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Hot-rolled 3207 duplex stainless steel (DSS) was solution treated at 1250℃ for 30 min, and cold rolled at 40-80 % reduction. The superplastic deformation was drawn with a constant speed of 1.5 × 10-3 s-1 at 950℃. The effect of cold-rolling reduction on microstructure and properties of 3207 duplex stainless steel was studied. The results show that austenite and ferrite are elongated along a rolling direction with increased reduction With the increase of reduction, the elongation of 3207 DSS at a high-temperature tensile process increased significantly. When the reduction reached 70 %, the elongation could exceed 100 %. When the reduction rate of cold rolling reached 80 %, the elongation reached the maximum value of 408.63 %. When the reduction was less than 60 %, the peak stress was stabilized at about 300 MPa. When the reduction reached 60 %, the peak stress decreased gradually with the increase of the reduction, and the lowest value, 140.34 MPa, was obtained when the reduction reached 80 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To identify the association between the interleukin (IL) 6 (IL-6) rs1800795 (-174 G>C), IL-8 rs4073 (-251T>A), and matrix metalloproteinase-13 (MMP-13) rs2252070 (-77G>A) gene polymorphisms and knee osteoarthritis (KOA) susceptibility in the Chinese Han population. Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from a total of 400 KOA patients and 400 healthy subjects. Sanger sequencing was performed to determine the genotypes of the IL-6 rs1800795 (-174 G/C), IL-8 rs4073 (-251A/T), and MMP-13 rs2252070 (-77A/G) loci. The mRNA expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and MMP-13 in osteoblasts and the protein expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and MMP-13 in the synovial fluids of KOA patients were analyzed. Results: The recessive model of IL-6 rs1800795 locus was found to be associated with KOA risk (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.657, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.396-1.866, P<0.001). The IL-8 rs4073 locus dominant and recessive model showed no significant association with KOA risk (P>0.05). The dominant and recessive models of the MMP-13 rs2252070 locus showed higher risk for developing KOA (dominant model: adjusted OR = 1.271, 95%CI = 1.095-1.480, P=0.001; recessive model: adjusted OR = 1.361 95%CI = 1.151-1.569, P<0.001). The G>C mutation in IL-6 rs1800795 and the G>A mutation in MMP-13 rs2252070 were associated with significantly higher KOA disease severity. The G>C mutation in the IL-6 rs1800795 locus was associated with up-regulation of IL-6 expression. The G>A mutation in the MMP-13 rs2252070 locus was associated with up-regulation of MMP-13 expression. Conclusion: The IL-8 rs4073 (-251T>A) mutation was not associated with KOA susceptibility. The IL-6 rs1800795 (-174 G>C) and MMP-13 rs2252070 (-77G>A) mutations were associated with KOA susceptibility, increased disease severity, and up-regulation of IL-6 and MMP-13 expression levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: High-content screening (HCS) technologies have enabled large scale imaging experiments for studying cell biology and for drug screening. These systems produce hundreds of thousands of microscopy images per day and their utility depends on automated image analysis. Recently, deep learning approaches that learn feature representations directly from pixel intensity values have dominated object recognition challenges. These tasks typically have a single centered object per image and existing models are not directly applicable to microscopy datasets. Here we develop an approach that combines deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with multiple instance learning (MIL) in ordertoclassify and segment microscopy images using onlywhole image level annotations. Results: We introduce a new neural network architecture that uses MIL to simultaneously classify and segment microscopy images with populations of cells. We base our approach on the similarity between the aggregation function used in MIL and pooling layers used in CNNs. To facilitate aggregating across large numbers of instances in CNN feature maps we present the Noisy-AND pooling function, a new MIL operator that is robust to outliers. Combining CNNs with MIL enables training CNNs using whole microscopy images with image level labels. We show that training end-to-end MIL CNNs outperforms several previous methods on both mammalian and yeast datasets without requiring any segmentation steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We conducted a Phase I dose-escalation trial of ADMVA, a Clade-B'/C-based HIV-1 candidate vaccine expressing env, gag, pol, nef, and tat in a modified vaccinia Ankara viral vector. Sequences were derived from a prevalent circulating HIV-1 recombinant form in Yunnan, China, an area of high HIV incidence. The objective was to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of ADMVA in human volunteers. Methodology/Principal Findings: ADMVA or placebo was administered intramuscularly at months 0, 1 and 6 to 50 healthy adult volunteers not at high risk for HIV-1. In each dosage group [1x107 (low), 5x107 (mid), or 2.5x108 pfu (high)] volunteers were randomized in a 3:1 ratio to receive ADMVA or placebo in a double-blinded design. Subjects were followed for local and systemic reactogenicity, adverse events including cardiac adverse events, and clinical laboratory parameters. Study follow up was 18 months. Humoral immunogenicity was evaluated by anti-gp120 binding ELISA, immunoflourescent staining, and HIV-1 