Flux Jumps and H-T Diagram of Instability for MgB2

We present a study of magneto-thermal instabilities in polycrystalline MgB₂ superconductor, by magnetic hysteresis loop measurements and by investigations of magnetic flux dynamics with a miniature Hall probe. Temperature and magnetic field ranges where the flux jumps may be observed have been determined. On the basis of measurements of the magnetic flux dynamics, an average magnetic diffusivity describing the process of the flux jump is estimated. This parameter is compared with the thermal and magnetic diffusivities calculated on the basis of available data for thermal conductivity, heat capacity and resistivity. It is shown that the estimated value of the field of the first flux jump is influenced significantly by the field dependence of specific heat. In order to explain the observed phenomenon, the temperature reached by the sample during the flux jump at different magnetic fields is calculated.     

俄联邦防爆电气设备——对照国际标准俄国国家标准的修改、差异和独特性

1 俄联邦防爆电气设备应用情况 传统上快速发展的工业部门如进行石油和天然气生产、运输以及加工处理的那些部门、石油化工行业，以及很多可能出现爆炸性环境的其他行业，在其一些场所中需要使用防爆电气设备。     

Pyrolysed carbon supported cobalt porphyrin: a potent catalyst for oxidation of hydrogen sulfide

Pyrolysed carbon supported cobalt porphyrin, an electrocatalyst that is frequently used for oxygen reduction in fuel cells, is evaluated for catalytic oxidation of hydrogen sulfide by dissolved dioxygen. The catalyst performs best after heat treatment at 880 °C_, at pH 8. Analysis of the reaction products reveals that sulfur is the dominant product throughout the investigated pH range 5–10. The catalyst performs much better than powdered activated carbon, granular activated carbon and different other forms of unmodified carbon catalysts. This is as far as we know the first time that heat treated cobalt porphyrins are evaluated for non-electrocatalytic applications.     

The effects of a “distinct window” screen design on computer-mediated group decision making

An experiment was performed to test a distinct-window conferencing screen design as an electronic cue of social status differences in computer-mediated group decision-making. The screen design included one distinct window to symbolize high-status, and two nondistinct windows to symbolize low-status. The results indicated that the distinct-window screen design did produce status affects in groups of peers making decisions on judgmental problems. Randomly assigned occupants of the distinct window had greater influence on group decisions and member's attitudes than occupants of nondistinct windows.The authors would like to thank Shyam Kamadolli and Phaderm Nangsue, the programmers who developed the software used in this experiment. We would also like to thank the editor and our three anonymous reviewers for exceedingly helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.     

Halogenated Ti3C2 MXenes Prepared by Microwave Molten Salt for Hg0 Photo-Oxidation

Ti₃C₂ MXenes with different halogen modifications are prepared rapidly and efficiently by microwave molten salt method, and the MXene surface functional group modification is successfully achieved to address the problems of low purity, complex functional groups, and uncontrollable energy band structure of MXenes obtained by traditional liquid phase etching. Among them, the modification of the iodine (I) functional group onto the surface of Ti₃C₂ changes the energy band structure and band gap, resulting in easier photoexcitation and more photogenerated carriers. The increased Fermi energy is closer to the conduction band, the decreased surface work function weakens the electron confinement ability. The photogenerated carriers can migrate to the surface of the material more easily with extended lifetime, so the activity of the catalyst is improved. Further, for gaseous monomeric mercury (Hg⁰) photo-oxidative removal, Ti₃C₂-I₂ exhibits 85.5% efficiency of Hg⁰ photo-oxidative removal under visible light. Based on the experimental characterization and density functional theory calculations, a mechanism for the photo-oxidative removal of Hg° from Ti₃C₂-I₂ MXene is proposed, which provides a valuable strategy for studying Ti₃C₂ MXenes in the field of photocatalysis.     

Local effects in the vicinity of inserts in sandwich panels

The paper considers local bending effects induced in the vicinity of inserts in sandwich panels. Such local bending effects are associated with an increase of bending stresses in the sandwich faces and normal and shear stresses in the sandwich core. An earlier developed analytic model [Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Sandwich Structures (ICSS-6) (2002) 551] is adapted for the case of a sandwich panel with circular insert, with elastic properties differing from those of the core. The locally induced stresses in the faces and core due to presence of the insert are expressed via simple analytic relations (and charts) enabling an estimation of these local stresses. Finite element analysis is employed to demonstrate the applicability of the analytic model, and a good correspondence between the numerical and the analytical data is found. A study case related to marine applications, namely a circular insert in a sandwich deck panel used for mounting of a rigging fixture, is considered, and optimization of an existing design is carried out.     

Prognostic Analysis of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Based on Their Morphological Portrait and Expression of Pluripotent Markers

The ability of human pluripotent stem cells for unlimited proliferation and self-renewal promotes their application in the fields of regenerative medicine. The morphological assessment of growing colonies and cells, as a non-invasive method, allows the best clones for further clinical applications to be safely selected. For this purpose, we analyzed seven morphological parameters of both colonies and cells extracted from the phase-contrast images of human embryonic stem cell line H9, control human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) line AD3, and hiPSC line HPCASRi002-A (CaSR) in various passages during their growth for 120 h. The morphological phenotype of each colony was classified using a visual analysis and associated with its potential for pluripotency and clonality maintenance, thus defining the colony phenotype as the control parameter. Using the analysis of variance for the morphological parameters of each line, we showed that selected parameters carried information about different cell lines and different phenotypes within each line. We demonstrated that a model of classification of colonies and cells by phenotype, built on the selected parameters as predictors, recognized the phenotype with an accuracy of 70–75%. In addition, we performed a qRT-PCR analysis of eleven pluripotency markers genes. By analyzing the variance of their expression in samples from different lines and with different phenotypes, we identified group-specific sets of genes that could be used as the most informative ones for the separation of the best clones. Our results indicated the fundamental possibility of constructing a morphological portrait of a colony informative for the automatic identification of the phenotype and for linking this portrait to the expression of pluripotency markers.     

Regulation of the Key Epithelial Cancer Suppressor miR-124 Function by Competing Endogenous RNAs

A decrease in the miR-124 expression was observed in various epithelial cancers. Like a classical suppressor, miR-124 can inhibit the translation of multiple oncogenic proteins. Epigenetic mechanisms play a significant role in the regulation of miR-124 expression and involve hypermethylation of the MIR-124-1/-2/-3 genes and the effects of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) according to the model of competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs). More than 40 interactomes (lncRNA/miR-124/mRNA) based on competition between lncRNAs and mRNAs for miR-124 binding have been identified in various epithelial cancers. LncRNAs MALAT1, NEAT1, HOXA11-AS, and XIST are the most represented in these axes. Fourteen axes (e.g., SND1-IT1/miR-124/COL4A1) are involved in EMT and/or metastasis. Moreover, eight axes (e.g., OIP5-AS1/miR-124-5p/IDH2) are involved in key pathways, such as Wnt/b-catenin, E2F1, TGF-β, SMAD, ERK/MAPK, HIF-1α, Notch, PI3K/Akt signaling, and cancer cell stemness. Additionally, 15 axes impaired patient survival and three axes reduced chemo- or radiosensitivity. To date, 14 cases of miR-124 regulation by circRNAs have been identified. Half of them involve circHIPK3, which belongs to the exonic ecircRNAs and stimulates cell proliferation, EMT, autophagy, angiogenesis, and multidrug resistance. Thus, miR-124 and its interacting partners may be considered promising targets for cancer therapy.