Bee Bread Ameliorates Vascular Inflammation and Impaired Vasorelaxation in Obesity-Induced Vascular Damage Rat Model: The Role of eNOS/NO/cGMP-Signaling Pathway

Obesity and hyperlipidemia are major risk factors for developing vascular diseases. Bee bread (BB) has been reported to exhibit some biological actions, including anti-obesity and anti-hyperlipidemic. This study aims to investigate whether bee bread can ameliorate vascular inflammation and impaired vasorelaxation activity through eNOS/NO/cGMP pathway in obese rats. Forty male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups (n = 10/group), namely: control (normal group), obese rats (OB group), obese rats treated with bee bread (0.5 g/kg/day, OB/BB group) and obese rats treated with orlistat (10 mg/kg/day, OB/OR group). The latter three groups were given a high-fat diet (HFD) for 6 weeks to induced obesity before being administered with their respective treatments for another 6 weeks. After 12 weeks of the total experimental period, rats in the OB group demonstrated significantly higher Lee obesity index, lipid profile (total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein), aortic proinflammatory markers (tumor necrosis factor-α, nuclear factor-κβ), aortic structural damage and impairment in vasorelaxation response to acetylcholine (ACh). Bee bread significantly ameliorated the obesity-induced vascular damage manifested by improvements in the lipid profile, aortic inflammatory markers, and the impaired vasorelaxation activity by significantly enhancing nitric oxide release, promoting endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) immunoexpression. These findings suggest that the administration of bee bread ameliorates the impaired vasorelaxation response to ACh by improving eNOS/NO/cGMP-signaling pathway in obese rats, suggesting its vascular therapeutic role.     

Artificial bee colony based algorithm for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for PV systems operating under partial shaded conditions

Artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm has several characteristics that make it more attractive than other bio-inspired methods. Particularly, it is simple, it uses fewer control parameters and its convergence is independent of the initial conditions. In this paper, a novel artificial bee colony based maximum power point tracking algorithm (MPPT) is proposed. The developed algorithm, does not allow only overcoming the common drawback of the conventional MPPT methods, but it gives a simple and a robust MPPT scheme. A co-simulation methodology, combining Matlab/Simulink™ and Cadence/Pspice™, is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and compare its performance, under dynamic weather conditions, with that of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based MPPT algorithm. Moreover, a laboratory setup has been realized and used to experimentally validate the proposed ABC-based MPPT algorithm. Simulation and experimental results have shown the satisfactory performance of the proposed approach.     

一种空间信息网络缓存决策策略

针对空间信息网络（space information network,SIN）中卫星节点缓存容量有限,且卫星高速移动使得星间链路时变,导致地面用户内容访问延迟增大的问题,提出一种基于人工蜂群算法的空间信息网络缓存决策策略（satellite improved artificial bee colony,SIABC）。首先根据低轨卫星节点链路切换的周期性和可预知性,建立网络分区模型,对空间信息网络的卫星节点进行分区,在此基础上,建立区域节点协作缓存模型,使得整个网络区域内的卫星节点有选择性地缓存不同流行度的内容,同时兼顾区域内节点的协作缓存,从而流行度高的内容缓存在网络边缘。仿真结果表明,与现有缓存机制相比,该缓存策略能够明显提高内容的平均缓存命中率,并显著降低用户的内容访问时延。     

Mathematical model and discrete artificial Bee Colony algorithm for distributed integrated process planning and scheduling

With the development of the globalization of economy and manufacturing industry, distributed manufacturing mode has become a hot topic in current production research. In the context of distributed manufacturing, one job has different process routes in different workshops because of heterogeneous manufacturing resources and manufacturing environments in each factory. Considering the heterogeneous process planning problems and shop scheduling problems simultaneously can take advantage of the characteristics of distributed factories to finish the processing task well. Thus, a novel network-based mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is established for distributed integrated process planning and scheduling problem (DIPPS). The paper designs a new encoding method based on the process network and its OR-nodes, and then proposes a discrete artificial bee colony algorithm (DABC) to solve the DIPPS problem. The proposed DABC can guarantee the feasibility of individuals via specially-designed mapping and switching operations, so that the process precedence constraints contained by the network graph can be satisfied in the entire procedure of the DABC algorithm. Finally, the proposed MILP model is verified and the proposed DABC is tested through some open benchmarks. By comparing with other powerful reported algorithms and obtaining new better solutions, the experiment results prove the effectiveness of the proposed model and DABC algorithm successfully.     

基于数据融合的ABC-SVM社区疾病预测方法

针对现有社区医疗服务中的疾病预测方法存在数据利用率低、疾病分析类型单一、自动化程度差、疾病预测效果不理想等不足,提出在物联网大数据环境下可用于社区医疗的健康数据融合及疾病预测方法. 通过主成分分析(PCA)和聚类分析对社区中居民的生理指标数据进行特征提取;结合人工蜂群(ABC)算法构造支持向量机(SVM)非线性分类器对数据进行特征级融合分析并预测潜在疾病. 实验结果表明,所提方法的疾病识别准确率达到93.10%,相较于传统SVM方法和BP神经网络方法分别提高17.24% 和72.41%. 该方法能够在提高数据利用率、降低计算资源消耗的前提下有效识别多种潜在疾病,可实现疾病早发现、早预防、早治疗;可广泛应用于社区健康管理、老年社区监护甚至临床医疗.     

