Using MicroPET Imaging in Quantitative Verification of Acupuncture Effect in Ischemia Stroke Treatment

While acupuncture has survived several thousand years’ evolution of medical practice, its function still remains as a myth from the view point of modern medicine. Our goal in this paper is to quantitatively understand the function of acupuncture in ischemia stroke treatment. We carried out a comparative study using the Sprague Dawley rat animal model. We induced the focal cerebral ischemia in the rats using the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) procedure. For each rat from the real acupuncture group (n = 40), sham acupoint treatment group (n = 54), and blank control group (n = 16), we acquired 3-D FDG-microPET images at baseline, after MCAO, and after treatment (i.e., real acupuncture, sham acupoint treatment, or resting according to the group assignment), respectively. After verifying that the injured area is in the right hemisphere of the cerebral cortex in the brain by using magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) and triphenyl tetrazolium cchloride (TTC)-staining, we directly compared the glucose metabolism in the right hemisphere of each rat. We carried out t-test and permutation test on the image data. Both tests demonstrated that acupuncture had a more positive effect than non-acupoint stimulus and blank control (P < 0.025) in increasing the glucose metabolic level in the stroke-injured area in the brain, while there was no statistically significant difference between non-acupoint stimulus and blank control (P>0.15). The immediate positive effect of acupuncture over sham acupoint treatment and blank control is verified using our experiments. The long-term benefit of acupuncture needs to be further studied

Investigating sustainable land use: possible implications for brownfield regeneration policy

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report, ‘sustainable development’ has become a popular yet contested concept among governments, international organisations and the private sector. To implement sustainable development, institutions attaining different objectives interpreted the definition in the Brundtland Report in various ways. These interpretations sometimes contradict each other. Brownfield land is the legacy of industrialisation and urbanisation. Brownfield regeneration has been considered a tool to rebuild sustainable communities. Similar to the concept of sustainable development, countries define the term brownfield land or ‘brownfields’ in different ways. Therefore, utilising brownfield regeneration to pursue sustainable development became an intricate matter. This study has developed a framework to define brownfield land to improve the quality of brownfield regeneration policymaking by analysing qualitative and quantitative evidence on the use of land and sustainability. The analyses of sustainability indexes revealed that the types of strategies applied by countries to achieve sustainability depend on their progress in development and on population density. At the same time, data also showed that the population density of a country influences the ways the term ‘brownfields’ is deinfed in the regenerating policies. Therefore, population density, as an indicator of development density, is a useful differentiator of brownfield definitions in the policies that may or may not lead to the successful regeneration. Furthermore, the concept of development densities may change based on the geographic scales of concern as well as the development of technologies that allow higher development densities without compromising the quality of life. Taiwan and England are both countries with high population densities. Preserving greenfield land and enhancing social capacities in the countries are important to maintain sustainability. However, the two countries perceive brownfield land at the opposite ends of the spectrum. England sees all previously developed land as brownfield land, while Taiwan considers ‘brownfields’ to be the result of industrial pollution. The textual analysis of parliamentary debate and news reports, in addition to the statistical analyses of land use, showed that neither definition has effectively tackled the issues of preserving greenfield land or improving social equality. In countries with higher development densities, to prevent further destruction of greenfields, and to increase the social capacities, the brownfield definition should help to focus regeneration efforts on the derelict urban land that requires interventions to bring back sustainable communities

City profile: Ningbo

Ningbo is located in the south-east of Yangtze River Delta by the East China Sea, 220 km south of Shanghai. The city has been an important port in East China for foreign trade since 7th century. Since 1980s, encouraged by China’s economic “open-door” policy, one of the ways the city attracted foreign investment and thus grew its economy was by establishing multi-functional economic development zones near its deep-water port. As a result, Ningbo is now one of the top ten coastal ports in the world (as measured in Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units, TEUs). Similarly, the city’s GDP per capita is approximately three times the national average. The current and historic prosperity of Ningbo is in no small way related to its geographical position, just 20 km inland from the Hangzhou estuary and the gateway to the East China Sea. It is also the approximate centre of a 1000 km2 coastal plain, at the confluence of the Fenghua and Yao Rivers, and from where the Yong River leads to the sea. However, also a result of this geographic location the city is now facing an increasing risk of coastal flooding caused by increase in urban area; climate change (increased rainfall intensity); and predicted sea-level rise. As a result both water management and current flood management practice (and related infrastructure) are under scrutiny. In addition to describing the evolution of the city, this paper focuses on the implication of current planning practices in Ningbo, which aim to ensure the sustainable development of the city both in terms of its natural resources and its expected rate of economic growth

