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Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is a user-focused evaluation method, centered around understanding how dwellers occupy and use built environments. Collecting big data on user behavior has become essential for POE. In this paper, the limitations of current POE protocol data adoption and analysis methods are analyzed, and a quantitative research method based on machine vision (MV) to quantify users' spatio-temporal behavior for POE is developed, which can acquire high-resolution data more efficiently and accurately than the common methods in this field. In particular, the method of calculating user activity using frame difference algorithms fills the gap of quantifying user activity in POE research. The outdoor space of a kindergarten and the indoor space of a university library are selected to validate the method. After analyzing 4.5 million frames of data accumulated over 50 consecutive hours in the outdoor space, and 8.82 million frames of data accumulated over 98 consecutive hours in the indoor space, our method successfully analyzed usage of indoor and outdoor spaces and generated multiple quantitative indices of POE from high-resolution spatiotemporal behavior variables. The robustness, convenience, and practicability of this method in practical applications are verified. This method is simple to use, can adapt to a variety of built environments, and has a low cost. It has potential competitiveness for large-scale application. Quantitative POE research methods enhance the flow of information from space usage to spatial design and provide a data-driven basis for improving spatial sustainability, planning, design, and decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a critical problem to accurately separate clean speech in the multispeaker scenario for different speakers. However, in most cases, smart devices such as smart phones interact with only one specific user. As a consequence, the speech separation models adopted by these devices only have to extract the target speaker's speech. A voiceprint, which reflects the speaker's voice characteristics, provides prior knowledge for the target speech separation. Therefore, how to efficiently integrate voiceprint features into the existing speech separation models to improve their performance for the target speech separation is an interesting problem not fully explored. This paper attempts to solve this issue to some extent and our contributions are as follows. First, two different voiceprint features (i.e., MFCCs and d-vector) are explored in the performance enhancement for three speech separation models. Second, three different feature fusion methods are proposed to efficiently fuse the voiceprint features with the magnitude spectrograms originally used in the speech separation models. Third, a target speech extraction method which utilizes the fused features is proposed for two speaker-independent models. Experiments demonstrate that the speech separation models integrated with voiceprint features using three feature fusion methods can effectively extract the target speaker's speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green buildings have many advantages that traditional buildings do not possess, but there are still problems such as insufficient promotion and application. One of the important reasons is the lack of pertinent evaluation of green buildings. The current assessment of the economic benefits of green building design is still at a qualitative stage, and there is a lack of quantitative assessment methods and models. Based on this, this study establishes a green building design evaluation index system including cost and economic benefits. In the cost estimation, a nonlinear evaluation model based on data mining is designed to ensure a better estimation accuracy and credibility. In the evaluation of economic benefits, an incremental benefit evaluation model based on fuzzy mathematics is designed to evaluate its comprehensive economic benefits in a quantitative way. The results of data simulation show that the least squares support vector machine has achieved a good balance between the estimation time and accuracy. The comprehensive evaluation model proposed in this paper has strong operability and good evaluation effect, which is of great significance to promote the development of green building design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims. Magnetically guided capsule endoscopy (MGCE) offers a noninvasive method of evaluating both the gastric cavity and small intestine; however, few studies have evaluated MGCE in pediatric patients. We investigated the diagnostic efficacy of MGCE in pediatric patients with abdominal pain. Patients and Methods. We enrolled 48 patients with abdominal pain aged 6–18 years. All patients underwent MGCE to evaluate the gastric cavity and small intestine. Results. The cleanliness of the gastric cardia, fundus, body, angle, antrum, and pylorus was assessed satisfactorily in 100%, 85.4%, 89.6%, 100%, 97.9%, and 100% of patients, respectively. The subjective percentage visualization of the gastric cardia, fundus, body, angle, antrum, and pylorus was 84.8%, 83.8%, 88.5%, 87.7%, 95.2%, and 99.6%, respectively. Eighteen (37.5%) patients had 19 gastrointestinal tract lesions: one esophageal, three in the gastric cavity, and 15 in the small intestine. No adverse events occurred during follow-up. Conclusions. MGCE is safe, convenient, and tolerable for evaluating the gastric cavity and small intestine in pediatric patients. MGCE can effectively diagnose pediatric patients with abdominal pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axial and visibility graph analysis models are combined with GIS and Space Syntax to study the corresponding relationship between street network and specific city life in Hankou, China, based on three scales - city, district, and community, so as to interpret the hidden structure out of complex urban form through the spatial logic of street network. In this paper, a quantitative analysis is made on selected parameters in Space Syntax, including Integration, Choice, density of road, and Ht index. The result indicates that there is certain correlation among these parameters. Moreover, these parameters also present certain changing patterns along with the increase of analysis radius. The results reveal that the street network of Hankou presents a multi-hierarchical structure and spatial wholeness from all these three scales. This characteristic creates vitality and diversity while maintaining the feature of wholeness for the urban space. Research has turned out that community-scale street network performs a positive role to keep neighborhoods alive. Therefore, it is an important strategy for maintaining the vitality of urban