Search

Huimin Nie,1,* Boyu Liu,1,* Chengyu Yin,1 Ruixiang Chen,1 Jie Wang,1 Danyi Zeng,1 Yan Tai,2 Jingdun Xie,3 Dongwei He,4 Boyi Liu1 1Department of Neurobiology and Acupuncture Research, The Third Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Neurology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310053, People’s Republic of China; 2Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Anesthesiology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Collaborative Innovation for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510060, People’s Republic of China; 4Laboratory of Pathology, Hebei Cancer Institute, the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Boyi LiuDepartment of Neurobiology and Acupuncture Research, The Third Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Neurology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310053, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail boyi.liu@zcmu.edu.cnDongwei HeLaboratory of Pathology, Hebei Cancer Institute, the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail dongweihe@hebmu.edu.cnBackground: Mirror-image pain (MIP), which develops from the healthy body region contralateral to the actual injured site, is a mysterious pain phenomenon accompanying many chronic pain conditions, such as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). However, the pathogenesis of MIP still remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study is to perform an expression profiling to identify genes related to MIP in an animal model of CRPS-I.Methods: We established a rat chronic post-ischemic pain (CPIP) model to mimic human CRPS-I. RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq), bioinformatics, qPCR, immunostaining, and animal behavioral assays were used to screen potential genes in the contralateral dorsal root ganglia (DRG) that may be involved in MIP.Results: The CPIP model rats developed robust and persistent MIP in contralateral hind paws. Bilateral DRG neurons did not exhibit obvious neuronal damage. RNA-Seq of contralateral DRG from CPIP model rats identified a total 527 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) vs sham rats. The expression changes of several representative DEGs were further verified by qPCR. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that the immune system process, innate immune response, and cell adhesion were among the mostly enriched biological processes, which are important processes involved in pain sensitization, neuroinflammation, and chronic pain. We further identified DEGs potentially involved in pain mechanisms or enriched in small- to medium-sized sensory neurons or TRPV1-lineage nociceptors. By comparing with published datasets summarizing genes enriched in pain mechanisms, we sorted out a core set of genes which might contribute to nociception and the pain mechanism in MIP.Conclusion: We provided by far the first study to profile gene expression changes and pathway analysis of contralateral DRG for the studying of MIP mechanisms. This work may provide novel insights into understanding the mysterious mechanisms underlying MIP.Keywords: RNA-Seq, pain, CRPS-I, dorsal root ganglia, inflammation, cytokine

We examined 2-year longitudinal change in clinical features and biomarkers in LRRK2 non-manifesting carriers (NMCs) versus healthy controls (HCs) enrolled in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). We analyzed 2-year longitudinal data from 176 LRRK2 G2019S NMCs and 185 HCs. All participants were assessed annually with comprehensive motor and non-motor scales, dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging, and biofluid biomarkers. The latter included cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) Abeta, total tau and phospho-tau; serum urate and neurofilament light chain (NfL); and urine bis(monoacylglycerol) phosphate (BMP). At baseline, LRRK2 G2019S NMCs had a mean (SD) age of 62 (7.7) years and were 56% female. 13% had DAT deficit (defined as

Jingru Ma,1 Yuling Tai,2 Mengmeng Fan,3 Zhansheng Wang4 1Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Shenyang Medical College, Shenyang, 110035, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, Tongliao City Hospital, Tongliao, 028000, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Cardiology, Xinxiang Central Hospital, Xinxiang, 453000, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Cardiology, Fourth People’s Hospital of Shenyang, Shenyang, 110034, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jingru MaThe Second Affiliated Hospital of Shenyang Medical College, No. 64 Qishan West Road, Huanggu District, Shenyang, 110035, Liaoning Province, People’s Republic of ChinaTel + 86-18002453999Email majingru00@126.comBackground: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) has been associated with improved cardiac function in cardiovascular diseases. Our aim was to explore the factors associated with cardiac function and CR.Methods: This prospective cohort study had 473 STEMI patients admitted for primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) who were divided into a CR group (group A, n = 104) and a non-CR group (group B, n = 369) based on whether they could complete CR. Patients’ clinical features, such as age, hyperlipidemia, family history of premature coronary heart disease (FHPCHD), smoking history, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2), number of diseased vessels, arrhythmia during PCI, N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) at 6 months after PCI were compared. Then, the clinical characteristics of patients were further analyzed according to those with MACEs (n = 78) and those without MACEs (n = 395).Results: After CR of 6 months, NT-proBNP levels (p = 0.027), 6-MWD (meter, P = 0.000), LVEF (P = 0.000) were significantly improved in group A compared to group B, but not for SMWA (P = 0.875). Multivariate analysis indicated that even though patients in group A (OR 3.06, 95% CI 1.132– 8.274, p = 0.03) have a higher incidence of hyperlipidemia, their MACEs (OR 0.191, 95% CI 0.038– 0.961, p = 0.05) at 6 months were significantly lower than in group B, mainly because the average patient low age (< 65 years, OR 0.917, 95% CI 0.859– 0.979, p = 0.01) and significant improvement of 6-MWD (OR 7.999, 95% CI 4.342– 14.737, P = 0.00) and the LVEF at 6 months (OR 1.112, 95% CI 1.072– 1.154, p = 0.00). Further analysis based on the MACES outcomes showed that there were 6 factors associated with the occurrence of MACEs, they were age > 65 years (OR 1.032, 95% CI 1.009– 1.009, p = 0.007), smoking history (OR 0.485, 95% CI 0.238– 0.989, p = 0.046), education level (OR 2.646, 95% CI 1.370– 5.108, p = 0.004), 6-MWD (OR 1.688, 95% CI 1.104– 2.811, p = 0.044), LVEF (OR 0.958, 95% CI 0.926– 0.991, p = 0.013) and CR (OR 6.271, 95% CI 2.236– 17.590, p = 0.000).Conclusion: CR, including exercise rehabilitation, is a beneficial option to reduce MACEs in STEMI patients treated with primary PCI.Keywords: rehabilitation, ST-elevation myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention, major adverse cardiac events

