ShenZhen transportation system (SZTS): a novel big data benchmark suite

Data analytics is at the core of the supply chain for both products and services in modern economies and societies. Big data workloads, however, are placing unprecedented demands on computing technologies, calling for a deep understanding and characterization of these emerging workloads. In this paper, we propose ShenZhen Transportation System (SZTS), a novel big data Hadoop benchmark suite comprised of real-life transportation analysis applications with real-life input data sets from Shenzhen in China. SZTS uniquely focuses on a specific and real-life application domain whereas other existing Hadoop benchmark suites, such as HiBench and CloudRank-D, consist of generic algorithms with synthetic inputs. We perform a cross-layer workload characterization at the microarchitecture level, the operating system (OS) level, and the job level, revealing unique characteristics of SZTS compared to existing Hadoop benchmarks as well as general-purpose multi-core PARSEC benchmarks. We also study the sensitivity of workload behavior with respect to input data size, and we propose a methodology for identifying representative input data sets

Identification and Characterization of the PEBP Family Genes in Moso Bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycla).

Moso bamboo is one of the economically most important plants in China. Moso bamboo is a monocarpic perennial that exhibits poor and slow germination. Thus, the flowering often causes destruction of moso bamboo forestry. However, how control of flowering and seed germination are regulated in moso bamboo is largely unclear. In this study, we identified 5 members (PhFT1-5) of the phosphatidyl ethanolamine-binding proteins (PEBP) family from moso bamboo genome that regulate flowering, flower architecture and germination, and characterized the function of these PEBP family genes further in Arabidopsis. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that 3 (PhFT1, PhFT2 and PhFT3), 1 (PhFT4) and 1 (PhFT5) members belong to the TFL1-like clade, FT-like clade, and MFT-like clade, respectively. These PEBP family genes possess all structure necessary for PEBP gene function. The ectopic overexpression of PhFT4 and PhFT5 promotes flowering time in Arabidopsis, and that of PhFT1, PhFT2 and PhFT3 suppresses it. In addition, the overexpression of PhFT5 promotes seed germination rate. Interestingly, the overexpression of PhFT1 suppressed seed germination rate in Arabidopsis. The expression of PhFT1 and PhFT5 is significantly higher in seed than in tissues including leaf and shoot apical meristem, implying their function in seed germination. Taken together, our results suggested that the PEBP family genes play important roles as regulators of flowering and seed germination in moso bamboo and thereby are necessary for the sustainability of moso bamboo forest

Nodes Effect on the Bending Performance of Laminated Bamboo Lumber Unit

This research studied the ultimate bearing capacity of laminated bamboo lumber (LBL) unit and thereby calculated the maximum bending moment. The load-displacement chart for all specimens was obtained. Then the flexural capacity of members with and without bamboo nodes in the middle section was coMPared. The bending experiment phenomenon of LBL unit was concluded. Different failure modes of bending components were analysed and concluded. Finally, the bending behaviour of LBL units is coMPared with other bamboo and timber products. It is shown that the average ultimate load of BS members is 866.1 N, the average flexural strength is 101 MPa, the average modulus of elasticity is 8.3 GPa, and the average maximum displacement is 17.02 mm. The average ultimate load of BNS members is 1008.1 N, the average flexural strength is 118.02 MPa, the average modulus of elasticity is 9.9 GPa, and the average maximum displacement is 18.26 mm. Laminated bamboo lumber (LBL) unit without bamboo nodes (BNS) has relatively higher flexural strength coMPared with LBL unit with bamboo nodes (BS). The presence of bamboo nodes reduces the strength of the entire structure. Three failure modes were concluded for BS members, and two failure modes were observed for BNS members during the experimental process. According to a coMParison between the LBL unit and other products, the flexural strength and bending modulus of elasticity of the LBL unit are similar as bamboo scrimber and raw bamboo components, which is much higher than timber components

Biliary drainage in malignant biliary obstruction: an umbrella review of randomized controlled trials

