Rate Of Shrinking Research Articles

Jiawei Foshou San Induces Apoptosis in Ectopic Endometrium Based on Systems Pharmacology, Molecular Docking, and Experimental Evidence.

Foshou San is a typical gynaecological formula with wild usage in traditional Chinese medicine. Jiawei Foshou San (JFS) is a novel ingredient prescription from Foshou San with antiendometriosis effect in unclear mechanisms. To uncover the potential application and proapoptotic mechanisms of JFS, JFS ingredient-drug target-disease networks, GO enrichment, and pathway analysis were established for potential application prediction. Molecular docking and validation in vivo were investigated by the proapoptotic mechanisms of JFS. In this study, 99 common targets were related to 108 diseases. 484 biological processes, 44 cell components, 59 molecular functions, and 37 pathways were significantly identified in GO enrichment and pathway analysis. In molecular docking, ligustrazine showed binding activity with Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-9, caspase-3, and PARP. In vivo, JFS elevated the shrink rate of ectopic endometrium, by suppressing E2 and PROG. An in-depth study showed that apoptosis was activated through diminishing Bcl-2, rising Bax and Bad, and expressing more caspase-3 and caspase-9 using JFS. JFS promoted the protein level of cleaved-PARP. In brief, JFS might be applied for various diseases through multiple targets and pathways, especially endometriosis by Bcl-2 pathway. These findings reveal the potential application for further evaluation and uncover the proapoptotic mechanism of JFS.

The visible impacts of human activities constructing hydropower dam on Vietnamese Mekong Delta and conceptual solutions for responses

Abstract. Regarding to the important environmental issues, eco-balance and eco-system should be discussed using long period data analysing and visible result of study. These visible results will be materials for construction of geo-design of the river basin. Both hydrological changes and surface changes of the Mekong delta was analysed with new data using hydrologic model with visible mapping in this study. The Mekong River delta, the third largest delta in the world, is presently shifting from growing to shrinking with its ecosystem and environment seriously degraded. These environmental changes are due to several factors such as 1)ill-planned water management schemes including hydropower dams in the river basin, 2) sediment starvation, 3) increased nutrient inflows, in combination with other human activities including infrastructural extension, riverbed mining, delta subsidence, degradation of coastal mangrove belt, and gaps in governance in the whole Mekong basin under the climate change and sea level rise. Both scientific and management communities have suggested that the rate of Mekong delta shrinking will increase markedly this century. The paper compiled new data and mapping together with recent key studies implying that much of the degradation in the Vietnamese Mekong delta is due to recent human activities, particularly hydropower dams in the entire Mekong river basin.By comparison with period before 1990s when there were no large dams, the natural regime here has changed with the annual sediment load to the delta having decreased by 50–60%, the flood discharges have also decreased, the hydrological seasonal regime has shifted as most of the Mekong River water is now trapped in these large dams, and the salinity intrusion into the delta now occurs earlier by 20–30 days. Further, the river bed is on the average deeper by 0.14 m, to which riverbed mining also contributes. There has been a recent increase of erosion of river banks at 400 locations and coasts. The 66% of all of foreshore is now eroding, and the rate of these events is accelerating with time. If all the proposed mainstream hydropower dams in the Lower Mekong Basin have been built, then the Vietnamese Mekong delta with its ecosystems and about 18 million people face critical issues of sustainability. This presentation also focused on some remedial conceptual solutions that may decrease, but not eliminate, the negative impacts of these dams for the Vietnamese Mekong delta. Non-engineering solutions have the highest propriety, but engineering solutions are needed for protecting eroded coastal foreshore, river bank erosion and the fragile mangrove belt. Toward to realization of SDG’s in this study region, the integrated management system of the river basin would be desired.

