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V-type immunoglobulin domain–containing suppressor of T-cell activation (VISTA), a novel negative checkpoint regulator, plays an essential role in allergic pulmonary inflammation in mice. Treatment with a VISTA agonistic antibody could significantly improve asthma symptoms. Thus, for allergic asthma treatment, VISTA targeting may be a compelling approach. In this study, we examined the functional mechanism of VISTA in allergic pulmonary inflammation and screened the FDA-approved drugs for VISTA agonists. By using mass cytometry (CyTOF), we found that VISTA deficiency primarily increased lung macrophage infiltration in the OVA-induced asthma model, accompanied by an increased proportion of M1 macrophages (CD11b+F4/80+CD86+) and a decreased proportion of M2 macrophages (CD11b+F4/80+CD206+). Further in vitro studies showed that VISTA deficiency promoted M1 polarization and inhibited M2 polarization of bone marrow–derived macrophages (BMDMs). Importantly, we discovered baloxavir marboxil (BXM) as a VISTA agonist by virtual screening of FDA-approved drugs. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assays revealed that BXM (KD = 1.07 µM) as well as its active form, baloxavir acid (BXA) (KD = 0.21 µM), could directly bind to VISTA with high affinity. Notably, treatment with BXM significantly ameliorated asthma symptoms, including less lung inflammation, mucus secretion, and the generation of Th2 cytokines (IL-5, IL-13, and IL-4), which were dramatically attenuated by anti-VISTA monoclonal antibody treatment. BXM administration also reduced the pulmonary infiltration of M1 macrophages and raised M2 macrophages. Collectively, our study indicates that VISTA regulates pulmonary inflammation in allergic asthma by regulating macrophage polarization and baloxavir marboxil, and an old drug might be a new treatment for allergic asthma through targeting VISTA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasonable construction of high activity and low cost non-noble metal oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst is of great importance for the wide application of zinc-air batteries (ZABs). Using bimetallic MOF as a precursor combined with electrospinning, high-temperature carbonization and electrodeposition, we successfully developed a porous carbon nanofiber (Co@Fe-CNFs-1000) with bimetallic active center as an efficient catalyst for ORR. The successful construction of this special core-shell structure directly explores the synergy between different active centers. The results showed that the synthesized Co@Fe-CNFs-1000 catalyst exhibited ORR performance comparable to that of Pt/C in 0.1 mol/L KOH electrolyte, high half-wave potential (E1/2=0.81 V) and limiting current density (JL=5.4 mA-cm−2). In addition, homemade liquid ZABs with Co@Fe-CNFs-1000 as the air cathode showed excellent power density (155.8 mW·cm−2), specific capacity (780.6 mAh·gZn−1) and long-term stability (over 100 h at 2 mA·cm−2), surpassing even Pt/C-based batteries. In addition, the flexible solid-state ZABs assembled based on Co@Fe-CNFs-1000 demonstrates excellent flexibility and durability. This work provides a new idea for constructing ORR catalysts with high activity centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy balance in the corona of the Sun is the key to the long-standing coronal heating dilemma, which could be potentially revealed by observational studies of decayless kink oscillations of coronal plasma loops. A bundle of very long off-limb coronal loops with the length of 736 ± 80 Mm and a lifetime of about 2 days are found to exhibit decayless kink oscillations. The oscillations are observed for several hours. The oscillation amplitude is measured at 0.3–0.5 Mm, and the period at 28–33 min. The existence of 30-min periodicity of decayless kink oscillations indicates that the mechanism compensating the wave damping is still valid in such a massive plasma structure. It provides important evidence for the non-resonant origin of decayless kink oscillations with 2–6 min periods, i.e., the lack of their link with the leakage of photospheric and chromospheric oscillations into the corona and the likely role of the broadband energy sources. Magnetohydrodynamic seismology based on the reported detection of the kink oscillation, with the assistance of the differential emission measure analysis and a background coronal model provides us with a comprehensive set of plasma and magnetic field diagnostics, which is of interest as input parameters of space weather models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multispectral pedestrian detection has received increasing attention in recent years as color and thermal modalities can provide complementary visual information, especially under insufficient illumination conditions. However, there is still a persistent crucial problem that how to design the cross-modality fusion mechanism to fully exploit the complementary characteristics between different modalities. In this paper, we propose a novel cross-modality complementary information fusion network (denoted as CCIFNet) to comprehensively capture the long-range interactions with precise positional information and meanwhile preserve the inter-spatial relationship between different modalities in the feature extraction stage. Further, we design an adaptive illumination-aware weight generation module to adaptively weight the final detection confidence of color and thermal modalities by taking various illumination conditions into consideration. Specifically, we comprehensively compare three different fusion strategies about this module to synthetically explore the best way for generating the final illumination-aware fusion weights. Finally, we present a simple but effective feature alignment module to alleviate the position shift problem caused by the weakly aligned color-thermal image pairs. Extensive experiments and ablation studies on KAIST, CVC-14, FLIR and LLVIP multispectral object detection datasets show that the proposed CCIFNet can achieve state-of-the-art performance under different illumination evaluation settings, while keeping a competitive speed-accuracy trade-off for real-time applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object tracking has always been an important research task in computer vision. Since the bounding box is rectangular, there are inevitably a large number of background contents in target samples. When the background changes drastically, it is easy to cause template drift. Traditional methods alleviate template drift by discarding samples and restricting tracker updates when the background interference is severe. However, it is difficult to assess the degree of interference, and these methods also waste part of the undisturbed target information. To bridge these gaps, we proposed a Redefined Target Sample-Based Background-Aware Correlation Filters (RTSBACF), which effectively reduces background interference in target samples and makes full use of undisturbed target information. Specifically, we first proposed a tracking model with the redefined target samples which are calculated by sample suppression items and compensation samples. Then, based on this model, a strategy to generate sample suppression items and compensation samples was designed to reduce background interference in target samples by redefining target sample areas without modifying background sample areas. Finally, we adopted the combined features which are more suitable for redefined target samples, and designed the scale penalties for the combined features to further enhance tracking performance. The experimental results demonstrated that the performance of our proposed tracker exceeds several advanced trackers. In addition, compared with the baseline tracker, the overall precision and success rate of the proposed RTSBACF increased by 6.1% and 5.2% in the OTB2013 dataset and by 9.5% and 5.3% in the TC128 dataset, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon coating combined with morphological engineering has been considered an effective and economical measure for enhancing the electrochemical properties of Li4Ti5O12. Herein, using cheap and industrial H2TiO3 as titanium reactant, carbon-coated Li4Ti5O12 microspheres with high-rate performance were synthesized through solid-state reaction under a carbon reduction atmosphere. The carbon reduction atmosphere was produced from coal ash embedded between two corundum crucibles, instead of utilizing the inert or reduction gases. Assisted by spray-drying method for making spheres, the obtained products were composed of micron-size secondary spheres (2–12 μm) accumulated by submicron scale primary particles (~ 300 nm). As anode material, the LTO/C–C therefore delivered a very satisfying performance: a reversible capacity of 164.21 mAh/g at 0.2 C, and remarkable rate capability of ∼130.94 mAh/g at 5 C rate with little capacity fading (2.5%) after 200 cycles. Compared with pristine LTO and LTO/C-N2, the superior electrochemical performances are mainly ascribed to the presence of the thin carbon coating layer, conductive carbon network, and the hybrid valence state of Ti3+ and Ti4+. The findings showed that solid-state reaction in the carbon reducing atmosphere provided with coal ash embedded is a promising candidate for the large-scale industrial production of LTO/C–C microparticles with high-rate capability, which avoids the needs of high-risk gas and high-cost of production equipment under harsh conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pedestrian detection is a critical task in the field of computer vision, and it has made considerable progress with the help of Convnets. However, a persistent crucial problem is that small-scale pedestrians are notoriously difficult to detect because of the introduction of weak contrast and blurred boundaries in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we present a simple and compact detection method for detecting multi-scale pedestrians, which is especially suitable for detecting small-scale pedestrians that are not easily recognized in images or videos. We first interpret convolutional neural network (CNN) channel features, explore the detection performance of different feature fusion methods, and propose a novel two-level feature fusion strategy specially designed for small-scale pedestrians. Moreover, a sub-network named "prediction module" is injected into the framework to improve the general performance without any bells and whistles. In addition, we propose an adaptive loss that adds an adaptive adjustment coefficient to the Smooth L1 loss function to enhance its robustness to pedestrian detection tasks. Using these methods synthetically, we achieve state-of-the-art detection performance on the Caltech pedestrian dataset under three evaluation protocols; particularly, the performance of small-scale pedestrians under "Far" evaluation setting is improved (miss rate decreases from 70.97% to 60.09%). Further, the proposed method achieves a competitive speed-accuracy trade-off with 0.31 second per image of 1024×2048 pixels on the CityPersons dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review novel data analysis techniques developed or adapted for the field of coronal seismology. We focus on methods from the last ten years that were developed for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging observations of the solar corona, as well as for light curves from radio and X-ray. The review covers methods for the analysis of transverse and longitudinal waves; spectral analysis of oscillatory signals in time series; automated detection and processing of large data sets; empirical mode decomposition; motion magnification; and reliable detection, including the most common pitfalls causing artefacts and false detections. We also consider techniques for the detailed investigation of MHD waves and seismological inference of physical parameters of the coronal plasma, including restoration of the three-dimensional geometry of oscillating coronal loops, forward modelling and Bayesian parameter inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale, cyclic, transverse motions of plasma threads are usually seen in solar prominences, which are often interpreted as magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. Here, we observed small-scale decayless transverse oscillations in a quiescent prominence, and they appear to be omnipresent. The oscillatory periods of the emission intensity and a proxy for the line-of-sight Doppler shift are about half period of the displacement oscillations. This feature agrees well with the fast kink-mode waves in a flux tube. All the moving threads oscillate transversally spatially in phase and exhibit no significant damping throughout the visible segments, indicating that the fast kink MHD waves are persistently powered and ongoing dissipating energy is transferred to the ambient plasma in the quiet corona. However, our calculations suggest that the energy taken by the fast kink MHD waves alone can not support the coronal heating on the quiet Sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To improve the heat transfer performance of microchannels, a novel microchannel embedded with connected grooves crossing two sidewalls and the bottom surface (type A) was designed. A comparative study of heat transfer was conducted regarding the performances of type A microchannels, microchannels embedded with grooves on their bottom (including types B and C), or on the sidewalls (type D) as well as smooth rectangular microchannels (type E) via a three-dimensional numerical simulation and experimental validation (at Reynolds numbers from 118 to 430). Numerical results suggested that the average Nusselt number of types A, B, C, and D microchannels were 106, 73.4, 50.1, and 12.6% higher than that of type E microchannel, respectively. The smallest synergy angle β and entropy generation number Ns,a were determined for type A microchannels based on field synergy and nondimensional entropy analysis, which indicated that type A exhibited the best heat transfer performance. Numerical flow analysis indicated that connected grooves induced fluid to flow along two different temperature gradients, which contributed to enhanced heat transfer performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Interface engineering of heterogeneous CoS/CoO nanocrystals and N-doped graphene composite facilitates high-performance oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction. Density functional theory calculations and experimental results confirm the enhanced electrocatalytic performances via the proposed interface engineering. The bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst exhibits excellent performances in rechargeable Zn–air batteries. Low cost and green fabrication of high-performance electrocatalysts with earth-abundant resources for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are crucial for the large-scale application of rechargeable Zn–air batteries (ZABs). In this work, our density functional theory calculations on the electrocatalyst suggest that the rational construction of interfacial structure can induce local charge redistribution, improve the electronic conductivity and enhance the catalyst stability. In order to realize such a structure, we spatially immobilize heterogeneous CoS/CoO nanocrystals onto N-doped graphene to synthesize a bifunctional electrocatalyst (CoS/CoO@NGNs). The optimization of the composition, interfacial structure and conductivity of the electrocatalyst is conducted to achieve bifunctional catalytic activity and deliver outstanding efficiency and stability for both ORR and OER. The aqueous ZAB with the as-prepared CoS/CoO@NGNs cathode displays a high maximum power density of 137.8 mW cm−2, a specific capacity of 723.9 mAh g−1 and excellent cycling stability (continuous operating for 100 h) with a high round-trip efficiency. In addition, the assembled quasi-solid-state ZAB also exhibits outstanding mechanical flexibility besides high battery performances, showing great potential for applications in flexible and wearable electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Distal re-entry tears play a significant role in false lumen (FL) thrombosis, which will strongly affect the postoperative long-term survival of patients with type B aortic dissection (TBAD) after thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). This study aimed to investigate the influence of a peculiar morphological parameter of the residual re-entry tears in TBAD patients after TEVAR on long-term FL thrombosis using the computational fluid dynamics. Methods: Ideal population-based three-dimensional models of post-operative TBAD were established. Numerical simulation was performed to investigate the hemodynamic differences caused by different tear features, including the tear count, the maximum distance between tears, and the tear area. Results: Although the low relative residence time (RRT) area