Some design and operational aspects of continous weld mill furnace

The steel tube Industry in India had its beginning only as recently as recently as 1954. Today the lincensed capacity of steel tubes in the organized sectors of the country Is approximately 2 million tonnes

Population Genetic Structuring in Opisthorchis viverrini over Various Spatial Scales in Thailand and Lao PDR

Khon Kaen Province in northeast Thailand is known as a hot spot for opisthorchiasis in Southeast Asia. Preliminary allozyme and mitochondrial DNA haplotype data from within one endemic district in this Province (Ban Phai), indicated substantial genetic variability within Opisthorchis viverrini. Here, we used microsatellite DNA analyses to examine the genetic diversity and population structure of O. viverrini from four geographically close localities in Khon Kaen Province. Genotyping based on 12 microsatellite loci yielded a mean number of alleles per locus that ranged from 2.83 to 3.7 with an expected heterozygosity in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium of 0.44-0.56. Assessment of population structure by pairwise F(ST) analysis showed inter-population differentiation (P<0.05) which indicates population substructuring between these localities. Unique alleles were found in three of four localities with the highest number observed per locality being three. Our results highlight the existence of genetic diversity and population substructuring in O. viverrini over a small spatial scale which is similar to that found at a larger scale. This provides the basis for the investigation of the role of parasite genetic diversity and differentiation in transmission dynamics and control of O. viverrini

Using Absorption Imaging to Study Ion Dynamics in an Ultracold Neutral Plasma

We report optical absorption imaging of ultracold neutral plasmas.Images are used to measure the ion absorption spectrum, which is Doppler-broadened. Through the spectral width, we monitor ion equilibration in the first 250ns after plasma formation. The equilibration leaves ions on the border between the weakly coupled gaseous and strongly coupled liquid states. On a longer timescale of microseconds, we observe radial acceleration of ions resulting from pressure exerted by the trapped electron gas.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Absorption Imaging and Spectroscopy of Ultracold Neutral Plasmas

Absorption imaging and spectroscopy can probe the dynamics of an ultracold neutral plasma during the first few microseconds after its creation. Quantitative analysis of the data, however, is complicated by the inhomogeneous density distribution, expansion of the plasma, and possible lack of global thermal equilibrium for the ions. In this article we describe methods for addressing these issues. Using simple assumptions about the underlying temperature distribution and ion motion, the Doppler-broadened absorption spectrum obtained from plasma images can be related to the average temperature in the plasma.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

Investigation of Magnesium Silicate as an Effective Gate Dielectric for AlGaN/GaN Metal Oxide High Electron Mobility Transistors (MOSHEMT)

In this study, a 6 nm layer of Magnesium Silicate (Mg-Silicate) was deposited on AlGaN/GaN heterostructure by sputtering of multiple stacks of MgO and SiO$_{2}$, followed by rapid thermal annealing in a nitrogen (N$_{2}$) environment. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed the stoichiometric Mg-Silicate (MgSiO$_{3}$) after being annealed at a temperature of 850 $^\circ$C for 70 seconds. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to measure the root mean square (RMS) roughness (2.20 nm) of the Mg-Silicate. A significant reduction in reverse leakage current, by a factor of three orders of magnitude, was noted for the Mg-Silicate/AlGaN/GaN metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) diode in comparison to the Schottky diode. The dielectric constant of Mg-Silicate($\mathcal{E}_{Mg-Silicate}$) and the interface density of states (D$_{it}$) with AlGaN were approximated at $\sim$ 6.6 and 2.0 $\times$ 10$^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$eV$^{-1}$ respectively, utilizing capacitance-voltage (CV) characteristics

Ultracold Neutral Plasmas

Ultracold neutral plasmas are formed by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms near the ionization threshold. Through the application of atomic physics techniques and diagnostics, these experiments stretch the boundaries of traditional neutral plasma physics. The electron temperature in these plasmas ranges from 1-1000 K and the ion temperature is around 1 K. The density can approach $10^{11}$ cm$^{-3}$. Fundamental interest stems from the possibility of creating strongly-coupled plasmas, but recombination, collective modes, and thermalization in these systems have also been studied. Optical absorption images of a strontium plasma, using the Sr$^+$ ${^2S\_{1/2}} -> {^2P\_{1/2}}$ transition at 422 nm, depict the density profile of the plasma, and probe kinetics on a 50 ns time-scale. The Doppler-broadened ion absorption spectrum measures the ion velocity distribution, which gives an accurate measure of the ion dynamics in the first microsecond after photoionization.Comment: 12th International Congress on Plasma Physics, 25-29 October 2004, Nice (France

Preliminary genetic evidence of two different populations of Opisthorchis viverrini in Lao PDR

Opisthorchis viverrini is a major public health concern in Southeast Asia. Various reports have suggested that this parasite may represent a species complex, with genetic structure in the region perhaps being dictated by geographical factors and different species of intermediate hosts. We used four microsatellite loci to analyze O. viverrini adult worms originating from six species of cyprinid fish in Thailand and Lao PDR. Two distinct O. viverrini populations were observed. In Ban Phai, Thailand, only one subgroup occurred, hosted by two different fish species. Both subgroups occurred in fish from That Luang, Lao PDR, but were represented to very different degrees among the fish hosts there. Our data suggest that, although geographical separation is more important than fish host specificity in influencing genetic structure, it is possible that two species of Opisthorchis, with little interbreeding, are present near Vientiane in Lao PDR

Itaconate confers tolerance to late NLRP3 inflammasome activation

Itaconate is a unique regulatory metabolite that is induced upon Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation in myeloid cells. Here, we demonstrate major inflammatory tolerance and cell death phenotypes associated with itaconate production in activated macrophages. We show that endogenous itaconate is a key regulator of the signal 2 of NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation after long lipopolysaccharide (LPS) priming, which establishes tolerance to late NLRP3 inflammasome activation. We show that itaconate acts synergistically with inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and that the ability of various TLR ligands to establish NLRP3 inflammasome tolerance depends on the pattern of co-expression of IRG1 and iNOS. Mechanistically, itaconate accumulation upon prolonged inflammatory stimulation prevents full caspase-1 activation and processing of gasdermin D, which we demonstrate to be post-translationally modified by endogenous itaconate. Altogether, our data demonstrate that metabolic rewiring in inflammatory macrophages establishes tolerance to NLRP3 inflammasome activation that, if uncontrolled, can result in pyroptotic cell death and tissue damage

Particulate barium tracing of significant mesopelagic carbon remineralisation in the North Atlantic

The remineralisation of sinking particles by prokaryotic heterotrophic activity is important for controlling oceanic carbon sequestration. Here, we report mesopelagic particulate organic carbon (POC) remineralisation fluxes in the North Atlantic along the GEOTRACES-GA01 section (GEOVIDE cruise; May-June 2014) using the particulate biogenic barium (excess barium; Baxs/ proxy. Important mesopelagic (100-1000 m) Baxs differences were observed along the transect depending on the intensity of past blooms, the phytoplankton community structure, and the physical forcing, including downwelling. The subpolar province was characterized by the highest mesopelagic Baxs content (up to 727 pmol L-1/, which was attributed to an intense bloom averaging 6 mg chl a m-3 between January and June 2014 and by an intense 1500m deep convection in the central Labrador Sea during the winter preceding the sampling. This downwelling could have promoted a deepening of the prokaryotic heterotrophic activity, increasing the Baxs content. In comparison, the temperate province, characterized by the lowest Baxs content (391 pmol L-1/, was sampled during the bloom period and phytoplankton appear to be dominated by small and calcifying species, such as coccolithophorids. The Baxs content, related to oxygen consumption, was converted into a remineralisation flux using an updated relationship, proposed for the first time in the North Atlantic. The estimated fluxes were of the same order of magnitude as other fluxes obtained using independent methods (moored sediment traps, incubations) in the North Atlantic. Interestingly, in the subpolar and subtropical provinces, mesopelagic POC remineralisation fluxes (up to 13 and 4.6 mmol Cm-2 d-1, respectively) were equalling and occasionally even exceeding upper-ocean POC export fluxes, deduced using the 234Th method. These results highlight the important impact of the mesopelagic remineralisation on the biological carbon pump of the studied area with a near-zero, deep (> 1000 m) carbon sequestration efficiency in spring 2014