Moderate Exercise Enhances Endothelial Progenitor Cell Exosomes Release and Function

Purpose: Exercise has cardiovascular benefits which might be related to endothelial progenitor cells (EPC). Meanwhile, there is evidence suggesting that EPC-derived exosomes (EPC-EX) promote vascular repair and angiogenesis through their carried microRNA (miR)-126. In this study, we investigated whether exercise could increase the levels of circulating EPC-EX and their miR-126 cargo, and by which promote the protective function of EPC-EX on endothelial cells (EC). Methods: Plasma EPC-EX from sedentary, low, or moderate exercise mice, respectively, denoted as EPC-EXS, EPC-EXL, and EPC-EXM, were isolated using microbead-based sorting techniques and characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis, Western blot, and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assessments of biomarkers and miR-126. High glucose (25 mM) with hypoxia (1% O2) was used for inducing an EC injury model. The injured EC were treated by coculturing with vehicle, EPC-EXS, EPC-EXL, EPC-EXM, or EPC-EXM + anti–miR-126. After that, EC were used for flow cytometry analysis of apoptosis, assessments of tube formation and migration, and measurements of miR-126 level and its downstream sprouty-related protein-1 (SPRED1) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Results: 1) Isolated EPC-EX positively expressed exosomal markers (CD63 and Tsg101) and EPC markers (CD34 and VEGFR2). 2) Exercise intensity dependently elevated plasma level of EPC, EPC-EX/EPC ratio, and miR-126 expression in EPC and EPC-EX. 3) Injured EC displayed apoptosis increment, angiogenic dysfunction and miR-126 reduction. 4) EPC-EXM had better effects than EPC-EXS and EPC-EXL on alleviating those changes of injured EC, accompanied with SPRED1 downregulation and VEGF upregulation. 5) The effects of EPC-EXM were abolished by miR-126 knockdown. Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that exercise can increase EPC-EX release and miR-126 level and enhance the effects of EPC-EX on protecting EC against injury through the SPRED1/VEGF pathway

Effect of thermal history on the deformation of non-metallic inclusions during plain strain compression

The deformation of inclusions in the steel was affected by the thermal history during the physical simulation of steel processing. After plain strain compression with a reduction of 30%, the average aspect ratio of inclusions in the steel sample cooled down to 1673 K from semi-solid state was 1.89, which was significantly higher than 1.29 in the steel sample heated persistently up to the same temperature. The mechanism was revealed by inclusion transformation

Effect of compression reduction on deformation of CaO‐CaS‐Al 2 O 3 ‐MgO inclusions in solid and semi‐solid steel

Plain strain deformation was performed on solid steel samples at 1473 K and semi‐solid samples at 1743 K. The deformation of inclusions under the reductions of 10%, 20%, and 30% was studied. In the solid steel deformed at 1473 K, the average aspect ratio of inclusions increased from 1.23 in the original slab to 2.07, 2.23, and 2.30 under the reduction of 10%, 20%, and 30%. The deformation of inclusions in the semi‐solid steel was hardly influenced by the reduction. The deformation of inclusions was much more in the solid steel than that in the semi‐solid steel in the current study. Inclusion deformation was explained by the difference of hardness between the inclusion phase and the steel matrix. Stress‐strain curves during deformations indicated that the semi‐solid steel matrix at 1743 K was much softer than the solid steel matrix at 1473 K. Compared to the composition of inclusions in the original slab, the CaS content of inclusions in steel samples deformed at 1473 K was higher, while it was lower in the samples deformed at 1743 K. The CaO content changed inversely. Inclusions in steel samples deformed at 1473 K were a little harder than those in steel samples deformed at 1743 K due to the thicker CaS shell formed in the outer layer. The composition transformation of inclusions was mainly caused by the change of the thermodynamic equilibrium between the steel matrix and inclusions at various temperatures. In the solid steel at 1473 K, the strain concentrated on the soft calcium aluminate phase, resulting in a higher deformation amount of inclusions. In the semi‐solid steel at 1743 K, the soft steel matrix deformed more than inclusions, leading in turn to a smaller deformation of inclusions

