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To study the interaction of nanoparticles (NPs) and human serum albumin (HSA), we designed three different aminosubstituted hydrophobically cholesterol-modified pullulan NPs (CHPN NPs). Dynamic light scattering (DLS) revealed sizes of 145, 156, and 254 nm and zeta potentials of 0.835, 7.22, and 11.7 mV for CHPN1, CHPN2, and CHPN3 NPs, respectively. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) revealed that the binding constants were (1.59±0.45)×105 M−1, (2.08±0.26)×104 M−1, and (2.71±0.92)×104 M−1, respectively, and HSA coverage was (1.52±0.12), (0.518±0.316), and (0.092±0.015). Fluorescence spectroscopy of HSA revealed that the fluorescence intensity was quenched by CHPN NPs, which was maintained with a long final complexation period. Circular dichroism (CD) revealed a quick decrease in the α-helix content of HSA to 39.1% after the final complexation. NPs with a more positive charge led to a greater decrease in α-helix content than occurred in other NPs, so the NP surface charge played a role in the HSA–NP interaction. After HSA binding, the surface charge was −3.66±0.12 for CHPN1, −2.65±0.06 for CHPN2 and −1.12±0.28 mV for CHPN3 NPs. The NP surface property changed because of HSA binding, which is important for NP applications.

In order to suppress leakage current caused in the traditional multi-cells series Li-ion battery pack protection system, a new battery voltage transfer method is presented in this paper, which uses the current generated in the transfer process of one of the batteries to compensate for the leakage of itself and other cells except the top cell. Based on the 0.18 µm Bipolar and CMOS and DMOS technology, this proposed circuit has been integrated into a 7-cells Li-ion battery charge and discharge protection chip successfully. The experimental results of cell balancing confirm that the balancing algorithm can help with the shortage of the voltage transfer circuit. Furthermore, analysis of 20 samples shows that the new method can greatly suppress the battery leakage. Compared with the traditional solution, the voltage transfer circuit proposed in this paper greatly reduces the leakage current, which helps to extend the service life of the battery.

Ketoreductases have shown considerable potential as biocatalysts in the asymmetric synthesis of chiral alcohols. However, compared to the widely studied ketoreductases for chiral alcohols, limited knowledge is available about ketoreductases for efficient dynamic reductive kinetic resolution (DYRKR) of bulky α-amino β-keto esters. In this study, structure-guided rational direct evolution was applied to a ketoreductase (WTEA) from Exiguobacterium sp. F42 for the asymmetric reduction of bulky α-amino β-keto esters. A number of mutants were then obtained with remarkably improved activity toward various bulky α-amino β-keto esters with excellent stereoselectivity by performing structure-guided rational design. In particular, mutant M30 (W82L/F88V/V121A/A138L/R142M/A190V/S193A/Y201F/N204A) exhibited excellent stereoselectivity (>99% dr, >99% de) and high conversion (>99%) for six α-amino β-keto esters. Furthermore, novel and practical chemoenzymatic routes were developed for the synthesis of chloramphenicol and florfenicol, which featured the application of enzymatic DYRKR to establish the two stereocenters of amino alcohols 4-NO2-substituted (2S, 3R)-5b and 4-SO2Me-substituted (2S, 3R)-8b with > 99% dr, > 99% de and >99% conversion from 100 g L−1 α-amino β-keto esters 5a and 8a (highest substrate loading reported), respectively. Crystal structure and molecular dynamics studies revealed the potential molecular basis for activity improvement and the stereoselectivity control mechanism at the atomic level. These results provide important insights into the evolution of ketoreductases for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral vicinal amino alcohols and establish a solid foundation for further large-scale industrial applications in the future.

We first developed a novel and efficient chemoenzymatic process to prepare (S)-1-(pyridin-4-yl)-1,3-propanediol, a vital HepDirect prodrug intermediate, from inexpensive and commercially available ...

Cryotherapy is one of the most common treatments for warts; however, pain during treatment and relatively high recurrence rates limit its use. Local hyperthermia has also been used successfully in the treatment of plantar warts. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical effectiveness of local hyperthermia vs cryotherapy for the treatment of plantar warts. This multi- centre, open, 2-arm, non-randomized concurrent controlled trial included 1,027 patients, who received either cryotherapy or local hyperthermia treatment. Three months after treatment, local hyperthermia and cryotherapy achieved complete clearance rates of 50.9% and 54.3%, respectively. Recurrence rates were 0.8% and 12%, respectively. Pain scores during local hyperthermia were significantly lower than for cryotherapy. Both local hyperthermia and cryotherapy demonstrated similar efficacy for clearance of plantar warts; while local hyperthermia had a lower recurrence rate and lower pain sensation during treatment.