Glacier Changes in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China, between the 1960s and 2015

Glaciers in the Qilian Mountains are important sources of fresh-water for sustainable development in the Hexi Corridor in the arid northwest China. Over the last few decades, glaciers have generally shrunk across the globe due to climate warming. In order to understand the current state of glaciers in the Qilian Mountains, we compiled a new inventory of glaciers in the region using Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI) images acquired in 2015, and identified 2748 glaciers that covered an area of 1539.30 ± 49.50 km2 with an ice volume of 81.69 ± 7.40 km3, among which the Shule River basin occupied the largest portion of glaciers (24.8% in number, 32.3% in area, and 35.6% in ice volume). In comparison to previous inventories, glacier area was found to shrink by 396.89 km2 (20.5%) in total, and 109 glaciers with an area of 8.94 km2 disappeared over the period from the 1960s to 2015. This situation was primarily caused by the increase in air temperature, and also related with the size of glacier and some local topographic parameters. In addition, the change of glaciers in the Qilian Mountains showed a distinct spatial pattern, i.e., their shrinking rate was large in the east and small in the west.

Influences of surface material on the fire behaviors of two-layer combustibles under autoignition conditions.

Upholstered furniture usually has a typical two-layer structure with an ultra-thin surface layer. The surface layer can significantly affect the overall fire behaviors of the upholstered furniture. A series of experiments were carried out to investigate the fire behaviors of six two-layer combustibles based on a cone calorimeter. An empirical model was proposed to predict the heat release rate of two-layer combustibles. The predictions of the model are fitting quite well with experimental data. It was also known that the ignition time of the two-layer combustis dbles is controlled by those surface fabric materials. The shrink rate and the properties of the residues of those surface fabrics show obvious influences on the combustion processes. Comparing to those uncovered natural latex foam samples, it was known that the peak heat release rate decreases about 26.9% and 11.7% for the samples with natural and synthetic species covers, respectively; and the duration of the burning process increases about 41.7% and 15.4%, respectively. A combustion factor was proposed and a heat transfer model was developed to reflect the contribution of the surface and the second layers to the combustion processes. The combustion factor is within 0.7-0.9 for the six types of surface fabrics.

A 16-bit 2.0-ps Resolution Two-Step TDC in 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$ </tex-math> </inline-formula>m CMOS Utilizing Pulse-Shrinking Fine Stage With Built-In Coarse Gain Calibration

This paper proposes a time-to-digital converter (TDC) that achieves wide input range and fine time resolution at the same time. The proposed TDC utilizes pulse-shrinking (PS) scheme in the second stage for a fine resolution and two-step (TS) architecture for a wide range. The proposed PS TDC prevents an undesirable nonuniform shrinking rate issue in the conventional PS TDCs by utilizing a built-in offset pulse and an offset pulsewidth detection schemes. With several techniques, including a built-in coarse gain calibration mechanism, the proposed TS architecture overcomes a nonlinearity due to the signal propagation and gain mismatch between coarse and fine stages. The simulation results of the TDC implemented in a 0.18-μm standard CMOS technology demonstrate 2.0-ps resolution and 16-bit range that corresponds to ~130-ns input time interval with 0.08-mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> area. It operates at 3.3 MS/s with 18.0 mW from 1.8-V supply and achieves 1.44-ps single-shot precision.

Application of Onsager's variational principle to the dynamics of a solid toroidal island on a substrate

In this paper, we consider the capillarity-driven evolution of a solid toroidal island on a flat rigid substrate, where mass transport is controlled by surface diffusion. This problem is representative of the geometrical complexity associated with the solid-state dewetting of thin films on substrates. We apply Onsager's variational principle to develop a general approach for describing surface diffusion-controlled problems. Based on this approach, we derive a simple, reduced-order model and obtain an analytical expression for the rate of island shrinking and validate this prediction by numerical simulations based on a full, sharp-interface model. We find that the rate of island shrinking is proportional to the material constants B and the surface energy density γ0, and is inversely proportional to the island volume V0. This approach represents a general tool for modeling interface diffusion-controlled morphology evolution.

