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Optimization of an intra-city express delivery network from three to two levels is of great interest to suppliers and customers for reducing costs and improving service efficiency. One feasible solution is to identify critical nodes in the three-level network and upgrade them as transshipment facilities in the two-level one. However, traditional optimization models seldom combine empirical business data, composite metrics, and objective evaluation rules. We proposed an approach integrating empirical data, multi-criteria decision-making methods based on the real-world application of the SF Express Chengdu branch. We also developed a mathematical optimization model using statistical and operations management techniques combined with logistics expertise for a location decision. First, the appropriateness of each service point as a candidate transshipment facility is evaluated from internal and external perspectives by applying multiple centrality assessment from complex network theory and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution, respectively. Second, 16 candidate transshipment facilities are selected by combining these two ways. Then, a multi-objective integer programming model is built to obtain the optimal number, locations of transshipment facilities, and the corresponding service points covered by each transshipment facility. Using this multi-methodologic approach, we show that the optimized two-level network is economically feasible and simply applicable, with the total cost and average delivery time reduced by 18.41% and 6 h, respectively. This article is of practical significance and provides an important reference for optimizing ground express service networks for other large cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPartnership is a typical “Flag” of China’s foreign relations, playing a significant role in promoting bilateral trade. This study examines the impact and mechanism of China’s partnerships on trade with empirical evidence, revealing that establishing a partnership increases bilateral trade by 25%; each level-up of the partnership will lead to a 6.8% increase in bilateral trade, with a dynamic impact lasting about five years. Partnership building mainly impacts bilateral trade through political interaction, bilateral investment, and cultural exchange between two countries, with cultural exchange playing a dominant role in the mechanism. Strengthening partnerships with Asia-Pacific, Latin America, African countries, low-income, and low trade size countries can create more potent bilateral trade effects. Furthermore, higher levels of partnership have an exemplary effect, bringing a positive spatial spillover effect on trade. This study affirms the significant role of partnership in foreign relations and trade, providing valuable insights to reduce trade risk and achieve high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meat constitutes one the main protein sources worldwide. However, ethical and health concerns have limited its consumption over the last years. To overcome this negative impact, new ingredients from natural sources are being applied to meat products to obtain healthier proteinaceous meat products. Algae is a good source of unsaturated fatty acids, proteins, essential amino acids, and vitamins, which can nutritionally enrich several foods. On this basis, algae have been applied to meat products as a functional ingredient to obtain healthier meat-based products. This paper mainly reviews the bioactive compounds in algae and their application in meat products. The bioactive ingredients present in algae can give meat products functional properties such as antioxidant, neuroprotective, antigenotoxic, resulting in healthier foods. At the same time, algae addition to foods can also contribute to delay microbial spoilage extending shelf-life. Additionally, other algae-based applications such as for packaging materials for meat products are being explored. However, consumers' acceptance for new products (particularly in Western countries), namely those containing algae, not only depends on their knowledge, but also on their eating habits. Therefore, it is necessary to further explore the nutritional properties of algae-containing meat products to overcome the gap between new meat products and traditional products, so that healthier algae-containing meat can occupy a significant place in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Microalgae contain a diverse range of high-value compounds that can be utilized directly or fractionated to obtain components with even greater value-added potential. With the use of microalgae for food and medical purposes, there is a growing interest in their digestive properties and impact on human gut health. The extraction, separation, and purification of these components are key processes in the industrial application of microalgae. Innovative technologies used to extract and purify microalgal high-added-value compounds are key for their efficient utilization and evaluation. This review’s comprehensive literature review was performed to highlight the main high-added-value microalgal components. The technologies for obtaining bioactive compounds from microalgae are being developed rapidly, various innovative, efficient, green separation and purification technologies are emerging, thus helping in the scaling-up and subsequent commercialization of microalgae products. Finally, the digestive behavior