Experimental Investigation of Longitudinal Space-Time Correlations of the Velocity Field in Turbulent Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard Convection

We report an experimental investigation of the longitudinal space-time cross-correlation function of the velocity field, $C(r,\tau)$, in a cylindrical turbulent Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard convection cell using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. We show that while the Taylor's frozen-flow hypothesis does not hold in turbulent thermal convection, the recent elliptic model advanced for turbulent shear flows [He & Zhang, \emph{Phys. Rev. E} \textbf{73}, 055303(R) (2006)] is valid for the present velocity field for all over the cell, i.e., the isocorrelation contours of the measured $C(r,\tau)$ have a shape of elliptical curves and hence $C(r,\tau)$ can be related to $C(r_E,0)$ via $r_E^2=(r-\beta\tau)^2+\gamma^2\tau^2$ with $\beta$ and $\gamma$ being two characteristic velocities. We further show that the fitted $\beta$ is proportional to the mean velocity of the flow, but the values of $\gamma$ are larger than the theoretical predictions. Specifically, we focus on two representative regions in the cell: the region near the cell sidewall and the cell's central region. It is found that $\beta$ and $\gamma$ are approximately the same near the sidewall, while $\beta\simeq0$ at cell center.Comment: 16 pages, 15 figures, submitted to J. Fluid Mec

Relationship among Self-appraisals, Others’ Actual Appraisals, and Reflected Appraisals on Primary School Teachers Teaching Ability

Convenient sampling and questionnaire survey was used to investigate the relationship among self-appraisals, others’ actual appraisals, and reflected appraisals on the teaching ability of 40 primary school teachers. The results of the study indicated that primary school teachers’ selfappraisals on teaching ability was obviously below others’ actual appraisals; generalized others had more influence on the self-appraisals of primary school teachers than specific others; primary school teachers’ reflected appraisals could influence their self-appraisals; and others’ actual appraisals could not directly influence self-appraisals. Consequently, we should pay more attention in developing the primary school teachers’ reflective ability, change the current way of teaching reflection, improve the influence of others’ actual appraisals on self-appraisals, and enhance the validity of teaching reflection

{μ-6,6′-Dimeth­oxy-2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilo­methyl­idyne)]diphenolato}-μ-nitrato-dinitratoeuropium(III)zinc(II)

In the title heteronuclear ZnII–EuIII complex [systematic name: {6,6′-dimeth­oxy-2,2′-[ethane-1,2-diylbis(nitrilo­methyl­idyne)]diphenolato-κ4 O 1,O 1′,O 6,O 6′:2κ4 O 1,N,N′,O 1′}-μ-nitrato-1:2κ2 O:O′-dini­trato-1κ4 O,O′-europium(III)zinc(II)], [EuZn(C18H18N2O4)(NO3)3], with the hexa­dentate Schiff base compartmental ligand N,N′-bis­(3-methoxy­salicyl­idene)ethyl­enediamine (H2 L), the Eu and Zn atoms are triply bridged by two phenolate O atoms of the Schiff base ligand and one nitrate ion. The five-coordinate Zn atom is in a square-pyramidal geometry with the donor centers of two imine N atoms, two phenolate O atoms and one of the bridging nitrate O atoms. The EuIII center has a ninefold coordination environment of O atoms, involving the phenol­ate O atoms, two meth­oxy O atoms, two O atoms from two nitrate ions and one from the bridging nitrate ion. Weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O inter­actions generate a two-dimensional double-layer structure

Molecular cloning, expression profiling, and yeast complementation of 19 β-tubulin cDNAs from developing cotton ovules

Microtubules are a major structural component of the cytoskeleton and participate in cell division, intracellular transport, and cell morphogenesis. In the present study, 795 cotton tubulin expressed sequence tags were analysed and 19 β-tubulin genes (TUB) cloned from a cotton cDNA library. Among the group, 12 cotton TUBs (GhTUBs) are reported for the first time here. Transcription profiling revealed that nine GhTUBs were highly expressed in elongating fibre cells as compared with fuzzless-lintless mutant ovules. Treating cultured wild-type cotton ovules with exogenous phytohormones showed that individual genes can be induced by different agents. Gibberellin induced expression of GhTUB1 and GhTUB3, ethylene induced expression of GhTUB5, GhTUB9, and GhTUB12, brassinosteroids induced expression of GhTUB1, GhTUB3, GhTUB9, and GhTUB12, and lignoceric acid induced expression of GhTUB1, GhTUB3, and GhTUB12. When GhTUBs were transformed into the Saccharomyces cerevisiae inviable mutant, tub2, which is deficient in β-tubulin, one ovule-specific and eight of nine fibre-preferential GhTUBs rescued this lethality. This study suggests that the proteins encoded by cotton GhTUBs are involved during cotton fibre development

