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Background: It has been reported that ferroptosis participates in the pathophysiological mechanism of spinal cord injury (SCI). Our preliminary experiments verified that dendrobium nobile polysaccharide (DNP) improved the behavioral function of SCI rats. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the role of DNP on ferroptosis and its neuroprotective mechanism in SCI rats. Methods: Adult female sprague dawley (SD) rats were exposed to SCI by Allen's method, followed by an intragastric injection of 100 mg/kg DNP per day for 2 weeks. Behavioral features were verified by the Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) scale and footprint evaluation. Iron content and glutathione (GSH) were assessed spectrophotometrically. Mitochondrial morphology was examined by transmission electron microscopy. The expression of ferroptosis-related genes, including System Xc-light chain (xCT), G-rich RNA sequence binding Factor 1 (GRSF1) and glutathione peroxidase 4 (Gpx4), was examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot. The spinal cavity was defined using hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining, and neuronal modifications were detected by immunofluorescence. Results: Compared with the SCI group, the BBB score of rats in the DNP group increased at 7 d, 14 d, 21 d, and 28 d. The differences between the two groups were statistically significant. At 12 h post-injury the iron content began to decrease. At 24 h post-injury the iron content decreased significantly in the DNP group. The morphological changes of the mitochondrial crest and membrane in the DNP group were ameliorated within 24 h. Compared with the sham group, the expression of xCT, GSH, Gpx4, and GRSF1 were significantly reduced after SCI. After DNP treatment, the expression of xCT, Gpx4, and GSH were higher. The tissue cavity area was significantly reduced and the amount of NeuN+ cells was increased in the DNP group at 14 d and 28 d after SCI. Conclusions: DNP facilitated the post-injury recovery in SCI rats via the inhibition of ferroptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The risk of intracranial aneurysms (IAs) development and rupture is significantly higher in patients with periodontitis (PD), suggesting an association between the two. However, the specific mechanisms of association between these two diseases have not been fully investigated. Materials and methods: In this study, we downloaded IAs and PD data from the Gene Expression Omnibus. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and functional enrichment analysis was performed. The protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was performed to identified key modules and key crosstalk genes. In addition, the immune cell landscape was assessed and the correlation of key crosstalk genes with each immune cell was calculated. Finally, transcription factors (TFs) regulating key crosstalk genes were explored. Results: 127 overlapping DEGs were identified and functional enrichment analysis highlighted the important role of immune reflection in the pathogenesis of IAs and PD. We identified ITGAX and COL4A2 as key crosstalk genes. In addition, the expression of multiple immune cells was significantly elevated in PDs and IAs compared to controls, and both key crosstalk genes were significantly negatively associated with Macrophages M2. Finally, GATA2 was identified as a potential key transcription factor (TF), which regulates two key crosstalk gene. Conclusions: The present study identifies key crosstalk genes and TF in PD and IAs, providing new insights for further study of the co-pathogenesis of PD and IAs from an immune and inflammatory perspective. Also, this is the first study to report the above findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is not practical to obtain a large number of labeled data to train a supervised learning network in tunnel lining nondestructive testing with groundpenetrating radar (GPR). To decrease the dependence of supervised learning on the number of labeled data, an improved self-supervised learning algorithm--self-attention dense contrastive learning (SA-DenseCL)--is proposed and incorporated with a mask region-convolution neural network (Mask R-CNN), which is trained by unlabeled and labeled GPR data. The proposed SA-DenseCL adds a self-attention-based relevant projection head to the DenseCL architecture of self-supervised learning, capturing the spatially continuing information between adjacent GPR traces. In the workflow, some unlabeled GPR images are used to pre-train the SA-DenseCL network for feature extraction and obtaining the backbone weights, which is superior to the conventional pre-training methods of supervised learning pre-trained by ImageNet images. The weights of the pre-trained backbone are then used to initialize the Mask R-CNN through transfer learning. Subsequently, a limited number of labeled GPR images are used to fine-tune the Mask R-CNN for automatically identifying the locations of the reinforcement bars and voids and estimating the secondary lining thickness. The experimental results show that the average precision reaches 96.70%, 81.04%, and 94.67% in identifying reinforcement bar locations, detecting void defects, and estimating secondary lining thickness, respectively, which outperform the conventional methods that use ImageNet-based supervised learning or GPR image-based DenseCL for initializing the Mask R-CNN backbone weights. It is observed that the improved self-supervised learning-based framework can improve the detection and estimation accuracy in GPR tunnel lining inspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Chronic pain poses a significant problem for older adults and may potentially impact cognitive function. This study aimed to examine the cross-sectional relationship between pain severity and cognitive function in elderly individuals residing in the community. Additionally, this study sought to examine the mediating effect of depression on the relationship between pain and dementia. Methods: The study sample was derived from the 2018 China Health and Aging Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), comprising cross-sectional data from 4559 community residents aged 65 years or older. The primary outcome assessed was the occurrence of dementia, while the main independent variable was pain severity (none, little, somewhat, quite a bit, very). Depression score served as the mediating factor. Chi-square and binary logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the relationship between depression and the occurrence of pain and dementia. An intermediate model was constructed by stepwise regression. Results: The study indicates a significant association between cognitive impairment and both chronic pain and depressive symptoms in older adults living in China. Individuals who frequently report experiencing pain exhibit a higher likelihood of developing dementia when compared to those who do not report any pain (odds ratio (OR) = 1.72, p < 0.001). Moreover, depressive symptoms significantly mediate the relationship between pain and dementia, with the mediating effect accounting for 65.25%. Conclusions: Chronic pain not only directly impacts patients' cognitive function but also indirectly exacerbates cognitive impairment through depressive symptoms as a mediating variable. For elderly individuals experiencing depressive symptoms, it is important to provide appropriate psychological treatment in conjunction with pain management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is linked to malnutrition, leading to abnormal body composition and handgrip strength. Avoiding an increased respiratory quotient during malnutrition correction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is crucial. This study investigates the impact of high-fat, low-carbohydrate oral nutritional supplements on the body composition and handgrip strength of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In our prospective intervention study, patients were randomly allocated to either the oral nutritional supplements or control groups. Both received dietary guidance and medication, while only the oral nutritional supplements group received high-fat, low-carbohydrate supplements. Body composition and handgrip strength were measured at baseline and 8 weeks later. Findings revealed that, after 8 weeks, the oral nutritional supplements group showed less handgrip strength improvement, a greater decrease in extracellular water ratio, and greater increases in weight, muscle, fat, and water compared to controls. In essence, oral nutritional supplement intervention appears to have a beneficial effect on body composition, especially in terms of muscle, fat, and water content, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. However, further studies with larger cohorts and extended durations are suggested to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urease is a key enzyme affecting microbial metabolic activity, and its activity is affected by various pollutants,and pollutants have more complex effects on the activity of microbial urease. This study researched the effect of calcium and magnesium ions in landfill leachate on urease activity of anaerobic microorganism according to designing three kinds of calcium and magnesium ion mixtures with different concentration ratios by direct average ray method, investigating the concentration-effect curves of calcium and magnesium ions by BiPhasic and Logistic functions, analyzing the interaction relationship between calcium magnesium ions and microbial urease activity by equivalent line graphic method. The results indicated that with the increase of calcium concentration, the inhibitory effect of urease activity showed a trend of falling first and then rising, and the inhibitory effect of magnesium ions on urease activity increased with the increase of magnesium concentration. The inhibitory effect of calcium magnesium ions on urease activity was obviously time-dependent. The interaction of calcium magnesium ions mixed pollutants on urease activity was synergistic in the 1-4 reaction cycles, and the interaction was antagonistic in the 5 reaction cycles according to the equivalent line diagram. This paper provided support for further study on the action mechanism of pollutants on microbial urease by studying effect of calcium and magnesium ions in landfill leachate on urease . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels govern membrane excitability, thus setting the foundation for various physiological and neuronal processes. Nav channels serve as the primary targets for several classes of widely used and investigational drugs, including local anesthetics, antiepileptic drugs, antiarrhythmics, and analgesics. In this study, we present cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of human Nav1.7 bound to two clinical drugs, riluzole (RLZ) and lamotrigine (LTG), at resolutions of 2.9 Å and 2.7 Å, respectively. A 3D EM reconstruction of ligand-free Nav1.7 was also obtained at 2.1 Å resolution. RLZ resides in the central cavity of the pore domain and is coordinated by residues from repeats III and IV. Whereas one LTG molecule also binds to the central cavity, the other is found beneath the intracellular gate, known as site BIG. Therefore, LTG, similar to lacosamide and cannabidiol, blocks Nav channels via a dual-pocket mechanism. These structures, complemented with docking and mutational analyses, also explain the structure–activity relationships of the LTG-related linear 6,6 series that have been developed for improved efficacy and subtype specificity on different Nav channels. Our findings reveal the molecular basis for these drugs’ mechanism of action and will aid the development of novel antiepileptic and pain-relieving drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Compared with other lung squamous cell carcinomas (LUSC), pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (pLELC) is closely associated with Epstein--Barr virus (EBV) infections with a unique molecular profile and immune microenvironment. This study was thus established to compare the treatment response and effectiveness of immunotherapy between pLELC and LUSC. Material and Methods: We enrolled 31 patients with pLELC and 116 with LUSC receiving first-line immunotherapy at three centers in China and compared the treatment response and effectiveness of immunotherapy. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to balance the differences in baseline data between the two groups. Results: Before PSM, progression-free survival and overall survival were longer in the pLELC group than in the LUSC group (progression-free survival: hazard ratio (HR), 1.67, 95% CI: 1.05-2.63, P = 0.028; overall survival: HR, 1.90, 95% CI: 1.06-3.40, P = 0.028). This remained unchanged after PSM (progression-free survival: HR, 1.79, 95% CI: 1.02-3.15, P = 0.044; overall survival: HR, 2.20; 95% CI: 1.10-4.37, P = 0.022). Conclusion: pLELC showed a clinically meaningful survival benefit compared with traditional LUSC following immunotherapy. Subsequent studies should consider the role of the EBV in the tumor immune microenvironment of pLELC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online quantitative analysis of reaction gases or exhaust in industrial production is of great significance to improve the production capacity and process. A novel method is developed for the online quantitative analysis of reaction gases or exhaust using quantitative mathematical models combined with the linear regression algorithm of machine learning. After accurately estimating the component gases and their contents in the reaction gases or exhaust, a ratio matrix is constructed to separate the relevant overlapping peaks. The ratio and calibration standard gases are detected, filtered, normalized, and linearly regressed with an online process mass spectrometer to correct the ratio matrices and obtain the relative sensitivity matrices. A quantitative mathematical model can be established to obtain the content of each component of the reaction gases or exhaust in real time. The maximum quantification error and relative standard deviation of the method are within 0.3% and 1%, after online quantification of the representative yeast fermenter tail gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture and Chinese herbal fumigation in relieving neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain in patients. Methods: This study recruited 94 patients with neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain admitted to Ma’anshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between January 2019 and December 2020. The patients were randomized into either study group or comprehensive group. Study group was given routine therapy, including administration of celecoxib capsules and imrecoxib tablets, fumigation, and acupuncture, while the comprehensive group received comprehensive therapy, including celecoxib capsules and imrecoxib tablets + acupuncture + fumigation + rehabilitation exercise + needle knife therapy. The treatment outcome, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score, visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, Barthel index, Fugl-Meyer score, and MOS item short-form health survey (SF-36) scores were recorded. Results: Comprehensive therapy resulted in significantly better treatment outcomes than routine therapy (p < 0.05). The swelling, pain, and functional limitation TCM evidence score in the comprehensive group were lower than those in the study group (p < 0.05). Comprehensive therapy was associated with a more significant reduction in the VAS scores of patients and more enrichment in JOA scores and Barthel index than routine therapy (p < 0.05). Patients treated with comprehensive therapy showed higher FuglMeyer (upper limb and lower limb) and SF-36 scores than those with routine therapy (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture and Chinese herbal fumigation comprehensive therapy effectively relieve the pain of patients and promote recovery of lumbar spine function as well as motor ability, thereby enhancing the patient’s quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.6 plays a crucial role in neuronal firing in the central nervous system (CNS). Aberrant function of Nav1.6 may lead to epilepsy and other neurological disorders. Specific inhibitors of Nav1.6 thus have therapeutic potentials. Here we present the cryo-EM structure of human Nav1.6 in the presence of auxiliary subunits β1 and fibroblast growth factor homologous factor 2B (FHF2B) at an overall resolution of 3.1 Å. The overall structure represents an inactivated state with closed pore domain (PD) and all “up” voltage-sensing domains. A conserved carbohydrate–aromatic interaction involving Trp302 and Asn326, together with the β1 subunit, stabilizes the extracellular loop in repeat I. Apart from regular lipids that are resolved in the EM map, an unprecedented Y-shaped density that belongs to an unidentified molecule binds to the PD, revealing a potential site for developing Nav1.6-specific blockers. Structural mapping of disease-related Nav1.6 mutations provides insights into their pathogenic mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organoids hold inestimable therapeutic potential in regenerative medicine and are increasingly serving as an in vitro research platform. Still, their expanding applications are critically restricted by the canonical culture matrix and system. Synthesis of a suitable bioink of bioactivity, biosecurity, tunable stiffness, and printability to replace conventional matrices and fabricate customized culture systems remains