Summary
Tea is the world's widely consumed nonalcohol beverage with essential economic and health benefits. Confronted with the increasing large‐scale omics‐data set particularly the genome sequence ...released in tea plant, the construction of a comprehensive knowledgebase is urgently needed to facilitate the utilization of these data sets towards molecular breeding. We hereby present the first integrative and specially designed web‐accessible database, Tea Plant Information Archive (TPIA; http://tpia.teaplant.org). The current release of TPIA employs the comprehensively annotated tea plant genome as framework and incorporates with abundant well‐organized transcriptomes, gene expressions (across species, tissues and stresses), orthologs and characteristic metabolites determining tea quality. It also hosts massive transcription factors, polymorphic simple sequence repeats, single nucleotide polymorphisms, correlations, manually curated functional genes and globally collected germplasm information. A variety of versatile analytic tools (e.g. JBrowse, blast, enrichment analysis, etc.) are established helping users to perform further comparative, evolutionary and functional analysis. We show a case application of TPIA that provides novel and interesting insights into the phytochemical content variation of section Thea of genus Camellia under a well‐resolved phylogenetic framework. The constructed knowledgebase of tea plant will serve as a central gateway for global tea community to better understand the tea plant biology that largely benefits the whole tea industry.
Immunotherapy targeting factors related to immune imbalance has been widely employed for RA treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of low-dose interleukin (IL)-2 combined ...with tocilizumab (TCZ), a biologics targeting IL-6, in RA patients.
Fifty adults with active RA who met the criteria with complete clinical data were recruited, and divided into three groups: control group (n=15), IL-2 group (n=26), and IL-2+TCZ group (n=9). In addition to basic treatment, participants in the IL-2 group received IL-2 (0.5 MIU/day), while participants in the IL-2+TCZ group received IL-2 (0.5 MIU/day) along with one dose of TCZ (8 mg/kg, maximum dose: 800 mg). All subjects underwent condition assessment, laboratory indicators and safety indicators detection, and records before treatment and one week after treatment.
Compared with the baseline, all three groups showed significant improvement in disease conditions, as evidenced by significantly reduced disease activity indicators. The low-dose IL-2 and combination treatment groups demonstrated a violent proliferation of Tregs, while the absolute number of Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells in the latter group showed a decreasing trend. The decrease in the Th17/Treg ratio was more pronounced in the IL-2+TCZ groups. No significant adverse reactions were observed in any of the patients.
Exogenous low doses of IL-2 combined TCZ were found to be safe and effective in reducing effector T cells and appropriately increasing Treg levels in RA patients with high effector T cell levels. This approach helps regulate immune homeostasis and contributes to the prevention of disease deterioration.
https://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojEN.html?proj=13909, identifier ChiCTR-INR-16009546.
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•Cyanobacteria are removed intactly by the surface charge neutralization with PACl.•PACl cause cells in flocs damage after the protective effect of EPSs is destroyed.•Stirring can ...cause cells lyse, but the damage is slighter than that of PACl.•PACl flocs with cells should be treated within 2days to avoid the release of MCs.
The damage of cyanobacterial cells and the release of their intracellular microcystins (MCs) present an enormous threat to drinking water. Effective control of cyanobacteria both in coagulation and floc storage processes plays an important significance in avoiding the additional release of MCs during water treatment. In this paper, the cell integrity acted as a key factor to assess the damage of polyaluminum chloride (PACl) coagulation/flocculation process on Microcystis aeruginosa cells. Effects of coagulant dose, coagulation stirring and floc storage time were comprehensively evaluated to regulate M. aeruginosa cell lysis and MCs release. Results showed that all cells were removed intactly by the surface charge neutralization with PACl in the coagulation process. While in floc storage process, PACl caused obvious damage to cells and led to a large amount of MCs release afterthe protective effects of EPSs produced by M. aeruginosa cells were destroyed or decomposed. Coagulation stirring could cause cells lyse earlier than the natural lysis, but this damage was slighter than that of coagulant PACl, which obviously aggravate the cell lysis of M. aeruginosa in flocs after 2days. This study is not only significant for the effective removal of cyanobacterial cells from drinking water sources but instructive for the prevention of secondary pollution of MCs during water recirculation from the sludge treatment to the head of the process.
Background Previous prognosis analyses of colorectal cancer （CRC） patients with stage Ⅱ and Ⅲ disease were done as separate categories. The purpose of this study was to analyze prognostic factors ...associated with survival in a group of patients who underwent radical resection of stages Ⅱ and Ⅲ CRC.Methods A retrospective review was performed for 141 consecutive stages Ⅱ and Ⅲ patients who had undergone radical resection of coloractal adenocarcinoma between May 2003 and November 2003. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the effect of record variables on disease free survival and overall survival.Results The median follow-up time was 59 months, and the 3-and 5-year survival rates were 76% and 68%,respectively. Four factors were independently associated with a worse disease-free survival： diabetes （hazard ratio （HR） 2.338; 95% confidence interval （CI） 1.011-5.407）, expression of cyclooxygenase-2 （Cox-2） （HR 0.335; 95% CI 0.126-0.888）, expression of matrix metalloproteinases 2 （MMP-2） （FIR 0.233; 95% CI 0.101-0.541）, expression of vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF） （HR 0.295; 95% CI 0.088-0.996）. Four factors were independently associated with a worse overall survival： lymph nodes metastasis （HR 1.67; 95% CI 1.29-2.14）, Cox-2 positive （HR 0.056; 95% CI 0.247-0.731）, MMP-2 positive （HR 0.398; 95% CI 0.190-0.836）, VEGF （HR 0.364; 95% CI 0.090-0.716）.Conclusions Diabetes, expression of Cox-2, MMP-2 and VEGF were independently associated with a worse diseasefree survival. Lymph nodes metastasis, expression of Cox-2, MMP-2 and high level of VEGF predicted a poor overall survival.
