Statistical factorial analysis on the material property sensitivity of the mechanical responses of the C4-C6 under compression, anterior and posterior shear

A systematic approach using factorial analysis was conducted on the C4-C6 finite element model to analyse the influence of six spinal components (cortical shell, vertebral body, posterior elements, endplate, disc annulus and disc nucleus) on the internal stresses and external biomechanical responses under compression, anterior and posterior shear. Results indicated that the material properties variation of the disc annulus has a significant influence on both the external biomechanical responses and internal stress of the disc annulus and its neighboring hard bones. The study reveals for the first time, the significant influence of the cancellous bone under compression, while variation in the cortical shell modulus has a high influence under anterior and posterior shear. The study also reveals that the effects of interaction between two main components are insignificant.     

Randomization of Neighbour Balanced Designs

This paper is a simulation study on the influence of interference between treatments in field trials. The considerations in the paper are based on a simple model which includes additive neighbour effects of treatments. We use uniformity data where neighbour effects are added, to demonstrate the influence that these effects have on the validity of comparisons between treatments. The simulations illustrate that the influence of the neighbour effects is reduced if a neighbour balanced or a partially neighbour balanced design is used.     

Fluorescent probes for examination of spermatozoa in cryoprotective mediums

By fluorescent spectroscopy and microscopy methods the possibility of fluorescent probes DSM, E-176, 3-DAB and FME application for study of cryoprotective agents' influence on the dog spermatozoa are investigated. It is established that FME and 3-DAD dyes are suitable for the posed problem solving, and the DSM and E-176 probes have restrictions owing to enough strong fluorescence from cryoprotectant solutions. It is shown that the fluorescent probes investigated influence the cells motility to different degree. The perspectives of investigated dyes application for study of cryoprotective agent' finfluence on spermatozoa are considered.     

根系分泌物研究方法(综述)

根系分泌物是植物与土壤进行物质、能量与信息交流的重要载体物质.研究根系分泌物的种类、数量对了解植物与土壤及根际微生物相互作用机理具有重要指导意义,根系分泌物研究方法的选择对研究结果有重要的影响.本文着重讨论根系分泌物收集、分离纯化及鉴定的常用方法,并列举特定根系分泌物的研究方法,旨在为根系分泌物的研究提供借鉴和参考.     

Gametophyte ecology and demography of epiphytic and terrestrial tropical ferns

Factors that influence the distribution of ferns are poorly understood and likely reflect the ecology of both the sporophyte and the gametophyte generation. Little study has been done on the ecology of the gametophyte generation, especially in regard to tropical species. The goal of this study was to examine demography and the influence of light and disturbance on the distribution of the gametophytes of several tropical epiphytic, hemiepiphytic, and terrestrial fern species. Through a series of observational and experimental studies, we found that increased terrestrial gametophyte density and richness were related to both increased light and disturbance. By contrast, increased light had no influence, and increased disturbance negatively affected epiphytic density. Over a 25-mo demographic study, epiphytic and hemiepiphytic species had significantly greater longevities and lower recruitment rates than terrestrial species. Such unique strategies may have evolved in response to different disturbance regimens between the two habitats. Terrestrial species encounter and are adapted to more frequent disturbance and have invested in rapid gametophyte growth and recruitment. Epiphytic species may be more influenced by bryophyte competition, and in habitats of relatively low disturbance, they have invested in greater size and longevities. In such systems, gametophytes are able to survive for years waiting for favorable recruitment conditions.     

Evidence that TolC is required for functioning of the Mar/AcrAB efflux pump of Escherichia coli.

A study examining the influence of TolC on AcrA, AcrR, and MarR1 mutants indicates that functional TolC is required for the operation of the AcrAB efflux system and for the expression of the Mar phenotype. That the effect of TolC on the AcrAB pump is not regulatory in nature is shown by studies measuring the influence of a tolC::Tn10 insertion mutation on the expression of an acrA::lacZ reporter fusion. These results are compatible with the hypothesis that TolC is a component of the AcrAB efflux complex.     

