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RNA sequencing (RNAseq) analysis is emerging as a clinical research or diagnostic approach for cytologic samples, but there is need for formal comparison of different sample preparation methods in the cytology laboratory to identify which pre-analytic methods could provide alternatives to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections.We prepared 13 malignant effusions (metastatic estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer) in the cytology laboratory using 6 routine cytologic methods: FFPE cell block, Carnoy's solution, 95% ethanol (EtOH), air-dried and Diff-Quik, ThinPrep, and SurePath preparations. Measurements of RNA quality, expression of 2 multigene expression signatures, molecular subtype, and 4 common activating mutation sites in each preparation were compared with fresh frozen (FF) cell pellet in RNA preservative using distribution of fragment length and concordance correlation coefficient (CCC).The fraction of RNA fragments measuring 200 bases or more (DV200) were 24% higher from cytospins fixed in Carnoy's solution or 95% EtOH than DV200 from FFPE cell blocks. SurePath samples failed RNAseq quality control. There was high concordance of gene expression measurements with FF samples using cytospins fixed in Carnoy's solution, 95% EtOH, Diff-Quik (CCC = 0.829, 0.812, 0.760, respectively), or ThinPrep (CCC = 0.736), but lower using FFPE cell block (CCC = 0.564). The proportion of mutant transcripts was concordant between FF and any cytologic preparation methods.Cytospin preparations fixed with Carnoy's or 95% ETOH then Papanicolaou stained produced RNAseq results that were equivalent to FF samples and superior to FFPE cell block sections.

This study is devoted to developing a platoon-based cooperative lane-change control (PB-CLC). It coordinates the trajectories of a CAV platoon under a platoon-centered platooning control to accommodate the CAV lane-change requests from its adjacent lane, aiming to reduce the negative traffic impacts on the platoon resulting from lane-change maneuvers, on the premise of ensuring CAVs’ safety and mobility. Mathematically, the PB-CLC control is established using a hybrid model predictive control (MPC) system. The hybrid MPC system involves an MPC-based mixed integer nonlinear programming optimizer (MINLP-MPC) for optimal lane-change decisions, which considers multiple objectives such as traffic smoothness, driving comfort and lane-change response promptness subject to vehicle dynamics and safety constraints. To ensure the feasible lane-change, this study investigates and provides a lower bound of the lane-change time window by analyzing the MINLP-MPC model feasibility. Apart from the optimal lane-change decision consideration, the hybrid MPC system is well designed to ensure the control continuity and smoothness. In particular, the hybrid MPC system control feasibility and stability are proved to enable the platoon's back-and-forth state switchings between car-following and lane-change accommodation states. Next, we developed a machine learning aided distributed branch and bound algorithm (ML-DBB) to solve the MINLP-MPC model within a control sampling time interval (

A novel type of phosphorus doped Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets (P-Ti3C2Tx) is synthesized via a facile and controllable strategy of annealing MXene nanosheets with the presence of sodium hypophosphite. A combination of theoretical density functional theory calculation and experimental X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy discloses that the doped P atoms are prone to fill into Ti vacancies first due to their lowest formation free energy (ΔGP* = −0.028 eV·A−2) and next to bond with surface terminals on MXene layers (ΔGP* = 0.013 eV·A−2), forming P-C and P-O species, respectively. More importantly, the as-obtained P-Ti3C2Tx is, for the first time, investigated as the electrode material for supercapacitors, demonstrating a significantly boosted electrochemical performance by P doping. As a result, P-Ti3C2Tx electrode delivers a high specific capacitance of 320 F·g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A·g−1 (much higher than 131 F·g−1 for undoped MXene), an ultrahigh rate retention of 83.8% capacitance at 30 A·g−1, and a high cycling stability over continuous 5000 cycles.

