Spatial Pattern of Late Quaternary Shortening Rate in the Longmen Shan Foreland, Eastern Margin of the Tibetan Plateau

AbstractAs the eastern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau, Longmen Shan possesses a narrow thrust belt with steep topography but lacks matching Cenozoic foreland basin. Multiple kinetic models have been proposed to debate on the dominant mechanism of developing such range–foreland system. Crustal shortening rate is a feasible approach to test different tectonic models and estimate structural patterns. In this study, we focused on the deformation pattern and shortening rate of the complex foreland area of the southern Longmen Shan, which is comprised of the Xiongpo, Sansuchang, and Longquanshan anticlines. By the means of net-based RTK measurement and Quaternary chronology, we measured and dated the six-level terraces of the Qingyi River, which flows southeastward across this region. Excess area method was applied to calculate shortening rate. The results indicate that the Late Quaternary shortening rates of the Xiongpo anticline, Longquanshan anticline, and Sansuchang anticline are 1.01 mm/yr, 0.89 mm/yr, and 0.16 mm/yr, respectively. The total shortening rate of the foreland in southern Longmen Shan is 2.06 mm/yr. Consequently, a mechanical model was presented to show the tectonic pattern: the southern Longmen Shan is an actively expanding edge of the plateau, and the shortening is distributed to the three anticlines dominated by the foreland detachment system. This model supports that crustal shortening is the dominating force in the current orogenesis of the Longmen Shan. In addition, the along-strike variation of the Longmen Shan was further specified from the perspective of crustal shortening distribution. We propose that the southern Longmen Shan and its foreland basin are in a state of compression, while the northern Longmen Shan has both thrust and strike-slip characteristics

Multi-objective sustainability optimization of CCHP systems considering the discreteness of equipment capabilities

The value of waste heat had led to an extensive study on Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) system in recent decades, but the following three research gaps still need to be tackled to achieve a better economic and environmental performance. Firstly, the complete discreteness of equipment capabilities had not been considered. It means that multiple units with different capacities cannot be selected for a type of equipment. Then, the ambiguity and subjectivity existing in decision-makers/stakeholders’ judgments on the importance of objectives are usually ignored. Finally, an easily understood and comprehensive environmental indicator based on life cycle perspective for system optimization had not been established. Thus, the aim of this study is to establish a mathematical framework to help the stakeholders select the optimal configurations, capacities, and operation conditions of CCHP system while narrowing the above three research gaps to avoid the sub-optimal solutions. Subsequently, a hypothetical case was used to verify the validity of the proposed model, along with analysis of system performance. The results indicate that the CCHP system is superior to the conventional systems, and the proposed mathematical model in this paper can improve the performance of CCHP system in terms of economy, environment, and energy

Progressive join algorithms considering user preference

Progressive query processing is a new attractive paradigm for exploratory data analysis. This paper considers the case where users want to receive results ordered according to their preference, and specifically focuses on the design of join algorithms. We investigate the use of contour lines in progressive algorithms with user preferences, and propose ContourJoin to reduce sorting overhead of progressive preference-aware joins. Experimental results show that compared with the na ̈ıve blocking algorithm and the top-k RankJoin algorithm, ContourJoin has superior performance in both early result generation and total result computation

Tectonic controls for transverse drainage and timing of the Xin-Ding paleolake breach in the upper reach of the Hutuo River, North China

The upper reach of the Hutuo River flows along the Xin-Ding basin and cuts a transverse drainage through Xizhou Mountain and Taihang Range into the North China Plain. Previous studies showed that the Xin-Ding basin was occupied by a lake during the Early-Middle Pleistocene. However, the timing of the paleolake breach and the mechanism for the creation of the transverse drainage are unknown. We constructed the fluvial terrace sequence in the upper reach of the Hutuo drainage combined with thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, as well as the timescale of the overlying loess-paleosol units. Our results reveal that (1) five terraces (T5-T1) are developed along the upper reach of the Hutuo River, amongst which terraces T4-T1 were formed synchronously at ~600 ka, ~120-130 ka, ~21-26 ka and ~6-7 ka, respectively; (2) the creation of the transverse drainage and breach of the Xin-Ding paleolake occurred between ~600 ka and ~130 ka; (3) the mechanism for the creation of the transverse drainage is via river piracy of paleostreams on both sides of the drainage divide. Localized differential uplift and associated tilting of the Xizhou Mountain block during the Middle Pleistocene result in the formation of the transverse drainage and breach of the Xin-Ding paleolake.Keywords: Hutuo River, River piracy, Tectonic uplift, Loess-paleosol sequence, Transverse drainage, Xin-Ding paleolake, Fluvial terrac

