WSN based intelligent cold chain management

This paper presents a cold chain monitoring system which is implemented by using ubiquitous computing technologies, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) & Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). In this paper, we discuss how cold supply chain works and how we can monitor and control cold supply chain by using wireless tracking and sensing technologies. We propose a prototype design which will provide a well controlled and transparent cold chain system, which could help the users to manage their products’ environmental data in real time during the life cycle. Moreover, we highlight how the availability of product trace data in combination with historical condition-monitoring data can facilitate decision-making processes enhancing supply chain’s performance. Finally we discuss the integration works of these two technologies together in the cold supply chain management system. Hardware and software platform of WSN used in this system are also described in this paper

Source origins, modeled profiles, and apportionments of halogenated hydrocarbons in the greater Pearl River Delta region, southern China

We analyze 16-month data of 13 major halocarbons measured at a southern China coastal site in the greater Pearl River Delta (PRD). A total of 188 canister air samples were collected from August 2001 to December 2002. Overall inspection indicated that CH2Cl2, C2Cl 4, and C2HCl3 had similar temporal variations while CFC-11, CFC-12, and CFC-113 showed the same emission patterns during the sampling period. Diurnal variations of halocarbons presented different patterns during ozone episode days, mainly related to emission strength, atmospheric dispersion, and photochemical lifetimes. For further statistics and source appointment, Lagrangian backward particle release simulations were conducted to help understand the potential source regions of all samples and classify them into different categories, including local Hong Kong, inner PRD, continental China, and marine air masses. With the exception of HCFC-142b, the mixing ratios of all halocarbons in marine air were significantly lower than those in urban and regional air (p < 0.01), whereas no significant difference was found between urban Hong Kong and inner PRD regional air, reflecting the dominant impact of the greater PRD regional air on the halocarbon levels. The halocarbon levels in this region were significantly influenced by anthropogenic sources, causing the halocarbon mixing ratios in South China Sea air to be higher than the corresponding background levels, as measured by global surface networks and by airborne missions such as Transport and Chemical Evolution Over the Pacific. Interspecies correlation analysis suggests that CHCl3 is mainly used as a solvent in Hong Kong but mostly as a feedstock for HCFC-22 in the inner PRD. Furthermore, CH3Cl is often used as a refrigerant and emitted from biomass/biofuel burning in the inner PRD. A positive matrix factorization receptor model was applied to the classified halocarbon samples in the greater PRD for source profiles and apportionments. Seven major sources were identified and quantified. Emissions from solvent use were the most significant source of halocarbons (71 ± 9%), while refrigeration was the second largest contributor (18 ± 2%). By further looking at samples from the inner PRD and from urban Hong Kong separately, we found that more solvent was used in the dry cleaning industry in Hong Kong, whereas the contribution of cleaning solvent in the electronic industry was higher in the inner PRD. Besides the two common sources of solvent use and refrigeration, the contributions of biomass/biofuel burning and feedstock in chemical manufacturing was remarkable in the inner PRD but negligible in Hong Kong. These findings are of help to effectively control and phase out the emissions of halocarbons in the greater PRD region of southern China Copyright 2009 by the American Geophysical Union

Time-varying correlation coefficients estimation and its application to dynamic connectivity analysis of fMRI

Exploration of the dynamics of functional brain connectivity based on the correlation coefficients of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is important for understanding the brain mechanisms. Because fMRI data are time-varying in nature, the functional connectivity shows substantial fluctuations and dynamic characteristics. However, an effective method for estimating time-varying functional connectivity is lacking, which is mainly due to the difficulty in choosing an appropriate window to localize the time-varying correlation coefficients (TVCC). This paper introduces a novel method for adaptively estimating the TVCC of non-stationary signals and studies its application to infer dynamic functional connectivity of fMRI data in a visual task. The proposed method employs a sliding window having a certain bandwidth to estimate the TVCC locally and the window bandwidths are selected adaptively by a local plug-in rule to minimize the mean squared error. The results show that the functional connectivity changes in the visual task are transient, which suggests that simply assuming sustained connectivity changes during task period might not be sufficient to capture dynamic connectivity changes induced by tasks.published_or_final_versio

