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Cellulose is the most abundant and renewable biopolymers on earth. The hydrophilic nature of cellulose endows cellulosic materials with good compatibility with polar matrices, but it also leads to their poor dispersion in non-polar matrices. Regulating the surface hydrophobicity of cellulosic materials via surface esterification can greatly extend their applications. However, the existing surface esterification methods for cellulosic materials are time-consuming and costly, which makes them less attractive for practical application. Here we found that when vinyl esters were used as esterifying agents, various alkalis can be used to catalyze the ultrafast surface esterification of cellulose materials in aqueous media at room temperature within seconds or minutes, which is highly attractive for the surface esterification of nanocellulose in suspension state. Surface acetylated cellulose nanofibers (ACNF) and surface acetylated cellulose nanocrystals (ACNC) with acetyl group content (Ac%) up to 10.7% and 6.5%, respectively, were successfully prepared within 5 min in aqueous diethylamine solution. Additionally, this method can also be used to achieve the rapid acetylation of phenol hydroxy group in aqueous media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major threat is posed to both human society and the environment by geological hazards, necessitating the need for accurate and comprehensive investigation and application in this field. Traditional geological hazard monitoring technologies are not only inefficient, but also fail to accurately delineate affected areas and provide comprehensive disaster data sets, preventing researchers from conducting precise investigations, detection and prevention. Therefore, this article summarizes the application of oblique photography technology through examples, especially its application in the investigation of local geological disasters such as debris flows and landslides, and the use of orthogonal-based corrected single-view oblique photography technology in the investigation of regional geological disasters such as earthquakes. Through summary, it is found that compared with traditional methods, UAV oblique photography technology is more excellent in the accuracy of investigation, detection, prevention, terrain information identification and geological disaster risk factor analysis in geological disasters. UAV oblique photography technology plays a vital role in the investigation, detection and prevention of geological disasters due to its versatility, efficiency and accuracy. It can help create detailed maps and 3D models of terrain by capturing high-resolution images from multiple angles to help identify potential geohazards. It can also detect changes in landforms, vegetation or waterways to provide warning signs for landslides, sinkholes or provide early warning signals for potential geological hazards such as erosion. High-resolution imagery captured by drones allows rescuers to quickly assess impacts on infrastructure, settlements and natural resources, thereby facilitating the efficient allocation of resources for rescue and recovery efforts. Drone oblique photography technology significantly enhances the ability to investigate, detect and prevent geohazards by providing timely, detailed spatial information critical for informed decision-making and proactive disaster management. Additionally considering that drone oblique photography technology may be combined with artificial intelligence algorithms and virtual reality (VR) imaging technology in the future, this integration is expected to improve the efficiency and accuracy of geological disaster management, thus ensuring the safety of human life and property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the influence of the bed allocation and utilization efficiency in healthcare institutions on the isolation proportion of Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) to provide data to support prevention and control of MDROs. In this study, the provincial panel data from 2014 to 2020 in China on health resource indicators, including the number of beds per 1,000 population, hospital bed utilization rate, and average hospital stay from 2014 to 2020 in China were used to analyze the relationship between bed allocation or utilization efficiency and MDROs by the panel data quantile regression model. It was shown that the number of beds per 1,000 population had a negative effect on the isolation proportion of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, and cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Escherichia coli (regression coefficient < 0, P < 0.05). The utilization rate of hospital bed had a positive effect on the isolation proportion of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Escherichia coli, carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (regression coefficient > 0, P < 0.05). The average hospital stay had a positive effect on the isolation proportion for several antibiotic-resistant organisms, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Escherichia coli, carbapenem-resistant Escherichia coli, quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli, cefotaxime or ceftriaxone resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (regression coefficient > 0, P < 0.05). Bed allocation and utilization efficiency in healthcare institutions may affect the isolation proportion of MDROs in varying degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroisomerization of endo-tetrahydrodicyclopentadiene (endo-THDCPD) into exo-tetrahydrodicyclopentadiene (exo-THDCPD) has been conducted over the zeolites loaded with 0.3 wt% of Pt. Consequently, both pore structure and acidity of zeolites gave a significant effect to the hydroisomerization process. The Pt/Beta, Pt/HY and Pt/REY provided over 90% initial endo-THDCPD conversion, while Pt/ZSM-5 and Pt/Mordenite showed very low activity, which was attributed to the larger pore size and larger amount of acid sites. The Pt/Beta provided high initial ring-opening by-products selectivity (62.2%) and low exo-THDCPD selectivity (37.3%), probably