challenging. Here, we envisaged a novel bioink formulation based on decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) from porcine small intestinal submucosa for organoids bioprinting, which provides intestinal stem cells (ISCs) with niche-specific ECM content and biomimetic microstructure. Intestinal organoids cultured in the fabricated bioink exhibited robust generation as well as a distinct differentiation pattern and transcriptomic signature. This bioink established a new co-culture system able to study interaction between epithelial homeostasis and submucosal cells and promote organoids maturation after transplantation into the mesentery of immune-deficient NODSCID-gamma (NSG) mice. In summary, the development of such photoresponsive bioink has the potential to replace tumor-derived Matrigel and facilitate the application of organoids in translational medicine and disease modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) is a promising learning model due to its computational efficiency for discrete spike events. However, because of the binary output of spiking neurons, the standard backpropagation (BP) method is not suitable for deep SNN training. In this paper, we design a gradient-based spiking neuron named Relaxation Leaky Integrate-and-Fire (RLIF) neuron to enable the direct training of deep SNNs. Specifically, we develop a Re-weighted Straight-Through-Estimator (Re-STE) to model the RLIF neuron and SNNs. The Re-STE decomposes the output of the famous LIF neuron and generates a spike by iteratively re-weighting the membrane potential (MP). Then, the RLIF neuron is built, and the re-weighted MP provides a surrogate gradient for BP training. We theoretically prove that the Re-STE is an approximation of the STE technique with logarithmic activation. Such property guarantees that the designed RLIF neuron mitigates the mismatching gradient problem within limits. Finally, we design the RLIF-based VGG-like and ResNet-like SNNs for classification tasks. Experimental results show that the RLIF-based SNNs perform well on the popular benchmark datasets (MNIST, CIFAR10, CIFAR100, N-MNIST, CIFAR10-DVS, and DVS128-GESTURE) and achieve significant efficiencies in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, sodium 2-laurylamido isobutyrate was synthesized from 2-aminoisobutyric acid, NaOH and lauroyl chloride by the Schotten-Baumann condensation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were used to characterize the products, and confirming the successful synthesis of sodium 2-laurylamido isobutyrate. The influence of temperature on the surface tension of sodium 2-laurylamido isobutyrate was studied, comparing the chemical properties of the surface with those of sodium N-lauroyl sarcosinate. The results indicate that both surfactants have a similar pC20, while the criticalmicelle concentration (CMC) and the surface tension at the critical micelle concentration (γCMC) of sodium 2-laurylamido isobutyrate are higher than those of sodium N-lauroyl sarcosinate. Further studies on the thermodynamic parameters of sodium 2-laurylamido isobutyrate and sodium N-lauroyl sarcosinate indicate that the formation of micelles is a spontaneous exothermic process mainly driven by entropy. According to the dynamic surface tension of sodium 2-laurylamido isobutyrate and sodiumN-lauroyl sarcosinate, the molecular adsorption of the two components mixture change from the initial diffusion controlled adsorption to the later mixed dynamic controlled adsorption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuronal death is the main cause of nerve function impairment after spinal cord injury (SCI). Exosome-based therapy has become a novel strategy for tissue injury repair. We designed a method to treat SCI using exosomes secreted by adipose tissue–derived stromal cells (ADSCs) under hypoxic conditions. We established a neuronal oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R) model in vitro to simulate the hypoxic environment after SCI. We observed that exosomes derived from hypoxia-conditioned ADSCs (Hypo-exo) significantly reduced neuronal apoptosis after OGD. By establishing a rat SCI model, we found that Hypo-exo can significantly reduce the formation of cavities in the injured area and improve the functional recovery of the hindlimbs of rats after injury. To explore the molecular mechanism, we conducted microRNA sequencing analysis of exosomes. Through real-time polymerase chain reaction, dual luciferase reporter assays and signaling pathway chip analysis, we determined that miR-499a-5p regulates the JNK3/c-jun-apoptotic signaling pathway by targeting JNK3. Further, we verified the expression of the key proteins in the JNK3/c-jun-apoptotic signaling pathway by immunofluorescence and Western blotting. These results support the hypothesis that Hypo-exo can reduce neuronal apoptosis after SCI and may provide new methods to treat SCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report Zn-isotope compositions of garnet, clinopyroxene, and whole rocks for 14 Type I and 10 Type II eclogites from the Roberts Victor kimberlite (Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa) that were previously analyzed for Mg-O isotopes. Type II eclogites are the protoliths of the highly metasomatized Type I. Garnet and clinopyroxene in Type II eclogites have δ66Zn from 0.14‰ to 0.50‰ and from 0.29‰ to 0.58‰, respectively; reconstructed whole-rock δ66Zn is from 0.24‰ to 0.54‰, which is higher than typical mantle values (0.16-0.20‰). Their heavy Zn- and light Mg- and O-isotope compositions (δ26Mg = -1.1‰ to -0.14‰, δ18O = 2.3‰ to 4.9‰) cannot originate from subducted, carbonate-rich, altered oceanic crust, which is enriched in heavy Zn-O and light Mg isotopes. The low δ18O may be inherited from parental melts derived from low-δ18O mantle sources like those that produced the Weltevreden komatiites of the Kaapvaal Craton. The high δ66Zn and low δ26Mg reflect diffusion-driven Zn-Mg-isotope exchange between peridotites and the parental melts during their emplacement in the deep lithosphere. Type I eclogites have reconstructed whole-rock δ66Zn from 0.03‰ to 0.43‰ and garnet δ18O from 6‰ to 9.1‰ but show more scatter in inter-mineral Zn-isotope fractionation than Type II, reflecting incomplete equilibration during later metasomatism by carbonatitic-to-kimberlitic melts. Our evidence from multiple isotopes thus suggests that the Roberts Victor eclogites might have crystallized from deep-seated melts at mantle depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With considering sewage pipe network upgrading projects in the "villages" in cities, the optimization of construction resources and the assessment of delay risks could be achieved. Based on the schedule-cost hypothetical theory, the mathematical model with constraint indicators was established to obtain the expression of optimal resource input, and conclude the method to analyze the schedule uncertainties. The analysis showed that cyclical footage of pipe could be regarded as a relatively fixed value, and the cost can be regarded as a function that depending on the number of working teams. The optimal number of teams and the optimal schedule occurred when the minimum total cost achieved. In the case of insufficient meteorological data, the Monte Carlo simulation method and uncertainty analysis method can be applied to assess the impact of rainfall on the total construction period, correspondingly the probability of such risk could be derived. The calculation showed that the risk of overdue completion varied significantly according to the construction starting time. It was necessary to take rainfall risk into consideration and make corresponding strategies and measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potassium N-lauroyl glycinate (PLG) is an amino acid surfactant widely used in detergents and has excellent chemical properties. In the present work, PLG was mixed in different molar ratios (α1) with the commonly used amphoteric surfactant lauryl amidopropyl betaine (LAB) or the non-ionic surfactant alkyl glycoside (APG). Subsequently, the surface tension, average hydrodynamic radius and number of micellar aggregates of the individual surfactants and the compound systems were measured using the hanging plate method, dynamic light scattering and fluorescence probe method, respectively, and the corresponding surface activity parameters were calculated. The results show that the binary PLG/LAB and PLG/APG systems exhibit nonideal behaviour and that there was mutual attraction in the systems. The broad distribution of the micelle radius of the PLG/LAB compound system indicates that there are two types of micelles, namely spherical and rod-shaped in the systems. The distribution of the micelle radius of the PLG/APG compound system decreases to the minimum value at α1 = 0.5. At α1 = 0.7 and 