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A [6 + 3] annulation reaction of Morita-Baylis-Hillman carbonates and dicyanoheptafulvene is accomplished by employing commercially available triphenylphosphine as the Lewis base catalyst. A spectrum of densely functionalized bicyclo[4.3.1]decane architectures are efficiently constructed with exclusive diastereoselectivity and good yield (up to 95%).

Establishing Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) Chinese Japanese Korean (CJK) NACO, BIBCO, CONSER, and SACO funnels grew out of the PCC’s strategy of engaging and inclusion of diverse members...

During a survey of endophytic fungi in plant roots in secondary forests in Yunnan, China, a novel ascomyceteous taxon,Beltrania sinensis, was isolated fromQuercus cocciferoidesHand.-Mazz. andFraxinus malacophyllaHemsl. This novel species is characterized by having oval or obovoid conidiogenous cells with several apical, flat-tipped denticles, and biconic, aseptate, smooth, pale brown conidia with a hyaline to subhyaline equatorial transverse band and apical tubular appendage. Phylogenetic analysis of the combined sequences of the internal transcribed spacer and the LSU rRNA gene confirmed its novel species status within the genusBeltrania. Here, the novel species is described and illustrated, and a taxonomic key to species in the genusBeltraniais provided.

Urban subway tunnels are located in a very complex operating environment, and the surrounding construction disturbances can lead to the deformation of existing tunnels or even produce tunnel disease issues. The disturbance of adjacent tunnels by pit excavation is an important geotechnical issue among scholars. In our study, the two-stage method is used to derive the deformation of the existing tunnel caused by the use of sloping excavation in the foundation pit. Subsequently, the correctness of the theoretical calculation formulae and the results are verified by constructing numerical calculation models. The effects of different slope footings θ, different slope widths b and different excavation depths H on the deformation of the existing tunnel are analyzed. The results show that: the excavation of the foundation pit can effectively reduce the tunnel deformation by using the sloping excavation method. The soil directly above the tunnel is the main factor causing the deformation of that tunnel. When the foundation pit spans a single-lane existing tunnel, the sloping excavation method of excavating soil on both sides and reserving the middle core soil can be used. When the foundation pit spans a double-lane existing tunnel, the sloping excavation method of excavating the middle soil and reserving core soil on both sides can be adopted. The error between the theoretical calculation results and the numerical simulation results is small, which verifies the correctness of the theoretical calculation results. The load distribution width of the soil after sloping excavation can be taken as the median line width. The deformation of the existing tunnel is influenced, to a greater extent, by changes in the one-time excavation depth H and slope width b, and to a lesser extent, by changes in the slope angle θ.

A peer-coaching approach was adopted in the out-of-class stage of the flipped classroom. Out of the classroom, learning tutors help students engage in learning and improve performance. Eighty-seven...

Objectives To investigate the survival characteristics of postoperative nonmetastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients, and the predictive value of a prognostic model. Materials and Methods We retrospectively evaluated data from 1202 postoperative nonmetastatic RCC patients who were treated between 1999 and 2012 at West China Hospital, Sichuan University (Chengdu, China). In addition, we also evaluated data relating to 53 205 cases acquired from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. Survival analysis was performed on the cases, and subgroups, using the Kaplan‐Meier and Cox regression methods. The concordance index of the Stage Size Grade Necrosis (SSIGN), Leibovich, and the UCLA integrated staging system, scores was determined to evaluate the accuracy of these outcome prediction models. Results The 5‐year overall survival rate for RCC cases in West China Hospital was 87.6%; this was higher than that observed for SEER cases. Survival analysis identified several factors that exerted significant influence over prognosis, including the time of surgery, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, tumor stage, size, nuclear differentiation, pathological subtypes, along with necrotic and sarcomatoid differentiation. Moreover tumor stage, size, and nuclear grade were all identified as independent predictors for both our cases and those from the SEER program. Patient groups with advanced RCC, and poorly differentiated RCC subgroups, were both determined to have a poor prognosis. The SSIGN model yielded the best predictive value as a prognostic model, followed by the Leibovich, and UCLA integrated staging system; this was the case for our patients, and for sub‐groups with a poor prognosis. Conclusion The prognosis of RCC was mostly influenced by tumor stage, size, and nuclear differentiation. SSIGN may represent the most suitable prognostic model for the Chinese population., In our study, we aimed to investigate the survival characteristics of postoperative non‐metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients, and the predictive value of prognostic models. We retrospectively reviewed 1 202 postoperative RCC cases at the West China Hospital, Sichuan University (Chengdu, China), with 53 205 cases from the SEER database also reviewed as reference. Prognostic factors of renal cell carcinoma were analyzed in detail, and the prediction accuracy of the prognostic models was validated.

