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The need for precise radio telescope pointing has driven great attention to investigating the effect of antenna local deformation or irregularity, such as unevenness in the azimuth track. Although the track-alidade interaction model is commonly used to investigate the pointing effect of track unevenness (such as the works on DSN 34 m antennas and the Green Bank Telescope), few experiments have been done to test the effectiveness of this model independently from the overall pointing model. To address this issue, a method utilizing an optical pointing telescope (OPT) for determining the impact of track unevenness on pointing is proposed. This method uses a group of reference pointing data collected by an OPT mounted at the bottom of the antenna alidade to extract the twist effect of the alidade from the radio telescope pointing data, thus compared with the predicted twist by the track-alidade model. This method was applied to the 26 meter Nanshan Radio Telescope (NSRT 26 m), achieving good agreement with the model-predicted values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Though circular RNAs (circRNAs) are the key regulators in tumor carcinogenesis, they remain largely unexplored in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: The expression of RanGAP1-derived circRNAs (circ_0063531, circ_0063534, circ_0063513, circ_0063518, circ_0063507, circ_0063723) were evaluated in eight paired HCC and normal tissues, and the correlation between circRanGAP1 (circ_0063531) expression and clinicopathological characteristics in 40 HCC patients was determined. The association between miR-27b-3p and circRanGAP1 or NRAS was predicted using bioinformatics analysis. The expression of circRanGAP1, miR-27b-3p, and NRAS were detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The potential oncogenic role of circ-RanGAP1 was assessed using CCK-8, colony formation, transwell assays in vitro, subcutaneous tumor mouse model, vein tail metastatic model, and orthotopically implanted intrahepatic HCC model in vivo. Luciferase reporter and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assays were used to explore the binding site between miR-27b-3p and circ-RanGAP1 or NRAS. Protein expression was detected using western blotting. The localization of miR-27b-3p and circ-RanGAP1 was investigated using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The level of immune infiltration was assessed by bioinformatics analysis, flow cytometry, and orthotopically implanted intrahepatic HCC models. Results: Here, we found elevated circRanGAP1 in the cells and clinical tissues of patients with HCC. Increased circRanGAP1 levels are associated with enlarged tumors and the advanced stage of TNM. CircRanGAP1 promotes the growth, migration, and HCC cell invasion, concurrently with the growth and metastasis of tumors in-vivo. Moreover, circRanGAP1 is mainly located inside the cytoplasm. Mechanistically, circRanGAP1 as an oncogene promotes HCC progression by miR-27b-3p/NRAS/ERK axis, furthermore, affects the infiltration level of tumor-associated macrophages probably by sponging miR-27b-3p. Immune infiltration analysis shows that NRAS is positively correlated with the levels of CD68+ tumor-associated macrophages in HCC samples and that NRAS and CD68 are related to the poor outcome of HCC. Conclusion: These results reveal that circRanGAP1 is a HCC oncogene that function by the miR-27b-3p/NRAS/ERK axis and regulates the infiltration levels of tumor-associated macrophages by sponging miR-27b-3p. Therefore, circRANGAP1/ NRAS axis may be an important potential treatment target against HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The extent of interstitial fibrosis in the kidney not only correlates with renal function at the time of biopsy but also predicts future renal outcome. However, its assessment by pathologists lacks good agreement. The aim of this study is to construct a machine learning-based model that enables automatic and reliable assessment of interstitial fibrosis in human kidney biopsies. Methods Validated cortex, glomerulus and tubule segmentation algorithms were incorporated into a single model to assess the extent of interstitial fibrosis. The model performances were compared with expert renal pathologists and correlated with patients' renal functional data. Results Compared with human raters, the model had the best agreement [intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.90] to the reference in 50 test cases. The model also had a low mean bias and the narrowest 95% limits of agreement. The model was robust against colour variation on images obtained at different times, through different scanners, or from outside institutions with excellent ICCs of 0.92–0.97. The model showed significantly better test-retest reliability (ICC 0.98) than humans (ICC 0.76–0.94) and the amount of interstitial fibrosis inferred by the model strongly correlated with 405 patients' serum creatinine (r  = 0.65–0.67) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (r = −0.74 to −0.76). Conclusions This study demonstrated that a trained machine learning-based model can faithfully simulate the whole process of interstitial fibrosis assessment, which traditionally can only be carried out by renal pathologists. Our data suggested that such a model may provide more reliable results, thus enabling precision medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) thin films were fabricated rapidly on LaMnO3/MgO/Y2O3/Al2O3/Hastelloy substrate by the self-built induction heating system. The growth rate can be more than 60 nm/s, which is much higher than the traditional Metal Organic Deposition (MOD) method. The effects of heating rate, oxygen partial pressure and growth temperature on the texture and morphology of YBCO films were studied, as well as the analysis of properties. The results of X-Ray Diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscopy demonstrated that rapid heating can effectively reduce the residual of BaCO3 particles. The faster heating rate results in a faster YBCO growth rate, easier c-axis oriented grains growth and denser morphology. Moreover, the growth temperature and atmosphere window of YBCO films were obtained in the rapid heating condition. Meanwhile, the YBCO nucleation and growth models were established. This work realized the rapid crystallization of YBCO films by induction heating system and improved understanding of the nucleation mechanism of YBCO on the flexible metal substrate with buffer layers, which is extremely attractive for the industrialization development of Fluorine Free-MOD superconducting films in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adsorption of discharged radioactive iodine is considered an important method to address this environmental problem. Metal-organic framework (MOF) materials are expected to be potential materials for capturing iodine. In this work, a new zinc-based MOF, namely [Zn 6 (OH) 6 (DMTDC) 3 (TPB)]·0.5DMF (JOU-31), was successfully prepared under solvothermal condition (H 2 DMTDC = 3,4-dimethylthieno [2,3-b]thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylic acid, TPB = 1,3,5-tris(4-pyridyl)benzene, DMF = N,N-Dimethylformamide). Structural analyses revealed that JOU-31 was a three-dimensional porous structure based on hexanuclear zinc-oxide clusters. Topologically, the framework of JOU-31 can be simplified to a (3,12)-connected