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Tibetan semi-wild wheat (Triticum aestivum ssp. tibetanum Shao) is a semi-wild hexaploid wheat resource that is only naturally distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Brittle rachis and hard threshing are two important characters of Tibetan semi-wild wheat. A whole-genome linkage map of T. aestivum ssp. tibetanum was constructed using a recombinant inbred line population (Q1028×ZM9023) with 186 lines, 564 diversity array technology markers, and 117 simple sequence repeat markers. Phenotypic data on brittle rachis and threshability, as two quantitative traits, were evaluated on the basis of the number of average spike rachis fragments per spike and percent threshability in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping performed using inclusive composite interval mapping analysis clearly identified four QTLs for brittle rachis and three QTLs for threshability. However, three loci on 2DS, 2DL, and 5AL showed pleiotropism for brittle rachis and threshability; they respectively explained 5.3%, 18.6%, and 18.6% of phenotypic variation for brittle rachis and 17.4%, 13.2%, and 35.2% of phenotypic variation for threshability. A locus on 3DS showed an independent effect on brittle rachis, which explained 38.7% of the phenotypic variation. The loci on 2DS and 3DS probably represented the effect of Tg and Br1, respectively. The locus on 5AL was in very close proximity to the Q gene, but was different from the predicted q in Tibetan semi-wild wheat. To our knowledge, the locus on 2DL has never been reported in common wheat but was prominent in T. aestivum ssp. tibetanum accession Q1028. It remarkably interacted with the locus on 5AL to affect brittle rachis. Several major loci for brittle rachis and threshability were identified in Tibetan semi-wild wheat, improving the understanding of these two characters and suggesting the occurrence of special evolution in Tibetan semi-wild wheat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The use of thiazolidinediones (TZDs) has been associated with increased fracture risk. We performed a comprehensive literature review and meta-analysis to estimate the risk of fractures with TZDs Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase and the Cochrane Database, from inception to May 2014. We included all randomized trials that described the risk of fractures or changes in bone mineral density (BMD) with TZDs. We pooled data with odds ratios (ORs) for fractures and the weighted mean difference in BMD. To assess heterogeneity in results of individual studies, we used Cochran's Q statistic and the I 2 statistic. Results We included 24,544 participants with 896 fracture cases from 22 randomized controlled trials. Meta-analysis showed that the significantly increased incidence of fracture was found in women (OR = 1.94; 95%CI: 1.60–2.35; P < 0.001), but not in men (OR = 1.02; 95%CI: 0.83–1.27; P = 0.83). For women, the fracture risk was similar in rosiglitazone (OR = 2.01; 95%CI: 1.61–2.51; P < 0.001) and pioglitazone (OR = 1.73; 95%CI: 1.18–2.55; P = 0.005) treatment and appeared to be similar for participants aged < 60 years old (OR = 1.89; 95%CI: 1.51–2.36; P < 0.001) and aged ≥ 60 years old (OR = 2.07; 95%CI: 1.51–2.36; P < 0.001). There was a non-significant trend towards increased risk of fractures in different cumulative durations of TZD exposure. TZD treatment was also associated with significant changes in BMD among women at the lumbar spine(weighted mean difference: − 0.49%, 95%CI: − 0.66% to − 0.32%; P < 0.001), the femoral neck (weighted mean difference: − 0.34%, 95%CI: − 0.51% to − 0.16%; P < 0.001) and the hip(weighted mean difference: − 0.33%, 95%CI: − 0.52% to − 0.14%; P < 0.001). Conclusions Our results suggest that TZD treatment is associated with an increased risk of fractures in women, effects of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone are similar, fracture risk is independent of age and fracture risk has no clear association with duration of TZD exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pesticide residues caused great threat to human body health, and all countries protected the health of human body by specifying its upper limit. However, pesticide residues were generally very low, similar to trace analysis and as low as millionth or less, the content determination of pesticide residues was a troublesome problem. With the application and promotion of tandem mass spectrometry, it was able to do trace analysis. GC–EI/MS/MS was a common method for the determination of pesticide residues. The multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was the most common quantitative method used in GC–EI/MS/MS. It has the characteristics of high sensitivity, good reproducibility, high accuracy, strong anti-interference and high ion flux. Multiple-twin precursor ions, product ions and collision energy of thirty-four pesticides were provided for MRM. It could play an important role in developing MRM method for the quantifying of 34 kinds of pesticide. Meanwhile, the development of MRM method for the quantifying of other compounds could also refer to this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We report the calculated quasiparticle band structure and optical absorption spectrum of LiI, using many-body perturbation theory. Density-functional theory within local density approximation is used to calculate the ground-state properties of the system. The quasiparticle band structure is evaluated within the GW approximation. Taking the electron–hole interaction into account, electron–hole pair states and optical excitations are derived from the solution of the Bethe–Salpeter equation for the electron–hole two-particle Green function. The band gap is estimated within the GW approximation as 6.3eV, which is in good agreement with the experimental result of 6.4eV. And the calculated optical spectrum is also in agreement with experimental data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Prevalence of Thermoplasmata was 18.4% in chronic periodontitis group by nested PCR. [•] Thermoplasmata were not the predominant archaeons in the subgingival dental plaque. [•] Existence of Archaea closely correlated with the presence of chronic periodontitis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Identifying useful taxonomic indicators for classifying Hibiscus syriacus L. (Malvaceae) cultivars can help address challenges in their homonymy and synonymy. Moreover, analyzing which pollen traits possibly lead to their successful fruiting can serve to guide the hybridization and breeding of H. syriacus. For the first time, this study classified 24 cultivars of H. syriacus based on 24 morphological and palynological indicators assessed for flowers, leaves, and pollen grains. These indicators were a mixture of quantitative and qualitative traits, measured to contribute to the identification and classification of H. syriacus cultivars. The results showed that the 24 H. syriacus cultivars could be classified into 2–6 clusters according to different taxonomic criteria. The leading diagnostic indicators were eight quantitative and eight qualitative traits, of which two new quantitative traits—the width of the spine base (SW) and average of the pollen grain radius and spine length (D-spine)—and five new qualitative traits—the amount of pollen surface spines (O-SA), whether the petals have the red center (B-RC), whether the pollen surface ruffles strongly (B-RS), the degree of pollen surface ruffling (O-DR), and relationship between calyx and bract (O-CB)—could be used as defining traits for H. syriacus cultivars owing to their robust contribution