By means of surface mechanical rolling treatment (SMRT), a gradient nanostructured (GNS) surface layer was formed on AISI 316L stainless steel. The mean grain size is 30nm in the topmost surface ...layer and increases with depth. Tension-compression fatigue measurements were performed on the SMRT sample under the stress-controlled mode. In comparison with the coarse-grained sample, the fatigue strength of the SMRT sample is significantly enhanced in both the low- and high- cycling fatigue regimes. Meanwhile, the fatigue ratio is evidently elevated with an increasing tensile strength in the SMRT sample. The initiation and growth of cracks, the cyclic deformation behaviors, as well as effects of strength and residual stresses, have been investigated to clarify the fatigue mechanism of the SMRT sample. The results emphasized the GNS surface layer enhances the fatigue property by suppressing the initiation of cracks and accommodating a remarkable cyclic plastic strain amplitude.
Summary
Current bibliometric analyses of the evolving trends in research scope category across different time periods using the H‐classics method in implantology are considerably limited. The purpose ...of this study was to identify the classic articles in implantology to analyse bibliometric characteristics and associated factors in implantology for the past four decades. H‐Classics in implantology were identified within four time periods between 1977 and 2016, based on the h‐index from the Scopus® database. For each article, the principal bibliometric parameters of authorship, geographic origin, country origin, and institute origin, collaboration, centralisation, article type, scope of study and other associated factors were analysed in four time periods. A significant increase in mean numbers of authors per H‐Classics was found across time. Both Europe and North America were the most productive region/country and steadily dominated this field in each time period. Collaborations of author, internationally and inter‐institutionally had significantly increased across time. A significant decentralisation in authorships, institutes and journals was noted in past four decades. The journal of Clinical Oral Implant Researches has raised its importance for almost 30 years (1987‐2016). Research on Complications, peri‐implant infection/pathology/therapy had been increasing in production throughout each period. This is the first study to evaluate research trends in implantology in the past 40 years using the H‐classics method, which through analysing via principle bibliometric characteristics reflected a historical perspective on evolutionary mainstream in the field. Prominence of research regarding complications may forecast innovative advancements in future.
We report on the development of a high‐resolution and highly efficient beamline for soft X‐ray resonant inelastic X‐ray scattering (RIXS) located at the Taiwan Photon Source. This beamline adopts an ...optical design that uses an active grating monochromator (AGM) and an active grating spectrometer (AGS) to implement the energy compensation principle of grating dispersion. Active gratings are utilized to diminish defocus, coma and higher‐order aberrations, as well as to decrease the slope errors caused by thermal deformation and optical polishing. The AGS is mounted on a rotatable granite platform to enable momentum‐resolved RIXS measurements with scattering angles over a wide range. Several high‐precision instruments developed in‐house for this beamline are described briefly. The best energy resolution obtained from this AGM–AGS beamline was 12.4 meV at 530 eV, achieving a resolving power of 4.2 × 104, while the bandwidth of the incident soft X‐rays was kept at 0.5 eV. To demonstrate the scientific impact of high‐resolution RIXS, we present an example of momentum‐resolved RIXS measurements on a high‐temperature superconducting cuprate, i.e. La2–xSrxCuO4. The measurements reveal the A1g buckling phonons in superconducting cuprates, opening a new opportunity to investigate the coupling between these phonons and charge‐density waves.
The development of a high‐resolution and highly efficient beamline for soft X‐ray resonant inelastic X‐ray scattering (RIXS) located at the Taiwan Photon Source is reported.
Though the early integration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into tumor-associated stroma of cancer has been demonstrated, the functional contributions and underlying mechanisms of these cells to ...tumor growth and angiogenesis remain to be clarified. Using a xenograft model, human colorectal cancer cells, MSCs, and their cell mixture were introduced to a subcutaneous site of immunodeficient mice. The tumor growth rate and angiogenesis of each transplantation was then compared. We demonstrate that a variety of colorectal cancer cells, when mixed with otherwise non-tumorigenic MSCs, increase the tumor growth rate and angiogenesis more than that when mixed with carcinoma-associated fibroblasts or normal colonic fibroblasts. The secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6) from MSCs increases the secretion of endothelin-1 (ET-1) in cancer cells, which induces the activation of Akt and ERK in endothelial cells, thereby enhancing their capacities for recruitment and angiogenesis to tumor. The IL-6/ET-1/Akt or ERK pathway of tumor-stroma interaction can be targeted by an antibody against IL-6 or Lentiviral-mediated RNAi against IL-6 in MSCs, by inhibition or knockdown of ET-1 in cancer cells, or by inhibition of ERK and Akt in host endothelial cells. These demonstrate that attempts to interrupt the interaction of MSCs and cancer cells help to abrogate angiogenesis and inhibit tumor growth in tumors formed by cancer cells admixed with MSCs. These data demonstrate that the tumor microenvironment, namely, MSCs-secreted IL-6, may enrich the proangiognic factors secreted by cancer cells to increase angiogenesis and tumor growth and that targeting this interaction may lead to novel therapeutic and preventive strategies.
Accurate determination of stellar atmospheric parameters and elemental abundances is crucial for Galactic archaeology via large-scale spectroscopic surveys. In this paper, we estimate stellar ...atmospheric parameters -- effective temperature T sub( eff), surface gravity log g and metallicity Fe/H, absolute magnitudes M sub( V) and M sub( Ks), ...-element to metal (and iron) abundance ratio .../M (and .../Fe), as well as carbon and nitrogen abundances C/H and N/H from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) spectra with a multivariate regression method based on kernel-based principal component analysis, using stars in common with other surveys (Hipparcos, Kepler, Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment) as training data sets. Both internal and external examinations indicate that given a spectral signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) better than 50, our method is capable of delivering stellar parameters with a precision of ~100 K for T sub( eff), ~0.1 dex for log g, 0.3-0.4 mag for M sub( V) and M sub( Ks), 0.1 dex for Fe/H, C/H and N/H, and better than 0.05 dex for .../M (.../Fe). The results are satisfactory even for a spectral SNR of 20. The work presents first determinations of C/H and N/H abundances from a vast data set of LAMOST, and, to our knowledge, the first reported implementation of absolute magnitude estimation directly based on a vast data set of observed spectra. The derived stellar parameters for millions of stars from the LAMOST surveys will be publicly available in the form of value-added catalogues. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
Background
Tryptophan metabolites have been suggested to play a role in immune modulation, wherein those have recently been shown to be endogenous ligands of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR; a unique ...cellular chemical sensor). However, the involvement of tryptophan metabolites and AhR in modulating mast cell function remains to be fully defined. We therefore investigated that the functional impacts of tryptophan metabolites on human and mouse mast cell responses in vitro and their functional importance in vivo.
Methods
Three tryptophan metabolites, kynurenine (KYN), kynurenic acid (KA) and quinolinic acid (QA), were examined in terms of their effect on IgE‐mediated responses in mouse bone marrow‐derived mast cells (BMMCs) and in human peripheral blood‐derived cultured mast cells (HCMCs) and on in vivo anaphylactic responses. For evaluation of AhR involvement, we examined the responses of mast cells from AhR‐null or AhR‐wild‐type mice with the use of a known AhR antagonist, CH223191.
Results
Kynurenine, but not KA and QA, enhanced IgE‐mediated responses, including degranulation, LTC4 release, and IL‐13 production in BMMCs through the activation of PLCγ1, Akt, MAPK p38, and the increase of intracellular calcium. KYN also enhanced cutaneous anaphylaxis in vivo. These enhancing effects of KYN were not observed in AhR‐deficient BMMCs and could be inhibited by CH223191 in BMMCs. Further, KYN had similar enhancing effects on HCMCs, which were inhibited by CH223191.
Conclusion
The AhR‐KYN axis is potentially important in modulating mast cell responses and represents an example of AhR's critical involvement in the regulation of allergic responses.
Postprocedural infections by Mycobacterium abscessus complex are increasing worldwide, and the source and route of transmission are infrequently identified. Here the extension of a previous ...clustering of paediatric patients with surgical site infections due to a single strain of the subspecies M. massiliense is reported. The investigation was conducted at a 2200-bed teaching hospital in Taiwan and included microbial surveillance of the environment (water, air, equipment and supplies) and a case–control study. We performed molecular identification and typing of the isolates by a trilocus sequencing scheme, confirmed by multilocus sequencing typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. We investigated 40 patients who developed postprocedure soft tissue or bloodstream infections by M. massiliense (TPE101) during a 3-year period. Thirty-eight patients were identified at hospital A, and one newborn and her mother were identified at hospital B (185 km from hospital A). A case–control study identified the association of invasive procedures (adjusted odds ratio, 9.13) and ultrasonography (adjusted odds ratio, 2.97) (both p <0.05) with acquiring the outbreak strain. Isolates from the cases and unopened bottles of ultrasound transmission gel were all of strain ST48 and indistinguishable or closely related by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. After replacement of contaminated gel, no new cases were detected during 18 months' follow-up. This investigation identified the use of contaminated gel as the common source causing an outbreak on a larger scale than had been recognized. Our findings halted production by the manufacturer and prompted revision of hospital guidelines.
Four-dimensional (4D) printing relies on multimaterial printing, reinforcement patterns, or micro/nanofibrous additives as programmable tools to achieve desired shape reconfigurations. However, ...existing programming approaches still follow the so-called origami design principle to generate reconfigurable structures by self-folding stacked 2D materials, particularly at small scales. Here, we propose a programmable modular design that directly constructs 3D reconfigurable microstructures capable of sophisticated 3D-to-3D shape transformations by assembling 4D micro-building blocks. 4D direct laser writing is used to print two-photon polymerizable, stimuli-responsive hydrogels to construct building blocks at micrometer scales. Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters, used to define robotic arm kinematics, are introduced as guidelines for how to assemble the micro-building blocks and plan the 3D motion of assembled chain blocks. Last, a 3D-printed microscaled transformer capable of changing its shape from a race car to a humanoid robot is devised and fabricated using the DH parameters to guide the motion of various assembled compartments.
Existing computational models for salient object detection primarily rely on hand-crafted features, which are only able to capture low-level contrast information. In this paper, we learn the ...hierarchical contrast features by formulating salient object detection as a binary labeling problem using deep learning techniques. A novel superpixelwise convolutional neural network approach, called SuperCNN, is proposed to learn the internal representations of saliency in an efficient manner. In contrast to the classical convolutional networks, SuperCNN has four main properties. First, the proposed method is able to learn the hierarchical contrast features, as it is fed by two meaningful superpixel sequences, which is much more effective for detecting salient regions than feeding raw image pixels. Second, as SuperCNN recovers the contextual information among superpixels, it enables large context to be involved in the analysis efficiently. Third, benefiting from the superpixelwise mechanism, the required number of predictions for a densely labeled map is hugely reduced. Fourth, saliency can be detected independent of region size by utilizing a multiscale network structure. Experiments show that SuperCNN can robustly detect salient objects and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on three benchmark datasets.
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