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Aim. We sought to profile gut microbiota's role in combination of Bu Fei Hua Yu (BFHY) with cisplatin treatment. Methods. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) mice model were constructed followed by treatment with cisplatin alone or combined with BFHY. Mice weight and tumor volume were measured during the experiment. And mice cecum were detected by hematoxylin and eosin, cecum contents were collected for Enzyme Linked ImmuneSorbent Assay, and stool were profiled for metagenomic sequencing. Results. Combination of BFHY with cisplatin treatment decreased the tumor growth and relieved the damage of cecum. Expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP), and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were decreased compared with cisplatin treatment alone. Linear discriminant analysis effect size analysis showed that g_Parabacteroides was downregulated and g_Escherichia and g_Blautia were upregulated after cisplatin treatment. After combination with BFHY, g_Bacteroides and g_Helicobacter were decreased. g_Klebsiella, g_Unclssified_Proteobacteria, and g_Unclssified_Clostridiates were increased. Moreover, heatmap results showed that Bacteroides abundance was increased significantly after cisplatin treatment; BFHY combination treatment reversed this state. Function analysis revealed that multiple functions were slightly decreased in cisplatin treatment alone and increased significantly after combination with BFHY. Conclusion. Our study provided evidence of an efficacy of combination of BFHY with cisplatin on treatment of NSCLC and revealed that gut microbiota plays a role in it. The above results provide new ideas on NSCLC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In healthy adults, the association between the glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level and intima-media thickness (IMT) is stronger in the femoral artery than that in the carotid artery. However, whether this differential strength of association also applies to adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) is unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether IMT increases in extracarotid arteries (specifically in the lower extremities) prior to the carotid artery. In total, 286 adolescents with T1D (15.9 ± 4.9 years; 42.0% male participants) were enrolled, and the B-mode ultrasonographic measurement of IMT in the carotid, femoral, and popliteal arteries was performed. Cardiovascular risk factors, including blood pressure (BP), body mass index, lipid levels, and glycemic parameters, were evaluated. To evaluate the site-dependent relationship between IMT and cardiovascular risk factors, a linear mixed-effects model was developed with repeated IMT measurements at various arterial sites as fixed effects and participants as random effects. Glycemic parameters, lipids, uric acid, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and advanced glycation end-products were some cardiovascular risk factors that worsened with increasing HbA1c levels. Patients with a higher HbA1c level (>10% vs. ≤10%) had thicker IMT in the femoral artery but not in the carotid or popliteal arteries. Patients with poorer diabetic control exhibited significant changes in certain cardiovascular functions, including central systolic BP, left ventricular (LV) ejection time, LV dp/dt max, stroke volume, and brachial artery compliance. A standard mediation analysis revealed that none of the aforementioned cardiovascular functions mediated the relationship between higher HbA1c level and greater femoral IMT. In adolescents with T1D, cardiovascular risk factors deteriorate with worsening blood glucose control. In the early stages of T1D, femoral IMT may serve as a more sensitive surrogate marker for hyperglycemia-induced subclinical atherosclerosis, an effect that may not be mediated by alterations in cardiovascular functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What Is Known and Objective: Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug used for mental disorders. There are limited studies providing sufficient pharmacokinetic data, thus the variability of concentrations of olanzapine used in Chinese paediatric patients aged 10 to 17 years remains to be evaluated. Methods: Therapeutic drug monitoring data were collected from 151 paediatric patients aged 10 to 17 years who received olanzapine. The model was developed with a NONMEM software program. The final model validation and evaluation were assessed by bootstrap, diagnostic scatter plots, and normalized prediction distribution error (NPDE). Regimens of different dosages were simulated to reach the target concentration levels of 20 ng/ml, by using the final model with typical parameters. Results: The one‐compartment model was considered the best fit for the data. Typical estimates of the absorption rate constant (Ka), apparent clearance (CL/F), and apparent distribution volume (V/F) in the final model were 0.142 h−1, 15.4 L/h, and 322 L, respectively. Sex and concomitant valproate (VPA) were included as significant predictors of olanzapine clearance, which was described by the following equation: CL/F = 15.4 × (1 + 0.546 × SEX) × (1 + 0.264 × VPA). Results of Monte‐Carlo simulation suggested that male paediatric patients with concomitant VPA were advised to take no less than 15 mg per day of olanzapine orally, and in female paediatric patients with concomitant VPA, a dosing regimen of 10 mg may be sufficient to achieve the therapeutic range of olanzapine. What Is New and Conclusion: Our results identified concomitant valproate and sex as significant covariates in olanzapine population pharmacokinetics. Our model may be a useful tool for recommending dosage adjustments for physicians. The pharmacokinetics of olanzapine in patients aged 10 to 17 years was generally similar to that of adults and the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote practical use of the top-and-bottom layered steel fiber reinforced concrete (LSFRC) plates, an appropriate constitutive model is selected using ABAQUS software to analyze the bearing capacity, failure pattern, and deformation of the LSFRC plates. An LSFRC plate model is established for the analysis and calculation. Meanwhile, a test was carried out to measure the bearing capacity of 10 LSFRC plates. The results show that, after going through the elastic stage, crack growth, and failure stage, when the maximum crack width reaches 0.1 mm, the load of the LSFRC plates can be used as the ultimate bearing load. When failure appears to be bending the LSFRC plates, the neutral axis will shift upwards, showing a pseudoplastic failure. There is a larger tensile stress area after the first crack appears at the bottom of the steel fiber concrete. The change before and after the maximum load is relatively gentle. After becoming plastic, the plate witnesses a rapid crack growth on its bottom. With similar results from the test and numerical simulation, small errors can be minimized by further analysis to provide a more accurate model for the subsequent bearing capacity analysis of the LSFRC plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Axillary osmidrosis (AO) and primary hyperhidrosis (PH) are common diseases, but there are still difficulties in treatment. Microwave therapy may become a new method. In order to evaluate long‐time efficacy of patients with AO or PH treated by microwave and to discuss possible mechanism of microwave therapy by combining results of clinical and pathological, the study was carried out. Ten AO or PH patients with moderate or severe level were selected as subjects, and each subject received microwave treatment of bilateral armpits. The follow‐up period lasted 2 years, and the changes of perspiration and odor were evaluated in