5,5′-[1,4-Phenyl­enebis(methyl­enesulfanedi­yl)]bis­[1,3,4-thia­diazol-2(3H)-one] dimethyl sulfoxide disolvate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C12H10N4O2S4·2C2H6OS, contains one half of the p-xylene mol­ecule and one dimethyl sulfoxide mol­ecule. The p-xylene mol­ecule is located about a crystallographic inversion centre. In the mol­ecule, the thia­diazole and benzene rings are almost perpendicular to one another, with a dihedral angle of 88.95 (6)°. In the crystal, an N—H⋯O hydrogen bond is observed between the two components. The dimethyl sulfoxide mol­ecule is disordered over two orientations with an occupancy ratio of 0.879 (1):0.121 (1)

SimpleSSD: Modeling Solid State Drives for Holistic System Simulation

Existing solid state drive (SSD) simulators unfortunately lack hardware and/or software architecture models. Consequently, they are far from capturing the critical features of contemporary SSD devices. More importantly, while the performance of modern systems that adopt SSDs can vary based on their numerous internal design parameters and storage-level configurations, a full system simulation with traditional SSD models often requires unreasonably long runtimes and excessive computational resources. In this work, we propose SimpleSSD, a highfidelity simulator that models all detailed characteristics of hardware and software, while simplifying the nondescript features of storage internals. In contrast to existing SSD simulators, SimpleSSD can easily be integrated into publicly-available full system simulators. In addition, it can accommodate a complete storage stack and evaluate the performance of SSDs along with diverse memory technologies and microarchitectures. Thus, it facilitates simulations that explore the full design space at different levels of system abstraction.Comment: This paper has been accepted at IEEE Computer Architecture Letters (CAL

Dexamethasone Inhibits Interleukin-1β-Induced Matrix Metalloproteinase-9 Expression in Cochlear Cells

ObjectivesTo investigate the effect of interleukin (IL)-1β on matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 expression in cochlea and regulation of IL-1β-mediated MMP-9 expression by dexamethasone and the molecular and signaling mechanisms involved.MethodsHouse ear institute-organ of Corti 1 (HEI-OC1) cells were used and exposed to IL-1β with/without dexamethasone. Glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, RU486, was used to see the role of dexamethasone. PD98059 (an extracellular signal-regulated kinases [ERKs] inhibitor), SB203580 (a p38 mitogen-activated protein kinases [MAPK] inhibitor), SP600125 (a c-Jun N-terminal kinase [JNK] inhibitor) were also used to see the role of MAPKs signaling pathway(s) in IL-1β-induced MMP-9 expression in HEI-OC1 cells. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and gelatin zymography were used to measure mRNA expression level of MMP-9 and activity of MMP-9, respectively.ResultsTreatment with IL-1β-induced the expression of MMP-9 in a dose- and time-dependent manner. IL-1β (1 ng/mL)-induced MMP-9 expression was inhibited by dexamethasone. Interestingly, p38 MAPK inhibitor, SB203580, significantly inhibited IL-1β-induced MMP-9 mRNA and MMP-9 activity. However, inhibition of JNKs and ERKs had no effect on the IL-1β-induced MMP-9 expression.ConclusionThese results suggest that the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β strongly induces MMP-9 expression via activation of p38 MAPK signaling pathway in HEI-OC1 cells and the induction was inhibited by dexamethasone

Leukoaraiosis is associated with pneumonia after acute ischemic stroke

Diagnostic criteria for stroke associated pneumonia based on the CDC criteria. (DOCX 25 kb

In-situ fabrication of cobalt-doped SrFe2As2 thin films by using pulsed laser deposition with excimer laser

The remarkably high superconducting transition temperature and upper critical field of iron(Fe)-based layered superconductors, despite ferromagnetic material base, open the prospect for superconducting electronics. However, success in superconducting electronics has been limited because of difficulties in fabricating high-quality thin films. We report the growth of high-quality c-axis-oriented cobalt(Co)-doped SrFe2As2 thin films with bulk superconductivity by using an in-situ pulsed laser deposition technique with a 248-nm-wavelength KrF excimer laser and an arsenic(As)-rich phase target. The temperature and field dependences of the magnetization showing strong diamagnetism and transport critical current density with superior Jc-H performance are reported. These results provide necessary information for practical applications of Fe-based superconductors.Comment: 8 pages, 3figures. to be published at Appl. Phys. Let

The Singer's Formant and Speaker's Ring Resonance: A Long-Term Average Spectrum Analysis

ObjectivesWe previously showed that a trained tenor's voice has the conventional singer's formant at the region of 3 kHz and another energy peak at 8-9 kHz. Singers in other operatic voice ranges are assumed to have the same peak in their singing and speaking voice. However, to date, no specific measurement of this has been made.MethodsTenors, baritones, sopranos and mezzo sopranos were chosen to participate in this study of the singer's formant and the speaker's ring resonance. Untrained males (n=15) and females (n=15) were included in the control group. Each subject was asked to produce successive /a/ vowel sounds in their singing and speaking voice. For singing, the low pitch was produced in the chest register and the high notes in the head register. We collected the data on the long-term average spectra of the speaking and singing voices of the trained singers and the control groups.ResultsFor the sounds produced from the head register, a significant energy concentration was seen in both 2.2-3.4 kHz and 7.5-8.4 kHz regions (except for the voices of the mezzo sopranos) in the trained singer group when compared to the control groups. Also, the chest register had a significant energy concentration in the 4 trained singer groups at the 2.2-3.1 kHz and 7.8-8.4 kHz. For speaking sound, all trained singers had a significant energy concentration at 2.2-5.3 kHz and sopranos had another energy concentration at 9-10 kHz.ConclusionThe results of this study suggest that opera singers have more energy concentration in the singer's formant/speaker's ring region, in both singing and speaking voices. Furthermore, another region of energy concentration was identified in opera singer's singing sound and in sopranos' speaking sound at 8-9 kHz. The authors believe that these energy concentrations may contribute to the rich voice of trained singers

N-(5-Eth­oxy-1,3,4-thia­diazol-2-yl)benzamide

In the title compound, C11H11N3O2S, the dihedral angle between the thia­diazole and phenyl rings is 28.08 (7)°. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked into an inversion dimer by a pair of inter­molecular N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds with an R 2 2(8) graph-set motif