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A rapid reaction occurs near the exhaust nozzle when vehicle emissions contact the air. Twenty diesel vehicles were studied using a new multipoint sampling system that is suitable for studying the exhaust plume near the exhaust nozzle. The variation characteristics of fine particle matter (PM2.5) and its components in diesel vehicle exhaust plumes were analyzed. The PM2.5 emissions gradually increased with increasing distance from the nozzle in the plume. Elemental carbon emissions remained basically unchanged, organic carbon and total carbon (TC) increased with increasing distance. The concentrations of SO42-, NO3- and NH4+ (SNA) directly emitted by the vehicles were very low but increased rapidly in the exhaust plume. The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) reduced 42.7% TC, 40% NO3- emissions, but increased 104% SO42- and 36% NH4+ emissions, respectively. In summary, the SCR reduced 29% primary PM2.5 emissions for the tested diesel vehicles. The NH4NO3 particle formation maybe more important in the plume, and there maybe other forms of formation of NH4+ (eg. NH4Cl). The generation of secondary organic carbon (SOC) plays a leading role in the generation of secondary PM2.5. The SCR enhanced the formation of SOC and SNA in the plume, but comprehensive analysis shows that the SCR more enhanced the SNA formation in the plume, which is mainly new particles formation process. The inconsistency between secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and primary organic aerosol definitions is one of the important reasons for the difference between SOA simulation and observation.

Low temperature and drought stress are the major constraints in rice productivity worldwide. This study investigated the influence of low soil temperature and/or drought stress on physiology and pollen traits of two rice genotypes viz., Guinongzhan and Yueza 763 at flowering stage. The experiment included four treatments, i.e., under the greenhouse natural growth conditions (UC) taken as control, drought stress (DS), the soil water potential was kept at −0.035 to −0.045 MPa (DS), low soil temperature (LT) maintained at 19 to 21°C, combined LT and DS (LT+DS, LD). Results showed that LT, DS, and LD substantially reduced net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and the maximal photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), whilst transpiration rate (Tr) was markedly enhanced by under LT in both rice genotypes. The malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were enhanced under LT, DS, and LD in Guinongzhan, whilst the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) were regulated by LT, DS, and LD in both rice genotypes. Furthermore, anther dehiscence rate, pollen numbers on stigma, pollen viability and pollen germination rate, and anther starch contents were obviously reduced under LT and DS of both rice genotypes. Stress conditions substantially reduced the yield and yield components, i.e., effective panicles, seed set percentage, grain/panicles, 1000-grain weight, and grain yield of both genotypes and the effects were more apparent in Guinongzhan than those in Yueza 763 whilst combined LT and DS proved more damaging than individual stress.

In this paper, a general reaction–diffusive predator–prey system with prey-taxis subject to the homogeneous Neumann boundary condition is considered. Firstly, we investigate the local stability of the unique positive equilibrium by analyzing the characteristic equation and study a priori estimates of positive solutions by the iterative technique. And then, choosing the prey-tactic sensitivity coefficient as bifurcation parameter, we proved that a branch of nonconstant solutions can bifurcate from the unique positive equilibrium when the prey-tactic sensitivity is repulsive. Moreover, we find the stable bifurcating solutions near the bifurcation point by the spectrum theory under some suitable conditions. Our results show that prey-taxis can destabilize the uniform equilibrium and yields the occurrence of spatial patterns.

Nitrogen (N) is a critical element for plant growth and productivity that influences photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence. We investigated the effect of low-N stress on leaf photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics of maize cultivars with difference in tolerance to low N levels. The low-N tolerant cultivar ZH311 and low-N sensitive cultivar XY508 were used as the test materials. A field experiment (with three N levels: N0, 0 kg ha−1; N1, 150 kg ha−1; N2, 300 kg ha−1) in Jiyanyang, Sichuan Province, China, and a hydroponic experiment (with two N levels: CK, 4 mmol L−1; LN, 0.04 mmol L−1) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China were conducted. Low-N stress significantly decreased chlorophyll content and rapid light response curves of the maximum fluorescence under light (Fm'), fluorescence instable state (Fs), non-photochemical quenching (qN), the maximum efficiency of PSII photochemistry under dark-adaption (Fv/Fm), potential activity of PSII (Fv/Fo), and actual photochemical efficiency of PSII (ΦPSII) of leaves. Further, it increased the chlorophyll (Chl) a/Chl b values and so on. The light compensation point of ZH311 decreased, while that of XY508 increased. The degree of variation of these indices in low-N tolerant cultivars was lower than that in low-N sensitive cultivars, especially at the seedling stage. Maize could increase Chl a/Chl b, apparent quantum yield and light saturation point to adapt to N stress. Compared to low-N sensitive cultivars, low-N tolerant cultivars maintained a higher net photosynthetic rate and electron transport rate to maintain stronger PSII activity, which further promoted the ability to harvest and transfer light. This might be a photosynthetic mechanism by which low-N tolerant cultivar adapt to low-N stress.

