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This exploratory qualitative study investigates older adults’ unmet needs in the age-friendly city of Ipoh, Malaysia. Seventeen participants were interviewed, including ten older adults residing in Ipoh City for at least six months, four carers, and three professional key informants. Interviews were conducted using semi-structured questions based on the WHO Age-Friendly Cities Framework. A 5P framework for active ageing based on the ecological ageing model was adapted for data analysis. The 5P framework consists of domains of person (micro), process (meso), place (macro), policymaking (macro), and prime, which allows for the dissection of older adults’ unmet needs in planning for multilevel approaches, which were employed for analysis. Person: the personal needs requiring improvement included digital divide disparity, inadequate family support, and restricted sports activities attributed to physical limitations. Process: There were fewer social activities and a lack of low-cost and easily accessible venues for seniors. Economic challenges include expensive private healthcare services, variation in the quality of care in older residential care facilities, and limited savings for retirement. Place issues include unequal distribution of exercise equipment, public open spaces, the need for more conducive parking for seniors, and a place for social activities. Difficulties assessing public transportation, digitalized services, and unaffordable e-hailing services are common among seniors. Housing issues for seniors include a lack of barrier-free housing design and unaffordable housing. Policymaking: Insufficient private sector commitment to improving services to older adults, lack of policy governance on the quality of nursing homes, and insufficient multidisciplinary governance collaboration. Prime: Health promotion for preventing age-related illness is required to preserve health in old age, and full-time family caregivers’ psychological well-being is often overlooked.

In order to solve the problem of capacity reduction of Schiff base monomer in lithium-ion batteries due to the dissolution of active substances, the Schiff base polymer(PI) with C=N bond was prepared by one-step condensation method using p-benzaldehyde and p-phenylenediamine as raw materials. Poly(Schiff base)/carbon nanotubes(PI/CNTs) composites with high conductivity were prepared by doping carbon nanotubes(CNTs). The composition, structure, micro morphology and electrochemical properties of the prepared materials were analyzed by using FT-IR, SEM, XRD, TG, XPS and electrochemical workstation. The results indicate that the PI/CNT material with 5%CNTs(mass fraction) is a three-dimensional frame structure, and shows excellent electrochemical performance. The first specific capacity of PI/CNT-3 material is 209.9 mAh·g-1. After 200 cycles, the cycle retention rate is 60.5%. When the rate of charge and discharge is 0.1 C, 0.2 C, 0.5 C, 1 C and 0.1 C, the specific capacity of PI/CNT-3 electrode materials is 182.4, 150.8, 129.8, 101.3 mAh·g-1 and 156.4 mAh·g-1 respectively, which has good cycle stability and rate performance.

