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With the acceleration of urbanisation and industrialisation, atmospheric particulate pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems in China. In this study, green spaces in Baoji city were classified into different patterns on the basis of vegetation structural parameters, i.e., horizontal structure, vertical structure and vegetation type. Eleven types of green space with different structures were selected for investigating the relationships between atmospheric particulate matter (PM) concentration and green spaces with different vegetation structure, based on the "matrix effect" of environmental factors, i.e., location, time, wind velocity, temperature, humidity and area to the concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 in the green spaces. The results showed that: (1) Location, time, wind velocity, temperature and humidity had highly significant effects on the concentration of PM2.5 and PM10. In sunny and breeze weather conditions, PM2.5 and PM10 concentration increased with the wind velocity and humidity, and decreased with the temperature. The range of PM10 concentration was greater than the range of PM2.5 concentration. (2) Less than 2 hectares of the green space had no significant influence on the concentration of PM2.5 and PM10. (3) The concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 showed no significant difference between all the green spaces and the control group. There was no significant difference in the reduction of PM2.5 concentration between different structural green spaces, but there was a significant difference in the reduction of PM10 concentration. The above results will provide a theoretical basis and practical methods for the optimisation of urban green space structures for improving urban air quality effectively in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To detect perimeter intrusion accurately and quickly, a stream computing technology was used to improve real-time data processing in perimeter intrusion detection systems. Based on the traditional density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (T-DBSCAN) algorithm, which depends on manual adjustments of neighborhood parameters, an adaptive parameters DBSCAN (AP-DBSCAN) method that can achieve unsupervised calculations was proposed. The proposed AP-DBSCAN method was implemented on a Spark Streaming platform to deal with the problems of data stream collection and real-time analysis, as well as judging and identifying the different types of intrusion. A number of sensing and processing experiments were finished and the experimental data indicated that the proposed AP-DBSCAN method on the Spark Streaming platform exhibited a fine calibration capacity for the adaptive parameters and the same accuracy as the T-DBSCAN method without the artificial setting of neighborhood parameters, in addition to achieving good performances in the perimeter intrusion detection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart sensor-equipped mobile devices sense, collect, and process data generated by the edge network to achieve intelligent control, but such mobile devices usually have limited storage and computing resources. Mobile cloud storage provides a promising solution owing to its rich storage resources, great accessibility, and low cost. But it also brings a risk of information leakage. The encryption of sensitive data is the basic step to resist the risk. However, deploying a high complexity encryption and decryption algorithm on mobile devices will greatly increase the burden of terminal operation and the difficulty to implement the necessary privacy protection algorithm. In this paper, we propose ENSURE (EfficieNt and SecURE), an efficient and secure encrypted search architecture over mobile cloud storage. ENSURE is inspired by edge computing. It allows mobile devices to offload the computation intensive task onto the edge server to achieve a high efficiency. Besides, to protect data security, it reduces the information acquisition of untrusted cloud by hiding the relevance between query keyword and search results from the cloud. Experiments on a real data set show that ENSURE reduces the computation time by 15% to 49% and saves the energy consumption by 38% to 69% per query. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid and efficient analysis of fluoride ion is crucial to providing key information for fluoride ion hazard assessment and pollution management. In this study, we synthesized one symmetrical structure called 1,4-bis(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)benzene (1a) and two asymmetrical structures, namely 2-(4-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)-1H-phenanthro(9,10-d)imidazole (1b) and 2-(4-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenyl)-1H-imidazo(4,5-f)(1,10)phenanthroline (1c), which served as an efficient anion sensor for fluoride ion over a wide range of other anions (Cl-, Br-, I-, NO3-, ClO4-, HSO4-, BF4-, and PF6-) owing to imidazole group in the main backbone. The absorption intensity of compound 1a at λmax 358 nm slightly decreased; however, a new band at λmax 414 nm appeared upon the addition of fluoride ion, while no evident change occurred upon the addition of eight other anions. The photoluminescence intensity of compound 1a at λmax 426 nm was nearly quenched and fluorescence emission spectra were broadened when fluoride ion was added into dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution of compound 1a. Compared with the optical behaviors of the DMSO solution of compound 1a in the presence of Bu4N+F-, compounds 1b and 1c exhibited considerable sensitivity to fluoride ion due to the increase in coplanarity. Furthermore, compared with the fluorescence emission behaviors of the DMSO solutions of compounds 1a and 1b in the presence of Bu4N+F-, compound 1c exhibited the most significant sensitivity to fluoride ion due to the charge transfer enhancement. Consequently, the detection limits of compounds 1a--1c increased from 5.47 x 10-6 M to 4.21 x 10-6 M to 9.12 x 10-7 M. Furthermore, the largest red shift (75 nm) of the DMSO solution compound 1c in the presence of fluoride ion can be observed. Our results suggest that the increase in coplanarity and the introduction of electron-withdrawing groups to the imidazole backbone can improve the performance in detecting fluoride ion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency is a significant topic in cloud computing. Dynamic consolidation of virtual machines (VMs) with live migration is an important method to reduce energy consumption. However, frequent VM live migration may cause a downtime of service. Therefore, the energy save and VM migration are two conflict objectives. In order to efficiently solve the dynamic VM consolidation, the dynamic VM placement (DVMP) problem is formed as a multiobjective problem in this paper. The goal of DVMP is to find a placement solution that uses the fewest servers to host the VMs, including two typical dynamic conditions of the assignment of new coming VMs and the re-allocation of existing VMs. Therefore, we propose a unified algorithm based on an ant colony system (ACS), termed the unified ACS (UACS), that works on both conditions. The UACS firstly uses sufficient servers to host the VMs and then gradually reduces the number of servers. With each especial number of servers, the UACS tries to find feasible solutions with the fewest VM migrations. Herein, a dynamic pheromone deposition method and a special heuristic information strategy are also designed to reduce the number of VM migrations. Therefore, the feasible solutions under different numbers of servers cover the Pareto front of the multiobjective space. Experiments with large-scale random workloads and real workload traces are conducted to evaluate the performance of the UACS. Compared with traditional heuristic, probabilistic, and other ACS based algorithms, the proposed UACS presents competitive performance in terms of energy consumption, the number of VM migrations, and maintaining quality of services (QoS) requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansion form is the most direct manifestation of urban expansion in space. Although it has been widely and vigorously studied, relatively little attention has been paid to reveal its spatiotemporal characteristics at the administrative level over a long timeframe. In this study, 31 Chinese municipalities and provincial capitals were selected as subjects to identify the urban expansion forms of provincial and higher level cities in China. First, urban expansion processes of these cities in the past four decades were reconstructed using remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) technology. Then, the overall characteristics of urban expansion were presented to scientifically determine the urban expansion forms of the provincial and higher level cities in China. Afterwards, the annual expansion area per city (AEAC) index was employed to describe the urban expansion processes and determine the important time nodes of the 31 cities. Lastly, the urban expansion type (UET) index was adopted to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of urban expansion forms. Results indicate that (1) from the 1970s to 2013, urban lands in provincial and higher level cities in China expanded dramatically, with the central built-up area increasing by over 5 times, and urban expansion demonstrating an apparent spatial difference. The expansion rate of cities in East China was fastest with an AEAC of 13.78 km2, followed by that in Central China (AEAC = 9.67 km2). The urban expansion rate was slowest in West China (AEAC = 7.11 km2); (2) Affected by the national macro policies, urban expansion processes successively experienced four different stages: a slow expansion period (1970s-1987), an accelerating expansion period (1987-1995), a slowdown expansion period (1995-2000), and a high-speed fluctuating expansion period (after 2000); (3) The urban expansion forms of municipalities and provincial capitals were mainly edge-expansion supported by infilling expansion. The leapfrog form contributed minimally to urban expansion; (4) The edge-expansion form surged before 2010 and gradually slowed down after 2010. By contrast, infilling expansion kept increasing in the past four decades. Lastly, the rate of urban expansion via the leapfrog form fluctuated from the 1970s to 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow induced vibration and energy extraction of an equilateral triangle prism elastically mounted in a water channel are investigated experimentally at different system damping ratios ζtotal with the constant oscillating mass Mosc and system stiffness K. A power take-off system with a variable damping function is developed. The translation-rotation equation of the vibration system deduced in the study indicates that the total oscillating mass includes the material mass, and the equivalent mass due to the rotation of the gears and rotor. Besides, increasing load resistance can result in a decrease in ζtotal when K and Mosc remain unchanged. The prism experiences, in turn, soft galloping, hard galloping 1 and hard galloping 2 with increasing ζtotal. As ζtotal increases up to 0.335, only the vortex-induced vibration is observed because the extremely high ζtotal prevents the prism from galloping. The response amplitude decreases with the increasing ζtotal. In addition, higher ζtotal promotes the galloping to start at a higher reduced velocity. The galloping characteristics of the prism, including large amplitude responses in an extremely large range of flow velocities, excellent vibration stationarity, and steady vibration frequencies, are beneficial for improving energy conversion. The prism can extract hydraulic energy for the flow velocity U > 0.610 m/s. The harnessed power Pout and the energy conversion efficiency ηout increase with increasing ζtotal in the galloping zone. The maximum Pout and ηout reach 53.56 W and 40.44%, respectively. The optimal system damping ratio for extracting energy is the maximum system damping ratio that the prism can overcome to experience stable galloping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tubulin inhibitors are effective anticancer agents, however, there are many limitations to the use of available tubulin inhibitors in the clinic, such as multidrug resistance, severe side-effects, and generally poor bioavailability. Thus, there is a constant need to search for novel tubulin inhibitors that can overcome these limitations. Natural product and privileged structures targeting tubulin have promoted the discovery and optimization of tubulin inhibitors. This review will focus on novel tubulin inhibitors derived from natural products and privileged structures targeting the colchicine binding site on tubulin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chondrosarcoma is a highly malignant cartilage-forming bone tumor that has the capacity to invade locally and cause distant metastasis. Moreover, chondrosarcoma is intrinsically resistant to conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The novel benzofuran derivative, BL-038 (2-amino-3-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-6-(4-methoxyphenyl)benzofuran-4-yl acetate), has been evaluated for its anticancer effects in human chondrosarcoma cells. BL-038 caused cell apoptosis in two human chondrosarcoma cell lines, JJ012 and SW1353, but not in primary chondrocytes. Treatment of chondrosarcoma with BL-038 also induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Furthermore, BL-038 decreased mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) and changed mitochondrial-related apoptosis, by downregulating the anti-apoptotic activity members (Bcl-2, Bcl-xL) and upregulating pro-apoptotic members (Bax, Bak) of the B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family of proteins, key regulators of the apoptotic machinery in cells. These results demonstrate that in human chondrosarcoma cells, the apoptotic and cytotoxic effects of BL-038 are mediated by the intrinsic mitochondria-mediated apoptotic pathway, which in turn causes the release of cytochrome c, the activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3, and the cleavage of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), to elicit apoptosis response. Our