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Synthesizing ring structure aviation fuels from biomass-derived platform molecules is challenging, especially for bridged ring structure aviation fuels which are typically achieved from fossil-derived chemicals. Herein, we report the synthesis of a series of ring structure biofuels in two steps by a combination of a solvent-free Michael-cyclization reaction and a hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) reaction from lignocellulose-derived 5,5-dimethyl-1,3-cyclohexanedione. These biofuels are obtained with high overall yields up to 90%, which exhibit high densities of 0.81 g cm−3-0.88 g cm−3 and high volumetric neat heat of combustion (VNHOC) values of 36.0 MJ L−1-38.6 MJ L−1. More importantly, bridged-ring structure hydrocarbons can also be achieved in two steps by a combination of a Robinson annulation reaction and an HDO reaction to afford the final products at high overall yields up to 90%. The bridged-ring structure products have comparable high densities and high VNHOC values to the best artificial fuel JP-10 (0.94 g cm−3 and 39.6 MJ L−1). The results demonstrate a promising way for the synthesis of high-density aviation fuels with different fuel properties at high yields.

Chronic wounds remain a worldwide clinical challenge, and bioactive materials that can promote skin regeneration are required. Self-assembling peptide (SAP) hydrogels have shown great potential in tissue repair, but their regenerative efficacy and possible mechanism in chronic wound healing are unclear. Here, we report an SAP (KGH) that enhances extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and angiogenesis, thereby promoting chronic wound healing in diabetic mice. In vivo, the KGH hydrogel was retained in wounds up to 7 days after injection, and it was effective in speeding up wound closure by ∼20% compared to the control groups and enhancing angiogenesis (e.g., VEGFA, CD31+ capillaries), cell proliferation (e.g., PCNA+ cells), formation of granulation tissue (e.g., α-SMA), and ECM deposition/remodeling (e.g., collagen I, fibronectin). In vitro, the KGH hydrogel created a 3D microenvironment for skin cells, maintained the sustained growth of cell spheroids, and increased the secretion of ECM proteins (e.g., laminin) and growth factors (e.g., PDGFB, VEGFA, and TGF-β) in skin keratinocytes compared to the conventional 2D culture. Mechanistically, the KGH hydrogel might promote wound tissue regeneration by activating the Rho/ROCK and TGF-β/MEK/MAPK pathways. As a type of designed material, SAP can be further re-engineered with biological motifs, therapeutic reagents, or stem cells to enhance skin regeneration. This study highlights that SAP hydrogels are a promising material platform for advanced chronic wound healing and might have translational potential in future clinical applications. Statement of significance Chronic wounds are a common and serious health issue worldwide, and bioactive dressing materials are required to address this issue. SAP hydrogels have shown certain tissue repair potential, but their regenerative efficacy and underlying mechanism in chronic wound healing remain elusive. Herein, we report that SAP hydrogels create a native 3D microenvironment that can remarkably stimulate angiogenesis and ECM remodeling in diabetic wounds. Mechanistically, the SAP hydrogel promoted ECM proteins and GFs secretion in skin cells through the activation of the Rho/ROCK and TGF-s/MEK/MAPK pathways. Additionally, SAP can be readily engineered with various bioactive motifs or therapeutic drugs/cells. This work highlights SAP hydrogels as a promising biomaterial platform for chronic wound healing and the regeneration of many other tissues.

Outlier detection is one of the most critical and challenging tasks of data mining . It aims to find patterns in data that do not conform to expected behavior. Data streams in streaming computing are huge in nature and arrive continuously with changing distribution, which imposes new challenges for outlier detection algorithms in time and space efficiency. Incremental local outlier factor (ILOF) detection dynamically updates the profiles of data points, while the arrival of consecutive and massive volume data points in a streaming manner causes high local data density and leads to expensive time and space overhead. Our work is motivated by its deficiencies, and in this paper we propose a cube-based outlier detection algorithm (CB-ILOF). The data space of streaming data is divided into multiple cubes, then the outlier detection of data points is transferred into the outlier detection of cubes, which significantly reduces time and memory overhead. We also present a performance evaluation on 5 datasets. Experimental results show the superiority of the CB-ILOF over the ILOF on accuracy, memory usage, and execution time.