This study aimed to prove the hypothesis that neurolysis based on ethanol injection in combination with iodine-125 (Twenty female rabbits (mean weight, 2.8 kg ± 0.2) were randomly assigned to group A (neurolysis of the left brachial plexus nerve based on ethanol injection in combination withThe overall postprocedural amplitude was significantly lower in group A than in group B (P = .01), particularly in the second month after the procedure (P = .036). However, no statistical difference in latency was observed between the 2 groups (P = .103). Histopathological examination of both groups revealed Sunderland third-degree peripheral nerve injury (PNI), which was mainly characterized by axonal disintegration. The degree of nerve regeneration was significantly lower in group A than in group B.Neurolysis based on ethanol injection in combination with

MMP-2/MMP-8 is established as one of the most important metalloenzymes for targeting cancer. A series of dihydropyrazothiazole derivatives (E1 – E18 ) bearing a salicylaldehyde group linked to Pyrazole ring were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their pharmacological activity as MMP-2/MMP-8 inhibitors. Among them, compound E17 exhibited most potent inhibitory activity (IC 50 = 2.80 μM for MMP-2 and IC 50 = 5.6 μM for MMP-8), compared to the positive drug CMT-1 (IC 50 = 1.29 μM). Compounds ( E1 – E18 ) were scrutinized by CoMFA and CoMSIA techniques of Three-dimensional quant. structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR), as well as a docking simulation. Moreover, treatment with compound E4 could induce MCF-7 cell apoptosis. Overall, the biological profile of E1 – E18 may provide a research basis for the development of new agents against cancer.

High demand for tea has driven the expansion of tea plantations in the tropical and subtropical regions over the past few decades. Tea plant cultivation promotes economic development and creates job opportunities, but tea plantation expansion has significant impacts on biodiversity, carbon and water cycles, and ecosystem services. Mapping the spatial distribution and extent of tea plantations in a timely fashion is crucial for land use management and policy making. In this study, we mapped tea plantation expansion in Menghai County, Yunnan Province, China. We analyzed the structure and features of major land cover types in this tropical and subtropical region using (1) the HH and HV gamma-naught imagery from the Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) and (2) time series Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI imagery. Tea plantation maps for 2010 and 2015 were generated using the pixel-based support vector machine (SVM) approach at 30 m resolution, which had high user/producer accuracies of 83.58%/91.67% and 87.50%/90.83%, respectively. The resultant maps show that tea plantation area increased by 33.56% (∼9335 ha), from ∼27,817 ha in 2010 to ∼37,152 ha in 2015. The additional tea plantation area was mainly converted from forest (32.50%) and cropland (67.50%). The results showed that the combination of PALSAR and optical data performed better in tea plantation mapping than using optical data only. This study provides a promising new approach to identify and map tea plantations in complex tropical landscapes at high spatial resolution.

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the regulation mechanism of HOTAIR on nucleus pulposus cell (NPC) apoptosis induced by inflammatory cytokines. Methods QRT-PCR was performed to analyze the expression of HOTAIR and miR-34a. Safranin O staining and immunohistochemical staining were measured to identify NPCs. ELISA assay was used to detect TNF-α level. Apoptosis was detected with TUNEL assay. Western blotting was measured to analyze the expression of caspase-3, Bax and Bcl-2. TargetScan was used to predict potential targets of miR-34a. Results HOTAIR was significantly low-expressed in degenerative nucleus pulposus (NP) tissues and cells of IDD patients, overexpressing HOTAIR obviously inhibited TNF-α level, NPCs apoptosis and the expression of caspase-3 and Bax, while promoted the expression of Bcl-2. MiR-34a was obviously expressed in degenerative NP tissues and cells of IDD patients. HOTAIR reduced miR-34a induced apoptosis. Apoptotic inhibition gene Bcl-2 is the target gene of miR-34a, and showed a negative relationship with miR-34a. Conclusion Our data suggest that lncRNA HOTAIR suppresses TNF-α induced NPCs apoptosis by regulating miR-34a/Bcl-2 axis in IDD patients.

Objective We sought to describe a novel modified guidewire technique used in the placement of percutaneous pedicle screws (PPSs), which enables safe and precise control of the depth of screw placement and prevents excessive advancement of the guidewire with low radiation exposure. PPSs have been widely used and have many advantages. However, inadvertent advancement of the guidewire may damage peripheral tissue or viscera, and repeated confirmation of the depth of screw and guidewire leads to extensive radiation exposure. Methods A modified guidewire with markers was used intraoperatively. The reading of the mark on the guidewire increased as the PPS advanced into the pedicle. The depth of the screw in the pedicle was calculated as the mark reading after each screw was rotated into the pedicle minus the initial mark reading. After all pedicle screws were placed, the positions of the screws were checked by C-arm or G-arm fluoroscopy. Results The modified guidewire was applied in 41 thoracic-lumbar fracture patients. The depths of the percutaneous screws were precisely controlled as planned. There were no inadvertent breaches of the anterior cortices of the vertebrae. No patients reported neurologic symptoms, and there was no screw misplacement detected. Surgeons had no radiation exposure, and patients were only exposed once to the radiation. Conclusions The modified guidewire with markers is an effective device to precisely control the depth of PPSs and prevent complications of the guidewire in the placement of pedicle screws.

Gene set enrichment (GSE) analyses play an important role in the interpretation of large-scale transcriptome datasets. Multiple GSE tools can be integrated into a single method as obtaining optimal results is challenging due to the plethora of GSE tools and their discrepant performances. Several existing ensemble methods lead to different scores in sorting pathways as integrated results; furthermore, it is difficult for users to choose a single ensemble score to obtain optimal final results. Here, we develop an ensemble method using a machine learning approach called Combined Gene set analysis incorporating Prioritization and Sensitivity (CGPS) that integrates the results provided by nine prominent GSE tools into a single ensemble score (R score) to sort pathways as integrated results. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, CGPS is the first GSE ensemble method built based on a priori knowledge of pathways and phenotypes. Compared with 10 widely used individual methods and five types of ensemble scores from two ensemble methods, we demonstrate that sorting pathways based on the R score can better prioritize relevant pathways, as established by an evaluation of 120 simulated datasets and 45 real datasets. Additionally, CGPS is applied to expression data involving the drug panobinostat, which is an anticancer treatment against multiple myeloma. The results identify cell processes associated with cancer, such as the p53 signaling pathway (hsa04115); by contrast, according to two ensemble methods (EnrichmentBrowser and EGSEA), this pathway has a rank higher than 20, which may cause users to miss the pathway in their analyses. We show that this method, which is based on a priori knowledge, can capture valuable biological information from numerous types of gene set collections, such as KEGG pathways, GO terms, Reactome, and BioCarta. CGPS is publicly available as a standalone source code at ftp://ftp.cbi.pku.edu.cn/pub/CGPS_download/cgps-1.0.0.tar.gz.

Synthetic micro- and nanorobots have attracted considerable attentions for their potential applications in environment, biomedicine and microengineering. In this review, we summarize the recent works on micro/nanorobots based sensing and biosensing according to different mechanisms: motion based sensing, electrochemical sensing with micro/nanorobots and fluorescent, electrochemiluminescent, colorimetric sensing with micro/nanorobots. Micro/nanorobots offer a convenient and active detection for nucleic acid, protein, glucose, heavy metal ions, etc. in solution and surrounding atmosphere. Furthermore, the detection sensitivity and efficiency has been significantly improved due to the stirring in solution by the motion of micro/nanorobots.

A series of comb-like polymeric phase change materials, composed of poly(ethylene-graft-maleic anhydride)-g-octadecanol (EMC18) and octadecylamine-functionalized graphene oxide (GO-C18) and graphene oxide (GO), denoted as EMC18@GO-C18 and EMC18@GO, respectively, have been prepared through a solution mixing method. The structure, thermal performance, energy storage and release capability, cycle stability are deeply characterized. Shape-stability for EMC18@GO-C18 and EMC18@GO shows a bigger improvement than that of bulk EMC18 because of the framework role of 2D GO nanosheets. At 160 °C, no liquid leakage appears in EMC18@GO-C18, exhibiting a superior shape stabilization temperature to EMC18@GO, which is contributed by its enhanced interfacial compatibility from the introduced octadecyl side chains. Thermal performance shows a highly dependence upon the content of GO or GO-C18 nanofillers, and the thermal cycling stability reaches 500 times. Four thermal cycles are well repeated for the fabric coated by EMC18@GO-C18-2%, and no energy efficiency loses. The maximum temperature difference and thermal buffering time is −15 °C and 375 s at 70 °C working temperature. Good structure stabilization and thermal performance of EMC18 doped by GO-C18 offers a chance to approach the high-efficient thermal energy storage materials.

This paper presents an underspecification account of type mismatch in English and Mandarin Chinese ‘BEFORE/AFTER’+non-event-complement (NEC) constructions, with a view to uncovering the mechanisms underlying the semantic well-formedness of type mismatch in surface structure. As this construction is used to locate an event on the time axis, it requires a point of time complement. The study finds that when the complement slot, which is typically filled by a telic event or a time phrase, is filled by NECs (artifact nouns, proper nouns, kin terms, pronominals or number-classifiers), the construction will coerce the NECs into telic events from which a point in time could be derived; and in that meaning enrichment process, the NECs are semantically underspecified. The research suggests that type coercion does not solely operate at the level of lexical semantics in that many cases of type coercion are more conventionalized and more contextualized than lexical. Therefore, other factors such as world knowledge, linguistic context and conventionality have to be taken into consideration in order to get an adequate account of the phenomenon. Based on the mechanisms uncovered, the paper makes a formal description of the syntactic process in which type coercion works, and builds a usage-based hierarchy of proneness to type coercion for English and Mandarin NECs.

Backgrounds Evidence for the effects of temperature variability on risk of congenital anomalies is lacking. We aimed to examine the association of temperature variability during fetal organogenesis period (weeks 3-8 post-conception) with major congenital anomalies. Methods A retrospective cohort study comprising 4,787,356 singleton live-births and stillbirths in China was performed. We defined two temperature variability indices within gestational week i: the standard deviation (SD) of daily temperature (TVSDi) and the maximum day-to-day temperature difference (TVDi). At 6-week long timescales, we computed the SD of daily temperature (TVSD3-8) and the average value of TVDi (TVD3-8). We matched two temperature variability indices, pollutant exposure levels over entire exposure window and data of each mother-infant pairs. An extended generalized estimating equation log-binomial regression model was constructed to explore their associations after adjusting for individual characters, temperature extremes and air pollutants. Stratified and sensitivity analyses were also performed. Results 59,571 neonates were registered as major congenital anomalies besides genetic and chromosomal anomalies. At weekly levels, the highest risk estimates of two temperature variability indices occurred at the 5th week for most anomaly groups. All TVSD5, TVD5, and maximum weekly TVSD and TVD were significantly associated with all anomaly groups; with the increment of 1 °C, the estimated risk ratio (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) ranges from 1.03 (1.01-1.05) to 1.19 (1.08-1.31). At 6-week scales, TVSD3-8 and TVD3-8 were associated with most anomaly subgroups. Overall, the strongest associations were estimated for isolated defects among morphology subgroups and cardiac defects among type subgroups. Conclusions Exposure to temperature variability during fetal organogenesis period of pregnancy is associated with increased risk of major congenital defects. Our findings provide a research foundation for public health policies, and further mechanism investigation.