Background Stem cell-based regenerative therapy is a novel approach to severe damaged skin. Perinatal tissues such as placenta are considered as promising alternatives. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)-expressing placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hPMSCs) on healing of burn wounds. Materials and methods hPMSCs were isolated from human placenta, and IGF-1 was transducted into hPMSCs via lentivirus. Flow cytometry and MTT assay were performed to assess cell apoptosis and viability, respectively. Immunostaining of CK19 and ki67 was for evaluating epithelial differentiation ability and cell proliferation. For in vivo studies, we established a mouse model of scalding and performed local administration of IGF-1-expressing hPMSCs via subcutaneous injection. Wound histology was analyzed with H&E staining. The expression of fibrogenic cytokines was detected by western blot. The production of pro-inflammatory factors was measured by ELISA. Results Overexpression of IGF-1 promoted cell proliferation and epithelial differentiation of hPMSCs in vitro and in vivo. Mice with burn injury displayed increased wound contraction and healing rates following treatment with IGF-1-expressing hPMSCs. There was less inflammatory infiltration and reduced collagen disposition in the presence of IGF-1 at the wound site. Administration of IGF-1-expressing hPMSCs suppressed inflammation by decreasing the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines including tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, and interleukin-6. Besides, IGF-1 increased VEGF expression, and decreased TGF-β1, collagen I and collagen III expressions in vivo. Conclusions IGF-1-expressing PMSCs promotes cell proliferation and epithelial differentiation, inhibits inflammation and collagen deposition, and thus contributes to wound healing.

BACKGROUND We proposed that a test for sensitivity to the adjuvant endocrine therapy component of treatment for patients with stage II-III breast cancer (SET2,3) should measure transcription related to estrogen and progesterone receptors (SETER/PR index) adjusted for a baseline prognostic index (BPI) combining clinical tumor and nodal stage with molecular subtype by RNA4 (ESR1, PGR, ERBB2, and AURKA). PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with clinically high-risk, hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative (HR+/HER2-) breast cancer received neoadjuvant taxane-anthracycline chemotherapy, surgery with measurement of residual cancer burden (RCB), and then adjuvant endocrine therapy. SET2,3 was measured from pre-treatment tumor biopsies, evaluated first in an MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) cohort (n = 307, 11 years' follow-up, U133A microarrays), cut point was determined, and then independent, blinded evaluation was carried out in the I-SPY2 trial (n = 268, high-risk MammaPrint result, 3.8 years' follow-up, Agilent-44K microarrays, NCI Clinical Trials ID: NCT01042379). Primary outcome measure was distant relapse-free survival. Multivariate Cox regression models tested prognostic independence of SET2,3 relative to RCB and other molecular prognostic signatures, and whether other prognostic signatures could substitute for SETER/PR or RNA4 components of SET2,3. RESULTS SET2,3 added independent prognostic information to RCB in the MDACC cohort: SET2,3 [hazard ratio (HR) 0.23, P = 0.004] and RCB (HR 1.77, P < 0.001); and the I-SPY2 trial: SET2,3 (HR 0.27, P = 0.031) and RCB (HR 1.68, P = 0.008). SET2,3 provided similar prognostic information irrespective of whether RCB-II or RCB-III after chemotherapy, and in both luminal subtypes. Conversely, RCB was most strongly prognostic in cancers with low SET2,3 status (MDACC P < 0.001, I-SPY2 P < 0.001). Other molecular signatures were not independently prognostic; they could effectively substitute for RNA4 subtype within the BPI component of SET2,3, but they could not effectively substitute for SETER/PR index. CONCLUSIONS SET2,3 added independent prognostic information to chemotherapy response (RCB) and baseline prognostic score or subtype. Approximately 40% of patients with clinically high-risk HR+/HER2- disease had high SET2,3 and could be considered for clinical trials of neoadjuvant endocrine-based treatment.

In the previous significant works by Alt et al. (1982) [2] and Alt et al. (1985) [6] , the existence of the two-dimensional asymmetric incompressible jet flow and compressible subsonic jet flow were established. However, the uniqueness of the asymmetric jet flow has remained an unsolved open problem. In this paper, we will establish the uniqueness of asymmetric jet flow not only for incompressible case but also for compressible subsonic case. Furthermore, as a byproduct, some properties of the jet flow are obtained, such as the location estimate and asymptotic deflection angle estimate of the jet in far field. Finally, a comparison theorem will be introduced to compressible subsonic jet flow.

A well-posedness analysis of steady state of inviscid compressible subsonic impinging flows with non-zero vorticity is developed. A nonlinear nonhomogeneous second-order partial differential equation for the solution of the flow stream function is derived in terms of the inlet flow specifying the horizontal velocity. We first construct a subsonic solution to the impinging flow problem with special horizontal velocity and specific effluent fluxes in the outlets. Moreover, we showed that such a subsonic impinging flow with the same asymptotic behavior in the upstream and downstreams is unique. Furthermore, the existence, uniqueness and regularity of the interface separating the two fluids with different outlets are obtained. This result extends the recent result on the compressible subsonic irrotational impinging flows in [5] . Finally, as a byproduct, we obtain the existence of subsonic-sonic impinging flows.

Defects in decidual response are associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes which includes recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). It is reported that cellular senescence happens during decidualization and pro-senescent decidual response in the luteal phase endometrium is related to RPL. However, the underlying mechanisms of how excessive decidual senescence takes place in RPL decidua cells remain largely unexplored. The senescent phenotype of RPL decidua and tumor necrosis factor receptor 1(TNFR1) expression were analyzed by using our previously published single-cell sequencing dataset of decidua cells from 6 RPL and 5 matched normal decidua, which were further verified by PCR and WB in decidual tissues. Effects of TNFα on the decidual stromal cells (DSCs) senescence and underlying molecular pathways were analyzed using the in vitro decidualization model of human endometrial stromal cells (HESCs). We showed that decidual stroma cells from RPL patients exhibited transcriptomic features of cellular senescence by analysis of single-cell datasets. The TNFα level and TNFR1 expression were increased in RPL decidua tissues. Furthermore, in vitro cell model demonstrated that increased TNFα induced excessive senescence during decidualization and TNFR1/p53/p16 pathway mediates TNFα-induced stromal senescence. In addition, we also found that the expression of IGFBP1 was regulated by TNFα-TNFR1 interaction during decidualization. Taken together, the present findings suggest that the increased secretion of TNFα induced stromal cell excessive senescence in RPL decidua, which is mediated via TNFR1, and thus provide a possible therapeutic target for the treatment of RPL.

This study focuses on the function of WTAP in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) samples and cell lines. The results showed that WTAP expression in ESCC tissues was significantly upregulated in 78.1% (57 of 73) of the ESCC tissues at the protein level compared with adjacent non-cancerous tissues via immunohistochemical staining. The WTAP protein expression level was positively correlated with the lymph node metastasis and TNM stage, and patients with higher WTAP protein expression level exhibited a shorter overall survival interval. Knocking down WTAP significantly reduced cell proliferation and migration but promoted cell apoptosis of TE-1and KYSE150 cells. Moreover, WTAP inhibition reduced the expression of ki67 and Snail related to cell proliferation and migration but increased the expression of Bax and Caspase-3 which were involved in cell apoptosis. In conclusion, our results suggest that the WTAP, a potential biomarker of ESCC, maybe play an important role in ESCC-genesis through regulating expression of genes related to cell proliferation, migration and apoptosis.

We are concerned with the well-posedness theory of two-dimensional compressible subsonic jet flow issuing from a semi-infinitely long nozzle of arbitrary cross-section. Given any atmospheric pressure p 0 , we show that there exists a critical mass flux m c r depending on p 0 and Ω, such that if the incoming mass flux m 0 is less than the critical value, then there exists a unique smooth subsonic jet flow, issuing from the given nozzle. The jet boundary is a free streamline, which initiates from the end point of the nozzle smoothly and extends to the infinity. One of the key observations in this paper is that the restriction of the incoming mass flux guarantees completely the subsonicity of the compressible jet in the whole flow field, which coincides with the observation on the compressible subsonic flows in an infinitely long nozzle without free boundary in [8] .

Inflammation contributes to the pathological processes in patients and animal models of PD. Rosmarinic acid (RA) has been demonstrated to protect neurons in PD models. The present study aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of RA on PD and reveal possible pharmacological mechanisms. 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) was injected to mice to establish PD model in vivo. BV-2 cells were exposed to 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium (MPP+) and α-synuclein to establish PD model in vitro. Results showed that treatment with RA dose-dependently improved motor function of PD mice, increased the number of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive cells, reduced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inhibited microglia activation in ventral midbrain. In cell study, RA also decreased MPP+ or α-synuclein-induced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, RA treatment downregulated the expression levels of HMGB1, TLR4 and Myd88 and inhibited NF-κB nuclear expression both in PD animal and cell models. These findings indicated that RA could attenuate inflammatory responses through suppressing HMGB1/TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway, which may contribute to its anti-PD activity.

