Search

Obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is characterized by the aggravation of upper airway constriction or obstruction, and it is associated with high incidence of various metabolic diseases and high mortality. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is now recommended as the first-line therapy for OSAHS, but its application is limited by its unsatisfactory patient tolerance. Previous studies have showed that high flow nasal cannula (HFNC) may improve symptoms in some patients with OSAHS. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of HFNC on OSAHS in a larger cohort than in previous research and to study the details of its therapeutic characteristics.Polysomnography recording with and without HFNC was performed in 56 OSAHS patients with a wide spectrum of disease severity. Subgroups were divided by different treatment response criteria to identify the effect of this device.Of 56 patients enrolled, 9 were of mild severity (AHI, 5 to 15 events/h), 30 were of moderate severity (AHI, 15 to 30 events/h), and 17 patients were severe (AHI ≥ 30 events/h); 34 patients were younger than 50 years old and 22 patients were older than 50 years old. AHI decreased significantly (from 26.9 ± 14.7 to 21.5 ± 17.0 events/h, p 0.001) after HFNC treatment in general. The subjects of responder group accounted for 21%. There was a negative correlation between the difference of AI and the difference of HI in nonresponder group before and after HFNC treatment, and the negative correlation was strong (Pearson's test, r = - 0.804, p = 0.000). Of the patients with mild to moderate severity, 76% achieved any AHI reduction and 24% of patients achieved at least 50% reduction in AHI. Older patients (the age of responder group 52.6 ± 11.7 vs. nonresponder group 43.7 ± 12.1 years old, p 0.05), especially patients older than 50 years, had a better response rate (≤ 50 years 9% vs. 50 years 41%, p = 0.007).HFNC may be useful in treating patients with OSAHS, especially older patients and those with mild to moderate severity. HFNC may be an alternative treatment when patients are intolerant of CPAP.

Background Postpolypectomy fever (PPF) is a rare complication in patients after colonoscopy. Because of the absence of evidence of microperforation and abdominal tenderness, patients with PPF usually present mild clinical symptoms with a good prognosis. Case presentation In this study, all patients who underwent colonoscopic examination in our hospital between January 2019 and December 2019 were enrolled. Of these, two patients developed PPF after polypectomy, exhibiting serious infection without definitive fever foci. One patient experienced rapidly aggravated type 1 respiratory failure and abnormal hepatic function, which were attributed to colonoscopy-associated infection. After active antibiotic therapy, both patients were discharged without any complications. Conclusions In summary, our study provides novel insights into patients with PPF who develop serious infections with life-threatening complications.

In this work, silver nitrate, thiourea, bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (BADGE), and propylene glycol methyl ether (PM) were selected for designing a silver(I)-complex to trigger the deposition of inductance coil on PET film through electroless copper plating. The most stable silver(I)-complex structure is formed when the ratio of thiourea molecules and silver ions is 3 to 1 by quantum chemical calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). Meanwhile, XRD test demonstrates that the white precipitate crystallized from PM solution of thiourea and silver nitrate is [Ag(SC(NH2)2)3]NO3, which is consistent with theoretical calculations. The cross section of PET film with copper patterns and interconnection holes characterized by metallurgical microscope proves that the silver(I)-complex is able to initiate copper deposition on the surface and through hole wall of PET film. The measured inductance values at operating frequency from 1 to 50 MHz indicate that the fabricated flexible inductor is capable of being integrated into flexible electronics when the bending angles are within 45°. Additionally, the inductor can also be utilized as an angel sensor when the bending angles are in the range of 60° to 180° at 10 MHz.

Liquid nitrogen jet is regarded as an excellent technology for the well drilling and reservoir fracturing. To evaluate the flow field structure of liquid nitrogen jet, a 2-D CFD model is established. The transient velocity and temperature fields of liquid nitrogen jet is simulated. The results show that the liquid nitrogen jet also clearly presented the velocity boundary and potential core region similar to the water jet. Given the temperature difference between the jet and surrounding fluid, the liquid nitrogen jet has an obvious temperature boundary, on which the jet temperature is equal to the initial value. According to the phase of the jet, the flow structure can be divided into the liquid nitrogen jet and non-liquid nitrogen jet regions. The temperature boundary shows a larger width than the velocity boundary for liquid nitrogen jet. Moreover, both width and length of the liquid nitrogen jet region are greater than the potential core region.

A hallmark of end-of-life (EOL) is reduced functional ability. However, the impact of dementia and other comorbidities on EOL decline for older adults is less well understood. We estimated the effect of having dementia and comorbidities on activity of daily living (ADL) scores using the 2000-2012 Health and Retirement Study. We identified 5,853 people over age 65 who died and predicted monthly ADL impairments in the last 4 years of life controlling for dementia and other characteristics. Stroke and obesity were associated with significantly higher ADL scores, regardless of dementia status. However, if both dementia and either stroke or obesity were present, dementia was associated with significantly higher ADL scores approximately 1-4 years before death. Functional decline occurred closer to death if they had these conditions and no dementia. Differences in function when patients have dementia and comorbidities may affect understanding of survival time and access to appropriate care.

