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AbstractResearch in explainable AI (XAI) aims to provide insights into the decision-making process of opaque AI models. To date, most XAI methods offer one-off and static explanations, which cannot cater to the diverse backgrounds and understanding levels of users. With this paper, we investigate if free-form conversations can enhance users’ comprehension of static explanations in image classification, improve acceptance and trust in the explanation methods, and facilitate human-AI collaboration. We conduct a human-subject experiment with 120 participants. Half serve as the experimental group and engage in a conversation with a human expert regarding the static explanations, while the other half are in the control group and read the materials regarding static explanations independently. We measure the participants’ objective and self-reported comprehension, acceptance, and trust of static explanations. Results show that conversations significantly improve participants’ comprehension, acceptance , trust, and collaboration with static explanations, while reading the explanations independently does not have these effects and even decreases users’ acceptance of explanations. Our findings highlight the importance of customized model explanations in the format of free-form conversations and provide insights for the future design of conversational explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of reactive oxygen species (ROS) to target cancer cells has become a hot topic in tumor therapy. Although ROS has strong cytotoxicity against tumor cells, the key issue currently is how to generate a large amount of ROS within tumor cells. Organic/inorganic hybrid nanoreactor materials combine the advantages of organic and inorganic components and can amplify cancer treatment by increasing targeting and material self-action. The multifunctional organic / inorganic hybrid nanoreactor is helpful to overcome the shortcomings of current reactive oxygen species in cancer treatment. It can realize the combination of in situ dynamic therapy and immunotherapy strategies, and has a synergistic anti-tumor effect. This paper reviews the research progress of organic/inorganic hybrid nanoreactor materials using tumor components to amplify reactive oxygen species for cancer treatment. The article reviews the tumor treatment strategies of nanohybrids from the perspectives of cancer cells, immune cells, tumor microenvironment, as well as 3D printing and electrospinning techniques, which are different from traditional nanomaterial technologies, and will arouse interest among scientists in tumor therapy and nanomedicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work explores the dynamic fracture characteristics of recycled tyre polymer (RTP) fibre reinforced concrete after exposure to 20, 105, 250, 400 and 600 °C. Split Hopkinson pressure bar tests were performed to characterize the dynamic compressive properties under strain rates of 40–120 s−1, in terms of the failure mode, strain-stress response, dynamic strength, dynamic increase factor (DIF), peak strain and energy absorption capacity. Results indicate that the failure pattern varies from splitting failure to core failure, and finally to pulverization failure due to strain rate effect, regardless of exposure temperatures. The dynamic strength and DIF are enhanced by strain rate effect but drop by 56.1% and 23.9% at 600 °C, respectively, while no explosive spalling occurs because of the thermal expansion of RTP fibres. The temperature-dependent dynamic fracture mechanism is closely related to the physicochemical reactions in the concrete matrix, bridging or rupture of RTP fibres and breaking of coarse aggregates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carboxymethyl cellulose and β-cyclodextrin stabilized water-wrapped tea seed oil Pickering emulsion was prepared using the high-speed shearing method. The particle size test and microstructure observation showed that the average particle size of the emulsion droplet decreased while the apparent viscosity, viscoelasticity, and stability increased with the increase in the concentration of carboxymethyl cellulose, β-cyclodextrin, and oil fraction. The droplet size of the emulsion increased slightly after heating from 50 °C to 90 °C, and the thermal stability of the emulsion increased after 50 °C treatment. pH exhibited little effect on emulsion stability. Carboxymethyl cellulose enhanced the adsorption of cyclodextrin colloidal particles on the water-oil interface via non-covalent interaction, steric hindrance, and drainage, which improved the viscosity of the emulsion. Therefore, it can be seen that the combination of carboxymethyl cellulose and β-cyclodextrin can significantly increased the stability of emulsions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of heterogeneous Fenton catalysts with good performance and stability is a challenge in the field of wastewater treatment. In this work, MgAlFe hydrotalcite-like compounds (MgAlFe-HTLcs) were prepared by solid phase reaction at room temperature and modified via a hydrothermal process. The experimental results showed that MgAlFe-HTLcs had a good layered structure with the same proportion of iron and aluminium, 18 h of crystallisation time and 110°C of crystallisation temperature and the lamellar structure was more uniform by solid grinding. Furthermore, the addition of iron can activate H2O2 more effectively to generate active oxygen which is •OH. The degradation experiments demonstrated that nearly 99.0% degradation efficiency was achieved for 10 mg/L Malachite Green (MG) solution within 60 min at the conditions of 0.10 g·L−1 MgAlFe-HTLcs, 0.10 mol·L-1 H2O2 and a natural pH of 6.3. Total organic carbon (TOC) removal reached 72.2% in a 70 min reaction. BET and XRD were measured to further discuss the stability and durability. Finally, a possible mechanism for the degradation of MG was presumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timber granaries are found in numerous ethnic minority settlements in the southeast and south of Guizhou Province in China. A timber granary is a unique type of vernacular building in rice-farming villages. Most of these granaries adopted the stilting architectural form and column-and-tie framework to provide a safe and cool inner space for the storage of grains, prevent rats, and enhance natural ventilation. This is a case study on the repair project of a timber granary in Yaogu village. The granary was disassembled into timber components and reconstructed for conservation, which is called 'Repair by Disassembly' in the east Asian tradition of wooden architecture. Through in-situ surveying, participant observation of the construction process, and interviews with local craftsmen, this study analyses the repair methodology and Buyi ethnic construction techniques applied in the timber granary. This work suggest guidelines for the conservation and restoration of similar wooden architectural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the biomechanical system of molar distalization with clear aligner therapy (CAT) combined with angel button using interradicular mini-implants (IRMIs) with varying elastic forces. FE models including maxilla, complete maxillary dentition, periodontal ligaments (PDL), composite attachments, mini-implants (MI), and dedicated orthodontic aligner, were constructed. Three groups were created in accordance with the sagittal position of MI. Elastic forces (0 N,1 N,1.5 N,2 N) were applied. CAT without elastics caused labial tipping and intrusion