Following the success of the natural language processing, the transformer for vision applications has attracted significant attention in recent years due to its excellent performance. However, existing deep learning hardware accelerators for vision cannot execute this structure efficiently due to significant model architecture differences. As a result, this paper proposes the hardware accelerator for vision transformers with row-wise scheduling, which decomposes major operations in vision transformers as a single dot product primitive for a unified and efficient execution. Furthermore, by sharing weights in columns, we can reuse the data and reduce the usage of memory. The implementation with TSMC 40nm CMOS technology only requires 262K gate count and 149KB SRAM buffer for 403.2 GOPS throughput at 600MHz clock frequency., Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, published in IEEE AICAS 2022

(S)-2-Chloro-1-(2,4-dichlorophenyl) ethanol (3) is a chiral intermediate in the synthesis of luliconazole ((R)-E-1). Here, we report a novel biopreparation of 3 by bioreduction of 2-chloro-1-(2,4-d...

The drug response sensitivity and related prognosis of prostate cancer varied from races, while the original mechanism remains rarely understood. In this study, the comprehensive signature including transcriptomics, epigenome and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 485 PCa cases- including 415 Whites, 58 Blacks and 12 Asians from the TCGA database were analyzed to investigate the drug metabolism differences between races. We found that Blacks and Whites had a more prominent drug metabolism, cytotoxic therapy resistance, and endocrine therapy resistance than Asians, while Whites were more prominent in drug metabolism, cytotoxic therapy resistance and endocrine therapy resistance than Blacks. Subsequently, the targeted regulation analysis indicated that the racial differences in cytotoxic therapy resistance, endocrine therapy resistance, might originate from drug metabolisms, and 19 drug metabolism-related core genes were confirmed in the multi-omics network for subsequent analysis. Furthermore, we verified that CYP1A1, CYP3A4, CYP2B6, UGT2B17, UGT2B7, UGT1A8, UGT2B11, GAS5, SNHG6, XIST significantly affected antineoplastic drugs sensitivities in PCa cell lines, and these genes also showed good predictive efficiency of drug response and treatment outcomes for PCa in this cohort of patients. These findings revealed a comprehensive signature of drug metabolism differences for the Whites, Blacks and Asians, and it may provide some evidence for making individualized treatment strategies.

Lithium-ion battery as an efficient, sustainable, and clean energy for electric vehicles (EVs) and smart devices becomes more popular with the worldwide demand for reduction of greenhouse gas emission. In all kinds of applications, an accurate real-time estimation for state of charge (SOC) of battery is necessary. Some conventional methods usually need to sample both battery currents and voltages. This article presents a novel SOC estimation algorithm without current detection. This algorithm just acquires the port voltages of cell to calculate the open-circuit voltage (OCV) which is related to SOC. By extracting a large number of battery voltages based on a step response, some important parameters that can track battery working process are determined. In order to verify the algorithm feasibility and accuracy, it has been tested on a commercial common field-programmable gate array (FPGA) in different application conditions. The algorithm accuracy is mainly limited by model accuracy and sampling sensor accuracy. The maximum error between ideal SOC and calculated SOC by this algorithm is within 4%, and the mean error is about 0.99%. So, this high-feasibility, accredited accuracy, easy integration, and low-cost solution has bright potential in smarter future.

Increasing availability of reactive nitrogen (N) threatens plant diversity in diverse ecosystems. While there is mounting evidence for the negative impacts of N deposition on one component of diversity, species richness, we know little about its effects on another one, species evenness. It is suspected that ecosystem management practice that removes nitrogen from the ecosystem, such as hay-harvesting by mowing in grasslands, would mitigate the negative impacts of N deposition on plant diversity. However, empirical evidence is scarce. Here, we reported the main and interactive effects of N deposition and mowing on plant diversity in a temperate meadow steppe with 4-year data from a field experiment within which multi-level N addition rates and multiple N compounds are considered. Across all the types of N compounds, species richness and evenness significantly decreased with the increases of N addition rate, which was mainly caused by the growth of a tall rhizomatous grass, Leymus chinensis. Such negative impacts of N addition were accumulating with time. Mowing significantly reduced the dominance of L. chinensis, and mitigated the negative impacts of N deposition on species evenness. We present robust evidence that N deposition threatened biodiversity by reducing both species richness and evenness, a process which could be alleviated by mowing. Our results highlight the changes of species evenness in driving the negative impacts of N deposition on plant diversity and the role of mowing in mediating such negative impacts of N deposition.

Nitrogen (N) enrichment has great consequences on several fundamental ecological processes through its impacts on plant nutrition traits (i.e. nutrient concentration and stoichiometric ratios); however, the extent to which the effects of N enrichment depend on phosphorus (P) availability are less well understood. While there is mounting evidence for the species-specific responses of plant nutrition traits to nutrient enrichment, we know little about the changes at the community-level. Here, we measured community-level biomass weighted (CWM) and non-weighted (CM) plant N and P concentrations and N:P ratio in a temperate meadow steppe after four years factorial N and P addition, with biomass and nutrition traits of each species in each plot being recorded. Nitrogen addition significantly increased community-level N concentration, decreased P concentration, and enhanced community N:P ratio. Phosphorus addition had no impacts on community-level N concentration, significantly increased P concentration, and reduced community N:P ratio. The impacts of N addition on community nutrition traits were not dependent on P addition and the community-level nutrition trait responses to N and P additions were primarily driven by intraspecific trait variation (ITV) rather than by species turnover. Community-level nutrition traits in the temperate meadow steppe were sensitive to the projected N and P enrichment. While nutrient enrichment had substantially changed community composition, its impacts on community nutrition traits were driven by ITV. Nitrogen deposition would result in imbalance of N and P in plant community, as indicated by the substantial increase in community-level N:P, which was not affected by increased P availability.

Utilization of g-C3N4 as a single photocatalyst material without combination with other semiconductor remains challenging. Herein, we report a facile green method for synthesizing a metal free modified g-C3N4 photocatalyst. The modification process combines four different strategies in a one-pot thermal reaction: non-metal doping, porosity generation, functionalization with amino groups, and thermal oxidation etching. The as-prepared amino-functionalized ultrathin nanoporous boron-doped g-C3N4 exhibited a high specific surface area of 143.2 m2 g−1 which resulted in abundant adsorption sites for CO2 and water molecules. The surface amino groups act as Lewis basic sites to adsorb acidic CO2 molecules, which can also serve as active sites to facilitate hydrogen generation. Besides, the simultaneous use of ammonium chloride as a dynamic gas bubble template along with thermal oxidation etching efficiently boosts the delamination of the g-C3N4 layers to produce ultrathin sheets; this leads to stronger light–matter interactions and efficient charge generation. Consequently, the newly modified g-C3N4 achieved selective gas-phase CO2 reduction into CO with a production yield of 21.95 µmol g−1, in the absence of any cocatalyst. Moreover, a high hydrogen generation rate of 3800 µmol g-1h−1 and prominent apparent quantum yield of 10.6% were recorded. This work opens up a new avenue to explore different rational modifications of g-C3N4 nanosheets for the efficient production of clean energy.

Background To primarily evaluate the effects and safety of a selective angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor blocker (ARB) allisartan isoproxil combined with amlodipine or indapamide in the treatment of patients with essential hypertension who failed allisartan monotherapy. Methods Patients aged 18–75 years with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension [office systolic blood pressure (SBP) 140 to Results A total of 2,212 patients were enrolled, among them 2,126 patients were included in the efficacy analysis, with an average age of 55.1 ± 10.2 years. A total of 1,463 cases (68.8%) were effective after 4 weeks allisartan treatment, and the mean SBP and DBP were significantly decreased by 14.7 ± 12.2 and 8.0 ± 8.4 mm Hg compared with the baseline levels (all P < 0.001). In nonachievers, allisartan combined with indapamide for 8 weeks significantly lowered the sitting BP (SBP/DBP) by 14.0 ± 12.2/8.3 ± 9.2 mm Hg, respectively, compared with 4 weeks monotherapy with allisartan with a BP targeting rate of 57.7% (169/293). In the allisartan + amlodipine group, the SBP/DBP were significantly decreased by (14.4 ± 12.1/8.2 ± 8.2) mm Hg, respectively, with a BP targeting rate of 62.8% (181/288). There was no statistical significance in BP reduction, targeting rate, or adverse reactions between the 2 combined therapies. Conclusions Allisartan isoproxil combined with indapamide or amlodipine can further improve the BP targeting rate when allisartan monotherapy failed in essential hypertension. The 2 combined therapies have similar efficacy and safety.

In this paper, we propose a user centric bandwidth allocation scheme for low latency data transmission in ultra dense vehicular networks. Various mobile devices such as mobile phones, sensors of vehicles or autonomous driving systems,require low latency and bandwidth intensive packet delivery between the devices and the Internet aiming to support real-time applications. In the ultra dense vehicular network, small base stations (SBSs) are densely deployed in a fixed geographic area to provides higher date rate. In further, each SBS cooperates with others to form clusters to better support seamless wireless data transmissions, and each mobile device dynamically plans its wireless connectivity for data transmission when it moves in the network. Specifically, each mobile device pre-allocates the amount of bandwidth from a cluster, formed by several SBSs, based on its expected movement, the delay and band-width requirement of the packet transmission and the resource availability of each cluster. Moreover, to effectively utilize the available network resource, each cluster also redistributes its residual bandwidth to the mobile devices pre-allocate bandwidth from it. Consequently, the latency of the data transmission can be better sustained in the ultra dense vehicular network.

Two new hybrid compounds with chemical formulas [Co(L1)2(H2O)2]2[SiW12O40]·6H2O (1) and [Cu2(C9H22 N)2(L2)2][SiW12O40]·2H2O (2) (L1 = 3,3′-diamino-5,5′-bis(1H-1,2,4-triazole), L2 = 1,2-bis(3-(2-pyridyl)pyrazole-1-ylmethyl)benzene, C9H22 N = tripropylamine) were prepared in a hydrothermal reaction system containing Keggin-type polyoxometalates (POMs), transition metal (TM) salts (cobalt salts and copper salts), and chelate L1/L2 ligands. X-ray structural analysis reveals that 1 and 2 possess 3-D supramolecular host frameworks with large cavities and the polyoxoanions SiW12 reside in these cavities as the guest templates. The photocatalytic activities of 1 and 2 were investigated. Both compounds show efficient catalytic activity for degradation of RhB with 1 > 2. The loading amount of the POM units and the structural features of these POM-based organic-inorganic hybrid compounds may be necessary factors that affect the activity of catalysts in the photocatalytic degradation.

In this paper, a new high-voltage level shifter (HVLS) structure is proposed, which has a significantly improved transient response over existing structures. To overcome signal transfer delay of the conventional HVLS caused by parasitic capacitance due to high-voltage MOSFETs, this structure employs a novel circuit module "inverse Schmitt trigger" to drive the pull-up transistors of conventional HVLS. As a result, the "Miller Plateau" caused by parasitic capacitance can be minimized. Hence, the overall transfer delay of the structure is significantly reduced. The simulation results based on SPECTRE and 0.5 $$\upmu $$μm high-voltage CMOS process show that compared to other currently available structures whose transfer delays are several nanoseconds on average, the proposed structure is able to provide a nanosecond transfer delay without using large boost capacitors which are impractical to be integrated or using complex logic units which decrease reliability of circuit. Also, the typical transfer delay of the proposed structure is a constant 1.3 ns, which is irrelevant to parasitic capacitance and insensitive to transfer voltage level.

Two new polyoxometalate(POM)-based entangled coordination networks with chemical formula of [Mn2(H2O)2(BBPTZ)5][SiW12O40] (1) and [Ni2(H2O)2(BBPTZ)5][SiMo12O40]·6H2O (2) (BBPTZ = 4.4′-bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-ylmethyl)biphenyl), were prepared in a hydrothermal reaction system. Compounds 1–2 were characterized by elemental analyses, IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, powder X-ray diffraction and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In compound 1, dangling arms thread in quadrangular window of the adjacent 2-D layers, thus resulting in a rare 2-D → 3-D polythreading motif. Compound 2 exhibits a rare 2-D → 3-D zipper-closing motif. Using the degradation of methylene blue (MB) as the model, the photocatalytic activities of compounds 1–2 were investigated. Both compounds show efficient catalytic activity for the degradation of MB with the order of 2 > 1. It is found that the POM species of compounds 1–2 play the main role in the photocatalytic degradation process.

To assist various intelligent applications, IoT devices send their monitored data to Internet for further process. WiFi access points (APs) would be a candidate to support data transmission in IoTs due to its large wireless service coverage and low cost. An AP connects to the Internet through Ethernet to provide Internet connectivity to its connected IoT devices. However, data transmission may be failed when an AP loses its Ethernet connectivity. To resolve this problem, a software define networking (SDN) and wireless distribution system (WDS) assisted fault recovery automation scheme, SDWDS, is proposed. In SDWDS, packets can be directly and wirelessly forwarded between two APs when the Ethernet link fails at one of the APs. Specifically, when the Ethernet link failure of an AP is detected by the SDN controller, the AP will switch to WDS mode to wirelessly connect to its neighboring APs. The SDN controller in further reroutes corresponding packets through the newly associated AP. Consequently, the IoT devices can sustain Internet access even though their associated AP cannot directly communicate with the Internet via Ethernet. Additionally, the proposed SDWDS is implemented in commercial APs for performance evaluation. Preliminary results show the SDWDS can automatically recover more than one Ethernet link failures in the network. However, due to the limitation of the commercial AP, the creation of WDS requires rebooting the AP which costs about 20 seconds recovery latency. In the future, we will introduce virtualization or multi- connectivity techniques to more efficiently support the fault recovery automation in IoTs.

