Search

Vaccinium chaozhouense (Ericaceae), a new species from East Guangdong Province, China is described and illustrated. This new species is morphologically similar to V. wrightii by having flowers with persistent and leaf-like bracts, long pedicels, and white spherical-urceolate corollas, but is distinguished by having glandular trichomes on the abaxial surface of the leaf blade, shorter pedicels, sparsely pilose corolla ridges, and anther thecae longer than the tubules. A key to the new species and morphologically similar species is also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Aerobic exercise has been proven to have a positive effect on cardiac function after hypertension; however, the mechanism is not entirely clarified. Skeletal muscle mass and microcirculation are closely associated with blood pressure and cardiac function. Objective. This study was designed to investigate the effects of aerobic exercise on the skeletal muscle capillary and muscle mass, to explore the possible mechanisms involved in exercise-induced mitigation of cardiac dysfunction in pressure overload mice. Methods. In this study, 60 BALB/C mice aged 8 weeks were randomly divided into 3 groups: control (CON), TAC, and TAC plus exercise (TAE) group and utilized transverse aortic constriction (TAC) to establish hypertensive model; meanwhile, treadmill training is used for aerobic exercise. After 5 days of recovery, mice in the TAE group were subjected to 10-week aerobic exercise. Carotid pressure and cardiac function were examined before mice were executed by Millar catheter and ultrasound, respectively. Muscle mass of gastrocnemius was weighed; cross-sectional area and the number of capillaries of gastrocnemius were detected by HE and immunohistochemistry, respectively. The mRNA and protein levels of VEGF in skeletal muscle were determined by RT-PCR and western blot, respectively. Results. We found that ① 10-week aerobic exercise counteracted hypertension and attenuated cardiac dysfunction in TAC-induced hypertensive mice; ② TAC decreased muscle mass of gastrocnemius and resulted in muscle atrophy, while 10-week aerobic exercise could reserve transverse aortic constriction-induced the decline of muscle mass and muscle atrophy; and ③ TAC reduced the number of capillaries and the protein level of VEGF in gastrocnemius, whereas 10-week aerobic exercise augmented the number of capillaries, the mRNA and protein levels of VEGF in mice were subjected to TAC surgery. Conclusions. This study indicates that 10-week aerobic exercise might fulfill its blood pressure-lowering effect via improving skeletal muscle microcirculation and increasing muscle mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies effective traceable feature representation learning in the view of distribution transformation, termed FeatsFlow , by proposing a distribution-aware learning framework combining the discriminating model with a normalizing flow-based model. The process can be regarded as a series of feature distribution transformations, from the input images to the expected results. Focusing on the learned representation of the target model, we take full advantage of the invertible nature of normalizing flows and learn the practical and traceable feature representation for target goals. Considering that it is difficult to model the traceable process for feature extraction, we propose an effective model by combining a general discriminating model with normalizing flows for traceable feature extraction. The normalizing flows module is added to the original model in a plug-in mode, which is convenient to make it available for effective and traceable feature learning. Thus we can obtain an effective and traceable representation distribution. Extensive experiments are conducted on our proposed representation learning model for the image classification task, and the experimental results illustrate that our proposed model is adequate for traceable representation learning. The most important is that we present a distribution-aware representation learning approach, which makes it possible to conduct and understand feature representation learning at the feature level. • we propose a FeatsFlow framework for traceable features learning under particular known conditional distribution in a distribution-aware style. • Meanwhile, we propose different measure metrics for evaluating the traceability based on image generation evaluation. • The proposed framework combines feature extraction with a feature generation model and learns the distribution-aware representation at the same time. • Extensive experiments illustrate that our proposed model works well in tracing feature representation distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To investigate the influence of Gastrodia elata powder capsule (GC) or gastrodin (GTD) on the anti-epileptic effect of carbamazepine (CBZ) on penicillin (PG)-induced epilepsy in rats. Methods: A total 116 rats were used in this study. Rats in the control group (n = 8) were injected with normal saline (NS) in place PG. Epilepsy was induced in the remaining 108 rats on the first day via PG injection. The rats were then divided randomly into six groups (18 rats per group): PG group, CBZ group, CBZ + GC group, CBZ + GTD group, GC group, and GTD group, which were given (p.o.) NS, CBZ (100 mg/kg), CBZ (100 mg/kg.) + GC (350 mg/kg), CBZ (100 mg/kg) + GTD (100 mg/kg), GC (350 mg/kg), and GTD (100 mg/kg), respectively, once a day for 15 days. The behavioral characteristics of the rats were observed and used to assess the anti-epileptic effect of the test drugs. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR and Western blot assays were employed for the determination of the effect of CBZ, GC and GTD on the expression levels of P-gp. Results: CBZ significantly reduced the symptoms of epilepsy, while GC and GTD enhanced the antiepileptic effect of CBZ, and reversed the CBZ-induced increases in the protein expressions of mrd1a and P-gp (p < 0.05). Conclusion: GC reverses CBZ drug resistance, probably through downregulation of P-gp expression. This finding indicates that GC is a potential anti-epilepsy drug, but it merits further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Exposure to the fine particulate matter PM2.5 is strongly associated with atherosclerotic diseases, creating considerable public concern. Nevertheless, the mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. We exposed atherosclerosis-prone apoE-deficient mice to PM2.5 to begin investigating these mechanisms.Material and Methods: Thirty-two 8-week-old male apoE-/- mice were divided to two groups fed with high-fat diet: a control group instilled with 0.9% saline, and an experimental group instilled with PM2.5 (30 mg/kg/day) for 8 weeks. We measured PM2.5 in whole blood by the ICP-MS method, and lipids and inflammatory factors by standard methods. The whole descending arteries were stained with oil red O; Aortic roots were stained with Movat, Sirius Red and immunohistochemical stains for pathological analysis; Brachiocephalic arteries for scanning electron microscopy, the descending arteries for Q-PCR. Echocardiography was used to evaluate cardiac function.Results: In PM2.5 group, we observed elevated heavy metal components, consistent with higher amounts of platelets in total blood. The PM2.5 group also had elevated serum inflammatory factor levels. Finally, the PM2.5 group showed larger atherosclerotic plaques (p = 0.0231), higher numbers of lesion macrophages (p = 0.0183), greater injury to endothelial layers with greater adherence of platelets and leukocytes, elevated inflammatory factor levels, the NAD(P)H oxidase subunits p22phox and p47phox (p = 0.0079 and p = 0.0294), the M1/M2 associated markers IL-6, TNF-α (p = 0.0291, p = 0.0286), iNOS, IL-12 (p = 0.0122 and p = 0.0280) and arginase-1, and CD206 (p = 0.0216 and p = 0.0317).Conclusions: PM2.5 exposure activated circulating leukocytes, platelets and associated inflammatory factors, contributing to the progression of atherosclerosis in apoE-/- mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occlusion problem is a major challenge in the field of computer vision. Synthetic aperture imaging (SAI) is often used for surface reconstruction of occluded objects. However, SAI usually relies on high-speed information transmission devices. In addition, a large amount of information in the scene is lost, when handling low-resolution input images. This limitation results in unclear reconstructed regions in the synthetic aperture image and thus hinders the application of SAI in downstream tasks. We propose a multi-view super-resolution SAI method. It aims to generate high-resolution synthetic aperture images using images acquired by few of low-resolution acquisition devices. The main contributions of this paper are: (1) a multi-view super-resolution algorithm is proposed. It can