With the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT), social media-based donation platforms emerged. These platforms innovatively demonstrate peer information (e.g., number of ...donated peers) on the donation page, which inevitably brings the peer influence into donors' donation decision process. However, how the peer influence will affect the psychological process of donation decisions are remained unknown. This study used the number of donated peers to examine the effects of peer influence on donors' donation decisions and extracted event-related potential (ERP) from electroencephalographic data to explore the underlying psychological process. The behavioral results indicated that the number of donated peers positively influenced donors' willingness to donate. The ERP results suggested that a larger number of donated peers might indicate a higher level of conformity and greater perceived emotional rewards, as a larger P2 amplitude was observed. Following the early processing of emotional stimuli, cognitive detection of decisional risk took place, and the donors reckoned a smaller number of donated peers as a high potential risk, which was reflected by a larger N2 amplitude. In the later stage, the larger number of donated peers, which represented a higher magnitude of prospective emotional rewards, led to a higher incentive to donate, and reflected in a larger amplitude of P3. Additionally, implications and future directions were discussed.
The hardened cement paste powder (HCP) powder, devoid of the hydration cementing property, can be regenerated and cemented into a test block with practical strength of almost 60 MPa via CO
...carbonization using appropriate means. This study established a kinetic model of CO
curing of an HCP powder test block based on the degree of carbonization to study the carbonization reaction kinetic characteristics of the test block. The model was modified according to the characteristics of the evident temperature differences in the reaction kettle in the early, middle, and late stages of the carbonization process. The proposed model can be used to formulate and control the carbonization and cementation processes of HCP powder and can also be applied to describe the kinetics of the reaction processes of other similar systems.
Modifying the admixture of alkali-activated cementitious materials using components such as fly ash and fine sand may reduce CO2 emissions and conserve natural resources and energy. This study ...adopted strength testing, scanning electron microscopy, and mercury intrusion porosimetry to investigate the influence of different admixtures on the compressive strength and flexural strength of alkali slag cementing materials and the microstructure characteristics of hardened slurry under the action of load. The flexural strength of alkali slag cement slurry and mortar was reduced by replacing slag powder with fly ash. Content of fine sand less than 20% had little effect on the strength of alkali slag cement mortar; however, when the content of fine sand exceeded 30%, the strength decreased significantly. The hydration degree at 3 d was large, and the density of slurry increased with the extension of age. Increased fly ash or fine sand content decreased the density of the slurry, and increased fly ash resulted in a large number of unhydrated fly ash particles in the cementitious materials. Addition of fine sand resulted in a large number of microcracks in the slurry, which gradually decreased with the extension of hydration age.
Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is a natural progression of age-related processes. Associated with IDD, degenerative disc disease (DDD) is a pathologic condition implicated as a major cause of ...chronic lower back pain, which can have a severe impact on the quality of life of patients. As degeneration progression is associated with elevated levels of inflammatory cytokines, enhanced aggrecan and collagen degradation, and changes in the disc cell phenotype. The purpose of this study was to investigate the biological and cytological characteristics of rabbit nucleus pulposus mesenchymal stem cells (NPMSCs)-a key factor in IDD-and to determine the effect of the growth and differentiation factor-5 (GDF5) on the differentiation of rabbit NPMSCs transduced with a lentivirus vector.
An in vitro culture model of rabbit NPMSCs was established and NPMSCs were identified by flow cytometry (FCM) and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Subsequently, NPMSCs were randomly divided into three groups: a transfection group (the lentiviral vector carrying GDF5 gene used to transfect NPMSCs); a control virus group (the NPMSCs transfected with an ordinary lentiviral vector); and a normal group (the NPMSCs alone). FCM, qRT-PCR, and western blot (WB) were used to detect the changes in NPMSCs.
The GDF5-transfected NPMSCs displayed an elongated shape, with decreased cell density, and significantly increased GDF5 positivity rate in the transfected group compared to the other two groups (P < 0.01). The mRNA levels of Krt8, Krt18, and Krt19 in the transfected group were significantly higher in comparison with the other two groups (P < 0.01), and the WB results were consistent with that of qRT-PCR.
GDF5 could induce the differentiation of NPMSCs. The lentiviral vector carrying the GDF5 gene could be integrated into the chromosome genome of NPMSCs and promoted differentiation of NPMSCs into nucleus pulposus cells. Our findings advance the development of feasible and effective therapies for IDD.
In this paper, an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system is considered, where the ISAC base station (BS) serves the communication user ...equipments (UEs) and tracks sensing targets simultaneously. Unfortunately, it is challenging to obtain the perfect channel state information (CSI) of user equipments (UEs)-related links and target directions in practice. To address the imperfection, we investigate the robust beamforming design under the statistical CSI and bounded target direction uncertainty models. With these considerations, we formulate a Cramér-Rao bound (CRB) of sensing targets minimization problem, subject to the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) outage probability constraint, the maximum transmit power limits and the unit-modulus constraint of each IRS element. In order to solve this non-convex problem, we formulate the robust beamforming design as a bi-level optimization (BLO) problem and then apply the double-loop deep unfolding (DU) approach to solve this problem. Specifically, we formulate the problem into a primal-dual problem by integrating the SINR outage probability constraint into the objective function which is further approximated by using the worst-case SINR. The projection method and Riemannian manifold optimization method are used to deal with the maximum transmit power constraint and the unit-modulus constraint, respectively. Therefore, the problem can be reformulated as the bi-level optimization (BLO) problem. The lower level (LL) problems aim to find the worst-case CSI and angle of sensing targets. The upper level (UL) problem is the primal-dual problem solved by beamforming design and the Lagrange multipliers optimization with the certain CSI and angle. Then, we apply double-loop DU neural network which unfolds the iterative gradient descent into multi-layer structure, and each layer consists of UL loop and LL loop. In addition, the trainable step sizes and offset parameters are introduced as the network parameters, and the network ultimately outputs optimal optimization variables. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust beamforming design algorithm.