After convolutional neural network has been simulated by neuroscience in deep learning, Label-Free Supervision with domain knowledge can also tell us that we shall take advantage of shoulders of giants like Newton in the development of AI. In fact, AI’s development has been on the shoulders of giants, such as Optimization Theory, Calculus. This paper explores whether some of Maslow's Theory can serve as the other (or next) giant of AI's shoulders, and tries to discuss the AI and security issues with Maslow's Theory. The human ego has the basic need that be extended to the security requirements of things in the IoT. Finally, learning from the unity of "natural science", "social science" and "harmony between humanity and nature (Yang-ming WANG’s Cognitive idea)", a mutual development for human intelligence, the intelligence of things and the natural intelligence with respect of each other is discussed.

This paper provides a solution for a self-powered light direction detection with digitized output. Light direction sensors, energy harvesting photodiodes, real-time adaptive tracking digital output unit and other necessary circuits are integrated on a single chip based on a standard 0.18 µm CMOS process. Light direction sensors proposed have an accuracy of 1.8 degree over a 120 degree range. In order to improve the accuracy, a compensation circuit is presented for photodiodes' forward currents. The actual measurement precision of output is approximately 7 ENOB. Besides that, an adaptive under voltage protection circuit is designed for variable supply power which may undulate with temperature and process.

The design of a homogeneous sample plate to solve the sweet heating spot issues is the key step to expand the applicability of surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SALDI MS). Herein, large-scale and highly oriented Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of uniform silver nanocrystals have been fabricated as a highly efficient and matrix-free sample plate for SALDI MS. Three individual silver nanocrystals (cubes, cuboctahedra and octahedra) assembled LB films have been applied as the sample plates for glucose detection by SALDI MS without an additional matrix. The results show that the signal intensity, background noise, signal-to-noise ratio and reproducibility have been significantly improved using LB films as the sample plate in comparison with commercial matrixes of CHCA and DHB. In particular, a relative signal of 5.7% was obtained for LB films of silver cuboctahedra. The significant improvement in the SALDI MS measurement could be attributed to the homogenous dissipation of laser irradiation energy to create a large area of the sweet heating spot on well-oriented silver cuboctahedra-based LB film. This ready-to-use sample plate has the potential for widespread commercial applications in SALDI MS.

In recent years, the construction of subway in China is in a period of an rapid development. The passengers are in high density within the subway during the operation time, the problem of safety in emergencies has attracted more and more attentions. The structure of atrium metro station is special, fire partition area in the station is difficult to divide. And there is a hidden danger of fire, which is not easy to realize effective exhaust and smoke control. Once there is a fire the magnitude of injuries will be overwhelmingly disastrous. Therefore, more attention should be paid on pedestrian’s evacuation in subway stations. Therefore, an atrium subway station in Beijing is selected, hot smoke test and STEPS software simulation were carried out. We also analyzed the escape environment and escape routes, reasonable evacuation time is obtained, as well as a reasonable escape strategy.

A pseudo-type-III compensation circuit integrated in a 2.25-MHz voltage-mode dc–dc buck regulator is presented. By summing high- and low-frequency signal paths at the outputs of an error amplifier, two zeros are generated to counteract the pair of complex $LC$ poles. Comparing with traditional and various reported type-III compensation, the proposed scheme is compact, and the area of the compensation capacitor is reduced by about 37%. The addition of a high-frequency path also helps to improve the transient response. Experimental results show that the fabricated regulator with the proposed scheme achieves good stability and fast load-step response. The output is settled within 10 $\mu \hbox{s}$ for a load current step of 400 mA. In addition, the measured load regulation and line regulation is 0.2%/A and 0.2%/V, respectively. The current consumption of the compensator is 120 $\mu \hbox{A}$ , and the measured maximum efficiency is up to 96%.

Red sandstone with a strong water softening can cause difficulties of construction projects, especially for slope excavation and support engineering. Therefore, the study on the engineering properties of saturated red sandstone has a important meaning. The mechanical parameters of saturated red sandstone are obtained by the triaxial compression tests. The test results indicate that the ralations between peak strength, elasticity modulus and confining pressure for the saturated specimens are similar with the natural specimens, that is, with the increasing of confining pressure, the peak strength and the elasticity modulus will increase, but the growth rate becomes slowly. Under the same confining pressure, the peak strength and the elasticity modulus of saturated specimen are more smaller than the natural one. The mechanical damage caused by water recedes when the confining pressure increases, so for the geotechnical engineering with larger influence of water, the increasement of confining pressure by the supporting structures is conducive to the stability of rock mass. The research results will provide a theoretical basis for the red sandstone engineering.

