Influence of the Mega-Urban Heat Island on Spatial Transfer of Summer Thermal Comfort: Evidence from Tianjin, China

Human thermal comfort in urban spaces deteriorates as rapid urbanization proceeds. However, effective tests and discoveries of spatial statistic patterns are currently absent. This study collected remote sensing images and measured meteorological data of the summers of 1992–2017, Tianjin of China and aims to clarify patterns of spatial transfer and thermal comfort changes caused by a mega-UHI (Urban Heat Island). An analytic transfer matrix and the spatial autocorrelation were developed to study spatial pattern changes and features of the spatial transfer of thermal comfort caused by UHI. Results show these patterns in the affected areas can be divided into different levels: patterns of low-level affected areas transferred by circular expansion into block-mass jumping, while the position of high-level affected areas remains stable. The spatial transfer of thermal comfort in the affected areas shows two apparent stages: the transfer from areas of high-density and low-storied buildings and into areas of multiple storied buildings, and transfer from areas of low and multiple storied buildings into those of high storied buildings. This implies changes in urban planning can guide spatial, structural, and functional evolution. The study identifies features of spatial change and spatial patterns related to the influence of Mega-UHI on thermal comfort

A Study on Entrepreneurial Environment and the Features of Rural Youth Independent Entrepreneurial Behavior

“Start a business or not” and “Which industry to choose” in the entrepreneurial behavior of rural youth present interesting characteristics of “path dependence”. At the same time, the rural natural environment, financial environment, social environment, policy environment, cultural environment and other external environments also have an important impact on the entrepreneurial behavior of rural youth. Through descriptive statistical analysis and quantitative analysis, this paper reveals the growth mechanism of rural youth self-employment, that is, whether there is “entrepreneurial imitation” in rural youth self-employment? Through what transmission path does entrepreneurial imitation affect decision-making of independent undertaking? Summarizing the behavioral characteristics of rural youth self-employment, and construct corresponding countermeasures and suggestions

Ancient DNA identification of domestic animals used for leather objects in Central Asia during the Bronze Age

The arid climate of many regions within Central Asia often leads to excellent archaeological preservation, especially in sealed funerary contexts, allowing for ancient DNA analyses. While geneticists have looked at human remains, clothes, tools, and other burial objects are often neglected. In this paper, we present the results of an ancient DNA study on Bronze Age leather objects excavated from tombs of the Wupu cemetery in the Hami Oasis and Yanghai cemetery in the Turpan Oasis, both in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of northwestern China. In addition to species identification of goat (Capra aegagrus/hircus), sheep (Ovis orientalis/aries), and cattle (Bos primigenius/taurus), mitochondrial haplogroups were determined for several samples. Our results show that Bronze Age domesticated goats and sheep from the Hami and Turpan oases possessed identical or closely related haplotypes to modern domestic animals of this area. The absence of leather produced from wild animals emphasizes the importance of animal husbandry in the cultures of Wupu and Yanghai

Scale response of summer urban heat island to building plot ratio and its warning parameter

Omjer građevne čestice je značajan pokazatelj arhitektonskog rasporeda koji utječe na urbani toplinski otok (UHI - urban heat island). Prethodna su istraživanja usredotočena na omjer visina/težina, gustoću zgrada i ostale pokazatelje povezane s omjerom građevne čestice, ali ne uspijevaju uspješno opisati odnos vrijeme-prostor između omjera građevne čestice i UHI te točno voditi planiranje i projekt kako bi se smanjila učinkovitost UHI-a. Metoda stupnja osjetljivosti predložena je za analiziranje reakcije vrijeme-prostor UHI-a na omjer građevne čestice u svrhu reguliranja intenziteta UHI (UHII) do kojeg je došlo prihvatljivim omjerom građevne čestice tijekom planiranja i projektiranja. Osjetljivost omjera građevnih čestica u različitim prostornim omjerima prema UHI tijekom dana izračunata je redom pomoću 3S tehnologije, MATLABa, SPSS-a i drugih platformi zasnovanih na teoriji razmjere ekologije pejzaža i metodi geo-statističke analize. Razmatrana je krivulja promjene reakcije omjera građevne čestice na UHI u najosjetljivijoj prostornoj ljestvici. Tada je izrađen standard prevencije i kontrole UHI-a ljeti prema temperaturi tijekom najtoplijih ljetnih dana i ljudskoj fiziološkoj reakciji kod visokih temperatura, i odgovarajućim nacionalnim pravilima. Dano je upozorenje na parametre omjera građevne čestice na temelju porasta temperature UHI-a zbog omjera građevne čestice. Rezultati pokazuju da postoji skala osjetljivosti između omjera građevne čestice i UHI. Po danu se odnos između osnovnog omjera građevne čestice i ljetnog UHI-a pomiče od negativne ka pozitivnoj korelaciji. Učinak porasta temperature poslije podne veći je od jutarnjeg rashlađenja. Osnovni omjer građevne čestice je u linearnom odnosu s ljetnim UHII. Povećanje prosječnog omjera čestice dovodi do smanjenja UHI za 0,76 °C ujutro i porasta za 0,97 °C poslije podne. Optimalni radijus osjetljivosti omjera građevne čestice na ljetni UHI iznosi 230 m. Mehanizam reakcije omjera građevne čestice na UHI nastaje uglavnom zbog obujma pohranjene topline i zaustavljanja topline zračenja. Zaključak ove analize može pružiti podršku znanstveno teoretskom parametru u arhitektonskom dizajnu i urbanom planiranju i dizajnu.Plot ratio is an important indicator of architectural layout that affects urban heat island (UHI). Previous studies focus on street height/weight ratio, building density, and other indicators related to plot ratio but fail to effectively describe the time-space relationship between plot ratio and UHI and accurately guide the planning and design to reduce the UHI in the effective scale. The scale sensitivity method was proposed to study the time-space response of UHI to plot ratio to control the UHI intensity (UHII) caused by plot ratio during planning and design in a reasonable scale. The sensitivity of plot ratios in different space scales to UHI in the daytime was repeatedly calculated on 3S technology, MATLAB, SPSS, and other data analysis platforms based on the scale theory of landscape ecology and the method of geo-statistics analysis. The change curve of the response of plot ratio on UHI in the most sensitive space scale was discussed. The prevention and control standard of summer UHI was then constructed in accordance with the temperature in dog days of summer, human physiological reaction under high temperature, and relevant national regulations. The warning control was taken on the parameters of plot ratio on the basis of the temperature rise of UHI caused by plot ratio. Results show that scale sensitivity exists between plot ratio and UHI. In the daytime, the relationship between core plot ratio and summer UHI shifts from negative correlation to positive correlation. The temperature-rising effect in the afternoon is greater than the cooling effect in the morning. Core plot ratio has a linear relationship with summer UHII. The increase in the average core plot ratio reduces the UHII by 0,76 °C in the morning and increases it by 0,97 °C in the afternoon. The optimal sensitive radius of the core plot ratio on summer UHI is 230 m. The response mechanism of plot ratio on UHI is mainly due to heat storage volume and block to radiation heat. The study conclusion can provide scientific theoretical parameter support for architectural design and urban planning and design

Compound Kushen Injection suppresses human breast cancer stem-like cells by down-regulating the canonical Wnt/β-catenin pathway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play an important role in cancer initiation, relapse and metastasis. To date, no specific medicine has been found to target CSCs as they are resistant to most conventional therapies and proliferate indefinitely. Compound Kushen Injection (CKI) has been widely used for cancer patients with remarkable therapeutic effects in Chinese clinical settings for many years. This study focused on whether CKI could inhibit MCF-7 SP cells in vitro and in vivo.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The analysis of CKI on SP population and the main genes of Wnt signaling pathway were studied first. Then we studied the tumorigenicity of SP cells and the effects of CKI on SP cells in vivo. The mice inoculated with 10,000 SP cells were randomly divided into three groups (6 in each group) and treated with CKI, cisplatin and saline (as a control) respectively for 7 weeks. The tumor formation rates of each group were compared. The main genes and proteins of the Wnt signaling pathway were analyzed by RT-PCR and western blot.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CKI suppressed the size of SP population (approximately 90%), and down-regulated the main genes of Wnt signaling pathway. We also determined that MCF-7 SP cells were more tumorigenic than non-SP and unsorted cells. The Wnt signaling pathway was up-regulated in tumors derived from SP cells compared with that in tumors from non-SP cells. The tumor formation rate of the CKI Group was 33% (2/6, <it>P </it>< 0.05), and that of Cisplatin Group was 50%(3/6, <it>P </it>< 0.05), whereas that of the Control Group was 100% (6/6).The RT-PCR and western blot results indicated that CKI suppressed tumor growth by down-regulating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, while cisplatin activated the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and might spare SP cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>It suggested that CKI may serve as a novel drug targeting cancer stem-like cells, though further studies are recommended.</p

