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Mobile cloud computing has emerged as an appealing computing model that is expected to be widely deployed. In recent years, a noticeable amount of research efforts have been dedicated to mobile technologies and cloud computing to solve varied problems in interdisciplinary fields, such as health care, retail etc. Mobile cloud computing enables efficient real-time data gathering and remote processing, which minimize the probability of data loss and thereby improve the quality of processed information. However, due to the dynamic and heterogeneous topology of mobile cloud computing, oftentimes sensitive information transferred over mobile wireless technologies is susceptible to various types of attacks, which may reveal sensitive information or cause significant business loss. To establish secure data transfer sessions between communicating parties, one of the existing authentication schemes, such as token-based authentication and Secure Shell (SSH) password based authentication, could be used. However, the existing authentication schemes are either computationally expensive or unsuited for the mobile cloud computing environment in terms of security and resource utilization. In this paper, we present a mutual authentication scheme for mobile cloud computing, Authentication based on Message digest, Location, and Timestamp (AMLT). AMLT utilizes symmetric keys to reduce computational complexity and employs dynamic keys to minimize the predictability of encryption keys. In our research, the protocol analyzer Scyther is used to formally validate the security of AMLT.

Oxidative stress-mediated neuron damage is considered an important contributor to the pathogenesis and development of neurodegenerative diseases. Taraxacum officinale has been reported to possess antioxidant activities. However, whether it can protect neurons against oxidative damage and the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been fully determined. In the present study, we examined the neuroprotective effects of ethanol extracts of this plant (ETOW) on glutamate-induced oxidative stress in HT22 cells. Both cell viability and reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays showed that ETOW effectively attenuated glutamate-induced cytotoxicity and ROS generation. Furthermore, our results revealed that ETOW increased the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and promoted the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor-2 (Nrf2). The inhibitory effects of ETOW on glutamate-stimulated cell toxicity and ROS production were partially reversed by tin protoporphyrin (SnPP), an HO activity inhibitor. Taken together, these results demonstrate that ETOW can protect HT22 cells against glutamate-induced oxidative damage by inducing the Nrf2/HO-1 pathways. Our study supports the idea that Taraxacum officinale Wigg. is a promising agent for preventing neurodegenerative diseases.

Background: teaching supervision constitutes an important part of the teaching quality assurance system in colleges and universities. Purpose: Taking Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an example, to explore the ways to reflect and promote the teaching supervision. Method: this article adopted the method of literature analysis combined with the main problems of supervisory work and existence discovered by the practice of the university over last three years. It focused on three aspects: the improvement of supervisory system, the optimization of supervision structure, and the transformation of supervisory philosophy and the improvement of supervising methods. Results: the university emphasized the working mechanism of teaching supervision "supervising as the prerequisite and guiding as the key". Thus, the supervisory content and the supervisory team structure were optimized by the improvement of the supervisory system. This system was the separation of "management" and "evaluation" at both the school and college levels. It improved the monitoring of teaching and operating system, the teaching level of teachers, and the quality of students. Conclusion: this article comprehensively and systematically puts forward a new mentality of supervision and reform based on the experience of the university.

Oxidative stress-mediated neuron damage is considered an important contributor to the pathogenesis and development of neurodegenerative diseases. Taraxacum officinale has been reported to possess antioxidant activities. However, whether it can protect neurons against oxidative damage and the underlying molecular mechanisms have not been fully determined. In the present study, we examined the neuroprotective effects of ethanol extracts of this plant (ETOW) on glutamate-induced oxidative stress in HT22 cells. Both cell viability and reactive oxygen species (ROS) assays showed that ETOW effectively attenuated glutamate-induced cytotoxicity and ROS generation. Furthermore, our results revealed that ETOW increased the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and promoted the nuclear translocation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor-2 (Nrf2). The inhibitory effects of ETOW on glutamate-stimulated cell toxicity and ROS production were partially reversed by tin protoporphyrin (SnPP), an HO activity inhibitor. Taken together, these results demonstrate that ETOW can protect HT22 cells against glutamate-induced oxidative damage by inducing the Nrf2/HO-1 pathways. Our study supports the idea that Taraxacum officinale Wigg. is a promising agent for preventing neurodegenerative diseases.

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a common component of the outermost cell wall in Gram-negative bacteria. In mammals, LPS serves as an endotoxin that can be recognized by a receptor complex of TLR4 (Toll-like receptor 4) and MD-2 (myeloid differentiation-2) and subsequently induce a strong immune response to signal the release of tumor necrosis factor (TNF). In Drosophila melanogaster, no receptors for LPS have been identified, and LPS cannot activate immune responses. Here, we report a protein, BmEsr16, which contains an ML (MD-2-related lipid-recognition) domain, may function as an LPS receptor in the silkworm Bombyx mori. We showed that antibacterial activity in the hemolymph of B. mori larvae was induced by Escherichia coli, peptidoglycan (PGN) and LPS and that the expression of antimicrobial peptide genes was also induced by LPS. Furthermore, both the expression of BmEsr16 mRNA in the fat body and the expression of BmEsr16 protein in the hemolymph were induced by LPS. Recombinant BmEsr16 bound to LPS and lipid A, as well as to PGN, lipoteichoic acid, but not to laminarin or mannan. More importantly, LPS-induced immune responses in the hemolymph of B. mori larvae were blocked when the endogenous BmEsr16 protein was neutralized by polyclonal antibody specific to BmEsr16. Our results suggest that BmEsr16 may function as a key accessory protein for LPS signaling in B. mori.

