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Osteoporosis (OP) is commonly encountered, which is a kind of systemic injury of bone mass and microstructure, leading to brittle fractures. With the aging of the population, this disease will pose a more serious impact on medical, social, and economic aspects, especially postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP). This study is aimed at figuring out potential therapeutic targets and new biomarkers in OP via bioinformatics tools. After differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis, we successfully identified 97 upregulated and 172 downregulated DEGs. They are mainly concentrated in actin binding, regulation of cytokine production, muscle cell promotion, chemokine signaling pathway, and cytokine-cytokine receiver interaction. According to the diagram of protein-protein interaction (PPI), we obtained 10 hub genes: CCL5, CXCL10, EGFR, HMOX1, IL12B, CCL7, TBX21, XCL1, PGR, and ITGA1. Expression analysis showed that Egfr, Hmox1, and Pgr were significantly upregulated in estrogen-treated osteoporotic patients, while Ccl5, Cxcl10, Il12b, Ccl7, Tbx21, Xcl1, and Itga1 were significantly downregulated. In addition, the analysis results of Pearson’s correlation revealed that CCL7 has a strong positive association with IL12b, TBX21, and CCL5 and so was CCL5 with IL12b. Conversely, EGFR has a strong negative association with XCL1 and CXCL10. In conclusion, this study screened 10 hub genes related to OP based on the GEO database, laying a biological foundation for further research on new biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets in OP.

Alkyl hydroperoxide reductase (Ahp), comprised of four different subunits AhpC, AhpD, AhpE, and AhpF, is a thiol-based antioxidative enzyme with the ability to protect bacteria against oxidative stress. Functionally, AhpC and AhpE considered as peroxidases directly detoxify peroxides, while AhpD and AhpF as oxidoreductases restore oxidized peroxidases to their reduced form. Corynebacterium glutamicum ncgl0877 encodes a putative Ahp with a unique Cys-Pro-Phe-Cys (C-P-G-C) active-site motif, similar with those of the thiol-disulfide oxidoreductases such as thioredoxin (Trx), mycoredoxin-1 (Mrx1) and AhpD. However, its physiological and biochemical functions remain unknown in C. glutamicum. Here, we report that NCgl0877, designated CgAhp, is involved in the protection against organic peroxide (OP) stress. The cgahp-deleted strain is notably more sensitive to OP stress. The cgahp expression is controlled by a MarR-type transcriptional repressor OasR (organic peroxide- and antibiotic-sensing regulator). The physiological role of CgAhp in resistance to OP stresses is corroborated by its induced expression under stresses. Although CgAhp has a weak peroxidase activity toward OP, it mainly supports the OP-scavenging activity of the thiol-dependent peroxidase preferentially linked to the dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (Lpd)/dihydrolipoamide succinyltransferase (SucB)/NADH system. The C-P-G-C motif of CgAhp is essential to maintain the reductase activity. In conclusion, our study identifies CgAhp, behaving like AhpD, as a key disulfide oxidoreductase involved in the oxidative stress tolerance and the functional electron donor for peroxidase.

Fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) and fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) may be of significance in the development of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) tissues. Examination of the expression results of these factors may offer new insights into treatment of the disease, such as genetic and histological targeted target therapy.We selected tissue from 30 cases of laryngeal SCC, 23 cases of adjacent normal mucosa, and 26 cases of benign laryngeal mucosal tissues from patients who received surgery at the Otolaryngology Department of the Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical College between September 2020 and January 2022. The laryngeal cancers included nine cases of supraglottic, 20 glottic (vocal cord), and one case of subglottic cancer, while all benign laryngeal mucosal lesions were obtained from vocal cord polyps. The expression of FGFR1 and FGFR2 was detected in 30 laryngeal cancers, 23 adjacent normal mucosa, and 26 vocal cord polyps by immunohistochemical technology [immunohistochemistry (IHC)], and the correlation analysis of their expression in laryngeal cancer was performed. P0.05 was represented statistically significant.The expression of FGFR1 and FGFR2 was significantly different in laryngeal SCC and the normal tissue0.5 cm from the tumor margin (P0.05), and between laryngeal SCC and vocal polyps (P0.05). There was no difference in FGFR1 and FGFR2 expression (P0.05) between normal mucosal margins and vocal cord polyp tissue, and no correlation between FGFR1 and FGFR2 in laryngeal SCC and sex, age, smoking history, alcohol consumption history, tumor diameter, tumor lymph node metastasis, tumor differentiation degree, and Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage (P0.05), A moderate positive correlation between FGFR1 expression and FGFR2 expression in laryngeal SCC was seen (Rs=0.499, P0.01).FGFR1 and FGFR2 may participate in the occurrence of SCC of the throat: (I) positive FGFR1 and FGFR2 expressions are not associated with gender, age, smoking history, alcohol consumption history, tumor diameter, lymph node metastasis, degree of differentiation, or TNM stage. (II) FGFR2 increases successively with higher FGFR1 expression and with a positive correlation in laryngeal SCC.

Rough joints widely exist in natural rock mass, and their shear mechanical properties control the safety and stability of rock mass. In the existing studies, the contribution of different protrusions to resisting shear stress is not mentioned. In this study, the local shear mechanism of different protrusions of rough joints in the shear process were well presented by combining quantitative and qualitative results using the discrete element method (DEM). Firstly, Barton's 10 standard roughness joint profiles were digitized. Rough joints were established using the modified smooth joint model (MSJM). The direct shear tests of joint specimens under constant normal stress were successfully conducted based on servo mode. Secondly, according to the test results, the law of shear stress was discussed. Then, the failure mode of joint specimen was discussed in detail based on the crack tracking module and force chain analysis. Next, the relationship between the number of cracks and shear stress was investigated. Finally, the variation law of average stress in different 10 segments of joints during shear was tracked based on the measuring circle function. The contribution of local joint segments in resisting shear stress is quantitatively described by 3 stress indexes.

Objective: To explore the status and influencing factors of the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in postoperative patients with lung carcinoma (LC). Methods: The survey results of 219 LC patients who underwent surgical treatment in a tertiary grade A cancer hospital in Beijing from January 2020 to September 2021 were retrospectively analyzed by using the general information questionnaire, Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), and the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form (FoP-Q-SF). Results: The score of the FoP-Q-SF was (25.68±3.15 points) in postoperative LC patients, and education level and per capita monthly household income were identified as the independent risk factors affecting FCR. There was an inverse correlation between FCR and social support in postoperative LC patients (P

Wound healing in diabetic skin is impaired by excessive activation of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9). MMP-9 transcription is activated by Ten-eleven translocation 2 (TET2), a well-known DNA demethylation protein that induces MMP-9 promoter demethylation in diabetic skin tissues. However, how TET2 is targeted to specific loci in the MMP-9 promoter is unknown. Here, we identified a TET2-interacting long noncoding RNA (TETILA) that is upregulated in human diabetic skin tissues. TETILA regulates TET2 subcellular localization and enzymatic activity, indirectly activating MMP-9 promoter demethylation. TETILA also recruits thymine-DNA glycosylase (TDG), which simultaneously interacts with TET2, for base excision repair-mediated MMP-9 promoter demethylation. Together, our results suggest that the TETILA serves as a genomic homing signal for TET2-mediated demethylation specific loci in MMP-9 promoter, thereby disrupting the process of diabetic skin wound healing.

