A robust optimisation model for hybrid remanufacturing and manufacturing systems under uncertain return quality and market demand

In remanufacturing research, most researchers predominantly emphasised on the recovery of whole product (core) rather than at the component level due to its complexity. In contrast, this paper addresses the challenges to focus on remanufacturing through component recovery, so as to solve production planning problems of hybrid remanufacturing and manufacturing systems. To deal with the uncertainties of quality and quantity of product returns, the processing time of remanufacturing, remanufacturing costs, as well as market demands, a robust optimisation model was developed in this research and a case study was used to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency. To strengthen this research, a sensitivity analysis of the uncertain parameters and the original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM’s) pricing strategy was also conducted. The research finding shows that the market demand volatility leads to a significant increase in the under fulfilment and a reduction in OEM’s profit. On the other hand, recovery cost reduction, as endogenous cost saving, encourages the OEM to produce more remanufactured products with the increase in market demand. Furthermore, the OEM may risk profit loss if they raise the price of new products, and inversely, they could gain more if the price of remanufactured products is raised

ERCC2, ERCC1 polymorphisms and haplotypes, cooking oil fume and lung adenocarcinoma risk in Chinese non-smoking females

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1) and group 2 (ERCC2) proteins play important roles in the repair of DNA damage and adducts. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of DNA repair genes are suspected to influence the risk of lung cancer. This study aimed to investigate the association between the <it>ERCC2 </it>751, 312 and <it>ERCC1 </it>118 polymorphisms and the risk of lung adenocarcinoma in Chinese non-smoking females.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A hospital-based case-control study of 285 patients and 285 matched controls was conducted. Information concerning demographic and risk factors was obtained for each case and control by a trained interviewer. After informed consent was obtained, each person donated 10 ml blood for biomarker testing. Three polymorphisms were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study showed that the individuals with the combined <it>ERCC2 </it>751AC/CC genotypes were at an increased risk for lung adenocarcinoma compared with those carrying the AA genotype [adjusted odds ratios (OR) 1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06-2.52]. The stratified analysis suggested that increased risk associated with <it>ERCC2 </it>751 variant genotypes (AC/CC) was more pronounced in individuals without exposure to cooking oil fume (OR 1.98, 95%CI 1.18-3.32) and those without exposure to fuel smoke (OR 2.47, 95%CI 1.46-4.18). Haplotype analysis showed that the A-G-T and C-G-C haplotypes were associated with increased risk of lung adenocarcinoma among non-smoking females (ORs were 1.43 and 2.28, 95%CIs were 1.07-1.91 and 1.34-3.89, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><it>ERCC2 </it>751 polymorphism may be a genetic risk modifier for lung adenocarcinoma in non-smoking females in China.</p

An incipient fault diagnosis method for rotating machinery based on bilateral spectrum and precession energy difference density spectrum

As an important characteristic information in incipient fault diagnosis of rotating machinery, the fault impulse signal is hard to be monitored due to the low signal amplitude and system disturbance/noise. Based on bilateral spectrum and precession energy difference density spectrum for the incipient fault diagnosis of rotating machinery, a novel diagnosis method is proposed in this paper to overcome this key problem. Compared with the existing methods to extract transient impulses from the vibrate signals, this paper designs a new fault feature parameter-precession energy difference density to characterize the feature of transient impulse. Furthermore, the complex signal and the negative frequency are introduced into the spectrum analysis and the forward and backward precession characteristics, which can be directly gained through the bilateral spectrum and relieves the problems not to be overlooked, such as high calculation, high error and time consuming. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods are demonstrated via a case study of a vertical mill reducer

Guidance Compliance Behavior on VMS Based on SOAR Cognitive Architecture

SOAR is a cognitive architecture named from state, operator and result, which is adopted to portray the drivers' guidance compliance behavior on variable message sign (VMS) in this paper. VMS represents traffic conditions to drivers by three colors: red, yellow, and green. Based on the multiagent platform, SOAR is introduced to design the agent with the detailed description of the working memory, long-term memory, decision cycle, and learning mechanism. With the fixed decision cycle, agent transforms state through four kinds of operators, including choosing route directly, changing the driving goal, changing the temper of driver, and changing the road condition of prediction. The agent learns from the process of state transformation by chunking and reinforcement learning. Finally, computerized simulation program is used to study the guidance compliance behavior. Experiments are simulated many times under given simulation network and conditions. The result, including the comparison between guidance and no guidance, the state transition times, and average chunking times are analyzed to further study the laws of guidance compliance and learning mechanism

Endothelium- targeted overexpression of Krüppel- like factor 11 protects the blood- brain barrier function after ischemic brain injury

