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The user data from different types of network platforms are often presented in different modalities, such as text, image, or audio. Many researches have shown that fusing the data information displayed by users on different platforms can better reflect the interest characteristics of users. Hence, this paper proposes a cross-platform image recommendation model (FITIFCIR), which fuses text and image information to achieve cross-platform data recommendation. Furthermore, it realizes the semantic information fusion of text and image, so as to recommend the images collected by users on the image sharing platform to the text to be published. Compared with baseline image recommendation models, the experimental results indicate that the FITIFCIR outperforms baseline models. The proposed model is effective to recommend appropriate images for users to better illustrate their ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common type of liver disease in developed countries. Oxidative stress plays a critical role in the progression of NAFLD. Modern pharmacological study and clinical trials have demonstrated the remarkable antioxidant activity of Gynostemma pentaphyllum (GP) in chronic liver disease. One aim of this study was to explore the potential protective effects and mechanisms of action of GP extract on NAFLD. The in vivo results showed that GP extract could alleviate fatty degeneration and haptic fibrosis in NAFLD mice. For exploring the hepatoprotective mechanisms of GP, we used network pharmacology to predict the potential active components of GP and their intracellular targets in NAFLD. Based on the network pharmacology results, we further utilized biomedical assays to validate this in silico prediction. The results showed that Gypenoside XL could upregulate the protein level of PPARα in NAFLD; the transcription level of several PPARα downstream target genes such as acyl-CoA oxidase (ACO) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1) also increased after Gypenoside XL treatment. The overexpression of ACO and CPT-1 may involve the hepatoprotective effects of GP and Gypenoside XL on NAFLD by regulating mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of web applications such as social network, a large amount of electric text data is accumulated and available on the Internet, which causes increasing interests in text mining. Text classification is one of the most important subfields of text mining. In fact, text documents are often represented as a high-dimensional sparse document term matrix (DTM) before classification. Feature selection is essential and vital for text classification due to high dimensionality and sparsity of DTM. An efficient feature selection method is capable of both reducing dimensions of DTM and selecting discriminative features for text classification. Laplacian Score (LS) is one of the unsupervised feature selection methods and it has been successfully used in areas such as face recognition. However, LS is unable to select discriminative features for text classification and to effectively reduce the sparsity of DTM. To improve it, this paper proposes an unsupervised feature selection method named Distance Variance Score (DVS). DVS uses feature distance contribution (a ratio) to rank the importance of features for text documents so as to select discriminative features. Experimental results indicate that DVS is able to select discriminative features and reduce the sparsity of DTM. Thus, it is much more efficient than LS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diamond-based antireflective (AR) coatings were fabricated using a spin coating of diamond suspension at room temperature as nucleation enhancement procedure and microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. Various working pressures were used to investigate their effect on the optical characterization of the as-deposited diamond films. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic forced microscopy (AFM) were employed to analyze the surface properties of the diamond films. Raman spectra and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) also were used for analysis of the microstructure of the films. The results showed that working pressure had a significant effect on thickness, surface roughness, and wettability of the as-deposited diamond films. Deposited under 35 Torr or working pressure, the film possessed alow surface roughness of 13.8 nm and fine diamond grain sizes of 35 nm. Reflectance measurements of the films also were carried out using UV-Vis spectrometer and revealed a low reflectance value of the diamond films. The achievement demonstrated feasibility of the proposed spin-coating procedure for large scale production and thus opens up a prospect application of diamond film as an AR coating in industrial optoelectronic device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of foundation or subgrade settlement is very important during engineering construction. According to the fact that there are lots of settlement-time sequences with a nonhomogeneous index trend, a novel grey forecasting model called NGM (1, 1, k, c) model is proposed in this paper. With an optimized whitenization differential equation, the proposed NGM (1, 1, k, c) model has the property of white exponential law coincidence and can predict a pure nonhomogeneous index sequence precisely. We used two case studies to verify the predictive effect of NGM (1, 1, k, c) model for settlement prediction. The results show that this model can achieve excellent prediction accuracy; thus, the model is quite suitable for simulation and prediction of approximate nonhomogeneous index sequence and has excellent application value in settlement prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research discusses the influence of morphology of nanomagnetic materials (one-dimensional iron nanowires and zero-dimensional iron nanoparticles) on heating efficiency of the hyperthermia treatment. One-dimensional iron nanowires, synthesized by reducing method in external magnetic