Crosslinked fluoropolymers exhibiting superior high-temperature energy density and charge-discharge efficiency

Superior high-temperature discharged energy densities in comparison to those of the current dielectric polymers have been demonstrated in the crosslinked fluoropolymers

LATE ORDOVICIAN BRACHIOPOD RONGATRYPA XICHUANENSIS FROM XICHUAN, HENAN PROVINCE, CENTRAL CHINA

The atrypide brachiopod Rongatrypa Popov & Cocks, 2014 is one of the early members of the subfamily Clintonellinae. This genus was previously known only from the Kazakh terranes. Here, we reassign a species to the genus, Rongatrypa xichuanensis (Xu, 1996), from the Shiyanhe Formation (Katian, Upper Ordovician) of Xichuan, Henan Province, central China. A wide range of shell sizes was found and measured to investigate the ontogeny of the species, and several specimens were selected for serial sectioning to examine the internal morphology. The linear regression results of natural logarithms of length vs. width and depth vs. width revealed an allometric growth pattern, perhaps influenced by the development of the lophophore. Rongatrypa xichuanensis inhabited a shallow marine oxygenated environment in the South China palaeoplate near the palaeo-equator. The distribution of Rongatrypa across South China and Kazakh terranes reflects the proximity of these blocks in the Late Ordovician

Effect of recycled concrete aggregate features on adhesion properties of asphalt mortar-aggregate interface

Asphalt-aggregate interface’s adhesion properties commonly affect the damage initiation and evolution within asphalt concrete materials, related to pavement durability and quality. The scope of this research was to investigate the influence of Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA) features on asphalt mortar-aggregate interface adhesion. Firstly, a three-dimensional reconstruction model of RCA was carried out using X-ray CT tomography and digital image processing. In this regard, five feature indicators, namely cement mortar content, sphericity, flat and elongated ratio, angularity, and surface texture, were proposed. Based on a bilinear cohesive zone model, the interface damage behavior of asphalt mortar-RCA was investigated by using a uniaxial compression simu- lation. Finally, a GA-BP artificial neural network was conducted to predict and quantify the effect of each feature indicator of RCA on interface adhesion. The results showed that when RCA had lower cement mortar content, higher sphericity value, and smoother surface, the asphalt mortar-RCA system was less prone to interface adhesion failure. The 5-14-1 GA-BP artificial neural network proposed in this study showed very good perfor- mance in predicting the interfacial dissipation damage energy with a mean-squared error value of 3.52 × 10^-4 for testing dataset. The cement mortar content parameter exhibited a remarkable influence on the interface adhesion property, and its global contribution to the interfacial dissipation damage energy (0.3486) was more than twice that of the surface texture parameter (0.1316). In future studies, the performance characteristics of cement mortar can be further investigated, thereby proposing RCA’s performance optimization technology

A new measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine: a randomized comparative trial for assessing the reactogenicity and immunogenicity of three consecutive production lots and comparison with a widely used MMR vaccine in measles primed children

AbstractObjectives: A multicenter, single-blind, randomized, controlled clinical study was conducted in healthy 15–18-month-old children in order to assess the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of three consecutive lots of a new measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, GSK MMR.Design: A total of 500 enrolled subjects were randomized into four groups to receive either a single dose of one of the three lots of GSK MMR (three groups — 125 subjects in each group) or Merck MMR vaccine (125 subjects). Once clinical consistency had been demonstrated, the data were pooled and compared with the widely used Merck vaccine. Solicited local and general symptoms were recorded using diary cards, and antibody levels were determined using ELISA assays.Results: No differences in the incidence of local and general symptoms or seroconversion rates were seen in the groups receiving different lots of GSK MMR. Compared with Merck MMR, there was a significantly lower incidence of local pain (P<0.001) and swelling (P=0.038) in infants receiving the GSK MMR vaccine. The incidences of all other solicited local and general symptoms were comparable between the two groups. No signs of suspected meningitis were reported. No serious adverse events were reported by the investigator to be related to vaccination. Equivalent seroconversion rates and post-vaccination GMTs were observed in the groups receiving the two MMR vaccines. In conclusion, the new GSK MMR vaccine administered in measles-primed children demonstrated satisfactory immunogenicity and safety profiles as good as the Merck MMR vaccine

A Study of Wolf Pack Algorithm for Test Suite Reduction

Modern smart meter programs are iterating at an ever-increasing rate, placing higher demands on the software testing of smart meters. How to reduce the cost of software testing has become a focus of current research. The reduction of test overhead is the most intuitive way to reduce the cost of software testing. Test suite reduction is one of the necessary means to reduce test overhead. This paper proposes a smart meter test suite reduction technique based on Wolf Pack Algorithm. First, the algorithm uses the binary optimization set coverage problem to represent the test suite reduction of the smart meter program; then, the Wolf Pack Algorithm is improved by converting the positions of individual wolves into a 0/1 matrix; finally, the optimal test case subset is obtained by iteration. By simulating different smart meter programs and different size test suites, the experimental result shows that the Wolf Pack Algorithm achieves better results compared to similar algorithms in terms of the percentage of obtaining both the optimal solution and the optimal subset of test overhead