Femtosecond open-aperture Z-scan and two-photon excited fluorescence method, were performed to study the two-photon absorption cross-section of several tri-branched derivatives. The two-photon absorption cross-section values measured by the two different methods were compared. Our results indicate that, the absolute values of the two-photon absorption cross-section measured by different technique are obviously different. The absorption cross-sections measured by two-photon excited fluorescence method exhibited 2.1–2.3 times larger than that measured by open-aperture Z-scan method. And the difference is most likely caused by the system error of different measurements. Our results may provide scientific responsible reference as well as some useful information for the comparison of the two-photon absorption cross-section values measured by different methods.

The coordinated development of ecology and economy is one of the key issues of sustainable development. A full understanding of the relationship between ecology and economy is necessary for the coordinated development of the two. This paper takes Sichuan Province as the research area and county-level administrative districts as the research unit. Based on the medium value of the ecological quality index and economic growth index of each unit, Sichuan Province is divided into dual pressure zones (DPZ), economic backward zones (EBZ), ecological crisis zones (ECZ), and coordinated development zones (CDZ) and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of each unit is studied. The results show that: (1) On the whole, the eastern part of Sichuan Province has a better level of economic development, and the southern part of the western region has a higher ecological quality. The ecological quality and economic growth pattern are highly correlated with topographical conditions. (2) The distribution characteristics of the four types of partitions are significantly different. The EBZ are more distributed in the western and southern of Sichuan Province, the ECZ are more distributed in the eastern, the DPZ and CDZ are relatively more sporadic. More than 90% of the partition changed zones are distributed in the eastern area. (3) The CCD of more than 95% units belongs to moderate coordination and high coordination. The overall CCD of the four types of zones has shown an upward trend from 2010 to 2015. Based on the results, Sichuan Province should follow the path of clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver, and targeted sustainable development suggestions for DPZ, EBZ, ECZ, and CDZ are put forward. This paper provides guidance for formulating regional sustainable development strategies, especially in areas with unbalanced development due to congenital topographical conditions.

Background Despite the availability of multiple treatment strategies, patients with advanced colon carcinoma (CC) have poor prognoses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of natural killer (NK) cell therapy in combination with chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced CC. Methods We assessed the cytotoxicity of NK cells to CC cells (CCs) and CC stem cells (CSCs) pre-treated with 5-fluorouracil or oxaliplatin in vitro. Then, an open-label cohort study was conducted with locally advanced CC patients who had received radical resection. Patients received either NK cell therapy combined with chemotherapy (NK cell group, 27 patients) or pure chemotherapy (control group, 33 patients). Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and adverse effects were investigated. Results Chemotherapy sensitized CCs and CSCs to NK cell cytotoxicity through regulation of NK cell–activating/inhibitory receptor ligands. Poorly differentiated CCs were more susceptible to NK cells than well-differentiated ones. In the cohort study, the 5-year PFS and OS rates in the NK cell group were significantly higher than those in the control group (51.1% versus 35%, P = 0.044; 72.5% versus 51.6%, P = 0.037, respectively). Among patients with poorly differentiated carcinomas and low expression of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-1, the median PFS in the NK cell group versus the control group was 23.5 versus 12.1 months (P = 0.0475) and 33.1 versus 18.5 months (P = 0.045), respectively. No significant adverse reactions were reported. Conclusion NK cell therapy in combination with chemotherapy in locally advanced CC prevented recurrence and prolonged survival with acceptable adverse effects, especially for poorly differentiated carcinomas.

In this paper, we investigate a two-species competitive chemotaxis Keller-Segel system equipped with a free boundary. The local existence and global existence of classical solutions are established, and then the asymptotic behavior of the solutions is described. Some spreading-vanishing dichotomies have been obtained both for the strong competition case: 0 a 1 1 ≤ a 2 , and weak competition case: 0 a 1 , a 2 1 . Finally, an obstructed spreading case has been found, which could happen due to the effect of the chemotaxis.

