MOVPE-grown GaInNAs VCSELs at 1.3 /spl mu/m with conventional mirror design approach

1.3 /spl mu/m oxide confined GaInNAs VCSELs designed using the same design philosophy used for standard 850 nm VCSELs is presented. The VCSELs have doped mirrors, with graded and highly doped interfaces, and are fabricated using production-friendly procedures. Multimode VCSELs (11 /spl mu/m oxide aperture) with an emission wavelength of 1287 nm have a threshold current of 3 mA and produce 1 mW of output power at 20/spl deg/C. The maximum operating temperature is 95/spl deg/C. Emission at 1303 nm with 1 mW of output power and a threshold current of 7 mA has been observed from VCSELs with a larger detuning between the gain peak and the cavity resonance.     

Molds and mycotoxins in dust from water‐damaged homes in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina

Abstract Abstract Dust collected in New Orleans homes mold‐contaminated because of the flooding after hurricane Katrina was analyzed for molds and mycotoxins. The mycoflora was studied by cultivation and quantitative PCR for selected molds. The most commonly found mold taxa were Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and Penicillium. Verrucarol, a hydrolysis product of macrocyclic trichothecenes predominately produced by Stachybotrys spp. was identified in three dust samples by gas chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry, and sterigmatocystin (produced by various Aspergillus spp.) was found in two samples by high pressure liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. This is the first demonstration of mycotoxins in Katrina‐associated dust samples. The analytical methods used represent valuable tools in further studies on bioaerosol exposure and health risks.     

The scalable process topology interface of MPI 2.2

The Message‐passing Interface (MPI) standard provides basic means for adaptations of the mapping of MPI process ranks to processing elements to better match the communication characteristics of applications to the capabilities of the underlying systems. The MPI process topology mechanism enables the MPI implementation to rerank processes by creating a new communicator that reflects user‐supplied information about the application communication pattern. With the newly released MPI 2.2 version of the MPI standard, the process topology mechanism has been enhanced with new interfaces for scalable and informative user‐specification of communication patterns. Applications with relatively static communication patterns are encouraged to take advantage of the mechanism whenever convenient by specifying their communication pattern to the MPI library. Reference implementations of the new mechanism can be expected to be readily available (and come at essentially no cost), but non‐trivial implementations pose challenging problems for the MPI implementer. This paper is first and foremost addressed to application programmers wanting to use the new process topology interfaces. It explains the use and the motivation for the enhanced interfaces and the advantages gained even with a straightforward implementation. For the MPI implementer, the paper summarizes the main issues in the efficient implementation of the interface and explains the optimization problems that need to be (approximately) solved by a good MPI library. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predisposition for breast cancer in carriers of constitutional translocation 11q;22q

A translocation between the long arms of chromosomes 11 and 22, t(11;22)(q23;q11), is the most frequent constitutional reciprocal translocation in man. This chromosome abnormality has not previously been reported to be associated with an increased risk for neoplasia. The observation of one patient with a constitutional translocation t(11q;22q) and breast cancer prompted us to study the relationship between these two conditions. The incidence of breast cancer was determined in carriers of t(11q;22q). The karyotypes were determined by QFQ-banding, and the breakpoints were then further characterized by fluorescent in situ hybridization. Eight families with a total of 22 balanced carriers were found. In five of these families there was one case of breast cancer each. In another family a case of an unknown malignancy was reported in one member. No other malignancies were found among these patients. The number of breast cancer cases was significantly higher than expected among the translocation carriers (P < .001). The chromosomal breakpoints showed the same localization with the markers used, in the seven families studied. The association of constitutional translocation t(11q;22q) and breast cancer identifies a subset of patients with a highly increased risk for breast cancer who would benefit from counseling and screening. It also suggests the involvement of genes on 11q and/or 22q, in the tumorigenesis of breast cancer.     

砷污染的危害及除砷方法探讨

贵州省都柳江砷污染造成17人出现不同程度的砷中毒,严重影响着人们的正常生活.因此有必要对砷污染的治理进行研究,提出不同的除砷方法,为今后砷污染的治理提供一定的可行方案.     

