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Semantic segmentation suffers from boundary shift and shape deformation problems due to the neglect of overall guidance information. Motivated by that the object boundaries have a stronger representation for overall information of target objects, we propose a simple yet effective network, boundary-guidance network (BG-Net), for object consistency maintaining in semantic segmentation. In our work, we explore the pixels both near and far from the boundary, characterizing each pixel by utilizing pixel-boundary association. The boundary feature is integrated into the segmentation feature to mitigate boundary shift and shape deformation problem. We explicitly supervise the angle and distance information of pixels pointing to the nearest object boundary. Then the association can be learned by geometric modelling. Meanwhile, the low-level feature emphasized up-sampling (LFEU) module is designed to supplement the detail representation in high-level feature without direct interference. Finally, we evaluate our method on Cityscapes and CamVid datasets. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our BG-Net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider an efficient method to price the equity index annuity with return guarantees are two class cliquet-styles, which are popular in the insurance market. In order to describe persistent changes of the economic state in the financial market, we assume that the underlying index return process is a regime-switching Lévy model and the model parameters rely on a continuous-time Markov chain with finite economy states. The complex Fourier series approach was used to give the explicit formulae for the price of equity index annuity. The error analysis proves that the complex Fourier series approach can achieve an exponential convergence rate and the experiment results demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, many heavy metal ions have been discharged into the environment, which is threatening human health. Herein, the β-cyclodextrin-modified molybdenum disulfide composite (β-CD/MoS2) was prepared to adsorb Cr(VI) from water. The results demonstrated that the retention of Cr(VI) onto β-CD/MoS2 was dependent on pH and independent of coexisting ions. The removal capacity of β-CD/MoS2 for Cr(VI) reached 156.8 mg/g, and the removal process was endothermic. According to the characterization analysis, the uptake of Cr(VI) onto β-CD/MoS2 was governed by electrostatic attraction. Besides, the oxygen-containing groups were also responsible for the capture of Cr(VI). This work can offer new sight into the uptake of Cr(VI) from the ecological system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of Li3Bi3Te2O12:xDy3+ (x = 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, and 0.30 mol) samples were successfully prepared by high-temperature sintering method. The phase purities of the Li3Bi3Te2O12:Dy3+ phosphors were verified by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and revealed as single-phase structure. Under 386-nm excitation, the Dy3+-doped Li3Bi3Te2O12 phosphors show three emission peaks are located at 488, 579, and 673 nm, which are ascribed to the typical transitions from 4F9/2 to 6HJ/2 (J = 15, 13, and 11), respectively. The effects of concentration on luminescence properties indicate that the optimal doping concentration was x = 0.02 mol. The prepared Li3Bi3Te2O12:0.02Dy3+ phosphor has the excellent thermal stability with high-temperature quenching temperature (T0.5 > 480 K) and high activation energy (Ea = 0.38 eV). The shift of CIE chromaticity coordinates of Li3Bi3Te2O12:0.02Dy3+ phosphor with concentrations are Δx = 0.018 and Δy = 0.020. Thus, Li3Bi3Te2O12:Dy3+ phosphors have potential application for white light-emitting diodes (w-LEDs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horizontal and vertical viewing perspectives exert varying influences on the environmental perceptions and emotional states of college students. Despite this, scant research addresses the impact on this demographic. We selected typical campus open spaces for comprehensive physical parameter assessments, encompassing meteorological and spatial characteristics. A cohort of 36 healthy college students participated in a questionnaire survey designed to ascertain shifts in visual comfort, thermal comfort, and emotional responses when viewing landscapes in look-forward and look-up orientations. Key findings following both viewing modalities included: 1) a notable rise in mean visual comfort vote (MVCV), by 1.22 for look-forward and 1.01 for look-up, with a pronouncedly higher sunlight sensation vote (SSV) for the latter orientation; 2) a significant increase in thermal comfort vote (TCV), although the difference in increments between the two viewing angles was minimal; 3) Positive affect (PA) exhibited considerable improvement in both viewing conditions, while negative affect (NA) was markedly reduced in the look-up condition relative to look-forward viewing; 4) The SSV was predominantly influenced by the trunk ratio and canopy-to-trunk ratio, with substantial weights of 31.47% and 32.15%, respectively. Landscape element diversity emerged as the most critical factor affecting visual comfort vote (VCV) and aesthetic assessment score (AAS), with overwhelming weights of 70.67% and 63.15%, respectively. Moreover, the leaf ratio was identified as the chief determinant of emotional responses. Our results provide insights into the design of campus spaces for enhanced student well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lycorma delicatula has expanded its distribution from China to Japan, Korea, and the USA, causing significant economic damage to vineyards in the latter two countries. However, in Japan, L. delicatula has long been limited to the Hokuriku region, central Japan, and no significant damage to crops has been reported since it was first reported there in 2009. Manipulation experiments and field observations in the Hokuriku region, where winter precipitation is extremely high, revealed that egg numbers and hatchability were significantly reduced in exposed places, especially when wax was excluded from the egg mass. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the population in Japan could be divided into at least two groups. Most L. delicatula samples from Hokuriku formed a clade with those from northwestern China. Samples from Okayama, where the distribution of L. delicatula was recently confirmed, had the same haplotype as those from central China, Korea, and the USA. These results suggest that environmental factors and genetic characteristics of L. delicatula are involved in the relatively slow expansion of its distribution in Hokuriku. Conversely, in Okayama, where precipitation is relatively low, the rapidly increasing haplotype in Korea and the USA was detected, leading to concerns that its distribution will expand further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mitochondrial diseases are a group of heterogeneous genetic metabolic diseases caused by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) or nuclear DNA (nDNA) gene mutations. Mining the gene-disease association of mitochondrial diseases is helpful for understanding the pathogenesis of mitochondrial diseases, for carrying out early clinical diagnosis for related diseases, and for formulating better treatment strategies for mitochondrial diseases. This project researched the relationship between genes and mitochondrial diseases, combined the Malacards, Genecards, and MITOMAP disease databases to mine the knowledge on mitochondrial diseases and genes, used database integration and the sequencing method of the phenolyzer tool to integrate disease-related genes from different databases, and sorted the disease-related candidate genes. Finally, we screened 531 mitochondrial related diseases, extracted 26,723 genes directly or indirectly related to mitochondria, collected 24,602 variant sites on 1474 genes, and established a mitochondrial disease knowledge base (MitDisease) with a core of genes, diseases, and variants. This knowledge base is helpful for clinicians who want to combine the results of gene testing for diagnosis, to understand the occurrence and development of mitochondrial diseases, and to develop corresponding treatment methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cell cycle is precisely controlled by numerous regulators. Although extensive studies have identified the cell cycle regulators in rice and Arabidopsis and classified into different gene families, relatively few cell cycle regulators were identified in maize. In this study, 110 putative core cell cycle–related genes in the maize genome were identified through sequence alignment analysis. Among them, 54 members of cyclin family were divided into the A-, B-, C-, D-, F-, L-, T-, and SDS-type subfamilies; 16 members of CDK family were partitioned into the A-, B-, C-, E-, F-, and G-type subfamilies; 19 members of E2F-DP family were separated into the E2F, PAP, DPB, CK, and DEL subfamilies; the remaining genes were nine ICK/KRPs, three EL2/SIMs, three CKSs, five Rbs, and one Wee1 kinase. Maize cell cycle–related genes unequally distributed on all chromosomes, and thirty-six pairs of them were identified as paralogs. The prediction of protein interaction found that 91 proteins were able to interact with each other forming 939 pairs of interactions with a probability more than 0.7. The expression analyses revealed that most of the cell cycle–related genes were expressed in all tissues. The transcription level of some genes in young tissues was higher than that in mature tissues of maize. Meanwhile, some genes from different families shared the similar expression pattern. Overall, the sequence characteristics and expression patterns of maize cell cycle–related genes vary with different gene families. Our results provide basic information for elucidating the functions of these genes in maize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the point-particle model of disperse multiphase flow, the particles, assumed to be very small compared with all the scales of the flow, are represented by singular forces acting on the fluid. The hydrodynamic forces are found from standard correlations by interpolating the velocity field from the grid nodes to the particle positions, with the implicit assumption that the computational cells are much larger than the particles. It is argued here that this model has similarities with the Oseen linearization of the Navier–Stokes equation, the most important one being that, in the Oseen context, the particles are also treated, to leading order, as singularities. For this and other reasons addressed in the paper, the Oseen equations can be used as proxies for the point-particle model and the comparison of their solutions with particle-resolved simulations, both of which are presented in this paper, can shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of the point-particle model. The specific situation considered is the laminar, steady, uniform flow normal to a plane of periodically arranged particles exchanging momentum and heat with the fluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The amount of excreta from sap-feeding insects is linked to the differences in ingestion volumes, and it provides valuable information such as the presence of feeding stimulants