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Glioma is one of the most common intracranial malignancies that plagues people around the world. Despite current improvements in treatment, the prognosis of glioma is often unsatisfactory. Necroptosis is a form of programmed cell death. As research progresses, the role of necroptosis in tumors has gradually attracted the attention of researchers. And lncRNA is regarded as a critical role in the development of cancer. Therefore, this study is aimed at establishing a prognostic model based on necroptosis-associated lncRNAs to accurately assess the prognosis and immune response of patients with glioma. The RNA sequences of glioma patients and normal brain samples were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and GTEx databases, respectively. The coexpression analysis was performed to identify the necroptosis-related lncRNAs. Then, we utilized LASSO analysis following univariate Cox analysis to construct a prognostic model. Subsequently, we applied the Kaplan-Meier curve, time-dependent receiver operating characteristics (ROC), and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses to assess the effectiveness of this model. And the functional enrichment analyses and immune-related analyses were employed to investigate the potential biological functions. A validation set was obtained from the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) database. And qRT-PCR was employed to further validate the expression levels of selected necroptosis-associated lncRNAs. Seven necroptosis-related lncRNAs (FAM13A-AS1, JMJD1C-AS1, LBX2-AS1, ZBTB20-AS4, HAR1A, SNHG14, and LINC00900) were determined to construct a prognostic model. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.871, 0.901, and 0.911 at 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively. The risk score was shown to be an important independent predictor in both univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses. Through functional enrichment analyses, we found that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were mainly enriched in protein binding and signaling-related biological functions and immune-associated pathways. In conclusion, we established and validated a novel necroptosis-related lncRNA signature, which could accurately predict the overall survival of glioma patients and serve as potential therapeutic targets.

With the increasing trend of residents and tourists sharing urban spaces, the boundary between leisure spaces and tourism spaces is gradually being blurred. However, few studies have quantified the spatiotemporal correlation patterns of residents’ leisure activities and tourists’ activities. To fill this gap, this paper takes Nanjing as an example to study the temporal and spatial correlation between residents’ leisure activities and tourists’ activities based on mobile phone signal data. First, through kernel density analysis, it is found that there is a spatial overlap between residents’ leisure activities and tourists’ activities. Then, the spatial and temporal correlation patterns of residents’ leisure activities and tourists’ activities are analyzed through the colocation quotient. According to our findings, (1) residents’ leisure activities and tourists’ activities are not spatially correlated, indicating that they are relatively independent in space both during the week and on weekends. (2) On weekday afternoons, the spatial correlation between residents’ and tourists’ leisure activities is strongest. On weekends, the night is when residents’ leisure activities and tourists’ activities are most closely related. (3) The correlation area is mainly distributed in areas near famous scenic spots, as well as public spaces such as parks and squares. Based on the above analysis, this paper aims to study the resident-tourist interaction in the spatial context to provide directions for improving the attractiveness of cities, urban transportation, services, and marketing strategies.

Gliomas are the most common and aggressive malignancies of the central nervous system. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are important targets in cancer treatment. They regulate complex cellular mechanisms that influence tumor biology and immunogenicity. However, little is known about the function of HDACs in glioma. The Oncomine, Human Protein Atlas, Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis, Broad Institute Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia, Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas, OmicShare, cBioPortal, GeneMANIA, STRING, and TIMER databases were utilized to analyze the differential expression, prognostic value, and genetic alteration of HDAC and immune cell infiltration in patients with glioma. HDAC1/2 were considerable upregulated whereas HDAC11 was significantly downregulated in cancer tissues. HDAC1/2/3/4/5/7/8/11 were significantly correlated with the clinical glioma stage. HDAC1/2/3/10 were strongly upregulated in 11 glioma cell lines. High HDCA1/3/7 and low HDAC4/5/11 mRNA levels were significantly associated with overall survival and disease-free survival in glioma. HDAC1/2/3/4/5/7/9/10/11 are potential useful biomarkers for predicting the survival of patients with glioma. The functions of HDACs and 50 neighboring genes were primarily related to transcriptional dysregulation in cancers and the Notch, cGMP-PKG, and thyroid hormone signaling pathways. HDAC expression was significantly correlated with the infiltration of B cells, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, macrophages, neutrophils, and dendritic cells in glioma. Our study indicated that HDACs are putative precision therapy targets and prognostic biomarkers of survival in glioma patients.

