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As a robust digital image inpainting technology, the Criminisi algorithm (CA) has been widely used. However, its high running time that it needs to search in the entire undamaged area of the image to determine an optimal matching block presents a challenge. To address this issue, this study proposes an improved version of CA, named PSO-CA, which incorporates the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) with CA. The running time of the CA is significantly reduced benefiting from the parallel optimization capability of the PSO. In addition, the search space is restricted to the neighbouring region of the block that needs to be filled. The availability of the proposed PSO-CA algorithm is assessed in the laboratory colour model by the running time and three matching indices, such as the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). The experimental results indicate that PSO-CA significantly enhances the inpainting speed and produces the same or better results compared with the initial CA and the Criminisi with search space algorithm (CWSS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate real-time forecasting of cloud positions relative to the sun is essential for photovoltaic (PV) scheduling. Due to its simplicity, the Cross-Correlation Method (CCM) has been widely used in short-term solar radiation prediction by estimating Cloud Motion Vectors (CMVs). However, comparing each pixel block in the current image with neighboring rectangular areas in the previous image results in increased computational complexity for CCM, which limits its application in short-term solar radiation forecasting. This study utilizes the parallel optimization capability of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to simultaneously search for the best matching block for multiple pixel blocks to improve CCM's usability. The results show that the proposed PSO-CCM can estimate CMVs at least five times faster while ensuring forecasting accuracy, significantly reducing the computational complexity of traditional CCM. In addition, as a crucial step in cloud image forecasting, the extrapolation strategy of cloud images also plays a crucial role. Thus, this study also explores and analyzes in detail the advantages and disadvantages of two extrapolation strategies: Block-Wise Forecasting Method and Frozen Cloud Advection Method, offering valuable insights for short-term solar radiation forecasting models based on ground-based sky images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ultrasound-guided percutaneous renal biopsy (PRB) has been considered as a golden standard for CKD diagnosis and is employed to identify potential therapeutic targets since 1950s. Post-biopsy hemorrhage is the most common complication, while severe bleeding complication might cause nephrectomy or death. Therefore, how to reduce the occurrence of complications while ensuring the success of PRB is always a clinical research topic. Methods: This study retrospectively collected and established a renal biopsy database of each patient who underwent ultrasound-guided PRB at a tertiary teaching hospital from September 2017 to December 2020 through the Health Information System. All the data were statistically processed by SPSS software. Results: A total of 1146 patients underwent PRB for various reasons. The overall rate of post-biopsy hemorrhage was 37.70% (432/1146). Of those bleedings, minor bleeding after PRB was found in 337 (29.41%), middle bleeding 84 (7.33%), major bleeding 11 (0.96%). Besides that, there were 96 patients (8.38%) reported their discomfort symptoms. There was no death. Females were at significantly increased risk of hemorrhagic complication than males (OR = 2.017, CI = 1.531–2.658). While the risk for hemorrhagic complication significantly decreased as BMI and platelet before renal biopsy increased (OR = 0.956, CI = 0.924–0.989; OR = 0.998, CI = 0.996–1.000). As the APTT time prolonged, the risk for hemorrhagic complication significantly increased (OR = 1.072, CI = 1.023–1.123). Those patients whose albumin were higher, also had higher risk for hemorrhagic complication than other patients (OR = 1.020, CI = 1.000–1.041). Specifically, postoperative urination within 4 h increased the risk for hemorrhagic complication (OR = 1.741, CI = 1.176–2.576). Conclusion: Our analysis finds that the incidence of post-biopsy bleeding complication is 37.70%, and its risk is associated with female, lower BMI, lower platelet before renal biopsy, prolonged APTT, higher albumin, and postoperative urination within 4 h. The findings highlighted the importance of perioperative management for renal biopsy, including adequate risk assessment, tailored careful observation after PRB. And medical staff should pay more attention to fluid management after ultrasound-guided PRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hierarchical zeolite (ZC) was synthesized by using electrospinning cellulose microfibers (ECM) with three-dimensional network structure as a hard template. The textual and structural properties of the prepared materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD), nitrogen adsorption–desorption analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and TG-DSC. In terms of adsorption properties, the performance was examined by adsorption of methylene blue (MB) on the conventional zeolite (ZA) and ZC. The results showed that ECM templating could significantly increase the mesoporous area and volume of the traditional microporous zeolite, and thus improve the mass transfer performance and adsorption capacity. ZC exhibited much faster and higher MB removal performance than the traditional zeolite with adsorption rate constant and maximum adsorption capacity of ZC approximately 20 and 1.2 times greater than that of ZA. Besides, ZC exhibited better resistance to interfering ions than ZA. Moreover, ZC could be conveniently regenerated by washing with NaCl and the MB adsorption capacity was almost constant in five cycles of the regeneration. These features enable ZC to be an effective and promising adsorbent to remove MB from water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a common complication characterized by impaired placental function and unfavorable pregnancy outcomes. This study aims to elucidate the expression pattern of miR-181d-5p in FGR placentas and explore its effects on trophoblast fusion. Methods: The expression pattern of miR-181d-5p in human FGR placentas were evaluated using qRT-PCR. Western blot, qRT-PCR, and Immunofluorescence analysis were performed in a Forskolin (FSK)-induced BeWo cell fusion model following the transfection of miR-181d-5p mimic or inhibitor. Potential target genes for miR-181d-5p were identified by screening miRNA databases. The interaction between miR-181d-5p and Luman/CREB3 Recruitment Factor (CREBRF) was determined through a luciferase assay. Moreover, the effect of CREBRF on BeWo cell fusion was examined under hypoxic conditions. Results: Aberrant up-regulation of miR-181d-5p and altered expression of trophoblast fusion makers, including glial cell missing 1 (GCM1), Syncytin1 (Syn1), and E-cadherin (ECAD), were found in human FGR placentas. A down-regulation of miR-181d-5p expression was observed in the FSK-induced BeWo cell fusion model. Transfection of the miR-181d-5p mimic resulted in the inhibition of BeWo cell fusion, characterized by a down-regulation of GCM1 and Syn1, accompanied by an up-regulation of ECAD. Conversely, the miR-181d-5p inhibitor promoted BeWo cell fusion. Furthermore, miR-181d-5p exhibited negative regulation of CREBRF, which was significantly down-regulated in the hypoxia-induced BeWo cell model. The overexpression of CREBRF was effectively ameliorated the impaired BeWo cell fusion induced by hypoxia. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that miR-181d-5p, which is elevated in FGR placenta, inhibited the BeWo cell fusion through negatively regulating the expression of CREBRF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most available long-term operation models for hydropower stations use deterministic historical data as inputs but cannot be employed to update the decision scheme in real time according to the actual solar radiation and inflow conditions, resulting in a disconnect between the given plan and actual decision-making process. In this study, a multistage rolling reservoir decision model considering the uncertainties in solar radiation and inflow is proposed to guide the formulation of long-term operational schemes for hydro-PV systems. We adopt the solar radiation and inflow series generated by the scenario tree (ST) method as inputs of the reservoir optimal operation model and use a genetic algorithm (GA) to solve the model. In the solution process, the scheme is adjusted according to the actual solar radiation and inflow conditions. Typical wet, normal, and dry years are analysed. The results illustrate that the model can better inform the design of long-term operational schemes for hydro-PV stations relative to the actual operational scheme and the traditional deterministic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) are widely used, a series of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) have been reported, including immune checkpoint inhibitor-related pneumonitis (ICI-pneumonitis). The incidence of ICI-pneumonitis is higher in reality than in clinical trials. The diagnosis is challenging, mainly based on clinical and imaging features, and requires the exclusion of other causes. The data on the biological mechanisms of ICI-pneumonitis are scarce, resulting in little knowledge of the best treatment for ICI-pneumonitis. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) may be helpful to identify the biological differences or find predictive biomarkers, and may in turn help to develop phenotype-specific targeted drugs to treat ICI-pneumonitis. Herein, we outline the characterization of immunomodulatory factors and cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for ICI-pneumonitis. Through careful sorting and literature review, we find crosstalk between pathogenic Th17/Th1 cells (i.e., Th17.1) and pro-inflammatory monocytes, and activation of Th17(/Th1)/IL-17A (/IFN-γ) pathways may play a key role in the pathogenesis of ICI-pneumonitis. Disruption of the interaction between pathogenic Th17/Th1 cells and pro-inflammatory monocytes (such as, anti-IL-23) may be a potential treatment for ICI-pneumonitis. We first describe the possible pathophysiological mechanisms of ICI-pneumonitis, hoping to contribute to the optimization of diagnosis and treatment, as well as provide readers with research inspiration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is one of the most studied and promising processes for hydrogen fuel generation. Single-atom catalysts have been shown to exhibit ultra-high HER catalytic activity, but the harsh preparation conditions and the low single-atom loading hinder their practical applications. Furthermore, promoting hydrogen evolution reaction kinetics, especially in alkaline electrolytes, remains as an important challenge. Herein, Pt/C60 catalysts with high-loading, high-dispersion single-atomic platinum anchored on C60 are achieved through a room-temperature synthetic strategy. Pt/C60-2 exhibits high HER catalytic performance with a low overpotential (η10) of 25 mV at 10 mA cm−2. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the Pt-C60 polymeric structures in Pt/C60-2 favors water adsorption, and the shell-like charge redistribution around the Pt-bonding region induced by the curved surfaces of two adjacent C60 facilitates the desorption of hydrogen, thus favoring fast reaction kinetics for hydrogen evolution. The synthesis of high-loading Pt single-atom catalysts is important but challenging. Here, the authors use fullerene C60 with electron-deficient C=C bonds to build Pt/C60 catalysts with abundant Pt single atoms which exhibits high catalytic activity for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reactions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus (P) acts as one of the essential macronutrients and plays critical roles in regulating growth, development, and yield formation capacity of the crop plants. Elucidating the physiological and molecular processes underlying plant P deprivation responses benefit the crop cultivation with high P use efficiency (PUE). In this study, we investigated the P-associated and agronomic traits as well as the transcriptome profile under contrasting inorganic phosphorus (Pi) levels combined with deficit irrigation, using two wheat cultivars contrasted by PUE (i.e., high PUE Shixin 828 and P deprivation sensitive Jimai 518). The deficient-P (DP) treatment decreased P accumulative