Interferon therapy: side effect scare hits French trials

The French Ministry of Health, acting on the advice of its scientific council, has halted clinical trials of interferon in cancer patients after four out of eleven recipients died of myocardial infarctions. Trials are expected to resume after the domestically produced drug stock is repurified and successfully retested. It has been suggested that council oversight should be extended to imported interferon and other experimental drugs which are now being used in human trials without the Ministry's control or knowledge.     

环路热管启动特性的实验研究

通过大量的实验研究了蒸发器内气液分布、反重力工作高度、启动热载荷的大小、热沉温度等因素对启动的影响, 描述并分析了4种不同蒸发器内气液分布情况下的启动现象, 给出了系统温度变化曲线图, 分析了启动的难易程度. 根据实验数据得出结论: (ⅰ) 对于液体干道内充满液体的启动情况, 储液器温度上升的主要原因并不是漏热, 而是回路压力升高所致. (ⅱ) 热载荷大有利于启动. (ⅲ) 未完全绝热时小热载荷下热沉温度不影响启动. (ⅳ) 环路热管在反重力情况下启动时, 当蒸汽槽道存在蒸汽时, 所需启动时间、启动温升增大; 而蒸汽槽道充满液体时, 所需时间、过热度和启动温升都减少. 实验还观察到了反重力启动时呈现两种启动方式的特别现象.     

The fate of injectant coal in blast furnaces: The origin of extractable materials of high molecular mass in blast furnace carryover dusts

The aim of the work was to investigate the fate of injectant coal in blast furnaces and the origin of extractable materials in blast furnace carryover dusts. Two sets of samples including injectant coal and the corresponding carryover dusts from a full sized blast furnace and a pilot scale rig have been examined. The samples were extracted using 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) solvent and the extracts studied by size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The blast furnace carryover dust extracts contained high molecular weight carbonaceous material, of apparent mass corresponding to 10⁷?10⁸ u, by polystyrene calibration. In contrast, the feed coke and char prepared in a wire mesh reactor under high temperature conditions did not give any extractable material. Meanwhile, controlled combustion experiments in a high-pressure wire mesh reactor suggest that the extent of combustion of injectant coal in the blast furnace tuyeres and raceways is limited by time of exposure and very low oxygen concentration. It is thus likely that the extractable, soot-like material in the blast furnace dust originated in tars is released by the injectant coal. Our results suggest that the unburned tars were thermally altered during the upward path within the furnace, giving rise to the formation of heavy molecular weight (soot-like) materials.     

Lightning activity on the central Tibetan Plateau and its response to convective available potential energy

Lightning flash activities on the central Tibetan Plateau have been studied by using the satellite-based Lightning Imaging Sensor(LIS)database from January 1998 to July 2002.The lightning activity shows a clear diurnal variation on the central Plateau.The peak lightning activity appears at about 17:00 which is 3 h earlier than that in Jingxhou,Hubei in the same latitude belt nearby,indicating that the lightning activity is a sensitive indicator of solar heating on the Plateau.The lightning discharge is weaker on the Plateau than Jingzhou.Hubei and other low-altitude continental regions because of the lower convective available potential energy(CAPE)on the Plateau.The CAPE on the Plateau is 12 times lower than that in Jingzhou,Hubei,and 20 times lower than that in the sea-level region,such as Guangzhou and Florida.However,the sensitivity of lightning activity to CAPE changes on the Plateau is up to 30 times more sensitive than other prominent low-altitude regions.     

A carbon- and oxygen-isotope record of recent environ- mental change from Qinghai Lake, NE Tibetan Plateau

An understanding of natural climatic variability is essential for evaluating anthropogenic impacts on recent and future climate[1—3]. Due to the lack of lengthy instrumental records, such an understanding must be gained from natural archives of climate change. Palaeolimnological indicators of past lake levels may provide a sensitive record of changes in effective precipitation in closed basins. This approach is particularly relevant on the Tibetan Plateau, where instrumental records are very…     

Nanoengineering of Flux Pinning Sites in High－Tc Superconductors

Volume pinning forces were determined for a variety of bulk high-Tc superconductors of the 123-type from magnetization measurements. By means of scaling of the pinning forces, the acting pinning mechanisms in various temperature ranges were identified. The Nd-based superconductors and some YBCO crystals exhibited a dominating pinning of the δTc-type (i.e., small, superconducting pinning sites). In contrast to this, the addition of insulating 211 particles provided pinning of the δl-type; providing effective pinning in the entire temperature range acting as a “background” pinning mechanism for the peak effect. Due to the small coherence lengths of the high-Tc compounds, effective pinning sites are defects or particles of nanometer size relative to ε^3. Integral magnetic measurements of the magnetization as a function of temperature in large applied magnetic fields (up to 7 T) revealed that practically all high-Tccompounds were spatially inhomogeneous, which could becaused by oxygen deficiency (YBCO), solid solutions of Nd/Ba (NdBCO and other light rare earth compounds), intergrowths (Bi-based superconductors), and doping by pair-breaking dopants like Zn, Pr. This implies that the superconducting sample consists of stronger and weaker superconducting areas, coupled together. In large applied fields, this coupling gets broken and the magnetization versus temperature curves revealed more than one superconducting transition. In contrast, irradiation experiments by neutrons, protons,and heavy-ions enabled the artificial introduction of very effective pinning sites into the high-Tc superconductors, thus creating a large variety of different observations using magnetic data. From all these observations, we construct a pinning diagram for bulk high-Tc superconductors explaining many featuresobserved in high-Tc samples.     

南澳岛及其附近岛屿夏季鸟类的初步调查

作者一行于 2 0 0 1年夏季对南澳及其附近岛屿的鸟类资源状况进行了调查研究 .结果发现 ,南澳及其附近岛屿有鸟类 51种 ,隶属 1 3目 2 8科 ,其中雀形目 2 3种 ,占所发现种类的 45% ,非雀形目 2 8种 ,占 55% ;国家一、二级保护动物各一种 ,分别为 :白腹军舰鸟 (F regataandrewsi)和岩鹭 (Egretta sacra) .按鸟类的栖息和迁徙习惯划分 ,有海鸟 8种 ,湿地候鸟 2种 ,湿地留鸟 9种 ,陆地候鸟 4种 ,陆地留鸟 2 8种 .在所有鸟类中以褐翅燕鸥 (Sterna anae-thetus)为优势种 ,数量最大 ,分布最广 .