generate clear synthetic aperture images in an array with a limited number of cameras. (2) By exploiting the correlation between views, the proposed algorithm can generate super-resolution synthetic aperture images with more accurate image structure and sharper image edges. (3) A feature extraction module is proposed. It can effectively extract the complementary relationship between pictures from different perspectives. The experimental results show that the proposed method can generate a reconstructed image of the occluded object surface with clear edges and accurate structure. Compared to conventional SAI, our method improves 5.7 % / 21.1 % on peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR)/structure similarity index measure (SSIM) and 4.4 % / 9.2 % on PSNR/SSIM respectively on two datasets compared to other state-of-the-art super-resolution methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Seeing through” occluders is one of the most important effects that can be achieved with synthetic aperture imaging. As well, the occlusion problem, a challenging task for many computer vision applications, can be easily handled. Synthetic aperture imaging takes advantage of the property that only objects on the focal plane are sharp. The resulting image that is obtained by averaging images from different views consists of blurry objects away from the focal plane and sharp objects on the focal plane. Removing the blurriness caused by defocusing in synthetic aperture images to achieve an all-in-focus “seeing through” image is a challenging research problem. In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the image quality of synthetic aperture imaging using image matting via energy minimization by estimating the foreground and the background. In particular, we first estimate the out-of-focus region by focusing on the background objects in each camera view using energy minimization. Next, we utilize a labeling method to create a sharp “see through” synthetic aperture image of the hidden objects. Then, image matting is used to extract the alpha matte of the hidden objects. Finally, by compositing the hidden objects with the estimated background regions, a sharp “see through” synthetic aperture image is created. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the traditional synthetic aperture imaging method [1] as well as its improved versions [2]–[4], which simply dim and blur the area in the image that is out of focus, and a recent all-in-focus method [5]. We show that both the occluded objects and the background can be combined using our method to create a sharp synthetic aperture image. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Barley yellow dwarf virus RNA, lacking a 5' cap and a 3' poly(A) tail, contains a cap-independent translation element (BTE) in the 3'-untranslated region that interacts with host translation initiation factor eIF4G. To determine how eIF4G recruits the mRNA, three eIF4G deletion mutants were constructed: (i) eIF4G601-1196, containing amino acids 601-1196, including the putative BTE-binding region, and binding domains for eIF4E, eIF4A, and eIF4B; (ii) eIF4G601-1488, which contains an additional C-terminal eIF4A-binding domain; and (iii) eIF4G742-1196, which lacks the eIF4E-binding site. eIF4G601-1196 binds BTE tightly and supports efficient translation. The helicase complex, consisting of eIF4A, eIF4B, and ATP, stimulated BTE binding with eIF4G601-1196 but not eIF4G601-1488, suggesting that the eIF4A binding domains may serve a regulatory role, with the C-terminal binding site having negative effects. eIF4E binding to eIF4G601-1196 induced a conformational change, significantly increasing the binding affinity to BTE. A comparison of the binding of eIF4G deletion mutants with BTEs containing mutations showed a general correlation between binding affinity and ability to facilitate translation. In summary, these results reveal a new role for the helicase complex in 3' cap-independent translation element-mediated translation and show that the functional core domain of eIF4G plus an adjacent probable RNAbinding domain mediate translation initiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful isolation and unambiguous crystallographic assignment of a series of higher carbide cluster metallofullerenes present new insights into the molecular structures and cluster-cage interactions of endohedral metallofullerenes. These new species are identified as La2C2@C2(41)-C90, La2C2@D3(85)-C92, La2C2@C1(132)-C94, La2C2@C2(157)-C96, and La2C2@C1(175)-C98. This is the first report for these new cage structures except for D3(85)-C92. Our experimental and theoretical results demonstrate that La2C92–106 are more inclined to exist stably in the carbide form La2C2@C90–104 rather than as the dimetallofullerenes La2@C92–106, which are rationalized by considering a synergistic effect of inserting a C2 unit into the cage, which ensures strong metal–cage interactions by partially neutralizing the charges from the metal ions and by fulfilling the coordination requirement of the La3+ ions as much as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, several experiments have demonstrated high chemical reactivity of the sumanene-type hexagon in Sc2C2@C82. To further uncover its reactivity, the Diels-Alder reaction to all the nonequivalent C-C bonds of C82 and Sc2C2@C82 has been investigated by density functional theory calculations. For the free fullerene, the [5,6] bond 7 is the thermodynamically most favored, whereas the addition on the [6,6] bond 3 has the lowest activation energy. Diels-Alder reaction has no preference for addition sites in the sumanene-type hexagon. However, in the case of the endohedral fullerene, the [6,6] bond 19 in the special hexagon becomes the most reactive site according to both kinetic and thermodynamic considerations. Further analyses reveal that bond 19 in Sc2C2@C82 exhibits the shortest bond length and third largest π-orbital axis vector. In addition, the LUMOs of bond 19 are also symmetry-allowed to interact with butadiene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We proposed a novel method termed the "PKG-Net" to accurately predict Alzheimer's disease. • The input is designed to be multi-dimensional and collaboratively represents lesion area from multiple scales via the pyramid representation. • The joint loss function is utilized to improves the practicability of the proposed network and its stability in training. • Our method demonstrates good generalization ability, and has achieved excellent results of 97.28% in accuracy on the ADNI dataset. Recently, deep learning based Computer-Aided Diagnosis methods have been widely utilized due to their highly effective diagnosis of patients. Although Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are capable of extracting the latent structural characteristics of dementia and of capturing the changes of brain anatomy in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans, the high-dimensional input to a deep CNN usually makes the network difficult to train, and affects its diagnostic accuracy. In this paper, a novel method called the hierarchical pseudo-3D convolution neural network based on a kernel attention mechanism with a new global context block, which is abbreviated as "PKG-Net", is proposed to accurately predict Alzheimer's disease even when the input features are complex. Specifically, the proposed network first extracts multi-scale features from pre-processed images. Second, the attention mechanism and global context blocks are applied to combine features from different layers to hierarchically transform the MRI into more compact high-level features. Then, a joint loss function is used to train the proposed network to generate more distinguishing features, which improve the generalization performance of the network. In addition, we combine our method with different architectures. Extensive experiments are conducted to analyze the performance of the PKG-Net with different hyper-parameters and architectures. Finally, in order to verify the effectiveness of our method on Alzheimer's disease diagnosis, we carry out extensive experiments on the ADNI dataset, and compare the results of our method with that of existing methods in terms of accuracy, recall and precision. Furthermore, our network can fully take advantage of the deep 3D convolutional neural network for automatic feature extraction and representation, and thus can avoid the limitation of low processing efficiency caused by the preprocessing procedure in which a specific area needs to be annotated in advance. Finally, we evaluate our proposed framework using two public datasets, ADNI-1 and ADNI-2, and the experimental results show that our proposed framework can achieve superior performance over state-of-the-art approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the very recently reported