Summary
Conformal prediction is a general method that converts almost any point predictor to a prediction set. The resulting set retains the good statistical properties of the original estimator ...under standard assumptions, and guarantees valid average coverage even when the model is mis-specified. A main challenge in applying conformal prediction in modern applications is efficient computation, as it generally requires an exhaustive search over the entire output space. In this paper we develop an exact and computationally efficient conformalization of the lasso and elastic net. The method makes use of a novel piecewise linear homotopy of the lasso solution under perturbation of a single input sample point. As a by-product, we provide a simpler and better-justified online lasso algorithm, which may be of independent interest. Our derivation also reveals an interesting accuracy-stability trade-off in conformal inference, which is analogous to the bias-variance trade-off in traditional parameter estimation. The practical performance of the new algorithm is demonstrated in both synthetic and real data examples.
Abstract
In order to realize the reasonable design of new type pile slab subgrade, this study, relying on the reconstruction and expansion project of Lintou Longxi Interchange Section of G5011 Wuhe ...expressway, constructs a pile slab subgrade model with 15 holes and each hole is 6m. The weakest section of the corbel is determined by checking the mechanical performance of the corbel section, and the mechanical performance of the bracket of the new vertical limited expansion joint of the pile slab subgrade under the most unfavorable load is obtained by the full-scale model. Based on the separation modeling method, the nonlinear analysis of the full-scale specimen under the test loading condition with the load displacement curve in good agreement with the measured results is achieved. Combined with the static performance test of full-scale components, it is verified that the pile slab subgrade has good bearing capacity, which can be applied to engineering.
Summary
Classical swine fever (CSF) is a devastating infectious disease of pigs caused by classical swine fever virus (CSFV). In China, CSF has been under control owing to extensive vaccination with ...the lapinized attenuated vaccine (C‐strain) since 1950s, despite sporadic or endemic in many regions. However, recently, CSF outbreaks occurred in a large number of swine herds in China. Here, we isolated 15 CSFV strains from diverse C‐strain‐vaccinated pig farms in China and characterized the genetic variations and antigenicity of the new isolates. The new strains showed unique variations in the E2 protein and were clustered to the subgenotype 2.1d of CSFV recently emerging in China in the phylogenetic tree. Cross‐neutralization test showed that the neutralizing titres of porcine anti‐C‐strain sera against the new isolates were substantially lower than those against both the highly virulent Shimen strain and the subgenotype 2.1b strains that were isolated in China in 2006 and 2009, respectively. In addition, experimental animal infection showed that the HLJZZ2014 strain‐infected pigs displayed lower mortality and less severe clinical signs and pathological changes compared with the Shimen strain‐infected pigs. The HLJZZ2014 strain was defined to be moderately virulent based on a previously established assessment system for CSFV virulence evaluation, and the virus shedding and the viral load in various tissues of the CSFV HLJZZ2014 strain‐infected pigs were significantly lower than those of the Shimen strain‐infected pigs. Taken together, the subgenotype 2.1d isolate of CSFV is a moderately virulent strain with molecular variations and antigenic alterations.
Abstract
We present the second release of value-added catalogues of the LAMOST Spectroscopic Survey of the Galactic Anticentre (LSS-GAC DR2). The catalogues present values of radial velocity Vr, ...atmospheric parameters – effective temperature Teff, surface gravity log g, metallicity Fe/H, α-element to iron (metal) abundance ratio α/Fe (α/M), elemental abundances C/H and N/H and absolute magnitudes MV and $M_{K_{\rm s}}$ deduced from 1.8 million spectra of 1.4 million unique stars targeted by the LSS-GAC since 2011 September until 2014 June. The catalogues also give values of interstellar reddening, distance and orbital parameters determined with a variety of techniques, as well as proper motions and multiband photometry from the far-UV to the mid-IR collected from the literature and various surveys. Accuracies of radial velocities reach 5 km s−1 for the late-type stars, and those of distance estimates range between 10 and 30 per cent, depending on the spectral signal-to-noise ratios. Precisions of Fe/H, C/H and N/H estimates reach 0.1 dex, and those of α/Fe and α/M reach 0.05 dex. The large number of stars, the contiguous sky coverage, the simple yet non-trivial target selection function and the robust estimates of stellar radial velocities and atmospheric parameters, distances and elemental abundances make the catalogues a valuable data set to study the structure and evolution of the Galaxy, especially the solar-neighbourhood and the outer disc.