of the anterior teeth. Initial labial tipping and the von Mises stress of the maxillary anterior teeth decreased as the elastic forces increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explainable spatio-temporal prediction gains attraction in the development of geospatial artificial intelligence. The neural ordinal differential equation (NODE) emerges as a new solution for explainable spatio-temporal prediction. However, challenges still need to be solved in most existing NODE-based prediction models, such as difficulty modeling spatial data and mining long-term temporal dependencies in data. In this study, we propose a spatio-temporal attentional NODE (STA-ODE) to address the two challenges above. First, we define a spatio-temporal ordinary differential equation to predict a value at each time iteratively by a novel spatio-temporal derivative network. Second, we develop an attention mechanism to fuse multiple prediction values for capturing long-term temporal dependencies in data. To train the STA-ODE model, we design a loss function that aligns the prediction results in spatial dimension with prediction results in temporal dimension to calibrate the parameters of the model. The proposed model was validated with three real-world spatio-temporal datasets (traffic flow dataset, PM2.5 monitoring dataset, and temperature monitoring dataset). Experimental results showed that STA-ODE outperformed seven existing baselines regarding prediction accuracy. In addition, we used visualization to demonstrate the sound interpretability and prediction accuracy of the STA-ODE model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of new liquid crystal compounds with negative dielectric anisotropy was synthesised by regulating the orientation of the substituents on the benzoxazole ring, namely, 5–4-(2-(4-(alkoxy)phenyl)-2,3-difluorophenyl)benzo[d]oxazole derivatives (nPP(2,3)FO). These compounds mainly display enantiotropic nematic mesophases in the ranges of 8.62–16.09°C (heating process) and 23.98–30.32°C (cooling process), moderate birefringence (Δn) ranging from 0.25–0.32 (DFT theoretical calculation) and 0.22–0.28 (experimental measurement), as well as negative dielectric anisotropy (Δɛ) ranging from −2.77 to −2.94. These characterises are ascribed to the larger perpendicular dipole moments and orientation angles of benzoxazole. This work provides new ideas for the rational design of negative dielectric anisotropy liquid crystals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Induction of oral tolerance by vaccination with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM)-associated autoantigens exhibits great potential in preventing and treating this autoimmune disease. However, antigen degradation in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) limits the delivery efficiency of oral antigens. Previously, bacterium-like particles (BLPs) have been used to deliver a single-chain insulin (SCI-59) analog (BLPs-SCI-59) or the intracellular domain of insulinoma-associated protein 2 (IA-2ic) (BLPs-IA-2ic). Both monovalent BLPs vaccines can suppress T1DM in NOD mice by stimulating the corresponding antigen-specific oral tolerance, respectively. Here, we constructed two bivalent BLPs vaccines which simultaneously deliver SCI-59 and IA-2ic (Bivalent vaccine-mix or Bivalent vaccine-SA), and evaluated whether there is an additive beneficial effect on tolerance induction and suppression of T1DM by treatment with BLPs-delivered bi-autoantigens. Compared to the monovalent BLPs vaccines, oral administration of the Bivalent vaccine-mix could significantly reduce morbidity and mortality in T1DM. Treatment with the bivalent BLPs vaccines (especially Bivalent vaccine-mix) endowed the mice with a stronger ability to regulate blood glucose and protect the integrity and function of pancreatic islets than the monovalent BLPs vaccines treatment. This additive effect of BLPs-delivered bi-autoantigens on T1DM prevention may be related to that SCI-59- and IA-2-specific Th2-like immune responses could be induced, which was more beneficial for the correction of Th1/Th2 imbalance. In addition, more CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) were induced by treatment with the bivalent BLPs vaccines than did the monovalent BLPs vaccines. Therefore, multiple autoantigens delivered by BLPs maybe a promising strategy to prevent T1DM by efficiently inducing antigen-specific immune tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Venetoclax has shown synergism with BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in preclinical studies for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) leukemias. This combination may suggest a novel treatment strategy for Ph + leukemias. We conducted a retrospective study to summarize the activity of combining venetoclax and BCR-ABL1 TKI-based therapies in Ph + leukemias. A total of 18 patients with Ph + leukemias were enrolled in this study. At the time of venetoclax and TKI-based therapy, 5 patients were initially diagnosed, with Ph + acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (n = 1) and mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) (n = 4), 7 patients had chronic myeloid leukemia at blastic phase (CML-BP), and the remaining 6 patients had relapsed or refractory to prior therapy. The overall response rate (ORR) was 88.9% (9 CR, 2 CRi, 4 MLFS, 1 PR), and a major molecular response (MMR) (or better) was achieved in 7 (38.8%) of all patients. With a median follow-up of 7.0 months (range, 2.3-15.6), 15 (83.3%) were in continuous CR at the time of this analysis, with a 1-year OS of 85.6%, 1-year LFS of 76.7%, and 1-year CIR of 22.4%. Moreover, 10 of 18 patients were treated with venetoclax, TKI and hypomethylating agent (HMA) regimens, which also associated with a high ORR rate (6 CR, 1 CRi, 3 MLFS), and can be used for induction or salvage therapy. Venetoclax and TKI-based combination regimens may be a feasible approach for Ph + leukemias, and prospective studies are needed to properly assess the safety, tolerability and efficacy of this regimen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composite phase change materials with sugar alcohol as the phase change material and highly thermally conductive ceramics as the porous skeleton are widely used in various thermal storage systems. The interfacial thermal conductance (ITC) between the phase change materials under different phases and the skeleton is an important factor affecting the rate of heat storage (release) in thermal storage systems. The ITC between ceramics(AlN, SiC) and sugar alcohols (mannitol and galactitol) in the solid and liquid states is investigated by means of both time-domain thermoreflectance and molecular dynamics simulations. The results show that the ITC between phase change materials and ceramic is better in liquid state than in solid state, and that the ITC between mannitol and ceramic is better, and that the ITC betweenAlN and sugar alcohol is better. More low-frequency phonons are involved in the thermal transport of the sugar alcohols in the liquid state, with an average overlap energy of about 9.5% higher than that of the solid state and an average phonon participation rate of about 6.8% higher. It was also found that it isthe H atom in the sugar alcohol that is linked to the C atom that governs the ITC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Geographical Detector Model (GDM) is a popular statistical toolkit for geographical attribution analysis. Despite the striking resemblance of the q-statistic in GDM to the R-squared in linear regression