Many internal defects maybe arise in railway track working, which usually have different shapes and distribution rules. To solve the problem, an intelligent detection method is proposed for internal defects of railway track based on generalization features cluster in this paper. Firstly, defects are classified and counted according to their shapes and locations features. Then, generalized features of defects are extracted and formulated based on the maximum difference between different types of defects and the maximum tolerance among same types of defects. Finally, extracted generalized features are expressed by function constraints, and formulated as generalization feature clusters to classify and identify internal defects of the railway track. Furthermore, a reduced dimension method of the generalization features clusters is presented too in this paper. Based on the reduced dimension feature and strong constrained generalized features, the K-means clustering algorithm is developed for defects clustering, and good clustering results are achieved. To defects in the rail head region, its clustering accuracy is over 95%, and the Davies-Bouldin Index (DBI) index is small, which indicates the validation of the proposed generalization features with strong constraints. Experimental results show that accuracy of the proposed method based on generalization features clusters is up to 97.55%, and the average detection time is 0.12s/frame, which indicates it has good performance in adaptability, high accuracy and detection speed under the complex working environments.

The traditional strategy to improve the efficiency of an entire coupled enzyme system relies on separate direction of the evolution of enzymes involved in their respective enzymatic reactions. This strategy can lead to enhanced single-enzyme catalytic efficiency but may also lead to loss of coordination among enzymes. This study aimed to overcome such shortcomings by executing a directed evolution strategy on multiple enzymes in one combined group that catalyzes the asymmetric biosynthesis of l-phosphinothricin. The genes of a glutamate dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas moorei (PmGluDH) and a glucose dehydrogenase from Exiguobacterium sibiricum (EsGDH), along with other gene parts (promoters, ribosomal binding sites (RBSs), and terminators) were simultaneously evolved. The catalytic efficiency of PmGluDH was boosted by introducing the beneficial mutation A164G (from 1.29 s-1mM-1 to 183.52 s-1mM-1), and the EsGDH expression level was improved by optimizing the linker length between the RBS and the start codon of gdh. The total turnover numbers of the bioreaction increased from 115 (GluDH WTNADPH) to 5846 (A164GNADPH coupled with low expression of EsGDH), and to 33950 (A164GNADPH coupled with high expression of EsGDH). The coupling efficiency was increased from ∼30% (GluDH_WT with low expression of GDH) to 83.3% (GluDH_A164G with high expression of GDH). In the batch production of l-phosphinothricin utilizing whole-cell catalysis, the strongest biocatalytic reaction exhibited a high space-time yield (6410 g·L-1·d-1) with strict stereoselectivity (>99% enantiomeric excess).Importance: The traditional strategy to improve multienzyme-catalyzed reaction efficiency may lead to enhanced single-enzyme catalytic efficiency but may also result in loss of coordination among enzymes. We describe a directed evolution strategy of an entire coupled enzyme system to simultaneously enhance enzyme coordination and catalytic efficiency. The simultaneous evolution strategy was applied to a multienzyme-catalyzed reaction for the asymmetric synthesis of l-phosphinothricin, which not only enhanced the catalytic efficiency of GluDH but also improved the coordination between GluDH and GDH. Since this strategy is enzyme-independent, it may be applicable to other coupled enzyme systems for chiral chemical synthesis.

Additional file 1: Table S1. The immunophenotype by FACS and cytochemical staining of the ALAL-NOS patients. Table S2. The duration from CR to transplant and maintenance treatement of 6 R/R ALAL-NOS patients.

Altered mitochondrial dynamics are commonly seen in tumors and Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the exact mechanism is unclear. We observed in tumor and PD flies, interference of mitochondrial fission or fusion reverses metabolic reprogramming and attenuates pathogenic phenotypes, indicating the rebalanced mitochondrial dynamics can re-establish cellular homeostasis. Surprisingly, we found Hsp22 is highly induced in tumor and PD flies. Hence, Hsp22 overexpression, not only suppressed RAS tumor flies, hepatocellular carcinoma mice, but also rescued PINK1B9 PD flies associating with restored mitochondrial homeostasis and reversing metabolic reprogramming. We speculate that mitochondrial dynamics is normally in a constant dynamic equilibrium, as if on a continually oscillating seesaw, tumor and PD are like the two extreme states of the seesaw which can be corrected by the promising target, Hsp22.One Sentence SummaryMitochondrial dynamics defects including tumor and PD lead to metabolic reprogramming accompanied with Hsp22 induction, vice versa, overexpression of Hsp22 reverses the mitochondrial dynamic dysfunction caused pathogenic metabolism.

Camera is a standard on-board sensor of modern mobile phones. It makes photo taking popular due to its convenience and high resolution. However, when users take a photo of a scenery, a building or a target person, a stranger may also be unintentionally captured in the photo. Such photos expose the location and activity of strangers, and hence may breach their privacy. In this paper, we propose a cooperative mobile photographing scheme called PoliteCamera to protect strangers' privacy. Through the cooperation between a photographer and a stranger, the stranger's face in a photo can be automatically blurred upon his request when the photo is taken. Since multiple strangers nearby the photographer might send out blurring requests but not all of them are in the photo, an adapted balanced convolutional neural network (ABCNN) is proposed to determine whether the requesting stranger is in the photo based on facial attributes. Evaluations demonstrate that the ABCNN can accurately predict facial attributes and PoliteCamera can provide accurate privacy protection for strangers.

Biosynthesizing unnatural chiral amino acids is challenging due to the limited reductive amination activity of amino acid dehydrogenase (AADH). Here, for the asymmetric synthesis of l -phosphinothricin from 2-oxo-4-[(hydroxy)(methyl)phosphinoyl]butyric acid (PPO), a glutamate dehydrogenase gene (named GluDH3) from Pseudomonas monteilii was selected, cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli (E. coli). To boost its activity, a “two-step”-based computational approach was developed and applied to select the potential beneficial amino acid positions on GluDH3. l -phosphinothricin was synthesized by GluDH-catalyzed asymmetric amination using the d -glucose dehydrogenase from Exiguobacterium sibiricum (EsGDH) for NADPH regeneration. Using lyophilized E. coli cells that co-expressed GluDH3_V375S and EsGDH, up to 89.04 g L−1 PPO loading was completely converted to l -phosphinothricin within 30 min at 35 °C with a space-time yield of up to 4.752 kg·L−1·d−1. The beneficial substitution V375S with increased polar interactions between K90, T193, and substrate PPO exhibited 168.2-fold improved catalytic efficiency (kcat/KM) and 344.8-fold enhanced specific activity. After the introduction of serine residues into other GluDHs at specific positions, forty engineered GluDHs exhibited the catalytic functions of “glufosinate dehydrogenase” towards PPO.

PurposeCopper electrodeposition acts as a crucial step in the manufacture of high-density interconnect board. The stability of plating solution and the uniformity of copper electrodeposit are the hotspot and difficulty for the research of electrodeposition. Because a large number of factors are included in electrodeposition, experimentally determining all parameters and electrodeposition conditions becomes unmanageable. Therefore, a multiphysics coupling technology was introduced to investigate microvia filling process, and the mechanism of copper electrodeposition was analyzed. The results provide a strong theoretical basis and technical guidance for the actual electroplating experiments. The purpose of this paper is to provide an excellent tool for quickly and cheaply studying the process behavior of copper electrodeposition without actually needing to execute time-consuming and costly experiments.Design/methodology/approachThe interactions among additives used in acidic copper plating solution for microvia filling and the effect on the copper deposition potential were characterized through galvanostatic measurement (GM). The adsorption behavior and surface coverage of additives with various concentrations under different rotating speeds of working electrode were investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. Further, a microvia filling model was constructed using multiphysics coupling technology based on the finite element method.FindingsGM tests showed that accelerator, inhibitor and leveler affected the potential of copper electrodeposition, and bis(3-sulfopropyl) disulfide (SPS), ethylene oxide-propylene oxide (EO/PO) co-polymer, and self-made leveler were the effective additives in acidic copper plating solution. CV tests showed that EO/PO–Cu+-Cl−complex was adsorbed on the electrode surface by intermolecular forces, thus inhibiting copper electrodeposition. Numerical simulation indicated that the process of microvia filling included initial growth period, the outbreak period and the stable growth period, and modeling result was compared with the measured data, and a good agreement was observed.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is still in progress with the development of high-performance computers.Practical implicationsA multiphysics coupling platform is an excellent tool for quickly and cheaply studying the electrodeposited process behaviors under a variety of operating conditions.Social implicationsThe numerical simulation method has laid the foundation for mechanism of copper electrodeposition.Originality/valueBy using multiphysics coupling technology, the authors built a bridge between theoretical and experimental study for microvia filling. This method can help explain the mechanism of copper electrodeposition.

Methyltriethoxysilane-treated BaFe12O19 particles were added into poly (phenylene oxide) (PPO) to obtain a composite system in the condition of benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. Thermal stability, structure, mechanical behavior and dielectric and magnetic properties were characterized to investigate the effects of BaFe12O19 particles on the performance of PPO-based composites. BaFe12O19/PPO composites were employed as embedded magnetic core to enhance the inductance of spiral copper inductors. Inductance value and quality (Q)-factor of the spiral copper inductor increased to 1.58 μH and 40.2 at 30 MHz respectively when 50 wt% BaFe12O19 particles were added into PPO matrix for a composite system as an embedded magnetic core.

With the rapid development of industrial automation and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, automation operations have been applied to all walks of life. Absolutely, the automation operations also greatly improve productivity and reduces labor costs. This paper provides a system and method for medical garbage bin recognition and judgment based on machine vision and mobile robot arm. AGV (Automatic guided vehicle) lidar is used to navigate to the target of the garbage bin when received the start signal, and then identifies the garbage bin so as to find the specific location of the garbage bin and the garbage status in the medical garbage bin. When the garbage in medical waste meets the recycling standard, it can be picked up by AGV and takes away from the laboratory. This method avoids the danger of direct contact between human body and medical waste.

