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High-temperature pipelines conveying plant-based edible oils are covered with a thermal insulation material; however, if a pipe leaks, that insulation material and oil produce oxidation reactions that release thermal energy. We examined the combination of linseed oil and rock wool, a porous insulation material commonly used in the oil processing industry by using a simultaneous thermogravimetric analyzer to measure the thermogravimetric loss trend and heat release modes, while adding porous materials under non-isothermal conditions. The Friedman, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO), Kissinger, and ASTM E698 standard thermokinetic models were used to evaluate the apparent activation energy (Ea) as a basis for determining the thermal sensitivity of incompatible materials in combination with insulation materials. The study results demonstrate the conditions under which linseed oil and porous materials would lead to thermal runaway. The Friedman and FWO models showed that the conversion degree increased from 0.2 to 0.8, and the mean Ea decreased from 71.33 and 73.97 to 33.08 and 55.02 kJ mol–1, respectively. The Kissinger and ASTM E698 methods decreased from 56.75 and 65.83 to 55.95 and 58.06 kJ mol–1 after rock wool was added. Through the four thermokinetic models, the Ea of linseed oil with the addition of rock wool was discovered to be lower than that of pure linseed oil. The study results demonstrated the conditions under which linseed oil and porous materials would lead to thermal runaway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, ternary and quaternary micro-alloyed copper (MAC) wires were formed by adding trace amounts of gold, palladium, and platinum to copper wires and introducing copper substrates to eliminate the influence of intermetallic compounds on the bonding surface. The reliability of the copper wires and copper substrates after wire bonding were investigated. The results show that the addition of platinum had no grain refinement effect, and the resistance was significantly increased compared to the addition of gold and palladium. However, the platinum-added MAC wire exhibited the best electrical fatigue life whether as a pure wire or bonding with the substrate. After bonding of the MAC wires with the copper substrates, they still retained certain mechanical properties and showed extremely good electrical fatigue characteristics. Overall, the Cu321 wire, with the addition of 0.3 wt.% platinum, 0.2 wt.% gold, and 0.1 wt.% palladium, bonding with copper substrate exhibited the best reliability and can be applied in packaging industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the performance and reliability of the single-energy metal artifact reduction (SEMAR) algorithm in patients with different orthopedic hardware at the hips. Materials and methods: A total of 153 patients with hip instrumentation who had undergone CT with adaptive iterative dose reduction (AIDR) 3D and SEMAR algorithms between February 2015 and October 2019 were included retrospectively. Patients were divided into 5 groups by the hardware type. Two readers with 21 and 13 years of experience blindly reviewed all image sets and graded the extent of artifacts and imaging quality using 5-point scales. To evaluate reliability, the mean densities and image noises were measured at the urinary bladder, veins, and fat in images with artifacts and the reference images. Results: No significant differences were found in the mean densities of the urinary bladder, veins, and fat between the SEMAR images with artifacts (7.57 ± 9.49, 40.29 ± 23.07, 86.78 ± 38.34) and the reference images (7.77 ± 6.2, 40.27 ± 8.66, 89.10 ± 20.70) (P =.860,.994,.392). Image noises of the urinary bladder in the SEMAR images with artifacts (14.25 ± 4.50) and the SEMAR reference images (9.69 ± 1.29) were significantly higher than those in the AIDR 3D reference images (9.11 ± 1.12) (P <.001; P <.001). All AIDR 3D images were non-diagnostic (overall quality ≤ 3) and less than a quarter of the SEMAR images were non-diagnostic (16.7–23.7%), mainly in patients with prostheses [reader 1: 91.7% (22/24); reader 2: 92.6% (25/27)]. Conclusion: The SEMAR algorithm significantly reduces metal artifacts in CT images, more in patients with internal fixations than in patients with prostheses, and provides reliable attenuation of soft tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effect of M3P (containing Deer antler, Cordyceps sinensis, Rhodiola rosea, and Panax ginseng); an herbal remedy with the function of tonifying Kidney (Shen) and invigorating Spleen (Pi), replenishing qi and nourishing blood; on fatigue alleviation, endurance capacity and toxicity. Methods: Swimming with weight-loading of 24 male ICR mice was used to evaluate the endurance capacity, and fatigue-related plasma biomarkers were