A new species of the probable calcareous alga Amsassia, A. koreanensis, is recognized from the Duwibong Formation （Middle Ordovician, Darriwilian） of the Taebaeksan Basin in mid-eastern Korea. This is the first repo...A new species of the probable calcareous alga Amsassia, A. koreanensis, is recognized from the Duwibong Formation （Middle Ordovician, Darriwilian） of the Taebaeksan Basin in mid-eastern Korea. This is the first report of the genus from the Korean Peninsula, expanding its geographical range to the eastern Sino-Korean Block. The new species also occurs in the Xiazhen Formation （Upper Ordovician, Katian） at Zhuzhai in the South China Block. Amsassia koreanensis is the smallest species of this modular genus, having a maximum module diameter of 0.28 ram. Module increase is by bipartite, tripartite and quadripartite types of longitudinal axial fission, but unlike other species of the genus, quadripartite fission is common. The types of fission are comparable to those in some Tetradiida （now Prismostylales, florideophycean rhodophyte algae）, although the processes of fission are different. The distribution of A. koreanensis further strengthens the biogeographical connection between the Sino-Korean and South China blocks, suggesting that these two paleocontinents were located closer together during the Middle to Late Ordovician than previously speculated.展开更多
Reliability-based design optimization （RBDO） is intrinsically a double-loop procedure since it involves an overall optimization and an iterative reliability assessment at each search point. Due to the double-loop pr...Reliability-based design optimization （RBDO） is intrinsically a double-loop procedure since it involves an overall optimization and an iterative reliability assessment at each search point. Due to the double-loop procedure, the computational expense of RBDO is normally very high. Current RBDO research focuses on problems with explicitly expressed performance functions and readily available gradients. This paper addresses a more challenging type of RBDO problem in which the performance functions are computation intensive. These computation intensive functions are often considered as a ＂black-box＂ and their gradients are not available or not reliable. On the basis of the reliable design space （RDS） concept proposed earlier by the authors, this paper proposes a Reliable Space Pursuing （RSP） approach, in which RDS is first identified and then gradually refined while optimization is performed. It fundamentally avoids the nested optimization and probabilistic assessment loop. Three well known RBDO problems from the literature are used for testing and demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed RSP method.展开更多
Systems biology is an emerging science of the 21st century and its method and design of study resemble those of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Adopting systems biology technology will help to understand TCM Syndr...Systems biology is an emerging science of the 21st century and its method and design of study resemble those of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Adopting systems biology technology will help to understand TCM Syndromes and modernize Chinese herbal medicine. The technology platforms of systems biology, especially proteomics can provide useful tools for exploring essence of TCM syndromes and understanding principle of herbal formulation. Moreover, compared with methods of molecular biology, such as genomics and proteomics, metabolomics provide more direct, rapid, concise and effective methods for study of kidney disease especially in the case of prevention and treatment with TCM.展开更多
Para-amino benzoic acid(PABA),a folic acid related metabolite,was first introduced to fabricate micro-grooves and improve hydrophilicity over surfaces of carbon fibers(CFs).Then,engineered CFs/poly(lactic acid)-poly(e...Para-amino benzoic acid(PABA),a folic acid related metabolite,was first introduced to fabricate micro-grooves and improve hydrophilicity over surfaces of carbon fibers(CFs).Then,engineered CFs/poly(lactic acid)-poly(ethylene glycol)(PLA-PEG) biocomposites were fabricated by a solvent casting/particulate leaching method.We found that introducing small hydrophobic PABA molecules and fabricating patterned structures would lead to benign integrated interfaces between CFs and the PLA-PEG matrix.Specifically,the compressive strength of CFs/PLA-PEG was improved from 3.98 to 5.48 MPa.In addition,the CFs/PLA-PEG biocomposites significantly accelerated the adhesion and proliferation of pre-osteoblasts with minimized cytotoxidty.By comparing the cyto-compatibility of L929 and MC_3T_3 cells cultured on different modified PLA-PEG composites,it could be concluded that PABA-CFs not only overcame the limitation of poor strength of PLA-PEG,but also improved the cell growth.These results indicate that the PABA-CFs reinforced PLA-PEG biocomposites could be a potential alternative for tissue engineering scaffolds.展开更多
