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The small nucleolar RNA host gene 1 (SNHG1) is a novel oncogenic long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) aberrantly expressed in different tumor types. We previously found highly expressed SNHG1 was associated with poor prognosis and MYCN status in neuroblastoma (NB). However, the molecular mechanisms of SNHG1 in NB are still unclear. Here, we disrupted endogenous SNHG1 in the MYCN-amplified NB cell line SK-N-BE(2)C using the CRISPR/Cas9 system and demonstrated the proliferation and colony formation ability of SNHG1-knowndown cells were suppressed. The transcriptome analysis and functional assays of SNHG1-knockdown cells revealed SNHG1 was involved in various biological processes including cell growth, migration, apoptosis, cell cycle, and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, the expression of core regulatory circuitry (CRC) transcription factors in MYCN-amplified NB, including PHOX2B, HAND2, GATA3, ISL1, TBX1, and MYCN, were decreased in SNHG1-knockdown cells. The chromatin-immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) and transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing (ATAC-seq) analyses showed that chromatin status of these CRC members was altered, which might stem from interactions between SNHG1 and HDAC1/2. These findings demonstrate that SNHG1 plays a crucial role in maintaining NB identity via chromatin regulation and reveal the function of the lncRNA SNHG1 in NB.

Several large or mid-scale collections of Drosophila enhancer traps have been recently created to allow for genetic swapping of GAL4 coding sequences to versatile transcription activators or suppressors such as LexA, QF, split-GAL4 (GAL4-AD and GAL4-DBD), GAL80 and QS. Yet a systematic analysis of the feasibility and reproducibility of these tools is lacking. Here we focused on InSITE GAL4 drivers that specifically label different subpopulations of olfactory neurons, particularly local interneurons (LNs), and genetically swapped the GAL4 domain for LexA, GAL80 or QF at the same locus. We found that the major utility-limiting factor for these genetic swaps is that many do not fully reproduce the original GAL4 expression patterns. Different donors exhibit distinct efficacies for reproducing original GAL4 expression patterns. The successfully swapped lines reported here will serve as valuable reagents and expand the genetic toolkits of Drosophila olfactory circuit research.

The present study was performed to investigate root-associated bacteria from Platycodon grandiflorum, a medicinal plant commonly grown in East Asia. Isolates were obtained from the rhizosphere or root interior with various culture media, and phylogenetic analyses were performed based on their 16S rDNA sequences. In consideration of practical applications, traits related to plant growth promotion and niche adaptation were assessed in several endophytic strains with fewer biosafety concerns. The effects of a bacterial inoculation on seedling and mature plant growth were evaluated. Seventeen genera that encompassed more than 30 bacterial lineages were successfully retrieved from the roots, the majority of which have not been reported as P. grandiflorum-associated bacteria, particularly for non-negligible Proteobacteria. Although nitrogen-fixing or phosphate-solubilizing and indole acetic acid-producing activities were recorded in all of the strains selected, these strains were beneficial or detrimental to plant growth as evidenced by their influence on the length of seedlings and biomass of mature plants. Among the 4 endophytic Rhizobium species tested in the present study, the potentially novel Rhizobium sp. BF-E16, which was more compatible with the non-leguminous medicinal plant P. grandiflorum, was identified. Other than plant growth-promoting traits, characteristics such as plant constituent-hydrolyzing activities need to be taken into consideration and their roles clarified when investigating plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.

A low-voltage programmable gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet poly-Si thin-film transistor (TFT) nonvolatile memory (NVM), which uses band-to-band tunneling induced hot electron (BBHE) programming, is demonstrated. The BBHE method is extremely efficient for programming data in the p-type GAA nanosheet TFT NVM because the GAA nanosheet structure enhances the source-to-drain component of the electric field in its channel. Therefore, the enhanced electric field of the BBHE phenomenon creates energetic electrons that surmount the tunneling oxide barrier easily and pass shallow traps in the charge trapping layer of the GAA TFT NVM. Consequently, the p-type GAA TFT NVM achieves low-voltage programming bias and satisfactory data retention

Agriculture land has been treated as the urban reserved land which has potential value for transformation. Especially for the land development strategy by “Developmental Government”, agriculture land’s value is twisted and encouraging trading activity, that result in lower production and short in food supply. The threats from extreme weather and environmental change has increased the potential hazards of landuse and challenges toward town planning. This study uses environmental diagnosis and field survey with in-depth interviews, along with the result from FLO-2D flood model and GIS overlay of hazard risk maps, to proceed with a case of “property-led development” in (Taiwan, Xinzhu) Zhubei city. The findings indicate that run-off volume of some area has changed and the flooding depth / area has increased. By interpreting the empirical results, it has exposed the environmental hazard issues and land commodification by the failure of urban planning policy in Zhubei city.