field, are explored in terms of their material properties, magnetic anisotropy, and cytotoxicity of EMT-6 cells. The magnetic anisotropy of an array of nanowires is examined in parallel and perpendicular magnetic fields by VSM. For the magnetic hyperthermia treatment tests, iron nanowires and nanoparticles with different concentrations are heated in alternating magnetic field to measure their actual heating efficiency and SLP heating properties. The shape effects of iron nanomaterials can be revealed from their heating properties. The cytotoxicity of nanowires with different concentrations is measured by its survival rate in EMT-6 with the cells cultivated for 6 and 24 hours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study intends to deposit high transmittance diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films on D263T glass substrate at room temperature via a diamond powder target using the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. Moreover, various process parameters were used to tune the properties of the thin films by using the Taguchi method. Experimental results show that the content of sp³ bonded carbon decreases in accordance with the effect of the substrate temperature. In addition, the hardness of all as-deposited single-layer DLC films ranges from 13.2 to 22.5 GPa, and the RMS surface roughness was improved significantly with the decrease in sputtering pressure. The water repellent of the deposited DLC films improved significantly with the increase of the sp³ content, and its contact angle was larger than that of the noncoated one by 1.45 times. Furthermore, the refraction index (n) of all as-deposited DLC films ranges from 1.95 to 2.1 at λ = 600 nm. These results demonstrate that the thickness increased as the reflectance increased. DLC film under an RF power of 150Wpossesses high transmissive ability (>81%) and low average reflectance ability (<9.5%) in the visible wavelengths (at λ = 400.700 nm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease, which is associated with extracellular deposition of amyloid-β proteins (Aβ). It has been reported that triptolide (TP), an immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory agent extracted from a Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii, shows potential neuroprotective effects pertinent to AD. However, the clinical use of TP for AD could be hampered due to its high toxicity, instability, poor water solubility, and nonspecific biodistribution after administration. In this paper, we reported a kind of multiple-coated PLGA nanoparticle with the entrapment of TP and surface coated by chitosan hydrochloride, Tween-80, PEG20000, and borneol/mentholum eutectic mixture (MC-PLGA-TP-NP) as a novel nasal brain targeting preparation for the first time. The obtained MC-PLGA-TP-NP was 147.5 ± 20.7 nm with PDI of 0.263 ± 0.075 , zeta potential of 14.62 ± 2.47 mV, and the entrapment efficiency and loading efficiency of 93.14 % ± 4.75 % and 1.17 ± 0.08 % , respectively. In comparison of TP, MC-PLGA-TP-NP showed sustained-release profile and better transcellular permeability to Caco-2 cells in vitro. In addition, our data showed that MC-PLGA-TP-NP remarkably reduced the cytotoxicity, attenuated the oxidative stress, and inhibited the increase of the intracellular Ca2+ influx in differentiated PC12 cells induced by Aβ1-42. Therefore, it can be concluded that MC-PLGA-TP-NP is a promising preparation of TP, which exerts a better neuroprotective activity in the AD cellular model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of Pd electrocatalysts for formic acid electrooxidation was improved by application of metal oxide-multiwall carbon nanotubes composites as a catalyst support. Hybrid oxides/MWCNTs were synthesized by two different methods: chemical reduction method and impregnation method. Pd based catalysts were synthesized by polyol method on the MWCNTs or oxide/MWCNTs composites. The In2O3 was deposited on MWCNTs by impregnation method (In2O3/MWCNTs-IM support) and in the presence of NaBH4 (In2O3/MWCNTs-NaBH4 support). The physical properties of the Pd/In2O3/MWCNTs-IM, Pd/In2O3/MWCNTs-NaBH4, Pd/SnO2/MWCNTs, and Pd/MWCNTs catalysts were characterized and their electrocatalytical performance in formic acid oxidation was compared. During Pd deposition on In2O3/MWCNTs-NaBH4 support, InPd2 structure was formed as observed by XRD. The electrochemical tests indicate that the two Pd/ In2O3/MWCNTs electrocatalysts have higher electrocatalytic activity than those of Pd/SnO2/MWCNTs and Pd/MWCNTs. The best performance was observed for the catalyst obtained by In2O3 impregnation of MWCNTs denoted by Pd/In2O3/MWCNTs-IM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 60‐day feeding trial was conducted to estimate the effects of dietary iron (Fe) levels on growth, Fe concentration in the liver, spleen, and blood, and transferrin and hepcidin concentrations in the blood of bighead carp (Aristichthys nobilis). The six experimental diets were formulated to contain different Fe levels (0, 43.1, 84.2, 123.3, 162.2 and 203.1 mg/kg of dry diet) using ferrous sulphate (FeSO4) as the source. The weight gain (WG) and the specific growth ratio (SGR) of A. nobilis fed with a dietary Fe level of 123.3 mg/kg were significantly higher than that of the 0 mg/kg Fe group (p <.05). The results indicated that the growth was affected by dietary Fe levels. Regression analysis of WG and SGR at different levels of dietary Fe suggests that the appropriate dietary requirement of Fe for the bighead carp larvae is 120–134.36 mg/kg. The Fe contents in different tissues were as follows: spleen > liver > whole body. When the Fe dietary content increases to 162.2 mg/kg, the blood concentrations of Fe significantly decreased and thereafter increased, hepcidin significantly decreased and thereafter decreased, and transferrin significantly increased and thereafter decreased. The results indicate that the transferrin blood content significantly increased with decreasing hepcidin of up to 264.63 μg/ml content and thereafter decreased. It could be concluded that after