and deterrents in their diets. In this work, we introduce a newly developed program source code named DROP and use it to produce imaging densitometric analyses of the insect excreta. Our method is straightforward, rapid, has high sensitivity, and is sufficiently accurate, and therefore is applicable to many sap-feeding insects. The DROP and the sample images are freely available on the website https://sites.google.com/view/tsuchida-lab-drop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) has been reported in more than 40% of patients with cirrhosis in clinical practice. HE changes mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy are important for maintaining and removing damaged mitochondria. We used molecular biology and morphology methods to evaluate changes in mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy of the substantia nigra (SN) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) in HE. In this study, we observed that HE increased mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy in the SN, which was not seen in the PFC. HE stimulated dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1) transformation from the cytosolic to the mitochondria within SN cells, which increased mitochondrial fission and the number of mitochondria. The fusion protein L-OPA1 (long isoforms of OPA1) was increased in the SN of HE mice. HE also increased the levels of autophagy proteins PINK1/PARKIN and P62/LC3-B in the SN, which can selectively remove damaged mitochondria and cell, respectively. Additionally, we used electron microscopy to directly observe changes in mitochondrial morphology in the SN of HE mice and found the number of mitochondria was increased. However, there were no significant changes in the fission, fusion or autophagy proteins in PFC-purified mitochondrial proteins in HE mice. The number of mitochondria also did not show alterations in the PFC of HE mice compared with that in a sham group. These results illustrate that mitochondria can protect themselves by changing the dynamics and autophagy in the SN of HE mice. Changes in the mitochondrial dynamics and autophagy related to HE can help repair damaged mitochondria and provide a further understanding of the mechanisms of hepatic encephalopathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the synthesis of hollow mesoporous silica (HMS) spheres using negative-charged polystyrene particles (ca. 200 nm in diameter) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as dual templates. The obtained HMS spheres were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, and nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis. The shell thickness of HMS spheres could be adjusted in a range of 30-75 nm by changing the concentration of precursor. The HMS spheres (ca. 60-65 nm in shell thickness) presented a high surface area of 1496 m/g, and the total pore volume and average pore diameter were found to be 0.97 cm/g and 2.9 nm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein kinase C iota (PKCι) has been shown to play an important role in tumorigenesis of many cancers. It was reported that frequent amplification and overexpression of PKCi were correlated with resistance to anoikis in primary esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCC). In this study, we clarified a novel role of PKCι on the cell cycle progression and proliferation in ESCC. Western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis showed that the expression of PKCι was higher in ESCC tumor tissues and cell lines. Meanwhile, IHC stain revealed that PKCι was positively correlated with clinical pathologic variables such as tumor size, tumor grade, and tumor invasion, as well as ki67. Immunoprecipitation and immunofluorescence assay revealed that PKCι/CDK7 has the physical interaction and were co-located in the cell nucleus. And this direct interaction could increase the phosphorylation level of CDK7. In vitro studies such as starvation and refeeding assay along with PKCι-shRNA transfection assay demonstrated that PKCι expression promoted proliferation of ESCC cells. And knocking PKCi down by silencing RNA (siRNA) significantly caused cell cycle arrest at G0/G1 phase, decreased rate of colony formation, and alleviated cellular apoptosis. This research provide new insights into PKCi signaling to more deeply understand its cancer-promoting function in ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GDP- d-mannose pyrophosphorylase (GMPase) catalyzes the synthesis of GDP- d-mannose, which is a precursor for ascorbic acid (AsA) synthesis in plants. The rice genome encodes three GMPase homologs OsVTC1- 1, OsVTC1- 3 and OsVTC1- 8, but their roles in AsA synthesis are unclear. The overexpression of OsVTC1- 1 or OsVTC1- 3 restored the AsA synthesis of vtc1- 1 in Arabidopsis, while that of OsVTC1- 8 did not, indicating that only OsVTC1- 1 and OsVTC1- 3 are involved in AsA synthesis in rice. Similar to Arabidopsis VTC1, the expression of OsVTC1- 1 was high in leaves, induced by light, and inhibited by dark. Unlike OsVTC1- 1, the expression level of OsVTC1- 3 was high in roots and quickly induced by the dark, while the transcription level of OsVTC1- 8 did not show obvious changes under constant light or dark treatments. In OsVTC1- 1 RNAi plants, the AsA content of rice leaves decreased, and the AsA production induced by light was limited. In contrast, OsVTC1- 3 RNAi lines altered AsA synthesis levels in rice roots, but not in the leaves or under the light/dark treatment. The enzyme activity showed that OsVTC1-1 and OsVTC1-3 had higher GMPase activities than OsVTC1-8 in vitro. Our data showed that, unlike in Arabidopsis, the rice GPMase homologous proteins illustrated a new