Aims Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most devastating central lesions, resulting in serious locomotor deficit. Polydatin is a glucoside of resveratrol with proven anti-cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties. The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether polydatin could alleviate SCI in rats and explore the underlying mechanisms. Materials and methods SCI rats induced by a weight-drop device were treated with intraperitoneal injection of 20 or 40 mg/kg polydatin. Then the locomotor function of SCI rats was evaluated by the Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan locomotor rating scale, spinal cord edema was measured by the wet/dry weight method, oxidative stress markers were detected by commercial kits and cell apoptosis status was measured by TUNEL staining. In addition, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) production and apoptosis status were detected in murine microglia BV2 cells treated with 100 ng/ml lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and 4.0 μM polydatin. The expression of apoptosis-related proteins involved in nuclear factor E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) pathway was measured by western blot. Key findings Our data showed that polydatin treatment improved locomotor performance of SCI rats, as well as reduced oxidative stress and inhibited apoptosis by enhancing Nrf2/HO-1 signaling. In addition, polydatin was found to up-regulate Nrf2 activity and the inhibitory effects of polydatin on oxidative stress and apoptosis in LPS-stimulated BV2 microglia was neutralized by silencing Nrf2 using specific siRNA. Significance We demonstrate that polydatin may protect the spinal cord from SCI by suppression of oxidative stress and apoptosis via improving Nrf2/HO-1 signaling in microglia.

The combination of PD-L1-inhibitor durvalumab and PARP-inhibitor olaparib (DOP) in addition to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy was investigated in the phase II I-SPY2 platform trial of stage II/III HER2-negative breast cancer. Seventy-three HER2-negative participants were randomized to DOP and 299 to standard of care control. DOP graduated in all subtypes, increasing pCR rates in all HER2-negative (22 to 37%), HR-positive/HER2-negative (14% to 28%), TNBC (27% to 47%). In HR-positive/HER2-negative cancers, pCR rate in MammaPrint ultra high (MP2) cases was considerably higher than MP1, 64% vs 22%. Overall,12.3% of patients in the experimental arm experienced immune-related grade 3 adverse events vs. 1.3% in control. Gene expression signatures associated with immune response were positively associated with pCR in both arms, while a mast cell signature was associated with non-pCR. DOP has potential benefits over standard neoadjuvant therapy in HER2-negative early breast cancer, particularly in a highly sensitive subset of high-risk HR-positive/HER2-negative patients.

The object of this work is to investigate the fluid mechanics of oblique impinging jet flows and to this end some existence and nonexistence results are initiated. First, we established the existence of incompressible oblique impinging jet plane flows with two asymptotic directions. More precisely, given a two-dimensional semi-infinitely long nozzle and a wall behind the nozzle, for any given mass flux in the inlet of the nozzle, then there exists a smooth incompressible oblique impinging jet flow with two asymptotic directions. The impinging jet develops two free streamlines, which initiate smoothly at the endpoints of the semi-infinitely long nozzle, and the speed on free streamlines remains a constant, which can be determined by the impinging jet flow itself. The asymptotic behaviors of the oblique impinging jet flows at the far fields, the position of the stagnation points, convexity of the free boundaries and other properties are also considered. On another side, it is showed in this paper that there does not exist an oblique impinging jet flow with one asymptotic direction generally.

Quinone methides are important reactive intermediates in photobiology and photochemistry, with little known regarding the photo-induces generation of reactive quinone methides species from relevant precursors in aqueous solutions. Here, the time-resolved spectroscopy methods including the transient absorption experiments and time-resolved Resonance Raman were employed to directly study the photophysics and photochemical processes of 6,6′-Bis(hydroxymethyl)-1,1′-binaphthyl-2,2′-diol (BQMP-a) in neat MeCN and 1:1 MeCN:H 2 O aqueous solutions. In aqueous solution, the intramolecular excited state proton transfer (ESIPT) process was observed where the water molecules help deliver the proton on the hydroxyl group to the naphthol ring within 125 ps in the singlet excited state of BQMP-a. This solvent mediated ESIPT will then lead to the leaving of the H 2 O group in 906 ps followed by the generation of the binol quinone methide (BQM-a) intermediate with a lifetime of 1.7 μs. As a result, the BQMP-a provides a different production rate of quinone methides compared with the 1,1′-(2,2′-Dihydroxy-1,1′-binaphthyl-6,6′-diyl) bis( N,N,N -trimethylmethanaminium) bromide system, which indicates the leaving group is an important factor in the generation of the reactive DNA alkylated intermediates.