The choice of medical services affects an individual’s treatment and health. However, few studies have focused on medical electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), which has the greatest impact on such choices. This study was performed to explore the need for and general public’s attitude toward medical eWOM and provide a reference for government, media, and medical practitioners. In this study, 84% of the respondents had experience using online evaluation platforms to search for eWOM, and those who were satisfied with the online evaluation platforms substantially outnumbered those who were dissatisfied. The respondents generally believed that there is a need for physician evaluation platforms, although a difference remained between respondents who needed the online evaluation platforms (72.0%) and were willing to reference them (72.0%) and those who trusted them (46.5%) and were willing to provide their opinions (55.0%). These results could signify that despite the public’s need, the public remains doubtful of the information provided by these online evaluation platforms.

The present study was undertaken to explore acidotolerant rhizobial and non-rhizobial bacteria associated with root nodules of soybean (Glycine max L.). Genotypic and phenotypic characterization regarding nitrogen fixation, nodulation and other potentially plant growth-promotion traits were performed in several isolates. Influences of bacterial inoculation on symbiotic nitrogen fixation and soybean growth were evaluated through flask and pot experiments in a greenhouse. The highest nitrogen-fixing activity was recorded in isolate Bra6, which was closely related to Bradyrhizobium diazoefficiens based on 16S rDNA, nifH, and nodD gene sequences. All the non-rhizobial Pseudomonas isolates possessed multiple plant growth-promoting traits, with various hydrolytic patterns toward plant constituents. In sterile water agar-containing flasks, Bra6 + Pse2 treatment significantly (p &lt, 0.05) increased the number of nodules, fresh weight, and dry weight of both root and shoot. This also led to the increment of most of the nutrients in the soybean plant compared with the uninoculated control or sole inoculation of Bra6. In non-sterile strongly acidic soil-containing pots, co-inoculation with Bra6 and various Pseudomonas isolates showed distinctively positive effects on symbiotic nitrogen fixation and soybean growth. The highest symbiotic nitrogen-fixing activity, root and shoot biomass, as well as N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Mn, Cu, and Zn contents of soybean plant were observed in Bra6 + Pse2 treatment. Synergistic symbiosis occurred through co-inoculation with Bradyrhizobium and Pseudomonas isolates, which further enhanced nutrients’ acquisition and growth of soybean in the strongly acidic soils.

This work analyzes and optimizes the design with emphasis on the inversion charge characteristics for InGaAs negative-capacitance FinFETs (NC-FinFETs) by using theoretical calculation corroborated with numerical simulation. Our study indicates that, optimized ferroelectric remnant-polarization (Pr) for InGaAs devices can be chosen by the capacitance matching at the optimized sub-band of the inversion capacitance. In addition, the optimized sub-band is different for the InGaAs devices with different fin-width. The P r optimization of the InGaAs device is also different from the Si device. After the optimization, the quantum-capacitance induced inversion charge loss for InGaAs devices can be mitigated from ∼2.4X to ∼1.1X due to the action of negative capacitance.

Fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks are expected to support vast numbers of connected devices and device-to-device (D2D) communication is expected to play a key role in 5G mobile networks. This paper studies the optimization problem of resource allocation that provides rate guarantee by fewest resource blocks. To solve it efficiently, we combine several optimization techniques such as relaxation and the block successive upper bound minimization (BSUM) method and derive a closed-form formula for each iteration in BSUM. Simulation results show that our method outperforms existing algorithms.

Nasogastric tubes are a widely used and vital piece of medical equipment for providing daily nutrition to patients, particularly in cases involving elderly patients or those with chronic diseases. However, current methods for stabilising nasogastric tubes are inadequate. Therefore, in this study, we employed a questionnaire survey to analyse the opinions and needs of medical staff. Subsequently, we incorporated these opinions with the innovation principles of the teoriya resheniya izobretatelskikh zadatch (meaning “the theory of inventive problem solving”) to develop a novel type of nasogastric tube stabiliser.

Future 5G mobile networks are expected to support high numbers of simultaneously connected devices and to achieve high system spectrum efficiency at low power consumption. To attain these goals, device-to-device (D2D) communication is a key component. We allow any cellular user equipment to share its radio resource with multiple D2D devices and then develop the MiSo algorithm, which considers spectrum reuse and power control jointly. Simulation results confirm that compared with several algorithms, MiSo achieves highest system throughput and power efficiency with shortest run time.