Ischemic stroke (IS) is a disease caused by deficiency of blood and oxygen in focal or complete brain, followed by inflammation cascade and other pathological reactions, which finally lead to irreversible damage to the cerebrum. For the inflammation is a key progress at the initiation of ischemia and poststroke, and chemokines work as vital cytokines in inflammation, we focus the roles of chemokines in IS. Studies have shown cerebral ischemia is associated with marked induction of both CXC and CC chemokines which resulting in extensive leukocyte infiltration in the ischemic brain, and neutrophil infiltration may increase cerebral edema inducing injury in the ischemic area. In addition, chemokines also shows other functions such as promote neuroblast migration, hematogenous cell recruitment and functional brain repair. Thus, a similar chemokine ligand/chemokine receptor pair can mediate both beneficial and detrimental effects depending on the window of observation and pathophysiological conditions. This manuscript reviews the studies about chemokine-mediated effects in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion and discusses the potential significance of these interactions in injury and repair of ischemic tissues. We also refer drug development based on the chemokines and clinical applications using chemokines as diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers in ischemic stroke.

This study used a chemical transport model to investigate the response of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA) to chemical processes and its precursor emissions over northern and southern city-clusters of China in January 2014. Unexpectedly, SIA concentrations with low levels of precursor emissions were much higher over the southern regions than those over the northern region with high levels of precursor emissions, based on ground observations and high-precision simulations. The sensitivity analysis of chemical processes suggests that the gas-phase chemistry was a critical factor determining the SIA pattern, especially the higher efficiency of nitrogen conversion to nitrate in southern cities controlled by favorable meteorological elements than that in northern city. However, the heterogeneous process led to the decrease of SIA in southern regions by 3% to 36% and the increasing of SIA in NCP by 26.9%, mainly attributing to the impact on nitrate. The reason was that sulfate enhancement by the heterogeneous reactions can compete ammonia (NH3) and the excessive nitric acid converted into nitrogen oxide (NOx), leading to nitrate decrease in southern regions under NH3-deficient regimes. Moreover, through sensitivity experiments of precursor emission reduction by 20%, NH3 control was found to be the most effective for reducing SIA concentrations comparing to sulfur dioxide (SO2) and NOx reduction and a more remarkable decrease of SIA was in southern regions by 10% to 15% than that in northern region by 6.7%. The effect of the synergy control of precursors emission varied in different city-clusters, inferring that the control strategy aimed at improving air quality should be implemented based on specific characteristics of precursors emission in different regions of China.

The simulated experiment of A. parasiticus isolated from the paddy was carried out during the paddy storage for 20 days. The growth and mycotoxin data were collected for constructing kinetic and probability models of moulds. The Baranyi and Gompertz model was employed as the primary model and estimated the lag phase and maximum specific growth rate. Secondary models, such as polynomial, Davey and Gibson model were used and completely evaluated under different conditions. The polynomial equation was highly rated compared with Gibson and Davey model and gave realistic temperatures and aw for mould growth. Logistic model showed promising results on the prediction of growth boundary and AFB1 production. Employed models showed promising predicted results, indicating that it is an effective tool for describing and predicting the growth of moulds under different temperatures and aw. The results can be applied to develop the optimal strategy to prevent fungal spoilage and aflatoxin production during paddy storage.

Let $K$ be a self-similar set satisfying the open set condition. Following Kaimanovich's elegant idea, it has been proved that on the symbolic space $X$ of $K$ a natural augmented tree structure ${\mathfrak E}$ exists; it is hyperbolic, and the hyperbolic boundary $\partial_HX$ with the Gromov metric is H\"older equivalent to $K$. In this paper we consider certain reversible random walks with return ratio $0< \lambda, Comment: 33 pages with 2 figures

Asymmetric warming and frequent temperature extremes are the consequences of climate change that are affecting crop growth and productivity over the globe while heat stress at early filling stage is of serious concern for the early-season rice in double cropping rice system of South China. In present study we assessed different short-term water management strategies to cope with the high temperature at early filling stage in rice. Water was applied as flood irrigation at two various depths i.e., 4–5 cm (I1) and 5–10 cm (I2) during 9:00–18:00 and then drained off at 18:00 as well as applied over-head during different time spans i.e., over-head sprinkle irrigation during 11:00–12:00, 13:00–14:00 and 14:00–15:00 at 60–80% relative humidity (RH) at early filling stage and regarded as S1, S2 and S3, respectively. A control was maintained with the maintenance of 1 cm water layer as normal farmer practice of this region. A fragrant rice cultivar, ‘Yuxiangyouzhan’ in early March (regarded as early season rice) in both 2014–15 and the effectiveness of different water management strategies were measured by estimating physio-biochemical responses, photosynthesis, yield and quality of rice exposed to high temperature stress at early filling stage. Our results showed that water treatments lowered lipid peroxidation (in terms of reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) contents) whilst proline and protein contents were affected differently. The water treatments also regulated the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), nevertheless, improved plant photosynthesis and gas exchange, rice yield and quality attributes considerably by lowering severity of canopy temperatures than control (CK). On average, both flood and sprinkler water application were proved effective against high temperature stress, nonetheless, flood irrigated treatments were remained more effective than sprinkler which provided 26.58 and 43.63% higher grain yields in 2014–15, respectively than CK. On average, 5.58 and 11.92% higher grain yields were recorded in flood irrigation than sprinkler irrigation whereas among individual water application treatments, I1 was noted as the most effective regarding grain yield of rice (26.76 and 49.35% higher yield than CK) in both years which suggests that maintenance of 4–5 cm water layer might be helpful for the rice to withstand against high temperature stress at post heading and/or early filling stage in early-season rice production in South China.

To assess the effect of saxagliptin monotherapy on blood glucose and islet β-cell function in obese patients with newly diagnosed pre-diabetes and abnormal fat metabolism.A 24-week, randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 25 obese subjects with impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (mean age 45years) to receive lifestyle intervention only (control group) or combined with saxagliptin 2.5mg or 5mg daily (S2.5 or S5 group), metformin 1500mg daily (Met group). Anthropometrics, body fat and biochemical parameters were measured before and after 4, 12 and 24weeks intervention.S5 group and Met group showed a significant decrease in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and HbA1c compared with the control group (all P0.05) after 24-week intervention. However, the decrease in 2h postprandial plasma glucose levels (2hPPG) in S5 group were greater compared with control group (P0.01). Insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was reduced in S5 group, Met group and control group (P0.05), and the β-cell function (HOMA-β) was improved in all groups (P0.05). However, the changes in obesity-related indicators including waist circumference, hip circumference, weight, BMI, body fat, percentage of body fat and waist-to-hip fat ratio were greate in Met group (all P0.05) compared with other groups (P0.05).Saxagliptin monotherapy may prevent or delay the progression of IGT or IFG to type 2 diabetes mellitus in obese patients with newly diagnosed pre-diabetes. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01960205.

The catalytic performances of Cu-Zn/SiO2 with different Zn content and promoter on C3H6 epoxidation were investigated. Zn species was in favour of the formation of propylene oxide (PO), and PO selectivity was further increased after Cu-Zn/SiO2 was modified by Na+. The promotive effect of Na+ on C3H6 epoxidation activity was much superior to that of Cl−. The PO formation rate on Cu92Zn8/SiO2-Na2CO3 was nearly as high as 50 times that on Cu/SiO2. Zn and Na+ could synergistically promote the reduction of Cu2+ to Cu+ species. The variation tendencies between C3H6 epoxidation activity and Cu+ content were in good agreement with each other. The role of Zn and Na+ was to enhance the Cu+ content via promoting the reduction of Cu2+ to Cu+ induced by Zn and Na+. Cu+ species played a vital role in PO formation and Cu+ may be the active site for C3H6 epoxidation reaction by O2.

An efficient Selectfluor-oxidative protocol was developed for the direct C2-arylacylation of 2H-benzothiazoles via the radical reaction of 2H-benzothiazoles with methyl arenes. Selectfluor can effectively promote the oxidative cross-coupling without an external catalyst. This arylacylation reaction tolerates a wide range of functional groups affording 28 examples of the arylacylated products in 39–81% yield.

Precision farming aims to optimizing the crop production process and managing sustainable supply chain practices as more efficient and reasonable as possible. Recently, various advanced technologies, such as deep-learning and internet of things (IoT), have achieved remarkable intelligence progress in realistic agricultural conditions. However, crops species recognition can be considered as fine-grained visual classification (FGVC) problem, suffering the low inter-class discrepancy and high intra-class variances from the subordinate categories, which is more challenging than common basic-level category classification depended on traditional deep neural networks (DNNs). This paper presents a fine-grained visual recognition model named as MCF-Net to classifying different crop species in practical farmland scenes. Proposed MCF-Net is consisted of cross stage partial network (CSPNet) as backbone module, three parallel sub-networks, and cross-level fusion module. With multi-stream hybrid architecture utilizing massive fine-granulometric information, MCF-Net obtains preferable representation ability for distinguishing interclass discrepancy and tolerating intra-class variances. In addition, the end-to-end implementation of MCF-Net is optimized by cross-level fusion strategy to accurately identify different crop categories. Several experiments on in-field CropDeepv2 datasets demonstrate that our method favorably against the state-of-the-art methods. The recognition accuracy and F1-score of MCF-Net achieves very competitive results up to 90.6% and 0.962 separately, both of which outperforming contrasted models indicate better recognition accuracy and model stability of our method. Moreover, the overall parameters of MCF-Net are only 807 MByte with achieving a good balance between model’s performance and complexity. It is acceptable and suitable to the implementation of IoT platforms in precision agricultural practices.

This paper delves into the evolution of “manner-of-speaking markers” (MSMs for short) and observes the way in which grammaticalization, pragmaticalization and lexicalization interact in such evolution. It finds that the development of the markers is accompanied by changes in their syntactic behavior, semantic property and pragmatic function, and the changes are brought about by the interaction among the three processes. The study also finds that grammaticalization and lexicalization peculiar to MSMs are driven by pragmatic considerations, hence pragmatically motivated. A comparison between English and Chinese MSMs in lexicalization shows that morphological typology plays an important role in the lexicalization of MSMs.

