1,280 research outputs found
Induction of Fibroblast Growth Factor-9 and Interleukin-1{alpha} Gene Expression by Motorcycle Exhaust Particulate Extracts and Benzo(a)pyrene in Human Lung Adenocarcinoma Cells.
No full textCharacteristics of the lithology, fault-related rocks and fault zone structures in TCDP Hole-A
No full textContributions of large wood to the initial establishment and diversity of riparian vegetation in a bar-braided temperate river
No full textThe purpose of this study was to examine the effects of large wood (LW) on the physical environment and the initial establishment of vascular plant species in the Rekifune River, a large bar-braided monsoonal river in Japan. The physical environment and the diversity and composition of plant species were compared in relation to the orientation of LW pieces. We found that shading effects were more prevalent in the immediate vicinity of LW pieces than in quadrats distant from LW. The effect was especially strong at the center of LW jams (the "jam center"). Fine sand and silt were concentrated in the quadrats downstream from the LW pieces. In contrast, cobbles dominated the upstream quadrats. The highest diversity was found in the jam center, while intermediate values were observed in the quadrats surrounding LW. Indicator species analysis detected 21 indicator species only in the jam center. The LW jams favored the deposition of plant fragments and sediment and created shaded areas within and around the structures. Buried seeds may be transported with LW during a flood, and seeds dispersed by wind and stream flows may be trapped by the complex structure of LW jams. The specific environmental conditions and the trapping of seeds and plant fragments result in the early establishment of mid-successional tree species at LW jams. In conclusion, the LW pieces deposited on gravel bars altered the light and substrate conditions and thereby provided specific safe sites for various riparian plant species
An f/0.27 High-Gain Lens Antenna for Ultrasmall Platforms at THz Frequencies
No full textThe development of a low focal number and low-mass lens antenna is presented that enables terahertz spectroscopy applications on ultracompact platforms. The antenna operates efficiently over a 20% fractional bandwidth, from 450 to 550 GHz, with a gain of 50 dBi at 500 GHz. The antenna consists of a hyperbolic silicon lens that is placed in a record low focal number configuration (f#=0.27) with respect to an advanced waveguide feed. An incident field-matching analysis is applied to investigate the optimal feed radiation pattern that maximizes the lens aperture efficiency, which would result in a 20% increase in aperture efficiency (> 80%) with respect to a standard open-ended waveguide (< 60% aperture efficiency). A multilayer leaky-wave (LW) stratification is quasi-analytically optimized to approximate the optimal feeding pattern, resulting in a >70% lens aperture efficiency. An example LW stratification is synthesized using silicon micromachining technology and is fully characterized in combination with the dielectric lens. 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.Tera-Hertz Sensin
Precipitation patterns control the distribution and export of large wood at the catchment scale
No full textLarge wood (LW) plays an important role in river ecosystems, but LW-laden floods may cause serious damage to human lives and property. The relationship between precipitation patterns and variations in LW distribution and export at the watershed scale is poorly understood. To explore these linkages, we examined differences in LW distribution as a function of channel morphologies in six watersheds located in southern and northern Japan and analysed the impacts of different precipitation patterns on the fluvial export of LW from river catchments. In southern Japan, intense rainfalls caused by typhoons or localized torrential downpours initiate landslides and debris flows that introduce massive amounts of LW into channels. Gravel bars formed by frequent flood events are widely prevalent, and the LW temporarily stored on these bars is frequently moved and/or broken into smaller pieces by floods. In these systems fluvial export of LW is supply-limited, with smaller accumulations and shorter residence times than in northern Japan. Conversely, in northern Japan, where typhoons and torrential downpours rarely occur, LW is mostly recruited by bank erosion, tree mortality and windthrow into channels, rather than by landslides and debris flows. Recruited pieces accumulate in log jams on valley floors, particularly on floodplains supporting mature forests, resulting in larger accumulations and longer residence times. In these watersheds fluvial export of LW is transport-limited, and the pieces gradually decompose during long-term storage as log jams. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Pharmacokinetics of quercetin-loaded nanodroplets with ultrasound activation and their use for bioimaging
No full textLi-Wen Chang,1 Mei-Ling Hou,1 Shuo-Hui Hung,2 Lie-Chwen Lin,3 Tung-Hu Tsai1,4–6 1Institute of Traditional Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, 2Department of Surgery, 3National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, 4Department of Education and Research, Taipei City Hospital, 5School of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, 6Graduate Institute of Acupuncture Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan Abstract: Bubble formulations have both diagnostic and therapeutic applications. However, research on nanobubbles/nanodroplets remains in the initial stages. In this study, a nanodroplet formulation was prepared and loaded with a novel class of chemotherapeutic drug, ie, quercetin, to observe its pharmacokinetic properties and ultrasonic bioimaging of specific sites, namely the abdominal vein and bladder. Four parallel groups were designed to investigate the effects of ultrasound and nanodroplets on the pharmacokinetics of quercetin. These groups were quercetin alone, quercetin triggered with ultrasound, quercetin-encapsulated in nanodroplets, and quercetin encapsulated in nanodroplets triggered with ultrasound. Spherical vesicles with a mean diameter of 280 nm were formed, and quercetin was completely encapsulated within. In vivo ultrasonic imaging confirmed that the nanodroplets could be treated by ultrasound. The results indicate that the initial 5-minute serum concentration, area under the concentration–time curve, elimination half-life, and clearance of quercetin were significantly enhanced by nanodroplets with or without ultrasound. Keywords: nanodroplets, quercetin, ultrasonic pharmacokinetics, ultrasonic imaging, ultrasoun
Weight data lets you fine-tune
No full textThe article discusses a study on the possible benefits of daily liveweight (LW) monitoring in dairy herds. It cites that farmers can reduce the negative effects of LW change. It mentions that the study covers 450 mixed-age dairy cows, with data collected via a walk-over weighing system that measured the LW of each cow after leaving the milking platform. The author shares that LW change in postpartum and LW change after start of mating are indicators of the cow's reproductive performance
Early diastolic mitral annular velocity at the interventricular septal annulus correctly reflects left ventricular longitudinal myocardial relaxation
No full textAims: Early diastolic mitral annular velocity (e') obtained by tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) is widely used to evaluate left ventricular (LV) diastolic function based on the assumption that it reflects myocardial relaxation in the long-axis direction. In this study, we aimed to determine whether or not e' truly reflects early diastolic longitudinal myocardial relaxation, and which is the most useful for evaluating LV diastolic function among e' measured at the interventricular-septal annulus (IS-e'), that measured at the lateral annulus (LW-e') or their mean value (M-e'). Methods and results: IS-e', LW-e', and M-e' were measured using colour TDI in 15 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 13 patients with hypertension and 19 control subjects. Using two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging, early diastolic myocardial strain rates (SR_[E]) were measured for the IS (IS-SR_[E]), LW(LW-SR_[E]) and entire LV myocardium (G-SR_[E]). IS-e' was excellently correlated with IS-SR_[E] (r = 0.90, P < 0.001); the correlation was better than that between LW-e' and LW-SR_[E] (r = 0.75, P < 0.001). IS-e' and M-e' were well correlated with G-SR_[E] (r = 0.88, P < 0.001 and r = 0.86, P < 0.001, respectively) and with LV early diastolic flow propagation velocity (r = 0.77, P < 0.001 and r = 0.78, P < 0.001, respectively). The correlations of LW-e' to G-SR_[E] (r = 0.80, P < 0.001) and flow propagation velocity (r = 0.75, P < 0.001) did not reach this level. Conclusion: IS-e' well reflected LV longitudinal myocardial relaxation and LV diastolic function, and was found to be more useful in evaluating LV diastolic function than LW-e'
