OPTIMIZATION APPROACHES TO MPI AND AREA MERGING-BASED PARALLEL BUFFER ALGORITHM

On buffer zone construction, the rasterization-based dilation method inevitablyintroduces errors, and the double-sided parallel line method involves a series ofcomplex operations. In this paper, we proposed a parallel buffer algorithm based onarea merging and MPI (Message Passing Interface) to improve the performances ofbuffer analyses on processing large datasets. Experimental results reveal that thereare three major performance bottlenecks which significantly impact the serial andparallel buffer construction efficiencies, including the area merging strategy, thetask load balance method and the MPI inter-process results merging strategy.Corresponding optimization approaches involving tree-like area merging strategy, the vertex number oriented parallel task partition method and the inter-processresults merging strategy were suggested to overcome these bottlenecks. Experimentswere carried out to examine the performance efficiency of the optimized parallelalgorithm. The estimation results suggested that the optimization approaches couldprovide high performance and processing ability for buffer construction in a clusterparallel environment. Our method could provide insights into the parallelization ofspatial analysis algorithm

Research on Energy-Saving Design of Overhead Travelling Crane Camber Based on Probability Load Distribution

Crane is a mechanical device, used widely to move materials in modern production. It is reported that the energy consumptions of China are at least 5–8 times of other developing countries. Thus, energy consumption becomes an unavoidable topic. There are several reasons influencing the energy loss, and the camber of the girder is the one not to be neglected. In this paper, the problem of the deflections induced by the moving payload in the girder of overhead travelling crane is examined. The evaluation of a camber giving a counterdeflection of the girder is proposed in order to get minimum energy consumptions for trolley to move along a nonstraight support. To this aim, probabilistic payload distributions are considered instead of fixed or rated loads involved in other researches. Taking 50/10 t bridge crane as a research object, the probability loads are determined by analysis of load distribution density functions. According to load distribution, camber design under different probability loads is discussed in detail as well as energy consumptions distribution. The research results provide the design reference of reasonable camber to obtain the least energy consumption for climbing corresponding to different P0; thus energy-saving design can be achieved

The evaluation of durative transfusion of Endostar combined with chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Background: The overall survival (OS) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is poor, with median OS of advanced NSCLC with standard systemic chemotherapy being reported at 13.6 months and the 5-year survival rate at less than 15%. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate Endostar combined with chemotherapy in patients with advanced NSCLC. Methods: Data on 116 cases of pathologically confirmed stage IIIB-IV NSCLC were retrospectively collected. The control group was treated with chemotherapy combined with intravenous infusion of Endostar while the test group received durative transfusion of Endostar. The short-term therapeutic effects including overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety were evaluated in both groups. In the follow-up, progression-free survival (PFS) and OS were also analysed. Results: In the test group, the ORR was 53.4%, which was similar to that in the control group (44.8%) (p > 0.05). However, the DCR in the test group (86.2%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (70.7%) (p < 0.01). The median time to progression in the test group (6 months) was also significantly longer than that in the control group (4 months). Importantly, the median OS in the test group (17.5 months) was improved compared to the control group (13.5 months). The 1-year survival rate in the test and control groups was 9.7 and 15.8%, respectively. There was no significant difference in side effects (including thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, nausea, and vomiting) between the two groups. Conclusions: Endostar durative transfusion combined with chemotherapy showed a higher DCR, longer PFS and OS time, and was well tolerated in patients with advanced NSCLC

Investigation of the prevalence and clinical implications of ERBB2 exon 16 skipping mutations in Chinese pan-cancer patients

BackgroundAlthough rare, ERBB2 exon 16 skipping mutations (ERBB2ΔEx16) have been implicated in resistance to anti-HER2 and anti-EGFR targeted agents. Our study investigated the prevalence and clinical significance of ERBB2ΔEx16 in Chinese pan-cancer patients.MethodsWe retrospectively screened 40996 patients, spanning 19 cancer types, who had available genomic profiles acquired with DNA-based next-generation sequencing (NGS). We characterized the clinical and molecular features of the ERBB2ΔEx16-positive patients. Furthermore, we also analyzed a pan-cancer dataset from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA; n=8705).ResultsA total of 22 patients were detected with ERBB2ΔEx16, resulting in an overall prevalence rate of 0.054% (22/40996). Of them, 16 patients had lung cancer (LC; 0.05%, 16/30890), five patients had gastric cancer (GC; 0.35%, 5/1448), and one patient had ovarian cancer (0.12%, 1/826). Among the 16 LC patients, ERBB2ΔEx16 was detected in four treatment-naïve EGFR/ALK-negative patients and 12 EGFR-positive patients after the onset of resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). The treatment-naïve patients harbored no LC-associated oncogenic drivers except ERBB2 amplification, suggesting a potential oncogenic role for ERBB2ΔEx16. Consistently, ERBB2ΔEx16+ patients from TCGA data also carried no known drivers despite various concurrent alterations. In the 12 EGFR TKI-resistant LC patients, relative variant frequencies for ERBB2ΔEx16 were lower than in untreated patients, suggesting ERBB2ΔEx16 as secondary alterations following TKI treatment and thereby implicating ERBB2ΔEx16 in mediating therapeutic resistance.ConclusionsOur study identified an overall ERBB2ΔEx16 prevalence rate of 0.054% and provided insights into the clinical implications of ERBB2ΔEx16 in Chinese pan-cancer patients

Optimization approaches to mpi and area merging-based parallel buffer algorithm

On buffer zone construction, the rasterization-based dilation method inevitably introduces errors, and the double-sided parallel line method involves a series of complex operations. In this paper, we proposed a parallel buffer algorithm based on area merging and MPI (Message Passing Interface) to improve the performances of buffer analyses on processing large datasets. Experimental results reveal that there are three major performance bottlenecks which significantly impact the serial and parallel buffer construction efficiencies, including the area merging strategy, the task load balance method and the MPI inter-process results merging strategy. Corresponding optimization approaches involving tree-like area merging strategy, the vertex number oriented parallel task partition method and the inter-process results merging strategy were suggested to overcome these bottlenecks. Experiments were carried out to examine the performance efficiency of the optimized parallel algorithm. The estimation results suggested that the optimization approaches could provide high performance and processing ability for buffer construction in a cluster parallel environment. Our method could provide insights into the parallelization of spatial analysis algorithm

Synthesis of Brominated Alkanes via Heterogeneous Catalytic Distillation over Al₂O₃/SO₄²⁻/ZrO₂

Concentrated sulfuric acid is generally used as a catalyst for producing brominated alkanes in traditional methods, but is highly corrosive and difficult to separate. This work reports the preparation of bromopropane from n-propanol based on a reactive distillation strategy combined with alumina-modified sulfated zirconia (Al2O3/SO42−/ZrO2) as a heterogenous catalyst. As expected, under the optimum reaction conditions (110 °C), the yield of bromopropane was 96.18% without side reactions due to the reactive distillation strategy. Meanwhile, the microscopic morphology and performance of Al2O3/SO42−/ZrO2 were evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Brunner–Emmet–Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR), and other characterization methods. The results confirmed that the morphology of zirconia sulfate is effectively regulated by the modification method of alumina, and more edges and angles provide more catalytic acid sites for the reaction. Furthermore, Al2O3/SO42−/ZrO2 exhibited high stability and remarkable reusability due to the strong chemical bond Zr–Al–Zr. This work provides a practical method for the preparation of bromopropane and can be further extended to the preparation of other bromoalkanes

Identification and Functional Characterization of <i>ZmSCYL2</i> Involved in Phytosterol Accumulation in Plants

Phytosterols are natural active substances widely found in plants and play an important role in hypolipidemia, antioxidants, antitumor, immunomodulation, plant growth, and development. In this study, phytosterols were extracted and identified from the seed embryos of 244 maize inbred lines. Based on this, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was used to predict the possible candidate genes responsible for phytosterol content; 9 SNPs and 32 candidate genes were detected, and ZmSCYL2 was identified to be associated with phytosterol accumulation. We initially confirmed its functions in transgenic Arabidopsis and found that mutation of ZmSCYL2 resulted in slow plant growth and a significant reduction in sterol content, while overexpression of ZmSCYL2 accelerated plant growth and significantly increased sterol content. These results were further confirmed in transgenic tobacco and suggest that ZmSCYL2 was closely related to plant growth; overexpression of ZmSCYL2 not only facilitated plant growth and development but also promoted the accumulation of phytosterols