Late Ordovician provenance and depositional setting in the southwestern Ordos Block, China: constraints from zircon U-Pb geochronology

Fu Yang,Gang Chen,Yu Kang,Dongmin Ma,Qilin Chen,Tian Tao,Fu Deliang 한국지질과학협의회 2020 Geosciences Journal Vol.24 No.2

The U-Pb ages of single zircon grains contained in the sandstone samples were analyzed by the LA-ICP-MS method, the sediment provenances and geological significance were discussed. The LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating from the sandstones, tuffaceous sandstones and volcanic tuffs of the Pingliang and Zhaolaoyu Formations along the southwestern Ordos Block are used to limit the maximum depositional age and material sources. The results show that: (1) The youngest ages of zircon dating in the three samples are 445 Ma, 444 Ma and 443 Ma, respectively, suggesting that the studied Formations were deposited in the Late Ordovician. (2) The detrital zircon U-Pb age analysis of the sandstones sample from the Pinliang Formation clustered in the 445–477 Ma, 588–1548 Ma and 1612–2496 Ma with the corresponding youngest peak age of 454.5 ± 3.3 Ma. (3) The distribution of zircon U-Pb age in sandstone samples showing that the sedimentary rocks detritus was mainly sourced from the North Qinling-Qilian terranes and the NCC, and has double provenance supply in the north and south. The material source of the tuffaceous sandstones and volcanic tuffs mainly comes from the volcanic and magmatic activity related to the North Qilian-North Qinling Island Arcs.

Covalent Confinement of Sulfur Copolymers onto Graphene Sheets Affords Ultrastable Lithium-Sulfur Batteries with Fast Cathode Kinetics

Ma, Junpeng,Fan, Jingbiao,Chen, Shang,Yang, Xinyue,Hui, Kwun Nam,Zhang, Hongwen,Bielawski, Christopher W.,Geng, Jianxin American Chemical Society 2019 ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES Vol.11 No.14

<P>Lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries have received significant attention due to the high theoretical specific capacity of sulfur (1675 mA h g<SUP>-1</SUP>). However, the practical applications are often handicapped by sluggish electrochemical kinetics and the “shuttle effect” of electrochemical intermediate polysulfides. Herein, we propose an in-situ copolymerization strategy for covalently confining a sulfur-containing copolymer onto reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to overcome the aforementioned challenges. The copolymerization was performed by heating elemental sulfur and isopropenylphenyl-functionalized RGO to afford a sulfur-containing copolymer, that is, RGO-<I>g</I>-poly(S-<I>r</I>-IDBI), which is featured by a high sulfur content and uniform distribution of the poly(S-<I>r</I>-IDBI) on RGO sheets. The covalent confinement of poly(S-<I>r</I>-IDBI) onto RGO sheets not only enhances the Li<SUP>+</SUP> diffusion coefficients by nearly 1 order of magnitude, but also improves the mechanical properties of the cathodes and suppresses the shuttle effect of polysulfides. As a result, the RGO-<I>g</I>-poly(S-<I>r</I>-IDBI) cathode exhibits an enhanced sulfur utilization rate (10% higher than that of an elemental sulfur cathode at 0.1C), an improved rate capacity (688 mA h g<SUP>-1</SUP> for the RGO-<I>g</I>-poly(S-<I>r</I>-IDBI) cathode vs 400 mA h g<SUP>-1</SUP> for an elemental sulfur cathode at 1C), and a high cycling stability (a capacity decay of 0.021% per cycle, less than one-tenth of that measured for an elemental sulfur cathode).</P> [FIG OMISSION]</BR>

Preclinical investigation of artesunate as a therapeutic agent for hepatocellular carcinoma via impairment of glucosylceramidase-mediated autophagic degradation

Chen Wenjia,Ma Zhaochen,Yu Lingxiang,MAO Xia,Ma Nan,Guo Xiaodong,Yin Xiaoli,Jiang Funeng,Wang Qian,Wang Jigang,Fang Mingliang,Lin Na,Zhang Yanqiong 생화학분자생물학회 2022 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.54 No.-

Artesunate (ART) has been indicated as a candidate drug for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Glucosylceramidase (GBA) is required for autophagic degradation. Whether ART regulates autophagic flux by targeting GBA in HCC remains to be defined. Herein, our data demonstrated that the dramatic overexpression of GBA was significantly associated with aggressive progression and short overall survival times in HCC. Subsequent experiments revealed an association between autophagic activity and GBA expression in clinical HCC samples, tumor tissues from a rat model of inflammation-induced HCC and an orthotopic mouse model, and human HCC cell lines. Interestingly, probe labeling identified GBA as an ART target, which was further verified by both a glutathione-S-transferase pulldown assay and surface plasmon resonance analysis. The elevated protein expression of LC3B, the increased numbers of GFP-LC3B puncta and double-membrane vacuoles, and the enhanced expression of SQSTM1/p62 indicated that the degradation of autophagosomes in HCC cells was inhibited by ART treatment. Both the in vitro and in vivo data revealed that autophagosome accumulation through targeting of GBA was responsible for the anti-HCC effects of ART. In summary, this preclinical study identified GBA as one of the direct targets of ART, which may have promising potential to inhibit lysosomal autophagy for HCC therapy.

Moderately Hypofractionated Conformal Radiation Treatment of Thoracic Esophageal Carcinoma

Ma, Jin-Bo,Wei, Lin,Chen, Er-Cheng,Qin, Guang,Song, Yi-Peng,Chen, Xiang-Ming,Hao, Chuan-Guo Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.8

Aims: To prospectively assess the efficacy and safety of moderately hypofractionated conformal radiotherapy in patients with thoracic esophageal cancer. Methods and Materials: From Sept. 2002 to Oct, 2005, 150 eligible patients with T2-4N0-1M0 stage thoracic esophageal squamous cell cancers were enrolled to receive either conventional fractionated radiation (CFR) or moderately hypofractionated radiation (MHR) with a three-dimensional conformal radiation technique. Of the total, 74 received moderately hypofractionated radiation with total dose of 54-60Gy/18-20fractions for 3.5-4 weeks in the MHR arm, and 76 received conventional radiation with total dose of 60Gy/30 fractions for 6 weeks in the CFR arm. Concurrent chemotherapy comprised of paclitaxel and cisplatin. Safety was evaluated, and local control and overall survival rates were calculated. Results: Statistically significant differences between the CFR versus MHR arms were observed in local/regional failure rate (47.3% v 27.0%, P=0.034) and the percentage of patients with persistent local disease (26.3% v 10.8%, P=0.012). But 3 and 5-year overall survival rates (43.2%, 38.8% v 38.2%, 28.0%, respectively) were not different between the two arms (P=0.268). There were no significant differences in the incidences of grade 3 or higher acute toxicities (66.3% v 50.0%) and late complications rates (27.0% v 22.4%) between the MHR and CFR arms. Conclusions: Moderately hypofractionated, three-dimensional radiation treatment could improve the local control rate of esophageal cancer and potentially increase patients' survival.

Use of condensed molasses fermentation solubles as an alternative source of concentrates in dairy cows

Ma, Jian,Ma, Chen,Fan, Xue,Shah, Ali Mujtaba,Mao, Jiang Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2021 Animal Bioscience Vol.34 No.2

Objective: The purpose of present study was to investigate the effects of condensed molasses fermentation solubles (CMS) on lactation performance, rumen fermentation, nutrient digestibility, and serum parameters of dairy cows. Methods: A total of 75 healthy Holstein cows with the same parity (milk production = 35±2.5 kg, body weight = 570±28 kg) were randomly selected and divided into 5 groups. One group served as control group (CON; no CMS), whereas the other 4 groups were CMS1 (accounted for 1% of the diet), CMS2 (2%), CMS3 (3%), and CMS4 (4%). All cows were fed regularly three times each day at 0800, 1600, and 2400 h. Cows received diet and water ad libitum. The experiment lasted for 60 days. Results: Results showed that the dry matter intake, milk yield, and protein of CMS2 were maximum and higher (p<0.05) than CMS4. The ruminal pH was observed less than 6 in CMS3 and CMS4 groups. No noticeable difference of microbial protein was found between CON and CMS2 groups, while the microbial protein in these groups was higher (p<0.05) than CMS3 and CMS4 groups. The apparent digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, and crude protein in CMS2 group was higher (p<0.05) than CMS3 and CMS4 groups. Compared to CMS3 and CMS4 groups, the CMS2 group increased (p<0.05) the serum concentrations of immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin M on d 60. Conclusion: Therefore, it is practicable that CMS substitutes for a part of concentrates in lactating cows' diets, but higher addition of CMS (more than 3% of the diet) could decrease production performance of dairy cows as seen in the present study.

