Study on In-Service Inspection of Nuclear Fuel Assembly Failure Using Ultrasonic Plate Wave.

As protection for nuclear power plants is quite necessary, the nuclear fuel is sealed in zirconium alloy thin wall cladding. During service, fuel rods might be damaged caused by wall-thickness thinning, cladding corrosion and cracking, etc. This will cause the coolant to enter into the fuel rod, which may lead to the failure of the fuel assembly.

[Degradation of AO7 with Magnetic FeO-CuO Heterogeneous Catalyzed Sodium Percarbonate System].

Magnetically recyclable FeO-CuO was synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method and characterized by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The degradation of azo dye acid orange 7 (AO7) by percarbonate (SPC) activated with FeO-CuO was studied. The effects of FeO-CuO catalyst loading, SPC concentration, pH value, and common chloride ions on AO7 degradation in the FeO-CuO/SPC system were evaluated.

Physical perspective forward-inverse learning for ultrasonic sensing diagnosis in small diameter and thin-wall tube.

The ultrasonic testing method is a well-known non-destructive testing technique which has been applied to the tube inspection for guarantying the quality of the production. However, there exist several challenges to detect the defects of tubes with small diameter and thin-wall due to the complex of multiple reflections and waveform conversion. Parameters selection of the transducer takes key role to enhance the detection sensitivity such as frequency, size, refraction angle, distance offset, and focal point distance.

The role of heterodimerization between VEGFR-1 and VEGFR-2 in the regulation of endothelial cell homeostasis.

VEGF-A activity is tightly regulated by ligand and receptor availability. Here we investigate the physiological function of heterodimers between VEGF receptor-1 (VEGFR-1; Flt-1) and VEGFR-2 (KDR; Flk-1) (VEGFR(1-2)) in endothelial cells with a synthetic ligand that binds specifically to VEGFR(1-2). The dimeric ligand comprises one VEGFR-2-specific monomer (VEGF-E) and a VEGFR-1-specific monomer (PlGF-1).

Chemokine- and adhesion-dependent survival of neutrophils after transmigration through cytokine-stimulated endothelium.

We examined the fate of neutrophils following transmigration through an endothelial monolayer cultured on "Transwell" membrane filters. Treatment of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) with increasing doses of tumor necrosis factor-alpha increased the efficiency of transmigration and markedly reduced apoptosis among the transmigrated neutrophils in a dose-dependent manner. Apoptosis was also inhibited after transmigration of neutrophils through HUVEC stimulated with interleukin (IL)-1beta but not so effectively after chemotaxis through unstimulated HUVEC driven by IL-8 added below the filter.

Inhibition of neutrophil apoptosis by type 1 IFN depends on cross-talk between phosphoinositol 3-kinase, protein kinase C-delta, and NF-kappa B signaling pathways.

Neutrophils are abundant, short-lived leukocytes with a key role in the defense against rapidly dividing bacteria. They enter apoptosis spontaneously within 24-48 h of leaving the bone marrow. However, their life span can be extended during inflammatory responses by several proinflammatory cytokines.