Production optimization for concentration and volume-limited fed-batch reactors in biochemical processes.

Since a very slight violation of constraint could cause process safety and product quality problems in biochemical processes, an adaptive approach of fed-batch reactor production optimization that can strictly satisfy constraints over the entire operating time is presented. In this approach, an improved smooth function is proposed such that the inequality constraints can be transformed into smooth constraints. Based on this, only an auxiliary state is needed to monitor violations in the augmented performance index.

Contribution to speech development of the right anterior putamen revealed with multivariate tensor-based morphometry.

In our previous study1, we suggested that the difference between tensor-based metrics in the anterior part of the right putamen between 21 and 18 months age groups associated with speech development during this ages. Here we used a correlational analysis between verbal scores and determinant of the Jacobian matrix to confirm our hypothesis. Significant correlations in anterior part of the right putamen between verbal scores and surface metric were revealed in the 18 and 21 age groups.

Central sulcus development in early childhood.

Mapping out the development of the brain in early childhood is a critical part of understanding neurological disorders. The brain grows rapidly in early life, reaching 95% of the final volume by age 6. A normative atlas containing structural parameters that indicate development would be a powerful tool in understanding the progression of neurological diseases.

Cranial thickness changes in early childhood.

The neurocranium changes rapidly in early childhood to accommodate the developing brain. However, developmental disorders may cause abnormal growth of the neurocranium, the most common one being craniosynostosis, affecting about 1 in 2000 children. It is important to understand how the brain and neurocranium develop together to understand the role of the neurocranium in neurodevelopmental outcomes.

EMPOWERING CORTICAL THICKNESS MEASURES IN CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE WITH SPHERICAL SPARSE CODING.

Cortical thickness estimation performed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important technique for the diagnosis and understanding of the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Directly using raw cortical thickness measures as features with Support Vector Machine (SVM) for clinical group classification only yields modest results since brain areas are not equally atrophied during AD progression. Therefore, feature reduction is generally required to retain only the most relevant features for the final classification.

Multi-Source Multi-Target Dictionary Learning for Prediction of Cognitive Decline.

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia. Identifying correct biomarkers may determine pre-symptomatic AD subjects and enable early intervention. Recently, Multi-task sparse feature learning has been successfully applied to many computer vision and biomedical informatics researches.

Enhancing Diffusion MRI Measures By Integrating Grey and White Matter Morphometry With Hyperbolic Wasserstein Distance.

In order to improve the preclinical diagnose of Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is a great deal of interest in analyzing the AD related brain structural changes with magnetic resonance image (MRI) analyses. As the major features, variation of the structural connectivity and the cortical surface morphometry provide different views of structural changes to determine whether AD is present on presymptomatic patients. However, the large scale tensor-valued information and relatively low imaging resolution in diffusion MRI (dMRI) have created huge challenges for analysis.

Sulforaphane Induced Apoptosis via Promotion of Mitochondrial Fusion and ERK1/2-Mediated 26S Proteasome Degradation of Novel Pro-survival Bim and Upregulation of Bax in Human Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells.

Previous studies in our laboratory showed that sulforaphane (SFN) induced apoptosis by sustained activation of extracellular regulated protein kinases 1/2 (ERK1/2). However, the underlying mechanisms associated with SFN-induced apoptosis and downstream cascades which are modulated by ERK1/2 were not elucidated. Herein we demonstrated for the first time that alteration of mitochondrial dynamics contributed to SFN-induced apoptosis in human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells.

Development of EST-derived microsatellite markers in the aquatic macrophyte (Ranunculaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were developed to investigate the influence of ecological factors on gene flow and spatial genetic structuring of the submerged plant (Ranunculaceae), which is regarded as an important species for understanding how plants adapt to an aquatic environment.

Methods And Results: Twenty-two microsatellite loci were identified from an expressed sequence tag (EST) library. The number of alleles per locus ranged from one to five, and the expected heterozygosity varied from 0.

FGWAS: Functional genome wide association analysis.

Functional phenotypes (e.g., subcortical surface representation), which commonly arise in imaging genetic studies, have been used to detect putative genes for complexly inherited neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Feature selective temporal prediction of Alzheimer's disease progression using hippocampus surface morphometry.

Introduction: Prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression based on baseline measures allows us to understand disease progression and has implications in decisions concerning treatment strategy. To this end, we combine a predictive multi-task machine learning method (cFSGL) with a novel MR-based multivariate morphometric surface map of the hippocampus (mTBM) to predict future cognitive scores of patients.

Methods: Previous work has shown that a multi-task learning framework that performs prediction of all future time points simultaneously (cFSGL) can be used to encode both sparsity as well as temporal smoothness.

Synthesis of trifluoromethylated pyrazolidines by [3 + 2] cycloaddition.

A highly efficient [3 + 2] cycloaddition between trifluoromethylated N-acylhydrazones and nitroolefins in the presence of potassium hydroxide under phase transfer catalysis is developed to afford potentially bioactive trifluoromethylated pyrazolidines, which can be further transformed into trifluoromethylated pyrazoles in good yields.

