Search

Hyperspectral images are easily contaminated by multi-modal noise in the process of data acquisition. Generally, hyperspectral signatures and noise appear unexpectedly scattered in the spatial-spectral domain. Conversely, in the transform domain, the principle components of an image are gathered in the low-frequency bands, while the details and noise often occur in high-frequency parts. The existing denoising methods usually divide the whole frequency domain into two parts, that is, high frequency and low frequency, which can not make the most of the knowledge contained at different frequencies or scales, especially in the multiscale transform domain. Furthermore, aiming to restore a clean image from the noise-corrupted data, hyperspectral image denoising often amounts to an ill-posed problem, in which reshaping cubic data into matrix form results in the loss of structure information. To address the aforementioned issues, this paper incorporates the reweighted smoothing regularization in the transform domain into the noise-perturbed degradation model to reformulate a novel optimization problem. First, the multiscale curvelet is leveraged to transform the spatial matrix into frequency domain, where the coefficients are carefully designed to weight the components at different scales and orientations. Second, ${l_1}$ l 1 -norm is imposed on the abundance term to promote sparsity in the transform domain for performance enhancement. Finally, using proximal alternating optimization, an efficient algorithm is well developed to obtain the closed-form solutions to the proposed denoising problem. The experimental results on several synthetic and real datasets, illustrate that the proposed method improves PSNR by at least 1.5 dB and reduces ERGAS error by more than 35% than the state-of-the-art approaches under the multi-modal noise mixed environments, which verifies the validity of regularization terms in hyperspectral images denoising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northern Sea Route (NSR) has attracted much attention from the academia. However, the relevant issues, namely, the seasonal variation of sea ice coverage, the possibility and delay of ice besetting events (IBEs), formulation of ice-breaker escort fee and rescue fee, and the internalization of environmental costs, are considered in past models, but not in a systematic manner. To break through the limitations of previous studies, this paper investigates the economic and environmental feasibility of the NSR for container service, and clarifies the said issues using the latest survey data on a business case. Specifically, a novel evaluation model was developed to estimate the required freight rate (RFR) comprehensively, from the perspective of economic and environmental costs. Based on the modeling results, the optimal scheme was designed for all-season commercial liner transportation via the NSR. Besides, the RFR-based logit competitiveness model was adopted to evaluate how the NSR as an alternative to the Suez Canal Route (SCR) is affected by multiple factors: the delay induced by the IBEs, carbon tax rate, loading factor of eastbound containerships, and fuel price. The research results provide reference for decision-makers to formulate operations plans for ice class, navigation speed, and ship type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Carol Bacchi's post-structural analytical approach, this study examines the nature of recent policy reforms in China in relation to vocational education (VE). The article reveals key problem representations that characterise the Implementation Plan of National Vocational Education Reform (IPNVER) issued by the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 2019, and how these have arisen in light of previous reforms. These previous reforms relate to China's policies, laws and regulations with respect to the higher vocational education system since the 'opening up' in 1978. The study reveals that the VE policy in China is strongly governed by 'economic logics' in the context of neoliberal globalisation, even as it exhibits various 'Chinese characteristics', and that developing VE is seen as a solution to promoting Chinese economic and social development. However, at the same time, important issues are also 'silenced' as a result of the dominance of more economic logics in national VE policy. The article suggests policymakers need to pay more attention to developments in regional education, the social welfare issues of poorer working urban and rural peoples, and the mental health of citizens, while developing the national economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer with poor prognosis. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify prognostic markers to improve current treatment and therapeutic strategies. The transcriptional factor ZNF503 has been reported to promote aggressive breast cancer development through the down-regulation of GATA3 expression and has been identified as a candidate predictive marker. In this study, we explored whether ZNF503 and GATA3 could serve as prognostic markers independently or in combination. We performed a survival analysis of 989 breast cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and validated the findings in 202 breast cancer patients from tissue microarray (TMA). In TCGA database, the mRNA expression of GATA3 and ZNF503 could not predict TNBC prognosis alone, though the ratio index, ZNF503/GATA3 could be a novel prognostic biomarker in TNBC patients. In TMA database, we detected the protein expression of ZNF503 and GATA3 and found that the combination of the two genes, ZNF503-GATA3, significantly improved the predictive ability of clinical outcomes. The results indicated that the binding index of ZNF503 and GATA3 could be used as a prognostic biomarker in TNBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biocultural diversity is an important result and outstanding representation of human-land relationship. This study established a novel framework for evaluating the coupling mechanism of biocultural diversity beyond the nature-culture dualism. Taking the Beichuan-River-Source National Nature Reserve (BRSNNR) as an example, combined with regional characteristics, Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM) and Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) were used to explore the correlation mechanism between natural systems and cultural systems in protected areas. The research results indicated that BRSNNR had five types of landscape character areas with outstanding natural and cultural characteristics; the spatial distribution of biodiversity and cultural diversity was highly overlapping, forming a 'high-medium-low' three-level biocultural diversity area. Analysis demonstrated that positive or negative feedback patterns between natural and cultural systems contributed to the formation of representations of biocultural diversity. Altitude, animals, and traffic conditions are important drivers for the biological and cultural diversity in protected areas. At the same time, residents' emotions and behaviors have a direct impact on the formation of biocultural diversity. The research suggests that the priority protection areas and functional divisions of protected areas should be delineated according to the evaluation results of biocultural diversity, and thresholds should be calculated and set for the constraints. This method is conducive to the improvement of the system's ability to deal with risks and the formation of the action mechanism of 'factor interaction-system interaction-biocultural diversity representation' in protected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anastrozole (ANA), is an inhibitor of non-steroidal aromatase, widely employed for the treatment of breast cancer. However, ANA-associated liver injury cases have been documented in the application of the drug. The major purposes of the present study were to identify the structure of reactive metabolites derived from ANA and to study related metabolic pathways of ANA. We found ANA itself is an electrophilic species reactive to GSH. ANA can be metabolised to ANA-N+-glucuronide (1) catalysed by UGT1A4. An ANA GSH conjugate (2) was detected in bile and livers of rats treated with ANA. UGT1A4 participated in the phase II metabolic pathway. This work allowed us to better understand the mechanisms of the hepatotoxicity of ANA and provided new avenue to define the possible role of metabolic activation in hepatotoxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Interleukin-25 is a Th2 interleukin and has been shown to influence cell behavior. This study aims to illustrate its affection on extravillous trophoblasts function and association with PE. Methods qPCR and immunohistochemistry demonstrate IL-25 and IL-17RB expression. CCK-8 test and transwell were to access the behavior of HTR8 in the presence or absence of IL-25, IL-25 neutralization antibody. Results EVTs and HTR8 express IL-25 and IL-17RB. IL-25 promotes proliferation and invasion (p< 0.05),which was abolished in the presence of IL-25Ab (p< 0.05). Conclusion: IL-25 may contribute to promote trophoblast invasion and proliferation and abnormal decline of IL-25 might be associated with PE.Methods: qPCR and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to demonstrate IL-25 and its receptor IL-17RB expression in primary human trophoblasts of normal first- and third- trimester, as well as third-trimester of PE. CCK-8 test and transwell invasion system in vitro were applied separately to access the behavior of trophoblast cell line (HTR8) in the presence or absence of IL-25, IL-25 neutralization antibody (IL-25 Ab).Results: EVTs and HTR8 express IL-25 and IL-17RB. The expressions increase in third-trimester during normal pregnancy. In PE, both of IL-25 and IL-17RB expressions decrease (p< 0.05). IL-25 for 24 h promoted