0.9, double peaks and a broad distribution were also observed. The number of micelle aggregates in the PLG/LAB and PLG/APG compound systems is less than that of the individual surfactants at the respective mole fractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate the chemical composition of double-J stent encrustation and to assess risk factors associated with their development.Materials and Methods: Patients who had double-J stents removed between July 2016 and June 2017 were recruited for this study prospectively. The clinical features of the patients were recorded and the composition of encrustation material was analyzed by infrared spectroscopy.Results: Encrustments from a total of 372 double-J stents were collected. The mean age of patients was 50.4±13.1 years and deposits possible to analyze were obtained from 228 males (61.3%) and 144 females (38.7%). Calcium oxalate monohydrate was the most common constituent of stone and encrustments. The encrustation rate of vesical coils was significantly higher than that of renal coils (P<0.001). There was no significant difference in chemical composition between stone and encrustation regarding renal (P=0.086) and vesical coils (P=0.072). The only predictive risk factor for the development of encrustation on double-J stents was indwelling time. This phenomenon was observed in both renal (P<0.001) and vesical coils (P=0.021). Interestingly, patient with chronic kidney disease (CKD) was associated with less risk of encrustation on both renal (P<0.001) and vesical coils (P=0.001).Conclusion: The chemical composition of double-J stent encrustation was the same as the urinary stone. The prevention strategy for stone composition is also suitable for the prevention of encrustation of double-J stent. The only predictive factor for double-J stent encrustation was the indwelling time. CKD patient was shown to be less at risk for the development of encrustation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how well generative adversarial networks (GANs) learn probability distributions from finite samples. Our main results establish the convergence rates of GANs under a collection of integral probability metrics defined through Hölder classes, including the Wasserstein distance as a special case. We also show that GANs are able to adaptively learn data distributions with low-dimensional structures or have Hölder densities, when the network architectures are chosen properly. In particular, for distributions concentrated around a low-dimensional set, we show that the learning rates of GANs do not depend on the high ambient dimension, but on the lower intrinsic dimension. Our analysis is based on a new oracle inequality decomposing the estimation error into the generator and discriminator approximation error and the statistical error, which may be of independent interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denitrifying phosphorus removal was realized in sequencing batch reactor with alternate anaerobicanoxic procedures. Quantitative analysis models of the total phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen were established with near infrared spectroscopy combined with interval partial least-squares (iPLS). Second derivative, multiple scatter correction and wavelet denoising were respectively used to pretreat the raw near infrared spectral data. The results show that the iPLS model established by wavelet denoising method was the optimal one. As to the interval partial least-squares calibration models (iPLS models) of the total phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen, the results showed that the coefficients (rc) of the correlation between the actual values and corrected values were respectively 0.9449 and 0.8681, with the root mean square errors of cross validation (RMSECV) being 0.0254 and 0.0315. In addition, the testing results of the interval partial least-squares calibration models of the total phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen indicated that the coefficients (rp) of correlation between the actual values and predicted values were 0.9294 and 0.9014, with the root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) being 0.0235 and 0.0298. This study suggested that the iPLS models of the total phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen may provide a method for synchronous detection of the total phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen during denitrifying phosphorus removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction C2 + C6H2 → C8H + H was investigated for the first time. Reactant C2 (C6H2) was synthesized from 1% C3F6/He (5% C2H2/He) by pulsed high-voltage discharge. We measured the translational-energy distribution, the angular distribution, and the photoionization spectrum of product C8H in a crossed molecular-beam apparatus using synchrotron vacuum-ultraviolet ionization. This reaction released average translational energy of 8.5 kcal mol-1 corresponding to a fraction of 0.37 in translation. C8H was identified as octatetranyl based on the maximal translational-energy release 23 ± 2 kcal mol-1 and the ionization threshold 8.9 ± 0.2 eV. Kinematic constraints can qualitatively account for the nearly isotropic angular distribution. The quantum-chemical calculations indicate that the exothermic reactions C2 (X 1¹∑g+/a ³∏u) + HC6H → C8H + H can proceed without entrance and exit barriers, implying the importance in the cold interstellar medium. This work verifies that interstellar C8H can be formed through the C2 + C6H2 reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reaction C3(a³Πu ) + C2H2 → C5H + H was investigated at collision energy 10.9 kcal mol-1 that is less than the enthalpy of ground-state reaction C3(X¹Σg+) + C2H2 → C5H + H. C3(a³Πu ) radicals were synthesized from 1% C4F6/He by pulsed high-voltage discharge. The title reaction was conducted in a crossed molecular-beam apparatus equipped with a quadrupole-mass filter. Product C5H was interrogated with time-of-flight spectroscopy and synchrotron vacuum-ultraviolet ionization. Reactant C3(a³Πu ) and product C5H were identified using photoionization spectroscopy. The ionization thresholds of C3(X¹Σg+) and C3(a³Πu ) are determined as 11.6 ± 0.2 eV and 10.0 ± 0.2 eV, respectively. The C5H product is identified as linear pentynylidyne that has an ionization energy 8.4 ± 0.2 eV. The title reaction releases translational energy 10.6 kcal mol-1 in average and has an isotropic product angular distribution. The quantum-chemical calculation indicates that the C3(a³Πu ) radical attacks one of the carbon atoms of C2H2 and subsequently a hydrogen atom is ejected to form C5H + H, in good agreement with the experimental observation. As far as we are aware, the C3(a³Πu)+ C2H2 reaction is investigated for the first time. This work gives an implication for the formation of C5H from the C3(a³ nu ) + C2H2 reaction occurring in a combustion or discharge process ofC2H2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spiking neural networks are efficient computation models for low-power environments. Spike-based BP algorithms and ANN-to-SNN (ANN2SNN) conversions are successful techniques for SNN training. Nevertheless, the spike-base BP training is slow and requires large memory costs, while ANN2SNN needs many inference steps to obtain good performance. In this paper, we propose an A ctivation C onsistency C oupled A NN- S NN (A C 2 AS) framework to train the SNN in a fast and memory-efficient way. The A C 2 AS consists of two components: (a) a weight-shared architecture between ANN and SNN and (b) spiking mapping units. Firstly, the architecture trains the weight-shared parameters on the ANN branch, resulting in fast training and low memory costs for SNN. Secondly, the spiking mapping units are designed to ensure that the activation values of the ANN are the spiking features. As a result, the activation consistency is guaranteed, and the classification error of the SNN can be optimized by training the ANN branch. Besides, we design an adaptive threshold adjustment (ATA) algorithm to decrease the firing of noisy spikes. Experiment results show that our A C 2 AS-based models perform well on the benchmark datasets (CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and Tiny-ImageNet). Moreover, the A C 2 AS achieves comparable accuracy under 0. 625 × time steps, 0. 377 × training time, 0. 27 × GPU memory costs, and 0. 