Effect of Poly(methacrylic acid) on the Cytokine Level in an In Vivo Tumor Model

Cancer is a leading cause of mortality globally. Despite remarkable improvements in cancer-treatment approaches, disease recurrence and progression remain major obstacles to therapy. While chemotherapy is still a first-line treatment for a variety of cancers, the focus has shifted to the development and application of new approaches to therapy. Nevertheless, the relationship between immune response, neoplastic diseases and treatment efficiency is not fully understood. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate the immunopharmacological effects of methacrylic acid homopolymer in an in vivo tumor model. Materials and methods: Monomeric methacrylic acid was used to synthesize polymers. Methacrylic acid was polymerized in dioxane in the presence of 4-Cyano-4-[(dodecylsulfanylthiocarbonyl)sulfanyl]pentanoic acid. To study the molecular weight characteristics of PMAA by GPC, carboxyl groups were preliminarily methylated with diazomethane. An experimental cancer model was obtained by grafting RMK1 breast cancer cells. The serum levels of IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were measured by ELISA. Results: The effect of PMAA on the serum concentrations of several cytokines was studied upon its single administration to laboratory animals in early neoplastic process. The IL-6, IL-17 and TGF-β1 concentrations were found to change significantly and reach the level observed in intact rats. The IL-10 concentration tended to normalize. Conclusion: The positive results obtained are the basis for further studies on the effect of methacrylic-acid polymers with different molecular-weight characteristics on the neoplastic process.     

An Encryption Algorithm for Region of Interest in Medical DICOM Based on One-Dimensional eλ-cos-cot Map

Today, with the rapid development of the Internet, improving image security becomes more and more important. To improve image encryption efficiency, a novel region of interest (ROI) encryption algorithm based on a chaotic system was proposed. First, a new 1D eλ-cos-cot (1D-ECC) with better chaotic performance than the traditional chaotic system is proposed. Second, the chaotic system is used to generate a plaintext-relate keystream based on the label information of a medical image DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) file, the medical image is segmented using an adaptive threshold, and the segmented region of interest is encrypted. The encryption process is divided into two stages: scrambling and diffusion. In the scrambling stage, helical scanning and index scrambling are combined to scramble. In the diffusion stage, two-dimensional bi-directional diffusion is adopted, that is, the image is bi-directionally diffused row by column to make image security better. The algorithm offers good encryption speed and security performance, according to simulation results and security analysis.     

Intelligent Fault Diagnosis of Industrial Robot Based on Multiclass Mahalanobis-Taguchi System for Imbalanced Data

One of the biggest challenges for the fault diagnosis research of industrial robots is that the normal data is far more than the fault data; that is, the data is imbalanced. The traditional diagnosis approaches of industrial robots are more biased toward the majority categories, which makes the diagnosis accuracy of the minority categories decrease. To solve the imbalanced problem, the traditional algorithm is improved by using cost-sensitive learning, single-class learning and other approaches. However, these algorithms also have a series of problems. For instance, it is difficult to estimate the true misclassification cost, overfitting, and long computation time. Therefore, a fault diagnosis approach for industrial robots, based on the Multiclass Mahalanobis-Taguchi system (MMTS), is proposed in this article. It can be classified the categories by measuring the deviation degree from the sample to the reference space, which is more suitable for classifying imbalanced data. The accuracy, G-mean and F-measure are used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach on an industrial robot platform. The experimental results show that the proposed approach’s accuracy, F-measure and G-mean improves by an average of 20.74%, 12.85% and 21.68%, compared with the other five traditional approaches when the imbalance ratio is 9. With the increase in the imbalance ratio, the proposed approach has better stability than the traditional algorithms.     

Noether-Mei Symmetry of Mechanical System in Phase Space

In this paper, a new kind of symmetry and its conserved quantities of a mechanical system in phase space are studied. The definition of this new symmetry, i.e., a Noether-Mei symmetry, is presented, and the criterion of this symmetry is also given. The Noether conserved quantity and the Mei conserved quantity deduced from the Noether-Mei symmetry of the system are obtained. Finally, two examples are given to illustrate the application of the results.     

Multiple Jacobi Elliptic Function Solutions to Integrable Higher Order Broer-Kaup Equation in (2+1)-Dimensional Spaces

In this paper, we improve the method for deriving Jacobi elliptic function solutions of nonlinear evolution equations given in Ref. [12] and apply it to the integrable higher-order Broer-Kaup system in (2 1)-dimensional spaces.Some new elliptic function solutions are obtained.     

H2SO4-H2O中硝酸铜对脱硫石膏晶须生长的影响

以处理后的脱硫石膏为原料,在H₂SO₄-H₂O体系中以Cu(NO₃)₂为晶形控制剂采用水热法制备脱硫石膏晶须,探讨了Cu(NO₃)₂对脱硫石膏晶须生长的影响机理。结果表明:Cu(NO₃)₂对脱硫石膏有明显促溶作用,其中Cu²⁺可减小溶液中各离子的活度系数,使溶液中的Ca²⁺浓度增大。NO^-₃通过静电作用在Ca²⁺周围聚集并对SO^2-₄产生屏蔽作用,导致脱硫石膏继续溶解并使Ca²⁺和SO^2-₄的浓度处于相对稳定状态,有利于半水脱硫石膏晶体的形核与生长。此外,Cu²⁺还可在晶须的生长过程中选择性吸附在晶须表面,生成CuSO₄,促进了脱硫石膏的结晶生长,最终在Cu(NO₃)₂用量为2.0%(质量分数)时制备的脱硫石膏晶须长径比约为73。     

In Vitro Evaluation of Curcumin Encapsulation in Gum Arabic Dispersions under Different Environments

