Appointment system

The purpose of this project was to create an online appointment system that allows students to make appointments with faculty through the internet

Virological investigation of four outbreaks of influenza B reassortants in the northern region of Taiwan from October 2006 to February 2007

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>From October 2006 to February 2007, clinical specimens from 452 patients with symptoms related to respiratory tract infection in the northern region of Taiwan were collected. Real-time PCR and direct immunofluorescent antibody tests showed that 145 (32%) patients had influenza B virus infections. Subsequently, nucleotide sequence analyses of both hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) genes of 39 isolates were performed. Isolated viruses were antigenically characterized using hemagglutinin inhibition (HI) test.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that all the isolates belonged to the B reassortant lineage with HA gene belonged to the B/Victoria/2/87 lineage and the NA gene belonged to the B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage. In addition, a group of children aged between 6 to 8 years old resided in Yilan county were infected with a variant strain. Hemagglutinin inhibition (HI) tests confirmed that all the reassortant influenza B viruses were B/Malaysia/2506/04-like viruses. Pre- and post-immunized serum samples from 4 normal volunteers inoculated with 2007 influenza vaccine were evaluated for their HI activity on 6 reassortant B isolates including two variants that we found in the Yilan county. The results demonstrated that after vaccination, all four vaccinees had at least 4-fold increases of their HI titers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The results indicate that the 2006–2007 seasonal influenza vaccine was effective in stimulating protective immunity against the influenza B variants identified in Yilan county. Continuous surveillance of emerging influenza B variants in the northern region of Taiwan is important for the selection of proper vaccine candidate in the future.</p

Polyamines and hyposaline stress in Ulva fasciata 167 Bot

Abstract. This study was conducted to investigate changes of free polyamine levels in response to hyposaline stress in Ulva fasciata Delile. Free putrescine, spermidine, and spermine are present in this alga. As salinity decreased from 30 to 5, specific growth rate (%/d), TTC reduction activity, net photosynthetic O 2 evolution rate and chlorophyll levels decreased. Plants grown at 5 bleached except the basal part near rhizoidal portion. Free putrescine maintained at a constant level at salinity over the range of 10~30 and increased three fold following 5 treatment. Free spermidine also increased when salinity fell below 15. In plants grown at 5, free putrescine and spermidine accumulation in the basal part was less than in the remaining part. Free spermine levels increased as salinity decreased from 30 to 10, but dropped sharply at 5. Both α-difluoromethylarginine (0.2 mM) and D-arginine (1 mM), inhibitors of arginine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.19), and also both α-difluoromethylornithine (0.2 mM) and α-methylornithine (0.2 mM), inhibitors of ornithine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.17), inhibited the 5-induced free putrescine accumulation. Overall, the present results suggest that an extreme hyposaline condition (5) induced a significant accumulation of free putrescine and spermidine in U. fasciata and that ADC and ODC each contributed to free putrescine accumulation. The relationships between accumulated putrescine and hyposaline injury are discussed

Experiment and simulation studies on sound insulation performance of the wooden component

Wooden component has been used extensively in industries and the sound insulation performance of these components will directly be associated with the noise problem. We used sound pressure method and sound intensity method separately to measure the transmission loss of wood component, their results were in good agreement through the entire frequency band and the differences between them are in reasonable engineering error range. Test failures have been avoided by this as well as providing some protection for the subsequent simulation validation. After that, the damping loss factor of wood component has been measured by pulse attenuation method and imported into AML model to calculate the transmission loss, compared to experiment results, they were in good agreement, which indicates this kind of simulation method is available in the prediction of the acoustic performance for wooden component. Various technique means have been used to optimize the sound insulation performance, such as changing the density, elastic modulus, thickness of wooden component and surface treatment and sound package, and the results show that all the optimization programs can be effective in the improvement of sound insulation performance. At last, all the optimization data was arranged and compiled into a database, through the operation of the database interface, it is easy to select any group of data to draw graphics. This database provides an effective way to develop the optimal program of wooden component which has the best sound insulation performance

Modal analysis of the human head-neck mathematical model

In this paper, the modal responses of the finite element (FE) model of human head-neck under vibration have been simulated. These modal responses are found to be in reasonably good agreement with previous studies. Additional and rarely reported modal responses such as “mastication” modes of the mandible and flipping of nasal lateral cartilages are identified. Modal validation in terms of modal shapes suggests a need for detailed modeling to identify all the additional frequencies of each individual part. It is found that damping has a trade-off effect in reducing the resonant frequencies in lowering the peak biomechanical responses as well as in the higher frequency modes. Although the finding suggests an optimized estimate of damping factor of 0.2 for both modal and dynamics responses, there is still a need for further study in determining an appropriate damping factor

