Search

AbstractTyrosol is a principle phenolic compound present in olive oil and wine with great pharmacological potentials due to its strong antioxidant property. Its application can be highly extended by increasing its lipophilicity through esterification. In this study, tyrosol esters were synthesized by enzymatic transesterification of tyrosol with vinyl esters, with a commercial lipase from Novozymes (Novozym 435, Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) immobilized on macroporous acrylic resin beads) as the catalyst, both in organic solvents and in ionic liquids. Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) was the best solvent, offering complete conversions towards the synthesis of tyrosol esters with varying chain lengths (C2-C18) within 1 h. Taking the enzymatic transesterification between tyrosol and vinyl acetate as the model reaction, 18 organic solvents and 24 ionic liquids were screened, and their solvent properties (i.e. hydrophobicity, polarity, viscosity, water activity, and partition coefficients of substrate and product) were correlated to the enzyme activity. Upon enzyme screening, four new lipases were found to be highly efficient, relative to the best-performed Novozym 435 and Lipozyme TLIM (Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL) immobilized on silica gel), in tyrosol ester synthesis. This work provides enzymatic methods of esterifying tyrosol that are much more efficient than those reported in literature, and will shed light on re-consideration of the roles of solvents in nonaqueous enzymology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Follow-up experimental designs are frequently employed in a wide range of scientific studies and industries. Lower bounds of average mixture discrepancy for row augmented designs are determined in this paper utilizing the level permutation technique, which is also used to analyse the uniformity of row augmented designs with asymmetrical factorials. Between the row augmented designs and its initial designs or follow-up designs, quantitative relationships of lower bounds of average mixture discrepancy are constructed. Additionally, a proposal is made for the construction algorithm of asymmetrical uniform row augmented designs. Numerical examples indicate that the asymmetrical uniform row augmented designs can be constructed with high efficiency and recommended for use in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Follow-up experimental designs are widely used in various scientific investigations and industrial applications to discuss the relationship between inputs and outputs at various stages. Due to the limitation of run size, the desired experimental purpose may not be achieved through one stage of the experiment, so additional runs should be considered in the follow-up stage. By taking all possible level permutation of the factors into consideration, the uniformity of row augmented designs with mixed four- and five-level is discussed under the average mixture discrepancy, and new lower bounds of average mixture discrepancy for row augmented designs with mixed four- and five-level are obtained in this paper. Accordingly, the algorithm for the construction of uniform row augmented designs with mixed four- and five-level is proposed. Numerical examples show that the constructed uniform row augmented designs with mixed four- and five-level are highly efficient and can be used in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to study the issue of employing the uniformity criterion measured by the mixture discrepancy to assess the optimal foldover plans for q-level factorials. The average mixture discrepancy and the average projection mixture discrepancy based on the level permutation method are respectively defined for combined designs, and the optimal foldover plan in terms of the overall uniformity and the uniformity of each dimension are also explored. The tight lower bounds of the average mixture discrepancy and the uniformity pattern under the general foldover plan are obtained respectively, which can be used as a benchmark for searching optimal foldover plans. Some illustrative examples are provided to show the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mercury (Hg) is a global contaminant that presents public health risks through seafood consumption primarily in the form of monomethylmercury (MMHg). Methylation of inorganic Hg in water column has been considered a major source of seawater MMHg, but the known Hg methylation by anaerobes possessing the hgcAB gene cluster in anoxic environments could not directly explain the formation and widespread presence of MMHg in seawater where oxic conditions are usually present. In this review, we synthesized the information on previously reported possible pathways to explain the Hg methylation in oxic marine waters, including Hg methylation by (1) methyl donors like organic compounds and organometallic complexes in seawater via abiotic pathways, (2) anaerobic microbes in anoxic microenvironments within oxic seawater, and (3) aerobic microbes in oxic seawater. We evaluated the potential contributions of respective Hg methylation pathways to MMHg in seawaters and discussed the perspectives on future research needs for an improved understanding of seawater Hg methylation. We inferred that while all proposed Hg methylation pathways remain to be further verified, at least one and maybe all of them are plausible depending on ocean conditions. Development and application of new techniques, e.g., quantifying Hg isotope fractionation, would help differentiate (e.g., abiotic versus biotic) Hg methylation pathways. Comprehensive studies toward bridging the gaps between microbial gene screening and Hg methylating capability, between Hg methylation incubation and field MMHg measurement, and between mechanistic Hg methylation studies and environmental relevance will benefit the elucidation of Hg methylation pathways and MMHg distribution in seawater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning has achieved excellent achievements and has become the mainstream in the field of aerial image classification. While obtaining remarkable success, deep learning-based approaches are notoriously dependent on large amounts of labelled data. Few-shot learning uses existing knowledge to learn from few samples and quickly generalizes to new tasks. In this work, we proposed the few-shot learning with deep economic network and teacher knowledge for aerial image classification. Firstly, we performed simplification twice to reduce large-scale parameters and computational effort in deep networks. In the first simplification, the redundancy in feature inputs' main components is reduced, and the implicit information in redundant components is extracted instead of directly discarding the redundant components. The channel and spatial redundancies in deeper layers' inputs are reduced in the second simplification. Secondly, the teacher knowledge guides the random sampling and uses limited samples to improve classification performance. We conducted extensive experiments on NWPU-RESISC45, RSD46-WHU, and UC Merced datasets. The experimental results reveal that the proposed method has better classification accuracy, fewer network parameters, and less computational effort. Experiments on miniImageNet, FC100, CUB, and cross-domain datasets show that our method also maintains advanced classification accuracy on few-shot image classification benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of the projection uniformity of mixed two- and three-level factorials measured by mixture discrepancy is investigated in this paper. The average projection mixture discrepancy is defined to measure the uniformity for low-dimensions projection designs. Moreover, the relationship between uniformity pattern and generalized minimum aberration is established. Two numerical examples are provided to illustrate the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a biomechanical performance design method of joint prosthesis for medical rehabilitation via Generative Structure Optimization (GSO). Firstly, the 3D reconstruction of manifold structure involving hard bone and cartilage is sequentially and progressively implemented from heterogeneous medical images such as Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) via iteration. On the basis of reconstructed mesh structure, the finite element method (FEM) is hereby employed to verify the structure by evaluating the mechanical force distribution. The biomechanical performance design model for 3 D printing (3DP) is then built using multi-objective optimization (MOO) by considering adaptive layer thickness, infill patterns and infill trajectories, etc. The GSO outlets a generative data-driven system which covers various stages such as personalized CT, subsequent 3 D reconstruction, further finite element analysis (FEA) and even structural parameter optimization. The physical experiment of Additive manufacturing (AM) proves that, the relative density, surface topography and wear-resisting performance of joint prosthesis can be improved by GSO which helps to improve biomechanical performance, including kinematics and dynamics. The proposed method may arouse the huge attention in the prosthesis applications to promote patients' high-end customization well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shakedown analysis provides the loading variation limit of a structure, under which the plastic deformation occurred in first loading cycles will cease to further develop and the structure will respond purely elastically to the remaining load cycles. This paper investigated the arching in highway piled embankments under moving shakedown limit loads, which was calculated by the shakedown solutions. The shakedown solutions for materials obeying Mohr–Coulomb criterion was firstly presented based on Melan's shakedown theorem, which utilised elastic stress fields obtained from the full three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) method. Finally, the shakedown limit load for pure rolling condition (i.e. only normal load) was applied onto the surface of pavement as a moving vehicle load. The FE results under moving shakedown limit loads captured similar trend with those under the static loads in terms of settlement and vertical stress, but gave the normalised settlement and vertical stress 33 and 24% larger. The soil arching remained existed in the highway piled embankments under moving shakedown limit loads, but was reduced. The inclusion of moving shakedown limit loads increased the vertical stress of the embankment and thus resulted in a reduction of the maximum value of lateral earth pressure coefficient by approximately 38%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantification of styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) in modified asphalt is essential to evaluate the performance of modified asphalt. In this work, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with solvent-cast film and chemometrics techniques, partial least squares (PLS) regression, have been implemented to quantitatively analyse the content of SBS in modified asphalt. SBS-modified asphalt with four different SBS content gradient as training samples and specific SBS content as testing sample have been scanned by FTIR spectrometer with solvent-cast film. The spectroscopic data have been measured and analysed using PLS regression. The results indicate that the PLS regression combined with the data pretreatment methods for the quantification of SBS content show good predictability, and wavenumber selection in the mid-infrared region of 1400~800 cm−1 reveals the best calibration models with the more accurate value of determination (4.206%) and the lower standard deviation (0.196), which obviously remove the instability of infrared measurement technology in mid-infrared spectroscope. Therefore, the content of SBS in modified asphalt can be accurately measured using FTIR spectroscopy combined with PLS regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reduction of α-pinene by NaBH4 was achieved using NiCl2•6H2O in PEG-800/ethanol system under room temperature. Under the optimized conditions, the conversion of α-pinene and the selectivity of cis-pinane reached 97% and 98%, respectively. On the basis of TEM and a series of poisoning experiments, the nature of the active catalytic species for the reaction was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reported a method for determining the correlation of the physical properties and the chemical composition of bitumen. The double-log model of dynamic shear modulus with temperature was performed for linearization treatment to obtained the constants, which were served as the independent variables using in partial least-squares(PLS) regression. In addition, infrared spectra were