A dead reckoning localization method for in-pipe detector of water supply pipeline: an application to leak localization

Urban water supply pipeline system integrity is important for the urban life. The aim of the study reported in this paper is to locate the water pipeline leaks by using an in-pipe detector. In this study, a mathematical model is extracted from an actual inspection system. By using the homogeneous transformation theory, transformation matrix which is from carrier to a reference coordinate system is deduced, and then the global transformation matrix is obtained to describe the detector’s posture. Through measuring the distance increment of each sample time step in carrier coordinate system, the cumulative distance result is calculated. After combining the data of the inertial measurement unit (IMU) and odometer, the leak can be located. To improve the accuracy of leak localization, the magnetic markers are implemented about one in each 1 km distance, which provide reference points to be used to compensate accumulative error during the localization process. Furthermore, a dead reckoning localization method combining data of a micro electro-mechanical IMU, three odometers, and magnetic markers is proposed. To verify above localization algorithm, a simulation case study is conducted with the artificial error generated by the white noise. The simulation results show that the dead reckoning algorithm can effectively provide leak locations with a reasonable uncertainty. Based on this, an experimental platform was built in this study. The experimental results show that the relative error of leak locating achieves a reasonably good performanc

Effect of heat stress on blood biochemistry and energy metabolite of the Dazu black goats

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of heat stress (HS) on physiological, blood biochemical, and energy metabolism in Dazu black goats. Six wether adult Dazu black goats were subjected to 3 experimental periods: high HS (group H, temperature-humidity index [THI] > 88) for 15 d, moderate HS (group M, THI was 79-88) for 15 d, and no HS (group L, THI < 72) for 15 d. Rectal temperature (RT) and respiratory rate (RR) were determined on d 7 and 15 of each period, and blood samples were collected on d 15 of each period. All goats received glucose (GLU) tolerance test (GTT) and insulin (INS) tolerance test on d 7 and d 10 of each period. The results showed that HS decreased dry matter intake (DMI) and INS concentrations (p < 0.05), and increased RT, RR, non-esterified fatty acid (NEFA), cortisol (COR), and total protein (TP) concentrations (p < 0.05). Compared to group L, the urea nitrogen (BUN) concentration increased and GLU concentration decreased in group H (p < 0.05).During the GTT, the area under the curve (AUC) of GLU concentrations increased by 12.26% (p > 0.05) and 40.78% (p < 0.05), and AUC of INS concentrations decreased by 26.04% and 14.41% (p < 0.05) in groups H and M compared to group L, respectively. The INS concentrations were not significant among the three groups (p > 0.05) during the ITT. A total of 60 differentially expressed metabolites were identified in response to groups H and M. In HS, changes in metabolites related to carbohydrate metabolism and glycolysis were identified (p < 0.05). The metabolites related to fatty acid βoxidation accumulated, glycogenic and ketogenic amino acids were significantly increased, while glycerophospholipid metabolites were decreased in HS (p < 0.05). HS significantly increased 1-methylhistidine, creatinine, betaine, taurine, taurolithocholic acid, inosine, and hypoxanthine, while decreasing vitamin E in blood metabolites (p < 0.05). In summary, HS changed the metabolism of fat, protein, and energy, impaired GLU tolerance, and mainly increased amino acid metabolism to provide energy in Dazu black goats

ART⋅\boldsymbol{\cdot}V: Auto-Regressive Text-to-Video Generation with Diffusion Models

We present ART$\boldsymbol{\cdot}$V, an efficient framework for auto-regressive video generation with diffusion models. Unlike existing methods that generate entire videos in one-shot, ART$\boldsymbol{\cdot}$V generates a single frame at a time, conditioned on the previous ones. The framework offers three distinct advantages. First, it only learns simple continual motions between adjacent frames, therefore avoiding modeling complex long-range motions that require huge training data. Second, it preserves the high-fidelity generation ability of the pre-trained image diffusion models by making only minimal network modifications. Third, it can generate arbitrarily long videos conditioned on a variety of prompts such as text, image or their combinations, making it highly versatile and flexible. To combat the common drifting issue in AR models, we propose masked diffusion model which implicitly learns which information can be drawn from reference images rather than network predictions, in order to reduce the risk of generating inconsistent appearances that cause drifting. Moreover, we further enhance generation coherence by conditioning it on the initial frame, which typically contains minimal noise. This is particularly useful for long video generation. When trained for only two weeks on four GPUs, ART$\boldsymbol{\cdot}$V already can generate videos with natural motions, rich details and a high level of aesthetic quality. Besides, it enables various appealing applications, e.g., composing a long video from multiple text prompts.Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures. Project page at https://warranweng.github.io/art.

A novel BRDT inhibitor NHWD870 shows potential as a male contraceptive in mice

Small molecule inhibitors of the bromodomain and extraterminal domain (BET) family proteins have emerged as a promising option for not only the treatment of multiple cancers but also for disturbing the process of sperm maturation with potential for use as a viable contraceptive target. In this paper, we report a new generation of BET family inhibitor, NHWD870, that provide a complete and reversible contraceptive effect in mice which is stronger than that of JQ1 and its synthesized derivatives. This study is hoped to lead to the clinical trial eventually

Development of a recombinase-aided amplification combined with a lateral flow dipstick assay for rapid detection of H7 subtype avian influenza virus

Avian influenza viruses (AIV) pose a significant persistent threat to the public health and safety. It is estimated that there have been over 100 outbreaks caused by various H7 subtypes of avian influenza viruses (AIV-H7) worldwide, resulting in over 33 million deaths of poultry. In this study, we developed a recombinase-aided amplification combined with a lateral flow dipstick assay for the detection of hemagglutinin (HA) genes to provide technical support for rapid clinical detection of AIV-H7. The results showed that the assay can complete the reaction within 30 min at a temperature of 39°C. Specificity tests demonstrated that there was no cross-reactivity with other common poultry pathogens, including Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and infections bronchitis virus (IBV). The detection limit of this assay was 1 × 101 copies/μL, while RT-qPCR method was 1 × 101 copies/μL, and RT-PCR was 1 × 102 copies/μL. The κ value of the RT-RAA-LFD and RT-PCR assay in 132 avian clinical samples was 0.9169 (p < 0.001). These results indicated that the developed RT-RAA-LFD assay had good specificity, sensitivity, stability and repeatability and may be used for rapid detection of AIV-H7 in clinical diagnosis

Preliminary Evidence of Sex Differences in Cortical Thickness Following Acute Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

The main objective of this study was to evaluate sex differences in cortical thickness after acute mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and its associations with clinical outcomes. Thirty-two patients with mTBI at acute phase (2.4 ± 1.3 days post-injury) and 30 healthy controls were enrolled. All the participants underwent comprehensive neurocognitive assessments and MRI to assess cortical thickness. Significant sex differences were determined by using variance analysis of factorial design. Relations between the cortical thickness and clinical assessments were measured with the Spearman Correlation. Results revealed that patients with mTBI had significantly reduced cortical thickness in the left entorhinal cortex while increased cortical thickness in the left precuneus cortex and right lateral occipital cortex, compared with healthy controls. The interaction effect of the group × sex on cortical thickness was significant. Female patients had significant thicker cortical thickness in the left caudal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) than male patients and had higher scores on Posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist—Civilian Version (PCL-C). Spearman correlational analysis showed a significantly positive correlations between the cortical thickness of the left caudal ACC and PCL-C ratings in female patients. Sex differences in cortical thickness support its potential as a neuroimaging phenotype for investigating the differences in clinical profiles of mild TBI between women and men

Lenalidomide or bortezomib as maintenance treatment remedy the inferior impact of high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities in non-transplant patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: a real-world multi-centered study in China

Maintenance treatment is a pivotal part in the whole process management of multiple myeloma (MM), which further deepens response and improves survival. However, evidence of maintenance in non-transplant MM patients is inadequate in real-world practice. Here, we retrospectively analyzed the efficacy and survival of 375 non-transplant MM patients from 11 centers between 2010 and 2021 in north China. After a median of seven cycles of front-line regimens, there were 141, 79, and 155 patients receiving lenalidomide maintenance (L-MT), bortezomib maintenance (B-MT), or thalidomide maintenance (T-MT), respectively. Patients on L-MT and B-MT had significantly greater proportions of high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities (HRCAs) detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), which was defined as 1q21 gain, 17p deletion, adverse immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) translocations. Although the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were comparable among the three groups, L-MT and B-MT remedied the negative impact of HRCAs on survival (PFS of patients with HRCAs vs. patients without HRCAs: L-MT, 26.9 vs. 39.2 months, p=0.19; B-MT, 20.0 vs. 29.7 months, p=0.36; OS not reached in all groups). Patients with HRCAs in the T-MT group presented inferior clinical outcomes compared to standard-risk patients (PFS, 12.1 vs. 22.8 months, p=0.02, HR=1.8, 95% CI 1.0–3.4; OS, 54.9 months vs. NR, p<0.001, HR=3.2, 95% CI 1.5–7.0). Achieving complete response (CR) after induction therapy led to superior PFS compared to other degrees of response, regardless of maintenance medication. Furthermore, maintenance duration over 24 months correlated with favorable survival. Due to the large gap of transplant eligibility in China, optimizing maintenance therapy is important for non-transplant MM patients. In this real-world multi-centered study, our findings suggest that clinicians prefer to prescribe lenalidomide or bortezomib as maintenance therapy in high-risk settings, which are superior to thalidomide in non-transplant MM patients. Achievement of CR and maintenance duration over 2 years are positive factors that influence survival

Solution Structure and Dynamics of the I214V Mutant of the Rabbit Prion Protein

Background: The conformational conversion of the host-derived cellular prion protein (PrP C) into the disease-associated scrapie isoform (PrP Sc) is responsible for the pathogenesis of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Various single-point mutations in PrP C s could cause structural changes and thereby distinctly influence the conformational conversion. Elucidation of the differences between the wild-type rabbit PrP C (RaPrP C) and various mutants would be of great help to understand the ability of RaPrP C to be resistant to TSE agents. Methodology/Principal Findings: We determined the solution structure of the I214V mutant of RaPrP C (91–228) and detected the backbone dynamics of its structured C-terminal domain (121–228). The I214V mutant displays a visible shift of surface charge distribution that may have a potential effect on the binding specificity and affinity with other chaperones. The number of hydrogen bonds declines dramatically. Urea-induced transition experiments reveal an obvious decrease in the conformational stability. Furthermore, the NMR dynamics analysis discloses a significant increase in the backbone flexibility on the pico- to nanosecond time scale, indicative of lower energy barrier for structural rearrangement. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that both the surface charge distribution and the intrinsic backbone flexibility greatly contribute to species barriers for the transmission of TSEs, and thereby provide valuable hints fo

The Genomes of Oryza sativa: A History of Duplications

We report improved whole-genome shotgun sequences for the genomes of indica and japonica rice, both with multimegabase contiguity, or almost 1,000-fold improvement over the drafts of 2002. Tested against a nonredundant collection of 19,079 full-length cDNAs, 97.7% of the genes are aligned, without fragmentation, to the mapped super-scaffolds of one or the other genome. We introduce a gene identification procedure for plants that does not rely on similarity to known genes to remove erroneous predictions resulting from transposable elements. Using the available EST data to adjust for residual errors in the predictions, the estimated gene count is at least 38,000–40,000. Only 2%–3% of the genes are unique to any one subspecies, comparable to the amount of sequence that might still be missing. Despite this lack of variation in gene content, there is enormous variation in the intergenic regions. At least a quarter of the two sequences could not be aligned, and where they could be aligned, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rates varied from as little as 3.0 SNP/kb in the coding regions to 27.6 SNP/kb in the transposable elements. A more inclusive new approach for analyzing duplication history is introduced here. It reveals an ancient whole-genome duplication, a recent segmental duplication on Chromosomes 11 and 12, and massive ongoing individual gene duplications. We find 18 distinct pairs of duplicated segments that cover 65.7% of the genome; 17 of these pairs date back to a common time before the divergence of the grasses. More important, ongoing individual gene duplications provide a never-ending source of raw material for gene genesis and are major contributors to the differences between members of the grass family