determined. Mice were randomly assigned to control or M3P treatment groups with 6 mice for each group and were orally administered with M3P everyday for 8 weeks at doses 0, 10, 33 or 100 mg/kg. Swimming time to exhaustion was measured in a specialized water tank. Lliver and kidney functions, body weight, and hematological profile were determined to evaluate the safety and toxicity after long-term M3P administration. Results: M3P supplementation 100 mg/kg significantly increased swimming endurance time up to approximate 2.4 folds of controls (P<0.05). The plasma concentrations of cortisol and hepatic glycogen content were significantly increased in mice received M3P (P<0.05, P<0.01 respectively). The lactic acid level and blood glucose were not changed after M3P treatment (P>0.05). The liver and kidney functions muscle damage biomarker creatine, body weight, and hemograms were not altered in M3P supplementation (P>0.05). Conclusion: M3P supplementation may improve swimming endurance accompanied by increasing hepatic glycogen content and serum cortisol level without major toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inverse reinforcement learning features a reward function based on reward features and positive demonstrations. When complex learning tasks are performed, the entire state space is used to form the set of reward features, but this large set results in a long computational time. Retrieving important states from the full state space addresses this problem. This study formulated a method that extracts critical features by combining negative and positive demonstrations of searching for critical states from the entire state space to increase learning efficiency. In this method, two types of demonstrations are used: positive demonstrations, which are given by experts and agents imitate, and negative demonstrations, which demonstrate incorrect motions to be avoided by agents. All significant features are extracted by identifying the critical states over the entire state space. This is achieved by comparing the difference between the negative and positive demonstrations. When these critical states are identified, they form the set of reward features, and a reward function is derived that enables agents to learn a policy using reinforcement learning quickly. A speeding car simulation was used to verify the proposed method. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach allows an agent to search for a positive strategy and that the agent then displays intelligent expert-like behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Radiation-induced bowel damage may compromise nutrient absorption and digestion and affect body composition during pelvic radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between bowel radiation dose-volume and body composition changes during pelvic radiotherapy. Methods: Data of 301 LACC patients treated with chemoradiotherapy were analyzed. Changes in skeletal muscle index (SMI) and density (SMD), and total adipose tissue index (TATI) were measured from computed tomography images at the L3 vertebral level. A reduction in SMI, SMD, or TATI of ≥10% was classified as "loss." Bowel V45 indicates the bowel volume (mL) receiving a radiation dose of ≥45 Gy. The relationship between body composition and bowel V45 was analyzed using logistic regression models. Results: After treatment, 61 (20.3%), 81 (26.9%), and 97 (32.2%) patients experienced SMI, SMD, and TATI loss, respectively. Increased bowel V45 was independently associated with increased odds of SMI loss (odds ratio [OR]: 1.012; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.007–1.018; p<0.001) and TATI loss (OR: 1.006; 95% CI: 1.001–1.010; p=0.01), but not with SMD loss (OR: 1.005; 95% CI: 1.000–1.009; p=0.054). The cut-off value with the highest accuracy for predicting SMI loss was V45 ≥222 mL; a higher rate of SMI loss was noted in 40.0% of patients with V45 ≥222 mL than in 13.7% of patients with V45 <222 mL (p<0.001). Conclusions: Higher bowel dose-volume was significantly associated with muscle loss during pelvic radiotherapy. Bowel dose-volume consideration is required in individualized nutritional counseling and supportive care in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effect and mechanism of radiotherapy (RT)–sorafenib pharmacokinetics (PK) in different regimens with conventional or high dose irradiation. Between February 2012 and December 2018, 43 patients with portal vein tumor thrombosis treated with sorafenib plus conventional RT (58%) or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT, 42%) were retrospectively reviewed. In vivo and in vitro studies of concurrent and sequential RT with sorafenib were designed. SBRT resulted in a 3-fold increase in complete recanalization compared to conventional RT group (28% vs. 8%, p = 0.014). Compared to the control group, the area under the