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Interfacial solar steam generation can produce clean water in an environmentally friendly and efficient way. The evaporator employing graphene as a photothermal conversion material represents an excellent paradigm within the realm of interfacial evaporators. However, existing graphene materials exhibit a certain degree of hydrophobicity and are associated with intricate manufacturing processes. Hence, the study proposes a hydrophilic composite graphene‐based material incorporating CuO, which is fabricated through a straightforward laser‐induced graphene synthesis method directly onto a polyimide film coated with CuCl2. Due to the fast capillary performance endowed by the enhanced hydrophilicity and hierarchical structural morphology, the assembled laser‐induced‐graphene evaporator achieves an evaporation rate of 2.54 kg m−2 h−1 under 1 sun irradiation with an evaporation efficiency of 91.1%, while also demonstrating excellent desalination capabilities. The as‐prepared graphene‐based evaporator has significant potential for desalination and wastewater treatment applications, offering an effective solution to address clean water challenges in remote areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian tracking in surveillance videos is crucial and challenging for precise personnel management. Due to the limited coverage of a single video, the integration of multiple surveillance videos is necessary in practical applications. In the realm of pedestrian management using multiple surveillance videos, continuous pedestrian tracking is quite important. However, prevailing cross-video pedestrian matching methods mainly rely on the appearance features of pedestrians, resulting in low matching accuracy and poor tracking robustness. To address these shortcomings, this paper presents a cross-video pedestrian tracking algorithm, which introduces spatial information. The proposed algorithm introduces the coordinate features of pedestrians in different videos and a linear weighting strategy focusing on the overlapping view of the tracking process. The experimental results show that, compared to traditional methods, the method in this paper improves the success rate of target pedestrian matching and enhances the robustness of continuous pedestrian tracking. This study provides a viable reference for pedestrian tracking and crowd management in video applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abdominal obesity is appreciated as a major player in insulin resistance and metabolically dysfunctional adipose tissue. Inappropriate extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling and functional alterations in human adipose stromal/stem cells (hASCs) have been linked with visceral white adipose tissue (vWAT) dysfunction in obesity. Understanding the interactions between hASCs and the native ECM environment in obese vWAT is required for the development of future therapeutic approaches for obesity-associated metabolic complications. Methods: The phenotypes and transcriptome properties of hASCs from the vWAT of obese patients and lean donors were assessed. The hASC-derived matrix from vWAT of obese or lean patients was generated in vitro using a decellularized method. The topography and the major components of the hASC-derived matrix were determined. The effects of the obese hASC-derived matrix on cell senescence and mitochondrial function were further determined. Results: We showed that hASCs derived from the vWAT of obese patients exhibited senescence and were accompanied by the increased production of ECM. The matrix secreted by obese hASCs formed a fibrillar suprastructure with an abundance of fibronectin, type I collagen, and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1), which resembles the native matrix microenvironment of hASCs in vWAT derived from obese patients. Furthermore, the obese hASC-derived matrix promoted lean hASC ageing and induced mitochondrial dysfunction compared to the lean hASC-derived matrix. Blockade of TGF-β1 signalling using an anti-TGF-β1 neutralizing antibody alleviated the lean hASC senescence and mitochondrial dysfunction induced by the obese hASC-derived matrix. Conclusions: Native ECM in obesity vWAT initiates hASC senescence through TGF-β1-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction. These data provide a key mechanism for understanding the importance of cell-ECM interactions in hASCs senescence in obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most motion deblurring methods require a large amount of paired training data, which is nearly unreachable in practice. To overcome the limitation, a domain translation network with contrastive constraint for unpaired motion image deblurring is proposed. First, a domain translation network with two streams, a sharp domain translation stream and a blurred domain translation stream, to handle unpaired sharp and blurred images from the real world is presented. Second, a contrastive constraint loss in the deep intermediate level for the two streams to promote the network to produce deblurring results close to the real sharp image is proposed. Third, distinct loss functions for the two streams to preserve the edge and texture detail of the deblurring image is designed. Extensive experiments on several benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed network achieves better visual performance than the current state‐of‐the‐art methods for unpaired motion image deblurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: GJB2 mutations are among the most important causes of deafness, and their prevalence varies greatly among different countries and ethnic groups. This study aimed to determine the pathogenic mutation spectrum of GJB2 in patients with nonsyndromic hearing loss (NSHL) in Western Guangdong and to explore the pathogenic characteristics of the c.109G>A locus. Methods: In total, 97 NSHL patients and 212 normal controls (NC) were included in this study. Genetic sequencing analyses were performed on GJB2. Results: In the NSHL group, the main pathogenic mutations in GJB2 were as follows: c.109G>A, c.235delC, and c.299_300delAT with allele frequencies of 9.28%, 4.12%, and 2.06%, respectively. c.109G>A was the most frequently detected pathogenic mutation in this region. In the NC group, the allele frequency of c.109G>A among 30–50 years old subjects was markedly lower than that among 0–30 years old subjects (5.31% vs. 11.11%, p < 0.05). Conclusion: We found the pathogenic mutation spectrum of GJB2 in this region and showed that c.109G>A was the most common GJB2 mutation with unique characteristics, such as clinical phenotypic heterogeneity and delayed onset. Therefore, the c.109G>A mutation should be considered as an essential marker for routine genetic assessment of deafness, which can also be beneficial for preventing deafness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a common mental health disease, with the characteristics of significant and persistent low mood. Traditionally, Ziziphus jujuba Mill. was used to treat depression. However, its chemical pharmacologic profiles remain to be elucidated. The present study was aimed to explore the potential targets and mechanisms of Z. jujuba in the treatment of depression using network pharmacology and in vitro neuroprotective experiment. In this study, 11 compounds of Z. jujuba were obtained by multiple column chromatography. Based on the network pharmacology, the C-T network was established by the results of molecular docking. The information on target proteins was enriched via DAVID database, followed by the analysis of GO and KEGG. The results indicated that 10 compounds, 5 target proteins and 3 signaling pathways played important roles in treating depression. Based on the predicted result of network pharmacology, compounds 1, 9 and 10 were identified with significant neuroprotective effects by in vitro cell experiments with human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y. This study was the first to investigate the mechanisms of Z. jujuba action in the treatment of depression from the system level, and could provide the basis of the mechanism with action of compounds for the in-depth utilization of Z. jujuba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accurate measurement of CO2 emissions is helpful for realizing the goals of "carbon neutralization" and "carbon peak". However, most current research on CO2 emission measurements utilizes the traditional energy balance coefficient and top-down methods. The data granularity is large, and most studies are concentrated at the national, provincial, municipal, or district/county administrative unit scale. As an important part of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area of China, the Pearl River Delta region has good nighttime light vitality and faces huge carbon emission pressure. Using the Pearl River Delta as the research area, this study constructed an optimized pixel-scale regression model based on NPP-VIIRS (The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership spacecraft) nighttime light data and CO2 emissions data at the district and county levels for 2017. In addition, the spatial pattern of CO2 emissions in the Pearl River Delta was analyzed based on the predicted CO2 emission status. The results showed that the spatial pattern of CO2 emissions in the Pearl River Delta had the distinct characteristics of the "center-edge" effect, the spatial spillover effect, and high-value aggregation, which should be considered when making related social or public decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Affected by the spatial environment, the accuracy