Dermal thickness,rather than drug concentration and injection speed,influences the effective area of botulinum toxin type A in the dermis

Background:Recently,microbotulinum,a new technique that involves injecting botulinum toxin type A(BoNTA)microdroplets into superficial cutaneous tissue,has gained popularity.The precise distribution of BoNTA in the targeted area profoundly affects outcomes.Many factors may influence the effective area of BoNTA in the dermis.This study aimed to determine the dermal distribution properties of BoNTA to guide microbotulinum injection.Methods:Ten healthy males aged 18–65 years without BoNTA treatment in the previous year were recruited to receive intradermal injections in the chest and back.Ultrasound was used to ensure the intradermal delivery of injections and measure the dermal thickness.The minor iodine starch test was performed at baseline and 3 days,7 days,21 days,1 month,and 2 months after treatment.Results:All participants received intradermal injections.The dermis was thinner on the chest(thickness,0.20±0.03 cm)than on the back(thickness,0.39±0.07 cm)(P<0.05).An injection in the thicker dermis had a significantly smaller effective area at every follow-up visit.The drug concentration did not affect the effective area except at 3 days after treatment.Injection speed did not influence the effective area at any follow-up visits.Conclusion:An injection in a thicker dermis leads to a smaller effective area for intradermal injections.When the BoNTA dose is the same,the drug concentration and injection speed do not matter.

Evaluation of Ecological Effectiveness of Protected Areas in Northwest China

Protected areas(PAs) have experienced explosive growth in Northwest China over the last three decades, but their effectiveness in representing regional ecological system diversity has not attracted considerable attention. Low effectiveness would exacerbate the conservation-development conflicts, particularly those that arise as a result of the Great Western Development Strategy(GWDS). Thus, an assessment of the effectiveness of the PA network has become quite important. We proposed natural vegetation communities to represent regional ecological system diversities, and proposed Global 200 Priority Ecoregions, Important Bird Areas, and ecosystem function regions to represent important conservation areas. To determine their effectiveness, we studied the extent to which ecological system diversities and important conservation areas are represented by the existing 96 PAs. Our results indicated that the total coverage of vegetation communities in PAs in Northwest China is not sufficiently comprehensive. As the PA system has expanded, the growth in the total area of the PAs has been greater than that of their vegetation community richness. While most of the important conservation areas are covered by PAs, some regions have not yet reached the 10% threshold; further, PAs are distributed unevenly and conservation gaps remain in the region. Therefore, these regions should receive more attention when planning new PAs. It is vital that more biodiversity datasets and assessment of ecosystem function regions are integrated in order to provide a basis for the government to formulate appropriate protection and development strategies.

Laboratory Research on Effective Test Area of Short-Crested Waves Generated by Two-Sided Segmented Wavemakers

The size and shape of the effective test area are crucial to consider when short-crested waves are created by segmented wavemakers. The range of the effective test area of short-crested waves simulated by two-sided segmented wavemakers is analyzed in this paper. The experimental investigation on the wave field distribution of short-crested waves generated by two-sided segmented wavemakers is conducted by using an array of wave gauges. Wave spectra and directional spreading function are analyzed and the results show that when the main direction is at a certain angle with the normal line of wave generators, the wave field of 3D short-crested waves generated by two-sided segmented wavemakers has good spatial uniformity within the model test area. The effective test area can provide good wave environments for seakeeping model tests of various ocean engineering structures in the deep ocean engineering basin.