subjective and objective ways. Each subject took skin biopsy in the treatment area before and after treatment or each follow‐up. Hematoxylin‐eosin and immunohistochemical staining were performed. Both subjective and objective index reflected the significant improvement of AO and PH after treatment (p < 0.05). Dermatology life quality index score decreased by 10.4 ± 4.6 (p < 0.05). The number of apocrine glands decreased significantly after treatment, and most of them changed from secretory phase to quiescent phase. In conclusion, microwave therapy can destroy apocrine sweat glands, reduce number of functional glands, so as to improve symptoms of AO and PH and elevate quality of life, which is safe, effective, and stable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of physical education courses in education is increasing, there are many problems in teaching traditional physical education courses, and information technology and information-based education are developing continuously, providing enough space for the research of the topic. The online teaching of public physical education courses in colleges and universities is very complex, and its quality evaluation faces many difficulties. Considering the problem that most traditional PE teaching quality evaluation methods are affected by the accuracy of the established model in the process of positioning, a PE teaching quality evaluation model based on random matrix theory is established by using the advantage that random matrix theory does not rely on the simplification and assumptions of the system model and can extract effective information from a large amount of data. Firstly, the influencing factor data and physical education state data are constructed as a state augmentation matrix. Then, the average spectral radius of the characteristic statistic is used to construct indicators to analyze the size of the correlation between each influencing factor and physical education state to achieve the fundamental positioning of physical education quality. The main influencing factors of online teaching of public physical education classes in colleges and universities mainly include teacher quality, teaching process, course resources, and course effect, and the construction of an evaluation index system should be implemented based on adhering to the scientificity, accessibility, independence, and generality from these four aspects to construct the evaluation index system and evaluation criteria of online teaching quality of public physical education class in colleges and universities, which provides the final realization of the goal of physical education class in colleges and universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small, medium, and micro enterprises play an important role in the development of the national economy and are of great significance in promoting technological innovation, relieving employment pressure, facilitating people's lives, and maintaining social stability. But in China, small, medium, and micro enterprises generally exist in the phenomenon of "financing difficulties." Therefore, we need to find a method to forecast its credit risk. By using Python, SPSS, and other software, based on a two-component logistic regression model, assisted by multievaluation model and supported by game theory, this paper establishes an innovative comprehensive credit risk assessment model for small, medium, and micro enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the analysis of blonanserin and its active metabolite, N-desethyl blonanserin, in rat plasma has been developed and validated. The biological samples were treated by simple direct protein precipitation before separation on an Agilent Eclipse Plus C18 column (4.6 × 100 mm, 3.5 μm) with a column temperature of 35°C at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The mobile phase A is a mixture of methanol and water (75 : 25, v/v, 5 mM ammonium formate), and the mobile phase B is acetonitrile containing 0.1% formic acid. The ratio of mobile phase A to mobile phase B is 15 : 85. Electrospray ionization (ESI) multiple reaction monitoring modes are used for detection, which are m/z 368.10 ⟶ 296.90 (blonanserin), m/z 340.15 ⟶ 297.05(N-desethyl blonanserin), and m/z 348.15⟶ 302.05 (N-desethyl blonanserin-d8). The linear response range was 0.1–100.0 ng/mL for blonanserin and N-desethyl blonanserin. The lower limit of quantification (LLOQ), calibration curves, carryover, and matrix effects were sufficiently accurate and precise according to the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) guidelines for bioanalytical method validation. This analytical method was successfully applied in a blonanserin-poloxamer thermosensitive gel pharmacokinetic study in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Individuals with substance use disorders, particularly those with alcohol use disorder (AUD), have a high risk of suicide. Therefore, identifying risk factors for suicide in these individuals is crucial. Methods. This retrospective study reviewed the medical records of individuals with AUD who participated in an alcohol treatment program in central Taiwan during 2019–2020. We collected data using the Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, and Eye-opener questionnaire, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Brief Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and a suicidal ideation question. Furthermore, we collected information on several related variables, namely, sex, age, marital status, years in school, employment status, family history of alcohol problems, age at first exposure to alcohol, duration of alcohol use, history of alcohol cessation, history of domestic violence, and history of drunk driving. In total, 136 individuals were recruited to participate in this study. Results. The suicidal ideation group had significantly younger participants, a higher proportion of women, a higher proportion of participants with a history of domestic violence, a greater severity of alcohol addiction (based on both AUDIT and MAST scores), higher depression scores, higher anxiety scores, less social support, a lower quality of life (World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)), and poorer sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) compared with the nonsuicidal ideation group. The suicidal ideation score was correlated with the AUDIT score after age, and BDI, BAI, WHOQOL, and PSQI scores were controlled for (P = 0.034). Conclusion. Individuals with higher AUDIT scores visiting a clinic for alcohol treatment might have a higher risk of suicidal ideation. Therefore, clinicians should pay close attention to the suicidal ideation problem in this population. Furthermore, appropriate medication or management programs for suicide prevention should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problem of low detection accuracy due to the loss of detailed information when extracting pavement crack features in traditional U-shaped networks, a pavement crack detection method based on multiscale attention and hesitant fuzzy set (HFS) is proposed. First, the encoding-decoding structure is used to construct a pavement crack segmentation network, ResNeXt50 is used to extract features in the encoding stage, and a multiscale feature fusion module (MFF) is designed to obtain multiscale context information. Second, in the decoding stage, a high-efficiency dual attention module (EDA) is used to enhance the ability of capturing details of the cracks while suppressing background noise. Finally, the membership degree of the crack is calculated based on the advantages of the HFS in multiattribute decision-making to obtain the similarity of the crack, and the binary image after segmentation is judged by the hesitation fuzzy measure. The experiment