Tumor-Infiltrating Podoplanin+ Fibroblasts Predict Worse Outcome in Solid Tumors

Background/Aims: Tumor-infiltrating fibroblasts are a heterogeneous population, and different subpopulations play differential roles in tumor microenvironment. However, the prognostic role of podoplanin+ fibroblasts in human solid tumors still remains controversial. Therefore, we performed the meta-analysis to better understand the role of this subpopulation in prognosis prediction for patients with solid tumor. Methods: We searched PubMed and EBSCO to identify the studies evaluating the association of intratumoral podoplanin+ fibroblast density detected by immunohistochemical method and overall survival (OS) and/or disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with solid tumor, then computed extracted data into hazard ratios for OS, DFS and clinicopathological features with STATA 12.0. Results: A total of 4883 patients from 29 published studies were incorporated into this meta-analysis. We found that podoplanin+ fibroblast infiltration significantly decreased OS and DFS in all types of solid tumors. In stratified analyses, podoplanin+ fibroblast infiltration was significantly associated with worse OS in cholangiocarcinoma, breast, lung and pancreatic cancer. And these cells were inversely associated with DFS in breast, lung and pancreatic cancer. In addition, high density of these cells significantly correlated with unfavorable clinicopathological features such as lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, lymphatic and vascular invasion of solid tumor. Conclusion: Podoplanin+ fibroblast infiltration leads to worse clinical outcome in solid tumors, implicating that it is a valuable prognostic biomarker and targeting it may have a potential for effective treatment

A recombinant avian antibody against VP2 of infectious bursal disease virus protects chicken from viral infection

【Abstract】A stable cell-line was established that expressed the recombinant avian antibody (rAb) against the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV). rAb exhibited neutralization activity to IBDV-B87 strain in DF1 cells. The minimum rAb concentration required for inhibition of the cytopathic effect (CPE) was 1.563 μg/mL. To test the efficacy of rAb, a 168-h cohabitation challenge experiment was performed to transmit the disease from the chickens challenged with vvIBDV (HLJ0504 strain) to three test groups of chickens, i.e. (1) chickens treated with rAb, (2) chickens treated with yolk antibody, and (3) non-treatment chickens. The survival rates of chickens treated with rAb, yolk antibody and without treatment were 73%, 67% and 20%, respectively. Another batch of chickens was challenged with IBDV (BC6/85 strain) and then injected with rAb (1.0 mg/kg) 6, 24 and 36 h post-challenge. Non-treatment chickens had 100% morbidity, whereas those administered with rAb exhibited only 20% morbidity. Morbidity was evaluated using clinical indicators and bursal histopathological section. This study provides a new approach to treating IBDV and the rAb represents a promising candidate for this IBDV therapy.This research was supported by Heilongjiang province project of applied technology research and development (2013GC13C105) and The National Natural Science Fund biologic science base improve program of research training and capacity (J1210069/J0124)

Cerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal bands in Chinese patients with multiple sclerosis: the prevalence and its association with clinical features

BackgroundCerebrospinal fluid oligoclonal band (CSF-OCB) is an established biomarker in diagnosing multiple sclerosis (MS), however, there are no nationwide data on CSF-OCB prevalence and its diagnostic performance in Chinese MS patients, especially in the virtue of common standard operation procedure (SOP).MethodsWith a consensus SOP and the same isoelectric focusing system, we conducted a nationwide multi-center study on OCB status in consecutively, and recruited 483 MS patients and 880 non-MS patients, including neuro-inflammatory diseases (NID, n = 595) and non-inflammatory neurological diseases (NIND, n=285). Using a standardized case report form (CRF) to collect the clinical, radiological, immunological, and CSF data, we explored the association of CSF-OCB positivity with patient characters and the diagnostic performance of CSF-OCB in Chinese MS patients. Prospective source data collection, and retrospective data acquisition and statistical data analysis were used.Findings369 (76.4%) MS patients were OCB-positive, while 109 NID patients (18.3%) and 6 NIND patients (2.1%) were OCB-positive, respectively. Time from symptom onset to diagnosis was significantly shorter in OCB-positive than that in OCB-negative MS patients (13.2 vs 23.7 months, P=0.020). The prevalence of CSF-OCB in Chinese MS patients was significantly higher in high-latitude regions (41°-50°N)(P=0.016), and at high altitudes (>1000m)(P=0.025). The diagnostic performance of CSF-OCB differentiating MS from non-MS patients yielded a sensitivity of 76%, a specificity of 87%.InterpretationThe nationwide prevalence of CSF-OCB was 76.4% in Chinese MS patients, and demonstrated a good diagnostic performance in differentiating MS from other CNS diseases. The CSF-OCB prevalence showed a correlation with high latitude and altitude in Chinese MS patients

SoccerNet 2023 Challenges Results

peer reviewedThe SoccerNet 2023 challenges were the third annual video understanding challenges organized by the SoccerNet team. For this third edition, the challenges were composed of seven vision-based tasks split into three main themes. The first theme, broadcast video understanding, is composed of three high-level tasks related to describing events occurring in the video broadcasts: (1) action spotting, focusing on retrieving all timestamps related to global actions in soccer, (2) ball action spotting, focusing on retrieving all timestamps related to the soccer ball change of state, and (3) dense video captioning, focusing on describing the broadcast with natural language and anchored timestamps. The second theme, field understanding, relates to the single task of (4) camera calibration, focusing on retrieving the intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameters from images. The third and last theme, player understanding, is composed of three low-level tasks related to extracting information about the players: (5) re-identification, focusing on retrieving the same players across multiple views, (6) multiple object tracking, focusing on tracking players and the ball through unedited video streams, and (7) jersey number recognition, focusing on recognizing the jersey number of players from tracklets. Compared to the previous editions of the SoccerNet challenges, tasks (2-3-7) are novel, including new annotations and data, task (4) was enhanced with more data and annotations, and task (6) now focuses on end-to-end approaches. More information on the tasks, challenges, and leaderboards are available on https://www.soccer-net.org. Baselines and development kits can be found on https://github.com/SoccerNet