Multi-Objective Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm Based on Effective Area in Cognitive Emergency Communication Networks

Cognitive emergency communication net-works can meet the requirements of large capac-ity,high density and low delay in emergency com-munications.This paper analyzes the properties of emergency users in cognitive emergency communi-cation networks,designs a multi-objective optimiza-tion and proposes a novel multi-objective bacterial foraging optimization algorithm based on effective area(MOBFO-EA)to maximize the transmission rate while maximizing the lifecycle of the network.In the algorithm,the effective area is proposed to prevent the algorithm from falling into a local optimum,and the diversity and uniformity of the Pareto-optimal solu-tions distributed in the effective area are used to eval-uate the optimization algorithm.Then,the dynamic preservation is used to enhance the competitiveness of excellent individuals and the uniformity and diversity of the Pareto-optimal solutions in the effective area.Finally,the adaptive step size,adaptive moving direc-tion and inertial weight are used to shorten the search time of bacteria and accelerate the optimization con-vergence.The simulation results show that the pro-posed MOBFO-EA algorithm improves the efficiency of the Pareto-optimal solutions by approximately 55%compared with the MOPSO algorithm and by approx-imately 60%compared with the MOBFO algorithm and has the fastest and smoothest convergence.

A Study of the Radiation-Climate Effect of Aerosol over Beijing Area

In this paper, the monthly-averaged planetary albedo and equivalent blackbody temperature are calculated by using Gauss-Seidle numerical model to solve the equation of radiative transfer, based on measured aerosol data over Beijing aera. With the increase of atmospheric turbidity, the planetary albedo has different characteristics in different seasons, and there is an evident decrease in the winter season. It means that the local aerosol has an heating effect to the atmosphere in winter. The correlation feature between the surface temperature and the horizontal visibility from 1963 to 1986 is analyzed, and anticorrelation is discovered in winter. It is found that surface temperature increases with the increase of aeresol.

Effects of Land Use Change on Eco-environment in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin——A Case Study of Yanting County, Sichuan Province

With the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest being planted, there has been a marked land use change since 1970s' in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Data from meteorological observations or posts operated over long time, measurement and calculation of NPP (net primary production) and biomass of biological community, and analysis of soil organic matter content show that the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest has outstanding eco-environmental effect: adjusting local climate, raising soil fertility, alleviating menace of drought, and raising NPP and biomass of biological community. It is very beneficial for improving ecological environment to afforest artificial alder and cypress mixed forest in populous Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Key Words: land use/land cover change (LUCC); eco-environmental effect; Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin; the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest

The effects of sediment from an industrial outfall area on a marine planktonic ecosystem

-Sediment from Xiamen industrial area was added to marine ecosystem enclosures to test the effects on the planktonic communities in Xiamen Bay, China, in April, 1985. Sediments were added at two concentrations, 11.2 and 112 ppm dry wt. respectively. The species of phytoplankton did not change as compared with the control, but the number of diatoms markedly decreased in the sediment treated enclosures. A suppression of photosynthesis was presumed to be due to light attenuation by the added sediment. Microflagellates, zooplankton and bacteria were resistant to sediment increase in water column.

Effects of leaf N concentration and leaf area index on determining rice tillering

Relative tillering rate(RTR)increased linear-ly with the increasing of leaf N concentration(NLV)has been already reported.To testwhether this relationship could be used toquantitatively explain the difference in tilleringamong a wide range of N application,field ex- periments were conducted at the IRRI farm,Los Banos,Laguna,the Philippines.Two in- dica cultivars,IR 72 and IR68284H wereused.For each cultivar,12 treatments includ- ing 4 N levels(0,60,120,and 180kgN·ha)and 3 transplanting spacing(30×20,20×20,and 10×20cm)were arranged in a ran-domized split-plot design with 4 replications.The N treatments were designated as mainplots and spacings as subplots.Fourteen-day-old seedlings were transplanted with 3seedlings per hill.The subplot area was 20m~2.Nitrogen fertilizer was applied as basal,atmidtillering,and at panicle initiation in threeequal splits.P,K,and Zn were applied asbasal at normal dosage.The field was flooded.Plant samples were taken every 7-14 d from 14d after transplanting to flower

Numerical multi-physical optimization of operating condition and current collecting setup for large-area solid oxide fuel cells

Due to the depletion of traditional fossil fuels and the aggravation of related environmental problems,hydrogen energy is gaining more attention all over the world.Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC)is a promising power generation technology operating on hydrogen with a high efficiency.To further boost the power output of a single cell and thus a single stack,increasing the cell area is an effective route.However,it was recently found that further increasing the effective area of an SOFC single cell with a flat-tubular structure and symmetric double-sided cathodes would result in a lower areal performance.In this work,a multi-physical model is built to study the effect of the effective area on the cell performance.The distribution of different physical fields is systematically analyzed.Optimization of the cell performance is also pursued by systematically tuning the cell operating condition and the current collection setup.An improvement of 42%is revealed by modifying the inlet gas flow rates and by enhancing the current collection.In the future,optimization of cell geometry will be performed to improve the homogeneity of different physical fields and thus to improve the stability of the cell.

