Efficiency evaluation of parallel interdependent processes systems: an application to Chinese 985 Project universities

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been widely applied in measuring the efficiency of homogeneous decision-making units. Network DEA, as an important branch of DEA, was built to examine the internal structure of a system, whereas traditional DEA models regard a system as a ‘black box’. However, only a few previous studies on parallel systems have considered the interdependent relationship between system components. In recent years, parallel interdependent processes systems commonly exist in production systems because of serious competition among organisations. Thus, an approach to measure the efficiency of such systems should be proposed. This paper builds an additive DEA model to measure a parallel interdependent processes system with two components which have an interdependent relationship. Then, the model is applied to analyse the ‘985 Project’ universities in China, and certain policy implications are explained

DNA Checkpoint and Repair Factors Are Nuclear Sensors for Intracellular Organelle Stresses-Inflammations and Cancers Can Have High Genomic Risks.

Under inflammatory conditions, inflammatory cells release reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) which cause DNA damage. If not appropriately repaired, DNA damage leads to gene mutations and genomic instability. DNA damage checkpoint factors (DDCF) and DNA damage repair factors (DDRF) play a vital role in maintaining genomic integrity. However, how DDCFs and DDRFs are modulated under physiological and pathological conditions are not fully known. We took an experimental database analysis to determine the expression of 26 DNA D

Transient Inhibition of mTORC1 Signaling Ameliorates Irradiation-Induced Liver Damage

Recurrent liver cancer after surgery is often treated with radiotherapy, which induces liver damage. It has been documented that activation of the TGF-β and NF-κB signaling pathways plays important roles in irradiation-induced liver pathologies. However, the significance of mTOR signaling remains undefined after irradiation exposure. In the present study, we investigated the effects of inhibiting mTORC1 signaling on irradiated livers. Male C57BL/6J mice were acutely exposed to 8.0 Gy of X-ray total body irradiation and subsequently treated with rapamycin. The effects of rapamycin treatment on irradiated livers were examined at days 1, 3, and 7 after exposure. The results showed that 8.0 Gy of irradiation resulted in hepatocyte edema, hemorrhage, and sinusoidal congestion along with a decrease of ALB expression. Exposure of mice to irradiation significantly activated the mTORC1 signaling pathway determined by pS6 and p-mTOR expression via western blot and immunostaining. Transient inhibition of mTORC1 signaling by rapamycin treatment consistently accelerated liver recovery from irradiation, which was evidenced by decreasing sinusoidal congestion and increasing ALB expression after irradiation. The protective role of rapamycin on irradiated livers might be mediated by decreasing cellular apoptosis and increasing autophagy. These data suggest that transient inhibition of mTORC1 signaling by rapamycin protects livers against irradiation-induced damage

Carbon resource reallocation with emission quota in carbon emission trading system

In this study, a two-stage data envelopment analysis approach is developed to examine resource allocation in a real-world carbon emissions trading system. First, this study focuses on the actual participation process of incorporated units in the trading system, where incorporated units will be allocated with a carbon emission quota. Second, we propose a research structure for the carbon trading process with two stages. The first stage is to identify congestion, and the second stage is to trade among the units. We make a sensitivity analysis by considering restrictive parameters on the initial carbon emission quota. Then, we expand the research with a target-setting model that retains production technology from the previous year to set the target output for the following year. The congestion and the trading amount for each unit could be determined in advance. Furthermore, these results are able to anticipate the trading situation and provide valuable recommendations for the production and trading of the analyzed units. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to analyze 13 cities in Hubei Province to investigate their congestion and trading conditions

Efficiency evaluation of an interactive system by data envelopment analysis approach

International audienceMany different network data envelopment analysis (DEA) models have been built to investigate the internal structure of a system which used to be considered as a “black box” in traditional DEA models. However, few of these previous works have taken into account the interactive relationship between system components, that is, one component’s output (input) may be the input (output) of another component. The interactive network becomes more and more common in a system because of complex competition circumstances, it is therefore necessary to develop a new method to measure the efficiency of these systems. In this paper, a centralized model and two leader-follower game models were built to measure the efficiency of a parallel system with two components that have an interactive relationship in a centralized mode and non-centralized mode, respectively. Besides, since the centralized model is non-linear, a heuristic method is proposed for solving it. Finally, our approach is applied to analyze Chinese “985 Project” universities’ performance

Synergistic effect of mesangial cell-induced CXCL1 and TGF-β1 in promoting podocyte loss in IgA nephropathy.

