Removability of singularity for nonlinear elliptic equations with p(x)-growth

Using Moser's iteration method, we investigate the problem of removable isolated singularities for elliptic equations with p(x)-type nonstandard growth. We give a sufficient condition for removability of singularity for the equations in the framework of variable exponent Sobolev spaces

Cenozoic tectono-geomorphological growth of the SW Chinese Tian Shan: insight from AFT and detrital zircon U-Pb data

International audienceAs a unique example of the intracontinental mountain building, the Cenozoic deformation of the Tian Shan has been widely studied. The onset of Cenozoic exhumation of the SW Chinese Tian Shan was constrained at the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. However, the Cenozoic tectono-geomorphological growth process of the SW Chinese Tian Shan and adjacent piedmont basins remains a challenge. In this study, we carried out the geological mapping of satellite images and field investigations together with the apatite fission track (AFT) and detrital zircon U-Pb analyses to get further understanding of the Cenozoic tectonic deformation and geomorphological growth of the SW Chinese Tian Shan. Our results indicate that the exhumation of Maidan fault or topography growing of the Kokshaal Range commenced in the late Eocene ∼ Oligocene (35 - 25 Ma). Then, the structural deformation migrated southward to the Muziduke fault and the Atushi Basin Thrust (ABT) at ∼ 15 Ma. The growth strata of 6 - 3 Ma on the south flank of Keketamu Anticline imply that tectonic deformation propagates further basinward. Furthermore, the uplift of the Kokshaal Range also strongly affected the evolution of piedmont basins. The results suggest that the Atushi Basin was still likely linked to the Aksai Basin during the early Miocene. They were separated into two independent basins since ca. 13.7 - 10.5 Ma, as a response to the rapid uplift of the Kokshaal Range. Finally, we infer that the southeastern part of dextral Talas-Fergana fault (TFF) is likely transferred to the NEE-trending thrust faults of the SW Chinese Tian Shan since ∼ 15 Ma

Dysregulated methylation at imprinted genes in prostate tumor tissue detected by methylation microarray.

BACKGROUND: Imprinting is an important epigenetic regulator of gene expression that is often disrupted in cancer. While loss of imprinting (LOI) has been reported for two genes in prostate cancer (IGF2 and TFPI2), disease-related changes in methylation across all imprinted gene regions has not been investigated. METHODS: Using an Illumina Infinium Methylation Assay, we analyzed methylation of 396 CpG sites in the promoter regions of 56 genes in a pooled sample of 12 pairs of prostate tumor and adjacent normal tissue. Selected LOI identified from the array was validated using the Sequenom EpiTYPER assay for individual samples and further confirmed by expression data from publicly available datasets. RESULTS: Methylation significantly increased in 52 sites and significantly decreased in 17 sites across 28 unique genes (P \u3c 0.05), and the strongest evidence for loss of imprinting was demonstrated in tumor suppressor genes DLK1, PLAGL1, SLC22A18, TP73, and WT1. Differential expression of these five genes in prostate tumor versus normal tissue using array data from a publicly available database were consistent with the observed LOI patterns, and WT1 hypermethylation was confirmed using quantitative DNA methylation analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these findings suggest a more widespread dysregulation of genetic imprinting in prostate cancer than previously reported and warrant further investigation

The effects of rhythmic sensory cues on the temporal dynamics of human gait

Walking is a complex, rhythmic task performed by the locomotor system. However, natural gait rhythms can be influenced by metronomic auditory stimuli, a phenomenon of particular interest in neurological rehabilitation. In this paper, we examined the effects of aural, visual and tactile rhythmic cues on the temporal dynamics associated with human gait. Data were collected from fifteen healthy adults in two sessions. Each session consisted of five 15-minute trials. In the first trial of each session, participants walked at their preferred walking speed. In subsequent trials, participants were asked to walk to a metronomic beat, provided through visually, aurally, tactile or all three cues (simultaneously and in sync), the pace of which was set to the preferred walking speed of the first trial. Using the collected data, we extracted several parameters including: gait speed, mean stride interval, stride interval variability, scaling exponent and maximum Lyapunov exponent. The extracted parameters showed that rhythmic sensory cues affect the temporal dynamics of human gait. The auditory rhythmic cue had the greatest influence on the gait parameters, while the visual cue had no statistically significant effect on the scaling exponent. These results demonstrate that visual rhythmic cues could be considered as an alternative cueing modality in rehabilitation without concern of adversely altering the statistical persistence of walking. © 2012 Sejdić et al

Modulation of capsid protein expression of Mastomys natalensis papillomavirus as a mechanism to circumvent adaptive immunity in a preclinical model

