Lipoic acid inhibits nerve cell apoptosis in rats with Parkinson's disease via Erk signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate the effect of lipoic acid on nerve cell apoptosis in rats with  Parkinson's disease via the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway.Methods: A total of 36 rats were randomly divided into normal group (n = 12), Parkinson's disease model group (n = 12) and lipoic acid group (n = 12). The neuronal morphology was examined by means of Nissl staining, while cell apoptosis was assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay.Results: The neurons were severely damaged in model group, while neuronal morphology and structure were ameliorated in lipoic acid group when compared with those in model group. The p-ERK was lowered significantly (p < 0.05) in model group and lipoic acid group compared with that in normal group. Levels of mRNA, caspase-3 and Bax increased significantly, while Bcl-2 decreased in model group and lipoic acid group when compared with those in normal group (p < 0.05). Lipoic acid treatment significantly reduced mRNA expression of caspase-3 and Bax, but increased Bcl-2 compared with model group. Furthermore, ELISA results indicate that model and lipoic acid groups exhibited raised caspase-3 and Bax but significantly reduced Bcl-2 levels, compared with normal group. The results also showed that the apoptosis was higher in the other two groups than in normal group; on the other hand, it was significantly lower in lipoic acid group than in model group (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Lipoic acid inhibits nerve cell apoptosis in rats with Parkinson's disease by up-regulating ERK signaling pathway. Therefore, lipoic acid is a potential neuroprotective agent for the management of Parkinson’s disease

Synchronization Analysis of Two Coupled Complex Networks with Time Delays

This paper studies the synchronized motions between two complex networks with time delays, which include individual inner synchronization in each network and outer synchronization between two networks. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory and the linear matrix equality (LMI), a synchronous criterion for inner synchronization inside each network is derived. Numerical examples are given which fit the theoretical analysis. In addition, the involved numerical results show that the delays between two networks have little effect on inner synchronization. It is also shown that synchronous motions within each network or between two networks are not enhanced if individual intranetwork connections are allowed

Numerical and Experimental Study of Thermal Stratification in Large Warehouses

Thermal stratification in large warehouses is a common phenomenon in winter, especially in regions with cold climates. Natural buoyancy causes warmer air to move upwards towards the ceiling. The relatively high temperature beneath the roof leads to a large amount of heating energy loss. Nowadays, mixing the air is one of the effective methods for reducing thermal stratification which have started to be used in industrial warehouses. This thesis aims to determine thermal stratification conditions in five warehouses via field measurement. Furthermore, this thesis also aims to investigate the effects of mechanical mixing of indoor air with fans using CFD-based numerical simulations. For these objectives, field measurement of thermal stratification in five warehouses was conducted and used to validate CFD models. Meanwhile, two warehouses were simulated in CFD. ANSYS FLUENT, a commercial CFD package, was used to the indoor air flow in this thesis. The numerical temperature results were validated by comparison with the on-site measurement data. The vertical temperature profiles and rate of heat flow from different cases were compared. The effectiveness of different fan configurations in reducing thermal stratification was evaluated

Análisis de la colaboración entre el sector turístico y el sector de videojuegos en China

[ES] El turismo se ha desarrollado mucho en China durante los últimos años y actualmente ofrece grandes oportunidades en colaboración a otros sectores. Por otra parte, el sector de los videojuegos también se ha desarrollado mucho y es especialmente popular entre la gente más joven (generación milenial). En los próximos años, estos jóvenes se convertirán a los principios consumidores del turismo doméstico en China. La colaboración entre sector turístico y el sector de videojuegos tiene un gran potencial para el desarrollo de nuevas actividades turísticas en China. Por ejemplo, actualmente los eventos de E-sports ya atraen a una gran cantidad de personas para ver la actividad online, participarlo y podría ser motivo de viajar a un destino. Otros factores que pueden tener más influencia en el futuro para relacionar el sector turístico y el sector de videojuegos pueden ser la representación y reproducción de los valores culturales en los videojuegos, el uso de tecnología virtual para explotar nuevas aventuras en los atracciones y monumentos, etc. En general hay muchas más posibilidades que podrían realizar dicha colaboración. Por lo tanto, en este trabajo se va a analizar la situación de estos dos sectores en China, como se relacionan entre sí, y la colaboración entre los mismos, y como esta relación puede beneficiar a ambos.[EN] The tourism industry in China has developed a lot in recent years and is currently offering a lot of opportunities to make collaboration with other sectors. On the other hand, the video game industry also received a lot of development recently and is especially popular among the younger people (millennial generation). In the future, these young people will become the major consumers of domestic tourism in China. The collaboration between the tourism industry and the video game industry will potentially give a great chance to develop new kinds of tourism activities in China. For example, nowadays E-sports events attract a large portion of people to watch the event online, participate in the event and could be a motive to travel to a certain destination. Other factors that may have more influence in the future to relate the tourism sector and the video game sector may be the representation and recreation of cultural values in videogames, the usage of virtual technology to explore adventures in attractions and monuments, etc. In general, there are many more possibilities that could make such collaboration viable. Therefore, this paper will analyze the situation of these two sectors in China, how they can relate to each other, the collaboration between them, and how this relationship can benefit both sectors.Li, W. (2019). Análisis de la colaboración entre el sector turístico y el sector de videojuegos en China. Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/134481TFG

Policy Optimization in Automated Point Merge Trajectory Planning: An Artificial Intelligence-based Approach

International audienceAir traffic management is a complex decision making process. Air traffic controllers decision on aircraft trajectory control actions directly lead to the efficiency of traffic flow management. This paper aims to realize an automated routine trajectory management in terminal manoeuvring area with an intelligent decision making agent. An artificial intelligence based approach is applied to adaptively and smartly integrate four types of deconflict actions for resolving conflicts. Especially, the reinforcement learning policy optimization process is discussed in detail. Firstly, application of reinforcement learning in adaptive trajectory planning is presented. The entire problem is adaptively divided into several sub-problems. For each sub-problem, an online policy is applied to guide the simulation and optimization modules to find out the conflict free and less delay solution. The online policy is a scale of weight distribution for choosing desirable actions. It follows the rule of roulette wheel selection with weighted probability. The highest desirable decision variable has the largest share of the roulette wheel, while the lowest desirable decision variable has the smallest share of the roulette wheel. Direct policy optimization algorithm is designed to update the online policy. Finally, experiments are built up for validation of the proposed policy optimization algorithm for the intelligent decision making process. The results in the test environment showed that learning agent with different exploration and exploitation ability will result in different system performance in conflict resolution and delay