High-resolution numerical approximation of traffic flow problems with variable lanes and free-flow velocities

This paper develops macroscopic traffic flow models for a highway section with variable lanes and free-flow velocities, that involve spatially varying flux functions. To address this complex physical property, we develop a Riemann solver that derives the exact flux values at the interface of the Riemann problem. Based on this solver, we formulate Godunov-type numerical schemes to solve the traffic flow models. Numerical examples that simulate the traffic flow around a bottleneck that arises from a drop in traffic capacity on the highway section are given to illustrate the efficiency of these schemes. © 2005 The American Physical Society.published_or_final_versio

On the inverse Compton scattering model of radio pulsars

Some characteristics of the inverse Compton scattering (ICS) model are reviewed. At least the following properties of radio pulsars can be reproduced in the model: core or central emission beam, one or two hollow emission cones, different emission heights of these components, diverse pulse profiles at various frequencies, linear and circular polarization features of core and cones.Comment: 5 pages, no figures, LaTeX, a proceeding paper for Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics, Aug. 1999, HongKong, Chin

Evidence Base of Clinical Studies on Qi Gong: A Bibliometric Analysis

© 2020 The Authors Objective: This bibliometric study aimed to systematically and comprehensively summarize the volume, breadth and evidence for clinical research on Qigong. And this bibliometric analysis also can provide the evidence of this field. Design: Bibliometric analysis. Methods: All types of primary and secondary studies on humans were included: systematic reviews, randomized clinical trials, non-randomized controlled clinical studies, case series and case reports. Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journal Database, Chinese Academic Conference Papers Database and Chinese Dissertation Database, PubMed and the Cochrane Library were searched from the date of inception to December 10, 2018. Bibliometric information, such as publication information, disease/condition, Qigong intervention and research results were extracted and analyzed. Results: A total of 886 clinical studies were identified: including 47 systematic reviews, 705 randomized clinical trials, 116 non-randomized controlled clinical studies, 12 case series and 6 case reports. The studies were conducted in 14 countries. The top 15 diseases/conditions studied were: diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, stroke, cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, insomnia, knee osteoarthritis, low back pain, and osteoporosis, Coronary heart disease, breast cancer, periarthritis of shoulder, depression, metabolic syndrome. Of the various Qigong exercises reported in these 886 clinical studies, Ba Duan Jin was the most frequently researched in 492 (55.5%) studies, followed by Health Qigong 107 (12.1%), Dao Yin Shu 85 (9.6%), Wu Qin Xi 67 (7.6%) and Yi Jin Jing 66 (7.4%). The most frequently used comparisons in randomized trials were maintaining normal way of life unchanged 149 (18.1%), the remaining controls included conventional treatment, mainly western medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture, health education, psychological therapy, Yoga, Tai Chi and other non-drug therapy. The most frequently reported outcomes were physical function, quality of life, symptoms, pain and mental health indicators. Beneficial results from practicing Qigong were reported in 97% of studies. Conclusions: Qigong research publications have been increasing gradually. Reports on study types, participants, Qigong Intervention, and outcomes are diverse and inconsistent. There is an urgent need to develop a set of reporting standards for various interventions of Qigong. Further trials of high methodological quality with sufficient sample size and real world studies are needed to verify the effects of Qigong in health and disease management

The design and protocol of heat-sensitive moxibustion for knee osteoarthritis: a multicenter randomized controlled trial on the rules of selecting moxibustion location

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Knee osteoarthritis is a major cause of pain and functional limitation. Complementary and alternative medical approaches have been employed to relieve symptoms and to avoid the side effects of conventional medication. Moxibustion has been widely used to treat patients with knee osteoarthritis. Our past researches suggested heat-sensitive moxibustion might be superior to the conventional moxibustion. Our objective is to investigate the effectiveness of heat-sensitive moxibustion compared with conventional moxibustion or conventional drug treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study consists of a multi-centre (four centers in China), randomised, controlled trial with three parallel arms (A: heat-sensitive moxibustion; B: conventional moxibustion; C: conventional drug group). The moxibustion locations are different from A and B. Group A selects heat-sensitization acupoint from the region consisting of Yin Lingquan(SP9), Yang Lingquan(GB34), Liang Qiu(ST34), and Xue Hai (SP10). Meanwhile, fixed acupoints are used in group B, that is Xi Yan (EX-LE5) and He Ding (EX-LE2). The conventional drug group treats with intra-articular Sodium Hyaluronate injection. The outcome measures above will be assessed before the treatment, the 30 days of the last moxibustion session and 6 months after the last moxibustion session.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This trial will utilize high quality trial methodologies in accordance with CONSORT guidelines. It will provide evidence for the effectiveness of moxibustion as a treatment for moderate and severe knee osteoarthritis. Moreover, the result will clarify the rules of heat-sensitive moxibustion location to improve the therapeutic effect with suspended moxibustion, and propose a new concept and a new theory of moxibustion to guide clinical practices.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>The trial is registered at Controlled Clinical Trials: ChiCTR-TRC-00000600.</p

Evidence for genetic association of TBX21 and IFNG with systemic lupus erythematosus in a Chinese Han population

TBX21 recode T-bet which is an important transcription factor that drives the Th1 immune response primarily by promoting expression of the interferon-gamma (IFNG) gene. Recent studies have shown that genetic variants in TBX21 and IFNG are connected with risk of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The aim of the present study was to replicate these genetic associations with SLE in Anhui Chinese population. Genotyping of 3 variants (rs4794067 in TBX21, rs2069705 and rs2069718 in IFNG) was performed. A total of 3732 subjects were included in the final analysis. The study only identified the association of rs2069705 with SLE susceptibility (T vs. C: odds ratio [OR] = 1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.00-1.26, P = 0.046). Combined analysis with Hong Kong GWAS showed that the OR for rs2069705 was 1.10 (95% CI: 1.01-1.21, P = 0.027). Further pooled analysis with Korean populations involving 10498 subjects showed a more significant association between rs2069705 and SLE (T vs. C: OR = 1.11, 95%CI = 1.04-1.19, P = 0.002; TT + TC vs. CC: OR = 1.11, 95%CI = 1.02-1.21, P = 0.012; TT vs. TC + CC: OR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.07-1.54, P = 0.008; TT vs. CC: OR = 1.33, 95%CI = 1.10-1.60, P = 0.003). In addition, we also identified a significant genetic interaction between rs2069705 and rs4794067 in Anhui Chinese population. Our study suggests that IFNG and IFNG-TBX21 interaction are involved in SLE susceptibility.published_or_final_versio

Quasi-Elliptic Bandpass Frequency Selective Surface Based on Coupled Stubs-Loaded Ring Resonators

© 2013 IEEE. In this paper, a novel design of frequency-selective surface (FSS) based on coupled stubs-loaded ring resonators (SLRRs) is proposed. The proposed FSS exhibits quasi-elliptic bandpass filtering characteristic at C-band. And each unit cell of the structure is composed of two SLRRs coupled by a circular aperture. A novel method of transmission line (TL) model is proposed to investigate the operating principle of a single SLRR under normal incidence plane wave. Moreover, the operating mechanism of the proposed FSS is further researched with the aid of the equivalent circuit model (ECM) analysis method. Due to the symmetric and low-profile physical structure, the FSS keeps stable frequency response under oblique incident plane wave for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. Finally, the designed FSS is fabricated and measured. The measured results agree well with the simulated results. The measured results indicate that the proposed FSS exhibits a dual-polarized and stable bandpass frequency response with two transmission zeros (TZs) at around 5.71 and 6.87 GHz under different incident angles up to 40°

Hominin occupation of the Chinese Loess Plateau since about 2.1 million years ago

Considerable attention has been paid to dating the earliest appearance of hominins outside Africa. The earliest skeletal and artefactual evidence for the genus Homo in Asia currently comes from Dmanisi, Georgia, and is dated to approximately 1.77-1.85 million years ago (Ma)(1). Two incisors that may belong to Homo erectus come from Yuanmou, south China, and are dated to 1.7 Ma(2); the next-oldest evidence is an H. erectus cranium from Lantian (Gongwangling)-which has recently been dated to 1.63 Ma(3) and the earliest hominin fossils from the Sangiran dome in Java, which are dated to about 1.5-1.6 Ma(4). Artefacts from Majuangou III5 and Shangshazui(6) in the Nihewan basin, north China, have also been dated to 1.6-1.7 Ma. Here we report an Early Pleistocene and largely continuous artefact sequence from Shangchen, which is a newly discovered Palaeolithic locality of the southern Chinese Loess Plateau, near Gongwangling in Lantian county. The site contains 17 artefact layers that extend from palaeosol S15-dated to approximately 1.26 Ma-to loess L28, which we date to about 2.12 Ma. This discovery implies that hominins left Africa earlier than indicated by the evidence from Dmanisi

Evaluation of top-down mass spectral identification with homologous protein sequences

BACKGROUND: Top-down mass spectrometry has unique advantages in identifying proteoforms with multiple post-translational modifications and/or unknown alterations. Most software tools in this area search top-down mass spectra against a protein sequence database for proteoform identification. When the species studied in a mass spectrometry experiment lacks its proteome sequence database, a homologous protein sequence database can be used for proteoform identification. The accuracy of homologous protein sequences affects the sensitivity of proteoform identification and the accuracy of mass shift localization. RESULTS: We tested TopPIC, a commonly used software tool for top-down mass spectral identification, on a top-down mass spectrometry data set of Escherichia coli K12 MG1655, and evaluated its performance using an Escherichia coli K12 MG1655 proteome database and a homologous protein database. The number of identified spectra with the homologous database was about half of that with the Escherichia coli K12 MG1655 database. We also tested TopPIC on a top-down mass spectrometry data set of human MCF-7 cells and obtained similar results. CONCLUSIONS: Experimental results demonstrated that TopPIC is capable of identifying many proteoform spectrum matches and localizing unknown alterations using homologous protein sequences containing no more than 2 mutations