Search

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a key nuclear receptor transcription factor that is highly expressed in trophoblastic cells during embryonic attachment and is accompanied by rapid cell proliferation and increased lipid accumulation. We previously showed that the autophagy pathway is activated in cells after activation of PPARγ, accompanied by increased lipid accumulation. In this study, we used PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone and inhibitor GW9662, as well as autophagy activator rapamycin and inhibitor 3-methyladenine, to unravel the probable mechanism of PPARγ engaged in lipid metabolism in sheep trophoblast cells (STCs). After 12 h, 24 h, and 48 h of drug treatment, the levels of autophagy-related proteins were detected by Western blot, the triglyceride content and MDA level of cells were detected by colorimetry, and the lipid droplets and lysosomes were localized by immunofluorescence. We found that PPARγ inhibited the activity of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in STCs for a certain period of time, promoted the increase of autophagy and lysosome formation, and enhanced the accumulation of lipid droplets and triglycerides. Compared with cells whose PPARγ function is activated, blocking autophagy before activating PPARγ will hinder lipid accumulation in STCs. Pretreatment of cells with rapamycin promoted autophagy with results similar to rosiglitazone treatment, while inhibition of autophagy with 3-methyladenine reduced lysosome and lipid accumulation. Based on these observations, we conclude that PPARγ can induce autophagy by blocking the mTOR pathway, thereby promoting the accumulation of lipid droplets and lysosomal degradation, providing an energy basis for the rapid proliferation of trophoblast cells during embryo implantation. In brief, this study partially revealed the molecular regulatory mechanism of PPARγ, mTOR pathway, and autophagy on trophoblast cell lipid metabolism, which provides a theoretical basis for further exploring the functional regulatory network of trophoblast cells during the attachment of sheep embryos.

Objectives. Evodia rutaecarpa (ER) is a well-known herbal Chinese medicine traditionally used for analgesia in dysmenorrhea, headaches, abdominal pain, etc. Notably, the analgesic effect of wine-processed Evodia rutaecarpa (PER) was more potent than that of raw ER. This research aimed to investigate the mechanism and pharmacodynamic substance basis of raw ER and PER on smooth muscle cells of dysmenorrhea mice. Methods. Metabolomics methods based on UPLC-Q-TOF-MS were utilized to analyse the differential components of ER before and after wine processing. Afterwards, the uterine smooth muscle cells were isolated from the uterine tissue of dysmenorrhea and normal mice. The isolated dysmenorrhea uterine smooth muscle cells were randomly divided into four groups: model group, 7-hydroxycoumarin group (1 mmol/L), chlorogenic acid (1 mmol/L), and limonin (50 μmol/L). The normal group consisted of the isolated normal mouse uterine smooth muscle cells, which were repeated 3 times in each group. The cell contraction and the expression of P2X3 and Ca2+ in vitro were determined using immunofluorescence staining and laser confocal; ELISA was used for detection of PGE2, ET-1, and NO content after 7-hydroxycoumarin, chlorogenic acid, and limonin administered for 24 h. Results. The metabolomics results suggested that seven differential compounds were identified in the extracts of raw ER and PER, including chlorogenic acid, 7-hydroxycoumarin, hydroxy evodiamine, laudanosine, evollionines A, limonin, and 1-methyl-2-[(z)-4-nonenyl]-4 (1H)-quinolone. The in vitro results showed that 7-hydroxycoumarin, chlorogenic acid, and limonin were able to inhibit cell contraction and PGE2, ET-1, P2X3, and Ca2+ in dysmenorrhea mouse uterine smooth muscle cells and increase the content of NO. Conclusion. Our finding suggested that the compounds of the PER were different from those of the raw ER, and 7-hydroxycoumarin, chlorogenic acid, and limonin could improve dysmenorrhea in mice whose uterine smooth muscle cell contraction was closed with endocrine factors and P2X3-Ca2+ pathway.

Dihydromyricetin (DMY), a natural flavonoid compound extracted from the stems and leaves of Ampelopsis grossedentata, has been found as a potential therapeutic chemical for treating atherosclerosis. This study explores the underlying mechanism of DMY repressing M1 macrophage polarization in atherosclerosis. We showed that DMY treatment markedly decreased M1 macrophage markers (e.g., Tnf-α and IL-1β) and p65-positive macrophage numbers in the vessel wall of Apoe-deficient (Apoe–/–) mice. Overexpression of miR-9 or knockdown of SIRT1 in macrophages reversed the effect of DMY on M1 macrophage polarization. The data we presented in the study indicate that the miR-9-mediated SIRT1/NF-κB pathway plays a pivotal role in M1 macrophage polarization and is one of the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti-atherosclerosis effects of DMY. We provide new solid evidence that DMY may be explored as a potential therapeutic adjuvant for treating atherosclerosis.

Water inrush has become one of the bottlenecks restricting tunnel construction. Among various advanced forecasting techniques, the direct current method is more cost-effective and sensitive to water-bearing structures. It has been widely used in exploring water inrush disasters in practical engineering. Although traditional resistivity linear inversion methods are reasonably practical, they usually suffer from volume effects and cannot accurately locate the location and morphology of water-bearing bodies. Therefore, nonlinear techniques such as deep learning have recently become popular to directly approximate the inversion function by learning the mapping of apparent resistivity data to the geoelectric model. This work presents a novel deep learning-based electrical approach that combines resistivity and polarizability to estimate water-bearing location and morphology. Specifically, we design an encoder-decoder network. A shared encoder extracts features from the input data, two encoders output resistivity, and polarizability models, respectively, and fine-tuned collinear regularization for both outputs reduces solutions’ multiplicity. Compared with traditional linear inversion methods and independent parameter inversion, our proposed joint inversion method shows superiority in locating and delineating anomalous bodies.