Analysis of Short-term Heavy Precipitations in a Regional Heavy Rainstorm in Shannxi Province

[Objective] This study aimed to analyze the cause of the generation of short-term heavy precipitations in a regional heavy rainstorm in Shannxi Province. [Method] Taking a heavy rainstorm covering most parts of Shaanxi Province in late July 2010 as an example, data of five Doppler weather radars in Shaanxi Province were employed for a detailed analysis of the evolution of the heavy rainstorm pro- cess. [Result] Besides the good large-scale weather background conditions, the de- velopment and evolution of some mesoscale and small-scale weather systems direct- ly led to short-term heavy precipitations during the heavy rainstorm process, involv- ing the intrusion of moderate IS-scale weak cold air and presence of small-scale wind shear, convergence and adverse wind area. In addition, small-scale convection echoes were arranged in lines and formed a ＂train effect＂, which would also con- tribute to the generation of short-term heavy precipitation. [Conclusion] This study provided basic information for more clear and in-depth analysis of the formation mechanism of short-term heavy precipitations.

Ray Theory Application in Long Baseline System

The long baseline （LBL） system is widely used to locate and track autonomous underwater vehicles （AUV） through acoustic communication. Three important issues are presented here in LBL system application with AUV. Those issues which regard the normal acoustic communication between LBL system and AUV are the depth of towed army, the length of beacon cable, and the effective area of the AUV. The first issue is the key of the LBL system, which ensures the normal communication between towed array and beacons. The second issue which impacts the normal communication from the AUV to beacons in available range should be considered after the first one has been settled. Then the last issue determines the safe work area of the AUV. The ordinary differential equations （ODE） algorithm of ray is deduced from Snell＇s law. The ODE algorithm is applied to obtain sound rays from sound source to receiver. These problems are solved by the judgment that whether rays pinging from a sound source arrives at a receiver. The sea trial shows that these methods have much validity and practicality.

Design and analysis of a kind of large flattened mode optical fibre

In this paper, a refractive index profile design enabling us to obtain a flat modal field around the fibre centre is investigated. The theoretical approach for designing such multilayer large flattened mode （LFM） optical fibres is presented. A comparison is made between the properties of a three-layer LFM structure and a standard step-index profile with the same core size. The obtained results indicate that the effective area of the LFM fibre is about twice as large as that of the standard step-index fibre, but the LFM fibre has less effective ability to filter out the higher order modes than the standard step-index fibre with the same bending radius.

Simulation on Distribution of Photosynthetically Active Radiation in Canopy and Optimum Leaf Rolling Index in Rice with Rolling Leaves

By replacing leaf area index （LAI） with effective leaf area index （ELAI） through introduction of leaf rolling index （LRI）, the distributions of photosynthetically active radiation （PAR） in the canopies of three hybrid rice combinations, Liangyou E32 with high LRI, Liangyoupeijiu with moderate LRI and Shanyou 63 with non-rolling leaves （normal）, were simulated. The model based on ELAI could predict more accurately than that based on LAI. The PAR interception, conversion and utilization efficiency in the three combinations were studied to evaluate their optimal LRI and LAI. The PAR utilization efficiency of Liangyou E32 was lower due to excessive rolling leaves and less ELAI, and that of Shanyou 63 was also lower because of the faulty PAR interception and lower photosynthetic rate and saturation point at lower layer in canopy. Compared with the above two combinations, Liangyoupeijiu showed more appropriate distribution of PAR interception and conversion efficiency in canopy, and higher PAR utilization efficiency. The optimal LRI and LAI for Liangyoupeijiu were 0.11 and 7.6, respectively, which were close to the observed value, 0.11 and 7.9, respectively. However, the optimum LAI was 9.8 for Liangyou E32 and 6.2 for Shanyou 63, larger or smaller than those under the current plant density, which led to lower efficiency of PAR utilization. Besides, the optimum LRI for Liangyou E32 and Shanyou 63 were 0.12 and 0.08, respectively, which were close to the actual LRI for Liangyoupeijiu （0.11）.