The $\beta$ -delayed particle emission from 21Mg was studied at the Radioactive Ion Beam Line in Lanzhou (RIBLL1). Silicon array and high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors were used to detect the charged particles and $\gamma$ -rays emitted from the decay. Half-life time of 21Mg was determined to be 121.9(6) ms. New levels (5.639(26) MeV and 6.644(34) MeV) in the nucleus 21Na were observed. An improved proton spectrum coincident with $\gamma$ -rays at 1.633 MeV was obtained. A new partial decay scheme was constructed based on the present measurement.

In this paper, the implantation-decay method is introduced to study the $$\beta $$ -delayed charged particle decay. A silicon detector array was used for the implantation of the incident beams and for the detection of the emitted particles. An experimental measurement on the $$\beta $$ -delayed particle emission from $$^{22}$$ Al was used to demonstrate the method. The half-life value, charged particle spectroscopy, $$\gamma $$ ray spectrum, and $$\gamma $$ particle coincidence for the decay process were obtained and compared with previous experimental results for $$^{22}$$ Al. The results show that the implantation-decay method, using a silicon detector array, is a suitable experimental method to study the $$\beta $$ -delayed charged particle decay for proton-rich nuclei.

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) technology jumps into popularity owing to its real-time ability and high reliability in health monitoring. The accompanying interference problem must be highly concerned in coexisting densely deployed WBANs since the inter-WBAN interference results in high delay and low reliability data transmissions, especially with the movement of human body. In the paper, we analyze the dynamic interference with human mobility in multiple coexisting WBANs with the consideration of different distances between inter-WBANs and varying number of coexisting WBANs. Moreover, we investigate the influence of inter- WBAN interference on the performance of normalized throughput and average access delay of different traffic types. The results show that the interference generated by mobile neighbour WBANs extremely decreases the throughput of the target WBAN and increases the average packet delay 1.76 times of emergency data compared with the target WBAN without interference. The dynamic interference analysis provides insights on the practical WBAN management and interference mitigation protocol design, especially for the deeply deployed coexisting WBAN scenarios.

Insufficient cement distribution (ICD) in the fractured area has been advocated to be responsible for unsatisfied pain relief after percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (OVCFs). However, little is known about risk factors for the occurrence of ICD.The present study aimed to identify independent risk factors of the emergence of ICD.A retrospective cohort study.Department of spinal surgery, an affiliated hospital of a medical university.Patients who underwent PVP for single-level OVCF from January 2012 to September 2014 and met this study's inclusion criteria were retrospectively reviewed. Associations of ICD with co-variates (age, gender, bone mass density with a T-score, amount of injected cement, cement leakage, fracture level, fracture age, fracture severity grade, and location of the fractured area) and the influence of ICD on pain relief were analyzed.A total of 225 patients were included. ICD was found in 26 (11.6%) patients. Fractured area located in the superior portion of the index vertebra was significantly associated with occurrence of ICD. No further significant associations between the studied co-variates and emergence of ICD were seen in the adjusted analysis. In addition, patients with ICD had significantly higher immediate postoperative visual analog scale scores of back pain compared with those with sufficient cement distribution in the fractured area.Location of the fractured area and cement distribution in the fractured area could not be evaluated quantitatively.The incidence of ICD is higher in patients with the fractured area located in the superior portion of the index vertebra and ICD might be responsible for unsatisfied pain relief after PVP for OVCFs.Percutaneous vertebroplasty, insufficient cement distribution, fractured area, risk factor, osteoporosis, vertebral compression fracture, spine, unsatisfied pain relief, cement augmentation.

Effective file transfer is fundamental to many applications in highway Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), e.g., social network applications, advertisement distributions, road traffic report, etc. However, due to the sparse development of roadside units (or access points) and the limited connection time between fast-moving vehicles, file transfer is susceptible to frequent interruptions, and accordingly resulting in incomplete file transfers. The incomplete file transfer leads to not only poor user performance with application playback failures, but also a colossal waste of bandwidth. To tackle this issue, in this paper, we consider a bi-directional highway vehicular network scenario where request vehicle and source vehicle are in the opposite direction, and propose a fuzzy logic-based cooperative file transfer scheme (FL-CFT). With the proposed scheme, the request file can be transferred completely from the source vehicle to request vehicle through multiple relay cluster members. As for the selection of relays, in general, finding an optimal relay subject to multiple constrains is an NP-complete problem that cannot be exactly solved in polynomial time. Accordingly, a fuzzy logic approach is utilized to optimally selects relays to help transfer the file and ensure the file integrity, which considers the relative velocity, distance, and predicted connection time among vehicles. The proposed scheme is self-organized and fully distributed, which does not require any assistance from roadside units (or access points). Simulation results show that FL-CFT outperforms the state-of-the-art file transfer schemes in file integrity on highway VANETs.