In this work, we perform a systematical investigation about the possible hidden and doubly heavy molecular states with open and hidden strangeness from interactions of $$D^{(*)}{{\bar{D}}}^{(*)}_{s}$$ D ( ∗ ) D ¯ s ( ∗ ) / $$B^{(*)}{{\bar{B}}}^{(*)}_{s}$$ B ( ∗ ) B ¯ s ( ∗ ) , $${D}^{(*)}_{s}{{\bar{D}}}^{(*)}_{s}$$ D s ( ∗ ) D ¯ s ( ∗ ) / $${{B}}^{(*)}_{s}{{\bar{B}}}^{(*)}_{s}$$ B s ( ∗ ) B ¯ s ( ∗ ) , $${D}^{(*)}D_{s}^{(*)}$$ D ( ∗ ) D s ( ∗ ) / $${B}^{(*)}B_{s}^{(*)}$$ B ( ∗ ) B s ( ∗ ) , and $$D_{s}^{(*)}D_{s}^{(*)}$$ D s ( ∗ ) D s ( ∗ ) / $$B_{s}^{(*)}B_{s}^{(*)}$$ B s ( ∗ ) B s ( ∗ ) in a quasipotential Bethe-Salpeter equation approach. The interactions of the systems considered are described within the one-boson-exchange model, which includes exchanges of light mesons and $$J/\psi /\varUpsilon $$ J / ψ / Υ meson. Possible molecular states are searched for as poles of scattering amplitudes of the interactions considered. The results suggest that recently observed $$Z_{cs}(3985)$$ Z cs ( 3985 ) can be assigned as a molecular state of $$D^*{\bar{D}}_s+D{\bar{D}}^*_s$$ D ∗ D ¯ s + D D ¯ s ∗ , which is a partner of $$Z_c(3900)$$ Z c ( 3900 ) state as a $$D{\bar{D}}^*$$ D D ¯ ∗ molecular state. The calculation also favors the existence of hidden heavy states $$D_s{\bar{D}}_s/B_s{\bar{B}}_s$$ D s D ¯ s / B s B ¯ s with spin parity $$J^P=0^+$$ J P = 0 + , $$D_s{\bar{D}}^*_s/B_s{\bar{B}}^*_s$$ D s D ¯ s ∗ / B s B ¯ s ∗ with $$1^{+}$$ 1 + , and $$D^*_s{\bar{D}}^*_s/B^*_s{\bar{B}}^*_s$$ D s ∗ D ¯ s ∗ / B s ∗ B ¯ s ∗ with $$0^+$$ 0 + , $$1^+$$ 1 + , and $$2^+$$ 2 + . In the doubly heavy sector, the bound states can be found from the interactions $$(D^*D_s+DD^*_s)/(B^*B_s+BB^*_s)$$ ( D ∗ D s + D D s ∗ ) / ( B ∗ B s + B B s ∗ ) with $$1^+$$ 1 + , $$D_s{\bar{D}}_s^*/B_s{\bar{B}}_s^*$$ D s D ¯ s ∗ / B s B ¯ s ∗ with $$1^+$$ 1 + , $$D^*D^*_s/B^*B^*_s$$ D ∗ D s ∗ / B ∗ B s ∗ with $$1^+$$ 1 + and $$2^+$$ 2 + , and $$D^*_sD^*_s/B^*_sB^*_s$$ D s ∗ D s ∗ / B s ∗ B s ∗ with $$1^+$$ 1 + and $$2^+$$ 2 + . Some other interactions are also found attractive, but may be not strong enough to produce a bound state. The results in this work are helpful for understanding the $$Z_{cs}(3985)$$ Z cs ( 3985 ) , and future experimental search for the new molecular states.

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a worldwide public health crisis. When the SARS-CoV-2 enters the biological fluids in the human body, different types of biomolecules (in particular proteins) may adsorb on its surface and alter its infection ability. Although great efforts have recently been devoted to the interaction of the specific antibodies with the SARS-CoV-2, it still remains largely unknown how the other serum proteins affect the infection of the SARS-CoV-2. In this work, we systematically investigate the interaction of serum proteins with the SARS-CoV-2 RBD by the molecular docking and the all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. It is found that the non-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) indeed cannot effectively bind to the SARS-CoV-2 RBD while the human serum albumin (HSA) may have some potential of blocking its infection (to ACE2). More importantly, we find that the RBD can cause the significant structural change of the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE), by which SARS-CoV-2 may hijack the metabolic pathway of the ApoE to facilitate its cell entry. The present study enhances the understanding of the role of protein corona in the bio-behaviors of SARS-CoV-2, which may aid the more precise and personalized treatment for COVID-19 infection in the clinic., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures

We establish a one-to-one correspondence between the renormalizations and proper totally invariant closed sets (i.e., α-limit sets) of expanding Lorenz map, which enable us to distinguish periodic and non-periodic renormalizations. We describe the minimal renormalization by constructing the minimal totally invariant closed set, so that we can define the renormalization operator. Using consecutive renormalizations, we obtain complete topological characteriza- tion of α-limit sets and nonwandering set decomposition. For piecewise linear Lorenz map with slopes ≥ 1, we show that each renormalization is periodic and every proper α-limit set is countable.

