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The solute carrier 13 (SLC13) family comprises electrogenic sodium ion-coupled anion cotransporters, segregating into sodium ion-sulfate cotransporters (NaSs) and sodium ion-di-and-tricarboxylate cotransporters (NaDCs). NaS1 and NaDC1 regulate sulfate homeostasis and oxidative metabolism, respectively. NaS1 deficiency affects murine growth and fertility, while NaDC1 affects urinary citrate and calcium nephrolithiasis. Despite their importance, the mechanisms of substrate recognition and transport remain insufficiently characterized. In this study, we determined the cryo-electron microscopy structures of human NaS1, capturing inward-facing and combined inward-facing/outward-facing conformations within a dimer both in apo and sulfate-bound states. In addition, we elucidated NaDC1's outward-facing conformation, encompassing apo, citrate-bound, and N-(p-amylcinnamoyl) anthranilic acid (ACA) inhibitor-bound states. Structural scrutiny illuminates a detailed elevator mechanism driving conformational changes. Notably, the ACA inhibitor unexpectedly binds primarily anchored by transmembrane 2 (TM2), Loop 10, TM11, and TM6a proximate to the cytosolic membrane. Our findings provide crucial insights into SLC13 transport mechanisms, paving the way for future drug design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim of this work was to compare different local cutoff values (LCV) and inline cutoff values (ICV) in pregnant women in the second trimester at high risk for carrying fetuses with trisomy 21. Methods This retrospective cohort study analyzed prenatal screening outcomes in pregnant women (n = 311,561). The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic significance of the trisomy 21 risk value, alpha-fetoprotein, and free beta human chorionic gonadotropin multiple of the median for predicting trisomy 21 risk. The cutoff value corresponding to the maximal Youden index was taken as the LCV. The screening efficiency of both cutoff values was compared. Results The LCV cutoff value was lower than the ICV cutoff value (1/643 vs 1/270). The sensitivity increased by 19.80%, the positive predictive value decreased by 0.20%, and the false-positive rate increased by 6.50%. Conclusion The LCV should be used to determine trisomy 21 risk, which can increase the detection rate of trisomy 21 in the second trimester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of alpha-fetoprotein variants (AFP-L2, AFP-L3) in fetal screening for Trisomy 18 in place of alpha fetoprotein (AFP). Methods A retrospective case-control study was conducted. Collectively, 39 pregnant women bearing Trisomy 18 fetuses and 48 pregnant women with clinically normal and healthy fetuses were included. The serum AFP-L2 and AFP-L3 concentrations were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The likelihood ratio method and Python software were used to construct the risk model with AFP, free β-hCG, AFP-L2, and AFP-L3 to predict Trisomy 18. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to determine the optimal cutoff value, while the area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess the screening performance of AFP-L2 and AFP-L3 for fetal Trisomy 18. Results Compared to values observed for the control group, AFP-L2 and AFP-L3 concentrations which were significantly higher (both p< .001) in pregnant women with Trisomy 18 fetuses were 7.95 ± 3.57 ng/mL and 2.53 ± 1.80 ng/mL, respectively. Comparisons across multiple modeling methods showed that the highest AUC of screened Trisomy 18 fetuses (0.992, 0.986, and 0.976) was yielded by AFP-L2 + AFP-L3 + free β-hCG, AFP-L2 + free β-hCG, and AFP-L3 + free β-hCG, with a sensitivity of 1.000 indicated in both instances. In different modeling methods, the order of AUC values was AFP-L2 + AFP-L3 + free β-hCG > AFP-L2 + free β-hCG > AFP-L3 + free β-hCG > AFP + free β-hCG. Conclusions AFP-L2 and AFP-L3 showed higher sensitivity and specificity as substitutes for AFP in screening Trisomy 18. These two markers indeed improved the screening efficiency and reduced the false positive rate, when compared with AFP only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are validated targets for the development of anticancer drugs in epigenetics. In the discovery of novel HDAC inhibitors with anticancer potency, the 5-chloro-4-((substituted phenyl)amino)pyrimidine fragment is assembled as a cap group into the structure of HDAC inhibitors. The SAR revealed that presence of small groups (such as methoxy substitution) is beneficial for the HDAC inhibitory activity. In the enzyme inhibitory selectivity test, compound L20 exhibited class I selectivity with IC50 values of 0.684 µM (selectivity index of >1462), 2.548 µM (selectivity index of >392), and 0.217 µM (selectivity index of >4608) against HDAC1, HDAC2 and HDAC3 compared with potency against HDAC6 (IC50 value of >1000 µM), respectively. In the antiproliferative assay, compound L20 showed both hematological and solid cancer inhibitory activities. In the flow cytometry, L20 promoted G0/G1 phase cell cycle arrest and apoptosis of K562 cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) expression is statistically correlated with the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the specific role of HDAC1 in the occurrence and development of TBI remains unclear. The lateral fluid percussion injury (LFPI) was used to conduct TBI mouse model in C57BL/6J and C57BL/6J-Hdac1em1cyagen mice. Western blot and qRT-PCR were performed to estimate the expression of HDAC1 and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 4 (NOX4) in brain tissues. Modified neurological severity score (mNSS) and brain water content were analyzed to detect the neurological deficit. Malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione (GSH) were used to detect the oxidative stress. Oxidative stresses, HDAC1, and NOX4 expression were upregulated in the lesioned cortices tissues after TBI. HDAC1 protein expression was positively correlated with the NOX4 in TBI mouse. Hdac1 knockout attenuated brain edema and neurological dysfunction caused by TBI in mice. Hdac1 knockout inhibited the expressions of NOX4 induced by TBI and attenuated TBI-induced oxidative stress. HDAC1 expression is positively correlated with to NOX4-mediated oxidative stress in a TBI mouse model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence suggests that microRNA (miR)-146a functions as an oncogene or tumor suppressor in various cancers. However, the role of miR-146a in gastric cancer (GC) remains to be elucidated. The present study investigated the function of miR-146a in GC cells. The results of the present study revealed that miR-146a modulates GC cell apoptosis. Overexpression of miR-146a significantly increased apoptosis of SGC-7901 cells, whereas inhibition of miR-146a protected cells from apoptosis. miR-146a expression in GC cells was inversely correlated with transforming growth factor β-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) expression, at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, small interfering RNA-mediated silencing of TAK1 enhanced GC cell apoptosis, whereas overexpression of TAK1 promoted survival of GC cells. Overexpression of miR-146a or knockdown of TAK1 led to a marked increase in inhibitor of κBα (IκBα) and a decrease in B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) expression levels in SGC-7901 cells. By contrast, silencing of miR-146a or TAK1 overexpression downregulated IκBα and upregulated Bcl-2 expression levels. Therefore, the results of the present study demonstrated a novel negative feedback mechanism to promote GC cell apoptosis involving the miR-146a/TAK1/nuclear factor-κB axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incompletely reduced graphene (RG) was prepared by reduction of graphite oxides via microwave irradiation at the power of 800 W and 1200 W, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses showed that the RG contains flourish oxygen functional groups such as carboxyl, phenol, carbonyl, and quinone groups. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were employed to investigate the structure, morphology of the RG samples. The electrochemical performance of the RG electrodes were measured in 5 M NaOH, 1 M H2SO4 and 1 M Na2SO4 electrolytes respectively. The supercapacitor performance of oxygen-containing functional group behavior was investigated. The specific pseudocapacitance per unit atomic percentage for either carboxyl or phenol group in 1 M H2SO4 and either carbonyl and quinone group in 5 M NaOH were obtained by galvano-statically charge/discharge measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the models for simulating vapor intrusion accept the local equilibrium assumption for multiphase concentration distributions, that is, concentrations in solid, liquid and vapor phases are in equilibrium. For simulating vapor transport with aerobic biodegradation controlled by counter-diffusion processes, the local equilibrium assumption combined with dual-Monod kinetics and biomass decay may yield near-instantaneous behavior at steady state. The present research investigates how predicted concentration profiles and fluxes change as interphase mass transfer resistances are increased for vapor intrusion with aerobic biodegradation. Our modeling results indicate that the attenuation coefficients for cases with and without mass transfer limitations can be significantly different by orders of magnitude. Rate-limited mass transfer may lead to larger overlaps of contaminant vapor and oxygen concentrations, which cannot be simulated by instantaneous reaction models with local equilibrium mass transfer. In addition, the contaminant flux with rate-limited mass transfer is much smaller than that with local equilibrium mass transfer, indicating that local equilibrium mass transfer assumption may significantly overestimate the biodegradation rate and capacity for mitigating vapor intrusion through the unsaturated zone. Our results indicate a strong research need for field tests to examine the validity of local equilibrium mass transfer, a widely accepted assumption in modeling vapor intrusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neural mechanisms underlying hunger are poorly understood. AgRP neurons are activated by energy deficit and promote voracious food consumption, suggesting these cells may supply the fundamental hunger drive that motivates feeding. However recent in vivo recording experiments revealed that AgRP neurons are inhibited within seconds by the sensory detection of food, raising the question of how these cells can promote feeding at all. Here we resolve this paradox by showing that brief optogenetic stimulation of AgRP neurons before food availability promotes intense appetitive and consummatory behaviors that persist for tens of minutes in the absence of continued AgRP neuron activation. We show that these sustained behavioral responses are mediated by a long-lasting potentiation of the rewarding properties of food and that AgRP neuron activity is positively reinforcing. These findings reveal that hunger neurons drive feeding by transmitting a positive valence signal that triggers a stable transition between behavioral states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) has a high incidence in elderly patients. The postoperative complications present great challenges within treatment and they're hard for early warning. Methods: Data from 525 patients diagnosed with HNSCC including a training set (n = 513) and an external testing set (n = 12) in our institution between 2006 and 2011 was collected. Variables involved are general demographic characteristics, complications, disease and treatment given. Five data mining algorithms were firstly exploited to construct predictive models in the training set. Subsequently, cross-validation was used to compare the different performance of these models and the best data mining algorithm model was then selected to perform the prediction in an external testing set. Results: Data from 513 patients (age > 60 y) with HNSCC in a training set was included while 44 variables were selected (P < 0.05). Five predictive models were constructed; the model with 44 variables based on the Random Forest algorithm demonstrated the best accuracy (89.084 %) and the best AUC value (0.949). In an external testing set, the accuracy (83.333 %) and the AUC value (0.781) were obtained by using the random forest algorithm model. Conclusions: Data mining should be a promising approach used for elderly patients with HNSCC to predict the probability of postoperative complications. Our results highlighted the potential of computational prediction of postoperative complications in elderly patients with HNSCC by using the random forest algorithm model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) has a high incidence in elderly patients. The postoperative complications present great challenges within treatment and they're hard for early warning. Methods: Data from 525 patients diagnosed with HNSCC including a training set (n = 513) and an external testing set (n = 12) in our institution between 2006 and 2011 was collected. Variables involved are general demographic characteristics, complications, disease and treatment given. Five data mining algorithms were firstly exploited to construct predictive models in the training set. Subsequently, cross-validation was used to compare the different performance of these models and the best data mining algorithm model was then selected to perform the prediction in an external testing set. Results: Data from 513 patients (age > 60 y) with HNSCC in a training set was included while 44 variables were selected (P < 0.05). Five predictive models were constructed; the model with 44 variables based on the Random Forest algorithm demonstrated the best accuracy (89.084 %) and the best AUC value (0.949). In an external testing set, the accuracy (83.333 %) and the AUC value (0.781) were obtained by using the random forest algorithm model. Conclusions: Data mining should be a promising approach used for elderly patients with HNSCC to predict the probability of postoperative complications. Our results highlighted the potential of computational prediction of postoperative complications in elderly patients with HNSCC by using the random forest algorithm model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When used in electron-spin resonance measurements, superconducting thin-film resonators must be precisely oriented relative to the external magnetic field in order to prevent the trapping of magnetic flux and the associated degradation of resonator performance. We present a compact design solution for this problem that allows in-situ control of the orientation of the resonator at cryogenic temperatures. Tests of the apparatus show that when proper alignment is achieved, there is almost no hysteresis in the field dependence of the resonant frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: This study aims to compare the effects of carvedilol and metoprolol in alleviating viral myocarditis (VMC) induced by coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) in mice. Methods: A total of 116 Balb/c mice were included in this study. Ninety-six mice were inoculated intraperitoneally with CVB3 to induce VMC. The CVB3 inoculated mice were evenly divided into myocarditis group (n=32), carvedilol group (n=32) and metoprolol group (n=32). Twenty mice (control group) were inoculated intraperitoneally with normal saline. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and histopathologic scoring were used to investigate the effects of carvedilol and metoprolol on myocardial histopathologic changes on days 3 and 5. In addition, serum cTn-I levels, cytokine levels and virus titers were determined using chemiluminescence immunoassay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and plaque assay, respectively, on days 3 and 5. Finally, the levels of phosphorylated p38MAPK were studied using immunohistochemical staining and Western blotting on day 5. Results: Carvedilol had a stronger effect than metoprolol in reducing the pathological scores of VMC induced by CVB3. Both carvedilol and metoprolol reduced the levels of cTn-I, but the effect of carvedilol was stronger. Carvedilol and metoprolol decreased the levels of myocardial pro-inflammatory cytokines and increased the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine, with the effects of carvedilol being stronger than those of metoprolol. Carvedilol had a stronger effect in reducing myocardial virus concentration compared with metoprolol. Carvedilol was stronger than metoprolol in decreasing the levels of myocardial phosphorylated p38MAPK. Conclusions: In conclusion, carvedilol was more potent than metoprolol in ameliorating myocardial lesions in VMC, probably due to its stronger modulation of the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the activation of p38MAPK pathway through β1- and β2-adrenoreceptors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The design of a compact wideband the letter with U-shape shorted step-impedance-resonator (SIR) using low temperature cofired ceramic technology is introduced in this article. The filter is composed of the four shorted SIRs embedded in multilayer thin ceramic to produced a compact size. By introducing the proper coupling structure, the filter has sharp skirt characteristic. The filter is demonstrated with experimental results operating at central frequency 1.80 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 75.0%. More than 30 dB of suppression from 0.5 to 1.4 GHz and more than 25 dB attenuation at 3.10 GHz are obtained in the experimental results. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:1145-1147, 2017 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compact size arrow shaped patch in a rectangular slot antenna is designed for 5G communications in the lower 3 to 6 GHz band. The antenna element is fed through a coplanar waveguide with partial ground plane for better impedance matching with 50 Ohms across the entire band. The maximum gain of a single element is 3.8 dB at 3.7 GHz, while for linear arrays of 5 and 15 elements with uniform excitation the maximum gains are 10.9 dB and 16 dB, respectively. The 5 and 15 elements arrays provide scanning range with no significant degradation of the main beam up to 30˚ and 45˚, respectively. The properties of this antenna element makes it suitable for 5G wireless mobile devices and miniaturized base stations antenna arrays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon nanocomposite electrodes were prepared by adding carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into carbon black as counterelectrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs). The morphology and structure of carbon nanocomposite electrodes were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The influence of CNTs on the electrochemical performance of carbon nanocomposite electrodes is investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Carbon nano composite electrodes with CNTs exhibit a highly interconnected network structure with high electrical conductivity and good catalytic activity. The influence of different CNTs content in carbon nanocomposite electrodes on the open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and filling factor of DSSCs is also investigated. DSSCs with 10% CNTs content exhibit the best photovoltaic performance in our experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A single-copy 5.7 kilobase (kb) DNA fragment, termed Linum Insertion Sequence 1 (LIS-1), has been identified and characterized. This is one of the DNA changes associated with the environmentally induced heritable changes resulting in stable lines termed genotrophs in flax (Linum usitatissimum).• The insertion sequence and its insertion site have been cloned from genomic libraries and sequenced. PCR products across the insertion and surrounding regions have also been cloned and sequenced.• The 5.7 kb DNA fragment is inserted into a 3.7 kbEcoRI fragment in the plastic line (Pl) with the generation of a 3 base pair duplication at the insertion site, as well as additional sequence changes. The identical insertion was also found in other genotrophs and flax varieties. The intact element was not present in Pl but appeared to be generated by a reproducible series of complex rearrangements or insertion events.• LIS-1 is the result of a targeted, highly specific, complex insertion event that occurs during the formation of some of the genotrophs, and occurs naturally in many flax and linseed varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiplicative perturbation method with precise matrix exponential computation is developed for the buckling analysis of axially compressed truncated conical shells (TCSs) that are commonly encountered in engineering. To overcome the limitation of conventional methods in terms of assuming solution forms, the multiplicative perturbation method is introduced to tackle the governing partial differential equations (PDEs) with variable coefficients. Specifically, the governing equation in matrix form for a buckled TCS is first formulated in the state space. The multiplicative perturbation method is then employed to convert the matrix differential equation with variable coefficients into the state transition equations with constant coefficients, in which the arisen matrix exponential is computed by the precise integral method. Finally, the state transition equations and the boundary conditions are integrated into an entire matrix equation, whose solution provides the buckling loads and buckling modes of the TCS. The convergence study and comprehensive numerical and graphic results are presented. Given the new solutions, the effects of some crucial size parameters as well as boundary conditions on the critical buckling loads are quantitatively studied. Due to the merits on solving PDEs with variable coefficients, the developed method may be extended to more intractable plate and shell problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiplicative perturbation method with precise matrix exponential computation is developed for the buckling analysis of axially compressed truncated conical shells (TCSs) that are commonly encountered in engineering. To overcome the limitation of conventional methods in terms of assuming solution forms, the multiplicative perturbation method is introduced to tackle the governing partial differential equations (PDEs) with variable coefficients. Specifically, the governing equation in matrix form for a buckled TCS is first formulated in the state space. The multiplicative perturbation method is then employed to convert the matrix differential equation with variable coefficients into the state transition equations with constant coefficients, in which the arisen matrix exponential is computed by the precise integral method. Finally, the state transition equations and the boundary conditions are integrated into an entire matrix equation, whose solution provides the buckling loads and buckling modes of the TCS. The convergence study and comprehensive numerical and graphic results are presented. Given the new solutions, the effects of some crucial size parameters as well as boundary conditions on the critical buckling loads are quantitatively studied. Due to the merits on solving PDEs with variable coefficients, the developed method may be extended to more intractable plate and shell problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the Taxus wallichiana var. mairei "Jinxishan" which was discovered from the mountain areas of Fujian Province in China in 1997. Topics mention including the dioecious evergreen tree, most widespread species of Taxus and evaluation of some traits and pigments of yellow arils of Jinxishan.

Variable frequency controlled LCC resonant converter suffers from wide variation of switching frequency. Although fixed frequency controlled LCC resonant converter benefits from constant switching frequency, it suffers from narrow zero voltage switching (ZVS) range of power switch and high circulating energy. A pulse width modulation-pulse frequency modulation (PWM-PFM) hybrid controlled LCC resonant converter is proposed to achieve wide ZVS range of power switch with narrow variation of switching frequency. Experiment results of a 500 W prototype are provided to verify theoretical analysis of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the numerical and experimental analysis of a low-cost and dual-band microstrip patch antenna for the fifth generation (5G) mobile communications. The numerical analysis of the proposed antenna is performed using the computational electromagnetic simulator (CEMS) software which is based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and CST software which is based on the finite integration technique (FIT). The performance of the proposed antenna designed and fabricated on a low-cost FR-4 substrate is verified with the simulated and measured results. The antenna operates at dual frequency bands which are 24 and 28 GHz. The antenna maximum gain values are 3.20 dBi and 3.99 dBi in the x-y plane at 24 and 28 GHz, respectively. The proposed antenna provides almost omni-directional patterns suitable for 5G mobile communication devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prevalent autoimmune disease whose main features include chronic synovial inflammation, bone destruction, and joint degeneration. Neutrophils are often considered to be the first responders to inflammation and are a key presence in the inflammatory milieu of RA. Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), a meshwork of DNA-histone complexes and proteins released by activated neutrophils, are widely involved in the pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases, especially RA, in addition to playing a key role in the neutrophil innate immune response. NETs have been found to be an important source of citrullinated autoantigen antibodies and inflammatory factor release, which can activate RA synovial fibroblasts (FLS) and cause joint damage. This article reviews the role of NETs in the pathophysiology of RA, demonstrating the application of multiple molecules with various therapies, with a view to informing the discovery and development of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To evaluate the correlation between elevated maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in the second trimester and ischemic placental disease (IPD). Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to analyze the data of 22,574 pregnant women who delivered in the Department of Obstetrics at Hangzhou Women's Hospital from 2018 to 2020, and were screened for maternal serum AFP and free beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (free ß-hCG) in the second trimester. The pregnant women were divided into two groups: elevated maternal serum AFP group (n = 334, 1.48%); and normal group (n = 22,240, 98.52%). Mann-Whitney U-test or Chi-square test was used for continuous or categorical data. Modified Poisson regression analysis was used to calculate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of the two groups. Results: The AFP MoM and free ß-hCG MoM in the elevated maternal serum AFP group were higher than the normal group (2.25 vs. 0.98, 1.38 vs. 1.04) and the differences were all statistically significant (all P < .001). Placenta previa, hepatitis B virus carrying status of pregnant women, premature rupture of membranes (PROM), advanced maternal age (=35 years), increased free ß-hCG MoM, female infants, and low birth weight (RR: 2.722, 2.247, 1.769, 1.766, 1.272, 0.624, 2.554 respectively) were the risk factors for adverse maternal pregnancy outcomes in the elevated maternal serum AFP group. Conclusions: Maternal serum AFP levels during the second trimester can monitor IPD, such as IUGR, PROM, and placenta previa. Maternal women with high serum AFP levels are more likely to deliver male fetuses and low birth weight infants. Finally, the maternal age (=35 years) and hepatitis B carriers also increased maternal serum AFP significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultrasonic atomization nozzles are generally divided into two categories: high frequency and low-frequency ultrasonic atomization nozzles. Compared with high-frequency ultrasonic atomization nozzles (working frequencies>1 MHz), low-frequency ultrasonic atomization nozzles are not sensitive to clarity, temperature and viscosity of the liquid. However, they can control atomization quantity precisely, but the sizes of droplets generated by them are relatively large. In aeroponics cultivation, and precision welding, in such both cases, precise spraying control and tiny droplet sizes are expected. Therefore, how to decrease droplet size using low-frequency ultrasonic atomization nozzles is a valuable issue. In this paper a 60 kHz low-frequency ultrasonic atomization nozzle integrating air-assistant system and acoustic levitation mechanism was proposed and designed. Furthermore, the design was verified by FEA (Finite Element Analyzes) and impedance analyzer PV70A, and the verified results indicated relative design error was 0.49%. Driving voltage, spout angle, air pressure and levitating ball were taken as influential factors in the experimental protocol to the character in spray properties of this designed nozzle. A laser particle size analyzer was used to measure droplet sizes. Experiment results indicated that: the diameters of droplets generated by this nozzle at driving voltage 46 V were smaller than those at 40 V driving voltage; Both the assistant air and levitation mechanism could effectively change the diameters and uniformity of droplets; The minimum values of D10, D50, and D90 (D10, D50 and D90 were mean diameters when cumulative percentages of the samples’ diameter were 10%, 50% and 90%, respectively) were 23.06 µm, 31.14 µm and 41.38 µm, respectively. However, all those minimum values were presented at the same run (spout angle 0°, air pressure 0.05 MPa, having levitated ball, driving voltage 46 V); Levitating ball above the atomization surface would make droplet sizes more uniform and tinier. More importantly, the famous Lang equation which assumes that droplet diameters just decided by the liquid surface tension, density and ultrasonic atomizer’s working frequency needed to be revised because experimental results indicated that changing vibration amplitudes of ultrasonic atomization surface might lead to the changing of the droplet diameters and those results were at odds with the Lang equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteosarcoma is an aggressive bone malignancy rarely presenting in head and neck sites, the trials for extremity osteosarcoma show improved survival by chemotherapy. The head and neck osteosarcomas(HNOs) were excluded in these trials because of atypical presentation and disease course. Further, sufficient numbers were not possible for a trial. We present a largest retrospective study from single institute investigating the role of chemotherapy in the management of HNOs. Patients and methods The retrospective cohort of HNOs treated from 2007 to 2015 of a tertiary hospital were charted. The therapeutic and prognostic factors were analyzed for overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS), local control (LC) and metastasis (MT) in univariate and multivariate analysis. The minimum and median period of follow up was 12 months and 4.67 years. Results There was a total of 157 patients definitively treated with surgery in the time period. 7 The multivariate cox regression showed significance of tumor site(p=0.034), margin status(p=0.006), chemotherapy(p=0.025), histological subtype(p=0.012) as predictors of overall survival. The margin status(p=0.002), Radiotherapy(p=0.005) were significant predictors for local recurrence. patients had positive margins and all were maxillary or skull base tumors. The age and histology subtype(p=0.058) were borderline significant predictors of metastasis(p=0.065). The KM method for OS of different chemotherapy groups(p=0.013), and survival with and without chemotherapy (p=0.007) was significant. The OS was significantly better with adjuvant chemotherapy among various treatment plans(p=0.034). Conclusion Chemotherapy improves OS of HNOs. a random multi institute trial is needed to achieve better results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forbidden transitions between energy levels typically involve violation of selection rules imposed by symmetry and/or conservation laws. A nanomagnet tunneling between up and down states violates angular momentum conservation because of broken rotational symmetry. Here we report observations of highly forbidden transitions between spin states in a Ni4 single-molecule magnet in which a single photon can induce the spin to change by several times ℏ, nearly reversing the direction of the spin. These observations are understood as tunneling-assisted transitions that lift the standard Δm=±1 selection rule for single-photon transitions. These transitions are observed at low applied fields, where tunneling is dominated by the molecule's intrinsic anisotropy and the field acts as a perturbation. Such transitions can be exploited to create macroscopic superposition states that are not typically accessible through single-photon Δm=±1 transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In electric vehicles, the battery pack is one of the most important components that strongly influence the system performance. The battery thermal management system (BTMS) is critical to remove the heat generated by the battery pack, which guarantees the appropriate working temperature for the battery pack. Air cooling is one of the most commonly-used solutions among various battery thermal management technologies. In this paper, the cooling performance of the parallel air-cooled BTMS is improved through choosing appropriate system parameters. The flow field and the temperature field of the system are calculated using the computational fluid dynamics method. Typical numerical cases are introduced to study the influences of the operation parameters and the structure parameters on the performance of the BTMS. The operation parameters include the discharge rate of the battery pack, the inlet air temperature and the inlet airflow rate. The structure parameters include the cell spacing and the angles of the divergence plenum and the convergence plenum. The results show that the temperature rise and the temperature difference of the batter pack are not affected by the inlet air flow temperature and are increased as the discharge rate increases. Increasing the inlet airflow rate can reduce the maximum temperature, but meanwhile significantly increase the power consumption for driving the airflow. Adopting smaller cell spacing can reduce the temperature and the temperature difference of the battery pack, but it consumes much more power. Designing the angles of the divergence plenum and the convergence plenum is an effective way to improve the performance of the BTMS without occupying more system volume. An optimization strategy is used to obtain the optimal values of the plenum angles. For the numerical cases with fixed power consumption, the maximum temperature and the maximum temperature difference at the end of the five-current discharge process for the optimized BTMS are respectively reduced by 2.1 K and 4.3 K, compared to the original system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to identify the function and expression of trimethylated protein histone H3 lysine 36 (H3K36)me3 and the upstream specific enzyme histone methyltransferase SET domain containing 2 (SETD2), during the differentiation of hepatic oval cells (HOCs) into cholan‑ giocytes in mice following partial liver resection and fed with 2‑acetamidofluorene. HOCs were isolated from Kunming male mice fed with 2‑acetamidofluorene for 10 days. Their liver tissues were then isolated following partial liver resec‑ tion and another week of 2‑acetamidofluorene treatment. HOCs were collected following a two‑step enzyme diges‑ tion procedure involving protease E and collagenase 4. The target cells were cultured in DMEM/F12 supplemented with 10 µg/ml EGF, 5 µg/ml stem cell growth factor and 5 µg/ml leukemia inhibitory factor. Target cells using the markers OV‑6, CK‑19, SETD2, H3K36me3, were detected with flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy; reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR and western blotting were used to quantify the protein levels of SETD2 and H3K36me3. The retrieved primary hepatocytes developed into cholangiocytes with increasing CK‑19 and decreasing OV‑6 expression in each subsequent passage, whereas the SETD2 and H3K36me3 levels gradually increased, suggesting the possible involvement of both of these factors in differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on the restoration of limb movements after central nervous system injury. The researchers used a clinical mouse model, which showed that the surgery could restore skilled forelimb function in adult mice with unilateral cortical lesions by inducing cortical remapping and promoting corticospinal tract sprouting. The results show that surgically rebuilt sensory input triggers neural plasticity for accelerating motor recovery, an approach for treating brain injuries.