because of Pt/Beta exhibited shape-selectivity formation of ring-opening by-products. The Pt/REY showed higher exo-THDCPD selectivity than that of Pt/HY due to its fewer number of strong Brӧnsted acid sites. Besides, the results indicated that the optimum yield of exo-THDCPD was above 89% under the hydroisomerization reaction temperature, 150 °C; hydrogenation pressure, 0.5 MPa; weight hourly space velocity (WHSV), 1 h−1 and H2/endo-THDCPD molar ratio of 30. The results of stability test have indicated the high catalytic stability of Pt/REY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waves play a major role in the ocean phenomena in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG). In order to reveal the spatial-temporal distribution characteristics and the propagation mechanism of waves from the South Atlantic Ocean to the GoG, 4 typical points located in mid-latitude of South Atlantic (14°30′W, 30°0′S), south of the GoG (10°30′W, 15°0′S), offshore of the GoG (0°0′, 0°0′) and near shore of the GoG (6°4′58.8″W, 4°3′36″S) are selected, and waves from Atlantic Ocean to GoG are simulated by using a two-layer-nesting wave numerical model SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore). The results show that the hybrid waves (waves hereafter) and the swells have strong relationship with local wind in Roaring Forties and at mid-latitude of South Atlantic Ocean, while there is no obvious correlation between waves and local winds in the GoG. Swells are generated in the South Atlantic Ocean and propagate into the GoG. 2D wave spectra at the four selected typical points are simulated. The spectral pattern and wave component structure indicate that the wave system in GoG is dominated by the S–SW swells generated from Roaring Forties and mid-latitude of South Atlantic, whether it is at maximum (2.2–2.8 m), medium (1.8–2.2 m) or minimum (1.2 m) significant wave height in the GoG during simulation period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesian offshore and coastal areas are vulnerable to swells from Roaring Forties and cyclone disasters. However, the understanding of the characteristics and propagation mechanisms of local disastrous waves is insufficient, posing a threat to the construction, maintenance, and protection of coastal structures. This study establishes a multiple nested wave model based on the third-generation wave model WAVEWATCH III. This model includes sole forcing of Roaring Forties and combined forcing of Roaring Forties and cyclone Ernie to simulate the influence of disastrous waves under the Roaring Forties and tropical cyclones in the Indonesian offshore zone and coasts. The following results are obtained. The Indonesian offshore is prevailed by relatively stable southern to southwestern dominant swells and small wind waves under the impacts of the Roaring Forties without cyclone winds. Long propagating swells originated from the Roaring Forties dominate in nearshore coastal waters with deformed directions and strength because of the shoaling effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) is upregulated in several inflammatory diseases. Recent data have shown that macrophages from TSP-1-deficient mice have a reduced inflammatory phenotype, suggesting that TSP-1 plays a part in macrophage activation. DNA microarray approach revealed that Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (P. gingivalis LPS) may induce the enhanced TSP-1 expression in human monocytes, suggesting a role of TSP-1-mediated pathogenesis in periodontitis. Until recently, the function of TSP-1 has been a matter of debate. In this study, we explored the role of TSP-1 in inflammatory cytokine secretions and its putative mechanism in pathogenesis of periodontitis. We demonstrated that TSP-1 expression was significantly upregulated in gingival tissues with periodontitis and in P. gingivalis LPS-stimulated THP-1 cells. Deficiency of TSP-1 by transfecting siRNAs decreased IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α secretions in THP-1 cells, whereas overexpression of TSP-1 resulted in an upregulation of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α productions. Additional experiments showed that Pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) inhibited IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α expression induced by overexpression of TSP-1, accompanying with downregulation of phosphorylated p65 and IκBα protein levels in response to P. gingivalis LPS. These results indicated that TSP-1 played a significant role in P. gingivalis LPS-initiated inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α) secretions of THP-1 cells, and the NF-κB signaling is involved in its induction of expression. Thus, TSP-1 effectively elevated P. gingivalis LPS-induced inflammation mediated by the NF-κB pathway and may be critical for pathology of periodontitis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In discussing coal mine entry construction with rock bolt technology, examined the craft and machinery problems as well as the conditions in which to use each kind of machine and tool. It exposed the intrinsic flaws of the widely used road header. The problem is that it was designed according to early timbering support state but is not suitable for rock bolt technology. The way to improve the function of existing road headers is not through parallel operations but using the SUDM (Shield Union Driving Machine), which is a new machine that improves construction. This article proposed a few solutions in design to solve this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Sensor selection is typically used in magnetoencephalography (MEG) and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) studies, but this practice cannot differentiate between changes in the distribution of neural sources versus changes in the magnitude of neural sources. This problem is further complicated by (1) subject averaging despite sizable individual anatomical differences and (2) experimental designs that produce overlapping waveforms due to short latencies between stimuli. Using data from the entire spatial array of sensors, we present simple multivariate