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Lgr5-expressing stem cells contribute to the epithelial turnover of the gastric antrum. However, the mechanism controlling the homeostasis of Lgr5

The paper mainly focuses on the energy audit method and procedure for wastewater treatment processes, with the purpose to obtain energy saving opportunities and put forward saving proposals. In the existing energy audit guidelines, the terminologies and processes are somehow dissimilar and sometimes overlapped. In this paper, energy audit matrices, based on the POET (performance, operation, equipment, and technology) energy management framework, is proposed, where the methods and tools are standardized through grid analysis. Furthermore, the energy audit matrices are applied to a practical wastewater treatment plant. The energy consumption characteristic of the plant is formed; and the corresponding energy saving proposals are consequently put forward. The case study shows that the POET based energy audit methodology is standardized and suitable for field applications of wastewater treatment processes.

The current study was to identify a protective role of Shuanghuanglian (SHL) injection powder in vitro and in vivo after H5N1 viral infection. Immunofluorescent staining was used to determine the susceptibility of rat intestinal mucosa microvascular endothelial cells (RIM-MVECs) to the H5N1 virus. Viral replication of RIM-MVECs was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) a hemagglutination assay and real-time quantitative PCR. H5N1 virally infected RIM-MVECs, and BALB/c mice were treated with SHL to investigate its therapeutic effect. Animal survival and the weight of H5N1 virally infected BALB/c mice after SHL treatment was noted, and histology and real-time PCR applied to mouse lungs were used to confirm the anti-H5N1 viral effects of SHL. RIM-MVECs supported replication of the H5N1 virus in vitro. SHL treatment reduced viral titers in H5N1 virally infected RIM-MVECs and mouse lungs. SHL -treated mice survived compared to controls. Mild pathological changes, reduced inflammatory cell infiltration and fewer viral antigens were observed in the lungs of SHL-treated mice at days 3 and 6 post-infection. In conclusion, SHL may have the antiviral activity against the H5N1 virus infection by inhibiting viral replication and alleviating lung injury.

In this paper, we introduce an open quantum random walk, which we call the QBN-based open walk, by means of quantum Bernoulli noise, and study its properties from a random walk point of view. We prove that, with the localized ground state as its initial state, the QBN-based open walk has the same limit probability distribution as the classical random walk. We also show that the probability distributions of the QBN-based open walk include those of the unitary quantum walk recently introduced by Wang and Ye (Quantum Inf Process 15:1897–1908, 2016) as a special case.

As a unitary quantum walk with infinitely many internal degrees of freedom, the quantum walk in terms of quantum Bernoulli noise (recently introduced by Wang and Ye) shows a rather classical asymptotic behavior, which is quite different from the case of the usual quantum walks with a finite number of internal degrees of freedom. In this paper, we further examine the structure of the walk. By using the Fourier transform on the state space of the walk, we obtain a formula that links the moments of the walk’s probability distributions directly with annihilation and creation operators on Bernoulli functionals. We also prove some other results on the structure of the walk. Finally, as an application of these results, we establish a quantum central limit theorem for the annihilation and creation operators themselves.

In this paper, the mechanical property and failure mechanism of Carbon–Carbon braided composites (C–Cs) bolted joints structure subjected to unidirectional tensile load were studied by the experimental method and numerical analysis. The braided C–Cs bolted joints with the single-bolt single-lap (SBS) and double-bolt single-lap (DBS) were tested. The dominant failure modes for both C–Cs SBS and DBS joint configurations were bearing failure and net-tension. Additionally, the finite element method (FEM) was utilized to study the mechanical property and failure mechanism of the joints. The FEM results have a good agreement with the test values. Parametrics studies were implemented by finite element (FE) analysis to classify the effects of geometric parameters including the joint width ( W ), edge distance ( e ) and the bolt pitch ( p ) on the SBS and DBS joint configurations. It can be found that present numerical model can be used to predict the experimental mechanical behaviors and failure modes of bolted C–Cs joints with different geometric parameters and joint configurations.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received growing attention in the past decade by both researchers and practitioners. However, prior hospitality research has mainly studied CSR from the firm's and customer's perspectives, our current understanding of CSR from employees' perspective is limited. In this study, we collected data from 260 employees of four hotels in China to test the effect of CSR practices towards employees on employees work outcomes. The results showed that hotels' CSR practices towards employees not only directly influenced employees' work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior, but also indirectly influenced them through employees' organizational identification. Based on the research findings, suggestions were given to hospitality practitioners to make more efforts to undertake the social responsibility for employees to raise the level of employee organizational identification and work engagement, so as to improve the hotel performance and profitability.

