Universal scaling of strange particle pTp_{\rm T} spectra in pp collisions

As a complementary study to that performed on the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) spectra of charged pions, kaons and protons in proton-proton (pp) collisions at LHC energies 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, we present a scaling behaviour in the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra of strange particles ($K_{S}^{0}$, $\rm \Lambda$, $\rm \Xi$ and $\phi$) at these three energies. This scaling behaviour is exhibited when the spectra are expressed in a suitable scaling variable $z=p_{\rm T}/K$, where the scaling parameter $K$ is determined by the quality factor method and increases with the center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$). The rates at which $K$ increases with $\mathrm{ln}\sqrt{s}$ for these strange particles are found to be identical within errors. In the framework of the colour string percolation model, we argue that these strange particles are produced through the decay of clusters that are formed by the colour strings overlapping. We observe that the strange mesons and baryons are produced from clusters with different size distributions, while the strange mesons (baryons) $K_{S}^{0}$ and $\phi$ ($\rm \Lambda$ and $\rm \Xi$) originate from clusters with the same size distributions. The cluster's size distributions for strange mesons are more dispersed than those for strange baryons. The scaling behaviour of the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra for these strange particles can be explained by the colour string percolation model in a quantitative way.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, accepted by EPJ

Concrete Carbonation and Chloride Resistance Under Initial Hot Water Curing

Three concrete mix proportions were designed and prepared, respectively, such as fly ash concrete (abbreviated as “FAC”) with 30% fly ash replacement ratio of cement, fly ash, and slag concrete (abbreviated as “FSC”) with each of 20% fly ash and slag replacement ratio and ordinary Portland cement concrete (abbreviated as “OPC”) for the research of carbonation and chloride resistance of concrete under different initial hot water curing. Specimens with precuring were put into 20°C water tank for curing firstly until a certain compressive strength of 14 MPa reached after demolding, while specimens without precuring were put into 40, 60, and 80°C water tanks for curing directly just after demolding. Hot water curing of each specimen was finished when the designed compressive strength of 35 MPa was reached, then specimens were taken out into indoor natural environment. High concentration CO2 carbonation and Coulomb electric flux experiments were carried out at specimens’ 100-day age. Results show that with the addition of fly ash or slag, the carbonation resistance of concrete declines, whereas the resistance to chlorides is improved. With the increasing of initial water-curing temperature from 40 to 80°C, the carbonation and chloride resistance of OPC concrete all decrease, whereas for FAC and FSC concretes, the carbonation resistance declines and chloride resistance goes up. Precuring at the normal temperature before the elevated temperature water curing is beneficial for concrete long-term carbonation and chloride resistance

Expression of androgen and estrogen receptors in the testicular tissue of chickens, quails and chicken-quail hybrids

36 New Roman cocks, 30 Korean male quails and 30 chicken-quail hybrids of different day-age were selected and their body weight and testes weights were measured and as well, their testes were collected. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to evaluate the messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression patterns of androgen receptors (AR) and estrogen receptors (ER) genes in testicular tissue of chickens, quails and chicken-quail hybrids at different growth stages. The results show that the testes of chickens and quails grew and developed normally with body weight gain, but the testes of chicken-quail hybrids had a slower growth rate and stunted growth. Real-time PCR showed AR and ER mRNA expression patterns in testes of chickens and quails at different growth stages were similar. AR mRNA expression in chickens and quails reached a significant peak at 80 and 30 days of age, respectively and their ER gene expression showed fluctuation slightly. The AR and ER expression of chicken-quail hybrids were different from the above expression patterns; the hybrids AR gene expression showed a gradual decline and ER gene expression gradually increased. The chickenquail hybrids AR and ER gene expression was abnormal and we speculate this is an important molecular factor for the testicular dysplasia of chicken-quail hybrids. Our results show that AR gene expression was upregulated by ER gene and we suggest that the synergetic effect of AR and ER gene regulated the normal testis growth and development of chicken and quail.Keywords: Chicken, quail, chicken-quail hybrid, testis, androgen receptors (AR), estrogen receptors (ER) expressionAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 11(29), pp. 7344-7353, 10 April, 201

The \ion{H}{I}-rich Ultra-diffuse Galaxies follow the Extended Schmidt Law

The \ion{H}{I}-rich ultra-diffuse galaxies (HUDGs) offer a unique case for studies of star formation laws (SFLs) as they host low star formation efficiency (SFE) and low-metallicity environments where gas is predominantly atomic. We collect a sample of six HUDGs in the field and investigate their location in the extended Schmidt law($\Sigma_{\text {SFR }} \propto \left(\Sigma_{\text{star}}^{0.5} \Sigma_{\text{gas}}\right)^{1.09}$). They are consistent with this relationship well (with deviations of only 1.1 sigma). Furthermore, we find that HUDGs follow the tight correlation between the hydrostatic pressure in the galaxy mid-plane and the quantity on the x-axis ($\rm log(\Sigma_{star}^{0.5}\Sigma_{gas})$) of the extended Schmidt law. This result indicates that these HUDGs can be self-regulated systems that reach the dynamical and thermal equilibrium. In this framework, the stellar gravity compresses the disk vertically and counteracts the gas pressure in the galaxy mid-plane to regulate the star formation as suggested by some theoretical models.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