results show that the benzofuran derivative BL-038 induces apoptosis in chondrosarcoma cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Phosphate Transporter1 (PHT1) family of genes plays pivotal roles in the uptake of inorganic phosphate from soils. However, there is no comprehensive report on the PHT1 family in Zea mays based on the whole genome. In the present study, a total of 13 putative PHT1 genes (ZmPHT1;1 to 13) were identified in the inbred line B73 genome by bioinformatics methods. Then, their functionwas investigated by a yeast PHO84mutant complementary experiment and qRT-PCR. Thirteen ZmPHT1 genes distributed on six chromosomes (1, 2, 5, 7, 8 and 10) were divided into two paralogues (Class A and Class B). ZmPHT1;1/ ZmPHT1;9 and ZmPHT1;9/ZmPHT1;13 are produced from recent segmental duplication events. ZmPHT1;1/ZmPHT1;13 and ZmPHT1;8/ZmPHT1;10 are produced from early segmental duplication events. All 13 putative ZmPHT1s can completely or partly complement the yeast Pi-uptake mutant, and they were obviously induced in maize under low Pi conditions, except for ZmPHT1;1 (p < 0.01), indicating that the overwhelming majority of ZmPHT1 genes can respond to a low Pi condition. ZmPHT1;2, ZmPHT1;4, ZmPHT1;6, ZmPHT1;7, ZmPHT1;9 and ZmPHT1;11 were up-regulated by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), implying that these genes might participate in mediating Pi absorption and/or transport. Analysis of the promoters revealed that the MYCS and P1BS element are widely distributed on the region of different AMF-inducible ZmPHT1 promoters. In light of the above results, five of 13 ZmPHT1 genes were newly-identified AMF-inducible high-affinity phosphate transporters in the maize genome. Our results will lay a foundation for better understanding the PHT1 family evolution and the molecular mechanisms of inorganic phosphate transport under AMF inoculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal protein components change markedly during mammalian oogenesis. Many of these proteins have yet to be characterized and verified. In this study, a proteomics approach was used to evaluate changes in proteins during oogenesis in the Swamp Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis). Proteins from 500 immature oocytes and 500 in vitro matured oocytes were subjected to two-dimensional electrophoresis, and more than 400 spots were detected. Image analysis indicated that 17 proteins were differentially expressed between the two groups. Eight proteins were identified by mass spectrometry. In mature oocytes, three proteins were down-regulated: major vault protein (MVP), N-acetyllactosaminide β-1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyl-transferase (GCNT-2), and gem-associated protein (GEMIN)8, whereas five other proteins, heat shock protein (HSP)60, Ras-responsive element-binding protein 1 (RREB-1), heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein (HSC71), hemoglobin subunit α (HBA), and BMP-2-inducible protein kinase (BMP-2K), were up-regulated. The expression profiles of HSP60 and GEMIN8 were further verified by Western blotting. The changes in HSP60 protein expression demonstrate the increasing need for mitochondrial protein importation to facilitate macromolecular assembly during oocyte maturation. The down-regulation of GEMIN8 production implies that RNA splicing is impaired in mature oocytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a primary malignant tumor of bone and is most prevalent in children and adolescents. OS is frequently associated with pulmonary metastasis, which is the main cause of OS-related mortality. OS has a poor prognosis and is often unresponsive to conventional chemotherapy. In this study, we determined that Nimbolide, a novel anti-cancer therapy, acts by modulating multiple mechanisms in osteosarcoma cells. Nimbolide induces apoptosis by increasing endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and finally, caspase activation. We also determined that Nimbolide inhibits cell migration, which is crucial for metastasis, by reducing the expression of integrin αvβ5. In addition, our results demonstrate that integrin αvβ5 expression is modulated by the PI3K/Akt and NF-κB signaling cascade. Nimbolide has potential as an anti-tumor drug given its multifunctional effects in OS. Collectively, these results help us to understand the mechanisms of action of Nimbolide and will aid in the development of effective therapies for OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fault diagnosis strategy based on the wayside acoustic monitoring technique is investigated for locomotive bearing fault diagnosis. Inspired by the transient modeling analysis method based on correlation filtering analysis, a so-called Parametric-Mother-Doppler-Wavelet (PMDW) is constructed with six parameters, including a center characteristic frequency and five kinematic model parameters. A Doppler effect eliminator containing a PMDW generator, a correlation filtering analysis module, and a signal resampler is invented to eliminate the Doppler effect embedded in the acoustic signal of the recorded bearing. Through the Doppler effect eliminator, the five kinematic model parameters can be identified based on the signal itself. Then, the signal resampler is applied to eliminate the Doppler effect using the identified parameters. With the ability to detect early bearing faults, the transient model analysis method is employed to detect localized bearing faults after the embedded Doppler effect is eliminated. The effectiveness of the proposed fault diagnosis strategy is verified via simulation studies and applications to diagnose locomotive roller bearing defects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The condition of locomotive bearings, which are essential components in trains, is crucial to train safety. The Doppler effect significantly distorts acoustic signals during high movement speeds, substantially increasing the difficulty of monitoring locomotive bearings online. In this study, a new Doppler transient model based on the acoustic theory and the Laplace wavelet is presented for the identification of fault-related impact intervals embedded in acoustic signals. An envelope spectrum correlation assessment is conducted between the transient model and the real fault signal in the frequency domain to optimize the model parameters. The proposed method can identify the parameters used for simulated transients (periods in simulated transients) from acoustic signals. Thus, localized bearing faults can be detected successfully based on identified parameters, particularly period intervals. The performance of the proposed method is tested on a simulated signal suffering from the Doppler effect. Besides, the proposed method is used to analyze real acoustic signals of locomotive bearings with inner race and outer race faults, respectively. The results confirm that the periods between the transients, which represent locomotive bearing fault characteristics, can be detected successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underwater vision is one of the dominant senses and has shown great prospects in ocean investigations. In this paper, a hierarchical Independent