1 because of the high pressure being enlarged. When the energy is up to 32 mJ, only 3373 cm -1 peak exists. The strong and weak H bond exhibit quite different energy dependent behaviors.

Strongly first-order electroweak phase transition and classical scale invariance

Science.gov (United States)

Farzinnia, Arsham; Ren, Jing

2014-10-01

In this work, we examine the possibility of realizing a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition within the minimal classically scale-invariant extension of the standard model (SM), previously proposed and analyzed as a potential solution to the hierarchy problem. By introducing one complex gauge-singlet scalar and three (weak scale) right-handed Majorana neutrinos, the scenario was successfully rendered capable of achieving a radiative breaking of the electroweak symmetry (by means of the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism), inducing nonzero masses for the SM neutrinos (via the seesaw mechanism), presenting a pseudoscalar dark matter candidate (protected by the CP symmetry of the potential), and predicting the existence of a second CP-even boson (with suppressed couplings to the SM content) in addition to the 125 GeV scalar. In the present treatment, we construct the full finite-temperature one-loop effective potential of the model, including the resummed thermal daisy loops, and demonstrate that finite-temperature effects induce a first-order electroweak phase transition. Requiring the thermally driven first-order phase transition to be sufficiently strong at the onset of the bubble nucleation (corresponding to nucleation temperatures TN˜100-200 GeV) further constrains the model's parameter space; in particular, an O(0.01) fraction of the dark matter in the Universe may be simultaneously accommodated with a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition. Moreover, such a phase transition disfavors right-handed Majorana neutrino masses above several hundreds of GeV, confines the pseudoscalar dark matter masses to ˜1-2 TeV, predicts the mass of the second CP-even scalar to be ˜100-300 GeV, and requires the mixing angle between the CP-even components of the SM doublet and the complex singlet to lie within the range 0.2≲sinω ≲0.4. The obtained results are displayed in comprehensive exclusion plots, identifying the viable regions of the parameter space

Strong interaction effects in hadronic atoms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaufmann, W.B.

1977-01-01

The WKB method is applied to the calculation of strong interaction-induced level widths and shifts of hadronic atoms. The calculation, while elementary enough for undergraduate quantum mechanics students, gives a good account of kaonic and antiprotonic atom data

Strong resilience of soil respiration components to drought-induced die-off resulting in forest secondary succession.

Science.gov (United States)

Barba, Josep; Curiel Yuste, Jorge; Poyatos, Rafael; Janssens, Ivan A; Lloret, Francisco

2016-09-01

How forests cope with drought-induced perturbations and how the dependence of soil respiration on environmental and biological drivers is affected in a warming and drying context are becoming key questions. The aims of this study were to determine whether drought-induced die-off and forest succession were reflected in soil respiration and its components and to determine the influence of climate on the soil respiration components. We used the mesh exclusion method to study seasonal variations in soil respiration (R S) and its components: heterotrophic (R H) and autotrophic (R A) [further split into fine root (R R) and mycorrhizal respiration (R M)] in a mixed Mediterranean forest where Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is undergoing a drought-induced die-off and is being replaced by holm oak (Quercus ilex L.). Drought-induced pine die-off was not reflected in R S nor in its components, which denotes a high functional resilience of the plant and soil system to pine die-off. However, the succession from Scots pine to holm oak resulted in a reduction of R H and thus in an important decrease of total respiration (R S was 36 % lower in holm oaks than in non-defoliated pines). Furthermore, R S and all its components were strongly regulated by soil water content-and-temperature interaction. Since Scots pine die-off and Quercus species colonization seems to be widely occurring at the driest limit of the Scots pine distribution, the functional resilience of the soil system over die-off and the decrease of R S from Scots pine to holm oak could have direct consequences for the C balance of these ecosystems.

Construction of a photoactivatable profluorescent enzyme via propinquity labeling.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hsien-Ming; Xu, Weichen; Lawrence, David S

2011-03-02

A strategy for the construction of a profluorescent caged enzyme is described. An active site-directed peptide-based affinity label was designed, synthesized, and employed to covalently label a nonactive site residue in the cAMP-dependent protein kinase. The modified kinase displays minimal catalytic activity and low fluorescence. Photolysis results in partial cleavage of the enzyme-bound affinity label, restoration of enzymatic activity (60-80%) and a strong fluorescent response (10-20 fold). The caged kinase displays analogous behavior in living cells, inducing a light-dependent loss of stress fibers that is characteristic of cAMP action. This strategy furnishes molecularly engineered enzymes that can be remotely controlled in time, space, and total activity.

Strong Correlation in Kohn-Sham Density Functional Theory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Malet, F.; Gori Giorgi, P.

2012-01-01

We use the exact strong-interaction limit of the Hohenberg-Kohn energy density functional to approximate the exchange-correlation energy of the restricted Kohn-Sham scheme. Our approximation corresponds to a highly nonlocal density functional whose functional derivative can be easily constructed,

Leadership Quality for Malaysia Construction Leader to Steer a Success Construction Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ngah Nasaruddin Nur Ain

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Issues that dominate the construction industry for the long time such as time overrun, cost overrun, quality of construction and also safety during the construction process are difficult to resolve because of several factors involved which amongst them are leadership quality in the industry. Solving these issues can make the industry more sustainable in nature. This paper presents the need of leadership quality among construction parties involved to steer a construction project successfully. Literature work found that 11 leadership qualities to ensure construction project success. From the frequency analysis, five most dominant leadership qualities are team building, communication skill, visioning, planning & strategy skill, and decision making. Beside the literature, this study also seeks an opinion from a senior leader of a successful construction company regarding the need of these qualities amongst parties to resolve the construction issues. The results from an interview session indicate that he fully agreed with the need of all the qualities in the construction industry. This shows that there is a strong relationship between solving the issues with the leadership quality in ensuring construction project success. These qualities should be further investigated to acquire a better representation of leadership quality in resolving construction issues for Malaysia construction industry.

A multi-subunit Chlamydia vaccine inducing neutralizing antibodies and strong IFN-γ(+) CMI responses protects against a genital infection in minipigs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bøje, Sarah; Olsen, Anja Weinreich; Erneholm, Karin

2016-01-01

Chlamydia is the most widespread sexually transmitted bacterial disease and a prophylactic vaccine is highly needed. Ideally, this vaccine is required to induce a combined response of Th1 cell-mediated immune (CMI) response in concert with neutralizing antibodies. Using a novel Göttingen minipig...... trachomatis SvD bacteria (UV-SvD/CAF01) or CAF01. The Hirep1+CTH93/CAF01 vaccine induced a strong CMI response against the vaccine antigens and high titers of antibodies, particularly against the VD4 region of MOMP. Sera from Hirep1+CTH93/CAF01 immunized pigs neutralized C. trachomatis SvD and SvF infectivity...

Universal behavior of strongly correlated Fermi systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shaginyan, Vasilii R [B.P. Konstantinov St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Gatchina, Leningrad region, Rusian Federation (Russian Federation); Amusia, M Ya [A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg (Russian Federation); Popov, Konstantin G [Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Syktyvkar (Russian Federation)

2007-06-30

This review discusses the construction of a theory and the analysis of phenomena occurring in strongly correlated Fermi systems such as high-T{sub c} superconductors, heavy-fermion metals, and quasi-two-dimensional Fermi systems. It is shown that the basic properties and the universal behavior of strongly correlated Fermi systems can be described in the framework of the Fermi-condensate quantum phase transition and the well-known Landau paradigm of quasiparticles and the order parameter. The concept of fermion condensation may be fruitful in studying neutron stars, finite Fermi systems, ultra-cold gases in traps, and quark plasma. (reviews of topical problems)

Universal behavior of strongly correlated Fermi systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shaginyan, Vasilii R; Amusia, M Ya; Popov, Konstantin G

2007-01-01

This review discusses the construction of a theory and the analysis of phenomena occurring in strongly correlated Fermi systems such as high-T c superconductors, heavy-fermion metals, and quasi-two-dimensional Fermi systems. It is shown that the basic properties and the universal behavior of strongly correlated Fermi systems can be described in the framework of the Fermi-condensate quantum phase transition and the well-known Landau paradigm of quasiparticles and the order parameter. The concept of fermion condensation may be fruitful in studying neutron stars, finite Fermi systems, ultra-cold gases in traps, and quark plasma. (reviews of topical problems)

Modern optimization in earthwork construction

OpenAIRE

Parente, Manuel; Correia, A. Gomes; Cortez, Paulo

2015-01-01

Earthworks tasks are often regarded in transportation projects as some of the most demanding processes. In fact, sequential tasks such as excavation, transportation, spreading and compaction are strongly based on heavy mechanical equipment and repetitive processes, thus becoming as economically demanding as they are time-consuming. Moreover, actual construction requirements originate higher demands for productivity and safety in earthwork constructions. Given the percentual weight of costs an...

A theory of construction management?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gerard de Valence

2012-09-01

Full Text Available The links between theory and construction management (CM, and for that matter construction economics (CE, are not strong (see de Valence 2011. This may be one of the reasons why they have not gained complete acceptance as academic disciplines and are not seen as distinct branches of economics and management respectively. Another reason may be that products and production (the focus of management and economic theories respectively are not the same as projects and project management in general, and construction projects and CM in particular.

Baculovirus-expressed constructs induce immunoglobulin G that recognizes VAR2CSA on Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Barfod, Lea; Nielsen, Morten A; Turner, Louise

2006-01-01

We raised specific antisera against recombinant VAR2CSA domains produced in Escherichia coli and in insect cells. All were reactive in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, but only insect cell-derived constructs induced immunoglobulin G (IgG) that was reactive with native VAR2CSA on the surface...

Effect of initial perturbation amplitude on Richtmyer-Meshkov flows induced by strong shocks

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dell, Z.; Abarzhi, S. I., E-mail: snezhana.abarzhi@gmail.com, E-mail: sabarji@andrew.cmu.edu [Mellon College of Science and Carnegie Mellon University – Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15231 (United States); Stellingwerf, R. F. [Stellingwerf Consulting, Huntsville, Alabama 35803 (United States)

2015-09-15

We systematically study the effect of the initial perturbation on Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) flows induced by strong shocks in fluids with contrasting densities. Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics simulations are employed. A broad range of shock strengths and density ratios is considered. The amplitude of the initial single mode sinusoidal perturbation of the interface varies from 0% to 100% of its wavelength. The simulations results are compared, wherever possible, with four rigorous theories, and with other experiments and simulations, achieving good quantitative and qualitative agreement. Our study is focused on early time dynamics of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI). We analyze the initial growth-rate of RMI immediately after the shock passage, when the perturbation amplitude increases linearly with time. For the first time, to the authors' knowledge, we find that the initial growth-rate of RMI is a non-monotone function of the initial perturbation amplitude, thus restraining the amount of energy that can be deposited by the shock at the interface. The maximum value of the initial growth-rate depends on the shock strength and the density ratio, whereas the corresponding value of the initial perturbation amplitude depends only slightly on the shock strength and density ratio.

Toward construction of ITER

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimomura, Yasuo

2005-01-01

The ITER Project has been significantly developed in the past years in preparation for its construction. The ITER Negotiators have developed a draft Joint Implementation Agreement (JIA), ready for completion following the nomination of the Project's Director General (DG). The ITER International Team and Participant Teams have continued technical and organizational preparations. The actual construction will be able to start immediately after the international ITER organization will be established, following signature of the JIA. The Project is now strongly supported by all the participants as well as by the scientific community with the final high-level negotiations, focused on siting and the concluding details of cost sharing, started in December 2003. The EU, with Cadarache, and Japan, with Rokkasho, have both promised large contributions to the project to strongly support their construction site proposals. The extent to which they both wish to host the ITER facility is such that large contributions to a broader collaboration among the Parties are also proposed by them. This covers complementary activities to help accelerate fusion development towards a viable power source, as well as may allow the Participants to reach a conclusion on ITER siting. (author)

Spontaneous dressed-state polarization in the strong driving regime of cavity QED.

Science.gov (United States)

Armen, Michael A; Miller, Anthony E; Mabuchi, Hideo

2009-10-23

We utilize high-bandwidth phase-quadrature homodyne measurement of the light transmitted through a Fabry-Perot cavity, driven strongly and on resonance, to detect excess phase noise induced by a single intracavity atom. We analyze the correlation properties and driving-strength dependence of the atom-induced phase noise to establish that it corresponds to the long-predicted phenomenon of spontaneous dressed-state polarization. Our experiment thus provides a demonstration of cavity quantum electrodynamics in the strong-driving regime in which one atom interacts strongly with a many-photon cavity field to produce novel quantum stochastic behavior.

Strong/weak coupling duality relations for non-supersymmetric string theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blum, J.D.; Dienes, K.R.

1998-01-01

Both the supersymmetric SO(32) and E 8 x E 8 heterotic strings in ten dimensions have known strong-coupling duals. However, it has not been known whether there also exist strong-coupling duals for the non-supersymmetric heterotic strings in ten dimensions. In this paper, we construct explicit open-string duals for the circle compactifications of several of these non-supersymmetric theories, among them the tachyon-free SO(16) x SO(16) string. Our method involves the construction of heterotic and open-string interpolating models that continuously connect non-supersymmetric strings to supersymmetric strings. We find that our non-supersymmetric dual theories have exactly the same massless spectra as their heterotic counterparts within a certain range of our interpolations. We also develop a novel method for analyzing the solitons of non-supersymmetric open-string theories, and find that the solitons of our dual theories also agree with their heterotic counterparts. These are therefore the first known examples of strong/weak coupling duality relations between non-supersymmetric, tachyon-free string theories. Finally, the existence of these strong-coupling duals allows us to examine the non-perturbative stability of these strings, and we propose a phase diagram for the behavior of these strings as a function of coupling and radius. (orig.)

Excited hexagon Wilson loops for strongly coupled N=4 SYM

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bartels, J.; Kotanski, J. [Hamburg Univ. (Germany). II. Inst. fuer Theoretische Physik; Schomerus, V. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); British Columbia Univ., Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

2010-10-15

This work is devoted to the six-gluon scattering amplitude in strongly coupled N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. At weak coupling, an appropriate high energy limit of the so-called remainder function, i.e. of the deviation from the BDS formula, may be understood in terms of the lowest eigenvalue of the BFKL hamiltonian. According to Alday et al., amplitudes in the strongly coupled theory can be constructed through an auxiliary 1-dimensional quantum system. We argue that certain excitations of this quantum system determine the Regge limit of the remainder function at strong coupling and we compute its precise value. (orig.)

Current-horn suppression for reduced coherent-synchrotron-radiation-induced emittance growth in strong bunch compression

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. K. Charles

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Control of coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR-induced emittance growth is essential in linear accelerators designed to deliver very high brightness electron beams. Extreme current values at the head and tail of the electron bunch, resulting from strong bunch compression, are responsible for large CSR production leading to significant transverse projected emittance growth. The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS truncates the head and tail current spikes which greatly improves free electron laser (FEL performance. Here we consider the underlying dynamics that lead to formation of current spikes (also referred to as current horns, which has been identified as caustics forming in electron trajectories. We present a method to analytically determine conditions required to avoid the caustic formation and therefore prevent the current spikes from forming. These required conditions can be easily met, without increasing the transverse slice emittance, through inclusion of an octupole magnet in the middle of a bunch compressor.

Airport Performance and Construction Enlargement Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Hanun, Y.; Setiawan, M. I.; Kurniasih, N.; Hasyim, C.; Ahmar, A. S.

2018-01-01

The evaluation of transportation infrastructure project should consider the contribution towards infrastructure growth. This research aims to analyze the effect of Construction enlargement activities towards airport performance. This research is correlation study. The population includes 148 airports in Indonesia. By using total sampling, there were 148 sample airports. The result shows that the construction enlargement activities variable has relatively strong relationship to Airport Performance variable, while the adjusted R Square score shows the increasing construction enlargement activities that affected by the other factors aside from airport performance.

Multiple pathways for SOS-induced mutagenesis in Escherichia coli: An overexpression of dinB/dinP results in strongly enhancing mutagenesis in the absence of any exogenous treatment to damage DNA

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Su-Ryang; Maenhaut-Michel, Geneviéve; Yamada, Masami; Yamamoto, Yoshihiro; Matsui, Keiko; Sofuni, Toshio; Nohmi, Takehiko; Ohmori, Haruo

1997-01-01

dinP is an Escherichia coli gene recently identified at 5.5 min of the genetic map, whose product shows a similarity in amino acid sequence to the E. coli UmuC protein involved in DNA damage-induced mutagenesis. In this paper we show that the gene is identical to dinB, an SOS gene previously localized near the lac locus at 8 min, the function of which was shown to be required for mutagenesis of nonirradiated λ phage infecting UV-preirradiated bacterial cells (termed λUTM for λ untargeted mutagenesis). A newly constructed dinP null mutant exhibited the same defect for λUTM as observed previously with a dinB::Mu mutant, and the defect was complemented by plasmids carrying dinP as the only intact bacterial gene. Furthermore, merely increasing the dinP gene expression, without UV irradiation or any other DNA-damaging treatment, resulted in a strong enhancement of mutagenesis in F′lac plasmids; at most, 800-fold increase in the G6-to-G5 change. The enhanced mutagenesis did not depend on recA, uvrA, or umuDC. Thus, our results establish that E. coli has at least two distinct pathways for SOS-induced mutagenesis: one dependent on umuDC and the other on dinB/P. PMID:9391106

Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields

CERN Document Server

Landsteiner, Karl; Schmitt, Andreas; Yee, Ho-Ung

2013-01-01

The physics of strongly interacting matter in an external magnetic field is presently emerging as a topic of great cross-disciplinary interest for particle, nuclear, astro- and condensed matter physicists. It is known that strong magnetic fields are created in heavy ion collisions, an insight that has made it possible to study a variety of surprising and intriguing phenomena that emerge from the interplay of quantum anomalies, the topology of non-Abelian gauge fields, and the magnetic field. In particular, the non-trivial topological configurations of the gluon field induce a non-dissipative electric current in the presence of a magnetic field. These phenomena have led to an extended formulation of relativistic hydrodynamics, called chiral magnetohydrodynamics. Hitherto unexpected applications in condensed matter physics include graphene and topological insulators. Other fields of application include astrophysics, where strong magnetic fields exist in magnetars and pulsars. Last but not least, an important ne...

Scalar strong interaction hadron theory

CERN Document Server

Hoh, Fang Chao

2015-01-01

The scalar strong interaction hadron theory, SSI, is a first principles' and nonlocal theory at quantum mechanical level that provides an alternative to low energy QCD and Higgs related part of the standard model. The quark-quark interaction is scalar rather than color-vectorial. A set of equations of motion for mesons and another set for baryons have been constructed. This book provides an account of the present state of a theory supposedly still at its early stage of development. This work will facilitate researchers interested in entering into this field and serve as a basis for possible future development of this theory.

MgB2 superconducting particles in a strong electric field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tao, R.; Xu, X.; Amr, E.

2003-01-01

The electric-field induced ball formation has been observed with MgB 2 powder in a strong static or quasi-static electric field. The effect of temperature and magnetic field on the ball formation shows surprising features. For quite a wide range of temperature from T c =39 K and below, the ball size is proportional to (1-T/T c ). As the temperature further goes below 20 K, the ball size becomes almost a constant. If MgB 2 particles are in a strong electric field and a moderate magnetic field, the electric-field induced balls align in the magnetic-field direction to form ball chains

Strong approximations and sequential change-point analysis for diffusion processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mihalache, Stefan-Radu

2012-01-01

In this paper ergodic diffusion processes depending on a parameter in the drift are considered under the assumption that the processes can be observed continuously. Strong approximations by Wiener processes for a stochastic integral and for the estimator process constructed by the one...

Perturbation Solutions of the Quintic Duffing Equation with Strong Nonlinearities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mehmet Pakdemirli

Full Text Available The quintic Duffing equation with strong nonlinearities is considered. Perturbation solutions are constructed using two different techniques: The classical multiple scales method (MS and the newly developed multiple scales Lindstedt Poincare method (MSLP. The validity criteria for admissible solutions are derived. Both approximate solutions are contrasted with the numerical solutions. It is found that MSLP provides compatible solution with the numerical solution for strong nonlinearities whereas MS solution fail to produce physically acceptable solution for large perturbation parameters.

Radiation-induced structural transitions in composite materials with strong interaction of polymer components

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaikin, Yu.A.; Koztaeva, U.P.

2002-01-01

In earlier papers the internal friction (IF) method was applied to studies of structural relaxation in different types of polymer-based composite materials (glass-cloth, paper-based and foiled laminates impregnated by epoxy and phenolic resins) irradiated by 2 MeV electrons in the dose range of 0.1-50.0 MGy. Selectivity and high sensibility of the internal friction method allowed to distinguish glassy transitions in different structural components of the composites. The relaxation processes observed were identified and attributed to structural alterations in the polymer filler, the binder and the boundary layers. It was shown that changes in the parameters of relaxation maximums during irradiation can be considered as quantitative characteristics for the degree of radiation-induced degradation or cross-linking of polymer molecules. This paper deals with specific features of IF spectra in paper-based laminates where both the filler fibers and the binder are strongly interacting polymers. Anisotropy of viscous and elastic properties is very weak for this kind of materials, so that IF measurements give nearly the same result independently on the filler fiber orientation in the sample. The main reasons for it are the rigid chain structure of fillers (polyethylene-terephthalate and cellulose) and the good adhesion strengthened by diffusion of the epoxy or phenolic binder to defect regions of the filler.The IF temperature dependence observed in paper-based laminates is represented by superposition of two very broad relaxation maximums associated with transitions from glassy to high-elastic state in structural components, each based on one of the polymers. The inflection points characteristic for IF temperature dependence in paper-based laminates give a reason to treat them as a superposition of α-peaks associated with transitions from glassy to high-elastic state in structural components of a composite based on the binder and the filler, respectively. Another

Endangerment of cultural heritage sites by strong rain

Science.gov (United States)

Krauß, Thomas; Fischer, Peter

2017-09-01

Due to climate change extreme weather conditions become more and more frequent in the last years. Especially in Germany nearly every year a large flood event happens. Most of these events are caused by strong rain. There are at most two causes for these floodings: The first is locally strong rain in the area of damage, the second happens at damage sites located near confluxes and strong rain in the upper stream areas of the joining rivers. The amount of damage is often strongly correlated with unreasonable designation of new construction in such endangered regions. Our presented study is based on an earlier project together with a German insurance company. In this project we analyzed correlations of geographical settings with the insurance data of flood damages over ten years. The result of this study was a strong relation of the terrain with the amount and the probability of damages. Further investigations allow us to derive a system for estimating potential endangerment due to strong rain just from suitable digital terrain models (DTMs). In the presented study we apply this method to different types of cultural heritage (CH) sites in Germany and other parts of the world to detect which type of CH sites were build with potential endangerment of strong rain events in mind and which ones are prone to such events.

Strong-interaction nonuniversality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volkas, R.R.; Foot, R.; He, X.; Joshi, G.C.

1989-01-01

The universal QCD color theory is extended to an SU(3) 1 direct product SU(3) 2 direct product SU(3) 3 gauge theory, where quarks of the ith generation transform as triplets under SU(3)/sub i/ and singlets under the other two factors. The usual color group is then identified with the diagonal subgroup, which remains exact after symmetry breaking. The gauge bosons associated with the 16 broken generators then form two massive octets under ordinary color. The interactions between quarks and these heavy gluonlike particles are explicitly nonuniversal and thus an exploration of their physical implications allows us to shed light on the fundamental issue of strong-interaction universality. Nonuniversality and weak flavor mixing are shown to generate heavy-gluon-induced flavor-changing neutral currents. The phenomenology of these processes is studied, as they provide the major experimental constraint on the extended theory. Three symmetry-breaking scenarios are presented. The first has color breaking occurring at the weak scale, while the second and third divorce the two scales. The third model has the interesting feature of radiatively induced off-diagonal Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements

Definition of Strong Equality of Tautologies and Universal System for Various Propositional Logics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anahit Chubaryan

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Earlier we have introduced a definition of strong equality of classical tautologies, according to which two tautologies are equal iff they have the same hardness. The strong equality implies well known equality, but not vice versa. The strong equality is based on the notion of determinitive conjunct, using of which some new deduction system for classical propositional logic were defined. Here the notions of strong equality of tautologies for various logics are suggested and the idea of construction of universal deduction system for various propositional logics is given.

<strong>Low dose transdermal estradiol induces breast density and heterogeneity changes comparable to those of raloxifenestrong>

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Mads; Raundahl, Jakob; Pettersen, Paola

2009-01-01

Objective: To investigate whether transdermal low dose estradiol treatment induces changes in mammographic density or heterogeneity compared to raloxifene. Secondarily, if these changes relate to changes in bone formation/resorption markers, and if these findings indicate elevation of breast canc...

Current induced multi-mode propagating spin waves in a spin transfer torque nano-contact with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy

Science.gov (United States)

Mohseni, S. Morteza; Yazdi, H. F.; Hamdi, M.; Brächer, T.; Mohseni, S. Majid

2018-03-01

Current induced spin wave excitations in spin transfer torque nano-contacts are known as a promising way to generate exchange-dominated spin waves at the nano-scale. It has been shown that when these systems are magnetized in the film plane, broken spatial symmetry of the field around the nano-contact induced by the Oersted field opens the possibility for spin wave mode co-existence including a non-linear self-localized spin-wave bullet and a propagating mode. By means of micromagnetic simulations, here we show that in systems with strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) in the free layer, two propagating spin wave modes with different frequency and spatial distribution can be excited simultaneously. Our results indicate that in-plane magnetized spin transfer nano-contacts in PMA materials do not host a solitonic self-localized spin-wave bullet, which is different from previous studies for systems with in plane magnetic anisotropy. This feature renders them interesting for nano-scale magnonic waveguides and crystals since magnon transport can be configured by tuning the applied current.

Mechanically induced strong red emission in samarium ions doped piezoelectric semiconductor CaZnOS for dynamic pressure sensing and imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei; Peng, Dengfeng; Zhang, Hanlu; Yang, Xiaohong; Pan, Caofeng

2017-07-01

Piezoelectric semiconductor with optical, electrical and mechanical multifunctions has great potential applications in future optoelectronic devices. The rich properties and applications mainly encompass the intrinsic structures and their coupling effects. Here, we report that lanthanide ions doped piezoelectric semiconductor CaZnOS:Sm3+ showing strong red emission induced by dynamic mechanical stress. Under moderate mechanical load, the doped piezoelectric semiconductor exhibits strong visible red emission to the naked eyes even under the day light. A flexible dynamic pressure sensor device is fabricated based on the prepared CaZnOS:Sm3+ powders. The mechanical-induced emission properties of the device are investigated by the optical fiber spectrometer. The linear characteristic emissions are attributed to the 4G5/2→6H5/2 (566 nm), 4G5/2→6H7/2 (580-632 nm), 4G5/2→6H9/2 (653-673 nm) and 4G5/2→6H11/2 (712-735 nm) f-f transitions of Sm3+ ions. The integral emission intensity is proportional to the value of applied pressure. By using the linear relationship between integrated emission intensity and the dynamic pressure, the real-time pressure distribution is visualized and recorded. Our results highlight that the incorporation of lanthanide luminescent ions into piezoelectric semiconductors as smart materials could be applied into the flexible mechanical-optical sensor device without additional auxiliary power, which has great potential for promising applications such as mapping of personalized handwriting, smart display, and human machine interface.

Strong versions of Bell's theorem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stapp, H.P.

1994-01-01

Technical aspects of a recently constructed strong version of Bell's theorem are discussed. The theorem assumes neither hidden variables nor factorization, and neither determinism nor counterfactual definiteness. It deals directly with logical connections. Hence its relationship with modal logic needs to be described. It is shown that the proof can be embedded in an orthodox modal logic, and hence its compatibility with modal logic assured, but that this embedding weakens the theorem by introducing as added assumptions the conventionalities of the particular modal logic that is adopted. This weakening is avoided in the recent proof by using directly the set-theoretic conditions entailed by the locality assumption

A bottom-up approach to the strong CP problem

Science.gov (United States)

Diaz-Cruz, J. L.; Hollik, W. G.; Saldana-Salazar, U. J.

2018-05-01

The strong CP problem is one of many puzzles in the theoretical description of elementary particle physics that still lacks an explanation. While top-down solutions to that problem usually comprise new symmetries or fields or both, we want to present a rather bottom-up perspective. The main problem seems to be how to achieve small CP violation in the strong interactions despite the large CP violation in weak interactions. In this paper, we show that with minimal assumptions on the structure of mass (Yukawa) matrices, they do not contribute to the strong CP problem and thus we can provide a pathway to a solution of the strong CP problem within the structures of the Standard Model and no extension at the electroweak scale is needed. However, to address the flavor puzzle, models based on minimal SU(3) flavor groups leading to the proposed flavor matrices are favored. Though we refrain from an explicit UV completion of the Standard Model, we provide a simple requirement for such models not to show a strong CP problem by construction.

Strong orientational coordinates and orientational order parameters for symmetric objects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haji-Akbari, Amir; Glotzer, Sharon C

2015-01-01

Recent advancements in the synthesis of anisotropic macromolecules and nanoparticles have spurred an immense interest in theoretical and computational studies of self-assembly. The cornerstone of such studies is the role of shape in self-assembly and in inducing complex order. The problem of identifying different types of order that can emerge in such systems can, however, be challenging. Here, we revisit the problem of quantifying orientational order in systems of building blocks with non-trivial rotational symmetries. We first propose a systematic way of constructing orientational coordinates for such symmetric building blocks. We call the arising tensorial coordinates strong orientational coordinates (SOCs) as they fully and exclusively specify the orientation of a symmetric object. We then use SOCs to describe and quantify local and global orientational order, and spatiotemporal orientational correlations in systems of symmetric building blocks. The SOCs and the orientational order parameters developed in this work are not only useful in performing and analyzing computer simulations of symmetric molecules or particles, but can also be utilized for the efficient storage of rotational information in long trajectories of evolving many-body systems. (paper)

Combined incomplete LU and strongly implicit procedure preconditioning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meese, E.A. [Univ. of Trondheim (Norway)

1996-12-31

For the solution of large sparse linear systems of equations, the Krylov-subspace methods have gained great merit. Their efficiency are, however, largely dependent upon preconditioning of the equation-system. A family of matrix factorisations often used for preconditioning, is obtained from a truncated Gaussian elimination, ILU(p). Less common, supposedly due to it`s restriction to certain sparsity patterns, is factorisations generated by the strongly implicit procedure (SIP). The ideas from ILU(p) and SIP are used in this paper to construct a generalized strongly implicit procedure, applicable to matrices with any sparsity pattern. The new algorithm has been run on some test equations, and efficiency improvements over ILU(p) was found.

Mixtures of Strongly Interacting Bosons in Optical Lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buonsante, P.; Penna, V.; Giampaolo, S. M.; Illuminati, F.; Vezzani, A.

2008-01-01

We investigate the properties of strongly interacting heteronuclear boson-boson mixtures loaded in realistic optical lattices, with particular emphasis on the physics of interfaces. In particular, we numerically reproduce the recent experimental observation that the addition of a small fraction of 41 K induces a significant loss of coherence in 87 Rb, providing a simple explanation. We then investigate the robustness against the inhomogeneity typical of realistic experimental realizations of the glassy quantum emulsions recently predicted to occur in strongly interacting boson-boson mixtures on ideal homogeneous lattices

Three-Dimensional Bioprinting of Oppositely Charged Hydrogels with Super Strong Interface Bonding.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Huijun; Tan, Yu Jun; Liu, Sijun; Li, Lin

2018-04-04

A novel strategy to improve the adhesion between printed layers of three-dimensional (3D) printed constructs is developed by exploiting the interaction between two oppositely charged hydrogels. Three anionic hydrogels [alginate, xanthan, and κ-carrageenan (Kca)] and three cationic hydrogels [chitosan, gelatin, and gelatin methacrylate (GelMA)] are chosen to find the optimal combination of two oppositely charged hydrogels for the best 3D printability with strong interface bonding. Rheological properties and printability of the hydrogels, as well as structural integrity of printed constructs in cell culture medium, are studied as functions of polymer concentration and the combination of hydrogels. Kca2 (2 wt % Kca hydrogel) and GelMA10 (10 wt % GelMA hydrogel) are found to be the best combination of oppositely charged hydrogels for 3D printing. The interfacial bonding between a Kca layer and a GelMA layer is proven to be significantly higher than that of the bilayered Kca or bilayered GelMA because of the formation of polyelectrolyte complexes between the oppositely charged hydrogels. A good cell viability of >96% is obtained for the 3D-bioprinted Kca-GelMA construct. This novel strategy has a great potential for 3D bioprinting of layered constructs with a strong interface bonding.

Novel influenza virus vectors expressing Brucella L7/L12 or Omp16 proteins in cattle induced a strong T-cell immune response, as well as high protectiveness against B. abortus infection.

Science.gov (United States)

Tabynov, Kaissar; Kydyrbayev, Zhailaubay; Ryskeldinova, Sholpan; Yespembetov, Bolat; Zinina, Nadezhda; Assanzhanova, Nurika; Kozhamkulov, Yerken; Inkarbekov, Dulat; Gotskina, Tatyana; Sansyzbay, Abylai

2014-04-11

This paper presents the results of a study of the immunogenicity and protectiveness of new candidate vector vaccine against Brucella abortus - a bivalent vaccine formulation consisting of a mixture of recombinant influenza A subtype H5N1 or H1N1 (viral constructs vaccine formulation) viruses expressing Brucella ribosomal protein L7/L12 and Omp16, in cattle. To increase the effectiveness of the candidate vaccine, adjuvants such as Montanide Gel01 or chitosan were included in its composition. Immunization of cattle (heifers aged 1-1.5 years, 5 animals per group) with the viral constructs vaccine formulation only, or its combination with adjuvants Montanide Gel01 or chitosan, was conducted via the conjunctival method using cross prime (influenza virus subtype H5N1) and booster (influenza virus subtype H1N1) vaccination schedules at an interval of 28 days. Vaccine candidates were evaluated in comparison with the positive (B. abortus S19) and negative (PBS) controls. The viral constructs vaccine formulations, particularly in combination with Montanide Gel01 adjuvant promoted formation of IgG antibodies (with a predominance of antibodies of isotype IgG2a) against Brucella L7/L12 and Omp16 proteins in ELISA. Moreover, these vaccines in cattle induced a strong antigen-specific T-cell immune response, as indicated by a high number of CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells, as well as the concentration of IFN-γ, and most importantly provided a high level of protectiveness comparable to the commercial B. abortus S19 vaccine and superior to the B. abortus S19 vaccine in combination with Montanide Gel01 adjuvant. Based on these findings, we recommended the bivalent vaccine formulation containing the adjuvant Montanide Gel01 for practical use in cattle. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Electrophoresis in strong electric fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Barany, Sandor

2009-01-01

Two kinds of non-linear electrophoresis (ef) that can be detected in strong electric fields (several hundred V/cm) are considered. The first ("classical" non-linear ef) is due to the interaction of the outer field with field-induced ionic charges in the electric double layer (EDL) under conditions, when field-induced variations of electrolyte concentration remain to be small comparatively to its equilibrium value. According to the Shilov theory, the non-linear component of the electrophoretic velocity for dielectric particles is proportional to the cubic power of the applied field strength (cubic electrophoresis) and to the second power of the particles radius; it is independent of the zeta-potential but is determined by the surface conductivity of particles. The second one, the so-called "superfast electrophoresis" is connected with the interaction of a strong outer field with a secondary diffuse layer of counterions (space charge) that is induced outside the primary (classical) diffuse EDL by the external field itself because of concentration polarization. The Dukhin-Mishchuk theory of "superfast electrophoresis" predicts quadratic dependence of the electrophoretic velocity of unipolar (ionically or electronically) conducting particles on the external field gradient and linear dependence on the particle's size in strong electric fields. These are in sharp contrast to the laws of classical electrophoresis (no dependence of V(ef) on the particle's size and linear dependence on the electric field gradient). A new method to measure the ef velocity of particles in strong electric fields is developed that is based on separation of the effects of sedimentation and electrophoresis using videoimaging and a new flowcell and use of short electric pulses. To test the "classical" non-linear electrophoresis, we have measured the ef velocity of non-conducting polystyrene, aluminium-oxide and (semiconductor) graphite particles as well as Saccharomice cerevisiae yeast cells as a

Histone deacetylase inhibitors strongly sensitise neuroblastoma cells to TRAIL-induced apoptosis by a caspases-dependent increase of the pro- to anti-apoptotic proteins ratio

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mühlethaler-Mottet, Annick; Flahaut, Marjorie; Bourloud, Katia Balmas; Auderset, Katya; Meier, Roland; Joseph, Jean-Marc; Gross, Nicole

2006-01-01

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the second most common solid childhood tumour, an aggressive disease for which new therapeutic strategies are strongly needed. Tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) selectively induces apoptosis in most tumour cells, but not in normal tissues and therefore represents a valuable candidate in apoptosis-inducing therapies. Caspase-8 is silenced in a subset of highly malignant NB cells, which results in full TRAIL resistance. In addition, despite constitutive caspase-8 expression, or its possible restoration by different strategies, NB cells remain weakly sensitive to TRAIL indicating a need to develop strategies to sensitise NB cells to TRAIL. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) are a new class of anti-cancer agent inducing apoptosis or cell cycle arrest in tumour cells with very low toxicity toward normal cells. Although HDACIs were recently shown to increase death induced by TRAIL in weakly TRAIL-sensitive tumour cells, the precise involved sensitisation mechanisms have not been fully identified. NB cell lines were treated with various doses of HDACIs and TRAIL, then cytotoxicity was analysed by MTS/PMS proliferation assays, apoptosis was measured by the Propidium staining method, caspases activity by colorimetric protease assays, and (in)activation of apoptotic proteins by immunoblotting. Sub-toxic doses of HDACIs strongly sensitised caspase-8 positive NB cell lines to TRAIL induced apoptosis in a caspases dependent manner. Combined treatments increased the activation of caspases and Bid, and the inactivation of the anti-apoptotic proteins XIAP, Bcl-x, RIP, and survivin, thereby increasing the pro- to anti-apoptotic protein ratio. It also enhanced the activation of the mitochondrial pathway. Interestingly, the kinetics of caspases activation and inactivation of anti-apoptotic proteins is accelerated by combined treatment with TRAIL and HDACIs compared to TRAIL alone. In contrast, cell surface expression of TRAIL

Plane Couette flow in the presence of a strong centrifugal field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, E.A.

1982-05-01

The Pomraning problem of plane Couette flow in a strong centrifugal field is studied by several methods: a half-range polynomial expansion of the linearized BGK equation; the Liu-Lees method; and a new matching approximation constructed to give the correct solution in the free-molecule limit. The matching approximation, which appears valid for strong enough centrifugal field, predicts major differences from hydrodynamic behaviour, and suggests ways in which the lack of convergence of one method studied may be corrected. (author)

SECRET SHARING SCHEMES WITH STRONG MULTIPLICATION AND A LARGE NUMBER OF PLAYERS FROM TORIC VARIETIES

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Johan Peder

2017-01-01

This article consider Massey's construction for constructing linear secret sharing schemes from toric varieties over a finite field $\\Fq$ with $q$ elements. The number of players can be as large as $(q-1)^r-1$ for $r\\geq 1$. The schemes have strong multiplication, such schemes can be utilized in ...

Why developmental niche construction is not selective niche construction: and why it matters.

Science.gov (United States)

Stotz, Karola

2017-10-06

In the last decade, niche construction has been heralded as the neglected process in evolution. But niche construction is just one way in which the organism's interaction with and construction of the environment can have potential evolutionary significance. The constructed environment does not just select for , it also produces new variation. Nearly 3 decades ago, and in parallel with Odling-Smee's article 'Niche-constructing phenotypes', West and King introduced the 'ontogenetic niche' to give the phenomena of exo genetic inheritance a formal name. Since then, a range of fields in the life sciences and medicine has amassed evidence that parents influence their offspring by means other than DNA (parental effects), and proposed mechanisms for how heritable variation can be environmentally induced and developmentally regulated. The concept of 'developmental niche construction' (DNC) elucidates how a diverse range of mechanisms contributes to the transgenerational transfer of developmental resources. My most central of claims is that whereas the selective niche of niche construction theory is primarily used to explain the active role of the organism in its selective environment, DNC is meant to indicate the active role of the organism in its developmental environment. The paper highlights the differences between the construction of the selective and the developmental niche, and explores the overall significance of DNC for evolutionary theory.

Classical and quantum models of strong cosmic censorship

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moncrief, V.E.

1983-01-01

The cosmic censorship conjecture states that naked singularities should not evolve from regular initial conditions in general relativity. In its strong form the conjecture asserts that space-times with Cauchy horizons must always be unstable and thus that the generic solution of Einstein's equations must be inextendible beyond its maximal Cauchy development. In this paper it is shown that one can construct an infinite-dimensional family of extendible cosmological solutions similar to Taub-NUT space-time; however, each of these solutions is unstable in precisely the way demanded by strong cosmic censorship. Finally it is shown that quantum fluctuations in the metric always provide (though in an unexpectedly subtle way) the ''generic perturbations'' which destroy the Cauchy horizons in these models. (author)

Classical and quantum models of strong cosmic censorship

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Moncrief, V.E. (Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (USA). Dept. of Physics)

1983-04-01

The cosmic censorship conjecture states that naked singularities should not evolve from regular initial conditions in general relativity. In its strong form the conjecture asserts that space-times with Cauchy horizons must always be unstable and thus that the generic solution of Einstein's equations must be inextendible beyond its maximal Cauchy development. In this paper it is shown that one can construct an infinite-dimensional family of extendible cosmological solutions similar to Taub-NUT space-time; however, each of these solutions is unstable in precisely the way demanded by strong cosmic censorship. Finally it is shown that quantum fluctuations in the metric always provide (though in an unexpectedly subtle way) the ''generic perturbations'' which destroy the Cauchy horizons in these models.

Interferon-β gene transfer induces a strong cytotoxic bystander effect on melanoma cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Úrsula A; Gil-Cardeza, María L; Villaverde, Marcela S; Finocchiaro, Liliana M E; Glikin, Gerardo C

2015-05-01

A local gene therapy scheme for the delivery of type I interferons could be an alternative for the treatment of melanoma. We evaluated the cytotoxic effects of interferon-β (IFNβ) gene lipofection on tumor cell lines derived from three human cutaneous and four canine mucosal melanomas. The cytotoxicity of human IFNβ gene lipofection resulted higher or equivalent to that of the corresponding addition of the recombinant protein (rhIFNβ) to human cells. IFNβ gene lipofection was not cytotoxic for only one canine melanoma cell line. When cultured as monolayers, three human and three canine IFNβ-lipofected melanoma cell lines displayed a remarkable bystander effect. As spheroids, the same six cell lines were sensitive to IFNβ gene transfer, two displaying a significant multicell resistance phenotype. The effects of conditioned IFNβ-lipofected canine melanoma cell culture media suggested the release of at least one soluble thermolabile cytotoxic factor that could not be detected in human melanoma cells. By using a secretion signal-free truncated human IFNβ, we showed that its intracellular expression was enough to induce cytotoxicity in two human melanoma cell lines. The lower cytoplasmatic levels of reactive oxygen species detected after intracellular IFNβ expression could be related to the resistance displayed by one human melanoma cell line. As IFNβ gene transfer was effective against most of the assayed melanomas in a way not limited by relatively low lipofection efficiencies, the clinical potential of this approach is strongly supported. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

VHTR Construction Ripple Effect using Inter-Industry Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, T. H.; Lee, K. Y.; Shin, Y. J.

2015-01-01

As a part of a VHTR economic analysis, we have studied the VHTR construction cost and operation and maintenance cost. However, it is somewhat difficult to expect the exact cost due to insufficient reference data and experience. As a result, we propose quantitative analysis techniques for ripple effects such as the production inducement effect, added value inducement effect, and employment inducement effect for VHTR 600MWt x 4 module construction and operation ripple effect based on NOAK. This paper presents a new method for the ripple effect and preliminary ripple effect consequence. We proposed a ripple effect analysis method using a time series and inter-industry table. As a result, we can predict that a 600MWth x 4 module VHTR reactor construction will bring about a 43771 employment effect, 24160 billion KRW production effect, and 4472 billion added value effect for 22 years. It is necessary to use the sub-account values of an inter-industry table to obtain a more precise effect result. However, the methodology can be applied with minor modification to another reactor type.

VHTR Construction Ripple Effect using Inter-Industry Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, T. H.; Lee, K. Y.; Shin, Y. J. [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-10-15

As a part of a VHTR economic analysis, we have studied the VHTR construction cost and operation and maintenance cost. However, it is somewhat difficult to expect the exact cost due to insufficient reference data and experience. As a result, we propose quantitative analysis techniques for ripple effects such as the production inducement effect, added value inducement effect, and employment inducement effect for VHTR 600MWt x 4 module construction and operation ripple effect based on NOAK. This paper presents a new method for the ripple effect and preliminary ripple effect consequence. We proposed a ripple effect analysis method using a time series and inter-industry table. As a result, we can predict that a 600MWth x 4 module VHTR reactor construction will bring about a 43771 employment effect, 24160 billion KRW production effect, and 4472 billion added value effect for 22 years. It is necessary to use the sub-account values of an inter-industry table to obtain a more precise effect result. However, the methodology can be applied with minor modification to another reactor type.

Preliminary ripple effect analysis for HTR 350MWt 4 modules construction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, T. H.; Lee, K. Y.; Shin, Y. J. [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

We propose quantitative analysis techniques for ripple effects such as the production inducement effect and employment inducement effect for HTR 350MWt x 4 module construction and operation ripple effect based on NOAK. It is known that APR1400 reactors export ripple effect is about 8,500 billion KRW. As a result, HTR construction has more effective effect than that of APR1400.

Angular-momentum-assisted dissociation of CO in strong optical fields

Science.gov (United States)

Mullin, Amy; Ogden, Hannah; Murray, Matthew; Liu, Qingnan; Toro, Carlos

2017-04-01

Filaments are produced in CO gas by intense, chirped laser pulses. Visible emission from C2 is observed as a result of chemical reactions of highly excited CO. At laser intensities greater than 1014 W cm-2, the C2 emission shows a strong dependence on laser polarization. Oppositely chirped pulses of light with ω0 = 800 nm are recombined spatially and temporally to generate angularly accelerating electric fields (up to 30 THz) that either have an instantaneous linear polarization or act as a dynamic polarization grating that oscillates among linear and circular polarizations. The angularly accelerating linear polarization corresponds to an optical centrifuge that concurrently drives molecules into high rotational states (with J 50) and induces strong-field dissociation. Higher order excitation is observed for the time-varying laser polarization configuration that does not induce rotational excitation. The results indicate that the presence of rotational angular momentum lowers the threshold for CO dissociation in strong optical fields by coupling nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom. Support from NSF CHE-1058721 and the University of Maryland.

Continuous strong Markov processes in dimension one a stochastic calculus approach

CERN Document Server

Assing, Sigurd

1998-01-01

The book presents an in-depth study of arbitrary one-dimensional continuous strong Markov processes using methods of stochastic calculus. Departing from the classical approaches, a unified investigation of regular as well as arbitrary non-regular diffusions is provided. A general construction method for such processes, based on a generalization of the concept of a perfect additive functional, is developed. The intrinsic decomposition of a continuous strong Markov semimartingale is discovered. The book also investigates relations to stochastic differential equations and fundamental examples of irregular diffusions.

Out-of-phase flashing induced instabilities in CIRCUS facility

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Christian Pablo Marcel; Van der Hagen, T.H.J.J. [Interfaculty Reactor Institute, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft (Netherlands)

2005-07-01

Full text of publication follows: Flashing-induced instabilities are very important during the startup phase of natural-circulation boiling water reactors. To study this type of instability an axial fully scaled facility named CIRCUS was constructed. Experiments at low power and low pressure (typical startup conditions) are carried out on this steam/water natural circulation loop with two parallel risers. A detailed measurement of the void-fraction profile is possible by using needle-probes and the use of glass tubes for the riser and core sections allow to use optical techniques for velocity measurements. The flashing and the mechanism of flashing-induced instabilities are analyzed paying special attention on the strong coupling effect between the two riser channels. It is clear from the experiments that the out-of-phase instability is much more susceptible to occur than the in-phase instability in a system with two parallel risers. The instability region is found as soon as the operational boundary between single-phase and two-phase operation is crossed. The relation between the period of the oscillations and the fluid transient time is also investigated. The stability map constructed using this experimental data is also discussed. (authors)

Predictors of Hearing Protection Use in Construction Workers

OpenAIRE

Edelson, Jane; Neitzel, Richard; Meischke, Hendrika; Daniell, William; Sheppard, Lianne; Stover, Bert; Seixas, Noah

2009-01-01

Objectives: Although noise-induced hearing loss is completely preventable, it remains highly prevalent among construction workers. Hearing protection devices (HPDs) are commonly relied upon for exposure reduction in construction, but their use is complicated by intermittent and highly variable noise, inadequate industry support for hearing conservation, and lax regulatory enforcement.

Induced photoassociation in the field of a strong electomagnetic wave

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zaretskij, D.F.; Lomonosov, V.V.; Lyul'ka, V.A.

1979-01-01

The quantum-mechanical problem of the stimulated transition of a system in the field of a strong electromagnetic wave from the continuous spectrum to a bound state possessing a finite lifetime is considered. The expressions obtained are employed to calculate stimulated production of mesic atoms and mesic molecules (ddμ). It is demonstrated that in an external electromagnetic field the probability for production of this type may considerably increase

Experiments on plasma turbulence induced by strong, steady electric fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hamberger, S.M.

1975-01-01

The author discusses the effect of applying a strong electric field to collisionless plasma. In particular are compared what some ideas and prejudices lead one to expect to happen, what computer simulation experiments tell one ought to happen, and what actually does happen in two laboratory experiments which have been designed to allow the relevant instability and turbulent processes to occur unobstructed and which have been studied in sufficient detail. (Auth.)

PRIORITISING LEAN CONSTRUCTION BARRIERS IN UGANDA'S CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Henry Mwanaki Alinaitwe

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Engaging in lean construction efforts could prove to be highly rewarding for building firms in Uganda. However, lean construction is risky and can be disastrous if not properly managed. Lean production efforts in some other countries have not been successful due to the many barriers to its successful implementation. To enable sound lean construction efforts and to increase the chances of success in eliminating waste, a thorough investigation of the barriers is essential. This study presents 31 barriers and investigates their influence (strength on the success of lean construction initiatives. Structured interviews were carried out with technical managers of building firms to assess their perception of the barriers to lean production based on their experience at their firms. The strongest barrier is the provision of inputs exactly when required. Additionally, the barriers were ranked according to the ease of overcoming each. The easiest barrier to overcome is keeping the required items in the right place. Finally, a graphical aid is provided to enable decision makers to concentrate their efforts on the influential (strong, yet easy to overcome barriers. A lack of buildable designs and a participative management style for the workforce are the most important barriers to successful waste reduction in terms of strength and ease of overcoming. On the other hand, a lack of an organisational culture that supports teamwork, a lack of prefabrication and a lack of knowledgeable and skilled workers are regarded as low in strength, and at the same time difficult to overcome.

Confinining properties of QCD in strong magnetic backgrounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bonati Claudio

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Strong magnetic backgrounds are known to modify QCD properties at a nonperturbative level. We discuss recent lattice results, obtained for Nf = 2 + 1 QCD with physical quark masses, concerning in particular the modifications and the anisotropies induced at the level of the static quark-antiquark potential, both at zero and finite temperature.

Patterns of strong coupling for LHC searches

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Da [State Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of (China); Theoretical Particle Physics Laboratory, Institute of Physics,EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland); Pomarol, Alex [CERN, Theoretical Physics Department,1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland); Dept. de Física and IFAE-BIST,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona (Spain); Rattazzi, Riccardo [Theoretical Particle Physics Laboratory, Institute of Physics,EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland); Riva, Francesco [CERN, Theoretical Physics Department,1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland)

2016-11-23

Even though the Standard Model (SM) is weakly coupled at the Fermi scale, a new strong dynamics involving its degrees of freedom may conceivably lurk at slightly higher energies, in the multi TeV range. Approximate symmetries provide a structurally robust context where, within the low energy description, the dimensionless SM couplings are weak, while the new strong dynamics manifests itself exclusively through higher-derivative interactions. We present an exhaustive classification of such scenarios in the form of effective field theories, paying special attention to new classes of models where the strong dynamics involves, along with the Higgs boson, the SM gauge bosons and/or the fermions. The IR softness of the new dynamics suppresses its effects at LEP energies, but deviations are in principle detectable at the LHC, even at energies below the threshold for production of new states. We believe our construction provides the so far unique structurally robust context where to motivate several LHC searches in Higgs physics, diboson production, or WW scattering. Perhaps surprisingly, the interplay between weak coupling, strong coupling and derivatives, which is controlled by symmetries, can override the naive expansion in operator dimension, providing instances where dimension-8 dominates dimension-6, well within the domain of validity of the low energy effective theory. This result reveals the limitations of an analysis that is both ambitiously general and restricted to dimension-6 operators.

Spatial distributions of niche-constructing populations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaozhuo Han

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Niche construction theory regards organisms not only as the object of natural selection but also an active subject that can change their own selective pressure through eco-evolutionary feedbacks. Through reviewing the existing works on the theoretical models of niche construction, here we present the progress made on how niche construction influences genetic structure of spatially structured populations and the spatial-temporal dynamics of metapopulations, with special focuses on mathematical models and simulation methods. The majority of results confirmed that niche construction can significantly alter the evolutionary trajectories of structured populations. Organism-environmental interactions induced by niche construction can have profound influence on the dynamics, competition and diversity of metapopulations. It can affect fine-scale spatially distribution of species and spatial heterogeneity of the environment. We further propose a few research directions with potentials, such as applying adaptive dynamics or spatial game theory to explore the effect of niche construction on phenotypic evolution and diversification.

Pride and Prejudice – Identity and Collaboration in Construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thuesen, Christian

2013-01-01

Based on an 18 month ethnographic case study of a construction partnering project, the paper adopts practice based theory for understanding the identity formation and practices of collaboration in construction. Drawing upon practice based theory in general and actor network theory and communities...... of practice in particular, the construction project is interpreted as configuration of networked practices characterized by strong professional practices (e.g. architects and contractors) and locally negotiated collaboration practices. During the construction project, actors gain experiences in relation...... practices – enabling and inhibiting collaboration. Pride and prejudice are thus central constitutive elements of present construction practices in the formation of identity and development of collaboration processes....

Key technologies and risk management of deep tunnel construction at Jinping II hydropower station

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chunsheng Zhang

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The four diversion tunnels at Jinping II hydropower station represent the deepest underground project yet conducted in China, with an overburden depth of 1500–2000 m and a maximum depth of 2525 m. The tunnel structure was subjected to a maximum external water pressure of 10.22 MPa and the maximum single-point groundwater inflow of 7.3 m3/s. The success of the project construction was related to numerous challenging issues such as the stability of the rock mass surrounding the deep tunnels, strong rockburst prevention and control, and the treatment of high-pressure, large-volume groundwater infiltration. During the construction period, a series of new technologies was developed for the purpose of risk control in the deep tunnel project. Nondestructive sampling and in-situ measurement technologies were employed to fully characterize the formation and development of excavation damaged zones (EDZs, and to evaluate the mechanical behaviors of deep rocks. The time effect of marble fracture propagation, the brittle–ductile–plastic transition of marble, and the temporal development of rock mass fracture and damage induced by high geostress were characterized. The safe construction of deep tunnels was achieved under a high risk of strong rockburst using active measures, a support system comprised of lining, grouting, and external water pressure reduction techniques that addressed the coupled effect of high geostress, high external water pressure, and a comprehensive early-warning system. A complete set of technologies for the treatment of high-pressure and large-volume groundwater infiltration was developed. Monitoring results indicated that the Jinping II hydropower station has been generally stable since it was put into operation in 2014.

Subcycle dynamics of Coulomb asymmetry in strong elliptical laser fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Min; Liu, Yunquan; Liu, Hong; Ning, Qicheng; Fu, Libin; Liu, Jie; Deng, Yongkai; Wu, Chengyin; Peng, Liang-You; Peng, Liangyou; Gong, Qihuang

2013-07-12

We measure photoelectron angular distributions of noble gases in intense elliptically polarized laser fields, which indicate strong structure-dependent Coulomb asymmetry. Using a dedicated semiclassical model, we have disentangled the contribution of direct ionization and multiple forward scattering on Coulomb asymmetry in elliptical laser fields. Our theory quantifies the roles of the ionic potential and initial transverse momentum on Coulomb asymmetry, proving that the small lobes of asymmetry are induced by direct ionization and the strong asymmetry is induced by multiple forward scattering in the ionic potential. Both processes are distorted by the Coulomb force acting on the electrons after tunneling. Lowering the ionization potential, the relative contribution of direct ionization on Coulomb asymmetry substantially decreases and Coulomb focusing on multiple rescattering is more important. We do not observe evident initial longitudinal momentum spread at the tunnel exit according to our simulation.

The chloroindole auxins of pea, strong plant growth hormones or endogenous herbicides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Engvild, K.C.

1994-02-01

In this work the three theses below are discussed: 1) Identification and quantitative determination of the very strong plant hormone, the auxin 4-chloroindole-3-acetic acid methyl ester, in immature seeds of Pisum, Vicia, Lathyrus, and Lens spp. by incorporation of radioactive 36 Cl, thin layer chromatography, autoradiography, colour reactions, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. 2) The strong biological activity of 4-chloroindole-3-acetic acid and its analogues and its ability to induce strong, almost irreversible, ethylene evolution. 3) The possible role of chloroindole auxin in plants, particularly if it might be the hypothetical death hormone, secreted from developing seeds, which induces senescence and kills the mother plant at maturity; if plants generally have several auxin types, growth promoters and endogenous herbicides; and if other chlorine-containing plant hormones occur in developing seeds of other crop species. (au) (7 tabs., 8 ills., 144 refs.)

Neutrino oscillations in strong magnetic fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Likhachev, G.G.; Studenikin, A.I.

1994-07-01

Neutrino conversion processes between two neutrino species and the corresponding oscillations induced by strong magnetic fields are considered. The value of the critical strength of magnetic field B cr as a function of characteristics of neutrinos in vacuum (Δm 2 ν , mixing angle θ), effective particle density of matter n eff , neutrino (transition) magnetic moment μ-tilde and energy E is introduced. It is shown that the neutrino conversion and oscillations effects induced by magnetic fields B ≥ B cr are important and may result in the depletion of the initial type of ν's in the bunch. A possible increase of these effects in the case when neutrinos pass through a sudden decrease of density of matter (''cross-boundary effect'') and applications to neutrinos from neutron stars and supernova are discussed. (author). 25 refs

Creating sustainability : the social construction of the market for organic products

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Miele, M.

2001-01-01

Creating Sustainability: The Social Construction of the Market for Organic Products

<strong>Chapter N. 1:strong> Reflections on globalisation

This chapter starts with some reflection on the concept of globalisation and reviews the literature

Recovery of CTF beam signals from a strong wakefield background

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yin, Y [TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada); Schulte, E [European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva (Switzerland); Ekeloef, T [Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)

1995-06-01

The beam monitor for the CERN Linear Collider Test Facility (CTF) has to work not only with very short pulses (350 ps FWHM) at a spacing of 330 ps, but also in a strong wakefield background. A cone-shaped button pickup electrode has been designed and constructed for use with CTF beams and tests have been made using a real time analogue Gaussian filter to recover the beam signals from the strong wakefield signals. As a comparison to the analogue filter, a study has been made to process the data off-line and extract the beam signals using digital filtering based on the wavelet concept. (author). 3 refs., 7 figs.

Death: the ultimate social construction of reality.

Science.gov (United States)

Brabant, Sarah

Using Berger and Luckmann's thesis (1966) on the social construction of reality as rationale, this research analyzes the death drawings of 946 university students enrolled in a Death and Dying course between 1985 and 2004 to investigate the basic constructs elicited by the word "death": dying, moment of death, after death, after life, and bereavement. Consistent with earlier research, gender, race, religion, and religiosity proved to be significant factors. As expected, personal experience with grief was strongly correlated with drawings focused on bereavement. In contrast to earlier studies, fear of death was not significantly related to a particular construct. Implications for research, education, and counseling are discussed.

Strong dietary restrictions protect Drosophila against anoxia/reoxygenation injuries.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Vigne

Full Text Available Reoxygenation of ischemic tissues is a major factor that determines the severity of cardiovascular diseases. This paper describes the consequences of anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R stresses on Drosophila, a useful, anoxia tolerant, model organism.Newly emerged adult male flies were exposed to anoxic conditions (<1% O2 for 1 to 6 hours, reoxygenated and their survival was monitored.A/R stresses induced a transient increase in mortality which peaked at the time of reoxygenation. Then flies recovered low mortality rates similar to those of control flies. A/R induced mortality was strongly dependent on dietary conditions during the 48 h that preceded anoxia. Well fed flies were anoxia sensitive. Strong dietary restrictions and starvation conditions protected flies against A/R injuries. The tolerance to anoxia was associated to large decreases in glycogen, protein, and ATP contents. During anoxia, anoxia tolerant flies produced more lactate, less phosphate and they maintained more stable ATP levels than anoxia sensitive flies. Moderate dietary restrictions, which increased the longevity of normoxic flies, did not promote resistance to A/R stresses. Diet dependent A/R injuries were still observed in sigma loss of function mutants and they were insensitive to dietary rapamycin or resveratrol. AICAR (5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide-1-beta-D-ribose-furanoside, an activator AMP kinase decreased A/R injuries. Mutants in the insulin signalling pathway were more anoxia tolerant in a fed state.Long A/R stresses induce a transient increase in mortality in Drosophila. This mortality is highly dependent on dietary conditions prior to the stress. Strong dietary restrictions and starvation conditions protect flies against A/R injuries, probably by inducing a major remodelling of energy metabolism. The results also indicate that mechanistically different responses develop in response to dietary restrictions of different strengths. AMP kinase and the insulin signalling

The Ecology and Evolution of Constructed Ecosystems as Green Infrastructure

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeremy eLundholm

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Green infrastructure consists of ecosystems that provide valuable services to urban areas. Constructed ecosystems, including green roofs, bioretention systems, constructed wetlands and bioreactors are artificial, custom-built components of green infrastructure that are becoming more common in cities. Small size, strong spatial boundaries, ecological novelty and the role of human design characterize all constructed ecosystems, influencing their functions and interactions with other urban ecosystems. Here I outline the relevance of ecology and evolution in understanding the functioning of constructed ecosystems. In turn, a research focus on the distinctive aspects of constructed ecosystems can contribute to fundamental science.

The valproic acid-induced rodent model of autism.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicolini, Chiara; Fahnestock, Margaret

2018-01-01

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social communication and interaction and by repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities. While autism has a strong genetic component, environmental factors including toxins, pesticides, infection and drugs are known to confer autism susceptibility, likely by inducing epigenetic changes. In particular, exposure to valproic acid (VPA) during pregnancy has been demonstrated to increase the risk of autism in children. Furthermore, rodents prenatally exposed to this drug display behavioral phenotypes characteristics of the human condition. Indeed, in utero exposure of rodents to VPA represents a robust model of autism exhibiting face, construct and predictive validity. This model might better represent the many cases of idiopathic autism which are of environmental/epigenetic origins than do transgenic models carrying mutations in single autism-associated genes. The VPA model provides a valuable tool to investigate the neurobiology underlying autistic behavior and to screen for novel therapeutics. Here we review the VPA-induced rodent model of autism, highlighting its importance and reliability as an environmentally-induced animal model of autism. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Holographic gauge mediation via strongly coupled messengers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McGuirk, Paul; Shiu, Gary; Sumitomo, Yoske

2010-01-01

We consider a relative of semidirect gauge mediation where the hidden sector exists at large 't Hooft coupling. Such scenarios can be difficult to describe using perturbative field theory methods but may fall into the class of holographic gauge mediation scenarios, meaning that they are amenable to the techniques of gauge/gravity duality. We use a recently found gravity solution to examine one such case, where the hidden sector is a cascading gauge theory resulting in a confinement scale not much smaller than the messenger mass. In the original construction of holographic gauge mediation, as in other examples of semidirect gauge mediation at strong coupling, the primary contributions to visible sector soft terms come from weakly coupled messenger mesons. In contrast to these examples, we describe the dual of a gauge theory where there are significant contributions from scales in which the strongly coupled messenger quarks are the effective degrees of freedom. In this regime, the visible sector gaugino mass can be calculated entirely from holography.

Finite temperature system of strongly interacting baryons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowers, R.L.; Gleeson, A.M.; Pedigo, R.D.; Wheeler, J.W.

1976-07-01

A fully relativistic finite temperature many body theory is constructed and used to examine the bulk properties of a system of strongly interacting baryons. The strong interactions are described by a two parameter phenomenological model fit to a simple description of nuclear matter at T = 0. The zero temperature equation of state for such a system which has already been discussed in the literature was developed to give a realistic description of nuclear matter. The model presented here is the exact finite temperature extension of that model. The effect of the inclusion of baryon pairs for T greater than or equal to 2mc 2 /k is discussed in detail. The phase transition identified with nuclear matter vanishes for system temperatures in excess of T/sub C/ = 1.034 x 10 11 0 K. All values of epsilon (P,T) correspond to systems that are causal in the sense that the locally determined speed of sound never exceeds the speed of light

Finite temperature system of strongly interacting baryons

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bowers, R.L.; Gleeson, A.M.; Pedigo, R.D.; Wheeler, J.W.

1976-07-01

A fully relativistic finite temperature many body theory is constructed and used to examine the bulk properties of a system of strongly interacting baryons. The strong interactions are described by a two parameter phenomenological model fit to a simple description of nuclear matter at T = 0. The zero temperature equation of state for such a system which has already been discussed in the literature was developed to give a realistic description of nuclear matter. The model presented here is the exact finite temperature extension of that model. The effect of the inclusion of baryon pairs for T greater than or equal to 2mc/sup 2//k is discussed in detail. The phase transition identified with nuclear matter vanishes for system temperatures in excess of T/sub C/ = 1.034 x 10/sup 11/ /sup 0/K. All values of epsilon (P,T) correspond to systems that are causal in the sense that the locally determined speed of sound never exceeds the speed of light.

Strong homeostatic TCR signals induce formation of self-tolerant virtual memory CD8 T cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Drobek, Ales; Moudra, Alena; Mueller, Daniel; Huranova, Martina; Horkova, Veronika; Pribikova, Michaela; Ivanek, Robert; Oberle, Susanne; Zehn, Dietmar; McCoy, Kathy D; Draber, Peter; Stepanek, Ondrej

2018-05-11

Virtual memory T cells are foreign antigen-inexperienced T cells that have acquired memory-like phenotype and constitute 10-20% of all peripheral CD8 + T cells in mice. Their origin, biological roles, and relationship to naïve and foreign antigen-experienced memory T cells are incompletely understood. By analyzing T-cell receptor repertoires and using retrogenic monoclonal T-cell populations, we demonstrate that the virtual memory T-cell formation is a so far unappreciated cell fate decision checkpoint. We describe two molecular mechanisms driving the formation of virtual memory T cells. First, virtual memory T cells originate exclusively from strongly self-reactive T cells. Second, the stoichiometry of the CD8 interaction with Lck regulates the size of the virtual memory T-cell compartment via modulating the self-reactivity of individual T cells. Although virtual memory T cells descend from the highly self-reactive clones and acquire a partial memory program, they are not more potent in inducing experimental autoimmune diabetes than naïve T cells. These data underline the importance of the variable level of self-reactivity in polyclonal T cells for the generation of functional T-cell diversity. © 2018 The Authors. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

A construct with fluorescent indicators for conditional expression of miRNA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xia Xugang

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Transgenic RNAi holds promise as a simple, low-cost, and fast method for reverse genetics in mammals. It may be particularly useful for producing animal models for hypomorphic gene function. Inducible RNAi that permits spatially and temporally controllable gene silencing in vivo will enhance the power of transgenic RNAi approach. Furthermore, because microRNA (miRNA targeting specific genes can be expressed simultaneously with protein coding genes, incorporation of fluorescent marker proteins can simplify the screening and analysis of transgenic RNAi animals. Results We sought to optimally express a miRNA simultaneously with a fluorescent marker. We compared two construct designs. One expressed a red fluorescent protein (RFP and a miRNA placed in its 3' untranslated region (UTR. The other expressed the same RFP and miRNA, but the precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA coding sequence was placed in an intron that was inserted into the 3'-UTR. We found that the two constructs expressed comparable levels of miRNA. However, the intron-containing construct expressed a significantly higher level of RFP than the intron-less construct. Further experiments indicate that the 3'-UTR intron enhances RFP expression by its intrinsic gene-expression-enhancing activity and by eliminating the inhibitory effect of the pre-miRNA on the expression of RFP. Based on these findings, we incorporated the intron-embedded pre-miRNA design into a conditional expression construct that employed the Cre-loxP system. This construct initially expressed EGFP gene, which was flanked by loxP sites. After exposure to Cre recombinase, the transgene stopped EGFP expression and began expression of RFP and a miRNA, which silenced the expression of specific cellular genes. Conclusion We have designed and tested a conditional miRNA-expression construct and showed that this construct expresses both the marker genes strongly and can silence the target gene efficiently upon Cre

Wigner functions for fermions in strong magnetic fields

Science.gov (United States)

Sheng, Xin-li; Rischke, Dirk H.; Vasak, David; Wang, Qun

2018-02-01

We compute the covariant Wigner function for spin-(1/2) fermions in an arbitrarily strong magnetic field by exactly solving the Dirac equation at non-zero fermion-number and chiral-charge densities. The Landau energy levels as well as a set of orthonormal eigenfunctions are found as solutions of the Dirac equation. With these orthonormal eigenfunctions we construct the fermion field operators and the corresponding Wigner-function operator. The Wigner function is obtained by taking the ensemble average of the Wigner-function operator in global thermodynamical equilibrium, i.e., at constant temperature T and non-zero fermion-number and chiral-charge chemical potentials μ and μ_5, respectively. Extracting the vector and axial-vector components of the Wigner function, we reproduce the currents of the chiral magnetic and separation effect in an arbitrarily strong magnetic field.

Fine-grain concrete from mining waste for monolithic construction

Science.gov (United States)

Lesovik, R. V.; Ageeva, M. S.; Lesovik, G. A.; Sopin, D. M.; Kazlitina, O. V.; Mitrokhin, A. A.

2018-03-01

The technology of a monolithic construction is a well-established practice among most Russian real estate developers. The strong points of the technology are low cost of materials and lower demand for qualified workers. The monolithic construction uses various types of reinforced slabs and foamed concrete, since they are easy to use and highly durable; they also need practically no additional treatment.

Enablers of Innovation in the Construction Material Industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wandahl, Søren; Lassen, Astrid Heidemann; Jacobsen, Alexia

2014-01-01

, which creates a strong interdependence between the different supply network partners and can be seen as a hindrance for innovation. Innovation models must embrace such a contemporary business structures, where competition often takes place between supply chains rather than between individual companies......The construction material industry is often acknowledged as slightly more innovative than the overall construction industry and could hence serve as a valuable learning place for how innovation could flourish in the construction industry. Construction is viewed as network or supply chain based......, it was found that different approaches for facilitating this journey exists, based on company characteristics. This paper adds to the body of knowledge on how to succeed with innovation in the construction industry. The increased awareness of an open and cooperative approach to innovation is of value both...

Supper strong nanostructured TWIP steels for automotive applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G.W. Yuan

2014-02-01

Full Text Available A ductile and super strong nanostructured twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP steels were fabricated by cold rolling and recovery treatment. This strong and ductile nanostructured alloy can be used for the anti-intrusion part of body-in-white. Cold rolling was used to produce intensive nano-twins so that the microstructure was greatly refined. Recovery is employed to anneal dislocations for improving the ductility. A physical model is proposed to describe the relationship between the yield stress and the twin density. Furthermore, the present work also found that the activation energy for recovery is ~160 J/mol, which implies that the recovery mechanism is governed by dislocation core diffusion.

Atom-Pair Kinetics with Strong Electric-Dipole Interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Thaicharoen, N; Gonçalves, L F; Raithel, G

2016-05-27

Rydberg-atom ensembles are switched from a weakly to a strongly interacting regime via adiabatic transformation of the atoms from an approximately nonpolar into a highly dipolar quantum state. The resultant electric dipole-dipole forces are probed using a device akin to a field ion microscope. Ion imaging and pair-correlation analysis reveal the kinetics of the interacting atoms. Dumbbell-shaped pair-correlation images demonstrate the anisotropy of the binary dipolar force. The dipolar C_{3} coefficient, derived from the time dependence of the images, agrees with the value calculated from the permanent electric-dipole moment of the atoms. The results indicate many-body dynamics akin to disorder-induced heating in strongly coupled particle systems.

Identifying the Critical Factors Affecting Safety Program Performance for Construction Projects within Pakistan Construction Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zubair Ahmed Memon

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Many studies have shown that the construction industry one of the most hazardous industries with its high rates of fatalities and injuries and high financial losses incurred through work related accident. To reduce or overcome the safety issues on construction sites, different safety programs are introduced by construction firms. A questionnaire survey study was conducted to highlight the influence of the Construction Safety Factors on safety program implementation. The input from the questionnaire survey was analyzed by using AIM (Average Index Method and rank correlation test was conducted between different groups of respondents to measure the association between different groups of respondent. The finding of this study highlighted that management support is the critical factor for implementing the safety program on projects. From statistical test, it is concluded that all respondent groups were strongly in the favor of management support factor as CSF (Critical Success Factor. The findings of this study were validated on selected case studies. Results of the case studies will help to know the effect of the factors on implementing safety programs during the execution stage.

Strong Convergence of Hybrid Algorithm for Asymptotically Nonexpansive Mappings in Hilbert Spaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juguo Su

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The hybrid algorithms for constructing fixed points of nonlinear mappings have been studied extensively in recent years. The advantage of this methods is that one can prove strong convergence theorems while the traditional iteration methods just have weak convergence. In this paper, we propose two types of hybrid algorithm to find a common fixed point of a finite family of asymptotically nonexpansive mappings in Hilbert spaces. One is cyclic Mann's iteration scheme, and the other is cyclic Halpern's iteration scheme. We prove the strong convergence theorems for both iteration schemes.

Study on construction of pEgr-hPTEN expression vector induced by irradiation and its anti-tumor effect in vitro

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tian Mei; Jin Guanghui; Piao Chunji; Li Xiuyi; Liu Linlin

2003-01-01

Objective: To clone the cDNA of human tumor suppressor gene-PTEN, construct pEgr-hPTEN expression vector induced by irradiation and study its inhibitory effect on proliferation of malignant glioma cell line SHG-44 transfected steadily with pEgr-hPTEN after different doses of X-ray irradiation. Methods: A DNA fragment about 1200 bp, PTEN, was amplified from human placenta tissues by using RT-nested PCR and was cloned into pUCm-T vector after automatic sequencing, then the fragment was inserted into a vector pcD-NA3.1-Egr to construct an expression vector pEgr-hPTEN. pEgr-hPTEN was transfected into SHG-44 cells in vitro. Stably transfected cell line SHG-44-sPTEN was selected through G418. The inhibitor effect on SHG-44-sPTEN was observed after different doses of X-ray irradiation in vitro. Results: The PTEN cDNA has been cloned correctly and its expression vector pEgr-hPTEN was also constructed. Growth of SHG-44 cells was inhibited significantly by stable pEgr-hPTEN transfection combined with X-ray irradiation. With the increase of dose, the inhibitory effect was enhanced within 5 Gy. Conclusion: Human tumor suppressor gene-PTEN cDNA has been cloned and its expression vector has been constructed. The tumor was inhibited significantly by gene-radiotherapy in vitro. The result provides the theoretical and experimental basis for improvement of clinical radiotherapeutic effect on tumors

Construction and analysis of a modular model of caspase activation in apoptosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ho Kenneth L

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A key physiological mechanism employed by multicellular organisms is apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Apoptosis is triggered by the activation of caspases in response to both extracellular (extrinsic and intracellular (intrinsic signals. The extrinsic and intrinsic pathways are characterized by the formation of the death-inducing signaling complex (DISC and the apoptosome, respectively; both the DISC and the apoptosome are oligomers with complex formation dynamics. Additionally, the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways are coupled through the mitochondrial apoptosis-induced channel via the Bcl-2 family of proteins. Results A model of caspase activation is constructed and analyzed. The apoptosis signaling network is simplified through modularization methodologies and equilibrium abstractions for three functional modules. The mathematical model is composed of a system of ordinary differential equations which is numerically solved. Multiple linear regression analysis investigates the role of each module and reduced models are constructed to identify key contributions of the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways in triggering apoptosis for different cell lines. Conclusion Through linear regression techniques, we identified the feedbacks, dissociation of complexes, and negative regulators as the key components in apoptosis. The analysis and reduced models for our model formulation reveal that the chosen cell lines predominately exhibit strong extrinsic caspase, typical of type I cell, behavior. Furthermore, under the simplified model framework, the selected cells lines exhibit different modes by which caspase activation may occur. Finally the proposed modularized model of apoptosis may generalize behavior for additional cells and tissues, specifically identifying and predicting components responsible for the transition from type I to type II cell behavior.

Quantum Thermodynamics at Strong Coupling: Operator Thermodynamic Functions and Relations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jen-Tsung Hsiang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Identifying or constructing a fine-grained microscopic theory that will emerge under specific conditions to a known macroscopic theory is always a formidable challenge. Thermodynamics is perhaps one of the most powerful theories and best understood examples of emergence in physical sciences, which can be used for understanding the characteristics and mechanisms of emergent processes, both in terms of emergent structures and the emergent laws governing the effective or collective variables. Viewing quantum mechanics as an emergent theory requires a better understanding of all this. In this work we aim at a very modest goal, not quantum mechanics as thermodynamics, not yet, but the thermodynamics of quantum systems, or quantum thermodynamics. We will show why even with this minimal demand, there are many new issues which need be addressed and new rules formulated. The thermodynamics of small quantum many-body systems strongly coupled to a heat bath at low temperatures with non-Markovian behavior contains elements, such as quantum coherence, correlations, entanglement and fluctuations, that are not well recognized in traditional thermodynamics, built on large systems vanishingly weakly coupled to a non-dynamical reservoir. For quantum thermodynamics at strong coupling, one needs to reexamine the meaning of the thermodynamic functions, the viability of the thermodynamic relations and the validity of the thermodynamic laws anew. After a brief motivation, this paper starts with a short overview of the quantum formulation based on Gelin & Thoss and Seifert. We then provide a quantum formulation of Jarzynski’s two representations. We show how to construct the operator thermodynamic potentials, the expectation values of which provide the familiar thermodynamic variables. Constructing the operator thermodynamic functions and verifying or modifying their relations is a necessary first step in the establishment of a viable thermodynamics theory for

Construction dispute research conceptualisation, avoidance and resolution

CERN Document Server

2014-01-01

There are three specific purposes of Construction Dispute Research. First, this volume aims to summarise studies on construction dispute. Second, apart from the theoretical constructs, where appropriate empirical tests are also included. This approach serves to go beyond the commonly used anecdotal approach for the subject matters. Third, it is the sincere hope of the authors that this book will help shaping research agenda of construction dispute.  The studies are mostly framed from a management perspective drawing on methods and concepts in contract law, economics, psychology and management science.   The book has twenty chapters that are arranged in four parts covering conceptualisation, avoidance, negotiation and mediation. Part 1 is devoted for dispute conceptualisation. A building is only as strong as its foundation. Thus it is no better start to study construction dispute by conceptualisation. The theme of Part 2 is dispute avoidance. The conventional wisdom of ‘prevention is better than cure’ se...

Manipulation of resonant Auger processes with strong optical fields

Science.gov (United States)

Picón, Antonio; Buth, Christian; Doumy, Gilles; Krässig, Bertold; Young, Linda; Southworth, Stephen

2013-05-01

We recently reported on the optical control of core-excited states of a resonant Auger process in neon. We have focused on the resonant excitation 1 s --> 1s-1 3 p , while a strong optical field may resonantly couple two core-excited states (1s-1 3 p and 1s-1 3 s) in the Rydberg manifold as well as dressing the continuum. There is a clear signature in the Auger electron spectrum of the inner-shell dynamics induced by the strong optical field: i) the Auger electron spectrum is modified by the rapid optical-induced population transfer from the 1s-1 3 p state to the 1s-1 3 s state during their decay. ii) The angular anisotropy parameter, defining the angular distribution of the Auger electron, is manifested in the envelope of the (angle-integrated) sidebands. This work is funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Dynamics of valence-shell electrons and nuclei probed by strong-field holography and rescattering

Science.gov (United States)

Walt, Samuel G.; Bhargava Ram, Niraghatam; Atala, Marcos; Shvetsov-Shilovski, Nikolay I; von Conta, Aaron; Baykusheva, Denitsa; Lein, Manfred; Wörner, Hans Jakob

2017-01-01

Strong-field photoelectron holography and laser-induced electron diffraction (LIED) are two powerful emerging methods for probing the ultrafast dynamics of molecules. However, both of them have remained restricted to static systems and to nuclear dynamics induced by strong-field ionization. Here we extend these promising methods to image purely electronic valence-shell dynamics in molecules using photoelectron holography. In the same experiment, we use LIED and photoelectron holography simultaneously, to observe coupled electronic-rotational dynamics taking place on similar timescales. These results offer perspectives for imaging ultrafast dynamics of molecules on femtosecond to attosecond timescales. PMID:28643771

Time-resolved pulse-counting lock-in detection of laser induced fluorescence in the presence of a strong background emission

Science.gov (United States)

Pelissier, B.; Sadeghi, N.

1996-10-01

We describe a time-resolved pulse-counting system well adapted for the detection of continuous laser induced fluorescence (LIF) signals in repetitive phenomena, when a strong background emission is present. It consists of 256 channels coupled to a first in first out memory and interfaced to a 486 DX 33 PC, for data storage. It accepts time-averaged count rates up to 450 kcount/s. Time between channels can be set from 12.5 ns to several μs and the dead time between two consecutive cycles of the physical phenomena is less than 20 ns. In phase with a chopper, which modulates the laser beam, it adds the observed photon signal to the channel memories when the beam is on and substracts it when the beam is stopped, acting like a lock-in amplifier which detect only the modulated part of the signal. The minimum detectivity on the LIF signal is only limited by the shot noise of the plasma induced emission signal. As an application, we studied the time variation of the Ar+*(2G9/2) metastable ions, detected by LIF, in two types of plasmas. Their radiative lifetime and collisional quenching frequencies were deduced from their decay rate in the afterglow of a pulsed Helicon reactor. We also observed the evolution of their density in a 455 kHz capacitively coupled argon discharge.

Diffraction analysis of materials under strong plastic deformation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pyzalla, A.

2001-01-01

The applicability of X-ray diffraction in analyses of the microstructure texture and intrinsic stresses of materials under strong plastic deformation is illustrated by examples and discussed. The experimental methods and findings are supplemented by numeric calculations. It is shown how the microstructure, texture and intrinsic stresses can thus be optimized already in the production process. Analyses of changes in materials during operation of a component provide information on loads and material response to loads which can then be used for optimization of the component, e.g. by constructional modifications or selective heat treatment [de

The CO/NOx emissions of swirled, strongly pulsed jet diffusion flames

KAUST Repository

Liao, Ying-Hao; Hermanson, James C.

2014-01-01

recirculation within the swirl-induced recirculation zone. Scaling relations, when taking into account the impact of air dilution over an injection cycle on the flame length, reveal a strong correlation between the CO emissions and the global residence time

Spatiotemporal Changes of Built-Up Land Expansion and Carbon Emissions Caused by the Chinese Construction Industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Chuai, Xiaowei; Huang, Xianjin; Lu, Qinli; Zhang, Mei; Zhao, Rongqin; Lu, Junyu

2015-11-03

China is undergoing rapid urbanization, enlarging the construction industry, greatly expanding built-up land, and generating substantial carbon emissions. We calculated both the direct and indirect carbon emissions from energy consumption (anthropogenic emissions) in the construction sector and analyzed built-up land expansion and carbon storage losses from the terrestrial ecosystem. According to our study, the total anthropogenic carbon emissions from the construction sector increased from 3,905×10(4) to 103,721.17×10(4) t from 1995 to 2010, representing 27.87%-34.31% of the total carbon emissions from energy consumption in China. Indirect carbon emissions from other industrial sectors induced by the construction sector represented approximately 97% of the total anthropogenic carbon emissions of the sector. These emissions were mainly concentrated in seven upstream industry sectors. Based on our assumptions, built-up land expansion caused 3704.84×10(4) t of carbon storage loss from vegetation between 1995 and 2010. Cropland was the main built-up land expansion type across all regions. The study shows great regional differences. Coastal regions showed dramatic built-up land expansion, greater carbon storage losses from vegetation, and greater anthropogenic carbon emissions. These regional differences were the most obvious in East China followed by Midsouth China. These regions are under pressure for strong carbon emissions reduction.

Evidence for a glassy state in strongly driven carbon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, C.R.D.; Gericke, D.O.; Wunsch, K.; Cammarata, M.; Fritz, D.; Glenzer, S.H.; Heimann, P.; Lee, H.J.; Lemke, H.; Nagler, B.; Zhu, D.; Galtier, E.; Moinard, A.; Rosmej, F.B.

2014-01-01

Here, we report results of an experiment creating a transient, highly correlated carbon state using a combination of optical and x-ray lasers. Scattered x-rays reveal a highly ordered state with an electrostatic energy significantly exceeding the thermal energy of the ions. Strong Coulomb forces are predicted to induce nucleation into a crystalline ion structure within a few picoseconds. However, we observe no evidence of such phase transition after several tens of picoseconds but strong indications for an over-correlated fluid state. The experiment suggests a much slower nucleation and points to an intermediate glassy state where the ions are frozen close to their original positions in the fluid. (authors)

Construction of pEgr.p-TNFα and its expression in NIH3T3 cells induced by ionizing irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Congmei; Li Xiuyi; Liu Shuzheng

2001-01-01

Objective: To isolate and amplify Egr-1 promoter, construct pEgr.p-TNFα and study its response to different doses of ionizing radiation. Methods: Egr-1 promote was isolated from genomic DNA by PCR to construct pEgr.p-TNFα expression plasmid. Plasmids were transfected into NIH3T3 cells with liposome and the expression level of TNFα was detected by ELISA after irradiation with different doses of X-ray. Results: The sequence of Egr-1 promoter obtained was essentially same as reported. Egr-1 promoter and TNF α cDNA were inserted into expression vector correctly. Eight hours after irradiation with different doses of X-rays, the expression level of TNFα was higher than that of nonirradiated group (P< 0.05-0.001). Conclusion: Egr-1 promoter obtained can be activated by ionizing irradiation and regulate the expression of downstream gene. Low dose irradiation is for the first time found to be able to induce the expression of the downstream gene. the observation may be of potential significance in tumor therapy

On the role of sound in the strong Langmuir turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malkin, V.M.

1989-01-01

The main directions in the precision of the theory of strong Langmuir turbulence caused by the necessity of account of sound waves in plasma are preseted. In particular the effect of conversion of short-wave modulations in Langmuir waves induced by sound waves, are briefly described. 8 refs

Construction Marketing: Developing a Reference Framework

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mahmood Mokhtariani

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Successful companies are strongly committed to marketing management. However, marketing is either misunderstood or completely neglected in many construction companies, mainly due to the difficulty of applying conventional marketing in the industry, accompanied by the lack of sufficient research on the nature of marketing and tailored marketing theories and strategies for the construction. This study attempts to fill a part of this gap by examining the nature of the construction industry from the marketing viewpoint and developing a comprehensive framework. A systematic investigation into the nature via a combination of Kotler’s product classification system and Lovelock’s classification criteria reveals that construction is an “industrial, project-based, and primarily service-oriented” (IPS product with specific characteristics from the marketing perspective. Based on this nature, a reference framework for strategic marketing planning is developed through a literature review based on grounded theory and using the focus group discussion as a refinement tool. The framework indicates that construction companies are involved in and should plan for three working fields—project-based activities, relationship marketing, and marketing mix-related functions. The findings provide a fundamental basis that helps researchers and practitioners gain a true understanding of the concepts and scope of construction marketing and draw a clear and practical roadmap for future work.

The QCD mass gap and quark deconfinement scales as mass bounds in strong gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Burikham, Piyabut [Chulalongkorn University, High Energy Physics Theory Group, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Bangkok (Thailand); Harko, Tiberiu [Babes-Bolyai University, Department of Physics, Cluj-Napoca (Romania); University College London, Department of Mathematics, London (United Kingdom); Lake, Matthew J. [Sun Yat-Sen University, School of Physics, Guangzhou (China); Nanyang Technological University, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Singapore (Singapore); Naresuan University, The Institute for Fundamental Study, ' ' The Tah Poe Academia Institute' ' , Phitsanulok (Thailand); Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Ministry of Education, Bangkok (Thailand)

2017-11-15

Though not a part of mainstream physics, Salam's theory of strong gravity remains a viable effective model for the description of strong interactions in the gauge singlet sector of QCD, capable of producing particle confinement and asymptotic freedom, but not of reproducing interactions involving SU(3) color charge. It may therefore be used to explore the stability and confinement of gauge singlet hadrons, though not to describe scattering processes that require color interactions. It is a two-tensor theory of both strong interactions and gravity, in which the strong tensor field is governed by equations formally identical to the Einstein equations, apart from the coupling parameter, which is of order 1 GeV{sup -1}. We revisit the strong gravity theory and investigate the strong gravity field equations in the presence of a mixing term which induces an effective strong cosmological constant, Λ{sub f}. This introduces a strong de Sitter radius for strongly interacting fermions, producing a confining bubble, which allows us to identify Λ{sub f} with the 'bag constant' of the MIT bag model, B ≅ 2 x 10{sup 14} g cm{sup -3}. Assuming a static, spherically symmetric geometry, we derive the strong gravity TOV equation, which describes the equilibrium properties of compact hadronic objects. From this, we determine the generalized Buchdahl inequalities for a strong gravity 'particle', giving rise to upper and lower bounds on the mass/radius ratio of stable, compact, strongly interacting objects. We show, explicitly, that the existence of the lower mass bound is induced by the presence of Λ{sub f}, producing a mass gap, and that the upper bound corresponds to a deconfinement phase transition. The physical implications of our results for holographic duality in the context of the AdS/QCD and dS/QCD correspondences are also discussed. (orig.)

Effective lagrangian for strong interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jain, P.

1988-01-01

We attempt to construct a realistic phenomenological Lagrangian in order to describe strong interactions. This is in general a very complicated problem and we shall explore its various aspects. We first include the vector mesons by writing down the most general chiral invariant terms proportional to the Levi-Civita symbol ε μναβ . These terms involve three unknown coefficients, which are calculated by using the experimental results of strong interaction processes. We then calculate the static nucleon properties by finding the solitonic excitations of this model. The results turn out to be, as is also the case for most other vector-pseudoscalar Lagrangians, better than the Skyrme model but are still somewhat different from the experiments. Another aspect that we shall study is the incorporation of scale anomaly of QCD into the Skyrme model. We thus introduce a scalar glueball in our Lagrangian. Here we find an interesting result that the effective glue field dynamically forms a bag for the soliton. Depending on the values of the parameters, we get either a deep bag or a shallow bag. However by including the scalar meson, we find that to get realistic scalar sector we must have the shallow bag. Finally we show some intriguing connections between the chiral quark model, in which the nucleon is described as a solitonic excitation, and the ordinary potential binding quark model

Engineering the Dynamics of Effective Spin-Chain Models for Strongly Interacting Atomic Gases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Volosniev, A. G.; Petrosyan, D.; Valiente, M.

2015-01-01

We consider a one-dimensional gas of cold atoms with strong contact interactions and construct an effective spin-chain Hamiltonian for a two-component system. The resulting Heisenberg spin model can be engineered by manipulating the shape of the external confining potential of the atomic gas. We...

Industrial Disputes in the Construction Sector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.J Perry

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The Cole Royal Commission enquiry into the building and construction (abbreviated to ‘construction’ sector recommended controversial workplace-relation reforms for that sector. The recommended changes are likely to be enshrined in legislation within the year. The Commission drew on analyses of industrial disputes that focused, in the main, on quite recent experience. This paper attempts to give a broader historical perspective on disputes in that sector by considering the pattern of disputes for the entire post-World War II period. Accordingly, data on disputes and employees during the entire period are gathered from Australian Bureau of Statistics current and archived sources. These data are classified according to sector (construction versus non-construction and analysed. It is found that the strike rate has, on average, been greater in the construction sector than in the non-construction sector. However, there have been periods during which disputes in the construction sector have been relatively low. The most recent period was during the period of the Accord (1983-96, during which the strike rate in the construction sector fell relatively strongly. The analysis of this relatively broad historical period draws attention, among other things, to the possibility that the sort of strategies employed during the Accord years – strategies of cooperation and consensus building – may provide a more effective means of bringing industrial peace to the workplace relations scene of the construction sector than policies that are relatively confrontational.

2nd International Conference on Construction and Building Research

CERN Document Server

Fernández-Plazaola, Igor; Hidalgo-Delgado, Francisco; Martínez-Valenzuela, María; Medina-Ramón, Francisco; Oliver-Faubel, Inmaculada; Rodríguez-Abad, Isabel; Salandin, Andrea; Sánchez-Grandia, Rafael; Tort-Ausina, Isabel; Construction and Building Research

2014-01-01

Many areas of knowledge converge in the building industry and therefore research in this field necessarily involves an interdisciplinary approach. Effective research requires strong relations between a broad variety of scientific and technological domains and more conventional construction or craft processes, while also considering advanced management processes, where all the main actors permanently interact. This publication takes an interdisciplinary approach grouping various studies on the building industry chosen from among the works presented for the 2nd International Conference on Construction and Building Research. The papers examine aspects of materials and building systems; construction technology; energy and sustainability; construction management; heritage, refurbishment and conservation. The information contained within these pages may be of interest to researchers and practitioners in construction and building activities from the academic sphere, as well as public and private sectors.

A large-scale soil-structure interaction experiment: Design and construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang, H.T.; Tang, Y.K.; Stepp, J.C.; Wall, I.B.; Lin, E.; Cheng, S.C.; Lee, S.K.

1989-01-01

This paper describes the design and construction phase of the Large-Scale Soil-Structure Interaction Experiment project jointly sponsored by EPRI and Taipower. The project has two objectives: 1. to obtain an earthquake database which can be used to substantiate soil-structure interaction (SSI) models and analysis methods; and 2. to quantify nuclear power plant reactor containment and internal components seismic margin based on earthquake experience data. These objectives were accomplished by recording and analyzing data from two instrumented, scaled down, reinforced concrete containment structures during seismic events. The two model structures are sited in a high seismic region in Taiwan (SMART-1). A strong-motion seismic array network is located at the site. The containment models (1/4- and 1/12-scale) were constructed and instrumented specially for this experiment. Construction was completed and data recording began in September 1985. By November 1986, 18 strong motion earthquakes ranging from Richter magnitude 4.5 to 7.0 were recorded. (orig./HP)

Accuracy Improvement of Real-Time Location Tracking for Construction Workers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyunsoo Kim

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Extensive research has been conducted on the real-time locating system (RTLS for tracking construction components, including workers, equipment, and materials, in order to improve construction performance (e.g., productivity improvement or accident prevention. In order to prevent safety accidents and make more sustainable construction job sites, the higher accuracy of RTLS is required. To improve the accuracy of RTLS in construction projects, this paper presents a RTLS using radio frequency identification (RFID. For this goal, this paper develops a location tracking error mitigation algorithm and presents the concept of using assistant tags. The applicability and effectiveness of the developed RTLS are tested under eight different construction environments and the test results confirm the system’s strong potential for improving the accuracy of real-time location tracking in construction projects, thus enhancing construction performance.

Low heritability of nest construction in a wild bird.

Science.gov (United States)

Järvinen, Pauliina; Kluen, Edward; Brommer, Jon E

2017-10-01

In birds and other taxa, nest construction varies considerably between and within populations. Such variation is hypothesized to have an adaptive (i.e. genetic) basis, but estimates of heritability in nest construction are largely lacking. Here, we demonstrate with data collected over 10 years from 1010 nests built by blue tits in nest-boxes that nest size (height of nest material) and nest composition (proportion of feathers in the nest) are repeatable but only weakly (12-13%) heritable female traits. These findings imply that nest construction may evolve but only if subjected to strong and consistent selection pressures. © 2017 The Author(s).

Air quality impacts due to construction of LWR waste management facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1977-06-01

Air quality impacts of construction activities and induced housing growth as a result of construction activities were evaluated for four possible facilities in the LWR fuel cycle: a fuel reprocessing facility, fuel storage facility, fuel fabrication plant, and a nuclear power plant. Since the fuel reprocessing facility would require the largest labor force, the impacts of construction of that facility were evaluated in detail

The strong-weak coupling symmetry in 2D Φ4 field models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B.N.Shalaev

2005-01-01

Full Text Available It is found that the exact beta-function β(g of the continuous 2D gΦ4 model possesses two types of dual symmetries, these being the Kramers-Wannier (KW duality symmetry and the strong-weak (SW coupling symmetry f(g, or S-duality. All these transformations are explicitly constructed. The S-duality transformation f(g is shown to connect domains of weak and strong couplings, i.e. above and below g*. Basically it means that there is a tempting possibility to compute multiloop Feynman diagrams for the β-function using high-temperature lattice expansions. The regular scheme developed is found to be strongly unstable. Approximate values of the renormalized coupling constant g* found from duality symmetry equations are in an agreement with available numerical results.

Construction method of pre assembled unit of bolt sphere grid

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, L. W.; Guo, F. L.; Wang, J. L.; Bu, F. M.

2018-03-01

The traditional construction of bolt sphere grid has many disadvantages, such as high cost, large amount of work at high altitude and long construction period, in order to make up for these shortcomings, in this paper, a new and applicable construction method is explored: setting up local scaffolding, installing the bolt sphere grid starting frame on the local scaffolding, then the pre assembled unit of bolt sphere grid is assembled on the ground, using small hoisting equipment to lift pre assembled unit to high altitude and install. Compared with the traditional installation method, the construction method has strong practicability and high economic efficiency, and has achieved good social and economic benefits.

Metabolic activation of hepatotoxic drug (benzbromarone) induced mitochondrial membrane permeability transition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shirakawa, Maho; Sekine, Shuichi; Tanaka, Ayaka [The Laboratory of Biopharmaceutics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba (Japan); Horie, Toshiharu [Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Teikyo Heisei University, Tokyo (Japan); Ito, Kousei, E-mail: itokousei@chiba-u.jp [The Laboratory of Biopharmaceutics, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba (Japan)

2015-10-01

The risk of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is of great concern to the pharmaceutical industry. It is well-known that metabolic activation of drugs to form toxic metabolites (TMs) is strongly associated with DILI onset. Drug-induced mitochondrial dysfunction is also strongly associated with increased risk of DILI. However, it is difficult to determine the target of TMs associated with exacerbation of DILI because of difficulties in identifying and purifying TMs. In this study, we propose a sequential in vitro assay system to assess TM formation and their ability to induce mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT) in a one-pot process. In this assay system, freshly-isolated rat liver mitochondria were incubated with reaction solutions of 44 test drugs preincubated with liver microsomes in the presence or absence of NADPH; then, NADPH-dependent MPT pore opening was assessed as mitochondrial swelling. In this assay system, several hepatotoxic drugs, including benzbromarone (BBR), significantly induced MPT in a NADPH-dependent manner. We investigated the rationality of using BBR as a model drug, since it showed the most prominent MPT in our assay system. Both the production of a candidate toxic metabolite of BBR (1′,6-(OH){sub 2} BBR) and NADPH-dependent MPT were inhibited by several cytochrome P450 (CYP) inhibitors (clotrimazole and SKF-525A, 100 μM). In summary, this assay system can be used to evaluate comprehensive metabolite-dependent MPT without identification or purification of metabolites. - Highlights: • We constructed a sequential assay system for toxic metabolite induced MPT in one pot. • 14 drugs (e.g. benzbromarone (BBR)) induced toxic metabolite dependent MPT. • Both the production of toxic metabolite and MPT could be inhibited by CYP inhibitors. • This system could evaluate the comprehensive MPT without purification of metabolites.

Mycobacterium vaccae induces a strong Th1 response that subsequently declines in C57BL/6 mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Lijiao; Jiang, Yanlong; Cui, Ziyin; Yang, Wentao; Yue, Limin; Ma, Yingcong; Shi, Shaohua; Wang, Chunfang; Wang, Chunfeng; Qian, Aidong

2016-12-30

Mycobacterium (M.) vaccae is a fast-growing species of saprophytic bacteria that is widely distributed. To understand the host immune responses induced by M. vaccae isolated from bovine submaxillary lymph nodes, C57BL/6 mice were infected with reference strain M. bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and isolated M. vaccae using intraperitoneal injections. Comparison of the bacterial replication and organ pathology between M. vaccae and M. bovis BCG revealed that M. vaccae was more malignant than M. bovis in mice. We also demonstrated that serum from the M. vaccae -infected mice contained a higher expression level of gamma-interferon (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor alpha, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, interleukin (IL)-4, IL-12, IL-10 and transforming growth factor beta than did the other groups, especially after week 4. Furthermore, when the numbers of CD3⁺CD4⁺IFN-γ⁺ and CD3⁺CD4⁺IL4⁺cells in the infected mice were observed by flow cytometry, we found that a powerful T helper 1 (Th1) response was induced by M. vaccae infection, which was associated with the emergence of CD3⁺CD4⁺IFN-γ⁺cells. However, the Th1 response declined over time, which was associated with appearance of the CD4⁺CD25⁺FoxP3⁺ and CD4⁺CD25⁺CD152⁺Treg cell reaction. In addition, a strong Th2 response was found. Finally, we found that M. vaccae infection increased the production of type I IFNs, which was associated with a reduced Th1 response.

Robust mesoscopic superposition of strongly correlated ultracold atoms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hallwood, David W.; Ernst, Thomas; Brand, Joachim

2010-01-01

We propose a scheme to create coherent superpositions of annular flow of strongly interacting bosonic atoms in a one-dimensional ring trap. The nonrotating ground state is coupled to a vortex state with mesoscopic angular momentum by means of a narrow potential barrier and an applied phase that originates from either rotation or a synthetic magnetic field. We show that superposition states in the Tonks-Girardeau regime are robust against single-particle loss due to the effects of strong correlations. The coupling between the mesoscopically distinct states scales much more favorably with particle number than in schemes relying on weak interactions, thus making particle numbers of hundreds or thousands feasible. Coherent oscillations induced by time variation of parameters may serve as a 'smoking gun' signature for detecting superposition states.

Time-resolved pulse-counting lock-in detection of laser induced fluorescence in the presence of a strong background emission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pelissier, B.; Sadeghi, N.

1996-01-01

We describe a time-resolved pulse-counting system well adapted for the detection of continuous laser induced fluorescence (LIF) signals in repetitive phenomena, when a strong background emission is present. It consists of 256 channels coupled to a first in first out memory and interfaced to a 486 DX 33 PC, for data storage. It accepts time-averaged count rates up to 450 kcount/s. Time between channels can be set from 12.5 ns to several μs and the dead time between two consecutive cycles of the physical phenomena is less than 20 ns. In phase with a chopper, which modulates the laser beam, it adds the observed photon signal to the channel memories when the beam is on and substracts it when the beam is stopped, acting like a lock-in amplifier which detect only the modulated part of the signal. The minimum detectivity on the LIF signal is only limited by the shot noise of the plasma induced emission signal. As an application, we studied the time variation of the Ar + *( 2 G 9/2 ) metastable ions, detected by LIF, in two types of plasmas. Their radiative lifetime and collisional quenching frequencies were deduced from their decay rate in the afterglow of a pulsed Helicon reactor. We also observed the evolution of their density in a 455 kHz capacitively coupled argon discharge. copyright 1996 American Institute of Physics

Controlling the alignment of neutral molecules by a strong laser field

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sakai, H.; Hilligsøe, Karen Marie; Hald, K.

1999-01-01

by lowering the initial rotational energy of the molecules or by increasing the laser intensity. The alignment is measured by photodissociating the molecules with a femtosecond laser pulse and detecting the direction of the photofragments by imaging techniques. The strongest degree of alignment observed......A strong nonresonant nanosecond laser pulse is used to align neutral iodine molecules. The technique, applicable to both polar and nonpolar molecules, relies on the interaction between the strong laser field and the induced dipole moment of the molecules. The degree of alignment is enhanced...

Genetic stability of gene targeted immunoglobulin loci. I. Heavy chain isotype exchange induced by a universal gene replacement vector.