processed by data pretreatment methods and served as dependent variables in PLS. The regression vector b of PLS made possible the observation of the spectral regions contributing in the modeling, which provided a basis for research of the correlation between physical properties and chemical composition of bitumen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has been building several inter-basin water conveyance projects across mountains and deep valleys, leading to the extensive use of long tunnels and inverted siphons. The dynamics of mixed free-surface-pressurized flows are critical for tunnel design and operational safety. However, traditional numerical computation schemes cannot precisely and efficiently capture the pressure interface because the tunnel may be more than 70 km long. This study aims to develop a hybrid scheme that is as fast as the large-time-step Preissmann four-point scheme (FDM) and has the approximate interface accuracy of the finite volume method (FVM) by dynamic grid meshing. A dynamic mesh domain model (DM) is proposed by adopting an FVM mesh with a small time step to dynamically capture the interface and applying an FDM mesh with a large time step to improve computational efficiency. The results show that the method can simulate flow patterns, such as transcritical and pressurized flows, by ignoring the acceleration convection terms and capturing mixed free-surface-pressurized flows conveniently, accurately and efficiently. Furthermore, it can accelerate the computational speed of the transient mixed flow by a factor of approximately 100 when the target tunnel length exceeds 1200 m. The proposed scheme cannot capture the water hammer pressure because of the large time step. However, it can be effectively utilized in large cascade water delivery systems where the flow changes gradually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of fused 1,2,4-triazoles has been prepared by oxidative intramolecular cyclization of heterocyclic hydrazones with selenium dioxide. General applicability of this practical protocol was confirmed by the synthesis of moderate to good yields of 1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-a]pyridines, 1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-a]pyrimidines, 1,2,4-triazolo[4,3-a]pyramidines, and 1,2,4-triazolo-[4,3-a]quinoxa lines. All compounds were tested in vitro for their cytotoxic activity against HCT-116, A549, and Colo-205 cell lines. Two compounds, 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)-7-methyl-[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyridine and 1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]quinoxaline, showed potent antiproliferative activity against the three cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dissolving microneedles, the promising vehicles for transdermal delivery, are incapable of directly loading hydrophobic components that limit the application of transdermal drug delivery. Microemulsion holds great potential in the solubilisation of water-insoluble drugs but is limited by the high epidermal retention. In this study, we fabricated microemulsion-incorporated dissolving microneedles co-loading celecoxib and α-linolenic acid (Cel-MEs@MNs) for enhancing osteoarthritis (OA) therapy via synergistic anti-inflammation and potent transdermal delivery. Cel-MEs@MNs composed of celecoxib & α-linolenic acid-coloaded microemulsion (Cel-MEs) and hyaluronic acid-based microneedles (MNs) can be completely dissolved in 90 s with a particle size of ∼30 nm. Each microneedle array with a hardness exceeding 30 N contained 57.9 ± 2.5 μg of celecoxib and 442.5 ± 24.2 μg of α-linolenic acid. The 8 h-cumulative transdermal of celecoxib from Cel-MEs@MNs was 89.2 ± 5.1 μg celecoxib/cm2, which is 2.98-fold higher than that from Cel-MEs. Combinational celecoxib and α-linolenic acid with a weight ratio of 1/5 can synergistically induce M1-like macrophage to M2 repolarization, reduce M1-like macrophages-resulted chondrocytes apoptosis, and lower serum prostaglandin E-2 (PGE-2). Notably, Cel-MEs@MNs amplified such collaborated anti-inflammatory effects. More importantly, in the treatment of OA-bearing rat models, Cel-MEs@MNs with a half-dose of celecoxib and α-linolenic acid significantly shrunk the paw swelling, reduced inflammatory cytokines, and improved cartilage damage compared with the oral administration of celecoxib and α-linolenic acid, as well as transdermal administration of Cel-MEs. Such an integrational strategy of microemulsion-incorporated dissolving MNs offers the feasibility of combinational celecoxib and α-linolenic acid in transdermal permeation and boosted OA therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the problem of energy consumption has received considerable attention. Among them, the proportion of energy consumption in public buildings accounts for a substantial part, and there is a large space for energy saving in this field. Practically, the major limiting factor for energy consumption optimization is indoor environment comfort degree. As such, a trade-off problem between energy conservation and indoor environment must be resolved. In this paper, an office in a public building is chosen as the experimental object, with 2520 real observations collected for two months, a series of intelligence based techniques are combined and applied to deal with this optimization problem. First, Partial Rank Correlation Coefficient (PRCC) was employed to perform correlation analysis for a set of candidate variables, such that the computational time of subsequent model training is reduced by 8.32 seconds as compared to the case where no PRCC is in use. Following this, Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm (LM) are applied collectively to optimize the conventional Back Propagation (BP) neural network, and results suggest that there was a marked improvement in neural model performance, on one hand the epoch number for convergence drops from 72 to 13, on the other hand the mean squared error for test set is reduced by 7.46e-4 (from 9.93e-4 to 2.47e-4). Finally, pigeon-inspired Optimization (PIO) algorithm is employed to address the formulated optimization problem and the optimal value for Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) are −0.4775 and 0.007826, respectively. To verify the validity of our results that derived by the proposed approach, corresponding parameters are applied in a practical