did not change significantly when the tear distance was fixed, the area of oscillatory shear index (OSI) > 0.45 and endothelial cell activation potential (ECAP) > 1.5 decreased significantly with the tear count and area increased and a dramatic increase in blood flow into the FL was also observed. When tear count and total area were fixed, for each 10-mm increase in the maximum distance between tears, the area of low RRT in the FL increased significantly, while the average pressure difference increased by 10.85%. Conclusion: The different morphology of the re-entry tears had different effects on the thrombosis-related hemodynamic parameters in FL following TEVAR. and the number of re-entry tears was most crucial to the potential thrombosis in the post-TEVAR FL of TBAD patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the unique layered structure and the superior resistance to thermal impulse exhibited by the shells of snails inhabiting the deep-sea hydrothermal environment, here we attempt to reveal the underlying structure–property relationship by investigating the temperature response of a bilayer subjected to a thermal impulse on one side. A semi-analytical solution to the transient temperature field is obtained, allowing us to examine the effects of the layout sequence and volume fractions of the constitutive layers on the thermal impulse resistance of the shell. For two layers made of given materials, the proper layout sequence and optimal thickness ratio are proposed, giving rise to a highest resistance to thermal impulse. The results of our work not only account for the physiological functionality of the unique laminated design of the snail shells from deep-sea hydrothermal environments but also provide operational guidelines for the development of thermal barriers in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, copper hexacyanocobaltate was electro-deposited at amino-graphene-coated indium-tin-oxide glass to form multifunctional heterogeneous catalyst (CuCoG/ITO), which was confirmed by field emission scanning microscope, infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction, and electro-chemistry techniques. A novel heterogeneous photo-electro-Fenton-like system was established using CuCoG/ITO as an air-diffusion electrode, in which hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radical (•OH) could be simultaneously generated by air O2 reduction. The productive rate of •OH could reached to 70.5 μmol h−1 at − 0.8 V with 300 W visible light irradiation at pH 7.0, 0.1 M PBS. Levofloxacin could be quickly degraded at CuCoG/ITO during heterogeneous photo-electro-Fenton process in neutral media with a first-order kinetic constant of 0.49 h−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly decaying long-period oscillations often occur in hot coronal loops of active regions associated with small (or micro-) flares. This kind of wave activity was first discovered with the SOHO/SUMER spectrometer from Doppler velocity measurements of hot emission lines, thus also often called "SUMER" oscillations. They were mainly interpreted as global (or fundamental mode) standing slow magnetoacoustic waves. In addition, increasing evidence has suggested that the decaying harmonic type of pulsations detected in light curves of solar and stellar flares are likely caused by standing slow-mode waves. The study of slow magnetoacoustic waves in coronal loops has become a topic of particular interest in connection with coronal seismology. We review recent results from SDO/AIA and Hinode/XRT observations that have detected both standing and reflected intensity oscillations in hot flaring loops showing the physical properties (e.g., oscillation periods, decay times, and triggers) in accord with the SUMER oscillations. We also review recent advances in theory and numerical modeling of slow-mode waves focusing on the wave excitation and damping mechanisms. MHD simulations in 1D, 2D and 3D have been dedicated to understanding the physical conditions for the generation of a reflected propagating or a standing wave by impulsive heating. Various damping mechanisms and their analysis methods are summarized. Calculations based on linear theory suggest that the non-ideal MHD effects such as thermal conduction, compressive viscosity, and optically thin radiation may dominate in damping of slow-mode waves in coronal loops of different physical conditions. Finally, an overview is given of several important seismological applications such as determination of transport coefficients and heating function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the original publication, the label text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TiO2 nanotube arrays, growing on three-dimensional (3D) porous Ti membrane, were synthesized using a facile nonsolvent-induced phase separation and anodization process. The length of those three-dimensional nanotube arrays could be tuned by prolonging the anodizing time. When the anodizing time is 8 h, the three-dimensional TiO2 nanotube arrays/porous Ti electrode exhibits well cycling stability and ultra-high specific capacity, which is used in lithium-ion batteries, attributed to the high utilization rate of the substrate and the high growth intensity of the active materials. Three-dimensional TiO2 nanotube arrays/porous Ti electrode, at 100 μA·cm−2 with 8 h anodizing time, shows a typical discharge plateau at 1.78 V and exhibits the specific capacity with 2126.7 μAh·cm−2. The novel nanotube arrays@3D porous architecture effectively shortens the electron/ion transmission path, which could pave way for optimizing the design of high-performance anode materials for next-generation energy storage system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To identify risk factors and develop a simple model to predict early prognosis of acute paraquat (PQ) poisoning patients, we performed a retrospective cohort study of acute PQ poisoning patients (n = 1199). Patients (n = 913) with PQ poisoning from 2011 to 2018 were randomly divided into training (n = 609) and test (n = 304) samples. Another two independent cohorts were used as validation samples for a different time (n = 207) and site (n = 79). Risk factors were identified using a logistic model with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation and further evaluated using a latent class analysis. The prediction score was developed based on the training sample and was evaluated using the testing and validation samples. Eight factors, including age, ingestion volume, creatine kinase-MB [CK-MB], platelet [PLT], white blood cell [WBC], neutrophil counts [N], gamma-glutamyl transferase [GGT], and serum creatinine [Cr] were identified as independent risk indicators of in-hospital death events. The risk model had C statistics of 0.895 (95% CI 0.855–0.928), 0.891 (95% CI 0.848–0.932), and 0.829 (95% CI 0.455–1.000), and predictive ranges of 4.6–98.2%, 2.3–94.9%, and 0–12.5% for the test, validation_time, and validation_site samples, respectively. In the training sample, the risk model classified 18.4%, 59.9%, and 21.7% of patients into the high-, average-, and low-risk groups, with corresponding probabilities of 0.985, 0.365, and 0.03 for in-hospital death events. We developed and evaluated a simple risk model to predict the prognosis of patients with acute PQ poisoning. This risk scoring system could be helpful for identifying high-risk patients and reducing mortality due to PQ poisoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Existing hemodynamic studies on aortic dissection after thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) apply geometric simplifications. This study aims to evaluate the necessity of more accurate geometries at the proximal landing zone in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies. Methods: Three patient-specific 3D aortic dissection models with different geometric accuracies at the proximal landing zone were manually fabricated for CFD simulations: (i) model 1 without the stent graft (SG), (ii) model 2 with the metal stent, and (iii) model 3 with the SG. The flow distribution, flow pattern, and wall shear stress (WSS)-related indicators in these three models were compared. Results: The flow distributions were quite similar for the three models, with a maximum absolute difference of 0.27% at the left suclavian artery (LSA) between models 1 and 3 because of partial coverage. A more chaotic flow pattern was observed at the proximal landing zone in model 3, with significant regional differences in the WSS-related indicator distributions. The upstream and downstream WSS-related indicator distributions were quite similar for the three models. Conclusions: The flow pattern and hemodynamic parameter distributions were affected by the geometric accuracy only in a small region near the proximal landing zone. The flow split was hardly affected by the LSA partial coverage, indicating that the coverage may have slight effects on short-term blood perfusion. However, this conclusion needs to be verified in future studies with larger sample sizes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saphenous vein graft (SVG) bypass placement is regarded as the optimal option for renal artery stenosis, which usually causes secondary hypertension and poor renal perfusion. Using computational fluid dynamics, this study aimed to investigate the underlying hemodynamic mechanism of the vein aneurysm and stenosis after aortorenal bypass surgery. Three-dimensional models were reconstructed based on computed tomographic angiography images of a 20-year-old female patient who suffered from uncontrollable hypertension using the image processing package Mimics (Materialise). The morphology and hemodynamic parameters in the healthy state, at initial presentation and at post-operative 9-month and 2-year follow-ups after surgery were analysed. The hemodynamic parameters became normal in the left and right renal arteries after bypass surgery. However, flow separation and stagnation occurred at the post-operative 9-month aorta-vein anastomosis, which caused asymmetrical flow and extremely high wall shear stress (WSS) and WSS gradients at the outflow vein tract, where the stenosis occurred 2 years later. In addition, the graft bending produced an asymmetrical flow pattern downstream. This research revealed that the abnormal hemodynamics, including flow separation and extremely high WSS values and gradients, caused by the retrograde flow of aortorenal bypass may be responsible for the SVG degeneration. In addition, flow asymmetry due to vessel bending is a potential risk factor for SVG aneurysm dilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real estate units are the elementary management units of uniform real estate registrations that include land and fixed objects such as aboveground buildings. Three-dimensional real estate objects better represent real estate units with complex structures and are suitable for ground-based, aerial and underground registrations of 3D real estate property rights. In this paper, 3D real estate data modeling and representations are investigated in detail: A conceptual model for 3D real estate objects based on the land administration domain model proposed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Geographic Information System Technical Committee (ISO/TC211, Geographic information/geomatics, new work item proposal, geographic information—Land administration model (LADM), ISO/TC211, N 2358, 2008-02-01, 2008) and on the "integrated property and land" conditions in China is considered; rights and property/land relationships are elaborated and extended; within a geometric model of 3D real estate objects, a 3D model of regular real estate units is created from a 2D base map via height extrusion; and a physical model of complex irregular real estate units is created via a convex hull of triangulated tetrahedrons. 