Dynamic Vehicle Scheduling for Working Service Network with Dual Demands

This study aims to develop some models to aid in making decisions on the combined fleet size and vehicle assignment in working service network where the demands include two types (minimum demands and maximum demands), and vehicles themselves can act like a facility to provide services when they are stationary at one location. This type of problem is named as the dynamic working vehicle scheduling with dual demands (DWVS-DD) and formulated as a mixed integer programming (MIP). Instead of a large integer program, the problem is decomposed into small local problems that are guided by preset control parameters. The approach for preset control parameters is given. By introducing them into the MIP formulation, the model is reformulated as a piecewise form. Further, a piecewise method by updating preset control parameters is proposed for solving the reformulated model. Numerical experiments show that the proposed method produces better solution within reasonable computing time

A Case of Prune Belly Syndrome

Prune belly syndrome (PBS) is a rare congenital disorder characterized by deficient abdominal wall muscles, urinary tract malformation, and, in males, cryptorchidism. We present a case of PBS in China. The patient was a newborn baby boy who had wrinkled, “prune-like” abdominal skin, bilateral cryptorchidism, and urinary system malformation, complicated with hypoplasia of the lung and branch of the coronary artery–right ventricular fistula. His kidney function was inadequate. The patient subsequently died at age 28 days due to septicemia from a severe urinary tract infection

Preparation and Application of Sustained-Release Potassium Ferrate(VI)

In this study, a composite system for the sustained release of potassium ferrate(VI) (sustained-release K 2 FeO 4 ) was prepared and applied for water treatment. The objective of this research was to maximize the effectiveness of K 2 FeO 4 for water treatment by enhancing its stability using diatomite. The sustained-release K 2 FeO 4 was characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that no new crystal phase was formed during the preparation and some K 2 FeO 4 crystals entered the pores of the diatomite. From K 2 FeO 4 release experiments, we found that the decomposition rate of K 2 FeO 4 was obviously decreased, which greatly improved the contact rate between released K 2 FeO 4 and pollutants. Via degradation of methyl orange, which was used as a model pollutant, the influential factor of K 2 FeO 4 content within the complete sustained-release K 2 FeO 4 system was studied. The optimal K 2 FeO 4 content within the sustained-release K 2 FeO 4 system was approximately 70%. In natural water samples, sustained-release K 2 FeO 4 at a dosage of 0.06 g/L and with a reaction time of 20 minutes removed 36.84% of soluble microbial products and 17.03% of simple aromatic proteins, and these removal rates were better than those observed after traditional chlorine disinfection

First asymmetric synthesis of piperidine alkaloid (-)-morusimic acid D

The first asymmetric synthesis of (-)-morusimic acid D, a 2,3-trans-2,6-cis-2-methyl-6-substituted piperidin-3-ol containing alkaloid is reported. The key steps are the reductive alkylation of N,O-diprotected 3-hydroxyglutarimide, a stepwise reductive alkylation, and an asymmetric aldol-type reaction using a modified Evans chiral auxiliary

A Near-Infrared Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for Highly Selective Recognition and Bioimaging of Cysteine

A benzothiazole-based near-infrared (NIR) ratiometric fluorescent probe (HBT-Cys) was developed for discriminating cysteine (Cys) from homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH). The probe was designed by masking phenol group in the conjugated benzothiazole derivative with methacrylate group that could be selectively removed by Cys, and therefore an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) fluorescence was switched on in the NIR region. In the absence of Cys, the probe exhibited a strong blue fluorescence emission at 431 nm, whereas a NIR fluorescence emission at 710 nm was significantly enhanced accompanied by a decrease of emission at 431 nm in the presence of Cys, allowing a ratiometric fluorescence detection of Cys. The fluorescence intensity ratio (I710nm/I431nm) showed a good linear relationship with Cys concentration of 1–40 μM with the detection limit of 0.5 μM. The sensing mechanism was explored based on MS experimental analysis and DFT theoretical calculation. Moreover, the fluorescent probe was successfully used for fluorescence bioimaging of Cys in living cells

Alternative splicing and trans-splicing events revealed by analysis of the Bombyx mori transcriptome

Alternative splicing and trans-splicing events have not been systematically studied in the silkworm Bombyx mori. Here, the silkworm transcriptome was analyzed by RNA-seq. We identified 320 novel genes, modified 1140 gene models, and found thousands of alternative splicing and 58 trans-splicing events. Studies of three SR proteins show that both their alternative splicing patterns and mRNA products are conserved from insect to human, and one isoform of Srsf6 with a retained intron is expressed sex-specifically in silkworm gonads. Trans-splicing of mod(mdg4) in silkworm was experimentally confirmed. We identified integrations from a common 5′-gene with 46 newly identified alternative 3′-exons that are located on both DNA strands over a 500-kb region. Other trans-splicing events in B. mori were predicted by bioinformatic analysis, in which 12 events were confirmed by RT-PCR, six events were further validated by chimeric SNPs, and two events were confirmed by allele-specific RT-PCR in F 1 hybrids from distinct silkworm lines of JS and L10, indicating that trans-splicing is more widespread in insects than previously thought. Analysis of the B. mori transcriptome by RNA-seq provides valuable information of regulatory alternative splicing events. The conservation of splicing events across species and newly identified trans-splicing events suggest that B. mori is a good model for future studies. Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Copyrigh

Methological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on acupuncture for stroke: a review of review

Objective: To assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses regarding acupuncture intervention for stroke and the primary studies within them. Methods: Two researchers searched PubMed, Cumulative index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, ISI Web of Knowledge, Cochrane, Allied and Complementary Medicine, Ovid Medline, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang and Traditional Chinese Medical Database to identify systematic reviews and meta-analyses about acupuncture for stroke published from the inception to December 2016. Review characteristics and the criteria for assessing the primary studies within reviews were extracted. The methodological quality of the reviews was assessed using adapted Oxman and Guyatt Scale. The methodological quality of primary studies was also assessed. Results: Thirty-two eligible reviews were identified, 15 in English and 17 in Chinese. The English reviews were scored higher than the Chinese reviews (P=0.025), especially in criteria for avoiding bias and the scope of search. All reviews used the quality criteria to evaluate the methodological quality of primary studies, but some criteria were not comprehensive. The primary studies, in particular the Chinese reviews, had problems with randomization, allocation concealment, blinding, dropouts and withdrawals, intent-to-treat analysis and adverse events. Conclusions: Important methodological flaws were found in Chinese systematic reviews and primary studies. It was necessary to improve the methodological quality and reporting quality of both the systematic reviews published in China and primary studies on acupuncture for stroke

Data Placement for Privacy-Aware Applications over Big Data in Hybrid Clouds

Nowadays, a large number of groups choose to deploy their applications to cloud platforms, especially for the big data era. Currently, the hybrid cloud is one of the most popular computing paradigms for holding the privacy-aware applications driven by the requirements of privacy protection and cost saving. However, it is still a challenge to realize data placement considering both the energy consumption in private cloud and the cost for renting the public cloud services. In view of this challenge, a cost and energy aware data placement method, named CEDP, for privacy-aware applications over big data in hybrid cloud is proposed. Technically, formalized analysis of cost, access time, and energy consumption is conducted in the hybrid cloud environment. Then a corresponding data placement method is designed to accomplish the cost saving for renting the public cloud services and energy savings for task execution within the private cloud platforms. Experimental evaluations validate the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed method