Activation of several key components of the epidermal differentiation pathway in cattle following infestation with the cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus.

The cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, and the diseases it transmits pose a persistent threat to tropical beef production. Genetic selection of host resistance has become the method of choice for non-chemical control of cattle tick. Previous studies have suggested that larval stages are most susceptible to host resistance mechanisms. To gain insights into the molecular basis of host resistance that occurs during R. microplus attachment, we assessed the abundance of proteins (by isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) and Western blot analyses) and mRNAs (by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR)) in skin adjacent to tick bite sites from high tick-resistant (HR) and low tick-resistant (LR) Belmont Red cattle following challenge with cattle tick. We showed substantially higher expression of the basal epidermal keratins KRT5 and KRT14, the lipid processing protein, lipocalin 9 (LCN9), the epidermal barrier catalysing enzyme transglutaminase 1 (TGM1), and the transcriptional regulator B lymphocyte-induced maturation protein 1 (Blimp1) in HR skin. Our data reveals the essential role of the epidermal permeability barrier in conferring greater resistance of cattle to tick infestation, and suggest that the physical structure of the epidermal layers of the skin may represent the first line of defence against ectoparasite invasion. Crown Copyright. © Australian Society for Parasitology Inc.

Einstein relation in n-i-p-i and microstructures of nonlinear optical, optoelectronic and related materials: Simplified theory, relative comparison and suggestions for an experimental determination

We investigate the Einstein relation for the diffusivity-mobility ratio (DMR) for n-i-p-i and the microstructures of nonlinear optical compounds on the basis of a newly formulated electron dispersion law. The corresponding results for III-V, ternary and quaternary materials form a special case of our generalized analysis. The respective DMRs for II-VI, IV-VI and stressed materials have been studied. It has been found that taking CdGeAs2, Cd3As2, InAs, InSb, Hg1−xCdxTe, In1−xGaxAsyP1−y lattices matched to InP, CdS, PbTe, PbSnTe and Pb1−xSnxSe and stressed InSb as examples that the DMR increases with increasing electron concentration in various manners with different numerical magnitudes which reflect the different signatures of the n-i-p-i systems and the corresponding microstructures. We have suggested an experimental method of determining the DMR in this case and the present simplified analysis is in agreement with the suggested relationship. In addition, our results find three applications in the field of quantum effect devices.

Characteristics of Proportional Weirs

A theorem termed the Geometrical Continuity Theorem is enunciated and proven. This theorem throws light on the aspects of the continuity of the proportional portion with the base weir portion. These two portions constitute the profile of a proportional weir. A weir of this type with circular bottom is designed. The theorem is used to establish the continuity at the junction of the proportional and the base weir portions of this weir. The coordinates of the weir profile are obtained by numerical methods and are furnished in tabular form for ready use by designers. The discharge passing through the weir is a linear function of the head. The verification of the assumed linear discharge-head relation is furnished for one of the three weirs with which experiments were conducted. The coefficient of discharge for this typical weir is found to be a constant with a value of 0.59.

Drive current boosting of n-type tunnel FET with strained SiGe layer at source

Though silicon tunnel field effect transistor (TFET) has attracted attention for sub-60 mV/decade subthreshold swing and very small OFF current (IOFF), its practical application is questionable due to low ON current (ION) and complicated fabrication process steps. In this paper, a new n-type classical-MOSFET-alike tunnel FET architecture is proposed, which offers sub-60 mV/decade subthreshold swing along with a significant improvement in ION. The enhancement in ION is achieved by introducing a thin strained SiGe layer on top of the silicon source. Through 2D simulations it is observed that the device is nearly free from short channel effect (SCE) and its immunity towards drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) increases with increasing germanium mole fraction. It is also found that the body bias does not change the drive current but after body current gets affected. An ION of View the MathML source and a minimum average subthreshold swing of 13 mV/decade is achieved for 100 nm channel length device with 1.2 V supply voltage and 0.7 Ge mole fraction, while maintaining the IOFF in fA range.