3D real estate data modeling has broad applications in areas such as property tax, real estate development and urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming increasingly accepted that macrophage activation play a crucial role in many diseases associated with chronic inflammation, such as metabolic disease, including atherosclerosis, obesity, and diabetes. Recent studies have indicated that the regulation of inflammation and energy metabolism are connected together through an antagonistic crosstalk between NF-κB and SIRT1 signaling pathways. In order to investigate anti-inflammatory drugs, we investigated whether SIRT1 is implicated in the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated NF-κB signaling pathway in macrophage RAW264.7 cells when pretreated with chikusetsusaponin V (CsV). Griess assay and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to determine the effect of CsV on LPS-induced inflammatory cytokine secretion. Western blot was used to assess the effect of CsV on LPS-induced SIRT1 and Ac-NF-κB p65 expression. Results showed that CsV suppressed LPS-induced inflammatory cytokine NO, TNF-α, and IL-1β production in RAW264.7 cells. In addition, downregulation of SIRT1 and upregulation of Ac-NF-κB p65 induced by LPS were abolished by CsV in a dose-dependent manner in RAW264.7 cells. Meanwhile, inflammatory cytokines were regulated with CsV through SIRT1-Ac-NF-κB p65 signaling pathway. Therefore, our results demonstrate that CsV exerts an anti-inflammatory effect partly through SIRT1/NF-κB signaling pathways and SIRT1 may be a new target for anti-inflammation therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porous-CN with high photocatalytic activity of anionic dyes was successfully synthesized by a SiO-template method. Its photocatalytic selectivity could easily be switched to cationic dye via a simple post-treatment in NaOH solution. Through careful investigation of influencing parameters (the photocatalytic performances, the structure and surface characteristics of the catalysts), the selective degradation of various dyes is closely related to the adsorption selectivity of the porous g-CN catalysts, which originated from the different surface charge. This study provides a new insight into developing metal-free g-CN photocatalyst with high efficiency and selectivity in environmental purification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the co-existence of longitudinal and transverse oscillations in an active-region filament. On March 15, 2013, an M1.1 class flare was observed in Active Region AR 11692. A coronal mass ejection (CME) was found to be associated with the flare. The CME generated a shock wave that triggered the oscillations in a nearby filament, situated south-west of the active region as observed from National Solar Observatory (NSO) Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) H $\alpha$ images. In this work we report the longitudinal oscillations in the two ends of the filament, which co-existed with the transverse oscillations. We propose a scenario in which an incoming shock wave hits the filament obliquely and triggers both longitudinal and transverse oscillations. Using the observed parameters, we estimate the lower limit of the magnetic field strength. We use a simple pendulum model with gravity as the restoring force to estimate the radius of curvature. We also calculate the mass accretion rate that causes the filament motions to damp quite fast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasi-periodic pulsations (or QPPs) are periodic intensity variations in the flare emission that occur across all wavelength bands. In this article, we review the observational and modelling achievements since the previous review on this topic by Nakariakov and Melnikov ( Space Sci. Rev. 149, 119, 2009). In recent years, it has become clear that QPPs are an inherent feature of solar flares because almost all flares exhibit QPPs. Moreover, it is now firmly established that QPPs often show multiple periods. We also review possible mechanisms for generating QPPs. Up to now, it has not been possible to conclusively identify the triggering mechanism or cause of QPPs. The lack of this identification currently hampers possible seismological inferences of flare plasma parameters. QPPs in stellar flares have been detected for a long time, and the high-quality data of the Kepler mission allows studying the QPP more systematically. However, it has not been conclusively shown whether the timescales of stellar QPPs are different or the same as those in solar flares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu-Sn phases are important intermetallic compounds formed at the interface between solder and substrate in the soldering process. They exist in several crystal structures ( η′, η, η and η etc.). The solid-state phase transformation that occurs among Cu-Sn intermetallic compounds is a crucial issue for industry applications, because the associated volume change inevitably leads to microstructural instability. Generally, four alloying elements, i.e., Ni, Au, Zn, and indium (In), are used as alloying