Podocyte loss has been reported to relate to disease severity and progression in IgA nephropathy (IgAN). However, the underlying mechanism for its role in IgAN remain unclear. Recent evidence has shown that IgA1 complexes from patients with IgAN could activate mesangial cells to induce soluble mediator excretion, and further injure podocytes through mesangial-podocytic cross-talk. In the present study, we explored the underlying mechanism of mesangial cell-induced podocyte loss in IgAN. We found that IgA1 complexes from IgAN patients significantly up-regulated the expression of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 in mesangial cells compared with healthy controls. Significantly higher urinary levels of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 were also observed in patients with IgAN compared to healthy controls. Moreover, IgAN patients with higher urinary CXCL1 and TGF-β1 presented with severe clinical and pathological manifestations, including higher 24-hour urine protein excretion, lower eGFR and higher cresentic glomeruli proportion. Further in vitro experiments showed that increased podocyte death and reduced podocyte adhesion were induced by mesangial cell conditional medium from IgAN (IgAN-HMCM), as well as rhCXCL1 together with rhTGF-β1. In addition, the over-expression of CXCR2, the receptor for CXCL1, by podocytes was induced by IgAN-HMCM and rhTGF-β1, but not by rhCXCL1. Furthermore, the effect of increased podocyte death and reduced podocyte adhesion induced by IgAN-HMCM and rhCXCL1 and rhTGF-β1 was rescued partially by a blocking antibody against CXCR2. Moreover, we observed the expression of CXCR2 in urine exfoliated podocytes in IgAN patients. Our present study implied that IgA1 complexes from IgAN patients could up-regulate the secretion of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 in mesangial cells. Additionally, the synergistic effect of CXCL1 and TGF-β1 further induced podocyte death and adhesion dysfunction in podocytes via CXCR2. This might be a potential mechanism for podocyte loss observed in IgAN

BMSC-derived exosomes promote tendon-bone healing after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction by regulating M1/M2 macrophage polarization in rats

Abstract Background Recent studies have shown that bone marrow stromal cell-derived exosomes (BMSC-Exos) can be used for tissue repair. However, whether the BMSC-Exos can promote tendon-bone healing after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is still unclear. In this study, we observed in vivo and in vitro the effect of rat BMSC-Exos on tendon-bone healing after ACLR and its possible mechanism. Methods Highly expressed miRNAs in rat BMSC-Exos were selected by bioinformatics and verified in vitro. The effect of overexpressed miRNA in BMSC-Exos on M2 macrophage polarization was observed. A rat model of ACLR was established. The experimental components were divided into three groups: the control group, the BMSC-Exos group, and the BMSC-Exos with miR-23a-3p overexpression (BMSC-Exos mimic) group. Biomechanical tests, micro-CT, and histological staining were performed for analysis. Results Bioinformatics analysis showed that miR-23a-3p was highly expressed in rat BMSC-Exos and could target interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1, a crucial regulator in M1 macrophage polarization). In vitro, compared with the control group or the BMSC-Exos group, the BMSC-Exos mimic more significantly promoted the polarization of macrophages from M1 to M2. In vivo, at 2 weeks, the number of M2 macrophages in the early local stage of ACLR was significantly increased in the BMSC-Exos mimic group; at 4 and 8 weeks, compared with the control group or the BMSC-Exos group, the bone tunnels of the tibia and femur sides of the rats in the BMSC-Exos mimic group were significantly smaller, the interface between the graft and the bone was narrowed, the bone volume/total volume ratio (BV/TV) increased, the collagen type II alpha 1 level increased, and the mechanical strength increased. Conclusions BMSC-Exos promoted M1 macrophage to M2 macrophage polarization via miR-23a-3p, reduced the early inflammatory reaction at the tendon-bone interface, and promoted early healing after ACLR

