Formalising Strong Normalisation Proofs of the Explicit Substitution Calculi in ALF1

Explicit substitution calculi have become very fashionable in the last decade. The reason is that substitution calculi bridge theory and implementation and enable control over evaluation steps and strategies. Of the most important questions of explicit substitution calculi is that of the termination of the underlying calculus of substitution. For this reason, one finds with every new calculus of explicit substitution, a section devoted to the termination of substitutions. Those proofs of termination fall under two categories. Proofs that are easy because a decreasing measure can be established and proofs that are difficult because such a decreasing measure is not easy to establish. Another fashionable subject has been the checking of proofs using a proof checker. This is useful because some proofs can be intricate and hard to believe if they are not proof checked. This thesis investigates the methods to prove termination of explicit substitution calculi and their formalisations in the proof checker ALF. Two styles of explicit substitution calculi are chosen for this purpose, one is the calculus s whose termination is guaranteed by a decreasing weight, the other is the calculus a whose termination is extremely complex. Two new termination proofs of the calculus s are given. All termination proofs of both s and a presented in the thesis are formalised in ALF. During our process of formalisations we comment on what is needed to make a proof checkable during the checking process

Prevention of injury by resveratrol in a rat model of adenine-induced chronic kidney disease

Purpose: To investigate the preventive effect of resveratrol against renal pathological changes in a rat model of chronic kidney disease (CKD).Methods: CKD was induced by daily intragastric administration of adenine (200 mg/kg) for 1 month. The effect of 10, 15, and 20 mg/kg doses of resveratrol on the levels of parathyroid hormone, phosphorous, and fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23) in rat urine samples after 2 months of adenine administration were analyzed using an auto-analyzer.Results: Resveratrol treatment significantly inhibited the adenine-mediated increase in serum parathyroid hormone, phosphorous and FGF-23 levels (p < 0.002). In rats treated with 10, 15 and 20 mg/kg doses of resveratrol after adenine, urine protein/creatinine ratio was reduced to 5, 675.6 ± 2453.7, 4, 789.8 ± 1,534.9, and 1, 965 ± 576.8 mg/g, respectively. In the untreated and normal control groups, the respective values were 7, 004 ± 1, 653.3 and 1, 627.5 ± 568.7 mg/g. Treatment with resveratrol after administration of adenine inhibited increases in creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and uric acid levels in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.002). Resveratrol treatment also inhibited adeninemediated increases in monocytes and inflammatory cells. Furthermore, resveratrol prevented renal tubule swelling and expansion induced by adenine administration.Conclusion: Resveratrol treatment prevent the renal pathological changes induced by adenine administration in a rat model of CKD by inhibiting FGF-23, parathyroid hormone, and phosphate. Thus, resveratrol may be of therapeutic importance for the treatment of CKD.Keyword: Parathyroid hormone, Phosphate, Creatinine, Monocytes, Chronic kidney disease, Fibroblast growth factor-2

Static Human Detection and Scenario Recognition via Wearable Thermal Sensing System

Conventional wearable sensors are mainly used to detect the physiological and activity information of individuals who wear them, but fail to perceive the information of the surrounding environment. This paper presents a wearable thermal sensing system to detect and perceive the information of surrounding human subjects. The proposed system is developed based on a pyroelectric infrared sensor. Such a sensor system aims to provide surrounding information to blind people and people with weak visual capability to help them adapt to the environment and avoid collision. In order to achieve this goal, a low-cost, low-data-throughput binary sampling and analyzing scheme is proposed. We also developed a conditioning sensing circuit with a low-noise signal amplifier and programmable system on chip (PSoC) to adjust the amplification gain. Three statistical features in information space are extracted to recognize static humans and human scenarios in indoor environments. The results demonstrate that the proposed wearable thermal sensing system and binary statistical analysis method are efficient in static human detection and human scenario perception

An online tool for predicting ovarian responses in unselected patients using dynamic inhibin B and basal antimüllerian hormone levels

BackgroundReliable predictive models for predicting excessive and poor ovarian response in controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) is currently lacking. The dynamic (Δ) inhibin B, which refers to increment of inhibin B responding to exogenous gonadotropin, has been indicated as a potential predictor of ovarian response.ObjectiveTo establish mathematical models to predict ovarian response at the early phase of COS using Δinhibin B and other biomarkers.Materials and methodsProspective cohort study in a tertiary teaching hospital, including 669 cycles underwent standard gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist ovarian stimulation between April 2020 and September 2020. Early Δinhibin B was defined as an increment in inhibin B from menstrual day 2 to day 6 through to the day of COS. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) logistic regression with 5-fold cross-validation was applied to construct ovarian response prediction models. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), prevalence, sensitivity, and specificity were used for evaluating model performance.ResultsEarly Δinhibin B and basal antimüllerian hormone (AMH) levels were the best measures in building models for predicting ovarian hypo- or hyper-responses, with AUCs and ranges of 0.948 (0.887–0.976) and 0.904 (0.836–0.945) in the validation set, respectively. The contribution of the early Δinhibin B was 67.7% in the poor response prediction model and 56.4% in the excessive response prediction model. The basal AMH level contributed 16.0% in the poor response prediction model and 25.0% in the excessive response prediction model. An online website-based tool (http://121.43.113.123:8001/) has been developed to make these complex algorithms available in clinical practice.ConclusionEarly Δinhibin B might be a novel biomarker for predicting ovarian response in IVF cycles. Limiting the two prediction models to the high and the very-low risk groups would achieve satisfactory performances and clinical significance. These novel models might help in counseling patients on their estimated ovarian response and reduce iatrogenic poor or excessive ovarian responses

