Nan Wan Bay is a semi-enclosed basin forming the southern tip of Taiwan. Around spring tides, a recirculating cyclonic eddy occupying a good portion of the basin develops daily during the ebb ...current. The eddy induces sudden temperature drops inside the Bay lasting for a few hours each. An anticyclonic recirculation eddy, if any, is much reduced in size and confined to the eastern side of the basin during the flood current. Mechanisms leading to the flood–ebb disparity of recirculation eddies are investigated below using a three-dimensional numerical tidal model. By systematically adding or removing topographic features in and around Nan Wan, the process of elimination points to two topographic features that are responsible for the flood–ebb disparity. One is a bottom ridge around the eastern cape of the Bay; the other is an elongated seamount along the mouth of the semi-enclosed basin. These topographic features deflect tidal currents in the anticyclonic sense. Bayward and seaward deflections of tidal currents weaken and strengthen recirculating eddies, respectively, producing the flood-ebb disparity. The two topographic features enhance the cyclonic eddy during ebb, especially when the prevailing tidal current off the Bay is strong. For a typical embayment with tidal currents parallel to the bay mouth, the cyclonic eddy is expected to dominate over the anticyclone if there is a prominent seamount blocking the middle reaches of the mouth region.
Cooking oil fumes (COF) exposure was demonstrated to be associated with lung cancer development in Taiwanese nonsmoking women. Previous studies identified Cox-2 overexpression and oxidative DNA ...damage in lung adenocarcinoma cells after exposure to COF. Involvement of COF in lung tumorigenesis may be associated with cell survival, as well as proliferation of lung adenocarcinoma. To test this hypothesis, A549, a lung adenocarcinoma cell line, was used, and MTT assay data showed that the cell viability of A549 was significantly increased in a concentration-dependent manner by COF treatment for 48h. Flow cytometery results indicated that the proportion of A549 cell at S-phase was markedly increased after exposure of COF. To elucidate whether the antiapoptotic c-IAP2 (IAP2) was involved in COF-improved cell survival, IAP2 protein levels was determined by Western blot, and the results showed it was significantly induced by COF in a concentration-dependent manner. Moreover, the suppression of BAY, a nuclear factor (NF)-κB binding inhibitor, or the COF-induced IAP2 protein levels indicated that NF-κB activation by COF may partly be involved in IAP2 induction. These results showed that the positive impact of COF on cell survival and proliferation of A549 lung tumor cells may be through an induction of IAP2 overexpression.
We investigated the epigenetic silencing and genetic changes of the RAS-associated domain family 1A (RASSF1A) gene and the Os-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene in retinoblastoma. We ...extracted DNA from microdissected tumor and normal retina tissues of the same patient in 68 retinoblastoma cases. Promoter methylation in RASSF1A and MGMT was analyzed by methylation-specific PCR, RASSF1A sequence alterations in all coding exons by direct DNA sequencing, RASSF1A expression by RT-PCR. Cell cycle staging was analyzed by flow cytometry. We detected RASSF1A promoter hypermethylation in 82% of retinoblastoma, in tumor tissues only but not in adjacent normal retinal tissue cells. There was no expression of RASSF1A transcripts in all hypermethylated samples, but RASSF1A transcripts were restored after 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine treatment with no changes in cell cycle or apoptosis. No mutation in the RASSF1A sequence was found. MGMT hypermethylation was present in 15% of theretinoblastoma samples, the absence of MGMT hypermethylation was associated (P = .002) with retinoblastoma at advanced ReeseEllsworth tumor stage. Our results revealed a high RASSF1A hypermethylation frequency in retinoblastoma. The correlation of MGMT inactivation by promoter hypermethylation with lower-stage diseases indicated that MGMT hypermethylation provides useful prognostic information. Epigenetic mechanism plays an important role in the progression of retinoblastoma.
