Conservación y mantenimiento de la tapia de la muralla histórica de Pingyao, China

[EN] One of the remarkable characteristics of the Ancient Pingyao City Wall, which has been listed as Cultural World Heritage Site in 1997, is the internal rammed earth face, behind the exterior brick finishing. Although many consolidation and restoration treatments were carried out in the past decades, parts of the city wall are still in danger to collapse. Laboratory tests show that the loess soil, the main construction material of the Pingyao city wall, is poor in clay. It is not water resistant without any treatment. From 2011 after quality examination the damaged earthen finishing has been restored only with traditional ramming technique. However, based on the visual inspection done in September 2018, protective lime-earth plasters as sacrificial layer to rammed earth finishing may be a technically and financially sustainable solution.[ES] Una de las características más destacadas de la antigua muralla de la ciudad de Pingyao, declarada Patrimonio Mundial en 1997, es la estructura de tapia tras la fábrica de ladrillo que recubre el perímetro externo. A pesar de las muchas intervenciones de consolidación y restauración llevadas a cabo durante las pasadas décadas, aún existen tramos de la muralla que corren el riesgo de derrumbarse. Se han realizado ensayos de laboratorio que muestran que el material de construcción principal de las murallas de Pingyao, es pobre en arcillas, y por lo tanto, no es resistente al agua sin un tratamiento previo. A partir de 2011 y tras un examen cualitativo, se ha restaurado la tapia dañada usando exclusivamente la técnica tradicional de la tapia. Sin embargo, la inspección llevada a cabo en septiembre de 2018, ha permitido determinar que el uso de morteros mixtos de cal y arena como capa de mortero de sacricio puede ser una solución técnica y económicamente más sostenible.Shibing, D.; Hongsong, L. (2019). Conservation and maintenance of the rammed earth of the Historic City Wall of Pingyao，China. Loggia, Arquitectura & Restauración. 0(32):46-59. https://doi.org/10.4995/loggia.2019.11221OJS4659032晋中市史志研究院编.平遥古城志[M].北京：中华 书局，2002.中国文化遗产研究院.山西省平遥古城城墙结构加 固工程总体设计方案[R].北京：中国文化遗产研究 院，2007.中冶集团建筑研究总院.平遥古城墙可靠性鉴定报 告[R].北京：中冶集团建筑研究总院，2005.总装备部工程设计研究总院.山西省平遥古城城墙 现状补充调查报告[R].北京：总装备部工程设计研 究总院，2006.王旭东.中国干旱环境下土遗址保护关键技术研究 新进展[J].敦煌研究2008(6):6-12.孙满利 王旭东 李最雄.土遗址保护初论[M].科学 出版社， 2010.KUHL O. Untersuchungen zur Bodenverfestigung mit Kalk[J], Band 59, OBERHESSISCHE NATURWISSENSCHAFTLICHEZeitschrift, ISSN 0340-4498, 1997:73-77.SCHADE H-W. Untersuchungen Zum Reaktionsverhalten von Mischbindemitteln zur Bodenbehandlung (05.130/2002/DGB)[M]//Wirtschaftsverlag N. W. Verlag für neue Wissenschaft, 2006:1-40 .KRAJEWSKI W., KUHL O. Eignung Frostempfindlicher Boeden Fuer die Behandlung mit Kalk[M]// Berichte der Bundesanstalt fuer Strassenwesen. Bremerhaven, Wirtschaftsverlag NW, 2005, 7-45.HOUBEN H. GUILLAUD H. Earth Construction - A Comprehensive Guide[M]. Rugby, ITDG Publishing, 1994 (reprint 2005), 124-126.Merkblatt ueber Bodenverfestigungen und Bodenverbesserungen mit Bindemittel[S]. Köln, Forschungsgesellschaft für Straßen- und Verkehrswesen Arbeitsgruppe Erd- und Grundbau, 2004

SVSBI: Sequence-based virtual screening of biomolecular interactions

Virtual screening (VS) is an essential technique for understanding biomolecular interactions, particularly, drug design and discovery. The best-performing VS models depend vitally on three-dimensional (3D) structures, which are not available in general but can be obtained from molecular docking. However, current docking accuracy is relatively low, rendering unreliable VS models. We introduce sequence-based virtual screening (SVS) as a new generation of VS models for modeling biomolecular interactions. The SVS model utilizes advanced natural language processing (NLP) algorithms and optimizes deep $K$-embedding strategies to encode biomolecular interactions without invoking 3D structure-based docking. We demonstrate the state-of-art performance of SVS for four regression datasets involving protein-ligand binding, protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid binding, and ligand inhibition of protein-protein interactions and five classification datasets for the protein-protein interactions in five biological species. SVS has the potential to dramatically change the current practice in drug discovery and protein engineering