In this paper we investigate a two-species competitive chemotaxis Keller–Segel system. We first obtain the local existence and global existence of classical solutions and then study the asymptotic behavior of the solutions.

The effect of modifying a 1,3,5-triazine-based multi-branched compound (T03-a) with perfluoroalkyl chains (T03-d) on the fluorescence and ultrafast dynamics was investigated by two-photon fluorescence and femtosecond transient absorption experiments. After modification, a significantly increased fluorescence quantum yield was observed. The fluorescence quantum yield of the perfluoroalkyl chain modified compound T03-d (0.86) was approximately 3.2 times greater than that of T03-a (0.27). The ultrafast dynamics experiments revealed the effect of the perfluoroalkyl chain modification on the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) property. The ultrafast dynamics results agree with the changes in the fluorescent property. Our results indicate that the modification of compounds with perfluoroalkyl chains based on the 1,3,5-triazine tri-branched compound would be a very useful strategy for enhancement of the fluorescence, and the 1,3,5-triazine based multi-branched derivatives have the potential to be employed as molecular probes for biological fluorescence imaging.

Solar energy conversion is of great interest in developing green and sustainable energy. Herein, we report the solar-to-electricity capability of a new two dimensional (2D) Cu2S-phenol superlattice (CP-SL) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composites for the first time. CP-SL is demonstrated to have a high Seebeck coefficient and a low thermal conductivity comparable to that of metal-organic frameworks. CP-SL based solar thermoelectric generator (STEG) exhibits stable output voltages for long time usages superior to previously reported STEGs. The device is made of p- and n-type modules that are composed of CP-SL/CNT and CP-SL/polyethyleneimine (PEI) doped CNTs (PEI-CNT) composites, respectively. The polarity of the composites is dominated by the CNTs which have higher carrier concentration. The carrier transport mechanism in the composites matches well with a parallel model, indicating the CP-SL and CNT interfaces play a minor role in carrier transport. The maximum ZT value of CP-SL/CNT is achieved by an in-situ growth method, which is about 35 times higher than that of the original CP-SL. These results indicate that 2D CP-SL is a new material with tunable thermoelectric properties and polarities, which may lay a foundation to realize p- and n-type properties in one material for single-material organic electronic devices development.

Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children worldwide, yet no vaccine or effective antiviral treatment is available. To search for new anti-RSV agents, we developed a cell-based assay that measures inhibition of RSV-induced cytopathic effect (CPE) and identified cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), an intracellular calcium ATPase inhibitor as a RSV inhibitor (EC50 values 4.13 μM) by screening of natural product library. CPA inhibited the replication of RSV strains belonging to both A and B subgroups and human parainfluenza virus type 3, but not Enterovirus 71. Mechanism of action study by time-of-addition assay and minigenome assay revealed that CPA acts at the step of virus genome replication and/or transcription. Moreover, two other calcium ATPase inhibitors (Thapsigargin and BHQ) and calcium ionophores (A23187 and ionomycin), but not calcium channel blockers (nifedipine, nimodipine, and tetrandrine), also had similar effect. These results indicate that an increase in intracellular calcium concentration is detrimental to RSV replication. Thus, our findings provide a new strategy for anti-RSV therapy via increasing intracellular calcium concentration.

In this paper, some necessary and sufficient conditions are established for the oscillation of fractional-order delay differential equations with constant coefficients in the form: x ′ ( t ) + pD - α x ( t ) + qx ( t - τ ) = 0 , 0 α 1 , where D - α x ( t ) denotes the Liouville fractional derivatives on half-axis R + , p , q and τ are real constants. And also some oscillation results for the fractional-order neutral delay differential equations with constant coefficients in the form: - D - α ( x ( t ) + rx ( t - δ ) ) + qx ( t - τ ) = 0 , 0 α 1 , where D - α x ( t ) denotes the Liouville fractional derivatives on half-axis R + , q , r , τ and δ are real constants. The results obtained here correct and improve some known results in Bolat (2014).

