Interaction of wave with a body floating on a wide polynya

A method based on wide spacing approximation is proposed for the interaction of water wave with a body floating on a polynya. The ice sheet is modelled as an elastic plate and fluid flow is described by the velocity potential theory. The solution procedure is constructed based on the assumption that when the distance between two disturbances to the free surface is sufficiently large, the interactions between them involve only the travelling waves caused by the disturbances and the effect of the evanescent waves is ignored. The solution for the problem can then be obtained from those for a floating body without an ice sheet and for an ice sheet/free surface without a floating body. Both latter solutions have already been found previously and therefore there will be no additional effort in solution once the wide spacing approximation formulation is derived. Extensive numerical results are provided to show that the method is very accurate compared with the exact solution. The obtained formulations are then used to provide some insightful explanations for the physics of flow behaviour, as well as the mechanism for the highly oscillatory features of the hydrodynamic force and body motion. Some explicit equations are derived to show zero reflection by the polynya and peaks and troughs of the force and excited body motion. It is revealed that some of the peaks of the body motion are due to resonance while others are due to the wave characters in the polynya

Interaction of wave with a body submerged below an ice sheet with multiple arbitrarily spaced cracks

The problem of wave interaction with a body submerged below an ice sheet with multiple arbitrarily spaced cracks is considered, based on the linearized velocity potential theory together with the boundary element method. The ice sheet is modeled as a thin elastic plate with uniform properties, and zero bending moment and shear force conditions are enforced at the cracks. The Green function satisfying all the boundary conditions including those at cracks, apart from that on the body surface, is derived and is expressed in an explicit integral form. The boundary integral equation for the velocity potential is constructed with an unknown source distribution over the body surface only. The wave/crack interaction problem without the body is first solved directly without the need for source. The convergence and comparison studies are undertaken to show the accuracy and reliability of the solution procedure. Detailed numerical results through the hydrodynamic coefficients and wave exciting forces are provided for a body submerged below double cracks and an array of cracks. Some unique features are observed, and their mechanisms are analyzed

Control design for interconnected power systems with OLTCs via robust decentralized control

This paper addresses the problem of designing a decentralized control of interconnected power systems, with OLTC and SVCs, under large changes in real and reactive loads that cause large structural changes in the system model. In addition to this, small changes in load are regulated by small disturbance controllers whose gains are adjusted for variations in power system model due to large changes in loads. The only feedback needed by subsystem controllers is the state of the subsystem itself. The design is carried out within a large-scale Markov jump parameter systems framework. In this paper, unlike other control schemes, OLTC transformers are used to damp power-angle oscillations. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the performance of the designed controller. © 2006 IEEE

Dephasing due to Intermode Coupling in Superconducting Stripline Resonators

The nonlinearity exhibited by the kinetic inductance of a superconducting stripline couples stripline resonator modes together in a manner suitable for quantum non-demolition measurement of the number of photons in a given resonator mode. Quantum non-demolition measurement is accomplished by coherently driving another resonator mode, referred to as the detector mode, and measuring its response. We show that the sensitivity of such a detection scheme is directly related to the dephasing rate induced by such an intermode coupling. We show that high sensitivity is expected when the detector mode is driven into the nonlinear regime and operated close to a point where critical slowing down occurs

Salient Objects in Clutter: Bringing Salient Object Detection to the Foreground

We provide a comprehensive evaluation of salient object detection (SOD) models. Our analysis identifies a serious design bias of existing SOD datasets which assumes that each image contains at least one clearly outstanding salient object in low clutter. The design bias has led to a saturated high performance for state-of-the-art SOD models when evaluated on existing datasets. The models, however, still perform far from being satisfactory when applied to real-world daily scenes. Based on our analyses, we first identify 7 crucial aspects that a comprehensive and balanced dataset should fulfill. Then, we propose a new high quality dataset and update the previous saliency benchmark. Specifically, our SOC (Salient Objects in Clutter) dataset, includes images with salient and non-salient objects from daily object categories. Beyond object category annotations, each salient image is accompanied by attributes that reflect common challenges in real-world scenes. Finally, we report attribute-based performance assessment on our dataset.Comment: ECCV 201

EM23, a natural sesquiterpene lactone, targets thioredoxin reductase to activate JNK and cell death pathways in human cervical cancer cells

Sesquiterpene lactones (SLs) are the active constituents of a variety of medicinal plants and found to have potential anticancer activities. However, the intracellular molecular targets of SLs and the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been well elucidated. In this study, we observed that EM23, a natural SL, exhibited anti-cancer activity in human cervical cancer cell lines by inducing apoptosis as indicated by caspase 3 activation, XIAP downregulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Mechanistic studies indicated that EM23-induced apoptosis was mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the knockdown of thioredoxin (Trx) or thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) resulted in a reduction in apoptosis. EM23 attenuated TrxR activity by alkylation of C-terminal redox-active site Sec498 of TrxR and inhibited the expression levels of Trx/TrxR to facilitate ROS accumulation. Furthermore, inhibition of Trx/TrxR system resulted in the dissociation of ASK1 from Trx and the downstream activation of JNK. Pretreatment with ASK1/JNK inhibitors partially rescued cells from EM23-induced apoptosis. Additionally, EM23 inhibited Akt/mTOR pathway and induced autophagy, which was observed to be proapoptotic and mediated by ROS. Together, these results reveal a potential molecular mechanism for the apoptotic induction observed with SL compound EM23, and emphasize its putative role as a therapeutic agent for human cervical cancer.published_or_final_versio

