The glycocalyx comprises glycosylated proteins and lipids and fcorms the outermost layer of cells. It is involved in fundamental inter- and intracellular processes, including non-self-cell and ...self-cell recognition, cell signaling, cellular structure maintenance, and immune protection. Characterization of the glycocalyx is thus essential to understanding cell physiology and elucidating its role in promoting health and disease. This protocol describes how to comprehensively characterize the glycocalyx N-glycans and O-glycans of glycoproteins, as well as intact glycolipids in parallel, using the same enriched membrane fraction. Profiling of the glycans and the glycolipids is performed using nanoflow liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS). Sample preparation, quantitative LC-tandem MS (LC-MS/MS) analysis, and data processing methods are provided. In addition, we discuss glycoproteomic analysis that yields the site-specific glycosylation of membrane proteins. To reduce the amount of sample needed, N-glycan, O-glycan, and glycolipid analyses are performed on the same enriched fraction, whereas glycoproteomic analysis is performed on a separate enriched fraction. The sample preparation process takes 2-3 d, whereas the time spent on instrumental and data analyses could vary from 1 to 5 d for different sample sizes. This workflow is applicable to both cell and tissue samples. Systematic changes in the glycocalyx associated with specific glycoforms and glycoconjugates can be monitored with quantitation using this protocol. The ability to quantitate individual glycoforms and glycoconjugates will find utility in a broad range of fundamental and applied clinical studies, including glycan-based biomarker discovery and therapeutics.
In this paper, we investigate the design and analysis of coded slotted ALOHA (CSA) schemes in the presence of channel erasure. We design the code probability distributions for CSA schemes with ...repetition codes and maximum distance separable codes to maximize the expected traffic load, under both packet erasure channels and slot erasure channels. We derive the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) functions of CSA schemes over erasure channels. By optimizing the convergence behavior of the derived EXIT functions, the code probability distributions to achieve the maximum expected traffic load are obtained. Then, we derive the asymptotic throughput of CSA schemes over erasure channels. In addition, we validate that the asymptotic throughput can give a good approximation to the throughput of CSA schemes over erasure channels.
Although the prevalence of brain injury and related neurodevelopmental disabilities resulting from preterm birth are major public health concerns, there are no definite neuroprotective strategies to ...prevent or reduce brain injury. The pattern of brain injury seen in preterm infants has evolved into more subtle lesions that are still essential to diagnose regarding neurodevelopmental outcomes. There is no specific effective method for the treatment of premature infant brain injury, and the focus of clinical treatment is still on prevention. Prevention of this injury requires insight into the pathogenesis, but many gaps exist in our understanding of how neonatal treatment procedures and medications impact cerebral hemodynamics and preterm brain injury. Many studies provide evidence about the prevention of premature infant brain injury, which is related to some drugs (such as erythropoietin, melatonin, mesenchymal stem cells, etc.). However, there are still some controversies about the quality of research and the effectiveness of therapy. This review aims to recapitulate the results of preclinical studies and provide an update on the latest developments around etiological pathways, prevention, and treatment.
In this paper, we construct binary spatially coupled (SC) low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes based on Euclidean geometry (EG) LDPC codes for storage applications, where high error correction ...capability, extremely low uncorrectable bit error rate (UBER), and low decoding complexity are required. We propose a systematic way to construct the families of SC LDPC codes from (m,2 s ) EG LDPC codes, which are termed EG-SC LDPC codes. In the construction method, we propose a 2-D edge-spreading process to construct the base matrix of EG-SC LDPC codes, which consists of matrix unwrapping and periodically time-varying of a protograph. A lower bound on the rank of the parity-check matrix of an EG-SC LDPC code is derived. We evaluate the error rate performance of the constructed EG-SC LDPC codes by using a weighted bit-flipping decoding algorithm for its low decoding complexity. Numerical results show that the UBER performance of the constructed EG-SC LDPC codes is superior to that of their EG LDPC code counterparts, and show no error floor compared with the constructed protograph SC LDPC codes and regular LDPC codes.
Effective moisture (EM) distribution in the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) region is strongly related to regional topography. An understanding of climate change and the interactions between climate ...variables can help predict future climate variations. Here, we reconstruct a stack EM record for Southwest China over the past 90 kyr using environmental magnetism in lake sediment. The EM in Southwest China at the orbital scale was closely linked to precession‐induced change in North Hemisphere solar insolation, as well as the ISM variability. However, at the glacial‐interglacial scale, it was decoupled with ISM intensity, being wetter during glacial periods (weakened ISM) and drier during interglacial periods (enhanced ISM). Combined with modern meteorological observations, we suggest that the topographical barrier effect and temperature induced dryness are responsible for the decoupling between ISM intensity and EM. The terrestrial topography and temperature strongly influence EM distribution by altering the dynamics of onshore airflow and evapotranspiration.
Plain Language Summary
Effective moisture (EM) directly affects hydrological cycle and wider‐scale socio‐economic development. Reconstruction of prehistoric EM levels is essential for deeper understanding of the global climate system, developing climate models and improving prediction of future climate variations. Here, we reconstruct a high‐resolution EM record over the past ∼90,000 years from lake sediments in Tengchong, Yunnan province, Southwest China. We found that the variation of precession (shifts in the rotational axis of the Earth) and solar insolation are the key contributors to the EM variability at the orbital scale. Unusually, a wetter climate during the glacial period and relatively drier interglacial periods were observed in our records, which is opposite to those found in previous studies (arid glacial and humid interglacial) in monsoon regions, indicating a decoupling pattern between monsoon intensity and EM in study region. Based on a comprehensive analysis of the modern meteorological observations, we conclude that the topography and temperature exert a considerable role in modulating EM distribution and response to the decoupling pattern.
Key Points
The long‐term effective moisture (EM) record in Southwest China since ∼90 kyr was reconstructed
The EM variability at the orbital scale in terrestrial Indian summer monsoon region is primarily dominated by precession
The topographic barrier and temperature induced aridification contribute to the decoupling of monsoon intensity and EM
In this paper, we propose novel terminated staircase codes for NAND flash memories. Specifically, we design a rate 0.89 staircase code whose component code is a Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) code, ...for flash memories with page size of 16K bytes. Different from most conventional unterminated staircase codes, we propose a novel coding structure by performing cyclic redundancy check (CRC) encoding and decoding on each component codeword including information bits and parity bits. The CRC bits are protected by both row and column codewords. Furthermore, a novel iterative bit flipping algorithm is developed to solve stall patterns and lower the error floor. Based on our design, we perform an improved analysis on the error floor. We prove and show that our proposed decoding algorithm can solve more stall patterns which leads to a lower error floor compared with conventional staircase codes. Numerical results show that our terminated staircase codes outperform the stand-alone BCH codes and the conventional staircase codes.
Based on the characteristic that the air can form a vortex around the carrier after passing through the suspended carrier, a new layered fan-like carrier and a wave multi-channel carrier were ...prepared by designing the spatial structure of the suspension carrier and combining 3D printing technology. Compared with commercially available multi-faceted hollow sphere carrier, clear water oxygenation experiment was carried out in a transparent organic glass reactor, and the aeration volumetric flow rate was 0.28, 0.42, 0.56, 0.70, and 0.84 VVM, respectively. The results show that the growth rate of dissolved oxygen, the saturation value of dissolved oxygen, and the oxygen mass transfer coefficient in the new type of carrier reactor are higher than those of commercially available multi-faceted hollow spheres and blank reactors at various aeration intensities. Under the condition of aeration volumetric flow rate at 0.56 VVM, the reactor can reach dissolved oxygen saturation at a faster rate of dissolved oxygen growth. Combined with the FLUENT numerical simulation and sewage treatment experiments, it is proved that changing the spatial structure of the carrier can accelerate the reoxygenation of the water body, increase the value of dissolved oxygen saturated in the water, and create ideal mass transfer conditions for the MBBR (moving bed biofilm reactor).