models, their explicit connection has not yet been established. This study proves that the q-statistic reduces into the R-squared under a linear regression framework. Under linear regression and moderate-to-strong spatial autocorrelation, Monte Carlo simulation results show that the GDM tends to underestimate the importance of variables. In addition, an almost perfect power law relationship is present between the percentage bias and the degree of the spatial autocorrelations, indicating the presence of fast uplifting bias in response to increasing levels of spatial autocorrelations. We propose an integrated approach for variable importance quantification by bringing together the spatial econometrics model and the game theory based-Shapley value method. By applying our proposed methodology to a case study of land desertification in African, it is found human activity tends to affect land desertification both directly and indirectly. However, such effects appear to be underestimated or undistinguished in the classic GDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Constipation is a prevalent gastrointestinal symptom that can considerably affect a patients’ quality of life. Although several drugs have been used to treat constipation, they are associated with high costs, side effects, and low universality. Therefore, alternative intervention strategies are urgently needed. Traditional lactic acid bacteria (LAB), such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, play a vital role in regulating intestinal microecology and have demonstrated favorable effects in constipation; however, a comprehensive review of their constipation relief mechanisms is limited. This review summarizes the pathogenesis of constipation and the relationship between intestinal motility and gut microbiota, elucidates the possible mechanism by which LAB alleviates of constipation through a systematic summary of animal and clinical research, and highlights the challenges and applications of LAB in the treatment of constipation. Our review can improve our understanding of constipation, and advance targeted microecological therapeutic agents, such as LAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR)-β mediates the self-renewal and multipotency of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) in vitro and in vivo, its mechanisms of activating endogenous NSPCs following ischemic stroke still remain unproven. The exogenous NSPCs were transplanted into the ischemic striatum of PDGFR-β conditionally neuroepithelial knockout (KO) mice at 24 h after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was intraperitoneally injected to label the newly formed endogenous NSPCs. Infarction volume was measured, and behavioral tests were performed. In the subventricular zone (SVZ), proliferation of endogenous NSPCs was tested, and synapse formation and expression of nutritional factors were measured. Compared with control mice, KO mice showed larger infarction volume, delayed neurological recovery, reduced numbers of BrdU positive cells, decreased expression of neurogenic factors (including neurofilament, synaptophysin, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor), and decreased synaptic regeneration in SVZ after tMCAO. Moreover, exogenous NSPC transplantation significantly alleviated neurologic dysfunction, promoted neurogenesis, increased expression of neurologic factors, and diminished synaptic deformation in SVZ of FL mice after tMCAO but had no beneficial effect in KO mice. PDGFR-β signaling may promote activation of endogenous NSPCs after postischemic NSPC transplantation, and thus represents a novel potential regeneration-based therapeutic target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cracking and fragmentation problems that occur during lignite drying limit its utilization value. In this study, the dehydration, surface damage, and pulverization behaviors of lignite were investigated under hot-air drying conditions, and the effect of the dewatering process on shrinkage cracking was analyzed. Cracks first appear at the edges of the lignite, then gradually extend inward until they spread over the entire surface of the lignite, before beginning to shrink, and eventually stabilize. The crack rate exhibited three stages: rapid development, shrinkage, and stabilization. The crack rate and shrinkage percentage increased significantly with increase in the drying temperature. The moisture content had a greater influence on the crack rate and shrinkage percentage of the samples than the surface temperature. A uniaxial compression test revealed that lignite with different degrees of dryness exhibited different degrees of breakage. The drying process drives the lignite toward finer grain sizes and, with moisture content below 0.8 g/g, the degree of breakage increases significantly. Thus, the main factor affecting the shrinkage and cracking of lignite was the moisture content. Cracks occurred when the tensile strain caused by shrinkage was greater than the tensile strength of the lignite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to develop an unconditionally stable Euler implicit/explicit scheme for the natural convection equations based on an introduced exponential scalar auxiliary variable. Our numerical scheme involves treating the linear terms in the implicit scheme and nonlinear terms in the explicit scheme. Then, the considered problem is decoupled into a series of linearized subproblems, and these algebraic systems with constant coefficient matrixes can be solved efficiently. Compared with the existing theoretical findings of the implicit/explicit scheme for the incompressible flow [He YN. The Euler implicit/explicit scheme for the 2D time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations with smooth or nonsmooth initial data. Math Comput. 2008;77(264):2097–2124.; He YN, Huang PZ, Feng XL. H2-stability of first order fully discrete schemes for the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations. J Sci Comput. 2015;62:230–264; He YN, Li J. A penalty finite element method based on the Euler implicit/explicit scheme for the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations. J Comput Appl Math. 2010;235(3):708–725; Jin JJ, Zhang T, Li J. H2 stability of the first order Galerkin method for the Boussinesq equations with smooth and nonsmooth initial data. Comput Math Appl. 2018;75(1):248–288; Su J, He YN. The almost unconditional convergence of the Euler implicit/explicit scheme for the three dimensional nonstationary Navier-Stokes equations. Discrete Continuous Dyn Syst Ser B. 2017;22(9):3421–3438], our analysis removes the restriction on time step Δ t ≤ C , and obtains the unconditional stability and convergence theoretical findings. Some numerical results are also provided to verify the established theoretical analysis and show the performances of the considered numerical scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate traffic flow prediction on the urban road network is an indispensable function of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which is of great significance for urban traffic planning. However, the current traffic flow prediction methods still face many challenges, such as missing values and dynamic spatial relationships in traffic flow. In this study, a dynamic temporal graph neural network considering missing values (D-TGNM) is proposed for traffic flow prediction. First, inspired by the Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), we extend the classic BERT model, called Traffic BERT, to learn the dynamic spatial associations on