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AlSiC is an advanced metal ceramic composite material in which active brazed silicon carbide ceramic circuit boards are mainly used for packaging third-generation semiconductor power modules, with high reliability and heat dissipation ability. Five Al/3C-SiC systems were established in this study, and the wetting characteristics of Al droplets from 900 K to 1450 K, including the wetting angle, self-diffusion coefficient, and interfacial energy, were analyzed. Although the embedding of C atoms in the groove systems dispersed the densities of Al droplets to some extent, they intensified the aggregation of atoms near the symmetric centerline of the droplets. At a certain temperature, the activity of the C atom was greater than that of the Si atom, and the probability of binding between the C atom and the Al atom was greater than that between the C atom and the Si atom, which increased the migration of the Al atom, especially on the surface of silicon carbide embedded with atoms. At temperatures ranging from 900 K to 1450 K, Al droplets were all in the wetting stage in a wedge groove system embedded with C atoms, while the other four systems transitioned from hydrophobic to wetting at a certain temperature, indicating that wedge grooves embedded with C atoms could significantly improve the wettability of Al droplets on the surface of 3C-SiC. This research is of great value in promoting the preparation of high-wettability AlSiC composites and their application in the thermal management of electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edible bird's nest (EBN) mainly made of saliva that secreted by a variety of swiftlets is a kind of precious traditional Chinese medicine. EBNs from different biological and geographical origins exhibit varieties in morphology, material composition, nutritive value and commercial value. Here, we collected four different EBN samples from Huaiji, China (Grass EBN), Nha Trang, Vietnam (Imperial EBN) and East Kalimantan, Indonesia (White EBN and Feather EBN) respectively, and applied label-free quantitative MS-based proteomics technique to identify its protein composition. First, phylogenetic analysis was performed based on cytb gene to identify its biological origin. Second, a total of 37 proteins of EBNs were identified, among which there were six common proteins that detected in all samples and exhibited relatively higher content. Gene ontology analysis revealed the possible function of EBN proteins, and principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis based on 37 proteins were performed to compare the difference of various EBNs. In summary, our study deciphered the common and characteristic protein components of EBNs of different origins and described their possible functions by GO enrichment analysis, which helps to establish an objective and reliable quality evaluation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To compare the merits and demerits of percutaneous robot-assisted screw fixation for nondisplaced pelvic fractures with other treatments via long-term follow-up. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of nondisplaced pelvic fractures treated between January 2015 and December 2021. The number of fluoroscopy exposures, operative duration, intraoperative blood loss, surgical complications, screw placement accuracy and Majeed score were compared among the nonoperative group (24 cases), open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) group (45 cases), free-hand empirical screw fixation (FH) group (10 cases) and robot-assisted screw fixation (RA) group (40 cases). Results: There was less intraoperative blood loss in the RA and FH groups than in the ORIF group. The number of fluoroscopy exposures in the RA group was lower than that in the FH group but much higher than that in the ORIF group. There were five cases of wound infection in the ORIF group and no surgical complications in the FH or RA group. The medical expenses were higher in the RA group than in the FH group, with no significant difference from the ORIF group. The Majeed score was lowest in the nonoperative group three months after injury (64.5±12.0) but lowest in the ORIF group one year after injury (88.6±4.1). Conclusion: Percutaneous RA for nondisplaced pelvic fractures is effective and minimally invasive and does not increase medical expenses compared with ORIF. Therefore, it is the best choice for patients with nondisplaced pelvic fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unique physical characteristics make AlSiC an important packaging material for power electronics devices such as insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). In the present study, we performed classical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the effect of the 4H-SiC surface termination characteristics on the wettability of molten Al droplets. This result has considerable significance for improving the wettability between a