Foam materials with controllable pore structure prepared from nanofibrillated cellulose with addition of alcohols

Low-density foams based on nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) made from Pinus massoniane softwood pulp were prepared from NFC aqueous suspensions containing one of four C2–C4 alcohols followed by freeze-drying, with the goal of controlling their pore structure and reducing the shrink rate. The foams prepared from NFC suspensions containing ethanol, isopropanol and n-butanol exhibited highly porous structures with a honeycomb-like cellular texture featuring well-defined “cell walls” between the layers. By contrast, the tert-butanol/NFC foam featured a higher number of smaller size pores with irregular shape. The foams prepared by freezing at −196 °C with ethanol also revealed small size pores, with no layered pore structure. The results obtained suggested that freeze-drying could be used to control the key foam parameters by adding different alcohols into an NFC suspension and adjusting the freezing temperature. Combining the obtained information, a possible formation mechanism was proposed. The microstructure, density, porosity, shrinkage, mechanical properties and thermal properties of NFC foams were determined. The obtained NFC foams feature low shrinkage upon formation and thermal conductivity. Smaller Young’s modulus and energy absorption yet similar yield stress values compared to the blank indicate that the freeze-drying in the presence of alcohols tends to generate “soft” foams.

Early diagnosis of radio-insensitive human nasopharyngeal carcinoma xenograft models by diffusion kurtosis imaging

ObjectiveTo investigate the feasibility of DKI in early detection of radio-insensitive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) xenografts in nude mice. Materials and methodsSeventy-two nude mice were implanted with CNE-1 (low radio-sensitive) and CNE-2 (high radio-sensitive) NPC cell lines, and their respective xenografts were obtained. Then, the NPC-bearing nude mice were exposed to different doses of fraction irradiation, which are divided into non-irradiated group (G0), 10Gy group (G1), 20Gy group (G2), 30Gy group (G3), 3rd (G4) and 5th (G5) days after the entire dose (30y) of irradiation. Subsequently, DKI was performed on each group. Tumor volumes, shrink rates, D and K parameters were measured by two experienced radiologists. Student's t-test and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were conducted in this study. ResultsThe differences of volume shrinkage rate between CNE-1 and -2 were observed in G2 (P = 0.032), with the shrink rates of 5.954% and 27.716%, respectively. The D values were reduced at G1 (DG1, P = 0.001) and then increased gradually after irradiation. The K values were increased at G1 (KG1, P = 0.001) and then declined sharply in CNE-2 (P < 0.01), but not in CNE-1 xenografts (P > 0.05). The respective AUC values for DG1 and KG1 were 0.875 and 0.917, with 66.7% and 83.3% sensitivity and 100% specificity, at the cutoff values of 1.27 × 10−3 mm2/s for parameter D and 0.88 for parameter K. ConclusionDKI can be used for early detection of radio-insensitive NPC xenografts prior to morphological change, where DG1 and KG1 may be the most valuable indicators.

Shape control of surface-stabilized disclination loops in nematic liquid crystals.

Recent studies on topological defects in conventional and active nematic liquid crystals have revealed their potential as sources of advanced functionality whereby the collective behavior of the constituent molecules or cells is controlled. On the other hand, the fact that they have high energies and are metastable makes their shape control a nontrivial issue. Here, we demonstrate stabilization of arbitrary-shaped closed disclination loops with 1/2 strength floating in the bulk by designing the twist angle distribution in a liquid crystal cell. Continuous variation of the twist angle from below to above |π/2| allows us to unambiguously position reverse twist disclinations at will. We also analyze the elastic free energy and uncover the relationship between the twist angle pattern and shrink rate of the surface-stabilized disclination loop.

Influence of Ethylene Glycol Methacrylate to the Hydration and Transition Behaviors of Thermo-Responsive Interpenetrating Polymeric Network Hydrogels.