Cognitive and Action Sequence Prediction using Deductive Reasoning

Early in the process of the development of an aircraft cockpit, although the designers always introduce a set of operational procedures with the expectation that all pilots would follow, it is very difficult to guarantee that the flight crew will do exactly they are expected to do. The deviation of the pilots’ operation from the intended procedures may lead to an unsafe situation, and could also be an indication to the inherent reason for the biases in the pilots’ cognitive process. It became very obvious that a tool that could help to predict a comprehensive set of possible operations that the pilots would operate the aircraft will be very useful both in the flight deck design process and pilot training practices. This paper presents the development of the researches in the “Cognitive and Action Sequence Prediction using Deductive Creation Theory (CASEPREDICT)”. Unlike any human-made system which the response of the system can be predicted to certain degree of accuracy, a human-in-theloop system is always associated with a great deal of uncertainty issues which comes from the cognitive process of human operators

SARS-CoV-2 Restructures Host Chromatin Architecture

Some viruses restructure host chromatin, influencing gene expression, with implications for disease outcome. Whether this occurs for SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is largely unknown. Here we characterized the 3D genome and epigenome of human cells after SARS-CoV-2 infection, finding widespread host chromatin restructuring that features widespread compartment A weakening, A-B mixing, reduced intra-TAD contacts and decreased H3K27ac euchromatin modification levels. Such changes were not found following common-cold-virus HCoV-OC43 infection. Intriguingly, the cohesin complex was notably depleted from intra-TAD regions, indicating that SARS-CoV-2 disrupts cohesin loop extrusion. These altered 3D genome/epigenome structures correlated with transcriptional suppression of interferon response genes by the virus, while increased H3K4me3 was found in the promoters of pro-inflammatory genes highly induced during severe COVID-19. These findings show that SARS-CoV-2 acutely rewires host chromatin, facilitating future studies of the long-term epigenomic impacts of its infection

汇纳科技：大数据引领零售变革

本案例聚焦实体零售数字化变革背景下，汇纳科技股份有限公司（以下简称汇纳科技）从向实体商业客户销售客流分析系统转型为提供大数据服务时面临的挑战和关键决策。 自2004年创立，汇纳科技一直为百货、购物中心等实体商业客户提供客流分析系统软硬件和运维服务，成为该细分领域的龙头。但随着近年来大数据、人工智能等技术的发展和市场需求的变化，实体零售数字化变革成为大趋势。董事长张宏俊敏锐地意识到，简单的客流统计分析将逐渐无法满足客户日益增长的数据需求，而零售与大数据等技术的融合蕴含着巨大商机。因此，2015年，汇纳科技搭建了“汇客云”大数据平台，尝试把实体商业客户的数据汇聚到平台上，并于2018年底基于平台数据的积累推出了大数据服务，主要包括客流对标、客群分析和商圈洞察、运营诊断、营销活动评估与优化，旨在为实体零售客户提供基于深度大数据分析的精细化运营建议和决策支持，帮助客户降本增效。 但推广几个月来，市场反应平平。张宏俊和团队集思广益，梳理出公司转型大数据服务需要解决的几个根本性问题，包括大数据服务应采取怎样的盈利模式，如何培育市场，如何发展新产品和新业务以实现持续发展等

Winner Technology: Big Data Disruption in the Retail Industry

This case focuses on the challenges and key decisions facing Winner Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Winner Technology or Winner) when shifting from selling brick-and-mortar retailers with a traffic analytics system to providing them big data services. Founded in 2004, Winner Technology, which focused on providing traffic analytics system as well as related services for brick-and-mortar retailers such as department stores and shopping centers, had become the leader in this industry. However, with the shifting consumer behaviors and the recent advancement of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, digital disruption of brick-and-mortar retail became a major trend. Mr. Zhang Hongjun, chairman and CEO of the company, was keenly aware that simple traffic data analytics could not keep up with the retailers' growing needs while the application of big data in the retail industry brought about tremendous opportunities. Therefore, in 2015, Winner Technology established "winneryun.com", acting as a platform to marshal traffic data in the Chinese retail industry, and launched enhanced big data services based on the data resources at the end of 2018. The services, which mainly included foot traffic benchmarking, customer analysis & trade area insights, operational diagnosis, marketing effectiveness assessment and optimization, were designed to provide brick-and-mortar retailers with in-depth big-data-based advice about operational efficiency and decision support. However, the new big data service had received mixed responses from the market. After brainstorming, Zhang and his executive team identified several fundamental issues that the company needed to address in providing big data services, including: what kind of revenue model should be adopted for big data services? How to cultivate the market? And how to diversify into new products and business to achieve a sustained growth