[en] On the CT-6B tokamak, a transition from low to high plasma current discharge was obtained by feedback control of plasma current. Increased parallel flow shear (v_parallel^') was observed to be possibly correlated with enhanced fluctuation level and fluctuation-driven particle fluxes, and a more isotropic feature of edge turbulence in the perpendicular plane. A maximum of v_parallel^' was found to be roughly located at where the poloidal velocity shear layer was located. The results suggest that v_parallel^' instability may play an important role in edge turbulence. (author)

[en] Highlights: • A two-step selection strategy was proposed, using three selection algorithms to evaluate informative variables. • iPLS was introduced to efficiently eliminate uninformative variables without destroying synergistic effects among spectrum. • Combining variable combination population analysis and permutation analysis, a new selection strategy was proposed. • Experimental results showed the superiority of iPCPA and its wide application potential. As one of the most important preprocessing procedures in spectral detection, wavelength selection approaches play an irreplaceable role in reducing the model overfitting and prediction errors. In this paper, we propose a two-step wavelength selection method called interval permutation combination population analysis (iPCPA), which improves the selective performance by combining three different wavelength selection algorithms. First, interval partial least squares (iPLS) is used as the rough selection step to efficiently exclude the uninformative variables in the spectrum, which reduces the variable space and ensures that the following selection step can focus on selecting informative variables. Then, permutation combination population analysis (PCPA) is proposed, which introduces the core idea of permutation analysis into the variable combination population analysis (VCPA) and hence improves its ability in evaluating the importance of informative variables. Six state-of-the-art wavelength selection methods are used to compare with iPCPA and their performances are tested by using three real spectral datasets: corn, beer, and soil datasets. The final experimental results prove that iPCPA has the best predictive abilities, combined with a good selective performance.

[en] Highlights: • A 3D transient thermal model is developed to obtain the workpiece temperature field. • The boundary condition is determined based on a multi-phase multi-zone heating method. • The radiative heat flux is calculated by means of a simplified zone method. • A novel method is presented to quickly and accurately solve the model. - Abstract: Fast and accurate acquisition of the temperature information of a workpiece is essential to achieve temperature uniformity control in the quenching process. Based on the special quenching technique, a three-dimensional multi-zone multi-phase thermal model of aluminum alloy workpieces has been developed. The boundary conditions of the developed model are determined according to the multi-phase heating feature. Considering the detailed furnace geometric parameters and the multi-zone heating manner, the radiative heat flux is calculated by a simplified zone method. To satisfy the desired computational precision, a novel double-extrapolation finite element method (EFEM), which has high accuracy and time efficiency, is proposed to solve the transient temperature field of the workpiece. The efficiency of the mathematical model is validated by a comparison with experimental data obtained from a measurement campaign with a test workpiece. Compared with the finite element method (FEM), the simulation results show that the presented EFEM is accurate enough for engineering purposes. The application results demonstrate that the developed model provides a reliable workpiece temperature field and is helpful for temperature uniformity control of large-scale vertical quench furnaces.

[en] Objective: To explore CT and MRI features of spongiform leucoencephalopathy after inhaling 'heroin' pyrolysate, and to improve the diagnostic ability of the disease. Methods: Four patients, which inhaled heroin vapor, received the CT or MRI pre- and post-contrast scanning. MR sequences included conventional SE T₁WI, T₂WI, fluid attenuation inverse recover (FLAIR), and MRS. Results: All 4 cases had similar symmetrical lesions involving the cerebellum, lateral brainstem, cerebral peduncles, posterior limbs of internal capsule, splenium of corpus callosum, medial lemniscuses, and posterior cerebral white mattes without enhancement. The lesions showed hypodense on CT and hypointense on T₁WI, hyperintense on T₂WI and FLAIR. Cerebellar lesions were more serious than cerebral one, and the parieto-occipital lesions were serious than frontal one. MRS showed that the abnormalities in the white matter were degenerative changes, not necrosis. Conclusion: CT and MRI findings of this diseases are characteristic. Combined with the history, the disease can be diagnosed