In this work, we preform a systematic investigation about hidden heavy and doubly heavy molecular states from the $$D^{(*)}{\bar{D}}^{(*)}/B^{(*)}{\bar{B}}^{(*)}$$ D ( ∗ ) D ¯ ( ∗ ) / B ( ∗ ) B ¯ ( ∗ ) and $$D^{(*)}D^{(*)}/{\bar{B}}^{(*)}{\bar{B}}^{(*)}$$ D ( ∗ ) D ( ∗ ) / B ¯ ( ∗ ) B ¯ ( ∗ ) interactions in the quasipotential Bethe–Salpeter equation (qBSE) approach. With the help of Lagrangians with heavy quark and chiral symmetries, interaction potentials are constructed within the one-boson-exchange model in which we include the $$\pi $$ π , $$\eta $$ η , $$\rho $$ ρ , $$\omega $$ ω and $$\sigma $$ σ exchanges, as well as $$J/\psi $$ J / ψ or $$\varUpsilon $$ Υ exchange. Possible bound states from the interactions considered are searched for as the pole of scattering amplitude. The results suggest that experimentally observed states, $$Z_c(3900)$$ Z c ( 3900 ) , $$Z_c(4020)$$ Z c ( 4020 ) , $$Z_b(10610)$$ Z b ( 10610 ) , and $$Z_b(10650)$$ Z b ( 10650 ) , can be related to the $$D{\bar{D}}^{*}$$ D D ¯ ∗ , $$D^*{\bar{D}}^{*}$$ D ∗ D ¯ ∗ , $$B{\bar{B}}^{*}$$ B B ¯ ∗ , and $$B^*{\bar{B}}^{*}$$ B ∗ B ¯ ∗ interactions with quantum numbers $$I^G(J^P)=1^+(1^{+})$$ I G ( J P ) = 1 + ( 1 + ) , respectively. The $$D{\bar{D}}^{*}$$ D D ¯ ∗ interaction is also attractive enough to produce a pole with $$0^+(0^+)$$ 0 + ( 0 + ) which is related to the X(3872). Within the same theoretical frame, the existence of $$D{\bar{D}}$$ D D ¯ and $$B{\bar{B}}$$ B B ¯ molecular states with $$0(0^+)$$ 0 ( 0 + ) are predicted. The possible $$D^*{\bar{D}}^*$$ D ∗ D ¯ ∗ molecular states with $$0(0^+, 1^+, 2^+)$$ 0 ( 0 + , 1 + , 2 + ) and $$1(0^+)$$ 1 ( 0 + ) and their bottom partners are also suggested by the calculation. In the doubly heavy sector, no bound state is produced from the $$DD/{\bar{B}}{\bar{B}}$$ D D / B ¯ B ¯ interaction while a bound state is found with $$0(1^+)$$ 0 ( 1 + ) from $$DD^*/{\bar{B}}{\bar{B}}^*$$ D D ∗ / B ¯ B ¯ ∗ interaction. The $$D^*D^*/{\bar{B}}^*{\bar{B}}^*$$ D ∗ D ∗ / B ¯ ∗ B ¯ ∗ interaction produces three molecular states with $$0(1^+)$$ 0 ( 1 + ) , $$0(2^+)$$ 0 ( 2 + ) and $$1(2^+)$$ 1 ( 2 + ) .

David R Powell, Deon D Doree, Christopher M DaCosta, Kenneth A Platt, Gwenn M Hansen, Isaac van Sligtenhorst, Zhi-Ming Ding, Jean-Pierre Revelli, Robert Brommage Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc, The Woodlands, TX, 77381, USACorrespondence: David R PowellLexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc., 8800 Technology Forest Place, The Woodlands, TX 77381, USATel +1 281 863 3060Fax +1 281 863 8115Email dpowell@lexpharma.comPurpose: In humans, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) near the adjacent protein kinase D1 (PRKD1) and G2/M-phase-specific E3 ubiquitin protein ligase (G2E3) genes on chromosome 14 are associated with obesity. To date, no published evidence links inactivation of either gene to changes in body fat. These two genes are also adjacent on mouse chromosome 12. Because obesity genes are highly conserved between humans and mice, we analyzed body fat in adult G2e3 and Prkd1 knockout (KO) mice to determine whether inactivating either gene leads to obesity in mice and, by inference, probably in humans.Methods: The G2e3 and Prkd1 KO lines were generated by gene trapping and by homologous recombination methodologies, respectively. Body fat was measured by DEXA in adult mice fed chow from weaning and by QMR in a separate cohort of mice fed high-fat diet (HFD) from weaning. Glucose homeostasis was evaluated with oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) performed on adult mice fed HFD from weaning.Results: Body fat was increased in multiple cohorts of G2e3 KO mice relative to their wild-type (WT) littermates. When data from all G2e3 KO (n=32) and WT (n=31) mice were compared, KO mice showed increases of 11% in body weight (P< 0.01), 65% in body fat (P< 0.001), 48% in % body fat (P< 0.001), and an insignificant 3% decrease in lean body mass. G2e3 KO mice were also glucose intolerant during an OGTT (P< 0.05). In contrast, Prkd1 KO and WT mice had comparable body fat levels and glucose tolerance.Conclusion: Significant obesity and glucose intolerance were observed in G2e3, but not Prkd1, KO mice. The conservation of obesity genes between mice and humans strongly suggests that the obesity-associated SNPs located near the human G2E3 and PRKD1 genes are linked to variants that decrease the amount of functional human G2E3.Keywords: glucose tolerance, gene trap, homologous recombination, Prkd1, PRKD1, SNP

