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This paper presents a class model for neutral-type bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks (NNS) with infinite distributed delay. The model extends and improves some recent works for...

Pancreatic cancer is a highly malignant tumor of the digestive system. Previous studies have shown that abnormal cell surface glycosylation is associated with cancer metastasis, which suggests that glycosylation changes may open a new window for discovering metastasis-related pathways. In this study, we used a microarray with 55 lectins to screen for altered glycosylation between two metastatic pancreatic cancer lines (Capan-1 and Su.86.86) and two nonmetastatic pancreatic cancer lines (Panc-1 and MIA PaCa-2), and we further analyzed three lectins with high-binding activities (AAL, UEA-I, and PHA-E) in cell motility assays using these pancreatic cancer cells to detect whether blocking certain forms of cell surface glycosylation affects any processes associated with metastasis. As a result, we found that AAL, a fucose-specific lectin, has different binding patterns between metastatic pancreatic cancer and nonmetastatic pancreatic cancer lines and inhibits cell motility in metastatic pancreatic cancer cells. Furthermore, the N-fucosylation-related genes FUT3, 5, and 6 were found to be responsible for the elevated fucosylation in metastatic pancreatic cells through real-time PCR screening. In summary, our findings that the specific bindings of AAL on cell surfaces and highly expressed FUT3, 5, and 6 in metastatic pancreatic cancer cells, although preliminary, are encouraging, and our established combined method is also suitable for discovering metastasis-related mechanisms in other cancers.

Particle size distribution of radon progeny is one of the most important parameters and it needs to be measured accurately. Graded screen array measurement is the most frequently used method for analyzing the characteristics of radon progeny but it needs optimization due to its complex configuration. In this paper, collection efficiency of a single screen and the number of screen array were applied for optimization and simplification of the graded screen array configuration by a series of experimental measurements, theoretical calculations, and standard comparison research methods. When optimized in this way, an experiment was designed for radon progeny particle size distribution in a customized radon chamber. The experiment results indicated that the activity median diameter in unattached mode was 0.81 nm and 287.32 nm in attached mode, which were similar to the results obtained by other researchers. The results prove that the method can satisfy the requirements of graded screen array measurement.

The surgical resection of melanoma may cause skin wounds, and the remaining melanoma cells bring a great risk of tumor recurrence. To overcome the above problem, we for the first time constructed lanthanum-doped chitosan (La-CS) hydrogels with excellent wound healing and antitumor functions. The La element was uniformly dispersed within whole hydrogels, and part of La3+ ions reacted with CS to form La-CS complex. The complexation interaction between La3+ ions and CS significantly improve the La3+ release performances of La-CS hydrogels. The as-released La3+ ions from the composite hydrogels selectively inhibited the proliferation of B-16 melanoma cells, but showed lower toxic side effects to L929 skin fibroblast cells. Moreover, the La3+ ions triggered the apoptosis of B-16 cells through Bcl-2/Bax pathway, as confirmed by the Annexin Vand PI double staining, flow cytometry, and Western blot results. The in vivo tumor models of C57 mice revealed that the La-CS hydrogels had more significant relapse-inhibit...

Background A study to evaluate the prevalence of uric acid (UA) nephrolithiasis with dual-energy CT (DECT) and explore the risk factors for kidney stones in primary gout patients. Methods Eighty-four consecutive gout patients underwent urinary tract ultrasonography or DECT to confirm the existence of kidney stones. Urine and blood samples were also taken for laboratory analysis. Results Forty-one subjects (48.8%) had nephrolithiasis diagnosed; 38 had a kidney stone. Thirty-two of the 38 patients underwent a DECT scan, and 27 patients had nephrolithiasis in DECT. Among them, 63.0% (17/27) and 14.8% (4/21) of the patients had pure UA and UA-based mixed stone, respectively, and 22.2% (6/27) had a non-UA stone. Those with nephrolithiasis suffered from more frequent acute attacks and had longer disease durations of gout. At least one urine biochemical abnormality was found in 81% of patients. Forty-four (55.0%) patients presented hypomagnesuria. Forty-three (51.8%) patients had low urine volume. Unduly acidic urine (UAU) was present in 36 patients (44.4%). Hyperuricosuria was only found in ten (12.2%) patients. In comparison to the non-lithiasic group, the lithiasic group was more likely to have a UAU. Binary logistic regression showed that female gender was a protective factor, while disease duration of gout and low urine pH were risk factors for nephrolithiasis. Conclusion Our results indicated that nephrolithiasis, especially UA stones, were more common than previous reports in gout patients indicated, and that disease duration of gout, and low urine pH, were risk factors for nephrolithiasis.