matrix and reinforcing particles, which is required to prepare AlSiC composites by the casting method. Density profile analysis was adopted to calculate the contact angles θ of Al droplets on a surface of SiC, including Si- and C-terminated surfaces. The calculated angles θ were 99.8° and 81.7°, respectively. The stratification of the droplet density in the C-terminated system depended strongly on the terminated characteristics of the SiC surface and helped increase the wettability of droplets in this system. In addition, droplet diffusion on the Si-terminated surface was obviously slower than that on the C-terminated surface. The wetting characteristic of molten Al droplets depended strongly on the interaction energy, indicating that the surface terminated characteristics had a strong effect on the wettability of the SiC surface. Compared to the results for the Si-terminated surface, the molten Al droplet had a considerably smaller contact angle and the C-terminated surface showed a higher wettability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gut microbial lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced inflammatory responses in adipose tissue are associated with the dysfunction of adipocytes, insulin resistance and the development of metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study is to investigate (1) the effects of LPS on the differentiation and inflammatory responses of THP-1 monocytes and OP9 preadipocytes under serum free conditions and (2) the repressive effects of enzyme-digested Colla Corii Asini (CCAD) and fish gelatin (FGD) on LPS-induced inflammatory responses in THP-1 macrophages and OP9 adipocytes. Immunofluorescence and oil red O staining showed that a serum free medium supplied with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) could induce differentiation and lipid accumulation in THP-1 cells as well as OP9 cells. ELISA showed that LPS significantly increased interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) secretions in PMA-differentiated THP-1 macrophages in a dose-dependent manner. LPS significantly suppressed lipid accumulation and adiponectin secretions, and enhanced IL-6 secretions in OP9 adipocytes. Both CCAD and FGD significantly reduced the levels of both macrophages- and adipocytes-derived inflammatory cytokines and increased the level of OP9-secreted adiponectin. In conclusion, LPS could induce inflammatory responses in both THP-1 and OP9 cells and cause dysfunction of OP9 adipocytes under the serum free conditions. CCAD and FGD can repress LPS-induced inflammatory responses in both THP-1 macrophages and OP9 adipocytes, and increase the secretion of adiponectin in OP9 adipocytes. They could be used as health care supplements for improving metabolic syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current treatment paradigm for atrial fibrillation (AF) prioritizes rate control over rhythm control; however, rhythm control has shown benefits over other AF strategies. This study compares the outcomes of rivaroxaban with and without concomitant antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs), using propensity score matching to correct for statistical effects of baseline discrepancies. This multi-center retrospective study included 1,477 patients with non-permanent AF who took rivaroxaban for at least one month between 2011 and 2016 and had not received catheter ablation. Concomitant AAD use was compared against clinical outcome endpoints for effectiveness, safety, and major adverse cardiac events (MACE). Associations with concomitant AAD use were evaluated using multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses. Patients were divided into two matched groups: rivaroxaban alone (n = 739) and with concomitant AADs (n = 738). The cumulative incidences of safety (p = 0.308), effectiveness (p = 0.583), and MACE (p = 0.754) were similar between the two groups, and multivariate analysis showed no significant differences. The new thromboembolism and all-cause death rates were higher in rivaroxaban alone (2.7% vs 0.8%, p = 0.005; and 10% vs. 6.9%, p = 0.032, respectively). The heart failure readmission rate was higher in the concomitant-AAD group (8.4% vs. 13.3%, p = 0.003). The concomitant use of rivaroxaban with AADs appears to be well-tolerated, with lower rates of thromboembolism and all-cause death, but is associated with more occurrences of congestive heart failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with numerical solution of the two-dimensional Klein-Gordon-Dirac equations by a fourth-order compact finite difference method in space and an energy-preserving Crank-Nicolson-type discretization in time. For convenience of illustrating the conservative properties and investigating the convergence results, we convert the component-wise form of the proposed scheme into an equivalent matrix-vector form. By using the mathematical induction argument and standard energy method, we establish the optimal error estimates under condition