Identifying Connectome Module Patterns via New Balanced Multi-Graph Normalized Cut.

Computational tools for the analysis of complex biological networks are lacking in human connectome research. Especially, how to discover the brain network patterns shared by a group of subjects is a challenging computational neuroscience problem. Although some single graph clustering methods can be extended to solve the multi-graph cases, the discovered network patterns are often imbalanced, e.g. isolated points. To address these problems, we propose a novel indicator constrained and balanced multi-graph normalized cut method to identify the connectome module patterns from the connectivity brain networks of the targeted subject group. We evaluated our method by analyzing the weighted fiber connectivity networks

Lithium-ion Battery Electro-thermal Model and Its Application in the Numerical Simulation of Short Circuit Experiment

As a key issue in EVs (Electric Vehicles) development, Li-ion battery’s thermal safety is focused on in which the thermal abuse model is an important tool. This paper has established a 3-D electro-thermal model taking side reaction into account, in order to study on MGL100Ah lithium manganite battery’s safety issue. This paper firstly states the mechanism of heat generation, types of thermal model, and the mesh model, then analyzes the simulation on the model under the short circuit condition, one of thermal abuse condition. On one hand, the paper verifies the liability of the model, so as to apply the model on other thermal abuse condition in the future; on the other hand, the paper discusses in detail the internal temperature distribution, voltage and current changes under the short circuit condition. Analyzing this typical safety issue in details, this paper can help reduce cost, raise design efficiency and avoid thermal abuse in future development of battery

Simulation and Comparison of Two Fusion Methods for Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram Estimation

Accurate estimation of macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) is the precondition of MFD’s application. At present, there are two traditional estimation methods of road network’s MFD, such as the loop detector data (LDD) estimation method and the floating car data (FCD) estimation method, but there are limitations in both traditional estimation methods. In order to improve the accuracy of road network MFD estimation, a few scholars have studied the fusion method of road network MFD estimation, but there are still some shortcomings on the whole. However, based on the research of adaptive weighted averaging (AWA) fusion method for MFD estimation of road network, I propose to use the MFD’s two parameters of road network obtained by LDD estimation method and FCD estimation method, and establish a back-propagation neural network data fusion model for MFD parameters of road network (BPNN estimation fusion method), and then the micro-traffic simulation model of connected-vehicle network based on Vissim software is established by taking the intersection group of the core road network in Tianhe District of Guangzhou as the simulation experimental area, finally, compared and analyzed two MFD estimation fusion methods of road network, in order to determine the best MFD estimation fusion method of road network. The results show that the mean absolute percent error (MAPE) of the parameters of road network’s MFD and the average absolute values of difference values of the state ratio of road network’s MFD are both the smallest after BPNN estimation fusion, which is the closest to the standard MFD of road network. It can be seen that the result of BPNN estimation fusion method is better than that of AWA estimation fusion method, which can improve the accuracy of road network MFD estimation effectively

Improved Road-Network-Flow Control Strategy Based on Macroscopic Fundamental Diagrams and Queuing Length in Connected-Vehicle Network

Connected-vehicles network provides opportunities and conditions for improving traffic signal control, and macroscopic fundamental diagrams (MFD) can control the road network at the macrolevel effectively. This paper integrated proposed real-time access to the number of mobile vehicles and the maximum road queuing length in the Connected-vehicles network. Moreover, when implementing a simple control strategy to limit the boundary flow of a road network based on MFD, we determined whether the maximum queuing length of each boundary section exceeds the road-safety queuing length in real-time calculations and timely adjusted the road-network influx rate to avoid the overflow phenomenon in the boundary section. We established a road-network microtraffic simulation model in VISSIM software taking a district as the experimental area, determined MFD of the region based on the number of mobile vehicles, and weighted traffic volume of the road network. When the road network was tending to saturate, we implemented a simple control strategy and our algorithm limits the boundary flow. Finally, we compared the traffic signal control indicators with three strategies: (1) no control strategy, (2) boundary control, and (3) boundary control with limiting queue strategy. The results show that our proposed algorithm is better than the other two

Air pollution and elite college graduates’ job location choice: evidence from China

