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AbstractThis paper has investigated the rheological behavior and micro-morphology of CTAC wormlike micelle (WLM) which cross-linked with polyelectrolyte-grafted nanosilica (PEN) and nonionic hydrophobically-associating polymer (HAP). Cryo-transmission electron microscopy (Cryo-TEM) is adopted to observe the micro-morphology of the associative structure. Results show that PEN cross-linked with CTAC wormlike micelle exhibits higher zero-shear viscosity than the non-modified nano silica, and this viscosity is continuously raised as the PEN concentration is increased. PEN-micelle complex has excellent anti-salt properties and its zero-shear viscosity is increasing in a KCl concentration range of 0–10%. The shear viscosity of wormlike micelle is enhanced by HAP and polymer molecules dominate the rheological characteristic of the mixed fluid. The shear viscosity of HAP-micelle fluid is further increased by PEN. However, the rheological characteristic of the micelle-HAP-PEN complex is identical to that of wormlike micelle. The elasticity of wormlike micelle is noticeably enhanced by cross-linking with PEN and HAP. They stimulate the formation of micelle to significantly increase the length and rigidity of wormlike micelle. Surfactant molecules spontaneously arrange on the surface of PEN and grow outwards, which associates with HAP to generate the tighter three-dimensional network structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A permeability-limited physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model featuring four subcompartments (corresponding to the intracellular and extracellular water of the tissue, the residual plasma, and blood cells) for each tissue has been developed in MATLAB/SimBiology and applied to various what-if scenario simulations. This model allowed us to explore the complex interplay of passive permeability, metabolism in tissue or residual blood, active uptake or efflux transporters, and different dosing routes (intravenous (IV) or oral (PO)) in determining the dynamics of the tissue/plasma partition coefficient (Kp) and volume of distribution (Vd) within a realistic pseudo-steady state. Based on the modeling exercise, the permeability, metabolism, and transporters demonstrated significant effects on the dynamics of the Kp and Vd for IV bolus administration and PO fast absorption, but these effects were not as pronounced for IV infusion or PO slow absorption. Especially for low-permeability compounds, uptake transporters were found to increase both the Kp and Vd at the pseudo-steady state (Vdss), while efflux transporters had the opposite effect of decreasing the Kp and Vdss. For IV bolus administration and PO fast absorption, increasing tissue metabolism was predicted to elevate the Kp and Vdss, which contrasted with the traditional derivation from the steady-state perfusion-limited PBPK model. Moreover, metabolism in the residual blood had more impact on the Kp and Vdss compared to metabolism in tissue. Due to its ability to offer a more realistic description of tissue dynamics, the permeability-limited PBPK model is expected to gain broader acceptance in describing clinical PK and observed Kp and Vdss, even for certain small molecules like cyclosporine, which are currently treated as perfusion-limited in commercial PBPK platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observation and estimation of the stress state in the deep crust is a crucial challenge in in-situ stress measurement work. Hydraulic fracturing method is an important borehole-based technique for absolute in-situ stress measurement. The small-diameter hydraulic fracturing in-situ stress measurement system described in this article consists mainly of underground measurement components (serial small-diameter packers and dual-circuit connecting installation rods) and surface control components (hydraulic fluid control system, data acquisition system, and high-pressure oil pump with controllable flow). It enables series measurement of small-sized boreholes for in-situ stress, provides a maximum measurement range of 30~45 MPa. The subsequent calculation of in-situ stress data adopts the uniform design method to discuss the influence of various external factors on rock fracturing values. The small-diameter hydraulic fracturing in-situ stress measurement system has the advantages of simple and lightweight structure, short testing time, high success rate, and low requirements for rock integrity and pressurization equipment. It has formed a series of small-diameter in-situ stress measurement equipment, which has been innovatively promoted to the field of underground tunnel safety assessment in coal mines and metal mining areas. It has important practical value and economic significance in accurately determining the in-situ stress state of deep development areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant-specific YABBY transcription factors play an important role in lateral organ development and abiotic stress responses. However, the functions of the YABBY genes in quinoa remain elusive. In this study, twelve YABBY (CqYAB) genes were identified in the quinoa genome, and they were distributed on nine chromosomes. They were classified into FIL/YAB3, YAB2, YAB5, INO, and CRC clades. All CqYAB genes consist of six or seven exons, and their proteins contain both N-terminal C2C2 zinc finger motifs and C-terminal YABBY domains. Ninety-three cis-regulatory elements were revealed in CqYAB gene promoters, and they were divided into six groups, such as cis-elements involved in light response, hormone response, development, and stress response. Six CqYAB genes were significantly upregulated by salt stress, while one was downregulated. Nine CqYAB genes were upregulated under drought stress, whereas six CqYAB genes were downregulated under cadmium treatment. Tissue expression profiles showed that nine CqYAB genes were expressed in seedlings, leaves, and flowers, seven in seeds, and two specifically in flowers, but no CqYAB expression was detected in roots. Furthermore, CqYAB4 could rescue the ino mutant phenotype in Arabidopsis but not CqYAB10, a paralog of CqYAB4, indicative of functional conservation and divergence among these YABBY genes. Taken together, these results lay a foundation for further functional analysis of CqYAB genes in quinoa growth, development, and abiotic stress responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory, this paper explores how job incumbents’ work-to-family conflict and enrichment influence their spouses’ satisfaction with their work-family balance, which in turn impacts their spouses’ intentions to provide social support for the job incumbents’ work issues. We employed a mixed-method design. Study 1 involved a field study of a paired sample of 171 job incumbents and their spouses. Study 2 involved a scenario-based experiment (N = 274). The results showed that the relationship between job incumbents’ WFC and their spouses’ intentions to provide social support was mediated by the spouses’ satisfaction with the focal job incumbents’ WFB. We also found that job incumbents’ WFC interacts with WFE to influence their spouses’ intentions to provide social support via their spouses’ satisfaction with their WFB. This study offers new insights into the relationship between work-family experiences and social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the wide application of preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) with trophectoderm (TE) biopsy, the safety of PGT has always been a concern. Since TE subsequently forms the placenta, it is speculated that the removal of these cells was associated with adverse obstetrical or neonatal outcomes after single frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer (FBT). Previous studies report contradictory findings with respect to TE biopsy and obstetric and neonatal outcomes. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study including 720 patients with singleton pregnancies from single FBT cycles who delivered at the same university-affiliated hospital between January 2019 and March 2022. The cohorts were divided into two groups: the PGT group (blastocysts with TE biopsy, n = 223) and the control group (blastocysts without biopsy, n = 497). The PGT group was matched with the control group by propensity score matching (PSM) analysis at a ratio of 1:2. The enrolled sample sizes in the two groups were 215 and 385, respectively. Results: Patient demographic characteristics were comparable between the groups after PSM except for the proportion of recurrent pregnancy loss, which was significantly higher in the PGT cohort (31.2 vs. 4.2%, P < 0.001). Patients in the PGT group had significantly higher rates of gestational hypertension (6.0 vs. 2.6%, adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18–7.18, P = 0.020) and abnormal umbilical cord (13.0 vs. 7.8%, aOR 1.94, 95% CI 1.08–3.48, P = 0.026). However, the occurrence of premature rupture of membranes (PROM) (12.1 vs. 19.7%, aOR 0.59, 95% CI 0.35–0.99, P = 0.047) was significantly lower in biopsied blastocysts than in unbiopsied embryos. There were no significant differences in regard to other obstetric and neonatal outcomes between the two groups. Conclusions: Trophectoderm biopsy is a safe approach, as the neonatal outcomes from biopsied and unbiopsied embryos were comparable. Furthermore, PGT is associated with higher risks of gestational hypertension and abnormal umbilical cord but may have a protective effect on PROM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phase distribution model, proposed by Atkinson and Begg in 1990, has been widely used for predicting breastmilk‐to‐plasma drug concentration ratio. However, misrepresentations of the equations have been noted in recent publications. In this perspective, we revisit the derivation of the equations and provide an R/Shiny interface for the model with a view to helping scientists in this field acquire in‐depth understanding of the theoretical background and implementation of the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Simcyp Simulator is a software platform for population physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling and simulation. It links in vitro data to in vivo absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic outcomes to explore clinical scenarios and support drug development decisions, including regulatory submissions and drug labels. This tutorial describes the different input parameters required, as well as the considerations needed when developing a PBPK model within the Simulator, for a small molecule intended for oral administration. A case study showing the development and application of a PBPK model for ondansetron is herein used to aid the understanding of different PBPK model development concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A seismic sedimentology study was performed to analyse the complex fluvial reservoirs in the Neogene Guantao Formation in Kongdian Oilfield, Huanghua Depression. Three facies associations were identified by core and logging data, including bedload channel, mixload channel, and floodplain. Widely developed floodplain deposits beds were selected as the relatively reliable reference time surfaces. Stratal slices were generated applying the stratal‐slicing principle on two isochronous reference seismic events in Kongdian Oilfield. These stratal slices were used to analyse the distribution of sediments in a relative geologic‐time domain. The variety of sediment distribution observed on the stratal slices indicated that the fluvial channel systems of study interval had evolved from straight channel, sandy‐braided channel to combined channel. Sediment dispersal patterns were controlled by the change of accommodation (A) and sediment supply (S) rate. Setting with a low A/S ratio favours the development of fluvial environment and high A/S ratio favours the development of floodplain. Braided channel sandstones formed in a low A/S ratio depositional environment were generally thought to be excellent reservoirs. However, the muddy plug could damage the lateral continuity of sandbody, impede the fluid flow, and reduce the water‐injection efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic metal in soils and its accumulation in plants poses severe problems to agricultural production and human health. Most of research has focused on the Cd toxicity to plants, but reports on Cd co-transport and regulation by the major counter ion Chloride (Cl) is limited. This study aims to understand the mechanisms of the interaction between soil Cl and phytol-toxicity of Cd. Methods: We utilised soil chemical, plant physiological, biophysical, and molecular approaches to test the hypothesis that Cl transport increases the mobility and phytol-toxicity of Cd to barley. Results: Cd-sensitive Gairdner utilised high amount of Cl− from soil for optimal growth and yield in the control, but this also caused higher tissue Cd uptake and significantly affected photosynthesis in treatments of Cd-Cl combinations. Net ion fluxes from the root mature zone in Cd treatments and relative expression of transporter genes exhibited striking difference between two genotypes. Our results also highlighted evidence that Cd sensitivity is related to higher Cl− and Cd2+ uptake and lower capacity to regulate root ion homeostasis and gene expression. Conclusions: We present a new finding that soil Cl− and Cd availability and Cd uptake and its interaction with other ions play a major role in barley Cd tolerance. These findings will guide future breeding for low Cl− uptake genotypes to reduce Cd accumulation for barley grown in Cd contaminated soils and for the economically sound and cleaner production of barley for the global feed, food and brewery industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotating machinery (RM) plays an essential role in modern industries. However, the complex internal motion behavior and vibration transmission paths lead to monitored signals characterized by various modulations, mainly amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and their coupling effects. Although vibration signal models have been widely studied to interpret the vibration characteristics of RM, the generality and modulation properties of existing models remain to be improved. Furthermore, traditional frequency spectrum-based analysis and well-known demodulation methods face challenges in extracting modulation-carrier frequency pairs and the modulation types, thereby failing to thoroughly reveal the vibration characteristics of RM. Toward the above issues, firstly, a general modulation-sourced model is constructed by synthesizing as many AM-FM phenomena as possible to represent the monitored vibration signal of different RM, such as planetary gearboxes (PGs), rolling bearings (RBs), and so on. Secondly, drawing on the merits of the convolutional neural network (CNN), an elastic comb-shaped convolution kernel (ECCK) and a modified activation function called restricted-rectified linear unit (R-ReLU) are innovatively proposed to automatically obtain a modulation-carrier spectrum (MCS) from the frequency spectrum. Theoretical derivation of the MCS is provided to interpret the components in terms of the proposed model. More importantly, considering the inevitable pseudo demodulated components, a MCS-based demodulation strategy, the MCSD, is introduced to reveal the true modulation-carrier frequency pairs and their corresponding modulation types. Simulation studies with different modulation scenarios are analyzed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, experimental studies are conducted and four mainstream demodulation methods are picked for comparison, confirming the proposed method's effectiveness and outperformance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Valsa mali is the causal agent of apple Valsa canker, a destructive disease in East Asia. Effector proteins play important roles in the virulence of phytopathogenic fungi, and we identified five Hce2 domain‐containing effectors (VmHEP1, VmHEP2, VmHEP3, VmHEP4 and VmHEP5) from the V.mali genome. Amongst these, VmHEP1 and VmHEP2 were found to be up‐regulated during the early infection stage and VmHEP1 was also identified as a cell death inducer through its transient expression in Nicotiana benthamiana. Although the deletion of each single VmHEP gene did not lead to a reduction in virulence, the double‐deletion of VmHEP1 and VmHEP2 notably attenuated V. mali virulence in both apple twigs and leaves. An evolutionary analysis revealed that VmHEP1 and VmHEP2 are two paralogues, under purifying selection. VmHEP1 and VmHEP2 are located next to each other on chromosome 11 as tandem genes with only a 604 bp physical distance. Interestingly, the deletion of VmHEP1 promoted the expression of VmHEP2 and, vice versa, the deletion of VmHEP2 promoted the expression of VmHEP1. The present results provide insights into the functions of Hce2 domain‐containing effectors acting as virulence factors of V. mali, and provide a new perspective regarding the contribution of tandem genes to the virulence of phytopathogenic fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanoceria has been developed as a biocompatible and robust enzyme mimic (called ceria nanozyme) and applied in bioanalysis and therapeutics. However, its catalytic activity such as peroxidase mimic is still moderate, which in turn has limited its promising applications. To tackle this issue, herein we reported an effective strategy to modulate the peroxidase mimicking activity of nanoceria by doping transition metals. We discovered that doping of the first row of transition metals (i. e. Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) modulated the activity of nanoceria and with the same doping ratio the activities followed the below order: Mn1Ce10>Co1Ce10>Fe1Ce10>Cu1Ce10>CeO2>Ni1Ce10. By further varying the Mn/Ce ratio, Mn1Ce5 with the highest peroxidase mimicking activity was obtained (13‐fold higher compared with the pristine CeO2). Meanwhile we found that the homogenous doping of Mn into the nanoceria matrix without phase segregation ensured the formation of Mn1Ce5 solid solution. From our experiments and discussion, we concluded that the surface oxygen (Oβ) and the synergistic effect between Ce and Mn played key roles in the enhancement of Mn1Ce5 peroxidase mimicking activity. This study not only demonstrates that Mn‐doped nanoceria exhibits higher active peroxidase mimics but also provides a promising strategy to modulate the catalytic activity of nanozymes. Mn1Ce5 solid solution with the highest Mn content exhibited the highest peroxidase mimicking activity. Both the surface oxygen (Oβ) and the synergistic effect between Ce and Mn played key roles in the peroxidase mimicking activity of the Mn doped nanoceria, demonstrating Mn doped nanoceria as promising peroxidase mimics and also provides an effective and facile strategy for modulating the catalytic activity of nanozymes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity and insulin resistance are associated with overexpression of retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (RALDH1). We aimed to investigate the roles of hepatic RALDH1 induction in glucose metabolism impairment using mice fed with high‐fat‐diet (HFD). Mice were fed with HFD for 8 weeks and treated with RALDH inhibitor citral for another 4 weeks. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), pyruvate tolerance test (PTT) and insulin tolerance test were performed. Expressions of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 (PCK1), glucokinase (GCK) and RALDH1 were measured. Therapeutic effects of citral were also documented in diabetic rats. Effects of retinaldehyde on PCK1 and GCK expressions were examined in rat primary hepatocytes and HepG2 cells. The results showed that HFD mice were characterized by hyperlipidaemia and insulin resistance, accompanied by significantly increased RALDH1 activity and expression. Citral (10 and 50 mg/kg) ameliorated HFD‐induced hyperlipidaemia and insulin resistance, as demonstrated by the improved fasting glucose, insulin levels and lipid profiles. OGTT and PTT demonstrated that citral reversed HFD‐induced glucose disposal impairment and glucose production enhancement. Citral also reversed the increased PCK1 expression and decreased GCK expression by HFD. Citral therapeutic effects were reconfirmed in diabetic rats. In vitro data indicated that retinaldehyde had the strongest PCK1 induction in primary hepatocytes of diabetic rats compared with HFD rats and control rats, in line with the increased RALDH1 expression. Citral reversed the retinaldehyde‐induced PCK1 expression in primary rat hepatocytes and HepG2 cells. In conclusion, RALDH1 induction impaired glucose metabolism partly via modulating PCK1 and GCK expressions. Citral improved glucose metabolism through inhibiting RALDH activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequency contents have been widely investigated to understand the vibration behaviors of planetary gearboxes. Appearances of certain sideband peaks in the frequency spectrum may indicate the occurrence of gear fault. However, analyzing too many sidebands will create problems and uncertainty of fault diagnoses. To this end, it is of vital importance to focus on those sidebands, as well as their amplitudes, which are directly induced by the gear faults. The Sideband Energy Ratio (SER) method, which synthesize the amplitudes of characteristic frequencies and meshing frequency, has shown its effectiveness in fault diagnosis of fixed-shaft gearboxes. However, for planetary gearboxes, the effectiveness and theoretical explanation behind this method still needs to be explored. In this paper, we first explored the amplitudes of characteristic frequencies based on a phenomenological model. Our investigation demonstrated that monitoring the amplitude of a single frequency component is inadequate for fault diagnosis of planetary gearbox. Second, the theoretical explanation of SER for a planetary gearbox is explored. Finally, a modified SER, namely the Modified Sideband Energy Ratio, is proposed to deal with the problem of rotating speed fluctuation. Experimental studies are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Three secreted peroxidases were uncovered based on the genome information of V. mali. • VmPODs were related to conidiation and H 2 O 2 resistance of V. mali. • VmPOD3 was critical for full virulence of V. mali. • Homologous proteins of secreted peroxidases VmPODs widely exist in different fungi. Abstract Apple Valsa canker, caused by the necrotrophic pathogen Valsa mali , is a devastating disease of apples and causes great financial loss in East Asia. Improving the understanding of apple - V. mali interactions will contribute to disease management. In this study, three predicted secreted peroxidases (VmPOD1, VmPOD2 and VmPOD3) were uncovered based on the secretome and genome information of V. mali. Phylogenetic analysis showed that VmPOD1 is a catalase peroxidase, VmPOD2 is a chloroperoxidase, and VmPOD3 is a plant peroxidase-like peroxidase. The secretion function of the corresponding genes was confirmed using the yeast invertase secretion system. The deletion of VmPODs did not affect the vegetative growth when the mutants (Δ VmPOD1 , Δ VmPOD2 and Δ VmPOD3) and the wild-type strain 03-8 were grown on PDA medium at 25 °C in the dark. However, the respective mutants showed impaired conidiation ability with fewer pycnidia, and all gene deletion mutants grew more slowly than 03–8 on PDA supplemented with H 2 O 2 (Final concentration: 0.06 mol/L H 2 O 2). In addition, VmPOD1 and VmPOD2 were found to be significantly up-regulated at an early infection stage, and VmPOD3 showed sustained high expression during the whole infection progress of V. mali. In addition, the virulence of Δ VmPOD3 was significantly reduced, implying that VmPOD3 plays a critical role during the interaction between V. mali and apple. All of the defective phenotypes could be nearly restored by re-introducing the wild-type VmPOD1 , VmPOD2 or VmPOD3 allele. The results enhanced our understanding of the secreted peroxidase, which could also act as a type of virulence factor from the necrotrophic pathogen V. mali and provided new insight into the role of the pathogen-secreted peroxidase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine if temporomandibular joint chondrocyte apoptosis is induced in rats with dental biomechanical stimulation and what a role TNF takes. Methods: Thirty-two rats were divided into 4 groups (n = 8/group) and exposed to incisor mal-occlusion induced by unilateral anterior crossbite biomechanical stimulation. Two groups were sampled at 2 or 4 weeks. The other two groups were treated with local injections of a TNF inhibitor or PBS into the temporomandibular joints area at 2 weeks and then sampled at 4 weeks. Twenty-four rats either served as unilateral anterior crossbite mock operation controls (n = 8/group) with sampling at 2 or 4 weeks or received a local injection of the TNF inhibitor at 2 weeks with sampling at 4 weeks. Chondrocytes were isolated from the temporomandibular joints of 6 additional rats and treated with TNF in vitro. Joint samples were assessed using Hematoxylin&eosin, Safranin O, TUNEL and immunohistochemistry staining, real-time PCR, fluorogenic activity assays and Western blot analyses. The isolated chondrocytes were also analyzed by flow cytometry. Results: Unilateral anterior crossbite stimulation led to temporomandibular joint cartilage degradation, associated with an increase in TUNEL-positive chondrocytes number, caspase-9 expression levels, and the release of cytochrome c from mitochondria at 2 weeks without changes in TNF and caspase-8 levels until after 4 weeks. TNF stimulated apoptosis of the isolated chondrocytes and up-regulated caspase-8 expression, but did not change caspase-9 expression levels. Local injection of TNF inhibitor down-regulated caspase-8 expression and reduced TUNEL-positive cell number, but did not reverse cartilage thickness reduction, caspase-9 up-regulation or cytochrome c release. Conclusions: Unilateral anterior crossbite stimulation induces mitochondrion-mediated apoptosis of articular chondrocytes. TNF accelerated the unilateral anterior crossbite induced chondrocytes apoptosis via death-receptor pathway. However, anti-TNF therapy does not prevent cartilage loss in this model of