The influence of ethylene glycol methacrylate (EGMA) to the hydration and transition behaviors of thermo-responsive interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) hydrogels containing sodium alginate, N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm), and EGMA were investigated. The molar ratios of NIPAAm and EGMA were varied from 20:0 to 19.5:0.5 and 18.5:1.5 in the thermo-responsive alginate-Ca2+/P(NIPAAm-co-EGMA) IPN hydrogels. Due to the more hydrophilicity and high flexibility of EGMA, the IPN hydrogels exhibited higher lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and lower glass transition temperature (Tg) when the ratio of EGMA increases. The swelling/deswelling kinetics of the IPN hydrogels could be controlled by adjusting the NIPAAm/EGMA molar ratio. A faster water uptake rate and a slower water loss rate could be realized by increase the amount of EGMA in the IPN hydrogel (the shrinking rate constant was decreased from 0.01207 to 0.01195 and 0.01055 with the changing of NIPAAm/EGMA ratio from 20:0, 19.5:0.5 to 18.5:1.5). By using 2-Isopropylthioxanthone (ITX) as a photo initiator, the obtained alginate-Ca2+/P(NIPAAm-co-EGMA360) IPN hydrogels were successfully immobilized on cotton fabrics. The surface and cross section of the hydrogel were probed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). They all exhibited a porous structure, and the pore size was increased with the amount of EGMA. Moreover, the LCST values of the fabric-grafted hydrogels were close to those of the pure IPN hydrogels. Their thermal sensitivity remained unchanged. The cotton fabrics grafted with hydrogel turned out to be much softer with the continuous increase of EGMA amount. Therefore, compared with alginate-Ca2+/PNIPAAm hydrogel, alginate-Ca2+/P(NIPAAm-co-EGMA360) hydrogel is a more promising candidate for wound dressing in the field of biomedical textile.

The rigid‐plate and shrinking‐plate hypotheses: Implications for the azimuths of transform faults

The rigid-plate hypothesis implies that oceanic lithosphere does not contract horizontally as it cools (hereinafter “rigid plate”). An alternative hypothesis, that vertically averaged tensional thermal stress in the competent lithosphere is fully relieved by horizontal thermal contraction (hereinafter “shrinking plate”), predicts subtly different azimuths for transform faults. The size of the predicted difference is as large as 2.44° with a mean and median of 0.46° and 0.31°, respectively, and changes sign between right-lateral (RL)-slipping and left-lateral (LL)-slipping faults. For the MORVEL transform-fault data set, all six plate pairs with both RL- and LL-slipping faults differ in the predicted sense, with the observed difference averaging 1.4° ± 0.9° (95% confidence limits), which is consistent with the predicted difference of 0.9°. The sum-squared normalized misfit, r, to global transform-fault azimuths is minimized for γ = 0.8 ± 0.4 (95% confidence limits), where γ is the fractional multiple of the predicted difference in azimuth between the shrinking-plate (γ = 1) and rigid-plate (γ = 0) hypotheses. Thus, observed transform azimuths differ significantly between RL-slipping and LL-slipping faults, which is inconsistent with the rigid-plate hypothesis but consistent with the shrinking-plate hypothesis, which indicates horizontal shrinking rates of 2% Ma−1 for newly created lithosphere, 1% Ma−1 for 0.1 Ma old lithosphere, 0.2% Ma−1 for 1 Ma old lithosphere, and 0.02% Ma−1 for 10 Ma old lithosphere, which are orders of magnitude higher than the mean intraplate seismic strain rate of ~10−6 Ma−1 (5 × 10−19 s−1).

Characteristics of coastline changes in mainland China since the early 1940s

Based on multi-temporal topographic maps, remote sensing images and field surveys covering the entire coastal zone of mainland China, the coastlines of six periods since the early 1940s were extracted. Coastline changes over the last 70 years were then analyzed in terms of coastline structure, coastline fractals, coastline change rates, land-sea patterns, and bay areas. The results showed that mainland coastline structure changed dramatically, and due to the significant coastline artificialization mainly driven by sea reclamation and coastal engineering, the remaining natural coastline merely accounts for less than one third at present. Coastline fractal dimension represented an overall spatial pattern of “north < entirety < south”; however, the discrepancy between the north and south coast was apparently narrowed due to dramatic coastline artificialization of northern China which in turn altered the whole pattern. Patterns and processes of land-sea interchange along the mainland coast were complex and varied spatially and temporally, with over 68% advancing toward sea and 22% retreating toward land. The net growth of land area was nearly 14.2 ×103 km2 with an average growth rate of 202.82 km2 a−1; and coast retreat was characterized by area decrease of 93 bays with a magnitude of 10.1 ×103 km2 and an average shrinking rate up to 18.19% or an average shrinking speed up to 144.20 km2 a−1, among which the total area of Bohai shrunk by 7.06%, with an average annual loss amounting to 82 km2. The dramatic coastline changes along mainland China have brought about kinds of challenges to the coastal environment, therefore the integrated management, effective environment protection and sustainable utilization of coastlines is urgent.

