Extended wet sieving method for determination of complete particle size distribution of general soils

The traditional standard wet sieving method uses steel sieves with aperture?0.063 mm and can only determine the particle size distribution(PSD)of gravel and sand in general soil.This paper extends the traditional method and presents an extended wet sieving method.The extended method uses both the steel sieves and the nylon filter cloth sieves.The apertures of the cloth sieves are smaller than 0.063 mm and equal 0.048 mm,0.038 mm,0.014 mm,0.012 mm,0.0063 mm,0.004 mm,0.003 mm,0.002 mm,and 0.001 mm,respectively.The extended method uses five steps to separate the general soil into many material sub-groups of gravel,sand,silt and clay with known particle size ranges.The complete PSD of the general soil is then calculated from the dry masses of the individual material sub-groups.The extended method is demonstrated with a general soil of completely decomposed granite(CDG)in Hong Kong,China.The silt and clay materials with different particle size ranges are further examined,checked and verified using stereomicroscopic observation,physical and chemical property tests.The results further confirm the correctness of the extended wet sieving method.

Clinical, Hematological and Biochemical Health Benefit Effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa Lin Dried Calyces Beverage in Human

Background/Objective: This study was carried out to investigate the health benefit effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa Lin (H. sabdariffa L.) dried calyces beverage on some clinical, biochemical and hematological parameters in humans. Methods: The dried calyces were harvested in the two regions (Adamaoua and West) of Cameroon. The proximate, mineral composition and phytochemical screening were evaluated. A standardized extraction procedure was set up and from the calyces;we prepared a drink for 32 male volunteers’ subjects aged from 21 to 32 years, specially recruited for the experiment. Each participant consumed 500 mL twice a day (in the morning and in the evening) as supplement beverage during two weeks. The anthropometrics (age, height, weight, body mass index (BMI)), clinical (systolic and diastolic blood pressure), hematological (RBC, Hb, PCV, MCV, MCH, MCHC, WBC, Lymphocytes, MID cells, Granulocytes, platelet and MPV) and biochemical (TC, HDL-C, LDL-C, TG, serum iron, blood glucose, creatinine, urea, ASAT and ALAT) parameters were determined in the blood on days 0 and at the end of each week. Results: Crude protein, lipid, fiber and ash content of calyx ranged respectively from 4.57 - 5.98, 10.10 - 11.33, 20.39 - 22.30 and 9.15% - 10.38% while the levels of minerals were ranged from 512.0 - 740.6, 77.8 - 177.7, 52.84 - 52.85, 1.10 - 2.10, 41.2 - 119.5, 3.25 - 8.20 and 0.56 - 17.5 mg/100g respectively for Ca, Mg, K, Na, P, Fe and Zn. The phytochemical screening tests revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, phenols and anthocyanins on methanol and aqueous extracts. A significant increase of RBC, Hb, PCV, MPV, HDL-C, TG and creatinine and a significant decrease of WBC, MID cells, LDL-C and TC (p < 0.05) were observed during the study period. Furthermore, there was no significant change on BMI, MCV, MCH, MCHC, lymphocyte, granulocyte, platelet, serum iron, blood glucose, ASAT, ALAT and urea levels. Conclusion: H. sabdariffa L. dried calyces from Cameroon are rich sources of crude fibers and minerals. The H. Sabdariffa L. dried calyces drink can be safely used for people suffering for anemia. It also revealed good cholesterol lowering potential. No hepatoxicity and no kidney damage have been observed as far as serum enzymes were concerned.

General Solutions for Hydromagnetic Free Convection Flow over an Infinite Plate with Newtonian Heating, Mass Diffusion and Chemical Reaction

