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As one of the important indicators of the pavement performance of asphalt, the adhesion performance of asphalt-aggregate has an important impact on the durability of the road. The adhesion mechanism of an asphalt-aggregate interface is studied by molecular dynamics simulation. A shear system model for asphalt is constructed, confined to two aggregates, and the shear simulation is performed at different pressures, temperatures, and shear velocities. The relationship between stress and displacement is investigated. According to the changes in the asphalt model for the shear process, the form of the failure and the failure mechanism of the interface can be analyzed under different conditions. Results show that the asphalt near the asphalt-aggregate interface has obvious signs of stratification along a direction parallel to the interface during the process of applying pressure, the greater pressure applied, the greater speed variation rate between the asphalt and the aggregate. The shear strength limit has a linear relationship with pressure and temperature and a nonlinear relationship with velocity. The cohesion zone mathematical model and its series parameter values suitable for larger-scale numerical analysis are obtained by fitting the curve for the stress displacement of the shear process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a self-construal framework containing both individual- and social-level variables to explain bloggers' inner motivations to create contents voluntarily. With the aim of bridging the gaps in previous blogger-related studies, this research explores intrinsic and psychological benefits behind voluntary bloggers' sharing behaviour via social network sites or weblogs. The proposed structural equation model is tested with survey data from 414 bloggers, and all hypotheses are statistically supported. The findings indicate that voluntary bloggers' involvement results from self-reassurance, which is induced by a self-construction process comprising both independent and interdependent selves. This study enriches extant literature on bloggers' behaviour by incorporating self-construal theory into the sphere of creating contents. In essence, the self-construal model paves the way for future comprehensive psychological frameworks, which can help researchers and practitioners deepen their understanding of blogger enthusiasm in self-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divergent thinking likely plays an important role in simulating autobiographical events. We investigated whether divergent thinking is differentially associated with the ability to construct detailed imagined future and imagined past events as opposed to recalling past events. We also examined whether age differences in divergent thinking might underlie the reduced episodic detail generated by older adults. The richness of episodic detail comprising autobiographical events in young and older adults was assessed using the Autobiographical Interview. Divergent thinking abilities were measured using the Alternative Uses Task. Divergent thinking was significantly associated with the amount of episodic detail for imagined future events. Moreover, while age was significantly associated with imagined episodic detail, this effect was strongly related to age-related changes in episodic retrieval rather than divergent thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the nonhomogeneous Schrödinger–Maxwell problems in. whereis afunction,,are radially symmetric functions. Using variational methods, we prove that the problems have at least two solutions provided that. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus ( L. bulgaricus) was encapsulated in alginate-skim milk microspheres. Characteristics of encapsulated L. bulgaricus, such as pH stability, bile stability, storage stability and release property, were studied in this paper. The viability of free L. bulgaricus was not observed after 1 min in simulated gastric fluids (SGF) at pH 2.5 or 2.0. Compared with that of free L. bulgaricus, the viability of encapsulated L. bulgaricus only decreased 0.7 log CFU/g and 2 log CFU/g after 2.0 h incubation in SGF at pH 2.5 and pH 2.0, respectively. L. bulgaricus was also sensitive to bile solution. The viability of free L. bulgaricus was fully lost after 1 h incubation in 1 and 2% bile solution, while the viability of encapsulated L. bulgaricus was only lost 2 log CFU/g and 2.6 log CFU/g in 1 and 2% bile solution at the same time, respectively. Encapsulated L. bulgaricus could be completely released from microspheres in simulated intestinal fluid (pH 6.8) within 2 h. The viability of encapsulated L. bulgaricus retained around 8 log CFU/g when stored at 4°C for 30 days. The current encapsulation technique enables a large proportion of L. bulgaricus to remain good bioactive in a simulated gastrointestinal tract environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Myc antagonists Mad1, Mxi1 and Rox proteins share two highly conserved domains, Sin3-interacting domain (SID) and basic helix-loop-helix leucine zipper domain (bHLHzip), which are essential for these proteins to function during molecular switching from proliferation to differentiation. In an attempt to identify mutations in Mad1, Mxi1 and Rox genes in human haematological malignancies, we screened 10 haematopoietic cell lines, bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNC) from 