concentration vs. time curve (AUC) of sorafenib was increased in the concurrent RT2Gy and RT9Gy groups and the sequential RT9Gy group by 132% (p = 0.046), 163% (p = 0.038) and 102% (p = 0.018), respectively; and was decreased by 59% in the sequential RT2Gy group (p = 0.036). Sequential RT2Gy and RT9Gy increased CYP3A4 activity by 82% (p = 0.028) and 203% (p = 0.0004), respectively, compared to that with the corresponding concurrent regimen. SBRT produced better recanalization than conventional RT with sorafenib. The AUC of sorafenib was modulated by RT. P-gp expression was not influenced by RT. The sequential RT regimen increased CYP3A4 activity that may increase the RT-sorafenib synergy effect and overall sorafenib activity. The biodistribution of sorafenib was modulated by local RT with the different regimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determining the authorship of a painting image is a challenging task because paintings of an artist may not have a unique style and various artists may have similar painting styles. In this paper, we present a new approach to categorize digital painting images based on artist. We construct a multi-scale pyramid from a painting image to consider both globally and locally the information contained in one image. For each layer, we train a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model to determine the class label. To build the relationship within local image patches, we employ Markov random fields (MRFs) by optimizing the Gibbs energy function defined by (1) the data term measuring the compatibility of labeling with given data, and (2) the smoothness term penalizing assignments that label neighboring patches differently. A new fusion scheme is proposed to aggregate patch-level classification results. The proposed CNN-MRF method is validated using two challenging painting image datasets. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and achieves state-of-the-art performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel, low cost, and portable 360-degree cylindrical interactive autostereoscopic 3D display system. The proposed system consists of three parts: the optical architecture (for back-projecting image correctly on the cylindrical screen), the projection image transformation workflow (for image rectifying and generating multi-view images), and the 360-degree motion detection module (for identifying viewers' locations and providing the corresponding views). Based on the proposed design, only one commercial micro projector is employed for the proposed cylindrical screen. The proposed display offers great depth perception (stereoacuity) with a special designed thick barrier sheet attached to the screen. The viewers are not required to wear special glasses and within appropriate range (< 5 m) the viewers can view the screen at any distance and angle. The user study verified that the proposed display offers satisfactory depth perception (binocular parallax, shading distribution, and linear perspective) for various viewing distances and angles without noticeable discomfort. The production cost of the current prototype is about USD$ 300. With mass production, the unit cost is expected to decline to within USD$60. The proposed display system has the advantages of ease of use, low production cost, high portability and mobility. The proposed system is suitable for application such as museum virtual exhibition, remote meeting, multi-user online game, etc. We believe that the proposed system is very promising for the market of low-cost portable 360-degree interactive autosereoscopic displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Armillaridin (AM) is an aromatic ester compound isolated from Armillaria mellea. Treatment with AM markedly reduced the viability of human chronic myelogenous leukemia K562, chronic erythroleukemia HEL 92.1.7, and acute monoblastic leukemia U937 cells, but not normal human monocytes, in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Treatment of K562 cells with AM caused changes characteristic of autophagy. Only a small amount of AM-treated K562 cells exhibited apoptosis. By contrast, AM treatment resulted in extensive apoptotic features in U937 and HEL 92.1.7 cells without evident autophagy. The autophagy of K562 cells induced by AM involved autophagic flux, including autophagosome induction, the processing of autophagosome-lysosome fusion and downregulation of BCL2/adenovirus E1B 19 kDa interacting protein 3 (BNIP3). By bcr-abl knockdown, the growth inhibition of K562 cells caused by AM was partially blocked, suggesting that AM-induced cell death might be a bcr-abl-dependent mode of autophagy-associated cell death. In conclusion, AM is capable of inhibiting growth and inducing autophagy-associated cell death in K562 cells, but not in normal monocytes. It may have potential to be developed as a novel therapeutic agent against leukemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last four decades there has been a shift in livestock ownership in African pastoral systems from impoverished pastoralists to absentee owners who contract hired herders to take care of their animals. This increase in herding contracts has been held responsible for major changes, including constraints on pastoral mobility and breakdown of rangeland management institutions. In a longitudinal study of pastoral mobility and management of common-pool grazing resources in the Far North Region of Cameroon, we examined the impact of herding contracts on pastoral mobility and management of common-pool grazing resources. Our analyses indicate that there are no major differences in mobility patterns between herds under contract (HUC) and independent herds (IH), and that absentee owners are as committed to the ethos and practice of open access as independent herders. We end with a discussion of the critical role of absentee owners in the mobile pastoral system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paenibacillus campinasensis BL11 isolated from black liquor secretes multiple glycoside hydrolases (GHs) against all kinds of polysaccharides. GH consists of a catalytic module and non-catalytic carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs), in which CBMs append to the catalytic module, mediating specific interactions with insoluble carbohydrates to promote the hydrolysis efficiency of the cognate enzyme. Endo-β-1,4-xylanase (XylX) is one of the GHs reveals high enzymatic activity in a wide range of pH and thermal endurance, suitable for bioconversion and bio-refinement applications. In this work, we report the resonance assignments of a family 36 CBM (characterized as CBM36) derived from XylX. Our investigations will facilitate molecular structure determination and molecular dynamics analysis of CBMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Correction to b B : b B Multimedia Tools and Applications (2017) 76:9099-9132 b https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3502-3 In the original publication of this article, the given name of the third author was misspelled as " B Weng-Huang b ". Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-016-3502-3. [Extracted from the article]

Goals: This paper aims to explore characteristics of demoralization syndrome as well as the relationship between demoralization syndrome and psychosocial issues as seen through examinations of cancer outpatients in Taiwan. Materials and methods: Outpatients with different cancer types were enrolled in this study. The Demoralization Scale Mandarin Version (DS-MV), Patient Health Questionnaire, Beck Hopelessness Scale, and McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire-Taiwan Version were used as instruments. All data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0. Results: Among the 234 patients studied (97 men and 223 women), the majority had cervical cancer (29.1%), followed by breast cancer (26.5%) and head and neck cancer (24.3%). The mean score of DS-MV was 31.05 (SD 14.87). The results of ANOVA analysis showed a significant effect of occupation F(4.209) = 7.145 ( p < 0.001), cancer diagnosis F(7.206) = 3.795 ( p < 0.001), and treatment F(8.206) = 3.553 ( p < 0.001) on DS-MV. Conclusions: Demoralization syndrome was found to be related to psychosocial issues, different cancer types, and treatments. Further studies are recommended to better understand causes and impacts of demoralization in the quality of life and care of cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to coding efficiency, the scalable extension of H.264/AVC provides good functionality for video adaptation in heterogeneous environments. Fine grain scalability (FGS) is a technique to extract video bitstream at the finest quality level under the given bandwidth. In this paper, an architecture of FGS encoder with low external memory bandwidth and low hardware cost is proposed. Up to 99% of bandwidth reduction can be attained by the proposed scan bucket algorithm, early context modeling with context reduction, and first scan pre-encoding. The area-efficient hardware architecture is implemented by layer-wise hardware reuse. Besides, three design strategies for enhancement layer coder are explored so that the trade-off between external memory bandwidth and silicon area is allowed. The proposed hardware architecture can real-time encode HDTV 1920×1080 video with two FGS enhancement layers at 200 MHz working frequency, or HDTV 1280×720 video with three FGS enhancement layers at 130 MHz working frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sn whisker/hillock growth is a result of the release of compressive stress in a Sn thin film. Filamentary Sn whiskers were formed on an electrodeposited Sn thin film aged at room temperature, while Sn hillocks were