model in AsA synthesis: OsVTC1-1 may be involved in the AsA synthesis, which takes place in leaves, while OsVTC1-3 may be responsible for AsA synthesis in roots. The different roles of rice GMPase homologous proteins in AsA synthesis may be due to their differences in transcript levels and enzyme activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NF45, also referred to as nuclear factor of activated T cells, has been reported to promote the progression of multiple cancer types. However, the expression and physiological significance of NF45 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remain largely elusive. In this study, we investigated the clinical relevance and potential role of NF45 expression in PDAC development. Western blot analysis revealed that NF45 was remarkably upregulated in PDAC tissues, compared with the adjacent non-tumorous ones. In addition, the expression of NF45 in 122 patients with PDAC was evaluated using immunohistochemistry. In this way, we found that NF45 was abundantly expressed in PDAC tissues, and the expression of NF45 was correlated with tumor size ( p = 0.007), histological differentiation ( p = 0.033), and TNM stage ( p = 0.001). Importantly, patients with low levels of NF45 expression exhibited better postoperative prognosis as compared with those with high NF45 expression. Furthermore, using PDAC cell cultures, we found that interference of NF45 expression using siRNA oligos suppressed PDAC cell proliferation and retarded cell cycle progression. Moreover, depletion of NF45 impaired the levels of cellular cyclin E and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Conversely, overexpression of NF45 facilitated the cell growth and accelerated cell cycle progression. Our results establish NF45 as an important indicator of PDAC prognosis with potential utility as a therapeutic target in this lethal disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process, to obtain efficiently damage-free surfaces, the structural design of abrasive provides a helpful solution. In this work, highly monodisperse polystyrene (PS) nanospheres [Circa (ca.) 70 nm] were synthesized via a modified soap-free emulsion polymerization. The CeO nanoparticles (ca. 5 nm) were uniformly coated on the surfaces of the PS cores via an in situ chemical precipitation process. The core-shell structured PS@CeO nanocomposites (ca. 90 nm) with a shell thickness of ca. 10 nm were achieved. The samples were further characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermo-gravimetric analysis. The CMP performance of the as-prepared PS@CeO nanocomposites and conventional CeO nanoabrasives for SiO film formed on Si wafer was investigated by an atomic force microscope and a 3D non-contact surface profiler. The results showed that the substrate polished with PS@CeO nanocomposites exhibited a lower root-mean-square surface roughness (0.15 ± 0.02 nm) and higher material removal rate (189 ± 19 nm/min) than those of conventional CeO nanoabrasives (0.25 ± 0.03 nm, 97 ± 16 nm/min). The improved polishing performance might be attributed to the optimization of the physical contact behavior between particles and wafers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sam68 (Src-associated in mitosis of 68 kD) is a KH domain RNA-binding protein. The expression of Sam68 was correlated with kinds of tumors. Yet, the expression mechanisms and physiological significance of Sam68 in ESCC remains unclear. In this study, we clarified a potential role of Sam68 in the treatment of ESCC. Western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis revealed that the protein level of Sam68 was higher in ESCC tumor tissues and cell lines. In addition, IHC stain revealed that Sam68 was positively correlated with clinical pathologic variables such as tumor grade and tumor invasion. In addition, Sam68 could be an independent prognostic indicator for patients' overall survival. In vitro studies such as starvation and refeeding assay along with Sam68-shRNA transfection assay demonstrated that Sam68 expression promoted proliferation of ESCC cells. And Sam68 downregulation caused decreased rate of cell growth and colony formation. Reasons are associated with growth arrest of cell cycle at G1/S phase. Moreover, our results clarified that Sam68 could promote ESCC cell proliferation via the activation of Akt/GSK-3β pathway. This research indicated that Sam68 might accelerate the cell cycle progression and be considered as a new therapy target in ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SYF2, also known as CCNDBP1-interactor or p29, is reported in pre-mRNA splicing and cell cycle progression. However, the role of SYF2 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) development remains elusive. In the present study, Western blot and immunohistochemistry assays demonstrated that SYF2 was overexpressed in ESCC tumor tissues and cell lines. In addition, immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that SYF2 expression was positively correlated with tumor grade and predicted poor prognosis of ESCC. In vitro studies using serum starvation-refeeding experiment and SYF2-siRNA transfection assay demonstrated that SYF2 expression promoted proliferation of ESCC cells, while SYF2 knockdown led to decreased cell growth rate and colony formation resulted from growth arrest of cell cycle at G0/G1 phase. Furthermore, our results indicated that SYF2 can down-regulate the sensitivity of ESCC cells for cisplatin. Our findings for the first time supported that SYF2 might play an important role in the regulation of ESCC proliferation and would provide a novel therapeutic strategy against human ESCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]