A data analysis method for isochronous mass spectrometry using two time-of-flight detectors at CSRe

The concept of isochronous mass spectrometry (IMS) applying two time-of-flight (TOF) detectors originated many years ago at GSI. However, the corresponding method for data analysis has never been discussed in detail. Recently, two TOF detectors have been installed at CSRe and the new working mode of the ring is under test. In this paper, a data analysis method for this mode is introduced and tested with a series of simulations. The results show that the new IMS method can significantly improve mass resolving power via the additional velocity information of stored ions. This improvement is especially important for nuclides with Lorentz factor $\gamma$-value far away from the transition point $\gamma _t$ of the storage ring CSRe.Comment: published in Chinese Physics C Vol. 39, No. 10 (2015) 10620

Highly efficient and stable planar heterojunction solar cell based on sputtered and post-selenized Sb2Se3 thin film

Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) is regarded as one of the key alternative absorber materials for conventional thin film solar cells due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. Here, we proposed a Sb2Se3 thin film solar cell fabricated using a two-step process magnetron sputtering followed by a post-selenization treatment, which enabled us to optimize the best quality of both the Sb2Se3 thin film and the Sb2Se3/CdS heterojunction interface. By tuning the selenization parameters, a Sb2Se3 thin film solar cell with high efficiency of 6.06% was achieved, the highest reported power conversion efficiency of sputtered Sb2Se3 planar heterojunction solar cells. Moreover, our device presented an outstanding open circuit voltage (VOC) of 494 mV which is superior to those reported Sb2Se3 solar cells. State and density of defects showed that proper selenization temperature could effectively passivate deep defects for the films and thus improve the device performance

Diosgenin Suppresses Cholangiocarcinoma Cells Via Inducing Cell Cycle Arrest And Mitochondria-Mediated Apoptosis.

Purpose(#br)Diosgenin (DSG) is the precursor of steroid hormones and plays a crucial part in the proliferation of various carcinomas including human colorectal cancer and gastric carcinoma. Nevertheless, its specific features and mechanisms in human cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) remain unknown.(#br)Methods(#br)MTS assay, colony-forming assay, and EdU assay were performed to determine the role of DSG on the progression of human CCA cells. The distributions of cell cycle, the ratio of apoptosis, and the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) were studied by flow cytometry (FCM). AO/EB and Hoechst 33258 staining were performed to observe the morphological features of cell apoptosis. TEM was performed to observe the ultrastructures of QBC939 and HuCCT1 cells. The mRNA and protein expression of mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and GSK3β/β-catenin pathway were further confirmed by qPCR and Western blotting. The xenograft tumor model of HuCCT1 cells was built. Immunohistochemistry of tumor tissues was performed.(#br)Results(#br)Our results indicated that DSG inhibited the progression of six CCA cell lines. In vivo tumor studies also indicated that DSG significantly inhibited tumor growth in xenografts in nude mice. The expression of mitosis-promoting factor cyclinB1 was decreased along with the elevating level of cell cycle inhibitor p21, resulting in arresting CCA cell cycles at G2/M phase. Furthermore, DSG induced apoptosis with the increased expressions of cytosol cytochrome C, cleaved-caspase-3, cleaved-PARP1 and the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio. Mechanistically, our study showed that GSK3β/β-catenin pathway was involved in the apoptosis of CCA cells. Thus, DSG might provide a new clue for the drug therapy of CCA.(#br)Conclusion(#br)In our data, DSG was found to have efficient antitumor potential of human CCA cells in vitro and in vivo

Development and validation of a ferroptosis-related lncRNAs prognosis signature in colon cancer

Ferroptosis is a form of iron-dependent programmed cell death. Regulation of ferroptosis in tumor cells is a novel treatment modality. The present study aimed to investigate ferroptosis-related long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and construct a prognostic model for colon adenocarcinoma (COAD). RNA- sequencing data and ferroptosis-related genes were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas database and FerrDb database. COAD patients were randomly assigned to training- and validation groups. The Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator regression and Cox regression model were used to determine and develop a predictive model. The model was corroborated using the validation group and the entire group. In total, 259 ferroptosis-related genes and 905 ferroptosis-related LncRNAs were obtained. Cox model revealed and constructed seven ferroptosis-related LncRNAs signature (LINC01503, AC004687.1, AC010973.2, AP001189.3, ARRDC1-AS1, OIP5-AS1, and NCK1-DT). Patients were assigned into two groups according to the median risk score. Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that overall survival between high- and low-risk groups was statistically significant (P<0.01). Cox multivariate analysis seven ferroptosis-related LncRNAs signature was an independent risk factor for COAD outcomes (P<0.05). The relationship between seven ferroptosis-related LncRNAs and clinicopathological features was also examined. The principal component analysis showed a difference between high- and low-risk groups intuitively. With the aid of gene set enrichment analysis, the underlying mechanisms of seven ferroptosis-related LncRNAs were uncovered, including the MAPK signaling pathway, mTOR signaling pathway, and glutathione metabolism pathway. Finally, we established and validated seven ferroptosis-related lncRNAs signature for COAD patients to predict survival. These results may provide meaningful targets for future study

