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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CHE-1057796 at the University of Arizona. An efficient synthesis of formamidinium formate is described. The experimental x-ray structure shows both internal and external H-bonding to surrounding molecules. However, in the gas phase this compound occurs as a doubly hydrogen bonded dimer. This doubly hydrogen-bonded structure is quite different from the solid state structure. Microwave spectra were measured in the 6-14 GHz range using a pulsed-beam Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. The two nonequivalent N-atoms exhibit distinct quadrupole coupling. The rotational, centrifugal distortion and quadrupole coupling constants determined from the spectra have values: A = 5880.05(2), B = 2148.7710(2), C = 1575.23473(13), 1.5 χaa (N1) =1.715( 3), 0.5(χbb- χcc)(N1) = -1.333(4), 1.5χaa (N2) = 0.381(2), 0.25(χbb- χcc)(N2) = -0.0324(2), and DJ = 0.002145(5) MHz. The experimental inertial defect, Δ = -0.243 amu Å2, is consistent with a planar structure. Accurate and precise rotational constants (A, B and C), obtained from the microwave (MW) measurements, were closely reproduced, within 1-2% of the measured values, with the M11 DFT functional theoretical calculations. Detailed comparison of the measured and calculated A, B and C rotational constants confirm the planar doubly hydrogen bonded structure. the nitrogen quadrupole coupling strengths of the monomer are quite different from either of the two nitrogen sites of the dimer. The poor agreement between measured and calculated quadrupole coupling strengths show that the dimer is not locked in the equilibrium structure, but is likely undergoing large amplitude vibrational motion of the hydrogen atoms moving between the N and O atoms involved in the hydrogen bonding. Postprint

Background Axonal injury is the correlate of disease progression in NMO and MS. Neurofilament (Nf) belongs to neuron specific intermediate filaments located in axons. Nf protein subunits are potential biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for acute axonal injury. However, whether CSF NfH and NfL levels are elevated in NMO patients has remained unclear. Methods Nf light subunit (NfL) and Nf heavy subunit NfH in cerebrospinal fluid were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in NMO ( n = 32), MS ( n = 25), and other non-inflammatory neurological disease patients (OND, n = 18). Results CSF pNf-H levels were increased in the NMO patients compared with OND patients ( p = 0.001). CSF NfL levels in the NMO patients were also higher compared with MS patients ( p = 0.001), and OND patients ( p = 0.000001). When comparing NfL levels between MS and OND patients, there also significant differences ( p = 0.0003). NMO and MS patients revealed a trend to an increased disability with increased CSF NfL during relapse (NMO: p = 0.006; MS: p = 0.017). There is positive relationship between CSF pNf-H and disability of MS patients ( p = 0.041). Conclusions CSF levels of NfL are increased in NMO patients and reflect the disease severity in NMO.

Interleukin (IL)-22 secreting CD4(+) T (Th22) cells and IL-22 are involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease, but their role in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS) is unclear. We measured the proportion of Th22, Th17, CD4(+)IL-22(+)IL-17A(+) T cells and serum IL-22 in NMO and MS patients. The proportion of Th22 cells, Th17 cells and serum IL-22 were increased in patients with NMO and MS. Our findings suggest that increased Th22 cells may play an important role in the pathogenesis of NMO and MS.

The effect of zinc phenylphosphonate (PPZn) on the crystallization behavior of poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM) measurements. The non-isothermal cold crystallization results showed that the addition of PPZn obviously decreased the cold crystallization temperature of PLLA and increased the degree of crystallinity of PLLA. The isothermal crystallization kinetics results showed that the crystallization rate of PLLA with small amount of PPZn was much higher than that of neat PLLA, and the half-time (t1/2) of PLLA/PPZn sample is far less than that of neat PLLA. As an effective nucleating agent, PPZn particles had also some influence on nucleation mechanism and crystal growth of PLLA. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 2744–2752, 2013

