Insecticidal Activities of Compounds from Sweet Flag (Acorus Calamus) against Red Imported Fire Ants Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Due to public health and environmental issues, alternatives of synthetic pesticides have been researched for a long time. We also evaluated the toxicity and repellency of the sweet flag (Acorus calamus) powder and two bioactive compounds (α-asarone and β-asarone) against workers of the red imported fire ant (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta under laboratory conditions. Sweet flag powder applied at 1 mg/cm2 or more provided 100% ant mortality within 18 hours, and repelled almost 97% of ants within one hour. Β-asarone was the faster acting compound against RIFA compared to α-asarone and sweet flag powders. The LT50 values inclined exponentially with the increase in the application rate of the test items. On the other hand, repellency did not increase with the increase in the application rate of the test items, but did with the increase in exposure time. Based upon the results of this study, α-asarone and β-asarone, as well as sweet flag powders could be another alternative tool to control the RIFA

Scaling laws for non-Hermitian skin effect with long-range couplings

Recent years have witnessed a surge of research on the non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE) in one-dimensional lattices with finite-range couplings. In this work, we show that the long-range couplings that decay as $1/l^{\alpha}$ at distance $l$ can fundamentally modify the behavior of NHSE and the scaling of quantum entanglement in the presence of nonreciprocity. At $\alpha=0$, the nonlocality of couplings gives rise to the scale-free skin modes, whose localization length is proportional to the system size. Increasing the exponent $\alpha$ drives a complex-to-real spectral transition and a crossover from a scale-free to constant localization length. Furthermore, the scaling of nonequilibrium steady-state entanglement entropy exhibits a subextensive law due to the nonlocality and the complex spectrum, in contrast to an area law arising from NHSE. Our results provide a theoretical understanding on the interplay between long-range couplings and non-Hermiticity.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Automatic Removal of Lens Flare Artifacts

A strong light source in the field of view of a camera can cause small circular artifacts, known as lens flares or ghost dots, to appear at the mirror location of the light source with respect to the image center. Lens flares occur due to internal reflections within the lenses of the camera. While lens flares can be reduced with lens coatings, it is difficult to entirely eliminate lens flares. This disclosure describes software techniques to automatically detect and remove lens flare artifacts in images. Per the techniques, the presence and position of a strong light source in the field of view is detected in the captured image. Based on the detection, the flare ghosting dot is identified at the mirror location. The flare ghosting dot is masked using inpainting techniques and the result is evaluated. The described techniques can reliably remove lens flares of a wide variety of flare shapes. The techniques can be implemented in any camera device, including smartphone cameras

Non-Hermitian skin effects on many-body localized and thermal phases

Localization in one-dimensional interacting systems can be caused by disorder potentials or non-Hermiticity. The former phenomenon is the many-body localization (MBL), and the latter is the many-body non-Hermitian skin effect (NHSE). In this work, we numerically investigate the interplay between these two kinds of localization, where the energy-resolved MBL arises from a deterministic quasiperiodic potential in a fermionic chain. We propose a set of eigenstate properties and long-time dynamics that can collectively distinguish the two localization mechanisms in the presence of non-Hermiticity. By computing the proposed diagnostics, we show that the thermal states are vulnerable to the many-body NHSE while the MBL states remain resilient up to a strong non-Hermiticity. Finally, we discuss experimental observables that can probe the difference between the two localizations in a non-Hermitian quasiperiodic fermionic chain. Our results pave the way toward experimental observations on the interplay of interaction, quasiperiodic potential, and non-Hermiticity.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Activation of β-Adrenoceptors by Dobutamine May Induce a Higher Expression of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors δ (PPARδ) in Neonatal Rat Cardiomyocytes

Recent evidence showed the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in cardiac function. Cardiac contraction induced by various agents is critical in restoring the activity of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors δ (PPARδ) in cardiac myopathy. Because dobutamine is an agent widely used to treat heart failure in emergency setting, this study is aimed to investigate the change of PPARδ in response to dobutamine. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were used to examine the effects of dobutamine on PPARδ expression levels and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) phosphorylation via Western blotting analysis. We show that treatment with dobutamine increased PPARδ expression and cTnI phosphorylation in a time- and dose-dependent manner in neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. These increases were blocked by the antagonist of β1-adrenoceptors. Also, the action of dobutamine was related to the increase of calcium ions and diminished by chelating intracellular calcium. Additionally, dobutamine-induced action was reduced by the inhibition of downstream messengers involved in this calcium-related pathway. Moreover, deletion of PPARδ using siRNA generated the reduction of cTnI phosphorylation in cardiomyocytes treated with dobutamine. Thus, we concluded that PPARδ is increased by dobutamine in cardiac cells

Elderly Patients with Laryngeal and Hypopharyngeal Cancer Undergoing Total Pharyngolaryngectomy with a Radial Forearm, Free Flap-reconstructed Phonation Tube

SummaryBackgroundThe radial forearm, free-flap (RFFF)-reconstructed phonation tube was developed for functional restoration of voice after total pharyngolaryngectomy. We aimed to report the efficacy of RFFF phonation tube after pharyngolaryngectomy with radiotherapy (RT) or concurrent chemoradiation therapy (CCRT) with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for elderly.Materials and methodsTen patients with laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer underwent total pharyngolaryngectomy and one-stage reconstruction with an RFFF-accompanied phonation tube, followed by RT or CCRT. Voice restoration was achieved with the RFFF-reconstructed phonation tube. Functional outcomes of phonation and speech were evaluated and scored.ResultsPercentages of stage III and stage IV patients among all participants were 10% and 90%, respectively. The median follow-up time was 31 months (range, 4–67 months). Almost 9 out of 10 (90%) patients experienced phonation efficacy greater than 80%. The maximal phonation time per breath was 70% longer than 3 sec. The graded as mild of wet voice was 90%. Percentage of mild decreased loudness was 60% and that of low and high pitch was 80%. Of the 10 patients, 40% could count more than 10 and 70% could pronounce more than 1 to 5 words per breath. After RT or CCRT, of patients had moderately good to excellent speech intelligibility.ConclusionThe RFFF phonation tube that was used after pharyngolaryngectomy with RT or CCRT with IMRT provided acceptable complications and functional restoration of voice for elderly patients

Flexible ultrasonic transducers for structural health monitoring of pipes at high temperature

Piezoelectric films have been deposited by a sol-gel spray technique onto 75 \ub5m thick metal membranes and have been fabricated into flexible ultrasonic transducers (FUTs). Such FUTs were glued and brazed onto steel pipes providing as on-site installation techniques for continuous thickness monitoring purposes at up to 490\ub0C. At 150\ub0C, the thickness measurement accuracy of a pipe with an outer diameter of 26.6 mm and a wall thickness of 2.5 mm was estimated to be 26 \ub5m. Ultrasonic 4 by 16 element arrays were also fabricated and single element performance was measured.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye