Thermal and mechanical phenomena in nanoscale constrained domains

In the manufacturing area, the laser has attracted increasing attention in recent year as an important tool in the practice of micro/nano scale manufacturing, such as surface microfabrication and processing, pulsed laser deposition of films and coatings, laser machining of metals and non-metallic materials, and laser surface cleaning. During the laser assisted nanostructuring process, intensive heating will cause the material to experience fast phase change that the non-equilibrium state will lead to shock wave near the heating spot. In nanostructures, thermal movements of molecules/atoms show strong statistical variations in space since the equilibrium state cannot be established. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, which directly tracks the movements of molecules/atoms, is capable of exploring physical phenomena down to molecular/atomic levels and predicting processes under different conditions. The previous work done in our group have investigated the evolution of density, temperature, pressure, and shock wave front Mach number. Chapter 2 is an introduction to the basics of MD simulation. In chapter 3, the evolution of the interaction zone and energy exchange between the plume and the ambient gas are studied with respect to different gas/solid molecular mass ratios and different ambient gas densities. The evolutions of shock wave front position as well as velocity and Mach number in different ambient gases are also studied. Lasers also have wide spread popularity in characterization physical properties of materials. When illuminating the surface of materials, the laser light can be absorbed by the material and cause the temperature and thermal radiation variation at the surface. These phenomena have been intensively studied in the past. A photothermal (PT) technique has been developed in our group for characterizing thermal physical properties of different materials. For the thermal properties characterization of amorphous titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotube arrays, this technique provides the experimental data of the as-prepared sample density and the thermal conductivity along the tube length direction. The thermal conductivity in the cross-tube direction is measured by the transient electrothermal (TET) technique. Combining the two techniques, the contact resistance between the TiO2 nanotubes is also investigated. Chapter 4 is for the experimental setup for the studying of nanoscale thermal transport. Chapter 5 analyzes the experimental data in detail and compares with work done by other researchers. The emphasis of future work is outlined and described in Chapter 6

Expansion of Virtual Collection of University libraries based on CALIS Cloud Platform

The objective conditions and the obstacles of collection resources construction in present college libraries are analyzed in this paper. The overview of CALIS and its third-phase project is introduced. The approach of virtual library collection construction of university libraries by using CALIS cloud platform is explored

The Supplying Chain Scheduling with the Cost Constraint and Subcontracting

We propose an analytical scheduling model with subcontracting. Each job can be processed either on a single machine at a manufacturer or outsourced to a subcontractor, possibly at a higher cost. For a given set of jobs, the decisions the manufacturer needs to make include the selection of a subset of jobs to be outsourced and the schedule of all the jobs. The objective functions are to minimize the commonly used scheduling measures, subject to a constraint on the total production and subcontracting cost. We show the NP-hardiness for the problems with different objective functions and develop dynamic programming algorithms for solving them

Developmental Acquisition of Regulomes Underlies Innate Lymphoid Cell Functionality

Innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) play key roles in host defense, barrier integrity, and homeostasis and mirror adaptive CD4(+) T helper (Th) cell subtypes in both usage of effector molecules and transcription factors. To better understand the relationship between ILC subsets and their Th cell counterparts, we measured genome-wide chromatin accessibility. We find that chromatin in proximity to effector genes is selectively accessible in ILCs prior to high-level transcription upon activation. Accessibility of these regions is acquired in a stepwise manner during development and changes little after in vitro or in vivo activation. Conversely, dramatic chromatin remodeling occurs in naive CD4(+) T cells during Th cell differentiation using a type-2-infection model. This alteration results in a substantial convergence of Th2 cells toward ILC2 regulomes. Our data indicate extensive sharing of regulatory circuitry across the innate and adaptive compartments of the immune system, in spite of their divergent developing pathways

Significance of ERβ expression in different molecular subtypes of breast cancer

PURPOSE: This study is to investigate the estrogen receptor β (ERβ) expression in molecular subtypes of breast cancer and clinic significance of ERβ expression. METHOD: The ERβ expression was detected in 730 cases of breast cancer tissue specimens by immunohistochemistry. Twenty-one patients were censored during 2–10 years follow-up. The difference in ERβ expression was analyzed by Pearson Chi-square Test. Its correlation with estrogen receptor α (ERα), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her-2) was analyzed by Spearman rank correlation. The accumulative tumor-free survival rate was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method and difference in survival rate was analyzed by Log-rank test. Cox regression was used for multi-factor analysis. RESULT: The ERβ expression was significantly different among the molecular subtypes of breast cancer (P < 0.05). The ERβ expression in breast cancer was positively correlated with Her-2 (P < 0.05) while it had no correlation with ERα and Her-2. The expression of ERα was negatively correlated with Her-2 (P < 0.01) whereas positively correlated with PR (P < 0.01). The expression of PR was negatively correlated with Her-2 (P < 0.05). The tumor-free survival rate in patients with positive ERβ expression was significantly lower than that in patients with negative ERβ expression. CONCLUSION: Positive ERβ expression is a poor prognostic factor of breast cancer. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slides for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/108455758610683