Biopolymers, especially polysaccharides (e.g., gum Arabic), are widely applied as drug carriers in drug delivery systems due to their advantages. Curcumin, with high antioxidant ability but limited solubility and bioavailability in the body, can be encapsulated in gum Arabic to improve its solubility and bioavailability. When curcumin is encapsulated in gum Arabic, it is essential to understand how it works in various conditions. As a result, in Simulated Intestinal Fluid and Simulated Gastric Fluid conditions, we investigated the potential of gum Arabic as the drug carrier of curcumin. This study was conducted by varying the gum Arabic concentrations, i.e., 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 40%, to encapsulate 0.1 mg/mL of curcumin. Under both conditions, the greater the gum Arabic concentration, the greater the encapsulation efficiency and antioxidant activity of curcumin, but the worse the gum Arabic loading capacity. To achieve excellent encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, and antioxidant activity, the data advises that 10% is the best feasible gum Arabic concentration. Regarding the antioxidant activity of curcumin, the findings imply that a high concentration of gum Arabic was effective, and the Simulated Intestinal Fluid brought an excellent surrounding compared to the Simulated Gastric Fluid solution. Moreover, the gum Arabic releases curcumin faster in the Simulated Gastric Fluid condition.     

Age Analysis of Status Updating System with Probabilistic Packet Preemption

The age of information (AoI) metric was proposed to measure the freshness of messages obtained at the terminal node of a status updating system. In this paper, the AoI of a discrete time status updating system with probabilistic packet preemption is investigated by analyzing the steady state of a three-dimensional discrete stochastic process. We assume that the queue used in the system is Ber/Geo/1/2*/η, which represents that the system size is 2 and the packet in the buffer can be preempted by a fresher packet with probability η. Instead of considering the system’s AoI separately, we use a three-dimensional state vector (n,m,l) to simultaneously track the real-time changes of the AoI, the age of a packet in the server, and the age of a packet waiting in the buffer. We give the explicit expression of the system’s average AoI and show that the average AoI of the system without packet preemption is obtained by letting η=0. When η is set to 1, the mean of the AoI of the system with a Ber/Geo/1/2* queue is obtained as well. Combining the results we have obtained and comparing them with corresponding average continuous AoIs, we propose a possible relationship between the average discrete AoI with the Ber/Geo/1/c queue and the average continuous AoI with the M/M/1/c queue. For each of two extreme cases where η=0 and η=1, we also determine the stationary distribution of AoI using the probability generation function (PGF) method. The relations between the average AoI and the packet preemption probability η, as well as the AoI’s distribution curves in two extreme cases, are illustrated by numerical simulations. Notice that the probabilistic packet preemption may occur, for example, in an energy harvest (EH) node of a wireless sensor network, where the packet in the buffer can be replaced only when the node collects enough energy. In particular, to exhibit the usefulness of our idea and methods and highlight the merits of considering discrete time systems, in this paper, we provide detailed discussions showing how the results about continuous AoI are derived by analyzing the corresponding discrete time system and how the discrete age analysis is generalized to the system with multiple sources. In terms of packet service process, we also propose an idea to analyze the AoI of a system when the service time distribution is arbitrary.     

A Testable Theory for the Emergence of the Classical World

The transition from the quantum to the classical world is not yet understood. Here, we take a new approach. Central to this is the understanding that measurement and actualization cannot occur except on some specific basis. However, we have no established theory for the emergence of a specific basis. Our framework entails the following: (i) Sets of N entangled quantum variables can mutually actualize one another. (ii) Such actualization must occur in only one of the 2^N possible bases. (iii) Mutual actualization progressively breaks symmetry among the 2^N bases. (iv) An emerging “amplitude” for any basis can be amplified by further measurements in that basis, and it can decay between measurements. (v) The emergence of any basis is driven by mutual measurements among the N variables and decoherence with the environment. Quantum Zeno interactions among the N variables mediates the mutual measurements. (vi) As the number of variables, N, increases, the number of Quantum Zeno mediated measurements among the N variables increases. We note that decoherence alone does not yield a specific basis. (vii) Quantum ordered, quantum critical, and quantum chaotic peptides that decohere at nanosecond versus femtosecond time scales can be used as test objects. (viii) By varying the number of amino acids, N, and the use of quantum ordered, critical, or chaotic peptides, the ratio of decoherence to Quantum Zeno effects can be tuned. This enables new means to probe the emergence of one among a set of initially entangled bases via weak measurements after preparing the system in a mixed basis condition. (ix) Use of the three stable isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen and the five stable isotopes of sulfur allows any ten atoms in the test protein to be discriminably labeled and the basis of emergence for those labeled atoms can be detected by weak measurements. We present an initial mathematical framework for this theory, and we propose experiments.     

非稳态油膜力作用下偏角不对中碰摩转子系统振动特性分析

建立了非稳态油膜力、碰摩力作用下,偏角不对中轴系的横向振动模型,将Jeffcott转子模型推广至约束条件下的轴系振动模型,通过引入转子间的位移约束,由Lagrange方程导出了不对中轴系系统的振动方程.仿真研究表明:由于不对中的存在,轴系横向振动是强非线性、非定常、同时含有自激励、参数激励和外激励的三自由度振动系统;由于从动轴与主动轴的不对中,导致了转轴间的运动约束,使轴系横向振动系统比Jeffcott转子动力学模型所描述的振动系统少了一个自由度.随着偏角不对中量、转轴质量比的变化,系统出现周期、概周期、混沌运动特征.不对中轴系处于概周期运动时,呈现出自激振动特征.其结果可为旋转机械故障诊断、轴系对中及设备的安全运行提供更为准确的理论参考.