Inverse Ising effect and Ising magnetoresistance

Ising (Zeeman-type) spin-orbit coupling (SOC) generated by in-plane inverse asymmetry has attracted considerable attention, especially in Ising superconductors and spin-valley coupling physics. However, many unconventional observations and emerging physical phenomena remain to be elucidated. Here, we theoretically study the spin texture of {\sigma}_z (spin angular momentum projection along z) induced by Ising SOC in 1Td WTe2, and propose an unconventional spin-to-charge conversion named inverse Ising effect, in which the directions of the spin current, spin polarization and charge current are not orthogonal. In particular, we predict the Ising magnetoresistance, whose resistance depends on the out-of-plane magnetic momentum in WTe2/ferromagnetic heterostructure. The Ising magnetoresistance is believed to be an interesting counterpart to the well studied spin Hall magnetoresistance. Our predictions provide promising way to spin-momentum locking and spin-charge conversion based on emerging Ising SOC

Conformal Radiotherapy for Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Gallbladder: A Case Report

Background. Squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder is a rare disease with symptoms developing late in its course, so that it often presents as an aggressive tumor with a poor prognosis. Case report. We describe a 58-year-old male with a 5-week history of hypodynamia. He was found to have squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder with liver invasion and lymph node metastases. He underwent treatment with 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (CRT). A follow-up computer tomography (CT) scan showed complete tumor remission 2 months after the completion of CRT. The patient survived for 14 months after the end of treatment and died of multiple liver metastases. Conclusion. The efficacy of radiotherapy in this case is encouraging and suggests a potential role for such therapy in similar cases. The benefit in terms of survival warrants further study

Life fingerprints of nuclear reactions in the body of animals

Nuclear reactions are a very important natural phenomenon in the universe. On the earth, cosmic rays constantly cause nuclear reactions. High energy beams created by medical devices also induce nuclear reactions in the human body. The biological role of these nuclear reactions is unknown. Here we show that the in vivo biological systems are exquisite and sophisticated by nature in influence on nuclear reactions and in resistance to radical damage in the body of live animals. In this study, photonuclear reactions in the body of live or dead animals were induced with 50-MeV irradiation. Tissue nuclear reactions were detected by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the induced beta+ activity. We found the unique tissue "fingerprints" of beta+ (the tremendous difference in beta+ activities and tissue distribution patterns among the individuals) are imprinted in all live animals. Within any individual, the tissue "fingerprints" of 15O and 11C are also very different. When the animal dies, the tissue "fingerprints" are lost. The biochemical, rather than physical, mechanisms could play a critical role in the phenomenon of tissue "fingerprints". Radiolytic radical attack caused millions-fold increases in 15O and 11C activities via different biochemical mechanisms, i.e. radical-mediated hydroxylation and peroxidation respectively, and more importantly the bio-molecular functions (such as the chemical reactivity and the solvent accessibility to radicals). In practice biologically for example, radical attack can therefore be imaged in vivo in live animals and humans using PET for life science research, disease prevention, and personalized radiation therapy based on an individual's bio-molecular response to ionizing radiation

Chemo-enzymatic synthesis of Neu5Gc-containing sialylated lactulose

Purpose: To synthesize novel sialylated lactuloses, namely, Neu5Gc-α2,3-lactulose and Neu5Gc-α2,6-lactulose.Methods: ManNGc was chemically synthesized from commercially available N-acetylmannosaime (ManNAc), which was used as the donor substrate to synthesize α-(2→3) linkage and α-(2→6) linkage sialyllactulose from lactulose via sialyltransferases-catalyzed one-pot multienzyme (OPME) approach. The sialylated products were purified by silica gel flash chromatography column. Mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were used to confirm the purity and characterize the structure of the new compounds.Results: Sialyllactulose with α-(2→3) linkage (Neu5Gc-α2,3-lactulose) and α-(2→6) linkage (Neu5Gc- α2,6-lactulose) were efficiently synthesized by an efficient one-pot multienzyme sialylation approach from ManNGc, sodium pyruvate, CTP, and lactulose. The molecular weight of the two products, based on mass spectral data was 648 Da while NMR data indicated the formation of sialylated glycans.Conclusion: Novel sialylated oligosaccharides have been efficiently synthesized from lactulose using highly efficient OPME sialylation approaches. Further investigations are required to ascertain the probiotic activities for possible applications in pharmaceutical and food industries.Keywords: Neu5Gc, Chemo-enzymatic synthesis, Sialylation, Sialyllactulose, Lactulos

