45 research outputs found
Defining Urban Boundaries by Characteristic Scales
Defining an objective boundary for a city is a difficult problem, which
remains to be solved by an effective method. Recent years, new methods for
identifying urban boundary have been developed by means of spatial search
techniques (e.g. CCA). However, the new algorithms are involved with another
problem, that is, how to determine the characteristic radius of spatial search.
This paper proposes new approaches to looking for the most advisable spatial
searching radius for determining urban boundary. We found that the
relationships between the spatial searching radius and the corresponding number
of clusters take on an exponential function. In the exponential model, the
scale parameter just represents the characteristic length that we can use to
define the most objective urban boundary objectively. Two sets of China's
cities are employed to test this method, and the results lend support to the
judgment that the characteristic parameter can well serve for the spatial
searching radius. The research may be revealing for making urban spatial
analysis in methodology and implementing identification of urban boundaries in
practice.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 7 table
Understanding Fractal Dimension of Urban Form through Spatial Entropy
Spatial patterns and processes of cities can be described with various
entropy functions. However, spatial entropy always depends on the scale of
measurement, and it is difficult to find a characteristic value for it. In
contrast, fractal parameters can be employed to characterize scale-free
phenomena. This paper is devoted to exploring the similarities and differences
between spatial entropy and fractal dimension in urban description. Drawing an
analogy between cities and growing fractals, we illustrate the definitions of
fractal dimension based on different entropy concepts. Three representative
fractal dimensions in the multifractal dimension set are utilized to make
empirical analyses of urban form of two cities. The results show that the
entropy values are not determinate, but the fractal dimension value is certain;
if the linear size of boxes is small enough (e.g., <1/25), the linear
correlation between entropy and fractal dimension is clear. Further empirical
analysis indicates that fractal dimension is close to the characteristic values
of spatial entropy. This suggests that the physical meaning of fractal
dimension can be interpreted by the ideas from entropy and scales and the
conclusion is revealing for future spatial analysis of cities. Key words:
fractal dimension; entropy; mutlifractals; scaling; urban form; Chinese citiesComment: 26 pages, 7 figures, 8 table
A proton nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabonomics study of metabolic profiling in immunoglobulin a nephropathy
OBJECTIVES: Immunoglobulin A nephropathy is the most common cause of chronic renal failure among primary glomerulonephritis patients. The ability to diagnose immunoglobulin A nephropathy remains poor. However, renal biopsy is an inconvenient, invasive, and painful examination, and no reliable biomarkers have been developed for use in routine patient evaluations. The aims of the present study were to identify immunoglobulin A nephropathy patients, to identify useful biomarkers of immunoglobulin A nephropathy and to establish a human immunoglobulin A nephropathy metabolic profile. METHODS: Serum samples were collected from immunoglobulin A nephropathy patients who were not using immunosuppressants. A pilot study was undertaken to determine disease-specific metabolite biomarker profiles in three groups: healthy controls (N = 23), low-risk patients in whom immunoglobulin A nephropathy was confirmed as grades I-II by renal biopsy (N = 23), and high-risk patients with nephropathies of grades IV-V (N = 12). Serum samples were analyzed using proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and by applying multivariate pattern recognition analysis for disease classification. RESULTS: Compared with the healthy controls, both the low-risk and high-risk patients had higher levels of phenylalanine, myo-Inositol, lactate, L6 lipids ( = CH-CH2-CH = O), L5 lipids (-CH2-C = O), and L3 lipids (-CH2-CH2-C = O) as well as lower levels of β -glucose, α-glucose, valine, tyrosine, phosphocholine, lysine, isoleucine, glycerolphosphocholine, glycine, glutamine, glutamate, alanine, acetate, 3-hydroxybutyrate, and 1-methylhistidine. CONCLUSIONS: These metabolites investigated in this study may serve as potential biomarkers of immunoglobulin A nephropathy. Point scoring of pattern recognition analysis was able to distinguish immunoglobulin A nephropathy patients from healthy controls. However, there were no obvious differences between the low-risk and high-risk groups in our research. These results offer new, sensitive and specific, noninvasive approaches that may be of great benefit to immunoglobulin A nephropathy patients by enabling earlier diagnosis
Comparison of immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assessment for Her-2 status in breast cancer
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The concordance rate between IHC and FISH according to clinical performance is still controversial. We report a prospective study to reflect the concordance between IHC and FISH in Guilin city, People's Republic of China.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fifty cases of invasive ductal carcinoma of breast tested by IHC and scored as 0, 1+, 2+ and 3+ by pathologists were further analyzed by FISH using a commercially available double-color probe, and the FISH findings were compared with IHC test results.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total concordance of 82.0% was observed with a Kappa coefficient of 0.640 (P < 0.001). A high discordance was observed in 30.0% of the patients with IHC 2+, 7.1% in IHC 3+, 19.2% overall in IHC 0 and 1+.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The IHC can be used firstly to screen the HER-2 status, and FISH can be used as a supplementary role to IHC and 2+ and some negative cases. And only those cases with Her-2 status of IHC 3+ or FISH positive should be treated with Herceptin.</p
CpG Array Analysis of Histone H3 Lysine 4 Trimethylation by Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Linked to Microarrays Analysis in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells of IgA Nephropathy Patients
Compressive Strength and Chloride Resistance of Slag/Metakaolin-Based Ultra-High-Performance Geopolymer Concrete
Ultra-high performance geopolymer concrete (UHPGC) has been favored due to its excellent sustainability and outstanding mechanical properties. This study was conducted to explore the mechanical and durability properties of slag/metakaolin-based UHPGC with steel fibers reinforcement. The uniaxial compression test and rapid chloride migration test were conducted to measure the compressive strength and chloride penetration resistance of UHPGC. A total of nine groups of mixture proportions were designed and tested to investigate the influences of steel fiber dosage and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution concentration. The results showed that an increased steel fiber dosage and alkali concentration can improve compressive strength, and the maximum compressive strength can reach more than 140 MPa. In addition, the rapid chloride migration test showed that the chloride penetration resistance of the slag/metakaolin-based concrete was moderate, with a non-steady chloride migration coefficient ranging from 6.5 × 10−12 m2/s to 14.1 × 10−12 m2/s. The increase in steel fiber volume content slightly enlarged chloride penetration depth, while the higher concentration of sodium hydroxide solution was beneficial as it improved chloride penetration resistance. The results suggest that although ultra-high compressive strength can be achieved, the durability issues of steel fiber reinforced slag/metakaolin-based geopolymer concrete still need considerable attention