A Russian Dolls ordering of the Hadamard basis for compressive single-pixel imaging

Single-pixel imaging is an alternate imaging technique particularly well-suited to imaging modalities such as hyper-spectral imaging, depth mapping, 3D profiling. However, the single-pixel technique requires sequential measurements resulting in a trade-off between spatial resolution and acquisition time, limiting real-time video applications to relatively low resolutions. Compressed sensing techniques can be used to improve this trade-off. However, in this low resolution regime, conventional compressed sensing techniques have limited impact due to lack of sparsity in the datasets. Here we present an alternative compressed sensing method in which we optimize the measurement order of the Hadamard basis, such that at discretized increments we obtain complete sampling for different spatial resolutions. In addition, this method uses deterministic acquisition, rather than the randomized sampling used in conventional compressed sensing. This so-called ‘Russian Dolls’ ordering also benefits from minimal computational overhead for image reconstruction. We find that this compressive approach performs as well as other compressive sensing techniques with greatly simplified post processing, resulting in significantly faster image reconstruction. Therefore, the proposed method may be useful for single-pixel imaging in the low resolution, high-frame rate regime, or video-rate acquisition

Analysis of a hysteresis-controlled self-oscillating class-D amplifier

This paper gives the first systematic perturbation analysis of the audio distortion and mean switching period for a self-oscillating class-D amplifier. Explicit expressions are given for all the principal components of audio distortion, for a general audio input signal; the specific example of a sinusoidal input is also discussed in some detail, yielding an explicit closed-form expression for the total harmonic distortion (THD). A class-D amplifier works by converting a low-frequency audio input signal to a high-frequency train of rectangular pulses, whose widths are slowly modulated according to the audio signal. The audiofrequency components of the pulse-train are designed to agree with those of the audio signal. In many varieties of class-D amplifier, the pulse-train is generated using a carrier wave of fixed frequency, well above the audio range. In other varieties, as here, there is no such fixed-frequency clock, and the local frequency of the pulse-train varies in response to the audio input. Such self-oscillating designs pose a particular challenge for comprehensive mathematical modelling; we show that in order to properly account for the local frequency variations, a warped-time transformation is necessary. The systematic nature of our calculation means it can potentially be applied to a range of other self-oscillating topologies. Our results for a general input allow ready calculation of distortion diagnostics such as the intermodulation distortion (IMD), which prior analyses, based on sinusoidal input, cannot provide

Clinical observation on Aralia echinocauIis Hand Mazz Capsula-2 in knee joint of osteoarthritis

目的  观测刺老苞胶囊-2号临床治疗膝关节骨性关节炎的效果。 方法  将2013～2014年门诊收治的膝关节骨性关节炎患者90例(男50例、女40例)分为：治疗-1组35例（男20例，女15例），治疗-2组20例（男10例，女10例），对照组35例（男20例，女15例）。治疗-1组口服刺老苞胶囊-2号，治疗-2组口服刺老苞胶囊-2号+芬必得胶囊，对照组口服芬必得胶囊。连续服药60d后，观察主要症状缓解情况，并按照膝关节功能评分标准比较各组治疗前后效果。 结果  与对照组（总有效率91.43%）相比，治疗-1组（总有效率85.71%）疗效稍逊，治疗-2组（总有效率95.00%）疗效稍好，但组间差异性均不显著（P＞0.05)。 结论  本实验室制备的刺老苞胶囊-2号对膝关节骨性关节炎有一定的治疗效果，如配合芬必得胶囊共同使用，临床疗效更好。Objective: To observe the effect of Aralia echinocauIis Hand. Mazz capsula-2 on the treatment of knee osteoarthritis．Method: 90 cases of knee osteoarthritis (Male 50 cases / Female 40 cases) were collected in 2013 and 2014, and they were divided into three groups. 35 persons (Male 20 cases / Female 15 cases) in treatment group-1 received Aralia echinocauIis Hand. Mazz capsula-2, 20 persons (Male 10 cases / Female 10 cases) in treatment group-2 received Aralia echinocauIis Hand. Mazz capsula-2 +finbid, 35 persons (Male 20 cases / Female 15 cases) in control group received finbid for 60 days in a course of treatment．Result: Compared with control group (91.43%), treatment group-1 ′s effective rate (85.71%) was lower and treatment group-2′s effective rate (95.00%) was higher, but the difference in different groups was no statistically significant (P＞0.05)．Conclusion: Aralia echinocauIis Hand. Mazz capsula-2 in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis showed good efficacy, joint pain could be shortened．If patients were cured by finbid with Aralia echinocauIis Hand. Mazz capsula-2 together, they would get better clinical curative effect