The problem of hydromagnetic free convection flow over a moving infinite vertical plate with Newtonian heating, mass diffusion and chemical reaction in the presence of a heat source is completely solved. Radiative and porous effects are not taken into consideration but they can be immediately included by a simple rescaling of Prandtl number and magnetic parameter. Exact general solutions for the dimensionless velocity and concentration fields and the corresponding Sherwood number and skin friction coefficient are determined under integral form in terms of error function or complementary error function of Gauss. They satisfy all imposed initial and boundary conditions and can generate exact solutions for any problem with technical relevance of this type. As an interesting completion, uncommon in the literature, the differential equations which describe the thermal, concentration and momentum boundary layer, as well as the exact expressions for the thicknesses of thermal, concentration or velocity boundary layers were determined.Numerical results have shown that the thermal boundary layer thickness decreases for increasing values of Prandtl number and the concentration boundary layer thickness is decreasing with Schmidt number. Finally, for illustration,three special cases are considered and the influence of physical parameters on some fundamental motions is graphically underlined and discussed. The required time to reach the flow according with post-transient solution(the steady-state),for cosine/sine oscillating concentrations on the boundary is graphically determined. It is found that, the presence of destructive chemical reaction improves this time for increasing values of chemical reaction parameter.

The fractions of post-binary-interaction stars and evolved blue straggler stars on the red giant branch of globular clusters

The red giant branch(RGB)of globular clusters(GCs)is home to some exotic stars,which may provide clues on the formation of multiple stellar populations in GCs.It is well known that binary interactions are responsible for many exotic stars.Thus,it is important to understand what fraction of stars on the RGB of GCs is the result of binary interactions.In this paper,we performed a binary population synthesis study to track the number of post-binary-interaction(post-BI)stars that appear on the RGB,with particular emphasis on the evolved blue straggler stars(E-BSSs).Assuming an initial binary fraction of nearly 50%,we find that about half of the objects on the RGB(called giants)underwent the binary interactions,and that E-BSSs account for around 10%of the giants in our standard simulation.We also compare the properties of post-BI giants that evolved from different channels.We find that the initial orbital period and mass ratio distributions significantly affect the fraction of post-BI giants.Our results imply that the non-standard stars from binary interactions provide a non-negligible contribution to the RGB stars in GCs,which should be considered in future investigations of the origin of multiple stellar populations.

The search for roAp stars: null results and new candidates from Strmgren-Crawford photometry

The rapidly oscillating Ap(roAp) stars exhibit pulsational photometric and/or radial velocity variations on time scales of several minutes, which are essential to test current pulsation models as well as our assumptions of atmospheric structure characteristics. In addition, their chemical peculiarity makes them very interesting for probing stellar formation and evolution in the presence of a global magnetic field. To date, a limited number of only 61 roAp stars is known to show photometric variability. On the other hand, a literature survey yields 619 unique stars that have unsuccessfully been searched for variability of this kind. Str o¨mgren-Crawford uvbyβ photometry of stars from both subgroups was used to investigate whether there is a selection bias for the investigated stars. We also present new photometric measurements(202 hours on 59 different nights) of 55 roAp candidates. We did not detect any new roAp star. Although our detection limits are comparable to other surveys, we also did not find pulsations in the known roAp star HD 12098, which may be a consequence of temporal amplitude changes. On the other hand, we do find some evidence for photometric variability of beta CrB at its spectroscopically derived pulsation period. From the uvbyβ photometry we conclude that the blue border of the roAp instability strip appears observationally well defined, whereas the red border is rather poorly known and studied.Within these boundaries, a total of 4646 candidates were identified which appear worth investigating for short-term pulsational variability.

Investigation of the shortest period Am type eclipsing binary TYC 6408–989–1

The first BV bands photometric observations and the low-resolution spectrum of the shortest period Am type eclipsing binary TYC 6408-989-1 have been obtained.The stellar atmospheric parameters of the primary star were obtained through the spectral fitting as follows:Teff=6990±117 K,log g=4.25±0.26 cm s^(-2),[Fe/H]=-0.45±0.03 dex.The original spectra obtained by European Southern Observatory(ESO)were processed with an IRAF package by us.Based on the ESO blue-violet spectra,TYC 6408-989-1 was concluded as a marginal Am(Am:)star with a spectral type of kA3 hF1 mA5Ⅳ-Ⅴidentified through the MKCLASS program.The observed light curves were analyzed through the WilsonDevinney code.The final photometric solutions show that TYC 6408-989-1 is a marginal contact binary with a low mass ratio(q=0.27).The temperature of the secondary component derived through the light curve analysis is significantly higher than main sequence stars.In addition,TYC 6408-989-1 is a poor thermal contact binary.The temperature differences between the two components is about 1800 K.TYC6408-989-1 should be located in the oscillation stage predicted by the thermal relaxation oscillations theory(TRO)and will evolve into the shallow contact stage eventually.The very short period(less than one day),marginal Am peculiarity and quite large rotational velocity(v sin i■160 km s^(-1))make TYC 6408-989-1 become a challenge to the cut-off of rotation velocities and periods of Am stars.We have collected the well known eclipsing Am binaries with absolute parameters from the literature.