This study presents the numerical simulation of three-dimensional incompressible steady and laminar and turbulent fluid flow of a trapezoidal micro-channel heat sink (MCHS) using CuO/water nanofluid as a cooling fluid. Navier–Stokes equations with conjugate energy equation are discretized by the finite-volume method. CFD predictions of laminar and turbulent forced convection of CuO/water nanofluids by single-phase and two-phase models (mixture model) are compared. The parameters studied include the particle volume fraction ( ϕ = 0.204 %, 0.256%, 0.294% and 0.4%), and the volumetric flow rate ( V ˙ = 10 mL / min , 15 mL/min and 20 mL/min). Comparisons of the thermal resistance predicted by the single-phase and two-phase models with corresponding experimental results show that the two-phase model is more accurate than the single-phase model. In the laminar flow, the thermal resistance of nanofluids is smaller than that of the water, which decreases as the particle volume fraction and the volumetric flow rate increase. In addition, the pressure drop of both nanofluid-cooled MCHS and pure water-cooled MCHS is discussed. For the laminar flow case, the pressure drop increases slightly for nanofluid-cooled MCHS.

Compared to current mobile networks, next-generation mobile networks are expected to support higher numbers of simultaneously connected devices and to achieve higher system spectrum efficiency and lower power consumption. To achieve these goals, we study the multi-sharing device-to-device (D2D) communication, which allows any cellular user equipment to share its radio resource with multiple D2D devices. We jointly consider resource block reuse and power control and then develop the MISS algorithm. Simulation results show that MISS performs very well in terms of transmission power consumption, system throughput, and the number of permitted D2D devices.

The growing popularity of blogs has drawn an increasing amount of attention from corporations keen to expand market share and establish better customer relationships. It is thus imperative to probe into why some blogs attract a tremendous amount of interest and why they are sustainable. Although there are a number of studies exploring the factors underlying popular or successful blogs, few results have been reported from the integrated perspective of IS success and marketing. By segregating blog quality into information quality and system quality, this study investigates the linkage between blog quality and blog-user satisfaction within the expectation-disconfirmation paradigm. It establishes nine key constructs for blog-user satisfaction and tests the relationships among them. The results of this study provide directions for bloggers and system administrators to achieve higher levels of blog-user satisfaction by developing multi-faceted strategies based on the reported dimensions of blog quality.

Chang K-V, Wu S-H, Lin S-H, Shieh J-Y, Wang T-G, Chen W-S. Power Doppler presentation of shoul- ders with biceps disorder. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2010;91: 624-31. Objectives: To investigate the patterns of power Doppler signals on the long head of the biceps tendon at asymptom- atic controls and shoulders with clinically diagnosed biceps disorder. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Hospital rehabilitation department. Participants: Asymptomatic adults (n27) were included in the control group, and patients with unilateral biceps disor- der (n17) were recruited for the patient group. Basic gray color ultrasound screening was performed for rotator cuff ten- dons antecedently. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Three scan views were taken on the anterior shoulder by power Doppler sonography, includ- ing the transverse plane of the long head of the biceps tendon, and the longitudinal planes along the lateral and medial edge of the bicipital groove. We compared the patterns and the power Doppler signal area within and between both groups. Results: In shoulders of healthy controls and the asymptom- atic side of patients, the power Doppler signal area of the longitudinal planes along the lateral edge of the bicipital groove was significantly larger than that along the medial edge of the bicipital groove. However, there was no significant difference in the painful side of patients. Moreover, the painful shoulders had a higher prevalence of power Doppler signal medial to the biceps tendon in the transverse plane, which paralleled bicipital peritendinous effusion and rotator cuff abnormalities. Conclusions: The power Doppler signal was more fre- quently observed medial to the biceps tendon in shoulders with clinically diagnosed biceps disorder. Whether shoulders with this specific power Doppler signal pattern benefit more from anti-inflammatory therapy needs further exploration.

A new modified CMOS buffer amplifier with rail-to-rail input and output range is proposed by TSMC 0.35μm 2P4M process at 3.3V supply. The technique adds dummy pairs to sense the common mode range of the input differential pair and adjusts the output current accordingly. The amplifier provides high gain for a wider range of output voltages. Design considerations for reducing the impact of the additional circuitry on the core are provided. The technique described can be adapted for use with traditional fully-differential rail-to-rail amplifiers, which performs 86.9dB ~92dB dc gain, 15 MHz unit-gain bandwidth, high driving ability with high slew rate under a 100pF capacitance and a 3kΩ series resistance loading. The simulation results indicate that the settling times of rising and falling edge are within 3.5μs. It is effective for a high resolution and high speed LCD driver.

