Compact Dual-Band Planar Inverted-e-Shaped Antenna Using Defected Ground Structure

This paper presents a novel dual-band planar inverted-e-shaped antenna (PIEA) using defected ground structure (DGS) for Bluetooth and wireless local area network (WLAN) applications. The PIEA can reduce electromagnetic interferences (EMIs) and it is constructed on a compact printed circuit board (PCB) size of 10 × 5 × 4 mm3. Experimental results indicate that the antenna with a compact meandered slit can improve the operating impedance matching and bandwidths at 2.4 and 5.5 GHz. The measured power gains at 2.4 and 5.5 GHz band are 1.99 and 3.71 dBi; antenna efficiencies are about 49.33% and 55.23%, respectively. Finally, the good performances of the proposed antenna can highly promote for mobile device applications

Comparison of focal macular cone ERGs in complete-type congenital stationary night blindness and APB-treated monkeys

AbstractFocal macular cone electroretinograms (ERGs) and multifocal ERGs were recorded to study the macular function in patients with the complete-type of congenital stationary night blindness (cCSNB). The waveforms of the focal macular cone ERGs and the on- and off-responses of the multifocal ERGs in the cCSNB patients were similar to those recorded from monkey retinas treated with L-2 amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid (APB), suggesting that patients with cCSNB have a complete defect of the on-pathway even in the central retina. The results also demonstrated that there was a paradoxical positive response in the central retina of cCSNB patients, as compared to the negative full-field ERGs in the same subjects

No Weight Catch-Up Growth of SGA Infants Is Associated with Impaired Insulin Sensitivity during the Early Postnatal Period

Objective. To investigate the relationship between weight catch-up growth and insulin sensitivity in small for gestational age (SGA) infants. Methods. Forty-four singleton SGA subjects met the inclusion criteria and finished-3-month followup. Body weight, length, fasting glucose, and fasting insulin (FI) levels were measured at 3 days and 3 months. Insulin sensitivity was evaluated by FI and homeostasis model assessment (HOMA). Results. According to the change of weight Z-score, forty-four subjects were divided into two groups: noncatch-up growth (NCUG) and catch-up growth (CUG). By 3 months of age, the body weight, body length and BMI of NCUG group were significantly lower than those of CUG group. The FI and HOMA were significantly higher in NCUG group. The change of weight Z-score during 3 months was inversely related to the HOMA at 3 months. Conclusion. Our data exemplified that no weight catch-up growth during the first 3 months was associated with impaired insulin sensitivity in SGA infants

Oscillating universe with quintom matter

In this paper, we study the possibility of building a model of the oscillating universe with quintom matter in the framework of 4-dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. Taking the two-scalar-field quintom model as an example, we find in the model parameter space there are five different types of solutions which correspond to: (I) a cyclic universe with the minimal and maximal values of the scale factor remaining the same in every cycle, (II) an oscillating universe with its minimal and maximal values of the scale factor increasing cycle by cycle, (III) an oscillating universe with its minimal and maximal values of the scale factor decreasing cycle by cycle, (IV) an oscillating universe with its scale factor always increasing, and (V) an oscillating universe with its scale factor always decreasing.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, accepted by PL

Antibiotics induce polarization of pleural macrophages to M2-like phenotype in patients with tuberculous pleuritis

Pleural macrophages play critical roles in pathogenesis of tuberculous pleuritis, but very little is known about their response to anti-tuberculosis antibiotics treatment. Here, we examined whether and how pleural macrophages change in phenotype, transcription and function following antibiotics treatment in patients with tuberculous pleuritis. Results show pro-inflammatory cytokines were down-regulated significantly post antibiotic treatment in the pleural effusions and pleural macrophages up-regulated markers characteristic of M2 macrophages such as CD163 and CD206. Differential expression analysis of transcriptomes from four paired samples before and after treatment identified 230 treatment-specific responsive genes in pleural macrophages. Functional analysis identified interferon-related pathway to be the most responsive genes and further confirmed macrophage polarization to M2-like phenotype. We further demonstrate that expression of a significant fraction of responsive genes was modulated directly by antibiotics in pleural macrophages in vitro. Our results conclude that pleural macrophages polarize from M1-like to M2-like phenotype within a mean of 3.5 days post antibiotics treatment, which is dependent on both pleural cytokine environment and direct modulatory effects of antibiotics. The treatment-specific genes could be used to study the roles of pleural macrophages in the pathogenesis of tuberculous pleuritis and to monitor the response to antibiotics treatment

G-Curvaton

In this paper, we study a curvaton model where the curvaton is acted by Galileon field. We calculate the power spectrum of fluctuation of G-curvaton during inflation and discuss how it converts to the curvature perturbation after the end of inflation. We estimate the bispectrum of curvature perturbation induced, and show the dependence of non-Gaussianity on the parameters of model. It is found that our model can have sizable local and equilateral non-Gaussianities to up to ${\cal O}(10^2)$, which is illustrated by an explicit example.Comment: 13 pages, no figur

Satellite-Observed Major Greening and Biomass Increase in South China Karst During Recent Decade

International audienceAbove-ground vegetation biomass is one of the major carbon sinks and provides both provisioning (e.g., forestry products) and regulating ecosystem services (by sequestering carbon). Continuing deforestation and climate change threaten this natural resource but can effectively be countered by national conservation policies. Here we present time series (1999-2017) derived from complementary satellite systems to describe a phenomenon of global significance: the greening of South China Karst. We find a major increase in growing season vegetation cover from 69% in 1999 to 81% in 2017 occurring over similar to 1.4 million km(2). Over 1999-2012, we report one of the globally largest increases in biomass to occur in the South China Karst region (on average +4% over 0.9 million km(2)), which accounts for similar to 5% of the global areas characterized with increases in biomass. These increases in southern China's vegetation have occurred despite a decline in rainfall (-8%) and soil moisture (-5%) between 1999 and 2012 and are derived from effects of forestry and conservation activities at an unprecedented spatial scale in human history (similar to 20,000km(2)yr(-1) since 2002). These findings have major implications for the provisioning of ecosystem services not only for the Chinese karst ecosystem (e.g., carbon storage, water filtration, and timber production) but also for the study of global carbon cycles

Transposon Ac/Ds-induced chromosomal rearrangements at the rice OsRLG5 locus

Previous studies have shown that pairs of closely-linked Ac/Ds transposable elements can induce various chromosomal rearrangements in plant genomes. To study chromosomal rearrangements in rice, we isolated a line (OsRLG5-161) that contains two inversely-oriented Ds insertions in OsRLG5 (Oryza sativa Receptor like kinase Gene 5). Among approximately 300 plants regenerated from OsRLG5-161 heterozygous seeds, 107 contained rearrangements including deletions, duplications and inversions of various sizes. Most rearrangements were induced by previously identified alternative transposition mechanism. Furthermore, we also detected a new class of rearrangements that contain juxtaposed inversions and deletions on the same chromosome. We propose that these novel alleles were generated by a previously unreported type of alternative transposition reactions involving the 5′ and 3′ termini of two inversely-oriented Ds elements located on the same chromatid. Finally, 11% of rearrangements contained inversions resulting from homologous recombination between the two inverted Ds elements in OsRLG5-161. The high frequency inheritance and great variety of rearrangements obtained suggests that the rice regeneration system results in a burst of transposition activity and a relaxation of the controls which normally limit the transposition competence of individual Ds termini. Together, these results demonstrate a greatly enlarged potential of the Ac/Ds system for plant chromosome engineering