An Advanced Adaptive Control of Lower Limb Rehabilitation Robot

Rehabilitation robots play an important role in the rehabilitation field, and effective human-robot interaction contributes to promoting the development of the rehabilitation robots. Though many studies about the human-robot interaction have been carried out, there are still several limitations in the flexibility and stability of the control system. Therefore, we proposed an advanced adaptive control method for lower limb rehabilitation robot. The method was devised with a dual closed loop control strategy based on the surface electromyography (sEMG) and plantar pressure to improve the robustness of the adaptive control for the rehabilitation robots. First, in the outer loop control, an advanced variable impedance controller based on the sEMG and plantar pressure was designed to correct robot's reference trajectory. Then, in the inner loop control, a sliding mode iterative learning controller (SMILC) based on the variable boundary saturation function was designed to achieve the tracking of the reference trajectory. The experiment results showed that, in the designed dual closed loop control strategy, a variable impedance controller can effectively reduce trajectory tracking errors and adaptively modify the reference trajectory synchronizing with the motion intention of patients; the designed sliding mode iterative learning controller can effectively reduce chattering in sliding mode control and excellently achieve the tracking of rehabilitation robot's reference trajectory. This study can improve the performance of the human-robot interaction of the rehabilitation robot system, and expand the application to the rehabilitation field

Converting Redox Signaling to Apoptotic Activities by Stress-Responsive Regulators HSF1 and NRF2 in Fenretinide Treated Cancer Cells

BACKGROUND: Pharmacological intervention of redox balance in cancer cells often results in oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis, attracting much attention for the development of a new generation of targeted therapy in cancer. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying the conversion from oxidative signaling to downstream activities leading cells to death. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We here report a systematic detection of transcriptome changes in response to oxidative signals generated in leukemia cells upon fenretinide treatment, implicating the occurrence of numerous stress-responsive events during the fenretinide induced apoptosis, such as redox response, endoplasmic reticulum stress/unfolded protein response, translational repression and proteasome activation. Moreover, the configuration of these relevant events is primarily orchestrated by stress responsive transcription factors, as typically highlighted by NF-E2-related factor-2 (NRF2) and heat shock factor 1 (HSF1). Several lines of evidence suggest that the coordinated regulation of these transcription factors and thus their downstream genes are involved in converting oxidative signaling into downstream stress-responsive events regulating pro-apoptotic and apoptotic activities at the temporal and spatial levels, typifying oxidative stress-mediated programmed death rather than survival in cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides a roadmap for understanding oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis in cancer cells, which may be further developed into more sophisticated therapeutic protocols, as implicated by synergistic induction of cell apoptosis using proteasome inhibitors with fenretinide

Position and orientation measurement technology for bolter miner body based on dual-screen visual target

Aiming at the problem that it is difficult to achieve the real-time and accurate measurement of the bolter miner’s position and orientation during the excavation process in coal mines, which leads to the difficulty in achieving directional excavation, a guidance method for bolter miner based on dual-screen visual target is proposed. Using two vertically installed light-sensitive imaging screens to form the dual-screen visual target surfaces and the indication laser emitted by the laser instrument presents light spots on the front and rear target surfaces. Combining with the visual measurement, high-precision raster calibration and other technology are applied to establish the mapping relationship of the spot centroid between 2D-3D coordinates, which is used to form the point cloud data of the coordinates. Based on the principle of grid indexing, coordinate transformation and Euler angle solving, combining with the biaxial inclinometer at the bottom of target to obtain the bolter miner body’s real-time position and orientation, the key points’ horizontal/vertical deviations relative to the roadway axis are calculated, which can provide data support for deviation correction during the excavation process. The off-target problem of the system is analyzed by constructing a mathematical model. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the guidance method is verified by building an experimental platform. The experimental results indicate that this method can achieve a precision measurement of six-degrees-of-freedom spatial pose for the machine body. When the measurement distance is 9 m, the repeatability measurement precision of the yaw angle is better than 0.01º and the error of absolute measurement is less than 0.05º. Within the measurement range of 15−40 m, which uses the total station and mining laser to set the planning line, the measurement errors of key points’ horizontal/vertical deviations are less than 5 mm and 15 mm, respectively. The guiding system developed based on this method has also been successfully applied to the underground roadway excavation in coal mine, which fully meets the requirements of underground roadway excavation and the positioning of the machine body’s key points. The error characteristic of the guiding method is independent of the test distance. Also, all optical measurement functions involved in the method are realized inside the target, which can effectively shield the influence of the underground complex environment for the measurement function, and greatly improve the capacity of anti-dust interference in field application

Serum protein coating enhances the antisepsis efficacy of silver nanoparticles against multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli infections in mice

Antimicrobial resistance poses a significant threat to public health and social development worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in treating multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Eco-friendly spherical AgNPs were synthesized using rutin at room temperature. The biocompatibility of both polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and mouse serum (MS)-stabilized AgNPs was evaluated at 20 μg/mL and showed a similar distribution in mice. However, only MS-AgNPs significantly protected mice from sepsis caused by the multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli (E. coli) CQ10 strain (p = 0.039). The data revealed that MS-AgNPs facilitated the elimination of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in the blood and the spleen, and the mice experienced only a mild inflammatory response, as interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, chemokine KC, and C-reactive protein levels were significantly lower than those in the control group. The results suggest that the plasma protein corona strengthens the antibacterial effect of AgNPs in vivo and may be a potential strategy for combating antimicrobial resistance