scenario. The experimental result indicates that the energy efficiency is improved by around 18.6% compared to that yielded before optimization is performed, which demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative design of complex systems faces multi-contradiction (MC). The existing methods to solve MC are mainly based on the General Theory of Powerful Thinking (OTSM) which is independent of the classical Engineering Design Method (ED) to form the process model, they cannot inherit the accumulated knowledge and advantages of ED. This paper proposes a product innovation design process model for MC based on the function-structure model. It starts with an initial scenario of the system to build the function-structure model and MC network based on the root contradiction analysis. The network structure entropy and function importance decision methods are introduced for the trimming target confirming. The key contradiction-node is identified and solved by strategies of trimming based on internal and external resources of the system. The function-structure model in ED and trimming in TRIZ are combined to form an innovative design process for MC systems. The proposed method is evaluated in a case study of an innovative design of the girder bridge erector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this investigation, a light transmittance method was used to evaluate the wax appearance temperatures (WAT) and wax disappearance temperatures (WDT) of model paraffin compounds (n-C24H50 (C24) and n-C36H74 (C36)) in n-decane (C10) solutions both with and without wax inhibitors. The change in WAT at different paraffin concentrations in the presence of an inhibitor behaves as though there is a constant amount of paraffin removed by the inhibitor. However, the amount of apparent paraffin reduction by an inhibitor (e.g. 160 g of C24 by one gram of an inhibitor) indicates that the inhibition mechanism cannot easily be explained by a simple “sequestering” effect. Wax inhibitors that decrease the WAT tend to also increase the WDT. Most of the wax inhibitors tested at a dosage of 100 ppm did suppress the WAT of lower molecular weight paraffin (C24) solutions, but had little or no effect for higher molecular weight paraffin (C36) solutions. Side-chain length of polymethacrylate wax inhibitors is an important performance parameter. Of the three polymethacrylate wax inhibitors tested, the one with the longest alkyl side-chain (C18) had the most effect on suppressing the WAT and increasing the WDT of the binary mixtures (n-C10–n-C24 solutions). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deposition from decane solutions of model paraffins such as n-C24H50 (C24), and n-C36H74 (C36), as well as a mixture of n-alkanes (C21 to C44) was examined with and without chemical wax deposition inhibitors. The device used to produce the deposits investigated was a “Cold Disk” Wax Deposition Apparatus (CoDWaD) capable of producing field like deposits with relatively small volumes of oil in minutes. It was found that most of commercial wax inhibitors tested could decrease the deposition of low molecular weight paraffins (C34 and below), while having little effect on the wax deposition for high molecular weight paraffins (C35–C44). In many cases, although the total amount of wax formed on the cold plate was reduced, the absolute amount of deposition for high molecular wax was actually increased. Therefore, the net effect of many commercial inhibitors is to make even harder wax under the tests conditions studied here. One intriguing result was that the addition of an oleic imidazoline c rrosion inhibitor improved the performance of two wax inhibitors tested. It was also observed that there are subtle differences in inhibitor performance depending on whether the test solutions are binary mixtures, synthetic wax mixtures, or crude oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amperometric glucose biosensor based on a coimmobilized electron transfer mediator (osmium-complex) layer, an enzyme (glucose oxidase) layer and a permeable pre-oxidation layer on a glassy carbon electrode was devised. The composition of the pre-oxidation layer was optimized. The permeable cellulose acetate membrane employing lead oxide as an interference-removing agent provided favorable permeability and was insusceptible to interference of ascorbic acid and uric acid. The biosensor exhibited high selectivity and a fast response and allowed a high working potential of +0.55V vs. SCE. The amperometric response to glucose shows a linear relation in the range from 0 to 10 mM with a correlation coefficient of 0.9967. The biosensor was applied to the determination of glucose in human serum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying, tracking and warning of the vortexed induced vibration (VIV) are essential for long-span suspension bridges because VIV might cause the driving safety problem. This study proposes an automatic method to identify and track the start and evolution of the VIV. Two feature indices, i.e. the energy concentration coefficient (ECC) and similarity ratio of amplitude (SRA), are utilised to form a feature index vector to identify and track the VIV. The Hilbert transform is utilised to process the vibration signal, based on which the SRA can be extracted. The k-means clustering method is introduced to automatically identify and track the VIV through automatically separating the feature index vectors into several clusters, and multi-level warming is established based on the acceleration root mean square (ARMS) value. The proposed method is validated using the in-field monitoring data of a suspension bridge suffering the VIV. The results indicate that the proposed automatic method can successfully distinguish the VIV from ambient vibration and can identify the forming of the VIV and track the evolution without any manual intervention, even for the VIV with low vibration amplitude. The multi-level warning can also be achieved based on the ARMS value when the VIV is identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To report a case of secondary bilateral choroiditis in a patient with primary Sjögren's syndrome(pSS). Case report. A 69-year-old woman visited our hospital for consultation due to decreased visual acuity in both eyes for 1 month. At the first visit, best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 0.2 and 0.3 in her right and left