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Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by decreased platelet count. While corticosteroids are a useful first-line therapy for ITP patients, their long-term effectiveness is limited, and the determinants of corticosteroid sensitivity in ITP patients remain largely unknown. Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), a member of the mammalian sirtuin family, is related to the anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids. Here, we investigate the contribution of the SIRT1 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs12778366 and rs4746720 to ITP susceptibility. We recruited 330 ITP patients and 309 healthy controls from Han population, and performed genotyping of SIRT1 rs12778366 and rs4746720 using a MassARRAY system. The results were validated in another 55 ITP patients from ethnic minorities. Using clinical data of patients and controls from Han polulation, including corticosteroid sensitivity, susceptibility, refractoriness, and severity, our results revealed that the CC/TC genotypes of SIRT1 rs12778366 were associated with a 2.034-fold increased risk of corticosteroid resistance compared to the homozygous major TT genotype (dominant, CC/TC vs. TT, OR = 2.034, 95% CI = 1.039–3.984, p = 0.038). In contrast, the CC/CT genotype of SIRT1 rs4746720 showed a 0.560-fold decreased risk of corticosteroid resistance (dominant, 95% CI = 0.321–0.976, OR = 0.560, p = 0.041). The C allele substitute in SIRT1 rs12778366 was significantly associated with the corticosteroid sensitivity of ITP patients (p = 0.021). The similar results were obtained in minority ITP patients. This study indicates that SIRT1 rs12778366 and rs4746720 may be genetic factors related to corticosteroid sensitivity in ITP patients.

This work proposes a clock and data alignment scheme for the readout electronics system of the future PandaX-nT dark matter detection experiments. Since the waveform information of the photomultiplier signal is obtained by accumulating all acquisition channels of the front-end digitization module (FDM), it is required that each FDM acquisition channel should be synchronized. The readout electronics system is composed of a clock distribution module, 64 FDMs, and 4 data acquisition (DAQ) modules. The multi-board synchronous acquisition circuit can provide the same REF CLOCK and SYSREF signal for multiple FDMs boards to ensure the alignment of the sampled data collected by the analog-to-digital converter. The data aggregation circuit can ensure that the sampled data of multiple FDM boards are aligned with each other when they are aggregated to the DAQ board. The functional verification test results show that the synchronization between the prototype electronics channels is less than 80 ps, thus enabling to meet the requirements of the readout electronics prototype of PandaX-nT.

Recently, Raman Spectroscopy (RS) was demonstrated to be a non-destructive way of cancer diagnosis, due to the uniqueness of RS measurements in revealing molecular biochemical changes between cancerous vs. normal tissues and cells. In order to design computational approaches for cancer detection, the quality and quantity of tissue samples for RS are important for accurate prediction. In reality, however, obtaining skin cancer samples is difficult and expensive due to privacy and other constraints. With a small number of samples, the training of the classifier is difficult, and often results in overfitting. Therefore, it is important to have more samples to better train classifiers for accurate cancer tissue classification. To overcome these limitations, this paper presents a novel generative adversarial network based skin cancer tissue classification framework. Specifically, we design a data augmentation module that employs a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) to generate synthetic RS data resembling the training data classes. The original tissue samples and the generated data are concatenated to train classification modules. Experiments on real-world RS data demonstrate that (1) data augmentation can help improve skin cancer tissue classification accuracy, and (2) generative adversarial network can be used to generate reliable synthetic Raman spectroscopic data.

The data compression technology now is fully developed and widely used in many fields such as communication, multi-media, image information processing and so on. The large physical experiments, especially the ones with Micro-pattern Gas Detectors (MPGD), which always have many readout channels and have a lot of data to be transferred and saved, are however relatively seldom use this technology. In this paper, the real-time lossless data compression method is proposed for a general-purposed MPGD readout system. The lossless data compression can reduce the data transmission bandwidth of the system as well as keep all information of the data. The compression method discussed in the paper mainly consists of two steps. The first step is to pre-process the data according to different characteristics of different signals and the second step is to compress the pre-processed data using common lossless compression algorithm. Besides, the whole compression method is implemented in the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and able to run real-timely. The system is then used to readout two different kinds of signals and the compression rate can reach as high as 43% and 30% respectively.

Objective The purpose of this study was to explore the insulin level in the serum of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients during acute exacerbation (AE). Methods The study population consisted of 22 acute exacerbation chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) patients, 20 COPD patients and 20 healthy controls. Fasting blood glucose, insulin and serum lipid levels were measured. After the patients recovered from AE, the insulin and glucose levels were also analyzed. Results Insulin level, glucose level and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) of AECOPD patients were higher than healthy controls (7.19±6.02 vs 3.28±1.09 μIU/mL, P 0.05). Conclusion A high insulin level and a high HOMA-IR status in COPD patients were demonstrated. Downregulated levels of insulin during AE compared with the convalescent state were detected, while the variation in the glucose level was not as great as expected, indicating a potentially important role for insulin in AECOPD.

The primary issues for the popularization of electric vehicles are low energy density, short life, high cost, and long charging time of battery. In an extended-range electric vehicle, a range-extender is applied to realize the on-board electricity generation avoiding the range anxiety; and a large capacity battery and public charging facilities are not necessary. A primary issue is lack of an efficient range-extender that is light, compact and silent. The main reasons are that the efficiencies of range-extended engines now available are low; and the efficiency optimum operating points of the range-extended engines and generators are not matched. A 3-cylidner gasoline spark-ignition engine for an application in a range-extender has been investigated. Atkinson cycle, exhaust gas recirculation and gasoline direct injection are applied to suppress the knocking. At most cases, a range-extender engine has only a most frequent operating point. All design parameters and operating variables of the range-extender engine can be optimized around the single operating point to maximize the efficiency while matching to the highest efficiency point of a range-extender generator. For this purpose, an optimization and matching method by combing artificial neural network and genetic algorithm has been investigated. The optimization and matching for a range-extender engine, with no generator constraint and with three different constraints of generator efficiency maps, have been conducted. The results show that both the operating points and the optimal parameters of the range-extender engine are different under the different generator constraints. A higher maximum thermal efficiency of the range-extender engine can be achieved as the power requirement decreases. The maximum efficiency of the range-extender engine can reach 40.2%, which is because of the application of high geometrical compression ratio, exhaust gas recirculation, Atkinson cycle and single-point optimization of all parameters.