Science.gov (United States)

Kardinal, C; Selmayr, M; Mocikat, R

1996-11-01

Gene targeting at the immunoglobulin loci of B cells is an efficient tool for studying immunoglobulin expression or generating chimeric antibodies. We have shown that vector integration induced by human immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) insertion vectors results in subsequent vector excision mediated by the duplicated target sequence, whereas replacement events which could be induced by the same constructs remain stable. We could demonstrate that the distribution of the vector homology strongly influences the genetic stability obtained. To this end we developed a novel type of a heavy chain replacement vector making use of the heavy chain class switch recombination sequence. Despite the presence of a two-sided homology this construct is universally applicable irrespective of the constant gene region utilized by the B cell. In comparison to an integration vector the frequency of stable incorporation was strongly increased, but we still observed vector excision, although at a markedly reduced rate. The latter events even occurred with circular constructs. Linearization of the construct at various sites and the comparison with an integration vector that carries the identical homology sequence, but differs in the distribution of homology, revealed the following features of homologous recombination of immunoglobulin genes: (i) the integration frequency is only determined by the length of the homology flank where the cross-over takes place; (ii) a 5' flank that does not meet the minimum requirement of homology length cannot be complemented by a sufficient 3' flank; (iii) free vector ends play a role for integration as well as for replacement targeting; (iv) truncating recombination events are suppressed in the presence of two flanks. Furthermore, we show that the switch region that was used as 3' flank is non-functional in an inverted orientation.

Construction and confirmation of the plasmid of human mitochondrial DNA 4977 bp deletion induced by ionizing radiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Xiaosui; Zhou Lijun; Wang Yuxiao; Qu Jia; Feng Jiangbing; Lu Xue; Chen Deqing; Liu Qingjie

2006-01-01

Objective: To construct a stable plasmid that spanning deleted human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) 4977 bp induced by ionizing radiation and another one for control DNA fragment, in order to use in the human mitochondrial genome study in the future. Methods: The peripheral blood, which had no mtDNA 4977 bp deletion found in previous study, was exposed to 10 Gy 60 Co γ-rays in vitro. The total cell DNA was extracted and PCR was carried out: a nest-PCR of three-round PCR was used for the mtDNA 4977 bp deletion and one- round regular PCR was used for the control ND1 gene. The PCR products were used for transfection by electroporation and the positive clones were obtained after screening. The plasmid DNA was isolated and sequenced after enzymatic digestion and purification. The sequence result was BLASTed with the human mitochondrial genome. Results: The sizes of PCR products for the flanked 4977 bp deletion and the ND1 gene were similar with those predicted according to GeneBank. The sequences for the positive clones were above 99 per cent homologous with the human mitochondrial genome after BLASTed. Conclusion: The plasmids for deleted human mtDNA 4977 bp and control DNA fragment have been constructed successfully, and they could be used in the quality and quantity studies on human mtDNA 4977 bp deletion. (authors)

Strongly anisotropic spin-orbit splitting in a two-dimensional electron gas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michiardi, Matteo; Bianchi, Marco; Dendzik, Maciej

2015-01-01

Near-surface two-dimensional electron gases on the topological insulator Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se are induced by electron doping and studied by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A pronounced spin-orbit splitting is observed for these states. The $k$-dependent splitting is strongly anisotropic to a...

Construction of non-Abelian gauge theories on noncommutative spaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jurco, B.; Schupp, P.; Moeller, L.; Wess, J.; Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Physik, Muenchen; Humboldt-Univ., Berlin; Schraml, S.; Humboldt-Univ., Berlin

2001-01-01

We present a formalism to explicitly construct non-Abelian gauge theories on noncommutative spaces (induced via a star product with a constant Poisson tensor) from a consistency relation. This results in an expansion of the gauge parameter, the noncommutative gauge potential and fields in the fundamental representation, in powers of a parameter of the noncommutativity. This allows the explicit construction of actions for these gauge theories. (orig.)

Construction of non-Abelian gauge theories on noncommutative spaces

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jurco, B.; Schupp, P. [Sektion Physik, Muenchen Univ. (Germany); Moeller, L.; Wess, J. [Sektion Physik, Muenchen Univ. (Germany); Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Physik, Muenchen (Germany); Humboldt-Univ., Berlin (Germany). Inst. fuer Physik; Schraml, S. [Sektion Physik, Muenchen Univ. (Germany)

2001-06-01

We present a formalism to explicitly construct non-Abelian gauge theories on noncommutative spaces (induced via a star product with a constant Poisson tensor) from a consistency relation. This results in an expansion of the gauge parameter, the noncommutative gauge potential and fields in the fundamental representation, in powers of a parameter of the noncommutativity. This allows the explicit construction of actions for these gauge theories. (orig.)

Computer support for collaborative work in the construction industry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeuwen, van J.P.; Cha, J.

2003-01-01

Collaborative work is an essential ingredient for success in the construction industry. With the advancements of capabilities of information technologies and communication infrastructures, the effective utilisation of these technologies has become very important and strongly affects business

Beta decay and other processes in strong electromagnetic fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Akhmedov, E. Kh.

2011-01-01

We consider effects of the fields of strong electromagnetic waves on various characteristics of quantum processes. After a qualitative discussion of the effects of external fields on the energy spectra and angular distributions of the final-state particles as well as on the total probabilities of the processes (such as decay rates and total cross sections), we present a simple method of calculating the total probabilities of processes with production of nonrelativistic charged particles. Using nuclear β decay as an example, we study the weak- and strong-field limits, as well as the field-induced β decay of nuclei stable in the absence of the external fields, both in the tunneling and multiphoton regimes. We also consider the possibility of accelerating forbidden nuclear β decays by lifting the forbiddeness due to the interaction of the parent or daughter nuclei with the field of a strong electromagnetic wave. It is shown that for currently attainable electromagnetic fields all effects on total β-decay rates are unobservably small.

Why are there failures of systematicity? The empirical costs and benefits of inducing universal constructions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Phillips

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Systematicity is a property of cognition where capacity for certain cognitive abilities implies capacity for certain other (structurally related cognitive abilities. This property is thought to derive from a capacity to represent/process common structural relations between constituents of cognizable entities, however, systematicity may not always materialize in such admissible contexts. A theoretical challenge is to explain why systematicity fails to materialize in contexts that allow the realization (e.g., by induction of common structure (universal construction. We hypothesize that one cause of failure arises when the potential gain afforded by induction of common structure is overshadowed by the immediate benefit of learning the task as independent stimulus-response associations. This hypothesis was tested in an experiment that required learning two series of pair maps that involved products (universal construction, or non-products (control of varied size: the number of unique cue/target elements (three to six constituting pairs. Each series was learned in either ascending or descending order of size. Only performance on the product series was affected by order: systematicity was obtained universally in the descend group, but only on large sets in the ascend group, as revealed by the significant order x size interaction for errors in the product condition, F(3, 87 = 3.38, p < .05. Smaller maps are more easily learned without inducing the common product structure, which is more readily observable with larger maps: larger maps provide more evidence for relationships between stimulus dimensions that facilitate the discovery of the common structure. The new challenge, then, is to explain the systematic learnability of stimulus-response maps, i.e. second-order systematicity.

Resveratrol strongly enhances the retinoic acid-induced superoxide generating activity via up-regulation of gp91-phox gene expression in U937 cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Kikuchi, Hidehiko; Mimuro, Hitomi; Kuribayashi, Futoshi

2018-01-01

The membrane bound cytochrome b 558 composed of gp91-phox and p22-phox proteins, and cytosolic proteins p40-, p47-and p67-phox are important components of superoxide (O 2 - )-generating system in phagocytes. Here, we describe that resveratrol, a pleiotropic phytochemical belonging to the stilbenoids, dramatically activates the O 2 - -generating system during retinoic acid (RA)-induced differentiation of human monoblastic leukemia U937 cells to macrophage-like cells. When U937 cells were cultured in the presence of RA and resveratrol, the O 2 - -generating activity increased more than 5-fold compared with that in the absence of the latter. Semiquantitative RT-PCR showed that co-treatment with RA and resveratrol strongly enhanced transcription of the gp91-phox compared with those of the RA-treatment only. On the other hand, immunoblot analysis revealed that co-treatment with RA and resveratrol caused remarkable accumulation of protein levels of gp91-phox (to 4-fold), p22-phox (to 5-fold) and p47-phox (to 4-fold) compared with those of the RA-treatment alone. In addition, ChIP assay suggested that resveratrol participates in enhancing the gene expression of gp91-phox via promoting acetylation of Lys-9 residues and Lys-14 residues of histone H3 within chromatin around the promoter regions of the gene. These results suggested that resveratrol strongly enhances the RA-induced O 2 - -generating activity via up-regulation of gp91-phox gene expression in U937 cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bias changing molecule–lead couple and inducing low bias negative differential resistance for electrons acceptor predicted by first-principles study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Min, Y.; Fang, J.H.; Zhong, C.G.; Dong, Z.C.; Zhao, Z.Y.; Zhou, P.X.; Yao, K.L.

2015-01-01

A first-principles study of the transport properties of 3,13-dimercaptononacene–6,21-dione molecule sandwiched between two gold leads is reported. The strong effect of negative differential resistance with large peak-to-valley ratio of 710% is present under low bias. We found that bias can change molecule–lead couple and induce low bias negative differential resistance for electrons acceptor, which may promise the potential applications in molecular devices with low-power dissipation in the future. - Highlights: • Acceptor is constructed to negative differential resistor (NDR). • NDR effect is present under low bias. • Bias change molecule–lead couple and induce NDR effect

Partnering models in Nordic construction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jacob Norvig

of local research and industry partners including major building clients. Data were collected by means of national reviews of partnering policies and practices, thematic analyses, and case studies. The concept partnering was introduced in a Nordic context in the 1990s and has since then been implemented...... in a large number of projects. Clients sought to establish a culture of openness and trust within the project and tried promoting this with various kinds of incentives. In some countries the move towards voluntary collaboration was, paradoxically, strongly advocated by public authorities. Generally, however......Traditionally, procurement and contractual policies adopted by building and construction clients produce a system in which clients procure design services separately from construction services, while operation and maintenance have been subject to further, separate procurement actions...

Planar density of vacuum charge induced by a supercritical Coulomb potential

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.R. Khalilov

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Analytical expressions for the planar density of an induced vacuum charge are obtained in a strong Coulomb potential in coordinate space. Treatment is based on a self-adjoint extension approach for constructing of the Green's function of a charged fermion in an external electromagnetic field. Induced vacuum charge density is calculated and analyzed in subcritical and supercritical Coulomb potentials for massless and massive fermions. We argue that the virtual and so-called real vacuum polarizations contribute in an induced vacuum charge in a supercritical Coulomb potential. The behavior of the polarization vacuum charge density is investigated at long and short distances from the Coulomb center. The induced vacuum charge has a screening sign. Screening of a Coulomb impurity in graphene is briefly discussed. The real vacuum polarization charge density that acquires the quantum electrodynamics vacuum in a supercritical Coulomb potential due to the real vacuum polarization is calculated. It is shown that the vacuum charge densities essentially differ in massive and massless cases. We expect that our results can, as a matter of principle, be tested in graphene with a supercritical Coulomb impurity.

Planar density of vacuum charge induced by a supercritical Coulomb potential

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Khalilov, V.R., E-mail: khalilov@phys.msu.ru; Mamsurov, I.V.

2017-06-10

Analytical expressions for the planar density of an induced vacuum charge are obtained in a strong Coulomb potential in coordinate space. Treatment is based on a self-adjoint extension approach for constructing of the Green's function of a charged fermion in an external electromagnetic field. Induced vacuum charge density is calculated and analyzed in subcritical and supercritical Coulomb potentials for massless and massive fermions. We argue that the virtual and so-called real vacuum polarizations contribute in an induced vacuum charge in a supercritical Coulomb potential. The behavior of the polarization vacuum charge density is investigated at long and short distances from the Coulomb center. The induced vacuum charge has a screening sign. Screening of a Coulomb impurity in graphene is briefly discussed. The real vacuum polarization charge density that acquires the quantum electrodynamics vacuum in a supercritical Coulomb potential due to the real vacuum polarization is calculated. It is shown that the vacuum charge densities essentially differ in massive and massless cases. We expect that our results can, as a matter of principle, be tested in graphene with a supercritical Coulomb impurity.

Multisensor Distributed Track Fusion AlgorithmBased on Strong Tracking Filter and Feedback Integration1）

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

YANGGuo-Sheng; WENCheng-Lin; TANMin

2004-01-01

A new multisensor distributed track fusion algorithm is put forward based on combiningthe feedback integration with the strong tracking Kalman filter. Firstly, an effective tracking gateis constructed by taking the intersection of the tracking gates formed before and after feedback.Secondly, on the basis of the constructed effective tracking gate, probabilistic data association andstrong tracking Kalman filter are combined to form the new multisensor distributed track fusionalgorithm. At last, simulation is performed on the original algorithm and the algorithm presented.

Strategic management: An Eastern Cape construction SME case study

African Journals Online (AJOL)

term growth and development of the economy of the country. The development and growth of construction SMEs are important for all countries, as a strong SME base has the capacity to produce a high-quality infrastructure for the country.

Irradiation strongly reduces tumorigenesis of human induced pluripotent stem cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Inui, Shoki; Minami, Kazumasa; Ito, Emiko; Imaizumi, Hiromasa; Mori, Seiji; Koizumi, Masahiko; Fukushima, Satsuki; Miyagawa, Shigeru; Sawa, Yoshiki; Matsuura, Nariaki

2017-01-01

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have demonstrated they can undergo self-renewal, attain pluripotency, and differentiate into various types of functional cells. In clinical transplantation of iPS cells, however, a major problem is the prevention of tumorigenesis. We speculated that tumor formation could be inhibited by means of irradiation. Since the main purpose of this study was to explore the prevention of tumor formation in human iPS (hiPS) cells, we tested the effects of irradiation on tumor-associated factors such as radiosensitivity, pluripotency and cell death in hiPS cells. The irradiated hiPS cells showed much higher radiosensitivity, because the survival fraction of hiPS cells irradiated with 2 Gy was < 10%, and there was no change of pluripotency. Irradiation with 2 and 4 Gy caused substantial cell death, which was mostly the result of apoptosis. Irradiation with 2 Gy was detrimental enough to cause loss of proliferation capability and trigger substantial cell death in vitro. The hiPS cells irradiated with 2 Gy were injected into NOG mice (NOD/Shi-scid, IL-2 Rγnull) for the analysis of tumor formation. The group of mice into which hiPS cells irradiated with 2 Gy was transplanted showed significant suppression of tumor formation in comparison with that of the group into which non-irradiated hiPS cells were transplanted. It can be presumed that this diminished rate of tumor formation was due to loss of proliferation and cell death caused by irradiation. Our findings suggest that tumor formation following cell therapy or organ transplantation induced by hiPS cells may be prevented by irradiation.

Inward transport of a toroidally confined plasma subject to strong radial electric fields

Science.gov (United States)

Roth, J. R.; Krawczonek, W. M.; Powers, E. J.; Hong, J.; Kim, Y.

1977-01-01

The paper aims at showing that the density and confinement time of a toroidal plasma can be enhanced by radial electric fields far stronger than the ambipolar values, and that, if such electric fields point into the plasma, radially inward transport can result. The investigation deals with low-frequency fluctuation-induced transport using digitally implemented spectral analysis techniques and with the role of strong applied radial electric fields and weak vertical magnetic fields on plasma density and particle confinement times in a Bumpy Torus geometry. Results indicate that application of sufficiently strong radially inward electric fields results in radially inward fluctuation-induced transport into the toroidal electrostatic potential well; this inward transport gives rise to higher average electron densities and longer particle confinement times in the toroidal plasma.

Complex dynamics induced by strong confinement - From tracer diffusion in strongly heterogeneous media to glassy relaxation of dense fluids in narrow slits

Science.gov (United States)

Mandal, Suvendu; Spanner-Denzer, Markus; Leitmann, Sebastian; Franosch, Thomas

2017-08-01

We provide an overview of recent advances of the complex dynamics of particles in strong confinements. The first paradigm is the Lorentz model where tracers explore a quenched disordered host structure. Such systems naturally occur as limiting cases of binary glass-forming systems if the dynamics of one component is much faster than the other. For a certain critical density of the host structure the tracers undergo a localization transition which constitutes a critical phenomenon. A series of predictions in the vicinity of the transition have been elaborated and tested versus computer simulations. Analytical progress is achieved for small obstacle densities. The second paradigm is a dense strongly interacting liquid confined to a narrow slab. Then the glass transition depends nonmonotonically on the separation of the plates due to an interplay of local packing and layering. Very small slab widths allow to address certain features of the statics and dynamics analytically.

<strong>Akt is transferred to the nucleus of cells treated with apoptin, and it participates in apoptin-induced cell deathstrong>

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Maddika, S; Bay, GH; Kroczak, TJ

2007-01-01

OBJECTIVES: The phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-K)/Akt pathway is well known for the regulation of cell survival, proliferation, and some metabolic routes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we document a novel role for the PI3-K/Akt pathway during cell death induced by apoptin, a tumour-selective....... Downstream of PI3-K, Akt is activated and translocated to the nucleus together with apoptin. Direct interaction between apoptin and Akt is documented. Co-expression of nuclear Akt significantly potentiates cell death induced by apoptin. Thus, apoptin-facilitated nuclear Akt, in contrast to when in its......, as it likely gains access to a new set of substrates in the nucleus. The implicated link between survival and cell death pathways during apoptosis opens new pharmacological opportunities to modulate apoptosis in cancer, for example through the manipulation of Akt's cellular localization....

A retrospective analysis of noise-induced hearing loss in the Dutch construction industry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leensen, M. C. J.; Van Duivenbooden, J. C.; Dreschler, W. A.

2011-01-01

Purpose Noise exposure is an important and highly prevalent occupational hazard in the construction industry. This study examines hearing threshold levels of a large population of Dutch construction workers and compares their hearing thresholds to those predicted by ISO-1999. Methods In this

Therapy-Induced Neuroplasticity of Language in Chronic Post Stroke Aphasia: A Mismatch Negativity Study of (A)Grammatical and Meaningful/less Mini-Constructions

Science.gov (United States)

Lucchese, Guglielmo; Pulvermüller, Friedemann; Stahl, Benjamin; Dreyer, Felix R.; Mohr, Bettina

2017-01-01

Clinical language performance and neurophysiological correlates of language processing were measured before and after intensive language therapy in patients with chronic (time post stroke >1 year) post stroke aphasia (PSA). As event-related potential (ERP) measure, the mismatch negativity (MMN) was recorded in a distracted oddball paradigm to short spoken sentences. Critical ‘deviant’ sentence stimuli where either well-formed and meaningful, or syntactically, or lexico-semantically incorrect. After 4 weeks of speech-language therapy (SLT) delivered with high intensity (10.5 h per week), clinical language assessment with the Aachen Aphasia Test battery demonstrated significant linguistic improvements, which were accompanied by enhanced MMN responses. More specifically, MMN amplitudes to grammatically correct and meaningful mini-constructions and to ‘jabberwocky’ sentences containing a pseudoword significantly increased after therapy. However, no therapy-related changes in MMN responses to syntactically incorrect strings including agreement violations were observed. While MMN increases to well-formed meaningful strings can be explained both at the word and construction levels, the neuroplastic change seen for ‘jabberwocky’ sentences suggests an explanation in terms of constructions. The results confirm previous reports that intensive SLT leads to improvements of linguistic skills in chronic aphasia patients and now demonstrate that this clinical improvement is associated with enhanced automatic brain indexes of construction processing, although no comparable change is present for ungrammatical strings. Furthermore, the data confirm that the language-induced MMN is a useful tool to map functional language recovery in PSA. PMID:28111545

Toshiba's developments on construction techniques of nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hayashi, Y.; Itoh, N.

1987-01-01

Reliable and economic energy supplies are fundamental requirements of energy policies in Japan. To accomplish these needs, nuclear power plants are being increased in Japan. In recent years, construction cost increases and schedule extensions have affected the capital cost of nuclear energy, compared with fossil power plants, due to lower costs of oil and coal. On the other hand, several severe regulations have been applied to nuclear power plant designs. High-quality and cooperative engineering and harmonized design of equipment and parts are strongly required. Therefore, reduced construction costs and scheduling, as well as higher quality and reliability, are the most important items for nuclear industry. Toshiba has developed new construction techniques, as well as design and engineering tools for control and management, that demonstrate the positive results achieved in the shorter construction period of 1100-MW(electric) nuclear power plants. The normal construction period so far is 64 months, whereas the current construction period is 52 months. (New construction techniques are partially applied). In future years, the construction period will be lowered to 48 months. (New construction techniques are fully applied). A construction period is defined as time from the start of rock inspection to the start of commercial operation

Concrete and steel construction quality control and assurance

CERN Document Server

El-Reedy, Mohamed A

2014-01-01

Starting with the receipt of materials and continuing all the way through to the final completion of the construction phase, Concrete and Steel Construction: Quality Control and Assurance examines all the quality control and assurance methods involving reinforced concrete and steel structures. This book explores the proper ways to achieve high-quality construction projects, and also provides a strong theoretical and practical background. It introduces information on quality techniques and quality management, and covers the principles of quality control. The book presents all of the quality control and assurance protocols and non-destructive test methods necessary for concrete and steel construction projects, including steel materials, welding and mixing, and testing. It covers welding terminology and procedures, and discusses welding standards and procedures during the fabrication process, as well as the welding codes. It also considers the total quality management system based on ISO 9001, and utilizes numer...

Strong Motion Instrumentation of Seismically-Strengthened Port Structures in California by CSMIP

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, M.J.; Shakal, A.F.

2009-01-01

The California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP) has instrumented five port structures. Instrumentation of two more port structures is underway and another one is in planning. Two of the port structures have been seismically strengthened. The primary goals of the strong motion instrumentation are to obtain strong earthquake shaking data for verifying seismic analysis procedures and strengthening schemes, and for post-earthquake evaluations of port structures. The wharves instrumented by CSMIP were recommended by the Strong Motion Instrumentation Advisory Committee, a committee of the California Seismic Safety Commission. Extensive instrumentation of a wharf is difficult and would be impossible without the cooperation of the owners and the involvement of the design engineers. The instrumentation plan for a wharf is developed through study of the retrofit plans of the wharf, and the strong-motion sensors are installed at locations where specific instrumentation objectives can be achieved and access is possible. Some sensor locations have to be planned during design; otherwise they are not possible to install after construction. This paper summarizes the two seismically-strengthened wharves and discusses the instrumentation schemes and objectives. ?? 2009 ASCE.

Designing, Probing, and Stabilizing Exotic Fabry-Perot Cavities for Studying Strongly Correlated Light

Science.gov (United States)

Ryou, Albert

Synthetic materials made of engineered quasiparticles are a powerful platform for studying manybody physics and strongly correlated systems due to their bottom-up approach to Hamiltonian modeling. Photonic quasiparticles called polaritons are particularly appealing since they inherit fast dynamics from light and strong interaction from matter. This thesis describes the experimental demonstration of cavity Rydberg polaritons, which are composite particles arising from the hybridization of an optical cavity with Rydberg EIT, as well as the tools for probing and stabilizing the cavity. We first describe the design, construction, and testing of a four-mirror Fabry-Perot cavity, whose small waist size on the order of 10 microns is comparable to the Rydberg blockade radius. By achieving strong coupling between the cavity photon and an atomic ensemble undergoing electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), we observe the emergence of the dark-state polariton and characterize its single-body properties as well as the single-quantum nonlinearity. We then describe the implementation of a holographic spatial light modulator for exciting different transverse modes of the cavity, an essential tool for studying polariton-polariton scattering. For compensating optical aberrations, we employ a digital micromirror device (DMD), combining beam shaping with adaptive optics to produce diffraction-limited light. We quantitatively measure the purity of the DMD-produced Hermite-Gauss modes and confirm up to 99.2% efficiency. One application of the technique is to create Laguerre-Gauss modes, which have been used to probe synthetic Landau levels for photons in a twisted, nonplanar cavity. Finally, we describe the implementation of an FPGA-based FIR filter for stabilizing the cavity. We digitally cancel the acoustical resonances of the feedback-controlled mechanical system, thereby demonstrating an order-of-magnitude enhancement in the feedback bandwidth from 200 Hz to more than 2 k

An Ultrasensitive Mechanism Regulates Influenza Virus-Induced Inflammation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jason E Shoemaker

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Influenza viruses present major challenges to public health, evident by the 2009 influenza pandemic. Highly pathogenic influenza virus infections generally coincide with early, high levels of inflammatory cytokines that some studies have suggested may be regulated in a strain-dependent manner. However, a comprehensive characterization of the complex dynamics of the inflammatory response induced by virulent influenza strains is lacking. Here, we applied gene co-expression and nonlinear regression analysis to time-course, microarray data developed from influenza-infected mouse lung to create mathematical models of the host inflammatory response. We found that the dynamics of inflammation-associated gene expression are regulated by an ultrasensitive-like mechanism in which low levels of virus induce minimal gene expression but expression is strongly induced once a threshold virus titer is exceeded. Cytokine assays confirmed that the production of several key inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin 6 and monocyte chemotactic protein 1, exhibit ultrasensitive behavior. A systematic exploration of the pathways regulating the inflammatory-associated gene response suggests that the molecular origins of this ultrasensitive response mechanism lie within the branch of the Toll-like receptor pathway that regulates STAT1 phosphorylation. This study provides the first evidence of an ultrasensitive mechanism regulating influenza virus-induced inflammation in whole lungs and provides insight into how different virus strains can induce distinct temporal inflammation response profiles. The approach developed here should facilitate the construction of gene regulatory models of other infectious diseases.

<strong>Mini-project>

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Katajainen, Jyrki

2008-01-01

In this project the goal is to develop the safe * family of containers for the CPH STL. The containers to be developed should be safer and more reliable than any of the existing implementations. A special focus should be put on strong exception safety since none of the existing prototypes available...

Construction of pTM series plasmids for gene expression in Brucella species.

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Mingxing; Qu, Jing; Bao, Yanqing; Gao, Jianpeng; Liu, Jiameng; Wang, Shaohui; Sun, Yingjie; Ding, Chan; Yu, Shengqing

2016-04-01

Brucellosis, the most common widespread zoonotic disease, is caused by Brucella spp., which are facultative, intracellular, Gram-negative bacteria. With the development of molecular biology techniques, more and more virulence-associated factors have been identified in Brucella spp. A suitable plasmid system is an important tool to study virulence genes in Brucella. In this study, we constructed three constitutive replication plasmids (pTM1-Cm, pTM2-Amp, and pTM3-Km) using the replication origin (rep) region derived from the pBBR1-MCS vector. Also, a DNA fragment containing multiple cloning sites (MCSs) and a terminator sequence derived from the pCold vector were produced for complementation of the deleted genes. Besides pGH-6×His, a plasmid containing the groE promoter of Brucella spp. was constructed to express exogenous proteins in Brucella with high efficiency. Furthermore, we constructed the inducible expression plasmid pZT-6×His, containing the tetracycline-inducible promoter pzt1, which can induce expression by the addition of tetracycline in the Brucella culture medium. The constructed pTM series plasmids will play an important role in the functional investigation of Brucella spp. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rare sugar D-allose strongly induces thioredoxin-interacting protein and inhibits osteoclast differentiation in Raw264 cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Yamada, Kana; Noguchi, Chisato; Kamitori, Kazuyo; Dong, Youyi; Hirata, Yuko; Hossain, Mohammad A; Tsukamoto, Ikuko; Tokuda, Masaaki; Yamaguchi, Fuminori

2012-02-01

Oxidative stress modulates the osteoclast differentiation via redox systems, and thioredoxin 1 (Trx) promotes the osteoclast formation by regulating the activity of transcription factors. The function of Trx is known to be regulated by its binding partner, thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP). We previously reported that the expression of TXNIP gene is strongly induced by a rare sugar D-allose. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that D-allose could inhibit the osteoclast differentiation by regulating the Trx function. We used a murine Raw264 cell line that differentiates to the osteoclast by the receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) treatment. The effect of sugars was evaluated by tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase staining. The expression and localization of TXNIP and Trx protein were examined by Western blotting and immunohistochemisty. The activity of the nuclear factor-κB, nuclear factor of activated T cells, and activator protein 1 transcription factors was measured by the luciferase reporter assay. The addition of D-allose (25 mmol/L) inhibited the osteoclast differentiation down to 9.53% ± 1.27% of a receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand-only treatment. During the osteoclast differentiation, a significant increase of TNXIP was observed by D-allose treatment. The immunohistochemical analysis showed that both Trx and TXNIP existed in the nucleus in preosteoclasts and osteoclasts. Overexpression of TXNIP by plasmid transfection also inhibited the osteoclast formation, indicating the functional importance of TXNIP for the osteoclast differentiation. Transcriptional activity of the activator protein 1, nuclear factor-κB, and nuclear factor of activated T cells, known to be modulated by Trx, were inhibited by D-allose. In conclusion, our data indicate that D-allose is a strong inhibitor of the osteoclast differentiation, and this effect could be caused by TXNIP induction and a resulting inhibition of the Trx function

Attribute-Based Signcryption: Signer Privacy, Strong Unforgeability and IND-CCA Security in Adaptive-Predicates Model (Extended Version

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tapas Pandit

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Attribute-Based Signcryption (ABSC is a natural extension of Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE and Attribute-Based Signature (ABS, where one can have the message confidentiality and authenticity together. Since the signer privacy is captured in security of ABS, it is quite natural to expect that the signer privacy will also be preserved in ABSC. In this paper, first we propose an ABSC scheme which is weak existential unforgeable and IND-CCA secure in adaptive-predicates models and, achieves signer privacy. Then, by applying strongly unforgeable one-time signature (OTS, the above scheme is lifted to an ABSC scheme to attain strong existential unforgeability in adaptive-predicates model. Both the ABSC schemes are constructed on common setup, i.e the public parameters and key are same for both the encryption and signature modules. Our first construction is in the flavor of CtE&S paradigm, except one extra component that will be computed using both signature components and ciphertext components. The second proposed construction follows a new paradigm (extension of CtE&S , we call it “Commit then Encrypt and Sign then Sign” (CtE&S . The last signature is generated using a strong OTS scheme. Since, the non-repudiation is achieved by CtE&S paradigm, our systems also achieve the same.

Constructs and methods for genome editing and genetic engineering of fungi and protists

Science.gov (United States)

Hittinger, Christopher Todd; Alexander, William Gerald

2018-01-30

Provided herein are constructs for genome editing or genetic engineering in fungi or protists, methods of using the constructs and media for use in selecting cells. The construct include a polynucleotide encoding a thymidine kinase operably connected to a promoter, suitably a constitutive promoter; a polynucleotide encoding an endonuclease operably connected to an inducible promoter; and a recognition site for the endonuclease. The constructs may also include selectable markers for use in selecting recombinations.

Determination of Geometric Parameters of Space Steel Constructions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jitka Suchá

2005-06-01

Full Text Available The paper contains conclusions of the PhD thesis „Accuracy of determination of geometric parameters of space steel construction using geodetic methods“. Generally it is a difficult task with high requirements for the accuracy and reliability of results, i.e. space coordinates of assessed points on a steel construction. A solution of this task is complicated by the effects of atmospheric influences to begin with the temperature, which strongly affects steel constructions. It is desirable to eliminate the influence of the temperature for the evaluation of the geometric parameters. A choice of an efficient geodetic method, which fulfils demanding requirements, is often affected with a constrained place in an immediate neighbourhood of the measured construction. These conditions disable the choice of efficient points configuration of a geodetic micro network, e.g. the for forward intersection. In addition, points of a construction are often hardly accessible and therefore marking is difficult. The space polar method appears efficient owing to the mentioned reasons and its advantages were increased with the implementation of self-adhesive reflex targets for the distance measurement which enable the ermanent marking of measured points already in the course of placing the construction.

A single-copy galK promoter cloning vector suitable for cloning strong promoters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dandanell, Gert; Court, Donald L.; Hammer, Karin

1986-01-01

We report the construction of lambda galK promoter cloning vectors for cloning and characterization of strong promoters. This phage, which contains a unique HindIII cloning site, was applied to the cloning and analysis of transcription initiations of the regulatory region of the deo-operon of...

The Impact of Airport Performance towards Construction and Infrastructure Expansion in Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Laksono, T. D.; Kurniasih, N.; Hasyim, C.; Setiawan, M. I.; Ahmar, A. S.

2018-01-01

Development that is generated from airport areas includes construction and infrastructure development. This research reviews about how the implementation of material management in certain construction project and the relationship between development especially construction and infrastructure development with Airport Performance. The method that is used in this research is mixed method. The population in this research is 297 airports that are existed in Indonesia. From those 297 airports then it is chosen airports that have the most completed data about construction project and it is obtained 148 airports. Based on the coefficient correlation (R) test it is known that construction and infrastructure development has relatively strong relation with airport performance variable, but there are still other factors that influence construction and infrastructure development become bigger effect.

The combination of BH3-mimetic ABT-737 with the alkylating agent temozolomide induces strong synergistic killing of melanoma cells independent of p53.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven N Reuland

Full Text Available Metastatic melanoma has poor prognosis and is refractory to most conventional chemotherapies. The alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ is commonly used in treating melanoma but has a disappointing response rate. Agents that can act cooperatively with TMZ and improve its efficacy are thus highly sought after. The BH3 mimetic ABT-737, which can induce apoptosis by targeting pro-survival Bcl-2 family members, has been found to enhance the efficacy of many conventional chemotherapeutic agents in multiple cancers. We found that combining TMZ and ABT-737 induced strong synergistic apoptosis in multiple human melanoma cell lines. When the drugs were used in combination in a mouse xenograft model, they drastically reduced tumor growth at concentrations where each individual drug had no significant effect. We found that TMZ treatment elevated p53 levels, and that the pro-apoptotic protein Noxa was elevated in TMZ/ABT-737 treated cells. Experiments with shRNA demonstrated that the synergistic effect of TMZ and ABT-737 was largely dependent on Noxa. Experiments with nutlin-3, a p53 inducer, demonstrated that p53 induction was sufficient for synergistic cell death with ABT-737 in a Noxa-dependent fashion. However, p53 was not necessary for TMZ/ABT-737 synergy as demonstrated by a p53-null line, indicating that TMZ and ABT-737 together induce Noxa in a p53-independent fashion. These results demonstrate that targeting anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 members is a promising method for treating metastatic melanoma, and that clinical trials with TMZ and Bcl-2 inhibitors are warranted.

Strong Stability Preserving Explicit Runge--Kutta Methods of Maximal Effective Order

KAUST Repository

Hadjimichael, Yiannis

2013-07-23

We apply the concept of effective order to strong stability preserving (SSP) explicit Runge--Kutta methods. Relative to classical Runge--Kutta methods, methods with an effective order of accuracy are designed to satisfy a relaxed set of order conditions but yield higher order accuracy when composed with special starting and stopping methods. We show that this allows the construction of four-stage SSP methods with effective order four (such methods cannot have classical order four). However, we also prove that effective order five methods---like classical order five methods---require the use of nonpositive weights and so cannot be SSP. By numerical optimization, we construct explicit SSP Runge--Kutta methods up to effective order four and establish the optimality of many of them. Numerical experiments demonstrate the validity of these methods in practice.

Strong Stability Preserving Explicit Runge--Kutta Methods of Maximal Effective Order

KAUST Repository

Hadjimichael, Yiannis; Macdonald, Colin B.; Ketcheson, David I.; Verner, James H.

2013-01-01

We apply the concept of effective order to strong stability preserving (SSP) explicit Runge--Kutta methods. Relative to classical Runge--Kutta methods, methods with an effective order of accuracy are designed to satisfy a relaxed set of order conditions but yield higher order accuracy when composed with special starting and stopping methods. We show that this allows the construction of four-stage SSP methods with effective order four (such methods cannot have classical order four). However, we also prove that effective order five methods---like classical order five methods---require the use of nonpositive weights and so cannot be SSP. By numerical optimization, we construct explicit SSP Runge--Kutta methods up to effective order four and establish the optimality of many of them. Numerical experiments demonstrate the validity of these methods in practice.

Effects of multi-photon interferences from internally generated fields in strongly resonant systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deng, Lu; Payne, Marvin G.; Garrett, William R.

2006-01-01

In studies of various nonlinear optical phenomena, strong resonant features in the atomic or molecular response to multi-photon driven processes have been used to greatly enhance the visibility of otherwise weak higher-order processes. However, there are well defined circumstances where a multi-photon-resonant response of a target system leads to the generation of one or more new electromagnetic fields that can drastically change the overall system response from what would be expected from the imposed laser fields alone. New effects can occur and dominate some aspects of the nonlinear optical response because of the constructive or destructive interference between transition amplitudes along multiple excitation pathways between a given set of optically coupled states, where one of the pathways involve internally generated field(s). Under destructive interference some resonant enhancements can become completely canceled (suppressed). This review focuses on the class of optical interference effects associated with internally generated fields, that have been found to be capable of influencing a very significant number of basic physical phenomena in gas or vapor phase systems. It provides a historical overview of experimental and theoretical developments and a modern understanding of the underlying physics and its various manifestations that include: suppression of multi-photon excitation processes, suppression of stimulated emissions (Raman, hyper-Raman, and optically pumped stimulated emissions), saturation of parametric wave-mixing, pressure and beam-geometry dependent shifting of multi-photon-resonant absorption lines, and the suppression of Autler-Townes splitting and ac-stark shifts. Additionally, optical interference effects in some modern contexts, such as achieving multi-photon induced transparency, establishing single-photon self-interference based induced transparency, and generating entangled single photon states, are reviewed

A STRATEGIC APPROACH OF THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR IN ROMANIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

TUDOR NISTORESCU

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Construction, one of the major economic sector of activity in Europe, was severely affected by the actual global recession, although the impact of the crisis and the moment when it occurred varied widely between the EU Member States. In Romania, the first effects of the economic crisis in the construction sector occurred since early 2009, being visible both in physical volume of construction works and in the volume and value of investments in this sector. The crisis in the construction works had a strong impact on the entire Romanian economy. With the present research paper „A strategic approach of the construction sector in Romania” we aim to highlight the competitive advantage the companies in the field have on the national market. To this end we will use the SWOT model of strategic analysis and M. Porter’s five competitive forces model, in order to highlight the main problems faced by these companies.

First-principles study of strong correlation effects in pyrochlore iridates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shinaoka, Hiroshi [Department of Physics, Saitama University (Japan); Hoshino, Shintaro [Department of Basic Science, The University of Tokyo (Japan); Troyer, Matthias [Theoretische Physik, ETH Zuerich (Switzerland); Werner, Philipp [Department of Physics, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)

2016-07-01

The pyrochlore iridates A{sub 2}Ir{sub 2}O{sub 7} (A=Pr, Nd, Y, etc.) are an ideal system to study fascinating phenomena induced by strong electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling. In this talk, we study strong correlation effects in the prototype compound Y{sub 2}Ir{sub 2}O{sub 7} using the local density approximation and dynamical mean-field theory (LDA+DMFT). We map out the phase diagram in the space of temperature, onsite Coulomb repulsion U, and filling. Consistent with experiments, we find that an all-in/all-out ordered insulating phase is stable for realistic values of U. We reveal the importance of the hybridization between j{sub eff} = 1/2 and j{sub eff} = 3/2 states under the Coulomb interaction and trigonal crystal field. We demonstrate a substantial band narrowing in the paramagnetic metallic phase and non-Fermi liquid behavior in the electron/hole doped system originating from long-lived quasi-spin moments induced by nearly flat bands. We further compare our results with recent experimental results of Eu{sub 2}Ir{sub 2}O{sub 7} under hydrostatic pressure.

LUR models for particulate matters in the Taipei metropolis with high densities of roads and strong activities of industry, commerce and construction.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jui-Huna; Wu, Chang-Fu; Hoek, Gerard; de Hoogh, Kees; Beelen, Rob; Brunekreef, Bert; Chan, Chang-Chuan

2015-05-01

Traffic intensity, length of road, and proximity to roads are the most common traffic indicators in the land use regression (LUR) models for particulate matter in ESCAPE study areas in Europe. This study explored what local variables can improve the performance of LUR models in an Asian metropolis with high densities of roads and strong activities of industry, commerce and construction. By following the ESCAPE procedure, we derived LUR models of PM₂.₅, PM₂.₅ absorbance, PM₁₀, and PMcoarse (PM₂.₅-₁₀) in Taipei. The overall annual average concentrations of PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, and PMcoarse were 26.0 ± 5.6, 48.6 ± 5.9, and 23.3 ± 3.1 μg/m(3), respectively, and the absorption coefficient of PM₂.₅ was 2.0 ± 0.4 × 10(-5)m(-1). Our LUR models yielded R(2) values of 95%, 96%, 87%, and 65% for PM₂.₅, PM₂.₅ absorbance, PM₁₀, and PMcoarse, respectively. PM₂.₅ levels were increased by local traffic variables, industrial, construction, and residential land-use variables and decreased by rivers; while PM₂.₅ absorbance levels were increased by local traffic variables, industrial, and commercial land-use variables in the models. PMcoarse levels were increased by elevated highways. Road area explained more variance than road length by increasing the incremental value of 27% and 6% adjusted R(2) for PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ models, respectively. In the PM₂.₅ absorbance model, road area and transportation facility explain 29% more variance than road length. In the PMcoarse model, industrial and new local variables instead of road length improved the incremental value of adjusted R(2) from 39% to 60%. We concluded that road area can better explain the spatial distribution of PM₂.₅ and PM₂.₅ absorbance concentrations than road length. By incorporating road area and other new local variables, the performance of each PM LUR model was improved. The results suggest that road area is a better indicator of traffic intensity rather

Jet quenching parameters in strongly coupled nonconformal gauge theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buchel, Alex

2006-01-01

Recently Liu, Rajagopal, and Wiedemann (LRW) [H. Liu, K. Rajagopal, and U. A. Wiedemann, hep-ph/0605178.] proposed a first principle, nonperturbative quantum field theoretic definition of 'jet quenching parameter' q-circumflex used in models of medium-induced radiative parton energy loss in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC. Relating q-circumflex to a short-distance behavior of a certain lightlike Wilson loop, they used gauge theory-string theory correspondence to evaluate q-circumflex for the strongly coupled N=4 SU(N c ) gauge theory plasma. We generalize analysis of LRW to strongly coupled nonconformal gauge theory plasma. We find that a jet quenching parameter is gauge theory specific (not universal). Furthermore, it appears its value increases as the number of effective adjoint degrees of freedom of a gauge theory plasma increases

Construction Example for Algebra System Using Harmony Search Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

FangAn Deng

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The construction example of algebra system is to verify the existence of a complex algebra system, and it is a NP-hard problem. In this paper, to solve this kind of problems, firstly, a mathematical optimization model for construction example of algebra system is established. Secondly, an improved harmony search algorithm based on NGHS algorithm (INGHS is proposed to find as more solutions as possible for the optimization model; in the proposed INGHS algorithm, to achieve the balance between exploration power and exploitation power in the search process, a global best strategy and parameters dynamic adjustment method are present. Finally, nine construction examples of algebra system are used to evaluate the optimization model and performance of INGHS. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has strong performance for solving complex construction example problems of algebra system.

3D Bioprinting Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Constructs for In Situ Cell Proliferation and Successive Multilineage Differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Qi; Tomaskovic-Crook, Eva; Wallace, Gordon G; Crook, Jeremy M

2017-09-01

The ability to create 3D tissues from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) is poised to revolutionize stem cell research and regenerative medicine, including individualized, patient-specific stem cell-based treatments. There are, however, few examples of tissue engineering using iPSCs. Their culture and differentiation is predominantly planar for monolayer cell support or induction of self-organizing embryoids (EBs) and organoids. Bioprinting iPSCs with advanced biomaterials promises to augment efforts to develop 3D tissues, ideally comprising direct-write printing of cells for encapsulation, proliferation, and differentiation. Here, such a method, employing a clinically amenable polysaccharide-based bioink, is described as the first example of bioprinting human iPSCs for in situ expansion and sequential differentiation. Specifically, we have extrusion printed the bioink including iPSCs, alginate (Al; 5% weight/volume [w/v]), carboxymethyl-chitosan (5% w/v), and agarose (Ag; 1.5% w/v), crosslinked the bioink in calcium chloride for a stable and porous construct, proliferated the iPSCs within the construct and differentiated the same iPSCs into either EBs comprising cells of three germ lineages-endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm, or more homogeneous neural tissues containing functional migrating neurons and neuroglia. This defined, scalable, and versatile platform is envisaged being useful in iPSC research and translation for pharmaceuticals development and regenerative medicine. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Sensitivity analysis of uranium solubility under strongly oxidizing conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, L.; Neretnieks, I.

1999-01-01

To evaluate the effect of geochemical conditions in the repository on the solubility of uranium under strongly oxidizing conditions, a mathematical model has been developed to determine the solubility, by utilizing a set of nonlinear algebraic equations to describe the chemical equilibria in the groundwater environment. The model takes into account the predominant precipitation-dissolution reactions, hydrolysis reactions and complexation reactions that may occur under strongly oxidizing conditions. The model also includes the solubility-limiting solids induced by the presence of carbonate, phosphate, silicate, calcium, and sodium in the groundwater. The thermodynamic equilibrium constants used in the solubility calculations are essentially taken from the NEA Thermochemical Data Base of Uranium, with some modification and some uranium minerals added, such as soddyite, rutherfordite, uranophane, uranyl orthophosphate, and becquerelite. By applying this model, the sensitivities of uranium solubility to variations in the concentrations of various groundwater component species are systematically investigated. The results show that the total analytical concentrations of carbonate, phosphate, silicate, and calcium in deep groundwater play the most important role in determining the solubility of uranium under strongly oxidizing conditions

Transport phenomena in strongly correlated Fermi liquids

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kontani, Hiroshi

2013-01-01

Comprehensive overview. Written by an expert of this topic. Provides the reader with current developments in the field. In conventional metals, various transport coefficients are scaled according to the quasiparticle relaxation time, τ, which implies that the relaxation time approximation (RTA) holds well. However, such a simple scaling does not hold in many strongly correlated electron systems, reflecting their unique electronic states. The most famous example would be cuprate high-Tc superconductors (HTSCs), where almost all the transport coefficients exhibit a significant deviation from the RTA results. To better understand the origin of this discrepancy, we develop a method for calculating various transport coefficients beyond the RTA by employing field theoretical techniques. Near the magnetic quantum critical point, the current vertex correction (CVC), which describes the electron-electron scattering beyond the relaxation time approximation, gives rise to various anomalous transport phenomena. We explain anomalous transport phenomena in cuprate HTSCs and other metals near their magnetic or orbital quantum critical point using a uniform approach. We also discuss spin related transport phenomena in strongly correlated systems. In many d- and f-electron systems, the spin current induced by the spin Hall effect is considerably greater because of the orbital degrees of freedom. This fact attracts much attention due to its potential application in spintronics. We discuss various novel charge, spin and heat transport phenomena in strongly correlated metals.

Strong-Field Control of Laser Filamentation Mechanisms

Science.gov (United States)

Levis, Robert; Romanov, Dmitri; Filin, Aleskey; Compton, Ryan

2008-05-01

The propagation of short strong-file laser pulses in gas and solution phases often result in formation of filaments. This phenomenon involves many nonlinear processes including Kerr lensing, group velocity dispersion, multi-photon ionization, plasma defocusing, intensity clamping, and self-steepening. Of these, formation and dynamics of pencil-shape plasma areas plays a crucial role. The fundamental understanding of these laser-induced plasmas requires additional effort, because the process is highly nonlinear and complex. We studied the ultrafast laser-generated plasma dynamics both experimentally and theoretically. Ultrafast plasma dynamics was probed using Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering. The measurements were made in a room temperature gas maintained at 1 atm in a flowing cell. The time dependent scattering was measured by delaying the CARS probe with respect to the intense laser excitation pulse. A general trend is observed between the spacing of the ground state and the first allowed excited state with the rise time for the noble gas series and the molecular gases. This trend is consistent with our theoretical model, which considers the ultrafast dynamics of the strong field generated plasma as a three-step process; (i) strong-field ionization followed by the electron gaining considerable kinetic energy during the pulse; (ii) immediate post-pulse dynamics: fast thermalization, impact-ionization-driven electron multiplication and cooling; (iii) ensuing relaxation: evolution to electron-ion equilibrium and eventual recombination.

Chapter A. The Loma Prieta, California, Earthquake of October 17, 1989 - Strong Ground Motion

Science.gov (United States)

Borcherdt, Roger D.

1994-01-01

Strong ground motion generated by the Loma Prieta, Calif., earthquake (MS~7.1) of October 17, 1989, resulted in at least 63 deaths, more than 3,757 injuries, and damage estimated to exceed $5.9 billion. Strong ground motion severely damaged critical lifelines (freeway overpasses, bridges, and pipelines), caused severe damage to poorly constructed buildings, and induced a significant number of ground failures associated with liquefaction and landsliding. It also caused a significant proportion of the damage and loss of life at distances as far as 100 km from the epicenter. Consequently, understanding the characteristics of the strong ground motion associated with the earthquake is fundamental to understanding the earthquake's devastating impact on society. The papers assembled in this chapter address this problem. Damage to vulnerable structures from the earthquake varied substantially with the distance from the causative fault and the type of underlying geologic deposits. Most of the damage and loss of life occurred in areas underlain by 'soft soil'. Quantifying these effects is important for understanding the tragic concentrations of damage in such areas as Santa Cruz and the Marina and Embarcadero Districts of San Francisco, and the failures of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Interstate Highway 880 overpass. Most importantly, understanding these effects is a necessary prerequisite for improving mitigation measures for larger earthquakes likely to occur much closer to densely urbanized areas in the San Francisco Bay region. The earthquake generated an especially important data set for understanding variations in the severity of strong ground motion. Instrumental strong-motion recordings were obtained at 131 sites located from about 6 to 175 km from the rupture zone. This set of recordings, the largest yet collected for an event of this size, was obtained from sites on various geologic deposits, including a unique set on 'soft soil' deposits

An algorithm for high order strong coupling expansions: The mass gap in 3d pure Z2 lattice gauge theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Decker, K.; Hamburg Univ.

1985-12-01

An efficient description of all clusters contributing to the strong coupling expansion of the mass gap in three-dimensional pure Z 2 lattice gauge theory is presented. This description is correct to all orders in the strong coupling expansion and is chosen in such a way that it remains valid in four dimensions for gauge group Z 2 . Relying on this description an algorithm has been constructed which generates and processes all the contributing graphs to the exact strong coupling expansion of the mass gap in the three-dimensional model in a fully automatic fashion. A major component of this algorithm can also be used to generate exact strong coupling expansions for the free energy logZ. The algorithm is correct to any order; thus the order of these expansions is only limited by the available computing power. The presentation of the algorithm is such that it can serve as a guide-line for the construction of a generalized one which would also generate exact strong coupling expansions for the masses of low-lying excited states of four-dimensional pure Yang-Mills theories. (orig.)

PPARγ partial agonist GQ-16 strongly represses a subset of genes in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Milton, Flora Aparecida [Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Laboratório de Farmacologia Molecular, Universidade de Brasília (Brazil); Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX (United States); Cvoro, Aleksandra [Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX (United States); Amato, Angelica A. [Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Laboratório de Farmacologia Molecular, Universidade de Brasília (Brazil); Sieglaff, Douglas H.; Filgueira, Carly S.; Arumanayagam, Anithachristy Sigamani [Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX (United States); Caro Alves de Lima, Maria do; Rocha Pitta, Ivan [Laboratório de Planejamento e Síntese de Fármacos – LPSF, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Brazil); Assis Rocha Neves, Francisco de [Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Laboratório de Farmacologia Molecular, Universidade de Brasília (Brazil); Webb, Paul, E-mail: pwebb@HoustonMethodist.org [Genomic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX (United States)

2015-08-28

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonists that improve insulin resistance but trigger side effects such as weight gain, edema, congestive heart failure and bone loss. GQ-16 is a PPARγ partial agonist that improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in mouse models of obesity and diabetes without inducing weight gain or edema. It is not clear whether GQ-16 acts as a partial agonist at all PPARγ target genes, or whether it displays gene-selective actions. To determine how GQ-16 influences PPARγ activity on a gene by gene basis, we compared effects of rosiglitazone (Rosi) and GQ-16 in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes using microarray and qRT-PCR. Rosi changed expression of 1156 genes in 3T3-L1, but GQ-16 only changed 89 genes. GQ-16 generally showed weak effects upon Rosi induced genes, consistent with partial agonist actions, but a subset of modestly Rosi induced and strongly repressed genes displayed disproportionately strong GQ-16 responses. PPARγ partial agonists MLR24 and SR1664 also exhibit disproportionately strong effects on transcriptional repression. We conclude that GQ-16 displays a continuum of weak partial agonist effects but efficiently represses some negatively regulated PPARγ responsive genes. Strong repressive effects could contribute to physiologic actions of GQ-16. - Highlights: • GQ-16 is an insulin sensitizing PPARγ ligand with reduced harmful side effects. • GQ-16 displays a continuum of weak partial agonist activities at PPARγ-induced genes. • GQ-16 exerts strong repressive effects at a subset of genes. • These inhibitor actions should be evaluated in models of adipose tissue inflammation.

