•We propose a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for the dynamic berth allocation problem.•Two sets of benchmark instances were tested and results were compared with other leading ...algorithms.•Our PSO is able to obtain the optimal solutions in shorter computational time than other methods.
The berth allocation is one of the major container port optimization problems. In both port operator’s and ocean carriers’ perspective, the minimization of the time a ship at the berth may be considered as an objective with respect to port operations. This paper focuses on the discrete and dynamic berth allocation problem (BAP), which assigns ships to discrete berth positions and minimizes the total waiting times and handling times for all ships. We formulate a mixed integer programming (MIP) model for the BAP. Since BAP is a NP-hard problem, exact solution approaches cannot solve the instances of realistic size optimally within reasonable time. We propose a particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach to solve the BAP. The proposed PSO is tested with two sets of benchmark instances in different sizes from the literature. Experimental results show that the PSO algorithm is better than the other compared algorithms in terms of solution quality and computation time.
The deep population history of East Asia remains poorly understood owing to a lack of ancient DNA data and sparse sampling of present-day people
. Here we report genome-wide data from 166 East Asian ...individuals dating to between 6000 BC and AD 1000 and 46 present-day groups. Hunter-gatherers from Japan, the Amur River Basin, and people of Neolithic and Iron Age Taiwan and the Tibetan Plateau are linked by a deeply splitting lineage that probably reflects a coastal migration during the Late Pleistocene epoch. We also follow expansions during the subsequent Holocene epoch from four regions. First, hunter-gatherers from Mongolia and the Amur River Basin have ancestry shared by individuals who speak Mongolic and Tungusic languages, but do not carry ancestry characteristic of farmers from the West Liao River region (around 3000 BC), which contradicts theories that the expansion of these farmers spread the Mongolic and Tungusic proto-languages. Second, farmers from the Yellow River Basin (around 3000 BC) probably spread Sino-Tibetan languages, as their ancestry dispersed both to Tibet-where it forms approximately 84% of the gene pool in some groups-and to the Central Plain, where it has contributed around 59-84% to modern Han Chinese groups. Third, people from Taiwan from around 1300 BC to AD 800 derived approximately 75% of their ancestry from a lineage that is widespread in modern individuals who speak Austronesian, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic languages, and that we hypothesize derives from farmers of the Yangtze River Valley. Ancient people from Taiwan also derived about 25% of their ancestry from a northern lineage that is related to, but different from, farmers of the Yellow River Basin, which suggests an additional north-to-south expansion. Fourth, ancestry from Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists arrived in western Mongolia after around 3000 BC but was displaced by previously established lineages even while it persisted in western China, as would be expected if this ancestry was associated with the spread of proto-Tocharian Indo-European languages. Two later gene flows affected western Mongolia: migrants after around 2000 BC with Yamnaya and European farmer ancestry, and episodic influences of later groups with ancestry from Turan.
•We developed a novel and efficient heuristic to obtain good solutions for the container relocation problem.•The proposed heuristic is embedded in the beam search to further obtain better ...solutions.•Three benchmark data sets were tested and the results were compared with state-of-the-art algorithms.•The beam search can obtain better results than other state-of-the-art algorithms in the benchmark instances.
Container relocation problem (CRP) involves the retrieval of all containers from the container yard with a minimum number of relocations. The CRP is an NP-hard problem such that the large-scale instances cannot be solved to optimality by exact solution methods within a reasonable computational time. This article proposes a beam search (BS) algorithm embedded with heuristics to evaluate the problems. The proposed beam search is tested on benchmark instances and compared with other leading heuristics from the literature. Computational results demonstrate that the beam search algorithm is compatible with other heuristics and can obtain good solutions in short time.
Cancer-related fatigue is one of the most common and persistent issues experienced by cancer patients. Cancer-related fatigue is a distinct form of fatigue that is subjective, long-lasting and ...unalleviated by rest or sleep. Studies have shown that almost all cancer patients experience severe fatigue that disrupts the quality of life and physical function, but cancer-related fatigue remains under-addressed in clinical care, and only about half of all patients receive treatment.
To increase the awareness of cancer-related fatigue and improve current management, the Taiwan Society of Cancer Palliative Medicine and the Taiwan Oncology Nursing Society convened a consensus committee to develop recommendations for the screening, assessment and treatment of cancer-related fatigue.
Thirteen consensus recommendations were subsequently developed based on the best available evidence and the clinical experience of committee members.
These recommendations are expected to facilitate the standardization of cancer-related fatigue management across Taiwan and may also serve as a reference for other clinicians.
The conserved modification N
-methyladenosine (m
A) modulates mRNA processing and activity. Here, we establish the Drosophila system to study the m
A pathway. We first apply miCLIP to map m
A across ...embryogenesis, characterize its m
A 'writer' complex, validate its YTH 'readers' CG6422 and YT521-B, and generate mutants in five m
A factors. While m
A factors with additional roles in splicing are lethal, m
A-specific mutants are viable but present certain developmental and behavioural defects. Notably, m
A facilitates the master female determinant Sxl, since multiple m
A components enhance female lethality in Sxl sensitized backgrounds. The m
A pathway regulates Sxl processing directly, since miCLIP data reveal Sxl as a major intronic m
A target, and female-specific Sxl splicing is compromised in multiple m
A pathway mutants. YT521-B is a dominant m
A effector for Sxl regulation, and YT521-B overexpression can induce female-specific Sxl splicing. Overall, our transcriptomic and genetic toolkit reveals in vivo biologic function for the Drosophila m
A pathway.
Andrographolide (Andro), the major constituent of
, is was known to reduces inflammatory reaction. In the current study, the ability of Andro to reduce pain sensation in a rat post-operative wound ...model was explored. The hind paws of 18 Sprague-Dawley rats (SD) bearing post-operative wounds received the following three treatments: Saline, Andro via direct injection into the paw (Andro-injected) and Tablet containing Andro + poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) (Andro-tablet). Von Frey tests assessed mechanical allodynia at 1, 3, 5 h and 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-days post-operation. Behavioral analyses were performed to measure reaction threshold and reaction frequencies. Immunoreactivity of p-ERK and GluR1 was examined in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord. Histopathological and immunostaining studies were conducted on paw epidermis to observe the gross morphology and angiogenesis. The threshold for inducing allodynia increased and the reaction frequency reduced in the Andro-injected group compared to the saline-group, at 3 h post-surgery and the effect lasted between 3-4 days. The threshold for inducing pain and reaction frequency for the Andro-tablet group did not differ from the saline-treated group. The levels of p-ERK and GluR1 in the dorsal horn were reduced after Andro treatment. No significant difference in wound healing index was observed between saline and Andro-injected groups, but CD-31 staining showed less angiogenesis in the Andro-injected group. Andro significantly reduced mechanical allodynia compared to saline treatment, both in shorter and longer time frames. Furthermore, Andro influenced the expression of p-ERK and GluR1 in the dorsal horn, and the angiogenesis process in the wound healing area.
Zn/ZSM-5 catalyst made by using ZIF-8 as the sacrificial agent in steam-assist crystallization has a high Lewis acidic Zn2+ concentration and a high Zn(OH)+-to-ZnO ratio, resulting in a high ...aromatics yield in methanol conversion.
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•Zn/ZSM-5 was made by steam-assist crystallization and hard-templating.•CPO-1-Zn and ZIF-8 were the sacrificial agents in the synthesis of Zn/ZSM-5.•ZIF-8 derived Zn/ZSM-5 had high concentrations of Lewis acidic Zn2+ and Zn(OH)+.•ZIF-8 derived Zn/ZSM-5 exhibited a higher activity in methanol aromatization.
Zn/ZSM-5 was prepared by using a combinative method of steam-assisted crystallization (SAC) and hard templating. Zn-based MOFs, including coordination polymer of Oslo number 1-Zn (CPO-1-Zn) and zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8), were used as the sacrificial agents. These MOFs-derived catalysts were compared with Zn/ZSM-5 made by impregnation. Physicochemical characterization revealed that all Zn/ZSM-5 catalysts had finely dispersed Zn2+ species, i.e., ZnO and Zn(OH)+. However, the concentration of Lewis acidic Zn2+ species and the compositions of Zn(OH)+ and ZnO were different. Applying ZIF-8 as the sacrificial agent generated a higher concentration of Lewis acidic Zn2+ species and a higher ratio of Zn(OH)+-to-ZnO in Zn/ZSM-5, which showed a better performance in the aromatization of methanol.
Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) has been widely explored as an important marker for monitoring and diagnosing diabetes. Due to the advantages of high selectivity, easy preparation, and convenient ...preservation of aptamers, research on glycated hemoglobin detection utilizing aptasensors has received much attention in recent years. However, factors such as the pH and the salt concentration of the solution and the structure of the aptamer could influence the interactions between HbA1c and the aptamer. In this study, the factors were evaluated using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The results show that the pH and the salt concentration can greatly affect the formation of a complex between the aptamer and HbA1c. In the stereostructure of the aptamer, loop L1 may be an important motif for recognizing glycated hemoglobin. In addition, the best condition for detecting HbA1c was at pH 6, with a high sensitivity and a low limit of detection(LOD) (1.06 × 10−3RUnM /2.55 nM). The results also demonstrated that the use of an SPR aptamer biosensor can be a sensitive technique to improve the accuracy and correctness of HbA1c measurement.