Distribution of organochlorine pesticides in a sediment profile of the Pearl River estuary

Author name used in this publication: X. D. LiAuthor name used in this publication: B. X. MaiAuthor name used in this publication: G. ZhangAuthor name used in this publication: G. Y. ShengAuthor name used in this publication: J. M. FuAuthor name used in this publication: O. W. H. WaiAuthor name used in this publication: Y. S. Li2001-2002 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Artificial interspecific hybridization between Macrobrachium species

Viable F-1 hybrids were obtained from crosses of female Macrobrachium nipponense and male Macrobrachium hainanense involving spermatophore transfer and artificial insemination. This represents the first successful known case of hybridization of two Macrobrachium species by means of artificial insemination. The hatching rate was over 90%. About 20-60% of newly hatched larvae metamorphosed to postlarvae. The morphological characteristics of the hybrids resembled a combination of features of both parents. Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and esterase (EST) isozyme electrophoresis indicated parents and F-1 hybrids showed co-dominant expression of the paternal and maternal alleles controlling the isozymes and confirmed the hybridization. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Viable F-1 hybrids were obtained from crosses of female Macrobrachium nipponense and male Macrobrachium hainanense involving spermatophore transfer and artificial insemination. This represents the first successful known case of hybridization of two Macrobrachium species by means of artificial insemination. The hatching rate was over 90%. About 20-60% of newly hatched larvae metamorphosed to postlarvae. The morphological characteristics of the hybrids resembled a combination of features of both parents. Malate dehydrogenase (MDH) and esterase (EST) isozyme electrophoresis indicated parents and F-1 hybrids showed co-dominant expression of the paternal and maternal alleles controlling the isozymes and confirmed the hybridization. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Band structure engineering in (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 ternary topological insulators

Three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TI) are novel quantum materials with insulating bulk and topologically protected metallic surfaces with Dirac-like band structure. The spin-helical Dirac surface states are expected to host exotic topological quantum effects and find applications in spintronics and quantum computation. The experimental realization of these ideas requires fabrication of versatile devices based on bulk-insulating TIs with tunable surface states. The main challenge facing the current TI materials exemplified by Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 is the significant bulk conduction, which remains unsolved despite extensive efforts involving nanostructuring, chemical doping and electrical gating. Here we report a novel approach for engineering the band structure of TIs by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 ternary compounds. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and transport measurements show that the topological surface states exist over the entire composition range of (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 (x = 0 to 1), indicating the robustness of bulk Z2 topology. Most remarkably, the systematic band engineering leads to ideal TIs with truly insulating bulk and tunable surface state across the Dirac point that behave like one quarter of graphene. This work demonstrates a new route to achieving intrinsic quantum transport of the topological surface states and designing conceptually new TI devices with well-established semiconductor technology.Comment: Minor changes in title, text and figures. Supplementary information adde

Structural phase transition in IrTe2_2: A combined study of optical spectroscopy and band structure calculations

Ir$_{1-x}$Pt$_x$Te$_2$ is an interesting system showing competing phenomenon between structural instability and superconductivity. Due to the large atomic numbers of Ir and Te, the spin-orbital coupling is expected to be strong in the system which may lead to nonconventional superconductivity. We grew single crystal samples of this system and investigated their electronic properties. In particular, we performed optical spectroscopic measurements, in combination with density function calculations, on the undoped compound IrTe$_2$ in an effort to elucidate the origin of the structural phase transition at 280 K. The measurement revealed a dramatic reconstruction of band structure and a significant reduction of conducting carriers below the phase transition. We elaborate that the transition is not driven by the density wave type instability but caused by the crystal field effect which further splits/separates the energy levels of Te (p$_x$, p$_y$) and Te p$_z$ bands.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