A class of arbitrary time convergence controllers based on a special time-varying scaling function provide designers with a good choice to realize prescribed time stable systems. However, these controllers have the problem of conservative control parameter range and lack a uniform formula for systems of different order. Herein, the arbitrary time convergence controller is improved, the unified formula for n-th order system is given, and a more accurate control parameter range is obtained. By constructing an ingenious auxiliary function and a novel Lyapunov function, the arbitrary time convergence of the n-th order controller is proved, and the reasonable parameter selection range is obtained using the integrator backstepping and the mathematical induction method. The effectiveness and advantages of the proposed arbitrary time convergence controllers under saturated input constraints are illustrated through numerical simulations by comparative studies in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation control.

To better understand the shallow sea geological information and avoid the risk caused by potential geo-disasters, the efficient offshore geological exploration methods are required. Better detection resolution can be obtained by using a spark source. As the foundation, the observation system plays an important role for geological detection. The influence of the variation of the parameters of the observation system on the detection accuracy is analysed theoretically. Then, the numerical simulations based on the finite difference method was applied, and imaging characteristics of observation system with different parameter were studied. For submarine acoustic exploration, the spark source with frequency over 200 Hz can obtain the clear reflections for geological interpretation; besides, the receiver array with the interval of 5 m–10 m helps to obtain better wave signals when the buried depth of a geological body is less than 300 m, and the width is more than 10 m. Based on numerical simulations, the observation system was optimized and designed. The results of numerical examples show that the accurate position information of the structure can be obtained by using the observation system proposed in this paper. Different imaging performances are obtained by adjusting the parameters of the observation system. On this basis, combined with directivity analysis, the optimal observation system parameters are proposed. Finally, the proposed observation system is used to image the fault model. The research results of this paper can provide reference for the observation system design in similar projects.

According to the needs generated by the industry, there is an urgent need to investigate the flow vibration response law of the elastic tube bundle of heat exchangers subjected to the coupling effect of shell and tube domain at different inlet flow velocities. In this paper, based on the continuity equation, momentum equation, turbulence model, and dynamic grid technology, the vibration response of the elastic tube bundle under the mutual induction of shell and tube fluids is studied by using pressure-velocity solver and two-way fluid-structure coupling (FSC) method. The results show that the monitoring points on the same connection block have the same vibration frequency, while the vibration amplitude is different. Monitoring point A is the most deformed by the impact of fluid in the shell and tube domain. When the inlet velocity(vshell=vtube=0.15, 0.4, 0.5 m/s) of shell and tube is low, the amplitude of tube bundle vibration in the Y direction is greater than that in X and Z direction, and the tube bundle produces periodic vibration in the vertical direction. The vibration equilibrium position of the tube bundle along the shell flow direction gradually moves up with the increase of the inlet velocity. The amplitude in the Y-direction of the elastic bundle decreases with the increase of shell-side and tube-side velocity. The relationship between the vibration amplitude in the Y direction and the entrance velocity is a linear function.

In order to solve the problem that the traditional computer-aided teaching system is affected by communication technology, which leads to the inability to interact between teachers and students, the author proposes a research on a computer teaching system based on the Internet of Things and machine learning. The hardware structure is designed according to the functions of each module of the system, in which the student learning module is composed of a teaching coordination agent and a number of other agents, responsible for the presentation of specific teaching materials, problem solving, knowledge sharing through a collaborative mechanism, and providing personalized teaching basis for the system. The teacher’s teaching module mainly provides students with corresponding teaching strategies according to the learning requirements and uses its own reasoning mechanism to provide intelligent guidance to the problems encountered in the teaching process; the assessment module uses assessment rules to analyze student responses, comprehensive assessment of students’ learning behaviors, attitudes, effects, and abilities. The software function is designed with SQL Server 2000 as the database server, in the case of determining the data attributes, the data online evaluation is carried out, and the distance teaching is completed by combining the network technology. The experimental results show that when the time is 20s, the teaching efficiency of the traditional system is 61%, and the teaching efficiency of the artificial intelligence system is 91%. As a result, the teaching efficiency of the system based on the Internet of Things and machine learning is high, and it can provide equipment support for students’ learning.

Information entropy can be utilized to assess the complexity of the Banking System and the uncertainty of association information between banks. Based on information entropy and the balance sheet data of 167 banks from 2011 to 2020, we proposed a centrality indicator based on Adjacency Information Entropy, then applied it to directed weighted and directed unweighted interbank networks to identify banks with systemically important status, and compared the results with those of traditional centrality indicators. The outcomes show that the results of centrality indicator based on Adjacency Information Entropy are more accurate than those of traditional centrality indicators in identifying banks with systemically important status in interbank networks. Six large state-owned commercial banks, nine joint-stock commercial banks, two policy banks, and two urban commercial banks with large assets are identified as systemically important banks based on the proposed centrality indicator, which is highly consistent with the list of systemically important banks published by the Chinese banking regulator. Among the systemically important banks, changes in systemic risk levels of joint-stock commercial banks and urban commercial banks are more susceptible to national policies than those of large state-owned commercial banks. The findings of this paper have certain reference significance for strengthening the supervision of banks with systemically important status in interbank networks and formulating targeted policies for regulating large commercial banks and small- and medium-sized commercial banks.

In this research, by using a weighted fractional integral, we establish a midpoint version of Hermite-Hadamrad Fejér type inequality for η-convex function on a specific interval. To confirm the validity, we considered some special cases of our results and relate them with already existing results. It can be observed that several existing results are special cases of our presented results.

