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Image emotion classification (IEC) aims to extract the abstract emotions evoked in images. Recently, language-supervised methods such as contrastive language-image pretraining (CLIP) have demonstrated superior performance in image understanding. However, the underexplored task of IEC presents three major challenges: a tremendous training objective gap between pretraining and IEC, shared suboptimal prompts, and invariant prompts for all instances. In this study, we propose a general framework that effectively exploits the language-supervised CLIP method for the IEC task. First, a prompt-tuning method that mimics the pretraining objective of CLIP is introduced, to exploit the rich image and text semantics associated with CLIP. Subsequently, instance-specific prompts are automatically composed, conditioning them on the categories and image content of instances, diversifying the prompts, and thus avoiding suboptimal problems. Evaluations on six widely used affective datasets show that the proposed method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods (up to 9.29% accuracy gain on the EmotionROI dataset) on IEC tasks with only a few trained parameters. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/dsn0w/PT-DPC/for research purposes.

Inflammation in the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment is a constitutive component of leukemogenesis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Current evidence suggests that both leukemic blasts and stroma secrete proinflammatory factors that actively suppress the function of healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). HSPCs are also cellular components of the innate immune system, and we reasoned that they may actively propagate the inflammation in the leukemic niche. In two separate congenic models of AML we confirm by evaluation of the BM plasma secretome and HSPC-selective single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) that multipotent progenitors and long-lived stem cells adopt inflammatory gene expression programs, even at low leukemic infiltration of the BM. In particular, we observe interferon gamma (IFN-γ) pathway activation, along with secretion of its chemokine target, CXCL10. We show that AML-derived nanometer-sized extracellular vesicles (EVAML) are sufficient to trigger this inflammatory HSPC response, both in vitro and in vivo. Altogether, our studies indicate that HSPCs are an unrecognized component of the inflammatory adaptation of the BM by leukemic cells. The pro-inflammatory conversion and long-lived presence of HSPCs in the BM along with their regenerative re-expansion during remission may impact clonal selection and disease evolution.

Due to the complementary properties of different types of sensors, change detection between heterogeneous images receives increasing attention from researchers. However, change detection cannot be handled by directly comparing two heterogeneous images since they demonstrate different image appearances and statistics. In this article, we propose a deep pyramid feature learning network (DPFL-Net) for change detection, especially between heterogeneous images. DPFL-Net can learn a series of hierarchical features in an unsupervised fashion, containing both spatial details and multiscale contextual information. The learned pyramid features from two input images make unchanged pixels matched exactly and changed ones dissimilar and after transformed into the same space for each scale successively. We further propose fusion blocks to aggregate multiscale difference images (DIs), generating an enhanced DI with strong separability. Based on the enhanced DI, unchanged areas are predicted and used to train DPFL-Net in the next iteration. In this article, pyramid features and unchanged areas are updated alternately, leading to an unsupervised change detection method. In the feature transformation process, local consistency is introduced to constrain the learned pyramid features, modeling the correlations between the neighboring pixels and reducing the false alarms. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves superior or at least comparable results to the existing state-of-the-art change detection methods in both homogeneous and heterogeneous cases.

Behaviorally similar neighbors in the interaction graph have been actively explored to facilitate the collaboration between users and items and address the interaction sparsity issue. We investigate homogenous neighbors between users or items to mine collaborative signals for embedding learning. In the case of multiple and complex composition of user interests and item attributes, traditional uniform embedding is insufficient to depict matching between a specific user-item pair. Therefore, we propose a siamese graph-based dynamic matching (SGDM) model for collaborative filtering. A target-aware dual attention module is introduced to update neighbors with their varying contributions to unveil users' interests, which explicitly encodes the clue of the candidate matching target. For a target user-item pair, homogeneous neighbors participate in the interest propagation through graph convolution, which learns user/item embeddings respectively on the siamese homogeneous graphs. The dual dynamic aggregation in graph convolution endows a specific user-item pair with dynamic matching, which is expected to meet the needs of fine-grained filtering and promote the performance of collaborative filtering. Extensive experimental results confirm the collaboration between siamese homogeneous graphs of users and items. It further illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed SGDM in mining homogeneous collaborative signals for embedding learning and collaborative filtering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Kidney damage related to consumption of melamine-contaminated dairy products by young children in China has been described. However, no studies have reported on the population-based prevalence of kidney damage among exposed children or on the condition of affected children after follow-up. Methods: We conducted an ultrasound-based screening in September 2008 of 7933 children younger than 36 months of age who lived in a rural area in China where the dairy products most highly contaminated with melamine were sold. We monitored children who had evidence of nephrolithiasis or hydronephrosis at screening using renal ultrasonography after one, three and six months. We also collected information from the mothers of affected children about consumption of melamine-contaminated products between June and August 2008. Results: The overall prevalence of urinary tract abnormalities among screened children was 0.61% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45%-0.80%). The mean exposure dose of melamine was estimated to be 116 (range 36-220) mg per day. Of the 48 affected children, 43 (89.6%) were asymptomatic, 2 had symptoms and were hospitalized, and 3 had symptoms but treatment had been not sought for them. Of the 46 children for whom six-month follow-up information was available, renal abnormalities persisted in 5 children and resolved in the remaining 41. Interpretation: Among children who underwent screening, 0.61% showed ultrasonographic evidence of nephrolithiasis or hydronephrosis. Most of the affected children were asymptomatic. The majority of the affected children recovered from the toxic effects of melamine over time without specific treatment. Renal abnormalities remained in 12% of the affected children., Previously published at www.cmaj.ca Contamination of dairy products with melamine in China has resulted in a widespread outbreak of serious kidney damage in children. (1-4) On Sept. 12, 2008, the [...]

