Serologic evidence of previous Campylobacter jejuni infection in patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To determine if patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome are likely to have had Campylobacter jejuni infection before onset of neurologic symptoms. DESIGN: A case-control study. SETTING: Several university medical centers. PATIENTS: Case patients met clinical criteria for the Guillain-Barré syndrome between 1983 and 1990 and had a serum sample collected and frozen within 3 weeks after onset of neurologic symptoms (n = 118). Disease controls were patients with other neurologic illnesses (n = 56); healthy controls were hospital employees or healthy family members of patients (n = 47). MEASUREMENTS: Serum IgA, IgG, and IgM antibodies to C. jejuni were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Assays were done in a blinded manner. RESULTS: Optical density ratios > or = 2 in two or more immunoglobulin classes were seen in 43 (36%) of patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome and in 10 (10%) of controls (odds ratio, 5.3; 95% CI, 2.4 to 12.5; P < 0.001). Increasing the optical density ratio or the number of immunoglobulin classes necessary to yield a positive result increased the strength of the association. The number of patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome who had positive serologic responses was greatest from September to November (P = 0.02). Male patients were three times more likely to have serologic evidence of C. jejuni infection (P = 0.009); the proportion of patients with the syndrome who had a positive serologic response increased with age. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome are more likely than controls to have serologic evidence of C. jejuni infection in the weeks before onset of neurologic symptoms. Campylobacter jejuni may play a role in the initiation of the Guillain-Barré syndrome in many patients.     

Investigation on the Recrystallization Behaviour of Cold Deformed MP159 Alloy

The recrystallization behaviour of cold drawn MP159 alloy was investigated by optical and TEM examinations. It is found that the platelet ε phase in the MP alloy inhibits the recrystallization,and this effect makes the MP159 alloy with high recrystallization temperature of about 920℃.This inhibition mainly comes from the increasing of the interfacial energy, which results from the change of the coherent interfaces of (0001)hcp//(111)fcc into the incoherent interfaces when the recrystallizing grain fronts bypass the platelet ε martensite. The increasing of the interfacial energy also causes the dissolution of a few segments on the ε martensite platelets, which decreases the strength of the MP alloy     

Copper/copper oxide nanoparticles synthesis using Stachys lavandulifolia and its antibacterial activity

Nanoparticles of copper/cuprous oxide (Cu/Cu₂ O) were successfully synthesised by a green chemistry route. The synthesis process was carried out using an extract of Stachys lavandulifolia as both reducing and capping agents with a facile procedure. The nanoparticles were characterised by different techniques including X‐ray diffraction, indicating that the synthesised sample comprised both copper and cuprous oxide entity. The nanoparticles had a mean size of 80 nm and represented an impressive bactericidal effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Inspec keywords: copper, copper compounds, nanoparticles, nanofabrication, nanomedicine, antibacterial activity, X‐ray diffractionOther keywords: nanoparticles synthesis, Stachys lavandulifolia, antibacterial activity, green chemistry route, reducing agents, capping agents, X‐ray diffraction, bactericidal effect, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Cu‐Cu₂ O     

QoRank: A query‐dependent ranking model using LSE‐based weighted multiple hyperplanes aggregation for information retrieval

Ranking is a core problem for information retrieval since the performance of the search system is directly impacted by the accuracy of ranking results. Ranking model construction has been the focus of both the fields of information retrieval and machine learning, and learning to rank in particular has attracted much interest. Many ranking models have been proposed, for example, RankSVM is a state‐of‐the‐art method for learning to rank and has been empirically demonstrated to be effective. However, most of the proposed methods do not consider about the significant differences between queries, only resort to a single function in ranking. In this paper, we present a novel ranking model named QoRank, which performs the learning task dependent on queries. We also propose a LSE (least‐squares estimation) ‐based weighted method to aggregate the ranking lists produced by base decision functions as the final ranking. Comparison of QoRank with other ranking techniques is conducted, and several evaluation criteria are employed to evaluate its performance. Experimental results on the LETOR OHSUMED data set show that QoRank strikes a good balance of accuracy and complexity, and outperforms the baseline methods. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Design and construction of a high temperature and pressure electrodeless conductivity probe

An electrodeless conductivity probe has been designed and tested at temperatures up to 250 degrees C and pressures of 4.13 MPa (600 psi). A unique pressure seal permits temperature cycling. Design of the electronics permits accurate measurement of conductivities at various elevated temperatures in spite of the change of magnetic properties of the toroids with temperature. The design of the probe can be adapted for insertion, in-line, or bypass operation.     

