Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.

This paper presents the filter design in the student design competition of EuMW 2019. This contest motivates students for the design and implementation of a dual-band bandpass filter able to get outstanding performance, where different implementation technologies, such as microstrip, coplanar, multilayer microstrip, substrate integrated waveguide, and some others can be effectively employed. Filters are evaluated by considering a figure of merit (FoM) defined by the insertion loss level, selectivity, spurious-free response, and size. To this end, three viable dual-band bandpass filters with different feeding technologies, resonators, and design topologies are investigated for the optimal FoM.

The crystal plastic theory was used to examine the effect of film-cooling hole arrangements on mechanical properties of cooled turbine blade. The finite element method was used to analyze the maximum von Mises stress and resolved shear stress of an octahedral slip system considering the number of rows, diameter, spacing, and tangential-to-longitudinal hole spacing (h/l) ratio. The different arrangements were found to have a significant influence on the maximum von Mises stress and resolved shear stress. For the triangular arrangement, the von Mises stress and resolved shear stress were highest with double rows, followed by a single row and then triple rows. For the quadrilateral arrangement, the stresses were highest with double rows, followed by triple rows and then a single row. Increasing the spacing or decreasing the diameter reduced the maximum von Mises stress and weakened the multi-hole interference effect. Both the maximum von Mises stress and resolved shear stress decreased with the h/l ratio.

Four complete platysiagid fish specimens are described from the Luoping Biota, Anisian (Middle Triassic), Yunnan Province, southwest China. They are small fishes with bones and scales covered with ganoine. All characters observed, such as nasals meeting in the midline, a keystone-like dermosphenotic, absence of post-rostral bone, two infraorbitals between dermosphenotic and jugal, large antorbital, and two postcleithra, suggest that the new materials belong to a single, new Platysiagum species, P. sinensis sp. nov. Three genera are ascribed to Platysiagidae: Platysiagum, Helmolepis and Caelatichthys. However, most specimens of the first two genera are imprints or fragmentary. The new, well-preserved specimens from the Luoping Biota provide more detailed anatomical information than before, and thus help amend the concept of the Platysiagidae. The Family Platysiagidae was previously classed in the Perleidiformes. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the Platysiagidae is a member of basal Neopterygii, and its origin seems to predate that of Perleidiformes. Moreover, platysiagid fishes are known from the Middle Triassic of the western Tethys region. The newly found specimens of platysiagids from Luoping provide additional evidence that both eastern and western sides of the Tethys Ocean were biogeographically more connected than previously thought.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the effectiveness and necessity of the computational methods applications for architecture conceptual designs and improve the use of advanced simulation tools in urban planning. The results can provide the urban designers, planners and other decision makers with useful design information for assessing human wind comfort of the surrounding open spaces of public buildings in an urban area. Among different kinds of public buildings, museum architecture is of significant social value and importance for the augmentation of urban image. Using the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for the case study, this investigation performed CFD simulations of the airflow over the museum to characterize the wind environments around the buildings. The predicted wind speed distributions were used to determine the wind comfort level of the featured spots around the museum for evaluating the suitability allowing visitors to sit or stand at the pedestrian plane for extended periods.

Chitotriosidase, secreted by activated macrophages, is a biomarker of activated macrophages. In this study, we explored whether chitotriosidase could be adopted as a biomarker to evaluate the curative effect on tuberculosis (TB). Five counties were randomly selected out of 122 counties/cities/districts in Hunan Province, China. Our cases were all TB patients who were newly diagnosed or had been receiving treatment at the Centers for Disease Control (CDCs) of these five counties between April and August in 2009. Healthy controls were selected from a community health facility in the Kaifu district of Changsha City after frequency-matching of gender and age with the cases. Chitotriosidase activity was evaluated by a fluorometric assay. Categorical variables were analysed with the χ2 test. Measurement data in multiple groups were tested with analysis of variance and least significant difference (LSD). Correlation between chitotriosidase activity and the degree of radiological extent (DRE) was examined by Spearman's rank correlation test. The average chitotriosidase activity levels of new TB cases, TB cases with different periods of treatment (<3, 3–6, >6 months) and the control group were 54·47, 34·77, 21·54, 12·73 and 10·53 nmol/h.ml, respectively. Chitotriosidase activity in TB patients declined along with the continuity of treatment. The chitotriosidase activity of both smear-positive and the smear-negative pulmonary TB patients decreased after 6 months' treatment to normal levels (P < 0·05). Moreover, chitotriosidase activity was positively correlated with DRE (r = 0·607, P < 0·001). Our results indicate that chitotriosidase might be a marker of TB treatment effects. However, further follow-up study of TB patients is needed in the future.