was conducted on the public road crack dataset Crack500. In terms of segmentation performance, the evaluation indexes Intersection over Union (IoU), Precision, and Dice coefficients of the proposed network reached 55.56%, 74.26%, and 67.43%, respectively; in terms of classification performance, for transversal and longitudinal cracks, the classification accuracy was 84% ± 0.5%, while the block and the alligator were both 78% ± 0.5%. The experimental results prove that the crack details detected by the proposed method are more abundant, and the image detection effect of complex topological structures and small cracks are better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the defects of traditional full-text retrieval models in dealing with mathematical expressions, which are special objects different from ordinary texts, a multimodal retrieval and ranking method for scientific documents based on hesitant fuzzy sets (HFS) and XLNet is proposed. This method integrates multimodal information, such as mathematical expression images and context text, as keywords to realize the retrieval of scientific documents. In the image modal, the images of mathematical expressions are recognized, and the hesitancy fuzzy set theory is introduced to calculate the hesitancy fuzzy similarity between mathematical query expressions and the mathematical expressions in candidate scientific documents. Meanwhile, in the text mode, XLNet is used to generate word vectors of the mathematical expression context to obtain the similarity between the query text and the mathematical expression context of the candidate scientific documents. Finally, the multimodal evaluation is integrated, and the hesitation fuzzy set is constructed at the document level to obtain the final scores of the scientific documents and corresponding ranked output. The experimental results show that the recall and precision of this method are 0.774 and 0.663 on the NTCIR dataset, respectively, and the average normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG) value of the top-10 ranking results is 0.880 on the Chinese scientific document (CSD) dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the classical problem that the Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion overestimates the tensile properties of geotechnical materials, a modified Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion that includes both maximum tensile stress theory and smooth processing was established herein. The modified Mohr–Coulomb constitutive model is developed using the user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) available in finite element software ABAQUS, and the modified Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion is applied to construct a numerical simulation of a shaking table model test. Compared with the measured data from the shaking table test, the accuracies of the classical Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion and the modified Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion are assessed. Compared to the shaking table test, the classical Mohr–Coulomb model has a relatively large average error (−6.98% in peak acceleration values, −8.47% in displacement values, −23.93% in axial forces), while the modified Mohr–Coulomb model has a smaller average error (+2.71% in peak accelerations value, +3.19% in displacements value, +7.56% in axial forces). The results of numerical simulation using the modified Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion are closer to the measured data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The role of IgG subclass in idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) was unclarified. Recent study found IgG subtype switches from IgG1 to IgG4 in the early pathological stage in IMN. The profile of IgG subclass in phospholipase A2 receptor- (PLA2R-) related and PLA2R-unrelated IMN was unrevealed. Our study is aimed at testifying whether IgG subclass switch existed in PLA2R-related and PLA2R-unrelated IMN, respectively. Methods. Our study retrospectively enrolled 157 Chinese patients with biopsy-confirmed IMN between September 2017 and November 2019. We measured glomerular PLA2R antigen and serum anti-PLA2R antibody to classify the patients into PLA2R-related (n = 132) and PLA2R-unrelated (n = 25) subgroup. We evaluated glomerular IgG subclass by immunofluorescence (IF) predominance. Our study defined IgG subclass deposition as predominant if the IF score was higher than the other three and ≥1 +, or as codominant if the IF intensity was equal to any other and ≥1 +. We explored the relationship between IF predominance of glomerular IgG subtype and electron microscopic (EM) stages of IMN. Results. We did not find statistical difference of predominant or codominant rate (pre/co-rate) among EM stages in any subclass (P > 0.05). Pre/co-rate of IgG3 linearly associated with EM stage in total and PLA2R-related subgroup (P = 0.044 , P = 0.013). PLA2R-related subgroup showed higher IgG4 intensity (2.1 ± 0.6 vs. 1.6 ± 0.7 , P = 0.001) and pre/co-rate of IgG4 in stage 1 (97% vs. 57%, P = 0.015) than PLA2R-unrelated group. We found no difference of IgG subclass pre/co-rate in different EM stages or linear association between pre/co-rate of IgG1, IgG2, IgG4, and EM stages (P > 0.05). Conclusions. Pre/co-rate of IgG3 declined with EM stage in total and PLA2R-related subgroup. We did not find IgG subclass switches from IgG1 to IgG4 in either IMN patients or subgroups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses principal component analysis (PCA) and entropy method to construct the evaluation index system of the scientific research performance of universities in 31 provinces and cities in China. Based on the traditional DEA model, the development trend of the scientific research performance of the research objects from 2015 to 2019 is dynamically evaluated by the Malmquist index method. The results show that the scientific research performance of universities in various regions of China is not ideal, and the level of scientific research performance is declining. The total factor productivity of scientific research in the central and western regions is much higher than that in the eastern region. The main factor that hinders the improvement of scientific research performance is the efficiency of technological progress. Finally, aiming at the existing problems, some feasible suggestions are put forward to further improve the input-output efficiency of scientific research in universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alport syndrome (AS) is an inherited kidney disease caused by defects in type IV collagen, which is characterized by hematuria, progressive nephritis or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), hearing loss, and occasionally ocular lesions. Approximately 80% of AS cases are caused by X-linked mutations in the COL4A5 gene. This study explored novel deletion and missense mutations in COL4A5 responsible for renal disorder in two Han Chinese families. In pedigree 1, the five male patients all had ESRD at a young age, while the affected female members only presented with microscopic hematuria. Whole exome sequencing and Sanger sequencing identified a novel frameshift deletion mutation (c.422_428del, p.Leu142Valfs ∗ 11) in exon 7 of COL4A5. In pedigree 2, the 16-year-old male proband had elevated serum creatinine (309 μmol/L) without extrarenal manifestations, while his mother only manifested with hematuria. A missense mutation (c.476G>T, p.Gly159Val) was found in exon 9 of the COL4A5 gene. Neither of these mutations was present in the Exome Variant Server of the NHLBI-ESP database, nor was it found in the ExAC or 1000 Genomes databases. Through the literature review, it was found that male Chinese patients with X-linked AS carried