Displaying publications 81 - 100 of 163 in total

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  1. Isolation of SARS-CoV-2-related coronavirus from Malayan pangolins
    Xiao K, Zhai J, Feng Y, Zhou N, Zhang X, Zou JJ, et al.
    Nature, 2020 07;583(7815):286-289.
    PMID: 32380510 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2313-x
    The current outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) poses unprecedented challenges to global health1. The new coronavirus responsible for this outbreak-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-shares high sequence identity to SARS-CoV and a bat coronavirus, RaTG132. Although bats may be the reservoir host for a variety of coronaviruses3,4, it remains unknown whether SARS-CoV-2 has additional host species. Here we show that a coronavirus, which we name pangolin-CoV, isolated from a Malayan pangolin has 100%, 98.6%, 97.8% and 90.7% amino acid identity with SARS-CoV-2 in the E, M, N and S proteins, respectively. In particular, the receptor-binding domain of the S protein of pangolin-CoV is almost identical to that of SARS-CoV-2, with one difference in a noncritical amino acid. Our comparative genomic analysis suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated in the recombination of a virus similar to pangolin-CoV with one similar to RaTG13. Pangolin-CoV was detected in 17 out of the 25 Malayan pangolins that we analysed. Infected pangolins showed clinical signs and histological changes, and circulating antibodies against pangolin-CoV reacted with the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. The isolation of a coronavirus from pangolins that is closely related to SARS-CoV-2 suggests that these animals have the potential to act as an intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2. This newly identified coronavirus from pangolins-the most-trafficked mammal in the illegal wildlife trade-could represent a future threat to public health if wildlife trade is not effectively controlled.
  2. Fulltext Lab Scale Extracted Conditions of Polyphenols from Thinned Peach Fruit Have Antioxidant, Hypoglycemic, and Hypolipidemic Properties
    Dai K, Wei Y, Jiang S, Xu F, Wang H, Zhang X, et al.
    Foods, 2021 Dec 31;11(1).
    PMID: 35010225 DOI: 10.3390/foods11010099
    Thinned peach polyphenols (TPPs) were extracted by ultrasonic disruption and purified using macroporous resin. Optimized extraction conditions resulted in a TPPs yield of 1.59 ± 0.02 mg GAE/g FW, and optimized purification conditions resulted in a purity of 43.86% with NKA-9 resin. TPPs composition was analyzed by UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS; chlorogenic acid, catechin, and neochlorogenic acid were the most abundant compounds in thinned peaches. Purified TPPs exhibited scavenging activity on DPPH, ABTS, hydroxyl radical, and FRAP. TPPs inhibited α-amylase and α-glucosidase by competitive and noncompetitive reversible inhibition, respectively. TPPs also exhibited a higher binding capacity for bile acids than cholestyramine. In summary, TPPs from thinned peaches are potentially valuable because of their high antioxidant, hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic capacities, and present a new incentive for the comprehensive utilization of thinned peach fruit.
  3. Fulltext Long-Term Therapeutic Efficacy of Intravenous AAV-Mediated Hamartin Replacement in Mouse Model of Tuberous Sclerosis Type 1
    Prabhakar S, Cheah PS, Zhang X, Zinter M, Gianatasio M, Hudry E, et al.
    Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev, 2019 Dec 13;15:18-26.
    PMID: 31534984 DOI: 10.1016/j.omtm.2019.08.003
    Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a tumor suppressor syndrome caused by mutations in TSC1 or TSC2, encoding hamartin and tuberin, respectively. These proteins act as a complex that inhibits mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-mediated cell growth and proliferation. Loss of either protein leads to overgrowth in many organs, including subependymal nodules, subependymal giant cell astrocytomas, and cortical tubers in the human brain. Neurological manifestations in TSC include intellectual disability, autism, hydrocephalus, and epilepsy. In a stochastic mouse model of TSC1 brain lesions, complete loss of Tsc1 is achieved in homozygous Tsc1-floxed mice in a subpopulation of neural cells in the brain by intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) injection at birth of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector encoding Cre recombinase. This results in median survival of 38 days and brain pathology, including subependymal lesions and enlargement of neuronal cells. Remarkably, when these mice were injected intravenously on day 21 with an AAV9 vector encoding hamartin, most survived at least up to 429 days in apparently healthy condition with marked reduction in brain pathology. Thus, a single intravenous administration of an AAV vector encoding hamartin restored protein function in enough cells in the brain to extend lifespan in this TSC1 mouse model.
  4. Fulltext Loss-free tensile ductility of dual-structure titanium composites via an interdiffusion and self-organization strategy
    Liu L, Li S, Pan D, Hui D, Zhang X, Li B, et al.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2023 Jul 11;120(28):e2302234120.
    PMID: 37399391 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2302234120
    The deformation-coordination ability between ductile metal and brittle dispersive ceramic particles is poor, which means that an improvement in strength will inevitably sacrifice ductility in dispersion-strengthened metallic materials. Here, we present an inspired strategy for developing dual-structure-based titanium matrix composites (TMCs) that achieve 12.0% elongation comparable to the matrix Ti6Al4V alloys and enhanced strength compared to homostructure composites. The proposed dual-structure comprises a primary structure, namely, a TiB whisker-rich region engendered fine grain Ti6Al4V matrix with a three-dimensional micropellet architecture (3D-MPA), and an overall structure consisting of evenly distributed 3D-MPA "reinforcements" and a TiBw-lean titanium matrix. The dual structure presents a spatially heterogeneous grain distribution with 5.8 μm fine grains and 42.3 μm coarse grains, which exhibits excellent hetero-deformation-induced (HDI) hardening and achieves a 5.8% ductility. Interestingly, the 3D-MPA "reinforcements" show 11.1% isotropic deformability and 66% dislocation storage, which endows the TMCs with good strength and loss-free ductility. Our enlightening method uses an interdiffusion and self-organization strategy based on powder metallurgy to enable metal matrix composites with the heterostructure of the matrix and the configuration of reinforcement to address the strength-ductility trade-off dilemma.
  5. MAFLD fibrosis score: Using routine measures to identify advanced fibrosis in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease
    Cheung JTK, Zhang X, Wong GL, Yip TC, Lin H, Li G, et al.
    Aliment Pharmacol Ther, 2023 Dec;58(11-12):1194-1204.
    PMID: 37724633 DOI: 10.1111/apt.17722
    BACKGROUND: Early screening may prevent fibrosis progression in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD).

    AIMS: We developed and validated MAFLD fibrosis score (MFS) for identifying advanced fibrosis (≥F3) among MAFLD patients.

    METHODS: This cross-sectional, multicentre study consecutively recruited MAFLD patients receiving tertiary care (Malaysia as training cohort [n = 276] and Hong Kong and Wenzhou as validation cohort [n = 431]). Patients completed liver biopsy, vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE), and clinical and laboratory assessment within 1 week. We used machine learning to select 'highly important' predictors of advanced fibrosis, followed by backward stepwise regression to construct MFS formula.

    RESULTS: MFS was composed of seven variables: age, body mass index, international normalised ratio, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, platelet count, and history of type 2 diabetes. MFS demonstrated an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.848 [95% CI 0.800-898] and 0.823 [0.760-0.886] in training and validation cohorts, significantly higher than aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (0.684 [0.603-0.765], 0.663 [0.588-0.738]), Fibrosis-4 index (0.793 [0.735-0.854], 0.737 [0.660-0.814]), and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease fibrosis score (0.785 [0.731-0.844], 0.750 [0.674-0.827]) (DeLong's test p 

  6. Mapping flood by the object-based method using backscattering coefficient and interference coherence of Sentinel-1 time series
    Zhang X, Chan NW, Pan B, Ge X, Yang H
    Sci Total Environ, 2021 Nov 10;794:148388.
    PMID: 34217078 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148388
    The SAR has the ability of all-weather and all-time data acquisition, it can penetrate the cloud and is not affected by extreme weather conditions, and the acquired images have better contrast and rich texture information. This paper aims to investigate the use of an object-oriented classification approach for flood information monitoring in floodplains using backscattering coefficients and interferometric coherence of Sentinel-1 data under time series. Firstly, the backscattering characteristics and interference coherence variation characteristics of SAR time series are used to analyze whether the flood disaster information can be accurately reflected and provide the basis for selecting input classification characteristics of subsequent SAR images. Subsequently, the contribution rate index of the RF model is used to calculate the importance of each index in time series to convert the selected large number of classification features into low dimensional feature space to improve the classification accuracy and reduce the data redundancy. Finally, the SAR image features in each period after multi-scale segmentation and feature selection are jointly used as the input features of RF classification to extract and segment the water in the study area to monitor floods' spatial distribution and dynamic characteristics. The results showed that the various attributes of backscatter coefficients and interferometric coherence under time series could accurately correspond with the actual flood risk, and the combined use of backscattering coefficient and interferometric coherence for flood extraction can significantly improve the accuracy of flood information extraction. Overall, the object-based random forest method using the backscattering coefficient and interference coherence of Sentinel-1 time series for flood extraction advances our understanding of flooding's temporal and spatial dynamics, essential for the timely adoption of adaptation and mitigation strategies for loss reduction.
  7. Fulltext Measuring and preventing alcohol use and related harm among young people in Asian countries: a thematic review
    Jiang H, Xiang X, Hao W, Room R, Zhang X, Wang X
    Glob Health Res Policy, 2018;3:14.
    PMID: 29761160 DOI: 10.1186/s41256-018-0070-2
    Background: The paper reviews alcohol consumption patterns and alcohol-related social and health issues among 15-29-year old young people in Asian countries, and discusses strategies for preventing and controlling alcohol use and related harms.

    Methods: We searched Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science for reports, reviews and journal articles published in English between 1st Jan 1990 and 31st August 2016.

    Results: Forty-one reports, reviews and journal papers were identified and included in the final review. The current drinking levels and prevalence among young people are markedly different between eight included Asian countries, ranging from 4.2% in Malaysia to 49.3% in China. In a majority of the selected Asian countries, over 15% of total deaths among young men and 6% among young women aged 15-29 years are attributable to alcohol use. Alcohol use among young people is associated with a number of harms, including stress, family violence, injuries, suicide, and sexual and other risky behaviours. Alcohol policies, such as controlling sales, social supply and marketing, setting up/raising a legal drinking age, adding health warning labels on alcohol containers, and developing a surveillance system to monitor drinking pattern and risky drinking behaviour, could be potential means to reduce harmful use of alcohol and related harm among young people in Asia.

    Conclusions: The review reveals that drinking patterns and behaviours vary across eight selected Asian countries due to culture, policies and regional variations. The research evidence holds substantial policy implications for harm reduction on alcohol drinking among young people in Asian countries -- especially for China, which has almost no alcohol control policies at present.

