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In the paper, the authors establish two identities to express higher order derivatives and integer powers of the generating function of the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind in terms of integer powers and higher order derivatives of the generating function of the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind respectively, find an explicit formula and an identity for the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind, conclude the inverse of an integer, unit, and lower triangular matrix, derive an inversion theorem, present several identities of the Catalan numbers, and give some remarks on the closely related results including connections of the Catalan numbers with the Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind, the central Delannoy numbers, and the Fibonacci polynomials respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author first proves a transformation formula for the very-well-poised bilateral basic hypergeometric 3ψ3 series by using the relationship between the bilateral basic hypergeometric 5ψ5 series and basic hypergeometric 4ψ3 series. Then, the author proves a transformation formula for the well-poised bilateral basic hypergeometric 4ψ4 series by using the relationship between the bilateral basic hypergeometric 5ψ5 series and basic hypergeometric 8ψ7 series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let fn denotes the nnth Fubini number. In this paper, first we give upper and lower bounds for the Fubini numbers fn. Then the log-convexity of the Fubini numbers has been obtained. Furthermore we also give the monotonicity of the sequence {...}n ≥ 1 by using the aforementioned bounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some components in Double horse head (DHH) pumping unit may occur cracking failure due to high cycle alternating stress, and this makes the research on dynamic stress simulation for them more interesting topic in its maintenance operation. This paper aims to improve the accuracy of dynamic stress simulation model through a parameter optimization method for the cable joints in DHH pumping unit. A series of cylinders was employed to model the steel cable, and the back horse head was also transformed to flexible body, then a rigid-flexible multibody dynamics model with cable was constructed to simulate the dynamic stress of components in DHH pumping unit. Stiffness and damping coefficient in cable joints have a significant effect on the model performance, and an unreasonable value may cause a strong vibrational and undesirable model response, therefore, a Memetic Algorithms based method was proposed to optimize them for improving the simulation accuracy using tested stress as objective function. Results show that the dynamic stress simulated from improved model is much closer to the experimental test compared with the original model and these optimized parameters are also valid for the model in other working condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most general form of q-binomial inverse formula was given by Carlitz. In this paper, the author first gives a new form of q-binomial inverse formula. The aim of giving this new form is that a q-analogue of combinatorial identity can be derived. With the aid of the result by Carlitz, the author gives a representation for the q-Catalan-Qi numbers Cn(a; b; q). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, by studying three q-Catalan identities given by Andrews, we arrive at a cer- tain number of congruences. These congruences are all modulo Փn(q), the n-th cyclotomic polynomial or the related functions and modulo q-integers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, the author presents q-analogues of some identities of the Catalan-Qi numbers and finds supercongruences for some special cases of the Catalan-Qi numbers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local mean decomposition (LMD) is a new time-frequency analysis method which can decompose a signal adaptively into a set of product function (PF) components, and the construction of local mean function and envelope function plays an important role in the accuracy of its PF components. Aiming at the strong nonstationarity, nonlinearity and multi-component coupling characteristics of reciprocating compressor vibration signals, an improved LMD was proposed by a novel construction method of local mean function and envelope function. By introducing an extreme symmetrical point between two extreme points and using the Monotone Piecewise Cubic Hermite Interpolation (MPCHI) instead of Cubic Spline Interpolation (CSI) to construct the envelopes, a novel construction method of local mean function and envelope function was proposed, and then the improved LMD algorithm was given based on this novel construction method. The improved LMD was applied to decompose the vibration signals of reciprocating compressor fault states, and the comparison of details between different LMD decomposition results verified the superiority of this improved method. The envelope frequency spectrum of PF component gives a more significant peak of fault frequency than that of original signal, which further indicates that this proposed method is competent for the diagnosis of reciprocating compressor oversized bearing clearance fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal information is one of the essential components in many domains, especially those related to history. Up until the twentieth century, the Chinese used a lunisolar calendar with the title of an Emperor and a reign period to express temporal information. When describing a historical event in Chinese history, it is inadequate to use existing time ontologies as presented in the traditional Chinese way of thinking to capture and encode time. To date, no attention in the field has been given to modelling ancient Chinese time. In this paper, we identify the problems encountered when modelling Chinese time resulting