Sorbin and SH3-domain-containing-1 (SORBS1) play important roles in insulin signalling and cytoskeleton regulation. Variants of the SORBS1 gene have been inconsistently reported to be associated with type 2 diabetes or diabetic kidney disease (DKD).Two independent case-control studies based on two randomized sampling cohorts (cohort 1, n = 3345; cohort 2, n = 2282) were used to confirm the association between rs2281939 of SORBS1 and impaired glucose regulation (IGR). An additional hospital-based cohort (cohort 3, n = 2135) and cohort 1 were used to investigate the association between rs2281939 and DKD. The phenotype of rare variants of SORBS1 was explored in 453 patients with early onset type 2 diabetes (diagnosed before 40 years of age, EOD).The G allele was associated with type 2 diabetes (additive model: OR = 1.25, 95% CI [1.03-1.52], p = 0.022) in cohort 1, and IGR in cohort 2 (additive model: OR = 1.22, 95% CI [1.05-1.43], p = 0.01). We found that the G allele was also associated with HDL-c levels in women in both cohort 1 (p = 0.03) and 2 (p = 0.029) in the dominant model. The rare variant carriers also had lower HDL-c and LDL-c levels than non-carriers in patients with EOD. No association between rs2281939 or rare variants and DKD was observed.The variants in the SORBS1 gene were associated with IGR and HDL-c levels but not with DKD in the Chinese Han population.

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Based on the application of big data, this paper constructed a theoretical model focusing on the mechanism of data empowerment on the service innovation capability of logistics platform enterprises, with value cocreation as the mediating variable and environmental dynamism as the moderating variable. The research hypothesis was empirically tested based on the results obtained from the questionnaire survey. The results demonstrate that data empowerment can promote the value co-creation between logistics platform enterprises and users, and value co-creation is an important factor to promote the service innovation capability of logistics platform enterprises. Meanwhile, the moderating variable of environmental dynamism is found to inhibit the interaction between cooperation and service innovation capability. The findings expand the theoretical research on data empowerment and raise important inspiration for practical activities of logistics platform enterprises.

Diabetic foot ulcers are recalcitrant to healing, and poor angiogenesis is considered as the main contributing factor. We aimed to explore the effect of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from wound fluids on new vessel formation in diabetic foot ulcers. EVs were isolated from wound fluids of diabetic foot ulcers (DF-EVs). The inhibitory effect of DF-EVs on human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and wound healing was tested. To elucidate the potential mechanism of these effects, we screened the differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) in DF-EVs via microarray analysis and verified the upregulation of miR-195-5p and miR-205-5p in DF-EVs via quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Further dual-luciferase reporter assays and overexpression experiments proved these two miRNAs inhibited the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) directly to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of VEGFA and, in turn, promoted an inhibitory effect of DF-EVs on angiogenesis and wound healing in patients with diabetic foot ulcers. Our study shows EVs in the wound fluids of diabetic foot ulcer lesions carrying antiangiogenic miR-195-5p and miR-205-5p negatively regulated angiogenesis and wound healing in patients with diabetic foot.

Glucokinase (GCK) regulates insulin secretion and hepatic glucose metabolism, its inactivating variants could cause diabetes. We aimed to evaluate the association of a low-frequency variant of GCK (rs13306393) with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), prediabetes or both (IGR) in Chinese population. An association study was firstly conducted in a random cluster sampling population (Samples 1, 537 T2DM, 768 prediabetes and 1912 controls), then another independent Samples 2 (3896 T2DM, 2301 prediabetes and 868 controls) was used to confirm the findings in Samples 1. A-allele of rs13306393 was associated with T2DM [OR 3.08 (95%CI 1.77-5.36), p=0.00007] in Samples 1. Rs13306393 was also associated with prediabetes [OR 1.67 (95%CI 1.05-2.65), p=0.03] in Samples 2. In pooled analysis of two samples, A-allele increased the risk of T2DM [OR1.57 (95%CI 1.15-2.15), p=0.005], prediabetes [OR 1.83 (95%CI 1.33-2.54), p=0.0003) or IGR [OR 1.68 (95% CI 1.26-2.25), p=0.0004], insulin resistance estimated by homeostasis model assessment (beta=0.043, p=0.001), HbA1c (beta=0.029, P=0.029) and urinary albumin excretion (beta=0.033, p=0.025) irrespective of age, gender and BMI. Thus, the Chinese specific low-frequency variant increased the risk of T2DM through reducing insulin sensitivity rather than islet beta cell function, which should be considered in clinical use of GCK activators in the future.