Hospital readmission prediction is a study to learn models from historical medical data to predict probability of a patient returning to hospital in a certain period, e.g. 30 or 90 days, after the discharge. The motivation is to help health providers deliver better treatment and post-discharge strategies, lower the hospital readmission rate, and eventually reduce the medical costs. Due to inherent complexity of diseases and healthcare ecosystems, modeling hospital readmission is facing many challenges. By now, a variety of methods have been developed, but existing literature fails to deliver a complete picture to answer some fundamental questions, such as what are the main challenges and solutions in modeling hospital readmission; what are typical features/models used for readmission prediction; how to achieve meaningful and transparent predictions for decision making; and what are possible conflicts when deploying predictive approaches for real-world usages. In this paper, we systematically review computational models for hospital readmission prediction, and propose a taxonomy of challenges featuring four main categories: (1) data variety and complexity; (2) data imbalance, locality and privacy; (3) model interpretability; and (4) model implementation. The review summarizes methods in each category, and highlights technical solutions proposed to address the challenges. In addition, a review of datasets and resources available for hospital readmission modeling also provides firsthand materials to support researchers and practitioners to design new approaches for effective and efficient hospital readmission prediction.

This study aims to minimize the noise generated by automobile cooling fans. Fan blade structures with ridged surfaces based on bio-inspired principles are 3D printed and used to replace the conventional fan blades. The effect of the bio-inspired ridge structures on the noise reduction of the cooling fan is demonstrated by orthogonal experiments in a semi-anechoic chamber. Experimental results show that with an increase in the rotational speed, the effect of the surface textures on the acoustic performance of the cooling fan becomes more significant. For example, at a fan speed of 1750 r/min, all the bio-inspired blade designs reduce noise compared with the original fan and, in particular, the sound pressure level is reduced by 3.83 dB(A) for the design with a ridge width of 4 mm and a ridge pitch of 15 mm. Through variance analysis of the measured noise, the ridge pitch distance has the most significant impact on noise reduction under low speed conditions whilst, under high speed conditions, the ridge width has the most significant influence. In addition to the experimental studies, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the cooling fan are carried out to explain the mechanism of noise reduction for the ridged fan blades. When the fan runs, the horseshoe vortexes generated by the ridge structures disturb the flow of the boundary layer, reduce the influence of the fluid flow on the boundary layer, and delay the transition of the fan blade laminar flow to turbulence. It is also seen that there is a reduction of the intensity of the fan blade trailing edge vortices and the scale of the secondary vortices, thereby achieving the overall aim of noise reduction. This research has significance in the noise reduction design of automobile cooling fans.

Cancer immunotherapy by immune checkpoint blockade has been effective in the treatment of certain tumors. However, the association between immune checkpoints and autoimmune diseases remains elusive and requires urgent investigation. Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), characterized by reduced platelet count and a consequent increased risk of bleeding, is an autoimmune disorder with a hyper-activated T cell response. Here, we investigated the contribution of immune checkpoint-related single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including CD28, ICOS, PD1, TNFSF4, DNAM1, TIM3, CTLA4, and LAG3 to the susceptibility and therapeutic effects of ITP. In this case-control study, 307 ITP patients and 295 age-matched healthy participants were recruited. We used the MassARRAY system for genotyping immune checkpoint-related SNPs. Our results revealed that rs1980422 in CD28 was associated with an increased risk of ITP after false discovery rate correction (codominant, CT vs. TT, OR = 1.788, 95% CI = 1.178–2.713, p = 0.006). In addition, CD28 expression at both the mRNA and protein levels was significantly higher in patients with CT than in those with the TT genotype (p = 0.028 and p = 0.001, respectively). Furthermore, the T allele of PD1 rs36084323 was a risk factor for ITP severity and the T allele of DNAM1 rs763361 for corticosteroid-resistance. In contrast, the T allele of LAG3 rs870849 was a protective factor for ITP severity, and the T allele of ICOS rs6726035 was protective against corticosteroid-resistance. The TT/CT genotypes of PD1 rs36084323 also showed an 8.889-fold increase in the risk of developing refractory ITP. This study indicates that immune checkpoint-related SNPs, especially CD28 rs1980422, may be genetic factors associated with the development and treatment of ITP patients. Our results shed new light on prognosis prediction, disease severity, and discovering new therapeutic targets.

In this paper, the influence of antenna height on microwave propagation in evaporation duct is investigated, both from numerical simulation and experimental observation. Comparisons of microwave propagation with different antenna heights under different conditions, such as different evaporation duct heights (EDHs) and signal frequencies, are presented. At distinct conditions, the corresponding optimal antenna heights are not the same. When the EDH is low, microwaves cannot be trapped and propagate in the evaporation duct layer. The higher the antenna height, the smaller the path loss. For the case when the evaporation duct can trap microwaves well, a low antenna is more suitable for the propagation of microwaves in the evaporation duct layer. However, the optimal antenna height varies for different EDHs and frequencies. The influence of antenna height on microwave propagation was observed in the experiment held in the northern part of the South China Sea in December 2013. The experiment result shows that under good evaporation duct conditions, the path loss at antenna height 3 m are 10 dB lower in average than that at 6 m.

Ovarian cancer is prone to recurrence and chemotherapy resistance. Ovarian tumours of some patients have been positive for anaplastic lymphoma kinase fusion gene expression (ALK+). Preclinical studies indicate that anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor can suppress the growth of ovarian cancer cells and transplantation tumours. Here, we present a patient with metastatic ALK+ high-grade serous ovarian cancer that testing positive for EML4-ALK (microtubule-associated protein-like 4 gene, fused to the anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene), experienced dramatic benefit after administration of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitor alectinib. This is the first clinical evidence that treatment with alectinib may provide a personalized maximum benefit for patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer who are positive for EML4-ALK.