Graphitization of graphene oxide films under pressure

Chen, Xianjue,Deng, Xiaomei,Kim, Na Yeon,Wang, Yu,Huang, Yuan,Peng, Li,Huang, Ming,Zhang, Xu,Chen, Xiong,Luo, Da,Wang, Bin,Wu, Xiaozhong,Ma, Yufei,Lee, Zonghoon,Ruoff, Rodney S. Elsevier 2018 Carbon Vol.132 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Lightweight, flexible graphite foils that are chemically inert, high-temperature resistant, and highly electrically and thermally conductive can be used as component materials in numerous applications. “Graphenic” foils can be prepared by thermally transforming graphene oxide films. For this transformation, it is desirable to maintain a densely packed film structure at high heating rates as well as to lower the graphitizing temperatures. In this work, we discuss the pressure-assisted thermal decomposition of graphene oxide films by hot pressing at different temperatures (<I>i.e.</I>, 300 °C, 1000 °C, or 2000 °C). The films pressed at 1000 °C or 2000 °C were subsequently heated at 2750 °C to achieve a higher degree of graphitization. The combination of heating and pressing promotes the simultaneous thermal decomposition and graphitic transformation of G-O films. Films pressed at 2000 °C as well as films further graphitized at 2750 °C show high chemical purity, uniformity, and retain their flexibility. For films pressed at 2000 °C and then further heated at 2750 °C, the mechanical performances outperform the reported values of the “graphite” foils prepared by calendering exfoliated graphite flakes; the electrical conductivity is ∼3.1 × 10<SUP>5</SUP> S/m and the in-plane thermal conductivity is ∼1.2 × 10<SUP>3</SUP> W/(m·K).</P> <P><B>Graphical abstract</B></P> <P>[DISPLAY OMISSION]</P>

잠재요인 모델 기반 영화 추천 시스템

Chen Ma,김강철(Kang-Chul Kim) 한국전자통신학회 2021 한국전자통신학회 논문지 Vol.16 No.1

영화 산업의 빠른 발전으로 영화의 제작 수가 급격하게 증가하고 있으며, 영화 추천 시스템은 관객들의 과거 행동이나 영화 후기에 기반하여 관객들의 선호도를 예측하여 영화의 선택에 도움을 주고 있다. 본 논문은 평점의 평균과 편향의 보정을 이용하여 잠재요인 모델에 기반한 영화 추천 시스템을 제안한다. 특이값 분해 방법이 평점 매트릭스 분해에 사용되고, 통계 경사 하강법이 최소자승 손실 함수의 파라미터 최적합에 사용된 다. 그리고 평균 제곱근 오차를 사용하여 제안한 시스템 성능을 평가한다. Surprise 패키지를 이용하여 제안한 시스템을 구현 하였으며, 모의실험 결과는 평균 제곱근 오차가 0.671이며, 다른 논문에서 방법에 비하여 좋은 성능을 가진다는 것을 확인하였다. With the rapid development of the film industry, the number of films is significantly increasing and movie recommendation system can help user to predict the preferences of users based on their past behavior or feedback. This paper proposes a movie recommendation system based on the latent factor model with the adjustment of mean and bias in rating. Singular value decomposition is used to decompose the rating matrix and stochastic gradient descent is used to optimize the parameters for least-square loss function. And root mean square error is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed system. We implement the proposed system with Surprise package. The simulation results shows that root mean square error is 0.671 and the proposed system has good performance compared to other papers.

Gamma and X-ray irradiation as a phytosanitary treatment against various stages of Planococcus lilacinus (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae)

Ma Chen,Liu Hui,Liu Bo,Zhao Ju-Peng,Zhao Qing-Ying,Song Zi-Jiao,Han Xin,Zhan Guo-Ping 한국응용곤충학회 2022 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.25 No.4

The cacao mealybug, Planococcus lilacinus Cock, is an important quarantine pest. Infested commodity should be subject to appropriate phytosanitary treatment, while irradiation is recommended for the cacao mealybug. Radio-tolerance comparison tests were conducted on the crawler, nymphs, and adult females of P. lilacinus at the X-ray radiation doses of 40, 80, and 120 Gy, respectively. The results showed that irradiation had a strong effect on preventing of development and reproduction; the adult female stage was identified as the most tolerant. During the following dose–response tests, among young and late females X-ray-irradiation (20–100 Gy), the late females were most tolerant when preventing F 1 generation 2nd instars emergence was used as the evaluation criterion. Minimum absorbed dose and its 95 % fiducial limits to provide probit 9 efficacy at 95 % confidence level (100 % mortality/inhibition in an estimated population of 93,616 individuals) were 131.5 Gy (122.5, 142.6 Gy) and 144.4 Gy (132.7, 159.4 Gy), estimating from the probit analysis on dose-mortality data of 1–30 and 1–10-day-old neonates laid by late females, respectively. In the large-scale confirmatory tests, a total of estimating 97,384 late females of P. lilacinus rearing on the pumpkins fruits were irradiated with gamma-ray at the target dose of 135 or 145 Gy (measured doses 126.1–163.0 Gy), which resulted in no F 1 generation 2nd nymphs developing during a 6-week post-treatment period. The treatment efficacy calculated is 99.9969 % at the 95 % confidence level. Therefore, a minimum absorbed dose of 163.0 Gy is recommended for phytosanitary treatment of P. lilacinus in infested commodity.

