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The aim of this study was to determine the osteogenic activity and mechanism of soybean peptide VVELLKAFEEKF (SOP) and the potential relationship between SOP and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). The results show that SOP promotes MC3T3-E1 cell proliferation by altering cell progression. SOP induced cell differentiation and mineralization in a dose-dependent manner at 0.7–7 μM. Moreover, SOP stimulates osteoblast differentiation, which may be achieved through the activation of p38-MAPK and Smad2/3 signaling pathways. Furthermore, treatment with a TβRI inhibitor (SB525334) inhibited the phosphorylation levels of p38 and Smad2/3, which indicates the involvement of TβRI in the process of osteoblast differentiation caused by SOP. Besides, in non-FBS-cultured MC3T3-E1 cells, SOP and TGF-β1 promoted the phosphorylation of Smad2/3 and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, but the effect was lost when SOP was incubated separately, indicating that SOP stimulated osteoblast differentiation by promoting TGF-β1 activity. In vivo, SOP significantly restores bone mineral density loss and behavioral deficits in a model of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) in zebrafish. These results suggest that SOP may have the function of promoting bone remodeling and may be used as a potential active factor for functional food development to prevent osteoporosis.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a highly heterogeneous disease, with patients at different tumor staging having different survival times. Metabolic reprogramming is one of the key hallmarks of cancer; however, the significance of metabolism-related genes in the prognosis and therapy outcomes of OC is unclear. In this study, we used weighted gene coexpression network analysis and differential expression analysis to screen for metabolism-related genes associated with tumor staging. We constructed the metabolism-related gene prognostic index (MRGPI), which demonstrated a stable prognostic value across multiple clinical trial end points and multiple validation cohorts. The MRGPI population had its distinct molecular features, mutational characteristics, and immune phenotypes. In addition, we investigated the response to immunotherapy in MRGPI subgroups and found that patients with low MRGPI were prone to benefit from anti-PD-1 checkpoint blockade therapy and exhibited a delayed treatment effect. Meanwhile, we identified four candidate therapeutic drugs (ABT-737, crizotinib, panobinostat, and regorafenib) for patients with high MRGPI, and we evaluated the pharmacokinetics and safety of the candidate drugs. In summary, the MRGPI was a robust clinical feature that could predict patient prognosis, immunotherapy response, and candidate drugs, facilitating clinical decision making and therapeutic strategy of OC.

Aging is a complex process that significantly impacts the immune system. The aging-related decline of the immune system, termed immunosenescence, can lead to disease development, including cancer. The perturbation of immunosenescence genes may characterize the associations between cancer and aging. However, the systematical characterization of immunosenescence genes in pan-cancer remains largely unexplored. In this study, we comprehensively investigated the expression of immunosenescence genes and their roles in 26 types of cancer. We developed an integrated computational pipeline to identify and characterize immunosenescence genes in cancer based on the expression profiles of immune genes and clinical information of patients. We identified 2218 immunosenescence genes that were significantly dysregulated in a wide variety of cancers. These immunosenescence genes were divided into six categories based on their relationships with aging. Besides, we assessed the importance of immunosenescence genes in clinical prognosis and identified 1327 genes serving as prognostic markers in cancers. BTN3A1, BTN3A2, CTSD, CYTIP, HIF1AN, and RASGRP1 were associated with ICB immunotherapy response and served as prognostic factors after ICB immunotherapy in melanoma. Collectively, our results furthered the understanding of the relationship between immunosenescence and cancer and provided insights into immunotherapy for patients.

