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The "pace‐of‐life" syndrome (POLS) framework can encompass multiple personality axes that drive important functional behaviors (e.g., foraging behavior) and that co‐vary with multiple life history traits. Food hoarding is an adaptive behavior important for an animal's ability to adapt to seasonal fluctuations in food availability. However, the empirical evidence for the relationships between animal personality and hoarding behavior remains unclear, including its fitness consequences in the POLS framework. In this study, the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), a social rodent, was used as a model system to investigate how boldness or shyness is associated with food hoarding strategies during the food hoarding season and their impact on over‐winter survival and reproduction at both individual and group levels. The results of this study showed that, compared with shy gerbils, bold gerbils had a lower effort foraging strategy during the food hoarding season and exhibited lower over‐winter survival rates. However, bold–shy personality differences had no effect on over‐winter reproduction. These findings suggest that the personality is a crucial factor influencing the foraging strategy during the food hoarding season in Mongolian gerbils. Personality may be related to energy states or the reaction to environmental changes (e.g., predation risk and food availability) in bold or shy social animals. These results reflect animal life history trade‐offs between current versus future reproduction and reproduction versus self‐maintenance, thereby helping Mongolian gerbils in adapting to seasonal fluctuations in their habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "pace‐of‐life" syndrome (POLS) framework can encompass multiple personality axes that drive important functional behaviors (e.g., foraging behavior) and that co‐vary with multiple life history traits. Food hoarding is an adaptive behavior important for an animal's ability to adapt to seasonal fluctuations in food availability. However, the empirical evidence for the relationships between animal personality and hoarding behavior remains unclear, including its fitness consequences in the POLS framework. In this study, the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus), a social rodent, was used as a model system to investigate how boldness or shyness is associated with food hoarding strategies during the food hoarding season and their impact on over‐winter survival and reproduction at both individual and group levels. The results of this study showed that, compared with shy gerbils, bold gerbils had a lower effort foraging strategy during the food hoarding season and exhibited lower over‐winter survival rates. However, bold–shy personality differences had no effect on over‐winter reproduction. These findings suggest that the personality is a crucial factor influencing the foraging strategy during the food hoarding season in Mongolian gerbils. Personality may be related to energy states or the reaction to environmental changes (e.g., predation risk and food availability) in bold or shy social animals. These results reflect animal life history trade‐offs between current versus future reproduction and reproduction versus self‐maintenance, thereby helping Mongolian gerbils in adapting to seasonal fluctuations in their habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atractylenolide II (AT-II), the major bioactive compound of Atractylodes macrocephala, exhibits anti-cancer activity against many types of tumors, but the roles and the potential mechanisms in endometrial cancer remain unclear. In the present study, AT-II treatment was found to significantly suppress RL95-2 and AN3CA cell proliferation and glycolysis, and induced their apoptosis by inactivating the ERK signaling pathway, accompanied by the changing expression of the glycolytic key enzymes and apoptotic-related proteins. Peptidyl arginine deiminase 3 (PADI3), as the candidate target gene of AT-II, was highly expressed in the endometrial cancer tissues and associated with a poor prognosis according to bioinformatics analysis. PADI3 knockdown inhibited proliferation and glycolysis in endometrial cancer cells and induced cell apoptosis. Furthermore, AT-II negatively regulated the expression of PADI3, and PADI3 overexpression reversed the effects of AT-II on endometrial cancer cells. Our findings suggested that the anti-cancer function of AT-II is associated with the suppression of glycolysis and induction of apoptosis by blocking the PADI3-ERK signaling pathway. Thus, AT-II represents a novel therapeutic target for endometrial cancer and targeting AT-II may serve as a potential strategy for the clinical therapy of endometrial cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moreover, the post-processing strategy was inspired by the voting approach, and the class information of the superpixel was determined by the majority classes of pixels within it. Superpixel segmentation was performed with different parameters to exploit the multiscale information of objects, and several superpixel maps can be obtained. Specifically, the pre-processing method regards each superpixel as a minimum processing unit instead of a pixel, and the post-processing method combines the superpixel segmentation maps with pixel-wise classification results by using a voting strategy. [Extracted from the article]

Eutrophication is a common phenomenon in aquatic ecosystems caused by human disturbance and is regarded as one of the major threats to biodiversity in rivers throughout the world. However, no consistent pattern explains the relationship between eutrophication and biodiversity in rivers. In the present work, we explored fieldwork in connection to the influence of eutrophication on biodiversity in nine streams in a boreal river ecosystem in China. We aimed to test the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) in our model, which predicts that biodiversity reaches its maximum at intermediate disturbance. We used total phosphorus (TP) as a direct indicator of eutrophication and divided TP concentration into five levels of eutrophication, which represented anthropogenic disturbance of varied intensity. The results obtained from periphyton, macroinvertebrate, and fish assemblages showed that species richness was higher at intermediate eutrophication levels, and the pattern was not impacted by other factors. Our findings may provide important insights into the influence of anthropogenic disturbance on biodiversity in stream ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using undrained triaxial shear tests, this study investigates the mechanical properties of fine-grained materials (silty clay and sand) which are extensively used for China's Qinghai–Tibet Railway (QTR) under different confining pressures (σ3) and freezing temperatures (T). The results show that a reduction in T causes an increase in the shear strength and elastic modulus of all the materials tested in the present study. In addition, the freezing of the silty clay has no significant effect on the type of soil behaviour (strain-hardening), whereas the freezing of the sand changes its strain-hardening behaviour to strain-softening. Supposing that the deviatoric stress–strain curves of the silty clay and sand can be divided into two segments due to a reverse bending point, it was assumed that the first segment follows a hyperbolic function. Meanwhile, the second segment is also a hyperbola, with the reverse bending point as the origin and the residual strength as the asymptote. Accordingly, a nonlinear relation constitutive model that considers σ3 and T is derived. All model parameters are identified. The reasonability of the new model was verified using the test results of the materials. A comparison of the predicted and test results shows that this model can well simulate the deviatoric stress–strain response in the failure process of the tested materials. In particular, it can reflect the residual deviatoric stress after the materials' failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an effective approach to obtaining agricultural information, the remote sensing technique has been applied in the classification of crop types. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-manned hyperspectral sensors provide imagery with high spatial and high spectral resolutions. Moreover, the detailed spatial information, as well as abundant spectral properties of UAV-manned hyperspectral imagery, opens a new avenue to the fine classification of crops. In this manuscript, multiscale superpixel-based approaches are proposed for the fine identification of crops in the UAV-manned hyperspectral imagery. Specifically, the multiscale superpixel segmentation is performed and a series of superpixel maps can be obtained. Then, the multiscale information is integrated into image classification by two strategies, namely pre-processing and post-processing. For the pre-processing strategy, the superpixel is regarded as the minimum unit for image classification, whose feature is obtained by using the average of spectral values of pixels within it. At each scale, the classification is performed on the basis of the superpixel. Then, the multiscale classification results are combined to generate the final map. For the post-processing strategy, the pixel-wise classification is implemented to obtain the label and posterior probabilities of each pixel. Subsequently, the superpixel-based voting is conducted at each scale, and these obtained voting results are fused to generate the multiscale voting result. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches, three open-sourced hyperspectral UAV-manned datasets are employed in the experiments. Meanwhile, seven training sets with different numbers of labeled samples and two classifiers are taken into account for further analysis. The results demonstrate that the multiscale superpixel-based approaches outperform the single-scale approaches. Meanwhile, the post-processing strategy is superior to the pre-processing strategy in terms of higher classification accuracies in all the datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bismuth has been proved a promising lead-free element that can mitigate whisker growth on Sn coatings. It is generally believed that the formation of the equiaxed crystal structure of Sn–Bi coating helps to relax the compressive stress uniformly. In this study, the Sn–xBi coatings with the columnar structure were prepared on the Al substrate. The addition of Bi promoted the whisker nucleation on the coatings but effectively mitigated the growth of whiskers. The density of geometrically necessary dislocations increased with the increase in Bi content, resulting in a high whisker density on the coatings. The reason why Bi inhibited whisker growth was proposed from the perspective of creep properties of the Sn–xBi coatings. The solution strengthening of Bi in Sn improved the creep resistance of the coatings. The creep stress exponent measured by nanoindentation indicated that the creep mechanism of the Sn–xBi coatings is dislocation climbing. The improvement of creep resistance led to insufficient dislocations in the coating leading to the limitation of Sn atomic diffusion for whisker growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of cyclic loading frequency (f cyc) on the permanent deformation (ε p) of freeze–thaw coarse–fine mixture of geomaterials (FTCF) has been extensively investigated. In this work, long-term cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on FTCF specimens with varying f cyc and deviatoric stress (q cyc) with different numbers of freeze–thaw cycles (N FT), in order to investigate ε p under freeze–thaw cycling. This study systematically analysed and discussed the effects of f cyc and q cyc on ε p of FTCF samples with different fine particle contents (FC). A rate-dependent multistage load-prediction model for ε p was proposed and evaluated. The results showed that the freeze–thaw cyclic had a less significant impact on ε p when compared to the dynamic triaxial loading. The speed and piston effects of the FTCF under dynamic loads were mutually restricting, with their combined impact closely related to the loading frequency. A higher deformation resistance for a coarse-grained skeleton is attained with the effective filling of fine particle clusters in the pores of skeleton. A function was proposed to describe the relationship between the hyperbolic model parameters and f cyc , q cyc , as well as FC. This function could be used to estimate the hyperbolic model parameters under different dynamic stresses and material states. An equivalent stress-state parameter was introduced to consider the effect of the loading frequency, enabling the exploration of dynamic loading's influence on the equivalent vibration number (N eq). A comparison between the predicted results and the test data showed that the proposed model could accurately reproduce the cumulative behaviour of the ε p of FTCF under different f cyc and q cyc. • Proposed a rate-dependent multistage loading predicted model of ε p. • A threshold of f v must exist to maximize the material's resistance to ε p. • Load similarity analysis is essential for studying the coupling of freeze-thaw and vibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To investigate clinical characteristics and surgery outcomes of young children with focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type II. Methods: Young children (onset age ≤6 years) with FCDII who underwent epileptic surgery in Children Epilepsy Center of Peking University First Hospital in 2014‐2018 were followed up for at least 6 months after surgery. Results: One hundred and twelve children with FCDII were included, with median age of onset 0.9 years (0.01‐5.9), who underwent surgery at 4.1 years old (0.8‐16.2). Focal seizures were most frequent (90.2%) and epileptic spasms presented in 23 (20.5%) cases. Epileptic encephalopathy was not uncommon (12.5%), associated with earlier epilepsy onset and higher rate of bilateral onset on ictal EEG (OR = 0.213, 9.059; P =.041,.004). At the last follow‐up, 88.4% achieved seizure‐free. Before surgery, 49.1% showed moderate/severe developmental delay, associated with earlier seizure onset and higher rate of history of epileptic encephalopathy (OR = 0.740, 5.160, P =.023,.042). For 48 children with preoperatively moderate/severe developmental delay, DQ rank at 6 months postsurgery was improved in only four cases. Conclusion: For young children with FCDII, they tend to present with epileptic encephalopathies and show moderate/severe developmental delay before surgery. The seizure outcome was favorable after surgery. For children with preoperatively moderate/severe developmental delay, developmental outcome at 6 months after surgery was not satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is still a challenging task to segment ultrasound medical images automatically and accurately because of the poor quality of images. To address these problems, a two-stage automatic segmentation scheme based on local entropy and a proposed active contour model for ultrasound images are put forward in this paper. First, a new region-based active contour model in the level set formulation, driven by global and local intensity information, is established for the segmentation. Furthermore, for automatically segmenting the ultrasound images, a coarse segmentation is performed utilizing local entropy information of the ultrasound images, then the coarse segmentation result is used as the initial value of the explicit segmentation based on the proposed model. Several experiments on real ultrasound images demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms other methods on both visual perception and objective evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heteroatom-doped activated carbon that induces pseudocapacitive anion storage is a promising high-capacity cathode compatible with advanced anodes for potassium-ion capacitors (PICs). However, the mechanism of heteroatom-related anion storage in potassium-based electrolyte has rarely been explored and is not well understood. Herein, activated carbon fibers with oxygen doping (ACNFs-O) is conducted to explore the role of oxygen functional groups on the anion storage performance. The ACNFs-O cathode shows a high reversible capacity of 88.4 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 with a high-rate performance of 57.3 mA h g−1 at 6.0 A g−1, and a long-term stability, which is much higher than that of the non-oxygen-doped sample (ACNFs-H). The experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that the redox-active carbonyl (C O) group tunes the electrochemical properties of the carbon to provide a pseudocapacitive contribution for improved anion storage. As expected, the PICs with the ACNFs-O as the cathode materials exhibit a high energy density and power density (125.4 Wh kg−1 at 193 W kg−1), which performs 50% better than that of ACNFs-H. This work could provide insight into the design of low-cost and sustainable cathodes and an understanding of the anion storage mechanism of heteroatom-doped carbons for PICs. [Display omitted] • Oxygen-doped activated carbon fibers ware prepared by KOH activation. • The ACNFs-O possesses a 3D interconnected network structure. • The C O provides a pseudocapacitive contribution for anion storage. • The PICs with the ACNFs-O as cathode materials exhibit excellent performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-lithiation technology is essential to improve the initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) and cycling stability of high SiO x content cells. Different amounts of pre-lithiation significantly affect the electrochemical performance of cells. In this study, three groups of LiNi 0.8 Co 0.1 Mn 0.1 O 2 || SiO x /Graphite pouch cells (SiO x , 45 wt%) with different pre-lithiation amounts are fabricated using an electrochemical pre-lithium method. The effects of pre-lithiation amounts on the capacity and cycling stability are comprehensively investigated by non-destructive tests and post-mortem analysis. The results show that increasing the amounts of pre-lithiation can substantially improve the capacity of the cells, but may also accelerate their aging. Further studies reveal that the cycling stability of SiOx/Graphite anode is strongly affected by the amounts of pre-lithiation, whereas the effect on the cathode is negligible. Moreover, titration gas chromatography (TGC) experiments are used to quantify the lithium loss in SiO x /Graphite anode. The accelerated formation of SEI and trapped lithiated active materials as well as lithium dendrites caused by over-lithiation at SiO x /Graphite anode are responsible for the rapid degradation of pouch cells with high pre-lithiation amounts. This work demonstrates the complex relationship between pre-lithiation amounts and electrochemical performance, which needs to be carefully measured in SiO x -based cells. [Display omitted] • NCM811||SiO x /Graphite pouch cells with different pre-lithiation amounts are evaluated. • Both ICE and cycle stability is greatly influenced by the pre-lithiation amount. • The amounts of pre-lithiation have little effect on the aging of the cathode. • High pre-lithiation amounts can accelerate anode aging. • Titration gas chromatography is used to quantify the lithium loss in anode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To report the first case series of robotic single-site (RSS) surgery via the da Vinci Si Surgical System for mature cyst teratoma cystectomy in China.Materials and Methods: The study was devised as a retrospective study in a single medical center. Five patients with mature cyst teratomas requested a minimally invasive surgical treatment. These patients were treated with RSS surgery for mature cyst teratoma between January 2014 and January 2015. RSS mature cyst teratoma cystectomies were performed with the da Vinci single-site platform in the Hainan branch of PLA General Hospital. Data regarding patient characteristics, surgical approach, and perioperative clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed in a retrospective study.Results: All RSS procedures were completed successfully in the five patients. No instrument failure was noted during the procedures. The median operating time was 65 minutes (range 45-100 minutes). The median docking time was 20 minutes (range 18-28 minutes). No instrument failure was noted during any surgical procedures. The median blood loss was 30 mL (range 10-70 mL). No patient had massive intraoperative bleeding nor required a transfusion. No extra trocar was placed during the surgery. None of the patients had bladder or rectal injury. The median length of stay in hospital was 2.8 days. All patients were followed up until 6 months postoperatively, and no surgical complication occurred.Conclusion: RSS mature cyst teratoma cystectomy using the wristed semirigid instrumentation is feasible. Randomized controlled trials with a larger number of patients and longer postoperative follow-up should be conducted to further evaluate the effect of this therapeutic strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract With the rapid development of high-speed railways (HSRs) in seasonally frozen regions in China in recent years, there is an increasing need for better understanding of how the construction materials behave. In particular, the dynamic behavior of granular base course materials used for China's HSRs subjected to combined actions of cyclic loading and freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles has attracted much attention. In this study, a series of cyclic triaxial tests were performed to investigate the characteristics of granular base course materials. A number of factors including effect of F-T cycles were considered in these tests. As such, representative test results of dynamic shear stress amplitude (τ ¯ d), dynamic shear modulus (G d), and damping ratio (λ) are presented and discussed. Based on the Hardin-Drnevich model, a fitting equation for determining maximum dynamic shear modulus (G d,max) is proposed. Then, a unified normalized dynamic shear modulus (G d / G d,max) curve is drawn and well validated by the test results. Furthermore, equations for λ are expressed in terms of an exponential function of G d / G d,max. The test results show that the G d / G d,max curves are not completely consistent with previous studies. Overall, this study provides further insights into the dynamic behavior of granular base course materials subjected to F-T cycles. Highlights • The effect of freeze-thaw cycles on the dynamic behavior of base course granular materials was analyzed and discussed. • A unified normalized dynamic shear modulus curve considering multiple factors were proposed. • The relationship between normalized dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: Tumor Necrosis Factor-Related Apoptosis Inducing Ligand (TRAIL)-based therapies have been used in many human cancers. However, some tumors are resistant to TRAIL-induced cell death. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) is a functional marker for identification of CSCs. Methods: In this study, we used the colony formation assay, AnnexinV/ PI double staining and PI staining to detect proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle in ALDH1+ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells with TRAIL treatment. In addition, we established xenograft mouse models to confirm the anti-tumor roles of TRAIL in vivo. Finally, gene array and western blot were used to detect the deeper mechanism of the susceptibility of ALDH1+ NSCLC cells to TRAIL. Results: We confirmed that TRAIL could inhibit proliferation, and induce apoptosis and G1 arrest in ALDH1+ NSCLC cells. Correspondingly, TRAIL was associated with decreased tumor size and the favorable survival rate of ALDH1+ cells established xenograft mouse models. ALDH1 could increase the death receptors (DR) 4 and DR5 expression in ALDH1+ NSCLC cells via activating MEK/ERK signaling pathway. Conclusion: ALDH1 protein induced MEK-1 mRNA stability and promoted its translation via its 3'UTR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The microstructure and mechanical properties of Sn-0.7Cu solder alloy and Sn-0.7Cu with 1.0–5.0 wt% indium addition were investigated in this study. With indium added into Sn-0.7Cu solder, the melting temperature decreased and the reaction temperature increased. Coarse grains of Cu 6 (Sn,In) 5 intermetallic compounds (IMCs) were formed in the alloy matrix when the indium content increased to 1.0 wt%. Indium was evenly distributed in the β-Sn phase and Cu 6 (Sn,In) 5 IMCs in as-prepared In-containing solder alloys. After isothermal aging, indium accumulated gradually in the Cu 6 (Sn,In) 5 IMCs while decreasing its content in the β-Sn phase. Tensile test results indicated that the ultimate tensile strength increased obviously and that the elongation decreased significantly with indium addition. Sawtooths were observed in the stress-strain curves of all aged In-containing alloys. A model describing a coherent relationship between the β-Sn phase and the Cu 6 (Sn,In) 5 phase was proposed to explain this phenomenon. The fracture surface of the Sn-0.7Cu alloy exhibited a ductile fracture mode while a mixed ductile-brittle fracture mode occurred when excessive indium was added into Sn-0.7Cu alloys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a time delay estimation algorithm based on the weighted correntropy spectral density. Topics include accuracy and resistance to noise stated to be two important aspects of time delay estimation algorithms, and the proposed method stated to be very accurate in the presence of Gaussian or impulsive noise with a low generalized signal-to-noise ratio.

• DNase was be conjugated to PAE to form pH-responsive, self-targeting micelles. • PAE-conjugated DNase in micellar shells is not inactivated by blood enzymes. • PEG/PAE-DNase micelles disperse biofilms by degrading matrix eDNA. • Biofilm bacteria are more effectively killed by antibiotics after matrix degradation. • Murine pneumonia can be treated effectively with ciprofloxacin loaded PEG/PAE-DNase micelles. DNase can break down the extracellular matrix that keeps infectious bacterial biofilm together through cleavage of eDNA. Herewith, biofilm bacteria can become dispersed to assist antibiotic eradication but this has hitherto remained an in vitro possibility. In vivo DNase is rapidly broken down in blood, impeding blood-injection of DNase combined with antibiotics to cure bacterial infections. Herein, we report the synthesis of pH-responsive, self-targeting micelles self-assembled from a solution of poly(ethylene glycol)- block -poly(ε-caprolactone) (PEG- b -PCL) and poly(ε-caprolactone)- block -poly(amino ester) (PCL- b -PAE) with DNase conjugated to PAE-blocks. At physiological pH, this conjugation protected DNase inside the micellar shell, while PEG prevented adsorption of blood-borne proteins to the micelles. PAE became positively-charged below pH 6.4 facilitating self-targeting to an infectious biofilm. Simultaneously, PAE became hydrophilic and stretched to expose DNase upon accumulation in an infectious S. aureus biofilm where it degraded the biofilm matrix. PEG/PAE-DNase micelles internally core-loaded with ciprofloxacin significantly better eradicated murine pneumonia after blood-injection than ciprofloxacin-loaded PEG/PAE micelles without conjugated DNase or ciprofloxacin free in solution. Considering that DNase is clinically approved for use in cystic fibrosis patients, this paves the way for clinical translation of ciprofloxacin-loaded, PEG/PAE-DNase micelles for the treatment of pneumonia and other infections that can be reached through self-targeting after blood-injection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no diabetes risk model that includes dietary predictors in Asia. We sought to develop a diet-containing noninvasive diabetes risk model in Northern China and to evaluate whether dietary predictors can improve model performance and predictive ability. Cross-sectional data for 9,734 adults aged 20–74 years old were used as the derivation data, and results obtained for a cohort of 4,515 adults with 4.2 years of follow-up were used as the validation data. We used a logistic regression model to develop a diet-containing noninvasive risk model. Akaike’s information criterion (AIC), area under curve (AUC), integrated discrimination improvements (IDI), net classification improvement (NRI) and calibration statistics were calculated to explicitly assess the effect of dietary predictors on a diabetes risk model. A diet-containing type 2 diabetes risk model was developed. The significant dietary predictors including the consumption of staple foods, livestock, eggs, potato, dairy products, fresh fruit and vegetables were included in the risk model. Dietary predictors improved the noninvasive diabetes risk model with a significant increase in the AUC (delta AUC = 0.03, P<0.001), an increase in relative IDI (24.6%, P-value for IDI <0.001), an increase in NRI (category-free NRI = 0.155, P<0.001), an increase in sensitivity of the model with 7.3% and a decrease in AIC (delta AIC = 199.5). The results of the validation data were similar to the derivation data. The calibration of the diet-containing diabetes risk model was better than that of the risk model without dietary predictors in the validation data. Dietary information improves model performance and predictive ability of noninvasive type 2 diabetes risk model based on classic risk factors. Dietary information may be useful for developing a noninvasive diabetes risk model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Both US and AH greatly enhanced hydrogen production performance of Al hydrolysis. • US and AH increased v max from 6.8 to 33.0 and 28.0 ml·min−1·g−1-Al, respectively. • For AH + US, induction time was 0.17 h and v max was as high as 66.0 ml·min−1·g−1-Al. • AH + US exhibited the best performance due to synergistic effect between AH and US. Ultrasound can accelerate and change the reaction process and is widely used in the field of hydrogen production and storage. In this study, ultrasound (US) and AlOOH suspension (AH) are used to promote hydrogen production from Al hydrolysis. The results indicate that both US and AH greatly shorten the induction time and enhance the hydrogen production rate and yield. The promoting effect of US and AH on Al hydrolysis originates from the acoustic cavitation effect and catalytic effect, respectively. When AH is used in combination with US, Al hydrolysis has the best hydrogen production performance and the hydrogen yield can reach 96.6 % within 1.2 h, because there is a synergistic effect on Al hydrolysis between AH and US. Mechanism analyses reveal that the micro-jets and local high temperature environment arising from acoustic cavitation improve the catalytic activity of AlOOH, while the suspended AlOOH particles enhance the cavitation effect of US. This work provides a novel and feasible method to promote hydrogen production from Al hydrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To assess the relationships between the risk factors and the incidence of nonfatal occupational injury of coal mine workers of Shanxi Province. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2013 to December 2013, and 4319 workers were recruited from more than 200,000 coal mine employees who are exposed to continuous potential risk of occupational injuries by using a two-stage stratified cluster sampling method. Trained interviewers having necessary medical knowledge conducted face-to-face interviews with the participants. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: A total number of 3618 effective respondents were got from 4319 participants (83.77%) and the mean age of the participants was 41.5 years with the standard deviation of 8.65. Significant crude odds ratios were observed for all factors considered except for marital status, education, work duration, BMI, EPQ-RSC(P) scale and EPQ-RSC(L) scale. Results from multivariable logistic regression model showed significant adjusted odds ratios for risk factors including gender (female vs male 0.275, 0.094–0.800), age (≥55 vs ≤25yr 0.169, 0.032–0.900), work type (light physical labor vs heavy physical labor 0.504, 0.328–0.774), workplace (underground auxiliary vs underground front-line 0.595, 0.385–0.919), length of shiftwork experience (0~5yr vs no shift 2.075, 1.287–3.344 and ≥15yr vs no shift 2.076, 1.230–3.504) and EPQ-RSC(E) score (extraversion vs introversion 0.538, 0.334–0.867). Conclusions: Several risk factors of nonfatal occupational injury were identified including male, age, heavy physical labor, underground front-line, length of shiftwork experience and introversion. The coal mining enterprises should pay attention to controlling the hazards associated with frontline physical work. Workers’ behaviors, life styles and personality traits should also be considered, so that the enterprises could set achievable targets for workers and lessen the exposed period to the risky underground workstation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation for cyclostationary signals in impulsive noise modeled as a complex symmetric α-stable (S αS) process. Since the DOA estimation based on second-order cyclic statistics degrades seriously in an α-stable distribution noise environment, we define a novel pth-order cyclic correlation by fusing the fractional lower order statistics and second-order cyclic correlation. After briefly introducing the statistical characteristics of pth-order cyclic correlation and building the extended data model, we first propose a novel extended pth-order cyclic MUSIC algorithm (EX-POC-MUSIC) by exploiting both pth-order cyclic correlation and pth-order cyclic conjugate correlation. The algorithm allows us to select desired signals and to ignore interference in the communication system. Second, in order to increase the resolution capabilities and the noise robustness significantly, an improved EX-POC-MUSIC algorithm called the extended pth-order cyclic Root-MUSIC (EX-POC-RMUSIC) algorithm is also presented. This algorithm has all the merits of the EX-POC-MUSIC algorithm, and it is also a fast DOA estimation algorithm because it avoids spatial spectrum searching. Under some conditions, both proposed algorithms are able to handle more sources than the number of sensors. Simulation results strongly verify the effectiveness of the two algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a physical-layer rateless code for wireless channels. A novel rateless encoding scheme is developed to overcome the high error floor problem caused by the low-density generator matrix (LDGM)-like encoding scheme in conventional rateless codes. This is achieved by providing each symbol with approximately equal protection in the encoding process. An extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart based optimization approach is proposed to obtain a robust check node degree distribution, which can achieve near-capacity performances for a wide range of signal to noise ratios (SNR). Simulation results show that, under the same channel conditions and transmission overheads, the bit-error-rate (BER) performance of the proposed scheme considerably outperforms the existing rateless codes in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channels, particularly at low BER regions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Highlights: [•] A new signal model for parameter estimation of the target in bistatic MIMO radar is proposed. [•] The fractional ambiguity function is utilized to estimate Doppler frequency parameters in the FRFT domain. [•] Two sub-array models are constructed based on the peak of the fractional cross-ambiguity function. [•] Two new algorithms referred to as FCAF-MUSIC and FCAF-ESPRIT are proposed to estimate the DOA and DOD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The cyclic loading frequency (fcyc) effects on the resilient modulus (Mr) of freezing–thawing coarse–fine mixtures geomaterials (FTCFG) have always been a research hotspot. A series of long-term cyclic triaxial tests were conducted on FTCFG having different fines content (FC) under different number of freeze–thaw cycles (NFT) to investigate the effect of fcyc and deviator stress amplitude (qcyc) on the Mr of FTCFG. The