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Objective. By conducting a systematic review of the efficacy of acupoint application on children with asthma. Methods. We searched Chinese databases (CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang) and English databases (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library) for studies from the establishment of the database to October 2021. The included literature studies were randomized control studies investigating the treatment of asthma in children by acupoint application. The primary outcomes included the cure rate, the resolution time of cough, and the resolution time of wheezing. The secondary outcomes included pulmonary function and interleukins. Stata 15 and RevMan 5.4 were used to analyze the extracted data. Results. A total of 24 related studies were included containing 2716 cases. The meta-analysis showed that TCM group was superior to control group in terms of cure rate, pulmonary function (FEV1), and resolution time of wheezing in children with asthma [RR = 1.26,95% (1.21,1.31), P < 0.05 ; SMD = 0.81, 95%CI (0.05,1.56), P < 0.05 ; WMD = −1.40, 95%CI (−1.75, −1.05), P < 0.05 ]. Conclusions. The present study shows that acupoint application is an effective treatment for children with asthma in China, especially in alleviating wheezing and improving quality of life.

Our previous studies have shown that delicaflavone (DLL), a biocomponent extracted from Selaginella doederleinii Hieron, has antitumor activity. However, the role of DLL in the antitumor immune response is unknown. In this study, we tested the potential roles of DLL in antitumor immune response. An animal tumor model with Lewis lung cancer cell line (3LL) in C57BL/6 mice was established to determine whether DLL induced the tumor-bearing host’s antitumor immune response. m6A-MeRIP-qPCR, western blot, and flow cytometry were performed to explore the underlying mechanisms. DLL inhibited the proliferation of 3LL lung cancer cells in vitro and in vivo and induced tumor cell oxidative stress. DLL significantly inhibited tumor growth in immunocompetent mice compared with nude mice. DLL treatment significantly increased Th1 cytokine production and CD8+ T cell infiltration into tumor tissues in tumor-bearing mice. DLL-mediated antitumor immune effects were reversed by overexpression of the N6-methyladenosine (m6A) transferase Mettl3/Mettl14. Mechanistically, DLL upregulated the expression of Stat1 and Irf1 and the secretion of cytokines by inhibiting Mettl3 and Mettl14 in lung cancer cells. In conclusion, DLL inhibited lung cancer cell growth by suppressing Mettl3/Mettl14 to activate antitumor immunity. These findings provided an opportunity to enhance lung cancer immunotherapy.

Background. Spinal injury in children usually occurs in the cervical spine region. Anterior fixation of the lower cervical spine has been applied in treating pediatric cervical spine injury and disease due to its stable and firm mechanical properties. This study performed finite element analysis and comparison of four different anterior cervical internal fixation systems for children to explore more standard methods of anterior cervical internal fixation in children and seek more effective and safe treatment for children’s cervical spine diseases. Methods. A finite element model of 6-year-old children with lower cervical spine C4/5 discectomy was established, and the self-designed lower cervical spine anterior locking internal fixation system ACBLP and the children’s anterior cervical internal fixation system ACOP, ACVLP, and ACSLP plate screws were fixed and loaded on the model. 27.42 N·m torque load was applied to each internal fixation model under six working conditions of anteflexion, backward flexion, left flexion, right flexion, left rotation, and right rotation, to simulate the movement of the cervical spine. The activity and stress distribution cloud diagram of each finite element model was obtained to explore the optimal method of anterior cervical fixation in children. Results. In the four internal fixation models of ACOP, ACVLP, ACSLP, and ACBLP, the mobility of the C4/5 segment showed a decreasing relationship, and the mobility of adjacent segments increased significantly. In the Mises stress cloud diagram of the cervical spine of the four models, the vertebral body and accessories of the ACBLP model born the least stress, followed by ACSLP. The steel plate and screws in the ACVLP internal fixation model were the most stressed. The stress of the internal fixation system (plate/screw) in all models increased in the order of ACBLP, ACSLP, ACVLP, and ACOP. Conclusions. ACBLP internal fixation system had obvious advantages in anterior internal fixation of the lower cervical spine in children, C4/5 had the smallest degree of movement, relative displacement was minimal, and the stress on the centrum and pedicle was the least, while the stress on the plate screw was relatively the smallest.