eyes, respectively. Intraocular pressure values were 15 mmHg and 16 mmHg in her right and left eyes, respectively. Examination revealed edema of the eyelids and conjunctiva,and corneal fluorescence staining was positive. No inflammation in the anterior chamber or vitreous opacities were observed. Bilateral multiple retinal detachments were observed on the posterior fundus, and optical coherence tomography revealed bilateral multiple areas of retinal neuroepithelial detachment, choroidal thickening, and choroidal folds. No abnormal fluorescence leakage was observed on fundus fluorescein angiography or indocyanine green angiography. In addition, systematic manifestations included recurrent bilateral parotid gland enlargement. Labial gland biopsy revealed dilated glandular ducts, scattered interstitial glands, and lymphocytic foci. Salivary gland scintigraphy revealed severe impairment of glandular excretory function. Moreover, blood tests for anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSBantibodies were positive. The patient was diagnosed with primary Sjögren's syndrome. After 2 months treatment with oral prednisolone acetate combined with hydroxychloroquine, her BCVAimproved to 0.8 and 1.0 in the right and left eyes, respectively. The fundus also recovered to normal, and no recurrence was observed during the 1-year follow-up period. The current case highlights that pSS, which usually manifests with dry eye and keratoconjunctivitis, may manifest with chronic choroiditis in both eyes as well. Based on our experience with this case, patients with clinically suspected bilateral choroiditis should be evaluated for pSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-metal Ti/Zr/V based conversion coating was employed to improve the adhesive strength of the epoxy coating on aluminum alloy 6063 (AA6063). The drying temperature of Ti/Zr/V conversion coating (TZVCC) was studied as a factor that could influence the adhesion performance of the epoxy coating on the substrate. The surface morphologies, cross-section micrograph and chemical compositions of different samples were fully characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. The tape measurement and pull-off tests were used to investigate the adhesive strength of samples under three conditions (dry, wet and recovery). The TZVCC after conversion treatment for 50 s had a golden appearance and exhibited a smooth and compact structure. Drying the TZVCC at high temperature could reduce the sizes of the holes disposed on the TZVCC/epoxy coating interface, as well as improve the adhesive strength. The highest pull-off strength was obtained at drying temperatures of 80°C, 100°C and 100°C for dry, wet and recovery conditions. TEM results revealed that the epoxy resin powder would permeate into TZVCC during the curing process, which significantly improved the adhesive strength of the epoxy coating on the matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A crucial question pertains to a role of IL-10 as a tumorigenic factor, or just a marker of advanced disease in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). Herein, we measured significantly elevated IL-10 mRNA in a cohort of skin samples of patients with CTCL. Increased IL-10 was also detected in the tumor microenvironment of an established inflammation-dependent murine model of using MBL2 T lymphoma cells. Conditioned media from MBL2 cells was able to stimulate IL-10 production in bone marrow-derived macrophages in an IL-4-dependent manner. Implanted MBL2 T-cell lymphomas in IL-10KO mice were 50% smaller, accompanied by decreased numbers of infiltrating macrophages and reduced efficiency of M2-polarization compared with wild-type mice. With anti-IL-10R mAb treatment, both wild-type tumor-bearing mice and IL-10KO mice exhibited a further growth inhibition. Our data indicate that targeting IL-10 signaling with neutralizing antibodies to IL-10 or its receptor may have a great potential for advanced CTCL therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:The objective of this study is to evaluate the gastric emptying in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with gastrointestinal involvement using three-dimensional (3D) ultrasonography. Methods:The gastric emptying times at 25% (T1), 50% (T2), and 75% (T3) of SLE patients with gastrointestinal involvement (n = 40) and healthy controls (n = 80) were evaluated and compared. In addition, the correlations among the gastric wall thickness, SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI), and upper gastrointestinal symptoms were calculated. Results:The gastric wall thickness was correlated with the SLEDAI (r = 0.928,p < 0.001) and the upper gastrointestinal symptom index (r = 0.848,p < 0.001). The emptying times T1, T2, and T3 of the SLE patients were 17.08 ± 2.65 min (mean ± standard deviation), 39.85 ± 6.54 min, and 83.58 ± 7.12 min, respectively. For healthy controls, they were 19.65 ± 5.39 min, 41.08 ± 7.51 min, and 70.34 ± 8.03 min. The T1 of the SLE patients was shorter (p < 0.01), while the T3 was longer (p < 0.001). Moreover, T3 in the SLE group had the best correlation with the upper gastrointestinal symptom index (r = 0.553,p < 0.001). T1 in the SLE group was anti-correlated with early satiety (r = −0.366,p < 0.05). Conclusions:Combining the emptying times T1 and T3, as well as the gastric wall thickness, the SLEDAI and the upper gastrointestinal symptoms index can provide accurate clinical diagnosis of SLE with gastric involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scattering-medium-based optical image encryption provides an intrinsically tamper-resistant physical key. In this paper, we utilize a scattering medium with ideal optical properties as the physical key. The plaintext is transformed into four noise-like holograms with the help of the four-step phase-shifting digital holography. Low-frequency components of the four holograms are extracted and combined into a new image by the lifting wavelet transform (LWT). Then the combined image is scrambled by the nonlinear 3D chaos-based cyclic shift. In decryption, the digital optical phase conjugation (DOPC) technique is utilized to extract plaintext. Numerical simulations prove the feasibility of the proposed method, and the security analysis shows that our method can resist different attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is one of the most successful in-situ recovery methods for bitumen