The paper presents an adaptive wear-leveling scheme based on several wear-thresholds in different periods. The basic idea behind this scheme is that blocks can have different wear-out speeds and the wear-leveling mechanism does not conduct data migration until the erasure counts of some hot blocks hit a threshold. Through a series of emulation experiments based on several realistic disk traces,…
A novel constrained layout placement approach is proposed to enhance the pulse quenching effect in combinational circuits. This constrained algorithm can enlarge the number of quenching cells and shrink the distance between these cells. Simulation results illustrate that the soft error vulnerabilities are effectively reduced by adopting this novel constrained layout placement algorithm with no …
This paper presents a passive-marker-based optical tracking system utilizing dual Kinect sensors and additional customoptical tracking components. To obtain sub-millimeter tracking accuracy, we introduce robust calibration of dual infrared sensors and point correspondence establishment in a stereo configuration. The 3D localization is subsequently accomplished using multiple back projection li…
Background: Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), the most abundant catechin in green tea, has been reported to inhibit HIV-1 replication prior to its integration into host DNA via various proposed mechanisms; however, the specific main target(s) of EGCG remain unclear. In this study,we investigated a number of these proposed detailed mechanism(s) using a cell-based model.Methods: Multinuclear act…
Abstract: In this paper, activated carbons with high surface area from carbonized tobacco stems with K2CO3 activation by microwave radiation were investigated. Effects of microwave radiation time and K2CO3/C ratio on the yield and adsorption capacities of activated carbons were evaluated. Experimental results indicated that the optimum conditions were as follow: microwave power 700W; micro…
Abstract In this paper, transmission characteristics of wave modes in a rectangular waveguide filled with lossless anisotropic metamaterial are theoretically investigated. The wave equation and dispersion relations for TE and TM modes in the waveguide are obtained and analyzed. It is shown that the negative constitutive parameters of the filling anisotropic metamaterial can be used to contro…
Abstract. A Pd on Ni–B (Pd/Ni–B) bimetallic nanoparticle catalyst was prepared through a replacement reaction of amorphous Ni–B nanoparticles with Pd2+ ions. In the hydrodechlorination of chlorobenzene, the Pd/Ni–B bimetallic catalyst exhibited better activity than a Pd catalyst supported on polyvinylpolypyrrolidone, a mixture of Pd and Ni–B nanoparticles, and a Pd on Ni catalyst …
Abstract. Nickel-based catalysts supported on Al2O3 . SiO2 were prepared with modification of the second metal involving La, Co, Cu, Zr or Y, of which the catalytic behaviors were assessed in the ethanol steam reforming reaction. Activity test indicated that addition of La resulted in higher selectivity of hydrogen and lower selectivity of carbon monoxide, compared with Co-doped nickel cat…
Abstract. Mesoporous VOx–TiO2 with high surface areas were prepared using the procedure of evaporationinduced self-assembly combined with ammonia posttreatment. The samples were characterized by Xray diffraction (XRD), laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N2 adsorption, temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), microcalorimetry for the adsorption of NH3, …
Abstract. This study designs a polymerization, in which ZnO colloids are used to initiate a copolymerization of N-vinylcarbazole and methyl acrylate, to synthesize functional composites for fabricating photoelectric devices. It is proved that a block copolymer is synthesized and a nanocomposite consisting of the ZnO and copolymer is obtained simultaneously. As a result, the ZnO nanocrystals…
Abstract. Au–TiO2 nanocomposite microspheres were prepared by hydrothermal treatment of precipitates of tetrabutyl titanate (Ti(OC4H9)4) in a mixed solution of water, ethanol and Au colloid particles at 180 oC for 7 h. The as-prepared products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, nitrogen sorption, UV–visible diffuse r…
Abstract. In this paper, a novel template of carbon foam is used in building hierarchical structures of TiO2, CeO2, and ZrO2. They had multiscale morphologies, from nanowalls, nanoparticles to layer nanostructures. On a hundred-micron scale, the product was a sponge-like material constructed by nanowalls. On a hundred-nanometer scale, the electron microscope images showed that the nanowalls…
Abstract. Nickel nanoparticles supported on metal oxides were prepared by a modified electroless nickel-plating method. The process and mechanism of electroless plating were studied by changing the active metal (Ag) loading, acidity, and surface area of metal oxides and were characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and H2 chemis…