Peanut is one of the important oil and economic crops, among which the variegated testa peanut is a unique member. The molecular mechanisms underlying the pigment synthesis in variegated testa are still unclear. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the flavonoid metabolism pathway in pigmented areas indicated that there were 27 DEGs highly related to the synthesis of variegated testa color among 1,050 DEGs. Of these 27, 13 were up-regulated and 14 were down-regulated, including 3 PALs, 1 C4H, 2 CHSs, 1 F3H, 1 F3'H, 2 DFRs, 2 LARs, 2 IAAs, 4 bHLHs, and 9 MYBs. GO (Gene Ontology) analysis indicated that DEGs were similarly enriched in three branches. KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) analysis suggested flavonoid biosynthesis is the most direct metabolic pathway for the synthesis of testa variegation. The liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) results showed that cyanidin and delphinidin were the primary metabolites that caused the color differences between the pigmented and the non-pigmented areas. Through the verification of 20 DEGs via qPCR, the results were consistent with transcriptome sequencing in four comparison groups. The results in this study lay the foundation for revealing the molecular regulation mechanisms of flavonoid synthesis in variegated testa peanut.

Impaired wound healing is one of the main reasons that leads to diabetic foot ulcerations. However, the exact mechanism of delayed wound healing in diabetes mellitus is not fully understood. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are widely involved in a variety of biological processes and diseases, including diabetes and its associated complications. Here, we identified a novel lncRNA MRAK052872, named lnc-URIDS (lncRNA UpRegulated in Diabetic Skin), which regulates wound healing in diabetes mellitus. Lnc-URIDS was highly expressed in diabetic skin and dermal fibroblasts treated with advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Lnc-URIDS knockdown promoted migration of dermal fibroblasts under AGEs treatment in vitro and accelerated diabetic wound healing in vivo. Mechanistically, lnc-URIDS interacts with procollagen-lysine, 2-oxoglutarate 5-dioxygenase 1 (Plod1), a critical enzyme responsible for collagen cross-linking. The binding of lnc-URIDS to Plod1 results in a decreased protein stability of Plod1, which ultimately leads to the dysregulation of collagen production and deposition and delays wound healing. Collectively, this study identifies a novel lncRNA that regulates diabetic wound healing by targeting Plod1. The findings of the present study offer some insight into the potential mechanism for the delayed wound healing in diabetes and provide a potential therapeutic target for diabetic foot.

Glucokinase (GCK) regulates insulin secretion and hepatic glucose metabolism, and its inactivating variants could cause diabetes. We aimed to evaluate the association of a low-frequency variant of GCK (rs13306393) with type 2 diabetes (T2D), prediabetes, or both (impaired glucose regulation [IGR]) in a Chinese population. An association study was first conducted in a random cluster sampling population (sample 1: 537 T2D, 768 prediabetes, and 1,912 control), and then another independent population (sample 2: 3,896 T2D, 2,301 prediabetes, and 868 control) was used to confirm the findings in sample 1. The A allele of rs13306393 was associated with T2D (odds ratio 3.08 [95% CI 1.77–5.36], P = 0.00007) in sample 1; rs13306393 was also associated with prediabetes (1.67 [1.05–2.65], P = 0.03) in sample 2. In a pooled analysis of the two samples, the A allele increased the risk of T2D (1.57 [1.15–2.15], P = 0.005), prediabetes (1.83 [1.33–2.54], P = 0.0003) or IGR (1.68 [1.26–2.25], P = 0.0004), insulin resistance estimated by HOMA (β = 0.043, P = 0.001), HbA1c (β = 0.029, P = 0.029), and urinary albumin excretion (β = 0.033, P = 0.025), irrespective of age, sex, and BMI. Thus, the Chinese-specific low-frequency variant increased the risk of T2D through reducing insulin sensitivity rather than islet β-cell function, which should be considered in the clinical use of GCK activators in the future.