26 patients with haematological malignancies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) from 30 healthy volunteers, using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, single strand conformation polymorphism analysis and sequencing. Mad1, Mxi1 and Rox genes were expressed in all samples. Four polymorphisms were found in cell lines BMMNC and PBMNC: two in Mad1, one in Mxi1 and one in Rox. Nine missense mutations were detected: two in Mad1 in patients, four in Mxi1 (three in patients and one in KG-1 cell line), and three in Rox in patients. No mutations were detected in PBMNC from healthy volunteers. Among six patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, two had Mxi1 mutations and another two had Rox mutations. These mutations were associated with poorer clinical outcomes. This is the first report to show that Mad1, Mxi1 and Rox genes were expressed and displayed mutations in haematological malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to develop and validate a prediction model in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with sepsis-associated acute kidney injury (SA-AKI) based on machine learning algorithms. Patients who met the criteria for inclusion were identified in the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care-IV (MIMIC-IV) database and divided according to the validation (n = 2440) and development (n = 9756, 80%) queues. Ensemble stepwise feature selection method was used to screen for effective features. The prediction models of short-term mortality were developed by seven machine learning algorithms. Ten-fold cross-validation was used to verify the performance of the algorithm in the development queue. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC-AUC) was used to evaluate the differentiation accuracy and performance of the prediction model in the validation queue. The best-performing model was interpreted by Shapley additive explanations (SHAP). A total of 12,196 patients were enrolled in this study. Eleven variables were finally chosen to develop the prediction model. The AUC of the random forest (RF) model was the highest value both in the Ten-fold cross-validation and evaluation (AUC: 0.798, 95% CI: 0.774–0.821). According to the SHAP plots, old age, low Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, high AKI stage, reduced urine output, high Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS II), high respiratory rate, low temperature, low absolute lymphocyte count, high creatinine level, dysnatremia, and low body mass index (BMI) increased the risk of poor prognosis. The RF model developed in this study is a good predictor of in-hospital mortality for patients with SA-AKI in the intensive care unit (ICU), which may have potential applications in mortality prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For IGHV mutation status, 17 patients were excluded due to the following reasons: three patients with IGHV gene rearrangement undetected, 13 patients with multiclonal IGHV gene rearrangement detected, and one patient with test failed. A total of 11 (12.1%) patients maintained PR-L after a median follow-up of 34 months; nine (81.8%) of these patients showed Cluster 2 or 3 lymphocytosis patterns. Treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) and other low-grade B-cell malignancies has changed dramatically over the past decade, mainly due to the identification of B-cell receptor signaling and related targeted therapies. [Extracted from the article]

Six new steroidal saponins, namely glauco-chinaosides A–F, and one known compound were isolated from the tubers ofSmilax glauco-china. Their structures were elucidated by a combination of spectroscopic analysis and hydrolysis followed by spectral and chromatographic analysis. Compounds1–7were testedin vitrofor their cytotoxic activities against four human tumor cell lines (SH-SY5Y, SGC-7901, HCT-116, and Lovo). Compounds1,2,and5exhibited cytotoxic activity against SGC-7901, with IC50values of 2.7, 11.5, and 6.8 μM, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report the clinical results of sustainedly integrating imatinib and interferon-α into maintenance therapy in the patients ineligible for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Maintenance therapy lasted for 5 years with imatinib 400 mg daily, interferon-α 3 million units, 2∼3 doses per week, and chemotherapy including vindesine and dexamethasone scheduled monthly in first year, once every 2 months in second year, and once every 3 months in third year. The chemotherapy was discontinued after 3 years and the imatinib and interferon-α continued for another 2 years. For 41 patients without allo-HSCT with a median follow-up of 32 months, the 3-year DFS and OS were 42.7  ± 8.6% and 57.9  ± 8.4%, respectively. Our study suggests that sustaining maintenance with low-dose chemotherapy, imatinib and interferon-α improved survival of adult Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph + ALL) patients ineligible for allo-HSCT, and even provided an opportunity for cure. BCR/ABL persistent negativity at 6 and 9 months may have benefit to choose suitable patients for the imatinib/interferon-α maintenance strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial transformation of potassium feldspar to produce organic composite potassium fertilizer is recognized to be an important method of effective use of the huge reserves of low grade K+-bearing rock in