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  1. Article ; Online: LncRNA SNHG8 upregulates MUC5B to induce idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis progression by targeting miR-4701-5p

    Xiaoping Zhang / Runxia Shao

    Heliyon, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp e23233- (2024)

    1481  

    Abstract: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a critical role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF); however, the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. Our study demonstrated that lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 8 (SNHG8) was increased in bleomycin ( ... ...

    Abstract Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a critical role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF); however, the underlying molecular mechanisms are unclear. Our study demonstrated that lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 8 (SNHG8) was increased in bleomycin (BLM)-induced A549 cells. LncRNA SNHG8 overexpression further elevated fibrosis-related factors monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP1), CC motif chemokine ligand 18 (CCL18), and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), as well as increased collagen type I alpha-1 chain (COL1A1) and collagen type III alpha-1 chain (COL3A1). Meanwhile, lncRNA SNHG8 knockdown exhibited an opposite role in reducing BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis. With regard to the mechanism, SNHG8 was then revealed to act as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for microRNA (miR)-4701-5p in regulating Mucin 5B (MUC5B) expression. Furthermore, the interactions between SNHG8 and miR-4701-5p, between miR-4701-5p and MUC5B, and between SNHG8 and MUC5B on the influence of fibrosis-related indicators were confirmed, respectively. In addition, SNHG8 overexpression enhanced the levels of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and phosphorylation Smad2/3 (p-Smad2/3), which was suppressed by SNHG8 knockdown in BLM-induced A549 cells. Moreover, miR-4701-5p inhibitor-induced elevation of TGF-β1 and p-Smad2/3 was significantly suppressed by SNHG8 knockdown. In conclusion, SNHG8 knockdown attenuated pulmonary fibrosis progression by regulating miR-4701-5p/MUC5B axis, which might be associated with the modulation of TGF-β1/Smad2/3 signaling. These findings reveal that lncRNA SNHG8 may become a potential target for the treatment of IPF.
    Keywords IPF ; lncRNA SNHG8 ; miR-4701-5p ; MUC5B ; TGF-β1/Smad2/3 signaling ; Science (General) ; Q1-390 ; Social sciences (General) ; H1-99
    Subject code 500
    Language English
    Publishing date 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Elsevier
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  2. Article ; Online: Landscape Pattern Changes and Climate Response in Nagqu Hangcuo National Wetland Park in the Tibetan Plateau

    Xiaoping Zhang / Xinyi Wang / Zihong Hu / Juncai Xu

    Sustainability, Vol 15, Iss 10200, p

    2023  Volume 10200

    Abstract: Wetlands are vital ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau that play a crucial role in water conservation, flood storage, and biodiversity maintenance. They are sensitive to climate change and typically have high ecological and environmental quality levels due ...

    Abstract Wetlands are vital ecosystems in the Tibetan Plateau that play a crucial role in water conservation, flood storage, and biodiversity maintenance. They are sensitive to climate change and typically have high ecological and environmental quality levels due to minimal human disturbance. This study aimed to quantify landscape pattern changes within the Nagqu Hangcuo National Wetland Park (NNWP) and identify the impact of climate on wetland change. Using remote sensing data from six periods (1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015), dynamic change analysis, landscape pattern analysis, and correlation analysis were employed to determine the evolutionary features of the wetland landscape and explore their relationship with climatic factors. The results showed that the total wetland area increased from 15.11 km 2 in 1990 to 15.23 km 2 in 2015. The meadow area increased the most among landscape types, primarily converted from swamps. Over 25 years, the fragmentation of the NNWP’s landscape increased while diversity decreased and its shape became more complex. Meadows were more sensitive to climatic factors than other landscape types, with correlation coefficients between wetland separation and sunshine duration being more significant than other climatic factors. Therefore, it is imperative to monitor landscape pattern changes and the effects of climate change to better protect wetland parks through long-term planning, suitable mechanisms, and advanced technology.
    Keywords wetlands ; landscape pattern change ; climate change ; remote sensing data ; biodiversity maintenance ; Environmental effects of industries and plants ; TD194-195 ; Renewable energy sources ; TJ807-830 ; Environmental sciences ; GE1-350
    Subject code 710 ; 333
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-06-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  3. Article ; Online: Multi-Agent Collaborative Target Search Based on the Multi-Agent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient with Emotional Intrinsic Motivation

    Xiaoping Zhang / Yuanpeng Zheng / Li Wang / Arsen Abdulali / Fumiya Iida

    Applied Sciences, Vol 13, Iss 21, p

    2023  Volume 11951

    Abstract: Multi-agent collaborative target search is one of the main challenges in the multi-agent field, and deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is a good way to learn such a task. However, DRL always faces the problem of sparse reward, which to some extent reduces ...

