Mechanical Response of He- Implanted Amorphous SiOC/ Crystalline Fe Nanolaminates

This study investigates the microstructural evolution and mechanical response of sputter-deposited amorphous silicon oxycarbide (SiOC)/crystalline Fe nanolaminates, a single layer SiOC film, and a single layer Fe film subjected to ion implantation at room temperature to obtain a maximum He concentration of 5 at. %. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy indicated no evidence of implantation-induced phase transformation or layer breakdown in the nanolaminates. Implantation resulted in the formation of He bubbles and an increase in the average size of the Fe grains in the individual Fe layers of the nanolaminates and the single layer Fe film, but the bubble density and grain size were found to be smaller in the former. By reducing the thicknesses of individual layers in the nanolaminates, bubble density and grain size were further decreased. No He bubbles were observed in the SiOC layers of the nanolaminates and the single layer SiOC film. Nanoindentation and scanning probe microscopy revealed an increase in the hardness of both single layer SiOC and Fe films after implantation. For the nanolaminates, changes in hardness were found to depend on the thicknesses of the individual layers, where reducing the layer thickness to 14 nm resulted in mitigation of implantation-induced hardening

Perceptually Motivated Wavelet Packet Transform for Bioacoustic Signal Enhancement

A significant and often unavoidable problem in bioacoustic signal processing is the presence of background noise due to an adverse recording environment. This paper proposes a new bioacoustic signal enhancement technique which can be used on a wide range of species. The technique is based on a perceptually scaled wavelet packet decomposition using a species-specific Greenwood scale function. Spectral estimation techniques, similar to those used for human speech enhancement, are used for estimation of clean signal wavelet coefficients under an additive noise model. The new approach is compared to several other techniques, including basic bandpass filtering as well as classical speech enhancement methods such as spectral subtraction, Wiener filtering, and Ephraim–Malah filtering. Vocalizations recorded from several species are used for evaluation, including the ortolan bunting (Emberiza hortulana), rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta), and humpback whale (Megaptera novaeanglia), with both additive white Gaussian noise and environment recording noise added across a range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Results, measured by both SNR and segmental SNR of the enhanced wave forms, indicate that the proposed method outperforms other approaches for a wide range of noise conditions

The influence of net-quarks on the yields and rapidity spectra of identified hadrons

Within a quark combination model, we study systematically the yields and rapidity spectra of various hadrons in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 200$ GeV. We find that considering the difference in rapidity between net-quarks and newborn quarks, the data of multiplicities, rapidity distributions for $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p(\bar{p})$ and, in particular the ratios of charged antihadron to hadron as a function of rapidity, can be well described. The effect of net-quarks on various hadrons is analysed, and the rapidity distributions for $K^{0}_{s}$, $\Lambda(\bar{\Lambda})$, $\Sigma^{+}(\bar{\Sigma}^{_-})$, $\mathrm{\Xi^{-}}$ ($\mathrm{\bar{\Xi}^{_+}}$) and $\mathrm{\Omega^{-}}(\mathrm{\bar{\Omega}}^{_+})$ are predicted. We discuss the rapidity distribution of net-baryon, and find that it reflects exactly the energy loss of colliding nuclei.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Gut microbiota targeted approach in the management of chronic liver diseases

The liver is directly connected to the intestines through the portal vein, which enables the gut microbiota and gut-derived products to influence liver health. There is accumulating evidence of decreased gut flora diversity and alcohol sensitivity in patients with various chronic liver diseases, including non-alcoholic/alcoholic liver disease, chronic hepatitis virus infection, primary sclerosing cholangitis and liver cirrhosis. Increased intestinal mucosal permeability and decline in barrier function were also found in these patients. Followed by bacteria translocation and endotoxin uptake, these will lead to systemic inflammation. Specific microbiota and microbiota-derived metabolites are altered in various chronic liver diseases studies, but the complex interaction between the gut microbiota and liver is missing. This review article discussed the bidirectional relationship between the gut and the liver, and explained the mechanisms of how the gut microbiota ecosystem alteration affects the pathogenesis of chronic liver diseases. We presented gut-microbiota targeted interventions that could be the new promising method to manage chronic liver diseases

Centrality dependence of pTp_{T} spectra for identified hadrons in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 200 GeV

The centrality dependence of transverse momentum spectra for identified hadrons at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 200$ GeV is systematically studied in a quark combination model. The $\mathrm{{p}_{T}}$ spectra of $\pi^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$, $p(\bar{p})$ and $\Lambda(\bar{\Lambda})$ in different centrality bins and the nuclear modification factors ($R_{CP}$) for these hadrons are calculated. The centrality dependence of the average collective transverse velocity $$ for the hot and dense quark matter is obtained in Au+Au collisions, and it is applied to a relative smaller Cu+Cu collision system. The centrality dependence of $\mathrm{{p}_{T}}$ spectra and the $R_{CP}$ for $\pi^{0}$, $K_{s}^{0}$ and $\Lambda$ in Cu+Cu collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}= 200$ GeV are well described. The results show that $<\beta (r)>$ is only a function of the number of participants $N_{part}$ and it is independent of the collision system.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Study of color connections in e+e−e^+ e^- annihilation

We replace in the event generator JETSET the color singlet chain connection with the color separate state one as the interface between the hard and soft sectors of hadronic processes. The modified generator is applied to produce the hadronic events in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation. It describes the experimental data at the same level as the original JETSET with default parameters. This should be understood as a demonstration that color singlet chain is not the unique color connection. We also search for the difference in special sets of three-jet events arising from different color connections, which could subject to further experimental test.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, Revtex

