Developing countries are facing increasing challenges to make urban mobility sustainable and to tackle the continuously growing air pollution and congestion caused by the rapid increase in car ...ownership. As part of a broad strategy to achieve sustainable urban mobility, bike-sharing services could contribute to car usage decrease, especially for short-distance trips. However, most of the developing countries have limited quantified evidence regarding the factors affecting bike-sharing choice and this hinders policy makers from effectively promoting bike-sharing usage. The case study city is Taiyuan, which operates one of the most in demand bike-sharing schemes in China. This research investigates the factors affecting mode choice behavior with a focus on bike-sharing, and explores the effectiveness of different policy options aiming at increasing bike-sharing ridership. Nested logit and mixed nested logit models are developed using both stated preference and revealed preference data. Policy effectiveness is studied by examining modal split changes. The results reveal the significant negative impact of air pollution on bike-sharing choice. Nevertheless, improving air quality is found to be less effective in promoting bike-sharing ridership than improving bike-sharing service itself (e.g. through access time saving, travel cost saving); although it is more effective in suppressing private car usage.
Subsurface microcracks developed in a groove-rolled and cold-swaged Ti–Fe–O alloy were characterized to clarify the generation of subsurface fatigue crack. In addition, the effects of ...crystallographic texture on subsurface crack initiation and growth were discussed. A considerable number of microcracks were detected in the β grains, α grains, and at the α-β interface. The microcracks in the β grains grew negligibly into the neighboring α grains along the basal plane. This was because these grains were oriented with their c-axis almost perpendicular to the loading axis. The {10 1 0}α fiber texture prevents the formation of basal facet and its growth on the basal plane. The stress concentration around the microcrack in the β grains could assist the growth of the microcrack into neighboring α grains along the prismatic plane (which is inclined to the loading axis at a suitable angle) or occasionally at a {10 1 0}α twist boundary. The {10 1 0}α fiber texture assisted microcrack growth, and thereby, formed aligned facets and yield longer microcrack length. The combination of the shear stress and opening stress on {10 1 0}α results in a Mode II or III microcrack and causes microcrack growth on the prismatic plane in the neighboring grain.
Dendritic cells (DCs) and monocytes play a central role in pathogen sensing, phagocytosis, and antigen presentation and consist of multiple specialized subtypes. However, their identities and ...interrelationships are not fully understood. Using unbiased single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of ~2400 cells, we identified six human DCs and four monocyte subtypes in human blood. Our study reveals a new DC subset that shares properties with plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) but potently activates T cells, thus redefining pDCs; a new subdivision within the CD1C
subset of DCs; the relationship between blastic plasmacytoid DC neoplasia cells and healthy DCs; and circulating progenitor of conventional DCs (cDCs). Our revised taxonomy will enable more accurate functional and developmental analyses as well as immune monitoring in health and disease.
The growing pressure on urban passenger transport systems has increased the demand for new and innovative solutions to increase its efficiency. One approach to tackle this challenge has been the slow ...but steady shift towards shared mobility services (car-, bike-sharing etc.). Building on these new modes and the developments in information and communication technologies, the concept of “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS) has recently come to light and offers convenient door-to-door transport without the need to own a private vehicle. The term Mobility as a Service (MaaS) stands for buying mobility services based on consumer needs instead of buying the means of mobility. In recent years, various MaaS schemes have been arisen around the world. The objective of this paper is to review these newly existing mobility services and develop an index to evaluate the level of mobility integration for each based on the assumption that higher level of integration is more appealing to travellers. The review presented in this paper allows a comparison among the schemes and provides the background and the key points of MaaS systems that the research community could use for designing surveys. It also provides significant insights to transport operators and authorities on the elements they should take into account to apply an attractive MaaS scheme that could effectively shift demand away from private vehicles.
An origami paper-based analytical device for glucose biosensor by employing fully-drawn pencil electrodes has been designed. The proposed device is cheap, flexible, portable, disposable, and ...environmentally friendly.