Background: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS) are two autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating diseases in the central nervous system. Interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-17 may play important roles in the pathogenesis of these diseases. High-mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) can activate the nuclear factor light chain enhancer of activated B cells and release cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-17. However, whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) HMGB1 levels were altered in NMO and MS patients is still unclear. Objectives: It was our aim to measure the CSF HMGB1 concentration in NMO patients and explore their relationship with IL-6, IL-17 and disease activity. Methods: CSF HMGB1 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in NMO (n = 22) and MS (n = 18) patients as well as in controls (n = 14). Results: CSF HMGB1 was notably higher in the NMO group compared with controls (p = 0.007). CSF HMGB1 positively correlated with IL-6 and IL-17 in NMO patients (IL-6, p = 0.034; IL-17, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In conclusion, our study suggests that CSF levels of HMGB1 are increased in patients with NMO and reflect the neuroinflammatory process.

The command platform of production and rush-repairs for distribution Network is a supporting platform, based on information technology, for the business applications of the command center. This article briefly described the basic functions and structural features of the platform, and discussed in detail the integration of business information, the contents and solutions needed to be focused on during inter-system data exchange, and the implementation techniques of the command platform. The benefits of the platform in the improvement of the distribution network production and rush-repairs are finally summed up. The entire above are provided as references.

We designed and implemented a just-in-time physical activity intervention system, WalkMore, which uses rich context extracted from smartphone and smart watch to encourage opportunistic walking without significantly altering users' daily schedules. This system incorporated several existing psychological theories such as Behavior Change Theory, Habit Formation Theory and Goal Setting Theory. We also conducted a 4-week user study to evaluate the acceptability and usability of WalkMore. In addition, the results of the study show that WalkMore is effective in encouraging people to walk more and engage other physical activities. Compared with reminders sent randomly in time, context-aware reminders are more acceptable to participants and more effective in increasing participants' self-awareness of possible walking opportunities.

This study aimed to assess the effect of pregnancy on the course of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), and the effect of this disease on pregnancy outcomes.Consecutive patients with NMOSD were recruited between September 2015 and April 2016 at an outpatient clinic from four referral institutes in South China. Demographic, clinical, and pregnancy data were retrieved by questionnaires to analyze the association between NMOSD and pregnancy, as well as the potential risk factors for relapse.Among 249 patients with NMOSD, 55 had pregnancy-related attacks. The annual relapse rate in the first (3.20±6.82) and second (3.25±3.32) 3-month postpartum periods was marginally higher than that before pregnancy (1.44±0.92, p=0.682) and during pregnancy (1.23±1.32, p=0.758). The Kurtzke Expanded Disability Status Scale score increased from 1.55±0.38 before pregnancy to 2.88±2.14 at postpartum (p0.001). NMOSD significantly increased the premature birth rate in patients after disease onset (8.33%) compared with before disease onset (1.95%, p=0.025). Multivariate analysis showed that negative anti-aquaporin-4 IgG, concomitance with autoimmune diseases/antibodies, and no treatment in remission were risk factors of recurrence.Our study shows a significant association between pregnancy and NMOSD in the Chinese population. Larger scale prospective studies are warranted in the future.

Monitoring a person's dietary behavior has many health applications (e.g. weight management). Existing approaches for automatic eating detection using wearable sensors often require custom hardware that may not be practical as their usability and energy efficiency have not been validated. In this paper, we propose to use off-the-shelf Bluetooth headsets to unobtrusively monitor and detect users' eating episodes by analyzing the chewing sound. The challenges of using commodity acoustic hardware include the limited sampling rate that reduces feature fidelity and the impact of environment noise in real-world settings. Our experimental results show that the traditional kernel-based approach using Support Vector Machine (SVM) could achieve 94-95% classification accuracy in lab settings, though the detection performance quickly degraded to 65-76% for in-the-field testing. We then propose a novel Deep Learning based classification technique that drastically improved detection accuracy to 77-94% despite the existence of ambient noise. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use Bluetooth headsets to detect eating episodes and to use Deep Learning to significantly increase classification performance in this context. We believe that the adoption of readily available and low-cost consumer devices provides a foundation for practical deployment of automated dietary monitoring applications.

In this work we study the feasibility and usability of an assistive food journaling system that sends users just-in-time reminders when unique hand gestures during food consumption are detected using a smartwatch. Our study shows that participants were able to sustain food logging throughout a 2-week period with the help of our eating detection system, as the number of reminders correlate well with the number of food logs. Despite the fact that participants were required to wear the watch on their dominant hand, it was still quite usable and did not interfere with their normal activities. Participant feedback provided additional insights to inform future work to increase detection accuracy, reduce detection delay, and allow for more dietary logging features in the app.

It is believed that auto-inflammatory activity, including cellular and humoral immunity responses, especially T cell-B cell collaboration, is one of the most important components of the pathogenesis of inflammatory demyelinating disease. CD40L is critical for T cell-B cell collaboration. Actually, serum CD40L levels have been shown to increase in MS. In the present study, serum CD40L levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in NMO (n=27) and MS (n=19) patients and controls (n=14). We revealed elevation of CD40L in NMO patients, and discovered a correlation between CD40L and humoral immunity in inflammatory demyelinating disease.

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor encephalitis is a recently described paraneoplastic syndrome with prominent neuropsychiatric symptoms. Many of these cases are associated with neoplasma especially teratoma. In addition, a few of cases with anti-NMDAR antibodies triggered by viral infection have been reported, but never by parasitic infection. Here, we report a novel case of NMDA receptor encephalitis in a 51-year-old male related to the development of anti-NMDAR antibodies triggered by Angiostrongylus cantonensis infection.

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The pathogenesis of NMO remains unclear. IL-32 is emerging as a critical molecule in the pathophysiology of immune-mediated chronic inflammatory diseases. Whether IL-32 levels are elevated in NMO patients is unclear. We aimed to determine whether IL-32 levels are elevated in NMO patients and explore its relationship with IL-6, IL-17, and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores.Plasma IL-32α, IL-6 and IL-17A were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in NMO (n = 26), MS (n = 23) and 22 healthy controls.We found IL-32α levels were higher in NMO patients compared with MS (p = 0.020) and healthy controls (p = 0.00001). IL-32α levels were increased in MS patients compared with controls (p = 0.009). IL-32α positively correlated with IL-6 and IL-17A levels and EDSS scores in NMO patients.In summary, plasma IL-32α levels are associated with inflammatory responses in NMO patients.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO) are immune-mediated inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system. In the acute phase of these diseases, secondary ischemia due to inflammation-induced endothelial dysfunction may be an important pathological change. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a pro-inflammatory protein and a novel biomarker of inflammatory vascular diseases. Objective: We aimed to determine whether PTX3 levels are elevated in MS and NMO patients. Methods: The concentrations of plasma PTX3 were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in 22 MS patients, 26 NMO patients, 15 acute cerebral infarction (CI) patients, 11 mild headache patients, and 14 volunteer controls. Results: During relapse, plasma PTX3 levels were higher in MS patients than in headache patients ( p=0.003) and controls ( pConclusion: Plasma PTX3 level is associated with inflammatory responses in MS and NMO.

The Khondalite Belt within the Inner Mongolia Suture Zone (IMSZ) in the North China Craton is a classic example for Paleoproterozoic ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism. Here we report new spinel-bearing metapelitic granulites from a new locality at Xumayao within the southern domain of the IMSZ. Petrological studies and thermodynamic modeling of the spinel + quartz-bearing assemblage shows that these rocks experienced extreme metamorphism at UHT conditions. Spinel occurs in two textural settings: 1) high XZn(Zn/(Mg + FeII + Zn) = 0.071–0.232) spinel with perthitic K-feldspar, sillimanite and quartz in the rock matrix; and 2) low XZn (0.045–0.070) spinel as inclusions within garnet porphyroblasts in association with quartz and sillimanite. Our phase equilibria modeling indicates two main stages during the metamorphic evolution of these rocks: 1) near-isobaric cooling from 975 °C to 875 °C around 8 kbar, represented by the formation of garnet porphyroblasts from spinel and quartz; and 2) cooling and decompression from 850 °C, 8 kbar to below 750 °C, 6.5 kbar, represented by the break-down of garnet. The spinel + quartz assemblage is considered to have been stable at peak metamorphism, formed through the break-down of cordierite, indicating a near isothermal compression process. Our study confirms the regional extent of UHT metamorphism within the IMSZ associated with the Paleoproterozoic subduction-collision process.

