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The estimation of vehicle loads is a rising research hotspot in bridge structure health monitoring (SHM). Traditional methods, such as the bridge weight-in-motion system (BWIM), are widely used but they fail to record the locations of vehicles on the bridges. Computer vision-based approaches are promising ways for vehicle tracking on bridges. Nevertheless, keeping track of vehicles from the video frames of multiple cameras without an overlapped visual field poses a challenge for the tracking of vehicles across the whole bridge. In this study, a method that was You Only Look Once v4 (YOLOv4)- and Omni-Scale Net (OSNet)-based was proposed to realize vehicle detecting and tracking across multiple cameras. A modified IoU-based tracking method was proposed to track a vehicle in adjacent video frames from the same camera, which takes both the appearance of vehicles and overlapping rates between the vehicle bounding boxes into consideration. The Hungary algorithm was adopted to match vehicle photos in various videos. Moreover, a dataset with 25,080 images of 1727 vehicles for vehicle identification was established to train and evaluate four models. Field validation experiments based on videos from three surveillance cameras were conducted to validate the proposed method. Experimental results show that the proposed method has an accuracy of 97.7% in terms of vehicle tracking in the visual field of a single camera and over 92.5% in tracking across multiple cameras, which can contribute to the acquisition of the temporal–spatial distribution of vehicle loads on the whole bridge.

Chinese indigenous pig breeds have been undergoing selection for thousands of years, and have become invaluable genetic sources over the world. To investigate the population structure and genetic diversity of Jinhua (JH), Longyou Black (LYW), Shengxian Spotted (SXH), and Lanxi Spotted (LXH) breeds, a total of 200 pigs belonging to 10 diverse population were genotyped using SNP chips. The results showed that LYW pigs exhibited higher level of heterozygosity than the other indigenous pigs. In addition, gene introgression from intensively reared commercial pig breeds to LYW pigs was detected. Moreover, selection signature analysis revealed the possibility of differences between Chinese indigenous and intensively reared commercial pig breeds were mainly present for meat and carcass traits. Furthermore, we found that ANXA13, DISP1, and SRSF6 were the nearest genes located around the common selection signatures detected between each indigenous pig breed and Chinese wild boars. Our findings provide new insights into the selection signatures of Chinese indigenous pigs, and may contribute to future pig breeding.

Genetic mutations that cause defective mismatch repair, may result in microsatellite instability, which is common in colorectal carcinoma and gastric cancers as well as Lynch syndrome. Mismatch repair deficiency/microsatellite instability-high(dMMR/MSI-H) predicts the tumor response to immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, few studies have evaluated the effects of immune checkpoint inhibitors on dMMR/MSI-H non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We report here a squamous lung cancer patient with dMMR/MSI-H and high tumor mutational burden(TMB-H) who obtained the long-term benefit from immunotherapy. We consider that NSCLC patient with dMMR/MSI-H can benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors.

The development of lamellar membranes with specific two-dimensional (2D) structures for efficient separation is highly desired. However, the rational design of ultrathin 2D/2D lamellar membranes with controlled structure and components still remains a great challenge. Herein, we report a general and low cost route for large-scale preparation of zwitterionic MXene (Z-Mxene) nanosheet intercalated GO nanofilms with size-selective permeability via an alignment oriented slow deposition method. By means of tunable ligand conformation and favorable hydrophilicity of dual-functionalized Z-MXene, multicomponent lamellar nanofilms with dual and ordered nanochannels in confined spacing were achieved. The strong interactions between GO and Z-Mxene nanosheets prevented the existing self-restacking phenomenon in conventional membrane fabrication which severely hindered mass transport. Moreover, the introduction of zwitterionic MXene into a composite membrane significantly improved the distribution of surface functional groups; the uneven distribution problem of surface functional groups and the harmful issues of nanochannel contortions can be effectively avoided. These favorable characteristics together with surface chemistry endowed the prepared composite membranes with strong hydration capacity, high permeability, low fouling propensity and distinctive stability. These improved properties suggest a promising way to develop multicomponent nanofilms with precisely controlled composition and structure for vast applications.

