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In flexible manufacturing lines with delayed differentiation, the production process may fluctuate sharply when a control action is performed. As a result, the steady-state analysis algorithm is inaccurate for these production lines, and transient behavior studies have become crucial. However, dynamic analysis remains unexplored compared with the well-established theoretical system of steady-state analysis. Therefore, in this study, we propose a fast algorithm for predicting the production process performance in the delayed differentiation-based flexible production line under operation control. We first formulate practical problems existing in the auto, food, and furniture industries into a mathematical formation. Then, we offer closed-form formulae for predicting the production process performance using the built stochastic model in the production line with three machines. We also propose an algorithm to predict the performance of a production line having more than three machines. The proposed methods were verified to be highly accurate through comparison experiments. In terms of theoretical contributions, this study offers a research foundation for other transient-based studies. From a practical perspective, the proposed algorithms can be employed to predict the production process performance of processing lines under production control in advance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Centiloid project helps calibrate the quantitative amyloid-β (Aβ) load into a unified Centiloid (CL) scale that allows data comparison across multi-site. How the smaller regional amyloid converted into CL has not been attempted. We first aimed to express regional Aβ deposition in CL using [18F]Flutemetamol and evaluate regional Aβ deposition in CL with that in standardized uptake value ratio (SUVr). Second, we aimed to determine the presence or absence of focal Aβ deposition by measuring regional CL in equivocal cases showing negative global CL. Methods: Following the Centiloid project pipeline, Level-1 replication, Level-2 calibration, and quality control were completed to generate corresponding Centiloid conversion equations to convert SUVr into Centiloid at regional levels. In equivocal cases, the regional CL was compared with visual inspection to evaluate regional Aβ positivity. Results: 14 out of 16 regional conversions from [18F]Flutemetamol SUVr to Centiloid successfully passed the quality control, showing good reliability and relative variance, especially precuneus/posterior cingulate and prefrontal regions with good stability for Centiloid scaling. The absence of focal Aβ deposition could be detected by measuring regional CL, showing a high agreement rate with visual inspection. The regional Aβ positivity in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex was most prevalent in equivocal cases. Conclusion: The expression of regional brain Aβ deposition in CL with [18F]Flutemetamol has been attempted in this study. Equivocal cases had focal Aβ deposition that can be detected by measuring regional CL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low corrosion resistance becomes one of the major limitations for applications of magnesium (Mg) alloys. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was applied to fabricate an Al 2 O 3 nanofilm on micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coating of AZ31 alloys. FE-SEM, XPS, and XRD were used to characterize surface morphologies and chemical compositions of the coatings. The corrosion resistance of the MAO/Al 2 O 3 composite coatings were evaluated via polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and hydrogen evolution. The results demonstrated that the Al 2 O 3 deposited for 1000 cycles completely sealed the pores of MAO coatings. And the corrosion current density of composite coatings decreased by three orders of magnitude compared to the bare MAO coatings. The formation and corrosion resistance mechanisms of the composite coating were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low corrosion resistance becomes one of the major limitations for applications of magnesium (Mg) alloys. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) was applied to fabricate an Al 2 O 3 nanofilm on micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coating of AZ31 alloys. FE-SEM, XPS, and XRD were used to characterize surface morphologies and chemical compositions of the coatings. The corrosion resistance of the MAO/Al 2 O 3 composite coatings were evaluated via polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and hydrogen evolution. The results demonstrated that the Al 2 O 3 deposited for 1000 cycles completely sealed the pores of MAO coatings. And the corrosion current density of composite coatings decreased by three orders of magnitude compared to the bare MAO coatings. The formation and corrosion resistance mechanisms of the composite coating were proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite emerging evidence for the effect of childhood psychological maltreatment on adolescent depressive symptoms, the underlying processes for this effect are largely under-investigated. This study examined a conceptual framework for the effect of childhood psychological maltreatment on adolescent depressive symptoms through social anxiety disorder (SAD) and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. The participants were 1649 Chinese middle school students (751 girls and 898 boys) with a mean age of 16.29 ± 1.04 years old. A moderation-mediation model hypothesized that childhood psychological maltreatment predicts adolescent depressive symptoms, with SAD as a mediator and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies as a moderator. Childhood psychological maltreatment significantly positively predicted adolescent depressive symptoms, while SAD mediated the relation. Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies moderated the pathways from psychological maltreatment to depressive symptoms (but not from psychological maltreatment to SAD) and from SAD to adolescent depressive symptoms. Subjective measures, and the cross-sectional design are the main limitations. SAD plays a mediating role in the relation between childhood psychological maltreatment and depressive symptoms. Maladaptive emotion regulation strategies exacerbate the relation between childhood psychological maltreatment and depressive symptoms, as well as the relation between SAD and depressive symptoms. These results highlight the importance of addressing social anxiety in reducing adolescent depressive symptoms by improving their cognitive emotion regulation strategies. • Social anxiety mediates relation between psychological maltreatment and depression. • Maladaptive strategies moderate pathway from psychological maltreatment to depression. • Maladaptive strategies moderate pathway from social anxiety to depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The geographical distribution of bacteria is an important, but poorly understood, topic in microbial ecology. A major question is how broadly distributed generalist taxa, and limitedly distributed specialist taxa, vary across a latitudinal gradient in freshwater ecosystems. We predict that: (a) generalists and specialists exhibit latitudinal diversity gradient with different patterns; (b) their community assemblies are mainly driven by stochastic processes; and (c) generalists coexist through niche differences, while specialists coexist through fitness differences. Location: Sixty lakes and reservoirs in China, ranging from 18° N to 50° N. Time Period: July–August in 2012 and 2018. Taxa Studied: Bacterioplankton. Methods: We clustered zero‐radius operational taxonomic unit (zOTU) (subspecies‐like level) into operational taxonomic unit (OTU) (species‐like level) and calculated the intra‐specific variation and spatial asynchrony of OTU. We examined the relative effects of environment versus space (latitude) on bacterial community and quantified the community assembly processes of generalists and specialists, respectively. The binary‐state speciation and extinction (BiSSE) model has been used to estimate the evolutionary characteristics. The abundances of the top zOTUs within each OTU were identified to reveal their niche preferences (distribution patterns at different sites). Results: We found that bacterial generalists had a higher intra‐specific variation, greater asynchrony and wider niche width than the specialists. With increasing latitude, bacterial diversity decreased with abundance variations in generalists and occurrence variations in specialists, respectively. Diversification in stochastic processes was the main driving factor in both groups, though deterministic processes showed greater effects on specialists than generalists in local communities. Bacterial generalists coexisted through niche differences, whereas specialists coexisted through average fitness differences. Main Conclusions: We demonstrated distinct latitudinal distribution patterns of bacterial generalists and specialists. These results highlight differences in biogeography of microbial generalist and specialist taxa mediated by intra‐specific variation and emphasize their distinctly vital roles mediated by differing mechanisms in freshwater ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carpooling service, which is the sharing of journeys heading in similar directions, is expected to be more efficient. In this article, we study the impact of providing a carpooling service on customer waiting time and driver utilization in an on-demand service platform. We build an M / G / N queueing model to approximate the dynamics of the on-demand service platform that provides two services: a standard service and a carpooling service. We find that two factors influence the efficiency of the carpooling service: the source of customers who use the carpooling service, and the length of a normalized detour. If the carpooling service attracts customers who have not used this on-demand service before, i.e., the market size increases, then both the customer waiting time and driver utilization increase when more customers use the carpooling service. If the carpooling service primarily attracts customers who already use the standard on-demand service before, i.e., customers switch from the standard service to the carpooling service, then the impact of the carpooling service depends on the normalized detour. It is possible that customer waiting time and driver utilization first increase and then decrease as customers switch from the standard service to the carpooling service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The aim of this study was to apply bioinformatic analysis to develop a robust miRNA signature and construct a nomogram model in uveal melanoma (UM) to improve prognosis prediction. Methods. miRNA and mRNA sequencing data for 80 UM patients were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The patients were further randomly assigned to a training set (n = 40, used to identify key miRNAs) and a testing set (n = 40, used to internally verify the signature). Then, miRNAs data of GSE84976 and GSE68828 were downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database for outside verification. Combining univariate analysis and LASSO methods for identifying a robust miRNA biomarker in training set and the signature was validated in testing set and outside dataset. A prognostic nomogram was constructed and combined with decision curve as well as reduction curve analyses to assess the application of clinical usefulness. Finally, we constructed a miRNA-mRNA regulator network in UM and conducted pathway enrichment analysis according to the mRNAs in the network. Results. In total, a 3-miRNA was identified and validated that can robustly predict UM patients' survival. According to univariate and multivariate cox analyses, age at diagnosis, tumor node metastasis (TNM) classification, stage, and the 3-miRNA signature significantly correlated with the survival outcomes. These characteristics were used to establish nomogram. The nomogram worked well for predicting 1 and 3 years of overall survival time. The decision curve of nomogram revealed a good clinical usefulness of our nomogram. What's more, a miRNA-mRNA network was constructed. Pathway enrichment showed that this network was largely involved in mRNA processing, the mRNA surveillance pathway, the spliceosome, and so on. Conclusions. We developed a 3-miRNA biomarker and constructed a prognostic nomogram, which may afford a quantitative tool for predicting the survival of UM. Our finding also provided some new potential targets for the treatment of UM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Mental health worsened from 2005 to 2019 among Chinese college students. • College students from rural areas had worse mental health than those from urban and town areas. • Some aspects of mental health deteriorated more rapidly among college students from urban areas than those from towns or rural areas. • This research has implications for public health and school mental health applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study involves numerical simulations of regular waves interacting with a bottom-sitting circular OWC wave energy converter with a U-shaped duct (circular U-OWC). A numerical wave tank is built based on the RANS equation and is validated against experiments. The effect of water depth and the height of the outer tube of the U-shaped duct on capture efficiency, wave loading, and viscous energy loss is investigated numerically. Results show that the height of the outer tube of the U-shaped duct has a significant effect on the capture efficiency of the device. Wave loading analysis reveals a critical mode of stability that may threaten the operation safety of the device. It is found that increasing the height of the U-shaped duct opening increases the viscous energy loss inside the U-shaped duct. A semi-theoretical model between work done by waves to the device and the viscous energy loss in the U-shaped duct is established, numerical data indicates that a significant amount of work done by waves to the device is lost in viscous effects. This suggests that certain optimization for reducing wave loading could possibly also reduce viscous energy loss, thus improving the overall efficiency of the device. • Numerical wave tank validated well with laboratory experiments. • Wave loading analysis identified a critical mode for device stability. • Increasing height of the U-shaped duct increases viscous energy loss of the device. • Optimization reducing wave loading might also increase device efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate and determine age‐related changes in rat brains by studying the diffusion kurtosis imaging results among different age groups of rats. Methods: Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats underwent conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI). Two diffusion values of mean kurtosis (MK) and kurtosis (K⊥) were measured and analyzed based on laterality, brain regions and age groups. The MK and K⊥ data were plotted against different age groups. Results: No laterality was found for the MK or K⊥ values in the cerebral cortex (CT), external capsule (EC), or caudate putamen (CPu) regions. In contrast, significant changes in these values were observed among different age groups. Changes of the MK and K⊥ values were significant in both hemispheres in the EC, the CT, and the CPu brain regions. The changes in the MK and K⊥ values showed a parabolic relationship with ages in all the brain regions. Conclusion: No laterality in the MK and K⊥ values was observed for the EC, CT, or CPu regions of the rat brain. Significant changes in MK and K⊥ values were both observed among different age groups, thus suggesting diffusion kurtosis imaging as an efficient tool for studying brain aging in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address a dynamic covering location problem of an unmanned aerial vehicle base station (UAV-BS), in which the location sequence of a single UAV-BS in a wireless communication network is determined to satisfy data demand arising from ground users. This problem is especially relevant in the context of smart grid and disaster relief. The vertical movement ability of the UAV-BS and nonconvex covering functions in wireless communication restrict utilizing classical planar covering location approaches. Therefore, we develop new formulations to this emerging problem for a finite time horizon to maximize the total coverage. In particular, we develop a mixed-integer nonlinear programming formulation that is nonconvex in nature and propose a Lagrangean decomposition algorithm (LDA) to solve this formulation. Because of the high complexity of the problem, the LDA is still unable to find good local solutions to large-scale problems. Therefore, we develop a continuum approximation (CA) model and show that CA would be a promising approach in terms of both computational time and solution accuracy. Our numerical study also shows that the CA model can be a remedy to build efficient initial solutions for exact solution algorithms. Summary of Contribution: This paper addresses a facet of mixed integer nonlinear programming formulations. Dynamic facility location problems (DFLPs) arise in a wide range of applications. However, classical DFLPs typically focus on the two-dimensional spaces. Emerging technologies in wireless communication and some other promising application areas, such as smart grids, have brought new location problems that cannot be solved with classical approaches. For practical reasons, many research attempts to solve this new problem, especially by researchers whose primary research area is not OR, have seemed far from analyzing the characteristics of the formulations. Rather, solution-oriented greedy heuristics have been proposed. This paper has two main objectives: (i) to close the gap between practical and theoretical sides of this new problem with the help of current knowledge that OR possesses to solve facility location problems and (ii) to support the findings with an exhaustive computational study to show how these findings can be applied to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Background Methods Data Sources Results Conclusion To systematically evaluate and analyse literature concerning the factors influencing the implementation of clinical practice guidelines related to enteral nutrition in the adult intensive care unit.Guidelines serve as crucial tools for guiding clinical practice. However, a significant gap persists between current clinical practice and guidelines pertaining to enteral nutrition. It is essential to identify the reasons behind this disparity to foster clinical transformation.A mixed‐methods systematic review.A systematic search was conducted across PubMed, Embase, Medline, Cochrane, PsycINFO and CNKI databases to identify impediments and facilitators to the implementation of ICU clinical practice guidelines related to enteral nutrition. The types of studies included quantitative, qualitative and mixed‐methods studies. The search spanned from January 2003 to January 2024 and was updated in May 2024. The quality assessment of the included literature was conducted using the Mixed‐Methods Study Evaluation Tool (MMAT). Data analysis was performed using a data‐based convergent integration approach. The protocol for this study was prospectively registered (PROSPERO2023, CRD42023483287).Twenty papers were finally included, and 65 findings were extracted, integrating a total of three categories, Category 1: healthcare provider factors, including three sub‐themes: knowledge of guideline‐related knowledge and awareness of guideline application; social/professional roles and identity domains; beliefs, attitudes and self‐efficacy; collaboration, Category 2: practice environments, including two sub‐themes: environmental factors and resource areas; systems and behavioural norms, Category 3: patient values and nutritional support preferences including two sub‐themes: patient disease status and value orientation.Healthcare professionals should analyse obstacles and facilitators to guideline implementation from multiple perspectives, strengthen healthcare collaboration, improve education and training systems, correct misperceptions and increase awareness of evidence‐based practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Cyanobacterial communities were investigated in 59 waterbodies of China. • Taxonomic diversity increased but phylogenetic diversity decreased along trophic state. • Niche width and overlap decreased from low- to high-nutrient waterbodies. • Ecological uniqueness tended to increase in more eutrophic waterbodies. • Cyanobacterial community became more similar in more eutrophic waterbodies. Eutrophication of inland waters is a mostly anthropogenic phenomenon impacting aquatic biodiversity worldwide, and might change biotic community structure and ecosystem functions. However, little is known about the patterns of cyanobacterial community variations and changes both on alpha and beta diversity levels in response to eutrophication. Here, we investigated cyanobacterial communities sampled at 140 sites from 59 lakes and reservoirs along a strong eutrophication gradient in eastern China through using CPC -IGS and 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We found that taxonomic diversity increased, but phylogenetic diversity decreased significantly along the eutrophication gradient. Both niche width and niche overlap of cyanobacteria significantly decreased from low- to high-nutrient waterbodies. Cyanobacterial community distance-decay relationship became weaker from mesotrophic to hypereutrophic waterbodies, while ecological uniqueness (i.e., local contributions to beta diversity) tended to increase in high-nutrient waterbodies. Latitude and longitude were more important in shaping cyanobacterial community structure than other environmental variables. These findings suggest that eutrophication affects alpha and beta diversity of cyanobacterial communities, leading to increasingly similar community structures in lakes and reservoirs with a higher level of eutrophication. Our work highlights how cyanobacterial communities respond to anthropogenic eutrophication and calls for an urgent need to develop conservation and management strategies to control lake eutrophication and protect freshwater biodiversity. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Lake Taihu in China has suffered serious harmful cyanobacterial blooms for decades. The algal blooms threaten the ecological sustainability, drinking water safety, and human health. Although the roles of abiotic factors (such as water temperature and nutrient loading) in promoting Microcystis blooms have been well studied, the importance of biotic factors (e.g. bacterial community) in promoting and meditating Microcystis blooms remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the ecological dynamics of bacterial community, the ratio of toxic Microcystis, as well as microcystin in Lake Taihu. High‐throughput 16S rRNA sequencing and principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the bacteria community compositions (BCCs) clustered into three groups, the partitioning of which corresponded to that of groups according to the toxic profiles (the ratio of toxic Microcystis to total Microcystis, and the microcystin concentrations) of the samples. Further Spearman's correlation network showed that the α‐proteobacteria Phenylobacterium strongly positively correlated with the toxic profiles. Subsequent laboratory chemostats experiments demonstrated that three Phenylobacterium strains promoted the dominance of the toxic Microcystis aeruginosa PCC7806 when co‐culturing with the non‐toxic PCC7806 mcyB− mutant. Taken together, our data suggested that the α‐proteobacteria Phenylobacterium may play a vital role in the maintenance of toxic Microcystis dominance in Lake Taihu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acellular allograft (ACA) improves the repair and reconstruction of long peripheral nerve defects. ω-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) carry a neuroprotective potential, and their effects on ACA bridging were elucidated. Thirty rats with long gap sciatic nerve defects (15 mm long) were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10): ACA, ACA + PUFAs, and autograft (AU). Limb condition, wet weight of tibialis anterior muscle (TAM), nerve electrophysiology, S-100, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and percentage of splenic CD4+ and CD8 + T-lymphocytes were evaluated for 12 weeks after the operation. Rats in the AU and ACA + PUFA groups showed superior condition in affected limbs compared to the ACA group. At 12 wk after surgery, the wet weight of TAM in the ACA + PUFA group was higher than that in the ACA group (0.4519 ± 0.1185 vs. 0.3049 ± 0.1272 ; P < 0.01) but lower than that in the AU group (0.4519 ± 0.1185 , 0.5628 ± 0.0092 ; P < 0.05). In all the three groups, sole irritation elicited withdrawal reflex, and S-100 staining was detected in plantar skin. Moreover, horseradish peroxidase staining was overt in both the ventral horn and dorsal root ganglion of the spinal cord. Nerve conduction velocity (m/s), amplitude of action potential (mV), or somatosensory evoked potentials in ACA + PUFAs (28.81 ± 1.04 , 2.20 ± 0.27 , 6.98 ± 0.29) were significantly different from that in the AU (35.71 ± 1.28 , 1.81 ± 0.19 , 8.15 ± 0.52 ; P < 0.05) and ACA (20.03 ± 1.94 , 2.95 ± 0.36 , 5.22 ± 0.53 ; P < 0.01) groups. The percentages of splenic CD4+ and CD8+ cells were similar among the three groups. Omega-3 PUFAs improve the bridging effect of ACA on long gap peripheral nerve defects by promoting neuroprotection without arousing an immune response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Local anesthetics (LAs) have been widely used throughout the healthcare settings, especially in local anesthesia and pain management. The incidence of allergic reactions to LAs remains uncertain. The danger of allergic reactions to the use of LAs in every day of clinical practice is a matter of great concern. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the risk of true allergy to LAs.Methods: This study retrospectively evaluated the medical records of patients who were referred to an anesthesia allergy clinic in China and underwent allergy tests with LAs over a 10-year period from 2009 to 2019. The following information was collected from medical records: demographics of the patients, reasons for referral, clinical features of drug hypersensitivity reaction (DHR), and test results with LAs. Skin tests combined with an in vitro method, basophil activation test (BAT), were used to investigate allergic reactions to LAs.Results: A group of 109 patients were included in the analysis. The main reason for referral was the presence of a suspected DHR after procedures with LAs (n=68, 62%), the second most common reason for referral was a history of DHR to other drugs and the need to use LAs for upcoming procedures (n=41, 38%). Of the 68 patients with a suspected DHR to LAs, only six cases presented true allergy and showed positive results in skin tests and/or BAT. And all 41 patients who had a history of DHR to other drugs presented negative in all tests.Conclusion: Risk of true allergy to LAs may be very low. However, patients with a suspected history of DHR to LAs should be considered for allergy tests. Skin tests and BAT may be useful in the investigation and diagnosis of true allergy to LAs in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We provide a review of existing operations studies of electric vehicles (EVs). • This review focuses on mathematical modeling-based solutions to EV operations management problems. • The literature is grouped into EV charging infrastructure planning, EV charging operations, and public policy and business models. • New research opportunities for operations management of EVs are suggested. Electric vehicles (EVs) are widely considered to be a solution to the problems of increasing carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. However, the adoption of EVs remains sluggish due to range anxiety, long charging times, and inconvenient and insufficient charging infrastructure. Various problems with EV service operations should be addressed to overcome these challenges. This study reviews the state-of-the-art mathematical modeling-based literature on EV operations management. The literature is classified according to recurring themes, such as EV charging infrastructure planning, EV charging operations, and public policy and business models. In each theme, typical optimization models and algorithms proposed in previous studies are surveyed. The review concludes with a discussion of several possible questions for future research on EV service operations management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel antibacterial Mg-Al-Ga layered double hydroxide (LDH) coating was fabricated on micro-arc oxide (MAO) coated magnesium (Mg) alloy AZ31 via low-temperature water bath treatment. Electrochemical polarization and impedance spectroscopy, hydrogen evolution rates, and pH monitoring tests were used to characterize the degradation behaviors. The morphology, compositions, and microstructures of the samples were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Antibacterial activities of the coatings against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were evaluated by plate-counting method. Cell-Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) was applied to evaluate the cytotoxicity of coatings. The results demonstrate that the Mg-Al-Ga-LDH coating with a nanosheet structure is constructed to blanket the porous MAO coating. Electrochemical and hydrogen evolution tests reveal that the MAO/Mg-Al-Ga-LDH coating exhibits superior corrosion resistance. Furthermore, antibacterial and cytotoxicity tests prove that the MAO/Mg-Al-Ga-LDH coating possesses an obvious antibacterial and osteogenic effect. [Display omitted] • A dense protective MAO/LDH hybrid coating is in-situ constructed via EDTA chelating water bath. • Ga3+ and Al3+ were simultaneously doped into the coating to form Mg-Al-Ga-LDH. • Ga3+ generated during coating corrosion effectively prevents early bacterial infection. • MAO/Mg-Al-Ga-LDH is biocompatible and promotes the generation of SDBMSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors report the case of a 56‐year‐old woman with mammary sparganosis due to infection with a plerocercoid tapeworm larva of Spirometra mansoni. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed an area of heterogeneous density in outer upper quadrant of the right breast, with a high likelihood of malignancy. During surgery for the removal of a granuloma, the parasite was discovered and excised. The authors review the pathological and imaging features of mammary sparganosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The β-robust machine scheduling has attracted increasing attention as an effective method to hedge against uncertainty. However, existing β-robust scheduling models rely on the normality assumption of uncertain parameters, and existing solution methods are based on branch and bound, which cannot solve problems of 45 jobs within 3,600 seconds. This paper proposes distributionally β-robust scheduling (DRS) models to handle uncertain processing times. The DRS models only require the lower bound, mean, and covariance information of processing times, and have the capability of handling both single and parallel machine problems. Another key contribution of this paper is to devise efficient parametric search (PS) methods for the DRS models. Specifically, we show that there exists a parameterized assignment problem (PAP), such that its optimal solutions are also optimal for the original problem. The proposed methods only need to perform a onedimensional PS and solve a series of PAPs.We further propose a bidirectional PS to reduce the number of PAPs needed to be solved, and we design a speedup shortest augmentation path algorithm for these PAPs. Experimental results on both single and identical parallel machine problems show that the improved PS method outperforms existing algorithms by more than three orders of magnitude improvement in computation time for problems of 45 jobs, and it is able to solve problems of 500 jobs within 0.5 seconds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aphis spiraecola Patch is one of the most economically important tree fruit pests worldwide. The pyrethroid insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin is commonly used to control A. spiraecola. In this 2-year study, we quantified the resistance level of A. spiraecola to lambda-cyhalothrin in different regions of the Shaanxi province, China. The results showed that A. spiraecola had reached extremely high resistance levels with a 174-fold resistance ratio (RR) found in the Xunyi region. In addition, we compared the enzymatic activity and expression level of P450 genes among eight A. spiraecola populations. The P450 activity of A. spiraecola was significantly increased in five regions (Xunyi, Liquan, Fengxiang, Luochuan, and Xinping) compared to susceptible strain (SS). The expression levels of CYP6CY7 , CYP6CY14 , CYP6CY22, P4504C1-like , P4506a13 , CYP4CZ1 , CYP380C47, and CYP4CJ2 genes were significantly increased under lambda-cyhalothrin treatment and in the resistant field populations. A L1014F mutation in the sodium channel gene was found and the mutation rate was positively correlated with the LC50 of lambda-cyhalothrin. In conclusion, the levels of lambda-cyhalothrin resistance of A. spiraecola field populations were associated with P450s and L1014F mutations. Our combined findings provide evidence on the resistance mechanism of A. spiraecola to lambda-cyhalothrin and give a theoretical basis for rational and effective control of this pest species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms, especially Microcystis blooms, occur worldwide and draw widespread attention. The dynamics of microcystin-producing Microcystis and competition between microcystin-producing Microcystis and non-microcystin-producing Microcystis are key to predicting and treating Microcystis blooms. Multiplex qPCR is a useful tool to assess such issues. In this study, we developed multiplex qPCR methods with newly-designed probes and primers for the microcystin-synthesis related genes mcyA and mcyE. We used seven toxic Microcystis strains and four non-toxic Microcystis strains to compare the differences in the ratios of toxic and non-toxic Microcystis in mixed cultures, which were calculated using abundances of the genes mcyA, mcyB, mcyD, mcyE and phycocyanin (PC). We also compared traditional cell counting and multiplex qPCR. Hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis indicated that mcyD was the most suitable mcy gene for quantification in laboratory experiments. mcyB abundances were always higher; we suggest that the amount of toxic Microcystis measured using mcyB might overestimate the actual percentages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finding a reliable shortest path (RSP) in a stochastic network is a fundamental problem in transportation science. Link travel time correlation significantly affects path reliability, but also greatly increases the complexity of the RSP problem due to the quadratic form of the standard deviation term. Lagrangian relaxation (LR) based on problem reformulation, which only needs to solve a series of shortest path problems, has been recognized as an efficient method to obtain near-optimal RSPs with the optimality gap guarantee. This paper proposes a novel LR approach based on a new convex problem reformulation, and new methods to update Lagrangian multipliers and handle negative cycles of the resulting shortest path problems. Different from existing LR approaches, which adopt the classical subgradient method to solve the dual problem, a constraint generation (CG) algorithm and a subgradient projection (SP) algorithm are proposed to update Lagrangian multipliers effectively, and both algorithms are further modified to handle negative cycles. We also reveal the connection between different reformulations of the RSP problem and show that the proposed approach has a smaller duality gap than existing ones. Experiments on real transportation networks validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of convergence rate, run time, duality gap and optimality by comparison with the existing LR approaches and the outer approximation algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the energy efficiency (EE) of a downlink multicell massive distributed antenna system (DAS) in the presence of pilot contamination (PC), where the antennas are clustered on the remote radio heads (RRHs). We employ a practical power consumption model by considering the transmit power, the circuit power, and the backhaul power, in contrast to most of the existing works which focus on colocated antenna systems (CASs), where the backhaul power is negligible. For a given average user rate, we consider the problem of maximizing the EE with respect to the number of antennas of each RRH $n$, the number of RRHs $M$, and the number of users $K$ and study the impact of system parameters on the optimal $n$, $M$, and $K$. Specifically, by applying random matrix theory, we derive the closed-form expressions of the optimal $n$ and find the solution of the optimal $M$ and $K$ under a simplified channel model with maximum ratio transmission. From the results, we find that, to achieve the optimal EE, a large number of antennas is needed for a given user rate and PC. As the number of users increases, EE can be improved further by having more RRHs and antennas. Moreover, if the backhauling power is not large, a massive DAS can be more energy efficient than a massive CAS. These insights provide a useful guide to the practical deployment of massive DASs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A bi-attribute concave shortest path (BC-SP) problem seeks to find an optimal path in a bi-attribute network that minimizes a linear combination of two path costs, one of which is evaluated by a nondecreasing concave function. Due to the nonadditivity of its objective function, Bellman’s principle of optimality does not hold. This paper proposes a parametric search method to solve the BC-SP problem, which only needs to solve a series of shortest path problems, i.e., the parameterized subproblems (PSPs). Several techniques are developed to reduce both the number of PSPs and the computation time for these PSPs. Specifically, we first identify two properties of the BC-SP problem to guide the parametric search using the gradient and concavity of its objective function. Based on the properties, a monotonic descent search (MDS) and an intersection point search (IPS) are proposed. Second, we design a speedup label correcting (LC) algorithm, which uses optimal solutions of previously solved PSPs to reduce the number of labeling operations for subsequent PSPs. The MDS, IPS and speedup LC techniques are embedded into a branch-and-bound based interval search to guarantee optimality. The performance of the proposed method is tested on the mean-standard deviation shortest path problem and the route choice problem with a quadratic disutility function. Experiments on both real transportation networks and grid networks show that the proposed method reduces the computation time of existing algorithms by one to two orders of magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Rare bacterial species from reservoir water were co-cultured with the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Raphidiopsis raciborskii. • A ≤1000-fold was the key dilution threshold for bacterial species in inhibiting growth of R. raciborskii XM1. • The bacterial community compositions in the low-dilution groups (i.e. 10-, 100- and 1000-fold) were clearly separated from the high-dilution groups (i.e. 10,000-, 100,000- and 1,000,000-fold). • Rare bacterial species exhibited greater change in low-dilution groups over time, resulting in a lower phylogenetic diversity and narrower niche width. • Network complexity and compositional stability of bacterial communities decreased in the low-dilution groups. Interactions between heterotrophic bacteria and cyanobacteria regulate the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems and are thus crucial for the prediction and management of cyanobacterial blooms in relation to water security. Currently, abundant bacterial species are of primary concern, while the role of more diverse and copious rare species remains largely unknown. Using a dilution-to-extinction approach, rare bacterial species from reservoir water were co-cultured with the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Raphidiopsis raciborskii in the lab to explore their interactions by using Phyto-PAM and 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing. We found that a ≤1000-fold bacterial dilution led to bacteria control of the growth and photosynthesis of R. raciborskii. Moreover, the bacterial community compositions in the low-dilution groups were clearly diverged from the high-dilution groups. Importantly, rare species changed dramatically in the low-dilution groups, resulting in lower phylogenetic diversity and narrower niche width. The network complexity and compositional stability of bacterial communities decreased in the low-dilution groups. Collectively, our results suggest that rare bacterial species inhibit R. raciborskii growth and photosynthesis through microbial interactions mediated by species coexistence and interaction mechanisms. Our study provides new knowledge of the ecological role of rare bacteria and offers new perspectives for understanding the outbreak and regression of R. raciborskii blooms. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The residue of sand particles is an inevitable problem in sandblast and acid-etching (SLA) process. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can significantly inhibit bacterial reproduction around the implants. Based on these two points, a sandblast-free double etching technique was proposed to obtain an antimicrobial titanium surface with hierarchical structures without inducing residual particles. Holes of 10–20 µm in diameter and pits of hundreds of nanometers were observed on etched surfaces by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Meanwhile, ROS were also detected on etched surfaces by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Namely that surfaces with hierarchical structures and antimicrobial performance without inducing residual particles were obtained. This novel double etched surface may be promising to dental implants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the spectral efficiency of multicell massive multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) systems with downlink training and a new pilot contamination precoding (PCP) scheme. First, we analyze the spectral efficiency of the beamforming training (BT) scheme with maximum-ratio transmission (MRT) precoding. Then, we derive an approximate closed-form expression of the spectral efficiency to find the optimal lengths of uplink and downlink pilots. Simulation results show that the achieved spectral efficiency can be improved due to channel estimation at the user side, but in comparison with a single-cell scenario, the spectral efficiency per cell in multicell scenario degrades because of pilot contamination. We focus on the practical case where the number of base station (BS) antennas is large but still finite and propose the BT and PCP (BT-PCP) transmission scheme to mitigate the pilot contamination with limited cooperation between BSs. We confirm the effectiveness of the proposed BT-PCP scheme with simulation, and we show that the proposed BT-PCP scheme achieves higher spectral efficiency than the conventional PCP method and that the performance gap from the perfect channel state information (CSI) scenario without pilot contamination is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyanobacterial blooms occur increasingly often and cause ecological, economic and human health problems worldwide. Microcystins (MCs) are the dominant toxins produced by cyanobacteria and are implicated in epidemic disease and environmental problems. Extensive research has been reported on the various regulating factors, e . g ., light, temperature, nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, pH, iron, xenobiotics, and predators, that influence microcystin (MC) synthesis, but little is known about the effects of cyanobacteria-associated bacteria on MC synthesis. A considerable number of studies have focused on interactions between Microcystis species and their associated bacteria. In this study, we evaluated the effects of MC-degrading bacteria (MCDB) on MC synthesis gene mcyD expression and MC synthesis in axenic strain PCC7806, non-axenic strain FACHB905, and colony strain FACHB1325 of Microcystis by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We demonstrate for the first time that MCDB can induce and up-regulate the MC production and transcriptional response of the mcyD gene of toxic Microcystis . On day 4 of the culturing experiment, the intracellular MC concentration and transcriptional response of mcyD of FACHB1325 were up-regulated 1.9 and 5.3-fold over that of the control, and for FACHB905 were up-regulated 1.8 and 4.2-fold over that of the control, respectively. On day 10, the transcriptional response of mcyD was up-regulated 21.3-fold in PCC7806. These results indicate that there are interactions between toxic Microcystis and MCDB, and MCDB may play a role in regulating mcyD expression in toxic Microcystis . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) are a novel type of fluorescent nanomaterials, which not only possess the specific quantum confinement effects of nanomaterials due to the small size of nanomaterials, but also have good biocompatibility and high fluorescence. Meanwhile, fluorescence CDs overcome the shortcomings of high toxicity of traditional nanomaterials. Moreover, the preparation procedure of fluorescent CDs is simple and easy. Therefore, fluorescent CDs have great potential applied in photocatalysis, biochemical sensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, and other related areas. In this paper, recent hot researches on fluorescent CDs are reviewed and some problems in the progress of fluorescent CDs are also summarized. At last, a future outlook in this direction is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-arc ion plating was used to deposit TiN films to modify the 316 L stainless steel brackets for orthodontic applications. XRD, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, electrochemical analysis, cell proliferation and enzyme-linked immuno sorbent assay (ELISA) were applied to compare the surface characteristics of TiN coated and uncoated stainless steel brackets. It was found that TiN coating is smooth, hard, well-adherent, biocompatible with super low friction coefficient (< 0.03) and pretty good corrosion resistance (pitting potential higher than 600 mV) in artificial saliva. High hardness (about 14.62 GPa) is favored for the low friction coefficient, and great corrosion resistance ascribe to inert nature of TiN reduces the release of toxic elements, which improved the biocompatibility of TiN film. Better comprehension performances make TiN coated stainless steel very suitable for orthodontic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, customers always hail empty-cruising taxis on streets, which may offer low levels of comfort and efficiency especially during rush hours or rainy days. Thanks to the advance of smartphone technology, the e-hailing applications, which enable customers to hail taxis through their smartphones, become popular globally. To provide a systematic account of the impact of e-hailing applications’ wide adoption on the taxi system, we first propose a spatial equilibrium model that not only balances the supply and demand of taxi services but also captures both the taxi drivers’ and customers’ possible adoption of the newly-emerging e-hailing applications in a well-regulated taxi market. We then prove the existence of the proposed equilibrium, and further provide an algorithm to solve it. An extensive equilibrium model with elastic taxi-customer demands is also proposed. Lastly, a numerical example is presented to compare the taxi services with and without the e-hailing application and evaluate two types of e-hailing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nicotine elicits bitter taste by activating TRPM5-dependent and TRPM5-independent but neuronal nAChR-dependent pathways. The nAChRs represent common targets at which acetylcholine, nicotine and ethanol functionally interact in the central nervous system. Here, we investigated if the nAChRs also represent a common pathway through which the bitter taste of nicotine, ethanol and acetylcholine is transduced. To this end, chorda tympani (CT) taste nerve responses were monitored in rats, wild-type mice and TRPM5 knockout (KO) mice following lingual stimulation with nicotine free base, ethanol, and acetylcholine, in the absence and presence of nAChR agonists and antagonists. The nAChR modulators: mecamylamine, dihydro-β-erythroidine, and CP-601932 (a partial agonist of the α3β4* nAChR), inhibited CT responses to nicotine, ethanol, and acetylcholine. CT responses to nicotine and ethanol were also inhibited by topical lingual application of 8-chlorophenylthio (CPT)-cAMP and loading taste cells with [Ca2+]i by topical lingual application of ionomycin + CaCl2. In contrast, CT responses to nicotine were enhanced when TRC [Ca2+]i was reduced by topical lingual application of BAPTA-AM. In patch-clamp experiments, only a subset of isolated rat fungiform taste cells exposed to nicotine responded with an increase in mecamylamine-sensitive inward currents. We conclude that nAChRs expressed in a subset of taste cells serve as common receptors for the detection of the TRPM5-independent bitter taste of nicotine, acetylcholine and ethanol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new single labelled DNAzyme sensor was developed for trace UO 2 2+ detection based on the fact that the four consecutive guanines at the 5′-end of DNAzyme quenches the fluorescence of fluophor-tetramethyl-6-carboxyrhodamine (TAMRA) modified at the 3′-end of substrate. When UO 2 2+ coexisted with DNAzyme sensor, UO 2 2+ catalyzed the phosphoester cleavage reaction at the rA position of the substrate accompanied by the fluorescence emission significantly increased. The detection limit of the new DNAzyme sensor is 0.41 nmol/L, which is sensitive enough for UO 2 2+ detection in drinking water as the toxic UO 2 2+ level in drinking water defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is 130 nM. Moreover, the new DNAzyme sensor could discriminate the ores with and without UO 2 2+ , and the exact content of trace UO 2 2+ in ores and natural water samples could also be quantified. In the foreseeable future, the new DNAzyme sensor will be extensively applicable in field environmental monitoring, uranium mining and process control in virtue of portable fluorometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between taste receptor cell (TRC) Ca2+concentration ([Ca2+]i) and rat chorda tympani (CT) nerve responses to salty [NaCl and NaCl+benzamil (Bz)] and sour (HCl, CO2, and acetic acid) taste stimuli was investigated before and after lingual application of ionomycin+Ca2+, 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid acetoxymethyl ester (BAPTA-AM), U73122 (phospholipase C blocker), and thapsigargin (Ca2+-ATPase inhibitor) under open-circuit or lingual voltage-clamp conditions. An increase in TRC [Ca2+]iattenuated the tonic Bz-sensitive NaCl CT response and the apical membrane Na+conductance. A decrease in TRC [Ca2+]ienhanced the tonic Bz-sensitive and Bz-insensitive NaCl CT responses and apical membrane Na+conductance but did not affect CT responses to KCl or NH4Cl. An increase in TRC [Ca2+]idid not alter the phasic response but attenuated the tonic CT response to acidic stimuli. A decrease in [Ca2+]idid not alter the phasic response but attenuated the tonic CT response to acidic stimuli. In a subset of TRCs, a positive relationship between [H+]iand [Ca2+]iwas obtained using in vitro imaging techniques. U73122 inhibited the tonic CT responses to NaCl, and thapsigargin inhibited the tonic CT responses to salty and sour stimuli. The results suggest that salty and sour taste qualities are transduced by [Ca2+]i-dependent and [Ca2+]i-independent mechanisms. Changes in TRC [Ca2+]iin a BAPTA-sensitive cytosolic compartment regulate ion channels and cotransporters involved in the salty and sour taste transduction mechanisms and in neural adaptation. Changes in TRC [Ca2+]iin a separate subcompartment, sensitive to inositol trisphosphate and thapsigargin but inaccessible to BAPTA, are associated with neurotransmitter release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Two novel adsorbents to remove excess arsenate and arsenite in the drinking water were prepared for the first time by grafting monoamine and diamine, respectively, and then coordinating Fe3+ on silica gel that was obtained using sol–gel method with two-step acid-base catalysis. It was found that both adsorbents had mesoporous structure, large specific surface, and high amino and iron content according to N2 adsorption isotherms, FTIR, XPS, and NMR analysis. The removal ability and adsorption rate of the adsorbents were very high for both As(V) and As(III). Langmuir and Freundlich models were used to fit the adsorption isotherm and investigate the adsorption mechanism. The effects of chloride and sulfate anion on the removal of arsenate and arsenite for the two adsorbents were also studied. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article studies a one-period two-party supply chain with a service requirement. At the beginning of a single retail season, the retailer can obtain goods by either ordering from a firm or by purchasing and exercising call options. The retailer’s optimal ordering policy and the supplier’s optimal production policy are derived in the presence of options contracts and a service requirement. In addition, it is shown that options contracts benefit both the retailer and supplier. Furthermore, it is shown that the retailer’s optimal expected profit is non-increasing in the service requirement and the supplier’s optimal expected profit is non-decreasing in the service requirement, either with or without options contracts. A special class of distribution-free contracts that can coordinate the supply chain with options contracts and the service requirement are derived. Furthermore, as opposed to the case of non-coordinating contracts, it is shown that there is always a Pareto contract. Finally, the retailer’s and supply chain’s optimal service level are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When there are significant service disruptions in public transit systems, passengers usually need guidance to find alternative paths. This paper proposes a path recommendation model to mitigate congestion during public transit disruptions. Passengers with different origins, destinations, and departure times are recommended with different paths such that the system travel time is minimized. We model the path recommendation problem as an optimal flow problem with uncertain demand information. To tackle the lack of analytical formulation of travel times due to capacity constraints, we propose a simulation-based first-order approximation to transform the original problem into a linear program. Uncertainties in demand are modeled using robust optimization to protect the path recommendation strategies against inaccurate estimates. A real-world rail disruption scenario in the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) system is used as a case study. Results show that even without considering uncertainty, the nominal model can reduce the system travel time by 9.1% (compared to the status quo), and outperforms the benchmark capacity-based path recommendation. The average travel time of passengers in the incident line (i.e., passengers receiving recommendations) is reduced more (−20.6% compared to the status quo). After incorporating the demand uncertainty, the robust model can further reduce system travel times. The best robust model can decrease the average travel time of incident-line passengers by 2.91% compared to the nominal model. The improvement of robust models is more prominent when the actual demand pattern is close to the worst-case demand. • A transit path recommendation model