Background Glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonists ( GLP ‐1 RAs ) and sodium‐glucose cotransporter‐2 inhibitors ( SGLT 2is) have shown their beneficial effects on cardiovascular outcomes and multiple cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension. However, the mechanism of blood pressure ( BP )–lowering effects of these agents has not been elucidated. This study aims to evaluate the effect of hemoglobin A1c reduction or body weight reduction with GLP ‐1 RA treatment and SGLT 2i treatment on BP changes in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods and Results Studies were identified by a search of MEDLINE , EMBASE , and the Cochrane Central Register until June 2019. Meta‐regression analysis was performed to evaluate the association between hemoglobin A1c reduction or body weight reduction and changes of BP . A total of 184 trials were included. Both GLP ‐1 RA and SGLT 2i led to significant reductions in systolic BP (weighted mean difference, −2.856 and −4.331 mm Hg, respectively; P BP (weighted mean difference, −0.898 and −2.279 mm Hg, respectively; P BP reduction or diastolic BP reduction. In GLP ‐1 RA treatment, weight reduction was positively associated with systolic BP reduction and diastolic BP reduction (β=0.821 and β=0.287, respectively; P SGLT 2i treatment, weight loss was significantly associated with systolic BP reduction (β=0.820; P =0.001) but was not associated with diastolic BP reduction. Conclusions Treatment with GLP ‐1 RA and SGLT 2i led to significant reductions in BP in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Weight reduction was significantly and independently associated with BP reductions in GLP ‐1 RA treatment and SGLT 2i treatment.

Impaired wound healing is one of the main causes of diabetic foot ulcerations. However, the exact mechanism of delayed wound healing in diabetes is not fully understood. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are widely involved in a variety of biological processes and diseases, including diabetes and its associated complications. In this study, we identified a novel lncRNA, MRAK052872, named lncRNA UpRegulated in Diabetic Skin (lnc-URIDS), which regulates wound healing in diabetes. lnc-URIDS was highly expressed in diabetic skin and dermal fibroblasts treated with advanced glycation end products (AGEs). lnc-URIDS knockdown promoted migration of dermal fibroblasts under AGEs treatment in vitro and accelerated diabetic wound healing in vivo. Mechanistically, lnc-URIDS interacts with procollagen-lysine, 2-oxoglutarate 5-dioxygenase 1 (Plod1), a critical enzyme responsible for collagen cross-linking. The binding of lnc-URIDS to Plod1 results in a decreased protein stability of Plod1, which ultimately leads to the dysregulation of collagen production and deposition and delays wound healing. Collectively, this study identifies a novel lncRNA that regulates diabetic wound healing by targeting Plod1. The findings of the current study offer some insight into the potential mechanism for the delayed wound healing in diabetes and provide a potential therapeutic target for diabetic foot.

In this paper, the effect of aluminium on microstructure and mechanical properties of as-cast magnesium–manganese alloy has been investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The results reveal that various Al–Mn intermetallic compounds form with an increase of Al content. As a result, microstructure of AM11 alloy has been effectively refined due to the formation of Al8Mn5 phase along the grain boundary, while Al addition is explained as the main reason on refining the microstructure of AM91 alloy due to its higher grain growth restriction factor value of ∼4.32. The tensile yield strength (TYS) has been improved steadily from 27.4 to 122.9 MPa with increasing Al content, because of the combined effects of grain boundary strengthening, solid solution strengthening and precipitation hardening behaviours.