Microstructured Fibre Taper with Constant Outer Diameter

Department of Electrical Engineerin

Identification of Postoperative Prognostic MicroRNA Predictors in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Comparison of microRNA (miRNA) expression profiles in the noncancerous liver tissues adjacent to hepatocelluar carcinomas (HCCs) was a strategy to identify postoperative prognostic predictors in this study. Expression profiles of 270 miRNAs were determined in the paraneoplastic liver tissues of 12 HCC patients with known postoperative prognosis. A panel of candidate miRNA predictors was identified. The prognostic predictive value of these candidate miRNAs was then verified in 216 postoperative HCC patients. Univariate analysis identified 8 and 3 miRNA predictors for recurrence-free (RFS) and overall (OS) survivals, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed high expression levels of miR-155 (HR, 2.002 [1.324–3.027]; P = .001), miR-15a (HR, 0.478 [0.248–0.920]; P = .027), miR-432 (HR, 1.816 [1.203–2.740]; P = .015), miR-486-3p (HR, 0.543 [0.330–0.893]; P = .016), miR-15b (HR, 1.074 [1.002–1.152]; P = .043) and miR-30b (HR, 1.102 [1.025–1.185]; P = .009) were significantly associated with RFS. When clinicopathological predictors were included, multivariate analysis revealed that tumor number and miR-432, miR-486-3p, and miR-30b expression levels remained significant as independent predictors for RFS. Additionally, expression knockdown of miR-155 in J7 and Mahlavu hepatoma cells resulted in decreased cell growth and enhanced cell death in xenograft tumors, suggesting an oncogenic effect of miR-155. In conclusion, significant prognostic miRNA predictors were identified through examination of miRNA expression levels in paraneoplastic liver tissues. Functional analysis of a miRNA predictor, miR-155, suggested that the prognostic miRNA predictors identified under this strategy could serve as potential molecular targets for anticancer therapy

Highly enhanced electrochemical performance of novel based electrode materials for supercapacitor applications: an overview.

The research and recent progress of electrochemical energy storage devices applied to various applications during the past two decayed are reviewed. Different electrode materials (carbon-based materials, metal oxides, conducting polymers, metal nanoparticles and nanocomposites), can be used as the most important features for supercapacitors. Recently, research efforts of supercapacitor electrodes have been used to increase the specific capacitance and its cyclic stability. In this review designate current efforts energy storage preparation methods, materials and different morphological structure for electrochemical capacitor applications. The principle of design, extended surface area, improve the capacitance properties and long-durability of the electrochemical capacitor are discussed

Deltex1 Is a Target of the Transcription Factor NFAT that Promotes T Cell Anergy

SummaryThe molecular process underlying T cell anergy is incompletely understood. Deltex1 (DTX1) is a Notch target with unknown physiological function. Here we show that Dtx1 was a transcription target of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) and participated in T cell anergy. DTX1 protein was upregulated during T cell anergy, and transgenic expression of Dtx1 attenuated T cell activation. DTX1 inhibited T cell activation by both E3-dependent and E3-independent mechanisms. In addition, DTX1 suppressed T cell activation in the absence of its Notch-binding domain. Importantly, DTX1 regulated the expression of two anergy-associated molecules, growth arrest and DNA-damage-inducible 45 β (Gadd45β) and Cbl-b. DTX1 interacted with early growth response 2 (Egr-2) for optimum expression of Cbl-b. Furthermore, deficiency of DTX1 augmented T cell activation, conferred resistance to anergy induction, enhanced autoantibody generation, and increased inflammation. DTX1 therefore represents a component downstream of calcium-NFAT signaling that regulates T cell anergy

Evidence for formation of multi-quantum dots in hydrogenated graphene.

We report the experimental evidence for the formation of multi-quantum dots in a hydrogenated single-layer graphene flake. The existence of multi-quantum dots is supported by the low-temperature measurements on a field effect transistor structure device. The resulting Coulomb blockade diamonds shown in the color scale plot together with the number of Coulomb peaks exhibit the characteristics of the so-called 'stochastic Coulomb blockade'. A possible explanation for the formation of the multi-quantum dots, which is not observed in pristine graphene to date, was attributed to the impurities and defects unintentionally decorated on a single-layer graphene flake which was not treated with the thermal annealing process. Graphene multi-quantum dots developed around impurities and defect sites during the hydrogen plasma exposure process.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are