Age determination and feeding habits of Nemipterus japonicus (Bloch, 1791) in the northern Oman Sea

Age determination and feeding habits of the Japanese threadfin bream, Nemipterus japonicus, was carried out in the northern Oman Sea (Chabahar area), based on 212 specimens collected between September 2009 and May 2010. The minimum and maximum fork length and body weight were measured as 145, 258 mm and 55.31, 288.12 g. The relationship between Body Weight (BW) and Fork Length (FL) for all individuals was estimated as BW= 0.0001×FL2.83 (r2 = 0.9425, n= 212). The Vacuity Index (VI) was 55.2% that shows N. japonicus is a moderate feeder. The maximum and minimum Gastro-Somatic Index for males was in autumn and winter seasons and for females were in summer and spring. The Food Preference Indices were estimated as: crustacean (63.2%) as main food fishes (38.9%) and molluscs (36.8%) as minor food. Age determination was done by otolith sectioning. A total of 135 sagitta were sectioned. The maximum age was 5+ years old for a female with FL= 256 mm and the youngest one was 1 year old for a female with FL= 145 mm. Based on obtained results there is a significant relationship between feeding and age namely with increase of age, the feeding rate is decreased without any changes in type of feeding and food contents

Nonvolatile memory with molecule-engineered tunneling barriers

We report a novel field-sensitive tunneling barrier by embedding C60 in SiO2 for nonvolatile memory applications. C60 is a better choice than ultra-small nanocrystals due to its monodispersion. Moreover, C60 provides accessible energy levels to prompt resonant tunneling through SiO2 at high fields. However, this process is quenched at low fields due to HOMO-LUMO gap and large charging energy of C60. Furthermore, we demonstrate an improvement of more than an order of magnitude in retention to program/erase time ratio for a metal nanocrystal memory. This shows promise of engineering tunnel dielectrics by integrating molecules in the future hybrid molecular-silicon electronics.Comment: to appear in Applied Physics Letter

Evidence of Hot Carrier Extraction in Metal Halide Perovskite Solar Cells

The presence of hot carriers is presented in the operational properties of an (FA,Cs)Pb(I, Br, Cl)3 solar cell at ambient temperatures and under practical solar concentration. At 100 K, clear evidence of hot carriers is observed in both the high energy tail of the photoluminescence spectra and from the appearance of a non-equilibrium photocurrent at higher fluence in light J-V measurements. At room temperature, however, the presence of hot carriers in the emission at elevated laser fluence are shown to compete with a gradual red shift in the PL peak energy as photo induced halide segregation begins to occur at higher lattice temperature. The effects of thermionic emission of hot carriers and the presence of a non-equilibrium carrier distribution are also shown to be distinct from simple lattice heating. This results in large unsaturated photocurrents at high powers as the Fermi distribution exceeds that of the heterointerface controlling carrier transport and rectification

Restricted immunoglobulin variable region gene usage by normal Ly-1 (CD5+) B cells that recognize phosphatidyl choline

5-15% of lymphocytes in the peritoneums of normal adult B10.H-2aH- 4bp/Wts (2a4b) mice are CD5+ (Ly-1) B cells that recognize phosphatidyl choline (PtC), a phospholipid component of all mammalian cells. We produced a set of IgM-secreting hybridomas from the peritoneal cells of normal, adult 2a4b mice. We found that this set of hybridomas shows a similarly high frequency of antibodies specific for PtC (21 of 86) that also react with bromelain-treated mouse erythrocytes. Restriction fragment analysis of Ig gene rearrangements and analysis of expressed Ig idiotypes reveal that these cells use a restricted set of variable region genes to generate the PtC-specific antibodies. The Ig genes used by the PtC-specific hybridomas appear to be the same as those found in the PtC-specific Ly-1 B cell lymphomas, CH27 and CH34

Intermittency analysis of high-lift airfoil with slat cove fillers

Experimental measurements were carried out to assess the aeroacoustic characteristics of 30P30N airfoil fitted with two different types of slat cove fillers at the aeroacoustic facility at the University of Bristol. The results are presented for the angle of attack α = 18◦ at a free-stream velocity of U∞ = 30 m/s which corresponds to a chord-based Reynolds number of Rec = 7 × 10◦ . Simultaneous measurements of the unsteady surface pressure were made at several locations in the vicinity of slat cove and at the far-field location to gain a deeper understanding of the slat noise generation mechanism. The results are analyzed using a higher-order statistical approach to determine the nature of the broadband hump seen at low-frequency for the 30P30N high-lift airfoil observed in recent studies and also to further understand the tone generation mechanism within the slat cavity. A series of cross-correlation and coherence of the unsteady pressure measurements are carried out to identify and isolate the low-frequency hump. Wavelet analysis is performed to investigate the nature of the slat-wing resonant intermittent events in both time and frequency domains. The far-field noise measurement results showed that significant noise reduction can be achieved by the use of slat cove fillers. A series of far-field and near-field correlation are also presented to show the propagated noise from the slat.5s

Effect of prostaglandin E2 injection on the structural properties of the rat patellar tendon

Background: Increased tendon production of the inflammatory mediator prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) has been suggested to be a potential etiologic agent in the development of tendinopathy. Repeated injection of PGE2 into tendon has been proposed as a potential animal model for studying treatments for tendinopathy. In contrast, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) which inhibit PGE2 production and are commonly prescribed in treating tendinopathy have been shown to impair the healing of tendon after acute injury in animal models. The contradictory literature suggests the need to better define the functional effects of PGE2 on tendon. Our objective was to characterize the effects of PGE2 injection on the biomechanical and biochemical properties of tendon and the activity of the animals. Our hypothesis was that weekly PGE2 injection to the rat patellar tendon would lead to inferior biomechanical properties. Methods: Forty rats were divided equally into four groups. Three groups were followed for 4 weeks with the following peritendinous injection procedures: No injection (control), 4 weekly injections of saline (saline), 4 weekly injections of 800 ng PGE2 (PGE2-4 wks). The fourth group received 4 weekly injections of 800 ng PGE2 initially and was followed for a total of 8 weeks. All animals were injected bilaterally. The main outcome measurements included: the structural and material properties of the patellar tendon under tensile loading to failure, tendo