elements to stabilize the high temperature hexagonal η-phase. However, the physical mechanism of this stabilization effect, especially on the high temperature η and η phases, is still unclear. In the present study, first-principle calculations were performed to study the stability and mechanical properties of CuSn ( η and η) and CuSn ( η′) when doped with Ni, Au, Zn, and indium alloying elements. It is shown that their phase stability and mechanical properties could be enhanced by these elements in some circumstances. Ni-doping can significantly enhance both the stability and the mechanical properties of the three phases, whereas Zn-doping exhibits a significant effect on that of the η phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cuprous sulfide (CuS) is a direct band-gap p-type semiconductor with excellent ionic/electronic hybrid conductivity. Although Cu/CuS/sulfide or polysulfide system is adopted as counter electrode of quantum-dots-sensitized solar cells (QDSSC), the electrode process is seldom reported. Here, the electrochemical growth of CuS film on a copper (Cu) surface, the redox behaviors of sulfide and polysulfide, and the all-in-solid charge-transfer properties of CuS film are investigated. It is clarified that the copper electrode simultaneously undergoes an activated process, a membrane growth process, and a redox phase transformation process. The solid charge-transfer capability of CuS is quantified with a high exchange-current density of 2.27 A/cm, which elucidates that the Cu/CuS electrode is a qualified material for counter electrodes of QDSSC. These results aid understanding of the physicochemical mechanism of QDSSC with a polysulfide electrolyte and Cu/CuS counter electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few cases of hybrid repair of thoracoabdominal aneurysm (TAAA) have been reported in Asian countries. The purpose of this article was to report the first successful hybrid repair of TAAA in China. We performed a two-stage hybrid surgical and endovascular procedure to manage a Safi type V TAAA with the celiac artery, superior mesenteric artery and bilateral renal arteries in a 45-year-old male with poor cardiopulmonary reserves. The patient had no complications and is asymptomatic 3 years after the surgery. Despite the fact that the hybrid procedure is based on meticulous techniques, the procedure has seldom been performed in China. In addition to our case report, we also summarize the recently published reports about hybrid repair for TAAA. The hybrid procedure showed a promising midterm outcome for high-risk patients with TAAA, but the late efficacy of this procedure should be evaluated in additional studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corynebacterium glutamicum played a central role in the establishment of fermentative production of amino acids, and it is a model for genetic and physiological studies. The general aromatic amino acid transporter, AroP, was the sole functionally identified aromatic amino acid transporter from C. glutamicum. In this study, the ncgl1108 (named as pheP), which is located upstream of the genetic cluster ( ncgl1110 ∼ ncgl1113) for resorcinol catabolism, was identified as a new l-Phe specific transporter from C. glutamicum RES167. The disruption of pheP resulted in RES167∆ ncgl1108, and this mutant showed decreased growth on l-Phe (as nitrogen source) but not on l-Tyr or l-Trp. Uptake assays with unlabeled and C-labeled l-Phe and l-Tyr indicated that the mutants RES167∆ ncgl1108 showed significant reduction in l-Phe uptake than RES167. Expression of pheP in RES167∆ ncgl1108/pGXKZ1 or RES167∆( ncgl1108- aroP)/pGXKZ1 restored their ability to uptake for l-Phe and growth on l-Phe. The uptake of l-Phe was not inhibited by nine amino acids but by l-Tyr. The K and V values of RES167∆( ncgl1108-aroP) /pGXKZ1 for l-Phe were determined to be 10.4 ± 1.5 μM and 1.2 ± 0.1 nmol min (mg DW), respectively, which are different from K and V values of RES167∆( ncgl1108-aroP) for l-Phe [4.0 ± 0.4 μM and 0.6 ± 0.1 nmol min (mg DW)]. In conclusion, this PheP is a new l-Phe transporter in C. glutamicum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new lanthanide coordination polymers, [Ln(APA)(HAPA)(phen)] [Ln = Pr ( 1), Eu ( 2); HAPA = 5-aminoisophthalic acid, phen = 1,10-Phenanthroline] have been synthesized by hydrothermal method, and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis and IR spectra. Crystallographic data show that complexes 1 and 2 both crystallize in a triclinic system, space group $$ P\bar{1} $$. The titled compounds own 2-D herringbone structures which are further constructed to form 3-D supramolecular structures by N-H···O and O-H···O hydrogen bondings. The thermogravimetric analyses were carried out to examine the thermal stability of the title complexes. And the photoluminescence property of 2 was investigated. Index Abstract: In the title complexes 5-aminoisophthalic acids link the lanthanide ions to 2-D herringbone structures which are further constructed to form 3-D supramolecular structures. Two 3-D lanthanide supramolecular coordination polymers with high thermal stability have been synthesized by hydrothermal method.[Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international business (IB) literature has widely recognized political forces as major factors that complicate the strategic decisions of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Analyses by financial intermediaries can help to reduce the risk of information asymmetry caused by such factors. Using firm-level data from 17 jurisdictions between 1997 and 2001, this study investigates the association between a firm's high-level political connections and earnings forecasts made by financial analysts, an important group of financial intermediaries. We find that, after controlling for other determinants of forecast accuracy, analysts experience greater difficulty in predicting the earnings of firms with political connections than those of firms with no such connections. However, in jurisdictions in which corruption level is relatively high, earnings forecast accuracy is influenced more by a firm's political connections. Our findings contribute to the IB literature by demonstrating that political connections exacerbate the information asymmetry between investors and managers, and also that anti-corruption measures can curb the adverse effect of political connections on the corporate information environment. These findings bear the practical implication that MNEs must consider political issues when making resource allocation decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The δ18O data obtained from an 18.7 m ice core drilled in Chongce Ice Cap at an elevation of 6,530 m a.s.l. in the West Kunlun Mountains on the northern Tibetan Plateau show a strong correlation with the summer temperature of the middle to upper troposphere over the mid-high latitudes of Eurasia. Based on this, the δ18O record can be used as a proxy of the June–September mean temperature of the mid-upper troposphere (MUT) from 1903 to 1992. The time span of the ice core record is much longer than the meteorological data available only after 1948. Using the empirical mode decomposition method (EMD), the δ18O record is decomposed into various frequency components and compared with the solar irradiance variations of the same period. The results show that (1) The June–September mean temperature of the MUT over Eurasian mid-high latitudes is completely decomposed into four IMF (intrinsic mode function) components and an increasing trend. (2) Solar irradiance is decomposed into the Schwabe cycle, the Hale cycle, the Gleissberg cycle, and an increasing trend. (3) The correlation coefficients between the June and September mean temperatures of the MUT over Eurasian mid-high latitudes and solar irradiance on the longer timescales (at least more than 11-year) show the significant correlations; their phase changes are basically identical in general, and (4) the 11-year Schwabe cycle exists in the June–September mean temperature of the MUT over Eurasian mid-high latitudes during most of the time from 1903 to 1992, and only in the two high-temperature phases (1929–1944 and from 1975 to the present) may global warming disturb this relation. A full understanding of this phenomenon would shed insight into the potential consequence of global warming on the MUT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based upon quadratic polynomials over the finite field, a new class of frequency hopping sequences with large family size suitable for applications in time/frequency hopping CDMA systems, multi-user radar and sonar systems is proposed and investigated. It is shown that the new time/frequency hopping sequences have at most one hit in their autocorrelation functions and at most two hits in their crosscorrelation functions except for a special case, and their family size is much larger than the conventional quadratic hopping sequences. The percentage of full collisions for the new quadratic hopping sequences is discussed. In addition, the average number of hits for the new quadratic hopping sequences, quadratic congruence sequences, extended quadratic congruence sequences and the general linear hopping sequences are also derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• While existing studies often use sector-level data to explain the phenomenal growth of the Chinese private sector, this paper complements the literature by using firm level data to conduct a comparative study of performance between family-owned and state-owned firms in China. • Taking a population comprising listed firms for the period 1999-2004, we analyze financial and operating performance with reference to five measures: (1) revenue per employee, (2) revenue per unit of cost, (3) net profit per employee, (4) return on assets, and (5) market-to-hook ratio. • Having controlled for other firm characteristics, such as size, leverage, firm age, sales volatility, innovation and marketing, institutional environment and industry, our results confirm that family-owned firms achieve significantly better performances than state-owned enterprises. These results support the general consensus that China is increasingly reliant on private companies as an engine for economic growth and an employment hub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been demonstrated that Chikusetsusaponin IVa (CsIVa) possesses abundant biological activities. Herein, using LPS to establish acute inflammation model of mouse liver and cell line inflammation model, we investigated whether miR-155/GSK-3β regulated NF-κB signaling pathway, and CsIVa exerted anti-inflammatory effects by regulating miR-155/GSK-3β signaling pathway. Our results showed that LPS induced high expression of miR-155 and miR-155 promoted macrophage activation through GSK-3β. In addition, CsIVa inhibited inflammatory responses in LPS-induced mouse liver and RAW264.7 cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that CsIVa improved the inflammatory response in LPS-induced RAW264.7 cells by inhibiting miR-155, increasing GSK-3β expression, and inhibiting NF-κB signaling pathway. In conclusion, our study reveals that CsIVa suppresses LPS-triggered immune response by miR-155/GSK-3β-NF-κB signaling pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]