As mobile devices, such as smart phones, become more and more popular, localization based on mobile devices has gained much attention in both the academia and industry. Although global positioning system (GPS) has been widely deployed in many fields, it has several disadvantages such as consuming too much power and requiring the line of sight to satellites. Cellular network-based localization is much more robust. However, this type of localization scheme cannot achieve enough accuracy for some localization-based services. With the existence of densely deployed WiFi access points, WiFi-based localization seems very promising in terms of positioning precision and power consumption. However, different than GPS and cellular network based localization, most of the existing WiFi-based localization schemes are supposed to be used in indoor environments. Note that indoor WiFi-based localization schemes cannot be simply ported to urban outdoor environments due to several factors such as weaker signal and more serious interference. In this paper, we present a hybrid outdoor localization scheme utilizing crowdsourced WiFi signal data and built-in sensors in smart phones, which can achieve high-positioning accuracy and low power consumption. Our experimental results show that the proposed hybrid localization scheme outperforms the widely-adopted GPS-based method in terms of both positioning accuracy and power consumption. In addition, the idea of crowdsourcing fingerprints is effective.

The Shen-Guang II Upgrade (SG-II-U) laser facility consists of eight high-power nanosecond laser beams and one short-pulse picosecond petawatt laser. It is designed for the study of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), especially for conducting fast ignition (FI) research in China and other basic science experiments. To perform FI successfully with hohlraum targets containing a golden cone, the long-pulse beam and cylindrical hohlraum as well as the short-pulse beam and cone target alignment must satisfy tight specifications (30 and $20~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$ rms for each case). To explore new ICF ignition targets with six laser entrance holes (LEHs), a rotation sensor was adapted to meet the requirements of a three-dimensional target and correct beam alignment. In this paper, the strategy for aligning the nanosecond beam based on target alignment sensor (TAS) is introduced and improved to meet requirements of the picosecond lasers and the new six LEHs hohlraum targets in the SG-II-U facility. The expected performance of the alignment system is presented, and the alignment error is also discussed.

Enabling high-definition (HD)-map-assisted cooperative driving among autonomous vehicles (AVs) to improve the navigation safety faces technical challenges due to increased communication traffic volume for data dissemination and increased number of computing/storing tasks on AVs. In this article, a new architecture that combines multi-access edge computing (MEC) and software-defined networking (SDN) is proposed for flexible resource management and enhanced resource utilization. With MEC, the interworking of multiple wireless access technologies can be realized to exploit the diversity gain over a wide range of radio spectrum, and at the same time, computing/storing tasks of an AV are collaboratively processed by servers and other AVs. Moreover, by enabling SDN and network function virtualization (NFV) control modules at each cloud-computing and MEC server, an efficient resource allocation framework is proposed to enhance global resource sharing among different network infrastructures. A case study is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed resource allocation framework.

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have been successfully used on a wide range of sequential data problems. A well known difficulty in using RNNs is the vanishing or exploding gradient problem. Recently, there have been several different RNN architectures that try to mitigate this issue by maintaining an orthogonal or unitary recurrent weight matrix. One such architecture is the scaled Cayley orthogonal recurrent neural network (scoRNN) which parameterizes the orthogonal recurrent weight matrix through a scaled Cayley transform. This parametrization contains a diagonal scaling matrix consisting of positive or negative one entries that can not be optimized by gradient descent. Thus the scaling matrix is fixed before training and a hyperparameter is introduced to tune the matrix for each particular task. In this paper, we develop a unitary RNN architecture based on a complex scaled Cayley transform. Unlike the real orthogonal case, the transformation uses a diagonal scaling matrix consisting of entries on the complex unit circle which can be optimized using gradient descent and no longer requires the tuning of a hyperparameter. We also provide an analysis of a potential issue of the modReLU activiation function which is used in our work and several other unitary RNNs. In the experiments conducted, the scaled Cayley unitary recurrent neural network (scuRNN) achieves comparable or better results than scoRNN and other unitary RNNs without fixing the scaling matrix.

In high power laser facility for inertial confinement fusion research, final optics assembly (FOA) plays a critical role in the frequency conversion, beam focusing, color separation, beam sampling and debris shielding. The design and performance of FOA in SG-II Upgrade laser facility are mainly introduced here. Due to the limited space and short focal length, a coaxial aspheric wedged focus lens is designed and applied in the FOA configuration. Then the ghost image analysis, the focus characteristic analysis, the B integral control design and the optomechanical design are carried out in the FOA design phase. In order to ensure the FOA performance, two key technologies are developed including measurement and adjustment technique of the wedged focus lens and the stray light management technique based on ground glass. Experimental results show that the design specifications including laser fluence, frequency conversion efficiency and perforation efficiency of the focus spot have been achieved, which meet the requirements of physical experiments well.

