Temperature characteristic of permittivity and splay elastic constant for fluorinated liquid crystal mixtures

Heng Ma,Jun Xu,Hiroyuki Okada,Hiroyoshi Onnagawa,Sigeru Sugimori,Kazuhisa Toriyama 한국물리학회 2013 Current Applied Physics Vol.13 No.5

This paper describes an experimental investigation for physical properties of fluorinated phenyl bicyclohexane liquid crystals (LCs) mixtures. Measurements are reported of the large anisotropic dielectric properties of two structurally similar LCs (1,2-difluoro-4-[trans-4-(trans-4-propylcyclohexyl)cyclohexyl]benzene and 1-cyano-2-fluoro-4-[trans-4-(trans-4-propylcyclohexyl) cyclohexyl] benzene) mixed with a zero dielectric anisotropic LC (1-methyl-2-fluoro-4-[trans-4-(trans-4-ethylcyclohexyl) cyclohexyl]benzene). The results indicate that the mixing proportions strongly influence the dielectric constants along with the longer molecular axis. For two samples which is made from meta-para- or meta-fluorine substituted molecules, the temperature dependence of the anisotropic dielectric striking resemble that of a unitary compound with para-fluorine substituted. The threshold voltage of the mixtures relies on the element that possesses a large dielectric anisotropic. The mixing of the materials leads to a slight increase for splay elastic constants in an anti-parallel measurement cell.

The roles of interleukin-17A in risk stratification and prognosis of patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury

Heng Jin,Wei Wei,Yibo Zhao,Ai Ma,Keke Sun,Xiaoxi Lin,Qihui Liu,Songtao Shou,Yan Zhang 대한신장학회 2023 Kidney Research and Clinical Practice Vol.42 No.6

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the roles of interleukin (IL)-17A in risk stratification and prognosis of patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SAKI). Methods: We enrolled 146 sepsis patients (84 non-SAKI and 62 SAKI patients) admitted to the emergency department from November 2020 to November 2021. Patients with SAKI were differentiated based on the severity of acute kidney injury. All clinical parameters were evaluated upon admission before administering antibiotic treatment. Inflammatory cytokines were assessed using flow cytometry and the Pylon 3D automated immunoassay system (ET Healthcare). In addition, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was utilized to determine the prognostic values of IL-17A in SAKI. Results: The levels of creatinine, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-17A, tumor necrosis factor alpha, C-reactive protein, and procalcitonin (PCT) were significantly higher in the SAKI group than in the non-SAKI group (p < 0.05). The level of IL-17A revealed significant differences among stages 1, 2, and 3 in SAKI patients (p < 0.05). The mean levels of PCT, IL-4, and IL-17A were significantly higher in the non-survival group than in the survival group in SAKI patients (p < 0.05). In addition, the area under the ROC curve of IL-17A was 0.811. Moreover, the IL-17A cutoff for differentiating survivors from non-survivors was 4.7 pg/mL, of which the sensitivity and specificity were 77.4% and 71.0%, respectively. Conclusion: Elevated levels of IL-17A could predict that SAKI patients are significantly prone to worsening kidney injury with higher mortality. The usefulness of IL-17A in treating SAKI requires further research.

An Image Quality Evaluation Model for Optical Strip Signal-to-Noise Ratio in the Target Area of High Temperature Forgings

Hongtao Ma,Yuyang Zhao,Yiran Feng,이응주,Xue-Heng Tao 한국멀티미디어학회 2021 The journal of multimedia information system Vol.8 No.2

Under the time-varying temperature, the high-temperature radiation of forgings and the change of reflection characteristics of oxide skin on the surface of forgings lead to the difficulty of obtaining images to truly reflect the geometric characteristics of forgings. It is urgent to study the clear and reliable acquisition method of hot forging feature image under time-varying temperature to meet the requirements of visual measurement of hot geometric parameters of forgings. Based on this, this chapter first puts forward the quality evaluation method of forging feature image, which provides guarantee for the accurate evaluation of feature image quality. Furthermore, the factors that affect the image quality, such as the radiation characteristics of forgings and the photographic characteristics of cameras, are analyzed, and the imaging spectrum which can effectively suppress the radiation intensity of forgings is determined. Finally, aiming at the problem that the quality of image acquisition is difficult to guarantee due to the drastic change of radiation intensity of forgings under time-varying temperature, an image acquisition method based on minimum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) based laser light intensity adaptation is proposed, which significantly improves the definition of feature light strips in forging images at high temperature, and finally realizes the clear acquisition of feature images of large-scale hot forging under time-varying temperature.

