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Power transmission lines require efficient and reliable tree pruning to maintain their operation. This paper presents an adaptive Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM)-based fast Model Predictive Control (MPC) for aerial tree pruning robots to address low operating efficiency and high labor costs. The proposed control strategy leverages MPC, a modern control method proven effective in complex systems, including aerial robots, to handle the challenges of attitude and position control during tree pruning operations. The adaptive ADMM algorithm is employed to solve constrained Quadratic Programming (QP) problems in real-time, enabling the robot to respond quickly to dynamic changes and maintain stability. Designed to perform real-time calculations on embedded computers with limited computing power, the control strategy is well-suited for implementation on aerial pruning robots. Improved operational capabilities, such as faster job site access, larger working space, and fossil fuel-free operation, result in increased efficiency and reduced labor costs. The paper covers the dynamic model of the pruning robot, the fast MPC control scheme, the adaptive ADMM for solving the QP problem, and the successful simulation and experimental implementation of the proposed control strategy on the aerial pruning robot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "Retraction Note: Alternating-direction-method-of-multipliers-based fast model predictive control for an aerial trees-pruning robot" has been retracted by the publisher, in agreement with the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Combinatorial Optimization. The retraction was prompted by concerns raised during an investigation, which revealed issues such as compromised editorial handling and peer review process, inappropriate or irrelevant references, and the article not being in line with the journal's scope or the guest-edited issue it was submitted for. The authors of the article have not responded to correspondence regarding this retraction. Springer Nature, the publisher, maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims and institutional affiliations. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in a variety of biological processes, including tumorigenesis, progression, invasion, and drug resistance to multiple cancers. Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is a cancer suppressor gene that has been certified to be regulated by miRNAs in various tumors, including colorectal cancer (CRC). In this review, we screened articles focusing on low PTEN expression in CRC, observed the expression of related miRNAs, analyzed their correlation and relationship with clinicopathological features, and discussed the possibility of these miRNAs as prognostic molecules. Methods: We conducted a systematic search for articles published in the Web of Science, PubMed and EBSCO databases between January 1, 2002, and July 18, 2019. We identified these studies by using combinations of the following index entries and key words: 'colorectal tumor OR colorectal neoplasm OR colorectal carcinoma OR colorectal cancer OR CRC', 'protein tyrosine phosphatase OR PTEN', and 'microRNA OR MiRNA OR miRNA OR MicroRNA'. Moreover, we evaluated the underlying association between alterations in PTEN and CRC prognosis. Results: PTEN expression was obviously lower in CRC tissues than in normal mucosa. However, PTEN expression did not differ significantly between adenoma and normal tissues. PTEN tends to be negatively associated with tumor size and metastasis. MiR-21, miR-200a, miR-543, miR-32, miR-92a, miR-26a, miR-106a and miR-181a were correlated with the downregulation of PTEN. MiR-26a, miR-106a and miR-181a were obviously higher in CRC tissues than in normal tissues, while PTEN was downregulated in CRC tissues. Additionally, miRNAs were mainly positively correlated with distant metastasis, followed by TNM stage. The relationship between miRNAs and tumor differentiation is controversial. However, there were no significant differences between miRNAs and either sex or age. Conclusions: The loss of PTEN may be a diagnostic factor for CRC patients. The above-mentioned miRNAs may function as oncogenes in CRC and represent potential targets for CRC therapy. However, further prospective clinical studies are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammation is one of the characteristic features during the development of human tumors. A pro-inflammatory cytokine that is known to promote inflammation during cancer development is the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β). On the other hand, demethylzeylasteral (T-96) is a natural compound isolated from Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, which has been reported to have various pharmacological properties including anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive activities. We investigated the effects of T-96 on the highly metastatic breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231. Cell migration was assessed by scratch-wound migration assay, and the molecular mechanisms underlying the effects of T-96 were examined by qPCR and Western blot analyses. We also investigated the suppression effects of T-96 on the pulmonary metastasis in the 4T1 mouse model. T-96 inhibited TGF-β-induced migration and epithelial–mesenchymal transition both in vitro and in vivo. These results demonstrate that T-96 inhibited invasion of MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 cells via suppressing the canonical and non-canonical TGF-β signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic inflammation and oxidant/antioxidant imbalance play a prominent role in inflammatory lung diseases. 2-Hydroxymethyl anthraquinone (HMA), an anthraquinone derivative found in Hedyotis diffusa Willd, has been reported to have broad-spectrum anti-inflammatory effects; the present study was conducted to investigate the protective effect of HMA in LPS-induced acute lung injury (ALI) and to explore its potential molecular mechanisms. The results showed that HMA remarkably attenuated LPS-induced pulmonary edema, myeloperoxidase activity, and inflammatory cytokine production. Besides, HMA showed significant antioxidative activity; it raised the levels of SOD and GSH and depleted the MDA level in serum of ALI mice. In vitro, HMA suppressed the production NO, TGF-β1, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β in LPS-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophage cells. The western blot analysis showed that TLR4 expression and the activation of NF-κB were antagonized by HMA. Moreover, addition of exogenous NF-κB inhibitor BAY11-7082 weakened the inhibitory effects of HMA in inflammatory cytokines and ROS production. Taken together, these findings provide the first experimental evidence supporting that HMA has protective effects on LPS-induced inflammation, which is mediated by TLR4-NF-κB pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple query optimization (MQO) in the cloud has become a promising research direction due to the popularity of cloud computing, which runs massive data analysis queries (jobs) routinely. These CPU/IO intensive analysis queries are complex and time-consuming but share common components. It is challenging to detect, share and reuse the common components among thousands of SQL-like queries. Previous solutions to MQO, heuristic or genetic based, are not appropriate for the large growing query set situation. In this paper, we develop a sharing system called LSShare using our proposed Lineage-Signature approach. By LSShare, we can efficiently solve the MQO problem in a recurring query set situation in the cloud. Our system has been prototyped in a distributed system built for massive data analysis based on Alibaba's cloud computing platform (). Experimental results on real data sets demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]