Background: Data on the determinants of body iron stores in middle-aged women are sparse. Objective: We prospectively evaluated nondietary and dietary determinants of iron stores. Design: Using blood samples collected in 1989-1990, we measured plasma ferritin concentrations in 620 healthy postmenopausal women aged 44-69 y who participated in the Nurses' Health Study. Food-frequency questionnaires completed in 1980, 1984, and 1986 were used to calculate average dietary intakes. Generalized linear regression and multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the association between plasma ferritin and its determinants. Results: Among these postmenopausal women, the median plasma ferritin concentration was 73.8 ng/mL (interquartile range: 41.6-125.8 ng/mL), 2.7% were iron depleted (ferritin concentration < 12 ng/mL), and 9.8% had an elevated ferritin concentration (> 200 ng/mL). Age, time since menopause, time since the last postmenopausal hormone (PMH) use, body mass index, iron supplement use, and alcohol and heme-iron intakes were positively associated with ferritin concentrations, whereas PMH use, physical activity, aspirin use, and gastrointestinal ulcer were inversely related. The association between heme-iron intake and ferritin was most apparent among the women who consumed > 30 g alcohol/d. Conclusions: Our prospective data confirm that in postmenopausal women, intakes of heme iron, supplemental iron, and alcohol are dietary determinants of plasma ferritin, and age, PMH use, body mass index, physical activity, aspirin use, and gastrointestinal ulcer are nondietary determinants. KEY WORDS Iron, ferritin, alcohol, postmenopausal women, Nurses' Health Study

Bone marrow (BM) niche-derived signals are critical for facilitating engraftment after hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation (HSCT). HSCT is required for restoration of hematopoiesis in patients with inherited BM failure syndromes (iBMFSs). Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a rare iBMFS associated with mutations in SBDS. Previous studies have demonstrated that SBDS deficiency in osteolineage niche cells causes BM dysfunction that promotes leukemia development. However, it is unknown whether BM niche defects caused by SBDS deficiency also impair efficient engraftment of healthy donor HSC after HSCT, a hypothesis that could explain morbidity noted after clinical HSCT for patients with SDS. Here, we report a mouse model with inducible Sbds deletion in hematopoietic and osteolineage cells. Primary and secondary BM transplantation (BMT) studies demonstrated that SBDS deficiency within BM niches caused poor donor hematopoietic recovery and specifically poor HSC engraftment after myeloablative BMT. We have also identified multiple molecular and cellular defects within niche populations that are driven by SBDS deficiency and are accentuated by or develop specifically after myeloablative conditioning. These abnormalities include altered frequencies of multiple niche cell subsets, including mesenchymal lineage cells, macrophages, and endothelial cells; disruption of growth factor signaling, chemokine pathway activation, and adhesion molecule expression; and p53 pathway activation and signals involved in cell cycle arrest. Taken together, this study demonstrates that SBDS deficiency profoundly impacts recipient hematopoietic niche function in the setting of HSCT, suggesting that novel therapeutic strategies targeting host niches could improve clinical HSCT outcomes for patients with SDS.

Bone marrow (BM) niche-derived signals are critical for facilitating engraftment after hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation (HSCT). HSCT is required for restoration of hematopoiesis in patients with inherited BM failure syndromes (iBMFSs). Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS) is a rare iBMFS associated with mutations in SBDS. Previous studies have demonstrated that SBDS deficiency in osteolineage niche cells causes BM dysfunction that promotes leukemia development. However, it is unknown whether BM niche defects caused by SBDS deficiency also impair efficient engraftment of healthy donor HSC after HSCT, a hypothesis that could explain morbidity noted after clinical HSCT for patients with SDS. Here, we report a mouse model with inducible Sbdsdeletion in hematopoietic and osteolineage cells. Primary and secondary BM transplantation (BMT) studies demonstrated that SBDS deficiency within BM niches caused poor donor hematopoietic recovery and specifically poor HSC engraftment after myeloablative BMT. We have also identified multiple molecular and cellular defects within niche populations that are driven by SBDS deficiency and are accentuated by or develop specifically after myeloablative conditioning. These abnormalities include altered frequencies of multiple niche cell subsets, including mesenchymal lineage cells, macrophages, and endothelial cells; disruption of growth factor signaling, chemokine pathway activation, and adhesion molecule expression; and p53 pathway activation and signals involved in cell cycle arrest. Taken together, this study demonstrates that SBDS deficiency profoundly impacts recipient hematopoietic niche function in the setting of HSCT, suggesting that novel therapeutic strategies targeting host niches could improve clinical HSCT outcomes for patients with SDS.