Based on the analysis of a new type of air spring and the nonlinear finite element theory, this paper, taking the mechanical properties of the new type air spring into consideration, put forward an assessment method: the Mooney-Rivlin model with higher order term simulates rubber layer, the rebar model represents the cord thread layer, the stiffness of the listrium and the controllable damping shock absorber is rigid body, the gas flow and the pneumatophore are in coupling. In addition, the method has been tested and verified by applying to a new type vehicle air spring. This paper offers a new assessment method for the development of air springs in vehicle suspension.

Considering the tradeoff between efficiency and output ripple over a wide load range, a monolithic dc-dc buck converter with switch-on-demand modulation (SODM) and switch size control (SSC) is presented in this paper. SODM achieves a hybrid mode of pulse skip and pulse width modulation (PWM) without mode detection circuit. The converter's on time is adaptively adjusted with the load demand, achieving low output voltage ripple. Detecting the output of the error amplifier by a comparator, the SSC circuit can select appropriate switch size according to load current for reducing switching loss in a light load. The threshold level of the comparator varies with respect to the amount of slope compensation, which maintains a substantially constant switch size changing point. Experimental results show that the fabricated converter with the proposed scheme achieves high efficiency from 83% to 96% over a wide load range from 10 mA to 5 A. The switch size is 1/4 of the maximum value when load current is below 1 A with 0.5-A hysteresis. Also, the measured maximum output ripple is less than 10 mV.

In the quality assessment and classification of engineering rockmass, the elastic wave velocity of rockmass has already become an important parameter. But the valve of the elastic wave velocity has obvious anisotropy which is resulted from the non-uniformity characteristics of the rockmass. Therefore, if the measured elastic wave velocity is directly applied to the quality assessment of engineering rockmass, it will not can reflect the actual engineering properties of the rockmass. In order to solve the above problem, the energy variation of elastic wave propagating in the rockmass is studied. According to the field tests of the rockmasses with different weathering degrees, the dynamic characteristics of the elastic wave such as the attenuation and the dominating vibration frequency are analysed. The relationship between the kinetic parameters and the elastic wave velocities is researched. The results show that there is a good correlation between the kinetic parameters of the wave and the weathered rockmass, which can be applied to the rockmass quality classification and the engineering geology assessment.

Procontarinia robusta Li, Bu & Zhang (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) induces distinctive brown conical galls on the upper side of mango leaves. Here, we describe the larva and pupa and illustrate the gall of P. robusta collected at type locality in China and use gall morphology to identify galls reported previously from India and Indonesia. Analyses of the cytochrome oxidase unit I mitochondrial gene segment showed significant differ- ences between P. robusta and two other pests of mango, P. mangicola (Shi) and P. pustulata Kolesik, and confirmed the identification of P. robusta specimens from East Timor.Asummary of the biology of P. robusta is provided.

The diffusion coefficient is one of the basic physical parameters of reflecting the property of wooden building materials, and it is the indispensable datum to calculate the dehydration time, estimate qualitatively the corrosion extent, provide the theoretical parameters for the protection technoiogy of the wooden building materials. The method of measuring diffusion coefficient of the wooden building materials is provided on the basis of Fick’s second law in this paper. The diffusion coefficient can be calculated using the given method by measuring the dehydration time, the initial water content and the stable water content after dehydration. The testing method is simple and feasible. Take a wooden materials for example, the experimental result is analyzed which indicates that the measurement method is reasonable.

Based on the test results, the wave velocity and the attenuation rule of elastic wave of weathered zone in Longmen Grottoes are studied. The wave velocity decreases with the increasing of the attenuation coefficient in a certain range. When wave velocity decreases to a certain value, there is not a relationship between wave velocity and attenuation coefficient. The attenuation coefficient thresholds of P-wave 0.01and S-wave 0.1 separate good rockmass quality from poor rockmass quality. The test results show that the elastic wave velocities of the surrounding rocks are generally high, which indicates that the rockmass skeleton is solid. But the rockmass anisotropy is obvious, which indicates that the structure planes are more developed. The results of the study are important for the protection of historical relics.

