Furfurylation of wood from fast-growing tropical species to enhance their resistance to subterranean termite

European Journal of Wood and Wood Products - The purpose of this study was to use furfurylation to enhance the resistance of wood to subterranean termite attack. Wood samples were obtained from...     

Analysis of a genetic mutation in an electrophoretic variant of the human lactate dehydrogenase-B(H) subunit

An electrophoretic variant of the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)-B(H) subunit was discovered in a patient with diabetes mellitus. His LDH activity in serum was slightly lower than normal and the LDH isozyme pattern showed an abnormal migration indicating an LDH-B subunit variant of the fast type. The LDH containing the variant subunit revealed a decreased heat stability. DNA analysis of the variant allele detected a base substitution, an A to G transition, at codon 6 (AAA-->GAA). The mutation resulted in the replacement of a lysine by a glutamic acid (K6E). The change may cause the heat instability and affect the net charge of the variant subunit, resulting in an electrophoretic LDH-B subunit variant of the fast type.     

1.4-μm-band gain characteristics of a Tm-Ho-doped ZBLYAN fiberamplifier pumped in the 0.8-μm band

The gain characteristics of a 1.4-μm-band thulium-holmium-doped ZBLYAN fiber amplifier are described. Signal gain is obtained over the whole 1.4-μm band for a pump power level of 73.5 mW. A maximum signal gain of 18 dB is achieved at a signal wavelength of 6.46 μm for a pump power of 150 mW at 0.79 μm. The noise figure is 5.6 dB in the signal wavelength region from 1.45-1.50 μm. From a comparison of the gain characteristics of thulium-holmium-doped ZBLYAN fibers and thulium-doped ZBLYAN fibers, it is proved that holmium ions play an effective role in increasing the gain and widening the gain spectrum     

Frequency stabilization of 1.55 μm DFB laser diode usingvibrational-rotational absorption of 13C2H2 molecules

The vibrational-rotational absorption of ¹³C₂H₂ molecules (VRAMs) in the 1.52-1.55 μm region was investigated in detail. On the basis of this investigation, frequency stabilization of 1.55-μm distributed-feedback (DFB) laser diodes was demonstrated. Frequency stability to within 2 MHz peak/peak fluctuation was achieved at the 1.54949-μm wavelength. In addition, frequency stabilizations in the wavelength regions of 1.53 μm and 1.54 μm were also carried out by using the strong absorption lines of ¹³C₂H₂ VRAM in these wavelength regions. The spectral width of the frequency-stabilized DFB laser diode was found to be 25 MHz. The absolute frequency was found to be stabilized at least to within 25 MHz by the measurement of beat spectrum     

Effects of brovincamine fumarate on choroidal blood volume in rabbits]

We examined the effects of brovincamine fumarate, a Ca(2+)-channel blocker, on choroidal blood flow. We measured the choroidal blood volume continuously for 1 hour using laser Doppler flowmetry, as well as systemic blood pressure, heart rate, and intraocular pressure in six urethane-anesthetized rabbits after intravenous administration of 0.1 mg/kg or 0.5 mg/kg brovincamine. As a control, ten rabbits receiving no medication were used. All the data were recorded and analyzed using MacLab on a computer. In both the 0.1 mg/kg and 0.5 mg/kg brovincamine-injected groups, the choroidal blood volume decreased significantly after administration, but showed no significant difference from controls. Vascular resistance in the choroid showed a significant increase over the value before administration and over the control group. The heart rate decreased significantly compared to the value before injection and to the control group. The mean blood pressure in both dose groups and the intraocular pressure in the 0.5 mg/kg injected group were significantly higher than the controls. These results indicate that intravenous administration of 0.1 mg/kg or 0.5 mg/kg brovincamine does not cause an increase in the choroidal blood volume in urethane-anesthetized rabbits.     