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Background: Although prenatal iron-containing supplements have been associated with lower anemia prevalence in later pregnancy, few trials have examined the effect of supplements on the anemia status of post-partum women and their infants. Objective: We compared the effects of folic acid alone (FA), iron-folic acid (IFA) and multiple micronutrients (MMN) when provided to pregnant women with no or mild anemia on the hemoglobin levels of post-partum women and their infants at 6 and 12 months of age. We also examined the potential modifying effect of maternal hemoglobin concentration at enrollment. Methods: A double-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in China; 18,775 nulliparous women with a hemoglobin concentration > 100 g/L were randomly assigned to receive daily FA (400 μg); IFA (FA, Fe 30 mg), or MMN (FA, Fe and 13 micronutrients) from before 20 gestational weeks until delivery. Results: Compared with daily prenatal FA, supplementation with IFA or MMN did not affect the prevalence of anemia at 4–6 weeks post-partum (27.2%, 26.8%, and 26.3%, respectively). At 6 months of age, the anemia prevalence in infants was 6.9%, 6.7%, and 6.7%, respectively. Findings were similar at 12 months of age. Among both post-partum women and infants, findings were similar across all levels of hemoglobin at enrollment. Conclusions: Compared to FA alone, prenatal IFA and MMN provided to women with no or mild anemia did not affect anemia in women post-partum or their infants regardless of baseline maternal hemoglobin concentration at enrollment.

To examine the association between haemoglobin (Hb) concentrations in mothers before and during pregnancy and those in children at 3–5 years of age. The study included 78,923 women who conceived during 1993–1996 and delivered a singleton live infant. Maternal Hb concentrations were measured at pre-pregnancy health check-up and first prenatal visit, and during the second and third trimester. Hb concentrations of children born to these women were measured at 3–5 years of age. Associations between Hb levels in mothers and children were examined. Unconditional logistic regression was used to explore the association between maternal Hb levels and risk for anaemia in children. Maternal Hb levels before and during pregnancy were positively associated with children’s Hb levels. Using maternal Hb ≥ 130 g/L as the referent, the risk for anaemia in children at 3–5 years of age was higher when maternal second trimester Hb concentrations were 70–99 g/L (odds ratio [OR] = 1.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.56–1.99), 100–109 g/L (OR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.29–1.64), and 110–119 g/L (OR = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.04–1.33). Children were 1.52 and 1.23-times more likely to suffer from anaemia when maternal third trimester Hb concentrations were 70–99 and 100–109 g/L, respectively. A pre-pregnancy Hb concentration of 80–109 g/L and first prenatal visit Hb concentrations of 80–109 and 100–119 g/L were also associated with increased risks for childhood anaemia. Low maternal Hb concentrations before or during pregnancy increase the risk for anaemia in children at 3–5 years of age.

To verify the feasibility of using radiocarbon detection for the measurement of the biomass-coal blending ratio in co-firing heat and power plants, 14C activity detection technology that uses benzene synthesis as the sample preparation method and a liquid scintillation counter as the detection instrument was studied. A benzene synthesis system was built to enrich carbon in the combustion flue gas in the form of benzene. The benzene sample was mixed with scintillator (butyl-PBD) and 14C activity was measured using a liquid scintillation counter (Quantulus 1220). Three kinds of coal and six kinds of biomass were tested repeatedly. The measured 14C activity was 0.3365 DPM/gC in Zhundong lignite, 0.2701 DPM/gC in Shenmu bitumite, and 0.3060 DPM/gC in Changzhi anthracite. These values were much higher than the instrument background activity. For the co-fired experiment, we used groups with biomass ratios (based on the carbon) of 6.51%, 12.95%, and 20.75%. A modified empirical expression to determine the biomass, coal blending ratio based on the 14C activity measured in the co-firing flue gas, was proposed by analyzing and verifying measurement accuracy. From the 14C measurements of the co-fired samples, the corresponding estimated biomass ratios were (5.54±0.48)%, (12.31±0.67)%, and (19.49±0.90)%. The absolute measurement error was around 1% for a typical biomass-coal co-firing application. 目的:准确且可靠的生物质燃料掺混比例数据的缺失,阻碍了生物质/煤混燃发电技术在中国的发展。本文旨在建立以14C 法为基础的生物质掺混比例检测系统,并研究煤作为化石燃料的测试本底、不同生物质之间14C 含量的差异以及苯合成工艺中引入的现代碳污染对测试精度的影响,以验证该方法在混燃电站中实际应用的可行性。 创新点:1. 建立并使用适用于在工业混燃电站中应用的计算方法;2. 通过实验测试,获得了3 种由制样过程污染产生的煤中14C 含量;3. 通过对实际过程的经验拟合,提出更为合理的污染修正公式。 方法:1. 自主搭建苯合成系统(图2),并以液体闪光计数技术为核心形成样品14C 值测试体系;2. 通过 实验测试,获得6 种生物质与3 种煤的14C 测试 值(图3 和4),并验证混燃测试的可行性(图5); 3. 通过公式推导,在考虑煤中14C 含量后,更为 合理地修正苯合成过程中引入的污染,以减小混 燃测试的绝对误差(公式(9))。 结论:1. 光谱级纯苯的测试值为仪器的测试本底,而商 用SrCO3 制苯的测试值则反应了苯合成过程中引 入的污染本底。2. 对不同生物质的重复实验的测 试值落点均在理论计算误差范围内,证明了实验 中苯合成系统的可靠性。3. 运用研究中建立的计 算方法,获得了生物质混燃比例的测试值;14C 法应用于生物质/煤混燃电站的绝对测试误差在 1%左右。