PPARγ partial agonist GQ-16 strongly represses a subset of genes in 3T3-L1 adipocytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Milton, Flora Aparecida; Cvoro, Aleksandra; Amato, Angelica A.; Sieglaff, Douglas H.; Filgueira, Carly S.; Arumanayagam, Anithachristy Sigamani; Caro Alves de Lima, Maria do; Rocha Pitta, Ivan; Assis Rocha Neves, Francisco de; Webb, Paul

2015-01-01

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonists that improve insulin resistance but trigger side effects such as weight gain, edema, congestive heart failure and bone loss. GQ-16 is a PPARγ partial agonist that improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in mouse models of obesity and diabetes without inducing weight gain or edema. It is not clear whether GQ-16 acts as a partial agonist at all PPARγ target genes, or whether it displays gene-selective actions. To determine how GQ-16 influences PPARγ activity on a gene by gene basis, we compared effects of rosiglitazone (Rosi) and GQ-16 in mature 3T3-L1 adipocytes using microarray and qRT-PCR. Rosi changed expression of 1156 genes in 3T3-L1, but GQ-16 only changed 89 genes. GQ-16 generally showed weak effects upon Rosi induced genes, consistent with partial agonist actions, but a subset of modestly Rosi induced and strongly repressed genes displayed disproportionately strong GQ-16 responses. PPARγ partial agonists MLR24 and SR1664 also exhibit disproportionately strong effects on transcriptional repression. We conclude that GQ-16 displays a continuum of weak partial agonist effects but efficiently represses some negatively regulated PPARγ responsive genes. Strong repressive effects could contribute to physiologic actions of GQ-16. - Highlights: • GQ-16 is an insulin sensitizing PPARγ ligand with reduced harmful side effects. • GQ-16 displays a continuum of weak partial agonist activities at PPARγ-induced genes. • GQ-16 exerts strong repressive effects at a subset of genes. • These inhibitor actions should be evaluated in models of adipose tissue inflammation

Expanding the molecular toolbox for Lactococcus lactis: construction of an inducible thioredoxin gene fusion expression system

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Douillard, Francois P

2011-08-09

Abstract Background The development of the Nisin Inducible Controlled Expression (NICE) system in the food-grade bacterium Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris represents a cornerstone in the use of Gram-positive bacterial expression systems for biotechnological purposes. However, proteins that are subjected to such over-expression in L. lactis may suffer from improper folding, inclusion body formation and\\/or protein degradation, thereby significantly reducing the yield of soluble target protein. Although such drawbacks are not specific to L. lactis, no molecular tools have been developed to prevent or circumvent these recurrent problems of protein expression in L. lactis. Results Mimicking thioredoxin gene fusion systems available for E. coli, two nisin-inducible expression vectors were constructed to over-produce various proteins in L. lactis as thioredoxin fusion proteins. In this study, we demonstrate that our novel L. lactis fusion partner expression vectors allow high-level expression of soluble heterologous proteins Tuc2009 ORF40, Bbr_0140 and Tuc2009 BppU\\/BppL that were previously insoluble or not expressed using existing L. lactis expression vectors. Over-expressed proteins were subsequently purified by Ni-TED affinity chromatography. Intact heterologous proteins were detected by immunoblotting analyses. We also show that the thioredoxin moiety of the purified fusion protein was specifically and efficiently cleaved off by enterokinase treatment. Conclusions This study is the first description of a thioredoxin gene fusion expression system, purposely developed to circumvent problems associated with protein over-expression in L. lactis. It was shown to prevent protein insolubility and degradation, allowing sufficient production of soluble proteins for further structural and functional characterization.

Wave, particle-family duality and the conservation of discrete symmetries in strong interaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

van der Spuy, E.

1984-01-01

This paper starts from a nonlinear fermion field equation of motion with a strongly coupled self-interaction. Nonperturbative quark solutions of the equation of motion are constructed in terms of a Reggeized infinite component free spinor field. Such a field carries a family of strongly interacting unstable compounds lying on a Regge locus in the analytically continued quark spin. Such a quark field is naturally confined and also possesses the property of asymptotic freedom. Furthermore, the particular field self-regularizes the interactions and naturally breaks the chiral invariance of the equation of motion. We show why and how the existence of such a strongly coupled solution and its particle-family, wave duality forces a change in the field equation of motion such that it conserves C,P,T, although its individual interaction terms are of V-A and thus C,P nonconserving type

Wave, particle-family duality and the conservation of discrete symmetries in strong interaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Van der Spuy, E.

1984-01-01

This paper starts from a nonlinear fermion field equation of motion with a strongly coupled selfinteraction. Nonperturbative quark solutions of the equation of motion are constructed in terms of a Reggeized infinite component free spinor field. Such a field carries a family of strongly interacting unstable compounds lying on a Regge locus in the analytically continued quark spin. Such a quark field is naturally confined and also possesses the property of asymptotic freedom. Furthermore the particular field selfregularizes the interactions and naturally breaks the chiral invariance of the equation of motion. We show why and how the existence of such a strongly coupled solution and its particle-family, wave duality forces a change in the field equation of motion such that it conserves C, P, T although its individual interaction terms are of V - A and thus C, P nonconserving type

Master sintering curve: A practical approach to its construction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pouchly V.

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The concept of a Master Sintering Curve (MSC is a strong tool for optimizing the sintering process. However, constructing the MSC from sintering data involves complicated and time-consuming calculations. A practical method for the construction of a MSC is presented in the paper. With the help of a few dilatometric sintering experiments the newly developed software calculates the MSC and finds the optimal activation energy of a given material. The software, which also enables sintering prediction, was verified by sintering tetragonal and cubic zirconia, and alumina of two different particle sizes.

Application of tuned mass dampers in high-rise construction

Science.gov (United States)

Teplyshev, Vyacheslav; Mylnik, Alexey; Pushkareva, Maria; Agakhanov, Murad; Burova, Olga

2018-03-01

The article considers the use of tuned mass dampers in high-rise construction for significant acceleration and amplitude of vibrations of the upper floors under dynamic wind influences. The susceptibility of people to accelerations in high-rise buildings and possible means of reducing wind-induced fluctuations in buildings are analyzed. The statistics of application of tuned mass dampers in high-rise construction all over the world is presented. The goal of the study is to identify an economically attractive solution that allows the fullest use of the potential of building structures in high-rise construction, abandoning the need to build massive frames leading to over-consumption of materials.

Differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cell under flow conditions to mature hepatocytes for liver tissue engineering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Starokozhko, Viktoriia; Hemmingsen, Mette; Larsen, Layla

2018-01-01

Hepatic differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) under flow conditions in a 3D scaffold is expected to be a major step forward for construction of bioartificial livers. The aims of this study were to induce hepatic differentiation of hiPSCs under perfusion conditions...... and to perform functional comparisons with fresh human precision-cut liver slices (hPCLS), an excellent benchmark for the human liver in vivo. The majority of the mRNA expression of CYP isoenzymes and transporters and the tested CYP activities, Phase II metabolism, and albumin, urea, and bile acid synthesis...... in the hiPSC-derived cells reached values that overlap those of hPCLS, which indicates a higher degree of hepatic differentiation than observed until now. Differentiation under flow compared with static conditions had a strong inducing effect on Phase II metabolism and suppressed AFP expression but resulted...

Unexpected strong magnetism of Cu doped single-layer MoS₂ and its origin.

Science.gov (United States)

Yun, Won Seok; Lee, J D

2014-05-21

The magnetism of the 3d transition-metal (TM) doped single-layer (1L) MoS2, where the Mo atom is partially replaced by the 3d TM atom, is investigated using the first-principles density functional calculations. In a series of 3d TM doped 1L-MoS2's, the induced spin polarizations are negligible for Sc, Ti, and Cr dopings, while the induced spin polarizations are confirmed for V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Zn dopings and the systems become magnetic. Especially, the Cu doped system shows unexpectedly strong magnetism although Cu is nonmagnetic in its bulk state. The driving force is found to be a strong hybridization between Cu 3d states and 3p states of neighboring S, which results in an extreme unbalanced spin-population in the spin-split impurity bands near the Fermi level. Finally, we also discuss further issues of the Cu induced magnetism of 1L-MoS2 such as investigation of additional charge states, the Cu doping at the S site instead of the Mo site, and the Cu adatom on the layer (i.e., 1L-MoS2).

Strong coupling strategy for fluid-structure interaction problems in supersonic regime via fixed point iteration

Science.gov (United States)

Storti, Mario A.; Nigro, Norberto M.; Paz, Rodrigo R.; Dalcín, Lisandro D.

2009-03-01

In this paper some results on the convergence of the Gauss-Seidel iteration when solving fluid/structure interaction problems with strong coupling via fixed point iteration are presented. The flow-induced vibration of a flat plate aligned with the flow direction at supersonic Mach number is studied. The precision of different predictor schemes and the influence of the partitioned strong coupling on stability is discussed.

EDITORIAL: Strongly correlated electron systems Strongly correlated electron systems

Science.gov (United States)

Ronning, Filip; Batista, Cristian

2011-03-01

Strongly correlated electrons is an exciting and diverse field in condensed matter physics. This special issue aims to capture some of that excitement and recent developments in the field. Given that this issue was inspired by the 2010 International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SCES 2010), we briefly give some history in order to place this issue in context. The 2010 International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a reunion of sorts from the 1989 International Conference on the Physics of Highly Correlated Electron Systems that also convened in Santa Fe. SCES 2010—co-chaired by John Sarrao and Joe Thompson—followed the tradition of earlier conferences, in this century, hosted by Buzios (2008), Houston (2007), Vienna (2005), Karlsruhe (2004), Krakow (2002) and Ann Arbor (2001). Every three years since 1997, SCES has joined the International Conference on Magnetism (ICM), held in Recife (2000), Rome (2003), Kyoto (2006) and Karlsruhe (2009). Like its predecessors, SCES 2010 topics included strongly correlated f- and d-electron systems, heavy-fermion behaviors, quantum-phase transitions, non-Fermi liquid phenomena, unconventional superconductivity, and emergent states that arise from electronic correlations. Recent developments from studies of quantum magnetism and cold atoms complemented the traditional subjects and were included in SCES 2010. 2010 celebrated the 400th anniversary of Santa Fe as well as the birth of astronomy. So what's the connection to SCES? The Dutch invention of the first practical telescope and its use by Galileo in 1610 and subsequent years overturned dogma that the sun revolved about the earth. This revolutionary, and at the time heretical, conclusion required innovative combinations of new instrumentation, observation and mathematics. These same combinations are just as important 400 years later and are the foundation of scientific discoveries that were discussed

Gravitational leptogenesis, C, CP and strong equivalence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McDonald, Jamie I.; Shore, Graham M.

2015-01-01

The origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry is one of the most important outstanding problems at the interface of particle physics and cosmology. Gravitational leptogenesis (baryogenesis) provides a possible mechanism through explicit couplings of spacetime curvature to appropriate lepton (or baryon) currents. In this paper, the idea that these strong equivalence principle violating interactions could be generated automatically through quantum loop effects in curved spacetime is explored, focusing on the realisation of the discrete symmetries C, CP and CPT which must be broken to induce matter-antimatter asymmetry. The related issue of quantum corrections to the dispersion relation for neutrino propagation in curved spacetime is considered within a fully covariant framework.

Gravitational leptogenesis, C, CP and strong equivalence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McDonald, Jamie I.; Shore, Graham M. [Department of Physics, Swansea University,Swansea, SA2 8PP (United Kingdom)

2015-02-12

The origin of matter-antimatter asymmetry is one of the most important outstanding problems at the interface of particle physics and cosmology. Gravitational leptogenesis (baryogenesis) provides a possible mechanism through explicit couplings of spacetime curvature to appropriate lepton (or baryon) currents. In this paper, the idea that these strong equivalence principle violating interactions could be generated automatically through quantum loop effects in curved spacetime is explored, focusing on the realisation of the discrete symmetries C, CP and CPT which must be broken to induce matter-antimatter asymmetry. The related issue of quantum corrections to the dispersion relation for neutrino propagation in curved spacetime is considered within a fully covariant framework.

Pattern of Bone Generation after Irradiation in Vascularized Tissue Engineered Constructs.

Science.gov (United States)

Eweida, Ahmad; Fathi, Ibrahim; Eltawila, Ahmed M; Elsherif, Ahmad M; Elkerm, Yasser; Harhaus, Leila; Kneser, Ulrich; Sakr, Mahmoud F

2018-02-01

 Regenerative medicine modalities provide promising alternatives to conventional reconstruction techniques but are still deficient after malignant tumor excision or irradiation due to defective vascularization.  We investigated the pattern of bone formation in axially vascularized tissue engineering constructs (AVTECs) after irradiation in a study that mimics the clinical scenario after head and neck cancer. Heterotopic bone generation was induced in a subcutaneously implanted AVTEC in the thigh of six male New Zealand rabbits. The tissue construct was made up of Nanobone (Artoss GmbH; Rostock, Germany) granules mixed with autogenous bone marrow and 80 μL of bone morphogenic protein-2 at a concentration of 1.5 μg/μL. An arteriovenous loop was created microsurgically between the saphenous vessels and implanted in the core of the construct to induce axial vascularization. The constructs were subjected to external beam irradiation on postoperative day 20 with a single dose of 15 Gy. The constructs were removed 20 days after irradiation and subjected to histological and immunohistochemical analysis for vascularization, bone formation, apoptosis, and cellular proliferation.  The vascularized constructs showed homogenous vascularization and bone formation both in their central and peripheral regions. Although vascularity, proliferation, and apoptosis were similar between central and peripheral regions of the constructs, significantly more bone was formed in the central regions of the constructs.  The study shows for the first time the pattern of bone formation in AVTECs after irradiation using doses comparable to those applied after head and neck cancer. Axial vascularization probably enhances the osteoinductive properties in the central regions of AVTECs after irradiation. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Strong enhancement of streaming current power by application of two phase flow

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Xie, Yanbo; Sherwood, John D.; Shui, Lingling; van den Berg, Albert; Eijkel, Jan C.T.

2011-01-01

We show that the performance of a streaming-potential based microfluidic energy conversion system can be strongly en-hanced by the use of two phase flow. In single-phase systems, the internal conduction current induced by the streaming poten-tial limits the output power, while in a two-phase system

Conformal field theories, representations and lattice constructions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dolan, L.; Montague, P.

1996-01-01

An account is given of the structure and representations of chiral bosonic meromorphic conformal field theories (CFT's), and, in particular, the conditions under which such a CFT may be extended by a representation to form a new theory. This general approach is illustrated by considering the untwisted and Z 2 -twisted theories, H(Λ) and H(Λ) respectively, which may be constructed from a suitable even Euclidean lattice Λ. Similarly, one may construct lattices Λ C and Lambda C by analogous constructions from a doubly-even binary code C. In the case when C is self-dual, the corresponding lattices are also. Similarly, H(Λ) and H(Λ) are self-dual if and only if Λ is. We show that H(Λ C ) has a natural triality structure, which induces an isomorphism H(Λ C )≡H(Λ C ) and also a triality structure on H(Λ C ). For C the Golay code, Λ C is the Leech lattice, and the triality on H(Λ C ) is the symmetry which extends the natural action of (an extension of) Conway's group on this theory to the Monster, so setting triality and Frenkel, Lepowsky and Meurman's construction of the natural Monster module in a more general context. The results also serve to shed some light on the classification of self-dual CFT's. We find that of the 48 theories H(Λ) and H(Λ) with central charge 24 that there are 39 distinct ones, and further that all 9 coincidences are accounted for by the isomorphism detailed above, induced by the existence of a doubly-even self-dual binary code. (orig.). With 8 figs., 2 tabs

Learning through delivery, Westinghouse AP1000 plant construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gorgemans, J.; Hinman, R.D.; Steuck, C.M.; Greco, P.L.

2014-01-01

The AP1000 plant, which is a 1100 MWe class pressurized water reactor with passive safety features, is designed around a conventional 2 loop, 2 steam generator primary system configuration with 2 hot legs, 4 reactor coolant pumps directly mounted in the steam generator lower head and 4 cold legs. A particular feature of AP1000 is its modular construction to minimize the time and cost of construction. Modular construction allows activities to be run in parallel, it allows more activities to be performed in a controlled factory instead of in the field, and it provides a better level of quality. The AP1000 plant design includes 106 structural modules and 52 mechanical modules. Structural modules include all penetrations for piping, cable trays, HVAC duct runs, and all reinforcement for pipe, equipment hangers, and supports. Structural modules are shipped in sub-modules to support transportation by rail or truck or barge. Mechanical modules contain equipment such as pumps, tanks, heat exchangers, air-handling units, and filters along with interconnecting pipes, valves, instruments, wiring and support services. Modular construction requires strong coordination between engineering, supply chain and construction. A total of 8 AP1000 units are currently under construction in China and in the United States. The lessons learned and best practices of each new AP1000 construction are systematically incorporated into the standard design. (A.C.)

Attosecond Electron Wave Packet Dynamics in Strong Laser Fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnsson, P.; Remetter, T.; Varju, K.; L'Huillier, A.; Lopez-Martens, R.; Valentin, C.; Balcou, Ph.; Kazamias, S.; Mauritsson, J.; Gaarde, M. B.; Schafer, K. J.; Mairesse, Y.; Wabnitz, H.; Salieres, P.

2005-01-01

We use a train of sub-200 attosecond extreme ultraviolet (XUV) pulses with energies just above the ionization threshold in argon to create a train of temporally localized electron wave packets. We study the energy transfer from a strong infrared (IR) laser field to the ionized electrons as a function of the delay between the XUV and IR fields. When the wave packets are born at the zero crossings of the IR field, a significant amount of energy (∼20 eV) is transferred from the field to the electrons. This results in dramatically enhanced above-threshold ionization in conditions where the IR field alone does not induce any significant ionization. Because both the energy and duration of the wave packets can be varied independently of the IR laser, they are valuable tools for studying and controlling strong-field processes

Induced modules over group algebras

CERN Document Server

Karpilovsky, Gregory

1990-01-01

In 1898 Frobenius discovered a construction which, in present terminology, associates with every module of a subgroup the induced module of a group. This construction proved to be of fundamental importance and is one of the basic tools in the entire theory of group representations.This monograph is designed for research mathematicians and advanced graduate students and gives a picture of the general theory of induced modules as it exists at present. Much of the material has until now been available only in research articles. The approach is not intended to be encyclopedic, rather each topic is

MATES in Construction: Impact of a Multimodal, Community-Based Program for Suicide Prevention in the Construction Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Graham Martin

2011-11-01

Full Text Available A large-scale workplace-based suicide prevention and early intervention program was delivered to over 9,000 construction workers on building sites across Queensland. Intervention components included universal General Awareness Training (GAT; general mental health with a focus on suicide prevention; gatekeeper training provided to construction worker volunteer ‘Connectors’; Suicide First Aid (ASIST training offered to key workers; outreach support provided by trained and supervised MIC staff; state-wide suicide prevention hotline; case management service; and postvention support provided in the event of a suicide. Findings from over 7,000 workers (April 2008 to November 2010 are reported, indicating strong construction industry support, with 67% building sites and employers approached agreeing to participate in MIC. GAT participants demonstrated significantly increased suicide prevention awareness compared with a comparison group. Connector training participants rated MIC as helpful and effective, felt prepared to intervene with a suicidal person, and knew where to seek help for a suicidal individual following the training. Workers engaged positively with the after-hours crisis support phone line and case management. MIC provided postvention support to 10 non-MIC sites and sites engaged with MIC, but not yet MIC-compliant. Current findings support the potential effectiveness and social validity of MIC for preventing suicide in construction workers.

MATES in Construction: Impact of a Multimodal, Community-Based Program for Suicide Prevention in the Construction Industry

Science.gov (United States)

Gullestrup, Jorgen; Lequertier, Belinda; Martin, Graham

2011-01-01

A large-scale workplace-based suicide prevention and early intervention program was delivered to over 9,000 construction workers on building sites across Queensland. Intervention components included universal General Awareness Training (GAT; general mental health with a focus on suicide prevention); gatekeeper training provided to construction worker volunteer ‘Connectors’; Suicide First Aid (ASIST) training offered to key workers; outreach support provided by trained and supervised MIC staff; state-wide suicide prevention hotline; case management service; and postvention support provided in the event of a suicide. Findings from over 7,000 workers (April 2008 to November 2010) are reported, indicating strong construction industry support, with 67% building sites and employers approached agreeing to participate in MIC. GAT participants demonstrated significantly increased suicide prevention awareness compared with a comparison group. Connector training participants rated MIC as helpful and effective, felt prepared to intervene with a suicidal person, and knew where to seek help for a suicidal individual following the training. Workers engaged positively with the after-hours crisis support phone line and case management. MIC provided postvention support to 10 non-MIC sites and sites engaged with MIC, but not yet MIC-compliant. Current findings support the potential effectiveness and social validity of MIC for preventing suicide in construction workers. PMID:22163201

Strong supramolecular control over protein self-assembly using a polyamine decorated β-cyclodextrin as synthetic recognition element

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Uhlenheuer, D.A.; Milroy, L.G.; Neirynck, P.; Brunsveld, L.

2011-01-01

The supramolecular host molecule heptakis-[6-deoxy-6-(2-aminoethylsulfanyl)]-ß-cyclodextrin provides strong control over protein self-assembly in synthetic supramolecular protein constructs. Mono-functionalization of this modified ß-cyclodextrin with a cysteine residue allows for site-selective

A construction process model for implementing constructability in construction

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Langkemper, J.; Al-Jibouri, S.; Reymen, I.M.M.J.; Maas, G.J.; Gassel, van F.

2003-01-01

In construction, failure of design professionals to consider how a builder will implement the design can result in scheduling problems, cost escalation, delays and disputes during the construction process. The integration of construction knowledge and experience during planning and design is termed

The influence of strong decay on the spectra of hadrons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beveren, E.J.H. van.

1983-01-01

At present, the theory of strong interactions cannot make use of perturbative calculations. For that reason, non-perturbative methods have been proposed recently in the quark model. The author shows that a geometrical model provides an adequate description of quark confinement in hadrons and of the mass spectrum by means of exactly-solvable equations. The properties which these models must possess, are obtained from phenomenological hadron models. First, the influence of hadronic decay on the properties of hadrons is discussed. Next, a numerical method for solving a coupled-channel Schroedinger equation is presented. The author deals with coupling constants, transition potentials, radial spectra and hadronic decay widths of light and heavy mesons. The spectra and strong decay of charmonium and beautonium are investigated and theoretically described using quarks in a de Sitter geometry. A conformal Lagrangian is constructed which describes quark confinement in an anti-de Sitter geometry by spontaneous symmetry breaking of the conformal Lagrangian. (G.J.P.)

Particle Production in Strong Electromagnetic Fields in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirill Tuchin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available I review the origin and properties of electromagnetic fields produced in heavy-ion collisions. The field strength immediately after a collision is proportional to the collision energy and reaches ~mπ2 at RHIC and ~10mπ2 at LHC. I demonstrate by explicit analytical calculation that after dropping by about one-two orders of magnitude during the first fm/c of plasma expansion, it freezes out and lasts for as long as quark-gluon plasma lives as a consequence of finite electrical conductivity of the plasma. Magnetic field breaks spherical symmetry in the direction perpendicular to the reaction plane, and therefore all kinetic coefficients are anisotropic. I examine viscosity of QGP and show that magnetic field induces azimuthal anisotropy on plasma flow even in spherically symmetric geometry. Very strong electromagnetic field has an important impact on particle production. I discuss the problem of energy loss and polarization of fast fermions due to synchrotron radiation, consider photon decay induced by magnetic field, elucidate J/ψ dissociation via Lorentz ionization mechanism, and examine electromagnetic radiation by plasma. I conclude that all processes in QGP are affected by strong electromagnetic field and call for experimental investigation.

Mini-columns for Conducting Breakthrough Experiments. Design and Construction

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dittrich, Timothy M. [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Reimus, Paul William [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Ware, Stuart Douglas [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2015-06-11

Experiments with moderately and strongly sorbing radionuclides (i.e., U, Cs, Am) have shown that sorption between experimental solutions and traditional column materials must be accounted for to accurately determine stationary phase or porous media sorption properties (i.e., sorption site density, sorption site reaction rate coefficients, and partition coefficients or K_d values). This report details the materials and construction of mini-columns for use in breakthrough columns to allow for accurate measurement and modeling of sorption parameters. Material selection, construction techniques, wet packing of columns, tubing connections, and lessons learned are addressed.

Poly-ϵ-caprolactone/chitosan nanoparticles provide strong adjuvant effect for hepatitis B antigen.

Science.gov (United States)

Jesus, Sandra; Soares, Edna; Borchard, Gerrit; Borges, Olga

2017-10-01

This work aims to investigate the adjuvant effect of poly-ϵ-caprolactone/chitosan nanoparticles (NPs) for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and the plasmid DNA encoding HBsAg (pRC/CMV-HBs). Both antigens were adsorbed onto preformed NPs. Vaccination studies were performed in C57BL/6 mice. Transfection efficiency was investigated in A549 cell line. HBsAg-adsorbed NPs generated strong anti-HBsAg IgG titers, mainly of IgG1 isotype, and induced antigen-specific IFN-γ and IL-17 secretion by spleen cells. The addition of pRC/CMV-HBs to the HBsAg-adsorbed NPs inhibited IL-17 secretion but had minor effect on IFN-γ levels. Lastly, pRC/CMV-HBs-loaded NPs generated a weak serum antibody response. Poly-ϵ-caprolactone/chitosan NPs provide a strong humoral adjuvant effect for HBsAg and induce a Th1/Th17-mediated cellular immune responses worth explore for hepatitis B virus vaccination.

The characterization of six auxin-induced tomato GH3 genes uncovers a member, SlGH3.4, strongly responsive to arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Dehua; Chen, Xiao; Chen, Aiqun; Wang, Huimin; Liu, Jianjian; Liu, Junli; Gu, Mian; Sun, Shubin; Xu, Guohua

2015-04-01

In plants, the GH3 gene family is widely considered to be involved in a broad range of plant physiological processes, through modulation of hormonal homeostasis. Multiple GH3 genes have been functionally characterized in several plant species; however, to date, limited works to study the GH3 genes in tomato have been reported. Here, we characterize the expression and regulatory profiles of six tomato GH3 genes, SlGH3.2, SlGH3.3, SlGH3.4, SlGH3.7, SlGH3.9 and SlGH3.15, in response to different phytohormone applications and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal colonization. All six GH3 genes showed inducible responses to external IAA, and three members were significantly up-regulated in response to AM symbiosis. In particular, SlGH3.4, the transcripts of which were barely detectable under normal growth conditions, was strongly activated in the IAA-treated and AM fungal-colonized roots. A comparison of the SlGH3.4 expression in wild-type plants and M161, a mutant with a defect in AM symbiosis, confirmed that SlGH3.4 expression is highly correlated to mycorrhizal colonization. Histochemical staining demonstrated that a 2,258 bp SlGH3.4 promoter fragment could drive β-glucuronidase (GUS) expression strongly in root tips, steles and cortical cells of IAA-treated roots, but predominantly in the fungal-colonized cells of mycorrhizal roots. A truncated 654 bp promoter failed to direct GUS expression in IAA-treated roots, but maintained the symbiosis-induced activity in mycorrhizal roots. In summary, our results suggest that a mycorrhizal signaling pathway that is at least partially independent of the auxin signaling pathway has evolved for the co-regulation of the auxin- and mycorrhiza-activated GH3 genes in plants. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Construction of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived oriented bone matrix microstructure by using in vitro engineered anisotropic culture model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ozasa, Ryosuke; Matsugaki, Aira; Isobe, Yoshihiro; Saku, Taro; Yun, Hui-Suk; Nakano, Takayoshi

2018-02-01

Bone tissue has anisotropic microstructure based on collagen/biological apatite orientation, which plays essential roles in the mechanical and biological functions of bone. However, obtaining an appropriate anisotropic microstructure during the bone regeneration process remains a great challenging. A powerful strategy for the control of both differentiation and structural development of newly-formed bone is required in bone tissue engineering, in order to realize functional bone tissue regeneration. In this study, we developed a novel anisotropic culture model by combining human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and artificially-controlled oriented collagen scaffold. The oriented collagen scaffold allowed hiPSCs-derived osteoblast alignment and further construction of anisotropic bone matrix which mimics the bone tissue microstructure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing the construction of bone mimetic anisotropic bone matrix microstructure from hiPSCs. Moreover, we demonstrated for the first time that the hiPSCs-derived osteoblasts possess a high level of intact functionality to regulate cell alignment. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 360-369, 2018. © 2017 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Quantum simulation of strongly correlated condensed matter systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hofstetter, W.; Qin, T.

2018-04-01

We review recent experimental and theoretical progress in realizing and simulating many-body phases of ultracold atoms in optical lattices, which gives access to analog quantum simulations of fundamental model Hamiltonians for strongly correlated condensed matter systems, such as the Hubbard model. After a general introduction to quantum gases in optical lattices, their preparation and cooling, and measurement techniques for relevant observables, we focus on several examples, where quantum simulations of this type have been performed successfully during the past years: Mott-insulator states, itinerant quantum magnetism, disorder-induced localization and its interplay with interactions, and topological quantum states in synthetic gauge fields.

Charging-delay effect on longitudinal dust acoustic shock wave in strongly coupled dusty plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ghosh, Samiran; Gupta, M.R.

2005-01-01

Taking into account the charging-delay effect, the nonlinear propagation characteristics of longitudinal dust acoustic wave in strongly coupled collisional dusty plasma described by generalized hydrodynamic model have been investigated. In the 'hydrodynamic limit', a Korteweg-de Vries Burger (KdVB) equation with a damping term arising due to dust-neutral collision is derived in which the Burger term is proportional to the dissipation due to dust viscosity through dust-dust correlation and charging-delay-induced anomalous dissipation. On the other hand, in the 'kinetic limit', a KdVB equation with a damping term and a nonlocal nonlinear forcing term arising due to memory-dependent strong correlation effect of dust fluid is derived in which the Burger term depends only on the charging-delay-induced dissipation. Numerical solution of integrodifferential equations reveals that (i) dissipation due to dust viscosity and principally due to charging delay causes excitation of the longitudinal dust acoustic shock wave in strongly coupled dusty plasma and (ii) dust-neutral collision does not appear to play any direct role in shock formation. The condition for the generation of shock is also discussed briefly

Field measurement of wind pressure and wind-induced vibration of large-span spatial cable-truss system under strong wind or typhoon

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ZHANG Zhihong

2013-10-01

Full Text Available In order to ensure wind-resistance safety of large-span pre-stressed flexible system in southeast coast area of China,and to prepare something for revising of current codes of practice or technical standards,the present paper conducts field measurement of wind pressure and wind-induced vibration of a practical and typical large-span spatial cable-truss system-lunar stadium in Yueqing city.Wind loading and wind effects on full-scale structure under strong wind or typhoon in real architectural environment can be obtained directly and effectively.Field measurement is the best way to investigate the wind loading property,wind effects,and wind-structure interactions of large-span flexible system.Measured data will be highly valuable for scientific research and practical design.On the other hand,it also provides the basis of wind-resistance safety design of this kind of tension structures.If any creative development,it would dramatically improve the research level of large-span pre-stressed flexible system in our country.

Detectable gravitational waves from very strong phase transitions in the general NMSSM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huber, Stephan J.; Nardini, Germano; Bern Univ.

2015-12-01

We study the general NMSSM with an emphasis on the parameter regions with a very strong first-order electroweak phase transition (EWPT). In the presence of heavy fields coupled to the Higgs sector, the analysis can be problematic due to the existence of sizable radiative corrections. In this paper we propose a subtraction scheme that helps to circumvent this problem. For simplicity we focus on a parameter region that is by construction hidden from the current collider searches. The analysis proves that (at least) in the identified parameter region the EWPT can be very strong and striking gravitational wave signals can be produced. The corresponding gravitational stochastic background can potentially be detected at the planned space-based gravitational wave observatory eLISA, depending on the specific experiment design that will be approved.

Approach to improve construction management utilizing information technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Woo Bang; Moon, Jin Yeong

2003-01-01

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) has been managed Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) construction projects including basic project planning, design, procurement, construction and start-up for nearly 30 years, and taken the leading role in the self-reliance program for constructing NPP. To maintain its leading position of construction technology and export it to other countries, it is more likely required to build the strong and competitive business management system to improve internal business efficiency and transparency, and also to respond to the change of external business circumstances such as electricity market opening. KHNP is implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System as a business innovation tool to improve business efficiency, which changes the way of performing work from organizational system to process-oriented system in order to optimize the company resources to achieve above goals. This change should be made based on the results of performing Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) to maximize overall business efficiency. For the construction project management area, the establishment of Integrated Construction Information Sharing System based on Information Technology (IT) is the most important part. It makes possible to build collaboration system with 'Win-Win strategy' between the project owner and all related entities and to contribute to secure transparency and cut the project cost down. We would like to introduce our NPP Construction Project Management System, Infrastructure for Information System, Information Sharing System among construction related entities and Implementation Practices in this paper and also include the suggestions on our customary practice and subject that should be improved

Theory of strong hybridization-induced relaxation in uranium systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu, G.; Cooper, B.R.

1988-01-01

Commonly, for metallic uranium systems, sharp magnetic excitations are not observed in neutron inelastic scattering experiments, but rather there is a continuous spectrum of magnetic response. By extending our earlier theory for partially delocalized cerium systems, we can understand this behavior. The band-f hybridization is transformed to resonant scattering in our theory, where the exchange part of the scattering gives both a two-ion interaction (physically corresponding to cooperative hybridization, giving anisotropic magnetic ordering with unusual excitation dispersion for cerium systems) and a hybridization coupling of each ion to the band sea (giving relaxation and strong energy renormalization of the excitations for cerium systems). For uranium the f delocalization (and hence the hybridization) is much stronger than for cerium. The two-ion interaction (giving quasi-ionic energy level splitting) grows by an order of magnitude or more, as evidenced by greatly increased magnetic ordering temperatures. On the other hand, the single-site hybridization strength parameter J-script characterizing the f-to-band-bath coupling grows more moderately as the f levels move toward the Fermi energy, because of the renormalizing effect of the direct scattering which broadens the f levels. The increased energy scale of the quasi-ionic level splitting for uranium as compared to cerium or plutonium is the major contributor to the greatly increased width of magnetic scattering distributions, while the moderate increase in coupling of each uranium quasi-ion to the band sea gives a lesser contribution. We apply this theory to UP and UAs and compare our results with experiment

Repletion of zinc in zinc-deficient cells strongly up-regulates IL-1β-induced IL-2 production in T-cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Daaboul, Doha; Rosenkranz, Eva; Uciechowski, Peter; Rink, Lothar

2012-10-01

Mild zinc deficiency in humans negatively affects IL-2 production resulting in declined percentages of cytolytic T cells and decreased NK cell lytic activity, which enhances the susceptibility to infections and malignancies. T-cell activation is critically regulated by zinc and the normal physiological zinc level in T-cells slightly lies below the optimal concentration for T-cell functions. A further reduction in zinc level leads to T-cell dysfunction and autoreactivity, whereas high zinc concentrations (100 μM) were shown to inhibit interleukin-1 (IL-1)-induced IL-1 receptor kinase (IRAK) activation. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism by which zinc regulates the IL-1β-induced IL-2 expression in T-cells. Zinc supplementation to zinc-deficient T-cells increased intracellular zinc levels by altering the expression of zinc transporters, particularly Zip10 and Zip12. A zinc signal was observed in the murine T-cell line EL-4 6.1 after 1 h of stimulation with IL-1β, measured by specific zinc sensors FluoZin-3 and ZinPyr-1. This signal is required for the phosphorylation of MAPK p38 and NF-κB subunit p65, which triggers the transcription of IL-2 and strongly increases its production. These results indicate that short-term zinc supplementation to zinc-deficient T-cells leads to a fast rise in zinc levels which subsequently enhance cytokine production. In conclusion, low and excessive zinc levels might be equally problematic for zinc-deficient subjects, and stabilized zinc levels seem to be essential to avoid negative concentration-dependent zinc effects on T-cell activation.

Dietary determinants of pregnancy induced hypertension in Isfahan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zamzam Paknahad

2008-02-01

Full Text Available

• <strong>BACKGROUND>: Pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH is a pregnancy-specific condition that occurs after the 20th week of gestation. These physiologic changes can be aggravated by undernutrition. There are some evidence based on the importance of nutrient deficiency in developing this syndrome. Therefore, the aim of present study was to determine the nutritional risk factors for pregnancy induced hypertension in a group of pregnant women in Isfahan.
• <strong>METHODS>: In this case-control study, we recruited 46 Isfahanian pregnant women in two groups (with and without PIH. They were 19 to 45 year-old and they did not consume any antihypertensive or diuretic medications. Demographic questionnaire and food frequency questionnaire were filled in both groups.
• <strong>RESULTS>: There were no significant differences in energy and vitamin E and C intakes between the two groups. Zinc and calcium intakes were lower in women with PIH compared to those without PIH (P = 0.04 and P = 0.007, respectively. Riboflavin and protein intakes were lower in women with PIH compared to subjects without PIH (P = 0.03 and P = 0.01, respectively.
• <strong>CONCLUSIONS>: Lower intake of calcium, zinc, riboflavin and protein should be considered as possible risk factors for PIH. Adequate intake of dairy products which are good sources of mentioned nutrients are recommended to prevent PIH.
• <strong>KEYWORDS>: Pregnancy induced hypertension, diet, nutrient.

Features of tuned mass damper behavior under strong earthquakes

Science.gov (United States)

Nesterova, Olga; Uzdin, Alexander; Fedorova, Maria

2018-05-01

Plastic deformations, cracks and destruction of structure members appear in the constructions under strong earthquakes. Therefore constructions are characterized by a nonlinear deformation diagram. Two types of construction non-linearity are considered in the paper. The first type of nonlinearity is elastoplastic one. In this case, plastic deformations occur in the structural elements, and when the element is unloaded, its properties restores. Among such diagrams are the Prandtl diagram, the Prandtl diagram with hardening, the Ramberg-Osgood diagram and others. For systems with such nonlinearity there is an amplitude-frequency characteristic and resonance oscillation frequencies. In this case one can pick up the most dangerous accelerograms for the construction. The second type of nonlinearity is nonlinearity with degrading rigidity and dependence of behavior on the general loading history. The Kirikov-Amankulov model is one of such ones. Its behavior depends on the maximum displacement in the stress history. Such systems do not have gain frequency characteristic and resonance frequency. The period of oscillation of such system is increasing during the system loading, and the system eigen frequency decreases to zero at the time of collapse. In the cases under consideration, when investigating the system with MD behavior, the authors proposed new efficiency criteria. These include the work of plastic deformation forces for the first type of nonlinearity, which determines the possibility of progressive collapse or low cycle fatigue of the structure members. The period of system oscillations and the time to collapse of the structural support members are the criterion for systems with degrading rigidity. In the case of non-linear system behavior, the efficiency of MD application decreases, because the fundamental structure period is reduced because of structure damages and the MD will be rebound from the blanking regime. However, the MD using can significantly reduce

Construction and development of an auto-regulatory gene expression system in Bacillus subtilis.

Science.gov (United States)

Guan, Chengran; Cui, Wenjing; Cheng, Jintao; Zhou, Li; Guo, Junling; Hu, Xu; Xiao, Guoping; Zhou, Zhemin

2015-09-21

Bacillus subtilis is an all-important Gram-positive bacterium of valuable biotechnological utility that has been widely used to over-produce industrially and pharmaceutically relevant proteins. There are a variety of expression systems in terms of types of transcriptional patterns, among which the auto-inducible and growth-phase-dependent promoters are gaining increasing favor due to their inducer-independent feature, allowing for the potential to industrially scale-up. To expand the applicability of the auto-inducible expression system, a novel auto-regulatory expression system coupled with cell density was constructed and developed in B. subtilis using the quorum-sensing related promoter srfA (PsrfA). The promoter of the srf operon was used to construct an expression plasmid with the green fluorescent protein (GFP) downstream of PsrfA. The expression displayed a cell-density-dependent pattern in that GFP had a fairly low expression level at the early exponential stage and was highly expressed at the late exponential as well as the stationary stages. Moreover, the recombinant system had a similar expression pattern in wild-type B. subtilis 168, WB600, and WB800, as well as in B. subtilis 168 derivative strain 1681, with the complete deletion of PsrfA, indicating the excellent compatibility of this system. Noticeably, the expression strength of PsrfA was enhanced by optimizing the -10 and -35 core sequence by substituting both sequences with consensus sequences. Importantly, the expression pattern was successfully developed in an auto-regulatory cell-density coupling system by the simple addition of glucose in which GFP could not be strongly expressed until glucose was depleted, resulting in a greater amount of the GFP product and increased cell density. The expression system was eventually tested by the successful over-production of aminopeptidase to a desired level. The auto-regulatory cell density coupling system that is mediated by PsrfA is a novel expression

An unsaturated metal site-promoted approach to construct strongly coupled noble metal/HNb3O8 nanosheets for efficient thermo/photo-catalytic reduction.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Lijuan; Xia, Yuzhou; Lin, Sen; Liang, Shijing; Wu, Ling

2017-10-05

Creating two-dimensional (2D) crystal-metal heterostructures with an ultrathin thickness has spurred increasing research endeavors in catalysis because of its fascinating opportunities in tuning the electronic state at the surface and enhancing the chemical reactivity. Here we report a novel and facile Nb 4+ -assisted strategy for the in situ growth of highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles (NPs) on monolayer HNb 3 O 8 nanosheets (HNb 3 O 8 NS) constituting a 2D Pd/HNb 3 O 8 NS heterostructure composite without using extra reducing agents and stabilizing agents. The Pd NP formation is directed via a redox reaction between an oxidative Pd salt precursor (H 2 PdCl 4 ) and reductive unsaturated surface metal (Nb 4+ ) sites induced by light irradiation on monolayer HNb 3 O 8 NS. The periodic arrangement of metal Nb nodes on HNb 3 O 8 NS leads to a homogeneous distribution of Pd NPs. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the direct redox reaction between the Nb 4+ and Pd 2+ ions leads to a strong chemical interaction between the formed Pd metal NPs and the monolayer HNb 3 O 8 support. Consequently, the as-obtained Pd/HNb 3 O 8 composite serves as a highly efficient bifunctional catalyst in both heterogeneous thermocatalytic and photocatalytic selective reduction of aromatic nitro compounds in water under ambient conditions. The achieved high activity originates from the unique 2D nanosheet configuration and in situ Pd incorporation, which leads to a large active surface area, strong metal-support interaction and enhanced charge transport capability. Moreover, this facile Nb 4+ -assisted synthetic route has demonstrated to be general, which can be applied to load other metals such as Au and Pt on monolayer HNb 3 O 8 NS. It is anticipated that this work can extend the facile preparation of noble metal/nanosheet 2D heterostructures, as well as promote the simultaneous capture of duple renewable thermal and photon energy sources to drive an energy efficient

Solutions to the strong-CP problem in a world with gravity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holman, R.; Watkins, R.; Widrow, L.M.; Toronto Univ., ON

1992-01-01

We examine various solutions of the strong-CP problem to determine their sensitivity to possible violations of global symmetries by Plauck scale physics. While some solutions remain viable even in the face of such effects. Violations of the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry by non-renormalizable operators of dimension less than 10 will generally shift the value of bar θ to values inconsistent with the experimental bound bar θ approx-lt 10 - 9. We show that it is possible to construct axion models where gauge symmetries protect PQ symmetry to the requisite level

Combined treatment with cotylenin A and phenethyl isothiocyanate induces strong antitumor activity mainly through the induction of ferroptotic cell death in human pancreatic cancer cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Kasukabe, Takashi; Honma, Yoshio; Okabe-Kado, Junko; Higuchi, Yusuke; Kato, Nobuo; Kumakura, Shunichi

2016-08-01

The treatment of pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive gastrointestinal tract malignancies, with current chemotherapeutic drugs has had limited success due to its chemoresistance and poor prognosis. Therefore, the development of new drugs or effective combination therapies is urgently needed. Cotylenin A (CN-A) (a plant growth regulator) is a potent inducer of differentiation in myeloid leukemia cells and exhibits potent antitumor activities in several cancer cell lines. In the present study, we demonstrated that CN-A and phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), an inducer of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a dietary anticarcinogenic compound, synergistically inhibited the proliferation of MIAPaCa-2, PANC-1 and gemcitabine-resistant PANC-1 cells. A combined treatment with CN-A and PEITC also effectively inhibited the anchorage-independent growth of these cancer cells. The combined treatment with CN-A and PEITC strongly induced cell death within 1 day at concentrations at which CN-A or PEITC alone did not affect cell viability. A combined treatment with synthetic CN-A derivatives (ISIR-005 and ISIR-042) or fusicoccin J (CN-A-related natural product) and PEITC did not have synergistic effects on cell death. The combined treatment with CN-A and PEITC synergistically induced the generation of ROS. Antioxidants (N-acetylcysteine and trolox), ferroptosis inhibitors (ferrostatin-1 and liproxstatin), and the lysosomal iron chelator deferoxamine canceled the synergistic cell death. Apoptosis inhibitors (Z-VAD-FMK and Q-VD-OPH) and the necrosis inhibitor necrostatin-1s did not inhibit synergistic cell death. Autophagy inhibitors (3-metyladenine and chloroquine) partially prevented cell death. These results show that synergistic cell death induced by the combined treatment with CN-A and PEITC is mainly due to the induction of ferroptosis. Therefore, the combination of CN-A and PEITC has potential as a novel therapeutic strategy against pancreatic cancer.

Factorial and construct validity of Portuguese version (Brazil Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hugo Rafael de Souza e Silva

Full Text Available ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate factorial and construct validity of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS-BR. Methods A sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brazilian Portuguese versions of Online Cognition Scale (OCS-BR and of BFAS-BR were applied to a sample of Health Undergraduate (n = 356. Construct validity evidences were verified through the Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Discriminant validity was examined by correlational analysis between the version of the BFAS-BR and OCS-BR. Results Proposed factorial model of BFAS did not present a good quality adjustment. So, a model restructuring was necessary from behavioral addiction theoretical views and new model presented satisfactory adjustment quality and construct validity evidence. Correlation between both tested scales was strong (ρ = 0.707 and, therefore, they measure the same construct. Conclusion The BFAS-BR show adequate factorial and construct validity.

Analyzing quantum jumps of one and two atoms strongly coupled to an optical cavity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Reick, Sebastian; Mølmer, Klaus; Alt, Wolfgang

2010-01-01

We induce quantum jumps between the hyperfine ground states of one and two cesium atoms, strongly coupled to the mode of a high-finesse optical resonator, and analyze the resulting random telegraph signals. We identify experimental parameters to deduce the atomic spin state nondestructively from ...

The interplay between tissue growth and scaffold degradation in engineered tissue constructs

KAUST Repository

O’Dea, R. D.

2012-09-18

In vitro tissue engineering is emerging as a potential tool to meet the high demand for replacement tissue, caused by the increased incidence of tissue degeneration and damage. A key challenge in this field is ensuring that the mechanical properties of the engineered tissue are appropriate for the in vivo environment. Achieving this goal will require detailed understanding of the interplay between cell proliferation, extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition and scaffold degradation. In this paper, we use a mathematical model (based upon a multiphase continuum framework) to investigate the interplay between tissue growth and scaffold degradation during tissue construct evolution in vitro. Our model accommodates a cell population and culture medium, modelled as viscous fluids, together with a porous scaffold and ECM deposited by the cells, represented as rigid porous materials. We focus on tissue growth within a perfusion bioreactor system, and investigate how the predicted tissue composition is altered under the influence of (1) differential interactions between cells and the supporting scaffold and their associated ECM, (2) scaffold degradation, and (3) mechanotransduction-regulated cell proliferation and ECM deposition. Numerical simulation of the model equations reveals that scaffold heterogeneity typical of that obtained from μCT scans of tissue engineering scaffolds can lead to significant variation in the flow-induced mechanical stimuli experienced by cells seeded in the scaffold. This leads to strong heterogeneity in the deposition of ECM. Furthermore, preferential adherence of cells to the ECM in favour of the artificial scaffold appears to have no significant influence on the eventual construct composition; adherence of cells to these supporting structures does, however, lead to cell and ECM distributions which mimic and exaggerate the heterogeneity of the underlying scaffold. Such phenomena have important ramifications for the mechanical integrity of

Metallization of a Rashba wire by a superconducting layer in the strong-proximity regime

Science.gov (United States)

Reeg, Christopher; Loss, Daniel; Klinovaja, Jelena

2018-04-01

Semiconducting quantum wires defined within two-dimensional electron gases and strongly coupled to thin superconducting layers have been extensively explored in recent experiments as promising platforms to host Majorana bound states. We study numerically such a geometry, consisting of a quasi-one-dimensional wire coupled to a disordered three-dimensional superconducting layer. We find that, in the strong-coupling limit of a sizable proximity-induced superconducting gap, all transverse subbands of the wire are significantly shifted in energy relative to the chemical potential of the wire. For the lowest subband, this band shift is comparable in magnitude to the spacing between quantized levels that arises due to the finite thickness of the superconductor (which typically is ˜500 meV for a 10-nm-thick layer of aluminum); in higher subbands, the band shift is much larger. Additionally, we show that the width of the system, which is usually much larger than the thickness, and moderate disorder within the superconductor have almost no impact on the induced gap or band shift. We provide a detailed discussion of the ramifications of our results, arguing that a huge band shift and significant renormalization of semiconducting material parameters in the strong-coupling limit make it challenging to realize a topological phase in such a setup, as the strong coupling to the superconductor essentially metallizes the semiconductor. This metallization of the semiconductor can be tested experimentally through the measurement of the band shift.

strong>PRAYER INDUCED ANALGESIAstrong>

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jegindø, Else-Marie Elmholdt

, 40 healthy subjects (20 highly religious protestants and 20 non-religious men and women) received painful electrical stimulation during prayer to God, ‘secular prayer’ and a ‘pain only’ condition. Subjects were continuously monitored with a Task Force Monitor (heart rate variability, blood pressure...

<strong>Dense 3D Map Construction for Indoor Search and Rescuestrong>

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ellekilde, Lars-Peter; Huang, Shoudong; Miró, Jaime Valls

2007-01-01

The main contribution of this paper is a new simultaneous localization and mapping  SLAM algorithm for building dense three-dimensional maps using information ac- quired from a range imager and a conventional camera, for robotic search and rescue in unstructured indoor environments. A key challen...... invariant feature transformation SIFT feature detection and matching, random sampling consensus RANSAC , and least square 3D point sets ?tting. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques developed....

Phase transition transistors based on strongly-correlated materials

Science.gov (United States)

Nakano, Masaki

2013-03-01

The field-effect transistor (FET) provides electrical switching functions through linear control of the number of charges at a channel surface by external voltage. Controlling electronic phases of condensed matters in a FET geometry has long been a central issue of physical science. In particular, FET based on a strongly correlated material, namely ``Mott transistor,'' has attracted considerable interest, because it potentially provides gigantic and diverse electronic responses due to a strong interplay between charge, spin, orbital and lattice. We have investigated electric-field effects on such materials aiming at novel physical phenomena and electronic functions originating from strong correlation effects. Here we demonstrate electrical switching of bulk state of matter over the first-order metal-insulator transition. We fabricated FETs based on VO2 with use of a recently developed electric-double-layer transistor technique, and found that the electrostatically induced carriers at a channel surface drive all preexisting localized carriers of 1022 cm-3 even inside a bulk to motion, leading to bulk carrier delocalization beyond the electrostatic screening length. This non-local switching of bulk phases is achieved with just around 1 V, and moreover, a novel non-volatile memory like character emerges in a voltage-sweep measurement. These observations are apparently distinct from those of conventional FETs based on band insulators, capturing the essential feature of collective interactions in strongly correlated materials. This work was done in collaboration with K. Shibuya, D. Okuyama, T. Hatano, S. Ono, M. Kawasaki, Y. Iwasa, and Y. Tokura. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSAP) through its ``Funding Program for World-Leading Innovative R&D on Science and Technology (FIRST Program).''

The perspectives of research in the construction field in Romania during the 2014-2020 period

OpenAIRE

Mihai VRABIE; Sergiu-Andrei BĂETU

2013-01-01

The construction field represents an important part of the Romanian economy (and of UE), with a strong social impact on the quality of citizen life. Naturally, the research from the construction field should be a priority in research and innovation activity. However, the research programs recently launched (Horizon 2020, from EU, and the Strategy of Research and Innovation 2014-2020 in Romania), don’t mention the construction field as an explicit priority. Under these conditions, we can speak...

