Elastic Spin Hall effect in Mechanical Graphene

We show that spin-orbit interaction and elastic spin-Hall effect can exist in a classical mechanical system consisting of a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice of masses and springs. The band structure shows the presence of splitting at K point induced by the difference of longitudinal and transverse elastic constant, and this splitting can be regarded as an effective Dresselhaus-type spin-orbit coupling. Interestingly, as an initial displacement away from the equilibrium is applied, the time evolution simulation shows that waves of different spin polarization propagates along different directions at the Gamma and K point, which is characteristic of spin-Hall effect. Several cases for spin-Hall effect are also discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, and 3395 word

Characterization of vector diffraction-free beams

It is observed that a constant unit vector denoted by $\mathbf I$ is needed to characterize a complete orthonormal set of vector diffraction-free beams. The previously found diffraction-free beams are shown to be included as special cases. The $\mathbf I$-dependence of the longitudinal component of diffraction-free beams is also discussed.Comment: 8 pages and 2 figure

Finding Related Publications: Extending the Set of Terms Used to Assess Article Similarity.

Recommendation of related articles is an important feature of the PubMed. The PubMed Related Citations (PRC) algorithm is the engine that enables this feature, and it leverages information on 22 million citations. We analyzed the performance of the PRC algorithm on 4584 annotated articles from the 2005 Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) Genomics Track data. Our analysis indicated that the PRC highest weighted term was not always consistent with the critical term that was most directly related to the topic of the article. We implemented term expansion and found that it was a promising and easy-to-implement approach to improve the performance of the PRC algorithm for the TREC 2005 Genomics data and for the TREC 2014 Clinical Decision Support Track data. For term expansion, we trained a Skip-gram model using the Word2Vec package. This extended PRC algorithm resulted in higher average precision for a large subset of articles. A combination of both algorithms may lead to improved performance in related article recommendations

Hydrologic behavior of model slopes with synthetic water repellent soils

In the natural environment, soil water repellency decreases infiltration, increases runoff, and increases erosion in slopes. In the built environment, soil water repellency offers the opportunity to develop granular materials with controllable wettability for slope stabilization. In this paper, the influence of soil water repellency on the hydrological response of slopes is investigated. Twenty-four flume tests were carried out in model slopes under artificial rainfall; soils with various wettability levels were tested, including wettable (Contact Angle, CA 90°). Various rainfall intensities (30 mm/h and 70 mm/h), slope angles (20° and 40°) and relative compactions (70% and 90%) were applied to model the response of natural and man-made slopes to rainfall. To quantitatively assess the hydrological response, a number of measurements were made: runoff rate, effective rainfall rate, time to ponding, time to steady state, runoff acceleration, total water storage and wetting front rate. Overall, an increase in soil water repellency reduces infiltration and shortens the time for runoff generation, with the effects amplified for high rainfall intensity. Comparatively, the slope angle and relative compaction had only a minor contribution to the slope hydrology. The subcritical water repellent soils sustained infiltration for longer than both the wettable and water repellent soils, which presents an added advantage if they are to be used in the built environment as barriers. This study revealed substantial impacts of man-made or synthetically induced soil water repellency on the hydrological behavior of model slopes in controlled conditions. The results shed light on our understanding of hydrological processes in environments where the occurrence of natural soil water repellency is likely, such as slopes subjected to wildfires and in agricultural and forested slopes

Insights into the Ecological Roles and Evolution of Methyl-Coenzyme M Reductase-Containing Hot Spring Archaea

Several recent studies have shown the presence of genes for the key enzyme associated with archaeal methane/alkane metabolism, methyl-coenzyme M reductase (Mcr), in metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) divergent to existing archaeal lineages. Here, we study the mcr-containing archaeal MAGs from several hot springs, which reveal further expansion in the diversity of archaeal organisms performing methane/alkane metabolism. Significantly, an MAG basal to organisms from the phylum Thaumarchaeota that contains mcr genes, but not those for ammonia oxidation or aerobic metabolism, is identified. Together, our phylogenetic analyses and ancestral state reconstructions suggest a mostly vertical evolution of mcrABG genes among methanogens and methanotrophs, along with frequent horizontal gene transfer of mcr genes between alkanotrophs. Analysis of all mcr-containing archaeal MAGs/genomes suggests a hydrothermal origin for these microorganisms based on optimal growth temperature predictions. These results also suggest methane/alkane oxidation or methanogenesis at high temperature likely existed in a common archaeal ancestor

The clinicopathological factors associated with disease progression in Luminal a breast cancer and characteristics of metastasis: A retrospective study from a single center in China