Disruption of blood-brain barrier (BBB) and subsequent edema are major contributors to the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke, and the current clinical therapy remains unsatisfied. Chemokine-like factor 1 (CKLF1), as a novel C-C chemokine, plays important roles in immune response. The expression of CKLF1 increased after focal cerebral ischemia and inhibition of CKLF1 activity showed neuroprotective effect by alleviating infiltration of neutrophil and neuron apoptosis in cerebral ischemia. However, few studies have focused on the role of CKLF1 on BBB integrity. The objective of present study was to investigate the role of CKLF1 on BBB integrity by applying anti-CKLF1 antibodies in rat focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion model. Brain water content, Evans blue leakage and the expression of aquaporin-4 (AQP-4), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), Zonula Occludens-1 (ZO-1) and Occludin were measured. After treatment with anti-CKLF1 antibody, brain water content and Evans blue leakage in ipsilateral hemisphere were decreased in a dose-dependent manner at 24h after reperfusion, but not changed in contralateral hemisphere. Anti-CKLF1 antibody reduced the expression of AQP-4 and MMP-9, and upregulated the expression of ZO-1 and Occludin. These results suggest that CKLF1 is involved in BBB disruption after reperfusion. Inhibition of CKLF1 protects against cerebral ischemia by maintaining BBB integrity, possibly via inhibiting the expression of AQP-4 and MMP-9, and increasing the expression of tight junction protein.

Shape stability and thermal performance of composite shape-stabilized phase change materials (SSPCMs) composed of poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride)-g-octadecanol (SMAC18) comb-like polymer and graphene oxide (GO) nanoplatelets are studied under various GO contents. Thanks to the adsorption and protection of GO layered structure, SMAC18/GO SSPCMs exhibit a good phase change characteristics and shape-stabilized performance. At a higher temperature, 160 °C, which is far above the melting temperature of SMAC18, a stable appearance is revealed, and the thermal stability of SMAC18/GO shows a linear enhancement with GO contents, demonstrating the good thermal barrier effect from GO nanofillers. Thermal energy storage efficiency and thermal reliability after 500 thermal cycles are well proved, and the thermal buffer time is similar to that of SMAC18, indicating that GO nanoplatelets have a slightly effect on the heat-storage and release behavior during the phase change process. The combined physical adsorption and hydrogen bonding between GO and SMA matrix contributes the enhanced shape-stability and thermal performance of SMAC18/GO SSPCMs, offering a future perspective for energy storage applications.

The prediction of time series can help the advanced estimation and management for scientific decision-making in many fields. The non-stationary trend and complex noises make the time series hard to predict. To utilize the learning ability of the deep neural networks, a novel hybrid prediction method is proposed combining data decomposition and parallel deep network. First, the original time series data are divided into multiple groups with a self-defined method for the following parallel networks. Then, each group of data is decomposed into the period, trend, and residual components for the precise feature extraction. Each component is separately trained with a deep network, and the networks are selected to form the parallel prediction model. Finally, the covariance intersection fusion method is introduced to integrate the multiple results based on the estimation of error level. The proposed method is tested on the meteorological data and air pollutant data in Beijing. The method achieves optimal results than the single deep network and traditional integration method. The parallel deep prediction model with the covariance intersection can extract the time series features more integrally and subtly. And it can effectively predict the non-stationary time series with complex noises.

Purpose In this study, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the anatomical alterations of cerebral cortex in children with Tourette syndrome (TS) and explore whether such deficits were related with their clinical symptoms. Methods All subjects were scanned in a 3.0T MRI scanner with three-dimensional T1-weighted images (3DT1WI). Then, some surface-based features were extracted by using the FreeSurfer software. After that, the between-group differences of those features were assessed. Results Sixty TS patients and 52 age- and gender-matched healthy control were included in this study. Surface-based analyses revealed altered cortical thickness, cortical sulcus, cortical curvature and local gyrification index (LGI) in TS group compared with healthy controls. The brain regions with significant-group differences in cortical thickness included postcentral gyrus, superiorparietal gyrus, rostral anterior cingulate cortex in the left hemisphere and frontal pole, lateral occipital gyrus, inferior temporal gyrus in the right hemisphere. In addition, the superior temporal gyrus, medial orbitofrontal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, medial orbitofrontal gyrus, superiorparietal gyrus and lateral occipital gyrus showed significant between-group differences for cortical sulcus. Moreover, the brain regions with significant between-group differences in cortical curvature were located in caudal anterior cingulate cortex, supramarginal gyrus, inferior parietal gyrus and lateral occipital gyrus. The alteration of LGI were most prominent in the inferior temporal gyrus and insula. Additionally, there was no statistical difference in brain surface area for TS children compared with controls. Conclusion The results of this study revealed that cortical thickness, sulcus, cortical curvature and LGI were changed in multiple brain regions for children with TS.

This paper examines the effects of shareholder investment horizons on insider trading. We find that insiders are less likely to trade on private information and the profitability of insider trades is lower when shareholder investment horizons are longer. We further examine two channels through which shareholders with longer investment horizons can impede insider trading: direct monitoring and better information environment. Consistent with the direct monitoring channel, we show that insiders in firms with longer shareholder investment horizons are more likely to shift trades from the month right before earnings announcements to the month right after earnings announcements. Moreover, the impact of investment horizons are stronger in firms with higher ex ante litigation risk, with lower corporate governance quality, and that are not targets of hedge fund activists. Consistent with the information environment channel, we show that longer shareholder investment horizons increase the frequencies of information disclosure and insiders in firms with longer shareholder investment horizons are more likely to trade in an isolated manner rather than in sequences.