The hydrodynamic forces on the stationary partially submerged cylinder are investigated through towing test with Reynolds number ranging from 5 × 104 to 9 × 105. Three test groups of partially submerged cylinders with submerged depths of 0.25 D, 0.50 D, and 0.75 D and one validation group of fully submerged cylinders are conducted. During the experiments, the hydrodynamic forces on the cylinders are measured using force sensors. The test results show a considerable difference in the hydrodynamic coefficients for the partially submerged cylinders versus the fully submerged cylinders. A significant mean downward lift force is first observed for the partially submerged cylinders in a steady flow. The maximum of the mean lift coefficients can reach 1.5. Two distinct features are observed due to the effects of overtopping: random distributions in the mean drag coefficients and a clear quadratic relationship between the mean lift coefficients and the Froude number appear in the non-overtopping region. However, the novel phenomenon of a good linear relationship with the Froude number for the mean hydrodynamic coefficients is clearly shown in the overtopping region. In addition, fluctuating hydrodynamic coefficients are further proposed and investigated. These results are helpful to have a better understanding of the problem and to improve related structural designs.

When it comes to biological experiments, especially the experiments related to protein and drug binding, thorough experiments are not feasible because they will cost a lot of manpower and material resources [1]. Therefore, it has become a popular method to select a series of experiments to be carried out and effectively learns the model to predict the results of unfinished experiments, that is, active learning. Based on the existing experimental data, this paper discusses the feasibility of machine learning in biological experiments. Ordinary supervised learning and active learning are used to build prediction models, respectively. The difference between them is that active learning purposefully selects the "most useful" data for multiple rounds of learning, which is more in line with the needs of actual experiments. The result is that the accuracy of active learning is slightly higher than that of ordinary supervised learning when almost one fifth of the data of ordinary supervised learning is used.

This work experimentally investigated the performance of hydrodynamic forces on a semi-submerged cylinder under an oscillatory flow. To generate the equivalent oscillatory flow, the semi-submerged cylinder is forced to oscillate in several combinations of different periods and amplitudes. The mean downward lift force was observed to be significant and the fluctuating lift forces show dominant frequency is twice that of oscillatory flow and amplitude that is the same as the mean lift force. Based on this main hydrodynamic feature, a novel empirical prediction formula for the lift forces on semi-submerged cylinder under oscillatory flow is proposed where the lift forces expression is proportional to the square of oscillatory flow velocity. This novel empirical formula directly assigns the fluctuating lift force with frequency twice of oscillatory flow and the amplitude that is the same as the mean lift force. This assignment of empirical lift force formula reduces parameters required to determine a dynamic lift force but is demonstrated to well predict the fluctuating lift force. The lift coefficient can reach 1.5, which is larger than the typical value 1.2 of the drag coefficient for a fully submerged cylinder with infinite depth. Moreover, relationships among hydrodynamic coefficients, Keulegan-Carpenter (KC) number, Stokes number and Froude number are studied. With the increase of KC number, the Froude number has a more significant influence on the distribution of hydrodynamic coefficients. As Froude number is increasing, the drag coefficient shows a nonlinear decay (KC &lt, 20) but a linear increase (KC &gt, 20), while the added mass coefficients show a nonlinear (KC &lt, 20) and a linear (KC &gt, 20) increase trend. The present work can provide useful references for design of the relevant marine structures and serve as the useful guideline for future research.

Background: Published studies have demonstrated that resistin, a recently discovered adipokine, is connected to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, inflammation, and atherosclerotic vascular disease. A comprehensive study of the adipocytokine family and tumor pathogenesis indicates an intimate relationship between resistin and the incidence, progression, and metastasis of gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, choriocarcinoma, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, and biliary tract cancer. To date, the connection between resistin and bladder cancer has not been thoroughly investigated and remains unclear. Methods: Overall, 322 patients with bladder cancer and 366 normal controls were included in the study. Two SNPs of the resistin gene, rs1862513 (also known as −420 C/G) and rs10401670 (3’UTR C/T) were genotyped across the entire cohort. Next, the association between the two SNPs and the incidence, risk factors, and prognosis of bladder cancer, were analyzed. Results: The frequency of T allele and CT/TT genotype of rs10401670 was significantly lower in bladder cancer patients (P=0.03, OR=0.79 and P = 0.018, OR = 0.68, respectively) compared to normal controls. No differences were found with regards to the rs1862513 genotype frequency and the distribution of allele frequency between the two groups. Stratified analyses showed that the CT heterozygous genotype of rs10401670 was associated with bladder cancer at an earlier age (OR=1.97, 95% CI=1.14–3.40) and the CG heterozygous genotype of rs1862513 was correlated with high incidence of bladder cancer in smokers (OR=1.73, 95 % CI=1.05–2.87). Multiple Cox regression analysis showed that for bladder cancer patients, the presence of a CG heterozygous genotype of rs1862513 was associated with a decrease in the risk of recurrence in MIBC patients (P = 0.04，OR= 0.49). Additionally, the rs1040167 CT/TT genotype (P = 0.03，OR= 2.45), especially the TT homozygous genotype (P = 0.02，OR= 3.00) was associated with high risk of death. These results indicate that the rs1040167 CT/TT and TT homozygous genotype may be a risk factor for overall survival of bladder cancer patients. Conclusions: Our results suggest that resistin genotype serves as a risk factors for the occurrence and prognosis of bladder cancer, and could be be a potential biomarker for this devastating disease.