Microvascular endothelial cell (EC) injury and the subsequent blood- brain barrier (BBB) breakdown are frequently seen in many neurological disorders, including stroke. We have previously documented that peroxisome proliferator- activated receptor gamma (PPARγ)- mediated cerebral protection during ischemic insults needs Krüppel- like factor 11 (KLF11) as a critical coactivator. However, the role of endothelial KLF11 in cerebrovascular function and stroke outcome is unclear. This study is aimed at investigating the regulatory role of endothelial KLF11 in BBB preservation and neurovascular protection after ischemic stroke. EC- targeted overexpression of KLF11 significantly mitigated BBB leakage in ischemic brains, evidenced by significantly reduced extravasation of BBB tracers and infiltration of peripheral immune cells, and less brain water content. Endothelial cell- selective KLF11 transgenic (EC- KLF11 Tg) mice also exhibited smaller brain infarct and improved neurological function in response to ischemic insults. Furthermore, EC- targeted transgenic overexpression of KLF11 preserved cerebral tight junction (TJ) levels and attenuated the expression of pro- inflammatory factors in mice after ischemic stroke. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that KLF11 directly binds to the promoter of major endothelial TJ proteins including occludin and ZO- 1 to promote their activities. Our data indicate that KLF11 functions at the EC level to preserve BBB structural and functional integrity, and therefore, confers brain protection in ischemic stroke. KLF11 may be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of ischemic stroke and other neurological conditions involving BBB breakdown and neuroinflammation.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155919/1/bpa12831_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155919/2/bpa12831.pd

Co-expression Gene Network Analysis and Functional Module Identification in Bamboo Growth and Development

Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing non-timber forest plants. Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is the most economically valuable bamboo in Asia, especially in China. With the release of the whole-genome sequence of moso bamboo, there are increasing demands for refined annotation of bamboo genes. Recently, large amounts of bamboo transcriptome data have become available, including data on the multiple growth stages of tissues. It is now feasible for us to construct co-expression networks to improve bamboo gene annotation and reveal the relationships between gene expression and growth traits. We integrated the genome sequence of moso bamboo and 78 transcriptome data sets to build genome-wide global and conditional co-expression networks. We overlaid the gene expression results onto the network with multiple dimensions (different development stages). Through combining the co-expression network, module classification and function enrichment tools, we identified 1,896 functional modules related to bamboo development, which covered functions such as photosynthesis, hormone biosynthesis, signal transduction, and secondary cell wall biosynthesis. Furthermore, an online database (http://bioinformatics.cau.edu.cn/bamboo) was built for searching the moso bamboo co-expression network and module enrichment analysis. Our database also includes cis-element analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, and other tools. In summary, we integrated public and in-house bamboo transcriptome data sets and carried out co-expression network analysis and functional module identification. Through data mining, we have yielded some novel insights into the regulation of growth and development. Our established online database might be convenient for the bamboo research community to identify functional genes or modules with important traits

High-risk subtype: Clinical manifestations and molecular characteristics of submandibular gland adenoid cystic carcinoma

ObjectiveAdenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck mainly occurs in the major salivary glands, of which the parotid gland and submandibular gland are the most common. The purpose of this study was to clarify the site-specific differences in prognosis and molecular expression characteristics of the patients and to achieve stratified risk management of the clinical prognosis.MaterialsBy performing a single-centre retrospective analysis combined with analyses of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, cBioPortal and GEO databases, the clinical prognostic characteristics and the differences in molecular expression patterns of ACC in the submandibular gland and parotid gland were analysed. Cox regression analysis, the chi-square test, Fisher’s test and the log-rank test were used to compare the significance of differences.ResultsCompared with patients with parotid gland ACC, the submandibular gland ACC is more likely to have metastases in the cervical lymph node (21.7% vs. 3.3%) and shows a higher rate of distant metastasis within 1 year after the primary site diagnosis (47.8% vs. 23.3%), a worse overall prognosis, more frequent mutations of MYB/MYBL1 (50% vs. 25%) and abnormal upregulation of the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K) pathway.ConclusionsSubmandibular gland ACC is associated with site-specific early cervical lymph node metastasis and hidden distant metastasis, along with rapid progression and a poor prognosis. A high MYB/MYBL1 mutation rate and abnormal upregulation of the PI3K pathway with MYB involvement were identified

Mechanistic Insight Into the Interaction Between Helicobacter pylori Urease Subunit α and Its Molecular Chaperone Hsp60

Helicobacter pylori is the etiologic agent in a variety of gastroduodenal diseases. As its key pathogenic factors, both urease and Hsp60 play important roles in the pathogenesis of H. pylori. Previous studies have suggested that there is close relationship between urease and Hsp60, which implied that Hsp60 may act as a chaperone in urease stabilization and assembly. However, how these two proteins interact remains unclear. In this study, the impact of Hsp60 on urease activity of H. pylori lysate was first detected to confirm the interaction between urease and Hsp60. Pull-down assays further indicated that Hsp60 could bind to UreA subunit but not UreB. Then, the 3D structure of Hsp60 was modeled using I-TASSER to simulate the binding complex with UreA by molecular docking. The results showed that UreA is a perfect fit for the cavity of Hsp60. Analysis of the resulting model demonstrated that at least seven residues of UreA, located on two interfaces, participate in the interaction. Site-directed mutagenesis of these potential residues showed reduced affinity with Hsp60 than the wild type UreA through surface plasmon resonance (SPR) experiments, and D68 appears to have an important role in the affinity. Further analysis also showed that mutation of E25 and K26 caused a more rapid association and dissociation than with wild UreA, implying that they have roles in stabilizing the interaction complex. These affinity comparisons suggested that the interfaces predicted by molecular docking are credible. Our study indicated a direct interaction between Hsp60 and urease and revealed the binding interfaces and key residues involved in the interaction. These results provide further evidence for the chaperone activity of Hsp60 toward urease and lay a foundation to better understand the maturation mechanism of urease in H. pylori