COL4A5 deletion or missense mutations had a more severe phenotype than female patients, particularly in proteinuria and impaired renal function. Compared to male patients with missense mutations, patients in whom deletion mutations were found were more likely to progress to ESRD (15.4% vs. 36.0%, P = 0.041). This study identified two novel COL4A5 mutations in Chinese families with X-linked AS, expanded the mutational spectrum of the COL4A5 gene, and presented findings that are significant for the screening and genetic diagnosis of AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since fall is happening with increasing frequency, it has been a major public health problem in an aging society. There are considerable demands to distinguish fall down events of seniors with the characteristics of accurate detection and real-time alarm. However, some daily activities are erroneously signaled as falls and there are too many false alarms in actual application. In order to resolve this problem, this paper designs and implements a comprehensive fall detection framework on the basis of inertial posture sensors and surveillance cameras. In the proposed system framework, data sources representing behavior characteristics to indicate potential fall are derived from wearable triaxial accelerometers and monitoring videos of surveillance cameras. Moreover, the NB-IoT based communication mode is adopted to transmit wearable sensory data to the Internet for subsequent analysis. Furthermore, a Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) classifier-based fall detection algorithm (GBDT-FD in short) with comprehensive data fusion of posture sensor and human video skeleton is proposed to improve detection accuracy. Experimental results verify the good performance of the proposed GBDT-FD algorithm compared to six kinds of existing fall detection algorithms, including SVM-based fall detection, NN-based fall detection, etc. Finally, we implement the proposed integrated systems including wearable posture sensors and monitoring software on the Cloud Server. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) can be easily obtained during knee surgery, which avoids the damage to patients for obtaining IPFP. Infrapatellar fat pad adipose-derived stem cells (IPFP-ASCs) are also called infrapatellar fat pad mesenchymal stem cells (IPFP-MSCs) because the morphology of IPFP-ASCs is similar to that of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs). IPFP-ASCs are attracting more and more attention due to their characteristics suitable to regenerative medicine such as strong proliferation and differentiation, anti-inflammation, antiaging, secreting cytokines, multipotential capacity, and 3D culture. IPFP-ASCs can repair articular cartilage and relieve the pain caused by osteoarthritis, so most of IPFP-related review articles focus on osteoarthritis. This article reviews the anatomy and function of IPFP, as well as the discovery, amplification, multipotential capacity, and application of IPFP-ASCs in order to explain why IPFP-ASC is a superior stem cell source in regenerative medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High compliance with methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) is crucial to successful opioid abstinence in addicts. However, MMT has numerous side effects, including reductions in quality of life and quality of sleep. Many studies have demonstrated that electroacupuncture relieves withdrawal symptoms in opioid addicts. The present study was a case-control study. From January 2015 to September 2016, 106 patients undergoing MMT at a medical center in central Taiwan were recruited and separated into an electroacupuncture treatment group and a control group. Electroacupuncture was performed for 15 minutes twice weekly for 4 weeks. The electroacupuncture treatment group was discovered to have improved quality of life, especially in terms of vitality and mental health. Although electroacupuncture did not significantly improve sleep quality, we found that sleep quality was significantly improved once methadone dosage had been reduced. Electroacupuncture can improve quality of life in patients undergoing MMT. If methadone dosage can be reduced and electroacupuncture can be employed, both sleep and life quality can be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The prevalence of overweight/obesity in adults is raised to 39%, which is nearly tripled more than 1975. The alteration of the gut microbiome has been widely accepted as one of the main causal factors. To find an effective strategy for the prevention and treatment of overweight/obesity, a systematic review and meta-analysis were designed. Methods. In this study, we systematically reviewed the article published from January 2008 to July 2018 and conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effects of probiotics on body weight control, lipid profile, and glycemic control in healthy adults with overweight or obesity. The primary outcomes were body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, fat mass, fat percentages, plasma lipid profiles, and glucose metabolic parameters. Results. We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and the Web of Science and identified 1248 articles, and 7 articles which were manually searched by the references of included studies and previously systematic reviews. Twelve randomized controlled trials (RCTs), including 821 participants, were included in the meta-analysis via full-text screening. Probiotics supplementation resulted in a statistical reduction in body weight (WMD [95% CI]; -0.55 [-0.91, -0.19] kg), BMI (WMD [95% CI]; -0.30 [-0.43, -0.18] kg m−2), waist circumference (WMD [95% CI]; -1.20 [-2.21, -0.19] cm), fat mass (WMD [95% CI]; -0.91 [-1.19, -0.63] kg), and fat percentage (WMD [95% CI]; -0.92 [-1.27, -0.56] %) compared with control groups. As expected, the metabolic parameters were improved significantly, with a pooled standardized mean difference in TC (SMD [95% CI]; -0.43 [-0.80, -0.07]), LDL-C (SMD [95% CI]; -0.41 [-0.77, -0.04]), FPG (SMD [95% CI]; -0.35 [-0.67, -0.02]), insulin (SMD [95% CI]; -0.44 [-0.84, -0.03]), and HOMA-IR (SMD [95% CI]; -0.51 [-0.96, -0.05]), respectively. The changes in TG (SMD [95% CI]; 0.14 [-0.23, 0.50]), HDL-C (SMD [95% CI]; -0.31 [-0.70, 0.07]), and HbA1c (SMD [95% CI]; -0.23 [-0.46, 0.01]) were not significant. Conclusion. This study suggests that the probiotics supplementation could potentially reduce the weight gain and improve some of the associated metabolic parameters, which may become an effective strategy for the prevention and treatment of obesity in adult individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more users are uploading their data to the cloud without storing any copies locally. Under the premise that cloud users cannot fully trust cloud service providers, how to ensure the integrity of users' shared data in the cloud storage environment is one of the current research hotspots. In this paper, we propose a secure and effective data sharing scheme for dynamic user groups. (1) In order to realize the user identity tracking and the addition and deletion of dynamic group users, we add a new role called Rights Distribution Center (RDC) in our scheme. (2) To protect the privacy of user identity, when performing third party audit to verify data integrity, it is not possible to determine which user is a specific user. Therefore, the fairness of the audit can be promoted. (3) Define a new integrity audit model for shared cloud data. In this scheme, the user sends the encrypted data to the cloud and the data tag to the Rights Distribution Center (RDC) by using data blindness technology. Finally, we prove the security of the scheme through provable security theory. In addition, the experimental data shows that our