freezing–thawing cyclic was found to improve the Mr of FTCFG. Additionally, Mr of FTCFG shown an obviously rate-dependent characteristics. Then three kinetic effects (rate effect, piston effect, and fatigue effect) are discussed in systemically which are related to qcyc, fcyc and moisture holding capacity (wh). Finally, a rate dependent model of long-term resilient modulus was developed to predict FTCFG materials' resilient moduli as a function of qcyc, fcyc and wh. The comparisons between the calculation and experimental results reveal that the present model describes the Mr of FTCFG well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ketogenic diet (KD) is a proven therapy for refractory epilepsy. Although the anti-seizure properties of this diet are understood to a certain extent, the exploration of its neuroprotective effects and underlying mechanisms is still in its infancy. Tissue acidosis is a common feature of epileptogenic foci. Interestingly, the activation of acid-sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a), which mediates Ca2+-dependent neuronal injury during acidosis, has been found to be inhibited by ketone bodies in vitro. This prompted us to investigate whether the neuroprotective effects induced by the KD occur via ASIC1a and interconnected downstream mechanisms in a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either the KD or a normal diet for four weeks after undergoing pilocarpine-induced status epilepticus (SE). The effects of KD on epileptogenesis, cognitive impairment and hippocampal neuron injury in the epileptic rats were subsequently evaluated by video electroencephalogram, Morris water maze test and Nissl staining, respectively. The expression of ASIC1a and cleaved caspase-3 in the hippocampus were determined using Western blot analysis during the chronic period following SE. Moreover, the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (mROS) and cell apoptosis of hippocampal cells were detected by flow cytometry. Results: We found that the KD treatment strongly attenuated the spontaneous recurrent seizures, ameliorated learning and memory impairments and prevented hippocampal neuronal injury and apoptosis. The KD was also shown to inhibit the upregulation of ASIC1a and the ensuing intracellular Ca2+ overload in the hippocampus of the epileptic rats. Furthermore, the seizure-induced structure disruption of neuronal mitochondria, loss of MMP and accumulation of mROS were reversed by the KD treatment, suggesting that it has protective effects on mitochondria. Finally, the activation of caspase-3 was also inhibited by the KD. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the KD suppresses mitochondria-mediated apoptosis possibly by regulating ASIC1a to exert neuroprotective effects. This may provide a mechanistic explanation of the therapeutic effects of KD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effects of factors such as temperature, solution and surface roughness on the growth of whiskers in a 100 μm thick Sn-Al alloy coating were comparatively investigated under different environments. The results indicated that whiskers did not grow after nucleation at 30 °C in oil. With the increase in aging temperature, whiskers started to grow after nucleation. The morphologies of whiskers showed the filament-type at 50 °C and the hillock-type at 100 °C. The residual compressive stress in the coating gradually decreased with the growth of whiskers and hillocks. Whisker nucleation was not found on the coating kept in water solution. The residual stress in the coating was rapidly released through the micro-cracks at the coating/substrate interface instead of growing whiskers. The oxide layer on the coatings with rough surfaces was easier to crack due to the higher thermal stress. The thermal stress on the oxide layer was in directly proportional to the depth of indentation and inversely proportional to the grain size. Whiskers preferentially grew on the (001)-oriented Sn grains in the coating. The finite element simulation results indicated that the grains with c -axis perpendicular to the coating surface had higher thermal strain and tended to grow whiskers. During creep deformation, the stress exponent increased from 7.0 to 11.5 with the increase in temperature. The mechanism for whisker growth was dislocation slip. Grain boundaries were observed in the hillocks. The power-law breakdown was the mechanism for the growth of hillocks. Image 1 • Environments affect the morphologies of whiskers. • Whiskers prefer to grow from the (001)-oriented grains in the normal direction. • A model is proposed to calculate the thermal stress on the Sn oxidation. • Grain boundaries sliding is observed in the hillocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) catalyze the oxidative cleavage of crystalline polysaccharides including chitin and cellulose. The discovery of a large assortment of LPMO-like proteins widely distributed in insect genomes suggests that they could be involved in assisting chitin degradation in the exoskeleton, tracheae and peritrophic matrix during development. However, the physiological functions of insect LPMO-like proteins are still undetermined. To investigate the functions of insect LPMO15 subgroup I-like proteins (LPMO15-1s), two evolutionarily distant species, Tribolium castaneum and Locusta migratoria, were chosen. Depletion by RNAi of T. castaneum TcLPMO15-1 caused molting arrest at all developmental stages, whereas depletion of the L. migratoria LmLPMO15-1, prevented only adult eclosion. In both species, LPMO15-1-deficient animals were unable to shed their exuviae and died. TEM analysis revealed failure of turnover of the chitinous cuticle, which is critical for completion of molting. Purified recombinant LPMO15-1-like protein from Ostrinia furnacalis (rOfLPMO15-1) exhibited oxidative cleavage activity and substrate preference for chitin. These results reveal the physiological importance of catalytically active LPMO15-1-like proteins from distant insect species and provide new insight into the enzymatic mechanism of cuticular chitin turnover during molting. Microbial lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) catalyze the cleavage of chitin and cellulose. Here, characterisation of LPMO15-1-like proteins from insect reveal their catalytic activity and physiological importance for insect development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of high-speed trains, it is very important to ensure the safety and stability of rail tracks under adverse conditions including seasonal freezing and thawing. Freeze–thaw cycles (FTCs) affecting the engineering performance of coarse-grained soil (CGS) is one of the major reasons for track deterioration. The reported results of a number of static freeze–thaw triaxial tests on the shear behaviour of CGS are analysed herein. It was observed that confining pressure (σ3) and FTCs have a significant influence on the shear behaviour of CGS. In this paper, an empirical mathematical model has been proposed to capture the dilatancy of CGS subjected to FTCs during shearing. The empirical constants a, b, and c proposed in the model are a function of σ3 and FTCs. The results of the model have been compared with the laboratory experiments and are found to be in good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) are in the spotlight as a possible alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Graphitic carbons are promising anode materials for PIBs due to their low-plateau potential that is beneficial for the realization of high-voltage full cells. However, inferior cycling stability hinders their practical application. Herein, highly graphitized carbon nanofibers (HG-CNFs) as a free-standing electrode are served as the anode for PIBs. The HG-CNFs exhibits a reversible capacity of 200 mAh g−1 at the plateau potential below 0.2 V (76% of total capacity) and superior rate performance with a depotassiation capacity of 226 mAh g−1 at 35 C. Moreover, the capacity decay of HG-CNFs is less than 0.008% per cycle during 400 cycles, which is superior to those of most other graphitic carbons. The excellent electrochemical performance of HG-CNFs is attributed to its merits of free-standing fibrous networks and graphitic structure with rational defects that alleviate the volume expansion incurred by K+ intercalation. • Highly graphitized carbon nanofibers as a free-standing electrode was prepared. • The interconnected networks improve the integrity and buffer the volume expansion. • The HG-CNFs exhibits a capacity of 200 mAh g−1 at the plateau potential below 0.2 V. • The HG-CNFs shows outstanding cycling performance in K-ion half-cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles on dynamic behavior of coarse-grained materials (CGMs) (i.e., coarse-grained materials used in railway subgrade named as base course materials) is critical to ensure the service status of railway subgrade in seasonally frozen regions. In this study, a series of stress-controlled dynamic triaxial tests were conducted on CGMs with various fines contents (FC s) exposed to F-T cycles. Typical test results were then analysed and