Recent studies suggest that acute myeloid leukemia (AML) generates inflammation in the bone marrow (BM) niche to an extent that compromises the function of healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) and impacts patient prognosis. AML xenograft studies have identified several pro-inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-1b) that are secreted into the BM niche by leukemic blasts. Prior work by our laboratory also showed contributions involving other AML-secreted factors, in regulating HSPCs in the leukemic niche. HSPC are cellular components of the innate immune system, but the full extent of their inflammatory adaptation by AML is unknown. To overcome some of the experimental constraints inherent in the xenograft approach, we first established non-conditioned congenic grafts of C1498 murine AML cells in C57B/6 recipients. Assessment of the BM revealed that, even at low AML burden, these animals contained a range of elevated pro-inflammatory factors. Single cell RNA-Seq studies of healthy HSPCs, obtained concurrently at sacrifice confirmed an inflammatory transcriptional signature in HSC and MPP populations, with GSEA enrichment for interferon-alpha and -gamma signaling pathways. These observations led us to hypothesize that AML-experienced (inflammation-primed) healthy HSPCs may acquire a durable long-term inflammatory memory that shapes their response to subsequent stimulation during relapse or infection. To test this hypothesis, we adoptively transferred FACS-sorted healthy AML-experienced HSPCs from C1498-engrafted mice (HSPC AML) into secondary recipients. HSPCs transplanted from PBS-injected recipients (HSPC PBS) serve as controls. To assess whether HSPC AMLwould respond to immune challenge more aggressively compared to HSPC PBS, we exposed these animals with a single-injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), followed by tissue harvest and analysis after 24 hours. Bulk RNA-Seq analysis of HSPC AMLfrom the LPS-challenged recipients showed amplified GSEA signatures for tumor necrosis factor- and NF-kB signaling pathways compared to HSPC PBS. In addition, LPS-challenged HSPC AMLshowed amplified expression by several krüppel-like factors (KLF) genes. Analysis for transposase-accessible chromatin loci (ATAC-Seq), concurrently obtained from LPS-challenged HSPC AMLechoed the enrichment of KLF motifs as well. Collectively, the C1498 model suggests that initial AML exposure programs HSPC AMLfor an amplified inflammatory and differentiation program. To further ascertain disease relevance and reproducibility we turned to a doxycycline-inducible (i)MLL-AF9 AML model. Given the low leukemic burden in the BM of C1498-grafted animals, we wanted to test the hypothesis that secreted factors accounted, at least in part, for the inflammatory memory. Indeed, injection of AML secreted factors from iMLL-AF9 models revealed a strong inflammatory signature in bulk RNA-Seq studies. To determine if innate immune priming in HSPC can be directly mediated by AML crosstalk, we exposed ex vivo-expanded HSPCs to purified secreted factors (SF AML) from (i)MLL-AF9 AML blasts, followed by a secondary inflammatory challenge with LPS seven days later. Gene expression analysis of SF AML-experienced LPS-challenged HSPCs confirmed myeloid-skewed progenitor differentiation and increased expression of inflammatory targets. Together, our data show for the first time that phenotypically normal, AML-experienced HSPCs carry a durable inflammatory legacy whereby primary exposure to AML secreted factors alters their response to secondary stimuli. Our experiments phenocopy observations of trained immunity in other experimental systems, and suggest the acquisition of an innate immune memory in the AML niche. Immune priming may impact the role of these HSPC in the context of inflammation associated with aging, or clones with predisposing molecular lesions such as TET2 or DNMT3A.

•Success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for MIRAGE syndrome may be limited by syndrome-specific comorbidities.

Increase in resistance of Candidaspecies, to routinely used antifungal agents has necessitated the quest for new drugs. Few studies have revealed that cow's urine can suppress the growth of pathogenic fungi. However there is no published report on antifungal effects of cow's urine on clinical Candidaisolates.

The objective of this work was to determine the bacterial strains and factors that most efficiently degrade T-2 toxin in foods or animal feed. To determine the most efficient strain and optimal incubation times for degradation of T-2, the rate of T-2 removal by three lactic acid bacteria strains was quantified by liquid chromatography plus tandem mass spectrometry after incubation in de Man Rogosa Sharpe broth with 50 ng mL−1T-2 at 37°C for 96 h. Various components of the most efficient degradation strain fermentation systems were extracted, and the ability to remove T-2 was assayed. Lactococcus lactisCAMT22361 was the most efficient degradation strain for removing T-2. Yeast extract powder interfered with L. lactisCAMT22361 in the degradation process. T-2 toxin was removed by various components of the L. lactisCAMT22361 cells in the following order: nonprotein material of the extracellular fraction > protein in the extracellular fraction > whole cell ≈ cell wall > cell intracellular matrix fluid. T-2 removal rates were 54.08% ± 0.79%, 43.65% ± 0.84%, 43.09% ± 0.87%, 41.98% ± 0.8%, and 23.45% ± 0.66%, respectively. The nonprotein fraction in the extracellular fluid was most likely the key component in L. lactisCAMT22361 and hence would be the most desirable cellular component to be used to remove T-2 from food or feed.

The amorphous-nanocrystal Ni-Mo deposits were obtained by electrodeposition in alkaline nickel carbonate solution. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and modern technologies were used to describe the content, microstructure and morphology of the deposits. The electrochemical characteristics of Ni-Mo deposits were electrolyzed in 33°C, 7 mol/L NaOH electrolytic solutions. The results showed that when I was 100 mA·cm−2, the hydrogen evolution potential of Ni-Mo21.76 was lower than amorphous Ni-Mo26.36 and 250mV lower than the nanocrystal Ni cathode. And the Ni-Mo deposits with more amorphous phase content would be in lower hydrogen evolution overpotential, a higher exchange current density, and a better electrolytic stability. These due to the amorphous combined with nanocrystal, lager contact surface and binding energy of Ni-Mo structure.

