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Medical image fusion aims to fuse multiple images from a single or multiple imaging modes to enhance their corresponding clinical applications in diagnosing and evaluating medical problems, a trend that has attracted increasing attention. However, most recent medical image fusion methods require prior knowledge, making it difficult to select image features. In this paper, we propose a novel deep medical image fusion method based on a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) for directly learning image features from original images. Specifically, source images are first decomposed by low rank representation to obtain the principal and salient components, respectively. Following that, the deep features are extracted from the decomposed principal components via DCNN and fused by a weighted-average rule. Then, considering the complementary between the salient components obtained by the low rank representation, a simple yet effective sum rule is designed to fuse the salient components. Finally, the fused result is obtained by reconstructing the principal and salient components. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms several state-of-the-art medical image fusion approaches in terms of both objective indices and visual quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MoC/MoO 2 nano dots (QDs) heterostructure and defect engineering can promote each other to deliver electrons to the carbon substrate. Eventually, driven by the electronic modulation of multi-interface, MoC/MoO 2 -NCF can effectively accelerate the overall reaction kinetics. [Display omitted] The design and fabrication of advanced counter electrodes (CEs) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are limited by the scarcity of active sites and poor durability. Herein, we report the controlled preparation of a heterostructured nanoreactor CE based on defect-rich N -doped carbon nanoflowers (NCF) encapsulating MoC/MoO 2 nano dots (NDs) in a well-defined heterophase (MoC/MoO 2 -NCF). The MoC/MoO 2 NDs were uniformly dispersed on the NCF, and the NCF limited the size of the MoC/MoO 2 NDs and prevented their agglomeration, thus maximizing the electrochemically active surface area of MoC/MoO 2. Moreover, the synergistic effect between the MoC/MoO 2 interface and the N -defects is conducive to the full exposure of the active sites. Furthermore, theoretical calculations revealed that the MoC/MoO 2 heterojunction played a unique role in modulating the electronic structure and regulating the adsorption energy of tri-iodide in the iodide reduction reaction. The MoC/MoO 2 -NCF CEs in DSSCs demonstrated a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.92% and high durability, exceeding the PCE (8.36%) and durability of Pt CEs. Overall, this study offers insights into the controlled synthesis of high-performance Mo-based composite CE materials for DSSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to their almost zero relative hydrogen atom adsorption-free energy, MoS2-based materials have received substantial study. However, their poor electronic conductivity and limited number of catalytic active sites hinder their widespread use in hydrogen evolution reactions. On the other hand, metal clusters offer numerous active sites. In this study, by loading Ni metal clusters on MoS2 and combining them with the better electrical conductivity of graphene, the overpotential of the hydrogen evolution reaction was reduced from 165 mV to 92 mV at 10 mA·cm−2. This demonstrates that a successful method for effectively designing water decomposition is the use of synergistic interactions resulting from interfacial electron transfer between MoS2 and Ni metal clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model has been proved as a useful technique to solve the infeasibility problem encountered in the Malmquist–Luenberger index (MLI). This study provides an alternative to avoid infeasibility under dynamic environments. The availability of new models is verified with a numerical example. In detail, we apply modified MLI models to assess the change of productivity for 28 banks in China from 2007 to 2016. The analysis shows the following: (1) Productivities of most banks were progressive before 2014 and declined since the bad influence of the economic decline in 2015. (2) Time is the main factor that causes productivity differences among the four types of banks. (3) The technical change mainly affects the productivity change for all four types of banks. The results also provide useful guidance for financial regulators and bank managers. For example, the variable change during this period implies that the income structure of the banking system in China is slowly changing to some extent, where corresponding strategies are needed. It also conforms to the law that science and technology is the primarily productive force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hyperspectral feature extraction technique is one of the most popular topics in the remote sensing community. However, most hyperspectral feature extraction methods are based on region-based local information descriptors while neglecting the correlation and dependencies of different homogeneous regions. To alleviate this issue, this paper proposes a multi-view structural feature extraction method to furnish a complete characterization for spectral–spatial structures of different objects, which mainly is made up of the following key steps. First, the spectral number of the original image is reduced with the minimum noise fraction (MNF) method, and a relative total variation is exploited to extract the local structural feature from the dimension reduced data. Then, with the help of a superpixel segmentation technique, the nonlocal structural features from intra-view and inter-view are constructed by considering the intra- and inter-similarities of superpixels. Finally, the local and nonlocal structural features are merged together to form the final image features for classification. Experiments on several real hyperspectral datasets indicate that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art classification methods in terms of visual performance and objective results, especially when the number of training set is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence evaluation method of think tanks in the press and publishing industry, focusing on their influence on policies, academic studies and the society and comprehensive influence. Based on the results, an index system centered on the ITTAP model is established for influence evaluation of press and publishing think tanks in China. This paper is an extract from the book Influence Evaluation of Think Tanks in Chinese Press and Publishing Industry in 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The sample produced in this work