To understand the clinical epidemiology and molecular characteristics of human bocavirus (HBoV) infection in children with diarrhoea in Guangzhou, South China, we collected 1128 faecal specimens from children with diarrhoea from July 2010 to December 2012. HBoV and five other major enteric viruses were examined using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Human rotavirus (HRV) was the most prevalent pathogen, detected in 250 (22·2%) cases, followed by enteric adenovirus (EADV) in 76 (6·7%) cases, human astrovirus (HAstV) in 38 (3·4%) cases, HBoV in 17 (1·5%) cases, sapovirus (SaV) in 14 (1·2%) cases, and norovirus (NoV) in 9 (0·8%) cases. Co-infections were identified in 3·7% of the study population and 23·5% of HBoV-positive specimens. Phylogenetic analysis revealed 14 HBoV strains to be clustered into species HBoV1 with only minor variations among them. Overall, the detection of HBoV appears to partially contribute to the overall detection gap for enteric infections, single HBoV infection rarely results in severe clinical outcomes, and HBoV sequencing data appears to support conserved genomes across strains identified in this study.

We are developing a purely commensal survey experiment for fast (<5 s) transient radio sources. Short-timescale transients are associated with the most energetic and brightest single events in the Universe. Our objective is to cover the enormous volume of transients parameter space made available by ASKAP, with an unprecedented combination of sensitivity and field of view. Fast timescale transients open new vistas on the physics of high brightness temperature emission, extreme states of matter and the physics of strong gravitational fields. In addition, the detection of extragalactic objects affords us an entirely new and extremely sensitive probe on the huge reservoir of baryons present in the IGM. We outline here our approach to the considerable challenge involved in detecting fast transients, particularly the development of hardware fast enough to dedisperse and search the ASKAP data stream at or near real-time rates. Through CRAFT, ASKAP will provide the testbed of many of the key technologies and survey modes proposed for high time resolution science with the SKA.

The transport properties of the atomic scale side contact between different metals (Au, Ag, Pt, Cu, Ni, Pd) and graphene with open zigzag ends have been studied from first-principles electron transport calculations. According to the contact configurations, we find the weakly interacting metals (Au, Ag, Pt and Cu) can form chemical bonds at the open graphene’s atomic edges, while the strongly interacting ones form chemical bonds in the whole contact region. Comparing with the case of end contact which could effectively decrease the contact resistance, the atomic scale side contact shows better transport properties than the end contact. And the graphene/metal side contact with hydrogen terminated graphene edge show obviously large resistance than the ones with open graphene edge, which signifies the importance of the termination of graphene edge in graphene/metal contact.

In proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), a low interfacial pressure between the bipolar plates and the membrane exchange assembly (MEA) results in a high contact resistance. Conversely, an excessive interfacial pressure reduces the porosity of the gas diffusion layer (GDLs) and may damage the proton exchange membrane (PEM). Consequently, the performance of a PEMFC is critically dependent upon the clamping method. Accordingly, this study emphasizes the development of a numerical methodology for analyzing clamping of a PEMFC and constructs a detailed three-dimensional (3D) full-scale finite element (FE) model of a PEMFC with the traditional and most popular point-load design as an example. The numerical method is first validated by experiments. A series of simulations are then performed on the example cases (i.e. 2-bolt, 4-bolt or 6-bolt) to analyze their behaviors on the contact pressure between the bipolar plates and the MEA and the corresponding effects on the GDL porosity and the contact resistance, under the constraints that the membrane and gaskets remain within their respective elastic limits and the porosity of the GDL has a value higher than 0.5. Overall, to complete the analysis procedures proposed in this paper, the results show that the six-bolt clamping mode with a tightening torque of 16 N-m achieves a uniform pressure distribution and a high interfacial pressure, and therefore represents the optimal clamping mode for the performed example cases.