proposed scheme is more efficient and scalable than the state-of-the-art solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bocaparvovirus infections of humans and both wild and domestic animals have been widely reported around the world. In this study, we detected and genetically characterized porcine bocavirus (PBoV) carried by murine rodents (Rattus norvegicus, Rattus tanezumi, and Rattus losea) and house shrews (Suncus murinus) in China. Between May 2015 and May 2017, 496 murine rodents and 23 house shrews were captured in four Chinese provinces. Nested polymerase chain reaction was used to investigate the prevalence of PBoV in throat swab, faecal and serum samples. A total of 7.5% (39/519) throat swab samples, 60.5% (309/511) faecal samples, and 22.9% (52/227) serum samples were PBoV‐positive. The prevalence among R. norvegicus and R. tanezumi was higher than that among R. losea and house shrews. PBoV‐positive samples were found in all four provinces. Phylogenetic analysis based on partial viral capsid protein 1/2 (VP1/VP2) showed that sequences obtained in this study formed a novel group (PBoV G4). In addition, five near full‐length PBoV genomes (4,715–4,798 nt) were acquired. These genomes encoded two non‐structural proteins, NS1 (1,908 nt in four genomes and 1,923 nt in the remaining genome) and NP1 (600 nt), and the structural proteins, VP1/VP2 (1,851 nt). Phylogenetic analysis showed that PBoV G4 is distinct from rodent, human, and other bocaviruses. In conclusion, PBoV G4 prevalence was high among two common murine rodents in China, and the pathogenecity of PBoV G4 need to be further clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Mode shape identification is a crucial task in the field of bridge health monitoring. This paper proposes a mass‐normalized mode shape identification method for bridge structures on the basis of its essential property of bearing vehicle load. First, the relationship between the bridge frequencies changes due to a parking vehicle, and the amplitudes of the mass‐normalized mode shapes at the parking point is established through theoretical derivation. Subsequently, the algorithm and procedures to extract the mode shapes by using the frequencies measured on a two‐axle vehicle that parks at different locations of the bridge progressively are proposed. Then the determination of the two‐axle parking vehicle parameters and the distinctive features of the proposed method are discussed. Numerical and experimental examples of different bridge types are conducted to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed identification method. The results indicate that the proposed method can obtain high spatial resolution mass‐normalized mode shapes accurately with only one sensor on the parking vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) mellitus is an autoimmune disorder involving both complex genetic and environmental factors. The incidence rates are low in Asian countries, and the specific, explanatory genetic factors underlying this have been investigated. The aim of this study was to elucidate the association of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles/haplotypes with T1D in Taiwan. Methods: We performed direct comprehensive genotyping of 6 classical HLA loci (HLA‐A, ‐B, ‐C, ‐DPB1, ‐DQB1, and ‐DRB1) to 4‐digit resolution in 104 unrelated T1D patients and 504 controls. Twenty‐four of the 104 patients also exhibited thyroid autoimmunity. Results: Three major susceptibility haplotypes were identified: DRB1*03:01‐DQB1*02:01 (odds ratio [OR] = 5.39 under the dominant model, P = 2.3 × 10−13), DRB1*04:05‐DQB1*04:01 (OR = 2.44, P = 5.0 × 10−4), and DRB1*09:01‐DQB1*03:03 (OR = 2.02, P = 1.4 × 10−3); one protective haplotype was identified: DRB1*08:03‐DQB1*06:01 (OR = 0.10, P = 1.6 × 10−3). DRB1*03:01‐DQB1*02:01, the major T1D susceptibility haplotype, was found at a lower frequency in T1D patients with thyroid autoimmunity. The T1D protective allele DRB1*12:02 was shown to be protective against Graves’ disease in our previous report. Conclusion: In addition to clarifying the roles of several known T1D HLA alleles and haplotypes, we discovered that the DRB1*08:03‐DQB1*06:01 haplotype is protective against T1D. The DRB1*12:02 allele protected against both T1D and Graves’ disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Kinetics study on the generation of hydrogen from an Al/water system is performed. The reaction is affected by three major factors such as the concentration of hydroxyl ions (pH values), catalysts, and temperature. However, these factors are interacted and sometimes difficult to separate. This study demonstrates how these factors affect the generation of hydrogen in an Al/water system. Aluminum hydroxide, Al(OH)3 (bayerite phase), synthesized using a chemical solution method, is proved to be a very effective catalyst for the reaction of Al and water. Approximately 95% yield (1300 mL) of hydrogen is produced from 1 g Al in 10 mL water using 3 g Al(OH)3 catalyst at room temperature within 1 minute. The generation rate of hydrogen is accelerated due to the catalyst Al(OH)3 and the exothermic heat. In this report, a ball‐mixing process, the ratio of Al:Al(OH)3:H2O, and the reacting temperatures are investigated to clarify the effect of catalyst Al(OH)3. The synthesized Al(OH)3 catalyst is found to reduce the activation energy of Al/water reaction from 158 kJ/mol to 73.3~76.9 kJ/mol. The roles of hydroxyl ions (ie, pH values), temperature, and catalyst on this phenomenal reaction are explained using a kinetics study and the concept of Fick first law. The 3 factors all improve the flux of hydroxyl ions through the passive Al2O3 layer; therefore, the generation of hydrogen is enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To investigate the effects of QKF on expression of amyloid-beta (Aβ), interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) using a rat model of AD. Materials and Methods. Fifty-six male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into seven groups (eight rats each): control group, sham-operated group, AD model group, groups of AD rats administered with low, medium, and high doses of QKF, and the donepezil group. AD was established by bilateral injection of β-amyloid (Aβ) 1–40 into the hippocampus. Two days after AD was established, drugs were administered by gavage. After 14 days of treatment, we used RT-PCR, Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry to measure the transcript expression and protein abundance of Aβ, IL-1β, and GFAP, and methenamine silver staining was used to detect amyloid protein particle deposition. Results. Compared to the control group, the rats from the AD model group showed significantly greater expression levels of Aβ, IL-1β, and GFAP. However, these differences in expression were abolished by treatment with QKF or donepezil. Conclusion. QKF possesses therapeutic potential against AD because it downregulated Aβ, IL-1β, and GFAP in the hippocampus of AD rats. Future studies should further examine the mechanisms through which QKF produces its effects and the consequences of long-term QKF administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shape function-based method is one of the very promising time-domain methods for dynamic force reconstruction, because it can significantly reduce the number of unknowns and shorten the reconstruction time. However, it is challenging to determine the optimum time unit length that can balance the tradeoff between reconstruction accuracy and efficiency in advance. To address this challenge, this paper develops an adaptive dynamic force reconstruction method based on multiscale wavelet shape functions and time-domain deconvolution. A concentrated dynamic force is discretized into units in time domain and the local force in each unit