net with new Schläfli symbol of {43·630}{43} 2. Due to its large specific surface area, abundant electron-rich N/S sites, and high stability, JOU-31 was applied to capture iodine. The saturated iodine adsorption capacity of JOU-31 in n -hexane solution was 822 mg g−1. In addition, the interaction mechanism between JOU-31 and the adsorbed iodine was further explored in detail. This work provides a valuable clue for the preparation of new MOFs for iodine adsorption. A novel (3,12)-connected Zn-MOF (JOU-31) based on hexanuclear zinc cluster was successfully synthesized. Due to its cage-like pores and large specific surface area, it is used as an iodine capture adsorbent. [Display omitted] • A new MOF based on hexanuclear zinc clusters was prepared under solvothermal condition. • The framework of JOU-31 can be simplified to a (3,12)-connected net with new Schläfli symbol. • The saturated I 2 adsorption capacity of JOU-31 was 822 mg g−1. • The conjugated N/S-containing ligands promote the interaction between MOF skeleton and I 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nucleic acid testing and antibody testing data from 143 recovered COVID-19 patients during the convalescent phase were retrospectively analyzed. A total of 23 (16.1%) recovered patients re-tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR. Three months after symptom onset, 100% and 99.3% of the patients remained positive for total and IgG antibodies, and the antibody levels remained high. IgM antibodies declined rapidly, with a median time to seroconversion of 67 (95% CI: 59, 75) days after onset. Approximately 25% of patients were seronegative for IgA antibodies at three months after onset. There was no statistically significant difference in antibody kinetics between patients with and without re-positive RT-PCR results during the convalescent phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiac fibrosis is involved in adverse cardiac remodeling and heart failure, which is the leading cause of deteriorated cardiac function. Accumulative evidence has elucidated that microRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in the pathogenesis of cardiac fibrosis. However, the exact molecular mechanism underlying miR-144 in cardiac fibrosis remains unknown. In the present study, a transverse aortic constriction (TAC) mouse model and angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) were constructed in order to investigate the expression levels of miR-144. It was demonstrated that miR-144 was significantly downregulated following pathological stimuli. CFs infected with miR-144 mimics were then used to test the effect of miR-144 on CF activation in vitro. The results revealed that overexpression of miR-144 led to a dramatically decreased proliferation and migration ability in CFs, as well as the transformation from fibroblasts to myofibroblasts, which was characterized by the decreased expression of collagen-I, collagen-III, CTGF, fibronectin and α-SMA. By contrast, such effects could be reversed by miR-144 knockdown. Mechanistically, the bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay in the present study demonstrated that cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) was a direct target of miR-144, and the expression of CREB was attenuated by miR-144. The results of the present study demonstrated that miR-144 played a key role in CF activation, partially by targeting CREB, which further suggested that the overexpression of miR-144 may be a promising strategy for the treatment of cardiac fibrosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feature correspondence lays the foundation for many computer vision and image processing tasks, which can be well formulated and solved by graph matching. Because of the high complexity, approximate methods are necessary for graph matching, and the continuous relaxation provides an efficient approximate scheme. But there are still many problems to be settled, such as the highly nonconvex objective function, the ignorance of the combinatorial nature of graph matching in the optimization process, and few attention to the outlier problem. Focusing on these problems, this paper introduces a continuation method directly targeting at the combinatorial optimization problem associated with graph matching. Specifically, first a regularization function incorporating the original objective function and the discrete constraints is proposed. Then a continuation method based on Gaussian smoothing is applied to it, in which the closed forms of relevant functions with respect to the outlier distribution are deduced. Experiments on both synthetic data and real world images validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph matching is a fundamental problem in theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, and lays the foundation for many computer vision and machine learning tasks. Approximate algorithms are necessary for graph matching due to its NP-complete nature. Inspired by the usage in network-related tasks, random walk is generalized to graph matching as a type of approximate algorithm. However, it may be inappropriate for the previous random walk-based graph matching algorithms to utilize continuous techniques without considering the discrete property. In this paper, we propose a novel random walk-based graph matching algorithm by incorporating both continuous and discrete constraints in the optimization process. Specifically, after interpreting graph matching by random walk, the continuous constraints are directly embedded in the random walk constraint in each iteration. Further, both the assignment matrix (vector) and the pairwise similarity measure between graphs are iteratively updated according the discrete constraints, which automatically leads the continuous solution to the discrete domain. Comparisons on both synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Image stitching is important for the perception and manipulation of undersea robots. In spite of a well-developed technique, it is still challenging for undersea images because of their inevitable appearance ambiguity caused by the limited light in the undersea environment, and local disturbance caused by moving objects, ocean current, etc. To get a clean and stable background panorama in the undersea environment, this paper proposes an undersea image-stitching method by introducing graph-based registration and blending procedures. Specifically, in the registration procedure, matching the features in each undersea image pair is formulated and solved by graph matching, to incorporate the structural information between features. In the blending procedure, an energy function on the indirect graph Markov random field is proposed, which takes both image consistency and neighboring consistency into consideration. Coincidentally, both graph matching and energy minimization can be mathematically formulated by integer quadratic programming problems with different constraints; the recently proposed graduated nonconvexity and concavity procedure is used to optimize both problems. Experiments on both synthetic images and real-world undersea images witness the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A digital twin-driven fatigue life prediction framework is proposed. • Monitor the fatigue failure and strength degradation of mechanical structures. • Real-time correction of simulated output data generated by twin model from measured stress data. • An approach for fatigue life prediction involving nonstationary random load. • Predicted fatigue life and failure location results are compared with those observed in experiment. Accurate fatigue life prediction is beneficial for fatigue maintenance of complex mechanical structures of off-road vehicles. For fatigue life prediction of mechanical structures subjected to non-stationary random loads during operation, this paper proposes a digital twin-driven fatigue life prediction method for mechanical structures. The core consists of improved fatigue theory, stress online measurement, and fatigue damage verification. In this study, a digital twin (DT) prediction framework containing multiple correction factors is established, in which the actual stress values in the physical world and the stress predictions of the estimated twin model can be obtained in real time. The remaining strength degradation of the structure and material can be compared to correct the prediction accuracy of fatigue analysis. In addition, based on the power density theory, combined with the short-time Fourier transform, a fatigue life analysis method that can comprehensively calculate the effect of load amplitude and frequency on fatigue is proposed. A test case has been demonstrated using a front axle housing of the off-road vehicle. The difference between the results predicted by the method in this paper and the actual fatigue results in failure time is only 2.65 h, with a relative error of only 3.95 %. In terms of failure location, the relative error is only 3.15 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) control problem with an active deformation adjustment mechanism on a 5-metre deployable antenna panel. An adaptive reduced-dimension fuzzy decoupling (ARDFD) control strategy based on fusion functions is proposed to eliminate the effects uncertainties due to coupled subsystems by designing and incorporating a fuzzy decoupling disturbance observer. Moreover, the MIMO system can be decomposed into a number of single-input single-output (SISO) systems using the unit diagonal matrix decoupling theory. Based on Lyapunov stability theory, it was shown that the error of fuzzy interference observer and the error between the fuzzy rule post parameter matrix and optimal post parameter matrix converge to a small region. Results of the simulation also show that the ARDFD control strategy can significantly eliminate adverse effects of the coupled subsystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron-containing metal–organic frameworks (Fe-MOFs) are promising photocatalysts for the activation of peroxysulphate. In this work, a new robust MOF (Fe2In-TCA) was successfully prepared through single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SC–SC) transformation using an indium-MOF template (In3-TCA) (TCA = 4,4′,4′′-nitrilotribenzoic acid). The SC–SC transformation led to the obtention of large-sized Fe2In-TCA crystals suitable for single-crystal X-ray diffraction. More fascinatingly, compared to the sample (Fe2In-TCA-D) synthesized by the one-pot in situ method, Fe2In-TCA not only showed a higher specific surface area but also showed better charge separation and migration efficiency, indicating that postsynthetic metal metathesis is an advanced strategy for preparing Fe-MOFs. With these advantages, Fe2In-TCA exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity for activating peroxydisulfate (PDS). Under optimum conditions, Fe2In-TCA removed about 98% of ofloxacin (OFL) in 30 minutes and could be reused over five cycles. Further mechanism studies showed that free radicals (˙SO4−, ˙OH, O2˙−), singlet oxygen (1O2), and photogenerated holes (h+) were the main active species for OFL degradation. These results show that Fe2In-TCA can be used as a potential photocatalyst to activate PDS to degrade OFL. This work provides a new perspective for the construction of robust Fe-MOFs for photocatalytic OFL degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether the CD38/cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) pathway plays a protective or detrimental role in neuroinflammation remains controversial. This study aimed to determine the role of CD38 in neuroinflammation using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated BV2 microglial cells and co-cultured Neuro-2a (N2a) cells. In monoculture experiments, BV2 cells were divided into control, CD38 interference (CD38Ri), negative control (NC), LPS, CD38Ri + LPS, NC + LPS and 8-Br-cADPR + LPS groups. In co-culture experiments, N2a cells were co-cultured with BV2 cells for 48 h. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD + ), cADPR and intracellular Ca 2+ levels and CD38 expression increased significantly in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. CD38 knockdown or 8-Br-cADPR treatment significantly reduced NAD + , cADPR and intracellular Ca 2+ levels. CD38 knockdown increased iNOS and NO levels in BV2 cells without LPS treatment; however, CD38 knockdown or 8-Br-cADPR treatment reduced iNOS and NO levels in BV2 cells with LPS treatment. CD38 knockdown increased the ratio of TUNEL-positive cells and cleaved Caspase 3/Caspase 3 ratio, and decreased the Bcl-2/Bax ratio in BV2 cells without LPS treatment; however, CD38 knockdown reduced the TUNEL positivity in BV2 cells with LPS treatment. CD38 knockdown or 8-Br-cADPR inhibited TNF-α, IL-6 (interleukin-6) and IL-1β levels in LPS-stimulated BV2 cells. Co-culture with CD38 knockdown or 8-Br-cADPR-treated BV2 cells did not influence apoptosis or iNOS expression in N2a cells. In conclusion, our results indicate that blocking the CD38/cADPR pathway reduces intracellular Ca 2+ , NO and the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines. CD38 knockdown exerted a detrimental effect in apoptosis and NO production in normal microglia, but played a protective role in apoptosis and NO production in LPS-stimulated microglia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LibCoopt is an open-source matlab code library which provides a general and convenient tool to approximately solve the combinatorial optimization problems on the set of partial permutation matrices, which are frequently encountered in computer vision, bioinformatics, social analysis, etc. To use the library, the user needs only to give the objective function and its gradient function associated with the problem. Two typical problems, the subgraph matching problem and the quadratic assignment problem, are employed to illustrate how to use the library and also its flexibility on different types of problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image stitching has long been studied in computer vision and has been applied to many fields. However, when the input images contain moving objects and meanwhile are noisy or partially contaminated, it remains a challenge to get a satisfactory clean panorama. In this paper, we propose to tackle both the challenges, i.e., denoising and stitching, by proposing a new energy function in a unified way. Such an energy model is however non-submodule, making the widely used optimization algorithms, such as graph cuts, hard to be used directly. We then generalize the recently proposed Graduated Non-Convexity and Concavity Procedure (GNCCP) to approximately minimize the energy. Comparative experiments validate the efficacy of the proposed energy function on both image denoising and stitching. Besides, the results also show the validity of the generalized-GNCCP on minimizing non-submodule function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DyBaCuO/YBaCuO multilayer thick films were prepared on oxide-buffered Hastelloy substrates by low fluorine metal organic deposition (MOD) process with a thickness ranging from 0.7 μm to 2.8 μm. In the thickness of 1.4 μm sample, transition temperature ( T) and critical current density ( J) are 91.2 K and 2.5 MA/cm (at 77 K, self field) respectively. With increasing thickness, T drops as well as J. Unfortunately, the critical current ( I) does not reach an ideal value when the thickness is 2.8 μm just only 365A/cm width as thickness is 2.1 μm. Rough surface structure, compressive, and tensile stress in the interlamination and Ba-Cu-O mixed phase were found in layer thickness of 2.1 μm and 2.8 μm are assumed to be the main reason for the limitation of the current transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The melting curves of iron are determined up to 365 GPa via molecular dynamic (MD) simulations combining with the embedded atom model (EAM) potential developed by Ackland et al. We simulated the melting with three approaches, the hysteresis, two-phase and recently modified Z methods. All three techniques can produce satisfying results, consistent well with most of static compression measurements and shock experiments. Hence, we recommend that these three techniques and this EAM potential are reliable techniques and potential for simulating melting properties of iron. Fitting the well-known Simon equation to our two-phase data we yield the analytical melting curve for iron: 1825(1 + P /57.723) 0.654 , which gives a melting point at the inner core boundary of 6345 K, very close to the recent diamond anvil cell (DAC) extrapolated value and other ab initio calculations. Furthermore, the analyses of our entropy of melting and solid–liquid interfacial energy γ sl indicate that at high pressure, the entropy of fusion shows weak pressure effect. The γ sl increases monotonically with pressure, and can be described as a second-order polynomial relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed a separation method of mixed pigments based on spectrum expression and independent component analysis. First, the spectrometer was used to obtain the spectral information of mixed pigments that was expressed as the discrete signal. Second, the independent component analysis was used to calculate the type of basic pigment. The simulated spectrum data of Munsell color card was used to validate this method. This algorithm could separate the mixed pigment spectrums from three basic pigment spectrums and the mixture from several pigment spectrums within the set of eight basic pigment spectrums successfully. The curve of separated pigment spectrum was very similar to the curve of original pigment spectrum. The average similarity is 97. 64%, and the maximum one can reach 99. 95%. The experiment results show that this method can determine the composition of mixed pigments accurately, so it is suitable for separation of mixed pigments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Considering Factor Analysis (FA) for each component of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), clustering and local dimensionality reduction can be addressed simultaneously by Mixture of Factor Analyzers (MFA) and Local Factor Analysis (LFA), which correspond to two FA parameterizations, respectively. This paper investigates the performance of Variational Bayes (VB) and Bayesian Ying-Yang (BYY) harmony learning on MFA/LFA for the problem of automatically determining the component number and the local hidden dimensionalities (i.e., the number of factors of FA in each component). Similar to the existing VB learning algorithm on MFA, we develop an alternative VB algorithm on LFA with a similar conjugate Dirichlet–Normal–Gamma (DNG) prior on all parameters of LFA. Also, the corresponding BYY algorithms are developed for MFA and LFA. A wide range of synthetic experiments shows that LFA is superior to MFA in model selection under either VB or BYY, while BYY outperforms VB reliably on both MFA and LFA. These empirical findings are consistently observed from real applications on not only face and handwritten digit images clustering, but also unsupervised image segmentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The convex and concave relaxation procedure (CCRP) was recently proposed and exhibited state-of-the-art performance on the graph matching problem. However, CCRP involves explicitly both convex and concave relaxations which typically are difficult to find, and thus greatly limit its practical applications. In this paper we propose a simplified CCRP scheme, which can be proved to realize exactly CCRP, but with a much simpler formulation without needing the concave relaxation in an explicit way, thus significantly simplifying the process of developing CCRP algorithms. The simplified CCRP can be generally applied to any optimizations over the partial permutation matrix, as long as the convex relaxation can be found. Based on two convex relaxations, we obtain two graph matching algorithms defined on adjacency matrix and affinity matrix, respectively. Extensive experimental results witness the simplicity as well as state-of-the-art performance of the two simplified CCRP graph matching algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the shock relationships, the wavy characteristics and the forming conditions of a shock wave are analyzed. The wavy characteristics of an Euler system are studied theoretically. The present research focuses on the wavy characteristics of Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S) waves, the excitation conditions of shocklets in compressible boundary layers, and the viscous effect on shock. The possibility of existence of shocklets in the compressible boundary layer and the physical mechanism of formation are theoretically interpreted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper we propose a concavely regularized convex relaxation based graph matching algorithm. The graph matching problem is firstly formulated as a constrained convex quadratic program by relaxing the feasible set from the permutation matrices to doubly stochastic matrices. To gradually push the doubly stochastic matrix back to be a permutation one, an objective function is constructed by adding a simple weighted concave regularization to the convex relaxation. By gradually increasing the weight of the concave term, minimization of the objective function will gradually push the doubly stochastic matrix back to be a permutation one. A concave–convex procedure (CCCP) together with the Frank–Wolfe algorithm is adopted to minimize the objective function. The algorithm can be used on any types of graphs and exhibits a comparable performance as the PATH following algorithm, a state-of-the-art graph matching algorithm but applicable only on undirected graphs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper we propose the graduated nonconvexity and concavity procedure (GNCCP) as a general optimization framework to approximately solve the combinatorial optimization problems defined on the set of partial permutation matrices. GNCCP comprises two sub-procedures, graduated nonconvexity which realizes a convex relaxation and graduated concavity which realizes a concave relaxation. It is proved that GNCCP realizes