Investigating sustainable land use: possible implications for brownfield regeneration policy

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report, ‘sustainable development’ has become a popular yet contested concept among governments, international organisations and the private sector. To implement sustainable development, institutions attaining different objectives interpreted the definition in the Brundtland Report in various ways. These interpretations sometimes contradict each other. Brownfield land is the legacy of industrialisation and urbanisation. Brownfield regeneration has been considered a tool to rebuild sustainable communities. Similar to the concept of sustainable development, countries define the term brownfield land or ‘brownfields’ in different ways. Therefore, utilising brownfield regeneration to pursue sustainable development became an intricate matter. This study has developed a framework to define brownfield land to improve the quality of brownfield regeneration policymaking by analysing qualitative and quantitative evidence on the use of land and sustainability. The analyses of sustainability indexes revealed that the types of strategies applied by countries to achieve sustainability depend on their progress in development and on population density. At the same time, data also showed that the population density of a country influences the ways the term ‘brownfields’ is deinfed in the regenerating policies. Therefore, population density, as an indicator of development density, is a useful differentiator of brownfield definitions in the policies that may or may not lead to the successful regeneration. Furthermore, the concept of development densities may change based on the geographic scales of concern as well as the development of technologies that allow higher development densities without compromising the quality of life. Taiwan and England are both countries with high population densities. Preserving greenfield land and enhancing social capacities in the countries are important to maintain sustainability. However, the two countries perceive brownfield land at the opposite ends of the spectrum. England sees all previously developed land as brownfield land, while Taiwan considers ‘brownfields’ to be the result of industrial pollution. The textual analysis of parliamentary debate and news reports, in addition to the statistical analyses of land use, showed that neither definition has effectively tackled the issues of preserving greenfield land or improving social equality. In countries with higher development densities, to prevent further destruction of greenfields, and to increase the social capacities, the brownfield definition should help to focus regeneration efforts on the derelict urban land that requires interventions to bring back sustainable communities

catena-Poly[[tetra­aqua­cobalt(II)]-μ-2,2′-dihydroxy-5,5′-diazenediyldibenzoato]

In the title compound, [Co(C14H8N2O6)(H2O)4]n, each 5,5′-diazenediylbis(2-hydroxy­benzoato) ligand acts as a dicarboxyl­ate bridge, leading to the formation of polymeric chains running in the [10] direction. The Co atom is hexa­coordinated in a distorted octa­hedral geometry by six O atoms [Co—O = 2.039 (4)–2.115 (4) Å] from two ligands and four water mol­ecules. Inter­molecular O—H⋯O and O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds build up a three-dimensional supra­molecular structure

Analysing the Zenith Tropospheric Delay estimates in on-line Precise Point Positioning (PPP) services and PPP software packages

As Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals travel through the troposphere, a tropospheric delay occurs due to a change in the refractive index of the medium. The Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique can achieve centimeter/millimeter positioning accuracy with only one GNSS receiver. The Zenith Tropospheric Delay (ZTD) is estimated alongside with the position unknowns in PPP. Estimated ZTD can be very useful for meteorological applications, an example is the estimation of water vapor content in the atmosphere from the estimated ZTD. PPP is implemented with different algorithms and models in online services and software packages. In this study, a performance assessment with analysis of ZTD estimates from three PPP online services and three software packages is presented. The main contribution of this paper is to show the accuracy of ZTD estimation achievable in PPP. The analysis also provides the GNSS users and researchers the insight of the processing algorithm dependence and impact on PPP ZTD estimation. Observation data of eight whole days from a total of nine International GNSS Service (IGS) tracking stations spread in the northern hemisphere, the equatorial region and the southern hemisphere is used in this analysis. The PPP ZTD estimates are compared with the ZTD obtained from the IGS tropospheric product of the same days. The estimates of two of the three online PPP services show good agreement (<1 cm) with the IGS ZTD values at the northern and southern hemisphere stations. The results also show that the online PPP services perform better than the selected PPP software packages at all stations

A Novel Approach for the Determination of the Height of the Tropopause from Ground-Based GNSS Observations