In graph theory, Hamiltonian path refers to the path that visits each vertex exactly once. In this paper, we designed a method to generate random Hamiltonian path within digital images, which is equivalent to permutation in image encryption. By these means, building a Hamiltonian path across bit planes can shuffle the distribution of the pixel’s bits. Furthermore, a similar thought can be applied for the substitution of pixel’s grey levels. To ensure the randomness of the generated Hamiltonian path, an adjusted Bernoulli map is proposed. By adopting these novel techniques, a bit-level image encryption scheme was devised. Evaluation of simulation results proves that the proposed scheme reached fair performance. In addition, a common flaw in calculating correlation coefficients of adjacent pixels was pinpointed by us. After enhancement, correlation coefficient becomes a stricter criterion for image encryption algorithms.

A low-energy ion spectrometer (LEIS) for use aboard three-axis stabilized spacecraft has been developed to measure ion energy per charge distribution in three-dimensional space with good energy-, angular- and temporal-resolutions. For the standard top-hat electrostatic analyzer used widely in space plasma detection, three-axis stabilized spacecraft makes it difficult to obtain complete coverage of all possible ion arrival directions. We have designed angular scanning deflectors supplementing to a cylindrically symmetric top-hat electrostatic analyzer to provide a half-space field of view as 360°×90° (–45°–+45°), and fabricated the LEIS flight model for detecting magnetospheric ions in geosynchronous orbit. The performance of this payload has been evaluated in detail by a series of simulation and environmental tests, and the payload has also been calibrated through laboratory experiments using a low-energy ion source. The results show that capabilities of the LEIS payload are in accordance with the requirements of a magnetospheric mission.

Allelic diversity in the wild grass Aegilops tauschii is vastly greater than that in the D genome of common wheat (Triticum aestivum), of which Ae. tauschii is the source. Since the 1980s, there have been numerous efforts to harness a much larger share of Ae. tauschii's extensive and highly variable gene pool for wheat improvement. Those efforts have followed two distinct approaches: production of amphiploids, known as “synthetic hexaploids,” between T. turgidum and Ae. tauschii, and direct hybridization between T. aestivum and Ae. tauschii; both approaches then involve backcrossing to T. aestivum. Both synthetic hexaploid production and direct hybridization have led to the transfer of numerous new genes into common wheat that confer improvements in many traits. This work has led to release of improved cultivars in China, the United States, and many other countries. Each approach to D-genome improvement has advantages and disadvantages. For example, production of synthetic hexaploids can incorporate useful germplasm from both T. turgidum and Ae. tauschii, thereby enhancing the A, B, and D genomes; on the other hand, direct hybridization rapidly restores the recurrent parent's A and B genomes and avoids incorporation of genes with adverse effects on threshability, hybrid necrosis, vernalization response, milling and baking quality, and other traits, which are often transferred when T. turgidum is used as a parent. Choice of method will depend in part on the type of wheat being developed and the target environment. However, more extensive use of the so-far underexploited direct hybridization approach is especially warranted.

The three- phase AC-DC-AC converter with thin-film capacitance is required to reduce capacitance to enhance the power density of the device. A novel three-phase AC-DC-AC without or with a quite small DC-link capacitor based on improving modulation wave reconstruction technology is proposed. Accordingly, work principle and switch mode under resist and reactive load is analyzed, and modes of “refluent” current produced by A-phase-bridge of three-phase AC-DC-AC with reactive load are expounded in detail. On the basis of analysis results, the selecting method of the DC capacitor of novel inverter is given. The results verify the feasibility of selection the minimum DC capacitor scheme based on “refluent” current.

A low-energy ion spectrometer has been successfully developed, with the objective of measuring low-energy ions of 100 eV/e ~25 keV/e on a three-axis stabilized satellite in geosynchronous orbit. This instrument requires that the readout electronics system has the characteristics of 16 micro-channel plates (MCP) channels for 22.5° angle resolution detection, sensitivity higher than 1 × 104 electrons, event rate up to 10 MHz, and less than 10 W power consumption. In this paper, radiation-hardened readout electronics has been designed for the detector, considering the space radiation environment. The system consists 16 low-noise charge sensitive preamplifier-discriminators (A121s) which are employed for data acquisition of MCP channels to use in fast pulse counting mode, antifuse field programmable gate array (FPGA) which is used for data storage and package, high voltage (HV) control, self-test circuits, states monitor module and communication module with upper host. In addition, what improve the reliability of the system is the FPGA-based satellite onboard software adopts the method of triple modular redundancy (TMR) and refreshes all external key registers at regular time. During the performance experiments, the test results show that the readout electronics achieves 12 MHz event rate, 5 × 104 electrons sensitivity, and total power consumption of 4.73 W, showing that the performance meets the spectrometer physical requirement. The system stably operates all function in a series of environment tests. Key words: Low-energy ion spectrometer, Readout electronics, Antifuse FPGA, A121

Electric vehicle charging station is the infrastructure to provide electric energy for electric vehicles (EV). Reasonable location of charging station is of great significance to promote the popularization of EVs. Firstly, the ownership of EVs in the selected area is forecasted. According to the ownership and driving characteristics of various types of EVs, the total charging demand of EVs and the charging demand of each network node are obtained. Secondly, the location model of charging station is established to minimize the sum of operation and maintenance costs of charging station and user loss costs. Finally, weighted Voronoi diagram and adaptive particle swarm optimization are used. The results show that this method can optimize the annual average comprehensive cost of charging station. Graphic user interface (GUI) is designed to display the result of location, which makes the location scheme more intuitive.

Immune thrombocytopaenia (ITP) is the most common autoimmune bleeding disorder, where platelets are destroyed by auto-antibodies and/or cell-mediated mechanisms. To understand the pathogenesis of ITP and explore novel therapeutics, three types of animal models have been used: passive ITP, secondary ITP and platelet-induced ITP. However, the first two are not ideal for chronic ITP pathophysiology where both T cell and B cell play important roles in platelet destruction. The most efficient model to mimic chronic ITP is developed by Chow et al through transferring splenocytes from platelet-immune CD61-knockout (KO) mice into mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). However, placental defects are evident in 25% of CD61-KO females and post-natal haemorrhage does occur, reducing the survival rate of embryos and pups. Compared with CD61-KO mice, CD41-KO ones do not present such problems. In our study, we employ CD41-KO mice as another source of immunized spleen cells. We evaluated our model with existing standards. Transferred SCID mice presented typical features of ITP, such as reduced platelet counts in the peripheral blood, increased anti-platelet antibody levels in the serum and reduced mature megakaryocytes in the bone marrow. What is more, lymphocyte-depletion experiments showed the role of CD8+ T cells in mature megakaryocyte decrease and thrombocytopaenia. And we confirmed the antibody-mediated platelet destruction by phagocytosis in the spleen. Our study develops another efficient murine ITP model through immunized CD41-KO mice.