Display omitted
•An origami paper-based electrochemical analytical device was designed.•Three-electrode system was written directly on paper by pencils.•The proposed device was applied for the electroanalysis of glucose.•This approach is extremely simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly.
In this work, an origami paper-based analytical device for glucose biosensor by employing fully-drawn pencil electrodes has been reported. The three-electrode system was prepared on paper directly by drawing with nothing more than pencils. By simple printing, two separated zones on paper were designed for the immobilization of the mediator and glucose oxidase (GOx), respectively. The used paper provides a favorable and biocompatible support for maintaining the bioactivities of GOx. With a sandwich-type scheme, the origami biosensor exhibited great analytical performance for glucose sensing including acceptable reproducibility and favorable selectivity against common interferents in physiological fluids. The limit of detection and linear range achieved with the approach was 0.05mM and 1–12mM, respectively. Its analytical performance was also demonstrated in the analysis of human blood samples. Such fully-drawn paper-based device is cheap, flexible, portable, disposable, and environmentally friendly, affording great convenience for practical use under resource-limited conditions. We therefore envision that this approach can be extended to generate other functional paper-based devices.
Uterine fibroids and thyroid nodules, both of which are crucially affected by estrogen, are common diseases among reproductive-age women. However, little attention has been paid to the association ...between the two diseases. This retrospective case-control study aimed to assess the relationships among thyroid nodules, thyroid function and uterine fibroids in China. We reviewed the electronic records of 853 reproductive-age women who attended health check-ups at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from July 1st, 2017, to June 30th, 2018. All subjects received transvaginal pelvic ultrasound, thyroid ultrasound, thyroid function, and other laboratory tests. We found that the prevalence of thyroid nodules in subjects with uterine fibroids was remarkably higher than that in subjects without fibroids. The proportion of thyroid nodules ≥1 cm in subjects with uterine fibroids was significantly higher than that in subjects without fibroids. Women with thyroid nodules had a higher proportion of multiple uterine fibroids than women without thyroid nodules. Among the parameters of thyroid function, the only statistically significant parameter was total triiodothyronine, i.e., women with uterine fibroids had lower total triiodothyronine levels than unaffected controls; however, the total triiodothyronine levels were within the normal ranges. Moreover, no significant difference was noted in thyroid hormone status between subjects with and without uterine fibroids. Our findings suggest that thyroid nodules are positively correlated with uterine fibroids among reproductive-age women in China. Further studies are needed to confirm this association and fully understand the common pathogenetic mechanism underlying the association between uterine fibroids and thyroid nodules.
Since the financial system has illustrated an increasingly prominent characteristic of inextricable connections, information theory is gradually utilized to study the financial system. By collecting ...the daily data of industry index (2005-2020) and region index (2012-2020) listed in China as samples, this paper applies an innovative measure named partial mutual information on mixed embedding to generate directed networks. Based on the analysis of nonlinear relationships among sectors, this paper realizes the accurate construction of "time-varying" financial network from the perspective of risk spillover. The results are presented as follow: (1) interactions can be better understood through the nonlinear networks among distinct sectors, and sectors in the networks could be classified into different types according to their topological properties connected to risk spillover; (2) in the rising stage, information is transmitted rapidly in the network, so the risk is fast diffused and absorbed; (3) in the declining stage, the network topology is more complex and panic sentiments have long term impact leading to more connections; (4) The US market, Japan market and Hongkong market have significant affect on China's market. The results suggest that this nonlinear measure is an effective approach to develop financial networks and explore the mechanism of risk spillover.