τ ≤ 1 | ln (h) | with time step τ and mesh size h. Compared with the condition τ = O (h 1 2) required by existing results in literature for two-dimensional case, this greatly relaxes the dependence of the time step on the grid size. The convergence order of the scalar ϕ and the 2-spinor ψ is of O (τ 2 + h 4) in the maximum norm and the discrete H 1 -norm, respectively. In addition, by using the orthogonal diagonalization technique, a fast solver is designed to solve the proposed scheme. Several numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and the discrete conservation laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of extreme climate due to global climate transition, rainwater adaptation in resilient cities is a key issue for countries. The purpose of this study is to identify the rainfall hotspots in urban areas and investigate whether these hotspots have environmental conditions for rainfall adaptation. The study site is located in the Taichung area. This study collects rainfall data from rainfall stations at elevations below 500 m, employs QGIS (quantum GIS) to create an inverse distance weighted graphical distribution of rainfall to determine the hotspots where the maximum and minimum rainfalls occur, identifies the topography, green spaces, water areas, and buildings in the catchment, integrates the coverage area in the project, and estimates the amount of rainwater that could be directly absorbed by the land within the catchment. The results of this study show that, among the rainfall stations at an elevation below 100 m where most urban areas are located, the Taichung rainfall station is the area with the highest number of rainfall events from May to August. Without reliance on gully or river drainage, the natural infiltration of the land in the catchment could only adjust to 80 mm of heavy precipitation within 24 h of the rainfall warning level of the Central Weather Bureau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Androgenic alopecia (AGA) has a high incidence. Excess dihydrotestosterone in blood capillaries, which is converted from testosterone by 5α-reductase, is an AGA causative factor. We identified the inhibitory activity of four Polygonum multiflorum compounds against 5α-reductase via high-performance liquid chromatography, and the results showed that Physcion was a potent 5α-reductase inhibitor. Additionally, we found that through inhibiting 5α-reductase expression, Physcion could shorten the time of dorsal skin darkening and hair growth, improve hair follicle morphology, and significantly increase hair follicle count. Eventually, through molecular docking study, we found the binding energy and molecular interactions between Physcion and 5α-reductase type II. These results suggested that Physcion is a potent 5α-reductase inhibitor, as well as a new natural medicine for treating AGA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Rivaroxaban reduces the risk of thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, who often also receive antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) to maintain sinus rhythm. Current guidelines contraindicate concomitant use of rivaroxaban with the popular AAD dronedarone, despite little data demonstrating interactions with AADs. This study investigates the outcomes of concomitant rivaroxaban and AAD drug use in a real-world cohort. Methods: This retrospective study included 1777 non-permanent AF patients taking rivaroxaban for ≥ 1 month between 2011 and 2016 from a multicenter cohort in Taiwan, and compared concomitant AAD use against clinical outcome endpoints for safety, effectiveness, and major adverse cardiac events (MACE). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analyses were used to evaluate the association between concomitant AAD use and outcomes. Results: Patients were divided into rivaroxaban alone (n = 1205) and with concomitant amiodarone (n = 177), dronedarone (n = 231), or propafenone (n = 164) groups. The proportion of patients using rivaroxaban 10 mg was highest in the concomitant dronedarone group: rivaroxaban alone, 53.6%; with amiodarone, 57.6%; with dronedarone, 77.1%; and with propafenone, 46.3% (p < 0.001). The cumulative incidences of safety (p = 0.892), effectiveness (p = 0.336), and MACE (p = 0.674) were similar between the four groups; however, there were significantly fewer new systemic thromboembolisms in the dronedarone group: rivaroxaban alone, 2.5%; with amiodarone, 0.6%; with dronedarone, 0%; and with propafenone, 1.2% (p = 0.029). The all-cause death rate was also lowest in the dronedarone group: rivaroxaban alone, 9.0%; with amiodarone, 9.6%; with dronedarone, 3.0%; and with propafenone: 6.1% (p = 0.013). After covariate adjustment, there were no differences in the safety, effectiveness, and MACE endpoints between patients receiving or not receiving AADs. Conclusion: Concomitant use of rivaroxaban with AADs appears to be well tolerated, warranting further investigation into the apparent benefits of