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Weifeng Zou,1 Xiaoqian Wang,2 Wei Hong,3 Fang He,4 Jinxing Hu,1 Qing Sheng,1 Tao Zhu,1 Pixin Ran5 1State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Chest Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3GMU-GIBH Joint School of Life Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 4The Research Center of Experiment Medicine, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 5State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Pixin RanState Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, 151 Yanjiang Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13922765811Email pxran@gzhmu.edu.cnBackground and Purpose: Recently, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) was identified as the main exposure risk for COPD, and inflammation is central to the development of COPD. In this study, we investigated whether PM2.5 can induce the secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8 and IL-1β in human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) in vitro via the wingless-related integration site 5A (Wnt5a)/receptor tyrosine kinase-like orphan receptor 2 (Ror2) signaling.Methods: The expression of Wnt5a and Ror2 was assessed by immunohistochemistry in motor vehicle exhaust (MVE)-induced Sprague-Dawley rats. HBECs were transfected with small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting Wnt5a or Ror2 and subsequently stimulated with PM2.5.The secretion of IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1β was assessed by ELISAs, and the expression of Wnt5a/Ror2 signaling were assessed by RT-PCR and Western blotting.Results: Both Wnt5a and Ror2 protein were increased in the lung of MVE-induced rats. HBECs exposed to PM2.5 for 24 h significantly upregulated Wnt5a and Ror2 expression and subsequently promoted the nuclear translocation of NF-κB, which increased the production of IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8. Wnt5a siRNA prevented these outcomes. Wnt5a antagonist (BOX5) also prevented inflammatory effects. Furthermore, Ror2 siRNA blocked the NF-κB activity and inhibited the release of IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1β from PM2.5-exposed HBECs.Conclusion: PM2.5 induces the secretion of IL-6, IL-8 and IL-1β in HBECs via the Wnt5a/Ror2 signaling, demonstrating a novel mechanism for PM2.5-associated airway inflammation.Key words: COPD, PM2.5, Wnt5a/ROR2, inflammatory cytokines, HBECs

Dynamic behaviour of the pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA) is conventionally modelled as a pressure-based first-order equation under discrete loads, which cannot exactly describe its dynamic features. Considering PMA's nonlinear, time-varying and hysteresis characteristics, we propose a novel high-order modified dynamic model of PMA based on its physical properties and working principle, with coefficients being identified under external dynamic loads. To tackle PMA's nonlinear hysteresis problem in high-frequency movements, a global fast terminal sliding mode controller with the modified model-based radial basis function (RBF) neural network disturbance compensator (RBF-GFTSMC) is designed. Comparison experimental studies are carried on a designed PMA platform that can provide continuously changing loads. Results show that the RBF-GFTSMC has superior trajectory tracking performance and disturbance compensation capability under wide-ranged frequencies and external loads, which can be potentially used to achieve precise control of PMA-actuated robots.

Wenguang Luo,1,2 Wei Liu,2 Jie Yao,3 Wenjing Zhu,4 Hongyan Zhang,2 Qi Sheng,2 Lin Wang,2 Lei Lv,5 Liting Qian61School of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Anhui Provincial Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230031, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Oncology, The 161 Hospital of PLA, Wuhan, Hubei Province 430010, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Geriatric Medicine, Anhui Provincial Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230031, People’s Republic of China; 5Cancer Epigenetics Program, Anhui Cancer Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230031, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Radiation Oncology, Anhui Provincial Cancer Hospital, Anhui Provincial Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230031, People’s Republic of ChinaBackground: Radiotherapy is one of the most common treatments for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Radioresistance is a major obstacle that limits the efficacy of radiotherapy. H19 has been considered as a factor affecting radioresistance, whereas the specific mechanism of H19 in ESCC radioresistance remains to be further elucidated.Purpose: The objective of this study was to identify the relationship between H19 and radioresistance. The findings are expected to provide new insights into the treatment of radioresistant ESCC.Methods: The expression levels of H19 in ESCC was analyzed using the online database starBase. The Oncomine database was used to further verify the association between H19 expression and patient age, gender, and tumor stage. The overall survival rates of ESCC patients were analyzed using the KM plotter database. Clonogenic survival was conducted to identify the value of survival fraction. The optical density values were obtained via MTS assays. Cells migration and stemness were observed through Transwell and sphere formation assays. The expression levels of H19, miR-22-3p and WNT1 were analyzed using qPCR.Results: In our study, we firstly screened the H19 according to the online database starBase, and then the Oncomine database and KM plotter database showed that H19 expression was significantly upregulated in the ESCC tissues and associated with poor prognosis. Secondly, an ESCC radioresistant cell line, KYSE150R was established. Clonogenic survival showed that radiation decreased the value of survival fraction. MTS assays suggested that optical density values in KYSE150R cells were significantly higher than that in KYSE150 cells. Transwell and sphere formation assays showed radiation enhanced cell migration and stemness in ESCC cells. In addition, qPCR showed that H19 was upregulated in KYSE150R cells, and survival fraction assays showed that knockdown of H19 decreased the survival fraction values. MTS assays, migration and invasion assays suggested that H19 inhibited cells proliferation, migration and stemness in radioresistant KYSE150 cells. Moreover, qPCR assay showed that miR-22-3p expression levels was downregulated, but WNT1 was upregulated in KYSE150R cells as well as protein levels. Luciferase activity assay further showed that miR-22-3p inhibits the WNT1 expression.Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that H19 knockdown downregulates the WNT1 via upregulating miR-22-3p expression, which leads to the inhibition of cells proliferation, migration and stemness in the radioresistant ESCC cells.Keywords: ESCC, radioresistance, KYSE150R, H19, miR-22-3p, WNT1

