Automation in Gaming: The AnteM

The Ante M by Deckadent Games is a poker table designed to teach the uninitiated and entertain the practiced by tracking bets, hands, winners, and losers. This table will seamlessly integrate RFID tracking technology and in­formation displays into a Texas Hold’em Table. The purpose of this table is to help home gamers with their poker night. Often a poker night amongst friends is more about comradery and friendship more than it is about the ac­tual game of poker. The Ante M provides these players a chance to focus on friendly conversation and leave the tedium of tracking the progress of the game to the table. How often during one of these home games are players asking, “How much do I need to bet?” or “Whose turn is it?” The Ante M will keep track of this information and provide it to the player as needed. No more will the game be held up by players not paying attention and no longer will players in the middle of conversation be interrupted by others telling them it’s their turn

Two NHX-type transporters from Helianthus tuberosus improve the tolerance of rice to salinity and nutrient deficiency stress.

The NHX-type cation/H+ transporters in plants have been shown to mediate Na+ (K+ )/H+ exchange for salinity tolerance and K+ homoeostasis. In this study, we identified and characterized two NHX homologues, HtNHX1 and HtNHX2 from an infertile and salinity tolerant species Helianthus tuberosus (cv. Nanyu No. 1). HtNHX1 and HtNHX2 share identical 5'- and 3'-UTR and coding regions, except for a 342-bp segment encoding 114 amino acids (L272 to Q385 ) which is absent in HtNHX2. Both hydroponics and soil culture experiments showed that the expression of HtNHX1 or HtNHX2 improved the rice tolerance to salinity. Expression of HtNHX2, but not HtNHX1, increased rice grain yield, harvest index, total nutrient uptake under K+ -limited salt-stress or general nutrient deficiency conditions. The results provide a novel insight into NHX function in plant mineral nutrition

The implications of fossil fuel supply constraints on climate change projections: a supply-side analysis

Climate projections are based on emission scenarios. The emission scenarios used by the IPCC and by mainstream climate scientists are largely derived from the predicted demand for fossil fuels, and in our view take insufficient consideration of the constrained emissions that are likely due to the depletion of these fuels. This paper, by contrast, takes a supply-side view of CO emission, and generates two supply-driven emission scenarios based on a comprehensive investigation of likely long-term pathways of fossil fuel production drawn from peer-reviewed literature published since 2000. The potential rapid increases in the supply of the non-conventional fossil fuels are also investigated. Climate projections calculated in this paper indicate that the future atmospheric CO concentration will not exceed 610ppm in this century; and that the increase in global surface temperature will be lower than 2.6°C compared to pre-industrial level even if there is a significant increase in the production of non-conventional fossil fuels. Our results indicate therefore that the IPCC's climate projections overestimate the upper-bound of climate change. Furthermore, this paper shows that different production pathways of fossil fuels use, and different climate models, are the two main reasons for the significant differences in current literature on the topic

Water use for shale gas extraction in the Sichuan Basin, China

This study investigates the use of water for extracting shale gas in the Sichuan Basin of China. Both net water use and water intensity (i.e., water use per unit of gas produced) of shale wells are estimated by applying a process-based life cycle inventory (LCI) model. The results show that the net water use and water intensity are around 24500 m3/well and 1.9 m3 water/104m3 gas respectively, and that the fracturing and completion stage of shale gas extraction accounts for the largest share in net water use. A comparison shows that China's water use for shale gas extraction is generally higher than that of other countries. By considering the predicted annual drilling activities in the Sichuan Basin, we find that the annual water demand for shale gas development is likely to be negligible compared to total regional water supply. However, considering the water demand for shale gas extraction and the water demand from other sectors may make water availability a significant concern for China's shale gas development in the future