In this paper, an electromagnetic orientation method that uses two orthogonal coils based on the direction-invariant vector is proposed. Two orthogonal coils driven with low frequency phase-quadrature sine signals are used to generate the rotary magnetic field. A novel method based on the feature vector is raised to achieve the quick orientation of the magnetic sensor, which is easy and fast to determine the orientation of the sensor irrespective of the amplitude and phase of the two coils with only several sampling data. Experiments show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.

Provable data possession (PDP) allows a client that has stored data at remote server to verify that the server correctly possesses the original data. A long-standing problem is how to reduce I/O cost. Through the integration of Online-code and PDP, a challenge/check protocol that can verifies the possession is proposed. The protocol generates probabilistic proofs of possession by sampling tiny sets of data, which obviously reduces I/O cost. Meanwhile, the protocol can recover corrupted data. The authors formalize this notion in the Robust/Recover (RR) provable data possession guarantee. Briefly speaking, the client maintains a constant amount of metadata to verify the proof. The challenge/check protocol transmits a constant amount of data, which reduces communication complexity. The authors give a detailed analysis of this protocol and build a simulation to evaluate practicability in reliability, space overhead, computation complexity, and communication complexity.

With the rise of network technology in recent years, e-commerce has occupied an important part in trade activities. How to ensure fair transactions between untrustworthy parties is a current research hotspot. This paper combines RSA blind signature and blockchain technology to design a fair contract signing protocol based on blockchain privacy protection. The RSA blind signature generates a contract blind signature, which guarantees the sensitive details of the transaction contract; the blockchain technology provides a decentralized trusted third party for the contract, ensuring fair and equitable transactions. After analysis, the protocol has the characteristics of correctness, unforgeability, blindness, and untraceability.

This thesis focuses on the comprehensive and thorough studies on the geospatial processing of airborne (full) waveform lidar data, including waveform modeling, direct georeferencing, and precise georeferencing with self-calibration.Both parametric and nonparametric approaches of waveform decomposition are studied. The traditional parametric approach assumes that the returned waveforms follow a Gaussian mixture model where each component is a Gaussian. However, many real examples show that the waveform components can be neither Gaussian nor symmetric. To address the problem, this thesis proposes a nonparametric mixture model to represent lidar waveforms without any constraints on the shape of the waveform components. To decompose the waveforms, a fuzzy mean-shift algorithm is then developed. This approach has the following properties: 1) it does not assume that the waveforms follow any parametric or functional distributions; 2) the waveform decomposition is treated as a fuzzy data clustering problem and the number of components is determined during the process of decomposition; 3) neither peak selection nor noise floor filtering prior to the decomposition is needed; and 4) the range measurement is not affected by the process of noise filtering. In addition, the fuzzy mean-shift approach is about three times faster than the conventional expectationmaximization algorithm and tends to lead to fewer artifacts in the resultant digital elevation model. This thesis also develops a framework and methodology of self-calibration that simultaneously determines the waveform geospatial position and boresight angles. Besides using the flight trajectory and plane attitude recorded by the onboard GPS receiver and inertial measurement unit, the framework makes use of the publically accessible digital elevation models as control over the study area. Compared to the conventional calibration and georeferencing method, the new development has minimum requirements on ground truth: no extra ground control, no planar objects, and no overlap flight strips are needed. Furthermore, it can also solve the problem of clock synchronization and boresight calibration simultaneously. Through a developed two-stage optimization strategy, the self-calibration approach can resolve both the time synchronization bias and boresight misalignment angles to achieve a stable and correct solution. As a result, a consistency of 0.8662 meter is achieved between the waveform derived digital elevation model and the reference one without systematic trend. Such experiments demonstrate the developed method is a necessary and more economic alternative to the conventional, high demanding georeferencing and calibration approach, especially when no or limited ground control is available.

Based on the complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and bat algorithm (BA) to optimize the support vector machine, this paper proposed a combined model for short-term wind speed forecasting to predict the wind speed more accurately. Firstly, CEEMDAN was used to decompose the original wind speed time series into a series of subsequences with different frequencies. Secondly, the decomposed subsequences were forecasted by combined model of BA-SVM. Finally, the wind speed forecasting results was achieved by superposing each predicted subsequence. The simulation results suggest that the model improves the prediction accuracy and reduces the error.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health concern with high rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Currently used medications, though effective, are also associated with several adverse effects. Development of effective neuroprotective agents with fewer side-effects would be of clinical value. Previous studies have shown that withaferin compounds have a potential neuroprotective effect in nervous system disorders. However, the effect of withaferin compounds, especially withaferin A (WFA), on traumatic brain injury is unclear. In the present study, both in vivo and in vitro models were used to assess whether WFA could exert a neuroprotective effect after TBI and were used to explore the associated mechanisms. The results showed that WFA significantly improved neurobehavioral function in a dose-dependent fashion and alleviated histological alteration of injury to tissues in TBI mice. In vitro models of TBI revealed that dose-dependent WFA treatment increased the viability of SH-SY5Y cells. In addition, WFA treatment could attenuate blood-brain barrier disruption and brain edema via suppressing apoptosis in endothelial cells. Furthermore, both our in vivo and in vitro results reveal that WFA treatment could significantly reduce levels of several neuroinflammation cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α), which correlate with an overall reduction in microglial activation. These data suggest that the neuroprotection by WFA is, at least in part, related to regulation of microglial activation and inhibition of vascular endothelial cell apoptosis. Taken together, these findings support further investigation of WFA as a promising therapeutic agent for promoting functional recovery after traumatic brain injury.