Human motion recognition using flexible/stretchable wearable sensors holds great promise for human-machine interaction and biomedical engineering. However, to measure the individual joint motion with multiple degrees of freedom, many sensor networks are normally required and pinpointed onto the targeted area, restricting body movement. This is due to the limitation of current wearable sensors; inferring a sensor deformation based on the sensor's electrical signal is challenging. A new concept of wearable sensor that can recognize how the sensor deforms could radically solve this issue. Here, we report a wearable integrated piezoelectric film sensor (i-PFS) capable of detecting basic deformations. To achieve this, for the first time, we propose a novel design concept of using uniaxially drawn piezoelectric poly L-lactic acid (PLLA) films to engineer unimodal tension, bend, shear, and twist sensors that only respond to their corresponding deformations with the enhanced piezoelectric response and self-shielding function. Based on this, we construct the i-PFS by combining the four unimodal sensors and demonstrate that the i-PFS can detect and differentiate individual deformation modes, such as tensioning, bending, shearing, and twisting. To our best knowledge, the i-PFS is the world's first film-based sensor that identifies the abovementioned deformations. To prove the potential impact of the i-PFS, we design a sleeve and a glove with the i-PFS that can capture various wrist motions and subtle finger movements, respectively. We also develop a virtual text-entry interface system using the glove and a deep neural network algorithm with a character classification accuracy of about 90 %. The i-PFS technology is expected to provide a turning point in developing motion capture systems.

The Xigeda formation is a set of Cenozoic lacustrine semi-rock discontinuously distributed in Southwest China. As a typical hard soil or soft/weak rock, the Xigeda formation causes problems when encountered in engineering practice due to its previously unknown mechanical behaviour. Typical samples taken from Zhaizi village along the Jinsha River have been studied. Influences of both the water content and the confining pressure on strength indices of the Xigeda formation were investigated by performing triaxial tests, and the statistical correlations between the shear strength index and the water content of the Xigeda formation, and its soft rock and soil are analysed. By introducing the tenets of the theory of damage mechanics, a damage constitutive model for the deformation of the Xigeda formation and the influence of the water content thereon was established. The results show that: (a) the peak strength, the cohesion and the friction angle decrease linearly with increasing water content; (b) the sensitivity of cohesion to water content is ranked (in ascending order) as: soft rock, the Xigeda formation, then soil, and the sensitivity of friction angle to water content is ranked (in ascending order) as: soil, the Xigeda formation, then soft rock; (c) the damage constitutive model requires few input variables, has a simple form, and can reflect the deformation and strength characteristics of the Xigeda formation under different confining pressures and water contents. The results provide a mechanism with which to understand and model (for both theoretical study and engineering application) the Xigeda formation.

Background: The data of antiviral therapy throughout the entire pregnancy are relatively scarce. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of antiviral therapy for chronic HBV infection throughout the entire pregnancy. Methods: This was a single-center, prospectively study. Fifty-five women received antiviral therapy (TDF or LDT) from pre-conception to the entire pregnancy. Sixty-four women did not receive antiviral therapy during pre-conception and the entire pregnancy. All infants in the two groups had received immunoprophylaxis on schedule. Mother-infant pairs were followed up at least 7 months postpartum. The outcome was the safety and efficacy of antiviral therapy for mothers and offspring. Findings: All mothers tolerated antiviral therapy (TDF or LDT) well. The mean maternal HBV DNA level in the antiviral therapy group was less than that of the control group before delivery as well as in the three months postpartum (P 0.05). Furthermore, there was not a statistically significant difference in the birth weight, the birth length, and the congenital diseases of infants between the two groups, respectively (P>0.05). In 7 months postpartum, none of infants who tested HBV status in the two groups was positive for HBsAg. Interpretation: Antiviral therapy (TDF or LDT) from pre-conception to the entire pregnancy could be safe and effective for pregnant women with HBV infection and their fetuses/ infants. Trial Registration: The present study was registered in ClinicalTrials.gov (No. NCT03181607). Funding Statement: The present study was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC1001402, 2018YFC1002900), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81401306, 81830045), Clinical Research Project of Guangzhou Medical University (No. 2017[160]) and Sino-German Center for Research Promotion (SGC)'s Rapid Response Funding Call for Bilateral Collaborative Proposals between China and Germany in COVID-19 Related Research (No. C-0032). Declaration of Interests: All authors declare no financial, potential personal or commercial conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The present study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, and was carried out in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. Informed written consent was obtained from each participant in the present study.

We explore the magnetically-ordered ground state of the isovalently-substituted Mott-insulator Y$_{1-x}$La$_{x}$TiO$_{3}$ for $x$ $\leq$ 0.3 via single crystal growth, magnetometry, neutron diffraction, x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), muon spin rotation ($\mu$SR) and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). We find that the decrease in the magnetic transition temperature on approaching the ferromagnetic (FM) - antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase boundary at the La concentration $x_c$ $\approx$ 0.3 is accompanied by a strong suppression of both bulk and local ordered magnetic moments, along with a volume-wise separation into magnetically-ordered and paramagnetic regions. The thermal phase transition does not show conventional second-order behavior, since neither a clear signature of dynamic critical behavior nor a power-law divergence of the magnetic correlation length is found for the studied substitution range; this finding becomes increasingly obvious with substitution. Finally, from SANS and magnetometry measurements, we discern a crossover from easy-axis to easy-plane magneto-crystalline anisotropy with increasing La substitution. These results indicate complex changes in magnetic structure upon approaching the phase boundary., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures

It is well known that lipids are vital for axonal myelin repair. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is characterized by widespread axonal injury. The association between serum lipids and DAI is not well known. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of serum lipid profile variables (triglycerides, high- and low-density lipoproteins, and total cholesterol) with DAI detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and with clinical outcome for patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI).This study included 176 patients with a history of TBI who had undergone initial serum lipid measurements within 1 week and brain MRIs within 30 days. Based on MRI findings, patients were divided into negative and positive DAI groups.Of the 176 patients, 70 (39.8%) were assigned to DAI group and 106 (60.2%) patients to non-DAI group. Compared with the non-DAI group, patients with DAI had significantly lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in serum during the first week following TBI. Multivariate analysis identified HDL-C as an independent predictor of DAI. Patients with lower serum HDL-C levels were less likely to regain consciousness within 6 months in TBI patients with DAI lesions identified by MRI.Plasma levels of HDL-C may be a viable addition to biomarker panels for predicting the presence and prognosis of DAI on subsequent MRI following TBI.

© 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature. Identifying the evolving community structure of social networks has recently drawn increasing attention. Evolutionary clustering, previously proposed to detect the evolution of clusters over time, presents a temporal smoothness framework to simultaneously maximize clustering accuracy and minimize the clustering drift between two successive time steps. Under this framework, evolving patterns of communities in dynamic networks were detected by finding the best trade-off between the clustering accuracy and temporal smoothness. However, two main drawbacks in previous methods limit the effectiveness of dynamic community detection. One is that the classic operators implemented by existing methods cannot avoid that a node is often inter-connected to most of its neighbors. The other is that those methods take it for granted that an inter-connection cannot exist between nodes clustered into the same community, which results in a limited search space. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-objective evolutionary clustering algorithm called DECS, to detect the evolving community structure in dynamic social networks. Specifically, we develop a migration operator cooperating with efficient operators to ensure that nodes and their most neighbors are grouped together, and use a genome matrix encoding the structure information of networks to expand the search space. DECS calculates the modularity based on the genome matrix as one of objectives to optimize. Experimental results on synthetic networks and real-world social networks demonstrate that DECS outperforms in both clustering accuracy and smoothness, contrasted with other state-of-the-art methods.