Design and construction of the SAPHIR detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwille, W.J.; Bockhorst, M.; Burbach, G.; Burgwinkel, R.; Empt, J.; Guse, B.; Haas, K.M.; Hannappel, J.; Heinloth, K.; Hey, T.; Honscheid, K.; Jahnen, T.; Jakob, H.P.; Joepen, N.; Juengst, H.; Kirch, U.; Klein, F.J.; Kostrewa, D.; Lindemann, L.; Link, J.; Manns, J.; Menze, D.; Merkel, H.; Merkel, R.; Neuerburg, W.; Paul, E.; Ploetzke, R.; Schenk, U.; Schmidt, S.; Scholmann, J.; Schuetz, P.; Schultz-Coulon, H.C.; Schweitzer, M.; Tran, M.Q.; Vogl, W.; Wedemeyer, R.; Wehnes, F.; Wisskirchen, J.; Wolf, A.

1994-01-01

The design, construction, and performance of the large solid angle magnetic spectrometer SAPHIR is described. It was built for the investigation of photon-induced reactions on nucleous and light nuclei with mulit-particle final states up to photon energies of 3.1 GeV. The detector is equipped with a tagged photon beam facility and is operated at the stretcher ring ELSA in Bonn. (orig.)

Design and construction of the SAPHIR detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schwille, W.J. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Bockhorst, M. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Burbach, G. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Burgwinkel, R. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Empt, J. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Guse, B. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Haas, K.M. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Hannappel, J. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Heinloth, K. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Hey, T. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Honscheid, K. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Jahnen, T. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Jakob, H.P. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Joepen, N. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Juengst, H. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Kirch, U. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.); Klein, F.J. (Bonn Univ. (Germany). Physikalisches Inst.)

1994-05-15

The design, construction, and performance of the large solid angle magnetic spectrometer SAPHIR is described. It was built for the investigation of photon-induced reactions on nucleous and light nuclei with mulit-particle final states up to photon energies of 3.1 GeV. The detector is equipped with a tagged photon beam facility and is operated at the stretcher ring ELSA in Bonn. (orig.)

How Do DSM-5 Personality Traits Align With Schema Therapy Constructs?

Science.gov (United States)

Bach, Bo; Lee, Christopher; Mortensen, Erik Lykke; Simonsen, Erik

2016-08-01

DSM-5 offers an alternative model of personality pathology that includes 25 traits. Although personality disorders are mostly treated with psychotherapy, the correspondence between DSM-5 traits and concepts in evidence-based psychotherapy has not yet been evaluated adequately. Suitably, schema therapy was developed for treating personality disorders, and it has achieved promising evidence. The authors examined associations between DSM-5 traits and schema therapy constructs in a mixed sample of 662 adults, including 312 clinical participants. Associations were investigated in terms of factor loadings and regression coefficients in relation to five domains, followed by specific correlations among all constructs. The results indicated conceptually coherent associations, and 15 of 25 traits were strongly related to relevant schema therapy constructs. Conclusively, DSM-5 traits may be considered expressions of schema therapy constructs, which psychotherapists might take advantage of in terms of case formulation and targets of treatment. In turn, schema therapy constructs add theoretical understanding to DSM-5 traits.

THE MATRILINEAL ARCHITECTURAL VALUES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MINANGKABAU HOUSE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HARDONO Setiawan

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This article studies the relationship between the custom of inheritance system based on the mother’s side bloodline or better known as the matrilineal system and the construction of the Western Sumatera Minangkabau house. The architectural components and the construction of the house is often related to the matrilineal custom concept which lies n the philosophy of beliefs, perspective and strong ritual. The objectives of this research are to identify and analyze matrilineal values and its relationships with the process of the construction and architectural features of the Minangkabau house. The process of the constructing the Minangkabau house involves completing, gathering building materials to the part of building the house. This research used repeated research methodology, past researches analysis and ethnographic methods. Data collection is done through observational processes, interviews and photo taking at various research locations. These research methodologies had verify the compatibility of matrilineal elements to the architectural features of the construction of the Minangkabau house.

Single Day Construction of Multigene Circuits with 3G Assembly.

Science.gov (United States)

Halleran, Andrew D; Swaminathan, Anandh; Murray, Richard M

2018-05-18

The ability to rapidly design, build, and test prototypes is of key importance to every engineering discipline. DNA assembly often serves as a rate limiting step of the prototyping cycle for synthetic biology. Recently developed DNA assembly methods such as isothermal assembly and type IIS restriction enzyme systems take different approaches to accelerate DNA construction. We introduce a hybrid method, Golden Gate-Gibson (3G), that takes advantage of modular part libraries introduced by type IIS restriction enzyme systems and isothermal assembly's ability to build large DNA constructs in single pot reactions. Our method is highly efficient and rapid, facilitating construction of entire multigene circuits in a single day. Additionally, 3G allows generation of variant libraries enabling efficient screening of different possible circuit constructions. We characterize the efficiency and accuracy of 3G assembly for various construct sizes, and demonstrate 3G by characterizing variants of an inducible cell-lysis circuit.

Strong coupling electrostatics for randomly charged surfaces: antifragility and effective interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Ghodrat, Malihe; Naji, Ali; Komaie-Moghaddam, Haniyeh; Podgornik, Rudolf

2015-05-07

We study the effective interaction mediated by strongly coupled Coulomb fluids between dielectric surfaces carrying quenched, random monopolar charges with equal mean and variance, both when the Coulomb fluid consists only of mobile multivalent counterions and when it consists of an asymmetric ionic mixture containing multivalent and monovalent (salt) ions in equilibrium with an aqueous bulk reservoir. We analyze the consequences that follow from the interplay between surface charge disorder, dielectric and salt image effects, and the strong electrostatic coupling that results from multivalent counterions on the distribution of these ions and the effective interaction pressure they mediate between the surfaces. In a dielectrically homogeneous system, we show that the multivalent counterions are attracted towards the surfaces with a singular, disorder-induced potential that diverges logarithmically on approach to the surfaces, creating a singular but integrable counterion density profile that exhibits an algebraic divergence at the surfaces with an exponent that depends on the surface charge (disorder) variance. This effect drives the system towards a state of lower thermal 'disorder', one that can be described by a renormalized temperature, exhibiting thus a remarkable antifragility. In the presence of an interfacial dielectric discontinuity, the singular behavior of counterion density at the surfaces is removed but multivalent counterions are still accumulated much more strongly close to randomly charged surfaces as compared with uniformly charged ones. The interaction pressure acting on the surfaces displays in general a highly non-monotonic behavior as a function of the inter-surface separation with a prominent regime of attraction at small to intermediate separations. This attraction is caused directly by the combined effects from charge disorder and strong coupling electrostatics of multivalent counterions, which dominate the surface-surface repulsion due to

Circuit electromechanics with single photon strong coupling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xue, Zheng-Yuan, E-mail: zyxue@scnu.edu.cn; Yang, Li-Na [Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, and School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006 (China); Zhou, Jian, E-mail: jianzhou8627@163.com [Department of Electronic Communication Engineering, Anhui Xinhua University, Hefei 230088 (China); Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, and School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006 (China)

2015-07-13

In circuit electromechanics, the coupling strength is usually very small. Here, replacing the capacitor in circuit electromechanics by a superconducting flux qubit, we show that the coupling among the qubit and the two resonators can induce effective electromechanical coupling which can attain the strong coupling regime at the single photon level with feasible experimental parameters. We use dispersive couplings among two resonators and the qubit while the qubit is also driven by an external classical field. These couplings form a three-wave mixing configuration among the three elements where the qubit degree of freedom can be adiabatically eliminated, and thus results in the enhanced coupling between the two resonators. Therefore, our work constitutes the first step towards studying quantum nonlinear effect in circuit electromechanics.

In-depth Review of Partnering Research Trends in Construction Journals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bohnstedt, Kristian Ditlev; Rasmussen, Arne P.; Faber, Lene

2017-01-01

Significant literature has been dedicated to research on partnering in construction, and a plethora of underlying theories and industrial practices on partnering application have been reported. The aim is to analyze and summarize the research trend of partnering research from leading construction...... shows that research on development and application of partnering is becoming moderately mature as exemplified by a decreasing amount of published papers after 2007, on the other hand, research on trust; feasibility; advantages; inducements of implementation and barriers to implementation is emerging...

Constructing constitutive relationships for seismic and aseismic fault slip

Science.gov (United States)

Beeler, N.M.

2009-01-01

For the purpose of modeling natural fault slip, a useful result from an experimental fault mechanics study would be a physically-based constitutive relation that well characterizes all the relevant observations. This report describes an approach for constructing such equations. Where possible the construction intends to identify or, at least, attribute physical processes and contact scale physics to the observations such that the resulting relations can be extrapolated in conditions and scale between the laboratory and the Earth. The approach is developed as an alternative but is based on Ruina (1983) and is illustrated initially by constructing a couple of relations from that study. In addition, two example constitutive relationships are constructed; these describe laboratory observations not well-modeled by Ruina's equations: the unexpected shear-induced weakening of silica-rich rocks at high slip speed (Goldsby and Tullis, 2002) and fault strength in the brittle ductile transition zone (Shimamoto, 1986). The examples, provided as illustration, may also be useful for quantitative modeling.

An empirical analysis of strategy implementation process and performance of construction companies

Science.gov (United States)

Zaidi, F. I.; Zawawi, E. M. A.; Nordin, R. M.; Ahnuar, E. M.

2018-02-01

Strategy implementation is known as action stage where it is to be considered as the most difficult stage in strategic planning. Strategy implementation can influence the whole texture of a company including its performance. The aim of this research is to provide the empirical relationship between strategy implementation process and performance of construction companies. This research establishes the strategy implementation process and how it influences the performance of construction companies. This research used quantitative method approached via questionnaire survey. Respondents were G7 construction companies in Klang Valley, Selangor. Pearson correlation analysis indicate a strong positive relationship between strategy implementation process and construction companies’ performance. The most importance part of strategy implementation process is to provide sufficient training for employees which directly influence the construction companies’ profit growth and employees’ growth. This research results will benefit top management in the construction companies to conduct strategy implementation in their companies. This research may not reflect the whole construction industry in Malaysia. Future research may be resumed to small and medium grades contractors and perhaps in other areas in Malaysia.

Strong asymmetry for surface modes in nonlinear lattices with long-range coupling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinez, Alejandro J.; Vicencio, Rodrigo A.; Molina, Mario I.

2010-01-01

We analyze the formation of localized surface modes on a nonlinear cubic waveguide array in the presence of exponentially decreasing long-range interactions. We find that the long-range coupling induces a strong asymmetry between the focusing and defocusing cases for the topology of the surface modes and also for the minimum power needed to generate them. In particular, for the defocusing case, there is an upper power threshold for exciting staggered modes, which depends strongly on the long-range coupling strength. The power threshold for dynamical excitation of surface modes increases (decreases) with the strength of long-range coupling for the focusing (defocusing) cases. These effects seem to be generic for discrete lattices with long-range interactions.

Equilibrium statistical mechanics of strongly coupled plasmas by numerical simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeWitt, H.E.

1977-01-01

Numerical experiments using the Monte Carlo method have led to systematic and accurate results for the thermodynamic properties of strongly coupled one-component plasmas and mixtures of two nuclear components. These talks are intended to summarize the results of Monte Carlo simulations from Paris and from Livermore. Simple analytic expressions for the equation of state and other thermodynamic functions have been obtained in which there is a clear distinction between a lattice-like static portion and a thermal portion. The thermal energy for the one-component plasma has a simple power dependence on temperature, (kT)/sup 3 / 4 /, that is identical to Monte Carlo results obtained for strongly coupled fluids governed by repulsive l/r/sup n/ potentials. For two-component plasmas the ion-sphere model is shown to accurately represent the static portion of the energy. Electron screening is included in the Monte Carlo simulations using linear response theory and the Lindhard dielectric function. Free energy expressions have been constructed for one and two component plasmas that allow easy computation of all thermodynamic functions

Levitated superconductor ring trap (mini-RT) project - A new self-organized structure with strong plasma flow

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogawa, Y.; Himura, H.; Hishinuma, Y.

2003-01-01

Mahajan-Yoshida has theoretically developed a new relaxation state under the condition of a strong plasma flow, and proposed a possibility for confining high beta plasmas. In this self-organized state, two fluids (electron and ion) would relax to the condition given by the relation β + (V/V A ) 2 = const.. An internal coil device is suitable for studying a self-organized structure with strong plasma flow, because a strong toroidal flow is easily induced by introducing an appropriate radial electric field. We are constructing a Mini-RT device, which is equipping a floating coil with a high temperature superconductor (HTS) coil (R=0.15m, Ic=50kAturns). The magnetic field strength near the floating coil is around 0.1 T, and the plasma production with 2.45 GHz Electron Cyclotron Heating is planned. We are preparing several techniques to build up the radial electric field in the plasma such as the direct insertion of the electrode and so on. The utilization of direct orbit loss of high energy electrons produced by ECH might be an interesting method. The orbit calculation results show that the electrons with the energy of more than 10 keV would escape at the outer region of the plasma column, yielding the build-up of the radial electric field. The engineering aspect of the HTS coil is in progress. We have fabricated a small HTS coil (R=0.04 m and Ic= 2.6 kAturns), and succeeded in levitating it during four minutes with an accuracy of a few tens of micrometers. Since the HTS coil is excited by the external power supply, the persistent current switch for the HTS coil has been developed. The HTS coil system with the PCS coil has been fabricated and the excitation test has been carried out. We have succeeded in achieving a persistent current, and it is found that the decay constant of the coil current is evaluated to be around 40 hours and 6.5 hours at 20 K and 40 K, respectively. (author)

Management for Construction Materials and Control of Construction Waste in Construction Industry: A Review

OpenAIRE

A. A. Gulghane; Prof P. V. Khandve

2015-01-01

In recent treads a wide range of building materials is available for the construction of civil engineering structures. The total cost of materials may be up to 60% or more of the total cost incurred in construction project dependent upon the type of project. Effective construction materials management is a key to success for a construction project. Construction waste is another serious problem in construction industry. A large and various types of construction waste with different...

Construction of Discrete Time Shadow Price

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogala, Tomasz; Stettner, Lukasz

2015-01-01

In the paper expected utility from consumption over finite time horizon for discrete time markets with bid and ask prices and strictly concave utility function is considered. The notion of weak shadow price, i.e. an illiquid price, depending on the portfolio, under which the model without bid and ask price is equivalent to the model with bid and ask price is introduced. Existence and the form of weak shadow price is shown. Using weak shadow price usual (called in the paper strong) shadow price is then constructed

Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construction, know-how and competitiveness

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aymerich, E.

2012-01-01

Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construction has continued with its international development in high technology projects, supported by highly skilled staff, an adequate strategy of alliances, a firm commitment to R and D and an important support from its internal organization. All this will be a key lever to successfully undertake new projects in the future, and to give a strong and effective support to the Iberdrola Group in all its needs. (Author)

Coupled field induced conversion between destructive and constructive quantum interference

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jiang, Xiangqian, E-mail: xqjiang@hit.edu.cn; Sun, Xiudong

2016-12-15

We study the control of quantum interference in a four-level atom driven by three coherent fields forming a closed loop. The spontaneous emission spectrum shows two sets of peaks which are dramatically influenced by the fields. Due to destructive quantum interference, a dark line can be observed in the emission spectrum, and the condition of the dark line is given. We found that the conversion between destructive and constructive quantum interference can be achieved through controlling the Rabi frequency of the external fields.

Electromotive force in strongly compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Science.gov (United States)

Yokoi, N.

2017-12-01

Variable density fluid turbulence is ubiquitous in geo-fluids, not to mention in astrophysics. Depending on the source of density variation, variable density fluid turbulence may be divided into two categories: the weak compressible (entropy mode) turbulence for slow flow and the strong compressible (acoustic mode) turbulence for fast flow. In the strong compressible turbulence, the pressure fluctuation induces a strong density fluctuation ρ ', which is represented by the density variance ( denotes the ensemble average). The turbulent effect on the large-scale magnetic-field B induction is represented by the turbulent electromotive force (EMF) (u': velocity fluctuation, b': magnetic-field fluctuation). In the usual treatment in the dynamo theory, the expression for the EMF has been obtained in the framework of incompressible or weak compressible turbulence, where only the variation of the mean density , if any, is taken into account. We see from the equation of the density fluctuation ρ', the density variance is generated by the large mean density variation ∂ coupled with the turbulent mass flux . This means that in the region where the mean density steeply changes, the density variance effect becomes relevant for the magnetic field evolution. This situation is typically the case for phenomena associated with shocks and compositional discontinuities. With the aid of the analytical theory of inhomogeneous compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, the expression for the turbulent electromotive force is investigated. It is shown that, among others, an obliqueness (misalignment) between the mean density gradient ∂ and the mean magnetic field B may contribute to the EMF as ≈χ B×∂ with the turbulent transport coefficient χ proportional to the density variance (χ ). This density variance effect is expected to strongly affect the EMF near the interface, and changes the transport properties of turbulence. In the case of an interface under the MHD slow

Disorder and pseudogap in strongly correlated systems: Phase diagram in the DMFT + Σ approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuleeva, N. A.; Kuchinskii, E. Z.

2013-01-01

The influence of disorder and pseudogap fluctuations on the Mott insulator-metal transition in strongly correlated systems has been studied in the framework of the generalized dynamic mean field theory (DMFT + Σ approach). Using the results of investigations of the density of states (DOS) and optical conductivity, a phase diagram (disorder-Hubbard interaction-temperature) is constructed for the paramagnetic Anderson-Hubbard model, which allows both the effects of strong electron correlations and the influence of strong disorder to be considered. Strong correlations are described using the DMFT, while a strong disorder is described using a generalized self-consistent theory of localization. The DOS and optical conductivity of the paramagnetic Hubbard model have been studied in a pseudogap state caused by antiferromagnetic spin (or charge) short-range order fluctuations with a finite correlation length, which have been modeled by a static Gaussian random field. The effect of a pseudogap on the Mott insulator-metal transition has been studied. It is established that, in both cases, the static Gaussian random field (related to the disorder or pseudogap fluctuations) leads to suppression of the Mott transition, broadening of the coexistence region of the insulator and metal phases, and an increase in the critical temperature at which the coexistence region disappears

Indigenous lunar construction materials

Science.gov (United States)

Rogers, Wayne P.; Sture, Stein

1991-01-01

design of the lunar shelter showed us that joining is a critical technology needed for building a structure from large segments. The problem of joining is important to the design of any structure that is not completely prefabricated. It is especially important when the structure is subjected to tensile loading by an internal pressure. For a lunar shelter constructed from large segments the joints between these large segments must be strong, and they must permit automated construction. With a cast basalt building material which is brittle, there is the additional problem of connecting the joint with the material and avoiding stress concentration that would cause failure. Thus, a well-defined project which we intend to pursue during this coming year is the design of joints for cast basalt structural elements.

The hydrological functioning of a constructed fen wetland watershed.

Science.gov (United States)

Ketcheson, Scott J; Price, Jonathan S; Sutton, Owen; Sutherland, George; Kessel, Eric; Petrone, Richard M

2017-12-15

Mine reclamation requires the reconstruction of entire landforms and drainage systems. The hydrological regime of reclaimed landscapes will be a manifestation of the processes operating within the individual landforms that comprise it. Hydrology is the most important process regulating wetland function and development, via strong controls on chemical and biotic processes. Accordingly, this research addresses the growing and immediate need to understand the hydrological processes that operate within reconstructed landscapes following resource extraction. In this study, the function of a constructed fen watershed (the Nikanotee Fen watershed) is evaluated for the first two years following construction (2013-2014) and is assessed and discussed within the context of the construction-level design. The system design was capable of sustaining wet conditions within the Nikanotee Fen during the snow-free period in 2013 and 2014, with persistent ponded water in some areas. Evapotranspiration dominated the water fluxes from the system. These losses were partially offset by groundwater discharge from the upland aquifer, which demonstrated strong hydrologic connectivity with the fen in spite of most construction materials having lower than targeted saturated hydraulic conductivities. However, the variable surface infiltration rates and thick placement of a soil-capping layer constrained recharge to the upland aquifer, which remained below designed water contents in much of the upland. These findings indicate that it is possible to engineer the landscape to accommodate the hydrological functions of a fen peatland following surface oil sands extraction. Future research priorities should include understanding the storage and release of water within coarse-grained reclaimed landforms as well as evaluating the relative importance of external water sources and internal water conservation mechanisms for the viability of fen ecosystems over the longer-term. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B

Pairing from strong repulsion in triangular lattice Hubbard model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shang-Shun; Zhu, Wei; Batista, Cristian D.

2018-04-01

We propose a pairing mechanism between holes in the dilute limit of doped frustrated Mott insulators. Hole pairing arises from a hole-hole-magnon three-body bound state. This pairing mechanism has its roots on single-hole kinetic energy frustration, which favors antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlations around the hole. We demonstrate that the AFM polaron (hole-magnon bound state) produced by a single hole propagating on a field-induced polarized background is strong enough to bind a second hole. The effective interaction between these three-body bound states is repulsive, implying that this pairing mechanism is relevant for superconductivity.

Strong association between house characteristics and malaria vectors in Sri Lanka

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Konradsen, Flemming; Amerasinghe, Priyanie; van der Hoek, Wim

2003-01-01

. The type of house construction and the exact location of all houses were determined. In a multivariate analysis, distance of less than 750 meters between a house and the main vector-breeding site was strongly associated with the presence of Anopheles culicifacies in the house (odds ratio [OR] 4.8, 95......The objective of this study was to determine whether house characteristics could be used to further refine the residual insecticide-spraying program in Sri Lanka. Indoor-resting mosquito densities were estimated in 473 houses based on fortnightly collections over a two-and-a-half-year period...

Strong-back safety latch

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

DeSantis, G.N.

1995-01-01

The calculation decides the integrity of the safety latch that will hold the strong-back to the pump during lifting. The safety latch will be welded to the strong-back and will latch to a 1.5-in. dia cantilever rod welded to the pump baseplate. The static and dynamic analysis shows that the safety latch will hold the strong-back to the pump if the friction clamps fail and the pump become free from the strong-back. Thus, the safety latch will meet the requirements of the Lifting and Rigging Manual for under the hook lifting for static loading; it can withstand shock loads from the strong-back falling 0.25 inch

Pentacene Excitons in Strong Electric Fields.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhnke, Klaus; Turkowski, Volodymyr; Kabakchiev, Alexander; Lutz, Theresa; Rahman, Talat S; Kern, Klaus

2018-02-05

Electroluminescence spectroscopy of organic semiconductors in the junction of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) provides access to the polarizability of neutral excited states in a well-characterized molecular geometry. We study the Stark shift of the self-trapped lowest singlet exciton at 1.6 eV in a pentacene nanocrystal. Combination of density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) with experiment allows for assignment of the observation to a charge-transfer (CT) exciton. Its charge separation is perpendicular to the applied field, as the measured polarizability is moderate and the electric field in the STM junction is strong enough to dissociate a CT exciton polarized parallel to the applied field. The calculated electric-field-induced anisotropy of the exciton potential energy surface will also be of relevance to photovoltaic applications. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Strong Selective Adsorption of Polymers.

Science.gov (United States)

Ge, Ting; Rubinstein, Michael

2015-06-09

A scaling theory is developed for selective adsorption of polymers induced by the strong binding between specific monomers and complementary surface adsorption sites. By "selective" we mean specific attraction between a subset of all monomers, called "sticky", and a subset of surface sites, called "adsorption sites". We demonstrate that, in addition to the expected dependence on the polymer volume fraction ϕ bulk in the bulk solution, selective adsorption strongly depends on the ratio between two characteristic length scales, the root-mean-square distance l between neighboring sticky monomers along the polymer, and the average distance d between neighboring surface adsorption sites. The role of the ratio l / d arises from the fact that a polymer needs to deform to enable the spatial commensurability between its sticky monomers and the surface adsorption sites for selective adsorption. We study strong selective adsorption of both telechelic polymers with two end monomers being sticky and multisticker polymers with many sticky monomers between sticky ends. For telechelic polymers, we identify four adsorption regimes at l / d 1, we expect that the adsorption layer at exponentially low ϕ bulk consists of separated unstretched loops, while as ϕ bulk increases the layer crosses over to a brush of extended loops with a second layer of weakly overlapping tails. For multisticker chains, in the limit of exponentially low ϕ bulk , adsorbed polymers are well separated from each other. As l / d increases, the conformation of an individual polymer changes from a single-end-adsorbed "mushroom" to a random walk of loops. For high ϕ bulk , adsorbed polymers at small l / d are mushrooms that cover all the adsorption sites. At sufficiently large l / d , adsorbed multisticker polymers strongly overlap. We anticipate the formation of a self-similar carpet and with increasing l / d a two-layer structure with a brush of loops covered by a self-similar carpet. As l / d exceeds the

Three-dimensional photodissociation in strong laser fields: Memory-kernel effective-mode expansion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Xuan; Thanopulos, Ioannis; Shapiro, Moshe

2011-01-01

We introduce a method for the efficient computation of non-Markovian quantum dynamics for strong (and time-dependent) system-bath interactions. The past history of the system dynamics is incorporated by expanding the memory kernel in exponential functions thereby transforming in an exact fashion the non-Markovian integrodifferential equations into a (larger) set of ''effective modes'' differential equations (EMDE). We have devised a method which easily diagonalizes the EMDE, thereby allowing for the efficient construction of an adiabatic basis and the fast propagation of the EMDE in time. We have applied this method to three-dimensional photodissociation of the H 2 + molecule by strong laser fields. Our calculations properly include resonance-Raman scattering via the continuum, resulting in extensive rotational and vibrational excitations. The calculated final kinetic and angular distribution of the photofragments are in overall excellent agreement with experiments, both when transform-limited pulses and when chirped pulses are used.

Construct Validity of the MMPI-2-RF Triarchic Psychopathy Scales in Correctional and Collegiate Samples.

Science.gov (United States)

Kutchen, Taylor J; Wygant, Dustin B; Tylicki, Jessica L; Dieter, Amy M; Veltri, Carlo O C; Sellbom, Martin

2017-01-01

This study examined the MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) Triarchic Psychopathy scales recently developed by Sellbom et al. ( 2016 ) in 3 separate groups of male correctional inmates and 2 college samples. Participants were administered a diverse battery of psychopathy specific measures (e.g., Psychopathy Checklist-Revised [Hare, 2003 ], Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised [Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005 ], Triarchic Psychopathy Measure [Patrick, 2010 ]), omnibus personality and psychopathology measures such as the Personality Assessment Inventory (Morey, 2007 ) and Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (Krueger, Derringer, Markon, Watson, & Skodol, 2012 ), and narrow-band measures that capture conceptually relevant constructs. Our results generally evidenced strong support for the convergent and discriminant validity for the MMPI-2-RF Triarchic scales. Boldness was largely associated with measures of fearless dominance, social potency, and stress immunity. Meanness showed strong relationships with measures of callousness, aggression, externalizing tendencies, and poor interpersonal functioning. Disinhibition exhibited strong associations with poor impulse control, stimulus seeking, and general externalizing proclivities. Our results provide additional construct validation to both the triarchic model and MMPI-2-RF Triarchic scales. Given the widespread use of the MMPI-2-RF in correctional and forensic settings, our results have important implications for clinical assessment in these 2 areas, where psychopathy is a highly relevant construct.

Anomalous transport phenomena in Fermi liquids with strong magnetic fluctuations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kontani, Hiroshi

2008-01-01

In this paper, we present recent developments in the theory of transport phenomena based on the Fermi liquid theory. In conventional metals, various transport coefficients are scaled according to the quasiparticles relaxation time, τ, which implies that the relaxation time approximation (RTA) holds well. However, such a simple scaling does not hold in many strongly correlated electron systems. The most famous example would be high-T c superconductors (HTSCs), where almost all the transport coefficients exhibit a significant deviation from the RTA results. This issue has been one of the most significant unresolved problems in HTSCs for a long time. Similar anomalous transport phenomena have been observed in metals near their antiferromagnetic (AF) quantum critical point (QCP). The main goal of this study is to demonstrate whether the anomalous transport phenomena in HTSC is evidence of a non-Fermi liquid ground state, or just RTA violation in strongly correlated Fermi liquids. Another goal is to establish a unified theory of anomalous transport phenomena in metals with strong magnetic fluctuations. For these purposes, we develop a method for calculating various transport coefficients beyond the RTA by employing field theoretical techniques. In a Fermi liquid, an excited quasiparticle induces other excited quasiparticles by collision, and current due to these excitations is called a current vertex correction (CVC). Landau noticed the existence of CVC first, which is indispensable for calculating transport coefficients in accord with the conservation laws. Here, we develop a transport theory involving resistivity and the Hall coefficient on the basis of the microscopic Fermi liquid theory, by considering the CVC. In nearly AF Fermi liquids, we find that the strong backward scattering due to AF fluctuations induces the CVC with prominent momentum dependence. This feature of the CVC can account for the significant enhancement in the Hall coefficient, magnetoresistance

Experimental realization of a highly secure chaos communication under strong channel noise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye Weiping; Dai Qionglin; Wang Shihong; Lu Huaping; Kuang Jinyu; Zhao Zhenfeng; Zhu Xiangqing; Tang Guoning; Huang Ronghuai; Hu Gang

2004-01-01

A one-way coupled spatiotemporally chaotic map lattice is used to construct cryptosystem. With the combinatorial applications of both chaotic computations and conventional algebraic operations, our system has optimal cryptographic properties much better than the separative applications of known chaotic and conventional methods. We have realized experiments to practice duplex voice secure communications in realistic Wired Public Switched Telephone Network by applying our chaotic system and the system of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), respectively, for cryptography. Our system can work stably against strong channel noise when AES fails to work

Experimental realization of a highly secure chaos communication under strong channel noise

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Weiping; Dai, Qionglin; Wang, Shihong; Lu, Huaping; Kuang, Jinyu; Zhao, Zhenfeng; Zhu, Xiangqing; Tang, Guoning; Huang, Ronghuai; Hu, Gang

2004-09-01

A one-way coupled spatiotemporally chaotic map lattice is used to construct cryptosystem. With the combinatorial applications of both chaotic computations and conventional algebraic operations, our system has optimal cryptographic properties much better than the separative applications of known chaotic and conventional methods. We have realized experiments to practice duplex voice secure communications in realistic Wired Public Switched Telephone Network by applying our chaotic system and the system of Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), respectively, for cryptography. Our system can work stably against strong channel noise when AES fails to work.

Polarized X-Ray Emission from Magnetized Neutron Stars: Signature of Strong-Field Vacuum Polarization

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Dong; Ho, Wynn C.

2003-08-01

In the atmospheric plasma of a strongly magnetized neutron star, vacuum polarization can induce a Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein type resonance across which an x-ray photon may (depending on its energy) convert from one mode into the other, with significant changes in opacities and polarizations. We show that this vacuum resonance effect gives rise to a unique energy-dependent polarization signature in the surface emission from neutron stars. The detection of polarized x rays from neutron stars can provide a direct probe of strong-field quantum electrodynamics and constrain the neutron star magnetic field and geometry.

Polarized x-ray emission from magnetized neutron stars: signature of strong-field vacuum polarization.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Dong; Ho, Wynn C G

2003-08-15

In the atmospheric plasma of a strongly magnetized neutron star, vacuum polarization can induce a Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein type resonance across which an x-ray photon may (depending on its energy) convert from one mode into the other, with significant changes in opacities and polarizations. We show that this vacuum resonance effect gives rise to a unique energy-dependent polarization signature in the surface emission from neutron stars. The detection of polarized x rays from neutron stars can provide a direct probe of strong-field quantum electrodynamics and constrain the neutron star magnetic field and geometry.

FRET enhancement close to gold nanoparticles positioned in DNA origami constructs.

Science.gov (United States)

Aissaoui, Nesrine; Moth-Poulsen, Kasper; Käll, Mikael; Johansson, Peter; Wilhelmsson, L Marcus; Albinsson, Bo

2017-01-05

Here we investigate the energy transfer rates of a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) pair positioned in close proximity to a 5 nm gold nanoparticle (AuNP) on a DNA origami construct. We study the distance dependence of the FRET rate by varying the location of the donor molecule, D, relative to the AuNP while maintaining a fixed location of the acceptor molecule, A. The presence of the AuNP induces an alteration in the spontaneous emission of the donor (including radiative and non-radiative rates) which is strongly dependent on the distance between the donor and AuNP surface. Simultaneously, the energy transfer rates are enhanced at shorter D-A (and D-AuNP) distances. Overall, in addition to the direct influence of the acceptor and AuNP on the donor decay there is also a significant increase in decay rate not explained by the sum of the two interactions. This leads to enhanced energy transfer between donor and acceptor in the presence of a 5 nm AuNP. We also demonstrate that the transfer rate in the three "particle" geometry (D + A + AuNP) depends approximately linearly on the transfer rate in the donor-AuNP system, suggesting the possibility to control FRET process with electric field induced by 5 nm AuNPs close to the donor fluorophore. It is concluded that DNA origami is a very versatile platform for studying interactions between molecules and plasmonic nanoparticles in general and FRET enhancement in particular.

Construction of Egr1-mediated human truncated apoptosis inducing factor expression vector and its expression regularity induced by radiation in breast cancer MCF-7 cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Jianfeng; Gong Shouliang; Wang Zhicheng; Fang Fang; Liu Yang; Wu Jiahui

2012-01-01

Objective: To clone human truncated apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) cDNA sequence, and to construct early growth response 1 (Egr1)-mediated recombinant expression vector pcDNA 3.1-Egr1-AIF Δ1-480 (pEgr1-AIFΔ 1-480 ), and to observe its regularity induced by radiation in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Methods: The total mRNA extracted from human leukemia Jurkat cells used as template, and the human AIFΔ 1-480 was acquired by RT-PCR, and it was linked to pMD18T vector for sequencing. Egr1 fragment was digested from pMD19T-Egr1 by restrictive enzyme, and the Egr1-mediated expression plasmid pEgr1-AIFΔ 1-480 was constructed by gene recombination. There were control group, pcDNA3.1 group, pAIFΔ 1-480 group and pEgr1-AIFΔ 1-480 group in the experiment. After the plasmids in various groups were transfected into human breast cancer MCF-7 cells, the AIF and AIFΔ 1-480 protein expression time-effect (0, 2, 4, 12, 24 and 48 h after 2.0 Gy irradiation) and dose-effect (24 h after 0, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 Gy irradiation) regularity were measured by Western blotting method. Results: The sequencing results showed that the AIFΔ 1-480 acquired by RT-PCR was consistent with the sequence expected, the pEgr-AIFΔ 1-480 was confirmed by PCR and restrictive enzyme digestion. After 0-48 h the MCF-7 cells were irradiated by 2.0 Gy, and the AIF protein expressed in the cells in each group, and it increased significantly from 4 h and the AIF expressions in 4, 12, 24 and 48 h groups were higher than that in 0 h group (P<0.05), and it reached to maximum value at 48 h. But the AIFΔ 1-480 protein expressed in the cells in pAIFΔ 1-480 and pEgr1-AIFΔ 1-480 groups from 2 h (P<0.05), and it reached to peak value at 24 h. The AIFΔ 1-480 expressions in pEgr1-AIFΔ 1-480 group were higher than those in pAIFΔ 1-480 group at and 48 h (P<0.05). After the MCF-7 cells were irradiated by 0-5 Gy for 24 h, the AIF protein expressed in the cells in each group, but the AIFΔ 1-480 protein

Constructal tree-shaped two-phase flow for cooling a surface

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zamfirescu, C.; Bejan, A. [Duke University, Durham, NC (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

2003-07-01

This paper documents the strong relation that exists between the changing architecture of a complex flow system and the maximization of global performance under constraints. The system is a surface with uniform heating per unit area, which is cooled by a network with evaporating two-phase flow. Illustrations are based on the design of the cooling network for a skating rink. The flow structure is optimized as a sequence of building blocks, which starts with the smallest (elemental volume of fixed size), and continues with assemblies of stepwise larger sizes (first construct, second construct, etc.). The optimized flow network is tree shaped. Three features of the elemental volume are optimized: the cross-sectional shape, the elemental tube diameter, and the shape of the elemental area viewed from above. The tree that emerges at larger scales is optimized for minimal amount of header material and fixed pressure drop. The optimal number of constituents in each new (larger) construct decreases as the size and complexity of the construct increase. Constructs of various levels of complexity compete: the paper shows how to select the optimal flow structure subject to fixed size (cooled surface), pressure drop and amount of header material. (author)

Interplay of Anderson localization and strong interaction in disordered systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Henseler, Peter

2010-01-15

We study the interplay of disorder localization and strong local interactions within the Anderson-Hubbard model. Taking into account local Mott-Hubbard physics and static screening of the disorder potential, the system is mapped onto an effective single-particle Anderson model, which is studied within the self-consistent theory of electron localization. For fermions, we find rich nonmonotonic behavior of the localization length {xi}, particularly in two-dimensional systems, including an interaction-induced exponential enhancement of {xi} for small and intermediate disorders and a strong reduction of {xi} due to hopping suppression by strong interactions. In three dimensions, we identify for half filling a Mott-Hubbard-assisted Anderson localized phase existing between the metallic and the Mott-Hubbard-gapped phases. For small U there is re-entrant behavior from the Anderson localized phase to the metallic phase. For bosons, the unrestricted particle occupation number per lattice site yields a monotonic enhancement of {xi} as a function of decreasing interaction, which we assume to persist until the superfluid Bose-Einstein condensate phase is entered. Besides, we study cold atomic gases expanding, by a diffusion process, in a weak random potential. We show that the density-density correlation function of the expanding gas is strongly affected by disorder and we estimate the typical size of a speckle spot, i.e., a region of enhanced or depleted density. Both a Fermi gas and a Bose-Einstein condensate (in a mean-field approach) are considered. (orig.)

Interplay of Anderson localization and strong interaction in disordered systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henseler, Peter

2010-01-01

We study the interplay of disorder localization and strong local interactions within the Anderson-Hubbard model. Taking into account local Mott-Hubbard physics and static screening of the disorder potential, the system is mapped onto an effective single-particle Anderson model, which is studied within the self-consistent theory of electron localization. For fermions, we find rich nonmonotonic behavior of the localization length ξ, particularly in two-dimensional systems, including an interaction-induced exponential enhancement of ξ for small and intermediate disorders and a strong reduction of ξ due to hopping suppression by strong interactions. In three dimensions, we identify for half filling a Mott-Hubbard-assisted Anderson localized phase existing between the metallic and the Mott-Hubbard-gapped phases. For small U there is re-entrant behavior from the Anderson localized phase to the metallic phase. For bosons, the unrestricted particle occupation number per lattice site yields a monotonic enhancement of ξ as a function of decreasing interaction, which we assume to persist until the superfluid Bose-Einstein condensate phase is entered. Besides, we study cold atomic gases expanding, by a diffusion process, in a weak random potential. We show that the density-density correlation function of the expanding gas is strongly affected by disorder and we estimate the typical size of a speckle spot, i.e., a region of enhanced or depleted density. Both a Fermi gas and a Bose-Einstein condensate (in a mean-field approach) are considered. (orig.)

Facilitating Industrial Placement in the Construction Engineering Curriculum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wandahl, Søren; Ussing, Lene Faber

2016-01-01

outset in the hypothesis that external effectiveness (industry readiness) is better in those modes of education that, at least in part, are based on the world of work itself, and several sources highlight the necessity of strong links between engineering education and industry. Hence, it becomes central......There is often a claim that there is a disconnection between theory and practice, which raises questions on student’s readiness for employment and the extent that higher education responds effectively to the evolving needs of the construction industry. Industrial placements schemes can facilitate...... student learning from construction practice whereby students can reflect on their learning experience at the university. The interplay between traditional engineering curriculum and the context-based learning is important for securing the right skills and competencies among the graduates. This paper takes...

Use of soil-cement block as an alternative to the construction of popular houses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azevedo, A.R.G.; Alexandre, J.; Ribeiro Junior, J. R.

2012-01-01

The construction industry in Brazil, after several years in decline, is currently undergoing a growing trend, which can be observed daily by the large number of construction sites around the country, whether public or private. However when it comes to developments in methods of construction sector appears that little progress was made, built in a very rudimentary compared to other countries and we still have some concerns with the new technology, whether raw materials or methods of construction, which eventually generate large waste caused by the lack of streamlining processes and increasing the cost of works in general, and in this context that this paper proposes a study of the constructive model based on the use of soil-cement masonry, which comes as an alternative more economical, with a strong environmental appeal and the growing demand for building low cost houses (ideal for this constructive model). (author)

Non-equilibrium magnetic interactions in strongly correlated systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Secchi, A., E-mail: a.secchi@science.ru.nl [Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 AJ Nijmegen (Netherlands); Brener, S.; Lichtenstein, A.I. [Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universitat Hamburg, Jungiusstraße 9, D-20355 Hamburg (Germany); Katsnelson, M.I. [Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 AJ Nijmegen (Netherlands)

2013-06-15

We formulate a low-energy theory for the magnetic interactions between electrons in the multi-band Hubbard model under non-equilibrium conditions determined by an external time-dependent electric field which simulates laser-induced spin dynamics. We derive expressions for dynamical exchange parameters in terms of non-equilibrium electronic Green functions and self-energies, which can be computed, e.g., with the methods of time-dependent dynamical mean-field theory. Moreover, we find that a correct description of the system requires, in addition to exchange, a new kind of magnetic interaction, that we name twist exchange, which formally resembles Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya coupling, but is not due to spin–orbit, and is actually due to an effective three-spin interaction. Our theory allows the evaluation of the related time-dependent parameters as well. -- Highlights: •We develop a theory for magnetism of strongly correlated systems out of equilibrium. •Our theory is suitable for laser-induced ultrafast magnetization dynamics. •We write time-dependent exchange parameters in terms of electronic Green functions. •We find a new magnetic interaction, a “twist exchange”. •We give general expressions for magnetic noise in itinerant-electron systems.

Numerical analysis of the thermally induced flow in a strongly rotating gas centrifuge

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Novelli, P.

1982-04-01

The present work is concerned with the numerical analysis of the thermally induced flow in a rapidly gas centrifuge. The primary purpose for this work is to investigate the dependence of the flow field on the thermal boundary conditions, angular speed, aspect ratio of the cylinder, holdup. Some of our results are compared with the predictions of asymptotic theories, particularly those of Sakurai-Mtsuda and Brouwers, and with the numerical results of Dickinson-Jones.

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diana Rausch

Full Text Available The analysis of open-minded attitudes towards sexuality in general requires a construct based on attitudinal dimensions. Although several existing studies involve sexual attitudes, they differ substantially and standardized conceptual work is missing. Thus, the authors introduce the latent variable sexual openness to develop a construct based on self-oriented attitudes towards different sexual topics. Available survey data of female German students in a steady relationship allowed providing a first empirical test for the applicability of this construct. Five subdimensions are acknowledged central for sexual openness: sexual practices, masturbation, bisexuality, permissiveness, and pornography consumption. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlations confirmed the idea of an underlying mechanism with an impact on all five variables. Though further validation of the construct of sexual openness is required, the findings strongly support the notion of an overarching latent attitude variable, which influences the individual relation to everything sexual. The results were compared to other studies and potential approaches for future analyses were proposed.

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships

Science.gov (United States)

Rausch, Diana; Dekker, Arne; Rettenberger, Martin

2017-01-01

The analysis of open-minded attitudes towards sexuality in general requires a construct based on attitudinal dimensions. Although several existing studies involve sexual attitudes, they differ substantially and standardized conceptual work is missing. Thus, the authors introduce the latent variable sexual openness to develop a construct based on self-oriented attitudes towards different sexual topics. Available survey data of female German students in a steady relationship allowed providing a first empirical test for the applicability of this construct. Five subdimensions are acknowledged central for sexual openness: sexual practices, masturbation, bisexuality, permissiveness, and pornography consumption. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlations confirmed the idea of an underlying mechanism with an impact on all five variables. Though further validation of the construct of sexual openness is required, the findings strongly support the notion of an overarching latent attitude variable, which influences the individual relation to everything sexual. The results were compared to other studies and potential approaches for future analyses were proposed. PMID:28636608

The construct of sexual openness for females in steady intimate relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Rausch, Diana; Dekker, Arne; Rettenberger, Martin

2017-01-01

The analysis of open-minded attitudes towards sexuality in general requires a construct based on attitudinal dimensions. Although several existing studies involve sexual attitudes, they differ substantially and standardized conceptual work is missing. Thus, the authors introduce the latent variable sexual openness to develop a construct based on self-oriented attitudes towards different sexual topics. Available survey data of female German students in a steady relationship allowed providing a first empirical test for the applicability of this construct. Five subdimensions are acknowledged central for sexual openness: sexual practices, masturbation, bisexuality, permissiveness, and pornography consumption. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlations confirmed the idea of an underlying mechanism with an impact on all five variables. Though further validation of the construct of sexual openness is required, the findings strongly support the notion of an overarching latent attitude variable, which influences the individual relation to everything sexual. The results were compared to other studies and potential approaches for future analyses were proposed.

An Antibody Blocking Activin Type II Receptors Induces Strong Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy and Protects from Atrophy

Science.gov (United States)

Minetti, Giulia C.; Sheppard, KellyAnn; Ibebunjo, Chikwendu; Feige, Jerome N.; Hartmann, Steffen; Brachat, Sophie; Rivet, Helene; Koelbing, Claudia; Morvan, Frederic; Hatakeyama, Shinji

2014-01-01

The myostatin/activin type II receptor (ActRII) pathway has been identified to be critical in regulating skeletal muscle size. Several other ligands, including GDF11 and the activins, signal through this pathway, suggesting that the ActRII receptors are major regulatory nodes in the regulation of muscle mass. We have developed a novel, human anti-ActRII antibody (bimagrumab, or BYM338) to prevent binding of ligands to the receptors and thus inhibit downstream signaling. BYM338 enhances differentiation of primary human skeletal myoblasts and counteracts the inhibition of differentiation induced by myostatin or activin A. BYM338 prevents myostatin- or activin A-induced atrophy through inhibition of Smad2/3 phosphorylation, thus sparing the myosin heavy chain from degradation. BYM338 dramatically increases skeletal muscle mass in mice, beyond sole inhibition of myostatin, detected by comparing the antibody with a myostatin inhibitor. A mouse version of the antibody induces enhanced muscle hypertrophy in myostatin mutant mice, further confirming a beneficial effect on muscle growth beyond myostatin inhibition alone through blockade of ActRII ligands. BYM338 protects muscles from glucocorticoid-induced atrophy and weakness via prevention of muscle and tetanic force losses. These data highlight the compelling therapeutic potential of BYM338 for the treatment of skeletal muscle atrophy and weakness in multiple settings. PMID:24298022

Co-Constructed Identities and Literacy Practices: How Identities of One Teacher and Her First Grade Students Are Enacted and Co-Constructed through Literacy Practices and a Third Space

Science.gov (United States)

Ramlal, Sasha R.

2014-01-01

This dissertation explored how identities of students and a teacher in a first grade classroom were co-constructed through various literacy practices and within a third space. Drawing on research that documented the strong connection between literacy and identity and its socio-cultural connections, this qualitative study incorporates ethnographic…

Strong Langmuir turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Goldman, M.V.

1984-01-01

After a brief discussion of beam-excited Langmuir turbulence in the solar wind, we explain the criteria for wave-particle, three-wave and strong turbulence interactions. We then present the results of a numerical integration of the Zakharov equations, which describe the strong turbulence saturation of a weak (low-density) high energy, bump-on-tail beam instability. (author)

A case-control study of airways obstruction among construction workers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dement, John; Welch, Laura; Ringen, Knut; Quinn, Patricia; Chen, Anna; Haas, Scott

2015-10-01

While smoking is the major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), occupational exposures to vapors, gases, dusts, and fumes (VGDF) increase COPD risk. This case-control study estimated the risk of COPD attributable to occupational exposures among construction workers. The study population included 834 cases and 1243 controls participating in a national medical screening program for older construction workers between 1997 and 2013. Qualitative exposure indices were developed based on lifetime work and exposure histories. Approximately 18% (95% CI = 2-24%) of COPD risk can be attributed to construction-related exposures, which are additive to the risk contributed by smoking. A measure of all VGDF exposures combined was a strong predictor of COPD risk. Construction workers are at increased risk of COPD as a result of broad and complex effects of many exposures acting independently or interactively. Control methods should be implemented to prevent worker exposures, and smoking cessation should be promoted. © 2015 The Authors. American Journal of Industrial Medicine Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Vortex dynamics in type-II superconductors under strong pinning conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Thomann, A. U.; Geshkenbein, V. B.; Blatter, G.

2017-10-01

We study effects of pinning on the dynamics of a vortex lattice in a type-II superconductor in the strong-pinning situation and determine the force-velocity (or current-voltage) characteristic combining analytical and numerical methods. Our analysis deals with a small density np of defects that act with a large force fp on the vortices, thereby inducing bistable configurations that are a characteristic feature of strong pinning theory. We determine the velocity-dependent average pinning-force density 〈Fp(v ) 〉 and find that it changes on the velocity scale vp˜fp/η a03 , where η is the viscosity of vortex motion and a0 the distance between vortices. In the small pin-density limit, this velocity is much larger than the typical flow velocity vc˜Fc/η of the free vortex system at drives near the critical force density Fc=〈Fp(v =0 ) 〉 ∝npfp . As a result, we find a generic excess-force characteristic, a nearly linear force-velocity characteristic shifted by the critical force density Fc; the linear flux-flow regime is approached only at large drives. Our analysis provides a derivation of Coulomb's law of dry friction for the case of strong vortex pinning.

Strong Motion Earthquake Data Values of Digitized Strong-Motion Accelerograms, 1933-1994

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Strong Motion Earthquake Data Values of Digitized Strong-Motion Accelerograms is a database of over 15,000 digitized and processed accelerograph records from...

Strong-Field Physics with Mid-IR Fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin Wolter

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Strong-field physics is currently experiencing a shift towards the use of mid-IR driving wavelengths. This is because they permit conducting experiments unambiguously in the quasistatic regime and enable exploiting the effects related to ponderomotive scaling of electron recollisions. Initial measurements taken in the mid-IR immediately led to a deeper understanding of photoionization and allowed a discrimination among different theoretical models. Ponderomotive scaling of rescattering has enabled new avenues towards time-resolved probing of molecular structure. Essential for this paradigm shift was the convergence of two experimental tools: (1 intense mid-IR sources that can create high-energy photons and electrons while operating within the quasistatic regime and (2 detection systems that can detect the generated high-energy particles and image the entire momentum space of the interaction in full coincidence. Here, we present a unique combination of these two essential ingredients, namely, a 160-kHz mid-IR source and a reaction microscope detection system, to present an experimental methodology that provides an unprecedented three-dimensional view of strong-field interactions. The system is capable of generating and detecting electron energies that span a 6 order of magnitude dynamic range. We demonstrate the versatility of the system by investigating electron recollisions, the core process that drives strong-field phenomena, at both low (meV and high (hundreds of eV energies. The low-energy region is used to investigate recently discovered low-energy structures, while the high-energy electrons are used to probe atomic structure via laser-induced electron diffraction. Moreover, we present, for the first time, the correlated momentum distribution of electrons from nonsequential double ionization driven by mid-IR pulses.

Nanoparticle shapes by using Wulff constructions and first-principles calculations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgios D. Barmparis

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Background: The majority of complex and advanced materials contain nanoparticles. The properties of these materials depend crucially on the size and shape of these nanoparticles. Wulff construction offers a simple method of predicting the equilibrium shape of nanoparticles given the surface energies of the material.Results: We review the mathematical formulation and the main applications of Wulff construction during the last two decades. We then focus to three recent extensions: active sites of metal nanoparticles for heterogeneous catalysis, ligand-protected nanoparticles generated as colloidal suspensions and nanoparticles of complex metal hydrides for hydrogen storage.Conclusion: Wulff construction, in particular when linked to first-principles calculations, is a powerful tool for the analysis and prediction of the shapes of nanoparticles and tailor the properties of shape-inducing species.

p21-ras effector domain mutants constructed by "cassette" mutagenesis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stone, J C; Vass, W C; Willumsen, B M

1988-01-01

A series of mutations encoding single-amino-acid substitutions within the v-rasH effector domain were constructed, and the ability of the mutants to induce focal transformation of NIH 3T3 cells was studied. The mutations, which spanned codons 32 to 40, were made by a "cassette" mutagenesis...

Testing Non-commutative QED, Constructing Non-commutative MHD

OpenAIRE

Guralnik, Z.; Jackiw, R.; Pi, S. Y.; Polychronakos, A. P.

2001-01-01

The effect of non-commutativity on electromagnetic waves violates Lorentz invariance: in the presence of a background magnetic induction field b, the velocity for propagation transverse to b differs from c, while propagation along b is unchanged. In principle, this allows a test by the Michelson-Morley interference method. We also study non-commutativity in another context, by constructing the theory describing a charged fluid in a strong magnetic field, which forces the fluid particles into ...

Localized-magnon states in strongly frustrated quantum spin lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richter, J.

2005-01-01

Recent developments concerning localized-magnon eigenstates in strongly frustrated spin lattices and their effect on the low-temperature physics of these systems in high magnetic fields are reviewed. After illustrating the construction and the properties of localized-magnon states we describe the plateau and the jump in the magnetization process caused by these states. Considering appropriate lattice deformations fitting to the localized magnons we discuss a spin-Peierls instability in high magnetic fields related to these states. Last but not least we consider the degeneracy of the localized-magnon eigenstates and the related thermodynamics in high magnetic fields. In particular, we discuss the low-temperature maximum in the isothermal entropy versus field curve and the resulting enhanced magnetocaloric effect, which allows efficient magnetic cooling from quite large temperatures down to very low ones

Construction management

CERN Document Server

Pellicer, Eugenio; Teixeira, José C; Moura, Helder P; Catalá, Joaquín

2014-01-01

The management of construction projects is a wide ranging and challenging discipline in an increasingly international industry, facing continual challenges and demands for improvements in safety, in quality and cost control, and in the avoidance of contractual disputes. Construction Management grew out of a Leonardo da Vinci project to develop a series of Common Learning Outcomes for European Managers in Construction. Financed by the European Union, the project aimed to develop a library of basic materials for developing construction management skills for use in a pan-European context. Focused exclusively on the management of the construction phase of a building project from the contractor's point of view, Construction Management covers the complete range of topics of which mastery is required by the construction management professional for the effective delivery of new construction projects. With the continued internationalisation of the construction industry, Construction Management will be required rea...

Raising European Citizens: Constructing European Identities in French and English Textbooks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Inari Sakki

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Schools play a pivotal role in the formation of identities and in the political socialization of youth. This study explores the social representations of European integration in French and English school textbooks and shows how the social representations are discursively used to construct national and European identities. By analysing the history and civics textbooks of major educational publishers, this study aims to demonstrate how European integration is understood, made familiar and concretized in the school textbooks of the two influential but different European countries. The findings suggest some shared and some diverse patterns in the way the two European countries portray and construct the political project of European integration. These representations, constructed around French Europe in French textbooks and ambivalent Europe in English textbooks, share the images of a strong European economy and a French-led political Europe. However, they position themselves differently with respect to the United States, motivation for the European unification process and the significance of common values and heritage. In both countries textbooks draw upon memories that are important for group identity. While the French textbooks make European integration meaningful in reference to a shared post-war collective memory and to a cultural memory based on a more ancient idea of Europe, shared values and heritage, the English textbooks anchor it more strongly to domestic policy.

Construction of a Risk Assessment Model for Rainfall-Induced Landslides

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yie-Ruey; Tsai, Kuang-Jung; Chen, Jing-Wen; Lin, Wei-Chung

2013-04-01

The unstable geology and steep terrain in the mountainous regions of Taiwan make these areas vulnerable to landslides and debris flow during typhoons and heavy rains. According to the Water Resources Agency, Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan, there were 500 typhoons and over one thousand storms in Taiwan between 1897 and 2011. Natural disasters caused 3.5 billion USD of damage between 1983 and 2011. Thus, the construction of risk assessment model for landslides is essential to disaster prevention. This study employed genetic adaptive neural networks (GANN) with texture analysis in the classification of high-resolution satellite images from which data related to surface conditions in mountainous areas of Taiwan were derived. Ten landslide hazard potential factors are included: slope, geology, elevation, distance from the fault, distance from water, terrain roughness, slope roughness, effective accumulated rainfall and developing situation. By using correlation test, GANN, weight analysis and dangerous value method, levels and probabilities of landslide of the research areas are presented. Then, through geographic information system the landslide potential map is plotted to distinguish high potential regions from low potential regions. Through field surveys, interviews with district officials and a review of relevant literature, the probability of a sediment disaster was estimated as well as the vulnerability of the villages concerned and the degree to which these villages were prepared, to construct a risk evaluation model. The regional risk map was plotted with the help of GIS and the landslide assessment model. The risk assessment model can be used by authorities to make provisions for high-risk areas, to reduce the number of casualties and social costs of sediment disasters.

Revaluering benchmarking - A topical theme for the construction industry

OpenAIRE

Rasmussen, Grane Mikael Gregaard

2011-01-01

Over the past decade, benchmarking has increasingly gained foothold in the construction industry. The predominant research, perceptions and uses of benchmarking are valued so strongly and uniformly, that what may seem valuable, is actually abstaining researchers and practitioners from studying and questioning the concept objectively. This paper addresses the underlying nature of benchmarking, and accounts for the importance of focusing attention on the sociological impacts benchmarking has in...

Particle creation phenomenology, Dirac sea and the induced Weyl and Einstein-dilaton gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Berezin, V.A.; Dokuchaev, V.I.; Eroshenko, Yu.N., E-mail: berezin@inr.ac.ru, E-mail: dokuchaev@inr.ac.ru, E-mail: eroshenko@inr.ac.ru [Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, 60th October Anniversary Prospect 7a, 117312 Moscow (Russian Federation)

2017-01-01

We constructed the conformally invariant model for scalar particle creation induced by strong gravitational fields. Starting from the 'usual' hydrodynamical description of the particle motion written in the Eulerian coordinates we substituted the particle number conservation law (which enters the formalism) by 'the particle creation law', proportional to the square of the Weyl tensor (following the famous result by Ya.B. Zel'dovich and A.A. Starobinsky). Then, demanding the conformal invariance of the whole dynamical system, we have got both the (Weyl)-conformal gravity and the Einstein-Hilbert gravity action integral with dilaton field. Thus, we obtained something like the induced gravity suggested first by A.D. Sakharov. It is shown that the resulting system is self-consistent. We considered also the vacuum equations. It is shown that, beside the 'empty vacuum', there may exist the 'dynamical vacuum', which is nothing more but the Dirac sea. The latter is described by the unexpectedly elegant equation which includes both the Bach and Einstein tensors and the cosmological terms.

DALY-Based Health Risk Assessment of Construction Noise in Beijing, China

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Jun; Li, Xiaodong; Zhang, Zhihui

2016-01-01

Noise produced by construction activities has become the second most serious acoustic polluting element in China. To provide industry practitioners with a better understanding of the health risks of construction noise and to aid in creating environmentally friendly construction plans during early construction stages, we developed a quantitative model to assess the health impairment risks (HIA) associated with construction noise for individuals living adjacent to construction sites. This model classifies noise-induced health impairments into four categories: cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment, sleep disturbance, and annoyance, and uses disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) as an indicator of damage. Furthermore, the value of a statistical life (VSL) is used to transform DALYs into a monetary value based on the affected demographic characteristics, thereby offering policy makers a reliable theoretical foundation for establishing reasonable standards to compensate residents suffering from construction noise. A practical earthwork project in Beijing is used as a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model. The results indicate that construction noise could bring significant health risks to the neighboring resident community, with an estimated 34.51 DALYs of health damage and 20.47 million yuan in social costs. In particular, people aged 45–54 are most vulnerable to construction noise, with the greatest health risks being caused by sleep disturbance. PMID:27792207

Construction and Use of Recombinant Isogenic Cell Libraries in Functional Genomics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Helle

  While nowadays robotics enable performing whole genome functional screens within a few days, the availability of suitable cellular systems to investigate the function or pathway of choice represents as a major bottleneck. In most applications, it is desirable to use cell lines with stably...... or inactivation of a gene of choice in a constitutive or tetracycline-inducible fashion. We also provide proof-of-principle that this technique can be used for the construction of double recombinant cell lines, which allows for analyses at advanced levels of complexity, e. g. by the construction of double...

Chimeric Hemagglutinin Constructs Induce Broad Protection against Influenza B Virus Challenge in the Mouse Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ermler, Megan E; Kirkpatrick, Ericka; Sun, Weina; Hai, Rong; Amanat, Fatima; Chromikova, Veronika; Palese, Peter; Krammer, Florian

2017-06-15

Seasonal influenza virus epidemics represent a significant public health burden. Approximately 25% of all influenza virus infections are caused by type B viruses, and these infections can be severe, especially in children. Current influenza virus vaccines are an effective prophylaxis against infection but are impacted by rapid antigenic drift, which can lead to mismatches between vaccine strains and circulating strains. Here, we describe a broadly protective vaccine candidate based on chimeric hemagglutinins, consisting of globular head domains from exotic influenza A viruses and stalk domains from influenza B viruses. Sequential vaccination with these constructs in mice leads to the induction of broadly reactive antibodies that bind to the conserved stalk domain of influenza B virus hemagglutinin. Vaccinated mice are protected from lethal challenge with diverse influenza B viruses. Results from serum transfer experiments and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) assays indicate that this protection is antibody mediated and based on Fc effector functions. The present data suggest that chimeric hemagglutinin-based vaccination is a viable strategy to broadly protect against influenza B virus infection. IMPORTANCE While current influenza virus vaccines are effective, they are affected by mismatches between vaccine strains and circulating strains. Furthermore, the antiviral drug oseltamivir is less effective for treating influenza B virus infections than for treating influenza A virus infections. A vaccine that induces broad and long-lasting protection against influenza B viruses is therefore urgently needed. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

Electrospun silk fibroin/poly (L-lactide-ε-caplacton) graft with platelet-rich growth factor for inducing smooth muscle cell growth and infiltration.

Science.gov (United States)

Yin, Anlin; Bowlin, Gary L; Luo, Rifang; Zhang, Xingdong; Wang, Yunbing; Mo, Xiumei

2016-12-01

The construction of a smooth muscle layer for blood vessel through electrospinning method plays a key role in vascular tissue engineering. However, smooth muscle cells (SMCs) penetration into the electrospun graft to form a smooth muscle layer is limited due to the dense packing of fibers and lack of inducing factors. In this paper, silk fibroin/poly (L-lactide-ε-caplacton) (SF/PLLA-CL) vascular graft loaded with platelet-rich growth factor (PRGF) was fabricated by electrospinning. The in vitro results showed that SMCs cultured in the graft grew fast, and the incorporation of PRGF could induce deeper SMCs infiltrating compared to the SF/PLLA-CL graft alone. Mechanical properties measurement showed that PRGF-incorporated graft had proper tensile stress, suture retention strength, burst pressure and compliance which could match the demand of native blood vessel. The success in the fabrication of PRGF-incorporated SF/PLLA-CL graft to induce fast SMCs growth and their strong penetration into graft has important application for tissue-engineered blood vessels.

Pair copula constructions to determine the dependence structure of Treasury bond yields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcelo Brutti Righi

2015-12-01

Full Text Available We estimated the dependence structure of US Treasury bonds through a pair copula construction. As a result, we verified that the variability of the yields decreases with a longer time of maturity of the bond. The yields presented strong dependence with past values, strongly positive bivariate associations between the daily variations, and prevalence of the Student's t copula in the relationships between the bonds. Furthermore, in tail associations, we identified relevant values in most of the relationships, which highlights the importance of risk management in the context of bonds diversification.

Controlled self-assembly of multiferroic core-shell nanoparticles exhibiting strong magneto-electric effects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sreenivasulu, Gollapudi; Hamilton, Sean L.; Lehto, Piper R.; Srinivasan, Gopalan, E-mail: srinivas@oakland.edu [Physics Department, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309-4401 (United States); Popov, Maksym [Physics Department, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309-4401 (United States); Radiophysics Department, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv 01601 (Ukraine); Chavez, Ferman A. [Chemistry Department, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309-4401 (United States)

2014-02-03

Ferromagnetic-ferroelectric composites show strain mediated coupling between the magnetic and electric sub-systems due to magnetostriction and piezoelectric effects associated with the ferroic phases. We have synthesized core-shell multiferroic nano-composites by functionalizing 10–100 nm barium titanate and nickel ferrite nanoparticles with complementary coupling groups and allowing them to self-assemble in the presence of a catalyst. The core-shell structure was confirmed by electron microscopy and magnetic force microscopy. Evidence for strong strain mediated magneto-electric coupling was obtained by static magnetic field induced variations in the permittivity over 16–18 GHz and polarization and by electric field induced by low-frequency ac magnetic fields.

Iterative solutions of nonlinear equations with strongly accretive or strongly pseudocontractive maps

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chidume, C.E.

1994-03-01

Let E be a real q-uniformly smooth Banach space. Suppose T is a strongly pseudo-contractive map with open domain D(T) in E. Suppose further that T has a fixed point in D(T). Under various continuity assumptions on T it is proved that each of the Mann iteration process or the Ishikawa iteration method converges strongly to the unique fixed point of T. Related results deal with iterative solutions of nonlinear operator equations involving strongly accretive maps. Explicit error estimates are also provided. (author). 38 refs

Prediction of strong earthquake motions on rock surface using evolutionary process models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kameda, H.; Sugito, M.

1984-01-01

Stochastic process models are developed for prediction of strong earthquake motions for engineering design purposes. Earthquake motions with nonstationary frequency content are modeled by using the concept of evolutionary processes. Discussion is focused on the earthquake motions on bed rocks which are important for construction of nuclear power plants in seismic regions. On this basis, two earthquake motion prediction models are developed, one (EMP-IB Model) for prediction with given magnitude and epicentral distance, and the other (EMP-IIB Model) to account for the successive fault ruptures and the site location relative to the fault of great earthquakes. (Author) [pt

Strong coupling between a single nitrogen-vacancy spin and the rotational mode of diamonds levitating in an ion trap

Science.gov (United States)

Delord, T.; Nicolas, L.; Chassagneux, Y.; Hétet, G.

2017-12-01

A scheme for strong coupling between a single atomic spin and the rotational mode of levitating nanoparticles is proposed. The idea is based on spin readout of nitrogen-vacancy centers embedded in aspherical nanodiamonds levitating in an ion trap. We show that the asymmetry of the diamond induces a rotational confinement in the ion trap. Using a weak homogeneous magnetic field and a strong microwave driving we then demonstrate that the spin of the nitrogen-vacancy center can be strongly coupled to the rotational mode of the diamond.

Construction history and construction management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Agh, S.

1999-01-01

The process of pre-design and design preparation of the Mochovce NPP as well as the construction history of the plant is highlighted, including the financing aspect and problems arising from changes in the technological and other conditions of start-up of the reactor units. The results of international audits performed to improve the level of nuclear safety and implementation of the measures suggested are also described. The milestones of the whole construction process and start-up process, the control and quality system, and the methods of control and management of the complex construction project are outlined. (author)

Constructing Aligned Assessments Using Automated Test Construction

Science.gov (United States)

Porter, Andrew; Polikoff, Morgan S.; Barghaus, Katherine M.; Yang, Rui

2013-01-01

We describe an innovative automated test construction algorithm for building aligned achievement tests. By incorporating the algorithm into the test construction process, along with other test construction procedures for building reliable and unbiased assessments, the result is much more valid tests than result from current test construction…

Strong Convergence Iterative Algorithms for Equilibrium Problems and Fixed Point Problems in Banach Spaces

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shenghua Wang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We first introduce the concept of Bregman asymptotically quasinonexpansive mappings and prove that the fixed point set of this kind of mappings is closed and convex. Then we construct an iterative scheme to find a common element of the set of solutions of an equilibrium problem and the set of common fixed points of a countable family of Bregman asymptotically quasinonexpansive mappings in reflexive Banach spaces and prove strong convergence theorems. Our results extend the recent ones of some others.

Functional or constructive attitudes: Which type drives consumers' evaluation of meat products?

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlin, Robert

2016-07-01

Consumer attitudes towards meat can be divided up into two types: Functional attitudes which are stable and exist over long periods of time, and constructive attitudes which are ephemeral and usually constructed at the point of sale. This research investigated the temporal and situational stability of meat consumers' attitudes by using the same established functional, multidimensional attitude instrument to generate attitude profiles for the four meat types: chicken/beef/lamb/poultry both as an abstracted construct and as a cue on a range of meat and meat-based products. The results showed that strong attitude profile was generated by the meat types as abstracted constructs, but that this profile broke down completely when the food products carrying the same meat types were evaluated. This result indicates that consumer attitudes may not be temporally or situationally stable, which in turn suggests that consumers' evaluation and choice of meat products may be driven to a greater or lesser extent by constructive rather than functional attitudes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multi-property isotropic intermolecular potentials and predicted spectral lineshapes of collision-induced absorption (CIA), collision-induced light scattering (CILS) and collision-induced hyper-Rayleigh scattering (CIHR) for H2sbnd Ne, -Kr and -Xe

Science.gov (United States)

El-Kader, M. S. A.; Godet, J.-L.; Gustafsson, M.; Maroulis, G.

2018-04-01

Quantum mechanical lineshapes of collision-induced absorption (CIA), collision-induced light scattering (CILS) and collision-induced hyper-Rayleigh scattering (CIHR) at room temperature (295 K) are computed for gaseous mixtures of molecular hydrogen with neon, krypton and xenon. The induced spectra are detected using theoretical values for induced dipole moment, pair-polarizability trace and anisotropy, hyper-polarizability and updated intermolecular potentials. Good agreement is observed for all spectra when the literature and the present potentials which are constructed from the transport and thermo-physical properties are used.

Strong intrinsic motivation

OpenAIRE

Dessi, Roberta; Rustichini, Aldo

2015-01-01

A large literature in psychology, and more recently in economics, has argued that monetary rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation. We investigate whether the negative impact persists when intrinsic motivation is strong, and test this hypothesis experimentally focusing on the motivation to undertake interesting and challenging tasks, informative about individual ability. We find that this type of task can generate strong intrinsic motivation, that is impervious to the effect of monetary incen...

Theory of L -edge spectroscopy of strongly correlated systems

Science.gov (United States)

Lüder, Johann; Schött, Johan; Brena, Barbara; Haverkort, Maurits W.; Thunström, Patrik; Eriksson, Olle; Sanyal, Biplab; Di Marco, Igor; Kvashnin, Yaroslav O.

2017-12-01

X-ray absorption spectroscopy measured at the L edge of transition metals (TMs) is a powerful element-selective tool providing direct information about the correlation effects in the 3 d states. The theoretical modeling of the 2 p →3 d excitation processes remains to be challenging for contemporary ab initio electronic structure techniques, due to strong core-hole and multiplet effects influencing the spectra. In this work, we present a realization of the method combining the density-functional theory with multiplet ligand field theory, proposed in Haverkort et al. [Phys. Rev. B 85, 165113 (2012), 10.1103/PhysRevB.85.165113]. In this approach, a single-impurity Anderson model (SIAM) is constructed, with almost all parameters obtained from first principles, and then solved to obtain the spectra. In our implementation, we adopt the language of the dynamical mean-field theory and utilize the local density of states and the hybridization function, projected onto TM 3 d states, in order to construct the SIAM. The developed computational scheme is applied to calculate the L -edge spectra for several TM monoxides. A very good agreement between the theory and experiment is found for all studied systems. The effect of core-hole relaxation, hybridization discretization, possible extensions of the method as well as its limitations are discussed.

Elongation Factor Tu and Heat Shock Protein 70 Are Membrane-Associated Proteins from Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Capable of Inducing Strong Immune Response in Mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fei Jiang

Full Text Available Chronic non-progressive pneumonia, a disease that has become a worldwide epidemic has caused considerable loss to sheep industry. Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (M. ovipneumoniae is the causative agent of interstitial pneumonia in sheep, goat and bighorn. We here have identified by immunogold and immunoblotting that elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu and heat shock protein 70 (HSP 70 are membrane-associated proteins on M. ovipneumonaiea. We have evaluated the humoral and cellular immune responses in vivo by immunizing BALB/c mice with both purified recombinant proteins rEF-Tu and rHSP70. The sera of both rEF-Tu and rHSP70 treated BALB/c mice demonstrated increased levels of IgG, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-12(p70, IL-4, IL-5 and IL-6. In addition, ELISPOT assay showed significant increase in IFN-γ+ secreting lymphocytes in the rHSP70 group when compared to other groups. Collectively our study reveals that rHSP70 induces a significantly better cellular immune response in mice, and may act as a Th1 cytokine-like adjuvant in immune response induction. Finally, growth inhibition test (GIT of M. ovipneumoniae strain Y98 showed that sera from rHSP70 or rEF-Tu-immunized mice inhibited in vitro growth of M. ovipneumoniae. Our data strongly suggest that EF-Tu and HSP70 of M. ovipneumoniae are membrane-associated proteins capable of inducing antibody production, and cytokine secretion. Therefore, these two proteins may be potential candidates for vaccine development against M. ovipneumoniae infection in sheep.

Construction Management of Electromechanical Engineering Project in Petrochemical Construction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xi Tao

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Petrochemical industry as a basic industry, occupies a pivotal position in the national economy, with the continuous development of science and technology, electromechanical automation in the petrochemical industry has been widely used to save a lot of labor but also greatly improve the oil Chemical industry production efficiency. Therefore, in the construction of petrochemical industry, mechanical and electrical engineering as part of it. It plays a vital role. Petrochemical industry with the production of high temperature and high pressure and flammable and explosive gas, can strengthen the construction of mechanical and electrical engineering specialization and construction management of scientific, has become the relationship between the smooth development of mechanical and electrical engineering and engineering quality of the key, A direct impact on the petrochemical construction of the overall construction quality. To this end, it is necessary for the construction of petrochemical construction of electromechanical engineering construction management to promote the construction of mechanical and electrical engineering management level gradually increased. This article on the machine Electric engineering project construction management were discussed with a view to the petrochemical construction in the relevant aspects of the need to provide reference for reference.

A new maltose-inducible high-performance heterologous expression system in Bacillus subtilis.

Science.gov (United States)

Yue, Jie; Fu, Gang; Zhang, Dawei; Wen, Jianping

2017-08-01

To improve heterologous proteins production, we constructed a maltose-inducible expression system in Bacillus subtilis. An expression system based on the promoter for maltose utilization constructed in B. subtilis. Successively, to improve the performance of the P malA -derived system, mutagenesis was employed by gradually shortening the length of P malA promoter and altering the spacing between the predicted MalR binding site and the -35 region. Furthermore, deletion of the maltose utilization genes (malL and yvdK) improved the P malA promoter activity. Finally, using this efficient maltose-inducible expression system, we enhanced the production of luciferase and D-aminoacylase, compared with the P hpaII system. A maltose-inducible expression system was constructed and evaluated. It could be used for high level expression of heterologous proteins production.

Traffic forecasts ignoring induced demand

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Næss, Petter; Nicolaisen, Morten Skou; Strand, Arvid

2012-01-01

the model calculations included only a part of the induced traffic, the difference in cost-benefit results compared to the model excluding all induced traffic was substantial. The results show lower travel time savings, more adverse environmental impacts and a considerably lower benefitcost ratio when...... induced traffic is partly accounted for than when it is ignored. By exaggerating the economic benefits of road capacity increase and underestimating its negative effects, omission of induced traffic can result in over-allocation of public money on road construction and correspondingly less focus on other...... performance of a proposed road project in Copenhagen with and without short-term induced traffic included in the transport model. The available transport model was not able to include long-term induced traffic resulting from changes in land use and in the level of service of public transport. Even though...

Research on construction quality and improvement of assembly construction

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Fei

2017-11-01

Based on the acceleration of the urbanization process and the improvement of the quality of life of our residents, the demand for building construction has been increasing. In this context, the construction industry in order to promote the construction efficiency, quality improvement, to meet the needs of the development of the times to strengthen the new technology, the use of new technologies. At present, China’s engineering construction units in the process of carrying out the project to strengthen the use of assembly-type construction technology, which thus achieved for the traditional construction work low-level, high time-consuming issues, and promote the steady improvement of production efficiency. Based on this, this paper focuses on the analysis of the connotation of the assembly structure and analyzes the quality problems in the construction process of the construction projects and puts forward the improvement measures to promote the improvement of the building quality and the construction of the building Construction speed. Based on this, this paper analyzes the structural system and design of prefabricated building.

Testing strong interaction theories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ellis, J.

1979-01-01

The author discusses possible tests of the current theories of the strong interaction, in particular, quantum chromodynamics. High energy e + e - interactions should provide an excellent means of studying the strong force. (W.D.L.)

Construction of an automated table standing

Science.gov (United States)

Neira, R. E.; Barbero, M. D.; Di Giulio, E. A.; Folco, J. F.; Jiménez, G. F.

2011-12-01

In this paper, the construction of an upright stretcher designed for patients in rehabilitation. The standing back to patients' expectations of therapeutic improvement, allowing correct all the troubles of a passive long. It has been shown that this table favors not only physically but also has a psychological reach beyond the scope of physical therapy and strongly affects the recovery. At the same time, the use of an upright stretcher greatly decreases the biomechanical disorders of hospital staff in the process of recovery. Thus the problem of rehabilitation of trafficking in a comprehensive way which not only focuses on the patient's undivided attention but also includes medical and auxiliary personnel.

Construction of an automated table standing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Neira, R E; Barbero, M D; Di Giulio, E A; Folco, J F; Jiménez, G F

2011-01-01

In this paper, the construction of an upright stretcher designed for patients in rehabilitation. The standing back to patients' expectations of therapeutic improvement, allowing correct all the troubles of a passive long. It has been shown that this table favors not only physically but also has a psychological reach beyond the scope of physical therapy and strongly affects the recovery. At the same time, the use of an upright stretcher greatly decreases the biomechanical disorders of hospital staff in the process of recovery. Thus the problem of rehabilitation of trafficking in a comprehensive way which not only focuses on the patient's undivided attention but also includes medical and auxiliary personnel.

Negative mobility of a Brownian particle: Strong damping regime

Science.gov (United States)

Słapik, A.; Łuczka, J.; Spiechowicz, J.

2018-02-01

We study impact of inertia on directed transport of a Brownian particle under non-equilibrium conditions: the particle moves in a one-dimensional periodic and symmetric potential, is driven by both an unbiased time-periodic force and a constant force, and is coupled to a thermostat of temperature T. Within selected parameter regimes this system exhibits negative mobility, which means that the particle moves in the direction opposite to the direction of the constant force. It is known that in such a setup the inertial term is essential for the emergence of negative mobility and it cannot be detected in the limiting case of overdamped dynamics. We analyse inertial effects and show that negative mobility can be observed even in the strong damping regime. We determine the optimal dimensionless mass for the presence of negative mobility and reveal three mechanisms standing behind this anomaly: deterministic chaotic, thermal noise induced and deterministic non-chaotic. The last origin has never been reported. It may provide guidance to the possibility of observation of negative mobility for strongly damped dynamics which is of fundamental importance from the point of view of biological systems, all of which in situ operate in fluctuating environments.

Mismeasurement and the resonance of strong confounders: correlated errors.

Science.gov (United States)

Marshall, J R; Hastrup, J L; Ross, J S

1999-07-01

Confounding in epidemiology, and the limits of standard methods of control for an imperfectly measured confounder, have been understood for some time. However, most treatments of this problem are based on the assumption that errors of measurement in confounding and confounded variables are independent. This paper considers the situation in which a strong risk factor (confounder) and an inconsequential but suspected risk factor (confounded) are each measured with errors that are correlated; the situation appears especially likely to occur in the field of nutritional epidemiology. Error correlation appears to add little to measurement error as a source of bias in estimating the impact of a strong risk factor: it can add to, diminish, or reverse the bias induced by measurement error in estimating the impact of the inconsequential risk factor. Correlation of measurement errors can add to the difficulty involved in evaluating structures in which confounding and measurement error are present. In its presence, observed correlations among risk factors can be greater than, less than, or even opposite to the true correlations. Interpretation of multivariate epidemiologic structures in which confounding is likely requires evaluation of measurement error structures, including correlations among measurement errors.

[Clone, construct, expression and verification of lactoferricin B gene and several sequence mutations in yeast].

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yong-qian; Zha, Xiao-jun; Zhai, Chao-yang

2007-07-01

To construct the eucaryotic recombinant plasmid of pYES2/LactoferricinB expressing in yeast of S. cerevisiae, of which the expressed protein antibacterial activity was verified in preliminary. By self-template PCR method, the gene of Lactoferricin B and its several sequence mutations were amplified with the parts of the pre-synthesized single chains. And then Lactoferricin B gene and its mutants were cloned into the vector of pYES2 to construct the recombined expression plasmid pYES2/Lactoferricin B etc. extracted and used to transform the yeast S. cerevisiae. The expressions of proteins were determined after induced by galactose. The expression proteins were collected and purified by hydronium-exchange column, and the bacterial inhibited test was applied to identify the protein antibacterial activities. The PCR amplifying and DNA sequencing tests indicated that the purpose plasmid contained the Lactoferricin B gene and several mutations. The induced target proteins were confirmed by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and mass spectrum test. The protein antibacterial activities of mutations were verified in preliminary. The recombined plasmid pYES2/Lactoferricin B etc. are successfully constructed and induced to express in yeast cell of S. cerevisiae; the obtained recombined protein of Lactoferricin B provides a basis for further research work on the biological function and antibacterial activity.

Ion induced x-ray emission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cohen, D.D.; Clayton, E.

1989-01-01

This paper discusses particle induced x-ray emission (PIXE). Its use as a tool for multi-element non-destructive trace element analysis of small samples is addressed. Concepts and details needed for the construction of a PIXE system are offered

Epidermal Expression and Regulation of Interleukin-33 during Homeostasis and Inflammation: Strong Species Differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Sundnes, Olav; Pietka, Wojciech; Loos, Tamara; Sponheim, Jon; Rankin, Andrew L; Pflanz, Stefan; Bertelsen, Vibeke; Sitek, Jan C; Hol, Johanna; Haraldsen, Guttorm; Khnykin, Denis

2015-07-01

IL-33 is a novel IL-1 family member with a putative role in inflammatory skin disorders and a complex biology. Therefore, recent conflicting data regarding its function in experimental models justify a close assessment of its tissue expression and regulation. Indeed, we report here that there are strong species differences in the expression and regulation of epidermal IL-33. In murine epidermis, IL-33 behaved similar to an alarmin, being constitutively expressed in keratinocyte nuclei and rapidly lost during acute inflammation. By contrast, human and porcine IL-33 were weakly expressed or absent in keratinocytes of noninflamed skin but induced during acute inflammation. To this end, we observed that expression of IL-33 in human keratinocytes but not murine keratinocytes was strongly induced by IFN-γ, and this upregulation completely depended on the presence of EGFR ligands. Accordingly, IFN-γ increased the expression of IL-33 in the basal layers of the epidermis in human ex vivo skin cultures only, despite good evidence of IFN-γ activity in cultures from both species. Together these findings demonstrate that a full understanding of IL-33 function in clinical settings must take species-specific differences into account.

Spin effects in strong-field laser-electron interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahrens, S; Bauke, H; Müller, T-O; Villalba-Chávez, S; Müller, C

2013-01-01

The electron spin degree of freedom can play a significant role in relativistic scattering processes involving intense laser fields. In this contribution we discuss the influence of the electron spin on (i) Kapitza-Dirac scattering in an x-ray laser field of high intensity, (ii) photo-induced electron-positron pair production in a strong laser wave and (iii) multiphoton electron-positron pair production on an atomic nucleus. We show that in all cases under consideration the electron spin can have a characteristic impact on the process properties and their total probabilities. To this end, spin-resolved calculations based on the Dirac equation in the presence of an intense laser field are performed. The predictions from Dirac theory are also compared with the corresponding results from the Klein-Gordon equation.

Holstein-Primakoff representation and supercoherent states for strongly correlated electron systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Azakov, S.

1999-09-01

First we show that the algebra of operators entering the Hamiltonian of the t-J model describing the strongly correlated electron system is graded spl(2.1) algebra. Then after a brief discussion of its atypical representations we construct the Holstein-Primakoff nonlinear realization of these operators which allows to carry out the systematic semiclassical approximation, similarly to the spin-wave theory of localized magnetism. The fact that the t-J model describes the itinerant magnetism is reflected in the presence of the spinless fermions. For the supersymmetric spl(2.1) algebra the supercoherent states are proposed and the partition function of the t-J model is represented as a path integral with the help of these states. (author)

Strain-induced collagen organization at the micro-level in fibrin-based engineered tissue constructs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jonge, de N.; Kanters, F.M.W.; Baaijens, F.P.T.; Bouten, C.V.C.

2013-01-01

Full understanding of strain-induced collagen organization in complex tissue geometries to create tissues with predefined collagen architecture has not been achieved. This is mainly due to our limited knowledge of collagen remodeling in developing tissues. Here we investigate strain-induced collagen

Changing constructions of machismo for Latino men in therapy: "the devil never sleeps".

Science.gov (United States)

Falicov, Celia Jaes

2010-09-01

This paper presents current narratives about masculinity that question simplistic negative stereotypes of machismo for Latino heterosexual men. Various models of masculinity within Latino cultures are described using evidence from ethnographic studies, research data, and clinical observation. Therapeutic advantages of including positive cultural masculine traits such as respect and dignity are illustrated with an extensive case study. The case highlights contradictions in the coexistence of constructions of masculinity and traces progressive stages for transforming these constructions. In this strength-based approach, attention is directed to elements of cultural memory that reclaim a strong relational ethic present in the indigenous cultures. "Within the culture" definitions of masculinity contribute alternative constructions toward a more empowering cultural narrative for Latino men than the usual negative stereotypes. 2010 © FPI, Inc.

Particularities of surface plasmon-exciton strong coupling with large Rabi splitting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Symonds, C; Bonnand, C; Plenet, J C; Brehier, A; Parashkov, R; Lauret, J S; Deleporte, E; Bellessa, J

2008-01-01

This paper presents some of the particularities of the strong coupling regime occurring between surface plasmon (SP) modes and excitons. Two different active materials were deposited on a silver film: a cyanine dye J-aggregate, and a two-dimensional layered perovskite-type semiconductor. The dispersion relations, which are deduced from angular resolved reflectometry spectra, present an anticrossing characteristic of the strong coupling regime. The wavevector is a good parameter to determine the Rabi splitting. Due to the large interaction energies (several hundreds of milli-electron-volts), the calculations at constant angle can induce an overestimation of the Rabi splitting of more than a factor of two. Another property of polaritons based on SP is their nonradiative character. In order to observe the polaritonic emission, it is thus necessary to use particular extraction setups, such as gratings or prisms. Otherwise only the incoherent emission can be detected, very similar to the bare exciton emission

Potential and Benefits of Building Information Modeling (BIM During Pre-Construction, Construction and Post Construction Stage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aw Nien Wei

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The construction industry is the main economic support for all countries around the world in which continually adapting to meet competitive challenges around the global market. Nevertheless, the construction project is becoming much more complex and difficult to manage. This is because the construction project involves a large number of stakeholder, for example, the consultant companies, architects, engineers, building surveyors and quantity surveyors. The technology currently used in the construction industry is the AutoCAD (Automatic computeraided design. AutoCAD is a commercial software application for 2D and 3D computer-aided design (CAD and drafting develop by Autodesk. Generally, all the drawing design from Autocad will be exchanged among the stakeholder in the form of paper. Information exchanged among them mostly involves a lot of documents and drawings. This practice creates errors because of documents and drawings are mostly in a paper-based format that is not properly managed which results in miscommunication among them. Having wrong information in the construction process could hinder the productivity of projects because in a construction project information is one of the important construction materials. Building Information Modeling (BIM is one of the newly software in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC industries to ensure all parties receive the right information. BIM technology is also an intelligent model of a building constructed digitally in the way of 3D. The software will generate model containing the information needed to support the construction, fabrication, and procurement activities that needed to realize the building. This paper will discuss on potential and benefits of BIM during pre-construction stage, construction stage and during post construction stage

Strong adhesion by regulatory T cells induces dendritic cell cytoskeletal polarization and contact-dependent lethargy.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jiahuan; Ganguly, Anutosh; Mucsi, Ashley D; Meng, Junchen; Yan, Jiacong; Detampel, Pascal; Munro, Fay; Zhang, Zongde; Wu, Mei; Hari, Aswin; Stenner, Melanie D; Zheng, Wencheng; Kubes, Paul; Xia, Tie; Amrein, Matthias W; Qi, Hai; Shi, Yan

2017-02-01

Dendritic cells are targeted by regulatory T (T reg) cells, in a manner that operates as an indirect mode of T cell suppression. In this study, using a combination of single-cell force spectroscopy and structured illumination microscopy, we analyze individual T reg cell-DC interaction events and show that T reg cells exhibit strong intrinsic adhesiveness to DCs. This increased DC adhesion reduces the ability of contacted DCs to engage other antigen-specific cells. We show that this unusually strong LFA-1-dependent adhesiveness of T reg cells is caused in part by their low calpain activities, which normally release integrin-cytoskeleton linkage, and thereby reduce adhesion. Super resolution imaging reveals that such T reg cell adhesion causes sequestration of Fascin-1, an actin-bundling protein essential for immunological synapse formation, and skews Fascin-1-dependent actin polarization in DCs toward the T reg cell adhesion zone. Although it is reversible upon T reg cell disengagement, this sequestration of essential cytoskeletal components causes a lethargic state of DCs, leading to reduced T cell priming. Our results reveal a dynamic cytoskeletal component underlying T reg cell-mediated DC suppression in a contact-dependent manner. © 2017 Chen et al.

Guest Induced Strong Cooperative One- and Two-Step Spin Transitions in Highly Porous Iron(II) Hofmann-Type Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Science.gov (United States)

Piñeiro-López, Lucı A; Valverde-Muñoz, Francisco Javier; Seredyuk, Maksym; Muñoz, M Carmen; Haukka, Matti; Real, José Antonio

2017-06-19

The synthesis, crystal structure, magnetic, calorimetric, and Mössbauer studies of a series of new Hofmann-type spin crossover (SCO) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is reported. The new SCO-MOFs arise from self-assembly of Fe II , bis(4-pyridyl)butadiyne (bpb), and [Ag(CN) 2 ] - or [M II (CN) 4 ] 2- (M II = Ni, Pd). Interpenetration of four identical 3D networks with α-Po topology are obtained for {Fe(bpb)[Ag I (CN) 2 ] 2 } due to the length of the rod-like bismonodentate bpb and [Ag(CN) 2 ] - ligands. The four networks are tightly packed and organized in two subsets orthogonally interpenetrated, while the networks in each subset display parallel interpenetration. This nonporous material undergoes a very incomplete SCO, which is rationalized from its intricate structure. In contrast, the single network Hofmann-type MOFs {Fe(bpb)[M II (CN) 4 ]}·nGuest (M II = Ni, Pd) feature enhanced porosity and display complete one-step or two-step cooperative SCO behaviors when the pores are filled with two molecules of nitrobenzene or naphthalene that interact strongly with the pyridyl and cyano moieties of the bpb ligands via π-π stacking. The lack of these guest molecules favors stabilization of the high-spin state in the whole range of temperatures. However, application of hydrostatic pressure induces one- and two-step SCO.

Laser-induced interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Green, W.R.

1979-01-01

This dissertation discusses some of the new ways that lasers can be used to control the energy flow in a medium. Experimental and theoretical considerations of the laser-induced collision are discussed. The laser-induced collision is a process in which a laser is used to selectively transfer energy from a state in one atomic or molecular species to another state in a different species. The first experimental demonstration of this process is described, along with later experiments in which lasers were used to create collisional cross sections as large as 10 - 13 cm 2 . Laser-induced collisions utilizing both a dipole-dipole interaction and dipole-quadrupole interaction have been experimentally demonstrated. The theoretical aspects of other related processes such as laser-induced spin-exchange, collision induced Raman emission, and laser-induced charge transfer are discussed. Experimental systems that could be used to demonstrate these various processes are presented. An experiment which produced an inversion of the resonance line of an ion by optical pumping of the neutral atom is described. This type of scheme has been proposed as a possible method for constructing VUV and x-ray lasers

Construction of a molecular clone of ovine enzootic nasal tumor virus.

Science.gov (United States)

Walsh, Scott R; Gerpe, María Carla Rosales; Wootton, Sarah K

2016-12-30

Enzootic nasal tumor virus (ENTV-1) is an ovine betaretrovirus that has been linked to enzootic nasal adenocarcinoma (ENA), a contagious tumor of the ethmoid turbinates of sheep. Transmission experiments performed using virus isolated from cell free nasal tumor homogenates suggest that ENTV-1 is the causative agent of ENA; however, this etiological relationship has not been conclusively proven due to the fact that the virus cannot be propagated in vitro nor is there an infectious molecular clone of the virus. Here we report construction of a molecular clone of ENTV-1 and demonstrate that transfection of this molecular clone into HEK 293T cells produces mature virus particles. Analysis of recombinant virus particles derived from the initial molecular clone revealed a defect in the proteolytic processing of Gag; however, this defect could be corrected by co-expression of the Gag-Pro-Pol polyprotein from the highly related Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) suggesting that the polyprotein cleavage sites in the ENTV-1 molecular clone were functional. Mutagenesis of the molecular clone to correct amino acid variants identified within the pro gene did not restore proteolytic processing; whereas deletion of one proline residue from a polyproline tract located in variable region 1 (VR1) of the matrix resulted in production of CA protein of the mature (cleaved) size strongly suggesting that normal virion morphogenesis and polyprotein cleavage took place. Finally, electron microscopy revealed the presence of spherical virus particles with an eccentric capsid and an average diameter of about 100 nm. In summary, we have constructed the first molecular clone of ENTV-1 from which mature virus particles can be produced. Future experiments using virus produced from this molecular clone can now be conducted to fulfill Koch's postulates and demonstrate that ENTV-1 is necessary and sufficient to induce ENA in sheep.

Strong Generative Capacity and the Empirical Base of Linguistic Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dennis Ott

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This Perspective traces the evolution of certain central notions in the theory of Generative Grammar (GG. The founding documents of the field suggested a relation between the grammar, construed as recursively enumerating an infinite set of sentences, and the idealized native speaker that was essentially equivalent to the relation between a formal language (a set of well-formed formulas and an automaton that recognizes strings as belonging to the language or not. But this early view was later abandoned, when the focus of the field shifted to the grammar's strong generative capacity as recursive generation of hierarchically structured objects as opposed to strings. The grammar is now no longer seen as specifying a set of well-formed expressions and in fact necessarily constructs expressions of any degree of intuitive “acceptability.” The field of GG, however, has not sufficiently acknowledged the significance of this shift in perspective, as evidenced by the fact that (informal and experimentally-controlled observations about string acceptability continue to be treated as bona fide data and generalizations for the theory of GG. The focus on strong generative capacity, it is argued, requires a new discussion of what constitutes valid empirical evidence for GG beyond observations pertaining to weak generation.

The Universe Going Green: Extraordinarily Strong [OIII]5007 in Typical Dwarf Galaxies at z~3

Science.gov (United States)

Malkan, Matthew Arnold; Cohen, Daniel

2017-01-01

We constructed the average SEDs of U-dropout galaxies in the Subaru Deep Field. This sample contains more than 5000 Lyman-break galaxies at z~3. Their average near- and mid-IR colors were obtained by stacking JHK and IRAC imaging, in bins of stellar mass. At the lowest mass bins an increasingly strong excess flux is seen in the K filter. This excess can reach 1 magnitude in the broadband filter, and we attribute it to strong \\OIII $\\lambda{5007}$ line emission. The equivalent width is extraordinarily high, reaching almost 1000\\Ang\\ for the average z=3 galaxy at an i magnitude of 27. Such extreme [OIII] emission is very rare in the current epoch, only seen in a handful of metal-deficient dwarf starbursts sometimes referred to as ''Green Peas". In contrast, extreme [OIII]--strong enough to dominate the entire broad-band SED--was evidently the norm for faint galaxies at high redshift. We present evidence that these small but numerous galaxies were primarily responsible for the reionization of the Universe.

Addition of αGal HyperAcute™ technology to recombinant avian influenza vaccines induces strong low-dose antibody responses.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wenlan Alex Chen

Full Text Available Highly pathogenic avian influenza represents a severe public health threat. Over the last decade, the demand for highly efficacious vaccines against avian influenza viruses has grown, especially after the 2013 H7N9 outbreak in China that resulted in over 600 human cases with over 200 deaths. Currently, there are several H5N1 and H7N9 influenza vaccines in clinical trials, all of which employ traditional oil-in-water adjuvants due to the poor immunogenicity of avian influenza virus antigens. In this study, we developed potent recombinant avian influenza vaccine candidates using HyperAcute™ Technology, which takes advantage of naturally-acquired anti-αGal immunity in humans. We successfully generated αGal-positive recombinant protein and virus-like particle vaccine candidates of H5N1 and H7N9 influenza strains using either biological or our novel CarboLink chemical αGal modification techniques. Strikingly, two doses of 100 ng αGal-modified vaccine, with no traditional adjuvant, was able to induce a much stronger humoral response in αGT BALB/c knockout mice (the only experimental system readily available for testing αGal in vivo than unmodified vaccines even at 10-fold higher dose (1000 ng/dose. Our data strongly suggest that αGal modification significantly enhances the humoral immunogenicity of the recombinant influenza vaccine candidates. Use of αGal HyperAcute™ technology allows significant dose-sparing while retaining desired immunogenicity. Our success in the development of highly potent H5N1 and H7N9 vaccine candidates demonstrated the potential of αGal HyperAcute™ technology for the development of vaccines against other infectious diseases.

Commercial bacterins did not induce detectable levels of antibodies in mice against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae antigens strongly recognized by swine immune system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andressa Fisch

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Enzootic Pneumonia (EP caused by Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae results in major economic losses to the swine industry. Hence, the identification of factors that provide protection against EP could help to develop effective vaccines. One such factor that provides partial protection are bacterins. Therefore, the aim of this study was to verify the induction of antibodies against fifteen M. hyopneumoniae antigens, strongly recognized by the swine immune system during natural infection, in mice vaccinated with six commercial bacterins. Each group of mice was inoculated with one bacterin, and seroconversion was assessed by indirect ELISA using recombinant antigens and M. hyopneumoniae 7448 whole cell extract. Sera from one inoculated group recognized antigen MHP_0067, and sera from four inoculated groups recognized antigens MHP_0513 and MHP_0580. None of the bacterins was able to induce seroconversion against the twelve remaining antigens. This absence of a serological response could be attributed to the lack of antigen expression in M. hyopneumoniae strains used in bacterin production. Additionally the partial protection provided by these vaccines could be due to low expression or misfolding of antigens during vaccine preparation. Therefore, the supplementation of bacterins with these recombinant antigens could be a potential alternative in the development of more effective vaccines.

Strong-coupling analysis of large bipolarons in two and three dimensions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verbist, G.; Smondyrev, M.A.; Peeters, F.M.; Devreese, J.T.

1992-01-01

In the limit of strong electron-phonon coupling, we use either a Pekar-type or an oscillator wave function for the center-of-mass coordinate and either a Coulomb or an oscillator wave function for the relative coordinate, and are able to reproduce all the results from the literature for the large-bipolaron binding energy. Lower bounds are constructed for the critical ratio η c of dielectric constants below which bipolarons can exist. It is found that, in the strong-coupling limit, the stability region for bipolaron formation is much larger in two dimensions (2D) than in 3D. We introduce a model that combines the averaging of the relative coordinate over the asymptotically best wave function with a path-integral treatment of the center-of-mass motion. The stability region for bipolaron formation is increased compared with the full path-integral treatment at large values of the coupling constant α. The critical values are α c ∼9.3 in 3D and α c ∼4.5 in 2D. Phase diagrams for the presented models are also obtained in both 2D and 3D

Construction of a fusion gene containing hepatitis B virus L gene ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The results of SDS-PAGE and Western blot showed that the recombinant protein was induced by methanol and stably expressed in P. pastoris, while it has specific reaction with the serum containing anti-HbsAg or anti-Ag85B. However, the successful construction of a recombinant yeast expression vector containing gene ...

Strong semiclassical approximation of Wigner functions for the Hartree dynamics

KAUST Repository

Athanassoulis, Agissilaos; Paul, Thierry; Pezzotti, Federica; Pulvirenti, Mario

2011-01-01

We consider the Wigner equation corresponding to a nonlinear Schrödinger evolution of the Hartree type in the semiclassical limit h → 0. Under appropriate assumptions on the initial data and the interaction potential, we show that the Wigner function is close in L 2 to its weak limit, the solution of the corresponding Vlasov equation. The strong approximation allows the construction of semiclassical operator-valued observables, approximating their quantum counterparts in Hilbert-Schmidt topology. The proof makes use of a pointwise-positivity manipulation, which seems necessary in working with the L 2 norm and the precise form of the nonlinearity. We employ the Husimi function as a pivot between the classical probability density and the Wigner function, which - as it is well known - is not pointwise positive in general.

Strong Rashba-Edelstein Effect-Induced Spin–Orbit Torques in Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenide/Ferromagnet Bilayers

KAUST Repository

Shao, Qiming

2016-11-18

The electronic and optoelectronic properties of two-dimensional materials have been extensively explored in graphene and layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). Spintronics in these two-dimensional materials could provide novel opportunities for future electronics, for example, efficient generation of spin current, which should enable the efficient manipulation of magnetic elements. So far, the quantitative determination of charge current-induced spin current and spin-orbit torques (SOTs) on the magnetic layer adjacent to two-dimensional materials is still lacking. Here, we report a large SOT generated by current-induced spin accumulation through the Rashba-Edelstein effect in the composites of monolayer TMD (MoS or WSe)/CoFeB bilayer. The effective spin conductivity corresponding to the SOT turns out to be almost temperature-independent. Our results suggest that the charge-spin conversion in the chemical vapor deposition-grown large-scale monolayer TMDs could potentially lead to high energy efficiency for magnetization reversal and convenient device integration for future spintronics based on two-dimensional materials.

Human leukemia antigen-A*0201-restricted epitopes of human endogenous retrovirus W family envelope (HERV-W env) induce strong cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Tu, Xiaoning; Li, Shan; Zhao, Lijuan; Xiao, Ran; Wang, Xiuling; Zhu, Fan

2017-08-01

Human endogenous retrovirus W family (HERV-W) envelope (env) has been reported to be related to several human diseases, including autoimmune disorders, and it could activate innate immunity. However, there are no reports investigating whether human leukemia antigen (HLA)-A*0201 + restriction is involved in the immune response caused by HERV-W env in neuropsychiatric diseases. In the present study, HERV-W env-derived epitopes presented by HLA-A*0201 are described with the potential for use in adoptive immunotherapy. Five peptides displaying HLA-A*0201-binding motifs were predicted using SYFEPITHI and BIMAS, and synthesized. A CCK-8 assay showed peptides W, Q and T promoted lymphocyte proliferation. Stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from HLA-A*0201 + donors with each of these peptides induced peptide-specific CD8 + T cells. High numbers of IFN-γ-secreting T cells were also detectable after several weekly stimulations with W, Q and T. Besides lysis of HERV-W env-loaded target cells, specific apoptosis was also observed. These data demonstrate that human T cells can be sensitized toward HERV-W env peptides (W, Q and T) and, moreover, pose a high killing potential toward HERV-W env-expressing U251 cells. In conclusion, peptides W Q and T, which are HERV-W env antigenic epitopes, have both antigenicity and immunogenicity, and can cause strong T cell immune responses. Our data strengthen the view that HERV-W env should be considered as an autoantigen that can induce autoimmunity in neuropsychiatric diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia. These data might provide an experimental foundation for a HERV-W env peptide vaccine and new insight into the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases.

Abortion: Strong's counterexamples fail

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Di Nucci, Ezio

2009-01-01

This paper shows that the counterexamples proposed by Strong in 2008 in the Journal of Medical Ethics to Marquis's argument against abortion fail. Strong's basic idea is that there are cases--for example, terminally ill patients--where killing an adult human being is prima facie seriously morally...

Renewal of K-NET (National Strong-motion Observation Network of Japan)

Science.gov (United States)

Kunugi, T.; Fujiwara, H.; Aoi, S.; Adachi, S.

