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The drug resistance of Vibrio harveyi in aquaculture became more severe because the control of Vibriosis depends majorly on the current antibiotics. Transcriptomes of a wild-type strain (VS) and its quinolone-resistant mutants (VR) of V. harveyi were respectively sequenced by RNA-seq technology. A total of 2,082 unigenes were obtained after de novo splicing and assembly. 129 genes were identified with significant differential expression in strain VR compared to strain VS, among which 65 were up-regulated and 64 down-regulated. Then, functional annotation and enrichment analysis of these differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were performed. GO enrichment results showed that DEGs focused mainly on cell structure, substance metabolism, and transporter. COG classification of the DEGs mainly focused on amino acid transport and metabolism, cell wall/membrane biosynthesis, carbohydrate transport and metabolism, ribosomal structure, and biosynthesis. KEGG pathways related to a two-component system, ABC transport system and flagellar assembly (ko02040) were enriched significantly, and 9 genes associated with quinolone-resistance ability, including genes for resistance-related transport proteins, outer membrane proteins, and DNA repair-related proteins were discovered through analysis of the drug-resistance related genes. Ten DEGs (including the above part genes of 9 drug resistance-related genes) in the transcriptome data were taken to analyze their expression with real-time qPCR. The results were the same as the changes of the above transcriptome analysis, further confirming the reliability of the transcriptome sequencing and data analysis. In a word, genes from a two-component system, flagellar assembly, active efflux system and outer membrane proteins take great roles in the quinolone-resistance of V. harveyi. These results provide enough information for further study on the molecular mechanism of quinolone-resistance and give a helpful transcriptomic resource to unravel the contact between quinolone-resistance and metabolic pathways in Vibrios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapping is a fundamental application of remote sensing images, and the accurate evaluation of remote sensing image information extraction using artificial intelligence is critical. However, the existing evaluation method, based on Intersection over Union (IoU), is limited in evaluating the extracted information's boundary accuracy. It is insufficient for determining mapping accuracy. Furthermore, traditional remote sensing mapping methods struggle to match the inflection points encountered in artificial intelligence contour extraction. In order to address these issues, we propose the mean inflection point distance (MPD) as a new segmentation evaluation method. MPD can accurately calculate error values and solve the problem of multiple inflection points, which traditional remote sensing mapping cannot match. We tested three algorithms on the Vaihingen dataset: Mask R-CNN, Swin Transformer, and PointRend. The results show that MPD is highly sensitive to mapping accuracy, can calculate error values accurately, and is applicable for different scales of mapping accuracy while maintaining high visual consistency. This study helps to assess the accuracy of automatic mapping using remote sensing artificial intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microglia play a critical role in the pathogenic process of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Upon pathological stimulation, microglia are converted from a surveillant to an overactivated phenotype. However, the molecular characters of proliferating microglia and their contributions to the pathogenesis of neurodegeneration remain unclear. Here, we identify chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (Cspg4, also known as neural/glial antigen 2)-expressing microglia as a specific subset of microglia with proliferative capability during neurodegeneration. We found that the percentage of Cspg4+ microglia was increased in mouse models of PD. The transcriptomic analysis of Cspg4+ microglia revealed that the subcluster Cspg4high microglia displayed a unique transcriptomic signature, which was characterized by the enrichment of orthologous cell cycle genes and a lower expression of genes responsible for neuroinflammation and phagocytosis. Their gene signatures were also distinct from that of known disease-associated microglia. The proliferation of quiescent Cspg4high microglia was evoked by pathological a-synuclein. Following the transplantation in the adult brain with the depletion of endogenous microglia, Cspg4high microglia grafts showed higher survival rates than their Cspg4- counterparts. Consistently, Cspg4high microglia were detected in the brain of AD patients and displayed the expansion in animal models of AD. These findings suggest that Cspg4high microglia are one of the origins of microgliosis during neurodegeneration and may open up a avenue for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with chronic constipation (CC) show altered gut microbial composition. Objectives: To compare the fecal microbiota with different constipation subtypes and to identify potential influencing factors. Design: This is a prospective cohort study. Methods: The stool samples of 53 individuals with CC and 31 healthy individuals were analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing. The associations between microbiota composition and colorectal physiology, lifestyle factors, and psychological distress were analyzed. Results: In all, 31 patients with CC were classified as having slow-transit constipation, and 22 were classified under normal-transit constipation. The relative