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ABSTRACT: A novel scaffold-free self-assembled cartilage construct has been generated and used to repair particular chondral defects effectively. However, the mechanisms related to the construction of these self-assembled cartilages have not yet been fully elucidated. We hypothesize that gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) plays a critical role in the development of self-assembled constructs upon GDF-5 induction. In this study, we investigated the effect of connexin 43 (C×43) mediated GJIC on GDF-5 modulation of chondrogenesis from two aspects, cell monolayer culture and 3-D self-assembly culture. We induced cells or self-assembled constructs with chondrogenic media (CM), growth differentiation factor 5 (GDF-5) or 1-heptanol for 3 weeks. At the end of that time, the results of quantitative fluorescence redistribution after photobleaching (FRAP) assay and immunofluorescence demonstrated that GDF-5 improved both GJIC and chondrogenic differentiation to a significant degree while 1-heptanol nearly offset the expected improvements in chondrogenesis. Biochemical assay and histology showed that GDF-5 can obviously enhance GAG, C×43 and type II collagen expressions. Conversely, we also showed that while 1-heptanol weakened GAG and type II collagen expression in self-assembled constructs, it had no effect on C×43 expression. Furthermore, real-time polymerase chain reaction showed that GDF-5 enhanced GAG and type II collagen transcription while 1-heptanol reduced them, but was affectless on C×43 transcription. This suggests that the generation of scaffold-free self-assembled cartilage from human mesenchymal stem cells upon GDF-5 induction may be mediated, at least in part, via the modulation of GJIC.
Embryologia 11/2012; · 2.21 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: In this study, a well developed porous biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) scaffold was prepared by emulsion foam freeze-drying method possessed moderate inter-connected pores and porosity. The SEM analysis showed that BCP nano-particles could disperse uniformly in the scaffolds, and the pore size, porosity, and compressive strength could be controlled by the weight ratio of BCP/PVA. The in vitro degradation and cytocompatibility of scaffolds were examined in this study. The degradation analysis showed the prepared scaffolds have a low variation of pH values (approximately 7.18-7.36) in SBF solution, and have the biodegradation rate of BCP/PVA scaffolds decreased with the increase of PVA concentration. Moreover, MTT assay indicated that the BCP/PVA porous scaffold has no negative effects on cells growth and proliferation, and the hBMSCs possessed a favorable spreading morphology on the BCP/PVA scaffold surface. The inter-connected pore structure, mechanical strength, biodegradation rate and cytocompatibility of the prepared BCP/PVA scaffold can meet essential requirements for blame bearing bone tissue engineering and regeneration.
Colloids and surfaces. B, Biointerfaces 05/2012; 100:169-76. · 2.60 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This study aimed to compare the outcomes of liver resection for unilateral and bilateral intrahepatic stones.
Hepatectomy is effective in treating intrahepatic stones accompanied by biliary stricture or segmental atrophy. The outcomes between unilateral and bilateral intrahepatic stones may be varied because of different complexity of these 2 subtypes of disease.
From January 1992 to December 2008, 718 consecutive patients with intrahepatic stones underwent elective hepatectomy in our center were reviewed. The outcomes of patients with unilateral stones (n = 461) and bilateral stones (n = 257) were compared. The consistency between extent of liver resection (ELR) and stone-affected segments (SAS) was classified into 2 categories: ELR = SAS and ELR < SAS. The risk factors of stone recurrence were identified by Cox regression model.
The immediate stone clearance rates of the unilateral group and the bilateral group were 93.5% and 71.1%, respectively. Postoperative cholangioscopic lithotomy raised the clearance rates to 99.3% and 90.2%, respectively. The surgical morbidities were 20.4% and 38.5%, respectively. The hospital mortality rates of both groups were 0.4%. The 5-year stone recurrence rates were 6.2% and 16.7%, respectively. Cox regression analysis showed that stone distribution (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.462, P = 0.007) and consistency between ELR and SAS (HR = 3.100, P = 0.002) were independent prognostic factors for stone recurrence.
Generally, patients with unilateral stones have better outcomes than those with bilateral stones after hepatectomy associated with cholangioscopic lithotomy. But for the patients with ELR equals to SAS, the stone recurrence rates of unilateral and bilateral stones are low and comparable.
Annals of surgery 05/2012; 255(5):946-53. · 7.90 Impact Factor
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Hong Zhao,
Elizabeth K Pearson,
David C Brooks,
John S Coon, Dong Chen,
Masashi Demura,
Ming Zhang,
Charles V Clevenger,
Xia Xu,
Timothy D Veenstra,
Robert T Chatterton,
Francesco J DeMayo,
Serdar E Bulun
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ABSTRACT: Aromatase is essential for estrogen production and is the target of aromatase inhibitors, the most effective endocrine treatment for postmenopausal breast cancer. Peripheral tissues in women, including the breast, express aromatase via alternative promoters. Female mice lack the promoters that drive aromatase expression in peripheral tissues; thus, we generated a transgenic humanized aromatase (Arom(hum)) mouse line containing a single copy of the human aromatase gene to study the link between aromatase expression in mammary adipose tissue and breast pathology. Arom(hum) mice expressed human aromatase, driven by the proximal human promoters II and I.3 and the distal promoter I.4, in breast adipose fibroblasts and myoepithelial cells. Estrogen levels in the breast tissue of Arom(hum) mice were higher than in wild-type mice, whereas circulating levels were similar. Arom(hum) mice exhibited accelerated mammary duct elongation at puberty and an increased incidence of lobuloalveolar breast hyperplasia associated with increased signal transducer and activator of transcription-5 phosphorylation at 24 and 64 wk. Hyperplastic epithelial cells showed remarkably increased proliferative activity. Thus, we demonstrated that the human aromatase gene can be expressed via its native promoters in a wide variety of mouse tissues and in a distribution pattern nearly identical to that of humans. Locally increased tissue levels, but not circulating levels, of estrogen appeared to exert hyperplastic effects on the mammary gland. This novel mouse model will be valuable for developing tissue-specific aromatase inhibition strategies.
Endocrinology 04/2012; 153(6):2701-13. · 4.46 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES: This study examined whether abnormalities of early EPCs and endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) are present and compared their functions in glucocorticoid (GC)-induced avascular osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ANFH). METHODS: Early EPCs and endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) were obtained from 33 patients with glucocorticoid-induced ANFH and 33 age- and sex-matched control subjects. Cells were isolated, in vitro cultured and studied by Flow Cytometry and Immunofluorescence. Colony-forming unit counts were observed from 33 patients and 33 healthy controls. Growth kinetics, migratory capacity to multiple chemo-attractants, in vitro tube formation capacity and cytokine (vascular endothelial growth factor and stromal cell-derived factor-1) levels in supernatants of two types of EPCs were assayed in ANFH patients and matched controls (n=4). RESULTS: Mean numbers of colonies formed by both types of EPCs were decreased in ANFH patients (Early EPCs: 2.42±1.46 versus 4.52±2.00, p<0.05; ECFCs: 0.62±0.55 versus 1.12±0.82, p<0.05,). Early EPCs from ANFH patients showed impaired migratory capacity (63.8±11.7 versus 152.3±12.4, p<0.001) and VEGF secretion (50.8±7.2pg/ml versus 62.8±10.1pg/ml, p<0.05). ECFCs from ANFH patients showed decreased tube formation capacity (7.1±2.7 versus 23.8±4.3, p<0.001) and proliferation. DISCUSSION: Early EPCs and ECFCs were impaired in number and function in GC-induced ANFH, and their distinct reduced capacity profiles might reflect different roles they played in endothelial dysfunction of GC-induced ANFH.
