Compressors in petrochemical plants are often crucial to process operations, and when a failure occurs, the outcome can be catastrophic. Many researches have been attempting to detect failure modes ...as early as possible to plan upfront repair and conceivably reduce maintenance time. A reciprocating compressor was selected as the target of this study, and a few years of historical records of maintenance parameters and maintenance work orders were gathered for analysis. The time history was divided into 13 events, and each event started with a normal operation and ended with a repair work order. Time‐domain features and wavelet decomposition features of the parameters were extracted, and the patterns stored within each event were identified using the artificial neural network and support vector machine. Moreover, a set of reasoning algorithms were developed to detect anomalies, and responsible failure modes were identified. For a specific type of compressor, the vibration signal was found to be related to most of the anomalies and thus used for evaluation. Results showed a >90% detection rate for failure mode diagnosis based on historical test data.
Summary
The problem of impulsive stabilization of linear neutral delay systems is investigated by using the impulse‐time‐dependent Lyapunov functions. The construction of impulse‐time‐dependent ...Lyapunov functions is based on the singular system representation of the impulsively controlled neutral delay system. In order to overcome the difficulty arising from time‐varying state delays, a Razumikhin‐type analysis method is developed and the key technique is to establish the relation between the slow and fast state variables by using a difference inequality. The derived stability criterion weakens the restriction condition on the impulse operators found in the previous result. For constant delay case, an improved stability criterion is derived by applying an impulse‐time‐dependent Lyapunov functional. Next, based on the newly established stability criteria, novel sufficient conditions on the existence of impulsive controllers with range dwell‐time constraint are presented. Finally, two numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.
Summary
We explored the prognostic factors for children with very high‐risk (VHR) Philadelphia chromosome (Ph) negative B‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B‐ALL) and compared the therapeutic ...effects of intensive chemotherapy and unmanipulated haploidentical haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo‐HSCT) as post‐remission treatment in these patients undergoing first complete remission (CR1). A total of 104 paediatric patients with VHR B‐ALL in CR1 were retrospectively enrolled in this study, including 42 receiving unmanipulated haplo‐HSCT (Group A) and 62 receiving ongoing chemotherapy (Group B). Estimated 3‐year overall survival (OS), disease‐free survival (DFS) and cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) at 36·2 months median follow‐up were 69·5 ± 4·7%, 63·5 ± 4·8% and 32·4 ± 4·7%, respectively. Maintenance of persistent positive or conversion from negative to positive of measurable residual disease (MRD) and chemotherapy were independent risk factors associated with inferior long‐term survival and higher CIR. OS, DFS, and CIR differed significantly between the groups in patients with persistent positive or negative‐to‐positive MRD. Haplo‐HSCT may be an option for children with VHR Ph‐negative B‐ALL in CR1, especially for patients with persistent positive or negative‐to‐positive MRD, and could achieve better survival than intensive chemotherapy as post‐remission treatment.
Highlights • Depression-like behaviors and memory deficit appear in the late stage of mice injected with LPS. • NLRP3 inflammasome activates microglia and increases inflammatory response. • NLRP3 ...inflammasome inhibition reverses these effects.
Abstract The nearby long-duration GRB 191019A recently detected by Swift lacks an associated supernova and belongs to a host galaxy with little star formation activity, suggesting that the origin of ...this burst is the result of a merger of two compact objects with dynamical interactions in a high-density medium of an active galactic nucleus. Given the potential motivation of this event, and given that it occurs in such a high-density environment, the ejecta–circumstellar medium (CSM) interaction cannot be ignored as possibly contributing to the kilonova emission. Here, we theoretically calculate the kilonova emission by considering the contribution of the ejecta–CSM interaction in a high-density environment. We find that the contribution to the kilonova emission from the ejecta–CSM interaction will dominate at a later time, and a smaller ejecta mass will have a stronger kilonova emission from the ejecta–CSM interaction. Moreover, we try to apply it to GRB 191019A, but we find that it is difficult to identify the possible kilonova emission from the observations, due to the contribution of the bright host galaxy. On the other hand, less injected mass (less than M ej = 2 × 10 −5 M ⊙ ) will be required if one can detect the kilonova emission associated with a GRB 191019A–like event in the future. The r -process-powered and spin energy contributions from the magnetar are also discussed.
Orthodenticle homeobox 1 (OTX1) is a transcription factor that plays an important role in various human cancers. However, the function of OTX1 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is largely ...unknown. We aimed to explore the roles of OTX1 in LSCC and its possible molecular mechanism.
The expression levels of OTX1 were assessed in LSCC cell lines and tissue samples. We further examined the effect of OTX1 on LSCC progression. The upstream regulator of OTX1 was identified using a computer algorithm and confirmed experimentally.
OTX1 was highly expressed in 70.7% (70/99) of LSCC tissue samples. The OTX1 expression in LSCC was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis. High OTX1 expression in patients with LSCC was correlated with poor prognosis. Knockdown of OTX1 inhibited proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion in LSCC cells. Knockdown of OTX1 inhibited tumor growth in a xenograft mouse model. Mechanistically, OTX1 might act as a direct target of miR-129-5p. OTX1 enhanced tumorigenicity and tumor growth both in vitro and in vivo.
Our findings support that OTX1 is an oncogene in LSCC tumorigenesis and progression. Furthermore, OTX1 is a direct target of miR-129-5p in LSCC cells. Taken together, OTX1 is a promising diagnostic and therapeutic marker for LSCC.