  8. Fulltext Membrane-bound Gaussia luciferase as a tool to track shedding of membrane proteins from the surface of extracellular vesicles
    Zaborowski MP, Cheah PS, Zhang X, Bushko I, Lee K, Sammarco A, et al.
    Sci Rep, 2019 Nov 22;9(1):17387.
    PMID: 31758005 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-53554-y
    Extracellular vesicles (EVs) released by cells play a role in intercellular communication. Reporter and targeting proteins can be modified and exposed on the surface of EVs to investigate their half-life and biodistribution. A characterization of membrane-bound Gaussia luciferase (mbGluc) revealed that its signal was detected also in a form smaller than common EVs (<70 nm). We demonstrated that mbGluc initially exposed on the surface of EVs, likely undergoes proteolytic cleavage and processed fragments of the protein are released into the extracellular space in active form. Based on this observation, we developed a new assay to quantitatively track shedding of membrane proteins from the surface of EVs. We used this assay to show that ectodomain shedding in EVs is continuous and is mediated by specific proteases, e.g. metalloproteinases. Here, we present a novel tool to study membrane protein cleavage and release using both in vitro and in vivo models.
  9. Fulltext Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles for immunomodulation and regeneration: a next generation therapeutic tool?
    Kou M, Huang L, Yang J, Chiang Z, Chen S, Liu J, et al.
    Cell Death Dis, 2022 Jul 04;13(7):580.
    PMID: 35787632 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-022-05034-x
    Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be widely isolated from various tissues including bone marrow, umbilical cord, and adipose tissue, with the potential for self-renewal and multipotent differentiation. There is compelling evidence that the therapeutic effect of MSCs mainly depends on their paracrine action. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are fundamental paracrine effectors of MSCs and play a crucial role in intercellular communication, existing in various body fluids and cell supernatants. Since MSC-derived EVs retain the function of protocells and have lower immunogenicity, they have a wide range of prospective therapeutic applications with advantages over cell therapy. We describe some characteristics of MSC-EVs, and discuss their role in immune regulation and regeneration, with emphasis on the molecular mechanism and application of MSC-EVs in the treatment of fibrosis and support tissue repair. We also highlight current challenges in the clinical application of MSC-EVs and potential ways to overcome the problem of quality heterogeneity.
  10. Fulltext Methods for Systematic Identification of Membrane Proteins for Specific Capture of Cancer-Derived Extracellular Vesicles
    Zaborowski MP, Lee K, Na YJ, Sammarco A, Zhang X, Iwanicki M, et al.
    Cell Rep, 2019 Apr 02;27(1):255-268.e6.
    PMID: 30943406 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.03.003
    Analysis of cancer-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) in biofluids potentially provides a source of disease biomarkers. At present there is no procedure to systematically identify which antigens should be targeted to differentiate cancer-derived from normal host cell-derived EVs. Here, we propose a computational framework that integrates information about membrane proteins in tumors and normal tissues from databases: UniProt, The Cancer Genome Atlas, the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, and the Human Protein Atlas. We developed two methods to assess capture of EVs from specific cell types. (1) We used palmitoylated fluorescent protein (palmtdTomato) to label tumor-derived EVs. Beads displaying antibodies of interest were incubated with conditioned medium from palmtdTomato-expressing cells. Bound EVs were quantified using flow cytometry. (2) We also showed that membrane-bound Gaussia luciferase allows the detection of cancer-derived EVs in blood of tumor-bearing animals. Our analytical and validation platform should be applicable to identify antigens on EVs from any tumor type.
  11. Fulltext Mitochondrial Cardiomyopathy: Molecular Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Models, and Therapeutic Management
    Yang J, Chen S, Duan F, Wang X, Zhang X, Lian B, et al.
    Cells, 2022 Nov 06;11(21).
    PMID: 36359908 DOI: 10.3390/cells11213511
    Mitochondrial cardiomyopathy (MCM) is characterized by abnormal heart-muscle structure and function, caused by mutations in the nuclear genome or mitochondrial DNA. The heterogeneity of gene mutations and various clinical presentations in patients with cardiomyopathy make its diagnosis, molecular mechanism, and therapeutics great challenges. This review describes the molecular epidemiology of MCM and its clinical features, reviews the promising diagnostic tests applied for mitochondrial diseases and cardiomyopathies, and details the animal and cellular models used for modeling cardiomyopathy and to investigate disease pathogenesis in a controlled in vitro environment. It also discusses the emerging therapeutics tested in pre-clinical and clinical studies of cardiac regeneration.