Effects of cultivation years on effective constituent content of Fritillaria pallidiflora Schernk

Fritillaria pallidiflora Schrenk has been treasured in traditional classic medicine as an antitussive, antiasthmatic and expectorant for hundreds of years. With gradually decreasing wild F. pallidiflora resources, the herb can no longer satisfy the demand. Artificial cultivation is one of the most effective ways to solve the contradiction between supply and demand in the medicinal material market. During the growth of Rhizomes medicinal plants, root biomass and active ingredient content showed dynamic accumulated variation with increasing cultivation years. Up to now, hardly any attempts have been made to investigate the relationship between quality and cultivation years of F. pallidiflora. Therefore, in this paper, we determined the optimum harvesting time by comparing biomass and biological characteristics of F. pallidiflora at different cultivation times. High-performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection and phenol-sulfuric acid visible spectrophotometry was performed to determine imperialine and polysaccharide content of F. pallidiflora bulbs. From year 1 to 6 of cultivation, we observed an upward trend in plant height, diameter and dry weight of F. pallidiflora, while water content decreased. Plant height and dry weight increased remarkably during the fourth year of cultivation. The content of imperialine and polysaccharide of F. pallidiflora bulbs, on the other hand, showed an upward trend from year 1 to 3, after which it decreased from year 3 to 6. By comparing plant growth, biomass development and the accumulation of imperialine and polysaccharide, the best harvesting time of F. pallidiflora was determined to be after 4 years of cultivation. Our results showed that it is possible to establish a safe, effective, stable and controllable production process, which could play an important role in achieving sustainable utilization of F. pallidiflora resources.Fritillaria pallidiflora Schrenk has been treasured in traditional classic medicine as an antitussive, antiasthmatic and expectorant for hundreds of years. With gradually decreasing wild F. pallidiflora resources, the herb can no longer satisfy the demand. Artificial cultivation is one of the most effective ways to solve the contradiction between supply and demand in the medicinal material market. During the growth of Rhizomes medicinal plants, root biomass and active ingredient content showed dynamic accumulated variation with increasing cultivation years. Up to now, hardly any attempts have been made to investigate the relationship between quality and cultivation years of F. pallidiflora. Therefore, in this paper, we determined the optimum harvesting time by comparing biomass and biological characteristics of F. pallidiflora at different cultivation times. High-performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection and phenol-sulfuric acid visible spectrophotometry was performed to determine imperialine and polysaccharide content of F. pallidiflora bulbs. From year 1 to 6 of cultivation, we observed an upward trend in plant height, diameter and dry weight of F. pallidiflora, while water content decreased. Plant height and dry weight increased remarkably during the fourth year of cultivation. The content of imperialine and polysaccharide of F. pallidiflora bulbs, on the other hand, showed an upward trend from year 1 to 3, after which it decreased from year 3 to 6. By comparing plant growth, biomass development and the accumulation of imperialine and polysaccharide, the best harvesting time of F. pallidiflora was determined to be after 4 years of cultivation. Our results showed that it is possible to establish a safe, effective, stable and controllable production process, which could play an important role in achieving sustainable utilization of F. pallidiflora resources

Υ(nS)\Upsilon(nS) and χb(nP)\chi_b(nP) production at hadron colliders in nonrelativistic QCD

$\Upsilon(nS)$ and $\chi_b(nP)$ (n=1,2,3) production at the LHC is studied at next-to-leading order in $\alpha_s$ in nonrelativistic QCD. Feeddown contributions from higher $\chi_b$ and $\Upsilon$ states are all considered for lower $\Upsilon$ cross sections and polarizations. The long distance matrix elements (LDMEs) are extracted from the yield data, and then used to make predictions for the $\Upsilon(nS)$ polarizations, which are found to be consistent with the measured polarization data within errors. In particular, the $\Upsilon(3S)$ polarization puzzle can be understood by a large feeddown contribution from $\chi_b(3P)$ states. Our results may provide a good description for both cross sections and polarizations of prompt $\Upsilon(nS)$ and $\chi_b(nP)$ production at the LHC.Comment: The text and abstract are substantially changed due to the change in the fitting procedure: we now extract LDMEs of $\Upsilon(nS)$ and $\chi_b{nP}$ by fitting the yield data of the LHC (including cross sections measured by ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb), and then make predictions for the polarizations of $\Upsilon(nS)

Mechanical Response of He- Implanted Amorphous SiOC/ Crystalline Fe Nanolaminates

This study investigates the microstructural evolution and mechanical response of sputter-deposited amorphous silicon oxycarbide (SiOC)/crystalline Fe nanolaminates, a single layer SiOC film, and a single layer Fe film subjected to ion implantation at room temperature to obtain a maximum He concentration of 5 at. %. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy indicated no evidence of implantation-induced phase transformation or layer breakdown in the nanolaminates. Implantation resulted in the formation of He bubbles and an increase in the average size of the Fe grains in the individual Fe layers of the nanolaminates and the single layer Fe film, but the bubble density and grain size were found to be smaller in the former. By reducing the thicknesses of individual layers in the nanolaminates, bubble density and grain size were further decreased. No He bubbles were observed in the SiOC layers of the nanolaminates and the single layer SiOC film. Nanoindentation and scanning probe microscopy revealed an increase in the hardness of both single layer SiOC and Fe films after implantation. For the nanolaminates, changes in hardness were found to depend on the thicknesses of the individual layers, where reducing the layer thickness to 14 nm resulted in mitigation of implantation-induced hardening