Diversity of Orchidaceae from Murum Dam, Belaga, Sarawak, Borneo

Murum Dam in Sarawak is located about 70 km upstream of Bakun Dam, on the rivers Murum, Danum and Plieran, forming a reservoir over an area of 245 km2. The area consists of mainly lowland to hilly mixed dipterocarp forests, with riparian and alluvial forests along the main rivers and streams, as well as patches of mossy and heath forests. Most of these forests are logged over and some areas have been converted into oil palm plantations. A flora rescue project was carried out to collect selected plant species including orchids from the areas affected by the dam. Most epiphytic orchids were collected from partially submerged trees. Over 2,000 specimens of orchids from 80 genera and c. 276 species were collected from May 2013 to December 2014. The most abundant genus recorded is Bulbophyllum Thouars (c. 44 species). Of these, 37 species are endemic to Borneo, two (Bulbophyllum upupops J.J.Verm., P.O’Byrne & A.L.Lamb and Thrixspermum lingiae P.O’Byrne & Gokusing) are newly described and ten species are new records for Sarawak. The collection of species from this work has provided valuable material for the research and conservation of orchids from vulnerable areas around dams

Weighted Evidence Combination Rule Based on Evidence Distance and Uncertainty Measure: An Application in Fault Diagnosis

Conflict management in Dempster-Shafer theory (D-S theory) is a hot topic in information fusion. In this paper, a novel weighted evidence combination rule based on evidence distance and uncertainty measure is proposed. The proposed approach consists of two steps. First, the weight is determined based on the evidence distance. Then, the weight value obtained in first step is modified by taking advantage of uncertainty. Our proposed method can efficiently handle high conflicting evidences with better performance of convergence. A numerical example and an application based on sensor fusion in fault diagnosis are given to demonstrate the efficiency of our proposed method

A correlation study between in-brace correction, compliance to spinal orthosis and health-related quality of life of patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that in-brace correction is the best guideline for prediction of the results of brace treatment for patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS). However, bracing may be a stressful experience for patients and bracing non-compliance could be psychologically related. The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between brace compliance, in-brace correction and QoL of patients with AIS. METHODS: Fifty-five patients with a diagnosis of AIS were recruited. All were female and aged 10 years or above when a brace was prescribed, none had undergone prior treatment, and all had a Risser sign of 0–2 and a Cobb angle of 25-40°. The patients were examined in three consecutive visits with 4 to 6 months between each visit. The Chinese translated Trunk Appearance Perception Scale (TAPS), the Chinese translated Brace Questionnaires (BrQ) and the Chinese translated SRS-22 Questionnaires were used in the study. The in-brace Cobb angle, vertebral rotation and trunk listing were also measured. Patients’ compliance, in-brace correction and patients’ QoL were assessed. To identify the relationship among these three areas, logistic regression model and generalized linear model were used. RESULT: For the compliance measure, a significant difference (p = 0.008) was detected on TAPS mean score difference between Visit 1 and Visit 2 in the least compliant group (0–8 hours) and the most compliant group (17–23 hours). In addition, a significant difference (p = 0.000) was detected on BrQ mean score difference between Visit 2 and Visit 3 in the least compliant group (0–8 hours) and the most compliant group (17–23 hours). For the orthosis effectiveness measure, no significant difference was detected between the three groups of bracing hours (0–8 hours, 9–16 hours, 17–23 hours) on in-brace correction (below 40% and 40% or above). For the QoL measure, no significant difference was detected between the two different in-brace correction groups (below 40% and 40% or above) on QoL as reflected by the TAPS, BrQ and SRS-22r mean scores. CONCLUSION: The results showed a positive relationship between patients’ brace wear compliance and patients’ QoL. Poor compliance would cause a lower QoL

Modified HIV envelope proteins with enhanced binding to neutralizing monoclonal antibodies

AbstractThe target for neutralizing antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is the trimeric Env protein on the native virion. Conserved neutralizing epitopes of receptor binding sites are located in the recessed core of the Env protein, partially masked by glycosylations and variable loops. In this study, we have investigated the effects of modifications of the HIV Env protein by glycosylation site mutations, deletions of variable loops, or combinations of both types of mutations on their protein functions and reactivities with neutralizing antibodies. Modified Env proteins were expressed in insect or mammalian cells, and their reactivity with epitope-specific broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) was determined by flow cytometry. A unique mutant designated 3G with mutations in three glycosylation motifs within the V3/C3 domains surrounding the CD4 binding site showed higher levels of binding to most broadly neutralizing Mabs (b12 and 2F5) in both insect and mammalian expression systems. Mutants with a deletion of both V1 and V2 loop domains or with a unique combination of both types of mutations also bound to most neutralizing Mabs at higher levels compared to the wild-type control. Most mutants maintained the ability to bind CD4 and to induce syncytium formation at similar or higher levels as compared to that of the wild-type Env protein, except for a mutant with a combination of variable loop deletions and deglycosylation mutations. Our study suggests that modified HIV Env proteins with reduced glycosylation in domains surrounding the CD4 binding site or variable loop-deleted mutants expose important neutralizing epitopes at higher levels than wild type and may provide novel vaccine immunogens

Differential electron yield imaging with STXM

Total electron yield (TEY) imaging is an established scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) technique that gives varying contrast based on a sample's geometry, elemental composition, and electrical conductivity. However, the TEY-STXM signal is determined solely by the electrons that the beam ejects from the sample. A related technique, X-ray beam-induced current (XBIC) imaging, is sensitive to electrons and holes independently, but requires electric fields in the sample. Here we report that multi-electrode devices can be wired to produce differential electron yield (DEY) contrast, which is also independently sensitive to electrons and holes, but does not require an electric field. Depending on whether the region illuminated by the focused STXM beam is better connected to one electrode or another, the DEY-STXM contrast changes sign. DEY-STXM images thus provide a vivid map of a device's connectivity landscape, which can be key to understanding device function and failure. To demonstrate an application in the area of failure analysis, we image a 100~nm, lithographically-defined aluminum nanowire that has failed after being stressed with a large current density.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) trunk as a resource of starch and other sugars

Large quantities of oil palm trunks are available annually during the replanting activities when the oil palm tree passed their economic age, on an average after 25 years are replace with young trees. Basically the oil palm trunks contains about 18- 21% of lignin, 65-80% of holocellulose (a-cellulose and hemicellulose) and quite significant amount starch. This work is aimed to determine the total extractable starch and sugars content from oil palm trunks by using steeping method and dilute acid hydrolysis. The effect of different oil palm trunk powder size on starch, xylose and glucose yield was evaluated. The effect of extraction parameter for each extraction method on the yield of starch and sugars were studied. The highest starch yield was obtained when steeped in the presence of lactic acid, while the highest xylose yield was obtained by 60 min hydrolysis of 60 mesh of oil palm powder with 2% sulfuric acid. For glucose yield, hydrolysis efficiency of 82% was obtained for conversion of oil palm trunk to glucose using two-stage concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis. Conclusively oil palm trunk can be considered as a resource of substantial amounts of starch and sugars

Quantum Entanglement and Teleportation in Higher Dimensional Black Hole Spacetimes

We study the properties of quantum entanglement and teleportation in the background of stationary and rotating curved space-times with extra dimensions. We show that a maximally entangled Bell state in an inertial frame becomes less entangled in curved space due to the well-known Hawking-Unruh effect. The degree of entanglement is found to be degraded with increasing the extra dimensions. For a finite black hole surface gravity, the observer may choose higher frequency mode to keep high level entanglement. The fidelity of quantum teleporation is also reduced because of the Hawking-Unruh effect. We discuss the fidelity as a function of extra dimensions, mode frequency, black hole mass and black hole angular momentum parameter for both bosonic and fermionic resources.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures,contents expande