In this study, a series of shape-stabilized comb-like polymeric phase change materials (CLPPCMs), denoted as EMA- g -C n H 2 n +1 OH (poly(ethylene-graft-maleic anhydride)- g -alkyl alcohol) with n =14, 16, 18, 26, were prepared through an esterification reaction between poly(ethylene- graft -maleic anhydride) (EMA) and n -alkyl alcohols (C n H 2 n +1 OH). The structure, thermal properties and shape-stabilized performance of EMA- g -C n H 2 n +1 OH CLPPCMs were investigated by 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H NMR), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). EMA- g -C n H 2 n +1 OH CLPPCMs show a good thermal stability and shape-stabilized performance. With the side-chain length increasing, the phase transition temperature and the heat enthalpy change from 36.4 to 67.1 °C and from 125.7 to 146.2 J/g, respectively, demonstrating a side-chain length-dependent behavior. EMA- g -C n H 2 n +1 OH CLPPCMs prove the excellent thermal reliability and structure stability after 300 heating–cooling cycles. The time of heat storage and release lasts for 205 and 49 s, respectively. EMA- g -C n H 2 n +1 OH CLPPCMs show their potential applications under 300 °C as the thermal energy storage materials.

Hybrid membranes (SPI/ZGO) composed of sulfonated polyimide (SPI) and zwitterionic polymer-functionalized graphene oxide (ZGO) are fabricated via a solution-casting method for vanadium redox flow battery (VRB). Successful preparation of ZGO fillers and SPI/ZGO hybrid membranes are demonstrated by FT-IR, XPS and SEM, indicating that ZGO fillers is homogeneously dispersed into SPI matrix. Through controlling the interfacial interaction between SPI matrix and ZGO fillers, the physicochemical properties, e.g ., vanadium ion barrier and proton transport pathway, of hybrid membranes are tuned via the zwitterionic acid-base interaction in the hybrid membrane, showing a high ion selectivity and good stability with the incorporated ZGO fillers. SPI/ZGO-4 hybrid membrane proves a higher cell efficiencies (CE: 92–98%, EE: 65–79%) than commercial Nafion 117 membrane (CE: 89–94%, EE: 59–70%) for VRB application at 30–80 mA cm −2 . The assembled VRB with SPI/ZGO-4 membrane presents a stable cycling charge–discharge performance over 280 times, which demonstrates its excellent chemical stability under the strong acidic and oxidizing conditions. SPI/ZGO hybrid membranes show a brilliant perspective for VRB application.

Triptolide (TP) is an active component of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook. F and widely used to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. It has been demonstrated that cytochrome P450 (CYP) are involved in the metabolism of TP. However, the underlying mechanisms of TP-induced toxicity mediated by hepatic CYP have not been well delineated. In this study, rat liver microsomes (RLM) and sandwich-cultured rat hepatocytes (SCRH) were used to identify the mechanism involving the CYP3A inhibition by TP and to evaluate TP-induced liver damage after CYP3A modulation by the known inhibitor, ketoconazole, and the known inducer, dexamethasone. The results showed that TP itself had a time- and concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on CYP3A. When the CYP3A inhibitor and inducer were added, the enzyme activity and hepatotoxicity changed significantly. The enzyme inducer increased CYP3A activity and decreased the metabolic half life (t1/2) of TP when compared to the control group, while the enzyme inhibitor had an opposite effect. Our findings reveal that TP is a weak CYP3A inhibitor involving the time-dependent inhibition mechanism. The induction or inhibition of CYP3A played an important role in TP-induced hepatotoxicity. Clinicians should be aware of the metabolic characteristics of TP to maximize therapeutic efficacy and reduce TP-induced toxicity.

Recurrent outbreaks of an epizootic in Chinese soft-shelled turtles ( Trionyx sinensis ) in Zhejiang province, China in 2013, caused severe economic losses to turtle culture industry. This disease was characterized by listless swimming, craned or twisted neck, hyperemic laryngeal mucosa, and intumescent and hyperemic intestinal canal accompanied by mass mortality. Eleven diseased turtles with typical signs were collected from three distinct representative farms. Eleven bacterial isolates were collected from the livers and kidneys of diseased turtles and identified as Bacillus thuringiensis based on Vitek biochemical test, observation of rhizoid growth and protein toxin crystal production, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and Bacillus group species-specific PCR. These isolates demonstrated highly pathogenic potential to juvenile Chinese soft-shelled turtles with natural-infection-like symptoms. To our knowledge, this is the first case of B. thuringiensis infection in Chinese soft-shelled turtles and even in aquatic animals.

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of the gas–solids two-phase flow in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) riser is carried out. The Eularian–Eularian method with the kinetic theory of granular flow is used to solve the gas–solids two-phase flow in the CFB riser. The wall boundary condition of the riser is defined based on the Johnson and Jackson wall boundary theory ( Johnson & Jackson, 1987 ) with specularity coefficient and particle–wall restitution coefficient. The numerical results show that these two coefficients in the wall boundary condition play a major role in the predicted solids lateral velocity, which affects the solid particle distribution in the CFB riser. And the effect of each of the two coefficients on the solids distribution also depends on the other one. The generality of the CFD model is further validated under different operating conditions of the CFB riser.

