New insight into genes in association with asthma： literature-based mining and network centrality analysis

Background Asthma is a heterogeneous disease for which a strong genetic basis has been firmly established. Until now no studies have been undertaken to systemically explore the network of asthma-related genes using an internally developed literature-based discovery approach. This study was to explore asthma-related genes by using literature- based mining and network centrality analysis. Methods Literature involving asthma-related genes were searched in PubMed from 2001 to 2011. Integration of natural language processing with network centrality analysis was used to identify asthma susceptibility genes and their interaction network. Asthma susceptibility genes were classified into three functional groups by gene ontology （GO） analysis and the key genes were confirmed by establishing asthma-related networks and pathways. Results Three hundred and twenty-six genes related with asthma such as IGHE （IgE）, interleukin （IL）-4, 5, 6, 10, 13, 17A, and tumor necrosis factor （TNF）-alpha were identified. GO analysis indicated some biological processes （developmental processes, signal transduction, death, etc.）, cellular components （non-structural extracellular, plasma membrane and extracellular matrix）, and molecular functions （signal transduction activity） that were involved in asthma. Furthermore, 22 asthma-related pathways such as the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, hematopoietic cell lineage, JAK-STAT signaling pathway, chemokine signaling pathway, and cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and 17 hub genes, such as JAK3, CCR1-3, CCR5-7, CCR8, were found. Conclusions Our study provides a remarkably detailed and comprehensive picture of asthma susceptibility genes and their interacting network. Further identification of these genes and molecular pathways may play a prominent role in establishing rational therapeutic approaches for asthma.

The difference analysis of physical-mechanical properties of sediments in the central South Yellow Sea and Zhe-Min coastal area in China

The difference analysis of physical-mechanical properties of muddy sediments is made in the central South Yellow Sea and the Zhe-Min（Zhejiang Province to Fujian Province of China） coastal area. The results show that sediments in the two regions are both dominated by mud. There are perfect negative power function correlations between the water content and the density, the compression coefficient and the compression modulus; a good positive power function correlation between the liquid limit and the plastic limit, a perfect positive linear correlation between the water content and the void ratio, and a perfect polynomial function correlation between the miniature vane shear strength and the pocket penetration resistance. In general, compared with sediments in the Zhe-Min coastal area, sediments in the central South Yellow Sea possess high water content, high void ratio,low density, high plasticity, high compressibility, low shear strength. The causes of the differences between physical-mechanical properties of sediments are analyzed from the topographic features, material sources,hydrodynamic conditions, deposition rate, and material composition. Compared with the Zhe-Min coastal area,the central South Yellow Sea is far from the Mainland and low-lying; has poor hydrodynamic condition; the materials diffused to the area are less and dominated by fine clay, have the high content of smectite and organic matters. These factors lead to sediments of the central South Yellow Sea has the higher water content, the higher plasticity, the lower density, and the lower strength than sediments in the Zhe-Min coastal area.

Structural Analysis of Central Solenoid for HT-7U

The central solenoid (CS) composed of cable-in-conduit (CIC) type conductor is animportant part of the HT-7U device. The CS coils can be considered from the viewpoint of micro-mechanics as a composite material. And then, the residual stiffness is computed according to themicro-damage modeling of continuum damage mechanics. These material properties have beenused as input data for finite element method (FEM) analysis. In this paper the computationalanaysis of the stress and the displacement on the central solenoid are made by the finite elementanalysis system COSMOS/M2.0 under Operating temperature. According to the analytical results,the CS coils are all satisfied with designed safety criteria.

Hydrological Analysis and Ability Assessing of Flood Gating of Karaj Watershed According to the Form of the Watershed

The numeral trait of aquiferous zones in flowage studies and estimations is under most parts of nation. In this study Karaj aquiferous zone in Alborz province was surveyed from the view point of form, the agglomeration of drainage net length of channel and space. The orientation of hillside was specified as the affective factor on creating and streaming the flowage. A flow aggregating hydrological model for the studied zone was prepared and amount of the flow is mostly in which parts of the zone the delay and centralization time in the zone was evaluated and the related diagrams were derived. Finally, the zone was divided into 4 main subzones and their drainage nets were ranked and by 4 factors namely, space, length of canal, drainage aggregation and branch ratio affecting on performance of the zone from the view of from and appearance was surveyed. The factors interfering in SPSS software and their correlations were specified and specific coefficients stand in their related charts. By considering in the zone width and charts it is specified which of the sub zones has the most flowage potential from the view of the zones physical and numeral qualifications. All plots were prepared using GIS and WMS software and the studied zone’s hydrograph was depicted.