HTR8 proliferation and invasion (p< 0.05). The effect was abolished in the presence of IL-25Ab (p< 0.05).Conclusion: This study demonstrates that IL-25 may contribute to promote trophoblast invasion and proliferation and abnormal decline of IL-25 might be associated with PE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovery of novel pharmacological effects of berberine hydrochloride (BH) has made its clinical application valuable. However, further development and applications of BH are hampered by its short half-life and the side effects associated with its intravenous (iv) injection. To improve the hypolipidemia efficacy and reduce side effects, we encapsulated BH into biocompatible red blood cells (RBCs) to explore its sustained-release effect by hypotonic pre-swelling method. From in vitro evaluation, BH loaded RBCs (BH-RBCs) presented similar morphology and osmotic fragility to native RBCs (NRBCs). After the loading process, the BH-RBCs maintained around 69% of Na+/K+-ATPase activity of NRBCs and phosphatidylserine externalization value of BH-RBCs was about 26.1 ± 2.9%. The survival test showed that the loaded cells could circulate in plasma for over 9 d. For in vivo evaluation, a series of tests including pharmacokinetics study and hypolipidemic effect were carried out to examine the long-acting effect of BH-RBCs. The results showed that the release of BH in the loaded cells could last for about 5 d and the hypolipidemic effect can still be observed on 5 d after injection. BH-loaded autologous erythrocytes seem to be a promising sustained releasing delivery system with long hypolipidemic effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Our study aimed to investigate IL9 and IL9R expression in preeclampsia and assess their effects on trophoblast biological behaviors.Methods: IL9 and IL9R expression of placenta tissue were evaluated by immunochemistry and q-PCR. Using transwell, CCK-8, and tubule formation assays measured invasion, proliferation and angiogenesis of trophoblast with adding IL9 or anti-IL9R antibody.Results: IL9 and IL9R levels were significantly decreased in preeclampsia. IL9 improved trophoblast activities. Blocking IL9/IL9R resulted in decreased proliferation, invasion, and tube-formation capability of trophoblast.Conclusions: IL9 and IL9R contribute to the pathogenesis of preeclampsia. IL9/IL9R signaling provides a new potential therapeutic target for preventing preeclampsia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, there has been ample work dedicated to understanding how framing typologies impact audiences. However, there has been rather little empirical evidence pertaining to the relationship between framing typologies and subsequent user engagement, specifically in regards to how frames impact how users engage with online content. The goal of the present study seeks to expand upon the existing literature, with a specific focus on some of the most prolific typologies used within the communication discipline. In an analysis of Facebook content produced by 239 Down syndrome nonprofits over the course of one year, we offer several findings regarding the relationship between the frames used within Facebook content and the subsequent user engagement that they received. Most notably, results indicate that Facebook posts that utilized elements of the human-interest frame were associated with higher user engagement. Further, despite existing literature indicating the contrary, there does not appear to be a statistically significant difference in user engagement between posts that utilized episodic as opposed to thematic framing. The results presented here offer recommendations for practitioners, marketing professionals, as well as individuals looking to grow their social media presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon 503 cases of violent and drug crimes involving the death penalty from three intermediate courts in China, this study explores various defense arguments, their acceptance rates, and factors that influence judicial sentencing. Our findings reveal that offenders’ post-crime good behaviors are most likely to be accepted by the court, thus helping offenders obtain suspended death penalty. In contrast, being charged with multiple violent crimes and the weight of narcotics in drug crimes are two significant factors related to an increased likelihood of receiving immediate death penalty. This article provides more empirical evidence about mitigating and aggravating circumstances considered in capital sentencing, and supports that private lawyers are not different from court appointed lawyers in China's capital defense. China's current system seemingly leaves little room for defense lawyers to make creative contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) is a critical prerequisite to assessing change over time with intensive longitudinal data (ILD). For LMI testing with ILD, we propose cross-classified factor analysis (CCFA) to detect non-invariant item parameters and alignment optimization (AO) to detect non-invariant time points as a supplement to CCFA. In addition, we use a covariate in CCFA to identify a source of non-invariance. To evaluate the proposed models under unique features of ILD, such as autoregression (AR), we conducted a Monte Carlo simulation study. The results showed CCFA can be an excellent tool for ILD LMI testing regardless of simulation factors even when AR was misspecified and can identify a source of non-invariance using a covariate. AO can supplement CCFA to find non-invariant time points although AO requires a large number of persons. We provide detailed discussions and practical suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study a stage-structured wild and sterile mosquito interaction impulsive model. The aim is to study the feasibility of controlling the population of wild mosquitoes by releasing sterile mosquitoes periodically. The existence of trivial periodic solutions is obtained, and the corresponding local stability and global stability conditions are proved by Floquet theory and Lyapunov stability theorem, respectively. And we prove the existence conditions of non-trivial periodic solutions and their local stability. We can find that the system has the bistable phenomenon in which the trivial periodic solution and the non-trivial periodic solution can coexist under certain threshold conditions. All the results show that the appropriate release period and release amount of sterile mosquitoes can control the wild mosquito population within a certain range and even make them extinct. Finally, numerical simulation verifies our theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factor mixture modeling (FMM) is generally complex with both unobserved categorical and unobserved continuous variables. We explore the potential of item parceling to reduce the model complexity of FMM and improve convergence and class enumeration accordingly. To this end, we conduct Monte Carlo simulations with three types of data, continuous, polytomous, and binary under two levels of model complexity, constrained FMM under strict invariance and relaxed FMM under scalar or metric invariance. The results show that item parceling could be advantageous for FMM with binary items but not with continuous or polytomous items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement invariance (MI) overtime is required for meaningful interpretation of changes in the latent change score model (LCSM). In this simulation study, we investigate the impact of measurement noninvariance on the estimation of LCSM when proportional change model, dual change model, and their bivariate versions are used with mean composites or MI-assumed measurement models. The results show that even noninvariance in one item could result in severe bias in the LCSM parameter estimates and false statistical inferences (e.g., Type I error). However, the impact depends on the simulation factors, fitted models, and estimated parameters. For example, the intercept-factor mean is biased in proportional change model but not in dual change model. In bivariate LCSM the parameter estimates of only the noninvariant variable are biased except coupling effects. Model fit indices such as RMSEA and SRMR are insensitive to the ignored noninvariance. Discussions and implications of findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bilirubin is a key biomarker in the diagnosis of jaundice. Herein, we proposed a simple and convenient quantitative method for the fluorescent detection of bilirubin. We developed a copper nanoclusters coated by zinc-based metal-organic frameworks (Cu NCs@MOF). The prepared Cu NCs@MOF exhibited bright blue fluorescence excited with ultra-violet light and well stability at various environments. More importantly, Cu NCs@MOF was used for bilirubin detection based on the emerging red fluorescence emission peak induced by bilirubin. Furthermore, Cu NCs@MOF were made into test strip for the visual detection of bilirubin by the fluorescence color variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we developed a simple route to synthesize green fluorescence carbon nanoparticles (FCPs) at room temperature with dopamine and p-phenylenediamine as raw materials. The FCPs exhibited a salient fluorescence emission peak at 525 nm and well stability in the intricate surroundings. Only Cu2+ ions could significantly inhibited the fluorescence of FCPs and could be successfully detected in the concentration scope of 0–200 µmol·L−1 based on the fluorescence quenching of FCPs. The Cu2+ ion-quenched fluorescence of FCPs system can be further recovered by the addition of dipicolinic acid (DPA) and could be utilized for DPA detection within the dynamic scope of 10–150 µmol·L−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, bovine serum albumin served as the initial materials for preparing a kind of cyan-emitting