基金supported by a grant from 2015 Research Fund of Andong National University
文摘A new species of the probable calcareous alga Amsassia, A. koreanensis, is recognized from the Duwibong Formation （Middle Ordovician, Darriwilian） of the Taebaeksan Basin in mid-eastern Korea. This is the first report of the genus from the Korean Peninsula, expanding its geographical range to the eastern Sino-Korean Block. The new species also occurs in the Xiazhen Formation （Upper Ordovician, Katian） at Zhuzhai in the South China Block. Amsassia koreanensis is the smallest species of this modular genus, having a maximum module diameter of 0.28 ram. Module increase is by bipartite, tripartite and quadripartite types of longitudinal axial fission, but unlike other species of the genus, quadripartite fission is common. The types of fission are comparable to those in some Tetradiida （now Prismostylales, florideophycean rhodophyte algae）, although the processes of fission are different. The distribution of A. koreanensis further strengthens the biogeographical connection between the Sino-Korean and South China blocks, suggesting that these two paleocontinents were located closer together during the Middle to Late Ordovician than previously speculated.
基金supported by Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada
文摘Reliability-based design optimization （RBDO） is intrinsically a double-loop procedure since it involves an overall optimization and an iterative reliability assessment at each search point. Due to the double-loop procedure, the computational expense of RBDO is normally very high. Current RBDO research focuses on problems with explicitly expressed performance functions and readily available gradients. This paper addresses a more challenging type of RBDO problem in which the performance functions are computation intensive. These computation intensive functions are often considered as a ＂black-box＂ and their gradients are not available or not reliable. On the basis of the reliable design space （RDS） concept proposed earlier by the authors, this paper proposes a Reliable Space Pursuing （RSP） approach, in which RDS is first identified and then gradually refined while optimization is performed. It fundamentally avoids the nested optimization and probabilistic assessment loop. Three well known RBDO problems from the literature are used for testing and demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed RSP method.
文摘Systems biology is an emerging science of the 21st century and its method and design of study resemble those of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Adopting systems biology technology will help to understand TCM Syndromes and modernize Chinese herbal medicine. The technology platforms of systems biology, especially proteomics can provide useful tools for exploring essence of TCM syndromes and understanding principle of herbal formulation. Moreover, compared with methods of molecular biology, such as genomics and proteomics, metabolomics provide more direct, rapid, concise and effective methods for study of kidney disease especially in the case of prevention and treatment with TCM.
基金supported by the National Key Research and Development Project(2016YFB0303201)the Research and Innovation Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission(14zz069)Donghua University Graduates'Innovation Funding Projects(EG2015006)
文摘Para-amino benzoic acid(PABA),a folic acid related metabolite,was first introduced to fabricate micro-grooves and improve hydrophilicity over surfaces of carbon fibers(CFs).Then,engineered CFs/poly(lactic acid)-poly(ethylene glycol)(PLA-PEG) biocomposites were fabricated by a solvent casting/particulate leaching method.We found that introducing small hydrophobic PABA molecules and fabricating patterned structures would lead to benign integrated interfaces between CFs and the PLA-PEG matrix.Specifically,the compressive strength of CFs/PLA-PEG was improved from 3.98 to 5.48 MPa.In addition,the CFs/PLA-PEG biocomposites significantly accelerated the adhesion and proliferation of pre-osteoblasts with minimized cytotoxidty.By comparing the cyto-compatibility of L929 and MC_3T_3 cells cultured on different modified PLA-PEG composites,it could be concluded that PABA-CFs not only overcame the limitation of poor strength of PLA-PEG,but also improved the cell growth.These results indicate that the PABA-CFs reinforced PLA-PEG biocomposites could be a potential alternative for tissue engineering scaffolds.
