Ethylene polymerization over MgO‐supported zirconocene catalysts

Supported zirconcene catalysts on a new support, MgO, were prepared and tested in ethylene polymerization. Three types of impregnation methods were employed to find an optimum supporting method for MgO. The direct impregnation of Cp₂ZrCl₂ on MgO showed low metal loading and polymerization activity, while the catalyst had a higher metal loading and polymerization activity when MgO was treated with methylaluminoxane (MAO) before supporting. Treatment of MgO with MAO during the supporting step invoked two types of catalytic sites, which was evidenced by the bimodal molecular weight distribution of the polymer products. MgO is considered to have potential as a support for metallocenes.     

Exploiting ILP, TLP, and DLP with the polymorphous trips architecture

The Tera-op reliable intelligently adaptive processing system (TRIPS) architecture seeks to deliver system-level configurability to applications and runtime systems. It does so by employing the concept of polymorphism, which permits the runtime system to configure the hardware execution resources to match the mode of execution and demands of the compiler and application.     

Protective effects of green tea extracts (polyphenon E and EGCG) on human cervical lesions

We investigated clinical efficacy of green tea extracts (polyphenon E; poly E and (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate [EGCG]) delivered in a form of ointment or capsule in patients with human papilloma virus (HPV) infected cervical lesions. Fifty-one patients with cervical lesions (chronic cervicitis, mild dysplasia, moderate dysplasia and severe dysplasia) were divided into four groups, as compared with 39 untreated patients as a control. Poly E ointment was applied locally to 27 patients twice a week. For oral delivery, a 200 mg of poly E or EGCG capsule was taken orally every day for eight to 12 weeks. In the study, 20 out of 27 patients (74%) under poly E ointment therapy showed a response. Six out of eight patients under poly E ointment plus poly E capsule therapy (75%) showed a response, and three out of six patients (50%) under poly E capsule therapy showed a response. Six out of 10 patients (60%) under EGCG capsule therapy showed a response. Overall, a 69% response rate (35/51) was noted for treatment with green tea extracts, as compared with a 10% response rate (4/39) in untreated controls (P<0.05). Thus, the data collected here demonstrated that green tea extracts in a form of ointment and capsule are effective for treating cervical lesions, suggesting that green tea extracts can be a potential therapy regimen for patients with HPV infected cervical lesions.     

Central GABAA and GABAB receptor modulation of basal and stress-induced plasma interleukin-6 levels in mice

The development of control strategies for loiasis is of crucial importance in endemic areas and depends heavily on the accurate identification of occult-infected individuals. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested polymerase chain reaction (nested PCR) were developed and based on sequences of the repeat 3 region (15r3) of the gene encoding a Loa loa 15-kD protein. The assays was performed on 20 blood samples from occult-infected subjects and 30 from field-collected amicrofilaremic individuals. The size of the initial PCR product was 396 basepairs (bp). When this initial amplification using primers 15r3(1) and 15r3(2) was carried out for 30 cycles, the PCR products from three of the 20 occult-infected and five of the 30 amicrofilaremic individuals were visualized after electrophoresis by staining the gel with ethidium bromide. Subsequent Southern blotting and hybridization with the specific probe revealed hybridization in 19 of 20 occult-infected and 23 of 30 amicrofilaremic samples but only after two days of exposure of the blot to the x-ray film. When the nested PCR was carried out (product size = 366 bp, primers 15r3(3) and 15r3(4)), 19 of 20 occult-infected and 23 of 30 amicrofilaremic samples that were positive by Southern hybridization of the initial PCR products were strongly positive by staining with ethidium bromide. Qualitative Southern blotting of the nested PCR products using the same probe previously described confirmed the ethidium bromide staining results after a very short exposure time of 4 hr. These results demonstrate that the nested PCR amplification product is specific and that its sensitivity in detecting occult loiasis is 95%. This approach has significant promise for the screening of large human populations for active loiasis without the requirement for blotting and hybridization of the PCR products.     

Energy efficiency in cloud computing based on mixture power spectral density prediction

Due to the budget and environmental issues, adaptive energy efficiency receives a lot of attention these days, especially for cloud computing. In the previous research, we developed a combined methodology based on nonparametric prediction and convex optimization to produce proactive energy efficiency-oriented solution. In this work, the predictive analysis was further enhanced by deriving the mixture power spectral density to model the complex cloud monitoring statistics. By engaging the improved technique to the predictive analysis, the prediction process was more adaptive to handle the fluctuation in system utilization. As a consequence, the optimization process could subsequently produce more appropriate setting for energy savings. After the infrastructure setting has been made available, the instruction of virtual machine migration was created and implemented by the cloud orchestrator. This instruction condensed the services into the pool of active facilities, satisfying the objective of power efficiency. Eventually, any physical machine out of the power configuration would be gradually terminated. Compared to our former method, the effectiveness of the proposed technique has been proven by cutting down 4.92% of energy consumption, while still maintaining a similar quality of services.

     

Binary blends of nylons with ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymers: Morphological,thermal, rheological,and mechanical behavior

Binary blends of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymers, containing 62 (EVOH-62) and 71 (EVOH-71) mole percent vinyl alcohols, with nylons (nylon-6, nylon-6/12, and nylon-12) have been prepared from melt mixing in a twin screw compounding machine. Morphological, thermal, rheological, and mechanical properties were determined. EVOH-62/nylon-6 and EVOH-71/nylon-6 blends showed homogeneous phase morphologies in the nylon-6-rich region, and fine phase separations (c.a. 2 × 10^?7 m) in the EVOH-rich region. Melting point depression, positive deviations in viscosity and flexural modulus, and negative deviation in impact strength from the simple additive rule were generally observed. And the results were possibly interpreted in terms of compatibility and increased nylon/EVOH interactions over the nylon/nylon interactions. On the contrary, clean phase separations in large domains were observed from EVOH-71/nylon-6/12 and EVOH-71 /nylon-12 blends. Fibrillation was also obtained from EVOH rich blends. Probably due to the incompatible nature of these blends, yield at low rate of shear and a mechanical property drop were also observed.     

Performance enhancement of TCP in high-speed networks

GridFTP is a secure and reliable high-performance parallel data transfer protocol used for transferring massive amounts of widely distributed data. Currently it allows users to configure the number of parallel streams and socket buffer size. However, its tuning procedure for optimal combination is a time consuming task. The socket handlers and buffers are important system resources and must therefore be carefully managed. In this paper, we propose a scheme to achieve high throughput even with a smaller buffer size, and also derive a regression equation to predict the optimal combination of resources for a connection. To improve the performance, the TCP based on our scheme obtains higher throughput and spends less memory for the same throughput than the original TCP scheme. In addition, the regression equation is verified by comparing measured and predicted values, and we apply the equation to an actual experiment on the KOrea advanced REsearch Network (KOREN). The result demonstrates that the equation provides excellent predictions with only an 8% error boundary.     

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and its application to molecular and cellular analysis

In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) based optical detection techniques with an application focus on cancer diagnostics. As we describe herein, SERS has several analytical, biological and engineering advantages over other methods including extremely high sensitivity, inherent molecular specificity of unlabeled targets, and narrow spectral bands. We review advances in both in vitro and in vivo applications of SERS and examine how technical issues with the technology are being addressed. A special technology focus is given to emerging optofluidic devices which aim to merge microfluidic and optical detection technologies into simple packages. We conclude with a brief discussion of some of the emerging challenges in the field and some of the approaches that are likely to enhance their application. Y. S. Huh and A. J. Chung contributed equally.