Effect of intermittent joint distribution on the mechanical and acoustic behavior of rock masses

The mechanical characteristics and acoustic behavior of rock masses are greatly influenced by stochastic joints.In this study,numerical models of rock masses incorporating intermittent joints with different numbers and dip angles were produced using the finite element method(FEM)with the intrinsic cohesive zone model(ICZM).Then,the uniaxial compressive and wave propagation simulations were performed.The results indicate that the joint number and dip angle can affect the mechanical and acoustic properties of the models.The uniaxial compressive strength(UCS)and wave velocity of rock masses decrease monotonically as the joint number increases.However,the wave velocity grows monotonically as the joint dip angle increases.When the joint dip angle is 45°–60°,the UCS of the rock mass is lower than that of other dip angles.The wave velocity parallel to the joints is greater than that perpendicular to the joints.When the dip angle of joints remains unchanged,the UCS and wave velocity are positively related.When the joint dip angle increases,the variation amplitude of the UCS regarding the wave velocity increases.To reveal the effect of the joint distribution on the velocity,a theoretical model was also proposed.According to the theoretical wave velocity,the change in wave velocity of models with various joint numbers and dip angles was consistent with the simulation results.Furthermore,a theoretical indicator(i.e.fabric tensor)was adopted to analyze the variation of the wave velocity and UCS.

Evaluation of the binding affinity and antioxidant activity of phlorizin to pepsin and trypsin

Phlorizin(PHL)is a natural compound with strong antioxidant properties mainly found in apples.In this paper,the interaction mechanism of PHL with pepsin and trypsin was comparatively evaluated by computer simulation,fluorescence spectra,circular dichroism(CD),and Fourier transform infrared(FT-IR)spectra at a molecular level.Fluorescence spectra showed that PHL quenches the pepsin/trypsin by static quenching.Thermodynamic parameters indicated that PHL binds to pepsin mainly through hydrogen bonds and van der Waals forces,and that of trypsin was electrostatic forces.The ground state complexes PHL and protease have a moderate affinity of 105 L/mol PHL binds more strongly to trypsin than to pepsin.CD and FT-IR spectra results showed that pepsin/trypsin decreased theβ-sheet content and slightly changed its secondary structure upon PHL.These experimental results are mutually verified with the predicted computer-aid simulation results.Upon PHL and trypsin binding,the antioxidant capacity of PHL was elevated.Nevertheless,the antioxidant capacity of PHL was decreased after binding to pepsin.This work elucidates the binding of PHL binding mechanisms to pepsin/trypsin and provides useful information for the digestion of PHL to improve the application of PHL in food processing.

Helmholtz decomposition with a scalar Poisson equation in elastic anisotropic media

P-and S-wave separation plays an important role in elastic reverse-time migration.It can reduce the artifacts caused by crosstalk between different modes and improve image quality.In addition,P-and Swave separation can also be used to better understand and distinguish wave types in complex media.At present,the methods for separating wave modes in anisotropic media mainly include spatial nonstationary filtering,low-rank approximation,and vector Poisson equation.Most of these methods require multiple Fourier transforms or the calculation of large matrices,which require high computational costs for problems with large scale.In this paper,an efficient method is proposed to separate the wave mode for anisotropic media by using a scalar anisotropic Poisson operator in the spatial domain.For 2D problems,the computational complexity required by this method is 1/2 of the methods based on solving a vector Poisson equation.Therefore,compared with existing methods based on pseudoHelmholtz decomposition operators,this method can significantly reduce the computational cost.Numerical examples also show that the P and S waves decomposed by this method not only have the correct amplitude and phase relative to the input wavefield but also can reduce the computational complexity significantly.

Generation of medical isotopes ^(47)Sc,^(67)Cu through laser-induced(γ,p)reaction

Short-lived medical isotopes and their generators are typically produced in nuclear reactors and cyclotrons that require extensive facilities.However,considering the environmental concerns and economic costs of these traditional approaches,modern laser technology,which provides extremely strong electric fields within tabletop-sized areas,can serve as a potential supplementary method.Focusing specifically on the(γ,p)generation of the vital medical isotopes^(47)Sc and^(67)Cu,we used both experimental results and PIC-GEANT4 simulations to demonstrate that laser-induced photonuclear reaction is a promising method for isotope production.We developed a model capable of calculating isotope yields under various laser conditions and acceleration mechanisms.The findings revealed that a 200 TW laser can sufficiently produce diagnostic amounts of^(47)Sc and^(67)Cu,while simultaneously providing high specific activity,which is significant in medical applications for improving treatment efficacy,enhancing image resolution,and reducing side effects.

Evaluation of Resistance of Different Kiwifruit Varieties (Lines) to Canker Disease and Brown Spot Disease

Kiwifruit canker and brown spot are significant diseases affecting kiwis,caused by Pseudomonas syringae patho-genic variations(Pseudomonas syringae pv.Actinidiae(Psa))and Corynesporapolytica(Corynespora cassiicola).At present,the research on canker disease and brown spot disease mainly focuses on the isolation and identification of pathogenic bacteria,drug control,resistance gene mining and functional verification.Practice has proved that breeding disease resistant varieties are an effective method to control canker disease and brown spot disease.However,most existing cultivars lack genes for canker and brown spot resistance.Wild kiwifruit resources in nat-ure exhibit extensive genetic diversity due to prolonged natural selection,containing numerous resistance genes.But,due to insufficient understanding of the resistance of most kiwifruit varieties(lines)to canker disease and brown spot disease,some high-quality resources have not been fully utilized.The incidence of canker and brown spot of 18 kiwifruit cultivars(lines)was measured by inoculating isolated branches and leaves,and their resistance to canker and brown spot was analyzed according to the length,disease index,mean diameter,and systematic clustering.The results were as follows:Among 18 different kiwifruit varieties(lines)for canker disease,there were two highly resistant materials,eight disease-resistant materials,four disease-susceptible materials,and two highly susceptible materials.Moreover,regarding brown spot disease,there were one highly resistant material,five dis-ease-resistant materials,four susceptible materials,and three highly susceptible materials.Furthermore,four resources were resistant to both diseases.The outcomes provided a theoretical basis for breeding kiwifruit against canker and brown spot.

Correlation of Inflammatory Cells in Induced Sputum and Peripheral Blood of Patients with Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major chronic respiratory disease worldwide. Inflammatory cells reflect the inflammatory situation both in peripheral blood and induced sputum. Their correlation has not been reported. The correlation between neutrophils (Neu), eosinophils (Eos), and lymphocyte (Lym) in induced sputum and that in peripheral blood of COPD patients was evaluated to explore the consistency of inflammatory cells in peripheral blood and induced sputum. Peripheral blood and induced sputum were collected from 437 patients with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD) who were hospitalized in the Department of respiratory and critical care medicine, Inner Mongolia People’s Hospital. The correlation analysis was performed by Spearman correlation analysis. The ratios of Neu, Eos, and Lym in induced sputum were (79.15 ± 22.60)%, (5.23 ± 12.74)%, and (1.69 ± 2.66)%. The ratios of Neu, Eos, and Lym in peripheral blood were (63.29 ± 11.44)%, (2.99 ± 3.60)%, and (25.16 ± 10.19)%. The results showed that the ratios of Neu and Eos in induced sputum were significantly correlated with the proportion of corresponding cells in peripheral blood (P < 0.05). There was no correlation between the ratio of Lym and Leu in induced sputum and corresponding cells in peripheral blood (P > 0.05). In patients with AECOPD, the tendency of Neu and Eos in induced sputum was consistent with the corresponding cells in peripheral blood. Neu and Eos in induced sputum and peripheral blood reflected the degree of inflammation to guide the individualized medication of patients.

Biodegradation of phenol and m-cresol by mutated Candida tropicalis

The phenol and m-cresol biodegradations were studied using the mutant strain CTM 2 obtained by the He-Ne laser irradiation on wild-type Candida tropicalis. The results showed that C. tropicalis exhibited the increased capacity of phenolic compounds degradation after laser irradiation. It could degrade 2600 mg/L phenol and 300 mg/L m-cresol by 5% inoculum concentration, respectively. In the dual-substrate biodegradation system, 0-500 mg/L phenol could accelerate m-cresol biodegradation, and 300 mg/L m-cresol could be completely utilized within 46 hr at the presence of 350 mg/L phenol. Besides, the maximum biodegradation of m-cresol could reach 350 mg/L with 80 mg/L phenol within 61 hr. Obviously, phenol, as a growth substrate, could promote CTM 2 to degrade m-cresol, and was always preferentially utilized as carbon source. Comparatively, low-concentration m-cresol could result in a great inhibition on phenol degradation. In addition, the kinetic behaviors of cell growth and substrate biodegradation were described by kinetic model proposed in our laboratory.

Effect of curing humidity on performance of cemented paste backfill

Cemented paste backfill(CPB),a mixture of tailings,binder,and water,is widely and extensively used for the recovery of mineral resources,the prevention of ground subsidence,and the management of mine waste.When installed,the CPB is subjected to complex environmental conditions such as water content,temperature,and power,which have a significant impact on its efficiency.Thus,this study conducts a series of laboratory programs,including investigation of moisture,temperature,stress–strain relation,and microstructure to show the effect of curing humidity on the CPB behaviors.The results obtained indicate that ambient humidity can have a dramatic effect on CPB in terms of its macro performance of internal relative humidity,temperature and strength,as well as the micro expression.Typical examples of these effects on CPB include an increase in curing humidity,which favors binder hydration,and then an increase in hydration materials,temperature and peak stress in the CPB.The results obtained will lead to a better understanding of CPB’s responses to various environmental conditions.

Effects of early oral feeding after radical total gastrectomy in gastric cancer patients

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer(GC)is a heavy burden in China.Nutritional support for GC patients is closely related to postoperative rehabilitation.However,the role of early oral feeding after laparoscopic radical total gastrectomy in GC patients is unclear and high-quality research evidence is scarce.AIM To prospectively explore the safety,feasibility and short-term clinical outcomes of early oral feeding after laparoscopic radical total gastrectomy for GC patients.METHODS This study was a prospective cohort study conducted between January 2018 and December 2019 based in a high-volume tertiary hospital in China.A total of 206 patients who underwent laparoscopic radical total gastrectomy for GC were enrolled.Of which,105 patients were given early oral feeding(EOF group)after surgery,and the other 101 patients were given the traditional feeding strategy(control group)after surgery.Perioperative clinical data were recorded and analyzed.The primary endpoints were gastrointestinal function recovery time and postoperative complications,and the secondary endpoints were postoperative nutritional status,length of hospital stay and expenses,etc.RESULTS Compared with the control group,patients in the EOF group had a significantly shorter postoperative first exhaust time(2.48±1.17 d vs 3.37±1.42 d,P=0.001)and first defecation time(3.83±2.41 d vs 5.32±2.70 d,P=0.004).In addition,the EOF group had a significant shorter postoperative hospitalization duration(5.85±1.53 d vs 7.71±1.56 d,P<0.001)and lower postoperative hospitalization expenses(16.60±5.10 K¥vs 21.00±7.50 K¥,P=0.014).On the 5th day after surgery,serum prealbumin level(214.52±22.47 mg/L vs 204.17±20.62 mg/L,P=0.018),serum gastrin level(246.30±57.10 ng/L vs 223.60±55.70 ng/L,P=0.001)and serum motilin level(424.60±68.30 ng/L vs 409.30±61.70 ng/L,P=0.002)were higher in the EOF group.However,there was no significant difference in the incidence of total postoperative complications between the two groups(P=0.507).CONCLUSION Early oral feeding after laparoscopic radical total gastrectomy can promote the recovery of gastrointestinal function,improve postoperative nutritional status,reduce length of hospital stay and expenses while not increasing the incidence of related complications,which indicates its safety,feasibility and potential benefits for gastric cancer patients.

Robust Latent Factor Analysis for Precise Representation of High-Dimensional and Sparse Data

High-dimensional and sparse(HiDS)matrices commonly arise in various industrial applications,e.g.,recommender systems(RSs),social networks,and wireless sensor networks.Since they contain rich information,how to accurately represent them is of great significance.A latent factor(LF)model is one of the most popular and successful ways to address this issue.Current LF models mostly adopt L2-norm-oriented Loss to represent an HiDS matrix,i.e.,they sum the errors between observed data and predicted ones with L2-norm.Yet L2-norm is sensitive to outlier data.Unfortunately,outlier data usually exist in such matrices.For example,an HiDS matrix from RSs commonly contains many outlier ratings due to some heedless/malicious users.To address this issue,this work proposes a smooth L1-norm-oriented latent factor(SL-LF)model.Its main idea is to adopt smooth L1-norm rather than L2-norm to form its Loss,making it have both strong robustness and high accuracy in predicting the missing data of an HiDS matrix.Experimental results on eight HiDS matrices generated by industrial applications verify that the proposed SL-LF model not only is robust to the outlier data but also has significantly higher prediction accuracy than state-of-the-art models when they are used to predict the missing data of HiDS matrices.

Mechanical properties and charge signal characteristics in coal material failure under different loading paths

Rock burst is a catastrophic dynamic disaster caused by sudden failure and instability of coal, loading paths play an important role in the failure of coal, the coal failure process is associated with charge exception infonnation. Hence, violent coal failure mechanics and time-frequency domain distribution of charge signal such as rock burst under different loading paths should be studied in-depth. In this paper, grade and cyclic loading test were carried out for coal with impact tendency samples produced by blocks cored from 800 depth in Xiaoqing coal mine of the Tiefa coal group in northeast China. Theory discussion was carried out for the result of stress and strain, frequency-spectra analysis was conducted for the wavelet charge data, figures showing the evolution mechanism of mechanical properties and the relationship of timefrequency domain amplitude of charge signals in coal with different loading paths and stage were obtained. The failure process and characteristics of coal under different loading paths were summarized. It found that the loading path changed the manner of energy accelerate-release, there were more plastic strain generation in coal under cyclic loading than that under grade loading, the former was more likely to cause greater damage and failure, then the strength of coal under cyclic loading is generally lower than that under grade loading, an energy conversion mechanical model of stress, damage and deformation was developed and explained the effect of the loading path. Charge signal was primarily distributed in the strengthening and peak stages, where there was a high amplitude pulse at each stress drop. The charge pulse was a type of low frequency signal with a primary frequency distribution range of 1 -100Hz. Discussion on the charge generating mechanism from the perspective of friction slip, it demonstrated that the charge obtained during the coal failure process directly to stress loaded on and damage, the result verified it better. We propose that the research results in this study could be efficiently applied to daily mining activities, to provide an early warning and effectively avoid rock burst disaster.

Wire and arc additive manufacturing of 4043 Al alloy using a cold metal transfer method

Cold metal transfer plus pulse(C+P)arc was applied in the additive manufacturing of 4043 Al alloy parts.Parameters in the manufacturing of the parts were investigated.The properties and microstructure of the parts were also characterized.Experimental results showed that welding at a speed of 8 mm/s and a wire feeding speed of 4.0 m/min was suitable to manufacture thin-walled parts,and the reciprocating scanning method could be adopted to manufacture thick-walled parts.The thin-walled parts of the C+P mode had fewer pores than those of the cold metal transfer(CMT)mode.The thin-and thick-walled parts of the C+P mode showed maximum tensile strengths of 172 and 178 MPa,respectively.Hardness decreased at the interface and in the coarse dendrite and increased in the refined grain area.

Contributions of optimized tensor interactions on the binding energies of nuclei

The tensor parts of Skyrme interactions are constrained from the collective charge-exchange spin-dipole and Gamow-Teller excitation energies in 90Zr and 208Pb,together with the isotopic dependence of energy splitting between proton h11=2 and g7=2 single-particle orbits along the Z=50 isotopes.With the optimized tensor interactions,the binding energies of spherical or weakly deformed nuclei with A=54-228 are studied systematically.The present results show that the global effect of tensor interaction is attractive and systematically increases the binding energies of all these nuclei and makes the nuclei more bound.The root mean squared deviation of the calculated binding energies from the experimental values is significantly improved by the optimized tensor interactions,and the contribution of the tensor interaction to the binding energy is estimated.

Development of digital organ-on-a-chip to assess hepatotoxicity and extracellular vesicle-based anti-liver cancer immunotherapy

Organ-on-a-chip systems have been increasingly recognized as attractive platforms to assess toxicity and to develop new therapeutic agents.However,current organ-on-a-chip platforms are limited by a“single pot”design,which inevitably requires holistic analysis and limits parallel processing.Here,we developed a digital organ-on-a-chip by combining a microwell array with cellular microspheres,which significantly increased the parallelism over traditional organ-on-a-chip for drug development.Up to 127 uniform liver cancer microspheres in this digital organ-on-a-chip format served as individual analytical units,allowing for analysis with high consistency and quick response.Our platform displayed evident anti-cancer efficacy at a concentration of 10μM for sorafenib,and had greater alignment than the“single pot”organ-on-a-chip with a previous in vivo study.In addition,this digital organ-on-a-chip demonstrated the treatment efficacy of natural killer cell-derived extracellular vesicles for liver cancer at 50μg/mL.The successful development of this digital organ-on-a-chip platform provides high-parallelism and a low-variability analytical tool for toxicity assessment and the exploration of new anticancer modalities,thereby accelerating the joint endeavor to combat cancer.

Preparation and Characterization of Three-dimensionally Ordered Crystalline Macroporous CeO_2

A stable 3DOM CeO2 with well-defined inverse opal microstructure and crystalline walls structure has been successfully synthesized by application of three-dimensional order PMMA beads as templates. Structural feature of products was characterized by using SEM, DTA-TG XRD.