neutralization. Cellular immunogenicity was assessed by a validated IFNγ ELISpot assay and intracellular cytokine staining. Antivaccinia binding titers were measured by ELISA. ADMVA was generally well-tolerated, with no vaccine-related serious adverse events or cardiac adverse events. Local or systemic reactogenicity events were reported by 77% and 78% of volunteers, respectively. The majority of events were of mild intensity. The IFNγ ELISpot response rate to any HIV antigen was 0/12 (0%) in the placebo group, 3/12 (25%) in the low dosage group, 6/12 (50%) in themid dosage group, and 8/13 (62%) in the high dosage group. Responses were often multigenic and occasionally persisted up to one year post vaccination. Antibodies to gp120 were detected in 0/12 (0%), 8/13 (62%), 6/12 (50%) and 10/13 (77%) in the placebo, low, mid, and high dosage groups, respectively. Antibodies persisted up to 12 months after vaccination, with a trend toward agreement with the ability to neutralize HIV-1 SF162 in vitro. Two volunteers mounted antibodies that were able to neutralize clade-matched viruses. Conclusions/Significance: ADMVA was well-tolerated and elicited durable humoral and cellular immune responses. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00252148. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Dating back to the first epidemic among injection drug users in 1989, the Yunnan province has had the highest number of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infections in China. However, the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 in Yunnan has not been fully characterized. Methods and Findings Using immunoassays, we identified 103,015 accumulated cases of HIV-1 infections in Yunnan between 1989 and 2004. We studied 321 patients representing Yunnan's 16 prefectures from four risk groups, 11 ethnic populations, and ten occupations. We identified three major circulating subtypes: C/CRF07_BC/CRF08_BC (53%), CRF01_AE (40.5%), and B (6.5%) by analyzing the sequence of p17, which is part of the gag gene. For patients with known risk factors, 90.9% of injection drug users had C/CRF07_BC/CRF08_BC viruses, whereas 85.4% of CRF01_AE infections were acquired through sexual transmission. No distinct segregation of CRF01_AE viruses was found among the Dai ethnic group. Geographically, C/CRF07_BC/CRF08_BC was found throughout the province, while CRF01_AE was largely confined to the prefectures bordering Myanmar. Furthermore, C/CRF07_BC/CRF08_BC viruses were found to consist of a group of viruses, including C, CRF08_BC, CRF07_BC, and new BC recombinants, based on the characterization of their reverse transcriptase genes. Conclusions This is the first report of a province-wide HIV-1 molecular epidemiological study in Yunnan. While C/CRF07_BC/CRF08_BC and CRF01_AE are codominant, the discovery of many sexually transmitted CRF01_AE cases is new and suggests that this subtype may lead to a new epidemic in the general Chinese population. We discuss implications of our results for understanding the evolution of the HIV-1 pandemic and for vaccine development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvelev and Phragmites communis Trin. are co-dominant grasses in both nutrient-poor and rich steppes in the Songnen Plains of northeastern China. A replacement series experiment was conducted along a five-level nutrient gradient to test for changes in the competitive relationships of the species with nutrient availability. There were significant effects of nutrient level and species proportion on mean plant height, biomass and rhizome length. Facilitation was found in these plant attributes for both species when grown in mixture compared with monoculture, especially at high nutrient levels. For example, L. chinensis grew taller and intercepted more light when in mixture. The aboveground dominance of P. communis did not decrease in mixture, possibly because it benefited from belowground interactions with L. chinensis. Biomass allocation was apparently influenced by both above and belowground competition. For example, L. chinensis allocated much more biomass to shoots and less to roots when neighbor number was increased, suggesting that aboveground competition occurred. Root: shoot ratios of L. chinensis in monoculture decreased gradually with increasing nutrient availability, whereas the ratio in mixture declined rapidly, implying intense competition for light at high levels. Our results support the hypothesis that nutrient competition is more important than light competition when soil nutrients are scarce. Although the interactions between these species benefit both, P. communis is more likely to displace L. chinensis at high nutrient availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantity and quality of first-strand cDNA directly influence the accuracy of transcriptional analysis and quantification. Using a plant-derived α-tubulin as a model system, the effect of oligo sequence and DTT on the quality and quantity of first-strand cDNA synthesis was assessed via a combination of semi-quantitative PCR and real-time PCR. The results indicated that anchored oligo dT significantly improved the quantity and quality of α-tubulin cDNA compared to the conventional oligo dT. Similarly, omitting DTT from the first-strand cDNA synthesis also enhanced the levels of transcript. This is the first time that a comparative analysis has been undertaken for a plant system and it shows conclusively that small changes to current protocols can have very significant impact on transcript analysis. Edited by: Yu-Xian ZHU [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]