Background aims Despite the availability of multiple treatment strategies, patients with gastric carcinoma (GC) have a dismal prognosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of cellular immunotherapy (CIT) with the use of autologous natural killer cells, γδT cells and cytokine-induced killer cells in combination with chemotherapy in patients with GC. Methods In this open-label pilot cohort study, patients were treated with the combination therapy (chemo/CIT group) or chemotherapy alone (control group). Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), quality of life (QOL) and adverse events were investigated. Results Fifty-eight patients were analyzed, 30 in the chemo/CIT group and 28 in the control group. The median PFS of the chemo/CIT group was significantly longer compared with the control group ( P = 0.021). In subgroup analysis, in patients with stage III GC, node-positive metastasis or poorly differentiated carcinoma, the 2-year PFS rate in chemo/CIT versus control groups was 62.5% versus 26.7% ( P = 0.022), 50% versus 27.3% ( P = 0.016) and 56.3% versus 28.6% ( P = 0.005), respectively. The median OS in either group has not yet been reached, and there was no significant difference in OS between the groups. The QOL was improved in the patients treated with chemo/CIT compared with the control group. CIT was well tolerated and not related to any significant adverse events. Conclusions A combination of CIT and chemotherapy for patients with GC was safe, improved QOL, and might prevent recurrence, especially in GC patients with advanced stage, poorly differentiated carcinoma or lymph node metastasis.

Two π -conjugated bridge derivatives based on Diketo-Pyrrolo-Pyrrole were selected to investigate the relation between the structure and nonlinear optical response. These two DPP-based conjugated derivatives exhibit intense two-photon fluorescence emission. At a special wavelength of 800 nm, which is the most commonly used wavelength in applications of two-photon absorption/fluorescence materials, the two-photon absorption cross-section of DPP-J0 and DPP-J1 in THF solutions, were determined to be 6 GM and 8 GM, respectively. Degenerated pump-probe technique at wavelength of 800 nm and 400 nm, were performed to investigate the ultrafast relaxation processes of these DPP-based conjugated cores. The intramolecular charge transfer state was determined to be formed in time domain approximately sub-ps, while the evolution lifetimes of the intramolecular charge transfer state are longer than one hundred picoseconds. Our results indicate that DPP-based groups are good candidates of π -conjugated bridges for selecting π -conjugated bridge when design/optimize new two-photon absorption molecules. Besides, alkyl chains also play important effect on the two-photon absorption response.

An adaptive and hierarchical task scheduling scheme (AHS) is proposed.Work-sharing is used in conjunction with work-stealing.An initial partitioning is performed with respect to the pattern of task parallelism.A practical implementation of AHS is described.The theoretical, simulation and experimental studies of AHS are presented. Work-stealing and work-sharing are two basic paradigms for dynamic task scheduling. This paper introduces an adaptive and hierarchical task scheduling scheme (AHS) for multi-core clusters, in which work-stealing and work-sharing are adaptively used to achieve load balancing.Work-stealing has been widely used in task-based parallel programing languages and models, especially on shared memory systems. However, high inter-node communication costs hinder work-stealing from being directly performed on distributed memory systems. AHS addresses this issue with the following techniques: (1) initial partitioning, which reduces the inter-node task migrations; (2) hierarchical scheduling scheme, which performs work-stealing inside a node before going across the node boundary and adopts work-sharing to overlap computation and communication at the inter-node level; and (3) hierarchical and centralized control for inter-node task migration, which improves the efficiency of victim selection and termination detection.We evaluated AHS and existing work-stealing schemes on a 16-nodes multi-core cluster. Experimental results show that AHS outperforms existing schemes by 11-21.4%, for the benchmarks studied in this paper.