Objective. This paper included a retrospective review of the effect of tranexamic acid (TXA) combined with pressure bandaging on hemostasis of patients who received a unilateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) from 2017 to 2019. Methods. A total of 197 patients undergoing TKA were chosen to be classified into 2 groups, the compression bandage control group and compression bandage combined with TXA observation group. The patients received blood routine examination when they were in the 1st, 3rd, and 6th days of before and postoperation. Some parameters, such as hemoglobin (Hb), C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer value, fibrinogen, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), international normalized ratio (INR), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), were also investigated. Results. In our research, the mean age was 66.54±7.95 years. No difference was found in patient sex (P=0.876) and age (P=0.749) between groups. No differences were found in the levels of Hb, fibrinogen, TT, and INR between the 2 groups at each period (P>0.05). The difference of PT was significantly different on the 1st day (P=0.011), 3rd day (P=0.010), and 6th day (P=0.004) after surgery. Besides, the changes in APTT in observation group were clearly higher compared with the control group on the 3rd day (P=0.001) and 6th day (P=0.001). On the 3rd and 6th days after operation, the CRP level of the two groups increased continuously, and the CRP level was significantly higher in the observation group in comparison with the control group (P=0.008, P=0.010). On 1st and 3rd days after surgery, compared to the control group, the D-dimer level of patients in the observation group was distinctly fewer (P=0.001, P=0.027). Conclusion. TXA combined with compression bandage is a potential option for the reduction of bleeding after TKA.

Seasonal grazing is one way of the moderate grazing regimes, but little information is available on compared study of seasonal grazing in alpine meadow. We studied the aboveground and belowground properties among warm-seasonal grazing meadows and cold-seasonal grazing meadows on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Results showed that the warm-seasonal grazing increased forb functional group proportion, plant density and evenness index but decreased root biomass, plant height and graminoid functional group proportions. Grazing seasons affected variation in soil bulk density, soil water content, pH and soil nutrient content, and the variations caused the various of soil carbon and nitrogen density. The highest values of soil carbon and nitrogen contents and densities in the warm-season grazing meadow occurred at the top 10-cm soil, while the highest values in the cold-season grazing meadow occurred at the depth of 30- to 50-cm soil. Our results indicated that the warm-season grazing is suitable for the species diversity conservation and the nutrient sequestration at the topsoil. However, the cold-season grazing is suitable for the nutrient sequestration at the deep soil. This study implied that the warm-season and cold-season grazing might be exchanged regularly to practice continuous carbon and nitrogen sequestration. Periodic cold-season and warm-season grazing would be the suitable grazing regime to keep alpine meadow sustainability. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recently, we proposed a small molecular inducing ligand strategy to assemble proteins into highly-ordered structures via dual non-covalent interactions, i.e. carbohydrate-protein interaction and dimerization of Rhodamine B. Using this approach, artificial protein microtubules were successfully constructed. In this study, we find that these microtubules exhibit a perfect CO2 responsiveness; assembly and disassembly of these microtubules were nicely controlled by the alternative passage of CO2 and N-2. Upon the injection of CO2, a negative net-charged SBA turns into a neutral or positive net-charged SBA, which elongated, to some extent, the effective distance between SBA and Rhodamine B, resulting in the disassociation of the Rhodamine B dimer. Further experimental and simulation results reveal that the CO2-responsive mechanism differs from that of solubility change of the previously reported CO2-responsive synthetic materials.

As a natural junction of sea routes between India and China, the so-called Malay World—comprising the present Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, southern Thailand and southern Philippines—has for centuries been the meeting point of Chinese, Indian, Arab and European influences, which in turn played a decisive role in the development of early Malay World literature, both in manuscript and oral forms. The arrival of Hinduism, before the coming of Islam, provided a great surge of artistic expression in the Malay World’s traditional literature.

Interaksi intim antara peranakan baba dengan kebudayaan Melayu berakhirkan tidak sahaja pengadunan, pencampuran dan penyesuaian unsur kebudayaan, tetapi juga penciptaan konfigurasi kebudayaan yang unik kepada peranakan baba.. Perkembangan itu telah membuat sarjana bingung mencari istilah yang boleh memberi pengertian yang tepat tentang perkembangan yang berlaku itu. Proses pengadunan itu bukan sahaja melibatkan artifak budaya secara fizikal, tetapi juga kontak budaya yang menyebabkan transfromasi itu. Antara ciri yang menonjol dalam kalangan peranakan baba yang berjaya, terutamanya yang kaya raya, ialah meniru gaya hidup orang putih. Imej tipikal mereka adalah suka memakai kot barat, bercakap bahasa Inggeris, mempunyai kereta yang berpandu, bermain kriket, menjadi ahli kelab, minum arak, berdansa dan berpesta. Namun, inti pati kebudayaan peranakan baba adalah identiti baru yang tidak dijumpai pada orang dan dalam kebudayaan Cina totok kerana proses pengadunan dan penyesuaian secara kreatif.