3D building models are important for many applications related to human activities in urban environments. However, due to the high complexity of the building structures, it is still difficult to automatically reconstruct building models with accurate geometric description and semantic information. To simplify this problem, this article proposes a novel approach to automatically decompose the compound buildings with symmetric roofs into semantic primitives by exploiting local symmetry contained in the building structure. In this approach, the proposed decomposition allows the overlapping of neighbor primitives and each decomposed primitive can be represented as a parametric form, which simplify the complexity of the building reconstruction and facilitate the integration of LiDAR data and aerial imagery into a parameters optimization process. The proposed method starts by extracting isolated building regions from the LiDAR point clouds. Next, point clouds belonging to each compound building are segmented into planar patches to construct an attributed graph, and then the local symmetries contained in the attributed graph are exploited to automatically decompose the compound buildings into different semantic primitives. In the final step, 2D image features are extracted depending on the initial 3D primitives generated from LiDAR data, and then the compound building is reconstructed using constraints from LiDAR data and aerial imagery by a nonlinear least squares optimization. The proposed method is applied to two datasets with different point densities to show that the complexity of building reconstruction can be reduced considerably by decomposing the compound buildings into semantic primitives. The experimental results also demonstrate that the traditional model driven methods can be further extended to the automated reconstruction of compound buildings by using the proposed semantic decomposition method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a primitive-based 3D building roof modeling method, by integrating LiDAR data and aerial imagery, is proposed. The novelty of the proposed modeling method is to represent building roofs by geometric primitives and to construct a cost function by using constraints from both LiDAR data and aerial imagery simultaneously, so that the accuracy potential of the different sensors can be tightly integrated for the building model generation by an integrated primitive's parameter optimization procedure. To verify the proposed modeling method, both simulated data and real data with simple buildings provided by ISPRS (International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), were used in this study. The experimental results were evaluated by the ISPRS, which demonstrate the proposed modeling method can integrate LiDAR data and aerial imagery to generate 3D building models with high accuracy in both the horizontal and vertical directions. The experimental results also show that by adding a component, such as a dormer, to the primitive, a variant of the simple primitive is constructed, and the proposed method can generate a building model with some details. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endocrocin is a simple anthraquinone frequently identified in extracts of numerous fungi. Several biosynthetic schemes for endocrocin synthesis have been hypothesized, but to date, no dedicated secondary metabolite gene cluster that produces this polyketide as its major metabolite has been identified. Here we describe our biosynthetic and regulatory characterization of the endocrocin gene cluster in Aspergillus fumigatus. This is the first report of this anthraquinone in this species. The biosynthetic genes required for endocrocin production are regulated by the global regulator of secondary metabolism, LaeA, and encode an iterative nonreducing polyketide synthase (encA), a physically discrete metallo-β-lactamase type thioesterase (encB), and a monooxygenase (encC). Interestingly, the deletion of a gene immediately adjacent to encC, termed encD and encoding a putative 2-oxoglutarate-Fe(II) type oxidoreductase, resulted in higher levels of endocrocin production than in the wild-type strain, whereas overexpression of encD eliminated endocrocin accumulation. We found that overexpression of the encA transcript resulted in higher transcript levels of encA-D and higher production of endocrocin. We discuss a model of the enc cluster as one evolutionary origin of fungal anthraquinones derived from a nonreducing polyketide synthase and a discrete metallo-β-lactamase-type thioesterase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the link between mitochondrial DNA damage with loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and apoptotic cell death through cell sorting experiments. Molecular events following oxidative stress; Observation of protein import; Secondary reactive oxygen species generation; Loss of repair capacity.

An asymmetrical hybrid-controlled half-bridge LCC resonant converter which integrated a buck–boost converter and a half-bridge LCC resonant converter is proposed. It benefits with wide soft switching range, low conduction loss and high power density. By utilising an asymmetrical hybrid control strategy, its switching frequency and duty ratio can be adjusted simultaneously. The proposed LCC resonant converter maintains output voltage regulation and zero-voltage switching of switches in wide input voltage and load variation range. Experiment results of a 500 W prototype are provided to verify the theoretical analysis results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have received great attention because of the abundance source and low cost. To date, some Na+ storage materials have achieved great performance, but the larger Na+ radius and more complex Na+ storage mechanism compared with Li+ still limit the energy density and power density. This review systematically summarizes emerging synthetic technologies of vanadium-based materials from simple nanowires to complicated modified/optimized structures. In addition, vanadium-based nanowire materials are reviewed at both the cathode and anode side, and advantages and drawbacks are proposed to explain the challenges facing application of novel materials. Furthermore, a vanadium-based single-nanowire device is reported to reveal the Na+ storage mechanism, which contributes to the understanding of the reaction in SIBs. Finally, this review summarizes the current development challenges of SIBs and looks forward to the future development prospects of vanadium-based nanowires, providing a new direction for further applications of SIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model is a concrete solvable model to study non-Fermi liquid properties, holographic duality, and maximally chaotic behavior. In this work, we consider a generalization of the SYK model that contains two SYK models with a different number of Majorana modes coupled by quadratic terms. This model is also solvable, and the solution shows a zero-temperature quantum phase transition between two non-Fermi liquid chaotic phases. This phase transition is driven by tuning the ratio of two mode numbers, and a nonchaotic Fermi liquid sits at the critical point with an equal number of modes. At a finite temperature, the Fermi liquid phase expands to a finite regime. More intriguingly, a different non-Fermi liquid phase emerges at a finite temperature. We characterize the phase diagram in terms of the spectral function, the Lyapunov exponent, and the entropy. Our results illustrate a concrete example of the quantum phase transition and critical behavior between two non-Fermi liquid phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical model for calculating the Young’s modulus of multi-layer microcantilevers with a coating is proposed, and validated by a three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization. Compared with typical theoretical models (Rayleigh-Ritz model, Euler-Bernoulli (E-B) beam model and spring mass model), the proposed theoretical model can obtain Young’s modulus of multilayer microcantilevers more precisely. Also, the influences of coating’s geometric