Collective cell migration: Implications for wound healing and cancer invasion.

During embryonic morphogenesis, wound repair and cancer invasion, cells often migrate collectively via tight cell-cell junctions, a process named collective migration. During such migration, cells move as coherent groups, large cell sheets, strands or tubes rather than individually. One unexpected finding regarding collective cell migration is that being a "multicellular structure" enables cells to better respond to chemical and physical cues, when compared with isolated cells. This is important because epithelial cells heal wounds via the migration of large sheets of cells with tight intercellular connections. Recent studies have gained some mechanistic insights that will benefit the clinical understanding of wound healing in general. In this review, we will briefly introduce the role of collective cell migration in wound healing, regeneration and cancer invasion and discuss its underlying mechanisms as well as implications for wound healing

Architecture of Advanced Numerical Analysis Systems

This unique open access book applies the functional OCaml programming language to numerical or computational weighted data science, engineering, and scientific applications. This book is based on the authors' first-hand experience building and maintaining Owl, an OCaml-based numerical computing library. You'll first learn the various components in a modern numerical computation library. Then, you will learn how these components are designed and built up and how to optimize their performance. After reading and using this book, you'll have the knowledge required to design and build real-world complex systems that effectively leverage the advantages of the OCaml functional programming language. What You Will Learn Optimize core operations based on N-dimensional arrays Design and implement an industry-level algorithmic differentiation module Implement mathematical optimization, regression, and deep neural network functionalities based on algorithmic differentiation Design and optimize a computation graph module, and understand the benefits it brings to the numerical computing library Accommodate the growing number of hardware accelerators (e.g. GPU, TPU) and execution backends (e.g. web browser, unikernel) of numerical computation Use the Zoo system for efficient scripting, code sharing, service deployment, and composition Design and implement a distributed computing engine to work with a numerical computing library, providing convenient APIs and high performance Who This Book Is For Those with prior programming experience, especially with the OCaml programming language, or with scientific computing experience who may be new to OCaml. Most importantly, it is for those who are eager to understand not only how to use something, but also how it is built up

Proterozoic crust-mantle evolution in Central Australia : geochemical and isotopic constraints

This thesis is divided into three major integrated parts centring around the theme of Proterozoic crust-mantle evolution in central Australia. They are (1) geochemical, geochronological and isotopic studies of Proterozoic granitoids and mafic amphiblites in the eastern Arunta Inlier, central Australia; (2) geochemical and isotopic investigations of late Proterozoic mafic dyke swarms in central-southern Australia and their implications for crust-mantle evolution and origin of the intracratonic sedimentary basins in the region; and (3) Sm-Nd, U-Pb zircon and REE investigations of sediments from the Amadeus Basin, central Australia, with emphasis on the origin and provenance of the sediments. Part I: SHRIMP U-Pb zircon ages determined for ten major granite suites in the eastern Arunta Inlier, combined with those previously reported, allow a systematic geochronological framework to be established in the region. This study suggests (1)major granitic activities in the Arunta Inlier can be grouped into at least six episodes: 1850-1880 Ma, 1820 Ma, 1750-1780 Ma, 1710-1730 Ma, 1650-1660 Ma and 1600-1615 Ma; (2) the dominant orogenic event occurred during 1750-1780 Ma, when the majority of syntectonic granitoids were intruded, in contrast with the significantly older 1850-1880 Ma Barramundi Orogeny considered to be predominant further north in central Australia. Geochemical and Sm-Nd isotopic studies of major granite suites in central Australia allow three major geochemical groups to be identified, which are a Calcalkaline-trondhjemitic Group (CAT), a Normal Group and a High-heat-production Group (HHP). They can be further subdivided into different age and geochemical subgroups, respectively. The CAT Group, which occurs only in the southern margin of the Arunta Inlier, is characterised by highest Na20, Na/K, Sr, K/Rb and Sr/Y, and lowest K20, Rb, Rb/Sr, Th, U, REE, Nb and Y if compared with other groups. It can be subdivided into a gabbro-diorite-tonalite-trondhjemite (GDTT) subgroup and a tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) subgroup, the former analogous to modem calc­ alkaline suites occurring in convergent plate margins, and the latter more like the ubiquitous Archean TTG suites. The Normal Group, the dominant group occurring throughout the Arunta Inlier, is mainly K-rich, and geochemically intermediate between the CAT and HHP Groups. It can be subdivided into four age subgroups, 1820 Ma, 1750-1780 Ma, 1650 Ma and 1600-1615 Ma, respectively. By comparison with the Palaeozoic I-type granites, the Normal Group is overly enriched in K20, Rb, Th, U, Zr, Y and LREE and depleted in MgO, CaO, Sr, Ni and Cr. The HHP Group, which occurs mainly in the inland area of the Arunta Inlier and is spatially associated with preexisting suites of the Normal Group, is characterised by highest K, Rb, Th, U, Rb/Sr and Rb/Zr, and lowest Sr, Ba, Na/K, K/Rb, Ba/Rb, MgO, Cr and Ni among the three. However, on the spiderdiagrams, all the three groups show similar negative Nb anomalies. Despite of the large geochemical diversity in the Arunta granites, no correlations between the Nd isotopic and geochemical signatures are observed. The ranges of initial ENd values and Nd depleted mantle model ages T Nd, DM for the three groups of T Nd DM granites considerably overlap each other. Overall, there are two groups of t ages with the dominant one ranging from 1.96 to 2.33 Ga, and the other from 1.72 to 1.83 Ga. At a given crystallization age, initial ENd values show large variations, whilst the initial ENd values generally increase with decreasing crystallization ages. In conjunction with studies of the Arunta granites, geochemical and Sm-Nd isotopic investigations were also undertaken on mafic amphibolites in the Alice Springs area, southern Arunta Inlier, which led to the recognition of two groups of amphibolites, one characterised by flat to LREE-depleted patterns and positive initial ENd values (+4.2 to+5.1), and one typical ofLREE-enriched patterns and negative ENd values (-1.0 to -2.8). Both groups show geochemical affinities to island arc tholeiites. All the above igneous rocks occurring in the Arunta Inlier can be interpreted in a plate-tectonic scenario. An integrated igneous petrogenetic model for the origin of the igneous rocks has been formulated, in which the igneous precursors of the arc-type amphibolites were derived from slab-component metasomatised mantle wedge, the CAT Group by fractionation and/or partial melting of the arc-type underplates or intrusions, the Normal Group by partial melting of fractionated arc-type intrusions or underplate and the HHP Group by remelting of preexisting granitic sources such as the Normal Group granites. Mixing model, which involves a newly derived mantle component and an older crustal component probably in the form of subducted sediments or preexisting lower crust, is preferred for the interpretation of Nd isotopic compositions in granitoids and mafic rocks of the Arunta Inlier. The older crustal component may have become progressively younger with time as a result of increasing proportions of newly accreted island-arc materials incorporated in the subducted sediments. A derivation of the Nd isotopic signatures from an isotopically uniform 2.1-2.3 Ga mafic underplate is rejected. However, it is considered that the formation ofNd isotopic signatures in these rocks must have involved complex processes and neither simple mixing nor simple two-stage protolith model can satisfactorily explain the observations. In addition, considering the large uncertainties involved in constraining the different components and magma generation processes, caution must be taken in using Nd isotopic data for modelling the growth rates of the continental crust. Tectonically, the Arunta Inlier was located on the southern margin of the Northern Australian Orogenic Province, where subduction-related plate tectonics may have been in operation during the period of 1.9 to 1.7 Ga. The Arunta Inlier itself may represent amalgamation of a series of island-arc, back-arc basin accretionary complexes developed along the margin of the 1.88 Ga continental crust further north. Evidence which supports the plate tectonic concept includes: (1) zircon U-Pb and Nd model age constraints suggesting the Arunta Inlier represents a crustal terrain boundary bordered to the south by the significantly younger Musgrave Inlier; (2) the presence of arc- and MORB-type metavolcanics and subduction-related calcalkaline suites and exclusive absence of mafic volcanics with within-plate signatures;(3) general occurrence of negative Nb anomalies in all igneous rocks suggesting they or their sources or the sources of their sources were subduction-related; (4) geochemical polarity across the Arunta Inlier; (5) Nd isotopic constraints suggesting mixing between a mantle-derived component and an older continental component through subduction of sediments; and (6) the unique geochemical and Nd isotopic constraints from post-tectonic Stuart Dyke Swarm (see Part II). The alternate ensialic rifting tectonics of Etheridge et al. (1987) fails to explain many observations in the Arunta Inlier although it may be applicable for the tectonic and crustal evolution further north in central Australia. A number of problems with the ensialic model have been outlined in the thesis. Part II: Part II of this thesis is aimed at geochemical and Sm-Nd isotopic investigations of Late Proterozoic mafic dyke swarms in central-southern Australia. Through Sm-Nd mineral isochron dating of mafic dykes, two episodes of mafic magmatism in central­ southern Australia (1075-1090 Ma, 790-870 Ma) have been delineated. Such a study also provides an improved method for relatively reliable and precise dating of mafic igneous rocks. The study of the 1080 Ma mafic dyke swarms in central Australia demonstrates: (1) the continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) can be formed as a result of continental crust formation at convergent plate margins through oceanic crust subduction; and (2) partial melting of subduction-modified CLM during post-tectonic events is possible and some post-tectonic dyke swarms may have resulted from this process. The study of the -800 Ma mafic dyke swarms and flood basalts in central­ southern Australia suggests they were derived by decompression melting of a large-scale mantle plume impinging upon the base of the continental lithosphere in the region. Large­ scale crustal extension followed by thermal subsidence as a result of the plume activity may have been responsible for the formation of the broad sedimentary basins in central­ southern Australia. Part III: In Part III of this thesis, combined Nd and detrital zircon U-Pb constraints have been obtained which suggest that the sediments of the Amadeus Basin have an at least two-component-mixing provenance. They were probably derived by mixing of materials derived from the Arunta and Musgrave Inliers or their equivalents with those from the Musgrave Inlier increasing in stratigraphically higher sequences. The study of the sediment provenance reveals a rare case of REE fractionation during sedimentation as a result of sorting, syn-deposition chemical reaction or post­ depositional diagenesis. A theoretical model for REE fractionation and a refined way for constraining the sediment provenance ages have been developed