2004-12-01

The National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) operates K-NET (Kyoshin Network), the national strong-motion observation network, which evenly covers the whole of Japan at intervals of 25 km on average. K-NET was constructed after the Hyogoken-Nambu (Kobe) earthquake in January 1995, and began operation in June 1996. Thus, eight years have passed since K-NET started, and large amounts of strong-motion records have been obtained. As technology has progressed and new technologies have become available, NIED has developed a new K-NET with improved functionality. New seismographs have been installed at 443 observatories mainly in southwestern Japan where there is a risk of strong-motion due to the Nankai and Tonankai earthquakes. The new system went into operation in June 2004, although seismographs have still to be replaced in other areas. The new seismograph (K-NET02) consists of a sensor module, a measurement module and a communication module. A UPS, a GPS antenna and a dial-up router are also installed together with a K-NET02. A triaxial accelerometer, FBA-ES-DECK (Kinemetrics Inc.) is built into the sensor module. The measurement module functions as a conventional strong-motion seismograph for high-precision observation. The communication module can perform sophisticated processes, such as calculation of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) seismic intensity, continuous recording of data and near real-time data transmission. It connects to the Data Management Center (DMC) using an ISDN line. In case of a power failure, the measurement module can control the power supply to the router and the communication module to conserve battery power. One of the main features of K-NET02 is a function for processing JMA seismic intensity. K-NET02 functions as a proper seismic intensity meter that complies with the official requirements of JMA, although the old strong-motion seismograph (K-NET95) does not calculate seismic intensity. Another

Technical and Regulatory Guidance Document for Constructed Treatment Wetlands

Science.gov (United States)

2003-12-01

horizon in which organic material is being added. This horizon often has the characteristics of cultivation and other disturbances. Under the A horizon is...intermediate between III and II (commonly called “green rust”) induces the reduction of Se. In the case of Se accumulation, ecotoxicological effects should be...consulted before a constructed wetland system design can be approved, specifically because many restrict the use and cultivation of plant species that

Wound-induced expression of horseradish peroxidase.

Science.gov (United States)

Kawaoka, A; Kawamoto, T; Ohta, H; Sekine, M; Takano, M; Shinmyo, A

1994-01-01

Peroxidases have been implicated in the responses of plants to physiological stress and to pathogens. Wound-induced peroxidase of horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) was studied. Total peroxidase activity was increased by wounding in cell wall fractions extracted from roots, stems and leaves of horseradish. On the other hand, wounding decreased the peroxidase activity in the soluble fraction from roots. The enzyme activities of the basic isozymes were induced by wounding in horseradish leaves based on data obtained by fractionation of crude enzyme in isoelectric focusing gel electrophoresis followed by activity staining. We have previously isolated genomic clones for four peroxidase genes, namely, prxC1a, prxC1b, prxC2 and prxC3. Northern blot analysis using gene-specific probes showed that mRNA of prxC2, which encodes a basic isozyme, accumulated by wounding, while the mRNAs for other peroxidase genes were not induced. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) plants were transformed with four chimeric gene constructs, each consisting of a promoter from one of the peroxidase genes and the β-glucuronidase (GUS) structural gene. High level GUS activity induced in response to wounding was observed in tobacco plants containing the prxC2-GUS construct.

Effect of Pre-Construction on Construction Schedule and Client Loyalty

OpenAIRE

Jong Hoon Kim; Hyun-Soo Lee; Moonseo Park; Min Jeong; Inbeom Lee

2016-01-01

Pre-construction is essential in achieving the success of a construction project. Due to the early involvement of project participants in the construction phase, project managers are able to plan ahead and solve issues well in advance leading to the success of the project and the satisfaction of the client. This research utilizes quantitative data derived from construction management projects in order to identify the relationship between pre-construction, construction schedule, and client sat...

Fermion bag approach to the sign problem in strongly coupled lattice QED with Wilson fermions

OpenAIRE

Chandrasekharan, Shailesh; Li, Anyi

2010-01-01

We explore the sign problem in strongly coupled lattice QED with one flavor of Wilson fermions in four dimensions using the fermion bag formulation. We construct rules to compute the weight of a fermion bag and show that even though the fermions are confined into bosons, fermion bags with negative weights do exist. By classifying fermion bags as either simple or complex, we find numerical evidence that complex bags with positive and negative weights come with almost equal probabilities and th...

Relationship between time management in construction industry and project management performance

Science.gov (United States)

Nasir, Najuwa; Nawi, Mohd Nasrun Mohd; Radzuan, Kamaruddin

2016-08-01

Nowadays, construction industry particularly in Malaysia struggle in achieving status of eminent time management for construction project. Project managers have a great responsibility to keep the project success under time of project completion. However, studies shows that delays especially in Malaysian construction industry still unresolved due to weakness in managing the project. In addition, quality of time management on construction projects is generally poor. Due to the progressively extended delays issue, time performance becomes an important subject to be explored to investigate delay factors. The method of this study is review of literature towards issues in construction industry which affecting time performance of project in general by focusing towards process involved for project management. Based on study, it was found that knowledge, commitment, cooperation are the main criteria as an overall to manage the project into a smooth process during project execution until completion. It can be concluded that, the strength between project manager and team members in these main criteria while conducting the project towards good time performance is highly needed. However, there is lack of establishment towards factors of poor time performance which strongly related with project management. Hence, this study has been conducted to establish factors of poor time performance and its relations with project management.

Islamic Constructs of Nursi’s Perspective and Their Impacts on Psychology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MUSTAFA TEKKE

2017-06-01

Full Text Available This study proposed new constructs to the field of Islamic psychology. It is particularly noteworthy to articulate the views of Said Nursi in the context of Islamic psychology. Based on fundamental aims of Qur’an, it clearly shows that Tawhid (Belief in God, Nubuwwa (Awareness of Prophetic Teaching, Hashr (Belief in Resurrection, and Ibadah (Worship as for main constructs of Qur'an greatly influential on a person's belief and thought.The proposed four constructs were thoroughly scrutinized to determine the possible meanings with human belief and thought. In line with chosen method, this paper applies the views of Nursi as a device for synthesizing arguments. Islamic psychology clearly indicates the Tawhid and  Nubuwwa, called shahadah, are fundamental of Islamic belief and thought and included with awareness of hereafter and doing worship. The other constructs of Hashr and Ibadah are also essential for an Islamic psychology model for understanding human personality. They were conceptually evaluated within the context of psychology, as indicatives of the concept of Islamic personality. These four constructs can be interpreted as inner experience depicting human’s emotions, desires, wishes, and intentions. Thus, they are strongly suggested to employ in newly developing Islamic personality scales.

Posintro™-HBsAg, a modified ISCOM including HBsAg, induces strong cellular and humoral responses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schiött, Asa; Larsson, Kristina; Manniche, Søren

2011-01-01

HBsAg vaccine formulation, Posintro™-HBsAg, was compared to two commercial hepatitis B vaccines including aluminium or monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL) and the two adjuvant systems MF59 and QS21 in their efficiency to prime both cellular and humoral immune responses. The Posintro™-HBsAg induced...

Strong synergistic induction of CYP1A1 expression by andrographolide plus typical CYP1A inducers in mouse hepatocytes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jaruchotikamol, Atika [Department of Toxicology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194 (Japan); Jarukamjorn, Kanokwan [Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002 (Thailand); Sirisangtrakul, Wanna [Department of Toxicology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194 (Japan); Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002 (Thailand); Sakuma, Tsutomu; Kawasaki, Yuki [Department of Toxicology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194 (Japan); Nemoto, Nobuo [Department of Toxicology, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194 (Japan)

2007-10-15

The effects of andrographolide, the major diterpenoid constituent of Andrographis paniculata, on the expression of cytochrome P450 superfamily 1 members, including CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP1B1, as well as on aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) expression in primary cultures of mouse hepatocytes were investigated in comparison with the effects of typical CYP1A inducers, including benz[a]anthracene, {beta}-naphthoflavone, and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. Andrographolide significantly induced the expression of CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 mRNAs in a concentration-dependent manner, as did the typical CYP1A inducers, but did not induce that of CYP1B1 or AhR. Interestingly, andrographolide plus the typical CYP1A inducers synergistically induced CYP1A1 expression, and the synergism was blocked by an AhR antagonist, resveratrol. The CYP1A1 enzyme activity showed a similar pattern of induction. This is the first report that shows that andrographolide has a potency to induce CYP1A1 enzyme and indicates that andrographolide could be a very useful compound for investigating the regulatory mechanism of the CYP1A1 induction pathway. In addition, our findings suggest preparing advice for rational administration of A. paniculata, according to its ability to induce CYP1A1 expression.

Strong synergistic induction of CYP1A1 expression by andrographolide plus typical CYP1A inducers in mouse hepatocytes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jaruchotikamol, Atika; Jarukamjorn, Kanokwan; Sirisangtrakul, Wanna; Sakuma, Tsutomu; Kawasaki, Yuki; Nemoto, Nobuo

2007-01-01

The effects of andrographolide, the major diterpenoid constituent of Andrographis paniculata, on the expression of cytochrome P450 superfamily 1 members, including CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP1B1, as well as on aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) expression in primary cultures of mouse hepatocytes were investigated in comparison with the effects of typical CYP1A inducers, including benz[a]anthracene, β-naphthoflavone, and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. Andrographolide significantly induced the expression of CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 mRNAs in a concentration-dependent manner, as did the typical CYP1A inducers, but did not induce that of CYP1B1 or AhR. Interestingly, andrographolide plus the typical CYP1A inducers synergistically induced CYP1A1 expression, and the synergism was blocked by an AhR antagonist, resveratrol. The CYP1A1 enzyme activity showed a similar pattern of induction. This is the first report that shows that andrographolide has a potency to induce CYP1A1 enzyme and indicates that andrographolide could be a very useful compound for investigating the regulatory mechanism of the CYP1A1 induction pathway. In addition, our findings suggest preparing advice for rational administration of A. paniculata, according to its ability to induce CYP1A1 expression

Strong and Electromagnetic Interactions at SPS Energies

CERN Document Server

Ribicki, Andrzej

2009-01-01

Particle production in peripheral Pb+Pb collisions has been measured at a beam energy of 158 GeV per nucleon, corresponding to psNN 17.3 GeV. The measurements provide full double differential coverage in a wide range of longitudinal and transverse momenta, including the central (“mid-rapidity”) area and extending far into the projectile fragmentation region. The resulting analysis shows the heavy ion reaction as a mixture of different processes. In particular, surprising phenomena, like the presence of large and strongly varying structures in the shape of the double differential cross section d2s /dxFd pT , are induced by the final state electromagnetic interaction between produced particles and the charged spectator system. This effect is largest at low transverse momenta, where it results in a deep valley in the xF -dependence of the produced p+/p− ratio. The basic characteristics of the electromagnetic phenomenon described above agree with the results of a theoretical analysis, performed by means of ...

[Diagnostics of work motivation (DIAMO): optimization and construct validity].

Science.gov (United States)

Ranft, Andreas; Fiedler, Rolf; Greitemann, Bernhard; Heuft, Gereon

2009-01-01

Faced with increasing cost pressure of the social insurance system the carriers of rehabilitation programs focus on the efficacy of their measures. The diagnostic instrument for work motivation (DIAMO) has been developed to assess the influence of job-related motivation on the rehabilitation outcome. The inner structure of the instrument was validated and optimized in a cohort of medical rehabilitation patients (n = 422). Construct validity was further tested by using established instruments. Ten scales related to self-image, intention of action and goodness of fit show good psychometric qualities (Cronbachs alpha: 0.72 - 0.86). The constructs correlate moderately-to-strongly with personality-oriented scales while correlation with disease-related contents is low. The DIAMO is a generic and not disease oriented instrument. It would be expected to facilitate the development of vocational interventions to increase the rehabilitation outcome.

A Bit too Skinny for Me: Women's Homosocial Constructions of Heterosexual Desire in Online Dating

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Kristine Køhler

2018-01-01

, online dating practices are rich fields for investigating the workings of desire. Based on audiovisual recordings of two Danish female friends engaging in online dating activities, this article demonstrates how participants, through joint stance-taking, co-construct shared desire and adjust individually......-produced desire to create homosocial affiliation. Hence, in this case, heterosexual desire construction is a collaborative undertaking generated through homosocial bonding. The performed desire carries a strong physical focus, partly produced by the participants’ attention to bodily detail and partly through...

Reports on construction experience of Monju, 1

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nagahiro, Yoshihiko; Okuma, Nobutaka; Jin, Satoru; Odo, Toshihiro; Wachi, Eiji.

1991-01-01

Following are a part of results obtained through the design and fabrication works of Monju construction; (1) strengthening-ring, attached to the large-diameter containment vessel as a countermeasure for the buckling stress induced by the outer pressure, were effective also on the seismic design, (2) design and evaluation methods have been established for the ferro-concrete structure under the condition of high temperature in case of the sodium leakage accidents, and reduced scale models were confirmed to be very useful to make arrangements for execution of the complex structure, (3) steel-plate-concrete structures which are applied to Monju biological shielding wall have been confirmed to attain the high precision of the construction and the reduction of the period required for the installation works, and (4) an optimum design was obtained for the lining system with the functions required in case of the sodium leakage accidents by using a combination of three types of liners. (author)

Sustainable Construction Risk Perceptions in the Kuwaiti Construction Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dalya Ismael

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Sustainable construction is fundamentally different than traditional construction because it requires whole systems thinking, early collaboration across stakeholders, and core principles like reducing resource consumption, eliminating toxins, and applying life cycle costing. Construction professionals unfamiliar with this mindset and approach may perceive sustainable construction as risky. One of the global regions in need of more sustainable construction is the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA region. The MENA region is one of the fastest developing in the world. However, it is the slowest one in implementing sustainable construction practices. Kuwait, in particular, contributes 53% more carbon emissions per capita than the United States. To understand how the Kuwaiti construction industry perceives risks associated with more sustainable construction, a survey was developed with 52 risk elements in which 131 industry professionals responded. The results indicate that industry professionals perceive a lack of public awareness as the risk element with the highest probability of occurrence. The risk element with the highest possible negative impact on future projects is designers’ and contractors’ inexperience with sustainable construction. Other risks were found to include a high initial cost for materials and overall project costs. Educational interventions, changes in risk allocation, and behavioral science to reframe upfront costs as long-term savings are offered as possible solutions.

The construction of ventilation turrets in Atta vollenweideri leaf-cutting ants: Carbon dioxide levels in the nest tunnels, but not airflow or air humidity, influence turret structure.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Florian Halboth

Full Text Available Nest ventilation in the leaf-cutting ant Atta vollenweideri is driven via a wind-induced mechanism. On their nests, workers construct small turrets that are expected to facilitate nest ventilation. We hypothesized that the construction and structural features of the turrets would depend on the colony's current demands for ventilation and thus might be influenced by the prevailing environmental conditions inside the nest. Therefore, we tested whether climate-related parameters, namely airflow, air humidity and CO2 levels in the outflowing nest air influenced turret construction in Atta vollenweideri. In the laboratory, we simulated a semi-natural nest arrangement with fungus chambers, a central ventilation tunnel providing outflow of air and an aboveground building arena for turret construction. In independent series, different climatic conditions inside the ventilation tunnel were experimentally generated, and after 24 hours, several features of the built turret were quantified, i.e., mass, height, number and surface area (aperture of turret openings. Turret mass and height were similar in all experiments even when no airflow was provided in the ventilation tunnel. However, elevated CO2 levels led to the construction of a turret with several minor openings and a larger total aperture. This effect was statistically significant at higher CO2 levels of 5% and 10% but not at 1% CO2. The construction of a turret with several minor openings did not depend on the strong differences in CO2 levels between the outflowing and the outside air, since workers also built permeated turrets even when the CO2 levels inside and outside were both similarly high. We propose that the construction of turrets with several openings and larger opening surface area might facilitate the removal of CO2 from the underground nest structure and could therefore be involved in the control of nest climate in leaf-cutting ants.

Wireless technologies for the Construction Sector

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Heller, Alfred; Orthmann, Christian

2014-01-01

the building sector and is therefore used to analyse requirements for alternative technologies. The motivation of the current work is to find upcoming technologies that bring improvements into the sector, for example improved life cycle costs and energy efficiencies, increasing quality, construction...... and operation efficiency and reducing faults and losses. The paper also lays out requirements expected by the sector. It will be shown that the wireless sensor network technology is a strong competitor that may meet the requirements. By analysing the application of such technologies throughout the building...... that follow the wireless sensor network, the paper will line up the requirements that the new technology has to meet to be introduced successfully....

Current-induced torques and interfacial spin-orbit coupling

KAUST Repository

Haney, Paul M.; Lee, Hyun-Woo; Lee, Kyung-Jin; Manchon, Aurelien; Stiles, M. D.

2013-01-01

In bilayer systems consisting of an ultrathin ferromagnetic layer adjacent to a metal with strong spin-orbit coupling, an applied in-plane current induces torques on the magnetization. The torques that arise from spin-orbit coupling are of particular interest. Here we use first-principles methods to calculate the current-induced torque in a Pt-Co bilayer to help determine the underlying mechanism. We focus exclusively on the analog to the Rashba torque, and do not consider the spin Hall effect. The details of the torque depend strongly on the layer thicknesses and the interface structure, providing an explanation for the wide variation in results found by different groups. The torque depends on the magnetization direction in a way similar to that found for a simple Rashba model. Artificially turning off the exchange spin splitting and separately the spin-orbit coupling potential in the Pt shows that the primary source of the “fieldlike” torque is a proximate spin-orbit effect on the Co layer induced by the strong spin-orbit coupling in the Pt.

Current-induced torques and interfacial spin-orbit coupling

KAUST Repository

Haney, Paul M.

2013-12-19

In bilayer systems consisting of an ultrathin ferromagnetic layer adjacent to a metal with strong spin-orbit coupling, an applied in-plane current induces torques on the magnetization. The torques that arise from spin-orbit coupling are of particular interest. Here we use first-principles methods to calculate the current-induced torque in a Pt-Co bilayer to help determine the underlying mechanism. We focus exclusively on the analog to the Rashba torque, and do not consider the spin Hall effect. The details of the torque depend strongly on the layer thicknesses and the interface structure, providing an explanation for the wide variation in results found by different groups. The torque depends on the magnetization direction in a way similar to that found for a simple Rashba model. Artificially turning off the exchange spin splitting and separately the spin-orbit coupling potential in the Pt shows that the primary source of the “fieldlike” torque is a proximate spin-orbit effect on the Co layer induced by the strong spin-orbit coupling in the Pt.

77 FR 16131 - Establishing a White House Council on Strong Cities, Strong Communities

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-20

... Order 13602 of March 15, 2012 Establishing a White House Council on Strong Cities, Strong Communities By... enable them to develop and implement economic strategies to become more competitive, sustainable, and... resources to develop and implement their economic vision and strategies. Sec. 2. White House Council on...

Instabilities in strongly coupled plasmas

CERN Document Server

Kalman, G J

2003-01-01

The conventional Vlasov treatment of beam-plasma instabilities is inappropriate when the plasma is strongly coupled. In the strongly coupled liquid state, the strong correlations between the dust grains fundamentally affect the conditions for instability. In the crystalline state, the inherent anisotropy couples the longitudinal and transverse polarizations, and results in unstable excitations in both polarizations. We summarize analyses of resonant and non-resonant, as well as resistive instabilities. We consider both ion-dust streaming and dust beam-plasma instabilities. Strong coupling, in general, leads to an enhancement of the growth rates. In the crystalline phase, a resonant transverse instability can be excited.

Construction Managers’ Perception of the Factors Affecting Sustainability in Construction Projects

OpenAIRE

Reza Taheriattar; Morvarid Farzanehrafat

2014-01-01

Sustainable construction is a comprehensive concept which requires long-term planning. Moreover, construction managers play a key role in leading, planning and scheduling of a construction project. As a result, sustainability of construction projects can be affected by construction managers’ decisions. In addition, for greater development of sustainable construction, affecting factors should firstly be notified. Therefore, it seems necessary to investigate construction managers’ perception of...

Modified design in new construction prevents infiltration of soil gas that carries radon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ericson, S.O.; Schmied, H.

1987-01-01

Dwellings located on permeable soil with strong exhalation of radon often get a contribution to indoor radon from infiltrating soil gas carrying radon from the ground into the building. 100 dwellings have been built on radon dangerous land with different modifications in design and construction in order to prevent infiltration of radon. Tight construction, ventilated crawl space, ventilation/depressurization of the capillary breaking layer (crushed stone), and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery by air to air heat exchangers or heat pumps have been tested. Added building costs and measured concentration of radon after construction and 3-5 years later are reported. It is concluded that it is possible to build radon protective and radon safe dwellings on any land. The added costs have ranged from zero to 4% of total building costs

Microscopic origin of marginal Fermi-liquid in strongly correlated spin systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Protogenov, A.P.; Ryndyk, D.A.

1992-08-01

We consider the consequences of separation of spin and charge degrees of freedom in 2+1D strongly correlated spin systems. Self-consistent spin and charge motions induced by doping in sites of ground and dual lattices form such a spectrum of quasiparticles which together with the dispersionless character of the collective excitation spectrum and the chemical potential pinning in the band centre yield the necessary behavior of charge and spin polarizability to support the theory of marginal liquid formulated by C.M. Varma et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 1996 (1989)). (author). 28 refs, 4 figs

A unified model of the strong and electroweak interactions based on the gauge group SU(18)L x SU(18)R

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim Il Kang

1986-01-01

On the basis of semi-simple gauge group G=SU(18) L x SU(18) R the unified theory of strong, weak and electromagnetic fields is constructed, and it is shown that the Weinberg angle and the energy of unification are in good agreement with the experimental values. (author)

Topos quantum theory on quantization-induced sheaves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nakayama, Kunji

2014-01-01

In this paper, we construct a sheaf-based topos quantum theory. It is well known that a topos quantum theory can be constructed on the topos of presheaves on the category of commutative von Neumann algebras of bounded operators on a Hilbert space. Also, it is already known that quantization naturally induces a Lawvere-Tierney topology on the presheaf topos. We show that a topos quantum theory akin to the presheaf-based one can be constructed on sheaves defined by the quantization-induced Lawvere-Tierney topology. That is, starting from the spectral sheaf as a state space of a given quantum system, we construct sheaf-based expressions of physical propositions and truth objects, and thereby give a method of truth-value assignment to the propositions. Furthermore, we clarify the relationship to the presheaf-based quantum theory. We give translation rules between the sheaf-based ingredients and the corresponding presheaf-based ones. The translation rules have “coarse-graining” effects on the spaces of the presheaf-based ingredients; a lot of different proposition presheaves, truth presheaves, and presheaf-based truth-values are translated to a proposition sheaf, a truth sheaf, and a sheaf-based truth-value, respectively. We examine the extent of the coarse-graining made by translation

Strongly interacting Fermi gases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bakr W.

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Strongly interacting gases of ultracold fermions have become an amazingly rich test-bed for many-body theories of fermionic matter. Here we present our recent experiments on these systems. Firstly, we discuss high-precision measurements on the thermodynamics of a strongly interacting Fermi gas across the superfluid transition. The onset of superfluidity is directly observed in the compressibility, the chemical potential, the entropy, and the heat capacity. Our measurements provide benchmarks for current many-body theories on strongly interacting fermions. Secondly, we have studied the evolution of fermion pairing from three to two dimensions in these gases, relating to the physics of layered superconductors. In the presence of p-wave interactions, Fermi gases are predicted to display toplogical superfluidity carrying Majorana edge states. Two possible avenues in this direction are discussed, our creation and direct observation of spin-orbit coupling in Fermi gases and the creation of fermionic molecules of 23Na 40K that will feature strong dipolar interactions in their absolute ground state.

Electron spin resonance modes in a strong-leg ladder in the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid phase

Science.gov (United States)

Ozerov, M.; Maksymenko, M.; Wosnitza, J.; Honecker, A.; Landee, C. P.; Turnbull, M. M.; Furuya, S. C.; Giamarchi, T.; Zvyagin, S. A.

2015-12-01

Magnetic excitations in the strong-leg quantum spin ladder compound (C7H10N) 2CuBr4 (known as DIMPY) in the field-induced Tomonaga-Luttinger spin-liquid phase are studied by means of high-field electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. The presence of a gapped ESR mode with unusual nonlinear frequency-field dependence is revealed experimentally. Using a combination of analytic and exact-diagonalization methods, we compute the dynamical structure factor and identify this mode with longitudinal excitations in the antisymmetric channel. We argue that these excitations constitute a fingerprint of the spin dynamics in a strong-leg spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic ladder and owe their ESR observability to the uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.

Observation and quantification of the quantum dynamics of a strong-field excited multi-level system.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zuoye; Wang, Quanjun; Ding, Jingjie; Cavaletto, Stefano M; Pfeifer, Thomas; Hu, Bitao

2017-01-04

The quantum dynamics of a V-type three-level system, whose two resonances are first excited by a weak probe pulse and subsequently modified by another strong one, is studied. The quantum dynamics of the multi-level system is closely related to the absorption spectrum of the transmitted probe pulse and its modification manifests itself as a modulation of the absorption line shape. Applying the dipole-control model, the modulation induced by the second strong pulse to the system's dynamics is quantified by eight intensity-dependent parameters, describing the self and inter-state contributions. The present study opens the route to control the quantum dynamics of multi-level systems and to quantify the quantum-control process.

Quantum electrodynamics of strong fields

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greiner, W.

1983-01-01

Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields provides a broad survey of the theoretical and experimental work accomplished, presenting papers by a group of international researchers who have made significant contributions to this developing area. Exploring the quantum theory of strong fields, the volume focuses on the phase transition to a charged vacuum in strong electric fields. The contributors also discuss such related topics as QED at short distances, precision tests of QED, nonperturbative QCD and confinement, pion condensation, and strong gravitational fields In addition, the volume features a historical paper on the roots of quantum field theory in the history of quantum physics by noted researcher Friedrich Hund

Synthesis and strong photooxidation power of a supramolecular hybrid comprising a polyoxometalate and Ru(II) polypyridyl complex with zinc(II).

Science.gov (United States)

Ohashi, Kenji; Takeda, Hiroyuki; Koike, Kazuhide; Ishitani, Osamu

2015-01-01

A novel method for constructing supramolecular hybrids composed of polyoxometalates and photofunctional metal complexes was developed. A Ru(II) complex with phosphonate groups (RuP) strongly interacted with Zn(II) to afford a 2 : 1 trinuclear metal complex ([(RuP)2Zn](3+)). In dimethylsulfoxide, [(RuP)2Zn](3+) strongly interacted with a Keggin-type heteropolyoxometalate (Si-WPOM) to form a 1 : 1 hybrid ([(RuP)2Zn]-POM). Irradiation of [(RuP)2Zn]-POM in the presence of diethanolamine caused rapid accumulation of the one-electron reduced hybrid with a quantum yield of 0.99.

Mangrove forest against dyke-break-induced tsunami on rapidly subsiding coasts

Science.gov (United States)

Takagi, Hiroshi; Mikami, Takahito; Fujii, Daisuke; Esteban, Miguel; Kurobe, Shota

2016-07-01

Thin coastal dykes typically found in developing countries may suddenly collapse due to rapid land subsidence, material ageing, sea-level rise, high wave attack, earthquakes, landslides, or a collision with vessels. Such a failure could trigger dam-break tsunami-type flooding, or "dyke-break-induced tsunami", a possibility which has so far been overlooked in the field of coastal disaster science and management. To analyse the potential consequences of one such flooding event caused by a dyke failure, a hydrodynamic model was constructed based on the authors' field surveys of a vulnerable coastal location in Jakarta, Indonesia. In a 2 m land subsidence scenario - which is expected to take place in the study area after only about 10-20 years - the model results show that the floodwaters rapidly rise to a height of nearly 3 m, resembling the flooding pattern of earthquake-induced tsunamis. The depth-velocity product criterion suggests that many of the narrow pedestrian paths behind the dyke could experience strong flows, which are far greater than the safe limits that would allow pedestrian evacuation. A couple of alternative scenarios were also considered to investigate how such flood impacts could be mitigated by creating a mangrove belt in front of the dyke as an additional safety measure. The dyke-break-induced tsunamis, which in many areas are far more likely than regular earthquake tsunamis, cannot be overlooked and thus should be considered in disaster management and urban planning along the coasts of many developing countries.

Investigating Thematic Roles through Implicit Learning: Evidence from Light Verb Constructions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eva Wittenberg

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The syntactic structure of a sentence is usually a strong predictor of its meaning: Each argument noun phrase (i.e., Subject and Object should map onto exactly one thematic role (i.e., Agent and Patient, respectively. Some constructions, however, are exceptions to this pattern. This paper investigates how the syntactic structure of an utterance contributes to its construal, using ditransitive English light verb constructions, such as “Nils gave a hug to his brother,” as an example of such mismatches: Hugging is a two-role event, but the ditransitive syntactic structure suggests a three-role event. Data from an eye-tracking experiment and behavioral categorization data reveal that listeners learn to categorize sentences according to the number of thematic roles they convey, independent of their syntax. Light verb constructions, however, seem to form a category of their own, in which the syntactic structure leads listeners down an initial incorrect assignment of thematic roles, from which they only partly recover. These results suggest an automatic influence of syntactic argument structure on semantic interpretation and event construal, even in highly frequent constructions.

Labour Productivity in the New Zealand Construction Industry: A Thorough Investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

John E Tookey

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Productivity growth is strongly correlated to economic growth and increases in welfare. This fact also holds true at the industry level and is particularly true in the NZ construction industry, since productivity growth in this sector may have significant effects on the affordability of housing in the country. In recent years construction in NZ has been subjected to a series of reports that have either highlighted ‘failure’ to grow productivity or have exhorted the industry to improve its ‘poor performance’.  However thus far little by way of analysis has gone into the productivity figures that have been quoted, nor has much been done to explain and justify if or why these figures are correct or incorrect.This research seeks to deconstruct construction productivity figures in NZ and explain the patterns over recent years of ‘poor performance’ in comparison with other industries.  As such it will examine the nature of the NZ construction industry and analyse the historic statistics related to its labour productivity. This will provide an overall understanding of the sector as well as those extraneous factors that may have significant influences on the NZ construction sector.The research found that while factors influencing inputs of labour productivity measure such as labour and material costs remained stable, factors impacting the corresponding outputs such as house and land prices, value of work in Non-residential and Infrastructure construction grew significantly between 1997 and 2007. Given the positive skewing effect of standard economic indicators (inflation etc on construction labour productivity figures, the relatively poor performance of construction is worrying for the industry. The paper concludes by demonstrating labour productivity in construction is significantly worse performing than previously suspected.

Spontaneous emission spectra and quantum light-matter interactions from a strongly coupled quantum dot metal-nanoparticle system

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Van Vlack, C.; Kristensen, Philip Trøst; Hughes, S.

2012-01-01

the dot to the detector, we demonstrate that the strong-coupling regime should be observable in the far-field spontaneous emission spectrum, even at room temperature. The vacuum-induced emission spectra show that the usual vacuum Rabi doublet becomes a rich spectral triplet or quartet with two of the four...

Construction labor productivity during nuclear power plant construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Murray, W.B.

1980-01-01

There is no single satisfactory way to measure productivity in the construction industry. The industry is too varied, too specialized and too dependent upon vast numbers of interrelations between trades, contractors, designers and owners. Hence, no universally reliable indices for measuring construction productivity has been developed. There are problems that are generic to all large union-built nuclear power plants. The actions of any one owner cannot rectify the shortcomings of the construction industry. The generic problems are being identified, and many national organizations are attempting to make the construction industry more productive by recommending various changes

A large-scale soil-structure interaction experiment: Part I design and construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang, H.T.; Tang, Y.K.; Wall, I.B.; Lin, E.

1987-01-01

In the simulated earthquake experiments (SIMQUAKE) sponsored by EPRI, the detonation of vertical arrays of explosives propagated wave motions through the ground to the model structures. Although such a simulation can provide information about dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) characteristics in a strong motion environment, it lacks seismic wave scattering characteristics for studying seismic input to the soil-structure system and the effect of different kinds of wave composition to the soil-structure response. To supplement the inadequacy of the simulated earthquake SSI experiment, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) jointly sponsored a large scale SSI experiment in the field. The objectives of the experiment are: (1) to obtain actual strong motion earthquakes induced database in a soft-soil environment which will substantiate predictive and design SSI models;and (2) to assess nuclear power plant reactor containment internal components dynamic response and margins relating to actual earthquake-induced excitation. These objectives are accomplished by recording and analyzing data from two instrumented, scaled down, (1/4- and 1/12-scale) reinforced concrete containments sited in a high seismic region in Taiwan where a strong-motion seismic array network is located

Electrochemical construction

Science.gov (United States)

Einstein, Harry; Grimes, Patrick G.

1983-08-23

An electrochemical cell construction features a novel co-extruded plastic electrode in an interleaved construction with a novel integral separator-spacer. Also featured is a leak and impact resistant construction for preventing the spill of corrosive materials in the event of rupture.

Construction mathematics

CERN Document Server

Virdi, Surinder; Virdi, Narinder Kaur

2014-01-01

Construction Mathematics is an introductory level mathematics text, written specifically for students of construction and related disciplines. Learn by tackling exercises based on real-life construction maths. Examples include: costing calculations, labour costs, cost of materials and setting out of building components. Suitable for beginners and easy to follow throughout. Learn the essential basic theory along with the practical necessities. The second edition of this popular textbook is fully updated to match new curricula, and expanded to include even more learning exercises. End of chapter exercises cover a range of theoretical as well as practical problems commonly found in construction practice, and three detailed assignments based on practical tasks give students the opportunity to apply all the knowledge they have gained. Construction Mathematics addresses all the mathematical requirements of Level 2 construction NVQs from City & Guilds/CITB and Edexcel courses, including the BTEC First Diploma in...

Instability of collective strong-interaction phenomena in hadron production as a possible origin of the weak and electromagnetic interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arnold, R.C.

1975-12-01

A systematic calculus of long-range Regge cut effects in multiparticle production is constructed in the form of an infrared-divergent stochastic field theory. Total cross sections and two-body overlap integrals in such a theory may depend very sensitively upon internal quantum-numbers of incident particles, resulting in a strong symmetry breaking at ultra-high energies. Such symmetry violations will influence low energy processes through dispersion relations, and a bootstrap of weak interactions becomes possible. A rough analytic estimate of the scale of thresholds for such effects yields a BCS-type gap equation, which expresses the scale of weak and electromagnetic couplings in terms of purely strong-interaction parameters

Validating MEDIQUAL Constructs

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sang-Gun; Min, Jae H.

In this paper, we validate MEDIQUAL constructs through the different media users in help desk service. In previous research, only two end-users' constructs were used: assurance and responsiveness. In this paper, we extend MEDIQUAL constructs to include reliability, empathy, assurance, tangibles, and responsiveness, which are based on the SERVQUAL theory. The results suggest that: 1) five MEDIQUAL constructs are validated through the factor analysis. That is, importance of the constructs have relatively high correlations between measures of the same construct using different methods and low correlations between measures of the constructs that are expected to differ; and 2) five MEDIQUAL constructs are statistically significant on media users' satisfaction in help desk service by regression analysis.

Dynamical instability, strong anharmonicity and electron-phonon coupling in KOs2O6: First-principles calculations

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei; Sun, Jiafa; Li, Bin; He, Junqi

2017-09-01

First-principles pseudopotential calculations on phonon and electronic properties of β -pyrochlore superconductor KOs2O6 are performed. The imaginary soft-phonon modes with a special double-well potential for the lowest Eu(1) mode and the second lowest T1u(1) mode are reported, which indicates the dynamical instability in KOs2O6. However, the double wells are too small to induce a structural phase transformation in KOs2O6. The strong anharmonicity especially for K T2g(1) phonon mode is got, which is approved to be from the strong electron-phonon coupling that supports the superconductivity in KOs2O6.

Phytoextraction with Salix viminalis in a moderately to strongly contaminated area.

Science.gov (United States)

Tőzsér, Dávid; Harangi, Sándor; Baranyai, Edina; Lakatos, Gyula; Fülöp, Zoltán; Tóthmérész, Béla; Simon, Edina

2018-02-01

We tested the suitability of Salix viminalis for phytoextraction with the analysis of selected elements in soil, root, and leaf, and by visual tree condition assessment in an area with varying levels of contamination. Bioconcentration factor (BCF) and translocation factor (TF) were used to assess the phytoextraction potential of willows. The middle part of the study area was strongly contaminated, while the northern and southern parts were moderately contaminated. We found increasing element concentrations toward deeper layers. Mean concentrations of elements in roots were similar among the three parts, while in leaves the highest concentrations were found in the strongly contaminated part of the study area. Tree condition scores were the lowest in the strongly contaminated part of the study area, which was caused by Al, Ca, K, Mg, Ni, Sr, and Zn concentration. These elements induced leaf disease and leaf feeders. The highest BCF values were found for Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn in root, and for Cd and Zn in leaves, indicating that S. viminalis had high accumulation potential of these elements. Furthermore, TF values were high for Cd, Mn, Sr, and Zn. Our results also demonstrated that soil element composition has major influence on the condition of S. viminalis individuals. Furthermore, visual condition assessment was found to be a useful tool to assess the phytoextraction potential of trees.

Strong equivalence, Lorentz and CPT violation, anti-hydrogen spectroscopy and gamma-ray burst polarimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shore, Graham M.

2005-01-01

The strong equivalence principle, local Lorentz invariance and CPT symmetry are fundamental ingredients of the quantum field theories used to describe elementary particle physics. Nevertheless, each may be violated by simple modifications to the dynamics while apparently preserving the essential fundamental structure of quantum field theory itself. In this paper, we analyse the construction of strong equivalence, Lorentz and CPT violating Lagrangians for QED and review and propose some experimental tests in the fields of astrophysical polarimetry and precision atomic spectroscopy. In particular, modifications of the Maxwell action predict a birefringent rotation of the direction of linearly polarised radiation from synchrotron emission which may be studied using radio galaxies or, potentially, gamma-ray bursts. In the Dirac sector, changes in atomic energy levels are predicted which may be probed in precision spectroscopy of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen atoms, notably in the Doppler-free, two-photon 1s-2s and 2s-nd (n∼10) transitions

Large photonic band gaps and strong attenuations of two-segment-connected Peano derivative networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Jian; Yang, Xiangbo; Zhang, Guogang; Cai, Lianzhang

2011-01-01

In this Letter, based on ancient Peano curves we construct four kinds of interesting Peano derivative networks composed of one-dimensional (1D) waveguides and investigate the optical transmission spectra and photonic attenuation behavior of electromagnetic (EM) waves in one- and two-segment-connected networks. It is found that for some two-segment-connected networks large photonic band gaps (PBGs) can be created and the widths of large PBGs can be controlled by adjusting the matching ratio of waveguide length and are insensitive to generation number. Diamond- and hexagon-Peano networks are good selectable structures for the designing of optical devices with large PBG(s) and strong attenuation(s). -- Highlights: → Peano and Peano derivative networks composed of 1D waveguides are designed. → Large PBGs with strong attenuations have been created by these fractal networks. → New approach for designing optical devices with large PBGs is proposed. → Diamond- and hexagon-Peano networks with d2:d1=2:1 are good selectable structures.

Defining the student burnout construct: a structural analysis from three burnout inventories.

Science.gov (United States)

Maroco, João; Campos, Juliana Alvares Duarte Bonini

2012-12-01

College student burnout has been assessed mainly with the Maslach burnout inventory (MBI). However, the construct's definition and measurement with MBI has drawn several criticisms and new inventories have been suggested for the evaluation of the syndrome. A redefinition of the construct of student burnout is proposed by means of a structural equation model, reflecting burnout as a second order factor defined by factors from the MBI-student survey (MBI-SS); the Copenhagen burnout inventory-student survey (CBI-SS) and the Oldenburg burnout inventory-student survey (OLBI-SS). Standardized regression weights from Burnout to Exhaustion and Cynicism from the MBI-SS scale, personal burnout and studies related burnout from the CBI, and exhaustion and disengagement from OLBI, show that these factors are strong manifestations of students' burnout. For college students, the burnout construct is best defined by two dimensions described as "physical and psychological exhaustion" and "cynicism and disengagement".

Towards precision measurements of parity violation in cesium: construction of a new experiment using an active detection method by induced emission

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jacquier, Ph.

1991-04-01

Experiments that show the breaking of parity invariance in atoms can be considered as valid tests of the electroweak theory complementary to those made at high energies. The accurate measurement of the weak charge of a cesium nucleus would bring useful information on radiative corrections. The experiment, that is proposed in this work concerns the strongly forbidden 6S-7S transition of cesium at 540 nm, aims at reaching an accuracy of 1% for this measurement. Cesium atoms are first excited from 6S level to 7S level by a pulsed laser (10 ns) in the presence of a longitudinal electrical field. Then they are detected through induced emission by a probe laser set on 7S-6P(3/2) transition at 1.470 μm. The transitory amplification of the probe beam can be over 100%.The vapour presents a strong plane dichroism due to the alignment of 7S level through the linear polarization of the pumping beam. The weak interaction in the atom makes this alignment tilt by a small angle (1 to 10 micro-radians) that the measurement of the polarization of the amplified probe enables us to determine. In this work we have described the 3 steps we have passed through: the test with a transverse field and a continuous laser beam, the use of a pulsed laser, and the setting of a longitudinal configuration. Preliminary results show that the experiment will be useful and feasible

Solid strong base K-Pt/NaY zeolite nano-catalytic system for completed elimination of formaldehyde at room temperature

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Shaoqing; Wu, Xi; Lu, Changhai; Wen, Meicheng; Le, Zhanggao; Jiang, Shujuan

2018-06-01

Solid strong base nano-catalytic system of K-modification NaY zeolite supported 0.08% Pt (K-Pt/NaY) were constructed for eliminating HCHO at room temperature. In the catalytic process, activation energy over K-Pt/NaY nano-catalytic system was greatly decreased along with the enhanced reaction rate. Characterization and catalytic tests revealed the surface electron structure of K-Pt/NaY was improved, as reflected by the enhanced HCHO adsorption capability, high sbnd OH concentration, and low-temperature reducibility. Therefore, the optimal K-Pt/NaY showed high catalytic efficiency and strong H2O tolerance for HCHO elimination by directly promoting the reaction between active sbnd OH and formate species. These results may suggest a new way for probing the advanced solid strong base nano-catalytic system for the catalytic elimination of indoor HCHO.

Assessing the sustainable construction of large construction companies in Malaysia

Science.gov (United States)

Adewale, Bamgbade Jibril; Mohammed, Kamaruddeen Ahmed; Nasrun, Mohd Nawi Mohd

2016-08-01

Considering the increasing concerns for the consideration of sustainability issues in construction project delivery within the construction industry, this paper assesses the extent of sustainable construction among Malaysian large contractors, in order to ascertain the level of the industry's impacts on both the environment and the society. Sustainable construction explains the construction industry's responsibility to efficiently utilise the finite resources while also reducing construction impacts on both humans and the environment throughout the phases of construction. This study used proportionate stratified random sampling to conduct a field study with a sample of 172 contractors out of the 708 administered questionnaires. Data were collected from large contractors in the eleven states of peninsular Malaysia. Using the five-level rating scale (which include: 1= Very Low; 2= Low; 3= Moderate; 4= High; 5= Very High) to describe the level of sustainable construction of Malaysian contractors based on previous studies, statistical analysis reveals that environmental, social and economic sustainability of Malaysian large contractors are high.

General Conversion for Obtaining Strongly Existentially Unforgeable Signatures

Science.gov (United States)

Teranishi, Isamu; Oyama, Takuro; Ogata, Wakaha

We say that a signature scheme is strongly existentially unforgeable (SEU) if no adversary, given message/signature pairs adaptively, can generate a signature on a new message or a new signature on a previously signed message. We propose a general and efficient conversion in the standard model that transforms a secure signature scheme to SEU signature scheme. In order to construct that conversion, we use a chameleon commitment scheme. Here a chameleon commitment scheme is a variant of commitment scheme such that one can change the committed value after publishing the commitment if one knows the secret key. We define the chosen message security notion for the chameleon commitment scheme, and show that the signature scheme transformed by our proposed conversion satisfies the SEU property if the chameleon commitment scheme is chosen message secure. By modifying the proposed conversion, we also give a general and efficient conversion in the random oracle model, that transforms a secure signature scheme into a SEU signature scheme. This second conversion also uses a chameleon commitment scheme but only requires the key only attack security for it.

Relativistic strings and dual models of strong interactions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marinov, M.S.

1977-01-01

The theory of strong interactions,based on the model depicting a hardon as a one-dimentional elastic relativistic system(''string'') is considered. The relationship between this model and the concepts of quarks and partons is discussed. Presented are the principal results relating to the Veneziano dual theory, which may be considered as the consequence of the string model, and to its modifications. The classical string theory is described in detail. Attention is focused on questions of importance to the construction of the quantum theory - the Hamilton mechanisms and conformal symmetry. Quantization is described, and it is shown that it is not contradictory only in the 26-dimentional space and with a special requirement imposed on the spectrum of states. The theory of a string with a distributed spin is considered. The spin is introduced with the aid of the Grassman algebra formalism. In this case quantization is possible only in the 10-dimentional space. The strings interact by their ruptures and gluings. A method for calculating the interaction amplitudes is indicated

Strong-coupling theory of superconductivity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rainer, D.; Sauls, J.A.

1995-01-01

The electronic properties of correlated metals with a strong electron-phonon coupling may be understood in terms of a combination of Landau''s Fermi liquid theory and the strong-coupling theory of Migdal and Eliashberg. In these lecture notes we discuss the microscopic foundations of this phenomenological Fermi-liquid model of correlated, strong-coupling metals. We formulate the basic equations of the model, which are quasiclassical transport equations that describe both equilibrium and non-equilibrium phenomena for the normal and superconducting states of a metal. Our emphasis is on superconductors close to equilibrium, for which we derive the general linear response theory. As an application we calculate the dynamical conductivity of strong-coupling superconductors. (author)

One-way hash function construction based on the spatiotemporal chaotic system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Luo Yu-Ling; Du Ming-Hui

2012-01-01

Based on the spatiotemporal chaotic system, a novel algorithm for constructing a one-way hash function is proposed and analysed. The message is divided into fixed length blocks. Each message block is processed by the hash compression function in parallel. The hash compression is constructed based on the spatiotemporal chaos. In each message block, the ASCII code and its position in the whole message block chain constitute the initial conditions and the key of the hash compression function. The final hash value is generated by further compressing the mixed result of all the hash compression values. Theoretic analyses and numerical simulations show that the proposed algorithm presents high sensitivity to the message and key, good statistical properties, and strong collision resistance. (general)

Design Strategy of Information Construction Based on User Participation

OpenAIRE

Gao Jundong

2017-01-01

In the design of the Internet products, the information construction is one of the important factors to determine that whether a product is friendly. It is a challenge for every information architect to discover new innovations on the basis of established user habits. In practice, we often found that the development of many new functions did not meet the needs of users and many functions would be improved by users themselves, the fact of which shows the strong desire of users to participate i...

Strong Bisimilarity of Simple Process Algebras

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Srba, Jirí

2003-01-01

We study bisimilarity and regularity problems of simple process algebras. In particular, we show PSPACE-hardness of the following problems: (i) strong bisimilarity of Basic Parallel Processes (BPP), (ii) strong bisimilarity of Basic Process Algebra (BPA), (iii) strong regularity of BPP, and (iv......) strong regularity of BPA. We also demonstrate NL-hardness of strong regularity problems for the normed subclasses of BPP and BPA. Bisimilarity problems of simple process algebras are introduced in a general framework of process rewrite systems, and a uniform description of the new techniques used...

Increasing a Robust Antigen-Specific Cytotoxic T Lymphocyte Response by FMDV DNA Vaccination with IL-9 Expressing Construct

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiang Zou

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Various chemokines and cytokines as adjuvants can be used to improve efficacy of DNA vaccination. In this study, we sought to investigate if a DNA construct expressing IL-9 (designed as proV-IL9 as a molecular adjuvant enhance antigen specific immune responses elicited by the pcD-VP1 DNA vaccination. Mice immunized with pcD-VP1 combined with proV-IL9 developed a strong humoral response. In addition, the coinoculation induced significant higher level of antigen-specific cell proliferation and cytotoxic response. This agreed well with higher expression level of IFN-γ and perforin in CD8+ T cells, but not with IL-17 in these T cells. The results indicate that IL-9 induces the development of IFN-γ-producing CD8+ T cells (Tc1, but not the IL-17-producing CD8+ T cells (Tc17. Up-regulated expressions of BCL-2 and BCL-XL were exhibited in these Tc1 cells, suggesting that IL-9 may trigger antiapoptosis mechanism in these cells. Together, these results demonstrated that IL-9 used as molecular adjuvant could enhance the immunogenicity of DNA vaccination, in augmenting humoral and cellular responses and particularly promoting Tc1 activations. Thus, the IL-9 may be utilized as a potent Tc1 adjuvant for DNA vaccines.

Development of a multi-epitope peptide vaccine inducing robust T cell responses against brucellosis using immunoinformatics based approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Saadi, Mahdiye; Karkhah, Ahmad; Nouri, Hamid Reza

2017-07-01

Current investigations have demonstrated that a multi-epitope peptide vaccine targeting multiple antigens could be considered as an ideal approach for prevention and treatment of brucellosis. According to the latest findings, the most effective immunogenic antigens of brucella to induce immune responses are included Omp31, BP26, BLS, DnaK and L7-L12. Therefore, in the present study, an in silico approach was used to design a novel multi-epitope vaccine to elicit a desirable immune response against brucellosis. First, five novel T-cell epitopes were selected from Omp31, BP26, BLS, DnaK and L7-L12 proteins using different servers. In addition, helper epitopes selected from Tetanus toxin fragment C (TTFrC) were applied to induce CD4+ helper T lymphocytes (HTLs) responses. Selected epitopes were fused together by GPGPG linkers to facilitate the immune processing and epitope presentation. Moreover, cholera toxin B (CTB) was linked to N terminal of vaccine construct as an adjuvant by using EAAAK linker. A multi-epitope vaccine was designed based on predicted epitopes which was 377 amino acid residues in length. Then, the physico-chemical properties, secondary and tertiary structures, stability, intrinsic protein disorder, solubility and allergenicity of this multi-epitope vaccine were assessed using immunoinformatics tools and servers. Based on obtained results, a soluble, and non-allergic protein with 40.59kDa molecular weight was constructed. Expasy ProtParam classified this chimeric protein as a stable protein and also 89.8% residues of constructed vaccine were located in favored regions of the Ramachandran plot. Furthermore, this multi-epitope peptide vaccine was able to strongly induce T cell and B-cell mediated immune responses. In conclusion, immunoinformatics analysis indicated that this multi-epitope peptide vaccine can be effectively expressed and potentially be used for prophylactic or therapeutic usages against brucellosis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All

A bit too skinny for me: women’s homosocial constructions of heterosexual desire in online dating

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mortensen, Kristine Køhler

2015-01-01

relations. Thus, online dating practices are rich fields for investigating the workings of desire. Based on audiovisual recordings of two Danish female friends engaging in online dating activities, this article demonstrates how participants, through joint stance-taking, co-construct shared desire and adjust...... individually-produced desire to create homosocial affiliation. Hence, in this case,heterosexual desire construction is a collaborative undertaking generated through homosocial bonding. The performed desire carries a strong physical focus, partly produced by the participants' attention to bodily detail...

Causes of Construction Delays in Qatar Construction Projects

OpenAIRE

Murat Gunduz; Mohanad H. A. AbuHassan

2016-01-01

Construction industry mainly focuses on the superstructure, infrastructure, and oil and gas industry. The development of infrastructure projects in developing countries attracted a lot of foreign construction contractors, consultants, suppliers and diversified workforce to interfere and to be evolved in such huge investment. Reducing worksite delays in such projects require knowledge and attention. Therefore, it is important to identify the influencing delay attributes affecting construction ...

Construction completion report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-01-01

This Construction Completion Report documents the major construction projects at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site and related information on contracts, schedules, and other areas which affected construction. This report is not intended to be an exhaustive detailed analysis of construction, but is a general overview and summary of the WIPP construction. 10 refs., 29 figs

The construction and performance of a large cylindrical wire chamber with cathode readout

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Deiters, K.; Donat, A.; Friebel, W.; Heller, R.; Kirsch, S.; Krankenhagen, R.; Lange, W.; Leiste, R.; Lohmann, W.; Lustermann, W.; Peng, Y.; Roeser, U.; Tonisch, F.; Trowitzsch, G.; Vogt, H.; Wilhelmi, M.

1991-12-01

The construction and performance of two large coaxial cylindrical multiwire proportional chambers with cathode readout, denoted as Z-Detector, forming the outer part of the L3 central tracking detector, are described. Three self supporting cylinders of about 1 m length and 1 m diameter, constructed as a sandwich of Kapton foil and foam, form the mechanical frame. It represents 2% of a radiation length. In each chamber one cathode layer is subdivided in helical strips and the other one in rings. The readout of the charges induced on the cathode strips and the other one in rings. The readout of the charges induced on the cathode strips provides the avalanche position along the beam (z-) direction. The detector has been running in the L3 experiment at LEP for nearly two years. The resolution of the z-measurement is 320 μm, the double track resolution is about 10 mm. The efficiency of each chamber is 96%. (orig.)