    Abstract Multi-agent collaborative target search is one of the main challenges in the multi-agent field, and deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is a good way to learn such a task. However, DRL always faces the problem of sparse reward, which to some extent reduces its efficiency in task learning. Introducing intrinsic motivation has proved to be a useful way to make the sparse reward in DRL. So, based on the multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG) structure, a new MADDPG algorithm with the emotional intrinsic motivation name MADDPG-E is proposed in this paper for the multi-agent collaborative target search. In MADDPG-E, a new emotional intrinsic motivation module with three emotions, joy, sadness, and fear, is designed. The three emotions are defined by corresponding psychological knowledge to the multi-agent embodied situations in an environment. An emotional steady-state variable function H is then designed to help judge the goodness of the emotions. Based on H , an emotion-based intrinsic reward function is finally proposed. With the designed emotional intrinsic motivation module, the multi-agent system always tries to make itself joy, which means it always learns to search the target. To show the effectiveness of the proposed MADDPG-E algorithm, two kinds of simulation experiments with a determined initial position and random initial position, respectively, are carried out, and comparisons are performed with MADDPG as well as MADDPG-ICM (MADDPG with an intrinsic curiosity module). The results show that with the designed emotional intrinsic motivation module, MADDPG-E has a higher learning speed and better learning stability, and the advantage is more obvious when facing complex situations.
    Keywords multi-agent collaboration ; intrinsic motivation ; MADDPG ; emotion ; deep reinforcement learning ; Technology ; T ; Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) ; TA1-2040 ; Biology (General) ; QH301-705.5 ; Physics ; QC1-999 ; Chemistry ; QD1-999
    Subject code 629
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-11-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  4. Article ; Online: Hydroxyl transfer versus cyclization reaction in the gas phase

    Mingyu Zheng / Xiaoping Zhang / Yihao Cheng / Lili Sun / Xinglei Zhang

    Frontiers in Chemistry, Vol

    Sequential loss of NH3 and CH2CO from protonated phenylalanine derivatives

    2023  Volume 10

    Abstract: Collisional activation of protonated phenylalanine derivatives deamination products leads to hydroxyl skeletal rearrangement versus cyclization reaction, and to form hydroxylbenzyl cation via elimination of CH2CO. To better clarify this unusual ... ...

    Abstract Collisional activation of protonated phenylalanine derivatives deamination products leads to hydroxyl skeletal rearrangement versus cyclization reaction, and to form hydroxylbenzyl cation via elimination of CH2CO. To better clarify this unusual fragmentation reaction, accurate mass measurements experiments, native isotope experiments, multiple-stage mass spectrometry experiments, different substituents experiments, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to investigate the dissociation mechanistic pathways of protonated phenylalanine derivatives deamination products. In route 1, a three-membered ring-opening reaction and a 1,3-hydroxyl transfer (from the carbonyl carbon atom to the interposition carbon atom of carbonyl) occurs to form 3-hydroxy-1-oxo-3-phenylpropan-1-ylium, followed by dissociation to lose CH2CO to give hydroxy (phenyl)methylium. In route 2, a successive cyclization rearrangement reaction and proton transfer occur to form a 2-hydroxylphenylpropionyl cation or protonated 2-hydroxy-4H-benzopyran, followed by dissociation to lose CH2CO or CH≡COH to give 2-hydroxylbenzyl cation. In route 3, a successive hydroxyl transfer (from the carbonyl carbon atom to the ortho carbon atom on benzene) and two stepwise proton transfer (1,2-proton transfer to the ipso-carbon atom of the phenyl ring followed by 1,3-proton transfer to the ortho carbon atom of carbonyl) occurs to form a 2-hydroxylphenylpropionyl cation, which subsequently dissociates to form 2-hydroxylbenzyl cation by elimination of CH2CO. DFT calculations suggested that route 1 was more favorable than route 2 and route 3 from a thermodynamic point of view.
    Keywords hydroxyl transfer ; electrospray ionization mass spectrometry ; gas-phase reaction ; phenylalanine ; melphalan ; Chemistry ; QD1-999
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  5. Article ; Online: Major Elements Concentrations in Chang’E-3 Landing Site from Active Particle-Induced X-ray Spectrometer