Qingfeng Sheng,1 Weijue Xu,1 Jiangbin Liu,1 Baiyong Shen,2 Xiaxing Deng,2 Yibo Wu,1 Wei Wu,1 Shenghua Yu,1 Xueli Wang,3 Zhibao Lv1 1Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, 2Department of General Surgery, Rui Jin Hospital, 3Department of Pathology, Shanghai Children’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People’s Republicof China Abstract: Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) of the pancreas is rare, with 15 adult cases reported in the English literature. We described a 14-month-old boy who presented with obstructive jaundice. Dominantly elevated serum CA19-9 was detected. Imaging studies revealed a well-circumscribed, solid mass in the pancreatic head. A pancreaticoduodenectomy (child procedure) was performed using Shen’s anastomosis technique. After resection of the tumor, liver function and serum tumor markers normalized and clinical signs receded. The boy was disease free after a follow-up of 12 months. Histological examination showed the tumor consisted of “patternless pattern” arranged spindle tumor cells and keloid-like hyalinized collagen. Immunohistochemical staining was positive for CD34 and vimentin. Mutation analysis of CTNNB1 was negative. To the best of our knowledge, our patient was the first case of pancreatic SFT in a pediatric population. SFT should be considered in differential diagnosis when confronted with a pancreatic tumor in children. Complete resection should be meticulously pursued. Keywords: pancreas, rare tumors, children, rare pediatric tumors

Objective. This review aims to provide a systematical investigation of clinical effectiveness of active training strategies applied in platform-based ankle robots. Method. English-language studies published from Jan 1980 to Aug 2017 were searched from four databases using key words of “Ankle∗” AND “Robot∗” AND “Effect∗ OR Improv∗ OR Increas∗.” Following an initial screening, three rounds of discrimination were successively conducted based on the title, the abstract, and the full paper. Result. A total of 21 studies were selected with 311 patients involved; of them, 13 studies applied a single group while another eight studies used different groups for comparison to verify the therapeutic effect. Virtual-reality (VR) game training was applied in 19 studies, while two studies used proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) training. Conclusion. Active training techniques delivered by platform ankle rehabilitation robots have been demonstrated with great potential for clinical applications. Training strategies are mostly combined with one another by considering rehabilitation schemes and motion ability of ankle joints. VR game environment has been commonly used with active ankle training. Bioelectrical signals integrated with VR game training can implement intelligent identification of movement intention and assessment. These further provide the foundation for advanced interactive training strategies that can lead to enhanced training safety and confidence for patients and better treatment efficacy.

Traditional compliance control of a rehabilitation robot is implemented in task space by using impedance or admittance control algorithms. The soft robot actuated by pneumatic muscle actuators (PMAs) is becoming prominent for patients as it enables the compliance being adjusted in each active link, which, however, has not been reported in the literature. This paper proposes a new compliance control method of a soft ankle rehabilitation robot that is driven by four PMAs configured in parallel to enable three degrees of freedom movement of the ankle joint. A new hierarchical compliance control structure, including a low-level compliance adjustment controller in joint space and a high-level admittance controller in task space, is designed. An adaptive compliance control paradigm is further developed by taking into account patient’s active contribution and movement ability during a previous period of time, in order to provide robot assistance only when it is necessarily required. Experiments on healthy and impaired human subjects were conducted to verify the adaptive hierarchical compliance control scheme. The results show that the robot hierarchical compliance can be online adjusted according to the participant’s assessment. The robot reduces its assistance output when participants contribute more and vice versa, thus providing a potentially feasible solution to the patient-in-loop cooperative training strategy.

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu. Nano-porous aerogel has an ultra low thermal conductivity and is usually used as the super insulator. To evaluate the insulation performance of the aerogel, we focus on studying the thermal conductivity of gas phase in the aerogel. We present a modified model to take into account the effect of nonuniform pore-size distribution on the gaseous thermal conductivity, and the present model predicts more agreement results with available data than the existing models. The gaseous thermal conductivity of the aerogel at high temperature gradient condition is also numerically studied. We also study the effect of the thermal transpiration flow on the gaseous thermal conductivity, and the results shows that the thermal transpiration flow effect leads to a reduction of the gaseous thermal conductivity.

