Determination of Dynamic Shear Modulus of Soils from Static Strength

A correlation study between the dynamic shear modulus obtained from the resonant column technique and the static strength obtained from the undrained triaxial compression test is described. The materials studied were a uniform sand, a non-active fine silty clay and a highly-active bentonite clay treated with additives to increase the range for static and dynamic shear strength of the soils. It is noted that a linear relationship exists between the dynamic shear modulus, except for those soil specimens having very low strength, independent of test parameters. Using linear regression analysis, empirical equations for predicting the maximum dynamic shear modulus from the static strength have been obtained for the three different soils

Economic evaluation of cochlear implantation

Conference Theme: Challenges to specialists in the 21st centurypublished_or_final_versio

Responses of Astrocytes in Culture After Low Dose Laser Irradiation

The effect of Helium-Neon low dose laser on astrocytes was investigated in cultures of isolated astrocytes from albino neonatal rats. The laser appeared to inhibit the growth of astrocytes as exemplified by the smaller sizes of the cells and the decreased leucine uptake in each cell after treatment. Temporary decrease in the number of mitoses was also observed, but this trend was reversed soon after. Electron microscopic studies revealed an increase in buddings from cell bodies and processes (branches) after irradiation

Magnetic imaging of layer-by-layer reversal in Co/Pt multilayers with perpendicular anisotropy

For very thin Co layers, the exchange coupling between adjacent Co layers in Co∕Pt multilayers is ferromagnetic and the coupling strength varies nonmonotonically as the nonmagnetic Pt layer thickness (t_Pt) ranges from 3 to 75 Å. We report on the magnetization reversal process in a series of [Co(4 Å)/Pt(t_Pt)]_N multilayers observed by magneto-optical Kerr microscopy as a function of t_Pt and layer repetition N. The images reveal the evolution of magnetic reversal processes that strongly depend on t_Pt and therefore on the interlayer coupling. For Co/Pt multilayers with small t_Pt, e.g., 11 Å, where the Co layers are strongly coupled, the whole multilayer switches as a single ferromagnet. As Co layers are separated farther and become weakly coupled, e.g., at t_Pt=41 Å, layer-by-layer magnetic reversal is observed. The Kerr images reveal metastable magnetic domain configurations during layer-by-layer switching which is not evident in the measured hysteresis loops during the abrupt magnetic reversal for Co∕Pt multilayers with weak interlayer coupling at large t_Pt

Entangling two superconducting LC coherent modes via a superconducting flux qubit

Based on a pure solid-state device consisting of two superconducting LC circuits coupled to a superconducting flux qubit, we propose in this paper that the maximally entangled coherent states of the two LC modes can be generated for arbitrary coherent states through flux qubit controls.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Are Preoperative Kattan and Stephenson Nomograms Predicting Biochemical Recurrence after Radical Prostatectomy Applicable in the Chinese Population?

Purpose. Kattan and Stephenson nomograms are based on the outcomes of patients with prostate cancer recruited in the USA, but their applicability to Chinese patients is yet to be validated. We aim at studying the predictive accuracy of these nomograms in the Chinese population. Patients and Methods. A total of 408 patients who underwent laparoscopic or open radical resection of prostate from 1995 to 2009 were recruited. The preoperative clinical parameters of these patients were collected, and they were followed up regularly with PSA monitored. Biochemical recurrence was defined as two or more consecutive PSA levels >0.4 ng/mL after radical resection of prostate or secondary cancer treatment. Results. The overall observed 5-year and 10-year biochemical recurrence-free survival rates were 68.3% and 59.8%, which was similar to the predicted values by the Kattan and Stephenson nomograms, respectively. The results of our study achieved a good concordance with both nomograms (Kattan: 5-years, 0.64; Stephenson: 5-years, 0.62, 10-years, 0.71). Conclusions. The incidence of prostate cancer in Hong Kong is increasing together with the patients’ awareness of this disease. Despite the fact that Kattan nomograms were derived from the western population, it has been validated in our study to be useful in Chinese patients as well

Preliminary Observations on the Effects In Vivo and In Vitro of Low Dose Laser on the Epithelia of the Bladder, Trachea and Tongue of the Mouse

The effects of low dose CW laser were studied by in vivo and in vitro systems. The experimental tissues that were used included bladders, tracheas and tongues as experimental tissues. Buddings (round surface projections) from the transitional epithelium of bladder were frequently observed 3 days after laser treatment in both in vivo and in vitro systems. The trachea and tongue were less affected. In both the in vivo and in vitro systems, some epithelial cells of the trachea showed decreased microvilli and cilia 3 days after treatment whereas the epithelial cells of the tongue revealed no response to laser treatment in both systems. Low dose laser, however, appeared to promote the rate of healing of experimental tongue ulcer: healing was about 1 day earlier in the laser treated than non-treated animals and vessel infiltration and epithelialization were detected earlier in the treated

Investigating Mainstreaming Strategies of Hot Cryptocurrencies-wallet

The proliferation of cryptocurrencies in recent years has prompted the launching of many hot cryptocurrencies-wallets (known as hot crypto-wallet , permanently connected to the Internet) services to facilitate the management of cryptocurrencies assets. However, the dark side of cryptocurrencies, such as possible illegal activities and difficulties of key management, may hinder the broader cryptocurrency adoption. Therefore, some hot crypto-wallet services providers have adopted different measures to mainstream their services. Using a qualitative approach, we identified four mainstreaming strategies of hot crypto-wallet services, which may hint at some practical implications for hot cryptowallet service providers

Identity-based remote data integrity checking with perfect data privacy preserving for cloud storage

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Remote data integrity checking (RDIC) enables a data storage server, such as a cloud server, to prove to a verifier that it is actually storing a data owner’s data honestly. To date, a number of RDIC protocols have been proposed in the literature, but almost all the constructions suffer from the issue of a complex key management, that is, they rely on the expensive public key infrastructure (PKI), which might hinder the deployment of RDIC in practice. In this paper, we propose a new construction of identity-based (ID-based) RDIC protocol by making use of key-homomorphic cryptographic primitive to reduce the system complexity and the cost for establishing and managing the public key authentication framework in PKI based RDIC schemes. We formalize ID-based RDIC and its security model including security against a malicious cloud server and zero knowledge privacy against a third party verifier. We then provide a concrete construction of ID-based RDIC scheme which leaks no information of the stored files to the verifier during the RDIC process. The new construction is proven secure against the malicious server in the generic group model and achieves zero knowledge privacy against a verifier. Extensive security analysis and implementation results demonstrate that the proposed new protocol is provably secure and practical in the real-world applications.This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61501333,61300213,61272436,61472083), Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation (141065), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Fujian University (JA1406