An effective placement method for the single container loading problem

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This study investigates a three-dimensional single container loading problem, which aims to pack a given set of unequal-size rectangular boxes into a single container such that the length of the occupied space in the container is minimized. Motivated by the practical logistics instances in literature, the problem under study is formulated as a zero-one mixed integer linear programming model. Due to the NP-hardness of the studied problem, a simple but effective loading placement heuristic is proposed for solving large-size instances. The experimental results demonstrate that the developed heuristic is capable of solving the instances with more than two hundred boxes and more efficient than the state-of-the-art mixed integer linear program and existing heuristic methods

An optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based air jet indentation system for measuring the mechanical properties of soft tissues

2008-2009 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Measurement of the Mass Flow Distribution of Pulverized Coal in Primary Air Pipes Using Electrostatic Sensing Techniques

On-line measurement of pulverized fuel (PF) distribution between primary air pipes on a coal-fired power plant is of great importance to achieve balanced fuel supply to the boiler for increased combustion efficiency and reduced pollutant emissions. An instrumentation system using multiple electrostatic sensing heads are developed and installed on 510 mm bore primary air pipes of a 600 MW coal-fired boiler for the measurement of mass flow distribution of PF. An array of electrostatic electrodes with different axial widths is housed in a sensing head. An electrode with a greater axial width and three narrower electrodes are used to derive the electrostatic signals for the determination of PF mass flow rate and velocity, respectively. The measured PF velocity is used for the calibration of coal mass flow rate. On-plant comparison trials of the developed system were conducted under typical operating conditions. Isokinetic sampling equipment is used to obtain reference data to evaluate the performance of the system. Experimental data demonstrate that the developed system is effective and reliable for the on-line continuous measurement of PF mass flow distribution between the primary air pipes of the same mill

Transcription rate strongly affects splicing fidelity and cotranscriptionality in budding yeast

The functional consequences of alternative splicing on altering the transcription rate have been the subject of intensive study in mammalian cells but less is known about effects of splicing on changing the transcription rate in yeast. We present several lines of evidence showing that slow RNA polymerase II elongation increases both cotranscriptional splicing and splicing efficiency and that faster elongation reduces cotranscriptional splicing and splicing efficiency in budding yeast, suggesting that splicing is more efficient when cotranscriptional. Moreover, we demonstrate that altering the RNA polymerase II elongation rate in either direction compromises splicing fidelity, and we reveal that splicing fidelity depends largely on intron length together with secondary structure and splice site score. These effects are notably stronger for the highly expressed ribosomal protein coding transcripts. We propose that transcription by RNA polymerase II is tuned to optimize the efficiency and accuracy of ribosomal protein gene expression, while allowing flexibility in splice site choice with the non-ribosomal protein transcripts

Overexpression of ubiquitin specific peptidase 14 predicts unfavorable prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

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SOXE neofunctionalization and elaboration of the neural crest during chordate evolution

During chordate evolution, two genome-wide duplications facilitated acquisition of vertebrate traits, including emergence of neural crest cells (NCCs), in which neofunctionalization of the duplicated genes are thought to have facilitated development of craniofacial structures and the peripheral nervous system. How these duplicated genes evolve and acquire the ability to specify NC and their derivatives are largely unknown. Vertebrate SoxE paralogues, most notably Sox9/10, are essential for NC induction, delamination and lineage specification. In contrast, the basal chordate, amphioxus, has a single SoxE gene and lacks NC-like cells. Here, we test the hypothesis that duplication and divergence of an ancestral SoxE gene may have facilitated elaboration of NC lineages. By using an in vivo expression assay to compare effects of AmphiSoxE and vertebrate Sox9 on NC development, we demonstrate that all SOXE proteins possess similar DNA binding and homodimerization properties and can induce NCCs. However, AmphiSOXE is less efficient than SOX9 in transactivation activity and in the ability to preferentially promote glial over neuronal fate, a difference that lies within the combined properties of amino terminal and transactivation domains. We propose that acquisition of AmphiSoxE expression in the neural plate border led to NCC emergence while duplication and divergence produced advantageous mutations in vertebrate homologues, promoting elaboration of NC traits.published_or_final_versio

ITPKA expression is a novel prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma

published_or_final_versio

Prognostic Significance of Fam3c in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: Family with sequence similarity 3, member C (FAM3C) has been identified as a novel regulator in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and metastatic progression. However, the role of FAM3C in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remains unexplored. The purpose of present study is to illustrate the role of FAM3C in predicting outcomes of patients with ESCC. Methods: FAM3C expression was measured in ESCC tissues and the matched adjacent nontumorous tissues by quantitative real-time RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. The relationship between FAM3C expression and prognosis of ESCC patients was further evaluated by univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the prognostic factors were performed using Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The FAM3C mRNA expression was remarkably upregulated in ESCC compared with their nontumor counterparts (P < 0.001). In addition, high expression of FAM3C was significantly associated with pT stage (P = 0.014) , pN stage (P = 0.026) and TNM stage (P = 0.003). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the 7-year overall survival rate in the group with high expression of FAM3C was poorer than that in low expression group (32.0 versus 70.9 %; P < 0.001). Univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that FAM3C was an independent risk factor for overall survival. Moreover, Stratified analysis revealed that FAM3C expression could differentiate the prognosis of patients in early clinical stage (TNM stage I-II). Conclusions:FAM3C expression was dramatically increased in ESCC and might serve as a valuable prognostic indicator for ESCC patients after surgery. © 2015 Zhu et al.published_or_final_versio

Improving interface bonding of double-skinned CFST columns

It has been demonstrated that high-strength concrete (HSC) is able to improve the strength-to-weight ratio of reinforced concrete columns and maximise the usable areas of tall buildings. However, closely spaced transverse reinforcement needs to be installed to provide stronger confinement for averting brittle failure of HSC. To resolve the problem, double-skinned concrete-filled-steel-tubular (CFST) columns have been advocated, which eliminates the steel congestion problem for better concrete placing and reduces the concrete arching action thus providing a more uniform confining pressure. Despite these advantages, a major shortcoming of double-skinned CFST columns is that imperfect interface bonding occurs in the elastic stage that reduces elastic strength and stiffness. Thus, the authors proposed to adopt external confinement to restrict the lateral dilation of the outer tube of double-skinned CFST columns. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed external rings, a total of 20 double-skinned normal- and high-strength CFST columns were tested. From the test results, it was observed that the stiffness, axial load-carrying capacity and ductility of ringconfined double-skinned CFST columns were significantly higher than the unconfined columns