Abstract. The effects of substrate rotation speed and rotation mode on the microstructure of large-sized metal sheet fabricated by electron beam physical vapor deposition technique were investigated. Helical and columnar microstructures were found in the deposited sheet. Both types of microstructures exhibit no preferential crystallographic orientation. The column inclination under asymmetr…
Abstract. Un-doped ZnO and MgZnO thin films were deposited on c-plane sapphire substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) and subsequently annealed in hydrogen ambient at 200–500 oC with a step of 100 oC. Halleffect measurements show that annealing temperature has great effect on the electrical property of both ZnO and MgZnO films. The electron concentration of both ZnO and MgZnO films in…
Abstract. Mesoporous titania nanospheres with high specific surface area and good photocatalytic activity were fabricated on a large scale by a simple spray-hydrolytic method at 90 oC. The as-prepared TiO2 spherical powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption–desorption measurements, field emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, UV–vis…
Abstract Oxidative bromination of methane, mediated by HBr/H2O (solution), provides an original route for the production of oxygenates and gasoline directly from natural gas. However, the reported catalysts for this reaction all involved noble metals. From the consideration of replacing noble metal catalysts with cheaper oxides, various silica-supported oxide catalysts were surveyed. It was…
Abstract A tethered ligand-modified Rh/SiO2 catalyst was developed for hydroformylation with high stability. The catalyst was prepared by fastening both organic ligand and metal directly on the surface of support to avoid leaching, while at the same time the active species were formed in situ by coordination of the flexible ligand to the metal on the surface of SiO2. The immobilization of l…
A lack of dependence of the Raman frequency of optical vibrational modes on excitation wavelength in polar nanosemiconductors was observed. This is in contrast to the earlier observed dependence in nonpolar nanomaterials: carbon nanotubes and Si nanowires. This difference has been ascribed to the different crystallographic natures of their Raman spectra: crystalline for nonpolar and amorpho…
During the usage of Rhizopus oryzae whole cell instead of immobilized enzyme for biodiesel production, the intracellular lipase was found to have 1,3-positional specificity when used to catalyze methanolysis of triglycerides. Thus, the application of R. oryzae whole cell in biodiesel production from triglycerides is restrained to some extent. However, it might be a promising catalyst for biod…
Partial oxidation of methane to synthesis gas was investigated in a reactor consisting of an oxygen-permeable SrFeCo0.5Oy membrane tube and a Ni/ç-Al2O3 catalyst bed located after the membrane tube. In this reactor, part of methane reacted with oxygen that permeated through the membrane from air, and the resultants (H2O, CO2) and the rest of methane were transported to the catalyst bed whe…
The effects of two kinds of representative catalysts, Ni/Al2O3 and HZSM-5 zeolite, were investigated in the CO2 reforming of CH4 via corona plasma reactions at atmospheric pressure. The catalysts showed little effect on the conversions of CH4 and CO2, and we propose that rapid free-radical processes play a main role during the plasma reactions. However, although a high-voltage electric field…
In order to develop more effective therapeutic vaccines against cancers with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, it is crucial to enhance the immunogenicity, eliminate the oncogenicity of oncoproteins, and take a combination of E7- and E6-containing vaccines. It has been shown recently that PE(DIII)-E7-KDEL3 (E7), a fusion protein containing the HPV16 oncoprotein E7 and the translo…
Plants interact with their environment and they often flower earlier under stress conditions, but how such stressinduced flowering is regulated remains poorly understood. Here evidence is presented that the miR169 family plays a key role in stress-induced flowering in plants. The microRNA (miRNA) miR169 family members are up-regulated in Arabidopsis, maize, and soybean under abiotic stresses. O…
Petal cell expansion depends on cell wall metabolism, changes in cell turgor pressure and restructuring of the cytoskeleton, and recovery ability of petal cell expansion is defined as an indicator of dehydration tolerance in flowers. We previously reported that RhNAC2, a development-related NAC domain transcription factor, confers dehydration tolerance through regulating cell wall-related g…
In the large Cucurbitaceae genus Cucumis, cucumber (C. sativus) is the only species with 2n = 2x = 14 chromosomes. The majority of the remaining species, including melon (C. melo) and the sister species of cucumber, C. hystrix, have 2n = 2x = 24 chromosomes, implying a reduction from n = 12 to n = 7. To understand the underlying mechanisms, we investigated chromosome synteny among cucumber, C.…