Isolation,identification, and function of the Dufour gland secretion ofXylocopa virginica texana (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae)

The Dufour's gland secretion ofXylocopa virginica texana possesses short-term repellency for conspecifics when applied to passion flowers. This secretion contains a number of straight-chain hydrocarbons. The two major components are the methyl esters of palmitic and myristic acid. A mixture of the two esters and two of the available hydrocarbons were as effective as the Dufour's gland extract in eliciting a response in females to the passion flower,Passiflora incarnata, to which the extract was applied.Approved as TA13387 by the Director, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and conducted in cooperation with the USDA. Supported in part by NSF-DEB-76-03963.     

Efficient multilevel image segmentation through fuzzy entropy maximization and graph cut optimization

The fuzzy c-partition entropy has been widely adopted as a global optimization technique for finding the optimized thresholds for multilevel image segmentation. However, it involves expensive computation as the number of thresholds increases and often yields noisy segmentation results since spatial coherence is not enforced. In this paper, an iterative calculation scheme is presented for reducing redundant computations in entropy evaluation. The efficiency of threshold selection is further improved through utilizing the artificial bee colony algorithm as the optimization technique. Finally, instead of performing thresholding for each pixel independently, the presented algorithm oversegments the input image into small regions and uses the probabilities of fuzzy events to define the costs of different label assignments for each region. The final segmentation results is computed using graph cut, which produces smooth segmentation results. The experimental results demonstrate the presented iterative calculation scheme can greatly reduce the running time and keep it stable as the number of required thresholds increases. Quantitative evaluations over 20 classic images also show that the presented algorithm outperforms existing multilevel segmentation approaches.     

An integrated portfolio optimisation procedure based on data envelopment analysis,artificial bee colony algorithm and genetic programming

Portfolio optimisation is an important issue in the field of investment/financial decision-making and has received considerable attention from both researchers and practitioners. However, besides portfolio optimisation, a complete investment procedure should also include the selection of profitable investment targets and determine the optimal timing for buying/selling the investment targets. In this study, an integrated procedure using data envelopment analysis (DEA), artificial bee colony (ABC) and genetic programming (GP) is proposed to resolve a portfolio optimisation problem. The proposed procedure is evaluated through a case study on investing in stocks in the semiconductor sub-section of the Taiwan stock market for 4 years. The potential average 6-month return on investment of 9.31% from 1 November 2007 to 31 October 2011 indicates that the proposed procedure can be considered a feasible and effective tool for making outstanding investment plans, and thus making profits in the Taiwan stock market. Moreover, it is a strategy that can help investors to make profits even when the overall stock market suffers a loss.     

Analysis of saturated free fatty acids from pollen by HPLC with fluorescence detection

A sensitive method for the determination of free fatty acids using 2‐(2‐(anthracen‐10‐yl)‐1H‐naphtho[2,3‐d]imidazol‐1‐yl) ethyl‐p‐toluenesulfonate (ANITS) as tagging reagent with fluorescence detection has been developed. ANITS could easily and quickly label fatty acids in the presence of the K₂CO₃ catalyst at 90 °C for 40 min in N,N‐dimethylformamide solvent. From the extracts of rape bee pollen samples, 20 free fatty acids were sensitively determined. Fatty acid derivatives were separated on a reversed‐phase Eclipse XDB‐C₈ column by HPLC in conjunction with gradient elution. The corresponding derivatives were identified by post‐column APCI/MS in positive‐ion detection mode. ANITS‐fatty acid derivatives gave an intense molecular ion peak at m/z [M+H]⁺; with MS/MS analysis, the collision‐induced dissociation spectra of m/z [M+H]⁺ produced the specific fragment ions at m/z [M–345]⁺ and m/z 345.0 (here, m/z 345 is the core structural moiety of the ANITS molecule). The fluorescence excitation and emission wavelengths of the derivatives were λ_ex = 250 nm and λ_em = 512 nm, respectively. Linear correlation coefficients for all fatty acid derivatives are >0.9999. Detection limits, at a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 3 : 1, are 24.76–98.79 fmol for the labeled fatty acids.     

基于带约束人工蜂群算法和平均Hausdorff距离的重力匹配方法

重力匹配算法是实现重力辅助惯性导航系统的关键技术之一。但是,传统重力匹配方法存在复杂度高、应用范围小等缺陷,一般很难实现精确、快速匹配的效果。将人工蜂群算法用于重力匹配的搜索过程,并将多普勒测速仪提供的速度信息作为限制条件对蜂群搜索过程进行约束。在此基础上,利用平均Hausdorff距离对匹配结果进行筛选,在重力数据库中重力异常精度一定的条件下,可降低误配率。仿真结果表明,该匹配算法在重力特征显著的区域具有较高的匹配率,可以达到精确、快速的匹配定位,从而实现重力辅助导航。