基于共生理论的兵团与地方城市“三生”功能跨界整合发展研究

基于共生理论，选取乌鲁木齐市、五家渠市、昌吉市为研究案例区，构建"三生"空间评价指标体系及"三生"功能评价指标体系，探讨乌五昌地区"三生"空间时空分异格局，借助共生度模型，识别兵团城市与地方城市"三生"功能共生发展模式，并对兵地城市跨界融合发展提供理论建议。结果表明：（1）研究区生产和生活空间面积呈上升趋势，生态空间面积呈下降趋势。（2）在生产功能方面，五家渠市与乌鲁木齐市、昌吉市共生模式分别为正向非对称共生、反向非对称共生，生活功能与生态功能方面，均为正向非对称共生，各功能城市间影响程度不同。（3）基于"三生"空间格局及"三生"功能共生模式，提出兵地融合发展建议，生产方面建立四区，三轴，一基地，生活方面加强交通路网建设，生态方面兵地协同建立生态保护区。     

Shape optimization in steady blood flow: a numerical study of non-Newtonian effects

We investigate the influence of the fluid constitutive model on the outcome of shape optimization tasks, motivated by optimal design problems in biomedical engineering. Our computations are based on the Navier-Stokes equations generalized to non-Newtonian fluid, with the modified Cross model employed to account for the shear-thinning behavior of blood. The generalized Newtonian treatment exhibits striking differences in the velocity field for smaller shear rates. We apply sensitivity-based optimization procedure to a flow through an idealized arterial graft. For this problem we study the influence of the inflow velocity, and thus the shear rate. Furthermore, we introduce an additional factor in the form of a geometric parameter, and study its effect on the optimal shape obtained.     

The influence of dams on ecohydrological conditions in the Huaihe River basin, China

Maintaining natural hydrologic variability is essential in conserving native riverine biota and river ecosystem integrity. Hydrologic regimes play a major role in structuring the biotic diversity within river ecosystems, as they control key habitat conditions within the river channel, the floodplain, etc. Alterations in streamflow regimes may modify many of these habitat attributes and impair ecosystem connectivity. There are many dams constructed in the Huaihe River basin that are drastically altering the natural hydrologic regimes of the river. We selected the Bengbu Sluice as a control node to study the influence of the Bengbu Sluice and all its upstream dams on the hydrologic regime. Using Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration and Range of Variability Approach methods, we assessed hydrologic alteration at the streamgauge site to demonstrate the influence of dams on ecohydrological conditions in the Huaihe River basin. The results show that dams have a strong influence on ecohydrological conditions, especially in dry seasons. The river ecohydrological targets and the minimum ecological and environmental flow requirements for the Bengbu section defined by this study can support ecosystem management and restoration plans and provide ecological operations for the Bengbu Sluice.     

Uncovering a Nuisance Influence of a Phenological Trait of Plants Using a Nonlinear Structural Equation: Application to Days to Heading and Culm Length in Asian Cultivated Rice (Oryza Sativa L.)

Phenological traits of plants, such as flowering time, are linked to growth phase transition. Thus, phenological traits often influence other traits through the modification of the duration of growth period. This influence is a nuisance in plant breeding because it hampers genetic evaluation of the influenced traits. Genetic effects on the influenced traits have two components, one that directly affects the traits and one that indirectly affects the traits via the phenological trait. These cannot be distinguished by phenotypic evaluation and ordinary linear regression models. Consequently, if a phenological trait is modified by introgression or editing of the responsible genes, the phenotypes of the influenced traits can change unexpectedly. To uncover the influence of the phenological trait and evaluate the direct genetic effects on the influenced traits, we developed a nonlinear structural equation (NSE) incorporating a nonlinear influence of the phenological trait. We applied the NSE to real data for cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.): days to heading (DH) as a phenological trait and culm length (CL) as the influenced trait. This showed that CL of the cultivars that showed extremely early heading was shortened by the strong influence of DH. In a simulation study, it was shown that the NSE was able to infer the nonlinear influence and direct genetic effects with reasonable accuracy. However, the NSE failed to infer the linear influence in this study. When no influence was simulated, an ordinary bi-trait linear model (OLM) tended to infer the genetic effects more accurately. In such cases, however, by comparing the NSE and OLM using an information criterion, we could assess whether the nonlinear assumption of the NSE was appropriate for the data analyzed. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the NSE in revealing the phenotypic influence of phenological traits.     

Influence of Ethnic Group-Membership and Gaze Direction on the Perception of Emotions. A Cross-Cultural Study between Germany and China

Emotional facial expressions provide important nonverbal cues in human interactions. The perception of emotions is not only influenced by a person’s ethnic background but also depends on whether a person is engaged with the emotion-encoder. Although these factors are known to affect emotion perception, their impact has only been studied in isolation before. The aim of the present study was to investigate their combined influence. Thus, in order to study the influence of engagement on emotion perception between persons from different ethnicities, we compared participants from China and Germany. Asian-looking and European-looking virtual agents expressed anger and happiness while gazing at the participant or at another person. Participants had to assess the perceived valence of the emotional expressions. Results indicate that indeed two factors that are known to have a considerable influence on emotion perception interacted in their combined influence: We found that the perceived intensity of an emotion expressed by ethnic in-group members was in most cases independent of gaze direction, whereas gaze direction had an influence on the emotion perception of ethnic out-group members. Additionally, participants from the ethnic out-group tended to perceive emotions as more pronounced than participants from the ethnic in-group when they were directly gazed at. These findings suggest that gaze direction has a differential influence on ethnic in-group and ethnic out-group dynamics during emotion perception.     

Detecting microRNAs of high influence on protein functional interaction networks: a prostate cancer case study

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The use of biological molecular network information for diagnostic and prognostic purposes and elucidation of molecular disease mechanism is a key objective in systems biomedicine. The network of regulatory miRNA-target and functional protein interactions is a rich source of information to elucidate the function and the prognostic value of miRNAs in cancer. The objective of this study is to identify miRNAs that have high influence on target protein complexes in prostate cancer as a case study. This could provide biomarkers or therapeutic targets relevant for prostate cancer treatment. RESULTS: Our findings demonstrate that a miRNA's functional role can be explained by its target protein connectivity within a physical and functional interaction network. To detect miRNAs with high influence on target protein modules, we integrated miRNA and mRNA expression profiles with a sequence based miRNA-target network and human functional and physical protein interactions (FPI). miRNAs with high influence on target protein complexes play a role in prostate cancer progression and are promising diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers. We uncovered several miRNA-regulated protein modules which were enriched in focal adhesion and prostate cancer genes. Several miRNAs such as miR-96, miR-182, and miR-143 demonstrated high influence on their target protein complexes and could explain most of the gene expression changes in our analyzed prostate cancer data set. CONCLUSIONS: We describe a novel method to identify active miRNA-target modules relevant to prostate cancer progression and outcome. miRNAs with high influence on protein networks are valuable biomarkers that can be used in clinical investigations for prostate cancer treatment.     

Features of the development of homo- and heterotopic allotransplants of rat embryonal neocortex

Mechanisms of regulation of cell division in the developing neocortex are largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of a microenvironment on the fetal neocortex histogenesis. The fetal neocortex from 15-day old Wistar rat embryo was grafted into the neocortex, crushed sciatic nerve and anterior chamber of eye of adult rats. A comparative study of graft development was carried out on 1, 3, 7, 10, 30 days using histological (Nissl stain, hematoxylin-eosin) and immunohistochemical (monoclonal antibody to proliferating cell nuclear antigen, and to glial fibrillary acidic protein) methods. Grafted neuroepithelial cells proliferated in grafts that developed in the neocortex and the anterior chamber of eye for 7 days, and in the sciatic nerve for 10 days. In all grafts differentiating neuroblasts, young neurons and mature neurons were observed 7, 10 and 30 days later, respectively. In 10 days, transplants in the nerve have a glial capsule, in contrast to other sites of grafting. The capsule consists of ependymocytes with microvilli and cilia 30 days later. These cells are GFAP-positive. Our results indicate epigenetic influence on the development of neuroepithelial precursors. The microenvironment of the peripheral nerve is suggested to promote glyogenesis in developing grafts. Afferent inputs do not influence the proliferative potency of brain cell precursors.     

Crosslinking of progesterone receptor to DNA using tuneable nanosecond, picosecond and femtosecond UV laser pulses.

UV laser crosslinking is a potentially powerful tool to investigate transient DNA-protein interactions and binding kinetics in intact cells. As the processes underlying UV laser crosslinking are not fully understood, we have performed a study of the influence of laser pulses with different physical parameters on crosslinking of the progesterone receptor to an oligonucleotide containing a hormone-responsive element. We also studied the influence of the various parameters on the amount of laser-irradiated DNA that can be correctly primer extended as an operational measurement of DNA integrity. A strong influence of pulse intensity and pulse length on the crosslink yield was found, likely due to a change in the 'two photon' processes responsible for crosslinking. The highest efficiency of protein crosslinking to DNA was achieved with femtosecond pulses and should be sufficient to enable use of this technique for in vivo studies.     

基于ISO 14046的工业产品水足迹评价研究——以电缆为例

水足迹国际标准(ISO 14046)于2014年发布,基于生命周期评价(LCA)的思想,水足迹被定义为量化与水相关潜在环境影响的指标。在ISO14046的原则、要求和方法学框架基础上,介绍了工业产品水足迹的计算和评价方法,并以铜电缆和铝合金电缆为例进行研究,分别评价了两类电缆生命周期过程产生的与水相关环境影响。与水足迹网络(WFN)的方法侧重于计算生产产品所需要的水资源总量不同,ISO的方法更关注于产品全生命周期过程的环境影响评价。案例研究表明:铜电缆生命周期全过程耗水量与铝合金电缆相比少24.8%,水短缺足迹相比则少97.9%。这是因为铜电缆生产地江苏的水压力指数(WSI)小于铝合金电缆生产地河北的WSI。由此,在江苏地区生产电缆使用的水资源对当地水环境压力造成的影响远小于在河北地区生产电缆造成的影响。采用科学合理的水足迹评价方法,量化工业产品全生命周期带来的环境影响,能为我国实现工业布局的合理规划和水资源的可持续利用提供科学依据。     