A remarkable feature of cancer-associated Human papillomavirus (HPV) types (e.g. HPV16/18) is that the open reading frame (ORF) of the major capsid protein L1 comprises alternative translation initiation codons, thereby potentially encoding different isoforms. Notably, the same can be found within the genome of Mastomys natalensis papillomavirus (MnPV), an etiological agent for non-melanoma skin cancer in the rodent Mastomys coucha. Capsid formation of these L1 variants was tested using both baculovirus and pseudovirus production systems. L1 translated from the first and second ATG (referred as L1LONG and L1MIDDLE) inefficiently induced capsid formation. In contrast, virions could be efficiently formed with capsomeres derived from L1SHORT protein starting from the third ATG. Even after adding L1SHORT and L2 proteins, L1LONG and L1MIDDLE were still unable to form the spherically correct virus particles. Analysis of MnPV-infected animals during early infection revealed strong serological responses against MnPV L1LONG and L1MIDDLE protein, but these antibodies were not protective. Contrary, neutralizing antibodies against conformational epitopes of L1SHORT only appeared during the late phase of infection, apparently enabling the virus to accumulate. Therefore, the additional N-terminal part of L1LONG might play a decisive role in capsid formation and form a loop which prevents the assembly of correct capsomeres in vivo. Such a transitory conformational epitope is apparently only recognized during early infection, allowing the virus to escape from humoral immune surveillance. Moreover, using competition assays during pseudoviruses formation revealed that L1LONG protein could interfere with the capsid forming process in the presence of L1SHORT. This could be also shown by changes in intracellular localization when L1LONG or L1MIDDLE is co-expressed with L1SHORT. In summary, these data provide evidence of an adaptive immune escape initial after infection by avoiding the production of protective antibodies. Since other “high-risk” mucosal and cutaneous HPVs can also encode such L1 isoforms, these results may have important implications in the establishment of a persistent viral infection and the outcome of the disease

Gender-based clinical study on the association of cognitive impairment with drinking and smoking

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking among the elderly population of a Chinese city with a risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia.Methods: In this study, 1687 participants from the suburban town of Yanliang in Xi'an Sub-province, Shanxi Province, China in the age group of 60 - 65 years and who have not develop cognitive decline were assessed over a 6-year period. The study involved the evaluation of gender-based effect on alcohol consumption and smoking cigarette and its impact on cognitive functions.Results: The study observed that smokers have a higher risk of cognitive decline than non-smokers (odds ratio = 1.51; 95 % CI = (1.07 – 2.11). Interestingly, the odds ratio of the smokers among the female subjects was 1.54; 95 % CI (1.02 - 2.49) compared to female non-smokers. Moreover, a dosedependent relationship was observed for those female smoker with higher pack-years compared to nonsmokers (p = 0.003). On the other hand, regular alcohol consumption also increased the possibility of dementia and cognitive decline (odds ratio = 1.69; CI at 95 % = (1.03 – 2.75), hence a dose-dependent relationship was observed between male users (p = 0.042).Conclusion: The results suggest that alcohol consumption and smoking are linked with cognitive decline among the female subjects in the age group of 60 – 65 years. Thus, the relationship between these factors is characterized by gender difference which may be due to female sex hormones.Keywords: Cognitive health, Alcohol consumptions, Smoking, Elderly populatio

Enhancing Scene Text Detectors with Realistic Text Image Synthesis Using Diffusion Models

Scene text detection techniques have garnered significant attention due to their wide-ranging applications. However, existing methods have a high demand for training data, and obtaining accurate human annotations is labor-intensive and time-consuming. As a solution, researchers have widely adopted synthetic text images as a complementary resource to real text images during pre-training. Yet there is still room for synthetic datasets to enhance the performance of scene text detectors. We contend that one main limitation of existing generation methods is the insufficient integration of foreground text with the background. To alleviate this problem, we present the Diffusion Model based Text Generator (DiffText), a pipeline that utilizes the diffusion model to seamlessly blend foreground text regions with the background's intrinsic features. Additionally, we propose two strategies to generate visually coherent text with fewer spelling errors. With fewer text instances, our produced text images consistently surpass other synthetic data in aiding text detectors. Extensive experiments on detecting horizontal, rotated, curved, and line-level texts demonstrate the effectiveness of DiffText in producing realistic text images

Frequency analysis of urban runoff quality in an urbanizing catchment of Shenzhen, China

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Hydrology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Hydrology Vol. 496 (2013), DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.04.053This paper investigates the frequency distribution of urban runoff quality indicators using a long-term continuous simulation approach and evaluates the impacts of proposed runoff control schemes on runoff quality in an urbanizing catchment in Shenzhen, China. Four different indicators are considered to provide a comprehensive assessment of the potential impacts: total runoff depth, event pollutant load, Event Mean Concentration, and peak concentration during a rainfall event. The results obtained indicate that urban runoff quantity and quality in the catchment have significant variations in rainfall events and a very high rate of non-compliance with surface water quality regulations. Three runoff control schemes with the capacity to intercept an initial runoff depth of 5 mm, 10 mm, and 15 mm are evaluated, respectively, and diminishing marginal benefits are found with increasing interception levels in terms of water quality improvement. The effects of seasonal variation in rainfall events are investigated to provide a better understanding of the performance of the runoff control schemes. The pre-flood season has higher risk of poor water quality than other seasons after runoff control. This study demonstrates that frequency analysis of urban runoff quantity and quality provides a probabilistic evaluation of pollution control measures, and thus helps frame a risk-based decision making for urban runoff quality management in an urbanizing catchment.Open Research Fund Program of State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and EngineeringNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Water Pollution Control and Management Technology Major Project