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The accidental leakage of long-distance pressurized oil pipelines is a major area of risk, capable of causing extensive damage to human health and environment. However, the complexity of the leaking process, with its complex boundary conditions, leads to difficulty in calculating the leakage volume. In this study, the leaking process is divided into 4 stages based on the strength of transient pressure. 3 models are established to calculate the leaking flowrate and volume. First, a negative pressure wave propagation attenuation model is applied to calculate the sizes of orifices. Second, a transient oil leaking model, consisting of continuity, momentum conservation, energy conservation and orifice flow equations, is built to calculate the leakage volume. Third, a steady-state oil leaking model is employed to calculate the leakage after valves and pumps shut down. Moreover, sensitive factors that affect the leak coefficient of orifices and volume are analyzed respectively to determine the most influential one. To validate the numerical simulation, two types of leakage test with different sizes of leakage holes were conducted from Sinopec product pipelines. More validations were carried out by applying commercial software to supplement the experimental insufficiency. Thus, the leaking process under different leaking conditions are described and analyzed.

Although a number of vulnerabilities have been reported for smart wearables and lots of efforts have been taken to strengthen their security, wearable devices face still significant threats of privacy leakage due to their own inherent characteristics. Towards this end, we re-investigate in this paper the security concerns of smartbands. In particular, we first introduce our detailed methodology for security analysis, including log analysis, Hook technology, and Android reverse engineering. Then, we apply it to popular commercial smartbands of three different brands the concrete information of which is omitted, identify their common vulnerabilities, and develop accordingly a fake Android application (App) utilizing the identified loopholes, given the protection measures of shelling, obfuscation, as well as forcible pairing and resetting. By installing the fake App, we are able to conduct deception attacks against the targeted smartbands, succeeding to remotely activate/deactivate shaking function, to adjust/modify time (including value and format), and to obtain the smartband owner’s sensitive/health data. During our deception attacks, no cooperation from the smartband owner is required, neither the pairing process between the targeted smartbands and our fake App.

Blast-induced ocular trauma is a frequent cause of morbidity for survivors of improvised explosive devices. Blast overpressure (BOP) of 120 ± 7 KPa has been shown to cause damage to lungs, brain, and gut in a rat model; however, the effects of BOP on ocular tissues have not been characterized. To elucidate the pathophysiology of blast-induced ocular trauma, ocular tissues from rats subjected to blast were examined for evidence of apoptosis by the detection of activated caspase 3 and TUNEL assay in their ocular tissues.A compressed air shock tube was used to deliver 120 ± 7 KPa of BOP for duration of 2 msec to the right side of the rats. Rats were then euthanized at specific time points after blast exposure (3 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours). Ocular tissues were processed for immunohistochemistry to detect activated caspase 3 and TUNEL assay. Tissues were evaluated for relative levels of positive signal as compared to nonblast exposed controls.Activated caspase 3 was detected in the optic nerve, ganglion layer, and inner nuclear layer post blast exposure. At 24 and 48 hours, the inner nuclear layer from the right side had more cells with activated caspase 3. In the optic nerve, the highest levels of activated caspase 3 were detected on the right side at 24 hours post blast.BOP of 120 ± 7 KPa induces optic neuropathy and retinal damage. In both the optic nerve and retina, caspase 3 was activated in the right and left sides following blast exposure. The results of this study reveal that blast exposure induces apoptosis in both the optic nerve and retinal tissues.

Pulsed eddy current (PEC) testing has attracted researchers' interest because the pulsed excitation comprises a broad band of frequencies and the response signal provides more information about defect than traditional eddy current testing. Various features have been extracted from PEC signal for defect characterization. In this paper, we extract frequency-domain features and propose defect characterization scheme for identifying defect's location, radius, and height.

The signal collected by current sensor will contain various noises, which will have a negative impact on the its accuracy and calibration. In order to remove unwanted noises, an extended Kalman filter (EKF) method based on backpropagation (BP) neural network is proposed in this paper. BP neural network has good adaptive ability and non-linear mapping ability. EKF can effectively filter noise and improve the calibration accuracy for non-linear systems. The signal collected by current sensor is processed by EKF and is used as the input signal of BP neural network. The trained neural network can modify the output signal of EKF, so as to improve the calibration accuracy. The angle difference and ratio difference of current sensor calibration are below 0.1, which meets the national standard and shows the effectiveness of this method.

In this study, magnetic fluorescence molecularly imprinted polymers were fabricated and used for the selective separation and fluorescence sensing of trace bisphenol A (BPA) in environmental water samples. The carboxyl-functionalized FeOx magnetic nanoparticles were conjugated with mercaptoethylamine-capped Mn2+ doped ZnS quantum dots to prepare magnetic FeOx and ZnS quantum dot nanoparticles (FeOx/ZnS NPs). Additionally, molecular imprinting on the FeOx/ZnS NPs was employed to synthesize core-shell molecularly imprinted polymers. The resulting nanoparticles were well characterized using transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, vibrating sample magnetometer and fluorescence spectra, and the adsorption behavior was investigated. Binding experiments showed that the molecularly imprinted FeOX/ZnS NPs (FeOx/ZnS@MIPs) exhibited rapid fluorescent and magnetic responses, and high selectivity and sensitivity for the detection of bisphenol A (BPA). The maximum adsorption capacity of FeOx/ZnS@MIPs was 50.92 mg&middot, g&minus, 1 with an imprinting factor of 11.19. Under optimal conditions, the constructed fluorescence magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers presented good linearity from 0 to 80 ng mL&minus, 1 with a detection limit of 0.3626 ng mL&minus, 1 for BPA. Moreover, the proposed fluorescence magnetic polymers were successfully applied to on-site magnetic separation and real-time fluorescence analysis of target molecule in real samples.

Aiming to maximize the transmission efficiency of inductively coupled power transmission (ICPT) system with the designed output power, a frequency locking method for an ICPT system based on LCC/S compensation topology is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the relationship between compensation component Lf1 and output power was deduced by the lossless model, and the initial value of Lf1 was obtained. Then, considering the system loss, the designed output power and frequency were input into the frequency locking program, and Lf1 and other compensation parameters were dynamically tracked. At the same time, the transmission efficiency of the system was calculated, and the frequency that achieved maximum efficiency was automatically locked when the system met the requirements of the designed output power. Finally, based on the method, the output characteristics of the system were verified by experiments.

At present, most sensor calibration methods are off-line calibration, which not only makes them time-consuming and laborious, but also causes considerable economic losses. Therefore, in this study, an online calibration method of current sensors is proposed to address the abovementioned issues. The principle and framework of online calibration are introduced. One of the calibration indexes is angular difference. In order to accurately verify it, data acquisition must be precisely synchronized. Therefore, a precise synchronous acquisition system based on GPS timing is proposed. The influence of ionosphere on the accuracy of GPS signal is analyzed and a new method for measuring the inherent delay of GPS receiver is proposed. The synchronous acquisition performance of the system is verified by inter-channel synchronization experiment, and the results show that the synchronization of the system is accurate. Lastly, we apply our online calibration method to the current sensor, the experimental results show that the angular difference and ratio difference meet the requirements of the national standard and the accuracy of the online calibration system can be achieved to 0.2 class, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed online calibration method.

BackgroundComplementopathy (rapid complement activation and consumption after trauma) has been reported in trauma patients, but the underlying mechanism of these phenomena and their clinical significance remain unclear. This study aimed to determine the complement/complement pathway activation and identify the association of complement activation with clinical outcomes in trauma patients.MethodsWe studied 33 trauma patients with mean Injury Severity Score of 25, and 25 healthy volunteers. Sera were collected on patients’ arrival at the emergency department, as well as 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 days after trauma, to measure the levels of terminal complement activation product soluble C5b-9 (sC5b-9) by ELISA. In addition, the functional complement activation pathway was evaluated using a commercial complement system screening kit.ResultsSerum concentrations of sC5b-9 (complement terminal pathway activity) were significantly increased in trauma patients throughout the entire observation period except on day 1. Complement terminal activities were significantly higher in 27 of 33 patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) than non-SIRS patients on day 2, day 5, and day 7. Increased serum levels of sC5b-9 positively correlated with SIRS. Functional complement analysis revealed that the classical pathway was the predominant pathway responsible for complement activation. Burn patients tended to have a greater and prolonged classical pathway activation than non-burn patients, and burn injury and blunt injury were associated with higher blood levels of sC5b-9 than penetrating injury.DiscussionEarly complement activation through the classical pathway after trauma is observed and positively correlated with the development of SIRS. Thus, monitoring of the complement system might be beneficial in the care of critically injured patients.Level of evidenceIII.Study typePrognostic.

Nowadays the size of the streamlined liner of the pharynx airway (SLIPA™) is selected by matching the width of the thyroid cartilage of the patient to the widest dimension of the SLIPA™. The objective of this work was to improve the method of selection by matching the distance between the otobasion inferius and the most inferior margin of the cricoid cartilage (O–C) to the length of the SLIPA™ chamber. 100 patients (ASAI–II) scheduled to undergo operations under general anesthesia were randomly divided into two groups, group A (size selected by matching O–C with SLIPA™ chamber length, n = 50) and group B (size selected by matching the width of the thyroid cartilage with the widest dimension of the SLIPA™, n = 50). We measured the distance between the nasopharynx and the interarytenoid fold (N–I) and investigated the correlation between O–C and N–I at the neutral head position. Number of attempts, insertion time, blood on the device, leakage, and the need to change sizes were assessed. A positive correlation (r = 0.68, p

A feature selection algorithm based on random forest and recursive feature elimination is proposed in this paper, which can extract the key feature subset of transient stability assessment. Firstly, the weighted random forest is adopted to pay special attention to the unstable samples, which constitute only a very small minority of the power system operation samples. Secondly, random forest combined with the recursive feature elimination strategy is used to determine the most reasonable threshold to select important features. The threshold that distinguishes a feature whether important or not is determined by the change of OOB error rate. Finally, the classification performance of the reserved feature subset is tested by support vector machine. Case study conducted on the New England 39-bus power system exhibits the validity of the proposed algorithm.

Transient stability assessment (TSA) based on machine learning techniques is a classical problem of classification. In this paper, a new transient stability assessment model using the weighted random forest (WRF) is proposed. Random forest, which runs fast and can scale to very high dimensional datasets, is one of the most popular methods applied to TSA after faults occurred. However, in the actual operation of modern power system, unstable samples constitute only a very small minority of the cases. Besides, the traditional random forest algorithm does not work very well on imbalanced data. To tackle the problem, weighted random forest is adopted to lean the interest towards to the correct classification of rare class, and improve the prediction performance. Case study on the New England 39-bus test power system exhibits that WRF has better performance than the original random forest.

Background Elderly patients undergoing major surgery often develop cognitive dysfunction, and no optimum treatment exists for this postoperative complication. Ribonuclease, the counterpart of ribonucleic acid, has mostly been reported in terms of its use as a potential modality in anticancer therapy, and recent studies have demonstrated that ribonuclease can exert organ-protective effects in several pathological conditions. Our study also demonstrated that ribonuclease protects the liver against ischemia reperfusion injury. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether ribonuclease can attenuate the cognitive dysfunction that is induced by liver ischemia reperfusion. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of ribonuclease on cognitive function after liver ischemia reperfusion. Methods Aged mice underwent sham surgery or 60 min of hepatic ischemia reperfusion, vehicle or ribonuclease, which were administered subcutaneously. The primary observation endpoint was the Morris water maze; following 24 h, 3 days, and 7 days of reperfusion, the levels of serum and hippocampus proinflammatory cytokines were measured to reveal the underlying mechanism. Results A probe test was conducted on day 3 and a reversal probe test was conducted on day 7 after surgery; the results demonstrated a reduction in cognitive function after liver ischemia reperfusion and that ribonuclease treatment attenuated cognitive impairment. The levels of serum and hippocampus proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6 and interleukin-1β) and extracellular ribonucleic acid were significantly increased at 24 h after reperfusion, but ribonuclease treatment markedly reduced the proinflammatory cytokine increase. Conclusion The results of the study suggested that hepatic ischemia reperfusion leads to cognitive impairment in aged mice and an increase in inflammatory cytokine expression in both serum and the hippocampus; more importantly, ribonuclease showed protective effects against cognitive impairment through inhibiting the release of inflammatory cytokines.