It usually contains a large amount of redundant information to use the hyperspectral information to create a model, which will increase the difficulty of the model analysis. Therefore, it’s so important to select the characteristic wavelength in an effective and quick way. This study is proposed by using the competitive adaptive reweighed sampling (CARS) to select the characteristic wavelength for detecting the reducing sugar content in the potatoes. In that experiment a total of 238 samples are prepared. Among them, 190 samples are selected as the calibration set and 48 samples as the validation set. The performance of CARS is compared with full spectrum and classical variable extraction methods such as Monte Carlo uninformative variable elimination (MC-UVE), genetic algorithm (GA) and moving window partial least squares (MWPLS). Experimental results show that the band screened by algorithm CARS has the best effect, compared to full spectrum modeling, the wavelength of the model reduces from 203 to 33, the model validation set coefficient R 2 increases from 0.8464 to 0.8965, and the root mean square error prediction (RMSEP) decreases from 0.0758 to 0.0416. The results demonstrate that it is feasible to detect the reducing sugar content of potatoes by using CARS combined with hyperspectral imaging.

Limited by the operation mode of ‘heat-set’ is one of the main reasons for the large amount of wind abandonment in Northeast China. Reasonable allocation of electric heat storage system is an effective means to improve the wind power absorption capacity of regional power grid. In this paper, an optimal capacity allocation model of electric heat storage system considering peak regulation auxiliary services is proposed, and the optimal capacity of electric heat storage system is solved based on game theory. Firstly, the economic benefits of each stakeholder participating in peak regulation ancillary service market are analyzed by allocating electric heat storage equipment in thermal power plants. Secondly, a bi-level programming model for optimal capacity allocation of electric thermal storage system is established. Finally, the model is optimized by particle swarm optimization and Cplex hybrid optimization method. The optimal configuration scheme of the electric heat storage system is obtained by solving the optimization problem. The example shows that the model is reasonable and effective.

Detection of starch content in potato is studied applying hyperspectral imaging technique in the paper. The original and preprocessing spectra were processed with partial least square(PLS) method to build prediction model of starch content. The original spectra between 400 and 1000nm was preprocessed with smoothing, second derivation, and multiplicative scatter correction (MSC). Prediction model was built with preprocessing spectra by applying principal component analysis (PCA). Known from the result, the model based on the preprocessing spectra preprocessed with smoothing and PCA is the best of all prediction models built in research. The determination coefficient (R2)of calibration set and prediction set was 0.8234 and 0.9031 respectively. The root mean square error of calibration set (ＲMSEC) and root mean square error of validation set(ＲMSEV) was 0.5633 and 0.5025，respectively．It indicated that this method could be applied in detection of starch content in potato. The study could offer theoretical and practical reference for further study in the future.

The geometrical structure and size of a distributed microphone array are usually irregular, and need to be estimated in many applications. A microphone position calibration method based on combination of acoustic energy decay model and time difference of arrival for distributed microphone arrays is proposed in this paper. The method utilizes the acoustic energy decay model to estimate the coarse distance between the microphone and the sound source, and then applies time difference of arrival to search for the accurate distance within a certain range near the coarse distance. Finally, the minimum mean square error estimation method is employed to determine the position of the microphone. The proposed method has a high positioning accuracy, stable calibration performance and low computational complexity. Simulation results reveal the validity of the proposed method at a theoretical level.

In this paper, the field measured wheel wear data of high-speed trains are studied by variance analysis, and prediction models are developed using NAR and BP neural networks. The results show that the wheel position has a significant effect on the wheel wear, and the position of the carriage has little influence on the wheel wear. The NAR neural network can be used to predict the dynamic change of wheel diameter and therefore to predict the wheel wear of high-speed trains. The wheel diameter data are classified and the range of wheel wear can be predicted by means of training the BP neural network.

Monitoring the nitrogen status of corn crop has significant influence in rational fertilization, production expansion, and pollution (caused by excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer) reduction. In order to rapidly acquire corn nutrient information in the field, a nondestructive method of corn nitrogen content measurement was conducted based on multispectral imaging. The multi-spectral image monitoring system was deployed to acquire the canopy images of corn at jointing stage, and each sample's nitrogen content was measured by AA3 continuous flow analyzer (CFA). 11 vegetation indices, including AVS R , AVS G , AVS NIR , NDVI, GNDVI, RVI R/G , RVI R/NIR , RVI NIR/R , RNR, GNR and NIRNR, were calculated. Correlation analysis was then conducted to reduce the dimension of data so as to acquire 3 sensitive spectral characteristic parameters. The corn nitrogen nutrition diagnosis model at jointing stage was built with simple linear and polynomial regression method based on single sensitive spectral characteristic parameter. Moreover, the model was built with least squares multiple regression method with 3 sensitive spectral characteristic parameters. It was feasible to diagnose nitrogen content of corn based on multi-spectral images.

A PMMA grating waveguide tube-based terahertz (THz) gas pressure sensor was developed, and the transmission properties were investigated experimentally and theoretically. A double-groove chirped grating structure with a gradient etching depth was adopted to enhance the extinction ratio and improve the detection sensitivity. Nitrogen pressure detection was realized and compared between the tube waveguides with and without the grating structure by a THz time-domain spectroscopy system. The results indicate that a better extinction ratio and detection sensitivity can be realized with the double-groove chirped grating waveguide tube, which can achieve a pressure detection sensitivity of 26.33 dB MPa−1. The presented double-groove chirped grating waveguide tube with a gradient etching depth is expected to have wide application prospects for THz gas sensing applications.