The rapid development of catastrophe bonds provides a new idea for catastrophe risk dispersion, since its traditional means fail to afford the economic losses caused by the global drought catastrophe. With the deepening of the concept of the community with a shared future for mankind, there is an opportunity to issue global drought catastrophe bonds through international cooperation. Based on the data of global drought catastrophe losses from 1900 to 2018, this paper selects 21 countries as the primary participants of international cooperation and studies the pricing of drought catastrophe bonds by the POT model and high quantile estimation. The results show that the first-class bond has a 10% occurrence probability with the trigger point of $252.54 million, and the second-class one has a 35% occurrence probability with the trigger point being $117.13 million. In line with high quartile estimates, the one-year principal-protected catastrophe bonds with a face value of $1,000 are valued at $957.14 and $939.29, respectively. Besides, the principal portion of the lost bonds is $912.50 and $783.04, while the total of it is $867.86 and $626.79, respectively.

The Norwegian Public Road Administration is planning to upgrade Coastal Highway E39 by replacing ferry connections with floating bridges or submerged floating tunnels (SFTs). This study considers a potential pontoon-supported curved SFT designed for crossing Sognefjorden at a submergence of 12 m. It consists of two identical tubes with a diameter of 12.6 m each in a tandem configuration and with a length of approximately 4 km. The natural frequencies of the low-order modes are well within the energy content in the spectra of the second-order difference-frequency wave excitation forces and the vortex shedding-induced forces. In this paper, numerical simulation of wave-induced hydroelastic response and flow-induced vibrations of the twin-tube SFT is performed. Long- and short-crested waves, the first and second order wave loads, are considered. A time-domain approach to simulate crossflow vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and VIV-amplified inline drag forces, partly based on the coefficients obtained experimentally, is established and applied. The focus is on extreme conditions – relating to ultimate strength limit states. The second-order wave load substantially affects the lateral motion and lateral bending moment, as expected. The short-crested waves influence the response in both the lateral and vertical directions by exciting asymmetric eigenmodes. In strong flow conditions, once VIV is excited, the standard deviation of the vertical motion (of about 30% of the diameter) and the bending moment about the horizontal axis is more that an order of magnitude larger than that induced by the wave loads. The simulation of the wave- and flow-induced load effects provides a good reference for the design of SFTs.

In January 2000, the University of California created the Shared Cataloging Program (SCP). Based at the University of California, San Diego, the SCP is a “centralized cataloging model” for the California Digital Library consortium collections. This article will take an evolutionary look at the perpetual challenges of sustaining a consortial cataloging model and highlight the efforts of the SCP in the ongoing quest to eliminate the redundancy of efforts by centralizing the optimization of cataloging efficiency.

Author(s): Deng, Shi; Sotelo, Aislinn; Culbertson, Rebecca | Abstract: Libraries face many challenges in making electronic resources accessible and discoverable. In particular, the exponentially increasing number of licensed and open access electronic resources and the dynamic nature of consortial collections (platform changes, title transference between packages, and package overlap) present challenges for cataloging and discovery. From March 21 to April 10, 2017, the authors performed a selected review of library literature and conducted a survey of library consortia worldwide to ascertain the cataloging models, strategies, and advanced technological tools used to ensure discovery of consortial collections. The findings from the literature review and survey are summarized in this article.

