Search

This study selected the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as the research area, combining it with the current situation of the transportation development of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration to construct the urban agglomeration transportation integration index system and evaluate the development status of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration transportation integration. The study examined the influence mechanism of transportation infrastructure on industrial agglomeration. The results are as follows: (1) From 2011–2020, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration’s transportation integration index showed a clear upward trend. (2) The integration level of local transportation played an important role in promoting local industrial agglomeration. Promoting industrial agglomeration in neighboring areas had a negative spillover effect on industrial agglomeration in this region. Developing transportation integration in other regions had an insignificant positive effect on the development of local industrial agglomeration. (3) Urban agglomeration transportation integration impacted regional industrial agglomeration, mainly through the “cost effect.” Thus, cities in the Yangtze River Delta in 2020 need to accelerate the construction of relevant transportation infrastructure so as to promote the integrated development of higher-quality transportation in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.

Visual attention and visual working memory (VWM) are two major cognitive functions in humans, and they have much in common. A growing body of research has investigated the effect of emotional information on visual attention and VWM. Interestingly, contradictory findings have supported both a negative bias and a positive bias toward emotional faces (e.g., angry faces or happy faces) in the attention and VWM fields. We found that the classical paradigms—that is, the visual search paradigm in attention and the change detection paradigm in VWM—are considerably similar. The settings of these paradigms could therefore be responsible for the contradictory results. In this paper, we compare previous controversial results from behavioral and neuroscience studies using these two paradigms. We suggest three possible contributing factors that have significant impacts on the contradictory conclusions regarding different emotional bias effects; these factors are stimulus choice, experimental setting, and cognitive process. We also propose new research directions and guidelines for future studies.

Background: Infantile development of phthalate metabolism is crucial for risk assessment of endocrine disruption and has important toxico/pharmacokinetic implications. Objectives: To characterize temporal variability in urinary phthalate metabolites in infants and to examine their growth-dependent detoxification. Methods: In this cohort study, urine samples (n = 876) from 155 healthy Chinese infants were collected serially at eight time points from birth to one year old. Free and total (i.e., free plus glucuronide conjugated) phthalate metabolites (PMEs) were measured by LC/MS/MS. Time variability in PMEs and PME metabolism capacity was characterized using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and linear mixed regression models. Results: Concentrations of most PMEs changed significantly, with ICCs ranging from 0.213 to 0.318, and trends increased significantly over time (p

Sufu is a traditional fermented soybean food produced in China. However, the microbial compositions and metabolites of different types of sufu have not been studied in detail. Accordingly, in this study, we evaluated the differences in bacterial communities and metabolites between commercial red sufu (RS) and white sufu (WS). Principal coordinate analysis and the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic means analysis of 16S rRNA genes revealed that the bacterial community structures of RS and WS differed dramatically. At the phylum level, the relative abundances of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were significantly different between RS and WS (P < 0.01). Moreover, the abundances of Lactococcus and Tetragenococcus genera were significantly different between RS and WS (P < 0.01). Among metabolites, most free amino acids, few of volatile flavor compounds, and some organic acids showed significant differences between RS and WS (P < 0.05). Additionally, correlations between microbiota and metabolites were determined. Aggregated boosted tree analysis showed that formic acid had the highest relative influence (20.27%) on bacterial community diversity (Chao 1), following by arginine (5.38%), propanol (4.57%), oxalic acid (4.46%), and hexanol (4.43%). Moreover, Streptococcaceae and Moraxellaceae had the highest relative influence on the concentration of formic acid (12.84% and 8.75%, respectively). The profiles obtained in this study improve our understanding of the relationships between bacterial flora and metabolites in different types of sufu. These findings may help us interpret the roles of bacterial communities in the flavor and characteristics of sufu.

Evoked event-related oscillations (EROs) have been widely used to explore the mechanisms of brain activities for both normal people and neuropsychiatric disease patients. In most previous studies, the calculation of the regions of evoked EROs of interest is commonly based on a predefined time window and a frequency range given by the experimenter, which tends to be subjective. Additionally, evoked EROs sometimes cannot be fully extracted using the conventional time-frequency analysis (TFA) because they may be overlapped with each other or with artifacts in time, frequency, and space domains. To further investigate the related neuronal processes, a novel approach was proposed including three steps: (1) extract the temporal and spatial components of interest simultaneously by temporal principal component analysis (PCA) and Promax rotation and project them to the electrode fields for correcting their variance and polarity indeterminacies, (2) calculate the time-frequency representations (TFRs) of the back-projected components, and (3) compute the regions of evoked EROs of interest on TFRs objectively using the edge detection algorithm. We performed this novel approach, conventional TFA, and TFA-PCA to analyse both the synthetic datasets with different levels of SNR and an actual ERP dataset in a two-factor paradigm of waiting time (short/long) and feedback (loss/gain) separately. Synthetic datasets results indicated that N2-theta and P3-delta oscillations can be stably detected from different SNR-simulated datasets using the proposed approach, but, by comparison, only one oscillation was obtained via the last two approaches. Furthermore, regarding the actual dataset, the statistical results for the proposed approach revealed that P3-delta was sensitive to the waiting time but not for that of the other approaches. This study manifested that the proposed approach could objectively extract evoked EROs of interest, which allows a better understanding of the modulations of the oscillatory responses.

Replication of genome-wide significant association SNPs in independent populations is an essential approach for identifying gene–disease relationships. Therefore, we sought to investigate the top 21 SNPs (rs10507454, rs11897156, rs11897991, rs12325203, rs12541835, rs13395322, rs1525035, rs16936892, rs17010027, rs17045859, rs17136827, rs1866525, rs2045590, rs4547758, rs4655688, rs7107438, rs761353, rs8127139, rs9312305, rs9407874 and rs9865108) from a genome-wide association study of essential hypertension in Mongolians. This was a community-based case-control study involving 428 hypertensives and 638 normotensives from Kerqinzuoyihou Banner,Tongliao, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, China. Genotyping was conducted with Sequenom MassArray (®) SNP detection technology. Overall, there were no significant differences in the genotype distributions and allele frequencies between the cases and controls. There was a significant difference between the allele frequencies at locus rs17010027 in cases (high systolic blood pressure) and controls in female (p = .036). There were significant differences in the distribution of genotypes and the allele frequencies at locus rs10507454 between cases (high diastolic blood pressure) and controls (p = .019 and p = .022, respectively) especially in male (p = .009 and p = .011, respectively). rs17010027 is associated with high systolic blood pressure in female, and rs10507454 is associated with high diastolic blood pressure especially in male of this Mongolian population.

The nearly complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Sinopyrophorus schimmeli Bi et Li, the luminous click beetle recorded in Asia, is described in this study. It totalizes 15,951 bp and contains 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and most part of AT-rich region. Thirteen PCGs totalize 11,136 bp, start with ATN, stop with TAA/G, except for cox2 and cox3 stopping with T. The rrnL and rrnS are 1280 and 862 bp, respectively. The AT-rich region contains several structures characteristic of the Coleoptera. The phylogenetic analyses of 13 PCGs confirm the position of S. schimmeli in Elateridae.

This paper proposes a new multi-objective bi-level programming model for the ring road bus lines and fare design problems. The proposed model consists of two layers: the traffic management operator and travelers. In the upper level, we propose a multi-objective bus lines and fares optimization model in which the operator’s profit and travelers’ utility are set as objective functions. In the lower level, evolutionary multi agent model of travelers’ bounded rational reinforcement learning with social interaction is introduced. A solution algorithm for the multi-objective bi-level programming is developed on the basis of the equalization algorithm of OD matrix. A numerical example based on a real case was conducted to verify the proposed models and solution algorithm. The computational results indicated that travel choice models with different degrees of rationality significantly changed the optimization results of bus lines and the differentiated fares; furthermore, the multi-objective bi-level programming in this paper can generate the solution to reduce the maximum section flow, increase the profit, and reduce travelers’ generalized travel cost.

Background The pro-tumoral action of the cluster of differentiation 147 (CD147), which is associated with the chemotherapy resistance of lung adenocarcinoma, is partly due to accelerated tumor cell glycolysis. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) metabolic parameters included maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax), mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG), which are non-invasive markers of the glucose metabolism of tumor cells in vivo. This study aimed to clarify the correlation between PET metabolic parameters and CD147 expression, and to evaluate the prognostic value of CD147 expression in resectable lung adenocarcinoma patients. Methods A total of 89 lung adenocarcinoma chemotherapy-naive patients who underwent 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and computerized tomography scan before pulmonary surgery were retrospectively analyzed. The PET metabolic parameters were calculated by 18F-FDG PET imaging, and CD147 expression was analyzed by immunohistochemistry. SUVmax, SUVmean, MTV, and TLG compared for their performance in predicting the expression of CD147 were illustrated with statistical analysis. All patients were then followed-up for survival analysis. Results The SUVmax was significantly correlated with the CD147 expression and was the primary predictor for the CD147 expression of lung adenocarcinoma. A cut-off value of the SUVmax, 9.77 allowed 85.1% sensitivity and 64.3% specificity for predicting the CD147 positive lung adenocarcinoma. CD147 expression was correlated with tumor differentiation and metastasis. Univariate survival analysis showed that CD147 expression was significantly associated with a shorter overall survival (OS) time. Multivariate analysis revealed that CD147 was an independent prognostic factor of lung adenocarcinoma patients. Conclusion The SUVmax of a primary tumor measured with 18F-FDG PET may be a simple and non-invasive marker for predicting CD147 expression in lung adenocarcinoma. CD147 is an independent prognostic factor related to OS of postoperative lung adenocarcinoma patients.

Objectives: Increasing interests have been focused on using artificial intelligence (AI) to extend prognostic value of medical imaging. Feature extraction is a critical step for successful application of AI. The aim of this study was to explore several metabolic parameters measured by 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) as potential AI features in predicting the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: A set of metabolic parameters of PET/CT and clinical characteristics were detected from 137 patients with NSCLC treated with at least 1 cycle of chemotherapy. Survival receiver–operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to define the more significant parameters chosen for the following survival analysis. Patient survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and Cox regression. Results: Survival ROC showed that maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume 50% (MTV50), and total lesion glycolysis 50% (TLG50) had larger area under the curve, and the optimal cutoff values were 11.72, 4.04, and 34.55, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses synergistically showed that late PET/CT stage and MTV50 >4.04 were independent factors of poor survival in patients with NSCLC who received chemotherapy. Conclusions: Several potential prognostic biomarkers of PET/CT imaging have been extracted for predicting survival and selecting patients with NSCLC who are more likely to benefit from chemotherapy. The identification may accelerate the development of AI methods to improve treatment outcome for NSCLC.

As a well-known NP-hard problem, the dynamic job shop scheduling problem has significant practical value, so this paper proposes an Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm to solve this problem. In Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm, the cellular neighbor network is introduced, together with the boundary handling function, and the best position of each individual is recorded for constructing the cellular neighbor network. The encoding method is introduced based on the relative position index so that the Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm can be applied to solve the dynamic job shop scheduling problem. Solving the benchmark example of dynamic job shop scheduling problem and comparing it with the original Heuristic Kalman Algorithm and Genetic Algorithm-Mixed, the results show that Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm is effective for solving the dynamic job shop scheduling problem. The convergence rate of the Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm is reduced significantly, which is beneficial to avoid the algorithm from falling into the local optimum. For all 15 benchmark instances, Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm and Heuristic Kalman Algorithm have obtained the best solution obtained by Genetic Algorithm-Mixed. Moreover, for 9 out of 15 benchmark instances, they achieved significantly better solutions than Genetic Algorithm-Mixed. They have better robustness and reasonable running time (less than 30 s even for large size problems), which means that they are very suitable for solving the dynamic job shop scheduling problem. According to the dynamic job shop scheduling problem applicability, the integration-communication protocol was presented, which enables the transfer and use of the Improved Heuristic Kalman Algorithm optimization results in the conventional Simio simulation environment. The results of the integration-communication protocol proved the numerical and graphical matching of the optimization results and, thus, the correctness of the data transfer, ensuring high-level usability of the decision-making method in a real-world environment.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02005-4