exactly a type of convex-concave relaxation procedure (CCRP), but with a much simpler formulation without needing convex or concave relaxation in an explicit way. Actually, GNCCP involves only the gradient of the objective function and is therefore very easy to use in practical applications. Two typical related NP-hard problems, partial graph matching and quadratic assignment problem (QAP), are employed to demonstrate its simplicity and state-of-the-art performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT Based on an existing pressure-swing distillation process for tetrahydrofuran recovery, heat integration system is investigated in which the condenser of the high-pressure column is integrated with the reboiler of the low-pressure column. Rigorous simulations for the base case and the retrofitted one are carried out with the commercial software aspen plus. Simulation results show that the integrated structure is feasible, and the energy consumption is reduced by 33.31% compared with the base case. Meanwhile, the product purity is increased in the integrated structure. © 2013 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Abnormal miRNA and mRNA expression and dysregulated immune microenvironment have been found to frequently induce the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in recent reports. In particular, the immune-related competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNA) mechanism plays a crucial role in HCC progression. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Methods: Differentially expressed immune-related genes were obtained from the Immport, GEO, and TCGA databases. The mRNA and protein expression levels in HCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues were confirmed, and we further investigated the methylation levels of these biomarkers to explore their function. Then, the TIMER and TISCH databases were used to assess the relationship between immune infiltration and hub genes. Survival analysis and univariate and multivariate Cox models were used to evaluate the association between hub genes and HCC diagnosis. Hub gene expression was experimentally validated in six HCC cell lines and 15 HCC samples using qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. The hub genes were uploaded to DSigDB for drug prediction enrichment analysis. Results: We identified that patients with abnormal miRNAs (hsa-miR-125b-5p and hsa-miR-21-5p) and their targeted genes (NTF3, PSMD14, CD320, and SORT1) had a worse prognosis. Methylation analysis of miRNA-targeted genes suggested that alteration of methylation levels is also a factor in the induction of tumorigenesis. We also found that the development of HCC progression caused by miRNA-mRNA interactions may be closely correlated with the infiltration of immunocytes. Moreover, the GSEA, GO, and KEGG analysis suggested that several common immune-related biological processes and pathways were related to miRNA-targeted genes. The results of qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, and western blotting were consistent with our bioinformatics results, suggesting that abnormal miRNAs and their targeted genes may affect HCC progression. Conclusions: Briefly, our study systematically describes the mechanisms of miRNA-mRNA interactions in HCC and predicts promising biomarkers that are associated with immune filtration for HCC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aging Male's Symptoms (AMS) scale and the Androgen Deficiency in the Aging Male (ADAM) questionnaire have been widely used for screening men suspected of late-onset hypogonadism (LOH). We evaluated the consistency of the two questionnaires with sex hormone levels. A total of 985 men completed the two questionnaires, as well as an analysis of the serum levels of total testosterone (TT), bioavailable testosterone (BT), luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (E2), prolactin (PRL) and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG). No correlation was observed between any hormone level and the psychological or somatic section of the AMS score, whereas the sexual section was correlated with the levels of FT, LH, FSH, SHBG and BT. Significant correlations were observed between the result of the two questionnaires and these hormone levels. When LOH was defined as TT < 300 ng/dl and FT < 5 ng/dl, the sensitivity and specificity of the AMS scale were 54.0% and 41.2% compared with 78.7% and 14.8% for the ADAM questionnaire. Several sex hormone levels correlated with the two questionnaires, but neither of these questionnaires had sufficient sensitivity and specificity. It is necessary to provide a new questionnaire applicable to the Chinese population to screening LOH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The single locus complementary sex determination ( sl-csd) gene is the primary gene determining the gender of honey bees ( Apis spp.). While the csd gene has been well studied in the Western honey bee ( Apis mellifera), and comparable data exist in both the Eastern honey bee ( Apis cerana) and the giant honey bee ( Apis dorsata), no studies have been conducted in the red dwarf honey bee, Apis florea. In this study we cloned the genomic region 3 of the A. florea csd gene from 60 workers, and identified 12 csd alleles. Analysis showed that similar to A. mellifera, region 3 of the csd gene contains a RS domain at the N terminal, a proline-rich domain at the C terminal, and a hypervariable region in the middle. However, the A. florea csd gene possessed a much higher level of nucleotide diversity, compared to A. mellifera, A. cerana and Apis dorsata. We also show that similar to the other three Apis species, in A. florea, nonsynonymous mutations in the csd gene are selectively favored in young alleles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Detection of multiple ellipses in noisy environments is a basic yet challenging task in many vision related problems. The key area of difficulty is on distinguishing the pixels pertaining to each target in the presence of noise. To tackle with the issue, we propose a hierarchical approach which is motivated by the fact that any segment of an ellipse can identify itself in ellipse reconstruction. First, we find all the neat edges without any branches, followed by an ellipse fitting on each of them. Second, some target candidates are estimated based on the neat edges, by a proposed grouping strategy. Finally, the targets are detected based on the candidates, by a proposed selective competitive algorithm to distinguish the true pixels of each target. A real application of the proposed method is illustrated in addition to some other demonstrative experiments. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

