The relationship between land-surface temperature and rice quality in Tottori prefecture,Japan

Numerous studies have suggested that rice quality in Japan is affected by high temperatures during the ripening period, especially in summer. On the assumption that land-surface temperature (LST) can be substituted for air temperature, we examined rice quality using LST satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) during the ripening stage (August) in Tottori prefecture. Rice quality in Tottori was very low compared with Japan as a whole and to neighbouring prefectures. LST was correlated with minimum and average air temperatures in August at six meteorological stations in Tottori. Rice quality decreased with increasing LST, and the threshold LST value when the quality of rice was less than 50% was 307 K (33.9 °C). The spatial distribution of LST in August indicated that LST values over 307 K were widespread, especially in coastal and lowland areas, and areas with the highest rice quality corresponded with intermountain regions that had LSTs less than 307 K.     

Proteomic analysis of autoantigens associated with systemic lupus erythematosus: Anti-aldolase A antibody as a potential marker of lupus nephritis

To screen for autoantibodies associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we used proteomic approaches combining 2-D PAGE and Western blot analysis, followed by protein identification by LC-MS/MS analysis, resulting in the identification of aldolase A as a novel autoantigen in SLE. ELISA showed the prevalence of anti-aldolase A antibodies to be 29.3% in SLE, 8.2% in rheumatoid arthritis, 18.1% in polymyositis and absent in healthy controls. Furthermore, 43.4% of SLE patients suffering from nephritis showed anti-aldolase A autoantibodies, which was significantly higher than the prevalence for those without nephritis (11.1%). In lupus nephritis, there are few reliable diagnostic methods, other than urinalysis. Therefore, these results indicate that autoantibodies against aldolase A may serve as an alternative clinical biomarker of SLE associated with nephritis.     

An empirical comparison of min–max-modular <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-NN with different voting methods to large-scale text categorization

Text categorization refers to the task of assigning the pre-defined classes to text documents based on their content. k-NN algorithm is one of top performing classifiers on text data. However, there is little research work on the use of different voting methods over text data. Also, when a huge number of training data is available online, the response speed slows down, since a test document has to obtain the distance with each training data. On the other hand, min–max-modular k-NN (M³-k-NN) has been applied to large-scale text categorization. M³-k-NN achieves a good performance and has faster response speed in a parallel computing environment. In this paper, we investigate five different voting methods for k-NN and M³-k-NN. The experimental results and analysis show that the Gaussian voting method can achieve the best performance among all voting methods for both k-NN and M³-k-NN. In addition, M³-k-NN uses less k-value to achieve the better performance than k-NN, and thus is faster than k-NN in a parallel computing environment. The work of K. Wu and B. L. Lu was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the grants NSFC 60375022 and NSFC 60473040, and the Microsoft Laboratory for Intelligent Computing and Intelligent Systems of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.     

Effect of ultrafine particles on the elastic properties of oriented low-density polyethylene composites

Spherical fine particles with various diameters (70, 160, and 400 Å and 35 μ) were mixed with low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The oriented composites were made by necking drawing. Thus the oriented polymer composites were hexagonal symmetric. Their elastic properties were determined by five compliances or stiffness constants. Four of them, i.e., S₃₃, S₁₁, S₁₃, and S₄₄, were determined for the oriented composites filled with 70-Å and 35-μ fillers. All the compliances of the 70-Å filler composites decrease with filler content, whereas in those of the 35-μ filler composites this relation was reversed. The Young's moduli of the oriented composites filled with relatively small particles (70, 160, and 400 Å) in the restretching directions 0, 45, and 90° against the original draw axis increased with filler content and with decreasing filler size, whereas those of the 35-μ filler composites decreased with filler content. These results show that extremely small particles comparable to the size of the LDPE in the crystalline region exert a considerable reinforcing effect on the oriented polymer matrix.     

Structure of decrystallized cotton in fabrics prepared by alkali and acrylonitrile treatments

The crystalline structure of decrystallized cotton, prepared by partial cyanoethylation with the use of sodium hydroxide aqueous solution and acrylonitrile, was examined by x-ray and IR data, in connection with such fabric properties as moisture regain. It was found that the moisture regain of the cotton fabric first increased, passed through a maximum at about 6 mole-% of cyanoethylation, and then slightly decreased with increasing degree of cyanoethylation. The increase of moisture regain in the region of the lower degree of cyanoethylation was well related to the decrease in the crystallinity of cotton. The x-ray diffraction studies revealed that the distension and disorder of the unit cell occurred primarily in the direction perpendicular to the (101) crystal plane as cyanoethylation proceeded.     

Toughening of epoxy resins by modification with aromatic polyesters

Aromatic polyesters, prepared by the reaction of phthalic or isophthalic acids and α,ω-alkanediols, were used to reduce the brittleness of bisphenol-A diglycidyl ether epoxy resin cured with methyl hexahydrophthalic anhydride. These polyesters were effective as modifiers for toughening of the epoxy resin system. The most suitable composition for modification of the epoxy resins was inclusion of 20 wt % of poly(ethylene phthalate) (MW 7200), which resulted in a 150% increase in the fracture toughness (K_IC) of the cured resin at no expense of its mechanical properties. The effectiveness of poly(alkylene phthalate)s as modifiers decreased with increasing the chain length of alkylene units. The toughening mechanism was discussed based on the morphological and dynamic mechanical behaviors of the modified epoxy resin system.     

Synthesis of polymers bearing azo-dye chromophore with photocrosslinkable moiety for nonlinear optics

Summary Novel photocrosslinkable second-order nonlinear optical(NLO) polymers were synthesized from radical homopolymerization of 4-[N-ethyl-N-(2-methacryloyloxyethyl)]amino-4-(2-cinnamoyloxyethyloxycarbonyl)-2-nitroazobenzene(MACN) or copolymerization of MACN with 2-(cinnamoxyloxy)ethyl methacrylate(CM), and from polycondensation of 4-[N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)]amino-4-(2-cinnamoyloxyethyloxycarbonyl)-2-nitroazobenzene(HACN) with p-phenylenediacyloyl chloride(PD). For the purpose of obtaining an optimized condition of UV irradiation for poling treatment involving photocrosslinking, photoreactivity of these NLO polymer films was investigated. There was observed considerably different photoreaction behavior, especially in photofading of the NLO chromophore, between MACN polymer and HACNPD polycondensate; the latter faded more rapidly than the former. A reason for this phenomenon was considered.     

Photodegradable polymers. II. Preparation of styrene copolymers with alkyl and phenyl β-styryl ketones and their photodegradability

Photodegradable polymers having pendent carbonyl groups attached directly to the polymer chain were prepared by copolymerization of styrene (St) with alkyl and phenyl β-styryl ketones (RCOCH?CHC₆H₅), where R = CH₃, C₂H₅, n-C₅H₁₁, n-C₁₁H₂₃, t-C₄H₉, cyclo-C₆H₁₁, and C₆H₅. The photodegradability of these copolymers was traced by viscometric and IR spectroscopic measurements. The degradability of St–benzalacetophenone (BAPh) copolymer is greater than that of St–alkyl styryl ketone copolymers under the irradiation of a high-pressure Hg lamp. The photodecomposition behavior St–BAPh copolymer was investigated in detail by a spectoirradiation technique. The changes in molecular weight and its distribution by photodegradation were measured by gel permeation chromatography, and the quantum yield for bond scission along the main chains of the copolymer was estimated to be about 5 × 10^?3 by 328 nm irradiation in a benzene solution. Examination of the effect of wavelength of the radiation on the bond scission showed that 328-nm light is most effective. The photochemical degradation process was shown to occur chiefly via triplet state of carbonyl groups by the quenching technique using 1,3-cyclohexadiene as a triplet quencher. The quantum yield of decarbonylation process was also estimated to be about 4.2 × 10 ^?2 in benzene.     

Improved genetic algorithm for VLSI floorplan design with non-slicing structure

Floorplan design is an important engineering problem. This problem can be modeled as a combinatorial optimization problem, in which a given set of rectangles in floorplan must be arranged. The goal is to find the arrangement with minimum area and minimum interconnection. Floorplans can be classified into slicing structure and non-slicing structure problems. In both problem types, it is difficult to obtain a true optimal solution in a time that could be used in practice. We proposed the new immune algorithm for optimization of the slicing structure problem in the past. In this paper, we focus on and analyze the improved points considered to be especially effective, and propose a new genetic algorithm for the non-slicing structure problem. The proposed method is compared with existing methods using well-known benchmark problems.     

关于溶菌酶过滤器的验证报告——过滤器内微生物的二次污染验证和对策

酶过滤器的主要功能就是杀灭被过滤器表面所捕获的悬浮细菌,以保护过滤器系统不受二次污染。溶解酶均匀地固化在过滤介质的横截面上,保护过滤系统不受二次污染。对高效过滤器和ASHRAE级过滤器微生物二次污染的认定方法,报导“杀菌酶过滤器”的现场数据,证明了预防性措施的实际效果。