Background. Propofol is an anesthetic commonly used clinically and has been found to have antitumor activity in various cancers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of propofol in hepatoblastoma (HB). Methods. CCK-8 and transwell were used to measure cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in HB cells. Cell apoptosis rate was measured by FCM. The expression of CCL18 in HB tissues and cells was detected by RT-qPCR. Western blotting was used to explore the protein expression of CCK18- and PI3K/AKT-related proteins. Results. The expression of CCL18 in HB tissues and cells was overexpressed compared with control groups. CCL18 knockdown was found to notably block cell proliferation and progression, while enhancing cell apoptosis in HuH-6 and HepT1 cells. Furthermore, propofol suppressed the proliferation of HB cells in a dose-dependent manner. According to the results, we chose 5 μg/mL of propofol-treated cells for 48 hours as the subsequent experimental conditions. We found that propofol (5 μg/mL, 48 h) significantly blocked cell migration and invasion, but induced cell apoptosis in HuH-6 and HepT1 cells. In addition, CCK18 overexpression facilitated cell progression in HB cells, while propofol dramatically suppressed the effect of CCK18. Besides that, propofol suppressed the PI3K/AKT pathway. Conclusion. Propofol suppressed the development of HB cells by inhibiting CCK18 expression and the PI3K/AKT pathway. Therefore, we infer that propofol plays a role in the treatment of HB.

Purpose. To compare the efficacy and safety of zip-type skin closure device (SCD) and staple in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Methods. Potential academic articles were identified from PubMed, Springer, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library from the inception of electronic databases to July 2020. The statistical analyses were performed with RevMan 5.1. Results. One randomized controlled trial (RCT) and 5 non-RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Present meta-analysis reveals that SCD is associated with lower wound pain score, scar score, and readmission compared with a staple. No significant differences are identified in terms of wound total complications, dehiscence, blisters, and infection. Conclusions. Comparing with a staple, zip-type SCD is a less painful skin closure method with fewer medical cost undergoing TKA.

Background. Our previous research showed the antioxidant activity of anthocyanins extracted from Aronia melanocarpa of black chokeberry in vitro. Ischemia acute kidney injury is a significant risk in developing progressive and deterioration of renal function leading to clinic chronic kidney disease. There were many attempts to protect the kidney against this progression of renal damage. Current study was designed to examine the effect of pretreatment with three anthocyanins named cyanidin-3-arabinoside, cyanidin-3-glucodise, and cyaniding-3-galactoside against acute ischemia-reperfusion injury in mouse kidney. Methods. Acute renal injury model was initiated by 30 min clamping bilateral renal pedicle and followed by 24-hour reperfusion in C57Bl/6J mice. Four groups of mice were orally pretreated in 50 mg/g/12 h for two weeks with cyanidin-3-arabinoside, cyanidin-3-glucodise, and cyaniding-3-galactoside and anthocyanins (three-cyanidin mixture), respectively, sham-control group and the renal injury-untreated groups only with saline. Results. The model resulted in renal dysfunction with high serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and changes in proinflammatory cytokines (TNF-ɑ, IL-1β, IL-6, and MCP-1), renal oxidative stress (SOD, GSH, and CAT), lipid peroxidation (TBARS and MDA), and apoptosis (caspase-9). Pretreatment of two weeks resulted in different extent amelioration of renal dysfunction and tubular damage and suppression of proinflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, lipid peroxidation, and apoptosis, thus suggesting that cyanidins are potentially effective in acute renal ischemia by the decrease of inflammation, oxidative stress, and lipid peroxidation, as well as apoptosis. Conclusion. the current study provided the first attempt to investigate the role of anthocyanins purified from Aronia melanocarpa berry in amelioration of acute renal failure via antioxidant and cytoprotective effects.

Frequent collapse accidents in tunnels are associated with many construction risk factors, and the interrelationship among these risk factors is complex and ambiguous. This study’s aim is to clarify the relationship among risk factors to reduce the tunnel collapse risk. A multicriteria decision-making method is proposed by combining interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and fuzzy Bayesian network (FBN). ISM is used to determine the hierarchical relationships among risk factors. FBN quantitatively analyzes the strength of the interaction among risk factors and conducts risk analysis. The ISM-FBN method contains three steps: (1) drawing the ISM-directed graph; (2) obtaining the probability of the FBN nodes; and (3) using GeNle to implement risk analysis. The proposed method is also used to assess the collapse risk and detect the critical factors in the Canglongxia Tunnel, China. This method’s tunnel collapse risk model can provide managers with clear risk information and better realize project management.