reservoirs. Seeking the function of oil production with parameters of steam injection is significant for rapid performance evaluation of the SAGD process in fields. In this study, a new semi-analytical model based on unsteady conductive heat transfer is developed to estimate SAGD performance and describe the evolution of the steam chamber synchronously. These are implemented by interface velocity of steam chamber, as the function of the parameters of steam with the exponent-shape assumption and energy balance to link the oil output and chamber growth. It is worth mentioning that the equation of oil production is obtained based on the assumption of unsteady temperature distribution along with the interface, which is close to the real condition of the reservoir in fields. Then, the model is validated by using the Phase B, UTF project of the Athabasca reservoir. Finally, the impacts of steam injection parameters on SAGD oil production are discussed in this paper. Initial higher rate of heat injection to reach the production peak quickly and the subsequent lower rate for maintaining peak should be adopted to achieve the efficient target of oil production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sialidosis is a rare autosomal recessive hereditary disease caused by NEU1 gene mutations. A 25-year-old woman developed generalized tonic-clonic seizures since teenage, followed by progressive visional decline and limb myoclonus. Her sister had similar presentations. Both patients were products of a consanguineous marriage. Electroencephalography (EEG) revealed extensive paroxysmal spiky beta brush. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) after stimulation of median nerves demonstrated giant SEP and C-reflex support the cortical origin of myoclonus. Genetic tests confirmed that both sisters carried the known pathogenic homozygous mutation of c.544A > G in exon 3 of the NEU1 gene. The diagnosis of sialidosis type 1 was then made. This suggests that neurophysiological abnormalities, especially spiky beta brush on EEG, might facilitate the early diagnosis of sialidosis type 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The change of chemical composition of aged asphalt mixture is significant to determine the mechanism of asphalt aging and obtain the direction to produce an advisable asphalt rejuvenator for the specified aged asphalt. For this purpose, this article aims to determine the change of asphaltene after the asphalt aging by centrifugal separation combined with an air stripping method. The result indicates that the content of asphaltene in aged asphalt is approximately 25%, while the content of asphaltene in base asphaltene is about 20%. In addition, compared with traditional distillation-extraction method, the new approach has the advantages of simplicity, rapidity, accuracy and a reduction in pollution to the environment. Furthermore, the analytical result could be provided for preparation and application of asphalt rejuvenators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the bottlenecks in current performance-related network reliability (PRNR) research, this article selects network time delay as PRNR evaluation foundation, and defines PRNR measure as the probability that the actual network delay is no bigger than the required value during network long-term operating under the specified conditions of resource allocation and network operating environment. To obtain PRNR, a novel threshold-optimization-based network traffic model is proposed to model real network traffic. In this model, the actual network traffic is divided into two different parts--a-traffic with burst characteristic, and b-trajfic with steady characteristic--according to the optimized threshold value obtained with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Analysis to PRNR is carried out in two different time levels--macro-time level and micro-time level--to avoid the difficulties resulting from the great difference in reliability and performance dimension. In the macro-time level, the number of the operational network workstations varying with random failures is obtained. In the micro-time level, the packet delay is analyzed with the number of the operational workstations as a parameter. Combing the analysis in these two time levels together, the integrated PRNR model is established, and influences of different parameters are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrogel systems of konjac glucomannan (KGM) cross-linked with trisodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) were prepared for colon-targeting drug delivery. Swelling degrees of the hydrogels were measured in artificial gastrointestinal fluids and in sodium chloride solution with different concentrations to study their dependence on the cross-linking density and the ionic strength. The absorption of methylene blue was used to characterize the degree of the KGM cross-linking. In vitro release of model drug hydrocortisone was studied in presence and absence of β -mannanase. KGM cross-linked with STMP was able to retard the release of the poorly water-soluble drug and could be biodegraded enzymatically. Hydrocortisone release was cross-linking density dependent and controlled by degradation of the hydrogles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to identify proteins that are differentially expressed in the cystic wall tissues of ovarian endometriotic cysts, simple ovarian cysts, and in normal ovarian tissues. Specimens of ovarian endometriotic cyst wall tissue, simple ovarian cyst wall tissue, and normal ovarian tissue (six specimens per group) were collected from patients who received gynecologic surgery, respectively. Differentially expressed proteins related to the ovarian endometriotic cysts were screened by use of isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) combined with functional annotation and bioinformatics analyses. All differentially expressed proteins related to cysts were validated using immunohistochemistry methods in recurrent and non-recurrent ovarian endometriotic cyst. A total of 359 proteins were identified as up-regulated in ovarian endometriotic cyst groups when compared with both the normal ovary and simple ovarian cyst groups. The levels of 27 proteins were >two-fold higher in the ovarian endometriotic cyst group than that in the other two groups. Of note, the five most significantly upregulated proteins were Charcot-Leyden