to the classification. The correlations between indicators for flowers, leaves, and pollen grains were explored, which revealed that the O-SA in H. syriacus was strongly tied to quantitative pollen traits. Furthermore, three qualitative morphological traits—whether the stamens are heterogeneous in terms of inner petals (B-IP), O-CB, and whether the leaf lobing is strong (B-LL)—were correlated with partial quantitative pollen traits. We also found that those H. syriacus cultivars with micro-spines or granulate on the pollen grain surface have higher fruiting rates; additionally, pollen diameter, spine length, and spine spacing might also be potential factors influencing successful breeding. The insights gained from this study could fill a key knowledge gap concerning the taxonomic criteria suitable for distinguishing H. syriacus cultivars. Our findings also provide timely information on how to understand the pollination process, especially those aspects leading to pollinator selection via pollen grain features, which could influence breeding programs and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A supramolecular polymeric system that shows an unusual “racemate-rules” chiroptical property, an effect opposite to the well-known “majority-rules”, has been utilized for accurate determination of malic acid enantiopurity at high ee values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems existing in the water quality safety for interconnected river system network are summarized and the key techniques used in construction of the system are extracted, an overall system framework of intelligent control and emergency treatment of water quantity and water quality for the interconnected river system network based on the internet of things is put forward, which consists of real-time sensing layer, interconnection of water quantity and quality and information layer, smart decision layer. The realized functions in the system include the intelligent sensing, intelligent simulation, intelligent diagnosis, intelligent early warning, intelligent scheduling, intelligent disposal, intelligent control, et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purposes of our study were to evaluate the correlation among apparent integrated backscatter coefficient (AIB), spectral centroid shift (SCS) of ultrasonic backscatter signals and bone mineral density (BMD) and to examine the effectiveness of ultrasound variables as predictors of osteoporosis. A total of 1011 persons aged 21–80 y old were included. All study participants underwent BMD measurements of the lumbar spine (LSBMD) and the femoral neck (FNBMD). The participants also underwent calcaneal measurements to determine AIB and SCS with central frequencies of 3.5 (one transducer) and 5.0 MHz (the other transducer). AIB decreased with age and was positively correlated with BMD, while SCS increased with age and was negatively correlated with BMD. The correlation coefficient of SCS with LSBMD and FNBMD at 3.5 MHz was −0.72 and −0.70, respectively. The correlation coefficient at 5.0 MHz was −0.75 and −0.74, respectively. The correlation coefficient of AIB with LSBMD and FNBMD at 3.5 MHz was 0.65 and 0.63. The correlation coefficient at 5.0 MHz was 0.59 and 0.55, respectively. The correlation between SCS and BMD was significantly better than the correlation between AIB and BMD. Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, a significant difference was found between the areas under the curve for SCS and AIB at 3.5 MHz (0.781 vs. 0.715, respectively, p < 0.05), as well as at 5.0 MHz (0.782 vs. 0.709, respectively, p < 0.05). The optimum T-score threshold for SCS was -1.3 for both transducers. The sensitivity and specificity of SCS at 3.5 MHz and 5.0 MHz for the optimum threshold were 64%, 85%, 63% and 86%, respectively. In conclusion, the correlations among the ultrasound parameters and BMDs are strong. SCS performs better than AIB in differentiating patients with osteoporosis. Ultrasound variables may be taken into consideration as predictors of osteoporosis in the future considering its portability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A novel technique was utilized to fabricate fine-scaled piezoelectric ceramic/polymer 2-2 composites for high-frequency ultrasonic transducers. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) was used as raw material. Tape-casted acetylene black tapes were used to define kerfs after sintering. A one-directional supporter was utilized to avoid distortion of PZT elements. PZT elements with 20 ± 2 μm width exhibited good consistency in longitudinal direction. A resonant method was utilized to evaluate the piezoelectric and dielectric properties of the composites. A 72-μm-thick composite with an aspect ratio of ~3.6 exhibited a kt of 0.61 with satisfied piezoelectric and dielectric properties. A prototype high-frequency ultrasonic transducer was fabricated and evaluated by an underwater pulse-echo test. The center frequency was found to be 23.75 MHz, with −6 dB bandwidth of 5.5 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the multi-hoist cyclic scheduling problem in electroplating lines where the processing time of parts in each tank must be within given lower and upper limits and part moves between tanks are allowed in both directions along the line. The problem arises in electroplating lines such as those used in the production of printed circuit boards and has previously been modeled as a mixed-integer linear program. The possible relative positions of any pair of moves are analyzed and a set of linear constraints is derived that expresses the no-collision requirements for hoists. Based on the analysis, a new mixed-integer linear programming model is formulated for the multi-hoist scheduling problem. An efficient branch-and-bound strategy is proposed to solve the problem. Computational results show that the new model can be solved much more quickly than an existing model in the literature and that the proposed solution method is more efficient in solving the problem than a commercial software package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Molecular dynamics computer simulations show the important role of oxygen replacing nitrogen at surface sites in the prismatic surface of β-Si3N4 on the adsorption of rare-earth ions from the intergranular film. Such adsorption affects the grain morphology, which plays an important role in mechanical properties. The simulations successfully obtain the correct Lu sites Lu1 and Lu2 on the prismatic surface with O replacement at specific combinations of N surface sites. The results match the experimental high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy data. Unlike the Lu results, surface oxidation does not have a large effect on La adsorption sites on the prismatic surface, but does have an influence on the La surface occupancy. The simulation results provide the mechanisms for both the experimental variances observed for the adsorption sites of these two rare-earth additives in the intergranular films and can be used to explain the different grain growth behavior seen experimentally. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Structural evolution and crystallization behavior between 600°C and 1450°C during the preparation of bulk SiC/ B4 C/ C nanocomposites by the pyrolysis of CB- PSA preceramic were investigated. The CB- PSA preceramic converts into carbon-rich Si- B- C ceramics up to 800°C. Structural evolution and crystallization of Si- B- C materials could be controlled by adjusting the pyrolytic temperature. The Si- B- C ceramics are amorphous between 800°C and 1000°C. Phase separation and crystallization begin at 1100°C. The crystallization of β- SiC takes place at 1100°C and B4 C nanocrystallites generate at 1300°C. The sizes of β- SiC and B4 C nanocrystals increase with the pyrolytic temperature rising. In addition, the boron-doping effect on structural evolution was studied by comparing the crystallization and graphitization behavior of Si- B- C ceramics and the corresponding Si- C materials. Boron is helpful for the growth of β- SiC nanocrystals and the graphitization, but harmful for the nucleation of β- SiC crystallites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Osmotic stress transcription factor 1/transforming growth factor-β-stimulated clone 22 domain 3 (Ostf1/Tsc22d3) is a transcription factor that plays an osmoregulatory role in euryhaline fishes. Its mRNA and protein levels are up-regulated under hyperosmotic stress. However, its osmoregulatory and developmental functions have not been studied in any stenohaline freshwater fishes. Zebrafish is an excellent model to perform such study to unfold the functional role of Tsc22d3. Methods: We identified the zebrafish Tsc22d3 and performed knockdown studies using morpholino antisense oligonucleotide (MO). Results: Zebrafish Tsc22d3 did not response to hypertonic stress and ts22d3 knockdown or overexpression by injecting MO or capped RNA did not change the transcriptional levels of any of the known ionocyte markers. To reveal the unknown function of zebrafish Tsc22d3, we performed several in situ molecular marker studies on tsc22d3 morphants and found that Tsc22d3 plays multi-functional roles in dorsoventral (DV) patterning, segmentation, and brain development. We then aimed to identify the mechanism of Tsc22d3 in the earliest stages of DV patterning. Our results demonstrated that tsc22d3 is a ventralizing gene that can stimulate the transcription of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (bmp4) and, thus, has a positive effect on the Bmp signaling pathway. Furthermore, we showed that Tsc22d3 interacts with deubiquitylating enzymes, ubiquitin-specific protease 15 (Usp15) and ovarian tumor domain containing protein 4 (Otud4). In addition, the interruption of Bmp4 signaling by double knockdown of usp15 and otud4 reduced the ventralized effects in tsc22d3-overexpressing embryos. Conclusions: This is the first study to identify new developmental functions of Tsc22d3 in zebrafish. General significance: Zebrafish tsc22d3 is a ventralizing gene and plays a role in early embryogenesis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The objective of this study was to develop a rapid multiplex PCR (m-PCR) method using pure bacterial cultures and pork that would allow the simultaneous detection of five major foodborne pathogens likely to be found in pork ( Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella and Yersinia enterocolitica). Five pairs of primers were designed to identify invA gene, hlyA gene, rfbE gene, nuc gene and ail gene for Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, S. aureus and Y. enterocolitica, respectively. On the basis of determining specificity of the m-PCR, sensitivity was performed with an overnight enrichment step in culture media and pork. The 16S rRNA gene was targeted as an internal control gene of the presence of bacterial DNA. The results suggested that the m-PCR was an effective procedure having high specificity for the simultaneous detection of the five target pathogens. After overnight culture, the detection limit was 10cfu/mL for the simultaneous detection of the five target pathogens and less than 10 cfu/mL for detection of a single pathogen. The m-PCR protocol successfully detected all five organisms inoculated overnight together on pork. Salmonella, S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, Y. enterocolitca and E. coli O157:H7 were detected at levels of 142, 51, 9, 33 and 670 cfu/mL, respectively, in the pork. The m-PCR assay developed in this study could provide an effective and informative supplement for routine monitoring for pork safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the quasiparticle band structure and optical absorption spectrum of bulk LiBr calculated from first-principles approaches. The quasiparticle band structure is calculated within the GW approximation. Taking the electron-hole interaction into consideration, the optical excitation is investigated by solving the Bethe-Salpeter equation for the electron-hole two-particle Green's function. The obtained results for the band gap and optical absorption spectrum are in good agreement with experimental measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurse scientists are increasingly interested in conducting secondary research using real world collections of biospecimens and health data. The purposes of this scoping review are to (a) identify federal regulations and norms that bear authority or give guidance over reuse of residual clinical biospecimens and health data, (b) summarize domain experts' interpretations of permissions of such reuse, and (c) summarize key issues for interpreting regulations and norms. Final analysis included 25 manuscripts and 23 regulations and norms. This review illustrates contextual complexity for reusing residual clinical biospecimens and health data, and explores issues such as privacy, confidentiality, and deriving genetic information from biospecimens. Inconsistencies make it difficult to interpret, which regulations or norms apply, or if applicable regulations or norms are congruent. Tools are necessary to support consistent, expert-informed consent processes and downstream reuse of residual clinical biospecimens and health data by nurse scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of substrate conformational structure changes on the laccase-induced protein cross-linking. The effects of laccase amount, pH, and ferulic acid (FA) on the enzymatic cross-linking of substrate, Cyt C, were determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate– polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. High-performance size exclusion chromatography, laser particle size analysis and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) were also applied to investigate the cross-linking product and enthalpy changes. Structural changes of Cyt C at different pH values were analyzed by ultraviolet– visible (UV–vis), fluorescence, and circular dichroism (CD) measurements. Results: Complete cross-linking, partial cross-linking, minute cross-linking, and no cross-linking occurred at pH 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, and 8.0, respectively. ITC analysis demonstrated that the enzymatic cross-linking of Cyt C was an endothermic process. The UV–vis, fluorescence, and CD measurements exhibited that the tertiary structure of Cyt C was disrupted, and part of the a-helical polypeptide region unfolded at pH 2.0. The structural flexibilities decreased, and the tertiary structure of Cyt C became increasingly compact with the increase in pH values from 4.0 to 8.0. The gradual changes in the structure of Cyt C at different pH values were in accordance with the cross-linking results of Cyt C catalyzed by laccase. Conclusions: The results demonstrated that minute structure changes of substrate had a remarkable effect on the laccase-induced cross-linking. The findings promote the understanding of the substrate requirement of laccase in protein cross-linking and are instructive for the modulation of laccase-induced protein cross-linking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first experimental preparation is reported of an ultra-broadband continuously-tunable highly polarization-entangled photon-pair source via spontaneous