Replication Stress Induces Micronuclei Comprising of Aggregated DNA Double-Strand Breaks

BACKGROUND: Micronuclei (MN) in mammalian cells serve as a reliable biomarker of genomic instability and genotoxic exposure. Elevation of MN is commonly observed in cells bearing intrinsic genomic instability and in normal cells exposed to genotoxic agents. DNA double-strand breaks are marked by phosphorylation of H2AX at serine 139 (γ-H2AX). One subclass of MN contains massive and uniform γ-H2AX signals. This study tested whether this subclass of MN can be induced by replication stress. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We observed that a large proportion of MN, from 20% to nearly 50%, showed uniform staining by antibodies against γ-H2AX, a marker of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Such micronuclei were designated as MN-γ-H2AX (+). We showed that such MN can be induced by chemicals that are known to cause DNA replication stress and S phase arrest. Hydroxyurea, aphidicolin and thymidine could all significantly induce MN-γ-H2AX (+), which were formed during S phase and appeared to be derived from aggregation of DSBs. MN-γ-H2AX (-), MN that were devoid of uniform γ-H2AX signals, were induced to a lesser extent in terms of fold change. Paclitaxel, which inhibits the disassembly of microtubules, only induced MN-γ-H2AX (-). The frequency of MN-γ-H2AX (+), but not that of MN-γ-H2AX (-), was also significantly increased in cells that experience S phase prolongation due to depletion of cell cycle regulator CUL4B. Depletion of replication protein A1 (RPA1) by RNA interference resulted in an elevation of both MN-γ-H2AX (+) and MN-γ-H2AX (-). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A subclass of MN, MN-γ-H2AX (+), can be preferentially induced by replication stress. Classification of MN according to their γ-H2AX status may provide a more refined evaluation of intrinsic genomic instabilities and the various environmental genotoxicants

Electrooxidation of Hydrogen on Ni-Organic Metal Complex Catalysts in Acidic Media for PEMFCs

Novel organic metal complexes with N2O2 coordination structure which showed high hydrogen oxidation reaction were synthesized. The catalytic activity was found to strongly depend on the heat-treatment temperature and the structural properties

Identification and molecular characterization of novel duck reoviruses in Henan Province, China

Novel Duck reovirus (NDRV) is an ongoing non-enveloped virus with ten double-stranded RNA genome segments that belong to the genus Orthoreovirus, in the family Reoviridae. NDRV-associated spleen swelling, and necrosis disease have caused considerable economic losses to the waterfowl industry worldwide. Since 2017, a significant number of NDRV outbreaks have emerged in China. Herein, we described two cases of duck spleen necrosis disease among ducklings on duck farms in Henan province, central China. Other potential causative agent, including Muscovy duck reovirus (MDRV), Duck hepatitis A virus type 1 (DHAV-1), Duck hepatitis A virus type 3 (DHAV-3), Newcastle disease virus (NDV), and Duck tembusu virus (DTMUV), were excluded by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and two NDRV strains, HeNXX-1/2021 and HNJZ-2/2021, were isolated. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the σC genes revealed that both newly identified NDRV isolates were closely related to DRV/SDHZ17/Shandong/2017. The results further showed that Chinese NDRVs had formed two distinct clades, with late 2017 as the turning point, suggesting that Chinese NDRVs have been evolving in different directions. This study identified and genetic characteristics of two NDRV strains in Henan province, China, indicating NDRVs have evolved in different directions in China. This study provides an insight into the ongoing emerged duck spleen necrosis disease and enriches our understanding of the genetic diversity and evolution of NDRVs

Was the extended rainy winter of 2018/2019 over the Middle and Lower reaches of the Yangtze River driven by anthropogenic forcing?

Anthropogenic forcing reduced the probability of rainfall amount in the extended rainy winter of 2018/19 over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China, by ~19%, but exerted no influence on the excessive rainy days, based on HadGEM3-GA6-N216 ensembles. Instead the natural variability played a large and important role in this event