Comparative Proteomics of Rubber Latex Revealed Multiple Protein Species of REF/SRPP Family Respond Diversely to Ethylene Stimulation among Different Rubber Tree Clones

Rubber elongation factor (REF) and small rubber particle protein (SRPP) are two key factors for natural rubber biosynthesis. To further understand the roles of these proteins in rubber formation, six different genes for latex abundant REF or SRPP proteins, including REF138,175,258 and SRPP117,204,243, were characterized from Hevea brasiliensis Reyan (RY) 7-33-97. Sequence analysis showed that REFs have a variable and long N-terminal, whereas SRPPs have a variable and long C-terminal beyond the REF domain, and REF258 has a β subunit of ATPase in its N-terminal. Through two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE), each REF/SRPP protein was separated into multiple protein spots on 2-DE gels, indicating they have multiple protein species. The abundance of REF/SRPP proteins was compared between ethylene and control treatments or among rubber tree clones with different levels of latex productivity by analyzing 2-DE gels. The total abundance of each REF/SRPP protein decreased or changed a little upon ethylene stimulation, whereas the abundance of multiple protein species of the same REF/SRPP changed diversely. Among the three rubber tree clones, the abundance of the protein species also differed significantly. Especially, two protein species of REF175 or REF258 were ethylene-responsive only in the high latex productivity clone RY 8-79 instead of in RY 7-33-97 and PR 107. Some individual protein species were positively related to ethylene stimulation and latex productivity. These results suggested that the specific protein species could be more important than others for rubber production and post-translational modifications might play important roles in rubber biosynthesis

Screening potential lncRNA biomarkers for breast cancer and colorectal cancer combining random walk and logistic matrix factorization

Breast cancer and colorectal cancer are two of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. They cause the leading causes of cancer mortality. Many researches have demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have close linkages with the occurrence and development of the two cancers. Therefore, it is essential to design an effective way to identify potential lncRNA biomarkers for them. In this study, we developed a computational method (LDA-RWLMF) by integrating random walk with restart and Logistic Matrix Factorization to investigate the roles of lncRNA biomarkers in the prognosis and diagnosis of the two cancers. We first fuse disease semantic and Gaussian association profile similarities and lncRNA functional and Gaussian association profile similarities. Second, we design a negative selection algorithm to extract negative LncRNA-Disease Associations (LDA) based on random walk. Third, we develop a logistic matrix factorization model to predict possible LDAs. We compare our proposed LDA-RWLMF method with four classical LDA prediction methods, that is, LNCSIM1, LNCSIM2, ILNCSIM, and IDSSIM. The results from 5-fold cross validation on the MNDR dataset show that LDA-RWLMF computes the best AUC value of 0.9312, outperforming the above four LDA prediction methods. Finally, we rank all lncRNA biomarkers for the two cancers after determining the performance of LDA-RWLMF, respectively. We find that 48 and 50 lncRNAs have the highest association scores with breast cancer and colorectal cancer among all lncRNAs known to associate with them on the MNDR dataset, respectively. We predict that lncRNAs HULC and HAR1A could be separately potential biomarkers for breast cancer and colorectal cancer and need to biomedical experimental validation

Screening chemical modulators of benzoic acid derivatives to improve lipid accumulation in Schizochytrium limacinum SR21 with metabolomics analysis.