space and realizing coordination and unification between parts and the whole. It is proposed in this paper that a good street network is a key factor for carrying forward urban context of Hankou. Undoubtedly, it is worthy of reflecting on large-scale demolition of existing urban space, especially in historical areas. Afterwards, the paper proposes a hierarchically synergetic planning strategy based on the analysis. More attention should be paid to street network to preserve diversity, continuity, and integrity, and finally archive holistically sustainable development within a city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rapidly changing Chinese cities, the conflict between conservation and redevelopment appears acute and complex. This paper uses the Hankow historic concession area as case study to examine the evolution in ideology, mechanisms, policy and planning of historic conservation in Wuhan. The findings are based on multiple field visits, semi-structured interviews and a literature review. It explores the roles of various participants who brought these changes, such as local and central governments, state-owned and private enterprises and the public, to provide experiences and lessons for the sustainable development of heritage sites in the future. It argues that historic conservation in China bears significant top-down characteristics. Implementation of laws and regulations regarding historic conservation at the national level, especially the conservation system of historic cities, has played a key role. In this context, local laws, regulations and management systems have been gradually established by local governments who seek the rapid development of the metropolitan areas. However, such a top-down approach has hitherto failed to fully consider the will of local people, and has led to difficulties in implementing historic conservation plans. Meanwhile, excessive government intervention has suppressed the market's role, thus preventing the full potential of historic conservation and revitalization of historic urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluated the use of Three-dimensional (3D) Computer Visual Materials (CVM) to support user participation in the early design stages for a private house. A qualitative approach was identified in two stages. Firstly, a semistructured interview with a sample of architectural firms was conducted, and secondly, data was collected from conversational dialogues between an architect and a list of clients. The results revealed that various stages of the design process have different responses with respect to the use of Visual Material (VM) and its impact on user participation. In addition, there appeared to be a direct relationship between the Level of Details (LoDs) and specific design stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TIP30 is a putative tumor suppressor that can promote apoptosis and inhibit angiogenesis. However, the role of TIP30 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) biology has not been investigated. Immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the expression of TIP30 in 70 ESCC. Hypermethylation of TIP30 was evaluated by the methylation specific PCR (MSP) method in ESCC (tumor and paired adjacent non-tumor tissues). Lost expression of TIP30 was observed in 50 of 70 (71.4%) ESCC. 61.4% (43 of 70) of primary tumors analyzed displayed TIP30 hypermethylation, indicating that this aberrant characteristic is common in ESCC. Moreover, a statistically significant inverse association was found between TIP30 methylation status and expression of the TIP30 protein in tumor tissues ( p = 0.001). We also found that microRNA-10b (miR-10b) targets a homologous DNA region in the 3′untranslated region of the TIP30 gene and represses its expression at the transcriptional level. Reporter assay with 3′UTR of TIP30 cloned downstream of the luciferase gene showed reduced luciferase activity in the presence of miR-10b, providing strong evidence that miR-10b is a direct regulator of TIP30. These results suggest that TIP30 expression is regulated by promoter methylation and miR-10b in ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: High levels of SOX4 expression have been found in a variety of human cancers, such as lung, brain and breast cancers. However, the expression of SOX4 in gastric tissues remains unknown. The SOX4 expression was detected using immunohistochemical staining and semi-quantitative RT-PCR, and our results showed that SOX4 was up-regulated in gastric cancer compared to benign gastric tissues. To further elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying up-regulation of SOX4 in gastric cancers, we analyzed the expression of microRNA-129-2 (miR-129-2) gene, the epigenetic repression of which leads to overexpression of SOX4 in endometrial cancer. We found that up-regulation of SOX4 was inversely associated with the epigenetic silencing of miR-129-2 in gastric cancer, and restoration of miR-129-2 down-regulated SOX4 expression. We also found that inactivation of SOX4 by siRNA and restoration of miR-129-2 induced apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background/aims: To determine the characteristics of small bowel tumors (SBTs) in patients underwent double balloon endoscopy (DBE) and to compare the clinical value of DBE with other diagnostic tools., Materials and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in patients underwent DBE procedures from March 2008 to April 2017.The demographic, clinical and pathological characteristics of patients with SBTs were recorded, while the diagnosis of SBTs was achieved either by DBE biopsy or surgical specimens., Results: One thousand one hundred and two patients (761 males, range 3-85 years) were enrolled in this study, with 1140 procedures completed in total. 99/1102 patients (9.0%) had SBTs, including benign polyps (20, 20.2%), gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) (24, 24.2%), lymphomas (13, 13.1%), adenocarcinoma (39, 39.4%), and neuroendocrine tumors (3, 3.0%). The most common clinical symptom for benign polyps was obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB) (75.0%). But among patients with malignant SBTs, the main indication for DBE was chronic abdominal pain (43.8%), followed by OGIB (36.3%), vomit (10.0%), abnormal images (6.3%) and diarrhea (3.8%) (P<0.001). Moreover, SBTs were primarily located in the jejunum alone (40/99, 40.4%). DBE had better sensitivity (89.2%), specificity (95.2%), positive predictive value (PPV) (90.0%), and negative predictive value (NPV) (94.8%) than other tools for suspected SBTs., Conclusion: Small bowel tumor is mainly located in jejunum and with OGIB and abdominal pain as major complaints. DBE is a reliable method for the diagnosis of SBTs compared with other diagnostic tools.