Image classification-based brain tumour tissue segmentation

Brain tumour tissue segmentation is essential for clinical decision making. While manual segmentation is time consuming, tedious, and subjective, it is very challenging to develop automatic segmentation methods. Deep learning with convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture has consistently outperformed previous methods on such challenging tasks. However, the local dependencies of pixel classes cannot be fully reflected in the CNN models. In contrast, hand-crafted features such as histogram-based texture features provide robust feature descriptors of local pixel dependencies. In this paper, a classification-based method for automatic brain tumour tissue segmentation is proposed using combined CNN-based and hand-crafted features. The CIFAR network is modified to extract CNN-based features, and histogram-based texture features are fused to compensate the limitation in the CIFAR network. These features together with the pixel intensities of the original MRI images are sent to a decision tree for classifying the MRI image voxels into different types of tumour tissues. The method is evaluated on the BraTS 2017 dataset. Experiments show that the proposed method produces promising segmentation results

Combined features in region of interest for brain tumor segmentation

Diagnosis of brain tumor gliomas is a challenging task in medical image analysis due to its complexity, the less regularity of tumor structures, and the diversity of tissue textures and shapes. Semantic segmentation approaches using deep learning have consistently outperformed the previous methods in this challenging task. However, deep learning is insufficient to provide the required local features related to tissue texture changes due to tumor growth. This paper designs a hybrid method arising from this need, which incorporates machine-learned and hand-crafted features. A semantic segmentation network (SegNet) is used to generate the machine-learned features, while the grey-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM)-based texture features construct the hand-crafted features. In addition, the proposed approach only takes the region of interest (ROI), which represents the extension of the complete tumor structure, as input, and suppresses the intensity of other irrelevant area. A decision tree (DT) is used to classify the pixels of ROI MRI images into different parts of tumors, i.e. edema, necrosis and enhanced tumor. The method was evaluated on BRATS 2017 dataset. The results demonstrate that the proposed model provides promising segmentation in brain tumor structure. The F-measures for automatic brain tumor segmentation against ground truth are 0.98, 0.75 and 0.69 for whole tumor, core and enhanced tumor, respectively

High loading-dose of dupilumab resulted in rapid disease control in pediatric patients with atopic dermatitis

BackgroundThe real-world experience of dupilumab in Chinese is limited, and the initial loading dose has not yet been deeply explored in patients aged &lt;6 years.ObjectiveTo explore the efficacy and safety of dupilumab in Chinese patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and investigate the effect of higher loading dose for disease control in patients aged &lt;6 years.MethodsA total of 155 patients were divided into three groups according to age: &lt;6 years, 6-11 years, and &gt;11 years. Among patients aged &lt;6 years, 37 patients received a high loading dose of 300 mg for body weight &lt;15kg or 600 mg for body weight ≥15kg, and another 37 patients received a standard loading dose of 200 mg for body weight &lt;15kg or 300 mg for body weight ≥15kg. Multiple physicians and patient-reported outcome measures were evaluated at baseline and 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 16 weeks after dupilumab treatment.ResultsThe proportion of patients showing an improvement of ≥75% in the Eczema Area and Severity Index was 68.0% (17/25), 76.9% (10/13), and 62.5% (25/40) in the aged &lt;6, 6-11, and &gt;11 years groups, respectively, at week 16. After increasing the loading dose, 69.6% (16/23) of patients aged &lt;6 years achieved 4-point improvement in Pruritus Numerical Rating Scale at week 2, compared with 23.5% (8/34) of patients receiving standard loading dose (P &lt; 0.001). Obesity (odds ratio=0.12, 95% confidence interval: 0.02-0.70) was predictive of a poor response to dupilumab treatment, while female (odds ratio=3.94, 95% confidence interval: 1.26-12.31) predicted good response at week 16. The change of serum C-C motif ligand 17(CCL17/TARC) could reflect the response to dupilumab (r = 0.53, P = 0.002 in EASI) among patients aged &lt;18 years. No major adverse events were reported during the treatment.ConclusionsDupilumab was effective and well-tolerated in Chinese patients with atopic dermatitis. The increased loading dose helped achieve rapid pruritus control in patients aged &lt;6 years