Finite Element Analysis on the Pre-load Structures of the Central Solenoid for the HT-7U Device

The central solenoid is an important part of the HT-7U device. In this paper， the computational analysis of the stress and the displacement on the pre-load structures of the central solenoid have been made by the finite element analysis system COSMOS/M2.0 under room and/or operating temperature. According to the analytical results, the clip aprons and compression plates are all satisfied with safety design criteria.

Roles and Functions of Tourism Destinations in Tourism Region of South Anhui:A Tourist Flow Network Perspective

Theoretic and practical significance has been highlighted in the research of the roles and functions of destinations,as destinations are restricted by the spatial structure based on tourist flow network from the perspective of relationship.This article conducted an empirical analysis for Tourism Region of South Anhui(TRSA) and revealed the necessity and feasibility of studying the roles and functions of destinations from tourist flow network's perspective.The automorphic equivalence analysis and centrality analysis were used to classify 16 destinations in TRSA into six role types:tourist flow distribution center,hub of tourist flows,passageway destination,common touring destination,attached touring destination,and nearly isolated destination.Some suggestions were given on suitable infrastructure construction and destinations service designs according to their functions in network.This destination role positioning was based on tourist flow network structure in integral and macroscopic way.It provided an important reference for the balanced and harmonious development of all the destinations of TRSA.In addition,this article verified the applicability of social network analysis on tourist flow research in local scale,and expanded this method to destination role and function positioning.

Connectivity differences between adult male and female patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder according to resting-state functional MRI

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder（ADHD） is a pervasive psychiatric disorder that affects both children and adults. Adult male and female patients with ADHD are differentially affected, but few studies have explored the differences. The purpose of this study was to quantify differences between adult male and female patients with ADHD based on neuroimaging and connectivity analysis. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were obtained and preprocessed in 82 patients. Group-wise differences between male and female patients were quantified using degree centrality for different brain regions. The medial-, middle-, and inferior-frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, precuneus, supramarginal gyrus, superior- and middle-temporal gyrus, middle occipital gyrus, and cuneus were identified as regions with significant group-wise differences. The identified regions were correlated with clinical scores reflecting depression and anxiety and significant correlations were found. Adult ADHD patients exhibit different levels of depression and anxiety depending on sex, and our study provides insight into how changes in brain circuitry might differentially impact male and female ADHD patients.

Feature Extraction of Radar Range Profiles Based on Normalized Central Moments

The normalized central moments are widely used in pattern recognition because of scale and translation invariance. The moduli of normalized central moments of the 1-dimensional complex range profiles are used here as feature vector for radar target recognition. The common feature extraction method for high resolution range profile obtained by using Fourier-modified direct Mellin transform is inefficient and unsatisfactory in recognition rate And. generally speaking, the automatic target recognition method based on inverse synthetic aperture radar 2-dimensional imaging is not competent for real time object identification task because it needs complicated motion compensation which is sometimes too difficult to carry out. While the method applied here is competent for real-time recognition because of its computational efficiency. The result of processing experimental data indicates that this method is good at recognition.

Planning for selective amygdalohippocampectomy involving less neuronal fiber damage based on brain connectivity using tractography

Temporal lobe resection is an important treatment option for epilepsy that involves removal of potentially essential brain regions. Selective amygdalohippocampectomy is a widely performed temporal lobe surgery. We suggest starting the incision for selective amygdalohippocampectomy at the inferior temporal gyrus based on diffusion magnetic resonance imaging（MRI） tractography. Diffusion MRI data from 20 normal participants were obtained from Parkinson＇s Progression Markers Initiative（PPMI） database（www.ppmi-info.org）. A tractography algorithm was applied to extract neuronal fiber information for the temporal lobe, hippocampus, and amygdala. Fiber information was analyzed in terms of the number of fibers and betweenness centrality. Distances between starting incisions and surgical target regions were also considered to explore the length of the surgical path. Middle temporal and superior temporal gyrus regions have higher connectivity values than the inferior temporal gyrus and thus are not good candidates for starting the incision. The distances between inferior temporal gyrus and surgical target regions were shorter than those between middle temporal gyrus and target regions. Thus, the inferior temporal gyrus is a good candidate for starting the incision. Starting the incision from the inferior temporal gyrus would spare the important（in terms of betweenness centrality values） middle region and shorten the distance to the target regions of the hippocampus and amygdala.