Guest editorial special issue on pulsed power science and technology

This special issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE (TPS) mainly contains works presented at the 21st IEEE International Pulsed Power Conference (PPC) held in Brighton, U.K., between June 18–22, 2017 ( http://ece-events.unm.edu/ppc2017/ ). This conference marks an important step, as it was located outside of the USA for the first time. The PPC is well known for serving the Pulsed Power and Plasma Science communities as the principal forum for the professionals worldwide, where the most important technical presentations and discussions are taking place; the Brighton conference was no exception. The 21st PPC was extremely successful, with 470 quality papers submitted as equal contributions from the Americas, Europe, and Asia

Visualization 1.mp4

The video demonstrates the feedback length dependence of the inter-mode beatnote signal of a terahertz quantum cascade laser frequency comb under optical feedback

Effect of Oxygen Vacancies on the Reduction of Eu³⁺ in Mg₃Ca₃(PO₄)₄ in Air Atmosphere

The paper reported the synthesis of mixed-valence Eu-doped Mg₃Ca₃(PO₄)₄ by solid-state reaction in the air atmosphere. The luminescence measurements indicated that the obtained phosphors exhibit a broad bluish-green fluorescence of Eu²⁺ and a sharp orange-red emission of Eu³⁺ excited by 395 nm. The abnormal reduction mechanism could be explained by a charge compensation model. A tunable luminescence was realized based on the reduction of Eu³⁺ to Eu²⁺ changed along with increasing the sintering time. The reduction of Eu³⁺ to Eu²⁺ in Mg₃Ca₃(PO₄)₄ host was effected by the oxygen vacancy defects when the samples sintered in different atmosphere and sintered for different lengths of time, and the oxygen vacancies which act as the electron traps were investigated with thermoluminescence. All of the results almost indicated the oxygen vacancy could weaken the reduction of Eu³⁺ to Eu²⁺. Our investigation of Mg₃Ca₃(PO₄)₄:Eu could provide a practical basis and theoretical basis to study the effect of oxygen vacancy on the emission of Eu ions

A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data-4

Ottom rows). In the top row, the differential expression of genes "Rho"and "Arr3" between wild type and treatment (Nrl knockout) does not change over sibling probe sets (raw -values for interaction effect are 0.68, 0.89 respectively). In the middle and bottom rows, the differential expression between wild type and treatment for sibling probe sets have either different magnitude or reversed trend. The former is translated into a need for consolidation but not the later.<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/188</p><p>BMC Genomics 2008;9():188-188.</p><p>Published online 24 Apr 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2397416.</p><p></p

Image_1_Impact of wine-grape continuous cropping on soil enzyme activity and the composition and function of the soil microbial community in arid areas.pdf

IntroductionContinuous cropping affected the stability of soil enzyme activity and the structural characteristics of microbial community. Owing to challenges in the study of complex rhizosphere microbial communities, the composition and function of these microbial communities in farmland ecosystems remain elusive. Here, we studied the microbial communities of the rhizosphere of wine grapes with different years of continuous cropping and investigated their relationships with soil enzyme activity.MethodsMetagenomic sequencing was conducted on the rhizosphere soils from one uncultivated wasteland and four vineyards with varying durations of continuous cropping.ResultsThe predominant microbial were bacteria (98.39%), followed by archaea (1.15%) and eukaryotes (0.45%). Continuous cropping caused a significant increase in the relative abundance of Rhizobiales and Micrococcales but a marked decrease in Solirubrobacterales. At the genus level, 75, 88, 65, 132, and 128 microbial genera were unique to uncultivated wasteland, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years of continuous cropping, respectively. The relative abundance of genes with signal transduction function was the highest. The activity of all enzymes measured in this study peaked at 5 years of continuous cropping, and then decreased with 10 to 15 year of continuous cropping, but increased at 20 years again. In addition, soil enzyme activity, especially of alkaline phosphatase was significantly correlated with the diversity of the dominant microorganisms at the genus level. Moreover, the coupled enzyme activities had a greater impact on the diversity of the microbial community than that of individual enzymes.ConclusionOur findings reveal the composition and function of the soil microbial communities and enzymes activity in response to changes in cropping years, which has important implications for overcoming continuous cropping obstacles and optimizing land use.</p