Person Re-Identification (ReID) refers to the task of verifying the identity of a pedestrian observed from nonoverlapping surveillance cameras views. Recently, it has been validated that re-ranking ...could bring extra performance improvements in person ReID. However, the current re-ranking approaches either require feedbacks from users or suffer from burdensome computation cost. In this paper, we propose to exploit a density-adaptive kernel technique to perform efficient and effective re-ranking for person ReID. Specifically, we present two simple yet effective re-ranking methods, termed inverse Density-Adaptive Kernel based Re-ranking (inv-DAKR) and bidirectional Density-Adaptive Kernel based Re-ranking (bi-DAKR), which are based on a smooth kernel function with a density-adaptive parameter. Experiments on six benchmark data sets confirm that our proposals are effective and efficient.
Person reidentification (ReID) refers to the task of verifying the identity of a pedestrian observed from nonoverlapping views in a surveillance camera network. It has recently been validated that ...reranking can achieve remarkable performance improvements in person ReID systems. However, current reranking approaches either require feedback from users or suffer from burdensome computational costs. In this paper, we propose to exploit a density-adaptive smooth kernel technique to achieve efficient and effective reranking. Specifically, we adopt a smooth kernel function to formulate the neighbor relationships among data samples with a density-adaptive parameter. Based on this new formulation, we present two simple yet effective reranking methods, termed \emph{inverse} density-adaptive kernel based reranking (inv-DAKR) and \emph{bidirectional} density-adaptive kernel based reranking (bi-DAKR), in which the local density information in the vicinity of each gallery sample is elegantly exploited. Moreover, we extend the proposed inv-DAKR and bi-DAKR methods to incorporate the available extra probe samples and demonstrate that when and why these extra probe samples are able to improve the local neighborhood and thus further refine the ranking results. Extensive experiments are conducted on six benchmark datasets, including: PRID450s, VIPeR, CUHK03, GRID, Market-1501 and Mars. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposals are effective and efficient.
The hybrid HVDC transmission system combines the advantages of conventional LCC-HVDC and flexible VSC-HVDC system, and is an attractive solution for future long-distance and large-capacity ...transmission applications; in addition, the complexity of the topology also brings new demands for coordinated control strategies to improve the operational reliability of hybrid multi-terminal HVDC system. This paper focus on a novel hybrid MTDC system, where rectifier converter adopts the conventional LCC and the series-parallel LCC and VSC constitute the inverter side. Based on this novel hybrid MTDC system, the potential operation modes and corresponding coordinated control strategies are proposed and analyzed to provide satisfactory performance for converter stations. Finally, simulations results based on PSCAD/EMTDC verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.
Currently,a few chemical phase analysis methods possess a common application,but most of them are designed for samples in a specific ore district and thus the accuracy of analytical results and the ...application range of a selected analytical process are not certain. Verification of chemical phase analysis by selected analytical process and method accuracy are the primary problem in this field.The representative antimony ore type,single antimony sulfide ore was chosen as the research object for the study.The main mineral phases of antimony are determined by mineral identification. When valentinite mineral cannot be acquired,the proportion of valentinite in mixing oxide ore( mixture of valentinite and antimonate) is determined by valence analysis. Moreover, the selected separation condition among valentinite, stibnite and antimonate is determined by comparison of condition experiment and X-ray Diffraction Analysis. Results show for the sample with antimony suldide content higher than 35%,the extraction time for the antimony sulfide phase should change from30 minutes to 40 minutes. When the leaching rate of stibnite is increased by 4%-6%,the analysis error of antimonates phase can be reduced by 45%-70%. Antimony sulfide was leached completely,and the analysis accuracy of antimonite and cervantite phases improved. This method is suitable for chemical phase analysis of different types of ores( oxidized and sulfide ores) from different regions.
Background Ketanserin （KT）, a selective serotonin （5-HT） 2-receptor antagonist, reduces peripheral blood pressure by blocking the activation of peripheral 5-HT receptors. In this study ...electrophysiological method was used to investigate the effect of KT and potassium ion on Kv1.3 potassium channels and explore the role of blocker KT in the alteration of channel kinetics contributing to the potassium ion imbalances. Methods Kv1.3 channels were expressed in xenopus oocytes, and currents were measured using the two-microelectrode voltage-clamp technique. Results KCI made a left shift of activation and an inactivation curve of Kv1.3 current and accelerated the activation and inactivation time constant. High extracellular K^＋ attenuated the blockade effect of KT on Kv1.3 channels. In the presence of KT and KCI the activation and inactivation time constants were not influenced significantly no matter what was administered first. KT did not significantly inhibit Kv1.3 current induced by tetraethylammonium （TEA）. Conclusions KT is a weak blocker of Kv1.3 channels at different concentrations of extracellular potassium and binds to the intracellular side of the channel pore. The inhibitor KT of ion channels is not fully effective in clinical use because of high K^＋. and other electrolyte disorders.
Electron beams of 0.5, 1.5, 2.0, and 5.0 MeV were used to irradiate n-Si diodes to fluences of 5.5 9 1013, 1.7 9 1014, and 3.3 9 1014 e cm-2. The forward voltage drop, minority carrier lifetime, and ...deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) characteristics of silicon p–n junction diodes before and after irradiation were compared.At the fluence of 3.3 9 1014 e cm-2, the forward voltage drop increased from 1.25 V at 0.5 MeV to 7.96 V at 5.0 MeV, while the minority carrier lifetime decreased significantly from 7.09 ls at 0.5 MeV to 0.06 ls at 5. 0 MeV. Six types of changes in the energy levels in DLTS spectra were analyzed and discussed.
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