The contact behavior between indenter and single crystal copper substrate is performed to investigate based on EAM and Morse potentials and Verlet algorithm. Effects of different velocities on the contact behavior and substrate deformation are compared and analyzed. The results show that the single crystal copper material’s resist deformation level is limited by low velocity, and more dislocated atoms were accumulated under the direction of indenter moving in higher indenting velocity. During sliding process, lager chip volume is produced in front of the indenter as the sliding speed or sliding distance increases. The dislocated band in basis lies at the angle of 45 degrees with the direction of indenter moving in indenting and sliding process. Furthermore, the contact force, friction force and normal force increase with the rising of speed. On the contrary, the friction coefficient decrease gradually with higher sliding speed.

A finite element model is developed to study the transient thermo-mechanical contact between a rough body and a flat body. The model consideres the heat flux coupling, the interaction among adjacent contact asperities and elasto-plastic deformation of the rough body. It is observed that the temperature / contact pressure / stress are coupled and fluctuate obviously when the interaction of contact asperities enhances. The fluctuation of the VonMises equivalent stress makes the equivalent plastic strain of the frictional surface layer accumulate continually which might cause fatigue wear and plastic deformation wear of the material when the frictional rotating process repeated.

Blue Economic Zone in Shandong Peninsula is the most dynamic and fastest-developing area with many advantageous resources and relatively advanced infrastructure in East China Shandong Province. A new pattern of Shandong port development has been preliminarily formed after many years construction, centering Qingdao port between two wings–Yantai port to the northwest and Rizhao port to the southwest, with the Shandong Peninsula ports group serving as the base. This paper presents the planning and development goals of the integrated transportation system in Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone, conducts the prediction analysis on the development of this system and forwards suggestions on its development strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of furnace temperature and load after blending in lignite, based on CFD software FLUENT-6.3,this paper choose the appropriate geometry model and the physical and mathematical models, and numerical simulation of the different conditions 600MW supercritical once-through boiler blending lignite furnace combustion process is curried out. And through a 600MW supercritical coal-fired boiler furnace lignite blended performed sections thermodynamic calculation under different conditions, worked out the furnace flue gas temperature, CO, CO2concentration distribute trend and radiant heat each section surface heat load conditions. The specific amount were blended with 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% were not dried lignite and dried lignite 20% after five conditions. And obtained a conclusion is the temperature and radiation heating surface flue gas heat load in the overall trend under the various conditions.

Altitudinal range is widely used as a proxy of habitat heterogeneity to explain broad-scale geographical patterns of species diversity. Though altitudinal range is a factors derived from altitudinal gradient, altitudinal range’s effects on species diversity on altitudinal gradient remain little known. Based on large scale information of plant species, climatic and geographical factors, we investigated the altitudinal patterns of plant species diversity in the East Himalaya regions, and the effects of altitudinal range on species diversity on altitudinal gradient. We constructed two coefficients, ARDMA (altitudinal range divided by median altitude) and SDDAR (species diversity divided by altitudinal range). We used Spearman’s rank correlation to examine the associations among all of factors. Our results showed that species diversity decreased as the increase of altitude, and significantly related to potential evaporation. No significant correlation was observed between altitudinal range and species diversity, whereas ARDMA significantly related to species diversity, suggesting that only when altitudinal gradient was controlled, were there significant correlations between altitudinal range and species diversity. SDDAR significantly and negatively related to median altitude. We concluded that energy availability significantly affected the altitudinal patterns of species diversity, and altitudinal gradient may shadow the effects of altitudinal range on species diversity.

For study on SO2 and NO emission characteristics of circulating fluidized bed boiler experiments were carried out in a 300MW circulating fluidized bed boiler. In these experiments, the variables were the amount of limestone and bed temperature. While conducting the test, the reasons for the changes in emission were analyzed, and some advices about combustion adjustment were proposed.

This paper studies the prediction of power plant desulfurization efficiency, based on support vector machine through the meshing method for parameter optimization, establish a prediction model, with the running of the actual data to predict the results: mean square error (MSE) is 0.00259324, the correlation coefficient (R) is 0.979927%, the largest error is less than 1.5%, the results show that the established forecast model based on support vector machine (SVM) with high accuracy to predict the desulfurization efficiency, and can satisfy the engineering need of flue gas desulfurization efficiency prediction.

Located in Southwest China, Northwest Yunnan has drawn much attention around the world because of its high plant richness. However, spatial associations among different diversity measures of seed plants in this region remain elusive. We compiled a database of spatial distribution of total, endemic, and threatened seed plants at county scale in Northwest Yunnan, and examined spatial associations among the three diversity measures and altitudinal range. We found similar spatial patterns of the three diversity measures, which were highest in the northern part of the region. Moreover, strong correlations among the three diversity measures were observed. Altitudinal range was positively correlated with total and endemic species diversity, while endemic species diversity explained more spatial variation of threatened species diversity. The spatial patterns of all three diversity measures were directly or indirectly correlated with altitudinal range, suggesting strong associations among controlling factors of the three diversity measures. Overall, our results showed strong spatial correlations among total, endemic, and threatened plant diversity in Northwest Yunnan, which should help land managers design cost-effective conservation plans in this region.

A magnetic localization and orientation system is used to track the movement of the capsule endoscope during the gastrointestinal examination process. The system is made of a magnetic sensors array collecting the intensity of the magnetic field from a magnet in the capsule. In this paper, we try to optimize the sensor arrangement of wearable model that likes elliptical cylinder around the human body, to improve the tracking precision. Different sensor arrangement schemes are evaluated, and the tracking accuracy can be significantly increased with the appropriate arrangement. In addition, we presented a real time localization algorithm to compute uncertain 3D locus for estimating the tracing performance of the capsule.