Diffuse aspiration bronchiolitis (DAB) produced in animals by repeated HCl microaspiration

We recently reported that diffuse aspiration bronchiolitis (DAB) was detected in 1% of autopsied lungs of aged cases of pneumonia. We hypothesized whether repeated HCl micro-aspiration (RHMA) is involved in DAB and established an animal model by administering HCl intratracheally to rats every two days for 2 weeks. Saline was given to control animals in the same fashion. Then, we performed bronchio-alveolar lavage (BAL) or excised lungs for histologic examination. There was no difference in BAL cell counts, TNF alpha-production, elastase-like activity or albumin levels between the HCl and control groups. Histologically, DAB-like findings were observed in the HCl-treated animals. These data suggest that RHMA might be involved in DAB, while neither TNF alpha-production nor elastase-like activity may play a significant role in inducing DAB.     

Flt3/Flk-2 and c-Kit are not essential for the proliferation of B lymphoid progenitor cells in the bone marrow of the adult mouse

The receptor tyrosine kinase Flk-2/Flt3 was originally cloned from hematopoietic stem cell-enriched fetal liver and placenta and is believed by some investigators to play a role in the regulation of the hematopoietic stem cell. However, targeted disruption of the flt3 gene results in a specific deficiency in early B cell progenitors. Using an antagonistic monoclonal antibody developed against the extracellular domain of Flt3, we investigated the expression and function of the molecule on B lymphoid lineage cells in the bone marrow (BM) of adult mice. Approximately 10% of B220+ cells in the BM expressed Flt3 on the cell surface, and most of the cells belonged to a pro-B cell fraction when judged by an expression pattern of CD43, heat-stable antigen, and BP-1. However, B lymphoid precursor cells that are clonable in vitro could not be enriched in the B220+/Flt3+ cell fraction sorted by flow cytometry. Furthermore, proliferation of B lymphoid precursor cells in the adult BM was not blocked by administration of the antagonistic monoclonal antibodies against Flt3 and c-Kit, suggesting that signalings mediated by Flt3 and c-Kit receptors are not essential for the proliferation of B cell progenitors in adult mouse BM.     

Single-mode fibres with extremely high-Δ and small-dimensionpure GeO2 core for efficient nonlinear optical applications

Single-mode fibres with 8.2% Δ and a 1.4 μm diameter-GeO ₂ core have been prepared for efficient stimulated Raman effect. When pumping a 2.7 m-long fibre by a Q-switched and mode-locked Nd:YAG laser (λ=1.064 μm), the first Stokes light (λ=1.114 μm) and second Stokes light (λ=1.169 μm) have been observed at the input peak power levels of 24 W and 40 W, respectively. These results indicate that the above critical power levels are approximately 10^-2~10^-3 smaller than those for the high-silica single-mode fibre     

Visual concept detection of web images based on group sparse ensemble learning

Due to the huge intra-class variations for visual concept detection, it is necessary for concept learning to collect large scale training data to cover a wide variety of samples as much as possible. But it presents great challenges on both how to collect and how to train the large scale data. In this paper, we propose a novel web image sampling approach and a novel group sparse ensemble learning approach to tackle these two challenging problems respectively. For data collection, in order to alleviate manual labeling efforts, we propose a web image sampling approach based on dictionary coherence to select coherent positive samples from web images. We propose to measure the coherence in terms of how dictionary atoms are shared because shared atoms represent common features with regard to a given concept and are robust to occlusion and corruption. For efficient training of large scale data, in order to exploit the hidden group structures of data, we propose a novel group sparse ensemble learning approach based on Automatic Group Sparse Coding (AutoGSC). After AutoGSC, we present an algorithm to use the reconstruction errors of data instances to calculate the ensemble gating function for ensemble construction and fusion. Experiments show that our proposed methods can achieve promising results and outperforms existing approaches.     

Multichannel environmental sound segmentation

Applied Intelligence - This paper proposes a multichannel environmental sound segmentation method. Environmental sound segmentation is an integrated method to achieve sound source localization,...