parametric down-conversion in a single type-II phase-matched bulk periodically-poled KTiOPO4(PPKTP) crystal. A tuning band of more than 60 nm for the down-converted photons is achieved experimentally, which covers the C+L telecom bands. The photon pair generation rate is about 1.63 × 104(s mW nm)−1. The calculated S parameter values of CHSH inequality between 2.60 ± 0.04 (minimum) and 2.72 ± 0.07 (maximum) over the whole tunable range clearly demonstrate high entanglement of the source. In combination with the dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technique, our source could be used to enhance the transmission capacity of a communication channel in the field of quantum communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Phytochemical investigation of ethanol extract from the flowers of Trollius chinensis Bunge resulted in the isolation of two new flavone C-glycosides (1–2), along with 10 known compounds (3–12). The structures of the new compounds were established as 6‴-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)-2″-O-β-d-galactopyranosyl orientin (1) and 6‴-(3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaroyl)-2″-O-β-d-galactopyranosyl vitexin (2) on the basis of various spectroscopic analysis (including different 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopies, high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry) and chemical evidences. Bioassay showed that eight flavonoids inhibited complement activation on the classic pathway in vitro, with their IC50 values ranging from 0.88 to 4.02 mM, which may contribute to the applications of the herb in treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green Revolution ( GR-I) included worldwide adoption of semi-dwarf rice cultivars (SRCs) with mutant alleles at GA20ox2 or SD1 encoding gibberellin 20-oxidase. Two series of experiments were conducted to characterize the pleiotropic effects of SD1 and its relationships with large numbers of QTLs affecting rice growth, development and productivity. The pleiotropic effects of SD1 in the IR64 genetic background for increased height, root length/mass and grain weight, and for reduced spikelet fertility and delayed heading were first demonstrated using large populations derived from near isogenic IR64 lines of SD1. In the second set of experiments, QTLs controlling nine growth and yield traits were characterized using a new molecular quantitative genetics model and the phenotypic data of the well-known IR64/Azucena DH population evaluated across 11 environments, which revealed three genetic systems: the SD1-mediated, SD1-repressed and SD1-independent pathways that control rice growth, development and productivity. The SD1-mediated system comprised 43 functional genetic units (FGUs) controlled by GA. The SD1-repressed system was the alternative one comprising 38 FGUs that were only expressed in the mutant sd1 backgrounds. The SD1-independent one comprised 64 FGUs that were independent of SD1. GR-I resulted from the overall differences between the former two systems in the three aspects: (1) trait/environment-specific contributions; (2) distribution of favorable alleles for increased productivity in the parents; and (3) different responses to (fertilizer) inputs. Our results suggest that at 71.4 % of the detected loci, a QTL resulted from the difference between a functional allele and a loss-of-function mutant, whereas at the remaining 28.6 % of loci, from two functional alleles with differentiated effects. Our results suggest two general strategies to achieve GR-II (1) by further exploiting the genetic potential of the SD1-repressed and SD1-independent pathways and (2) by restoring the SD1-mediated pathways, or 'back to the nature' to fully exploit the genetic diversity of those loci in the SD1-mediated pathways which are virtually inaccessible to most rice-breeding programs worldwide that are exclusively based on sd1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Porous poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) scaffolds are widely used as in vivo implants in tissue engineering, and their long-term degradation behaviors are of great importance for their in vivo performances. However, the influence of porosity on long-term degradation of PCL scaffold in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) has been rarely reported so far. Herein, a 72-week degradation study of PCL scaffolds with various porosities was conducted to elucidate the changes of physico-chemical properties such as weight, molecular weight, morphology and compressive modulus. Within 72 weeks, PCL scaffolds experienced three stages: stable stage, mechanical loss stage and structural collapse stage. The higher porosity induced the severer loss of weight, molecular weight and compressive modulus. It was found that a minimal acid autocatalysis also happened in the scaffold samples with low porosities (less than 85%). Cellular response on the scaffolds with various porosities was further evaluated. The cell ingrowth improved on the scaffold with high porosity (e.g. S-10) in contrast to those with low porosity (e.g. S-6 and S-4). The combined results demonstrated that an optimal porosity of PCL scaffolds should be designed greater than 90% due to the appropriate degradation rate and good cell performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

- Grove Mountains (GRV) 020090 is a 'lherzolitic' shergottite found in the Grove Mountains, Antarctica. It exhibits two distinct textures: poikilitic and nonpoikilitic. In poikilitic areas, large pyroxene oikocrysts enclose subhedral olivine and chromite chadacrysts. Pyroxene oikocrysts are zoned from pigeonite cores to augite rims. In nonpoikilitic areas, olivine, pyroxene, and interstitial maskelynite occur as major phases, and minor phases include chromite and merrillite. Compared with typical 'lherzolitic' shergottites, GRV 020090 contains a distinctly higher abundance of maskelynite (19 vol%). Olivine and pyroxene are more ferroan (Fa28-40, En57-72Fs24-31Wo4-14 and En46-53Fs17-21Wo26-35), and maskelynite is more alkali-rich (Ab43-65Or2-7). The major phases, whole-rock (estimated) and fusion crust of GRV 020090, are relatively enriched in light rare earth elements (LREE), similar to those of the geochemically enriched basaltic shergottites, but distinct from those of LREE-depleted 'lherzolitic' shergottites. Combined with a high oxygen fugacity of log fO2 = QFM − 1.41 ± 0.04 (relative to the quartz-fayalite-magnetite buffer), it is clear that GRV 020090 sampled from an oxidized and enriched mantle reservoir similar to those of other enriched shergottites. The calculated REE abundances and patterns of the melts in equilibrium with the cores of major phases are parallel to but higher than that of the whole rock, suggesting that GRV 020090 originated from a single parent magma and experienced progressive fractional crystallization in a closed system. The crystallization age recorded by baddeleyite is 192 ± 10 (2σ) Ma, consistent with the young internal isochron ages of enriched shergottites. Baddeleyite dating results further demonstrated that the young ages, rather than ancient ages (>4 Ga), appear to represent the crystallization of Martian surface lava flow. GRV 020090 shares many similarities with Roberts Massif (RBT) 04261/2, the first enriched 'lherzolitic' shergottite. Detailed comparisons suggest that these two rocks are petrologically and geochemically closely related, and probably launch paired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placing is a necessary skill for a personal robot to have in order to perform tasks such as arranging objects in a disorganized room. The object