In this paper, we present a new method to calculate the height of the second lapse-rate tropopause (LRT2) using GNSS high-precision data. The use of GNSS data for monitoring the atmosphere is possible because as the radio signals propagate through the troposphere, they are delayed according to the refractive index of the path of the signal. We show that by integrating the vertical profile of the refractive index in the troposphere, we are able to determine the altitude of LTR2. Furthermore, as GNSS data is available from many stations around all latitudes of the globe and make up a network with high spatial and temporal resolution, we can monitor the diurnal cycle of the variables related to the refractive index of the path of the signal. A comparison between the heights of the LRT2 obtained with radiosonde data and with this novel method is presented in the paper, and it shows good agreement. The average difference found is ≤1 km for stations between the latitudes of 30°S and 30°N

A new Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based method for urban heat island intensity monitoring

The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect occurs when an urban area experiences higher temperatures than its rural surrounding because of heat being absorbed by built structures and heat being released by anthropogenic sources. UHIs can cause adverse effects to human health and increase energy consumption used for cooling buildings. Therefore, it is important to monitor accurately the UHI effect. The intensity of UHIs are usually monitored using satellite imagery, airborne sensors, and surface temperature sensors. Satellite imagery can cover a large area but requires a clear sky to obtain good images. Moreover, airborne sensors are expensive and also require a clear sky to obtain good data. A large network of surface temperature sensors is required to monitor the UHI of an entire region, which can also be expensive. In this paper, we present a three-step algorithm to monitor UHI intensity using data from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). The advantages of using GNSS data to monitor the UHI effect are the increased availability of observation data, high temporal resolution and high geographical resolution. The first step of the algorithm is the calculation of a priori environmental parameters (i.e., water vapour partial pressure, troposphere height, surface pressure, and the vertical profile of refractivity) from radiosonde data. The second step is the calculation of temperature from GNSS data. The last step is the UHI intensity computation. The algorithm presented in this paper has been tested and validated using publicly available GNSS and meteorological data from Los Angeles, California, USA. The validation of the algorithm is done by comparing the UHI intensity estimated from the algorithm with temperature data obtained from weather stations. In the validation, the proposed algorithm can achieve an accuracy of 1.71 °C at 95 % confidence level

Landscape change and the sustainable development strategy of different types of ethnic villages driven by the grain for Green Program

The Grain for Green Program (GGP) is an important ecological project in China that was implemented to tackle serious soil erosion and forest loss for sustainable development. Investigating landscape change is an efficient way to monitor and assess the implementation of GGP. In this paper, 180 ethnic villages, including 36 Miao and Dong (MD) villages with combined populations of Miao people and Dong people, 65 Dong villages, and 79 Miao villages in Qiandongnan Prefecture were selected to investigate the influence of GGP on ethnic villages by evaluating the landscape changes before and after the implementation of the GGP within 1-km and 2-km distance buffers around ethnic villages. The results show that the GGP has more significant positive impacts on reforestation around Miao villages than Dong villages and MD villages because Miao villages are mostly located in higher and steeper areas, which are the focus of the GGP. Based on the analysis, a continuation of the GGP in Qiandongnan Prefecture is recommended, as it can incentivize the recovery of forest cover in steeper slopes. More attention should now be paid to the Dong villages and MD villages, which were not previously a focus of the GGP

NYCU-TWO at Memotion 3: Good Foundation, Good Teacher, then you have Good Meme Analysis

This paper presents a robust solution to the Memotion 3.0 Shared Task. The goal of this task is to classify the emotion and the corresponding intensity expressed by memes, which are usually in the form of images with short captions on social media. Understanding the multi-modal features of the given memes will be the key to solving the task. In this work, we use CLIP to extract aligned image-text features and propose a novel meme sentiment analysis framework, consisting of a Cooperative Teaching Model (CTM) for Task A and a Cascaded Emotion Classifier (CEC) for Tasks B&C. CTM is based on the idea of knowledge distillation, and can better predict the sentiment of a given meme in Task A; CEC can leverage the emotion intensity suggestion from the prediction of Task C to classify the emotion more precisely in Task B. Experiments show that we achieved the 2nd place ranking for both Task A and Task B and the 4th place ranking for Task C, with weighted F1-scores of 0.342, 0.784, and 0.535 respectively. The results show the robustness and effectiveness of our framework. Our code is released at github.Comment: De-Factify 2: Second Workshop on Multimodal Fact Checking and Hate Speech Detection, co-located with AAAI 202