    Man-Hei Ng / Xiaoping Zhang / Yi Xu / Liansheng Li

    Remote Sensing, Vol 15, Iss 1643, p

    2023  Volume 1643

    Abstract: On 14 December 2013 (UTC), China’s Chang’E-3 (CE-3) succeeded in landing on the Moon’s surface. The CE-3 landing site is in northern Mare Imbrium and several tens of meters away from the rim of a young crater with a few hundred meters in diameter. In- ... ...

    Abstract On 14 December 2013 (UTC), China’s Chang’E-3 (CE-3) succeeded in landing on the Moon’s surface. The CE-3 landing site is in northern Mare Imbrium and several tens of meters away from the rim of a young crater with a few hundred meters in diameter. In-situ measurements of lunar soil around the roving area were conducted from Active Particle-induced X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) onboard Yutu rover. Three relatively young lunar soil samples in the CE-3 landing site were investigated. Previous studies suggested that these samples are a new type of basalt, not discovered yet in previous missions before the CE-3 in-situ measurements. It plays an essential role in promoting the understanding of lunar volcanic history. However, their results are deviated, and thus scrutinizing the data as per our optimized model to derive a more precise result is of necessity. In this paper, we present an optimized model for data analysis based on APXS measurements to derive the major elements concentrations. The optimized model has the advantages of reliability and being independent of calibration by ground standards. The particle size effect is applied in lunar X-ray fluorescence modeling for correction, improving the accuracy in determining the elemental concentrations for the actual measurement. Our results are distinct in the correlation plots by carrying out a comparison with previous lunar regolith samples from Apollo, Luna, and Chang’E-5 missions, indicating that the CE-3 landing site is a new region apart from previous in-situ or laboratory detection prior to the CE-3 measurements. It suggests a kind of young mare basalt with unusual petrological characteristics compared with previous samples and similar geochemical properties of CE-3 landing site and western Procellarum and Imbrium (WPI), with a signature of western Procellarum.
    Keywords Chang’E-3 ; Active Particle-induced X-ray Spectrometer ; chemical composition ; X-ray fluorescence ; fundamental parameter method ; particle size effect ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 530
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-03-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  6. Article ; Online: Enhancement of Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Pollution Using an Intercropping System in Moso Bamboo Forests

    Fangyuan Bian / Xiaoping Zhang / Qiaoling Li / Zhiyuan Huang / Zheke Zhong

    Forests, Vol 14, Iss 1895, p

    Characteristics of Soil Organic Matter and Bacterial Communities

    2023  Volume 1895

    Abstract: Heavy metal pollution in soil is a major global issue, and one effective method for addressing it is phytoremediation through bamboo planting. Nevertheless, there is a notable gap in our knowledge as no studies have explored the characteristics of soil ... ...

    Abstract Heavy metal pollution in soil is a major global issue, and one effective method for addressing it is phytoremediation through bamboo planting. Nevertheless, there is a notable gap in our knowledge as no studies have explored the characteristics of soil organic matter (SOM) and the bacterial communities in bamboo forests during the remediation process. To bridge this knowledge gap, we conducted research to investigate the impact of different bamboo planting patterns on the SOM characteristics and microbial communities in soils contaminated with heavy metals. The contents of SOM and dissolved organic matter (DOM) in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils differed significantly between monocropping and intercropping systems, with DOM accounting for only 1.7%–2.5% of SOM. Fourier transform infrared spectra showed that the contents of SOM polysaccharides C-O, carbonate C-O, aliphatic methyl, and methylene increased, while the aromatic C=C abundance decreased in the intercropping rhizosphere soil. The differences between bamboo cultivation patterns in the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils were elucidated using the biomarkers, including MND1 and Nitrospira (non-rhizosphere), and Sphingomonas (rhizosphere). Heavy metals, DOM, SOM, and refined organic functional groups, especially C-O in polysaccharides and symmetric carboxylate, were the determining factors of soil bacterial communities. Compared to monocropping, intercropping increased the accumulation of Zn and Cd in bamboo shoots by 35% and 40%, respectively, and hence, intercropping soil, with a low toxicity, was suitable for bamboo shoot sprouting. Intercropping can alter the characteristics of SOM and bacterial communities and plays a vital role in phytoremediation and shoot growth in bamboo forests. Future studies on soil carbon dynamics and nutrient status during heavy metal remediation will improve our knowledge of soil transformation and its impact on soil ecosystem health and productivity.
    Keywords bacterial community ; bamboo forest ; heavy metal pollution ; intercropping ; phytoremediation ; soil organic matter ; Plant ecology ; QK900-989
    Subject code 910
    Language English
    Publishing date 2023-09-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  7. Article ; Online: Chinese Clinical Named Entity Recognition with ALBERT and MHA Mechanism

    Dongmei Li / Jiao Long / Jintao Qu / Xiaoping Zhang

    Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Vol

    2022  Volume 2022

    Abstract: Traditional clinical named entity recognition methods fail to balance the effectiveness of feature extraction of unstructured text and the complexity of neural network models. We propose a model based on ALBERT and a multihead attention (MHA) mechanism ... ...

    Abstract Traditional clinical named entity recognition methods fail to balance the effectiveness of feature extraction of unstructured text and the complexity of neural network models. We propose a model based on ALBERT and a multihead attention (MHA) mechanism to solve this problem. Structurally, the model first obtains character-level word embeddings through the ALBERT pretraining language model, then inputs the word embeddings into the iterated dilated convolutional neural network model to quickly extract global semantic information, and decodes the predicted labels through conditional random fields to obtain the optimal label sequence. Also, we apply the MHA mechanism to capture intercharacter dependencies from multiple aspects. Furthermore, we use the RAdam optimizer to boost the convergence speed and improve the generalization ability of our model. Experimental results show that our model achieves an F1 score of 85.63% on the CCKS-2019 dataset—an increase of 4.36% compared to the baseline model.
    Keywords Other systems of medicine ; RZ201-999
    Subject code 006
    Language English
    Publishing date 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Hindawi Limited
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  8. Article ; Online: Fuzzy Set-Valued Information Systems and the Algorithm of Filling Missing Values for Incomplete Information Systems

    Zhaohao Wang / Xiaoping Zhang

    Complexity, Vol

    2019  Volume 2019

    Abstract: How to effectively deal with missing values in incomplete information systems (IISs) according to the research target is still a key issue for investigating IISs. If the missing values in IISs are not handled properly, they will destroy the internal ... ...

    Abstract How to effectively deal with missing values in incomplete information systems (IISs) according to the research target is still a key issue for investigating IISs. If the missing values in IISs are not handled properly, they will destroy the internal connection of data and reduce the efficiency of data usage. In this paper, in order to establish effective methods for filling missing values, we propose a new information system, namely, a fuzzy set-valued information system (FSvIS). By means of the similarity measures of fuzzy sets, we obtain several binary relations in FSvISs, and we investigate the relationship among them. This is a foundation for the researches on FSvISs in terms of rough set approach. Then, we provide an algorithm to fill the missing values in IISs with fuzzy set values. In fact, this algorithm can transform an IIS into an FSvIS. Furthermore, we also construct an algorithm to fill the missing values in IISs with set values (or real values). The effectiveness of these algorithms is analyzed. The results showed that the proposed algorithms achieve higher correct rate than traditional algorithms, and they have good stability. Finally, we discuss the importance of these algorithms for investigating IISs from the viewpoint of rough set theory.
    Keywords Electronic computers. Computer science ; QA75.5-76.95
    Subject code 006
    Language English
    Publishing date 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher Hindawi-Wiley
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  9. Article ; Online: High-Resolution Boundary Refined Convolutional Neural Network for Automatic Agricultural Greenhouses Extraction from GaoFen-2 Satellite Imageries

    Xiaoping Zhang / Bo Cheng / Jinfen Chen / Chenbin Liang

    Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 4237, p

    2021  Volume 4237

    Abstract: Agricultural greenhouses (AGs) are an important component of modern facility agriculture, and accurately mapping and dynamically monitoring their distribution are necessary for agricultural scientific management and planning. Semantic segmentation can be ...