In order to meet the engineering requirements of non-contact measurement of impact load and realize the intelligent identification of its characteristic parameters, this paper attempts to establish a method to analyze and learn the audio characteristics generated by accidental loads, such as impact and explosion, and to identify the impact load characteristics in reverse. The method, which is based on energy conservation, momentum conservation and strokes law, used p-norm in mathematics to extract the basic characteristics of impact load, and the frequency analysis to find the inevitable connection between the audio characteristics impulse-induced and the impact load characteristics. At last, “Acoustic Discrimination for Impact Load Identification (ADII)” by adopting the functions of artificial neural networks about learning, categorization and generalization was implemented.

Glutathione (GSH) has been studied for its neuroprotection value in several diseases, but the effect of GSH on intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is unclear. In this study, we examined the protective effects of GSH in an experimentally induced ICH model and investigated the relative mechanisms. Adult male C57BL/6j mice were randomized into Sham, ICH and GSH treatment groups. GSH was injected with the dose of 50, 100 or 200 mg/kg once per day for 3 days, starting immediately after operation. The results revealed a GSH-mediated improvement of neurological deficits score (NDS), motor and sensory functions impairment in a dose-dependent manner three days post ICH (p 0.01, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 12; ICH, n = 9; GSH 50, n = 10; GSH 100, n = 10; GSH 200, n = 11) in addition to significantly reduced mortality rate (p = 0.2632, GSH 200 vs ICH. n = 12 per group) and damage volume (p 0.05, GSH 200 vs ICH. n = 12 per group). GSH treatment also attenuated injury measured by decreased brain edema (p 0.05, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 10; ICH, n = 10; GSH 200, n = 12), blood-brain barrier disruption (p 0.05, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 10; ICH, n = 10; GSH 200, n = 12), and histopathological damage (p 0.05, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 6; ICH, n = 6; GSH 200, n = 8) 72 h after ICH. In addition, GSH treatment also decreased cell apoptosis (p 0.01, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 6; ICH, n = 6; GSH 200, n = 8) and resulted in up-regulated protein expression of complex I (p 0.01, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 6; ICH, n = 6; GSH 200, n = 8), which was consistent with an overall up-regulation of complex I function in mitochondria using Oxygraph-2 K high resolution respirometry (p 0.05, GSH 200 vs ICH. Sham, n = 4; ICH, n = 5; GSH 200, n = 6). In conclusion, GSH effectively improved the prognosis of ICH mice by attenuating neurological impairment, decreasing neural damage, and inhibiting apoptosis. The neuroprotection by GSH resulted from the up-regulation of mitochondrial oxidative respiration function. The results of our study suggest that GSH can be a potential therapeutic agent for ICH.