Short carbon fibre-reinforced polyimide composites were prepared by wet impregnating chopped short carbon fibres with PMR-type polyimide matrix resin solution followed by evaporating the solvent with strong stirring. The processing properties of the prepolymer moulding powders were investigated. The mechanical properties and thermo-oxidative stability of the fabricated composite were also studied. Experimental results demonstrate that the short fibre filled moulding powders exhibit good melt resin flowing characteristics and can be processed by a hot press moulding technique to produce small-size, complicated composite structures which are difficult to produce using continuous fibre-reinforced composite prepregs by an autoclave technique. The composites exhibit outstanding mechanical properties and excellent thermal and thermo-oxidative stabilities at temperatures as high as 320 °C.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a highly aggressive tumor with poor prognosis. Current treatment is rarely curative, thus novel meaningful therapies are urgently needed. Inhibition of Hedgehog (Hh) signaling at the cell membrane level in several ca

Background Our aim was to summarize our experience with the diagnosis and surgical treatment of solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN) of the pancreas to provide a reference for the management of this rare condition. Methods We collected and analyzed retrospective data on the clinical presentation, laboratory investigations, radiologic imaging, pathology and operative details of patients with SPN of the pancreas diagnosed between February 2001 and December 2009. Results In all, 23 of 24 patients were women, and the mean age of all patients was 31 years. The most common clinical presentation was vague abdominal pain. Abdominal imaging showed solid or solid cystic masses in the pancreas, mostly in the tail or head of the gland. All patients were treated surgically. There were no postoperative deaths. After follow-up ranging from 4 to 109 months (median 68 mo), 20 of 22 patients who underwent curative resection were alive with no evidence of disease recurrence. Of the 2 patients with R1 resections, 1 died 42 months after surgery, whereas the other underwent a second operation and was alive after 36 months' follow-up. Conclusion Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas is a relatively indolent tumour. The initial diagnosis of SPN of the pancreas is suggested by radiologic imaging findings but should be considered in the context of clinical and histopathologic characteristics. We advocate for complete surgical resection once SPN is diagnosed.

This paper is an attempt to read the dramatic transformations happening in Beijing from a spatial perspective. Based on a model developed by Spacelab, which understands scale as being constructed in movement and communications technologies, we try to represent this process on two levels: first, on the morphology of the movement network itself, I would like to show how technological development of highway, metro and bus systems change the way people move in the city; second, on the effects of changing movement networks, I would like to examine how shops and other public activities locate and relocate themselves within urban space. In general, Beijing is a good example, with a combination of old and new patterns of movement networks, whose spatial composition results in a different pattern for emerging economies and public activities compared with western city centres. However, it is still possible to uncover a strong and consistent logic based on the way individuals move and appropriate different scales of networks. In short, this paper will try to illustrate this difference based on the local pattern of space and explain the underlying, yet simple, spatial logic behind dynamic interaction between changing movement networks and the urban functions emerging from them., FOOTPRINT, Issue # 2 | Spring 2008 | Mapping Urban Complexity in an Asian Context

This study presents strategies to render triple-negative breast cancers sensitive to CDK4/6 inhibitors., Inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6 have been approved for treatment of hormone receptor–positive breast cancers. In contrast, triple-negative breast cancers (TNBCs) are resistant to CDK4/6 inhibition. Here, we demonstrate that a subset of TNBC critically requires CDK4/6 for proliferation, and yet, these TNBC are resistant to CDK4/6 inhibition due to sequestration of CDK4/6 inhibitors into tumor cell lysosomes. This sequestration is caused by enhanced lysosomal biogenesis and increased lysosomal numbers in TNBC cells. We developed new CDK4/6 inhibitor compounds that evade the lysosomal sequestration and are efficacious against resistant TNBC. We also show that coadministration of lysosomotropic or lysosome-destabilizing compounds (an antibiotic azithromycin, an antidepressant siramesine, an antimalaria compound chloroquine) renders resistant tumor cells sensitive to currently used CDK4/6 inhibitors. Lastly, coinhibition of CDK2 arrested proliferation of CDK4/6 inhibitor-resistant cells. These observations may extend the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors to TNBCs that are refractory to current anti-CDK4/6 therapies.