abundance of Bacteroidaceae was lower, and the relative abundance of Peptostreptococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, and Clostridiaceae was higher in slow-transit than in normal-transit group. In all, 28 and 25 patients with CC had dyssynergic defecation (DD) and non-DD, respectively. The relative abundance of Bacteroidaceae and Ruminococcaceae was higher in DD than in non-DD. Rectal defecation pressure was negatively correlated with the relative abundance of Prevotellaceae and Ruminococcaceae but positively correlated with that of Bifidobacteriaceae in CC patients. Multiple linear regression analysis suggested that depression was a positive predictor of Lachnospiraceae relative abundance, and sleep quality was an independent predictor of decreased relative abundance of Prevotellaceae. Conclusion: Patients with different CC subtypes showed different characteristics of dysbiosis. Depression and poor sleep were the main factors that affected the intestinal microbiota of patients with CC. Plain language summary Characteristics of fecal microbiota in different constipation subtypes and association with colon physiology, lifestyle factors, and psychological status Patients with chronic constipation (CC) show altered gut microbial composition. Previous studies in CC are limited by lacking of subtype stratification, which is reflected in the lack of agreement in findings across the large number of microbiome studies. We analyzed stool microbiome of 53 CC patients and 31 healthy individuals using 16S rRNA sequencing. We found that the relative abundance of Bacteroidaceae was lower, and the relative abundance of Peptostreptococcaceae, Christensenellaceae, and Clostridiaceae was higher in slowtransit than in normal-transit CC patients. The relative abundance of Bacteroidaceae and Ruminococcaceae was higher in dyssynergic defecation (DD) than in non-DD patients with CC. In addition, depression was a positive predictor of Lachnospiraceae relative abundance, and sleep quality was an independent predictor of decreased relative abundance of Prevotellaceae in all CC patients. This study emphasizes patients with different CC subtypes have different characteristics of dysbiosis. Depression and poor sleep may be the main factors that affect the intestinal microbiota of patients with CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear analysis has become an indispensable means for structural performance evaluation, but is still an expensive process especially for large and complex structures. Although the computer technology has largely improve the performance of nonlinear analysis, more efficient and accurate methods still attract the attention of the researchers. The Woodbury nonlinear method which uses the Woodbury formula to solve the incremental displacement response is an efficient kind of method for local nonlinear analysis, but it is no longer applicable for problems with large part of nonlinearity. Although some approximate methods have been proposed to improve the solution of linear equations in Woodbury nonlinear method, the induced error cannot be effectively controlled which leads to decreasing the convergence rate of the iterative computation and offsetting the improved computational efficiency. To address this problem, this paper proposes the Inexact Newton Woodbury (INW) method for efficient nonlinear analysis, which comprehensively considers the efficiency of both the solution of the linear equations and iterative computation. In terms of the linear equations, the improved Woodbury method is presented, where the approximation method is combined with the Woodbury formula, considerably enhancing the solution efficiency of the linear equations and largely extending the application range of the Woodbury formula. Moreover, to ensure the convergence rate which is another important influence factor of the overall nonlinear analysis efficiency, the inexact Newton condition with a new proposed forcing term applicable for the INW method is employed to make the iterative computation with superlinear convergence rate. Then, the time complexity analysis is conducted to make a comprehensive evaluation of the proposed INW method and the traditional Finite Element Method (FEM) from the aspects of the linear equations solution and iterative computation. The results show that the INW method is more efficient than the FEM especially for problems with large part of nonlinearity. Finally, a simulation example is presented to validate the efficiency and accuracy of the INW method. The results demonstrate that the INW method has higher efficiency under comparable accuracy with the Woodbury nonlinear method so that it has significantly potential for large part of nonlinearity problems. CE Database Subject Headings: Engineering structures; finite element method; material nonlinearity; time complexity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When using the traditional multilayered shell element to perform material nonlinearity analysis of large structures, the computation time is often overwhelming because of the repeated updating and factorization of the large-size global stiffness matrix. This paper aims to provide an efficient and general solution to such problems. To this end, a novel flat multilayered shell model is proposed by adding additional inelastic degrees of freedom (IDOFs) to describe the inelastic behavior of elements and adopting the approximate Woodbury formula that is an efficient solution method based on matrix perturbation theory as a solver. In this way, the entire nonlinear solution process only needs to factorize a sparse matrix called approximate Schur complement, whose dimension is consistent with the IDOF number, instead of the global stiffness matrix. To avoid the performance degradation of the proposed approach due to the activation of too many IDOFs when performing material nonlinearity analysis on large reinforced concrete (RC) structures, an improved concrete constitutive model and a two-level sparseness strategy are further developed. These measures are helpful to numerically reduce the IDOF number of the RC multilayered shell model, thus saving the computational overhead of factorizing and constructing the approximate Schur complement matrix. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme are verified by numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains a global public health threat. Hence, more effective and specific antivirals are urgently needed. Here, COVID-19 hyperimmune globulin (COVID-HIG), a passive immunotherapy, is prepared from the plasma of healthy donors vaccinated with BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine). COVID-HIG shows high-affinity binding to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein, the receptor-binding domain (RBD), the N-terminal domain of the S protein, and the nucleocapsid protein; and blocks RBD binding to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2). Pseudotyped and authentic virus-based assays show that COVID-HIG displays broad-spectrum neutralization effects on a wide variety of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including D614G, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1), Kappa (B.1.617.1), Delta (B.1.617.2), and Omicron (B.1.1.529) in vitro. However, a significant reduction in the neutralization titer is detected against Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants. Additionally, assessments of the prophylactic and treatment efficacy of COVID-HIG in an Adv5-hACE2-transduced IFNAR-/- mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection show significantly reduced weight loss, lung viral loads, and lung pathological injury. Moreover, COVID-HIG exhibits neutralization potency similar to that of anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin from pooled convalescent plasma. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential of COVID-HIG against SARS-CoV-2 infection and provide reference for subsequent clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The partial differential equations of a circular truss beam-ring structure with antenna extended and locked are studied. The differential quadrature method is used to discretize the differential equations and boundary conditions in a spatial domain. The method of equation substitution and the method of boundary conditions are directly substituted into the internal discrete equations and are used to deal with the boundary conditions. The natural frequency of the beam-ring structure is calculated and verified by the natural frequency obtained by Galerkin's method in paper (Wu et al., "Vibration Frequency Analysis of Beam-Ring Structure for Circular Deployable Truss Antenna," International Journal of Structural Stability and Dynamics, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2019, Paper 1950012). To solve the problem when there are multiple mixed boundary conditions at a point, the method of replacing the internal discrete equation with boundary conditions is not unique and the solution accuracy is low, so the differential algebraic equations are used to replace the boundary conditions directly into the internal discrete equation, and the iterative scheme is established. Finally, the fourth-order-Runge-Kutta method is used to solve the problem. Based on the numerical results, the two methods are compared by using a 200s time history diagram, 10,000s displacement constraint diagram, 10,000s velocity constraint diagram, etc. The results show that the mixed boundary conditions can be solved more accurately by using differential algebraic equations, and the stability of constraints can be maintained under long-time simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large deformation analyses of structures are of great importance to the evaluation of structural performance under extreme environmental loads, but currently available methods are time-consuming because of the requirement of factorizing large-scale matrices. The inelasticity-separated finite-element method (IS FEM), which can keep the global stiffness matrix unchanged and uses the Woodbury formula as the solver, was presented recently to provide a highly efficient tool for local material nonlinear analysis. To extend the high efficiency advantage of the IS FEM to large deformation analyses, in which the material nonlinearity may be nonlocal and the geometric nonlinearity should be considered, this paper proposes a novel numerical solution scheme by incorporating the updated Lagrangian (UL) formulation into the IS FEM framework. Within this scheme, a Woodbury approximation method (WAM) is introduced as an efficient solver, in which the changing global stiffness matrix is approximated as a constant matrix within a short time period, and a linear equation related to the Schur complement matrix is solved by the combined approximations (CA) method. To eliminate the additional error induced by the approximation, an adaptive iteration strategy (AIS) is presented, in which the approximation error involved in WAM solution is evaluated based on energy norm concept, and the global stiffness matrix is required to be updated adaptively according to the calculated error. The high efficiency and accuracy of the proposed method are finally demonstrated by the time complexity analysis and numerical examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear analyses of structures under dynamic excitation are becoming increasingly important in structural design and performance evaluation, but large computational