An Estimate of the Variance of Estimators for Lead Time and Screening Benefit Time in Randomized Cancer Screening Trials

Variance estimators are derived for estimators of the average lead time and average benefit time due to screening in a randomized screening trial via influence functions. The influence functions demonstrate that these estimators are asymptotically equivalent to the mean difference, between the study and control case groups, in the appropriate survival times. For estimating benefit time, the survival time is measured since start of study; for estimating lead time, the survival time is measured since time of diagnosis. Asymptotic variances of these estimators can be calculated in a straightforward manner from the influence functions, and these variances can be estimated from actual trial data. The performance of the variance estimators is assessed via a simulated screening trial. The situation involving censored data is also discussed.     

Evaluation of Gridded Precipitation Data for Driving SWAT Model in Area Upstream of Three Gorges Reservoir

Gridded precipitation data are becoming an important source for driving hydrologic models to achieve stable and valid simulation results in different regions. Thus, evaluating different sources of precipitation data is important for improving the applicability of gridded data. In this study, we used three gridded rainfall datasets: 1) National Centers for Environmental Prediction - Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (NCEP-CFSR); 2) Asian Precipitation - Highly-Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation (APHRODITE); and 3) China trend - surface reanalysis (trend surface) data. These are compared with monitoring precipitation data for driving the Soil and Water Assessment Tool in two basins upstream of Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR) in China. The results of one test basin with significant topographic influence indicates that all the gridded data have poor abilities in reproducing hydrologic processes with the topographic influence on precipitation quantity and distribution. However, in a relatively flat test basin, the APHRODITE and trend surface data can give stable and desirable results. The results of this study suggest that precipitation data for future applications should be considered comprehensively in the TGR area, including the influence of data density and topography.     

Influence of V-Shaped Metallic Subwavelength Slits with Variant Periods for Superfocusing

In this paper, we discussed the influence of a plasmonic lens with V-shaped metallic subwavelength slits and variant periods on transmission properties. In order to analyze the influence, a finite-difference time-domain numerical algorithm was adopted for computational numerical simulation of the plasmonic structures. The structures are flanked with the penetrated slits through a metal (Ag) film which is coated on a quartz substrate. Our simulation results demonstrated that different cone angles originated from the V-shaped slits generate different influences on the beam propagation. The width variation affects the intensity significantly. The cone angles formed by the V-shaped slits can change the focusing performance. These results are very encouraging for future study of the plasmonic lens-based applications.     

Investigating the Early Stages of Person Perception: The Asymmetry of Social Categorization by Sex vs. Age

Early perceptual operations are central components of the dynamics of social categorization. The wealth of information provided by facial cues presents challenges to our understanding of these early stages of person perception. The current study aimed to uncover the dynamics of processing multiply categorizable faces, notably as a function of their gender and age. Using a modified four-choice version of a mouse-tracking paradigm (which assesses the relative dominance of two categorical dimensions), the relative influence that sex and age have on each other during categorization of infant, younger adult, and older adult faces was investigated. Results of these experiments demonstrate that when sex and age dimensions are simultaneously categorized, only for infant faces does age influence sex categorization. In contrast, the sex of both young and older adults was shown to influence age categorization. The functional implications of these findings are discussed in light of previous person perception research.     

A parametric study of thermal therapy of skin tissue

A thermal therapy for cancer in skin tissue is numerically investigated using three bioheat conduction models, namely Pennes, thermal wave and dual-phase lag models. A laser is applied at the surface of the skin for cancer ablation, and the temperature and thermal damage distributions are predicted using the three bioheat models and two different modeling approaches of the laser effect. The first one is a prescribed surface heat flux, in which the tissue is assumed to be highly absorbent, while the second approach is a volumetric heat source, which is reasonable if the scattering and absorption skin effects are of similar magnitude. The finite volume method is applied to solve the governing bioheat equation. A parametric study is carried out to ascertain the effects of the thermophysical properties of the cancer on the thermal damage. The temperature distributions predicted by the three models exhibit significant differences, even though the temperature distributions are similar when the laser is turned off. The type of bioheat model has more influence on the predicted thermal damage than the type of modeling approach used for the laser. The phase lags of heat flux and temperature gradient have an important influence on the results, as well as the thermal conductivity of the cancer. In contrast, the uncertainty in the specific heat and blood perfusion rate has a minor influence on the thermal damage.