The Chinese government implemented the ambitious south-north water transfer project (SNWTP), which aims to transport water from the Yangtze to the north of China where water shortages are severe. Although the ecological impacts of this project have been addressed publically, there remains a poor understanding of the effects of such large-scale water transfers on the populations of aquatic species. The potential ecological impacts of such water transfers on the Hongze Lake fish assemblages are assessed here using Self-Organizing Map (SOM) and Random Forest (RF) modeling. Using SOM, twenty-three fish species in 15 sampling sites were classified into two assemblages and four sub-assemblages corresponding to four distinct habitats (deep water macrophytes, deep water bare silt, shallow water bare silt, and shallow water macrophytes). The RF model further showed that water depth and transparency were the abiotic drivers underpinning fish assemblages in Hongze Lake. As the SNWTP is forecasted to modify the distribution of water depth and water clarity, major knock-on effects are expected on downstream lake fish assemblages.

The topmouth culter (Culter alburnus Basilewsky, 1855) is a freshwater carnivorous fish of high nutritional value and widely distributed in lakes and reservoirs of China. In order to evaluate the fatty acid profiles in relation to habitat characteristics and to elucidate the main composition predictors, C.alburnus were collected from five lakes (Xingkai- LXk, Hongze- LHz, Kuilei- LKl, Chidong- LCd and Dongting- LDt) in China, ranging in latitudes from 28 degrees 30 to 44 degrees 44N and altitudes from 4 to 64m. Ten fish from each lake ranging in total lengths from 414.2 to 423.9mm were sampled between May to June in 2013 and 2014. A total of 23 fatty acids were identified using gas chromatography. Fatty acids that predominated in muscle samples of the fish were 16:0, 18:0, 16:1n-7, 18:1n-9, 20:5n-3, 22:6n-3 and 20:4n-6. Important differences in the fatty acid profiles of fish from high and low latitude lakes were discernible in that the two high latitudinal lakes (LXk and LHz) had significantly higher (p

A new floating emulator for the flux-controlled memristor is introduced in this paper. The proposed emulator circuit is very simple and consists of only two current feedback operational amplifiers (CFOAs), two analog multipliers, three resistors, and two capacitors. The emulator can be configured as an incremental or decremental type memristor by using an additional switch. The mathematical model of the emulator is derived to characterize its behavior. The hysteresis behavior of the emulator is discussed in detail, showing that the pinched hysteresis loops in v-i plane depend not only on the amplitude-to-frequency ratio of the exciting signal but also on the time constant of the emulator circuit itself. Experimental tests are provided to validate the emulator’s workability.

Accurate forecasting of wind speed plays a fundamental role in enabling reliable operation and planning for large-scale integration of wind turbines. It is difficult to obtain the accurate wind speed forecasting (WSF) due to the intermittent and random nature of wind energy. In this paper, a multiperiod-ahead WSF model based on the analysis of variance, stacked denoising autoencoder (SDAE), and ensemble learning is proposed. The analysis of variance classifies the training samples into different categories. The stacked denoising autoencoder as a deep learning architecture is later built for unsupervised feature learning in each category. The ensemble of extreme learning machine (ELM) is applied to fine-tune the SDAE for multiperiod-ahead wind speed forecasting. Experimental results are made to demonstrate that the proposed model has the best performance compared with the classic WSF methods including the single SDAE-ELM, ELMAN, and adaptive neuron-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS).

Growth, reproduction and abundance traits of the invasive icefish Neosalanx taihuensis Chen, 1956 were investigated monthly from July 2009 to May 2011 in Lake Erhai on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, south-western China, in order to explore the changes in life-history traits after translocation. The results indicated that the icefish exhibited obvious plasticity in growth and reproduction traits. Growth of the fish in Lake Erhai was faster than that in native waters and in other translocated reservoirs. By fitting the von Bertalanffy growth model to the data, it was estimated that icefish obtain an asymptotic size of 96.12 mm, a K of 1.61, and a t(0) of -0.26; the calculated overall growth performance index phi ' was 4.17. The strategy of reproduction changed from multiple- to single-spawning. The spawning period was from October to December with the absolute and relative fecundities of 1250 +/- 169 eggs per ind and 2557 +/- 245 eggs per g, respectively. Plasticity in icefish growth and reproduction in Lake Erhai greatly facilitated its population establishment, making it one of the most abundant fish species. The icefish invasion in the lake may be one of the reasons for the decrease or extinction of native fish species populations, and some measures for the control of this invasive fish are suggested.