Neuroprotection strategies are of great importance in the treatment of ischemic brain injury. Screening of our in-stock coumarin derivatives identified compound 1 as exhibiting neuroprotective activity. Subsequently, a structural optimization was carried out, which led to the discovery of the potent compound 20 . This compound significantly attenuated the damage in a cell line derived from a pheochromocytoma of the rat adrenal medulla induced by oxygen–glucose deprivation in vitro . Furthermore, compound 20 exhibited clear neuroprotection in middle cerebral artery occlusion rats by reducing infarct size and brain-water content, improving neurological function, and suppressing neuronal loss and neuropathological changes in the cortex and hippocampus. Pharmacokinetic evaluation indicated that compound 20 could penetrate the blood–brain barrier of rats.

In this paper, a novel electrochemical sensor based on imprinted poly(o-phenylenediamine) (PoPD) membranes at reduced graphene oxide (RGO) modified electrode for selective and sensitive detection of imidacloprid was fabricated. RGO was dropped onto the surface of the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to amplify the electrocatalytic activity. The imprinted PoPD membranes were then synthesized onto RGO surface by electropolymerization using oPD as the monomer and imidacloprid as the template. The surface morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The feature of the imprinted electrode was performed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The imprinted PoPD-RGO sensor exhibited good selectivity toward imidacloprid in comparison with other similar interferents. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the current response of the imprinted PoPD-RGO sensor was linear to the imidacloprid concentration in the range of 7.5 × 10−7 to 7.0 × 10−5 M with a detection limit of 4.0 × 10−7 M (S/N = 3). The imprinted electrochemical sensor was successfully employed for the selective determination of imidacloprid in real samples.

We show that product using experience can improve stock price efficiency. Based on U.S consumer expenditure data from 1998 to 2015, we construct a consumption-based proxy for product experience at firm level. We find that investors incorporate both industry and firm specific information into stock price more quickly when they have more experience with relevant firm’s products. This effect is stronger if more individual investors are present. Analyst coverage only enhances price efficiency for non-consumer-goods firms. These results suggest that product experience can help unsophisticated investors to develop recognition and knowledge about firms’ business and to process information more efficiently. With product experience, people may not diligently read analyst reports.

There has been accumulating evidence that chemokines play an important role in cerebral ischemia. Chemokines-like factor 1 (CKLF1), as a novel C–C chemokine, is upregulated in cerebral ischemia. In this study we examined the protective effect of C19, a C-terminal peptide of chemokine-like factor 1, in an animal model of cerebral ischemia. Adult rats were anesthetized with chloral hydrate. C19 was given intracerebroventricularly immediately after 60 min middle cerebral artery occlusion. Animals were examined for their neurological function, infarct size and water content at 24 h after reperfusion. The result showed that C19 (0.1, 1, 10 or 50 μg) significantly improved neurological function, decreased infarct size and water content in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, application of C19 (50 μg) showed no effect in normal rats. Taken together, our data suggest that C19 is protective against ischemic brain injury, and may be an ideal peptide drug for the treatment of cerebral ischemia.

In this paper, the pristine basic morphology of high impact polypropylene (hiPP) particles prepared with an industrial MgCl 2 /TiCl 4 Ziegler–Natta catalyst undergoing sequentially occurred propylene (P) homopolymerization and ethylene (E)/propylene copolymerization has been probed mainly using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques including plain TEM and the advanced transmission electron microtomography (TEMT). It is revealed that the basic structure units comprising a whole hiPP particle are the submicron PP (polypropylene) globule and nano-sized EP (ethylene-co-propylene) droplet. EP rubber (EPR) domain is formed by the agglomeration of EP droplets. Continually formed EP droplets turn to fill, from inside out, the micro- and macro-pores inside the preformed PP skeleton, affording different-sized EPR domains. Taking the two basic structure units into account, new quaternary structure model describing the manifold structures of hiPP particles has been proposed. From these findings, it is suggested that, to gain hiPP polymers with excellent stiffness/toughness-balanced properties, it is crucial to control the first-staged propylene homopolymerization alongside a rational design of the catalyst architecture to accomplish desired EPR dispersion morphologies that dictate hiPP properties.

The synthesis and characterization of a novel class of linear aromatic ether polymers containing perfluorocyclobutyl and triazole unites is described. These polymers were prepared from the click chemistry (the copper-catalyzed Huisgen's 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition) of new monomer 1,2-bis(4-azidomethylphenoxy) perfluorocyclobutane and bisethynyl compounds.

We make use of a panel data set from the BoardEx database on the quality of the management teams of 4635 firms during 1999 to 2010 to analyze the relationship between the management quality of firms and their long-run operating performance, current market valuations, and future long-run stock returns. We create a management team quality index using common factor analysis from various individual proxies for the quality of a firm's management team, such as management team size, fraction of managers with MBAs, the average employment- and education-based connections of each manager in the management team, fraction of members with prior working experience in the top management team, and the average number of board positions that each manager serves on. We find that this index is positively related to firms' long-run operating performance, current market valuations, and future long-run stock returns. We overcome hurdles related to endogeneity by using Vietnam War draft deferment rules for graduate education. Individuals graduating from college during this period enrolled into graduate degree programs for reasons unrelated to their intrinsic quality, i.e., to avoid getting drafted. Using this as an instrument, we find a causal relationship between our management quality index and firms' long-run future operating performance, current market valuations, and long-run future stock returns. We also find that firms with higher management quality are characterized by larger levels of investment and investment growth. The relationship of management quality with firm valuation and performance is stronger for firms in R&D intensive, more competitive, financially constrained industries, and during periods of recession.