Livestock manure compositing on the cold Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is a feasible way to utilize manure while alleviating negative en-vironmental effects. In order to overcome unfavorable factors of cold temperature and shortage of manpower for composting operation, we de-veloped a new technique for composting livestock manure on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau:static ventilation-double-layer film insulation and studied the effect of it. The static ventilation had been achieved by ventilation pipes implanted in compost stacks while double-layer film mulching had prevented heat loss from composting process. Composting trials showed that compared with pile turning over, the static ventila-tion pipes significantly shortened the time for temperature rise and reduced the temperature difference between interior and outer layers of compost stacks, and thus speeded up the composting process meanwhile reducing losses of nutrients during composting. The double-layer film mulching further helped maintain the temperature of compost stacks. By this new technique, the operation of overturning compost stacks was not a necessity for composting livestock manure. Adding phosphorus fertilizers to manure for composting also helped to increase tempera-ture but this had a possibility to increase losses of nitrogen and organic matters from composts.

Negative selection algorithm (NSA) is an important algorithm for the generation of artificial immune detectors. However, the randomly generated candidate detectors have to be compared with the whole self set to exclude self reactive detectors. The inefficiency of the comparing process seriously limited the application of immune algorithms. Therefore, a new negative selection algorithm GF-RNSA is proposed in the paper. Firstly, the feature space is divided into a number of grid cells, and then detectors are separately generated in each cell. As candidate detectors just need to compare with the self antigens located in the same cell rather than with the whole self set, the detector training can be more efficient. The theoretical analysis demonstrated that the time complexity of GF-RNSA is effectively reduced that the exponential relationships between self size and time complexity in traditional NSAs is eliminated. The experimental results showed that: not only the time cost of negative selection, but also the time cost of data preprocess and detection are reduced, while the detection accuracy is not much declined.

We consider variations of the classical jeep problems: the optimal logistics for a caravan of jeeps which travel together in the desert. The main purpose is to arrange the travels for the one-way trip and the round trip of a caravan of jeeps so that the chief jeep visits the farthest destination. Based on the dynamic program principle, the maximum distances for the caravan when only part of the jeeps should return and when all drivers should return are obtained. Some related results such as the efficiency of the abandoned jeeps, and the advantages of more jeeps in the caravan are also presented.

The orifice plate energy dissipater is an economic and highly efficient dissipater. However, there is a risk of cavitaion around the orifice plate flow. In order to provide references for engineering practice, we examined the cavitation mechanism around the orifice plate and its influencing factors by utilizing mathematical analysis methods to analyze the flow conditions around the orifice plate in view of gas bubble dynamics. Through the research presented in this paper, the following can be observed: The critical radius and the critical pressure of the gas nucleus in orifice plate flow increase with its initial state parameter τ0; the development speed of bubbles stabilizes at a certain value after experiencing a peak value and a small valley value; and the orifice plate cavitation is closely related to the distribution of the gas nucleus in flow. For computing the orifice plate cavitation number, we ought to take into account the effects of pressure fluctuation. The development time of the gas nucleus from the initial radius to the critical radius is about 10−7–10−5 s; therefore, the gas nucleus has sufficient time to develop into bubbles in the negative half-cycle of flow fluctuation. The orifice critical cavitation number is closely related to the orifice plate size, and especially closely related with the ratio of the orifice plate radius to the tunnel radius. The approximate formula for the critical cavitation number of the square orifice plate that only considers the main influencing factor was obtained by model experiments.

Based on suitable choice of states, this paper studies the stability of the equilibrium state of the EZ model by regarding the evolution of the EZ model as a Markov chain and by showing that the Markov chain is ergodic. The Markov analysis is applied to the EZ model with small number of agents, the exact equilibrium state for N = 5 and numerical results for N = 18 are obtained.