is approximated by wavelet scale functions at an initial scale. Subsequently, the whole response matrix is formulated by assembling the responses induced by the wavelet shape function forces of all time units which are calculated by the structural finite element model (FEM). Then, the wavelet shape function-based force-response equation is established for force reconstruction. Finally, the scale of the force-response equation is lifted by refining the wavelet shape function with high-scale wavelets and dynamic responses with more point data to improve the reconstruction accuracy gradually. Numerical examples of different structural types are analyzed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nangqen Basin is a typical shearing-extensional basin situated in the hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau. It contains abundant saline spring resources and abnormal trace element enrichments. The hydrochemical molar ratios (Na/Cl, B/Cl, and Br/Cl), H-O isotopes, and B isotopes of the saline spring were systematically measured to describe the evolution of brines and the origin of the boron. The sodium chloride coefficient of the water samples in this area is around 1.0 or slightly greater, which is characteristic of leached brines; the highest B/Cl value is 4.25 (greater than that of seawater). The Na/Cl, B/Cl, and Br/Cl values of the springs are clear indicators of a crustal origin. The δ18O values of the spring waters range from −12.88‰ to −16.05‰, and the δD values range from −100.91‰ to −132.98‰. Meanwhile the B content and B isotopes in the saline springs are in the ranges of 1.00 to 575.56 ppm and +3.55‰ to +29.59‰, respectively. It has been proven that the saline springs in the Nangqen Basin are a type of leached brine, suggesting that the saline springs have a terrestrial origin. The δ11B-B characteristics of the springs are similar to those observed in the Tibetan geothermal area, indicating that these two places have the same B source. Moreover, they have a crustal origin (marine carbonate rocks and volcanic rocks) instead of a deep mantle source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals are usually contaminated with various artifacts, such as signal associated with muscle activity, eye movement, and body motion, which have a noncerebral origin. The amplitude of such artifacts is larger than that of the electrical activity of the brain, so they mask the cortical signals of interest, resulting in biased analysis and interpretation. Several blind source separation methods have been developed to remove artifacts from the EEG recordings. However, the iterative process for measuring separation within multichannel recordings is computationally intractable. Moreover, manually excluding the artifact components requires a time-consuming offline process. This work proposes a real-time artifact removal algorithm that is based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA), feature extraction, and the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) to improve the quality of EEG signals. The CCA was used to decompose EEG signals into components followed by feature extraction to extract representative features and GMM to cluster these features into groups to recognize and remove artifacts. The feasibility of the proposed algorithm was demonstrated by effectively removing artifacts caused by blinks, head/body movement, and chewing from EEG recordings while preserving the temporal and spectral characteristics of the signals that are important to cognitive research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ectromelia virus (ECTV), the causative agent of mousepox, has emerged as a valuable model for investigating the host-Orthopoxvirus relationship as it relates to pathogenesis and the immune response. ECTV is a mouse-specific virus and causes high mortality in susceptible mice strains, including BALB/c and C3H, whereas C57BL/6 and 129 strains are resistant to the disease. To understand the host genetic factors in different mouse strains during the ECTV infection, we carried out a microarray analysis of spleen tissues derived from BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice, respectively, at 3 and 10 days after ECTV infection. Differential Expression of Genes (DEGs) analyses revealed distinct differences in the gene profiles of susceptible and resistant mice. The susceptible BALB/c mice generated more DEGs than the resistant C57BL/6 mice. Additionally, gene ontology and KEGG pathway analysis showed the DEGs of susceptible mice were involved in innate immunity, apoptosis, metabolism, and cancer-related pathways, while the DEGs of resistant mice were largely involved in MAPK signaling and leukocyte transendothelial migration. Furthermore, the BALB/c mice showed a strong induction of interferon-induced genes, which, however, were weaker in the C57BL/6 mice. Collectively, the differential transcriptome profiles of susceptible and resistant mouse strains with ECTV infection will be crucial for further uncovering the molecular mechanisms of the host-Orthopoxvirus interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Qi-supplementing therapy has been used widely for treating myasthenia gravis (MG) in China. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Qi-supplementing therapy as an adjunctive therapy in MG patients. Methods. Seven electronic databases were searched through June 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the add-on effect of Qi-supplementing therapy in MG patients were included. The outcome measures were the total effective rate, relapse rate, and adverse events. Results. Twenty-three RCTs involving 1,691 MG patients were included. The included studies were of low-to-moderate quality. Meta-analysis showed that Qi-supplementing therapy combined with Western medicine (WM) significantly improved the total response rate and reduced the relapse risk during 6–24 months of follow-up. Subgroup analysis showed that Qi-supplementing therapy only affected the total response rate within the first 6 months of treatment. Moreover, the rate of adverse events was lower with the addition of Qi-supplementing therapy to WM than with WM only. Conclusions. Short-term Qi-supplementing therapy combined with WM appears to be superior to WM for improving the total response rate and reducing the relapse rate. However, more high-quality RCTs are warranted owing to methodological flaws of previous trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the adaptive fuzzy control problem for a class of twin-roll strip casting systems. By using fuzzy logic systems (FLSs) to approximate the compounded nonlinear functions, a novel robust output tracking controller with adaptation laws is designed based on the high gain observer. First, the nonlinear dynamic equations for the roll gap and the molten steel level are constructed, respectively. Then, the mean value theorem is employed to transform the nonaffine nonlinear systems to the corresponding affine nonlinear systems. Moreover, it is also proved that all the closed-loop signals are bounded and the systems output tracking errors can converge to the desired neighborhoods of the origin via the Lyapunov stability analysis. Finally, simulation results, based on semiexperimental system dynamic model and parameters, are worked out to show the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive fuzzy design method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the prognostic value of thyroid-related hormones within normal ranges after acute ischemic stroke. This was a retrospective study and we reviewed 1072 ischemic stroke patients consecutively admitted within 72 h after symptom onset. Total triiodothyronine (T3), total thyroxine (T4), free T3, free T4, and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were assessed to determine their values for predicting functional outcome at the first follow-up clinic visits, which usually occurred 2 to 4 weeks after discharge from the hospital. 