Numerical analysis of photonic crystal fiber with chalcogenide core tellurite cladding composite microstructure

Kinds of photonic crystal fibers with chalcogenide core tellurite cladding composite microstructure are proposed. The multi-core photonic crystal fiber can reach the higher nonlinearity coefficient and the larger effective mode area. The small single-core photonic crystal fiber has a very high nonlinearity coefficient. At the wavelength λ=0.8μm, the nonlinearity coefficient can reach 31.37053 W-1·m-1, at the wavelength λ=1.55μm, the nonlinearity coefficient is 11.19686W-1·m-1.

A method to determine the shell layout scheme for equipment battlefield damage tests under artillery fire

In this paper,a new method for determining the shell layout scheme is proposed,which can make the equipment damage data by the battlefield damage test resemble as close as possible the actual combat data.This method is based on the analysis of the impact point distribution and effective damage area of equipment.In order to obtain the position of the impact points,an impact point distribution model under artillery fire was established.Similarly,in order to obtain the effective damage area of equipment,the concepts of generalized damage area and task-based equipment functional damage probability were demonstrated,and the corresponding calculation model was established.Through case analysis,the shell layout scheme was effectively obtained,verifying the correctness of the proposed method.

Prediction of the position of coal particles in an air dense medium fluidized bed system

An air dense medium fluidized bed separator(ADMFBS) is used for dry beneficiation of coal using ultrafine magnetite particles as a pseudo-fluid medium. In this process, the coal particle gains additional weight due to coating on its surface and deposition at dead zone area by fine magnetite particles.Hence, the effective density of coal particle increases and the position of coal particle changes accordingly. In this work, an attempt was made to predict the position of coal particle in non-bubbling condition dense medium fluidized bed system. Coal particles of different shape such as cubical, rectangular prism,spherical and triangular prism with different projected area and density were used. The results show that the position of coal particle in air dense medium fluidized bed follows descending order with respect to the increase of density, projected area of coal particle and different shapes(i.e., triangular prism, cubical,rectangular prism and spherical). Empirical mathematical correlations were developed to predict the position of coal particle.

The formation of the Wulipo landslide and the resulting debris flow in Dujiangyan City, China

The Wulipo landslide, triggered by heavy rainfall on July 10, 2013, transformed into debris flow,resulted in the destruction of 12 houses, 44 deaths, and 117 missing. Our systematic investigation has led to the following results and to a new understanding about the formation and evolution process of this hazard. The fundamental factors of the formation of the landslide are a high-steep free surface at the front of the slide mass and the sandstone-mudstone mixed stratum structure of the slope. The inducing factor of the landslide is hydrostatic and hydrodynamic pressure change caused by heavy continuous rainfall. The geological mechanical model of the landslide can be summarized as "instability-translational slide-tension fracture-collapse" and the formation mechanism as "translational landslide induced by heavy rainfall". The total volume of the landslide is 124.6×104 m3, and 16.3% of the sliding mass was dropped down from the cliff and transformed into debris flow during the sliding process, which enlarged 46.7% of the original sliding deposit area. The final accumulation area is found to be 9.2×104 m2. The hazard is a typical example of a disaster chain involving landslide and its induced debris flow. The concealment and disaster chain effect is the main reason for the heavy damage. In future risk assessment, it is suggested to enhance the research onpotential landslide identification for weakly intercalated slopes. By considering the influence of the behaviors of landslide-induced debris flow, the disaster area could be determined more reasonably.