This paper provides an online virtual 7home decoration system, which integrates web interaction technique into virtual home decoration. The main functions of this system include house design, house decoration, and data management. For the house design, an automatic joint method of the walls is proposed, in order to design various house. For the house decoration, we introduce the wall decoration principle corresponding to the algorithm of discretization on the walls, which contains doors or windows, and triangularization on the irregular floors. To variety of different textures and collage regulations, we provide a new texture collage mapping method. Technology of rendering to texture is used to generate a small geometry texture, which will be mapped into a large target object on the basis of the texture's structural properties. As a result, the whole texture continuity is also maintained. In data management aspect, we embed a browser into this system so that users can conveniently obtain decoration models on the basis of web interaction. After these models have been downloaded, they can be shown in virtual scene according to guide information. In addition, some quotation lists can be generated automatically. Experimental results show that an authentic house can be easily presented in our system. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Urea-Selective catalytic reduction(Urea-SCR) method is an effective way to reduce the NO x emissions for diesel engine, and the closed-loop state feedback control strategy is widely studied by many researchers. In order to estimate the un-measurement state, this paper uses extended Kalman filter(EKF) to design a state observer for Urea-SCR system. Firstly, a two-cell Urea-SCR model is given. Secondly the two-cell Urea-SCR model is dispersed by Backward Euler method at each sampling instant. Thirdly, tailpipe NO x and ammonia concentration are chosen as the output of the Urea-SCR system and then used by EKF to estimate state variables of the upstream and downstream catalyst. At last, the effectiveness of the observer is validated by simulations under FTP75 driving cycles in enDYNA.