The cold crystallization behavior of poly (L-lactide) (PLLA) blend films modified by small amount of acrylic rubber particles (ACR) have been investigated by in situ Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. During the isothermal cold crystallization, the crystallization rate of PLLA is greatly improved with addition of only 1 wt % ACR. However, for PLLA with 8 wt % ACR, the crystallization rate is slower than that of neat PLLA. The relative crystallinity of PLLA with the addition of 1–5 wt % ACR is obviously higher than that of the neat PLLA. For the PLLA blend film with 3 % ACR, the relative crystallinity reaches a maximum. It was found that the addition of ACR particles below 5% accelerated the cold crystallization nucleation process and made the cold-crystallization rate of PLLA/ACR be quicker than that of neat PLLA. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

The concept that the immune system plays a central role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO) was indisputable. However, neurodegenerative pathological features including loss of axons and neurons were also found in the lesions of these diseases. α-Synuclein is one of the most abundant proteins in pre-synaptic terminals. Recently, many research show α-synuclein level in CSF may reflect the progression of synaptic dysfunction and neuronal apoptosis. Whether the levels of CSF α-synuclein are changed in MS and NMO patients remain unknown. In this study, CSF α-synuclein was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in MS (n = 18) patients, NMO (n = 22) patients, Parkinson's disease patients (n = 9), and the controls (n = 11). We found concentration of α-synuclein in MS and NMO patients were significantly higher than Parkinson's disease subgroup and the controls. Both MS and NMO revealed an increased disease disability with increased CSF α-synuclein. Thus, CSF α-synuclein may be reflect injure axons and neurons in inflammatory demyelinating diseases.

Background Soluble forms of CD28 (sCD28) and CTLA-4 (sCTLA-4) were associated with many autoimmune diseases like Sjogren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, asthma, and autoimmune myasthenia gravis. However, sCD28 and sCTLA-4 in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients were less studied. Objective To measure the plasma sCD28, sCTLA-4 in NMO and MS patients, and investigate whether sCD28 and sCTLA-4 possible use as sensitive biomarkers for diseases activity. Methods Plasma concentrations of sCD28, sCTLA-4 were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in NMO (n = 22), MS (n = 21) patients and controls (n = 18). Results The concentration of sCD28 levels were higher in the inflammatory demyelinating diseases cohort compared with the controls (NMO, p = 0.034; MS, p = 0.026) and the levels of sCD28 were slightly higher in NMO compared with MS. The sCTLA-4 levels were lower in the MS subgroup compared with the controls ( p = 0.032). Both sCD28 and sCTLA-4 did not show any correlation with EDSS score in NMO and MS patients. Conclusions Our study revealed for the first time that the levels of increased plasma sCD28 and decreased plasma sCTLA-4 in NMO and MS patients, but had little correlation with clinical presentations.

