IntroductionNasopharyngeal cultures are commonly used to determine the causative bacteria in upper airway infections. However, several bacteria can occupy the nasopharynx simultaneously and most healthy children are asymptomatic carriers of presumptive pathogens. This makes the interpretation of nasopharyngeal cultures difficult. Knowledge about which bacteria reside in the nasopharynx can assist

While quantities conditioned to an isosurface of reaction progress variable c, which characterizes fluid state in a turbulent reacting flow, have been attracting rapidly growing interest in the recent literature, a mathematical and physical framework required for research into such quantities has not yet been elaborated properly. This paper aims at filling two fundamental gaps in this area, i.e.,

Biobjective and bidisciplinary optimal design of high-performance airfoil and wing applying two kinds of optimization methods and genetic algorithm are discussed. An objective function combination method (OFCM) of constructing a resultant objective function in DOM or a fitness function in GA for biobjective optimization.

To extend an available mono-objective optimization method to multi-objective/multi-disciplinary optimization, the construction of a suitable integral objective function (in gradient based deterministic method-DM) or fitness function (in genetic algorithm-GA) is important. An auto-adjusting weighted object optimization (AWO) method in DM is suggested to improve the available weighted sum method (li

To extend available monoobjective optimization methods to multiobjective and multidisciplinary optimization, the construction of a suitable resultant objective function(in deterministic method-DM) or a fitness function(in genetic algorithm-GA) is important. An objective function combination method (OFCM) of constructing such a function for constrained optimization problems is suggested. How to use

The genetic algorithm(GA) is a non-traditional, probability search and global optimization method similar to natural selection and evolution. The key points and control parameters of this method are briefly discussed. To apply it to a multiobjective and multidisciplinary optimization problem a kind of fitness function is suggested, in which the requirements of multiobjects and multiconstraints are

It is well known that a modern fighter should have high aerodynamic performance, i.e., high lift (C L) and low drag (C D), high C L/C D at subsonic speed and low drag at supersonic speed, etc. However, stealthy performance has also become one of the basic requirements to a modern fighter. So the task of a designer today is to shape the aircraft with not only the maximum aerodynamic efficiency but

Cities are seen as one of the leading forces in making our societies sustainable and resource efficient. The latest trends of sharing homes, cars, bikes, tools and other goods are fast entering our urban lives. The sharing economy is a consumption-production mode in a city, in which value is generated through transactions between peers or organisations that offer access to their idling or underuti

Finding successful therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most challenging tasks existing for human health. Several drugs have been found and validated in preclinical studies with some success, but not with the desired breakthroughs in the following clinical development phases. AD causes multiple brain dysfunctions that can be described as a brain organ failure, resu

Background: P-selectin is activated early after stroke, followed by a rapid decline. This time course can be used to generate important information on stroke onset. The latter is crucial for therapeutic decision-making of wake-up strokes (i.e. thrombolysis or not). Here, we evaluated the specific p-selectin inhibitor fucoidan labeled with gallium-68 (68Ga-Fucoidan) as an imaging biomarker for asse

In this chapter we approach inequalities between women and men in Vietnam through the lens of feminism. We address the manner in which feminism is understood, observing intellectual currents that resonate with global trends in some respects and those reflecting conditions more specific to Vietnam in others. Affinities with global currents, for example, are seen in the ways in which Vietnamese inte

Electronic 2D spectroscopy allows nontrivial quantum effects to be explored in unprecedented detail. Here, we apply recently developed fluorescence detected coherent 2D spectroscopy to study the light harvesting antenna 2 (LH2) of photosynthetic purple bacteria. We report double quantum coherence 2D spectra which show clear cross peaks indicating correlated excitations. Similar results are found f

The unclear mechanism of exciton-plasmon coupling interaction in monolayer MoS2-Ag nanoparticles hybrid, as a longstanding target in molecular nanotechnology and catalysis, is systemically investigated with transmission spectra and femtosecond pump-probe transient absorption spectroscopy in this paper. The properties of exciton in monolayer MoS2 are strongly enhanced due to the local surface plasm

We investigated the excited-state dynamics of CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskite nanoparticles (NPs) and bulk crystals under various excitation intensity regimes using transient absorption spectroscopy. We confirmed the sub-band gap hole trap states with optical transition to the conduction band in both samples. In bulk crystals, the excited-state dynamics is independent of pump intensity. However, in NPs, pr

Mn-doping into CdS quantum dots (QDs) has been demonstrated a useful way to enhance the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSCs), the detailed systematic study is needed to get a better fundamental understanding. This work focuses on the study of the effects of Mn dopant on light harvesting, charge transfer, and charge collection of the solar cells. The resul