In this paper, we examine the impact of air pollution on the job location choice of a highly educated labor force. Using the administrative job contract records of all graduates from Tsinghua University from 2005 to 2016, we find that air pollution significantly reduces the probability of elite graduates accepting job offers in a polluted city. Specifically, all else equal, if a city’s PM2.5 level increases by 10 μg/m3, the share of Tsinghua graduates choosing that city will decrease by 0.23 percentage point (9% of the mean value). This “crowding-out” effect is larger for master’s and doctoral graduates, but insignificant for undergraduates. A placebo test finds this effect does not exist for individuals who had signed a job contract prior to university admission, which strengthens our finding. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that males, students who grew up in cleaner provinces, and students graduating from school of the environment are more sensitive to air pollution. Different levels of preference for clean air and tolerance to pollution, as well as whether having the knowledge of pollution’s harms, can effectively explain the heterogeneous effect of air pollution’s impacts on job location choices of those elites

Evidence for a direct involvement of hMSH5 in promoting ionizing radiation induced apoptosis

Although increasing evidence has suggested that the hMSH5 protein plays an important role in meiotic and mitotic DNA recombinational repair, its precise functions in recombination and DNA damage response are presently elusive. Here we show that the interaction between hMSH5 and c-Abl confers ionizing radiation (IR)-induced apoptotic response by promoting c-Abl activation and p73 accumulation, and these effects are greatly enhanced in cells expressing hMSH5(P29S) (i.e. the hMSH5 variant possessing a proline to serine change within the N-terminal (Px)(5) dipeptide repeat). Our current study provides the first evidence that the (Px)(5) dipeptide repeat plays an important role in modulating the interaction between hMSH5 and c-Abl and alteration of this dipeptide repeat in hMSH5(P29S) leads to increased IR sensitivity owing to enhanced caspase-3-mediated apoptosis. In addition, RNAi-mediated hMSH5 silencing leads to the reduction of apoptosis in IR-treated cells. In short, this study implicates a role for hMSH5 in DNA damage response involving c-Abl and p73, and suggests that mutations impairing this process could significantly affect normal cellular responses to anti-cancer treatments

MutS homologue hMSH4: interaction with eIF3f and a role in NHEJ-mediated DSB repair

BACKGROUND: DNA mismatch repair proteins participate in diverse cellular functions including DNA damage response and repair. As a member of this protein family, the molecular mechanisms of hMSH4 in mitotic cells are poorly defined. It is known that hMSH4 is promiscuous, and among various interactions the hMSH4-hMSH5 interaction is involved in recognizing DNA intermediate structures arising from homologous recombination (HR). RESULTS: We identified a new hMSH4 interacting protein eIF3f – a protein that functions not only in translation but also in the regulation of apoptosis and tumorigenesis in humans. Our studies have demonstrated that hMSH4-eIF3f interaction is mediated through the N-terminal regions of both proteins. The interaction with eIF3f fosters hMSH4 protein stabilization, which in turn sustains γ-H2AX foci and compromises cell survival in response to ionizing radiation (IR)-induced DNA damage. These effects can be, at least partially, attributed to the down-regulation of NHEJ activity by hMSH4. Furthermore, the interplay between hMSH4 and eIF3f inhibits IR-induced AKT activation, and hMSH4 promotes eIF3f-mediated bypass of S phase arrest, and ultimately enhancing an early G2/M arrest in response to IR treatment. CONCLUSION: Our current study has revealed a role for hMSH4 in the maintenance of genomic stability by suppressing NHEJ-mediated DSB repair

Phase Separation Behavior in Tough and Self-Healing Polyampholyte Hydrogels

Polyampholyte hydrogels (PA gels) are drawing great attention for their excellent mechanical properties including self-healing, high toughness, and fatigue resistance. These mechanical performances are found to be attributed to the hierarchical structure of the PA gels, consisting of reversible ionic bonds at the 1 nm scale, permanent polymer network at the 10 nm scale, and icontinuous phase network at the 100 nm scale. In this work, we systematically studied the phase network formation of these gels aiming to answer the following three questions: (1) how the phase separation occurs? (2) what determines the phase structure? and (3) is this structure in thermodynamic equilibrium or not? Our results show that the phase separation occurs during dialysis of counterions from the gels and it is driven by the Coulombic and hydrophobic interactions. The phase size d0 and the number of aggregated chains in a unit cell of the phase structure n scale with the molecular weight of the partial chain between permanent effective cross-linking Meff as d0 ∼ Meff and n ∼ Meff 2, respectively. A chemical cross-linker and topological entanglement suppress phase separation, while hydrophobic interaction favors phase separation. An intrinsic correlation between the polymer density difference (Δρ) between two phases and d0 is observed (Δρ ∼ d02) as a result of the competition between the driving force to induce phase separation and the resistance to suppress the phase separation. The phase-separated structure is metastable, which is locally trapped by strong intermolecular interactions