Efficacy of statistical algorithms in imputing missing data of streamflow discharge imparted with variegated variances and seasonalities

Streamflow missing data rises to a real challenge for calibration and validation of hydrological models as well as for statistically based methods of streamflow prediction. Although several algorithms have been developed thus far to impute missing values of hydro(geo)logical time series, the effectiveness of methods in imputation when the time series are influenced by different seasonalities and variances have remained largely unexplored. Therefore, we evaluated the efficacy of five different statistical algorithms in imputation of streamflow and groundwater level missing data under variegated periodicities and variances. Our performance evaluation is based on the streamflow data, procured from a hydrological model, and the observed groundwater data from the federal state of Brandenburg in Northeast Germany. Our findings revealed that imputations methods embodying the time series nature of the data (i.e., preceding value, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), and autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity model (ARCH)) resulted in MSEs (Mean Squared Error) that are between 20 and 40 times smaller than the MSEs obtained from the Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, which do not consider this quality. ARCH and ARIMA excelled in imputing missing values for hydrological time series, specifically for the streamflow and groundwater level data. ARCH outperformed ARIMA in both the streamflow and groundwater imputation under various conditions, such as without seasonality, with seasonality, low and high variance, and high variance (white noise) conditions. For the streamflow data, ARCH achieved average MSEs of 0.0000704 and 0.0003487 and average NSEs of 0.9957710 and 0.9965222 under without seasonality and high variance conditions, respectively. Similarly, for the groundwater level data, ARCH demonstrated its capability with average MSEs of 0.000635040 and average NSEs of 0.9971351 under GWBR1 condition. The effectiveness of ARCH, originated from econometric time series methods, should be further assessed by other hydro(geo)logical time series obtained from different climate zones

Clinical manifestations and imaging and pathological features of giant cell angioblastoma: Report of four cases and literature review

Giant cell angioblastoma is a relatively rare vasogenic tumour. To date, studies on its clinical manifestations, imaging characteristics, pathological features, and prognosis are extremely limited and unknown, with only a few cases recorded. In this study, four cases of giant cell angioblastoma confirmed by pathological examination were reported to improve our understanding and deep exploration of the tumour spectrum. All cases in our study were male, including two adults and two boys. The lesions were located in the lower segment of the femur, medial condyle of the femur, knee joint, and popliteal fossa. Regarding the imaging characteristics, two patients with lesions in bone showed bone destruction, while the other two had lesions that invaded soft tissues, showing irregular, abnormal signal shadows and obvious enhancement. Histopathological analysis revealed that the nodular tumour tissue was mainly composed of oval and spindle cells, with varying numbers of osteoclast-like multinucleated giant cells, and the interstitial tissues were often filled with blood vessels of different sizes. The immunophenotype demonstrates that endothelial cells of small vessels in nodules expressed CD31, SMA, and ERG, while osteoclast-like multinucleated giant cells and histiocytes expressed CD68 and CD163, and the surrounding cells expressed SMA. All four patients were treated with surgical resection. One of them relapsed 1 month after surgery and received a second surgical resection. No distant metastasis or death occurred during the follow-up period. This study indicates that giant cell angioblastoma is a local invasive vascular tumour that can develop both in children and adults with skin, mucous membrane, soft tissue, and bone involvement. Imaging characteristics show bone destruction and irregular, abnormal signal shadows; in addition, obvious pathological morphological features can be observed. Currently, the treatment is mainly surgical resection, and interferons may be used as adjuvant chemotherapy

Quantitative Analysis of Intestinal Flora of Uygur and Han Ethnic Chinese Patients with Ulcerative Colitis

