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To address the railway track section occupation detection failure, this paper proposes a maximum posterior probability model that uses multisensor information fusion to detect track occupation. Based on the installation method of the sensor, this model obtains stable base data of occupied track sections and extracts its features, including train's running velocity, acceleration, direction, occupied area, wheelset axle counting, and track vibration. The maximum posterior probability and logarithm model are then derived by computing the prior probability, the posterior probability, and the conditional joint probability for the features. The judgment of the track occupation is more accurate compared with experience value. The experiments demonstrate that our track occupation detection method is able to effectively judge the occupation of the train, persons, and tool cart. Based on the maximum posterior probability, the Bayes optimal data fusion ratio for a measured parameter in this paper reaches 99.9983%.

Baicalin (BA) has gained considerable attention in recent years for its multiple pharmacological activities. However, its optimum pharmaceutical potential has been limited by its poor solubility in water. In this study, for the first time, we discovered that novel water-soluble carbon dots (CDs, named RPC-CDs) from aqueous extracts of Radix Puerariae Carbonisata (RPC). The chemical composition and morphological features of the RPC-CDs we obtained were characterized using various spectroscopies and transmission electron microscopy and the CDs have a low toxicity against RAW 264.7 cells by the CCK-8 assay. Most importantly, the RPC-CDs were able to greatly increase the solubility of baicalin in water, which could be related to the glucuronide structure of baicalin. Moreover, the result of indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (icELISA) indicated that the area under the baicalin concentration-time curve value of baicalin-RPC-CDs (BA-CDs) was 1.7-fold greater than those of a baicalin suspension liquid (BA control) after oral administration at a dose of 72 mg/kg. This study not only provides evidence to support further investigation of the considerable potential of carbon dots, but also offers support for the future clinical application of baicalin.

Although recent research on intrinsic bioactivities of carbon dots is expanding, it is focused on basic aspects, which creates the need for broadening our knowledge about carbon dots to expand their uses in biomedical sciences and facilitate their application in clinical practice. Jiaosanxian is a charcoal traditional Chinese medicine with a pronounced effect on promoting appetite and digestion that is widely used as dyspepsia therapy in China. To study the underlying mechanism and the material requirements, we investigated carbon dots which was generated in the charcoal processing. In this study, we developed Jiaosanxian-derived carbon dots (JSX-CDs) with an average diameter of 4.4-6.4 nm. No further modifications or external surface passivation agents were required because Jiaosanxian naturally contains carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. We found that carbon dots derived from different charcoal traditional Chinese medicines had both similarities and differences in their structural features, physicochemical properties, and bioactivities. Due to an abundance of surface groups, JSX-CDs showed a distinct solubility and bioactivity. In this study, we established a modified hyperglycemia model in mice to evaluate the hypoglycemic activity of JSX-CDs. We found that JSX-CDs were effective in regulating blood sugar and appeared to be very safe, indicating its potential use as a hypoglycemic agent. Our results do not only provide guidance for further research on intrinsic bioactivities of CDs but also give new insights into their potential biomedical and healthcare applications.

Background As an emerging nanomaterial, carbon dots (CDs) have been the focus of tremendous attention for biomedical applications. However, little information is available on their bioactivity of inhibiting acute kidney injury (AKI) induced by snake venom. Methods This study reports the development of a green, one-step pyrolysis process to synthesize CDs using Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex (PCC) as the sole precursor, and their potential application as a protectant against Deinagkistrodon acutus (D. acutus) venom-induced AKI was investigated for the first time. The AKI model was established by injecting D. acutus venom into the abdominal cavity of mice and the potential protective effects of PCC Carbonisata-CDs (PCCC-CDs) on renal abnormalities including dysfunction, inflammatory reactions, tissue damage, and thrombocytopenia at six time points (1, 3, and 12 h, and 1, 2, and 5 days) were investigated. Results These results demonstrated that PCCC-CDs significantly inhibited the kidney dysfunction (reduced serum creatinine (SCR), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), urinary total protein (UTP), and microalbuminuria (MALB) concentrations) and the production of chemoattractant (monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1)), proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin (IL)-1β), and anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) in response to intraperitoneal injection of D. acutus venom. The beneficial effect of PCCC-CDs on the envenomed mice was similar to that on the change in renal histology and thrombocytopenia. Conclusions These results demonstrated the remarkable protective effects of PCCC-CDs against AKI induced by D. acutus venom, which would not only broaden the biomedical applications of CDs but also provide a potential target for the development of new therapeutic drugs for AKI induced by D. acutus snakebite envenomation.

