Infinitely many sign-changing solutions for an elliptic equation involving double critical Hardy–Sobolev–Maz’ya terms

In this paper, we consider the existence of infinitely many sign-changing solutions for an elliptic equation involving double critical Hardy–Sobolev–Maz’ya terms. By using a compactness result obtained in [C.H. Wang, J. Yang, Infinitely many solutions for an elliptic problem with double Hardy–Sobolev–Maz’ya terms, Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst., 36(3):1603–1628, 2016], we prove the existence of these solutions by a combination of invariant sets method and Ljusternik–Schnirelman-type minimax method

Real-Time Warning System of Regional Landslides Supported by WEBGIS and its Application in Zhejiang Province, China

AbstractAs one of the provinces of highest economic growth in coastal China, Zhejiang Province is experiencing serious geological disasters during the past development of economy, which are mainly induced by intensive rainfall during typhoon season or by long-term rainfall from May to June every year. Thus, supported by WEBGIS, a real-time warning system of regional landslides is studied. According to the characteristic of rainfall in Zhejiang province, the study divides the province into typhoon region and non-typhoon region, using statistic approach to study the correlation of regional landslides hazards and rainfall, rainfall intensity of typhoon region and non-typhoon region. By correlation analysis, effective rainfall model is defined, and the thresholds of effective rainfall and rainfall intensity are obtained. Combining these thresholds with spatial prediction production of landslides hazards, predictive models for landslide warning of Zhejiang Province are established. Then a real-time warning system of regional landslides explored by WEBGIS software is successfully developed considering both regional geology and rainfall process information

Farrerol ameliorates diabetic hepatopathy in rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus via modulation of oxidativeinflammatory stress

Purpose: To investigate the effect of farrerol on diabetic hepatopathy in a rat model of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).Methods: Adult male Wistar rats (n = 40) were randomly assigned to four groups of ten rats each: normal control, diabetic control, farrerol control and treatment groups. With the exception of normal control and farrerol control groups, the rats were fed high-fat diet (HFD) for four weeks, and thereafter injected streptozotocin (STZ) at a dose of 30 mg/kg body weight intraperitoneally (i.p.) for induction of T2DM. Rats in farrerol control and treatment groups received 50 mg/kg farrerol orally/day. Serum levels of triacylglycerol (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein  cholesterol (HDL-C) and lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were determined. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were assessed in liver homogenate while mRNA and protein expressions of glucose transporter 2 (GLUT2) were assayed in liver using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively. Expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) were also determined using qRT-PCR.Results: Diabetes mellitus (DM) led to significant reductions in rat body weight and SOD activity, while increasing fasting blood glucose (FBG) and MDA levels (p < 0.05). However, treatment with farrerol significantly reversed the effect of DM on these parameters (p < 0.05). The mRNA expressions of TNF-α and IL-1β were significantly higher in diabetic control group than in normal control group, but were significantly reduced after farrerol treatment (p < 0.05). Treatment with farrerol also significantly reversed the effect of DM on rat lipid profile (p < 0.05). The expression of GLUT2 protein was significantly downregulated in the liver of diabetic control rats, when compared with normal control rats, but was significantly upregulated after treatment with farrerol (p < 0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study show that farrerol alleviates STZ-induced hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia via reduction in oxidative stress and inflammation, and upregulation of GLUT2 protein expression. Thus, farrerol has antidiabetic and hepatoprotective potentials for clinical use in  humans. Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Dyslipidemia, Farrerol, Hepatopathy, High-fat die

A study of the interaction between inverted cucurbit[7]uril and symmetric viologens

The interaction between inverted cucuribit[7]uril (iQ[7]) and a series of symmetric viologen derivatives bearing aliphatic substituents of variable length, namely dicationic dialkyl-4,4′-bipyridinium guests where the alkyl is CH₃(CH₂)n with n = 0 to 6, has been studied in aqueous solution by ¹H NMR spectroscopy, electronic absorption spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry and mass spectrometry. In the case of both n = 5 (HV ²⁺) and 6 (SV²⁺), single crystal X-ray diffraction revealed the composition to be [(iQ[7])₂(HV)₂][CdCl₃Br][H₃O+]₂[H₂O]₁₂.₅ and (iQ[7])₂(C7-SV)₁.₅[CdCl₄]₄(H₃O⁺)₅(H₂O)₈, respectively, with both adopting an external B-type structure (the alkyl chains of the viologen reside within the iQ[7])

Cross-cultural validation of the educational needs assessment tool into Chinese for use in severe knee osteoarthritis

© 2018 Zhao et al. Background: Patient education is an integral part of the management of osteoarthritis. The educational needs assessment tool (ENAT) was developed in the UK to help direct needs-based patient education in rheumatic diseases. Aim: The aim of the study was to adapt and validate the ENAT into Chinese, for use in severe knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Methods: This cross-cultural validation study took two phases: 1) adaptation of the ENAT into Chinese (CENAT) and 2) validation of the CENAT. The Construct validity was determined using factor analysis and criterion-related validity by comparing data from CENAT with data from different self-efficacy scales: patient–physician interactions scale (PEPPI-10), self-efficacy for rehabilitation outcome scale (SER), and the self-efficacy for exercise scale (SEE). Results: The sample comprised 196 patients, with mean age 63.6±8.7 years, disease duration was 11.5 years, and 57.1% were female. The CENAT was found to have high internal consistency. The CENAT had weak correlations with the Chinese versions of PEPPI r=0.40, SER r=0.40, and SEE r=0.39. There were no correlations with age r=−0.03 or disease duration r=−0.11. Conclusion: The ENAT translated well into Chinese and has evidence of validity in KOA. Future studies will further inform its usefulness in clinics, community, and online settings