Background: Maturity-onset diabetes of the young caused by HNF1A (HNF1A-MODY) is a common form of monogenetic diabetes. The patients with HNF1A-MODY are recommended to use sulfonylureas. This study was to establish a clinical strategy to identify the patients with HNF1A-MODY from clinically diagnosed early-onset type 2 diabetes (EOD) for genetic testing in Chinese population. Methods: A case control study including 125 non-related young patients with EOD and 15 probands of HNF1A-MODY was firstly conducted to evaluate the biomarkers of HNF1A-MODY and establish a clinically screening strategy (HNF1A-CSS). The effectiveness of HNF1A-CSS was secondly tested in another group of young 410 patients with EOD. All the participants were Chinese. Findings: Body mass index (BMI), fasting serum insulin (Fins), serum high density cholesterol (HDL-c) and high-sensitivity C reaction protein (hsCRP) were confirmed to be useful for differential diagnosis of HNF1AMODY. 8 probands of HNF1A-MODY in 410 patients with EOD and 1 young relative with HNF1A-MODY were identified. In the pooled analysis of all the young patients, a HNF1A-CSS, meeting at least three of four criteria (BMI 1.12 mmol/L), has 90·5% sensitivity and 73·6% specificity to screen for the patients with HNF1A-MODY in the patients with clinically diagnosed EOD. Interpretation: The HNF1A-CSS is helpful to distinguish HNF1A-MODY from EOD in young Chinese population. Funding Statement: This research was supported by National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC1304901) and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology funds (Z141100007414002 and D131100005313008). Declaration of Interests: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was performed in accordance with the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the ethics committee of Peking University People's Hospital, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

To identify the factors associated with serum total bilirubin (STB) and determine whether STB is independently associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR) or diabetic kidney disease (DKD), 1,665 Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (248 outpatients newly diagnosed with T2DM [NDM] and 1,417 inpatients previously diagnosed with T2DM [PDM]) were studied. Clinical and biochemical information was collected, and a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs6704078) of the UGT1A1 gene was genotyped in 1,059 individuals. Multiple linear regression showed that STB was associated with haemoglobin concentration, platelet count, and serum triglyceride concentration in NDM and PDM patients, and with serum albumin, duration of diabetes, and smoking in PDM patients. In patients with PDM, multiple logistic regression revealed that serum albumin was associated with DR (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.87–0.96, p = 0.001) and DKD (OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.88–0.98, p = 0.005) after adjustment for STB, STB-related factors, and risk factors for DR and DKD. In addition, patients with the T allele of rs6704078 had higher STB (13.2 [10.4–17.9] μmol/L versus 11.8 (9.4–14.8) μmol/L; p

ObjectiveMaturity-onset diabetes of the young caused by hepatocyte nuclear factor-1 alpha (HNF1A) variants (HNF1A-MODY) is a common form of monogenetic diabetes. Although patients with HNF1A-MODY might specifically benefit from sulfonylurea treatment, available methods for screening this specific type of diabetes are not cost-effective. This study was designed to establish an optimized clinical strategy based on multiple biomarkers to distinguish patients with HNF1A-MODY from clinically diagnosed early-onset type 2 diabetes (EOD) for genetic testing in a Chinese population.Research design and methodsA case–control study including 125 non-related young patients with EOD and 15 probands with HNF1A-MODY (cohort 1) was conducted to evaluate reported biomarkers for HNF1A-MODY. A cut-off for the fasting insulin (Fins) level, the 97.5 percentile of 150 healthy subjects with normal components of metabolic syndrome (cohort 2), was used to filter out individuals with obvious insulin resistance (Fins HNF1A-CSS) was established, and its effectiveness was assessed in another group of 410 young patients with EOD (cohort 3).ResultsIn cohort 1, body mass index (BMI), serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) and high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels were confirmed to be useful for the differential diagnosis of HNF1A-MODY. In cohort 3, eight probands with HNF1A-MODY were identified. In cohort 3 and young relatives with HNF1A-MODY, meeting three of four criteria (BMI 2, hs-CRP 1.12 mmol/L), the sensitivity and specificity of HNF1A-CSS were 100% and 69.3%, respectively. In the pooled analysis of all young patients, HNF1A-CSS displayed 90.5% sensitivity and 73.6% specificity for identifying patients with HNF1A-MODY among those with clinically diagnosed EOD.ConclusionOur HNF1A-CSS is useful for distinguishing patients with HNF1A-MODY from patients with EOD in a young Chinese population.