The rapid expansion of cities brings in new challenges for the urban firefighting security, while the increasing fire frequency poses serious threats to the life, property, and safety of individuals living in cities. Firefighting in cities is a challenging task, and the optimal spatial arrangement of fire stations is critical to firefighting security. However, existing researches lack any consideration of the negative effects of the spatial randomness of fire outbreaks and delayed response time due to traffic jams upon the site selection. Based on the set cover location model integrated with the spatiotemporal big data, this paper combines the fire outbreak point with the traffic situation. The presented site selection strategy manages to ensure the arrival of the firefighting task force at random simulated fire outbreak points within the required time, under the constraints of the actual city planning and traffic situation. Taking Nanjing city as an example, this paper collects multi-source big data for the comprehensive analysis, including the full data of the fire outbreak history from June 2014 to June 2018, the traffic jam data based on the Amap, and the investigation data of the firefighting facilities in Nanjing. The regularity behind fire outbreaks is analyzed, the factors related to fire risks are identified, and the risk score is calculated. The previous fire outbreak points are put through the clustering analysis, the spatial distribution probability at points in each cluster is calculated according to the clustering score, and the random fire outbreak points are generated via the Monte Carlo simulation. Meanwhile, the objective emergency response time is set as five minutes. The average vehicle speed for each road in the urban area is calculated, and the actual traffic network model is built to compute the travel time from massive randomly-distributed simulated fire points. The problem is solved by making the travel time for all simulated demand points below five minutes. At last, the site selection result based on our model is adjusted and validated, according to the planned land use. The presented method incorporates the view of the spatiotemporal big data and provides a new idea and technical method for the modification and efficiency improvement of the fire station site selection model, contributing to a service cover ratio increase from 58% to 90%.

A bacterium strain, designated as CMF-2, was isolated from the jellyfish Cyanea capillata and its culture supernatant exhibited a significant antimicrobial activity. The strain CMF-2 was identified as Pseudomonas sp. based on the morphological, biochemical and physiological characteristics as well as 16S rRNA sequence analysis. In this study, an antimicrobial protein, named as CAP-1, was isolated from the culture of CMF-2 through ammonium sulfate precipitation and gel filtration chromatography. According to the result of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), a major band indicated that the antimicrobial protein had a molecular mass of about 15 kDa, and it was identified as a hypothetical protein by MALDI-TOF-MS analysis and Mascot searching. CAP-1 displayed a broad antimicrobial spectrum against the indicator bacteria and fungus, including Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Candida albicans, especially some marine-derived microorganisms such as Vibrio vulnificus, Vibrio alginolyticus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Vibrio cholera, and Vibrio anguillarum, but showed little impact on tumor cells and normal human cells. The protein CAP-1 remained a stable antimicrobial activity in a wide range of temperature (20-80°C) and pH (2-10) conditions. These results suggested that CAP-1 might have a specific antimicrobial function not due to cytotoxicity.

Our previous studies demonstrated that tentacle extract (TE) from the jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, could cause a dose-dependent increase of systolic blood pressure, which seemed to be the result of direct constriction of vascular smooth muscle (VSM). The aim of this study is to investigate whether TE could induce vasoconstriction in vitro and to explore its potential mechanism. Using isolated aorta rings, a direct contractile response of TE was verified, which showed that TE could induce concentration-dependent contractile responses in both endothelium-intact and -denuded aortas. Interestingly, the amplitude of contraction in the endothelium-denuded aorta was much stronger than that in the endothelium-intact one, implying that TE might also bring a weak functional relaxation in addition to vasoconstriction. Further drug intervention experiments indicated that the functional vasodilation might be mediated by nitric oxide, and that TE-induced vasoconstriction could be attributed to calcium influx via voltage-operated calcium channels (VOCCs) from the extracellular space, as well as sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca²⁺ release via the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor (IP₃R), leading to an increase in [Ca²⁺](c), instead of activation of the PLC/DAG/PKC pathway or the sympathetic nerve system.

This study was performed to explore other potential mechanisms underlying hemolysis in addition to pore-formation of tentacle extract (TE) from the jellyfish Cyanea capillata. A dose-dependent increase of hemolysis was observed in rat erythrocyte suspensions and the hemolytic activity of TE was enhanced in the presence of Ca2+, which was attenuated by Ca2+ channel blockers (Diltiazem, Verapamil and Nifedipine). Direct intracellular Ca2+ increase was observed after TE treatment by confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the Ca2+ increase could be depressed by Diltiazem. The osmotic protectant polyethylenglycol (PEG) significantly blocked hemolysis with a molecular mass exceeding 4000 Da. These results support a pore-forming mechanism of TE in the erythrocyte membrane, which is consistent with previous studies by us and other groups. The concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA), an important marker of lipid peroxidation, increased dose-dependently in rat erythrocytes after TE treatment, while in vitro hemolysis of TE was inhibited by the antioxidants ascorbic acid—Vitamin C (Vc)—and reduced glutathione (GSH). Furthermore, in vivo hemolysis and electrolyte change after TE administration could be partly recovered by Vc. These results indicate that lipid peroxidation is another potential mechanism besides pore-formation underlying the hemolysis of TE, and both Ca2+ channel blockers and antioxidants could be useful candidates against the hemolytic activity of jellyfish venoms.