722 patients were finally included. On univariate analysis, poor functional outcome was associated with presence of atrial fibrillation as the index event. Furthermore, score of National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), total T4, free T4, and C-reactive protein at admission were significantly higher in patients with poor functional outcome, whereas free T3 and total T3 were significantly lower. On multiple logistic regression analysis, lower total T3 concentrations remained independently associated with poor functional outcome [odds ratio (OR), 0.10; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.01–0.84; P=0.035]. The only other variables independently associated with poor functional outcome were NIHSS scores. In sum, lower total T3 concentrations that were within the normal ranges were independently associated with poor short-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subway tunnel cracks directly reflect the structural integrity of a tunnel, and as such the detection of subway tunnel cracks is always an important task in tunnel structure monitoring. This paper presents a convenient, fast, and automated crack detection method based on a wireless multimedia sensor subway tunnel network. This method primarily provides a solution for image acquisition, image detection and identification of cracks. In order to quickly obtain a surface image of the tunnel, we used special train image sensor nodes to provide the high speed and high performance processing capability with a large-capacity battery. The proposed process can significantly reduce the amount of data transmission by compressing the binary image obtained by initial processing of the original image. We transferred the data compressed by the sensor to an appropriate station and uploaded them to a database when the train passes through the station. We also designed a fast, easy to implement fracture identification and detection image processing algorithm that can solve the image identification and detection problem. In real subway field tests, this method provided excellent performance for subway tunnel crack detection, and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel hybrid serial-parallel mechanism with 6 degrees of freedom. The new mechanism combines two different parallel modules in a serial form. 3-P̲(PH) parallel module is architecture of 3 degrees of freedom based on higher joints and specializes in describing two planes’ relative pose. 3-P̲SP parallel module is typical architecture which has been widely investigated in recent researches. In this paper, the direct-inverse position problems of the 3-P̲SP parallel module in the couple mixed-type mode are analyzed in detail, and the solutions are obtained in an analytical form. Furthermore, the solutions for the direct and inverse position problems of the novel hybrid serial-parallel mechanism are also derived and obtained in the analytical form. The proposed hybrid serial-parallel mechanism is applied to regulate the immersion hood’s pose in an immersion lithography system. Through measuring and regulating the pose of the immersion hood with respect to the wafer surface simultaneously, the immersion hood can track the wafer surface’s pose in real-time and the gap status is stabilized. This is another exploration to hybrid serial-parallel mechanism’s application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The normal proportional derivative (PD) control is modified to a new dual form for the regulation of a ball and plate system. First, to analyze this controller, a novel complete nonlinear model of the ball and plate system is obtained. Second, an asymptotic stable dual PD control with a nonlinear compensation is developed. Finally, the experimental results of ball and plate system are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel dynamic model is introduced for the modeling of the wind turbine behavior. The objective of the wind turbine is the electric energy generation. The analytic model has the characteristic that considers a rotatory tower. Experiments show the validity of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteomyelitis therapy is a long-term and inconvenient procedure for a patient. Antibiotic-loaded bone cements are both a complementary and alternative treatment option to intravenous antibiotic therapy for the treatment of osteomyelitis. In the current study, the biphasic calcium phosphate cement (CPC), called α-TCP/HAP (α-tricalcium phosphate/hydroxyapatite) biphasic cement, was prepared as an antibiotics carrier for osteomyelitis. The developed biphasic cement with a microstructure of α-TCP surrounding the HAP has a fast setting time which will fulfill the clinical demand. The X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry analyses showed the final phase to be HAP, the basic bone mineral, after setting for a period of time. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a porous structure with particle sizes of a few micrometers. The addition of gentamicin in α-TCP/HAP would delay the transition of α-TCP but would not change the final-phase HAP. The gentamicin-loaded α-TCP/HAP supplies high doses of the antibiotic during the initial 24 hours when they are soaked in phosphate buffer solution (PBS). Thereafter, a slower drug release is produced, supplying minimum inhibitory concentration until the end of the experiment (30 days). Studies of growth inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in culture indicated that gentamicin released after 30 days from α-TCP/HAP biphasic cement retained antibacterial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We establish the formulas of the maximal and minimal ranks of the quaternion Hermitian matrix expression C4 - A4XA*4 where X is a Hermitian solution to quaternion matrix equations A1X = C1, XB1 = C2, and A3XA*3 = C3. As applications, we give a new necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of Hermitian solution to the system of matrix equations A1X = C1, XB1 =C2, A3XA*3 = C3, and A4XA*4 = C4, which was investigated by Wang and Wu, 2010, by rank equalities. In addition, extremal ranks of the generalized Hermitian Schur complement C4 - A4Ã3A*4 with respect to a Hermitian g-inverse Ã3 of A3, which is a common solution to quaternion matrix equations A1X = C1 and XB1= C2, are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium dioxide nanotube (TNT) arrays were prepared in electrolytes containing fluoride by anodic oxidation. Different preparation parameters were investigated in order to evaluate their effects on length and inner diameter of nanotube, including weight ratio of glycerol to water, anodization voltage, electrolysis time, bath temperature, and electrolyte solution pH. The well defined and highly ordered TNT arrays were formed in electrolyte containing 40, and 20% water. The inner diameter of TNT was observed to increase as anodization voltage increased across the range of 10-40V. The length of TNT was affected simultaneously by both anodization voltage and electrolysis time. The inner diameter and length depend on bath temperature below 60°C. The morphology of TNT was well defined and highly ordered only at electrolyte solution pH of 6 across the pH range of 2-10. Photocatalysis of methylene blue showed that reaction rate constants by TNT films were higher than P-25 films at comparable thickness. Reaction rate constants by TNT films increased as film thickness increased, but the enhancement was retarded when the length of TNT reached 2200 nm which appeared to be the limited penetration of incident UV light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the