Dynamic Properties of Saturated Coal Fly Ash

The great part of fly ash produced by thermal power plants is either sluiced or filled in disposal areas in China. The dynamic properties of fly ash are important for solving geotechnical problems relating to fly ash mass under dynamic loadings. The high temperature during combustion makes fly ash nonplastic but pozzolanic. The nonplasticity causes the dynamic properties of sluiced and just compacted fly ash to be similar to ones of silts. The pozzolanic action causes obvious aging effect for compacted fly ash, by which an aging time of 180 days may increase maximum shear modulus by 75% to 400% and cyclic strength by 100% to 500%. All of these results are reported and discussed in the paper in detail. Based on the results four correlative equations are presented which could be used to preliminarily evaluate the dynamic properties of fly ashes

Protective effect of syringaresinol on rats with diabetic nephropathy via regulation of Nrf2/HO-1 and TGF- β1/Smads pathways

Purpose: To investigate the protective role of syringaresinol in a rat model of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Methods: Streptozotocin was injected intraperitoneally into rats to establish the diabetic model. Streptozotocin-induced rats were orally administered syringaresinol, and pathological changes in kidneys were assessed using hematoxylin and eosin staining. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine kidney injury indicators, 24-h urine proteins, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and serum creatinine (SCR). Blood glucose was measured using a blood glucose meter, while levels of malonaldehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX) in kidney were also measured using ELISA. Results: Pathological changes in the kidneys were observed in rats post-streptozotocin treatment. Administration of syringaresinol reduced the lesion degree, with improved pathological morphology in kidney. Syringaresinol administration significantly attenuated streptozotocin-increased levels of BUN, SCR, 24-h urine protein, and blood glucose (p < 0.01). Streptozotocin-induced oxidative stress, shown by enhanced MDA level and reduced levels of SOD, CAT, and GSH-PX, was reversed in rat kidneys following syringaresinol administration. However, the expression levels of nuclear factor erythropoietin- 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) proteins decreased, while transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1) and signal transducer and transcriptional modulator (Smad) 2/3/7 proteins increased in rats post-streptozotocin treatment. Syringaresinol administration reversed the effects of streptozotocin on protein expression of Nrf2, HO-1, TGF-β1, and Smad 2/3/7. Conclusion: Syringaresinol exerted a protective effect against DN through activation of Nrf2 and inactivation of TGF-β1/Smad pathways. Thus, the compound can potentially be developed for management of diabetic nephropathy

Panoptic Scene Graph Generation with Semantics-prototype Learning

Panoptic Scene Graph Generation (PSG) parses objects and predicts their relationships (predicate) to connect human language and visual scenes. However, different language preferences of annotators and semantic overlaps between predicates lead to biased predicate annotations in the dataset, i.e. different predicates for same object pairs. Biased predicate annotations make PSG models struggle in constructing a clear decision plane among predicates, which greatly hinders the real application of PSG models. To address the intrinsic bias above, we propose a novel framework named ADTrans to adaptively transfer biased predicate annotations to informative and unified ones. To promise consistency and accuracy during the transfer process, we propose to measure the invariance of representations in each predicate class, and learn unbiased prototypes of predicates with different intensities. Meanwhile, we continuously measure the distribution changes between each presentation and its prototype, and constantly screen potential biased data. Finally, with the unbiased predicate-prototype representation embedding space, biased annotations are easily identified. Experiments show that ADTrans significantly improves the performance of benchmark models, achieving a new state-of-the-art performance, and shows great generalization and effectiveness on multiple datasets

Pygopus 2 promotes kidney cancer OS-RC-2 cells proliferation and invasion in vitro and in vivo