A NONLINEAR STATIC ANALYSIS STUDY OF AN RC STRUCTURE WITH WALLS
No full text瞭解鋼筋混凝土(RC)牆其側向載重-側向位移反應，乃是RC含牆結構物進行非線性靜力分析與耐震能力評估之重要但困難的工作。然而，對於RC牆其非線性行為的模擬，至今仍未有較精確統一的方法。 為深入瞭解RC牆於軸力-剪力-彎矩互制下之非線性行為，本文將研究如何適當地計算軸力-彎矩作用下RC牆之彎矩-彎曲位移反應；以及利用兩迴歸因子Cs(以21組實驗資料迴歸)與Cd(以23組實驗資料迴歸)分別調整修正壓力場理論(MCFT)計算之剪力強度與剪位移，建立起考量RC牆高寬比(Hin/Lw)影響之軸力-剪力作用下RC牆剪力-剪位移反應，經上述兩反應的結合，可以合理地決定RC牆於軸力-剪力-彎矩互制下之側向載重-側向位移反應。 此外，為確認此分析方法的可靠性，本文也另以44組RC牆實驗資料進行盲目測試。經由分析結果與實驗結果之側向極限載重與該載重對應之位移(側向極限位移)間的相互比對，比對結果顯示，本文方法對於預測RC牆側向極限載重具有相當不錯的準確度，而對於預測RC牆側向極限位移則稍微偏向低估。因此，使用Cs及Cd兩迴歸因子分別調整由MCFT計算之剪力與剪位移，來反映RC牆高寬比(Hin/Lw)的影響，是可接受的。 本文也於SAP2000或ETABS程式下，建立6層RC純構架、6層RC含牆構架及6層開氣窗RC含牆構架，說明如何以等值柱模擬RC牆，並設置相關之塑鉸以進行非線性靜力分析，提供給工程師於應用上作為參考。經由三構架之非線性靜力分析結果，本文也探討RC牆對於構架行為之影響與貢獻。Knowing the lateral load-lateral displacement of an RC (reinforced concrete) wall is an important but difficult work for nonlinear static analysis and seismic capacity evaluation. However, up to now the simulation about nonlinear behavior of an RC wall has not obtained yet an accurate and unified way. In this research, the moment–bending displacement response of an RC wall under an axial load and moment is obtained from moment–curvature analysis using the wall’s proper plastic hinge length. Furthermore, the shear-shear displacement response of the RC wall under axial load and shear with considering the effect of the height-depth ratio of the RC wall (Hin/Lw) was established by means of two regressed factor Cs(regressed by 21 tests'' data) and Cd(regressed by 23 tests'' data) to modify the shear force and the shear displacement respectively calculated by the modified compression-field theory (MCFT). By integrating the moment–bending displacement and the shear–shear displacement responses, the lateral load–lateral displacement response of the RC wall under axial load–moment–shear interaction can be reasonably determined. To confirm the reliability of the proposed method, the analysis results of a further 44 tests along with a blind test, and are then compared with the experimental results. From the statistical results of the 67 tests, it was shown that the proposed method provides a good prediction of the lateral ultimate load but somewhat underestimates the lateral ultimate displacement. Thus, using Cs and Cd to adjust the shear and shear displacement obtained from the modified compression-field theory, respectively, to reflect the influence of Hin/Lw is acceptable. In addition, to provide an application illustration for engineers, this article establishes a 6 floor RC structure (pure RC frame), a 6 floor RC structure with walls and a 6 floor RC structure with walls containing windows to explain how to use an equivalent column model and set plastic hinges to simulate an RC wall in SAP2000 or ETABS nonlinear static analysis. Through the nonlinear static analysis result of the above three RC structures, the influence and contribution of RC walls on the RC structures are discussed in this article
Self-archiving practice and the influence of publisher policies in the social sciences
No full textAuthors in different disciplines exhibit very different behaviours on the so-called ‘green’ road to open access, i.e. self-archiving. This study looks at the self-archiving behaviour of authors publishing in leading journals in six social science disciplines. It tests the hypothesis that authors are self-archiving according to the norms of their respective disciplines rather than following self-archiving policies of publishers, and that, as a result, they are self-archiving significant numbers of publisher PDF versions. It finds significant levels of
self-archiving, as well as significant self-archiving of
the publisher PDF version, in all the disciplines
investigated. Publishers’ self-archiving policies have
no influence on author self-archiving practice
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