and stability of ultra-wideband (UWB) positioning in a narrow space are significantly lower than those in the general indoor environment, which limits navigation and positioning services in a complex scene. To improve the positioning accuracy and stability of a narrow space, this study proposed a positioning algorithm by combining Kalman filter (KF) and dilution of precision (DOP). Firstly, we calculated the DOP values of the target narrow space by changing the location of the test nodes throughout the space. Secondly, the initial coordinate values of the test nodes were calculated by the weighted least squares (WLS) positioning algorithm and were used as the observation values of KF. Finally, the DOP values were adaptively introduced into KF to update the coordinates of the nodes to be tested. The proposed algorithm was tested in two narrow scenes with different length–width ratios. The experimental results showed that the DOP values of the narrow space were much higher than that of the wide space. Furthermore, even if the ranging error was low, the positioning error was high in the narrow space. The proposed fusion positioning algorithm reported a higher positioning accuracy in the narrow space, and the higher DOP values of the scene, the greater the accuracy improvement of the algorithm. This study reveals that no matter how the base stations are configured, the DOP values of the narrow space are much higher than that of the wide space, thus causing larger positioning errors. The proposed positioning algorithm can effectively suppress the positioning error caused by the narrow spatial structure, so as to improve the positioning accuracy and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outbreak of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) has generated a large amount of spatiotemporal data. Using a knowledge graph can help to analyze the transmission relationship between cases and locate the transmission path of the pandemic, but researchers have paid little attention to the spatial relationships between geographical entities related to the pandemic. Therefore, we propose a method for constructing a pandemic situation knowledge graph of COVID-19 that considers spatial relationships. First, we created an ontology design of the pandemic data in which spatial relationships are considered. We then constructed a non-spatial relationships extraction model based on BERT and a spatial relationships extraction model based on spatial analysis theory. Second, taking the pandemic and geographic data of Guangzhou as an example, we modeled a pandemic corpus. We extracted entities and relationships based on this model, and we constructed a pandemic situation knowledge graph that considers spatial relationships. Finally, we verified the feasibility of using this method as a visualization exploratory tool in the analysis of spatial characteristics, pandemic development situation, case sources, and case relationships analysis of pandemic-related areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Splenic lymphoma may be primary or secondary. Primary splenic lymphoma's are rare and usually of follicular cell origin representing <1% of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma's. Most are secondary with 35% representing Marginal Cell sub-type with the rest being Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma's. Unlike the uniformly aggressive clinical course of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma's, biological behavior of Primary Splenic CD10-Positive Small B-Cell Lymphoma/Follicular Lymphoma remains less well defined. We present here a solitary splenic mass confirmed as Primary Splenic CD10-Positive Small B-Cell Lymphoma/Follicular Lymphoma after a diagnostic splenectomy. Biopsy revealed monomorphic small lymphoid cells with low grade mitotic activity. Flow cytometry showed a lambda restricted population of B-Cells displaying dim CD19 and CD10. The cells were negative for CD5, CD11c, and CD103. FISH was negative for IGH/BCL2 fusion unlike nodal Follicular Lymphoma's which are usually positive for this translocation. Evidence from this case and a review of literature support the finding that Primary Splenic CD10-Positive Small B-Cell Lymphoma/Follicular Lymphoma is less likely to have the classic IGH-BCL2 fusion and the associated chromosomal 14;18 translocation. This profile is associated with less aggressive clinical behavior even when histopathology represents a high-grade pattern. In such cases splenectomy alone is adequate for localized disease when negative for IGH/BCL2 fusion regardless of histological grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nanofluids under magnetic fields show great potential in microchannel cooling and thermal absorption of the miniaturized devices. Studies about the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) have been focusing on the effects of nanoparticle types, volume fractions, and magnetic field intensity at low Reynolds numbers. However, less effort has been made to elucidate the interactions between external forces at large Reynolds numbers. In this work, we firstly developed a preconditioned LBM (PLBM) to overcome the divergence problem of the original LBM caused by variable physical properties and Reynolds numbers, followed by investigating the thermo-hydraulic characteristics of Al2O3-water nanofluid in a microchannel with temperature-dependent physical properties and slip boundary conditions. The effects of the external magnetic field, buoyancy force, and volume fraction of nanoparticles are discussed, and the entropy generation is analyzed. When the magnetic field is applied, the average shear stress is twice that without a magnetic field and the average Nusselt number increases by about 10% and further by about 20% at higher buoyancy forces. Besides, the magnitudes of the entropy generation caused by magnetic field irreversibility are higher than that caused by the heat transfer irreversibility. The numerical study developed in this work elucidates the effects of external force and extends the simulation performance of the existing LB models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart windows can selectively regulate excess solar radiation to reduce heating and cooling energy consumption in the built environment. However, the inevitable dissipation of ultraviolet and near‐infrared into waste heat results in inefficient solar utilization. Herein, a dual‐band selective solar harvesting (SSH) window is developed to realize full‐spectrum utilization. A transparent photovoltaic, converting ultraviolet into electricity, and a transparent solar absorber, converting near‐infrared into thermal energy, are integrated and coupled with a ventilation system to extract heat for indoor use. Compared with common transparent photovoltaics, the SSH window increases solar harvesting efficiency up to threefold while maintaining a considerable visible transmittance. Simulations suggest that the SSH window, besides generating electricity, delivers energy savings by over 30% higher than common smart windows. This is the first integration of transparent photovoltaic and transparent solar absorber into a window, which may open up a new avenue for the development of energy‐efficient buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant High-affinity K+ transporters/K+ uptake permeases/K+ transporters (HAK/KUP/KT) transporters have been predicted as membrane H+-K+ symporters in facilitating K+ uptake and distribution, while their role in seed production remains to be elucidated. In this study, we report that OsHAK26 is preferentially expressed in anthers and seed husks and located in the Golgi apparatus. Knockout of either OsHAK26 or plasma membrane located H+-K+ symporter gene OsHAK1 or OsHAK5 in both Nipponbare and Dongjin cultivars caused distorted anthers, reduced number and germination rate of pollen grains. Seed-setting rate assay by reciprocal cross-pollination between the mutants of oshak26 , oshak1 , oshak5 and their wild types confirmed that each HAK transporter is foremost for pollen viability, seed-setting and grain yield. Intriguingly, the pollens of oshak26 showed much thinner wall and were more vulnerable to desiccation than those of oshak1 or oshak5. In vitro assay revealed that the pollen germination rate of oshak5 was dramatically affected by external K+ concentration. The results suggest that the role of OsHAK26 in maintaining pollen development and fertility may relate to its proper cargo sorting for construction of pollen walls, while the role of OsHAK1 and OsHAK5 in maintaining seed production likely relates to their transcellular K+ transport activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "[Retracted] Tunicamycin inhibits colon carcinoma growth and aggressiveness via modulation of the ERK-JNK-mediated AKT/mTOR signaling pathway," was published in Molecular Medicine Reports in 2018. However, it has since been retracted by the editor due to concerns raised by a reader. The reader pointed out that certain data in the article appeared to be similar to data from other articles written by different authors at different research institutes. The authors were asked for an explanation but did not respond. The editor apologizes for any inconvenience caused. [Extracted from the article]