In this paper, we develop an extended guided tabu search (EGTS) and a new heuristic packing algorithm for the two-dimensional loading vehicle routing problem (2L-CVRP). The 2L-CVRP is a combination of two well-known NP-hard problems, the capacitated vehicle routing problem, and the two-dimensional bin packing problem. It is very difficult to get a good performance solution in practice for these problems. We propose a meta-heuristic methodology EGTS which incorporates theories of tabu search and extended guided local search (EGLS). It has been proved that tabu search is a very good approach for the CVRP, and the guiding mechanism of the EGLS can help tabu search to escape effectively from local optimum. Furthermore, we have modified a collection of packing heuristics by adding a new packing heuristic to solve the loading constraints in 2L-CVRP, in order to improve the cost function significantly. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is tested, and proven by extensive computational experiments on benchmark instances.

In recent years, more and more people, especially young people, begin to use credit card with the changing of consumption concept in China so that the business on credit cards is growing fast. Therefore, it is significative that some effective tools such as credit-scoring models are created to help those decision makers engaged in credit cards. A novel credit-scoring model, called vertical bagging decision trees model (abbreviated to VBDTM), is proposed for the purpose in this paper. The model is a new bagging method that is different from the traditional bagging. The VBDTM model gets an aggregation of classifiers by means of the combination of predictive attributes. In the VBDTM model, all train samples and just parts of attributes take part in learning of every classifier. By contrast, classifiers are trained with the sample subsets in the traditional bagging method and every classifier has the same attributes. The VBDTM has been tested by two credit databases from the UCI Machine Learning Repository, and the analysis results show that the performance of the method proposed by us is outstanding on the prediction accuracy.

This paper addresses the capacitated vehicle routing problem with two-dimensional loading constraints (2L-CVRP). The 2L-CVRP is a combination of the two most important problems in distribution logistics, which are loading of freight into vehicles, and the successive routing of the vehicles to satisfy customer demand. The objective is to minimize the transportation cost. All vehicles must start and terminate at a central depot, and the transported items carried by the vehicles must be feasibly packed into the loading surfaces of the vehicles. A simulated annealing algorithm to solve the problem is presented, in which the loading component of the problem is solved through a collection of packing heuristics. A novel approach to plan packing is employed. An efficient data structure (Trie) is used to accelerate the algorithm. The extensive computational results prove the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Safety evaluation of synthetic human brain natriuretic peptide (shBNP) was carried out in cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) by 2-week intravenous toxicity studies. System exposure was also assessed throughout the whole administration. Three test groups received doses of 432, 1440 and 4320 microg/kg/day of shBNP, with a high infusion rate of 36 mL/kg/hr for 30 min compared to the clinical protocol of continuous infusion over 24h. Commercially available recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (rhBNP) of 1440 microg/kg/day was used as positive control. The 2-week repeated intravenous doses of shBNP resulted in reversible increased serum LDH and CPK in monkeys receiving 1440 and 4320 microg/kg/day dose with no pertinent histopathological changes. Some changes related to the pharmacologic effects of BNP including hypotension was observed after administration. No treatment-related mortalities or renal dysfunction were found. Controversy about the safety issue of BNP as an exogenous hormone concerning ventricular remodeling and myocardial cell apoptosis, coupled with our results, were also discussed. The no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) was considered to be 432 microg/kg /day, which is about 20 times higher than the commonly used clinical dose. The results of the present study advocate the safety of shBNP in cynomolgus monkeys at levels used in the study.

One pteridophyte, Pteris vittata L., was found to be a suitable plant used in phytoremediation of the soils contaminated with excess arsenic. In this paper, literature on this fern’s potential in remediating soils contaminated with arsenic, its possible detoxification strategies, and the measures facilitating its practical application in phytoremediation were reviewed. Some of the unresolved questions about this fern in both detoxification and phytoextraction of arsenic (As) were also listed. The aim of this paper was to introduce this magic fern to more researchers focusing on a wider field of discipline and make it more useful in both macroscopic and microcosmic science world.