Joint, bone, spine: revue du rhumatisme 04/2012; · 2.25 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: This is the first paper describing the IBM Blue Gene/Q interconnection network and message unit. The Blue Gene/Q system is the third generation in the IBM Blue Gene line of massively parallel supercomputers. The Blue Gene/Q architecture can be scaled to 20 PF/s and beyond. The network and the highly parallel message unit, which provides the functionality of a network interface, are integrated onto the same chip as the processors and cache memory, and consume 8% of the chip's area. For better application scalability and performance, we describe new routing algorithms and new techniques to parallelize the injection and reception of packets in the network interface. Measured hardware performance results are also presented.
High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC), 2011 International Conference for; 12/2011
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ABSTRACT: With the development of micro-electronics technology, computing technology and the wireless communications technology, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been great concerned in recent years. The architecture of WSN directly affect entire network performance, and the network performance affects the availability of WSN. The design of WSN architecture need consider many aspects, such as deploy, energy consumption, expansibility, flexibility and error tolerance. The cross-layer MAC protocol can be designed to reduce energy consumption and prolong the network lifetime. In this paper, the architecture, cross-layer MAC protocol for WSNs are introduced. At last, the conclusion and future work of WSNs is discussed.
Genetic and Evolutionary Computing (ICGEC), 2011 Fifth International Conference on; 10/2011
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ABSTRACT: With the development of the IoT, different wireless communication technologies and edge network infrastructures are continuously integrated. Therefore, the corresponding communication network environment has become more complex and the security issues involved in the IoT are more complex than any existing network infrastructures. The trust relationship between the heterogeneous entities, security communication, security system and other security issues are more complex and difficult to solve. In order to solve this kind of security problems, this paper gives the system structure, analyzes the security challenges and threats, proposes a novel security architecture for the IoT based on the research of these security demands, and eventually gives details of the designed security verification system.
Genetic and Evolutionary Computing (ICGEC), 2011 Fifth International Conference on; 10/2011
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ABSTRACT: It's essential and crucial to perform BPR (Business Process Reengineering) for Chinese construction corporations to succeed, even survive, because of the promulgation of The Code of Valuation with Bill of Quantities of Construction Works. Managers must fundamentally rethink and radically redesign the structures of their organization as well as the operating processes. As a key process among various processes in a construction corporation, a case of materials purchasing process reengineering is illustrated detailedly in this paper.
Artificial Intelligence, Management Science and Electronic Commerce (AIMSEC), 2011 2nd International Conference on; 09/2011
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ABSTRACT: Hydropower producer is a participant with relative higher risk than thermal's in respect of bidding to spot electricity market, since regulating storage is limited and is required to keep long-term valid. This paper provided a framework to obtain optimal bids for hydropower producer as a price-taker. The bidding model was established and a simple yet important optimization bidding equation was derived from the augmented Lagrangian functions. A three-sigma rule-based bidding method was proposed to form the piecewise bidding strategy. Results from a realistic case study were discussed.
Industry Applications (INDUSCON), 2010 9th IEEE/IAS International Conference on; 12/2010
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ABSTRACT: ACE is a freely available, open-source object-oriented framework that implements many core design patterns for concurrent communication software. ACE provides reusable C++ wrappers, frameworks and real-time ORB available for most operating systems. In this paper, we introduce the functionality of ACE components, design an effective and portable IPC platform framework based on ACE middleware and implement the IPC platform system in C++. Eventually, we test our IPC platform, compare it with the non-ACE system and conclude its advantages and drawbacks.
Intelligent System Design and Engineering Application (ISDEA), 2010 International Conference on; 11/2010
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ABSTRACT: This paper shows that a hybrid model of physical and statistical models with Kalman Filter as an online adaptation method cannot be applied over a wide operation range. The superiority of a hybrid model with Just-In-Time modeling is indicated through a case study of Methane-Steam Reforming process.
