Obtaining properly Pareto optimal solutions of multiobjective optimization problems via the branch and bound method

In multiobjective optimization, most branch and bound algorithms provide the decision maker with the whole Pareto front, and then decision maker could select a single solution finally. However, if the number of objectives is large, the number of candidate solutions may be also large, and it may be difficult for the decision maker to select the most interesting solution. As we argue in this paper, the most interesting solutions are the ones whose trade-offs are bounded. These solutions are usually known as the properly Pareto optimal solutions. We propose a branch-and-bound-based algorithm to provide the decision maker with so-called $\epsilon$-properly Pareto optimal solutions. The discarding test of the algorithm adopts a dominance relation induced by a convex polyhedral cone instead of the common used Pareto dominance relation. In this way, the proposed algorithm excludes the subboxes which do not contain $\epsilon$-properly Pareto optimal solution from further exploration. We establish the global convergence results of the proposed algorithm. Finally, the algorithm is applied to benchmark problems as well as to two real-world optimization problems

Efficacy of nucleoside analogues on hepatitis B virus-related liver failure: A network meta-analysis

The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy of nucleoside analogues (NAs) in the treatment of HBV-related liver failure. The data of patients with HBV-related liver failure treated with nucleoside analogues were used to conduct a network meta-analysis. A total of 1660 patients from 12 articles about the efficacy of lamivudine, entecavir, telbivudine and tenofovir for HBV-related liver failure treatment were recruited in the study. The highest two- and three-month survival rate was recorded for patients using tenofovir. The end-stage liver disease (MELD) score and mortality in patients undergoing tenofovir treatment were the lowest. Patients treated with telbivudine had the highest one-month survival rate. Patients receiving enticavir therapy showed the lowest HBV DNA level. Our results indicate that tenofovir may be the best therapy for the treatment of HBV-related liver failure compared to other nucleoside analogues (including lamivudine, entecavir and telbivudine) and non-NAs treatment

Stabilization and Performance Analysis for Networked Flight Control

The use of avionics networks for flight control system results in a reduced aircraft weight, system installation, integration and maintenance costs as well as an improved airborne system performance and flexibility. This paper studies the stability and control design problems with performance analysis for networked flight control systems (NFCS) with random time delays by modeling NFCS as a discrete-time switched linear system. Sufficient conditions are given for asymptotical stability and exponential stability of proposed NCS model and state feedback controller is designed via linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. The bound of decay rate of the system is obtained by solving a LMI optimization problem. Gridding approach is introduced to guarantee the feasibility of proposed LMIs. Illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and control performance with decay rate is analyzed based on the simulation results

Research on Timetabling Problems Based on Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm

Abstract. A new algorithm for timetabling based on particle swarm optimization algorithm was proposed, and the key problems such as particle coding, fitness function fabricating, particle swarm initialization and crossover operation were settled. The fitness value declines when the evolution generation increases. The results showed that it was a good solution for course timetabling problem in the educational system

Establishment and Evaluation of a Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Assay for Detection of Raccoon Dog in Meat Mixtures

Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is an economically important animal used for fur production, but consuming its meat is injurious to human health. Currently, no rapid and sensitive method for detecting raccoon dog meat in meat mixtures is available. In this study, we developed an easily applicable, rapid, and economically feasible method for identifying the presence of raccoon dog in meat mixtures based on loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). Four sets of LAMP primers were tested at different temperatures, and the primers that worked best at 62°C (set 2) were determined. In the LAMP assay, there was no cross-reactivity with the meat procured from other species of animals and the detection limit of DNA concentration was 0.1 pg·μL−1, slightly higher than TaqMan real-time PCR (0.01 pg·μL−1), but sensitivity of 0.1 pg·μL−1 complies with most requirements of routine analysis. Moreover, by the LAMP method, the meat mixtures containing more than 0.5% of the raccoon dog component were directly detected (without DNA extraction) in the supernatant isolated from the meat mixtures after performing repeated cycles of thawing and freezing of minced meat mixtures. Our results show that LAMP assay is a valuable, straightforward, and sensitive detection tool for identification of raccoon dog meat in mixtures

Loss of Pten causes tumor initiation following differentiation of murine pluripotent stem cells due to failed repression of Nanog.