Pneumonia is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in infants. However, information of risk factors for pneumonia in children aged <6 months is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the risk factors and their contribution to infantile pneumonia in a large population-based survey. Of 24 200 randomly sampled main caregivers invited, 21 248 (87·8%) participated in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to interview the main caregivers. Information regarding whether hospitalization was required, family environment, and medical history were obtained. The prevalence of pneumonia was 0·62% in our study cohort. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that preterm birth, congenital cardiopulmonary disease, antibiotic use during pregnancy, maternal overweight, daily prenatal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, maternal smoking during pregnancy, and visible mould on walls at home are risk factors associated with infantile pneumonia. Further study is warranted to investigate the causality and mechanisms of these novel factors.

The aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a useful clinical index to assess the aortic compliance and cardiovascular risk in a noninvasive manner. In this research, our previously developed axial velocity profile method (Yu et al., [11]) was modified to be more user-friendly and applied to the study of PWV of diabetic patients for the first time, using phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) technique to analyze the spatial and temporal profiles of the axial velocity along the descending aorta for measurement of the aortic PWV. The PWV results from healthy volunteers and diabetic patients were studied and compared. It is shown that the PWV of diabetic patients is much higher than that of health volunteers, the aortic compliance of diabetic patients is substantially worse than that of health volunteers. These results are in good agreement with early studies using different measurement techniques of PWV. The axial velocity profile method is again validated and proven to be a useful tool of long-term prognosis for patients with diabetes mellitus or hypertension.

In this study, a novel inflatable belt-type clamp is introduced and its performance is verified. Finite element simulations are performed to compare the performance of three different aorta clamping systems. In every case, the aorta is modeled as a simple hollow cylinder made of linearly elastic material. For a traditional surgical clamp in which the jaws remain inclined to one another as they close around the aorta, the maximum normal stress within the aorta wall is found to be 806kPa. It is shown that the numerical results are in good qualitative agreement with the experimental results obtained using a pressure sensitive film. The simulation results for a modified clamp in which the jaws remain parallel during the clamping operation show that the maximum normal stress is reduced to 222kPa. However, two regions of maximum stress are induced within the aorta wall. Finally, the numerical results for a novel inflatable belt-type clamp show that the maximum normal stress is equal to approximately 221kPa. In contrast to the modified clamp, the stress is uniformly distributed around the perimeter of the aorta, and thus the risk of aortic dissection is significantly reduced.

Our previous studies demonstrated prompt elevation of proteinase activity in mammary secretion of drying-off cows and goats. The current study examined the progressive changes in composition of cow mammary secretion following drying-off and, in parallel, characterized the mode of peptide neogenesis using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) and liquid chromatography-electrospray-ionization (LC-ESI) MS/MS. The results show that the percentage of casein of total milk protein at time of drying-off was 76%, which dropped to 41%, 24%, and 16%, respectively, 1, 2, and 3 weeks after drying-off. Levels of β-lactoglobulin and α-lactoalbumin in mammary secretions of drying-off cows decreased prominently while levels of lactoferrin, BSA, and casein derived-proteins increased concomitantly compared with regular milk. A fractionation procedure was applied to remove molecules larger than 10 kDa before MALDI-TOF MS and LC-ESI MS/MS and the results show that the MALDI-TOF MS peptide profile of mammary secretion ranging from m/z 600 to 4000 was apparently modified after drying-off for 1 week, whereas species 1590 m/z and 2460 m/z were most obviously enriched compared with regular milk. LC-ESI MS/MS results were used to map peptide sequence with Mascot search server and under no post translational modification to reduce database size and 202 novel β-casein-derived peptides were successfully identified in mammary secretion after drying-off for 1 week in contrast to regular milk. Accordingly at least 48 additional cleavage positions were assigned on β-casein for mammary secretion. Among the 202 novel peptides, 5 are homologous with confirmed opioid agonists, angiotensin 1-converting enzyme inhibitors, or immuno-modulators. In conclusion, peptides are released in situ from milk proteins within short intervals following drying-off in cows. They might play roles in the transition of mammary glands from lactating to non-lactating. With specified post-translational modifications and focused functional screening, novel peptides are yet to be discovered in dry cow mammary secretion.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2010 in Portland, Oregon, USA, August 1 – August 5, 2010.

