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With the rapid development of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, multispectral LiDAR (MSL) can realize three-dimensional (3D) imaging of the ground object by acquiring rich spectral information. Although color restoration has been achieved on the basis of the full-waveform data of MSL, further improvement of the visual effect of color point clouds still faces many challenges. In this paper, a highlight removal method for MSL color point clouds is proposed to explore the potential of 3D visualization. First, the MSL reflection model are introduced according to radar equation and Phong model, and the restored color of the MSL point clouds is determined to comprise diffuse and specular components. Second, a data conversion method is proposed to improve the massive point cloud processing efficiency by spatial dimension reduction and data compression. Then, the visual saliency map after color denoising is used to obtain the highlight region, the unknown information of which is recovered based on the global or local color information. Finally, three representative targets are selected and evaluated by qualitative and quantitative validation, which verifies that the method can effectively recover the high-quality highlight-free point clouds of MSL.

Biwen Hu,* Zhenwei Chen,* Xiaoguang Wang, Fei Chen, Zhengwei Song, Chenxi Cao Department of Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chenxi CaoDepartment of Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, No. 397, Huangcheng North Road, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, 314000, People’s Repubic of ChinaTel +86 573 82058116Email jxeycaochenxi@163.comAim: This research aimed at clarifying the intracellular effect of SERPINE1 in the progression of colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) and the underlying mechanism.Methods: We obtained the expression profile of SERPINE1 in COAD via the Starbase database and verified it on COAD tissue samples through qRT-PCR and immunoblotting, respectively. Also, miRWalk, TargetScan and miRDB databases were adopted to generate the miRNA prediction that might target SERPINE1, and the gene target miR-148a-3p was confirmed using dual-luciferase assays. The effect of SERPINE1 and miR-148a-3p on COAD was further evaluated by cell experiments. MTT assay was used to detect the change of cell proliferation ability. The invasive and migratory capability of COAD cells was examined using transwell and would healing assays. Cell apoptosis was determined through flow cytometry. The expressions of genes and EMT-associated proteins were evaluated by qRT-PCR and immunoblotting. Further lucubration of the biological relevance of SERPINE1 and miR-148a-3p was conducted using rescue experiments.Results: We found that the expression quantities of SERPINE1 in COAD tissues and cell lines were higher than those in corresponding non-cancerous tissues and normal cells. When SERPINE1 expression is reduced, EMT process is inhibited, invasion and proliferation ability of COAD cells are obviously reduced, and apoptosis level is increased. Moreover, SERPINE1 was identified as the target gene of miR-148a-3p. When the expression of miR-148a-3p was enhanced, it was found that the expression of SERPINE1 was reduced. miR-148a-3p played the similar effect of si-SERPINE1 that suppressed the COAD progression. Additionally, we found out that SERPINE1 is validated in hindering the tumor healing effect of miR148a-3p in COAD, including cell growth and invasion.Conclusion: Our study suggests that SERPINE1/miR-148a-3p axis has potential as prognostic markers of COAD and provides reference for the development of new therapies.Keywords: colon adenocarcinoma, SERPINE1, miR-148a-3p, EMT

This study investigated whether GLP-1 affects islet β cells in high glucose and the possible mechanism. INS-1 cells are separated into group A (treated with 5.6 mmol/L glucose), group B (group A+100 nmo1/L liraglutide), group C (cells were cultured in 16.7 mmol/L glucose) and group D (group C+100 nmo1/L liraglutide) followed by analysis of cell activity by CCK-8, apoptosis by Hoechst staining, INS level by ELISA, AMPK/mTOR signaling protein level by immunoblotting and RT-PCR. Compared with group A, cell proliferation was significantly increased in group B (P P P P P P P

Cottonseed protein concentrate (CPC) has been proven to partially replace fishmeal without adverse effects on fish growth performance, while little information is known about the effects on liver health during bacterial infection. In the present study, 15% CPC was included into the diet of juvenile largemouth bass (32.12 ± 0.09g) to replace fishmeal for 8 weeks, with fish growth potential and hepatic inflammatory responses during

Backgroundvisceral pleural invasion (VPI) is an important prognostic factor in early stage lung adenocarcinoma, which can affect the TNM Classification of Tumors.PurposeTo investigate whether ultra-high-resolution computed tomography (U-HRCT) features can predict VPI of early stage pulmonary nodules contacting the interlobar pleura.Material and MethodsA total of 126 patients with lung adenocarcinoma (age, 24-77 years) confirmed by surgical pathology were retrospectively enrolled. All patients underwent U-HRCT scan and were divided into two groups according to pulmonary nodular type: pure (pGGN) and mixed (mGGN). Clinical features were recorded, and U-HRCT features were manually measured using PHILIPS EBW V4.5.5. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to determine factors that can significantly predict VPI. ResultsU-HRCT and three-dimensional orthogonal post-processing method could better display the relationship between GGNs and interlobar fissures. Among all patients, fifteen patients (12%) had VPI. None of the patients with pGGN had VPI. In the mGGN group, the solid ratio (odds ratio [OR]=1.275, 95% CI 1.1-1.478; P=0.001) and solid diameter (OR=1.139, 95% CI 1.06-2.346; P=0.046) were independent risk factors for VPI in early stage lung adenocarcinoma. For VPI diagnosis, the area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity of the solid ratio and solid diameter were 0.803, 80%, and 75% and 0.807, 80%, and 80.36%, respectively.ConclusionU-HRCT can display GGNs and interlobar fissures in detail. VPI was not detected in patients with pGGN. In patients with mGGNs, a solid diameter >6mm and solid ratio >38% can be independent predictors of VPI, which may be helpful in surgical decision-making.

Background The clinical value of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in patients with AFP-negative (

Background A comprehensive understanding of vascular calcification pathology is significant for the development of cardiovascular disease therapy in high-risk populations. This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of radial artery calcification (RAC) and to identify the factors that are associated with RAC in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Methods Detailed medical histories of 180 patients with ESKD were recorded. Fragments of the radial artery obtained during the creation of arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis access were stained with alizarin red S. Results Calcification was localized in the arterial media layer. The prevalence of positive calcification staining in the radial arteries was 21.1% (n = 38). Patients with RAC had a higher glycated hemoglobin level (p 5 years (p = 0.022), and diabetes mellitus (p 5 years (odds ratio [OR], 9.864; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.666–36.502; p 5 years had a higher prevalence of RAC (p = 0.012) than those with dialysis duration ≤5 years. Patients with diabetes mellitus had a higher prevalence of RAC (p 5 years and diabetes predict RAC. Thus, the combination of prolonged dialysis and hyperglycemic conditions exerts a synergistic effect on RAC.

Purpose To develop and validate a nomogram for individualized prediction of the long-term prognosis of patients with non-B, non-C hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC) who underwent hepatectomy. Materials and methods Five hundred ninety-four patients who met the criteria were included in the research and randomly categorized into the training or validation cohort. The nomogram was constructed on the basis of the independent risk variables that were acquired via multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. Several complementary methods included the Harrell c-index, time-dependent areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (tdAUC), and calibration plot, and the Kaplan-Meier curve with Log rank test were used to test predictive performance of the model. The clinical utility of the model was tested by the decision cure analysis (DCA). Results Tumor diameter, tumor number, elevated serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) level, microvascular invasion (MVI), and macrovascular invasion were independent risk factors of prognosis of NBNC-HCC. C-indexes of the nomogram were 0.702 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.662-0.741) in the training cohort and 0.700 (95% CI, 0.643-0.758) in the validation cohort, and median tdAUC values of the nomogram were 0.743 (range, 0.736-0.775) in the training cohort and 0.751 (range, 0.686-0.793) in the validation cohort, which were both higher than those in the conventionally used Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging system, American Joint Committee on Cancer, and eighth edition and the model of Zhang et al. The calibration plot depicted a good consistency between prediction of the model and observed outcome. The Kaplan-Meier curve analysis showed that the model was able to separate patients into three distinct risk subgroups. The DCA analysis also demonstrated that the nomogram was clinically useful. Conclusion We developed and validated a nomogram that was accurate and clinically useful in patients with NBNC-HCC who underwent hepatectomy.

Heavy metal pollution greatly harms the soil environment and poses threats to food safety and human health. This study aimed to quantify and analyze the sources of heavy metals and assess the health risks associated with the human intake of contaminated vegetables in South China. Heavy metals (Cd, As, Hg, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Cr) in soil and vegetables (leaf vegetables, legume vegetables, and cucurbits) were investigated and evaluated for contamination. By combining the correlation analysis (CA), positive matrix factorization (PMF), and GeoDetector model, source apportionments were comprehensively identified. Results showed that Cd was the predominant element in soils throughout the study area. Industrial (28.36 %, 20.24 %, 31.50 %), agricultural (27.19 %, 46.50 %, 27.30 %), besides traffic, atmospheric deposition and natural sources were identified as the dominant sources of heavy metals in GD01, GD02, and GD03, respectively. The human health risk assessment showed that the total non-cancer risk of heavy metals (i.e., Cr, Ni, As, Cd, and Pb) ingested through vegetables was 2.3E+00 for children and 9.67E-01 for adults, and the total cancer risk for children was 2.54E-02 and 1.07E-02 for adults, both of which exceeded acceptable levels. It is worth noting that children are more susceptible to health risks due to the consumption of contaminated vegetables than adults.

This study focuses on the role of miR-7 in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells by targeting thyroid receptor interactor protein 6 (TRIP6). Here, we report that miR-7 expression was down-regulated in colorectal cancer tissues and cell lines due to DNA hypermethylation. miR-7 overexpression significantly inhibits the proliferation and migration of CRC cells in vitro. TRIP6 was found to be a direct target gene of miR-7. The proliferation inhibition of CRC cells mediated by miR-7 could be rescued after TRIP6 overexpression in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, overexpression of TRIP6 reduced miR-7 inhibitor-mediated CRC cell migration and invasion. These findings demonstrate that miR-7 could inhibit the proliferation and migration of CRC cells by targeting TRIP6 and that miR-7 might serve as a good strategy for diagnosing and treating CRC.

SF6 is an excellent insulating gas, which is often used in GIS. In case of overheating or partial discharge in GIS, SF6 will decompose. In case of micro-water and micro-oxygen existing in GIS, here come products such as SO 2 , SOF2, SO 2 F2, H2S and CO will be produced when the reaction involves solid insulation materials. In this paper, the component CO were quantitatively measured by photoacoustic spectroscopy detection technology, and the structure of the photoacoustic pool operating in non-resonant mode was optimized theoretically. The design basis of the photoacoustic pool was obtained and the radius of the photoacoustic pool was selected as 2mm.For the quantitative measurement of sample gas by using the photoacoustic effect of gas, the gas absorption spectrum line that can avoid the cross-interference of other gas components should be selected as the characteristic spectrum line. Based on this, the CO gas characteristic spectrum line is 6380.3cm −l . The experimental structure shows that the linearity between the gas concentration of CO and the amplitude of the photoacoustic signal is very high, that is, the gas concentration can be accurately calculated through the measurement of the photoacoustic signal value of the gas. The lower limit detection is 3.63ppm.

The composition and content of dissolved gases in transformer oil are closely related to the type of faults in the transformer and the severity of potential hazards. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) in insulating oil is an important way to monitor the state of transformer equipment. CO, CH4, and C2H2 are one of the dissolved gases in the transformer oil. Based on the density functional theory, the optimal adsorption site of the transition metal atom Pt on the surface of WSe2, one of the typical layered transition metal disulfides (LTMDs), is determined in the beginning. Attaining the adsorption behavior of these three gases on the surface of Pt-WSe2. The optimal structure of gas adsorption, charge transfer, adsorption energy, electronic density of states (DOS), deformation charge density (DCD), and frontier orbital are analyzed. As an electron acceptor, Pt-WSe2 attracts electrons from all three gas molecules. The adsorption type of CO and C2H2 molecules is chemisorption, whose adsorption effect is strong. The CH4 adsorption is physical adsorption, whose adsorption effect is weak. The adsorption of all the three gas molecules leads to an increase in the bandgap of the Pt-WSe2, that is, the increase in the resistivity.

