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Exercise intolerance is a major manifestation of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with congenital heart disease (PAH-CHD). We aimed to investigate the characteristics of exercise intolerance in different subgroups of PAH-CHD.We retrospectively enrolled 171 adult patients with PAH-CHD and 30 age and sex-matched healthy subjects and performed cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Gas exchange parameters, including peak oxygen uptake (peak V̇oThe median age of patients at enrollment was 27.8 years, and 131 (76.6%) were female. Peak V̇oExercise capacity was severely reduced in patients with PAH-CHD. Among the four subgroups, patients with Eisenmenger syndrome had the worst exercise capacity and ventilatory efficiency.

This is the first sham-controlled trial to examine the effects of home-based leg heat therapy (HT) on walking performance in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). We demonstrate that unsupervised HT using water-circulating trousers is safe, well-tolerated, and elicits meaningful changes in walking ability in patients with symptomatic PAD. This home-based treatment option is practical, painless, and may be a feasible adjunctive therapy to counteract the decline in lower extremity physical function in patients with PAD.

This study was designed to evaluate antiplatelet effect and therapeutic effect of ginkgo diterpene lactone meglumine injection (GDLI) in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we randomly assigned 70 inpatients within 48 hr after the onset of AIS to combination therapy with GDLI and aspirin (GDLI at a dose of 25 mg/d for 14 days plus aspirin at a dose of 100 mg/d for 90 days) or to placebo plus aspirin in a ratio of 1:1. Platelet function, the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) were evaluated. A good outcome was defined as NIHSS scores decrease ≥5 or mRS scores decrease ≥2. Results showed that arachidonic acid induced maximum platelet aggregation rate (AA-MAR) and mean platelet volume (MPV) of the GDLI-aspirin group were much lower than that of the aspirin group (p = 0.013 and p = 0.034, respectively) after the 14-day therapy. The combination of GDLI and aspirin was superior to aspirin alone, and had significant impact on the good outcome at day 90 (ORadj 7.21 [95%CI, 1.03-50.68], p = 0.047). In summary, GDLI has antiplatelet effect and can improve the prognosis of AIS patients.

The polyacrylamide gel method has been developed for fabrication of Ba1−xSrxTiO3 (BST) photocatalysts. The structure, surface morphology, band gap and photocatalytic activity of BST photocatalysts can be regulated by adjusting the x value.

It is well known that sublinear operators and superlinear operators are two classes of important nonlinear operators in nonlinear analysis and dynamical systems. Since sublinear operators have only weak nonlinearity, this advantage makes it easy to deal with them. However, superlinear operators have strong nonlinearity, and there are only a few results about them. In this paper, the convergence of Picard iteration for the superlinear operator $ A $ is obtained based on the conditions that the fixed point equation $ Ax = x $ has a strong upper solution and a lower solution (or alternatively, an upper solution and a strong lower solution). Besides, the uniqueness of the fixed point of strongly increasing operators as well as the global attractivity of strongly monotone dynamical systems are also discussed. In addition, the main results are applied to monotone dynamics of superlinear operators and nonlinear integral equations. The method used in our work develops the traditional method of upper and lower solutions. Since a strong upper (upper) solution and a lower (strong lower) solution are easily checked, the obtained results are effective and practicable in the study of nonlinear equations and dynamical systems. The main novelty is that this paper provides new fixed point results for increasing superlinear operators and the obtained results are applied to strongly monotone systems to investigate their global attractivity.

Amphibious ground-aerial vehicles fuse flying and driving modes to enable more flexible air-land mobility and have received growing attention recently. By analyzing the existing amphibious vehicles, we highlight the autonomous fly-driving functionality for the effective uses of amphibious vehicles in complex three-dimensional urban transportation systems. We review and summarize the key enabling technologies for intelligent flying-driving in existing amphibious vehicle designs, identify major technological barriers and propose potential solutions for future research and innovation. This paper aims to serve as a guide for research and development of intelligent amphibious vehicles for urban transportation toward the future.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains one of the most difficult to treat of all malignancies. Multimodality regimens provide only short-term symptomatic improvement with minor impact on survival, underscoring the urgent need for novel therapeutics and treatment strategies for PDAC. We screened out the highly expressed gene LAMC2 in PDAC tissues through the GEO online database, and further demonstrated that it is related to the poor prognosis of PDAC patients. Next, we investigated the effect of LAMC2 in the development and metastasis of PDAC by silencing LAMC2 expression in PDAC cells. The results showed that silencing of LAMC2 inhibited the proliferation, invasion and metastasis, and promoted apoptosis of PDAC cells, silencing of LAMC2 also reversed the epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and suppressed the activation of NF-κB signaling pathway. Our results identify LAMC2 as a pivotal regulator of PDAC malignant progression, and its overexpression is sufficient to confer the characteristically aggressive clinical features of this disease.

Let H be a subgroup of a finite group G. We say that H is weakly ss-supplemented in G if there exists a subgroup T of G and an s-semipermutable subgroup Hss of G contained in H such that G = HT and H∩T ≤ Hss. In this paper, we get some new characterizations of supersolvability and nilpotentcy of G by assuming some minimal subgroups of G are weakly ss-supplemented. Some recent results are extended and generalized.

Cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oil crop for human nutrition and is cultivated in100 countries. However, the present knowledge of its genomic diversity, evolution, and loci related to the seed traits is limited.Our study intended to (1) uncover the population structure and the demographic history of peanuts, (2) identify signatures of selection that occurred during peanut improvement breeding, and (3) detect and verify the functions of candidate genes associated with seed traits.We explored the population relationship and the evolution of peanuts using a largescale single nucleotide polymorphism dataset generated from the genome-wide resequencing of 203 cultivated peanuts. Genetic diversity and genomic scan analyses were applied to identify selective loci for genomic-selection breeding. Genome-wide association studies, transgenic experiments, and RNA-seq were employed to identify the candidate genes associated with seed traits.Our study revealed that the 203 resequenced accessions were divided into four genetic groups, consistent with their botanical classification. Moreover, the var. peruviana and var. fastigiata subpopulations have diverged to a greater extent than the others, and var. peruviana may be the earliest variant in the evolution from tetraploid ancestors. A recent dramatic expansion in the effective population size of the cultivated peanuts ca. 300-500 years ago was also noted. Selective sweeps underlying quantitative trait loci and genes of seed size, plant architecture, and disease resistance coincide with the major goals of improved peanut breeding compared with the landrace and cultivar populations. Genome-wide association testing with functional analysis led to the identification of two genes involved in seed weight and seed length regulation.Our study provides valuable information for understanding the genomic diversity and the evolution of peanuts and serves as a genomic basis for improving peanut cultivars.

Thyroid hormones (THs) regulate multiple physiological activities in the liver, including cellular metabolism, differentiation, and cell growth, and play important roles in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Thyroid peroxidase (TPO) is a key molecule involved in the THs synthesis and signaling pathway. As an epigenetic modification, DNA methylation has a critical role in tumorigenesis with diagnostic potential. However, the connection between THs and DNA methylation has been rarely investigated.The methylation of key TH-related genes was analyzed by in-house epigenome-wide scanning, and we further analyzed the methylation levels of the TPO promotor in 164 sample pairs of HCC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues by Sequenom EpiTYPER assays, and evaluated their clinical implications.We identified that the methylation of the TPO promoter was downregulated in the HCC tissues (P0.0001) with a mean difference ranging from 18.5% to 22.3%. This methylation pattern correlated with several clinical factors, including a multi-satellite tumor, fibrous capsule, and the presence of tumor thrombus. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis further confirmed that the percent methylated reference (PMR) values for TPO were predictive of the tumor [the area under the curve (AUC) ranged from 0.755 to 0.818] and the thrombosis in the HCC patients (the AUC ranged from 0.706 to 0.777).These findings demonstrated that epigenetic alterations of TPO, as indicated by the PMR values, were a potential biomarker for HCC patients with tumor thrombosis.

This study aims to explore the biomechanical performance of implant-retained finger prostheses of different lengths and diameters designed specifically for Asians under external loads from different directions by the finite element method. According to the metacarpophalangeal stumps (length: 4, 7, 10 mm, diameter: 3.5, 4.5 mm) retained in Asian patients with finger defects, six implant-retained finger prosthesis models of different lengths and diameters were designed in Solid Works 3D, transported to Abaqus, and constructed based on computerized tomography (CT). The finite element simulation of the finger prosthesis structure was performed using HyperMesh. The strain and stress distribution of the finger prosthesis models under three loads were calculated: axial force, lateral force, and lateral force with bending moments. As the load increased, the cancellous bone yielded first, while the dense bone and implant could withstand much higher loads than the cancellous bone. As the implant depth increased, the maximum strain of the cancellous bone increased significantly, but the effect of the implant diameter remained unclear. In addition, the structure could withstand large axial loads but was much less able to withstand both lateral forces and bending moments. The yielding and destruction of the implant-retained finger prostheses designed specifically for Asians are mainly attributed to cancellous bone. As the depth of the implants increases, the maximum strain of cancellous bone rises significantly. In addition, in the treatment of patients with finger defects, this method may be used to analyze and select which implant can withstand stronger stress according to the finger stumps of the patients with finger defects so that the most suitable implant and individual surgical plan for the patient can be designed.

The population of young adults who are hearing impaired increases yearly, and a device that enables convenient hearing screening could help monitor their hearing. However, background noise is a critical issue that limits the capabilities of such a device. Therefore, this study evaluated the effectiveness of commercial active noise cancellation (ANC) headphones for hearing screening applications in the presence of background noise. In particular, six confounders were used for a comprehensive evaluation.We enrolled 12 young adults (a total of 23 ears with normal hearing) to participate in this study. A cross-sectional self-controlled study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of hearing screening in the presence of background noise, with a total of 240 test conditions (=3 ANC models × 2 ANC function statuses × 2 noise types × 5 noise levels × 4 frequencies) for each test ear. Subsequently, a linear regression model was used to prove the effectiveness of ANC headphones for hearing screening applications in the presence of background noise with six confounders.The experimental results showed that, on average, the ANC function of headphones can improve the effectiveness of hearing screening tasks in the presence of background noise. Specifically, the statistical analysis showed that the ANC function enabled a significant 10% improvement ( p0.001) compared with no ANC function.This study confirmed the effectiveness of ANC headphones for young adult hearing screening applications in the presence of background noise. Furthermore, the statistical results confirmed that as confounding variables, noise type, noise level, hearing screening frequency, ANC headphone model, and sex all affect the effectiveness of the ANC function. These findings suggest that ANC is a potential means of helping users obtain high-accuracy hearing screening results in the presence of background noise. Moreover, we present possible directions of development for ANC headphones in future studies.

Based on the nonlinear strain-displacement relationship of spatial curved beam theory, a finite element model for galloping analysis of iced transmission lines is established, which involves three translational degrees of freedom (DOF) and one rotational degree of freedom for each node. Considering the aerodynamic nonlinearity and the geometric nonlinearity of large amplitude motions of the iced transmission line, the nonlinear dynamic finite element equation is presented by using the virtual work principle. The equation is transformed into the sub-space according to the mode superposition method and a time integration algorithm is also performed in the sub-space. Then, the element independence and modal convergence are researched. Finally, the influence of aerodynamic forces on structural frequency is analyzed. The numerical results show that aerodynamic forces will greatly affect the torsional frequency of the transmission line, which accurately reflects the dynamic characteristics of transmission lines. Furthermore, the galloping calculation of the transmission line has reliable accuracy by using 4-DOF (per node) elements for the iced conductor. On the other hand, the model can predict the actual galloping response of the transmission line, which is convenient for the implementation of subsequent control design.

With the increasing coverage of antiretroviral therapy, concerns for the emergence and transmission of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) are arising. HIVDR was divided into 5 levels: sensitive, potentially resistant, low resistant, intermediate resistant, and high resistant. Most of the articles on HIVDR involved low-level, intermediate-level, and high-level drug resistance to antiretroviral drug, and few articles deal with potential drug resistance. Treatment failure associated with the level of low-level, intermediate-level, and high-level resistance to antiretroviral drug has been reported. However, whether virological failure (VF) is related to potential resistance remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to describe the situation of potential resistance to antiretroviral drug and whether it is related to VF.We analyzed the demographic, behavioral information, medical history, and drug resistance-associated mutation data from subjects. Drug resistance mutations at baseline and time of failure in patients suffering VF were detected by using the Vela automated next-generation sequencing platform. The χ2 test or Fisher exact test and logistic regression were used to assess the risk factors that contribute to VF in the potential drug-resistant people.The prevalence of overall pretreatment drug resistance was 7.06% (233/3300), and the prevalence of pretreatment potential resistance was 8.79% (290/3300). All these patients with pretreatment potential first-line drugs resistance showed potential resistance to nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), and some of them had potential drug resistance to NNRTIs and NRTIs or NNRTIs and PIs; among these patients, 94.71% (179/189) had V179 D/E mutations. The VF rate of first-line treatment for potentially resistant people is 17.99%. CD4+ T-cell count ≤200 cells/L at antiretroviral therapy initiation are risk factors for the failure of first-line treatment.The prevalence of potential drug resistance among individuals with HIV and the VF rate of first-line treatment for potential drug-resistant people were high. To better optimize clinical management, prevention, and control of HIV, attention should be devoted to the potential resistance of nonnucleoside drugs.

BackgroundThe association between perivascular space (PVS) and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) has been unclear. Normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) around WMH is also found correlated with the development of focal WMH. This study aims to investigate the topological connections among PVS, deep WMH (dWMH) and NAWM around WMH using 7 Tesla (7T) MRI.MethodsThirty-two patients with non-confluent WMHs and 16 subjects without WMHs were recruited from our department and clinic. We compared the PVS burden between patients with and without WMHs using a 5-point scale. Then, the dilatation and the number of PVS within a radius of 1 cm around each dWMH were compared with those of a reference site (without WMH) in the contralateral hemisphere. In this study, we define NAWM as an area within the radius of 1 cm around each dWMH. Furthermore, we assessed the spatial relationship between dWMH and PVS.ResultsHigher PVS scores in the centrum semiovale were found in patients with >5 dWMHs (median 3) than subjects without dWMH (median 2, p = 0.014). We found there was a greater dilatation and a higher number of PVS in NAWM around dWMH than at the reference sites (pConclusiondWMH, NAWM surrounding WMH and MRI-visible PVS are spatially correlated in the early stage of cerebral small vessel disease. Future study of WMH and NAWM should not overlook MRI-visible PVS.

Soil is the material base of soil fertility. It can not only fix the root system but also provide nutrients, water, and other necessary conditions for crops to promote growth of crops. As a characteristic agricultural product in the Yanbian area, the production of ‘Pingguoli’ is related to the development of the agricultural economy in the Yanbian area. To solve the agricultural problems caused by excessive fertilisation in ‘Pingguoli’ orchards in the Yanbian area and to study the correlation between rare elements and soil properties. Based on the collection of regional natural economic background and soil data in the study area, four treatments were set up: The soil and ‘Pingguoli’ samples were collected, and the total amount of rare earth elements in the soil samples and the related indexes of ‘Pingguoli’ fruit were detected. Soil is the material basis of soil fertility, and soil management determines crop growth. CF1 treatment could increase ‘Pingguoli’ yield and significantly improve fruit quality. The rate of fruit softening and bad fruit decreased significantly after storage. Reduction of fertilisation can improve quality and save cost, among which CF1 has the best effect and can obtain more benefits when applied in production. Implications: Through experiments, agricultural workers can be more deeply aware of the importance of soil to crops; reducing fertilisation can lead to better crop yield and quality while achieving greater benefits, and consumers can get healthier food.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the impacts of storage losses and market development on the maize-selling behaviours of rural households in China.Design/methodology/approachBased on the survey data of 543 households from nine major maize production provinces in China, the authors introduce storage losses to a household's maize-selling decision-making model and use fractional logit model and ordered probit model to empirically analyse the impact of maize storage losses and market development on household maize-selling decisions in China. To overcome potential endogeneity problems, the authors select the weather at drying (whether bad weather occurs during the drying process) and harvest loss as instrumental variables and re-estimate the model.FindingsThe results show that increased storage losses prompt farmers to increase the proportion of maize sold within three months after harvest and sell maize in advance. Meanwhile, the degree of market development has a significant impact on farmers' maize-selling decisions. Other factors, such as the maize output, non-agricultural employment and awareness of loss control, also affect farmers' maize-selling behaviours.Research limitations/implicationsThe government should promote advanced storage facilities, reduce household storage losses, decrease the phenomenon of centralised sales after harvest and help farmers freely choose the suitable time for sales. The government also needs to strengthen market information releases and publicity, reduce transaction costs and help farmers make reasonable sales decisions.Originality/valueThe authors introduce storage losses as a separate variable in a farmer's grain-selling decision model to empirically analyse the impact of storage losses on farmers' grain-selling behaviours. Moreover, the authors analyse the impact of market development on household grain-selling behaviours in China. These findings can help avoid oversupply in the market during the harvest season and alleviate the pressure on the market from the supply and demand imbalance. These results are also beneficial for farmers waiting for a higher price and increasing their income.