Genus: Nilionympha Ren & Engel, 2007 Type species. Nilionympha pulchella Ren & Engel, 2007 Other included species. Nilionympha shantouensis sp. nov. (N. imperfecta is transferred to Enodinympha imperfecta comb. nov.) Emended diagnosis. Antenna filiform and extremely long. Forewing elongated, trichosors present in distal half of forewing; costal crossveins simple with occasional forks; Sc and R1 fused anterior to the wing apex; Rs with 12 branches, Rs1 diverged at one-third of wing length; MA separating from Rs at about one-fourth of wing length. Hind wing long and narrow, slightly similar with forewing; trichosors present; costal crossveins simple with occasional forks; Sc and R1 fused anterior to the wing apex; Rs with 10 to 11 branches, Rs1 diverged at one-third of wing length; MA separating from Rs at about one-fourth of wing length; MP forked apically; CuA branched from wing midlength; CuP pectinately branched; A1 distinct and near CuP. Remarks. The genus Nilionympha was erected by Ren and Engel (2007: fig. 7���11), for which only the hind wing characters were provided in the original description. Unequivocally, Nilionympha belongs to the Gumillinae for the long antennae and relatively complicated venation, but its full comparison with the other gumilline genera was not possible due to the absence of the characters of forewing (Ren & Engel, 2007). After reexamining the type specimens of Nilionympha pulchella (Fig. 1A) and Nilionympha imperfecta (Fig. 1B), their fragmentary forewings were reconstructed in Fig. 1C (N. pulchella) and Fig. 1D (N. imperfecta). Although the forewing of the type species of N. pulchella is incomplete, some key characters can be detected to allow the possible comparison with other gumilline genera. Nilionympha is most characterized by the numerous Rs branches in the forewing (12 branches), and this is clearly different from other gumilline genera (no more than seven branches). However, another genus Enodinympha established in the same paper with Nilionympha (Ren & Engel, 2007) also has similarly many Rs branches in forewing, but these two genera can be distinguished by the divergence of MA from Rs (Fig. 1C���E). Within Gumillinae, the divergence of MA from Rs is commonly distant to the wing base that forms multiple r1-mp crossveins as in Enodinympha translucida (Fig. 1E), while the separation of MA distinctly close to the wing base in N. pulchella (Fig. 1 C). Because the hindwing of Enodinympha translucida canot be fully reconstructed to provide the useful information due to the fragmentary condition of specimens, the both genera are still requested the further comparisons in future. It is notable that the species N. imperfecta (Fig. 1D) shows the similar configuration of MA with E. translucida (Fig. 1E) instead of N. pulchella. Additionally the configurations of CuA and CuP in the forewing of N. imperfecta also resemble those of Enodinympha (Fig. 1D, E), thus we deem it necessary to transfer N. imperfecta to Enodinympha as Enodinympha imperfecta comb. nov. (Fig. 1D). Furthermore, Sc and R1 amalgamate proximad of the pterostigma in N. pulchella, however, the fusion of Sc and R1 is much distal in the middle of pterostigma among most gumillines including the new species (Nilionympha shantouensis sp. nov.) described below. Thus, we consider it a specific diagnosis and an autapomorphy of N. pulchella instead of the generic feature., Published as part of Li, Qinghua, Ren, Dong & Wang, Yongjie, 2018, Revision of the gumilline genus Nilionympha with a new species from the Middle Jurassic of China (Neuroptera: Osmylidae), pp. 146-150 in Zootaxa 4399 (1) on pages 147-148, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4399.1.13, http://zenodo.org/record/1206434, {"references":["Ren, D. & Engel, M. S. (2007) A split-footed lacewing and two epiosmylines from the Jurassic of China (Neuroptera). Annales Zoologici, 57, 211 - 219."]}

Nilionympha shantouensis sp. nov. (Fig. 2) Etymology: The species named after the fossil locality of Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia. Type material. Holotype, CNU-NEU-NN 200211, with only well-preserved forewing and partly preserved hind wing, body fragmentary (Fig. 2A). Locality and horizon. Daohugou Village, Shantou Township, Ningcheng County, Chifen City, Inner Mongolia, China; Jiulongshan Formation, Middle Jurassic. Diagnosis. Forewing with three rs-mp crossveins; twelve Rs branches; MA separating from Rs at basal quarter of wing length; MP forked near wing base; CuA deeply bifurcated before wing midlength; CuP simply pectinated, terminated before wing midlength. In hind wing, two rs-mp crossveins; Rs with eleven branches; MA separating from Rs before one-third of wing length; MP straight with forking apically; CuA simply forked after wing midlength; CuP slightly shorter than CuA, pectinately branched. Description: Body length (from the apex of head to the terminalia of abdomen) 12.3 mm; head hypognathous, antenna extremely long, scape prominent, large and robust; pedicel small; flagellum filiform; compound eye large, but ocelli absent. Forewing: 22.1 mm long, 7.7 mm wide, a row of markings along the subcostal space on membrane. Trichosors poorly developed apically; possibly one or two trichosors between each vein at apically posterior wing margin. Costal space relatively narrow. Subcostal veinlets simple, straight, rather widely spaced. Sc and R1 fused anterior to the wing apex. Rs originating nearly at wing base, zigzagged, with 11 long zigzagged branches. MA separating from Rs at one third of wing length. MP forked into MP1 and MP2 near wing base, straight for most of their length and dichotomously branched distally, with one complete row of cells between MP branches; CuA long, dichotomously branched deeply before midlength of wing; CuP pectinately branched (Fig. 2B). Hind wing elongated and relatively narrow, 20.2 mm long, 7.3 mm wide, partly preserved, venation similar to forewing; Rs with eleven branches; MA separating from Rs before one-third of wing length; MP simple, bifurcated distally; CuA simply branched distally; CuP long, pectinately branched (Fig. 2C). Remarks. The new species can be attributed to Nilionympha for sharing the proximal divergence of MA from Rs and numerous Rs branches. N. shantouensis sp. nov. is easily identified by the presence of a row of dark spots (at least eight black spots) along with Sc and R1 that are evidently absent in N. pulchella. Additionally the new species is also differentiated from N. pulchella according to the position of fusion of Sc and R 1 in forewing and simply branched CuA in hind wing., Published as part of Li, Qinghua, Ren, Dong & Wang, Yongjie, 2018, Revision of the gumilline genus Nilionympha with a new species from the Middle Jurassic of China (Neuroptera: Osmylidae), pp. 146-150 in Zootaxa 4399 (1) on pages 148-149, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4399.1.13, http://zenodo.org/record/1206434

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a kind of data-intensive applications for wireless sensors networks, which usually requires high network bandwidth. However, the bandwidth of traditional single-radio single-channel (SR-SC) WSN is quite limited. In order to meet the requirement of structural monitoring, multi-radio multi-channel (MR-MC) WSN is emerging. In this paper, we address the optimal data collection problem in MR-MC WSN by modelling it as an integer linear programming problem. Combining the advantages of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm and flower pollination optimization (FPA) algorithm, we propose a new hybrid algorithm BFPA-PSO to solve the optimization problem under the constraint of time slot and multi-power multi-radio multi-channel (MP-MR-MC). Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments are carried out and the results show that the proposed method has good performance in improving network capacity as well as reducing energy consumption.