In order to study the visible-light photocatalytic activity and catalysis stability of nanocomposites, a TiO2-based visible-light photocatalyst is prepared by surface-modification of TiO2 nanoparticles using trace conjugated derivatives from polyvinyl alcohol (DPVA) via a facile method. The obtained DPVA/TiO2 nanocomposites are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared Spectra (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). With Rhodamine B (RhB) as a model pollutant, the visible-light photocatalytic activity and stability of DPVA/TiO2 nanocomposites are investigated by evaluating the RhB decomposition under visible light irradiation. The results reveal that the trace conjugated polymers on the TiO2 surface doesn’t change the crystalline and crystal size of TiO2 nanoparticles, but significantly enhances their visible-light absorbance and visible-light photocatalytic activity. The nanocomposite with the PVA and TiO2 mass ratio of 1∶200 exhibits the highest visible-light photocatalytic activity. The investigated nanocomposites exhibit well visible-light photoctatalytic stability. The photogenerated holes are thought as the main active species for the RhB photodegradation in the presence of the DPVA/TiO2 nanocomposites.

In order to enhance the antibacterial activity of chitosan and expand its application field, silver nanoparticles are introduced into the matrix, and the grafting modification is carried out. Chitosan grafted vanillin (CS-g-VA) is prepared with microwave-radiation method, and silver nitrate is reduced by vanillin, so that silver nanoparticles are separated evenly in CS-g-VA sol, which is Ag/CS-g-VA composite sol. The effects on the preparation of Ag/CS-g-VA composite sol are studied, and the structure and thermal property of the obtained composite sol are characterized by SEM, TEM, FTIR, XRD, UV-vis and TG-DSC. The experiment results show that the optimum conditions for the preparation of Ag/CS-g-VA are as following: Vanillin concentration of 6.0%, CS-g-VA concentration of 4.0%, and silver nitrate concentration of 0.20 mol/L. The inhibition of Ag/CS-g-VA composite sol against Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis is investigated through antibacterial tests. The results show that the antibacterial activity of Ag/CS-g-VA composite sol is more efficient than that of single CS materials.

In order to improve the photocatalytic properties of ZnO, the cyclized polyacrylonitrile(CPAN) modified zinc oxide(ZnO) nanocomposites are prepared by impregnation method. The size, morphology, internal structure of ZnO/CPAN nanocomposite and ZnO nanoparticles are characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD),transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The UV-light photocatalytic activity of ZnO/CPAN is evaluated with methyl orange as model pollutant under UV-light irradiation. The results of photocatalytic experiment show that the CPAN modified ZnO can significantly improve the UV-light photocatalytic activity of ZnO particles. When the mass ratio of ZnO/CPAN is 1 000∶1, the heat treatment temperature is 150 ℃, and the heat treatment time is 30 min, the photocatalytic activity is the highest.