Background/Aim: This study investigated the clinicopathological factors associated with outcomes in patients with Luminal A breast cancer. Patients and Methods: Retrospective analysis of the association of clinicopathological factors and breast cancer outcome in 421 patients with newly diagnosed Luminal-A breast cancer that were enrolled from January 2008 to December 2014. Clinicopathological data were analyzed to validate the relationship with disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to analyze the value of clinicopathological factors (tumor size, node status and lymphovascular invasion), and subsequent Cox regression analysis revealed significant prognostic factors. Results: With a median of 61 months follow up, the 5-year DFS and 5-year OS rate were 98.3% and 99.3%. Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that clinical anatomic stage, tumor size, status of lymph nodes, lymphovascular invasion and systemic treatment are strong prognostic factors for clinical outcome in patients with Luminal-A breast cancer. Of all 413 patients with stage I-III breast cancer, 14 presented with metastasis (3.4%) during the follow up. Bone (6/14, 42.9%) was the most common site of metastasis followed by liver (5/14, 35.7%) and lung (4/14, 28.6%). The median survival time after metastasis was 20.4 months. Of all the sites of distant metastasis, liver metastasis was the only factor that affected survival time after metastasis (χ2=6.263, p=0.012). Conclusion: Patients with Luminal A breast cancer have excellent outcomes. Liver metastasis is an important factor compressing the survival time after distant metastasis presents

An Algorithm for Preferential Selection of Spectroscopic Targets in LEGUE

We describe a general target selection algorithm that is applicable to any survey in which the number of available candidates is much larger than the number of objects to be observed. This routine aims to achieve a balance between a smoothly-varying, well-understood selection function and the desire to preferentially select certain types of targets. Some target-selection examples are shown that illustrate different possibilities of emphasis functions. Although it is generally applicable, the algorithm was developed specifically for the LAMOST Experiment for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (LEGUE) survey that will be carried out using the Chinese Guo Shou Jing Telescope. In particular, this algorithm was designed for the portion of LEGUE targeting the Galactic halo, in which we attempt to balance a variety of science goals that require stars at fainter magnitudes than can be completely sampled by LAMOST. This algorithm has been implemented for the halo portion of the LAMOST pilot survey, which began in October 2011.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in RA

Task Scheduling Based on Grey Wolf Optimizer Algorithm for Smart Meter Embedded Operating System

In recent years, with the rapid development of electric power informatization, smart meters are gradually developing towards intelligent IOT. Smart meters can not only measure user status, but also interconnect and communicate with cell phones, smart homes and other cloud devices, and these core functions are completed by the smart meter embedded operating system. Due to the dynamic heterogeneity of the user program side and the system processing side of the embedded system, resource allocation and task scheduling is a challenging problem for embedded operating systems of smart meters. Smart meters need to achieve fast response and shortest completion time for user program side requests, and also need to take into account the load balancing of each processing node to ensure the reliability of smart meter embedded systems. In this paper, based on the advanced Grey Wolf Optimizer, we study the scheduling principle of the service program nodes in the smart meter operating system, and analyze the problems of the traditional scheduling algorithm to find the optimal solution. Compared with traditional algorithms and classical swarm intelligence algorithms, the algorithm proposed in this paper avoids the dilemma of local optimization, can quickly allocate operating system tasks, effectively shorten the time consumption of task scheduling, ensure the real-time performance of multi task scheduling, and achieve the system tuning balance. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by simulation experiments

Post Typhoon Morakot Disaster Railway Reconstruction

Typhoon Morakot hit Southern Taiwan on Aug. 8, 2009 with ultra-heavy rainfall (1402mm). Due to high tide, the flow of Lin Bian River was unable to flow out into sea and the water flow crossed over the sea dike. The flood caused many breaks along dike north of Lin Bian River and the northern gate of Lin Bian River Railroad Bridge (3 meters at both left and right side) and 2 piers and 3 openings were blown off, plus 120 meters of track base north of the bridge. The railway traffic was interrupted. The restoration work of the rail road was divided into 3 parts: 1) Feeder Bus Service: TRA set up feeder bus stations at Fangliao Railway Station and Nanzhou Railway Station to transport passengers northern bound and south bound with fixed schedule every day. 2) Restoration of Bridge Piers: This part include refilling of track base, restoration of piers, track work and electric works Emergent survey on Aug. 9, 2009 Set up restoration budget and contracted out on Aug. 14, 2009 and commenced work on Aug. 15, 2009 Working period was set of 150 calendar days (Phase 1 120 days, with Dec. 30, 2009 targeted to resume the traffic and 30 calendar days for demolishing the temporary bridge Restoration of Piers NO. 10, 11 and 12 and refilling of 120 meters track base 3) Stacking up of bridge piers: Following needs of the public and to boost the traffic safety, TRA commissioned CECI Engineering Consultants, Inc. Taiwan to stack up the existing bridge piers of Lin Bian River Bridge 2 meters during the outage period of the railroad. On Sept. 3, 2009, CECI Engineering Consultants, Inc. Taiwan was commissioned to stack up 2 meters the piers The emergent stacking work budget was established and the job was contracted out on Sept. 14, 2009 and the work commenced on Sept. 15, 2009. Working period: 115 calendar days (Phase 1: 85 calendar days and Dec. 30, 2009 was targeted to resume the railway services and Phase 2: 30 days for demolishing temporary bridge Added 2 meters high steel structure (total 21) on top of the piers and the RC pier was covered with steel clad and packed with concrete. This project was completed on Dec. 30, 2009 with the hardworking of engineers and workers and the full line traffic was resumed to connect with South Link Line.conference pape