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The cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthase (cGAS)-stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway has a crucial role in combating pathogen infection. However, its aberrant activation is involved in several human disorders. Lysosomes are emerging as key negative regulators of cGAS-STING signaling. Here, we discuss the lysosomal control of cGAS-STING signaling and its implication in human disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study an on-line scheduling problem that is motivated by applications such as carpooling. The ride requests arrive on-line over-list and specify the service locations (among m locations). The goal is to determine a schedule that maximizes the number of satisfied requests using k servers. We consider two variants of the problem with respect to constraints on the service location: in the monotone service direction variant, the service locations of the requests assigned to a server must be monotonic; in the strict monotone service direction variant, the service locations must be strictly monotonic. We present lower bounds on the competitive ratio for both variants. For the monotone service direction variant, we give an optimal straightforward algorithm if k ≥ m and we prove that no deterministic on-line algorithm can achieve a constant competitive ratio if k < m. For the strict monotone service direction variant, we give a lower bound max ⁡ { 2 (m − 1) m , 1 } on the competitive ratio of barely deterministic algorithms if k > 2 , and a lower bound of max ⁡ { m 2 , 1 } if k ≤ 2. We propose a Balanced Interval Algorithm for the strict monotone service direction variant if k > 2 and report some numerical experiments to evaluate the efficiency of this algorithm. • We introduce two on-line algorithm problems with monotone service direction constraints which are applied for carpooling system. • We discuss the lower bounds and upper bounds of these two problems. • We propose a balanced interval algorithm and measure the algorithm performance with numerical experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water renewal through the Bohai Strait largely dominates the water quality of the semi-enclosed Bohai Sea (BS), which connects only to the northern Yellow Sea (NYS) through the strait. Although the peak water transport through the Bohai Strait occurs in summer, the spatially averaged water residence time of the BS shows no significant decrease compared to other periods. A three-dimensional model is applied to unravel the detailed structure and dynamic processes of the summertime NYS water transport from the northern Laotieshan Channel to the BS interior. Model results from both climatological and hindcasting cases show that despite a large amount of the NYS water enters the strait, they are confined to the Laotieshan Channel between the Central Bank and Dalian surrounded by a strong Ω-shaped tidal front and could not move further north into the Liaodong Bay. The strong along-front flow steered by the topography forms a counter-clockwise circulation pattern in the strait zone, resulting in most of water southward movement east of the Central Bank, then join the outflow south of the strait and leave for the NYS. The Central Bank and the topographic sill north of the Laotieshan Channel act as a barrier that significantly reduces the water exchange between the strait zone and the BS interior, in particular the Liaodong Bay. Particle-tracking experiments suggest that less than 10% of particles released in the NYS could finally reach the BS interior, and among of them only a small portion of them could move further north into the Liaodong Bay. Momentum diagnostics suggest that the water transport northwest of the strait is dominated by geostrophic balance in the Ω-shaped frontal region. Sensitivity experiments indicate that tides promote the surface water transport from the NYS to the BS interior. The realistic wind forcing including synoptic events may facilitate the water transport from the strait to the BS interior by modulating the barotropic and baroclinic pressure gradient than that with the climatological wind case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a set of n points, which is a unit set of m colored sets, we study the minimum circle to cover one of each colored set at least. In this paper, we study some problems of optimizing some properties of color-spanning set. Firstly, we show a way to find a color-spanning set for each point and constitute a union of color-spanning sets without FCVD (The Farthest Color Voronoi Diagram). The approach to find each color-spanning set is based on the nearest neighbor points which have different colors. For every color-spanning set, we can find a enclosing circle to cover all points of each color-spanning set, which is a good approximate for MDCS (The Minimum Diameter Color-Spanning Set) problem. We propose an approximation algorithm for the SECSC (The Smallest Color-Spanning Circle) problem with 2-factor approximation result. For | P | = n and | Q | = m , the worst running time of our algorithm is O ( n 2 ) . Although these results are not as good as previous results with FCVD, the performance of our algorithms in R d is much better than others. Moreover, an approximation algorithm can solve problem of minimum perimeter of the color-spanning set faster with time of O ( n 2 + n m log ⁡ n ) and ratio 6 . This result improved the ratio with only a little cost of time complexity. At last, we give an example for the 2-center SECSC problem. A fast computation of 2-center enclosing circle is proposed with time of O ( n 2 ) , but the ratio depends on the gap between the nearest distinct colored distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atrazine is a widely-applied herbicide used primarily to control weeds, which can persist in the ecosystem and exert potential toxicity to phytoplankton in the aquatic environment. In this study, acute toxicity of atrazine on microalgae Chlorella sp. was