discussed, highlighting the environmental effect on the dynamic properties. The results demonstrated that the dynamic shear modulus decreased with the increase of FC or the number of freeze-thaw cycles (N FT), but the damping ratio (D) results indicated just the reverse characteristic. In this regard, a modified empirical model was determined to describe the relationship between dynamic shear modulus (G d) and dynamic shear strain amplitude (γ ¯ d). Meanwhile, a unified mathematical formula was proposed to characterize D. Furthermore, the two proposed empirical equations were found to be severely inconsistent with the previous ranges suit for seismic loading. The study provides a useful reference for preliminary evaluation of the response to train loading for CGMs subjected to F-T cycles. • The effect of freeze-thaw cycles on the dynamic behavior of railway's base course materials was analysed. • The modified empirical equations for dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio were proposed. • The difference of dynamic behavior of coarse-grained materials between train and earthquake loading were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of high-speed railways (HSRs) in seasonally frozen regions in China in recent years, there is an increasing need for better understanding of how the construction materials behave. In particular, the dynamic behaviours of coarse-grained materials (CGMs) used for China's HSRs subjected to combined actions of cyclic loading and freeze-thaw (F-T) cycles has attracted much attention. In this study, a series of cyclic triaxial tests were performed to investigate the characteristics of CGMs considering the effects of number of F-T cycles (N FT), confining pressures (σ 3), dynamic stress amplitude (σ ¯ d), and fines content (FC). Representative test results of accumulative axial strain (ε acc), resilient modulus (M r), dynamic shear modulus (G d) and damping ratio (D) are then presented and discussed. Empirical models are proposed and validated for predicting the evolution of ε acc and M r for CGMs under the cyclic loading. In addition, the evolution models of G d and D were established, which can be used for computing the response of CGMs under various influencing factors. Overall, this study provides further insights into the cyclic behaviours of CGMs in seasonally frozen regions. • Cyclic triaxial tests were carried out on prepared thawed coarse-grained materials. • Effects of freeze-thaw cycles, confining pressure, dynamic stress amplitude, and fines content were discussed. • Models for accumulative strain, resilient modulus, dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio were proposed and validated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the cold regions of China, coarse-grained materials are frequently encountered or used as backfilling materials in infrastructure construction, such as dams, highways, railways, and mineral engineering structures. Effects of confining pressure (0.2, 0.5, and 1 MPa) and frozen temperature (−2, −5, −10, and −15°C) on the stress-strain response and elastic modulus were investigated using triaxial compression tests. Moreover, the microscale structures of a coarse-grained material were obtained by X-ray computed tomography. The coarse-grained material specimens exhibited strain-softening and significant dilatancy behaviors during shearing. A modified model considering microstructures of the material was proposed to describe these phenomena. The predicted values coincided well with the experimental results obtained in this study and other literatures. The sensitivity analysis of parameters indicated that the model can simulate the initial hardening and post-peak strain-softening behavior of soils. And the transition of volume strain from contraction to dilatancy can also be described using this model. The results obtained in this study can provide a helpful reference for the analysis of frozen coarse-grained materials in geotechnical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a degenerative neurological disorder. Recent studies have indicated that histone deacetylases (HDACs) are among the most prominent epigenetic therapy targets and that HDAC inhibitors have therapeutic effects on AD. Here, we identified sodium valproate (VPA), a pan-HDAC inhibitor, and WT161, a novel HDAC6 selective inhibitor, as potential therapeutic agents for AD. Underlying molecular mechanisms were investigated. Methods: A cellular model, N2a-APPswe, was established via lentiviral infection, and the APPswe/PSEN1dE9 transgenic mouse model was employed in the study. LC–MS/MS was applied to quantify the concentration of WT161 in the mouse brain. Western blotting, immunohistochemical staining, thioflavin-S staining and ELISA were applied to detect protein expression in cells, tissues, or serum. RNA interference was utilized to knockdown the expression of specific genes in cells. The cognitive function of mice was assessed via the nest-building test, novel object recognition test and Morris water maze test. Results: Previous studies have focused mainly on the impact of HDAC inhibitors on histone deacetylase activity. Our study discovered that VPA and WT161 can downregulate the expression of multiple HDACs, such as HDAC1 and HDAC6, in both AD cell and mouse models. Moreover, they also affect the expression of APP and APP secretases (BACE1, PSEN1, ADAM10). RNA interference and subsequent vitamin C induction further confirmed that the expression of APP and APP secretases is indeed regulated by HDAC1 and HDAC6, with the JNK pathway being the intermediate link in this regulatory process. Through the above pathways, VPA and WT161 effectively reduced Aβ deposition in both AD cell and mouse models and significantly improved cognitive function in AD mice. Conclusions: In general, we have discovered that the HDAC6-JNK-APP secretases cascade is an important pathway for VPA and WT161 to exert their therapeutic effects on AD. Investigations into the safety and efficacy of VPA and WT161 were also conducted, providing essential preclinical evidence for assessing these two epigenetic drugs for the treatment of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granulosa cell abnormalities are characteristics of premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). Abnormal expression of serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1) can cause various diseases, but the role of SRSF1 in mouse granulosa cells remains largely unclear. In this study, we found that SRSF1 was expressed in the nuclei of both mouse oocytes and granulosa cells. The specific knockout of Srsf1 in granulosa cells led to follicular development inhibition, decreased granulosa cell proliferation, and increased apoptosis. Gene Ontology (GO) analysis of RNA-seq results revealed abnormal expression of genes involved in DNA repair, cell killing and other signalling pathways. Alternative splicing (AS) analysis showed that SRSF1 affected DNA damage in granulosa cells by regulating genes related to DNA repair. In summary, SRSF1 in granulosa cells controls follicular development by regulating AS of genes associated with DNA repair, thereby affecting female reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nondestructive testing with sensor technology is one of the fastest growing and most promising wheat quality information analysis technologies. Nondestructive testing with sensor technology benefits from the latest achievement of many disciplines such as computer, optics, mathematics, chemistry, and chemometrics. It has the advantages of simplicity, speed, low cost, no pollution, and no contact. It is widely used in wheat quality analysis and testing research. This article summarizes nondestructive testing with sensor technology for wheat quality, including the mechanical model, hyperspectral technology, Raman spectroscopy, and near-infrared techniques for wheat mechanical properties, storage properties, and physical and chemical properties (such as moisture, ash, protein, and starch) in the past decade. Based on the current research progress, big data technology needs a lot of research in spectral data mining, modeling algorithm optimization, model robustness, etc. to provide more data support and method reference for the research and application of wheat quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mountains have not only provided refuge for species, but also offered dispersal corridors during the Neogene and Quaternary global climate changes. Compared with a plethora of studies on the refuge role of China’s mountain ranges, their dispersal corridor role has received little attention in plant phylogeographic studies. Using phylogeographic data of Eomecon chionantha Hance (Papaveraceae), this study explicitly tested whether the Nanling Mountains, which spans from west to east for more than 1000 km in subtropical China, could have functioned as a dispersal corridor during the late Quaternary in addition to a glacial refugium. Results: Our analyses revealed a range-wide lack of phylogeographic structure in E. chionantha across three kinds of molecular markers [two chloroplast intergenic spacers, nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS), and six nuclear microsatellite loci]. Demographic inferences based on chloroplast and nrITS sequences indicated that E. chionantha could have experienced a strong postglacial range expansion between 6000 and 1000 years ago. Species distribution modelling showed that the Nanling Mountains and the eastern Yungui Plateau were the glacial refugia of E. chionantha. Reconstruction of dispersal corridors indicated that the Nanling Mountains also have acted as a corridor of population connectivity for E. chionantha during the late Quaternary. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the Nanling Mountains may acted dual roles as a dispersal corridor in east-west direction and as a glacial refugium in subtropical China during the late Quaternary. The population connectivity mediated by the mountain range and a strong postglacial range expansion are the most likely reasons for the lack of phylogeographic structure in E. chionantha. The hypothesis of dual roles of the mountain range presented here sheds new insights into the phylogeographic patterns of organisms in subtropical China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gynaecological tumours that threaten the health of women, especially when advanced and recurrent, have remained mostly intractable to existing treatments. Therefore, new therapeutic targets are urgently needed. Human leukocyte antigen‐G (HLA‐G) is a nonclassical major histocompatibility complex class I molecule typically expressed in foetuses for protection against destruction by the maternal immune system. HLA‐G is also expressed under pathological conditions, such as in solid tumours, and may participate in tumour development and serve as a novel immune checkpoint in cancer. Furthermore, it is expressed in most gynaecological tumours. Therefore, inhibiting HLA‐G and its receptors to block the immune escape pathway could represent a new strategy in cancer immunotherapy. To the best of our knowledge, this review is the first to summarize recent research findings on HLA‐G in gynaecological oncology. We highlight the fact that HLA‐G is expressed in gynaecological tumour tissues, wherein it inactivates immune effectors involved in tumour progression. Further studies on HLA‐G in gynaecological oncology are needed to incorporate HLA‐G into the design and evaluation of immunotherapy for malignant gynaecological diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical effects of tanshinone IIA sodium sulfonate combined with trimetazidine and levocarnitine in the treatment of acute viral myocarditis (AVMC) were investigated. Eighty-six patients with AVMC treated in Dongying City People's Hospital from August 2016 to July 2017 were selected and randomly divided into control group (n=43) and observation group (n=43). Patients in control group were treated with tanshinone IIA sodium sulfonate, while those in observation group were treated with trimetazidine and levocarnitine. The curative effect and improvement in clinical symptoms were compared between the two groups of patients, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the levels of heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in patients after treatment. Besides, the changes in levels of serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-18 and IL-35 were detected via ELISA. The total effective rate of treatment in observation group was significantly higher than that in control group (p<0.05). The improvement in clinical symptoms in observation group was significantly superior to that in control group (p<0.05). After treatment, levels of H-FABP, CK-MB and cTnI in observation group were obviously lower than those in control group (p<0.05). At 3, 5 and 7 days after treatment, the levels of TNF-α and IL-18 in both groups of patients were decreased compared with those before treatment, but the level of IL-35 was increased compared with that before treatment, and changes in observation group were more significant than those in control group (p<0.05). Tanshinone IIA sodium sulfonate combined with trimetazidine and levocarnitine has definite curative effects in the treatment of patients with AVMC, which can alleviate myocardial injury with higher safety, and effectively mitigate the inflammatory response in patients, so it is of great clinical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Granulosa cell proliferation and differentiation are essential for follicle development. Breast cancer amplified sequence 2 (BCAS2) is necessary for spermatogenesis, oocyte development, and maintaining the genome integrity of early embryos in mice. However, the function of BCAS2 in granulosa cells is still unknown. Results: We show that conditional disruption of Bcas2 in granulosa cells caused follicle development failure; the ratio of the positive cells of the cell proliferation markers PCNA and Ki67 were unchanged in granulosa cells. Specific deletion of Bcas2 caused a decrease in the BrdU-positive cell ratio, cell cycle arrest, DNA damage, and an increase in apoptosis in granulosa cells, and RPA1 was abnormally stained in granulosa cells. RNA-seq results revealed that knockout of Bcas2 results in unusual expression of cellular senescence genes. BCAS2 participated in the PRP19 complex to mediate alternative splicing (AS) of E2f3 and Flt3l mRNA to inhibit the cell cycle. Knockout of Bcas2 resulted in a significant decrease in the ratio of BrdU-positive cells in the human granulosa-like tumour (KGN) cell line. Conclusions: Our results suggest that BCAS2 may influence the proliferation and survival of granulosa cells through regulating pre-mRNA splicing of E2f3 and Flt3l by forming the splicing complex with CDC5L and PRP19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ovarian folliculogenesis is a tightly regulated process leading to the formation of functional oocytes and involving successive quality control mechanisms that monitor chromosomal DNA integrity and meiotic recombination. A number of factors and mechanisms have been suggested to be involved in folliculogenesis and associated with premature ovarian insufficiency, including abnormal alternative splicing (AS) of pre-mRNAs. Serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1; previously SF2/ASF) is a pivotal posttranscriptional regulator of gene expression in various biological processes. However, the physiological roles and mechanism of SRSF1 action in mouse early-stage oocytes remain elusive. Here, we show that SRSF1 is essential for primordial follicle formation and number determination during meiotic prophase I. Results: The conditional knockout (cKO) of Srsf1 in mouse oocytes impairs primordial follicle formation and leads to primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). Oocyte-specific genes that regulate primordial follicle formation (e.g., Lhx8, Nobox, Sohlh1, Sohlh2, Figla, Kit, Jag1, and Rac1) are suppressed in newborn Stra8-GFPCre Srsf1Fl/Fl mouse ovaries. However, meiotic defects are the leading cause of abnormal primordial follicle formation. Immunofluorescence analyses suggest that failed synapsis and an inability to undergo recombination result in fewer homologous DNA crossovers (COs) in the Srsf1 cKO mouse ovaries. Moreover, SRSF1 directly binds and regulates the expression of the POI-related genes Six6os1 and Msh5 via AS to implement the meiotic prophase I program. Conclusions: Altogether, our data reveal the critical role of an SRSF1-mediated posttranscriptional regulatory mechanism in the mouse oocyte meiotic prophase I program, providing a framework to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the posttranscriptional network underlying primordial follicle formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We previously reported the synthesis of three DOX conjugates that represented different targeting vehicles and showed them to have antitumor activity both in vitro and in vivo. However, the relationships between the pharmacokinetics of these DOX conjugates and their chemical structures were not characterized. In the current study, free DOX derived from each of the conjugates was found at low levels in the rat circulatory system, with conjugated DOX being the major form. The two polyethylene glycol (PEG) conjugates slowly released DOX, and t1/2β for total DOX from DOX-LNA, PEG-ami-DOX, and PEG-hyd-DOX was 5.79,10.22, and 15.18 h, respectively. All three conjugates also deposited less DOX into normal organs than did an equivalent dose of free DOX, and the Cmax value of free DOX released by DOX-LNA, PEG-ami-DOX, and PEG-hyd-DOX was 32.5,9.5, and 4.7 μg/g, respectively. Among the conjugates, the compound with an acid-labile bond between PEG and DOX exhibited the lowest free DOX deposition in healthy tissues, which should decrease the systemic toxicity of free DOX while allowing for tumor targeting by PEG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a novel time delay estimation (TDE) method for narrowband RF signals with intermediate frequency difference (IFD). Since IFD is the main factor which affects the TDE precision, we present the frequency detection TDE model