effort is the main factor that limits their application. Because nonlinearity is commonly confined within small regions, many studies have been devoted to improving the efficiency of solving such local nonlinear problems by maintaining the structural stiffness elasticity and simulating the effects of local nonlinearity through fictitious nonlinear forces or local modification of the elastic structural response. For dynamic analysis, the nature of the stiffness matrix determines the formulation of the widely used Rayleigh damping; as a result, these local nonlinear analysis methods often use elastic stiffness-based Rayleigh damping models. However, such a damping model can generate unexpected artificial damping forces for inelastic systems and consequently produce inaccurate or even invalid results. Although a tangent stiffness–based Rayleigh damping model has been proven to be a reasonable basis for performing highly accurate dynamic analyses, this type of damping model has difficulty achieving direct compatibility with local nonlinear analysis methods. The present research focuses on the implementation of a tangent stiffness–based Rayleigh damping model for use in efficient local nonlinear analysis methods developed based on the Woodbury formula, which can calculate the structural inelastic behavior by updating the elastic solution rather than by updating the stiffness. By representing tangent stiffness–based Rayleigh damping as a low-rank perturbation to the elastic stiffness-based damping matrix, this study derives a modified dynamic Woodbury formula in which an additional influence coefficient is introduced to reflect the effects of local nonlinearity on the structural damping properties. Moreover, to overcome the potential solution difficulty caused by abrupt changes in the damping forces in certain steps and further improve the efficiency of the proposed method, a variable time step solution scheme that can meet the computational requirements of the Woodbury formula is presented. Verifications demonstrate the validity and high efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common musculoskeletal disease characterized by pain, stiffness, limited activity, occasional effusion, and local inflammation. MiR-146 is one of the noncoding RNA closely related to OA, but the role of miR-146 in OA remains controversial. The tumour necrosis factor receptor OX40 is activated by its cognate ligand OX40L (TNFSF4) and functions as a T-cell costimulatory molecule. The T-cell functions, including cytokine production, expansion, and survival, are enhanced by the OX40 costimulatory signals. Methods: We established an inflammatory model of condylar chondrocytes induced by IL-1β and TNF-α and detected the expression of miRNA by miRNA sequencing. Then, cell transfection was used to study the role of miR146a-5p in OA. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and database analysis were used to screen out potential target genes of miR-146a-5p. A dual luciferase activity assay tested whether ox40l is the target gene of miR-146a-5p. Results: MiR-146a-5p and OX40L was upregulated after induced by IL-1β and TNF-α, miR-146a-5p reduced the production of inflammatory factors but had no effect on chondrophenotypic factors, and ox40l was targeted by miR-146a-5p. Conclusion: OX40L and miR-146a-5p of condylar chondrocytes in the inflammatory environment (induced by IL-1β and TNF-α) were significantly increased, miR-146a-5p is a protective factor in the inflammatory response, which can reduce the production of inflammatory factors, and miR-146a-5p may regulate T-cell-mediated immunity through targeting of ox40l in OA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radioisotopes (RI) and blue dye (BD) are routinely used markers for staining during sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in breast cancer. Compared with traditional tracers, tracer performance of indocyanine green (ICG) has been controversial. A total of 21 studies were selected from the PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases. Detection ability was judged based on four endpoints: i) The identification rate (IR) of the patients; ii) the IR of the sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs); iii) the IR of the positive SLNs; and iv) the false negative rate (FNR). Compared with BD, ICG was superior in terms of the IR of the patients [odds ratio (OR)=7.17; 95% CI, 3.98-12.94), the IR of the SLNs (OR=8.84; 95% CI, 6.71-11.66) and FNR (OR=0.20; 95% CI, 0.08-0.48) using a fixed-effects model. There was a significant difference in both the IR of the positive SLNs (OR=21.32; 95% CI, 2.84-160.14) and FNR (OR=0.46; 95% CI, 0.23-0.91) in the ICG vs. RI group. Furthermore, when using ICG at the recommended dose, a significant difference was found in the IR of the patients (OR=1.77; 95% CI, 1.09-2.85) and the IR of the SLNs (OR=21.62; 95% CI, 5.23-89.43) using a fixed-effects model. In the ICG vs. BD combined with RI group, there were no differences in either the IR of the patients (OR=5.10; 95% CI, 0.24-107.48) or the IR of SLNs (OR=5.10; 95% CI, 0.60-256.66). In conclusion, ICG was a better tracer compared with BD or RI alone and was not a worse tracer compared with BD combined with RI. The use of the recommended dose of ICG had an improved tracer effect. ICG is expected to be widely used in SLNB in view of its clinical advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondrial 12S rRNA A1555G and C1494T mutations are the major contributors to hearing loss. As patients with these mutations are sensitive to aminoglycosides, mutational screening for 12S rRNA is therefore recommended before the use of aminoglycosides. Most recently, we developed a novel multiplex allele-specific PCR (MAS-PCR) that can be used for detecting