Measuring Urban Spatial Activity Structures: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract: Human activity recognition has been of interest in the field of urban planning. This paper established a general framework by which expected human activity intensity (HAI) measured by the built environment and factual HAI measured by the Baidu thermal chart were estimated and comparatively analyzed so as to identify abnormal human activities in Hanghzou, China. Three elements of the built environment (i.e., residential density, road connectivity, and land-use mixing degree) from multi-source data with high precision are selected to assess the expected HAI. Results indicate Hangzhou has evolved into a polycentric city with three urban clusters. In addition, a significant positive correlation exists between the two types of HAIs. However, there are areas with spatial mismatches, particularly in the “urban village” and new towns, suggesting human activities are not equally distributed all over the city. Research implications, limitations, and future research needs are discussed

Research progress on the relationship between axonal transport dysfunction in neuronal cells and Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is known as one of the “top ten killers in the world”. Due to lack of effective therapy at present， early pathological changes have captivated widespread attention. Axonal transport dysfunction has been reported as an early pathological feature of many neurodegenerative diseases. However， multiple factors can cause axonal transport dysfunction. In this article， the relationship between axonal transport dysfunction caused by kinesins， microtubules and mitochondria and Alzheimer’s disease was discussed， aiming to provide new ideas for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease by in-depth study on axonal transport mechanism of neure

Prognosis of HIV Patients Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy According to CD4 Counts: A Long-term Follow-up study in Yunnan, China

We aim to evaluate the overall survival and associated risk factors for HIV-infected Chinese patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). 2517 patients receiving ART between 2006 and 2016 were prospectively enrolled in Yunnan province. Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed. 216/2517 patients died during a median 17.5 (interquartile range [IQR] 6.8-33.2) months of follow-up. 82/216 occurred within 6 months of starting ART. Adjusted hazard ratios were10.69 (95%CI 2.38-48.02, p = 0.002) for old age, 1.94 (95%CI 1.40-2.69, p < 0.0001) for advanced WHO stage, and 0.42 (95%CI 0.27-0.63, p < 0.0001) for heterosexual transmission compared to injecting drug users. Surprisingly, adjusted hazard ratios comparing low CD4 counts group (<50 cells/μl) with high CD4 counts group (≥500 cells/μl) within six months after starting ART was 20.17 (95%CI 4.62-87.95, p < 0.0001) and it declined to 3.57 (95%CI 1.10-11.58, p = 0.034) afterwards. Age, WHO stage, transmission route are significantly independent risk factors for ART treated HIV patients. Importantly, baseline CD4 counts is strongly inversely associated with survival in the first six months; whereas it becomes a weak prognostic factor after six months of starting ART

NMR-Based Metabolomic Investigations on the Differential Responses in Adductor Muscles from Two Pedigrees of Manila Clam Ruditapes philippinarum to Cadmium and Zinc

Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum is one of the most important economic species in shellfishery in China due to its wide geographic distribution and high tolerance to environmental changes (e.g., salinity, temperature). In addition, Manila clam is a good biomonitor/bioindicator in “Mussel Watch Programs” and marine environmental toxicology. However, there are several pedigrees of R. philippinarum distributed in the marine environment in China. No attention has been paid to the biological differences between various pedigrees of Manila clams, which may introduce undesirable biological variation in toxicology studies. In this study, we applied NMR-based metabolomics to detect the biological differences in two main pedigrees (White and Zebra) of R. philippinarum and their differential responses to heavy metal exposures (Cadmium and Zinc) using adductor muscle as a target tissue to define one sensitive pedigree of R. philippinarum as biomonitor for heavy metals. Our results indicated that there were significant metabolic differences in adductor muscle tissues between White and Zebra clams, including higher levels of alanine, glutamine, hypotaurine, phosphocholine and homarine in White clam muscles and higher levels of branched chain amino acids (valine, leucine and isoleucine), succinate and 4-aminobutyrate in Zebra clam muscles, respectively. Differential metabolic responses to heavy metals between White and Zebra clams were also found. Overall, we concluded that White pedigree of clam could be a preferable bioindicator/biomonitor in marine toxicology studies and for marine heavy metals based on the relatively high sensitivity to heavy metals

The relations between metabolic variations and genetic evolution of different species

Metabonomics has been applied in many bio-related scientific fields. Nevertheless, some animal research works are shown to fail when they are extended to humans. Therefore, it is essential to figure out suitable animal modeling to mimic human metabolism so that animal findings can serve humans. In this study, two kinds of commonly selected body fluids, serum and urine, from humans and various experimental animals were characterized by integration of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with multivariate statistical analysis to identify the interspecies metabolic differences and similarities at a baseline physiological status. Our results highlight that the dairy cow and pig may be an optimal choice for transportation and biodistribution studies of drugs and that the Kunming (KM) mouse model may be the most effective for excretion studies of drugs, whereas the Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat could be the most suitable candidate for animal modeling under overall considerations. The biochemical pathways analyses further provide an interconnection between genetic evolution and metabolic variations, where species evolution most strongly affects microbial biodiversity and, consequently, has effects on the species-specific biological substances of biosynthesis and corresponding biological activities. Knowledge of the metabolic effects from species difference will enable the construction of better models for disease diagnosis, drug metabolism, and toxicology research. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Metabonomics has been applied in many bio-related scientific fields. Nevertheless, some animal research works are shown to fail when they are extended to humans. Therefore, it is essential to figure out suitable animal modeling to mimic human metabolism so that animal findings can serve humans. In this study, two kinds of commonly selected body fluids, serum and urine, from humans and various experimental animals were characterized by integration of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with multivariate statistical analysis to identify the interspecies metabolic differences and similarities at a baseline physiological status. Our results highlight that the dairy cow and pig may be an optimal choice for transportation and biodistribution studies of drugs and that the Kunming (KM) mouse model may be the most effective for excretion studies of drugs, whereas the Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat could be the most suitable candidate for animal modeling under overall considerations. The biochemical pathways analyses further provide an interconnection between genetic evolution and metabolic variations, where species evolution most strongly affects microbial biodiversity and, consequently, has effects on the species-specific biological substances of biosynthesis and corresponding biological activities. Knowledge of the metabolic effects from species difference will enable the construction of better models for disease diagnosis, drug metabolism, and toxicology research. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved