bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In Vivo Antimalarial Activity and Toxicity Study of Extracts of Tagetes erecta L. and Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. from the Asteraceae Family
Authors: Chaniad Prapaporn , Techarang Tachpon , Phuwajaroanpong Arisara , Na-ek Prasit , Viriyavejakul Parnpen , Punsawad Chuchard
Published: July 2021

Objective. To investigate the antimalarial effects and toxicity of the extracts of the flowers of Tagetes erecta L. and the leaves of Synedrella nodiflora (L.) Gaertn. in a mouse model. Methods. To determine the in vivo antimalarial activity of the extracts, mice were intraperitoneally injected with the Plasmodium berghei ANKA strain and then administered T. erecta or S. nodiflora extract daily for 4 days. Parasitemia was observed by light microscopy. For the detection of acute toxicity, the mice received a single dose of T. erecta or S. nodiflora extract and were observed for 14 days. Biochemical parameters of liver and kidney function and the histopathology of liver and kidney tissues of the acute toxicity group were then examined. Results. T. erecta and S. nodiflora crude extracts at a dose of 600 mg/kg body weight significantly suppressed parasitemia in malaria-infected mice by 65.65% and 62.65%, respectively. Mice treated with 400 mg/kg T. erecta and S. nodiflora crude extracts showed 50.82% and 57.67% suppression, and mice treated with 200 mg/kg displayed 26.33% and 38.57% suppression, respectively. Additionally, no symptoms of acute toxicity were observed in the T. erecta- and S. nodiflora-treated groups. Moreover, no significant alterations in the biochemical parameters of liver and kidney function and no histological changes in the liver or kidney tissues were observed. Conclusions. This study revealed that both T. erecta and S. nodiflora extracts have antimalarial properties in vivo with less toxic effects. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms of the active compounds from both plants.
[Retracted] Optimization on Operation Parameters in Reinforced Metal Matrix of AA6066 Composite with HSS and Cu
Authors: Sesharao Y. , Sathish T. , Palani Kumaran , Merneedi Anjibabu , L Natrayan , De Poures Melvin Victor , Maridurai T.
Published: July 2021

This optimization investigation focused on the reinforced metal matrix composite of aluminium alloy. Novel of this work is to fabricate the AA6066 composite with HSS and Cu, continually conduct machining tests, and evaluate the tool wear, surface roughness, and thrust force of the stir‐casted specimens. The aluminium composite has 90 percentage of AA6066 alloy reinforcement with six percentage of high‐speed steel and four percentage of copper alloy made by the casting method. The fabricated composites’ turning parameters were optimized through the Taguchi method. The turning operation can be done with the help of the normal lathe with the CBN insert tool. The operation parameters such as feed, depth of cut, and steam pressure of the cutting fluid were considered with three different equal intervals in each parameter. In this investigation, the L9 orthogonal array method is used to identify the optimum values of the turning parameters among the considered machining parameters concerning the response such as wear on the turning tool and thrust forces created on machining. The outcome based on the parameters was identified and mentioned as the rank order for individual and combination of all responses with different conditions. Then, the separate and combined optimized input parameters were provided as the conclusion.
Monitoring System-Based Flying IoT in Public Health and Sports Using Ant-Enabled Energy-Aware Routing
Authors: Khan Inam Ullah , Hassan Muhammad Abul , Alshehri Mohammad Dahman , Ikram Mohammed Abdulaziz , Alyamani Hasan J. , Alturki Ryan , Hoang Vinh Truong
Published: July 2021

In recent decades, the Internet of flying networks has made significant progress. Several aerial vehicles communicate with one another to form flying ad hoc networks. Unmanned aerial vehicles perform a wide range of tasks that make life easier for humans. However, due to the high frequency of mobile flying vehicles, network problems such as packet loss, latency, and perhaps disrupted channel links arise, affecting data delivery. The use of UAV-enabled IoT in sports has changed the dynamics of tracking and working on player safety. WBAN can be merged with aerial vehicles to collect data regarding health and transfer it to a base station. Furthermore, the unbalanced energy usage of flying things will result in earlier mission failure and a rapid decline in network lifespan. This study describes the use of each UAV’s residual energy level to ensure a high level of safety using an ant-based routing technique called AntHocNet. In health care, the use of IoT-assisted aerial vehicles would increase operational performance, surveillance, and automation optimization to provide a smart application of flying IoT. Apart from that, aerial vehicles can be used in remote communication for treatment, medical equipment distribution, and telementoring. While comparing routing algorithms, simulation findings indicate that the proposed ant-based routing protocol is optimal.
Stagnation Point Flow of EMHD Micropolar Nanofluid with Mixed Convection and Slip Boundary
Authors: Muhammad Atif Shahzada , Abbas Muhammad , Rashid Umair , Emadifar Homan
Published: July 2021

The aim of this numerical research is to study the stagnation point flow of the electrical magnetohydrodynamic micropolar nanofluid with slip conditions past a stretching sheet. The phenomenon of linear thermal radiation, Ohmic and internal heating, has also been considered in the energy equation. The modelled PDEs are converted into ODEs via similarity transformation, and converted ODEs are tackled via the shooting technique. The features of assorted parameters on the axial and angular velocities and energy and concentration fields are sketched. The numerical values of the Sherwood and Nusselt numbers have been computed numerically and displayed in the form of tables. Our analysis shows that the heat transfer rate is decreased as the thermal slip parameter and the diffusion slip parameter are enhanced. The present study illustrates that the energy and concentration distribution are decreased with each of the mass free convection parameter, stagnation parameter, and thermal free convection parameter.
Observer‐Based Leader‐Following Consensus of General Linear Multiagent Systems Based on Novel Event Trigger Mechanism with Input Time Delay under Directed Graphs
Authors: Zhang Hong , Chen Changshun , Wei Feng
Published: July 2021

This paper considers the tracking and containment consensus for the general linear systems with input time delays under directed communication networks. The distributed observer‐based algorithm on the basis of event‐triggering mechanism will be designed by using only neighboring agents information. In this way, we can save network resource effectively. The event‐based protocol with input time delays will be proposed for the leader‐follower systems. Appropriate feedback gain matrices and trigger parameters can be designed by using Lyapunov stability theory. Based on the designed control algorithm, if the feedback gain matrices and the event trigger are designed appropriately, the leader‐follower general linear system can eventually reach tracking and containment consensus. Then, two simulation results are provided to demonstrate the practicability of the theoretical analysis.
Mix Design of Recycled Coarse Aggregate Self‐Compacting Concrete Based on Orthogonal Test and Analysis of Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry
Authors: Gao Songpu , Liu Qing , Han Fengxia , Fu Yu
Published: July 2021

The influence of four factors (water‐binder ratio, recycled coarse aggregate replacement rate, fly ash substitution rate, and superplasticizer content) on the workabilities and mechanical properties of recycled coarse aggregate self‐compacting concrete (RCASCC) was studied using the orthogonal test method. Based on the orthogonal test design and range analysis method of the fresh and hardened properties of RCASCC, the optimal mix is as follows: water‐binder ratio of 0.269, recycled coarse aggregate replacement rate of 30%, fly ash substitution rate of 40%, and superplasticizer content of 0.50%. Then, the porosity and aperture size distribution of nine groups of RCASCC were tested by mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) at the microlevel. The macroscopic and microscopic relationship was established by combining the results of mechanical property tests and MIP. Fractal dimension D of the B.B. Mandelbrot model was used to study the fractal characteristics of pore volume of RCASCC. Results showed that porosity and strengths are negatively correlated, and the relative strength can be roughly judged according to the porosity. The pore structure of nine groups of RCASCC materials has evident fractal characteristics of irregular shape. The complex pore structure adversely affects strength.
Image Recommendation Algorithm Combined with Deep Neural Network Designed for Social Networks
Authors: Du Shaohui , Chen Zhenghan , Wu Haoyan , Tang Yihong , Li YuanQing
Published: July 2021

In recent years, deep neural networks have achieved great success in many fields, such as computer vision and natural language processing. Traditional image recommendation algorithms use text‐based recommendation methods. The process of displaying images requires a lot of time and labor, and the time‐consuming labor is inefficient. Therefore, this article mainly studies image recommendation algorithms based on deep neural networks in social networks. First, according to the time stamp information of the dataset, the interaction records of each user are sorted by the closest time. Then, some feature vectors are created via traditional feature algorithms like LBP, BGC3, RTU, or CNN extraction. For image recommendation, two LSTM neural networks are established, which accept these feature vectors as input, respectively. The compressed output of the two sub‐ESTM neural networks is used as the input of another LSTM neural network. The multilayer regression algorithm is adopted to randomly sample some network nodes to obtain the cognitive information of the nodes sampled in the entire network, predict the relationship between all nodes in the network based on the cognitive information, and perform low sampling to achieve relationship prediction. The experiments show that proposed LSTM model together with CNN feature vectors can outperform other algorithms.
Notes on Solutions for Some Systems of Complex Functional Equations in

ℂ

2
Authors: Li Hong , Xu Hong Yan
Published: July 2021

The purpose of this article is to give the details of finding the transcendental entire solutions with finite order for the systems of nonlinear partial differential-difference equations

∂

f

1

z

1

,

z

2

/
∂

z

1

+

∂

f

1

z

1

,

z

2

/
∂

z

2

n

1

+

P

1

z

f

2

z

1

+

c

1

,

z

2

+

c

2

m

1

=

Q

1

z

,

∂

f

1

z

1

,

z

2

/
∂

z

1

+

∂

f

1

z

1

,

z

2

/
∂

z

2

n

2

+

P

2

z

f

1

z

1

+

c

1

,

z

2

+

c

2

m

2

=

Q

2

z

,

where

P

1

z

,

P

2

z

,

Q

1

z

,
and

Q

2

z

are polynomials in

ℂ

2

;

n

1

,

n

2

,

m

1

,
and
 

m

2

are positive integers, and

c
=

c

1

,

c

2

∈

ℂ

2

. We obtain that there exist some pairs of the transcendental entire solutions of finite order for the above system, which is a very powerful supplement to the previous theorems given by Xu and Cao and Xu and Yang.
Experimental and Numerical Research Studies on Multifield Coupling Rotordynamic Behaviors of Motor
Authors: Guo Shaojie , Bai Changqing
Published: July 2021

