Development of liquid-nitrogen-cooling friction stir spot welding for AZ31 magnesium alloy joints

A liquid-nitrogen-cooling friction stir spot welding (C-FSSW) technology was developed for welding AZ31 magnesium alloy sheets. The liquid-nitrogen cooling degraded the deformability of the welded materials such that the width of interfacial cracks increased with increasing cooling time. The grain size of the stirred zone (SZ) and the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the C-FSSW-welded joints decreased, whereas that of the thermomechanically affected zone (TMAZ) increased with increasing cooling time. The maximum tensile shear load of the C-FSSW-welded joints welded with a cooling time of 5 or 7 s was larger than that of the friction stir spot welding (FSSW)-welded joint, and the tensile shear load decreased with increasing cooling time. The microhardness of the C-FSSW-welded joints was greater than that of the FSSW-welded joint. Moreover, the microhardness of the SZ and the HAZ of the C-FSSW-welded joints increased, whereas that of the TMAZ decreased, with increasing cooling time.     

A genome-wide association study in Chinese men identifies three risk loci for non-obstructive azoospermia

Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) is one of the most severe forms of male infertility. Its pathophysiology is largely unknown, and few genetic influences have been defined. To identify common variants contributing to NOA in Han Chinese men, we performed a three-stage genome-wide association study of 2,927 individuals with NOA and 5,734 controls. The combined analyses identified significant (P < 5.0 × 10(-8)) associations between NOA risk and common variants near PRMT6 (rs12097821 at 1p13.3: odds ratio (OR) = 1.25, P = 5.7 × 10(-10)), PEX10 (rs2477686 at 1p36.32: OR = 1.39, P = 5.7 × 10(-12)) and SOX5 (rs10842262 at 12p12.1: OR = 1.23, P = 2.3 × 10(-9)). These findings implicate genetic variants at 1p13.3, 1p36.32 and 12p12.1 in the etiology of NOA in Han Chinese men.     

Research on Construction Knowledge Resources Framework of Real Estate Enterprises

<正>Many studies have shown that knowledge resources have been the real source of innovation and competitiveness of real estate enterprises.Therefore,it is the basic work to establish the real estate enterprise knowledge resources framework for implementing knowledge management(KM),and it should be given enough attention.A sort of the real estate enterprise knowledge resources framework system has been built in this paper based on the thought of Clark Henderson' s enterprise knowledge classification,and the contents have been analyzed and expounded.Thus,the real estate enterprises can grasp clearly the basic contents of its knowledge resources,then depict the knowledge system,in the end the solid foundation should be settled for implementing knowledge management.     

Address at the Global Summit on Merit Review

Mr.Chairman,colleagues,ladies and gentlemen, Good morning, It is a great honor for me to be invited to attend this Global Summit on Merit Review.As the topic for this summit,merit review or peer review constitutes the core mechanism for science funding and functions as the life line of the quality of research projects funded. We are delighted to see that,after a series of regional meetings,6 principles for scientific merit review are proposed and will be established by a common declaration at this summit upon the consensus reached     

Low power and high speed explicit-pulsed double-edge triggered level converting flip-flop

Variable supply voltage-clustered voltage scaling (VS-CVS) scheme can be very effective in reducing power consumption of CMOS circuits without degrading system performance. Level converting flip-flops (LCFFs) are key elements in the CVS scheme. In this paper, a new explicit-pulsed double-edge triggered level converting flip-flop (nEP-DET-LCFF) is proposed, which employs double-edge triggering technique, dynamic structure, explicit pulse generator,conditional discharge technique and proper arrangement of stacked nMOS transistors to efficiently perform latching and level converting functions simultaneously. The proposed nEP-DET-LCFF combines merits of both conventional explicit-LCFFs and implicit-LCFFs. Simulation shows the proposed nEP-DET-LCFF has improvement of 19.2%～46% in delay, and 19.4%～52.9% in power-delay product (PDP) as compared with the published LCFFs.     

A genome-wide association study in Han Chinese identifies new susceptibility loci for ankylosing spondylitis

To identify susceptibility loci for ankylosing spondylitis, we performed a two-stage genome-wide association study in Han Chinese. In the discovery stage, we analyzed 1,356,350 autosomal SNPs in 1,837 individuals with ankylosing spondylitis and 4,231 controls; in the validation stage, we analyzed 30 suggestive SNPs in an additional 2,100 affected individuals and 3,496 controls. We identified two new susceptibility loci between EDIL3 and HAPLN1 at 5q14.3 (rs4552569; P = 8.77 × 10(-10)) and within ANO6 at 12q12 (rs17095830; P = 1.63 × 10(-8)). We also confirmed previously reported associations in Europeans within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region (top SNP, rs13202464; P < 5 × 10(-324)) and at 2p15 (rs10865331; P = 1.98 × 10(-8)). We show that rs13202464 within the MHC region mainly represents the risk effect of HLA-B*27 variants (including HLA-B*2704, HLA-B*2705 and HLA-B*2715) in Chinese. The two newly discovered loci implicate genes related to bone formation and cartilage development, suggesting their potential involvement in the etiology of ankylosing spondylitis.     

