The Win-win Mechanism of Loyalty Programs Partnerships: Considering the Customer Heterogeneity

Considering the heterogeneity of customer purchase behavior in loyalty programs partnerships, in the asymmetric situation of enterprise A who joins the loyalty programs partnerships while enterprise B who implements customer loyalty programs alone, discussing the win-win mechanism of loyalty programs partnerships through the two stage game model, and providing equilibrium price and asymmetric equilibrium existence conditions of enterprise A and B. The results show that the profits of enterprise A who joins loyalty programs partnerships is higher than the profits of the two enterprises who don’t join loyalty programs partnerships, and the profits of enterprise B who doesn’t join loyalty programs partnerships is higher than the profits of the two enterprises who both join the loyalty programs partnerships

Identification of a mutated BHK-21 cell line that became less susceptible to Japanese encephalitis virus infection

The pathogenesis of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is not definitely elucidated as the initial interaction between virus and host cell receptors required for JEV infection is not clearly defined yet. Here, in order to discover those membrane proteins that may be involved in JEV attachment to or entry into virus permissive BHK-21 cells, a chemically mutated cell line (designated 3A10-3F) that became less susceptible to JEV infection was preliminarily established and selected by repeated low moi JEV challenges and RT-PCR detection for viral RNA E gene fragment. The susceptibility to JEV of 3A10-3F cells was significantly weakened compared with parental BHK-21 cells, verified by indirect immunofluorescence assay, virus plague formation assay, and flow cytometry. Finally, two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) coupled with LC-MS/MS was utilized to recognize the most differentially expressed proteins from membrane protein extracts of 3A10-3F and BHK-21 cells respectively. The noted discrepancy of membrane proteins included calcium binding proteins (annexin A1, annexin A2), and voltage-dependent anion channels proteins (VDAC 1, VDAC 2), suggesting that these molecules may affect JEV attachment to and/or entry into BHK-21 cells and worthy of further investigation

Image feature recognition and gas permeability prediction of Gaomiaozi bentonite based on digital images and machine learning

Gas permeability, which is measured mainly through gas permeability experiments, is a critical technical index in many engineering fields. In this study, permeability is firstly calculated based on information from a digital image and an improved permeability prediction model. The calculated results are experimentally verified. Subsequently, a self-developed image-processing program is used to extract feature parameters from a scanning electron microscopy image. Meanwhile, an extreme learning machine algorithm is used to input the image feature parameters obtained using the image-processing program into the extreme learning machine algorithm for machine learning. Additionally, we compare several typically used machine learning algorithms, which confirmed the reliability and accuracy of our algorithm. The best activation function can be obtained by comparing the predicted permeability using an appropriate number of neuron nodes. Experimental results show that the program can accurately identify the features of the microscopy image. Combining the program with an extreme learning machine neural network algorithmgas permeability results to be obtained with high accuracy. This method yields good predictions of permeability in certain cases and has been adapted to other geomaterials.Cited as: Liu, J., Ma, S., Shen, W., Zhou, J., Hong, Y. Image feature recognition and gas permeability prediction of Gaomiaozi bentonite based on digital images and machine learning. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2022, 6(4): 314-323. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2022.04.0

Learning to Distill Global Representation for Sparse-View CT

Sparse-view computed tomography (CT) -- using a small number of projections for tomographic reconstruction -- enables much lower radiation dose to patients and accelerated data acquisition. The reconstructed images, however, suffer from strong artifacts, greatly limiting their diagnostic value. Current trends for sparse-view CT turn to the raw data for better information recovery. The resultant dual-domain methods, nonetheless, suffer from secondary artifacts, especially in ultra-sparse view scenarios, and their generalization to other scanners/protocols is greatly limited. A crucial question arises: have the image post-processing methods reached the limit? Our answer is not yet. In this paper, we stick to image post-processing methods due to great flexibility and propose global representation (GloRe) distillation framework for sparse-view CT, termed GloReDi. First, we propose to learn GloRe with Fourier convolution, so each element in GloRe has an image-wide receptive field. Second, unlike methods that only use the full-view images for supervision, we propose to distill GloRe from intermediate-view reconstructed images that are readily available but not explored in previous literature. The success of GloRe distillation is attributed to two key components: representation directional distillation to align the GloRe directions, and band-pass-specific contrastive distillation to gain clinically important details. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed GloReDi over the state-of-the-art methods, including dual-domain ones. The source code is available at https://github.com/longzilicart/GloReDi.Comment: ICCV 202

Does Japanese encephalitis virus share the same cellular receptor with other mosquito-borne flaviviruses on the C6/36 mosquito cells?