In this paper, we address the large scale variation problem in crowd counting by taking full advantage of the multi-scale feature representations in a multi-level network. We implement such an idea by keeping the counting error of a patch as small as possible with a proper feature level selection strategy, since a specific feature level tends to perform better for a certain range of scales. However, without scale annotations, it is sub-optimal and error-prone to manually assign the predictions for heads of different scales to specific feature levels. Therefore, we propose a Scale-Adaptive Selection Network (SASNet), which automatically learns the internal correspondence between the scales and the feature levels. Instead of directly using the predictions from the most appropriate feature level as the final estimation, our SASNet also considers the predictions from other feature levels via weighted average, which helps to mitigate the gap between discrete feature levels and continuous scale variation. Since the heads in a local patch share roughly a same scale, we conduct the adaptive selection strategy in a patch-wise style. However, pixels within a patch contribute different counting errors due to the various difficulty degrees of learning. Thus, we further propose a Pyramid Region Awareness Loss (PRA Loss) to recursively select the most hard sub-regions within a patch until reaching the pixel level. With awareness of whether the parent patch is over-estimated or under-estimated, the fine-grained optimization with the PRA Loss for these region-aware hard pixels helps to alleviate the inconsistency problem between training target and evaluation metric. The state-of-the-art results on four datasets demonstrate the superiority of our approach. The code will be available at: https://github.com/TencentYoutuResearch/CrowdCounting-SASNet.

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experience postural imbalance, leading to considerably increased risk of falls. Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) is postulated to modulate postural balance in humans and improve it in PD. This systematic review and meta-analysis investigate the effects of GVS on postural balance in PD. Six separate databases and research registers were searched for cross-over design trials that evaluated the effects of GVS on postural balance in PD. We used standardized mean difference (Hedges’ g) as a measure of effect size in all studies. We screened 223 studies, evaluated 14, of which five qualified for the meta-analysis. Among n = 40 patients in five studies (range n= 5 to 13), using a fixed effects model we found an effect size estimate of g = 0.43 (p < 0.001, 95% CI [0.29,0.57]). However, the test for residual heterogeneity was significant (p < 0.001), thus we used a random effects model and found a pooled effect size estimate of 0.62 (p > 0.05, 95% CI [– 0.17, 1.41], I2 = 96.21%). Egger’s test was not significant and thus trim and funnel plot indicated no bias. To reduce heterogeneity, we performed sensitivity analysis and by removing one outlier study (n = 7 patients), we found an effect size estimate of 0.16 (p < 0.05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.31], I2 = 0%). Our meta-analysis found GVS has a favourable effect on postural balance in PD patients, but due to limited literature and inconsistent methodologies, this favourable effect must be interpreted with caution.

Improving model's generalizability against domain shifts is crucial,especially for safety-critical applications such as autonomous driving.Real-world domain styles can vary substantially due to environment changes andsensor noises, but deep models only know the training domain style. Such domainstyle gap impedes model generalization on diverse real-world domains. Ourproposed Normalization Perturbation (NP) can effectively overcome this domainstyle overfitting problem. We observe that this problem is mainly caused by thebiased distribution of low-level features learned in shallow CNN layers. Thus,we propose to perturb the channel statistics of source domain features tosynthesize various latent styles, so that the trained deep model can perceivediverse potential domains and generalizes well even without observations oftarget domain data in training. We further explore the style-sensitive channelsfor effective style synthesis. Normalization Perturbation only relies on asingle source domain and is surprisingly effective and extremely easy toimplement. Extensive experiments verify the effectiveness of our method forgeneralizing models under real-world domain shifts.

Shiro Ono,1 Chikara Kurata,2 Nobushiro Nishimura,1 Hiromasa Kawashima,1 Ryo Yoneima,1 Yoshiaki Tai,1 Emiko Tatsumi,1 Makiko Miyamoto,1 Noritaka Yada,1 Kiyomi Yoshimoto,1 Kenji Nishio1 1Department of General Medicine, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan; 2Department of Clinical Laboratory, Nara Medical University, Nara, JapanCorrespondence: Kenji NishioDepartment of General Medicine, Nara Medical University, 840 Shijo-Cho, Kashihara City, Nara 634-8522, JapanTel +81-744-29-8905Fax +81-744-24-5739Email knishio@naramed-u.ac.jpAbstract: The macroenzyme form of aspartate aminotransferase (macro-AST) is formed by the binding of AST with immunoglobulins. Macro-AST excretion from serum is prolonged because of its high molecular weight, leading to increased AST activities. Because of the difficulty in detecting macro-AST through routine laboratory tests, affected patients often undergo repeated examinations, with associated anxiety. We report a case in which macro-AST was detected by assaying the patient’s serum after refrigeration at 4ºC for 3 days. The sample showed progressive loss of AST activity compared with that frozen in the refrigerator, indicating the presence of macro-AST, which was confirmed as a complex with IgG-κ. The cold storage method was validated using many samples obtained from several patients. Use of this simple method to detect macro-AST may avoid unnecessary examinations and patient anxiety even at primary care facilities.Keywords: isolated elevation of aspartate aminotransferase, macroenzyme, macro-AST, cold storage method

This study was designed to identify the relationship of four genes (GDF9, BMPR-IB, FecB and ESR) polymorphisms in the 3′UTR region with litter size and cashmere performance of Liaoning cashmere goa...

Chengyu Yin,1,2,* Qimiao Hu,1,* Boyu Liu,1,* Yan Tai,3 Xiaoli Zheng,1 Yuanyuan Li,1 Xuaner Xiang,1 Ping Wang,4 Boyi Liu11Department of Neurobiology and Acupuncture Research, The Third Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Neurology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2College of Life Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Science, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally tothis workPurpose: Complex regional pain syndrome type-I (CRPS-I) is a progressive and devastating pain condition, which remains clinically challenging. The mechanisms of CRPS-I still remain largely unknown. We aim to identify transcriptome profiles of genes relevant to pain mechanisms and major pathways involved in CRPS-I.Methods: A rat model of chronic post-ischemia pain (CPIP) was established to mimic CRPS-I. RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) was used to profile transcriptome of L4-6 dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) of a rat model of CRPS-I.Results: CPIP model rats developed persistent mechanical/thermal hyperalgesia in ipsilateral hind paw. RNA-Seq identified a total of 295 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 195 up- and 100 downregulated, in ipsilateral DRGs of CPIP rats compared with sham rats. The expression of several representative genes was confirmed by qPCR. Functional analysis of DEGs revealed that the most significant enriched biological processes of upregulated genes include response to lipopolysaccharide, inflammatory response and cytokine activity, which are all important mechanisms mediating pain. We further screened DEGs implicated in pain progress, genes enriched in small- to medium-sized sensory neurons and enriched in TRPV1-lineage nociceptors. By comparing our dataset with other published datasets of neuropathic or inflammatory pain models, we identified a core set of genes and pathways that extensively participate in CPIP and other neuropathic pain states.Conclusion: Our study identified transcriptome gene changes in DRGs of an animal model of CRPS-I and could provide insights into identifying promising genes or pathways that can be potentially targeted to ameliorate CRPS-I.Keywords: RNA-Seq, pain, CRPS-I, dorsal root ganglion, neuropathic pain &nbsp

Inspired by biological evolution, we explain the rationality of Vision Transformer by analogy with the proven practical Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) and derive that both of them have consistent mathematical representation. Analogous to the dynamic local population in EA, we improve the existing transformer structure and propose a more efficient EAT model, and design task-related heads to deal with different tasks more flexibly. Moreover, we introduce the spatial-filling curve into the current vision transformer to sequence image data into a uniform sequential format. Thus we can design a unified EAT framework to address multi-modal tasks, separating the network architecture from the data format adaptation. Our approach achieves state-of-the-art results on the ImageNet classification task compared with recent vision transformer works while having smaller parameters and greater throughput. We further conduct multi-modal tasks to demonstrate the superiority of the unified EAT, e.g., Text-Based Image Retrieval, and our approach improves the rank-1 by +3.7 points over the baseline on the CSS dataset.

Tai Y, Zhang LH, Gao JH, et al. Cancer Manag Res. 2019;11:2831–2848. The authors have advised due to an error that occurred inadvertently at the time of figure assembly, Figure 7A on page 2842 is incorrect. The correct Figure 7 is shown in Download Article. Figure 7 Celecoxib up-regulated E-cadherin via inhibition of COX-2–PGE2–EP2–p-Akt/p-ERK in Bel7402 cells. Compared with DMSO-treated and empty plasmid-transfected Bel7402 cells, overexpression of COX-2 by using COX-2 ORF plasmid induced reduction of E-cadherin expression and increase of p-Akt and p-ERK expression determined by IF (A) and Western blot (D). Compared with DMSO-treated cells, the expression of E-cadherin quantified by IF (B and C) and Western blot (E and F) was upregulated by EP2 inhibitor AH6809, Akt inhibitor MK2206, and ERK inhibitor AZD6244, but down-regulated by PGE2, which could be reversed by AH6809. Meanwhile, the expression of p-Akt and p-ERK was significantly suppressed by treatment with celecoxib and AH6809 but was enhanced by treatment with PGE2, which could be inhibited by AH6809 (E). Scale bar =50 μm for IF. The authors apologize for these errors and advise they do not affect the interpretation of data or the conclusion of the study. Read the original article

SummaryNeural precursor cells (NPCs) transplanted into the adult neocortex generate neurons that synaptically integrate with host neurons, supporting the possibility of achieving functional tissue repair. However, poor survival of transplanted NPCs greatly limits efficient engraftment. Here, we test the hypothesis that combining blood vessel-forming vascular cells with neuronal precursors improves engraftment. By transplanting mixed embryonic neocortical cells into adult mice with neocortical strokes, we show that transplant-derived neurons synapse with appropriate targets while donor vascular cells form vessels that fuse with the host vasculature to perfuse blood within the graft. Although all grafts became vascularized, larger grafts had greater contributions of donor-derived vessels that increased as a function of their distance from the host-graft border. Moreover, excluding vascular cells from the donor cell population strictly limited graft size. Thus, inclusion of vessel-forming vascular cells with NPCs is required for more efficient engraftment and ultimately for tissue repair.

Background Angiopoietin-Tie2 and nitric oxide pathway is crucial in tumor angiogenesis and closely correlates with tumor development, growth, and metastasis. This study aimed to investigate the angiopoietin-Tie2 and nitric oxide signaling of erythrocyte membrane in response to surgical trauma in head and neck cancer.Methods We prospectively enrolled the patients with histology-proven head and neck squamous cell carcinoma undergoing surgical resection of primary tumors at the medical center between August and November 2019. We measured the preoperative and postoperative levels of angiopoietin-1, angiopoietin-2 in plasma using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, nitric oxide in plasma using nitrate/nitrite colorimetric assays, and Tie2 phosphorylation in erythrocyte membrane using Western blotting. Results The plasma angiopoietin-1 was down-regulated from median 971.3 pg/mL (interquartile range [IQR]: 532.1 – 1569.3) to 417.9 (IQR: 270.5 – 597.3) after tumor resection ( p =0.0020). Conversely, the plasma angiopoietin-2 was enhanced from 1173.6 pg/mL (IQR: 977.7 – 1450.2) to 2353.7 (IQR: 1352.4 – 2954.3) after surgery ( p =0.0021), with a concomitant increase in plasma nitric oxide level from 7.73 μM (IQR: 5.39 – 10.06) to 10.50 (IQR: 7.65 – 14.18) after surgical resection ( p =0.0093). Subgroup analyses further showed the angiopoietin-Tie2 and nitric oxide signaling was significant only in stage III and IV cancer.Conclusions The dynamic change of angiopoietin-Tie2 signaling in erythrocyte membrane along with the enhanced nitric oxide in plasma after tumor resection suggests erythrocytes play a significant role in modulating surgery-induced angiogenesis, which may provide a novel marker for cancer surveillance and control.

Fang Gao,1 Qi Zhang,2 Yanan Li,1 Yanlei Tai,1 Xi Xin,3 Xiuli Wang,1 Qiujun Wang1 1Department of Anesthesiology, TheThird Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Children’s Hospital of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Anesthesiology, Tianjin Third Central Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic ofChina Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effect of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) on postoperative delirium (POD) in elderly patients with silent lacunar infarct and preliminarily to determine the relationship among TEAS, blood–brain barrier (BBB), neuroinflammation, and POD.Patients and methods: Sixty-four-old patients with silent lacunar infarct were randomly divided into two groups: group TEAS and control group (group C). Patients in the group TEAS received TEAS (disperse-dense waves; frequency, 2/100 Hz) on acupoints Hegu and Neiguan of both sides starting from 30 minutes before induction of anesthesia until the end of surgery, and the intensity was the maximum current that could be tolerated. In group C, electrodes were placed on the same acupoints before anesthesia induction, but no current was given. At 0 minute before the treatment of TEAS, 30 minutes after skin incision, and after completion of surgery (T1–3), blood samples were extracted to detect the concentration of serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin-6 (IL-6), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and S100β. We assessed patients for delirium and coma twice daily in the first 3 postoperative days using the Confusion Assessment Method for the intensive care unit and the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale.Results: This study preliminarily suggests that TEAS can reduce the development of POD in elderly patients with silent lacunar infarction (6.3% vs 25.0%; P=0.039). Compared with the baseline value at T1, the serum concentrations of IL-6, TNF-α, MMP-9, and S100β were significantly increased at T2–3 in both the groups (P

Wenpeng Liu,1,* Lei Kang,2,* Juqiang Han,3 Yadong Wang,1 Chuan Shen,1 Zhifeng Yan,4 Yanhong Tai,5 Caiyan Zhao1 1Department of Infectious Diseases, Third Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, China; 2Department of Nuclear Medicine, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, China; 3Institute of Liver Disease, Beijing Military General Hospital, Beijing, China; 4Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China; 5Department of Pathology, Hospital of PLA, Beijing, China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: Insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) is a well-studied oncogenic factor that promotes cell proliferation and energy metabolism and is overexpressed in numerous cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Aerobic glycolysis is a hallmark of cancer, and drugs targeting its regulators, including IGF-1R, are being developed. However, the mechanisms of IGF-1R inhibition and the physiological significance of the IGF-1R inhibitors in cancer cells are unclear. Materials and methods: Cell proliferation was evaluated by cell counting Kit-8 and colony formation assay. Western blot and real-time PCR were accordingly used to detect the relevant proteins, miRNA and gene expression. Luciferase reporter assays were used to illustrate the interaction between miR-342-3p and IGF-1R. The effect of miR-342-3p on glycolysis was determined by glucose uptake, ATP concentration, lactate generation, extracellular acidification rate and oxygen consumption rate assays. In vivo, subcutaneous tumor formation assay and PET were performed in nude mice. Results: In this study, we demonstrate that by directly targeting the 3’-UTR (3’-untranslated regions) of IGF-1R, microRNA-342-3p (miR-342-3p) suppresses IGF-1R-mediated PI3K/AKT/GLUT1 signaling pathway both in vitro and in vivo. Through suppression of IGF-1R, miR-342-3p dampens glycolysis by decreasing glucose uptake, lactate generation, ATP production, and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR), and increasing oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in hepatoma cells. Importantly, glycolysis regulated by miR-342-3p is critical for its regulating HCC growth both in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion: Our findings provide clues regarding the role of miR-342-3p as a tumor suppressor in liver cancer mainly through the inhibition of IGF-1R. Targeting IGF-1R by miR-342-3p could be a potential therapeutic strategy in liver cancer. Keywords: miR-342-3p, IGF-1R, liver cancer, glycolysis, metabolism, PET

Animal growth and development are regulated by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). However, the functions of lncRNAs in regulating cashmere fineness are poorly understood. To identify the key lncRNAs that are related to cashmere fineness in skin, we have collected skin samples of Liaoning cashmere goats (LCG) and Inner Mongolia cashmere goats (MCG) in the anagen phase, and have performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach on these samples. The high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analyses identified 437 novel lncRNAs, including 93 differentially expressed lncRNAs. We also identified 3,084 differentially expressed messenger RNAs (mRNAs) out of 27,947 mRNAs. Gene ontology (GO) analyses of lncRNAs and target genes in cis show a predominant enrichment of targets that are related to intermediate filament and intermediate filament cytoskeleton. According to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis, sphingolipid metabolism is a significant pathway for lncRNA targets. In addition, this is the first report to reveal the possible lncRNA&ndash, mRNA regulatory network for cashmere fineness in cashmere goats. We also found that lncRNA XLOC_008679 and its target gene, KRT35, may be related to cashmere fineness in the anagen phase. The characterization and expression analyses of lncRNAs will facilitate future studies on the potential value of fiber development in LCG.

