Structural Insights into Iron Ions Accumulation in Dps Nanocage

Dps (DNA-binding protein from starved cells) is well known for the structural protection of bacterial DNA by the formation of highly ordered intracellular assemblies under stress conditions. Moreover, this ferritin-like protein can perform fast oxidation of ferrous ions and subsequently accumulate clusters of ferric ions in its nanocages, thus providing the bacterium with physical and chemical protection. Here, cryo-electron microscopy was used to study the accumulation of iron ions in the nanocage of a Dps protein from Escherichia coli. We demonstrate that Fe²⁺ concentration in the solution and incubation time have an insignificant effect on the volume and the morphology of iron minerals formed in Dps nanocages. However, an increase in the Fe²⁺ level leads to an increase in the proportion of larger clusters and the clusters themselves are composed of discrete ~1–1.5 nm subunits.     

Completion and stimulation trends in North American unconventional plays and resulting impact on well productivity

过去十年,非常规油气勘探开发在全球范围内大幅扩张。水平钻井和多级水力压裂技术也在不断地发展和创新,使得超长水平井成为可能。同时,因为压裂强度不断增加,作业者可以最大限度地提高储层接触面积和对储层的改造体积 （SRV）。然而,完井优化方面的挑战仍然存在,作业者持续不断地尝试和试验各种完井与增产参数组合,以确保非常规油气藏开发的经济可行性。优选最佳的完井与增产参数组合是一项非常关键的任务,应结合油气田的具体储层特征进行优化。本文总结了2014—2020年间北美9个主要非常规油气藏的压裂增产趋势,包括Marcellus, Haynesville, Barnett, Utica, Bone Spring, Bakken, Wolfcamp Midland, Eagle Ford, Scoop/Stack。分析了各油气田几个关键的完井和增产参数的整体趋势,同时还评估了单个参数（如水平段压裂长度、支撑剂强度、段间距等）对井产能的影响。然后对比分析相应的初始井产量（90 天平均初始产量）,评估各个参数对产能的影响,从而确定每个完井参数的最佳范围,以实现产能最优化。     

Closed-loop control of hydraulic telescopic handler

Automatization is supposed to improve working conditions and safety in the construction industry, as it already did in manufacturing industries. This paper presents the development of a robotic control system for a commercially available hydraulic telescopic handler. The target application for the telescopic handler is semi-automated assembly of facade panels. The base handler was upgraded with two additional hydraulic axes, position sensors and closed-loop control system, while the original handler safety assurance mechanisms were preserved. The control approach is based on a PI controller with velocity feedforward and valve overlap compensation. The direct and inverse kinematic models of handler mechanism were developed to enable control of end-effector motion along a straight line in the Cartesian coordinate system. The motion performances were evaluated following the ISO 9283 standard with payload of 2000 kg. Results show the repeatability of positioning bellow 7.0 mm and the straight line tracking error smaller than 63 mm.     

Modeling TCP SACK performance over wireless channels with semi-reliable ARQ/FEC

Providing reliable data communications over wireless channels is a challenging task because time-varying wireless channel characteristics often lead to bit errors. These errors result in loss of IP packets and, consequently, TCP segments encapsulated into these packets. Since TCP cannot distinguish packet losses due to bit corruption from those due to network congestion, any packet loss caused by wireless channel impairments leads to unnecessary execution of the TCP congestion control algorithms and, hence, sub-optimal performance. Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) and Forward Error Correction (FEC) try to improve communication reliability and reduce packet losses by detecting and recovering corrupted bits. Most analytical models that studied the effect of ARQ and FEC on TCP performance assumed that the ARQ scheme is perfectly persistent (i.e., completely reliable), thus a frame is always successfully transmitted irrespective of the number of transmission attempts it takes. In this paper, we develop an analytical cross-layer model for a TCP connection running over a wireless channel with a semi-reliable ARQ scheme, where the amount of transmission attempts is limited by some number. The model allows to evaluate the joint effect of stochastic properties of the wireless channel characteristics and various implementation-specific parameters on TCP performance, which makes it suitable for performance optimization studies. The input parameters include the bit error rate, the value of the normalized autocorrelation function of bit error observations at lag 1, the strength of the FEC code, the persistency of ARQ, the size of protocol data units at different layers, the raw data rate of the wireless channel, and the bottleneck link buffer size.     

The interplay of electronic structure,molecular orientation and charge transport in organic semiconductors: Poly(thiophene) and poly(bithiophene)

Ultrathin films of poly(thiophene) (PT) and poly(bithiophene) (PBT) were prepared by electrochemical route using ionic liquid (BFEE) as medium and electrolyte. Distinct morphologies and electrical properties were observed in these materials. To evaluate its response in photovoltaics, these films were used as active layer in bilayer geometry solar cells with the electron acceptor molecule C₆₀. The best performance was observed for PT films. In order to probe the differences in molecular dynamics and structural order, ultrafast electron dynamics in the low-femtosecond regime was evaluated by resonant Auger spectroscopy using the core–hole clock method at the sulfur K absorption edge. Electron delocalization times for the different polymeric films were derived as a function of the excitation energy. Photoabsorption measurements were conducted and molecular orientation derived. These results corroborated with the morphology found for these films and thus the performance of PT and PBT in the devices, and with the proposed conduction mechanism.     

3D monolithic integration: Technological challenges and electrical results

After a short reminder of the principle of monolithic 3D integration, this paper firstly reviews the main technological challenges associated to this integration and proposes solutions to assess them. Wafer bonding is used to have perfect crystalline quality of the top layer at the wafer scale. Thermally stabilized silicide is developed to use standard salicidation scheme in the bottom layer. Finally a fully depleted SOI low temperature process is demonstrated for top layer processing (overall temperature kept below 650 °C). In a second part the electrical results obtained within this integration scheme are summarized: mixed Ge over Si invertor is demonstrated and electrostatic coupling between top and bottom layer is used to shift the threshold voltage of the top layer. Finally circuit opportunities such as stabilized SRAM or gain in density are investigated.     

Some compositional changes in malted sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) grain and its value in broiler chicken diet

Grains of two sorghum (Sorghum vulgare L) varieties were germinated at room temperature for 2, 4 and 6 days. Germination resulted in an increase in protein content due to dry matter loss; this rose with increasing time of germination. The absolute amount of tannin was unchanged until the fourth day of germination but decreased markedly by the sixth day. Fractionation of the grain protein of one variety showed that there was a large increase in the albumin-globulin fraction (rich in lysine) and a decrease in the kafirin and cross-linked kafirin fraction (low in lysine) as a result of germination. Although these changes resulted in a more than 30% increase in lysine content on the fourth and sixth days of germination, a substantial loss in dry matter occurred when germination was continued up to 6 days. When 14-day-old Hubbard chicks were fed a diet containing about 59% malted sorghum supplemented with lysine, they showed better (P < 0.05) weight gain and efficiency of feed conversion than those on malted sorghum without lysine supplementation. However, malting reduced the amount of lysine needed to supplement the diet from 0.25% for unmalted sorghum to 0.18% for malted sorghum.     

无线局域网--展望未来

符合802．11b标准的无线局域网为市场上无线网络的发展搭建了稳定的平台。WiFi标准可保证不同厂商产品的互操作性，从而确保最终消费者投资的安全。随着与802．11b同在2．4GHz带宽上运行的更新的802．11g网络的推出，无线网络得到进一步发展。它们既能支持更高速率(最大54Mb/秒)，又具有向下兼容的特性。此外，消费者也可以选择在5GHz带宽的速率上运行802．11a