This study identified the determinants of legislator participation in the stock market and investment portfolio preference. All of the data used for this study were hand collected during 2010-2013 from the property declarations provided by legislators to the Sunshine Acts website of the Control Yuan, Republic of China (Taiwan). Statistical analysis shows that all of the legislators studied have a high education level and relatively uniform above-average assets. The study findings indicate that the stock market participation of legislators is strongly associated with political orientation, higher education level, and higher wealth than median citizens; the two most important factors influencing legislators to participate in the stock market are party and wealth. Furthermore, the wealth and education levels of Kuomintang party legislators are obviously higher than those of legislators of the other parties. The empirical results show that legislators prefer stocks in the electronic and others categories more than those in other categories. This information provides evidence that legislators use their political power in ruling legislative processes to impact the stock price of listed-stock firms, thereby benefitting their investments. In conclusion, this work is focussed on helping voters to understand the implied information behind the ruling effect of legislators.

Place query is one of the most fundamental applications, and traditional use cases include finding the exact spatial location of a place and searching for a specific type of places in a given spatial range. On the other hand, there is another possibility that you may want to recommend a visited place to friends but forget the complete name of it. You have vague impressions on it and only remember the information of the place type, the rough range of the place, and some places near it. To enable the capability of query by impression that has not been fully explored in the literature, we define a new place query problem called Place Query with Adjacency Constraints (abbreviated as PQAC). We propose a naive approach and two enhancement algorithms, distance pre-calculating algorithm and grid indexing algorithm, to achieve greater efficiency that can satisfy the real-time need of this place query service. We implement the Query By Impression (abbreviated as QBI) system with a real metropolitan place dataset consisting of more than 40,000 place records from Google Place API. Several experiments are conducted to validate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed QBI system.

A novel gate-all-around ultra-thin p-channel poly-Si TFT functioning as transistor and flash memory with silicon nanocrystals have been successfully demonstrated. The process is simple and mask free. For the 3-nm-thick channel devices, the S.S. of 88 mV/dec and I on /I off ratio of more than 108 can be achieved. Extreme low applied voltage for band-to-band-tunneling-induced hot electron injection tunneling (BBHE) operation and excellent retention are proposed.

This study presents a patient with a stroke who had total paralysis of his left-side limbs after intracranial haemorrhaging, who later experienced partial weakness of the right-side limbs after a subdural hygroma. Both conditions occurred without major trauma. He received two separate operations, a craniotomy and placement of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt, before the appearance of the subdural hygroma.According to the literature, heterotopic ossification is often reported with major trauma-associated diseases, but is less frequently found in patients with non-traumatic conditions, from which this patient suffered. Although the patient had experienced no major trauma, he had multiple heterotopic ossifications on the side of the subdural hygroma-affected limbs, which exhibited better motor control and were less spastic than those of the opposite side. These heterotopic ossifications were around joints of the hip, knee and shoulder on his right side, as proven by plain radiography and a triple-phase bone scan and resulted in marked limitations of joint motions. This patient thus had major disabilities of his limbs bilaterally.The occurrence of heterotopic ossifications in the less-paretic limbs might have worsened this patient's functional outcome.

The embedded multicore DSP systems are playing increasingly important role for consumer electronic design. Such systems try to optimize the objective for both performance and power with mobile devices. Embedded application developers will then devise designs to optimize embedded applications for not only performance but also power. However, currently there are no power metrics support for popular application design platforms such as QEMU and SID, where application developers develop their applications. This hinders application developers to help tune optimizations for power. In this paper, we propose a power aware simulation framework on embedded multicore DSP subsystems for SID framework. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to attempt to build a power aware simulator based on SID simulation framework. The power estimation flow includes two phases, IP level power modeling and system level power prower profiling. In the IP level power modeling, PowerMixerIP is employed to build up the power model for PAC DSP and major IPs. In the system level power profiling, we provide a power profiling hierarchy that meets the demand of embedded software developers. The granularity of power profiling can be configured to the whole simulation stage or any specific time slot in the simulation such as a dedicated function loop. In our experiments, DSP programs with SIMD intrinsics for DSPStone benchmark are examined with our proposed power aware simulator. In addition, a face detection application is deployed as a running example on multi-core DSP systems to show how our power simulator can be used to help collaborate with developers in the optimization process to illustrate views of power dissipations of applications.