[en] Objective: To evaluate MR findings of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) with MR new techniques and to study MR scanning techniques. Methods: 15 patients of ARVC diagnosed or suspected by clinical and echocardiography were performed with MRI. Using GE signa 1.5 Tesla CV/i MR system, scanning sequences included: Black-blood techniques: Double-IRFSE and Triple-IRFSE sequences, white blood technique: Fastcine sequence. Scanning plane included short axis view, four-chamber view, and long axis view. Results: Ten patients were diagnosed as ARVC and the main MR features of ARVC included: fat signal intensity of right ventricular (RV) wall (3 cases), thinning of RV wall (9 cases), dilatation of the RV (6 cases), ventricular wall aneurysm formation (2 cases), slow blood flow signal within the RV (9 cases), declined ejection fraction of the RV (6 cases), enlargement of the right atrium (3 cases), and involvement of the papillary muscle of the RV, apex of the left ventricle and anterior ventricular septum (2 cases). Black-blood techniques could show the cardiac anatomy, morphologic structure, and tissue specificity, while white blood techniques mainly obtained information about cardiac function and myocardial wall motion. Short axis view and four-chamber view revealed lesions with satisfaction. Conclusion: MR findings of ARVC have some specific features. Multi-sequence and multi-plane imaging with new MR techniques can accurately diagnose ARVC

[en] In this study, a state transition algorithm (STA) is investigated into constrained engineering design optimization problems. After an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of two well-known constraint-handling techniques, penalty function method and feasibility preference method, a two-stage strategy is incorporated into STA, in which, the feasibility preference method is adopted in the early stage of an iteration process whilst it is changed to the penalty function method in the later stage. Then, the proposed STA is used to solve three benchmark problems in engineering design and an optimization problem in power-dispatching control system for the electrochemical process of zinc. The experimental results have shown that the optimal solutions obtained by the proposed method are all superior to those by typical approaches in the literature in terms of both convergency and precision.

[en] Dietary phytochemicals are excellent ROS-modulating agents and have been shown to effectively enhance ROS levels beyond toxic threshold in cancer cells to ensure their selective killing while leaving normal cells unscathed. Here we demonstrate that hydroxychavicol (HC), extracted and purified from Piper betel leaves, significantly inhibits growth and proliferation via ROS generation in human prostate cancer, PC-3 cells. HC perturbed cell-cycle kinetics and progression, reduced clonogenicity and mediated cytotoxicity by ROS-induced DNA damage leading to activation of several pro-apoptotic molecules. In addition, HC treatment elicited a novel autophagic response as evidenced by the appearance of acidic vesicular organelles and increased expression of autophagic markers, LC3-IIb and beclin-1. Interestingly, quenching of ROS with tiron, an antioxidant, offered significant protection against HC-induced inhibition of cell growth and down regulation of caspase-3, suggesting the crucial role of ROS in mediating cell death. The collapse of mitochondrial transmembrane potential by HC further revealed the link between ROS generation and induction of caspase-mediated apoptosis in PC-3 cells. Our data showed remarkable inhibition of prostate tumor xenografts by ∼ 72% upon daily oral administration of 150 mg/kg bw HC by quantitative tumor volume measurements and non-invasive real-time bioluminescent imaging. HC was well-tolerated at this dosing level without any observable toxicity. This is the first report to demonstrate the anti-prostate cancer efficacy of HC in vitro and in vivo, which is perhaps attributable to its selective prooxidant activity to eliminate cancer cells thus providing compelling grounds for future preclinical studies to validate its potential usefulness for prostate cancer management. - Highlights: • HC perturbs cell-cycle progression by induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). • HC mediated cytotoxicity by ROS-induced DNA damage leading to apoptosis. • HC induced ROS-mediated autophagic response. • It inhibited prostate tumor growth by ∼ 72% without any observable toxicity. • Its anticancer efficacy is likely due to its selective prooxidant activity

[en] A novel segmented fuel cell device based on the multi-layered printed circuit board (PCB) flow field plates is designed to study the localized fuel cell performance with various operation conditions. With embedded sensors, distributions of current density, relative humidity (RH) and temperature for both anode and cathode are measured simultaneously along the direction of straight parallel flow channels. Meanwhile, a stationary two-phase flow fuel cell model is developed to study the internal reaction parameter distributions and the results are compared with the in situ experimental measurements. In the co-flow operation mode of hydrogen and air, current density and reactants' RH distributions are sensitive to the stoichiometry of air but the effect from hydrogen is minor. Water transfer behavior, local reactants' RH status, temperature gradients and their impacts on current distributions are analyzed based on the in situ measurements and the coupled model analysis. The segmented cell device discussed in this paper, as well as the experimental and modeling results can be employed to optimize stack design and operating parameters with “visible” internal distributions of water, RH and temperature inside membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Further investigation on fuel cell performance and lifetime with different reactant flow directions is also suggested. - Highlights: • A novel segmented fuel cell based on multi-layered PCB is designed with embedded sensors. • In-situ distributions of local current, relative humidity and temperature are measured. • A coupled two-phase flow fuel cell model is proposed to explain the experimental results. • Performance distributions with various reactants flow rates are analyzed.