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable, progressive, and fatal interstitial lung disease with the characteristics of lung tissue damage and an enhancement in extracellular matrix (ECM). Alveolar epithelial cells (AMs) are major target cells that can directly promote to occurring of pulmonary fibrosis by acquisition of a mesenchymal phenotype through epithelial- mesenchymal transition (EMT). Neferine, a component of Chinese herbs, has been thought to be involved in anti-fibrotic activity in experimental lung fibrosis. However, its mechanism is not clear. In this study, we explore the regulation of neferine in TGF-β-induced EMT in lung fibrosis model and illustrate its mechanism of action. Methods: The alveolar epithelial cell line A549 was stimulated with TGF-β1 with or without Neferine pretreatment in advance. Morphologic variations and expression of EMT-related markers, including E-cadherin, β-catenina-SMA and Vimentin were detected. Expressions of Smad2, p- Smad 2, Smad3 and p-Smad3 were measured. Results: TGF-β1–treated A549 cells were transformed into the mesenchymal morphology with less E-cadherin, β-catenin and more a-SMA, Vimentin expression. The addition of Neferine inhibited the TGF-β1–induced change of the mesenchymal phenotype. Furthermore, Neferine inhibited the TGF-β1–induced increase in the expression of p- Smad2 and p-Smad3. Conclusions: Our study illustrate that Neferine inhibits TGF-β1–induced EMT in lung fibrosis model via TGF-β signaling pathway.

Load shifting (LS) is a main task of demand side management (DSM). It has been treated as a kind of operation efficiency improvement in the POET (performance, operation, equipment and technology) framework and has been formulated as an optimal control problem. In literature, the number of pump switches and the accumulative operation time of individual pumps are barely considered in the operation optimization of pump stations. In this paper, we integrate the two issues into the general optimal control (GOC) problem of pumping stations to form an optimal control problem with consideration of pump switches (OCPS) and an optimal control problem with consideration of accumulative operating time (OCOT), respectively. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed to solve the newly formulated problems. An intake pump station is taken as a case study. GOC, OCPS, OCOT and a hybrid of OCPS and OCOT (OCPS + OCOT) are applied to the station for simulation study. The results show that the optimal control approaches have the ability to achieve both energy efficiency and LS. Nearly 30% energy cost savings can be obtained by the optimal control approaches. The savings are mostly generated by shifting the operation status of the pumps according to time, specifically, time-of-use (TOU) tariff. Compared with GOC, the newly proposed approaches are more feasible for field applications.

The solution of a 3-D rectangular permeable crack in a piezoelectric/piezomagnetic composite material was investigated by using the generalized Almansi's theorem and the Schmidt method. The problem was formulated through Fourier transform into three pairs of dual integral equations, in which the unknown variables are the displacement jumps across the crack surfaces. To solve the dual integral equations, the displacement jumps across the crack surfaces were directly expanded as a series of Jacobi polynomials. Finally, the relations between the electric filed, the magnetic flux field and the stress field near the crack edges were obtained and the effects of the shape of the rectangular crack on the stress, the electric displacement and magnetic flux intensity factors in a piezoelectric/piezomagnetic composite material were analyzed.

The non-local theory solution to two collinear limited-permeable mode-I cracks in a piezoelectric/piezomagnetic medium was investigated by using the generalized Almansi’s theorem and the Schmidt method in the present paper. The problem was formulated through Fourier transformation into two pairs of dual integral equations, in which the unknown variables are the displacement jumps across the crack surfaces. For solving the dual integral equations, the displacement jumps across the crack surfaces were directly expanded as a series of Jacobi polynomials. Numerical examples were provided to show the effects of the crack length, the distance between the two collinear cracks, the lattice parameter, the electric permittivity and the magnetic permeability of the air inside the crack on the stress fields, the electric displacement fields and the magnetic flux fields near the crack tips in a piezoelectric/piezomagnetic medium. Different from the classical solutions, the present solution exhibits no stress, electric displacement and magnetic flux singularities at the crack tips in a piezoelectric/piezomagnetic medium.