Hypobaric hypoxia (HH) is the primary challenge at high altitude. Prolonged HH exposure impairs right cardiac function. Mitochondria-associated membrane (MAM) plays a principal role in regulating mitochondrial function under hypoxic conditions, but the mechanism remains poorly understood. In this study, proteomics analysis identified that PACS2, a key protein in MAM, and mitophagy were down-regulated in HH conditions. Metabolomics analysis indicated suppression of aerobic oxidation of glucose and fatty acids. Cardiomyocyte Pacs2 deficiency disrupted MAM formation and endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-mitochondria calcium flux further inhibiting mitophagy and mitochondrial energy metabolism during HH exposure. Overexpression of Pacs2 reversed these effects. Cardiac-specific knockout of Pacs2 exacerbated mitophagy inhibition, cardiomyocyte injury and right cardiac dysfunction induced by HH. Knock-in of Pacs2 recovered HH-induced RV structural and functional impairment. Thus, PACS2 is essential for protecting cardiomyocytes through mechanisms of ER-mitochondria calcium flux, mitophagy, and mitochondrial energy metabolism, thereby maintaining right cardiac function at high altitude.

Background: Acute high altitude (HA) exposure results in blood pressure (BP) variations in most subjects. Previous studies have demonstrated that higher BP is potentially correlated with acute mountain sickness (AMS). The BP load may be of clinical significance regarding systemic circulation status.Objectives: This study aimed to examine HA-induced BP changes in patients with AMS compared to those in healthy subjects. Further, we provided clinical information about the relationship between variations in 24-h ambulatory parameters (BP level, BP variability, and BP load) and AMS.Methods: Sixty-nine subjects were enrolled and all participants ascended Litang (4,100 m above sea level). They were monitored using a 24-h ambulatory blood pressure device and underwent echocardiography within 24 h of altitude exposure. The 2018 Lake Louise questionnaire was used to evaluate AMS.Results: The AMS group comprised more women than men [15 (65.2%) vs. 13 (28.3%), P < 0.001] and fewer smokers [4 (17.4%) vs. 23 (50.0%), P = 0.009]. The AMS group exhibited significant increases in 24-h BP compared to the non-AMS group (24-h SBP variation: 10.52 ± 6.48 vs. 6.03 ± 9.27 mmHg, P = 0.041; 24-h DBP variation: 8.70 ± 4.57 vs. 5.03 ± 4.98 mmHg, P = 0.004). The variation of mean 24-h cBPL (cumulative BP load) (mean 24-h cSBPL: 10.58 ± 10.99 vs. 4.02 ± 10.58, P = 0.016; 24-h mean cDBPL: 6.03 ± 5.87 vs. 2.89 ± 4.99, P = 0.034) was also obviously higher in AMS subjects than in non-AMS subjects after HA exposure. 24-h mean cSBPL variation (OR = 1.07, P = 0.024) and 24-h mean cDBPL variation (OR = 1.14, P = 0.034) were independent risk factors of AMS. Moreover, variation of 24-h mean cSBPL showed a good correlation with AMS score (R = 0.504, P < 0.001).Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that patients with AMS had higher BP and BP load changes after altitude exposure than healthy subjects. Excessive BP load variations were associated with AMS. Thus, BP load could be an effective indicator regarding systemic circulation status of AMS.

Aberrant activation of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway is implicated in the pathogenesis and development of multiple cancers, especially Hh-driven medulloblastoma (MB). Smoothened (SMO) is a promising therapeutic target of the Hh pathway in clinical cancer treatment. However, SMO mutations frequently occur, which leads to drug resistance and tumor relapse. Novel inhibitors that target both the wild-type and mutant SMO are in high demand. In this study, we identified a novel Hh pathway inhibitor, pseudolaric acid B (PAB), which significantly inhibited the expression of Gli1 and its transcriptional target genes, such as cyclin D1 and N-myc, thus inhibiting the proliferation of DAOY and Ptch1+/- primary MB cells. Mechanistically, PAB can potentially bind to the extracellular entrance of the heptahelical transmembrane domain (TMD) of SMO, based on molecular docking and the BODIPY-cyclopamine binding assay. Further, PAB also efficiently blocked ciliogenesis, demonstrating the inhibitory effects of PAB on the Hh pathway at multiple levels. Thus, PAB may overcome drug-resistance induced by SMO mutations, which frequently occurs in clinical setting. PAB markedly suppressed tumor growth in the subcutaneous allografts of Ptch1+/- MB cells. Together, our results identified PAB as a potent Hh pathway inhibitor to treat Hh-dependent MB, especially cases resistant to SMO antagonists.

Background Bos taurus and Bos indicus are two main sub-species of cattle. However, the differential copy number variations (CNVs) between them are not yet well studied. Results Based on the new high-quality cattle reference genome ARS-UCD1.2, we identified 13,234 non-redundant CNV regions (CNVRs) from 73 animals of 10 cattle breeds (4 Bos taurus and 6 Bos indicus), by integrating three detection strategies. While 6990 CNVRs (52.82%) were shared by Bos taurus and Bos indicus, large CNV differences were discovered between them and these differences could be used to successfully separate animals into two subspecies. We found that 2212 and 538 genes uniquely overlapped with either indicine-specific CNVRs and or taurine-specific CNVRs, respectively. Based on FST, we detected 16 candidate lineage-differential CNV segments (top 0.1%) under selection, which overlapped with eight genes (CTNNA1, ENSBTAG00000004415, PKN2, BMPER, PDE1C, DNAJC18, MUSK, and PLCXD3). Moreover, we obtained 1.74 Mbp indicine-specific sequences, which could only be mapped on the Bos indicus reference genome UOA_Brahman_1. We found these sequences and their associated genes were related to heat resistance, lipid and ATP metabolic process, and muscle development under selection. We further analyzed and validated the top significant lineage-differential CNV. This CNV overlapped genes related to muscle cell differentiation, which might be generated from a retropseudogene of CTH but was deleted along Bos indicus lineage. Conclusions This study presents a genome wide CNV comparison between Bos taurus and Bos indicus. It supplied essential genome diversity information for understanding of adaptation and phenotype differences between the Bos taurus and Bos indicus populations.

Background Previous studies have shown that PRDX1 is upregulated in some types of malignant tumors. The role of PRDX1 in non-small-cancer lung carcinoma (NSCLC) remains unclear. This study aims to identify the role of PRDX1 in influencing in vitro biological functions of NSCLC and the molecular mechanism. Patients and methods We collected 50 cases of fresh NSCLC and adjacent non-tumoral tissues for detecting differential expressions of PRDX1 by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Survival time of NSCLC patients, defined as the period from the operation to the latest follow-up or death due to recurrence or metastasis, was recorded for assessing the relationship between PRDX1 and prognosis in NSCLC. Using lentivirus transfection, PRDX1 level was downregulated in NSCLC cells. Subsequently, proliferative and apoptotic abilities, and expression levels of vital genes in the Wnt/β-Catenin signaling were examined. Finally, the significance of activated Wnt/β-Catenin signaling during PRDX1-regulated NSCLC proliferation was explored. Results Using GEPIA database and NSCLC tissues we collected, PRDX1 was detected to be upregulated in NSCLC samples than controls. PRDX1 level was related to tumor staging and prognosis in NSCLC. Knockdown of PRDX1 attenuated proliferative ability and stimulated apoptosis in NSCLC. Protein levels of Wnt5A was downregulated in H1299 and SPC-A1 cells with PRDX1 knockdown. Overexpression of β-Catenin enhanced proliferative ability and inhibited apoptosis in NSCLC cells with PRDX1 knockdown. Conclusions PRDX1 is upregulated in NSCLC samples, and linked to tumor staging and prognosis. It stimulates NSCLC to proliferate by activating the Wnt/β-Catenin signaling.

The powerful capabilities of deep convolutional neural networks make them useful in various fields. However, most edge devices are difficult to afford the huge amount of parameters and high computational cost. Therefore, it is highly imperative to compress these huge models to make them lightweight to enable real-time inference on edge devices. Channel pruning is a mainstream method of network compression. Generally, the Lasso constraint is imposed on the scaling factor in the batch normalization layer to make them tend to zero for selecting unimportant channels and then prune them. However, Lasso is a non-smooth function that is not derivable at zero, we experimentally find that when the value of the loss function is small, it is difficult to decline continuously. Aiming at the above problems, this paper proposes a pruning strategy based on the derivable function Smooth-Lasso, using Smooth-Lasso as a regularization constraint to perform sparse training and then prune the network. Experiments on benchmark datasets and convolutional networks show that our method can not only make the loss function converge quickly, but also save more storage space and computational cost than the baseline method while maintaining the same level of accuracy as the original network.

Bio-fouling of membranes caused by microorganisms seriously limited the development of membrane technology in practical applications. Design and synthesis of antifouling and antibacterial membranes with high quality are of paramount importance. In this study, we report a facile and safe method of extended Mitsunobu reaction (EMR)-freeze drying (FD) method to achieve oxygen-containing azido functionalized GO (AGO) nanosheets and synthesize novel azido-group functionalized graphene/polysulfone mixed matrix ultrafiltration membranes with enhanced permselective, antifouling and antibacterial property. Unlike reported thermochemical or chemical reactions to modify GO nanosheets, GO nanosheets were functionalized at low temperature which effectively prevented the decomposition of structural frame of pristine GO materials and the self-stacking phenomenon. Because of strong interactions between oxygen-containing AGO nanosheets and polymer matrices, high dispersity and interfacial compatibility were obtained in polysulfone membranes, resulting in sharp decrease of interfacial defects. Different kinds of techniques include SEM, ATR-FTIR, XPS, XRD, TEM and EDX were used to investigate the structure and morphology of AGO nanosheets and blended membranes, and cross-flow filtration experiments, anti-fouling and antibacterial test were applied to predict the behavior of hybrid membranes. High performance AGO/PSF mixed matrix membranes with excellent anti-fouling ability were successfully synthesized, which exhibited pure water flux as large as 245.1 L m-2 h-1 with satisfactory rejection of 95.8% for BSA. Moreover, the prepared membranes displayed good antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus in long-term duration.

The amino-functionalized montmorillonite (NH 2 -MMT) with different amino content is successfully prepared by adjusting the solvents proportion of anhydrous ethanol and toluene. Then NH 2 -MMT is incorporated into gelatin to prepare composite edible films using dialdehyde xanthan gum (DXG) as the crosslinking agent. The XRD studies indicate that the amino-functionalization is beneficial for MMT to disperse and exfoliate in gelatin matrix and the incorporation of NH 2 -MMT can induce gelatin molecules to renature into triple-helix structure. The amino-functionalization of MMT provides active sites for the crosslinking by Schiff's base reaction to produce compact networks among gelatin, NH 2 -MMT and DXG. Moreover, the increase of amino content of NH 2 -MMT consequentially improves the crosslinking density of the composite films. Hence, the UV light barrier property, water resistance, mechanical property and thermal stability of the composite films are improved with the addition of NH 2 -MMT and increase along with the increase of amino content of NH 2 -MMT. The study demonstrates that NH 2 -MMT is an ideal filler for gelatin based composite edible films.

This study has introduced a method for fatigue performance evaluation of steel orthotropic bridge decks based on filed measurements for hotspot stress. The long-term stress of the orthotropic bridge deck of Jinchang Road Canal Bridge in Hangzhou, China, was observed by sensors. The fatigue damage and fatigue reliability of the bridge deck were analyzed and evaluated according to the stress. The results show that: (a) the fatigue life of the bridge deck is larger than the design value, indicating that the design of the orthotropic bridge deck is reasonable; (b) the fatigue loads acting at three hotspots can be described by normal distribution; and (c) for the current traffic volume, the fatigue reliability index of the three hotspots is greater than two in the design period. The fatigue reliability index of the three hotspots decreases significantly with the increase of traffic flow, at which time the fatigue damage becomes considerable.

In an optical system that is transmitting a laser beam through the atmosphere by phase compensation with adaptive optics, the aiming performance depends on the method of wavefront tilt detection, which can be divided into Zernike tilt detection and gradient tilt detection. A unified formulation for both methods is obtained to calculate the residual tilt angle jitter and tilt correction factor, which are defined as the evaluation indexes of the aiming performance. A parameter L0 called the equivalent atmospheric coherence length is expressed as an integral over the structure constant profile of the refraction index and is modulated by a modulation function that is determined by the ratio of the offset distance to the aperture. As a result, the tilt correction factor can be represented as (r0/L0)5/6, where r0 is the atmospheric coherence length. Simulations illustrate that the aiming performance of an optical system based on gradient tilt detection is better than that of Zernike tilt detection under identical conditions. For the two types of system, the aiming performance will be decreased as the ratio of the offset distance to the aperture increases and the atmospheric conditions worsen.

Perfluorooctanesulphonicacid (PFOS), a persistent organic contaminant, has been widely detected in the environment, wildlife and humans, but few studies have assessed its effect on aquatic organisms. The present study evaluated the effect of PFOS on zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish embryos exhibited developmental toxicity of bent spine, uninflated swim bladder, decreased heart rate and affected spontaneous movement after exposure to various PFOS concentrations (0-8mg/L) from 6 to 120h post-fertilization (hpf). The LC(50) at 120hpf was 2.20mg/L and the EC(50) at 120hpf was 1.12mg/L. Continuous exposure to PFOS from 1 to 121hpf resulted in a steady accumulation with no evidence of elimination. PFOS induced cell death at 24hpf was consistently found in the brain, eye, and tail region of embryos. PFOS exposure induced lesions in the muscle fibers with histological examination. Behavior assessment of PFOS in zebrafish embryos elevated the basal rate of swimming after 4 days of exposure, and larvae exposed to PFOS (0.25-4mg/L) for only 1h at 6dpf swam faster with increasing PFOS concentration. Embryos/larvae exposed to 8mg/L PFOS for 24h periods from 1 to 121hpf showed the highest incidence of malformations in the 97-121hpf window. This is the first study to define uptake kinetics and to focus on behavioral consequences following PFOS exposure in zebrafish. Our results further the understanding of the toxicity of PFOS to aquatic organisms and suggest the need for additional research to identify the mode of PFOS toxicity.