temporomandibular joint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both power flow states and sensitivities between variables are important information in power system analysis and should be kept consistent before and after equivalence. The general sufficient and necessary condition for sensitivity consistency in equivalent methods is derived. Based on the proposed general condition, it is further derived that Thevenin equivalent method can keep sensitivity consistent before and after equivalence, whereas the specific preconditions for sensitivity consistency are required for the traditional Ward equivalent method and extended Ward equivalent method. These two Ward equivalent methods cannot meet the preconditions in general cases and may lead to significant errors. This conclusion is confirmed by simulation results of the IEEE 39‐bus system and an actual power system with 661 buses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia is considered to be the main neurotoxin responsible for hepatic encephalopathy resulting from liver failure. Liver failure has been reported to alter expression and activity of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (Mrp2) at the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The aim of this study was to investigate whether ammonia is involved in abnormalities of expression and activity of P-gp and Mrp2 at the BBB. Hyperammonemic rats were developed by an intraperitoneal injection of ammonium acetate (NH4Ac, 4.5 mmol/kg). Results showed that Mrp2 function markedly increased in cortex and hippocampus of rats at 6 h following NH4Ac administration. Significant increase in function of P-gp was observed in hippocampus of rats. Meanwhile, such alterations were in line with the increase in mRNA and protein levels of P-gp and Mrp2. Significant increase in levels of nuclear amount of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) p65 was also observed. Primarily cultured rat brain microvessel endothelial cells ( rBMECs) were used for in vitro study. Data indicated that 24 h exposure to ammonia significantly increased function and expression of P-gp and Mrp2 in rBMECs, accompanied with activation of NF-κB. Furthermore, such alterations induced by ammonia were reversed by NF-κB inhibitor. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that hyperammonemia increases the function and expression of P-gp and Mrp2 at the BBB via activating NF-κB pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species in the genus Zygophiala are associated with sooty blotch and flyspeck disease on a wide range of hosts. In this study, 63 Zygophiala isolates collected from flyspeck colonies on a range of plants from several regions of China were used for phylogeny, host range and geographic distribution analysis. Phylogenetic trees were constructed on four genes - internal transcribed spacer (ITS), partial translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF), β-tubulin (TUB2), and actin (ACT) – both individually and in combination. Isolates were grouped into 11 clades among which five new species, Z. emperorae, Z. trispora, Z. musae, Z. inaequalis and Z. longispora, were described. Species of Zygophiala differed in observed host range and geographic distribution. Z. wisconsinensis and Z. emperorae were the most prevalent throughout the sampled regions of China, whereas Z. trispora, Z. musae, Z. inaequalis and Z. longispora were collected only in southern China. The hosts of Z. wisconsinensis and Z. emperorae were mainly in the family Rosaceae whereas Z. trispora, Z. musae, Z. inaequalis and Z. longispora were found mainly on banana (Musa spp.). Cross inoculation tests provided evidence of host specificity among SBFS species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new method on static external equivalent network is proposed. The method represents the equivalence of different component types and ensures the consistency of both power flow states and sensitivities of variables in the internal network before and after equivalence. Compared to the existing equivalent methods that only consider the power flow state consistency but ignore component particularity representation and sensitivity consistency, the proposed method is more accurate and effective. The simulation results of the 39-bus system and an actual 661-bus utility system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Condition monitoring of planetary gearboxes in time-varying speed service is an important and actual engineering requirement, however, also an intractable task. The traditional sideband energy ratio (SER) method limits its application to complex operational conditions due to the frequency spectrum based and manual bandwidth selection. To this end, this paper proposes an adaptive order-band energy ratio (AOER) method, an enhanced version of the SER, to quantitatively and intelligently diagnose gear faults under different operational conditions. First, a signal model based on angular increment and order components is proposed to properly describe the vibrations for both stationary and non-stationary conditions. The proposed model provides the theoretical source and reliance for the order spectrum analysis and the diagnostic mechanism of the OER. Second, the OER is theoretically proved to be a reliable fault indicator by analyzing the proposed signal model. The offset of the uncertainty terms highlighting the fault symptoms demonstrates the potential success of using OER for the fault diagnosis. Finally, OERs generated from the vibration data and three typical machine learning algorithms are used to adaptively obtain the optimal bandwidth and thus the AOER. The AOER can be directly used for the remaining vibration data of the corresponding operational condition. Comparing with SER and the convolutional neural network, the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and outperformance of AOER for both stationary and non-stationary operational conditions. More importantly, since AOER can cope with diagnostic tasks for different operational conditions, it enables an improved ability to monitor a PG's health in the actual complex environment. • A signal model based on angular increment and order components is proposed. • The proposed model provides the theoretical source for the order spectrum analysis. • The OER is theoretically proved to be a potential reliable fault indicator. • The AOER can cope with diagnostic tasks for different operational conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan annual wild barley is rich in genetic variation. This study was aimed at the exploitation of new SSRs for the genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis of wild barley by data mining. We developed 49 novel EST-SSRs and confirmed 20 genomic SSRs for 80 Tibetan annual wild barley and 16 cultivated barley accessions. A total of 213 alleles were generated from 69 loci with an average of 3.14 alleles per locus. The trimeric repeats were the most abundant motifs (40.82%) among the EST-SSRs, while the majority of the genomic SSRs were di-nuleotide repeats. The polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.08 to 0.75 with a mean of 0.46. Besides this, the expected heterozygosity (He) ranged from 0.0854 to 0.7842 with an average of 0.5279. Overall, the polymorphism of genomic SSRs was higher than that of EST-SSRs. Furthermore, the number of alleles and the PIC of wild barley were both higher than that of cultivated barley, being 3.12 vs 2.59 and 0.44 vs 0.37. Indicating more polymorphism existed in the Tibetan wild barley than in cultivated barley. The 96 accessions were divided into eight subpopulations based on 69 SSR markers, and the cultivated genotypes can be clearly separated from wild barleys. A total of 47 SSR-containing EST unigenes showed significant similarities to the known genes. These EST-SSR markers have potential for application in germplasm appraisal, genetic diversity and population structure analysis, facilitating marker-assisted breeding and crop improvement in barley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health services for rotating machinery are essential to ensure safe industrial production. In recent years, deep learning (DL) methods based on vibration analysis have been continuously developed in rotating mechanical fault diagnosis (MFD). However, current diagnostic models based on DL facing three major challenges: (1) Convolutional neural network (CNN)-based DL algorithms lose spatial information of features, which may inevitably cause recognition errors; (2) Sufficient faulty training samples must be required to guarantee the learning capability of DL models, which may not be satisfied in actual engineering; (3) The poor generality of existing DL-based models make it difficult for different rotating machines or even different components of a mechanical device for diagnostic tasks. Toward the above problems, a revised DL model, namely dual convolution-capsule network (DC-CN), is introduced to diagnose rotating machinery faults under minor sample conditions. The DC-CN well merits the advantages of CNN and the capsule network (CN), which fully retains spatial information while digging in-depth fault features. Therefore, DC-CN achieves an ideal balance between diagnostic effectiveness and data amount. Experiments including different rotating machinery and different fault components are conducted to validate the diagnostic performance of the proposed model, and the t-SNE dimensionality reduction algorithm is introduced to visualize the extracted features. The proposed DC-CN demonstrated the best diagnostic capability than other DL models in different rotating machinery: 1. For rolling bearing, DC-CN achieved 99.78%, 98.22%, 100%, and 100% under 4 different loading conditions; 2. For the planetary gearbox, DC-CN reached 96.91% and 98.22% under different rotational conditions, including 8 health scenarios of different gear types; 3. DC-CN has excellent performance under small sample conditions. • A dual convolutional capsule network (DC-CN) model is proposed to diagnose faults. • The DC-CN well retains the spatial information while digging in-depth fault features. • The proposed model performs well under small sample conditions. • DC-CN has an optimal diagnostic generality for different rotating machinery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We consider the MAP/G/1 queue with working vacations and vacation interruption. We obtain the queue length distribution with the method of supplementary variable, combined with the matrix-analytic method and censoring technique. We also obtain the system size distribution at pre-arrival epoch and the Laplace–Stieltjes transform (LST) of waiting time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, an M/G/1 queue with a working vacations and vacation interruption is analyzed. Using the method of a supplementary variable and the matrix-analytic method, we obtain the queue length distribution and service status at an arbitrary epoch under steady state conditions. Further, we provide the Laplace–Stieltjes transform (LST) of the stationary waiting time. Finally, numerical examples are presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Four sesquiterpene lactones including an eremophilenolide dimer, named as biligulaplenolide, 1, 8β-hydroxy-1-oxo-(14α,15α eremophil-7(11),9(10)-dien-12,8α-olide, 2, 1-hydroxy-2-oxo-(14α,15α eremophil-1(10),7(11),8(9)-trien-12,8-olide, 3, 4α,8β,9α-trihydroxy- 5αΗ-7(11)-eudesmen-12,8α-olide, 4, along with two known ones, 10α-hydroxy-1-oxo-eremophil-7(11),8(9)-dien-12,8-olide, 5, and furanoeremophil-1(10)-ene-2,9-dione, 6, were isolated from the underground organs of Ligularia platyglossa (Franch.) Hand.-Mazz. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods including single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis (2 and 3). Their in vitro cytotoxicities against seven cancer cell lines (BGC-823, A549, HL-60, B16, SMMC-7721, BEL7402, Hela) were evaluated. Compounds 2, 3, 5 showed cytotoxic activities on HL-60 cancer cells with IC50 in the range of 24.0 to 51.1μM, whereas compound 3 exhibited only weak cytotoxic activity against the B16, BEL7402 and Hela cancer cells. Flow cytometric analysis indicated that compound 3 induces Hela cells to apoptotic death after 48h treatment with 0.38mM of this compound. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Aim of study: The fruit of Melia toosendan Sieb. et Zucc. (MTF) is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine in the treatment of stomachache and many acute or chronic inflammations, as well as ascariasis. This paper aimed to investigate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of the MTF extract and two main limonoid-type triterpenoids isolated from MTF. Materials and methods: The ethanolic extract of MTF and two limonoids, isotoosendanin (1) and 1-O-tigloyl-1-O-debenzoylohchinal (2) were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. Acetic acid-induced vascular permeability and λ-carrageenan-induced hind paw edema tests in mice were used to investigate anti-inflammatory activity; and acetic acid-induced writhing and hot-plate tests in mice were used to determine analgesic effect. Results: Both the ethanolic extract and two limonoids displayed significant anti-inflammatory effects. Although the ethanolic extract showed remarkable analgesic effects in both writhing and hot-plate tests, the two limonoids had analgesic effects just in writhing test. Conclusion: The results suggested that the ethanolic extract of MTF had obvious anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities, and the two limonoids were the active constituents contributing to the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of MTF. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Clivorine, a pyrrolizidine alkaloid, is a potent toxic compound extracted from a Chinese medicinal plant Ligularia hodgsonii Hook. We have previously shown that clivorine inhibited human normal liver L-02 cells proliferation and induced p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphorylation. The aim of this study is to further observe the mechanism of clivorine-inhibited L-02 cells growth. In this paper we show here that clivorine can induce apoptosis in L-02 cells, reduce the expression of p53 protein but has no effect on the expression of Bcl-2 protein, and clivorine also induces the cleavage of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase in L-02 cells. Our results suggest that the anti-proliferative function of clivorine in L-02 cells may be due to its inducing cell apoptosis, and clivorine-induced cell apoptosis is independent of p53 protein. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) genes encode a large family of plant-specific transcription factors that play important roles in plant growth, development, and stress responses. However, there is little information available on SPL genes in Chenopodiaceae. Here, 23 SPL genes were identified and characterized in the highly nutritious crop Chenopodium quinoa. Chromosome localization analysis indicated that the 23 CqSPL genes were unevenly distributed on 12 of 18 chromosomes. Two zinc finger-like structures and a nuclear location signal were present in the SBP domains of all CqSPLs, with the exception of CqSPL21/22. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these genes were classified into eight groups (group I–VIII). The exon–intron structure and motif composition of the genes in each group were similar. Of the 23 CqSPLs, 13 were potential targets of miR156/7. In addition, 5 putative miR156-encoding loci and 13 putative miR157-encoding loci were predicted in the quinoa genome, and they were unevenly distributed on chromosome 1–4. The expression of several Cqu-MIR156/7 loci was confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in seedlings. Many putative cis-elements associated with light, stress, and phytohormone responses were identified in the promoter regions of CqSPLs, suggesting that CqSPL genes are likely involved in the regulation of key developmental processes and stress responses. Expression analysis revealed highly diverse expression patterns of CqSPLs among tissues. Many CqSPLs were highly expressed in leaves, flowers, and seeds, and their expression levels were low in the roots, suggesting that CqSPLs play distinct roles in the development and growth of quinoa. The expression of 13 of 23 CqSPL genes responded to salt treatment (11 up-regulated and 2 down-regulated). A total of 22 of 23 CqSPL genes responded to drought stress (21 up-regulated and 1 down-regulated). Moreover, the expression of 14 CqSPL genes was significantly altered following cadmium treatment (3 up-regulated and 11 down-regulated). CqSPL genes are thus involved in quinoa responses to salt/drought and cadmium stresses. These findings provide new insights that will aid future studies of the biological functions of CqSPLs in C. quinoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abnormal lipid metabolism is involved in the development of osteoarthritis (OA). ATP‐binding cassette protein G1 (ABCG1) is crucial in mediating the outflow of cholesterol, phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin and reducing intracellular lipid accumulation. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate whether ABCG1 participates in the abnormal adipogenesis of chondrocytes in osteoarthritic cartilage of temporomandibular joint. Methods: Eight‐week‐old female rats were subjected to unilateral anterior crossbite (UAC) to induce OA in the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Histochemical staining, immunohistochemical (IHC) staining, and qRT–PCR were performed. Primary condylar chondrocytes of rats were transfected with ABCG1 shRNA or overexpression lentivirus and then stimulated with fluid flow shear stress (FFSS). Cells were collected for oil red O staining, immunofluorescence staining, and qRT–PCR analysis. Results: Abnormal adipogenesis, characterized by increased expression of Adiponectin, CCAAT/enhancer‐binding protein α (Cebpα), fatty acid binding protein 4 (Fabp4) and Perilipin1, was enhanced in the degenerative cartilage of TMJ OA in rats with UAC, accompanied by decreased expression of ABCG1. After FFSS stimulation, we observed lipid droplets in the cytoplasm of cultured cells with increased expression of Adiponectin, Cebpα, Fabp4 and Perilipin1 and decreased expression of ABCG1. Knockdown of Abcg1 induced abnormal adipogenesis and differentiation of condylar chondrocytes. Overexpression of ABCG1 alleviated the abnormal adipogenesis and differentiation of condylar chondrocytes induced by FFSS. Conclusions: Abnormal adipogenesis of chondrocytes and decreased ABCG1 expression were observed in degenerative cartilage of TMJ OA. ABCG1 overexpression effectively inhibits the adipogenesis of chondrocytes and thus alleviates TMJ condylar cartilage degeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpreting and understanding vibration characteristics are the cornerstone for health condition monitoring schemes of a planetary gearbox. Phenomenological modeling provides a concise and efficient mathematical description of sensor-related vibration measurements, thus allowing prior guidance for spectrum analysis to be relied on. In this paper, some overlooked problems during the modeling process in previous researches are pointed out and analyzed. Some discoveries are consequently obtained: First, the asymmetry of spectrum structure should be attributed to the magnitude randomness of gear meshing vibration rather than different phase angles of multiple-planet gears; Second, the basic frequency component to constitute a model, namely a product of the rotational frequency of a planet carrier and the number of planet gears, is far from sufficient to describe the actual vibrations; Finally, improper function the phases of multiple-planet gears will lose some sidebands that should have been. For these reasons, we map the phase variation of multiple-planet gears into the time-varying propagating distance, therefore, solving the neutralization phenomena of the frequency components. With consideration of the attenuation effect and random gear meshing magnitudes, an improved model is proposed to provide a more reasonable representation of the vibration behaviors, both for the dominant frequency components and structure. Simulation and experimental studies both demonstrate the higher fidelity and descriptive capability than the traditional models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An improved sideband energy ratio (ISER) is proposed for the fault diagnosis of a planetary gearbox. • Diagnostic mechanisms of sideband related indicators are thoroughly analyzed. • Drawbacks of traditional sideband related indicators are pointed out. • Experimental studies via machine learning algorithms demonstrate that ISER outperforms than other sideband related indicators. Frequency spectrum analysis is an effective and direct way to understand the vibration behavior of a planetary gearbox (PG). Sideband structures, as useful and detectable fault information, have drawn widespread research attention to track and indicate the health conditions of the internal gears. However, for planetary gearboxes, different characteristic fault sidebands may mislead the diagnostic decisions, therefore, expert knowledge must be heavily relied on. The sideband related indicators, such as Sideband Energy Ratio (SER) and Sideband Index (SI), which synthesized the amplitudes of characteristic frequencies, have demonstrated their effectiveness in fault diagnosis of a PG. Whereas, the diagnostic mechanisms behind these sideband related indicators were not adequately studied. Moreover, how to properly select the numbers of sidebands to form a reliable indicator so far still has not yet been seriously considered. In this article, the diagnostic mechanisms of SER and SI are reexamined and analyzed via planetary gear vibration signal models with faulty gear. The drawbacks of these indicators are revealed over the theoretical analysis. According to the theoretical derivations, a selection of fewer sideband numbers is applied. A novel indicator, namely an Improved Sideband Energy ratio (ISER) , is then proposed for the diagnostic task. The ISER and other sidebands indicators are testified through experimental data under different gear fault scenarios. Three typical intelligent classification algorithms, namely support vector machine (SVM), XGBoost, and deep neural network (DNN) are employed to demonstrate their diagnostic abilities. The results show that the ISER outperforms than SER, SI, and other statistical sideband indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The motion periods of sun gear fault meshing positions are studied in planetary gear systems. • Generalized expressions of the studied motion periods are derived and validated. • The influences of the motion periods to the vibration response are analyzed. • The minimal measured data length for effective fault diagnosis is recommended based on the motion period. Special assembly manner provides planetary gearboxes unique transmission characteristics, meanwhile brings the diagnostic complexity via a fixed sensor due to the irregular dynamic nature of gear fault meshing positions. This paper proposes a systematic scheme to explore the motion periods of the sun gear fault meshing positions in a planetary gearbox, namely tidal periods. The generalized expressions to the tidal periods are derived and validated through the operational mechanism of a planetary gearbox. The tidal periods are incorporated into simulated signal models so that the unique influences to the vibration responses of a planetary gearbox are revealed. Some previously uncleared and uninterpreted fault-related sidebands can, therefore, be properly interpreted. Moreover, a tidal period is proved to be a minimized time duration that embraces complete fault induced information. Through simple statistical analysis of experimental data under different operating speeds, a minimum required data length for proper fault diagnosis is recommended based on the analysis of a tidal period. The tidal period is an intrinsic nature due to the operational property of a planetary gearbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The optimal delivery time may increase with the platform power. • The increase of the platform power can promote the supply chain coordination. • The supply chain can be coordinated when platform power is large. • Wholesale price contract with the low platform power cannot achieve coordination. • When the platform power is low, cost-sharing contract partly achieves coordination. This paper investigates the coordination problem of a supply chain consisting of a manufacturer and a retailer who sells products through an offline channel and an online platform. Platform power is considered to reflect the ability of the platform to enlarge the market share. We find that the supply chain can be coordinated via wholesale price and cost-sharing contracts when platform power is large, and even if platform power is small, the supply chain can still be coordinated via cost-sharing contract when delivery time sensitivity is relatively high. Most of the results are robust when the manufacturer joins the platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep learning-based intelligent fault diagnosis methods have attracted increasing attention for their automatic feature extraction ability. However, existing works are usually under the assumption that the training and test dataset share similar distributions, which unfortunately always violates real practice due to the variety of working conditions. In this paper, an end-to-end scheme of joint use of two-direction signals and capsule network (CN) is proposed for fault diagnosis of rolling bearing. With the help of the superior ability of CN in capturing the spatial position information between features, more valuable information can be mined. Aiming to eliminate the influence of different rotational speeds, vertical and horizontal vibration signals are fused as the input to CN, so that invariant features can be extracted automatically from the raw signals. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by experimental data of rolling bearing under different rotational speeds and compared with a deep convolutional neural network (DCNN). The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is able to recognize the fault types of rolling bearing under scenarios of different rotational speeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern cloud computing relies heavily on data centers, which usually host tens of thousands of servers. Predicting the power consumption accurately in data center operations is crucial for energy optimization. In this paper, we formulate the power consumption prediction at both the fine-grained and coarse-grained level. We carefully discuss the desired properties of an applicable prediction model and propose a non-intrusive, traffic-aware prediction framework for power consumption. We design a character-level encoding strategy for URIs and employ both convolutional and recurrent neural networks to develop a unified prediction model. We use real datasets to simulate requests and analyze the characteristics of the collected power consumption series. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed framework can achieve superior prediction performance compared to other popular leading prediction methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporomandibular joint (TMJ), which is biomechanically related to dental occlusion, is often insulted by osteoarthritis (OA). This study was conducted to clarify the relationship between Indian hedgehog (Ihh) and parathyroid hormone receptor 1 (PTH1R) signaling in modulating the enhanced chondrocyte terminal differentiation in dental stimulated TMJ osteoarthritic cartilage. A gain- and loss-of-function strategy was used in an in vitro model in which fluid flow shear stress (FFSS) was applied, and in an in vivo model in which the unilateral anterior cross-bite (UAC) stimulation was adopted. Ihh and PTH1R signaling was modulated through treating the isolated chondrocytes with inhibitor/activator and via deleting Smoothened (Smo) and/or Pth1r genes in mice with the promoter gene of type 2 collagen (Col2-CreER) in the tamoxifen-inducible pattern. We found that both FFSS and UAC stimulation promoted the deep zone chondrocytes to undergo terminal differentiation, while cells in the superficial zone were robust. We demonstrated that the terminal differentiation process in deep zone chondrocytes promoted by FFSS and UAC was mediated by the enhanced Ihh signaling and declined PTH1R expression. The FFSS-promoted terminal differentiation was suppressed by administration of the Ihh inhibitor or PTH1R activator. The UAC-promoted chondrocytes terminal differentiation and OA-like lesions were rescued in Smo knockout, but were enhanced in Pth1r knockout mice. Importantly, the relieving effect of Smo knockout mice was attenuated when Pth1r knockout was also applied. Our data suggest a chondrocyte protective effect of suppressing Ihh signaling in TMJ OA cartilage which is dependent on PTH1R signaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Temporomandibular joint osteoarthritis (TMJOA) is characterized by articular cartilage degeneration and progressive synovitis. How to effectively inhibit TMJOA in the early stage has been a hot topic in the biomedical field. As a non‐invasive physiotherapy, pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) treatment has shown great potential in the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) in extremity joints. Objective: This study aims to investigate the biological effect of PEMF intervention on TMJ cartilage degeneration and synovium inflammation at the early stage of TMJOA. Methods: PEMF (2.0 mT, 15 Hz, 2 h/day) treatment was given to rats in which TMJOA was induced by applying the unilateral anterior crossbite (UAC). Histological and immunohistochemical staining, TUNEL assay, real‐time PCR and western blotting assay were performed to detect the changes of the morphology and the expression of pro‐inflammatory and degradative factors in condylar cartilage and synovium. Results: Obvious condylar cartilage degeneration, characterized by decreased cartilage thickness, degraded cartilage extracellular matrix, increased expression of pro‐inflammatory and degradative factors (TNF‐α, IL‐1β, MMP‐13, ADAMTS‐5, IL‐6, MMP‐3, MMP‐9 and COL‐X) and increased chondrocytes death, was observed in UAC group, accompanied by synovium hyperplasia and up‐regulation of pro‐inflammatory and degradative factors in synovium. PEMF intervention reversed the decreased cartilage thickness at 3 weeks and degraded cartilage extracellular matrix at 6 weeks. Moreover, the up‐regulation of pro‐inflammatory, degradative and hypertrophyic factors and chondrocytes death in condylar cartilage induced by UAC were inhibited to some extent. In addition, the synovium hyperplasia and the up‐regulation of pro‐inflammatory and degradative factors in synovium were inhibited at 3 weeks and 6 weeks. Conclusions: Appropriate PEMF stimulation can reverse the loss of cartilage extracellular matrix, the chondrocytes death, the increased expression of pro‐inflammatory and degradative factors in cartilage, the decreased cartilage thickness and synovium inflammation induced by UAC at the early stage of TMJOA to some extent. PEMF stimulation may be a promising method in clinical TMJOA treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of smart cities may bring positive and negative effects simultaneously on citizens' perception of safety (CPS), while previous studies in the field of smart city construction paied significant attention to safety-related technologies but ignored CPS. Therefore, this work developed an indicator set consisting of five primary and eleven secondary indicators. A model integrating analytical network process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was used to evaluate CPS in smart cities. Nanjing, a pilot smart city in China, was adopted as the case to demonstrate the proposed evaluation methodology. The results showed that the CPS in Nanjing was at a positive level on the whole. The citizens held the highest CPS in medical treatment, while the CPS concerning information and food were weak. This paper would not only enrich the academic framework related to CPS, but also help the government formulate sustainable smart city construction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tibetan wild barley has been identified to show large genetic variation and stress tolerance. A genome-wide association (GWA) analysis was performed to detect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for drought tolerance using 777 Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers and morphological and physiological traits of 166 Tibetan wild barley accessions in both hydroponic and pot experiments. Large genotypic variation for these traits was found; and population structure and kinship analysis identified three subpopulations among these barley genotypes. The average LD (linkage disequilibrium) decay distance was 5.16 cM, with the minimum on 6H (0.03 cM) and the maximum on 4H (23.48 cM). A total of 91 DArT markers were identified to be associated with drought tolerance-related traits, with 33, 26, 16, 1, 3, and 12 associations for morphological traits, H+K+-ATPase activity, antioxidant enzyme activities, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, soluble protein content, and potassium concentration, respectively. Furthermore, 7 and 24 putative candidate genes were identified based on the reference Meta-QTL map and by searching the Barleymap. The present study implicated that Tibetan annual wild barley from Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is rich in genetic variation for drought stress. The QTLs detected by genome-wide association analysis could be used in marker-assisting breeding for drought-tolerant barley genotypes and provide useful information for discovery and functional analysis of key genes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibration sensors are, generally, fixed on the housing of planetary gearboxes for vibration monitoring. When a local fault occurred on the tooth of a planet gear, along with the system operating, the faulty tooth will mesh with the ring gear or sun gear at different positions referring to the fixed sensor. With consideration of the attenuation effect, the amplitudes of the fault-induced vibrations will be time-varying due to the time-varying transfer paths. These variations in signals are valuable information to identify the fault existence as well as the severity and types. However, the fault-meshing positions are time-varying and elusive due to the complicated kinematics or the compound motion behaviors of the internal rotating components. It is tough to accurately determine every fault meshing position though acquiring information from multi-sensors. However, there should exist some specific patterns of the fault meshing positions referring to the single sensor. To thoroughly investigate these motion patterns make effective fault diagnosis feasible merely by a single sensor. Unfortunately, so far few pieces of literature explicitly demonstrate these motion patterns in this regard. This article proposes a method to derive the motion periods of the fault-meshing positions with a faulty planet gear tooth, in which two conditions are considered: 1. The fault-meshing position initially occurs at the ring gear; 2. The fault-meshing position initially occurs at the sun gear. For each scenario, we derive the mathematical expression of the motion period in terms of rotational angles. These motion periods are, in essence, based on the teeth number of gears of a given planetary gearbox. Finally, the application of these motion periods for fault diagnosis is explored with experimental studies. The minimal required data length of a single sensor for effective fault diagnosis is revealed based on the motion periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) displays a high remodelling capability in response to occlusion changes. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the responses of TMJ condyles of growing mice to the installation of a unilateral anterior crossbite (UAC) prosthesis and the replacement of the UAC prothesis with a bilateral anterior elevation (BAE) prosthesis. Materials and Methods: C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to the blank control and experimental groups. In mice in the experimental groups, UAC was created, while in others, BAE was created after the creation of UAC or removal of UAC. Changes in TMJ condylar cartilage and subchondral bone were assessed. Results: The degradation of condylar cartilage induced by UAC was reversed by BAE, as evaluated by cartilage histochemical changes, collagen II‐positive area, collagen X‐positive chondrocytes and expression levels of Adamts‐5, Mmp13, Tnf‐α and Il‐1β. Subchondral bone was assessed based on the subchondral bone volume, the number of TRAP‐positive cells and the Opg/Rankl ratio. Conclusion: The growing mouse TMJ condyle displays a high remodelling capability, which can be degenerative or rehabilitative in response to the creation of UAC and the replacement of UAC with BAE. Early correction of occlusion is beneficial for the recovery of degenerative condyles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marssonina leaf blotch of apple caused by Marssonina coronaria is one of the most important diseases of apple (Malus domestica) worldwide. Breeding and the appropriate utilization of disease-resistant varieties is the safest, most effective, most economical and environmentally friendly method for controlling the disease. Previous studies have demonstrated that Shandingzi (Malus baccata) is much more resistant to M. coronaria than Fuji (M. domestica). However, the molecular mechanisms of Fuji and Shandingzi resistance to M. coronaria infection remain unknown. In this study, the responses of Fuji and Shandingzi to M. coronaria infection were studied by comparative transcriptome analysis. As a result, 4898 and 2897 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in Fuji and Shandingzi, respectively, were identified. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of the co-expressed DEGs showed that 25 significant terms were enriched, and the unique DEGs in Shandingzi were mainly associated with the biotic stimulus response (GO: 0009607), defense response (GO: 0006952), stress response (GO: 0006950) and oxidoreductase activity (GO: 0016491). Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs in both species of Rosaceae were enriched in plant-pathogen interactions, amino acid metabolism and other pathways. In the plant-pathogen interaction pathway, mitogen-activated protein kinase and Ca2+ signaling pathways were induced and enriched in both Shandingzi and Fuji when infected by M. coronaria. Furthermore, the percentages of R genes and disease resistance-related DEGs in Shandingzi were higher than those in Fuji. The qRT-PCR analysis results were consistent with the transcriptome results. The results provide a theoretical basis for breeding disease-resistant varieties. • The responses of Fuji and Shandingzi to M. coronaria infection were revealed by comparative transcriptome analysis. • MAPK and Ca2+ signaling pathways were induced and enriched when both Fuji and Shandingzi were infected by M. coronaria. • The percentages of R genes and disease resistance-related genes in Shandingzi were higher than those in Fuji. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Insulin like growth factor-1 is increased in the degenerative cartilage. • Insulin like growth factor-1 receptor is increased in degenerative cartilage. • Insulin like growth factor binding protein-3 is dual in degenerative cartilage. • Insulin like growth factor binding protein-5 is increased in degenerative cartilage. • Occlusion stimulates insulin like growth factor-1 expression in jaw joint cartilage. Abstract Objective To investigate the changes in insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) expression levels in the degenerative mandibular condylar cartilage. Design Thirty-six rats were divided into the unilateral anterior crossbite and control groups. The expression levels of IGF-1; IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R); IGF-binding protein-3 and -5 (IGFBP-3 and -5); proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA); aggrecan; type-I, -II, -VI, and -X collagen; tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 and -3 (TIMP-1 and -3); metalloproteinases of matrix metalloproteinases-3 and-13 (MMP-3 and -13); a disintegrin and metalloproteinase thrombospondin-4 and -5 (ADAMTS-4 and -5); alkaline phosphatase (ALP); β-glucuronidase; and N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase in the mandibular condylar cartilage were assessed. Results The protein expression levels of IGF-1and IGF-1R were increased from week 4 in the unilateral anterior crossbite group. The mRNA expression level of IGFBP-3 and -5 was upregulated from week 4 and week 2, respectively; that of IGFBP-3 was downregulated at week 8; and that of PCNA, type-II collagen, type-X collagen, aggrecan, TIMP-1, and TIMP-3 was downregulated, whereas that of MMP-3, MMP-13, ADAMTS-4, ADAMTS-5, β-glucuronidase, and N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase were upregulated from week 2. The positive area size of type-I collagen was increased and that of type VI collagen was decreased from week 2. The positive area size of type X collagen was increased at week 2 but decreased at week 8. The percentage of ALP-positive cells was increased from week 4. Conclusions Unilateral anterior crossbite stimulated the multifarious expression of IGF-1 and IGFBP, which may be linked to chondrocyte proliferation and differentiation in the mandibular condylar cartilage that showed progressive degeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certificateless public key cryptography (CL-PKC) was introduced to solve two important problems in public key cryptography. One was the presence of certificates in traditional public-key cryptography (TPKC), the other was the key escrow problem in ID-based public-key cryptography (ID-PKC). In recent years, several certificateless signature schemes (CLS) have been proposed in the random oracle model (ROM) and the standard model. However, many implementations of the random oracle may result in insecure schemes. Some CLS schemes in the standard model were insecure against key replacement attack and were not strongly unforgeable. In order to solve these problems, we construct a CLS scheme in the ROM in this paper. Based on the Computational Diffie-Hellman (CDH) assumption and collision-resistant hash (CRH) assumption and partially depending on the ROM, we prove that the scheme has strong unforgeability. In addition, we show that the proposed scheme enjoys higher computational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crack detection in beams and beam-like structures is an important issue in industry and has attracted numerous investigations. A local crack leads to global system dynamics changes and produce non-linear vibration responses. Many researchers have studied these non-linearities for beam crack diagnosis. However, most reported methods are based on impact excitation and constant frequency excitation. Few studies have focused on crack detection through external sweep excitation which unleashes abundant dynamic characteristics of the system. Together with a signal resampling technique inspired by Computed Order Tracking, this paper utilize vibration responses under sweep excitations to diagnose crack status of beams. A data driven method for crack depth evaluation is proposed and window based harmonics extracting approaches are studied. The effectiveness of sweep excitation and the proposed method is experimentally validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]