The present study intended to investigate the generic nature of visual aesthetic experience. Researchers have not agreed upon what constitutes visual aesthetic experience, and the present study proposed that visual aesthetic experience is comprised of at least two components: enhanced visual processing and positive emotional and reward experience. We applied a general activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis to 42 functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments described in 37 published studies. The general activation likelihood estimation revealed activation in the left orbitofrontal cortices and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex, which was thought to be related to emotional and reward processes, and activation in the right fusiform gyrus. In addition, a conjunction analysis of passive viewing tasks and tasks with explicit instructions showed activation in the anterior cingulate cortex/orbitofrontal cortex, and contrast analysis revealed stronger activation in the anterior cingulate cortex/orbitofrontal cortex during the passive viewing task without explicit instructions to make aesthetic evaluations, suggesting that stronger emotional experiences occur under such conditions. A conjunction analysis of groups with different cultural backgrounds showed activation in the ventral anterior cingulate cortex/orbitofrontal cortex, suggesting that there are universal cultural components of visual aesthetic experience. Together, our findings complement the existing literature by including all kinds of visual stimuli that could induce an aesthetic experience in the viewer and contributes to our understanding of aesthetics by showing that it involves enhanced visual sensation and positive emotional and reward experience.

NPRL2 (nitrogen permease regulator like 2) is a component of the GATOR1(GAP activity towards rags complex 1) proteins, which is an inhibitor of the amino acid-sensing branch of the mTORC1 pathway. GATOR1 complex variations were reported to correlate with familial focal epilepsy with variable foci (FFEVF). However, FFEVF caused by NPRL2variants has not been widely explored. Here, we describe a variant, 339+2T>C, in NPRL2identified by trio whole-exome sequencing (WES) in a family. This splicing variant that occurred at the 5′ end of exon 3 was confirmed by minigene assays, which affected alternative splicing and led to exon 3 skipping in NPRL2. Our cases presented multiple seizure types (febrile seizures, infantile spasms, focal seizures, or focal to generalized tonic-clonic seizures). Electroencephalogram (EEG) showed frequent discharges in the left frontal and central regions. A favorable prognosis was achieved in response to vitamin B6 and topiramate when the patient was seven months old. Our study expands the phenotype and genotype spectrum of FFEVF and provides solid diagnostic evidence for FFEVF.

Background: For the cooling system of the traditional new-type engine and new-energy vehicle, the water pump is the core component. If the design of the water pump is not reasonable, the engine will be overcooled or overheated, which will affect the efficiency of the engine. Therefore, it is significant to propose a design method of electronic water pump for automobiles based on active regulation. Objective: In this study, an electric water pump was designed according to the following working condition: n = 4200r/min Q = 90L/min, and H #8805: 4.4m. The flow, head, and efficiency and power of this electric water pump will be discussed. And a brushless, direct current motor for this pump was designed and analyzed. Methods: The flow details of the pump, such as pressure distribution, velocity distribution, and turbulent kinetic energy distribution were obtained by Pumplinx. The head, efficiency, and power of the pump were established by the analysis of the flow field of the pump. Then, based on the working conditions of the pump mentioned above, a brushless direct current motor for the pump was designed by Maxwell and its performance was also analyzed. Results: The experimental results showed that the maximum efficiency of the motor reached 72%, the maximum efficiency point of the motor was near the rated speed, and the efficiency of the motor at rated power was 66.31%. Conclusion: The results showed that the complex condition of running water inside the pump can be exactly stimulated by the computational fluid dynamics technique, especially about the pump head and its efficiency, which provided the theoretical foundation for the later application research and development of automotive electronic water pump.

Accurate acquisition of longitudinal and lateral velocity of the vehicle plays an important role in the modern automobile control system. In this paper, the vehicle speed test system is composed of multiple sensors, data acquisition board (NI cDAQ9137) and LabVIEW software. The real-time acquisition of front-wheel angle, wheel speed, longitudinal acceleration, lateral acceleration, and yaw velocity of the hub-motor vehicle is completed by using the speed measuring system. Based on the real road test results, the vehicle speed estimation is obtained by Kalman filter technology and compared with the reference vehicle dynamics model. The comparison results show that the vehicle speed estimation has high accuracy and can meet the requirements of state parameter estimation. The algorithm has the advantages of simple structure, small computation and easy implementation and can provide more information for the automobile control system.

The brushless DC hub motor is an important part of the wheeled electric vehicle. It has the advantages of simple structure, reliable operation, high efficiency and good speed regulation performance. Based on the mathematical model of brushless DC motor (BLDCM), the ontology model of BLDCM is established based on Matlab2016/Simulink environment combined with S-function. Then the model of speed-current double closed-loop PID, fuzzy adaptive PID and sliding mode control system of brushless DC hub motor is established, and the control system of BLDCM is simulated according to the demand of the electric vehicle. The results show that the sliding mode control system has a good control effect and lays a solid foundation for the design of the actual control system.

According to the characteristics of an electric vehicle with hub motors, LabVIEW vehicle test system was developed based on GPS/INS integrated navigation system. Based on the dynamics of vehicle system, the estimation of centre-of-mass lateral deviation was designed. Firstly, the universal data acquisition card and the LabVIEW software were used to build the testing system of an electric vehicle with hub motors. The data parameters of GPS/INS integrated navigation system were collected and stored in realtime. Secondly, the dynamic simulation method was used to build a vehicle model with seven degrees of freedom to estimate the driving state parameters. Finally, the experimental data and simulation results were contrasted to analyse the accuracy of the simulation experiment. The experimental results show that the test bed system worked effectively and its ability of data collection and analysis has been effectively improved. The estimation of vehicle state parameter is accurate, which lays a good foundation for the research on electric vehicles with hub motors in future.

Background: The power performance of an electric vehicle is the basic parameter. Traditional test equipment, such as the expensive chassis dynamometer, not only increases the cost of testing but also makes it impossible to measure all the performance parameters of an electric vehicle. Objective: A set of convenient, efficient and sensitive power measurement system for electric vehicles is developed to obtain the real-time power changes of hub-motor vehicles under various operating conditions, and the dynamic performance parameters of hub-motor vehicles are obtained through the system. Methods: Firstly, a set of on-board power test system is developed by using virtual instrument (Lab- VIEW). This test system can obtain the power changes of hub-motor vehicles under various operating conditions in real-time and save data in real-time. Then, the driving resistance of hub-motor vehicles is analyzed, and the power performance of hub-motor vehicles is studied in depth. The power testing system is proposed to test the input power of both ends of the driving motor, and the chassis dynamometer is combined to test so that the output efficiency of the driving motor can be easily obtained without disassembly. Finally, this method is used to carry out the road test and obtain the vehicle dynamic performance parameters. Results: The real-time current, voltage and power, maximum power, acceleration time and maximum speed of the vehicle can be obtained accurately by using the power test system in the real road experiment. Conclusion: The maximum power required by the two motors reaches about 9KW, and it takes about 20 seconds to reach the maximum speed. The total power required to maintain the maximum speed is about 7.8kw, and the maximum speed is 62km/h. In this article, various patents have been discussed.

Tianqi Pingchan Granule (TPG), as a traditional Chinese medicine, is used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. L-DOPA-induced dyskinesia (LID) is mentioned as a debilitating motor complication in the course of Parkinson's disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of TPG on LID via the pathway of the glymphatic system.

The genetic generalized epilepsies (GGEs) have been proved to generate from genetic impact by twin studies and family studies. The genetic mechanisms of generalized epilepsies are always updating over time. Although the genetics of GGE is complex, there are always new susceptibility genes coming up as well as copy number variations which can lead to important breakthroughs in exploring the problem. At the same time, the development of ClinGen fades out some of the candidate genes. This means we have to figure out what accounts for a reliable gene for GGE, in another word, which gene has sufficient evidence for GGE. This will improve our understanding of the genetic mechanisms of GGE. In this review, important up-to-date genetic mechanisms of GGE were discussed.

Graphene nanosheets/polyurethane (GNS/PU) was prepared in situ by polymerization technique for the manufacture of PU safety shoes soles. The graphene nanosheets/polyurethane composites were characterized for their mechanical properties, thermal conductivity and abrasion resistance, and comparison is made with those of the neat polyurethane. The microstructural properties of GNS/PU were characterized by SEM. The results show that with the increase of the amount of graphene within the range of weight-percentages analyzed, the tensile strength of the composites gradually increases. The tensile strength of the GNS/PU composites increased to 64.14 MPa with 2 wt% GNS, compared with 55.1 MPa for neat PU. When the graphene sheets reached 2 wt%, the abrasion volume reached 71 mm3. Compared with the pure PU, the wear performance of GNS/PU composites was significantly improved.