SICE Annual Conference 2010, Proceedings of; 09/2010
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ABSTRACT: This paper introduces an architecture of hybrid model of physical and statistical model with adaptive updating method based on Kalman Filter and just-in-time (JIT) modeling. When the real time reference output is accessible, the powerful Kalman filter is recommended to update the statistical linear model. In addition, an effective initial value calculating method is proposed to perfect the powerful Kalman filter updating mechanics. When the reference output is not available, Kalman filter can not work anymore, just-in-time (JIT) updating method is brought in to update statistical models. The validity of this architecture is clarified through a case study of Methane-Steam Reforming process.
Intelligent Control and Information Processing (ICICIP), 2010 International Conference on; 09/2010
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ABSTRACT: Semantic focused crawler is an important part of semantic vertical search engine. It is receiving increasing attention as a well founded alternative to search web with the problem of locating topical resource on entire web. In order to retrieval documents related to a given topic, in this paper, we propose QBLP Algorithm which enable crawler adaptive with the changing environment. This feature makes it possible to change behavior of focused crawler according to the particular environment and its relationships with the given input parameters during the search. QBLP Exploited Q learning which features whole-life learning and repayment delay accompany with Bayes classifier. It enables crawler to accumulate experience during the crawling and adjust strategy to achieve goal of making best decision under any circumstance. We make a comparison among QBLP, Best First and Breath First. According to statistics from experiments, We find that QBLP is superior on precision than others in long time crawling.
Computer Science and Information Technology (ICCSIT), 2010 3rd IEEE International Conference on; 08/2010
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ABSTRACT: We explore the multisend interface as a data mover interface to optimize applications with neighborhood collective communication operations. One of the limitations of the current MPI 2.1 standard is that the vector collective calls require counts and displacements (zero and non-zero bytes) to be specified for all the processors in the communicator. Further, all the collective calls in MPI 2.1 are blocking and do not permit overlap of communication with computation in the same thread of execution. However, multisends are non-blocking calls that permit overlap of computation and communication. We present the record replay persistent optimization to the multisend interface th at minimizes the processor overhead of initiating the collective. We present four different case studies with the multisend API on Blue Gene/P (i) 3D-FFT, (ii) 4D nearest neighbor exchange as used in Quantum Chromodynamics, (iii) NAMD and (iv) neural network simulator NEURON. Performance results show 1.9Ã speedup with 32<sup>3</sup> 3D-FFTs, 1.9Ã speedup for 4D nearest neighbor exchange with the 2<sup>4</sup> problem, 1.6Ã speedup in NAMD and almost 3Ã speedup in NEURON with 256K cells and 1k connections/cell.
Parallel & Distributed Processing (IPDPS), 2010 IEEE International Symposium on; 05/2010
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ABSTRACT: Blind separation of signals, which consists of recovering signals only from observed instantaneous linear mixtures without a priori information about the mixing matrix, is an important problem in many practical applications including radar, sonar, wireless communication and so on. For blind separation of cyclostationary signals, proposed a novel approach (PM) which dropped a pre-whitening stage usually required by many second-order statistics based methods such as AMUSE and SOBI algorithms. However, the PM algorithm has a fatal disadvantage in that it cannot fully separate all signals in the circumstance of more than two sources. To overcome this drawback, we proposed an improved PM algorithm in this paper. Several numerical simulations are also provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Image Analysis and Signal Processing (IASP), 2010 International Conference on; 05/2010
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ABSTRACT: Find an optimal function model of spikes of high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) spontaneous signals in the spinal cord of a rat, and use it to recognize the patterns of spikes of low SNR signals in the sciatic nerve of the rat. Method: Firstly, several function models of spikes of high SNR spontaneous signals in the spinal cord of a rat are calculated under the rule of least square. By choosing an optimal function model based on minimum standard deviation (SD) of error of fitting, it is contrasted with the waveform of classical action potential (AP). Then, this model is used as a pattern to recognize spikes of low SNR signals in the sciatic nerve of the rat. Result: The optimal function model of spikes of high SNR spontaneous signals in the spinal cord of a rat is a proportional model whose numerator is a 5-order polynomial while the denominator is a 4-order polynomial. The waveform of a typical AP can be obtained from this model. It can also achieve good performance by recognizing the pattern of spikes of signals whose SNR is lower than 8 dB in sciatic nerve of the rat.