Aim
To design and assess a novel protocol that employs isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) for rapid detection of extended‐spectrum β‐lactamase (ESBL)‐producers in clinical pathogens.
Methods and ...Results
A total of 69 clinical Enterobacteriaceae isolates were examined in the new ESBL‐ITC test by examining the heat profiles associated with enzyme hydrolysis of different substrates (imipenem, cefotaxime and clavulanic acid). The presence of β‐lactamase genes in the bacteria tested was confirmed by PCR and DNA sequencing. Comparative analysis between ESBL‐ITC and conventional minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC)/combined disk method (CDM) showed high agreement between the two assays. However, the ESBL‐ITC test had a remarkable advantage of providing testing result within 1 h, in comparison to the 32–48 h required by MIC/CDM.
Conclusions
The ESBL‐ITC test developed in this work offers a new option for rapid and accurate detection of ESBL‐producers.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Timely detection of ESBL‐producers is vital to guide the decision‐making process in clinical treatment as well as in hospital‐infection control. The new ESBL‐ITC test provides a rapid phenotypic assay that can be further adapted for clinical diagnosis of ESBL‐producing pathogens.
Carbon-coated Fe Fe(C) nanocapsules were synthesized by a modified arc-discharge method, and their microstructure and electromagnetic (EM) properties (2-18 GHz) were investigated by means of ...transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and a network analyser. The reflection loss R of less than -20 dB was obtained in the frequency range 3.2-18 GHz. A minimum reflection loss of -43.5 dB was reached at 9.6 GHz with an absorber thickness of 3.1 mm. The in-depth study of relative complex permittivity and permeability reveals that the excellent microwave absorption properties are a consequence of a proper EM match in microstructure, a strong natural resonance, as well as multi-polarization mechanisms, etc.
Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is an essential nutrient, which is often served as a limiting factor in plant growth. It has been reported that SPL family members, such as SPL3, regulate Pi deficiency ...responses by controlling the expression of Pi deficiency responsive genes. To elucidate whether SPL9 respond to low phosphorus stress, we investigated the phenotypes and conducted RNA sequencing analysis in transgenic
Arabidopsis thaliana
with overexpressing rSPL9 (R9) under conditions of both normal and low Pi availability. Compared with wild-type plants, R9 showed decreased anthocyanin accumulation and increased Pi contents in shoots under Pi deficiency. Through RNA-seq analysis compared with wild-type plants, we detected 217 genes significantly differentially expressed in conditions of Pi sufficiency, and 121 genes differentially expressed in conditions of Pi deficiency in R9 plants. Under Pi deficiency, MYB62 and ZAT6 are two important differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that both regulate the Pi uptake processes. In addition, these DEGs included multiple protein kinases, jasmonic acid response genes and genes related to salt stress responses. Genes associated with hydrolase and transferase activity were also differentially regulated by Pi deficiency, such as cytochrome P450 monooxygenases. Of particular note, the transcription factor AP2-EREBP and members of the bHLH family were among the most significantly differentially regulated genes identified under both Pi sufficient and Pi deficient conditions. In conclusion, our analysis of the R9 transcriptome highlights the importance of SPL9 under conditions of Pi-deficiency. Except for stress and defense response genes, the R9 transcriptome also characterized the induction of ethylene or jasmonic acid signaling under Pi deficiency.
