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Magnetic recording disk carbon overcoats are lubricated with nanometer-thick films of perfluoropolyether lubricant. It is well-known that lubricant thickness redistribution takes place due to air shear stress oscillation at air bearing resonant frequencies and also due to shear stress oscillation induced by disk topography waves on test tracks. We extended this work to demonstrate correlation between surface topography and lubricant redistribution on whole disk surfaces. Lubricant moguls are shown to form over regions of the disk surface which have topography waves that are half the slider length, and the lubricant thickness peak is out-of-phase down track from the topography peak height. There is a critical relative humidity above 20% beyond which moguls are readily formed by the slider flying at 10 nm without thermal fly-height control. The significance of the lubricant redistribution for drive magnetic performance has long been the subject of debate. The slider flying height modulation measured by magnetic head media spacing was in good agreement with the dynamic air bearing simulation based on the measured disk surface topography. Measured head media spacing image data on the same disk surface before and after lubricant redistribution had the same length scale as the correlation between topography and lubricant thickness variation. These results demonstrate that lubricant thickness redistribution on the order of atomic diameters can degrade magnetic performance, and that the surface topography waves alone can degrade areal density by as much as 2%.

The formation and dissolution of aluminum carbide is considered the primary factor affecting the life of aluminum electrolysis cells. Herein, the characteristics of sodium-graphite intercalation compounds (Na-GICs) were measured and the formation mechanism of Al4C3 during the aluminum electrolysis process was experimentally studied. The Na-GIC characteristics and the products of aluminum and Na-GIC reactions were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that graphite can react with the sodium metal to form Na-GICs, which were detectable by Raman spectroscopy. Sodium inserted into the graphite layered structure acted as an intercalation agent to change the original graphite layered structure and increase the volume and specific surface area of graphite. Further, Al4C3 was produced by using sodium-graphite intercalation compounds and aluminum as materials. Thus, the presence of sodium plays an important role in the formation process of Al4C3 in aluminum electrolysis cells.

Mg?Li alloys are the lightest metallic construction materials and one of the most representative light alloys. The process of producing Mg?Li alloys by vacuum aluminothermic reduction, using magnesite and lithium carbonate as raw materials, was studied. The influence of reduction parameters on the extents of reduction of MgO and Li2O was investigated. The results show that Mg?Li alloys can be produced by vacuum aluminothermic reduction using calcined magnesite and lithium carbonate. MgO was relatively easier to reduce by aluminum than Li2O. Almost all MgO was reduced to Mg and more than 96% of Li2O was reduced to Li. The main phase in the reduction slag was Li2O?5Al2O3. The reaction mechanism was discussed. Vacuum aluminothermic reduction can be considered as a highly efficient and environmental friendly method for producing Mg?Li alloys. nema

Interferon- γ (IFN- γ ), a pleiotropic lymphokine, has important regulatory effects on many cell types. Although IFN- γ is essential for the initiation of uterine vascular modifications and maintenance of decidual integrity, IFN- γ administration can also cause pregnancy failure in many species. However, little is known about the effector mechanisms involved. In this study, using an IFN- γ -induced abortion mouse model, we reported that no Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin-positive uterine natural killer (uNK) cells were observed in the uteri from IFN- γ -induced abortion mice. By contrast, the percentage of CD3 − CD49b + NK cells in the uterus and blood from a foetal resorption group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Similarly, significantly upregulated expression of CD49b (a pan-NK cell marker), CX3CL1 and CX3CR1 (CX3CL1 receptor) was detected in the uteri of IFN- γ -induced abortion mice. Using isolated uterine stromal cells, we showed that upregulated expression of CX3CL1 by IFN- γ was dependent on a Janus family kinase 2-signal transducers and activators of transcription 1 (JAK2-STAT1) pathway. We further demonstrated the chemotactic activity of CX3CL1 in uterine stromal cell conditioned medium on primary splenic NK cells. Finally, we observed increased recruitment of CD49b + NK cells into the endometrium after exogenous CX3CL1 administration. Collectively, our findings indicate that IFN- γ can significantly increase uterine CX3CL1 expression via activation of the JAK2-STAT1 pathway, thus inducing CD49b + NK cell uterine homing, and eventually provoke foetal loss. Thus, we provide a new line of evidence correlating the deleterious effects of IFN- γ on pregnancy with the aberrant regulation of CX3CL1 and CD49b + NK cells.