from the distinctive nature of a non-western time scale. We design a new model of temporal information with combined approaches, which are more appropriate for Chinese dynasties, emperors, and reign periods, and apply the OWL-Time ontology onto the ancient Chinese lunisolar calendar. This approach can also be applied to other ancient time-keeping methods in non-western time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Anatid herpesvirus 1 (AHV-1) is known for the difficulty of monitoring and controlling, because it has a long period of asymptomatic carrier state in waterfowls. Furthermore, as a significant essential agent for viral attachment, release, stability and virulence, gC (UL44) gene and its protein product (glycoprotein C) may play a key role in the epidemiological screening. The objectives of this study were to rapidly, sensitively, quantitatively detect gC gene of AHV-1 and provide the underlying basis for further investigating pcDNA3.1-gC DNA vaccine in infected ducks by TaqMan™ fluorescent quantitative real-time PCR assay (FQ-PCR) with pcDNA3.1-gC plasmid. Results: The repeatable and reproducible quantitative assay was established by the standard curve with a wide dynamic range (eight logarithmic units of concentration) and very good correlation values (1.000). This protocol was able to detect as little as 1.0 × 101 DNA copies per reaction and it was highly specific to AHV-1. The TaqMan™ FQ-PCR assay successfully detected the gC gene in tissue samples from pcDNA3.1-gC and AHV-1 attenuated vaccine (AHV-1 Cha) strain inoculated ducks respectively. Conclusions: The assay offers an attractive method for the detection of AHV-1, the investigation of distribution pattern of AHV-1 in vivo and molecular epidemiological screening. Meanwhile, this method could expedite related AHV-1 and gC DNA vaccine research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate various issues related to Chinese language localisation in Evergreen, an open source integrated library system (ILS). Design/methodology/approach - A Simplified Chinese version of Evergreen was implemented and tested and various issues such as encoding, indexing, searching, and sorting specifically associated with Simplified Chinese language were investigated. Findings - The paper finds that Unicode eases a lot of ILS development problems. However, having another language version of an ILS does not simply require the translation from one language to another. Indexing, searching, sorting and other locale related issues should be tackled not only language by language, but locale by locale. Practical implications - Most of the issues that have arisen during this project will be found with other ILS-like systems. Originality/value - This paper provides insights into issues of, and various solutions to, indexing, searching, and sorting in the Chinese language in an ILS. These issues and the solutions may be applicable to other digital library systems such as institutional repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To set up a protocol for electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) submission for the electronic thesis initiative pilot project at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Design/methodology/approach - An electronic thesis and dissertation submission protocol was implemented and tested. To test authoring tools, we had 50 students submit their theses or dissertations using one of four style sheets. Word-processed files were converted to PDF and XML formats. The pilot project team evaluated DigiTool's effectiveness in digital conversion, capture of metadata and cataloguing, digital content harvesting, digital preservation, and integration with the student information system. Findings - All theses experienced some degree of information loss during the conversion. DigiTool is still being tested for storage, cataloguing, and dissemination capability. For full implementation, three major issues need to be addresed further: conversion; metadata; and file formats. Practical implications - Most of the issues that have arisen during the McGill pilot project will be mirrored in other academic institutions that are considering electronic thesis submission. Originality/value - This paper provides insights into the procedures that will arise as institutions go through the process of introducing electronic thesis and dissertation submission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) derived from placental tissue show great therapeutic potential and have been used in medical treatment, but the similarity and differences between the MSCs derived from various parts of the placenta remain unclear. In this study, we compared MSCs derived from different perinatal tissues, including the umbilical cord (UC), amniotic membrane (AM), chorionic plate (CP) and decidua parietalis (DP). Using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing and karyotype analysis, we found that the first three cell types were derived from the foetus, while the MSCs from the decidua parietalis were derived from the maternal portion of the placental tissue. Our results indicate that both foetal and maternal MSCs share a similar phenotype and multi-lineage differentiation potential, but foetal MSCs show a significantly higher expansion capacity than do maternal MSCs. Furthermore, MSCs from all sources showed significant differences in the levels of several paracrine factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects the initiation, establishment, and development of the International Journal of Librarianship (IJoL), an open access academic journal published by the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA). Sustainability and high quality have been set as the top priorities by the core editorial team throughout the journey of the creation, promotion, and advancement of this journal. The opportunities, challenges, and success are discussed along with the future directions of IJoL. This article contributes to the literature in the