The removal of algae and odorous metabolite dimethyl trisulfide (DMTS) in water using potassium ferrate (K2FeO4) was investigated. The treatment effect was compared with polyferric chloride (PFC) and potassium permanganate (KMnO4) pre-oxidation followed by PFC. Factors such as pH, oxidation contact time, and turbidity were also analyzed. The results show that K2FeO4is more effective in algae elimination than PFC, with a higher removal ratio of 92.4% when dosage is equivalently measured by Fe. Removal of DMTS by K2FeO4is better than pre-oxidized KMnO4, with decreased oxidation contact time. The removal ratio of DMTS by K2FeO4was 92.5% with contact time set to 1 min; in comparison, KMnO4had a removal ratio of only 74.6% after 10 min of contact.

The poly (vinylidene fluoride)/poly (methyl methacrylate)(PVDF/PMMA) composite fibrous membranes with different blend ratio for use as separator of lithium-ion batteries have been developed by electrospinning technique. The surface morphology and crystal structure of electrospun PVDF/PMMA composite fibrous membranes are characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).The results indicated that the addition of PMMA into PVDF increased the fiber diameter, decreased the crystalline of electrospun composite fibrous membranes and the good molecular level interaction between these two polymers were obtained. Meanwhile,electrospun PVDF/PMMA (90/10) composite fibrous membranes exhibited the highest ionic conductivity of 2.54×10-3S/cm at room temperature with electrochemical stability of up to 5.0V.

Poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) / poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) composite membrane was produced by the electrospinning technique. Thermal treatment was introduced to improve the mechanical property and dimensional stability. In this paper, the PVDF/PMMA membranes before and after thermal treatment were characterized by Scanning electron microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) , pore size and porosity test, electrolyte uptake test and tensile test. The pore size, porosity, electrolyte uptake rate, tensile property, as well as melting temperature and crystallinity changed with the treated temperature. The results show that thermal treatment could notably increase the tensile property of electrospun PVDF/PMMA composite membrane and 160ºC is a proper temperature for thermal treating.

Electrostatic micro-devices are simple but important for MEMS applications. Precise dynamic descriptions of these devices are often hard to obtain due to the electrostatic nonlinearity and the fluid-structure interactions in devices. Here we present a comprehensive electrostatic-mechanical-fluidic coupling transient analysis for the pull-in process of two ends fixed micro-plate device. The numerical results are compared with the published experiment works of other researchers available in the literature, and thus the model had been validated. After that the proper orthogonal decomposition approach is performed for the snapshot matrixes which are sampled from an ensemble of the fully finite element results. The resulted spatial distribution modes of pressure show a higher spatial frequency toward the middle of the micro-plate, which indicates that the pressures at the moving edges of the plate are not equal to ambient pressure. Due to the increasing demands for simulation accuracy, the electrostatic-mechanical interactions and the nonlinear features of viscous loss from the surrounding fluid have to be taken into account in details.

In the salt lake areas in China, the ordinary cement concrete can be corroded by the salt in the saline soil seriously, and the application of ordinary portland cement concrete in this area is impeded. Therfore, some new cementitious materials which has high durability should be searched in order to be used in the underground engineering in saline soil areas. In this study, the sulfoaluminate cement is immersed into the salt solution that has high concentration Mg2+, Cl-, SO42-, and the complex solution of them. The corrosion resistance performance of sulfoaluminate cement against high concentration salt solution is tested. The results indicate that Sulfoaluminate cement has perfect durability against sulfate corrosion whose concentration is in the scope of this test. Sulfoaluminate cement can not be corroded by MgCl2 solution when MgCl2 solution concentration is lower than degree 3; but when the concentration of MgCl2 solution reaches degree 4, MgCl2 solution could corrode the sulfoaluminate cement seriously. The corrosion of the specimens immersed in MgCl2 solution whose concentration is degree 4 is caused by the composite action of Mg2+ and Cl-.

The reasonable heating regulation directly affect the heating of the economy, and thus its exergy analysis is imperative. In order to optimize the heating system, three regulation methods used in heating system are analyzed in this paper. They are quality regulation, flow mass regulation and stage-flow-mass-changing quality regulation. Each method has a different effect on energy saving and energy loss. Based on the second law of thermodynamics, this paper analyzes the total energy loss of these three methods by dividing the heating system into subsystems including boiler , indoor heat dissipation equipment and outdoor pipe network and the circulating pump. It is demonstrated theoretically that flow mass regulation is the best way for saving energy and quality regulation is the worst.