Apparent non-canonical trans-splicing is generated by reverse transcriptase in vitro

Trans-splicing, the in vivo joining of two RNA molecules, is well characterized in several groups of simple organisms but was long thought absent from fungi, plants and mammals. However, recent bioinformatic analyses of expressed sequence tag (EST) databases suggested widespread trans-splicing in mammals^1-2^. Splicing, including the characterised trans-splicing systems, involves conserved sequences at the splice junctions. Our analysis of a yeast non-coding RNA revealed that around 30% of the products of reverse transcription lacked an internal region of 117 nt, suggesting that the RNA was spliced. The junction sequences lacked canonical splice-sites but were flanked by direct repeats, and further analyses indicated that the apparent splicing actually arose because reverse transcriptase can switch templates during transcription^3^. Many newly identified, apparently trans-spliced, RNAs lacked canonical splice sites but were flanked by short regions of homology, leading us to question their authenticity. Here we report that all reported categories of non-canonical splicing could be replicated using an in vitro reverse transcription system with highly purified RNA substrates. We observed the reproducible occurrence of ostensible trans-splicing, exon shuffling and sense-antisense fusions. The latter generate apparent antisense non-coding RNAs, which are also reported to be abundant in humans^4^. Different reverse transcriptases can generate different products of template switching, providing a simple diagnostic. Many reported examples of splicing in the absence of canonical splicing signals may be artefacts of cDNA preparation

Acupuncture Treatment of Lateral Elbow Pain: A Nonrandomized Pilot Study

© 2016 Yan-Song Liu et al. In planning for a large-scale multicenter trial to evaluate the effect of acupuncture for the treatment of lateral elbow pain, a pilot study was conducted. This was a prospective, investigator- and patient-blinded, nonrandomized, placebo controlled trial. Subjects were evaluated at baseline, before fourth, seventh, and ninth treatment, and at a two-week posttreatment follow-up. The treatment group received unilateral acupuncture at LI 10 and LI 11 at the affected side with manual needle manipulation; the control group received sham-laser acupuncture at the same acupoints. Measures included (i) disabilities of the arm, shoulder, and hand (DASH) questionnaire, (ii) pain-free grip strength (PFGS), and (iii) a visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain. Significant differences in DASH score, PFGS, and VAS between treatment and control group were found at the ninth treatment (n = 20 for each group, P < 0.05). Only DASH showed significant differences compared to the control for all the measurement time points after treatment commenced and appears to be a sensitive and appropriate primary outcome measure for the future multisite trial. Results from this pilot study provided relevant information about treatment efficacy, credibility of control treatment, and sensitivity of different outcome measures for the planning of the future trial

Simple Bronsted acid catalyzed C-H functionalization: efficient access to poly-substituted pyridines

An exceptionally simple and environmentally friendly methodology has been developed for directly functionalizing the benzylic C-H bond of the poly-substituted pyridines with aromatic imines. Simple Bronsted acid catalysts including salicylic acid and TsOH were successfully employed. Different types of poly-substituted pyridines could be efficiently obtained with moderate yields. Traditional ways to such types of pyridines involved the aromatization of the corresponding Hantzsch 1,4-dihydropyridines, while this method greatly simplified the synthetic procedures. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil in patients with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis

Background: The combination of cyclophosphamide and prednisolone is effective for the treatment of severe lupus nephritis but has serious adverse effects. Whether mycophenolate mofetil can be substituted for cyclophosphamide is not known. Methods: In 42 patients with diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis we compared the efficacy and side effects of a regimen of prednisolone and mycophenolate mofetil given for 12 months with those of a regimen of prednisolone and cyclophosphamide given for 6 months, followed by prednisolone and azathioprine for 6 months. Complete remission was defined as a value for urinary protein excretion that was less than 0.3 g per 24 hours, with normal urinary sediment, a normal serum albumin concentration, and values for serum creatinine and creatinine clearance that were no more than 15 percent above the base-line values. Partial remission was defined as a value for urinary protein excretion that was between 0.3 and 2.9 g per 24 hours, with a serum albumin concentration of at least 3.0 g per deciliter. Results: Eighty-one percent of the 21 patients treated with mycophenolate mofetil and prednisolone (group 1) had a complete remission, and 14 percent had a partial remission, as compared with 76 percent and 14 percent, respectively, of the 21 patients treated with cyclophosphamide and prednisolone followed by azathioprine and prednisolone (group 2). The improvements in the degree of protelnuria and the serum albumin and creatinine concentrations were similar in the two groups. One patient in each group discontinued treatment because of side effects. Infections were noted in 19 percent of the patients in group 1 and in 33 percent of those in group 2 (P=0.29). Other adverse effects occurred only in group 2; they included amenorrhea (in 23 percent of the patients), hair loss (19 percent), leukopenia (10 percent), and death (10 percent). The rates of relapse were 15 percent and 11 percent, respectively. Conclusions: For the treatment of diffuse proliferative lupus nephritis, the combination of mycophenolate mofetil and prednisolone is as effective as a regimen of cyclophosphamide and prednisolone followed by azathioprine and prednisolone. (C) 2000, Massachusetts Medical Society.published_or_final_versio