Analysis of Small Fragment Deletions of the APC gene in Chinese Patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, a Precancerous Condition

Chen, Qing-Wei,Zhang, Xiao-Mei,Zhou, Jian-Nong,Zhou, Xin,Ma, Guo-Jian,Zhu, Ming,Zhang, Yuan-Ying,Yu, Jun,Feng, Ji-Feng,Chen, Sen-Qing Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2015 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.16 No.12

Background: : Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an autosomal dominant inherited disease mainly caused by mutations of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene with almost complete penetrance. These colorectal polyps are precancerous lesions that will inevitable develop into colorectal cancer at the median age of 40-year old if total proctocolectomy is not performed. So identification of APC germline mutations has great implications for genetic counseling and management of FAP patients. In this study, we screened APC germline mutations in Chinese FAP patients, in order to find novel mutations and the APC gene germline mutation characteristics of Chinese FAP patients. Materials and Methods: The FAP patients were diagnosed by clinical manifestations, family histories, endoscope and biopsy. Then patients peripheral blood samples were collected, afterwards, genomic DNA was extracted. The mutation analysis of the APC gene was conducted by direct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) sequencing for micromutations and multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) for large duplications and/or deletions. Results: We found 6 micromutations out of 14 FAP pedigrees, while there were no large duplications and/or deletions found. These germline mutations are c.5432C>T(p. Ser1811Leu), two c.3926_3930delAAAAG (p.Glu1309AspfsX4), c.3921_3924delAAAA (p.Ile1307MetfsX13), c3184_3187delCAAA(p.Gln1061AspfsX59) and c4127_4126delAT (p.Tyr1376LysfsX9), respectively, and all deletion mutations resulted in a premature stop codon. At the same time, we found c.3921_3924delAAAA and two c.3926_3930delAAAAG are located in AAAAG short tandem repeats, c3184_3187delCAAA is located in the CAAA interrupted direct repeats, and c4127_4128 del AT is located in the 5'-CCTGAACA-3', 3'-ACAAGTCC-5 palindromes (inverted repeats) of the APC gene. Furthermore, deletion mutations are mostly located at condon 1309. Conclusions: Though there were no novel mutations found as the pathogenic gene of FAP in this study, we found nucleotide sequence containing short tandem repeats and palindromes (inverted repeats), especially the 5 bp base deletion at codon 1309, are mutations in high incidence area in APC gene,.

Experimental Feasibility Research on a High-efficiency Cement-based Clay Stabilizer

Ma Cong,Chen Bing,Chen Longzhu 대한토목학회 2018 KSCE JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING Vol.22 No.1

In many civil engineering constructions, soft clayey soils are often stabilized with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) whose production process is energy intensive and emits a large quantity of CO2. In this paper, an OPC-based clay stabilizer (CSCN) which contains some eco-friendly materials is studied to compare with OPC by investigating the mechanical properties of the stabilized clays. Microstructural and mineralogical studies using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) are performed to reveal the mechanisms controlling the development of the strength and modulus. The test results indicate that the compressive strength and secant modulus increase with increasing the content of CSCN and curing age. To achieve the equivalent improvement of the strength and modulus, much less CSCN is needed relative to OPC, which illustrates that CSCN can be a more effective and relatively eco-friendly clay stabilizer. The analysis on pH values and moisture consumption indicates that the hydration and pozzolanic reactions in CSCN-stabilized clays may be quicker than those in OPC-stabilized clays. The microstructural analyses confirm the formation of C-S-H gels in stabilized clays and the types of C-S-H gels are dependent upon the Ca/Si molar ratio according to EDX results. The types and amounts of new minerals in stabilized clays are the possible mechanisms controlling the enhancement of mechanical properties.