China. The mechanism underlying microbial weathering of silicate minerals is still unclear, and this is an obstacle to practical methods of application. To thoroughly understand the molecular mechanism responsible for the weathering of potassium feldspar byAspergillus nigerat a molecular level, high-throughput RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and treatment with different potassium sources (cultured in Czapek medium with soluble K+or potassium feldspar) were used to investigate the differentially expressed genes ofA.nigerassociated with potassium feldspar weathering and the related metabolic pathways. A series of differentially expressed genes related to the synthesis and transportation of organic acids, polysaccharides, and proteins (enzymes) were found to be closely associated with the K+released from minerals through bioinformatic analysis. In addition, 12 genes that showed apparent expression differences by RNA-seq analysis and are relevant to organic acid synthesis, protein modification, maintenance of cellular homeostasis, and material transportation, were selected to be further verified using RT-qPCR. Compared to the fungal samples cultured with soluble K+, those with potassium feldspar have certain genes that are more up-regulated, such as the genes for Na+,K+-ATPase (447.6 multiples), cystathionine beta-synthase (5.6 multiples), cysteine synthase (9 multiples), and glutathione synthase (3.5 multiples). The analysis indicates thatA. nigerweathering of potassium feldspar is due to the synergistic effect of many factors including the up-regulation of certain genes and activation of related metabolite pathways. The research improves our understanding of the mechanisms of microbial weathering of silicate minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of study is to report the feasibility of non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS) combined with invasive detection by chromosomal analysis in identifying fetal duplication, providing clinical performance of NIPS on copy number variations (CNVs) detection.Material and Methods: NIPS was offered to a 35-year-old pregnant woman. Amniocentesis was performed to confirm the positive screening result. Fetal sample was detected by karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and chromosomal microarray (CMA). Parental karyotyping was also conducted.Results: NIPS result was positive for chromosome 16, indicating an extra copy of chromosome 16. FISH and chromosomal karyotyping revealed that the fetus had a marker chromosome derived from chromosome 16. CMA further demonstrated an approximately 19-Mb duplication in chromosome 16. The final fetal karyotype was 47,XY,+mar. ish der (16)(D16Z3+).arr 16p11.2q12.1 (30 624 186-49 696 337 × 3). Ultrasound scan and MRI showed some structure malformations.Conclusions: A protocol for CNVs detection by combining a series of genetic methods was presented in this study and a novel marker duplication 16p11.2q12.1 was reported. With the ability to identify subchromosomal deletions and duplications in fetus, NIPS could reduce the possibility of invasive diagnosis. The followed confirmation test for positive sample is necessary and ensures the accuracy of the diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marek’s disease virus (MDV) and avian leucosis virus (ALV) are known to cause tumours in egg-laying hens. Here, we investigated the aetiology of tumours in a flock of egg-laying hens vaccinated against MDV. We carried out gross pathology and histopathological examinations of the diseased tissues, identified virus antigen and sequenced viral oncogenes to elucidate the cause of death in 21–22-week-old hens. At necropsy, diseased hens had distinctly swollen livers, spleens, and proventriculus, and white tumour nodules in the liver. The spleen and liver had been infiltrated by lymphoid tumour cells, while the proventriculus had been infiltrated by both lymphoid tumour cells and myeloblastic cells. Subtype J ALV (ALV-J) and MDV were widely distributed in the proventricular gland cells, and the lymphoid tumour cells in the liver and the spleen. In addition, positive ALV-J signals were also observed in parts of the reticular cells in the spleen. MDV and ALV-J antigens were observed in the same foci of the proventricular gland cells; however, the two antigens were not observed in the same foci from the spleen and liver. The amino acid sequence of the AN-1 (the representative liver tumour tissue that was positive for both ALV-J and MDV) Meq protein was highly similar to the very virulent MDV QD2014 from China. Compared to the ALV-J HPRS-103 reference strain, 10 amino acids (224-CTTEWNYYAY-233) were deleted from the gp85 protein of AN-1. We concluded that concurrent infection with MDV and ALV-J contributed to the tumorigenicity observed in the flock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The phosphatase and tensin homology deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) gene is a novel tumor suppressor gene of the phosphatase family. Studies have shown that the PTEN gene is probably involved in human malignant disease pathogenesis, multidrug resistance, angiogenesis and extramedullary infiltration. This study was designed to investigate the effect of wild-type PTEN gene transfection on drug resistance reversal in K562/ADM leukemia cells in vitro and the possible mechanism. A recombinant adenovirus containing green fluorescent protein gene and wild-type PTEN gene (Ad-PTEN-GFP) or a recombined adenovirus containing green fluorescent protein gene only (Ad-GFP) was transfected into K562/ADM cells. These cells were then treated with different concentrations of adriamycin, cytarabine or arsenic trioxide, respectively. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of each drug was detected by MTT assay and the drug resistance reversal factor (RF) was calculated. The proliferation inhibition rate of these K562/ADM cells treated with or without the above-mentioned drugs was determined by MTT assay and the apoptosis rate was evaluated by flow cytometry. PTEN, nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), I-κB, p53, multidrug resistance genes MDR1 and MRP, and apoptosis related genes Bcl-2, Bcl-xL and Bax mRNA levels were detected by real-time fluorescence relative-quantification reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR). PTEN, Akt, p-Akt and NF-κB (p65) protein levels were detected by Western blot. Results showed that PTEN gene transfection could increase the sensitivity of K562/ADM cells to chemotherapeutic drugs. The drug resistance reversal index of adriamycin, cytarabine and arsenic trioxide was 3.8-fold, 2.65-fold and 2.64-fold, respectively, after PTEN gene transfection. NF-κB, MDR1, Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL mRNA levels as well as p-Akt and NF-κB (p65) protein levels were down-regulated, while p53 and Bax mRNA levels were up-regulated in K562/ADM cells after transfection with Ad-PTEN-GFP. Therefore, wild-type PTEN gene transfection might increase drug sensitivity or reverse drug resistance via inhibiting the PI3K/Akt pathway and regulating downstream molecules of the cell signaling transduction pathway in K562/ADM cells, such as down-regulating NF-κB, MDR1, Bcl-2 expression but up-regulating the expression of p53 and Bax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) mRNA and protein, and analyzed the relationship between expression levels and clinical staging and extramedullary infiltration in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). The expression levels of mRNA and protein were measured by fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR) and Western blotting. Expressions of PTEN and FAK mRNA were significantly different between patients with MM and controls. Spearman bivariate correlation analysis showed that PTEN mRNA was significantly negatively correlated with FAK mRNA. PTEN and FAK mRNA expressions were significantly different between patients with stage I + II MM and stage III MM. No difference was found in PTEN mRNA expression, whereas FAK mRNA expression was significantly different between patients with MM with and without extramedullary infiltration. PTEN protein was higher and total FAK (T-FAK) protein was significantly lower in six controls than in 12 patients with stage III MM. Phosphorylated FAK (p-FAK) protein was measured as 0.082 ± 0.040 in 11 patients with MM, but not detected in six controls. No significant difference of PTEN and T-FAK protein was found, while p-FAK protein was significantly different between patients with MM with and without extramedullary infiltration. These results indicate that abnormal expression of PTEN and FAK in patients with MM may be associated with disease progression and extramedullary infiltration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cobalt(II) thiocyanate complex [Co(py)4(NCS)2] 1 (py = pyridine) has been synthesized by low-temperature solid-state reaction. Single crystal X-ray analysis reveals that 1 possesses a one-dimensional (1-D) zigzag chain structure. Each Co ion is symmetrically coordinated by four pyridine ligands and also coordinates with two NCS- anions. Compound 1 was characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectra and UV-visible spectra. The third-order non-linear optical (NLO) properties were also investigated and they exhibit non-linear absorption and self-defocusing performance with modulus of the hyperpolarizability 9.46 × 10-30 esu for 1 in a 3.6 × 10-4 mol dm-3 DMF solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new polyoxometalate double-supporting transition metal complexes, {[Co(phen) 2 ] 2 C 2 O 4 } {H 2 P O 44 [Co(phen) 2 H 2 O] 2 }·7H 2 O (1) (phen  =  1,10-phenanthroline) have been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray analysis, IR, XPS, ESR and elemental analysis. Compound 1 is composed of a highly reduced tetra-capped pseudo-Keggin polyoxoanion supporting two transition metal complexes, a binuclear cobalt complex cation and lattice water. The magnetism and third-order non-linear optical properties of 1 have also been studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reaction of K 3 [Fe(CN) 6 ], NiCl 2 and diethylenetriamine (dien) resulted in the formation of a cyanide-containing heterometallic compound [Ni(dien) 2 ] 2 [Fe(CN) 6 ]·4H 2 O 1 . The structure consists of two octahedral [Ni(dien) 2 ] 2+ cations, one octahedral [Fe(CN) 6 ] 4- anion and four crystallization water molecules, which are held together by hydrogen-bonding interactions. Its TG curve exhibits two stages of mass loss. Compound 1 in DMF solutions has a very strong third-order non-linear optical (NLO) behavior with an absorption coefficient and refractive index α 2 = 1.10 × 10 -11 m w -1 , n 2 = -3.05 × 10 -19 m 2 w -1 , respectively, and third-order NLO susceptibility χ (3) 4.34 × 10 -13 esu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]