On Content-centric Wireless Delivery Networks

The flux of social media and the convenience of mobile connectivity has created a mobile data phenomenon that is expected to overwhelm the mobile cellular networks in the foreseeable future. Despite the advent of 4G/LTE, the growth rate of wireless data has far exceeded the capacity increase of the mobile networks. A fundamentally new design paradigm is required to tackle the ever-growing wireless data challenge. In this article, we investigate the problem of massive content delivery over wireless networks and present a systematic view on content-centric network design and its underlying challenges. Towards this end, we first review some of the recent advancements in Information Centric Networking (ICN) which provides the basis on how media contents can be labeled, distributed, and placed across the networks. We then formulate the content delivery task into a content rate maximization problem over a share wireless channel, which, contrasting the conventional wisdom that attempts to increase the bit-rate of a unicast system, maximizes the content delivery capability with a fixed amount of wireless resources. This conceptually simple change enables us to exploit the "content diversity" and the "network diversity" by leveraging the abundant computation sources (through application-layer encoding, pushing and caching, etc.) within the existing wireless networks. A network architecture that enables wireless network crowdsourcing for content delivery is then described, followed by an exemplary campus wireless network that encompasses the above concepts.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures,accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications,Sept.201

Inflammatory microenvironment in the initiation and progression of bladder cancer

Accumulating evidence suggests the idea that chronic inflammation may play a critical role in various malignancies including bladder cancer and long-term treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is significantly effective in reducing certain cancer incidence and mortality. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to malignant transformation and the progression of bladder cancer in a chronically inflammatory environment remain largely unknown. In this review, we will describe the role of inflammation in the formation and development of bladder cancer and summarize the possible molecular mechanisms by which chronic inflammation regulates cell immune response, proliferation and metastasis. Understanding the novel function orchestrating inflammation and bladder cancer will hopefully provide us insights into their future clinical significance in preventing bladder carcinogenesis and progression

Biodegradable Magnesium Alloys Developed as Bone Repair Materials: A Review

Bone repair materials are rapidly becoming a hot topic in the field of biomedical materials due to being an important means of repairing human bony deficiencies and replacing hard tissue. Magnesium (Mg) alloys are potentially biocompatible, osteoconductive, and biodegradable metallic materials that can be used in bone repair due to their in situ degradation in the body, mechanical properties similar to those of bones, and ability to positively stimulate the formation of new bones. However, rapid degradation of these materials in physiological environments may lead to gas cavities, hemolysis, and osteolysis and thus, hinder their clinical orthopedic applications. This paper reviews recent work on the use of Mg alloy implants in bone repair. Research to date on alloy design, surface modification, and biological performance of Mg alloys is comprehensively summarized. Future challenges for and developments in biomedical Mg alloys for use in bone repair are also discussed

Molecular characterization of cathepsin B from Clonorchis sinensis excretory/secretory products and assessment of its potential for serodiagnosis of clonorchiasis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cathepsin cysteine proteases play multiple roles in the life cycle of parasites such as food uptake, immune invasion and pathogenesis, making them valuable targets for diagnostic assays, vaccines and drugs. The purpose of this study was to identify a cathepsin B of <it>Clonorchis sinensis </it>(<it>Cs</it>CB) and to investigate its diagnostic value for human helminthiases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The predicted amino acid sequence of the cathepsin B of <it>C. sinensis </it>shared 63%, 52%, 50% identity with that of <it>Schistosoma japonicum</it>, <it>Homo sapiens </it>and <it>Fasciola hepatica</it>, respectively. Sequence encoding proenzyme of <it>Cs</it>CB was overexpressed in <it>Escherichia coli</it>. Reverse transcription PCR experiments revealed that <it>Cs</it>CB transcribed in both adult worm and metacercaria of <it>C. sinensis</it>. <it>Cs</it>CB was identified as a <it>C. sinensis </it>excretory/secretory product by immunoblot assay, which was consistent with immunohistochemical localization showing that <it>Cs</it>CB was especially expressed in the intestine of <it>C. sinensis </it>adults. Both ELISA and western blotting analysis showed recombinant <it>Cs</it>CB could react with human sera from clonorchiasis and other helminthiases.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings revealed that secreted CsCB may play an important role in the biology of C. sinensis and could be a diagnostic candidate for helminthiases.</p

Learning A Foundation Language Model for Geoscience Knowledge Understanding and Utilization

Large language models (LLMs)have achieved great success in general domains of natural language processing. In this paper, we bring LLMs to the realm of geoscience, with the objective of advancing research and applications in this field. To this end, we present the first-ever LLM in geoscience, K2, alongside a suite of resources developed to further promote LLM research within geoscience. For instance, we have curated the first geoscience instruction tuning dataset, GeoSignal, which aims to align LLM responses to geoscience-related user queries. Additionally, we have established the first geoscience benchmark, GeoBenchmark, to evaluate LLMs in the context of geoscience. In this work, we experiment with a complete recipe to adapt a pretrained general-domain LLM to the geoscience domain. Specifically, we further train the LLaMA-7B model on over 1 million pieces of geoscience literature and utilize GeoSignal's supervised data to fine-tune the model. Moreover, we share a protocol that can efficiently gather domain-specific data and construct domain-supervised data, even in situations where manpower is scarce. Experiments conducted on the GeoBenchmark demonstrate the the effectiveness of our approach and datasets

Identification and Characterization of Paramyosin from Cyst Wall of Metacercariae Implicated Protective Efficacy against Clonorchis sinensis Infection

Human clonorchiasis has been increasingly prevalent in recent years and results in a threat to the public health in epidemic regions, motivating current strategies of vaccines to combat Clonorchis sinensis (C. sinensis). In this study, we identified C. sinensis paramyosin (CsPmy) from the cyst wall proteins of metacercariae by proteomic approaches and characterized the expressed recombinant pET-26b-CsPmy protein (101 kDa). Bioinformatics analysis indicated that full-length sequences of paramyosin are conserved in helminthes and numerous B-cell/T-cell epitopes were predicted in amino acid sequence of CsPmy. Western blot analysis showed that CsPmy was expressed at four life stages of C. sinensis, both cyst wall proteins and soluble tegumental components could be probed by anti-CsPmy serum. Moreover, immunolocalization results revealed that CsPmy was specifically localized at cyst wall and excretory bladder of metacercaria, as well as the tegument, oral sucker and vitellarium of adult worm. Both immunoblot and immunolocalization results demonstrated that CsPmy was highly expressed at the stage of adult worm, metacercariae and cercaria, which could be supported by real-time PCR analysis. Both recombinant protein and nucleic acid of CsPmy showed strong immunogenicity in rats and induced combined Th1/Th2 immune responses, which were reflected by continuous high level of antibody titers and increased level of IgG1/IgG2a subtypes in serum. In vaccine trials, comparing with control groups, both CsPmy protein and DNA vaccine exhibited protective effect with significant worm reduction rate of 54.3% (p<0.05) and 36.1% (p<0.05), respectively. In consistence with immune responses in sera, elevated level of cytokines IFN-γ and IL-4 in splenocytes suggested that CsPmy could induce combined cellular immunity and humoral immunity in host. Taken together, CsPmy could be a promising vaccine candidate in the prevention of C. sinensis regarding its high immunogenicity and surface localization