689 research outputs found
Figure 4. Male genitalia. A in Taxonomic review on Acrocercopinae, Gracillariinae and Ornixolinae from Shandong, China, with new data on distribution and host associations (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae)
No full textFigure 4. Male genitalia. A. Spulerina parthenocissi, slide no. LIU16009. B. Telamoptilia grewiae, slide no. LIU0033. C. Eteoryctis picrasmae, slide no. LIU0034. D. Liocrobyla lobata, slide no. LIU0028. E. Epicephala relictella, slide no. JYR17055. F. Conopomorpha flueggella, slide no. LIU0041. Scale bars = 0.2 mm.Published as part of Jiang, Yurong, Zhao, Yang, Wang, Encui, Zhang, Tongyou & Liu, Tengteng, 2021, Taxonomic review on Acrocercopinae, Gracillariinae and Ornixolinae from Shandong, China, with new data on distribution and host associations (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae), pp. 240-257 in Zoological Systematics 46 (3) on page 247, DOI: 10.11865/zs.2021306, http://zenodo.org/record/717609
Cooperation in the sphere of regional security strengthening – priority task of SCO
No full textThe author insists that cooperation in the sphere of security remains the main task of SCO. The achievements of recent 10 years as well as new threats and challenges for security are considered, the author argues for necessity to provide common for all members of SCO legal basis for further approaches to security issues in the region of Central Asia
Global synchronization control of general delayed discrete-time networks with stochastic coupling and disturbances
No full textCopyright [2008] IEEE. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of Brunel University's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected].
By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.In this paper, the synchronization control problem is considered for two coupled discrete-time complex networks with time delays. The network under investigation is quite general to reflect the reality, where the state delays are allowed to be time varying with given lower and upper bounds, and the stochastic disturbances are assumed to be Brownian motions that affect not only the network coupling but also the overall networks. By utilizing the Lyapunov functional method combined with linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques, we obtain several sufficient delay-dependent conditions that ensure the coupled networks to be globally exponentially synchronized in the mean square. A control law is designed to synchronize the addressed coupled complex networks in terms of certain LMIs that can be readily solved using the Matlab LMI toolbox. Two numerical examples are presented to show the validity of our theoretical analysis results.This work was supported by the Royal Society Sino-British Fellowship Trust Award of the
U.K
Heat transfer and flow behaviour of aqueous suspensions of titanate nanotubes (nanofluids)
No full textTitanate nanotubes of an aspect ratio of ~ 10 are synthesized, characterised and dispersed in water to form stable nanofluids containing 0.5, 1.0 and 2.5 wt.% of the nanotubes. Experiments are then carried out to investigate the effective thermal conductivity, rheological behaviour and forced convective heat transfer of the nanofluids. The results show a small thermal conductivity enhancement of ~ 3% at 25 °C and ~ 5% at 40 °C for the 2.5 wt.% nanofluid. The nanofluids are found to be non-Newtonian with obvious shear thinning behaviour with the shear viscosity decreasing with increasing shear rate at low shear rates. The shear viscosity approaches constant at a shear rate higher than ~ 100–1000 s− 1 depending nanoparticle concentration. The high shear viscosity is found to be much higher than that predicted by the conventional viscosity models for dilute suspensions. Despite the small thermal conduction enhancement, an excellent enhancement is observed on the convective heat transfer coefficient, which is much higher than that of the thermal conductivity enhancement. In comparison with nanofluids containing spherical titania nanoparticles under similar conditions, the enhancement of both thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient of the titanate nanotube nanofluids is considerably higher indicating the important role of particle shape in the heat transfer enhancement. Possible mechanisms are also proposed for the observed enhancement of the convective heat transfer coefficient
Maize Class C Heat Shock Factor ZmHSF21 Improves the High Temperature Tolerance of Transgenic Arabidopsis
No full textHigh temperatures seriously threaten the global yield of maize. The objectives of the present study were to explore the key candidate gene involved in heat shock responses in maize and its potential biological function to heat stress. Here, we identified a Class C heat shock factor, ZmHSF21, from maize leaves and used molecular biological and plant physiological assays to investigate its roles in transgenic Arabidopsis. ZmHSF21 encodes a putative protein of 388 amino acids. We showed that ZmHSF21 was expressed in most tissues of maize with relatively high expression in leaves and silks but rather low in roots and stalks, and its expression level in leaves was significantly up-regulated by heat treatment. We also showed that overexpression of ZmHSF21 in Arabidopsis significantly improved the seed germination frequency and plant survival rate when exposed to heat stress. We demonstrated that, compared with wild-type plants, the activities of peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase increased while the reactive oxygen species accumulation decreased in ZmHSF21 overexpressors under heat stress conditions. We further demonstrated that ZmHSF21 promoted the transcriptional level of AtAPX2, AtGolS1, and several AtHSPs. Collectively, the first-class C HSF in maize (ZmHSF21) is cloned in this study, and the combined results suggest that ZmHSF21 is a positive regulator of heat shock response and can be applied to develop maize high-temperature-tolerant varieties for more yield
