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The Qinling‐Dabie‐Sulu orogen is the eastern part of the Central China Orogenic Belt. Looking back on previous studies of the sedimentary record we systematically compiled the dataset of detrital zircon U–Pb ages and Hf isotopes for this orogenic belt. The dataset incorporates a comprehensive compilation of 32,449 detrital zircon U–Pb ages and 979 Hf isotopes. The findings demonstrate that distinct tectonic units within the orogenic belt exhibit unique tectonic evolution histories during various geological epochs. This dataset can be used to constrain the tectonic framework and orogenic evolution including ocean subduction, continental collision and orogen exhumation. It can be integrated with other geological datasets to improve our understanding of the Central Orogenic Belt in China, and possibly plate tectonics globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-access edge computing (MEC) emerged as a promising network paradigm that provides computation, storage and networking features within the edge of the pervasive mobile radio access network. This paper jointly considers computation offloading and resource allocation problem in device-to-device (D2D)-assisted and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-empowered MEC systems, where each mobile device (MD) is allowed to execute its task in one of the three ways, i.e., local computing, MEC offloading or D2D offloading. We invoke orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and NOMA schemes for MDs that select D2D offloading mode, allowing them to assign tasks to their peers using OMA or NOMA. The original problem is formulated as an overall energy consumption minimization problem, which proves to be NP-hard, making it intractable to solve optimally. We start from a simple case, OMA case and transform the original problem into two sub-problems, i.e., resource allocation sub-problem and computation offloading sub-problem and propose two heuristic algorithms to obtain the sub-optimal solutions of both sub-problems. Then, for the MDs selecting D2D offloading mode, we conduct user pairing and apply the NOMA scheme. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme when compared with the related schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile edge computing (MEC) has recently emerged as an effective paradigm to enhance the computing capability of capability-limited mobile devices (MDs). In this article, we consider an MEC system consisting of a number of MEC servers and one MD which generates a series of tasks characterized by their dependency relationships. We study computation scheduling and offloading problem of the tasks. To improve the task processing performance, we first propose a parallel transmission and execution (PTE) scheme, based on which we design a computation scheduling and offloading algorithm. Considering the fairness among tasks in terms of task transmission and execution time, we formulate the computation scheduling and offloading problem as a constrained worst-case latency optimization problem which minimizes the maximum completion time of all the tasks. As the original optimization problem cannot be solved conveniently, we first categorize the tasks into high priority tasks (HPTs), medium priority tasks (MPTs) and low priority tasks (LPTs) based on their task execution status and causal relationship. Then, a dynamic priority-based computation scheduling and offloading algorithm is proposed, which designs computation scheduling and offloading strategy for dynamically-changed HPTs and MPTs, respectively. In particular, for HPTs, a multiple knapsack-based heuristic algorithm is proposed, and a task weight and data size-based computation scheduling and offloading algorithm is further proposed for MPTs. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software-defined networking (SDN) is proposed as a new network paradigm which decouples control plane from data plane and provides flexible network management. In this paper, we consider the capacitated controller placement problem in SDN, which jointly determines the number, location, and the capacity matching strategy of SDN controllers. redTo stress the importance of control plane delay which is composed of both the transmission and processing delay between controllers and switches, and the inter-controller delay; we formulate control plane delay minimization problem subject to controller-switch association constraints, controller capacity constraints, etc. Since the formulated optimization problem is a complicated nonlinear integer programming problem which cannot be solved easily, we transform it into controller-switch association subproblem and controller capacity matching subproblem. To solve the controller-switch association subproblem, we propose a heuristic algorithm based on Dijkstra algorithm and K-means algorithm. Given the controller-switch association strategy, we then apply the Kuhn-Munkres (K-M) algorithm to solve the controller capacity matching subproblem and obtain the capacitated controller placement strategy. Simulation results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel electrochemical sensor was developed by the modification of poly(p-aminobenzene sulfonic acid) (pABSA), Au-polythionine (Au-pTH) nanowires, and molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) on glassy carbon electrode surface for bisphenol A (BPA) detection. The results of characterizations including scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, and X-ray diffraction showed the successful synthesis of helical structural Au-pTH nanowires, which acted as an electro-active probe for BPA detection. Cyclic voltammetry results illustrated that the modified pABSA, Au-pTH, and MIP endowed the sensor with good electrocatalytic activity, the second current signal, and recognition ability, respectively. Since the imprinted cavities provided electron transfer channels for thionine (TH) redox, the peak current of TH can be found in a blank electrolyte. The added BPA molecules can be rebound in imprinted cavities, which are oxidized and then display its current. The rebound BPA molecules in turn blocked the electron transfer channels for TH redox, resulting in the decrease of TH current. A double signal defined, as the sum of the changes of TH current (∆iTH|) and BPA current (|∆iBPA|) (|∆iTH|+|∆iBPA|), was employed as the detected signal for BPA sensitive detection, which was linearly proportional to the logarithm of concentration of BPA ranging from 8.0 × 10−8 to 1.0 × 10−4 mol/L with a limit of detection of 3.8 × 10−8 mol/L (S/N = 3) in a weakly acidic solution. Moreover, the natural recognition ability of MIP enabled the sensor to selectively detect BPA from its analogues. The proposed dual-signal strategy-based sensor provided a feasible tool for rapid, sensitive, and selective determination of BPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive radio networks (CRNs) are expected to improve spectrum utilization significantly by allowing secondary users (SUs) to opportunistically access the licensed spectrum of primary users (PUs). In an integrated network consisting of multiple heterogeneous CRNs, SUs with multiple interfaces may have to conduct inter-system or intra-system spectrum handoff due to the arrival of PUs or performance degradation on serving spectrum. In this case, designing an optimal spectrum handoff scheme which offers quality of service (QoS) guarantee and performance enhancement of the SUs is of particular importance. On the other hand, resource allocation strategy on target channel also plays an important role in affecting the transmission performance of handoff SUs. In this paper, we jointly design spectrum handoff and resource allocation strategy for handoff SUs in heterogeneously integrated CRNs. To achieve joint resource management among various CRNs, we propose a joint radio resource management architecture, based on which the proposed spectrum handoff and resource allocation scheme can be conducted. Jointly considering the transmission performance of the handoff SUs, we formulate the total energy efficiency of the SUs and design an optimization problem which maximizes the energy efficiency subject to spectrum handoff, QoS, and power constraints of the SUs. An iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the formulated nonlinear fractional optimization problem. Within each iteration, the optimization problem is transformed equivalently into two subproblems, i.e., power allocation subproblem of each SU-spectrum pair and spectrum handoff subproblem for all the SUs. The two subproblems are solved, respectively, through applying Lagrange dual method and the Kuhn-Munkres (K-M) algorithm. Numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on using "General Practitioners–Specialists" (GP-S) mode to teach the patients with asthma to master inhalation skills. 200 patients with asthma being admitted to the respiratory department of Shanghai Changhai Hospital were included in the study from January to December in 2018. There were 100 cases in the control group and 100 cases in the experimental group. The control groups received routine instruction and the experimental group adopted GP-S mode education, respectively, to learn mastering dry powder inhaler skills. The level of mastery and errors in the use of inhaled medications were recorded after each guidance. After four times' instruction in two different ways, the patient's mastery of inhalation skills gradually improved. After the guidance through the GP-S mode, the incidence of inhalation errors after each times instruction was 67%, 28%, and 7%, respectively. The later one was significantly lower than the previous one (67% vs. 28%, χ2 = 30.496, p < 0.001; 28% vs. 7%, χ2 = 15.273, p < 0.001). After twice instructions, the GP-S mode was associated with the lower incidence of inhaler device operating errors versus the regular guidance method (10% vs. 26%, χ2 = 8.672, p = 0.005); the same as the third guidance (2% vs. 11%, χ2 = 6.664, p = 0.018). Similarly, after thrice instructions, the incidence of inhalation method errors in the GP-S mode group was significantly lower than the regular guidance mode group (4% vs. 15%, χ2 = 7.037, p = 0.018), and there was still existing statistical difference of inhalation method errors between the two groups after four times instructions (3% vs. 11%, χ2 = 4.916, p = 0.049). General Practitioners–Specialists mode can effectively improve the patient's mastery of inhalation skills, which significantly reduced the incidence of errors in the use of inhaled drugs and improved the overall management effectivity of asthma and patients' compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on using "General Practitioners–Specialists" (GP-S) mode to teach the patients with asthma to master inhalation skills. 