33 × spike activities of the Spike-based BP model. The code is available at https://github.com/TJXTT/AC2ASNN. • Proposed the A C 2 AS framework for fast and memory efficient SNN training. • Designed an adaptive threshold adjustment algorithm and two spiking mapping units to ensure that the SNN can be equivalently represented by the ANN under the A C 2 AS framework. • The SNNs trained by A C 2 AS achieve considerable performance, sparse spike activity, and fast inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Explore a less studied issue for the group retrieval in crowd video analysis field. • A non-uniform sampling processing is use to divide group into fine granularity units. • A cost-trim processing is use to lighten the influence caused by high cost pairs. People often take part in various social activities in the form of groups in public area. As the primary constituent units of crowd, groups retrieval has become one of the urgent issues for the security departments. In this paper, collection of stable individuals with some social relationship, called group, is selected as the research object, and a novel task of pedestrian group retrieval is introduced. Different from the individual person matching, groups often show high aggregation due to their inherent characteristics, occlusions in group individuals therefore are more serious. As a result, the performance of individual person based detection and matching will be affected. Meanwhile, group matching also needs to address the problems like variations in the shape or configuration. Therefore, we suggest that the group entirety may be disassembled into fine-grained representation and then design a salient points driven framework for pedestrian group retrieval. The work focuses on the problems of overall appearance characteristics extraction of a deformable pedestrian collection and matching of groups at varying scales. Experiments on Pedestrian-Groups2 dataset and Road Group dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework for Pedestrian Group retrieval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artemisinin-resistant malaria parasites have emerged and have been spreading, posing a significant public health challenge. Antimalarial drugs with novel mechanisms of action are therefore urgently needed. In this report, we exploit a "selective starvation" strategy by inhibiting Plasmodium falciparum hexose transporter 1 (PfHT1), the sole hexose transporter in P. falciparum, over human glucose transporter 1 (hGLUT1), providing an alternative approach to fight against multidrug-resistant malaria parasites. The crystal structure of hGLUT3, which shares 80% sequence similarity with hGLUT1, was resolved in complex with C3361, a moderate PfHT1-specific inhibitor, at 2.3-Å resolution. Structural comparison between the present hGLUT3-C3361 and our previously reported PfHT1-C3361 confirmed the unique inhibitor binding-induced pocket in PfHT1. We then designed small molecules to simultaneously block the orthosteric and allosteric pockets of PfHT1. Through extensive structure-activity relationship studies, the TH-PF series was identified to selectively inhibit PfHT1 over hGLUT1 and potent against multiple strains of the blood-stage P. falciparum. Our findings shed light on the next-generation chemotherapeutics with a paradigm-shifting structure-based design strategy to simultaneously target the orthosteric and allosteric sites of a transporter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three fossil species of Equisetum (Equisetaceae) were reported from the Neogene of south-western China and northern Vietnam, based on well-preserved rhizomes with tubers. Equisetum cf. pratense Ehrhart from the middle Miocene of Zhenyuan County, Yunnan Province, China is characterised by a bunch of three ovate tubers with longitudinal ridges on the surface. Equisetum yenbaiense A.T. Aung, T. Su, T.V. Do & Z.K. Zhou, sp. nov. from the late Miocene of Yenbai Province, Vietnam is characterised by four bunches of elongate tubers arranged in a whorl on a node. Equisetum yongpingense A.T. Aung, T. Su & Z.K. Zhou, sp. nov. from the late Pliocene of Yunnan is characterised by fibrous roots on most nodes and two to four bunches of large cylindrical tubers arranged in a whorl on a node. Floristic assemblages suggest that these species might have grown near a riverside or lakeshore. These new fossil records improve our understanding of species richness of Equisetum and their distribution range during the Neogene in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanocellulose (NC) was prepared from cotton linter using ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate ([Bmim]HSO4) as both swelling agent and catalyst followed by high-pressure homogenization. Evidence suggested that the IL played a significant role with respect to hydrolysis of the linter cellulose. The effects of various reaction conditions on the NC preparation were investigated in this study. The successful conversion of the cotton to NC was analyzed, which showed that the prepared NC had a uniform rod-like shape that was 50 nm to 100 nm in diameter and 500 nm to 800 nm in length. The characterization of the NC by X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the crystalline cellulose I structure was retained in the NC and it showed stable thermal properties. The recycled ionic liquid exhibited a slightly decreased cellulose hydrolysis ability. The application of [Bmim]HSO4 as both a catalyst and swelling agent introduced an effective and environmentally friendly method for NC production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydrodynamic calculation is considered to be significantly important to ensure the safe operation of boiler during the peak-shaving process. An accurate furnace heat flux distribution is the basis for the accurate hydrodynamic calculation. To investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of a 600 MW boiler, a coupled model that consists of combustion simulation and hydrodynamic calculation is applied in this study. The numerical simulation could provide the distribution of the furnace heat flux as a preparation for the hydrodynamic calculation. Results show that the calculated value of the hydrodynamic characteristics agrees well with the measured one. The pressure drop differences of the steam system between the calculated and measured values are 0.04, 0.02, 0.13, and 0.05 MPa under 100% boiler maximum continuous rating (BMCR), 75% turbine heat acceptance (THA), 50% BMCR, and 30% BMCR loads, respectively. The relative error of the mass flux distribution increases as operating load decreases, reaching a maximum (7.63%) under 30% BMCR load. For the four loads discussed in this study, the greatest temperature of the working fluid is 681.0 K, while the fin-center temperature jumps from 708.0 to 801.7 K under 100% BMCR load. The present study is intended to improve the method of the hydrodynamic performance calculation, which would benefit the safety operation of boiler during the peak-shaving process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underground utility tunnel (UUT) is one of the typical urban underground structures, which usually requires mechanical ventilation systems for forced ventilation. In addition to the ventilation scheme for accident scenarios, the normal operating ventilation scheme deserves equal attention as it has a great impact on the air quality as well as the thermal and humidity environment inside the UUT. In this study, a UUT located in southern China is taken as the research object, and the effect of ventilation on its internal thermal and humidity distribution is explored with a combined use of field measurements and numerical simulations. The results of field measurements show that the average temperature inside the closed UUT is 20.5? and the average humidity ratio is 14.1 g/kgdry; both are lower than those of the external environment. In the plum rain season, if the tunnel is ventilated without any treatment of the external airflows, surface condensation tends to occur near the air inlet while the region with high relative humidity would be distributed on both sides far from the air inlet. The study also discusses the effect of different temperatures and humidity ratios of the inflow air on the humidity inside the UUT, and on this basis, the humidity control strategy for UUT in the plum rain season is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the protective effect and mechanism of action of Lactobacillus rhamnosus against colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: A total of 40 healthy female Sprague Dawley rats weighing 100 – 140 g (mean weight = 120 ± 20 g) were used for this study. The rats were randomly assigned to four groups of 10 rats each: normal control group, L. rhamnosus group; 1, 2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) group and treatment group. Rats in L. rhamnosus group were inoculated with L. rhamnosus (1 x 108 CFU/mL) orally for 20 weeks, while rats in DMH group received 35 mg DMH/kg /week intraperitoneally for 10 weeks for induction of CRC. Treatment group rats received 35 mg DMH/kg bwt intraperitoneally for 10 weeks for induction of CRC, and were treated with L. rhamnosus (1 x 108 CFU/mL) orally for 20 weeks. After 20 weeks, the rats