Search

Objective. This study mainly analyzes the diagnostic value of two-dimensional ultrasonography (2D-US) combined with four-dimensional ultrasonography (4D-US) in prenatal ultrasound screening of fetal congenital malformations (CMs) and explores the high-risk factors affecting fetal malformations. Methods. The clinical and imaging data of 2247 pregnant women who underwent prenatal fetal malformation screening in the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University between February 2020 and October 2021 were collected and analyzed, retrospectively. All pregnant women underwent 2D-US, and those with suspected fetal malformations were further inspected by 4D-US. The accuracy of ultrasound examination results relative to actual pregnancy outcomes was analyzed, taking the neonatal malformation after induced labor or actual delivery as the gold standard, and the risk factors influencing the occurrence of fetal malformations were discussed. Results. A total of 87 cases (3.87%) of fetal malformations were detected out of the 2247 parturients examined. The accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 2D-US diagnosis were 81.40%, 43.68%, and 82.92%, respectively, while the data were 83.67%, 51.72%, and 84.95% for 4D-US, respectively, and 93.59%, 90.80%, and 93.70%, respectively, for 2D-US +4D-US. The combined diagnosis of 2D-US +4D-US achieved statistically higher accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity than either of them alone. One-way analysis of variance and multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that the independent risk factors affecting fetal malformation were age ≥ 35 , history of adverse pregnancy and childbirth, medication during pregnancy, toxic exposure during pregnancy, and history of seropositive for TORCH-IgM. Folic acid supplementation was a protective factor. Conclusions. Prenatal US is an effective approach for screening fetal malformations. 2D-US +4D-US can effectively improve the diagnostic rate of fetal malformations. For pregnant women with high-risk factors, prevention should be given priority, and prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis should be standardized to reduce the occurrence of fetal malformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pasty rocket engines have broad application prospects in the aerospace field. To study the internal ballistic characteristics of the pasty propellant rocket engine, the burning surface change model of pasty propellant was built. The calculation program was developed to calculate the pressure evolution in the combustion chamber, and the experiment was carried out based on a pasty propellant rocket test system. The data calculated by the program are in good agreement with the experiment, the error of the initial pressure peak is only 4.02%, and the internal ballistic characteristics of the rocket engine at each stage were analyzed detailly. The effects of ignition delay time, transport pipeline structure, free volume of the combustion chamber, mass flow rate, and flow velocity of the pasty propellant on internal ballistic characteristics of the pasty propellant rocket engine are investigated. The results indicate that when the ignition delay time increases, the pressure rises faster and the initial pressure peak increases obviously. The transport pipe diameter changes from 11.3 mm to 7.4 mm, and the initial combustion time and residual propellant combustion time decreased by 41.3% and 36.0%. The reduction of the free volume of the combustion chamber can reduce the initial pressure peak and the time to reach the equilibrium pressure. The initial pressure spike and equilibrium pressure rise with the increase of the pasty propellant flow velocity. While the ignition transient decreased with the increase of the pasty propellant flow velocity. The internal ballistic properties can be improved by reducing the ignition delay time, the diameter of the transport pipeline, and the free volume of the combustion chamber, or by increasing the mass flow rate of the pasty propellant rocket engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The stochastic driving cycles pose a challenge to the actual implementation of the control strategy for fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Considering the problem, this research proposes a predictive control strategy based on velocity prediction. Firstly, a novel velocity prediction method is developed, which considers the prediction error of back propagation neural network (BPNN)‐based method. Then, it is incorporated into the predictive control strategy for a plug‐in FCEV. Finally, simulation studies are conducted to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed predictive control strategy. Simulation results show that the proposed velocity prediction method can adaptive to different driving cycles with high accuracy. In another case, with the velocity prediction used in the predictive control strategy, hydrogen consumption reduces by 17.07% when compared with the traditional rule‐based strategy. All the results indicate that the designed velocity prediction approach made it possible to forecast vehicle velocity with relatively high precision and promising to promote the energy management strategy (EMS) to reduce the hydrogen consumption of the plug‐in FCEV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. Using both data mining and network pharmacology methods, this paper aims to construct a molecule-target-disease network for medicines used for treating mastitis, mine out targets, and signaling pathways related to mastitis and explore the mechanism of Chinese materia medica (CMM) prescriptions in treating mastitis. Methods. A total of 131 CMM prescriptions for treating mastitis were collected from clinical practice and related literatures. A database of prescriptions for treating mastitis (DPTM) was then constructed. Based on data mining method, Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System (TCMISS) was employed to mine out high-frequency CMM and key CMM combinations in DPTM. Subsequently, TCM Systems Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform (TCMSP) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Information Database (TCM-ID) were searched for the targets of ingredients of high-frequency CMM. Then, Bioinformatics Analysis Tool for Molecular Mechanism of TCM (BATMAN-TCM) was searched for diseases and signaling pathways corresponding to the targets of key CMM combinations. The obtained results were denoted as results 1. In addition, human disease database MalaCards was searched for targets and signaling pathways related to mastitis. The obtained results were denoted as results 2. Results 1 and 2 were compared to obtain targets and signaling pathways included in both results, namely, mastitis-related targets of TCMs and mastitis-related signaling pathways that CMM involves in. Then, the biological functions of these targets and signaling pathways were investigated, on which basis the mechanism of CMM prescriptions in treating mastitis was explored. Results. A total of 12 key TCM combinations were identified. Taraxaci Herba, Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma, Paeoniae Radix Alba, semen citri reticulatae, etc. were CMM with the highest frequency of use for treating mastitis. The potential targets of these high-frequency CMM in treating mastitis were intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), and lactotransferrin. The potential signaling pathways that key CMM combinations may involve in during mastitis treatment were NF-κB signaling pathway, immune system, PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway. Conclusions. From a perspective of network pharmacology, molecule-target-disease analysis may serve as an entry point for the research of mechanism of CMM. On this basis, we studied the mechanism of CMM prescriptions in treating mastitis by data mining and comparison of results. Our work thus provides a new idea and method for studying the working mechanism of CMM prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A singular delayed biological economic predator-prey system with and without stochastic fluctuation is proposed. The conditions of singularity induced bifurcation are gained, and a state feedback controller is designed to eliminate such bifurcation. Furthermore, saddle-node bifurcation is also showed. Next, the local stability of the positive equilibrium and the existence of Hopf bifurcation are obtained by analyzing the distribution of roots of the corresponding characteristic equation, and the hybrid control strategy is used to control the occurrence of Hopf bifurcation. In addition, some explicit formulas determining the spectral densities of the populations and harvest effort are given when the system is considered with stochastic fluctuation. Finally, numerical simulations are illustrated to verify the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emerging infectious disease (EID) in foxes called "large kidney disease", characterized by enlarged kidneys, has been breaking out in fox farms in China, although its pathogenesis has not yet been elucidated. Here, we performed viral metagenomics sequencing on diseased fox tissue samples that identified a virus with 82.6% homology to the xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV) PreXMRV-1 provirus strain (GenBank accession number NC_007815.2) in sick fox tissue. It was named PreXMRV-20, and its genome was verified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR product sequencing. Nonenveloped and polygonal virus-like particles consistent with the shape and size of XMRV were observed by negative staining electron microscopy. Administered subcutaneously, PreXMRV-20 infected weaned foxes, leading to growth retardation. The discovery of the PreXMRV-20 strain (the first isolation of an XMRV homolog in blue foxes) identifies a potential public health issue in blue fox breeding since XMRV has been confirmed to be a zoonotic virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A singular biological economic model with harvesting and stage structure is presented. The local stability of equilibriums of the system is investigated when the economic profit parameter is zero, and the conditions of the singularity induced bifurcation occurring at the positive equilibrium are obtained by the singular systems theory and bifurcation theory. In order to eliminate the singularity induced bifurcation, a state feedback controller is designed by controlling the fishing effort. At last, an application example is given to illustrate the validity of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To solve the problems of difficult fault signal recognition and poor diagnosis effect of different damage in the same position in rolling mill bearing at low speed, a fault diagnosis method of rolling mill bearing based on integration of EEMD and DBN was proposed. The vibration signals in horizontal, axial, and vertical directions were decomposed and reconstructed by EEMD, and frequency domain analysis was carried out by using refined spectrum. Then, the signal's time-frequency domain index, rolling force, and torque component feature vector were input into genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize DBN model classification. In order to verify the effectiveness of the method, the experimental study was carried out on the two-high experimental rolling mill. The results show that EEMD combined with thinning spectrum can solve the problem of fault feature extraction well. Compared with time-frequency domain characteristic input, the prediction accuracy of DBN model is obviously improved. And the accuracy of GA-DBN model is higher, and the accuracy is 98.3%, and the time taken to diagnose is significantly reduced. Finally, the fault classification of different parts of bearings and the fault diagnosis of different damage in the same part are realized, which provides a good theoretical basis for the fault diagnosis of low-speed bearings and has important engineering significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many plant ESTs have been sequenced as an alternative to whole genome sequences, including peanut because of the genome size and complexity. The US peanut research community had the historic 2004 Atlanta Genomics Workshop and named the EST project as a main priority. As of August 2011, the peanut research community had deposited 252,832 ESTs in the public NCBI