Effect of pectin on properties of potato starch after dry heat treatment

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of pectin on the properties of potato starch after dry heat treatment. Methods: Rapid visco analyzer (RVA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), texture profile analyzer (TPA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and x-ray diffractometry (XRD) were used to determine the properties of modified potato starch and pectin blends after dry heat treatment. Results: Results from RVA showed that the peak viscosity of modified potato starch decreased gradually with increase in pectin concentration, dry heat time and dry heat temperature, while starch breakdown decreased and setback was increased to varying degrees. The lowest breakdown was 792 cP at dry heat temperature of 140 °C. Modified potato starch had broader ranges of gelatinization temperatures and lower gelatinization enthalpy than raw potato starch. Dry heat treatment improved the hardness, gumminess and chewiness of the gels of modified potato starch and pectin blends SEM micrographs showed some cluster shapes in microstructure after dry heat treatment of starch-pectin blends. Infrared spectra revealed that pectin addition and dry heat treatment did not cause changes in starch structure. However, x-ray diffractograms indicated that dry heat treatment weakened the third peak of potato starch. Conclusion: These results indicate that dry heat treatment effectively alters the properties of potato starch and pectin blends. This finding broadens the applications of modified potato starch in food and pharmaceutical industries

Lini0.5mn1.5o4 spinel cathode using room temperature ionic liquid as electrolyte

In this study, LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) nanoparticles were prepared as a 5 V cathode material via a rheological phase method and annealed at different temperatures: 680 ◦C, 750 ◦C, and 820 ◦C. The sample annealed at 750 ◦C shows the best performance. A room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) containing 1 M lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (LiNTf2) in N-butyl-N-methyl-pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide (C4mpyrNTf2) was used as novel electrolyte in conjunction with the LNMO cathodes and their electrochemical properties have been investigated. The results show that the LNMO using RTIL as electrolyte has better coulombic efficiency and comparable discharge capacities to those of the cells assembled with standard liquid electrolyte (1 M LiPF6 in ethylene carbonate/diethyl carbonate). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy shows that the RTIL is much more stable as the electrolyte for LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 than the conventional electrolyte

PlanningVis: A visual analytics approach to production planning in smart factories

Production planning in the manufacturing industry is crucial for fully utilizing factory resources (e.g., machines, raw materials and workers) and reducing costs. With the advent of industry 4.0, plenty of data recording the status of factory resources have been collected and further involved in production planning, which brings an unprecedented opportunity to understand, evaluate and adjust complex production plans through a data-driven approach. However, developing a systematic analytics approach for production planning is challenging due to the large volume of production data, the complex dependency between products, and unexpected changes in the market and the plant. Previous studies only provide summarized results and fail to show details for comparative analysis of production plans. Besides, the rapid adjustment to the plan in the case of an unanticipated incident is also not supported. In this paper, we propose PlanningVis, a visual analytics system to support the exploration and comparison of production plans with three levels of details: a plan overview presenting the overall difference between plans, a product view visualizing various properties of individual products, and a production detail view displaying the product dependency and the daily production details in related factories. By integrating an automatic planning algorithm with interactive visual explorations, PlanningVis can facilitate the efficient optimization of daily production planning as well as support a quick response to unanticipated incidents in manufacturing. Two case studies with real-world data and carefully designed interviews with domain experts demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of PlanningVis