A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data-5

Areas. The numbers of differentially expressed genes identified by the per-gene approach and the per-probeset approach are: a. Data Set1, 313 vs. 6, overlap: 83.3% b. Data Set2, 402 vs. 32, overlap: 96.9% c. Data Set3, MBEI pre-processing, 1828 vs. 126, overlap: 90.5% d. Data Set3, RMA pre-processing, 1592 vs. 90, overlap: 88.9% e. Data Set3, GCRMA pre-processing, 832 vs. 107, overlap: 87.9%.<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/188</p><p>BMC Genomics 2008;9():188-188.</p><p>Published online 24 Apr 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2397416.</p><p></p

A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data-1

Ottom rows). In the top row, the differential expression of genes "Rho"and "Arr3" between wild type and treatment (Nrl knockout) does not change over sibling probe sets (raw -values for interaction effect are 0.68, 0.89 respectively). In the middle and bottom rows, the differential expression between wild type and treatment for sibling probe sets have either different magnitude or reversed trend. The former is translated into a need for consolidation but not the later.<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/188</p><p>BMC Genomics 2008;9():188-188.</p><p>Published online 24 Apr 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2397416.</p><p></p

Against Overcharring Design of Flame-Retardant Electromagnetic Absorbing Composites with Graphene Nanosheets and Manganese Oxides in Modified Epoxy Resin

Flame-retardant composites for fireproof application of electromagnetic (EM) absorption are produced from the dispersion and formation of graphene nanosheets (GNS) and exfoliated manganese oxides (EMOs) in diphenyl amidophosphate (DAP)-modified epoxy resin. The DAP-modified composite can be a friendly type of high-performance EM absorbing material in practical application, because of its halogen-free merits and high reflection loss in EM absorbance. An overcharring phenomenon is discovered in the retardants with multicomponents embedded in a resin matrix. The flame retardancy of the DAP composite is exhibited from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Kinetics analysis presents the difference of composites before and after modification in thermal decomposition. Improvement of multicomponents wrapped system can result from dissociation of P–O bonds during the course of burning. A cone calorimeter is utilized to evaluate the combustion performance to learn about the retardancy of composites. Guarding against overcharring between components, synergistic effect of flame retardancy can be achieved in improving the performance of resin-based absorbers

Table_1_Impact of wine-grape continuous cropping on soil enzyme activity and the composition and function of the soil microbial community in arid areas.XLSX

IntroductionContinuous cropping affected the stability of soil enzyme activity and the structural characteristics of microbial community. Owing to challenges in the study of complex rhizosphere microbial communities, the composition and function of these microbial communities in farmland ecosystems remain elusive. Here, we studied the microbial communities of the rhizosphere of wine grapes with different years of continuous cropping and investigated their relationships with soil enzyme activity.MethodsMetagenomic sequencing was conducted on the rhizosphere soils from one uncultivated wasteland and four vineyards with varying durations of continuous cropping.ResultsThe predominant microbial were bacteria (98.39%), followed by archaea (1.15%) and eukaryotes (0.45%). Continuous cropping caused a significant increase in the relative abundance of Rhizobiales and Micrococcales but a marked decrease in Solirubrobacterales. At the genus level, 75, 88, 65, 132, and 128 microbial genera were unique to uncultivated wasteland, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years of continuous cropping, respectively. The relative abundance of genes with signal transduction function was the highest. The activity of all enzymes measured in this study peaked at 5 years of continuous cropping, and then decreased with 10 to 15 year of continuous cropping, but increased at 20 years again. In addition, soil enzyme activity, especially of alkaline phosphatase was significantly correlated with the diversity of the dominant microorganisms at the genus level. Moreover, the coupled enzyme activities had a greater impact on the diversity of the microbial community than that of individual enzymes.ConclusionOur findings reveal the composition and function of the soil microbial communities and enzymes activity in response to changes in cropping years, which has important implications for overcoming continuous cropping obstacles and optimizing land use.</p

A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data-0

probe sets based on statistical tests. We are interested in studying the differentially expressed genes across treatments. The analysis starts from properly normalized and summarized expression scores for each probe set. For genes that are represented by multiple probe sets (sibling probe sets), insignificant interaction effect (trt*ps) between treatment (trt) and probesets (ps) suggests consolidating sibling probe sets and P-values of the treatment effect are obtained from the two-way ANOVA model. For the gene corresponding to a single probe set and those probe sets that are not eligible for consolidating, i.e. significant interaction effect (trt*ps), -values of the treatment effect are reported from the one-way ANOVA model. Then -values are combined as a final result for screening differentially expressed genes across treatments.<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "A statistical framework for consolidating "sibling" probe sets for Affymetrix GeneChip data"</p><p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/188</p><p>BMC Genomics 2008;9():188-188.</p><p>Published online 24 Apr 2008</p><p>PMCID:PMC2397416.</p><p></p