By minimizing the mean square reconstruction error, multisets mixture learning (MML) provides a general approach for object detection in image. To calculate each sample reconstruction error, as the object template is represented by a set of contour points, the MML needs to inefficiently enumerate the distances between the sample and all the contour points. In this paper, we develop the line segment approximation (LSA) algorithm to calculate the reconstruction error, which is shown theoretically and experimentally to be more efficient than the enumeration method. It is also experimentally illustrated that the MML based algorithm has a better noise resistance ability than the generalized Hough transform (GHT) based counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco (Cupressaceae), a traditional Chinese herb and food additive, has been used for treatments of gout, rheumatism, diarrhoea and chronic tracheitis. To evaluate the quality of P. orientalis (L.) Franco, a sensitive, simple and accurate reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) separation method with a photodiode array detector (DAD) was developed for the determination of four main bioactive flavonoids, rutin, quercitrin, quercetin and amentoflavone. Separation of the four compounds was achieved by the HPLC assay (Agilent Eclipse XDB-C 18 column with mobile phase, methanol–acetonitrile–18mM sodium acetate buffer (pH 3.5) and recorded at UV 356nm). This method showed good linear relation in the range of 0.8–80μg/ml for rutin, 1.84–184μg/ml for quercitrin, 0.72–72μg/ml for quercetin and 0.72–72μg/ml for amentoflavone. The correlation coefficients of the calibration curve for the analysis were all higher than 0.999. In addition, the contents of those four flavonoids in P. orientalis (L.) Franco growing in 12 different locations in China were compared to establish the effectiveness of the method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We develop an ellipse detection algorithm based on the multisets mixture learning (MML) that differs from the conventional Hough transform perspective. The algorithm developed has potential advantages in terms of noise resistance, incomplete ellipse detection, and detecting a multitude of ellipses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In help of the Kohonen''s self-organizing maps we present a topological local principal component analysis model which is capable of exploiting both the global topological structure and each local cluster structure. A newly proposed self-organizing strategy that can enhance the learning speed is introduced to train the model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We solve the tasks of strip line detection and thinning in image processing and pattern recognition with the help of a statistical learning technique called rival penalized competitive learning based local principal component analysis. Due to its model selection and noise resistance ability, the technique is experimentally shown to outperform conventional Hough transform and thinning algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The two traditional tasks of object detection and star/galaxy classification in astronomy can be automated by neural networks because the nature of the problems is that of pattern recognition. A typical existing system can be further improved by using one of the local Principal Component Analysis (PCA) models. Our analysis in the context of object detection and star/galaxy classification reveals that local PCA is not only superior to global PCA in feature extraction, but is also superior to gaussian mixture in clustering analysis. Unlike global PCA which performs PCA for the whole data set, local PCA applies PCA individually to each cluster of data. As a result, local PCA often outperforms global PCA for data of multi-modes. Moreover, since local PCA can effectively avoid the trouble of having to specify a large number of free elements of each covariance matrix of gaussian mixture, it can give a better description of local subspace structures of each cluster when applied on high dimensional data with small sample size. In this paper, the local PCA model proposed by Xu [IEEE Trans. Neural Networks 12 (2001) 822] under the general framework of Bayesian Ying Yang (BYY) normalization learning will be adopted. Endowed with the automatic model selection ability of BYY learning, the BYY normalization learning-based local PCA model can cope with those object detection and star/galaxy classification tasks with unknown model complexity. A detailed algorithm for implementation of the local PCA model will be proposed, and experimental results using both synthetic and real astronomical data will be demonstrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant tumors to threaten human life, and the survival rate remains low due to delayed diagnosis. Meanwhile, lncRNAs have great potential for application in tumor prognosis, therefore relevant research in hepatocellular carcinoma is indispensable.Methods: Based on the EZH2 expression, the differentially expressed lncRNAs DElncRNAs), miRNAs (DEmiRNAs), and mRNAs (DEmRNAs) were identified in hepatocellular carcinoma by using the TCGA database. Bioinformatics technology was utilized to determine the effect of key genes in HCC progression. The methylation and immune infiltration analyses were performed to explore the underlying function of hub genes. Finally, cellular function experiments were performed to investigate the association between identified genes and biological phenotypes in HCC.Results: lncRNA-AC079061.1, hsa-miR-765, and VIPR1 were identified as independent factors that affect the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. The immune infiltration analyses revealed that lncRNA-AC079061.1 can alter the immune microenvironment and thus inhibit the development of HCC by regulating the expression of an immune-related gene (VIPR1). Methylation analyses demonstrated that VIPR1 expression is negatively related to the methylation level in HCC. Experimental results suggested that lncRNA-AC079061.1 and VIPR1 were frequently downregulated in HCC cells, while hsa-miR-765 was significantly upregulated. Moreover, the lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis suppressed the proliferation and invasion of HCC cells.Conclusion: The present study identified the lncRNA-AC079061.1/VIPR1 axis as a novel biomarker that inhibited the proliferation and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma, affecting the ultimate disease outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of property-based total water networks with multiple interceptors is investigated by using operator potential concepts. Two kinds of network configurations are considered according to whether process sources are allowed to mix at inlet of the interceptors. For a non-mixing network, each interceptor treating one process source, the synthesis procedure is simple. However, too many interceptors might be needed and the corresponding costs will be high for the systems with a large number of process sources. For a mixing network, process sources are allowed to mix at inlet of the interceptors, the network construction can be simplified and the total annual costs can be reduced. An iteration procedure is proposed to design mixing-configuration networks. In the synthesis procedure, the values of operator potential of demands are used to determine the sequence of demands to be satisfied, the values of operator potential of sources are used to select the process sources to be treated. A linear programming approach is adopted to allocate the sources to each demand. The results of four examples obtained with the proposed methods show that the networks with lower fresh source consumption, or simpler structure, or lower total annual cost can be obtained compared to the literature results. In addition, the proposed methods have the features of simple calculation and clear engineering meaning. [Display omitted] • Property-based total water networks with multiple interceptors are synthesized. • Operator potential concepts are used to guide the synthesis procedure. • Networks