Selecting Evaluation Indices for Cleaner Production of Plantation Logging in Southern China with Fuzzy Clustering Methods

Over the years, China has shown a significant reduction in natural forest resources, while the increasing area of plantations has made greater contributions to the huge demand for wood. In southern China, these new plantations have produced some problems such as environmental hazards of logging operations and the most reasonable use of forest resources. A new management process called »cleaner production« is defined as reducing pollution from its source, increasing the rate of utilization of resources, and preventing the generation of pollutants in the production of services and products. In recent years, cleaner production has been widely applied to industrial processes such as agriculture and other environmental industries. In order to make rational use of plantation resources, to achieve maximum economic efficiency and to reduce or remove the environmental hazards of logging operations, it is necessary to carry out an in-depth study of cleaner production on the process of logging operations. This paper aims to establish an index system for cleaner production evaluation of plantation logging. The fuzzy clustering method was used to initially screen twenty-nine indices. After screening by the fuzzy clustering method, six first-grade indices and twelve second-grade important indices were selected as formal evaluation indices. The six first-grade indices are 1) cutting area design index, 2) logging operation techniques index, 3) ecological environmental impact index, 4) utilization of resource and energy index, 5) sustainable development index, and 6) safety production management and protection index. A maximum and minimum matrix method and a correlation coefficient matrix method were used to establish the similar matrix in the fuzzy clustering method. The screening results were then compared. The comparison shows that out of the twelve second-grade indices, ten are similar and two are different. The results suggest that the fuzzy clustering method is reliable for screening indices

IRF2BP2 attenuates gestational diabetes mellitus by activating AMPK signaling

Purpose: To investigate the role of interferon regulatory factor 2 binding protein 2 (IRF2BP2) in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Methods: Mice were injected intraperitoneally with streptozotocin to establish a model of GDM and then subjected to intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) and intraperitoneal insulin tolerance test (IPITT) to determine glucose and insulin tolerances. Lipid metabolism was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The histomorphology of pancreatic islets was assessed by hematoxylin and eosin staining. Results: IRF2BP2 was downregulated in pancreatic tissues of mice with GDM (p < 0.001). Mice in GDM group showed higher blood glucose levels than those in normal pregnancy group. However, overexpression of IRF2BP2 reduced glucose and insulin levels in mice with GDM. Overexpression of IRF2BP2 increased the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and reduced triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels in mice with GDM (p < 0.001). The histopathological changes in the islets of mice with GDM were also ameliorated by overexpression of IRF2BP2. Overexpression of IRF2BP2 reduced IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF-α levels and increased protein expression of p-AMPK in mice with GDM. Conclusion: IRF2BP2 ameliorates the outcomes of GDM and suppressed inflammation in mice with GDM through activation of AMPK signaling. Thus, IRF2BP2 is a potential therapeutic strategy for the management of GDM. Keywords: IRF2BP2; inflammation; gestational diabetes mellitus; AMPK; mice; insulin toleranc

Systematic Review on Acupuncture for Treatment of Dysphagia after Stroke

Objective. To assess the therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture for dysphagia after stroke. Methods. Seven electronic databases were searched from their inception until 31 September 2016. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) incorporating acupuncture or acupuncture combined with other interventions for treatment of dysphagia after stroke were enrolled. Then they were extracted and assessed by two independent evaluators. Direct comparisons were conducted in RevMan 5.3.0 software. Results. 6010 patients of 71 papers were included. The pooled analysis of efficacy rate of 58 studies indicated that acupuncture group was superior to the control group with moderate heterogeneity (RR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.13 1.21, Z=9.08, and P<0.00001); meta-analysis of the studies using blind method showed that the efficacy rate of acupuncture group was 3.01 times that of control group with no heterogeneity (RR = 3.01, 95% CI: 1.95 4.65, Z=4.97, and P<0.00001). Only 13 studies mentioned the safety evaluation. Conclusion. The result showed that the acupuncture group was better than control group in terms of efficacy rate of dysphagia after stroke. And the combining result of those researches using blind method was more strong in proof. Strict evaluation standard and high-quality RCT design are necessary for further exploration

PD-Flow: A Point Cloud Denoising Framework with Normalizing Flows

Point cloud denoising aims to restore clean point clouds from raw observations corrupted by noise and outliers while preserving the fine-grained details. We present a novel deep learning-based denoising model, that incorporates normalizing flows and noise disentanglement techniques to achieve high denoising accuracy. Unlike existing works that extract features of point clouds for point-wise correction, we formulate the denoising process from the perspective of distribution learning and feature disentanglement. By considering noisy point clouds as a joint distribution of clean points and noise, the denoised results can be derived from disentangling the noise counterpart from latent point representation, and the mapping between Euclidean and latent spaces is modeled by normalizing flows. We evaluate our method on synthesized 3D models and real-world datasets with various noise settings. Qualitative and quantitative results show that our method outperforms previous state-of-the-art deep learning-based approaches