Of the present estimated world population of 14.2 million yaks, approximately 13.3 million occur within Chinese territories (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2003). Although there is an extensive bibliography covering the species, few studies have been conducted in the area of foraging behaviour. The present study was conducted at pasture during the spring, transitional, summer and winter seasons to determine the daily temporal patterns of grazing and ruminating behaviour by yaks. During each study period, two 24 h recordings were undertaken with each of six mature dairy yaks. One study period was conducted on each of the transitional, summer and winter pastures, whereas, due to the considerable changes occurring in the morphology of the spring pasture, three separate studies were completed during March, April and May. During the second of these studies (April), the effect of level of concentrate supplementation on grazing and ruminating behaviour was also examined. Behaviour recordings were made using solid-state behaviour recorders. Short-term intake rates (IR, g min(-1)) were calculated by weighing yaks before and after approximately 1 h of grazing, retaining the faeces and urine excreted and applying a correction for insensible weight loss. Yaks spent less time grazing during the dry season (the early period on the spring pasture) compared with the later green swards (the later period on the spring pasture, the transitional pasture and the summer pasture) (P < 0.05). When the forage quality improved, but there was still insufficient mass (the later period on the spring pasture), the yaks extended their grazing time at the expense of other activities. During the early periods on the spring pasture, the short-term IR by yaks was up to 53 g DM min(-1), significantly higher than at other times (P < 0.05). The level of concentrate offered had little or no effect on grazing or ruminating time. The total eating time of the yaks offered 0.5 or 1.0 kg concentrate was 2.9 and 4.5 h day(-1) respectively, significantly lower than unsupplemented yaks (6.8 h) (P < 0.05). In general, yaks can regulate their foraging behaviour according to the changes of sward conditions in order to achieve optimal grazing strategies. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.

In this letter, we investigate the influence of the stress on magnetoelectric (ME) effect in a magnetostrictive-PZT bilayer. ME voltage coefficient α*E = δE / δH, where δE is the induced electric field for an applied alternating current (ac) magnetic field δH, is obtained by solving the stress-related piezoelectric constitutive equation and the conventional magnetostrictive equation with appropriate boundary condition. Based on the free-energy density function of the PZT film in stress state, we get the stress-related piezoelectric charge coefficient p d*31 and dielectric permittivity pe*33. After taking the cobalt ferrite (CFO) as magnetostrictive phase, it is found that α*E increases with decreasing 2-d compressive stress for CFO-PZT, which not only is qualitatively consistent with previous experimental measurements, but also provides a possible route to improve the ME effect.

The trial was to explore the effects of Chinese medicinal plants (CMP) treatment on the advanced endometriosis (stage III-IV) after conservative surgery. A prospective, multi-center and controlled trial was conducted from June 2012 to September 2013. Sixty-five post-operative women with advanced endometriosis (stage III-IV) after conservative surgery were included in the trial. They had undergone laparoscopic surgical excision of the endometriosis lesions and the diagnosis of endometriosis was confirmed by pathological examination. The patients received either CMP treatment or goserelin acetate sustained-release depot treatment (as comparison) according to the willingness of the patients. In the post-treatment follow-up visit at 6 and 12 months, the patients were respectively undergone ultrasonic and gynecological examinations. The serum levels of cancer antigen 125 (CA-125) and interleukin 18 (IL-18) were also detected in the post-treatment follow-up visit at 12 months. We found that in the post-treatment follow-up visit at 6 months, the recurrence rate of CMP group and comparison group was 1/31 (3.23%) and 1/34 (2.94%), respectively. In the post-treatment follow-up visit at 12 months, the recurrence rate of CMP group and comparison group was 5/31 (16.13%) and 6/34 (17.65%), respectively. There were no significant differences between the two groups (P>0.05). The serum levels of CA-125 and IL-18 significantly decreased in both of the two groups (P0.05). The serum CA-125 levels of CMP group were significantly lower than those of the comparison group (P

With proper erosion of sample surface and making a grid of crystal boundaries, the magnetic and crystalline microstructures of Sr–La–Co M-type ferrites of nominal composition of La0.2Sr08Fe11.8Co0.2O19 (at.%) have been investigated by using magnetic force microscopy. By calculating average diameter and thickness, and average alignment degree of the grains of the ferrites, recognizing their domain patterns and calculating the proportion of grains with single domain or multi-domains, the Sr–La–Co M-type ferrites with high magnetic performance have been characterized at microcrystalline and micromagnetic level. In addition, we has interpreted why the grains always present plate-like domains.

