A hybrid model approach for strange and multi-strange hadrons in 2.76 A TeV Pb+Pb collisions

Using the VISHNU hybrid model, we calculate the multiplicity, spectra, and elliptic flow of $\Lambda$, $\Xi$ and $\Omega$ in 2.76 A TeV Pb+Pb collisions. Comparisons between our calculations and the ALICE measurements show that the model generally describes the soft hadron data of these strange and multi-strange hadrons at several centrality bins. Mass ordering of elliptic flow among $\pi$, K, p, $\Lambda$, $\Xi$ and $\Omega$ has also been studied and discussed. With a nice description of the particle yields, we explore chemical and thermal freeze-out of various hadrons species at the LHC within the framework of the VISHNU hybrid model.Comment: version 2: with several references added, published in PR

ReDas: Supporting Fine-Grained Reshaping and Multiple Dataflows on Systolic Array

Current systolic arrays still suffer from low performance and PE utilization on many real workloads due to the mismatch between the fixed array topology and diverse DNN kernels. We present ReDas, a flexible and lightweight systolic array that can adapt to various DNN models by supporting dynamic fine-grained reshaping and multiple dataflows. The key idea is to construct reconfigurable roundabout data paths using only the short connections between neighbor PEs. The array with 128$\times$128 size supports 129 different logical shapes and 3 dataflows (IS/OS/WS). Experiments on DNN models of MLPerf demonstrate that ReDas can achieve 3.09x speedup on average compared to state-of-the-art work.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, conferenc

Towards Al3+-Induced Manganese-Containing Superoxide Dismutase Inactivation and Conformational Changes: An Integrating Study with Docking Simulations

Superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) plays an important antioxidant defense role in skins exposed to oxygen. We studied the inhibitory effects of Al3+ on the activity and conformation of manganese-containing SOD (Mn-SOD). Mn-SOD was significantly inactivated by Al3+ in a dose-dependent manner. The kinetic studies showed that Al3+ inactivated Mn-SOD follows the first-order reaction. Al3+ increased the degree of secondary structure of Mn-SOD and also disrupted the tertiary structure of Mn-SOD, which directly resulted in enzyme inactivation. We further simulated the docking between Mn-SOD and Al3+ (binding energy for Dock 6.3: −14.07 kcal/mol) and suggested that ASP152 and GLU157 residues were predicted to interact with Al3+, which are not located in the Mn-contained active site. Our results provide insight into the inactivation of Mn-SOD during unfolding in the presence of Al3+ and allow us to describe a ligand binding via inhibition kinetics combined with the computational prediction

Characteristics of Mesoscale Convective Systems over China and Its Vicinity Using Geostationary Satellite FY2

This study investigates mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) over China and its vicinity during the boreal warm season (May-August) from 2005 to 2012 based on data fromthe geostationary satellite Fengyun 2 (FY2) series. The authors classified and analyzed the quasi-circular and elongated MCSs on both large and small scales, including mesoscale convective complexes (MCCs), persistent elongated convective systems (PECSs), meso-ß circular convective systems (MßCCSs), meso-ß elongated convective system (MßECSs), and two additional types named small meso-ß circular convective systems (SMßCCSs) and small meso-ß elongated convective systems (SMßECSs). Results show that nearly 80% of the 8696 MCSs identified in this study fall into the elongated categories. Overall, MCSs occur mainly at three zonal bands with average latitudes around 208, 308, and 508N. The frequency of MCSs occurrences is maximized at the zonal band around 208N and decreases with increase in latitude. During the eight warm seasons, the period of peak systems occurrences is in July, followed decreasingly by June, August, and May. Mean while, fromMay to August three kinds of monthly variations are observed, which are clear northward migration, rapid increase, and persistent high frequency of MCS occurrences. Compared to MCSs in the United States, the four types of MCSs (MCCs, PECSs, MßCCSs, and MßECSs) are relatively smaller both in size and eccentricity but exhibit nearly equal life spans. Moreover, MCSs in both countries share similar positive correlations between their duration and maximum extent. Additionally, the diurnal cycles of MCSs in both countries are similar (local time) regarding the three stages of initiation, maturation, and termination

Characterization of the complete mitogenome of a land leech, Haemadipsa crenata Ngamprasertwong (Arhynchobdellida: Haemadipsidae)

Land leeches of genus Haemadipsa (Family Haemadipsidae) are widely distributed in South East Asia. Haemadipsa crenata Ngamprasertwong is a blood-feeding species firstly reported from Thailand. A complete mitochondrial genome of H. crenata was characterized in this study for further genetic exploration on land leech. The reads were assembled into a circular mitogenome of 14,725 bp in length. The AT content of H. crenata mitogenome is 76.79%. The annotated mitogenome contains 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs, and 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), and the structure of PCG open reading frames was confirmed. Finally, the phylogenetic relationship of H. crenata and other leech species were reconstructed using mitogenomes

Antioxidative and anticancer properties of Licochalcone A from licorice

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Licochalcone A (LCA) is a characteristic chalcone that is found in licorice, which is a traditional medicinal plant. In traditional medicine, LCA possesses many potential biological activities, including anti-parasitic, anti-inflammatory and antitumor activities. Aim of the study: To determine the antioxidant activity of LCA and, on this basis, to investigate the role of its anticancer activity. Materials and methods: To validate the antioxidant activity of LCA, the proteins SOD, CAT and GPx1 were analyzed using western blotting and cellular antioxidant activity (CAA) assays. Oxidative free radicals are associated with cancer cells. Therefore, the anticancer activity of LCA was also evaluated. To assess the anticancer activity, cell viability assays were performed and apoptosis was evaluated. In addition, MAPK-related proteins were analyzed using western blotting. Results: The experimental data showed that the EC50 of LCA is 58.79 +/- 0.05 mu g/mL and 46.29 +/- 0.05 mu g/mL under the two conditions tested, with or without PBS. In addition, LCA at a concentration of approximately 2-8 pg/mL can induce the expression of SOD, CAT and GPx1 proteins. Further, LCA inhibits the growth of HepG2 cells through cell proliferation arrest and the subsequent induction of apoptosis, and LCA attenuated the p38/JNK/ERK signaling pathway in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusion: The results showed that LCA suppresses the oxidation of cells and markedly inhibits the proliferation of cancer cells. These findings confirm the traditional use of LCA in folk medicine

Environmental Health and Ecological Risk Assessment of Soil Heavy Metal Pollution in the Coastal Cities of Estuarine Bay—A Case Study of Hangzhou Bay, China

Shanghai is the major city on the north shore of Hangzhou Bay, and the administrative regions adjacent to Hangzhou Bay are the Jinshan district, Fengxian district, and Pudong new area (Nanhui district), which are the main intersection areas of manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture in Shanghai. In this paper, we collected a total of 75 topsoil samples from six different functional areas (agricultural areas (19), roadside areas (10), industrial areas (19), residential areas (14), education areas (6), and woodland areas (7)) in these three administrative regions, and the presence of 10 heavy metals (manganese(Mn), zinc(Zn), chromium(Cr), nickel(Ni), lead(Pb), cobalt(Co), cadmium(Cd), mercury(Hg), copper(Cu), and arsenic(As)) was investigated in each sample. The Nemerow pollution index (NPI), pollution load index (PLI), and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were calculated to assess the soil pollution levels. The hazard quotient (HQ) and carcinogenic risk (CR) assessment models were used to assess the human health risks posed by the concentrations of the heavy metals. The CR and HQ for adults and children in different functional areas descended in the following order: industrial areas > roadside areas > woodland areas > residential areas > education areas > agricultural areas. The HQ of Mn for children in industrial areas was higher than 1, and the risk was within the acceptable range

Antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antitumor activity of epsilon-poly-L-lysine and citral, alone or in combination

Background: Food safety is an important worldwide public health concern, and microbial contamination in foods not only leads to food deterioration and shelf life reduction but also results in economic losses and disease. Objective: The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of epsilon-poly-L-lysine (ɛ-PL) and citral combination against Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) strains. The preliminary antioxidant and antitumor activities were also studied. Design: Synergism is a positive interaction created when two compounds combine and exert an inhibitory effect that is greater than the sum of their individual effects. The synergistic antimicrobial effect of ɛ-PL and citral was studied using the checkerboard method against E. coli O157:H7. The minimal inhibitory concentration, time-kill, and scanning electron microscope assays were used to determine the antimicrobial activity of ɛ-PL and citral alone or in combination; 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl-scavenging assay and western blotting were used in antioxidant activity assays; cell viability assay was carried out to finish preliminary antitumor test. Results: Minimal inhibitory concentrations of ɛ-PL and citral resisted to the five E. coli O157:H7 strains were 2–4 µg/mL and 0.5–1 µg/mL, and the fractional inhibitory concentration indices were 0.25–0.375. The results of time-kill assay revealed that a stronger bactericidal effect in a laboratory medium might be exerted in the combination against E. coli O157:H7 than that in a food model. The compounds alone or in combination exhibited a potential 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical–scavenging activity, and the expression of superoxide dismutase 1 and glutathione peroxidase 1 protein increased. The preliminary antitumor activity effect of the combination was better than ɛ-PL or citral alone. Conclusions: These findings indicated that the combination of ɛ-PL and citral could not only be used as a promising naturally sourced food preservative but also be used in the pharmaceutical industry

Multi-layer Long Short-term Memory based Condenser Vacuum Degree Prediction Model on Power Plant

A multi-layer LSTM (Long short-term memory) model is proposed for condenser vacuum degree prediction of power plants. Firstly, Min-max normalization is used to pre-process the input data. Then, the model proposes the two-layer LSTM architecture to identify the time series pattern effectively. ADAM（Adaptive moment）optimizer is selected to find the optimum parameters for the model during training. Under the proposed forecasting framework, experiments illustrates that the two-layer LSTM model can give a more accurate forecast to the condenser vacuum degree compared with other simple RNN (Recurrent Neural Network) and one-layer LSTM model