AbstractObjectiveHuman Pygopus 2 (Pygo2) was recently discovered to be a component of the Wnt signaling pathway required for β-catenin/Tcf-mediated transcription. But the role of Pygo2 in malignant cell proliferation and invasion has not yet been determined.MethodsLentivirus-mediated small interfering RNA (siRNA) and vector-based overexpression were used to study the function of Pygo2 in OS-RC-2 cells. The resulted cells were subject to Western blotting assay, MTT assay, colony formation and cell invasion assays. Furthermore, renal cell carcinoma (RCC) models were established in BALB/c nude mice inoculated with OS-RC-2 cells. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining of matrix metalloproteinase-7 (MMP-7), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was performed in tumor tissue.ResultsPygo2 gene was successful knocked down and overexpressed in RCC OS-RC-2 cells by using an shRNA and overexpressing vector, respectively. Overexpression of Pygo2 effectively promoted cell proliferation, colony formation and invasion in vitro. Knockdown of Pygo2 obviously inhibited xenograft tumor growth in nude mice. In addition, overexpression of Pygo2 increased the levels of MMP-7, MMP-9 and VEGF in the xenograft tumors.ConclusionPygo2 has a role in promoting cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis, and may regulate angiogenesis via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Developments in Fatty Acid-Derived Insect Pheromone Production Using Engineered Yeasts

The use of traditional chemical insecticides for pest control often leads to environmental pollution and a decrease in biodiversity. Recently, insect sex pheromones were applied for sustainable biocontrol of pests in fields, due to their limited adverse impacts on biodiversity and food safety compared to that of other conventional insecticides. However, the structures of insect pheromones are complex, and their chemical synthesis is not commercially feasible. As yeasts have been widely used for fatty acid-derived pheromone production in the past few years, using engineered yeasts may be promising and sustainable for the low-cost production of fatty acid-derived pheromones. The primary fatty acids produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts are C16 and C18, and it is also possible to rewire/reprogram the metabolic flux for other fatty acids or fatty acid derivatives. This review summarizes the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in S. cerevisiae and recent progress in yeast engineering in terms of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology strategies to produce insect pheromones. In the future, insect pheromones produced by yeasts might provide an eco-friendly pest control method in agricultural fields

Constraints on Spin-Spin-Velocity-Dependent Interaction

The existence of exotic spin-dependent forces may shine light on new physics beyond the Standard Model. We utilize two iron shielded SmCo$_5$ electron-spin sources and two optically pumped magnetometers to search for exotic long-range spin-spin-velocity-dependent force. The orientations of spin sources and magnetometers are optimized such that the exotic force is enhanced and common-mode noise is effectively subtracted. We set direct limit on proton-electron interaction in the force range from 1\,cm to 1\,km. Our experiment represents more than ten orders of magnitude improvement than previous works

EFFECTS OF LONG-TERM TAI CHI EXERCISE ON BALANCE CONTROL IN OLDER ADULTS

This study assessed the static and dynamic balance control of older adults who have 10 years of Tai Chi exercise experience and compared their characteristics with their sedentary counterparts. The abilities were measured using methods: single-leg stance times with eyes open and closed; sway of center of pressure (COP) during static standing with eyes open/closed, and leaning the body in three specific directions. Compared with control group, 1) Tai Chi Group showed longer single-leg stance times with eyes open and closed, 2) slower sway velocity of COP in mediolateral and anterioposterior directions and shorter sway distance in both directions, and 3) shorter total, anterioposterior, and mediolateral routes and shorter time spent during the dynamic balance test. Long-term Tai Chi exercise improves the balance ability, especially the dynamic balance, of older adults

Thermal Energy Storage for Solar Energy Utilization: Fundamentals and Applications

Solar energy increases its popularity in many fields, from buildings, food productions to power plants and other industries, due to the clean and renewable properties. To eliminate its intermittence feature, thermal energy storage is vital for efficient and stable operation of solar energy utilization systems. It is an effective way of decoupling the energy demand and generation, while plays an important role on smoothing their fluctuations. In this chapter, various types of thermal energy storage technologies are summarized and compared, including the latest studies on the thermal energy storage materials and heat transfer enhancements. Then, the most up-to-date developments and applications of various thermal energy storage options in solar energy systems are summarized, with an emphasis on the material selections, system integrations, operational characteristics, performance assessments and technological comparisons. The emerging and future trends are finally outlined. This chapter will be a useful resource for relevant researchers, engineers, policy-makers, technology users, and engineering students in the field