placements should not only be stable but also be in their semantically preferred placing areas and orientations. This is challenging because an environment can have a large variety of objects and placing areas that may not have been seen by the robot before. In this paper, we propose a learning approach for placing multiple objects in different placing areas in a scene. Given point-clouds of the objects and the scene, we design appropriate features and use a graphical model to encode various properties, such as the stacking of objects, stability, object–area relationship and common placing constraints. The inference in our model is an integer linear program, which we solve efficiently via an linear programming relaxation. We extensively evaluate our approach on 98 objects from 16 categories being placed into 40 areas. Our robotic experiments show a success rate of 98% in placing known objects and 82% in placing new objects stably. We use our method on our robots for performing tasks such as loading several dish-racks, a bookshelf and a fridge with multiple items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Glucomannans from Bletilla striata (bletillan) were used as excipient for controlled deliveries of drugs, genes and tissue engineering. In the present study, a controlled acetylation method was developed to improve water solubility of bletillan 70 (BT) firstly, by reacting with acetic anhydride (AA) in N,N-dimethylformamide solvent. The preparation parameters, such as reaction temperature, reaction time and molar ratio of BT/AA, were optimized based on degrees of acetyl group in addition. IR and 1H NMR spectra were applied to elucidate the reaction process and substitution pattern, which indicated that the acetylation took place at C-6 and C-2 of the hexose units in a ratio of 2:1, with DS up to 0.83. Relative viscosity analysis revealed that the resulted products had improved water solubilities. This novel method is simple, economic and easily controlled. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We assess the extent to which various constrained versions of the NMSSM are able to describe the recent hints of a Higgs signal at the LHC corresponding to a Higgs mass in the range 123–128 GeV. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Graphene can be used as a platform for transformation-optics devices due to its tunability of conductivity. Besides conductivity, we show that the loss of graphene can also be controlled. Using this priority and taking the advantage of transformation optics, we realize the concept of electromagnetic “black hole” by using of a single-layer graphene. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the surface plasmon polariton waves incident to the “black hole” are bent towards the central area and absorbed by the inner core. The advantages of graphene-based “black hole” are its planar, isotropic, and nonmagnetic characteristics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: Patients on oral anticancer agent (OAA) therapies have the autonomy to manage their cancer treatments in home settings. However, patients may not have adequate knowledge, confidence, or ability to effectively manage OAA-related consequences, which can significantly impact their treatment and health outcomes. This study aims to identify the associations between medication beliefs, patient activation, and self-rated health (SRH) among oncology patients taking OAAs and explore the potential mediation effects of patient activation on the relationship between medication beliefs and SRH. Methods: A secondary data analysis was conducted on cross-sectional data from 114 patients who were diagnosed with breast, colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer. Patients completed a self-reported survey including items of SRH, Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ), and Patient Activation Measure (PAM-13). Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, hierarchical multiple linear regression, and mediation analysis were conducted. Results: The results indicate that patients taking OAAs have ambivalent attitudes toward medication. Both medication necessity (r = − 0.27) and concerns (r = − 0.21) were negatively associated with SRH, while patient activation was positively associated with SRH (r = 0.38). Patient activation had a negative association with medication concerns (r = − 0.36) and fully mediated the relationship between medication concerns and SRH in patients taking OAAs (indirect effect = − 0.154, 95% confidence interval, − 0.276 to − 0.060). Conclusion: The findings highlight the significance of activating patients to better understand and manage their OAAs. It is crucial for oncology professionals to provide multifaceted interventions to promote patient activation with an effort to mitigate the negative impact of medication beliefs on patient-perceived health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential part of the flake graphite flotation apparatus is a micro-bubble generator. Developing a micro-bubble generator with a reasonable structure and superior self-absorption performance is crucial to improving flake graphite sorting. In this study, to realize the integrated treatment of the grinding and mineralization of flake graphite, the development and manufacturing of a double-nozzle jet micro-bubble generator were based on the concepts of shear-type cavitation water jets and jet pumps, among other theories. A numerical simulation of the air–water–flake graphite triple-phase flow field of the generator was conducted using the CFD method. The goal was to investigate the grinding and mineralization process of flake graphite by analyzing the distribution of the air phase's volume percentage and the speed distribution of the air–water–flake graphite triple-phase flow field. The findings indicate that the air-phase volume percentage produced by the generator ranges from 98.3% to 99.9%, and the air-phase volume percentage is evenly distributed within the steady flow tube, achieving the mineralization function. Additionally, the flake graphite particles are dissociated from the flake graphite under the combined effect of friction shear and cavitation of the internal nozzles, thereby achieving the grinding function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to explore the link between dietary vitamin C intake and hyperuricemia/gout, utilizing Mendelian randomization to assess causality. Methods: We analyzed cross‐sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2007–2018) to investigate the association. Mendelian randomization studies, using genetic data from genome‐wide association surveys, were conducted to infer causality between vitamin C intake and hyperuricemia/gout. The weighted logistic regression analysis and the instrumental variable based on the inverse‐variance weighting served as the primary analytical tool, with sensitivity analyses to ensure robustness. Results: After adjusting for covariates, a stable association was observed between vitamin C intake and hyperuricemia/gout risk. Those consuming >111.75 mg of vitamin C generally had a lower risk. Vitamin C intake recommendations of 75–525 mg and 75–225 mg appeared effective for hyperuricemia and gout, respectively. Mendelian randomization analysis revealed a negative association between vitamin C intake and hyperuricemia (OR = 0.985, 95% CI = 0.973–0.997, p =.015) and gout (OR = 0.857, 95% CI = 0.797–0.921, p <.001). Reverse Mendelian randomization indicated no reverse causality. Conclusion: We hypothesize that a dietary vitamin C intake of 75–525 mg or 75–225 mg may reduce the risk of hyperuricemia and gout, respectively. Further research with larger samples is required to confirm this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Oncology patients often struggle to manage their medications and related adverse events during transitions of care. They are expected to take an active role in self-monitoring and timely reporting of their medication safety events or concerns to clinicians. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing oncology patients’ willingness to report adverse events or concerns related to their medication after their transitions back home. Methods: A qualitative interview study was conducted with adult patients with breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancer who experienced care transitions within the previous year. A semi-structured interview guide was developed to understand patients’ perceptions of reporting mediation-related safety events or concerns from home. All interviews were conducted via phone calls, recorded, and transcribed for thematic data analysis. Results: A total of 41 individuals participated in the interviews. Three main themes and six subthemes emerged, including patients’ perceived relationship with clinicians (the quality of communication and trust in clinicians), perceived severity of adverse medication events (perceived severe vs. non-severe events), and patient activation in self-management (self-efficacy in self-management and engagement in monitoring health outcomes). Conclusion: The patient-clinician relationship significantly affects patients’ reporting behaviors, which can potentially interact with other factors, including the severity of adverse events. It is important to engage oncology patients in medication safety self-reporting from home by enhancing health communication, understanding patients’ perceptions of severe events, and promoting patient activation. By addressing these efforts, healthcare providers should adopt a more patient-centered approach to enhance the overall quality and safety of oncological care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge about the thermodynamic equilibria of the P2O5-Na2O and P2O5-MgO systems is very important for controlling the phosphorus content of steel materials in the process of steelmaking dephosphorization. The phase equilibrium and thermodynamic data of the P2O5-Na2O and P2O5-MgO systems were critically evaluated and re-assessed by the CALPHAD (CAlculation of PHAse Diagram) approach. The liquid phase was described by the ionic two-sublattice model for the first time with the formulas (Na+1)P(O−2, PO3−1, PO4−3, PO5/2)Q and (Mg+2)P(O−2, PO3−1, PO4−3, PO5/2)Q, respectively, and the selection of the species constituting the liquid phase was based on the structure of the phosphate melts. A new and improved self-consistent set of thermodynamic parameters for the P2O5-Na2O and P2O5-MgO systems was finally obtained, and the calculated phase diagram and thermodynamic properties exhibited excellent agreement with the experimental data. The difference in the phase composition of invariant reactions from the experimentally determined values reported in the literature is less than 0.9 mol.%. The present thermodynamic modeling contributes to constructing a multicomponent oxide thermodynamic database in the process of steelmaking dephosphorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to investigate the preoperative prediction value of computed tomography (CT) radiomics combined with traditional imaging features in the grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) by extracting and analyzing the CT radiomics information of patients with CCRCC. One hundred thirty four patients with CCRCC who were admitted to our Hospital, Sun Yat‐sen University (Futian, Shenzhen), between June 2019 and June 2023 were enrolled in this study. According to the WHO/ISUP classification standard, the patients were divided into the high differentiation group (III + IV) and the low differentiation group (I + II); they were divided into the study group and the validation group, with a ratio of 7:3 and the best features of the validation group were screened to construct the radiomics model. There were significant differences in the radiomics scores between the high differentiation group and the low differentiation group of CCRCC (p < 0.05). Computed tomography radiomics combined with traditional imaging features has favourable effects on predicting the differentiation degree of CCRCC before surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) dual fluorescence was observed in various organic solvents with p-dimethylaminobenzanilide (DMBA) derivatives bearing ortho-methyl (DMOMBA) and ortho,ortho-dimethyl (DMDMBA) substituents at amido aniline moiety. Ab initiocalculation and absorption spectral data indicated that high steric hindrance was introduced by the ortho,ortho-dimethyl substitutions. It was found that, with DMDMBA, the CT emission initially shifted to the red with increasing solvent polarity from cyclohexane (CHX, 480 nm) to diethyl ether (DEE, 520 nm), similar to those of DMBA derivatives with the ortho-, meta- or para-methyl substitutions at amido aniline moiety. However, there is a characteristic blue-shift of the long wavelength emission between DEE and tetrahydrofuran (THF, 424 nm) then a bathochromic shift again in highly polar solvent acetonitrile (ACN, 484 nm). The unusual solvent-dependent CT emission was ascribed to two competitive CT channels. One is benzanilide (BA)-like CT, whose CT reaction occurs from amido aniline to benzoyl moiety in nonpolar solvent CHX and DEE; the other one is p-dimethylaminobenzamide (DMABA)-like, whose CT reaction occurs from dimethylamino to benzanilide moiety in highly polar solvent THF and ACN. These findings revealed the steric effect plays an important role in the ICT process, which may alter the properties of the electron donor and/or acceptor, but also change the reaction potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The densification of nano-sized BaTiO3 (BT) using LiF and LiF-BaCO3 as sintering aids was investigated. The density of the sample containing 1 wt.% LiF and 1 mol% BaCO3 sintered at 900°C could achieve 5.67 g/cm3 (95% of the theoretical density). The temperature-dependence of the dielectric properties was measured from −20 to 125°C. The results showed that using 1 wt.% LiF and 1 mol% BaCO3 as a sintering aid, the BT ceramic sintered at 900°C for 1.5 h could obtain very high room temperature permittivity (ϵ r ∼5382 at 10 kHz) and with relatively small variation with temperature, which is suitable for low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) applications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Molecular dynamics simulations were used to determine the effect of the composition and thickness on the atomistic structure of La–Si–O–N intergranular films (IGFs) between prism and misaligned high-index silicon nitride crystals. Results showed that ordered La adsorption onto the prism-terminated surface is not affected by the orientation of the opposing crystal, although the extent of the ordering away from the interface is affected by IGF thickness. La adsorption at ordered sites 1 and 2 on the prism surface occurred for almost all of the compositions in both 1.8 and 0.6nm thick IGFs and at sites farther from the prism interface in the thicker IGF, similar to adsorption in triple points. La adsorption on the prism surface occurred at sites precisely the same as seen in high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy studies. Saturation of available sites is affected by the thickness of the IGF, which governs the number of La ions (and N ions) in the IGF, with lower site filling in the thinner IGF. There are clear energy differences for La in the interior of the IGF vs. the interface based on composition and IGF thickness, with the thicker IGF showing greater variation in driving forces for segregation or La incorporation into the IGF. Fracture is affected by both composition and thickness and occurs in the glassy IGF and not in the ordered interfacial regions, consistent with experimentally observed intergranular fracture for La-doped silicon nitride. Segregation of La to the interface affects N distribution within the interior of the IGF, which affects strength. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches were used to reveal the microbial diversity and dynamic changes occurring in sliced vacuum-packed cooked ham after high pressure processing (HPP, 400MPa or 600MPa for 10min at 22°C) during refrigerated storage over 90days. Direct extraction of genome DNA and total RNA from meat samples, followed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and RT-PCR-DGGE on 16S rDNA V3 region, was performed to define the structure of the bacterial populations and active species in pressurized cooked ham. Results showed that HPP affected differently the various species detected. The predominant spoilage organisms of cooked ham, such as Lactobacillus sakei and Lactobacillus curvatus, were found to be very sensitive to pressure as they were unable to be detected in HPP samples at any time during refrigerated storage. Weissella viridescens and Leuconostoc mesenteroides survived HPP at 600MPa for 10min at 22°C and were responsible for the final spoilage. An RNA-based DGGE approach clearly has potential for the analysis of active species that have survived in pressurized cooked ham. High pressure processing at 400 or 600MPa for 10min at room temperature (22°C) has a powerful inhibitory effect on the major spoilage bacteria of sliced vacuum-packed cooked ham. High pressure treatment may lead to reduced microbial diversity and improve the products'' safety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Purpose: To obtain mimic peptides that specifically bind with the first and second extracellular loops (ECL1, ECL2) of the CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) and to study their treatment effects on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice. Methods: A phage display peptide library was applied to screen peptides that bond with ECL1 and ECL2. ELISA and DNA sequence analysis were used to identify positive clones. EAE mice were treated with synthesized peptides by intraperitoneal injection. Results: Eighteen positive clones were obtained and four peptides with sequences STFTTTL, TPIPQLL, SLPLPKP and QTSSAAL were identified. These peptides could significantly protect against and reduce the severity of EAE. The infiltration of monocytes and lymphocytes into the spinal cord decreased significantly in treated mice, while abundant inflammatory cells and demyelination were observed in spinal cords of EAE mice. Conclusion: CCR5 mimic peptides provided a significant protective effect to EAE mice. These potent inhibitory mimic peptides could be useful in the clinical treatment of multiple sclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A ruthenium(III) complex containing ethylenediaminetetraacetate (edta), [{Ru(Hedta)}2(Pyz)] · 8H2O (1) (Pyz = pyrazine), has been synthesized by the reaction between K[Ru(Hedta)Cl] · 1.5H2O and pyrazine. The structure of the complex was determined by single X-ray diffraction. Complex 1 crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1 with a = 7.293(9) Å, b = 10.575(14) Å, c = 12.742(16) Å, α = 104.044(19)°, β = 91.893(19)°, γ = 93.35(2)°, Z = 1. The product was also characterized by IR, UV-Vis, EPR spectrum and magnetic techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We give a direct proof of a result of Earle, Gardiner and Lakic, that is, Kobayashi's metric and Teichmüller's metric coincide with each other on the Teichmüller space of symmetric circle homeomorphisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sufficient lysis of soil or sediment microbes is a critical step for analyzing microbial community structures and for preparing metagenomic DNA libraries. The present study compared lysis methods for recovering archaeal, bacterial, actinomycete, and fungal DNAs from a mangrove sediment sample. PCR results showed that individual procedures using SDS, lysozyme, sonication, freeze–thaw, microwave, and vigorous shaking could extract archaeal or bacterial DNA but failed for actinomycetes or fungi cells. In comparison, an integrated lysis procedure using SDS, lysozyme, and vigorous shaking successfully obtained fungal DNA, and a combination of SDS, lysozyme, vigorous shaking, and microwave treatments recovered DNA from actinomycetes. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) results showed that although single lysis procedures can lyse bacterial DNA, all of them assessed the indigenous bacterial community structure with significant biases. The integrated lysis protocols described in the present study could be useful for extracting DNA from various types of sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of La and Sb doping on the electronic structure and optical properties of SrTiO3 are investigated by first-principles calculation of the plane wave ultra-soft pseudo-potential based on density functional theory. The calculated results reveal that corner-shared TiO6 octahedra dominate the main electronic properties of SrTiO3, and its structural stability can be improved by La doping. The La3+ ion fully acts as an electron donor in Sr0.875La0.125TiO3 and the Fermi level shifts into the conduction bands (CBs) after La doping. As for SrSb0.125Ti0.875O3, there is a distortion near the bottom of the CBs for SrSb0.125Ti0.875O3 after Sb doping and an incipient localization of some of the doped electrons trapped in the Ti site, making it impossible to describe the evolution of the density of states (DOS) within the rigid band model. At the same time, the DOSs of the two electron-doped systems shift towards low energies and the optical band gaps are broadened by about 0.4 and 0.6 eV for Sr0.875La0.125TiO3 and SrSb0.125Ti0.875O3, respectively. Moreover, the transmittance of SrSb0.125Ti0.875O3 is as high as 95% in most of the visible region, which is higher than that of Sr0.875La0.125TiO3(85%). The wide band gap, the small transition probability and the weak absorption due to the low partial density of states (PDOS) of impurity in the Fermi level result in the significant optical transparency of SrSb0.125Ti0.875O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented related in new orchids record of Dendrobium vexabile, Acampe joiceyana, and Bulbophyllum echinulus in the flora of China.