Aim. To study the correlation between intestinal flora and ulcerative colitis by analyzing the abundance of Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, Clostridium, Bifidobacterium spp., and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in the intestinal of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and healthy controls with Uygur and Han ethnic. Methods. Bacterial genomic DNA was extracted from fecal samples and analyzed with real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify the abundance of Bacteroides, Fusobacterium, Clostridium, Bifidobacterium spp., and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. Results. The samples from UC patients, Uygur and Han ethnic combined, had higher abundance of Bacteroides (P=0.026) but lower Clostridium (P=0.004), Bifidobacterium spp. (P=0.009), and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (P=0.008) than those from healthy controls. Among UC patients, Bacteroides population was raised in acute UC patients (P≤0.05), while the abundance of Clostridium, Bifidobacterium spp., Fusobacterium, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii decreased (P≤0.05) compared with the remission. In both UC patients group and control group, no difference was observed in the abundance of these 5 bacteria between the Han and the Uygur group. Conclusions. Variations in the abundance of these five bacterial strains in intestines may be associated with the occurrence of UC in Uygur and Han populations; however, these variations were not associated with ethnic difference

Critical roles of multiphase coexistence in boosting piezo-catalytic activity of BaTiO3-based piezoelectric ceramics

Recently, piezocatalysis induced by perovskite ferroelectric ceramics has widely been favored as a possible fascinating strategy for water remediation due to its low cost, simplicity and feasibility. Herein, a strategy of three-ferroelectric-phase coexistence is proposed to boost the piezocatalytic performance of BaTiO3-based ceramics by introducing Ca(Sn0.5Zr0.5)O3 into BaTiO3. The piezocatalysts of (1-x)BaTiO3–xCa(Sn0.5Zr0.5)O3 ceramics were prepared by a high-temperature solid-phase method. The phase structure, microstructure, electrical properties and catalytic performance of ceramics were comprehensively studied. As x increases from 0 to 0.10, the ceramics undergo the phase evolution from single tetragonal phase to multiphase (coexistence of rhombic, orthorhombic, and tetragonal phases). It is found that the phase structure of the ceramics plays a critical role in enhancing the piezocatalytic activity. The pure BaTiO3 exhibits the tetragonal (T) phase with few spontaneous polarization directions and high polarization rotational energy barrier, resulting in poor catalytic performance and low piezoelectricity. With the coexistence of rhombic (R), orthorhombic (O) and tetragonal (T) phases, the ceramic with x = 0.1 exhibits the increased spontaneous polarization directions and low polarization rotational energy barrier, leading to excellent catalytic performance and high piezoelectricity. Especially, for the ceramics with x = 0.10, the degradation rates of rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) under ultrasonication reach 97 %, 93 % and 73 %, respectively. In addition, the influencing factors of piezocatalytic degradation of RhB and the catalytic mechanism are investigated. This work proposes an environmentally friendly piezoelectric material for improving the water environment and a strategy for improving the catalytic activity of BaTiO3-based lead-free piezoelectric materials

Inactivation of a Novel FGF23 Regulator, FAM20C, Leads to Hypophosphatemic Rickets in Mice

Family with sequence similarity 20,-member C (FAM20C) is highly expressed in the mineralized tissues of mammals. Genetic studies showed that the loss-of-function mutations in FAM20C were associated with human lethal osteosclerotic bone dysplasia (Raine Syndrome), implying an inhibitory role of this molecule in bone formation. However, in vitro gain- and loss-of-function studies suggested that FAM20C promotes the differentiation and mineralization of mouse mesenchymal cells and odontoblasts. Recently, we generated Fam20c conditional knockout (cKO) mice in which Fam20c was globally inactivated (by crossbreeding with Sox2-Cre mice) or inactivated specifically in the mineralized tissues (by crossbreeding with 3.6 kb Col 1a1-Cre mice). Fam20c transgenic mice were also generated and crossbred with Fam20c cKO mice to introduce the transgene in the knockout background. In vitro gain- and loss-of-function were examined by adding recombinant FAM20C to MC3T3-E1 cells and by lentiviral shRNA–mediated knockdown of FAM20C in human and mouse osteogenic cell lines. Surprisingly, both the global and mineralized tissue-specific cKO mice developed hypophosphatemic rickets (but not osteosclerosis), along with a significant downregulation of osteoblast differentiation markers and a dramatic elevation of fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) in the serum and bone. The mice expressing the Fam20c transgene in the wild-type background showed no abnormalities, while the expression of the Fam20c transgene fully rescued the skeletal defects in the cKO mice. Recombinant FAM20C promoted the differentiation and mineralization of MC3T3-E1 cells. Knockdown of FAM20C led to a remarkable downregulation of DMP1, along with a significant upregulation of FGF23 in both human and mouse osteogenic cell lines. These results indicate that FAM20C is a bone formation “promoter” but not an “inhibitor” in mouse osteogenesis. We conclude that FAM20C may regulate osteogenesis through its direct role in facilitating osteoblast differentiation and its systemic regulation of phosphate homeostasis via the mediation of FGF23

