A REMAINING OPEN PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF PALEO-ASIAN OCEAN BY EARLY PERMIAN: PALEOMAGNETIC CONSTRAINTS FROM THE PERMIAN VOLCANIC ROCKS IN MIDDLE-EAST INNER MONGOLIA, NE CHINA

We report a paleomagnetic investigation on Permian volcanic rocks in the middle-east Inner Mongolia, NE China, aiming to puzzle out the timing and position of the final closure of the eastern Paleo-Asian ocean (PAO) and further to better understand tectonic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Two pre-folding characteristic components are isolated from the Sanmianjing and Elitu formations (~283–266 Ma) in the northern margin of the North China block (NMNCB) and the Dashizhai Formation (~280 Ma) in the Songliao-Xilinhot block (SXB), respectively.We report a paleomagnetic investigation on Permian volcanic rocks in the middle-east Inner Mongolia, NE China, aiming to puzzle out the timing and position of the final closure of the eastern Paleo-Asian ocean (PAO) and further to better understand tectonic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Two pre-folding characteristic components are isolated from the Sanmianjing and Elitu formations (~283–266 Ma) in the northern margin of the North China block (NMNCB) and the Dashizhai Formation (~280 Ma) in the Songliao-Xilinhot block (SXB), respectively

Akt-mediated signaling is induced by cytokines and cyclic adenosine monophosphate and suppresses hepatocyte inducible nitric oxide synthase expression independent of MAPK P44/42

AbstractCyclic AMP inhibits the expression of nitric oxide synthase (Harbrecht et al., 1995 [1]) in hepatocytes but the mechanism for this effect is incompletely understood. Cyclic AMP can activate several intracellular signaling pathways in hepatocytes including Protein Kinase A (PKA), cAMP regulated guanine nucleotide exchange factors (cAMP-GEFs), and calcium-mediated Protein Kinases. There is considerable overlap and cross-talk between many of these signaling pathways, however, and how these cascades regulate hepatocyte iNOS is not known. We hypothesized that Akt mediates the effect of cAMP on hepatocyte iNOS expression. Hepatocytes cultured with cytokines and dbcAMP increased Akt phosphorylation up to 2h of culture. Akt phosphorylation was inhibited by the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 (10μM), farnyltranferase inhibitor FTI-276, or transfection with a dominant negative Akt. The cyclic AMP-induced suppression of cytokine-stimulated iNOS was partially reversed by LY294002 and FTI-276. LY294002 also increased NFκB nucleus translocation by Western blot analysis in nuclear extracts. Cyclic AMP increased phosphorylation of Raf1 at serine 259 which was blocked by LY294002 and associated with decreased MAPK P44/42 phosphorylation. However, inhibition of MAPK P44/42 signaling with PD98059 failed to suppress cytokine-induced hepatocyte iNOS expression and did not enhance the inhibitory effect of dbcAMP on iNOS production. A constitutively active MAPK P44/42 plasmid had no effect on cytokine-stimulated NO production. These data demonstrate that dbcAMP regulates hepatocyte iNOS expression through an Akt-mediated signaling mechanism that is independent of MAPK P44/42

Multifractal manifold for rotating machinery fault diagnosis based on detrended fluctuation analysis

The vibration signals of rotating machinery in fault conditions are non-stationary and nonlinear. For the non-stationary and nonlinear characteristics of fault vibration signals, a novel multifractal manifold (MFM) method based on detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is proposed. The proposed method consists of three steps. Firstly, calculate the multifractal fluctuation functions of signal series with an appropriate polynomial order, according to multifractal DFA method. Secondly, construct multifractal feature vector for each signal sample to reveal the nonlinear characteristics in different scales. Finally, implement manifold learning to reduce the dimension of multifractal feature vectors. The obtained low-dimensional MFM features can reveal the differences of signal samples from different fault patterns effectively, which are benefit for automatic pattern recognition and multiple fault diagnosis. The recognition performance of the proposed MFM method is verified by fault experiments of gearbox and rolling element bearing, which demonstrates the superiority of MFM method in rotating machinery fault diagnosis compared to other DFA-based methods

The characteristics of environmental particulate matter in the urban area of Beijing, China, during the 2008 Olympic Games