Author(s): Chahine, Lana M; Siderowf, Andrew; Barnes, Janel; Seedorff, Nicholas; Caspell-Garcia, Chelsea; Simuni, Tanya; Coffey, Christopher S; Galasko, Douglas; Mollenhauer, Brit; Arnedo, Vanessa; Daegele, Nichole; Frasier, Mark; Tanner, Caroline; Kieburtz, Karl; Marek, Kenneth; The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative | Abstract: BackgroundImproved prediction of Parkinson's disease (PD) progression is needed to support clinical decision-making and to accelerate research trials.ObjectivesTo examine whether baseline measures and their 1-year change predict longer-term progression in early PD.MethodsParkinson's Progression Markers Initiative study data were used. Participants had disease duration ≤2 years, abnormal dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging, and were untreated with PD medications. Baseline and 1-year change in clinical, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and imaging measures were evaluated as candidate predictors of longer-term (up to 5 years) change in Movement Disorders Society-Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS) score and DAT specific binding ratios (SBR) using linear mixed-effects models.ResultsAmong 413 PD participants, median follow-up was 5 years. Change in MDS-UPDRS from year-2 to last follow-up was associated with disease duration (β= 0.351; 95% CI = 0.146, 0.555), male gender (β= 3.090; 95% CI = 0.310, 5.869), and baseline (β= -0.199; 95% CI = -0.315, -0.082) and 1-year change (β= 0.540; 95% CI = 0.423, 0.658) in MDS-UPDRS; predictors in the model accounted for 17.6% of the variance in outcome. Predictors of percent change in mean SBR from year-2 to last follow-up included baseline rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder score (β= -0.6229; 95% CI = -1.2910, 0.0452), baseline (β= 7.232; 95% CI = 2.268, 12.195) and 1-year change (β= 45.918; 95% CI = 35.994,55.843) in mean striatum SBR, and 1-year change in autonomic symptom score (β= -0.325;95% CI = -0.695, 0.045); predictors in the model accounted for 44.1% of the variance.ConclusionsBaseline clinical, CSF, and imaging measures in early PD predicted change in MDS-UPDRS and dopamine-transporter binding, but the predictive value of the models was low. Adding the short-term change of possible predictors improved the predictive value, especially for modeling change in dopamine-transporter binding.

For patients with incurable neurodegenerative disorders\ud such as Huntington’s (HD) and Parkinson’s disease,\ud cell transplantation has been explored as a potential\ud treatment option. Here, we present the first clinicopathological study of a patient with HD in receipt of\ud cell-suspension striatal allografts who took part in the\ud NEST-UK multicenter clinical transplantation trial. Using\ud various immunohistochemical techniques, we found a\ud discrepancy in the survival of grafted projection neurons\ud with respect to grafted interneurons as well as\ud major ongoing inflammatory and immune responses to\ud the grafted tissue with evidence of mutant huntingtin\ud aggregates within the transplant area. Our results indicate\ud that grafts can survive more than a decade posttransplantation,\ud but show compromised survival with\ud inflammation and mutant protein being observed\ud within the transplant site.

Delta cities worldwide are confronted with great challenges concerning flood risks, environmental pressures and other water-related urban issues. The complexity in both physical and social dimensions lies in diverse (and in many cases conflicting) values held by a wide variety of actors in spatial development. These values are shaped by the long-term impacts of natural forces, political powers, development ideologies, economic models, social structures, and local cultures. Defining the central role of “water” in structuring delta cities, this research applies the value concept as a particular lens to study how water is valued in each society through history. It argues that the recognition of diverse water values can help bridge the interplay between physical and societal systems within the delta, which can play a central role in developing urban planning and design strategies towards sustainable and liveable urban water environments.

In multiple myeloma, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has expanded our knowledge of genomic lesions, and highlighted a dynamic and heterogeneous composition of the tumor. Here we used NGS to characterize the genomic landscape of 418 multiple myeloma cases at diagnosis and correlate this with prognosis and classification. Translocations and copy number abnormalities (CNAs) had a preponderant contribution over gene mutations in defining the genotype and prognosis of each case. Known and novel independent prognostic markers were identified in our cohort of proteasome inhibitor and immunomodulatory drug-treated patients with long follow-up, including events with context-specific prognostic value, such as deletions of the PRDM1 gene. Taking advantage of the comprehensive genomic annotation of each case, we used innovative statistical approaches to identify potential novel myeloma subgroups. We observed clusters of patients stratified based on the overall number of mutations and number/type of CNAs, with distinct effects on survival, suggesting that extended genotype of multiple myeloma at diagnosis may lead to improved disease classification and prognostication. © 2018, The Author(s).

In this paper a system of depth-integrated equations for over-saturated debris flows on three-dimensional topography is derived. The lower layer is a saturated mixture of density preserving solid and fluid constituents, where the pore fluid is in excess, so that an upper fluid layer develops above the mixture layer. At the layer interface fluid mass exchange may exist and for this a parameterization is needed. The emphasis is on the description of the influence on the flow by the curvature of the basal surface, and not on proposing rheological models of the avalanching mass. To this end, a coordinate system fitted to the topography has been used to properly account for the geometry of the basal surface. Thus, the modeling equations have been written in terms of these coordinates, and then simplified by using (1) the depth-averaging technique and (2) ordering approximations in terms of an aspect ratio ϵ which accounts for the scale of the flowing mass. The ensuing equations have been complemented by closure relations, but any other such relations can be postulated. For a shallow two-layer debris with clean water in the upper layer, flowing on a slightly curved surface, the equilibrium free surface is shown to be horizontal

In this study, the aerodynamic characteristics of the complex air flows acting on a large cont iner ship model are numerically investigated by using a commercial CFD code. The main target is to reduce the air resistance in oblique winds, especially at the small angle of wind directions. Some container side-covers with different size and location are developed to shut the gap flow, and a center wall is also applied. The numerical results show that the air resistance at 30degrees of wind direction can be reduced significantly up to 50%, 30% and 15% by full side-covers, front-half side-covers and lower front-half side-cover, respectively.