amounts, photosynthetic function, and biomass in plants at various growth stages and reduced yields with respect to sufficient-P (SP) condition. Although the two cultivars were comparable on growth and P-associated traits as well as yields under SP, Shixin 828 displayed better growth traits, more P accumulation, and higher yields than Jimai 518 under DP, suggesting that the high PUE cultivars with enhanced P uptake positively affects photosynthetic function, biomass production, and productivity of plants under P deprivation conditions. A large quantity of genes with differential expression patterns, including 2948 upregulated and 1844 downregulated, were identified based on RNA-seq analysis in the Shixin 828 plants treated with P deprivation. These DE genes were shown to be associated with biological process (i.e., metabolic process and cellular process etc.), cellular components (cell body and organelle etc.), and molecular function (binding and catalytic activity), and phytohormone signaling pathways. Transgene analysis on TaZFP1, a gene in ZFP transcription factor family that exhibited upregulated expression in P-deprived plants, validated its role in enhancing P accumulation and P starvation adaptation of plants. Our results suggested that plant P deprivation response is underlying modulation of various physiological processes via modifying gene transcription at global level. Key message: RNA-seq sequencing combined with physiological and transgene analyses dissected the molecular processes related to P-associated and agronomic traits in wheat cultivated under Pi deprivation condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate streamflow prediction is of great significance for water resource management. In recent years, data-driven models such as artificial neural networks (ANNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) have been widely used in the field of flow prediction. However, traditional data-driven models neglect the extraction and utilization of the data's own characteristics. This study proposes a daily flow prediction model based on the pattern recognition of flow sequences. Based on the input number of the prediction model derived from the partial autocorrelation function, the flow sequence was divided into subsequences. Five patterns of flow subsequences, including monotonic rising, monotonic falling, monotonic stable, concave, and convex, were then identified, which helped to explore the characteristics of the flow subsequences. For each pattern, traditional ANN and SVM models were applied to predict the flow. A comparison with the traditional ANN and SVM models shows that the hybrid models of the pattern recognition method (PRM) and the traditional ANN and SVM have higher accuracy. The Nash efficiency coefficient (NSE) of the hybrid PRM-SVM model was as high as 0.9815, and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was only 6.75%. In addition, the prediction accuracy of the flood peak also improved. The average relative error of the peak flood derived from the hybrid PRM-ANN and PRM-SVM models were reduced by 0.12% and 0.40%, respectively, compared with the traditional ANN and SVM models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sound waves can be applied on fog elimination due to the acoustic agglomeration phenomena. However, existing studies have different understanding of the effective sound wave frequency and sound intensity for the acoustic agglomeration effect of micro-droplets. This study designs a novel microscopic experiment to visually present the growth process of droplets under the action of sound waves. A group of indexes are also proposed to quantitatively analyze the growing process of micro-droplets under the action of sound waves, such as area-weighted average particle size, relative growth rate of droplets, and relative growth factor of droplets. In addition, a series of experiments with different sound waves are also conducted to explore the impact law of sound frequency and sound intensity on droplet agglomeration. The results verify the acoustic agglomeration effect of micro-droplets by visible processes at microscopic scale and indicate that within the studied sound pressure level (SPL) and frequency range, the droplets' deposition is faster under the action of sound waves of higher SPL and lower frequency. Most importantly, the critical values of sound wave characteristics for obvious acoustic agglomeration of droplets are presented, providing guidance for choosing effective sound waves in the actual application of acoustic fog elimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new schiff base cobalt(III) complex [N,N′-bis(2′-hydroxyphenylacetone)-o-ethanediamine] cobalt(III) (M3) has been synthesized and characterized by single X-ray crystallography. The cytotoxicity of complex M3 was evaluated against HeLa, LoVo, A549, A549/cis cancer cell lines, and the normal cell lines LO2 by MTT assays. The IC50 is in the range of 6.27-22.68 μM, which is somewhat lower than cisplatin on the basis of platinum molar concentration. Furthermore, anticancer mechanistic studies showed that the complex M3 inhibited cell proliferation by blocking DNA synthesis and then acted on nuclear division of HeLa cells over time. Moreover, western blot analysis indicated M3 dramatically decreased the target protein c-Myc and KLF5 expression levels, and activated many signaling pathways including ER stress, apoptosis, cell cycle and DNA damage in HeLa. M3 did not affect proteasomal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a correction notice for an article titled "miR-181d-5p, which is upregulated in fetal growth restriction placentas, inhibits trophoblast fusion via CREBRF" published in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction & Genetics. The correction addresses an error in the information provided in the Materials and Methods section of the original article. The incorrect information pertains to the anti-CREBRF antibody used in the study, and the corrected information is provided. The correction has been made to the original article. The publisher, Springer Nature, maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. The article was authored by Georgia Pennarossa, Zhi-Hong Wu, Fang-Fang Li, Ling-Ling Ruan, Qian Feng, Shuang Zhang, Zhuo-Hang Li, Antonia Otoo, Jing Tang, Li-Juan Fu, Tai-Hang Liu, and Yu-Bin Ding. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Journal of Zhejiang University: Science B is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Determination of the factors influencing solar irradiation plays an important role in the performance of a prediction model based on machine learning techniques. This study compared the results obtained using a linear correlation analysis and stepwise regression method to identify the key meteorological, weather, and radiation factors that significantly affect the solar irradiation on the following day, as well as the difference between the quantities of solar irradiation on the current day and following day. These factors were used to establish prediction models for the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, which has a complex topography and weather caprices. The results indicated that the stepwise regression method was capable of screening more effective influencing factors and the corresponding predictive accuracy was acceptable even under the weather conditions of the plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uranium is a key element in the nuclear industry, but its unintended leakage has caused health and environmental concerns. Here we report a sp2 carbon-conjugated fluorescent covalent organic framework (COF) named TFPT-BTAN-AO with excellent chemical, thermal and radiation stability is synthesized by integrating triazine-based building blocks with amidoxime-substituted linkers. TFPT-BTAN-AO shows an exceptional UO22+ adsorption capacity of 427 mg g−1 attributable to the abundant selective uranium-binding groups on the highly accessible pore walls of open 1D channels. In addition, it has an ultra-fast response time (2 s) and an ultra-low detection limit of 6.7 nM UO22+ suitable for on-site and real-time monitoring of UO22+, allowing not only extraction but also monitoring the quality of the extracted water. This study demonstrates great potential of fluorescent COFs for radionuclide detection and extraction. By rational designing target ligands, this strategy can be extended to the detection and extraction of other contaminants. Porous materials for uranium capture have been developed in the past, but materials for simultaneous uranium capture and detection are scarce. Here the authors develop a stable covalent organic framework capable of adsorbing and detecting uranyl ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Methoxy polyethylene glycol acrylate (MPGA) was electrochemical polymerized on carbon fiber (CF) by using cyclic voltammetry (CV) to enhance the surface properties of CF. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) investigations confirmed that MPGA electropolymerized on CF (MPGA-CF) was obtained. The low frequency capacitance of MPGA-CF (CLF=5.85 mF·cm-2) was higher than CF(CLF=4.75 mF·cm-2) based on the result of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) and the data obtained fitted with an R(Q(R(Q(R(CR))))) equivalent circuit model. Contact angle experiment showed that the contact angle between water and MPGA-CF is significantly lower than that between water and CF. Mechanical experimental results indicated that the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of MPGA-CF/epoxy resin composites (32.24 MPa) has improved by 134.81 % compare with the CF/epoxy resin composites (13.73 MPa), which significantly enhanced interfacial properties of epoxy resin composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel polyethylene oxide (PEO)/polylactic acid (PLA) solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) doped with Liquid crystal ionomer (LCI) was prepared by automatic scraping membrane technology and the liquid crystal property of LCI was proposed as an effective strategy to improve the conductivity. The highest conductivity of the SPE with 0.5 wt% LCI achieve a value of 2.19 × 10−4 S/cm at 17 °C which is approximately four orders of magnitude higher than that of the original PEO solid polymer electrolyte, conductivity at room temperature is 10−7–10−8 S/cm. This is because the crystallinity is reduced by 25.3% compared to the pure PEO host. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and polarizing microscope (POM) characterize the structure and properties of LCI. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) shows that the conductivity of the polymer electrolyte with 0.5 wt% LCI increased abruptly at 35 °C as the temperature is higher than Tg of LCI, reaching 6.37 × 10−4 S/cm which is 191% higher than that at 17 °C. There ionic conductivity has been improved extremely by continuous channel for efficient ion transportation, especially at the microtherm. And this change is greater at the elevated temperature regions, in line with the VTF equation. In summary, LCI's liquid crystal performance can be used as an effective strategy to improve the low temperature conductivity of SPE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise and reliable long-term streamflow prediction contributes to water resources planning and management. Artificial neural network (ANN) have shown its remarkable ability in forecasting non-linear hydrological processes without involvement of complex, dynamic, hydrological and hydro-climatologic physical process in the water shed. To improve its non-stationary responses, decomposition methods are adopted as pre-processing methods in this study including Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) and Seasonal-Trend decomposition using Loess (STL). The original time sequence is decomposed to several components, which are then taken as the inputs of the ANN model. EMD and EEMD are data- adaptable methods, and thus the number of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) might differ for different sequences, leading to the discrepancy of the input number for ANN model in training and predicting. Fisher's ordered clustering is thus used to classify the IMFs into a determined number of classes based on their frequency spectrum resulting from Maximum Entropy Spectral Analysis (MESA). The proposed methodology is applied on four important hydrological stations on the upper stream of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in China, respectively, to forecast the streamflow of the next whole year with the historical daily data of the past 6 years. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiencies of the monthly prediction are higher than 0.85 for all of the four cases, and various indicators indicates that the proposed hybrid method of STL-ANN performs better than other compared methods. The highlights of this study lies in that only historical daily streamflow data is used to derive an accurate long-term prediction by data mining based on decomposition technology and mapping relationships between the decomposed components and the original sequence in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) based on poly (ethylene oxide)/polylactic acid (PEO/PLA) with liquid crystal ionomer (LCI) intercalated montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites (LCI-MMT) has been prepared by solution blending method. The effects of LCI-MMT on the structural, crystallization, thermal, and ionic conductivity properties of solid polymer electrolytes have been analyzed. It is demonstrated that the incorporation of LCI-MMT into the blend suppressed the crystallinity of PEO and increased the crystallinity of PLA. The maximum ionic conductivity is found to be in the range of 1.05 × 10−5 S/cm for 0.5 wt% LCI-MMT, which is higher than that of the LCI-MMT-free polymer electrolyte (5.36 × 10−6 S/cm) at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear localization leucine-rich-repeat protein 1 (NLRP1) is a member of Nod-like receptors (NLRs) family. Recent studies have reported that NLRP1 is involved in various diseases, especially in cardiovascular diseases. However, the effect of NLRP1 on cardiac fibrosis remains unclear. In this study, NLRP1 overexpression and NLRP1 silencing constructs were transfected into neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts induced by TGF-β1 for 48 h to investigate the effect of NLRP1 in cardiac fibrosis and its molecular mechanisms. Cardiac fibroblasts were transfected with NLRP1 and then cultured in the presence and absence of TGF-β1and Smad3 inhibitor (SIS3). Our data indicated that NLRP1 not only promoted fibroblast activation and myofibroblast differentiation, but also upregulated the mRNA and protein levels of α-SMA in the TGF-β1-treated neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts. Overexpressing NLRP1 in TGF-β1-induced cardiac fibroblasts upregulated the mRNA and protein levels of Collagen I, Collagen III, and connective tissue growth factor. Moreover, NLRP1 upregulated the protein levels of Smad2, Smad3, and Smad4 in nuclei of fibroblasts, and attenuated levels of phosphorylated Smad2 and Smad3 in the cytoplasm of fibroblasts induced by TGF-β1. In addition, the increase in fibrotic genes and Smad proteins was significantly reduced in the presence of SIS3. Our findings illustrated that NLRP1 promoted myofibroblast differentiation and excessive ECM production in TGF-β1-induced neonatal cardiac fibroblasts through directly targeting TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is easy for teenagers to view pornographic pictures on social networks. Many researchers have studied the detection of real pornographic pictures, but there are few studies on those that are artificial. In this work, we studied how to detect artificial pornographic pictures, especially when they are on social networks. The whole detection process can be divided into two stages: feature selection and picture detection. In the feature selection stage, seven types of features that favour picture detection were selected. In the picture detection stage, three steps were included. 1) In order to alleviate the imbalance in the number of artificial pornographic pictures and normal ones, the training dataset of artificial pornographic pictures was expanded. Therefore, the features which were extracted from the training dataset can also be expanded too. 2) In order to reduce the time of feature extraction, a fast method which extracted features based on the proportionally scaled picture rather than the original one was proposed. 3) Three tree models were compared and a gradient boost decision tree (GBDT) was selected for the final picture detection. Three sets of experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve better recognition precision and drastically reduce the time cost of the method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rising and spreading of micro-blog, the sentiment classification of short texts has become a research hotspot. Some methods have been developed in the past decade. However, since the Chinese and English are different in language syntax, semantics and pragmatics, sentiment classification methods that are effective for English twitter may fail on Chinese micro-blog. In addition, the colloquialism and conciseness of short Chinese texts introduces additional challenges to sentiment classification. In this work, a novel hybrid learning model was proposed for sentiment classification of Chinese micro-blogs, which included two stages. In the first stage, emotional scores were calculated over the whole dataset by utilizing an improved Chinese-oriented sentiment dictionary classification method. Data with extremely high or low scores were directly labeled. In the second stage, the remaining data were labeled by using an integrated classification method based on sentiment dictionary, support vector machine (SVM) and k-nearest neighbor (KNN). An improved feature selection method was adopted to enhance the discriminative power of the selected features. The two-stage hybrid framework made the proposed method effective for sentiment classification of Chinese micro-blogs. Experiments on the COAE2014 (Chinese Opinion Analysis Evaluation 2014) dataset show that the proposed method outperforms other schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The big data era is coming with strong and ever-growing demands on analyzing personal information and footprints in the cyber world. To enable such analysis without privacy leak risk, differential privacy (DP) has been quickly rising in recent years, as the first practical privacy protection model with rigorous theoretical guarantee. This paper discusses how to publish differentially private histograms on events in time series domain, with sequences of personal events over graphs with events as edges. Such individual-generated sequences commonly appear in formalized industrial workflows, online game logs, and spatial-temporal trajectories. Directly publishing the statistics of sequences may compromise personal privacy. While existing DP mechanisms mainly target at normalized