SF6 is a greenhouse gas with extremely high global warming potential value (GWP). In this paper, oxygen and a packed bed plasma reactor (PBR) were applied to remove it. The synergistic effect between oxygen and PBRs was evaluated by the destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) and energy yield (EY) at different oxygen concentrations. The results show that excessive oxygen weakened the micro-discharge in a PBR to suppress SF6 degradation while the addition of a proper amount of oxygen (1–4%) can improve the DRE and EY. 2% O2 in the system had the best promoting effect on the destruction of 6–10% SF6, which made the maximum energy yield (EY) increase by 50.99% to 37.99 g kW−1 h−1 (SF6 concentration was 10%, flow rate was 150 mL min−1). Moreover, in the flow rate range of 100 mL min−1 to 250 mL min−1, the DRE decreased and the EY increased with the flow rate. In addition, the selectivity of different products were affected by the oxygen concentration. For 6% SF6, SO2F2 selectivity was always the highest while SO2 was always the lowest; when the oxygen concentration did not exceed 2%, SOF2 selectivity was higher than SOF4, otherwise, SOF4 selectivity was higher than SOF2. This paper provided experimental support for better understanding of the effect of additional gas concentration on SF6 decomposition in a PBR.

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are known to be persistent and toxic, and can be accumulated and trophic magnified in the environments. PFASs are widely distributed, and their coastal input poses a threat to the health of aquatic organisms and local residents. In present study, 17 PFASs including one emerging polyether substitute in water, sediment, and organisms were investigated from the South China Sea. Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) was predominant in water, of which concentration ranged from ND to 10.26 ng/L, with a mean of 5.21 ng/L. Similar to sediment and organisms, PFBA was the substance with the highest concentration detected among PFASs. This result seemingly indicated that use of short-chain PFASs as substitutes for long-chain PFASs in recent years. Trophic magnification factors (TMFs) of PFASs were estimated in the marine food web. TMFs 1 was observed only in perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), indicating a biomagnification potential of PFOS in the given ecosystem. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of PFOS and PFOA were most prevalent in mollusk, whereas the EDI of PFBA was greater in fish and shrimp. The hazard ratio (HR) reported for seven dominant PFASs were lower than 1, which suggests that PFASs via seafood consumption would not cause significant health risk to local residents.

Background Sinonasal renal cell-like carcinoma (SRCLC) is an extremely rare low malignant tumor arising in the sinonasal tract, with histological mimicry of renal cell carcinoma. Case presentation We present a case of sinonasal renal cell-like carcinoma in a 63-year-old male patient. Computer tomography(CT) scanning revealed a soft tissue mass at the left nasal cavity and choana. Histologically, the predominant tumor architecture was follicular to glandular with intervening fibrous septa. The tumor cells were uniform cuboidal to polyhedral with abundant clear or eosinophilic cytoplasm. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were strongly positive for CK7, EMA, vimentin, SOX10, S-100, and focally positive for CA9. During 6 months of follow-up, there was no clinical or radiological evidence of recurrence or metastasis. Conclusion SRCLC has microscopic features which overlap with tumors that contain clear cells. Thus, several other tumors must be considered in the differential diagnosis of a tumor of the sinonasal region with clear cells, especially metastatic renal clear cell carcinoma. SRCLC is an indolent tumor and none of the reported SRCLC patients had metastatic disease.

Here, the authors study the novel problem of optimising access point (AP) association by maximising the network throughput, subject to the degree bound of AP. The formulated problem is a combinatorial optimisation. They resort to the Markov Chain approximation technique to design a distributed algorithm. They first approximate their optimal objective via Log-Sum-Exp function. Thereafter, they construct a special class of Markov Chain with steady-state distribution specify to their problem to yield a distributed solution. Furthermore, they extend the static problem setting to a dynamic environment where the users can randomly leave or join the system. Their proposed algorithm has provable performance, achieving an approximation gap of (1/η)log ℱ. It is simple and can be implemented in a distributed manner. Their extensive simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can converge very fast, and achieve a close-to-optimal performance with a guaranteed loss bound. This work was supported by the Natural Science Funds of China(Nos. 61701213, 61705260), Natural Science Funds of Fujian (No.2018J01546).