Component Analysis (ICA) framework has been established to explore and understand the functional roles of the higher order statistical structures towards the visual stimulus in the underwater artificial vision system. The model is inspired by characteristics such as the modality, the redundancy reduction, the sparseness and the independence in the early human vision system, which seems to respectively capture the Gabor-like basis functions, the shape contours or the complicated textures in the multiple layer implementations. The simulation results have shown good performance in the effectiveness and the consistence of the approach proposed for the underwater images collected by autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated the anticancer effects of a new benzimidazole derivative, 1-benzyl-2-phenyl -benzimidazole (BPB), in human chondrosarcoma cells. BPB-mediated apoptosis was assessed by the MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis. The in vivo efficacy was examined in a JJ012 xenograft model. Here we found that BPB induced apoptosis in human chondrosarcoma cell lines (JJ012 and SW1353) but not in primary chondrocytes. BPB induced upregulation of Bax, Bad and Bak, downregulation of Bcl-2, Bid and Bcl-XL and dysfunction of mitochondria in chondrosarcoma. In addition, BPB also promoted cytosolic releases AIF and Endo G. Furthermore, it triggered extrinsic death receptor-dependent pathway, which was characterized by activating Fas, FADD and caspase-8. Most importantly, animal studies revealed a dramatic 40% reduction in tumor volume after 21 days of treatment. Thus, BPB may be a novel anticancer agent for the treatment of chondrosarcoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD146 has been regarded as a novel potential therapeutic target for multiple cancers. The aim of the study was to investigate the expression of CD146 in gastric cancer and evaluate its clinical-pathological and prognostic significance. The expression of CD146 and three epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related proteins (E-cadherin, β-catenin and vimentin) was examined in 144 gastric cancers by immunohistochemistry. Fifty-nine cases (41.0%) were defined as positive for CD146 expression. We found that CD146 expression correlated positively with lymph node involvement and a poor prognosis, and retained an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. Furthermore, positive expression of CD146 was strongly associated with loss of the epithelial marker E-cadherin and acquisition of the expression of the mesenchymal markers nuclear β-catenin and vimentin. These findings suggest that CD146 might promote EMT and progression in gastric cancer, and thus may be a potential therapeutic target for patients with gastric cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of novel 4-(4-(5-methyl-3-arylisoxazol-4-yl)thiazol-2-yl)piperidyl carboxamides and thiocarboxamides were synthesized as potential lead compounds of inhibitors targeting D1 protease in plants. These compounds were designed on the basis of a D1 protease inhibitor hit structure identified by homology modeling and virtual screening. The syntheses of these compounds were accomplished via a four-step procedure including the isoxazole ring formation, α-bromination of acetyl group, thiazole ring formation, and carboxamide/thiocarboxamide attachment. The in vivo herbicidal activity tests show that most compounds possess moderate to good herbicidal activities. The enzyme activity of one compound against the native spinach D1 protease exhibits a competitive inhibition. The results suggest that these compounds are indeed potential inhibitors for targeting D1 protease in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying novel anti-cancer drugs is important for devising better cancer treatment options. In a series of studies designed to identify novel therapeutic compounds, we recently showed that a C-20 fatty acid (12,15-epoxy-13,14-dimethyleicosa-12,14-dienoic acid, a furanoic acid or F-6) present in the lipid fraction of the secretions of the Arabian Gulf catfish skin (Arius bilineatus Val.; AGCS) robustly induces neutrophil extracellular trap formation. Here, we demonstrate that a lipid mix (Ft-3) extracted from AGCS and F-6, a component of Ft-3, dose dependently kill two cancer cell lines (leukemic K-562 and breast MDA MB-231). Pure F-6 is approximately 3.5 to 16 times more effective than Ft-3 in killing these cancer cells, respectively. Multiplex assays and network analyses show that F-6 promotes the activation of MAPKs such as Erk, JNK, and p38, and specifically suppresses JNK-mediated c-Jun activation necessary for AP-1-mediated cell survival pathways. In both cell lines, F-6 suppresses PI3K-Akt-mTOR pathway specific proteins, indicating that cell proliferation and Akt-mediated protection of mitochondrial stability are compromised by this treatment. Western blot analyses of cleaved caspase 3 (cCasp3) and poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) confirmed that F-6 dose-dependently induced apoptosis in both of these cell lines. In 14-day cell recovery experiments, cells treated with increasing doses of F-6 and Ft-3 fail to recover after subsequent drug washout. In summary, this study demonstrates that C-20 furanoic acid F-6, suppresses cancer cell proliferation and promotes apoptotic cell death in leukemic and breast cancer cells, and prevents cell recovery. Therefore, F-6 is a potential anti-cancer drug candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metallic additive manufacturing process parameters, such as inclination angle and minimum radius, impose constraints on the printable lattice cell configurations in complex components. As a result, their mechanical properties are usually lower than their design values. Meanwhile, due to unavoidable process constraints (e.g., additional support structure), engineering structures filled with various lattice cells usually fail to be printed or cannot achieve the designed mechanical performances. Optimizing the cell configuration and printing process are effective ways to solve these problems, but this is becoming more and more difficult and costly with the increasing demand for properties. Therefore, it is very important to redesign the existing printable lattice structures to improve their mechanical properties. In this paper, inspired by the macro- and meso-structures of bamboo, a bionic lattice structure was partitioned, and the cell rod had a radius gradient, similar to the macro-scale bamboo joint and meso-scale bamboo tube, respectively. Experimental and simulated results showed that this design can significantly enhance the mechanical properties without adding mass and changing the printable cell configuration. Finally, the compression and shear properties of the Bambusa-lattice structure were analyzed. Compared with the original scheme, the bamboo lattice structure design can improve the strength by 1.51 times ( β = 1.5 ). This proposed strategy offers an effective pathway to manipulate the mechanical properties of lattice structures simultaneously, which is useful for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of reducing human exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA) derivatives in dentistry, a fluorinated dimethacrylate monomer was synthesized to replace 2,2-bis[4-(2-hydroxy-3-methacryloyloxypropyl)-phenyl]propane (Bis-GMA) as the base monomer of dental resin. After mixing with reactive diluent triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), fluorinated dimethacrylate (FDMA)/ TEGDMA was prepared and compared with Bis-GMA/TEGDMA in physicochemical properties, such as double bond conversion (DC), volumetric shrinkage (VS), water sorption (WS) and solubility (WSL), flexural strength (FS) and modulus (FM). The results showed that, when compared with Bis-GMA based resin, FDMA-based resin had several advantages, such as higher DC, lower VS, lower WS, and higher FS after water immersion. All of these revealed that FDMA had potential to be used as a substitute for Bis-GMA. Of course, many more studies, such as biocompatibility testing, should be undertaken to prove whether FDMA could be applied in clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lanthanide-doped upconversion-luminescent nanoparticles (UCNPs), which can be excited by near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation to emit multiplex light, have been proven to be very useful for in vitro and in vivo molecular imaging studies. In comparison with the conventionally used down-conversion fluorescence imaging strategies, the NIR light excited luminescence of UCNPs displays high photostability, low cytotoxicity, little background auto-fluorescence, which allows for deep tissue penetration, making them attractive as contrast agents for biomedical imaging applications. In this review, we will mainly focus on the latest development of a new type of lanthanide-doped UCNP material and its main applications for in vitro and in vivo molecular imaging and we will also discuss the challenges and future perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to characterize the simple sequence repeat markers in cotton using the cotton expressed sequence tags. A total of 111 EST-SSR polymorphic molecular markers with trinucleotide motifs were used to evaluate the 79 accessions of Gossypium L., (G. darwinii, 59 and G. barbadense, 20) collected from the Galapagos Islands. The allele number ranged from one to seven, with an average value of 2.85 alleles per locus, while polymorphisminformation content values varied from 0.008 to 0.995, with an average of 0.520. The discrimination power ranks high for the majority of the SSRs, with an average value of 0.98. Among 111 pairs of EST-SSRs and gSSRs, a total of 49markers, comprising nine DPLs, one each of MonCGR, MUCS0064, and NAU1028, and 37 SWUs (D-genome), were found to be the best matched hits, similar to the 155 genes identified by BLASTx in the reference genome of G. barbadense, G. arboreum L., and G. raimondii Ulbr. Related genes GOBAR&lowbar;DD21902, GOBAR&lowbar;DD15579, GOBAR&lowbar;DD27526, and GOBAR&lowbar;AA04676 revealed highly significant expression 10, 15, 18, 21, and 28 days post-anthesis of fiber development. The identified EST-SSR and gSSR markers can be effectively used for mapping functional genes of segregating cotton populations, QTL identification, and marker-assisted selection in cotton breeding programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leptin actions at the pituitary level have been extensively investigated in mammalian species, but remain insufficiently characterized in lower vertebrates, especially in teleost fish. Prolactin (PRL) is a pituitary hormone of central importance to osmoregulation in fish. Using goldfish as a model, we examined the global and brain-pituitary distribution of a leptin receptor (lepR) and examined the relationship between expression of lepR and major pituitary hormones in different pituitary regions. The effects of recombinant goldfish leptin-AI and leptin-AII on PRL mRNA expression in the pituitary were further analysed, and the mechanisms underlying signal transduction for leptin-induced PRL expression were determined by pharmacological approaches. Our results showed that goldfish lepR is abundantly expressed in the brain-pituitary regions, with highly overlapping PRL transcripts within the pituitary. Recombinant goldfish leptin-AI and leptin-AII proteins could stimulate PRL mRNA expression in dose- and time-dependent manners in the goldfish pituitary, by both intraperitoneal injection and primary cell incubation approaches. Moreover, the PI3K/Akt/mTOR, MKK3/6/p38MAPK, and MEK1/2/ERK1/2--but not JAK2/STAT 1, 3 and 5 cascades--were involved in leptin-induced PRL mRNA expression in the goldfish pituitary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Silk Road opened during the Han Dynasty, and is significant in global cultural communication. Along this route in the central part of Xinjiang, the archaeological sites with defensive characteristics once provided a safeguard for this area. Reconstructing the defensive system is an important way to explore the ancient culture's propagation and the organizational structure of these sites. In this research, the compound visibility network with complex network analysis (CNA) and the least-cost paths based on the defensibility models from linear and logistic regression methods constitute the principle defensive structure. As possible transportation corridors, these paths are considered to be mostly fitted to each other in general, and are different from normal slope-based paths. The sites Kuhne Shahr and Agra play important roles for information control according to the CNA measures, while the sites Kuhne Shahr and Kuyux Shahr are considered to be crucial cities due to their positions and structural shapes. Some other sites, including Uzgen Bulak, Shah Kalandar, Chuck Castle, Caladar, and Qiuci, as well as some beacons, have important effects on defending the transportation corridors. This method is proven efficient for the study of the historical role of archaeological sites with defensive characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six new conjugates were designed and synthesized by introducing glucose, methyl glucuronate or glucuronic acid moieties on tralopyril. Phytotoxicity and phloem mobility results demonstrated that the introduction of glucose, methyl glucuronate or glucuronic acid moieties can simultaneously solve the tough phytotoxicity problem and phloem mobility transformation of tralopyril. Conjugates 12 and 18 containing the glucuronic acid moiety exhibited higher phloem mobility than conjugates 9, 11, 15 and 17. Conjugates 15, 17 and 18 with methoxymethyl groups on the tralopyril pyrrole nitrogen atom showed activity against Plutella xylostella, while conjugates 9, 11 and 12 with a methene group on the pyrrole N showed no activity. Cabbage roots were incubated in a buffered solution containing conjugates 15, 17 and 18 at 4 mM for 72 h. Only 18 showed systemic insecticidal activity with 100% mortalityagainst P. xylostella, while 15 and 17 showed lower activity andchlorfenapyr showed no activity. The glucuronic acid promoiety imparted more phloem mobility to tralopyril than glucose and methyl glucuronate. The methoxymethyl group bond on the tralopyril skeleton was the key