Does International Trump Domestic Trade? The Seed Potato Market in Canada

trade, potato, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development,

Does International Trump Domestic Trade? The Seed Potato Market in Canada

trade, potato, Canada, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade,

Learning Fine-grained Image Similarity with Deep Ranking

Learning fine-grained image similarity is a challenging task. It needs to capture between-class and within-class image differences. This paper proposes a deep ranking model that employs deep learning techniques to learn similarity metric directly from images.It has higher learning capability than models based on hand-crafted features. A novel multiscale network structure has been developed to describe the images effectively. An efficient triplet sampling algorithm is proposed to learn the model with distributed asynchronized stochastic gradient. Extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms models based on hand-crafted visual features and deep classification models.Comment: CVPR 201

Dopamine D1 + D3 receptor density may correlate with Parkinson disease clinical features

OBJECTIVE: Dopamine D2-like receptors - mainly dopamine D2 receptors (D2R) and dopamine D3 receptors (D3R) - are believed to be greatly involved in the pathology of Parkinson disease (PD) progression. However, these receptors have not been precisely examined in PD patients. Our aim was to quantitatively calculate the exact densities of dopamine D1 receptors (D1R), D2R, and D3R in control, Alzheimer disease (AD), and Lewy body disease (LBD) patients (including PD, Dementia with Lewy bodies, and Parkinson disease dementia); and analyze the relationship between dopamine receptors and clinical PD manifestations. METHODS: We analyzed the densities of D1R, D2R, and D3R in the striatum and substantia nigra (SN) using a novel quantitative autoradiography procedure previously developed by our group. We also examined the expression of D2R and D3R mRNA in the striatum by in situ hybridization. RESULTS: The results showed that although no differences of striatal D1R were found among all groups; D2R was significantly decreased in the striatum of PD patients when compared with control and AD patients. Some clinical manifestations: age of onset, PD stage, dopamine responsiveness, and survival time after onset; showed a better correlation with striatal D1R + D3R densities combined compared to D1R or D3R alone. INTERPRETATION: There is a possibility that we may infer the results in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of PD by detecting D1R + D3R as opposed to using dopamine D1 or D3 receptors alone. This is especially true for elderly patients with low D2R expression as is common in this disease

Novel core/void/shell composite phase change materials for high temperature thermal energy storage

Abstract(#br)Metallic solid-liquid phase change materials (SLPCMs) are crucial for the thermal energy storage technology of various industrial systems. However, the encapsulation of metallic SLPCMs is still technically difficult. In this pursuit, the present research envisaged the development of a novel technology to successfully prepare the core(=Al-Si/Bi)/void/shell(=Al 2 O 3 ) composite SLPCMs by using Al/Bi immiscible alloy powders as starting material and tetraethoxysilane as SiO 2 source. The Al-Si alloy and Al 2 O 3 shell were in-situ synthesized by the displacement reaction between SiO 2 and molten Al. Interestingly, most of the Bi distributed in the shell of Al/Bi immiscible alloy powders could not only improve the activity of alloy powders and promote the formation of precursor shell, but also be recycled by evaporation to form the void layer during the calcination process of composite SLPCMs. The produced void layer provided a space buffer to alleviate the volume expansion of the core SLPCM, and thereby improving the thermal cycling stability of the prepared composite SLPCMs. The thermal cycling test results showed that after 300 thermal cycles, the melting latent heat reduction of the core(=Al-Si/Bi)/void/shell(=Al 2 O 3 ) composite SLPCMs (24.3-31.7J/g) was much less than that of the core(=Al-Si)/shell(=Al 2 O 3 ) composite SLPCM (58.1J/g). Moreover, the prepared Al-Si/Bi/Al 2 O 3 exhibited an adjustable melting temperature (571.9℃ to 631.9℃) and average particle diameter (39.3μm to 112.6μm), relatively high thermal conductivity [2.068W(mK) -1 to 2.966W(mK) -1 ], and excellent thermal energy storage capacity (209.5J/g to 278.2J/g). Thus, the prepared Al-Si/Bi/Al 2 O 3 composite SLPCMs are potential thermal energy storage materials, which can be used to improve the energy efficiency of various industrial systems

A strategy for designing microencapsulated composite phase change thermal storage materials with tunable melting temperature

Abstract(#br)Thermal energy storage technology with high temperature phase change materials (PCMs) plays an increasingly important role in the concentrated solar power plants and industrial waste heat recovery systems. In this study, a novel displacement reaction between tetraethoxysilane as SiO 2 source and molten raw Al powder was purposed to successfully prepare Al-Si/Al 2 O 3 high temperature composite PCMs. Interestingly, by proposed synthetic methodology, we not only achieved the in-situ synthesis of Al-Si alloy PCM and Al 2 O 3 shell, but also realized the controllability of Al-Si alloy composition and Al 2 O 3 shell layer thickness. Our results indicated that the melting temperature of the prepared composite PCMs depended on the composition of Al-Si alloy, and could be designed within a certain temperature range (from 574.0 °C to 641.4 °C), instead of a particular temperature point. The melting temperature adjustability of the prepared composite PCMs provided an additional flexibility in different working temperature conditions. Moreover, the prepared composite PCMs exhibited a relatively high thermal storage capacity (248.6 J/g to 331.0 J/g), good thermal stability, excellent repeatable utilization property and certain shell layer self-repairing ability in the working temperature range. Therefore, the prepared composite PCMs can prove to be promising thermal energy storage materials for improving the energy efficiency in various systems under different working temperature conditions

Comparative studies on the multi-component pharmacokinetics of Aristolochiae Fructus and honey-fried Aristolochiae Fructus extracts after oral administration in rats

PK parameters of 7-OH AA I in rats after oral administration of AF and HAF. (DOC 37 kb

Microglia implicated in tauopathy in the striatum of neurodegenerative disease patients from genotype to phenotype

We found interactions between dopamine and oxidative damage in the striatum involved in advanced neurodegeneration, which probably change the microglial phenotype. We observed possible microglia dystrophy in the striatum of neurodegenerative brains. To investigate the interactions between oxidative damage and microglial phenotype, we quantified myeloperoxidase (MPO), poly (ADP-Ribose) (PAR), and triggering receptors expressed on myeloid cell 2 (TREM2) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). To test the correlations of microglia dystrophy and tauopathy, we quantified translocator protein (TSPO) and tau fibrils using autoradiography. We chose the caudate and putamen of Lewy body diseases (LBDs) (Parkinson\u27s disease, Parkinson\u27s disease dementia, and Dementia with Lewy body), Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), and control brains and genotyped fo