Prediction of Dose Increment by Brain Metastases Resection Cavity Shrink Model with LDR Seeds Implementation

Prediction of Dose Increment by Brain Metastases Resection Cavity Shrink Model with LDR Seeds Implementation

Oxidative Stress in Myocardial Infarction Disrupts Microtubule Trafficking, Reducing Transient Outward Current Density

Microtubules have many roles in non-differentiating cardiomyocytes, including structural stability, morphological integrity, and protein trafficking. However, these proteins had never been visualized. Using adeno-associated viral vectors expressing the microtubule-associated protein EB3 tagged with EGFP, we were able to perform live imaging and capture microtubule dynamics in cardiomyocytes in real time. We quantified growth rate and distance, shrink rate and distance, catastrophe rate, rescue rate, and directionality. We also quantified the temperature dependence of microtubule dynamics. The vast majority of microtubules move perpendicular to T-tubules, and the microtubules were more stable on the Z-lines. Hydrogen peroxide increased the rate of catastrophe among microtubules. Previous studies have shown that heart failure increases microtubule density; however, little work had been done examining microtubules immediately after myocardial infarction (MI). We quantified microtubule dynamics and found an increase in the catastrophe rate of microtubules three days after MI. Moreover, this increase in catastrophe was replicated by exposing myocytes to a concentration of hydrogen peroxide inducing levels of oxidative stress similar those seen in cardiomyocytes after MI. Transient outward current (Ito) density, which constitutes phase I of the action potential in cardiomyocytes, is reduced after MI, resulting in prolonged action potentials. The mechanism of this reduction in Ito current was unknown. Using electrophysiology, we recorded Ito currents and found a similar decrease among MI cardiomyocytes and cardiomyocytes treated with hydrogen peroxide, colchicine, or both. Lastly, we performed a surface biotinylation blot on these cells and found decreases in surface expression of Kv4.2 and 4.3 channels, the channels responsible for Ito, in these conditions compared to control cells. We conclude that oxidative stress after MI disrupts microtubule dynamics, leading to a decrease in trafficking Kv4.2 and 4.3 channels to the membrane, thus decreasing Ito.

Small scale quantum ergodicity in negatively curved manifolds

In this paper, we investigate quantum ergodicity in negatively curved manifolds. We consider the symbols depending on a semiclassical parameter h with support shrinking down to a point as . The rate of shrinking is a power of . This extends the asymptotic equidistribution of quantum ergodic eigenfunctions to a logarithmical scale.

Estimated Fresh Produce Shrink and Food Loss in U.S. Supermarkets

Data on fresh fruit and vegetable shrink in supermarkets is important to help understand where and how much shrink could potentially be reduced by supermarkets to increase their profitability. This study provides: (1) shrink estimates for 24 fresh fruits and 31 fresh vegetables in U.S. supermarkets in 2011 and 2012; and (2) retail-level food loss. For each covered commodity, supplier shipment data was aggregated from a sample of 2900 stores from one national and four regional supermarket retailers in the United States, and this sum was then compared with aggregated point-of-sale data from the same stores to estimate the amount of shrink by weight and shrink rates. The 2011–2012 average annual shrink rates for individual fresh vegetables varied from 2.2 percent for sweet corn to 62.9 percent for turnip greens and for individual fresh fruit ranged from 4.1 percent for bananas to 43.1 percent for papayas. When these shrink estimates were used in the Loss-Adjusted Food Availability data series, annual food loss for these commodities totaled 5.9 billion pounds of fresh fruit and 6.1 billion pounds of fresh vegetables. This study extends the literature by providing important information on where and how much shrink could potentially be reduced. Precise comparisons across studies are difficult. This information, combined with information on available and cost-effective technologies and practices, may help supermarkets target food loss reduction efforts though food loss will never be zero.