domains with fixed and aligned dimensions, our problem raises new challenges when the sequences could follow arbitrary paths on the graph. To tackle the problem, we reformulate the problem with a three-step framework, which 1) carefully truncates the original sequences, trading off errors introduced by the truncation with those introduced by the noise added to guarantee privacy, 2) decomposes the event graph into path sub-domains based on a group of event pivots, and 3) employs a deeply optimized tree-based histogram construction approach for each sub-domain to benefit with less noise addition. We present a careful analysis on our framework to support thorough optimizations over each step of the framework, and verify the huge improvements of our proposals over state-of-the-art solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To alleviate the water resources shortage in arid or semi-arid area, various water transfer projects have been constructed and put into operation over the last few decades. Apart from the available water, the allocation scheme also determines whether the water demands alongside can be satisfied well. Different from traditional evaluation without considering how often the failure occurs and how severe magnitude the failure may be when operating a scheme, this study proposes three indexes to evaluate scheme performance comprehensively, which are: (1) the satisfaction degree of a selected scheme (reliability); (2) the ability of the system to recover from a failure to satisfactory state (stability); and (3) the maximum damage of operating a scheme (severity). To illustrate the application of these evaluation indexes, an optimization model and an exponent describing differences among schemes are established, and then applied to the east route South-to-North Water Transfer project in China. The result shows that there exist tradeoffs among scheme's benefits, which is described by reliability, stability, and severity. And with the increase of the exponent, the optimal scheme would consider deficit distribution more. In order to make the water transfer system with high reliability, high stability, and low severity, the exponent should be in the range of 1.0-2.0. These findings can be taken as the references to the operation of the water transfer projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanical properties of a single cell and its mechanical response under stimulation play an important role in regulating interactions between cell and extracellular matrix and affecting mechanotransduction. Osteocytes exhibit solid-like viscoelastic behavior in response to the interstitial fluid shear resulting from tissue matrix deformation. This study intends to quantitatively describe the mechanical behavior of osteocytes combining in vitro experiment and fluid-structure interaction (FSI) finite element (FE) model. The cell is configured in the FSI FE model using the observed data from quasi-3D images. Instead of simply assigning the cellular viscoelastic parameters by statistical data, the mechanical parameters are determined by an iterative algorithm comparing the experimental and the computational results from the FE model. The viscoelastic parameters of osteocytes are obtained as: the equilibrium elasticity modulus $$k_{1}=0.15\pm 0.038\,\hbox {kPa}$$ , instantaneous elasticity modulus $$(k_{1}+k_{2})=0.77\pm 0.23\,\hbox {kPa}$$ , viscosity coefficient $$\eta =1.38\pm 0.33\,\hbox {kPa}\,\hbox {s}$$ . A novel index to quantify the cell adhesion is also put forward. In addition, an interesting competition phenomenon is revealed on the cell surface concerning stress and strain, i.e., the place with high stress has low strain and that with low stress has high strain. The proposed method provides a novel technique to study the mechanical behavior of individual adherent cell in vitro. It is believed that this quantitative technique not only determines cell mechanical behavior but also helps elucidate the mechanism of mechanotransduction in various types of cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two approximations, center-beam approximation and reference digital elevation model (DEM) approximation, are used in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) motion compensation procedures. They usually introduce residual motion compensation errors for airborne single-antenna SAR imaging and SAR interferometry. In this paper, we investigate the effects of residual uncompensated motion errors, which are caused by the above two approximations, on the performance of airborne along-track interferometric SAR (ATI-SAR). The residual uncompensated errors caused by center-beam approximation in the absence and in the presence of elevation errors are derived, respectively. Airborne simulation parameters are used to verify the correctness of the analysis and to show the impacts of residual uncompensated errors on the interferometric phase errors for ATI-SAR. It is shown that the interferometric phase errors caused by the center-beam approximation with an accurate DEM could be neglected, while the interferometric phase errors caused by the center-beam approximation with an inaccurate DEM cannot be neglected when the elevation errors exceed a threshold. This research provides theoretical bases for the error source analysis and signal processing of airborne ATI-SAR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is illegal to spread and transmit pornographic images over internet, either in real or in artificial format. The traditional methods are designed to identify real pornographic images and they are less efficient in dealing with artificial images. Therefore, criminals turn to release artificial pornographic images in some specific scenes, e.g., in social networks. To efficiently identify artificial pornographic images, a novel bag-of-visual-words based approach is proposed in the work. In the bag-of-words (BoW) framework, speeded-up robust feature (SURF) is adopted for feature extraction at first, then a visual vocabulary is constructed through K-means clustering and images are represented by an improved BoW encoding method, and finally the visual words are fed into a learning machine for training and classification. Different from the traditional BoW method, the proposed method sets a weight on each visual word according to the number of features that each cluster contains. Moreover, a non-binary encoding method and cross-matching strategy are utilized to improve the discriminative power of the visual words. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method outperforms the traditional method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olefins and paraffins are important basic chemical raw materials with so similar molecular structure and volatility that their separation is a difficult and energy-consuming process. Liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) data were determined for ternary systems of: 1-hexene + hexane + solvent at 25°C, 30°C, and 35°C, and N-formylmorpholine (NFM), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), 7-butyrolactone (GBL), and 1-methylimidazole (1-MEI) as the solvents studied. Liquid-liquid equilibrium data for each system were correlated to the NRTL (Non-Random Two Liquid) equation and the interaction parameters presented. The calculated results agree well with the experimental data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A new approach for optimization of long-term operation of large-scale reservoirs is presented, incorporating Incremental Dynamic Programming (IDP) and Genetic algorithm (GA) . The immense storage capacity of the large scale reservoirs enlarges feasible region of the operational decision variables, which leads to invalidation of traditional random heuristic optimization algorithms. Besides, long term raised problem dimension, which has a negative impact on reservoir operational optimization because of its non-linearity and non-convexity. The hybrid IDP-GA approach proposed exploits the validity of IDP for high dimensional problem with large feasible domain by narrowing the search space with iterations, and also takes the advantage of the efficiency of GA in solving highly non-linear, non-convex problems. IDP is firstly used to narrow down the search space with discrete d variables. Within the sub search space provided by IDP, GA searches the optimal operation scheme with continuous variables to improve the optimization precision. This hybrid IDP-GA approach was applied to daily optimization of the Three Gorges Project-Gezhouba cascaded hydropower system for annual evaluation from the year of 2004 to 2008. Contrast test shows hybrid IDP-GA approach outperforms both the univocal IDP and the classical GA. Another sub search space determined by actual operational data is also compared, and the hybrid IDP-GA approach saves about 10 times of computing resources to obtain similar increments. It is shown that the hybrid IDP GA approach would be a promising approach to dealing with long-term optimization problems of large-scale reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease with multifactorial etiology. Connexin 26 (Cx26), an important gap junction protein, has been found highly expressed in plaques of psoriasis. Recently, genome wide association studies (GWAS) identified one new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in GJB2 gene coding for Cx26 protein associated with psoriasis in Chinese Han population. In this paper, we verified the GWAS data in Chinese Han population. Here we genotyped the polymorphism of GJB2 rs3751385:C>T in 371 psoriasis patients and 330 healthy controls in Chinese Han population using polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism assay (PCR-RFLP). Our case-control assay indicated decreased frequency of the GJB2 rs3751385 C allele in psoriasis patients compared with that in the healthy controls [ p = 6.02 × 10, Odds ratio (OR) = 0.793, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.706-0.889]. The result suggested that GJB2 gene polymorphism rs3751385:C>T was associated with psoriasis susceptibility of Chinese Han population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pumilio protein is the founding member of the PUF family of RNA-binding proteins, which contains 8 repeat Puf domains and plays important roles during embryogenesis and post-embryogenesis by binding the Nanos response element (NRE) of specific target genes in eukaryotes. In addition, many other proteins containing the Puf domain were identified but with different functions from the Pumilio protein in various species. Taking advantage of the newly assembled genome sequences, in this study we performed a genome-wide analysis of PUF genes in silkworm and other 27 species. In the silkworm, three PUF genes were identified, named Bmpumilio, Bmpenguin and Bmnop by homology analysis. In fungi and animals, four evolutionarily conservational PUF gene families were identified, Group-A, -B, -C and -D. While Group-A, -C, and -D are present in all fungi and animals, Group-B was only identified in fungi. Interestingly, the number and features of the Puf domains are distinct in each group, suggesting different roles for these proteins in every group. The EST and microarray data showed that the mRNA of the three PUF genes can be widely detected in all tissues of the silkworm. Our results provide some new insights into the functions and evolutionary characteristics of PUF proteins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis (PS; MIM#177900) is a chronic inflammatory immune-mediated skin disorder. Although the disease is believed to be caused by a combination of genetic, immunologic and environmental factors, its complete etiology has not been fully understood. Here, we focused on the BSG (MIM#109480), a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily expressed ubiquitously in circulating immune cell populations. We observed that the expression level of BSG in PBMCs was elevated in psoriasis patients. To understand the underlying mechanism for this change, we genotyped the rs8259 T>A SNP located in the 3′UTR of the BSG gene from 668 psoriasis patients and 1,143 healthy controls. The rs8259 T allele was associated with significantly decreased psoriasis susceptibility (OR = 0.758, 95% CI 0.638-0.901, p = 0.002). Interestingly, the rs8259 polymorphism was located in a seed region for miR-492 binding. The miR-492 was able to bind to the BSG 3′UTR sequence bearing the rs8259 T allele as assayed by luciferase reporter gene assay. The substitution of T with A abolished miR-492 binding. BSG protein expression in PBMCs from patients carrying the rs8259 AA genotype was significantly higher than in those from patients carrying the rs8259 TT genotype. Our study suggests that miR-492 may physiologically suppress