Thin films of magnetite (Fe3O4) are grown on a single-crystal Si/SiO2 (100) substrate with native oxide using DC reactive sputtering technique at room tempreture (RT) and 300C. The x-ray diffraction(XRD) result shows the thermal energy during deposition enhances the crystallization of the Fe3O4 and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirms the film deposited at 300C is single-phase Fe3O4 while the film deposited at RT is mostly ν-Fe2O3. The electrical measurements show that the resistivity of the Fe3O4 film increases exponentially with decreasing temperature, and exhibit a sharp metal-insulator transition at around 100 K, indicating the Verwey transition feature. The saturation magnetization Ms of Fe3O4 film measured by vibrating sample measurement (VSM) at RT was found to be 445 emu/cm3.

Through-silicon via (TSV) 3-D packaging and integration present many new opportunities and challenges for metals CMP applications. For front-side TSV polishing, challenges include the removal of large amounts of copper overburden, dishing control during copper clearing steps, and removal of large amounts of barrier metal and dielectric layers while still maintaining control over topography and defectivity. Additionally, the choice of barrier material can have significant impact on polishing in terms of the mechanical reliability regarding adhesion between the barrier metal and underlying dielectric layers. This paper will address many of these challenges with an emphasis on innovative technologies for superior process and endpoint controls, such as real-time profile control for thick copper films up to 6μm or more in thickness and automatic endpoint controls for barrier removal and dielectric stopping. The paper will also discuss some salient challenges for back-side TSV polishing, including the handling and polishing of bonded wafer pairs and strategies to minimize handling and polishing damage to the potentially fragile thinned device wafer. Additionally, the development of slurries with highly tunable copper-to-dielectric selectivity will be critical for enabling a wide range of final topographies, depending on requirements for subsequent bonding steps.

This study designs, fabricates and characterizes three valveless impedance pumps, namely a symmetrical pump with a circular cross-section, an asymmetrical pump with a circular cross-section, and an asymmetrical pump with a rectangular cross-section. The pressure head and flow rate characteristics of the three pumps are investigated as a function of the compression location, the compression frequency and the compression amplitude. The experimental results show that the flow is reversible in every case. Moreover, the pressure head is found to be significantly dependent on the actuating frequency, the compression location and the compression amplitude. However, no pressure head is produced when the pinching effect is applied at the center of channel configuration for the symmetrical pump. In the symmetrical pump, a maximum pressure head of 590mm is obtained at a frequency of 26Hz, and results in a flow rate of 0.581/min in the positive direction (i.e. from the left-hand reservoir of the pump to the righthand reservoir). Meanwhile, in the asymmetrical pumps with circular and rectangular cross-sections, respectively, maximum pressure heads of −620mm and −570mm are developed at frequencies of 36Hz and 32Hz, respectively. The corresponding flow rates are determined to be 0.641/min and 0.531/min, respectively. In both cases, the fluid moves in the negative direction (i.e. from the right-hand reservoir of the pump to the left-hand reservoir). Overall, the valveless impedance pumps developed in this study generate a high pumping rate, are easily fabricated and have no moving mechanical valves. As a result, they are eminently suitable for pumping applications in such diverse systems as biomedical devices, fuel cells, PC cooling systems, and so forth.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2009 in Richmond, Virginia, USA, July 26 – July 30, 2009