The mathematical abilities of children with autism spectrum condition have been understudied. Magnitude representation is a fundamental numerical ability that emerges early in development and is linked to children's learning of formal mathematics. It remains unclear about whether children with autism spectrum condition differ from their peers without autism spectrum condition in the precision of magnitude representations. This study recruited preschool-aged children with autism spectrum condition (N = 70; 64 boys, M[subscript age] = 5.20 years) and without autism spectrum condition (N = 117; 63 boys, M[subscript age] = 5.11 years), and tested their precision of magnitude representation with an approximate number comparison task (dot comparison). Children with autism spectrum condition exhibited the lower numerical comparison accuracy (i.e. the weaker magnitude representation) than their peers without autism spectrum condition, regardless of the congruency between numerosity and surface area of dots. Moreover, the lower numerical comparison accuracy was observed even controlling for multiple general cognitive abilities (working memory, inhibitory control, and nonverbal intelligence) and language abilities. In addition, the variability of the comparison accuracy was larger in children with autism spectrum condition than without autism spectrum condition. These findings suggest that children with autism spectrum condition are at risk of weaker magnitude representation from an early age, emphasizing the need for specialized mathematics education or interventions to support their learning.

Most ghost imaging reconstruction algorithms require a large measurement time to retrieve the object information clearly. But not all groups of data play a positive role in reconstructing the object image. Abandoning some redundant data can not only enhance the quality of reconstruction images but also speed up the computation process. Here, we propose a method to screen the data using two threshold values set by a proportional parameter during the sampling process. Experimental results show that the reserved data after screening can be used in several reconstruction algorithms, and the reconstruction quality is enhanced or at least remains at the same level. Meanwhile, the computing time costs are greatly reduced, and so is the data storage.

Background/Aims: The causative factors of the vaginitis are not fully understood yet. Epithelial barrier dysfunction plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of vaginitis. This study aims to investigate the role of prolactin (PRL) in the causing the vaginal epithelial barrier dysfunction. Methods: Adult rats were treated with water-avoid-stress. The serum levels of PRL were determined by ELISA. T84 cell (T84 cells; a vaginal epithelial cell line) monolayers were prepared to be used assessing the epithelial barrier functions. The expression of occludin in T84 cells was assessed by Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay, methylation specifIc PCR, real time quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. Results: The results showed that psychological stress markedly increased the serum levels of PRL in the rat vaginal epithelia. Exposure of T84 cells to PRL in the culture markedly increased the phosphorylation of STAT3 and suppressed the expression of occludin in the cells; the transepithelial electric resistance was decreased and the permeability to a macromolecular tracer was increased in the T84 monolayers, which was mimicked by blocking STAT3, or abolished by over expression of occludin in the epithelial cells. Conclusions: Psychological stress-derived PRL induces vaginal epithelial barrier dysfunction by inhibiting the expression of occludin.

Many compounds with good inhibitory activity (i.e., high affinity) within in vitro experiments failed in vivo studies due to a lack of efficacy from limited target occupancy (TO) in the drug discovery process. Recently, it was found that rate constants of the formation and dissociation of the binary drug-target complex, rather than affinity, often govern in vivo efficacy. Therefore, the binding kinetics (BK) properties of compound-target interaction are emerging as a pivotal parameter. However, it is obvious that BK rate constants of the compound against target would not be directly linked to the in vivo TO unless the compound concentration in the target vicinity at any time point (TPK) can be evaluated. Here, we developed a novel simulation model to quantitate the dynamic change of target engagement over time in rat with a combined use of BK and TPK features of Epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) on the basis of α-glucosidase (AGH). Analysis of the results displayed that the percent of maximum AGH occupancies by the ECG were varied significantly from 48.9 to 95.3% and by the EGCG slightly from 96 to 99.8%; that the time course of above 70% engagement by ECG spanned a range from 0 to 0.64 h and by EGCG a range of 1.5 to 8.9 h in four different intestinal segments of the rat. It was clearly analyzed how each parameter in the simulation model effected on the in vivo the AGH engagement by ECG and EGCG. Our results provide a novel approach for assessing the potential inhibitory activity of the compounds against AGH.