Illegal open-pit mining causes environmental harm and undermines sustainable development. Conventional monitoring approaches such as field research and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery are time-consuming and labor-intensive, making large-scale monitoring difficult. In comparison, optical remote sensing imagery can cover large areas but is vulnerable to adverse weather conditions and is not sensitive to vertical ground changes. As open-pit excavation causes sudden changes in the scattering properties of ground objects along with dramatic vertical deformation, we evaluated the feasibility of using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) coherence to identify illegal mining activities. Our method extracts the coherence coefficient from two SAR images taken on different dates, applies thresholding and filtering to extract a decorrelation map, and then overlays this with legal mining boundaries and optical satellite images to identify illegal mining activities. For three test cases in southwestern Inner Mongolia, China, 49 legal mining sites were correctly detected (with an accuracy of 90.74%) as well as six illegal mining sites. Ground truthing confirmed the presence of ongoing activity at one of these sites. Our study shows that InSAR coherence is suitable for the identification of mining activities, and our method provides a new approach for the detection and monitoring of illegal open-pit mining.

Nocardia seriolae, a Gram-positive pathogen, has been identified as the causative agent of fish nocardiosis. DNA vaccination has been proven to be effective in conferring protection against bacterial infection in fish. The 30S ribosomal protein S1 (RpsA) and 50S ribosomal protein L7/L12 (RplL) were identified to be the common immunodominant antigens of three fish pathogenic Nocardia (N. seriolae, N. salmonicida and N. asteroids) by immunoproteomics profiling in our previous study. In current study, the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of two DNA vaccines encoding RplL and RpsA were evaluated and compared in hybrid snakehead. The results showed vaccination of hybrid snakehead with the pcDNA-RplL and pcDNA-RpsA DNA vaccines provided protective efficacy with relative percentage survival (RPS) of 78.31% and 71.08%, respectively. Meanwhile, the immune response of hybrid snakehead induced by these two DNA vaccines were investigated, and it revealed that the non-specific immunity parameters (serum lysozyme (LYZ), peroxidase (POD), acid phosphatase (ACP), alkaline phosphatase (AKP) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities), specific antibody (IgM) production and immune-related genes expression (MHCIα, MHCIIα, CD4, CD8α, IL-1β and TNFα) were significantly increased compared with the corresponding control groups after immunization. Taken together, these results indicated that both pcDNA-RplL and pcDNA-RpsA DNA vaccines could boost the innate, humoral and cellular immune responses in hybrid snakehead and show highly protective efficacy against fish nocardiosis, suggesting that ribosomal proteins RplL and RpsA were promising candidates for DNA vaccines and it will promote the vaccine development against fish nocardiosis.

SF

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have raised great attention as emerging contaminants due to their persistent and bioaccumulative characteristics. Following the global actions to limit perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and its salts, chlorinated polyfluorinated ether sulfonate (F-53B), as an alternative perfluorochemical, has been a focus during this period. In this study, PFASs in coastal seawater, sediment, and seaweed from the significant aquaculture bases of Porphyra haitanensis in the southeast of China were investigated. Their bioaccumulation and ecological risk were elucidated and associated human exposures to PFASs with consumption of aquatic products for rural and urban groups were calculated. The total PFASs levels in seawater and sediment were 21.52–241.86 ng/L and 4.55–26.54 ng/g·dw, respectively. F-53B was found frequently and has relative high concentration in seawater (ND-2.13 ng/L). The Porphyra haitanensis and Siganus fuscescens were also analyzed, with PFASs concentrations ranging from 10.45 to 29.98 ng/g·dw and 7.17 to 25.43 ng/g·dw, respectively. The total logarithm BAF of F-53B and PFOS in two kinds of detected seafoods were within 0–2.94 and 2.01–3.25, these values did not vary in different sites. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of PFASs through aquatic products consumption in rural and urban residents were 0.03–26.50 ng/kg bw/day and 0.17–37.01 ng/kg bw/day, respectively, based on the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese residents. The total EDI of PFASs via Porphyra haitanensis and Siganus fuscescens in different groups were significantly lower than the suggested tolerable daily intake (PFOS, 150 ng/kg bw/day; PFOA, 1500 ng/kg bw/day), which indicates that PFASs did not induce health risks to the residents living around these aquaculture bases.

To explore if Smad7 protein can inhibit growth of keloids by observing the gene and protein expressions of Smad7, collagen type I, and collagen type Ⅲ and cell proliferation after over-expression vectors of Smad7 transfecting keloid fibroblasts (KFb).?Fibroblasts were acquired from 10 male patient with keloids at the age of 20 to 25 years. After in vitro culture, KFb were divided into 3 groups: untransfected group (group A), pcDNA3.1 (-) transfected group (group B), and pcDNA3.1 (-) -smad7 transfected group (group C). The mRNA and protein expression levels of Smad7, collagen type I, and collagen type Ⅲ were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western blot at 48 hours after transfection. The cell proliferation ability was detected by MTT assay at 24 hours after transfection.?The relative expression levels of mRNA and protein of Smad7 in group C were significantly higher than those in group A and group B (P0.01). The relative expression levels of mRNA and protein of collagen type I and collagen type Ⅲ in group C were significantly lower than those in group A and group B (P0.01). The relative expression levels of mRNA of collagen type I and collagen type Ⅲ in group B were significantly higher than those in group A (P0.01); and the relative expression levels of proteins of Smad7, collagen type I, and collagen type Ⅲ were significantly lower than those in group A (P0.01). The cell proliferation ability in group C was significantly lower than that in group A and group B at each time point by MTT assay (P0.05), but no difference was found between group A and group B (P0.05).?Gene expressions of collagen type I, and collagen type Ⅲ and cell proliferation will be inhibited after KFb are transfected by over-expression vector of Smad7.观察瘢痕疙瘩成纤维细胞（keloid fibroblasts，KFb）转染Smad7过表达载体后，对细胞内Smad7、Ⅰ型胶原、Ⅲ型胶原基因、蛋白表达和细胞增殖的影响，探讨Smad7蛋白对瘢痕疙瘩生长有无抑制作用。.收集10例20～25岁男性瘢痕疙瘩患者（排除其他疾病）手术切下的瘢痕疙瘩组织，体外无菌条件下培养KFb后分为3组，A组为未转染组；B组为空载体pcDNA3.1（-）转染细胞组；C组为Smad7基因过表达载体pcDNA3.1（-）-smad7转染细胞组。转染48 h后行实时荧光定量PCR和Western blot法检测各组细胞内Smad7、Ⅰ型胶原、Ⅲ型胶原基因转录和蛋白表达水平，转染24 h后MTT法检测各组细胞增殖能力。.C组Smad7 mRNA和蛋白相对表达量显著高于A、B组，Ⅰ型胶原、Ⅲ型胶原mRNA和蛋白相对表达量显著低于A、B组，差异均有统计学意义（P0.01）；B组Ⅰ型胶原和Ⅲ型胶原mRNA相对表达量高于A组（P0.01），Smad7、Ⅰ型胶原和Ⅲ型胶原蛋白相对表达量低于A组（P0.01）。MTT检测示，培养各时间点C组细胞增殖能力均小于A、B组（P0.05），A、B组间差异均无统计学意义（P0.05）。.转染Smad7基因过表达载体能抑制KFb Ⅰ型胶原、Ⅲ型胶原基因的表达和细胞增殖能力。.

In this paper, we study the novel problem of optimizing AP association by maximizing the network throughput, subject to the degree bound of AP. The formulated problem is a combinatorial optimization. We resort to the Markov Chain approximation technique to design a distributed algorithm. We first approximate our optimal objective via Log-Sum-Exp function. Thereafter, we construct a special class of Markov Chain with steady-state distribution specify to our problem to yield a distributed solution. Furthermore, we extend the static problem setting to a dynamic environment where the users can randomly leave or join the system. Our proposed algorithm has provable performance, achieving an approximation gap of 1 η log | F | . It is simple and can be implemented in a distributed manner. Our extensive simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can converge very fast, and achieve a close-to-optimal performance with a guaranteed loss bound.

The first-principle study using density functional theory (DFT) was adopted to investigate the adsorption of five types of SF6 decomposed products (SO2, SOF2, SO2F2, H2S and HF) over the pristine and B/N doped penta-graphene (PG). The adsorption structures with adsorption energy, electron transfer, band structure, density of states (DOS) were detailed discussed. The sensing properties were also estimated based on the band structure, electron transfer and adsorption energy. The results show that the pristine PG shows small adsorption energy to every molecule of SF6 decomposed products but after doping of B or N atom, the adsorption energy and electron transfer experience different degrees of improvement for different adsorption. The conduction of pristine PG may decrease after adsorbing SO2 or H2S but the detection limit may be high. However, B-PG shows strong chemical interactions with SO2, HF and SO2F2 and can be promising adsorbent for these species at room temperature while can be used as gas sensing materials for SO2F2 and H2S at higher temperature. The N-PG only have strong chemical interactions to H2S and is a promising adsorbent and gas sensing materials for it. The conduction change of doped PG as sensing material can be estimated based on the electron transfer. The introduction of Si substrate will not obviously change the general trend of adsorption energy and electron transfer comparing to the adsorption not considering the substrate. The study can promote new sensing materials development for detecting and scavenging impurities in SF6 based electrical equipment to ensure the stability and sustainability of the whole power system which is important for people's lives.