2-{[3-Methyl-4-(2,2,2-trifluoro­eth­oxy)pyridin-2-yl]methyl­sulfan­yl}-1H-benzimidazole monohydrate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C16H14F3N3OS·H2O, contains two independent mol­ecules (A and B) and two water mol­ecules, one of which is disordered over two positions in a 0.790 (8):0.210 (8) ratio. The mol­ecular conformations are close, the benzimidazole mean plane and pyridine ring forming dihedral angles of 1.8 (3) and 0.1 (2)° in mol­ecules A and B, respectively. The water mol­ecules are involved in formation of two independent hydrogen-bonded chains via N—H⋯O and O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds. Chains propagating along the a axis are formed by mol­ecule A and one independent water mol­ecule, while chains propagating along the b axis are formed by mol­ecule B and the other independent water mol­ecule. The crystal packing exhibits π–π inter­actions, as indicated by short distances of 3.607 (3) and 3.701 (3) Å between the centroids of the imidazole and pyridine rings of neighbouring mol­ecules

Effect of hydrogen sulfide on PC12 cell injury induced by high ATP concentration

Purpose: To investigate the potential protective effect of hydrogen sulfide against neural cell damage induced by a high-concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).Methods: PC12 cells were incubated with ATP in order to induce cell damage. The extracellular level of H2S and protein expression of cystathionine-β-synthase (CBS) were determined. The PC12 cells pretreated with NaHS, aminooxyacetic acid (AOAA) and KN-62, prior to further incubation with ATP, and the effect of the treatments on cell viability was investigated.Results: High-concentration ATP induced cell death in PC12 cells, and this was accompanied by markedly increased contents of extracellular H2S and CBS expression (p &lt; 0.05). The ATP-induced cytotoxicity was significantly compromised after pretreatment with H2S. (p &lt; 0.05). The viability of PC12 cells pretreated with NaHS and AOAA was significantly higher than that of PC12 cells treated with ATP alone. In addition, the viability of ATP-treated PC12 cells was further markedly increased after pretreatment with NaHS and KN-62 (p &lt; 0.05).Conclusion: ATP induced a concentration- and time-dependent cytotoxicity in PC12 cells via theendogenous H2S/CBS system. Supplementation with exogenous H2S mitigated the cell damageinduced by high concentration of ATP via a specific mechanism which may be specifically related to P2X7R

Differential expression and correlation of immunoregulation related piRNA in rheumatoid arthritis

BackgroundAlthough PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) have recently been associated with germline development and many human diseases, their expression pattern and relationship in autoimmune diseases remain indistinct. This study aimed to investigate the presence and correlation of piRNAs in rheumatoid arthritis (RA).MethodsWe first analyzed the expression profile of piRNAs using small RNA sequencing in peripheral leukocytes of three new-onset untreated RA patients and three healthy controls (HCs). We then selected piRNAs related to immunoregulation by bioinformatics analysis and verified them in 42 new-onset RA patients and 81 HCs by RT-qPCR. Furthermore, a receiver operating characteristic curve was generated to quantify the diagnostic performance of these piRNAs. A correlation analysis was conducted to observe the link between piRNA expression and RA clinical characteristics.ResultsA total of 15 upregulated and 9 downregulated piRNAs among 1,565 known piRNAs were identified in peripheral leukocytes of RA patients. Dysregulated piRNAs were enriched in numerous pathways related to immunity. After selection and validation, two immunoregulation piRNAs (piR-hsa-27620 and piR-hsa-27124) were significantly elevated in RA patients and have good abilities to distinguish patients from controls, which have the potential to serve as biomarkers. PIWI and other proteins implicated in the piRNA pathway were also associated with RA

Sexually dimorphic genetic architecture of complex traits in a large-scale F2 cross in pigs

BACKGROUND: It is common for humans and model organisms to exhibit sexual dimorphism in a variety of complex traits. However, this phenomenon has rarely been explored in pigs. RESULTS: To investigate the genetic contribution to sexual dimorphism in complex traits in pigs, we conducted a sex-stratified analysis on 213 traits measured in 921 individuals produced by a White Duroc × Erhualian F(2) cross. Of the 213 traits examined, 102 differed significantly between the two sexes (q value <0.05), which indicates that sex is an important factor that influences a broad range of traits in pigs. We compared the estimated heritability of these 213 traits between males and females. In particular, we found that traits related to meat quality and fatty acid composition were significantly different between the two sexes, which shows that genetic factors contribute to variation in sexual dimorphic traits. Next, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in males and females separately; this approach allowed us to identify 13.6% more significant trait-SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) associations compared to the number of associations identified in a GWAS that included both males and females. By comparing the allelic effects of SNPs in the two sexes, we identified 43 significant sexually dimorphic SNPs that were associated with 22 traits; 41 of these 43 loci were autosomal. The most significant sexually dimorphic loci were found to be associated with muscle hue angle and Minolta a* values (which are parameters that reflect the redness of meat) and were located between 9.3 and 10.7 Mb on chromosome 6. A nearby gene i.e. NUDT7 that plays an important role in heme synthesis is a strong candidate gene. CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates that sex is an important factor that influences phenotypic values and modifies the effects of the genetic variants that underlie complex traits in pigs; it also emphasizes the importance of stratifying by sex when performing GWAS. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12711-014-0076-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users