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2009. EMBC 2009. Annual International Conference of the IEEE; 10/2009
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ABSTRACT: In this paper, the control strategy for the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) used in utility distribution systems is investigated, and a novel fuzzy-PI-based direct-output-voltage (DOV) control strategy is presented. Based on power balancing principle and feedforward decoupling control, this novel DOV control strategy cannot only reduce the active and reactive current control loops of a conventional double-loop control strategy but also achieve the decoupling control to regulate dc-link voltage and maintain the voltages at the point of common coupling (PCC). In order to effectively improve the immunity capability of this novel DOV control strategy to the uncertainties in system parameters, two fuzzy PI controllers are separately employed to maintain the voltages at the PCC and to simultaneously regulate dc-link voltage. The validity and effectiveness of this novel control strategy for the STATCOM used in utility distribution systems have been verified by simulation results, and a scaled physical prototype rated at plusmn300 kVAr is also developed to test the STATCOM system.
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 08/2009; · 5.16 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A multi-residue method for the analysis of 76 pharmaceutical agents of nine classes of drugs (tetracyclines, macrolides, fluoroquinolones, beta-agonists, beta-blockers, diuretics, sedatives, sulfonamides and chloramphenicol) in slaughterhouse wastewater and a receiving river is presented. After simultaneous extraction with an Oasis HLB solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge and further purification using an amino SPE cartridge, analytes were detected by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry in positive or negative ion mode. Standard addition was used for quantification to overcome unavoidable matrix effects during ESI-MS analysis. Recoveries for most analytes based on matrix-matched calibration in different test matrices were >60%. The method quantification limits of 76 pharmaceuticals were in the range 0.2-30 ng/L. Nineteen compounds of 76 drugs were found in raw and treated slaughterhouse wastewater from four main slaughterhouses in Beijing. Sulfanamides (sulfanilamide, sulfameter), fluoroquenones (ofloxacin, pefloxacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin), tetracyclines (tetracycline, oxytetracycline) and macrolides (kitasamycin, tylosin, erythromycin) were most frequently detected, with the highest levels up to approximately 3 microg/L in slaughterhouse wastewater and approximately 1 microg/L in treated wastewater. Illicit drugs for animal feeding such as clenbuterol and diazepam were commonly detected in slaughterhouse wastewater. These analytes were also observed in a river receiving slaughterhouse wastewater, with a highest level of up to 0.2 microg/L.
Journal of chromatography. A 08/2009; 1216(47):8312-8. · 4.19 Impact Factor
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Zhi-Gong Wang,
Xiao-Song Gu,
Xiao-Ying Lu,
Zheng-Lin Jiang,
Wen-Yuan Li,
Guang-Ming Lu,
Yu-Feng Wang,
Hui-Ling Wang,
Zhen-Yu Zhang,
Hong-Mei Shen,
Yang Wu,
Wei-Xing Shen,
Jing-Yang Zhang, Dong Chen
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ABSTRACT: We are searching for a way to generate neural function recovery by introducing an implantable microelectronic system. Prototypes of the so-called microelectronic neural-bridging systems have been realized in the form of integrated circuits. The integrated circuits were realized in a standard CMOS process. In a series of animal experiments, we have demonstrated that an interrupted spinal cord could be bridged and neural signals were regenerated. The idea of microelectronics channel bridging and signal regeneration of injured spinal cords was primarily demonstrated.
Circuits and Systems, 2008. APCCAS 2008. IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on; 01/2009
