243 research outputs found
Biochar as Electron Acceptor for Microbial Extracellular Respiration
No full textBiochar is a charred carbonaceous material that has recently been identified to provide many potential environmental and agricultural applications. Biochar amendments are shown to effectively improve the quality of soil and increase soil microbial biomass. However, the interactions between biochar and microorganisms and the mechanisms through which biochar influences soil microbial growth and activities remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the potential for biochar to function as an electron acceptor for microbial extracellular respiration and growth. Anaerobic incubation of Geobacter sulfurreducens revealed that biochar was used as a sole terminal electron acceptor, as evidenced by a 31-fold increase of biomass and gradual increase in reducing equivalents of biochar and the consumption of acetate after 15 d. An electron stoichiometry analysis showed that 58.7% of the electrons released from acetate oxidation could be recovered in biochar, which was comparable to that of humic substances (44.8%). The finding that biochar participates in microbial extracellular respiration may have important environmental implications considering the widespread existence of both extracellular-respiring microorganisms and black carbon in the environment
Electroacupuncture alleviates cisplatin-induced nausea in rats
No full textObjective Acupuncture has been shown to be effective for the treatment of chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting. The aim of this study was to explore the mechanisms of action underlying the anti-emetic effect of electroacupuncture (EA)
Mode-locked fiber laser of 3.5 μm using a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber mirror
No full textWe report on a mid-infrared fiber laser that uses a single-walled carbon nanotube saturable absorber mirror to realize the mode-locking operation. The laser generates 3.5 µm ultra-short pulses from an erbium-doped fluoride fiber by utilizing a dual-wavelength pumping scheme. Stable mode-locking is achieved at the 3.5 µm band with a repetition rate of 25.2 MHz. The maximum average power acquired from the laser in the mode-locking regime is 25 mW. The experimental results indicate that the carbon nanotube is an effective saturable absorber for mode-locking in the mid-infrared spectral region
Ophthalmothrips yunnanensis Cao, Guo & Feng
No full text<i>Ophthalmothrips yunnanensis</i> Cao, Guo & Feng <p> <i>Ophthalmothrips yunnanensis</i> Cao, Guo & Feng, 2010: 263.</p> <p>Diagnosis. Head about two times as long as wide, head elongate, preocular projection wider than long; postocular setae developed, slightly shorter than interocellar setae. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III longest, about 8 times as long as wide. Maxillary stylets V-shaped, retracted into head. Pronotum with five pairs of developed major setae, blunt at apex. Mesopresternum boat-shaped. Fore tarsal tooth present in both sexes. Pelta triangular, with entire reticulation, abdominal tergites II–VII with two pairs of small and straight wing-retaining setae in macropterous; tube shorter than head, anal setae slightly shorter than tube.</p> <p>Distribution. China (Yunnan).</p> <p> Comments. Known only from Yunnan, China, this species is distinguished by the small and straight wing-retaining setae in macropterae according to the original description (Cao <i>et al</i>., 2010). The character is relatively rare in the genus, even in Idolothripinae species.</p> <p> <b>Funding</b> The work was supported by the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China (31702042), Key project of Natural Science Basic Research program of Shaanxi Province (2019JZ-34), the Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training program [202210720037], and a Young Talent Fund of University Association for Science and Technology in Shaanxi, China (20180209).</p> <p> <b>Acknowledgements</b> The authors are grateful to Laurence Mound (CSRIO, Australia) for checking the <i>Ophthalmothrips</i> specimens, and to Xia Wang for collecting the specimens.</p>Published as part of <i>Li, Yanqiao, Zhao, Linpeng, Li, Chengwen & Dang, Lihong, 2022, Review of the genus Ophthalmothrips Hood (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) from China, with a new species, pp. 305-312 in Zoological Systematics 47 (4)</i> on page 311, DOI: 10.11865/zs.2022403, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10940767">http://zenodo.org/record/10940767</a>
Ophthalmothrips miscanthicola
No full text<i>Ophthalmothrips miscanthicola</i> (Haga) <p> <i>Pyrgothrips miscanthicola</i> Haga, 1975: 265.</p> <p> <i>Ophthalmothrips miscanthicola</i> (Haga): Mound & Palmer, 1983: 71; Han, 1997: 339.</p> <p>Diagnosis. Head about two times as long as wide; head elongate, preocular projection wider than long; postocular setae developed, as long as interocellar setae. Antennae 8-segmented, segment III longest, about 4 times as long as wide, III with 1+1 sense cones, IV with 2+2 (Fig. 18). Maxillary stylets V-shaped, retracted into head. Pronotum with five pairs of developed major setae, pointed at apex. Mesopresternum boat-shaped. Fore tarsal tooth present in both sexes (Fig. 20). Pelta triangular, with entire reticulation (Fig. 23); abdominal tergites II–VII with two pairs of well-developed wing-retaining setae; tube shorter than head, anal setae shorter than tube.</p> <p>Distribution. China (Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan, Hainan); Japan.</p> <p>Material examined. China, Sichuan, 6♀ 4♂, 2.VII.1984, coll. Shuyong Wang (IZCAS); China, Guangxi, 1♂, from dead leaves, 2.VI.2011, coll. Lihong Dang (IZCAS); Japan, 1♀ 1♂, 2.VIII.1976, coll. Kobayashi (IZCAS).</p> <p> Comments. Described originally from Japan (Haga, 1975), <i>O. miscanthicola</i> was also recorded from Korea (Okajima, 2006). In China, it is widely distributed in the temperate regions of southern China (Zhang, 1984; Han & Cui, 1992; Han, 1997; Cao <i>et al.</i>, 2010). In here, seven females and four males are studied from Sichuan and Guangxi.</p>Published as part of <i>Li, Yanqiao, Zhao, Linpeng, Li, Chengwen & Dang, Lihong, 2022, Review of the genus Ophthalmothrips Hood (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) from China, with a new species, pp. 305-312 in Zoological Systematics 47 (4)</i> on page 310, DOI: 10.11865/zs.2022403, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/10940767">http://zenodo.org/record/10940767</a>