A thorough understanding and accurate calculation of the annulus pressure losses are paramount to drilling design and construction. However, due to the influence of the drillstring rotation and the ...abrupt dimensional variation at the joint, it is difficult to calculate the pressure loss by theoretical analysis in the annulus at the drillstring joints. Considering the geometric nonlinearity of drillstring joints and the unsteady flow of annular fluid caused by pipe rotation, based on the turbulence model k−ε, the flow field characteristics demonstrate the annulus pressure losses at the drillstring joint are studied by numerical simulation. Simulation results indicate that drillstring rotation speed, annular gap, and eccentricity greatly influence flow field and pressure losses at drillstring joints. The annular pressure loss would increase with the decrease of the annular gap and eccentricity but decrease with the increase of the drillstring rotation rate. The investigation method and results would help guide the design of drilling hydraulic parameters.
Objective:
To investigate the expression and clinical significance of sperm-associated antigen 6 and NM23 proteins in human osteosarcoma.
Methods:
The specimens of conventional osteosarcoma with ...follow-up from 42 Chinese patients were analyzed in this study, and 12 cases of osteochondroma were considered controls. The expression of SPAG6 and NM23 was inspected using immunohistochemical staining, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting methods.
Results:
The positive expression rate of SPAG6 protein (71.43%) in 42 cases of osteosarcoma tissue was significantly higher than that (33.33%) in 12 cases of osteochondroma tissues (
p
< 0.05), while the positive rate of NM23 protein (35.71%) in osteosarcoma tissue was lower than that (58.33%) in osteochondroma tissue (
p
< 0.05). The mRNA and protein levels of SPAG6 were significantly higher than those of the adjacent normal tissues, while the expression of NM23 was lower in osteosarcoma tissues than that in the controls (
p
< 0.05 for all). There was a positive relationship between the expression of SPAG6 and pathological grade, metastasis, and Enneking stage (
p
< 0.05 for all). The overall survival rate of osteosarcoma patients with SPAG6 positive expression was significantly lower than that with SPAG6 negative expression. The relationship between the expression of NM23 and pathological grade, metastasis, and Enneking stage was negative (
p
< 0.05 for all). The overall survival rate of the osteosarcoma patients with NM23 positive expression was higher than that of the patients with NM23 negative expression (
p
< 0.05).
Conclusion:
Overexpression of SPAG6 and low expression of NM23 are negatively related to pathological grade, metastasis, and Enneking stage and prognosis of osteosarcoma patients. This suggested that SPAG6 and NM23 should be considered candidate prognostic biomarkers for patients with osteosarcoma.
This paper puts forward a generalization of the multisynchrosqueezing transform (MSST) using the second order local estimate of instantaneous frequency, which could localize a signal with high ...precision both in time and frequency. Numerical signal simulation result verifies its advantage on processing high power microwave (HPM) signals in different environments, this time-frequency analysis method provides an idea for HPM signal detection and feature analysis.
Pegylated interferon-alpha (PegIFNα) therapy has limited effectiveness in hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. However, the mechanism underlying this failure is ...poorly understood. We aimed to investigate the influence of bile acids (BAs), especially taurocholic acid (TCA), on the response to PegIFNα therapy in CHB patients. Here, we used mass spectrometry to determine serum BA profiles in 110 patients with chronic HBV infection and 20 healthy controls (HCs). We found that serum BAs, especially TCA, were significantly elevated in HBeAg-positive CHB patients compared with those in HCs and patients in other phases of chronic HBV infection. Moreover, serum BAs, particularly TCA, inhibited the response to PegIFNα therapy in HBeAg-positive CHB patients. Mechanistically, the expression levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, granzyme B, and perforin were measured using flow cytometry to assess the effector functions of immune cells in patients with low or high BA levels. We found that BAs reduced the number and proportion and impaired the effector functions of CD3
CD8
T cells and natural killer (NK) cells in HBeAg-positive CHB patients. TCA in particular reduced the frequency and impaired the effector functions of CD3
CD8
T and NK cells in vitro and in vivo and inhibited the immunoregulatory activity of IFN-α in vitro. Thus, our results show that BAs, especially TCA, inhibit the response to PegIFNα therapy by impairing the effector functions of CD3
CD8
T and NK cells in HBeAg-positive CHB patients. Our findings suggest that targeting TCA could be a promising approach for restoring IFN-α responsiveness during CHB treatment.
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