Three different molecular weight of sizing agent on the performances of carbon fibers and carbon fibers composites are investigated. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to characterize carbon fiber surface topographies. Wetting and surface energy along with contact angles were determined by the dynamic contact angle analysis test (DCAT). The single fiber strengths and Weibull distributions were also studied in order to understand the effect of sizing agent on the carbon fibers. At the same time, the interfacial shear strength (IFSS) and hygrothermal aging test have been used to study the effect of fibers coatings on the adhesion of surface. The results revealed that the S_2 sizing agent on the carbon fiber interface properties and IFSS was better than those of other sizing agents.

Although authentic leadership is becoming increasingly important in the organizational science literature, research testing the consequences of authentic leadership in Chinese hospitality context has not received great attention. To help address this need, the authors conducted an empirical study in 24 hotels in China to examine the effects of authentic leadership on employees' work engagement. The results of HLM analysis revealed that both individual-level and group-level authentic leadership were positively related to employees' work engagement. The relationship between individual-level authentic leadership and employees' work engagement was mediated by employees' perception of servant leadership and employees' trust in leaders. The relationship between group-level authentic leadership and employees' work engagement was mediated by group felt trust.

Activated sludge is a typical process for waste water treatment; meanwhile, it is an energy-intensive process. Operation optimization is a solution to save energy, where control models are much needed. In this paper, a dynamic LSSVM model for activated sludge process is proposed and validated. Time delay and model orders are involved during the re-establishment process of the training datasets; by this way, the dynamic characteristic of the process is reflected. Finally, BSM1 will be taken as the objective process for validation research, along with convincing results.

The energy efficiency of belt conveyor systems can be improved at equipment or operational levels. In literature, variable speed control is proposed as an effective way to improve operation efficiency of belt conveyors. However, the current strategies most focus on lower control loops without considerations at the system level. In this paper, an optimal scheduling is proposed to improve the energy efficiency of belt conveyor systems at the operational level, where time-of-use (TOU) tariff, ramp rate of belt speed and other system constraints are considered. A coal conveying system in a coal-fired power plant is taken as a case study, where great savings of both energy cost and energy consumption through the optimal scheduling are achieved.

Thermal flow meters (TFMs) are being widely employed for gaseous fluid. However, the temperature and component of the fluid medium affect the accuracy of TFM greatly. In literature, temperature compensation of TFM is extensively investigated. While component compensation of TFM, subject to gas mixtures, is rarely reported. In this paper, a semiempirical approach for component compensation of TFM is proposed, further, a compensation coefficient is defined to implement the compensation. The approach is then applied to a TFM subject to coal gas for case study. Field test result is given to prove the validity of the proposed component compensation approach.

In literature, variable speed control of belt conveyors is recommended to save energy consumption. However, the current implementations mostly focus on lower level control loops without operational considerations at the system level. This paper intends to take a model based optimization approach to improve the operation efficiency of belt conveyors with consideration of various constraints. Specifically, three optimization problems of a typical belt conveyor system are formulated, respectively, with solutions in simulation for a case study.

The energy saving of intake pump stations can be achieved by improving their operational efficiency. Variable speed control and pump combination are proposed in literature to save energy of pump stations. However, the current implementations mostly focus on lower level speed control without operational considerations at the system level. In this paper, a model predictive control approach (MPC) is introduced to improve the operational efficiency of intake pump stations, where time-of-use (TOU) tariff, water demand and other system constraints are considered. An intake pump station in a seaside water treatment plant is taken as a case study. The conventional optimal control strategy and the MPC approach are investigated. The advantage of the MPC approach is convinced by the simulation results.

The indirect measuring model was built, and the computation process of the model was introduced. Synchronization signals were used to obtain the corresponding relationship between the power of the drive motor and the displacement of the pumping unitpsilas rod. The indirect measuring model was incorporate into the oil field supervisory system using GPRS. The field experiment results were given in the paper. The directly and indirectly measured dynamometer cards were compared, and there were tiny errors. It ensured that the indirectly measured dynamometer cards could be used to analyze and diagnose the pumping unit. It was proved that the indirect measuring model is correct and applicable.

This paper briefly introduces the design of control network based on OMRON PLC; and describes in detail step and setting of design based on three kinds of network: Ethernet, controller link and CompoBus/D. The design has been applied to lab construction. The practice shows that it is valuable for teaching and scientific research.