In this paper, the water quality of the Xixi Wetland was evaluated and the characteristics of water pollution were described according to the survey data. Based on the status of water quality and its functional requirements as an urban wetland, biological-ecological countermeasures were suggested. The experimental use of ecological technologies, such as artificial wetlands, ecological aquiculture and artificial floating island, were done in several fish ponds in the Xixi Wetland. Water monitoring results show that the quality of the treated water has improved significantly and the measures to purify the eutrophic water in the wetland have been effective.

Objectives: To study whether rotational stimulus induced pica and whether the vestibular apparatus was necessary for obtaining rotation-induced pica in mice. Methods: Pica behavior in mice was investigated following 60 min of rotation once daily at 70 rpm (15 s on with 5 s off) for 3 consecutive days. After evaluating vestibular function and histology of vestibular epithelia, we examined rotation-induced kaolin intake, so-called pica, in sham-lesioned and chemically labyrinthectomized mice. Results: The labyrinthectomized mice exhibited loss of the contact righting and swimming capability while the destruction of hair cells of vestibular epithelia was observed. Moreover, mice subjected to rotation, but not labyrinthectomized mice, showed a significant increase in kaolin intake at the last 2 rotation sessions and the first postrotation session. Conclusions: The findings indicated that a functioning vestibular system is necessary for rotation-evocating pica in mice and thus pica can be a behavioral index of motion sickness in mice.

Previously, we established delayed jellyfish envenomation syndrome (DJES) models and proposed that the hemorrhagic toxins in jellyfish tentacle extracts (TE) play a significant role in the liver and kidney injuries of the experimental model. Further, we also demonstrated that metalloproteinases are the central toxic components of the jellyfish Cyanea capillata (C. capillata), which may be responsible for the hemorrhagic effects. Thus, metalloproteinase inhibitors appear to be a promising therapeutic alternative for the treatment of hemorrhagic injuries in DJES. In this study, we examined the metalloproteinase activity of TE from the jellyfish C. capillata using zymography analyses. Our results confirmed that TE possessed a metalloproteinase activity, which was also sensitive to heat. Then, we tested the effect of metalloproteinase inhibitor batimastat (BB-94) on TE-induced hemorrhagic injuries in DJES models. Firstly, using SR-based X-ray microangiography, we found that BB-94 significantly improved TE-induced hepatic and renal microvasculature alterations in DJES mouse model. Secondly, under synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SR-μCT), we also confirmed that BB-94 reduced TE-induced hepatic and renal microvasculature changes in DJES rat model. In addition, being consistent with the imaging results, histopathological and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated UTP end labeling (TUNEL)-like staining observations also clearly corroborated this hypothesis, as BB-94 was highly effective in neutralizing TE-induced extensive hemorrhage and necrosis in DJES rat model. Although it may require further clinical studies in the near future, the current study opens up the possibilities for the use of the metalloproteinase inhibitor, BB-94, in the treatment of multiple organ hemorrhagic injuries in DJES.

Our previous studies have shown that tentacle extract (TE) from the jellyfish Cyanea capillata could induce a delayed jellyfish envenomation syndrome with severe multiple organ dysfunctions, among which renal injury with tubular necrosis seemed to be most serious. So, in this study, we aimed to explore the toxic effect of TE on rat renal tubular epithelial NRK-52E cells. Based on the previous findings that TE could cause oxidative damage in erythrocytes, the effects of TE on cell oxidative stress conditions, including ROS production and lipid peroxidation, and mitochondrial dysfunction associated with cell death were investigated in NRK-52E cells. The results showed that TE caused cell morphological change and decreased cell viability through induction of apoptosis and necrosis in NRK-52E cells. Meanwhile, ROS overproduction and mitochondrial membrane potential decrease were found before the cell death occurred. It was concluded that TE could induce cytotoxicity, especially apoptosis and necrosis, in NRK-52E cells, and mitochondrial dysfunction and ROS overproduction might play important roles in the process of cell injury and death.

The delayed jellyfish envenomation syndrome (DJES) with serious multiple organ dysfunction or systemic damages, generally developed 2 h after jellyfish stings, deserves special attention for it is very meaningful to the clinical interventions. To set up a DJES model as well as to obtain more details about its process, an integrative approach, including clinical chemistry, pathology and immunohistochemistry, was conducted to simultaneously monitor the effects of tentacle extract (TE) from the jellyfish Cyanea capillata on the vital target organs (heart, lung, liver and kidney). Our results showed that the TE from C. capillata could induce diverse toxic effects on these organs, among which the liver and kidney injuries seemed to be more serious than cardiopulmonary injuries and might be the leading causes of death in rats with DJES. In summary, we have established a DJES model with multiple organ dysfunction, which could facilitate the research on its underlying mechanism as well as the development of specific prevention or therapy strategies against jellyfish envenomation. The application of this model suggested that the possible mechanism of DJES might be attributed to the synergy of cytotoxicity, vasoconstriction effect and other specific target organ toxicities of jellyfish venom.