200 patients with asthma being admitted to the respiratory department of Shanghai Changhai Hospital were included in the study from January to December in 2018. There were 100 cases in the control group and 100 cases in the experimental group. The control groups received routine instruction and the experimental group adopted GP-S mode education, respectively, to learn mastering dry powder inhaler skills. The level of mastery and errors in the use of inhaled medications were recorded after each guidance. After four times' instruction in two different ways, the patient's mastery of inhalation skills gradually improved. After the guidance through the GP-S mode, the incidence of inhalation errors after each times instruction was 67%, 28%, and 7%, respectively. The later one was significantly lower than the previous one (67% vs. 28%, χ2 = 30.496, p < 0.001; 28% vs. 7%, χ2 = 15.273, p < 0.001). After twice instructions, the GP-S mode was associated with the lower incidence of inhaler device operating errors versus the regular guidance method (10% vs. 26%, χ2 = 8.672, p = 0.005); the same as the third guidance (2% vs. 11%, χ2 = 6.664, p = 0.018). Similarly, after thrice instructions, the incidence of inhalation method errors in the GP-S mode group was significantly lower than the regular guidance mode group (4% vs. 15%, χ2 = 7.037, p = 0.018), and there was still existing statistical difference of inhalation method errors between the two groups after four times instructions (3% vs. 11%, χ2 = 4.916, p = 0.049). General Practitioners–Specialists mode can effectively improve the patient's mastery of inhalation skills, which significantly reduced the incidence of errors in the use of inhaled drugs and improved the overall management effectivity of asthma and patients' compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are proven to be key regulators in cancer biology. Our screening effort for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) prognosis-associated lncRNAs identified a novel lncRNA, ccRCC prognosis-associated transcript 4 (CRPAT4), as one of the top candidates that was previously uncharacterized. The aim of this study was to verify the clinical significance of CRPAT4 in ccRCC patients and to explore its biological role as well as the underlying mechanisms, in ccRCC cell lines. Materials and methods: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed to demonstrate that CRPAT4 was differentially expressed between ccRCC and the normal controls and that high CRPAT4 expression significantly associated with advanced Fuhrman nuclear grades. Results: Kaplan–Meier survival analysis with The Cancer Genome Atlas KIRC RNA sequencing data indicated that high CRPAT4 expression was significantly associated with poor overall survival and progression-free survival. Functional studies indicated that CRPAT4 was an HIF-1α regulated gene, and CRPAT4 knockdown significantly inhibited cell migration and proliferation in the absence of HIF-1α. In addition, a mechanistic study revealed that CRPAT4 could regulate the expression of the migration-associated protein AVL9. Conclusion: Collectively, our study first identified CRPAT4 as a hypoxia-regulated lncRNA, acting as an oncogene in ccRCC progression via regulating AVL9 protein, thus expanding our knowledge on the hypoxia pathway in ccRCC biology from a noncoding perspective. Moreover, CRPAT4 has the potential to be a prognostic marker in ccRCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil-dissolved organic matter (DOM) drives the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles in agroecosystems. Despite many studies on DOM dynamics, hardly any attention has been directed toward DOM quality, particularly DOM composition. The aim of this study was to elucidate how C and N management practices alter soil water-extractable organic matter (WEOM) in a loess soil agroecosystem. Field experiments were conducted with a winter wheat monoculture. Three N fertilization rates (0, 120, and 240 kg ha−1 year−1) were applied for 17 years (2002–2019), combined with five C practices (zero, low, and high rates of sheep manure or wheat straw) for three years (2016–2019). The results reveal that soil organic carbon (SOC) and water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC) concentrations in the topsoil (0–20 cm) were increased by organic amendments considerably but were not affected by N fertilization. The fluorescence excitation–emission matrix spectra (EEM) of WEOM were resolved to two humic-like components (C1 and C2) and two soluble microbial byproduct-like components (C3 and C4). The proportions of C1 and C2 were increased, while the proportion of C3 was decreased by both C and N management practices. In conclusion, organic amendments increased both WEOM quality and its proportion of humic-like components, whereas N fertilization increased the proportion of humic-like components without variations of WEOM quality in the topsoil of loess soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The recently developed biomimetic strategy is one of the mostly effective strategies for improving the theranostic efficacy of diverse nanomedicines, because nanoparticles coated with cell membranes can disguise as "self", evade the surveillance of the immune system, and accumulate to the tumor sites actively. Results: Herein, we utilized mesenchymal stem cell memabranes (MSCs) to coat polymethacrylic acid (PMAA) nanoparticles loaded with Fe(III) and cypate—an derivative of indocyanine green to fabricate Cyp-PMAA-Fe@MSCs, which featured high stability, desirable tumor-accumulation and intriguing photothermal conversion efficiency both in vitro and in vivo for the treatment of lung cancer. After