In dynamic plowing lithography, the sample surface is indented using a vibrating tip in tapping mode atomic force microscopy. During writing, the gap between the cantilever and the sample surface is ...very small, usually on the order of micrometers. High vibration frequency and small distance induce squeeze film air damping from the air in the gap. This damping can cause variations in the cantilever's vibrating parameters and affect the accuracy of the nanoscale patterning depth. In this paper, squeeze film air damping was modeled and analyzed considering the inclined angle between the cantilever and the sample surface, and its effects on the resonant amplitude and damping coefficient of the cantilever were discussed. The squeeze film air damping in the approaching curve of cantilever was observed, and its effect on fabricating nanopatterns was discussed.
The filled function method is an effective approach to find a global minimizer for a general class of nonsmooth programming problems with a closed bounded domain. This paper gives a new definition ...for the filled function, which overcomes some drawbacks of the previous definition. It proposes a two-parameter filled function and a one-parameter filled function to improve the efficiency of numerical computation. Based on these analyses, two corresponding filled function algorithms are presented. They are global optimization methods which modify the objective function as a filled function, and which find a better local minimizer gradually by optimizing the filled function constructed on the minimizer previously found. Numerical results obtained indicate the efficiency and reliability of the proposed filled function methods.
To investigate the relationship and interaction of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of KLK3 and VDR and environmental factors with the predisposition to prostate cancer within Chinese ...population.
The comparison between 108 patients and 242 healthy people was carried out by using the TaqMan/MGB Probe Technology to determine the genotypes of KLK3(rs2735839 is located between KLK2 and KLK3) and VDR (rs731236 is located exon 9). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression model were used to assess the connection of genetic polymorphisms and environmental risk factors with PCa by collecting demographic information, as well as BMI, consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, and tea, exercise, and other environmental risk factors.
The appearing frequencies of AA, AG, and GG genotypes at the SNPs rs2735839 (A/G) for KLK3 were 13.89%, 62.96% and 23.15% in PCa and 37.19%, 44.63%, 18.18% in control, respectively; these two groups are statistically different (P=0.00). While the appearing frequencies of TT, TC, and CC genotypes at the SNPs rs731236 (T/C) for VDR were 88.89%, 9, 26%, 1.85% and 90.50%, 9.10%, 0.40% in control, respectively, with no significant statistical difference between the two group. The study confirmed decreasing risk in tea drinkers (OR=0.58, 95% CI=0.35-0.96).
Our studies indicate that environmental factor-tea drinking is associated with the development of PCa. The habit of drinking tea is a protective factor against PCa. The SNPs rs2735839 for KLK3 is strongly related to the development of PCa, while the SNPs rs731236 for VDR is not.
The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/9759981571058803.
This work is concerned with the stability analysis of continuous systems with interval time-varying delays. Novel delay-dependent and delay-rate-dependent stability criteria in terms of linear matrix ...inequalities (LMIs) are established, which is made possible by: (i) an extended Wirtinger's integral inequality which includes the celebrated Wirtinger-based integral inequality as a special case and delivers more accurate lower bounds than the latter does; (ii) a type of new augmented Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) where all possible information of the delay such as its lower, upper bounds, upper bound of its derivative and the relationship among a current state, an exactly delayed state, marginally delayed states are fully exploited; and (iii) transforming the upper bounds of the derivative of the LKF into an affine function concerning the delay. The developed stability conditions for systems with time-varying delays are less conservative as compared with most existing ones. Numerical examples authenticate the effectiveness and improvement of the proposed method over existing results.
Recent studies have shown that microtransplant (MST) could improve outcome of patients with elderly acute myeloid leukemia (EAML). To further standardize the MST therapy and improve outcomes in EAML ...patients, based on analysis of the literature on MST, especially MST with EAML from January 1st, 2011 to November 30th, 2022, the International Microtransplant Interest Group provides recommendations and considerations for MST in the treatment of EAML. Four major issues related to MST for treating EAML were addressed: therapeutic principle of MST (1), candidates for MST (2), induction chemotherapy regimens (3), and post-remission therapy based on MST (4). Others included donor screening, infusion of donor cells, laboratory examinations, and complications of treatment.
The probe tip of a micro-coordinate Measuring Machine (micro-CMM) is a microsphere with a diameter of hundreds of microns, and its sphericity is generally controlled within tens to hundreds of ...nanometers. However, the accurate measurement of the microsphere morphology is difficult because of the small size and high precision requirement. In this study, a measurement method with two scanning probes is proposed to obtain dimensions including the diameter and sphericity of microsphere. A series of maximum cross-sectional profiles of the microsphere in different angular directions are scanned simultaneously and differently by the scanning probes. By integrating the data of these maximum profiles, the dimensions of the microsphere can be calculated. The scanning probe is fabricated by combining a quartz tuning fork and a tungsten tip, which have a fine vertical resolution at a sub-nano scale. A commercial ruby microsphere is measured with the proposed method. Experiments that involve the scanning of six section profiles are carried out to estimate the dimensions of the ruby microsphere. The repeatability error of one section profile is 15.1 nm, which indicates that the measurement system has favorable repeatability. The mainly errors in the measurement are eliminated. The measured diameter and roundness are all consistent with the size standard of the commercial microsphere. The measurement uncertainty is evaluated, and the measurement results show that the method can be used to measure the dimensions of microspheres effectively.