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a member of mosquito-borne Flaviviridae. To date, the mechanisms of the early events of JEV infection remain poorly understood, and the cellular receptors are unidentified. There are evidences that the structure of the virus attachment proteins (VAP), envelope glycoprotein of mosquito-borne flaviviruses is very similar, and the vector-virus interaction of mosquito-borne flaviviruses is also very similar. Based on the studies previously demonstrated that the similar molecules present on the mosquito cells involved in the uptake process of JEV, West Nile virus (WNV) and Dengue virus (DV), it is proposed that the same receptor molecules for mosquito-borne flaviviruses (JEV, WNV and DV) may present on the surface of C6/36 mosquito cells. By co-immunoprecipitation assay, we investigated a 74-KDa protein on the C6/36 cells binds JEV, and the mass spectrometry results indicated it may be heat shock cognate protein 70(HSC70) from Aedes aegypti. Based upon some other viruses use of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) family proteins as cell receptors, its possible HSC70's involvement in the fusion of the JEV E protein with the C6/36 cells membrane, and known form of cation channels in the interaction of HSC70 with the lipid bilayer, it will further be proposed that HSC70 as a penetration receptor mediates JEV entry into C6/36 cells

深圳水库流域污水处理方案多准则决策研究

利用ELECTRE II法对深圳水库流域2020年的九个污水处理方案进行了优选。从决策准则、候选方案、决策方法及方案排序四个方面做了分析。1) 建立了决策指标体系并确定了指标权重，包括对深圳水库水质的影响、对沙湾河水质的影响、总投资、运行费用、实施难度及事故风险等六个指标；2) 识别了九个候选方案并计算了各方案的指标值；3) 根据研究问题的特点选择ELECTRE II作为决策方法；4) 计算了各方案的排名并进行了敏感性分析，提出方案五（全流域污水集中处理）为最优方案且排名稳定。 The selection of a sewage treatment plan from nine plans for Shenzhen Reservoir Basin is addressed using ELECTRE II method. Four aspects are covered, including criteria, alternatives, aggregation method and ranking. 1) We defined and obtained weights for criteria that take into account water quality of Shenzhen Reservoir and Shawan River, total investment, operating cost, difficulty of implementation, and risk. 2) We identified nine alternatives and evaluated them. 3) The ELECTRE II method was adopted according to the characteristics of the problem. 4) Alternatives were ranked and the results revealed that Alternative Five which centralized sewage treatment is ranked first. The sensitivity analysis reinforced that conclusion

深圳水库流域污水处理方案多准则决策研究

利用ELECTRE II法对深圳水库流域2020年的九个污水处理方案进行了优选。从决策准则、候选方案、决策方法及方案排序四个方面做了分析。1) 建立了决策指标体系并确定了指标权重，包括对深圳水库水质的影响、对沙湾河水质的影响、总投资、运行费用、实施难度及事故风险等六个指标；2) 识别了九个候选方案并计算了各方案的指标值；3) 根据研究问题的特点选择ELECTRE II作为决策方法；4) 计算了各方案的排名并进行了敏感性分析，提出方案五（全流域污水集中处理）为最优方案且排名稳定。 The selection of a sewage treatment plan from nine plans for Shenzhen Reservoir Basin is addressed using ELECTRE II method. Four aspects are covered, including criteria, alternatives, aggregation method and ranking. 1) We defined and obtained weights for criteria that take into account water quality of Shenzhen Reservoir and Shawan River, total investment, operating cost, difficulty of implementation, and risk. 2) We identified nine alternatives and evaluated them. 3) The ELECTRE II method was adopted according to the characteristics of the problem. 4) Alternatives were ranked and the results revealed that Alternative Five which centralized sewage treatment is ranked first. The sensitivity analysis reinforced that conclusion

Expression of ethylene biosynthetic and receptor genes in rose floral tissues during ethylene-enhanced flower opening

Ethylene production, as well as the expression of ethylene biosynthetic (Rh-ACS1–4 and Rh-ACO1) and receptor (Rh-ETR1–5) genes, was determined in five different floral tissues (sepals, petals, stamens, gynoecia, and receptacles) of cut rose (Rosa hybrida cv. Samantha upon treatment with ethylene or the ethylene inhibitor 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). Ethylene-enhanced ethylene production occurred only in gynoecia, petals, and receptacles, with gynoecia showing the greatest enhancement in the early stage of ethylene treatment. However, 1-MCP did not suppress ethylene production in these three tissues. In sepals, ethylene production was highly decreased by ethylene treatment, and increased dramatically by 1-MCP. Ethylene production in stamens remained unchanged after ethylene or 1-MCP treatment. Induction of certain ethylene biosynthetic genes by ethylene in different floral tissues was positively correlated with the ethylene production, and this induction was also not suppressed by 1-MCP. The expression of Rh-ACS2 and Rh-ACS3 was quickly induced by ethylene in gynoecia, but neither Rh-ACS1 nor Rh-ACS4 was induced by ethylene in any of the five tissues. In addition, Rh-ACO1 was induced by ethylene in all floral tissues except sepals. The induced expression of ethylene receptor genes by ethylene was much faster in gynoecia than in petals, and the expression of Rh-ETR3 was strongly suppressed by 1-MCP in all floral tissues. These results indicate that ethylene biosynthesis in gynoecia is regulated developmentally, rather than autocatalytically. The response of rose flowers to ethylene occurs initially in gynoecia, and ethylene may regulate flower opening mainly through the Rh-ETR3 gene in gynoecia