In this paper, a facile and low-cost “pencil-drawing” method is exploited for writing electrodes on filter paper to fabricate an electrochemical paper-based analytical device. Unlike other techniques ...using inks or pastes, the three-electrode system can be prepared directly by drawing with nothing more than pencils and paper. The optimization using ferricyanide as the redox probe showed that the device fully drawn with 6B grade pencil possesses excellent electrochemical properties and sensor-to-sensor reproducibility in spite of its truly simple fabrication process. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed device could be utilized for quantification of dopamine with high sensitivity and no interference from ascorbic acid and uric acid, which are normally present in biological fluids. Human urine and blood serum samples were analyzed using the proposed device as proof of concept. Such fully-drawn sensors are flexible, portable and disposable, represent a cheap and environmentally friendly approach that can be rapidly and easily fabricated without any specialized materials, affording great convenience for practical use in resource-limited or emergency situations.
A “pencil-drawing” method is used to write electrodes on paper to fabricate an electrochemical paper-based analytical device, which is applied for dopamine detection. Display omitted
•Three-electrode system was written on the filter paper with graphite pencils.•Fully-drawn pencil-on-paper sensors were easily fabricated.•The proposed devices were applied for the electroanalysis of dopamine.•This approach is extremely simple, low-cost and environmentally friendly.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has a five-year survival rate of less than 50% due to its susceptibility to invasion and metastasis. Crosstalk between tumor cells and macrophages has been proven ...to play a critical role in tumor cell migration and invasion. However, the specific mechanisms by which tumor cells interact with macrophages have not been fully elucidated. This study sought to investigate the regulatory mechanism of tumor cell-derived alpha-enolase (ENO1) in the interaction between tumor cells and macrophages during OSCC progression. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection and recombinant human ENO1 (rhENO1) stimulation were used to interfere with the interaction between tumor cells and macrophages. Our results showed that ENO1 was expressed higher in CAL27 cells than in HaCaT cells and regulated lactic acid release in CAL27 cells. Conditioned medium of macrophages (Macro-CM) significantly up-regulated the ENO1 mRNA expression and protein secretion in CAL27 cells. ENO1 promoted the migration and invasion of tumor cells by facilitating the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) through macrophages. ENO1 orchestrated the IL-6 secretion of macrophages via tumor cell-derived lactic acid and the paracrine ENO1/Toll-like receptor (TLR4) signaling pathway. In turn, IL-6 promoted the migration and invasion of tumor cells. Collectively, ENO1 promotes tumor cell migration and invasion by orchestrating IL-6 secretion of macrophages via a dual mechanism, thus forming a positive feedback loop to promote OSCC progression. ENO1 might be a promising therapeutic target which is expected to control OSCC progression.
Cracks in the crown area are one of the important indicators in the instability of the landslide headscarp, potentially offering early warnings for landslide hazards. Due to the complex causes of ...crack formation and numerous influencing factors, the understanding of crack development characteristics is still insufficient. In this paper, a large-scale soil slope model test is carried out through a large tilting platform to simulate the whole process of retrogressive slope failures including the first-time failure and the enlargement of the failure. The characteristics of crack development, the relations between internal slope parameters (e.g., internal strain and earth pressure) and cracks, and the evolutionary mechanisms of retrogressive failures are focused. The model test is monitored by high-tech equipment, including optical fibres, pressure gauges, and cameras. The results show that crack developments are divided into four stages based on crack location, quantity, and size. Optical fibre monitoring shows that the areas of tension crack development fall within the negative strain area in the slope model. In addition, the failure mode of the retrogressive landslides can be summarized in three stages: a deformation stage with sparse local cracks, a destabilizing stage with main cracks, and a retrogressive failure stage with dense secondary cracks. This study offers preliminary insights into the relations between crack development and the mechanisms in soil multiple retrogressive failures, which can be beneficial for better identifying and interpreting landslides at sites through crack monitoring.
•Retrogressive failures are modelled via a model test equipped with high-tech equipment•Initial, uniform, acceleration, and failure stages are distinguished based on crack characteristics•Crack development and strain changes are linked via BOTDA monitoring•The slope failure processes are summarized in deformation, destabilizing, and retrogressive failure stage
PDF