measures that (1) normalize against individual differences by comparison with each individual’s standard response; (2) compare the similarity of spatial patterns in different conditions (angle test) to ascertain whether the distribution of neural sources is different; and (3) compare the response magnitude between conditions which are sufficiently similar (projection test). These claims are supported by applying the reported techniques to a short-term word priming paradigm as measured with MEG, revealing more reliable results as compared to traditional sensor selection methodology. Although precise cortical localization remains intractable, these techniques are easy to calculate, relatively assumption free, and yield the important psychological measures of similarity and response magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is believed to enhance abiotic stress resistance by converting superoxide radical (O) to HO to lower ROS level and maintain redox homeostasis. ROS level is controlled via biphasic machinery of ROS production and scavenging. However, whether the role of SOD in abiotic stress resistance is achieved through influencing the biophasic machinery is not well documented. Here, we identified a wheat copper-zinc (Cu/Zn) SOD gene, TaSOD2, who was responsive to NaCl and HO. TaSOD2 overexpression in wheat and Arabidopsis elevated SOD activities, and enhanced the resistance to salt and oxidative stress. TaSOD2 overexpression reduced HO level but accelerated O accumulation. Further, it improved the activities of HO metabolic enzymes, elevated the activity of O producer NADPH oxidase (NOX), and promoted the transcription of NOX encoding genes. The inhibition of NOX activity and the mutation of NOX encoding genes both abolished the salt resistance of TaSOD2 overexpression lines. These data indicate that Cu/Zn SOD enhances salt resistance, which is accomplished through modulating redox homeostasis via promoting NOX activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most deadly gynecological tumor. OC cells utilize cellular metabolic reprogramming to gain a survival advantage, particularly through aberrant lipid metabolic process. As the primary ingredient in exogenous cannabinoids, cannabidiol (CBD) has been confirmed to exhibit antitumor activity in preclinical studies. However, it is still unclear whether CBD can disrupt fatty acid metabolism and induce apoptosis in OC cells. In this study, we have demonstrated that CBD significantly inhibits the proliferation of OCs through a cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1R)-mediated manner. Fatty acid metabolic profiling and flow cytometry analysis revealed that CBD has the ability to decrease fatty acid levels and significantly suppress the transcription of genes involved in fatty acid uptake and synthesis in ES-2 cells. In addition, the analysis from RNA-seq and real-time RT-PCR revealed that CBD activated the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress pathway. Conversely, by supplementation with unsaturated fatty acid or blocking CB1R, ER stress or reactive oxygen species (ROS) signals with specific inhibitors could significantly relieve CBD induced, dose-dependent, ER stress associated apoptosis, G0-G1 phase arrest, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Taken collectively, these data indicate that CBD may disrupt lipid metabolism, and lead to ER stress-related apoptosis in OCs. Our findings may provide a theoretical mechanism for anti-ovarian cancer using CBD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact and lightweight sensor is always expected to be embedded with the traditional micro-vibration isolator in spacecraft. It helps to detect the subtle disturbances the isolator encounters and alerts for potential harm. In this work, we developed a self-sensing micro-vibration isolator using an electret transducer. The theoretical models of the electret-based self-sensing isolator are derived from Hamilton's principle to investigate the coupled dynamics of the system and guide a model-based design. Simulations via the finite element method were also conducted to verify and extend the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results show that the electret transducer is an excellent candidate for the embedded sensor of the micro-vibration isolator. With the proper size and appropriate deployment pattern, the electret sensors can precisely detect the translation and rotation of the unsprung load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Image Hashing methods have proven to be both effective and efficient for large-scale image retrieval problem. The advances in hashing methods concentrate on the learning of image features and hash tables. Existing hashing methods manually select fixed hash code length for all classes of images in a large database. However, we have observed that the length of the hash code is essential to the retrieval performance but it is rarely studied. Short hash codes cannot preserve similarity among images well while long hash codes may lead to high storage costs. Linear search for the optimal length of hash code length is time-consuming. In this paper, a semi-supervised length adaptive hashing method (LAH) is proposed to adaptively optimize hash code lengths for different semantic image classes using a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition. Two objectives regarding retrieval precision and storage cost are set for optimization. We conduct experiments on three real-world image databases and the experimental results show that the proposed LAH significantly improves the retrieval performance compared to the original traditional semi-supervised hashing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a noteworthy cause of liver diseases, especially cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinomas. However, the interaction between the host and HBV has not been fully elucidated. Peptide YY (PYY) is a 36-amino-acid gastrointestinal hormone that is mainly involved in the regulation of the human digestive system. This study found that PYY expression was reduced in HBV-expressing hepatocytes and HBV patients. Overexpression of PYY could significantly inhibit HBV RNA, DNA levels, and the secretion of HBsAg. In addition, PYY inhibits HBV RNA dependent on transcription through reducing the activities of CP/Enh I/II, SP1 and SP2. Meanwhile, PYY blocks HBV replication independent on core, polymerase protein and ε structure of pregenomic RNA. These results suggest that PYY can impair HBV replication by suppressing viral promoters/enhancers in hepatocytes. Our data shed light on a novel role for PYY as anti-HBV restriction factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: CL-20/DNDAP cocrystal is a promising new type of explosive with exceptional energy density and detonation parameters. However, compared to TATB, FOX-7 and other insensitive explosives, it still has higher sensitivity. In order to decrease the sensitivity of CL20/DNDAP cocrystal explosive, in this article, a CL20/DNDAP cocrystal model was established, and six different types of polymers, including butadiene rubber (BR), ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), fluoropolymer (F2603), and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF), were added to the three cleaved surfaces of (1 0 0), (0 1 0) and (0 0 1) to obtain polymer-bonded explosives (PBXs). Predict the effects of different polymers on the stability, trigger bond length, mechanical properties, and detonation performance of PBXs. Among the six PBX models, CL-20/DNDAP/PEG model exhibited the highest binding energy and the lowest trigger bond length, indicating that CL-20/DNDAP/PEG model had the best stability, compatibility, and the least sensitivity. Furthermore, although the CL-20/DNDAP/F2603 model demonstrated superior detonation capabilities, it should be noted that this model displayed low levels of compatibility. Overall, CL-20/DNDAP/PEG model exhibited the superior comprehensive properties, thereby demonstrating that PEG is a more suitable binder option for PBXs based on the CL20/DNDAP cocrystal. Methods: The properties of CL-20/DNDAP cocrystal-based PBXs were predicted by molecular dynamics (MD) method under Materials Studio software. The MD simulation time step was set at 1fs and the total MD simulation time was 2ns. The Isothermal-isobaric (NPT) ensemble was used for the 2ns of MD simulation. The COMPASS force field was used, and the temperature was set at 295K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has resulted in a significant impact on individual lives, bringing a unique challenge for face retrieval under occlusion. In this paper, an occluded face retrieval method which consists of generator, discriminator, and deep hashing retrieval network is proposed for face retrieval in a large-scale face image dataset under variety of occlusion situations. In the proposed method, occluded face images are firstly reconstructed using a face inpainting model, in which the adversarial loss, reconstruction loss and hash bits loss are combined for training. With the trained model, hash codes of real face images and corresponding reconstructed face images are aimed to be as similar as possible. Then, a deep hashing retrieval network is used to generate compact similarity-preserving hashing codes using reconstructed face images for a better retrieval performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method can successfully generate the reconstructed face images under occlusion. Meanwhile, the proposed deep hashing retrieval network achieves better retrieval performance for occluded face retrieval than existing state-of-the-art deep hashing retrieval methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the friction heat flow of gear during operation is easy to cause the scuffing failure of tooth surface, the heat transfer mechanism of planetary gear is researched in this paper, the thermal analysis model considering the internal and external meshing of gears is established, and the thermal characteristics is analyzed. The three-dimensional distribution of temperature field of sun gear, planet gear and ring gear is investigated, respectively, and the weak location of anti-scuffing of gears was revealed. Based on the 3D temperature field, the thermal deformation of planetary gear is studied and the stress distributions with or without temperature are conducted, and it provides a theoretical support for the thermal modification design and prevents scuffing failure of planetary gear transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous development of mobile devices, the number of images on the Internet increases explosively. Hashing methods solve retrieval problems with large datasets by converting images into binary hash codes. However,the image dataset on the Internet is updating and its data distribution may change as time goes by. In this situation, the retrieval effectiveness of ordinary hashing methods designed for stationary environments will decline. Thus, hashing methods for non-stationary environments are developed to learn from newly arrived data and adapt to new data environments for better retrieval accuracy in non-stationary environments. In this paper, goals of ideal hashing methods for non-stationary environments are proposed. State-of-the-art hashing methods for non-stationary environments are introduced and analyzed for their advantages and disadvantages according to goals. Experiments are presented to show characteristics of these methods. Suggestions for future development of non-stationary hashing are also given at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Cognitive impairments are core aspects of schizophrenia and are highly related to poor outcomes. However, the effect of therapy on cognitive impairments remains unsatisfactory as its biological mechanisms are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the disrupted intrinsic neural activity of the frontal areas and to further examine the functional connectivity of frontal areas related to cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We collected brain imaging data using a 3T Siemens Prisma MRI system in 32 patients with schizophrenia and 34 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The mean fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (mfALFF) in