Recent developmental research demonstrates that young children tend to be risk-seeking. However, very little is known about the extent to which such a capacity varies with children's group-based experience. Given that between-group competition is a central feature of human social life, this study aimed at examining the influence of group-based competition over risk preference in young children. In total, 234 children from 3 age groups (2-4-year-olds, 5-6-year-olds, and 8-9-year-olds) engaged in an intergroup competition manipulation, which was followed by a prosocial game assessing children's ingroup egalitarianism and a gambling task measuring children's risk preference. We found that children in the intergroup competition condition tended to be risk-averse compared with those who were in the nonintergroup competition condition. Furthermore, we found that an aversion to risk in the intergroup competition condition was driven by such an aversion observed in children from the losing group. In addition, we found a positive relationship between ingroup egalitarianism and risk preference in children from the winning group rather than those from the losing group. Together, our results contribute to the understanding of the effects of group-based experience on children's risk preference and may have important implications for understanding individuals' risky decisions.

Background The authors studied the effects on membrane lung carbon dioxide extraction (VCO2ML), spontaneous ventilation, and energy expenditure (EE) of an innovative extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) technique enhanced by acidification (acid load carbon dioxide removal [ALCO2R]) via lactic acid. Methods Six spontaneously breathing healthy ewes were connected to an extracorporeal circuit with blood flow 250 ml/min and gas flow 10 l/min. Sheep underwent two randomly ordered experimental sequences, each consisting of two 12-h alternating phases of ALCO2R and ECCO2R. During ALCO2R, lactic acid (1.5 mEq/min) was infused before the membrane lung. Caloric intake was not controlled, and animals were freely fed. VCO2ML, natural lung carbon dioxide extraction, total carbon dioxide production, and minute ventilation were recorded. Oxygen consumption and EE were calculated. Results ALCO2R enhanced VCO2ML by 48% relative to ECCO2R (55.3 ± 3.1 vs. 37.2 ± 3.2 ml/min; P less than 0.001). During ALCO2R, minute ventilation and natural lung carbon dioxide extraction were not affected (7.88 ± 2.00 vs. 7.51 ± 1.89 l/min, P = 0.146; 167.9 ± 41.6 vs. 159.6 ± 51.8 ml/min, P = 0.063), whereas total carbon dioxide production, oxygen consumption, and EE rose by 12% each (223.53 ± 42.68 vs. 196.64 ± 50.92 ml/min, 215.3 ± 96.9 vs. 189.1 ± 89.0 ml/min, 67.5 ± 24.0 vs. 60.3 ± 20.1 kcal/h; P less than 0.001). Conclusions ALCO2R was effective in enhancing VCO2ML. However, lactic acid caused a rise in EE that made ALCO2R no different from standard ECCO2R with respect to ventilation. The authors suggest coupling lactic acid–enhanced ALCO2R with active measures to control metabolism.

The effect of sinomenine on cell viability and inflammation response in astrocytes. Figure S2. Astrocytes were more hyper-responsive in sinomenine suppressing OGD-induced inflammation than microglia. Figure S3. Sinomenine increased nuclear expression of CRYAB in astrocytes. Figure S4. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption evaluation by Evans blue (EB) extravasation in sham and MCAO mice. Figure S5. Effect of sinomenine on the number and activation of astrocytes after MCAO. Figure S6. Immunological identification of primary astrocyte culture. Figure S7. Effect of sinomenine on the number and activation of microglia after MCAO. Flow cytometry. (DOCX 0.99 MB)