BackgroundThere are still many controversies about biliary drainage in MBO, and we aimed to summarize and evaluate the evidence associated with biliary drainage.MethodsWe conducted an umbrella review of SRoMAs based on RCTs. Through July 28, 2022, Embase, PubMed, WOS, and Cochrane Database were searched. Two reviewers independently screened the studies, extracted the data, and appraised the methodological quality of the included studies. GRADE was used to evaluate the quality of the evidence.Results36 SRoMAs were identified. After excluding 24 overlapping studies, 12 SRoMAs, including 76 RCTs, and 124 clinical outcomes for biliary drainage in MBO were included. Of the 124 pieces of evidence evaluated, 13 were rated “High” quality, 38 were rated “Moderate”, and the rest were rated “Low” or “Very low”. For patients with MBO, 125I seeds+stent can reduce the risk of stent occlusion, RFA+stent can improve the prognosis; compared with PC, SEMS can increase the risk of tumor ingrowth and reduce the occurrence of sludge formation, and the incidence of tumor ingrowth in C-SEMS/PC-SEMS was significantly lower than that in U-SEMS. There was no difference in the success rate of drainage between EUS-BD and ERCP-BD, but the use of EUS-BD can reduce the incidence of stent dysfunction. For patients with obstructive jaundice, PBD does not affect postoperative mortality compared to direct surgery. The use of MS in patients with periampullary cancer during PBD can reduce the risk of re-intervention and stent occlusion compared to PC. In addition, we included four RCTs that showed that when performing EUS-BD on MBO, hepaticogastrostomy has higher technical success rates than choledochoduodenostomy. Patients who received Bilateral-ENBD had a lower additional drainage rate than those who received Unilateral-ENBD.ConclusionsOur study summarizes a large amount of evidence related to biliary drainage, which helps to reduce the uncertainty in the selection of biliary drainage strategies for MBO patients under different circumstances

Risk of anxiety and depression in patients with uveitis: a Meta-analysis

AIM: To quantitatively evaluate the risk of anxiety and depression in patients with uveitis via performing a Meta-analysis. METHODS: Three electronic database (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases) were searched for studies recording data about uveitis and anxiety as well as depression simultaneously up to January 2021. The incidence rate and standard mean difference (SMD) with a 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were calculated to analyse the association using random-effects models based on heterogeneity tests. RESULTS: In total, 12 observational studies containing 874 patients with uveitis were included. The results showed that there was a significant association between uveitis and anxiety (SMD=0.97, 95%CI: 0.39 to 1.54, P=0.0009) and depression (SMD=0.79, 95%CI: 0.51 to 1.07, P<0.00001). The overall morbidities of anxiety and depression in patients with uveitis were 39% and 17%, respectively. With subgroup analysis, the heterogeneity actually came from different kinds of uveitis. Specifically, the incidence rates of both anxiety and depression were relatively low in patients with anterior uveitis (33% and 15%), moderate in patients with infectious uveitis (46% and 22%), and high in patients with unspecified uveitis (59% and 35%). CONCLUSION: It is preliminarily indicated that patients with uveitis may have a high risk of anxiety and depression. Ophthalmologists and psychologists should pay more attention to the psychological state when dealing with patients with uveitis. Further high-quality studies with detailed direct data are needed to draw more precise conclusions

Development of a prognostic model to identify the metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who may benefit from chemotherapy combination PD-1 inhibitor

BackgroundWe aimed to establish a prognostic model to identify suitable candidates for chemotherapy combination PD-1 inhibitor in metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients.Patients and methodsIn this retrospective study, we included 524 patients (192 patients treated with chemotherapy combination PD-1 inhibitor and 332 received chemotherapy alone as first-line regimen) with metastatic NPC between January 2015 and March 2021. We developed a prognostic model to predict progression-free survival (PFS). A model-based trees approach was applied to estimate stratified treatment effects using prognostic scores and two well-matched risk groups (low-risk and high-risk) were created using propensity score matching.ResultsA prognostic nomogram was established with good accuracy for predicting PFS (c-index values of 0.71; 95% confidence interval, 0.66-0.73). The survival curves were significantly different between low-risk and high-risk groups (median PFS: 9.8 vs. 22.8 months, P &lt; 0.001, respectively). After propensity matching analysis, chemotherapy combination PD-1 inhibitor was significantly associated with superior PFS as compared with chemotherapy alone (median PFS, 10.6 versus 9.3 months, P = 0.016) in the high-risk group. However, no significant difference between chemotherapy combination PD-1 inhibitor and chemotherapy was observed (P = 0.840) in the low-risk groups.ConclusionsOur novel prognostic model was able to stratify patients with metastatic NPC into low-risk or high-risk groups and identify candidates for PD-1 inhibitor therapy. These results are expected to be confirmed by a prospective clinical trial

A systematic bibliometric analysis on the clinical practice of CGM in diabetes mellitus from 2012 to 2022