Y and X-shaped oligomers based on similar A-π-D (A is shorter form for electron acceptor and D is shorter form for electron donor) subunit, were systematically investigated by open-aperture Z-scan and ultrafast pump-probe measurements to elucidate the TPA response as well as intramolecular charge transfer properties of the excited state. Significant reduction (0.37-folds) of the two-photon absorption property was observed in X-shaped oligomer F4 (81GM), which have one more branches compared with Y-shaped oligomer T3 (219GM). The TPA results indicated that there is obvious central core effect. The optical limiting property was also discussed. The ultrafast response results indicated the intramolecular charge transfer property in these multi-branched oligomers.

Objective Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid malignancy in children. Metastatic involvement of brain is rare in NB. This study was established to evaluate the clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis of NB patients with brain metastases. Patients and methods From September 2005 to December 2016, the clinical data of 15 cases with brain metastases among 264 NB patients admitted to Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University were collected and retrospectively analysed. The clinical features of the 15 patients were summarised, and the patients were grouped according to different treatment methods and followed up for a median time of 41 months. The survival curves were plotted, and the Log-rank test was performed to compare the effect of different treatment methods on the prognosis. Results The proportion of brain metastases in NB patients in our hospital is 5.68% (15/264). For the prognosis of 15 NB cases, the survival time of combined radiotherapy and/or autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation group was longer than that of simple operation and chemotherapy group (61.79 ± 9.59 vs. 30.00 ± 5.99 months, P = 0.03). Among the 15 patients, 4 cases underwent intracranial tumor resection, 4 cases received craniospinal irradiation, and the rest received maintenance chemotherapy. The 2-year survival rate was 82.2%, and the 5-year survival rate was 19.9%. The survival time of combined intracranial surgery and/or radiotherapy group was significantly longer than that of the chemotherapy group (46.67 ± 6.69 vs. 16.42 ± 1.42 months, P = 0.003). Conclusions The incidence of brain metastases NB in children is relatively small, but the prognosis is very poor. Active chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery-based comprehensive treatment can prolong the survival time.

The solitary parasitoid Microplitis tuberculifer (Wesmael) is an important biological control agent of various lepidopteran pests in Asia. We examined the preference of M. tuberculifer for different instars of its common host, Mythimna separata (Walker), host instar effects on parasitoid development, and the consequences of parasitism in different stages for growth and consumption of host larvae. The wasp successfully parasitized the first four larval instars of M. separata, but not the fifth, which appeared to be behaviorally resistant. First and second instars were parasitized at higher rates compared to thirds and fourths in no-choice situations, ostensibly due to longer handling times for the latter, but second instars were most preferred in a choice test that presented all stages simultaneously. Although later instar hosts yielded heavier cocoons, the fastest parasitoid development was obtained in second instars. Lower sex ratios were obtained from first instars as females appeared to lay a smaller proportion of fertilized eggs in small hosts. Both weight gain and food consumption of parasitized larvae were reduced significantly within 24 h of parasitism, regardless of the stage parasitized, and final body weights were less than 10% those of unparasitized larvae. Thus, M. tuberculifer has good potential as a biological control agent of M. separata, successfully parasitizing the first four larval instars and dramatically reducing plant consumption by the host in all cases.

Sm 3+ doped KLa(MoO 4 ) 2 phosphors were synthesized via a high-temperature solid-state reaction. The crystal structure of the phosphors was examined with XRD and a pure phase was confirmed. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra display dependence on both excitation wavelength and Sm 3+ doping concentration. The concentration quenching behavior was studied and the possible relaxation channel for self-quenching of luminescence centers was discussed. The electric dipole–dipole interaction is confirmed to be the dominant mechanism for energy transfer between Sm 3+ ions on the basis of both Van Uitert’s and Dexter’s models. The chromatic characteristics are also found to be dependent on both excitation wavelength and Sm 3+ doping concentration.