High sensitivity micro-fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometric temperature sensors with a high index ring layer

The influence of the high index ring layer (HIRL) in a tapered fiber Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) on the interference observed, and thus on its potential applications in temperature sensing, has been investigated. The MZI was comprised of a tapered Ring Core Fiber (RCF), spliced between two single mode fibers (SMF). Since part of core mode from the SMF was converted into cladding modes in the RCF, due to the mismatch in the cores between the RCF and SMF, the residual power enters and then propagates along the center of the RCF (silica). The difference in phase between the radiation travelling along these different paths is separated by the HIRL to generate an interference effect. Compared with fiber interferometers based on core and cladding mode interference, the thin fiber HIRL is capable of separating the high order cladding modes and the silica core mode, under grazing incident conditions. Therefore, the optical path difference (OPD) and the sensitivity are both substantially improved over what is seen in conventional devices, showing their potential for interferometric temperature sensor applications. The optimum temperature sensitivity obtained was 186.6 pm/°C, which is ∼ 11.7 times higher than has been reported previously

Robust Representation Learning for Unified Online Top-K Recommendation

In large-scale industrial e-commerce, the efficiency of an online recommendation system is crucial in delivering highly relevant item/content advertising that caters to diverse business scenarios. However, most existing studies focus solely on item advertising, neglecting the significance of content advertising. This oversight results in inconsistencies within the multi-entity structure and unfair retrieval. Furthermore, the challenge of retrieving top-k advertisements from multi-entity advertisements across different domains adds to the complexity. Recent research proves that user-entity behaviors within different domains exhibit characteristics of differentiation and homogeneity. Therefore, the multi-domain matching models typically rely on the hybrid-experts framework with domain-invariant and domain-specific representations. Unfortunately, most approaches primarily focus on optimizing the combination mode of different experts, failing to address the inherent difficulty in optimizing the expert modules themselves. The existence of redundant information across different domains introduces interference and competition among experts, while the distinct learning objectives of each domain lead to varying optimization challenges among experts. To tackle these issues, we propose robust representation learning for the unified online top-k recommendation. Our approach constructs unified modeling in entity space to ensure data fairness. The robust representation learning employs domain adversarial learning and multi-view wasserstein distribution learning to learn robust representations. Moreover, the proposed method balances conflicting objectives through the homoscedastic uncertainty weights and orthogonality constraints. Various experiments validate the effectiveness and rationality of our proposed method, which has been successfully deployed online to serve real business scenarios.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to ICD

Fast, multicolor photodetection with graphene-contacted p-GaSe/n-InSe van der Waals heterostructures

The integration of different two-dimensional materials within a multilayer van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure offers a promising technology for high performance opto-electronic devices such as photodetectors and light sources. Here we report on the fabrication and electronic properties of vdW heterojunction diodes composed of the direct band gap layered semiconductors InSe and GaSe and transparent monolayer graphene electrodes. We show that the type II band alignment between the two layered materials and their distinctive spectral response, combined with the short channel length and low electrical resistance of graphene electrodes, enable efficient generation and extraction of photoexcited carriers from the heterostructure even when no external voltage is applied. Our devices are fast ( ~ 1 μs), self-driven photodetectors with multicolor photoresponse ranging from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared and offer new routes to miniaturized optoelectronics beyond present semiconductor materials and technologies

Circulating microRNAs in Pancreatic Juice as Candidate Biomarkers of Pancreatic Cancer

Development of sensitive and specific biomarkers, preferably those circulating in body fluids is critical for early diagnosis of cancer. This study performed profiling of microRNAs (miRNAs) in exocrine pancreatic secretions (pancreatic juice) by microarray analysis utilizing pancreatic juice from 6 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients and two pooled samples from 6 non-pancreatic, non-healthy (NPNH) as controls. Differentially circulating miRNAs were subsequently validated in 88 pancreatic juice samples from 50 PDAC, 19 chronic pancreatitis (CP) patients and 19 NPNH controls. A marked difference in the profiles of four circulating miRNAs (miR-205, miR-210, miR-492, and miR-1427) was observed in pancreatic juice collected from patients with PDAC and those without pancreatic disease. Elevated levels of the four miRNAs together predicted PDAC with a specificity of 88% and sensitivity of 87%. Inclusion of serum CA19-9 level increased the sensitivity to 91% and the specificity to 100%. Enrichment of the four miRNAs in pancreatic juice was associated with decreased OS, as was the combination of miR-205 and miR-210. Higher contents of miR-205 and miR-210 were also associated with lymph node metastasis. Elevated levels of circulating miR-205, miR-210, miR-492, and miR-1247 in pancreatic juice are, therefore, promising candidate biomarkers of disease and poor prognosis in patients with PDAC