The Dabaoshan Cu–Pb–Zn–Mo–W polymetallic deposit in northern Guangdong Province, South China, lies in the southern part of the Qin–Hang porphyry–skarn Cu Mo ore belt and hosts both porphyry Mo and stratabound skarn Cu ores. The genesis of the Cu ore has been ascribed to typical skarn ore formed by the metasomatism of Devonian carbonate rock layers, or to a sediment-rock-hosted massive sulfide deposit formed by marine exhalation. In this paper, we report the ages of porphyry Mo and stratiform Cu ores and dacitic porphyry determined with molybdenite Re Os, sericite Ar/Ar, and zircon U Pb methods, respectively. Nine samples from the granodiorite porphyry Mo ores yielded Re Os model ages ranging from 165.7 ± 2.3 to 163.4 ± 2.4 Ma, with a weighted mean age of 164.8 ± 0.8 Ma (MSWD = 0.52). Sericite from two samples of stratiform Cu ores yielded ages of 166.6 ± 1.6 Ma (DB011) and 171.7 ± 2.0 Ma (DB020), with corresponding reverse isochron ages of 167.0 ± 2.0 Ma and 161.7 ± 1.7 Ma, respectively. The age data determined from Re Os analyses of molybdenite and 40Ar/39Ar dating of sericite are in good agreement with each other, indicating that the porphyry Mo and stratiform Cu potentially originated from the same ore system and may be genetically associated with Jurassic granitic granodiorite porphyry. In this study, magmatic zircon weighted mean ages of 434.3 ± 1.0 Ma (DB009), 431.5 ± 0.12 Ma (DB022), and 427.0 ± 0.87 Ma (DB031) from three samples for the Dabaoshan dacitic porphyry indicate that the mineralization in the Dabaoshan deposit is mainly related to the invasion of Jurassic granitic magma, not to Silurian subvolcanic rocks. Based on the integrated geological, geophysical, and geochemical data, we proposed the Dabaoshan porphyry–skarn Cu–Pb–Zn–Mo–Wpolymetallic deposit to be part of the Qin–Hang porphyry–skarn Cu Mo ore belt that formed during the low-angle Jurassic subduction of the Paleo-pacific plate under Eurasian continent.

With the usage of the FEM software ANSYS, an axisymmetric model for the tube channel end of a screw lock closure type heat exchanger was built. The elastic and elastoplastic stress analyses were carried out. The variations of the stress distribution at the root of threads and the contact pressure on threads engaged surfaces were invesgated. Furthemore, an optimization design based on the elastic model for this type heat exchanger was also conducted in order to obtain reasonable structure dimensions and make full use of materials.

Functional protein microarray is an important tool for high-throughput and large-scale systems biology studies. Besides the progresses that have been made for protein microarray fabrication, significant advancements have also been achieved for applying protein microarrays on determining a variety of protein biochemical activities. Among these applications, detection of protein binding properties, such as protein-protein interactions (PPIs), protein-DNA interactions (PDIs), protein-RNA interactions, and antigen-antibody interactions, are straightforward and have substantial impacts on many research fields. In this review, we will focus on the recent progresses in protein-protein, protein-DNA, protein-RNA, protein-small molecule, protein-lipid, protein-glycan, and antigen-antibody interactions. We will also discuss the challenges and future directions of protein microarray technologies. We strongly believe that protein microarrays will soon become an indispensible tool for both basic research and clinical applications.