Estimation of mass balance of Dongkemadi glaciers with multiple methods based on multi-mission satellite data

In the context of climate change and variability, the change of glaciers over Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) has substantial impact on regional water resource and supply in a large geographical area in Asia. In this study, the recent change of glaciers in the Dongkemadi region in the central QTP was estimated by using multi-date Landsat images acquired over 2000–2011 and altimetry data derived from ICESat over 2003–2008. The biased elevation sampling of ICESat footprints in different laser periods was corrected before trend fitting of elevation changes by estimating the gradients of elevation changes. The results show that glaciers experienced notable recession in the last decade, at a linear shrinking rate of 0.21 km2 (0.26%) y−1 in area and a thinning rate of 0.56 m y−1. Mass balances based on ICESat (−421.2 ± 83 mm y−1 w.e) and area-volume scaling method (−487.2 ± 96 mm y−1) agree well with the in-situ measurements of Xiao Dongkemadi (−444.6 mmy−1 w.e.), giving uncertainties with density assumptions. The results were compared with other studies, and indicate accelerated recession which may be linked with a significant warming trend in recent decades over the QTP. This study demonstrates consistent glacier changes respectively derived from different time-series data, and the potential of consensus estimates by combining multi-mission satellite data.

Thermal-sensitive Starch-g-PNIPAM prepared by Cu(0) catalyzed SET-LRP at molecular level

Starch-g-PNIPAM with controlled graft chains and its hydrogels with rapid shrinking rate were preparedviaSET-LRP at molecular level.

The effect of recursive detrending on panel unit root tests

This paper analyzes the properties of panel unit root tests based on recursively detrended data. The analysis is conducted while allowing for a (potentially) non-linear trend function, which represents a more general consideration than the current state of affairs with (at most) a linear trend. A new test statistic is proposed whose asymptotic behavior under the unit root null hypothesis, and the simplifying assumptions of a polynomial trend and iid errors are shown to be surprisingly simple. Indeed, the test statistic is not only asymptotically independent of the true trend polynomial, but also is in fact unique in that it is independent also of the degree of the fitted polynomial. However, this invariance property does not carry over to the local alternative, under which it is shown that local power is a decreasing function of the trend degree. But while power does decrease, the rate of shrinking of the local alternative is generally constant in the trend degree, which goes against the common belief that the rate of shrinking should be decreasing in the trend degree. The above results are based on simplifying assumptions. To compensate for this lack of generality, a second, robust, test statistic is proposed, whose validity does not require that the trend function is a polynomial or that the errors are iid.

Clinicopathological study of safe resectional margin in mid and low rectal cancer after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy

To investigate the regression pattern of mid and low rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and then to provide the pathological proofs for reasonable resectional margin in rectal cancer surgery. Forty cases of mid and low rectal cancer patients received concurrent chemoradiotherapy and then underwent radical operation. The whole-mount serial sections of resected rectal cancer specimen were stained with cytokeratin antibody using immunohistochemical techniques to show the residual cancer cells under the mucosa. The microscopic measurement was performed to determine the reverse infiltration of cancer cells in the rectal wall and to describe the cancer cells scatter ways in the cancer mass. The Ki-67 immunohistochemical stain was also performed to show the proliferation activity of residual cancer cells after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The length of specimen was shrinking continuously during the pathologic section production and the shrink rate was 18%. There were remanent cancer cells which showed positive Ki-67 expression and the chemoradiotherapy decreased the Ki-67 expression significantly. The lower edge of remaining ulcers or scars could be used as the reference point from which the cancer infiltration could be measured. According to our measurement, the average reverse infiltration of cancer cells in the whole-mount section was (6.1±4.7) mm, the deepest one was 11.0 mm in the section which could be converted into fresh bowel length of 12.98 mm. The pathology showed that the residual cancer cells scattered in the fibrous tissue of ulcers, scars and manifested a regression of spatial distribution. The rectal cancers show regression in different degrees after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The residual cancer cells in the fiber tissues manifest proliferation activity. The distal end of resection should be at least 2 cm away from the lower edge of ulcers or scars of primary tumor in the rectal wall in patients after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. The circumferential resection margin should include all the fibrous scar of the tumor area to ensure the remove of tumor cells completely.