Coupling Analysis Between Twitter and Call Centre

Social media has been contributing many research areas such as data mining, recommender systems, time series analysis, etc. However, there are not many successful applications regarding social media in government agencies. In fact, lots of governments have social media accounts such as twitter and facebook. More and more customers are likely to communicate with governments on social media, causing massive external social media data for governments. This external data would be beneficial for analysing behaviours and real needs of the customers. Besides this, most governments also have a call centre to help customers solve their problems. It is not difficult to imagine that the enquiries on external social media and internal call centre may have some coupling relationships. The couplings could be helpful for studying customers' intent and allocating government's limited resources for better service. In this paper, we mainly focus on analysing the coupling relations between internal call centre and external public media using time series analysis methods for Australia Department of Immigration and Border Protec-tion. The discovered couplings demonstrate that call centre and public media indeed have correlations, which are significant for understanding customers' behaviours

Genetic and clinical assessment of 2009 pandemic influenza in southern China

Introduction: South China has a proven role in the global epidemiology of previous influenza outbreaks due to its dual seasonal pattern. We present the virologic, genetic and clinical characterization of pandemic H1N1 influenza infection (pH1N1) in Shantou and Nanchang, cities in southern China, during the second wave of the 2009-2010 pandemic. Methodology: Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from 165 individuals with influenza-like illness (ILI) who presented to the hospitals in Shantou and Nanchang. Laboratory diagnosis and characterization was performed by real-time PCR, virus isolation in embryonated chicken eggs, and sequencing. Results: pH1N1 activity was sustained in three different temporal patterns throughout the study period. The overall positivity rate of pH1N1 was 50% with major distribution among young adults between the ages of 13 and 30 years. High fever, cough, expectoration, chest pain, myalgia, nasal discharge and efficient viral replication were observed as major clinical markers whereas a substantial number of afebrile cases (17%) was also observed. Rate of hospitalization and disease severity (39%) and recovery (100%) were also high within the region. Furthermore, severe complications were likely to develop in young adults upon pH1N1 infection. Genetic characterization of the HA and NA genes of pH1N1 strains exhibited homogenous spread of pH1N1 strains with 99% identity with prototypic strains; however, minor unique mutations were also observed in the HA gene. Conclusion: The study illustrates the detailed characteristics of 2009 influenza pandemic in southern parts of China that might help to strategize preparedness for future pandemics and subsequent influenza seasons.</br

Reinforcement learning-based inertia and droop control for wind farm frequency regulation

As more and more wind turbines (WTs) are installed, there is an increasing interest in actively controlling their power output to meet power set-points and to participate in the frequency regulation for the utility grid. Conventional inertial and droop control loops use fixed gains, making it difficult to utilise the kinetic energy of WTs in a wind farm in a synergistic manner based on real-time information. In this paper, the fixed gains are modified to adaptive gains to improve frequency support performance and reduce the impact on mechanical structures. The cooperative frequency control problem for all WTs in a wind farm is modelled as a decentralised partially observable Markov decision process (Dec-POMDP) and solved using a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) algorithm. MATLAB/Simulink and FAST are run in connection to simulate the frequency response of a wind farm, where FAST simulates the mechanical part of WTs and Simulink simulates the electrical part. Simulation results show that the proposed method is effective in reducing frequency drops and the impact of frequency control on the mechanical structure

A multi-agent reinforcement learning approach for wind farm frequency control

As wind turbines (WTs) become more prevalent, there is an increasing interest in actively controlling their power output to participate in the frequency regulation for the power grid. Conventional frequency regulation controllers use fixed gains, making it difficult for the WT to adjust its kinetic energy uptake to its operating conditions and to collaborate effectively with other WTs in the wind farm. In addition, the design of conventional frequency controllers does not consider their impacts on mechanical structure. To address these issues, we model the cooperative frequency control problem for all WTs in a wind farm as a decentralised partially observable Markov decision process (Dec-POMDP) and use a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) algorithm to solve it. We also develop a grid-connected wind farm simulation model based on MATLAB/Simulink and OpenFAST, which can reflect the detailed interactions between the electrical and mechanical components of WTs. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy is effective in reducing frequency drops and has less impact on mechanical structure deflections compared with traditional methods

Neurospheres from rat adipose-derived stem cells could be induced into functional Schwann cell-like cells in vitro

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Schwann cells (SC) which are myelin-forming cells in peripheral nervous system are very useful for the treatment of diseases of peripheral nervous system and central nervous system. However, it is difficult to obtain sufficient large number of SC for clinical use, so alternative cell systems are desired.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using a procedure similar to the one used for propagation of neural stem cells, we could induce rat adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) into floating neurospheres. In addition to being able to differentiate into neuronal- and glial-like cells, neurospheres could be induced to differentiate into SC-like cells. SC-like cells were bi- or tri-polar in shape and immunopositive for nestin and SC markers p75, GFAP and S-100, identical to genuine SC. We also found that SC-like cells could induce the differentiation of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells efficiently, perhaps through secretion of soluble substances. We showed further that SC-like cells could form myelin structures with PC12 cell neurites in vitro.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings indicated that ADSC could differentiate into SC-like cells in terms of morphology, phenotype and functional capacities. SC-like cells induced from ADSC may be useful for the treatment of neurological diseases.</p

Enhanced effect of microdystrophin gene transfection by HSV-VP22 mediated intercellular protein transport

Background: Duchenne musclar dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disease caused by mutations of dystrophin gene, there is no effective treatment for this disorder at present. Plasmidmediated gene therapy is a promising therapeutical approach for the treatment of DMD. One of the major issues with plasmid-mediated gene therapy for DMD is poor transfection efficiency and distribution. The herpes simplex virus protein VP22 has the capacity to spread from a primary transduced cell to surrounding cells and improve the outcome of gene transfer. To improve the efficiency of plasmid-mediated gene therapy and investigate the utility of the intercellular trafficking properties of VP22-linked protein for the treatment for DMD, expression vectors for C-terminal versions of VP22-microdystrophin fusion protein was constructed and the VP22-mediated shuttle effect was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. Results: Our results clearly demonstrate that the VP22-microdystrophin fusion protein could transport into C2C12 cells from 3T3 cells, moreover, the VP22-microdystrophin fusion protein enhanced greatly the amount of microdystrophin that accumulated following microdystrophin gene transfer in both transfected 3T3 cells and in the muscles of dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice. Conclusion: These results highlight the efficiency of the VP22-mediated intercellular protein delivery for potential therapy of DMD and suggested that protein transduction may be a potential and versatile tool to enhance the effects of gene delivery for somatic gene therapy of DMD.National Natural Science Foundation of China (30370510, 30170337); CMB Fund (4209347); the Key Project of the State Ministry of Public Health (2001321); and National Nature Science Foundation of China (30400322)

Heterogeneous virulence of pandemic 2009 influenza H1N1 virus in mice

Background Understanding the pathogenesis of influenza infection is a key factor leading to the prevention and control of future outbreaks. Pandemic 2009 Influenza H1N1 infection, although frequently mild, led to a severe and fatal form of disease in certain cases that make its virulence nature debatable. Much effort has been made toward explaining the determinants of disease severity; however, no absolute reason has been established. Results This study presents the heterogeneous virulence of clinically similar strains of pandemic 2009 influenza virus in human alveolar adenocarcinoma cells and mice. The viruses were obtained from patients who were admitted in a local hospital in China with a similar course of infection and recovered. The A/Nanchang/8002/2009 and /Nanchang/8011/2009 viruses showed efficient replication and high lethality in mice while infection with A/Nanchang/8008/2009 was not lethal with impaired viral replication, minimal pathology and modest proinflammatory activity in lungs. Sequence analysis displayed prominent differences between polymerase subunits (PB2 and PA) of viral genomes that might correlate with their different phenotypic behavior. Conclusions The study confirms that biological heterogeneity, linked with the extent of viral replication, exists among pandemic H1N1 strains that may serve as a benchmark for future investigations on influenza pathogenesis.</br

Spindle Assembly Checkpoint Regulates Mitotic Cell Cycle Progression during Preimplantation Embryo Development

Errors in chromosome segregation or distribution may result in aneuploid embryo formation, which causes implantation failure, spontaneous abortion, genetic diseases, or embryo death. Embryonic aneuploidy occurs when chromosome aberrations are present in gametes or early embryos. To date, it is still unclear whether the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) is required for the regulation of mitotic cell cycle progression to ensure mitotic fidelity during preimplantation development. In this study, using overexpression and RNA interference (RNAi) approaches, we analyzed the role of SAC components (Bub3, BubR1 and Mad2) in mouse preimplantation embryos. Our data showed that overexpressed SAC components inhibited metaphase-anaphase transition by preventing sister chromatid segregation. Deletion of SAC components by RNAi accelerated the metaphase-anaphase transition during the first cleavage and caused micronuclei formation, chromosome misalignment and aneuploidy, which caused decreased implantation and delayed development. Furthermore, in the presence of the spindle-depolymerizing drug nocodazole, SAC depleted embryos failed to arrest at metaphase. Our results suggest that SAC is essential for the regulation of mitotic cell cycle progression in cleavage stage mouse embryos