This paper addresses a multi-objective energy-efficient scheduling problem of the distributed permutation flowshop with sequence-dependent setup time and no-wait constraints (EEDNWFSP), which have important practical applications. Two objectives minimization of both makespan and total energy consumption (TEC) are considered simultaneously. To address this problem, a new mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is formulated. Considering the issues faced in solving large-scale instances, an improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (INSGA-II) is further proposed that uses two variants of the Nawaz-Enscore-Ham heuristic (NEH) to generate high-quality initial population. Moreover, two problem-specific speed adjustment heuristics are presented, which can enhance the qualities of the obtained non-dominated solutions. In addition, four local and two global search operators are designed to improve the exploration and exploitation abilities of the proposed algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm was verified using extensive computational tests and comparisons. The experimental results show that the proposed INSGA-II is more effective compared to other efficient multi-objective algorithms.

Yan-Fen Tang,1,2,* Jun-Yan Han,2– 4,* Ai-Min Ren,1,2 Li Chen,1,2 Tian-Jiao Xue,1,2 Yong-Hong Yan,2– 4 Xi Wang,2– 4 Yu Wang,1,2 Rong-Hua Jin2,3,5 1Department of Respiratory, Beijing Ditan Hospital Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100015, People’s Republic of China; 2National Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100015, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, 100015, People’s Republic of China; 4Beijing Institute of Infectious Diseases, Beijing, 100015, People’s Republic of China; 5Changping Laboratory, Beijing, 102299, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Rong-Hua Jin, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 8, Jingshun Dongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100015, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 10 84322009, Fax +86 10 84322146, Email ronghuajin@ccmu.edu.cn Yu Wang, Department of Respiratory, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 8, Jingshun Dongjie, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100015, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 10 84322963, Fax +86 10 84322146, Email wangyu20171021@163.comObjective: To explore the long-term effects of SARS-Cov-2 infection on the pulmonary function in the severe convalescent COVID-19 patients for 6 to 9 months follow-up in Beijing, China.Methods: A total of 64 cases of COVID-19 patients were recruited for the study and discharged from the Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, for 6 to 9 months. COVID-19 patients were divided into non-severe (mild and moderate) and severe groups. The follow-up investigated the lung function tests, the novel coronavirus antibody (IgM and IgG), chest CT and blood tests.Results: About 25.00% (16/64) patients had pulmonary ventilation dysfunction and 35.9% (23/64) had diffusion dysfunction. In the severe group, 56.50% (13/23) individuals showed decreased diffusion function. The diffusion dysfunction of the severe group was significantly decreased than the non-severe group (P = 0.01). Among 56 cases, the positive rate of IgG titers was 73.2% (41/56). The result of chest CT showed 55.36% (31/56) cases in nodules, 44.64% (25/56) in strip-like changes, 37.5% (21/56) in-ground glass shadow, and 5.36% (3/56) in grid shadow, which was significantly different between the severe group and the non-severe group. Patients tended to have ground glass changes in the severe group while nodules in the non-severe group.Conclusion: For the 6 to 9 months in convalescent COVID-19 patients, 56.50% (13/23) of severe patients had pulmonary diffusion dysfunction. Convalescent COVID-19 patients should have their pulmonary function regularly tested, especially those with severe illness.Keywords: COVID-19, pulmonary function, SARS-CoV-2 antibody, severe patients, chest CT, follow-up

In order to avoid the calibration plane and laser plane do not coincide and the rail profile is difficult to match dynamically, a stepped calibration plate is made, and a rail profile matching method based on the improved SURF algorithm and random sample consensus algorithm (RANSAC) is proposed. Firstly, a stepped rail profile calibration plate is designed and fabricated, which can directly calibrate the laser plane, avoiding the problem that the calibration plane and the line laser plane do not coincide completely in practical application. In the calibration process, collect the optimal control points and calibrate the image by polynomial transformation and bilinear interpolation, then complete contour rough matching using SURF algorithm. During the SURF algorithm, construct the matching constraint of the center of the orbit waist to delete part of the false matches. Finally, the improved RANSAC algorithm is used to filter the wrong matches, achieving precise contour matching. The experimental results show that compared with traditional contour matching methods, the improved contour matching algorithm has higher accuracy and stronger robustness.