The papers in this special issue focus on trustworthiness in multimedia communications. Recently, social multimedia content is being delivered to users with a high quality of experience (QoE) with the advance of multimedia technologies and social networks. However, as a huge amount of social users have various demands to exchange and share multimedia content with each other, it becomes a new challenge for the current social multimedia analytics and delivery to deal with the various attacks perpetrated by malicious users or through spam contents. Therefore, the trust and risk management for social multimedia content based on the social tie of users become of prime importance to face the unpredicted threats and subsequent damage. This Special Section aims to provide a premier forum for researchers working on the trust-based social multimedia analytics and delivery. It also provides the opportunity for both academic and industrial researchers to discuss recent results and provide solutions to the above-mentioned challenges.

Ingress of bacteria and fluids at the interfacial gaps between the restorative composite biomaterial and the tooth structure contribute to recurrent decay and failure of the composite restoration. The inability of the material to increase the pH at the composite/tooth interface facilitates the outgrowth of bacteria. Neutralizing the microenvironment at the tooth/composite interface offers promise for reducing the damage provoked by cariogenic and aciduric bacteria. We address this problem by designing a dental adhesive composed of hybrid network to provide buffering and autonomous strengthening simultaneously. Two amino functional silanes, 2-hydroxy-3-morpholinopropyl (3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl) carbamate and 2-hydroxy-3-morpholinopropyl (3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl) carbamate were synthesized and used as co-monomers. Combining free radical initiated polymerization (polymethacrylate-based network) and photoacid-induced sol-gel reaction (polysiloxane) results in the hybrid network formation. Resulting formulations were characterized with regard to real-time photo-polymerization, water sorption, leached species, neutralization, and mechanical properties. Results from real-time FTIR spectroscopic studies indicated that ethoxy was less reactive than methoxy substituent. The neutralization results demonstrated that the methoxy-containing adhesives have acute and delayed buffering capabilities. The mechanical properties of synthetic copolymers tested in dry conditions were improved via condensation reaction of the hydrolyzed organosilanes. The leaching from methoxy containing copolymers was significantly reduced. The sol-gel reaction provided a chronic and persistent reaction in wet condition-performance that offers potential for reducing secondary decay and increasing the functional lifetime of dental adhesives. Statement of Significance The interfacial gaps between the restorative composite biomaterial and the tooth structure contributes to recurrent decay and failure of the composite restoration. The inability of the material to increase the pH at the composite/tooth interface facilitates the outgrowth of more cariogenic and aciduric bacteria. This paper reports a novel, synthetic resin that provides buffering capability and autonomous strengthening characteristics. In this work, two amino functional silanes were synthesized and the effect of alkoxy substitutions on the photoacid-induced sol-gel reaction was investigated. We evaluated the neutralization capability (monitoring the pH of lactic acid solution) and the autonomous strengthening property (monitoring the mechanical properties of the hybrid copolymers under wet conditions and quantitatively analyzing the leachable species by HPLC). The novel resin investigated in this study offers the potential benefits of reducing the risk of recurrent decay and prolonging the functional lifetime of dental adhesives.

Trade-off between shunt current loss and pumping loss is a major challenge in the design of the electrolyte piping network in a flow battery system. It is generally recognized that longer and thinner ducts are beneficial to reduce shunt current but detrimental to minimize pumping power. Base on the developed analog circuit model and the flow network model, we make case studies of multi-stack vanadium flow battery piping systems and demonstrate that both shunt current and electrolyte flow resistance can be simultaneously minimized by using longer and thicker ducts in the piping network. However, extremely long and/or thick ducts lead to a bulky system and may be prohibited by the stack structure. Accordingly, the intrinsic design trade-off is between system efficiency and compactness. Since multi-stack configurations bring both flexibility and complexity to the design process, we perform systematic comparisons among representative piping system designs to illustrate the complicated trade-offs among numerous parameters including stack number, intra-stack channel resistance and inter-stack pipe resistance. As the final design depends on various technical and economical requirements, this paper aims to provide guidelines rather than solutions for designers to locate the optimal trade-off points according to their specific cases.

This work provides a comprehensive investigation on the spectral phonon properties in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) by the normal mode decomposition (NMD) method, considering the effects of edge chirality, width, and temperature. We find that the edge chirality has no significant effect on the phonon relaxation time but has a large influence to the phonon group velocity. As a result, the thermal conductivity of around 707 W/(m K) in the 4.26 nm-wide zigzag GNR at room temperature is higher than that of 467 W/(m K) in the armchair GNR with the same width. As the width decreases or the temperature increases, the thermal conductivity reduces significantly due to the decreasing relaxation times. Good agreement is achieved between the thermal conductivities predicted from the Green–Kubo method and the NMD method. We find that optical phonons dominate the thermal transport in the GNRs while the relative contribution of acoustic phonons to the thermal conductivity is only 10.1% and 13% in the zigzag GNR and the armchair GNR, respectively. Interestingly, the ZA mode is found to contribute only 1–5% to the total thermal transport in GNRs, being much lower than that of 30–70% in single layer graphene.

