Description: For the construction in cold regions, frost heave and thaw settlement are the two factors which must be taken care of. Considered that a saturated soil column was subjected to an overburden pressure to model the ice lens growing process. A typical process, which coupled water, heat, and stress that happened in a saturated freezing soil column, was simulated by the finite element software. We did the numerical simulation under the same conditions as the experiment tests and then compared the results from temperature, frost heave, frozen structure, water content, and water intake. Result shows that the simulation results match well with the experimental results, and the correctness of the mathematical model is validated. On that basis, frost heave amount under different conditions by changing the temperature boundary and loading boundary is obtained. The frost heave has an optimum temperature gradient. Under the optimum value, the frost heave amount increases with increasing temperature gradient. Above the optimum value, frost heave decreases with increasing temperature gradient. Increasing the overburden pressure, frost heave amount always decreases. These results can provide references for the constrictions in cold regions.

Description: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Borneol on the pharmacokinetics of notoginsenoside R1 (NGR1) and the ginsenosides Rg1 (GRg1) and Re (GRe) in Panax notoginseng. Reversed phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ion trap mass spectrometry was employed to determine the concentrations of the three compounds in rabbit plasma. In comparison with rabbits administrated Panax notoginseng extract alone, animals simultaneously taking Panax notoginseng extract and Borneol exhibited significant differences in pharmacokinetic parameters of NGR1, GRg1, and GRe, such as increasing their bioavailability. Quantities of NGR1, GRg1, and GRe in rabbit tissues were also increased after combining administration of Borneol. In addition, the apparent permeability coefficients () of NGR1, GRg1, and GRe were raised by Borneol significantly in Caco-2 cells. However, no significant changes were observed in the efflux ratio (Er) of NGR1, GRg1 and GRe. These data indicate that Borneol has the properties of enhancing the intestinal absorption, increasing the distribution, and inhibiting the metabolism of NGR1, GRg1, and GRe. The underlying mechanism might be attributed to the loosening of the intercellular tight junction.

Description: When machine-type communication (MTC) devices perform the long-term evolution (LTE) attach procedure without bit rate limitations, they may produce congestion in the core network. To prevent this congestion, the LTE standard suggests using group-based policing to regulate the maximum bit rate of all traffic generated by a group of MTC devices. However, previous studies on the access point name-aggregate maximum bit rate based on group-based policing are relatively limited. This study proposes a multistage control (MSC) mechanism to process the operations of maximum bit rate allocation based on resource-use information. For performance evaluation, this study uses a Markov chain with to analyze MTC application in a 3GPP network. Traffic flow simulations in an LTE system indicate that the MSC mechanism is an effective bandwidth allocation method in an LTE system with MTC devices. Experimental results show that the MSC mechanism achieves a throughput 22.5% higher than that of the LTE standard model using the group-based policing, and it achieves a lower delay time and greater long-term fairness as well.

Description: Background: Bone morphogenetic protein receptor II (BMPR-II) plays an important role in tumor's invasion and proliferation. In this study, we observed the effects of small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting bone morphogenetic protein receptor II (BMPR-II) on the biological activities of human liver cells and explore its mechanism. Methods: The molecular sequences of three siRNA targeting BMPR-IIwere designed and synthesized. In this study, there were 6 groups including group I (normal control), group II (blank control), group III (negative control) and group IV-VI (BMPR-II-siRNA-a, siRNA-b and siRNA-c-transfected cells, respectively). The levels of mRNA and protein of BMPR-II were determined to select the best sequence for BMPR-II silence. After liver cancer cells were transfected with the best sequence, proliferation and invasion of transfected cells were assessed, and apoptosis and cell cycle were detected. The expressions of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) signal pathway-related proteins were observed after BMPR-II silence and BMPR-II silence combined with inhibiting MAPKs signal pathway, respectively. Results: RT-PCR and Western blot indicated that BMPR-II expression was the highest in HepG2 among the three liver cancer lines (P 〈 0.01) and the lowest in group IV among the six groups (P 〈 0.01).MTT assay and transwell assay revealed that the numbers of cell growth and cell transmembrane were significantly lower in group IV than in control groups 48 h after cells were transfected (P 〈 0.05).Flow cytometer showed that apoptosis was the highest and cells were significantly blocked in S phase 48 h after cells were transfected in group IV (P 〈 0.01).Western blot indicated that the protein levels of p-P38(P 〈 0.01) and vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) (P 〈 0.01) were significantly decreased after BMPR-II silence. The protein level of VEGF-C was significantly decreased in PD98059 + siRNA-BMPR-II-a and SB203580 + siRNA-BMPR-II-a groups (P 〈 0.01), especially in SB203580 + siRNA-BMPR-II-a group (P 〈 0.01). Conclusions: siRNA targeting BMPR-IIcan markedly inhibit HepG2 proliferation and invasion, promote apoptosis and block HepG2 in S phase. Its mechanism may be that BMPR-II silence down-regulates VEGF-C expression through MAPK/P38 and MAPK/ERK1/2 pathways, especially MAPK/P38. This study provides a new targeted therapy for liver cancer.