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive/

Chung-King Hsu1,2, Mei-Hsiu Liao3, Yu-Tyng Tai4, Shing-Hwa Liu5, Keng-Liang Ou6, Hsu-Wei Fang7, I-Jung Lee8, Ruei-Ming Chen2,31Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, 2Cell Physiology and Molecular Image Research Center, Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Medical Center, 3Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Taipei Medical University, 4Department of Anesthesiology, Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Medical Center, 5Institute of Toxicology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, 6Graduate Institute of Biomedical Materials and Engineering, Taipei Medical University, 7Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, 8Division of Information and Herbarium, National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Taipei, TaiwanAbstract: Our previous study showed that Gusuibu (Drynaria fortunei J. Sm.) can stimulate osteoblast maturation. This study was further designed to evaluate the effects of nanoparticles prepared from the water extract of Gusuibu (WEG) on osteoblast survival and maturation. Primary osteoblasts were exposed to 1, 10, 100, and 1000 µg/mL nanoparticles of WEG (nWEG) for 24, 48, and 72 hours did not affect morphologies, viability, or apoptosis of osteoblasts. In comparison, treatment of osteoblasts with 1000 µg/mL WEG for 72 hours decreased cell viability and induced DNA fragmentation and cell apoptosis. nWEG had better antioxidant bioactivity in protecting osteoblasts from oxidative and nitrosative stress-induced apoptosis than WEG. In addition, nWEG stimulated greater osteoblast maturation than did WEG. Therefore, this study shows that WEG nanoparticles are safer to primary osteoblasts than are normal-sized products, and may promote better bone healing by protecting osteoblasts from apoptotic insults, and by promoting osteogenic maturation.Keywords: Gusuibu, nanoparticles, cell protection, osteoblast maturation

Aim: Multiple measurements of depression symptoms over time were more predictive of cardiovascular mortality than a single time measurement performed at baseline. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association of the course of depression symptoms, based on repeated assessments of depression symptoms over time, with left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) in patients on haemodialysis (HD). Methods: The level of depression symptoms in 61 patients on HD were prospectively assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) at baseline and at three intervals (5, 10, 15 months). Doppler echocardiographic examinations were performed at the end of follow up. Results: At the end of follow up, the patients were divided into three groups according to their course of depression symptoms: non-depression (n = 21), intermittent depression (n = 23) and persistent depression (n = 17). LVMI and LVFP were significantly increased in the persistent depression symptoms group compared to those of the non-depression symptoms group and the intermittent depression symptoms group. Persistent depression symptoms were independently associated with LVMI (β-coefficient = 0.347, P = 0.017) and LVFP (β-coefficient = 0.274, P = 0.048) after adjustment for age, sex, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, diabetes and interdialytic weight gain. Conclusion: In our study, persistent depression symptoms were associated with left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction. Our data may provide a more complete understanding of cardiovascular risk associated with depression symptoms in patients on HD.

Crack paths under both fatigue and fracture conditions are governed by the crack tip displacement field and the material deformation characteristics, including those influenced by metallurgical anisotropy. Experimental techniques such as thermoelasticity and photoelasticity have been successfully used to characterise the elastic stress fields around cracks but they do not take into account either plasticity or anisotropy. Considerable work has been carried out to characterise crack tip stress fields from displacement measurements. The current method of choice for obtaining displacement field data is digital image correlation (DIC) which has undergone significant advances in the recent years. The ease of use and capabilities of the technique for full field displacements has led to improved methods for characterising crack tip displacement fields based on data obtained from DIC. This paper gives an overview of some of the applications of DIC for crack tip characterisation such as K, T-stress and crack tip opening angle (CTOA) measurements as well as data obtained from 3D measurements of a propagating crack. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

Introduction Mirodenafil is a newly developed oral phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor, currently under investigation as a treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED). Aim We investigated the efficacy and safety of on demand mirodenafil therapy at fixed doses (50 and 100 mg) in Korean men with a broad range of ED. Methods A multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, parallel‐group, fixed‐dose study was conducted with 223 subjects who were randomized to placebo or mirodenafil at fixed doses of 50 or 100 mg for 12 weeks on an “as needed” basis. Main Outcome Measures Primary efficacy measures were scores on the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) Question 3 (Q3) and Question 4 (Q4). Secondary efficacy measures included all domain scores of the IIEF, Sexual Encounter Profile Question 2 (SEP2), Sexual Encounter Profile Question 3 (SEP3), the Global Assessment Question (GAQ), and the Life Satisfaction Checklist (LSC). Safety assessments included laboratory tests, vital signs, physical examination, 12‐lead electrocardiogram recordings, and patients’ reporting of adverse events. Results Mirodenafil 50 and 100 mg groups showed a significantly greater increase in IIEF Q3 ( P = 0.0001, P P Conclusions Mirodenafil, in doses of 50 or 100 mg, significantly improved erectile function and were well tolerated in a representative population of Korean men with broad‐spectrum ED of various etiologies and severities. Paick J‐S, Ahn TY, Choi HK, Chung W‐S, Kim JJ, Kim SC, Kim SW, Lee SW, Min KS, Moon KH, Park JK, Park K, Park NC, Suh J‐K, Yang DY, and Jung H‐G. Efficacy and safety of mirodenafil, a new oral phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor, for treatment of erectile dysfunction. J Sex Med 2008;5:2672–2680.

