Experiment on Residential Ventilation System In Actual House

Traced-gas was used in the experiment in order to evaluate the ventilation effect in different conditions in actual house. The influence of interior doors which opened or closed and vents position were considered in the experiment

The Impact of Budget Constraints on Flexible vs. Dedicated Technology Choice

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Yield Strength of Transparent MgAl2O4 Nano-Ceramic at High Pressure and Temperature

We report here experimental results of yield strength and stress relaxation measurements of transparent MgAl2O4 nano-ceramics at high pressure and temperature. During compression at ambient temperature, the differential strain deduced from peak broadening increased significantly with pressure up to 2 GPa, with no clear indication of strain saturation. However, by then, warming the sample above 400°C under 4 GPa, stress relaxation was obviously observed, and all subsequent plastic deformation cycles are characterized again by peak broadening. Our results reveal a remarkable reduction in yield strength as the sintering temperature increases from 400 to 900°C. The low temperature for the onset of stress relaxation has attracted attention regarding the performance of transparent MgAl2O4 nano-ceramics as an engineering material

A Novel Recombinant Peste des Petits Ruminants-Canine Adenovirus Vaccine Elicits Long-Lasting Neutralizing Antibody Response against PPR in Goats

BACKGROUND: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious infectious disease of goats, sheep and small wild ruminant species with high morbidity and mortality rates. The Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) expresses a hemagglutinin (H) glycoprotein on its outer envelope that is crucial for viral attachment to host cells and represents a key antigen for inducing the host immune response. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To determine whether H can be exploited to generate an effective PPRV vaccine, a replication-competent recombinant canine adenovirus type-2 (CAV-2) expressing the H gene of PPRV (China/Tibet strain) was constructed by the in vitro ligation method. The H expression cassette, including the human cytomegalovirus (hCMV) promoter/enhancer and the BGH early mRNA polyadenylation signal, was inserted into the SspI site of the E3 region, which is not essential for proliferation of CAV-2. Infectious recombinant rCAV-2-PPRV-H virus was generated in transfected MDCK cells and used to immunize goats. All vaccinated animals produced antibodies upon primary injection that were effective in neutralizing PPRV in vitro. Higher antibody titer was obtained following booster inoculation, and the antibody was detectable in goats for at least seven months. No serious recombinant virus-related adverse effect was observed in immunized animals and no adenovirus could be isolated from the urine or feces of vaccinated animals. Results showed that the recombinant virus was safe and could stimulate a long-lasting immune response in goats. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This strategy not only provides an effective PPR vaccine candidate for goats but may be a valuable mean by which to differentiate infected from vaccinated animals (the so-called DIVA approach)

Improved ADRC for a Maglev planar motor with a concentric winding structure

In the semiconductor industry, positioning accuracy and acceleration are critical parameters. To improve the acceleration speed of a motor, this paper proposes the moving-coil maglev planar motor with a concentric winding structure. The coordinate system has been built for the multiple degrees of freedom movement system. The Lorenz force method has been applied to solve its electromagnetic model. The real-time solving of the generalized inverse matrix of factors can realize the decoupling of the winding current. When the maglev height changes, the electromagnetic force and torque decreases exponentially with the increase of the air gap. To decrease the influence on control system performance by the internal model change and the external disturbance, this paper proposes an improved active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) to design the controller. This new controller overcomes the jitter phenomenon due to the turning point for the traditional ADRC, thus it is more suitable for the maglev control system. The comparison between ADRC and the improved ADRC has been conducted, the result of which shows the improved ADRC has greater robustness.Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatic

Posttranscriptional regulation of pineal melatonin synthesis in Octodon degus

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74175/1/j.1600-079X.2009.00690.x.pd