investigated with different initial cell densities (1 × 105 and 1 × 106 cells mL−1) and exposure periods (4 d and 8 d). Both growth rate and photosynthetic parameters of the microalgae in response of atrazine stress were determined to find out the sensitive indices and toxicological mechanisms. Because of the independence of initial cell density as well as the high sensitivity and reliability, the performance index PI ABS was verified as the most convincing photosynthetic parameter for indicating IC 50 of atrazine on Chlorella sp., being superior to the traditional parameters of growth rate and F V / F M. The IP amplitude (Δ F IP , fluorescence amplitude of the I-to-P-rise in the OJIP curve) was another sensitive biomarker to reflect atrazine stress. Results from chlorophyll fluorescence transient revealed that atrazine damaged the photosystem II (PS II) reaction center, suppressed the electron transport at the donor and receptor sides, and acted on the absorption, transfer, and utilization of light energy. Our results provide confirmatory references for understanding the toxicity and mechanisms of atrazine on freshwater microalgae. Image 1081 • Atrazine IC 50 was calculated and compared with different photosynthetic indices. • IC 50 assessed by PI ABS is the most sensitive indicator for atrazine toxicity. • The variation of PI ABS was independent of cell number (i.e. biomass). • Δ F IP was sensitive to reflect the atrazine stress. • Atrazine toxicity lies in obstruction of light absorption and electron transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Letting P be a set of n points in the plane, the discrete minimax 2-center problem (D M M 2 C P) is to find two disks centered at { p 1 , p 2 } ∈ P that minimize the maximum of two terms, namely, the Euclidean distance between two centers and the distance of any other point to the closer center. The mixed minimax 2-center problem (M M M 2 C P) is when one of the two centers is not in P. We present algorithms solving the D M M 2 C P and M M M 2 C P. The time complexities of solving the D M M 2 C P and M M M 2 C P are O (n 2 log ⁡ n) and O (n 2 log 2 ⁡ n) respectively. Furthermore, we consider two Steiner minimum sum dipolar spanning tree problems, in which one of the two dipoles is a Steiner point and the dipoles are both Steiner points. These two problems are shown to be solvable in O (n log ⁡ n) and O (n) time respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The consistency measure is a vital basis for group decision making (GDM) based on fuzzy preference relations, and includes two subproblems: individual consistency and consensus consistency. This paper proposes linear optimization models for solving some issues on consistency of fuzzy preference relations, such as individual consistency construction, consensus model and management of incomplete fuzzy preference relations. Our proposal optimally preserves original preference information in constructing individual consistency and reaching consensus (in Manhattan distance sense), and maximizes the consistency level of fuzzy preference relations in calculating the missing values of incomplete fuzzy preference relations. Linear optimization models can be solved in very little computational time using readily available softwares. Therefore, the results in this paper are also of simplicity and convenience for the application of consistent fuzzy preference relations in GDM problems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Carbon nanotubes promoted algal growth and photosynthetic efficiency. • Carbon nanotube exposure alleviated the adverse effects of heavy metal toxicity. • Carbon nanotubes inhibited heavy metal accumulation in Scenedesmus obliquus. • Effects of carbon nanotubes varied depending on the heavy metal and exposure period. Due to their unique structure and properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) released into the aquatic environment can potentially influence the behavior of other coexisting pollutants, thereby altering their toxicity to aquatic organisms. In this study, the toxicities of multi-walled CNTs and three heavy metals, copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) were determined individually. Following this, CNTs with low concentrations (1 and 5 mg/L) were co-exposed with Cu, Cd or Zn to the microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus , to investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of CNTs on metal toxicity. Results showed that CNTs, especially at a concentration of 5 mg/L, promoted algae growth and enhanced photosynthetic efficiency via increasing exciton trap efficiency and quantum yield for electron transport. Introduction of CNTs appeared to alleviate the adverse effects of Cu, Cd or Zn on microalgae, indicated by algae growth, total chlorophyll content and photosynthetic indices. However, these effects differed greatly for different metals, depending on both the toxicity of each metal and the exposure period (4 day and 8 day). Enhancement of photosynthesis and interference of metal uptake by CNTs, have a crucial role in the effects of CNTs on metal toxicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the NP-hard m - parallel two-stage flowshop problem, abbreviated as the ( m , 2 ) -PFS problem, where we need to schedule n jobs to m parallel identical two-stage flowshops in order to minimize the makespan, i.e. the maximum completion time of all the jobs on the m flowshops. The ( m , 2 ) -PFS problem can be decomposed into two subproblems: to assign the n jobs to the m parallel flowshops, and for each flowshop to schedule the jobs assigned to the flowshop. We first present a pseudo-polynomial time dynamic programming algorithm to solve the ( m , 2 ) -PFS problem optimally, for any fixed m , based on an earlier idea for solving the ( 2 , 2 ) -PFS problem. Using the dynamic programming algorithm as a subroutine, we design a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) for the ( m , 2 ) -PFS problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]