Objective: It was the aim of this study to compare the diagnostic efficiency of anti-aquaporin 4 (AQP4) antibody detection between serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples in Chinese patients with central nervous system demyelinating diseases. Methods: Anti-AQP4 antibodies were detected by a cell-based assay. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity and coherence in 118 patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO, n = 39), multiple sclerosis (n = 34), longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (LETM, n = 22), optic neuritis (ON, n = 6), opticospinal multiple sclerosis (n = 8) and acute partial transverse myelitis (n = 9). Results: Forty-four serum samples (33.8%) were positive for anti-AQP4 antibodies. Anti-AQP4 antibody seropositivity was 76.9, 59.1 and 16.7% in patients with NMO, LETM and ON, respectively. Sixty-five CSF samples (50%) were positive for anti-AQP4 antibodies. Anti-AQP4 antibody positivity was 87.1, 81.8, 83.3, 62.5 and 11.8% in patients with NMO, LETM, ON, opticospinal multiple sclerosis and multiple sclerosis, respectively. The ĸ value of the coherence test was 0.585 (p < 0.0001) between the two types of samples. The antibody positivity rate was significantly different between the two body fluids (p = 0.0008, McNemar test). The sensitivity and specificity were 74.3 and 100% in serum, 85.7 and 88.2% in CSF, and 94.3 and 88.2% for serum and CSF combined, respectively. Conclusion: The sensitivity of anti-AQP4 antibodies in the CSF was higher than that in the serum, and their combined use is helpful in diagnosing Chinese patients with NMO.

Objectives To analyze the role of HLA-DRB1 and -DPB1 alleles in the pathogenesis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis in Southern Han Chinese. Methods Thirty serum anti-aquaporin 4 antibodies (AQP4-Ab)-positive NMO patients, 53 conventional multiple sclerosis (C-MS) patients, and 93 controls (CTLs) were enrolled. The HLA-DRB1 and -DPB1 alleles of the subjects were determined by sequencing-based typing (SBT). Results The frequency of the DRB1*0901 was lower in NMO patients than in CTLs ( P uncorr = 0.022, OR: 0.194, 95% CI: 0.043–0.876), and DRB1*1602 was higher in NMO patients than in C-MS ( P uncorr = 0.038, OR: 3.491, 95% CI: 1.024–11.896) and CTLs ( P uncorr = 0.051, OR: 2.711, 95% CI: 0.971–7.556). The frequency of DPB1*0501 was significant higher in NMO patients than in C-MS ( P uncorr = 0.018, OR: 4.629, 95% CI: 1.235–17.350) and CTLs ( P uncorr = 0.001, P corr = 0.022, OR: 7.096, 95% CI: 2.011–25.044). Conclusions DPB1*0501 correlates with risk of AQP4-Ab positive NMO in Southern Han Chinese.

Objective: To explore the relationship between serum lipoproteins and clinical presentations of NMO patients. To investigate the differences of serum lipoprotein levels between NMO and MS patients. Patients and methods: Serum lipoprotein levels were measured in 56 NMO patients, 53 MS patients and 54 health subjects. Serum lipoprotein levels in all participants and relevant clinical parameters of NMO patients were investigated. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS statistical software. Results: NMO patients had significantly higher serum cholesterol (TC), triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B (apoB), lipoprotein (a) levels and TC/HDL-C, apoB/apoA-1 ratios than health control group. NMO patients had significantly higher serum apoB level and apoB/apoA-1 ratio than MS patients. There was little correlation between serum lipoproteins and NMO presentations. Conclusion: The elevated lipoprotein levels in NMO patients could be just secondary changes with limited value in clinical prediction. However, elevated apoB level and apoB/apoA-1 ratio in NMO might indicate severer disability and might provide some useful information in the differential diagnosis with MS.

The compression packer rubber is one of the core components of the packer. According to the sealing mechanism of the compression packers rubber, the deformation of rubber between the central tube and casing tube is analyzed in the initial and working stages. The compression rubber is also strained radially against the support ring by means of a controlled tubular expansion process. In this paper, the theoretical model for the deformation analysis is established by the structure and working characteristics of rubber tube. In addition, the nonlinear relationship between the material, geometry and stress in the constrained and stable deformation stages is analyzed by application of pressure methods. The analytical results show the contact pressure and shear stress distribution on the sealing surface of the rubber and the effect of rubber geometry and its material properties on sealing performance in terms of maximum sealing pressure. Then, the criterion of sealing performance evaluation of the rubber is established by the numerical results. This analytical model will provide a theoretical basis and guidance for the structural design of the compression packer rubber and it will be of great significance to improve the sealing performance and reliability of packer rubber.