Finite-size effect and the components of multifractality in financial volatility

Many financial variables are found to exhibit multifractal nature, which is usually attributed to the influence of temporal correlations and fat-tailedness in the probability distribution (PDF). Based on the partition function approach of multifractal analysis, we show that there is a marked finite-size effect in the detection of multifractality, and the effective multifractality is the apparent multifractality after removing the finite-size effect. We find that the effective multifractality can be further decomposed into two components, the PDF component and the nonlinearity component. Referring to the normal distribution, we can determine the PDF component by comparing the effective multifractality of the original time series and the surrogate data that have a normal distribution and keep the same linear and nonlinear correlations as the original data. We demonstrate our method by taking the daily volatility data of Dow Jones Industrial Average from 26 May 1896 to 27 April 2007 as an example. Extensive numerical experiments show that a time series exhibits effective multifractality only if it possesses nonlinearity and the PDF has impact on the effective multifractality only when the time series possesses nonlinearity. Our method can also be applied to judge the presence of multifractality and determine its components of multifractal time series in other complex systems.Comment: 9 RevTex pages including 9 eps figures. Comments and suggestions are warmly welcom

Effect of temperature on sensing performance of optical fiber relative humidity sensor based on nafion-crystal violet film

The optical fiber relative humidity sensor based on Nafion-crystal violet film was developed. The effect of sample's temperature in the range from 299.15 K to 324.15 K on the sensing performance of the sensor was investigated. The mathematical function between temperature and the sensitivity of the sensor was established according to the reactive theory of sensor to the relative humidity, which was validated with the experiment. With the research, the application range of the sensor was extended, which made the sensor keep a good veracity when it was used in situ

Utilization of single-chamber microbial fuel cells as renewable power sources for electrochemical degradation of nitrogen-containing organic compounds

By employing promising single-chamber microbial fuel cells (MFCs) as renewable power sources, an aerated electrochemical system is proposed and for nitrogen-containing organic compounds (pyridine and methyl orange) removals. Carbon felt performed the best as electrode material while lower initial contaminant concentration and lower initial pH value could improve the performance. A degradation efficiency of 82.9% for pyridine was achieved after 360 min electrolysis with its initial concentration of 200 mg/L, initial pH of 3.0 and applied voltage of 700 mV. Mechanisms study implied that indirect electrochemical oxidation by generated hydrogen peroxide was responsible for their degradation. This study provides an alternative utilization form of low bioelectricity from MFCs and reveals that applying it to electrochemical process is highly-efficient as well as cost-effective for degradation of nitrogen-containing organic compounds. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [21307117, 41440025]; Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China [20120022120005]; Beijing Excellent Talent Training Project [2013D009015000003]; Beijing Higher Education Young Elite Teacher Project [YETP0657]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2652015226, 2652015131]SCI(E)[email protected]

Measurement of proton electromagnetic form factors in e+e−→ppˉe^+e^- \to p\bar{p} in the energy region 2.00-3.08 GeV

The process of $e^+e^- \rightarrow p\bar{p}$ is studied at 22 center-of-mass energy points ($\sqrt{s}$) from 2.00 to 3.08 GeV, exploiting 688.5~pb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII collider. The Born cross section~($\sigma_{p\bar{p}}$) of $e^+e^- \rightarrow p\bar{p}$ is measured with the energy-scan technique and it is found to be consistent with previously published data, but with much improved accuracy. In addition, the electromagnetic form-factor ratio ($|G_{E}/G_{M}|$) and the value of the effective ($|G_{\rm{eff}}|$), electric ($|G_E|$) and magnetic ($|G_M|$) form factors are measured by studying the helicity angle of the proton at 16 center-of-mass energy points. $|G_{E}/G_{M}|$ and $|G_M|$ are determined with high accuracy, providing uncertainties comparable to data in the space-like region, and $|G_E|$ is measured for the first time. We reach unprecedented accuracy, and precision results in the time-like region provide information to improve our understanding of the proton inner structure and to test theoretical models which depend on non-perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics