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The molecular single-source precursor (SSP) route has emerged as a promising avenue for synthesizing highly efficient electro(pre)catalysts tailored for both oxygen evolution (OER) and organic electrooxidation reactions. This study introduces a novel [CoII(PyHS)4(OTf)2] molecular complex, offering a facile route to access the nanocrystalline Co9S8 phase. Upon application in alkaline OER, Co9S8 displayed remarkably high electrocatalytic activity across various metrics, including overpotentials, Tafel slopes, faradaic efficiency, charge transfer resistance, turnover frequency, electrochemical surface area, Co-redox active sites, and long-term stability at industrially relevant current densities (for 80 h at 100 mA cm−2) outperforming its Co-based counterparts under identical conditions. In-depth analysis employing several ex situ techniques revealed the complete leaching of sulfur and irreversible reconstruction of Co9S8 into a cobalt oxyhydroxide active phase during the OER. Moreover, quasi in situ Raman spectroscopy provided insights into the presence of CoIVO2 active species under operational OER conditions, along with the formation of the Co superoxide intermediate. Beyond OER applications, the Co9S8-derived active phase demonstrated notable efficiency in catalyzing the selective oxidation of biomass-derived glycerol and furan-2-carboxaldehyde to formate and furan-2-carboxylic acid, respectively, achieving yields exceeding 80%, with excellent reusability. A full hybrid-water electrolysis cell has been developed, wherein biomass valorization with Co9S8, coupled with H2 production, resulted in a significant improvement in energy efficiency compared to conventional water-splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the onset conditions of a thermoacoustic Stirling engine loaded with a commercially available audio loudspeaker. The thermoacoustic engine converts supplied heat power into mechanical power in the form of sound, without any mechanical moving parts. The simplicity of the acoustical heat engine holds great promise for high reliability and low cost. By utilizing a readily available electromagnetic device, the engine can serve as a durable solution for practical applications. In this study, we assembled a commercially available moving-coil loudspeaker as a low-cost linear alternator for the thermoacoustic Stirling engine, enabling electric generation from supplied heat. We modeled the loudspeaker using linear control equations and experimentally calibrated its acoustic impedances to estimate the acoustic load. For the part of the thermoacoustic engine, we estimated its acoustic characteristics within the framework of the linear thermoacoustic theory. By solving the characteristic equation resulting from the engine loaded with the audio speaker, we estimated the operational point of self-sustained oscillations excited by the coupling of the loudspeaker and the thermoacoustic engine system. To validate the estimations, we tested a prototype of the combined system, comprising the loudspeaker and the thermoacoustic engine. The results highlight the necessity of precise calibration and accounting for complex geometries within the acoustic load for accurate theoretical estimations, especially when incorporating a commercially available loudspeaker into a thermoacoustic engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the onset conditions of a thermoacoustic Stirling engine loaded with a commercially available audio loudspeaker. The thermoacoustic engine converts supplied heat power into mechanical power in the form of sound, without any mechanical moving parts. The simplicity of the acoustical heat engine holds great promise for high reliability and low cost. By utilizing a readily available electromagnetic device, the engine can serve as a durable solution for practical applications. In this study, we assembled a commercially available moving-coil loudspeaker as a low-cost linear alternator for the thermoacoustic Stirling engine, enabling electric generation from supplied heat. We modeled the loudspeaker using linear control equations and experimentally calibrated its acoustic impedances to estimate the acoustic load. For the part of the thermoacoustic engine, we estimated its acoustic characteristics within the framework of the linear thermoacoustic theory. By solving the characteristic equation resulting from the engine loaded with the audio speaker, we estimated the operational point of self-sustained oscillations excited by the coupling of the loudspeaker and the thermoacoustic engine system. To validate the estimations, we tested a prototype of the combined system, comprising the loudspeaker and the thermoacoustic engine. The results highlight the necessity of precise calibration and accounting for complex geometries within the acoustic load for accurate theoretical estimations, especially when incorporating a commercially available loudspeaker into a thermoacoustic engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study quantifies the potential effect of the lee vortex on the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution deterioration under the complex topography in Taiwan using observational data. We select the lee-vortex days that favor the development of the lee vortices in northwestern Taiwan under the southeasterly synoptic winds.We then define the enhancement index that discerns the areas with the high occurrence frequencies of the PM2.5 enhancement under the flow regime relative to the seasonal background concentrations. Under the lee-vortex days, the center of western Taiwan exhibits enhancement indices higher than 0.65. In addition, during the consecutive lee-vortex days, the index characterizes a northward shift in the PM2.5-enhanced areas under the subtle transition of the background wind directions. The areas with indices higher than 0.65 expand on the second day in northwestern Taiwan; the number of stations exhibiting indices higher than 0.8 increases by threefold from the first to the second day. The idealized numerical simulations using the Taiwan vector vorticity equation cloud-resolving model (TaiwanVVM) explicitly resolve the structures of leeside circulations and the associated pollutant transport, and their evolutions are highly sensitive to the background winds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological electrons in semimetals are usually vulnerable to chemical doping and environment change, which restricts their potential application in future electronic devices. In this paper, we report that the type-II Dirac semimetal VAl3 hosts exceptional, robust topological electrons which can tolerate extreme change of chemical composition. The Dirac electrons remain intact, even after a substantial part of V atoms have been replaced in the V1−xTixAl3 solid solutions. This Dirac semimetal state ends at x=0.35, where a Lifshitz transition to p-type trivial metal occurs. The V–Al bond is completely broken in this transition as long as the bonding orbitals are fully depopulated by the holes donated from Ti substitution. In other words, the Dirac electrons in VAl3 are protected by the V–Al bond, whose molecular orbital is their bonding gravity center. Our understanding on the interrelations among electron count, chemical bond, and electronic properties in topological semimetals suggests a rational approach to search robust, chemical-bond-protected topological materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging evidence suggests that hepatocytes are primarily maintained by self-renewal during normal liver homeostasis, as well as in response to a wide variety of hepatic injuries. However, how hepatocytes in distinct anatomic locations within the liver lobule are replenished under homeostasis and injury-induced regeneration remains elusive. Using a newly developed bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)-transgenic mouse model, we demonstrate that Lgr5 expression in the liver is restricted to a unique subset of hepatocytes most adjacent to the central veins. Genetic lineage tracing revealed that pericentral Lgr5+ hepatocytes have a long lifespan and mainly contribute to their own lineage maintenance during postnatal liver development and homeostasis. Remarkably, these hepatocytes also fuel the regeneration of their own lineage during the massive and rapid regeneration process following two-thirds partial hepatectomy. Moreover, Lgr5+ hepatocytes are found to be the main cellular origin of diethylnitrosamine (DEN)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and are highly susceptible to neoplastic transformation triggered by activation of Erbb pathway. Our findings establish an unexpected self-maintaining mode for a defined subset of hepatocytes during liver homeostasis and regeneration, and identify Lgr5+ pericentral hepatocytes as major cells of origin in HCC development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bismuth-based materials have been instrumental in the development of topological physics, even though bulk bismuth itself has been long thought to be topologically trivial. A recent study has, however, shown that bismuth is in fact a higher-order topological insulator featuring one-dimensional (1D) topological hinge states protected by threefold rotational and inversion symmetries. In this paper, we uncover another hidden facet of the band topology of bismuth by showing that bismuth is also a first-order topological crystalline insulator protected by a twofold rotational symmetry. As a result, its (110) surface exhibits a pair of gapless Dirac surface states. Remarkably, these surface Dirac cones are "unpinned" in the sense that they are not restricted to locate at specific k points in the (110) surface Brillouin zone. These unpinned 2D Dirac surface states could be probed directly via various spectroscopic techniques. Our analysis also reveals the presence of a distinct, previously uncharacterized set of 1D topological hinge states protected by the twofold rotational symmetry. Our study thus provides a comprehensive understanding of the topological band structure of bismuth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) disease contributes to nearly half of the mortalities in patients with end-stage renal disease. Patients who received prehemodialysis arteriovenous access (pre-HD AVA) creation had divergent CV outcomes. Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study by recruiting incident patients receiving HD from 2001 to 2012 from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients' characteristics, comorbidities, and medicines were analyzed. The primary outcome of interest was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), defined as hospitalization due to acute myocardial infarction, stroke, or congestive heart failure (CHF) occurring within the first year of HD. Secondary outcomes included MACE-related mortality and all-cause mortality in the same follow-up period. Results: The patients in the pre-HD AVA group were younger, had a lower burden of underlying diseases, were more likely to use erythropoiesis-stimulating agents but less likely to use renin--angiotensin--aldosterone system blockers. The patients with pre-HD AVA creation had a marginally lower rate of MACEs but a significant 35% lower rate of CHF hospitalization than those without creation (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.48--0.88]). In addition, the pre-HD AVA group exhibited an insignificantly lower rate of MACE-related mortality but a significantly 52% lower rate of all-cause mortality than the non-pre-HD AVA group (adjusted HR 0.48, 95% CI [0.39-0.59]). Sensitivity analyses obtained consistent results. Conclusions: Pre-HD AVA creation is associated with a lower rate of CHF hospitalization and overall death in the first year of dialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of Fermi surface defines the physical properties of conductors and many physical phenomena can be traced to its shape. Although the recent discovery of a current-dependent nonlinear magnetoresistance in spin-polarized non-magnetic materials has attracted considerable attention in spintronics, correlations between this phenomenon and the underlying fermiology remain unexplored. Here, we report the observation of nonlinear magnetoresistance at room temperature in a semimetal WTe2, with an interesting temperature-driven inversion. Theoretical calculations reproduce the nonlinear transport measurements and allow us to attribute the inversion to temperature-induced changes in Fermi surface convexity. We also report a large anisotropy of nonlinear magnetoresistance in WTe2, due to its low symmetry of Fermi surfaces. The good agreement between experiments and theoretical modeling reveals the critical role of Fermi surface topology and convexity on the nonlinear magneto-response. These results lay a new path to explore ramifications of distinct fermiology for nonlinear transport in condensed-matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabled people often use the electric scooter as a means of transport. However, the electric scooter designed for disabilities is too bulky and not light in shape. It is not only awkward on the road but brings inconvenience to young people with disabilities. In the first phase of the study, first the electric scooter with a higher market share as a design reference was collected; then we use the image scale analysis to determine the market position of the electric scooter. Combine each major component and derive detail design of the product through Morphological chart method and Finite Structure Method (FSM). This study uses this method to complete the development of product modeling and analyze the configuration of the product as the main function in the structural and main function in space. Let function and appearance have the efficient combination. Then use Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to obtain objective decision results. The use of Concurrent Design Strategy can effectively shorten the development process and increase the chance of product success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as glucose intolerance with onset during pregnancy, which is also associated with future metabolic diseases in both patients and their offspring. The mechanisms underlying this condition remain largely unknown and may be partly related to epigenetics. The aim of this study was to compare the methylation levels of the cytokine interleukin-10 (IL-10) in pregnant women and their fetuses under both hyperglycemic and euglycemic environments, as those levels may be a clue to the epigenetic mechanisms underlying pathogenesis of GDM. Methods: We analyzed the methylation levels of the IL-10 gene in maternal blood, cord blood, and placental tissue in both a GDM group (n = 8) and a control group (n = 24) using a LightCycler LC480 (Roche, Rotkreuz, Switzerland). IL-10 concentrations in maternal blood and THP-1 cells were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using BD OptEIA Human IL-10 ELISA kits (BD Biosciences Pharmingen, San Diego, CA, United States). Results: The maternal blood IL-10 methylation levels in the GDM group and the control group were 