Device-to-device (D2D) communications have been proposed as a promising technology to improve system capacity and user experiences. In moving D2D-enabled heterogeneous ultra-dense networks (H-UDNs), it will cause heavy system overhead from the frequent mode selection between D2D mode and cellular mode, which is also belong to handover strategies. Thus, the optimization of mode selection strategy is needed urgently. In this paper, for the mode selection occurring from cellular communication mode to D2D communication mode (C2D), we propose a feed-forward neural network (FFNN) based multi-attribute D2D transmitter choosing strategy. The proposed strategy implements FFNN model, meanwhile combine the stochastic geometry based long-term analytical results with instant parameters involved in mode selection process. As a result, our proposed strategy brings improvements to the mode selection performance, which can be observed in reducing the mode selection probability and increasing the D2D mode dwell time. Moreover, the system overhead is further reduced on the basis of achieving full-spectrum reuse.

Worldwide, the increasing occurrence of microcystin-LR (MC-LR) in water bodies used as source waters for drinking water has become an important public health issue. The present study surveying the MC-LR concentration of natural water in water resources from the Yangtze River Delta region of China was performed from 2013 to 2014. Many of the samples analyzed were found to have high concentration. The highest concentration of MC-LR was 27.79 μg/L, which was observed at Xijiu River in August of 2013. MC-LR is chemically stable, but disinfection by chlorine is known to reduce concentration of MC-LR. In this work, behavior of MC-LR with regard to chlorine has been studied. The decomposition of MC-LR followed first-order kinetics with average first-order constants of about 1.90 × 10−4 s−1 of a [Chlorine]:[MC-LR] molar ratio of 20:1. The Mdha amino acid in the cyclic structure, the diene bonds and benzene ring in the Adda side chain were the reacted sites of MC-LR. The intermediates and byproducts formed during the chlorination of MC-LR and the probable degradation pathway were investigated, 16 different intermediates were found. Furthermore, the formation potential of carbonaceous disinfection by-products (C-DBPs) and nitrogenous disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) were detected by GC/MSMS.

Schizonepetae Spica Carbonisata (SSC) has pronounced haemostatic effects for hundreds of years and has been acknowledged in the 2015 Pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China (PPRC) as a haemostatic charcoal drug. However, after years of efforts, the underlying mechanism and the material basis is still less defined. In this research, we developed a novel CDs derived from SSC (SSC-CDs) with an average diameter of 1.29-6.87 nm and a quantum yield of 6.31%. SSC was prepared using a modified pyrolysis method and no further modification and external surface passivation agent is required. With abundant surface groups, SSC-CDs showed distinct solubility and bioactivity. In this study, we innovatively used the Deinagkistrodon acutus (D. acutus) venom model as well as the classical haemorrhagic animal model to evaluate the haemostatic bioactivity of SSC-CDs. The results indicated that SSC-CDs had outstanding haemostatic bioactivity and might inhibit the haemorrhagic activity via PLT elevation. According to the results of this study and our previous work, we discovered that CDs derived from different kinds of charcoal drugs presented similarities and differences in the structural feature, physicochemical property and bioactivity. In order to further explore the self-bioactivities, we first named this kind of CDs as "Chinese Medicine charcoal drug nanoparticles" (CMNP). These results may not only provide evidence for further researches of self-bioactivities of CDs but give new insights into potential biomedical and healthcare applications of CDs, therefore, make contributions to future drug discovery.

Denser deployment of 5G heterogeneous ultra-dense network (H-UDN) leads to more frequent handovers, which causes higher cross-tier handover failure rate. Thus, the optimization of traditional handover strategy is needed urgently. In this paper, applying the stochastic based analytical results of cross-tier handover, we propose a novel fuzzy logic multi-attribute handover decision algorithm (FMHD). The proposed algorithm implements fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) along with grey correlation analysis method, meanwhile combine the long-term analytical results with instant parameters involved in handover process. As a result, FMHD brings improvements to the cross-tier handover performance, which can be observed in reducing handover failure probability and ping-pong probability.

We have been looking for a faster and simpler method for traditional Chinese medicine and natural product assay. In this study, we developed a fluorescent immunoassay approach to detect icariin (ICA) using a fluorescently labelled monoclonal antibody. The ICA-specific antibody was purified by the caprylic acid-ammonium sulphate method and then labelled with rhodamine B isothiocyanate (RBITC). Subsequently, an indirect competitive fluorescence-linked immunosorbent assay (icFLISA) was developed to detect ICA using RBITC-labelled anti-ICA MAbs. The RBITC-labelled monoclonal antibody was highly specific for ICA. The fluorescence assay demonstrated an effective ICA measurement range of 1.28 ng/mL to 20 μg/mL (R2 = 0.9946) with relative standard deviations below 10% for both intra-assay and inter-assay repeatability and precision. This icFLISA for ICA is simple, rapid, and sensitive, with a 20-fold greater linear range and a 10-fold lower limit of detection than with the previously developed indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Thus, this study establishes a useful method for detecting ICA, enabling in vivo visualization research. In the future, FLISA can be also used to assay the concentrations of ICA in biological samples, as well as to investigate the pharmacokinetics of ICA in different tissues to explore the targets of ICA in vivo.