for minimizing system travel times under disruptions. • Using robust optimization to consider demand uncertainty. • Propose a simulation-based first-order approximation for the non-tractable objective function. • A case study in the Chicago public transit system with a real-world disruption. • The proposed model can reduce the incident-line passengers' travel time by 20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising temperatures can enhance foraging activity and accelerate the encounter rate of different predators, which may increase their interference competition strengths. However, limited information is available on such effects of temperature, and on the consequences for their predation rates. We used a functional response approach to experimentally quantify the interspecific interference competition strength of two species of ladybirds, Harmonia axyridis and Propylea japonica (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), toward their prey Myzus persicae (Hemiptera: Aphididae) at 23 and 33 °C, respectively. The results indicated that high temperature could cause P. japonica to be more active and interfere with H. axyridis more often, and strengthened the interference competition between these two predators. The functional response of H. axyridis was changed from type II in single H. axyridis treatment to type III in paired predator assays at 23 and 33 °C. Moreover, single H. axyridis consumed more aphids than H. axyridis in heterospecific predator trials at aphid densities below 50 and 35 at 23 and 33 °C treatments, respectively. For P. japonica, type II functional responses were detected in all assays. Additionally, when competing with H. axyridis, the predation rate of P. japonica at 23 °C was almost unchanged compared to that of single P. japonica, but fewer aphids were eaten compared with single P. japonica across all aphid densities at 33 °C. Thus, with interference competition, two predator species respond differently to temperature changes in terms of foraging efficiency, which may further affect the population adaptability and control efficiency of these two focal species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mission of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) is to serve those who solve complex and critical problems of the world. Notably, the research–practice gap in Operations Management (OM) marginalizes the value and relevance of the IISE. To maintain and enhance the impact of the IISE, we identify major bottlenecks that limit the industrial installation of OM research outcomes. Ranked by the relative importance, the three bottlenecks are verifying the performance improvement, building trust with practitioners, and balancing model accuracy and simplicity, respectively, in the stages of value verification, implementation and development. We propose potential research opportunities and illustrate the challenges and opportunities using real case studies from three Fortune Global 500 companies. In particular, we emphasize the role of data-driven decision methods in dealing with the three bottlenecks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new rhodamine-based probe 1 was designed and synthesized as a new fluorescent molecular probe for HClO in PBS buffer at physiological condition. The free probe 1 almost nonfluorescence, however, a drastic enhancement of fluorescence intensity was observed in the presence of HClO. The new probe 1 exhibits good sensitivity and selectivity for HClO over other reactive oxygen and/or nitrogen species in PBS buffer, and the probe was successfully applied to image endogeneous HClO in the living cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has pointed out that the optimal strategies to mitigate supply disruptions and demand uncertainty are often mirror images of each other. In particular, risk diversification is favorable under the threat of disruptions and risk pooling is favorable under demand uncertainty. This article studies how dynamic sourcing in supply chain design provides partial benefits of both strategies. Optimization models are formulated for supply chain network design with dynamic sourcing under the risk of temporally dependent and temporally independent disruptions of facilities. Using computational experiments, it is shown that supply chain networks that allow small to moderate degrees of dynamic sourcing can be very robust against both disruptions and demand uncertainty. Insights are attained on the optimal degree of dynamic sourcing under different conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research was motivated by challenges facing inventory managers at a major retail chain in deciding how often to order each product and whether to use a standard batch size of a pallet, a half-pallet, or even less. The retailer offers thousands of different products, but the total demand for a typical product is only a few pallets per year. Manufacturers offer lower per unit prices for larger standard batch sizes, but larger order quantities increase inventory holding costs. The inventory managers are also concerned about how the ordering strategy might affect transportation costs and material handling costs at the warehouse.    We develop a framework and solution strategy to determine the best shipment frequency, standard batch size (from a set of options), and an ordering plan for a set of products procured from a single supply location. To do so, the inventory holding and material handling costs incurred by a single product are derived for a given review interval and standard batch size. We incorporate the individual product costs into an optimization model to find, for a given transportation interval (with a limit on transport capacity for each shipment), the best procurement plan considering variable procurement, inventory, material handling, and excess transportation costs. With this, several transportation intervals can be compared and the best one selected. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to consider the effects of transportation capacity and standard batch sizes in a multi-item procurement problem with the goal of minimizing transportation, inventory, and material handling costs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We study a reliable facility location problem wherein some facilities are subject to failure from time to time. If a facility fails, customers originally assigned to it have to be reassigned to other (operational) facilities. We formulate this problem as a two-stage stochastic program and then as a nonlinear integer program. Several heuristics that can produce near-optimal solutions are proposed for this NP-hard problem. For the special case where the probability that a facility fails is a constant (independent of the facility), we provide an approximation algorithm with a worst-case bound of 4. The effectiveness of our heuristics is tested by extensive computational studies, which also lead to some managerial insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors have indicated no significant interest with commercial supporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The fundamental equations, governing all the variables of the initial boundary value problem in fully dynamic magneto-electro-elasticity with geometrical nonlinearity, are expressed in covariant differential form. The generalized principle of virtual work is given in terms of convolutions for the present problem. Two simplified Gurtin-type generalized variational principles, directly leading to all the fundamental equations, are deduced by using He’s semi-inverse method instead of Laplace transforms. By enforcing some fundamental equations as constraint conditions, one of various constrained variational principles is given as an example. By simply dropping out selected field functions, several reduced variational principles are obtained as special forms for piezoelectricity, elastodynamics, and electromagnetics, respectively. This paper aims at providing a more complete theoretical foundation for the finite element applications for the discussed problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]