Comparative Study on the Structures of Chinese and Korean Compound Words

The goal of the research was to compare the compound words in Chinese, an isolated language, and Korean, an agglutinative language. This research used library research. The researchers found that the main characteristics of the formation of Korean compound words were that the latter element was the central word. The method of word formation decided its lexical category. Moreover, most of the internal relationships of the compound words were connection and modification. While in Chinese, the endocentric compound noun decided the part of speech of the compound word, and could be the proceeding element or the latter element. Furthermore, Chinese contained no complicated morphological changes. It is concluded that Korean is a Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) language, where verb elements demonstrate a central feature of the compound verb are always a trailing part. Thus, there is no exocentric compound verb in Korean. By contrast, Chinese is a typical SVO language. When constituting the compound verbs, nouns or adjectives can function as the structural elements. Therefore, there is no permanent position for head words

Empirical risk minimization for metric learning using privileged information

Traditional metric learning methods usually make decisions based on a fixed threshold, which may result in a suboptimal metric when the inter-class and inner-class variations are complex. To address this issue, in this paper we propose an effective metric learning method by exploiting privileged information to relax the fixed threshold under the empirical risk minimization framework. Privileged information describes useful high-level semantic information that is only available during training. Our goal is to improve the performance by incorporating privileged information to design a locally adaptive decision function. We jointly learn two distance metrics by minimizing the empirical loss penalizing the difference between the distance in the original space and that in the privileged space. The distance in the privileged space functions as a locally adaptive decision threshold, which can guide the decision making like a teacher. We optimize the objective function using the Accelerated Proximal Gradient approach to obtain a global optimum solution. Experiment results show that by leveraging privileged information, our proposed method can achieve satisfactory performance

Effects of recombinant human collagen VI from Escherichia coli on UVA-irradiated human skin fibroblasts cells

In this study, we reported the cloning and over expression of a gene coding for human collagen peptide (CP6) in Escherichia coli and investigated the protective effects of CP6 on UVA-irradiated human skin fibroblasts cells. The collagen peptide (CP6) was highly soluble and the expression level was approximately 10% of the total bacteria proteins. Also, we performed assays with 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol- 2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT), Annexin V-fluorescein isothiocyanate/propidine iodide (Annexin V-FITC/PI) and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) methods to investigate the cytoprotective effects of CP6 on the proliferation of UVA-damaged human skin fibroblasts cells. Radiation dosages (5 J/cm2) significantly decreased the proliferation activities of human skin fibroblasts cells (HSF). Compared with UVA irradiated group, in the given concentration, CP6 could improve the activities of cell’s proliferation (P<0.05) and decrease the apoptosis rate of cell significantly (P<0.01). UVA could damage the human skin fibroblasts cell in vitro. The CP6 had protective effects on HSF irradiated by UVA, and the mechanism of this effect might be associated with its anti-oxidative effect and enhancing cell’s proliferation.Key words: Protein expression, Collagen peptide, Human skin fibroblasts cells, UVA

Novel Non-Toxic Xylene Substitute (SBO) for Histology

Xylene has been generally used as a clearing and deparaffinizing agent in histology. Because of the potential toxic and flammable nature of xylene, its substitutes have been introduced into some laboratories. In this study, we introduced a novel, non-toxic xylene substitute (SBO), which was  generated through a mixture of 86% of white oil No.2 and 14% of N-heptane. SBO had a high boiling point (188°C) and flash point (144°C) coupled with a scentless and decreased volatility. To compare the effectiveness of SBO and xylene in histology, a wide range of tissue samples from rats and human beings were processed in parallel in SBO and xylene, subjected to various staining procedures. Similar to the xylene-processed paraffin blocks, the SBO-processed counterparts were easy to section without any evidence of cell shrinkage. Assessment of the SBO-treated sections stained with hematoxylin-eosin revealed a good maintenance of cell morphology and structure, and a clear definition of the cytoplasm and the nucleus. Moreover, comparable good results were achieved between the SBO- and xylene-processed tissues in other histochemical and immunohistochemical stainings. Six-month clinical applications at one department of pathology supported the potentials of SBO as a xylene substitute. In conclusion, we suggest that SBO is a safe and efficient substitute of xylene and may probably replace xylene without losing valuable diagnostic information.Key words: SBO, clearing agent, xylene, histology, toxicit

Structural, electronic, magnetic properties of Cu-doped lead-apatite Pb10−x_{10-x}Cux_x(PO4_4)6_6O

The recent report of superconductivity in the Cu-doped PbPO compound stimulates the extensive researches on its physical properties. Herein, the detailed atomic and electronic structures of this compound are investigated, which are the necessary information to explain the physical properties, including possible superconductivity. By the first-principles electronic structure calculations, we find that the partial replacement of Pb at $4f$ site by Cu atom, instead of Pb at $6h$ site, plays a crucial role in dominating the electronic state at Fermi energy. The $3d$ electronic orbitals of Cu atom emerge near the Fermi energy and exhibit strong spin-polarization, resulting in the local moment around the doped Cu atom. Particularly, the ground state of Pb$_{10-x}$Cu$_x$(PO$_4$)$_6$O (x = 1) is determined to be a semiconducting phase, in good agreement with the experimental measurements

Subcellular localization of Bombyx mori ribosomal protein S3a and effect of its over-expression on BmNPV infection

