A Comprehensive Review of Genetically Engineered Mouse Models for Prader-Willi Syndrome Research

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neurogenetic multifactorial disorder caused by the deletion or inactivation of paternally imprinted genes on human chromosome 15q11-q13. The affected homologous locus is on mouse chromosome 7C. The positional conservation and organization of genes including the imprinting pattern between mice and men implies similar physiological functions of this locus. Therefore, considerable efforts to recreate the pathogenesis of PWS have been accomplished in mouse models. We provide a summary of different mouse models that were generated for the analysis of PWS and discuss their impact on our current understanding of corresponding genes, their putative functions and the pathogenesis of PWS. Murine models of PWS unveiled the contribution of each affected gene to this multi-facetted disease, and also enabled the establishment of the minimal critical genomic region (PWScr) responsible for core symptoms, highlighting the importance of non-protein coding genes in the PWS locus. Although the underlying disease-causing mechanisms of PWS remain widely unresolved and existing mouse models do not fully capture the entire spectrum of the human PWS disorder, continuous improvements of genetically engineered mouse models have proven to be very powerful and valuable tools in PWS research.     

门架式堆取料机在铜冶炼中的生产实践

针对铜冶炼工艺的特点,从门架式堆取料机对前后工序衔接、结构、原理出发,介绍了其在熔炼炉系统和吹炼炉系统中的应用情况。经过试生产期的生产实践证明,门架式堆取料机具有场地利用率高、取料量大,自动化程度高和安全环保等优点。     

The structural variability of quarters and residential areas in the historical texture of the city of Yazd based on Islamic rules and jurisprudence: a case study of Golchinan quarter

According to many researchers and scholars, religious beliefs can be considered as the most influential factor in forming Muslim urban spaces and their architectural elements. In fact, historical cities reflect the culture and beliefs of their residences. Among all historical places in Iranian cities, the historical texture of the city of Yazd, especially the quarters since the age of Qajar dynasty, are well preserved. The present study aims at identifying the Islamic principles and values influencing the formation of architectural spaces and the extent of their applications in one of the historical quarters known as Golchinan. The results of the conformation of the theoretical findings with the data acquired from field studies revealed that almost 90% of the urban and architectural spaces (e.g. residential areas, mosques, bazaars, and pathways) in Yazd are directly influenced by Islamic principles. In other words, there is a strong conformity between the accepted Islamic values of the society and what actually was applied to urban constructions during Qajar dynasty.     

Large neighborhood search for the bike request scheduling problem

This paper introduces an efficient algorithm for the bike request scheduling problem (BRSP). The BRSP is built around the concept of request, defined as the pickup or dropoff of a number of identical items (bikes) at a specific station, within a certain time window, and with a certain priority. The aim of the BRSP is to sequence requests on (and hence determine the routes of) a set of vehicles, in such a way that the sum of the priorities of the executed requests is maximized, all time windows are respected, and the capacity of the vehicles is not exceeded. The generation of the set of requests is explicitly not a part of the problem definition of the BRSP. The primary application of the BRSP, from which it derives its name, is to determine the routes of a set of repositioning vehicles in a bike sharing system, although other applications exist. The algorithm introduced in this paper is based on a set of related greedy randomized adaptive search procedure followed by variable neighborhood descent (GRASP + VND) operators embedded in a large neighborhood search (LNS) framework. Since this paper presents the first heuristic for the BRSP, a computational comparison to existing approaches is not possible. We therefore compare the solutions found by our LNS heuristic to those found by an exact solver (Gurobi). These experiments confirm that the proposed algorithm scales to realistic dimensions and is able to find near‐optimal solutions in seconds.     

Creative clusters in the regeneration of Valletta and the cultural politics of Strait Street

The paper aims to unfold the narrative of development in a creative cluster project for the regeneration of Strait Street in Valletta, Malta. This is approached by first examining the distinctive, historically contentious background of the neighbourhood and, thereafter, unpacking the development narrative of policy documents and the discursive and material constructs about the creative city approach to regeneration strategies in the city. Using a ‘system-wide’ analytical framework, this material is then scrutinized to gain an understanding of the specificities involved and, finally, discuss the crucial features of the key dimensions elucidating the potential strengths and weaknesses of the case     

Systematic literature review on city logistics: overview,classification and analysis

City logistics is one of the significant branches of supply chain management, dealing with the logistics and transportation activities in urban areas. This research area has recently appropriated an exponential growth of publications. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis along with a systematic literature review to organise the results of surveying more than 370 papers and research works published since 2010. We identify the top contributing research topics. The most common keywords used in the city logistics literature are referred to in order to propose six research categories identifying the main innovative research perspectives.     

Motion control of underactuated linkage robot based on gymnastic skill

In this paper, a reproduction of a swing‐up and a giant swing motion of underactuated robots based on technique of the horizontal bar gymnast is discussed with focusing on an equivalent center of mass (ECM) of underactuated robots and the gymnast. At first, the behaviors of the ECM of the gymnast (ECMG) are analyzed by using a motion capturing technique and an efficient motion of the ECMG for the swing‐up and for the giant swing motion are identified from analysis results, respectively. Next, a partial linearization method, which can realize that the ECM of the Acrobot (ECMA) replicates this efficient motion, is designed and reproduces the underactuated robots the swing‐up and giant swing motion like the gymnast. Finally, an effectiveness of the proposed controller is shown by numerical simulations.     

海绵城市建设PPP项目委托代理契约分析

针对海绵城市PPP(Public-Private Partnership)项目建设、运营管理问题,为了降低由于项目参与的各方掌握信息、地位的不对称而产生的道德风险、维护各参与方的合法权益,基于一定的前提假设,构建海绵城市建设PPP项目契约模型,利用优化理论分别从代理企业和政府方两个主体的效用对模型的各个参数相关关系进行了分析,并利用数值模拟讨论了监控机制各参数对政府方监控意愿的影响。最后,结合常德市海绵城市PPP项目建设的案例,分别分析在当前考核机制下项目在建设、运营期可能存在的问题,并提出了相应的对策以解决这些问题。结果表明:代理企业的监控和激励措施具有互补性,海绵工程项目风险来源广泛,企业为规避风险会偏好零风险的固定收益,设定监控机制能激励企业更加努力的工作。     

基于多尺度双线性卷积神经网络的多角度下车型精细识别

针对多角度下车辆出现一定的尺度变化和形变导致很难被准确识别的问题，提出基于多尺度双线性卷积神经网络（MS-B-CNN）的车型精细识别模型。首先，对双线性卷积神经网络（B-CNN）算法进行改进，提出MS-B-CNN算法对不同卷积层的特征进行了多尺度融合，以提高特征表达能力；此外，还采用基于中心损失函数与Softmax损失函数联合学习的策略，在Softmax损失函数基础上分别对训练集每个类别在特征空间维护一个类中心，在训练过程中新增加样本时，网络会约束样本的分类中心距离，以提高多角度情况下的车型识别的能力。实验结果显示，该车型识别模型在CompCars数据集上的正确率达到了93.63%，验证了模型在多角度情况下的准确性和鲁棒性。