Cell surfaces, especially mammalian cell surfaces, are heavily coated with complex poly- and oligosaccharides, and these glycans have been implicated in many functions, such as cell-to-cell communication, host-pathogen interactions and cell matrix interactions. Not surprisingly then, the aberrations of glycosylation are usually indicative of the onset of specific diseases, such as cancer. Therefore, glycans are expected to serve as important biomarkers for disease diagnosis and/or prognosis. Recent development of the lectin microarray technology has allowed researchers to profile the glycans in complex biological samples in a high throughput fashion. This relatively new tool is highly suitable for both live cell and cell lysate analyses and has the potential for rapid discovery of glycan-based biomarkers. In this review, we will focus on the basic concepts and the latest advances of lectin microarray technology. We will also emphasize the application of lectin microarrays for biomarker discovery, and then discuss the challenges faced by this technology and potential future directions. Based on the tremendous progress already achieved, it seems apparent that lectin microarrays will soon become an indispensible tool for glycosylation biomarker discovery.

This paper applies differential evolution (DE) algorithm to realize the output tracking control and synchronization of continuous chaotic systems. The output tracking control of single-input single-output (SISO) and multi-input multi-output (MIMO) chaotic system is investigated. Moreover, synchronization of chaotic systems with parameter mismatch or structure difference is also under discussion. Numerical simulations based on the well-known models such as Lorenz and Chen systems are used to illustrate the validity of this theoretical method.

This paper describes the method of radioactivity measurement to eliminate the outliers in experiment. The value of radon concentration can cause deviation in the process of transmission because the FH-463 is interfered in the process of measurement by external factors such as electromagnetic waves etc. It makes measurements vary greater than the Expectations. And it can only process 10% or less Outlier when using Grubbs’ criterion directly. In order to meet the Radon Concentration for inspection, the paper makes some necessary improvement on the criterion to adapt itself and estimates the sample data with linear regression. The experimental results show that the method is very convenient to reject the data with deviation more effective. The method in this paper can also be used in other fields.

This paper points out some defects in the techniques used in H.264 rate control and presents several new algorithms to improve them. The improved algorithm has the following main features: 1) the bits allocated to each P-frame is proportional to the local motion in it, i.e, more bits are allocated to a frame if the local motion in it is stronger; 2) the quantization parameter for I-frame is choosed based on a new bits allocation scheme for I-frame; 3)the quantization parameter calculation is based on a simple encoding complexity prediction scheme, which is more robust and of less complexity than the quadratic model used by H.264 in low bit rate video coding. Experimental results and analysis show that the improved rate-control scheme has significantly increased the average peak signal-to-noise ratio up to 1.53 dB, reduced the variation of buffer level, improved the perpetual quality of the reconstructed video and reduced the computation complexity.

Improving health care to rural Chinese communities is vital for promoting health equity in China today. The Chinese Academy of Sciences plays a predominant role in providing advanced technical solutions toward this goal. The use of elaborate integrated diagnostic terminals and cloud computing platforms have made significant social impacts as well as initiated China’s domestic low-cost health-care industry.

Glycosylation is one of the most important posttranslational modification processes, which is regulated by a large number of enzymes. Cell surface, especially mammalian cell surface is heavily coated with glycans. Cell surface glycans are highly related to cell-cell communication, host-pathogen interaction, cell matrix interaction and etc. The aberrations of glycosylation, either intercellular or intracellular, usually indicate the onset of certain diseases, such as cancer and cancer metastasis, thus could be used as biomarkers. Lectin microarray, by far, is the most powerful technologies for high-throughput glycan profiling and comparison. It is highly suitable for both live cell and cell lysate analysis and has the potential for high-throughput, low-cost and fast discovery of glycan related biomarkers. In this review, we will focus on the basic concept and the latest advances of lectin microarray technology. We will emphasize the application of lectin microarrays for biomarker discovery. We will also discuss the challenges that lectin microarrays are facing and the possible future directions. We strongly believe that lectin microarrays will soon become an indispensible and invaluable tool for glycosylation related biomarker discovery.

This article uses the advanced wavelet theory to perform multi-criteria transformation on the medical CT image wavelet in order to obtain directive components. The improved wavelet threshold value law is combined with the wavelet homomorphism filter corresponding to the obtained directive components to remove noise and enhance image effect, finally resulting in the multi-scale (level) enhanced images. The better enhancement effect of the image is obtained by further synthesizing. The experiment indicated that using this algorithm the important characteristic of the image is retained very well while the noise of the image is removed, achieving the enhancement of medicine CT image.