ATGL promotes the proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via the p‐AKT signaling pathway

Abnormal metabolism, including abnormal lipid metabolism, is a hallmark of cancer cells. Some studies have demonstrated that the lipogenic pathway might promote the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the role of adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) in hepatocellular carcinoma cells has not been elucidated. We evaluated the function of ATGL in hepatocellular carcinoma using methyl azazolyl blue and migration assay through overexpression of ATGL in HepG2 cells. Quantitative reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analyses were used to assess the mechanisms of ATGL in hepatocellular carcinoma. In the current study, we first constructed and transiently transfected ATGL into hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Secondly, we found that ATGL promoted the proliferation of hepatoma cell lines via upregulating the phosphorylation of AKT, but did not affect the metastatic ability of HCC cells. Moreover, the p‐AKT inhibitor significantly eliminated the effect of ATGL on the proliferation of hepatoma carcinoma cells. Taken together, our results indicated that ATGL promotes hepatocellular carcinoma cells proliferation through upregulation of the AKT signaling pathway

rPPG-Toolbox: Deep Remote PPG Toolbox

Camera-based physiological measurement is a fast growing field of computer vision. Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) utilizes imaging devices (e.g., cameras) to measure the peripheral blood volume pulse (BVP) via photoplethysmography, and enables cardiac measurement via webcams and smartphones. However, the task is non-trivial with important pre-processing, modeling, and post-processing steps required to obtain state-of-the-art results. Replication of results and benchmarking of new models is critical for scientific progress; however, as with many other applications of deep learning, reliable codebases are not easy to find or use. We present a comprehensive toolbox, rPPG-Toolbox, that contains unsupervised and supervised rPPG models with support for public benchmark datasets, data augmentation, and systematic evaluation: \url{https://github.com/ubicomplab/rPPG-Toolbox

Design and implementation of gas ultrasonic flowmeter system based on max35104

In the production, supply, storage and marketing of natural gas industry, gas measurement is a key link. Aiming at solving the problems in the current ultrasonic gas flowmeter, such as high-power consumption, low measurement accuracy and difficult data transmission, an ultrasonic gas flowmeter based on MAX35104 is designed and implemented. The system takes STM32F103 microcontroller as the control core, adopts the time difference method and uses highprecision timing chip, MAX35104, FUS-200A ultrasonic transducers and PT1000 temperature sensor to acquire instantaneous flowrate and temperature. It also connects LCD through FSMC ports as display module to realize local visualization interface generation, and realizes the function of remote monitoring on cloud server through the EC20, a 4G module, based on LTE communication protocol. In addition, the system has the function of real-time early warning, which is realized by preset threshold as well as the function of errors online diagnosis by analyzing the special state of hardware, which can diagnose the probe connection error, whether the chip working abnormally and the cloud server transmits correctly. With the continuous improvement of the measurement accuracy of the system, it is bound to play a positive role in the development of the natural gas industry

Kinematic Simulation and Analysis of Globoidal Indexing Cam

As an important mechanism with intermittent motion, the globoidal indexing cam is always a research hot in the mechanical fields. The working profile of globoidal indexing cam is extremely complicated and undevelopable, which make it quite difficult to be protracted by the conventional drafting method. Aiming at this problem, the working curvilinear equation of the intermittent motion of an indexing cam is derived based on the RPY (Roll-Pitch-Yaw) coordinate transformation method. The 3D model based on the curvilinear equation is built by the Creo2.0 modeling software. The virtual prototype is established based on the ADAMS software, while the kinematics simulation is implemented. The success of virtual simulation verifies the correctness of curvilinear equation. The numerical results, presented and discussed in the paper, indicate that the proposed model is feasible to foresee the kinematic behaviour of an actual system

Kinematic Simulation and Analysis of Globoidal Indexing Cam

As an important mechanism with intermittent motion, the globoidal indexing cam is always a research hot in the mechanical fields. The working profile of globoidal indexing cam is extremely complicated and undevelopable, which make it quite difficult to be protracted by the conventional drafting method. Aiming at this problem, the working curvilinear equation of the intermittent motion of an indexing cam is derived based on the RPY (Roll-Pitch-Yaw) coordinate transformation method. The 3D model based on the curvilinear equation is built by the Creo2.0 modeling software. The virtual prototype is established based on the ADAMS software, while the kinematics simulation is implemented. The success of virtual simulation verifies the correctness of curvilinear equation. The numerical results, presented and discussed in the paper, indicate that the proposed model is feasible to foresee the kinematic behaviour of an actual system

Self-Microemulsifying Drug Delivery System of Phillygenin: Formulation Development, Characterization and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation

Phillygenin, as an active ingredient of Forsythia suspensa, possesses a wide range of biological and pharmacological activity. However, its development and application are restricted due to its poor bioavailability and low solubility. Our work aimed to develop a self-microemulsifying drug delivery system to improve the oral bioavailability of phillygenin. The composition of the self-microemulsifying drug delivery system was preliminary screened by the pseudo-ternary phase diagram. Subsequently, the central composite design method was employed to optimize the prescription of the self-microemulsifying drug delivery system loaded with phillygenin. The prepared self-microemulsifying drug delivery system of phillygenin was characterized in terms of morphology, droplet size distribution, polydispersity index and stability. Then, the in vitro dissolution and the oral bioavailability were analyzed. The optimized self-microemulsifying drug delivery system of phillygenin consisted of 27.8% Labrafil M1944CS, 33.6% Cremophor EL, 38.6% polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG-400) and 10.2 mg/g phillygenin loading. The prepared self-microemulsifying drug delivery system of phillygenin exhibited spherical and uniform droplets with small size (40.11 ± 0.74 nm) and satisfactory stability. The in vitro dissolution experiment indicated that the cumulative dissolution rate of the self-microemulsifying drug delivery system of phillygenin was significantly better than that of free phillygenin. Furthermore, after oral administration in rats, the bioavailability of phillygenin was significantly enhanced by the self-microemulsifying drug delivery system. The relative bioavailability of the self-microemulsifying drug delivery system of phillygenin was 588.7% compared to the phillygenin suspension. These findings suggest that the self-microemulsifying drug delivery system of phillygenin can be a promising oral drug delivery system to improve the absorption of phillygenin

Eigenvalue sensitivity and uncertainty analysis based on a 2-D/1-D whole-core transport code KYADJ

An evaluated nuclear data file is one of the important footstones in reactor physics design. Nuclear data can be viewed as arguments of output parameters. Therefore, the uncertainty of nuclear data can directly influence on the uncertainty of output parameters. A process of Sensitivity and Uncertainty (S&U) analysis is used to quantify the influence. In this study, we choose 2-D/1-D transport code to develop S&U analysis in order to reduce the impact of numerical model uncertainty. We can solve 2-D/1-D adjoint transport equation and apply the classical perturbation theory to sensitivity analysis of eigenvalue with respect to nuclear data. In addition, we obtain the uncertainty of eigenvalue using the "Sandwich" rule. The Peach Bottom-2 (PB-2) BWR cell benchmark and the Three Mile Island-1 (TMI-1) PWR cell benchmark are applied to verification. The Reactor Monte Carlo code RMC is used as a reference code. The results show that the code has ability of eigenvalue sensitivity and uncertainty analysis with high accuracy. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserve

Investigation of mechanical responses to the tactile perception of surfaces with different textures using the finite element method

Tactile perception is essential for humans to perceive the world, and it usually results in mechanical responses from the finger. In this study, a nonlinear, viscoelastic, and multilayered finite element model of the finger was developed. The relationship between the mechanical responses within the finger and tactile perception while the finger scanned different surface textures was studied. The results showed that the sensitivity of tactile perception is affected by the peak value of von Mises stress, which is itself determined by the shape and density of a given texture. The von Mises stress varies periodically with time, and this variation depends on the periodicity of the texture. Displacement signals around Pacinian corpuscles have periodic variation. The period of displacement decreases as the density of the texture increases. The spectral centroid increases as the spacing of the texture decreases. The related mechanisms are discussed in this article

Stress intensity factor and T-stress solutions for three-dimensional clamped single edge notched tension (SENT) specimens

In the present paper, a crack compliance analysis approach and extensive three-dimensional finite element analysis were conducted for clamped SENT specimens, which is one of the most widely used low-constraint specimens for less-conservative fracture toughness testing. A wide range of geometrical parameters variations are considered including in-plane crack depth to plate width ratio (a/W), out-of-plane plate thickness to width ratio (B/W), and daylight to width ratio (H/W). Complete solutions of stress intensity factor (K), in-plane T-stress (T11) and out-of-plane T-stress (T33) are obtained. The results obtained from above two methods are in good agreement. Furthermore, the combination of the effects of crack depths (a/W), plate thickness (B/W), and daylight to width ratio (H/W) on the stress intensity factor, T11 and T33 stress are thus illustrated. To better understand the difference between the derived stress intensity factor solutions and 2D plane strain results, fracture experiments were conducted for clamped SENT specimens with different crack depths. Solutions obtained will be very useful for analyzing fracture toughness test data and determining fatigue crack growth rate for clamped SENT specimens with different crack depths (a/W), plate thickness (B/W), and daylight to width ratio (H/W)

The effects of in-plane and out-of-plane constraints on J-R curves for X80 steel: A study using clamped SENT specimens

In the present paper, an experimental program was carried out to develop J-R curves using clamped single edge notched tension (SENT) specimens. A wide range of geometrical parameter variations is considered including different crack depth to plate width ratios (a/W) and plate thickness to width ratios (B/W). The material studied is the oil and gas pipeline steel API X80. Power law curve fitting parameters and tearing modulus are obtained for the J-R curves using the unloading compliance (UC) method for the clamped SENT specimens. Moreover, in-plane and out-of-plane constraint effects on J-R curves using clamped SENT specimens are studied, the second terms in the Williams’ series expansion are used to quantify the constraint effects. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the normalized T11 and the independent portion of T33, which equals T33-νT11, can be used to quantify the in-plane and out-of-plane constraint effects, respectively. Comparisons show that the constraint dependent