Comment on "Orientational Distribution of Free O-H Groups of Interfacial Water is Exponential"

In a recent letter (PRL,121,246101,2018), Sun et al. reported that combined MD simulation and sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS) measurements led to conclusions of a broad and exponentially decaying orientational distribution, and the presence of the free O-H group pointing down to the bulk at the air/water interface. In this comment, we show that their main conclusions are based on questionable interpretation of the SFG-VS data presented in the letter [1], and are also contrary to the established data analysis and interpretations in the literature [2-5].Comment: 2 pages, 0 figure

Crowdsourced Live Streaming over the Cloud

Empowered by today's rich tools for media generation and distribution, and the convenient Internet access, crowdsourced streaming generalizes the single-source streaming paradigm by including massive contributors for a video channel. It calls a joint optimization along the path from crowdsourcers, through streaming servers, to the end-users to minimize the overall latency. The dynamics of the video sources, together with the globalized request demands and the high computation demand from each sourcer, make crowdsourced live streaming challenging even with powerful support from modern cloud computing. In this paper, we present a generic framework that facilitates a cost-effective cloud service for crowdsourced live streaming. Through adaptively leasing, the cloud servers can be provisioned in a fine granularity to accommodate geo-distributed video crowdsourcers. We present an optimal solution to deal with service migration among cloud instances of diverse lease prices. It also addresses the location impact to the streaming quality. To understand the performance of the proposed strategies in the realworld, we have built a prototype system running over the planetlab and the Amazon/Microsoft Cloud. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that the effectiveness of our solution in terms of deployment cost and streaming quality

Effect of Bushen Jiangu decoction on ovariectomyinduced osteoporosis in rats

Purpose: This study aimed to determine the therapeutic effect of Bushen Jiangu Decoction (BJD) on osteoporosis (OS) in rats.Methods: The animals were divided into the following groups: control group, rats received no treatment; ovariectomy (OVX) group, rats subjected to OVX surgery and were treated with normal saline; OVX + Fosamax group, rats that received OVX and were treated with 2 mg/kg/week of Fosamax; low-dose BJD (40 mg/kg/day), medium-dose BJD (80 mg/kg/day) and high-dose BJD (160 mg/kg/day) groups, where rats received OVX surgery with BJD doses of 40, 80 and 160 mg/kg/day, respectively. At four weeks after treatment with OVX, Fosamax or BJD was orally administered for four months. Bone mineral density (BMD) was assessed, while serum hormone, serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), estradiol (E2), luteinizing hormone (LH), osteocalcin (OC) and telopeptides of collagen type I (CTx) were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results: The results demonstrated that the reduced BMDs of L4 femurs and vertebrae were inhibited by BJD. Furthermore, BJD significantly elevated the serum levels of FSH, E2 and LH in OS rats. Furthermore, the serum CTx, ALP and OC levels of these rats dramatically decreased, when compared to the OVX group.Conclusion: These findings suggest that BJD can improve OVX-induced OS.Keywords: Bushen Jiangu decoction, Osteoporosis, Bone mineral density, Serum biochemistr

Impacts of gravitational-wave standard siren observation of the Einstein Telescope on weighing neutrinos in cosmology

We investigate the impacts of the gravitational-wave (GW) standard siren observation of the Einstein Telescope (ET) on constraining the total neutrino mass. We simulate 1000 GW events that would be observed by the ET in its 10-year observation by taking the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology as a fiducial model. We combine the simulated GW data with other cosmological observations including cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), and type Ia supernovae (SN). We consider three mass hierarchy cases for the neutrino mass, i.e., normal hierarchy (NH), inverted hierarchy (IH), and degenerate hierarchy (DH). Using Planck+BAO+SN, we obtain $\sum m_\nu<0.175$ eV for the NH case, $\sum m_\nu<0.200$ eV for the IH case, and $\sum m_\nu<0.136$ eV for the DH case. After considering the GW data, i.e., using Planck+BAO+SN+GW, the constraint results become $\sum m_\nu<0.151$ eV for the NH case, $\sum m_\nu<0.185$ eV for the IH case, and $\sum m_\nu<0.122$ eV for the DH case. We find that the GW data can help reduce the upper limits of $\sum m_\nu$ by 13.7%, 7.5%, and 10.3% for the NH, IH, and DH cases, respectively. In addition, we find that the GW data can also help break the degeneracies between $\sum m_{\nu}$ and other parameters. We show that the GW data of the ET could greatly improve the constraint accuracies of cosmological parameters.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Discussion On Device Structures And Hermetic Encapsulation For SiOx Random Access Memory Operation In Air

An edge-free structure and hermetic encapsulation technique are presented that enable SiOx-based resistive random-access memory (RRAM) operation in air. A controlled etch study indicates that the switching filament is close to the SiOx surface in devices with an exposed SiOx edge. Electrical test of encapsulated, edge-free devices in 1 atmosphere air indicates stable switching characteristics, unlike devices with an edge. This work demonstrates that SiOx RRAM is able to operate in air with proper encapsulation and an edge-free structure. The resistive switching failure mechanism when operating in air is explained by the oxidation of hydrogen-complexed defects in the switching filament. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.National Science Foundation IIP-1127537Microelectronics Research Cente