Background: The transformation of healthy gastric tissue into intestinal metaplasia (IM) is thought to be a critical premalignant step in the development of intestinal-type gastric adenocarcinoma (GA). How such premalignancies contribute to the development of GA is, however, poorly understood., Methods: In this study, the extent and clonal complexity in IM tissue from patients without gastric cancer were analysed by measuring variations of multiple microsatellite (MS) markers., Results: Even though these tissues are generally regarded as clinically benign, we found extensive MS length heterogeneity between and within individual IM glands, indicating that complex genome diversity is already pervasive in these tissues. Based on a clonal relationship analysis, we found that there exist multiple clones within individual IM glands and that MS alterations can accumulate in these clones. Moreover, we found spatially distant IM glands with the same MS phenotype, suggesting that these MS alterations were progressed by gland fission., Conclusions: These results provide evidence that genetic instability is an early event, present within metaplastic tissues of otherwise non-cancer patients, and such frequent genetic alterations can be part of the pathophysiological rationale for the requirement of this phase during gastric carcinogenesis., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/)

The association between the X-ray repair cross-complementing group 3 (XRCC3) gene Thr241Met polymorphism (rs861539) and gastric cancer has been widely evaluated, but a definitive answer is so far lacking. We first conducted a case-control study to assess this association in a large Han Chinese population, and then performed a meta-analysis to further address this issue. Although our case-control association study and the following meta analysis involving 6,520 subjects indicated null association of XRCC3 gene rs861539 polymorphism between gastric cancer patients and controls under both allelic (odds ratio (OR) = 1.02; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.91-1.14; P = 0.739) and dominant (OR = 0.97; 95% CI: 0.78-1.21; P = 0.803) models. Stratified analysis by ethnicity demonstrated a significant association in Asians. We conclude that the XRCC3 gene rs861539 polymorphism was associated with the risk for gastric cancer in Asian populations.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an almost lethal disease. Thus, it is important to better understand its genetic progression from normal cells through precancerous lesions pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) to invasive pancreatic cancer. Carriers of a germline mutation in BRCA2 have an increased risk of developing PDAC when compared with the general population. The purpose of our study was to examine the role of BRCA2 dysfuction in the progression of PDAC. Here we generated a novel in vitro model of pancreatic carcinogenesis. Cancerous PanIN-BR1 cells were established by stable transduction with lentiviral-mediated BRCA2 RNA interference in PanIN cell isolated from mice with oncogenic KrasG12D. Our data showed that silencing of BRCA2 promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro. The tumorigenic potential of PanIN-BR1 were assessed by xenograft tumor formation in BALB/c nude mice. The expression of PCNA , Snail and Slug in the tumor xenografts was detected by immunohistochemistry. The staining for PCNA, Snail and Slug in PanIN-BR1-formed xenograft tissue was significantly more intense than PanIN-formed xenograft tissue. Microarray assay was also performed. Based on gene expression profiling and further validation by real-time PCR and Western Blot, we found that the expression of Cyclinb2, Cyclina2, Twist1, Wisp1 and Cxcr4 revealed a significant increase in the PanIN-BR1 cells, however, the expression of p15, p16 and Wisp2 showed a significant decrease in the PanIN-BR1 cells, compared to the PanIN cells. Collectively, these data reported here demonstrate that BRCA2 may be a promising therapeutic targets for PDAC progression.