The architectural drawings of traditional building constructions generally require some design knowledge of the architectural plan to be understood. With the continuous development of the construction industry, the use of three-dimensional (3D) virtual models of buildings is quickly increased. Using three-dimensional models can give people a more convenient and intuitive understanding of the model of the building, and it is necessary for the painter to manually draw the 3D model. By analyzing the common design rules of architectural drawing, this project designed and realized a building three-dimensional reconstruction system that can automatically generate a stereogram (3 ds format) from a building plan (dxf format). The system extracts the building information in the dxf plan and generates a three-dimensional model (3 ds format) after identification and analysis. Three-dimensional reconstruction of architectural drawings is an important application of computer graphics in the field of architecture. The technology is based on computer vision and pattern recognition, supported by artificial intelligence, three-dimensional reconstruction, and other aspects of computer technology and engineering domain knowledge. It specializes in processing architectural engineering drawings with rich semantic information and various description forms to automatically carry out architectural drawing layouts. The high-level information with domain meanings such as the geometry and semantics/functions of graphics of the buildings can be analyzed for forming a complete and independent research system. As a new field of computer technology, the three-dimensional reconstruction drawings are appropriate for demonstrating the characteristics of architectural constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A fast, accurate, and ultrasensitive fluorescence immunoassay was developed. • This immunoassay is based on CdTe quantum dots (QDs) made from thioglycolic acid. • The proposed method to detect zilpaterol in swine urine and pork samples was tested. • The method sensitivity was comparable to those of the commercial immunoassay kit. Zilpaterol hydrochloride (zilpaterol) is used in animal feed as it can increase the lean meat mass. However, consuming zilpaterol-containing animal products may damage human health. Therefore, rapid detection of zilpaterol is attracting increasing research attention. This study aimed to developed a fast, accurate, and ultrasensitive fluorescence immunoassay based on CdTe quantum dots (QDs). A CdTe QD fluorescence sensor was synthesized from thioglycolic acid using a simple hydrothermal method. The morphology and structure of the CdTe QDs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The detection limits of our method in swine urine and pork samples were 0.5 μg/L and 1.2 μg/kg, respectively. A wide linear range of 0.1–10000 μg/L (R2 = 0.996) was achieved. Both within-run precision (CVw) and between-run precision (CV b) were ≤ 10 %. The method was then successfully applied for the analysis of zilpaterol contents in swine urine and pork samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human noroviruses are the leading cause of sporadic cases and outbreaks of viral acute gastroenteritis in all age groups worldwide. Methods: Epidemiological data and fecal specimens were collected between January 2011 and December 2018 from 4911 children < 5 years of age with diarrhea in three districts of Beijing. From 2011 to 2013, One-Step Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) was used to detect noroviruses, and from January 2014 to December 2018, norovirus GI and GII were screened using duplex quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). One-Step RT-PCR and RT-seminested PCR were performed to amplify the RNA-dependent polymerase and capsid genes of noroviruses in positive sample. Amplified products were sequenced directly; norovirus was typed using the online Norovirus Genotyping Tool v2.0 and phylogenetic analyses were conducted using MEGA-X. Results: From 2011 to 2018, noroviruses were detected in 16.5% of specimens from children with diarrhea. The highest prevalence was observed in children aged 12 to 23 months (22.4%, 319/1421), followed by children aged 6 to 11 months (17.6%, 253/1441). The highest prevalence of norovirus infections occurred in autumn followed by winter, spring, and summer. From 2011 to 2018, the most prevalent dual types (genotype and polymerase type) were GII.4 Sydney[P31] (51.6%, 239/463), followed by GII.3[P12] (24.0%, 111/463), GII.4 2006b[P4 2006b] (7.3%, 34/463), GII.2[P16] (5.0%, 23/463), GII.17[P17] (2.6%, 12/463) and GII.6[P7] (2.6%, 12/463). GII.4 2006b[P4 2006b] predominated in 2011 and 2012. GII.4 Sydney[P31] predominated from 2013 to 2018. In total, 15 genotypes, 15 P-types and 19 dual types were detected in this study, reflecting the genetic diversity. Conclusions: There were significant epidemiological characteristics and genetic diversity among outpatient children with norovirus infections < 5 years of age in Beijing from 2011 to 2018. These characteristics differ from those of norovirus outbreaks in Beijing. The complete genome sequences of each genotype are needed to better understand norovirus evolutionary mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tarim River Basin in Xinjiang, China, has a typical desert riparian forest ecosystem. Analysis of the resilience of this type of ecosystem under extreme drought conditions and ecological rehabilitation projects could provide a theoretical basis for understanding ecosystem stability and resistance, and provide new ecological rehabilitation measures to improve ecosystem resilience. We employed a quantitative framework to assess net primary productivity (NPP) resilience, emphasizing four aspects of NPP dynamics: NPP, NPP stability, NPP resistance, and maximum NPP potential. We compared ecosystem resilience across four time periods: before the implementation of ecological rehabilitation projects (1990–2000), during construction and partial implementation of ecological rehabilitation projects (2001–2012), during the initial project stage of ecological rehabilitation (2013–2015), and during the late project stage of ecological rehabilitation (2016–2018). There are three main finding of this research. (1) Mean NPP was increased significantly from 2013 and was decreased from 2016, especially in the main stream of the Tarim River and in the basins of eight of its nine tributary rivers. (2) Ecosystem resilience in 2013–2018 was greater than in 1990–2012, with the greatest NPP stability, mean NPP and NPP resistance, especially in part one of the river basin (the Aksu River, the Weigan-Kuche River, the Dina River, the Kaidu-Konqi River, and the main stream of the Tarim River). Ecosystem resilience in 2001–2012 was lowest when compared to 1990–2000 and 2013–2018, with lowest mean NPP, NPP stability, NPP resistance and maximum NPP potential, particularly in part two of the river basin (the Kashigr River, the Yarkand River and the Hotan River basins). Therefore, part one was most affected by ecological restoration projects. When 2013–2018 was divided into two distinct stages, 2013–2015 and 2016–2018, resilience in the latter stage was the lowest, with lowest mean NPP, NPP resistance and maximum NPP potential, especially in the main stream of the Tarim River. This may be due to unreasonable water conveyance in 2014–2015. (3) Ecological resilience has increased significantly in 2013–2015 after the implementation of ecological water transfer projects, river regulation, and natural vegetation enclosure projects. Ecosystem resilience could continue to increase even more in the future with the continued implementation of reasonable ecological water transfer projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Astragali radix (AR) and anemarrhenae rhizoma (AAR) are used clinically in Chinese medicine for the treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF), but the exact therapeutic mechanism is unclear. In this study, a total of 60 male C57BL/6 mice were divided into 5 groups, namely sham, model, AR, AAR, and AR-AAR. In the sham group, the chest was opened without ligation. In the other groups, the chest was opened and the transverse aorta was ligated to construct the transverse aortic constriction model. After 8 weeks of feeding, mice were given medicines by gavage for 4 weeks. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular fractional shortening (LVFS) were detected by echocardiography. Heart weight index (HWI) and wheat germ agglutinin staining were used to evaluate cardiac hypertrophy. Hematoxylin–eosin staining was used to observe the pathological morphology of myocardial tissue. Masson staining was used to evaluate myocardial fibrosis. The content of serum brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. The content of serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) was detected by immunoturbidimetry. The mechanism of AR-AAR in the treatment of CHF was explored by proteomics. Western blot was used to detect the protein expressions of complement component 1s (C1s), complement component 9 (C9), and terminal complement complex 5b-9 (C5b-9). The results show that AR-AAR inhibits the expression of complement proteins C1s, C9, and C5b-9 by inhibiting the production of IgG antibodies from B cell activation, which further inhibits the complement activation, attenuates myocardial fibrosis, reduces HWI and cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area, improves cardiomyocyte injury, reduces serum BNP release, elevates LVEF and LVFS, improves cardiac function, and exerts myocardial protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To explore the relationship between lipid accumulation product (LAP) and abnormal glucose metabolism in the participants recruited from Jiangxi Province. Methods This study conducted a cross-sectional survey on community neighborhood communities in 14 cities and towns in Jiangxi Province from March to July 2018. A multi-stage stratified random sampling