factor in determining the insecticidal activity of the conjugates. A promising systemic proinsecticide containing glucuronic acid and tralopyril moieties was proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buried archeological features show up as crop marks that are mostly visible using high-resolution image data. Such data are costly and restricted to small regions and time domains. However, a time series of freely available medium resolution imagery can be employed to detect crop growth changes to reveal subtle surface marks in large areas. This paper aims to study the classical Chinese settlements of Taosi and Erlitou over large areas using Landsat NDVI time series crop phenology to determine the optimum periods for detection and monitoring of crop anomalies. Burial areas (such as the palace area and the sacrificial area) were selected as the research area while the surrounding empty fields with a low density of ancient features were used as reference regions. Landsat NDVI covering two years' growth periods of wheat and maize were computed and analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and Euclidean distance. Similarities or disparities between the burial areas and their empty areas were computed using the Hausdorff distance. Based on the phenology of crop growth, the time series NDVI images of winter wheat and summer maize were generated to analyze crop anomalies in the archeological sites. Results show that the Hausdorff distance was high during the critical stages of water for both crops and that the images of high Hausdorff distance can provide more obvious subsurface archeological information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new sesquiterpene, named neo-acorane A (1), and two known ones, acoric acid (2) and calamusin D (3), were isolated from a 95% ethanol extract of the rhizome parts of Acorus calamus L. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods, and the absolute configurations were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Compounds 1 and 2 are nonisoprenoid sesquiterpenoids, likely biosynthesized from an acorane-type sesquiterpene by oxidative fission of the six- or five-membered ring. Moreover, compounds 1 (10 μM), 2 (5 μM and 10 μM) and 3 (10 μM) showed cell proliferation activity on the SK-N-BE (2) cell line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein plays a pivotal role in steroidogenesis. Previously, we have demonstrated that prenatal nicotine exposure suppressed fetal adrenal steroidogenesis via steroidogenic factor 1 deacetylation. This study further explored the potential role of the transcriptional repressor Yin Yang 1 (YY1) in nicotine-mediated StAR inhibition. Nicotine was subcutaneously administered (1.0 mg/kg) to pregnant rats twice per day and NCI-H295A cells were treated with nicotine. StAR and YY1 expression were analyzed by real-time PCR, immunohistochemistry, and Western blotting. Histone modifications and the interactions between the YY1 and StAR promoter were assessed using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). Prenatal nicotine exposure increased YY1 expression and suppressed StAR expression. ChIP assay showed that there was a decreasing trend for histone acetylation at the StAR promoter in fetal adrenal glands, whereas H3 acetyl-K14 at the YY1 promoter presented an increasing trend following nicotine exposure. Furthermore, in nicotine-treated NCI-H295A cells, nicotine enhanced YY1 expression and inhibited StAR expression. ChIP assay showed that histone acetylation decreased at the StAR promoter in NCI-H295A cells and that the interaction between the YY1 and StAR promoter increased. These data indicated that YY1-medicated histone deacetylation modification in StAR promoters might play an important role in the inhibitory effect of nicotine on StAR expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the mapping of spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion has been widely studied, relatively little attention has been paid to detailed comparative studies on spatiotemporal patterns of urban growth at the regional level over a relatively longer timeframe. This paper was based on multi-sensor remote sensing image data and employs several landscape metrics and the centroid shift model to conduct a multi-angle quantitative analysis on urban expansion in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan (Jing-Jin-Tang) in the period from 1970-2013. In addition, the impact analysis of urban growth on land use was adopted in this research. The results showed that Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan all experienced rapid urbanization, with an average annual urban growth rate of 7.28%, 3.9%, and 0.97%, respectively. Beijing has especially presented a single choropleth map pattern, whereas Tianjin and Tangshan have presented a double surface network pattern in orientation analysis. Furthermore, urban expansion in Beijing was mainly concentrated in Ring 4 to Ring 6 in the northwest and southeast directions, whereas the major expansion was observed in the southeast in Tianjin, primarily affected by dramatic development of Binhai New Area and Tianjin South Railway Station. Naturally, the urban expansion in Tangshan was significantly influenced by the expansion of Beijing and was primarily southwestward. The hot-zones of urbanization were observed within the ranges of 7-25 km, 6-18 km, and 0-15 km, accounting for 93.49%, 89.44% and 72.44% of the total expansion area in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan, respectively. The majority of the newly developed urban land was converted from cultivated land and integrated from other built-up land over the past four decades. Of all new urban land in the Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan, more than 50% was converted from cultivated land, and there was a general tendency for smaller cities to have higher percentages of converted land, accounting for 50.84%, 51.19%, and 51.58%, respectively. The study revealed significant details of the temporal and spatial distributions of urban expansion in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan and provided scientific support for the collaborative development of the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In mammals, leptin is a peripheral satiety factor that inhibits feeding by regulating a variety of appetite-related hormones in the brain. However, most of the previous studies examining leptin in fish feeding were performed with mammalian leptins, which share very low sequence homologies with fish leptins. To elucidate the function and mechanism of endogenous fish leptins in feeding regulation, recombinant goldfish leptin-AI and leptin-AII were expressed in methylotrophic yeast and purified by immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography (IMAC). By intraperitoneal (IP) injection, both leptin-AI and leptin-AII were shown to inhibit the feeding behavior and to reduce the food consumption of goldfish in 2 h. In addition, co-treatment of leptin-AI or leptin-AII could block the feeding behavior and reduce the food consumption induced by neuropeptide Y (NPY) injection. High levels of leptin receptor (lepR)mRNAwere