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) hold significant promise in regenerative medicine due to their unlimited capacity for self-renewal and potential to differentiate into every cell type in the body. One major barrier to the use of PSCs is their potential risk for tumor initiation following differentiation and transplantation in vivo. In the current study we sought to evaluate the role of the tumor suppressor Pten in murine PSC neoplastic progression. Using eight functional assays that have previously been used to indicate PSC adaptation or transformation, Pten null embryonic stem cells (ESCs) failed to rate as significant in five of them. Instead, our data demonstrate that the loss of Pten causes the emergence of a small number of aggressive, teratoma-initiating embryonic carcinoma cells (ECCs) during differentiation in vitro, while the remaining 90-95% of differentiated cells are non-tumorigenic. Furthermore, our data show that the mechanism by which Pten null ECCs emerge in vitro and cause tumors in vivo is through increased survival and self-renewal, due to failed repression of the transcription factor Nanog

Sedation improves early outcome in severely septic Sprague Dawley rats

Introduction Sepsis, a systemic inflammatory response to infective etiologies, has a high mortality rate that is linked both to excess cytokine activity and apoptosis of critical immune cells. Dexmedetomidine has recently been shown to improve outcome in a septic cohort of patients when compared to patients randomized to a benzodiazepine-based sedative regimen. We sought to compare the effects of dexmedetomidine and midazolam, at equi-sedative doses, on inflammation and apoptosis in an animal model of severe sepsis. Methods After central venous access, Sprague Dawley rats underwent cecal ligation and intestinal puncture (CLIP) with an 18 G needle without antibiotic cover and received either saline, or an infusion of comparable volume of saline containing midazolam (0.6 mg.kg(-1).h(-1)) or dexmedetomidine (5 ug.kg(-1).h(-1)) for 8 hours. Following baseline measurements and CLIP, blood was sampled for cytokine measurement (tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and interleukin (IL)-6; n = 4-6 per group) at 2, 4 and 5 hours, and animal mortality rate (MR) was monitored (n = 10 per group) every 2 hours until 2 hours had elapsed. In addition, spleens were harvested and apoptosis was assessed by immunoblotting (n = 4 per group). Results The 24 hour MR in CLIP animals (90%) was significantly reduced by sedative doses of either dexmedetomidine (MR = 20%) or midazolam (MR = 30%). While both sedatives reduced systemic levels of the inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha (P < 0.05); only dexmedetomidine reduced the IL-6 response to CLIP, though this narrowly missed achieving significance (P = 0.05). Dexmedetomidine reduced splenic caspase-3 expression (P < 0.05), a marker of apoptosis, when compared to either midazolam or saline. Conclusions Sedation with midazolam and dexmedetomidine both improve outcome in polymicrobial severely septic rats. Possible benefits conveyed by one sedative regimen over another may become evident over a more prolonged time-course as both IL-6 and apoptosis were reduced by dexmedetomidine but not midazolam. Further studies are required to evaluate this hypothesis.http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000272225600033&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=8e1609b174ce4e31116a60747a720701Critical Care MedicineSCI(E)PubMed33ARTICLE4R1361

DRKF: Distilled Rotated Kernel Fusion for Efficient Rotation Invariant Descriptors in Local Feature Matching

The performance of local feature descriptors degrades in the presence of large rotation variations. To address this issue, we present an efficient approach to learning rotation invariant descriptors. Specifically, we propose Rotated Kernel Fusion (RKF) which imposes rotations on the convolution kernel to improve the inherent nature of CNN. Since RKF can be processed by the subsequent re-parameterization, no extra computational costs will be introduced in the inference stage. Moreover, we present Multi-oriented Feature Aggregation (MOFA) which aggregates features extracted from multiple rotated versions of the input image and can provide auxiliary knowledge for the training of RKF by leveraging the distillation strategy. We refer to the distilled RKF model as DRKF. Besides the evaluation on a rotation-augmented version of the public dataset HPatches, we also contribute a new dataset named DiverseBEV which is collected during the drone's flight and consists of bird's eye view images with large viewpoint changes and camera rotations. Extensive experiments show that our method can outperform other state-of-the-art techniques when exposed to large rotation variations.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Controlled release of chitosan/heparin nanoparticle-delivered VEGF enhances regeneration of decellularized tissue-engineered scaffolds

Regeneration deficiency is one of the main obstacles limiting the effectiveness of tissue-engineered scaffolds. To develop scaffolds that are capable of accelerating regeneration, we created a heparin/chitosan nanoparticle-immobilized decellularized bovine jugular vein scaffold to increase the loading capacity and allow for controlled release of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The vascularization of the scaffold was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The functional nanoparticles were prepared by physical self-assembly with a diameter of 67–132 nm, positive charge, and a zeta potential of ∼30 mV and then the nanoparticles were successfully immobilized to the nanofibers of scaffolds by ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride/hydroxysulfosuccinimide modification. The scaffolds immobilized with heparin/chitosan nanoparticles exhibited highly effective localization and sustained release of VEGF for several weeks in vitro. This modified scaffold significantly stimulated endothelial cells’ proliferation in vitro. Importantly, utilization of heparin/chitosan nanoparticles to localize VEGF significantly increased fibroblast infiltration, extracellular matrix production, and accelerated vascularization in mouse subcutaneous implantation model in vivo. This study provided a novel and promising system for accelerated regeneration of tissue-engineering scaffolds