Seismic Behavior of Turbine-Generator Foundation under Strong Earthquake Action in Different Directions

In order to study seismic behavior of half-speed turbine-generator foundation under horizontal earthquake loading in different directions, the 1/10 scaled model was designed and fabricated. The rigid foundation of half-speed turbine-generator sets can be seen as a complex space frame system. The tests were conducted under eight earthquake waves in two directions separately. The loading directions were along the axis of longitudinal and transverse. The seismic response of displacement and story drift was investigated by a pseudodynamic test. The hysteresis behavior and crack propagation were analyzed. From the research, it is shown that the maximum displacement of the foundation under the earthquake of intensity 7 is 15.20 mm (longitudinal), basically in the range of elastic deformation. The seismic response of earthquake input in different directions is obviously different. Under the same earthquake input, the seismic displacement along the axis of longitudinal is larger than that of transverse. Under the rarely earthquake of intensity 8, the foundation still keeps good working condition. The maximum elastic-plastic story drift is 1/191 under the limit value 1/50 provided in the Code for Seismic Design of Buildings. The deformation capacity of the structure meets the requirements of the current seismic design code of China

Single domain antibody multimers confer protection against rabies infection

Post-exposure prophylactic (PEP) neutralizing antibodies against Rabies are the most effective way to prevent infection-related fatality. The outer envelope glycoprotein of the Rabies virus (RABV) is the most significant surface antigen for generating virus-neutralizing antibodies. The small size and uncompromised functional specificity of single domain antibodies (sdAbs) can be exploited in the fields of experimental therapeutic applications for infectious diseases through formatting flexibilities to increase their avidity towards target antigens. In this study, we used phage display technique to select and identify sdAbs that were specific for the RABV glycoprotein from a naïve llama-derived antibody library. To increase their neutralizing potencies, the sdAbs were fused with a coiled-coil peptide derived from the human cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP48) to form homogenous pentavalent multimers, known as combodies. Compared to monovalent sdAbs, the combodies, namely 26424 and 26434, exhibited high avidity and were able to neutralize 85-fold higher input of RABV (CVS-11 strain) pseudotypes in vitro, as a result of multimerization, while retaining their specificities for target antigen. 26424 and 26434 were capable of neutralizing CVS-11 pseudotypes in vitro by 90–95% as compared to human rabies immunoglobulin (HRIG), currently used for PEP in Rabies. The multimeric sdAbs were also demonstrated to be partially protective for mice that were infected with lethal doses of rabies virus in vivo. The results demonstrate that the combodies could be valuable tools in understanding viral mechanisms, diagnosis and possible anti-viral candidate for RABV infection

Corrigendum to: The TianQin project: current progress on science and technology

In the originally published version, this manuscript included an error related to indicating the corresponding author within the author list. This has now been corrected online to reflect the fact that author Jun Luo is the corresponding author of the article

A Perception-based Scalable Encryption Model for AVS Audio

Audio Video coding Standard (AVS) is China’s secondgeneration source coding/decoding standard with fully Intellectual Properties. As the sixth part of AVS standard, AVS-DRM aims to offer the universal and open interoperable standard for various requirements of digital rights management (DRM) in digital media industry. In its first version, AVS DRM committee document (CD) did not take into account the encryption modes on AVS audio. However, audio content protection also plays an important role in many digital media applications. Therefore, this paper proposes a perception-based scalable encryption approach for AVS audio, which specifies different audio encryption modes by utilizing the perception classification of the audio bitstream and provides multiple security levels by encrypting different audio coding layers. Moreover, the paper incorporates the proposed scalable encryption method in AVS audio finegranularity scalable codec technique and then implements an AVS audio trusted coder/decoder. Several objective and subjective tests were performed on a set of 12 critical stereo excerpts provided by AVS audio group. The experimental results show that the proposed scalable encryption approach is able to provide a feasible and effective audio protection scheme for a wide range of applications with different DRM requirements. Currently, the scalable encryption scheme has been partly accepted by AVS-DRM final committee document (FCD). 1

The adverse impact of electric vehicles on traffic congestion in the morning commute

Many governments around the world are striving to promote the development of EVs for EV\u27s sustainability and efficiency. However, EVs may induce extra traffic congestion in the morning commute. To illustrate this point, we incorporate the vehicle\u27s energy consumption (EC) into the classical morning commute model to explore the EV\u27s influence on the morning commute. First, we study the impact of the vehicle\u27s EC on the waiting time in the user equilibrium (UE) state. Second, the properties of commuter\u27s waiting time in the traffic system with EVs and gasoline vehicles (GVs) are analyzed. Finally, two interventions are proposed to alleviate the extra traffic congestion caused by EVs. The analytical and numerical results of this study reveal that i) EVs will induce extra traffic congestion, and ii) we can apply some interventions to alleviate the side effect of EVs and reap more benefits from EVs. The conclusions indicate that some interventions should be conducted when EVs enter the traffic system, which sheds light on the policymaking for the promotion of EVs

Platelet-rich Preparation may serve as a Powerful Tool for Therapeutic Dental Pulp Regeneration

Introduction: Regeneration of dental pulp tissues presents one of the most challenging issues in regenerative dentistry due to their extremely poor intrinsic ability for self-healing and re-growth.The hypothesis: We hypothes-ize that patient-derived platelet-rich preparation can be used in clinical endodontic regenerative procedure, serving as a powerful tool for therapeutic dental pulp regeneration.Evaluation of the hypothesis: The cell transplantation does not always obtain the good result because of the low survival rate of transplanted cells. In addition, the use of ex vivo manipulated cell products faces many translational hurdles in treating non-vital disease. Recently, the body cells are focused as a potential source for therapeutics. Some researchers have demonstrated that endogenous stem cells may be recruited to a desired anatomic site pharma-cologically. This is spurring interest in developing new generation of biomaterials that incorporate and release selected powerful extracellular influences in a near-physiological fashion, and subsequently capture endogenous stem cells and influence their fates for regene-ration. The use of patient-derived products such as platelet-rich preparations that contain a multitude of endogenous growth factors and proteins is a clinically translatable biotechnology for this proposes. These simple and cost efficient procedures may have a potential impact in reducing the economic costs for standard medical treatments in regenerative endodontics

Wide-tunable, high-energy AgGaS2 optical parametric oscillator

Nanosecond AgGaS2 type-I singly resonant optical parametric oscillator pumped by a Q-switched 1.06