As an important parameter in the single airborne passive locating system, the rate of phase difference change contains range information of the radio emitter. Taking single carrier sine pulse signals as an example, this article illustrates the principle of passive location through measurement of rates of phase difference change and analyzes the structure of measurement errors. On the basis of the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), an algorithm associated with time-chips is proposed to determine the rates of phase difference change. In the measurement of the rates of phase difference change, phase discrimination in the frequency domain outperforms that in the time domain when signal noise rate (SNR) is lower. Multi-chip processing can significantly reduce variance of the measurement of rates of phase difference change. Simulations demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The simulations carried out on the typical single airborne passive location have proved its adaptability to dynamic measurements. The proposed algorithm to determine the rates of phase difference change proves simple and easy to implement with less computation workload.

Wilson’s disease (WD) is a disease of copper metabolism characterized by excessive copper deposition in the body. It is reported abnormal copper metabolism has been associated with cardiovascular disease. BNP and MMP2/9 were biomarkers of congestive heart failure (CHF). There is rare study to explore whether serum concentrations of BNP, MMP2, and or MMP9 are altered in patients with WD. In this study we determine whether serum concentrations of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) 2 and 9 are increased in patients with WD. Serum BNP, MMP2 and MMP9 were measured by an ELISA in 34 patients with hepatic WD, in 68 patients with neurological WD, and in 33 healthy controls. We found serum BNP levels were higher in patients with neurological WD than in healthy controls (p = 0.033). Serum MMP2 levels were higher in patients with hepatic (p = 0.009) and neurologic (p = 0.0004) WD than in controls. Serum MMP9 levels were higher in patients with neurologic WD than in patients with hepatic WD (p = 0.002) and controls (p = 0.00005), and were higher in patients with hepatic WD than in controls (p = 0.03). Serum BNP levels were negatively correlated with ceruloplasmin (p = 0.017, r = −0.215), while serum (p = 0.019, r = −0.221) and MMP9 (p = 0.011, r = −0.231) in patients with WD were negatively correlated with ceruloplasmin. BNP, MMP2, and MMP9 may reflect the deposition of copper in the heart.

Wilson’s disease (WD) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disease resulting in the chronic deposition of copper in both liver and brain. This can lead to hepatic, neurologic, and psychiatric manifestations. Renal impairment can occur in any period of WD, but the mechanism is not yet known. In this study, we analyzed the clinical data of 691 newly diagnosed WD patients to investigate the blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine (Cr), and uric acid (UA) levels in different subtypes of WD. This study included 691 newly diagnosed WD patients, 34 asymptomatic cases, and 127 healthy controls. The entire sample was assessed for serum levels of BUN, Cr, and UA. We found that the levels of BUN and Cr in WD patients who had neurological manifestations were higher (p

We focus on solving Stochastic Job Shop Scheduling Problem (SJSSP) with random processing time to minimize the expected sum of earliness and tardiness costs of all jobs. To further enhance the efficiency of the simulation optimization technique of embedding Evolutionary Strategy in Ordinal Optimization (ESOO) which is based on Monte Carlo simulation, we embed Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA) technique into the exploration stage of ESOO to optimize the performance evaluation process by controlling the allocation of simulation times. However, while pursuing a good set of schedules, “super individuals,” which can absorb most of the given computation while others hardly get any simulation budget, may emerge according to the allocating equation of OCBA. Consequently, the schedules cannot be evaluated exactly, and thus the probability of correct selection (PCS) tends to be low. Therefore, we modify OCBA to balance the computation allocation: (1) set a threshold of simulation times to detect “super individuals” and (2) follow an exclusion mechanism to marginalize them. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to an SJSSP comprising 8 jobs on 8 machines with random processing time in truncated normal, uniform, and exponential distributions, respectively. The results demonstrate that our method outperforms the ESOO method by achieving better solutions.