Editor\u27s Notes, Chiba Medical Journal 90-1

Multiple sequence alignment of deduced amino acid sequences of 25 wheat annexin genes with rice annexin OsAnn2 (Os05g31760) obtained by ClustalW. (PDF 212 kb

Protective Roles of DMP1 in High Phosphate Homeostasis

PURPOSE: Dmp1 (dentin matrix protein1) null mice (Dmp1(−/−)) display hypophosphatemic rickets with a sharp increase in fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23). Disruption of Klotho (the obligatory co-receptor of FGF23) results in hyperphosphatemia with ectopic calcifications formed in blood vessels and kidneys. To determine the role of DMP1 in both a hyperphosphatemic environment and within the ectopic calcifications, we created Dmp1/Klotho compound deficient (Dmp1(−/−)kl/kl) mice. PROCEDURES: A combination of TUNEL, immunohistochemistry, TRAP, von Kossa, micro CT, bone histomorphometry, serum biochemistry and Scanning Electron Microscopy techniques were used to analyze the changes in blood vessels, kidney and bone for wild type control, Dmp1(−/−), Klotho deficient (kl/kl) and Dmp1(−/−)kl/kl animals. FINDINGS: Interestingly, Dmp1(−/−)kl/kl mice show a dramatic improvement of rickets and an identical serum biochemical phenotype to kl/kl mice (extremely high FGF23, hyperphosphatemia and reduced parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels). Unexpectedly, Dmp1(−/−)kl/kl mice presented elevated levels of apoptosis in osteocytes, endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells in small and large blood vessels, and within the kidney as well as dramatic increase in ectopic calcification in all these tissues, as compared to kl/kl. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that DMP1 has an anti-apoptotic role in hyperphosphatemia. Discovering this novel protective role of DMP1 may have clinical relevance in protecting the cells from apoptosis in high-phosphate environments as observed in chronic kidney disease (CKD)

Association of increased Treg and Th17 with pathogenesis of moyamoya disease

Immuno-inflammation has been shown to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of moyamoya disease (MMD). However, how did circulating Treg/Th17 cells involve in MMD patients remains unclear. 26 MMD, 21 atherothrombotic stroke, and 32 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. MMD patients have a significantly higher percentage of circulating Treg and Th17 cells as well as their dominantly secreting cytokines than other groups (P < 0.0001), whereas no difference was found in the ratio of Treg/Th17 between patients in MMD and atherothrombotic stroke group or control subjects (P = 0.244). However, the increased Treg in MMD patients which were enriched with FrIII Treg cells had deficient suppressive functions (P = 0.0017) compared to healthy volunteers. There was a positive correlation between Treg or TGF-β and MMD Suzuki’s stage. And the level of circulating Treg was as an independent factor associated with MMD stage. Besides, TGF-β was also correlated with the increased expression of VEGF in MMD patients. Our findings indicated an important involvement of circulating Treg in the pathogenic development of MMD and TGF-β in Treg induced VEGF