Attribute reduction is the core research content in rough set theory. At present, the attribute reduction of numerical information system mostly adopts the neighborhood rough set method. In order to further improve the similarity measurement effect between data objects, kernel function method is used to construct a new rough set model in numerical information system, and an uncertainty measurement method and attribute reduction method are proposed. Firstly, the similarity between objects of numerical information system is calculated by kernel function, and a granular structure model and rough set model based on kernel similarity relation are proposed. Then, from the perspective of kernel similarity rough approximation, an information system uncertainty measurement method called kernel approximation precision and kernel approximation roughness is proposed. Because these two measurement methods do not meet the strict monotonicity of information granulation, the concept of kernel knowledge granularity based on kernel similarity granular structure is further proposed in this paper. By combining kernel approximation precision and kernel approximation roughness with kernel knowledge granularity, an uncertainty measurement method of kernel similarity combination measurement is proposed. Finally, using the strict monotonicity of kernel similarity combination measurement, an attribute reduction algorithm for numerical information system is designed. Experimental analysis shows the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.

Purpose. The prognosis of mitral valve replacement is an important clinical issue and may produce unexpected mortality rates if not properly addressed. The postoperative examination results have important prognostic implications. This study was designed to determine the prognostic value of phosphocreatine and inflammatory markers after mitral valve replacement. Method. Comparison and analysis of the data obtained using SPSS software. The computer retrieved PubMed, Science Citation Index (SCI), Embase, VIP, CNKI, CBM, and Wanfang database and manually retrieved randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published at home and abroad on the central muscle protection role of creatine phosphate in heart valve replacement, and the search period was established until February 2018. Two random literature reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted data, using Review Manager (RevMan) (Computer program), version 5.3 (The Nordic Cochrane Centre, The Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, 2014). RevMan software version 5.0 assesses the risk of bias for inclusion in studies. The software performs a meta-analysis of the obtained data. Results. Ten RCTs with a total of 464 participants were enrolled. The meta-analysis results showed that (1) elevated creatine kinase levels often predict a better prognosis after mitral valve replacement (RR=1.36, 95% CI: 1.22 to 1.52, P

Topspin is one of the most widely used hitting techniques in a tennis match and it is an effective tool to win over the opponent. Hence, flight path simulation of a spinning ball can be a tremendous analysis tool to help tennis players perfect their game. This article proposes a fuzzy logic model based on the principles of kinematics and mechanics. This study analyzes the physical characteristics of a spinning ball during the flight process, which are divided into two categories: the characteristics of the ball on impact (including the floating and rotating it causes) and the landing rebound characteristics. These two characteristics are considered as the constraints of the flight path simulation and the inputs of the fuzzy logic model. Fuzzy logic is used to fuzzify the impact and landing rebound information of the ball based on the knowledge base, solve the problem, and finally defuzzify the results into crisp outputs, that is, accurate flight trajectory. The simulation results show that the estimation error of the proposed model is lower than 3.7 cm/s and 0.9°, and the success rate of accurate topspin execution is 100%, indicating that the proposed model is effective to train tennis players.

Introduction. This study is conducted to investigate the correlation between perioperative fractional exhaled nitric oxide and postoperative pneumonia (POP) and the feasibility of perioperative FeNO for predicting POP in surgical lung cancer patients. Methods. Patients who were diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were prospectively analyzed, and the relationship between perioperative FeNO and POP was evaluated based on patients’ basic characteristics and clinical data in the hospital. Results. There were 218 patients enrolled in this study. Finally, 183 patients were involved in the study, with 19 of them in the POP group and 164 in the non-POP group. The POP group had significantly higher postoperative FeNO (median: 30.0 vs. 19.0 ppb, P25 ppb), as well as an increased change in FeNO (>4 ppb), may have the potential in detecting the occurrence of POP in surgical lung cancer patients.

Background. Autoimmune disorders are associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in pregnant women who were positive for thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb). Soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) and soluble interleukin-2 receptor (sCD25) are abnormally expressed in autoimmune diseases and are reliable markers of inflammation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate sCD40L and sCD25 in early pregnancy and investigate their correlation with GDM and TPOAb. Methods. A total of 126 pregnant women in the first trimester were enrolled for analysis: 93 were positive for TPOAb and 33 were negative for TPOAb. Demographical and clinical data in early pregnancy were collected. A total of 123 participants underwent a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test in the second trimester. Serum sCD40L and sCD25 levels were measured by ELISA. Results. The incidence of GDM was 24.4% in pregnant women with isolated TPOAb positivity in our study. Both sCD40L and sCD25 were positively correlated with TPOAb (r = 0.476, P

To improve feature learning ability and accurately diagnose the faults of rolling bearings under a strong background noise environment, we present a new shrinkage function named leaky thresholding to replace the soft thresholding in the deep residual shrinkage networks (DRSNs). In this work, we discover that such improved deep residual shrinkage networks (IDRSNs) can be realized by using a group searching method to optimize the slope value of leaky thresholding, and leaky thresholding in the IDRSNs can more effectively eliminate the noise of signal features. We highlight that our techniques can significantly improve the performance on various fundamental tasks. Experimental results show that IDRSNs achieve better fault diagnosis results on noised vibration signals compared with DRSNs. Moreover, we also provide a normalized processing to further improve the fault diagnosing accuracy of rolling bearing under a strong background noise environment.

Compared with dual-mass flywheel (DMF) and DMF with simple-type centrifugal pendulum vibration absorber (CPVA), DMF with bifilar-type CPVA has a better damping performance in the whole speed range of engine. The related research mainly focused on local models, such as dynamic model of DMF and dynamic model of CPVA, and the effect of the curvature path of CPVA on the damping performance. The reported models and methods are not sufficient for the system of DMF coupled with bifilar CPVA. Aiming at the deficiency of local models and the limitation of bench test, an integral model for DMF with bifilar CPVA is proposed and the real vehicle test is carried out in this study. Involving the moment of inertia of the centrifugal pendulum, the model considers the nonlinearities of DMF and bifilar CPVA. Afterward, the dynamic model of the automobile power transmission system equipped with the DMF with bifilar-type CPVA is built, and the dynamic responses of the system are investigated under idling and driving conditions. According to the simulation results, DMF with bifilar-type CPVA shows better vibration reduction performance in full-speed range. Moreover, the key structural parameters R and l influencing the damping performance of DMF with bifilar CPVA are discussed. The results show that the sum of R and l is directly proportional to the damping effect. Finally, real vehicle tests under idling and driving conditions (engine speed from 750 r/min to 3400 r/min) are carried out. The test results show that the 2nd order engine speed fluctuations are attenuated by more than 80% by DMF with bifilar CPVA with engine speed lower than 2000 r/min and are attenuated by more than 90% with engine speed higher than 2000 r/min. The experimental results are basically consistent with the simulation results, which verify the validity of the model.

There have been a large number of research programs dedicated to the investigation of stress concentration factor and its parametric design formulae for a variety of uniplanar and multiplanar tubular joints. However, for the multiplanar overlapped tubular joints, the related reports are very limited due to the fact that the combining effect between multiplanarity and brace overlapping is quite complex. In this paper, a novel bracket-stiffened two-planar overlapped tubular KT-joint is proposed by adding two brackets between the upper diagonal and horizontal braces to alleviate the stress concentration at the brace-to-chord intersection area. As compared with the original KT-joint and KT-joint of larger brace gap, stress concentration reduction and fatigue strength enhancement at the most critical point of the proposed KT-joint are significant under both axial and in-plane bending (IPB) loads. The superiority of the proposed KT-joint is further tested with a simplified fatigue life assessment of offshore jack-up in field transit condition, when the KT-joint corresponding to the upper guide level is most critical and fatigue-sensitive. The obtained results with conservative assumptions may serve as guides or references in civil and offshore engineering practices.

Vibrio (V.) vulnificus infection is a rare disease whose death rates exceed 50% despite aggressive antibiotic treatment and surgical debridement. The aim of this study was to assess the ability of specific anti-V. vulnificus immunoglobulins Y (IgYs) for preventing and treating V. vulnificus infections. IgYs were produced by immunizing egg laying hens with inactivated whole cell bacteria. Peritoneal cytokines, blood’s bacterial load, and survival curves were obtained from both prophylactic and therapeutic mouse models. The results showed that the specific IgYs (i) inhibited the growth of V. vulnificus in vitro, (ii) dramatically reduced the inflammatory response and blood’s bacterial load, and (iii) improved the survival rate of V. vulnificus-infected mice. These results prove that anti-V. vulnificus IgYs can be markedly effective means for the prophylaxis and the therapy of V. vulnificus infections.

Convexity plays an important role in many areas of mathematics, especially in the study of optimization problems where they are distinguished by a number of convenient properties. Our aim is to introduce a more extended version of convexity. In this paper, we introduced interval-valued generalized ηh convex function and proved Hermite–Hadamard-, Jensen-, and Ostrowski-type inequalities in this generalization. The presented results are generalizations of many existing results of literature.

This study establishes a more reasonable and effective rutting prediction model called the quadratic modified Burgers rheological model by considering dynamic loads. Use ABAQUS to simulate the rutting depths through the existing Burgers model and the quadratic modified model and compare with the measured values of the multitemperature and load rutting tests and triaxial repeated load tests. The real tests were conducted on four asphalt mixtures, including SK-90 asphalt mixture, styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) modified asphalt mixture, direct coal liquefaction residue (DCLR) modified asphalt mixture, and compound DCLR modified asphalt mixture. The results showed that the range of error ratio and residual sum of squares between simulated and measured rutting depth based on the two different models are 5–35%/5.0–8.74% and 3–15%/0.9–3.1%, respectively, which show that the quadratic modified Burgers rheological model has a more accurate prediction.

In view of the key problem that a large amount of noise in seismic data can easily induce false anomalies and interpretation errors in seismic exploration, the time-frequency spectrum subtraction (TF-SS) method is adopted into data processing to reduce random noise in seismic data. On this basis, the main frequency information of seismic data is calculated and used to optimize the filtering coefficients. According to the characteristics of effective signal duration between seismic data and voice data, the time-frequency spectrum selection method and filtering coefficient are modified. In addition, simulation tests were conducted by using different S/R, which indicates the effectiveness of the TF-SS in removing the random noise.

This research aims to investigate the efficiency of strengthening of plain concrete (PLC) arches using UHPC. Thirteen segment arch models reinforced using normal concrete (NC, group N) or ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC, group U) were tested in this study. The failure mode, strain distribution, and calculation of bearing capacity of PLC arch bridges reinforced with UHPC arch circle were analyzed. The experimental results showed that the technology of chiseling and planting bars could provide sufficient bond strength on the interface between the UHPC reinforcement layer and NC substrate. Both groups showed one or two failure modes of the concrete crushing of the original structure and the interface failure. However, no cracks appeared in the UHPC reinforcement layer, indicating that there was still large bearing potential. The strain distribution of the whole section in group N was consistent with the plane section assumption. But, this phenomenon was not observed in group U since the strain of the reinforcement layer was ahead (R-side loading) or behind (L-side loading) that of original structures. A simplified calculation formula was used for calculating the bearing capacity of group U. It was accurate for specimens loaded on the L-side, and an enhancement coefficient of 0.15 should be considered for R-side loading specimens.

Background. Waardenburg syndrome is an uncommon genetic condition characterized by at least some degree of congenital hearing loss and pigmentation deficiencies. However, the genetic pathway affecting the development of stria vascularis is not fully illustrated. Methods. The transcript profile of stria vascularis of Waardenburg syndrome was studied using Mitf-M mutant pig and mice models. Therefore, GO analysis was performed to identify the differential gene expression caused by Mitf-M mutation. Results. There were 113 genes in tyrosine metabolism, melanin formation, and ion transportations showed significant changes in pig models and 191 genes in mice models. In addition, there were some spice’s specific gene changes in the stria vascularis in the mouse and porcine models. The expression of tight junction-associated genes, including Cadm1, Cldn11, Pcdh1, Pcdh19, and Cdh24 genes, were significantly higher in porcine models compared to mouse models. Vascular-related and ion channel-related genes in the stria vascularis were also shown significantly difference between the two species. The expression of Col2a1, Col3a1, Col11a1, and Col11a2 genes were higher, and the expression of Col8a2, Cd34, and Ncam genes were lower in the porcine models compared to mouse models. Conclusions. Our data suggests that there is a significant difference on the gene expression and function between these two models.