The magnetic pull, bearing forces, and operating temperature, as important factors affecting motor performance, actually act together on the electric motor. In this study, the magnetic‐solid‐thermal coupling rotordynamic behaviors of a three‐phase asynchronous motor are investigated via experiments and numerical analysis. A motor test platform controlled by a variable frequency converter is offered, and the experiments under multiworking conditions are carried out to explore the rotordynamic characteristics of the motor system. A rotordynamic modeling method of the magnetic‐solid‐thermal coupling system is presented for analyzing the coupling effect of the unbalanced magnetic pull (UMP), nonlinear ball bearing forces (NBB), and operating temperature on the motor rotordynamic behaviors. All of the predicted results coincide well with the experimental data to validate the presented model. Through experiments and numerical analysis, it is shown that the interaction of magnetic, structural, and thermal fields plays a significant role in the nonlinear vibration of the motor rotor. UMP, even with slight amplitudes at low rotating speeds, can induce a remarkable impact on the dynamic characteristics of the system on account of the nonlinear effect of ball bearing forces. The combined action of UMP and NBB on the thermal effect is more notable than that of single action. The effect of the unbalanced load gradually decreases with the increase of the temperature. The experimental and numerical results indicate that the magnetic‐solid‐thermal coupling influence is a noticeable issue in the optimum design, failure diagnosis, and operation maintenance of motor systems.
Privacy-Preserving Reversible Data Hiding for Medical Images Employing Local Rotation
Authors: Su Guo-Dong , Lin Chia-Chen , Chang Chin-Chen
Published: July 2021

As digitalization becomes more common, patients’ concerns about the leakage of private information, such as electronic medical record, are increasing, and those concerns motivated this case study of secure covert communication. Therefore, in this paper, a novel reversible data hiding method based on pixel rotation is proposed for medical images. Using pixel rotation, a state mapping model is constructed to represent the payload. More specifically, many intermediate states are derived from an image block, and each of them is used to form a one-to-one mapping relationship with a specific sequence of payload bits. In addition, to ensure the visual quality of stego-medical-images, the payload bits are only concealed in the regular blocks and the other blocks are unchanged. Moreover, the smoother regular image block will be priority to be used to embed the payload to enhance the visual quality of stego-medical-image. The experimental results showed that the stego-medical-images generated by the proposed reversible data hiding method have better visual quality with an average PSNR of 47.0307 dB, which is higher than that provided by some state-of-the-art methods.
Research on Correction Method of Water Quality Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrum Data Based on Compressed Sensing
Authors: Li Fengxiao , Tang Bin , Zhao Mingfu , Hu Xinyu , Shi Shenghui , Zhou Mi
Published: July 2021

The turbidity interference caused by suspended particles in water seriously affects the accuracy of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy in detecting water quality chemical oxygen demand. Based on this, the application of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy to detect water quality chemical oxygen demand usually requires physical and mathematical methods to correct the spectral baseline interference caused by turbidity. Because of the slow response speed and unstable compensation effect of traditional correction methods, this paper proposes to use a compressed sensing algorithm to perform baseline correction and achieve good results. In the experiment, we selected formazin turbidity solution and sodium oxalate standard solution and carried out the research on the algorithm of turbidity correction for detecting chemical oxygen demand of water quality by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The experiment obtains the absorption spectra of different concentrations of formazine turbidity solutions and the same concentration of sodium oxalate with different turbidity standard solutions at 210∼845 nm and analyzes the nonlinear effect of absorbance on turbidity. This article uses standard solution experiments to explore the compressed sensing theory for turbidity correction, and through the correction of the absorption spectrum of the actual water sample, it verifies the feasibility of the compression theory for turbidity correction. The method effectively corrects the baseline shift or drift of the water quality ultraviolet-visible absorption spectrum caused by suspended particles, while retaining the absorption characteristics of the ultraviolet spectrum, and it can effectively improve the accuracy and accuracy of the ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy water quality chemical oxygen demand detection.
Optimal Tradable Credit Scheme Design with Recommended Credit Price
Authors: Zhang Fang , Lu Jian , Hu Xiaojian
Published: July 2021