Intracellular ZnO Nanorods Conjugated with Protoporphyrin for Local Mediated Photochemistry and Efficient Treatment of Single Cancer Cell

ZnO nanorods (NRs) with high surface area to volume ratio and biocompatibility is used as an efficient photosensitizer carrier system and at the same time providing intrinsic white light needed to achieve cancer cell necrosis. In this letter, ZnO nanorods used for the treatment of breast cancer cell (T47D) are presented. To adjust the sample for intracellular experiments, we have grown the ZnO nanorods on the tip of borosilicate glass capillaries (0.5 μm diameter) by aqueous chemical growth technique. The grown ZnO nanorods were conjugated using protoporphyrin dimethyl ester (PPDME), which absorbs the light emitted by the ZnO nanorods. Mechanism of cytotoxicity appears to involve the generation of singlet oxygen inside the cell. The novel findings of cell-localized toxicity indicate a potential application of PPDME-conjugated ZnO NRs in the necrosis of breast cancer cell within few minutes.     

Corrosion properties of CVD grown Ti(C,N) coatings in 3.5 wt-% NaCl environment

The corrosion behaviour of Titanium carbonitride (Ti(C,N)) films grown by chemical vapour deposition was analysed in artificial sea water environment. From potentiodynamic polarisation curves, two passivation zones were detected, which originated from an initial oxidation of TiC and TiN to TiO₂ followed by growth of the TiO₂ layer upon increased polarisation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses verified the mechanism by detecting a gradual decrease in Ti(C,N) peaks accompanied by a gradual increase of oxidised Ti (e.g. TiO₂). It was likewise found that carbon in TiC mainly decomposes into carbonate species while the nitrogen in TiN remains elemental and likely escapes as nitrogen gas. Accordingly, Ti(C,N) behaves like a superposition of TiC and TiN with their individual oxidation behaviour, resulting in a highly corrosion resistant material.     

Dissolution of Lignin from Kraft Pulp after Treatment with Nitrogen Oxides

Laboratory experiments show that pretreatment with NO₂ including heating and ripening at 5% consistency and 90°C for 3 hours in the presence of NO₃- and H⁺ led to a dissolution of approximately 50–60% of the lignin in unbleached kraft pulp. Only 5–15% were dissolved when the treatment was terminated after heating to 90°C. An extensive fragmentation of the lignin during the ripening explains the extensive delignification in acid medium.

Fractionated dissolution of the remaining lignin by alkaline extraction gave fractions with small variation in N-contents (2.9–3.4%) and hydrophilicity. The last fraction exhibited the highest sorption of water vapor. The delignification was related to the decrease in molecular size during the pretreatment and during the subsequent alkaline treatments.     

Weak responses of pine sawfly larvae to high needle flavonoid concentrations in scots pine

Responses of sawfly larvae (Hymenoptera, Diprionidae) to the flavonoid taxifolin glucoside in their host plant were studied in a laboratory experiment. Larvae ofNeodiprion sertifer andDiprion pini were raised from egg hatch to cocoon spinning on two Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) chemotypes, one without needle taxifolin glucoside (–) and the other containing 2–4% taxifolin glucoside (+). The (+) chemotype had somewhat lower concentrations of needle terpenoids (resin acids) than the (–) chemotype. Current-year needles had higher taxifolin glucoside concentrations than mature needles. There were no differences in survival or body size betweenN. sertifer larvae that fed on the (+) chemotype and those that fed on the (–) chemotype. FemaleD. pini larvae raised on (+) needles developed 6% more slowly than larvae fed (–) needles. The results from this study are contrary to earlier findings showing that flavonoid glucosides have strong negative effects on insect performance. Possible explanations for the different outcomes are discussed.     

Failure of high strength steel sheets: Experiments and modelling

Failure in sheet metal structures of ductile material is usually caused by one of, or a combination of, ductile fracture, shear fracture or localised instability. In this paper the failure of the high strength steel Docol 600DP and the ultra high strength steel Docol 1200M is explored. The constitutive model used in this study includes plastic anisotropy and mixed isotropic-kinematic hardening. For modelling of the ductile and shear fracture the models presented by Cockroft–Latham and Bressan–Williams have been used. The instability phenomenon is described by the constitutive law and the finite element (FE) models. For calibration of the failure models and validation of the results, an extensive experimental series has been conducted including shear tests, plane strain tests and Nakajima tests. The geometries of the Nakajima tests have been chosen so that the first quadrant of the forming limit diagram (FLD) were covered. The results are presented both in an FLD and using prediction of force–displacement response of the Nakajima test employing element erosion during the FE simulations. The classical approach for failure prediction is to compare the principal plastic strains obtained from FE simulations with experimental determined forming limit curves (FLCs). It is well known that the experimental FLC requires proportional strains to be useful. In this work failure criteria, both of the instability and fracture, are proposed which can be used also for non-proportional strain paths.