This study seeks to develop a cooperative platoon control for a platoon mixed with connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and human-drive vehicles (HDVs), aiming to ensure system level traffic flow smoothness and stability as well as individual vehicles’ mobility and safety. Specifically, our study integrated/contributed the following technical approaches. First, the car-following behavior of human-drive vehicles is modeled by well-accepted Newell car-following models. Accordingly, an online curve matching algorithm is integrated to anticipate the aggregated response delay of the human-drive vehicles using real-time trajectory data. Built upon that, constrained One- or P-step MPC models are developed to control the movement of the CAV platoon upstream or downstream of the HDV platoon so that we can ensure both transient traffic smoothness and asymptotic stability of this sample mixed flow platoon, leveraging the communication and computation technologies equipped on CAVs. Considering the lack of the centralized computation facilities and severe changes of the platoon topology, this study develops a distributed algorithm to solve the MPCs according to the properties of the optimizers, such as solution uniqueness, sequentially feasibility, and nonempty interior point of the solution space. The convergence of the distributed algorithm as well as the stability of the MPC control is proved by both the theoretical analysis and the experimental study. Extensive numerical experiments based on the field data indicate that the distributed algorithm can solve the One-step and P-step MPCs efficiently. The cooperative MPC can dampen traffic oscillation propagation and stabilize the traffic flow more efficiently for the entire mixed flow platoon. Moreover, the cooperative platoon control scheme outperforms the other three control strategies, including the non-cooperative control strategy and a latest CACC strategy in literature.

Tri-block copolymers have exhibited great potentials in small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapeutics. To reveal structure-activity relationships , we here synthesized a series of tri-block copolymers with different hydrophobic segments, PEG-PAMA-P(C6A x-C7Ay-DPAz-DBAm) (EAAS) and PEG-PDAMAEMA-P(C6Ax-C7Ay-DPAz-DBAm ) (EDAS), termed from EAASa to EAASh and EDASa to EDASh, with pKa ranging from 5.2 to 7.0. Our data showed that the better gene silencing efficiency was located in pKa of 5.8–6.2, which was contributed from higher endosomal escape observed with confocal images and hemolysis assay. EAASc, the leader polymer, showed excellent gene knockdown at w/w ratio of 14.5 on HepG2 (89.94%), MDA-MB-231 (92.45%), 293A (83.06%), and Hela cells (80.27%), all better than lipofectamine 2000. Besides, EAASc mediated effective gene silencing in tumor when performed peritumoral injection. This work found out that polymers with pKa ranging from 5.8 to 6.2 were efficient in siRNA delivery, which provided an optimization strategy for siRNA delivery systems, especially for tri-block copolymers.

This paper addresses the consensus control problem for a class of multi-agent systems with distributed parameter models, and all the agents in the considered systems are governed by the one-dimensional parabolic equations or the one-dimensional second-order hyperbolic equations. The main contribution of this paper is to apply Lyapunov functional approach to the multi-agent systems with distributed parameter models, and solve the consensus control problem of such multi-agent systems on an appropriate Sobolev space. The distributed consensus-based feedback control protocols are obtained based on the virtual leader approach, and when the feedback control laws are applied to the systems, consensus on L2(0, 1) space (corresponding to the parabolic equations) or on W1, 2(0, 1) × L2(0, 1) space (corresponding to the hyperbolic equations) is achieved for all the directed communication graphs with spanning trees. Simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper deals with the problem of iterative learning control algorithm for a class of multi-agent systems with distributed parameter models. And the considered distributed parameter models are governed by the parabolic or hyperbolic partial differential equations. Based on the framework of network topologies, a consensus-based iterative learning control protocol is proposed by using the nearest neighbor knowledge. When the iterative learning control law is applied to the systems, the consensus errors between any two agents on L2 space are bounded, and furthermore, the consensus errors on L2 space can converge to zero as the iteration index tends to infinity in the absence of initial errors. Simulation examples illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In light of the rapid development in the e-commerce sector and the increasingly popular demand for same day delivery, this study evaluates the performance of an on-demand same day delivery (SDD) paradigm in terms of its transportation time cost, fuel cost, and emission cost. The performance is further evaluated by comparing among three delivery paradigms: hub-and-spoke, SDD with a commercial fleet, and SDD by crowdsourcing. Among the three service paradigms compared, hub-and-spoke proves to be cost-effective for the traditional distribution service provided by commercial carriers but ill-suited for providing same day delivery service. Commercial carriers are facing tremendous pressure in the era when same-day delivery service is increasingly expected. Crowdsourcing is a promising solution to providing low cost same day delivery service. Lastly, regardless of the delivery paradigm, the total cost goes down as the economy of scale increases; and SDD by crowdsourcing would become even more competitive when the demand ratio is very high; however, its fuel consumption and emissions tend to go up due to the additional vehicle detours to accommodate real time demand.