A1555G and C1494T mutations. In the present study, we employed this MAS-PCR to screen the 12S rRNA mutations in 500 deaf patients and 300 controls from 5 community hospitals. After PCR and electrophoresis, two patients with A1555G and one patient with C1494T were identified, this was consistent with Sanger sequence results. We further traced the origin of three Chinese pedigrees. Clinical evaluation revealed variable phenotypes of hearing loss including severity, age at onset and audiometric configuration in these patients. Sequence analysis of the mitochondrial genomes from matrilineal relatives suggested the presence of three evolutionarily conserved mutations: tRNACys T5802C, tRNALys A8343G and tRNAThr G15930A, which may result the failure in tRNAs metabolism and lead to mitochondrial dysfunction that was responsible for deafness. However, the lack of any functional variants in GJB2, GJB3, GJB6 and TRMU suggested that nuclear genes may not play active roles in deafness expression. Hence, aminoglycosides and mitochondrial genetic background may contribute to the clinical expression of A1555G/C1494T-induced deafness. Our data indicated that the MAS-PCR was a fast, convenience method for screening the 12S rRNA mutations, which was useful for early detection and prevention of mitochondrial deafness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atomistic origin of the atomic vacancy or nanocavity induced hardening in hollow nanotubes and nanoporous structures has long been a puzzle. An analysis from the perspective of bond-order–length-strength correlation mechanism [C. Q. Sun, Prog. Solid State Chem. 35, 1 (2007)] has led to solutions that show that the shortened and strengthened bonds between the undercoordinated atoms in the negatively curved surface skins dominate the observed nanocavity strengthening and thermal instability of the porous structures. It is suggested that the broken bond derived local strain and quantum trapping and the associated energy densification provide pinning centers for inhibiting atomic dislocations and that the broken bond induced cohesive energy dropping dominate the thermal instability. On the other hand, nanocavities also provide sites that initiate the structure failure under plastic deformation. The agreement between predictions and the experimentally observed size dependence of mechanical strength of some nanoporous materials and the well-known phenomenon of hollow tube strengthening evidences for the proposed mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MOF-derived porous NiO with hierarchical structure (MHNiO) was prepared based on thermolysis of Ni metal organic framework (Ni-MOF), which was used as carrier for the immobilization of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and cytochrome C (Cyt c). The pore size of MHNiO was tuned as 11.8 nm to match the size of free enzyme so as to depress the aggregation of the enzymes in the pore. Meanwhile, the hierarchical structure allowed the substrates concentrated in the vicinity of the enzymes. The obtained enzymatic reactors exhibited better thermal stability, storage stability and reusability. For example, over 83% of its original activity after 1 h incubation at 70°C could be remained compared to 18.1% or 38.4% remained activity of free HRP and Cyt c, respectively; After 12 cycles of use, over 53% of original catalytic activity of both the enzymatic reactor could be maintain. The enzymatic kinetic data (Km, Vmax, kcat) and thermodynamic data (Ka, ΔH, ΔS and ΔG) indicated that the improved catalytic performance was attributed to the affinity, selectivity and binding of enzyme to substrate. The two enzymatic reactors could be applied in the fast degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol and rifaximin in artificial wastewater, a complete degradation of 2 mg·mL-1 of 2,4-dichlorophenol or 20 μg·mL-1 of rifaximin was achieved in only 20 min. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compensating for the considerable propagation loss, millimetre-wave communication systems adopt large antenna arrays and beamforming technologies to obtain high antenna gains. The beamforming training is rather time-consuming especially in multi-user cases. To reduce the training overhead, a new fast multi-user training scheme based on Compressed Sensing theory is proposed. This scheme includes a multi-user training algorithm and a corresponding semi-fixed semi-random codebook design strategy. The base station (BS) simultaneously broadcasts the training pilots to all user equipments (UEs). Then all UEs independently conduct the proposed training algorithm from channel responses. Finally, all UEs send back the training results to the BS. Compared to the exhaustive search algorithm's training overhead ξ = KrKt, the cost of the proposed scheme is only O(ξ) = log(KrKt), where Kr and Kt denote the number of beam patterns in the receiver and the transmitter. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves excellent performance in high SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) cases with only 3 - 5% performance difference from the theoretical bound. And in contrast with other Compressed Sensing schemes with random codebooks, the proposed scheme reduces the sensitivity to transmission SNR and improves approximately 3 dB performance in low SNR cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mathematics, the Woodbury formula is an efficient solution method for low-rank modifications that has been utilized by many researchers for the implementation of structural analyses with local material nonlinearity. The advantages of this method in local nonlinearity include the ability to avoid updating of the global stiffness matrix and to limit factorization to a matrix with a small dimension, which is known as the Schur complement. However, this matrix is generally dense, and its dimension depends on the scale of the nonlinear domains. When the condition of local nonlinearity is not satisfied, the problem becomes high-rank modifications and the Woodbury formula becomes inefficient. To overcome the limitation of the Woodbury formula and extend its high-efficiency advantage to more-general situations, an improved Woodbury method is proposed in which the dense Schur complement matrix is approximated using a banded and sparse matrix based on Saint Venant's principle. To eliminate the error caused by this approximation and minimize its adverse effect on iterative calculations, a displacement modification process was developed in terms of the tangent response of the structure so that the iterative rate of the proposed method can be accelerated. Moreover, an adaptive iterative strategy was established to further improve the computational performance of the proposed scheme. A numerical example demonstrates that the proposed scheme can be implemented more efficiently than the classical approach for the nonlinear analysis of structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interfacial catalysis occurs ubiquitously in electrochemical systems, such as batteries, fuel cells, and photocatalytic devices. Frequently, in such a system, the electrode material evolves dynamically at different operating voltages, and this electrochemically driven transformation usually dictates the catalytic reactivity of the material and ultimately the electrochemical performance of the device. Despite the importance of the process, comprehension of the underlying structural and compositional evolutions of the electrode material with direct visualization and quantification is still a significant challenge. In this work, we demonstrate a protocol for studying the dynamic evolution of the electrode material under electrochemical processes by integrating microscopic and spectroscopic analyses, operando magnetometry techniques, and density functional theory calculations. The presented methodology provides a real-time picture of the chemical, physical, and electronic structures of the material and its link to the electrochemical performance. Using Co(OH)2 as a prototype battery electrode and by monitoring the Co metal center under different applied voltages, we show that before a well-known catalytic reaction proceeds, an interfacial storage process occurs at the metallic Co nanoparticles/LiOH interface due to injection of spin-polarized electrons. Subsequently, the metallic Co nanoparticles act as catalytic activation centers and promote LiOH decomposition by transferring these interfacially residing electrons. Most intriguingly, at the LiOH decomposition potential, electronic structure of the metallic Co nanoparticles involving spin-polarized electrons transfer has been shown to exhibit a dynamic variation. This work illustrates a viable approach to access key information inside interfacial catalytic processes and provides useful insights in controlling complex interfaces for wide-ranging electrochemical systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L, an Antarctic ice alga, has high tolerance ability to freezing and salinity. Glutathione (GSH) is an important small antioxidative molecule in the growth and stress responses of plants including algae. We cloned a full-length cDNA encoding glutamate cysteine ligase (ICE-LGCL), the key enzyme of GSH synthesis, from Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L by RT-PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends technique (RACE). The cDNA has 2199 bp nucleotides with an open reading frame (ORF) of 1452 bp encoding a polypeptide of 453 amino acids. BLASTP algorithm results showed that ICE-LGCL shared 51%-70% amino acid sequence identity with the reported GCLs and shared the highest identity with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We also successfully made ICE-LGCL protein express in E. coli BL21. The optimum expression conditions are the induced reagent IPTG of 0.2 mmol/L, temperature of 37 °C, and the induced time of 4 h. The expression patterns of ICE-LGCL in mRNA by real-time PCR analysis showed that ICE-LGCL expressed under the different temperature and salinity challenges. Low temperature and low salinities stimulated the accumulation of ICE-LGCL mRNA in ICE-L cells. These results indicate that GCL might play an important role in Antarctic Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material nonlinearity analyses are widely used to determine the safety of structural components or engineering structures. Although advanced computer hardware technology has considerably improved the computational performance of such analyses, large and complex emerging structures and expensive computational process still attract the attention of researchers toward finding more efficient and accurate numerical solution methods. This paper combines an inelasticity-separated (IS) concept with the finite-element method (FEM) to establish a novel and efficient framework (IS-FEM) for structures with material nonlinear behavior that only occurs within certain small local domains. The IS concept presented in this paper begins by decomposing the strain on a nonlinear material into its linear-elastic and inelastic components and runs through the whole framework. Based on the principle of virtual work, a novel governing equation for structures with an IS form is derived by treating the decomposed inelastic strain as additional degrees of freedom. Moreover, the changing stiffness matrix in the classical FEM is expressed as the sum of the invariant global linear elastic stiffness matrix and another changing inelastic stiffness matrix with a small