Based on the three-dimensional (3D) potential theory and finite element method (FEM), this paper proposes a new numerical method for hydroelastic predictions of floating structures in inhomogeneous seabed and wave field conditions. The continuous floating structure is first discretized into rigid modules connected by elastic beams. The motion equations of the entire floating structure are established according to the six degrees of freedom (6DOF) motions of each module by coupling the hydrodynamics of the modules with the structural stiffness matrix of the elastic beams in the frequency domain. By applying different wave excitation forces onto different modules, this discrete-modules-based method then uniquely realizes application of various wave excitation forces onto different modules of the structures in inhomogeneous waves. The hydroelastic responses of a plate and a Wigley hull under an even and uneven seabed using the proposed method are verified against the results from the published model tests and the conventional 3D hydroelastic method. Finally, the effects of inhomogeneous waves on the distributions of the bending moment, shear force and vertical displacements of the freely floating plate are investigated. The results show that the inhomogeneity of waves may induce about 2∼3 times increase of the force responses in a specific wave frequency. This is the authors' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. Locked until 13 July 2019 due to copyright restrictions.

Rapid microwave hydrothermal synthesis is carried out to obtain hierarchical Mn2O3 microsphere through a self-assembled process within 30 minutes. All the raw materials used is nontoxicity without any template or polymer and the side-products are all small molecules which abide by the pricnciple of environmental protection. After the following solid state reaction, the as-prepared Mn2O3 powders can still keep the hierarchical morphology of micro sphere which is consisted of small primary particles and secondary slices. The sample obtained at 600 °C with high crystallinity, large specific surface area and mesoporous exhibits best electrochemical performances. High specific capacity of 921.6 mAh g−1 could be reached at a current density of 200 mA g−1. An interesting phenomenon with abnormal capacity increasing appears which could be ascribed to the continual enhancement of interface Li-storage. Thus, high specific capacity of about 525 mAh g−1 is obtained at high current density of 1000 mA g−1 after 500 cycles. Furthermore, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are performed to further study the hierarchical Mn2O3 anode material. It is revealed that such rapid microwave synthesis without any contamination is considered as a promising way to obtain hierarchical manganese oxides as anode material for applications.

The mission of the public welfare organizations is generally oriented to the public and based on morality. Serving as a key means to solve the problem in the non-profit organization agency, efficiency evaluation is also the premise and the foundation of accountability. Based on the data from 2010 to 2017, this paper analyzes the operational efficiency of four international disaster public welfare organizations (including GFDRR, UNISDR, OCHA, and ICRC). Given the characteristics of organizations, we extracted nine indexes of operational efficiency evaluation both in financial and non-financial aspects, and analyzed them by using the factor analysis method. The results show that the resource acquisition ability of the public welfare organization has a great influence on the operation of the organization. Additionally, the effective disclosure of the use of financial funds and the effectiveness of public welfare activities can promote public satisfaction. The beneficiary group size of the public welfare organization has a positive correlation with the management costs and staff costs.

Objective: Number of studies have been performed to evaluate the relationship between prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) variation rs2294008 and bladder cancer risk, but the sample size was small and the results were conflicting. This meta-analysis was conducted to comprehensively evaluate the overall association. Methods: Pubmed, Web of science, Embase, China biology medical literature database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang and Weipu databases were searched before June 30, 2018. The strength of associations was assessed using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). All of the statistical analyses were conducted using Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 14.0. Results: Ten studies involved 14,021 cases and 26,871 controls. Overall, significant association was observed between the PSCA gene variant rs2294008 polymorphism and bladder cancer (T vs C: OR = 1.16, 95%CI = 1.12−1.20; TT vs CC: OR = 1.32, 95%CI = 1.24−1.41; TT vs CT+CC: OR = 1.15, 95%CI = 1.09−1.22; TT+CT vs CC: OR = 1.27, 95%CI = 1.21−1.34). In subgroup analysis by ethnic group, a statistically significant association was observed in Asians (T vs C: OR = 1.23, 95%CI = 1.15−1.31) and Caucasians (T vs C: OR = 1.14, 95%CI = 1.10−1.18). The sensitivity analysis confirmed the reliability and stability of the meta-analysis. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis supports that the PSCA gene variant rs2294008 polymorphism might contribute to individual susceptibility to bladder cancer.

Clinical microbial identification plays an important role in optimizing the management of infectious diseases and provides diagnostic and therapeutic support for clinical management. Microbial proteomic research is aimed at identifying proteins associated with microbial activity, which has facilitated the discovery of microbial physiology changes and host-pathogen interactions during bacterial infection and antimicrobial therapy. Here, we summarize proteomic-driven progresses of host-microbial pathogen interactions at multiple levels, mass spectrometry-based microbial proteome identification for clinical diagnosis, and antimicrobial therapy. Proteomic technique progresses pave new ways towards effective prevention and drug discovery for microbial-induced infectious diseases.