A study of PM2.5-associated PAHs analysis at Mount Lushan (1165 m) was conducted to investigate the distributions of PAHs in PM2.5 and influences of cloud/fog. The main purpose was to quantify the main emission sources of PAHs and estimate regional transport effects within the boundary layer. Mount Lushan is located between the boundary layer and troposphere, which is an ideal site for atmosphere transport investigation. The concentrations of PAHs in PM2.5 were analyzed with GC–MS. The results showed that the volume concentration was 6.98 ng/m3 with a range from 1.47 to 25.17 ng/m3 and PAHs mass were 160.24 μg/g (from 63.86 to 427.97 μg/g) during the sampling time at Mount Lushan. The dominant compounds are BbF, Pyr and BP. In terms of aromatic-ring PAHs distributions, 4–6-ring PAHs are predominant, indicating that the high-ring PAHs tend to contribute more than low-ring PAHs in particulates. Due to frequent cloud/fog days at Mount Lushan, PAHs concentrations in the PM2.5 were determined before and after cloud/fog weather. The results demonstrated that the cloud/fog and rain conditions cause lower PAHs levels. Regression analysis was used for studying the relationship of PAHs distributions with meteorological conditions like temperature, humidity and wind. The results showed that the temperature and wind speed were inversely related with PAHs concentration but humidity had no significant relationship. Furthermore, backward trajectories and PCA combined with DR (diagnostic ratio analysis) were employed to identify the influences of regional transport and main emission sources. The results revealed that PAHs in PM2.5 were mainly affected by regional transport with the main emissions by mobile vehicle and steel industry, which contributed about 56.0% to the total PAHs in the area of Mount Lushan. In addition, backward trajectories revealed that the dominant air masses were from the northwest accounting for about one third of total PAHs.

Urban activities are the primary source of carbon emissions. With the accelerating development of urbanization, cities are now facing the dual pressures of maintaining economic growth and reducing carbon emissions, and mega-cities like Shanghai play a crucial role in emission reduction. An integrated system dynamic model (including eight sub-models, which are socio-economic; primary, secondary, and tertiary industry; residential; transportation; waste disposal; and electricity models) is developed using the Vensim platform for evaluating carbon emission trends in Shanghai during 1991–2015, from the perspective of an urban planning system. The results show a general increasing trend in total carbon emissions that reached 245.78 million tons CO2-equivalent (Mt CO2-eq) in 2015, which is nearly three times as much as that in 1991. This study also shows that the electric power sector is the main contributor to carbon emissions. Five emission-reduction scenarios were generated by inputting values of planning indicators from the National Economy and Social Development Plan (NESDP) that have direct and indirect impacts on carbon emissions. According to the results of this analysis, the lowest level of carbon emissions is from a scenario with slower socio-economic development and reinforced electrical and industrial energy efficiency programs (Scenario IV), which demonstrates that the appropriate control of energy consumption from secondary industry (especially the electricity sector) will play a positive role in carbon emission mitigation in Shanghai. Outcomes of this study can provide essential information for policy-makers to advance Shanghai's future low-carbon development. These outcomes could also guide similar studies modeling CO2 emissions from the perspective of urban planning systems.

Monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), with a high predicted intrinsic mobility of ∼410 cm2/V at room temperature, shows great potential for application in sensors and optoelectronics as a result of good electrical performance and photoemission. Compared with the photoresponsive photodiodes, photoresponsive field-effect transistors exhibit higher sensitivity and lower noise. And, pentacene is a small molecule organic semiconductor and has high absorption in the visible region. Here, we reported on a high-performance photoresponsive field-effect transistor based on MoS2/pentacene inorganic/organic planar heterojunction. The results showed that the device demonstrated superior performance. Under 655 nm light illumination, the device exhibited an ultrahigh photoresponsivity of 103 A/W, a maximum photosensitivity of 1.8 × 103 and a high external quantum efficiency of around 195%, respectively.

Current vehicle navigation systems usually rely on global real-time traffic information. They suggest the best paths to travelers through an independent and selfish-routing mechanism. Existing studies show that such systems have a great potential to cause traffic congestions oscillating among several alternative corridors, i.e., iteratively leading exceeding traffic into light traffic corridors and making congestion on one and then another within a short time period. To address this issue, this research proposes a local information provision strategy, given travelers are still guided by an independent and selfish-routing mechanism. The coverage of the real-time information provision is identified by the minimum bounding rectangle, and the ellipse method respectively. The benefits of the proposed strategy in system level are investigated by the simulation studies built upon the Borman expressway network. The simulation results indicate that as the local travel time information provision strategy is used, it may save 10–25% of the system travel time resulting from global information provision strategy under medium or high network traffic loads. Moreover, the sensitivity analyses indicate that the merits of the local travel time information provision strategy are more significant as the penetration of smart vehicles increases over the network. Thus, the proposed local information provision strategy outperforms global information provision strategy in system level network performance.