We introduce SentenTree, a novel technique for visualizing the content of unstructured social media text. SentenTree displays frequent sentence patterns abstracted from a corpus of social media posts. The technique employs design ideas from word clouds and the Word Tree, but overcomes a number of limitations of both those visualizations. SentenTree displays a node-link diagram where nodes are words and links indicate word co-occurrence within the same sentence. The spatial arrangement of nodes gives cues to the syntactic ordering of words while the size of nodes gives cues to their frequency of occurrence. SentenTree can help people gain a rapid understanding of key concepts and opinions in a large social media text collection. It is implemented as a lightweight application that runs in the browser.

sHSP (small heat-shock protein) IbpB (inclusion-body-binding protein B) from Escherichia coli is known as an ATP-independent holding chaperone which prevents the insolubilization of aggregation-prone proteins by forming stable complexes with them. It was found that the chaperone function of IbpB is greatly modulated by the ambient temperature, i.e. when the temperature increases from normal to heat-shock, the chaperone activity of IbpB is dramatically elevated to a level that allows it to effectively bind the aggregation-prone client proteins. Although it is generally believed that the release and refolding of the client protein from the sHSPs depends on the aid of the ATP-dependent chaperones such as Hsp (heat-shock protein) 70 and Hsp100 when the ambient temperature recovers from heat-shock to normal, the behaviour of the sHSPs during this recovery stage has not yet been investigated. In the present study, we examined the behaviour and properties of IbpB upon temperature decrease from heat-shock to normal. We found that IbpB, which becomes functional only under heat-shock conditions, retains the chaperone activity for an extended period of time after the heat-shock stress condition is removed. A detail comparison demonstrates that such preconditioned IbpB is distinguished from the non-preconditioned IbpB by a remarkable conformational transformation, including a significant increase in the flexibility of the N- and C-terminal regions, as well as enhanced dynamic subunit dissociation/reassociation. Intriguingly, the preconditioned IbpB displayed a dramatic decrease in its surface hydrophobicity, suggesting that the exposure of hydrophobic sites might not be the sole determinant for IbpB to exhibit chaperone activity. We propose that the maintenance of the chaperone activity for such ‘holdases’ as sHSPs would be important for cells to recover from heat-shock stress.

We present our process and analysis for VAST 2014 Mini Challenge 1 and 2, which integrate an off-the-shelf tool, Jigsaw, rapid web-based visualization prototyping using D3, and analytics-based visualizations using Matlab.

Visual analytics (VA)-the fusion of analytical reasoning and computational data analysis with rich, interactive visual representations-promises to provide many relevant techniques for business-ecosystem-intelligence systems. However, the effectiveness of such systems requires the careful curation of complex, heterogeneous, and distributed data; an in-depth understanding of the business ecosystem context and end-user domain; and the corresponding design of relevant visualizations and metrics.

Business ecosystems are characterized by large, complex, and global networks of firms, often from many different market segments, all collaborating, partnering, and competing to create and deliver new products and services. Given the rapidly increasing scale, complexity, and rate of change of business ecosystems, as well as economic and competitive pressures, analysts are faced with the formidable task of quickly understanding the fundamental characteristics of these interfirm networks. Existing tools, however, are predominantly query- or list-centric with limited interactive, exploratory capabilities. Guided by a field study of corporate analysts, we have designed and implemented dotlink360, an interactive visualization system that provides capabilities to gain systemic insight into the compositional, temporal, and connective characteristics of business ecosystems. dotlink360 consists of novel, multiple connected views enabling the analyst to explore, discover, and understand interfirm networks for a focal firm, specific market segments or countries, and the entire business ecosystem. System evaluation by a small group of prototypical users shows supporting evidence of the benefits of our approach. This design study contributes to the relatively unexplored, but promising area of exploratory information visualization in market research and business strategy.