BSG expression and the BSG rs8259 polymorphism is associated with decreased psoriasis susceptibility through affecting miR-492 binding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a recently developed technique for characterizing the function of plant genes by gene transcript suppression and is increasingly used to generate transient loss-of-function assays. Here we report that the 2mDNA1, a geminivirus satellite vector, can induce efficient gene silencing in Nicotiana tabacum with Tobacco curly shoot virus. We have successfully silenced the β-glucuronidase ( GUS) gene in GUS transgenic N. tabacum plants and the sulphur desaturase ( Su) gene in five different N. tabacum cultivars. These pronounced and severe silencing phenotypes are persistent and ubiquitous. Once initiated in seedlings, the silencing phenotype lasted for the entire life span of the plants and silencing could be induced in a variety of tissues and organs including leaf, shoot, stem, root, and flower, and achieved at any growth stage. This system works well between 18-32 °C. We also silenced the NtEDS1 gene and demonstrated that NtEDS1 is essential for N gene mediated resistance against Tobacco mosaic virus in N. tabacum. The above results indicate that this system has great potential as a versatile VIGS system for routine functional analysis of genes in N. tabacum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to diagnostic criteria, skin tumors can be divided into three categories: benign, low degree and high degree malignancy. For high degree malignant skin tumors, if not detected in time, they can do serious harm to patients' health. However, in clinical practice, identifying malignant degree requires biopsy and pathological examination which is time costly. Furthermore, in many areas, due to the severe shortage of dermatologists, it's inconvenient for patients to go to hospital for examination. Therefore, an easy to access screening method of malignant skin tumors is needed urgently. Firstly, we spend 5 years to build a dataset which includes 4,500 images of 10 kinds of skin tumors. All instances are verified pathologically thus trustworthy; Secondly, we label each instance to be either low-risk, high-risk or dangerous in which Junctional nevus, Intradermal nevus, Dermatofibroma, Lipoma and Seborrheic keratosis are low-risk, Basal cell carcinoma, Bowen's disease and Actinic keratosis are high-risk, Squamous cell carcinoma and Malignant melanoma are dangerous; Thirdly, we apply the Xception architecture to build the risk degree classifier. The area under the curve (AUC) for three risk degrees reach 0.959, 0.919 and 0.947 respectively. To further evaluate the validity of the proposed risk degree classifier, we conduct a competition with 20 professional dermatologists. The results showed the proposed classifier outperforms dermatologists. Our system is helpful to patients in preliminary screening. It can identify the patients who are at risk and alert them to go to hospital for further examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aberrant expression of receptor interacting protein kinase 4 (RIPK4), a crucial regulatory protein of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, has recently been reported to be involved in several cancers. Here, we report the potential clinical implication and biological functions of RIPK4 in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC). One hundred and ninety-eight CSCC cases, 109 low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs), 141 high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) and 63 chronic cervicitis were collected. The expression of RIPK4 was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and its clinical value and oncogenic functions were further assessed. RIPK4 expression increased significantly with disease progression from 3.2% in chronic cervicitis, 19.3% in LSILs and 85.1% in HSILs to 94.4% in CSCCs (P < 0.001). Moreover, RIPK4 may serve as a useful biomarker to distinguish HSIL from chronic cervicitis/LSIL, which are two different clinical types for therapeutic procedures, with a high sensitivity and specificity (85.1% and 86.6%, respectively) and the performance improved when combined with p16INK4a. Further, RIPK4 overexpression was associated with overall (HR = 2.085, P = 0.038) and disease-free survival (HR = 1.742, P = 0.037). Knockdown of RIPK4 reduced cell migration and invasion via inhibition of Vimentin, MMP2 and Fibronectin expression in cervical cancer cells. RIPK4 might act as a potential diagnostic and independent prognostic biomarker for CSCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sichuan–Yunnan–Guizhou metallogenic province of Southwest China contains more than 200 Mt of Pb–Zn ore in carbonate-hosted Pb–Zn deposits, representing ~ 27% of the total Pb and Zn resources of China. Sources of metals and pathways of ore-forming fluids were elucidated through a study of the Pb–Zn–S–Cd isotopic compositions of sphalerite from the Tianbaoshan, Fusheng, Maozu, Jinshachang, and Daliangzi carbonate-hosted Pb–Zn deposits. δ34S values indicate that S in the deposits is derived mainly from evaporites in Cambrian to Triassic sedimentary strata, sulfates coexisting with sulfides, and Meso–Neoproterozoic folded basement. δ66Zn values and Pb isotopic ratios indicate that these metals originate mainly from Sinian to lower Permian sedimentary rocks and Proterozoic basement. There is a trend towards isotopically heavier Cd and Zn compositions of sphalerite from Maozu to Daliangzi, Jinshachang, and Tianbaoshan, which are all hosted in the upper Sinian Dengying Formation. Previous studies showed that there would be a trend of enrichment in heavier Zn and Cd isotopes following the migration of fluids and precipitation of minerals. The above observations suggest that the ore-forming fluids of these deposits are probably derived from the same hydrothermal fluid system. The fluids most likely flowed through Maozu first, migrating along the Xiaojiang and Anninghe fault belts and their branch faults to Daliangzi, Jinshachang, and Tianbaoshan, respectively. Zn and Cd isotopes could be useful tools in tracing the pathways of ore-forming fluids in this district, and heavier Zn and Cd isotopic compositions could provide a geochemical fingerprint for detecting remote orebodies in large hydrothermal fluid systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]