Embodied cognition holds that one's body, actions, perceptions, and situations are integrated into the cognitive process and emphasizes the fact that sensorimotor systems play a role in language comprehension. Previous studies verified the embodied effect in literal language processing but few of them paid attention to metaphors in embodied cognition. The present study aims to explore the embodied effect in the comprehension of Chinese action-verb metaphor. Participants watched a video containing icons and corresponding actions to learn the relationship between them and how to perform these actions in the learning phase and in the test phase, a series of action-describing metaphor phrases were presented to participants with either the icons as primes or no prime at all. The results confirmed the embodied effect as the reaction times (RTs) were significantly shorter when action prime matched the action-verb in the following action-verb metaphor than that of no-prime condition, which are consistent with the facilitation observed in previous relevant studies in embodied cognition. In conclusion, this study verified the embodied effect in the comprehension of Chinese action-verb metaphor, offering further support to embodied cognition and providing a new interpretation for the metaphoric meaning construction of Chinese action-verbs.

Lilium is an important commercial market flower bulb. qRT-PCR is an extremely important technique to track gene expression levels. The requirement of suitable reference genes for normalization has become increasingly significant and exigent. The expression of internal control genes in living organisms varies considerably under different experimental conditions. For economically important Lilium, only a limited number of reference genes applied in qRT-PCR have been reported to date. In this study, the expression stability of 12 candidate genes including α-TUB, β-TUB, ACT, eIF, GAPDH, UBQ, UBC, 18S, 60S, AP4, FP, and RH2, in a diverse set of 29 samples representing different developmental processes, three stress treatments (cold, heat, and salt) and different organs, has been evaluated. For different organs, the combination of ACT, GAPDH, and UBQ is appropriate whereas ACT together with AP4, or ACT along with GAPDH is suitable for normalization of leaves and scales at different developmental stages, respectively. In leaves, scales and roots under stress treatments, FP, ACT and AP4, respectively showed the most stable expression. This study provides a guide for the selection of a reference gene under different experimental conditions, and will benefit future research on more accurate gene expression studies in a wide variety of Lilium genotypes.

Upward self-poling phenomenon was observed in PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 ferroelectric films which were grown on (001) SrTiO3 substrate with either p-type La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 or n-type SrRuO3 buffered layer, or on n-type (001) Nb-SrTiO3 substrate. Both upward self-poling and epitaxial strain are strong in the super-thin PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 epitaxial films, while they become weak and finally disappear in thick epitaxial films or thin epitaxial films with high-density oxygen vacancies. Besides, both of them disappear in PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 polycrystalline films on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate. Therefore, the main origin of upward self-poling is epitaxial strain rather than p-n/Schottky junction or charged vacancies in PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 epitaxial films here.

Objective: Rare coexistence of disease or pathology Background: Spontaneous hepatic hematoma and liver capsule rupture is a rare but severe complication of Hemolysis, Elevated Liver Enzyme, and Low Platelet (HELLP) syndrome, with a high mortality rate. We report a case of a pregnant woman with HELLP syndrome and liver subcapsular hematoma rupture that was diagnosed during surgery. Case Report: A 35-year-old woman with 34+1 weeks of pregnancy came to the emergency department due to abdominal pain for 4 days. She was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome after a blood test. She was transferred to the obstetrics department, and an emergency cesarean section was performed under general anesthesia, due to fetal distress. During the surgery, non-clotting blood was found flowing out during the suturing of the incision. We suspended the surgery and organized an emergency multidisciplinary consultation. Subcapsular liver hematoma was diagnosed after intraoperative ultrasound detection. Emergency upper abdominal laparotomy was performed, and a ruptured liver capsule and active bleeding were found. The liver capsule was sutured and blood products were infused before the patient was sent to the intensive care unit. She recovered and was discharged 12 days after surgery. No special discomfort was reported during the 30-day follow-up after surgery. Conclusions: Our case emphasizes that all parturients with abdominal pain and HELLP syndrome must be screened for spontaneous hepatic hematoma, and clinicians should pay attention to whether there is rupture of the liver capsule. Multidisciplinary consultations can increase the probability of successful rescue for such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]