The molten salt electrolysis of LiCl?KCl is presently the primary method of producing lithium, but it is costly and has environmental issues in addition to other disadvantages. Vacuum thermal reduction may be used extensively in the future because it offers low energy consumption, a high purity product and short cycle times. The present study investigated a novel process for the extraction of lithium from Li5AlO4 clinker by vacuum aluminothermic reduction. The Li5AlO4 clinker was prepared in ambient air using lithium hydroxide, alumina and calcium oxide. The results show that this process can proceed in conjunction with a lower ratio of raw materials to lithium (8.89:1) and provides lithium reduction rates in excess of 97%. In addition, the reduction slag consists mainly of 12CaO?7Al2O3, which can be used to produce aluminum hydroxide. Thus, this process represents a highly efficient and environmentally-friendly method of generating lithium. nema

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) has been suggested to be involved in tumor metastasis. However, the molecular mechanism of LMP1-induced metastasis is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the effect of LMP1 on the expression of RECK, a metastasis suppressor gene, in an EBV-negative nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cell line. Our data demonstrated that LMP1 induced downregulation of RECK via transcription repression in TW04 cells. In addition, we found that LMP1 acted via an Sp1 site to inhibit RECK promoter activity. We next studied the signaling pathway that mediated the effect of LMP1 on RECK expression. Our results showed that LMP1 potently stimulated the activity of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) and inhibition of ERK activity by PD98059 antagonized LMP1-induced downregulation of RECK. Conversely, the c-Jun N-terminal kinase inhibitor SP600125 and p38 HOG kinase inhibitor SB203580 had little effect. We also found that the expression of LMP1 increased the invasive ability of TW04 cells. The importance of RECK in LMP1-induced invasiveness was supported by three observations. First, restoration of RECK expression by PD98059 reduced LMP1-induced release of active MMP-9. Second, suppression of PD98059-induced RECK expression by small interference RNA abolished the inhibitory action of PD98059 on LMP1-induced invasiveness. Third, coexpression of RECK with LMP1 in TW04 cells effectively suppressed cell invasiveness induced by LMP1. Taken together, these results suggest that LMP1 inhibits RECK expression via the ERK/Sp1 signaling pathway and this inhibition is a critical step for LMP1-induced tumor metastasis.

Sea surface temperature (SST) variability affects marine ecosystems, fisheries, ocean primary productivity and human activities and is the primary influence on typhoon intensity. SST drops of a few degrees in the open ocean after typhoon passages have been widely documented; however, few studies have focused on coastal SST variability. The purpose of this study is to determine typhoon-induced SST drops in the near-coastal area (within 1 km of the coast) and understand the possible mechanism. The results of this study were based on extensive field data analysis. Significant SST drop phenomena were observed at the Longdong Buoy in northeastern Taiwan during 43 typhoons over the past 20 years (1998–2017). The mean SST drop (ΔSST) after a typhoon passage was 6.1 ∘C, and the maximum drop was 12.5 ∘C (Typhoon Fungwong in 2008). The magnitude of the SST drop was larger than most of the observations in the open ocean. The mean duration of the SST drop was 24 h, and on average, 26.1 h were required for the SST to recover to the original temperature. The coastal SST drops at Longdong were correlated with the moving tracks of typhoons. When a typhoon passes south of Longdong, the strong and persistent longshore winds induce coastal upwelling and pump cold water up to the surface, which is the dominant cause of the SST drops along the coast. In this study, it was determined that cold water mainly intruded from the Kuroshio subsurface into the Okinawa Trough, which is approximately 50 km from the observation site. The magnitude of coastal SST drops depends on the area of overlap between typhoons generating strong winds and the Kuroshio. The dataset used in this study can be accessed from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.895002.