Osteoradionecrosis of the jaw (ORNJ) is an infrequent yet potentially devastating complication of head and neck radiation therapy. Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been widely accepted as a promising method for the successful management of ORNJ, but the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, the effects of LIPUS on cytoskeletal reorganization, cell viability, and osteogenic differentiation capacity of rat mandible-derived bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (M-BMMSCs) induced by radiation were determined by immunofluorescence staining, CCK-8 cell proliferation assay, quantification of alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, alizarin red staining, and real-time RT-PCR, respectively. Moreover, the involvement of the RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway underlying this process was investigated via western blot analysis. We found that radiation induced significant damage to the cytoskeleton, cell viability, and osteogenic differentiation capacity of M-BMMSCs and downregulated their expression of RhoA, ROCK, and vinculin while increasing FAK expression. LIPUS treatment effectively rescued the disordered cytoskeleton and redistributed vinculin. Furthermore, the cell viability and osteogenic differentiation capacity were also significantly recovered. More importantly, it could reverse the aberrant expression of the key molecules induced by radiation. Inhibition of RhoA/ROCK signaling remarkably aggravated the inhibitory effect of radiation and attenuated the therapeutic effect of LIPUS. In the light of these findings, the RhoA/ROCK signaling pathway might be a promising target for modifying the therapeutic effect of LIPUS on osteoradionecrosis.

Negative vacuum pressure hardly reaches deep soils due to the drain board bending and serious blockage with the existing vacuum preloading methods (VPMs), thus resulting in poor reinforcement relative to practical engineering applications. To address this issue, this paper proposes a vacuum preloading method with pumping and discharging (a new dredger filling foundation processing technique based on vacuum preloading). This new VPM is developed through technological improvement and plastic drain board innovations in traditional VPMs. The new VPM uses a plastic vertical drainage board with double drainage channels, and the core board is in a “tic-tac-toe” shape with a hollow centre and square pipeline channels. It can execute air and water drainage. Vacuum transfer holes were set at two grooves, every 2-3 m from the central pipeline of the core board. Grooves at two sides of the core board and filter membrane were rolled together to improve drainage. In addition, the vacuum pipe, tube connector, and core board centre of the vertical plastic drainage board were connected directly and securely. A stereoscopic vacuum transmission system composed of a horizontal and vertical drainage system was built. In this vacuum transmission system, the transfer route was shortened, and the loss of vacuum along the route was decreased. The negative vacuum pressure was transferred to different soil depths through the central pipeline of the core board to accelerate the dissipation of pore pressure in soil mass and prevent vacuum pressure loss caused by drainage board bending, thus improving the reinforcement effect. Dredger filling silt foundation reinforcement by VPM and VPM with pumping and drainage were compared in laboratory simulations and field tests with different drainage boards. Test results show that the loss of vacuum pressure along the drainage path was relatively smaller in the new physical vapor deposition (PVD), and the pressure transfer efficiency was increased. Deep soil mass was reinforced effectively by using the new PVD. After reinforcement, the physical and mechanical properties of soil layers were improved. Moreover, soil strengths were remarkably improved, with sharp reductions in natural moisture content and porosity. Then, the transfer law of vacuum on different drainage boards and the reinforcement mechanism of VPM with pumping and drainage were analysed. Research conclusions show the superiority of VPM with pumping and drainage in terms of effectiveness and soft foundation reinforcement. This study provides a theoretical basis for the application and development of the new VPM.

Mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma can typically be identified as a mass lesion or nodularity endoscopically and macroscopically. We report an incidental finding of a Helicobacter pylori gastric mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma in a sleeve gastrectomy specimen with no gross examination findings.

Propellant management devices (PMDs) are a key component used to manage liquid propellant in a propellant tank under zero gravity conditions. A microgravity drop tower test system was established to investigate the performance of a PMD. A single module was used for the experiments, and the microgravity level was less than 3×10−3 g. Anhydrous ethanol was used as the simulate liquid. Different volume fractions of liquid were used to study the influence of the PMD on performance management. Experiments were conducted with the position of the container oriented in different directions. Changes in the gas-liquid interface were studied during the test. This kind of vane transports liquid through the rectangular area between the vane and the wall. The velocity flows along the vane of different liquid volume fractions in the tank were different at the beginning (t

Heavy metals are not only hazardous to environment and public health, but they degrade the physicochemical and biological properties of soils increasing difficulty to the redevelopment of contaminated sites. This study proposes a method for reinforcing contaminated soils with fiber and cement. The feasibility of using wheat straw as fiber reinforcement is discussed. The strength of heavy metal-contaminated soil reinforced with wheat straw and cement is investigated through laboratory testing. Twelve groups of soil samples were prepared at three fiber contents (i.e., 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% by weight), three water contents (i.e., 9%, 12%, and 15%), and three cement contents (i.e., 5%, 7.5%, and 10% by weight). Unconfined compression strength (UCS) was tested after 28 days of curing period and various freeze-thaw cycles. The testing results show that the increase in the number of freeze-thaw cycles results in the decrease of UCS. The inclusion of fiber reinforcement within cemented soil causes an increase in the UCS and changes the brittle behavior of cemented soil to a more ductile one. The UCS of the fiber-reinforced soils first increases, then decreases with the increase of water content, and reaches the maximum value at the optimum moisture content.