This paper proposes a fault location method employing wavelet fuzzy neural network to use post-fault transient and steady-state measurements. When single line to ground fault (SLG) occurs in the ...distribution lines of an industrial system, the transient feature is distinct and the high frequency components in the transients can be employed to reveal fault characteristics. In this paper, wavelet transform is applied to extract fault characteristics from the fault signals. Fuzzy theory and neural network are employed to fuzzify the extracted information. Wavelet is then integrated with fuzzy neural network to form the wavelet fuzzy neural network (WFNN). The WFNN is most suitable for post-fault transient and steady-state signal analysis in industrial distribution power system. Analysis and simulation results illustrate that the theory and algorithm of the WFNN proposed in this paper are efficient in fault location. The WFNN can be widely applied in fault analysis of power system.
The integration of time and space is the key to the research on Temporal Geographic Information System (TGIS). This paper will do some research on the integration method of spatio-temporal data at ...the spatial database level combining with requirements of cadastral management. Firstly, making analysis on the widely used integration method regarding time as attribute and its corresponding query method, the author thinks that there are some disadvantages on the expression of time semantics and efficiency of querying historical data in this algorithm. Taking these disadvantages into consideration, a new integration method, a time-based integration method, is proposed. In this method, time, as the independent time sequence, becomes the organizational basis for recording changes and intuitionally records the changing process of each spatial entity as time changes. Compared to the method regarding time as attribute, the time-based integration method can express time semantics better and provides a solution for improving backtracking query efficiency by reducing times of backtracking query.
We present the detection of VHE gamma-ray emission above 100 TeV from HAWC J2227+610 with the HAWC observatory. Combining our observations with previously published results by VERITAS, we interpret ...the gamma-ray emission from HAWC J2227+610 as emission from protons with a lower limit in their cutoff energy of 800 TeV. The most likely source of the protons is the associated supernova remnant G106.3+2.7, making it a good candidate for a Galactic PeVatron. However, a purely leptonic origin of the observed emission cannot be excluded at this time.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of type 2 diabetes mellitus on hospitalization costs in older patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI).
Retrospective analysis of data from ...the case retrieval system of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University located in Jinan city of Shandong Province was done for patients with acute MI from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012.
Stenting was an important factor affecting older patients' total hospitalization costs (β=0.685, P=0.000) and treatment costs during the follow-up period (duration of hospital stay only, β=0.508, P=0.000). Stenting was also a protective factor in the prevention of acute heart failure (HF) in older patients with acute MI during the follow-up period (odds ratio 0.189, 95% confidence interval 0.059-0.602, P=0.005). Implementation of percutaneous coronary intervention reduced the incidence of acute HF in older inpatients with acute MI (27.8% versus 4.3%, P=0.001) and without diabetes (18.2% versus 3.8%, P=0.001). Moreover, among the elderly, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio estimate for implementing percutaneous coronary intervention in diabetic patients was higher than in nondiabetic patients.
Stenting was a protective factor for preventing acute HF in the elderly during the follow-up period. From the perspective of reducing the incidence of acute HF in inpatients, implementation of percutaneous coronary intervention after an acute MI is more cost-effective in older patients with diabetes mellitus than in those without it.
The present work is concerned with super-carburization treatment on low alloy steel AISI 4135 and plain carbon steel AISI 1020 by fluidized-bed furnaces. Super-carburization is a repetition of ...carburization and precipitation heat treatment processes to produce a dense spheroidized carbide layer near to the steel surface. Carburization was conducted at 930°C and 800°C in an endothermic atmosphere with a carbon potential higher than 1.3% generated by the direct boosting of propane and air into the bed. The precipitation of carbides in steels was conducted at 600°C in a nitrogen-fluidized bed. The rapid cooling rate associated with the great undercooling of the fluidized bed effectively suppressed the formation of network cementite when carburized steels were cooled from the austenitizing temperature to the precipitation temperature. This phenomenon has made it possible for even a plain carbon steel to be super-carburized without difficulty.
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