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Juvenile hormone binding protein (JHBP) is a key regulator of JH signaling, and crosstalk between JH and 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) can activate and fine-tune the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade, leading to resistance to insecticidal proteins from Bacillis thuringiensis(Bt). However, the involvement of JHBP in the Bt Cry1Ac resistance of Plutella xylostellaremains unclear. Here, we cloned a full-length cDNA encoding JHBP, and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis showed that the expression of the PxJHBPgene in the midgut of the Cry1Ac-susceptible strain was significantly higher than that of the Cry1Ac-resistant strain. Furthermore, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of the PxJHBPgene significantly increased Cry1Ac susceptibility, resulting in a significantly shorter lifespan and reduced fertility. These results demonstrate that PxJHBPplays a critical role in the resistance to Cry1Ac protoxin and in the regulation of physiological metabolic processes associated with reproduction in adult females, providing valuable insights to improve management strategies of P. xylostella.

Inrecent years, significant progress has been made in the field of learning from positive and unlabeled examples (PU learning), particularly in the context of advancing image and text classification tasks. However, applying PU learning to semi-supervised disease classification remains a formidable challenge, primarily due to the limited availability of labeled medical images. In the realm of medical image-aided diagnosis algorithms, numerous theoretical and practical obstacles persist. The research on PU learning for medical image-assisted diagnosis holds substantial importance, as it aims to reduce the time spent by professional experts in classifying images. Unlike natural images, medical images are typically accompanied by a scarcity of annotated data, while an abundance of unlabeled cases exists. Addressing these challenges, this paper introduces a novel generative model inspired by Hölder divergence, specifically designed for semi-supervised disease classification using positive and unlabeled medical image data. In this paper, we present a comprehensive formulation of the problem and establish its theoretical feasibility through rigorous mathematical analysis. To evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed approach, we conduct extensive experiments on five benchmark datasets commonly used in PU medical learning: BreastMNIST, PneumoniaMNIST, BloodMNIST, OCTMNIST, and AMD. The experimental results clearly demonstrate the superiority of our method over existing approaches based on KL divergence. Notably, our approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on all five disease classification benchmarks. By addressing the limitations imposed by limited labeled data and harnessing the untapped potential of unlabeled medical images, our novel generative model presents a promising direction for enhancing semi-supervised disease classification in the field of medical image analysis.

Byline: Guoping. Luo, Yan. Xin, Dajun. Qin, Aihua. Yan, Zhiyan. Zhou, Zhaoxia. Liu Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the tear and serum protein levels of interleukin-33 [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2009.05.010 Byline: Jingfa Liu (a), Shengjun Xue (a), Zhaoxia Liu (b), Danhua Xu (a) Keywords: Packing problem; Energy landscape paving; Combinatorial optimization; Heuristics Abstract: The problem of packing circles into a larger containing circle is a kind of NP-hard problem. It is of high theoretical and practical value. Lacking powerful optimization method is the key obstacle to solving this problem. The energy landscape paving (ELP) method is a class of heuristic global optimization algorithm and a generation of Monte Carlo method. By incorporating new configuration update mechanism into ELP method, an improved energy landscape paving (ELP+) algorithm is put forward. The computational results, on two sets of instances taken from the literature, show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Author Affiliation: (a) Computer and Software Institute, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China (b) Network Information Center, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China Article History: Received 16 September 2008; Revised 12 May 2009; Accepted 12 May 2009

AimsTo study the clinicopathological and molecular features of benign notochordal cell tumours (BNCTs) and their differential diagnosis from chordoma.Methods13 cases of BNCT were investigated. The genome-wide copy number imbalances were performed using Oncoscan CNV array in three cases and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/chromosome 7 enumeration probe (CEP7), LSI1p36/1q21, LSI19p13/19q13, CEP3/CEP12 and Telvysion 6 P was performed in 13 cases.ResultsAll 13 BNCTs were symptomatic and eight cases showed a close relationship with the bones of the skull base. The important histological character for differential diagnosis with chordoma was the absence of extracellular matrix and eosinophil cells and the presence of vacuoles in most tumour cells. Immunohistochemical staining of AE1/AE3, vimentin, epithelial membrane antigen, S-100 and brachyury (100% each) were positive in BNCTs. Gain of chromosome 7 occurred in 10 cases (76.9%), gain of 1p in four (30.8%), gain of 1q in five (38.5%), gain of 19p and 19q in five (38.5%), gain of chromosome 12 in 11 cases (84.6%), gain of 6p in eight (61.5%) and gain of chromosome 3 in four cases (30.8%).ConclusionsIn contrast to chordoma, chromosome gain or normal copy number was more common while chromosome loss was infrequent in BNCTs. This may be a differential diagnosis clue for chordoma and may be an important characteristic in the progression of notochordal cell tumours.