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Stimulation of the spinal cord has been shown to have great potential for improving function after motor deficits caused by injury or pathological conditions. Using a wide range of animal models, many studies have shown that stimulation applied to the neural networks intrinsic to the spinal cord can result in a dramatic improvement of motor ability, even allowing an animal to step and stand after a complete spinal cord transection. Clinical use of this technology, however, has been slow to develop due to the invasive nature of the implantation procedures and the difficulty of ascertaining specific sites of stimulation that would provide optimal amelioration of the motor deficits. Moreover, the development of tools available to control precise stimulation chronically via biocompatible electrodes has been limited. In this chapter, we outline the use of a multisite electrode array in the spinal rat model to identify and stimulate specific sites of the spinal cord to produce discrete motor behaviors in spinal rats. The results demonstrate that spinal rats can stand and step when the spinal cord is stimulated tonically via electrodes located at specific sites on the spinal cord. The quality of stepping and standing was dependent on the location of the electrodes on the spinal cord, the specific stimulation parameters, and the orientation of the cathode and anode. The spinal motor evoked potentials in selected muscles during standing and stepping are shown to be critical tools to study selective activation of interneuronal circuits via responses of varying latencies. The present results provide further evidence that the assessment of functional networks in the background of behaviorally relevant functional states is likely to be a physiological tool of considerable importance in developing strategies to facilitate recovery of motor function after a number of neuromotor disorders.

The relationship between the polymerization rate of various acrylates and methacrylates containing acid groups and their ability to hydrogen bond has been investigated by real-time infrared spectroscopy. The polymerization rate dependence on temperature of the acid-based acrylates and methacrylates is reduced compared to traditional (meth)acrylates with no groups capable of hydrogen bonding. For two of the acid containing monomers, polymerization rates actually decreased with an increase in temperature.

The photopolymerization of multifunctional thiol (trimethylolpropane tris(3-mercaptopropionate))/vinyl acrylate mixtures as a function of thiol content in the presence and absence of photoinitiators has been investigated using real-time FTIR, thin-film calorimetry, and 2D-COSY NMR. The addition of a multifunctional thiol to vinyl acrylate significantly enhances the conversion of the vinyl double bonds of vinyl acrylate due to the preferential addition of the thiyl radical to the vinyl group. Two separate free-radical polymerization processes, acrylate homopolymerization and thiol/vinyl ester copolymerization, occur simultaneously in thiol/vinyl acrylate mixtures. Thin-film calorimetry and 2D-COSY NMR results are consistent with real-time FTIR results, giving strong evidence for two simultaneous free-radical processes.

The relationship between the photopolymerization rate of hydroxyalkyl acrylates and their structure has been investigated. The polymerization rates of hydroxyalkyl acrylates are significantly higher than those observed for typical monofunctional acrylate monomers and rival those of multifunctional monomers. By polymerizing at several temperatures, it was shown that the enhanced rates are directly proportional to the degree of hydrogen bonding. Apparently, termination rates are greatly reduced by hydrogen bonding, which is present in both the unpolymerized monomer and the final polymer film.

California has adopted a set of VOC reactivity factors for regulatory purposes that is based on a model of the ozone formation process. These incremental reactivity factors (derived by Carter) describe the amount of ozone each exhaust VOC will form under a certain set of conditions in an urban atmosphere. The main objective of this study is to measure reactivity factors using smog chamber experiments, and to compare the measurements to the Carter factors. A new facility was constructed explicitly for this study. The facility has four identical smog chambers and a temperature-controlled enclosure for the chambers. The chambers are irradiated using a set of filtered xenon arc lamps to approximate “sunlight”. The reactivities of 14 individual VOCs representative of those found in automobile exhaust and several mixtures of VOCs have been measured. The measured and Carter-reactivity factors were highly correlated, suggesting that the chemical model used by Carter accounts for the reactivities of a wide range of compounds with dramatically different uncertainties in their mechanisms. The measured results, in general, are consistent with the Carter-reactivity factors for comparing the relative reactivities of VOCs in the atmosphere. However, additional kinetic and mechanistic studies of many VOC species including aromatic isomers are needed to improve reactivity scales.

Photolysis of 9,10-dihydro-9,10[1′,2′]benzenoanthracene-1′,4′-quinone, C20H12O2, in oxygenated acetone gives the novel photoproduct 9,10-dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11-one-12-spiro-2′-cyclopent-4′-ene-1′,3′- dione, C20H12O3. The reactant quinone molecule has ideal mm symmetry and lies on a crystallographic mirror plane in Pnma; the photoproduct molecule has ideal m symmetry, which is not utilized in packing in Pna21. This product is formed only in the presence of oxygen and a mechanism for its formation is proposed. Unreactivity in attempted solid-state photolysis can be rationalized in terms of crystal packing.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma can be classified by gene expression profiling into germinal center and activated B-cell subtypes with different prognoses after rituximab-CHOP. The importance of previously recognized prognostic markers, such as Bcl-2 protein expression and BCL2 gene abnormalities, has been questioned in the new therapeutic era. We analyzed Bcl-2 protein expression, and BCL2 and MYC gene abnormalities by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization in 327 patients with de novo disease treated with rituximab-CHOP. Isolated BCL2 and MYC rearrangements were not predictive of outcome in our patients as a whole, but only in those with the germinal center subtype of lymphoma. The prognostic relevance of isolated MYC rearrangements was weaker than that of BCL2 isolated translocations, but was probably limited by the rarity of the rearrangements. Seven of eight patients with double hit lymphoma had the germinal center subtype with poor outcome. The germinal center subtype patients with isolated BCL2 translocations had significantly worse outcome than the patients without BCL2 rearrangements (P=0.0002), and their outcome was similar to that of patients with the activated B-cell subtype (P=0.30), but not as bad as the outcome of patients with double hit lymphoma (P

X-ray crystal structure — solid state photoreactivity correlations are reported for 2,4,6-triisopropylthiobenzophenone ( 1a ) and its p -methoxy derivative 1b . The results reveal interesting differences in the geometry of γ-hydrogen atom abstraction for ketones and thiones.

9,10-Dihydro-9,10-ethenoanthracene-11,12-bis(diphenylmethanol) ( 1 ) forms stable crystalline complexes with ethanol, acetone and toluene. In solution, diol 1 undergoes the di-π-methane photorearrangement, but irradiation of the complexes in the crystalline state leads to a novel dehydration reaction. X-ray crystallography reveals the probable source of this difference in behavior: pre-organization of the hydroxyl groups in the solid state in a hydrogen-bonded arrangement that is particularly favorable for dehydration.

Triptycene-1,4-quinone ( 1 ) reacts photochemically in solution to give different products depending on the solvent employed and on the presence or absence of oxygen. The structures of the photoproducts have been elucidated by spectroscopic methods, independent synthesis and single crystal X-ray diffractometry, and possible mechanistic pathways leading to their formation are presented and discussed. Unexpectedly, quinone 1 was found to be photochemically inert in the crystalline state. The X-ray crystal structure of 1 reveals the probable reason for this behavior.

Although carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in tumor microenvironments have a critical role in immune cell modulation, their effects on the generation of regulatory dendritic cells (DCs) are still unclear. In this study, we initially show that CAFs derived from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumors facilitate the generation of regulatory DCs, which are characterized by low expression of costimulatory molecules, high suppressive cytokines production and enhanced regulation of immune responses, including T-cell proliferation impairment and promotion of regulatory T-cell (Treg) expansion via indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) upregulation. Our findings also indicate that STAT3 activation in DCs, as mediated by CAF-derived interleukin (IL)-6, is essential to IDO production. Moreover, IDO inhibitor, STAT3 and IL-6 blocking antibodies can reverse this hepatic CAF-DC regulatory function. Therefore, our results provide new insights into the mechanisms by which CAFs induce tumor immune escape as well as a novel cancer immunotherapeutic approach (for example, targeting CAFs, IDO or IL-6).

Anthraphos (trans-9,10-dihydro-9,10-ethanoanthracene-11, 12-bis(diphenylphosphine) (3), a conformationally rigid, C2-symmetric diphosphine, has been prepared in three steps, the key step being the Diels-Alder reaction between anthracene and ethyndiylbis(diphenylphosphine oxide). Resolution of anthraphos followed by formation of the [Rh(COD)(anthraphos)]BF4 complex afforded an optically active hydrogenation catalyst precursor whose crystal and molecular structure and absolute configuration were determined by single crystal X-ray diffractometry. Use of the (R,R)-(−) form of the catalyst precursor to hydrogenate (Z)-α-acetamidocinnamic acid gave (S)-(+)-N-acetylphenylalanine in 90% enantiomeric excess.

In order to provide experimental evidence on the stereoelectronic requirements for intramolecular hydrogen atom abstraction by carbonyl oxygen, N-(tert-butyl)succinimide, 1, was investigated by the crystal structure – reactivity correlation method. In this method, the success or failure of a given reaction in the crystalline state is correlated with the geometric parameters associated with the process as determined by X-ray crystallography. In the case of N-(tert-butyl)succinimide, the crystal and molecular structure shows that the molecule adopts a conformation in which there are very close contacts (d = 2.17–2.24 Å) between the carbonyl oxygen atoms and certain γ-hydrogen atoms on the tert-butyl group. In accord with these close contacts, ultraviolet irradiation of N-(tert-butyl)succinimide in the crystalline state leads to transfer of one of the γ-hydrogen atoms from carbon to oxygen. This produces a 1,4-biradical which closes to form a cyclobutanol, and the cyclobutanol undergoes ring opening to afford the final stable product, tetrahydro-1H-azepine-2,5-dione, 2. The crystal and molecular structure of photoproduct 2 is also reported. In contrast to many solid state transformations, there was no discernable melting of the crystals during reaction, and complete conversions of 1 into 2 could be achieved. The isolated chemical yield of photoproduct 2 from the solid state reaction (79%) is in fact considerably higher than that reported by Kanaoka and Hatanaka for the corresponding solution phase process (49%). This permitted the solid state reaction to be followed to 100% conversion by X-ray powder diffractometry, which showed that the process is a single crystal-to-polycrystalline transformation involving a regular and progressive conversion of 1 into 2 with no obvious diffraction peaks that might be attributable to the intermediate cyclobutanol.

Irradiation of crystals of salts formed between 4-(2,4,6-triisopropylbenzoyl)benzoic acid ( 1a ) and various optically active amines is shown to lead to optically active Norrish type II photoproducts in low to moderate enantiomeric excesses, a process in which the ammonium ion has acted as an “ionic chiral handle.” X-ray crystallography reveals that the salts crystallize with two independent, mirror image-related molecules of the benzophenone moiety in the asymmetric unit, and this is suggested to be the source of the low ee s observed.

Based on solid state structure-reactivity correlation studies and on deuterium labeling experiments, it is concluded that the photochemical formation of thiobenzanilides 2a–d from monothioimides 1a–d does not involve initial γ-hydrogen atom abstraction as originally suggested in the literature. Alternative mechanistic possibilities are presented and discussed.

This paper mainly uses the method of Urban Morphology to study the transformation process of urban form of Xiguan historical district in Guangzhou, P.R.China. The paper tries to analyze the transformation process through studying the background of politics, economy, society, culture and natural condition of Xiguan area. It further discusses the structural feature and transformation rule, as well as analyzes the hidden dynamics. Considering time as the main factor, the paper mainly focuses on two aspects—form elements and dynamics, trying to study the relation between each other. The paper aims at concluding the overall transformation feature and rule of Xiguan area and bringing up some perspectives on the protection and continuity of traditional urban fabric and culture in the process of urban renewal. The body of this paper is organized through tracing the transformation of urban form in different periods of time. First, to study the foundation of form transformation through demonstrating the construction background of Xiguan area before Qing Dynasty; Second, to discuss separately the form feature of Qing Dynasty, the period of the Republic of China and the period after the foundation of New China. The form feature is mainly analyzed in several aspects as the street feature, property plot, building type, land use and street space; Finally, to summarize the transformation rule on the basis of overall analysis of transformation feature of Xiguan area, and then to conclude the main dynamics of form transformation, as well as to discuss the practical significance for the protection of Xiguan historical district and urban renewal.