Relationships among Life quality, Social Support and Organizational Justice of White-collar Worker

Objective: To explore the relationship of white-collar workers’ life quality, social support and organizational justice. Methods: We used convenient sampling and questionnaire survey in the study. Totally 476 white-collar workers were from Chongqing Yongchuan by convenient sampling, they completed the whoqol-bref scale, perceived social support scale and organizational justice scale. Results: (1) The average score of white-collar workers’ life quality was (87.92±10.87), almost 90% white-collar workers’ felling of life quality and health was in the general level and above; marriage status、children status and monthly income could influence their life quality. (2)There is a significant correlation among white-collar workers’ life quality, social support and organizational justice. (3) Organizational justice has partial mediating effects on the relation of social support and life quality. Conclusion: White-collar workers’ life quality is in medium level, we should improve their life quality through increasing social support and organizational justice

Sesquiterpenes and Dimeric Sesquiterpenoids from Sarcandra glabra

Two new sesquiterpenes, sarcandralactones A (1) and B (2), and five new dimeric sesquiterpenoids, sarcandrolides A-E (3-7), along with 10 known compounds were isolated from the whole plants of Sarcandra glabra. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic analysis. Some of the new isolates exhibit significant cytotoxicities when tested against a small panel of tumor cell lines

Identifying and analyzing novel epilepsy-related genes using random walk with restart algorithm.

As a pathological condition, epilepsy is caused by abnormal neuronal discharge in brain which will temporarily disrupt the cerebral functions. Epilepsy is a chronic disease which occurs in all ages and would seriously affect patients' personal lives. Thus, it is highly required to develop effective medicines or instruments to treat the disease. Identifying epilepsy-related genes is essential in order to understand and treat the disease because the corresponding proteins encoded by the epilepsy-related genes are candidates of the potential drug targets. In this study, a pioneering computational workflow was proposed to predict novel epilepsy-related genes using the random walk with restart (RWR) algorithm. As reported in the literature RWR algorithm often produces a number of false positive genes, and in this study a permutation test and functional association tests were implemented to filter the genes identified by RWR algorithm, which greatly reduce the number of suspected genes and result in only thirty-three novel epilepsy genes. Finally, these novel genes were analyzed based upon some recently published literatures. Our findings implicate that all novel genes were closely related to epilepsy. It is believed that the proposed workflow can also be applied to identify genes related to other diseases and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms of these diseases

Alloimperatorin and its epoxide derivative exhibit in vitro antitumor activity in HL-60 acute myeloid leukemia cancer cells via inducing apoptosis, cell cycle disruption and inhibition of cell migration

The aim of the present study was to synthesize epoxide derivative of alloimperatorin and evaluating its antitumor and apoptotic effects in acute myeloid leukemia HL-60 cells. The cytotoxic effects were demonstrated by MTT assay. Fluorescence microscopy along with flow cytometry were performed to evaluate the effect of alloimperatorin epoxide on apoptosis and cell cycle. In vitro wound healing assay was performed to study compounds effect on cancer cell migration. The results indicated that alloimperatorin epoxide (IC50 = 32.1 µM) was much more effective in inhibiting HL-60 cancer cell growth as compared to alloimperatorin (IC50 = 128 µM). Further, alloimperatorin epoxide induced apoptosis related morphological alterations in HL-60 cells including blebbing of plasma membrane, DNA fragmentation and formation of apoptotic bodies. Alloimperatorin epoxide also led to G2/M phase cell cycle arrest and suppressed HL-60 cancer cell migration indicating that this compound may be a promising candidate for the treatment of cancer metastasis

A Novel Discrete Global-Best Harmony Search Algorithm for Solving 0-1 Knapsack Problems

In order to better solve discrete 0-1 knapsack problems, a novel global-best harmony search algorithm with binary coding, called DGHS, is proposed. First, an initialization based on a greedy mechanism is employed to improve the initial solution quality in DGHS. Next, we present a novel improvisation process based on intuitive cognition of improvising a new harmony, in which the best harmony of harmony memory (HM) is used to guide the searching direction of evolution during the process of memory consideration, or else a harmony is randomly chosen from HM and then a discrete genetic mutation is done with some probability during the phase of pitch adjustment. Third, a two-phase repair operator is employed to repair an infeasible harmony vector and to further improve a feasible solution. Last, a new selection scheme is applied to decide whether or not a new randomly generated harmony is included into the HM. The proposed DGHS is evaluated on twenty knapsack problems with different scales and compared with other three metaheuristics from the literature. The experimental results indicate that DGHS is efficient, effective, and robust for solving difficult 0-1 knapsack problems