Palladium-ytterbium bimetallic electrocatalysts supported on carbon black, titanium suboxide, or poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)-functionalized titanium suboxide towards methanol oxidation in alkaline media

Palladium-ytterbium (Pd-Yb) bimetallic catalysts with different Pd/Yb ratios supported on carbon black (20%Pd-x%Yb/C, x = 0, 1, 5, 10, and 15) were prepared by a sodium borohydride reduction method. The 20%Pd-5%Yb/C catalyst exhibited the best electrocatalytic activity towards methanol oxidation in alkaline media. The improved electrocatalytic activity and stability of 20%Pd-5%Yb/C can be explained by a bi-functional mechanism. In addition, the higher content of metallic palladium caused by the addition of ytterbium also contributes to the better catalytic activity of the 20%Pd+5%Yb/C catalyst. In view of the good electrocatalytic performance of 20%Pd+5%Yb/C, the 20%Pd+5%Yb catalyst supported on titanium suboxide (20%Pd+5%Yb/Ti4O7) was prepared. However, the Pd-Yb particles supported on Ti4O7 were seriously agglomerated. To improve the dispersion status of alloy particles, the Ti4O7 was functionalized with poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (Ti4O7-PDDA). Electrochemical characterizations showed that no matter Ti4O7 or Ti4O7-PDDA as supports, Pd-Yb catalysts exhibited better catalytic activity than 20%Pd-5%Yb/C. The improvement mainly results from the further increase of metallic Pd due to the presence of Ti4O7

An improved rotor position and velocity estimation technique for PMSM based on modified machine model

Conference Name:2011 International Conference on Electric Information and Control Engineering, ICEICE 2011. Conference Address: Wuhan, China. Time:April 15, 2011 - April 17, 2011.IEEE Beijing Section ED Chapter; Jiangsu UniversityThis paper presents an improved method for the estimation of rotor speed and position of PMSM. Since the information of rotor speed and position obtained from Sliding Mode Observer in estimated rotor frame usually carries noise because of the switching input and the noise increase when the speed is higher, an Extended Kalman Filter is designed to eliminate the noise and get the accuracy information, meanwhile the outstanding robustness properties against system parameter uncertainties and external disturbance remains. The results of the simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method using Matlab/Simulink facility. ? 2011 IEEE

Nonlinear Ship Motion Prediction Via a Novel High Precision RBF Neural Network

The ship swing motion has strong nonlinear and stochastic characteristics, so the ship swing motion prediction is very difficult. The paper designed a novel high precision RBF (radial basis function) neural network to predict the ship swing motion. In order to optimize the neural network structure, it used the embed dimension of time series to determine the number of input node and fuzzy clustering method to determine the initial number of hidden node for RBF neural network at first. Then it used the grey correlation analysis method to analyze the correlation degree between hidden node output and network output, and according to the size of correlation degree to delete the redundant hidden nodes. Meanwhile, in order to improve the prediction accuracy, it increased the direct connection between input layer and output layer in RBF neural network. Finally, the proposed model was tested with data from a real-world ship swing motion. Results show that the model maximum absolute error and mean squared error are respectively 0.2739 degree and 0.0110, so the proposed model is capable of prediction

Yeast-Derived Sulfur Host for the Application of Sustainable Li–S Battery Cathode

A porous carbon structure (PCS) is considered as an ideal electrode material for lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries, owing to its flexible texture, large surface area, and high electrical conductivity. In this work, we use food-grade yeast as the carbon precursor, which is proliferated in glucose solution, carbonized with a NaCl template to yield a sheet-like carbon structure, and reactivated at different temperatures with KOH. The porous carbon material is then applied as the sulfur host of the Li–S battery cathode, and the electrode is systematically characterized by means of SEM, TEM, XRD, Raman, XPS, thermogravimetric (TG), nitrogen gas adsorption–desorption, and electrochemical measurements. The results show that the PCS obtained at 800 °C has an ultra-high surface area of 2410 m2 g−1 and exhibits excellent performance for a Li–S battery cathode. The initial discharge capacity of the PCS-800/S cathode is 1502 mAh g−1, which accounts for 90% of the theoretical capacity value

Increased expression of protein kinase CK2α correlates with poor patient prognosis in epithelial ovarian cancer