intravenous administration of Cyp-PMAA-Fe@MSCs and Cyp-PMAA-Fe@RBCs (RBCs, red blood cell membranes) separately into tumor-bearing mice, the fluorescence signal in the MSCs group was 21% stronger than that in the RBCs group at the tumor sites in an in vivo fluorescence imaging system. Correspondingly, the T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal at the tumor site decreased 30% after intravenous injection of Cyp-PMAA-Fe@MSCs. Importantly, the constructed Cyp-PMAA-Fe@MSCs exhibited strong photothermal hyperthermia effect both in vitro and in vivo when exposed to 808 nm laser irradiation, thus it could be used for photothermal therapy. Furthermore, tumors on mice treated with phototermal therapy and radiotherapy shrank 32% more than those treated with only radiotherapy. Conclusions: These results proved that Cyp-PMAA-Fe@MSCs could realize fluorescence/MRI bimodal imaging, while be used in phototermal-therapy-enhanced radiotherapy, providing desirable nanoplatforms for tumor diagnosis and precise treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explored the association between KRAS proto-oncogene GTPase (KRAS), phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit α (PIK3CA) and tumor protein p53 (TP53) mutations, and the clinical features and survival prognosis in 50 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The most common concurrent single gene mutation was TP53, followed by KRAS and PIK3CA. Co-existing mutations were found in 17 patients. KRAS, PIK3CA and TP53 mutations were associated with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 expression, invasive growth, vacuolar signs and margin lobulation on chest CT. The incidence of distant metastasis (bone and adrenal) with KRAS and TP53 mutations was greater than that of local metastasis (pleura). Patients with the wild-type genes experienced longer progression-free survival (PFS) times than those with KRAS, TP53, KRAS/TP53 or PIK3CA/TP53 mutations. Patients with KRAS/TP53 or PIK3CA/TP53 mutations experienced shorter PFS times than those with a single KRAS or TP53 mutation. KRAS, PIK3CA and TP53 mutations were associated with distant metastases and a poor prognosis. Patients with NSCLC should receive routine KRAS, PIK3CA and TP53 gene sequencing to determine mutations for the analysis of clinical characteristics and prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of traffic demands has posed challenges and difficulties on both the radio access networks (RANs) and the backhaul links. While heterogeneous networks (HetNets) are expected to offer diverse radio access capabilities and improve the transmission performance of user equipments (UEs) significantly through integrating various RANs efficiently, the backhaul links may still experience challenges in offering quality of service (QoS) guaranteed services to UEs. To tackle these problems, caching technology, more specifically, caching user contents at the infrastructures of different RANs is proposed as an effective approach. In this paper, we consider the joint user association and cache content placement problem in cache-enabled HetNets. Stressing the tradeoff between user download delay and caching cost, we introduce the concept of utility function which characterizes the joint network performance as the weighted sum of user download delay and the caching cost and formulate the joint user association and cache content placement problem as a network utility optimization problem. As the formulated optimization problem is a nonlinear integer optimization problem which cannot be solved conveniently using traditional optimization tools, we transform the original optimization problem equivalently into three convex subproblems by applying Lagrange partial relaxation and McCormick envelopes, and then propose an iterative algorithm. Within each iteration, for a given set of Lagrange multipliers, the three subproblems are solved respectively by means of the modified Kuhn-Munkres (K-M) algorithm and the locally optimal solutions can be obtained, based on which the Lagrange multipliers can be updated through applying subgradient method. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peroxisomes play important roles in metabolisms of eukaryotes and infection of plant fungal pathogens. These organelles proliferate by de novo formation or division in response to environmental stimulation. Although the assembly of peroxisomes was documented in fungal pathogens, their division and its relationship to pathogenicity remain obscure. In present work, we analyzed the roles of three Pex11 family members in peroxisomal division and pathogenicity of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae. Deletion of MoPEX11A led to fewer but enlarged peroxisomes, and impaired the separation of Woronin bodies from peroxisomes, while deletion of MoPEX11B or MoPEX11C put no evident impacts to peroxisomal profiles. MoPEX11A mutant exhibited typical peroxisome related defects, delayed conidial germination and appressoria formation, and decreased appressorial turgor and host penetration. As a result, the virulence of MoPEX11A mutant was greatly reduced. Deletion of MoPEX11B and MoPEX11C did not alter the virulence of the fungus. Further, double or triple deletions of the three genes were unable to enhance the virulence decrease in MoPEX11A mutant. Our data indicated that MoPEX11A is the main factor modulating peroxisomal division and is required for full virulence of the fungus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]