In the present study, using a BV/PH-Bms3a-EGFP, we found that Bombyx mori ribosomal protein S3a (BmS3a) with EGFP fused to its C-terminal, was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm of B. mori cells. Subsequently, to investigate the effect of BmS3a over-expression on BmNPV infection both at the cellular level and in vivo, a transgenic BmN cell line expressing BmS3a was constructed using a piggybac-A3-EGFP and recombinant baculovirues expressing BmS3a-EGFP fusion protein (BV/IE1-Bms3a-EGFP) or EGFP (BV/EGFP) were produced using BmNPV/Bac-to-Bac expression system. Results showed that the number of polyhedral in the transgenic cells of BmS3a was much smaller than that in non-transgenic cells, and that silkworms injected with BV/IE1-Bms3a-EGFP survived much longer than those injected with BV/EGFP. Taken together, we speculated that BmS3a might be capable of inhibiting BmNPV replication through its activities in the cytoplasm

GPU-based Iterative Cone Beam CT Reconstruction Using Tight Frame Regularization

X-ray imaging dose from serial cone-beam CT (CBCT) scans raises a clinical concern in most image guided radiation therapy procedures. It is the goal of this paper to develop a fast GPU-based algorithm to reconstruct high quality CBCT images from undersampled and noisy projection data so as to lower the imaging dose. For this purpose, we have developed an iterative tight frame (TF) based CBCT reconstruction algorithm. A condition that a real CBCT image has a sparse representation under a TF basis is imposed in the iteration process as regularization to the solution. To speed up the computation, a multi-grid method is employed. Our GPU implementation has achieved high computational efficiency and a CBCT image of resolution 512\times512\times70 can be reconstructed in ~5 min. We have tested our algorithm on a digital NCAT phantom and a physical Catphan phantom. It is found that our TF-based algorithm is able to reconstrct CBCT in the context of undersampling and low mAs levels. We have also quantitatively analyzed the reconstructed CBCT image quality in terms of modulation-transfer-function and contrast-to-noise ratio under various scanning conditions. The results confirm the high CBCT image quality obtained from our TF algorithm. Moreover, our algorithm has also been validated in a real clinical context using a head-and-neck patient case. Comparisons of the developed TF algorithm and the current state-of-the-art TV algorithm have also been made in various cases studied in terms of reconstructed image quality and computation efficiency.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Phys. Med. Bio

Thin film Gallium nitride (GaN) based acoustofluidic Tweezer: Modelling and microparticle manipulation.

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound semiconductor which shows advantages in new functionalities and applications due to its piezoelectric, optoelectronic, and piezo-resistive properties. This study develops a thin film GaN-based acoustic tweezer (GaNAT) using surface acoustic waves (SAWs) and demonstrates its acoustofluidic ability to pattern and manipulate microparticles. Although the piezoelectric performance of the GaNAT is compromised compared with conventional lithium niobate-based SAW devices, the inherited properties of GaN allow higher input powers and superior thermal stability. This study shows for the first time that thin film GaN is suitable for the fabrication of the acoustofluidic devices to manipulate microparticles with excellent performance. Numerical modelling of the acoustic pressure fields and the trajectories of mixtures of microparticles driven by the GaNAT was performed and the results were verified from the experimental studies using samples of polystyrene microspheres. The work has proved the robustness of thin film GaN as a candidate material to develop high-power acoustic tweezers, with the potential of monolithical integration with electronics to offer diverse microsystem applications.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant numbers: EP/P002803/1, EP/P018998/1, Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi Province/2020JQ-233, Fundamental Scientific Research of Central Universities/3102017OQD116, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council fellowship /EP/N01202X/2, Royal Society / IEC/NSFC/170142, IE161019, Natural Science Foundation of China/61704017, Dalian Science and Technology Innovation Fund/2018J11CY00

Gallium Nitride: A Versatile Compound Semiconductor as Novel Piezoelectric Film for Acoustic Tweezer in Manipulation of Cancer Cells

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a compound semiconductor which has advantages to generate new functionalities and applications due to its piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and piezo-resistive properties. Recently, surface acoustic wave (SAW) based acoustic tweezers were developed as an efficient and versatile tool to manipulate nano- and micro-particles aiming for patterning, separating and mixing biological and chemical components. Conventional piezoelectric materials to fabricate SAW devices such as lithium niobate suffers from its low thermal conductivity and incapability of fabricating multiphysical and integrated devices. This work piloted the development of a GaN-based Acoustic Tweezer (GaNAT) and its application in manipulating micro-particles and biological cells. For the first time, the GaN SAW device was integrated with a microfluidic channel to form an acoustofluidic chip for biological applications. The GaNAT demonstrated its ability to work on high power (up to 10W) with minimal cooling requirement while maintaining the device temperature below 32C. Acoustofluidic modelling was successfully applied to numerically study and predict acoustic pressure field and particle trajectories within the GaNAT, which agree well with the experimental results on patterning polystyrene microspheres and two types of biological cells including fibroblast and renal tumour cells. The GaNAT allowed both cell types to maintain high viabilities of 84.5% and 92.1%, respectively.This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China (81501472, 61704017), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) fellowship EP/N01202X/2, EP/P002803/1 and EP/P018998/1, Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), and the Royal Society (IEC/NSFC/170142, IE161019)