with IFD and discuss the effects of the IFD on the TDE. Then, a frequency detection TDE method based on IFD compensation is proposed. Especially, an improved frequency-domain cross-correlation method is adopted to estimate the IFD. The effectiveness of the algorithm is verified by MATLAB simulation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed TDE method shows a significant performance improvement over the classical TDE method based on Hilbert transform. Furthermore, the proposed method is also used in the actual system, and its estimation value is very close to the true value, which presents an enormous engineering practicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the effect of adding trace Er element on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AA6061 twin-roll casting sheet was evaluated. An NF6–300 vertical twin-roll cast-rolling mill was used to prepare AA6061 twin-roll casting sheet with different Er contents, and the main phase morphology and formation mechanism of Er in the alloy were analyzed using microstructure observation, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and other microstructure analysis techniques. The results show that the addition of a small amount of Er can form the primary Al 3 Er phase in the alloy. This phase structure becomes an excellent heterogeneous nucleation core of α-Al. This significantly affects the grain size of AA6061 TRC sheets. In addition, Er interacts with the Fe in the TRC sheet. Therefore, the iron-rich phase in the structure changes from coarse needle-like and skeletal shapes to smaller short rods and blocks, and micron-sized spheroids or lumps appear in the structure. Spheroid-like iron-rich phase contains Er. When the amount of Er addition exceeds 0.4 wt%, the number of rare-earth compounds and impurity phases in the structure increases significantly, and they mainly precipitate along the grain boundaries. This increases the strengthening effect of second phase and greatly reduces the plasticity of the material. When the amount of Er addition reaches 0.4 wt%, the comprehensive mechanical properties of TRC sheet are the best. At this time, the tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation are 160.14 MPa, 124.77 MPa, and 10.68%, respectively. • Effect of Er element on the microstructure and mechanical properties of twin-roll casting 6061 Al alloy sheet. • Er can form the primary Al3Er phase, which is an excellent heterogeneous nucleation core. • Er promote the transformation of Fe phase, and form micron-sized spheroids -like iron-rich phase contains Er. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A key limitation of conventional ultrasound (US) includes poor differentiation of benign from malignant thyroid nodules. Contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) could provide better characterization of focal thyroid nodules; however, no studies have compared their efficacies. Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of conventional US,CEUS, ARFI, and their combined use in differentiating focal solid thyroid nodules. Methods: One-hundred-forty-six Chinese patients with 175 thyroid nodules (119 benign and 56 malignant) were prospectively enrolled. Each patients underwent conventional US, CEUS and ARFI, respectively. The diagnostic performance of the conventional US, CEUS, ARFI, combined use of either CEUS or ARFI and combined use of the three modalities were assessed and compared using Pathological diagnosis (histological/cytological) as the reference method. Results: There were no significant differences between individual groups (CEUS vs US, P = 0.279, ARFI vs US, P = 0.372, CEUS vs ARFI, P = 0.849), combined use of US and CEUS or combined use of US and ARFI yielded significant difference compared to US. (combination of US & CEUS vs US, P = 0.021; combination of US & ARFI vs US, P = 0.036). The combination of three modalities significantly improved the diagnostic accuracy compared with either combination of conventional US and CEUS or combination of conventional US and ARFI (P = 0.045 and P  = 0.027, respectively). Conclusions: CEUS and ARFI can be used as an additional tool in the diagnostic work up of thyroid nodules. The combination of CEUS with ARFI can significantly improve the diagnostic accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a new rateless coded cooperation scheme for a general multi-user cooperative wireless system. We develop cooperation methods based on Raptor codes with the assumption that the channels face erasure with specific erasure probabilities and transmitters have no channel state information. A fully coded cooperation (FCC) and a partially coded cooperation (PCC) strategy are developed to maximize the average system throughput. Both PCC and FCC schemes have been analyzed through AND-OR tree analysis and a linear programming optimization problem is then formulated to find the optimum degree distribution for each scheme. Simulation results show that optimized degree distributions can bring considerable throughput gains compared to existing degree distributions which are designed for point-to-point binary erasure channels. It is also shown that the PCC scheme outperforms the FCC scheme in terms of average system throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: By using a zinc ion-chelated polyethylenimine as electron injection layer, an inverted organic light-emitting device (OLED) was successfully prepared with an external quantum efficiency over 10% at a brightness of 45,610 cd m−2. The chelation between zinc ion and amine groups not only passivates polar amine groups, but also fuses separated electronic orbitals. The inverted OLED show an excellent air stability with an operating time of 541 h @ 1,000 cd m−2 without any protection. Here, this work presents an air-stable ultrabright inverted organic light-emitting device (OLED) by using zinc ion-chelated polyethylenimine (PEI) as electron injection layer. The zinc chelation is demonstrated to increase the conductivity of the PEI by three orders of magnitude and passivate the polar amine groups. With these physicochemical properties, the inverted OLED shows a record-high external quantum efficiency of 10.0% at a high brightness of 45,610 cd m−2 and can deliver a maximum brightness of 121,865 cd m−2. Besides, the inverted OLED is also demonstrated to possess an excellent air stability (humidity, 35%) with a half-brightness operating time of 541 h @ 1000 cd m−2 without any protection nor encapsulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regularizing the deformation field is an important aspect in nonrigid medical image registration. By covering the template image with a triangular mesh, this paper proposes a new regularization constraint in terms of connections between mesh vertices. The connection relationship is preserved by the spring analogy method. The method is evaluated by registering cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image data obtained from different individuals. Experimental results show that the proposed method has good deformation ability and topology-preserving ability, providing a new way to the nonrigid medical image registration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To apply long-read, third-generation sequencing as a part of a general workup strategy for performing structural rearrangement (PGT-SR) and monogenic disease (PGT-M) embryo testing.Design: Prospective study.Setting: In vitro fertilization unit.Patient(s): Couples presenting for PGT-SR (n = 15) and PGT-M (n = 2).Intervention(s): Blastocyst biopsy with molecular testing for translocation breakpoints or mutations (targets).Main Outcome Measure(s): Detailed, parental-phased, single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles around targets for selection of informative polymorphic markers to simplify and facilitate clinical preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) designs that enable discrimination between carrier and noncarrier embryos.Result(s): High definition of chromosome breakpoints together with closely phased polymorphic markers was achieved for all 15 couples presenting for PGT-SR. Similarly, for the two couples presenting for PGT-M, tightly linked informative markers around the mutations were also simply identified. Three couples with translocations t(1;17)(q21;p13), t(3;13)(p25;q21.2), and t(12;13)(q23;q22) proceeded with PGT-SR, requesting preferential identification of noncarrier embryos for transfer. Following selection of a set of informative SNPs linked to breakpoints, we successfully performed PGT-SR tests, resulting in ongoing pregnancies with a noncarrier fetus for all couples. Similarly, with the use of tests based on informative SNPs linked to the parental mutations, one couple proceeded with PGT-M for maple syrup urine disease, resulting in an ongoing pregnancy with a disease-free fetus.Conclusion(s): For couples contemplating clinical PGT, variant haplophasing around the target reduces the workup process by enabling rapid selection of closely linked informative markers for patient-specific test design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]