  12. Fulltext Modification of the contact surfaces for improving the puncture resistance of laminar structures
    Wang P, Yang J, Li X, Liu M, Zhang X, Sun D, et al.
    Sci Rep, 2017 07 26;7(1):6615.
    PMID: 28747656 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06007-3
    Uncovering energy absorption and surface effects of various penetrating velocities on laminar structures is essential for designing protective structures. In this study, both quasi-static and dynamic penetration tests were systematical conducted on the front surfaces of metal sheets coated with a graphene oxide (GO) solution and other media. The addition of a GO fluid film to the front impact surface aided in increasing the penetration strength, improving the failure extension and dissipating additional energy under a wide-range of indentation velocity, from 3.33 × 10-5 m/s to 4.42 m/s. The coated -surfaces improved the specific energy dissipation by approximately 15~40% relative to the dry-contact configuration for both single-layer and double-layer configurations, and specific energy dissipations of double-layer configurations were 20~30% higher than those of the single-layer configurations. This treatment provides a facile strategy in changing the contact state for improving the failure load and dissipate additional energy.
  13. Fulltext Molecular characterization of variant infectious bronchitis virus in China, 2019: Implications for control programmes
    Zhang X, Deng T, Lu J, Zhao P, Chen L, Qian M, et al.
    Transbound Emerg Dis, 2020 May;67(3):1349-1355.
    PMID: 31943814 DOI: 10.1111/tbed.13477
    Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), an ongoing emergence enveloped virus with a single-stranded positive-sense RNA genome, belongs to the Gammacoronavirus genus in the Coronaviridae family. IBV-associated tracheitis, nephritis, salpingitis, proventriculitis and egg drop have caused devastating economic losses to poultry industry worldwide. Since the end of 2018, a remarkably increasing number of commercial broilers and layers, vaccinated or not, were infected with IBV in China. Here, we described two IB outbreaks with severe respiratory system or kidney injury in IBV-vaccinated commercial poultry farms in central China. Other possible causative viral pathogens, including avian influenza virus (AIV), Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and Kedah fatal kidney syndrome virus (KFKSV), were excluded by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and three virulent IBV strains, HeN-1/China/2019, HeN-2/China/2019 and HeN-101/China/2019, were identified. Although the gross pathologic appearance of these two IB outbreaks was different, the newly identified IBV strains were all closely related to the ck/China/I0529/17 strain and grouped into GI-19 genotype clade based on the sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the complete S1 genes. Moreover, there are still some evolutionary distance between the newly identified IBV strains, HeN-101/China/2019 in particular, and other GI-19 strains, suggesting that Chinese IBV strains constantly emerge and evolve towards different directions. In conclusion, this study provided an insight of the recently emerging IBV outbreaks in IBV-vaccinated commercial poultry farms and identified the genetic characteristics of three virulent GI-19 IBV strains, which shows the need to carry out proper preventive measures and control strategies.
  14. Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel aspartyl aminopeptidase from Trichinella spiralis
    Sun XY, Ma KN, Bai Y, Liu RD, Long SR, Zhang X, et al.
    Trop Biomed, 2021 Sep 01;38(3):420-434.
    PMID: 34608116 DOI: 10.47665/tb.38.3.085
    Trichinellosis is an important zoonotic parasitic disease worldwide and is principally caused by ingesting animal meat containing Trichinella infective larvae. Aspartyl aminopeptidase is an intracytoplasmic metalloproteinase that specifically hydrolyzes the N-terminus of polypeptides free of acidic amino acids (aspartic acid and glutamate), and plays an important role in the metabolism, growth and development of organisms. In this study, a novel T. spiralis aspartyl aminopeptidase (TsAAP) was cloned and expressed, and its biological properties and roles in worm growth and development were investigated. The results revealed that TsAAP transcription and expression in diverse T. spiralis stages were detected by RT-PCR and Western blotting, and primarily localized at cuticle, stichosome and intrauterine embryos of this nematode by immunofluorescence test. rTsAAP has the enzymatic activity of native AAP to hydrolyze the substrate H-Glu-pNA. There was a specific binding between rTsAAP and murine erythrocyte, and the binding site was localized in erythrocyte membrane proteins. Silencing of TsAAP gene by specific dsRNA significantly reduced the TsAAP expression, enzymatic activity, intestinal worm burdens and female fecundity. The results demonstrated that TsAAP participates in the growth, development and fecundity of T. spiralis and it might be a potential target molecule for anti-Trichinella vaccines.
  15. Fulltext Monitoring Consumption of Common Illicit Drugs in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by Wastewater-Cased Epidemiology
    Du P, Liu X, Zhong G, Zhou Z, Thomes MW, Lee CW, et al.
    Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2020 01 31;17(3).
    PMID: 32023897 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17030889
    Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia play a major role in global drug trade and abuse. Use of amphetamine-type stimulants has increased in the past decade in Malaysia. This study aimed to apply wastewater-based epidemiology for the first time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to estimate the consumption of common illicit drugs in urban population. Influent wastewater samples were collected from two wastewater treatment plants in Kuala Lumpur in the summer of 2017. Concentrations of twenty-four drug biomarkers were analyzed for estimating drug consumption. Fourteen drug residues were detected with concentrations of up to 1640 ng/L. Among the monitored illicit drugs, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) or ecstasy had the highest estimated per capita consumptions. Consumption and dose of amphetamine-type stimulants (methamphetamine and MDMA) were both an order of magnitude higher than those of opioids (heroin and codeine, methadone and tramadol). Amphetamine-type stimulants were the most prevalent drugs, replacing opioids in the drug market. The prevalence trend measured by wastewater-based epidemiology data reflected the shift to amphetamine-type stimulants as reported by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Narcotics Cooperation Center. Most of the undetected drug residues were new psychoactive substances (NPSs), suggesting a low prevalence of NPSs in the drug market.
  16. Fulltext Mouth-clicks used by blind expert human echolocators - signal description and model based signal synthesis
    Thaler L, Reich GM, Zhang X, Wang D, Smith GE, Tao Z, et al.
    PLoS Comput Biol, 2017 Aug;13(8):e1005670.
    PMID: 28859082 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005670
    Echolocation is the ability to use sound-echoes to infer spatial information about the environment. Some blind people have developed extraordinary proficiency in echolocation using mouth-clicks. The first step of human biosonar is the transmission (mouth click) and subsequent reception of the resultant sound through the ear. Existing head-related transfer function (HRTF) data bases provide descriptions of reception of the resultant sound. For the current report, we collected a large database of click emissions with three blind people expertly trained in echolocation, which allowed us to perform unprecedented analyses. Specifically, the current report provides the first ever description of the spatial distribution (i.e. beam pattern) of human expert echolocation transmissions, as well as spectro-temporal descriptions at a level of detail not available before. Our data show that transmission levels are fairly constant within a 60° cone emanating from the mouth, but levels drop gradually at further angles, more than for speech. In terms of spectro-temporal features, our data show that emissions are consistently very brief (~3ms duration) with peak frequencies 2-4kHz, but with energy also at 10kHz. This differs from previous reports of durations 3-15ms and peak frequencies 2-8kHz, which were based on less detailed measurements. Based on our measurements we propose to model transmissions as sum of monotones modulated by a decaying exponential, with angular attenuation by a modified cardioid. We provide model parameters for each echolocator. These results are a step towards developing computational models of human biosonar. For example, in bats, spatial and spectro-temporal features of emissions have been used to derive and test model based hypotheses about behaviour. The data we present here suggest similar research opportunities within the context of human echolocation. Relatedly, the data are a basis to develop synthetic models of human echolocation that could be virtual (i.e. simulated) or real (i.e. loudspeaker, microphones), and which will help understanding the link between physical principles and human behaviour.
  17. Fulltext Multi-view secondary input collaborative deep learning for lung nodule 3D segmentation
    Dong X, Xu S, Liu Y, Wang A, Saripan MI, Li L, et al.
    Cancer Imaging, 2020 Aug 01;20(1):53.
    PMID: 32738913 DOI: 10.1186/s40644-020-00331-0
    BACKGROUND: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been extensively applied to two-dimensional (2D) medical image segmentation, yielding excellent performance. However, their application to three-dimensional (3D) nodule segmentation remains a challenge.