BACKGROUND Beyond perinatal folic acid supplementation, the need for additional prenatal prophylaxis of iron with or without other micronutrients remains unclear. We aim to investigate the maternal and infant health effects of iron plus folic acid and multiple micronutrient supplements vs folic acid alone when provided to pregnant women with no or mild anemia. METHODS In this randomized double-blind controlled trial, 18 775 nulliparous pregnant women with mild or no anemia were enrolled from 5 counties of northern China from May 2006 through April 2009. Women were randomly assigned to daily folic acid (400 μg) (control), folic acid–iron (30 mg), or folic acid, iron, and 13 additional vitamins and minerals provided before 20 weeks gestation to delivery. Primary outcome was perinatal mortality. Secondary outcomes included neonatal and infant mortality, preterm delivery, birth weight, birth length, gestational duration, and maternal hemoglobin concentration and anemia. RESULTS A total of 92.7% of women consumed 80% to 100% of supplements as instructed. On average, women consumed 177 supplements. Compared with daily prenatal folic acid, supplementation with iron–folic acid with or without other micronutrients did not affect the rate of perinatal mortality (8.8, 8.7, and 8.3, respectively) per 1000 births, and relative risks (RRs) were 1.00 (95% CI, 0.68-1.46; P = .99) and 0.94 (95% CI, 0.64-1.39; P = .76), respectively. Risk of other adverse maternal and infant outcomes also did not differ, except that RRs for third-trimester maternal anemia were 0.72 (95% CI, 0.63-0.83; P &lt; .001) and 0.71 (95% CI, 0.62-0.82; P &lt; .001), respectively. CONCLUSION Prenatal iron–folic acid and other micronutrient supplements provided to Chinese women with no or mild anemia prevented later pregnancy anemia beyond any benefit conferred by folic acid alone but did not affect perinatal mortality or other infant outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00133744

In this paper,on the basis of a certain kind of Tin bronze alloy,a new nanoparticle reinforced copper alloy with additions of some alloy is produced by using vacuum melting and centrifugal casting technology.The mechanical properties of the alloy have increased significantly than the Tin bronze alloy.The tensile strength, yield strength,elongation of as-cast nanoparticle reinforced copper alloy are 477~535MPa,221~280MPa,28.0~35.6%,respectively.Compared with the conventional Tin bronze alloy, the strength and plastic of the nanoparticle reinforced copper alloy are obviously improved.

This paper took one 330MW unit boiler in one power plant as an example, then doing some research about the boiler system energy change through doing exergy analysis. After this, the exergy flow equation was established, the energy transfer, utilize and loss of the thermal power plant production was revealed, the exergy efficiency of the boiler was defined. So the paper can provide a basis for energy utilization of power plant.

A three-dimensional contact model was established between two isotropic rough surfaces exhibiting fractal behavior,and the equivalent plastic strain was discussed using the finite element analysis. The maximum equivalent plastic strain and its depth are presented with the different paths of rough solid when loading. The result showed that the equivalent plastic strain versus different depth which at different locations showed different laws, in the top area of the asperities versus different depth, the maximum equivalent plastic strain occurs in the subsurface which range about 5 um from the surface. In addition, with different deformation characteristics, the degree of the equivalent plastic strain was different. The contact model between two rough solids will lay a foundation to further research on the substance of the process of friction and wear.

Dichloromethane (DCM) is a toxic pollutant with prolonged persistence in air and water. The work focused on the cultivation of Methylobacterium rhodesiaum H13 which could utilize DCM as the sole carbon source. By comparison and analysis, R2A was chosen as the suitable culture medium for large-scale cultivation. Furthermore, the optimized composition of medium was established on the basis of biomass obtained and the DCM degradation activity of M. rhodesiaum H13, which contained yeast extract 1.5 g/L, peptone 1.5 g/L, glucose 1.5 g/L, sodium pyruvate 0.9 g/L, K2HPO4 0.9 g/L and MgSO4•H2O 0.15 g/L.

Aerobic granules efficient at degrading paracetamol as the sole carbon and energy resource were successfully developed in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Aerobic granules were first observed about 220 days after reactor start-up. The images SEM showed the aerobic granules typically consisted of coccus and bacillus. Meanwhile, the size distribution of aerobic granules was analyzed on day 200. The result indicated that the granules eventually grew to become the dominant form of biomass in the reactor. The granular sludge on day 80 and 200 degraded paracetamol completely in 48 h and 28 h, respectively, indicating that granulation contributed to paracetamol degradation. The specific paracetamol degradation rate was observed to increase with increasing paracetamol initial concentration from 500 to 5000 mg/L, peaked at 1200 mg-MTBE/g-VSS·h, and declined with further increases in MTBE concentration as substrate inhibition effects became significant. This study demonstrates that paracetamol can be effectively degraded by aerobic granules and gives insight into the microorganisms potentially involved in the process.

To enhance our understanding on plant invasions in China, we conducted a comparative study of the checklists of the alien invasive plants in China published during 1998-2008. Our results showed that species diversity of the invasive plants in China was relatively small, in consideration of the huge flora and diverse habitats in China. The results also indicated that there was a big turnover of species composition among the seven checklists. The fast-growth of species diversity of alien invasive plants during 1998-2008 and the exponentially increasing trend confirmed the early warnings. There was an increasing trend observed on those from Asia and Africa from 1998-2008. We suggested that extensive and intensive communication was pressingly needed among ecologists, taxonomists and authors of the checklists. The establishment of the checklist of alien invasive plants with high reliability and timely maintenance, which can accommodate the rapid turnover of the invaders, was one of the chief tasks in the research of plant invasions in China.

A FEA model of two-dimensional (2D) sliding between two interfering fractal rough solids was build, and the results was presented. The trends in shear stress between the rough solids were provided by the FEA. Combined with the delaminating theory of wear, the Maximum shear stresses and its distance are presented when loading and sliding. The result showed that the Maximum shear stresses was located in the subsurface which range about 2 to 8 um from the surface. In addition, with different plastic characteristics, the location of Maximum shear stresses were different. With modeling the contact and sliding between rough surfaces, the friction, sub-surface crack initiation and propagation and wear mechanisms can be understood deeply.