method was used to recruit 4 790 residents aged 18 and above, and a questionnaire survey (including demography, subject characteristics, drug history, lifestyle and psychological conditions, etc.), physical examination[measure and calculate height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist to height ratio (WHtR), LAP and visceral adiposity index (VAI)] and laboratory examination [fasting plasma glucose (FPG), 2-hour plasma glucose (2hPG), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)] were conducted on all subjects. Diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes according to the diagnostic criteria of the Chinese Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes (2017 edition). Kruskal-Wallis H method and multivariate logistic regression model were used to analyze the relationship between different LAP levels (quartiles) with pre-diabetes and diabetes. Results There were 2 996 patients in the normal glucose tolerance group, 1 097 patients in the pre-diabetes group, and 697 patients in the diabetes group. In the 3 groups, age, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, BMI, waist circumference, LAP, VAI, FPG, 2hPG, TC, TG and LDL-C increased with the increase of glucose metabolism severity, while HDL-C decreased (all P<0.05). According to the LAP quartile, there were 1 196 cases in group Q1 (LAP<16.52), 1 198 cases in group Q2 (16.52≤LAP<29.52), 1 195 cases in group Q3 (29.52≤LAP<50.22) and 1 201 cases in group Q4 (LAP≥50.22).With the increase of LAP level, the prevalence of pre-diabetes and diabetes showed an increasing trend, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). After adjusting for gender, age, education, family history of diabetes, family income, smoking and drinking histories, exercise status, blood pressure, and BMI, the highest LAP level group showed higher risk for pre-diabetes and diabetes with OR(95%CI) 2.94 (2.26 to 3.83) and 5.00 (3.58 to 6.97), respectively. Conclusions LAP is closely related to abnormal glucose metabolism. The individuals with higher LAP showed higher risk of pre-diabetes and diabetes, and it has certain clinical value for early warning of abnormal glucose metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image deblurring methods based on deep learning have been proved to be effective for dynamic scene deblurring. Nevertheless, the most existing methods usually fail to deal with severe and complex dynamic scene blurs. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-stream attentive generative adversarial network (MSA-GAN) for solving the problems. Firstly, we design a novel attentive guidance module for generating an attention map which can guide to pay more attention on the severe blur regions or objects and their edge or texture structures in the feature extraction and deblurring process. Secondly, we propose the multi-stream and multi-scale feature extraction strategy and design an attentive and multi-scale feature extraction module, in which we design a multi-scale residual block for extracting the multi-scale features and capturing more information of complex blurs. Thirdly, we propose a multi-scale feature fusion strategy and the strategy is implemented in the multi-stream and multi-scale feature fusion module through the designed gate structure, which can adaptively learn and fuse multi-scale features from different streams. Finally, The extensive experiments are performed on the GoPro dynamic scene dataset and real image data, and the experimental results both quantitatively and qualitatively have demonstrated that the proposed method outperform the recent state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Androdioecy is one of the rarest sexual systems among plants, characterized by males co-occurring with hermaphrodites. Osmanthus delavayi (Oleaceae), an ornamental shrub from southern China, is known to have both male and hermaphrodite individuals, but little is known regarding the breeding system of this species and whether it is functionally androdioecious, and how this potentially evolved. In this study, we explore the characteristics of the breeding system of O. delavayi through the study of phenology, sex ratio, floral organ morphology, pollen number, stigma receptivity, artificial pollination, pollinators, and gene flow within and between populations, while also discussing the evolution and maintenance of androdioecy within the genus. The proportion of males was less than 0.5 and the out-crossing index (OCI) was 5. Morphological androdioecy was observed, with hermaphrodite flowers having fertile pistils, while male flowers had degenerated pistils. Males and hermaphrodites both had large amounts of small and fertile pollen grains, although the pollen number of males was ca. 1.21 × more than that of hermaphrodites, and pollen was generally smaller. Self-pollination was found to produce a much lower fruit set than outcrossing under natural conditions. Gene flow between males and hermaphrodites within a population was greater (1.007) than that between populations (0.753). All these results indicate that O. delavayi is functionally androdioecious, which may be an intermediate state in the evolutionary transition from hermaphroditism to dioecy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyzed the prevalence and genotypes of Parechovirus A (PeV-A) in children with diarrhea in Beijing, China, 2017–2019. A total of 1734 stool samples collected from children <5 years of age with diarrhea were tested for the presence of PeV-A. Viral RNA was detected by real-time RT-PCR, and then genotyped by nested RT-PCR. We detected PeV-A in 93 (5.4%, 93/1734) samples, of which 87 could be genotyped by amplification of either the complete or partial VP1 region or the VP3/VP1 junction region. The median age of PeV-A infected children was 10 months. Most PeV-A infections were observed between August and November, with a peak in September. Seven known genotypes of PeV-A1A, -A1B, −A3, −A4, −A6, −A8 and -A11 were detected and PeV-A1B was the most prevalent genotype. Coinfection with other diarrheal viruses was observed in 30.1% (28/93) of PeV-A positive samples. All strains of PeV-A1A, -A1B, −A4 and -A6 obtained in this study contained the arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) motif, while all strains of PeV-A3, −A8 and -A11 lacked it. This study revealed a high genetic diversity of PeV-A circulating in Beijing and PeV-A11 was reported for the first time in children with diarrhea in China. • A total of 1734 stool samples were detected, and 93 samples (5.4%) were positive for PeV-A. • Based on VP1 genes and VP3/VP1 junction region genes, 79 and 72 strains were genotyped successfully, respectively. • Seven known genotypes of PeV-A1A, -A1B, −A3, −A4, −A6, −A8 and -A11 were detected. • PeV-A11 was reported for the first time in children with diarrhea in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Air classifier mill (ACM) is widely used in powder coating and mineral comminution process. One of the problems typically presenting in ACM is over-grinding, which leads to high energy consumption and broad particle size distribution (PSD). To decrease the excessive amount of fine particles in the products, 6 configurations of grinding pins with ditches in the impact surface were used in the experiments. The width and depth of ditches varied from 1.35 mm and 1 mm to 4.75 mm and 3 mm, respectively, while the interior angles in the ditches are the same. The particle size and PSD show that the ditches on the grinding pins have significant effect on the D 10 values and the particle size span. The deepest and widest ditches (P4) result in largest D 10 and smallest span in this study. The D 10 s of products ground by P4 increase by 24.1% for fine powder (D 50 = 25 μm) and 16.0% for coarse powder (D 50 = 33 μm), while the span decreases by 6.9% (D 50 = 25 μm) and 6.4% (D 50 = 33 μm) compared to regular cylindrical pins (PC), respectively. Meanwhile, it is found that the P4 configuration improves the energy utilization efficiency by 7.6% (D 50 = 25 μm) and 3.4% (D 50 = 33 μm), compared to that of the original PC pins. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • The paper presents an efficient way to reduce over-grinding of ACM. • The method involves modification of ACM pin, especially the impact surface. • The method increases the D 10 and decrease the span of the ground powder. • The modification leads to the reduction of the average specific energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient were determined for a full-coverage effusion cooled surface which simulates a portion of a gas turbine blade. Adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient were measured with low thermal-conductivity plastics using pressure sensitive paint and steady liquid crystal, respectively. The blowing ratio ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 with the density ratio of DR = 1.5. Geometrical parameters investigated included wall thickness (from 1.0D to 2.5D) and jet-injection directions (forward and backward injections). Local, laterally-averaged, and area-averaged adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients were shown to illustrate the geometrical parameter effects. Comparison of net heat flux reduction was conducted to provide an overall heat transfer estimation. Results showed that decreasing wall thickness results in opposite impacts for forward and backward injections. Also observed was that adopting backward injection for thin full-coverage effusion plate provided the highest adiabatic film effectiveness, heat transfer coefficient, and net heat flux reduction for most blowing ratios. Highlights • Wall thickness and