Dynamics of Oxygen-Independent Photocleavage of Blebbistatin as a One-Photon Blue or Two-Photon Near-Infrared Light-Gated Hydroxyl Radical Photocage

Development of versatile, chemically tunable photocages for photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT) represents an excellent opportunity to address the technical drawbacks of conventional photodynamic therapy (PDT) whose oxygen-dependent nature renders it inadequate in certain therapy contexts such as hypoxic tumors. As an alternative to PDT, oxygen free mechanisms to generate cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) by visible light cleavable photocages are in demand. Here, we report the detailed mechanisms by which the small molecule blebbistatin acts as a one-photon blue light-gated or two-photon near-infrared light-gated photocage to directly release a hydroxyl radical (•OH) in the absence of oxygen. By using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy and chemoselective ROS fluorescent probes, we analyze the dynamics and fate of blebbistatin during photolysis under blue light. Water-dependent photochemistry reveals a critical process of water-assisted protonation and excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) that drives the formation of short-lived intermediates, which surprisingly culminates in the release of •OH but not superoxide or singlet oxygen from blebbistatin. CASPT2//CASSCF calculations confirm that hydrogen bonding between water and blebbistatin underpins this process. We further determine that blue light enables blebbistatin to induce mitochondria-dependent apoptosis, an attribute conducive to PACT development. Our work demonstrates blebbistatin as a controllable photocage for •OH generation and provides insight into the potential development of novel PACT agents

Increased CD45RA+FoxP3low Regulatory T Cells with Impaired Suppressive Function in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

BACKGROUND: The role of naturally occurring regulatory T cells (Treg) in the control of the development of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has not been well defined. Therefore, we dissect the phenotypically heterogeneous CD4(+)FoxP3(+) T cells into subpopulations during the dynamic SLE development. METHODLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: To evaluate the proliferative and suppressive capacities of different CD4(+) T cell subgroups between active SLE patients and healthy donors, we employed CD45RA and CD25 as surface markers and carboxyfluorescein diacetatesuccinimidyl ester (CFSE) dilution assay. In addition, multiplex cytokines expression in active SLE patients was assessed using Luminex assay. Here, we showed a significant increase in the frequency of CD45RA(+)FoxP3(low) naive Treg cells (nTreg cells) and CD45RA(-)FoxP3(low) (non-Treg) cells in patients with active SLE. In active SLE patients, the increased proportions of CD45RA(+)FoxP3(low) nTreg cells were positively correlated with the disease based on SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) and the status of serum anti-dsDNA antibodies. We found that the surface marker combination of CD25(+)CD45RA(+) can be used to defined CD45RA(+)FoxP3(low) nTreg cells for functional assays, wherein nTreg cells from active SLE patients demonstrated defective suppression function. A significant correlation was observed between inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-12 and TNFα, and the frequency of nTreg cells. Furthermore, the CD45RA(+)FoxP3(low) nTreg cell subset increased when cultured with SLE serum compared to healthy donor serum, suggesting that the elevated inflammatory cytokines of SLE serum may promote nTreg cell proliferation/expansion. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate that impaired numbers of functional CD45RA(+)FoxP3(low) naive Treg cell and CD45RA(-)FoxP3(low) non-suppressive T cell subsets in inflammatory conditions may contribute to SLE development. Therefore, analysis of subsets of FoxP3(+) T cells, using a combination of FoxP3, CD25 and CD45RA, rather than whole FoxP3(+) T cells, will help us to better understand the pathogenesis of SLE and may lead to the development of new therapeutic strategies