the frontal regions was calculated and analyzed to evaluate regional neural activity alterations in schizophrenia. Seed regions were generated from clusters showing significant changes in mfALFF in schizophrenia, and its resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) with other brain regions were estimated to detect possible aberrant rs-FC indicating cognitive impairments in schizophrenia. We found that mfALFF in the bilateral frontal cortices was increased in schizophrenia. mfALFF-based rs-FC revealed that decreased rs-FC between left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and left medial superior frontal gyrus (MFSG) was associated with poor delayed memory (r = 0.566, Bonferroni-corrected p = 0.012). These findings demonstrate increased neural activity in the frontal cortices in schizophrenia. FC analysis revealed a diminished rs-FC pattern between the left MFG and left MSFG that was associated with cognitive impairments. These findings have provided deeper insight into the alterations in brain function related to specific domains of cognitive impairment and may provide evidence for precise interventions for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconstructing intended speech from neural activity using brain-computer interfaces holds great promises for people with severe speech production deficits. While decoding overt speech has progressed, decoding imagined speech has met limited success, mainly because the associated neural signals are weak and variable compared to overt speech, hence difficult to decode by learning algorithms. We obtained three electrocorticography datasets from 13 patients, with electrodes implanted for epilepsy evaluation, who performed overt and imagined speech production tasks. Based on recent theories of speech neural processing, we extracted consistent and specific neural features usable for future brain computer interfaces, and assessed their performance to discriminate speech items in articulatory, phonetic, and vocalic representation spaces. While high-frequency activity provided the best signal for overt speech, both low- and higher-frequency power and local cross-frequency contributed to imagined speech decoding, in particular in phonetic and vocalic, i.e. perceptual, spaces. These findings show that low-frequency power and cross-frequency dynamics contain key information for imagined speech decoding. Reconstructing imagined speech from neural activity holds great promises for people with severe speech production deficits. Here, the authors demonstrate using human intracranial recordings that both low- and higher-frequency power and local cross-frequency contribute to imagined speech decoding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep hashing is effective and efficient for large-scale image retrieval. Most of existing deep hashing methods train a single hash table by utilizing the output of the penultimate fully-connected layer of a convolutional neural network as the deep feature of images. They concentrate on the semantic information but neglect the fine-grain image structure. To address this issue, this paper proposes an advanced image hashing method, Bit-wise Attention Deep Complementary Supervised Hashing (BADCSH). It is an end-to-end system that trains a sequence of hash tables in a boosting manner, each of which is trained by correcting errors caused by all previous ones. Features from different levels of the network are used to train different hash tables. The hash table trained with features at one level reveals a level of semantic content of the image, while the hash table trained with features at a lower level contains structural information of the image that makes up the semantic content. Moreover, the hash layer is used as an embedded layer of the network to generate hash codes. A dense attention layer is added to the hash layer to treat various hash bits differently, in order to reduce hash code redundancy and maximize overall similarity preservation. Finally, the hash tables trained on different levels of features are fused by weights computed based on their respective performance. Experiments on three real-world image databases demonstrate that the proposed method achieves the best performance among state-of-the-art comparative hashing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

F0 variation is a crucial feature in speech prosody, which can convey linguistic information such as focus and paralinguistic meanings such as surprise. How can multiple layers of information be represented with F0 in speech: are they divided into discrete layers of pitch or overlapped without clear divisions? We investigated this question by assessing pitch perception of focus and surprise in Mandarin Chinese. Seventeen native Mandarin listeners rated the strength of focus and surprise conveyed by the same set of synthetically manipulated sentences. An fMRI experiment was conducted to assess neural correlates of the listeners' perceptual response to the stimuli. The results showed that behaviourally, the perceptual threshold for focus was 3 semitones and that for surprise was 5 semitones above the baseline. Moreover, the pitch range of 5-12 semitones above the baseline signalled both focus and surprise, suggesting a considerable overlap between the two types of prosodic information within this range. The neuroimaging data positively correlated with the variations in behavioural data. Also, a ceiling effect was found as no significant behavioural differences or neural activities were shown after reaching a certain pitch level for the perception of focus and surprise respectively. Together, the results suggest that different layers of prosodic information are represented in F0 through different pitch ranges: paralinguistic information is represented at a pitch range beyond that used by linguistic information. Meanwhile, the representation of paralinguistic information is achieved without obscuring linguistic prosody, thus allowing F0 to represent the two layers of information in parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the world of big data, large amounts of images are available in social media, corporate and even personal collections. A collection may grow quickly as new images are generated at high rates. The new images may cause changes in the distribution of existing classes or the emergence of new classes, resulting in the collection being dynamic and having concept drift. For efficient image retrieval from an image collection using a query, a hash table consisting of a set of hash functions is needed to transform images into binary hash codes which are used as the basis to find similar images to the query. If the image collection is dynamic, the hash table built at one time step may not work well at the next due to changes in the collection as a result of new images being added. Therefore, the hash table needs to be rebuilt or updated at successive time steps. Incremental hashing (ICH) is the first effective method to deal with the concept drift problem in image retrieval from dynamic collections. In ICH, a new hash table is learned based on newly emerging images only which represent data distribution of the current data environment. The new hash table is used to generate hash codes for all images including old and new ones. Due to the dynamic nature, new images of one class may not be similar to old images of the same class. In order to learn new hash table that preserves within-class similarity in both old and new images, incremental hashing with sample selection using dominant sets (ICHDS) is proposed in this paper, which selects representative samples from each class for training the new hash table. Experimental results show that ICHDS yields better retrieval performance than existing dynamic and static hashing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Porous C/SiC ceramics were prepared by chemical vapor reaction of SiO and porous C/C composites. The porous C/SiC ceramics presented a hierarchical structured consisted of carbon fibers, SiC layer, microspheres and nanowires. The density of porous C/C composites control the growth of SiC nanowires and nanolayer, and influence the pore size distribution and specific surface area of the porous C/SiC ceramics. The C/SiC samples converting from the C/C composites with a density of 0.46 g/cm3 possess the superior adsorption properties. The adsorption efficiency can reach 98.2% within 80 min, indicating that C/SiC samples have a promising adsorption property for MB from aqueous solution. Furthermore, the adsorption efficiency after five cycles microwave regeneration still reached 80.2%, which present excellent regeneration stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Deep hashing has proven to be efficient and effective for large-scale image retrieval due to the strong representation capability of deep networks. Existing deep hashing methods only utilize a single deep hash table. In order to achieve both higher retrieval recall and precision, longer hash codes can be used but at the expense of higher space usage. To address this issue, a novel deep hashing method is proposed in this paper, weighted multi-deep ranking supervised hashing (WMDRH), which employs multiple weighted deep hash tables to improve precision/recall without increasing space usage. The hash table is constructed as an additional layer in a deep network. Hash codes are generated by minimizing the loss function that contains two terms: (1) the ranking pairwise loss and (2) the classification loss. The ranking pairwise loss ensures to generate discriminative hash codes by penalizing more for the (dis)similar image pairs with (small)large Hamming distances. The classification loss guarantees the hash codes to be effective for category prediction. Different hash bits in each individual hash table are treated differently by assigning corresponding weights based on information preservation and bit diversity. Moreover, multiple hash tables are integrated by assigning the appropriate weight to each table according to its mean average precision (MAP) score for image retrieval. Experiments on three widely-used image databases show the proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art hashing methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Caffeoylquinic Acid Derivatives Protect SH-SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells from Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Injury Through Modulating Oxidative Status" that was published in June 2, 2016 issue is presented.

Ellipticine, a natural product from Ochrosia elliptica, has been broadly investigated for its anticancer effects. Although inflammation has been clearly identified as a key factor in the onset and progression of cancer, the relationship between ellipticine and inflammation remains unknown. Hence, the aims of the present study were to assess the effects of ellipticine on the inflammatory responses to lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced macrophages and to potentially identify the underlying mechanisms involved. Viability testing showed that ellipticine was not significantly toxic to Raw264.7 cells and actually conveyed protective effects to LPS-stimulated Raw264.7 cells and human peripheral blood monocytes by decreasing the secretion of inflammatory factors (TNF-α and IL-6). The results of western blot analysis and electrophoretic mobility shift assays showed that ellipticine markedly suppressed LPS-induced activation of the JNK/AP-1 (c-Fos and c-Jun) signaling pathway, but not ERK/p38/NF-κB pathway (p65 and p50) activation. Furthermore, ellipticine reduced the inflammatory response and mortality in a mouse model of LPS-induced endotoxic shock. Collectively, these data indicate that ellipticine may be a potential therapeutic agent for the treatment of inflammation-associated diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues based on gastroenterology are the most distressing diseases in a human anatomy with the largest solid organ, liver that requires serious attention in its diagnosis. The challenging task of Liver segmentation is the main motive, proposed with the exploring of level set methodology with signed pressure force combined with masking and other Morphological operations. Next, the segmented liver multi-atlases are condensed together as a complete 3D projection of Human Liver in 360° shape angulation. The huge set of abdominal slices with 0.16 mm spacing of about 250 real time images of each subject, is treated as input with this proposed method and nearly 2550 CT images are used to get segmented using this methodology. The Evaluation Metrics given as 5 Error Metrics and 4 Performance Metrics obtained with the averaging of 10 atlases to each point, of the segmented atlases, outperforms the comparative methods of the Radiologist's inference of liver boundary detection and an additional existing Local Fuzzy thresholding methodology. The overall visual outcome, evaluation metrical values and graphical data shows the peculiar performance of proposed methodology. This outcome with the electronic evolution of computed tomography appends to the wireless sensory waves to mark the CT images for our input. The doctors will be greatly helped by our process, to serve the global cause of saving lives by diagnosing accurately the complications of liver with appropriate segments, at early stage itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1,5-O-dicaffeoyl-3-O-(4-malic acid methylester)–quinic acid (MQA), extracted from Arctium lappa L., has been observed to exert neuroprotective effects in vitro. The aim of this study was to investigate whether MQA is an effective therapeutic method for cerebral ischemic injury in vivo. In this study, adult male rats were randomly divided into four groups: a normal group, a model group subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 24 h, a model + MQA group (which received intragastric MQA for the 7 days prior to MCAO), and a model + positive drug group. MQA appeared to induce effects in cerebral ischemic injury in rats, by downregulating malondialdehyde, glutathione peroxidase, and nitric oxide synthase levels. Treatment with MQA significantly reduced infarcted sections. In addition, caspase-3 and Iba1 protein expression were evaluated with immunohistochemistry, and cortical cell apoptosis was assessed with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assays. Expression of AKT and Bax, ERK1/2, P38 and Bcl-2, NFkB1, PARP, and caspase-3 was assessed with Western blotting. We found Bcl-2 and NFkB1 (p50) expressions were upregulated, whereas the expression of PARP, caspase-3, NFkB1 (p105), ERK1/2, P38, AKT, and Bax was downregulated. In conclusion, we observed MQA was an effective treatment for cerebral ischemic injury in rats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative stress has been confirmed as a contribution to the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of many neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Caffeoylquinic acids (CQAs) are considered to have anti-oxidative stress ability in a previous study, but the structure-activity relationships (SARs) of CQAs in neuroprotective effects are still unclear. In the present study, we primarily expound the SARs of CQAs in counteracting HO-induced injury in SH-SY5Y cells. We found that CQAs ( 1- 10) represented the protection of SH-SY5Y cells against HO-induced injury in varying degrees and malonyl groups could obviously increase the anti-oxidative stress ability of CQAs. Intensive studies of 4,5- O-dicaffeoyl-1- O-(malic acid methyl ester)-quinic acid (MDCQA) indicated that the mechanisms could potentially involve activation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes and the regulation of the phosphorylation of MAPKs and AKT. In conclusion, MDCQA could serve as a neuroprotective agent with a potential to attenuate oxidative stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ischemic injury in rodent models reliably leads to the activation of microglia, which might play a detrimental role in neuronal survival. Our preliminary studies suggest that nicotine plays a potential role in decreasing the numbers of cultured microglia in vitro. In the present study, we found treatment with nicotine 2, 6, and 12 h after ischemia for 7 days significantly increased the survival of CA1 pyramidal neurons in ischemia/reperfusion rats. This effect was accompanied by a significant reduction in the increase of microglia rather than astrocytes, as well as a significant reduction of enhanced expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1β) in CA1 induced by ischemia/reperfusion. Nicotine inhibits microglial proliferation in primary cultures with and without the stimulation of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Pre-treatment with α-bungarotoxin, a selective α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7 nAChR) antagonist, could prevent the inhibitory effects of nicotine on cultured microglial proliferation suggesting that nicotine inhibits the microglial proliferation in an α7 nAChR-dependent fashion. Our results suggest that nicotine inhibits the inflammation mediated by microglia via α7 nAChR and is neuroprotective against ischemic stroke, even when administered 12 h after the insult. α7 nAChR agonists may have uses as anti-ischemic compounds in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to investigate the effect of additives and nano-particle on the surface tensions of lithium bromide (LiBr) aqueous solution/ammonia, many experiments were carried out based on Wilhelmy plate method. Firstly, the surface tension of LiBr aqueous solution with 1-octanol was measured and then the comparison between the measured results and previous experimental results was given to verify the measuring accuracy. Some new additives, such as cationic surfactants cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC), and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) were chosen in the experiments. The experimental results show that CTAC and CTAB can obviously reduce the surface tension of LiBr aqueous solution/ammonia. In addition, it is found that nano-particles cannot remarkably decrease the surface tension of LiBr aqueous solution/ammonia. However, the mixed addition of additives and nano-particles can remarkably affect the surface tension of LiBr aqueous solution/ammonia. That is to say, additives play more important role in reducing the surface tension of LiBr aqueous solution/ammonia. But nano-particles may enhance the heat transfer in the absorption refrigeration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulated evidence has shown that excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been implicated in neuronal cell death related with various chronic neurodegenerative disorders. This study was designed to explore neuroprotective effects of ethyl acetate extract of Arctium lappa L. roots (EAL) on hydrogen peroxide (HO)-induced cell injury in human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. The cell viability was significantly decreased after exposure to 200 μM HO, whereas pretreatment with different concentrations of EAL attenuated the HO-induced cytotoxicity. Hoechst 33342 staining indicated that EAL reversed nuclear condensation in HO-treated cells. Meanwhile, TUNEL assay with DAPI staining showed that EAL attenuated apoptosis was induced by HO. Pretreatment with EAL also markedly elevated activities of antioxidant enzyme (GSH-Px and SOD), reduced lipid peroxidation (MDA) production, prevented ROS formation, and the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential. In addition, EAL showed strong radical scavenging ability in 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) assays. Furthermore, EAL inhibited HO-induced apoptosis by increases in the Bcl-2/Bax ratio, decreases in cytochrome c release, and attenuation of caspase-3, caspase-9 activities, and expressions. These findings suggest that EAL may be regarded as a potential antioxidant agent and possess potent neuroprotective activity against HO-induced injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The platelet count, as an inflammation marker, is involved in the progress of tumor invasion. However, the prognostic value of platelet counts and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) has not been investigated in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to determine the prognostic value of platelet counts and PLR in HCC patients. A total of 243 ethnic Chinese advanced HCC patients from two major hospitals, not receiving systemic sorafenib, were analyzed retrospectively. The prognostic value of differential blood cell counts and PLR for overall survival (OS) was determined by integrating the Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) score system and model for end-stage liver disease by using a stepwise model of multivariate Cox regression. The Kaplan-Meier method and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were utilized accordingly. PLR was confirmed to be an independent predictor for OS ( p < 0.01), while the remaining parameters had no predictive value. Then, advanced HCC patients were dichotomized into two groups based on the PLR value (≤111.23 or >111.23), according to ROC analysis. Patients with a high PLR had a lower 3-month survival rate (37.6 vs. 57.6 %) compared with patients with a low PLR. PLR was associated with aggressive malignant behavior, characterized by distant metastasis and portal vein thrombosis. Additionally, PLR was not associated with the CLIP score and Child-Pugh grade. PLR was identified as an independent prognostic factor for advanced HCC patients not receiving systemic sorafenib; the predictive ability of PLR partially relies on its association with the aggressive nature of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new coarse-to-fine strategy was proposed for nonrigid registration of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) images of a liver. This hierarchical framework consisted of an affine transformation and a B-splines free-form deformation (FFD). The affine transformation performed a rough registration targeting the mismatch between the CT and MR images. The B-splines FFD transformation performed a finer registration by correcting local motion deformation. In the registration algorithm, the normalized mutual information (NMI) was used as similarity measure, and the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shannon (L-BFGS) optimization method was applied for optimization process. The algorithm was applied to the fully automated registration of liver CT and MR images in three subjects. The results demonstrate that the proposed method not only significantly improves the registration accuracy but also reduces the running time, which is effective and efficient for nonrigid registration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing ex situ and in situ powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies, the evolution of two characteristic diffractions at 11.9° and 12.4° (2 θ) with the real-time migration of cationic lanthanum species in hydrated, dehydrated, and rehydrated lanthanum-exchanged zeolite NaY (LaNaY) have been discussed thoroughly. We found that the [La(HO)] ions in the supercages can strengthen the (222) diffraction and reduce the (311) diffraction dramatically, and such effects disappear when [La(HO)] ions migrate into the sodalite cages and the hexagonal prisms. The relationship obtained shows the capability to monitor the content/location of lanthanum species in LaNaY sample by monitoring the diffractions between 11.6° and 12.8° (2 θ) in its XRD pattern, and may be useful in the routine characterization of LaNaY samples in petrochemical industry, avoiding long time collection and the structure refinement of XRD patterns. Moreover, carefully designed in situ XRD characterization proves that HO molecules play an important role in the reversible migration of cationic lanthanum species in zeolite Y. Al MAS NMR was also performed for validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sulfonated 9,10-distyrylanthracene derivative with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) property is designed and synthesized. It shows a highly sensitive and selective fluorescence enhancement property for bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein detection and quantification. Analysis on the interaction between the probe molecule and BSA reveals the essential role of the hydrophobic cavities of the protein folding structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]