ALBERT

Description: Wip1 suppresses apoptotic cell death through direct dephosphorylation of BAX in response to γ-radiation Cell Death and Disease 4, e744 (August 2013). doi:10.1038/cddis.2013.252 Authors: J-Y Song, S-H Ryu, Y M Cho, Y S Kim, B-M Lee, S-W Lee & J Choi

Description: Aims Understanding carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics and their dependence on the stand density of an even-aged, mature forest provides knowledge that is important for forest management. This study investigated the differences in ecosystem total C and N storage and flux between a low-density stand (LD) and a high-density stand (HD) and examined the effects of stand density on aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP), total belowground C allocation (TBCA) and net ecosystem production (NEP) in a naturally regenerated, 65- to 75-year-old Pinus densiflora S. et Z. forest. Methods LD (450 trees ha –1 ) and HD (842 trees ha –1 ) were established in an even-aged, mature P. densiflora forest in September 2006. The forest had been naturally regenerated following harvesting, and the stand density was naturally maintained without any artificial management such as thinning. The diameter at breast height (DBH ≥ 5.0cm) of all live stems within the stands was measured yearly from 2007 to 2011. To compare C and N storage and fluxes in LD and HD, C and N pools in aboveground and belowground biomass, the forest floor, coarse woody debris (CWD) and soil; soil CO 2 efflux ( R S ); autotrophic respiration ( R A ); litter production; and soil N availability were measured. Further, ANPP, TBCA and NEP were estimated from plot-based measurement data. Important Findings Ecosystem C (Mg C ha –1 ) and N (Mg N ha –1 ) storage was, respectively, 173.0±7.3 (mean ± SE) and 4.69±0.30 for LD and 162±11.8 and 4.08±0.18 for HD. There were no significant differences in C and N storage in the ecosystem components, except for soils, between the two stands. In contrast, there were significant differences in aboveground ANPP and TBCA between the two stands ( P 〈 0.05). Litterfall, biomass increment and R S were major C flux components with values of, respectively, 3.89, 3.74 and 9.07 Mg C ha –1 year –1 in LD and 3.15, 2.94 and 7.06 Mg C ha –1 year –1 in HD. Biometric-based NEP (Mg C ha –1 year –1 ) was 4.18 in LD and 5.50 in HD. Although the even-aged, mature P. densiflora forest had similar C and N allocation patterns, it showed different C and N dynamics depending on stand density. The results of the current study will be useful for elucidating the effects of stand density on C and N storage and fluxes, which are important issues in managing natural mature forest ecosystems.

Description: The dynamics of a magnetic domain wall (DW) under a transverse magnetic field H y are investigated in two-dimensional (2D) Co/Ni microstrips, where an interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) exists with DMI vector D lying in + y direction. The DW velocity exhibits asymmetric behavior for ± H y ; that is, the DW velocity becomes faster when H y is applied antiparallel to D . The key experimental results are reproduced in a 2D micromagnetic simulation, which reveals that the interfacial DMI suppresses the periodic change of the average DW angle φ even above the Walker breakdown and that H y changes φ , resulting in a velocity asymmetry. This suggests that the 2D DW motion, despite its microscopic complexity, simply depends on the average angle of the DW and thus can be described using a one-dimensional soliton model. These findings provide insight into the magnetic DW dynamics in 2D systems, which are important for emerging spin-orbitronic applications.

Description: We propose a multitree based fast failover scheme for Ethernet networks. In our system, only few spanning trees are used to carry working traffic in the normal state. As a failure happens, the nodes adjacent to the failure redirect traffic to the preplanned backup VLAN trees to realize fast failure recovery. In the proposed scheme, a new leaf constraint is enforced on the backup trees. It enables the network being able to provide 100% survivability against any single link and any single node failure. Besides fast failover, we also take load balancing into consideration. We model an Ethernet network as a twolayered graph and propose an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation for the problem. We further propose a heuristic algorithm to provide solutions to large networks. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme can achieve high survivability while maintaining load balancing at the same time. In addition, we have implemented the proposed scheme in an FPGA system. The experimental results show that it takes only few μsec to recover a network failure. This is far beyond the 50 msec requirement used in telecommunication networks for network protection.