In order to study the braking performance of mining dump truck, the modeling of the oil–gas suspension, front and rear brake of the dump truck were carried out first. Then the virtual prototype model of the dump truck was established in multibody dynamic simulation software. The simulation of braking and emergency braking performance, brake deviation on the flat road, and 9% downhill road were carried out. The brake in driving performance, emergency brake performance, disc brake retardance performance, transmission retardance performance, and hydraulic braking system response time were carried out by the real vehicle experiment, respectively. The result shows that the clearance elimination and pressure rise time of braking system are slightly long, especially the clearance elimination time, so the oil system should have an improvement. At the same time, the braking force distribution of the front and the rear is not reasonable, and the front wheel braking torque is slightly insufficient. After solving these problems by authors’ project team, the braking performance of the mine dump truck has been improved significantly.

The vehicle performance test system is usually an indispensable part of the automobile industry. Its performance test results are an important indicator to measure the performance of vehicles. By analysing and comparing the characteristics of performance test system of traditional automobile and electric vehicle, the development direction of vehicle performance test system is given. This paper introduces the development status of vehicle performance testing system in foreign countries from the aspects of universalisation, standardisation and high performance, and puts forward some opinions on how to strengthen international technical cooperation and exchanges and constantly narrow the gap between China and international testing level.

As people's incomes increase, the number of cars is increasing, and global warming, energy depletion and ecological crisis are intensifying. Electric vehicles have received our attention. Countries have successively issued a ban on the sale of fuel vehicles, and plans to achieve zero emissions of automobiles in 2030-2050. Motor is an important part of electric vehicle. It introduces all kinds of motors for electric vehicles. Brushless DC motor (BLDC) will be widely used in the future development for its superior performance. Then the paper describes the structure, working principle and control method of the brushless DC motor in detail. Brushless DC motors will become more sophisticated as technology evolves.

The underlying mechanism of modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) treatment for drug-resistant and catatonic schizophrenia remains unclear. Here, we aim to investigate whether MECT exerts its antipsychotic effects through elevating N-acetylaspartate (NAA) concentration measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). Multiple-voxel 1H-MRS was acquired in the bilateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and thalamus to obtain measures of neurochemistry in 32 MECT, 34 atypical antipsychotic-treated schizophrenic patients, and 34 healthy controls. We found that both MECT and atypical antipsychotic treatments showed significant antipsychotic efficacy. MECT and atypical antipsychotic treatments reversed the reduced NAA/creatine ratio (NAA/Cr) in the left PFC and left thalamus in schizophrenic patients compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, the NAA/Cr ratio after treatments was significant higher in the MECT group, but not in the medication group. Our findings demonstrate that eight times of MECT elevated the relative NAA concentration to display neuroprotective effect, which may be the underlying mechanism of rapid antipsychotic efficacy.

We show that optical solitons can be obtained with a one-dimensional optomechanical array that consists of a chain of periodically spaced identical optomechanical systems. Unlike conventional optical solitons, which originate from nonlinear polarization, the optical soliton here stems from a new mechanism, namely, phonon–photon interaction. Under proper conditions, the phonon–photon induced nonlinearity that refers to the optomechanical nonlinearity will exactly compensate the dispersion caused by photon hopping of adjacent optomechanical systems. Moreover, the solitons are capable of exhibiting very low group velocity, depending on the photon hopping rate, which may lead to many important applications, including all-optical switches and on-chip optical architecture. This work may extend the range of optomechanics and nonlinear optics and provide a new field to study soliton theory and develop corresponding applications.

AbstractCronobacter sakazakii(formerly Enterobacter sakazakii) is an opportunistic pathogen that causes meningitis, sepsis, and necrotizing enterocolitis in neonates and infants through consumption of contaminated milk-based foods. In this study, the prevalence of C. sakazakiiin 705 retail milk-based infant and baby food samples was investigated in 12 cities in Shaanxi, China, in 2010 and 2012. One hundred and nineteen samples (16.9%) were C. sakazakiipositive. The isolates were further characterized for antimicrobial susceptibility to 14 antibiotics, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles, and presence of the virulence genes. Samples of brand W, Y, A, and G in 2010 and 2012 were C. sakazakiipositive. All isolates recovered in 2010 and 2012 were susceptible to levofloxacin and cefoperazone. In 2012, no isolate was resistant to gentamicin, cefoxitin, chloramphenicol, gatifloxacin, ciprofloxacin, and ceftriaxone. Antibiotic resistance of the isolates was most commonly found to rifampicin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, streptomycin, tetracycline, and ampicillin in both 2010 and 2012, except to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole in 2012. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles indicated that C. sakazakiiisolates were genotypically diverse, although these isolates were prevalent in infant and baby foods with the same brand. A total of 34 virulence gene profiles of the C. sakazakiiisolates in 2010 and 2012 were detected. Isolates that co-carried hly-ompX-eitCBAD-iucABCD/iutAgenes in 2012 were significantly (p < 0.05) more prevalent than those in 2010. The results added new epidemiological evidence for the widespread occurrence of C. sakazakiiin retail milk-based infant and baby foods and this should be an indicator of potential health risk for consumers.

Epilepsy is a serious chronic neurologic disorder characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures resulting from abnormal and highly synchronous neuronal discharges within the brain. Small noncoding RNAs, called microRNAs, play vital roles in epileptogenesis, with potential contributions as valuable biomarkers and targets for the treatment of epilepsy. To maintain cellular homeostasis, cellular components, such as organelles, proteins, protein complexes/oligomers, and pathogens, are delivered to the lysosome for degradation through a process called autophagy, which plays either a protective or a harmful role under epileptic stress. Several autophagic mechanisms have been implicated in epileptogenesis, including the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, aberrant substrate accumulation, and the formation of epileptic networks. In addition, the regulation of autophagy through microRNAs (miRNAs) represents a novel posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism through ‘autophagamiRNAs’. The correlation between autophagy and miRNA has increased our understanding of the underlying pathogenesis of human diseases. Here, we review the current findings regarding the correlations between miRNA, autophagy, and epilepsy to provide a solid foundation for further examination of the miRNA-autophagy pathway involved in epilepsy pathophysiology.

A multi-wall carbon nanotube modified glassy carbon electrode (MWCNTs/GCE) has been prepared. The electrochemical behavior of scutellarin at the modified electrode and its electroanalytical method have been studied. It was showed that in 0.20 mol/L Na2HPO4-NaH2PO4 buffer solution (pH=7.4) MWCNTs/GCE exhibited excellent catalytic and enhancement effect on the electrochemical oxidation of scutellarin, the sensitivity increaced 23 times compared with that at bare GCE. The measurement parameters were optimized. Under the optimal conditions, the linear range of scutellarin concentration was 4.0×10-6-1.0×10-4 mol/L (R=0.9991) with a detection limit of 8.2×10-7 mol/L(S/N =3), and the RSD for 4.0×10-5 mol/L scutellarin solution was 1.8% (n=11). This method was successfully used in the determination of scutellarin in injection and tablets.

The sphygmus is the external reflection of many important information such as the conditions of heart and blood vessels, and the sphygmus wave contains rich physiological information as well, so extracting the pulse information accurately is of great medical significance. In this paper, a sphygmus sensor based on FBG is designed and the description of the production process is given. The sphygmus sensor can overcome some shortcomings of piezoelectric sensors, such as electromagnetic interference, and it also can be weaved into the clothes, laying the groundwork for using FBG to monitor the sound of heart in smart clothing. The experiment shows that the sphygmus sensor can accurately collect the pulse signals and the pulse wave, and the experiment error is less than 1 times/min.

Biochar, a solid coproduct from the thermochemical production of bioenergy, has been reported to increase nutrient availability in soils through increased cation retention and decreased phosphate adsorption. The objectives of this study were to determine biochar effects on N and P availability in the presence and absence of external nutrient inputs. Biochar was obtained from hydrothermal pyrolysis of corn cobs at 305°C with 20 min of retention time. Biochar was added to two soils at three biochar rates (0, 2, and 20 g/kg) in combination with either two N rates (0 and 100 mg/kg) or two P rates (0 and 20 mg/kg) and incubated for 56 days. Soils were extracted for Mehlich-3 P and KCl-extractable NO3-N and NH4-N at 0, 3, 10, 17, 28, and 56 days after soil amendment. Biochar application at 20 g/kg increased NH4-N concentrations by 1.1 to 4.8 mg kg−1during the first 10 days and consistently decreased NO3-N recovery by 5 to 10 mg kg−1for the duration of the study. Biochar decreased Mehlich-3 P concentrations in soil by 0.9 mg kg−1in the absence of P additions and increased Mehlich-3 P concentrations by 3.3 mg kg−1when added with a P source. Furthermore, biochar increased Mehlich-3-extractable P by 5.4 mg kg−1in the soil when applied with N fertilizer. Results indicate that biochar-amended soils may need additional N after biochar addition to maximize crop production.

Alcohol abuse induced liver damage are closely related to oxidative stress, several efforts have been made to quench free radicals produced in the liver. Heteropolymeric soybean seed ferritin has been proved to protect DNA from oxidative damage. However, the roles of homopolymeric apoferritin in quenching free radicals have been neglected so far. In order to improve the ferroxidase activity of ferritin, we have prepared apo ferritin by removing iron core from the cavity. In this study, the roles of apo shrimp ferritin (Marsupenaeus japonicusferritin, MjFer) and human H chain ferritin (HuHF) in attenuating the hydroxyl radicals in vitroand in vivohas been investigated. Results showed that MjFer was able to quench the free radicals produced by iron oxidation more efficiently than HuHF in vitro. Animal studies using a mouse model of alcohol-induced acute liver injury revealed that MjFer is much more efficacious than HuHF in alleviating the liver injury, by attenuating oxidative stress and regulating Nrf2/HO1 expression. Accordingly, the higher activity of MjFer may be attributed to its faster iron oxidative rate than HuHF, which may help improve the intestinal integrity, and reduce abnormal iron absorption. As expected, iron contents in the liver of MjFer and HuHF group are much lower than that of model group, further alleviating the liver damage. These findings suggest that apoferritin may be a promising candidate for alcohol-induced liver injury.

Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic neurological diseases. Despite the great variety and prevalence of antiepileptic drug treatments, one-third of epilepsies remain drug resistant. The frontal lobe is extensive, and frontal lobe seizures are difficult to locate, which increases the difficulty of the preoperative localization of the epileptogenic zone. Case presentation: Two previously healthy girls with refractory frontal lobe epilepsy showed significant perfusion abnormalities in the right frontal lobe using the cerebral blood perfusion (CBF) quantitative analysis system. They became seizure-free after lesionectomy of the frontal lobe by ASL combined with electroencephalography (EEG) rapid localization. The histopathological diagnosis was focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type IIa and IIb. Conclusions: The positive outcome suggests that the combined use of ASL with EEG could be a beneficial option for the presurgical evaluation of pediatric epilepsy.

We study the ground state properties of the extended hard-core Bose--Hubbard model in a two-dimensional Shastry--Sutherland lattice by quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The effects of the geometric frustration, described by the ratio $t^{\prime}/t$ between hopping integrals along the nearest-neighbor links and the diagonal links, are studied. We find that for small values of frustration amplitude $t^{\prime}/t$, a checkerboard solid state emerges at $\rho = 1/2$; for large values of frustration amplitude $t^{\prime}/t$, a solid state emerges at $\rho = 1/2$ with one boson per dimer (dimers on diagonal links); for intermediate values of frustration amplitude $t^{\prime}/t$, besides the $\rho = 1/2$ solid state, the $\rho = 1/3,2/3$ solid states emerge. No stable supersolid state is observed in our calculations. At half filling, we find solid-superfluid-solid phase transition as the frustration amplitude $t^{\prime}/t$ is increased.

Parapharyngeal abscess (PPA)-like lesion is a very rare manifestation of Kawasaki disease (KD). Here we report a Chinese case of KD initially mimicking PPA, which is the first one reported in Asia.