This study treats the synchronizer gear hub gear extrusion machining process for J6L medium truck. The CA6140 lathe has been reformed into a gear extrusion machine and the experimental research about the gear extrusion plastic forming processing has been did. The tooth surface roughness and hardness after the gear extruding process under the given process parameters had also been analyzed. The experimental results showed that the surface roughness had been improved after the gear extruding processing, and the tooth surface hardness was became higher compare with the original tooth surface. It is obviously that the gear extrusion machining process can improve the tooth surface quality of the gear hub and get a better process result.

The increasing massive data generated by various sources has given birth to big data analytics. Solving large-scale nonlinear programming problems (NLPs) is one important big data analytics task that has applications in many domains such as transport and logistics. However, NLPs are usually too computationally expensive for resource-constrained users. Fortunately, cloud computing provides an alternative and economical service for resource-constrained users to outsource their computation tasks to the cloud. However, one major concern with outsourcing NLPs is the leakage of user's private information contained in NLP formulations and results. Although much work has been done on privacy-preserving outsourcing of computation tasks, little attention has been paid to NLPs. In this paper, we for the first time investigate secure outsourcing of general large-scale NLPs with nonlinear constraints. A secure and efficient transformation scheme at the user side is proposed to protect user's private information; at the cloud side, generalized reduced gradient method is applied to effectively solve the transformed large-scale NLPs. The proposed protocol is implemented on a cloud computing testbed. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that significant time can be saved for users and the proposed mechanism has the potential for practical use., Comment: Ang Li and Wei Du equally contributed to this work. This work was done when Wei Du was at the University of Arkansas. 2018 EAI International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm)

Based on the analysis on the basic principles and characteristics of the existing multi- objective genetic algorithm (MOGA), an improved multi-objective GA with elites maintain is put forward based on non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA). NSGA-II algorithm theory and parallel hybrid evolutionary theory is described in detail. The design principle, process and detailed implementations of the improved MOGA are given. IMNSGA-II algorithm and NSGA-II algorithm are applied to test the performance of the two algorithms for different test function, experiments of example are preformed. Experimental results show that the improved MOGA achieved the optimal between the convergence and diversity.

As one-dimensional (1D) nanofiber, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been widely used to improve the performance of nanocomposites due to their high strength, small dimensions, and remarkable physical properties. Progress in the field of CNTs presents a potential opportunity to enhance cementitious composites at the nanoscale. In this review, current research activities and key advances on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) reinforced cementitious composites are summarized, including the effect of MWCNTs on modulus of elasticity, porosity, fracture, and mechanical and microstructure properties of cement-based composites. The issues about the improvement mechanisms, MWCNTs dispersion methods, and the major factors affecting the mechanical properties of composites are discussed. In addition, large-scale production methods of MWCNTs and the effects of CNTs on environment and health are also summarized.

Chloroplast NAD(P)H dehydrogenase-like complex (NDH) plays a crucial role in the protection of plants against oxidative stress. In higher plants, NDH interacts with Photosystem I (PSI) to form an NDH-PSI supercomplex. However, the chloroplast supercomplex with NADPH oxidation activity remains to be identified. Here, we reported the identification of a supercomplex of NDH with NADPH-nitroblue tetrazolium oxidoreductase activity in the chloroplast of rice panicle. The active supercomplex from the panicle chloroplast contained higher amounts of the NDH subunits (NdhH, NdhK, and NdhA) than that from the flag leaf chloroplast. The highly active supercomplex might underlie the high activity of the NADPH-dependent NDH pathway and the larger proton gradient across thylakoid membranes via cyclic electron flow around PSI, as well as the higher maximal photochemical efficiency of Photosystem II at the flowering to grain-filling stage. The supercomplex is suggested to be essential for the high efficiency of photosynthesis and play a protective role in the grain formation in rice plant.

The 300mm single limb large size angle steels are applied in ZC3 tangent tower of ±1100kV UHVDC transmission line, and the highest strength of large size angle steels is Q420. Through the optimization design on the new type node of the arm main member and the tower body, the tower’s weight is reduced evidently. Economic analysis results show: Weight of the ZC3 tower which main member applies the 300mm large size angle steel is 5%-8% higher than that of the steel tube tower, 4%-11% lower than that of the combination angle steel tower. The success of full-scale test verified the reliability in design and manufacture of the towers of ±1100kV transmission line. Research results of this paper can be applied in UHVDC transmission line projects.