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), physiologically expressed only by certain neural cells, becomes highly oncogenic, when aberrantly expressed in nonneural tissues as a fusion protein with nucleophosphin (NPM) and other partners. The reason why NPM-ALK succeeds in transforming specifically CD4 + T lymphocytes remains unknown. The IL-2R common γ-chain (IL-2Rγ) is shared by receptors for several cytokines that play key roles in the maturation and growth of normal CD4 + T lymphocytes and other immune cells. We show that IL-2Rγ expression is inhibited in T-cell lymphoma cells expressing NPM-ALK kinase as a result of DNA methylation of the IL-2Rγ gene promoter. IL-2Rγ promoter methylation is induced in malignant T cells by NPM-ALK. NPM-ALK acts through STAT3, a transcription factor that binds to the IL-2Rγ gene promoter and enhances binding of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) to the promoter. In addition, STAT3 suppresses expression of miR-21, which selectively inhibits DNMT1 mRNA expression. Reconstitution of IL-2Rγ expression leads to loss of the NPM-ALK protein and, consequently, apoptotic cell death of the lymphoma cells. These results demonstrate that the oncogenic tyrosine kinase NPM-ALK induces epigenetic silencing of the IL-2Rγ gene and that IL-2Rγ acts as a tumor suppressor by reciprocally inhibiting expression of NPM-ALK.

Polyimide (PI) nanocomposites with different proportions of Al2O3 were prepared via two-step reaction. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) was deposited on PI composite films by a RF magnetron sputtering system and used as a gas barrier to investigate the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR). The thermal stability and mechanical properties of a pure PI film can be improved obviously by adding adequate content of Al2O3. At lower sputtering pressure (4 mTorr), the PI/Al2O3 hybrid film deposited with Si3N4 barrier film exhibits denser structure and lower root mean square (RMS) surface roughness (0.494 nm) as well as performs better in preventing the transmission of water vapor. The lowest WVTR value was obtained from the sample, 4 wt.%Al2O3–PI hybrid film deposited with Si3N4 barrier film with the thickness of 100 nm, before and after bending test. The interface bonding, Al–N and Al–O–Si, was confirmed with the XPS composition-depth profile.

The physiological indices of Chinese cabbage(Brassica chinensis L.) grown under different intercropping systems used for this study included total soluble protein content, soluble sugar content, reducing sugar content, nitrate content, and pigment concentration. The objective of the present study is to discover the physiological level changes in Chinese cabbage in intercropping systems. The intercropping systems studied involved Chinese cabbage- garlic (Allium sativum L.) (CG), and Chinese cabbage-lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) (CL). Chinese cabbage monoculture served as control (CK). Overall, higher mean soluble protein content and nitrate content were found in Chinese cabbage grown in the intercropping systems than those in CK. Significantly higher chlorophyll a content was found in cabbages from CL than CK during the latter half of the growing season. No significant difference in soluble sugar concentrations was found in CG and CL, as compared with CK. Reducing sugar content varied over the growing period of the Chinese cabbage in CG and CL. These results suggest that Chinese cabbage intercropped with noncrucifer plants increase the plant nutrient content.

Grammar-based test generation (GBTG) has seen extensive study and practical use since the 1970s. GBTG was introduced to generate source code for testing compilers from context-free grammars specifying language syntax. More recently, GBTG has been applied to many other testing problems, including the generation of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) documents and the generation of packets for testing communications protocols. Recent research has shown how to integrate covering-array techniques such as pairwise testing into GBTG tools. While the integration offers considerable power to the tester, there are few practical demonstrations in the literature. We present two case studies showing how to use grammars and covering arrays for automated software testing. The first case study exposes HTML injection vulnerabilities in an RSS feed parser. The second case study determines the effectiveness of network firewalls when faced with TCP flag attacks. The case studies illustrate the use of covering arrays in a GBTG context, the use of visualization to understand large test logs, and the issues and tradeoffs in the design of fully automated GBTG test suites.

Purpose The present study aimed to confirm the efficacy and safety of topical and intravenous tranexamic acid (TXA) compared with that of topical placebo and to assess the noninferiority between the two application methods of TXA in patients undergoing unilateral primary total hip arthroplasty. Methods Our randomized controlled trial investigated 170 patients with 1:1:1 allocation to two doses of 10-mg/kg intravenous TXA, 3-g topical TXA, and topical placebo of 60-ml physiological saline groups. The primary outcome, total blood loss, was calculated with Nadler and Gross formula. The secondary outcomes included allogeneic blood transfusion requirement, drain blood loss, decreased hemoglobin level. Noninferiority would be established when the upper limit 95% CI is lower than 250 ml of the noninferiority margin for the mean difference of total blood loss between topical and intravenous TXA. Thromboembolic complication incidence was considered as a safety outcome. Results The total blood loss of patients administered intravenous (mean±standard deviation, 1125±514 ml) and topical TXA (1211±425 ml) was significantly reduced compared with that of those administered topical placebo (1464±556 ml) (p = 0.0012). Drain blood loss and hemoglobin level reduction in patients administered with TXA were also significantly lower than those in patients administered topical placebo. The mean difference of total blood loss between topical and intravenous TXA is 86 ml (95% CI, -88 to 260 ml). The complications were comparable between patients managed with TXA and patients with topical placebo. Conclusion The noninferiority of topical TXA to intravenous TXA can not be concluded. Considering no significant difference was found in all efficacy outcomes between the two administration methods. Any of the two TXA administration methods can be adopted for blood loss prevention in total hip arthroplasty.