Crystal Galectin (CLC), Defensin, alpha 1 (DEFA1), S100 calcium-binding protein A9 (S100A9), S100 calcium-binding protein A8 (S100A8), and Ferritin Light Chain (FTL). Immunohistochemistry results showed that the changes of S100A9 and S100A8 were consistent with the results shown by iTRAQ. However, no similarity of CLC, DEFA1, and FTL proteins was found between iTRAQ and immunohistochemistry. The ratio of patients with abnormally high S100A9 and S100A8 expression in the recurrent ovarian endometriotic cyst group was significantly higher than that in the non-recurrent group (P < 0.05). Our data identify differentially expressed proteins S100A9 and S100A8, and suggest they may serve as novel molecular markers to predict postoperative recurrence of an ovarian endometriotic cysts. Abbreviations: iTRAQ: isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation; HPRD: Human Protein Reference Database; GO: Gene Ontology; KEGG: Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes; EM: Endometriosis; COX-2: cyclooxyenase-2; NF-kB: nuclear factor kappa-B; PR-B: progesterone receptor type B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A predictive model was established by artificial neural network (ANN), and the complex viscosity η* of asphalt was estimated based on Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. By linearizing the logarithmic model of complex viscosity, constants and were obtained as independent variables in ANN, and spectral data were taken as dependent variables. Comparing the measured values with the predicted values, it is found that the predicted and actual values of the η*-T curve are consistent. It provided an innovative method basis for rapid prediction of asphalt viscosity by FTIR in engineering application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Follow-up experiment is widely applied to various fields such as science and engineering, since it is an indispensable strategy, especially when some additional resources or information become available after the initial design of experiment is carried out. Moreover, some extra factors may be added in the follow-up experiment. One may augment the number of runs and/or factors for the purpose of application. In this paper, the issue of the uniform row augmented designs and column augmented designs with mixed two- and three-level is investigated. The uniformity of augmented designs is discussed under the Lee discrepancy, some lower bounds of Lee discrepancy for the augmented designs are obtained. The construction algorithm of the uniform augmented designs is given. Some numerical examples indicate that uniform augmented designs can be constructed with high efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of the study: Though rare, children are susceptible to paroxysmal dyskinesias such as paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia, and infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis. Recent studies showed that the cause of paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia or infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis could be proline-rich transmembrane protein 2 (PRRT2) gene mutations. Material and methods: This study analysed PRRT2 gene mutations in 51 families with paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia or infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis by direct sequencing. In particular, we characterize the genotype--phenotype correlation between age at onset and the types of PRRT2 mutations in all published cases. Results: Direct sequencing showed that 12 out of the 51 families had three different pathogenic mutations (c.649dupC, c.776dupG, c.649C>T) in the PRRT2 gene. No significant difference of age at onset between the patients with and without PRRT2 mutations was found in this cohort of patients. A total of 97 different PRRT2 mutations have been reported in 87 studies till now. The PRRT2 mutation classes are wide, and most mutations are frameshift mutations but the most common mutation remains c.649dupC. Comparisons of the age at onset in paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia or infantile convulsions patients with different types of mutations showed no significant difference. Conclusions: This study expands the clinical and genetic spectrums of Chinese patients with paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia and infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis. No clear genotype--phenotype correlation between the age at onset and the types of mutations has been determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 2-D chiral entangled coordination polymer, {Mn3(2,2′-bpy)2(3-cpta)2·H2O}n (1) (3-H3cpta=3-(3′-carboxyphenoxy)phthalic acid, 2,2′-bpy=2,2′-bipyridine), has been synthesized via the solvothermal method. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that 1 consists of one right-handed helical chain and one wavelike 2-D plane, which are connected with each other through hydrogen bonds and π···π interactions to generate a 3-D supra-molecule. Thermal gravimetric analysis shows that 1 possesses good thermal stability. Temperature dependent magnetic susceptibilities have also been measured from 1.8 to 300 K, which shows 1 to be anti-ferromagnetic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of uplift pile response is an interesting area of research in the field of geotechnical engineering. In the present approach, a hyperbolic model is adopted to simulate the relationship between pile displacement and unit skin friction developed at the pile–soil interface. Based on the hyperbolic model, a simple analytical approach is proposed to analyse the nonlinear response of a single pile subjected to tension load. Furthermore, comparisons of the results derived from the present method, other analytical methods and well-documented field experimental pile loading cases are made to demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed analytical methods. The proposed simple analytical approach is economical and efficient, and suitable for the analysis of a tension pile embedded into layered soils using a hyperbolic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to select a native isolate ofArthrobotrys thaumasia(Monacrosporium thaumasium), a nematophagous fungus that shows potential for use in biocontrol programmes for ruminants. First, we looked for native isolates ofA. thaumasiaand characterised them using light microscopy