Extensive multi-species harmful algal blooms (HABs) were triggered by Super Typhoon Lekima in Laizhou Bay (Bohai Sea) in August 2019. After conducting two field cruises before and after the typhoon ...passage, we employed both high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-pigment and microscopic methods to study the changes in the phytoplankton community and biomass. Following the passage of Lekima, the average surface salinity decreased, while dissolved inorganic nitrogen and dissolved silicate concentrations increased in the study area. The phytoplankton abundance and Chl a significantly increased after the typhoon event. Post-typhoon, the highest abundance values of Pseudo-nitzschia spp., Noctiluca scintillans, and Coscinodiscus spp. reached 106 cells/L and those of Bacillaria paxillifera, Ceratium spp., and Gymnodinium catenatum were in the order of 105 cells/L. HPLC-pigment CHEMTAX analysis showed that the biomass (Chl a) of dinoflagellates, diatoms, cryptophytes, chlorophytes, and haptophytes increased significantly after the typhoon. The increase in Chl a concentration was mainly attributable to large-sized phytoplankton, which are mostly diatoms and dinoflagellates. This study highlights that typhoons may cause HABs by introducing large amounts of freshwater and nutrients and change the phytoplankton community in a temperate and inner bay.
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•Extensive multi-species harmful algal blooms were triggered by Typhoon Lekima.•The phytoplankton abundance and Chl a significantly increased after the typhoon.•Noctiluca scintillans bloom was a noticeable phenomenon post-typhoon.•The typhoon caused the short-term changes of phytoplankton community.
Most multi-dimensional (more than two dimensions) lattice partitions only form additive quotient groups and lack multiplication operations. This prevents us from constructing lattice codes based on ...multi-dimensional lattice partitions directly from non-binary linear codes over finite fields. In this paper, we design lattice codes from Construction A lattices where the underlying linear codes are non-binary irregular repeat-accumulate (IRA) codes. Most importantly, our codes are based on multi-dimensional lattice partitions with finite constellations. We propose a novel encoding structure that adds randomly generated lattice sequences to the encoder's messages, instead of multiplying lattice sequences to the encoder's messages. We prove that our approach can ensure that the decoder's messages exhibit permutation-invariance and symmetry properties. With these two properties, the densities of the messages in the iterative decoder can be modeled by Gaussian distributions described by a single parameter. With Gaussian approximation, extrinsic information transfer charts for our multi-dimensional IRA lattice codes are developed and used for analyzing the convergence behavior and optimizing the decoding thresholds. Simulation results show that our codes can approach the unrestricted Shannon limit within 0.46 dB and outperform the previously designed lattice codes with 2-D lattice partitions and existing lattice coding schemes for large codeword length.
ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the current status of innovative behaviours among nurses in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals using latent profile analysis, identify potential ...subgroups and their population characteristics and explore factors associated with different categories.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingSix TCM hospitals in Anhui, China.ParticipantsFrom 1 April 2023 to 31 July 2023, a total of 642 registered nurses with more than 1 year of work experience were recruited from the clinical departments of six TCM hospitals using a stratified cluster sampling method. 529 valid questionnaires were recovered, presenting a validity rate of 82.40%.Primary and secondary outcome measuresData were collected through online surveys containing a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Nurse Innovative Behaviour Scale, the Nurse Adversity Quotient Self-Evaluation Scale and the Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-II. Latent profile analysis was performed to identify categorisation features of nurses’ innovative behaviour in TCM hospitals. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to investigate associated factors with profile membership.ResultsTCM hospital nurses’ innovative behaviours were mainly classified into three types of latent profiles: low innovative behaviour (35.3%), moderate innovative behaviour (48.4%) and high innovative behaviour (16.3%). The results of multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that gender, monthly income, department, hospital level, position, nurse competency level, any training attended related to TCM knowledge and skills, adversity quotient level and structural empowerment level were the influencing factors for the potential profiles.ConclusionsThe innovative behaviour of nurses in TCM hospitals can be classified into three categories. Studying the heterogeneity of the innovative behaviour of nurses in TCM hospitals and its associated factors provides evidence for nursing administrators and educators to develop individualised interventions based on each latent characteristic to improve the innovative behaviour of nurses in TCM hospitals. It is of great significance to the heritage and innovative development of TCM nursing.
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