the road structure. Second, we propose a temporal graph neural network considering missing values (TGNM) to mine traffic flow patterns in missing data scenarios for traffic flow prediction. Finally, the proposed D-TGNM model can be obtained by integrating the dynamic spatial associations learned by Traffic BERT into the TGNM model. To train the D-TGNM model, we design a novel loss function, which considers the missing values problem and prediction problem in traffic flow, to optimize the proposed model. The proposed model was validated on an actual traffic dataset collected in Wuhan, China. Experimental results showed that D-TGNM achieved good prediction results under four missing data scenarios (15% random missing, 15% block missing, 30% random missing, and 30% block missing), and outperformed ten existing state-of-the-art baselines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food products from mixed crop-livestock systems is a market-based solution to reduce environmental impacts of livestock worldwide. However, widespread promotion of mixed systems of recycling agriculture depends on consumers' acceptance of its food products. In this paper, we examine consumers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for several attributes of pork products, and develop consumer classes based on preferences. Using a choice experiment among 893 Chinese consumers, our results show that consumers are willing to pay a premium for pork with mixed crop-livestock systems claim. In addition, a positive WTP is also detected for different environmental carrying capacity, environmental benefits and quality certifications. We use latent class analysis to identify heterogeneous consumers into five classes: namely balanced thinking, price sensitive, quality preferred, environmental benefits conscious and ecology conscious consumers. Further policies and interventions aimed at promoting the market-oriented operation of mixed crop-livestock systems of recycling agriculture, based on regional environmental carrying capacity, different dimensions of environmental benefits and quality improvement of food products, will be effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Activated sludge is a widely applied wastewater treatment process that mainly uses suspended microbial flocs to remove pollutants in wastewater. With the characteristics of high biomass content and high microbial diversity, activated sludge plays an important role in pollutant removal and contains various functional microorganisms as a valuable pool of various useful microbial resources. However, the majority of microorganisms in activated sludge have not been isolated, which substantially limits the improvement of treatment efficiency and the innovation of process technology in wastewater engineering. As the basic biological methodology which can extremely expand the downstream studies for microorganisms, the cultivation of new species in activated sludge is urgently needed to fill the gaps between the cultured and uncultured microbial communities. The growing emphasis on cultivation in recent years has spawned the creation of many innovative and high-throughput cultivation techniques. In this review, we summarized the microorganism "wanted list" in activated sludge, reviewed the potential cultivation methods that could extend our understanding of activated sludge microbiota, and discussed the significance and perspectives for activated sludge microbiota cultivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of benzimidazole-based liquid crystal compounds containing laterally difluoro-substituted and ethynyl linking groups, namely, 2-(4-(2-(2,3-difluoro-4-(alkoxy) phenyl)ethynyl)phenyl)-1-methyl-1 H-benzimidazolem derivatives (nPF(2,3)EPMx), are synthesised and investigated for their mesomorphic properties. These compounds mainly display enantiotropic nematic mesophases in the ranges of 32.0–44.5°C (heating process) and 50.0–64.0°C (cooling process). 10PF(2,3)EPMx exhibits lower clearing points and broader nematic phase ranges than nonfluorinated reference compound 10PEPMx, because of their slightly increased dipole moment. nPF(2,3)EPMx displays much larger theoretical birefringence (0.43–0.55) and experimental birefringence (0.42–0.53) than the common tolane-based liquid crystals, which is ascribed to its large π-conjugated molecule composed of benzene core, ethynyl linking group and benzimidazole terminated unit. The theory results of three-dimensional molecular conformations with dipole moment (µ), ratio of length to width (L/W), polarisability anisotropy (Δα) and average polarisability (Δα) calculated with density functional theory are also helpful in explaining the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban mobility structure is a summary of individual movement patterns and the interaction between persons and the urban environment, which is extremely important for urban management and public transportation route planning. The majority of current research on urban mobility structure discovery utilizes the urban environment as a static network to detect the relationship between people groups and urban areas, ignoring the vital problem of how individuals affect urban mobility structure dynamically. In this paper, we propose a spatio-temporal representational learning method based on reinforcement learning for discovering urban mobility structures, in which the model can effectively consider the interaction knowledge graph of individuals with stations while accounting for the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of individual travel. The experimental results demonstrate the advantages of individual travel-based urban mobility structure discovery research in describing the interaction between individuals and urban areas, which can account for the intrinsic influence more thoroughly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical realism, championed by its proponents as the most promising post-positivist social science paradigm, has gained significant influence in the last few decades. This paper provides a critical evaluation of the critical realism movement in the hope of facilitating more fruitful dialogues between its proponents and rivalling schools of sociologists. Two concerns are raised about contemporary critical realism. First, critical realism is not the only philosophical school against positivism and not necessarily the best. Second, critical realists exaggerate the importance of critical realism to social science and conflate philosophy of science with sociological theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low expression of CTBP2 and CASP8AP2 correlated with poor outcome and predicted risk of relapse in pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). This study aimed to investigate the molecular mechanism by which CASP8AP2 regulates LEF1 expression by interacting with CtBP2 and ZEB2 in Acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (ALL). There was an interaction between CASP8AP2, ZEB2, and CtBP2, and then the interaction between CtBP2 and ZEB2 was observed after downregulating the expression of CASP8AP2. The wild type (containing the ZEB2 binding site) or mutant (containing a mutant binding site) LEF1 gene promoter sequence was inserted into the pGL3-basic plasmid, and a dual-luciferase reporter gene detection system was used to observe how CASP8AP2, ZEB2, and CtBP2 regulate the transcription of the LEF1 gene. We conclude that CASP8AP2, CtBP2, and ZEB2 can all bind to the LEF1 gene promoter region and reduce the luciferase activity of the LEF1 promoter. Meanwhile, the interaction of ZEB2 and the LEF1 promoter was significantly weakened after downregulation of CASP8AP2. Knockdown of CASP8AP2 in the 697 cell lines resulted in the significant upregulation of the mRNA expression levels of the stemness-related genes CD44, JAG1, and SALL4. In conclusion, CASP8AP2 is vital for the interaction between CtBP2 and ZEB2, inhibiting LEF1 and stemness-related genes expression ALL. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08880018.2022.2033369. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies regarding malnutrition in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) using the Global Leadership Initiative in Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria are still limited. Our study aimed to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition using the GLIM criteria in NPC patients receiving radiotherapy and explore the relationship between pre-radiotherapy (pre-RT) malnutrition and survival. A total of 113 NPC patients were enrolled for nutritional assessment using the GLIM criteria at different radiotherapeutic time points, and related toxicities were graded. Regarding the results, 19 patients (16.8%) were malnourished before radiotherapy and 103 patients (91.2%) were malnourished at the end of radiotherapy. Among the phenotypic GLIM criteria, low fat-free muscle index (FFMI) before radiotherapy was associated with mucositis and radiodermatitis (p < 0.05). Importantly, patients with malnutrition before radiotherapy had significantly poorer 2-year progression free survival (PFS) than the patients being well-nourished (62.1% vs. 88.9%, p = 0.015). From the multivariate Cox regression model, being-well nourished before radiotherapy was the protective factor for PFS (HR: 0.27; 95%CI: 0.089-0.85; p = 0.023) and male was the risk factor for PFS (HR: 7.25; 95%CI: 1.548-34.00; p = 0.012). In conclusion, malnutrition according to the GLIM criteria is common in NPC patients undergoing radiotherapy, and pre-RT malnutrition is correlated with survival. Supplemental data for this article is available online at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic liver disease represents stepwise destruction of the liver parenchyma after chronic liver injury, which is often difficult to be diagnosed accurately. Thus, the development of specific biomarkers of chronic liver disease is important. Metabolomics is a powerful tool for biomarker exploration, which enables the exploration of disease pathogenesis or drug action mechanisms at the global metabolic level. The metabolomics workflow generally includes collection, preparation, and analysis of samples, and data processing and bioinformatics. A metabolomics study can simultaneously detect the dysfunctions in the glucose, lipid, amino-acid, and nucleotide metabolisms. Hence, it facilitates the obtaining of a better understanding of the pathogenesis of chronic liver disease and its diagnosis. Many effective drugs could reverse the change of comprehensive biochemical phenotypes induced by chronic liver disease. They can even potentially restore the normal metabolic signatures of patients. Increasingly more researchers have begun to apply metabolomics technologies to diagnose chronic liver disease and investigate the mechanism of action of effective drugs or the variations in drug responses. We are convinced that deepening the understanding of the metabolic alterations could extend their use as powerful biomarkers, promoting the more effective clinical diagnosis and treatment of chronic liver disease in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding urban mobility patterns is constrained by our limited capabilities to extract and visualize spatio-temporal regularities from large amounts of mobility data. Moving flocks, defined as groups of people traveling along over a pre-defined time duration, can reveal collective moving patterns at aggregated spatio-temporal scales, thereby facilitating the discovery of urban mobility structure and travel demand patterns. In this study, we extend classical trajectory-oriented flock mining algorithms to discover moving flocks of transit passengers, accounting for the constraints of multi-modal transit networks. We develop a map-centered visual analytics approach by integrating the flock mining algorithm with interactive visualization designs of discovered flocks. Novel interactive visualizations are designed and implemented to support the exploration and analyses of discovered moving flocks at different spatial and temporal scales. The visual analytics approach is evaluated using a real-world smart card dataset collected in Shenzhen City, China, validating its applicability in capturing and mapping dynamic mobility patterns over a large metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of missing traffic data is one of the essential components in intelligent transportation systems (ITS). The non-Euclidean data structure and complex missing traffic flow patterns make it challenging to capture nonlinear spatiotemporal correlations of missing traffic flow, which are critical for the imputation of missing traffic data. In this study, we propose a novel multi-view bidirectional spatiotemporal graph network called Multi-BiSTGN to impute urban traffic data with complex missing patterns. First, three spatiotemporal graph sequences are constructed to comprehensively describe traffic conditions from different temporal correlation views, i.e. temporal closeness view, daily periodicity view, and weekly periodicity view. Then, three bidirectional spatiotemporal graph networks are fused by a parametric-matrix-based method to obtain the final imputation results. To train the Multi-BiSTGN model, a novel loss function that considers the interactions between three temporal correlation views is designed to optimize the parameters of the Multi-BiSTGN model. The proposed model was validated on real-world traffic datasets collected in Wuhan, China. Experimental results showed that Multi-BiSTGN outperformed ten existing baselines under different missing types (random missing, block missing, and mixed missing) and missing rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haloacetamides (HAcAms) is ubiquitously found in drinking water, which exhibits strong cytotoxicity and genotoxicity compared with conventional disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Herein, the degradation of HAcAms containing dichloroacetamide (DCAcAm) and trichloroacetamide (TCAcAm) by UV/peroxymonosulfate (PMS) process was studied. Degradation kinetics of DCAcAm and TCAcAm conformed to the first-order model, and the corresponding reaction constants were 2.27 × 10−3 and 1.94 × 10−3 s−1, respectively. The degradation rate raised with the increment of PMS dosage. During the investigation of water matrices including Cl–, HCO3–, and humic acid (HA), HCO3– and HA inhibited the degradation process whereas the influence of Cl– on the degradation was negligible. As evidenced by trapping test, •OH played the crucial role in the degradation of HAcAms. During the UV/PMS process, dechlorination was the main process. TCAcAm could be oxidized to DCAcAm and acetamide, and further mineralized to Cl–, CO2, H2O, NO2–, and NO3–. Our results demonstrated that UV/PMS could be an effective technique to degrade HAcAms in dinking water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1,4-naphthoquinone and its derivatives have attracted widespread attention due to their multiple biological activities, such as induction of cancer cell apoptosis; however, most of these compounds have high cytotoxicity. In this study, in