Grammars are traditionally used to recognize or parse sentences in a language, but they can also be used to generate sentences. In grammar-based test generation (GBTG), context-free grammars are used to generate sentences that are interpreted as test cases. A generator reads a grammar G and generates L(G), the language accepted by the grammar. Often L(G) is so large that it is not practical to execute all of the generated cases. Therefore, GBTG tools support ‘tags’: extra-grammatical annotations which restrict the generation. Since its introduction in the early 1970s, GBTG has become well established: proven on industrial projects and widely published in academic venues. Despite the demonstrated effectiveness, the tool support is uneven; some tools target specific domains, e.g. compiler testing, while others are proprietary. The tools can be difficult to use and the precise meaning of the tags are sometimes unclear. As a result, while many testing practitioners and researchers are aware of GBTG, few have detailed knowledge or experience. We present YouGen, a new GBTG tool supporting many of the tags provided by previous tools. In addition, YouGen incorporates covering-array tags, which support a generalized form of pairwise testing. These tags add considerable power to GBTG tools and have been available only in limited form in previous GBTG tools. We provide semantics for the YouGen tags using parse trees and a new construct, generation trees. We illustrate YouGen with both simple examples and a number of industrial case studies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The reduction of benzylidenemalononitrile by 1-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide undergoes via a one-step hydride transfer mechanism rather than a multistep mechanism involving initial electron transfer.

In this study, we demonstrate that malignant mature CD4+ T lymphocytes derived from cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCL) variably display some aspects of the T regulatory phenotype. Whereas seven cell lines representing a spectrum of primary cutaneous T cell lymphoproliferative disorders expressed CD25 and TGF-β, the expression of FOXP3 and, to a lesser degree, IL-10 was restricted to two CTCL cell lines that are dependent on exogeneous IL-2. IL-2, IL-15, and IL-21, all of which signals through receptors containing the common γ chain, induced expression of IL-10 in the IL-2-dependent cell lines as well as primary leukemic CTCL cells. However, only IL-2 and IL-15, but not IL-21, induced expression of FOXP3. The IL-2-triggered induction of IL-10 and FOXP3 expression occurred by signaling through STAT3 and STAT5, respectively. Immunohistochemical analysis of the CTCL tissues revealed that FOXP3-expressing cells were common among the CD7-negative enlarged atypical and small lymphocytes at the early skin patch and plaque stages. Their frequency was profoundly diminished at the tumor stage and in the CTCL lymph node lesions with or without large cell transformation. These results indicate that the T regulatory cell features are induced in CTCL T cells by common γ chain signaling cytokines such as IL-2 and do not represent a fully predetermined, constitutive phenotype independent of the local environmental stimuli to which these malignant mature CD4+ T cells become exposed.

Surgeons often can contribute failure of sphincter-preserving procedure to a limitation of pelvis anatomy; however, they cannot determine definitely which anatomic diameter or spatial factor actually affected the success of the procedure. Colorectal surgeons, radiologists, and research fellows collaborated closely to establish a three-dimensional digital model of the pelvis with spiral computerized tomography scanning data of patients with rectal cancer. Retrospective analysis on data of 97 patients with low rectal cancer was performed with this model to identify geometric factors that might affect a successful sphincter preservation procedure for low rectal cancer. A digital pelvic model was established. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that distance from the anal verge, body mass index, and pelvic factors affected the success of sphincter preservation. Sphincter preservation was more likely to succeed when the distance from anal verge was ≥5 cm and body mass index was

Objective: To establish a method to improve the detection of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow and peripheral blood samples of neuroblastoma patients and analysis of cytogenetic aberration. Methods: Immunofluorescent staining was performed using a cocktail of primary monoclonal neuroblastoma antibodies (14.G2a, 5.1H11). Fluorescence in situ hybridization was applied with fluorescent probes specific for Nmyc genes afterwards. A novel computer assisted scanning system for automatic search, image analysis and repositioning of these positive cells was developed. Fifty-six bone marrow and peripheral blood samples from 7 patients were evaluated by this method. Results: Fluorescence in situ hybridization can be combined with immunofluorescent staining in detecting Nmyc amplification in neuroblastoma patients. Fluorescence in situ hybridization results correlated well with data obtained by conventional cytogenetic procedures. Conclusion: The technique described allows search of tumor cells in the bone marrow as well as detection of Nmyc amplification in interphase nuclei.