As digital electronic materials offer reduced production costs and more sophisticated methods of use, so the interests of publishers and librarians can be seen to converge. Electronic materials can be sorted, transmitted and retrieved easily and quickly. They can be linked and made interactive with cheaper access than with printed materials. New library buildings can be avoided and the ideal of library co-operation may be realized. Typical examples of this trend are the applications of the Internet and World Wide Web to electronic publishing and access to online information. Nevertheless, the shift away from printed materials towards electronic materials and away from traditional patterns of ownership of resources to more reliance on external resources poses a number of questions which need to be resolved. These questions are posed and discussed at length.

We give a study on the general Moller transformation and emphatically introduce its differential form. In this paper, a definition of acceleration is given in spacetime language and the inertial reference frame is also settled. With a discussion of the geodesic equations of motion, the differential form of the general Moller transformation at arbitrary direction is presented.

Reducing the dimensions of high-dimensional feature set is one of the difficulties of text categorization. Feature selection has been effectively applied in text classification, because of its low complexity of computing. Research works show that mutual information is a good feature selection method but doesn't consider the term frequency in each category of the corpus and the connections between terms. To remedying the defects of traditional mutual information method, this article improved measure of mutual information by introducing the feature frequency in class and the dispersion of feature in class, and built a experimental platform by constructing a Chinese text classification system, and did a multi-set of experiments base on this system. The results show that the new feature selection approach has a more excellent effect in text categorization.

Sixty-seven cases of chronic hepatitis were treated with Radix Astragali. After treatment (2-month course), the clinical improvement rate in 38 cases of the Stagnation of the Liver-Qi and Deficiency of the Spleen type was 92.1%, and in 26 cases of the Deficiency of Liver Yin and Kidney Yin type was 88.5%, more effective than in the control group (P

The present study determined the effects of voluntary ethanol drinking and deprivation on basal extracellular glutamate concentrations and clearance in the mesolimbic system and tested the hypothesis that chronic ethanol drinking would persistently increase basal glutamate neurotransmission. Three groups of alcohol-preferring (P) rats were used: 'water group (WG),' 'ethanol maintenance group (MG; 24-hour free choice water versus 15% ethanol)' and 'ethanol deprivation group (DG; 2 weeks of deprivation).' Quantitative microdialysis and Western blots were conducted to measure basal extracellular glutamate concentrations, clearance and proteins associated with glutamate clearance. Chronic alcohol drinking produced a 70-100% increase of basal extracellular glutamate concentrations in the posterior ventral tegmental area (4.0 versus 7.0 μM) and nucleus accumbens shell (3.0 versus 6.0 μM). Glutamate clearances were reduced by 30-40% in both regions of MG rats compared with WG rats. In addition, Western blots revealed a 40-45% decrease of excitatory amino transporter 1 (EAAT1) protein, but no significant changes in the levels of EAAT2 or cystine-glutamate antiporter in these regions of MG versus WG rats. The enhanced glutamate concentrations returned to control levels, accompanied by a recovery of glutamate clearance following deprivation. These results indicated that chronic alcohol drinking enhanced extracellular glutamate concentrations in the mesolimbic system, as a result, in part, of reduced clearance, suggesting that enhanced glutamate neurotransmission may contribute to the maintenance of alcohol drinking. However, because the increased glutamate levels returned to normal after deprivation, elevated glutamate neurotransmission may not contribute to the initiation of relapse drinking.

The cooperative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS) is currently the hot spot in the field of world transportation, but also the important development direction of the intelligent system of traffic in the future. This article combinations the present status of development of the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS) at home and abroad, faces the application and development needs of the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS), analyzes the data flow of the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system, and proposes a design of the cooperative vehicle infrastructure system (CVIS) based on the internet of vehicle, thus provides the basic reference for the design and development staff. Key words-Internet of vehicle, cooperative vehicle infrastructure, design of system

Regression Testing is one of the very important but expensive process during software test. Testing cost and time is becoming the bottleneck in re-testing all code as the increasing size of software. So choosing a set of test case become a research hot of regression testing. The test case suite could cover all modifications and all codes that affected by modifications, and must be as small as possible. Fuzzy cognitive map is introduced based on this ideal to solve the interrelation between all segment codes which were reflected by weight of nodes. All the segment codes could be found by learning and evolution of the fuzzy cognitive map. This method can obtain the minimum test suite and achieve maximum coverage in the experimental analysis.