Gait variability reflects important information for the maintenance of human beings' health. For pathological populations, changes in gait variability signal the presence of abnormal motor control strategies. Quantitative analysis of the altered gait variability in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) will be helpful for either diagnosing or monitoring pathological progression of the disease. Thus, we applied Teager energy operator, an energy measure that can highlight the deviations from moment to moment of a time series, to produce an instantaneous energy time series. Then, two important features were extracted to assess the variability of the new time series. First, the standard deviation statistics were used to measure the magnitude of the variability. Second, to quantify the temporal structural characteristics of the variability, the permutation entropy was applied as a tool from the nonlinear dynamics. In the classification experiments, the two proposed features were input to the support vector machine classifier, and the dataset consists of 12 ALS patients and 16 healthy control subjects. The experimental results showed that an area of 0.9643 under the receiver operating characteristic curve was achieved, and the classification accuracy evaluated by leave-one-out cross-validation method could reach 92.86 %.

The impact of light intensity on the degree of conversion (DC), rate of polymerization and network structure was investigated for hydrophobic and hydrophilic dental adhesive resins. Two and three component photoinitiating (PI) systems were used in this study. Low light intensities had a negative impact on the polymerization efficiency for the hydrophilic resin with 2 component PI system. Incorporation of iodonium salt in the hydrophilic resin significantly improved the polymerization efficiency of the HEMA/BisGMA system and led to a substantial DC, even at low light intensities. The results suggested that shorter polymer chains were formed in the presence of iodonium salt. It appears that there is little or no impact of light intensity on the polymer structure of the 2 component PI system. Light intensity has subtle impact on the polymer structure of the 3 component PI system. In the case of the hydrophobic resin, the polymer is so highly cross-linked that the presence of shorter chains for the 3 component PI system does not cause a decrease in the glass transition temperature (Tg ) when compared to the 2 component PI system. For the hydrophilic resin, the presence of shorter polymer chains in the 3 component PI system reduces the Tg when compared with the corresponding 2 component PI system. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 1666-1678, 2016.

A B S T R A C T Objectives: The objective of this work was to investigate the polymerization behavior, neutralization capability, and mechanical properties of dentin adhesive formulations with the addition of the tertiary amine co-monomer, 2-N-morpholinoethyl methacrylate (MEMA). Methods: A co-monomer mixture based on HEMA/BisGMA (45/55, w/w) was used as a control adhesive. Compared with the control formulation, the MEMA-containing adhesive formulations were characterized comprehensively with regard to water miscibility of liquid resin, water sorption and solubility of cured polymer, real-time photopolymerization kinetics, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC). The neutralization capacity was characterized by monitoring the pH shift of 1 mM lactic acid (LA) solution, in which the adhesive polymers were soaked. Results: With increasing MEMA concentrations, experimental copolymers showed higher water sorption, lower glass transition temperature and lower crosslinking density compared to the control. The pH values of LA solution gradually increased from 3.5 to about 6.0–6.5 after 90 days. With the increase in crosslinking density of the copolymers, the neutralization rate was depressed. The optimal MEMA concentration was between 20 and 40 wt%. Conclusions: As compared to the control, the results indicated that the MEMA-functionalized copolymer showed neutralization capability. The crosslinking density of the copolymer networks influenced the neutralization rate.

In an ultimatum game where competitive pressures and alternating roles exist, we suppose that players make their decisions based on the net profit of their own. Here we conduct a behavioral experiment in a selection examination, and then we establish a model and study the evolution of strategies on square lattices. In this model, we specify a player’s strategy with two parameters: offer level α ∈ [ 0 , 1 ) and net profit acceptance level β ∈ [ − 1 , 1 ) . Evolutionary results show that individuals characterized by fairness ( α → 0.5 ) and moderate kindness ( β 0 , β → 0.0 ) prevail over other individuals. Further analysis demonstrates that individuals’ kindness rather than fairness increases the average payoff of the whole population. Moreover, we conclude that the emergence of kindness is promoted by the spatial structure, and eventually the evolutionary advantage is gained by kindness.

Epidemiological data from active surveillance on human enterovirus, which could cause hand, foot, and mouth disease, were limited. An active surveillance system was used to investigate the enterovirus spectrum and the incidence of different enteroviruses in infants aged 6-35 months in Jiangsu Province from 2012 to 2013. Fifty-nine infants were randomly selected from 522 non-EV-A71/CV-A16 HFMD patients. We collected 173 throat swabs and 174 rectal swabs from these infants. RT-PCR was used to amplify 5'-UTR and VP1 regions of enteroviruses and the serotypes were determined by the sequence comparison using BLAST. Twenty-one non-EV-A71/CA16 enterovirus serotypes were detected in those infants. E16, E18 were firstly reported in HFMD patients. The four top common non-EV-A71/CV-A enteroviruses among infants were CV-B3, CV-A10, CV-A6, and E9 with the HFMD incidence rates at 1.4%, 0.84%, 0.56%, and 0.47%, respectively. Over 20.8% patients were co-infected with multiple enteroviruses. Neither the course of sickness nor clinical symptoms of the co-infected patients was more severe than those infected with single enterovirus. Two patients were infected different enterovirus successively within 2 months. Several new enterovirus serotypes and multiple models of infection associated with HFMD were discovered through the active surveillance system. These data provide a better understanding of the viral etiology of HFMD.

