Fatal Attraction: How Bacterial Adhesins Affect Host Signaling and What We Can Learn from Them

The ability of bacterial species to colonize and infect host organisms is critically dependent upon their capacity to adhere to cellular surfaces of the host. Adherence to cell surfaces is known to be essential for the activation and delivery of certain virulence factors, but can also directly affect host cell signaling to aid bacterial spread and survival. In this review we will discuss the recent advances in the field of bacterial adhesion, how we are beginning to unravel the effects adhesins have on host cell signaling, and how these changes aid the bacteria in terms of their survival and evasion of immune responses. Finally, we will highlight how the exploitation of bacterial adhesins may provide new therapeutic avenues for the treatment of a wide range of bacterial infections.     

The benefit of being physically present: A survey of experimental works comparing copresent robots,telepresent robots and virtual agents

The effects of physical embodiment and physical presence were explored through a survey of 33 experimental works comparing how people interacted with physical robots and virtual agents. A qualitative assessment of the direction of quantitative effects demonstrated that robots were more persuasive and perceived more positively when physically present in a user׳s environment than when digitally-displayed on a screen either as a video feed of the same robot or as a virtual character analog; robots also led to better user performance when they were collocated as opposed to shown via video on a screen. However, participants did not respond differently to physical robots and virtual agents when both were displayed digitally on a screen – suggesting that physical presence, rather than physical embodiment, characterizes people׳s responses to social robots. Implications for understanding psychological response to physical and virtual agents and for methodological design are discussed.     

Understanding silica-supported metal catalysts: Pd/silica as a case study

Supported metal catalysts, particularly noble metals supported on SiO₂, have attracted considerable attention due to the importance of the silica–metal interface in heterogeneous catalysis and in electronic device fabrication. Several important issues, e.g., the stability of the metal–oxide interface at working temperatures and pressures, are not well-understood. In this review, the present status of our understanding of the metal–silica interface is reviewed. Recent results of model studies in our laboratories on Pd/SiO₂/Mo(1 1 2) using LEED, AES and STM are reported. In this work, epitaxial, ultrathin, well-ordered SiO₂ films were grown on a Mo(1 1 2) substrate to circumvent complications that frequently arise from the silica–silicon interface present in silica thin films grown on silicon.     

Study of elastic wave propagation induced by piezoelectric actuators for crack identification

The current paper provides a theoretical study of elastic wave propagation in a cracked elastic medium induced by an embedded piezoelectric actuator. The formulation of the problem is based on a newly developed actuator model and the solution of coupled crack and actuator problems. The interaction between an actuator and a crack is studied to develop basic understanding of the effect of the crack upon the wave field generated. The resulting wave field is used to simulate 'sensor signals'. Scattered wave from the crack is then regenerated by solving a reverse elastodynamic problem and used in an imaging technique to identify the crack.     

地震平衡技术及其在地震反演中的应用

地震平衡技术是一种在地震反演中改善井震关系的新技术。它通过单井对比、空间分形建模以及平衡处理的手段 ,克服地震反演中子波空变的影响 ,使得经过地震平衡技术处理的地震剖面井震关系得到较好改善 ,从而可以用统一的子波对研究区的地震资料进行反演     

Solution intercalation of polystyrene and the comparison with poly(ethyl methacrylate)

Polystyrene nanocomposites have been prepared via solution intercalation method. Combination of wide-angle X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis is used to study the effect of solvents on the morphology of the nanocomposites as a function of the amount of residual solvent. d-Spacing of the polystyrene nanocomposites has a minimum value when the residual solvent concentration is between 2 and 4 wt%. Different interaction level between the solvent molecules and polymer chains is considered to be the reason for this special d-spacing change behavior. By comparing the solution intercalation of polystyrene and poly(ethyl methacrylate) from different solvents, it is concluded that the interactions between polymer-surfactant, solvent-surfactant, and polymer-solvent play important role for the solution intercalation of polymers.     

Magnetotransport Calculations for Two-Dimensional Electrons with Spin-Orbit Interaction

We present calculations of the magnetoconductivity in a two-dimensional electron system including the Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Essential for these calculations is an extension of the self-consistent Born approximation which takes into account the electron spin degree of freedom. The calculated magnetoconductivity exhibits, besides the beating in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, a modulation related to the spin-orbit induced crossings of Landau levels, as a consequence of spin-conserving scattering between spin-orbit coupled states.     

窄禁带半磁半导体Hg_(1-x)Mn_xTe的磁化强度

本文报道用提拉法测量Hg_(1-x)Mn_xTe单晶磁化强度的实验结果.在低温1.5K-30K范图内,磁场强度为0-7万高斯下,测量了不同组分x=0.06,0.08,0.12,0.16的Hg_(1-x)Mn_xTe磁化强度与组分,温度和磁场强度的关系.采用分子场近似模型,用类布里渊函数,最小二乘法对实验结果进行了拟合和分析.结果表明在本文x值范围内,理论与实验符合较好,证实了锰离子间存在强的反铁磁交换耦合.     

明末儒将朱舜水的园林花木趣味及他对东京小石川后乐园的贡献

朱舜水为明末清初进步思想家，博学多艺。他在力争复明抗清失败后流亡日本，对日本近世文化做出了巨大贡献。本文在概 括朱舜水对日本文化诸多方面所做贡献的基础上，分析了他的园林花木趣味，澄清了他在小石川后乐园建造过程中所参与工作的项目 与内容。     

Prediction of swirling confined diffusion flame with a Monte Carlo and a presumed-PDF-model

This work aims to compare numerical results obtained by using the Monte Carlo composition-PDF method and a presumed-β-PDF in order to reveal their effects on the prediction of flow and scalar fields in swirling confined methane diffusion flame. Using the intrinsic low dimensional manifolds method for modelling the chemistry and a second moment closure for the turbulence, it is shown that both PDF-methods provide a similar accuracy level of the prediction of mean quantities. While the presumed-β-PDF performs using reasonable computational efforts, the Monte Carlo-PDF allows to capture well the turbulence-chemistry interaction and strong finite-chemistry effects such as local extinction.