A unified model for diagnosing energy usage abnormalities in regional integrated energy service systems

An integrated energy service company in an industrial park or commercial building is responsible for managing all energy sources in their local region, including electricity, water, gas, heating, and cooling. To reduce energy wastage and increase energy utilization, it is necessary to perform efficiency analyses and diagnoses on integrated energy systems(IESs). However, the integrated energy data necessary for energy efficiency analyses and diagnoses come from a wide variety of instruments, each of which uses different transmission protocols and data formats. This makes it challenging to handle energy-flow data in a unified manner. Thus, we have constructed a unified model for diagnosing energy usage abnormalities in IESs. Using this model, the data are divided into working days and non-working days, and benchmark values are calculated after the data have been weighted to enable unified analysis of several types of energy data. The energy-flow data may then be observed, managed, and compared in all aspects to monitor sudden changes in energy usage and energy wastage. The abnormal data identified and selected by the unified model are then subjected to big-data analysis using technical management tools, enabling the detection of user problems such as abnormalities pertaining to acquisition device, metering, and energy usage. This model facilitates accurate metering of energy data and improves energy efficiency. The study has significant implications in terms of fulfilling the energy saving.

Baicalin modulates microRNA expression in UVB irradiated mouse skin

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of baicalin on ultraviolet radiation B （UVB）-mediated microRNA （miRNA） expression in mouse skin. We determined miRNA expression profiles in UVB irradiated mice, baicalin treated irradiated mice, and untreated mice, and conducted TargetScan and Gene Ontology analyses to predict miRNA targets. Three miRNAs （mmu-miR-125a-5p, mmu-miR-146a, and mmu-miR-141） were downregulated and another three （mmu-miR-188-5p, mmu-miR-223 and mmu-miR-22） were upregulated in UVB irradiated mice compared with untreated mice. Additionally, these miRNAs were predicted to be related to photocarcinogenesis, hypomethylation and apoptosis. Three miRNAs （mmu-miR-378, mmu-miR-199a-3p and mmu-miR-181b） were downregulated and one （mmu-miR-23a） was upregulated in baicalin treated mice compared with UVB irradiated mice, and they were predicted to be related to DNA repair signaling pathway. These deregulated miRNAs are potentially involved in the pathogenesis of photodamage, and may aid treatment and prevention of UVB-induced dermatoses.

A new isoquinoline derivative from the leaves of Magnolia sieboldii K.Koch

Magnoline（1）,a new isoquinoline derivative,was isolated from the leaves of Magnolia sieboldii K.Koch（Magnoliaceae）.Its structure was elucidated on the basis of spectral analysis including 1D,2D NMR and HR-TOF-MS.

Huber inversion-based reverse-time migration with de-primary imaging condition and curvelet-domain sparse constraint

Least-squares reverse-time migration(LSRTM) formulates reverse-time migration(RTM) in the leastsquares inversion framework to obtain the optimal reflectivity image. It can generate images with more accurate amplitudes, higher resolution, and fewer artifacts than RTM. However, three problems still exist:(1) inversion can be dominated by strong events in the residual;(2) low-wavenumber artifacts in the gradient affect convergence speed and imaging results;(3) high-wavenumber noise is also amplified as iteration increases. To solve these three problems, we have improved LSRTM: firstly, we use Hubernorm as the objective function to emphasize the weak reflectors during the inversion;secondly, we adapt the de-primary imaging condition to remove the low-wavenumber artifacts above strong reflectors as well as the false high-wavenumber reflectors in the gradient;thirdly, we apply the L1-norm sparse constraint in the curvelet-domain as the regularization term to suppress the high-wavenumber migration noise. As the new inversion objective function contains the non-smooth L1-norm, we use a modified iterative soft thresholding(IST) method to update along the Polak-Ribie re conjugate-gradient direction by using a preconditioned non-linear conjugate-gradient(PNCG) method. The numerical examples,especially the Sigsbee2 A model, demonstrate that the Huber inversion-based RTM can generate highquality images by mitigating migration artifacts and improving the contribution of weak reflection events.

HDAC-selective Inhibitor Cay10603 Has Single Anti-tumour Effect in Burkitfs Lymphoma Cells by Impeding the Cell Cycle

Histone deacetylases(HDACs)inhibitors are novel in cancer therapy nowadays.HDAC6-selective inhibitors exert advantageous effects due to higher selectivity and less toxicity.We explored the anti-tumor effect and the molecular mechanism of cay 10603,a potent HDAC6 inhibitor in Burkitt's lymphoma cells.Our study revealed cay 10603 inhibited the proliferation of Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines,and induced caspase-dependent apoptosis.Cayl0603 inhibited the expression of CDKs and cyciins to impede cell cycle progression in both Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines.Cay 10603 also showed the additive effect with vpl 6 notably.Our data presented the promising anti-tumor effect of cay 10603 in the Burkitt's lymphoma therapy.