Introduction: Adult primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune-mediated haemorrhagic disorder characterized by excessive platelet destruction and decreased platelet production. ITP patients have a Th1 dominant profile, which was involved in the pathogenesis of ITP. Interleukin-16 (IL-16) can directly affect cellular or humoral immunity by mediating the cellular cross-talk among T cells, B cells and dendritic cells. Several studies have focused on IL-16 as an immunomodulatory cytokine that takes part in Th1 polarization in autoimmune diseases, but the roles of IL-16 in ITP remain unknown. Treatment with high-dose dexamethasone (HD-DXM) as a single-agent for four days has been widely recognized as the first-line therapy for ITP patients in need of clinical management. The aim of this study is to investigate the roles of IL-16 and effect of HD-DXM on IL-16 in ITP. Methods: We investigated the differences in IL-16 expression in the bone marrow and peripheral blood between ITP patients and healthy controls by ELISA. The mRNA expression of pro-IL-16, caspase-3 and T-bet in active ITP patients and healthy controls were quantified by real-time PCR. Furthermore, we detected changes in IL-16 concentration and gene expression before and after the 4-day HD-DXM therapy. Bone marrow samples were obtained from 23 patients and 10 healthy bone marrow donors, and peripheral blood samples were obtained from 64 patients (among them, 21 received single-agent HD-DXM therapy, the peripheral blood samples were obtained before HD-DXM therapy and 28 days after HD-DXM administration) and 38 healthy blood donors. Adult primary ITP patients with active disease were enrolled in this study between May 2015 and January 2018 at the Department of Haematology, Qilu Hospital, Shandong University, Jinan, China. Results: The concentration of IL-16 in the bone marrow supernatants and plasma of active ITP patients was significantly higher compared with that of the healthy controls (P < 0.05) (Fig. 1A, B). Gene expression of pro-IL-16 and caspase-3 in bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) in ITP patients elevated compared with healthy controls (P < 0.05) (Fig. 2A). Besides, gene expression of pro-IL-16, caspase-3 and T-bet in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in ITP patients elevated (P < 0.05) (Fig. 2B). Among the 21 patients which received single-agent HD-DXM therapy, 18 responded effectively to the HD-DXM therapy according to the standard definition. The post-treatment plasma (n=21) IL-16 level decreased significantly compared with that of pre-treatment level (P < 0.05), and the level of IL-16 in the plasma of ITP patients before and after HD-DXM treatment was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (P < 0.05) (Fig. 1C). There was no correlation between IL-16 levels in the bone marrow supernatant or plasma and platelet count (data not shown). In addition, pro-IL-16, caspase-3, T-bet mRNA expression was significantly decreased after treatment with HD-DMX (P < 0.05) (Fig. 2C), although the corresponding values in patients were not statistically higher than those of healthy controls. The correlation between the plasma IL-16 concentration and pro-IL-16, caspase-3 and T-bet mRNA levels was also analysed in ITP patients (n = 21). The results demonstrated that the mRNA levels of the three detected factors were positively correlated with plasma IL-16 concentration (r2 = 0.5846, P < 0.05, r2 = 0.3980, P < 0.05 and r2 = 0.3145, P Conclusions: ITP is an autoimmune disorder; complex interactions among antigen-presenting cells, T cells and B cells are pivotal to its pathogenesis. Our data suggest that IL-16 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of ITP by polarization of Th1. Furthermore, by modulating the abnormal IL-16 level associated with the Th1 imbalance via treatment with pulsed HD-DXM provided us with new insights into the immune regulatory mechanisms for the treatment of ITP. In our future study, we will use an in vitro study system to test and verify if the anti-IL-16 antibody can be used to treat adult ITP. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Backgrounds:Primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an acquired autoimmune disease characterized by reduced platelet count and an increased risk of bleeding. The imbalance of Treg/Th17 cells has been demonstrated in ITP, but the mechanism of Th17/Treg cells imbalance is still not clear. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the expression of helper T (Th) or Treg cell-related microRNAs, such as miR-183-96-182 cluster, miR-17-5p, miR-99a, miR-146-5p, miR-155-5p, miR-181-5p, and miR-326, regulates the ratio of Th17/Treg in CD4+ T cells and could be used to evaluate the clinical implications of ITP patients. Methods: Peripheral blood was obtained from 54 patients with active ITP and 34 healthy controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated using Ficoll density-gradient centrifugation and the CD4+ cells were separated by immuno-magnetic microbeads selection. Amplification technique of RT-PCR using stem-loop primers was applied to detect the relative expression of microRNAs (miR-17-5p, miR-99a, miR-96-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-155-5p, miR-181a-5p, miR-182-5p, miR-183-5, miR-326) and U6 was normalized as control for miRNA quantification. The frequencies of Th17 and Treg cells in peripheral blood were analyzed by flow cytometry. The mRNA expression levels of Il-6, Il-10, Il-17, Rorγ-t and Foxp-3 in CD4+ cells were determined by RT-PCR. Platelet autoantibodies specific for GPIIb/IIIaor GPIb/IX were measured using MAIPA method. CD4+ cells were transfected with miRNAs (miR-99a, miR-182-5p, miR-183-5), mimics or inhibitors, which were used to detect the function of miRNAs. Cytokines in culture medium were determined by ELISA. Results: Our results showed that the relative expression of miR-182-5p and miR-183-5p in CD4+ cells was significantly increased in active ITP patients, compared to healthy controls (miR-182-5p, median 9.2678 vs 5.2723, p < 0.05, Fig. 1a; miR-183-5p, median 5.4435 vs 2.009, p < 0.05, Fig. 1b). In addition, the relative expression of miR-99a in ITP patients was lower than that of healthy controls (median 3.4214 vs 7.9648, p < 0.05; Fig. 1c). Moreover, the frequency of Treg cells decreased significantly in ITP patients compared to those in controls (1.89±1.59% vs 4.12±1.42%, p < 0.05; Fig. 2a), and the percentage of Treg cells was positively correlated with the relative expression of miR-99a in ITP patients(r=0.461, p< 0.05; Fig. 2c) and health controls(r=0.729, p< 0.05; Fig. 2d). Though the percentage of Th17 cells increased in ITP patients compared to the health controls (3.51±2.13%vs 1.85±0.63%, p < 0.05; Fig. 2b), there was no correlation between the percentage of Th17 and the relative expression of microRNAs in ITP patients or health controls. Besides, there was no correlation between the expression of mRNAs (Il-10, Il-17, Rorγ-t and Foxp-3) and microRNAs (miR-99a, miRNA-182-5p or miR-183-5p). No significant correlation was found between the microRNAs expression and platelets counts or different autoantibody subsets in ITP patients. The relative expression of other microRNAs (miR-17-5p, miR-96-5p, miR-146a-5p, miR-155-5p, miR-181-5p, miR-326) revealed no difference in CD4+ cells between ITP patients and health controls. Furthermore, the down-regulated expression of miR-183-5p with inhibitors promoted to the differentiation of Th17 cells(Fig. 3a), while up-regulated expression of miR-99a with mimics contributed to Treg cells in CD4+ cells from ITP patients (Fig. 3b). Meanwhile, the IL-17A in culture medium decreased in inhibitor group of miR-183-5p or miR-183-5p. However, miR-182-5p inhibitor had no effect on the differentiation of Th17 cells. Conclusions: Our results show the abnormal expression of microRNAs (miR-99a, miRNA-182-5p and miR-183-5p) in CD4+ cells and the miR-99a was closely correlated with the Treg cells. The aberrant expression of microRNAs may contribute to the imbalance of Th17/Treg cells in the development of ITP patients and potentially constitute a novel therapeutic target. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Introduction: Primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) are caused by gene defects that impair function of the innate or adaptive immune systems. An increasing number of patients have been identified with a causative monogenic defect. More than 300 different genetic defects have been found [J Clin Immunol (2018) 38:96-128]. The NFKB1 gene is strongly associated with PID. Heterozygous variants of NFKB1 cause a progressive defect in formation of immunoglobulin-producing B cells [Cell (2017) 168:37-57]. Here, we introduce a new NFKB1 mutation. Methods: A patient with a 20-year history of diarrhea was recently hospitalized due to three months of interrupted fever. Chest computed tomography (CT) showed bilateral pneumonia, splenomegaly, and retro-peritoneal lymphadenopathy. We highly suspect that he has primary immunodeficiency and collected blood samples from all family members to identify the gene mutation. Family history. The patient's father (I.2) died early and his mother (I.1) died of cerebral infarction a few months ago. The patient has two brothers and two sisters. One brother (II.1) died of tuberculosis, the other (II.4) is healthy. One sister (II.3) died of stomach cancer, the other (II.2) has a history of left breast cancer and has received chemotherapy three times. His son (III.1) is clinically asymptomatic. His wife (II.6) is healthy (Figure 1). Blood samples. We evaluated complement components and quantified immunoglobulin levels of the family members, and determined the B cell ratio of the patient. Next, we performed whole exon sequencing by next-generation sequencing. We also predicted the protein structure of the mutant gene. Results: The patient has severely decreased levels of serum IgG, IgA, and IgM. Unexpectedly, his son has moderately reduced IgG levels, while others' immunoglobulin is normal. The patient's lymphocyte subgroups revealed a high ratio of CD3+, CD3+/CD8+ lymphocytes and low ratio of CD19+, CD56+CD16+ lymphocytes, which suggests a decreased proportion of B lymphocytes (Table 1). Next-generation sequencing revealed all known gene mutations of this family. Using Phenolyzer software (a tool that uses prior information to implicate genes involved in diseases), we selected three candidate genes: RAG1, C2, and NFKB1. The patient (II.5), his sister (II.2), and his son (III.1) all have a heterozygous mutation of RAG1. Thus, we ruled out RAG1, as it does not conform to Mendel's laws in this family. C2 was also excluded due to the low haploinsufficiency score (0.178). Interestingly, the patient (II.5) and his son (III.1) both have a heterozygous mutation of NFKB1, while others do not. NFKB1 shows a high haploinsufficiency score (0.945), suggesting that the single functional copy of the gene may not produce enough protein. Thus, we hypothesize that NFKB1 is the disease-causing gene in this family. Further investigation revealed a heterozygous NFKB1 frame shift mutation (c.2053delG: p.G685fs) in the patient and his son. Other family members possess wild-type NFKB1. The novel frameshift mutation influences three transcriptomes with a similar coding sequence to the NFKB1 gene. Sanger sequencing verified the results. The NFKB1 gene consists of four regions: Rel homology, glycine-rich, ankyrin repeats, and DEATH domain. Our prediction of the protein structure suggests that the frameshift mutation occurred in the ankyrin repeats region. Studies have shown that large deletions in the ankyrin repeats region may cause deficiency in class-switched memory B cell generation. This mutation results in a loss of 283 amino acids and addition of 40 new amino acids. Prediction of the tertiary structure illustrated that the coding protein is terminated early. The mutation results in loss of some helixes and formation of a new helix at the C-terminal. This is a novel mutation of NFKB1 that has not previously been reported in PID, and which forms a new protein structure (Figure 2). Conclusions: Our findings broaden the scope of phenotypes caused by mutations in NFKB1. We suspect that this heterozygous mutation of NFKB1 may lead to fewer immunoglobulins produced.Onset was delayed for this patient, at the age of 20. His son is 25 years old now, with moderately reduced levels of IgG but without symptoms. We suspect that he may be ill in the future and recommended that he seek genetic counseling when he is ready to have a child. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Many government agencies have outsourced their information systems to software vendors. Firms in the information service industry have to realize the needs of customers in the public sector. This study investigated the causal relationship between users' perception and information technology acceptance. Empirical results suggest that the perceived value of users plays an important and mediating role in the causal relationship among social influence process, cognitive instrumental process, and intention to use.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency and satisfaction of electronic records management systems (ERMS), which has been of interest to archivists and records managers, in electronic government (e‐government) agencies in Taiwan.Design/methodology/approach – Using the measures from information systems (ISs) success model, this study applies data envelopment analysis to measure the relative efficiency and satisfaction in different types of e‐government agencies. After conducting a large‐scale survey of e‐government agencies in Taiwan, a matrix of efficiency and satisfaction is developed.Findings – Research results show that the efficiency of ERMS in central agencies exceeds that in local agencies, and the efficiency in upper level agencies exceeds that in lower level agencies. The efficiency in business agencies exceeds that in administration agencies and public schools. Additionally, ERMS user's satisfaction in e‐government agencies is linearly related to ERMS efficiency.Resear...

