SUMMARY: Due to the complexity of head shape, limited 1D or 2D head anthropometry fail to fully capture its shape characteristics. Currently, there is limited research on clustering analysis of head shape from a shape difference perspective, especially for the head shape of Chinese people. Head shape is influenced by factors such as race, sex, and age, making it imperative to create a head shape database for Chinese individuals. In this study, three-dimensional head data of 339 Chinese young adult were collected, and the head shapes were clustered into 7 clusters using an improved k-medoids algorithm. The differences between clusters and the average head shape were further analyzed. It can be foreseen that the head shape database for Chinese young adult constructed in this study has important reference value for the ergonomic design of head-related products and head morphology research, among other fields.

RESUMEN: Debido a la complejidad de la forma de la cabeza, la antropometría limitada de ésta, en 1D o 2D, no logra capturar completamente sus características de forma. Actualmente, existen estudios limitados sobre el análisis de agrupamiento de la forma de la cabeza, desde una perspectiva de diferencia de forma, especialmente en el caso de la población china. La forma de la cabeza está influenciada por factores como la raza, el sexo y la edad, por lo que resulta imperativo crear una base de datos sobre la forma de la cabeza de los individuos chinos. En este estudio, se recopilaron datos tridimensionales de la cabeza de 339 adultos jóvenes chinos, y las formas de la cabeza se agruparon en 7 grupos utilizando un algoritmo k-medoids mejorado. Las diferencias entre los grupos y la forma promedio de la cabeza se analizaron a profundidad. Se puede prever que la base de datos sobre la forma de la cabeza de adultos jóvenes chinos construida en este estudio, tiene un valor de referencia importante para el diseño ergonómico de productos relacionados con la morfología de la cabeza, entre otros campos.

Abstract Positive thinking is a form of positive cognition and a coping strategy. The Positive Thinking Scale (PTS) is used to measure positive thinking, but the reliability and validity of the PTS-Chinese have yet to be tested. This study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the PTS-Chinese. A total of 154 patients post-hip fracture surgery completed the questionnaire in a hospital in Taiwan between April 2020 and December 2020. The scales in the questionnaire included the PTS, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Positive, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Negative, Barthel Index, and items related to happiness, demographics, and disease treatment. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis and average variance extracted show that the PTS-Chinese version exhibits construct validity. Scores on the PTS-Chinese version are positively related to scores on the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Positive and happiness items and negatively related to scores on the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Negative. This finding indicates that the PTS-Chinese demonstrates concurrent, predictive, and discriminant validity. The scale also presents acceptable reliability and test–retest reliability. Overall, the PTS-Chinese can be used to evaluate and track the positive thinking of patients. Further studies are needed to assess the psychometric properties of the PTS-Chinese in different cultures and ethnic groups.

Abstract: A multi-item producer-retailer integrated system featuring overtime and random scrap is studied. The objectives are to jointly decide the most economic rotation fabrication cycle time and distribution of products. In order to meet the increasing demands of diversified end items, production managers today need to plan a multiproduct fabrication schedule and to expedite both manufacturing and transportation times, so that they can meet product demands as quickly as possible. Also, due to potential uncontrollable reasons, scrap items are generated randomly in a real fabrication process. To address the aforementioned issues, this study examines a multi-item producer-retailer integrated system featuring overtime and random scrap. We build a mathematical model to interpret the proposed multi-item producer-retailer integrated system which incorporates shipping and retailer’s holding cost. The Hessian matrix equations are used for solving the optimality of the system. Diverse important system information can now be exposed to backing managerial decision makings, which includes individual and combined influences of variations in particular system factor(s) (such as scrap rate and overtime related parameters) on the specific system performance.

Lung adenocarcinomas are usually sensitive to radiation therapy, but some develop resistance. Radiation resistance can lead to poor patient prognosis. Studies have shown that lung adenocarcinoma cells (H1299 cells) can develop radioresistance through epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and this process is regulated by miRNAs. However, it is unclear which miRNAs are involved in the process of EMT. In our present study, we found that miR-183 expression was increased in a radioresistant lung adenocarcinoma cell line (H1299R cells). We then explored the regulatory mechanism of miR-183 and found that it may be involved in the regulation of zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) expression and mediate EMT in lung adenocarcinoma cells. qPCR results showed that miR-183, ZEB1, and vimentin were highly expressed in H1299R cells, whereas no difference was observed in E-cadherin expression. Western blot results showed that ZEB1 and vimentin were highly expressed in H1299R cells, while E-cadherin expression was decreased. When miR-183 expression was inhibited in H1299R cells, radiation resistance, proliferation, and cell migration were decreased. The expression of ZEB1 and vimentin in H1299R cells was decreased, while the expression of E-cadherin was increased. Moreover, miR-183 overexpression in H1299 cells enhanced radiation resistance, proliferative capacity, and cell migration ability. The expression of ZEB1 and vimentin in H1299 cells was increased, while that of E-cadherin was decreased. In conclusion, miR-183 may promote EMT and radioresistance in H1299 cells, and targeting the miR-183-ZEB1 signaling pathway may be a promising approach for lung cancer treatment.

Abstract The author-specific word usage is a vital feature to let readers perceive the writing style of the author. In this work, a personalized sentence generation method based on generative adversarial networks (GANs) is proposed to cope with this issue. The frequently used function word and content word are incorporated not only as the input features but also as the sentence structure constraint for the GAN training. For the sentence generation with the related topics decided by the user, the Named Entity Recognition (NER) information of the input words is also used in the network training. We compared the proposed method with the GAN-based sentence generation methods, and the experimental results showed that the generated sentences using our method are more similar to the original sentences of the same author based on the objective evaluation such as BLEU and SimHash score.

An Al-3%Mg-0.2%Sc alloy was solution treated and subjected to 10 turns of high-pressure torsion (HPT). Thereafter, the HPT-processed material was annealed for 1 hour at temperatures ranging from 423 to 773 K and its mechanical properties and microstructural evolution were examined using microhardness measurements and EBSD analysis. The results demonstrate that the Al-Mg-Sc alloy exhibits an average microhardness of ~190 Hv and an average grain size of ~140 nm immediately after HPT processing and also after further annealing at 423 K. Conversely, it is shown that annealing at temperatures above 473 K leads to a substantial decrease in the hardness values as well as a sharp increase in the grain size of the material previously processed by HPT. In addition, detailed EBSD analysis revealed the formation of a bi-modal distribution of grains after annealing at temperatures from 623 to 773 K, and this becomes more uniform with increasing temperatures.

Magnesium alloys often exhibit cracking and segmentation after equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature. With torsion shear deformation and a hydrostatic stress, high-pressure torsion (HPT) has an advantage over ECAP in the processing of hard-to-deform materials like magnesium alloys at room temperature. In this report, HPT was used on extruded AZ31 Mg alloy at temperatures of 296, 373 and 473 K for 1 and 5 turns. After HPT processing, the hcp crystal c-axis rotated from the disc (r,θ) plane towards the torsion axis. The angle between the c-axis and the torsion axis (Φ) has a relationship with the HPT processing temperature. It was found that the c-axis was 10º from the torsion axis at 296 and 373 K but 5º from the torsion axis at 473 K. The activity of the basal <a> slip and the twinning exert significant contributions to the deformation. Microstructural features such as the grain size and grain size distributions were examined and correlated with the mechanical properties through the microhardness values.

OBJECTIVE: Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 is an inhibitory receptor primarily expressed by immune cells. This study was undertaken to define the role of this molecule in osteoclast differentiation and rheumatoid arthritis. METHODS: In vitro osteoclast assays were performed to characterize the role of Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 in murine and human osteoclastogenesis. Human Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry staining in the synovium of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. The levels of soluble Human Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: We found that multinucleated osteoclast formation from mouse bone marrow cells was inhibited by treatment with a monoclonal antibody against mouse Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 in vitro. By immunohistochemistry, we found that Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 was mainly expressed by macrophages in the inflamed synovial tissue of rheumatoid arthritis patients. In addition, serum and synovial fluid levels of soluble Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 were higher in rheumatoid arthritis patients compared to healthy controls or osteoarthritis patients. Moreover, overexpression of Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 in CD14+ monocytes from healthy volunteers also inhibited human osteoclastogenesis. CONCLUSION: Collectively, these data demonstrate for the first time that Leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor-1 inhibits osteoclastogenesis. Therefore, these results may have therapeutic implications for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Neste trabalho descreve-se a preparação de seis corantes cianina dimetina trinucleares com núcleos de piridina, obtidos a partir da condensação de iodeto de trimetilpiridínio com aldeídos aromáticos heterocíclicos. As propriedades de absorção e fluorescência dos corantes foram estudadas em solventes com polaridades diferentes. O deslocamento hipsocrômico dos máximos de absorção dos corantes foi observado com o aumento da polaridade do solvente. Foram estudadas as propriedades fluorescentes dos corantes em solução e na presença de DNA. Foi observado um aumento significativo do rendimento quântico de fluorescência na presença de DNA para quatro corantes.. Em particular, um dos corantes emite fluorescência fraca no tampão Tris-HCl, apresentando contudo fluorescência intensa na presença de DNA.

The preparation of six trinucleus dimethine cyanine dyes with pyridine nucleus obtained by the condensation of trimethylpyridinium iodides with heterocyclic aromatic aldehyde was described. The absorption and fluorescence properties of the dyes were studied in different polarity solvents. Blue shift of the maxima absorption of the dyes was observed with the increase of solvents polarity. The fluorescence properties of the dyes in solution and in presence of DNA were studied. Significant enhancement of the fluorescent quantum yield was observed in four dyes in the presence of DNA. Specially, one of six dyes emitted weak fluorescence in Tris-HCl buffer, but displayed bright fluorescence in the presence of DNA.