0.23 ±0.04 and 0.26 ±0.04, respectively (p = 0.03), but there were no significant differences between the levels of the two groups in the cord blood or placental tissue. Increased IL-10 plasma concentrations were discovered under hyperglycemic environments and were confirmed via the THP-1 cell line. Conclusion: Hypomethylation of maternal blood and increased plasma IL-10 concentrations before birth were found in the GDM group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who received parathyroidectomy (PTX) had persistently reduced levels of parathyroid hormone. This study investigated the risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in patients with ESRD who underwent PTX using a nationwide health insurance claims database. Methods: Of all ESRD patients, we selected 1047 individuals who had undergone PTX between 2000 and 2008 as the PTX group and 4188 patients who did not undergo PTX (non-PTX group) matched by propensity score. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was conducted for assessing the excess ACS risk for the PTX group compared to the non-PTX group. Results: The mean follow-up periods were 4.63 and 4.04 years for the PTX and non-PTX groups, respectively. A significant reduction in the risk of ACS (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.74, 95% confidence interval = 0.57–0.96) was observed for the ESRD patients after PTX. Conclusions: Parathyroidectomy is associated with reduced risk of ACS in patients with ESRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient sampling design for forest inventory is important to collect the basic measurements required to estimate stand volume and describe forest structure. For operational forest inventory, efficient sampling designs often are constrained not only by standard error objectives, but also by cost constraints. So, sampling designs must consider a balance between objectives and constraints. Big basal area factor (BAF) sampling incorporates subsampling into horizontal point sampling by using two angle gauges: one to select count trees (small BAF) and one to select measure trees (big BAF). Big BAF sampling focuses inventory effort on counts, which tend to be more variable than volume:basal area (VBAR) measures, and greatly improves sample efficiency. However, big BAF sampling is not widely employed because forest inventory specialists do not fully understand the relationships among sampling error, sample size and field costs. In this study, we show the impact of count BAF and measure BAF on sampling error and sample size requirements, and develop methods to optimize choice of count and measure BAF when inventory expenditures are constrained. Our results show that when the variability in VBAR is low, count BAF limits sample design options, and as VBAR variability increases, measure BAF becomes the limiting design factor. We also found that efficient sample design is more critical when inventory resources are limited than when inventory resources are more abundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: No consensus has been reached regarding which anticholinergic scoring system works most effectively in clinical settings. The aim of this population-based cohort study was to examine the association between anticholinergic medication burden, as defined by different scales, and adverse clinical outcomes among older adults.Methods: From Taiwan's Longitudinal Health Insurance Database, we retrieved data on monthly anticholinergic drug use measured by the Anticholinergic Risk Scale (ARS), the Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden Scale (ACB), and the Drug Burden Index - Anticholinergic component (DBI-Ach) for 116,043 people aged 65 years and older during a 10-year follow-up. For all 3 scales, a higher score indicates greater anticholinergic burden. We used generalized estimating equations to examine the association between anticholinergic burden (ARS and ACB: grouped from 0 to ≥4; DBI-Ach: grouped as 0, 0-0.5, and 0.5-1) and adverse outcomes, and stratified individuals by age-group (aged 65-74, 75-84, and ≥85 years).Results: Compared with the ARS and DBI-Ach, the ACB showed the strongest, most consistent dose-response relationships with risks of all 4 adverse outcomes, particularly in people aged 65 to 84 years. For example, among those 65 to 74 years old, going from an ACB score of 1 to a score of 4 or greater, individuals' adjusted odds ratio increased from 1.41 to 2.25 for emergency department visits; from 1.32 to 1.92 for all-cause hospitalizations; from 1.10 to 1.71 for fracture-specific hospitalizations; and from 3.13 to 10.01 for incident dementia.Conclusions: Compared with the 2 other scales studied, the ACB shows good dose-response relationships between anticholinergic burden and a variety of adverse outcomes in older adults. For primary care and geriatrics clinicians, the ACB may be a helpful tool for identifying high-risk populations for interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estrogen has been postulated as a contributor for lung cancer development and progression. We reviewed the current knowledge about the expression and prognostic implications of the estrogen receptors (ER) in lung cancer, the effect and signaling pathway of estrogen on lung cancer, the hormone replacement therapy and lung cancer risk and survival, the mechanistic relationship between the ER and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and the relevant clinical trials combining the ER antagonist and the EGFR antagonist, to investigate the role of estrogen in lung cancer. Estrogen and its receptor have the potential to become a prognosticator and a therapeutic target in lung cancer. On the other hand, tobacco smoking aggravates the effect of estrogen and endocrine disruptive chemicals from the environment targeting ER may well contribute to the lung carcinogenesis. They have gradually become important issues in the course of preventive medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of high-fructose-high-fat diets with different fat compositions on metabolic parameters, hippocampal-dependent cognitive function, and brain leptin (as well as stearoyl-CoA desaturase (SCD1) mRNA expressions). Thirty-two male Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups, a control group (n = 8), a high-fructose soybean oil group (37.5% of fat calories, n = 12), and a high-fructose coconut oil group (37.5% of fat calories, n = 12) for 20 weeks. By the end of the study, the coconut oil group exhibited significantly higher serum fasting glucose, fructosamine, insulin, leptin, and triglyceride levels compared to those of the control and soybean oil groups. However, hippocampal leptin expression and leptin receptor mRNA levels were significantly lower, while SCD1 mRNA was significantly higher in rats fed the high-fructose-high-coconut oil diet than in rats fed the other experimental diets. In addition, the coconut oil group spent significantly less time in the target quadrant on the probe test in the Morris water maze (MWM) task. Rats fed the high-fructose-high-coconut oil diet for 20 weeks were prone to develop hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, hyperleptinemia, and hypertriglyceridemia. These metabolic consequences may contribute to hippocampal-dependent memory impairment, accompanied by a lower central leptin level, and a higher SCD1 gene expression in the brain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tendon motion, which is commonly observed using ultrasound imaging, is one of the most important features used in tendinopathy diagnosis. However, speckle noise and out-of-plane issues make the tracking process difficult. Manual tracking is usually time consuming and often yields inconsistent results between users.Methods: To automatically track tendon motion in ultrasound images, we developed a new method that combines the advantages of optical flow and multi-kernel block matching. For every pair of adjacent image frames, the optical flow is computed and used to estimate the accumulated displacement. The proposed method selects the frame interval adaptively based on this displacement. Multi-kernel block matching is then computed on the two selected frames, and, to reduce tracking errors, the detailed displacements of the frames in between are interpolated based on the optical flow results.Results: In the experiments, cadaver data were used to evaluate the tracking results. The mean absolute error was less than 0.05 mm. The proposed method also tracked the motion of tendons in vivo, which provides useful information for clinical diagnosis.Conclusion: The proposed method provides a new index for adaptively determining the frame interval. Compared with other methods, the proposed method yields tracking results that are significantly more accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A stacked-screen regenerator is a key component in a thermoacoustic Stirling engine. Therefore, the choice of suitable mesh screens is important in the engine design. To verify the applicability of four empirical equations used in the field of thermoacoustic engines and Stirling engines, this report describes the measurements of heat flow rates transmitted through the stacked screen regenerator inserted in an experimental setup filled with pressurized Argon gas having mean pressure of 0.45 MPa. Results show that the empirical equations reproduce the measured heat flow rates to a mutually similar degree, although their derivation processes differ. Additionally, results suggest that two effective pore radii would be necessary to account for the viscous and thermal behaviors of the gas oscillating in the stacked-screen regenerators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Rapidly growing cancer cells secrete growth-promoting polypeptides and have increased proteolytic activity, contributing to tumor progression and metastasis. Their presentation in malignant pleural effusion (MPE) and their predictive value for the outcome of pleurodesis and survival were studied.Methods: Between February 2011 and March 2012, MPE samples were prospectively collected from 61 patients. Twenty-five patients with non-malignant pleural effusion in the same period were included as controls. Pleural fluid osteopontin (OPN), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) concentrations were measured.Results: Patients with MPE had higher pleural fluid OPN, VEGF, and uPA concentrations than those with non-malignant pleural effusion, but only differences in VEGF were statistically significant (p = 0.045). Patients with distant metastases had significantly elevated pleural fluid VEGF concentrations than those without (p = 0.004). Pleural fluid OPN, VEGF, and uPA concentrations were positively correlated in most patients. However, there was no significant difference in pleural fluid OPN, VEGF, and uPA concentrations between patients with successful pleurodesis and those without. There was also no significant difference in cancer-specific survival between sub-groups with higher and lower pleural fluid OPN, VEGF, or uPA concentrations. Patients with successful pleurodesis had significantly longer cancer-specific survival than those without (p = 0.015).Conclusions: Pleural fluid OPN, VEGF, and uPA concentrations are elevated in MPE but are not satisfactory predictors of pleurodesis outcome or survival. Patients with higher pleural fluid VEGF concentration have higher risk of distant metastasis. Evaluating the benefits of therapy targeting the VEGF pathway in these patients warrants further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on flood-region detection using monitoring images. However, adverse weather affects the outcome of image segmentation methods. In this paper, we present an experimental comparison of an outdoor visual sensing system using region-growing methods with two different growing rules—namely, GrowCut and RegGro. For each growing rule, several tests on adverse weather and lens-stained scenes were performed, taking into account and analyzing different weather conditions with the outdoor visual sensing system. The influence of several weather conditions was analyzed, highlighting their effect on the outdoor visual sensing system with different growing rules. Furthermore, experimental errors and uncertainties obtained with the growing rules were compared. The segmentation accuracy of flood regions yielded by the GrowCut, RegGro, and hybrid methods was 75%, 85%, and 87.7%, respectively [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burning incense indoors is a common behavior in Southeast Asia. In this investigation, needle trap samplers (NTS), a novel, green analytical technology is used for sampling gaseous combustion by-products from sandalwood incense coils. To extract indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs), two NTS are prepared, one using 60-80 mesh and the other using 100-120 mesh divinylbenzene (DVB) particles packed in 22-gauge stainless steel needles. This work compares extraction efficiency of an NTS and that of a commercially available 100 µm polydimethylsiloxane solid phase microextration (PDMS-SPME) fiber sampler. Experimental results indicated that the 100-120 mesh DVB-NTS performed best among all samplers during a 1 h sampling period. The main extracted compounds were toluene, ethylbenzene, propane, chloromethane, 1,3-butadiene, methanol and dichloromethane. The potential use of small badge-sized or pen-sized NTS for the indoor atmosphere and occupational hygiene applications is addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on the investigation of the effects of the PI motif and C-terminus of the Oncidium Gower Ramsey MADS box gene 8 (OMADS8), a PISTILLATA (PI) ortholog, on floral organ formation. 35S::OMADS8 completely rescued and 35S::OMADS8-PI (with the PI motif deleted) partially rescued petal/stamen formation, whereas these deficiencies were not rescued by 35S::OMADS8-C (C-terminal 29 amino acids deleted) in pi-1 mutants. OMADS8 could interact with Arabidopsis APETALA3 (AP3) and enter the nucleus. The nuclear entry efficiency was reduced for OMADS8-PI/AP3 and OMADS8-C/AP3. OMADS8 could also interact with OMADS5/OMADS9 (the Oncidium AP3 ortholog) and enter the nucleus with an efficiency only slightly affected by the deletion of the C-terminal sequence or PI motif. However, the stability of the OMADS8/OMADS5 and OMADS8/OMADS9 complexes was significantly reduced by deletion of the C-terminal sequence or PI motif. Further analysis indicated that the expression of genes downstream of AP3/PI (BNQ1/BNQ2/GNC/At4g30270) was compensated by 35S::OMADS8 and 35S::OMADS8-PI to a level similar to wild-type plants but was not affected by 35S::OMADS8-C in the pi-1 mutants. A similar FRET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) efficiency was observed for Arabidopsis AGAMOUS (AG) and the Oncidium AG ortholog OMADS4 for OMADS8, OMADS8-PI and OMADS8-C. These results indicated that the OMADS8 PI motif and C-terminus were valuable for the interaction of OMADS8 with the AP3 orthologs to form higher order heterotetrameric complexes that regulated petal/stamen formation in both Oncidium orchids and transgenic Arabidopsis. However, the C-terminal sequence and PI motif were dispensable for the interaction of OMADS8 with the AG orthologs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous investigations have reported that physicians tend to neglect their own health care; however, they may also use their professional knowledge and networks to engage in healthier lifestyles or seek prompt health services. We sought to determine whether the stage at which cancer is diagnosed differs between physicians and nonphysicians.Methods: We conducted a nationwide matched cohort study over a period of 14 years in Taiwan. We accessed data from two national databases: the National Health Insurance Research Database and the Taiwan Cancer Registry File. We collected data on all patients with the 6 most common cancers in Taiwan (hepatoma, lung, colorectal, oral, female breast and cervical cancer) from 1999 to 2012. We excluded patients less than 25 years of age, as well as those with a history of organ transplantation, cancer or AIDS. We used propensity score matching for age, sex, residence and income to select members for the control (nonphysicians) and experimental (physicians) groups at a 5:1 ratio. We used χ(2) tests to analyze the distribution of incident cancer stages among physicians and nonphysicians. We compared these associations using multinomial logistic regression. We performed sensitivity analyses for subgroups of doctors and cancers.Results: We identified 274,003 patients with cancer, 542 of whom were physicians. After propensity score matching, we assigned 536 physicians to the experimental group and 2680 nonphysicians to the control group. We found no significant differences in cancer stage distributions between physicians and controls. Multinomial logistic regression and sensitivity analyses showed similar cancer stages in most scenarios; however, physicians had 2.64-fold higher risk of having stage IV cancer at diagnosis in cases of female breast and cervical cancer.Interpretation: In this cohort of physicians in Taiwan, cancer was not diagnosed at earlier stages than in nonphysicians, with the exception of stage IV cancer of the cervix and female breast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pinhole SPECT for small animal has become a routine procedure in many applications of molecular biology and pharmaceutical development. There is an increasing demand in the whole body imaging of lab animals. A simple and direct solution is to scan the object along a helical trajectory, similar to a helical CT scan. The corresponding acquisition time can be greatly reduced, while the over-lapping and gap between consecutive bed positions can be avoided. However, helical pinhole SPECT inevitably leads to the tremendous increase in computational complexity when the iterative reconstruction algorithms are applied. We suggest a novel voxel-driven (VD) system model which can be integrated with geometric symmetries from helical trajectory for fast iterative image reconstruction. Such a model construction can also achieve faster calculation and lower storage requirement of the system matrix. Due to the independence among various symmetries, it permits parallel coding to further boost computation efficiency of forward/backward projection. From phantom study, the results also indicate that the proposed VD model can adequately model the helical pinhole SPECT scanner with manageable storage size of system matrix and clinically acceptable computation loading of reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing climatic extremes, the frequency and severity of urban flood events have intensified worldwide. In this study, image-based automated monitoring of flood formation and analyses of water level fluctuation were proposed as value-added intelligent sensing applications to turn a passive monitoring camera into a visual sensor. Combined with the proposed visual sensing method, traditional hydrological monitoring cameras have the ability to sense and analyze the local situation of flood events. This can solve the current problem that image-based flood monitoring heavily relies on continuous manned monitoring. Conventional sensing networks can only offer one-dimensional physical parameters measured by gauge sensors, whereas visual sensors can acquire dynamic image information of monitored sites and provide disaster prevention agencies with actual field information for decision-making to relieve flood hazards. The visual sensing method established in this study provides spatiotemporal information that can be used for automated remote analysis for monitoring urban floods. This paper focuses on the determination of flood formation based on image-processing techniques. The experimental results suggest that the visual sensing approach may be a reliable way for determining the water fluctuation and measuring its elevation and flood intrusion with respect to real-world coordinates. The performance of the proposed method has been confirmed; it has the capability to monitor and analyze the flood status, and therefore, it can serve as an active flood warning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]