Make crackled mortar test block to simulate jointed rock mass reinforced by anchor bars. Computational model of corrosion penetration at different load times can be obtained by corrosion acceleration through electrochemistry. Through observation of anchor bar after corrosion, it is found that primary corrosion is mainly pitting; however, with the development of corrosion, corrosion moves along etch pit to the upper and lower surfaces so as to form partial corrosion. Meanwhile, computational formula of pitting ratio is put forward on the basis of mass loss rate. It is found that, through the pulling out experiment of anchor bar corrosion, corrosion has remarkable influence on anchoring performance of anchor bar; meanwhile, different pitting ratios have different influences on trends of ultimate bond strength, for example, when pitting ratio is bigger (between 9% and 30%), the biggest decreasing rate of bond strength is obviously lower than that under lower pitting ratio (from 1.5% to 5%). According to linear fitting of experimental data, the relationship curve of K, ultimate bond strength ratio, and pitting ratio can be obtained so as to provide basis for judgement of anchoring performance loss in practical engineering.

In order to analyze the influence of damage caused by corrosion on anchoring performance of a rock mass with different joints, the anchored rock mass specimens with different joints distribution were prepared. An electrochemical accelerated corrosion test of specimens was carried out, and the mechanical test of them under different corrosion time was also investigated. The results showed that the pitting corrosion is the main form of the anchor bar corrosion of an anchoring rock mass with different joints, and the shape of the etch pit is reverse semi-ellipse. With the increase of pitting ratio, the ultimate bond strength and the corresponding slide distance decrease gradually. The effects of pitting ratio on the slide distance of the anchor bar in an anchored joint rock mass are insignificant, but these on the bond strength of it are significant. The bond-slide model of the anchored joint rock mass with different pitting ratios was established. The research results of this paper can provide reference for analyzing the corrosion damage of a complex anchored joint rock mass in practical engineering and a theoretical basis for the design optimization of anchoring support in the complex jointed rock mass.

Translation and bend of the spine in the sagittal plane during high-speed quadruped running were investigated. The effect of the two spine motions on slip between the foot and the ground was also explored. First, three simplified sagittal plane models of quadruped mammals were studied in symmetric bounding. The first model’s trunk allowed no relative motion, the second model allowed only trunk bend, and the third model allowed both bend and translation. Next, torque was introduced to equivalently replace spine motion and the possibility of foot slip of the three models was analyzed theoretically. The results indicate that the third model has the least possibility of slip. This conclusion was further confirmed by simulation experiments. Finally, the conclusion was verified by the reductive model crawling robot.

A finite-time switching control scheme is presented for tracking a practical moving target of extended nonholonomic chained-form systems. Firstly, a dynamic output tracking error model is proposed combining moving target and extended nonholonomic chained-form systems. Secondly, two decoupled subsystems are considered for the tracking error systems, based on which the rigorous convergence and stability analysis are proposed by applying the finite-time stability control theory and switching design methods. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed finite-time switching control approach is performed according to the further simulation results.

This study proposes a three-layer brake pad design, on which a six-DOF dynamic model of brake disc-brake pad is established, and the factors affecting the system instability are analyzed. The analysis shows that the change of mass and stiffness of the brake pad will affect the stability of the system. From the linear complex eigenvalue analysis, the unstable vibration modes of the brake system are predicted, and the effectiveness of the complex mode analysis model is verified by the brake system bench test. Brake pads with different structural shapes are designed, and their influence on the stability of the brake system is analyzed. The results show that the design of the three-layer structure and the slotting design of the brake pad can effectively reduce the occurrence of the brake squeal, especially that of the high-frequency squeal noise.

Background. We evaluated the utility of galactomannan (GM) in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) for the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in nonneutropenic patients. Methods. A total of 183 patients were included in the final analysis. Bronchoscopies and the detection of GM in BALF were all performed on them. Results. Ten cases of IPA were diagnosed. ROC data demonstrated that, for diagnosing IPA, an optimal cutoff value for GM in BALF of 0.76 yielded a sensitivity of 100.0% and a specificity of 76.2%. Symptoms and radiological findings had no significant difference between proven or probable IPA group and non-IPA group. In our case-control analysis, although nine patients with false-positive results received treatment with Piperacillin/tazobactam, there was no significant difference between case and control group. Conclusions. BALF GM detection is a valuable adjunctive diagnostic tool. Our retrospective study suggests that the optimal value of GM detection in BALF is 0.76 in nonneutropenic patients.

Considering the rapid development of high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials, superconducting power applications have attracted more and more attention in the power industry, particularly for electrical systems including renewable energy. This paper conducts experimental tests on a voltage compensation type active superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) prototype and explores the SFCL’s application in a permanent-magnet synchronous generator- (PMSG-) based wind turbine system. The SFCL prototype is composed of a three-phase air-core superconducting transformer and a voltage source converter (VSC) integrated with supercapacitor energy storage. According to the commissioning test and the current-limiting test, the SFCL prototype can automatically suppress the fault current and offer a highly controlled compensation voltage in series with the 132 V electrical test system. To expand the application of the active SFCL in a 10 kW class PMSG-based wind turbine system, digital simulations under different fault cases are performed in MATLAB/Simulink. From the demonstrated simulation results, using the active SFCL can help to maintain the power balance, mitigate the voltage-current fluctuation, and improve the wind energy efficiency. The active SFCL can be regarded as a feasible solution to assist the PMSG-based wind turbine system to achieve low-voltage ride-through (LVRT) operation.