has a large specific surface area and absorbance. • The evaporation device has the advantages of low cost, high water delivery efficiency, and simple production. • The samples produced in this work have high photothermal conversion efficiency. Solar-driven interfacial water evaporation is an emerging water purification technology. However, the high cost and low evaporation efficiency limit the wide application of solar-driven interfacial water evaporation technology. In this work, we use the dough fermented flour and yeast powder production, and then after fermentation of dough to produce high temperature carbonization of carbon materials, the preparation of the sample surface formed a large number of pits, increased specific surface area and the absorbance of the sample, and increased the solar-thermal conversion efficiency of the sample. It is found that the evaporation rate and evaporation efficiency of the sample made in this work is 1.5 kg m−2h−1 and 94.2 % respectively under one solar irradiation intensity. The maximum surface temperature of the sample can reach 43.3℃ during the experimental test, which has good evaporation performance. It provides a new idea for making economical and environmentally friendly materials in the field of solar-driven water evaporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease, characterized by epidermal hyperproliferation. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) regulate inflammation and vascular proliferation in the psoriasis lesions. Whether dermal‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (DMSCs), the main MSCs in the dermis, regulate keratinocyte proliferation and apoptosis remains unknown. In the present study, we assessed the proliferation and apoptosis of keratinocytes cocultured with DMSCs isolated from either normal or psoriatic involved skin. Cell growth and apoptotic rates were determined using Cell Count Kit‐8 and annexin V‐FITC staining, respectively. In addition, EDU kit was also used to measure the rate of keratinocyte proliferation. Our results showed that psoriatic DMSCs (pDMSCs) were more potent than normal DMSCs (nDMSCs) in stimulating keratinocyte proliferation. In contrast, the apoptotic rate and expression levels of caspase‐3 protein were lower in pDMSC‐treated than nDMSC‐treated keratinocytes (p < 0.001). Moreover, significantly higher contents of IL‐6, IL‐8, TNF‐α and IFN‐γ were found in the culture medium of pDMSCs than in that of nDMSCs. In conclusion, pDMSCs were more potent than nDMSCs in stimulation of keratinocyte proliferation and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, but weaker in promoting apoptosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The intestinal microbes in mammals play a key role in host metabolism and adaptation. As a subterranean rodent, zokor digs tunnels for foraging and mating. These digging activities of zokors increase the energy expenditure relative to their aboveground counterparts. However, relatively little is known regarding intestinal microbes of zokor and how they make full use of limited food resources underground for high energy requirements. Results: Eospalax cansus and Eospalax rothschildi had distinct intestinal microbes. Although the composition of intestinal microbes is similar in two species, the proportion of bacterium are distinctly different between them. At phylum level, 11 phyla were shared between two species. Firmicutes and Bacteroidota were two dominant microbes in both of two species, while Eospalax cansus have a significantly high proportion of Firmicutes/Bacteroidota than that of Eospalax rothschildi. At genus level, norank_f_Muribaculaceae were dominant microbes in both of two zokor species. The relative abundance of 12 genera were significantly different between two species. Some bacterium including unclassified_f__Lachnospiraceae, Lachnospiraceae_NK4A136_group, Ruminococcus and Eubacterium_siraeum_group associated with cellulose degradation were significantly enriched in Eospalax cansus. Although alpha diversity was with no significant differences between Eospalax cansus and Eospalax rothschildi, the intestinal microbes between them are significant distinct in PCoA analysis. We have found that trapping location affected the alpha diversity values, while sex and body measurements had no effect on alpha diversity values. PICRUSt metagenome predictions revealed significant enrichment of microbial genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism in Eospalax cansus rather than Eospalax rothschildi. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that Eospalax cansus harbor a stronger ability of fermentation for dietary plants than Eospalax rothschildi. The stronger ability of fermentation and degradation of cellulose of intestinal microbes of Eospalax cansus may be a long-time adaptation to limited food resources underground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of a regional industrial system in China can be separated into two internal stages: production stage and pollutant abatement stage. This paper aims to examine the efficiency of Chinese regional industrial systems by taking the operational performance of its two internal stages into consideration. Unlike traditional data envelopment analysis models that treat decision making units as “black box” when measuring their efficiencies with undesirable factors, this paper proposes a two-stage model based on slacks-based measure to evaluate the efficiency of Chinese regional industrial systems. By decomposing the efficiency into production efficiency and abatement efficiency, the proposed model can estimate the efficiencies of the whole regional industrial system, its production stage and abatement stage simultaneously. The model provides a way of improving performance of a regional industrial system through identifying its inefficient internal stages. This can help to find out the main sources of the inefficiency that arise from the internal stages within the system, which cannot be done by using conventional environmental data envelopment analysis models. Findings resulting from the model application show that there are great disparities in regional industrial systems' efficiencies, and the inefficiency of Chinese industrial system is largely driven by the abatement stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ErbB3‐binding protein 1(Ebp1) has two isoforms, p42 Ebp1 and p48 Ebp1, both of which can regulate cell growth and differentiation. But these isoforms often have opposite effects, including contradictory roles in regulation of cell growth in different tissues and cells. P48 Ebp1 belongs to the full‐length sequence, while conformational changes in the crystal structure of p42 Ebp1 reveals a lack of an α helix at the amino terminus. Due to the differences in the structures of these two isoforms, they have different binding partners and protein modifications. Ebp1 can function as both an oncogene and a tumor suppressor factor. However, the underlying mechanisms by which these two isoforms exert opposite functions are still not fully understood. In this review, we summarize the genes and the structures of protein of these two isoforms, protein modifications, binding partners and the association of different isoforms with diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the evaporation rate of solar steam generation (SSG) has always been a research hotspot to solve the shortage of water resources. Using cotton, Fe3O4, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and diatomite (DM) as raw materials, DM/PVA/Fe3O4@cotton composites with both firmness and hydrophilicity were prepared. Fe3O4 has a wide range of light absorption characteristics and good photothermal conversion performance, and is an ideal photothermal conversion material. PVA enhances the adhesion between Fe3O4, cotton and DM and enhances the hardness of the sample and the internal porous structure. The existence of DM greatly improves the hydrophilicity of the sample, ensuring that the water in the lower layer can be continuously transported to the surface of the sample, and DM makes the surface of the sample rough, which reduces the reflection of sunlight and improves the efficiency of light heat conversion. Under one-sun irradiation, the temperature of the sample surface increases by 52.6 °C, the evaporation rate can reach 1.32 kg m−2 h−1 and the evaporation efficiency is 82.9%. Using this sample as the photothermal conversion layer of the SSG device, the removal rate of salt ions in seawater is more than 98% and the removal rate of heavy metal ions in sewage is close to 100%. This work provides a new idea and design method for SSG in the field of seawater desalination and sewage treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis has recently gained popularity and attention in operational and environmental assessment. A common feature of previous studies is decreasing an input vector to decrease the vector of undesirable outputs which is referred to as natural disposability. However, little research has considered how to increase the amount of capital input for clean production technology to decrease the amount of undesirable outputs in a data envelopment analysis framework, which is referred to as managerial disposability. Thus, this paper proposes an improved approach that considers measuring unified (operational and environmental) efficiency for managerial disposability, and compares this approach with the one for natural disposability. The proposed approach provides a positive strategy to reduce undesirable outputs and improve unified efficiency through increasing capital investment in clean production technology. A case study of regional industries in China in 2006–2010 utilizing this approach is also presented. The empirical study shows that the unified efficiencies of regional industries in China have relatively high scores for managerial disposability, and increasing capital investment is vital to achieve sustainable development in clean production technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zokor (Myospalacinae) is one of the subterranean rodents, endemic to east Asia. Due to the convergent and parallel evolution induced by its special lifestyles, the controversies in morphological classification of zokor appeared at the level of family and genus. To resolve these controversies about taxonomy and phylogeny, the phylogenetic relationships of 20 species of Muroidea and six species of zokors were studied based on complete mitochondrial genome and mitochondrial Cytb gene, respectively. Phylogeny analysis of 20 species of Muroidea indicated that the zokor belonged to the family Spalacidae, and it was closer to mole rat rather than bamboo rat. Besides, by investigating the phylogenetic relationships of six species of zokors, the status of two genera of Eospalax and Myospalax was affirmed because the two clades differentiated in phylogenetic tree represented two types of zokors, convex occiput type and flat occiput type, respectively. In addition, the two origins in Eospalax were found diverged at 3.71 million years ago (Ma) based on estimation of divergence time. It is suggested that the climate and ecology changes caused by the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau uplift event in 3.6 Ma led to the inner divergence of Eospalax. The intraspecific phylogenetic relationships of partial zokors were well resolved, the two clades of Eospalax cansus represented two geographical populations, respectively, and the divergent pattern of Eospalax baileyi was characterized by allopatric divergence spatially. In this study, we explored the taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships of Myospalacinae at the molecular level. These works would be significant to understanding the evolutionary process and to clarify the mechanism of differentiation of Myospalacinae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a chronic recurrent inflammatory disease. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can regulate the inflammatory microenvironment, thereby controlling the proliferation, differentiation, and migration of immune cells. Connexin 43(Cx43), a key gap junction protein, has been shown to form gap junctions for communication between neighboring cells. We investigated the expression of Cx43 in dermal mesenchymal stem cells (DMSCs) derived from psoriasis patients and explored the relationship between the Cx43-mediated gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) and DMSCs. Human DMSCs were isolated and propagated in adherent culture. Quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR and western blot and immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression and localization of Cx43 in DMSCs. Fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching was performed to assess adjacent DMSCs GJIC. CCK8 was used to detect the proliferation of DMSCs before and after gap junction blocker (18α-glycyrrhetinic acid; AGA) treatment. Cell energy metabolism was analyzed with an energy metabolism analyzer. Cx43 was located in the cytoplasm and cytomembrane, as well as partially in the nucleus of DMSCs. The expression of Cx43 in psoriasis DMSCs was higher than that in control samples and the gap junction function was enhanced. In addition, the glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration of psoriasis DMSCs were also enhanced. However, AGA inhibited the expression of Cx43, attenuated GJIC function, and inhibited the proliferation of DMSCs. Our results indicated that the expression of Cx43 in DMSCs from psoriasis lesions is increased and that the inhibition of Cx43 leads to the inhibition of both GJIC and DMSCs proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]