injection directioneffectson full-coverage film cooling wereexperimentally explored. • Increasing the wall thickness leads to increased adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient for the forward injection hole array. • Increasing the wall thickness leads to decreasedadiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient for the backwardinjection hole array. • The backward injection hole arrayshows superioritiesover the forward injection hole arrayin terms of overall thermal performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Length to diameter ratio effect on heat transfer coefficient was experimentally explored. • Increasing blowing ratio brings the increase of heat transfer coefficient. • The heat transfer coefficient firstly decreases and increases as L/D increases from 0.5 to 5. • Two methods were used to evaluate the overall cooling efficiency. Abstract Heat transfer coefficients on a flat plate surface downstream a row of simple and compound angle cylindrical holes are investigated using high-resolution thermographic liquid crystal technique. A variation of flow parameters including blowing ratio, and geometry parameters including compound angle and length-to-diameter ratio are examined. Blowing ratios (M) ranging from 0.3 to 2, length to diameter ratios (L/D) from 0.5 to 5, and two compound angle (β: 0°, 45°) are employed composing a test matrix of 70 test cases. Detailed local, spanwise averaged, and area averaged heat transfer coefficients h f /h 0 are presented to illustrate the effect of length-to-diameter ratio and compound angle. The film cooling performance is also evaluated using NHFR method and Δφ method by combining adiabatic film effectiveness and heat transfer coefficient data. Results indicate that Δ φ method has superiority in evaluating film cooling performance due to its direct reflection of temperature reduction by film protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Epidemiology and evidence have demonstrated that colon carcinoma is one of the most common gastrointestinal tumors in the clinic. Reports have suggested that Tunicamycin significantly inhibits aggressiveness of colon carcinoma cells by promotion of apoptosis. In the present study, the inhibitory effect of tunicamycin on colon cancer cells and the potential underlying molecular mechanism was investigated. Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, apoptotic assays and immunofluorescence were used to analyze the therapeutic effects of tunicamycin on apoptosis, growth, aggressiveness and cell cycle of colon tumor cells, by downregulation of fibronectin, vimentin and E‑cadherin expression levels. In vitro experiments demonstrated that tunicamycin significantly inhibited growth, migration and invasion of colon carcinoma cells. In addition, tunicamycin administration promoted apoptosis of colon carcinoma cells via upregulation of apoptotic protease activating factor 1 and cytochrome c expression levels, which are proteins that have a role in mitochondrial apoptosis signaling. Cell cycle assays revealed that tunicamycin suppressed proliferation and arrested S phase entry of colon carcinoma cells. Mechanistic analysis demonstrated that tunicamycin reduced expression and phosphorylation levels of extracellular signal‑regulated kinase (ERK), c‑JUN N‑terminal kinase (JNK) and protein kinase B (AKT), and inhibited mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) expression levels in colon carcinoma cells. Endogenous overexpression of ERK inhibited tunicamycin‑mediated downregulation of JNK, AKT and mTOR expression, which further blocked tunicamycin‑mediated inhibition of growth and aggressiveness of colon carcinoma. In vivo assays revealed that tunicamycin treatment significantly inhibited tumor growth and promoted apoptosis, which led to long‑term survival of tumor‑bearing mice compared with the control group. In conclusion, these results suggested that tunicamycin may inhibit growth and aggressiveness of colon cancer via the ERK‑JNK‑mediated AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, and suggested that tunicamycin may be a potential anti‑cancer agent for colon carcinoma therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adiabatic film cooling effectiveness on a flat plate surface downstream a row of simple and compound angle holes was investigated using high-resolution pressure sensitive paint (PSP) technique. A variation of flow parameters including density ratio and blowing ratio, and geometry parameters including compound angle and length-to-diameter ratio were examined. Blowing ratios (M) ranging from 0.3 to 2, density ratio (DR) are 1.0 and 1.5, length to diameter ratios (L/D) from 0.5 to 5 and two compound angle ( β : 0°, 45°) were employed composing a test matrix of 140 test cases. Discharge coefficient was measured with varied blowing ratio and L/D values for simple and compound angle hole. Detailed local, laterally averaged, and area averaged film effectiveness are presented to illustrate the effect of length-to-diameter ratio and compound angle. It was found that the effect of density ratio on the film cooling effectiveness was associated with the blowing ratio. Increasing density ratio provides a negative effect when the M ≤ 0.5 for simple and compound angle hole, which a positive effect when the M > 0.5. Also found was that the film effectiveness was highest when L/D = 0.5 and 1, regardless of blowing ratio and compound angle. The film cooling effectiveness of simple angle hole increased as L/D increased from 2 to 5 when M ≤ 1, while showed a minimum value at L/D = 3.5 when M ≥ 1. The film cooling effectiveness of compound angle hole showed a minimum value at L/D = 3.5 regardless of blowing ratio. The scaling methods of film effectiveness with velocity ratio, blowing ratio, and momentum flux ratio were also discussed for simple angle and compound angle holes with varying L/D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new cooling design for a typical two-pass channel of a high pressure stage turbine blade. Gas turbine blades are subjected to elevated heat loads on the pressure and suction walls. In order to enhance heat transfer from the surfaces to the relatively colder internal air (gas), rib turbulators are installed on the opposite walls of two-pass channel. Combination of Coriolis force and centrifugal buoyancy force result in increase in heat transfer on trailing walls (along the pressure surface, and radially outward coolant flow) and leading walls (along the suction surface, radially inward flow) and vice versa. This leads to non-uniform cooling in both the passes and hence a non-optimum usage of cooling potential. The present study is focused on utilizing the Coriolis force favorably in both the passes by rotating the typical arrangement of two-pass channels by 90°. Detailed heat transfer coefficients were measured by transient liquid crystal thermography under rotating conditions. In order to match the direction of Buoyancy force as it exists in actual engines, colder air was passed during the transient experiment. The heat transfer experiments were carried out at a Reynolds number of 20000 and Rotation numbers of 0 and 0.1. The Nusselt numbers have been reported in two forms, (a) normalized with respect to Dittus-Boelter correlation for developed turbulent flow in circular duct, (b) normalized with corresponding Nusselt number obtained from smooth channel experiments. In order to understand the heat transfer characteristics of both traditional and new design, numerical simulations were also carried out for all configurations and at all experimental conditions to obtain flow and heat transfer predictions. A combined experimental and numerical discussion has been provided to explain the findings of the present study and to support the proposed design. It has been reported that the new design has 11% higher heat transfer enhancement at 8% lower pumping power compared to the traditional two pass rib roughened duct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compound angle hole film cooling with varying length-to-diameter ratio and internal crossflow orientations is investigated by large eddy simulation (LES). The film density ratio is 1.5, and the blowing ratio ranges from 0.4 to 1.2. The compound angle of 45° and three length-to-diameter ratios (L/D) from 0.5 to 5 are chosen for the simulations. In addition to the vertical inflow through the plenum, internal crossflow orientations that are perpendicular to and parallel to the mainstream flow are investigated. The prediction accuracy is validated by the reported hydrodynamic data and present film effectiveness data measured by pressure sensitive paint (PSP). Results show that compound angle hole film effectiveness generally shows a decreasing trend as length-to-diameter ratio increases, which is contrary to the cylindrical hole. This is associated with the fact that length-to-diameter ratio influences the in-tube flow behavior, formation of Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) structures, and development of single asymmetric main vortex (SAMV). The internal crossflow orientation is demonstrated to have a significant effect on the in-tube flow behavior and the film cooling effectiveness. The perpendicular-counter flow and parallel-inline flow cases are found to provide more uniform hole exit velocity distributions than other internal crossflow orientations and vertical inflow case. Also found is that uniform hole exit velocity distribution provides favorable influence on the film effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat transfer enhancement inside ribbed channels for turbine blades is a critical phenomenon that