Five-membered 1,3,4-oxadiazole (OZ) and 1,3,4-thiadiazole (TZ) heterocycle-based copolymers as active layer have long been ignored in solution-processable n-channel polymer field-effect transistors (PFETs) despite the long history of using OZ or TZ derivatives as the electron-injecting materials in organic light-emitting devices and their favorable electron affinities. Herein, we first report the synthesis and PFETs performance of two n-channel conjugated polymers bearing OZ- or TZ-based acceptor moieties, i.e., PNOZ and PNTZ, where simple thiophene units are utilized as the weak donors and additional alkylated-naphthalenediimides units are used as the second acceptors. A comparative study has been performed to reveal the effect of different heterocyclic acceptors on thermal properties, electronic properties, ordering structures, and carrier transport performance of the target polymers. It is found that both polymers possess low-lying LUMO values below −4.0 eV, indicating high electron affinity for both heterocycle-based polymers. Because of strong polarizable ability of sulfur atom in TZ heterocycle, PNTZ exhibits a red shift in maximal absorption and stronger molecular aggregation even in the diluted chlorobenzene solution as compared to the OZ-containing PNOZ. Surface morphological study reveals that a nodule-like surface with a rough surface morphology is observed clearly for PNOZ films, whereas PNTZ films display highly uniform surface morphology with well interconnected fiber-like polycrystalline grains. Investigation of PFETs performance indicates that both polymers afford air-stable n-channel transport characteristics. The uniform morphological structure and compact π–π stacking endow PNTZ with a high electron mobility of 0.36 cm2V–1s–1, much higher than that of PNOZ (0.026 cm2V–1s–1). These results manifest the feasibility in improving electron-transporting property simply by tuning heteroatom substitutes in n-channel polymers; further demostrate that TZ derivatives possess much superior potential for developing high-performance n-channel polymers compared to OZ derivatives.

Resource-rich shale gas plays a pivotal role in new energy types. The key to scientifically and efficiently developing shale gas fields is to clarify the main factors that affect the production of shale gas wells. In this paper, according to the shale gas reservoir characteristic of the Fuling marine Longmaxi Formation, a single-well geological model was established using the reservoir numerical simulation software CMG. Then, 10,000 different reservoir models were randomly generated for different formation physical parameters, completion parameters, and fracturing parameters using the Monte Carlo method, and these 10,000 models were simulated numerically. The machine learning model uses a dataset of 10,000 different geological, completion, and fracturing parameters as input and 10,000 production curves as output. Multiple machine learning regression methods were used to train and test the dataset, and the optimal method (GBDT algorithm) was selected, and the accuracy R2of the test set of the GBDT prediction model is 0.96. A fracturing parameter optimization workflow was constructed by combining a production prediction model with a particle swarm optimizer (PSO). The process can quickly optimize the fracturing parameters and predict the production for each time by targeting the cumulative gas production under different geological conditions. The optimized parameters are Fracture Spacing, Fracture Width, Intrinsic Permeability, Fracture Half-length, Langmuir Pressure, and Langmuir Volume. The initial predicted cumulative gas production was 4.59 × 108 m3, which was optimized to 4.90 × 108 m3. The proposed PSO-GBDT proxy model can instantly predict the production of shale gas wells with considerable accuracy, reliability, and efficiency, which is a vital tool for optimizing fracture design. This investigation provides a solid foundation for predicting the production of unconventional gas reservoirs and for parameter optimization.

Investigation of temperature effect on mechanical parameters of coal is very important for understanding the mechanical response of coal bed at high temperature. It is especially beneficial for mitigating the thermal-induced disasters occurred in those coal mines suffering from heat hazard. In this work, coal samples, obtained from the No. 2442 working face of Baijiao Coal Mine, were subjected to uniaxial compression ranging from 20 to 40°C with an interval of 5°C. The apparatus used was designed to obtain deformation of a stressed sample, as well as the emission of gases desorbing from coal matrix. The adsorbed gas desorption caused by heating is measured during the entire testing. It is evident that the concentrations of releasing gas (containing methane, carbon dioxide and ethane) slightly rise with increasing temperature. Gas movement observed is closely related to the deformation of coal sample. Both uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of coal samples tend to reduce with temperature. It reveals that increasing temperature can not only result in thermal expansion of coal, but also lead to desorption of preexisting gas in coal which can in turns harden coal due to shrinks of the coal matrix. Even though desorption of adsorbed gas can contribute to the hardening effect for the heated coal, by comparison to the results, it could be inferred that the softening of coal resulted from thermal expansion still predominates changes in mechanical characters of coal sample with temperature at the range from 20 to 40°C.