The title compound, C11H11NO3, has two mol-ecules in the asymmetric unit, which differ in the orientation of their side-chain OH groups, allowing them to form inter-molecular O - H⋯O hydrogen bonds to different acceptors. In one case, the acceptor is the OH group of the other mol-ecule, and in the other case it is an imide O=C group. This is the first example in the N-substituted phthalimide series in which independent mol-ecules have different types of acceptor. Mol-ecular-orbital calculations place the greatest negative charge on the OH group. © 2008 International Union of Crystallography.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown a lower incidence of stroke in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. The role of the lipids and lipoproteins as risk factors for stroke is uncertain in the lower prevalence of stroke in PD patients. OBJECTIVES: To explore the lipids and lipoproteins serum levels in PD patients. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on 110 PD patients (PD group), 130 controls with non-cerebrovascular neurological diseases (OD group), 140 acute intracerebral hemorrhage patients (ICH group) and 140 acute cerebral infarction patients (CI group). The records about serum levels of lipids and lipoproteins were analyzed. RESULTS: There were significant differences for the serum level of triglyceride (F = 5.031, p=0.002), very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (F = 5.313, p=0.001), apolipoprotein B (F = 16.038, p

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS) are two of the autoimmune inflammatory demyelinating diseases in the central nervous system. Complement is thought to have an important role in pathogenesis of these diseases, especially in NMO. However, the change of terminal complement complex (TCC, C5b-9) in patients with NMO is still unclear. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) C3a, C5a, sC5b-9 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients with NMO (n = 26), MS (n = 25) and other neurological disease (OND, n = 19). CSF levels of C5a in patients with NMO were higher than patients with OND (P = 0.006). Increased CSF sC5b-9 were found in the patients with NMO compared with patients with MS (P = 0.029) and OND (P = 0.0001). CSF sC5b-9 in patients with MS were also higher than patients with OND (P = 0.030). Patients with NMO revealed a trend to an increased disease disability with increased CSF sC5b-9 during relapse but not in MS (NMO: P = 0.006, MS: P = 0.097). CSF levels of sC5b-9 are increased in patients with NMO and reflect the activation of complement in NMO.

The concept that the immune system plays a central role in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuromyelitis optica (NMO) was indisputable. However, neurodegenerative pathological features including loss of axons and neurons were also found in the lesions of these diseases. α-Synuclein is one of the most abundant proteins in pre-synaptic terminals. Recently, many research show α-synuclein level in CSF may reflect the progression of synaptic dysfunction and neuronal apoptosis. Whether the levels of CSF α-synuclein are changed in MS and NMO patients remain unknown. In this study, CSF α-synuclein was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in MS (n = 18) patients, NMO (n = 22) patients, Parkinson's disease patients (n = 9), and the controls (n = 11). We found concentration of α-synuclein in MS and NMO patients were significantly higher than Parkinson's disease subgroup and the controls. Both MS and NMO revealed an increased disease disability with increased CSF α-synuclein. Thus, CSF α-synuclein may be reflect injure axons and neurons in inflammatory demyelinating diseases.

BAFF (B-cell activating factor of the tumor necrosis factor family) and APRIL (a proliferation-inducing ligand) are two of the major survival factors for B cells. Many studies have shown that BAFF levels were elevated in MS patients. However, whether the levels of CSF BAFF/APRIL increased in NMO patients was still unclear.To measure the CSF BAFF and APRIL concentration of in NMO patients, and explore their relationship with disease activity in NMO.CSF BAFF and APRIL was measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in NMO (n = 22), MS (n = 18) patients and controls (n = 14).Concentration of BAFF and APRIL in NMO patients were significantly higher than MS and controls. CSF BAFF and APRIL levels in controls were also lower than MS. Both NMO and MS revealed an increased disease disability with increased CSF BAFF. CSF APRIL was associated with EDSS scores in NMO, but not found in MS.BAFF/APRIL system considered important for aggressive B cells and T-cell responses, and may stimulates B cells and T cell activation in acute relapse of NMO and MS. In NMO patients, CSF BAFF and APRIL may be key factors of B cell immune response and reflect disease severity.

Background: IL-6 is a proinflammatory cytokine which is involved in the maintenance of the humoral response in various autoimmune disorders. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) IL-6 has shown to be increased in neuromyelitis optica (NMO). The soluble form of IL-6 receptor (sIL-6R), which links to IL-6, can activate biological responses in cells. Whether or not sIL-6R is altered in NMO has not been clarified. Objective: To measure CSF IL-6 and sIL-6R in NMO and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and investigate whether IL-6 and sIL-6R have possible uses as sensitive biomarkers for diseases activity. Methods: CSF concentrations of IL-6 and sIL-6R were measured by an ELISA in NMO (n = 22) and MS (n = 18) patients, as well as control subjects (n = 14). Results: The concentration of IL-6 levels were higher in NMO compared to MS (p = 0.032) and the controls (p = 0.023). The levels of sIL-6R were also higher in NMO compared to MS (p = 0.002) and the controls (p < 0.001). CSF sIL-6R was associated with an Expanded Disability Status Scale score in NMO (p = 0.005) but not in MS (p = 0.891). In the MS subgroup, sIL-6R concentrations were associated with CSF white blood cells (p = 0.034). Conclusions: Our study revealed that CSF sIL-6R was increased in NMO patients, and correlated with clinical presentations.

Background Interleukin 17 (IL-17) plays an important role in many autoimmune diseases including neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS), which are inflammatory demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system. A large number of non-HLA single nucleotide polymorphisms have been reported to increase the risk of MS. However, their effects on NMO have been less well studied. Methods Fifty-two anti-aquaporin 4 antibody-positive NMO patients, 69 anti-aquaporin 4 antibody-negative conventional MS patients, and 131 controls were genotyped for the IL-17A rs2275913 and IL-17 F rs763780 single nucleotide polymorphisms by DNA sequencing. Results Significantly higher frequencies of the rs763780 T allele (puncorr = 0.011) and TT genotype (puncorr = 0.007, pcorr = 0.042) were observed in NMO patients versus controls. Conclusions The rs763780 T allele and TT genotype may increase susceptibility to NMO in the Southern Han Chinese.

Most of current structured P2P systems exploit Distributed Hash Table (DHT) to archive an administration-free, fault tolerant overlay network and guarantee to deliver a message to its destination within O(logN) hops. While elegant from a theoretical perspective, those systems face difficulties in a realistic environment. Instead of building P2P overlays from a theoretical perspective, this design tries to construct an overlay from the physical network. By combining different network topology aware techniques, a distinctive overlay structure closely matching the Internet topology is created. The P2P overlay based on this structure is not only highly efficient for routing, but also keeps maintenance overhead very low even under highly dynamic environment.

A conformal dome optical system was established and aberration characteristics of the dome were investigated using Zernike aberration theory. The conformal dome was designed with gradient index element. The designing method was introduced and the optimizing results were analyzed in detail. The results show that the Zernike aberrations produced by the conformal dome decreased dramatically. Also, a complete conformal optical system was designed to further illustrate the aberration correction effect of gradient index elements. The results show that the utilization of gradient index optical elements not only improves the imaging quality, but also simplifies the structure of the conformal optical system.

We investigated the influences exerted by the nonuniform aerodynamic flow field surrounding the optical window on the imaging quality degradation of an airborne optical system. The density distribution of flow fields around three typical optical windows, including a spherical window, an ellipsoidal window, and a paraboloidal window, were calculated by adopting the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the Spalart-Allmaras model provided by FLUENT. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm based ray-tracing program was used to simulate the optical transmission through the aerodynamic flow field. Four kinds of imaging quality evaluation parameters were presented: wave aberration of the entrance pupil, point spread function, encircled energy, and modulation transfer function. The results show that the imaging quality of the airborne optical system was affected by the shape of the optical window and angle of attack of the aircraft.