fluorescent protein nanoparticles (BSA NPs). The BSA NPs were further adopted as a template to synthesize protein nanoparticles-stabilized silver nanoclusters (BSA NPs@Ag NCs) that offered two well-separated fluorescence emission peaks respectively at 470 nm and 670 nm. Dopamine could specifically induce the fluorescence enhancement at 470 nm and the fluorescence quenching at 670 nm of BSA NPs@Ag NCs. Moreover, cupric ions could cause the fluorescence quenching at 670 nm of BSA NPs@Ag NCs just with a negligible impact on the fluorescence intensity at 470 nm. The BSA NPs@Ag NCs can serve as a ratiometric probe for detection of dopamine and cupric ions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to control complex motion behavior in organisms, most biological tissues have highly oriented structures and anisotropic mechanical properties, such as articular cartilage, muscle, skin and blood vessel. In this study, inspired by the directional structure and excellent mechanical properties of biological soft tissues, polyvinyl alcohol/carboxymethyl cellulose hydrogels with different contents of sodium alginate were prepared by combining freeze-thaw and prestretching methods. Compared with SEM images without pre-stretch hydrogels, there are obvious ordered pore structures in the pre-stretch samples along the tensile direction, and the network structure becomes denser. XRD and FTI R results indicate that the introduction of SA and CMC increases the number of internal hydrogen bond and forms new covalent bonds. The tensile strength of the hydrogel without annealing and stretching treatments is only 0.41MPa. After annealing and stretching treatments, the tensile strength of the hydrogel is increased to 0.93MPa. Furthermore, the creep deformation of hydrogel was reduced from 1.08 mm to 0.27 mm by annealing and stretching treatments. To sum up, these results suggested that PVA/SA/CMC composite hydrogels with oriented structure might have potential applications in soft tissue repair and other biomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multidrug resistance in tumor (MDR) is a major barrier to efficient cancer therapy. Modern pharmacological studies have proven that tetrandrine (TET) has great potential in reversing MDR. However, it has a series of medication problems in clinic such as poor water solubility, low oral bioavailability and short half-life in vivo. Aiming at the above problems, red blood cell membrane-camouflaged TET-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles (RPTNs) had been developed. The RPTNs had spherical shell-core double layer structure with average particle size of 164.1 ± 1.65 nm and encapsulation efficiency of 84.1% ± 0.41%. Compared with TET-PLGA nanoparticles (PTNs), the RPTNs reduced RAW 264.7 macrophages' swallowing by 32% due to its retention of natural membrane proteins. The cumulative drug release of RPTNs was 81.88% within 120 h. And pharmacokinetic study showed that the blood half-life of RPTNs was 19.38 h, which was 2.95 times of free drug. When RPTNs of 2 μg/mL TET were administered in combination with adriamycin (ADR), significant MDR reversal effect was observed in drug-resistant cells MCF-7/ADR. In a word, the RPTNs hold potential to improve its efficacy and broaden its clinical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of fluticasone propionate (Fp) and Fp/salmeterol (FS) administered via a novel multidose dry powder inhaler (MDPI) that is easy to use correctly in asthma patients. Methods: This phase-3, multicenter, double-blind, parallel-group study evaluated asthmatic patients (≥12 years of age) previously treated with either low- or mid-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) or ICS/long-acting beta agonists. After a 14- to 21-day run-in, patients were randomized to Fp MDPI 50 mcg, Fp MDPI 100 mcg, FS MDPI 50/12.5 mcg, FS MDPI 100/12.5 mcg, or placebo twice daily for 12 weeks. Change from baseline in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1; primary endpoint) was evaluated at week 12, and serial spirometry was collected at day 1 and week 12 (subset of patients). Safety was assessed by adverse events (AEs). Results: The full analysis and serial spirometry subset included 640 and 312 patients, respectively. At week 12, FS MDPI significantly improved FEV1 from baseline at each dose vs corresponding Fp MDPI doses (p < 0.05). Change from baseline in FEV1 for active treatment groups was significantly greater vs placebo (p < 0.05). After 12 weeks, serial spirometry was significantly greater at all time points in the FS MDPI groups vs corresponding Fp MDPI groups (p < 0.05). Improvements in serial spirometry on day 1 were maintained through week 12. AEs were similar across groups. Conclusions: Pulmonary function was significantly improved with Fp MDPI and FS MDPI vs placebo and FS MDPI vs Fp MDPI. Active treatments had a safety profile comparable to placebo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]