order to reduce their toxicity and increase their potential anti-tumor effects, we synthesized a novel 1,4-naphthoquinone derivative named 2-(naphthalene-2-thio)-5,8-dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (NTDMNQ), and investigated its apoptotic effects and underlying mechanism. Our results showed that NTDMNQ inhibited the viability of HepG2, Hep3B, and Huh7 human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. It also increased the accumulation of cells in the G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle by increasing the expression levels of p-p53, p21 and p27, while decreasing the levels of Cyclin D1, Cyclin E, Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), CDK4, and CDK6. Inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the ROS scavenger N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) decreased apoptosis in NTDMNQ-treated cells. Western blot analysis showed that NTDMNQ increased the phosphorylation of p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and decreased the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), AKT, and signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3); these effects were blocked by NAC. Both the JNK inhibitor (SP600125) and p38 inhibitor (SB203580) reversed the phosphorylation of STAT3, and the ERK inhibitor (FR180204) and AKT inhibitor (LY294002) reduced the expression of STAT3. Taken together, these findings suggest that NTDMNQ induces apoptosis via ROS-mediated MAPK, AKT and STAT3 signaling pathways in HepG2 cells, and may be a potent anticancer agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the current existing accessibility measures quantify the potential of reaching desirable opportunities across space and time. Nevertheless, these potential measurements only illustrate the maximum possible accessibility a person can have, which may not accurately measure real-world transit accessibility in urban areas. This paper introduces a novel methodology to measure positive public transit accessibility based on multi-source big public transit data such as Smart Card Data (SCD) and Global Navigation Satellite System trajectory data, which embed rich travel information and real-world spatio-temporal constraints. First, we use multi-source transit data to reconstruct trip chains, which are used to extract popular destinations. A novel transit accessibility measure is defined to account for latent trip information such as mode/route preference, opportunity attraction, and travel impedance that are difficult to capture explicitly via traditional normative measures. Finally, we produce accessibility maps to visualize time-varying and heterogeneous accessibility patterns distributed over the study region. We performed an empirical evaluation on real-world transit data collected in Shenzhen City, China, demonstrating the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method in mapping positive transit accessibility over large metropolitan areas. The results and findings of the empirical study demonstrate that the proposed positive accessibility measure can better capture travel behavior characteristics and constraints than traditional normative measures. The measurement method can be used as a practical high-resolution mapping tool for transit decision makers in evaluating public transit systems, supporting strategic transit planning, and improving daily transit management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to compare the functional characteristics of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from a sheep model of traumatic temporomandibular joint (TMJ) fibrous and bony ankylosis. A sheep model of bilateral TMJ trauma-induced fibrous ankylosis on one side and bony ankylosis on the contralateral side was used. MSCs from fibrous ankylosed callus (FA-MSCs) or bony ankylosed callus (BA-MSCs) at weeks 1, 2, 4, and 8 after surgery were isolated and cultured. MSCs derived from the bone marrow of the mandibular condyle (BM-MSCs) were used as controls. The MSCs from the different sources were characterized morphologically, phenotypically, and functionally. Adherence and trilineage differentiation potential were presented in the ovine MSCs. These cell populations highly positively expressed MSC-associated specific markers, namely CD29, CD44, and CD166, but lacked CD31 and CD45 expressions. The BA-MSCs had higher clonogenic and proliferative potentials than the FA-MSCs. The BA-MSCs also showed higher osteogenic and chondrogenic potentials, but lower adipogenic capacity than the FA-MSCs. In addition, the BA-MSCs demonstrated higher chondrogenic, but lower osteogenic capacity than the BM-MSCs. Our study suggests that inhibition of the osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiations of MSCs might be a promising strategy for preventing bony ankylosis in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of the unprecedented Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic calls for innovative risk assessment and mapping approaches to prompt public messaging. Most of the existing approaches aim to present population risks associated with geographic areas (e.g., county), thus providing limited values to guide individuals to take proactive measures against COVID-19. To better facilitate the general public to make informed decisions on daily activity plans, we propose an activity-based spatiotemporal risk mapping approach to capture and represent exposure risk at a personal level. This approach leverages the classical space-time representations to capture personal activity space and measures exposure risk in such activity space. This approach further implements geovisualization designs to communicate measured exposure information. To illustrate the usability of the approach, we have conducted a case study in Denver, Colorado with COVID-19 data from October 2020 and four representative travel profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (CoronaVac) has undergone preclinical tests and clinical trials evaluating its efficacy and safety, few data have been reported in the post-licensure real-world setting. We aimed to assess the safety of the vaccine among healthcare workers. Methods: A self-administered online survey on monitoring adverse reactions post vaccination was conducted among the staff who worked at and were vaccinated in a tertiary hospital in Taizhou, China, from February 24 to 7 March 2021. A total of 1526 subjects responded to the questionnaire when they received an e-mail or an e-poster on WeChat. Results: The incidences of overall adverse reactions after the first and second injections were 15.6% (238/1526) and 14.6% (204/1397), respectively. The most common adverse reaction was localized pain at the injection site, with an incidence of 9.6% and 10.7% after each dose, accounting for 61.8% and 73.0% of adverse reactions, respectively. Fatigue, muscle pain, and headache were the most common systemic adverse reactions. Conclusions: These findings implied that the inactivated CoronaVac vaccine has an acceptable safety profile among healthcare workers due to the low incidence of self-reported adverse reactions. This may boost public confidence in nationwide mass vaccination campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytisine is a natural product isolated from plants and is a member of the quinolizidine alkaloid family. This study aims to investigate the effect of cytisine in human lung cancer. Cell viability was determined using the CCK-8 assay, and the results showed that cytisine inhibited the growth of lung cancer cell lines. The apoptotic effects