Genome editing in potato plants by agrobacterium-mediated transient expression of transcription activator-like effector nucleases

Jin Ma,Heng Xiang,Danielle J. Donnelly,Fan-Rui Meng,Huimin Xu,Dion Durnford,Xiu-Qing Li 한국식물생명공학회 2017 Plant biotechnology reports Vol.11 No.5

Genome editing (also known as targeted mutation) has promise for molecular breeding. Compared with the CRISPR/Cas9 system, the transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) have likely a lesser off-target rate in genome editing. Both a rapid test system for the functionality of designed TALENs and an effective delivery system for introducing the TALENs to plants are critical for successful target mutation. TALENs have usually been tested in protoplasts or introduced to plants with viral vectors. However, plant regeneration from protoplast culture can generate extensive somatic variation. Viral vectors are not always available, and plants edited by these vectors usually require virus elimination. Here, we used a nonviral, Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression approach, to serve both rapid test and effective delivery of TALENs into two vegetatively propagated potato cultivars, Solanum tuberosum Russet Burbank and Shepody. Two TALENs with different molecular weights (22 and 27 aarepeat modules) were expressed to target two endogenous genes (starch branching enzyme and an acid invertase) by Agrobacterium-mediated infiltration (agroinfiltration) into leaves of potato plants. The infiltrated leaf DNA was analyzed using restriction site loss assay and subsequent DNA sequencing. Deep sequencing of these tetraploid cultivars was also conducted to determine the zygosity at the targeted chromosomal loci. TALENs, with different molecular weights, successfully agroinfiltrated and induced mutations at both targeted loci.

동역학 시뮬레이션에 의한 농업용 UTV의 서스펜션 설계를 위한 스프링 계수 결정 시험

김상철,김성훈,MA RUIHAN,ZHOU HENG 제어로봇시스템학회 2022 제어로봇시스템학회 국내학술대회 논문집 Vol.2022 No.6

Micro-XCT Characterization and Numerical Analysis of Bending Damage Mechanism in Carbon Fiber Plain, Twill and Winding Composite Tubes

Zhongxiang Pan,Heng Ma,Zhenyu Wu,Xiaohong Zhou 한국섬유공학회 2020 Fibers and polymers Vol.21 No.4

Transverse bending damage morphologies of carbon fiber composite tubes with different ply structures wereinvestigated by the micro-XCT characterization. Structural effects of the plain, twill and winding on the damage mechanismwere analyzed. The experimental results present fiber-resin cracking, interlayer delamination and fiber tows breakage withstructural deformation from the peak load to final catastrophic failure. Woven fabric plies in the plain and twill compositetubes cannot be effectively slipped because of their tight interlaced structures, which makes the load propagate along the warpand weft fiber tows, resulting in more fiber tows breakage under bending-induced stretching. There is no interlaced effect onthe failure mechanism for the winding tubes, resulting in a fact that the bending load can only be transferred from the fiberresinor the layer-to-layer interface, with more interlaminar slippage and obvious springback behaviors under in-plane shear. For investigating the interlaced effect on failure mechanism, plain and winding models under transverse bending wereestablished using continuous shell elements, and different constitutive description were used to simulate interlayer failure andintra-layer failure behaviors. By comparing the numerical results with the experimental ones, the influence of the fabricstructure on the failure behavior of the tube were analyzed.

Effects of Acid–Base Properties of Ammonium Salt Electrolyte on Electrochemical Surface Activation of Carbon Fibers

Chong‑pan Ma,Yang Zhang,Heng Zhang,Ai‑jun Gao,Yu Wang 한국섬유공학회 2023 Fibers and polymers Vol.24 No.10