with both non-mixing and mixing configurations for sources are considered. • The proposed method has merits of simple calculation and clear engineering meaning. • Networks with lower fresh source consumption and/or total annual cost are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of 3-amino-5-benzylphenol derivatives were designed and synthesized. Among them, (3-benzyl-5-hydroxyphenyl)carbamates were found to exert good inhibitory activity against M. tuberculosis H37Ra, H37Rv and clinically isolated multidrug-resistant M. tuberculosis strains (MIC = 0.625–6.25 μg/mL). The privileged compounds 3i and 3l showed moderate cytotoxicity against cell line A549. Compound 3l also exhibited potent in vivo inhibitory activity on a mouse infection model via the oral administration. The results demonstrated 3-hydroxyphenylcarbamates as a class of new antitubercular agents with good potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We propose CDLRL-ZPG algorithm to improve generalization ability of policy knowledge extraction method from learned tasks to learned task domain • CDLRL-ZPG could directly generate approximate optimal policy of new task given system environmental coefficients without added learning costs of computing time and storage space Lifelong reinforcement learning (LRL) is an important approach to achieve continual lifelong learning of multiple reinforcement learning tasks. The two major methods used in LRL are task decomposition and policy knowledge extraction. Policy knowledge extraction method in LRL can share knowledge for tasks in different task domains and for tasks in the same task domain with different system environmental coefficients. However, the generalization ability of policy knowledge extraction method is limited on learned tasks rather than learned task domains. In this paper, we propose a cross-domain lifelong reinforcement learning algorithm with zero-shot policy generation ability (CDLRL-ZPG) to improve generalization ability of policy knowledge extraction method from learned tasks to learned task domains. In experiments, we evaluated CDLRL-ZPG performance on four task domains. And our results show that the proposed algorithm can directly generate satisfactory results without needing a trial and error learning process to achieve zero-shot learning in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to present an accessible C-shaped partial stapled hemorrhoidopexy (C-PSH) in the treatment of grade IV hemorrhoids and to assess long-term outcomes of this technique compared with circular stapled hemorrhoidopexy (CSH). Methods: Conventional CSH kits combined with an intestinal spatula were used for performing C-PSH. A total of 256 patients with grade IV hemorrhoids referred to Hangzhou Third People's Hospital between January 2016 and June 2017 were obtained: 122 (47.7%) with C-PSH, and 134 (52.3%) with CSH. After propensity score matching, 222 patients (111 in C-PSH group and 111 in CSH group) were ultimately analyzed. The primary outcome was the five-year recurrence rate of hemorrhoids. Secondary outcomes included intraoperative outcomes, postoperative outcomes and complications. Results: The operative time in the C-PSH group was slightly longer than that in the CSH group (p < 0.01). The vertical length of rectal mucosa specimen in the C-PSH group was shorter than that in the CSH group (p < 0.01). Compared with the CSH group, fecal urgency incidence and numeric rating scale (NRS) score at first defecation were lower in the C-PSH group (p < 0.05). Major complication rate in the CSH group was higher than that in the C-PSH group (p = 0.03). Five-year recurrence rate between the C-PSH group and CSH group was comparable (p > 0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that constipation was an independent prognostic factor for hemorrhoidal recurrence. Conclusions: The accessible C-PSH seems to be a safe and effective technique in managing grade IV hemorrhoids. It has advantages in alleviating postoperative pain at first defecation, fecal urgency and major complications compared with CSH. It could be an alternative technique in the treatment of grade IV hemorrhoids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a benign intracranial tumor, craniopharyngioma treatment has always been considered a challenging clinical problem. Recently, BRAF V600E mutation in the pathogenesis of papillary craniopharyngioma (PCP) has been further revealed. Thus, BRAF inhibitors (BRAFi) serve as an applicable treatment for patients with PCP. Two patients with recurrent PCP were treated with combined BRAFi dabrafenib (150 mg, orally twice daily) and MEK inhibitors (MEKi) trametinib (2 mg, orally twice daily). A follow-up exceeding 2 years was conducted. We meticulously scrutinized the treatment's safety and efficacy profiles by delving into existing literature. One patient harboring a solid tumor achieved a complete tumor response devoid of any adverse events and encountered no recurrence over 2 years subsequent to discontinuation. Moreover, within a mere month of commencing targeted therapy, the tumor demonstrated observable shrinkage. This finding substantiates the considerable potential inherent in targeted therapy for PCP cases marked by the somatic BRAF V600E mutation. Under specific conditions, individuals diagnosed with PCP can attain a complete tumor response following combined treatment with BRAFi/MEKi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic properties in particular the occupation number of 5f electrons and the valence state of Am ions in americium trichloride (AmCl3) are studied by using density functional theory (DFT) merged with dynamical mean‐field theory (DMFT). We find that j = 5/2, j = 7/2 manifolds both are in the insulating regimes, resulting in the semiconducting band gap of about 0.837 eV, together with the weak Am 5f‐conduction electrons hybridization and the localized 5f‐derived spectra feature in the vicinity of the Fermi level. The weighted summation for the occupation probabilities of 5fn (n = 3–7) atomic configurations suggests that 5f electrons have the inter‐configuration fluctuation with an average occupation number of 5f electrons n5f ~ 5.182, corresponding to the valence state of Am3.818+ in AmCl3. The 5fn‐mixing‐driven inter‐configuration fluctuation might originate from the complicated quantum mechanics processes such as the dual nature of 5f electrons and the flexible electronic configuration of Am ions. Finally, the so‐called quasiparticle band structure is also predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The heat integrated water networks have the features of complex network structure and high costs. To overcome the problems, this paper presents a new design method for heat integrated water networks with simple structure and low costs. The proposed method includes two steps: the water-using network is designed first by considering the concentration specifications of water-using processes, which is reflected by the values of concentration potentials. Then, the heat exchanger network can be designed based on the water network obtained in the first step. Self heating strategy is adopted in the design of heat exchanger network to reduce the complexity of the network. Examples are illustrated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The network structures obtained by using the proposed design method are simple, and the total annual costs calculated in this paper are comparable to that of literature results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graph matching is a fundamental problem in artificial intelligence and structural data processing. Hypergraph matching has recently become popular in the graph matching community. Existing hypergraph matching algorithms usually resort to the continuous methods, while the combinatorial nature of hypergraph matching is not well considered. Therefore in this paper, we propose a novel hypergraph matching algorithm by introducing the affinity tensor updating based graduated projection. Specifically, the hypergraph matching problem is first formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem in a high order polynomial form. Then this NP-hard problem is relaxed and interpreted in a probabilistic manner, which is approximately solved by iterative techniques. The updating of the affinity tensor is performed in each iteration, besides the updating of probabilistic assignment vector. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world datasets witness the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews concentration potential concepts and their applications in the design of water-using networks (WUNs) with multiple contaminants. The concentration potential concepts were proposed to determine the concentration order of water streams of multiple contaminants based on the overall allocating possibility of source streams to demand streams on the analogy of single contaminant WUNs. The precedence order of water-using processes, which is crucial for the network design, can be effectively identified by the values of Concentration Potential of Demands (CPDs). The concentration potential concepts, which were originally presented for the water networks of fixed contaminant load model, up to now have been successfully used to design a verity of water-using networks. Computing software has also been developed by combining the concentration potential concepts and linear programming approach. The methods proposed based on the concentration potential concepts have the advantages of simple calculation and clear engineering meaning. The results obtained based on the concentration potential concepts are comparable to that obtained by the literature methods. It is shown that the concentration potential concepts are powerful tools for the design of WUNs with multiple contaminants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective framework for domain generalizable object detection from a novel pseudo-domain generation perspective, including two stages: distribution diversification and domain-invariant feature learning. • In the distribution diversification stage, we present a Frequency-based Pseudo-domain Generator to construct a pseudo domain by excavating latent style information and enhancing semantic information in frequency space, which provides diverse training distributions to facilitate domain-invariant feature learning in the following stage. • In the domain-invariant feature learning stage, we introduce Rotation Prediction and Semantic Consistency learning, including an auxiliary self-supervised task rotation prediction that encourages generalized feature learning and a semantic consistency loss that enforces the feature extractor to overlook style differences among domains. • We conduct extensive experiments on various object detection benchmarks, and our method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in both single-source and multi-source settings. Domain generalizable object detection (DGOD) aims to train a detector that performs well on multiple unseen target domains, which is crucial for deploying the detector in practice. Recent methods for DGOD typically inherit the idea from domain adaptation to align or disentangle features, but these methods struggle to handle unknown target distributions. In this paper, we propose a unified framework to tackle the DGOD task from a novel pseudo-domain generation perspective. Our framework comprises two stages: distribution diversification and domain-invariant feature learning. In the distribution diversification stage, we design a Frequency-based Pseudo-domain Generator (FPG) to construct the pseudo domain via excavating latent style information and enhancing semantic information in frequency space. The generated pseudo domain can provide diverse training distributions, which enhances generalization performance. In the domain-invariant feature learning stage, we introduce Rotation Prediction and Semantic Consistency (RPSC) learning, including an auxiliary self-supervised task rotation prediction to encourage generalized feature learning and a semantic consistency loss to enforce the detector to be invariant of domain shifts. Extensive experiments are conducted on various object detection benchmarks, demonstrating the superiority of our approach over state-of-the-art methods in both single-source and multi-source settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correspondence between point sets is a fundamental problem in pattern recognition, which is often formulated and solved by graph matching. In this paper, we propose to solve the correspondence problem by a new third order graph matching algorithm. Compared with some previous hyper-graph matching algorithms, the proposed one achieves considerable memory reduction and is applicable to both undirected and directed graphs. Specifically, the correspondence is formulated by the matching between adjacency tensors encoding the third order structural information of each graph, which is then transformed to be a tractable matrix form. Two types of gradient based optimization methods, the graduated nonconvexity and concavity procedure (GNCCP) and graduated assignment (GA) algorithm, are generalized to solve the problem. Comparative experiments with state-of-the-art algorithms on both synthetic and real data witness the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a disturbance observer (DO) based mixed H 2 /H ∞ robust fuzzy tracking control design for the longitudinal dynamics of a generic hypersonic vehicle (HV) with modeled and unmodeled disturbances. A Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model is firstly employed to approximate the nonlinear dynamics of HV. Subsequently, based on the fuzzy model, a DO is constructed to estimate the modeled disturbance. Next, by integrating the HV dynamics, the tracking error integral and the disturbance estimation error dynamics, an augmented system is established for the control design. Then, a DO-based mixed H 2 /H ∞ robust fuzzy control design is developed to ensure the asymptotic stability as well as the mixed H 2 /H ∞ control performance of the augmented system. The proposed control scheme includes a fuzzy tracking controller with state feedback plus the tracking error integral, a robust nonlinear compensator for eliminating the matched part of the compound disturbance consisting of the unmodeled disturbance and fuzzy modeling error, and a DO-based compensator for the modeled disturbance cancellation. The outcome of the DO-based mixed H 2 /H ∞ robust fuzzy control problem is formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Furthermore, by utilizing the existing LMI optimization technique, a suboptimal controller is obtained in the sense of minimizing an upper bound of H 2 performance. Finally, simulation results on an HV demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]