Knot data analysis using multiscale Gauss link integral

In the past decade, topological data analysis (TDA) has emerged as a powerful approach in data science. The main technique in TDA is persistent homology, which tracks topological invariants over the filtration of point cloud data using algebraic topology. Although knot theory and related subjects are a focus of study in mathematics, their success in practical applications is quite limited due to the lack of localization and quantization. We address these challenges by introducing knot data analysis (KDA), a new paradigm that incorporating curve segmentation and multiscale analysis into the Gauss link integral. The resulting multiscale Gauss link integral (mGLI) recovers the global topological properties of knots and links at an appropriate scale but offers multiscale feature vectors to capture the local structures and connectivities of each curve segment at various scales. The proposed mGLI significantly outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in benchmark protein flexibility analysis, including earlier persistent homology-based methods. Our approach enables the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and KDA for general curve-like objects and data

Automated three-axis gonioreflectometer for computer graphics applications

We describe an automated three-axis BRDF measurement instrument that can help increase the physical realism of computer graphics images by providing light scattering data for the surfaces within a synthetic scene that is to be rendered. To our knowledge, the instrument is unique in combining wide angular coverage (beyond 85 ° from the surface normal), dense sampling of the visible wavelength spectrum (1024 samples), and rapid operation (less than ten hours for complete measurement of an isotropic sample). The gonioreflectometer employs a broadband light source and a detector with a diffraction grating and linear diode array. Validation was achieved by comparisons against reference surfaces and other instruments. The accuracy and spectral and angular ranges of the BRDFs are appropriate for computer graphics imagery, while reciprocity and energy conservation are preserved. Measured BRDFs on rough aluminum, metallic silver automotive paint, and a glossy yellow paint are reported, and an example rendered automotive image is included

Cross-Lingual Low-Resource Set-to-Description Retrieval for Global E-Commerce

With the prosperous of cross-border e-commerce, there is an urgent demand for designing intelligent approaches for assisting e-commerce sellers to offer local products for consumers from all over the world. In this paper, we explore a new task of cross-lingual information retrieval, i.e., cross-lingual set-to-description retrieval in cross-border e-commerce, which involves matching product attribute sets in the source language with persuasive product descriptions in the target language. We manually collect a new and high-quality paired dataset, where each pair contains an unordered product attribute set in the source language and an informative product description in the target language. As the dataset construction process is both time-consuming and costly, the new dataset only comprises of 13.5k pairs, which is a low-resource setting and can be viewed as a challenging testbed for model development and evaluation in cross-border e-commerce. To tackle this cross-lingual set-to-description retrieval task, we propose a novel cross-lingual matching network (CLMN) with the enhancement of context-dependent cross-lingual mapping upon the pre-trained monolingual BERT representations. Experimental results indicate that our proposed CLMN yields impressive results on the challenging task and the context-dependent cross-lingual mapping on BERT yields noticeable improvement over the pre-trained multi-lingual BERT model.Comment: AAAI 202

Dynamic Sealing Behavior of Sand Self-Juxtaposition Windows on a Trap-Bounding Fault in a Natural Gas Storage Site

AbstractAn understanding of across-fault seals is essential for planning an injection/production strategy for a fault-bounded gas storage site. In addition, it is more likely to permit lateral leakage for a fault with sand self-juxtaposition windows. This paper is aimed at identifying the dynamic sealing behaviors of a sand self-juxtaposition fault on the geological and gas injection timescales. Banzhongbei gas storage site, China, was taken as a target area, and fault seals and hydrocarbon distributions within the original reservoirs were studied. The results showed that across-fault pressure differences of 0.085~0.146 MPa (equivalent to 41.6~71.5 m oil-column and 27.0~46.4 m gas-column heights) were supported by sand self-juxtaposition windows on the B816 fault, and the resultant absolute permeability (5.97×10−2~5.69×10−1 mD) of the fault was nearly 3~4 orders of magnitude lower than the average absolute permeability of reservoirs (1.16×102 mD). Gas composition contrasts, between the original and injection gas coupled with dynamic pressure monitoring data, indicated that lateral leakage occurred across sand self-juxtaposition windows under the condition of high across-fault pressure difference. However, the low-permeability fault showed strong negative influence on the efficiency of fluid flow in the model calculations and prolongs the timescales of pressure-difference decayed as much as 5 orders of magnitude relative to those of nonfault model calculations. These modeled dynamic sealing behaviors of sand self-juxtaposition windows may lead to a better understanding of the relative retardation of across-fault gas flow by weak sealing faults on the gas injection/production timescale

