Partial face recognition (PFR) in unconstrained environment is a very important task, especially in video surveillance, mobile devices, etc. However, a few studies have tackled how to recognize an ...arbitrary patch of a face image. This study combines Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) with Sparse Representation Classification (SRC) to propose a novel partial face recognition approach, called Dynamic Feature Matching (DFM), to address partial face images regardless of size. Based on DFM, we propose a sliding loss to optimize FCN by reducing the intra-variation between a face patch and face images of a subject, which further improves the performance of DFM. The proposed DFM is evaluated on several partial face databases, including LFW, YTF and CASIA-NIR-Distance databases. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of DFM in comparison with state-of-the-art PFR methods.
Prodrug nanoassemblies are emerging as a novel drug delivery system for chemotherapy, comprising four fundamental modules: a drug module, a modification module, a response module, and a surface ...functionalization module. Among these modules, surface functionalization is an essential process to enhance the biocompatibility and stability of the nanoassemblies. Here, we selected mitoxantrone (MTO) as the drug module and DSPE-PEG2K as surface functionalization module to develop MTO prodrug nanoassemblies. We systematically evaluated the effect of surface functionalization module ratios (10%, 20%, 40%, and 60% of prodrug, W DSPE‑mPEG2000/W prodrug) on the prodrug nanoassemblies. The results indicated that 40% NPs significantly improved the self-assembly stability and cellular uptake of prodrug nanoassemblies. Compared with MTO solution, 40% NPs showed better tumor specificity and pharmacokinetics, resulting in potent antitumor activity with a good safety profile. These findings highlighted the pivotal role of the surface functionalization module in regulating the performance of mitoxantrone prodrug nanoassemblies for cancer treatment.
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•Element profile of Ecolly grape and wine from six regions was analyzed by ICP-MS.•Ba, Cs, Li, Mg, Na, Rb, and Sr in wine were positively related to those in grape.•Element profile of ...Ecolly grape and wine was mainly driven by geographical origin.•ICP-MS coupled with ML models was a useful tool to trace grape and wine origins.•Feedforward neural network was the most superior classifier with 100 % accuracy.
The authenticity of the geographical origin of grapes and wines is vital for ensuring food safety in the wine market. To authenticate the geographical origin of Ecolly grapes and wines from different Chinese regions, forty-six elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Moreover, the relationships of element content between grapes and wines and regional differences in element profile were analyzed by multivariate statistics. K, Na, Cs, V, Li, Sc, In, Mn, Mg, Al, and Li, Na, Mg, K, Ca, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn were important characteristic variables to distinguish grape and wine origins based on chi-squared tests, respectively. A feed-forward neural network (FNN), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) exhibited 98.33 %, 96.67 %, and 100 % accuracy for distinguishing the geographical origin of Ecolly grapes using these variables, respectively. All models obtained 100 % accuracy for distinguishing wines. FNN exhibited superior performance compared with RF and SVM according to a comprehensive evaluation based on the overall accuracy, the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), an area under the curve (AUC), and tenfold cross-validation. Consequently, this study provides powerful evidence of the potential application of ICP-MS coupled with machine learning models to discriminate the geographical origin of Chinese grapes and wines.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterised by the overproduction of autoantibodies such as rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody. T follicular helper (Tfh) ...cells are a specialised Th subset that provides signals to B cells, promoting the secretion of antibodies. Our previous studies showed that the frequency of circulating Tfh cells were markedly increased in RA patients and positively correlated with disease activity and the levels of anti-CCP autoantibody. Adiponectin (AD) is an adipokine secreted mainly by adipocytes. Our previous work has demonstrated that AD is highly expressed in the inflamed synovial joint tissue and correlates closely with progressive bone erosion in RA patients. However, it remains unknown whether AD aggravates the severity of RA via modulating Tfh cells. This study aims to investigate whether AD exerts effect on Tfh cells in RA.