dimensions on Young’s modulus and resonant frequency of microcantilevers are discussed. The thickness of coating has a great influence on Young’s modulus and resonant frequency of multi-layer microcantilevers, and the coating should be considered to calculate Young’s modulus more precisely, especially when fairly thicker coating is employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A three-dimensional Li4Ti5O12/carbon nanotubes/graphene composite (LTO-CNT-G) was prepared by ball-milling method, followed by microwave heating. The as-prepared LTO-CNT-G composite as anode material in lithium-ion battery exhibited superior rate capability and cycle performance under relative high current density compared with that of Li4Ti5O12/CNTs (LTO-CNT) and Li4Ti5O12/graphene (LTO-G) composites. Graphene nanosheets and CNTs were used to construct 3D conducting networks, leading to faster electron transfer and lower resistance during the lithium ion reversible reaction, which significantly enhanced the electrochemical activity of LTO-CNT-G composite. The synergistic effect of graphene and CNTs can greatly improve the rate capability and cycling stability of Li4Ti5O12-based anodes. The LTO-CNT-G composite exhibited a high initial discharge capacity of 172 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C and 132 mAh g−1 at 20 C, as well as an excellent cycling stability. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy demonstrated that the LTO-CNT-G composite has the smallest charge-transfer resistance compared with the LTO-CNT and LTO-G composites, indicating that the fast electron transfer from the electrolyte to the LTO-CNT-G active materials during the lithium ion intercalation/deintercalation owing to the three-dimensional networks of graphene and CNTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor characterized by high risk of metastasis, thus presents with an overall survival rate of 60%, despite the use of chemotherapy and surgery. Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT-1) has been reported to upregulated and epigenetically regulate the metastasis in osteosarcoma; however, the regulatory mechanisms of MALAT-1 expression remain unclear. In the current study, significant upregulation of MALAT-1 was observed subsequent to exposure to low concentrations of 17β-estradiol (E2) in U2OS cells. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation assays, E2-activated estrogen receptor ɑ (ERɑ) was identified to promote the binding of specificity protein 1 (Sp1) to the MALAT-1 promoter. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay and immunoprecipitation results demonstrate that ERɑ binds indirectly to the MALAT-1 promoter by binding directly to Sp1 protein. Notably, without E2 stimulation, overexpressed ERɑ results in no significant promotion of the Sp1/MALAT-1 promoter, indicating that the translocation of ERɑ to nuclei stimulated by E2 is necessary. The immunofluorescence assay confirmed that E2 stimulation promotes the translocation of Sp1 to the nuclei in an ERɑ-dependent manner. Subsequently, the effects of E2 on osteosarcoma physiological processes were further analyzed. Consistently, E2 treatment was observed to promote proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in U2OS cells. Taken together, the results indicate a role for E2 in regulating the physiological processes of osteosarcoma cells by regulating MALAT-1 expression levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing evidence demonstrates that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the progression of various cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The role of nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1), an essential lncRNA for the formation of nuclear body paraspeckles, has not been fully explored in HCC. We aimed to determine the expression, roles and functional mechanisms of NEAT1 in the proliferation and invasion of HCC. Based on real-time polymerase chain reaction data, we suggest that NEAT1 is upregulated in HCC tissues compared with noncancerous liver tissues. The knockdown of NEAT1 altered global gene expression patterns and reduced HCC cell proliferation, invasion and migration. RNA immunoprecipitation and RNA pull-down assays confirmed that U2AF65 binds to NEAT1. Furthermore, the study indicated that NEAT1 regulated hnRNP A2 expression and that this regulation may be associated with the NEAT1-U2AF65 protein complex. Thus, the NEAT1- hnRNP A2 regulation mechanism promotes HCC pathogenesis and may provide a potential target for the prognosis and treatment of HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nephrite jade with high market value and production potential from the Chinese city of Hechi, in Guangxi Province, was tested by standard gemological methods, polarizing microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The three samples were mainly white and gray-white (with areas of gray, gray-green, dark green, and black) and had a greasy to waxy luster. Within each of these color varieties, the samples exhibited either "band" or dendritic patterns. The band pattern, composed of tremolite, varied in shape and was either transparent or opaque. Its color, transparency, and distribution were different from the unpatterned areas. The dendritic patterns, which had a brownish yellow and dark brown to black color, were composed of chlorite that formed during metamorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercapacitor is an effective energy storage device that store energy using porous conducting materials. With its great performance, graphene has potential applications in supercapacitors. However, graphene prepared by thermal expansion of graphite oxide always has very limited storage capacity, so we treat the thermal exfoliated graphite oxide (TEGO) in mixed acid to enhance the hydrophily of TEGO and achieve higher capacitance. The electrochemical properties of supercapacitor electrodes are studied by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge methods. Supercapacitor prepared with acid treated graphene has good electrochemical performance, with a maximum specific capacitance of 196 F g−1 at the charge/discharge current density of 100mAg−1 using 2M KOH electrolyte, yielding an improvement of ~40% compared with that of the pristine TEGO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This single-arm study evaluated feasibility, safety, and initial efficacy of electroacupuncture for thalidomide/bortezomib-induced peripheral neuropathy (PN) in cancer patients with multiple myeloma. Methods Patients with neuropathy = grade 2 received 20 acupuncture treatments over 9 weeks. Results For the 19 evaluable patients, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecological Oncology Group-Neurotoxicity (FACT/GOG/NTX) mean (SD) scores improved significantly between baseline and week 13 (20.8 [9.6] vs 13.2 [8.5], p = 0.0002). Moderate effect size differences began on week 4, with the largest effect size differences found at week 9 for FACT/GOG/NTX scores, worst pain in the last 24 hours, and pain severity (Cohen's d = 1.43, 1.19, and 1.08, respectively) and continuing through week 13 (Cohen's d = 0.86, 0.88, and 0.90, respectively). From baseline to week 13, additional significant improvements were seen as follows: postural stability (1.0 [0.6] vs 0.8 [0.4], p = 0.02); coin test (10.0 [7.4] vs 5.6 [1.9], p < 0.0001); button test (96.1 [144.4] vs 54.9 [47.3], p < 0.0001); and walking test (21.6 [10.0] vs 17.2 [7.7], p = 0.0003). No significant changes were seen with NCS. Conclusions Acupuncture may help patients experiencing thalidomide- or bortezomib-induced PN. Larger, randomized, clinical trials are needed. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00891618. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small molecules (SMs) play central roles as virulence factors of pathogenic fungi and bacteria; however, genomic analyses suggest that the majority of microbial SMs have remained uncharacterized. Based on microarray analysis followed by comparative metabolomics of overexpression/knockout mutants, we identified a tryptophan-derived iron(III)-complex, hexadehydro-astechrome (HAS), as the major product of the cryptic has nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) gene cluster in the human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus. Activation of the has cluster created a highly virulent A. fumigatus strain that increased mortality of infected mice. Comparative metabolomics of different mutant strains allowed to propose a pathway for HAS biosynthesis and further revealed cross-talk with another NRPS pathway producing the anticancer fumitremorgins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Multi-objective optimization (MOO) involves optimization problems with multiple objectives. Generally, theose objectives is used to estimate very different aspects of the solutions, and these aspects are often in conflict with each other. MOO first gets a Pareto set, and then looks for both commonality and systematic variations across the set. For the large-scale data sets, heuristic search algorithms such as EA combined with MOO techniques are ideal. Newly DNA microarray technology may study the transcriptional response of a complete genome to different experimental conditions and yield a lot of large-scale datasets. Biclustering technique can simultaneously cluster rows and columns of a dataset, and hlep to extract more accurate information from those datasets. Biclustering need optimize several conflicting objectives, and can be solved with MOO methods. As a heuristics-based optimization approach, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) simulate the movements of a bird flock finding food. The shuffled frog-leaping algorithm (SFL) is a population-based cooperative search metaphor combining the benefits of the local search of PSO and the global shuffled of information of the complex evolution technique. SFL is used to solve the optimization problems of the large-scale datasets. Results: This paper integrates dynamic population strategy and shuffled frog-leaping algorithm into biclustering of microarray data, and proposes a novel multi-objective dynamic population shuffled frog-leaping biclustering (MODPSFLB) algorithm to mine maximum bicluesters from microarray data. Experimental results show that the proposed MODPSFLB algorithm can effectively find significant biological structures in terms of related biological processes, components and molecular functions. Conclusions: The proposed MODPSFLB algorithm has good diversity and fast convergence of Pareto solutions and will become a powerful systematic functional analysis in genome research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Newly microarray technologies yield large-scale datasets. The microarray datasets are usually presented in 2D matrices, where rows represent genes and columns represent experimental conditions. Systematic analysis of those datasets provides the increasing amount of information, which is urgently needed in the postgenomic era. Biclustering, which is a technique developed to allow simultaneous clustering of rows and columns of a dataset, might be useful to extract more accurate information from those datasets. Biclustering requires the optimization of two conflicting objectives (residue and volume), and a multi-objective artificial immune system capable of performing a multi-population search. As a heuristic search technique, artificial immune systems (AISs) can be considered a new computational paradigm inspired by the immunological system of vertebrates and designed to solve a wide range of optimization problems. During biclustering several objectives in conflict with each other have to be optimized simultaneously, so multi-objective optimization model is suitable for solving biclustering problem. Results: Based on dynamic population, this paper proposes a novel dynamic multi-objective immune optimization biclustering (DMOIOB) algorithm to mine coherent patterns from microarray data. Experimental results on two common and public datasets of gene expression profiles show that our approach can effectively find significant localized structures related to sets of genes that show consistent expression patterns across subsets of experimental conditions. The mined patterns present a significant biological relevance in terms of related biological processes, components and molecular functions in a species-independent manner. Conclusions: The proposed DMOIOB algorithm is an efficient tool to analyze large microarray datasets. It achieves a good diversity and rapid convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: High-throughput microarray technologies have generated and accumulated massive amounts of gene expression datasets that contain expression levels of thousands of genes under hundreds of different experimental conditions. The microarray datasets are usually presented in 2D matrices, where rows represent genes and columns represent experimental conditions. The analysis of such datasets can discover local structures composed by sets of genes that show coherent expression patterns under subsets of experimental conditions. It leads to the development of sophisticated algorithms capable of extracting novel and useful knowledge from a biomedical point of view. In the medical domain, these patterns are useful for understanding various diseases, and aid in more accurate diagnosis, prognosis, treatment planning, as well as drug discovery. Results: In this work we present the CMOPSOB (Crowding distance based Multi-objective Particle Swarm Optimization Biclustering), a novel clustering approach for microarray datasets to cluster genes and conditions highly related in sub-portions of the microarray data. The objective of biclustering is to find sub-matrices, i.e. maximal subgroups of genes and subgroups of conditions where the genes exhibit highly correlated activities over a subset of conditions. Since these objectives are mutually conflicting, they become suitable candidates for multi-objective modelling. Our approach CMOPSOB is based on a heuristic search technique, multi-objective particle swarm optimization, which simulates the movements of a flock of birds which aim to find food. In the meantime, the nearest neighbour search strategies based on crowding distance and -dominance can rapidly converge to the Pareto front and guarantee diversity of solutions. We compare the potential of this methodology with other biclustering algorithms by analyzing two common and public datasets of gene expression profiles. In all cases our method can find localized structures related to sets of genes that show consistent expression patterns across subsets of experimental conditions. The mined patterns present a significant biological relevance in terms of related biological processes, components and molecular functions in a species-independent manner. Conclusion: The proposed CMOPSOB algorithm is successfully applied to biclustering of microarray dataset. It achieves a good diversity in the obtained Pareto front, and rapid convergence. Therefore, it is a useful tool to analyze large microarray datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]