impacts overall performance and life of the gas turbine. Present study investigates heat and fluid flow in a rectangular duct with heat transfer enhancement features, under rotating and stationary conditions. The heat transfer data obtained experimentally has been explained using numerical prediction of flow features. Detailed heat transfer coefficients have been measured on the walls of two-pass rectangular duct (AR = 1:2) featuring V-shaped rib turbulators, using transient liquid crystal thermography (TLCT). The first pass and second pass featured nine V-shaped ribs each and the bend featured a 90° rib connecting the blade tip underside and the two-pass divider wall. The flow in the first pass was developing in nature. The rib-pitch to rib-height ratio (p/e) was 9.625 and the rib-height to channel hydraulic diameter (e/d h ) was 0.125. The baseline case for the rib roughened duct was geometrically identical smooth duct (with no heat transfer enhancement features). Stationary experiments were carried out for Reynolds numbers ranging from 25000 to 75000. The rotation experiments were carried out at 400 RPM ( Ro = 0.036) and 700 RPM ( Ro = 0.063), at Reynolds number of 25000 ( Ro = Ω d h / V , Re = Vd h / ν ) . Also, numerical simulations were performed for a similar test model under similar flow conditions, using realizable k - ∊ turbulence model. Detailed discussion on rib induced secondary flows and rotational effects on heat transfer in smooth and rib roughened duct are presented in this paper using results obtained from detailed heat transfer measurements from experiments and fluid dynamics predictions from numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio is one of the most important variables reflecting soil quality and ecological function, and an indicator for assessing carbon and nitrogen nutrition balance of soils. Its variation reflects the carbon and nitrogen cycling of soils. In order to explore the spatial variability of soil C/N ratio and its controlling factors of the Ili River valley in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China, the traditional statistical methods, including correlation analysis, geostatistic alanalys and multiple regression analysis were used. The statistical results showed that the soil C/N ratio varied from 7.00 to 23.11, with a mean value of 10.92, and the coefficient of variation was 31.3%. Correlation analysis showed that longitude, altitude, precipitation, soil water, organic carbon, and total nitrogen were positively correlated with the soil C/N ratio ( P < 0.01), whereas negative correlations were found between the soil C/N ratio and latitude, temperature, soil bulk density and soil pH. Ordinary Cokriging interpolation showed that r and ME were 0.73 and 0.57, respectively, indicating that the prediction accuracy was high. The spatial autocorrelation of the soil C/N ratio was 6.4 km, and the nugget effect of the soil C/N ratio was 10% with a patchy distribution, in which the area with high value (12.00-20.41) accounted for 22.6% of the total area. Land uses changed the soil C/N ratio with the order of cultivated land > grass land > forest land > garden. Multiple regression analysis showed that geographical and climatic factors, and soil physical and chemical properties could independently explain 26.8%and 55.4% of the spatial features of soil C/N ratio, while human activities could independently explain 5.4% of the spatial features only. The spatial distribution of soil C/N ratio in the study has important reference value for managing soil carbon and nitrogen, and for improving ecological function to similar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvianolic acid A (Sal-A), salvianolic acid B (Sal-B) and danshensu (DSS) are the main active monomers of Salvia miltiorrhiza , a plant used in the treatment of myocardial infarction (MI). A mixture design of Sal-A, Sal-B, and DSS was evaluated to determine the optimal proportion of the three monomers for myocardial protection efficacy. Regression models were established based on the experimental data obtained from oxygen-glucose deprivation H9c2 cells. The response variables included cell viability, creatine kinase MB isoenzyme (CK-MB), cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and myoglobin (Myo). The independent variables were the proportions of the three monomers. An optimal proportion of the three monomers was calculated from the obtained models to simultaneously optimize the four responses: 80 % Sal-A, 10 % Sal-B, and 10 % DSS. The calculated solution proportion was verified experimentally. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the inhibition of cTnI and Myo between the mixture with optimal proportion and the treatment drugs, and the inhibition of CK-MB was even better than that the treatment drugs, including the aqueous extract of S. miltiorrhiza and total salvianolic acid. This study shows that a mixture of 80 % Sal-A, 10 % Sal-B, and 10 % DSS can be the most effective in cardioprotection, providing a basis for the study of the active monomers of S. miltiorrhiza in the treatment of MI. [Display omitted] • Mixture design for optimal proportion of monomers from Salvia miltiorrhiza. • The optimal proportion of monomers for myocardial protection was found. • Verification of the usefulness of the mixture design in studying natural medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bosten Lake is the largest inland freshwater lake. It has very important ecological significance to protect Bosten Lake wetlands. In this study, the ecological water level method was applied to the Bosten Lake wetlands. A frequency analysis on water level time series data was performed to investigate the relationship between the water level variation and the changes in ecological environment. The minimum, medium and ideal ecological water level coefficients were estimated to further determine the corresponding minimum, medium and ideal ecological environment water demands. The results show that the monthly minimum, medium and ideal ecological water levels were 1045.7 m, 1047 m and 1048 m, and their coefficients were 0.9992, 1.000046 and 1.0014, respectively. The water demand threshold that sustains the eco-environmental safety in the Bosten Lake wetlands is 6.175–8.633 billion m 3 per month. This study could work for the department of water resources management as a scientific basis for the rational allocation of water resources and the study of wetland ecological water rights, and thus contribute to the wetland protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the water use processes of desert riparian vegetation in arid regions and analyzing the response and adaptation strategies of plants to drought stress are of great significance for developing ecological restoration measures. Based on field monitoring and test analyses of physiological ecological indicators of dominant species ( Populus euphratica and Tamarix chinensis) in the desert riparian forest in the lower reaches of the Tarim River, the water relations of P. euphratica and T. chinensis under drought stress are discussed and some water use strategies put forward. The results show that (1) concerning plant water uptake, desert riparian forests depend mainly on groundwater to survive under long-term water stress. (2) Concerning plant water distribution, the survival of P. euphratica and nearby shallow root plants is mainly due to the hydraulic lift and water redistribution of P. euphratica under drought stress. (3) Concerning plant water transport, P. euphratica sustains the survival of competitive and advantageous branches by improving their ability to acquire water while restraining the growth of inferior branches. (4) Concerning plant transpiration, the sap flow curves of daily variations of P. euphratica and T. chinensis were wide-peak sin and narrower-peak respectively. T. chinensis has better environmental adaptability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a nonconvex higher-order total variation (TV) method for blind motion image deblurring. First, we introduce a nonconvex higher-order TV differential operator to define a new model of the blind motion image deblurring, which can effectively eliminate the staircase effect of the deblurred image; meanwhile, we employ an image sparse prior to improve the edge recovery quality. Second, to improve the accuracy of the estimated motion blur kernel, we use L1 norm and H1 norm as the blur kernel regularization term, considering the sparsity and smoothing of the motion blur kernel. Third, because it is difficult to solve the numerically computational complexity problem of the proposed model owing to the intrinsic nonconvexity, we propose a binary iterative strategy, which incorporates a reweighted minimization approximating scheme in the outer iteration, and a split Bregman algorithm in the inner iteration. And we also discuss the convergence of the proposed binary iterative strategy. Last, we conduct extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world degraded images. The results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the previous representative methods in both quality of visual perception and quantitative measurement. ©2016 SPIE and IS&T[DOI: 10.1117/1.JEI.25.5.053033] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose a novel progressive downsampling and adaptive guidance network for retaining more the strong edges and other high-frequency information of the blurry images, so as to make the network model learn a more effective dynamic scene deblurring mapping. • In the proposed network, we design a multiscale blended activation residual block to learn the nonlinear characteristics of dynamic