cTFbase: a database for comparative genomics of transcription factors in cyanobacteria

BACKGROUND: Comprehensive identification and classification of the transcription factors (TFs) in a given genome is an important aspect in understanding transcriptional regulatory networks of a specific organism. Cyanobacteria are an ancient group of gram-negative bacteria with strong variation in genome size ranging from about 1.6 to 9.1 Mb and little is known about their TF repertoires. Therefore, we constructed the cTFbase database to classify and analyze all the putative TFs in cyanobacterial genomes, followed by genome-wide comparative analysis. DESCRIPTION: In the current release, cTFbase contains 1288 putative TFs identified from 21 fully sequenced cyanobacterial genomes. Through its user-friendly interactive interface, users can employ various criteria to retrieve all TF sequences and their detailed annotation information, including sequence features, domain architecture and sequence similarity against the linked databases. Furthermore, cTFbase provides phylogenetic trees of individual TF family, multiple sequence alignments of the DNA-binding domains and ortholog identification from any selected genomes. Comparative analysis revealed great variability of the TF sequences in cyanobacterial genomes. The high variance on the gene number and domain organization would be related to their diverse biological functions and their adaptation to various environmental conditions. CONCLUSION: cTFbase provides a centralized warehouse for comparative analysis of putative TFs in cyanobacterial genomes. The availability of such an extensive database would be of great interest for the community of researchers working on TFs or transcriptional regulatory networks in cyanobacteria. cTFbase can be freely accessible at and will be continuously updated when the newly sequenced cyanobacterial genomes are available

Torque oscillation characteristics in the process of bobbin tool friction stir welding

This study analyzes torque oscillation characteristics in the process of bobbin tool friction stir welding. The empiral data of torque, the point temperature of contact surface and the leading point temperature is presented to explore the torque signal spectrum characteristics, the causes of the periodic oscillation of torque, the relationship between the oscillation and the surface forming of weld joint. The result shows that the torque in BTFSW has regular oscillation. The oscillation frequency of the torque is nearly 2 times the spindle frequency. With the increase of rotary speed, the oscillation frequency and the frequency difference increase gradually. There is no significant linear relationship between the amplitude peak of the torque, traveling speed, rotary speed and the measured point temperature. The instable temperature of the leading areas to be welded inevitably leads to the instability of the torque amplitude. The analysis indicates that the more intense of the heat input rate, the more obvious of the torque vibration, and the small and uniform torque amplitude does not affect the surface shape. Once the oscillation is abnormal, it easily leads to the poor surface forming and the hole defect

Derivation of a prediction rule for unfavorable outcome after ischemic stroke in the Chinese population

Background Efficient assessment of patients after ischemic stroke has important reference value for doctors to choose appropriate treatment for patients. Our study aimed to develop a new prognostic model for predicting outcomes 3 months after ischemic stroke among Chinese Population. Methods A prospective observational cohort study among ischemic stroke patients presenting to Emergency Department in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University was conducted from May 2012 to June 2013. Demographic data of ischemic stroke patients, assessment of NIHSS and laboratory results were collected. Based on 3-month modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ischemic stroke patients were divided into either favorable outcome (mRS: 0-2) or unfavorable outcome groups (mRS: 3-6). The variables closely associated with prognosis of ischemic stroke were selected to develop the new prognostic model (NAAP) consisted of 4 parameters: NIHSS, age, atrial fibrillation, and prealbumin. The prognostic value of the modified prognostic model was then compared with NIHSS alone. Results A total of 454 patients with suspected stroke were recruited. One hundred eighty-six patients with ischemic stroke were included in the final analysis. A new prognostic model, NAAP was developed. The area under curve (AUC) of NAAP was .861 (95%confidence interval: .803-.907), whilst the AUC of NIHSS was .783 (95%CI: .717-.840), (P = .0048). Decision curve analysis showed that NAAP had a higher net benefit for threshold probabilities of 65% for predictive risk of poor outcomes. Conclusions The modified prognostic model, NAAP may be a better prognostic tool for predicting 3-month unfavorable outcomes for ischemic stroke than NIHSS alone

Acupuncture for Lateral Epicondylitis: A Systematic Review

Objective. This systematic review aimed to assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for lateral epicondylitis (LE). Methods. Seven databases and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform Search Portal were searched to identify relevant studies. The data were extracted and assessed by two independent authors, and Review Manager Software (V.5.3) was used for data synthesis with effect estimate presented as standard mean difference (SMD) and mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess the level of evidence. Results. Four RCTs with 309 participants were included with poor methodological quality. Participants who received acupuncture and acupuncture plus moxibustion with material insulation were likely to have an improvement in elbow functional status and/or myodynamia. The overall quality rated by GRADE was from very low to low. Two studies reported that the needle pain would be the main reason for the dropout. Conclusion. For the small number of included studies with poor methodological quality, no firm conclusion can be drawn regarding the effect of acupuncture of elbow functional status and myodynamia for LE. This trial is registered with CRD42015016199

Predictors of everyday functional impairment in older patients with schizophrenia: A cross-sectional study

ObjectiveThis study investigates the prevalence of everyday functional impairment among older adults with schizophrenia and builds a predictive model of functional decline.MethodsA total of 113 hospitalized older patients enrolled in this study. Functional impairment is defined according to the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ). Patients who scored <9 could function independently daily, while those who scored ≥9 had problems in everyday functional activities. Data collected include sociodemographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, social support, and physical comorbidities, which were classified according to the eight anatomical systems of the human body.ResultsThe sample comprised 75% female participants with a mean age of 63.74 ± 7.42 years old. A total of 33.6% had a functional impairment, while cognitive impairment was present in 63.7%. Independent participants had better urinary system and respiratory system health (P < 0.05). After adjusting for the potential confounders of age, disease course, physical comorbidities, psychiatric symptoms, the ability to independently carry out daily activities, and cognitive function, we found that impaired everyday function is associated with poor cognition, depressive symptoms, first admission, psychiatric symptoms (especially positive symptoms), ADL, and respiratory and urinary system diseases.ConclusionEveryday functional capacity is predicted by disease course, admission time, cognition, depressive symptoms, severity of psychosis, ability to carry out daily activities, and respiratory and urinary system health status. Urinary system diseases contribute significantly to the prediction of impaired function. Future studies should focus on health status, drug use, and everyday functional recovery in older patients with schizophrenia

Optimisation for image salient object detection based on semantic‐aware clustering and CRF

State‐of‐the‐art optimisation methods for salient object detection neglect that saliency maps of different images usually show different imperfections. Therefore, the saliency maps of some images cannot achieve effective optimisation. Based on the observation that the saliency maps of semantically similar images usually show similar imperfections, the authors propose an optimisation method for salient object detection based on semantic‐aware clustering and conditional random field (CRF), named CCRF. They first cluster the training images into some clusters using the image semantic features extracted by using a deep convolutional neural network model for image classification. Then for each cluster, they use a CRF to optimise the saliency maps generated by existing salient object detection methods. A grid search method is used to compute the optimal weights of the kernels of the CRF. The saliency maps of the testing images are optimised by the corresponding CRFs with the optimal weights. The experimental results with 13 typical salient object detection methods on four datasets show that the proposed CCRF algorithm can effectively improve the results of a variety of image salient object detection methods and outperforms the compared optimisation methods