a reduced dose of rivaroxaban combined with dronedarone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutaneous wound healing delay, collagen synthesis decline and wrinkle formation are the common features of skin aging. The aim of this study is to investigate repressive effects of Colla Corii Asini (CCA) (a traditional Chinese medicine which has been used for anti-aging) on hydrogen peroxide (300 µM, 2 h) and ultraviolet A (UVA) (3.2 mJ/cm2)-induced skin aging in vitro. To simulate the in vivo condition of CCA, CCA was digested by gastrointestinal enzymes and added to human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) and three dimensional (3D) skin equivalents at different concentrations. Cell viability assay showed that the enzyme-digested CCA (CCAD) exhibited significant preventive effects on hydrogen peroxide- and UVA-induced cell death. The in vitro scratch assay showed that CCAD was able to prevent hydrogen peroxide-induced wound healing delay in HGF cell sheets. Immunostaining and imaging analysis showed that CCAD could suppress UVA-reduced expression of type IV collagen and elastin in both HGF cells and the 3D skin equivalents. Using a tissue stretching system, wrinkles were formed on UVA-irradiated 3D skin equivalents. Without CCAD-treatment, the wrinkles on the skin were deep, whereas CCAD markedly reduced the depth of wrinkles. In conclusion, CCAD could protect skin cells from oxidative stress and UVA-induced harmful effects, accelerate wound healing, promote synthesis of collagen and elastin, and reduce wrinkles formation. CCAD might be developed as an anti-skin aging reagent in the cosmetic industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a novel and highly efficient superpixel algorithm, namely, depth-fused adaptive superpixel (DFASP), which can generate accurate superpixels in a degraded image. In many applications, particularly in actual scenes, vision degradation, such as motion blur, overexposure, and underexposure, often occurs. Well-known color-based superpixel algorithms are incapable of producing accurate superpixels in degraded images because of the ambiguity of color information caused by vision degradation. To eliminate this ambiguity, we use depth and color information to generate superpixels. We map the depth and color information to a high-dimensional feature space. Then, we develop a fast multilevel clustering algorithm to produce superpixels. Furthermore, we design an adaptive mechanism to adjust the color and depth information automatically during pixel clustering. Experimental results demonstrate that regardless of boundary recall, under segmentation error, run time, or achievable segmentation accuracy, DFASP is better than state-of-the-art superpixel methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-hop relaying divides a long radio link into multiple short radio links and thus may reduce the overall energy consumption in wireless networks. But using relaying imposes additional energy load at intermediate relays, the characterization of which is of fundamental interest. In this paper, we propose a novel stochastic geometric model to investigate the energy load of relaying in a random large-scale wireless network. We introduce a notion of relay selection window, defined as the range in which a helping relay is searched for a typical source-destination pair. Under the proposed model, we derive closed form expressions to characterize the dependency of the energy load of relaying on relay selection window and several other key network parameters. The results may have practical implications in the design of wireless networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An open source software (OSS) ecosystem refers to an OSS development community composed of many software projects and developers contributing to these projects. The projects and developers co-evolve in an ecosystem. To keep healthy evolution of such OSS ecosystems, there is a need of attracting and retaining developers, particularly project leaders and core developers who have major impact on the project and the whole team. Therefore, it is important to figure out the factors that influence developers' chance to evolve into project leaders and core developers. To identify such factors, we conducted a case study on the GNOME ecosystem. First, we collected indicators reflecting developers' subjective willingness to contribute to the project and the project environment that they stay in. Second, we calculated such indicators based on the GNOME dataset. Then, we fitted logistic regression models by taking as independent variables the resulting indicators after eliminating the most collinear ones, and taking as a dependent variable the future developer role (the core developer or project leader). The results showed that part of such indicators (e.g., the total number of projects that a developer joined) of subjective willingness and project environment significantly influenced the developers' chance to evolve into core developers and project leaders. With different validation methods, our obtained model performs well on predicting developmental core developers, resulting in stable prediction performance (0.770, F-value). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction to: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07466-z, published online 08 March 2022 The original version of this Article contained an error in Affiliation 2, which was incorrectly given as 'Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Center, MacKay Memorial Hospital, New Taipei, Taiwan'. The correct affiliation is listed below: Department of Medicine, MacKay Medical College, New Taipei, Taiwan. [Extracted from the article]

CI should, therefore, be considered in resting HF status and warrants CLS for effective HR adaptation, particularly in physically inactive patients. To ensure that HR response was modulated by stress rather than only motion, a closed loop stimulation (CLS) pacing program (DDD-CLS; Biotronik Evia DR-T) was chosen over a conventional rate-responsive, accelerometer-equipped sensor, or newer peak endocardial acceleration pacemaker. Keywords: Closed loop stimulation; Chronotropic incompetence; Heart failure; CLS; Pacemaker EN Closed loop stimulation Chronotropic incompetence Heart failure CLS Pacemaker 229 230 2 04/07/22 20220301 NES 220301 A 67-year-old female patient had coronary artery disease, but her elective total revascularization did not improve the symptoms of heart failure. [Extracted from the article]

The present paper reports on the application of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) in triboelectrochemistry. Electrochemical measurements were performed at the constant dc current attained during a permanent regime of friction achieved by a rotating pin-on-disc (P-o-D) tribometer. A model is then proposed which embodies a classical kinetic description of an active-passive transition into the accepted description of the triboelectrochemical response of a passive material. From the derivation of the equation at steady state, a set of parameters were determined allowing to describe correctly both the dc and ac behaviours of the interface and to estimate the different components of the triboelectrochemical signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A water-soluble complex of fullerene [C]:polyethylene glycol (PEG) (1:350 wt/wt) (C-PEG), but not PEG alone, was found in the present study by ESR/DMPO spin-trap method to generate hydroxyl radicals 6.5-fold as abundant as the non-irradiation level, when irradiated with visible light (400-600 nm, 140 J/cm: 450-fold as intense as in average outdoor), but not to generate without irradiation. At 3 h after irradiation with C-PEG, human fibrosarcoma cells HT1080 were obviously degenerated together with diminished microvilli, cell shrinkage and cell fragmentation as observed by SEM and were shown either for increased cytotoxicity by dual stains with calcein-AM and propidium iodide or for nuclear condensation and fragmentation by Hoechst 33342 stain, any of which were, in contrast, scarcely changed in normal human fibroblastic cells DUMS16 derived from the same connective tissue type as HT1080 cells. Under the conditions, the maximum intracellular uptake amount was more abundant for HT1080 cells than for DUMS16 cells, either by immunostain/fluorography using polyclonal antibody against fullerene [C], or by HPLC method indicating the 2.4-fold preferential uptake of C-PEG into HT1080 cells, suggested to greater phagocytotic ability characteristic of cancer cells, over DUMS16 cells being non-macrophage-like normal cells. Thus, C-PEG is expected as a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy with scarce side effects to normal cells and preferential reactive oxygen species generation in cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two kinds of UV curable polyurethane acrylate oligomers (PUPA and PUCA) were synthesized via the addition reaction between isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and polyethylene glycol monoacrylate (PEA) or polycaprolactone modified hydroxyethyl acrylate (PCLA). The structures of PUPA and PUCA were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), H nuclear magnetic resonance (H NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and the thermal stability and dynamic mechanical thermal properties of their cured films were measured by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), respectively. The viscosity of the oligomers and mechanical properties of the cured films were also studied. The results show that both oligomers have narrow molecular weight distribution. The viscosity of PUPA is 2.310 Pa·s at 25 °C, while that of PUCA is up to 3.980 Pa·s. The UV cured PUPA and PUCA films have homogeneous phase structure, and the PUCA film shows higher glass transition temperature and storage modulus. Furthermore, the PUCA film possesses better mechanical properties than PUPA, while the latter shows better alkali resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the original version of the publication, the UVA dose and irradiation time were miscalculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws.In this paper, we study two compact finite difference schemes for the Schrödinger-Boussinesq (SBq) equations in two dimensions. The proposed schemes are proved to preserve the total mass and energy in the discrete sense. In our numerical analysis, besides the standard energy method, a “cut-off” function technique and a “lifting” technique are introduced to establish the optimal H1 error estimates without any restriction on the grid ratios. The convergence rate is proved to be of O(τ2 + h4) with the time step τ and mesh size h. In addition, a fast finite difference solver is designed to speed up the numerical computation of the proposed schemes. The numerical results are reported to verify the error estimates and conservation laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we propose a one-drop self-assembly method, which proved capable of successfully preparing 4-N, N-dimethylamino-4′-N′-methyl-stilbazolium tosylate (DAST) single-crystalline nanowires (NWs). The apparent roughness of the DAST NWs was determined to be less than 100 pm by using a high-resolution atomic force microscope, indicating their ultrafine quality. The DAST NWs also exhibited excellent nonlinear optical properties, including two-photon excited fluorescence and second harmonic generation, which could enable the production of low-cost, low-power-consumption wideband wavelength conversion devices. Thus, the described method may provide a new avenue for organic NW fabrication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catestatin (CST) is a catecholamine secretion inhibiting peptide as non-competitive inhibitor of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. CST play a protective role in cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Cardiomyocytes endogenously produced CST and its expression was reduced after I/R. CST pretreatment decreased apoptosis especially endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response during I/R. The protection of CST was confirmed in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts under Anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R). In contrast, siRNA-mediated knockdown of CST exaggerated ER stress induced apoptosis. The protective effects of CST were blocked by extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor PD90895 and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3 K) inhibitor wortmannin. CST also increased ERK1/2 and protein kinase B (Akt) phosphorylation and which was blocked by atropine and selective type 2 muscarinic acetylcholine (M2) receptor, but not type 1 muscarinic acetylcholine (M1) receptor antagonist. Receptor binding assay revealed that CST competitively bound to the M2 receptor with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 25.7 nM. Accordingly, CST inhibited cellular cAMP stimulated by isoproterenol or forskolin and which was blocked by selective M2 receptor antagonist. Our findings revealed that CST binds to M2 receptor, then activates ERK1/2 and PI3 K/Akt pathway to inhibit ER stress-induced cell apoptosis resulting in attenuation cardiac I/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catestatin (CST) is a catecholamine secretion inhibiting peptide as non-competitive inhibitor of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. CST play a protective role in cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) but the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Cardiomyocytes endogenously produced CST and its expression was reduced after I/R. CST pretreatment decreased apoptosis especially endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response during I/R. The protection of CST was confirmed in H9c2 cardiomyoblasts under Anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R). In contrast, siRNA-mediated knockdown of CST exaggerated ER stress induced apoptosis. The protective effects of CST were blocked by extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor PD90895 and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3 K) inhibitor wortmannin. CST also increased ERK1/2 and protein kinase B (Akt) phosphorylation and which was blocked by atropine and selective type 2 muscarinic acetylcholine (M2) receptor, but not type 1 muscarinic acetylcholine (M1) receptor antagonist. Receptor binding assay revealed that CST competitively bound to the M2 receptor with a 50% inhibitory concentration of 25.7 nM. Accordingly, CST inhibited cellular cAMP stimulated by isoproterenol or forskolin, and which was blocked by selective M2 receptor antagonist. Our findings revealed that CST binds to M2 receptor, then activates ERK1/2 and PI3 K/Akt pathway to inhibit ER stress-induced cell apoptosis resulting in attenuation cardiac I/R injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]