scene blur, which can alleviate the performance saturation problem caused by a single activation function and improve multiscale feature extraction ability. • We propose a multisupervision strategy for making the proposed network learn more robust and effective features and making the network possess more stable training and faster convergence. The existing learning-based dynamic scene deblurring methods have made good progress to some extent. However, these methods are usually based on multiscale strategy, which has the following shortcomings: (1) The bilinear downsampling operation will cause some loss of important high-frequency information, e.g., strong edges, which also further affects the network learning a better deblurring mapping. (2) Existing methods only use a single activation function, which limits the ability of the network model to fit data and causes the network performance to be easily saturated. Therefore, we propose an end-to-end progressive downsampling and adaptive guidance network called PDAG-Net for solving above problems. The proposed PDAG-Net can retain more strong edges and other high-frequency information of a blurry image so as to make the network learn a more effective deblurring mapping between the input and label images. In the proposed PDAG-Net, we implement a multiscale blended activation residual block called MSBA-ResBlock for learning the nonlinear characteristics of dynamic scene blur, which can also alleviate the performance saturation problem caused by a single activation function and improve multiscale feature extraction ability. Finally, we propose a multisupervision strategy for obtaining more robust and effective features and making the network possess more stable trainging and faster convergence. Extensive experimental results on a public dataset indicate that the proposed network outperforms the state-of-the-art image deblurring methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnopharmacological relevance Fructus gardenia is widely used for treatment of stroke and infectious diseases in Chinese medicine. Geniposide is the key bioactive compound related to the pharmacodynamic actions of gardenia on ischemic stroke. The molecular mechanism by which geniposide improves the ischemic brain injury was observed in the study. Aim of the study Recent studies showed that geniposide had protective activities against the inflammatory response in ischemic stroke. However, the molecular mechanism of geniposide anti-inflammatory role has not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, we investigated the effect of geniposide on the expression of P2Y 14 receptor and downstream signaling pathway in brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs). Materials and methods An in vitro model of cerebral ischemia in BMECs was established by oxygen-glucose-deprivation (OGD). To further confirm the specific effect of geniposide on P2Y 14 receptor and downstream signaling pathways, we set up a UDP-glucose (an agonist of the P2Y 14 receptor) stimulated model. After administration of geniposide, the expression of P2Y 14 receptor, phosphorylation of RAF-1, mitogen activated protein kinase kinase1/2 (MEK1/2), extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2), level of interleukin-8 (IL-8), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1) in BMECs were determined. Results The mRNA and protein expression of P2Y 14 in the rat BMECs were up-regulated in OGD-induced injury. After administration of Geniposide, the expression of P2Y 14 receptor was significantly down-regulated, the phosphorylation of RAF-1, MEK1/2, ERK1/2 were suppressed. Similar data were obtained in UDP-glc stimulated model. We also observed that geniposide markedly declined the production of IL-8, IL-1β and MCP-1 in OGD-induced BMECs. Conclusion Geniposide exerted anti-inflammatory effects by interfering with the expression of P2Y 14 receptor, which subsequently inhibits the downstream ERK1/2 signaling pathways and the release of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-8, MCP-1, IL-1β. Therefore, this study provides the evidence for gardenia's clinical application in cerebral ischemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work experimentally investigates the conjugate heat transfer performance for pin fin arrays. The geometry of pin fin arrays is typical of x / D = y / D = 2.5 and H / D = 1. The effect of two main factors: material thermal conductivity and thermal boundary conditions, i.e. conjugate and convective boundary conditions, are quantified by comparing the nondimensional temperature and Nusselt number. For conjugate heat transfer, models are constructed with materials with thermal conductivity ranging from 0.23 W m −1 K −1 to 16 W m −1 K −1 . Uniform heat flux is imposed along the external wall of pin fin arrays and highly resolved temperature distributions of internal wall is obtained with steady liquid crystal, meanwhile external wall temperature is measured through thermocouples. For convective heat transfer, model is constructed with low thermal conductivity material to ensure the usage of transient liquid crystal to obtain heat transfer coefficients of the internal wall on the same configuration. Experimental data of temperature and heat transfer coefficient distribution is used as boundary conditions to conduct FEM calculations of pin fin array. Internal and external wall non-dimensional temperature distributions, as well as iso-thermal line distributions of the whole domain, are compared. Results indicate that thermal conductivity can significantly impact the heat transfer capacity, i.e. Nusselt number; meanwhile, the necessity of taking conjugate heat transfer effect is demonstrated by comparison with purely convective results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study focuses on numerical investigation of narrow passage flows with pin fin arrays. Six different turbulence models, including linear eddy viscosity models, an explicit algebraic Reynolds stress model, and a V2f model, are explored as they are utilized with k-εand k-ωplatforms. The main objective of the work is to study numerical performance and accuracy of models when applied in the simulation of blade pin fin arrays. The main objective is comparison of the numerical accuracy of models, when applied for the simulation of complex flows within narrow passages. Numerical results obtained with the different models are compared to the experimental data from the literature. As such, comparisons are performed of different flow field quantities, including mean velocity components, Reynolds stress tensor components, and surface Nusselt number distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study focuses on numerical investigations of narrow passage flows with impingement jets. Six different turbulence models, including linear eddy viscosity models, an explicit algebraic Reynolds stress model, and a V2f model, are explored as they are utilized with k-ϵand k-ωplatforms. The main objective is a comparison of the numerical accuracy of models as applied to the simulation of complex flows within narrow passages. Numerical results obtained with the different models are compared with the experimental data from the literature. As such, comparisons are performed for different flow field quantities, including mean velocity components, Reynolds stress tensor components, and surface Nusselt number distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on monitoring data collected from 2006 to 2009 at the lower reaches of the Tarim River, tempo-spatial variations in groundwater depth and chemistry during an approximately 3-year interval of intermittent water delivery were studied. Results indicate that as the groundwater depth increased at the upper sector of the river's lower reaches from March 2007 to September 2009, so too did the main chemical composition of groundwater. Groundwater depth at the intermediate sector also increased, but major ions in groundwater declined. The groundwater depth at the lower sector started to decrease in August 2008, and the concentrations of main ions in the groundwater generally rose and fell along with the variations in groundwater depth. The groundwater depth and chemistry in the monitoring wells located at a distance from the aqueduct expressed complex changes at different sections. For instance, at the section near the Daxihaizi Reservoir Section B, groundwater depth increased gradually, but chemical composition changed little. In contrast, the groundwater depth of monitoring wells far from the Daxihaizi Reservoir (Section I) decreased and salt content in the groundwater increased. In sectors at a moderate distance from the reservoir, groundwater depth decreased and concentrations of main ions significantly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group C particles possess great potential in gas-phase catalytic reactions due to the large specific surface area. This work focuses on the effects of particle size distribution (PSD), average particle diameter, and addition of nano-additive on the flowability and fluidization quality of Group C and Group A powders. Virgin Group C powders are hard to fluidize, but with the so-called nano-modulation, Group C powders exhibit readily detectable minimum fluidization velocity (U mf), high bed expansion and large dense-phase voidage. After nano-modulation, Group C particles with a wider PSD show higher bed expansion, indicating better gas-solid contact. On the other hand, a narrower PSD contributes to better flowability, higher normalized pressure drop, and lower U mf. For Group C particles with the same span, a smaller particle size improves bed expansion. Comparative