Background and Objective. Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder, which is prevalent in people over 65 years old. PD reduces patients’ quality of life and exerts a heavy economic burden on patients and their families. The purpose of this research is to identify the costs of PD and to evaluate the economic distribution of medical care for PD patients in China. Methods. A professional survey was administered to 116 patients with PD. Records of medical cost were reviewed. Direct and indirect costs were analyzed. The main cost-driving factors of PD were identified using multivariate regression analysis. Results. The average annual cost per PD patient in China is $3,225.94, with direct and indirect costs accounting for $2,503.46 and $722.48, respectively. Direct costs consist of $556.27 for surgery, $44.67 for appointment fees, $605.67 for prescription medication, $460.29 for hospitalization, $71.03 for auxiliary examination, $35.64 for transportation, $10.39 for special equipment, and $719.50 for formal care. The total cost is closely related to surgical treatment, dopamine agonist, and levodopa costs. Conclusion. The cost of PD patients in China is considerable and exceeds average economic capacity, especially antiparkinson medication and caring costs. This study may provide a reference for PD healthcare optimization in the future.

The limited operational flexibility of combined heat and power (CHP) units is the main cause of wind power curtailment in the thermal-electrical power system of Northern China. Pumped hydrostorage (PHS), heat storage (HS), and electric boiler (EB) are investigated as three alternative options for the promotion of wind power integration. On the basis of two linear models that determine the capacities of these three facilities required for integrating the curtailed wind power, economic evaluation in terms of investment costs and environmental benefits is presented. Analysis results show that HS requires the least investment and has a good performance of coal saving when accommodating the same amount of curtailed wind power. And EB has the greatest potential for wind power integration with the huge growth of installed capacity of wind power in the future.

Establishing a prediction model is a key step for the implementation of prognostic and health management. The prediction model can be used to forecast the change trend of the characteristics of the vibration signal and analyze the potential failure in the future. Taking the vibration of power plant steam turbine as an example, the full vector fusion and fault prediction were studied. Due to the fact that the evaluation of the machine fault with only one transducer may result in a fault judgement with partiality, an information fusion method based on the theory of full vector spectrum was adopted to extract the vibration feature. An autoregressive prediction model was established. The collected vibration signals with pairing channels were fused. The time sequence of the fused vectors and spectrums were used to build the prediction model. The amplitude of main vector of rotating frequency and spectrum order structure were analyzed and predicted. The uncertainty of the spectrum structure can be eliminated by the information fusion. The reliability of the fault prediction was improved. The study on vibration prediction model system laid a technical foundation for the fault prognostic research.

The uniaxial compression and acoustic emission (AE) monitoring of siltstone specimens in the Gongchangling open-pit iron mine in Liaoning Province was conducted by evaluating the effects of three water saturation levels: dry, natural, and water-saturated. The siltstone AE characteristics were analyzed according to water content; the relationship between the AE characteristics and the growth and expansion of siltstone cracks was subsequently discussed. Research results indicated the following: siltstone specimens had distinctly different mechanical properties and AE characteristics according to water content; as the water content increased the compressive strength and elasticity modulus of specimens decreased. In the compacting phase of specimens under compression, the AE count rate of the water-saturated specimen was relatively small and the events were relatively stable. In the linear-elastic deformation phase, the AE count rate of the dry specimen increased sharply, reaching approximately 400 times/s. In the plastic yield deformation phase, the peak value of the AE count rate of the dry specimen ranged between 955 and 1,068 times/s, whereas that of the water-saturated specimen only attained a range of 635 to 782 times/s. In the failure phase, the time to reach the peak stress value of the dry specimen was increased as compared to that of the AE count rate.

GNSS’s orbit determinations always rely on ground station or intersatellite links (ISL). In the emergency of satellite-to-ground links and ISL break-off, BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) satellites cannot determine their orbits. In this paper, we propose to add a spaceborne annular beam antenna for receiving the global positioning system (GPS) and global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals; therefore, the BDS satellites may be capable of determining their orbits by GPS/GLONASS signals. Firstly, the spectrum selection, the power isolation, the range of Doppler frequency shift, and changing rate are taken into account for the feasibility. Specifically, the L2 band signals are chosen for receiving and processing in order to prevent the overlapping of the receiving and transmitting signals. Secondly, the minimum number of visible satellites (MNVS), carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0), dilution of precision (GDOP), and geometric distance root-mean-square (gdrms) are evaluated for acquiring the effective receiving antennas’ coverage ranges. Finally, the scheme of deploying 3 receiving antennas is proved to be optimal by analysis and simulations over the middle earth orbit (MEO), geostationary earth orbit (GEO), and the inclined geosynchronous satellite orbit (IGSO). The antennas’ structures and patterns are designed to draw a conclusion that installing GPS and GLONASS receivers on BDS satellites for emergent orbits determination is cost-effective.

Fault prediction is the key technology of the predictive maintenance. Currently, researches on fault prediction are mainly focused on the evaluation of the intensities of the failure and the remaining life of the machine. There is lack of methods on the prediction of fault locations and fault characters. To satisfy the requirement of the prediction of the fault characters, the data acquisition and fusion strategies were studied. Firstly, the traditional vibration measurement mechanism and its disadvantages were presented. Then, the full-vector data acquisition and fusion model were proposed. After that, the sampling procedure and information fusion algorithm were analyzed. At last, the fault prediction method based on full-vector spectrum was proposed. The methodology is that of Dr. Bently and Dr. Muszynska. On the basis of this methodology, the application study has been carried out. The uncertainty of the spectrum structure can be eliminated by the designed data acquisition and fusion method. The reliability of the diagnosis on fault character was improved. The study on full-vector data acquisition system laid the technical foundation for the prediction and diagnosis research of the fault characters.