The long-term immunogenicity of and protection provided by a plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine was determined in a cohort of 98 susceptible Chinese neonates immunized in 1982-1983. Within 24 hours of birth, 89 infants received the first of three 30-micrograms doses of vaccine (at 0, 1, and 6 months) and were subsequently followed up by testing for serological markers of hepatitis B virus and by determining levels of alanine aminotransferase annually for 9 years. After the primary series of vaccine doses, 74 (83%) of 89 subjects developed antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs). At the 9-year follow-up, 51% of vaccinees still had levels of antibody of > or = 10 mIU/mL, considered the protective level. Seven responders to vaccine (9.4% of 74 evaluable patients) developed antibody to hepatitis B core antigen, and in six of these responders, levels of anti-HBs increased transiently. None of the vaccinees developed chronic carriage of hepatitis B surface antigen or clinical hepatitis. Immunization of high-risk neonates with a plasma-derived hepatitis B vaccine can induce long-lasting protective immunity that can prevent or modify primary infection for at least 9 years. Booster doses are not necessary during this period.

In order to improve the efficiency of the expressway and solve the problem of traffic congestion, this paper introduces the HOV lanes, and a comprehensive evaluation model for HOV lanes was established with the analytic hierarchy process taking into account the facts such as the efficiency of transport operations, resources and environment, and economic and financial. Specific road section was selected to collect data, and basing on the analysis of the HOV lanes three alternatives were evaluated. The results show that the combined effect after the HOV lanes are set is better than the ordinary lanes, and it is also reflected that the bus priority policy is correct. The research process and results provide a quantitative basis and decision-making reference for the traffic manager to adjust and plan the transportation.

Consider piecewise linear Lorenz maps on $[0, 1]$ of the following form \[ f_{a,b,c}(x)= {ll} ax+1-ac & x \in [0, c) b(x-c) & x \in (c, 1].\] We prove that $f_{a,b,c}$ admits an absolutely continuous invariant probability measure (acim) $��$ with respect to the Lebesgue measure if and only if $f_{a,b,c}(0) \le f_{a,b,c}(1)$, i.e. $ac+(1-c)b \ge 1$. The acim is unique and ergodic unless $f_{a,b,c}$ is conjugate to a rational rotation. The equivalence between the acim and the Lebesgue measure is also fully investigated via the renormalization theory.

For piecewise linear Lorenz map that expand on average, we show that it admits a dichotomy: it is either periodic renormalizable or prime. As a result, such a map is conjugate to a ß-transformation.

For each piecewise linear Lorenz map that expand on average, we show that it admits a dichotomy: it is either periodic renormalizable or prime. As a result, such a map is conjugate to a $\beta$-transformation., Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure

Multi-exponential inversion algorithm of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) T2 spectrum is an important mathematical tool for the NMR relaxation study of complicated samples. The popular algorithm usually obtains the T2 spectrum by linear fitting under the prescribed distribution of T2. When the T2 spectrum is dispersed, such a procedure is inaccurate because of the lack of adaptive prescription and the limit of linear method. Nonlinear fitting method does not fix the T2 distribution, and it provides the positions and the weights of T2 simultaneously via the nonlinear fitting of multi-exponential function. In this case, the problem of multi-exponential inversion is transformed into a nonlinear optimization problem with non-negative constraints. The optimization objective function is the residual sum of squares (or residual sum of squares with regularization). The nonlinear optimization problem can usually be solved by Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm and evolutionary algorithm. But the results of Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm are dependent on initial values, and the calculation of evolutionary algorithm is complicated. We provide an optimal model for the nonlinear fitting in the inversion of dispersed T2 spectrum based on the linear regression and least-squares. The key idea is that the optimal weights of T2 can be calculated by least square when the positions of T2 are fixed, although the positions of T2 are adjusted adaptively. So we can relate the positions to weights appropriately to improve the popular nonlinear fitting algorithms. Such an improvement can reduce the searching inversion parameters, speed up its convergence and reduce the dependence on initial value. Incorporating it into the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm or evolutionary algorithm can improve the inversion accuracy and make the algorithm more robust. The validity of our improvement is demonstrated by the inversions of simulation data and practical NMR data by combining Levenberg- Marquardt algorithm and differential evolution algorithm with our improvement. The inversion results of simulation data show that for dispersed T2 spectrum, the algorithm using this improvement can obtain more accurate T2 spectrum than previous ones, especially in the case of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) cases. The inversion results also indicate that the improvement can reduce the dependence on initial value of Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, and can accelerate the convergence of differential evolution algorithm. The inversion results of practical NMR data show that the algorithm using the improvement can obtain more accurate T2 spectrum than the widely used CONTIN program in the case of low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The inversion results of oil-water mixture sample NMR data also demonstrate that the relaxation time T2 is independent of dispersion degree of immiscible system components.