Acupuncture for Visceral Pain: Neural Substrates and Potential Mechanisms

Visceral pain is the most common form of pain caused by varied diseases and a major reason for patients to seek medical consultation. Despite much advances, the pathophysiological mechanism is still poorly understood comparing with its somatic counterpart and, as a result, the therapeutic efficacy is usually unsatisfactory. Acupuncture has long been used for the management of numerous disorders in particular pain and visceral pain, characterized by the high therapeutic benefits and low adverse effects. Previous findings suggest that acupuncture depresses pain via activation of a number of neurotransmitters or modulators including opioid peptides, serotonin, norepinephrine, and adenosine centrally and peripherally. It endows us, by advancing the understanding of the role of ion channels and gut microbiota in pain process, with novel perspectives to probe the mechanisms underlying acupuncture analgesia. In this review, after describing the visceral innervation and the relevant afferent pathways, in particular the ion channels in visceral nociception, we propose three principal mechanisms responsible for acupuncture induced benefits on visceral pain. Finally, potential topics are highlighted regarding the future studies in this field

A Comprehensive Analysis of the CaMK2A Gene and Susceptibility to Alzheimer’s Disease in the Han Chinese Population

There is ample evidence suggesting that calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II alpha (CaMK2A) may play an important role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This genetic study aimed to investigate whether CaMK2A confers susceptibility to the development of AD in the Han Chinese population. A total of seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within CaMK2A were screened in two independent cohorts from southwestern China (333 AD patients and 334 controls) and eastern China (382 AD patients and 426 controls) to discern the potential association between this gene and AD. In addition, a cross-platform normalized expression resource was used to investigate whether CaMK2A is differentially expressed in the brain between individuals with AD and the controls. In addition, expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis was used to explore the differences in CaMK2A expression in the brain among different genotypes. The cross-platform normalized data showed significant differences in CaMK2A expression in the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex and temporal cortex between the AD patients and the control subjects (|log FC| > 0.1, P < 0.05); however, only the differences in the hippocampus and temporal cortex remained after the multiple comparisons correction [false discovery rate (FDR)-corrected, P < 0.05]. The frequency of the rs4958445 genotype was significantly different between the AD subjects and the controls from southwestern China (P = 0.013, P = 0.034 after FDR correction). When the two samples were combined, rs4958445 still showed a significant association with AD (P = 0.044). Haplotype analysis indicated that the T-A-C-A-T-C-C and T-G-C-A-T-C-C haplotypes in the southwestern cohort and the T-G-C-G-C-T-C haplotype in the eastern cohort, consisting of rs10051644, rs6869634, rs3797617, rs3756577, rs4958445, rs10515639 and rs6881743, showed a significant association with AD (P = 0.037, P = 0.026 and P = 0.045, respectively). Furthermore, the brain eQTL analysis revealed a significant association between the rs4958445 polymorphism and CaMK2A expression in the inferior olivary nucleus (P = 0.029). Our results suggest an important role for CaMK2A in the pathophysiology of AD in the Han Chinese population, especially the southwestern population

Epidemiology and clinical course of COVID-19 in Shanghai, China.

Background: Novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) is prevalent around the world. We aimed to describe epidemiological features and clinical course in Shanghai. Methods: We retrospectively analysed 325 cases admitted at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, between January 20 and February 29, 2020. Results: 47.4% (154/325) had visited Wuhan within 2 weeks of illness onset. 57.2% occurred in 67 clusters; 40% were situated within 53 family clusters. 83.7% developed fever during the disease course. Median times from onset to first medical care, hospitalization and negative detection of nucleic acid by nasopharyngeal swab were 1, 4 and 8 days. Patients with mild disease using glucocorticoid tended to have longer viral shedding in blood and feces. At admission, 69.8% presented with lymphopenia and 38.8% had elevated D-dimers. Pneumonia was identified in 97.5% (314/322) of cases by chest CT scan. Severe-critical patients were 8% with a median time from onset to critical disease of 10.5 days. Half required oxygen therapy and 7.1% high-flow nasal oxygen. The case fatality rate was 0.92% with median time from onset to death of 16 days. Conclusion: COVID-19 cases in Shanghai were imported. Rapid identification, and effective control measures helped to contain the outbreak and prevent community transmission