formed as the aging temperature was raised to 80°C and 150°C. By mechanically applying a tensile stress on the Sn thin film, the growth of the Sn whisker/hillock was significantly mitigated. This mitigation growth suggests that part of the compressive stress in the Sn thin film was neutralized by the mechanically applied tensile stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twin-to-twin transfusion (TTT) is a complication of monochorionic twins that may result in high mortality and morbidity. To better understand pathophysiology in TTT and the consequences for affected fetuses and neonates, we describe the clinical features of 19 consecutive pregnancies complicated by TTT over 5 years. The diagnosis was made based on the findings of polyhydramnios–oligohydramnios sequence with weight discordance judged by obstetrical sonogram in monochorionic twins. Serial amnioreductions were performed as the sole modality of therapeutic intervention when indicated. The obstetrical diagnosis of TTT was first made at a median gestational age of 26 weeks (range 20–35 weeks). Median age of delivery was 30 weeks (range 26–36 weeks). Thirty-three babies of the 19 pairs of twins were born alive, but only 21 of them lived beyond 28 days of life. Fifteen pairs of twins with TTT had weight discordance greater than 20%, but only one pair showed initial hemoglobin difference greater than 5 g/dl. Newborn infants with TTT were at risk for development of renal insufficiency, periventricular leukomalacia, and necrotizing enterocolitis. Intrauterine fetal demise of one twin and severe anemia (hemoglobin <10 g/dl) at birth were poor prognostic factors. Recent advances in perinatal care improves pregnancy outcome of TTT; however, surviving neonates are still at risk for morbidities arising from hemodynamic aberrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aromatic polyamides containing different numbers of p-oxyphenylene groups and different catenated positions in the benzene rings were prepared from terephthalic acid (TPA) and isophthalic acid (IPA) with various aryloxy-containing diamines by means of the phosphorylation polycondensation reaction. Most of the polyamides were moderately to highly crystalline, as indicated by X-ray diffraction and DSC measurements. Polyisophthalamides were readily soluble in polar amide-type solvents such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc). Some non-crystalline polyamides could afford tough films by solution casting. Most polyisophthalamides revealed discernible glass transition on their DSC curves, and their Tg values were recorded in the range of 215–238 °C. No discernible glass transitions were observed for the polyamides of TPA by DSC. The thermal stability of these polymers did not show clear dependence on the structure of the diacid or the diamine. In addition, a series of polyamides having pendant groups was synthesized from the polycondensation of TPA and IPA with 1,4-bis(4-aminophenoxy)benzene and its derivatives with methyl, tert-butyl, or phenyl substituent on the central benzene ring. In most cases, the incorporation of pendant groups generally resulted in an enhanced solubility and a decreased Tg and crystallinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report the backbone chemical shifts of the DFP-inhibited mature subtilisin E, which was uniformly labeled by 13C, 15N with a supplement of excess calcium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We hypothesized that blood lactate concentration([Lac]blood) is a function of cardiopulmonary variables, exercise intensity and some anthropometric elements during aerobic exercise. This investigation aimed to establish a mathematical model to estimate [Lac]blood noninvasively during constant work rate (CWR) exercise of various intensities. 31 healthy participants were recruited and each underwent 4 cardiopulmonary exercise tests: one incremental and three CWR tests (low: 35% of peak work rate for 15 min, moderate: 60% 10 min and high: 90% 4 min). At the end of each CWR test, venous blood was sampled to determine [Lac]blood. 31 trios of CWR tests were employed to construct the mathematical model, which utilized exponential regression combined with Taylor expansion. Good fitting was achieved when the conditions of low and moderate intensity were put in one model; high-intensity in another. Standard deviation of fitting error in the former condition is 0.52; in the latter is 1.82 mmol/liter. Weighting analysis demonstrated that, besides heart rate, respiratory variables are required in the estimation of [Lac]blood in the model of low/moderate intensity. In conclusion, by measuring noninvasive cardio-respiratory parameters, [Lac]blood during CWR exercise can be determined with good accuracy. This should have application in endurance training and future exercise industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]