creation and development of academic journals, especially the open access publications in library and information science (LIS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects the initiation, establishment, and development of the International Journal of Librarianship (IJoL), an open access academic journal published by the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA). Sustainability and high quality have been set as the top priorities by the core editorial team throughout the journey of the creation, promotion, and advancement of this journal. The opportunities, challenges, and success are discussed along with the future directions of IJoL. This article contributes to the literature in the creation and development of academic journals, especially the open access publications in library and information science (LIS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a potentially life-threatening vascular abnormality, that, if ruptured, is almost universally fatal without repair, and is associated with up to 50% mortality even if repaired in hospital. To date, there is no drug therapy that has clinically proven benefit to reduce or prevent expansion of AAA. The aim of this study was to investigate whether Daxx could affect AAA through inhibiting the PI3K/AKT/ID2 signaling pathway mediated by transforming growth factor β-1 (TGFβ1). Methods: The AAA model was constructed by injecting angiotensinⅡ(Ang-Ⅱ) into rats, and the Daxx lentivirus vector was constructed. Hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining was used to detect the wall thickness of the abdominal aorta in rats. The gene and protein expressions in abdominal aortic tissues were detected utilizing western blot, immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Finally, the concentration of TGF-β1 in abdominal aortic tissue was determined by ELISA. Results: The abdominal aortic wall thickness was decreased in the Daxx expression group (by HE staining), and Daxx overexpression markedly reduced the protein expression levels of MMP2 and MMP9. Proteins related to the PI3K/AKT/ID2 signaling pathway were highly enhanced in the aneurysm wall of rats, but were reduced following Daxx addition. Moreover, Daxx reduced the damage to elastin (by IHC), and the expression levels of a-SMA and SM22a were up-regulated by Daxx (by qRT-PCR). The concentration of TGF-β1 was correlated with the activation of the PI3K/AKT/ID2 signaling pathway (by ELISA), whereas AKT overexpression weakened the inhibitory effect of Daxx. Conclusion: Daxx ameliorated several mechanisms that contributed to expansion of AAA suppressing the tissue concentration of TGF-β1, thereby inhibiting the activation of the PI3K/AKT/ID2 signaling pathway. This evidence might form the basis to develop a therapeutic target for AAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel power system frequency control strategy is designed in this paper, which is mainly used to improve the stability of the islanding power system. Detecting the change of circuit breaker status, it is feasible to identify the serious accidents, for instance, a generator outage or disconnection from main grids, and so on. The balanceable power before disturbance and the capacity of the removed power can be used to calculate the power deficiency. Then, appropriate load can be shed adaptively. In the subsequent regulating process, adapting to the various stages of frequency variation, the concepts of rough-adjusting step and fine-adjusting step are proposed to obtain a balance between shedding loads quickly and refining the load shed in every step. The concept of proportional-integral-differential (PID) is introduced to design a closed-loop control strategy to trace frequency variation, with which a balance between restraining the sharp drop of frequency effectively and releasing the reserved system capacity thoroughly can be obtained. Moreover, the frequency recovery curve can be optimized and the dead zone of control during the frequency rising stage can be avoided. Compared with the conventional under-frequency loading shedding (UFLS) schemes, the effectiveness of the control strategy presented has been verified by EMTDC simulation tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Performance appraisal is a key link in the performance payment mechanism of government-paid Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects. As the performance appraisal of PPP projects is highly professional and complex, it is usually necessary to introduce a third-party performance appraisal institution to evaluate the project outputs of the private investor. However, driven by economic rent, the private investor has the incentive to seek rent from the third party in the performance appraisal process, leading to the low overall performance level of PPP projects and the inability to achieve the PPP performance appraisal goal effectively. To explore how to avoid rent-seeking in performance appraisal and improve the overall performance of government-paid PPP projects, a tripartite evolutionary game model between the behaviour, third party, and the public sector has been constructed. Based on the evolutionary game model, this study analyses the evolutionary stability of each player’s strategy, discusses the influence of various factors on the strategy selection of the three-party, and further analyses the stability of the equilibrium point of the three-party game system.,e findings reveal that the public sector can slow down the rent-seeking behaviour of the private sector by setting up a reasonable reward and punishment mechanism.,e design of a reasonable reward and punishment mechanism must meet the following conditions: (1) the sum of the reward and punishment of all parties is greater than the speculative income; (2) the amount of performance fee withheld for the private investor is greater than the difference between the project operating cost saved and the speculation cost.,e research provides technical support for the design of the