transferrin saturation, hepcidin functions to maintain iron balance in the blood of A. nobilis by decreasing transferrin content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) has opened up new perspectives for the delineation of crossing and branching fiber pathways by orientation distribution function (ODF). The fiber orientations contained in an imaging voxel are the key factor in tractography. To extract real fiber orientations from ODF, a hybrid method is proposed for computing the principal directions of ODF by combining the variation of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm with the modified Powell algorithm. This method is comprised of the global searching ability of PSO and the powerful local optimizing of Powell search. This combination can guarantee finding all the diffusion directions without applying sliding windows and improve the accuracy and efficiency. The proposed approach was evaluated on simulated crossing-fiber datasets, Tractometer, and in vivo datasets. The results show that this method could correctly identify fiber directions under a range of noise levels. This method was compared with the state-of-the-art methods, such as modified Powell, ball-stick model, and diffusion decomposition, showing that it outperformed them. As to the multimodal voxels where different fiber populations exist, the proposed approach allows us to improve the estimation accuracy of fiber orientations from ODF. It can play a significant role in the nerve fiber tracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of particular interest to use biomass as an alternative source of fuel in direct-reduction ironmaking to ease the current reliance on fossil fuel energy. The influence of cow dung addition on the strength of carbon-bearing iron ore pellets composed of cow dung, iron ore, anthracite, and bentonite was investigated, the quality of green and dry pellet was evaluated based on FTIR analysis, and the mechanism of strength variation of the reduced pellets was investigated by analysing the phase composition and microstructure using XRD and SEM. The results show that cow dung addition decreased the green pellet strength due to expansion of the amorphous region of the cellulose in the cow dung; however, the dry pellet strength increased substantially. In the process of reduction roasting, it was found that cow dung addition can promote aggregation of iron crystals and increase the density of the pellets, resulting in increased strength of the reduction roasted pellets, while excessive cow dung addition resulted in lower strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. To examine the effect of berberine (BBR) on liver fibrosis and its possible mechanisms through direct effects on hepatic stellate cells (HSC). Methods. The antifibrotic effect of BBR was determined in a rat model of bile duct ligation- (BDL-) induced liver fibrosis. Multiple cellular and molecular approaches were introduced to examine the effects of BBR on HSC. Results. BBR potently inhibited hepatic fibrosis induced by BDL in rats. It exhibited cytotoxicity to activated HSC at doses nontoxic to hepatocytes. High doses of BBR induced apoptosis of activated HSC, which was mediated by loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and Bcl-2/Bax imbalance. Low doses of BBR suppressed activation of HSC as evidenced by the inhibition of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression and cell motility. BBR did not affect Smad2/3 phosphorylation but significantly activated 5′ AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signalling, which was responsible for the transcriptional inhibition by BBR of profibrogenic factors α-SMA and collagen in HSC. Conclusion. BBR is a promising agent for treating liver fibrosis through multiple mechanisms, at least partially by directly targeting HSC and by inhibiting the AMPK pathway. Its value as an antifibrotic drug in patients with liver disease deserves further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bear bile has been a well-known Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Because of the endangered species protection, the concept on substitutes for bear bile was proposed decades ago. Based on their chemical composition and pharmacologic actions, artificial bear bile, bile from other animals, synthetic compounds, and medicinal plants may be the promising candidates to replace bear bile for the similar therapeutic purpose. Accumulating research evidence has indicated that these potential substitutes for bear bile have displayed the same therapeutic effects as bear bile. However, stopping the use of bear bile is a challenging task. In this review, we extensively searched PubMed and CNKI for literatures, focusing on comparative studies between bear bile and its substitutes for the treatment of liver diseases. Recent research progress in potential substitutes for bear bile in the last decade is summarized, and a strategy for the use of substitutes for bear bile is discussed carefully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liver disease results from a dynamic pathological process associated with cellular and genetic alterations, which may progress stepwise to liver dysfunction. Commonly, liver disease begins with hepatocyte injury, followed by persistent episodes of cellular regeneration, inflammation, and hepatocyte death that may ultimately lead to nonreversible liver failure. For centuries, herbal remedies have been used for a variety of liver diseases and recent studies have identified the active compounds that may interact with liver disease-associated targets. Further study on the herbal remedies may lead to the formulation of next generation medicines with hepatoprotective, antifibrotic, and anticancer properties. Still, the pharmacological actions of vast majority of herbal remedies remain unknown; thus, extensive preclinical studies are important. In this review, we summarize progress made over the last five years of the most commonly used preclinical models of liver diseases that are used to screen for curative herbal medicines