and molecular markers. Then, we determined the effect of temperature, pH and nutrition on the growth rate and trap formation of a representative isolate. Of the 1532 samples of different types related to sheep and cattle, 11 isolates ofA. thaumasiawere isolated, and their occurrence frequency in the samples was 0.71% (11/1532). We sequenced the rDNA internal transcribed spacer of isolate NBS005, submitted it to GenBank (ID: KX640093) and then sequenced it using BLAST. The NBS005 could not grow at 37.5°C but could grow from 11°C to 35°C, and it exhibited its optimum growth at 30°C on 1% corn meal agar (CMA). Over 4 days, the fungus did not grow in the pH interval from 1 to 3 or from 13 to 14 but did grow in the pH interval from 4 to 12 and exhibited its optimum growth between pH 9 and 10 on 2% CMA. The factors responsible for the trap formation of NBS005 in liquid culture were identified. Trap formation was induced only by contact with L3 lysate. The concentrations of sucrose, ammonium chloride and tryptone of 0.4, 0.2 and 0.2%, respectively, promoted trap formation, and there were higher numbers of trapping nets in 2% wheat bran liquid medium containing L3 lysate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on Power-Law nonlinear failure criterion and the upper bound theorem of limit analysis, a numerical solution was developed to analyze the shape of collapsing block and landslide thrust of cofferdam subjected to residual pore pressure which was caused by longstanding water wave action. In the upper bound analysis, the effect of water pressure assumed to be a work rate of external force was considered. To evaluate the validity of the present method, the results were compared with previous findings. The good agreement between the present results and the previous findings indicated that the proposed method was valid to assess the shape of collapsing block and landslide thrust of cofferdam subjected to residual pore pressure. As for the influence of the factors on the shape of collapsing block and landslide thrust, a parametric study was conducted. This parametric study was carried out to optimize the design of cofferdam supporting structures and improve analysis of the stability of cofferdam subjected to water wave action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aim: Multidrug resistance (MDR) is closely correlated to an unfavorable prognosis in various human cancers. However, the clinical significance of the expression of MDR-related proteins p-glycoprotein (PGP), glutathione-s-transferases (GST-π), topoisomerase-II (Topo-II) and lung resistance protein (LRP) in primary gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma (PGCA) remains unclear. In this present study, the total of the four kinds of MDR-related proteins mentioned above were detected by using immunohistochemistry, and their clinical significance in chemoresistance were also investigated. Methods: This retrospective study included 69 resected specimens from patients with PGCA. The expression of PGP, GST-π, Topo-II and LRP in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections was determined by a labelled streptavidin-biotin immunohistochemical technique, and the results were analyzed in correlation with clinicopathological data. None of these patients received chemotherapy prior to surgery. Results: The positive rates of expression of PGP, GST-π, Topo-II and LRP in malignant tissues (49.2%, 75.4%, 68.1% and 58%, respectively) were all higher than that of the normal tissues(0, 30%, 20% and 0, respectively, P < 0.01). PGP expression in tumors that had metastasized was significantly more frequent than in tumors that had not metastasized (67.5% vs 24.1%, P < 0.01). The expression of PGP was closely related with clinicopathologic staging (staging 1/2 vs 3/4, 28.6% vs 58.3%, P < 0.05). No significant correlation was shown between PGP and increasing differentiated degree (40%, 42.4% and 61.5%, P > 0.05). GST-π expression status progressively increased with increasing differentiated degree (40%, 75.8% and 88.5%, P < 0.05) and clinicopathologic stage (staging 1/2 vs 3/4, 57.1% vs 83.3%, P < 0.05). In addition, a significant positive correlation was also observed between GST-π and lymphatic metastasis (with vs. without metastasis, 87.5% vs 58.6%, P < 0.05). The expression of Topo-II was associated with increasing differentiated degree (33.3%, 69.7 and 80.7%, P < 0.01). No significant differences with Topo-II expression were found in relation to the clinicopathologic stage (staging 1/2 vs 3/4, 57.1% vs 72.9%, P > 0.05) and lymphatic metastasis (with vs. without metastasis, 65.0% vs 72.4%, P > 0.05). Moreover, a significant difference with the expression of LRP was found in relation to the clinicopathologic stage (staging 1/2 vs 3/4, 38% vs 66.6%, P < 0.05), and lymphatic metastasis (with vs without metastasis, 70.0% vs 41.4%, P < 0.05). Comparing the well, moderately and poorly differentiated cohort, a non-statistical increasing trend towards LRP expression status was noted (50.0%, 54.5% and 65.3%, respectively, P > 0.05). Besides, the co-expression of all four tested MDR-related proteins also existed. The positive rates of co-expression of PGP and GST-π, PGP and Topo-II, PGP and LRP, GST-π and Topo-II, LRP and GST-π, LRP and Topo-II, PGP, GST-π, Topo-II and LRP in malignant cells were 23.2%, 15.9%, 11.6%, 13.0, 26.1, 7.24, 5.8, respectively. Conclusions: MDR-related proteins PGP, GST-π, Topo-II α and LRP are involved in multiple mechanisms of drug resistance in PGCA. Combined determination of PGP, GST-π, Topo-II and LRP may be prospectively valuable for optimizing the chemotherapy regimes, developing high quality anti-cancer drugs, and further predicting the outcomes of those patients with PGCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the diqing wild boar (Sus verrucosusbreed diqing wild boar) was reported for the first time. The total length of the mitogenome was 16,506 bp. It contained the typical structure, including two ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and one non-coding control region (D-loop region) as that of most other wild boars. The overall composition of the mitogenome was estimated to be 34.9% for A, 26.1% for T, 26.0% for C and 13.0% for G showing an A-T (61.0%)-rich feature. The mitochondrial genome analyzed here will provide new genetic resource to uncover wild boars’ genetic diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]