The purpose of this research is to explore to detect and predict the starch content of potato by the hyperspectral imaging technique. The original images of 118 samples were acquired by the hyperspectral imaging system, and then the suitable pretreatment was selected. The prediction model for starch content of potato was constructed by the 100 hyperspectral images randomly selected which was dealt with smoothing, PCA and PLS. The determination coefficient of this model was 0.8234, and the root mean square error of 0.5633. The other 18 sample images were used to validate the accuracy of model, and the determination coefficient R2 was 0.9031 and the root mean square error (RMSEP) was 0.5025. The results shown that it is feasible to detect and predict the starch content of potato by hyperspectral image technology.

With the rapid development of the hypersonic flight technology, the strategic significance and application value of hypersonic vehicle are even more and more important. The radiation source of hypersonic vehicle mainly comes from the aerodynamic heat generated in the high-speed flight. This paper presents the detailed principle and research of the air radiant properties and aerodynamic heat. The present work has laid a foundation for the further deepening of the infrared radiation characteristics of hypersonic vehicles and infrared stealth characteristics. Beside of these, the assumption that the flow field and the radiation field are decoupled is adopted.

For the problems that encountered in present breast cancer detection and imaging systems, such as terrible and unpopular diagnosis experience for time-consuming system processing procedure, image blurring caused by patients' inevitable motion also due to long diagnosis time, signal echo from normal tissue which is regarded as clutter for imaging and reduce system sensitivity and penetration depth, and etc., a multi-carrier complementary phasecoded (MCPC) radar signal, based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology is applied in this paper. Analysis and simulation result shows that MCPC is very suitable for breast cancer detection and imaging; MCPC signal can be used for multi-antenna parallel work with nearly interference-free properties, which makes fast breast imaging feasible; MCPC signal has self clutter suppression ability for designated area during breast cancer detection, which can be used to improve system sensitivity and imaging quality without resolution loss or additional power requirement.

Heterosis is an important way to improve yield and quality for many crops. Hybrid rice and hybrid maize contributed to enhanced productivity which is essential to supply enough food for the increasing world population. The success of hybrid rice in China has led to a continuous interest in hybrid wheat, even when most research on hybrid wheat has been discontinued in other countries for various reasons including low heterosis and high seed production costs. The Timopheevii cytoplasmic male sterile system is ideal for producing hybrid wheat seeds when fertility restoration lines with strong fertility restoration ability are available. To develop PCR-based molecular markers for use in marker-assisted selection of fertility restorer lines, two F2 populations derived from crosses R18/ND36 and R9034/ND36 were used to map fertility restoration genes in the two elite fertility restorer lines (R-lines) R18 and R9034. Over 678 SSR markers were analyzed, and markers closely linked to fertility restoration genes were identified. Using SSR markers, a major fertility restoration gene, Rf3, was located on the 1B chromosome in both populations. This gene was partially dominant in conferring fertility restoration in the two restorer lines. SSR markers Xbarc207, Xgwm131, and Xbarc61 are close to this gene. These markers may be useful in marker-assisted selection of new restorer lines with T. timopheevii cytoplasm. Two minor QTL conferring fertility restoration were also identified on chromosomes 5A (in R18) and 7D (in R9034) in two R-lines.

The information of the image texture and structural should be considered sufficiently during image completion. As the quality of the repaired image is significantly influenced by the filling order of the boundary pixels, it tries to compute priority to improve the exemplar-based algorithm by means of D-S evidence theory, according to analyzing the pixel’s surrounding image features. The experiment results of the algorithm is given and proved to be effective in increasing the repaired image’s vision quality.

Today, thanks to a variety of electronic media, our cognitive world has been expanded to a practically unlimited degree. Since 1960s, with the rapid growth of the automated evaluation system (AES), many benefits, such as frequent writing practice, immediate scoring, objective reporting, instructional tools, form-focused feedback, context-focused feedback, formative feedback, and diagnostic feedback, etc. have been provided for English writing teaching. Thus it is important to have a good understanding of how to integrate AES into English writing teaching. This paper, based on a classroom report, first introduces how to use Writing Roadmap TM (WRM) 2.0, published by CTB/McGraw-Hill, to generate feedback on college English writings in EFL classroom and develop the learner's cognitive process of writing, and then discusses its advantages and issues that need attention.