Description: The wolf pack unites and cooperates closely to hunt for the prey in the Tibetan Plateau, which shows wonderful skills and amazing strategies. Inspired by their prey hunting behaviors and distribution mode, we abstracted three intelligent behaviors, scouting, calling, and besieging, and two intelligent rules, winner-take-all generation rule of lead wolf and stronger-survive renewing rule of wolf pack. Then we proposed a new heuristic swarm intelligent method, named wolf pack algorithm (WPA). Experiments are conducted on a suit of benchmark functions with different characteristics, unimodal/multimodal, separable/nonseparable, and the impact of several distance measurements and parameters on WPA is discussed. What is more, the compared simulation experiments with other five typical intelligent algorithms, genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization algorithm, artificial fish swarm algorithm, artificial bee colony algorithm, and firefly algorithm, show that WPA has better convergence and robustness, especially for high-dimensional functions.

Description: In order to study the cooling effect of the crushed-rocks embankment, the permeability and the inertial resistance coefficient were measured by the wind tunnel test of spheres with a diameter of 20 cm, and then the stabilities of the closed crushed-rocks embankment with the wide pavement, the closed crushed-rocks embankment with the narrow pavement, and the duct-ventilated and closed crushed-rocks embankment were calculated. In the next 50 years, assuming that the temperature in Qinghai-Tibet plateau will rise by 2.6°C condition, the cooling effects of these three special high-grade embankment structures were studied. The test results and the numerical calculation results show that the relationship between pressure gradient and seepage velocity in the spheres layer diverges completely from Darcy’s law, and it shows a nice quadratic nonlinear relationship. Stabilities of those two closed crushed-rock embankments without the duct-ventilated structure could be destroyed because of the high permafrost temperature under embankments. The duct-ventilated and closed crushed-rocks embankment can cool down the permafrost effectively and raise the permafrost table and ensure the long-term thermal stability of permafrost under road.

Description: Background: HER2 plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of many cancers and is linked to poor prognosis or cancer metastases. Monoclonal antibodies, such as Herceptin against HER2-overexpressing cancers, have showed satisfactory clinical therapeutic effect. However, they have difficulty to surmount obstacles to enter cells or blood-brain barrier. Results: In this study, a cell-penetrating peptide Arg9 was linked to the C-terminus of anti-HER2 single chain antibody (MIL5scFv). Flow cytometry, confocal microscopy and electron microscopy analysis all revealed that Arg9 peptide facilitated the penetration of MIL5scFv into HER2-negative cell line NIH3T3 and orientate in mitochondria. More interestingly, Western blot assay showed the potential enhanced bioactivity of MIL5scFv-Arg9 in HER2+ cell line SKOV3, indicating that Arg9 could help large molecules (e.g. antibody) to penetrate into cells and therefore enhance its anti-neoplastic function. Conclusions: Our work represented an attractive by preliminary strategy to enhance the therapeutic effect of existing antibodies by entering cells easier, or more desirable, surmounting the physical barriers, especially in hard-to-reach cancers such as brain metastases cases.