Depth Profiling Photoelectron-Spectroscopic Study of an Organic Spin Valve with a Plasma-Modified Pentacene Spacer

[[abstract]]We report an enhanced magnetoresistance (MR) in an organic spin valve with an oxygen plasma-treated pentacene (PC) spacer. The spin valve containing PC without the treatment shows no MR effect, whereas those with moderately plasma-treated PC exhibit MR ratios up to 1.64% at room temperature. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with depth profiling is utilized to characterize the interfacial electronic properties of the plasma-treated PC spacer which shows the formation of a derivative oxide layer. The results suggest an alternative approach to improve the interface quality and in turn to enhance the MR performance in organic spin valves.[[incitationindex]]SCI[[booktype]]電子

An Indo-Pacifc coral spawning database

The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place. The CSD includes 6178 observations (3085 of which were unpublished) of the time or day of spawning for over 300 scleractinian species in 61 genera from 101 sites in the Indo-Pacific. The goal of the CSD is to provide open access to coral spawning data to accelerate our understanding of coral reproductive biology and to provide a baseline against which to evaluate any future changes in reproductive phenology

Cross-Layer Error Resilient Mechanism in Scalable Video Coding

Scalable video coding (SVC), which is the scalable extension of H.264/AVC, is designed to transmission over heterogeneous networks and provide scalabilities and high compression ratio. However, such kinds of compressed videos are sensitive to transmission error, resulting in quality degradation seriously. In this paper, a cross-layer error resilient method is proposed to prevent transmission error in SVC. In the proposed algorithm, the reversible data embedding technique is adopted to hide the essential information of lower layer such as IntraBL and the predicted motion vector (MV) for the reconstruction of higher layer. Experimental results show that the proposed method can provide better PSNR performance than frame copy by 6.76 dB on average.APSIPA ASC 2009: Asia-Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association, 2009 Annual Summit and Conference. 4-7 October 2009. Sapporo, Japan. Oral session: Vision-based Information Processing and Applications (6 October 2009)

Evaluation of the Power Output Performance Improvement of a 2 MW Wind Turbine

This paper shows the possibility of the output improvement to a large wind turbine, so the operator can earn more and thus reduce the overall cost of energy. For a modern wind turbine certificated by IEC or DNV-GL guidelines, a 20 years design lifetime is a base line. However, the efficiency of the turbine will degrade after 8 or 9 years’ operating. Some components, especially the turning blade, the efficiency may vary due to the surface condition change. Meanwhile, the controller technology may also have been improved after years. So, the turbine can regain its original output or even have a better output performance through some adjustments. In this paper, a 2 MW wind turbine with different design and operating parameters like blade efficiency, wind direction alignment, high/low wind control strategy has been evaluated, then with the software DNV-GL BLADED simulation, to calculate the output differences and availability of the turbine. The result shown that a 3~5% yield annually can be obtained for each improved parameter in a 9 m/s mean wind speed situation

<i>HSD3B1</i> Expression Is Upregulated by Interleukin 4 in HT-29 Colon Cancer Cells via Multiple Signaling Pathways

3β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/isomerase is essential for the synthesis of active steroid hormones. Interleukin 4 (IL4) induces the expression of HSD3B1 in various human cancer cell lines. Here, we demonstrated that administration of IL4 to an HT-29 colon cancer cell line induced high expression of HSD3B1 at the mRNA and protein levels. In the HT-29 cells, IL4 stimulated the activity of signal transducer and activator of transcription 6 (STAT6) and promoted its binding to the STAT6-binding site in the HSD3B1 promoter. The STAT6 inhibitor significantly suppressed HSD3B1 induction by IL4 in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, inhibition of the PI3-kinase/AKT pathway strongly suppressed the IL4-induced HSD3B1 expression. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), a downstream target of AKT, had a stimulatory effect on the IL4-induced HSD3B1 expression. However, IL4 stimulated the phosphorylation of AKT, which inhibited the GSK3 activity at the early stage. Hence, GSK3 potentiated the HSD3B1 levels at the late stage of the IL4 stimulation. Additionally, inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), ERK1/2 and p38, but not of JNK, partly reduced the HSD3B1 expression following the IL4 stimulation. We further demonstrated that IL4 potently promoted steroid synthesis. Our results indicate that IL4 induces HSD3B1 expression via multiple signaling pathways in HT-29 cells and may play a role in the regulation of steroid synthesis