rank, and it represents the material nonlinearity of local domains so that the efficient solution method can be applied to perform nonlinear analyses via the mathematical Sherman–-Morrison–Woodbury (SMW) formula. Because the unchanging global stiffness matrix is used throughout the whole nonlinear analysis and the computational effort only focuses on a small dimension matrix that represents the local inelastic behavior, the efficiency of the proposed IS-FEM is improved greatly. The proposed method is validated against the results of classical FEM via three separate numerical examples and its value and potential for use in any material nonlinearity analyses are also demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new less-rare-earth double-stator modulated machine is proposed, where two types of permanent magnets (PM) of rare-earth NdFeB-PM and nonrare-earth ferrite-PM are skillfully integrated into a stator-partitioned modulated machine. The operating principle of the proposed machine is introduced. Considering the multioperation conditions of traction motor for electric vehicle (EV), the new machine design dimension formulas are deduced. Then, the corresponding electromagnetic performances under different drivingmodes are also analyzed and simulated in details. Both theoretical analysis and the FEM results show that the proposed machine has advantages in multidriving modes, which may be an interesting candidate for EV driving application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choosing the localization algorithm in superresolution microscopy is an important factor in determining the resolution in such a modality. The point spread function (PSF) in defocused images has ring structures that can be used to localize the three-dimensional (3-D) position of single particles by calculating the ring center (x and y) and radius (z). As there is no well-developed mathematical model for a defocused PSF, it is difficult to perform a fitting-based algorithm in such images. A particle localization algorithm based on radial symmetry and ellipse fitting is developed to localize the centers and radii of defocused PSFs. Our method can localize the 3-D position of a fluorophore within 20-nm precision in three-dimensions in a range of 40 μm in z-dimension from defocused two-dimensional (2-D) images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Coronary artery disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among adults worldwide, including China. After a hospital stay, transitional care could help to ensure improved patient care and outcomes, and reduce Medicare costs. Nevertheless, the results of the existing transitional care are not always satisfactory and our knowledge of how to perform effective transitional care for patients with coronary artery disease is limited in mainland China. Objectives To examine the effectiveness of a nurse-led transitional care program on clinical outcomes, health-related knowledge, and physical and mental health status among Chinese patients with coronary artery disease. Design Randomized controlled trial. Methods The Omaha system and Pender’s health promoting model were employed in planning and implementing this nurse-led transitional care program. The sample was comprised of 199 Chinese patients with coronary artery disease. The experimental group (n = 100) received nurse-led transitional care intervention in addition to routine care. The nurse-led transitional care intervention included a structured assessment and health education, followed by 7 months of individual teaching and coaching (home visits, telephone follow-up and group activity). The control group (n = 99) received a comparable length routine care and follow-up contacts. Evaluations were conducted at baseline and completion of the interventions using the perceived knowledge scale for coronary heart disease, the medical outcomes study 36-item short-form health survey and clinical measures (blood pressure, blood glucose, lipids, body mass index). Data were collected between March and October 2014. Results Compared with the control group, participants in the experimental group showed significant better clinical outcomes (systolic blood pressure, t = 5.762, P = 0.000; diastolic blood pressure, t = 4.250, P = 0.000; fasting blood glucose, t = 2.249, P = 0.027; total cholesterol, t = 4.362, P = 0.000; triglyceride, t = 3.147, P = 0.002; low density lipoprotein cholesterol, t = 2.399, P = 0.018; and body mass index, t = 3.166, P = 0.002), higher knowledge scores for coronary artery disease (total knowledge score, t = −7.099, P = 0.000), better physical health status ( t = −2.503, P = 0.014) and mental health status ( t = −2.950, P = 0.004). Conclusions This study provides evidence for the value of a nurse-led transitional care program using both the Omaha system and Pender’s health promoting model as its theoretical framework. The structured interventions in this nurse-led transitional care program facilitate the use of this program in other settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relaxor ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and Second Harmonic Generation properties were founded and studied as a function of a reduction heat treatment at 650 °C in a Ar-5%H2 atmosphere in stoichiometric La0.05Li0.85NbO3 nanoparticles of 40 nm. A diffuse dielectric anomaly related with relaxor behavior from 25 °C to 800 °C in a frequency range from 100 Hz to 1 MHz was founded. It also shows ferromagnetic anhysterestic type and ferroelectric hysteresis loops at room temperature with a magnetic spin remnant of 2.5 x 10-3 emu/g and polarization saturation of 0.235 µC/cm², remnant polarization of 0.141 µC/cm², coercive field of 1.35 kV/cm, respectively. It shows very good second harmonic generation