were evaluated using flow cytometry, and the results showed that cytisine induced mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis through loss of the mitochondrial membrane potential; increased expression of BAD, cleaved caspase-3, and cleaved-PARP; and decreased expression levels of Bcl-2, pro-caspase-3, and pro-PARP. In addition, cytisine caused G2/M phase cell cycle arrest that was associated with inhibiting the AKT signalling pathway. During apoptosis, cytisine increased the phosphorylation levels of JNK, p38, and I-κB, and decreased the phosphorylation levels of ERK, STAT3, and NF-κB. Furthermore, cytisine treatment led to the generation of ROS, and the NAC attenuated cytisine-induced apoptosis. In vivo, cytisine administration significantly inhibited the lung cancer cell xenograft tumorigenesis. In conclusion, cytisine plays a critical role in suppressing the carcinogenesis of lung cancer cells through cell cycle arrest and induction of mitochondria-mediated apoptosis, suggesting that it may be a promising candidate for the treatment of human lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gecko's amazing ability to adhere to almost any kind of surface has stirred significantly research interests over the last decade. There have been a series of researches in the field of Gecko-inspired adhesives with numerous new studies focusing on nanostructured fibrillar, adhesive properties based on different materials, and various applications. In this review, after an initial overview of the conventional materials used to fabricate adhesives, including synthetic polymers and carbon nanotube arrays, we concentrate on the presentation and discussion of current research fields and significant properties of Gecko-inspired adhesives. Several examples of advanced applications for Gecko-inspired adhesives in practical life are also demonstrated in the end. This paper aims to provide a summary of Gecko-inspired adhesives from a comprehensive perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depending on the in situ ligand transformation of 3,5-di(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)benzonitrile (DTCN) to 3,5-di(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)benzoic acid (DTCA) under hydrothermal condition, three polyoxometalate-based copper complexes, [CuI4CuII2(OH)2(H2O)4(DTCA)4(HPMoVI10MoV2O39)] (1), [Cu4(OH)2(H2O)4(DTCA)2(SiW12O40)]·11H2O (2), and {Cu2Cl(H2O)(HDTCA)2[CrMo6(OH)6O18)]}·4H2O (3), have been isolated through changing the polyoxoanions. Introducing Keggin-type polyoxoanions [PMo12O40]3− or [SiW12O40]4− to reaction systems, both 1 and 2 display 3-D framework structures containing Cu/DTCA metal-organic belts, and a kind of poly-Keggin chain derived from [PMo12O40]3− polyoxoanions exist in 1. When the Anderson-type polyoxoanion [CrMo6(OH)6O18)]3− is utilized, a 2-D grid-like layer resulted in 3, in which the DTCA ligands are embedded, revealing that the polyoxoanions have key roles in regulating the structures of complexes. The investigations on electrochemical properties and photocatalytic activities for the degradation of organic dyes of 1–3 have been carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geometries, stabilities and electronic structures of AlnCum (n = 5–9, m = 1–3) clusters were explored by using the genetic algorithm combined with ab initio methods. The geometric structures are almost spherical when the valence electrons are around the magic number 20, otherwise the structures are oblate or prolate. The stabilities of the clusters are related to both the Cu/Al ratios and the electronic configurations. The clusters with lower Cu/Al ratios have high stabilities. The molecular orbitals are in accord with the shell structures predicted by the jellium model. The 3d orbitals of the Cu atoms are localised, although their orbital energies are between the 1P and 1D jellium orbitals. The Al6Cu2 with 20 valence electrons forms closed 1S21P61D102S2 shells, and shows large binding energy and removal energy, large ionisation potential and small electron affinity. For the no-magic clusters, the structure deformation leads to crystal-field-like splitting of the degenerate shells and stabilises the clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual averaging-type methods are widely used in industrial machine learning applications due to their ability to promoting solution structure (e.g. sparsity) efficiently. In this paper, we propose a novel accelerated dual-averaging primal–dual algorithm for minimizing a composite convex function. We also derive a stochastic version of the proposed method that solves empirical risk minimization, and its advantages on handling sparse data are demonstrated both theoretically and empirically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective public transit planning needs to address realistic travel demands, which can be illustrated by corridors across major residential areas and activity centers. It is vital to identify public transit corridors that contain the most significant transit travel demand patterns. We propose a two-stage approach to discover primary public transit corridors at high spatio-temporal resolutions using massive real-world smart card and bus trajectory data, which manifest rich transit demand patterns over space and time. The first stage was to reconstruct chained trips for individual passengers using multi-source massive public transit data. In the second stage, a shared-flow clustering algorithm was developed to identify public transit corridors based on reconstructed individual transit trips. The proposed approach was evaluated using transit data collected in Shenzhen, China. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach is a practical tool for extracting time-varying corridors for many potential applications, such as transit planning and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilised response surface methodology to optimise the conditions for the extraction of A. rugosa seeds oil (ARO). Single–factor experiment and response surface methodology (RSM) were performed to identify the extraction time, liquid–solid ratio and extraction temperature that provided the highest yield of ARO. The optimal extraction time, liquid–solid ratio and extraction temperature were 8 h, 4:1 mL/g and 55 °C. The fatty acids (FAs) content and oil yield obtained through the optimised impregnation–extraction process were 19.67 mg/g and 32.1%. These values matched well with the predicted values. Linolenic acid was identified to be the main active ingredient of ARO. The high–performance liquid chromatography–charged aerosol detection method presented here is fast and does not require derivatisation. Therefore, it could be used to quantitatively analyse the FAs present in ARO and applied to detect compounds with low or no ultraviolet response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on artemisinin and its derivatives (ARTDs) were initiated due to their outstanding anti-malarial effects. In the past few decades, considerable efforts have been made to extend the clinical applications of ARTDs. However, some ARTDs have a low aqueous solubility, short half-life in vivo and instability due to an endoperoxide bridge in their structures that also contributes to a poor bioavailability. The development of efficient quantitative analysis methods is needed for many branches of research, such as the chemical compound determination in plants, drug quality control and drug metabolism studies. The analysis methods used to detect ARTDs include spectroscopy, liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and