EST database, and this resource has been providing the community valuable tools and core foundations for various genome-scale experiments before the whole genome sequencing project. These EST resources have been used for marker development, gene cloning,microarray gene expression and genetic map construction. Certainly, the peanut EST sequence resources have been shown to have a wide range of applications and accomplished its essential role at the time of need. Then the EST project contributes to the second historic event, the Peanut Genome Project 2010 Inaugural Meeting also held in Atlanta where it was decided to sequence the entire peanut genome. After the completion of peanut whole genome sequencing, ESTs or transcriptome will continue to play an important role to fill in knowledge gaps, to identify particular genes and to explore gene function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous lymphoid malignancy. The unsatisfactory outcome for refractory patients has prompted efforts to explore new therapeutic approaches for DLBCL. However, the mechanisms involved in treatment associated with immune checkpoints remain unclear. This study is aimed at investigating the potential roles of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1) and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG3) in CD8+ T cells for treatment in DLBCL. Methods. Utilizing flow cytometry, we examined the content of T cells, the levels of cytokines, and the expression of PD1 and LAG3 in patients with DLBCL as well as in healthy controls. Levels of cytokines in CD8+ T cells from DLBCL patients before and after treatment were compared by blocking of PD1 and LAG3 in magnetic bead-sorted CD8+ T cells. Results. We found that the proportion of CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells was increased in DLBCL patients after treatment. The levels of cytokines trended toward those of healthy controls in treatment. PD1 (+), LAG3 (+), or PD1 (+) LAG3 (+) were all expressed in lower amounts in CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells after treatment than in untreated DLBCL patients. In addition, blockade of PD1 and LAG3 in sorted CD8+ T cells markedly inhibited cytokine production in response to treatment. Conclusion. PD1 and LAG3 in CD8+ T cells may be important targets of therapy and play therapeutic role in patients with DLBCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is prevalent worldwide, leading to a high risk of significant morbidity for both the mother and offspring with complications. Increasing evidences suggest that gut microbiota plays a role in the pathogenesis of GDM. Lifestyle modification is the cornerstones of GDM treatment. However, a number of patients whose blood glucose is not controlled by lifestyle modification still require exogenous insulin to control blood glucose. No observational study is available about the relationship between the gut microbiota in GDM patients and lifestyle modifications. Thus, we investigated the differences in gut microbiota between GDM patients with successful glycemic control (GDM1) and failure of glycemic control (GDM2) by lifestyle modifications. We sequenced the V3-V4 regions of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene from stool samples of 52 singleton pregnant women with 24–28 weeks of gestation. Our results showed that Blautia, Eubacterium_hallii_group, and Faecalibacterium in the gut microbiota showed significant differences among the normoglycemic mother, GDM1, and GDM2 groups, respectively. The combined diagnostic performance of Blautia, Eubacterium_hallii_group, and Faecalibacterium in differentiating GDM2 from GDM was considered as the most reasonable identification indicator. Gut bacteria may participate in the pathological development of GDM2 through the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway. These results indicated that Blautia, Eubacterium_hallii_group, and Faecalibacterium had important characteristic changes in the gut microbiota of women with GDM2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

G72 is a schizophrenia-susceptible gene encoding a polypeptide with 153 amino acids. In 2002, it was originally proposed as an activator of D-amino acid oxidase (DAOA) that could enhance the activity of DAAO and subsequently reduce the neurotransmission of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors. However, several controversial findings have been reported recently. Due to a number of inconsistent descriptions of pLG72’s biofunctions, this study aims to identify the cellular effects induced by pLG72 in U87 cells using systems biology approaches. The analyses of transcriptomics and biological networks showed that pLG72 might be involved in the induction of oxidative stress. To confirm the in silico prediction, we tested and discovered that overexpression of pLG72 effectively enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) in U87 cells and, furthermore, this induction can be quenched by Tempol, a general ROS scavenger. Therefore, G72-transgenic mice presenting some psychiatric symptoms, along with the pLG72 level being significantly increased in the serum of patients with schizophrenia, have led us to propose that the ROS enhancement in mental diseases may be from the overexpression of pLG72 in brain cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The works described a study on the preparation of LiBH4 thin films by means of pulsed laser deposition. The results indicated that crystalline LiBH4 films can be prepared from a LiB target under 70 Pa hydrogen atmosphere at ambient temperature. Compared with the former reports of LiBH4, the hydrogen atmosphere and temperature were effectively reduced for the synthetical crystalline LiBH4 films with amorphous Li2B12H12. The mixture was successively dehydrided by two steps in dehydriding reaction, corresponding to the dehydriding amount of approximately 8 and 6 mass%. Compared with the former reports of LiBH4 powder with no catalyzer, the primary dehydriding temperatures of the films was reduced. It will be easy to obtain the hydrogen from LiBH4. This opens up new possibilities to study this important hydrogen storage material. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]