studies also show that the influence of PSD is more significant for Group C particles than for Group A particles. [Display omitted] • Group C particles is more sensitive to PSD compared with Group A particles. • A narrow PSD leads to good flowability, high normalized pressure drop, and low U mf. • For Group C particles, a wider PSD generally brings higher bed expansion. • Addition of nanoparticles develops the gas-holding ability of Group C powders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate dose assessment within 1 day or even 12 h after exposure through current methods of dose estimation remains a challenge, in response to a large number of casualties caused by nuclear or radiation accidents. P53 signaling pathway plays an important role in DNA damage repair and cell apoptosis induced by ionizing radiation. The changes of radiation-induced P53 related genes in the early stage of ionizing radiation should compensate for the deficiency of lymphocyte decline and γ-H2AX analysis as novel biomarkers of radiation damage. Bioinformatic analysis was performed on previous data to find candidate genes from human peripheral blood irradiated in vitro. The expression levels of candidate genes were detected by RT-PCR. The expressions of screened DDB2, AEN, TRIAP1, and TRAF4 were stable in healthy population, but significantly up-regulated by radiation, with time specificity and dose dependence in 2–24 h after irradiation. They are early indicators for medical treatment in acute radiation injury. Their effective combination could achieve a more accurate dose assessment for large-scale wounded patients within 24 h post exposure. The effective combination of p53-related genes DDB2, AEN, TRIAP1, and TRAF4 is a novel biodosimetry for a large number of people exposed to acute nuclear accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anisotropic diffusion (AD) algorithm is well known for the illumination invariant feature extraction of face images. The performance of anisotropic diffusion algorithm depends on its conduction function and discontinuity measure. However, in the traditional anisotropic diffusion algorithm, the discontinuity measure usually adopts space gradient or in-homogeneity. Though they are good at describing the local variation of image well, they cannot reflect the variation relative to its background. The relative variations tend to be more able to reflect the variation's degree of local image. In this paper, we propose an improved anisotropic diffusion algorithm that uses Weber local descriptor (WLD), a powerful and robust local descriptor as the discontinuity measure. Then, we introduce a centre-symmetric logarithmic transformation to eliminate the effect of shadow boundary. Experiments are executed in our proposed illumination invariant face verification scheme on CMU PIE, CAS-PEAL databases and a self-built real-life face database. The results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms some typical methods on the face databases with large illumination variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Ethnopharmacological relevance: Tong Luo Jiu Nao injection (TLJN), a Chinese medicine preparation, was extracted from the Chinese herbs Panax notoginseng and Gardenia jasminoides. Its pharmacological effect on cerebral ischemia was observed in the study. We previously reported that paracrine signaling of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) had a direct impact on the survival of neurons in mimicked cerebral ischemia in vitro. The current study was designed to investigate whether paracrine signaling of BMECs could be regulated by drug to achieve neuroprotection. Materials and methods: First, an in vitro model of cerebral ischemia in BMECs or neurons was established by oxygen–glucose-deprivation (OGD). TLJN was used as a medicine of intervention. Injured neurons were cultured in the conditioned media from normal and injured BMECs treated with TLJN. The changes in neurons, including the expression of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor 1(NMDAR1), Ca2+ concentration, cytochrome c release, the mitochondrial membrane potential, were determined by the immunofluorescence staining and molecular Probes. The content of Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and platelet activating factor (PAF) in various BMECs were also examined by Western blotting and Elisa. Results: The results showed the activity of injured neurons was significantly increased when they were grown in conditioned media of normal or injured BMECs treated with TLJN, compared with that of normal or injured BMECs. These changes include a decrease of Ca2+ concentration, of NMDAR1 expression, and of cytochrome c release, also an increase of the mitochondrial membrane potential. Moreover, the VEGF expression was up-regulated and the PAF expression was down-regulated by TLJN in BMECs. Conclusion: The results suggest that a neuroprotective effect of TLJN could be achieved by regulating paracrine signaling of BMECs, which could in part be explained by a TLJN-induced up-regulation of VEGF and a down-regulation of PAF in BMECs. Therefore, regulating the paracrine of BMECs could be the important target of the drug action on injured-neurons, which may be a novel path for therapeutic intervention in ischemic injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Pregnancy is thought to be a state of immunological tolerance. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still poorly understood. In our previous study, adenovirus mediated CTLA4Ig transgene (Ad-CTLA4Ig) therapy was demonstrated to improve pregnancy outcome in an abortion-prone mouse model by skewing the Th2/Th1 cytokine balance, expanding peripheral CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cell populations and inducing indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO) mRNA expression at the maternal–fetal interface. However, it is still not clear whether other mechanisms are involved in the protective effect of CTLA-4 on pregnancy outcome in abortion-prone matings. In this study, we focused on the effect of CTLA4Ig on spleen lymphocyte proliferation and apoptosis at the maternal–fetal interface. We demonstrated that Ad-CTLA4Ig therapy inhibited the proliferation of CBA/J splenocytes and IL-2 secretion in response to DBA/2 stimulator cells in the abortion-prone mice model. Ad-CTLA4Ig therapy also skewed cytokine production toward a Th2 bias and regulated the expression of anti-apoptosis factor Bcl-2 and pro-apoptosis factor Bax at the maternal–fetal interface. However, it did not influence the apoptosis and cell cycles of splenocytes in pregnant CBA/J mice. On the whole, these findings indicated that Ad-CTLA4Ig therapy could ameliorate the outcome of spontaneous abortion by inhibiting proliferation of maternal spleen lymphocytes and regulating apoptosis in the feto-placental unit. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Differentiation of human hepatic progenitor cells to functional hepatocytes holds great potential to develop new therapeutic strategies for liver disease and to provide a platform for drug toxicity screens and identification of novel pharmaceuticals. We report here that human fetal hepatic progenitor cells (hFHPCs) efficiently differentiate to hepatocyte-like cells by continuous exposure to a combination of soluble factors for 7 days in vitro. We compared the effect of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), oncostatin M (OSM), dexamethasone (DEX), or a combination on the expression of a liver-specific marker, albumin (ALB). Real-time RT-PCR analysis showed that, upon exposure to a combination of OSM, DEX, and HGF, the expression of ALB gradually increased in a time-dependent manner. In contrast, the level of the hepatic progenitor cell marker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) decreased as differentiation progressed. Moreover, cells exposed to the combination of OSM, DEX, and HGF gradually featured highly differentiated hepatic functions, including ALB secretion, glycogen storage, urea production, and cytochrome P450 (CYP) activity. The effect of these factors on the differentiation of hFHPCs may be blocked by U0126, an inhibitor of the ERK1/2 signaling pathway. In conclusion, we demonstrate that a combination of soluble factors facilitates the efficient generation of highly differentiated hepatocyte-like cells from hFHPCs and ERK1/2 signaling pathway involved in this process. Results suggest that this system will be useful for generating functional hepatocytes and, hence, may serve as a cell source suitable for preclinical pharmacological research and testing. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 2051-2058, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Blind image deconvolution is one of the most challenging problems in image processing. The total variation (TV) regularization approach can effectively recover edges of image. In this paper, we propose a new TV blind deconvolution algorithm by employing split Bregman iteration (called as TV-BDSB). Considering the operator splitting and penalty techniques, we present also a new splitting objective function. Then, we propose an extended split Bregman iteration to address the minimizing problems, the latent image and the blur kernel are estimated alternately. The TV-BDSB algorithm can greatly reduce the computational cost and improve remarkably the image quality. Experiments are conducted on both synthetic and real-life degradations. Comparisons are also made with some existing blind deconvolution methods. Experimental results indicate the advantages of the proposed algorithm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]