For smooth optimization problem with equMity constraints, new continuously differentiable penalty function is derived. It is proved exact in the sense that local optimizers of a nonlinear program are ...precisely the optimizers of the associated penalty function under some nondegeneracy assumption. It is simple in the sense that the penalty function only includes the objective function and constrained functions, and it doesn＇t include their gradients. This is achieved by augmenting the dimension of the program by a variable that controls the weight of the penalty terms.
We demonstrate that SCF-KIT signaling induces synthesis and secretion of endothelin-3 (ET3) in human umbilical vein endothelial cells and melanoma cells in vitro, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, ...human sun-exposed skin, and myenteric plexus of human colon post-fasting in vivo. This is the first report of a physiological mechanism of ET3 induction. Integrating our finding with supporting data from literature leads us to discover a previously unreported pathway of nitric oxide (NO) generation derived from physiological endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) or neuronal NOS (nNOS) activation (referred to as the KIT-ET3-NO pathway). It involves: (1) SCF-expressing cells communicate with neighboring KIT-expressing cells directly or indirectly (cleaved soluble SCF). (2) SCF-KIT signaling induces timely local ET3 synthesis and secretion. (3) ET3 binds to ETBR on both sides of intercellular space. (4) ET3-binding-initiated-ETBR activation increases cytosolic Ca2+, activates cell-specific eNOS or nNOS. (5) Temporally- and spatially-precise NO generation. NO diffuses into neighboring cells, thus acts in both SCF- and KIT-expressing cells. (6) NO modulates diverse cell-specific functions by NO/cGMP pathway, controlling transcriptional factors, or other mechanisms. We demonstrate the critical physiological role of the KIT-ET3-NO pathway in fulfilling high demand (exceeding basal level) of endothelium-dependent NO generation for coping with atherosclerosis, pregnancy, and aging. The KIT-ET3-NO pathway most likely also play critical roles in other cell functions that involve dual requirement of SCF-KIT signaling and NO. New strategies (e.g. enhancing the KIT-ET3-NO pathway) to harness the benefit of endogenous eNOS and nNOS activation and precise NO generation for correcting pathophysiology and restoring functions warrant investigation.
Arhopalus rusticus is an important wood-boring pest that can cause considerable damage to species of the genera Pinus, Cunninghamia, and Cupressus, mainly in weak conifers and dry wood after fires, ...which have the strongest likelihood of supporting Bursaphelenchus mucronatus and Monochamus alternatus. To effectively control this insect, and to confirm the spatial distribution of its population, spatial characteristics were analyzed using Go-statistical methods for A. rusticus larvae and adults in three Pinus tabulaeformis woodlands with different levels of damage. The results showed that the degree of damage caused by A.rusticus differed significantly in the three woodlands. In lightly infested woodland, 30.8% of trees were infested, whereas 44.3% and 78.3% of trees were infested in moderately and heavily infested woodlands, respectively. Isotropic variogram analysis indicated that Gaussian models were suitable for simulation of the spatial distribution of A.rusticus larvae in lightly and moderately infested forests, while the Exponential models were suitable for heavily infested forests. In contrast, linear models were suitable for simulation of the spatial distribution of A. rusticus adults in lightly, moderately, and heavily infested forests. The quantity of larvae showed evident spatial dependence in the three woodlands, with the distances of larval spatial dependence for lightly, moderately, and heavily infested forests being 19.10, 11.97, and 61.98 m, respectively, and the related intensities of local spatial continuity being 0.646, 0.784, and 0.500, respectively. The distances of adult spatial dependence for lightly, moderately, and heavily infested forests were 43.08, 43.23, and 44.17 m, respectively, and the corresponding intensities of local spatial continuity were 0.044, 0.021, and 0.171, respectively. The number of adults was, however, randomly distributed in space, and did not show spatial dependence. Analysis of the vertical distribution of A.rusticus indicated that larvae and adults preferred to congregate at a certain height in Pinus, whereas above and below this height, the density decreases. In lightly infested woodland, the largest number of larvae were found at a height of 24-25 cm, whereas the largest number of adults was found at a height of 4-5 cm; in moderately infested woodland, the largest number of larvae were found at 9-10 cm and the largest number of adults at 26-27 cm; and in heavily infested woodland, the largest number of larvae were found at 13-14 cm, and the largest number of adults at 5-6 cm. The spatial distribution pattern generated by Kriging interpolation showed that there was intensive spatial aggregation of larvae in all three types of woodland, and that the aggregation was primarily centered in the center of the woodland and spread from there into the entire woodland. In contrast, adults showed a random distribution.
To achieve true 3D nano-measurement with sub-nanometer resolution and very low touch force through a micro/nano coordinate measuring machine, a new 3D resonant trigger probe based on a quartz tuning ...fork is proposed. In this trigger probe, a quartz tuning fork with a microsphere tip vibrates at its resonant frequency, and is used as the sensing element. The resonance parameters of this quartz tuning fork (e.g., vibrating amplitude and resonant frequency) are extremely sensitive to external 3D microforces. The distinguished feature of this probe is its ability to interact with the sample surface in the actual three directions. The microsphere tip of the probe interacts with the sample surface in tapping mode in the Z direction, whereas it interacts in friction mode in the X and Y directions. The dynamic contact mechanism of the probe is based on interfacial force theory, and mechanical models of the interactions between the microsphere tip and sample surface in the X, Y, and Z directions are constructed and simulated. The experiment shows that the probe has sub-nanometer resolution in 3D directions and triggers repeatability of approximately 40 nm in each direction. Theoretical analysis and experimental results verify that this 3D resonant trigger probe can be used for true 3D profile measurement.
PDF