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and street dust samples from the Chaoyang District of eastern Beijing were studied over a period encompassing the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. PM10 concentration data are combined with trajectory clustering and potential source contribution function (PSCF) methods to identify the principal transport pathways. Sources for high-concentration aerosol events and airflow from the surrounding Hebei Province and Shandong Province to the southeast are found to exert the most significant external influence on Beijing's air quality. China undertook a number of initiatives to improve air quality for the Olympic Games and we show that PM10 concentrations and magnetic susceptibility were significantly lower during the Olympic period compared to the pre-Olympic period confirming that controlling local sources in Beijing and shutting factories in surrounding provinces substantially improved air quality. On short timescales PM10 shows an inverse correlation to relative humidity and hence precipitation which acts to improve air quality. Atmospheric PM and street dust remained high through the Olympic period probably due in part to redistribution of historical sources and implying that the aim of zero pollution is not achievable in the short term. Analysis of the heavy metal content in both PM and street dust identifies consistently high values of Zn, with Pb relatively higher in the PM; a primary source in vehicular emissions therefore seems likely. Copyright (C) 2016 Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.West Light Foundation of CAS [XBBS201302]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [40525013]SCI(E)ARTICLE1141-148

Multiple Attribute Decision Making with Interval Uncertainty for Artillery Recoil Resistance

To reduce loads acting on artillery carriages and obtain better values of recoil resistance, a study on multiple attribute decision making with interval uncertainty of the liquid orifice of a recoil mechanism was conducted. Taking the dimensions of the liquid orifice as the uncertainty variables, the uncertainty optimization model and algorithm based on three parameter interval were used to achieve the optimization schemes of the throttling bar outer dimensions with different tolerance grades. The multiple optimization schemes were sorted by employing the multiple attribute decision making method, in which the attribute weights were determined based on the maximum deviation method. The results show that the optimal design scheme is the one which considers simultaneously the parameter design and tolerance design of the throttling bar outer diameters. The optimal interval of the recoil resistance peaks and the optimal recoil resistance curve with sufficient fullness and flatness were obtained. The study results are beneficial for artillery design and evaluation concerning both the manufacturability of artillery and particular requirements of recoil resistance

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-Mediated Transformation of Maize Embryos Using a Standard Binary Vector System

We have achieved routine transformation of maize (Zea mays) using an Agrobacterium tumefaciensstandard binary (non-super binary) vector system. Immature zygotic embryos of the hybrid line Hi II were infected with A. tumefaciens strain EHA101 harboring a standard binary vector and cocultivated in the presence of 400 mg L−1 l-cysteine. Inclusion of l-cysteine in cocultivation medium lead to an improvement in transient β-glucuronidase expression observed in targeted cells and a significant increase in stable transformation efficiency, but was associated with a decrease in embryo response after cocultivation. The average stable transformation efficiency (no. of bialaphos-resistant events recovered per 100 embryos infected) of the present protocol was 5.5%. Southern-blot and progeny analyses confirmed the integration, expression, and inheritance of the bar andgustransgenes in R0, R1, and R2 generations of transgenic events. To our knowledge, this represents the first report in which fertile, stable transgenic maize has been routinely produced using an A. tumefaciensstandard binary vector system

A REMAINING OPEN PALEOGEOGRAPHY OF PALEO-ASIAN OCEAN BY EARLY PERMIAN: PALEOMAGNETIC CONSTRAINTS FROM THE PERMIAN VOLCANIC ROCKS IN MIDDLE-EAST INNER MONGOLIA, NE CHINA

We report a paleomagnetic investigation on Permian volcanic rocks in the middle-east Inner Mongolia, NE China, aiming to puzzle out the timing and position of the final closure of the eastern Paleo-Asian ocean (PAO) and further to better understand tectonic evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Two pre-folding characteristic components are isolated from the Sanmianjing and Elitu formations (~283–266 Ma) in the northern margin of the North China block (NMNCB) and the Dashizhai Formation (~280 Ma) in the Songliao-Xilinhot block (SXB), respectively

Network Coding Aware Dynamic Subcarrier Assignment in OFDMA Wireless Networks

Abstract—Taking advantage of the frequency diversity and multiuser diversity in OFDMA based wireless networks, dynamic subcarrier assignment mechanisms have shown to be able to achieve much higher downlink capacity than static assignment. A rich literature exists that proposes MAC and physical layer schemes aiming at exploiting the diversity gain with low implementation complexity. In this paper, we propose a cross layer approach that explores the joint advantage of network coding and dynamic subcarrier assignment. Our algorithm improves the bandwidth efficiency of OFDMA downlink by encoding frames of the mobile stations that exchange information. We highlight a tradeoff between diversity gain and the network coding advantage, which is critical to the network performance. To explore the tradeoff, we formulate the coding aware dynamic assignment scheme as a mixed integer program, and design a polynomial time heuristic that can be used in practical systems. Based on a network flow formulation and a penalty scheme, our heuristic well approximates the performance of an optimal algorithm, in terms of both throughput and fairness. I