A topological insulator surface under strong Coulomb, magnetic and disorder perturbations

Three dimensional topological insulators embody a newly discovered state of matter characterized by conducting spin-momentum locked surface states that span the bulk band gap as demonstrated via spin-resolved ARPES measurements . This highly unusual surface environment provides a rich ground for the discovery of novel physical phenomena. Here we present the first controlled study of the topological insulator surfaces under strong Coulomb, magnetic and disorder perturbations. We have used interaction of iron, with a large Coulomb state and significant magnetic moment as a probe to \textit{systematically test the robustness} of the topological surface states of the model topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$. We observe that strong perturbation leads to the creation of odd multiples of Dirac fermions and that magnetic interactions break time reversal symmetry in the presence of band hybridization. We also present a theoretical model to account for the altered surface of Bi$_2$Se$_3$. Taken collectively, these results are a critical guide in manipulating topological surfaces for probing fundamental physics or developing device applications.Comment: 14 pages, 4 Figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1009.621

Tunable Multifunctional Topological Insulators in Ternary Heusler Compounds

Recently the Quantum Spin Hall effect (QSH) was theoretically predicted and experimentally realized in a quantum wells based on binary semiconductor HgTe[1-3]. QSH state and topological insulators are the new states of quantum matter interesting both for fundamental condensed matter physics and material science[1-11]. Many of Heusler compounds with C1b structure are ternary semiconductors which are structurally and electronically related to the binary semiconductors. The diversity of Heusler materials opens wide possibilities for tuning the band gap and setting the desired band inversion by choosing compounds with appropriate hybridization strength (by lattice parameter) and the magnitude of spin-orbit coupling (by the atomic charge). Based on the first-principle calculations we demonstrate that around fifty Heusler compounds show the band inversion similar to HgTe. The topological state in these zero-gap semiconductors can be created by applying strain or by designing an appropriate quantum well structure, similar to the case of HgTe. Many of these ternary zero-gap semiconductors (LnAuPb, LnPdBi, LnPtSb and LnPtBi) contain the rare earth element Ln which can realize additional properties ranging from superconductivity (e. g. LaPtBi[12]) to magnetism (e. g. GdPtBi[13]) and heavy-fermion behavior (e. g. YbPtBi[14]). These properties can open new research directions in realizing the quantized anomalous Hall effect and topological superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Fatty tissue within the maxillary sinus: a rare finding.

BACKGROUND: We report a rare case of fatty tissue within the maxillary sinus in a 21-years-old woman, with a history of several previous punctures of the maxillary sinus. CASE PRESENTATION: Clinical data of the patient was analysed retrospectively. The patient presented with symptoms of left-sided chronic maxillary sinusitis and had undergone several punctures of the left maxillary sinus 18 months earlier. Subsequent to one of the procedures an acute pain in the left orbit lasting a couple of days was noted. Left endoscopic transnasal antrotomy was performed. The maxillary sinus was filled with polypous, chronically inflamed mucous membrane. Upon its removal, the maxillary roof was identified as drawn downwards and covered with normal mucous membrane. Upon dissection of the membrane, adipose tissue filling the zygomatic recess of the sinus was identified and subsequently removed. The maxillary roof was unchanged. Histopatologic examination confirmed the material to be adipose tissue. No short or long term sequelae occurred. CONCLUSION: Adipose tissue can be found in the maxillary sinus most commonly when penetrating from surrounding locations. It is our hypothesis that in the reported patient it penetrated from the orbit to the maxillary sinus following puncture. It seems that a hole in the maxillary sinus roof, about 1 mm in diameter, caused by the needle, may have been a portal of entry for the adipose tissue into the maxillary sinus. The discussed case suggests particular care be taken in performing puncture of the maxillary sinus