immunoassays. However, a systematic quantitative analysis of these compounds as the very first step in many studies has not been always conducted. Thus, this review presents a comprehensive overview of available analytical methods for in vivo and in vitro quantitation of ARTDs. It generalizes and compares the various methods focusing on sample preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the mixed finite element method, we consider the decoupled Crank-Nicolson/Adams-Bashforth scheme for the Boussinesq equations with smooth initial data in this paper. The temporal treatment of the spatial discrete Boussinesq equations is based on the implicit Crank-Nicolson scheme for the linear terms and the explicit Adams-Bashforth scheme for the nonlinear terms. Thanks to the decoupled method, the considered problem is split into two subproblems and these subproblems can be solved in parallel. Under some restriction on the time step, we present the stability and convergence results of numerical solutions, Finally, some numerical experiments are provided to test the performance of the developed numerical scheme and verify the established theoretical findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The information regarding to the long-term outcome of stroke after rehabilitation is limited in China. The aims were to investigate activities of daily living (ADLs) and life satisfaction after stroke in China within 3 years after rehabilitation, and to explore the possible predictors of life satisfaction. Methods: A longitudinal descriptive study was conducted to evaluate ADLs and life satisfaction of persons with stroke. Participants completed Life Satisfaction Checklist-11 (LiSat-11), and Barthel Index (BI) at discharge, 6, 12 months, and 3 years after discharge. Results: A total of 69 participants were followed at discharge, and 32 of them finished 3 years' follow-up. BI increased significantly within 3 years compared with that at discharge (p < 0.01). Total score and all items of LiSat-11 indicated low satisfaction and was maintained relatively stable within 3 years except for a decreased satisfaction in "sexual life" (p < 0.05). Life satisfaction at 12 months was predicted by stroke severity, marital status, and return to work (R2 = 0.38) and life satisfaction at 3 years was predicted by disability (R2 = 0.27). Age was found as a predictor for items "Vocation" and "Leisure" (R2 = 0.26 and 0.31, respectively). Conclusions: Functional independence in ADLs increased within 3 years after discharge from rehabilitation, while life satisfaction was reported low and constant. Life satisfaction was predicted by severity of stroke, marital status, and return back to work at 1 year post discharge and by disability at 3 years post discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a rising star of noncoding RNA, circular RNAs (circRNAs) have a covalently closed loop structure, which formed by 3ʹ-5ʹ ligation during splicing. A few circRNAs were identified and thought to be transcriptional noise due to cognitive defect over the past 40 years. Recently, with the development of high-throughput RNA sequencing techniques and specific algorithms for circRNA detection and quantification, plenty of potential circRNAs were identified in many species which play important roles in various biological processes. However, researches on circRNAs in fruit ripening process were lacking. Here, we totally identified 2616 circRNAs in sea buckthorn fruit development process, which uniformly distributed in sea buckthorn chromosome. Among them, 1721 (65.8%) circRNAs were arising from the exons of their host genes, 252 circRNAs were identified as the differentially expressed circRNAs (DEcircRNAs) between three different development stages, and 181 (71.8%) DEcircRNAs had sequence similarity with 235 identified circRNAs from five know plant species. Functional annotation revealed that host genes of DEcircRNAs were predicted to be involved in carotenoid biosynthesis, lipid synthesis and plant hormone signal transduction. Additionally, 53 DEcircRNAs were predicted as the corresponding nine miRNAs sponges in sea buckthorn. Divergent reverse-transcription PCR and RT-qPCR were used for validate the differential expression and back-splicing sites of six DEcircRNAs. These results revealed the role of circRNAs in sea buckthorn fruit ripening process and promoted the noncoding RNA researches in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying NADH molecules is one of the most active areas in biomimetic research. It is important to design novel and efficient chiral NADH model molecules. Herein, a cage-like NADH model with multi-chiral centers was designed, and key intermediates have been synthesized. In this study, we found that pentafluorophenoxy group is an excellent leaving group for our synthetic route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paeonol, as the main phenolic compound isolated from the Chinese herbs, has been confirmed to present anti-inflammatory effects on ulcerative colitis (UC) in our previous study. However, its poor solubility has hindered its development of being a favourable pharmaceutical product in treating colon diseases. In this study, we prepared the colon-specific delivery system (Pae-SME-CSC) with paeonol-loaded self-microemulsion (Pae-SMEDDS), and evaluated its in vitro and in vivo properties, especially the anti-inflammatory effects on UC rats. The anti-inflammatory effects were evaluated by the disease activity index, colon weight/length ratio, and macroscopic damage and microscopic damage scores. IL-17, IL-6, and TGF-β1 levels were also determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The results showed that Pae-SME-CSC had good colon-targeting property in vivo and in vitro, with favourable stability. Efficacy evaluation showed that the dose of the paeonol group (100 mg/kg) exhibited no significant effect on UC (p > .05, compared with the model group), while the Pae-SME-CSC group (100 mg/kg) showed better anti-UC effects (p < .01 or p < .05), and its anti-inflammatory effect was close to that of the paeonol group (200 mg/kg) (p > .05). These results indicated that the developed Pae-SME-CSC was suitable for colon-specific drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporal dimensions of public transit accessibility have recently garnered an increasing amount of interest. However, the existing literature on transit accessibility is heavily based on oversimplified assumptions that transit services operate at deterministic speeds using predetermined timetables. These measurements may overestimate transit accessibility, especially for large metropolitan areas where inter- and intra-modal transfers are frequent. To handle travel time uncertainty, a multi-modal transit accessibility modeling approach is proposed to account for realistic variations in travel time and service reliability. The proposed approach is applied to the mapping of transit accessibility in Shenzhen (China), where transit services exhibit significant travel time variations over space and time. Compared to traditional transit accessibility measures, our method has been demonstrated to better capture intrinsic spatial and temporal accessibility variations with complex multi-modal transit networks. Normal distribution of inter-stop travel times and constant travel speed between GPS sampling points are assumed to simply the computation, which we consider to adjust in future studies to better quantify the dynamics of transit accessibility across space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]