Background(#br) Schizochytrium sp. is a marine fungus with great potential as an alternative commercial source of lipids rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). To further increase lipid accumulation in Schizochytrium sp., the effect of exogenous additives has become one of the hotspots of current research. Although benzoic acid derivatives showed positive effects on lipid accumulation in Schizochytrium , the biochemical mechanism needs further investigation.(#br)Results(#br)Four benzoic acid derivatives (sodium benzoate, p -aminobenzoic acid, p -methyl benzoic acid and folic acid) were screened and evaluated for their effect on lipid accumulation in Schizochytrium limacinum SR21. The lipid yield was increased by 56.84% with p -aminobenzoic acid ( p -ABA) at a concentration of 200 mg/L among the four tested chemical modulators. The metabolomics analysis showed that 200 mg/L p -ABA was optimal for promoting glucose catabolism in glycolysis with an increase in the mevalonate pathway and a weakening of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. Moreover, p -ABA increased NADPH generation by enhancing the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), ultimately redirecting the metabolic flux to lipid synthesis. Fed-batch fermentation further proved that p -ABA could significantly increase the yield of lipid by 30.01%, reaching 99.67 g/L, and the lipid content was increased by 35.03%, reaching 71.12%. More importantly, the yields of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were increased by 33.28% and 42.0%, respectively.(#br)Conclusion(#br)The addition of p -ABA could promote the synthesis of tetrahydrofolate, enhancing NADPH, which ultimately promoted the flow of carbon flux to lipid synthesis. These findings provide a valuable strategy for improving the lipid accumulation in Schizochytrium by additives

Monoester-Diterpene Aconitum

Aconitum, widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis for thousands of years, is a toxic herb that can frequently cause fatal cardiac poisoning. Aconitum toxicity could be decreased by properly hydrolyzing diester-diterpene alkaloids into monoester-diterpene alkaloids. Monoester-diterpene alkaloids, including benzoylaconine (BAC), benzoylmesaconine (BMA), and benzoylhypaconine (BHA), are the primary active and toxic constituents of processed Aconitum. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes protect the human body by functioning as the defense line that limits the invasion of toxicants. Our purposes were to identify the CYP metabolites of BAC, BMA, and BHA in human liver microsomes and to distinguish which isozymes are responsible for their metabolism through the use of chemical inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and cDNA-expressed CYP enzyme. High-resolution mass spectrometry was used to characterize the metabolites. A total of 7, 8, and 9 metabolites were detected for BAC, BMA, and BHA, respectively. The main metabolic pathways were demethylation, dehydrogenation, demethylation-dehydrogenation, hydroxylation and didemethylation, which produced less toxic metabolites by decomposing the group responsible for the toxicity of the parent compound. Taken together, the results of the chemical inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and cDNA-expressed CYP enzymes experiments demonstrated that CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 have essential functions in the metabolism of BAC, BMA, and BHA

The role of fluconazole in the regulation of fatty acid and unsaponifiable matter biosynthesis in Schizochytrium sp. MYA 1381.

BACKGROUND(#br)Schizochytrium has been widely used in industry for synthesizing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, unclear biosynthesis pathway of PUFAs inhibits further production of the Schizochytrium. Unsaponifiable matter (UM) from mevalonate pathway is crucial to cell growth and intracellular metabolism in all higher eukaryotes and microalgae. Therefore, regulation of UM biosynthesis in Schizochytrium may have important effects on fatty acids synthesis. Moreover, it is well known that UMs, such as squalene and β-carotene, are of great commercial value. Thus, regulating UM biosynthesis may also allow for an increased valuation of Schizochytrium.(#br)RESULTS(#br)To investigate the correlation of UM biosynthesis with fatty acids accumulation in Schizochytrium, fluconazole was used to block the sterols pathway. The addition of 60 mg/L fluconazole at 48 h increased the total lipids (TLs) at 96 h by 16% without affecting cell growth, which was accompanied by remarkable changes in UMs and NADPH. Cholesterol content was reduced by 8%, and the squalene content improved by 45% at 72 h, which demonstrated fluconazole’s role in inhibiting squalene flow to cholesterol. As another typical UM with antioxidant capacity, the β-carotene production was increased by 53% at 96 h. The increase of squalene and β-carotene could boost intracellular oxidation resistance to protect fatty acids from oxidation. The NADPH was found to be 33% higher than that of the control at 96 h, which meant that the cells had more reducing power for fatty acid synthesis. Metabolic analysis further confirmed that regulation of sterols was closely related to glucose absorption, pigment biosynthesis and fatty acid production in Schizochytrium.(#br)CONCLUSION(#br)This work first reported the effect of UM biosynthesis on fatty acid accumulation in Schizochytrium. The UM was found to affect fatty acid biosynthesis by changing cell membrane function, intracellular antioxidation and reducing power. We believe that this work provides valuable insights in improving PUFA and other valuable matters in microalgae