It has been well known that properly coordinating travelers’ route choices will help mitigate urban traffic congestion. Accordingly, coordinated routing mechanisms (CRMs), functioned as coordinated network congestion management schemes, have been developed in recent years. They often employ game theory models to strategically coordinate the route decisions of a group of travelers en route with the aim to reduce network traffic congestion. However, existing studies do not provide the solution about how to form the traveler groups, such as who and how many travelers the CRMs should involve. This issue may jeopardize the efficiency and scalability of the CRMs in practical applications. To make up this gap, this study seeks to develop the clustering aided network modeling approaches to form the coordination groups (CGs), which have the proper members and sizes for supporting the merits of the congestion management schemes. Specifically, we define coordination potential as an index to indicate the potential benefit for coordinating travelers’ route decisions on network congestion reduction. Then we develop rigorous approaches to understand the mathematical features and further quantify the coordination potential between two travelers, and among multiple travelers. Built upon that, we form the CGs through a well-designed adaptive centroid-based clustering algorithm (ACCA). It secures a local optimal clustering solution, balancing the intra-cluster and inter-cluster CP, so that we can ensure a small system performance loss as we implement a CRM on each CG. The efficiency of the CG formation approach is evaluated by the CG-CRM scheme, which partitions the travelers into multiple CGs and independently coordinates the travelers’ route choices in each CG by a CRM. The numerical experiments built upon both Sioux Falls and Hardee city networks confirm the efficiency and effectiveness of the CG formation approach. Mainly, the CG-CRM outperforms the independent best response routing mechanism in system performance. As compared to the CRM working on a single group involving all travelers, the CG-CRM requires significantly less computation load with a minor compromise on the system performance. This merit becomes more apparent under high penetration and congested traffic condition. Therefore, we claim that the CG formation approach will significantly help the implementation of the coordinated congestion mitigation schemes in practice.

This paper is devoted to the mathematical theory for the steady state collision of two compressible subsonic irrotational flows issuing from two infinitely long nozzles. We established the existence, uniqueness and asymptotic behavior of the subsonic collision flow with a smooth interface for the steady Euler system in an important physical regime. More precisely, there exists a critical value, if the summation of the incoming mass fluxes in the inlets of the nozzles is less than the critical value, then there exists a unique smooth subsonic compressible collision flow. And furthermore, there exists a smooth interface which separates the two non-miscible compressible subsonic flows. In particular, a key observation is that the location of the interface can be determined uniquely by the incoming mass fluxes in the inlets of the nozzles. Finally, we showed some monotonic relationship between the location of the interface and the incoming mass fluxes.

In this paper, high-quality and three-dimensional nanocomposites of Pt nanoparticles anchored on carbon nanocubes (PtNPs/CNCs) were synthesized by a simple preparation approach. The surface morphology, structure and composition of the prepared PtNPs/CNCs were examined by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the Pt nanoparticles with the diameter of about 3–5 nm were well dispersed on the surface of CNCs. Electrochemical results demonstrated that PtNPs/CNCs efficiently catalyzed the electrochemical oxidation of glucose in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (PBS), and exhibited a rapid response time of about 1 s, a broad linear range from 0.05 to 10.0 mM, a low detection limit of 0.02 mM, as well as high stability. Thus, the PtNPs/CNCs based electrochemical sensor was promising for application in direct detection of glucose since the electrochemical detection of glucose was performed at low potential, and the signals from oxidation of interfering species could be effectively declined.

The main object of this paper is to investigate the well-posedness theory of the incompressible inviscid cavity flow in an infinitely long channel. The flow is governed by two-dimensional incompressible, steady Euler system. The main results read that given a mass flux and a constant vorticity in the inlet of the channel, firstly, we establish the existence and the uniqueness of the incompressible cavity flow in an infinitely long symmetric channel, which contains a smooth free surface detaching at the boundary point of the obstacle. Secondly, some fundamental properties, such as the asymptotic behaviors of the cavity flow and the free boundary in the upstream and downstream, and the positivity of the horizontal velocity, are also obtained. Finally, we show that there does not exist a finite cavity or a cusped cavity in the infinitely long nozzle, which gives a positive answer to the conjecture by H. Villat in 1913 on the non-existence of a symmetric finite cusped cavity behind an obstacle.

Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT) is a rare monogenic hemorrhagic disorder involving aggregation defect of non-nuclear platelets. In this study we generated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from skin fibroblasts of a GT patient with complex heterogeneous mutations of ITGA2B gene. GT-iPSCs could be successfully differentiated into platelets (GT-iPS-platelets). GT-iPS-platelets were CD41 −/CD42b +/CD61 − and were platelet activation marker (PAC-1) negative after adenosine diphosphate (ADP) activation. Furthermore, GT-iPS-platelets were defective in platelet aggregation tests in vitro. Moreover, exogenous expression of the wild-type ITGA2B gene in GT-iPS platelets restored CD41 expression and normal platelet aggregation. Our study suggested that patient-specific iPSCs could be a potential target of stem cell based gene therapy for platelet diseases.

This study is to investigate the neurotoxicity of PBDE-209 during pregnancy through autophagy and apoptosis in the fetal hippocampus neuron. The autophagy protein levels of LC3-II and Beclin-1 were significantly higher in hippocampus tissue and neuron, while P62 protein were lower. Apoptosis protein Cleaved Caspase-3 and Cleaved PARP was significantly higher in PBDE dose groups and BCL-2 levels in high PBDE dose groups were significantly lower. During the Morris water maze task, the escape latency times of high PBDE dose groups were significantly longer. PBDE-209-induced autophagy leads to neurons death and inhibition of autophagy reduce PBDE-209-induced apoptotic cell death. These results suggest that exposure of the PBDE-209 during pregnancy increases hippocampal autophagy, decrease neuron viability, and it partly effect apoptosis induced by PBDE-209. All that may contribute to the decline of learning and memory ability in the offspring.

Fine particles from air pollution, also called particulate matter, less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5), are a threat to child health. Epidemiological investigations have related maternal exposure to PM2.5 to postnatal respiratory symptoms, such as frequent wheezing, chronic cough, and lung function decrements. However, only few experimental animal studies have been performed to study the effects of PM2.5.The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of maternal exposure to PM2.5 on postnatal pulmonary dysfunction in a rat model and to examine the mechanism of PM2.5-induced morphological pulmonary changes.Timed pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with PM2.5 (0.1, 0.5, 2.5, or 7.5mg/kg) once every three days from day 0 to 18 of pregnancy. After delivery, pups were sacrificed on postnatal day (PND)1 and 28. The effects of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) were determined by immunohistochemistry, Western blotting, and quantitative RT-PCR. The offspring underwent pulmonary function measurements on PND28, lung tissues were histopathologically examined, and markers of oxidative stress were measured. Maternally PM2.5-exposed offspring pups displayed significant decreases in lung volume parameters, compliance, and airflow during expiration on PND28. The PM2.5-exposed group showed interstitial proliferation in lung histology, significant oxidative stress in lungs, and up-regulation of TGF-β-induced EMT via increased vimentin and α-smooth muscle actin and decreased E-cadherin levels on PND1 and PND28.These results suggest that EMT up-regulation mediated by the TGF-β/Smad3 pathway plays a role in postnatal pulmonary dysfunction associated with maternal exposure to PM2.5.

Vehicular Ad Hoc Network (VANET) makes real-time traffic information accessible to vehicles en routes, thus possesses a great potential to improve traffic safety and mobility in the near future. Existing literature shows that we are still lack of approaches to track information spreading dynamics via VANET, which will prevent the potential applications from success. Motivated by this view, this research develops an information-traffic coupled cell transmission model (IT-CTM) to capture information spreading dynamics via VANET. More exactly, this study considers information spreading over a road segment forms a wave with a front and tail, each of which goes through the road segment following an intermittent transmission pattern due to traffic flow dynamics. The approach of IT-CTM discretizes a road segment into a number of cells. Each cell covers several intermittent transmissions. Mathematical methods are developed to capture the inner-cell and inter-cell movements of information front and tail, which enable us to track the information spreading dynamics along cells. Numerical experiments based on simulation and field data indicate that the IT-CTM can closely track the dynamic movements of information front and tail as well as the dynamic information coverage as a single or multiple piece(s) of information propagating via VANET on a one-way or two-way road segment. The mean absolute error (MAE) for tracking dynamic information coverage is