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•Microfluidic BBB chips composed of brain microvascular endothelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes and multifarious neurons can simulate the complex and dynamic 3D structure of human ...brain.•In vitro microfluidic BBB chips reproduce the mesh of the human brain anatomical structure and physiological function.•Brain on a chip has a great potential in exploring the mechanisms of CNS diseases and drug development.•Microfluidized BBB-related target organ chip platform can in vitro comprehensively investigate the dynamic process of brain-related multi-organ diseases.
The human blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a complex multi-dimensional reticular barrier system composed of cerebral microvascular endothelial cells, pericytes, astrocytes and a variety of neurons. The conventional in vitro cell culture model fails to truly present the dynamic hemodynamics of BBB and the interaction between neurons. And it is even more impossible to explore brain-related multi-organ diseases, which brings huge obstacles to explore diseases of the central nervous system and the interaction between brain-related multi-organs, and evaluate drug efficacy. Miniaturized microfluidics based BBB chips are being commonly used to co-culture a variety of cells on a small-sized chip to construct a three-dimensional (3D) BBB or BBB-related organ disease models. By combining with other electrophysiological, biochemical sensors or equipment and imaging systems, it can in real time and quickly screen disease-related markers and evaluate drug efficacy. This review systematically summarized the research progress of in vitro BBB and BBB-related organ chips, and analyzed the obstacles of BBB models in depth. Parallelly combined with the current research trends and hot spots, we give the further improvement measures of microfluidic BBB chips.
With the continuous expansion of civilian field, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as drone, has received much attention. Nevertheless, the flight range of a rotary wing drone is restricted ...due to limited battery endurance. To conquer this shortage, the coordination of ground vehicles (GVs) and drones to finish complex tasks has attracted much attention recently. Especially, the coordination of trucks and drones has been investigated to realize the last-mile parcel delivery. By contrast, in this study, we propose to coordinate GVs and drones to monitor urban road networks more efficiently. The GV serves as a mobile carrier for launching, recovering, and charging the drones, while the drones are used to inspect some concerned sections of the road networks. To obtain high-quality routes for the GV and drones, a novel GV-drone arc routing problem (GVD-ARP) is specifically investigated. A mathematical model is constructed to describe the GVD-ARP and solved by the Gurobi optimizer. In addition, a hybrid optimization algorithm that combines the randomized variable neighborhood descent search, which is incorporated with the simulated annealing algorithm (RVND-SA), is developed to solve the model. Extensive experiments on instances with different scales are conducted and the results show the superiority of RVND-SA comparing with four other algorithms. Moreover, experiments on patrolling the real-world road networks are conducted, which further demonstrates the effectiveness of the model and RVND-SA.
Abstract
The pressure-dependent lattice dynamics of 4H-SiC is investigated using diamond anvil cell, and compared with those of 3C- and 6H-SiC. It is found that both the zone-center longitudinal ...optical (LO) and transverse optical (TO) modes shift to higher frequencies with the increase of the applied pressures. This indicates that polymorph transitions are unlikely to happen under the (quasi-)hydrostatic pressure. The LO–TO splitting is described well by the cubic function with respect to the applied pressure. A decrease in the LO–TO splitting is observed above 33 GPa. The change of transverse effective charge and thus the ionic character of 4H-SiC exhibits a cubic dependence on the pressure due to the nonequivalent lattice dynamics parallel and perpendicular to the
c
-axis of 4H-SiC. Compared to what happens in 6H-SiC, the high pressure exerts higher effect on the ionic character of 4H-SiC because less nonequivalent bilayers are evolved. At last, the mode-Grüneisen parameters of the LO and TO modes at the Γ point are determined. Given the hexagonal lattice of 4H-SiC, the LO mode are softer than the TO mode.
Owing to its rapid advancement, information technology has emerged as a critical tool in assembly construction for addressing market demands, improving project quality, and reducing costs. However, ...the absence of unified informatization standards within the assembly construction industry has led to the adoption of different technologies and systems by various businesses during the development of informatization systems; this has generated issues such as unbalanced development and mutual incompatibility. While researchers have examined these issues, a comprehensive assessment of the maturity of informatization in assembly-building projects is lacking. Assessment of the maturity of informatization can provide evaluation standards and methods for the development of informatization of assembly buildings, explore the important and difficult points of applying informatization technology to assembly buildings, and put forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions to promote the benign development of informatization of assembly buildings. Therefore, this study strives to develop a model for assessing the maturity of informatization of assembly-building projects. This study begins by determining the level of the maturity level of informatization, key process areas, and key practices for assembly-building projects using the capability maturity model (CMM). On this basis, the maturity evaluation index system was constructed through expert interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, in order to assign weights to the indicators comprehensively, the ordinal relationship method and entropy weight method were implemented. The evaluation criteria were determined by consulting the relevant literature and expert opinions. Followingly, an evaluation model was established based on the cloud matter element (CME) theory. Finally, a case study demonstrates that the methodology can be utilized to quantify the maturity of project informatization. In conclusion, this study unearths a system for assessing the level of maturity of informatization of assembly-building projects, which provides a valuable reference for promoting the continuous development of the maturity of informatization in assembly-building projects.
•The hand-foot-mouth disease-causing virus, enterovirus A71 (EV A71), is more resistant to many disinfectants than poliovirus 1 (PV 1), the standard virus strain used for antiviral testing in ...China.•Many alcohol-based hand sanitizers and low-level disinfectants do not meet the disinfection requirements in China of at least 4-log reduction in average TCID50 from the controls against PV 1 and EV A71.•Replacement of PV 1 with EV A71 as the standard test virus will elevate the requirement of disinfectants and offer higher safety for the public.
Poliovirus 1 (PV 1) is the standard virus used in tests to support claims of virucidal property in commercial hand sanitizers and disinfectants in China. Classified within the same genus as poliovirus, enterovirus A71 (EV A71), which causes hand-foot-mouth disease among children, has caused numerous outbreaks in China and other countries. Hand hygiene and surface cleaning are critical to prevent and control this disease and many other infectious diseases. This study compared the efficacies of 17 self-made alcohol-based hand sanitizers and 10 commercially available disinfectants (4 high-level, 4 intermediate-level, 2 low-level) against these two viruses.
The results showed that by itself, ethanol needed to reach a concentration of 75 % to meet the inactivation requirement of 4-log reduction in average TCID50 against PV 1. Nine out of 13 laboratory-formulated alcohol-based hand sanitizers reached the 4-log inactivation requirement against PV 1 after 4.5 min, while the remaining four sanitizers did not. Unexpectedly, none of the tested ethanol-based sanitizers inactivated EV A71 by 4-log. For the commercially available disinfectants, all four high-level and one intermediate-level disinfectants passed the inactivation requirements against both PV 1 and EV A71, while two intermediate-level disinfectants met the inactivation requirement against PV 1 but failed against EV A71. The last intermediate-level and both low-level disinfectants did not meet the requirement for either PV 1 or EV A71. Therefore, PV 1 is more susceptible to inactivation by many common alcohol-based and non-alcohol-based disinfectants than EV A71. Therefore, the adoption of EV A71 as the standard test virus would elevate the disinfectant requirement standard and provide better protection for the public. Based on these results, seven new alcohol-based hand sanitizer recipes were formulated and found to be effective against both PV 1 and EV A71, with two candidates reaching the required 4-log virus reduction efficacy within 1 min.
Schistosoma japonicum infection is an important public health problem and the S. japonicum infection is associated with a variety of diseases, including colorectal cancer. We collected the paraffin ...samples of CRC patients with or without S. japonicum infection according to standard procedures. Data-Independent Acquisition was used to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional enrichment analysis and machine learning algorithms (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression) were used to identify candidate genes for diagnosing CRC with S. japonicum infection. To assess the diagnostic value, the nomogram and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were developed. A total of 115 DEPs were screened, the DEPs that were discovered were mostly related with biological process in generation of precursor metabolites and energy,energy derivation by oxidation of organic compounds, carboxylic acid metabolic process, oxoacid metabolic process, cellular respiration aerobic respiration according to the analyses. Enrichment analysis showed that these compounds might regulate oxidoreductase activity, transporter activity, transmembrane transporter activity, ion transmembrane transporter activity and inorganic molecular entity transmembrane transporter activity. Following the development of PPI network and LASSO, 13 genes (hsd17b4, h2ac4, hla-c, pc, epx, rpia, tor1aip1, mindy1, dpysl5, nucks1, cnot2, ndufa13 and dnm3) were filtered, and 3 candidate hub genes were chosen for nomogram building and diagnostic value evaluation after machine learning. The nomogram and all 3 candidate hub genes (hsd17b4, rpia and cnot2) had high diagnostic values (area under the curve is 0.9556). The results of our study indicate that the combination of hsd17b4, rpia, and cnot2 may become a predictive model for the occurrence of CRC in combination with S. japonicum infection. This study also provides new clues for the mechanism research of S. japonicum infection and CRC.
Fuzi is a famous toxic traditional herbal medicine, which has long been used for the treatment of various diseases in China and many other Asian countries because of its extraordinary pharmacological ...activities and high toxicity. Different processing methods to attenuate the toxicity of Fuzi are important for its safe clinical use. In this study, desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging (DESI-MSI) with a metabolomics-combined multivariate statistical analysis approach was applied to investigate a series of
alkaloids and explore potential metabolic markers to understand the differences between raw and processed Fuzi with different steaming time points. Moreover, the selected metabolic markers were visualized by DESI-MSI, and six index alkaloids' contents were determined through HPLC. The results indicated visible differences among raw and processed Fuzi with different steaming times, and 4.0 h is the proper time for toxicity attenuation and efficacy reservation. A total of 42 metabolic markers were identified to discriminate raw Fuzi and those steamed for 4.0 and 8.0 h, which were clearly visualized in DESI-MSI. The transformation from diester-diterpenoid alkaloids to monoester-diterpenoid alkaloids and then to non-esterified diterpene alkaloids through hydrolysis is the major toxicity attenuation process during steaming. DESI-MSI combined with metabolomics provides an efficient method to visualize the changeable rules and screen the metabolic markers of
alkaloids during steaming. The wide application of this technique could help identify markers and reveal the possible chemical transition mechanism in the "Paozhi" processes of Fuzi. It also provides an efficient and easy way to quality control and ensures the safety of Fuzi and other toxic traditional Chinese medicine.
After successfully growing single-crystal TaP, we measured its longitudinal resistivity （Pxx） and Hall resistivity （Pyx） at magnetic fields up to 9 T in the temperature range of 2-300 K. At 8 T, the ...magnetoresistance （MR） reached 3.28 ×10^5% at 2 K, 176% at 300 K. Neither value appeared saturated. We confirmed that TaP is a hole-electron compensated semimetal with a low carrier concentration and high hole mobility ofμh=3.71 × 105 cm2/V s, and found that a magnetic-field-induced metal-insulator transition occurs at room temperature. Remarkably, because a magnetic field （H） was applied in parallel to the electric field （E）, a negative MR due to a chiral anomaly was observed and reached -3000% at 9 T without any sign of saturation, either, which is in contrast to other Weyl semimetals （WSMs）. The analysis of the Shubnikov-de Haas （SdH） oscillations superimposed on the MR revealed that a nontrivial Berry＇s phase with a strong offset of 0.3958, which is the characteristic feature of charge carriers enclosing a Weyl node. These results indicate that TaP is a promising candidate not only for revealing fundamental physics of the WSM state but also for some novel applications.
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