of microalgae nutrients and their health effects on the human gut microbiota were discussed. Microalgal nutrients exhibit favorable digestive properties and certain components have been shown to benefit gut microbes. The reality that must be faced is that multiple processes are still required for microalgae raw materials to final usable products, involving energy, time consumption and loss of ingredients, which still face challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a stochastic SIS epidemic model with constant time delay and Holling type II incidence rate is investigated. We firstly show the existence, uniqueness, and moment boundedness of the global positive solution. Then we extend the initial value space to a complete nonnegative continuous function space and obtain the existence of invariant measures for this system. Furthermore, the analysis of the asymptotic behavior around the disease-free equilibrium is given. To demonstrate, some numerical examples are provided to illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a notion of viscosity solutions is introduced for second-order Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equations with delays associated with optimal control problems for stochastic differential equations with delays. We identify the value functional of optimal control problem as the unique viscosity solution to the second-order HJB equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clouds cover corrupts the spatial and spectral information of optical remote sensing (RS) images, which seriously affects the use of RS data. To solve the problem of missing information, a spatial-spectral adaptive method based on slow feature analysis (SFA) is proposed to restore cloudy scenes in this letter. SFA converts the sequence signal into slowly varying signal signatures and the clouds will be located in the first component. We propose spatial and spectral adaptive correction methods to reduce interference from highlighted pixels and jointly constrain the cloud coefficients in each band according to reflectance and gradient. The effectiveness of our method is verified on Landsat-8 OLI simulated and real cloudy datas, the restored results are visually rich in texture detail and moderately corrected. The average PSNR of the four real scenes is 42.9738 dB and coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.8203, and many indicators have proved that our method is better than the existing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To minimize twin birth rate by establishing an elective single cleavage embryo transfer strategy based on a twin live birth prediction model from fresh double cleavage embryos transfer (cleavage DET) patients.Methods: A total of 2478 patients underwent fresh cleavage DET in Nanjing Tower Hospital were enrolled to establish the twin live birth prediction model by logistic regression analysis and the cutoff value was calculated by ROC curve. Another 300 fresh cleavage DET patients and 550 cleavage single-embryo transfer (SET) patients were selected to testify the sensitivity, specificity and usefulness of this model.Results: The twin live birth probability (TLBP) = eX/(eX + 1), e is a natural logarithm, X = -1.763 - (0.319 × female age) + (0.329 × endometrial thickness) + (0.282 × the number of transferred top embryos) - (0.314 × previous transfer times), and the cutoff value of TLBP was 24.2%. The sensitivity of this model for predicting twin live birth was 75.6%, while the specificity was 52.5% in the external validation of 300 DET patients. Furthermore, the validation of 550 SET patients showed that the live birth rate of TLBP value positive patients was significantly higher than that in negative patients (54.3% vs. 35.5%, p < .001). When adopted an elective single cleavage embryo transfer strategy, the patients with a positive TLBP value choose SET, while still undergo DET who with a negative TLBP value, the live birth rate would maintain as 56.7%; however, the twin birth rate would significantly decline to 7.4%.Conclusion: Female age, endometrial thickness, the number of transferred top embryos and previous embryo transfer times were critical variables for the twin live birth prediction model. An elective single cleavage embryo transfer strategy according to this model can maintain the relatively high live birth rate, meanwhile get the acceptable low twin birth rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel, three-dimensional material of g-C3N4/MgO was prepared by pyrolysis method. The adsorption behavior for Pb(II) onto g-C3N4/MgO was systematically investigated. The adsorption experiments confirmed that the g-C3N4/MgO exhibited remarkable adsorption performance owing to its rough morphology and abundant active sites on the surface. The maximum adsorption capacities for Pb(II) reached to 220.3, 226.2 and 235.1 mg/g at 308 K, 318 K and 328 K, respectively. The optimum adsorbent dosage was 1.0 g/L. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm could be well described by the pseudo-second-order model and Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. The adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, optimal control problems of differential equations with delays are investigated for which the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman (HJB) equations are nonlinear partial differential equations with delays. This type of HJB equation has not been previously studied and is difficult to solve because the state equations do not possess smoothing properties. We introduce a new notion of viscosity solutions and identify the value functional of the optimal control problems as the unique solution to the associated HJB equations. An analytical example is given as application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been described as important immunosuppressive cells for maternal immune tolerance. The aim of this study was to detect whether there was any association between the peripheral blood MDSCs level and in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment outcomes. Methods: This prospective observational study randomly recruited 85 women who underwent IVF treatment from May 2016 to June 2016. The levels of peripheral blood granulocytic MDSC (G-MDSC), monocytic MDSC (M-MDSC) and their relations to IVF treatment outcomes were analyzed. Results: The circulating G-MDSC level was significantly increased in the clinical pregnant group when compared to that in the nonclinical pregnant group (p = .014), while M-MDSC had no significant difference. The G-MDSC level was an independent predictive factor for clinical pregnancy with odds ratios 12.7 (95% CI: 1.53-105.4, p = .018) when using multiple logistic regression analysis. A receiver operating characteristic analysis (area under curve = 0.634) found the clinical pregnancy rate in women with G-MDSC >2.38% was higher than that in women below this level (96 versus 66.7%, p = .004). The high G-MDSC level in the peripheral blood was associated with clinical pregnancy, with a sensitivity of 37.5%, specificity of 95.2%. Conclusion: High circulating G-MDSC level was associated with elevated clinical pregnancy rate. G-MDSC might be a new therapeutic target for better IVF treatment outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The activated biochar (ABC) was prepared, characterized and examined the feasibility of removing ethylparaben (EP) from aqueous solution. The characterization results showed that ABC possessed multi-porous structure and high surface area. The adsorption isotherm was well fitted the Langmuir isotherm and the adsorption kinetic followed the pseudo-second-order model. The maximum adsorption capacity of EP onto ABC was 349.65 mg/g at 298 K. The adsorption capacity maintained 90.82% after five successive adsorption/desorption cycles. ABC possessed high adsorption capacity, usability and stability, which indicating that ABC has great potential to be a promising adsorbent for removal of EP from aqueous solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder, presenting either autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive or X-linked inheritance patterns. The majority of OI cases are autosomal dominant and are caused by heterozygous mutations in either the COL1A1 or COL1A2 gene. In these dominant disorders, allele dropout (ADO) can lead to misdiagnosis in preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). Polymorphic markers linked to the mutated genes have been used to establish haplotypes for identifying ADO and ensuring the accuracy of PGD. However, the haplotype of male patients cannot be determined without data from affected relatives. Here, we developed a method for single-sperm-based single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) haplotyping via next-generation sequencing (NGS) for the PGD of OI. After NGS, 10 informative polymorphic SNP markers located upstream and downstream of the COL1A1 gene and its pathogenic mutation site were linked to individual alleles in a single sperm from an affected male. After haplotyping, a normal blastocyst was transferred to the uterus for a subsequent frozen embryo transfer cycle. The accuracy of PGD was confirmed by amniocentesis at 19 weeks of gestation. A healthy infant weighing 4,250 g was born via vaginal delivery at the 40th week of gestation. Single-sperm-based SNP haplotyping can be applied for PGD of any monogenic disorders or de novo mutations in males in whom the haplotype of paternal mutations cannot be determined due to a lack of affected relatives. Abbreviations: ADO: allele dropout; DI: dentinogenesis imperfect; ESHRE: European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology; FET: frozen embryo transfer; gDNA: genomic DNA; ICSI: intracytoplasmic sperm injection; IVF: in vitro fertilization; MDA: multiple displacement amplification; NGS: next-generation sequencing; OI: osteogenesis imperfect; PBS: phosphate buffer saline; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; PGD: preimplantation genetic diagnosis; SNP: single-nucleotide polymorphism; STR: short tandem repeat; TE: trophectoderm; WGA: whole-genome amplification [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carboxyl-modified biochar derived from palm fiber was prepared through pyrolysis and oxidation. The adsorption behavior for Pb(II), Cu(II) and Cd(II) on the carboxyl-modified biochar was systematically investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that the carboxyl-modified biochar exhibited impressive adsorption performance owing to its multi-porous structure and abundant adsorption sites on the surface. The maximum adsorption capacities for Pb(II), Cu(II) and Cd(II) reached 218.5, 132.1 and 79.9 mg/g, respectively. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm could be well described by the pseudo-second-order model and the Langmuir isotherm model, respectively. After five successive adsorption/desorption cycles, the removal efficiency was still more than 90%, 86% and 83% for Pb(II), Cu(II) and Cd(II), respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel magnetic biochar was prepared via pyrolysis method and modification. The influence factors of contact time, initial concentration, temperature, and pH on the adsorption were investigated. The experimental results exhibited that the adsorption ability of methyl salicylate onto biochar was higher than that of phenol and para-chlorophenol under the same condition, which may be owing to the effect of hydrogen bonding, hydrophobicity, and π-π interaction. The maximum adsorption capacities of phenol, para-chlorophenol and methyl salicylate were 62.6, 131.6, and 169.7 mg/g at 298 K, respectively. This magnetic biochar exhibited high reusability (retained 82.1% after five cycles) and sharply magnetic performance (21.4emu/g). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) have been described as important immunosuppressive cells for maternal immune tolerance. The aim of this study was to detect whether there was any association between the peripheral blood MDSCs level and in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment outcomes. Methods: This prospective observational study randomly recruited 85 women who underwent IVF treatment from May 2016 to June 2016. The levels of peripheral blood granulocytic MDSC (G-MDSC), monocytic MDSC (M-MDSC) and their relations to IVF treatment outcomes were analyzed. Results: The circulating G-MDSC level was significantly increased in the clinical pregnant group when compared to that in the nonclinical pregnant group (p = .014), while M-MDSC had no significant difference. The G-MDSC level was an independent predictive factor for clinical pregnancy with odds ratios 12.7 (95% CI: 1.53-105.4, p = .018) when using multiple logistic regression analysis. A receiver operating characteristic analysis (area under curve = 0.634) found the clinical pregnancy rate in women with G-MDSC >2.38% was higher than that in women below this level (96 versus 66.7%, p = .004). The high G-MDSC level in the peripheral blood was associated with clinical pregnancy, with a sensitivity of 37.5%, specificity of 95.2%. Conclusion: High circulating G-MDSC level was associated with elevated clinical pregnancy rate. G-MDSC might be a new therapeutic target for better IVF treatment outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the usefulness of next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) haplotyping for preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) of hemoglobin H (Hb H) disease. Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) was used for whole genome amplification (WGA) of biopsied trophectoderm (TE) cells. Gap-PCR and NGS-based SNP haplotyping was used to distinguish the two genotypes of -α3.7/αα and –SEA/αα for PGD of Hb H disease. One out of the ten blastocysts (B11) was successfully diagnosed as genotype -α3.7/αα by Gap-PCR, whereas the others revealed allele dropout (ADO) (B1, B2, B4, B5, B7, B8, B12, and B15) or amplification failure (B10). However, NGS-based SNP haplotyping successfully diagnosed the -α3.7/αα and –SEA/αα genotypes from the MDA products of the biopsied TE cells. The haplotyping result showed that B4, B7, B8, B10, B11, B12, and B15 were carriers of the -α3.7deletion (-α3.7/αα), whereas B1, B2, and B5 were carriers of the –SEAdeletion (–SEA/αα). A blastocyst (B11) was transferred into the uterus in a subsequent frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycle after PGD. A healthy infant with a -α3.7/αα genotype weighing 2,800 g was born by cesarean section at the 38thweek of gestation. This result indicates that NGS-based SNP haplotyping is a valid screening tool for the PGD of Hb H disease. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective: The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to assess the effect of subchorionic hematoma (SCH) on pregnancy outcomes in IVF/ICSI patients. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 1097 pregnancies achieved byin vitrofertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) or frozen-thawed embryo transfers (FETs) between January 2013 and June 2013 at the IVF center of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. The prevalence of SCH was 12.1% in this group (133/1097). We compared the pregnancy outcomes between the SCH group and non-SCH group, while the risk factors for SCH were also evaluated. Results: There was no significant difference between SCH group and non-SCH group with regard to patients’ age, spouse’s age, endometrial thickness, miscarriage rate (5.6% versus 6.2%,p > 0.05), second trimester fetus loss rate (5.6% versus 7.7%,p > 0.05) or live birth rate (89.5% versus 86.1%,p > 0.05). While the birth weight in singleton pregnancy in SCH group was significant lower (3207.8 ± 595.7 g versus 3349.2 ± 59.7 g,p= 0.03). SCH was more common in fresh embryo transfer patients than that in FET patients (16.6% versus 5.1%,p < 0.01), fresh embryo transfer was a high risk for SCH with OR 3.67, 95% CI: 2.28–5.90. Conclusion: We concluded that SCH was associated with lower birth weight in singleton pregnancy, but SCH did not increase pregnancy loss rate in IVF/ICSI patients, and fresh embryo transfer may contribute to SCH onset. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