Resin chemistries for dental composite are evolving as noted by the introduction of silorane-based composites in 2007. This shift in the landscape from methacrylate-based composites has fueled the quest for versatile methacrylate-silorane adhesives. The objective of this study was to evaluate the polymerization behavior and structure/property relationships of methacrylate-silorane hybrid systems. Amine compound ethyl-4-(dimethylamino) benzoate (EDMAB) or silane compound tris(trimethylsilyl) silane (TTMSS) was selected as coinitiators. The mechanical properties of the copolymer were improved significantly at low concentrations (15, 25, or 35 wt %) of silorane when EDMAB was used as coinitiator. The rubbery moduli of these experimental copolymers were increased by up to 260%, compared with that of the control (30.8 ± 1.9 MPa). Visible phase separation appeared in these formulations if the silorane concentrations in the formulations were 50–75 wt %. The use of TTMSS as coinitiator decreased the phase separation, but there was a concomitant decrease in mechanical properties. In the neat methacrylate formulations, the maximum rates of free-radical polymerization with EDMAB or TTMSS were 0.28 or 0.06 s−1, respectively. In the neat silorane resin, the maximum rates of cationic ring-opening polymerization with EDMAB or TTMSS were 0.056 or 0.087 s−1, respectively. The phase separation phenomenon may be attributed to differences in the rates of free-radical polymerization of methacrylates and cationic ring-opening polymerization of silorane. In the hybrid systems, free-radical polymerization initiated with EDMAB led to higher crosslink density and better mechanical properties under dry/wet conditions. These beneficial effects were, however, associated with an increase in heterogeneity in the network structure. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 104B: 841–852, 2016.

We describe a specific procedure for the synthesis of deuterium-labelled 2-(1-methylalkyl)succinate established via alkylation of diethyl malonate, Krapcho decarboxylation reaction with D2O and hydrolysis reaction. Two novel compounds, 2-[2H]-2-ethylsuccinic acid and 2-[2H]-2-(1-methylheptyl)succinic acid were prepared via this synthetic route and characterized by mass spectrometry and 1H NMR. The results showed that the 2-(1-methylalkyl)succinic acids were deuterated at the β-position, which is considered as an important reaction centre in the anaerobic degradation of n-alkanes.

A thorough understanding of the mechanisms of ion crossover through the membranes in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) is critically important in making improvements to the battery’s efficiency and cycling performance. In this work, we develop a 2-D VRFB model to investigate the mechanisms of ion crossover and the associated impacts it has on the battery’s performance. Unlike previously described models in the literature that simulated a single cell by dividing it into the positive electrode, membrane, and negative electrode regions, the present model incorporates all possible ion crossover mechanisms in the entire cell without a need to specify any interfacial boundary conditions at the membrane/electrode interfaces, and hence accurately captures the Donnan-potential jumps and steep gradient of species concentrations at the membrane/electrode interfaces. With our model, a particular emphasis is given to investigation of the effect of the electric field on vanadium ion crossover. One of the significant findings is that an electric field exists in the membrane even under the open-circuit condition, primarily due to the presence of the H + concentration gradient across the membrane. This finding suggests that vanadium ions can permeate through the membrane from H + -diluted to H + -concentrated sides via migration and convection. More importantly, it is found that the rate of vanadium ion crossover and capacity decay during charge and discharge vary with the magnitude of the electric field, which is influenced by the membrane properties and operating conditions. The simulations suggest that enhancing the electric-field-driven flow is a potential approach to minimizing the battery’s capacity decay.

For the purpose of realizing an intelligent and highly accurate diagnosis system for neuro-degenerative diseases (NDD), such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD), the present study investigated the classification capability of different gait statistical features extracted from gait rhythm signals. Nine statistical measures, including several seldom-used variability measures for these signals, were calculated for each time series. Next, after an evaluation of four popular machine learning methods, the optimal feature subset was generated with a hill-climbing feature selection method. Experiments were performed on a data set with 16 healthy control (CO) subjects, 13 ALS, 15 PD and 20 HD patients. When evaluated with the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) method, the highest accuracy rate for discriminating between groups of NDD patients and healthy control subjects was 96.83%. The best classification accuracy (100%) was obtained with two subtype binary classifiers (PD vs. CO and HD vs. CO).

For a given set of data points lying on a low-dimensional manifold embedded in a high-dimensional space, the dimensionality reduction is to recover a low-dimensional parametrization from the data set. The recently developed Hessian Eigenmaps method is a mathematically rigorous method that also sets a theoretical framework for the nonlinear dimensionality reduction problem. In this paper, we develop a discrete version of the Hessian Eigenmaps method and present an analysis, giving conditions under which the method works as intended. As an application, a procedure to modify the standard constructions of k -nearest neighborhoods is presented to ensure that Hessian LLE can recover the original coordinates up to an affine transformation.

This paper presents the application results of a fuzzy proportional–integral–derivative controller of temperature in an industrial resistance furnace. The challenges arise from the features of resistance furnaces such as non-linearity, strong inertia, large lag, and time-varying parameters. A fuzzy proportional–integral–derivative controller is adopted here to overcome these challenges. The hardware part of the control system is an ECS-700 distributed control system and an industrial PC, and the software part is built on Object Linking and Embedding for process control technology and MATLAB. The experimental results on an industrial furnace system show that the proposed fuzzy proportional–integral–derivative controller achieves better control performance with shorter setting time and smaller overshoot.

Vanadium-sol modified LiFePO4 material was prepared by 300 °C calcination in a tube furnace. The modified LiFePO4 material was characterized by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy disperse spectroscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results indicated that vanadium-sol modified LiFePO4 had higher first cycling efficiency, lower impedance and polarization, and better electrochemical properties at high charge/discharge rates.

A new tertiary amine co-initiator (TUMA) containing three methacrylate-urethane groups was synthesized for application in dentin adhesives. The photopolymerization kinetics and leaching of unreacted components from methacrylate-based dental polymers formulated with this new co-initiator were determined. The newly synthesize co-initiator showed good chemical stability and decreased amine release from the initiator system. This study provides important information for the future development of biocompatible dentin adhesives/composites.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is the key pathogen for Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD) and can result in severe neurological complications and death among young children. Three inactivated-EV71 vaccines have gone through phase III clinical trials and have demonstrated good safety and efficacy. These vaccines will benefit young children under the threat of severe HFMD. However, the potential immunization-related compatibility for different enterovirus vaccines remains unclear, making it hard to include the EV71 vaccine in Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). Here, we measured the neutralizing antibodies (NTAbs) against EV71, Coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) and Poliovirus from infants enrolled in those EV71 vaccine clinical trials. The results indicated that the levels of NTAb GMTs for EV71 increased significantly in all 3 vaccine groups (high, middle and low dosages, respectively) post-vaccination. Seroconversion ratios and Geometric mean fold increase were significantly higher in the vaccine groups (≥ 7/9 and 8.9 ～ 228.1) than in the placebo group (≤ 1/10 and 0.8 ～ 1.7, P < 0.05). But no similar NTAb response trends were found in CA16 and 3 types of Poliovirus. The decrease of 3 types of Poliovirus NTAb GMTs and an increase of CA16 GMTs post-EV71-vaccination were found in vaccine and placebo groups. Further animal study on CA16 and poliovirus vaccine co-immunization or pre-immunization with EV71 vaccine in mice indicated that there was no NTAb cross-activity between EV71 and CA16/Poliovirus. Our research showed that inactivated-EV71 vaccine has good specific-neutralizing capacity and can be included in EPI.

To investigate the evolution of echovirus 7 (Echo7) strains and the relationship between Echo7 strains and the prototype strain Wallace, phylogenetic analysis of Echo7 strains prevailing in mainland China was performed. The Echo7 strain, DH22G/JS/2012 was isolated from a 32-month-old boy who was clinically diagnosed with HFMD. The complete genome sequence of this isolate was determined after the virus was propagated in cell culture. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the subgroups B1 and C1 prevailed in mainland China from 1998 to 2012 and that the subgroup B2 began to circulate in mainland China in 2009. The result of Simplot analysis showed that the Echo7 strain DH22G/JS/2012 is a recombinant coxsackievirus B4 (CVB4) that circulated in mainland China in 2010.

The composition of heavy alkyl benzene sulfonates (HABS) was determined and the HABS was separated by a preparative HPLC. The surface and interfacial tensions of the components were measured. The results show that the HABS is a mixture of homologues, CnABS, with different alkyl carbon numbers ranging from 12 to 25 on phenyl group. The CMC of six components, C12ABS, C13ABS, C16ABS, C17ABS, C18ABS, and C19ABS are 0.401–0.030 g·L−1. The C16ABS has the strongest interfacial activities. There occurred synergism between C16ABS and ionized organic acids in the crude oil produced by Na2CO3.

The 2-fold objectives of this study were 1) to understand whether model hydrophobic- and hydrophilic-rich phase mimics of dentin adhesive polymerize similarly and 2) to determine which factor, the dimethacrylate component, bisphenol A glycerolate dimethacrylate (BisGMA) or photoinitiator concentration, has greater influence on the polymerization of the hydrophilic-rich phase mimic. Current dentin adhesives are sensitive to moisture, as evidenced by nanoleakage in the hybrid layer and phase separation into hydrophobic- and hydrophilic-rich phases. Phase separation leads to limited availability of the cross-linkable dimethacrylate monomer and hydrophobic photoinitiators within the hydrophilic-rich phase. Model hydrophobic-rich phase was prepared as a single-phase solution by adding maximum wt% deuterium oxide (D2O) to HEMA/BisGMA neat resins containing 45 wt% 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). Mimics of the hydrophilic-rich phase were prepared similarly but using HEMA/BisGMA neat resins containing 95, 99, 99.5, and 100 wt% HEMA. The hydrophilic-rich mimics were prepared with standard or reduced photoinitiator content. The photoinitiator systems were camphorquinone (CQ)/ethyl 4-(dimethylamino)benzoate (EDMAB) with or without [3-(3, 4-dimethyl-9-oxo-9H-thioxanthen-2-yloxy)-2-hydroxypropyl]trimethylammonium chloride (QTX). The polymerization kinetics was monitored using a Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer with a time-resolved collection mode. The hydrophobic-rich phase exhibited a significantly higher polymerization rate compared with the hydrophilic-rich phase. Postpolymerization resulting in the secondary rate maxima was observed for the hydrophilic-rich mimic. The hydrophilic-rich mimics with standard photoinitiator concentration but varying cross-linker (BisGMA) content showed postpolymerization and a substantial degree of conversion. In contrast, the corresponding formulations with reduced photoinitiator concentrations exhibited lower polymerization and inhibition/delay of postpolymerization within 2 h. Under conditions relevant to the wet, oral environment, photoinitiator content plays an important role in the polymerization of the hydrophilic-rich phase mimic. Since the hydrophilic-rich phase is primarily water and monomethacrylate monomer (e.g., HEMA as determined previously), substantial polymerization is important to limit the potential toxic response from HEMA leaching into the surrounding tissues.