SCMKV: A Lightweight Log-Structured Key-Value Store on SCM
No full textInternational audienceStorage Class Memories (SCMs) are promising technologies that would change the future of storage, with many attractive capabilities such as byte addressability, low latency and persistence. Existing key-value stores proposed for block devices use SCMs as block devices, which conceal the performance that SCMs provide. A few existing key-value stores for SCMs fail to provide consistency when hardware supports such as cache flush on power failure are unavailable. In this paper, we present a key-value store called SCMKV that provides consistency, performance and scalability. It takes advantage of characteristics of key-value workloads and leverages the log-structured technique for high throughput. In particular, we propose a static concurrent cache-friendly hash table to accelerate accesses to key-value objects, and maintain separate data logs and memory allocators for each worker thread for achieving high concurrency. To reduce write latency, it tries to reduce writes to SCMs and cache flushing instructions. Our experiments show that SCMKV achieves much higher throughput and has better scalability than state-of-the-art key-value stores
Fire Needling Therapy versus Manual Acupuncture in Post-Stroke Complex Regional Pain Syndrome of the Upper Limb: Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial
No full textMina Wang,1,2,* Fang Yuan,1,* Xiaobai Xu,1,* Tao Zhang,1 Jing Guo,1 Guiling Wang,1 Linpeng Wang,1 Jingqing Sun,1 Fan Zhang,1 Bin Li1 1Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100010, People’s Republic of China; 2Graduate School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Fan Zhang; Bin Li, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Post-stroke complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a devastating disease that causes severe physical and emotional consequences. Conventional therapies are limited due to the insufficient benefits and side effects, and fire needling therapy is considered an alternative for post-stroke CRPS of the upper limb.Methods and Analysis: This is a study protocol for a pilot randomised, two-arm, single-centre, clinical trial at Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated to Capital Medical University. The trial started in March 2023 and is expected to end in December 2024. A total of 60 patients (aged 40– 75 years, male or female) with post-stroke CRPS of the upper limb will be randomly assigned to treatment group (fire needling therapy, 5 sessions per week for 2 weeks) or control group (manual acupuncture, 5 sessions per week for 2 weeks) in a 1:1 ratio using block randomisation and opaque envelopes. Fire needling therapy or manual acupuncture will be performed in ten acupoints. Participants will complete the trial by visiting the research centre at Week 14 for a follow-up assessment. The primary outcome is the response rate. Secondary outcomes include FMA, Barthel Scale/Index (BI), pain threshold (PPT), and muscle elasticity modulus (using shear wave elastography [SWE]). A chi-squared test will be used for response rate. A mixed-effects linear model and a mixed-effects model will be used for FMA, BI, PPT, and SWE, respectively.Discussion: This is the first standardised protocol to compare the effectiveness of fire needling therapy and manual acupuncture. We will use a rigorous methodology to minimise bias and set up supervising committees to ensure the quality of our study, thus providing trustworthy evidence for better understanding of fire needling therapy in treating post-stroke CRPS of the upper limb.Keywords: post-stroke complex regional pain syndrome, upper limb, fire needling therapy, manual acupunctur
The design and protocol of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis: A multicenter randomized controlled trial
No full textBackground: Many studies have already reported encouraging results in the prophylactic therapy of migraine by acupuncture, but there seems to be a lack of high quality randomized controlled trials from China. We design and perform a randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture compared with flunarizine in the prophylactic therapy of patients with migraine without aura in China. Methods: This trial is a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial. The 140 migraine patients are randomly allocated to two different groups. The acupuncture groups (n = 70) is treated with acupuncture and placebo medicine; while the control group (n = 70) is treated with sham acupuncture and medicine (Flunarizine). Both Flunarizine and placebo are taken 10 mg once per night for the first 2 weeks and then 5 mg once per night for the next 2 weeks. Patients in both groups receive 12 sessions of verum/sham acupuncture in 4 weeks. Discussion: The study design and the long term clinical practice of acupuncturists guarantee a high external validity for the results. The results of our trial will be helpful to supply the evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis in China. Trial Registration: The trial is registered at Controlled Clinical Trials: ISRCTN49839714.Medicine, Research & ExperimentalSCI(E)0ARTICLEnull1
HVSR and IRFs for high rise building in Xiamen (monitored in 2022)
No full text厦门高层建筑的HVSR和IRF(2022年监测
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