Watching outside while under a carpet cloak of invisibility

We demonstrate in this letter a unique approach for watching outside while hiding in a carpet cloaking based on transformation optics. Unlike conventional carpet cloaking, which screens all the incident electromagnetic waves, we break the cloak and allow incident light get into the carpet. Hence outside information is detected inside the cloak. To recover the invisible cloaking, complementary techniques are applied in the broken space. Consequently, a hiding-inside-and-watching-outside (HIWO) carpet cloak is sewed, which works as a perfectly invisible cloaking and allows surveillance of the outside at the same time. Our work provides a strategy for ideal cloak with "hiding" and "watching" functions simultaneously.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures. This is the second version of arXiv:1009.2849, which was submitted on Sept.15, 201

A strong magneto-optical activity in rare-earth La3+ substituted M-type strontium ferrites

The Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License to their work.M-type strontium ferrites with substitution of Sr2+ by rare-earth La3+ were prepared by conventional ceramic technology. The structure, magnetic properties, and magneto-optical Kerr activity of Sr1−xLaxFe12O19 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20) were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and magneto-optical ellipsometry, respectively. X-ray diffraction showed that the samples sintered at 1290 °C for 3 h were single M-type hexagonal ferrites. The magnetic properties were remarkably changed due to the valence change of Fe ions induced by the substitution of La ions. Most significantly, an important magneto-optical activity was induced in the La3+ substituted M-type strontium ferrites around 3 eV.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 50672001 and 51072002, the 211 Project of Anhui University and from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science under project MAT2009-14534-C03-03. L. Fernandez- Garcia acknowledges the JAE program for a PhD grant.Peer reviewe

Analysis on AUV Heading Control System Based on RS-Chaos-LSSVM

Aimed at the submarine uncertainties and model's impreciseness, an integrated RS-Chaos-LSSVM model is put forward because of nonlinearity and time-variability of AUV heading control system. The LSSVM is a typical nonlinear regression modeling based on small sample. Its parameters are optimized by Chaos algorithm. It is to gain the optimal model and get the higher accurate. By using Rough theory the monitor data attribute of AUV is reduced to eliminate the redundant information to improve efficiency. Taken a certain typed AUV as an example, the two controller compare results .The results show the RS-Chaos-LSSVM controller markedly reduce the time. And the heading error and control rudder are simulated in the ideal and ocean current environment. In the ideal environment the two controllers all have good performances. But in the ocean current environment the simulation results show the integrated controller improve the model's stability and accuracy. The overshoot, the rise and adjust time reduced greatly. In a word the integrated RS-Chaos-LSSVM heading predictive controller has better performances especially strong anti-interfere capability

Human bocavirus 1 is a genuine pathogen for acute respiratory tract infection in pediatric patients determined by nucleic acid, antigen, and serology tests

BackgroundHuman bocavirus 1 (HBoV1), first discovered in 2005, was positive in symptomatic and healthy children and co-detected with other respiratory viruses. It is a long journey to decisively demonstrate the unique viral pathogenic function of acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) in pediatric patients.MethodsRespiratory specimens collected from pediatric patients with ARTI from January 2017 to December 2021 were screened by a capillary electrophoresis-based multiplex PCR (CEMP) assay, then genotyped by PCR and sequencing for HBoV1. For the antigen test, a part of HBoV1 DNA positive nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPAs) was used as an antigen, while a rabbit anti-HBoV1 DR2 specific to HBoV1 was used as an antibody in the indirect-immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Finally, the levels of IgG specific to HBoV1 in acute and convalescent sera selected retrospectively from only HBoV1 DNA-positive patients were evaluated by IFA.ResultsAmong 9,899 specimens, 681 were positive for HBoV1 DNA (6.88%, 681/9899), which included 336 positives only for HBoV1 (49.34%, 336/681) and 345 (50.66%, 345/681) positives also for other pathogens. In the antigen test, there were 37 among 47 NPAs determined as HBoV1 antigen-positive (78.72%, 37/47), including 18 (48.65%, 18/37) positives solely for HBoV1 DNA. Among 4 pediatric patients with both acute and convalescent sera, there was one positive for HBoV1 antigen (D8873) and 2 lack the antigen results (D1474 and D10792), which showed seroconversion with a ≥ 4-fold increase in IgG levels.ConclusionsThe combination results of nucleic acid, antigen, and serology tests answered that HBoV1 is a genuine pathogen for ARTI in pediatric patients

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death

A benzene-degrading nitrate-reducing microbial consortium displays aerobic and anaerobic benzene degradation pathways

All sequence data from this study were deposited at the European Bioinformatics Institute under the accession numbers ERS1670018 to ERS1670023. Further, all assigned genes, taxonomy, function, sequences of contigs, genes and proteins can be found in Table S3.In this study, we report transcription of genes involved in aerobic and anaerobic benzene degradation pathways in a benzene-degrading denitrifying continuous culture. Transcripts associated with the family Peptococcaceae dominated all samples (2136% relative abundance) indicating their key role in the community. We found a highly transcribed gene cluster encoding a presumed anaerobic benzene carboxylase (AbcA and AbcD) and a benzoate-coenzyme A ligase (BzlA). Predicted gene products showed >96% amino acid identity and similar gene order to the corresponding benzene degradation gene cluster described previously, providing further evidence for anaerobic benzene activation via carboxylation. For subsequent benzoyl-CoA dearomatization, bam-like genes analogous to the ones found in other strict anaerobes were transcribed, whereas gene transcripts involved in downstream benzoyl-CoA degradation were mostly analogous to the ones described in facultative anaerobes. The concurrent transcription of genes encoding enzymes involved in oxygenase-mediated aerobic benzene degradation suggested oxygen presence in the culture, possibly formed via a recently identified nitric oxide dismutase (Nod). Although we were unable to detect transcription of Nod-encoding genes, addition of nitrite and formate to the continuous culture showed indication for oxygen production. Such an oxygen production would enable aerobic microbes to thrive in oxygen-depleted and nitrate-containing subsurface environments contaminated with hydrocarbons.This study was supported by a grant of BE-Basic-FES funds from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. The research of A.J.M. Stams is supported by an ERC grant (project 323009) and the gravitation grant “Microbes for Health and Environment” (project 024.002.002) of the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. F. Hugenholtz was supported by the same gravitation grant (project 024.002.002). B. Hornung is supported by Wageningen University and the Wageningen Institute for Environment and Climate Research (WIMEK) through the IP/OP program Systems Biology (project KB-17-003.02-023).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Convergence analysis of Laplacian-based gradient elasticity in an isogeometric framework

A convergence study is presented for a form of gradient elasticity where the enrichment is through the Laplacian of the strain, so that a fourth-order partial differential equation results. Isogeometric finite element analysis is used to accommodate the higher continuity required by the inclusion of strain gradients. A convergence analysis is carried out for the original system of a fourth-order partial differential equation. Both global refinement, using NURBS, and local refinement, using T-splines, have been applied. Theoretical convergence rates are recovered, except for a polynomial order of two, when the convergence rate is suboptimal, a result which also has been found for the (fourth-order) Cahn-Hilliard equation. The convergence analyses have been repeated for the case that an operator split is applied so that a set of two (one-way) coupled partial differential equations results. Differences occur with the results obtained for the original fourth-order equation, which is caused by the boundary conditions, which is the first time this effect has been substantiated