In an attempt to prepare polymers able to function as self-healing materials, a quadruple hydrogen-bonding ureidopyrimidinone (UPy) moiety was introduced to polymer systems. Low crosslinking materials based on hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and poly(ethylene glycol) methacrylate (PEGMA) containing 10% of UPy moieties were synthesized, and their thermal and rheological properties were investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and a rotational rheometer. The hydroxyethyl group and a PEG oligomer with high molecular polarity as side chains provided high surface energies and adhesion properties. The fastest self-healing of these polymer films can be achieved within 20 min. The adhesion strength tests via the tensile mode revealed the potential of these self-healing polymers in application as adhesives.

A pseudo-type-III compensation circuit integrated in a 2.25-MHz voltage-mode dc–dc buck regulator is presented. By summing high- and low-frequency signal paths at the outputs of an error amplifier, two zeros are generated to counteract the pair of complex $LC$ poles. Comparing with traditional and various reported type-III compensation, the proposed scheme is compact, and the area of the compensation capacitor is reduced by about 37%. The addition of a high-frequency path also helps to improve the transient response. Experimental results show that the fabricated regulator with the proposed scheme achieves good stability and fast load-step response. The output is settled within 10 $\mu \hbox{s}$ for a load current step of 400 mA. In addition, the measured load regulation and line regulation is 0.2%/A and 0.2%/V, respectively. The current consumption of the compensator is 120 $\mu \hbox{A}$ , and the measured maximum efficiency is up to 96%.

This paper introduced the development of marine on-shore power supply system in China and abroad, and described the different control strategy of shore power based on uninterruptable power on-shore connection, as well as instance of variable frequency power supply between the port and ship for controlling harmonicdistortion, based on the Matlab simulation software to establish the simulation model of active power filter system,so as to provide the guarantee for achieving reliable paralleling between shore power and marine electrical system with effective harmonic elimination.

Many biological molecules are by their nature amphiphilic and have the ability to act as surfactants, stabilizing interfaces between aqueous and immiscible oil phases. In this paper, we explore the adsorption kinetics of surfactin, a naturally occurring cyclic lipopeptide, at hexadecane/water interfaces and compare and contrast its adsorption behaviour with that of synthetic alkyl benzene sulfonate isomers, through direct measurements of changes in interfacial tension upon surfactant adsorption. We access millisecond time resolution in kinetic measurements by making use of droplet microfluidics to probe the interfacial tension of hexadecane droplets dispersed in a continuous water phase through monitoring their deformation when the droplets are exposed to shear flows in a microfluidic channel with regular corrugations. Our results reveal that surfactin rapidly adsorbs to the interface, thus the interfacial tension equilibrates within 300 ms, while the synthetic surfactants used undergo adsorption processes at an approximately one order of magnitude longer timescale. The approach presented may provide opportunities for understanding and modulating the adsorption mechanism of amphiphiles on a variety of interfaces in the context of life sciences and industrial applications.

We compared clinical characteristics and outcomes of the early-onset seizure post-stroke patients who had seizures occurring at stroke presentation (SSP) with other patients without SSP at a single institution in Eastern China.We reviewed 20,947 ischemic stroke patients in our hospital electronic medical records system from January 2007 to December 2016. Among them, there were 91 (0.43%) patients with early-onset seizure post-stroke. Among these 91 patients, there were 35 (0.16%) SSP patients and another 56 (0.27%) were designated as non SSP patients because they also had early-onset seizure post-stroke, but without SSP. We compared the clinical presentations of the SSP patients with those of the non SSP patients including baseline stroke risk factors, and 10-year Kaplan-Meier death risk after their first stroke.In the SSP patients, 25.7% of them presented with posterior circulation infarction, whereas only 12.5% of the non SSP patients had this condition (P0.05). In contrast, 17.1% of the SSP patients were being treated with antiepileptic drugs at discharge whereas 37.5% of the non SSP patients received such treatment (P0.05). The percentage of SSP patients with temporal lobe lesions was less than in non SSP patients (P0.05). However, brain stem and thalamus lesions were more frequently seen in SSP patients than non in SSP patients (P0.05). The risk factors for ischemic stroke including a history of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia and atrial fibrillation were the same in these two groups (P0.05). In the SSP patients group, the 10-year risk of death was 36.9% after the initial seizure incident, and in the non SSP patients group, the 10-year death risk was 40.1%, but this difference between the two groups was not significant (P0.05).Ischemic stroke patients with SSP had some unique signs that included a higher incidence of posterior circulation infarction than non SSP patients.