As an interesting research topic in transportation field, tradable credit scheme (TCS) has been extensively explored in the latest decade. Existing studies implicitly assumed that travelers are clear about the equilibrium credit price and make their trips accordingly. However, this may not be the case in reality, since the credit price is endogenously determined by the credit-trading behavior, especially in the early stages after the implementation of a TCS. Considering travelers’ uncertainty on the equilibrium credit price, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of perception error on credit price and how to accommodate such errors by an appropriate scheme design. Transferring the perception error on credit price to a given and fixed value released by central authority, we first investigate the impacts of recommended credit price under a given TCS. The numerical results imply that it is necessary to simultaneously consider the choice of recommended credit price and charging scheme in TCS design. Regarding this, we combine the goals of social welfare and public acceptance of the scheme and propose a bilevel biobjective programming (BLBOP) model, by which the net economic benefit is maximized while the gap between the recommended and realized credit prices is minimized. Through two numerical examples, it is found that the rise in perception variance could intensify the contradiction effect between the two objectives. Additionally, a nonnegligible price gap must be allowed to occur to maintain the effectiveness of a TCS.
Bioinformatics Analysis of Spike Proteins of Porcine Enteric Coronaviruses
Authors: Jia Yan , Cao Jinshan , Wei Zhanyong
Published: July 2021

This article is aimed at analyzing the structure and function of the spike (S) proteins of porcine enteric coronaviruses, including transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV), porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), porcine deltacoronavirus (PDCoV), and swine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus (SADS‐CoV) by applying bioinformatics methods. The physical and chemical properties, hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity, transmembrane region, signal peptide, phosphorylation and glycosylation sites, epitope, functional domains, and motifs of S proteins of porcine enteric coronaviruses were predicted and analyzed through online software. The results showed that S proteins of TGEV, PEDV, SADS‐CoV, and PDCoV all contained transmembrane regions and signal peptide. TGEV S protein contained 139 phosphorylation sites, 24 glycosylation sites, and 53 epitopes. PEDV S protein had 143 phosphorylation sites, 22 glycosylation sites, and 51 epitopes. SADS‐CoV S protein had 109 phosphorylation sites, 20 glycosylation sites, and 43 epitopes. PDCoV S protein had 124 phosphorylation sites, 18 glycosylation sites, and 52 epitopes. Moreover, TGEV, PEDV, and PDCoV S proteins all contained two functional domains and two motifs, spike_rec_binding and corona_S2. The corona_S2 consisted of S2 subunit heptad repeat 1 (HR1) and S2 subunit heptad repeat 2 (HR2) region profiles. Additionally, SADS‐CoV S protein was predicted to contain only one functional domain, the corona_S2. This analysis of the biological functions of porcine enteric coronavirus spike proteins can provide a theoretical basis for the design of antiviral drugs.
Trends in Natural Nutrients for Oxidative Stress and Cell Senescence
Authors: Omidifar Navid , moghadami Mohsen , Mousavi Seyyed Mojtaba , Hashemi Seyyed Alireza , Gholami Ahmad , Shokripour Mansoureh , Sohrabi Zahra
Published: July 2021

Due to the increase in the aged population and increased life expectancy, the underlying mechanisms involved in the aging process and cell senescence and the ways for modulating these processes in age‐related diseases become important. One of the main mechanisms involved in aging and cell senescence, especially in the diseases related to aging, is the oxidative stress process and the following inflammation. Hence, the effects of antioxidants are highlighted in the literature due to their beneficial impacts on inhibiting telomere shortening or DNA damage and other processes related to aging and cell senescence in age‐related diseases. Dietary components, foods, and dietary patterns rich in antioxidants can modulate the aging process and delay the progression of some chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. Foods high in polyphenols, vitamin C, or carotenoids, olive oil, seeds, nuts, legumes, dietary supplements such as CoQ10, and some other dietary factors are the most important nutritional sources that have high antioxidant contents which can positively affect cell senescence and disease progression. Plant dietary patterns including Mediterranean diets can also inhibit telomere shortening following oxidative damages, and this can delay cell aging and senescence in age‐related diseases. Further, olive oil can inhibit protein aggregation in Alzheimer’s disease. It can be concluded that nutrition can delay the process of cell senescence in age‐related diseases via inhibiting oxidative and inflammatory pathways. However, more studies are needed to better clarify the underlying mechanisms of nutrition and dietary components on cell senescence, aging, and disease progression, especially those related to age.
Research on Vibration Reduction Control Based on Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Yuan Rongyao , Yang Yang , Su Chao , Hu Shaopei , Zhang Heng , Cao Enhua
Published: July 2021

Magnetorheological (MR) dampers, as an intelligent vibration damping device, can quickly change the damping size of the material in milliseconds. The traditional semiactive control strategy cannot give full play to the ability of the MR dampers to consume energy and reduce vibration under different currents, and it is difficult to control the MR dampers accurately. In this paper, a semiactive control strategy based on reinforcement learning (RL) is proposed, which is based on “exploring” to learn the optimal value of the MR dampers at each step of the operation, the applied current value. During damping control, the learned optimal action value for each step is input into the MR dampers so that they provide the optimal damping force to the structure. Applying this strategy to a two‐layer frame structure was found to provide more accurate control of the MR dampers, significantly improving the damping effect of the MR dampers.
Prediction of Heart Disease Using a Combination of Machine Learning and Deep Learning
Authors: Bharti Rohit , Khamparia Aditya , Shabaz Mohammad , Dhiman Gaurav , Pande Sagar , Singh Parneet
Published: July 2021

The correct prediction of heart disease can prevent life threats, and incorrect prediction can prove to be fatal at the same time. In this paper different machine learning algorithms and deep learning are applied to compare the results and analysis of the UCI Machine Learning Heart Disease dataset. The dataset consists of 14 main attributes used for performing the analysis. Various promising results are achieved and are validated using accuracy and confusion matrix. The dataset consists of some irrelevant features which are handled using Isolation Forest, and data are also normalized for getting better results. And how this study can be combined with some multimedia technology like mobile devices is also discussed. Using deep learning approach, 94.2% accuracy was obtained.
Experimental Research on Brittleness and Rockburst Proneness of Three Kinds of Hard Rocks under Uniaxial Compression
Authors: Xu Rongchao , Jin Yiding , Zhang Yumin
Published: July 2021

Rockburst is a highly destructive geological disaster caused by excavation and unloading of hard and brittle rock mass under high geostress environment. Quantitative evaluation of rock brittleness and rockburst proneness is one of the important tasks in potential rockburst assessment. In this study, uniaxial compression and acoustic emission tests were carried out for basalt, granite, and marble, and their brittleness and rockburst proneness were quantitatively evaluated. The acoustic emission evolution characteristics of the three rocks during uniaxial compression were analyzed, and the differences of fracture mechanism of the three rocks were compared. The results show that (1) based on the brittleness evaluation index, basalt is the most brittle rock, followed by granite, and marble is the weakest; (2) based on the rockburst proneness evaluation index, combined with the macroscopic failure phenomenon and morphology of the samples, the rockburst proneness of basalt is the strongest, followed by granite, and marble is the weakest; (3) there exists a positive correlation between rockburst proneness and brittleness, and the fitting results show that they are approximately exponential; and (4) brittleness has an important influence on the rock fracture mechanism. Unlike marble, basalt and granite with strong brittleness continuously present high‐energy acoustic emission signals in the stage of unstable crack propagation, and large‐scale fracture events continue to occur; from the calculation results of the acoustic emission b value, the stronger the brittleness of rock, the larger the proportion of large‐scale fracture events in the failure process.
Effects of Immune System-Related Medications on COVID-19 Outcome in a Cohort of Iranian Patients: Preliminary Report of a Data Mining Study
Authors: Bitaraf Ehsan , Ahmadi Seyyed Amir Yasin , Gandomi-Mohammadabadi Alireza , Noorani Mejareh Zahra , Abdollahi Bahare , Balasi Javad , Moodi Farzan , Hemmati Nima , Kabir Ali
Published: July 2021

Background. Regulation of the immune system is critical for fighting against viral infections. Both suppression and hyperactivity of the immune system result in failure of treatment. The present study was designed to show the effects of immune system-related medications on mortality and length of stay (LOS) in a cohort of Iranian patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods. A data mining study was performed on 6417 cases of COVID-19 covered by 17 educational hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran. Association of a researcher-designed drug list with death and LOS was studied. For death outcome, logistic regression was used reporting odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). For LOS, right censored Poisson regression was used reporting incidence rate ratio (IRR) with 95% CI. Results. Among the corticosteroids, prednisolone was a risk factor on death (OR=1.41,95%CI=1.03−1.94). This association was increased after adjustment of age interactions (OR=3.45,95%CI=1.01−11.81) and was removed after adjustment of ICU admission interactions (OR=2.64,95%CI=0.70−9.92). Hydroxychloroquine showed a protecting effect on death (OR=0.735,95%CI=0.627−0.862); however, this association was removed after adjustment of age interactions (OR=0.76,95%CI=0.41−1.40). Among the antivirals, oseltamivir showed a protecting effect on death (OR=0.628,95%CI=0.451−0.873); however, this association was removed after adjustment of age interactions (OR=0.45,95%CI=0.11−1.82). For reduction of LOS, the only significant association was for hydroxychloroquine (IRR=0.85,95%CI=0.79−0.92). Conclusion. The results of such data mining studies can be used in clinics until completing the evidence. Hydroxychloroquine may reduce mortality in some specific groups; however, its association may be confounded by some latent variables and unknown interactions. Administration of corticosteroids should be based on the conditions of each case.
A Deep Learning-Based Trust Assessment Method for Cloud Users
Authors: Ma Wei , Zhou Qinglei , Hu Mingsheng , Wang Xing
Published: July 2021

Attacks launched from the inside of the cloud are threats not only to the cloud users but also to the cloud infrastructures. Although with trusted computing the cloud service providers can guarantee the trust and security of the cloud environment for the users, the trustworthiness of users is not properly assessed. Inspired by the concept of variable trust, the main contribution of this paper is that we propose a trust assessment method for cloud users based on deep learning. Firstly, we extract users’ activities from system logs and employ stacked LSTM (long short-term memory) neural network to model normal activity patterns to build trust profiles for different users. Secondly, the trust profile is capable of predicting future behavioural actions of the specific user, and by calculating the similarity between predicted actions and actual actions the trustworthiness of the user will be assessed with a baseline to detect the trust state of the cloud user dynamically. And in the end, we design and conduct experiments on a public dataset. The results of experiments indicate that when the user is in abnormal state, there are notable differences between predicted actions and user’s actual actions, which proves the efficiency of the proposed method.
First‐Principles Study on the Elastic Constants and Structural and Mechanical Properties of 30° Partial Dislocation in GaAs
Authors: Zhang Huili , Gao Qiannan , Lu Defang , Fu Yunchang , Tong Lumei
Published: July 2021

The second‐order elastic constants, third‐order elastic constants, and the generalized‐stacking‐fault energy for semiconductor GaAs are investigated using the first‐principles calculations. The predictions of elastic constants are obtained from the coefficients of the fitted polynomials of the energy‐strain functions. It is found that the nonlinear elastic effects must be considered when the applied deformations are larger than approximately 1.5%. With the Lagrangian strains up to 6.4%, the terms included up to third order in energy expansion functions are sufficient. The elastic constants given in this work agree well with the previous results and experimental data except for C144. C144 given by the present paper is a positive value, and the estimated 3 GPa agrees well with the experimental result of 2 GPa. The research results can provide a reference for understanding the elasticity of GaAs. The generalized‐stacking‐fault energy has been calculated without and with structural relaxation, respectively. The unstable stacking fault energy with structural relaxation is about two‐thirds of that without relaxation. The dislocation width and Peierls stress for 30° partial in GaAs have been investigated based on the improved P‐N theory. The dislocation width is very narrow (only about one‐fifth of Burgers vector b), which is reasonable for covalent materials. The Peierls stress is about 4 GPa, in good agreement with the experimental result of 2∼3 GPa.
Comparison between Whatman FTA Elute Cards and Conventional Swab for the Detection of Pathogenic Enteric Bacteria Using an RT-qPCR Assay
Authors: Yue Na , Jia Zichao
Published: July 2021

The emergence of outbreaks of foodborne illness is closely associated with food contamination caused by various enteric pathogens, such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, and Staphylococcus aureus. The control of enteric pathogens poses a challenge due to the fact that these pathogens can persist for a long period of time in the environment. The rapid detection of pathogenic organisms plays a crucial role in the prevention and identification of crises related to health, safety, and well-being. Improper sample handling and processing may influence the diagnostic efficacy and accuracy. The aim of the present study was to compare the preservation capacity for enteric bacteria between Whatman Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) cards and swabs for reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) detection. It was found that Whatman FTA cards exhibited an improved preservation capacity for five types (both laboratory and environmental strains) of enteric bacteria, including Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, and Staphylococcus aureus for RT-qPCR detection. Hence, Whatman FTA cards may be a suitable tool for the routine isolation of foodborne bacteria for molecular diagnosis. Therefore, the use of Whatman FTA cards for sample collection and preservation may increase sensitivity and accuracy for bacteria isolation and diagnosis.
Quadruplet‐Based Deep Cross‐Modal Hashing
Authors: Liu Huan , Xiong Jiang , Zhang Nian , Liu Fuming , Zou Xitao
Published: July 2021

Recently, benefitting from the storage and retrieval efficiency of hashing and the powerful discriminative feature extraction capability of deep neural networks, deep cross‐modal hashing retrieval has drawn more and more attention. To preserve the semantic similarities of cross‐modal instances during the hash mapping procedure, most existing deep cross‐modal hashing methods usually learn deep hashing networks with a pairwise loss or a triplet loss. However, these methods may not fully explore the similarity relation across modalities. To solve this problem, in this paper, we introduce a quadruplet loss into deep cross‐modal hashing and propose a quadruplet‐based deep cross‐modal hashing (termed QDCMH) method. Extensive experiments on two benchmark cross‐modal retrieval datasets show that our proposed method achieves state‐of‐the‐art performance and demonstrate the efficiency of the quadruplet loss in cross‐modal hashing.
A Method for Overcoming Plasma Protein Inhibition of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors
Authors: Young David J. , Nguyen Bao , Li Li , Higashimoto Tomoyasu , Levis Mark J. , Liu Jun O. , Small Donald
Published: July 2021

FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is the most frequently mutated gene in acute myeloid leukemia and a target for tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). FLT3 TKIs have yielded limited improvements to clinical outcomes. One reason for this is TKI inhibition by endogenous factors. We characterized plasma protein binding of FLT3 TKI, specifically staurosporine derivatives (STS-TKI) by alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), simulating its effects upon drug efficacy. Human AGP inhibits the antiproliferative activity of STS-TKI in FLT3/ITD-dependent cells, with IC50 shifts higher than clinically achievable. This is not seen with nonhuman plasma. Mifepristone cotreatment, with its higher AGP affinity, improves TKI activity despite AGP, yielding IC50s predicted to be clinically effective. In a mouse model of AGP drug inhibition, mifepristone restores midostaurin activity. This suggests combinatorial methods for overcoming plasma protein inhibition of existing TKIs for leukemia as well as providing a platform for investigating the drug–protein interaction space for developing more potent small-molecule agents.