were euthanized using ether anesthesia. Expressions of inflammatory, angiogenesis and proapoptotic genes were determined using Western blotting and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: Treatment with L. rhamnosus significantly reduced the incidence of CRC in the rats (p < 0.05). The incidence of multiple tumors in the treatment group was also significantly reduced, when compared to DMH group (p < 0.05). The protein expressions of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-kB), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), bcl-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor α (VEGF-α) were significantly upregulated in DMH group, when compared with normal control group (p < 0.05). However, treatment with L. rhamnosus significantly down-regulated the expressions of these proteins (p < 0.05). DMH treatment also significantly upregulated the expressions of iNOS, TNF-α, VEGF-α, NF-kB, β-catenin and bax genes (p < 0.05). However, L. rhamnosus significantly reversed the effects of DMH on the expression levels of these genes (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These results show that L. rhamnosus prevents CRC via suppression of expressions of inflammatory and angiogenesis genes, and upregulation of apoptotic gene expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Explore the crowd state change detection problem for the dense crowd scenarios of wide-field of view in the public place. • Use a less computation required thermal diffusion processing and perspective transform processing to capture the macroscopic crowd motion information. • Model motion information by use of divergence and curl characteristics of the flow field. • Exploit a physical characteristic descriptor of crowd motion (PCM). • Calculate the conditional entropy of PCM distribution to perceiving the crowd changes. Graphical abstract Abstract This study proposes a divergence-curl-driven framework for the perception of crowd motion states. In this framework, the characteristics of a flow field, divergence and curl, are used to analyze crowd states. As a collective motion, the movement of a pedestrian crowd shows coherent structural properties. By using the methods of fluid mechanics and the feature visualization of flow fields, a physical characteristic descriptor of crowd motion is established that can model the motion state in a crowd flow field. Given the significance of the temporal comparison of motion states for detecting changes in crowds, a method based on the temporal context of motion is presented to measure changes in the distribution of the physical characteristic descriptors of crowd motion. This method can be used to calculate differences in the distribution of the flow field's physical characteristics between each state and measure these subtle continuous changes on the sample points, thereby obtaining a quantified metric of changes in a crowd's motion state. Experiments on crowd event datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework for detecting crowd state changes and abnormal activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important support for test and control projects, sensor's performance is directly related to the accuracy of the measurement. To fully analyze the sources of measurement uncertainty for a surface acoustic wave micro-pressure sensor, in this study the Monte Carlo method and Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement to evaluate measurement uncertainty of sensors are used, the sensing experiment was conducted and the measurement addition model was established. We determined the source of measurement uncertainty for a surface acoustic wave micro-pressure sensor. The results show that the Monte Carlo method can obtain a more reliable and accurate inclusion interval in the measurement uncertainty evaluation of a surface acoustic wave micro-pressure sensor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a constructive approach to estimating sparse, high-dimensional linear regression models. The approach is a computational algorithm motivated from the KKT conditions for the ℓ0-penalized least squares solutions. It generates a sequence of solutions iteratively, based on support detection using primal and dual information and root finding. We refer to the algorithm as SDAR for brevity. Under a sparse Riesz condition on the design matrix and certain other conditions, we show that with high probability, the ℓ2 estimation error of the solution sequence decays exponentially to the minimax error bound in O(log(R√J)) iterations, where J is the number of important predictors and R is the relative magnitude of the nonzero target coefficients; and under a mutual coherence condition and certain other conditions, the ℓ∞ estimation error decays to the optimal error bound in O(log(R)) iterations. Moreover the SDAR solution recovers the oracle least squares estimator within a finite number of iterations with high probability if the sparsity level is known. Computational complexity analysis shows that the cost of SDAR is O(np) per iteration. We also consider an adaptive version of SDAR for use in practical applications where the true sparsity level is unknown. Simulation studies demonstrate that SDAR outperforms Lasso, MCP and two greedy methods in accuracy and efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human locomotion is a coordinated motion between the upper and lower limbs, which should be considered in terms of both the user's normal walking state and abnormal walking state for a walking-aid robot system. Therefore, a novel coordinated motion fusion-based walking-aid robot system was proposed. To develop the accurate human motion intention (HMI) of such robots when the user is in normal walking state, force-sensing resistor (FSR) sensors and a laser range finder (LRF) are used to detect the two HMIs expressed by the user's upper and lower limbs. Then, a fuzzy logic control (FLC)-Kalman filter (LF)-based coordinated motion fusion algorithm is proposed to synthesize these two segmental HMIs to obtain an accurate HMI. A support vector machine (SVM)-based fall detection algorithm is used to detect whether the user is going to fall and to distinguish the user's falling mode when he/she is in an abnormal walking state. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytosolic DNA arising from intracellular pathogens is sensed by cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) and triggers a powerful innate immune response. However, herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), a double-stranded DNA virus, has developed multiple mechanisms to attenuate host antiviral machinery and facilitate viral infection and replication. In the present study, we found that HSV-1 tegument protein VP22 acts as an inhibitor of cGAS/stimulator of interferon genes (cGAS/STING)- mediated production of interferon (IFN) and its downstream antiviral genes. Our results showed that ectopic expression of VP22 decreased cGAS/STING-mediated IFN-β promoter activation and IFN-β production. Infection with wild-type (WT) HSV-1, but not VP22-deficient virus (ΔVP22), inhibited immunostimulatory DNA (ISD)-induced activation of the IFN signaling pathway. Further study showed that VP22 interacted with cGAS and inhibited the enzymatic activity of cGAS. In addition, stable knockdown of cGAS facilitated the replication of ΔVP22 virus but not the WT. In summary, our findings indicate that HSV-1 VP22 acts as an antagonist of IFN signaling to persistently evade host innate antiviral responses. IMPORTANCE cGAS is very important for host defense against viral infection, and many viruses have evolved ways to target cGAS and successfully evade the attack by the immune system of their susceptible host. This study demonstrated that HSV-1 tegument protein VP22 counteracts the cGAS/STING-mediated DNA-sensing antiviral innate immunity signaling pathway by inhibiting the enzymatic activity of cGAS. The findings in this study will expand our understanding of the interaction between HSV-1 replication and the host DNA-sensing signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1-bit compressive sensing (1-bit CS) where a target signal is coded into a binary measurement, one goal is to recover the signal from noisy and quantized samples. Mathematically, the 1-bit CS model reads y = η * sign(Ψx* + ∈), where x* ∈ Rn; y ∈ Rm, Ψ ∈ Rm x n, and ∈ is the random error before quantization and η ∈ Rn is a random vector modeling the sign ips. Due to the presence of nonlinearity, noise, and sign ips, it is quite challenging to decode from the 1-bit CS. In this paper, we consider a least squares approach under the overdetermined and underdetermined settings. For m > n, we show that, up to a constant c, with high probability, the least squares solution xls approximates x* with precision δ as long as m ≥ * ( n/δ² ). For