An atomistic simulation of site preference and vibrational properties of UMxAl12-x （M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cr and Mn） and UMxAl1z-xHx

A series of lattice inversion pair potentials are used to evaluate the phase stability and site preference for uranium intermetallics UMxAl12-x (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cr and Mn) and their related hydrides. Calculated results show that Fe, Co, Ni, Cr or Mn atoms preferentially substitute Al at the 8f site. Interstitial H atoms only occupy 2b interstitial sites in UMxAl12-x. Calculated lattice constants are found to agree with a report in the literature. Elastic constants and bulk modulus of UMxAl12-x and UMxAl12-xH were also investigated. In particular, the phonon densities of states (DOS) of these actinide compounds were evaluated for the first time.     

Active Vibration Isolation System for Sub-microultra-precision Turning Machine

Now vibration isolation of ultra-precision machine tool is usually achieved through air-springs systems. As far as HCM-I sub-micro turning machine developed by HIT, an active vibration isolation system that consists of air-springs and electro-magnetic actuators was presented. The primary function of air-springs is to support the turning machine and to isolate the high-frequency vibration. The electro-magnetic actuators controlled by fuzzy-neural networks isolate the low-frequency vibration. The experiment indicates that active vibration isolation system isolates base-vibration effectively in all the frequency range. So the vibration of the machine bed is controlled under 10-6g and the surface roughness is improved.     

Assessment of alternated cooling and heating treatment by US combined CEUS in the VX2 rabbit liver tumor model

Inoperable liver tumors are often treated by thermal ablation that destroys the tumor in situ and spares the adjacent hepatic tissue.Thermal–physical treatment has many advantages,but treatment by freezing or heating alone has some limitations.By taking the advantages and disadvantages of cryosurgery and thermotherapy into consideration,a new thermal technique that combines cryosurgery and radio frequency ablation has been proposed,thereby overcoming the disadvantages of each treatment strategy and improving therapeutic outcomes.This new approach remains to be systematically studied in the liver;therefore,this study was performed to estimate survival after alternated cooling and heating ablation therapy in a VX2 rabbit liver tumor model.Sixteen days after VX2 carcinoma implantation into the rabbit liver,tumors were treated with alternated cooling and heating ablation therapy.Rabbits were monitored for 6 months after treatment and assessed with ultrasound(US)and computed tomography at 1,7,14,and 30 days posttreatment.Untreated tumor-bearing animals served as the control group.Our results show that alternate freezing and heating ablation therapy resulted in a good recovery of VX2 rabbits.Compared with the control group,treated rabbits lived significantly longer(P\0.05),with 70%of treated animals surviving to 196 days posttreatment without metastasis or recurrence,while none of the controls did so.There was no local recurrence in the treatment group.All rabbits in the control group developed metastasis,while metastasis was only observed in 30% of treated rabbits.These results suggest that alternate cooling and heating ablation therapy can prolong the survival time of rabbits with VX2 liver tumors and is an effective method for tumor therapy.Furthermore,we also showed in this model that contrast enhanced US is a valid follow-up approach to assess treatment effectiveness.     

Review of galactic and extragalactic searches for class I methanol masers

Class I methanol masers are important tools for investigations of star formation throughout the Universe. Recently, a series of surveys for class I methanol masers at the 95 GHz transition toward samples of young stellar objects have been undertaken. These surveys have resulted in the detection of about 200 new class I methanol masers and combined with previous increased the number of known observations they have class I methanol masers in our Galaxy to ~400. From analysis of the relationship between class I methanol maser emission and associated astrophysical objects, it has been shown that the intensity of the class I methanol maser emission is closely correlated with the properties of the 1.1 mm Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey （BGPS） dust continuum sources and outflow properties. This further supports the hypothesis that class I methanol masers are collisionally pumped and excited in shocked regions. Based on these observations, it can be inferred that the BGPS catalog is likely to provide more reliable samples for targeting further class I methanol maser searches. A new survey for class I methanol masers toward a larger size sample of BGPS sources to test this is currently underway. The prospects for detecting class I methanol megamasers in extragalactic sources is discussed, and observations constituting the first sensitive search have been proposed.