Objective The aim of our study was to detect the correlation between the expressions of HER2 and VEGF in breast cancer, and their relations with some pathological factors.

In this paper, the asymptotic behavior of the Morris–Lecar model is studied. Firstly, the phase plane characteristic of the model is investigated, secondly, in terms of the concepts of slow manifold and fast foliation, the asymptotic structure of the Morris–Lecar model is discussed based on Tikhonov's theorem. Finally, computation and analysis results show that the spiking of action potential of Morris–Lecar neuron actually has the jump onset–jump return structure.

The second-order nonlinearities in thermally poled lead borate glasses were studied. After poling with different electrodes, both bulk and near surface second-order nonlinearities were obtained. The second harmonic generation signal from near surface effect was two orders of magnitude larger than the bulk effect. By simulating the poling process with a multiple carrier model, we concluded that the bulk second-order nonlinearity was caused by the deficiency of Pb2+ in a thick layer after poling, and the near surface second-order nonlinearity was caused by the depletion of H+ in a thin layer when H+ injection from the atmosphere was blocked.

Shuangbai San is a Chinese herb preparation used externally to treat pain. There have been few randomized controlled trials addressing the safety and usefulness of Shuangbai San, such as its effect on pain relief and quality of life (QOL) improvement.This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Shuangbai San on relieving pain and improving QOL in primary liver cancer patients with cancer pain.A total of 134 primary liver cancer patients with mild pain (numerical rating scale [NRS] ≤ 3), either locally in the liver or in the upper abdomen, were enrolled and randomly allocated to the group receiving Shuangbai San or the control group (receiving placebo). The primary outcome measures were the NRS score and QOL scales, including the QOL scale for patients with liver cancer, version 2.0 and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QOL Questionnaire-C30. The secondary outcome measures included the Karnofsky Performance Status score, blood indicators, and liver and kidney function before and after treatment.The NRS scores decreased more significantly in the Shuangbai San group than in the placebo group (P 0.05) at the corresponding time points. The changes in the scores for the physical function, psychological function, and symptoms/adverse effects domains of the QOL scale for patients with liver cancer, version 2.0 and the physical, emotional, and cognitive domains of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QOL Questionnaire-C30 were significantly greater in the Shuangbai San group than in the placebo group (P 0.05). The changes in the scores for the other domains were not significantly different (P 0.05).The use of Shuangbai San can relieve mild pain in liver cancer patients and improve their QOL.

The easily accessible hexafluoroisopropoxysulfuric acid (1, hfipOSO3H; hfip = C(H)(CF3)2) was synthesized by the reaction of hexafluoroisopropanol and chlorosulfonic acid on the kilogram scale and isolated in 98 % yield. The calculated gas-phase acidity (GA) value of 1 is 58 kJ mol(-1) lower in ΔG° than that of sulfuric acid (GA value determined by a CCSD(T)-MP2 compound method). Considering the gas-phase dissociation constant as a measure for the intrinsic molecular acid strength, a hfipOSO3H molecule is more than ten orders of magnitude more acidic than a H2SO4 molecule. The acid is a liquid at room temperature, distillable at reduced pressure, stable for more than one year in a closed vessel, reactive towards common solvents, and decomposes above 180 °C. It is a versatile compound for further applications, such as the synthesis of ammonium- and imidazolium-based air- and moisture-stable protic ionic liquids (pILs). Among the six synthesized ionic compounds, five are pILs with melting points below 100 °C and three of them are liquids at nearly room temperature. The conductivities and viscosities of two representative ILs were investigated in terms of Walden plots, and the pILs were found to be little associated ILs, comparable to conventional aprotic ILs.

In this paper, an attempt is made to create the bridge between two important design techniques, robust ISS-satisficing control design and fuzzy control design, so as to supply robust ISS-satisficing control design with more inverse optimality and fuzzy control design with better robust and predictive performance. Based on the control Lyapunov method, the closed-loop system we discussed in this paper is stable. In the conventional robust ISS-satisficing control system, all parameters of the system must be determined which limits the application areas. In the study, the authors combine these two control method to form a new approach, making it learns from each other's strong points, and offsets their weakness. The simulation results of chaotic systems are given to demonstrate that the control algorithm is feasible with respect to this problem