dimetallic oxide fullerenes Sc2O@C2n (n = 35-47), a representative Sc2O@C78 still lacks of further characterizations. Herein, a systematical investigation on Sc2O@C78 has been performed by density functional theory combined with statistical thermodynamic studies. Two isolated pentagon rule (IPR) satisfying isomers, Sc2O@D3h(24109)-C78 and Sc2O@C2v(24107)-C78, are disclosed to possess prominent thermodynamic stabilities at the temperature region of fullerene formation. Significantly, these two structures are related by a single Stone-Wales transformation. Moreover, bonding critical points, bond orders, and delocalization indices have been analyzed to uncover covalent interactions in both isomers. In addition, 13C NMR spectra and UV-vis-NIR adsorptions of the two stable structures are introduced to assist experimental identification and characterization in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bis(μ-oxo) dimeric complexes {AriPr8OM(μ-O)}2 (AriPr8 = C6H-2,6-(C6H2-2,4,6-iPr3)2-3,5-iPr2; M = Fe (1), Co (2)) were prepared by oxidation of the M(I) half-sandwich complexes {AriPr8M(η6-arene)} (arene = benzene or toluene). Iron species 1 was prepared by reacting {AriPr8Fe(η6-benzene)} with N2O or O2, and cobalt species 2 was prepared by reacting {AriPr8Co(η6-toluene)} with O2. Both 1 and 2 were characterized by X-ray crystallography, UV-vis spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and, in the case of 1, Mössbauer spectroscopy. The solid-state structures of both compounds reveal unique M2(μ-O)2 (M = Fe (1), Co(2)) cores with formally three-coordinate metal ions. The Fe···Fe separation in 1 bears a resemblance to that in the Fe2(μ-O)2 diamond core proposed for the methane monooxygenase intermediate Q. The structural differences between 1 and 2 are reflected in rather differing magnetic behavior. Compound 2 is thermally unstable, and its decomposition at room temperature resulted in the oxidation of the AriPr8 ligand via oxygen insertion and addition to the central aryl ring of the terphenyl ligand to produce the 5,5′-peroxy-bis[4,6-iPr2-3,7-bis(2,4,6-iPr3-phenyl)oxepin-2(5H)-one] (3). The structure of the oxidized terphenyl species is closely related to that of a key intermediate proposed for the oxidation of benzene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents comparison of magnetoelastic properties between the 〈110〉 oriented TbxDy1-xFe1.95 polycrystalline alloys for x = 0.27, 0.3, 0.45 under coupled loading of magnetic field and compressive stress. The simultaneously measure are investigated for the magnetization and magnetostriction under applied magnetic field from -200 to 200 kA/m and compressive stress from 0 to 50 MPa along the rod axis at room temperature. The results show that, according to the increase of Tb concentration and compressive stress, the hysteresis, coercive force and magnetostriction hysteresis loops of TbxDy1-xFe1.95 alloys increase rapidly and the distortion of the hysteresis loops occurs at higher compressive stress, especially Tb0.45Dy0.55Fe1.95 alloys, while the maximum relative permeability of TbxDy1-xFe1.95 alloys monotonously decrease. Meanwhile, the higher the Tb concentration the stronger is magnetostrictive "jump" effect. For these experimental results, the effect of compressive stress and Tb/Dy ratio on magnetoelastic properties of TbxDy1-xFe1.95 alloys are coupling and remarkable. A tradeoff and optimization are very important for many engineering designs and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CeO2 and YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) films were deposited onto multilayer-coated Hastelloy C276 tape by laser chemical vapor deposition using liquid source precursors. The effect of the thickness of the CeO2 buffer film grown at 720K on the orientation and electrical properties of the YBCO has been investigated. The optimal thickness of the CeO2 layer was found to be 97nm resulting in the highest critical temperature of 90K and a critical current density of 0.6MAcm-2. The deposition rate of the YBCO films was approximately 7μmh-1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to address how the secondary market affects the strategy of the manufacturer's new product introduction by using the optimization method. To do so, we develop a two-period model in which a monopolistic manufacturer sells its new durable products directly to end consumers in both periods, while an entrant operates a reverse channel selling used products in the secondary market. We assume that the manufacturer launches a higher quality product in the second period for the technological innovation. We find that the secondary market can actually increase the manufacturer's profitability and drives the new product introduction in the second period. We also derive the effect of the durability and the degree of quality improvement on the pricing of supply chain partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteophytes that form adjacent to degenerated disc have osteogeic potential. Studies suggest that their formation is associated with mesenchymal precursors arising from the chondrosynovial junction. This study is aimed to determine the cellular aging and osteogenic differentiation potential of osteophyte-derived mesenchymal cells (oMSCs) when compared to patient-matched bone marrow stromal cells (bMSCs). Materials and Methods: oMSCs and bMSCs were isolated from tissue samples during anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery. Extensive expansion of cell cultures was performed and early and late passage cells (P4 and P9, respectively) were used to study cell senescence and telomerase activity. Furthermore, osteogenic differentiation was applied to detect their osteogenic capacity. Results: The proliferation capacity of oMSCs in culture was superior to that of bMSCs and these cells readily underwent osteogenic differentiation. Our results showed that oMSCs had higher telomerase activity in late passages compared with bMSCs, although there was no significant difference in the telomerase activity in the early passages in either cell types. The telomerase activity was detectable only in early passage oMSCs and not in bMSCs. Conclusions: Our results indicate that oMSCs retain a level of telomerase activity in vitro, which may account for the relatively greater longevity of these cells, compared to bMSCs. Furthermore, when compared to bMSCs, oMSCs maintained a higher proliferative capacity and the same osteogenic capacity, which may offer new insights of tissue formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Synthetic aperture imaging using an array of cameras, which has become popular recently, can easily handle the occlusion problem by “seeing through” occluders. Unfortunately, the resulting image is still blurry because it combines information not only from the region of interest but also from the occluding regions. Removing the blurriness of synthetic aperture images has become a challenging task for many computer vision applications. In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the image quality of synthetic aperture imaging using energy minimization. Unlike the conventional synthetic aperture imaging method, which averages images from all the camera views, we reformulate the problem as a labeling problem. In particular, we use the energy minimization method to label each pixel in each camera view to decide whether or not it belongs to an occluder. After that, the focusing at the desired depth is by averaging pixels that are not labeled as occluder. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the traditional synthetic aperture imaging method as well as its improved versions, which are simply dim and blur occluders in the resulting image. To the best of our knowledge, our proposed method is the first one for improving the results of synthetic aperture image without using a training set from the input sequence. As well, it is the first method that makes no assumptions on whether or not the objects in the scenes are static. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel multi-object detection method using multiple cameras. Unlike conventional multi-camera object detection methods, our method detects multiple objects using a linear camera array. The array can stream different views of the environment and can be easily reconfigured for a scene compared with the overhead surround configuration. Using the proposed method, the synthesized results can provide not only views of significantly occluded objects but also the ability of focusing on the target while blurring objects that are not of interest. Our method does not need to reconstruct the 3D structure of the scene, can accommodate dynamic background, is able to detect objects at any depth using a new synthetic aperture imaging method based on a simple shift transformation, and can see through occluders. The experimental results show that the proposed method has a good performance and can synthesize objects located within any designated depth interval with much better clarity than that using an existing method. To our best knowledge, it is the first time that such a method using synthetic aperture imaging has been proposed and developed for multi-object detection in a complex scene with a significant occlusion at different depths. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Modeling NO x emissions from coal fired utility boiler is critical to develop a predictive emissions monitoring system (PEMS) and to implement combustion optimization software package for low NO x combustion. This paper presents an efficient NO x emissions model based on support vector regression (SVR), and compares its performance with traditional modeling techniques, i.e., back propagation (BPNN) and generalized regression (GRNN) neural networks. A large number of NO x emissions data from an actual power plant, was employed to train and validate the SVR model as well as two neural networks models. Moreover, an ant colony optimization (ACO) based technique was proposed to select the generalization parameter C and Gaussian kernel parameter γ. The focus is on the predictive accuracy and time response characteristics of the SVR model. Results show that ACO optimization algorithm can automatically obtain the optimal parameters, C and γ, of the SVR model with very high predictive accuracy. The predicted NO x emissions from the SVR model, by comparing with the BPNN model, were in good agreement with those measured, and were comparable to those estimated from the GRNN model. Time response of establishing the optimum SVR model was in scale of minutes, which is suitable for on-line and real-time modeling NO x emissions from coal-fired utility boilers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The activation of adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK) has been shown to inhibit cardiac hypertrophy, however, the mechanism remains unclear. Rat models of cardiac hypertrophy were created with transaortic constriction (TAC) to investigate the mechanistic role of AMPK involved. RT-PCR and Western blot analyses indicated that hypertrophy marker genes ANP and β-MHC expression were up-regulated in the myocardium of TAC rats. We also observed that the expressions of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) and its target genes, carnitine palmitoyl transferase-І (CPT-І) and medium-chain acyl-COA dehydrogenases (MCAD), were down-regulated, and the fatty acid oxidation was decreased in TAC rats. Treatment of TAC animals with 5-aminoimidazole 1 carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR, 0.5mg/g body wt), a specific activator of AMPK, inhibited cardiac hypertrophy in TAC and reversed PPARα, CPT-I and MCAD expression and fatty acid oxidation. Similar observations were made in hypertrophied cardiomyocytes induced by phenylephrine in vitro. Treatment of hypertrophied cardiomyocytes with Compound C, a specific AMPK inhibitor, showed an effect opposite to that of AICAR. The effect of AICAR on cardiac hypertrophy was blocked after PPARα was silenced by transfection of cardiomyocytes with PPARα-siRNA. Luciferase activity assay suggested that AICAR elevates PPARα transcriptional activity. These results indicate that AMPK plays an important role in the inhibition of cardiac hypertrophy by activating the PPARα signaling pathway. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

1. Ageing has long been recognized as an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases, contributing to high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Age-associated remodelling of the vascular wall includes luminal enlargement, intimal and medial thickening and vascular stiffness. 2. A growing body of evidence has indicated that the migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) play a pivotal role in the pathophysiological vascular ageing process. Both experimental and clinical evidence implicates platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) as having an essential role in the proliferation of VSMC, an early pathological feature of arteriosclerosis and vascular ageing. 3. In the present review, we summarize some of the recent progress made with regard to defining the role of PDGF in the proliferation of VSMC and vascular ageing, with an emphasis on the cell signalling mechanisms involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tunneling field-effect transistors (FETs) have been intensely explored recently due to its potential to address power concerns in nanoelectronics. The recently discovered graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is ideal for tunneling FETs due to its symmetric bandstructure, light effective mass, and monolayer-thin body. In this work, we examine the device physics of p-i-n GNR tunneling FETs using atomistic quantum transport simulations. The important role of the edge bond relaxation in the device characteristics is identified. However, the device has ambipolar I−Vcharacteristics, which are not preferred for digital electronics applications. We suggest that using either an asymmetric source-drain doping or a properly designed gate underlap can effectively suppress the ambipolar I−V. A subthreshold slope of 14mV/dec and a significantly improved on−off ratio can be obtained by the p-i-n GNR tunneling FETs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive immune activation and inflammatory mediators may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of chronic heart failure. Methotrexate is a commonly used anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive drug. In this study, we used a rat model of cardiac myosin-induced experimental autoimmune myocarditis to investigate the effects of low-dose methotrexate (0.1 mg/kg/d for 30 d) on the plasma level of cytokines and cardiac remodeling and function. Our study showed that levels of tumor necrosis factor-(TNF-)alpha and interleukin-6 (IL-6) are significantly increased in postmyocarditis rats, compared with the control rats. Methotrexate treatment reduced the plasma levels of TNF-alpha and IL-6 and increased IL-10 level, compared to saline treatment. In addition, postmyocarditis rats showed significant cardiac fibrosis characterized by increased myocardial collagen volume fraction, perivascular collagen area, and the ratio of collagen type I to type III, compared with the control rats. However, MTX treatment not onlymarkedly attenuated cardiac fibrosis, diminished the left ventricular end-diastolic dimension, but also increased the left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening. Collectively, these results suggest that low-dose methotrexate has ability to regulate inflammatory responses and improves cardiac function and hence contributes to prevent the development of postmyocarditis dilated cardiomyopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Li/Ta-codoped lead-free (Na,K)NbO3 ceramics with Na:K ratio of 0.535:0.480 were prepared by normal sintering, whose nominal formula was noted as [(Na0.535K0.480)0.942Li0.058](Nb1− xTa x)O3 ( x=2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 at.%). The X-ray diffraction patterns and the corresponding calculation of lattice parameters showed that a morphotropic phase boundary crossing orthorhombic and tetragonal symmetries occurs at the compositions containing 6∼8 at.% Ta. Because of such transitional behavior achieved by optimizing Ta content, the piezoelectric coefficient ( d33), electromechanical coupling coefficient ( kp), and dielectric constant (ℇ) were enhanced to peak values, 232 pC/N, 39.4%, and 710, respectively. However, the Curie temperature ( TC) and remanent polarization ( Pr) show a decreasing tendency with raising Ta content, and their maximum values are 462°C and 8.73 μC/cm2, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first time to address the missing information problem caused by heavy occlusion in Synthetic Aperture Imaging. • Our method generates a realistic all-in-focus synthetic aperture image where the information of the occluded region is completely restored. • Extensive experiments on public datasets and our own datasets demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method over state-of-the-art Synthetic Aperture Imaging methods. Occlusions handling poses a significant challenge to many computer vision and pattern recognition applications. Recently, Synthetic Aperture Imaging (SAI), which uses more than two cameras, is widely applied to reconstruct occluded objects in complex scenes. However, it usually fails in cases of heavy occlusions, in particular, when the occluded information is not captured by any of the camera views. Hence, it is a challenging task to generate a realistic all-in-focus synthetic aperture image which shows a completely occluded object. In this paper, semantic inpainting using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is proposed to address the above-mentioned problem. The proposed method first computes a synthetic aperture image of the occluded objects using a labeling method, and an alpha matte of the partially occluded objects. Then, it uses energy minimization to reconstruct the background by focusing on the background depth of each camera. Finally, the occluded regions of the synthesized image are semantically inpainted using a GAN and the results are composited with the reconstructed background to generate a realistic all-in-focus image. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can handle heavy occlusions and can produce better all-in-focus images than other state-of-the-art methods. Compared with traditional labeling methods, our method can quickly generate label for occlusion without introducing noise. To the best of our knowledge, our method is the first to address missing information caused by heavy occlusions in SAI using a GAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective • To evaluate the performance of matrixassisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in the identification of clinical pathogenic microorganisms. Methods • Blood culture-positive specimens were collected from inpatients in our hospital from March to December 2022 and identified using VITEK 2XL (biochemical), VITEK MS (colony), VITEK MS (bacterial membrane) and VITEK MS (separating gel) methods, respectively, to compare the compliance rate and identification values of the four methods. Results • A total of 280 strains were included in the analysis, including 155 (55.36%) Gram-negative and 125 (44.64%) Gram-positive strains. 279 (99.64%) of the 280 strains were identified by VITEK 2XL (biochemical), including 154 (99.35%) Gram-negative and 125 (100%) Gram-positive strains. VITEK MS (colony) identified 278 (99.29%) strains, including 153 (98.71%) Gram-negative and 125 (100%) Gram-positive. 261 (93.21%) strains were identified in VITEK MS (bacterial membrane), including 148 (95.48%) Gram-negative and 113 (90.40%) Grampositive strains. VITEK MS (separating gel) identified 232 (82.86%) strains, including 136 (87.74%) Gram-negative and 96 (76.80%) Gram-positive strains. Conclusion • MALDI-TOF MS findings are highly consistent with traditional culture identification methods in terms of identification accuracy, and the VITEK MS (bacterial membrane) and VITEK MS (separating gel) identification methods significantly reduce the turnaround time for identification in the laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Li/Ta-codoped lead-free (Na,K)NbO3 ceramics with a nominal composition of [(Na0.535K0.480)0.942Li0.058](Nb0.90Ta0.10)O3 were synthesized normally at 1070°–1100°C. The XRD patterns of all samples show a single pervoskite structure with tetragonal symmetry. Although MPB separating the orthorhombic and tetragonal symmetries was absent, the maximum piezoelectric coefficient ( d33), electromechanical coupling coefficient ( kp), Curie temperature ( Tc), and remanent polarization ( Pr) were optimized as 216 pC/N, 38.1%, 445°C, and 8.73 μC/cm2, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel gradient honeycomb absorber was designed to achieve wide absorption. • The gradient honeycomb added the magnetic absorbent was made by 3D printing. • The equivalent parameters could be calculated with Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule. • The shape factor was the key parameters to determine equivalent parameters. • The gradient absorber had an excellent absorbing and shielding property in 8–12 GHz. In order to get the wide band absorbing and shielding composite, a novel gradient honeycomb absorber was designed as the polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) was matrix and carbonyl iron particles (CIPs) and flaky Cu were the absorbents. The composite was fabricated by 3D printing and the morphology was obtained by the scanning electron microscopy. The permittivity and permeability of the absorbing wire were tested with the vector network analyzer. Using the transmission and reflection method, the parameters of the columnar and gradient honeycomb elements were simulated. The equivalent parameters were calculated based on the Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule, then the simulated and calculated results including reflection loss (RL) and shielding effectiveness (SE) were compared, the mixing rule was effective to calculate the equivalent parameters and the shape factor was the key parameter. Using the interpolate method on the shape factor, the permittivity and permeability of honeycomb with random size could be calculated. Finally, RL and SE were optimized using the genetic algorithm in which the structure lengths were the variables. The result indicated that the structural composites had an excellent absorbing property (minimum RL −28 dB) in 8–12 GHz and SE was larger than 20 dB. As the incident wave was oblique, the absorbing property was also excellent (minimum RL −35 dB@35°), the angle range was 0–70° with RL less than −10 dB. It could be implied that the novel gradient honeycomb was a potential good absorbing structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluated the benefit of the polysaccharides from Pholiota Nameko (PNPS-1) as a cryoprotectant for maintaining the viability of Lactobacillus casei ATCC 334 during freeze-drying and subsequent storage. The data showed that all the freeze-dried L. casei ATCC 334 samples added with PNPS-1 conformed to the three evaluation indicators of residual viability (>107 CFU/g), moisture content (<7% wet basis) and water activity (<0.6), which were usually used as the quality standards of the freeze-dried powdered starter products. At the same adding concentration of 0.04 mg/ml, PNPS-1 showed only a little weaker than skim milk in the protection for L. casei ATCC 334. However, the combined cryoprotectants contained 0.04 or 0.02 mg/ml PNPS-1 were significantly higher than 0.04 mg/ml skim milk. PNPS-1 could improve the membrane fluidity and membrane integrity compared with the blank control sample. In addition, acid tolerance, bile tolerance and heat tolerance of the freeze-dried cells were all ameliorated by the PNPS-1 protection. This study revealed the novel application of PNPS-1 as a new cryoprotective agent for the freeze-dried L. casei ATCC 334 preservation. • The novel application of PNPS-1 as a new cryoprotective agent from mushroom source. • PNPS-1 provides higher cell viability of the freeze-dried L. casei ATCC 334. • PNPS-1 preserves morphological, membranous, biochemical, probiotic characteristics. • Conform to the evaluation indicators of freeze-dried powdered starter products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-layer group-III monochalcogenides are promising candidate materials for a great range of applications in both material science and device physics. Herein, we propose a novel family of Janus single-layer group-III monochalcogenides (J-MX, J  =  Ga, M  =  In, X  =  S and Se) using first-principles calculations. We find that these structures exhibit excellent stability as well as high experimental feasibility. Their band gaps can be tuned effectively by external electric field, while the morphologies of band structures changed little. Importantly, their suitable band gaps (2.07 eV–2.60 eV) and band edge positons enable them promising candidates in photocatalytics. Moreover, the compressive strain can further make the band edge positions match with the redox potentials of water splitting better, and hence can increase the efficiency of solar energy conversion. The adsorption of H adatoms on the S surface and decomposition of H2O on the Se surface of InSe–GaS is further investigated to reveal the microscopic mechanism of water splitting. Our works provide a novel family of promising photocatalytic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the three-dimensional (3D) coordinates of objects captured by a sequence of images taken in different views, object reconstruction is a technique which aims to recover the shape and appearance information of objects. Although great progress in object reconstruction has been made over the past few years, object reconstruction in occlusion situations remains a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a novel method to reconstruct occluded objects based on synthetic aperture imaging. Unlike most existing methods, which either assume that there is no occlusion in the scene or remove the occlusion from the reconstructed result, our method uses the characteristics of synthetic aperture imaging that can effectively reduce the influence of occlusion to reconstruct the scene with occlusion. The proposed method labels occlusion pixels according to variance and reconstructs the 3D point cloud based on