M-estimation is a widely used technique for robust statistical inference. In this paper, we study robust partially functional linear regression model in which a scale response variable is explained by a function-valued variable and a finite number of real-valued variables. For the estimation of the regression parameters, which include the infinite dimensional function as well as the slope parameters for the real-valued variables, we use polynomial splines to approximate the slop parameter. The estimation procedure is easy to implement, and it is resistant to heavy-tailederrors or outliers in the response. The asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators are established. Finally, we assess the finite sample performance of the proposed method by Monte Carlo simulation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new Brauer-type eigenvalue localization set for tensors is given. We show that this set is tighter than those provided by Qi (J. Symbolic Comput. 2005 ), Li et al. (Numer. Linear Algebra App. 2014), and Li and Li (Linear and Multilinear Algebra, 2015). Based on this set, we give an upper bound for the spectral radius of nonnegative tensors, and prove that the new bound is sharper than those provided by Yang and Yang (SIAM J. Matrix Anal. App. 2010) and Li et al. (Numer. Linear Algebra App. 2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a controlled stochastic delay heat equation with Neumann boundary-noise and boundary-control is considered. The existence and uniqueness of the mild solution for the associated Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations are obtained by means of the backward stochastic differential equations, which is applied to the optimal control problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three-dimensional finite element model is developed for the simulation of the sound transmission through the human auditory periphery consisting of the external ear canal, middle ear and cochlea. The cochlea is modelled as a straight duct divided into two fluid-filled scalae by the basilar membrane (BM) having an orthotropic material property with dimensional variation along its length. In particular, an active feed-forward mechanism is added into the passive cochlear model to represent the activity of the outer hair cells (OHCs). An iterative procedure is proposed for calculating the nonlinear response resulting from the active cochlea in the frequency domain. Results on the middle-ear transfer function, BM steady-state frequency response and intracochlear pressure are derived. A good match of the model predictions with experimental data from the literatures demonstrates the validity of the ear model for simulating sound pressure gain of middle ear, frequency to place map, cochlear sensitivity and compressive output for large intensity input. The current model featuring an active cochlea is able to correlate directly the sound stimulus in the ear canal with the vibration of BM and provides a tool to explore the mechanisms by which sound pressure in the ear canal is converted to a stimulus for the OHCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive values of lipids and uric acid in mid-second trimester for adverse pregnancy outcome. Methods: Lipids and uric acid concentrations were measured in 1000 healthy nulliparous women at 20 weeks of gestation. Pregnancy outcomes were followed-up. The odds ratios (OR) and 95% CI were estimated with unconditional logistic regression adjusting for maternal age and body mass index (BMI). Results: Women who had elevated triglyceride (TG) in the mid-second trimester experienced a 2.91-fold risk (95% CI 1.58-5.34) for preeclampsia and a 2.03-fold risk (95% CI 1.29-3.19) for gestation diabetes mellitus (GDM). Hyperuricemic women experienced a 1.99-fold risk (95% CI 1.16-3.40) for preeclampsia and a 2.34-fold risk (95% CI 1.44-3.83) for GDM, while women who had decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc) experienced a 2.32-fold risk (95% CI 1.18-4.58) for preeclampsia, a 2.11-fold risk (95% CI 1.37-3.25) for GDM, and a 1.63-fold risk (95% CI 1.02-2.60) for delivering macrosomic newborns. These effects were concentration dependent, as risks increased with increasing TG quartiles and with decreasing HDLc quartiles. The result of the ROC analysis revealed that the sensitivity and specificity values for one marker alone was relatively low. But when combined TG, HDLc, uric acid, age and BMI together, the area under ROC curve increased to 0.71-0.77, sensitivity and specificity increased to 80-92% and 50-53%. Conclusion: The combination of these metabolic markers in mid-second trimester can be used to predict adverse pregnancy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the optimal control for a Banach space valued stochastic delay evolution equation. The existence and uniqueness of the mild solution for the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations are obtained by means of backward stochastic differential equations. An application to optimal control of stochastic delay partial differential equations is also given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we consider an optimal control problem in which the controlled state dynamics is governed by a stochastic evolution equation in Hilbert spaces and the cost functional has a quadratic growth. The existence and uniqueness of the optimal control are obtained by the means of an associated backward stochastic differential equations with a quadratic growth and an unbounded terminal value. As an application, an optimal control of stochastic partial differential equations with dynamical boundary conditions is also given to illustrate our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]