In the grid environment, making use of resources is more important than sharing them safety. In order to achieve the sharing and management of grid resources, the grid resources providers and visitors need to negotiate resources sharing agreements, and solve the grid resources access control problem. Based on the safety certificate framework, an improved access control system was proposed in this paper, which was the double certificate authentication model (DCAM). The experimental results showed that the improved system strengthened the security of the grid access control, and enhanced the stability and reduce the time delay of the user identity authentication. Compared with the traditional grid access control system, the improved system has relatively obvious improvement in performance, so it has certain practical value in the grid application.

In order to promote regional sewage pipe network and sewage incomplete dispersion area sewage treatment, biological purification and filtration combined with underground, a small modular ecological design of sewage treatment facilities. In the winter day the water content of 100L/d under the conditions studied the effects of their purification. The results showed that, when COD, NH4+-N, TP influent concentration at 113.68 ∼ 245.76 mg/L, 4.86 ∼ 25.50 mg/L, 1.89 ∼ 12.10 mg/L range of changes, COD, NH4+-N, TP to in addition to rate increases as the concentration of larger, the corresponding removal rate was 85.85%, 59.71%, 63.5%, reflecting the strong resistance to impact load.

Speech recognition is to study so that the machine can accurately hear the voice of the contents of people's problems, that is, accurate identification of words. Since the 90's it has been the focus of speech recognition has shifted to large vocabulary, continuous speech, speaker-up, man-machine voice communication has become a research focus. Use one kinds of arithmetic to study speech recognition: Dynamic Time Warping (DTW). Build a basic test platform of speech recognition using DTW.

Nowadays, the doorbell style is varied and many modern bells are electronic products but most of their functions are single. In this paper, it will show a design method of the digital doorbell using Protel99 SE software. Its mainly controller is AT89C52 SCM and its input device is 4×4 keyboard, DS1302 clock circuit and AT24C02 storage circuit and ISD1420 voice circuit are its intermediate response equipments, and playback speech circuit as well as HD44780 LCD display circuit as its intermediate response equipments. The working status of this digital doorbell can be set by users themselves, besides a common electronic bell function; it also has some more new functions. Through the time of keying and different music has been set up, the doorbell user can easily distinguish different types of visitors. In addition, the doorbell can also provide some information to the visitors, in the form of voice or text. What's more, the user can query the information every time, to make sure if there are visitors or not. In a word, the doorbell is a humanized design.

A novel single-phase inverter source based on advanced modulation wave reconstuction pulse width modulation(AMWR-PWM) technology is proposed. The causes of the harmonic production and the impact of balanced and unbalanced systems on the characteristics of the inverter source are analyzed in detail. As a result, a novel method of harmonic elimination of the PWM is presented. The novel PWM technique simplifies the structure of the inverter mains and greatly decreases or even removes the DC filter capacitor used in the traditional PWM technique of inverters for eliminating the harmonics. The novel single-phase inverter source has a lot of satisfactory characteristics such as small aberrance of ac side's current, high quality output voltage of inverter and quick response etc. The performance of this inverter source using AMWR-SPWM technique is compared with traditional inverter source by simulation, and the results show that the theoretical analysis is correct, and It is obvious that the new inverter source and novel PWM technology with satisfactory characteristic will be wide used in the foreseeable future. Keywords-inverter source; PWM; harmonic analysis; harmonic elimination 1

The key technology of greenhouse facilities is the monitoring of environmental parameters. Now, monitoring system of greenhouse is based on wire transmission. It is complicated to route wire and difficult to maintain. Also its reliability and anti-interference performance will degrade because of heat, light and acid. This paper leads a low-power and short range ZigBee technique into greenhouse monitoring system. In order to compose intelligent network sensor system, the paper analyses the composition of network nodes power consumption, proposes low-power design method both in hardware and software. The paper selects CC2430 module which composed of transceiver and microprocessor, and use SHT15 temperature humidity sensor. After hardware and software debugging, this wireless network can acquire and transmit data of greenhouse temperature and humidity accurately and rapidly, and this system resistant to stable work, tight structure, large loads and low power consumption.

Using method of moment, the single mode bandwidth properties of arbitrarily trapezoidal groove waveguide is obtained and discussed. There is a minimum of bandwidth along with inclination angle. It is of important values in theoretical studies and practical engineering applications of arbitrarily trapezoidal groove guide for millimeter waves.

Using method of moment, the single mode bandwidth properties of arbitrarily trapezoidal groove waveguide is obtained and discussed. There is a minimum of bandwidth along with inclination angle. It is of important values in theoretical studies and practical engineering applications of arbitrarily trapezoidal groove guide for millimeter waves.

We synthetically applied computer vision, genetic algorithm and artificial neural network technology to automatically identify the tomatoes that had physiological diseases. Firstly, the tomatoes’ images were captured through a computer vision system. Then to identify cavernous tomatoes, we analyzed the roundness and detected deformed tomatoes by applying the variation of fruit’s diameter. Secondly, we used a Genetic Algorithm (GA) trained artificial neural network. Experiments show that the above methods can accurately identify tomatoes’ shapes and meet requests of classification; the accuracy rate for the identification for tomatoes with physiological diseases was up to 100%. tomato with physiological disease; computer vision; artificial neural network; genetic algorithms

Support vector machine (SVM) is a new modeling method. It has shown good performance in many field and mostly outperformed neural networks. An online modeling method based on SVM is proposed. It has a budget parameter to explicitly control the number of support vectors that used to define the predictor. The online modeling method was applied to construct intelligent model of helicopter. It is shown by simulation that the online SVM modeling method is feasible.

This paper proposes a fast and robust algorithm for classification and recognition of ships based on the two-dimensional Principal Component Analysis (2DPCA) method. The three-dimensional ship models achieve by modeling software of MultiGen, and then they are projected by Vega simulating software for two-dimensional ship silhouettes. The 2DPCA method as against conventional PCA method for simulated ship recognition using training and testing experiments, as the training and testing sample size is large, and there are great variations in different azimuth and elevation for ship viewpoints. The experiment of ship recognition using the global feature of ships is not satisfied with us, so we proposed an improved 2DPCA method based on the local feature of ships. Some recognition results from simulated data are presented, it shows that the improved 2DPCA method outperform PCA in ship recognition and also superior to PCA in terms of computational efficiency for feature extraction. So our method is more preferable for ship classification and recognition.