Sliding velocity has a direct impact on friction heat and contact situation. Frictional heating and associated temperature seriously affects the material chemical and physical - mechanical properties, and is one of the direct factors on the wear mechanism. To analyze the influence of the sliding speed on the maximum contact temperature, contact pressure, stress, etc, a 3D thermo-mechanical coupling model for the rough surface frictional sliding is established. The rough surface is characterized based on fractal theory. The model considers friction contact between an elastic flat plane and an elasto-plastic rough surface. Also, the model integrates the heat flux coupling between the sliding surfaces and allows the analysis of the effects of elastic-plastic deformation of rough body and the interplay among asperities. The numerical results from the analysis and simulation show that the maximum contact temperature increases with the increasing of the sliding velocity. But the maximum VonMises equivalent stress and the maximum contact pressure have few relationships with sliding speed. They may increase or reduce with the sliding velocity increasing. Some results are validated by research’s results available in the literature.

This paper explored ozonation for the treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater and p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) was selected as the model pharmaceutical intermediate. The results showed that the ozonation process is efficient for the degradation of PTSA both in concentration and COD removal. The mono factor results showed that 60L/h was a suitable ozone flow rate. There were sharp difference between acid condition and alkaline condition, under acidic conditions, the direct oxidation with molecular ozone is of primary importance, and under alkaline conditions the hydroxyl oxidation starts to dominate, and pH=12 was a suitable value. Further, intermediates of PTSA degradation were analyzed and the reaction mechanism was discussed.

Organic wastewater pollution control was one of the focus researches for environmental workers. In this study, high active electrode was made and hydrogen peroxide production via cathodic reduction of oxygen was studied, the H2O2 generated in the optimization of research and the effect of dye wastewater degradation under the typical conditions were explored. The effects of mass ratio between graphite and PTFE, Na2SO4 concentration, cathodic potential, pH and gas flow rate on hydrogen peroxide output were investigated. The optimized operational parameters were as follows: graphite and PTFE 5:1, pH=6, Na2SO4 concentration 0.5 mol/L, oxygen flow rate 450mL/min, and cathodic potential -1.2 V (vs SCE). Hydrogen peroxide concentration could reach 66.17 mg/L after 2h at optimized condition. Meanwhile, dye removal could reach about 70% at the same time. Therefore, the use of active electrode as cathode has shown promising prospect in dye wastewater treatment.

BACKGROUND: Kidney damage related to consumption of melamine-contaminated dairy products by young children in China has been described. However, no studies have reported on the population-based prevalence of kidney damage among exposed children or on the condition of affected children after follow-up. METHODS: We conducted an ultrasound-based screening in September 2008 of 7933 children younger than 36 months of age who lived in a rural area in China where the dairy products most highly contaminated with melamine were sold. We monitored children who had evidence of nephrolithiasis or hydronephrosis at screening using renal ultrasonography after one, three and six months. We also collected information from the mothers of affected children about consumption of melamine-contaminated products between June and August 2008. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of urinary tract abnormalities among screened children was 0.61% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.45%–0.80%). The mean exposure dose of melamine was estimated to be 116 (range 36–220) mg per day. Of the 48 affected children, 43 (89.6%) were asymptomatic, 2 had symptoms and were hospitalized, and 3 had symptoms but treatment had been not sought for them. Of the 46 children for whom six-month follow-up information was available, renal abnormalities persisted in 5 children and resolved in the remaining 41. INTERPRETATION: Among children who underwent screening, 0.61% showed ultrasonographic evidence of nephrolithiasis or hydronephrosis. Most of the affected children were asymptomatic. The majority of the affected children recovered from the toxic effects of melamine over time without specific treatment. Renal abnormalities remained in 12% of the affected children.

A thermo-mechanical coupling model for the rough surface is established. The model considers friction contact between a rigid flat plane and a rough surface based on 3D fractal theory and allows the analysis of the effects of elastic-plastic deformation of rough body and the interplay among asperities. The contact pressure distribution for the static state beneath different loading mode and for the dynamic state in the presence of the frictional heat flux is found. The results show the fluctuation of the average contact pressure during the process of loading is related to the velocity of loading. The synthetical function of multiple factors such as the thermal deformation, the rising temperature, the interaction between asperities makes the complicated relationships among the maximum temperature, the maximum contact pressure and the real contact area.

AbstractNitric oxide (NO) may participate in the ozone layer depletion and forming of nitric acid. Abiotic and biological mechanisms of NO removal from waste gases were studied in a biotrickling filter. The abiotic NO removal rate in the biotrickling filter was estimated by a review of the literature. The abiotic and biological removals were also verified in the biotrickling filter. The result has shown that chemical oxidation and bionitrification were both involved in the NO removal. It was found that the NO removal in high concentration (∼1000 ppm or higher) was in large measure the result of abiotic removal in both gas–phase and liquid–phase reactions. When NO concentration is low (less than ∼100 ppm), bionitrification was the main process in the NO removal process in the biotrickling filter.

SrTiO3 thin films were deposited on vitreous silica substrates by metalorganic decomposition (MOD). The films are polycrystalline cubic in structure with the lattice constants of a=0.39nm. Their optical constants (refractive index n and extinction coefficient k) were calculated by the envelope method from the transmittance spectra in the wavelength range of 190nm to 1100nm. The refractive index of the present films is found to be higher than that of the other SrTiO3 films prepared by RF sputtering, sol–gel and chemical vapour deposition. The dispersion of the refractive index in the films follows the single electronic oscillator model with oscillator strength (S0) of 0.88×1014m−2 and oscillator energy (E0) of 6.40eV. The optical band gap of the films was estimated to be 3.68eV.