Background C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute pro-inflammatory mediator that has been demonstrated to enhance ischemia/reperfusion (IR) injury by virtue of activating the complement system. CRP is able to interact with complement proteins such as C1q, complement factor H, and C4b-binding protein. Since complement activation is central in the expression of tissue injury following IR, we have investigated the effects of human decay-accelerating factor (DAF), a complement inhibitor, on CRP-potentiated complement activation and tissue injury in mice subjected to mesenteric IR. Materials and Methods Male C57B1/6 mice were allocated into eight groups: (1) Sham-operated group without IR injury; (2) CRP+Sham group; (3) IR group; (4) CRP+IR group; (5) DAF group; (6) CRP+DAF group; (7) IR+DAF group, and (8) CRP+IR+DAF group. Intestinal and lung injury, neutrophil infiltration, myeloperoxidase (MPO) expression, complement component deposition, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production were assessed for each treatment group of mice. Results We report that administration of DAF significantly attenuates the CRP-enhanced intestinal injury as well as remote lung damages following acute mesenteric IR in mice, while DAF inhibits complement activation, suppresses neutrophil infiltration, and reduces IL-6 production. Conclusions Our study suggests that inhibition complement activation with DAF may prove useful for the treatment of post-ischemic inflammatory injuries associated with an increased production of CRP.

A new complex variable method is presented for stress and displacement problems in a non-circular deep tunnel with certain given boundary conditions at infinity. In order to overcome the complex problems caused by non-circular geometric configurations and the multiply-connected region, a complex variable method and continuity boundary conditions are used to determine stress and displacement within the tunnel lining and within the surrounding rock. The coefficients in the conformal mapping function and stress functions are determined by the optimal design and complex variable method, respectively. The new method is validated by FLAC3D finite difference software through an example. Both the new method and the numerical simulation obtained similar results for the stress concentration and the minimum radial displacement occurred at a similar place in the tunnel. It is demonstrated that the new complex variable method is reliable and reasonable. The new method also provides another way to solve non-circular tunnel excavation problems in a faster and more accurate way.

Ferromagnetic materials are widely used in many fields of national economy. In actual engineering, under the influence of stress or environment, ferromagnetic materials can be defective and have serious consequences. Therefore, magnetic flux leakage inversion, which is speculating defects information according to the detected magnetic leakage signals, is of great practical significance. In allusion to the identification of irregular defects, this paper presented an inversion method based on singular value decomposition of magnetic dipole forward model, which is very effective in identifying irregular defects. This paper contrasted and analyzed the distribution characteristics of magnetic intensity horizontal component Mx when there was no defect and irregular defect, and the comparison verified that the magnetic intensity horizontal component Mx could be used as an inversion gist. Then this paper presented the magnetic dipole forward model B=LM. On account of the magnetic intensity component M containing defects information, this paper adopted the arithmetic of singular value decomposition of coefficient matrix L to solve the inversion equation LM=B and then acquired the distribution of magnetic intensity component M. In the end, this paper verified the validity of this method.

The relativistic consistent angular-momentum projected shell model (ReCAPS) is used in the study of the structure and electromagnetic transitions of the low-lying states in the N=Z nucleus 52Fe. The model calculations show a reasonably good agreement with the data. The backbending at 12+ is reproduced and the energy level structure suggests that neutron-proton interactions play important roles.