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) play a crucial role in RA through producing inflammatory cytokines and proteases which could cause cartilage destruction. We showed previously that elevated expression of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 6 (TRAF6) in RA synovium correlated significantly with the severity of synovitis and the number of infiltrated inflammatory cells. The aims of this study are to detect the roles of TRAF6 in RA-FLSs. Methods Synovium were collected by closed needle biopsy from inflamed knees of active RA patients, and FLSs were isolated by modified tissue culture method. Expression of TRAF6 and CD55 in RA synivium was tested by double immunofluorescence (IF) staining. TRAF6 in RA-FLSs was inhibited using Lentiviral-TRAF6-shRNA transfection. Real-time PCR and ELISA were used to detect the mRNA expression and secretion of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) and pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cell Counting Kit-8 was used to detect cell proliferation, flow cytometry was used to detect cell cycle, and Annexin V assay was used to detect cell apoptosis. Results We showed that in the intimal and subintimal area of RA synovium, TRAF6 was expressed obviously not only in CD55+ cells, but also in some other CD55− cells. TRAF6 expression in RA-FLSs was suppressed effectively by Lentiviral-TRAF6-shRNA transfection. Inhibition of TRAF6 in RA-FLSs mitigated the mRNA levels and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and MMPs, such as IL-1β, IL-8, IL-6, TNF-α, MMP-13, and MMP-3. In addition, it decreased the proliferation of RA-FLSs, blocked RA-FLSs in G0/G1-phase, and inhibited the cells to go into S-phase and G2/M-phase, but not facilitated apoptosis of RA-FLSs. Conclusion TRAF6 plays direct roles in the pro-inflammatory effects and proliferation of RA-FLSs. TRAF6 may serve as a potential treatment target in RA.

Being a potential candidate for stroke treatment, bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (BM-MSCs) have been demonstrated to be able to enhance angiogenesis and proliferation of reactive astrocytes, which subsequently leads to the amelioration of neurological injury. Increasing evidence further indicates that combining BM-MSCs with certain agents, such as simvastatin, may improve therapeutic effects. Sodium ferulate (SF) and n-butylidenephthalide (BP), two main components of Radix Angelica Sinensis, are proven to be important regulators of stem cells in cell migration, differentiation, and pluripotency maintenance. This study aimed to investigate whether combining BM-MSCs with SF and BP had better therapeutic effect in the treatment of stroke, and the underlying molecular basis for the therapeutic effects was also investigated. The results showed that combination treatment notably reduced neurological injury after stroke and increased the expression of astrocyte-derived vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and von Willebrand factor-positive vascular density in the ischemic boundary zone as evaluated by immuno fluorescence staining. After treatment with BM-MSCs plus SF and BP, astrocytes showed increased expression of VEGF and BDNF by upregulating protein kinase B/mammalian target of rapamycin (AKT/mTOR) expression in an oxygen- and glucose-deprived (OGD) environment. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) incubated with the conditioned medium (CM) derived from OGD astrocytes treated with BM-MSCs plus SF and BP showed significantly increased migration and tube formation compared with those incubated with the CM derived from OGD astrocytes treated with BM-MSCs alone. These results demonstrate that combination treatment enhances the expression of astrocyte-derived VEGF and BDNF, which contribute to angiogenesis after cerebral ischemia, and the underlying mechanism is associated with activation of the astrocytic AKT/mTOR signaling pathway. Our study provides a potential therapeutic approach for ischemic stroke.