Improving Hydrogen Sensing Performance of TiO2 Nanotube Arrays by ZnO Modification

In this work, anodization was utilized to synthesize highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays, and ZnO was successfully decorated onto the surface of as-prepared TiO2 nanotubes via a facile impregnation method. The gas sensing performance of a TiO2@ZnO composite was systematically studied. At a working temperature of 300°C, the response of TiO2@ZnO to 100 ppm H2 was ~340, 2.7 times larger than that of pristine TiO2. A power–law relationship between the response and H2 concentration was observed. In addition, the response time was significantly reduced by four times, and improved selectivity to H2 was achieved. The highly improved sensing performance of TiO2 nanotubes by ZnO decoration may be attributed to the enhanced oxygen adsorption and formation of n-n heterojunctions

Analysis of RIG-I-mediated innate immune response in rats with Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome and its change following Yougui pill administration

350-359Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome (KYDS) is closely bound up with the immune response of immunocompromised patients. The study is to investigate whether retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I)-mediated innate immune response participates in the development of KYDS in rats and evaluate the effect of Yougui pill (YGP) on the response in KYDS rats. KYDS rats were induced by intramuscular injection of hydrocortisone at the dose of 10 mg/kg/d for 15 days. YGP at concentrations of 2.43 g/kg/d and 4.86 g/kg/d were administered intragastrically to KYDS rats for 30 days. The results showed that the body weight, urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroid (17-OHCS) level, spleen size and spleen index in KYDS rats were significantly decreased compared with healthy control rats, while YGP treatment reversed them towards normal level in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, KYDS challenge not only strikingly increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of RIG-I, tripartite motif containing 25 (TRIM25), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) but also markedly enhanced the endogenous RIG-I polyubiquitination levels. Whereas, YGP treatment effectively reversed this tendency in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, these findings revealed that RIG-I-mediated innate immune response was closely bound up with the development of KYDS. And YGP exhibited certain anti-inflammatory effects on KYDS rats via inhibiting the RIG-I-mediated innate immune response

Analysis of RIG-I-mediated innate immune response in rats with Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome and its change following Yougui pill administration

Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome (KYDS) is closely bound up with the immune response of immunocompromised patients. The study is to investigate whether retinoic acid-inducible gene-I (RIG-I)-mediated innate immune responseparticipates in the development of KYDS in rats and evaluate the effect of Yougui pill (YGP) on the response in KYDS rats. KYDS rats were induced by intramuscular injection of hydrocortisone at the dose of 10 mg/kg/d for 15 days. YGP at concentrations of 2.43 g/kg/d and 4.86 g/kg/d were administered intragastrically to KYDS rats for 30 days. The resultsshowed that the body weight, urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroid (17-OHCS) level, spleen size and spleen index in KYDS rats were significantly decreased compared with healthy control rats, while YGP treatment reversed them towards normal level in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, KYDS challenge not only strikingly increased the mRNA and protein expression levels of RIG-I, tripartite motif containing 25 (TRIM25), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) but alsomarkedly enhanced the endogenous RIG-I polyubiquitination levels. Whereas, YGP treatment effectively reversed this tendency in a dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, these findings revealed that RIG-I-mediated innate immune response was closely bound up with the development of KYDS. And YGP exhibited certain anti-inflammatory effects on KYDS rats via inhibiting the RIG-I-mediated innate immune response

Zinc inhibits TRPV1 to alleviate chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain

Zinc is a transition metal that has a long history of use as an anti-inflammatory agent. It also soothes pain sensations in a number of animal models. However, the effects and mechanisms of zinc on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy remain unknown. Here we show that locally injected zinc markedly reduces neuropathic pain in male and female mice induced by paclitaxel, a chemotherapy drug, in a TRPV1-dependent manner. Extracellularly applied zinc also inhibits the function of TRPV1 expressed in HEK293 cells and mouse DRG neurons, which requires the presence of zinc-permeable TRPA1 to mediate entry of zinc into the cytoplasm. Moreover, TRPA1 is required for zinc-induced inhibition of TRPV1-mediated acute nociception. Unexpectedly, zinc transporters, but not TRPA1, are required for zinc-induced inhibition of TRPV1-dependent chronic neuropathic pain produced by paclitaxel. Together, our study demonstrates a novel mechanism underlying the analgesic effect of zinc on paclitaxel-induced neuropathic pain that relies on the function of TRPV1