energy production by wind turbines has been increasing, because its production is environmentally friendly; therefore, the technology developed for the production of energy throughwind turbines brings great challenges in the investigation. This paper studies the characteristics of the wind turbine in the market and lab; it is focused on the recent advances of the wind turbine modeling with the aerodynamic power and the wind turbine control with the nonlinear, fuzzy, and predictive techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop an effective ocular drug delivery carrier, we prepared two different charged gelatin nanoparticles (GPs) and evaluated particle size, surface charge, and morphology. The in vitro biocompatibility of GPs was assessed using human corneal epithelium (HCE) cells and in vivo safety by administering them as eye drops to New Zealand rabbits. The GPs prepared using type A gelatin were positively charged (GP(+), +33mV; size, 180.6 ± 45.7 nm). Water-soluble tetrazolium salt (WST)-1 assay showed that both GPs were nontoxic to HCE cells. The fluorescence intensity of HCE cells cultured with cationic GPs conjugated with a fluorescent dye was higher than that of the anionic GP-treated HCE cells. In vivo examination showed no serious irritation to the rabbit eyes. Furthermore, corneal thickness and ocular pressure in the eyes of the treated rabbits were similar to those in the eyes of normal rabbits. Microscopic examination of corneal cryosections showed widely distributed fluorescent nanocarriers, from the anterior to the posterior part of the cornea of the GP(+) group, and higher fluorescence intensity in the GP(+) group was also observed. In conclusion, GPs as cationic colloidal carriers were efficiently adsorbed on the negatively charged cornea without irritating the eyes of the rabbits and can be retained in the cornea for a longer time. Thus, GPs(+) have a great potential as vehicles for ocular drug delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of and the expressions for the general real and complex Hermitian solutions to the classical system of quaternion matrix equations A1X = C1,XB1 = C2, and A3XA3* = C3. Moreover, formulas of the maximal andminimal ranks of four real matrices X1,X2,X3, and X4 in solution X = X1 + X2i + X3j + X4k to the system mentioned above are derived. As applications, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the quaternion matrix equations A1X = C1,XB1 = C2,A3XA4* = C3, and A4XA4* = C4 to have real and complex Hermitian solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar TiO2 photocatalytic process assisted by a Fresnel lens was investigated for treating an azo dye wastewater of Acid Orange 10 (AO10). Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to assess the effect of critical process parameters (including initial pH of wastewater, concentration of TiO2, and reaction time) on treatment performance in terms of COD and TOC degradation efficiency. Optimized reaction conditions based on the analysis of RSM were established under an initial pH of 6.0, a concentration of TiO2 of 1 g/L, and a reaction time of 2 h for reaching a 90% COD and TOC degradation of AO10 wastewater. With the assistance of Fresnel lens, the TOC degradation rate of AO10 wastewater increased significantly from 0.606 h-1 and 0.289 h-1 to 1.477 h-1 and 0.866 h-1 in summer (June) season (UV280-400nm nm: 39.9-44.8W/m²) and winter (December) season (UV280-400nm nm: 23.9- 26.9W/m²), respectively. This could be mainly due to the concentrating effect of Fresnel lens for solar energy, resulting in an increase of 2 ∼2.5 times of solar light intensity and a raising heat irradiation in terms of 10 ∼15 °C of wastewater temperature. These results revealed that solar energy could be concentrated effectively by using Fresnel lens and showed a significant promoting effect on the TiO2 photocatalytic degradation of dye wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important objective of health monitoring systems for tall buildings is to diagnose the state of the building and to evaluate its possible damage. In this paper, we use our prototype to evaluate our data-mining approach for the fault monitoring. The offset cancellation and high-pass filtering techniques are combined effectively to solve common problems in numerical integration of acceleration signals in real-time applications. The integration accuracy is improved compared with other numerical integrators. Then we introduce a novel method for support vector machine (SVM) classification, called convex-concave hull. We use the Jarvis march method to decide the concave (nonconvex) hull for the inseparable points. Finally the vertices of the convex-concave hull are applied for SVM training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving quality of services (QoS) through applying trust and reputation management technology is increasingly popular in the literature and industry. Most existing trust and reputation systems calculate a general trust value or vector based on the gathered feedback without regard to trust's locality and subjectivity; therefore, they cannot effectively support a personal selection with consumer preferences. Our goal is to build a trust and reputation mechanism for facilitating a trustworthy and personal service selection in a service-oriented Web, where service peers can act as a service provider and/or a service consumer. A user-centric trust and reputation mechanism distinguishing the different trust context and content to enable a personal service selection with regard to trust preference in a service-oriented Web is represented in detail. It is widely recognized that reputation-based trust methods must face the challenge of malicious behaviors. To deal with the malicious feedback behaviors, we introduce a 'bidirectional'' feedback mechanism based on QoS experience similarity in our trust and reputation framework. The test run demonstrates that our method can significantly increase the success rate of service transactions and is effective in resisting various malicious behaviors of service peers, when it is compared to other similar methods. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the expression of mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channels (VDACs) and the protective effects of Myrica rubra Sieb. Et Zucc fruit extract (MCE) against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver damage was investigated. Pretreatment with 50 mg kg-1, 150 mg kg-1 or 450 mgkg-1 MCE significantly blocked the CCl4-induced increase in both serum aspartate aminotransferase (sAST) and serum alanine aminotransferase (sALT) levels in mice (P < .05 or .01 versus CCl4 group). Ultrastructural observations of decreased nuclear condensation, ameliorated mitochondrial fragmentation of the cristae and less lipid deposition by an electron microscope confirmed the hepatoprotection. The mitochondrial membrane potential dropped from -191.94 ± 8.84mV to -132.06 ± 12.26mV (P < .01) after the mice had been treated with CCl4. MCE attenuated CCl4- induced mitochondrial membrane potential dissipation in a dose-dependent manner. At a dose of 150 or 450 mg kg-1 of MCE, the mitochondrial membrane potentials were restored (P < .05). Pretreatment with MCE also prevented the elevation of intramitochondrial free calcium as observed in the liver of the CCl4-insulted mice (P < .01 versus CCl4 group). In addition, MCE treatment (50-450 mg kg-1) significantly increased both transcription and translation of VDAC inhibited by CCl4. The above data suggest that MCE mitigates the damage to liver mitochondria induced by CCl4, possibly through the regulation of mitochondrial VDAC, one of the most important proteins in the mitochondrial outer membrane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]