Comparative effects of RRR-alpha- and RRR-gamma-tocopherol on proliferation and apoptosis in human colon cancer cell lines

BACKGROUND: Mediterranean societies, with diets rich in vitamin E isoforms, have a lower risk for colon cancer than those of northern Europe and the Americas. Vitamin E rich diets may neutralize free radicals generated by fecal bacteria in the gut and prevent DNA damage, but signal transduction activities can occur independent of the antioxidant function. The term vitamin E represents eight structurally related compounds, each differing in their potency and mechanisms of chemoprevention. The RRR-γ-tocopherol isoform is found primarily in the US diet, while RRR-α-tocopherol is highest in the plasma. METHODS: The effectiveness of RRR-α- and RRR-γ-tocopherol at inhibiting cell growth and inducing apoptosis in colon cancer cell lines with varying molecular characteristics (SW480, HCT-15, HCT-116 and HT-29) and primary colon cells (CCD-112CoN, nontransformed normal phenotype) was studied. Colon cells were treated with and without RRR-α- or RRR-γ-tocopherol using varying tocopherol concentrations and time intervals. Cell proliferation and apoptosis were measured using the trypan blue assay, annexin V staining, DNA laddering and caspase activation. RESULTS: Treatment with RRR-γ-tocopherol resulted in significant cell death for all cancer cell lines tested, while RRR-α-tocopherol did not. Further, RRR-γ-tocopherol treatment showed no cytotoxicity to normal colon cells CCD-112CoN at the highest concentration and time point tested. RRR-γ-tocopherol treatment resulted in cleavage of PARP, caspase 3, 7, and 8, but not caspase 9. Differences in the percentage cell death and apoptosis were observed in different cell lines suggesting that molecular differences in these cell lines may influence the ability of RRR-γ-tocopherol to induce cell death. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to demonstrate that multiple colon cancer cell lines containing varying genetic alterations will under go growth reduction and apoptosis in the presence of RRR-γ-tocopherol without damage to normal colon cells. The amount growth reduction was dependent upon the molecular signatures of the cell lines. Since RRR-γ-tocopherol is effective at inhibition of cell proliferation at both physiological and pharmacological concentrations dietary RRR-γ-tocopherol may be chemopreventive, while pharmacological concentrations of RRR-γ-tocopherol may aid chemotherapy without toxic effects to normal cells demonstrated by most chemotherapeutic agents

DCs Pulsed with Novel HLA-A2-Restricted CTL Epitopes against Hepatitis C Virus Induced a Broadly Reactive Anti-HCV-Specific T Lymphocyte Response

OBJECTIVE: To determine the capacity of dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with single or multiple-peptide mixtures of novel hepatitis C virus (HCV) epitopes to stimulate HCV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) effector functions. METHODS: A bioinformatics approach was used to predict HLA-A2-restricted HCV-specific CTL epitopes, and the predicted peptides identified from this screen were synthesized. Subsequent IFN-γ ELISPOT analysis detected the stimulating function of these peptides in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from both chronic and self-limited HCV infected subjects (subjects exhibiting spontaneous HCV clearance). Mature DCs, derived in vitro from CD14(+) monocytes harvested from the study subjects by incubation with appropriate cytokine cocktails, were loaded with novel peptide or epitope peptide mixtures and co-cultured with autologous T lymphocytes. Granzyme B (GrB) and IFN-γ ELISPOT analysis was used to test for epitope-specific CTL responses. T-cell-derived cytokines contained in the co-cultured supernatant were detected by flow cytometry. RESULTS: We identified 7 novel HLA-A2-restricted HCV-specific CTL epitopes that increased the frequency of IFN-γ-producing T cells compared to other epitopes, as assayed by measuring spot forming cells (SFCs). Two epitopes had the strongest stimulating capability in the self-limited subjects, one found in the E2 and one in the NS2 region of HCV; five epitopes had a strong stimulating capacity in both chronic and self-limited HCV infection, but were stronger in the self-limited subjects. They were distributed in E2, NS2, NS3, NS4, and NS5 regions of HCV, respectively. We also found that mDCs loaded with novel peptide mixtures could significantly increase GrB and IFN-γ SFCs as compared to single peptides, especially in chronic HCV infection subjects. Additionally, we found that DCs pulsed with multiple epitope peptide mixtures induced a Th1-biased immune response. CONCLUSIONS: Seven novel and strongly stimulating HLA-A2-restricted HCV-specific CTL epitopes were identified. Furthermore, DCs loaded with multiple-epitope peptide mixtures induced epitope-specific CTLs responses