Mining frequent itemsets is one of the most investigated fields in data mining. It is a fundamental and crucial task. Apriori is among the most popular algorithms used for the problem but support count is very time-consuming. In order to improve the efficiency of Apriori, a novel algorithm, named BitApriori, for mining frequent itemsets, is proposed. Firstly, the data structure binary string is employed to describe the database. The support count can be implemented by performing the Bitwise "And" operation on the binary strings. Another technique for improving efficiency in BitApriori presented in this paper is a special equal-support pruning. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, especially when the minimum support is low.

Association rule mining is to find association relationships among large data sets. Mining frequent patterns is an important aspect in association rule mining. In this paper, an efficient algorithm named apriori-growth based on apriori algorithm and the FP-tree structure is presented to mine frequent patterns. The advantage of the apriori-growth algorithm is that it doesn't need to generate conditional pattern bases and sub-conditional pattern tree recursively. Computational results show the apriori-growth algorithm performs faster than apriori algorithm, and it is almost as fast as FP-growth, but it needs smaller memory.

In our survey in the copper (Cu) mining area of China, a sun fern (Pteridium revolutum) was found to accumulate 30-567 mg Cu kg(-1) DW (33 samples) in its fronds with a large frond biomass. Cu translocation factors in the plants varied from 0.09 to 3.88. In a greenhouse pot experiment, the effect of an elevated CO2 concentration (700 microL L(-1)) on Cu accumulation in plants was studied using three fern species (P. revolutum, Pteridium aquilinum, and Pteris vittata) grown in the Cu-contaminated soil. P. revolutum showed a higher Cu tolerance but its Cu translocation factor was lower than 1. At the elevated CO2 concentration, frond biomass of all species was significantly increased, as was the total Cu content in the fronds of P. revolutum and P. aquilinum. Our study suggests that P. revolutum could serve as a good candidate for phytoextraction of Cu-contaminated soils and that doubling the ambient CO2 concentration will facilitate its use in phytoextraction.

Amaranthus tricolor L. and Amaranthus cruentus L. were grown in pots containing 7.5 kg soils artificially contaminated with three levels of 134Cs activity: 5.55 x 10(5) Bq pot-1, 1.11 x 10(6) Bq pot(-)1, and 1.665 x 10(6) Bq pot(-1), respectively. Forty-nine days after sowing and growth, plants were harvested. The plants growing in soils with increasing 134Cs concentrations showed increasing concentration of this radionuclide in shoots. There were significant differences in uptake of 134Cs applied to soils between and within the plant species, depending on the initial 134Cs concentrations. The plant species showed different responses to the addition of (NH4)2SO4 to soils. Biomass production of both species was reduced in pots treated with (NH4)2SO4. (NH4)2SO4 application decreased the uptake of 134Cs by A. tricolor but increased the accumulation of 134Cs by A. cruentus, showing that chemicals with the highest efficiency to enhance the desorption of 134Cs might play an unexpected role in transferring the radionuclide to shoots.

Here we report a mini-three-dimensional dye-sensitized solar cell (3D DSSC) based on TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNAs). TNAs were directly grown on spiral-shaped titanium wire via a facile potentiostatic anodization. Furthermore, the TNAs film was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, indicating that the annealed TNAs were composed of single-crystalline anatase particles. Unlike conventional flat DSSC, this mini-3D DSSC could easily hold liquid electrolyte due to the capillary force which facilitated sealing the cell. This mini-3D DSSC showed an energy conversion efficiency of 4.1% under the AM 1.5 condition, which was much higher compared with that (3.2%) of the backside illuminated TNAs based DSSC of the same projected area.

Here we report a frontside illuminated TiO2 nanotube based dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The photoanode with inclined microchannels (IMCs) formed by laser drilling acted as a multifunctional role for enhancing the cell’s efficiency; light trapping, pathway for transporting electrolyte, and extra surface area for dye loading. The amount of N719 dye absorbed on IMCs photoanode was measured to be 3.83×10−7 mol/cm2, which was almost 1.82 times as high as that of the flat photoanode. The frontside illuminated DSSC showed an energy conversion efficiency of 4.1% under AM1.5 condition, which was much higher compared to that (3.1%) of the backside illuminated DSSC.