    Abstract Agricultural greenhouses (AGs) are an important component of modern facility agriculture, and accurately mapping and dynamically monitoring their distribution are necessary for agricultural scientific management and planning. Semantic segmentation can be adopted for AG extraction from remote sensing images. However, the feature maps obtained by traditional deep convolutional neural network (DCNN)-based segmentation algorithms blur spatial details and insufficient attention is usually paid to contextual representation. Meanwhile, the maintenance of the original morphological characteristics, especially the boundaries, is still a challenge for precise identification of AGs. To alleviate these problems, this paper proposes a novel network called high-resolution boundary refined network (HBRNet). In this method, we design a new backbone with multiple paths based on HRNetV2 aiming to preserve high spatial resolution and improve feature extraction capability, in which the Pyramid Cross Channel Attention (PCCA) module is embedded to residual blocks to strengthen the interaction of multiscale information. Moreover, the Spatial Enhancement (SE) module is employed to integrate the contextual information of different scales. In addition, we introduce the Spatial Gradient Variation (SGV) unit in the Boundary Refined (BR) module to couple the segmentation task and boundary learning task, so that they can share latent high-level semantics and interact with each other, and combine this with the joint loss to refine the boundary. In our study, GaoFen-2 remote sensing images in Shouguang City, Shandong Province, China are selected to make the AG dataset. The experimental results show that HBRNet demonstrates a significant improvement in segmentation performance up to an IoU score of 94.89%, implying that this approach has advantages and potential for precise identification of AGs.
    Keywords Agricultural Greenhouses ; DCNN ; Semantic Segmentation ; high resolution ; context integration ; boundary refined ; Science ; Q
    Subject code 006
    Language English
    Publishing date 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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  10. Article ; Online: A New Foot Trajectory Planning Method for Legged Robots and Its Application in Hexapod Robots

    Haichuang Xia / Xiaoping Zhang / Hong Zhang

    Applied Sciences, Vol 11, Iss 9217, p

    2021  Volume 9217

    Abstract: Compared with wheeled and tracked robots, legged robots have better movement ability and are more suitable for the exploration of unknown environments. In order to further improve the adaptability of legged robots to complex terrains such as slopes, ... ...

    Abstract Compared with wheeled and tracked robots, legged robots have better movement ability and are more suitable for the exploration of unknown environments. In order to further improve the adaptability of legged robots to complex terrains such as slopes, obstacle environments, and so on, this paper makes a new design of the legged robot’s foot sensing structure that can successfully provide accurate feedback of the landing information. Based on this information, a new foot trajectory planning method named three-element trajectory determination method is proposed. For each leg in one movement period, the three elements are the start point in the support phase, the end point in the support phase, and the joint angle changes in the transfer phase where the first two elements are used to control the height, distance, and direction of the movement, and the third element is used make decisions during the lifting process of the leg. For the support phase, the trajectory is described in Cartesian space, and a spline of linear function with parabolic blends is used. For the transfer phase, the trajectory is described in joint-space, and the joint angle function is designed as the superposition of the joint angle reverse-chronological function and the interpolation function which is obtained based on joint angle changes. As an important legged robot, a hexapod robot that we designed by ourselves with triangle gait is chosen to test the proposed foot trajectory planning method. Experiments show that, while the foot’s landing information can be read and based on the three-element trajectory planning method, the hexapod robot can achieve stable movement even in very complex scenes. Although the experiments are performed on a hexapod robot, our method is applicable to all forms of legged robots.
    Keywords trajectory planning method ; hexapod robots ; legged robots ; triangle gait ; Technology ; T ; Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) ; TA1-2040 ; Biology (General) ; QH301-705.5 ; Physics ; QC1-999 ; Chemistry ; QD1-999
    Subject code 629
    Language English
    Publishing date 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
    Publisher MDPI AG
    Document type Article ; Online
    Database BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (life sciences selection)

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