for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, liver fibrosis/cirrhosis, and liver. We also summarize the proposed mechanisms associated with the observed liver-protective, antifibrotic, and anticancer actions of several promising herbal medicines and discuss the challenges faced in this research field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Safflower Yellow Injection has been reported as a treatment for acute cerebral infarction in recent studies in China. However, there is a lack of availability of the evidence for the efficacy and safety of Safflower Yellow Injection for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. So we investigated the effects of Safflower Yellow Injection for the treatment of acute cerebral infarction. Method. All subjects were randomly divided into Safflower Yellow Injection group given Safflower Yellow Injection (80 mg) and control group given placebo (0 mg) injection by intravenous drop once daily for 14 days. National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS); hemorheological detection; coagulation function; and serum inflammatory markers, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), were used to investigate the effects before and 14 days after the treatment. Results. The scores of NIHSS were decreased on day 7 and day 14 after treatment. The hemorheological index of RBC deformation and RBC aggregation were significantly improved, prothrombin time (PT) increased, and fibrinogen (FIB) and TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were decreased in patients treated with Safflower Yellow injection on day 14 after treatment (P<0.05). Conclusion. Data suggests that Safflower Yellow Injection therapy may be beneficial for acute cerebral infarction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To investigate the possible mechanisms of oxymatrine’s role in anti laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Methods. We examined the effects of oxymatrine on the proliferation, cell cycle phase distribution, apoptosis, and the protein and mRNA expression levels of HPV16E7 gene in laryngeal carcinoma Hep-2 cells in vitro. The HPV16E7 siRNA inhibition was also done to confirm the effect of downregulating HPV16E7 on the proliferation in Hep-2 cells. Results. Oxymatrine significantly inhibited the growth and proliferation of Hep-2 cells in a dose-dependence and time-dependence manner. Oxymatrine blocked Hep-2 cells in G0/G1 phase, resulting in an obvious accumulation of G0/G1 phase cells while decreasing S phase cells. Oxymatrine induced apoptosis of Hep-2 cells, whose apoptotic rate amounted to about 42% after treatment with 7 mg/mL oxymatrine for 72 h. Oxymatrine also downregulated the expression of HPV16E7 gene, as determined by the western blotting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis. Knockdown of HPV16E7 effectively inhibited the proliferation of Hep-2 cells. Conclusions. Oxymatrine inhibits the proliferation and induces apoptosis of laryngeal carcinoma Hep-2 cells, which might be mediated by a significant cell cycle arrest in G0/G1 phase and downregulation of HPV16E7 gene. Oxymatrine is considered to be a likely preventive and curative candidate for laryngeal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Safflower Yellow Injection has been reported as a treatment for acute cerebral infarction in recent studies in China. However, there is a lack of availability of the evidence for the efficacy and safety of Safflower Yellow Injection for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke. So we investigated the effects of Safflower Yellow Injection for the treatment of acute cerebral infarction. Method. All subjects were randomly divided into Safflower Yellow Injection group given Safflower Yellow Injection (80 mg) and control group given placebo (0 mg) injection by intravenous drop once daily for 14 days. National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS); hemorheological detection; coagulation function; and serum inflammatory markers, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α)> interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and interleukin-6 (IL-6), were used to investigate the effects before and 14 days after the treatment. Results. The scores of NIHSS were decreased on day 7 and day 14 after treatment. The hemorheological index of RBC deformation and RBC aggregation were significantly improved, prothrombin time (PT) increased, and fibrinogen (FIB) and TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were decreased in patients treated with Safflower Yellow injection on day 14 after treatment (P < 0.05). Conclusion. Data suggests that Safflower Yellow Injection therapy may be beneficial for acute cerebral infarction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The seedings of the substrate with a suspension of nanodiamond particles (NDPs) were widely used as nucleation seeds to enhance the growth of nanostructured diamond films. The formation of agglomerates in the suspension of NDPs, however, may have adverse impact on the initial growth period. Therefore, this paper was aimed at the surface modification of the NDPs to enhance the diamond nucleation for the growth of nanocrystalline diamond films which could be used in photovoltaic applications. Hydrogen plasma, thermal, and surfactant treatment techniques were employed to improve the dispersion characteristics of detonation nanodiamond particles in aqueous media. The seeding of silicon substrate was then carried out with an optimized spin-coating method. The results of both Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering measurements demonstrated that plasma treated diamond nanoparticles possessed polar surface functional groups and attained high dispersion in methanol. The nanocrystalline diamond films deposited by microwave plasma jet chemical vapour deposition exhibited extremely fine grain and high smooth surfaces (~6.4 nm rms) on the whole film. These results indeed open up a prospect of nanocrystalline diamond films in solar cell applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]