FEA model of a transmission tower was established. According to the monitoring data of the non-uniform settlement for the temporarily strengthened tower, the bearing capacity analyses were carried out with the wind loads of different velocities and directions. When the wind velocity is up to the design value, the stress of the main member exceeds the design stress by 34%. For the frequent velocity, stresses of all the members are lower than the design stress. By considering the settlements at the four foots are stochastic, one single installing program of the staying wires cannot decrease the stress of the members for all cases. For the settlement case which the member stress is up to the maximum value, the member stress decreases a little but even higher than the design value. By applying the large panel foundation, the bearing capacity of the tower can be enhanced significantly, and the settlement limit was determined by the structural analysis.

Driven by the energy situation, technological innovation and information technology, the new energy will be substantially connected to the grid; power electronic technology will be widely used in the manufacture of the electric power equipment; electricity networks are highly integrated with the information communication network. The development of grid pattern has put forward a series of challenges to power system simulation. This paper explains the development characteristics and research needs of the power system simulation, and forecasts the development trend of the power system simulation modeling technology.

High coherence of the laser is indispensable light sources in modern long or short-distance imaging systems, because the high coherence leads to coherent artifacts such as speckle that corrupt image formation. To deliver low coherence pulses in fiber amplifiers, we utilize the superluminescent pulsed light with broad bandwidth, nonlongitudinal mode structure and chaotic mode phase as the seed source of the cascaded fiber amplifiers. The influence of fiber superluminescent pulse amplification (SPA) on the limitations of the performance is analyzed. A review of our research results for SPA in the fibers are present, including the nonlinear theories of this low coherent light sources, i.e., self-focusing (SF), stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and self-phase modulation (SPM) effects, and the experiment results of the nanosecond pulses with peak power as high as 4.8 MW and pulse energy as much as 55 mJ. To improve the brightness of SPA light in the future work, we introduce our novel evaluation term and a more reasonable criterion, which is denoted by a new parameter of brightness factor for active large mode area fiber designs. A core-doped active large pitch fiber with a core diameter of $190~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ and a mode-field diameter of $180~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ is designed by this method. The designed fiber allows near diffracted limited beam quality operation, and it can achieve 100 mJ pulse energy and 540 W average power by analyzing the mode coupling effects induced by heat.

In a case study investigating Chinese EFL university majors’ perceptions of a portfolio-based writing assessment (PBWA) project, English majors were sampled to find out whether the portfolio method made them more interested in writing and/or improved their writing process and writing strategies. Four sophomores were chosen from among an experimental group at a local university in China. Analysis of data from student journals, interviews and reflective essays showed that taking part in portfolio writing empowered them to take charge of their own learning and motivated them to write better. The students welcomed PBWA as a fairer assessment tool than timed, one-shot essay tests. They held more interest in English writing, improved their writing strategies and shifted their attention from products of writing to process of writing and, thus, preferred scores from PBWA as a more satisfactory indicator of their writing ability.

This paper introduces a novel feature matching algorithm using both Image interpolating method and edge detecting method to make feature matching more precise. The proposed feature matching is composed of four elements: inputting data, interpolating method, features extracting and matching. At first, the tasks in human anatomy and the method to input slices data are introduced. Secondly, we propose a novel slices matching using image interpolating method and edge detecting method. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach owns the properties both quickly and exactly.

The effect of replacing fish meal with raw and various processed soybeans meal on growth and protein metabolism of common carp Cyprinus carpio was evaluated in an 8-week trial. The common carp fingerlings[initial body weight(5.89±0.36) g] were fed five isonitrogenous and isocaloric feeds(30% digestible protein and 15 MJ/kg digestible energy) containing SBM replacing 50% of the fish meal protein,such as raw soybean(RSB),processed soybean by chemical inactivator,processed soybean by heating,processed soybean by heat alcohol,respectively. Results showed that weight gain of control were significantly different(P0.05),but those fed RSB were significantly lower than control(P0.05),those fed processed soybeans by chemical inactivator and by heating and by heat alcohol had no significant difference,but all significantly higher than control. Protease specific activity of control in the intestine and hepatopancreas was significantly higher than those fed RSB and processed soybeans by heat alcohol,but both had no significant difference with those fed processed soybeans by chemical inactivator and by heating(P0.05). RNA of 100% fish meal and 50% processed soybean by heating in white muscle were no significant difference(P0.05),but both were significantly higher than those fed RSB and processed soybeans by heat alcohol and by chemical inactivator and by heating,RNA/DNA of 100% fish meal and 50% processed soybean by heating and by chemical inactivator in white muscle had no significant difference(P0.05),but all were higher than those fed raw soybean(RSB) and processed soybean by heat alcohol(P0.05). RNA in white muscle and serum IGF-I had a positive correlation with growth(P0.05).The degree of negative effect of soybean anti-nutritional factors on fish is anti-trypsin inhibitoragglutininsoybean antigen protein under the experimental conditions,and proper control could reduce the negative impact of soybean anti-nutritional factors on fish.