Phase transformation, oxidation and hydration of raseodymium sesquioxide

The C→A transformation of Pr2O3 has been examined. The transformation is sluggish and takes place at and above 750°C. C-Pr2O3 is oxidized at a lower temperature than the A-form and oxidation proceeds in two stages in both cases. A hydrate Pr 2O3 . H2O, formed by the interaction of C-Pr2O3 and water at relatively high temperature, is described and its behaviour compared with that of Pr(OH)3. The C-form undergoes hydration at 40°C while the A-form does not. All the observations have been explained in terms of the defect structure of C-Pr2O 3.

Electron donor-acceptor complex of ICl with diethyl ether - He I photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio molecular orbital study

The He I photoelectron spectrum of the diethyl ether-ICl complex has been obtained. The oxygen orbitals are shifted to higher binding energies and that of ICl to lower binding energies owing to complex formation. Ab initio molecular orbital (MO) calculations of the complex molecule showed that the bonding is between the sigma-type lone pair of oxygen and the I atom and that the complex has C-2v symmetry. The binding energy of the complex is computed to be 8.06 kcal mol(-1) at the MP2/3-21G* level. The orbital energies obtained from the photoelectron spectra of the complex are compared and assigned with orbital energies obtained by MO calculations. Natural bond orbital analysis (NBO) shows that charge transfer is from the sigma-type oxygen lone pair to the iodine atom and the magnitude of charge transfer is 0.0744 e.

Simulation of ENSO-Related Surface Winds in the Tropical Pacific by an Atmospheric General Circulation Model Forced by Observed Sea Surface Temperatures

The authors present the simulation of the tropical Pacific surface wind variability by a low-resolution (R15 horizontal resolution and 18 vertical levels) version of the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Interactions, Maryland, general circulation model (GCM) when forced by observed global sea surface temperature. The authors have examined the monthly mean surface winds acid precipitation simulated by the model that was integrated from January 1979 to March 1992. Analyses of the climatological annual cycle and interannual variability over the Pacific are presented. The annual means of the simulated zonal and meridional winds agree well with observations. The only appreciable difference is in the region of strong trade winds where the simulated zonal winds are about 15%-20% weaker than observed, The amplitude of the annual harmonics are weaker than observed over the intertropical convergence zone and the South Pacific convergence zone regions. The amplitudes of the interannual variation of the simulated zonal and meridional winds are close to those of the observed variation. The first few dominant empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) of the simulated, as well as the observed, monthly mean winds are found to contain a targe amount of high-frequency intraseasonal variations, While the statistical properties of the high-frequency modes, such as their amplitude and geographical locations, agree with observations, their detailed time evolution does not. When the data are subjected to a 5-month running-mean filter, the first two dominant EOFs of the simulated winds representing the low-frequency EI Nino-Southern Oscillation fluctuations compare quite well with observations. However, the location of the center of the westerly anomalies associated with the warm episodes is simulated about 15 degrees west of the observed locations. The model simulates well the progress of the westerly anomalies toward the eastern Pacific during the evolution of a warm event. The simulated equatorial wind anomalies are comparable in magnitude to the observed anomalies. An intercomparison of the simulation of the interannual variability by a few other GCMs with comparable resolution is also presented. The success in simulation of the large-scale low-frequency part of the tropical surface winds by the atmospheric GCM seems to be related to the model's ability to simulate the large-scale low-frequency part of the precipitation. Good correspondence between the simulated precipitation and the highly reflective cloud anomalies is seen in the first two EOFs of the 5-month running means. Moreover, the strong correlation found between the simulated precipitation and the simulated winds in the first two principal components indicates the primary role of model precipitation in driving the surface winds. The surface winds simulated by a linear model forced by the GCM-simulated precipitation show good resemblance to the GCM-simulated winds in the equatorial region. This result supports the recent findings that the large-scale part of the tropical surface winds is primarily linear.

Structural, optical, and electrical properties of bulk single crystals of InAsxSb(1-x) grown by rotatory Bridgman method

Radially-homogeneous and single-phase InAsxSb(1−x) crystals, up to 5.0 at. % As concentration, have been grown using the rotatory Bridgman method. Single crystallinity has been confirmed by x-ray and electron diffraction studies. Infrared transmission spectra show a continuous decrease in optical energy gap with the increase of arsenic content in InSb. The measured values of mobility and carrier density at room temperature (for x = .05) are 5.6×104 cm2/V s and 2.04×1016 cm−3, respectively.

Performances of single and two-stage pulse tube cryocoolers under different vacuum levels with and without thermal radiation shields

Single and two-stage Pulse Tube Cryocoolers (PTC) have been designed, fabricated and experimentally studied. The single stage PTC reaches a no-load temperature of similar to 29 K at its cold end, the two-stage PTC reaches similar to 2.9 K in its second stage cold end and similar to 60 K in its first stage cold end. The two-stage Pulse Tube Cryocooler provides a cooling power of similar to 250 mW at 4.2 K. The single stage system uses stainless steel meshes along with Pb granules as its regenerator materials, while the two-stage PTC uses combinations of Pb along with Er3Ni/HoCu2 as the second stage regenerator materials. Normally, the above systems are insulated by thermal radiation shields and mounted inside a vacuum chamber which is maintained at high vacuum. To evaluate the performance of these systems in the possible conditions of loss of vacuum with and without radiation shields, experimental studies have been performed. The heat-in-leak under such severe conditions has been estimated from the heat load characteristics of the respective stages. The experimental results are analyzed to obtain surface emissivities and effective thermal conductivities as a function of interspace pressure.

Thermoelectric Properties of In-Doped Cu2ZnGeSe4

Recently, much research has been focused on finding new thermoelectric materials. Cu-based quaternary chalcogenides that belong to A(2)BCD(4) (A = Cu; B = Zn, Cd; C = Sn, Ge; D = S, Se, Te) are wide band gap materials and one of the potential thermoelectric materials due to their complex crystal structures. In this study, In-doped quaternary compounds Cu2ZnGe1-xInxSe4 (x = 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, 0.1) were prepared by a solid state synthesis method. Powder x-ray diffraction patterns of all the samples showed a tetragonal crystal structure (space group I-42m) of the main phase with a trace amount of impurity phases, which was further confirmed by Rietveld analysis. The elemental composition of all the samples showed a slight deviation from the nominal composition with the presence of secondary phases. All the transport properties were measured in the temperature range 373-673 K. The electrical resistivity of all the samples initially decreased up to similar to 470 K and then increased with increase in temperature upto 673 K, indicating the transition from semiconducting to metallic behavior. Positive Seebeck coefficients for all the samples revealed that holes are the majority carriers in the entire temperature range. The substitution of In3+ on Ge4+ introduces holes and results in the decrease of resistivity as well as the Seebeck coefficient, thereby leading to the optimization of the power factor. The lattice thermal conductivity of all the samples decreased with increasing temperature, indicating the presence of phonon-phonon scattering. As a result, the thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of the doped sample showed an increase as compared to the undoped compound.

椭偏光蛋白芯片定量检测免疫球蛋白抗体

本实验利用椭偏光蛋白芯片检测系统，在光学硅片上装配人类免疫球蛋白G作为感应层，利用能与其抗体特异性结合的特性，对样品中人类免疫球蛋白G抗体进行定量检测，证实利用该系统具有对蛋白质进行定量检测的能力，探索该系统在临床检验方面应用的可行性。

Recovery of the solitons using a lattice Boltzmann model

We formulate a lattice Boltzmann model which simulates Korteweg-de Vries equation by using a method of higher moments of lattice Boltzmann equation. Using a series of lattice Boltzmann equations in different time scales and the conservation law in time scale to, we obtain equilibrium distribution function. The numerical examples show that the method can be used to simulate soliton.

Propuesta de estimadores para el estudio epidemiológico de las enfermedades foliares en café (Coffea arabica L.)