Hemorrhage has been shown to increase inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and deplete ATP levels in tissues and geldanamycin limits both processes. Moreover, it is evident that inhibition of iNOS reduces caspase-3 and increases survival. Thus we sought to identify the molecular events responsible for the beneficial effect of geldanamycin. Hemorrhage in mice significantly increased caspase-3 activity and protein while treatment with geldanamycin significantly limited these increases. Similarly, geldanamycin inhibited increases in proteins forming the apoptosome (a complex of caspase-9, cytochrome c, and Apaf-1). Modulation of the expression of iNOS by iNOS gene transfection or siRNA treatment demonstrated that the level of iNOS correlates with caspase-3 activity. Our data indicate that geldanamycin limits caspase-3 expression and protects from organ injury by suppressing iNOS expression and apoptosome formation. Geldanamycin, therefore, may prove useful as an adjuvant in fluids used to treat patients suffering blood loss.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune/inflammatory disease characterized by autoantibody production and abnormal T cells that infiltrate tissues through not well-known mechanisms. We report that SLE T lymphocytes display increased levels of CD44, ezrin, radixin, and moesin (ERM) phosphorylation, stronger actin polymerization, higher polar cap formation, and enhanced adhesion and chemotactic migration compared with T cells from patients with rheumatoid arthritis and normal individuals. Silencing of CD44 by CD44 small interfering RNA in SLE T cells inhibited significantly their ability to adhere and migrate as did treatment with Rho kinase and actin polymerization inhibitors. Forced expression of T567D-ezrin, a phosphorylation-mimic form, enhanced remarkably the adhesion and migration rate of normal T cells. Anti-CD3/TCR autoantibodies present in SLE sera caused increased ERM phosphorylation, adhesion, and migration in normal T cells. pERM and CD44 are highly expressed in T cells infiltrating in the kidneys of patients with lupus nephritis. These data prove that increased ERM phosphorylation represents a key molecular abnormality that guides T cell adhesion and migration in SLE patients.

Microgrids will make fuller consumption of renewable energy by connecting with each other. On that scenario, the generation schedule is supposed to be optimized on view of the total interconnected microgrids (IMGs), which may infringe the privacy of MG. A distributed optimization method for generation scheduling of MIGs using the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is proposed in this paper, so that the MG won't need to share their own information of sources and loads and so on, but only the expected exchanging power information. The case confirms the efficiency of the distributed optimization method compared to the centralized one.

The number of autonomous microgrids (MGs) which are difficult to connect with the main gird is increasing, especially for those on islands or isolated areas. It is helpful to optimize the operation and utilization of resource in different space and time by interconnecting nearby MGs together. A method of jointly optimization and distributed control for interconnected operation of autonomous MGs is proposed in this paper. Firstly, taking the minimum generation cost as objective a jointly optimization model is proposed. And then a dynamic droop control strategy is designed for the real-time control of CDERs in each MG, so as to keep the power on tie-line to the optimizing result, guaranteeing the autonomy of MGs. Finally, an example demonstrates the effectiveness on optimizing resource and reducing the cost of operation. The simulation result confirms the validity of the proposed dynamic control strategy.

The polymorphisms of cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) and vitamin K epoxide reductase complex 1 (VKORC1) are important genetic factors for warfarin dose determinations. The present study aimed to investigate the contribution of the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genotypes to warfarin dose requirement in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, and to evaluate the clinical application of a warfarin-dosing algorithm. A total of 122 AF patients with a target international normalized ratio of 2.0 to 3.0 were included to determine the genotypes of CYP2C9 (rs1057910) and VKORC1 (rs9923231). A warfarin-dosing algorithm was developed based on age, height, and the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genotypes of AF patients. The results indicated that the mean warfarin daily dose requirement was lower in the CYP2C9*1/*3 genotype compared with those in the homozygous wild-type CYP2C9*1/*1 patients (P

The orbitofrontal cortex is known to carry information regarding expected reward, risk and experienced outcome. Yet, due to inherent limitations in lesion and neuroimaging methods, the neural dynamics of these computations has remained elusive in humans. Here, taking advantage of the high temporal definition of intracranial recordings, we characterize the neurophysiological signatures of the intact orbitofrontal cortex in processing information relevant for risky decisions. Local field potentials were recorded from the intact orbitofrontal cortex of patients suffering from drug-refractory partial epilepsy with implanted depth electrodes as they performed a probabilistic reward learning task that required them to associate visual cues with distinct reward probabilities. We observed three successive signals: (i) around 400 ms after cue presentation, the amplitudes of the local field potentials increased with reward probability; (ii) a risk signal emerged during the late phase of reward anticipation and during the outcome phase; and (iii) an experienced value signal appeared at the time of reward delivery. Both the medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex encoded risk and reward probability while the lateral orbitofrontal cortex played a dominant role in coding experienced value. The present study provides the first evidence from intracranial recordings that the human orbitofrontal cortex codes reward risk both during late reward anticipation and during the outcome phase at a time scale of milliseconds. Our findings offer insights into the rapid mechanisms underlying the ability to learn structural relationships from the environment.

Group-based competition is considered to be a ubiquitous social context in human society. However, little is known about its potential effects on children’s prosocial behaviors. To this end, we designed an experiment in which two age groups (2.5–3.5 years of age and 5.5–6.5 years of age) engaged in an intergroup competition task where they did a so-called “game” where each child transferred table tennis balls with a spoon from one container to the other. The non-intergroup competition condition was identical to the intergroup competition condition with one exception—no intergroup competition manipulation was involved. Then, they were required to perform two economic games used to measure their prosocial behaviors. We found that under the non-intergroup competition condition, as children aged, their behaviors tended to be more fairness-oriented (such as an increase in egalitarian behaviors). However, under the intergroup competition condition, children at 2.5–3.5 years of age tended to behave prosocially towards their ingroup members compared with those who are at 5.5–6.5 years of age. The behavioral pattern under the intergroup competition condition reflects strengthening prosocial tendencies driven by the intergroup competition in younger children and simultaneously weakening intergroup competition-driven prosocial tendencies possibly due to the development of fairness-oriented behaviors in older children. Taken together, these results point to the importance of considering the effects of competitive contexts on children’s social behaviors and may have important implications for further research on the role of competitive contexts in the development of human prosocial behaviors.

This paper examines the influence of activated sludge properties such as the mixed liquid of suspended solids (MLSS) concentration, sludge particle size distribution (PSD), extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), soluble microbial products (SMP), suspended solids in supernatant (SSs), dynamic viscosity (μ), relative hydrophobicity (RH), and zeta potential on membrane fouling. Activated sludge samples from different full-scale and lab-scale membrane bioreactor processes were used to study their impacts on membrane fouling. The influence of activated sludge properties on membrane permeation was identified with statistical methods. The results showed that MLSS concentration had an exponential relationship with membrane fouling resistance. The sludge particle size (rp = −0.730) was correlated inversely to the membrane fouling resistance significantly. The total EPS (rp = 0.898) and protein (rp = 0.810) had strong positive effect on membrane fouling resistance, but carbohydrate (rp = 0.626) had a moderate correlation with membrane fouling resistance due to its low amounts. SMP (rp = 0.757), SSs (rp = 0.810), dynamic viscosity (rp = 0.691), RH (rp = 0.837), and zeta potential (rp = −0.881) also had significant influence on membrane permeability. However, protein (rp = 0.936), SMP (rp = 0.725), SSs (rp = 0.783), dynamic viscosity (rp = 0.633), RH (rp = 0.877), and zeta potential (rp = −0.953) mainly resulted from the change of EPS concentration. These results confirm that MLSS concentration, PSD and EPS were the predominant factors affecting membrane fouling during membrane filtration of sludge suspension. The membrane fouling resistance can be predicted using a simple model based on MLSS concentration, PSD and EPS.

Hemorrhage in mice results in decreased ATP levels in the jejunum, lung, kidney, heart, and brain but not in liver tissue lysates, albeit at variable levels and time kinetics. The decreased protein expression and activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) accounted for the hemorrhage-induced ATP loss. Treatment with geldanamycin (GA; 1 μg/g body wt), a known inducer of heat shock protein (HSP)70, inhibited the hemorrhage-induced ATP loss in the jejunum, lung, heart, kidney, and brain. GA was found to increase PDH protein, preserve PDH enzymatic activity, and inhibit mucosal injury in jejunum tissues. GA-induced HSP70i was found to form complexes with PDH protein. HSP70 gene transfer into intestinal epithelial cells promoted PDH and ATP levels, whereas HSP70 short interfering RNA limited them. We conclude that agents able to increase the expression of HSP70 and PDH may be of value in reducing pathology resulting from hemorrhage-associated ATP loss.