A mononuclear ruthenium(III) complex containing ethylenediaminetetraacetate (edta), [Ru(Hedta)(Htrz)] · 4H2O (1) (Htrz = 1H-1,2,4-triazole), has been synthesized and the structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complex crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1, with the unit cell parameters a = 7.212(3) Å, b = 9.873(4) Å, c = 13.806(6) Å, α = 91.945(6)°, β = 100.078(6)°, γ = 97.230(7) and Z = 2. The complex was also characterized by elemental analysis, IR, UV-Vis and ESR spectra. Cyclic voltammetry for the complex shows a ruthenium(III)/ruthenium(IV) oxidation and a ruthenium(III)/ruthenium(II) reduction within the range of -1.5-0.5 V. Magnetic susceptibility data give an effective moment of 1.81 B.M. at room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Sliding bed joint isolation technique for ashlar stone masonry was proposed. • Experimental and analytical study carried out to evaluate isolation performance. • Steel plate-steel plate interface found to be suitable as sliding bed joint. • Stable behavior achieved by leveling discretely distributed plate interfaces. • Simplified expressions to predict acceleration response spectrum proposed. An isolation technique using sliding bed joint for seismic response control of ashlar stone masonry buildings was developed and investigated in this paper. Eight triplet specimens were tested under cyclic loads to identify suitable interface material for the sliding bed joint. Further, four stone masonry wall specimens were tested to investigate the frictional performance of the sliding bed joint. The sliding friction coefficient of stainless steel plate-stainless steel plate interface was about 0.17 and found to be insensitive to sliding displacement and the level of compressive stress. The proposed interface was found suitable for the sliding bed joint application. Stable frictional performance of sliding bed joint in practical engineering buildings could be achieved by leveling the interface of each group of the discrete distribute steel plates (two pairs of steel plates equidistantly adhesive on one stone block). A two-degrees-of-freedom mathematical model was adopted to investigate the isolation performance of stone structure's sliding bed joint. No sliding displacement was observed in the isolated stone structures in the case of frequent level earthquake. On the other hand, the average absolute acceleration response in the case of design and rare level earthquakes was significantly reduced compared to fixed base structures. The maximum average sliding displacement of isolated stone structures considered was about 71 mm which is within the half-length of the steel plate. Simple expressions were proposed to predict the average absolute acceleration spectrum of isolated stone structures. The experimental and analytical results provided reference for the application of the sliding bed joint in the stone masonry buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The segmentation of retinal vessels is critical for the diagnosis of some fundus diseases. Retinal vessel segmentation requires abundant spatial information and receptive fields with different sizes while existing methods usually sacrifice spatial resolution to achieve real-time reasoning speed, resulting in inadequate vessel segmentation of low-contrast regions and weak anti-noise interference ability. The asymmetry of capillaries in fundus images also increases the difficulty of segmentation. In this paper, we proposed a two-branch network based on multi-scale attention to alleviate the above problem. First, a coarse network with multi-scale U-Net as the backbone is designed to capture more semantic information and to generate high-resolution features. A multi-scale attention module is used to obtain enough receptive fields. The other branch is a fine network, which uses the residual block of a small convolution kernel to make up for the deficiency of spatial information. Finally, we use the feature fusion module to aggregate the information of the coarse and fine networks. The experiments were performed on the DRIVE, CHASE, and STARE datasets. Respectively, the accuracy reached 96.93%, 97.58%, and 97.70%. The specificity reached 97.72%, 98.52%, and 98.94%. The F-measure reached 83.82%, 81.39%, and 84.36%. Experimental results show that compared with some state-of-art methods such as Sine-Net, SA-Net, our proposed method has better performance on three datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segmentation of retinal vessels is a critical step for the diagnosis of some fundus diseases. Methods: To further enhance the performance of vessel segmentation, we propose a method based on a gated skip-connection network with adaptive upsampling (GSAU-Net). In GSAU-Net, a novel skip-connection with gating is first utilized in the extension path, which facilitates the flow of information from the encoder to the decoder. Specifically, we used the gated skip-connection between the encoder and decoder to gate the lower-level information from the encoder. In the decoding phase, we used an adaptive upsampling to replace the bilinear interpolation, which recovers feature maps from the decoder to obtain the pixelwise prediction. Finally, we validated our method on the DRIVE, CHASE, and STARE datasets. Results: The experimental results showed that our proposed method outperformed some existing methods, such as DeepVessel, AG-Net, and IterNet, in terms of accuracy, F-measure, and AUC R O C . The proposed method achieved a vessel segmentation F-measure of 83.13%, 81.40%, and 84.84% on the DRIVE, CHASE, and STARE datasets, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strain hardening behavior was studied in ultra-high strength 60Si2CrVAT spring steel subjected to quenching and tempering (Q&T) treatments via tailoring the carbides precipitated during tempering at 400–530 °C. Results showed that the strain hardening characteristic of the spring steel changed from a single-n upwardly convex (tempering temperatures below 470 °C) to a double-n downwardly convex (tempering temperatures equal to or higher than 470 °C), which is more suitable for cold coiling process. For the double-n state, the value of the strain hardening exponent(n) in the low-strain region of uniform plastic strain (n1) gradually decreased while the value of n in the high-strain region of uniform plastic strain (n2) gradually increased with tempering temperature increasing. It was attributed to the continuous decrease in initial dislocation density of matrix with tempering temperature increasing and the continuous increase in geometric necessary dislocations (GNDs) during cold deformation, which was significantly affected by the quantity, size, distribution and related microscopic characteristic parameters of carbides. The strengthening effect corresponding to the high-strain region is proportional to the value of n2 and the carbide particle size parameter (f/d). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperalgesia to noxious stimuli is accompanied by increased spinal cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 protein in diabetic rats. The present studies were initiated to establish causality between increased spinal COX-2 activity and hyperalgesia during diabetes and to assess the potential involvement of polyol pathway activity in the pathogenesis of spinally mediated hyperalgesia. Rats with 1, 2, or 4 weeks of streptozotocin-induced diabetes exhibited significantly increased levels of spinal COX-2 protein and activity, along with exaggerated paw flinching in response to 0.5% paw formalin injection. Increased flinching of diabetic rats was attenuated by intrathecal pretreatment with a selective COX-2 inhibitor immediately before formalin injection, confirming the involvement of COX-2 activity in diabetic hyperalgesia. Chronic treatment with insulin or ICI222155, an aldose reductase inhibitor (ARI) previously shown to prevent spinal polyol accumulation and formalin-evoked hyperalgesia in diabetic rats, prevented elevated spinal COX-2 protein and activity in diabetic rats. In contrast, the ARI IDD676 had no effect on spinal polyol accumulation, elevated spinal COX-2, or hyperalgesia to paw formalin injection. In the spinal cord, aldose reductase immunoreactivity was present solely in oligodendrocytes, which also contained COX-2 immunoreactivity. Polyol pathway flux in spinal oligodendrocytes provides a pathogenic mechanism linking hyperglycemia to hyperalgesia in diabetic rats. Diabetes 56:1569-1576, 2007 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]