Significance Maize is a major crop and a model plant for studying C4 leaf development. However, its regulatory network of leaf development is poorly understood. We used transcriptomes of developing ...leaves to study gene-expression dynamics and coexpression to reveal functional transition during maize leaf development. More significantly, we developed methods to predict transcription factor-binding sites (TFBSs) and their cognate transcription factors (TFs) or to use the known Arabidopsis TF–TFBS pairs to predict the maize TF–TFBS pairs. In total, we predicted 1,340 novel TFBSs and 253 new TF–TFBS pairs in maize. Twelve predicted TF–TFBS interactions were validated by functional tests, suggesting that our methods perform well. Our study has significantly expanded our knowledge of the regulatory network of maize leaf development.
Maize is a major crop and a model plant for studying C4 photosynthesis and leaf development. However, a genomewide regulatory network of leaf development is not yet available. This knowledge is useful for developing C3 crops to perform C4 photosynthesis for enhanced yields. Here, using 22 transcriptomes of developing maize leaves from dry seeds to 192 h post imbibition, we studied gene up- and down-regulation and functional transition during leaf development and inferred sets of strongly coexpressed genes. More significantly, we developed a method to predict transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) and their cognate transcription factors (TFs) using genomic sequence and transcriptomic data. The method requires not only evolutionary conservation of candidate TFBSs and sets of strongly coexpressed genes but also that the genes in a gene set share the same Gene Ontology term so that they are involved in the same biological function. In addition, we developed another method to predict maize TF–TFBS pairs using known TF–TFBS pairs in Arabidopsis or rice. From these efforts, we predicted 1,340 novel TFBSs and 253 new TF–TFBS pairs in the maize genome, far exceeding the 30 TF–TFBS pairs currently known in maize. In most cases studied by both methods, the two methods gave similar predictions. In vitro tests of 12 predicted TF–TFBS interactions showed that our methods perform well. Our study has significantly expanded our knowledge on the regulatory network involved in maize leaf development.
Overexpression of drug efflux transport ABCB1 is correlated with multidrug resistance (MDR) among cancer cells. Upregulation of ABCB1 accounts for the recurrence of resistance to docetaxel therapy in ...ovarian cancer with poor survival. Erastin is a novel and specific small molecule that targets SLC7A11 to induce ferroptosis. In the present research, we explored the synergistic effect of erastin and docetaxel in ovarian cancer. We confirmed that the co-delivery of erastin with docetaxel significantly decreased cell viability, promoted cell apoptosis, and induced cell cycle arrest at G2/M in ovarian cancer cells with ABCB1 overexpression. Mechanistically, erastin dominantly elevated the intracellular ABCB1 substrate levels by restricting the drug-efflux activity of ABCB1 without alteration of the expression of ABCB1. Consequently, erastin can reverse ABCB1-mediated docetaxel resistance in ovarian cancer, revealing that the combination of erastin and docetaxel may potentially offer an effective administration for chemo-resistant patients suffering from ovarian cancers.
This paper revisits the exponential synchronization problem of two identical reaction–diffusion neural networks with Dirichlet boundary conditions and mixed delays via periodically intermittent ...control. The focus is on developing a new Lyapunov–Razumikhin method such that the overdesign that stems from the existing Lyapunov functional method can be reduced. The novelty of the proposed Lyapunov–Razumikhin method is the ability to provide better estimates on the state variables of the synchronization error system and impose no restriction on delay derivatives. By exploring the reaction–diffusion effect using the extended Wirtinger’s inequality, an improved result on intermittent synchronization is derived. The problem of designing optimal intermittent synchronization controllers is addressed, and an easily computable method to determine the controller gain with minimal norm is presented. Finally, two illustrative examples are presented to show the validity of the obtained results and the superiority over the existing ones.
Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is associated with adverse developmental outcomes including embryonic resorption, fetal death, congenital teratogenesis and fetal growth retardation. Here, we explored the ...effects of maternal LPS exposure during pregnancy on testicular development, steroidogenesis and spermatogenesis in male offspring. The pregnant mice were intraperitoneally injected with LPS (50 µg/kg) daily from gestational day (GD) 13 to GD 17. At fetal period, a significant decrease in body weight and abnormal Leydig cell aggregations were observed in males whose mothers were exposed to LPS during pregnancy. At postnatal day (PND) 26, anogenital distance (AGD), a sensitive index of altered androgen action, was markedly reduced in male pups whose mothers were exposed to LPS daily from GD13 to GD 17. At PND35, the weight of testes, prostates and seminal vesicles, and serum testosterone (T) level were significantly decreased in LPS-treated male pups. At adulthood, the number of sperm was significantly decreased in male offspring whose mothers were exposed to LPS on GD 13-17. Maternal LPS exposure during gestation obviously diminished the percent of seminiferous tubules in stages I-VI, increased the percent of seminiferous tubules in stages IX-XII, and caused massive sloughing of germ cells in seminiferous tubules in mouse testes. Moreover, maternal LPS exposure significantly reduced serum T level in male mice whose mothers were exposed to LPS challenge during pregnancy. Taken together, these results suggest that maternal LPS exposure during pregnancy disrupts T production. The decreased T synthesis might be associated with LPS-induced impairments for spermatogenesis in male offspring.