Significance:

Our data provide a mechanism for the failure of some previous TKI clinical trials. The ability of mifepristone to disinhibit TKIs suggests an approach by which the combination of TKIs with already approved and well-tolerated drugs may restore TKI activity.

This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 403
Mutation Signatures of Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Normal Blood Progenitors Associated with Differential Patient Outcomes
Authors: Brandsma Arianne M. , Bertrums Eline J.M. , van Roosmalen Markus J. , Hofman Damon A. , Oka Rurika , Verheul Mark , Manders Freek , Ubels Joske , Belderbos Mirjam E. , van Boxtel Ruben
Published: July 2021

Acquisition of oncogenic mutations with age is believed to be rate limiting for carcinogenesis. However, the incidence of leukemia in children is higher than in young adults. Here we compare somatic mutations across pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (pAML) patient-matched leukemic blasts and hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC), as well as HSPCs from age-matched healthy donors. HSPCs in the leukemic bone marrow have limited genetic relatedness and share few somatic mutations with the cell of origin of the malignant blasts, suggesting polyclonal hematopoiesis in patients with pAML. Compared with normal HSPCs, a subset of pAML cases harbored more somatic mutations and a distinct composition of mutational process signatures. We hypothesize that these cases might have arisen from a more committed progenitor. This subset had better outcomes than pAML cases with mutation burden comparable with age-matched healthy HSPCs. Our study provides insights into the etiology and patient stratification of pAML.

Significance:

Genome-wide analysis of pAML and patient-matched HSPCs provides new insights into the etiology of the disease and shows the clinical potential of these analyses for patient stratification.

This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 403
LincRNA-p21 Inhibits Cisplatin-Induced Apoptosis of Human Renal Proximal Tubular Epithelial Cells by Sponging miR-449a
Authors: Li Zhen , Hou Gang
Published: July 2021

Introduction: LincRNA-p21 is predicted to interact with miR-449a, which plays a protective role in cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (CIA). Objective: This study aimed to analyze the involvement of lincRNA-p21 in breast cancer patients with CIA. Methods: Levels of lincRNA-p21 in plasma from CIA, triple negative breast cancer, and control groups were measured by performing RT-qPCR. The potential interaction between lincRNA-p21 and miR-449a was first predicted by RT-qPCR. The relationship between lincRNA-p21 and miR-449a was analyzed by overexpression experiment. Results: We found that lincRNA-p21 is downregulated in CIA. Dual luciferase activity assay showed that lincRNA-p21 and miR-449a can interact with each other, while overexpression of lincRNA-p21 and miR-449a failed to affect the expression of each other. In human renal proximal tubular epithelial cells (HRPTEpCs), cisplatin led to the upregulated miR-449a but downregulated lincRNA-p21. Interestingly, lincRNA-p21 overexpression led to reduced enhancing effects of miR-449a on the cisplatin-induced apoptosis of HRPTEpCs. Conclusion: Therefore, lincRNA-p21 is downregulated in CIA and may sponge miR-449a to inhibit cisplatin-induced apoptosis of HRPTEpCs.
The Protective Effect of Tetrahydroxystilbene Glucoside on High Glucose-Induced Injury in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells through the PI3K/Akt/eNOS Pathway and Regulation of Bcl-2/Bax
Authors: Cui Jiankun , Zhang Bo , Gao Min , Liu Baohai , Dai Cong , Dong Yumei , Meng FanJi
Published: July 2021

Endothelial dysfunction plays a central role in the patho­genesis of diabetic vascular complications. 2,3,5,4′-tetra­hydroxystilbene-2-O-β-D-glucoside (TSG), an active component extracted from the roots of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb, has been shown to have strong antioxidant and antiapoptotic activities. In the present study, we investigated the protective effect of TSG on apoptosis induced by high glucose in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and the possible mechanisms. Our data demonstrated that TSG significantly reversed the high glucose-induced decrease in cell viability, suppressed high glucose-induced generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), the activity of caspase-3, and decreased the percentage of apoptotic cells in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, we found that TSG not only increased the expression of Bcl-2, while decreasing Bax expression, but also activated phosphorylation of Akt and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) with subsequent nitric oxide production and ultimately reduced high glucose-induced apoptosis. However, the antiapoptotic effects of TSG were abrogated by pretreatment of the cells with PI3K inhibitor (LY294002) or eNOS inhibitor NG-L-nitro-arginine methyl ester, respectively. These results suggest that TSG inhibits high glucose-induced apoptosis in HUVECs through inhibition of ROS production, activation of the PI3K/Akt/eNOS pathway, and upregulation of the Bcl-2/Bax ratio, and thus may demonstrate significant potential for preventing diabetic cardiovascular complications.
Reproductive History and Age of Onset for Women Diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Data from the National ALS Registry: 2010–2018
Authors: Raymond Jaime , Mehta Paul , Larson Ted , Pioro Erik P. , Horton D. Kevin
Published: July 2021

Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurological disease of largely unknown etiology with no cure. The National ALS Registry is a voluntary online system that collects demographic and reproductive history (females only) data from patients with ALS. We will examine the association between demographic and reproductive history among female patients aged >18 years and various ages of onset for ALS. Methods: Data from a cross-sectional study were collected and examined for 1,018 female ALS patients. Patient characteristics examined were demographics including race, BMI, and familial history of ALS. Among patients, information on reproductive history, including age at menopause, ever pregnant, and age at first pregnancy was collected. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were used to estimate OR and 95% CI in this study. Results: Women were more likely to be diagnosed with ALS before age 60 if they were nonwhite (p = 0.015), had attended college (p = 0.0012), had a normal BMI at age 40 (p < 0.0001), completed menopause before age 50 (p < 0.0001), and had never been pregnant (p = 0.046) in the univariate analysis. Women diagnosed with ALS before age 60 were also more likely to have limb site of onset (p < 0.0001). In the multivariate analysis, those who completed menopause before age 50 were more likely to be diagnosed with ALS before age 60 (OR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.4–2.3) compared with women who completed menopause at or after age 50, after controlling for race, ever pregnant, age at first pregnancy, family history of ALS, education status, smoking history, and BMI at age 40. For women who were diagnosed with ALS before age 50, the odds of them entering menopause before age 50 climb to 48.7 (95% CI: 11.8, 200.9). The mean age of ALS diagnosis for women who completed menopause before age 50 was 58 years and 64 years for women who entered menopause after age 50 (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Women who reported completing menopause before age 50 were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with ALS before age 60 compared with those who reported entering menopause after age 50. More research is needed to determine the relationship between female reproductive history, especially regarding endogenous estrogen exposure and early-onset ALS.
Rescue Anterior Capsulotomy after Failure of Nucleus Accumbens Deep Brain Stimulation in Anorexia Nervosa: A Case Report
Authors: Lin Zhengyu , Dai Lulin , Zhang Chencheng , Li Dianyou , Sun Bomin
Published: July 2021

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a highly disabling mental disorder with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Few psychological treatments and pharmacotherapy are proven to be effective for adult AN. Two invasive stereotactic neurosurgical interventions, deep brain stimulation (DBS) and anterior capsulotomy, are now commonly used as investigational approaches for the treatment of AN. Here, we report the long-term safety and efficacy of rescue bilateral anterior capsulotomy after the failure of bilateral nucleus accumbens (NAcc)-DBS in an 18-year-old female patient with life-threatening and treatment-resistant restricting subtype AN. Improvements in the neuropsychiatric assessment were not documented 6 months after the NAcc-DBS. Rescue bilateral anterior capsulotomy was proposed and performed, resulting in a long-lasting restoration of body weight and a significant and sustained remission in AN core symptoms. The DBS pulse generator was exhausted 2 years after capsulotomy and removed 3 years postoperatively. No relapse was reported at the last follow-up (7 years after the first intervention). From this case, we suggest that capsulotomy could be a rescue treatment for patients with treatment-resistant AN after NAcc-DBS failure. Further well-controlled studies are warranted to validate our findings.
Adjuvant Therapy in Resected Nonmetastatic Stage II–IV Gallbladder Cancer: A Generalized Propensity Score Analysis
Authors: Wan Wenze , Zheng Bohao , Sun Wentao , Wang Jiwen , Shen Sheng , Huang Lihong , Liu Han , Ni Xiaojian , Liu Houbao
Published: July 2021

Background: The clinical benefits and efficacies of adjuvant therapies for gallbladder cancer (GBC) have not been verified due to insufficient clinical evidence. Methods: Patients with resected nonmetastatic stage II–IV GBC were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database and distributed into nonchemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy (NCRT), chemotherapy (CT), and chemoradiotherapy (CRT) groups. Generalized propensity score and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) were used to reduce the imbalances between groups. Results: A total of 2,689 patients were enrolled, among whom 1,193 (44.4%) were classified as stage II, 1,371 (51.0%) as stage III, and 125 (4.6%) as stage IV GBC. A total of 1,703, 444, and 542 patients were placed in the NCRT, CT, and CRT groups, respectively. After the IPTW, there were no significant differences in overall survival (OS) between the 3 treatment groups (p > 0.05) in stage II GBC patients. In patients with stage III–IV GBC, the CT group exhibited a superior OS compared to the NCRT group (p < 0.001). In addition, the CRT group exhibited a superior OS compared to the CT (p < 0.001) and NCRT (p < 0.001) groups. For patients with stage III–IV tumors, a nomogram was constructed to predict the survival benefits of adjuvant therapies. Conclusion: Patients with stage II GBC may not benefit from adjuvant therapy, while patients with stage III–IV GBC were shown to benefit from chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy. Furthermore, chemoradiotherapy exhibited a superior OS. Nevertheless, the results need to be explained in the context of retrospective studies.