Influence of Arc Power on Keyhole-Induced Porosity in Laser + GMAW Hybrid Welding of Aluminum Alloy: Numerical and Experimental Studies

A three-dimensional numerical model is used to simulate heat transfer and fluid flow phenomena in fiber laser + gas metal arc welding (GMAW) hybrid welding of an aluminum alloy, which incorporates three-phase coupling and is able to depict the keyhole dynamic behavior and formation process of the keyhole-induced porosity. The temperature profiles and fluid flow fields for different arc powers are calculated and the percent porosities of weld beads were also examined under different conditions by X-ray non-destructive testing (NDT). The results showed that the computed results were in agreement with the experimental data. For hybrid welding, with raising arc power, the keyhole-induced porosity was reduced. Besides the solidification rate of the molten pool, the melt flow was also closely related to weld porosity. A relatively steady anti-clockwise vortex caused by arc forces tended to force the bubble to float upwards at the high temperature region close to the welding heat source, which benefits the escape of the gas bubble from the melt pool. When increasing the arc power, the anti-clockwise region was strengthened and the risk of the gas bubble for capture by the liquid/solid interface underneath the keyhole tip was diminished, which resulted in the lower weld percent porosity

Urinary CXCL1: a novel predictor of IgA nephropathy progression.

IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common form of primary glomerulonephritis worldwide. In recent years, consistent efforts have been made to develop new non-invasive biomarkers for IgAN progression. In our previous in vitro study we found mesangial derived CXCL1 as a contributor for kidney injury, and observed higher urinary CXCL1 levels in patients with IgAN. It implied that the urinary CXCL1 might be a potential biomarker.In the present study, we enrolled 425 IgAN patients with follow-up data and detected their urinary CXCL1 levels at the time of renal biopsy, to explore the predictive value of urinary CXCL1 in IgAN progression. Urinary CXCL1 levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.Urinary CXCL1 levels were associated with presently well established predictors of IgAN progression, including SBP (r = 0.138, p = 0.004), DBP (r = 0.114, p = 0.019), proteinuria (r = 0.155, p = 0.001), eGFR (r = -0.259, p<0.001) and tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis (r = 0.181, p<0.001). After adjusted for them, higher levels of urinary CXCL1 were independently associated with a greater risk of deterioration in renal function (HR, per s.d. increment of natural log-transformed CXCL1: 1.748; 95% CI: 1.222-2.499, P = 0.002). Furthermore, time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that urinary CXCL1, when combined with proteinuria and eGFR, could enhance the prognostic value of these traditional predictors for IgAN progression.The results in our present study suggested urinary CXCL1 as a new non-invasive predictor of IgAN progression

Modulated Broadband Mode Decomposition for the Feature Extraction of Double Pulse Metal Inert Gas Welding

A lot of adaptive signal decomposition methods have been applied for nonstationary DPMIG electrical signals as they are always affected by noise. Recently, to solve the problems of former methods caused by the Gibbs phenomenon and the calculation of extremas when dealing with broadband electrical signals such as square signals and sawtooth signals with &#x201C;sharp corners&#x201D;, broadband mode decomposition (BMD) method was proposed and the application of the algorithm showed a good performance. The main idea of BMD is searching in the associative dictionary contains both broadband and narrowband signals using a regulated differential operator as the optimal object. However, when applied to a broadband signal interfered by strong noise, as the relative bandwidth is not small enough, the BMD algorithm may treat the broadband signal to be several narrowband components. Therefore, modulated broadband mode decomposition (MBMD) is proposed in this paper to denoise broadband electrical signals based on modulated differential operator. By multiplying a high frequency mono-frequency signal, the relative bandwidth of the effective broadband signal is translated to be far less than 1, and the broadband signals are treated as approximate broadband signals to get more accurate decomposition results. For the further feature extraction of the electrical signals, locality preserving projection (LPP) is applied combined with MBMD. The effectiveness of the proposed method is testified by simulation and experimental signals, results show that it is effective when drawing broadband feature from noise, as well as is adaptive for the feature extraction of double pulse metal inert gas welding