[en] A three-year study is being conducted at the Alberta Research Council (ARC) to assess the impact of ethylene on Alberta's major crop plants. Barley, wheat, canola, field pea and oats are among the crops to be studied. The study is in cooperation with the Alberta Environmental Protection and the petrochemical industry which produces ethylene in their manufacturing process. Ethylene, which can be produced from man-made sources or naturally from crops, has been shown to affect plant yield and growth. The effects can be positive or negative depending on the amount of exposure, the type of plant and its stage of growth. Greenhouses will be used to determine the effects of ethylene emissions on the crops. This controlled environment will allow for the tracking of temperature, light, relative humidity, light intensity, water and nutrients. 1 fig

[en] Exposure to ambient air particulate matter (PM) is associated with increased mortality and morbidity in susceptible populations. The epidemiological data also suggest a relationship between PM air pollution and impairment of cardiopulmonary function. The mechanisms that may be responsible for these effects are not fully understood and are likely related to perturbations of cellular and molecular functions. One type of PM, residual oil fly ash (ROFA), is of particular interest. ROFA does not contain much organic material, but does contain relatively high quantities of transition metals, predominantly nickel, vanadium, and iron, as well as black carbon and sulfates. In this study, we investigated the effect of two metals (iron and nickel) on the induction of 'hypoxia-like' stress and the production of interleukins (ILs) in minimally transformed human airway epithelial cells (1HAEo^-). We found that exposure to soluble nickel sulfate results in the induction of hypoxia-inducible genes and IL-8 production by the 1HAEo^- cells. The simultaneous addition of iron in either ferric or ferrous form and nickel completely inhibited IL-8 production and had no effect on 'hypoxia-like' stress caused by nickel, suggesting the existence of two different pathways for the induction 'hypoxia-like' stress and IL-8 production. The effect of nickel was not related to the blocking of iron entry into cells since the level of intracellular iron was not affected by co-exposure with nickel. The obtained data indicate that nickel can induce different signaling pathways with or without interference with iron metabolism. Our observations suggest that in some cases the excess of iron in PM can cancel the effects of nickel

[en] In this paper, the architecture of vector pipeline computer YH-1 is briefly described, and the characteristics of an efficient vector general mathematical library are discussed. Some approaches to vectorization, adopted in developing the vector mathematical library, are presented

[en] The effect of Cr addition on alloying behavior, microstructure and mechanical properties of multicomponent CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 high entropy alloy (HEA) was studied in detail. Non-equiatomic CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 and CrCoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloys were fabricated by the combination of mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). Alloying behavior, microstructure, phase evolution and mechanical properties of the two alloys were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM), as well as by an Instron testing system. During MA, a supersaturated solid solution consisting of a metastable FCC phase was formed in CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloy. With Cr addition, the alloy showed a supersaturated solid solution with an FCC phase and a BCC phase. After SPS, bulk CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloy was composed of a main FCC phase, a minor BCC and a tiny unknown phase. The addition of Cr into CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloy exhibited two FCC phases (FCC1 and FCC2) with similar lattice constant and a tiny unknown phase, meanwhile selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern of the FCC1 phase was the same as that of the FCC phase of CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloy. Nanoscale twins presented in both of CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 and CrCoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloys, but deformation twinning occurred only in the FCC phase of CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 and the FCC1 phase of the Cr added alloy which displayed the same SAED pattern. Moreover, the addition of Cr lowered the formation ability of nanoscale twins evidently. The addition of Cr into CoFeNiAl_0.5Ti_0.5 alloy could decrease compressive strength and Vickers hardness slightly

[en] The photon discrimination power of the ALICE photon spectrometer is simulated for incident particles n, anti n, p, anti p, π⁺, K⁺ and γ with random energy distribution in the range from 0.5 to 100 GeV. The principal component analysis method is used to reduce the number of parameters in the shower shape analysis, and the results are compared with that from the seven parameter topology analysis. The efficiency dependence of purity for the photon discrimination is obtained for the deposited energy range 0.5-10, 10-20, 20-50 and 50-100 GeV. (author)

[en] In order to investigate the UV radiation damage effect on RecO and RecR from Kineococcus radiotolerans, the recO and recR genes were amplified by PCR and inserted into vector pGEX-2T, constructing pGEX-2T-recO and pGEX-2T-recR, then recombinant plasmids were transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3) and the recombinant protein was expressed by inducting with isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). The expression products were identified by Western Blot. The survival rate of E. coli BL21 (DE3), emptines and engineering bacteria after irradiating of UVC was measured. The expression of recR and recO from K. radiotolerans and related genes in RecFOR pathway (recF, recO, recR, recA, recG, ruvA, ruvB, ruvC, ssb) in E. coli BL21 (DE3) were determined by qRT-PCR. The results showed that RecO and RecR fusion protein were successful inducible expression in E. coli BL21 (DE3). When dose of UV radiation was more than 8 J · m^-2, the engineering bacterium imported with p GEX-2T-recO and pGEX-2T-recR started to show obvious repairing ability, and the survival rate was above the two groups of control, indicating RecO and RecR from K. radiotolerans could enhance UV resistance of E. coli BL21 (DE3). Transformation of recO from K. radiotolerans increased the expression of genes related to RecFOR in E. coli BL21 (DE3). In contrast, transformation of recR from K. radiotolerans had no significant influence on expression of genes related to RecFOR in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The results indicated that recO and recR from K. radiotolerans increased the UV-resistance of E. coli BL21 (DE3) through different regulatory pathways. This research results provid a scientific basis for study of radiation-resistant mechanism of K. radiotolerans. (authors)

No abstract available

[en] At present, the traditional water conservancy system in Shandong has created and exerted great social and economic benefits, but there are some kinds of obvious problems at the same time, for example, the water pollution is serious, the water conservancy project is not complete, the high and new technology is not widely used, the management system is not perfect, and the allocation of water resources is not reasonable, and so on. On the premise of absorbing the experience and lessons of traditional water conservancy, this paper discussed the main components of the framework of health water system in Shandong Province, and formed the four supporting systems of Shandong healthy water system. This study is not only of great practical significance to accelerate the transformation of traditional water resources to healthy water system in the whole province, provide strong support for the construction of strong economic and cultural province. At the same time, it also provides an important reference for the national healthy water system. (paper)

[en] By means of beam chopping and γ-γ coincidence technique, the in-beam γ-rays and decay γ-rays of the 150 MeV ⁴⁰Ca + ⁵⁸Ni reaction products have been measured. The four strongest transition γ-rays of ⁹²Rh have been clearly observed. The decay γ-rays of ⁹²Rh have been identified for the first time. The spin and parity of 6⁺ are tentatively assigned to the ground state of ⁹²Rh. Part of the decay scheme of ⁹²Rh is proposed

[en] Objective: In this retrospective study, we analyzed the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans of patients with prostate cancer to investigate the relationship between the apex of prostate and the anatomic structures visible in CT, and to provide evidence for localizing the prostatic apex in radiation treatment planning. Methods: MRI and CT scans from 108 patients with prostate cancer were analyzed to measure the distance between the prostatic apex and the bottom of ischial tuberosities, the bottom of obturator foramen, the bottom of pubic symphysis and the bulb of the penis. The volume of prostate was calculated and the relationship between the size of the prostate and the localization of the prostatic apex was analyzed. Results: The prostatic apex is located 13.1 mm ± 3.3 mm superior to the bulb of the penis, 11.0 mm ± 5.4 mm superior to the bottom of obturator foramen, 31.3 mm ± 5.5 mm superior to the bottom of ischial tuberosities, and 7.1 mm ± 4.7 mm superior to the bottom of obturator foramen. There was no correlation between the size of prostate and the localization of the prostatic apex (R =0.07, -0.33, all P > 0.05). Conclusions: Ninety-five percent of patients had a prostatic apex that is above the bulb of the penis 6 mm, and 100% of patients had a prostatic apex that is above the bottom of obturator foramen. (authors)