detected in the hypothalamus, telencephalon, optic tectum and cerebellum of the goldfish brain. The appetite inhibitory effects of leptins were mediated by downregulating the mRNA levels of orexigenic NPY, agouti-related peptide (AgRP) and orexin and upregulating the mRNA levels of anorexigenic cocaine-amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), cholecystokinin (CCK), melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) and proopiomelanocortin (POMC) in different areas of the goldfish brain. Our study, as a whole, provides new insights into the functions and mechanisms of leptins in appetite control in a fish model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of pyridinol-blocked isophorone isocyanates, based on pyridinol including 2-hydroxypyridine, 3-hydroxypyridine, and 4-hydroxypyridine, was synthesized and characterized by ¹H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and FTIR spectra. The deblocking temperature of blocked isocyanates was established by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the CO2 evaluation method. The deblocking studies revealed that the deblocking temperature was increased with pyridinol nucleophilicity in this order: 3-hydroxypyridine > 4-hydroxypyridine > 2-hydroxypyridine. The thermal decomposition reaction of 4-hydroxypyridine blocked isophorone diisocyanate was studied by thermo-gravimetric analysis. The Friedman-Reich-Levi (FRL) equation, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) equation, and Crane equation were utilized to analyze the thermal decomposition reaction kinetics. The activation energy calculated by FRL method and FWO method was 134.6 kJ mol 1 and 126.2 kJ mol-1, respectively. The most probable mechanism function calculated by the FWO method was the Jander equation. The reaction order was not an integer because of the complicated reactions of isocyanate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By fixing two FBGs on the surface of a rotating shaft along the direction of ±45° and using dynamic wavelength demodulation technology, we propose an optical fiber sensing system to monitor the driving torque and torsion angle of the rotating shaft. In theory, the dependence relation of the dynamic difference of central wavelengths on the torque and torsion angle of the rotating shaft has been deduced. To verify an optical fiber sensing system, a series of sensing experiments have been completed and the measured data are approximately consistent with the theoretical analysis. The difference of two central wavelengths can be expressed as the sum of two parts: a "DC" part and a harmonic "AC" part. The driving torque or torsion angle is linear with the "DC" part of the difference of two central wavelengths, the harmonic "AC" part, meaning the torsion angle vibration, illustrates that periodic vibration torque may be caused by inhomogeneous centrifugal forces or inhomogeneous additional torques produced by the driving system and the load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the prognostic value of OCT4 expression and vasculogenic mimicry (VM) in human breast cancer, we examined OCT4 expression and VM formation using immunohistochemistry and CD31/PAS (periodic acid-schiff) double staining on 90 breast cancer specimens. All patients were followed up for five-149 months following surgery. Survival curves were generated using Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate analysis was performed using Cox regression model to assess the prognostic values. Results showed positive correlation between OCT4 expression and VM formation (p < 0.05). Both OCT4 expression and VM were also positively correlated with lymph node metastasis, higher histological grade, and Nottingham prognostic index (p < 0.05). Patients with OCT4 expression or VM formation exhibited poorer overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) than OCT4-negative or VM-negative patients (p < 0.05). OCT4-positive/VM-positive patients also had the worst OS and DFS (p < 0.05). In multivariate survival analysis, VM, Nottingham prognostic index (NPI), and Her2 were independent prognostic factors related to OS and OCT4-positive/VM-positive patients, whereas NPI and Her2 were independent predictors of DFS. These results suggest that a combined OCT4 expression/VM could improve the prognostic judgment for breast cancer patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a relatively rare form of cancer, but OS is the most commonly diagnosed bone cancer in children and adolescents. Chemotherapy has side effects and induces drug resistance in OS. Since an effective adjuvant therapy was insufficient for treating OS, researching novel and adequate remedies is critical. Hyperthermia can induce cell death in various cancer cells, and thus, in this study, we investigated the anticancer method of hyperthermia in human OS (U-2 OS) cells. Treatment at 43 °C for 60 min induced apoptosis in human OS cell lines, but not in primary bone cells. Furthermore, hyperthermia was associated with increases of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and caspase-3 activation in U-2 OS cells. Mitochondrial dysfunction was followed by the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria, and was accompanied by decreased anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL, and increased pro-apoptotic proteins Bak and Bax. Hyperthermia triggered endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, which was characterized by changes in cytosolic calcium levels, as well as increased calpain expression and activity. In addition, cells treated with calcium chelator (BAPTA-AM) blocked hyperthermia-induced cell apoptosis in U-2 OS cells. In conclusion, hyperthermia induced cell apoptosis substantially via the ROS, ER stress, mitochondria, and caspase pathways. Thus, hyperthermia may be a novel anticancer method for treating OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interests in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data analysis is driven by the constantly increased spatial resolutions of the acquired images, where the geometries of scene objects can be better defined than in lower resolution data. This paper addresses the problem of the built-up areas extraction in high-resolution (HR) SAR images, which can provide a wealth of information to characterize urban environments. Strong backscattering behavior is one of the distinct characteristics of built-up areas in a SAR image. However, in practical applications, only a small portion of pixels characterizing the built-up areas appears bright. Thus, specific texture measures should be considered for identifying these areas. This paper presents a novel texture measure by combining the proposed labeled co-occurrence matrix technique with the specific spatial variability structure of the considered land-cover type in the fuzzy set theory. The spatial variability is analyzed by means of variogram, which reflects the spatial correlation or non-similarity associated with a particular terrain surface. The derived parameters from the variograms are used to establish fuzzy functions to characterize the built-up class and non built-up class, separately. The proposed technique