磁场作用下苯并三氮唑对黄铜的缓蚀性能研究

采用极化曲线和交流阻抗谱研究了苯并三氮唑(BTA)对黄铜/模拟水腐蚀体系的缓蚀作用,以及电磁场作用下BTA对黄铜电极缓蚀性能的变化.结果显示,BTA对该体系有较好的缓蚀作用;电磁处理和BTA联合作用时,腐蚀电流密度较缓蚀剂单独作用时进一步下降;电磁处理促进了缓蚀剂BTA在金属表面的吸附;在一定时间范围内,磁处理时间越长,BTA对黄铜电极的缓蚀性能越好.     

Energy Harvesting Research: The Road from Single Source to Multisource

Energy harvesting technology may be considered an ultimate solution to replace batteries and provide a long‐term power supply for wireless sensor networks. Looking back into its research history, individual energy harvesters for the conversion of single energy sources into electricity are developed first, followed by hybrid counterparts designed for use with multiple energy sources. Very recently, the concept of a truly multisource energy harvester built from only a single piece of material as the energy conversion component is proposed. This review, from the aspect of materials and device configurations, explains in detail a wide scope to give an overview of energy harvesting research. It covers single‐source devices including solar, thermal, kinetic and other types of energy harvesters, hybrid energy harvesting configurations for both single and multiple energy sources and single material, and multisource energy harvesters. It also includes the energy conversion principles of photovoltaic, electromagnetic, piezoelectric, triboelectric, electrostatic, electrostrictive, thermoelectric, pyroelectric, magnetostrictive, and dielectric devices. This is one of the most comprehensive reviews conducted to date, focusing on the entire energy harvesting research scene and providing a guide to seeking deeper and more specific research references and resources from every corner of the scientific community.     

提高430铁素体不锈钢连铸坯等轴晶比例的工艺实践

通过分析430铁素体不锈钢连铸坯等轴晶比例偏低的影响因素,在电磁搅拌能力不足的情况下,改进工艺,使等轴晶比例得到大幅度提高,减少了铸坯横裂现象。     

Cr3C2/Ni3Al复合材料的高温稳定性

通过对Cr3C2/Ni3Al复合材料在1000℃进行长期时效和氧化实验,分别考察了该材料的高温相稳定性和化学稳定性.结果表明,经1000℃长期时效后,Cr3C2/Ni3Al复合材料中的Cr3C2强化相保持稳定,而基体中则析出一定量的γ相,该相的析出强化了Ni3Al基体,从而使得复合材料的硬度得到进一步提高.Cr3C2/Ni3Al复合材料具有优良的高温抗氧化性能,其表面形成以α-Al2O3为主的致密氧化膜,在空气中的氧化速率仅为Ni3Al合金的1/2.分析认为,Cr3C2在堆焊过程中发生溶解,导致部分Cr固溶于Ni3Al合金基体中,促进了α-Al2O3的形成,从而改善了复合材料的抗氧化性.Cr3C2具有良好的高温化学稳定性并与Ni3Al基体有较好的氧化协同性,从而可得到基体有力支撑以发挥抵抗磨损的作用.优良的高温稳定性使得Cr3C2/Ni3Al复合材料适于在1000℃的高温环境下长期服役.     

Dynamic hierarchical collaborative caching scheme in ultra-dense networks

Pushing popular contents to the edge of the network can meet the growing demand for data traffic, reduce latency and relieve the pressure of the backhaul. However, considering the limited storage space of the base stations, it is impossible to cache all the contents, especially in ultra-dense network ( UDN). Furthermore, the uneven distribution of mobile users results in load imbalance among small base stations (SBSs) in both time and space, which also affects the caching strategy. To overcome these shortcoming, the impact of the changing load imbalance in UDN was investigated, and then a dynamic hierarchical collaborative caching (DHCC) scheme was proposed to optimize latency and caching hit rate. The storage of the SBS is logically divided into the independent caching layer and the collaborative caching layer. The independent caching layer caches the most popular contents for local users爷interest, and the collaborative caching layer caches contents as much as possible for the benefit of content diversity in the region. Different SBSs have respective storage space layer division ratios, according to their real-time traffic load. For SBSs with heavy load, the independent caching layers are allocated with more space. Otherwise, the collaborative caching layers could store more contents with larger space. The simulation results show that, DHCC improved both transmission latency and hit rate compared with existing caching schemes.