Description: A novel method based on radio frequency magnetron sputtering tailored to the deposition of low residual stress and adherent c-BN thin films on silicon substrates was developed. In this study, the effect of noble gas (Kr, Ar, Ne and He) added in Ar gas during sputtering on the residual stress and the c-BN content has been investigated. As a result, it was found that the residual stress of c-BN thin film decreased with increasing the helium gas flow rate within argon gas.

Description: Spark plasma sintering (SPS) and Self-propagating High-temperature Synthesis/ quick pressing (SHS/QP) methods were used to fabricate nanotubes reinforced alumina. The difference in microstructure was discussed. In the SHS/QP process, the maximum densification temperature is 1660°C and the heating rate is about 1600°C /min. The whole densification process in SHS/QP is very short, which is much beneficial to protect the nanotubes and restrain the growing of grains. The fracture toughness of the sample prepared by SHS/QP is up to 4.9MPam ½ for 1mass% CNTs/Al 2 O 3 composites, which shows excellent toughening effects of nanotubes.

Description: Optical transparency was achieved at infrared region and overall translucent silicon nitride was fabricated using hot press sintering (HPS). The increase in h-BN content decreased the optical transparency. Microstructral observations shows that the optical, mechanical and tribological properties of BN dispersed polycrystalline Si 3 N 4 ceramics were affected by the density, α:β-phase ratio and content of h-BN in sintered ceramics. The hot pressed samples were prepared from the mixture of α-Si 3 N 4 , AlN, MgO and h-BN at 1850°C. The composite contained from 0.25 to 2 mass % BN powder with sintering aids (9% AlN + 3% MgO). Maximum transmittance of 57% was achieved for 0.25 mass % BN doped Si 3 N 4 ceramics. Fracture toughness was increased and wear volume and friction coefficient were decreased with increase in BN content.

Description: Silver nanoparticles were prepared by pulsed wire discharge (PWD) using silver wire in deionized water at various relative energy ( K ) from 10 to 98, which is ratio of the charged energy of the capacitor in the electrical circuit to the vaporization energy of the wire. From energy deposition calculated by the measured voltage and current waveforms, deposited energy of the wire was increased with increasing K . From X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, prepared nanoparticles were phase identified as silver. From transmission electron microscopy observations, the shape of prepared silver nanoparticles were spherical and the median particle diameter ( D 50 ) and the geometric standard deviation ( σ g ) were calculated from the particle distribution. D 50 was decreased from 34 to 19 nm with increasing K . The particle size in prepared by PWD in liquid media can be controlled by K .

Description: Cr(N,O) thin films were deposited by radio frequency reactive unbalanced magnetron sputtering on Si(100) or glassy carbon substrates. In this paper, the influence of oxygen content on hardness of Cr(N,O) thin films was investigated. The compositional analysis was carried out by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. It was found that these thin films contained up to 44at.% of oxygen. Phases in the samples were determined by X-ray diffraction. Cr(N,O) thin films show only peaks based on CrN. The microstructure was observed by utilizing a transmission electron microscope. At

Description: Novel CoCrFeNiTiAl x (x:molar ratio, other elements are equimolar) high-entropy alloys were prepared by vacuum arc melting and these alloys were subsequently annealed at 1000 °C for 2 h. The annealing effects on structure and mechanical properties were investigated. Compared with the as-cast alloys, there are many complex intermetallic phases precipitated from the solid solution matrix in the as-annealed alloys with Al content lower than Al 1.0 . Only simple BCC solid solution structure appears in the as-annealed Al 1.5 and Al 2.0 alloys. This kind of alloys exhibit high resistance to anneal softening. Most as-annealed alloys possess even higher Visker hardness than the as-cast ones. The as-annealed Al 0.5 alloys shows the highest compressive strength while the Al 0 alloy exhibits the best ductility, which is about 2.6 GPa and 13%, respectively. The CoCrFeNiTiAl x high-entropy alloys possess integrated high temp...