BackgroundContinuous glucose monitoring (CGM) has revolutionized diabetes management, but a comprehensive analysis of its clinical implementation is lacking. This study aims to explore CGM in diabetes practice over the past decade using bibliometric analysis. It will identify trends, research focal points, and provide a framework for future investigations.Materials and methodsThe Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) was utilized to acquire literature pertaining to the employment of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in diabetes that was published between the years 2012 and 2022, and to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the associated citation data. To achieve bibliometric visualization and analysis of the collated data, the bibliography package in the Rstudio(v.4.2.2), Citespace 6.2.R4, and VOS viewer were employed.ResultsA total of 3024 eligible publications were extracted from 91 countries, with the United States being the leading country in terms of the number of issued articles. Furthermore, the annual publication rate has shown a gradual increase during the past decade. Among the various journals in this field, DIABETES TECHNOLOGY &amp; THERAPEUTICS was identified as the most highly cited one. Keyword clustering analysis of the extracted publications indicates that the research hotspots in the past decade have primarily focused on “continuous glucose monitoring”, “glycemic variability”, “type 1 diabetes”, “hypoglycemia”, and “glycemic control”. Moreover, the analysis of keyword emergence reveals that “Time In Range” and “Young Adult” represent the current research frontiers for the years 2012-2022.ConclusionThe concept of Time in Range (TIR) has garnered considerable attention as a significant area of inquiry and an emerging research trend in the clinical practice of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) for Diabetes Mellitus. Moreover, recent investigations have demonstrated a growing focus on young adults with type 1 diabetes as the research population of interest. In the foreseeable future, research endeavors will persist in the pursuit of improving glycemic management among young adults through the utilization of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) technology, while also delving into the examination of the Time in Range metric via supplementary clinical investigations

Large-scale Identification of Chemically Induced Mutations in Drosophila melanogaster.

Forward genetic screens using chemical mutagens have been successful in defining the function of thousands of genes in eukaryotic model organisms. The main drawback of this strategy is the time-consuming identification of the molecular lesions causative of the phenotypes of interest. With whole-genome sequencing (WGS), it is now possible to sequence hundreds of strains, but determining which mutations are causative among thousands of polymorphisms remains challenging. We have sequenced 394 mutant strains, generated in a chemical mutagenesis screen, for essential genes on the Drosophila X chromosome and describe strategies to reduce the number of candidate mutations from an average of -3500 to 35 single-nucleotide variants per chromosome. By combining WGS with a rough mapping method based on large duplications, we were able to map 274 (-70%) mutations. We show that these mutations are causative, using small 80-kb duplications that rescue lethality. Hence, our findings demonstrate that combining rough mapping with WGS dramatically expands the toolkit necessary for assigning function to genes

Selection of Pru p 3 hypoallergenic peach and nectarine varieties

To the Editor, Peach is an important fruit consumed worldwide. However, it is also one of the most frequently reported allergenic fruits.1 Component diagnosis of peach allergy indicates Pru p 1, Pru p 2, Pru p 3, Pru p 4, Pru p 7, and Pru p 9 are involved.2, 3 Pru p 3 is the dominant allergen responsible for severe allergic reaction,4 and it is considered to be the primary sensitizer to other LTPs in Mediterranean and Central Europe.5 The levels of Pru p 3 differ between varieties.6 To date, measurement of Pru p 3 in a limited number of peach and nectarines from Spain, United States, and Italy has been reported.7 Significant variation of allergen concentration in processed foods containing peach has also been observed.8 The content of Pru p 3 of peach/nectarine determines the potential risk for peach allergic patients. China is the origin of peach with representative genetic diversity to be explored for hypoallergenic varieties.9 A core collection of 103 varieties cultivated in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province were selected to represent this diversity, including 23 nectarines and 80 peach varieties (with fruit hair, round or flat, 77 cultivated, three wild) (Table S1). The soluble solid content (SSC), ripening date, and peach aroma intensity were recorded. Specific methods are detailed in the Supporting Information. Pru p 3 was quantified by ELISA based on our previous research.6info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SIRT1 deacetylates SATB1 to facilitate MARHS2-MARε interaction and promote ε-globin expression

The higher order chromatin structure has recently been revealed as a critical new layer of gene transcriptional control. Changes in higher order chromatin structures were shown to correlate with the availability of transcriptional factors and/or MAR (matrix attachment region) binding proteins, which tether genomic DNA to the nuclear matrix. How posttranslational modification to these protein organizers may affect higher order chromatin structure still pending experimental investigation. The type III histone deacetylase silent mating type information regulator 2, S. cerevisiae, homolog 1 (SIRT1) participates in many physiological processes through targeting both histone and transcriptional factors. We show that MAR binding protein SATB1, which mediates chromatin looping in cytokine, MHC-I and β-globin gene loci, as a new type of SIRT1 substrate. SIRT1 expression increased accompanying erythroid differentiation and the strengthening of β-globin cluster higher order chromatin structure, while knockdown of SIRT1 in erythroid k562 cells weakened the long-range interaction between two SATB1 binding sites in the β-globin locus, MARHS2 and MARε. We also show that SIRT1 activity significantly affects ε-globin gene expression in a SATB1-dependent manner and that knockdown of SIRT1 largely blocks ε-globin gene activation during erythroid differentiation. Our work proposes that SIRT1 orchestrates changes in higher order chromatin structure during erythropoiesis, and reveals the dynamic higher order chromatin structure regulation at posttranslational modification level