performance appraisal mechanism of government-paid PPP projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, extracts from male zooid of Antheraea pernyi (EMZAP) were investigated for their antiobesity activity in C57BL/6 male mice. Mice were randomly divided into 4 groups and fed on basal control group diet (Control Group), high-fat diet (Model Group), high-fat diet containing high dose of EMZAP (High Group), and high-fat diet containing low dose of EMZAP (Low Group), respectively. The levels of serum lipid, antioxidant capacity, body weight, and adipose weight were measured. The levels of expression of genes involved in cholesterol metabolism were also determined by Real-Time PCR. The results showed that EMZAP could reduce body weight and epididymal adipose weight of mice on fed high-fat diet, and also decrease serum lipid levels in mice with induced obesity. Treatment with EMZAP also produced significant amelioration of lipid accumulation and improved the antioxidant capacity in the liver. EMZAP reduced the expression of HMG-CoA reductase (HMG-CoA-R) and increased the expression of cholesterol 7-alpha hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and LDL receptor (LDLR). But it has no obvious effect on the expression of LXR-. According to the above results, EMZAP had good anti-obesity attributes and improvement in conditions arising out of cholesterol accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: A functional -94 insertion/deletion polymorphism (rs28362491) in the promoter of the NF-κB1 gene was reported to influence NF-κB1 expression and confer susceptibility to different types of cancer. This study aims to determine whether the polymorphism is associated with the risk of urinary cancer, including renal cancer, bladder cancer and prostate cancer. METHODS: TaqMan method was applied to genotype the NF-κB1 -94 ins/del ATTG promoter polymorphism in three casecontrol studies: renal cell carcinoma group (1216 cases and 1588 controls), bladder cancer group (730 cases and 780 controls), and prostate cancer group (820 cases and 945 controls). Logistic regression was used to assess the association between the polymorphism and urinary cancer risk. RESULTS: The del/del genotype was detected to be associated with a statistically significant increased risk of bladder cancer when taking the ins/ins genotypes as reference (P <0.001, adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.14-1.52). Furthermore, in bladder cancer, the same results were observed in the del/del genotype compared with the ins/ins + ins/del genotypes (P <0.001, OR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.41-2.35), and the del allele compared with the ins allele (P <0.001, OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.12-1.49). However, no significant difference was observed in the associations between the NF-κB1 polymorphism and the risk of renal cell carcinoma or prostate cancer in all kinds of models. CONCLUSIONS: In the Chinese population, the -94 ins/del ATTG polymorphism in NF-κB1 promoter may contribute to the etiology of bladder cancer instead of renal cell carcinoma or prostate cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorogenic acid (CGA) exhibits various biological properties, including the inhibition of oxidation, obesity, apoptosis and tumorigenesis. CGA is also able to promote cell survival and proliferation. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects and underlying molecular mechanisms of CGA on the adipogenesis of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Treatment with CGA had a marginal effect on cell proliferation, by promoting the expression levels of phosphorylated Akt and cyclin D1. Furthermore, treatment with CGA also upregulated the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk) and inhibited the adipocyte differentiation of BMSCs by inhibiting the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)γ and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP)α. However, knockdown of the expression of Shp2 attenuated CGA-induced proliferation and inhibited the phosphorylation of Akt and expression of cyclin D1. Furthermore, CGA treatment upregulated Erk phosphorylation and decreased the expression levels of PPARγ and CEBPα, which was inhibited by treatment with the Shp2 PTPase activity inhibitor, NSC-87877. The results of the present study suggested that CGA-induced Akt and Erk pathways regulate proliferation and differentiation and that Shp2 is important in the proliferation and differentiation of BMSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), the inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), has been reported to be associated with glucose metabolism, but its mechanisms remain unknown. Methods: In 3T3-L1 adipocytes, we measured the effects of ADMA on glucose transport process under basal or insulin-induced condition, and examined the production of nitric oxide (NO), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and the expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Results: ADMA significantly impaired basal or insulin-stimulated 2-deoxy- [3H] glucose uptake, and decreased the expression of insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) and glucose transporter-4 (GLUT4). Phosphorylated protein of IRS-1 and translocation of GLUT4 with insulin-stimulation were also inhibited by ADMA. NO decreased, while production of ROS and TNF-α, and expression of TLR4 increased after ADMA treatment. Vitamin E reduced the effects of ADMA on glucose transport system, and on NO, ROS and TLR4. Moreover, vitamin E decreased ADMA contents by up-regulating dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH) activity in adipocytes. Though L-arginine also increased NO level, but failed to reduce the effects of ADMA. Conclusion: ADMA significantly impairs both basal and insulin-stimulated glucose transport in adipocytes, which may relate to activation of the ROS/TLR4 pathway. Copyright © 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]