was tested on TerraSAR-X images acquired of Nanjing (China) and Barcelona (Spain), and on a COSMO-SkyMed image acquired of Hangzhou (China). The obtained classification accuracies point out the effectiveness of the proposed technique in identifying and detecting built-up areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interests in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data analysis is driven by the constantly increased spatial resolutions of the acquired images, where the geometries of scene objects can be better defined than in lower resolution data. This paper addresses the problem of the built-up areas extraction in high-resolution (HR) SAR images, which can provide a wealth of information to characterize urban environments. Strong backscattering behavior is one of the distinct characteristics of built-up areas in a SAR image. However, in practical applications, only a small portion of pixels characterizing the built-up areas appears bright. Thus, specific texture measures should be considered for identifying these areas. This paper presents a novel texture measure by combining the proposed labeled co-occurrence matrix technique with the specific spatial variability structure of the considered land-cover type in the fuzzy set theory. The spatial variability is analyzed by means of variogram, which reflects the spatial correlation or non-similarity associated with a particular terrain surface. The derived parameters from the variograms are used to establish fuzzy functions to characterize the built-up class and non built-up class, separately. The proposed technique was tested on TerraSAR-X images acquired of Nanjing (China) and Barcelona (Spain), and on a COSMO-SkyMed image acquired of Hangzhou (China). The obtained classification accuracies point out the effectiveness of the proposed technique in identifying and detecting built-up areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pholiota adiposa is a kind of edible mushroom which has long been known for its health care applications. To reveal the exact mechanism of its protective functions in humans, in this study we isolated and identified the active compound PB3 of P. adiposa for the first time by a combination of chromatography techniques, including NKA macroporous resin and Sephadex G-15. PB3, with molecular mass of 267.2 Da and molecular formula of C10H13N5O4 discovered by mass spectrum (MS) was identified to be adenosine. Mice were injected intraperitoneally with purified fraction PB3. Seven days after injection, we found a 1.5-fold increase of IL10 at the mRNA level, while a down regulated expression of IL-2, IL-6 and IFN-γ to 49.0%, 56.9% and 73.4%, respectively, was detected in spleen by real-time quantitative PCR. What's more, SOD expression level was significantly increased by 1.6-fold compared to control. Fraction PB3 displayed anti-inflammatory potency and heightened SOD activity on the transcriptional level, which could be considered of further pharmaceutical or medication value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that p-cymene can attenuate acute lung injury induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in vivo. In the mouse model of LPS-induced acute lung injury, intraperitoneal preconditioning with p-cymene resulted in a significant reduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6), lung water gain, inflammatory cell infiltration, lung tissue myeloperoxidase activity. In addition, p-cymene blocked the phosphorylation of IκBα protein and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signaling pathway activation. Histopathologic examination of lung tissue indicated that p-cymene treatment markedly decreased focal thickening, congestion, pulmonary edema, and inflammatory cells infiltration. The results showed that p-cymene had a protective effect on LPS-induced ALI in mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and sensitive HPLC method has been developed in combination with fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of five markers, namely gallic acid, corilagin, methyl brevifolincarboxylate, ellagic acid and rutin for evaluation and quality control of Geranium carolinianum L. water extract. Extraction methods were optimized by comparing the hydrolysis efficiency of geraniin, a major tannin of the herb, resulting in the method of extraction with water under reflux. Water extracts were analyzed by HPLC, with a mobile phase of 0.1% aqueous phosphoric acid (v/v) and acetonitrile in a gradient program within 65 min. Compounds were detected at 274 nm UV wavelength. For fingerprint analysis, 17 peaks were selected as the characteristic peaks to evaluate the similarities of different samples collected from the suburb of Nanjing. The correlation coefficients of similarity were greater than 0.993. In quantitative analysis, the five selected markers showed good regression (R > 0.9991) within test ranges, and the average recoveries were between 97.2-101.7% and their RSD values were less than 4.50%. The total contents of the five markers varied from 44.28 to 71.84 mg/g. The method can be very useful for further development of G. carolinianum L. extracts and preparations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We identified 672, 374, and 379 CYPs proteins encoded by the CYPs genes in Gossypium hirsutum, Gossypium raimondii, and Gossypium arboreum, respectively. The genes were found to be distributed in all 26 chromosomes of the tetraploid cotton, with chrA05, chrA12, and their homeolog chromosomes harboring the highest number of genes. The physiochemical properties of the proteins encoded by the CYP450 genes varied in terms of their protein lengths, molecular weight, isoelectric points (pI), and even grand hydropathy values (GRAVY). However, over 99% of the cotton proteins had GRAVY values below 0, which indicated that the majority of the proteins encoded by the CYP450 genes were hydrophilic in nature, a common property of proteins encoded by stress-responsive genes. Moreover, through the RNA interference (RNAi) technique, the expression levels of Gh_D07G1197 and Gh_A13G2057 were suppressed, and the silenced plants showed a higher concentration of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with a significant reduction in the concentration levels of glutathione (GSH), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and proline compared to the wild types under drought and salt stress conditions. Furthermore, the stress-responsive genes 1-Pyrroline–5-Carboxylate Synthetase (GhP5CS), superoxide dismutase (GhSOD), and myeloblastosis (GhMYB) were downregulated in VIGS plants, but showed upregulation in the leaf tissues of the wild types under drought and salt stress conditions. In addition, CYP450-silenced cotton plants exhibited a high level of oxidative injury due to high levels of oxidant enzymes, in addition to negative effects on CMS, ELWL, RLWC, and chlorophyll content The results provide the basic foundation for future exploration of the proteins encoded by the CYP450 genes in order to understand the physiological and biochemical mechanisms in enhancing drought and salt stress tolerance in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]