Chorionic gonadotropin (CG) is a placental derived hormone that plays a crucial role in successful implantation and establishment of early pregnancy in the primates. The rhesus monkey was chosen as a model to understand the feasibility of developing human DNA immuno-contraceptive. The coding region of rhesus monkey CG beta-subunit (rmCGbeta) was isolated by the TDRT-PCR method. The nucleotide sequence including the leader peptide was 499 nucleotide long and encoded 166 amino acids. In comparing with the previous known primates CG beta-subunits, the rmCGbeta was the highest degree of homology with baboon CG beta-subunit at the deduced amino acid sequence (94%), 79.5% homology with human CG beta-subunit and 70.4% homology with marmoset monkey CG beta-subunit. The eukaryotic expression vector pCMV4-rmCGbeta inserted full-coding cDNA sequence of rmCGbeta was constructed, and the expression of rmCG beta-subunit in HeLa cells transient expressing system in vitro and BALB/c mice in vivo was determined. The results demonstrated that the recombinant PCMV4-rmCGbeta eukaryotic expression vector could express rmCG beta-subunit in vitro and in vivo.

We show that the charge radii of neighboring atomic nuclei, independent of atomic number and charge, follow remarkably very simple relations, despite the fact that atomic nuclei are complex finite many-body systems governed by the laws of quantum mechanics. These relations can be understood within the picture of independent-particle motion and by assuming neighboring nuclei having similar pattern in the charge density distribution. A root-mean-square (rms) deviation of 0.0078 fm is obtained between the predictions in these relations and the experimental values, i.e., a comparable precision as modern experimental techniques. Such high accuracy relations are very useful to check the consistence of nuclear charge radius surface and moreover to predict unknown nuclear charge radii, while large deviations from experimental data is seen to reveal the appearance of nuclear shape transition or coexsitence.

Interferon- gamma (IFN- gamma ), a pleiotropic lymphokine, has important regulatory effects on many cell types. Although IFN- gamma is essential for the initiation of uterine vascular modifications and maintenance of decidual integrity, IFN- gamma administration can also cause pregnancy failure in many species. However, little is known about the effector mechanisms involved. In this study, using an IFN- gamma -induced abortion mouse model, we reported that no Dolichos biflorus agglutinin lectin-positive uterine natural killer (uNK) cells were observed in the uteri from IFN- gamma -induced abortion mice. By contrast, the percentage of CD3 super(-)CD49b super(+) NK cells in the uterus and blood from a foetal resorption group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Similarly, significantly upregulated expression of CD49b (a pan-NK cell marker), CX3CL1 and CX3CR1 (CX3CL1 receptor) was detected in the uteri of IFN- gamma -induced abortion mice. Using isolated uterine stromal cells, we showed that upregulated expression of CX3CL1 by IFN- gamma was dependent on a Janus family kinase 2-signal transducers and activators of transcription 1 (JAK2-STAT1) pathway. We further demonstrated the chemotactic activity of CX3CL1 in uterine stromal cell conditioned medium on primary splenic NK cells. Finally, we observed increased recruitment of CD49b super(+) NK cells into the endometrium after exogenous CX3CL1 administration. Collectively, our findings indicate that IFN- gamma can significantly increase uterine CX3CL1 expression via activation of the JAK2-STAT1 pathway, thus inducing CD49b super(+) NK cell uterine homing, and eventually provoke foetal loss. Thus, we provide a new line of evidence correlating the deleterious effects of IFN- gamma on pregnancy with the aberrant regulation of CX3CL1 and CD49b super(+) NK cells.Cell Death and Disease (2014) 5, e1512; doi:10.1038/cddis.2014.470; published online 6 November 2014