With the rapid development of high-speed railway in China, the problem of motor train set assignment and maintenance scheduling is becoming more and more important for transportation organization. This paper focuses on considering the special maintenance items of motor train set and mainly meets the two maintenance cycle limits on aspects of mileage and time for each item. And then, a 0-1 integer programming model for motor train set assignment and maintenance scheduling is proposed, which aims at maximizing the accumulated mileage before each maintenance and minimizing the number of motor train sets. Restrictions of the model include the matching relation between motor train sets and routes as well as that between motor train sets and maintenance items and maintenance capacity of motor train set depot. A heuristic solution strategy based on particle swarm optimization is also proposed to solve the model. In the end, a case study is designed based on the background of Beijing south depot in China, and the result indicates that the model and algorithm proposed in this paper could solve the problem of motor train set assignment and maintenance scheduling effectively.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus (DM). However, the exact mechanism is not clearly understood. In this study, our results showed that 24 h urinary protein, kidney index, and glomerular area were decreased, while creatinine clearance ratio was increased in DN rats when the rats were treated with NAR 50 mg/d for 6 weeks. Mesangial cell (MMCs) proliferation was inhibited in the NAR group by 3,(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT), and the cell cycle analysis showed that cells stayed in G2 phase in NAR group. And NAR treatment attenuated the deposition of ECM in DN rats and MMCs. Moreover, our data showed that let-7a was downexpressed in both DN rats and MMCs under high glucose condition. Surprisingly, NAR affected the expressions of Col4 and FN through upregulating let-7a in MMCs. In addition, we found that let-7a negatively regulated the expression of transforming growth factor-β1 receptor 1 (TGFBR1), and TGFBR1 was required for the let-7a-mediated downregulation of TGF-β1/smad signaling. Interestingly, NAR inhibited TGF-β1/smads signaling activation by upregulating let-7a. Therefore, our findings indicated that NAR ameliorated kidney injury by regulating let-7a/TGFBR1 signaling.

Background. Mesenchymal stem cells are the most commonly used seed cells in biomedical research and tissue engineering. Their secretory proteins have also been proven to play an important role in tissue healing. Methods. We isolated adipose stem cells and placental stem cells and performed analysis examining characteristics. The secretory proteins were extracted from conditioned medium and analyzed by MALDI-TOF/TOF. The antiaging effect of conditioned mediums was evaluated by the results of facial skin application. Results. Adipose stem cells and placental stem cells were found to be very similar in their surface markers and multipotency. The specific proteins secreted from adipose stem cells were more adept at cell adhesion, migration, wound healing, and tissue remodeling, while the proteins secreted by placental stem cells were more adept at angiogenesis, cell proliferation, differentiation, cell survival, immunomodulation, and collagen degradation. While these two types of conditioned medium could improve the facial index, the improvement of Melanin index after injection of the adipose stem cell conditioned medium was much more significant. Conclusion. The results suggest that the secreted proteins are ideal cell-free substances for regeneration medicine, especially in the antiaging field.

Evidence has accumulated that reactive oxygen species and inflammation play crucial roles in the development of chronic pain, including radicular low back pain. Nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), for example, salicylic acid, aspirin, provided analgesic effects in various types of pain. However, long-term use of these drugs causes unwanted side effects, which limits their implication. Stable nitronyl (NIT) nitroxide radicals have been extensively studied as a unique and interesting class of new antioxidants for protection against oxidative damage. The present study synthesized a novel NIT nitroxide radical with salicylic acid framework (SANR) to provide synergistic effect of both antioxidation and antiinflammation. We demonstrated for the first time that both acute and repeated SANR treatment exerted dramatic analgesic effect in radicular low back pain mimicked by chronic compression of dorsal root ganglion in rats. This analgesic potency was more potent than that produced by classical NSAIDs aspirin and traditional nitroxide radical Tempol alone. Furthermore, SANR-induced behavioral analgesia is found to be mediated, at least in partial, by a reduction of ectopic spontaneous discharges in injured DRG neurons. Therefore, the synthesized NIT nitroxide radical coupling with salicylic acid framework may represent a novel potential therapeutic candidate for treatment of chronic pain, including radicular low back pain.

Aflatoxins were conjugated with soy 11S globulins acid subunits and the hapten-specific monoclonal antibodies (McAbs) cross-reactive with four major aflatoxins were achieved using indirect competitive ELISA screening procedure. The two antibodies (clones 1B2 and 2D3) had similar reaction efficiency with aflatoxins B1, B2, and G1 but showed a weak cross-reaction to G2. The clone 4C5 exhibited the highest sensitivity for all four aflatoxins. The concentrations of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 at 50% inhibition for 4C5 were 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, and 17.6 pg mL−1. The results indicated that soy 11S globulin acid subunits were suitable novel carriers for aflatoxin antigen in immunization experiments and clone 4C5 could be used for simultaneous analysis of total aflatoxins.

The aim of this research was to identify the prevalence and distribution of vitreoretinal interface abnormalities (VIAs) among urban community population in Shenyang, China. According to the WHO criteria, a cross-sectional study was carried out among 304 Type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients and 304 people without diabetes as control over 45 years old. The presence of VIAs was determined by standardized grading of macular optical coherence tomography (Optovue OCT; Optovue, Inc., Fremont, CA) scans and two-field fundus photographs in at least one eye. For both men and women, high prevalence of VIAs (70.79%) was observed among over 65-years-old T2D patients. Prevalence of VIAs was observed to be high among T2D patients in all age groups compared to normal subjects. Prevalence of VIAs increased with age in all subjects. Prevalence of components of VIAs was epiretinal membrane (ERM) 11.43%, posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) 17.76%, vitreomacular traction syndrome (VMT) 5.67%, macular cysts/macular edema (MC/ME) 4.61%, full-thickness macular hole (FTMH) 0.82%, and partial thickness macular hole (PTMH) 0.74% in any eye, respectively. ERM and MC/ME were more prevalent in T2D in both males and females. The results highlight the need for early detection using OCT and approaches for the prevention of VIAs of diabetes in urban community.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in working-aged people. Several studies have suggested that glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was correlated with DR. This is a hospital-based study and the aim of it was to examine the relationship between the GFR and DR in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We used CKD-EPI equation to estimate GFR and SPSS 19.0 and EmpowerStats software to assess their relationship. Among the 1613 participants (aged 54.75 ± 12.19 years), 550 (34.1%) patients suffered from DR. The multivariate analysis revealed that the risk factors for DR include age (P