Highly sensitive HbA1c detection using SPR aptasensor is achieved under the circumstance of optimized environmental parameters and aptamer structure evaluation. Display omitted
•This is the first investigation of the interaction between aptamer and HbA1c.•This spontaneous interaction can be attributed to enthalpy-entropy compensation.•This methodology could provide serve as an aptamer assay for target binding ability.
•A dose–response relationship was observed between the concentrations of phthalic acid esters (PAE) metabolites and anthropometric indices (APs).•Skinfold thickness, waist circumference, ...waist-to-height ratio and waist-to-hip ratio are indices that are more sensitive than hip circumference and body mass index (BMI) for measuring the effect of PAE exposure on obesity.•Mono-methyl phthalate (MMP) exposure was associated with pubic hair in boys.•No interactions were found with regard to co-exposure to PAEs and nonylphenol (NP) and either APs or pubertal maturity.
Some phthalic acid esters (PAEs) and nonylphenol (NP) are endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that are widely used in consumer products. Consequently, the general population is exposed simultaneously to both groups of chemicals.
To investigate the single- and co-exposure effects of PAEs (DMP, DEP, DnBP, DiBP, BBzP, and DEHP) and NP on obesity and pubertal maturity to compare the body sizes of general adolescents with the complainants of the phthalate-tainted foods scandal that occurred in Taiwan.
This study included 270 general adolescents aged 6.5–15.0 years and 38 complainants aged 6.5–8.5 years. Nine metabolites of the five PAEs and of NP were measured in urine. We used a questionnaire to evaluate pubertal maturity, measured anthropometric indices (APs) to assess body size, and collected urine samples to measure the two groups of chemicals.
We found that urinary PAE metabolite concentrations (specifically, metabolites of DEP, DnBP, DiBP, and DEHP) were positively associated with the APs for abdominal obesity (including skinfold thickness, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, and waist-to-hip) and indicated a dose–response relationship. Mono-methyl phthalate (MMP) exposure was inversely associated with pubarche among boys. The daily intake of DEHP in general adolescents exceeded the reference doses (RfD-20μg/kgbw/day) and tolerable daily intake (TDI-50μg/kgbw/day) by 3.4% and 0.4%, respectively. No associations were observed between NP exposure or co-exposure and the APs or pubertal maturity. No significant differences were observed between general adolescents and the complainants with regard to weight, height, or BMI.
The study suggests that PAE (specifically, DEP, DnBP, DiBP, and DEHP) exposure is associated with abdominal obesity in adolescents and that the APs for abdominal obesity are more sensitive than BMI for measuring obesity among adolescents. We suggest that the RfD and TDI for PAEs should be revised to provide sufficient protection.
To introduce the benefits of tangent-based volumetric modulated arc therapy (TVMAT), an innovative radiotherapy planning technique, compared with traditional volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) ...for advanced left breast cancer needing nodal irradiation.
Twenty-three patients with advanced left breast cancer who had received modified radical mastectomy (MRM) and needed adjuvant radiotherapy including nodal irradiation were assessed. Among 23 radiotherapy treatment plans, 17 plans were designed by using TVMAT technique and 6 plans were designed by using traditional VMAT. The main difference of TVMAT from VMAT was that the area of avoidance sector within specific degrees of angle that had no monitor unit (MU) delivery was used in the arc planning, including a total of 5 sectors in 5 partial arcs. The dosimetries of planning target volume (PTV), right breast, bilateral lungs, and heart between TVMAT and VMAT were compared.
The conformity index (CI) and homogeneity index (HI) of PTV between two groups were statistically equivalent (CI: 0.98 ± 0.02 and 0.98 ± 0.03, P = 0.431; HI: 0.12 ± 0.03 and 0.11 ± 0.05, P = 0.177), which indicated that the treatment efficacy of the plans regarding TVMAT was compatible with VMAT. However, all neighboring organs at risk (OAR) showed a great percentage of reduction in mean doses (right breast: 53.1%, right lung: 37.7%, left lung: 8.8%, heart: 21.2%) and low dose parameters (V10: right breast: 72.3%, right lung: 86.1%, left lung: 12.5%, heart: 25.1%; V5: right breast: 56.5%, right lung: 28.3%, left lung: 12.7%, heart: 18.2%) by using TVMAT.
TVMAT greatly decreases the radiation doses delivered to the OAR with maintained therapeutic efficacy. It is highly recommended for treating breast cancer, especially for difficult cases with left side disease needing nodal irradiation.
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