Surface activation is an essential process in carbon fiber preparation for surface inertness of carbon fibers. In this study, X-ray photoelectron, Raman spectroscopies, dynamic contact angle, monofilament tensile strength and interfacial shear strength (IFSS) measurements were used to investigate the activation effects of NH4HCO3, NH4H2PO4, and NH4HSO4 electrolytes on carbon fiber surfaces under the same conductivity conditions. The results showed that the surface structures and properties of carbon fibers after treatment with different ammonium salts differed significantly. Oxidation by active oxygen [O] was stronger under acidic conditions, i.e., with NH4H2PO4 and NH4HSO4, than that under alkaline conditions, i.e., with NH4HCO3. However, when the acidity was too high, oxidation by active oxygen [O] was weakened by the effect of H+ concentration. The surface graphitization degree (R) of carbon fibers decreased slightly after treatment with the three ammonium salts because of the effects of active oxygen [O] and anionic etching or stripping. As the electrolyte acidity increased, the R decreased more significantly, and the monofilament tensile strength increased more significantly. The dynamic contact angle between the activated carbon fibers and deionized water after treatment with NH4H2PO4 was the lowest. The IFSS was the largest and was 52.3% higher than that before treatment.

A reinforcement learning approach for widest path routing in software-defined networks

Ke Chih-Heng,Tu Yi-Hao,Ma Yi-Wei 한국통신학회 2023 ICT Express Vol.9 No.5

In this paper, a routing method based on reinforcement learning (RL) under software-defined networks (SDN), namely the Q-learning widest-path routing algorithm (Q-WPRA), is proposed. This algorithm processes the reward function according to the link bandwidth in the execution environment to find the optimal (i.e., widest) transmission path with the maximum bandwidth between the source and the destination through RL. The experimental results reveal that the Q-WPRA is outperformance than Dijkstra’s algorithm and Dijkstra’s widest-path algorithm to find the widest transmission path in SDN environment under different bandwidths, loss rates, and background traffic.

Genome Sequencing Highlights the Plant Cell Wall Degrading Capacity of Edible Mushroom Stropharia rugosoannulata

Guo Mengpei,Ma Xiaolong,Zhou Yan,Bian Yinbing,Liu Gaolei,Cai Yingli,Huang Tianji,Dong Hongxia,Cai Dingjun,Wan Xueji,Wang Zhihong,Xiao Yang,Kang Heng 한국미생물학회 2023 The journal of microbiology Vol.61 No.1

The basidiomycetous edible mushroom Stropharia rugosoannulata has excellent nutrition, medicine, bioremediation, and biocontrol properties. S. rugosoannulata has been widely and easily cultivated using agricultural by-products showing strong lignocellulose degradation capacity. However, the unavailable high-quality genome information has hindered the research on gene function and molecular breeding of S. rugosoannulata. This study provided a high-quality genome assembly and annotation from S. rugosoannulata monokaryotic strain QGU27 based on combined Illumina-Nanopore data. The genome size was about 47.97 Mb and consisted of 20 scaffolds, with an N50 of 3.73 Mb and a GC content of 47.9%. The repetitive sequences accounted for 17.41% of the genome, mostly long terminal repeats (LTRs). A total of 15,726 coding gene sequences were putatively identified with the BUSCO score of 98.7%. There are 142 genes encoding plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) in the genome, and 52, 39, 30, 11, 8, and 2 genes related to lignin, cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin, chitin, and cutin degradation, respectively. Comparative genomic analysis revealed that S. rugosoannulata is superior in utilizing aldehyde-containing lignins and is possible to utilize algae during the cultivation.

Gadoxetate-Enhanced MRI as a Diagnostic Tool in the Management of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Report from a 2020 Asia-Pacific Multidisciplinary Expert Meeting

Tan Cher Heng,Chou Shu-cheng,Inmutto Nakarin,Ma Ke,Sheng RuoFan,Shi YingHong,Zhou Zhongguo,Yamada Akira,Tateishi Ryosuke 대한영상의학회 2022 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.23 No.7

Gadoxetate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used in clinical practice for liver imaging. For optimal use, we must understand both its advantages and limitations. This article is the outcome of an online advisory board meeting and subsequent discussions by a multidisciplinary group of experts on liver diseases across the Asia-Pacific region, first held on September 28, 2020. Here, we review the technical considerations for the use of gadoxetate, its current role in the management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and its relevance in consensus guidelines for HCC imaging diagnosis. In the latter part of this review, we examine recent evidence evaluating the impact of gadoxetate on clinical outcomes on a continuum from diagnosis to treatment decision-making and follow-up. In conclusion, we outline the potential future roles of gadoxetate MRI based on an evolving understanding of the clinical utility of this contrast agent in the management of patients at risk of, or with, HCC.