Co-registration is one of the most important steps in interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data processing. The standard offset-measurement method based on cross-correlating uniformly distributed patches takes no account of specific geometric transformation between images or characteristics of ground scatterers. Hence, it is inefficient and difficult to obtain satisfying co-registration results for image pairs with relatively big distortion or large incoherent areas. Given this, an improved co-registration strategy is proposed in this paper which takes both the geometric features and image content into consideration. Firstly, some geometric transformations including scale, flip, rotation, and shear between images were eliminated based on the geometrical information, and the initial co-registration polynomial was obtained. Then the registration points were automatically detected by integrating the signal-to-clutter-ratio (SCR) thresholds and the amplitude information, and a further co-registration process was performed to refine the polynomial. Several comparison experiments were carried out using 2 TerraSAR-X data from the Hong Kong airport and 21 PALSAR data from the Donghai Bridge. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method brings accuracy and efficiency improvements for co-registration and processing abilities in the cases of big distortion between images or large incoherent areas in the images. For most co-registrations, the proposed method can enhance the reliability and applicability of co-registration and thus promote the automation to a higher level.

As the insulating medium, SF6 is widely used in gas insulation equipment. Partial discharge and local overheating can cause the decomposition of SF6, resulting in a decrease in insulation strength ...

Deep ultraviolet solar blind photodetectors based on an ultra-wide band gap semiconductor of β-Ga2O3 have attracted much attention for their potential applications, e.g., missile tracking, space communication, and ozone hole monitoring. As the active layer of photodetectors, the thickness of β-Ga2O3 films plays an important role in the photoelectric performance of the photodetector because it affects the ultraviolet light photoabsorption and the electric field distribution. Highly oriented (2¯01) direction β-Ga2O3 thin films with different thickness (90 nm-540 nm) were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates using radio frequency magnetron sputtering with a substrate temperature of 750 °C. Based on the different thicknesses of β-Ga2O3 thin films, the MSM structure photodetectors were fabricated and the photoelectric performances were investigated. A photodetector with 303 nm thick thin films has the highest light-to-dark current ratio (Ilight/Idark≈16250) and exhibits the best solar-blind photoelectric performance.

Background Studies have indicated that bone marrow stromal cell (BMSC) administration is a promising approach for stroke treatment. For our study, we chose sodium ferulate (SF) and n-butylidenephthalide (BP) combined with BMSC, and observed if the combination treatment possessed more significant effects on angiogenesis and neurogenesis post-stroke. Methods We established rat permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) model and evaluated ischemic volumes of MCAo, BMSC, SF + BP, Simvastatin + BMSC and SF + BP + BMSC groups with TTC staining on the 7th day after ischemia. Immunofluorescence staining of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), as well as immunohistochemistry staining of von Willebrand factor (vWF) and neuronal class III β-tubulin (Tuj1) were performed in ischemic boundary zone (IBZ), furthermore, to understand the mechanism, western blot was used to investigate AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signal pathway in ischemic cortex. We also tested BMSC derived-VEGF and BDNF expressions by western blot assay in vitro. Results SF + BP + BMSC group obviously decreased infarction zone, and elevated the expression of VEGF and the density and perimeter of vWF-vessels as same as Simvastatin + BMSC administration; moreover, its effects on BDNF and Tuj1 expressions were superior to Simvastatin + BMSC treatment in IBZ. Meanwhile, it showed that SF and BP combined with BMSC treatment notably up-regulated AKT/mTOR signal pathway compared with SF + BP group and BMSC alone post-stroke. Western blot results showed that SF and BP treatment could promote BMSCs to synthesize VEGF and BDNF in vitro. Conclusions We firstly demonstrate that SF and BP combined with BMSC can significantly improve angiogenesis and neurogenesis in IBZ following stroke. The therapeutic effects are associated with the enhancement of VEGF and BDNF expressions via activation of AKT/mTOR signal pathway. Furthermore, triggering BMSC paracrine function of SF and BP might contribute to amplifying the synergic effects of the combination treatment. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-016-0979-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Different dosages of BP combined with SF and BMSC enhanced VEGF and DCX expressions post-stroke. Representative western blot results for VEGF and DCX in ischemic hemisphere of each group (n = 6) were shown and quantitative analysis was presented. It indicated that SF + BP (10 mg/kg) + BMSC group significantly enhanced VEGF and DCX expressions in comparison with other groups. Data are expressed as means ± SD. *p