m < n, we prove that, up to a constant c, with high probability, the ℓ1-regularized least-squares solution xℓ1 lies in the ball with center x* and radius δ provided that m ≥ O( s log n/δ² ) and ||x*||0 := s < m. We introduce a Newton type method, the so-called primal and dual active set (PDAS) algorithm, to solve the nonsmooth optimization problem. The PDAS possesses the property of one-step convergence. It only requires solving a small least squares problem on the active set. Therefore, the PDAS is extremely efficient for recovering sparse signals through continuation. We propose a novel regularization parameter selection rule which does not introduce any extra computational overhead. Extensive numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the robustness of our proposed model and the efficiency of our algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highly enantioselective preparation of spirooxindoles bearing α,α-disubstituted α-amino-β-keto esters was achieved through [4 + 1] annulation of oxindoles and α-imine-β-oxo-γ,δ-unsaturated esters under mild conditions in good yields (up to 82%) and stereoselectivities (up to >20:1 dr, 96% ee). The reaction is amenable to gram scale synthesis using catalyst loading as low as 1 mol %. The corresponding chiral α,α-disubstituted α-amino-β-keto esters could be easily transformed into cyclopenta[b]indole derivatives without erosion of enantiopurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reactions of C3H and C4H radicals with C6H2 were investigated for the first time. Reactants C3H, C4H, and C6H2 were synthesized in two beams of C2H2 diluted with helium by pulsed high-voltage discharge. We measured translational-energy distributions, angular distributions, and photoionization-efficiency spectra of C9H2 and C10H2 produced from the title reactions in a crossed molecular-beam apparatus using synchrotron vacuum-ultraviolet photoionization. The C3H (C4H) + C6H2 reaction releases 42% (33%) of available energy into the translational degrees of freedom of product C9H2 (C10H2) + H and scatters products into a nearly isotropic angular distribution. The photoionization-efficiency spectrum of C9H2 (C10H2) is in good agreement with that of C9H2 (C10H2) produced from the C7H (C8H) + C2H2 reaction. The ionization threshold, after deconvolution, was determined as 8.0 ± 0.1 eV for C9H2 and 8.8 ± 0.1 eV for C10H2. The combination of measurements of product translational-energy release and photoionization-efficiency spectra indicates productions of ³HC9H/c-¹HC3(C)C5H/c-¹HC7(C)CH + H and ¹HC10H + H in the two title reactions, which are supported also by quantum-chemical calculations. Ratios branching to the three isomers of C9H2 remain unknown. This work demonstrates that long carbon-chain molecules (e.g., C9H2 and C10H2) can be synthesized from reactions of CmH (e.g., m = 3 and 4) radicals with polyynes (e.g., HC6H) and gives some valuable implications to planetary, interstellar, and combustion chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ziziphus Mill. (Rhamnaceae) is comprised of about 170 species that are mainly distributed in tropical to subtropical regions, with few in the temperate zone. Several Ziziphus fruit tree species are important energy, nutrient, and medicinal resources for human populations, particularly for those living in rural regions. To date, limited genomic information is available for this genus. Here, we assembled the complete chloroplast genomes of four best known Ziziphus species, i.e., Ziziphus jujuba, Ziziphus acidojujuba, Ziziphus mauritiana, and Ziziphus spina-christi, based on the Illumina Paired-end sequencing method. The chloroplast genomes of the four Ziziphus species are all very similar to one another, and exhibit structural, gene content, and order characteristics that are similar to other flowering plants. The entire chloroplast genome encodes 113 predicted unique genes (85 protein-coding genes, 8 rRNA, and 37 tRNA), 17 of which are duplicated in the inverted repeat regions. Rich single sequence repeats loci (217) were detected in Z. jujuba and 106 SSR loci, composed of A/T, displayed polymorphism across the four species by comparative genomic analysis. We found only four genes under positive selection between Z. jujuba and Z. acidojujuba, and two genes for Z. mauritiana vs. Z. spina-christi, respectively, while half of the 78 protein-coding genes experienced positive selection between the two groups. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that Ziziphus (Rhamnaceae) was sister to Elaeagnaceae, and the four species of Ziziphus were clustered into two groups (Z. jujuba and Z. acidojujuba, Z. mauritiana and Z. spina-christi). Our results provide genomic resources for intrageneric classifications of Ziziphus, and valuable genetic markers for investigating the population genetics and biogeography of closely related Ziziphus species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueduct is the key structure in water conveyance engineering, which may be damaged during earthquake. Although numerous water conveyance designs have been built, the current state of researches on aqueduct aseismic design is inadequate. In this paper, based on the fluid-structure interaction dynamics and response spectra analysis, a simplified analysis method was proposed to evaluate the transverse seismic response of aqueducts and the simplified calculating results were compared with the results of the nonlinear finite element calculation of fluid-structure interaction and experimental results. The results showed that the simplified analysis method put forward in this paper could be used to evaluate the transverse seismic response of aqueducts. In the condition that the pier height is less than 40 m, the first-order lateral vibration mode of the aqueduct has a higher model contribution rate; the simplified calculation method can achieve extremely high accuracy. The simplified calculation precision decreases as the height increases when the pier height exceeds 40 m. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An intermittent aerobic process has been developed to effectively remove nitrogen from polluted rivers. In addition, a chemometric model was developed to achieve simultaneous rapid analysis of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrite nitrogen based on near-infrared spectroscopy data combined with a support vector machine. An intermittent aeration process showed that total nitrogen decreased from 54.25 mg·L-1 to 0.64 mg·L-1. Ammonia nitrogen decreased significantly in the aeration stage, but increased in the non-aeration stage. Eventually, ammonia nitrogen decreased from 45.04 mg·L-1 to 0.57 mg·L-1. Nitrite nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen increased in the aeration stage, but decreased in the non-aeration stage. The concentration ranges of nitrite nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen were, respectively, 0.05∼31.40 mg·L-1 and 0∼0.38 mg·L-1. The 138 water samples were collected during the intermittent aeration process, of which 116 samples were used as the calibration set and the remaining 22 samples were used as a test set in modeling. The actual concentration values and the near-infrared spectroscopy data were used as input of the models. Then the corresponding calibration values and predication values were output by the models. All the samples were scanned with near-infrared spectroscopy from 4,000∼12,500 cm-1 and measured by chemical methods. Principal component analysis of raw near-infrared spectral data showed that the matrix dimension of spectral data was significantly reduced, which decreased from 2,203×106 to 6×106. Support vector machine models of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrite nitrogen showed that the calibration correlation coefficient (R2) of calibration values and actual values were, respectively, 0.9561, 0.9661, and 0.9702, with the root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) being 0.09372, 0.04749, and 0.03187. The test results of support vector machine models of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrite nitrogen showed that the predication correlation coefficient (R2) of prediction values and actual values were, respectively, 0.9616, 0.9410, and 0.9284, with the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) being 0.09420, 0.08227, and 0.06770. This study indicated that nitrogen in a polluted river can be removed through the intermittent aerobic process. Moreover, simultaneous rapid determination of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, and nitrite nitrogen may be achieved with near-infrared spectroscopy and a support vector machine. The results showed that the proposed methods provided effective treatment and detection technology for a polluted river. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distinct from conventional approaches to generic vehicle type recognition, this paper proposes an approach to fine-grained vehicle type recognition that leverages multiple cues jointly to convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Fine-grained vehicle recognition is inherently difficult with many challenges, including (i) how to incorporate multiple cues through joint optimization instead of separately handling, (ii) how to learn data-driven representation for vehicles instead of hand-crafted features and (iii) how to perceive and localize the vehicle region instead of using the whole image. Our multi-task CNNs localize vehicles in the first stage and recognize subclasses in the second stage, allowing us to handle samples with cluttered backgrounds and those where vehicles do not fill most of the image. Through collaborative feature learning from multiple tasks in each stage, our approach can handle subtle inter-class variations at the subordinate level. We also develop new vehicle-oriented data augmentation strategies in CNN training. To advance research on vehicle-centered tasks, we release a new vehicle dataset that provides both semantic labels and bounding boxes. This dataset can be used in vehicle localization, recognition, viewpoint estimation, and so on. Extensive experiments on two benchmark vehicle datasets demonstrate that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helicobacter pylori-associated gastritis is amajor threat to public health and Polygonum capitatum (PC) may have beneficial effects on the disease. However, the molecular mechanism remains unknown. Quercetin was isolated from PC and found to be a main bioactive compound. The effects of quercetin on human gastric cancer cells GES-1 were determined by xCELLigence. H. pylori-infected mouse models were established. All mice were divided into three groups: control (CG, healthy mice), model (MG, H. pylori infection) and quercetin (QG, mouse model treated by quercetin) groups. IL-8 (interleukin-8) levels were detected via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cell cycle and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry (FCM). Quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and Western Blot were used to detect the levels of p38MAPK (38-kD tyrosine phosphorylated protein kinase), apoptosis regulator BCL-2-associated protein X (BAX) and B cell lymphoma gene 2 (BCL-2). The levels of IL-8 were increased by 8.1-fold in a MG group and 4.3-fold in a QG group when compared with a CG group. In a MG group, G0-G1(phases of the cell cycle)% ratio was higher than a CG group while S phase fraction was lower in a model group than in a control group (p < 0.01). After quercetin treatment, G0-G1% ratio was lower in a QG group than a MG group while S phase fraction was higher than a MG group (p < 0.01). Quercetin treatment reduced the levels of p38MAPK and BAX, and increased the levels of BCL-2 when compared with a MG group (p < 0.05). Quercetin regulates the balance of gastric cell proliferation and apoptosis to protect against gastritis. Quercetin protects against gastric inflammation and apoptosis associated with H. pylori infection by affecting the levels of p38MAPK, BCL-2 and BAX. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between dietary carbohydrate intake and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk remains controversial. We therefore conducted this meta-analysis to assess the relationship between them. A literature search from the databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Medline was performed for available articles published in English (up to September 2016). Pooled relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to evaluate the association between dietary carbohydrate intake and CRC risk. The random-effect model (REM) was selected as the pooling method. Publication bias was estimated using Egger’s regression asymmetry test and funnel plot. A total of 17 articles involving 14402 CRC patients and 846004 participants were eligible with the inclusion criteria in this meta-analysis. The pooled RR with 95% CI of dietary carbohydrate intake for CRC, colon cancer and rectum cancer risk were 1.08 (95% CI =0.93–1.23, I2 =68.3%, Pheterogeneity<0.001), 1.09 (95% CI =0.95–1.25, I2 =48.3%) and 1.17 (95% CI =0.98–1.39, I2 =17.8%) respectively. When we conducted the subgroup analysis by gender, the significant association was found in men’s populations (summary RR =1.23, 95% CI =1.01–1.57), but not in the women’s populations. In the further subgroup analyses for study design and geographic locations, we did not find any association between dietary carbohydrate intake and CRC risk in the subgroup results respectively. No significant publication bias was found either by the Egger’s regression asymmetry test or by the funnel plot. This meta-analysis suggested that higher dietary carbohydrate intake may be an increased factor for CRC risk in men populations. Further studies are wanted to confirm this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to report the case of a 55-year-old female patient with a sizeable (7.1×6.2 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), who succumbed to massive pulmonary artery embolism. The main symptoms included sudden thoracodynia, dyspnea and transient coma. The initial diagnosis was HCC according to the typical abdominal ultrasound and triple-phase abdominal computed tomography (CT) findings, chronic hepatitis B infection and elevated α-fetoprotein levels (1,036 μg/l; normal, 0-20 μg/l). Two days following admission, the patient developed recurrent chest pain and shortness of breath. The electrocardiogram and myocardial enzyme levels were normal, but the D-dimer level was elevated to 7,210 μg/l (normal, 0-550 μg/l). Magnetic resonance angiography and a contrast-enhanced chest CT confirmed that the inferior vena cava and right atrium were invaded by tumor thrombi; the bilateral pulmonary embolism was also suspected to be formed by tumor thrombi. The final diagnosis was HCC with inferior vena caval and right atrial tumor thrombi, as well as massive pulmonary embolism. Anticoagulation therapy with low-molecular weight heparin calcium was administered; however, the patient succumbed to pulmonary embolism in <2 months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to provide better monitoring for the elderly or patients, we developed an integrated wireless wearable sensor system that can realize posture recognition and indoor localization in real time. Five designed sensor nodes which are respectively fixed on lower limbs and a standard Kalman filter are used to acquire basic attitude data. After the attitude angles of five body segments (two thighs, two shanks and the waist) are obtained, the pitch angles of the left thigh and waist are used to realize posture recognition. Based on all these attitude angles of body segments, we can also calculate the coordinates of six lower limb joints (two hip joints, two knee joints and two ankle joints). Then, a novel relative localization algorithm based on step length is proposed to realize the indoor localization of the user. Several sparsely distributed active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are used to correct the accumulative error in the relative localization algorithm and a set-membership filter is applied to realize the data fusion. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the high diversity of image data, image segmentation is still a very challenging problem after decades of development. Each segmentation algorithm has its merits as well as its drawbacks. Instead of segmenting images via conventional techniques, inspired by the idea of the ensemble clustering technique that combines a set of weak clusterers to obtain a strong clusterer, we propose to achieve a consensus segmentation by fusing evidence accumulated from multiple weak segmentations (or over-segmentations). We present a novel image segmentation approach which exploits multiple over-segmentations and achieves segmentation results by hierarchical region merging. The cross-region evidence accumulation (CREA) mechanism is designed for collecting information among over-segmentations. The pixel-pairs across regions are treated as a bag of independent voters and the cumulative votes from multiple over-segmentations are fused to estimate the coherency of adjacent regions. We further integrate the brightness, color, and texture cues for measuring the appearance similarity between regions in an over-segmentation, which, together with the CREA information, are utilized for making the region merging decisions. Experiments are conducted on multiple public datasets, which demonstrate the superiority of our approach in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency when compared to the state-of-the-art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]