► The release of adrenal glucocorticoid hormones shows a pronounced daily rhythm. ► The corticosterone rhythm was crucial to localize the brain master clock in the SCN. ► The brain–adrenal axis has ...been key in understanding how SCN output is forwarded. ► The adrenal gland is of prime importance to understand how peripheral clocks work. ► Glucocorticoids are important for resetting the circadian system after a phase-shift.
The pronounced daily variation in the release of adrenal hormones has been at the heart of the deciphering and understanding of the circadian timing system. Indeed, the first demonstration of an endocrine day/night rhythm was provided by
Pincus (1943), by showing a daily pattern of 17-keto-steroid excretion in the urine of 7 healthy males. Twenty years later the adrenal gland was one of the very first organs to show,
in vitro, that circadian rhythmicity was maintained. In the seventies, experimental manipulation of the daily corticosterone rhythm served as evidence for the identification of respectively the light- and food-entrainable oscillator. Another 20 years later the hypothalamo–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)-axis was key in furthering our understanding of the way in which rhythmic signals generated by the central pacemaker in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) are forwarded to the rest of the brain and to the organism as a whole. To date, the adrenal gland is still of prime importance for understanding how the oscillations of clock genes in peripheral tissues result in functional rhythms of these tissues, whereas it has become even more evident that adrenal glucocorticoids are key in the resetting of the circadian system after a phase-shift. The HPA-axis thus still is an excellent model for studying the transmission of circadian information in the body.
Naringinase was mainly obtained by microbial fermentation, and mutagenesis was a major way for obtaining excellent mutants. The aim of this study was to screen out a high naringinase yielding mutant ...to enhance the potential application value of its industrialization and compare the effects of different mutagenic methods on the enzyme activity of the strain. A novel producing naringinase strain, Aspergillus tubingensis MN589840, was isolated from mildewed pomelo peel, later subjected to mutagenesis including UV, ARTP and UV‐ARTP. After five rounds iterative mutagenesis, the mutants U1, A6 and UA13 were screened out with 1448·49, 1848·71, 2475·16 U mg−1 enzyme activity, the naringinase productivity raised by 79·08, 123·56 and 206%, respectively. In addition, the naringinase activity of three mutants rose after each round of iterative mutagenesis. These results indicated that the mutagenesis efficiency of UV‐ARTP was higher than that of single ARTP, and both are better than UV. In summary, the iterative UV‐ARTP mutagenesis is an effective strategy for screening high naringinase‐producing strains.
Significance and impact of the study: The ‘delayed bitterness’ of naringin in citrus processing is a challenging problem restricting the development of citrus processing industry. Naringinase can transform naringin to naringenin for debittering. Therefore, it is significant to breed high naringinase‐producing strains suitable for industrialization. In this study, we screened a naringinase high‐yielding mutant, which had potential industrial application value and laid a foundation for the development of citrus processing industry. In addition, the method of iterative UV‐ARTP mutagenesis provided an effective strategy for breeding high‐yield naringinase‐producing mutants.
Iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni) nanoparticles were prepared by the DC arc-discharge method in a mixture of hydrogen and argon gases, using bulk metals as the raw materials. The microstructure of core/shell ...(metal/metal oxide) in nanoparticle formed after
in situ passivation process. The complex electromagnetic parameters (permittivity
ε
r
=
ε
r
′
+
i
ε
r
″
and permeability
μ
r
=
μ
r
′
+
i
μ
r
″
) of the paraffin-mixed nanocomposite samples (paraffin:nanoparticles=1:1 in mass ratio) were measured in the frequency range of 2–18
GHz. The polarization mechanisms of the space charge and dipole coexist in both the Fe and Ni nanoparticles. The orientational polarization is a particular polarization for Fe nanoparticles and brings a relatively higher dielectric loss. Natural resonance is the main reason for magnetic loss and the corresponding frequencies are 11.6 and 5.2
GHz for the Fe and Ni nanoparticles, respectively. The paraffin composite with Fe nanoparticles provided excellent microwave absorption properties (reflection loss <−20
dB) in the range 6.8–16.6
GHz over the absorber thickness of 1.1–2.3
mm.
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