<div><p>Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the deadly gynecological malignancies. The function of protein kinase CK2α (CK2α) in EOC is still unknown. Our study aimed to investigate the relationship between the protein expression of CK2α and the tumor progression, the prognosis of human EOC. In this study, we analyzed the expression levels of CK2α through Western blot, using EOC cell lines like A2780, HO8910, COV644, OVCAR3, SKOV3, and the primary normal ovarian surface epithelial (NOSE) cells. Furthermore, OVCAR3 and SKOV3 EOC cells were employed as a cellular model to study the role of CK2α on cell growth, migration, invasion, apoptosis, and cell cycle distribution. In addition, we investigated CK2α protein expression in tumor tissues from patients with EOC by immunohistochemistry and analyzed the association between CK2α expression and clinicopathologic parameters and prognosis of EOC patients. And we found that compared with NOSE cells, CK2α protein expression was increased in A2780, HO8910, OVCAR3, and SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell lines. Decreased CK2α expression suppressed OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cell growth and induced more apoptosis. CK2α knockdown using specific siRNAs inhibited migration and invasion ability of OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cells. In addition, high CK2α protein expression was found in 68.4% (80/117) of EOC patients. Increased CK2α expression of was significantly correlated with FIGO staging and peritoneal cytology. Patients with higher CK2α expression had a significantly poorer overall survival compared with those with lower CK2α expression. Multi-variate Cox regression analysis proved that increased CK2α expression was an independent prognostic marker for EOC. Taken together, our data displayed that CK2α may play a role in tumor aggressive behavior of EOC and could be used as a marker for predicting prognosis of EOC patient. High CK2α expression might predict poor patient survival.</p></div

A modified speed and position estimation technique for pmsm based on estimation rotating reference frame model

Conference Name:2012 Spring World Congress on Engineering and Technology, SCET 2012. Conference Address: Xi'an, China. Time:May 27, 2012 - May 30, 2012.IEEE Xi'an Section; IEEE Wuhan Section; Wuhan University; Key Lab. Road Constr. Technol. Equip. (Chang'an Univ.); MOEIn order to improve the speed and position estimation technique in [13], this paper presents a modified method. From [13] we found that the speed and position estimation technique, which was base on estimated reference frame, could give exceptional estimation results without several problems. Since the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) method in [13] could not track the speed variation properly, a modification was proposed to improve the EKF method's performance, besides a simplified EKF algorithm was adopted to make the calculation more efficient. The results of the simulation demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method using Matlab/Simulink facility. 漏 2012 IEEE

Treatment and prognosis of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: experience from a single institution in China.

BACKGROUND: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC), a highly aggressive malignancy, has a poor prognosis, and the consensus on the most effective treatment is needed. METHODS: Clinical data from all ATC patients treated in our institution over a 30-year period (between May 1980 and May 2010) were analyzed retrospectively with regard to mortality and survival rates (Kaplan-Meier). Multivariate analysis was performed using a Cox proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Sixty cases were analyzed. The overall 1- and 3-year survival rates were 35.0% and 22.9%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that the best prognosis was seen in patients younger than 55 years, those without distant metastases, those with white blood cell (WBC) counts < 10.0 × 10(9)/L or blood platelet (PLT) counts < 300.0 × 10(9)/L at presentation, those who did not receive chemotherapy, and those who received radiotherapy doses ≥ 40 Gy or underwent surgery plus postoperative radiotherapy. According to multivariate analysis, the WBC count at first presentation and the type of therapeutic regimen independently influenced survival. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the elevated peripheral PLT count may be an adverse prognostic factor of ATC patients. The prognosis for ATC is especially poor for patients with distant metastasis, a WBC count ≥ 10.0×10(9)/L, a PLT count ≥ 300.0 × 10(9)/L, or age ≥ 55 years. WBC count at presentation and surgery with or without postoperative radiotherapy independently influenced the prognosis. Intensive treatment combining surgery with postoperative radiotherapy is recommended for ATC patients with stage IVA/B disease

Growth-inhibiting role of knockdown CK2α in OVCAR3 and SKOV3 cell lines.

<p>(a, c) The knockdown efficiency of selected CK2α-targeting siRNAs in transfected cells was evaluated by western blotting, and the MTS assay showed that the silencing of CK2α suppressed the proliferation of OVCAR3 (b) and SKOV3 (d) cell lines. (b, d) The difference arose from Day 2 or Day 3 and persisted until Day 6. (e-h) Colony-formation assays indicated decreased growth rates in CK2α-silenced OVCAR3 (e and f) and SKOV3 (g and h) cell lines. One independent experiment was carried out in triplicate. Values are shown as the mean ± standard deviation (SD). Use independent Student's t-test to calculate <i>P</i>-values. *<i>P</i> < 0.05 <i>vs</i>. the control; **<i>P</i> < 0.01 <i>vs</i>. the control; ***<i>P</i> < 0.001 <i>vs</i>. the control.</p