Kidney injury molecule-1 (Kim-1) has been qualified by the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency as a highly sensitive and specific urinary biomarker to monitor drug-induced kidney injury in preclinical studies and on a case-by-case basis in clinical trials. Here we report the development and evaluation of a rapid direct immunochromatographic lateral flow 15-min assay for detection of urinary Kim-1 (rat) or KIM-1 (human). The urinary Kim-1 band intensity using the rat Kim-1 dipstick significantly correlated with levels of Kim-1 as measured by a microbead-based assay, histopathological damage, and immunohistochemical assessment of renal Kim-1 in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Kim-1 was detected following kidney injury induced in rats by cadmium, gentamicin, or bilateral renal ischemia/reperfusion. In humans, the urinary KIM-1 band intensity was significantly greater in urine from patients with acute kidney injury than in urine from healthy volunteers. The KIM-1 dipstick also enabled temporal evaluation of kidney injury and recovery in two patients who developed postoperative acute kidney injury following cytoreductive surgery for malignant mesothelioma with intraoperative local cisplatin administration. We hope that future, more extensive studies will confirm the utility of these results, which show that the Kim-1/KIM-1 dipsticks can provide a sensitive and accurate detection of Kim-1/KIM-1, thereby providing a rapid diagnostic assay for kidney damage and facilitating the rapid and early detection of kidney injury in preclinical and clinical studies.

Objective To examine the relationship between mortality and major ocular diseases. Design Population-based study. Participants At baseline in 2001, the Beijing Eye Study examined 4439 subjects with an age of 40 years or more. The mean age was 56.2±10.6 years (range, 40–101 years). In 2006, all study participants were invited for a follow-up examination. Methods The participants underwent a detailed ophthalmic examination and answered questions regarding their socioeconomic background. Rate of mortality was determined in the follow-up survey of 2006. Main Outcome Measures Factors associated with mortality. Results Of the 4439 subjects examined in the 2001, 3251 (73.2%) subjects returned for the follow-up examination, whereas 143 (3.2%) subjects had died and 1045 (23.5%) subjects were alive but did not agree to be reexamined. In binary logistic regression analysis, mortality was significantly associated with the systemic parameters of higher age ( P P = 0.01; OR, 0.55), lower level of education ( P P = 0.023; OR, 1.25), and with the ocular parameters of level of diabetic-like retinopathy ( P = 0.036; OR, 1.02), presence of angle-closure glaucoma ( P = 0.013; OR, 3.74), and presence of nonglaucomatous optic nerve damage ( P = 0.027; OR, 3.41). Presence of retinal vein occlusions was associated marginally with mortality ( P = 0.059; OR, 2.59). Mortality was not significantly associated with best-corrected visual acuity ( P = 0.14) in multivariate analysis, nor with age-related macular degeneration, open-angle glaucoma, trachoma, any type of cataract, visual field defects, intraocular pressure, or refractive error. Conclusions If socioeconomic parameters, age, gender, and smoking status were taken into account, ocular parameters associated with an increased mortality were diabetic-like retinopathy, angle-closure glaucoma, and nonglaucomatous optic nerve damage. Retinal vein occlusions were marginally associated. Other major ocular disorders such as any form of cataract, open-angle glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, trachoma, pterygia, and high myopia or high hyperopia were not significantly related to mortality. Financial Disclosure(s) The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.

Layered image transmission is successfully adopted for different system applications. Generally, in this technique, image is divided into number of layers for easy and fast transmission keeping the concept of multi-description representation. This configuration helps to make overall system adaptive with respect to different system's bandwidth. Proposed data compression layered scheme's architecture not only works with JPEG but also with MPEG image formats. It includes all necessary steps and precautions to handle possible disturbances in image compression by analyzing different parameters affecting image quality and transmission time. In this paper, behavioral model of complete image compression scheme is discussed starting from image extraction from source, layering of image matrix, generating separate pixel layers for concurrent compression followed by efficient coder operation. This paper also addresses different parameters, which improve image quality with different constraints and limitations encountered during design verification. This proposed scheme is comprised of pre-coder, efficient transformation scheme followed by adaptive Huffman encoding/decoding in conjunction with quantization of image matrix which makes overall compression system lossy in nature. Due to flexibility of operation, this scheme can be applicable in different applications like Robot vision and real time video compression, etc. The results obtained after mathematical analysis and simulation are found useful to prove efficiency of layered compression scheme.