CD4+ T cells were purified from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of healthy controls (HC), and adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) expression on the surface of CD4+CXCR5+PD-1+ (Tfh) cells was detected by flow cytometry. Purified HC CD4+ T cells were cultured with different concentration fetal bovine serun (FBS) in the presence or absence of AD. The percentages of Tfh cells were analysed by flow cytometry. RA or osteoarthritis (OA) fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLSs) were stimulated with AD for 72h and then co-cultured with HC CD4+ T cells through cell-to-cell contact or in a transwell system. The percentages of Tfh cells were analysed by flow cytometry and the levels of soluble factors such as interleukin-(IL)-6, IL-21, IL-12 and IFNγ in the supernatants were determined by Human Magnetic Bead Panel or Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Then anti-IL-6 antibody and/or anti-IL-21 antibody was added to the co-culture system, and the percentages of Tfh cells were analysed by flow cytometry. The frequency of Tfh cells in the joint tissue of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice was examined by flow cytometry. The mRNA expression of Tfh cell transcription factors and functional molecules such as B-cell lymphoma 6 (Bcl-6), B lymphocyte maturation protein 1 (Blimp-1), IL-6, IL-21, IL-12 and IFNγ in the joints of CIA mice were detected by real time PCR (RT-PCR).
Adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) expression was detected on the surface of Tfh cells. However, in the present study, we did not find that AD has a direct effect on Tfh cell generation in vitro. Nonetheless, AD-stimulated RA FLSs could promote Tfh cell generation, predominantly via IL-6 production. And this upregulated effect was partially abolished upon neutralising IL-6. Finally, intraarticular injection of AD aggravated synovial inflammation with increased frequency of Tfh cells in the joints of AD-treated CIA mice.
Our study demonstrated that AD-stimulated RA FLSs promote Tfh cell generation, which is mainly mediated by the secretion of soluble factor IL-6. This finding reveals a novel mechanism for AD in RA pathogenesis.
Abstract Sulfur doping in carbonaceous anode is a popular method to improve the sodium storing performance. Regulating the C/S bond effect of carbon atom with doped sulfur atom could understand and ...develop superior carbonaceous anode for sodium‐ion batteries. Therefore, this study designed porous hollow carbon nanocages with synergistically‐doped C/S bonds (C‐S/C = S) by secondary‐sulfidation. The secondary‐sulfidation is conducive to the different bond formation of sulfur atom with carbon skeleton and adjust the structure via removed other groups. Thus, the C‐S/C = S anode with synergistically C‐S and C = S bonds delivered a reversible capacity of 307 mAh g‐1 at 1.0 A g −1 with initial coulomb efficiency of 80.15%, a stable cycle life of 2000 cycles, and a fast charge capability of 186 mAh g −1 at 20.0 A g −1 in sodium‐ion batteries. Through characterization and simulation results, the doped C‐S/C = S bonds creates more active sites and ion diffusion channels in carbon skeleton for enhancing the fast and durable kinetics of sodium‐ion. This work provides deep insights into C/S bonds effect of carbon anode material for developing fast charge stability sodium‐ion batteries.
The efficacy of cancer drugs is often limited because only a small fraction of the administered dose accumulates in tumors. Here we report an injectable nanoparticle generator (iNPG) that overcomes ...multiple biological barriers to cancer drug delivery. The iNPG is a discoidal micrometer-sized particle that can be loaded with chemotherapeutics. We conjugate doxorubicin to poly(L-glutamic acid) by means of a pH-sensitive cleavable linker, and load the polymeric drug (pDox) into iNPG to assemble iNPG-pDox. Once released from iNPG, pDox spontaneously forms nanometer-sized particles in aqueous solution. Intravenously injected iNPG-pDox accumulates at tumors due to natural tropism and enhanced vascular dynamics and releases pDox nanoparticles that are internalized by tumor cells. Intracellularly, pDox nanoparticles are transported to the perinuclear region and cleaved into Dox, thereby avoiding excretion by drug efflux pumps. Compared to its individual components or current therapeutic formulations, iNPG-pDox shows enhanced efficacy in MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 mouse models of metastatic breast cancer, including functional cures in 40-50% of treated mice.
Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive response to hemodynamic stress to compensate for cardiac dysfunction. MicroRNAs can regulate cardiac function and play a vital role in the regulation of cardiac ...hypertrophy. In the current study, in vivo and vitro hypertrophy models are established to explore the role of miR-27b and to elucidate the underlying mechanism in cardiac hypertrophy. Expression of miR-27b was down-regulated in mice with cardiac hypertrophy. The cardiac function of the mice with cardiac hypertrophy could be restored with the overexpression of miR-27b, this is observed in terms of decreasing LVEDd, LVESd, and increasing LVFS, LVEF. This study also predicted and confirmed that galectin-3 is a target gene of miR-27b. Depletion of galectin-3 significantly attenuated hypertrophy of hearts in both in vitro and in vivo tests. In conclusion, MiR-27b be used to exert a protective role against cardiac dysfunction and hypertrophy by decreasing the expression level of galectin-3. The methodology suggested in this study provides a novel therapeutic strategy against cardiac hypertrophy.
•A novel online hybrid method is established to improve the measurement accuracy.•Validation of online hybrid technology is conducted experimentally and numerically.•Almost 40% correction for extent ...of reaction is achieved by enhancing heat transfer.•Cooling process of novel online hybrid method only takes 5 ms.•A molecular reaction model and the kinetic parameters are developed.
A novel online hybrid method is developed to construct the reaction mechanism of hydrocarbon fuel by avoiding the overestimation of conversion and removing the measurement error of product composition. The validation of online hybrid technology is conducted by experimental measurement and numerical modeling. With enhancing heat transfer efficiency and rapidly annihilating radicals to terminate chemical reaction, the measurement results of the online cooling technology are more accurate and reliable than those of the tradition indirect contact cooling apparatus. The flow process, heat transfer, reaction characteristics and thermophysical properties of hydrocarbon fuel are investigated under various pressures and temperatures. The chemical reaction pathways and product distributions at the heating section are different from those at the connecting section, due to a high-temperature boundary layer in the heating section. Further, a 3D T-shape mathematical model embedded a molecular chemical reaction and fluid thermophysical properties is established to validate and analyze the extensive availability of the online hybrid method. A detailed performance analysis of the injecting coolant that acts to eliminate and elucidate the effect of subsequent reaction process is carried out to optimize operation conditions experimentally and numerically. As the increase of the coolant, the subsequent reaction process is gradually weakened until terminated. The gradients of temperature and concentration are formed by the injection of coolant and then the gradients are gradually diminishing to disappear along the connecting part due to the energy and mass transport.
High‐pressure resistant and multidirectional compressible materials enable various applications but are often hindered by structure‐derived collapse and weak elasticity. Here, a super‐robust graphene ...foam with ladder shape microstructure capable of withstanding high pressure is presented. The multioriented ladder arrays architecture of the foam, consisting of thousands of identically sized square spaces, endow it with a great deal of elastic units. It can easily bear an iterative and multidirectional pressure of 44.5 MPa produced by a sharp blade, and may completely recover to its initial state by a load of 180 000 times their own weight even under 95% strain. More importantly, the foam can also maintain structural integrity after experiencing a pressure of 2.8 GPa through siphoning. Computational modeling of the “buckling of shells” mechanism reveals the unique ladder‐shaped graphene foam contributes to the superior cut resistance and good resilience. Based on this finding, it can be widely used in cutting resistance sensors, monitoring of sea level, and the detection of oily contaminants in water delivery pipelines.
A super‐robust graphene foam with ladder‐shape microstructure‐derived outstanding mechanical properties including cutting resistance and high recovery is designed, based on which it can be applied in cutting resistance pressure sensors, monitoring sea level, and detecting oily contaminants in water transmission pipeline.
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