Dirac particles in the field of magnetic monopoles and of strong electric charges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schafer, A.; Muller, B.; Greiner, W.

1985-01-01

The field of a magnetic pointlike monopole acts in a similar way on a charged Dirac particle as the field of a very strong electric point charge. To explore this parallel it is constructed a field solution for an extended magnetic-charge distribution. In contrast to what is found for extended electric charges, the Hamiltonian remains nonself-adjoint for an extended magnetic monopole. This suggests that there exist a fundamental difference between the two cases. In particular, the appearance of undefined states for point monopoles is not a consequence of the mere strength of the magnetic-monopole charge, which has a minimum value fixed by Dirac's quantization condition

Strong UA(1) breaking in radiative η decays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takizawa, M.; Nemoto, Y.; Oka, M.

1996-08-01

We study the η → γγ, η → γμ - μ + and η → π 0 γγ decays using an extended three-flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model that includes the 't Hooft instanton induced interaction. We find that the η-meson mass, the η → γγ, η → γμ - μ + and η → π 0 γγ decay widths are in good agreement with the experimental values when the U A (1) breaking is strong and the flavor SU(3) singlet-octet mixing angle θ is about zero. The calculated ηγγ * transition form factor has somewhat weaker dependence on the squared four-momentum of the virtual photon. The effects of the U A (1) anomaly on the scalar quark contents in the nucleon, the Σ πN and Σ KN terms and the baryon number one and two systems are also studied. (author)

Strong delayed interactive effects of metal exposure and warming

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Debecker, Sara; Dinh, Khuong Van; Stoks, Robby

2017-01-01

’ ranges could lead to an important underestimation of the risks. We addressed all three mechanisms by studying effects of larval exposure to zinc and warming before, during, and after metamorphosis in Ischnura elegans damselflies from high- and lowlatitude populations. By integrating these mechanisms...... into a single study, we could identify two novel patterns. First, during exposure zinc did not affect survival, whereas it induced mild to moderate postexposure mortality in the larval stage and at metamorphosis, and very strongly reduced adult lifespan. This severe delayed effect across metamorphosis...... was especially remarkable in high-latitude animals, as they appeared almost insensitive to zinc during the larval stage. Second, the well-known synergism between metals and warming was manifested not only during the larval stage but also after metamorphosis, yet notably only in low-latitude damselflies...

Construction and Development of a Cardiac Tissue-Specific and Hypoxia-Inducible Expression Vector

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shahrooz Ghaderi

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Cardiovascular gene therapy is a sophisticated approach, thanks to the safety of vectors, stable transgene expression, delivery method, and different layers of the heart. To date, numerous expression vectors have been introduced in biotechnology and biopharmacy industries in relation to genetic manipulation. Despite the rapid growth of these modalities, they must be intelligently designed, addressing the cardiac-specific transgene expression and less side effects. Herein, we conducted a pilot project aiming to design a cardiac-specific hypoxia-inducible expression cassette. Methods: We explored a new approach to design an expression cassette containing cardiac specific enhancer, hypoxia response elements (HRE, cardiac specific promoter, internal ribosome entry site (IRES, and beta globin poly A sequence to elicit specific and inducible expression of the gene of interest. Enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP was sub-cloned by BglII and NotI into the cassette. The specificity and inducible expression of the cassette was determined in both mouse myoblast C2C12 and mammary glandular tumor 4T1 as ‘twin’ cells. eGFP expression was evaluated by immunofluorescence microscope and flow cytometry at 520 nm emission peak. Results: Our data revealed that the designed expression cassette provided tissue specific and hypoxia inducible (O2<1% transgene expression. Conclusion: It is suggested that cardiac-specific enhancer combined with cardiac-specific promoter are efficient for myoblast specific gene expression. As well, this is for the first time that HRE are derived from three well known hypoxia-regulated promoters. Therefore, there is no longer need to overlap PCR process for one repeated sequence just in one promoter.

Research on Condition Assessment Method of Transmission Tower Under the Action of Strong Wind

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Ren-mou; An, Li-qiang; Zhang, Rong-lun; Wu, Jiong; Liang, Ya-feng

2018-03-01

Transmission towers are often subjected to the external damage of severe weather like strong wind and so on, which may cause the collapse due to the yield and fracture of the tower material. Aiming this issue, an assessment method was proposed in this paper to assess the operation condition of transmission towers under strong wind. With a reasonable assess index system established firstly, then the internal force of the tower material was solved and its stability was determined through the mechanical analysis of the transmission tower finite element model. Meanwhile, the condition risk level of the tower was finally determined by considering the difference among the influences of other factors like corrosion and loose of members, slope on the transmission tower through the analytic hierarchy process. The assessment method was applied to assess the wind-induced collapse of towers in 110kV Bao Yi II line in Wenchang City, Hainan Province, of which the result proves the method can assess the condition of transmission tower under strong wind and of guiding significance for improving the windproof capability of transmission towers.

Strong cosmic censorship and the strong curvature singularities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krolak, A.

1987-01-01

Conditions are given under which any asymptotically simple and empty space-time that has a partial Cauchy surface with an asymptotically simple past is globally hyperbolic. It is shown that this result suggests that the Cauchy horizons of the type occurring in Reissner--Nordstroem and Kerr space-times are unstable. This in turn gives support for the validity of the strong cosmic censorship hypothesis

Dopamine D(1) receptor deletion strongly reduces neurotoxic effects of methamphetamine.

Science.gov (United States)

Ares-Santos, S; Granado, N; Oliva, I; O'Shea, E; Martin, E D; Colado, M I; Moratalla, R

2012-02-01

Methamphetamine (METH) is a potent, highly addictive psychostimulant consumed worldwide. In humans and experimental animals, repeated exposure to this drug induces persistent neurodegenerative changes. Damage occurs primarily to dopaminergic neurons, accompanied by gliosis. The toxic effects of METH involve excessive dopamine (DA) release, thus DA receptors are highly likely to play a role in this process. To define the role of D(1) receptors in the neurotoxic effects of METH we used D(1) receptor knock-out mice (D(1)R(-/-)) and their WT littermates. Inactivation of D(1)R prevented METH-induced dopamine fibre loss and hyperthermia, and increases in gliosis and pro-inflammatory molecules such as iNOS in the striatum. In addition, D(1)R inactivation prevented METH-induced loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. To explore the relationship between hyperthermia and neurotoxicity, METH was given at high ambient temperature (29 °C). In this condition, D(1)R(-/-) mice developed hyperthermia following drug delivery and the neuroprotection provided by D(1)R inactivation at 23 °C was no longer observed. However, reserpine, which empties vesicular dopamine stores, blocked hyperthermia and strongly potentiated dopamine toxicity in D(1)R(-/-) mice, suggesting that the protection afforded by D(1)R inactivation is due to both hypothermia and higher stored vesicular dopamine. Moreover, electrical stimulation evoked higher DA overflow in D(1)R(-/-) mice as demonstrated by fast scan cyclic voltammetry despite their lower basal DA content, suggesting higher vesicular DA content in D(1)R(-/-) than in WT mice. Altogether, these results indicate that the D(1)R plays a significant role in METH-induced neurotoxicity by mediating drug-induced hyperthermia and increasing the releasable cytosolic DA pool. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

An assessment of the construct distinctiveness of stress arousal and burnout.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Kenneth J; Davy, Jeanette A; Everly, George S

2006-10-01

This study examined the construct and discriminant validity of stress arousal and burnout as measured on the Stress Arousal Scale and the multidimensional role-specific version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, respectively. The analyses utilized data from 148 individuals randomly selected from a database of 563 respondents to a larger study. The sample responded to a survey sent to members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Sample size used in this study fell within Loehlin's 1992 prescription that for confirmatory factor analysis with two to four factors, a minimum of 100 to 200 cases should be collected. Forty-six respondents indicated that they were partners, principals, or sole practitioners in accounting firms, and 103 indicated that they were staff members (juniors, seniors, or managers). Latent variables were first constructed for the stress arousal and burnout factors. Confirmatory factor analysis was then conducted on the scale data to assess whether the factors would load on their respective underlying theoretical constructs. Finally, a nested model constraining stress arousal and burnout to load on one underlying construct was tested against the hypothesized two-factor model. The results indicated good model fit for the two-factor model and a significant loss of fit for the one-factor model, thus providing strong support for the conceptualization of stress arousal and burnout as distinct constructs.

Application of Boosting Regression Trees to Preliminary Cost Estimation in Building Construction Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoonseok Shin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Among the recent data mining techniques available, the boosting approach has attracted a great deal of attention because of its effective learning algorithm and strong boundaries in terms of its generalization performance. However, the boosting approach has yet to be used in regression problems within the construction domain, including cost estimations, but has been actively utilized in other domains. Therefore, a boosting regression tree (BRT is applied to cost estimations at the early stage of a construction project to examine the applicability of the boosting approach to a regression problem within the construction domain. To evaluate the performance of the BRT model, its performance was compared with that of a neural network (NN model, which has been proven to have a high performance in cost estimation domains. The BRT model has shown results similar to those of NN model using 234 actual cost datasets of a building construction project. In addition, the BRT model can provide additional information such as the importance plot and structure model, which can support estimators in comprehending the decision making process. Consequently, the boosting approach has potential applicability in preliminary cost estimations in a building construction project.

Medial Temporal Lobe Contributions to Episodic Future Thinking: Scene Construction or Future Projection?

Science.gov (United States)

Palombo, D J; Hayes, S M; Peterson, K M; Keane, M M; Verfaellie, M

2018-02-01

Previous research has shown that the medial temporal lobes (MTL) are more strongly engaged when individuals think about the future than about the present, leading to the suggestion that future projection drives MTL engagement. However, future thinking tasks often involve scene processing, leaving open the alternative possibility that scene-construction demands, rather than future projection, are responsible for the MTL differences observed in prior work. This study explores this alternative account. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we directly contrasted MTL activity in 1) high scene-construction and low scene-construction imagination conditions matched in future thinking demands and 2) future-oriented and present-oriented imagination conditions matched in scene-construction demands. Consistent with the alternative account, the MTL was more active for the high versus low scene-construction condition. By contrast, MTL differences were not observed when comparing the future versus present conditions. Moreover, the magnitude of MTL activation was associated with the extent to which participants imagined a scene but was not associated with the extent to which participants thought about the future. These findings help disambiguate which component processes of imagination specifically involve the MTL. Published by Oxford University Press 2016.

Construction of nanometer cisplatin core-ferritin (NCC-F) and proteomic analysis of gastric cancer cell apoptosis induced with cisplatin released from the NCC-F.

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Xue-Tao; Huang, Lin; Huang, He-Qing

2012-06-18

Both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and fluorescence spectrometry were used to reveal the characteristics of both subunit disassociation and recombination in apo-pig pancreas ferritin (apoPPF) in an alkaline medium ranging reversibly from pH 7.0 to 13.0. The experimental results indicated that apoPPF could be completely disassociated into 24 free subunits at pH 13.0, and then these subunits could be quickly reassembled into the original apoPPF once the pH of the reactive medium was returned to pH7.0. This novel and simple method could be used to effectively construct a novel nanometer cisplatin core-PPF (NCC-PPF). The major characteristics of NCC-PPF were investigated using various analytical methods such as ultraviolet-spectrometry, circular dichroism spectrometry and TEM, which indicated that its molecular structure was still similar to that of the original apoPPF. Results from the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) method showed that 11.26 cisplatin (CDDP) molecules were successfully packaged within the NCC-PPF shell, indicating that each molecule of apoPPF had the ability to enwrap 11.26 CDDP molecules for constructing the NCC-PPF. Flow cytometry showed that NCC-PPF also had the ability to release CDDP for inducing the apoptosis of gastric cancer cells BGC823 (GCC), but this phenomenon could scarcely be observed using apoPPF. A differential proteomic technique using two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) gels selected and identified the differential proteins from cell apoptosis in order to reveal the molecular pathway of GCC apoptosis by both NCC-PPF and free CDDP, giving 13 differential expression proteins. These differential proteins could be further classified into six groups, which were described as being involved in the regulation of apoptosis, RNA transcription, oxidative stress response, signal transduction, cell metabolism, and cytoskeleton changes. In addition, a real-time PCR method was used to prove the expression level of

Electron gas interacting in a metal, submitted to a strong magnetic field

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alcaraz, Francisco Castilho

1977-01-01

Using the propagator's technique in the grand ensemble developed by Montroll and Ward we investigate the magnetic properties of an interacting electron gas in a strong magnetic field. The free propagator properly constructed shows that the spin paramagnetism does not have a term with strong temperature dependence, contrary to the result of Isihara. Considering the electron density to be constant, the dHVA oscillations in the magnetic susceptibility and sound velocity, considering the effects of first exchange interactions, show only one phase in agreement with experimental result, while Ichimura and Isihara obtained two phases differing by π/2. The effects of first order exchange interactions in the dHVA oscillations of the magnetic susceptibility and sound velocity give rise to an exponential factor in the amplitudes of oscillator (Dingle factor), being the Dingle temperature linearly dependent of the Fermi velocity. The calculations of the ring diagram contribution to the grand partition function, show that the approximation used by Isihara for this calculations is not good and the dHVA oscillations of the contributions from the ring diagrams for the grand partition function have a phase differing by π/2 from that obtained by Isihara. (author)

Divergent thinking and constructing episodic simulations.

Science.gov (United States)

Addis, Donna Rose; Pan, Ling; Musicaro, Regina; Schacter, Daniel L

2016-01-01

Divergent thinking likely plays an important role in simulating autobiographical events. We investigated whether divergent thinking is differentially associated with the ability to construct detailed imagined future and imagined past events as opposed to recalling past events. We also examined whether age differences in divergent thinking might underlie the reduced episodic detail generated by older adults. The richness of episodic detail comprising autobiographical events in young and older adults was assessed using the Autobiographical Interview. Divergent thinking abilities were measured using the Alternative Uses Task. Divergent thinking was significantly associated with the amount of episodic detail for imagined future events. Moreover, while age was significantly associated with imagined episodic detail, this effect was strongly related to age-related changes in episodic retrieval rather than divergent thinking.

Ultra-high polarity ceramics induced extrinsic high permittivity of polymers contributing to high permittivity of 2-2 series composites

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, Yefeng; Zhang, Jianxiong; Hu, Jianbing; Peng, Cheng; He, Renqi

2018-01-01

Induced polarization at interface has been confirmed to have significant impact on the dielectric properties of 2-2 series composites bearing Si-based semi-conductor sheet and polymer layer. By compositing, the significantly elevated high permittivity in Si-based semi-conductor sheet should be responsible for the obtained high permittivity in composites. In that case, interface interaction could include two aspects namely a strong electrostatic force from high polarity polymeric layer and a newborn high polarity induced in Si-based ceramic sheet. In this work, this class of interface induced polarization was successfully extended into another 2-2 series composite system made up of ultra-high polarity ceramic sheet and high polarity polymer layer. By compositing, the greatly improved high permittivity in high polarity polymer layer was confirmed to strongly contribute to the high permittivity achieved in composites. In this case, interface interaction should consist of a rather large electrostatic force from ultra-high polarity ceramic sheet with ionic crystal structure and an enhanced high polarity induced in polymer layer based on a large polarizability of high polarity covalent dipoles in polymer. The dielectric and conductive properties of four designed 2-2 series composites and their components have been detailedly investigated. Increasing of polymer inborn polarity would lead to a significant elevating of polymer overall polarity in composite. Decline of inherent polarities in two components would result in a mild improving of polymer total polarity in composite. Introducing of non-polarity polymeric layer would give rise to a hardly unaltered polymer overall polarity in composite. The best 2-2 composite could possess a permittivity of ˜463 at 100 Hz 25.7 times of the original permittivity of polymer in it. This work might offer a facile route for achieving the promising composite dielectrics by constructing the 2-2 series samples from two high polarity

Numerical Calculation of the Phase Space Density for the Strong-Strong Beam-Beam Interaction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sobol, A.; Ellison, J.A.

2003-01-01

We developed a parallel code to calculate the evolution of the 4D phase space density of two colliding beams, which are coupled via the collective strong-strong beam-beam interaction, in the absence of diffusion and damping, using the Perron-Frobenius (PF) operator technique

Earthquake countermeasure work on water intake structure based on post-construction shear reinforcement method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Satou, Yoshihito; Wani, Masaaki; Wachi, Takamitsu

2017-01-01

Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station set up 'earthquake motion as the base for remodeling work' by referring to the strong earthquake fault model assumed by the 'Study meeting for Nankai Trough's mega thrust earthquake model' of the Cabinet Office. Based on this earthquake, it implemented seismic countermeasure work using ceramic fixing type post-construction shear reinforcement bars by targeting the Unit 4 water intake tank screen room. This construction work was carried out in a short period of about nine months due to a restriction in the drainage period of the water intake tank. Thanks to the improvement of process control, such as adoption of a two-shift (day and night) system, this work was completed. On the other hand, the quality of construction was secured by adopting a drilling machine with a resistance sensor at the time of drilling and plastic grout at the time of grout filling, as well as through quality inspection based on Construction Technology Review and Certification. (A.O.)

Strain-Induced Enhancement of the Electron Energy Relaxation in Strongly Correlated Superconductors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

C. Gadermaier

2014-03-01

Full Text Available We use femtosecond optical spectroscopy to systematically measure the primary energy relaxation rate Γ_{1} of photoexcited carriers in cuprate and pnictide superconductors. We find that Γ_{1} increases monotonically with increased negative strain in the crystallographic a axis. Generally, the Bardeen-Shockley deformation potential theorem and, specifically, pressure-induced Raman shifts reported in the literature suggest that increased negative strain enhances electron-phonon coupling, which implies that the observed direct correspondence between a and Γ_{1} is consistent with the canonical assignment of Γ_{1} to the electron-phonon interaction. The well-known nonmonotonic dependence of the superconducting critical temperature T_{c} on the a-axis strain is also reflected in a systematic dependence T_{c} on Γ_{1}, with a distinct maximum at intermediate values (∼16  ps^{−1} at room temperature. The empirical nonmonotonic systematic variation of T_{c} with the strength of the electron-phonon interaction provides us with unique insight into the role of electron-phonon interaction in relation to the mechanism of high-T_{c} superconductivity as a crossover phenomenon.

A study on waviness induced vibration of ball bearings based on signal coherence theory

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Wentao; Zhang, Yun; Feng, Zhi-Jing; Zhao, Jing-Shan; Wang, Dongfeng

2014-11-01

This paper focuses on the effects of waviness on vibration of ball bearings. An experimental analysis method is developed by adopting signal coherence theory of multiple-inputs/single-output (MISO) system. The inputs are waviness excitations of the inner and outer races, and the output is vibration response of the outer ring. Waviness excitation signals are first derived from the manufacturing deviations, and found to be strongly coherent in low frequency range. Virtual input signals are then introduced by the method of orthogonalization. In both cases of vibration acceleration and speed responses, the cumulated virtual input-output coherence function verifies that the first peak region of vibration spectrum is mainly induced by the waviness excitations. In order to distinguish the contributions of the inner and outer races, coherence functions of the virtual inputs with real inputs are calculated, and the results indicate that the outer race waviness contributes more to vibration than the inner race waviness does in the example. Further, a multi-body dynamic model is constructed and employed to frequency response analyses. It is discovered that the waviness induced spectral peak frequency is close to the natural frequency of bearing.

Position- and time-resolved Stark broadening diagnostics of a non-thermal laser-induced plasma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Hao; Truscott, Benjamin S; Ashfold, Michael N R

2016-01-01

We present an analysis of the Stark-broadened line shapes of silicon ions in a laser-induced plasma using a model constructed, without assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE), using a Druyvesteyn electron energy distribution function (EEDF). The method is applied to temporally and spatially resolved measurements of Si 2+ and Si 3+ emissions from a transient plasma expanding into vacuum, produced by 1064 nm, nanosecond pulsed laser ablation of a Si (1 0 0) target. The best-fitting simulated line shapes and the corresponding electron number densities and temperatures (or equivalently, Druyvesteyn average energies) are compared with those returned assuming LTE (i.e. for a Maxwellian EEDF). Non-thermal behavior is found to dominate at all but the very earliest stages of expansion close to the target surface, consistent with McWhirter’s criterion for the establishment of LTE. The Druyvesteyn EEDF always yields an equivalent or better model of the experimental measurements, and the observed increasingly strong departure from the Maxwellian case with time and distance from the ablation event highlights the essential invalidity of the LTE assumption for moderate-power, nanosecond laser-induced plasma expanding in vacuo. (paper)

Effects of deoxycycline induced lentivirus encoding FasL gene on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Abstract. Fas/Fas ligand (FasL)-mediated apoptosis plays a critical role in deletion of activated T cells. This study aimed to construct the lentivirus encoding FasL gene induced by deoxycycline and evaluate its effects on apoptosis of Th1 cells. A plasmid expression system encoding FasL was constructed through utilizing the ...

Green Nanotechnology in Nordic Construction - Eco-innovation strategies and Dynamics in nordic Window Chains

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Maj Munch; Sandén, Björn A.; Palmberg, Christopher

This project analyzes Nordic trends in the development and industrial uptake of green nanotechno-logy in construction. The project applies an evolutionary economic perspective in analyzing the innovation dynamics and firm strategies in the window value chains in three Nordic countries, Denmark......, Finland and Sweden. Hence the project investigates two pervasive parallel market trends: The emergence of the green market and the emergence of nanotechnology. The analysis investigates how a traditional economic sector such as the construction sector reacts to such major trends. Conclusions are multiple...... of nanotechnology in the construction sector in the Nordic countries we do find quite a high number of nanotech applications in the Nordic window chains. Eco-innovation is influencing strongly on the nanotech development. We see several examples of nano-enabled smart, multifunctional green solutions in the Nordic...

HLA Association with Drug-Induced Adverse Reactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wen-Lang Fan

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Adverse drug reactions (ADRs remain a common and major problem in healthcare. Severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions (SCARs, such as Stevens–Johnson syndrome (SJS/toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN with mortality rate ranges from 10% to more than 30%, can be life threatening. A number of recent studies demonstrated that ADRs possess strong genetic predisposition. ADRs induced by several drugs have been shown to have significant associations with specific alleles of human leukocyte antigen (HLA genes. For example, hypersensitivity to abacavir, a drug used for treating of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV infection, has been proposed to be associated with allele 57:01 of HLA-B gene (terms HLA-B∗57:01. The incidences of abacavir hypersensitivity are much higher in Caucasians compared to other populations due to various allele frequencies in different ethnic populations. The antithyroid drug- (ATDs- induced agranulocytosis are strongly associated with two alleles: HLA-B∗38:02 and HLA-DRB1∗08:03. In addition, HLA-B∗15:02 allele was reported to be related to carbamazepine-induced SJS/TEN, and HLA-B∗57:01 in abacavir hypersensitivity and flucloxacillin induced drug-induced liver injury (DILI. In this review, we summarized the alleles of HLA genes which have been proposed to have association with ADRs caused by different drugs.

Strongly correlated perovskite fuel cells

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, You; Guan, Xiaofei; Zhou, Hua; Ramadoss, Koushik; Adam, Suhare; Liu, Huajun; Lee, Sungsik; Shi, Jian; Tsuchiya, Masaru; Fong, Dillon D.; Ramanathan, Shriram

2016-06-01

Fuel cells convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy with high efficiencies and environmental benefits, as compared with traditional heat engines. Yttria-stabilized zirconia is perhaps the material with the most potential as an electrolyte in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), owing to its stability and near-unity ionic transference number. Although there exist materials with superior ionic conductivity, they are often limited by their ability to suppress electronic leakage when exposed to the reducing environment at the fuel interface. Such electronic leakage reduces fuel cell power output and the associated chemo-mechanical stresses can also lead to catastrophic fracture of electrolyte membranes. Here we depart from traditional electrolyte design that relies on cation substitution to sustain ionic conduction. Instead, we use a perovskite nickelate as an electrolyte with high initial ionic and electronic conductivity. Since many such oxides are also correlated electron systems, we can suppress the electronic conduction through a filling-controlled Mott transition induced by spontaneous hydrogen incorporation. Using such a nickelate as the electrolyte in free-standing membrane geometry, we demonstrate a low-temperature micro-fabricated SOFC with high performance. The ionic conductivity of the nickelate perovskite is comparable to the best-performing solid electrolytes in the same temperature range, with a very low activation energy. The results present a design strategy for high-performance materials exhibiting emergent properties arising from strong electron correlations.

Sustainable construction: construction and demolition waste reconsidered.

Science.gov (United States)

del Río Merino, Mercedes; Izquierdo Gracia, Pilar; Weis Azevedo, Isabel Salto

2010-02-01

Construction activity in Europe has increased substantially in the past decade. Likewise, there has also been a commensurate rise in the generation of construction and demolition waste (C&DW). This, together with the fact that in many European countries the rate of recycling and reuse of C&DW is still quite low has engendered a serious environmental problem and a motivation to develop strategies and management plans to solve it. Due to its composition, there is a significant potential to reuse and/or recycle C&DW, and thereby, contribute to improving the sustainability of construction and development, but practical procedures are not yet widely known or practiced in the construction industry. This article (a) summarizes the different applications that are presently practiced to optimize the recovery and/or application of C&DW for reuse, and (b) proposes various measures and strategies to improve the processing of this waste. The authors suggest that to enhance environmental effectiveness, a conscious and comprehensive C&DW management plan should be implemented in each jurisdiction. More precisely, this study presents a holistic approach towards C&DW management, through which environmental benefits can be achieved through the application of new construction methods that can contribute to sustainable growth.

SiRNAs conjugated with aromatic compounds induce RISC-mediated antisense strand selection and strong gene-silencing activity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kubo, Takanori, E-mail: kubo-t@yasuda-u.ac.jp [Faculty of Pharmacy, Yasuda Women' s University, 6-13-1 Yasuhigashi, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima 731-0153 (Japan); Yanagihara, Kazuyoshi [Faculty of Pharmacy, Yasuda Women' s University, 6-13-1 Yasuhigashi, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima 731-0153 (Japan); Division of Genetics, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045 (Japan); Takei, Yoshifumi [Department of Biochemistry, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumi-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8550 (Japan); Mihara, Keichiro [Department of Hematology and Oncology, Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8553 (Japan); Sato, Yuichiro; Seyama, Toshio [Faculty of Pharmacy, Yasuda Women' s University, 6-13-1 Yasuhigashi, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima 731-0153 (Japan)

2012-10-05

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer SiRNAs conjugated with aromatic compounds (Ar-siRNAs) at 5 Prime -sense strand were synthesized. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Ar-siRNAs increased resistance against nuclease degradation. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Ar-siRNAs were thermodynamically stable compared with the unmodified siRNA. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer High levels of cellular uptake and cytoplasmic localization were found. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Strong gene-silencing efficacy was exhibited in the Ar-siRNAs. -- Abstract: Short interference RNA (siRNA) is a powerful tool for suppressing gene expression in mammalian cells. In this study, we focused on the development of siRNAs conjugated with aromatic compounds in order to improve the potency of RNAi and thus to overcome several problems with siRNAs, such as cellular delivery and nuclease stability. The siRNAs conjugated with phenyl, hydroxyphenyl, naphthyl, and pyrenyl derivatives showed strong resistance to nuclease degradation, and were thermodynamically stable compared with unmodified siRNA. A high level of membrane permeability in HeLa cells was also observed. Moreover, these siRNAs exhibited enhanced RNAi efficacy, which exceeded that of locked nucleic acid (LNA)-modified siRNAs, against exogenous Renilla luciferase in HeLa cells. In particular, abundant cytoplasmic localization and strong gene-silencing efficacy were found in the siRNAs conjugated with phenyl and hydroxyphenyl derivatives. The novel siRNAs conjugated with aromatic compounds are promising candidates for a new generation of modified siRNAs that can solve many of the problems associated with RNAi technology.

Study on induced radioactivity of China Spallation Neutron Source

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu Qingbiao; Wang Qingbin; Wu Jingmin; Ma Zhongjian

2011-01-01

China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) is the first High Energy Intense Proton Accelerator planned to be constructed in China during the State Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, whose induced radioactivity is very important for occupational disease hazard assessment and environmental impact assessment. Adopting the FLUKA code, the authors have constructed a cylinder-tunnel geometric model and a line-source sampling physical model, deduced proper formulas to calculate air activation, and analyzed various issues with regard to the activation of different tunnel parts. The results show that the environmental impact resulting from induced activation is negligible, whereas the residual radiation in the tunnels has a great influence on maintenance personnel, so strict measures should be adopted.(authors)

Barriers of lean construction implementation in the Moroccan construction industry

Science.gov (United States)

Bajjou, Mohamed Saad; Chafi, Anas

2018-04-01

Improving the production system performance has become a fundamental pillar that must be taken into consideration in the construction industry. Recent developments in the construction sector have led to renewed interest in new techniques of management. Lean Construction is a very effective approach that has gained a high popularity by its ability to eliminate waste and maximize the value for the customer. Although both developed and developing countries have gained large benefits by implementing Lean Construction approach, several experiences showed many barriers that are hindering its implementation especially in developing countries. This paper aims to assess the critical barriers to the successful implementation in the Moroccan construction industry. Based on a literature review, followed by an analysis of data collected from a questionnaire survey which targeted 330 practitioners in the Moroccan construction field, several barriers were identified as key barriers. The findings of this investigation revealed that there are significant barriers such as Lack of knowledge about Lean Construction concepts, Unskilled Human Resources, and insufficient financial resources.

Prefabrication in Building Construction: A Perspective of Pakistan Construction Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nafees Ahmed Memon

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Construction industry is facing many problems in terms of construction waste, quality, environment, durability, safety and higher construction cost. Adoption of prefabrication is a possible solution to such problems. Accordingly, there is a need to study the prospects that would stimulate the appropriate discussion of the suitability of prefabrication and other construction methods for concrete buildings. Therefore, this study investigates the significance of advantages in adopting prefabrication along with hindrances through questionnaire survey. The data has been analyzed using RIW (Relative Importance Weight method as a MCDM approach. The results depict that main advantages of prefabrication are ?Shorter construction time? and ?Less construction site waste?. The top hindrances in adopting prefabrication as identified in this study are: ?Higher initial construction cost? and ?Inflexible for design changes?. Based on the survey results and apparent progress in the adoption of prefabrication around the world, it is concluded that the use of prefabrication is likely to increase in developing countries like Pakistan

Prefabrication in building construction: a perspective of pakistan construction industry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Memon, N.A.; Memon, F.A.; Khehro, S.H.

2014-01-01

Construction industry is facing many problems in terms of construction waste, quality, environment, durability, safety and higher construction cost. Adoption of prefabrication is a possible solution to such problems. Accordingly, there is a need to study the prospects that would stimulate the appropriate discussion of the suitability of prefabrication and other construction methods for concrete buildings. Therefore, this study investigates the significance of advantages in adopting prefabrication along with hindrances through questionnaire survey. The data has been analyzed using RIW (Relative Importance Weight) method as a MCDM approach. The results depict that main advantages of prefabrication are Shorter construction time and Less construction site waste. The top hindrances in adopting prefabrication as identified in this study are: Higher initial construction cost and Inflexible for design changes. Based on the survey results and apparent progress in the adoption of prefabrication around the world, it is concluded that the use of prefabrication is likely to increase in developing countries like Pakistan. (author)

Field and laboratory test methods for geomembranes during waste management facility construction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allen, S.R.; McCutchan, J.B.

1991-01-01

Hazardous waste management facilities are required to use approved lining and leak detection systems to prevent the migration of waste into the environment. Synthetic flexible membrane liners (FMLs) have effectively served as the critical barrier for waste containment and fluid migration. The U.S. EPA has established minimum technology requirements for the construction of lined facilities that include detailed and documented Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) plans. The U.S. EPA (EPA) recognizes that CQA during field construction is imperative for successful completion of project work and long-term facility operation. This paper discusses the importance of CQA during FML installation and the practical aspects of implementing a successful CQA program. Standard methods used for FML evaluation, in both the field and laboratory, are discussed and specific aspects of seam testing and data evaluation are addressed. The general importance of comprehensive definition of geomembrane seam field failures is strongly emphasized so that an appropriate response to test failures can be recommended

Reaction calorimetry for the development of ultrasound-induced polymerization processes in CO2-expanded fluids

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kemmere, M.F.; Kuijpers, M.W.A.; Keurentjes, J.T.F.

2007-01-01

A strong viscosity increase upon polymn. hinders radical formation during an ultrasound-induced bulk polymn. Since CO2 acts as a strong anti-solvent for most polymers, it can be used to reduce the viscosity of the reaction mixt. In this work, a process for the ultrasound-induced polymn. in

Characterization of a PLGA sandwiched cell/fibrin tubular construct and induction of the adipose derived stem cells into smooth muscle cells

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang Xiaohong; Maekitie, Antti A.; Paloheimo, Kaija-Stiina; Tuomi, Jukka; Paloheimo, Markku; Sui Shaochun; Zhang Qiqing

2011-01-01

A poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) sandwiched adipose derived stem cell (ADSC)/fibrin tubular construct, fabricated using a step-by-step mold/extraction method, was characterized in this work. The ADSCs were also induced into smooth-muscle-like cells using growth factors such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB), transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1), and basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF). Compared with the non-induced cells, the proliferation ability of induced cells was much smaller. The PLGA sandwiched cell/hydrogel construct was shown to be useful for controlling the cellular microenvironment and cellular behaviors such as growth, migration, proliferation and differentiation. This strategy seems promising in tissue engineering and organ manufacturing.

Characterization of a PLGA sandwiched cell/fibrin tubular construct and induction of the adipose derived stem cells into smooth muscle cells

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang Xiaohong, E-mail: wangxiaohong@tsinghua.edu.cn [BIT Research Centre, School of Science and Technology, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto (Finland); Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education and Center of Organ Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Maekitie, Antti A.; Paloheimo, Kaija-Stiina; Tuomi, Jukka; Paloheimo, Markku [BIT Research Centre, School of Science and Technology, Aalto University, P.O. Box 15500, 00076 Aalto (Finland); Sui Shaochun [Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing Technology, Ministry of Education and Center of Organ Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China); Zhang Qiqing [Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Material of Tianjin, Tianjin 300192 (China)

2011-05-10

A poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) sandwiched adipose derived stem cell (ADSC)/fibrin tubular construct, fabricated using a step-by-step mold/extraction method, was characterized in this work. The ADSCs were also induced into smooth-muscle-like cells using growth factors such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB), transforming growth factor {beta}1 (TGF{beta}1), and basic fibroblast growth factor (b-FGF). Compared with the non-induced cells, the proliferation ability of induced cells was much smaller. The PLGA sandwiched cell/hydrogel construct was shown to be useful for controlling the cellular microenvironment and cellular behaviors such as growth, migration, proliferation and differentiation. This strategy seems promising in tissue engineering and organ manufacturing.

Case inflection of construct state constructions in Dinka

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Torben

2016-01-01

Dinka, a Nilo-Saharan language, is largely monosyllabic, but nevertheless it has a fairly rich morphology. Thus, most of its morphology is expressed by alternations in phonological material of the root. The inflectional categories of nouns manifested in this way include state and case in addition...... to number. The state category consists of an absolute state and two construct states. The case category includes a nominative, a genitive, an allative, and an essive/ablative. The present article shows how case inflection is manifested in complex noun phrases consisting of a noun in a construct state...... simultaneously carry state information and case information. Thus, the case inflection of construct state constructions in Dinka adds yet another layer of nonlinear morphology to nouns in this language....

PREFACE: Strongly correlated electron systems Strongly correlated electron systems

Science.gov (United States)

Saxena, Siddharth S.; Littlewood, P. B.

2012-07-01

This special section is dedicated to the Strongly Correlated Electron Systems Conference (SCES) 2011, which was held from 29 August-3 September 2011, in Cambridge, UK. SCES'2011 is dedicated to 100 years of superconductivity and covers a range of topics in the area of strongly correlated systems. The correlated electronic and magnetic materials featured include f-electron based heavy fermion intermetallics and d-electron based transition metal compounds. The selected papers derived from invited presentations seek to deepen our understanding of the rich physical phenomena that arise from correlation effects. The focus is on quantum phase transitions, non-Fermi liquid phenomena, quantum magnetism, unconventional superconductivity and metal-insulator transitions. Both experimental and theoretical work is presented. Based on fundamental advances in the understanding of electronic materials, much of 20th century materials physics was driven by miniaturisation and integration in the electronics industry to the current generation of nanometre scale devices. The achievements of this industry have brought unprecedented advances to society and well-being, and no doubt there is much further to go—note that this progress is founded on investments and studies in the fundamentals of condensed matter physics from more than 50 years ago. Nevertheless, the defining challenges for the 21st century will lie in the discovery in science, and deployment through engineering, of technologies that can deliver the scale needed to have an impact on the sustainability agenda. Thus the big developments in nanotechnology may lie not in the pursuit of yet smaller transistors, but in the design of new structures that can revolutionise the performance of solar cells, batteries, fuel cells, light-weight structural materials, refrigeration, water purification, etc. The science presented in the papers of this special section also highlights the underlying interest in energy-dense materials, which

[Perception and attitude of rural community to the construction of Asian elephant conservation corridors in Xishuangbanna].

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zheng-Ling; Chen, Ming-Yong; Wu, Zhao-Lu; Wang, Qian; Dong, Yong-Hua

2009-06-01

By using contingent valuation method (CVM), an investigation was made from November 2007 to March 2008 on the perception and attitude of 196 households in 5 villages within 2 planned Asian elephant conservation corridors in Xishuangbanna to the construction of the corridors. 80.61% of the interviewees conditionally supported the corridors construction. The main factors affecting the interviewees' support willingness included their education level, per capita income, and perceptions to Asian elephant protection, human-elephant relations, and corridor utilization patterns and its beneficiaries, among which, the interviewees' awareness of Asian elephant conservation, corridor utilization patterns, and corridor beneficiaries had strong influence on the support willingness, with the correlation coefficient being 0.231, 0.236, and -0.304, respectively. The rural community holding the land tenure played a key role in the corridors construction. To effectively design and planning the construction of biological conservation corridor, it is necessary to have a deep understanding on the perceptions and attitudes of rural community to the construction of the corridor and to obtain their support and participation for this construction.

Usability Constructs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hertzum, Morten; Clemmesen, Torkil; Hornbæk, Kasper Anders Søren

2007-01-01

Whereas research on usability predominantly employs universal definitions of the aspects that comprise usability, people experience their use of information systems through personal constructs. Based on 48 repertory-grid interviews, this study investigates how such personal constructs are affected...... use of constructs traditionally associated with usability (e.g., easy-to-use, intuitive, and liked). Further analysis of the data is ongoing...

Electronic Maxwell demon in the coherent strong-coupling regime

Science.gov (United States)

Schaller, Gernot; Cerrillo, Javier; Engelhardt, Georg; Strasberg, Philipp

2018-05-01

We consider an external feedback control loop implementing the action of a Maxwell demon. Applying control actions that are conditioned on measurement outcomes, the demon may transport electrons against a bias voltage and thereby effectively converts information into electric power. While the underlying model—a feedback-controlled quantum dot that is coupled to two electronic leads—is well explored in the limit of small tunnel couplings, we can address the strong-coupling regime with a fermionic reaction-coordinate mapping. This exact mapping transforms the setup into a serial triple quantum dot coupled to two leads. We find that a continuous projective measurement of the central dot occupation would lead to a complete suppression of electronic transport due to the quantum Zeno effect. In contrast, by using a microscopic detector model we can implement a weak measurement, which allows for closure of the control loop without transport blockade. Then, in the weak-coupling regime, the energy flows associated with the feedback loop are negligible, and dominantly the information gained in the measurement induces a bound for the generated electric power. In the strong coupling limit, the protocol may require more energy for operating the control loop than electric power produced, such that the whole device is no longer information dominated and can thus not be interpreted as a Maxwell demon.

Mathematical structure of Rabi oscillations in the strong coupling regime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fujii, Kazuyuki

2003-01-01

In this paper, we generalize the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian by making use of some operators based on Lie algebras su(1, 1) and su(2), and study a mathematical structure of Rabi floppings of these models in the strong coupling regime. We show that Rabi frequencies are given by matrix elements of generalized coherent operators (Fujii K 2002 Preprint quant-ph/0202081) under the rotating-wave approximation. In the first half, we make a general review of coherent operators and generalized coherent ones based on Lie algebras su(1, 1) and su(2). In the latter half, we carry out a detailed examination of Frasca (Frasca M 2001 Preprint quant-ph/0111134) and generalize his method, and moreover present some related problems. We also apply our results to the construction of controlled unitary gates in quantum computation. Lastly, we make a brief comment on application to holonomic quantum computation

Holographic Floquet states I: a strongly coupled Weyl semimetal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashimoto, Koji; Kinoshita, Shunichiro; Murata, Keiju; Oka, Takashi

2017-01-01

Floquet states can be realized in quantum systems driven by continuous time-periodic perturbations. It is known that a state known as the Floquet Weyl semimetal can be realized when free Dirac fermions are placed in a rotating electric field. What will happen if strong interaction is introduced to this system? Will the interaction wash out the characteristic features of Weyl semimetals such as the Hall response? Is there a steady state and what is its thermodynamic behavior? We answer these questions using AdS/CFT correspondence in the N=2 supersymmetric massless QCD in a rotating electric field in the large N c limit realizing the first example of a “holographic Floquet state”. In this limit, gluons not only mediate interaction, but also act as an energy reservoir and stabilize the nonequilibrium steady state (NESS). We obtain the electric current induced by a rotating electric field: in the high frequency region, the Ohm’s law is satisfied, while we recover the DC nonlinear conductivity at low frequency, which was obtained holographically in a previous work. The thermodynamic properties of the NESS, e.g., fluctuation-dissipation relation, is characterized by the effective Hawking temperature that is defined from the effective horizon giving a holographic meaning to the “periodic thermodynamic” concept. In addition to the strong (pump) rotating electric field, we apply an additional weak (probe) electric field in the spirit of the pump-probe experiments done in condensed matter experiments. Weak DC and AC probe analysis in the background rotating electric field shows Hall currents as a linear response, therefore the Hall response of Floquet Weyl semimetals survives at the strong coupling limit. We also find frequency mixed response currents, i.e., a heterodyning effect, characteristic to periodically driven Floquet systems.

Holographic Floquet states I: a strongly coupled Weyl semimetal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hashimoto, Koji [Department of Physics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043 (Japan); Kinoshita, Shunichiro [Department of Physics, Chuo University, Tokyo 112-8551 (Japan); Murata, Keiju [Keio University, 4-1-1 Hiyoshi, Yokohama 223-8521 (Japan); Oka, Takashi [Max-Planck-Institut für Physik komplexer Systeme (MPI-PKS), Nöthnitzer Straße 38, Dresden 01187 (Germany); Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe (MPI-CPfS),Nöthnitzer Straße 40, Dresden 01187 (Germany)

2017-05-23

Floquet states can be realized in quantum systems driven by continuous time-periodic perturbations. It is known that a state known as the Floquet Weyl semimetal can be realized when free Dirac fermions are placed in a rotating electric field. What will happen if strong interaction is introduced to this system? Will the interaction wash out the characteristic features of Weyl semimetals such as the Hall response? Is there a steady state and what is its thermodynamic behavior? We answer these questions using AdS/CFT correspondence in the N=2 supersymmetric massless QCD in a rotating electric field in the large N{sub c} limit realizing the first example of a “holographic Floquet state”. In this limit, gluons not only mediate interaction, but also act as an energy reservoir and stabilize the nonequilibrium steady state (NESS). We obtain the electric current induced by a rotating electric field: in the high frequency region, the Ohm’s law is satisfied, while we recover the DC nonlinear conductivity at low frequency, which was obtained holographically in a previous work. The thermodynamic properties of the NESS, e.g., fluctuation-dissipation relation, is characterized by the effective Hawking temperature that is defined from the effective horizon giving a holographic meaning to the “periodic thermodynamic” concept. In addition to the strong (pump) rotating electric field, we apply an additional weak (probe) electric field in the spirit of the pump-probe experiments done in condensed matter experiments. Weak DC and AC probe analysis in the background rotating electric field shows Hall currents as a linear response, therefore the Hall response of Floquet Weyl semimetals survives at the strong coupling limit. We also find frequency mixed response currents, i.e., a heterodyning effect, characteristic to periodically driven Floquet systems.

Holographic Floquet states I: a strongly coupled Weyl semimetal

Science.gov (United States)

Hashimoto, Koji; Kinoshita, Shunichiro; Murata, Keiju; Oka, Takashi

2017-05-01

Floquet states can be realized in quantum systems driven by continuous time-periodic perturbations. It is known that a state known as the Floquet Weyl semimetal can be realized when free Dirac fermions are placed in a rotating electric field. What will happen if strong interaction is introduced to this system? Will the interaction wash out the characteristic features of Weyl semimetals such as the Hall response? Is there a steady state and what is its thermodynamic behavior? We answer these questions using AdS/CFT correspondence in the N = 2 supersymmetric massless QCD in a rotating electric field in the large N c limit realizing the first example of a "holographic Floquet state". In this limit, gluons not only mediate interaction, but also act as an energy reservoir and stabilize the nonequilibrium steady state (NESS). We obtain the electric current induced by a rotating electric field: in the high frequency region, the Ohm's law is satisfied, while we recover the DC nonlinear conductivity at low frequency, which was obtained holographically in a previous work. The thermodynamic properties of the NESS, e.g., fluctuation-dissipation relation, is characterized by the effective Hawking temperature that is defined from the effective horizon giving a holographic meaning to the "periodic thermodynamic" concept. In addition to the strong (pump) rotating electric field, we apply an additional weak (probe) electric field in the spirit of the pump-probe experiments done in condensed matter experiments. Weak DC and AC probe analysis in the background rotating electric field shows Hall currents as a linear response, therefore the Hall response of Floquet Weyl semimetals survives at the strong coupling limit. We also find frequency mixed response currents, i.e., a heterodyning effect, characteristic to periodically driven Floquet systems.

Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression co-occurrence: Structural relations among disorder constructs and trait and symptom dimensions.

Science.gov (United States)

Post, Loren M; Feeny, Norah C; Zoellner, Lori A; Connell, Arin M

2016-12-01

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) in response to trauma co-occur at high rates. A better understanding of the nature of this co-occurrence is critical to developing an accurate conceptualization of the disorders. This study examined structural relations among the PTSD and MDD constructs and trait and symptom dimensions within the framework of the integrative hierarchical model of anxiety and depression. Study participants completed clinician-rated and self-report measures during a pre-treatment assessment. The sample consisted of 200 treatment-seeking individuals with a primary DSM-IV PTSD diagnosis. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationship between the constructs. The trait negative affect/neuroticism construct had a direct effect on both PTSD and MDD. The trait positive affect/extraversion construct had a unique, negative direct effect on MDD, and PTSD had a unique, direct effect on the physical concerns symptoms construct. An alternative model with the PTSD and MDD constructs combined into an overall general traumatic stress construct produced a decrement in model fit. These findings provide a clearer understanding of the relationship between co-occurring PTSD and MDD as disorders with shared trait negative affect/neuroticism contributing to the overlap between them and unique trait positive affect/extraversion and physical concerns differentiating them. Therefore, PTSD and MDD in response to trauma may be best represented as two distinct, yet strongly related constructs. In assessing individuals who have been exposed to trauma, practitioners should recognize that co-occurring PTSD and MDD appears to be best represented as two distinct, yet strongly related constructs. Negative affect may be the shared vulnerability directly influencing both PTSD and MDD; however, in the presence of both PTSD and MDD, low positive affect appears to be more specifically related to MDD and fear of physical

Strong Ideal Convergence in Probabilistic Metric Spaces

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

In the present paper we introduce the concepts of strongly ideal convergent sequence and strong ideal Cauchy sequence in a probabilistic metric (PM) space endowed with the strong topology, and establish some basic facts. Next, we define the strong ideal limit points and the strong ideal cluster points of a sequence in this ...

Social construction: vistas in clinical child and adolescent psychology.

Science.gov (United States)

Gergen, Kenneth J; Lightfoot, Cynthia; Sydow, Lisa

2004-06-01

We explore here the potentials of a social constructionist orientation to knowledge for research and clinical practice. Dialogues on social construction emphasize the communal origins of knowledge. They stress the cultural basis of knowledge claims, the significance of language, the value saturation of all knowledge, and the significance of relationships as opposed to individuals. An initial illustration of constructionism in action centers on adolescent risk behavior. Such behavior is often constructed negatively within popular writings and the social science and thus ignores the meaning of such actions to the adolescents themselves. Discourse analysis indicates that for adolescents risky behavior serves important functions of enhancing group solidarity and establishing positive identity. A second illustration, exploring the implications of constructionism for therapy, places a strong emphasis on the therapist as a collaborator in the building of meaning. Traditional investments in diagnosis and treatment are replaced with the collaborative creation of new possibilities for action.

Strategies to rescue the consequences of inducible arginase-1 deficiency in mice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laurel L Ballantyne

Full Text Available Arginase-1 catalyzes the conversion of arginine to ornithine and urea, which is the final step of the urea cycle used to remove excess ammonia from the body. Arginase-1 deficiency leads to hyperargininemia in mice and man with severe lethal consequences in the former and progressive neurological impairment to varying degrees in the latter. In a tamoxifen-induced arginase-1 deficient mouse model, mice succumb to the enzyme deficiency within 2 weeks after inducing the knockout and retain <2 % enzyme in the liver. Standard clinical care regimens for arginase-1 deficiency (low-protein diet, the nitrogen-scavenging drug sodium phenylbutyrate, ornithine supplementation either failed to extend lifespan (ornithine or only minimally prolonged lifespan (maximum 8 days with low-protein diet and drug. A conditional, tamoxifen-inducible arginase-1 transgenic mouse strain expressing the enzyme from the Rosa26 locus modestly extended lifespan of neonatal mice, but not that of 4-week old mice, when crossed to the inducible arginase-1 knockout mouse strain. Delivery of an arginase-1/enhanced green fluorescent fusion construct by adeno-associated viral delivery (rh10 serotype with a strong cytomegalovirus-chicken β-actin hybrid promoter rescued about 30% of male mice with lifespan prolongation to at least 6 months, extensive hepatic expression and restoration of significant enzyme activity in liver. In contrast, a vector of the AAV8 serotype driven by the thyroxine-binding globulin promoter led to weaker liver expression and did not rescue arginase-1 deficient mice to any great extent. Since the induced arginase-1 deficient mouse model displays a much more severe phenotype when compared to human arginase-1 deficiency, these studies reveal that it may be feasible with gene therapy strategies to correct the various manifestations of the disorder and they provide optimism for future clinical studies.

Modelling of settlement induced building damage

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Giardina, G.

2013-01-01

This thesis focuses on the modelling of settlement induced damage to masonry buildings. In densely populated areas, the need for new space is nowadays producing a rapid increment of underground excavations. Due to the construction of new metro lines, tunnelling activity in urban areas is growing.

Engaging Military Fathers in a Reflective Parenting Program: Lessons from Strong Families Strong Forces

Science.gov (United States)

DeVoe, Ellen R.; Paris, Ruth

2015-01-01

Through Strong Families Strong Forces, a reflective parenting program for military families with young children, we were privileged to work with contemporary military fathers who served in the post-9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Due to this work, the authors gained valuable insight into the complexity of fathering during wartime, the…

A computational geometry approach to pore network construction for granular packings

Science.gov (United States)

van der Linden, Joost H.; Sufian, Adnan; Narsilio, Guillermo A.; Russell, Adrian R.; Tordesillas, Antoinette

2018-03-01

Pore network construction provides the ability to characterize and study the pore space of inhomogeneous and geometrically complex granular media in a range of scientific and engineering applications. Various approaches to the construction have been proposed, however subtle implementational details are frequently omitted, open access to source code is limited, and few studies compare multiple algorithms in the context of a specific application. This study presents, in detail, a new pore network construction algorithm, and provides a comprehensive comparison with two other, well-established Delaunay triangulation-based pore network construction methods. Source code is provided to encourage further development. The proposed algorithm avoids the expensive non-linear optimization procedure in existing Delaunay approaches, and is robust in the presence of polydispersity. Algorithms are compared in terms of structural, geometrical and advanced connectivity parameters, focusing on the application of fluid flow characteristics. Sensitivity of the various networks to permeability is assessed through network (Stokes) simulations and finite-element (Navier-Stokes) simulations. Results highlight strong dependencies of pore volume, pore connectivity, throat geometry and fluid conductance on the degree of tetrahedra merging and the specific characteristics of the throats targeted by the merging algorithm. The paper concludes with practical recommendations on the applicability of the three investigated algorithms.

Construction Technologies for Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)