synthetic aperture imaging. Accuracies of the point cloud are tested by calculating the spatial difference between occlusion and non-occlusion conditions. The experiment results show that the proposed method can handle the occluded situation well and demonstrates a promising performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Traditional incision repair and minimally invasive repair for acute Achilles tendon repair have limitations. This study aimed to present our series of 23 patients with acute Achilles tendon rupture that was repaired using two small incisions to assist the anchor repair of the tear and a new “circuit” suture technique. Methods: This was a retrospective study of 23 patients with acute Achilles tendon rupture treated with the new technique at Changhai Hospital between January 2015 and December 2016 and followed up for 14–33 months. Clinical outcome was assessed using the AOFAS, Leppilahti, and Arner-Lindholm scores. Complications, range of motion (ROM), and time to return to work and light sport activity were assessed. Results: The AOFAS score was 85–96 at 3 months and 92–100 at 12 months. The 3-month ROM was 27°–37°, and the 12-month ROM was 36°–48°. The Leppilahti score was 85–95 at 3 months and 90–100 at 12 months. The recovery time of the patients was 10–18 weeks. The postoperative recovery time to exercise was 16–24 weeks. There was only one case of deep venous thrombosis. According to the Arner-Lindholm assessment criteria, patient outcomes were rated as excellent in 20 (87.0%) cases, good in three (13.0%) cases, and poor in 0 cases. The excellent-to-good rate was 100%. Conclusion: The limited-open procedure combined with a single-anchor and “circuit” suture technique could be used to repair torn Achilles sites, with a low occurrence of complications. This new and minimally invasive technique could be an alternative in the management of acute Achilles tendon rupture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral images (HSIs) are obtained by imaging surface materials using a spectral imager. In practical applications, the hyperspectral remote sensing images are inevitably contaminated by noise, leading to errors in image processing results. Gaussian noise, Poisson noise, and stripe noise are common in HSIs. This article presents an HSI denoising model based on the low rank representation of multi-manifold double constructions. Introducing multiple manifolds into the field of hyperspectral image denoising for the first time, comprehensively obtaining complex information on hyperspectral surfaces. We extended the graph-regularized low-rank representation model (GLRR) by using maximum data variance to construct global information. GLRR obtains local information, and the parallel effects of nearest neighbor and maximum variance graphs take into account both global and local consistency in the denoising process. Our model is not only applicable to the case of a single manifold, but also to the case of multiple manifolds, especially in the case of complex ground target images with multiple manifold spectra. Use the LADMAP iterative algorithm to iteratively solve the proposed algorithm. Avoid introducing auxiliary variables to reduce runtime costs and algorithm complexity. Both on simulated and real datasets, the runtime is relatively fast. We experiments on both real and simulated datasets, as well as real datasets, to verify that our method has good denoising performance when Gaussian, Poisson, and stripe noise occur simultaneously. • Multiple manifolds embedded into the field of hyperspectral image denoising is an extension of the GLRR model. • Global and local structures of the original data are maximized to achieve global and local consistency. • Using LADMAP to reduce algorithm complexity and runtime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-plane two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures have been attracting public attention due to their distinctive properties. However, the pristine materials that can form in-plane heterostructures are reported only for graphene, hexagonal BN, transition-metal dichalcogenides. It will be of great significance to explore more suitable 2D materials for constructing such ingenious heterostructures. Here, we demonstrate two types of novel seamless in-plane heterostructures combined by pristine Sb and Bi monolayers by means of first-principle approach based on density functional theory. Our results indicate that external strain can serve as an effective strategy for bandgap engineering, and the transition from semiconductor to metal occurs when a compressive strain of −8% is applied. In addition, the designed heterostructures possess direct band gaps with high carrier mobility (∼4000 cm2 V−1 s−1). And the mobility of electrons and holes have huge disparity along the direction perpendicular to the interface of Sb/Bi in-plane heterostructures. It is favorable for carriers to separate spatially. Finally, we find that the band edge positions of Sb/Bi in-plane heterostructures can meet the reduction potential of hydrogen generation in photocatalysis. Our results not only offer alternative materials to construct versatile in-plane heterostructures, but also highlight the applications of 2D in-plane heterostructures in diverse nanodevices and photocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined the effect of the GP130-targeting molecule, LMT-28, on lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) induced bone resorption around implants in diabetic models using in vitro and rat animal experiments. First, LMT-28 was added to osteoblasts stimulated by LPS and advanced glycation end products (AGEs), and nuclear factor-κB receptor-activating factor ligand (RANKL) and associated pathways were evaluated. Then, LMT-28 was administered by gavage at 0.23 mg/kg once every 5 days for 2 weeks to type 2 diabetic rats with peri-implantitis induced by LPS injection and silk ligature. The expression of IL-6 and RANKL was evaluated by immunohistochemistry, and the bone resorption around implants was evaluated by microcomputed tomography. The results showed that LMT-28 downregulated the expression of RANKL through the JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway in osteoblasts stimulated by LPS and AGEs, reduced bone resorption around implants with peri-implantitis, decreased the expression of IL-6 and RANKL, and decreased osteoclast activity in type 2 diabetic rats. This study confirmed the ability of LMT-28 to reduce LPS-induced bone resorption around implants in diabetic rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant-derived natural compounds are desired for their anti-inflammatory properties. We investigated the chemical composition and the anti-inflammatory effects of the essential oil obtained from leaves of the Chinese medicinal plant Artemisia annua L. Artemisia annua L. essential oil (AO) was obtained by hydrodistillation; the extraction yield was approximately 1.2%. Gas chromatography--mass spectrometry (GC-MS) revealed the presence of 13 compounds in AO; the major compounds were caryophyllene (32.16%), eucalyptol (28.62%), α-pinene (19.08%), and β-pinene (14.72%). Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay revealed that AO did not show in vitro cytotoxicity toward RAW264.7 cells and suppressed the expression of nitric oxide (NO), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW264.7 cells. Pretreatment with AO significantly reduced xylene-induced inflammation in the ears of Kunming mice. AO inhibited inflammatory cell infiltration, decreased epidermis thickness in the ear, and suppressed expression of TNF-α in the serum. The in vivo anti-inflammatory activity of AO was similar to that of the positive control compound Di Song Zhang Bo Cream. Overall, AO was observed to be an effective antiinflammatory agent. These results provide an experimental basis for commercializing AO-derived external preparations for pharmacological and cosmetic industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galectin-3 is a carbohydrate-binding lectin, which has been implicated in the modulation of atherosclerotic pathophysiology, and is highly expressed in monocytes, macrophages and endothelial cells within atherosclerotic plaques. Modified citrus pectin (MCP) is produced from citrus pectin via pH and temperature modifications, which break it into shorter, non-branched, galactose-rich carbohydrate chains. MCP is able to tightly bind with galectin-3, via recognition of its carbohydrate recognition domain, and facilitates the modulation of galectin-3-induced bioactivity. The present study explored the effects of MCP on the initiation of atherosclerosis. Eight-week-old apolipoprotein E-deficient mice were treated with 1% MCP and fed an atherogenic diet for 4 weeks. The effects of MCP on atherosclerotic initiation were determined by pathological analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging. MCP treatment reduced the size of atherosclerotic lesion areas, which was accompanied by decreased numbers of macrophages and smooth muscle cells (SMCs). Furthermore, SEM examination of the surface of the atheroma-prone vessel wall indicated that MCP treatment reduced endothelial injury. To analyze the effects of MCP on monocyte adhesion, firstly, oxidized-low density lipoprotein and various concentrations of MCP (0.025, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.25%) were incubated with the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) for stimulation and following this, the U937 cells were plated onto the HUVECs. The results revealed that MCP reduced the adhesion of U937 monocytes to HUVECs, indicating the adhesion-inhibiting effects of MCP. In conclusion, the present study revealed that MCP, a galectin-3 inhibitor, reduced the size of atherosclerotic lesions by inhibiting the adhesion of leucocytes to endothelial cells. Inhibition of galectin-3 function may be a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires were hydrothermally synthesized on a glass substrate with the assistance of a pre-coated ZnO seeding layer. The crystalline structure, morphology and transmission spectrum of the as-synthesized sample were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry, respectively, indicating a wurzite ZnO material of approximately 100 nm wire diameter and absorbance at 425 nm and lower wavelengths. The photocatalytic activity of the sample was tested via the degradation of methyl orange in aqueous solution under UV-A irradiation. The synthesized nanowires showed a high photocatalytic activity, which increased up to 90% degradation in 2 h as pH was increased to 12. It was shown that the photocatalytic activity of the nanowires was proportional to the length to diameter ratio of the nanowires, which was in turn controlled by the growth time and grain size of the seed layer. Estimates suggest that diffusion into the regions between nanowires may be significantly hindered. Finally, the reusability of the prepared ZnO nanowire samples was also investigated, with results showing that the nanowires still showed 97% of its original photoactivity after ten cycles of use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of breast tubules plays an important role in the pathological grading of breast cancer. Breast tubules surrounded by a large number of epithelial cells are located in the subcutaneous tissue of the chest. The shapes of breast tubules are various, including tubular, round, and oval, which makes the process of breast tubule segmentation a difficult task. Deep learning technology, capable of learning complex data structures via efficient representation, could help pathologists accurately detect breast tubules in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained images. In this paper, we propose a deep learning model named DKS-DoubleU-Net to accurately segment breast tubules with complex appearances in H&E images. The proposed DKS-DoubleU-Net model suggests using a DenseNet module as the encoder of the second subnetwork of DoubleU-Net, which utilizes dense features between layers and strengthens the propagation of features extracted in all previous layers, in order to better discover the intrinsic characteristics of breast tubules with complex structures and diverse shapes. Moreover, a feature fusing module called Kernel Selecting Module (KSM) is inserted before each output layer of the two U-Net branches of the DoubleU-Net, to implement a multiscale feature fusion via a self-adaptive kernel selecting for the sake of accurate segmentation of breast tubules in different sizes. The experiments on the public BRACS dataset and a private clinical dataset have shown that our model achieves better segmentation performance, compared to the state-of-art models of U-Net, DoubleU-Net, ResUnet++, HRNet, and DeepLabV3+. Specifically, on the public BRACS dataset, our method produced an F1-Score of 92.98%, which outperforms the F1-Score of U-Net, DoubleU-Net, and HRNet by 4.24%, 0.37%, and 1.68%, respectively, and is much better than performances of DeepLabV3+ and ResUnet++ by 7.83% and 23.84%, respectively. On the private clinic dataset, the proposed model achieved an F1-Score of 73.13%, which has shown an improvement of 10.31%, 1.89%, 4.88%, 15.47%, and 31.1% to the performances of the U-Net, DoubleU-Net, HRNet, DeepLabV3+, and ResUnet++, respectively. Superior performance could also be observed when comparing the proposed DKS-DoubleU-Net with the others using the metrics of Dice and mIou. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature matching is a necessary and important step for remote sensing image registration, intended to establish reliable point correspondences between two sets of features. In this paper, we propose a feature registration model based on local relative motion, which combines Gaussian kernel convolution with relative motion (GRM) vector to obtain better results by removing wrong matches and improving the inlier point accuracy. We first establish putative matching based on the similarity between local descriptors. Then, the preliminary hypothetical matching point set is filtered using consistency with nearest neighbors among the inlier points to obtain a more accurate motion vector, and to fit the real motion vector through the Gaussian convolution kernel. Finally, we find the displacement between the fitted motion vector and the matching generated motion vector. And combine the displacement with the optimization model to find the inlier point set. Experimental results show that our GRM method outperforms related work, achieving better matching results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preserving DNA hybridization in organic solvents could someday serve to significantly extend the applicability of DNA-based technologies. Here, we present a method that can be used to solubilize double-stranded DNA at high concentrations in organic media. This method requires first precipitating a DNA molecule from the aqueous environment with an anilinium derivative and subsequently exchanging this moiety with an amine-containing surfactant in organic solvent. We demonstrate that this method yields complete exchange of the surfactant and allows for the modification of DNA with hydrophobic primary, secondary, and tertiary alkylamines and ordered functional p-systems. Using this approach, we fabricate a multichromophoric light harvesting system that would be unattainable by traditional methods. Additionally, this method makes it possible to use small, hydrophilic molecules to solubilize DNA in organic solvents, which reduces the shielding around the DNA and makes the macromolecule more accessible for further chemical modification. We believe that this approach will prove tremendously beneficial in expanding the scope of DNA-based nano- and biotechnologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) inhibits atherosclerosis development from radiation damage; nonetheless, the underlying mechanism is yet to be defined. This work studied patients treated with radiation along with cultured mouse aortic endothelial cells (MAECs) to investigate the process. Firstly, 158 patients who received radiation after neck cancers participated, and their arterial function was monitored by a B ultrasound. Similarly, HDL and other blood lipid indexes were also investigated. Then, MAECs were isolated, cultured, and passed through MTT assay to test the HDL protective role on ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation along with western blotting to test some apoptosis protein expression and possible molecules. Patients with high HDL levels were significantly less likely to develop atherosclerosis. We observed that MAECs treated with UVB were damaged significantly. However, HDL reversed the cell damage in a dose-depended manner. Meanwhile, the apoptosis process was investigated, and it revealed that HDL prevented UVB-induced apoptosis. Western blotting results showed that HDL enhanced phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) in addition to AKT phosphorylation in MAECs. These findings imply that HDL protects against UVB-induced apoptosis via activating the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-five years after the Apollo and Luna missions returned lunar samples, China's Chang'E-5 (CE-5) mission collected new samples from the mid-latitude region in the northeastern Oceanus Procellarum of the Moon. Our study shows that 95% of CE-5 lunar soil sizes are found to be within the range of 1.40–9.35 μm, while 95% of the soils by mass are within the size range of 4.84–432.27 μm. The bulk density, true density and specific surface area of CE-5 soils are 1.2387 g/cm3, 3.1952 g/cm3 and 0.56 m2/g, respectively. Fragments from the CE-5 regolith are classified into igneous clasts (mostly basalt), agglutinate and glass. A few breccias were also found. The minerals and compositions of CE-5 soils are consistent with mare basalts and can be classified as low-Ti/low-Al/low-K type with lower rare-earth-element contents than materials rich in potassium, rare earth element and phosphorus. CE-5 soils have high FeO and low Mg index, which could represent a new class of basalt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), as a good data dimensionality reduction method, is widely used in the field of image recognition. Incremental non-negative matrix factorization (INMF) as an improvement solves the problem of inefficiency caused by repeated running of data samples during online learning. However, in the traditional incremental non-negative matrix factorization algorithm, the newly added training samples do not contain label information. Some samples may be marked in both the initial sample and the new training sample in the real application scenario. In order to make full use of the label information carried by the dataset, in this paper, we propose a semi-supervised non-negative matrix factorization model for batch incremental data, incremental semi-supervised graph learning NMF with block diagonal (ISGDNMF). The model is divided into three cases according to the degree of label-carrying for the new batch data: all label-carrying, no label-carrying, and partial label-carrying. The label information is also used to add a diagonal structure to the coefficient matrix, which makes it possible to have stronger discriminatory ability and to distinguish different classes of images more easily. And graph regularization information is added in order to maintain the spatial-geometric structure of the data. Experiments on six image datasets show that this algorithm has superior performance relative to the other seven NMF-based algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: 6-Shogaol, an active phenolic compound from ginger (Zingiber officinale), can inhibit the growth of a variety of human cancer cells. Nevertheless, its underlying molecular mechanisms in cervical cancer remain unclear. In this study, we systematically examine the inhibitory effect of 6-shogaol on cervical cancer in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Cell proliferation was assessed by CCK8 assay and colony formation assay in HeLa and SiHa cells. We analyzed cell cycle and apoptosis through flow cytometry. GFP-LC3 puncta and transmission electron microscopy were used to observe autophagic bodies. Wound-healing assay and transwell assay were used for evaluating the migration of cells. Western blot was applied to detect protein expression levels. Results: 6-Shogaol could suppress cell proliferation and migration, cause cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase in HeLa and SiHa cells. Moreover, 6-shogaol triggered the apoptosis process through the mitochondrial pathway by downregulating the expression levels of p-PI3K, p-Akt and p-mTOR. Further research indicated that the induction of apoptosis by 6-shogaol was remarkably decreased after the treatment of ROS scavenger and PI3K agonist. Additionally, 6-shogaol increased the number of LC3-positive puncta and autophagic bodies per cell in both HeLa and SiHa cells. Pretreatment of cells with Bafilomycin A1, an autophagy inhibitor, accelerated 6-shogaol mediated cell apoptosis, suggesting that induction of autophagy by 6-shogaol is suppressive to apoptosis. Furthermore, in vivo data revealed that 6-shogaol significantly inhibited tumor growth and cell proliferation in tumor tissues. Conclusion: These findings suggested that 6-shogaol could be developed as a functional food ingredient, which is potentially used as therapeutic agents for patients with cervical cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known that the decision-making on treating gastric cancer is usually the summary of several experts' advice. Moreover, the interpretability and reliability of a model used to assist doctors with final decisions are very important in gastric cancer. Thus, this paper designed an ensemble belief rule base (EnBRB) model to ensemble multiple BRB models and predict the statement of pathological complete response (pCR), aiming to simulate the expert consultation widely used for clinical decisions on gastric cancer. In EnBRB, five BRB models were built individually using experts' knowledge and trained through patient treatment information. Furthermore, the final output was calculated via the evidential reasoning (ER) based ensemble strategy on the results of each BRB for a more reliable decision. Then, to improve the model's performance, a two-stage approach with a differential evolution (DE) algorithm was designed to enhance the performance of EnBRB. The experimental results demonstrated that a higher accuracy (0. 9296 ± 0. 0521) and AUC (0. 9570 ± 0. 0368) were obtained by our EnBRB. Moreover, the difference between sensitivity and specificity achieved by EnBRB was smaller than other comparison methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the risk factors for the development of postoperative delirium and design a predictive nomogram for the prevention of delirium in elderly patients with a hip fracture, we retrospectively studied 825 patients who sustained a femoral neck fracture from January 2005 to December 2015. Independent risk factors for developing delirium within 6 months of surgery were identified using multivariable logistic regression analyses. A predictive nomogram model was built based on the results, and the discrimination and calibration were determined by C-index and calibration plot. Of the 825 patients who met inclusion criteria, 118 (14.3%) developed postoperative delirium. According to the results, preoperative cognitive impairment (OR, 4.132, 95% CI, 1.831 to 9.324, P＜0.001), multiple medical comorbidities (OR, 1.452, 95% CI, 0.958-2.202, P = 0.079), ASA classification (OR, 1.655, 95% CI, 1.073-2.553, P = 0.023), transfusion exceeding 2 units of red blood cell (OR, 1.599, 95% CI, 1.043-2.451, P = 0.035), and intensive care (OR, 1.817, 95% CI, 1.127-2.930, P = 0.014) were identified to be the independent predictors of the development of postoperative delirium. The risk of postoperative delirium increased with the increasing risk score of predictive nomogram, and the C-index was 0.67 (0.62 - 0.72). The calibration showed that the predicted probabilities of delirium in the predictive nomogram were close to the observed frequency of delirium, and the decision curve analysis confirmed the clinical utility of the nomogram when the threshold probabilities were between 8% and 35% due to the net benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aims: Shengmai San (SMS), prepared from Panax ginseng, Ophiopogon japonicus, and Schisandra chinensisin, has been widely used to treat ischemic disease. In this study, we investigated whether SMS may exert a beneficial effect in diabetic cardiomyopathy through improvement of mitochondrial lipid metabolism. Methods: A leptin receptor-deficient db/db mouse model was utilized, and lean age-matched C57BLKS mice served as non-diabetic controls. Glucose and lipid profiles, myocardial structure, dimension, and function, and heart weight to tibial length ratio were determined. Myocardial ultrastructural morphology was observed with transmission electron microscopy. Protein expression and activity of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complex were assessed using western blotting and microplate assay kits. We also observed cellular viability, mitochondrial membrane potential, OXPHOS complex activity, and cellular ATP level in palmitic acid-stimulated H9C2 cardiomyocytes. Changes in the sirtuin 1 (SIRT1)/AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1α) pathway and mitochondrial uncoupling signaling were assessed using western blotting and quantitative real-time PCR. Results: Leptin receptordeficient db/db mice exhibit obesity, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia, accompanied by distinct myocardial hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction. SMS at a dose of 3 g/kg body weight contributed to a recovery of diabetes-induced myocardial hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction. SMS administration led to an effective restoration of mitochondrial structure and function both in vivo and in vitro. Furthermore, SMS markedly enhanced SIRT1 and p-AMPKα protein levels and decreased the expression of acetylated-PGC-1α and uncoupling protein 2 protein. SMS also restored the depletion of NRF1 and TFAM levels in diabetic hearts and H9C2 cardiomyocytes. Conclusion: The results indicate that SMS may alleviate diabetesinduced myocardial hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction by improving mitochondrial lipid metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]