In this paper, the dynamic response of a piezoelectric layer with a penny-shaped crack is investigated. The piezoelectric layer is subjected to an axisymmetrical action of both mechanical and electrical impacts. Two kinds of crack surface conditions, i.e., electrically impermeable and electrically permeable, are adopted. Based upon integral transform technique, the crack boundary value problem is reduced to a system of Fredholm integral equations in the Laplace transform domain. By making use of numerical Laplace inversion the time-dependent dynamic stress and electric displacement intensity factors are obtained, and the dynamic energy release rate is further derived. Numerical results are plotted to show the effects of both the piezoelectric layer thickness and the electrical impact loadings on the dynamic fracture behaviors of the crack tips.

Membrane fouling is the major problem that hinders the practical application of membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems. Since the MBR system includes living microorganisms and their metabolites, the fouling mechanism is even more complex than that of conventional membrane separation processes. This paper provides an improved understanding of the influence of filamentous bacteria on membrane fouling in microfiltration of activated sludge wastewater. In order to make clear the membrane fouling mechanism of filamentous bacteria, the physicochemical characteristics of sludge flocs, including extracellular polymeric substance (EPS), zeta potential, relative hydrophobicity (RH) and floc morphology were systematically investigated. The results showed that the sludge flocs with negligible filamentous bacteria led to severe membrane pore blocking, and the sludge flocs with filamentous bacteria created the formation of a non-porous cake layer on the membrane surface. The excess growth of filamentous bacteria resulted in much more release of EPS, lower zeta potential, higher hydrophobicity of sludge flocs and more irregularly shaped flocs, which did great harm to membrane filtration. The sludge flocs with a small quantity of filamentous bacteria had a positive effect on membrane permeation. It is important to control filamentous bacteria concentration in the operation of MBRs.

Cake layer formed on membrane surface presents a major challenge to membrane permeation, and it can be considered as a porous media. Determination of the cake layer permeability is critical for an accurate analysis and design of membrane filtration. A permeation model, based on fractal theory and Darcy's law, for evaluating cake layer permeability in microfiltration of activated sludge wastewater was developed. The cake layer permeability was derived and found to be a function of the pore-area fractal dimension and microstructural parameters. The validity of the model was studied systematically in this paper. The permeation model was applied to study the effect of mixed liquid suspended solids (MLSS) concentration, particle size distribution (PSD) and extracelluler polymeric substance (EPS) on cake layer permeability in a submerged membrane bioreactor. Results showed that the permeation model was a useful tool to study the micromechanism of membrane fouling. There was a close correlation between MLSS concentration and cake layer permeability. There were a slight and a distinct decrease of the cake layer permeation as MLSS increased less and larger than 10,000 mg/L, respectively. PSD and EPS are two significant factors affecting cake layer permeability in membrane bioreactor. Effect of activated sludge on cake layer permeability was mainly caused by EPS and small particles attached on membrane surface.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) T cells express high levels of cAMP response element modulator (CREM) that binds to the IL-2 promoter and represses the transcription of the IL-2 gene. This study was designed to identify pathways that lead to increased binding of CREM to the IL-2 promoter in SLE T cells. Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent kinase IV (CaMKIV) was found to be increased in the nucleus of SLE T cells and to be involved in the overexpression of CREM and its binding to the IL-2 promoter. Treatment of normal T cells with SLE serum resulted in increased expression of CREM protein, increased binding of CREM to the IL-2 promoter, and decreased IL-2 promoter activity and IL-2 production. This process was abolished when a dominant inactive form of CaMKIV was expressed in normal T cells. The effect of SLE serum resided within the IgG fraction and was specifically attributed to anti-TCR/CD3 autoantibodies. This study identifies CaMKIV as being responsible for the increased expression of CREM and the decreased production of IL-2 in SLE T cells and demonstrates that anti-TCR/CD3 antibodies present in SLE sera can account for the increased expression of CREM and the suppression of IL-2 production.