The Economics of Bank Cross-Firm Selling: The Value of Borrower Board Connectedness and Opacity

This study provides evidence that banks value their existing borrowers’ board network because it can give banks an advantage in cross-selling services to other firms in the network. I posit that banks gain an informational advantage from a common shared director between the existing borrower and firms in the borrower's network. I find that if a bank has a lending relationship with a well-connected borrower, then the bank’s likelihood of winning loan business from a firm in the borrower’s board network increases. I also find that banks are willing to compensate well-connected borrowers with larger board networks by offering lower loan spreads because these borrowers provide greater opportunities for their bank lenders to sell loans to firms in their networks. Moreover, consistent with board networks providing connected banks with an informational advantage over other de novo lenders, I find that the probability of a connected bank winning loan business from a firm in its existing borrower’s network is higher if the firm is more informationally opaque. As further evidence of a network-based information advantage, I also find that banks offer lower loan spreads to a well-connected borrower if firms in that borrower’s board network are on average more opaque. This finding indicates that a borrower can benefit from the opacity of its connected firms via lower loan spreads.Doctor of Philosoph

MSDRP: A Deep Learning Model Based on Multisource Data for Predicting Drug Response

Motivation: Cancer heterogeneity drastically affects cancer therapeutic outcomes. Predicting drug response in vitro is expected to help formulate personalized therapy regimens. In recent years, several computational models based on machine learning and deep learning have been proposed to predict drug response in vitro. However, most of these methods capture drug features based on a single drug description (e.g. drug structure), without considering the relationships between drugs and biological entities (e.g. target, diseases, and side effects). Moreover, most of these methods collect features separately for drugs and cell lines but fail to consider the pairwise interactions between drugs and cell lines. Results: In this paper, we propose a deep learning framework, named MSDRP for drug response prediction. MSDRP uses an interaction module to capture interactions between drugs and cell lines, and integrates multiple associations/interactions between drugs and biological entities through similarity network fusion algorithms, outperforming some state-of-the-art models in all performance measures for all experiments. The experimental results of de novo test and independent test demonstrate the excellent performance of our model for new drugs. Furthermore, several case studies illustrate the rationality for using feature vectors derived from drug similarity matrices from multisource data to represent drugs and the interpretability of our model

Application of ICP-MS trace element analysis in study of ancient Chinese ceramics

Thirty-nine trace elements of the Song-Yuan period (960-1368 AD) porcelain bodies from Cizhou, Jizhou and Longquanwu kilns were analyzed with ICP-MS, a technique rarely used in Chinese archaeometry, to investigate its potential application in such studies. Trace element compositions clearly reflect the distinctive raw materials and their mineralogy at the three kilns and allow their products to be distinguished. Significant chemical variations are also observed between Yuan and Song-Jing dynasties samples from Cizhou as well as fine and coarse porcelain bodies from Longquanwu. In Cizhou, porcelains of better quality which imitate the famous Ding kiln have trace element features distinctive from ordinary Cizhou products, that indicates geochemically distinctive raw materials were used and which possibly also underwent extra refining prior to use. The distinct trace element features of different kilns and the various types of porcelains from an individual kiln can be interpreted from a geochemical perspective. ICP-MS can provide a large amount of valuable information about ancient Chinese ceramics as it is capable of analyzing >40 elements with a typical of precision < 2%

Simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation of lignocellulosic residues from commercial furfural production and corn kernels using different nutrient media

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As the supply of starch grain and sugar cane, currently the main feedstocks for bioethanol production, become limited, lignocelluloses will be sought as alternative materials for bioethanol production. Production of cellulosic ethanol is still cost-inefficient because of the low final ethanol concentration and the addition of nutrients. We report the use of simultaneous saccharification and cofermentation (SSCF) of lignocellulosic residues from commercial furfural production (furfural residue, FR) and corn kernels to compare different nutritional media. The final ethanol concentration, yield, number of live yeast cells, and yeast-cell death ratio were investigated to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating cellulosic and starch ethanol.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both the ethanol yield and number of live yeast cells increased with increasing corn-kernel concentration, whereas the yeast-cell death ratio decreased in SSCF of FR and corn kernels. An ethanol concentration of 73.1 g/L at 120 h, which corresponded to a 101.1% ethanol yield based on FR cellulose and corn starch, was obtained in SSCF of 7.5% FR and 14.5% corn kernels with mineral-salt medium. SSCF could simultaneously convert cellulose into ethanol from both corn kernels and FR, and SSCF ethanol yield was similar between the organic and mineral-salt media.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Starch ethanol promotes cellulosic ethanol by providing important nutrients for fermentative organisms, and in turn cellulosic ethanol promotes starch ethanol by providing cellulosic enzymes that convert the cellulosic polysaccharides in starch materials into additional ethanol. It is feasible to produce ethanol in SSCF of FR and corn kernels with mineral-salt medium. It would be cost-efficient to produce ethanol in SSCF of high concentrations of water-insoluble solids of lignocellulosic materials and corn kernels. Compared with prehydrolysis and fed-batch strategy using lignocellulosic materials, addition of starch hydrolysates to cellulosic ethanol production is a more suitable method to improve the final ethanol concentration.</p

User-centric Composable Services: A New Generation of Personal Data Analytics

Machine Learning (ML) techniques, such as Neural Network, are widely used in today's applications. However, there is still a big gap between the current ML systems and users' requirements. ML systems focus on improving the performance of models in training, while individual users cares more about response time and expressiveness of the tool. Many existing research and product begin to move computation towards edge devices. Based on the numerical computing system Owl, we propose to build the Zoo system to support construction, compose, and deployment of ML models on edge and local devices