    METHODS: In this study, we propose a multi-view secondary input residual (MV-SIR) convolutional neural network model for 3D lung nodule segmentation using the Lung Image Database Consortium and Image Database Resource Initiative (LIDC-IDRI) dataset of chest computed tomography (CT) images. Lung nodule cubes are prepared from the sample CT images. Further, from the axial, coronal, and sagittal perspectives, multi-view patches are generated with randomly selected voxels in the lung nodule cubes as centers. Our model consists of six submodels, which enable learning of 3D lung nodules sliced into three views of features; each submodel extracts voxel heterogeneity and shape heterogeneity features. We convert the segmentation of 3D lung nodules into voxel classification by inputting the multi-view patches into the model and determine whether the voxel points belong to the nodule. The structure of the secondary input residual submodel comprises a residual block followed by a secondary input module. We integrate the six submodels to classify whether voxel points belong to nodules, and then reconstruct the segmentation image.

    RESULTS: The results of tests conducted using our model and comparison with other existing CNN models indicate that the MV-SIR model achieves excellent results in the 3D segmentation of pulmonary nodules, with a Dice coefficient of 0.926 and an average surface distance of 0.072.

    CONCLUSION: our MV-SIR model can accurately perform 3D segmentation of lung nodules with the same segmentation accuracy as the U-net model.

  18. New Determination Method of Two Bioactive Saponins in Lysimachia capillipes Hemsl. by Quantitative Analysis of Multi-Components by Single-Marker
    Zhang X, Chen X, Jin J, Gong M, He Q, Li S, et al.
    J Chromatogr Sci, 2021 Oct 29;59(10):941-948.
    PMID: 33728454 DOI: 10.1093/chromsci/bmab028
    Capilliposide B (CPS-B) and Capilliposide C (CPS-C), as the key components in Lysimachia capillipes Hemsl., increasingly aroused the interest and research concern of many researchers due to the good bioactivities. Nowadays, the reference standards of CPS-B and CPS-C yield were very limited. Due to the deficit of reference standards, the determination could be difficult to carry out, and the quality control and evaluation would be restrained afterwards. To solve this urgent problem, a quantitative analysis of multi-components by single-marker (QAMS) method was proposed and established based on high-performance liquid-chromatography tandem evaporative light-scattering detector. In this QAMS method, the content of the two bioactive components could be calculated by buddlejasaponin IV, which is applied as an external standard and readily obtained. And the methodological experiments were evaluated and indicated accuracy, stability and feasibility of this QAMS method. Therefore, in this study, this built method would properly meet the requirement of determination of CPS-B, CPS-C and quality control of the L. capillipes Hemsl. plant.
  19. On relaxation of the influences of treated sewage effluent on an adjacent seaweed farm in a tidal strait
    Zhang X, Uchiyama Y, Nakayama A
    Mar Pollut Bull, 2019 Jul;144:265-274.
    PMID: 31179996 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.04.050
    An Eulerian passive tracer model coupled with a quadruple-nested 3D circulation model was used to assess the coastal dispersal of treated wastewater effluent from a sewage treatment plant and the associated impacts on an adjacent seaweed farm using three different operational scenarios. When the discharged volume and source effluent fluxes were decreased by ~16.7%, the accumulated effluent in the farm was reduced by ~25.4%. A tracer flux budget analysis revealed the apparent predominance of the transient component that accounts for the nonlinear interactions primarily from tidal currents and eddies. The transient flux promoted the effluent influx to impede effluent accumulation in the farm, whereas the mean flux contributed to the outgoing flux. A source flux reduction caused a remarkable decrease in the transient flux and thus an even greater effluent accumulation reduction. In turn, a modified source density scenario without total effluent volume change did not work as expected.
  20. Fulltext Online Learning Approach for Predictive Real-Time Energy Trading in Cloud-RANs
    Wan Ariffin WNSF, Zhang X, Nakhai MR, Rahim HA, Ahmad RB
    Sensors (Basel), 2021 Mar 25;21(7).
    PMID: 33806215 DOI: 10.3390/s21072308
    Constantly changing electricity demand has made variability and uncertainty inherent characteristics of both electric generation and cellular communication systems. This paper develops an online learning algorithm as a prescheduling mechanism to manage the variability and uncertainty to maintain cost-aware and reliable operation in cloud radio access networks (Cloud-RANs). The proposed algorithm employs a combinatorial multi-armed bandit model and minimizes the long-term energy cost at remote radio heads. The algorithm preschedules a set of cost-efficient energy packages to be purchased from an ancillary energy market for the future time slots by learning both from cooperative energy trading at previous time slots and by exploring new energy scheduling strategies at the current time slot. The simulation results confirm a significant performance gain of the proposed scheme in controlling the available power budgets and minimizing the overall energy cost compared with recently proposed approaches for real-time energy resources and energy trading in Cloud-RANs.
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