Edge detection technology of oil spills image on the sea is one of most key technologies to monitor oil spills on the sea. This paper presents a new method to detect continuous and closed edges of oil slick infrared (IR) aerial images on the sea. The method is composed of two stages: determination of edge points and edge linking. Non-maximal suppression and self-adaptive dynamic block threshold (SADBT) algorithm are applied to determine edge points. Then an improved edge linking algorithm is used for linking discrete edge points into closed edge contours, according to a cost function of the combination of Euclidean distance, intensity and angle information of edge ending points to improve the edge linking decision. Using the proposed algorithm, we can gain continuous and closed edges of oil slick IR aerial images, thereby confirming the location and acreage of oil spill. The experiment results have shown that the proposed method improves the degree of automation of edge detection, suppresses the striping noise, intensity inhomogeneity and weak edge boundaries effectively.

Abstract: We present an explicit difference scheme for a singular diffusion equation, which has a unique entropy solution. By establishing a series of estimates of the discrete solution, we prove the convergence of the discrete approximation to the BV solution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To define the role of phospholipase C (PLC) and phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI‐3K), signaling pathways in arachidonic acid (AA)‐stimulated respiratory burst in human neutrophils, the AA‐stimulated respiratory burst, Ins(1,4,5)P3production, PI‐3K activation, and cytoplasmic Ca2+mobilization were investigated. It was found that Ins(1,4,5)P3production and PI‐3K activity in AA‐stimulated cells were increased in a dose‐dependent manner. U73122, the PLC inhibitor, effectively inhibited the AA‐stimulated respiratory burst and Ca2+release from th intracellular calcium store but not the activity of PI‐3K, indicating the independence of PI‐3K signaling on PLC activation. Wortmannin, the PI‐3K inhibitor, at the concentration sufficient to inhibit PI‐3K activity, can only partially inhibit Ca2+release from the internal store, indicating a partial regulation of PLC signaling by PI‐3K and the existence of two pathways initiated by different PLC subfamilies. One is regulated by PI‐3K activation, and the other is independent of PI‐3K signaling. It was observed that AA could still induce a noncapacitative Ca2+entry in the cells when Ca2+release from the intracellular store was blocked by a PLC inhibitor, or a capacitative Ca2+entry was induced by preincubation with thapsigargin. However, the AA‐mediated, noncapacitative Ca2+entry seems to play a little, if any, role in the stimulated respiratory burst. The present study suggests that the PLC signaling pathway, which may be activated by PLCβand PLCγ, respectively, and the PI‐3K signaling pathway are involved in the AA‐stimulated respiratory burst in human neutrophil.

Objective This study was aimed to examine the factor structure and factorial invariance across gender of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-Chinese version (FMPS-CV).Methods The FMPS-CV was completed by 2451 undergraduates. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed to verify its factorial validity, and Multigroup CFA were performed to examine its factorial invariance across gender. Gender differences were compared on scores of FMPS-CV. The internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also detected. Clinical characteristics were compared between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists categorized by positive and negative scores of FMPS-CV.Results CFA supported the six-factor structure of FMPS-CV, and Multigroup CFA evidenced its factorial invariance across gender. No significant gender differences were found. The adaptive perfectionists scored significantly lower on clinical variables than maladaptive perfectionists. Moreover, the reliability indicators met the standards.Conclusions The good psychometrics properties of FMPS-CV supported it could be used to assess perfectionism in Chinese young adults.

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) (Berliner) strain LLP29 produces a crystal protein Cyt1Aa6 toxic to mosquito vectors of human diseases. However, the susceptibility of Culex quinquefasciatus (Say) in the current study was 8.25 times higher than that of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) with this single protein Cyt1Aa6 purified from LLP29. To understand the mechanism of the novel mosquitocidal protein, the binding characteristic of brush border membrane vesicles from the two tested mosquitoes was investigated. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay showed that Cyt1Aa6 bound to the two mosquitoes' brush border membrane vesicles. However, the titer of Ae. albopictus was a little higher than that of Cx. quinquefasciatus, with 3.21 and 2.91, respectively. Ligand Western blot analysis showed Cyt1Aa6 toxin specifically bound to the same three proteins (i.e., 68, 54, and 26 kDa) in the two mosquitoes, but one another protein, approximately to 37 kDa, could just be detected in Cx. quinquefasciatus. However, little difference was found in the test of immunohistochemistry. Cyt1Aa6 was detected in the midguts of both mosquitoes with histopathological changes. It would of great importance to the knowledge of the novel toxin against to Cx. quinquefasciatus and Ae. albopictus.

Accurate point matching is a crucial and challenging process in feature-based image registration, especially for images with a monotonous background, In this paper, we propose a robust point matching algorithm for image registration which integrates cyclic string matching method and a two decision criteria, i. e., the stability and accuracy of transformation error. In this algorithm, a filtering strategy is designed to eliminate dubious matches to get exactly matched point sets. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by registering two typical image pairs containing repetitive patterns. Compared with Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC), Graph Transformation Matching (GTM), the proposed algorithm obtains the highest precision and stability.