signal at 450 nm and 500 nm. High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy, X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy, indicate an ABO3 perovskite structure, new electronic binding energy structure for La (5s, 4d), Li (1s), Nb (4s, 3d, 4p) and oxygen (1s, 2s) and new vibrations modes on octahedron NbO6 related to multiferroic single phase nanoparticles, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Nogo-A is an important neurite growth-regulatory protein in the adult and developing nervous system. Recently, increasing evidence has shown that Nogo-A plays important roles in cardiac development and may act as a potential indicator for heart failure. In addition, increased oxidative stress has been found in individuals with cardiovascular diseases. However, not much is known regarding the expression levels of Nogo-A and reactive oxygen species (ROS) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD). Therefore, we sought to investigate the relationship between Nogo-A, ROS levels and CHD.Material and Methods: The plasma Nogo-A and ROS concentrations of 122 acute coronary syndrome (ACS), 101 unstable angina pectoris (UAP), and 21 acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients and 56 healthy controls were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We further generated a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to assess the diagnostic accuracy of Nogo-A and ROS in CHD.Results: The Nogo-A and ROS levels were significantly higher in patients with CHD than those in healthy controls. In addition, multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the level of Nogo-A (odds ratio (OR) = 1.624, 95% confidence interval: 1.125-2.293, p = 0.009) is a risk factor for prediction of CHD. Nogo-A has diagnostic value, with an optimal threshold of 5.466 ng/ml for maximized diagnostic performance (59% sensitivity and 78.6% specificity, area under curve, p < 0.05). However, ROS concentration is not a risk factor for prediction of CHD (OR = 0.999, 95% confidence interval: 0.997-1.001, p = 0.320).Conclusions: Increased plasma Nogo-A level may be associated with CHD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the effects of blood lipid stability on progression of carotid atherosclerosis. Methods: A total of 416 patients who had physical examination in our hospital annually from January 2010 to December 2015 were selected and divided into a progression group (n=216) and a non-progression group (n=200) according to the intima-media thickness measured by carotid ultrasound. The levels of lipidrelated parameters within five years were retrospectively analyzed to calculate the smoothness index (SI = x/s). Results: The cross-sectional TG, HDL-C, ApoAI, ApoB, ApoE and Lpa levels were similar in the two groups (p>0.05). The non-progression group had significantly higher TC ((4.15±0.82 vs. 4.50±1.04) mmol/L) and LDL-C ((2.53±0.76 vs. 2.99±1.03) mmol/L) levels than those of the progression group (p<0.05).The progression group had significantly lower TC SI (5.29±1.28 vs. 5.65±1.76), TG SI (2.13±0.71 vs. 2.79±0.82), LDL-C SI (3.66±1.17 vs. 4.36±1.58), ApoB SI (3.37±0.88 vs. 3.62±0.95) and Lpa SI (1.53±0.49 vs. 1.62±0.43) than those of the non-progression group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Compared with cross-sectional results, SI was better correlated with the progression of atherosclerosis. The progression group had lower SI values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graves and Murty proved that for any integer a ≥ 2 and any fixed integer k ≥ 2, there are ≫ log x/log log x primes p ≤ x such that ap-1 ≢ 1 (mod p2) and p ≡ 1 (mod k), under the assumption of the abc conjecture. In this paper, for any fixed M, the bound log x/log log x is improved to (log x/log log x)(log log log x)M. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the level of caregiver burden of Chinese rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with self-care deficit. Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study included a total of 65 caregivers (30 males, 35 females; mean age 52 years; range 20 to 79 years) of 65 RA inpatients (9 males, 56 females; mean age 59 years; range 20 to 85 years) with self-care deficit. Demographic data of patients and their respective caregivers were collected. The level of caregiver burden was defined using Caregiver Burden Inventory, a 24-item-five-domain survey tool. Correlation between different demographic factors and caregiver burden was analyzed. Predictive factors for burden level were also investigated. Results: A mean Caregiver Burden Inventory score of 44.0±4.0 was observed among caregivers of Chinese RA patients with self-care deficit. Among the five Caregiver Burden Inventory domains, developmental burden scored the highest (11.7±1.4), while physical burden scored the lowest (6.7±1.0). Among various demographic factors, patients' age (r=0.306, p=0.013) and health insurance coverage (r=-0.246, p=0.04) were correlated with the level of caregiver burden. Besides, caregiver's educational level (r=-0.316, p=0.01), relationship of caregiver with the patient (r=0.355, p=0.004), and whether or not the caregiver lived with the patient (r=0.362, p=0.003) were also significant factors. Predictive factors for caregiver burden of RA patients were identified as patient's health insurance coverage and caregiver's relationship with the patient, in agreement with the correlation analysis. Conclusion: Since caregiver burden may contribute to adverse health outcomes, supportive interventions should be established to target Chinese RA patients with self-care deficit and their caregivers to consolidate the sustainable care provided both at hospital and home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]