Regulation of gene expression and intestinal calcium absorption: Role of CAT1, calbindin D9k, and VDR
No full textTranscellular calcium (Ca) absorption is primarily regulated by genomic action of 1,25(OH)2 D3 through vitamin D receptor (VDR). In an attempt to better understand the molecular mechanisms of transcellular Ca absorption, we investigated the role of CaT1, calbindin D9k and VDR in the process of Ca absorption in mouse. We found that duodenal CaT1 mRNA is very responsive to the changes in serum 1,25(OH)2 D3 caused by diet and 1,25(OH)2 D3 injection. Coordinate regulation of duodenal CaT1, calbindin D9k, and Ca absorption in response to short-term changes of dietary Ca, and rapid induction of CaT1 preceeding Ca absorption after 1,25(OH)2 D3 injection suggest an essential role for 1,25(OH)2 D3-mediated expression of CaT1 in Ca absorption. However, in VDR knockout (KO) mice on a 2.0% Ca diet, Ca absorption was increased by 13% while CaT1 mRNA was \u3c1% of the levels seen in WT fed a 0.5% Ca diet. Our data suggest that it is not likely that CaT1 is a rate-limiting determinant in Ca absorption. Calbindin D9k has been proposed to function as a ferry to facilitate the diffusion of Ca in the cytosol. In KO mice fed a 0.5% Ca diet, we did not see high Ca absorption based on their relative high calbindin D9k protein. Moreover, with 1,25(OH)2 D3 injection, Ca absorption proceeded the induction of calbindin D9k mRNA. Our data does not support the role of calbindin D9k as a rate-limiting determinant in intestinal Ca absorption. However, it does not eliminate the possibility that this protein acts as an intracellular buffer to prevent the cytotoxicity during active Ca absorption. Reduced VDR levels have been proposed to be responsible for intestinal resistance to 1,25(OH)2 D3 in aging. Compared to VDR heterozygous (VDR +/−) mice containing 50% of VDR protein, we found the slope of the relationship between Ca absorption and circulating 1,25(OH)2 D3 was steeper in normal mice, suggesting blunt responsiveness of intestine in VDR +/− mice. Our data support the hypothesis that reduced VDR levels account for the intestinal resistance to 1,25(OH)2 D3
Enhanced reversibility of the magnetoelastic transition in (Mn,Fe)<sub>2</sub>(P,Si) alloys via minimizing the transition-induced elastic strain energy
No full textMagnetocaloric materials undergoing reversible phase transitions are highly desirable for magnetic refrigeration applications. (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) alloys exhibit a giant magnetocaloric effect accompanied by a magnetoelastic transition, while the noticeable irreversibility causes drastic degradation of the magnetocaloric properties during consecutive cooling cycles. In the present work, we performed a comprehensive study on the magnetoelastic transition of the (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) alloys by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, in situ field- and temperature-dependent neutron powder diffraction as well as density functional theory calculations (DFT). We found a generalized relationship between the thermal hysteresis and the transition-induced elastic strain energy for the (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) family. The thermal hysteresis was greatly reduced from 11 to 1 K by a mere 4 at.% substitution of Fe by Mo in the Mn1.15Fe0.80P0.45Si0.55 alloy. This reduction is found to be due to a strong reduction in the transition-induced elastic strain energy. The significantly enhanced reversibility of the magnetoelastic transition leads to a remarkable improvement of the reversible magnetocaloric properties, compared to the parent alloy. Based on the DFT calculations and the neutron diffraction experiments, we also elucidated the underlying mechanism of the tunable transition temperature for the (Mn,Fe)2(P,Si) family, which can essentially be attributed to the strong competition between the covalent bonding and the ferromagnetic exchange coupling. The present work provides not only a new strategy to improve the reversibility of a first-order magnetic transition but also essential insight into the electron-spin-lattice coupling in giant magnetocaloric materials.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.RST/Fundamental Aspects of Materials and Energ
Subjective image quality assessment: A method based on signal detection theory
No full textIn the field of image quality assessment, to develop computerized/objective methods whose evaluations are in close agreement with human judgments becomes a main task. However, accurate evaluation of human’s subjective judgments is still a problem. Tradition methods based on mean opinion score (MOS) were not accurate enough, especially for images of minor changes or distortions. The present study tried to apply signal detection theory (SDT) in the field of image quality assessment, since SDT is particularly useful in measuring the way we make decisions under conditions of uncertainty. The results of three psychophysics experiments, in which images of different watermarking strengths were used as stimuli, showed that the SDT-based method was especially useful to detect the small loss of fidelity of images. This conclusion was supported by the higher correlation between the sensitivity score, P(A), with several computerized/objective QA indexes, such as PSNR, VIF and SSIM. Detecting subtle changes of images might involve some unknown implicit mechanisms for participants did not perform well enough in full-reference framework which allowing direct comparisons of the changed image to the original one. 
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