An experiment to search for light sterile neutrinos is conducted at a reactor with a thermal power of 2.8 GW located at the Hanbit nuclear power complex. The search is done with a detector consisting ...of a ton of Gd-loaded liquid scintillator in a tendon gallery approximately 24 m from the reactor core. The measured antineutrino event rate is 1976 per day with a signal to background ratio of about 22. The shape of the antineutrino energy spectrum obtained from the eight-month data-taking period is compared with a hypothesis of oscillations due to active-sterile antineutrino mixing. No strong evidence of 3+1 neutrino oscillation is found. An excess around the 5 MeV prompt energy range is observed as seen in existing longer-baseline experiments. The mixing parameter sin^{2}2θ_{14} is limited up to less than 0.1 for Δm_{41}^{2} ranging from 0.2 to 2.3 eV^{2} with a 90% confidence level.
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CMK, CTK, FMFMET, IJS, NUK, PNG, UM
The open-cell porous Ti-6Al-4V structure, intended to be applied as replacement for human cortical and cancellous bone, are fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). The computer aided design ...(CAD) was used to design porous structures in various porosity levels from 40% to 80% and with pore sizes from 600 to 1000 μm, in order to fit the bone-tissue in-growth. The SLM porous samples with 40% to 70% porosity matched well with the CAD structure, but the 80% porosity one was found to be difficult to achieve the design. In comparison with the CAD structures and the SLM samples, there are minor discrepancies in terms of pore size and ligament width, mainly a result of laser beam broadening. To achieve more precise SLM porous morphologies, further reduction of powder size and laser beam diameter would be necessary. The measured data on the Young's modulus and yield strength of the SLM porous samples can be roughly estimated by the Gibson and Ashby model. The sample with 67% porosity was found to match best with human bone, with Young's modulus of 15 GPa and yield stress of 129 MPa, preventing from the risk of stress shielding effect.
•The porous Ti-6Al-4V foams are prepared by selective laser melting.•Minor discrepancies between CAD and SLM are due to laser beam broadening.•The 67% porosity sample matches with human bone avoiding stress shielding effect.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The 3D printed bulk samples fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) of the additive manufacturing technique are usually considered to be 3D isotropic in microstructures and mechanical responses. ...This study systematically investigates the anisotropic responses in terms of hardness and electrochemical resistance for the X-, Y- and Z-planes of the SLM Ti-6Al-4V bulk samples fabricated with the zigzag laser path strategy. Results show that all SLM planes exhibit no significant difference in Young's modulus compared to the mechanically rolled plate. However, the X-plane, referred to the cross-sectional plane perpendicular to the laser moving direction, is found ~20% lower hardness and the lowest corrosion resistance compared to the Y- and Z-planes. The underlying reasoning is researched and discussed. The microstructure observations indicate that artifact holes are induced in the X-plane due to un-uniform laser intensity distribution between two neighboring printing lines. Alternatively, the Y- and Z-planes exhibit dense morphology due to multiple heating while zigzag scanning. Experimental results also indicate that the SLM materials exhibit higher corrosion resistance than the commercial rolled materials.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Obesity contributes to systemic inflammation, which is associated with the varied pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. Growing evidence has demonstrated that endurance exercise (EE) mitigates ...obesity‐induced brain inflammation. However, exercise‐mediated anti‐inflammatory mechanisms remain largely unknown. We investigated how treadmill exercise (TE) reverses obesity‐induced brain inflammation, mainly focusing on toll‐like receptor‐4 (TLR‐4)‐dependent neuroinflammation in the obese rat brain after 20 weeks of a high‐fat diet (HFD). TE in HFD‐fed rats resulted in a significant lowering in the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance index, the area under the curve for glucose and abdominal visceral fat, and also improved working memory ability in a passive avoidance task relative to sedentary behaviour in HFD‐fed rats, with the exception of body weight. More importantly, TE revoked the increase in HFD‐induced proinflammatory cytokines (tumour necrosis factor α and interleukin‐1β) and cyclooxygenase‐2, which is in parallel with a reduction in TLR‐4 and its downstream proteins, myeloid differentiation 88 and tumour necrosis factor receptor associated factor 6, and phosphorylation of transforming growth factor β‐activated kinase 1, IkBα and nuclear factor‐κB. Moreover, TE reduced an indicator of microglia activation, ionised calcium‐binding adapter molecule‐1, and also decreased glial fibrillary acidic protein, an indicator of gliosis formed by activated astrocytes in the cerebral cortex and the hippocampal dentate gyrus, compared to HFD‐fed sedentary rats. Finally, EE up‐regulated the expression of anti‐apoptotic protein, Bcl‐2, and suppressed the expression of pro‐apoptotic protein, Bax, in the hippocampus compared to HFD‐fed sedentary rats. Taken together, these data suggest that TE may exert neuroprotective effects as a result of mitigating the production of proinflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the TLR4 signalling pathways. The results of the present study suggest that the unique combination of the beneficial effects of TE on the restoration of the blood profile and the anti‐inflammatory and anti‐apoptotic effects on cognitive function should inspire further investigations into its therapeutic potential for metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Programmed death-ligand 1 is a glycoprotein expressed on antigen presenting cells, hepatocytes, and tumors which upon interaction with programmed death-1, results in inhibition of antigen-specific T ...cell responses. Here, we report a mechanism of inhibiting programmed death-ligand 1 through small molecule-induced dimerization and internalization. This represents a mechanism of checkpoint inhibition, which differentiates from anti-programmed death-ligand 1 antibodies which function through molecular disruption of the programmed death 1 interaction. Testing of programmed death ligand 1 small molecule inhibition in a humanized mouse model of colorectal cancer results in a significant reduction in tumor size and promotes T cell proliferation. In addition, antigen-specific T and B cell responses from patients with chronic hepatitis B infection are significantly elevated upon programmed death ligand 1 small molecule inhibitor treatment. Taken together, these data identify a mechanism of small molecule-induced programmed death ligand 1 internalization with potential therapeutic implications in oncology and chronic viral infections.
This study investigated the in vitro susceptibilities of methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus
(MRSA) to nine antimicrobial agents in Taiwan. A total of 1,725 isolates were obtained from 20 ...hospitals throughout Taiwan from 2006 to 2010. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of the nine agents were determined by the agar dilution method. The MICs of mupirocin and tyrothricin were determined for 223 MRSA isolates collected from 2009 to 2010. For vancomycin, 99.7 % were susceptible; however, 30.0 % (
n
= 517) exhibited MICs of 2 μg/ml and 0.3 % (
n
= 6) demonstrated intermediate susceptibility (MICs of 4 μg/ml). Nearly all isolates (≥99.9 %) were susceptible to teicoplanin, linezolid, and daptomycin. The MIC
90
values were 2 μg/ml for ceftobiprole and 1 μg/ml for nemonoxacin. The MIC
90
values of mupirocin and tyrothricin were 0.12 and 4 μg/ml, respectively. MIC creep was noted for daptomycin during this period, but not for vancomycin, teicoplanin, linezolid, or tigecycline. For isolates with vancomycin MICs of 2 μg/ml, the MIC
90
values were 2 μg/ml for teicoplanin, 0.5 μg/ml for daptomycin, and 0.5 μg/ml for tigecycline. Those values were four- to eight-fold higher than those among isolates with vancomycin MICs of 0.5 μg/ml (2, 0.06, and 0.12 μg/ml, respectively). Of the nine MRSA isolates exhibiting non-susceptibility to vancomycin (
n
= 6), teicoplanin (
n
= 1), daptomycin (
n
= 2), or tigecycline (
n
= 1), all had different pulsotypes, indicating the absence of intra-hospital or inter-hospital spread. The presence of a high proportion of MRSA isolates with elevated MICs (2 μg/ml) and MIC creep of daptomycin might alert clinicians on the therapy for serious MRSA infections in Taiwan.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
An enhanced locking range technique for a CMOS injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) is presented, which uses a cross-coupled oscillator with a dual-resonance RLC resonator. This ILFD has dual ...locking ranges at a fixed bias, and the resistor in the resonator is used to have overlapping dual locking ranges so that a single-band wide-locking range is obtained. At the incident power of 0 dBm, the locking range of the divide-by-2 ILFD is 6.7 GHz, from 3 to 9.7 GHz, and the locking range percentage is 105.51%.
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FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
A high O3 episode was detected in urban Shanghai, a typical city in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region in August 2010. The CMAQ integrated process rate method is applied to account for the ...contribution of different atmospheric processes during the high pollution episode. The analysis shows that the maximum concentration of ozone occurs due to transport phenomena, including vertical diffusion and horizontal advective transport. Gas-phase chemistry producing O3 mainly occurs at the height of 300–1500 m, causing a strong vertical O3 transport from upper levels to the surface layer. The gas-phase chemistry is an important sink for O3 in the surface layer, coupled with dry deposition. Cloud processes may contribute slightly to the increase of O3 due to convective clouds or to the decrease of O3 due to scavenging. The horizontal diffusion and heterogeneous chemistry contributions are negligible during the whole episode. Modeling results show that the O3 pollution characteristics among the different cities in the YRD region have both similarities and differences. During the buildup period, the O3 starts to appear in the city regions of the YRD and is then transported to the surrounding areas under the prevailing wind conditions. The O3 production from photochemical reaction in Shanghai and the surrounding area is most significant, due to the high emission intensity in the large city; this ozone is then transported out to sea by the westerly wind flow, and later diffuses to rural areas like Chongming island, Wuxi and even to Nanjing. The O3 concentrations start to decrease in the cities after sunset, due to titration of the NO emissions, but ozone can still be transported and maintain a significant concentration in rural areas and even regions outside the YRD region, where the NO emissions are very small.
Abstract
Superconductivity in the cuprates is found to be intertwined with charge and spin density waves. Determining the interactions between the different types of order is crucial for ...understanding these important materials. Here, we elucidate the role of the charge density wave (CDW) in the prototypical cuprate La
1.885
Sr
0.115
CuO
4
, by studying the effects of large magnetic fields (
H
) up to 24 Tesla. At low temperatures (
T
), the observed CDW peaks reveal two distinct regions in the material: a majority phase with short-range CDW coexisting with superconductivity, and a minority phase with longer-range CDW coexisting with static spin density wave (SDW). With increasing magnetic field, the CDW first grows smoothly in a manner similar to the SDW. However, at high fields we discover a sudden increase in the CDW amplitude upon entering the vortex-liquid state. Our results signify strong coupling of the CDW to mobile superconducting vortices and link enhanced CDW amplitude with local superconducting pairing across the
H
−
T
phase diagram.
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