The Geotechnical Hazard Induced by 8.1 Earthquake in West Pass of Kunlun Mountatin in China in 2001

On November 14, 2001, a great earthquake with a magnitude of Ms=8.1 occurred in the Qinhai-Tibet Plateau, China, which is called as the west pass of Kunlun mountain Ms8.1 earthquake. This earthquake is the largest and the first one with a magnitude greater than 8.0 in mainland China in the recent 50 years. It caused a large-scale deformation zone with a length of 426 km in frozen soil deposit in the plateau with a height of 4000-5500 meters above sea level. Some geotechnical hazards induced in the meizoseismal area, such as compression and tension failure of soil deposit, shaking landslides (collapse of slope and cliff), seismic settlement, sliding of glacier and snow. Unexpectedly, liquefaction occurred within the melting sand layer in frozen soil deposit on the banks of lakes and rivers. All the hazards were investigated in the field by the authors. This paper presents the results of the field investigation and tests made

Criterions, Prediction and Prevention of Loess Liquefaction

Although loess liquefaction is not very common during earthquakes in Northwest of China, it is disastrous if it happens. Both study and valid evidence from Haiyuan 8.5 Earthquake in 1920 and Tajikistan 5.9 Earthquake in 1989 have proved that loess liquefaction could be very disastrous under certain conditions. In this paper, the criterions of loess liquefaction are discussed to show that unlike typical liquefaction of sand, loess which falls into the category of both silt clay and clayey silt has unique characteristics during liquefaction test. To predict liquefaction of loess, a simple method based on laboratory test and field evidences using GIS is proposed. The prediction results and corresponding measure have been adopted in Seismic Design Code for Buildings in Lanzhou Urban Area. Finally, recent approach of treatment of loess with chemicals methods is developed, which may have some application implication as an simple and feasible treatment method against liquefaction of loess

Substrateless Packaging for a D-Band MMIC Based on a Waveguide with a Glide-Symmetric EBG Hole Configuration

This paper presents a novel substrateless packaging solution for the D-band active e mixer MMIC module, using a waveguide line with a glide-symmetric periodic electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) hole configuration. The proposed packaging concept has the benefit of being able to control signal propagation behavior by using a cost-effective EBG hole configuration for millimeter-wave- and terahertz (THz)-frequency-band applications. Moreover, the mixer MMIC is connected to the proposed hollow rectangular waveguide line via a novel wire-bond wideband transition without using any intermediate substrate. A simple periodical nail structure is utilized to suppress the unwanted modes in the transition. Additionally, the presented solution does not impose any limitations on the chip\u27s dimensions or shape. The packaged mixer module shows a return loss lower than 10 dB for LO (70-85 GHz) and RF (150-170 GHz) ports, achieving a better performance than that of traditional waveguide transitions. The module could be used as a transmitter or receiver, and the conversion loss shows good agreement in multiple samples. The proposed packaging solution has the advantages of satisfactory frequency performance, broadband adaptability, low production costs, and excellent repeatability for millimeter-wave- and THz-band systems, which would facilitate the commercialization of millimeter-wave and THz products

Cytotoxic activity of lithospermum erythrorhizon root extract against childhood acute leukemia cells via regulation of PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway

Purpose: To investigate the effect and mechanism of action of Lithospermum erythrorhizon root extract (LR) in childhood acute leukemia. Methods: Human leukemic lymphoblast (CCRF-CEM cell line) cells were treated with LR (2, 4, and 8 mg/mL). Cell viability, cell apoptosis and cell cycle were measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2- thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The levels of cell-cycle-related proteins including cyclin D1, cyclin E1, cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), CDK4 and CDK6, as well as cleaved caspase 3, cleaved caspase 9 and Bcl-2-associated x (Bax). Also determined were B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2), E-cadherin, N-cadherin, vimentin, zonula occludens 1 (ZO-1), matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and MMP-9. Cell migration and invasion were assessed using scratch and Transwell assays. Finally, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), phosphorylated serine/threonine kinase (pAKT), total AKT (t-AKT), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and phosphorylated mTOR (pmTOR) were measured using western blotting. Results: Lithospermum erythrorhizon root extract not only dose-dependently inhibited cell viability, induced G1 phase accumulation, and downregulated CDK2, CDK4, CDK6, cyclin D1, and cyclin E1, but also elevated apoptosis, cleaved caspase 3, cleaved caspase 9, and Bax and decreased Bcl-2 expression levels. In addition, Lithospermum erythrorhizon root extract suppressed migration and invasion of CCRF-CEM cells, downregulated N-cadherin, vimentin, MMP-2, and MMP-9, and upregulated E-cadherin and ZO-1. Moreover, Lithospermum erythrorhizon root extracts dosedependently inhibited PI3K, p-AKT (ser473)/t-AKT, p-mTOR (ser2448)/mTOR, and p-mTOR (ser2481)/mTOR. Conclusion: The findings provide a potential therapeutic approach to the treatment of childhood acute leukemia

Tunable physical properties in Bi-based layered supercell multiferroics embedded with Au nanoparticles

Multiferroic materials are an interesting functional material family combining two ferroic orderings, e.g., ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orderings, or ferroelectric and antiferromagnetic orderings, and find various device applications, such as spintronics, multiferroic tunnel junctions, etc. Coupling multiferroic materials with plasmonic nanostructures offers great potential for optical-based switching in these devices. Here, we report a novel nanocomposite system consisting of layered Bi1.25AlMnO3.25 (BAMO) as a multiferroic matrix and well dispersed plasmonic Au nanoparticles (NPs) and demonstrate that the Au nanoparticle morphology and the nanocomposite properties can be effectively tuned. Specifically, the Au particle size can be tuned from 6.82 nm to 31.59 nm and the 6.82 nm one presents the optimum ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties and plasmonic properties. Besides the room temperature multiferroic properties, the BAMO-Au nanocomposite system presents other unique functionalities including localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR), hyperbolicity in the visible region, and magnetooptical coupling, which can all be effectively tailored through morphology tuning. This study demonstrates the feasibility of coupling single phase multiferroic oxides with plasmonic metals for complex nanocomposite designs towards optically switchable spintronics and other memory devices