Sensitivity-based adaptive mesh refinement collocation method for dynamic optimization of chemical and biochemical processes.

Collocation on finite element (CFE) is an effective simultaneous method of dynamic optimization to increase the profitability or productivity of industrial process. The approach needs to select an optimal mesh of time interval to balance the computational cost with desired solution. A new CFE approach with non-uniform refinement procedure based on the sensitivity analysis for dynamic optimization problems is, therefore, proposed, where a subinterval is further refined if the obtained control parameters have significant effect on the performance index.

Differential GR Expression and Translocation in the Hippocampus Mediates Susceptibility vs. Resilience to Chronic Social Defeat Stress.

While social stress exposure is a common risk factor for affective disorders, most individuals exposed to it can maintain normal physical and psychological functioning. However, factors that determine susceptibility vs. resilience to social stress remain unclear.

Concentration-dependent effects of PM mass on expressions of adhesion molecules and inflammatory cytokines in nasal mucosa of rats with allergic rhinitis.

Allergic rhinitis (AR) represents a clinical health issue affecting approximately 500 million people worldwide. This study aimed to explore the effects of airborne fine particulate matter (PM) on the nasal mucosa of rats with AR. Seventy-five healthy male SD rats were included and randomly divided into the normal, model, low-concentration, middle-concentration, and high-concentration groups (15 rats each group).

MDSCs are involved in the protumorigenic potentials of GM-CSF in colitis-associated cancer.

Chronic inflammation is thought to be a major driving force for the development of colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). As one member of proinflammatory cytokine family, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) has been identified to play a key role in CAC pathogenesis recently. The underlying mechanisms, however, remain largely unknown.

Activation of P2X7 receptor and NLRP3 inflammasome assembly in hippocampal glial cells mediates chronic stress-induced depressive-like behaviors.

Background: In recent years, proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β (IL-1β) was considered to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of depression. In addition, P2X7 receptor (P2X7R), a member of the purinergic receptor family, which is predominantly present on microglia, as well as on astrocytes and neurons in lesser amounts in the central nervous system, was suggested to be involved in the processing and releasing of IL-1β. Here, we investigated the role of P2X7R in the pathogenesis of depression.

Electrochemical nitrate reduction by using a novel CoO/Ti cathode.

CoO film coated on Ti substrate is prepared using sol-gel method and applied as cathode material for electrochemical denitrification in this research. Preparation conditions including precursor coating times and calcination temperature are optimized based on NO-N removal, NO-N generation, NH-N generation and total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiencies. The influences of electrolysis parameters such as current density and NO-N initial concentration are also investigated.

Seroprevalence and Risk Factors of Toxoplasma gondii in Slaughter Pigs in Shaanxi Province, Northwestern China.

Toxoplasma gondii is an important food-borne zoonotic protozoan parasite, which can infect endothermic animals, including pigs. However, data on T. gondii in slaughter pigs in Shaanxi Province were still lacking.

Shape Analysis with Hyperbolic Wasserstein Distance.

Shape space is an active research field in computer vision study. The shape distance defined in a shape space may provide a simple and refined index to represent a unique shape. Wasserstein distance defines a Riemannian metric for the Wasserstein space.

Diverse protocols for correlative super-resolution fluorescence imaging and electron microscopy of chemically fixed samples.

Our groups have recently developed related approaches for sample preparation for super-resolution imaging within endogenous cellular environments using correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). Four distinct techniques for preparing and acquiring super-resolution CLEM data sets for aldehyde-fixed specimens are provided, including Tokuyasu cryosectioning, whole-cell mount, cell unroofing and platinum replication, and resin embedding and sectioning. The choice of the best protocol for a given application depends on a number of criteria that are discussed in detail.

An essential role of intestinal cell kinase in lung development is linked to the perinatal lethality of human ECO syndrome.

Human endocrine-cerebro-osteodysplasia (ECO) syndrome, caused by the loss-of-function mutation R272Q in the intestinal cell kinase (ICK) gene, is a neonatal-lethal developmental disorder. To elucidate the molecular basis of ECO syndrome, we constructed an Ick R272Q knock-in mouse model that recapitulates ECO pathological phenotypes. Newborns bearing Ick R272Q homozygous mutations die at birth due to respiratory distress.

Ghrelin alleviates anxiety- and depression-like behaviors induced by chronic unpredictable mild stress in rodents.

As a regulator of food intake, ghrelin also plays a key role in mood disorders. Previous studies reported that acute ghrelin administration defends against depressive symptoms of chronic stress. However, the effects of long-term ghrelin on rodents under chronic stress hasn't been revealed.

A T1 and DTI fused 3D corpus callosum analysis in MCI subjects with high and low cardiovascular risk profile.

Understanding the extent to which vascular disease and its risk factors are associated with prodromal dementia, notably Alzheimer's disease (AD), may enhance predictive accuracy as well as guide early interventions. One promising avenue to determine this relationship consists of looking for reliable and sensitive imaging methods capable of characterizing the subtle brain alterations before the clinical manifestations. However, little is known from the imaging perspective about how risk factors such as vascular disease influence AD progression.