Se realizó un estudio en tres agroecosistemas de café con los objetivos de comparar tres métodos de cuantificación de enfermedades foliares del café, determinar el parámetro a estimar en la medición de la intensidad de la enfermedad (incidencia y/o severidad) considerando las característica físicas y biológicas de cada agroecosistema y proponer un tamaño de muestra que teniendo un costo menor principalmente en cuanto al tiempo, permita estimar la cantidad de enfermedad con una precisión determinada. Se seleccionaron 7 personas para que hicieran lecturas de dos enfermedades foliares en un cafetal, utilizando tres métodos de cuantificación de enfermedades y luego se compararon los métodos, usando para ello el coeficiente de variabilidad de la interacción métodos-personas. Se seleccionaron fincas con regímenes climáticos diferentes y en cada una se seleccionó un lote, en el cual se seleccionaron al azar cinco conglomerados de cinco plantas cada uno y en cada planta se marcaron al azar 6 bandolas para dar un total de 150 bandolas en el lote de observación. En cada bandola se hicieron lecturas semanales de incidencia y severidad1 también se recolectó información concerniente al nivel tecnológico, el manejo agronómico y las características físicas del lote observado. Con los datos obtenidos se hizo un estudio de la correlación incidencia-severidad y con base en una propuesta para el tamaño y arreglo de la muestra, también se hizo un estudio del tamaño y arreglo de la muestra y se calculó la eficiencia relativa del muestreo por conglomerados. El método de estimación visual fue el que presentó la menor variabilidad y el mayor ahorro de tiempo y esfuerzo físico en relación a los métodos basados en escala. No se puede generalizar un modelo de regresión único para la relación, incidencia-severidad ya que ésta cambia de acuerdo a un sin número de factores del agroecosistema, entre los cuales el patosistema, el microambiente y el mesoambiente parecen ser los más importantes. De las enfermedades foliares en café como roya, mancha de hierro y antracnosis es suficiente medir la incidencia. El tamaño de muestra aquí propuesto para evaluar porcentajes (bajos) de incidencia para las tres enfermedades en estudio es de 15 plantas distribuidas en 5 conglomerados de 3 plantas cada uno. Se pudo comprobar que las tres enfermedades en estudio se comportan de forma agregada consistentemente: la varianza es mayor que la media (o2 >m), al aplicar a los datos la ley ponderada de Taylor estos cumplen con la regla de que el coeficiente de regresión es mayor que uno (b > l) y, para cada enfermedad la varianza entre plantas es mayor que la varianza entre conglomerados (sitios).

Efecto de tres sistemas de labranza y métodos de control de maleza sobre cenosis, plagas y enfermedades en el cultivo de maiz (Zea mays L.)

En el centro experimental La Compañía en el municipio de San Marcos, departamento de Carazo, Nicaragua, se realizó un experimento para evaluar el efecto de tres sistemas de labranzas y tres métodos de control de malezas, sobre el comportamiento de las malezas, plagas, enfermedades y el crecimiento y rendimiento del maíz (Zea mays L). El diseño experimental utilizado fue un bloque completo al azar con tratamientos arreglados en parcelas divididas en los cuales la parcela grande corresponde a las labranzas y la parcela pequeña a los controles. Se evaluaron los sistemas de labranzas cero, mínima y convencional y los métodos de control pre-emergente (Atrazina), post-emergente (Paraquat) y control mecánico Las variables de malezas fueron abundancia, dominancia, biomasa y diversidad. Las variables evaluadas del cultivo fueron altura de planta, diámetro del tallo, número de plantas cosechadas, número de mazorcas cosechadas, diámetro de mazorcas, longitud de mazorcas, número de hileras por mazorcas, número de granos por hileras, peso de cien granos, peso de campo y rendimiento de grano. Los datos se analizaron por medio del análisis de varianza, excepto las variables de diversidad y porcentaje de cobertura de malezas. Se realizó comparaciones de medias utilizando la prueba de rangos múltiples de Duncan al 5 %. El análisis económico se hizo a través de la metodología del presupuesto parcial y análisis marginal de beneficios netos. Las variables de malezas que presentaron diferencias para el factor labranza fueron abundancia (solo el primer muestreo) y biomasa. Mientras las variables del cultivo que presentaron diferencias fueron altura de planta, diámetro del tallo, longitud de mazorca, incidencia de enfermedades, peso de campo, biomasa de rastrojos y rendimiento de granos. El factor control de malezas presentó diferencias significativas en las variables de malezas, abundancia y biomasa. Ninguna de las variables evaluadas del cultivo presentaron diferencias significativas. La labranza con mejor tasa de retomo marginal fue labranza cero, mientras en el factor control la obtuvo el control pre- emergente (Atrazina). Los mejores resultados económicos los presentó la interacción de los factores labranza mínima más control pre emergente de malezas. Este tratamiento presentó la mejor tasa de retomo marginal.