Contemporary Marxism and the Global Concept of the Universe

Having been developed in the way of concept extension, Marxism appears to be nowadays as the concrete-universal theory, in which originally imperfect transition program from abstract-universal to concrete-universal concepts of logic and sense is realized on materialistic foundation. This very program that was brought about in Karl Marx＇s ＂Capital＂ has not been sufficiently expressed in classical or contemporary philosophy. The base of this new Marxist philosophical form is not constructed by the terms of matter, movement, and development overall, but by the conception of the general naturally determined universal process of infinite movement from lower to superior forms of matter. We are aware of four of them： physical, chemical, biological, and social matter. Representing the eternal world as the progressive whole, modern materialism makes nature and proper place of each fundamental science understandable and helps to clarify the location and development future trends of the Man in the world.

General Diagnosis

2018001 Early detection of the cardiotoxicity in-duced by chemotherapy drug through two-dimen-sional speckle tracking echocardiography combined with high-sensitive cardiac troponin T. WANG Wei（王玮）, et al. （Dept Cardiol, Renji Hosp, Shanghai Jiaotong Univ Med Sch, Shanghai 200127. ）Objective To investigate the clinical value of two- dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography （2D- STE） combined with high-sensitive cardiac troponin T （hs-cTnT） in early detection of the cardiotoxicity induced by chemotherapy drug. Methods Seventy-five non-Hodgkin＇s lymphoma patients who received the CHOP regimen were recruited in this study. Conventional echocardiography and 2D-STE were performed on these patients before chemotherapy, the second day after the third course of chemotherapy （ during chemotherapy） and the second day after the last course of chemotherapy （after chemotherapy ）. The parameters included left ventricular ejection fraction（ LVEF）, global longitudinal strain （ LS）, global circumferential strain （ CS ） and global radial strain （RS）. The serum hs-cTNT levels were tested simultaneously. Results Three cycles of CHOP were completed in 30 patients and 6 -8 cycles of CHOP were completed in 45 patients. LVEF of 75 patients before, during and after chemotherapy was （63. 8± 2.6）% ,（63.8 ±2.8）% and（64.0 ±3.3）%, respectively, without significant differences （P = 0.91 ）. However, the LS of 75 patients before, during and after chemotherapy was （ - 18.5 ±1.7）%, （ - 16.5 ± 1.9） % and （ - 16.0 ± 1.6 ） %, respectively. CS was （-20.9＋2.9）%,（ -19.3 ±3.5）% and（ -19.2± 3.2） %, respectively. RS was （ 39. 2 ± 6. 4 ） %, （ 35. 3 ± 5.2） % and （ 35.0 ± 6. 2 ） %, respectively, hs-cTnT was（0. 001 0 ± 0. 002 0） ng/ml, （0. 006 3 ± 0. 008 9） ng/ml and （ 0. 007 3 ± 0. 003 8 ） ng/ml, respectively. LS, CS and RS were significantly decreased while hs-cT- nT was significantly increased during chemotherapy when compared to those before chemotherapy （all of P 〈 0. 01）. Alternatively, LS, CS, RS and hs-cTnT after chemotherapy were marginally different from those during the chemotherapy （ all of P 〉 0. 05 ）. Moreover, TLS-SD, TCS-SD and TRS.SD showed no significant difference before,during and after chemotherapy （ all of P 〉 0. 05 ）. The reduction of LS was positively associated with the enhancement of hs-cTnT after chemotherapy （r = 0.60, P 〈 0. 01 ）. Conclusion 2D-STE combined with hs-cTnT can effectively and precisely detect the occult cardiotoxicity induced by anthracycline.