Mutational Profile and Potential Molecular Therapeutic Targets of Pheochromocytoma

PurposePheochromocytoma/paraganglioma (PCC/PGL; collectively known as PPGL) can be driven by germline and somatic mutations in susceptibility genes. We aimed to investigate the mutation profile and clinical features of pathogenic genes in highly genetically heterogeneous PPGL and to preliminary explore molecular therapeutic targets in PPGL.MethodsWe established a panel of 260 genes, including susceptibility genes of PPGL and other important tumorigenic genes to sequence 107 PPGL tissues.ResultsOverall, 608 genomic mutations were identified in 107 PPGL tissues. Almost 57% of PPGL tissue samples exhibited pathogenic mutations, and the most frequently mutated gene was SDHB (15/107, 14%). SDHB and HRAS were the most commonly mutated genes in germline-mutated PPGL (25/107, 23%) and nongermline-mutated PPGL (36/107, 34%), respectively. In addition, novel pathogenic mutations were detected in sporadic PPGL. PPGL with mutations in the hypoxia pathway had an earlier onset and higher norepinephrine level than those in the kinase pathway. Receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK; 22%, 24/107), mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK; 14%, 15/107), and tyrosine kinase (TK; 2%, 2/107) pathways were the most frequently mutated pathways in PPGL.ConclusionOur results provided the genetic mutation profile in PPGL tissues. Genetic mutations in PPGL were mainly concentrated in the RTK, TK, and MAPK pathways, suggesting potential molecular therapeutic targets for PPGL

Helicobacter pylori treatment and gastric cancer risk among individuals with high genetic risk for gastric cancer

ImportanceHelicobacter pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation may protect against gastric cancer (GC), but whether the beneficial effects only apply to potential genetic subgroups and whether high genetic risk may be counteracted by these chemoprevention strategies remains unknown. Objective To examine genetic variants associated with the progression of gastric lesions and GC risk and to assess the benefits of H pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation by levels of genetic risk. Design, Setting, and Participants This cohort study used follow-up data of the Shandong Intervention Trial (SIT, 1989-2022) and China Kadoorie Biobank (CKB, 2004-2018) in China. Based on the SIT, a longitudinal genome-wide association study was conducted to identify genetic variants for gastric lesion progression. Significant variants were examined for incident GC in a randomly sampled set of CKB participants (set 1). Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) combining independent variants were assessed for GC risk in the remaining CKB participants (set 2) and in an independent case-control study in Linqu. ExposuresH pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcomes were the progression of gastric lesions (in SIT only) and the risk of GC. The associations of H pylori treatment and nutrition supplementation with GC were evaluated among SIT participants with different levels of genetic risk. Results Our analyses included 2816 participants (mean [SD] age, 46.95 [9.12] years; 1429 [50.75%] women) in SIT and 100 228 participants (mean [SD] age, 53.69 [11.00] years; 57 357 [57.23%] women) in CKB, with 147 GC cases in SIT and 825 GC cases in CKB identified during follow-up. A PRS integrating 12 genomic loci associated with gastric lesion progression and incident GC risk was derived, which was associated with GC risk in CKB (highest vs lowest decile of PRS: hazard ratio [HR], 2.54; 95% CI, 1.80-3.57) and further validated in the analysis of 702 case participants and 692 control participants (mean [SD] age, 54.54 [7.66] years; 527 [37.80%] women; odds ratio, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.11-3.05). H pylori treatment was associated with reduced GC risk only for individuals with high genetic risk (top 25% of PRS: HR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.24-0.82) but not for those with low genetic risk (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.50-1.34; P for interaction = .03). Such effect modification was not found for vitamin (P for interaction = .93) or garlic (P for interaction = .41) supplementation. Conclusions and Relevance The findings of this cohort study indicate that a high genetic risk of GC may be counteracted by H pylori treatment, suggesting primary prevention could be tailored to genetic risk for more effective prevention