Hydroacoustic surveys were performed in an oxbow lake (Lake Laojianghe, China) along the Yangtze River. The study took place during the day and night in October 2012 using the Simrad EY60 split beam echo sounder. A clear day-night difference in fish densities was observed in selected transect areas. The mean density estimate at night was three times higher than during the day, while at night densities were similar in the two adjacent areas. Significantly positive relationships were found between fish density and average depth for the night and daytime transects, however, the regression slope for the daytime density estimates was much smaller than for the surveys at night. Small fish dominated the acoustic size structure during both day and night, but were more accessible at night. The average biomass estimate from the daytime transects was nearly 60% lower than those from the corresponding night transects. These results indicate that an entire lake estimate of a fish population may be severely biased if fish tend to aggregate temporarily in the bottom or littoral zone or display diurnal behaviour. The conclusion is that acoustic sampling in Lake Laojianghe is best done at night. Diel differences in the lake should be further investigated by carrying out additional day-night comparison experiments and also by using control catches.

Fishery harvest of Coilia mystus in the Yangtze Estuary has declined dramatically since the late 1990s. A full understanding of the reproductive biology of this species is essential for effective management of the population. A total of 1072 females of C. mystus collected from the Yangtze Estuary area between May 2006 and September 2007 were analyzed to reveal the general reproductive biology of the population. Females with increased gonadosomatic index (GSI) and gonads developed to stages IV and V occurred mainly from March through August, indicating a major spawning season in this period; there were also a few females with increased GSI and developed gonads observed in November and January. Absolute fecundity (AF) ranged from 3093 to 36 786; and increased with both body weight (BW) and age. The relationship of AF to BW was fitted to a linear function AF = 924.72 x BW-414.17 (r(2) = 0.82, n = 134, P l 0.05). Relative fecundity was 871 eggs per gram. Oocyte diameter (OD) of mature females ranged from 0.55 to 0.90 mm with a mean (+/- SD) of 0.71 +/- 0.05 mm (n = 3927), independent of BW. The frequency distribution of OD showed a single mode and histological examination demonstrated that the development of oocytes was synchronous within an ovary, suggesting that C. mystus is a single spawner. Compared to previous studies, females in this study tended to produce more but smaller eggs. This increased fecundity may represent biological compensation for the decline in abundance of the population due to overexploitation.

There is strong evidence that genetic capacity for growth evolves toward an optimum rather than an absolute maximum. This implies that fast growth has a cost and that trade-offs occur between growth and other life-history traits. In this study, we conducted a series of predation trials with a paired-contrast design to test the differences in anti-predator ability between growth-enhanced transgenic and non-transgenic common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). We showed that young transgenic fish suffered higher predation mortality than control carp in both small-bodied and large-bodied size-matched trials, and thus possessed lower anti-predator ability. Our results suggest that a trade-off exists between growth rate and survival such that rapid growth entails a cost in terms of mortality.

A glass-like casing was developed to mend the instable borehole due to its great similarities in compositions and structure. In order to boost the casing’s mechanical properties and lower its cost, different wt% additions of aluminum and quartz sand are added into the composition. Based on the outcomes of differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), it is suggested to be sintered at the temperature of 700°C. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) show that aluminum and SiO2are its main crystalline phases. Its compression strength and the tensile strength range 5–14 Mpa and 0.5–4.5 Mpa, respectively, with the relative densities of between 1.00 g/cm3and 1.19 g/cm3. In the end, a glass-based formula with 30 wt% aluminum and 40 wt% quartz sand is developed and experimentally applied.

Objective. To explore the applications of preoperative planning and virtual surgery including surgical windowing and elevating reduction and to determine the clinical effects of this technology on the treatment of Schatzker type III tibial plateau fractures.Methods. 32 patients with Schatzker type III tibial plateau fractures were randomised upon their admission to the hospital using a sealed envelope method. Fourteen were treated with preoperative virtual design and assisted operation (virtual group) and 18 with direct open reduction and internal fixation (control group).Results. All patients achieved primary incision healing. Compared with control group, virtual groups showed significant advantages in operative time, incision length, and blood lossP<0.001. The virtual surgery was consistent with the actual surgery.Conclusion. The virtual group was better than control group in the treatment of tibial plateau fractures of Schatzker type III, due to shorter operative time, smaller incision length, and lower blood loss. The reconstructed 3D fracture model could be used to preoperatively determine the surgical windowing and elevating reduction method and simulate the operation for Schatzker type III tibial plateau fractures.

OBJECTIVE Retrograde cerebral perfusion (RCP) provides better brain protection than hypothermic circulatory arrest (HCA) alone. The mechanism by which RCP improves brain protection during circulatory arrest remains unknown. The purpose of the study in pigs was to determine if RCP improves brain protection mainly as a result of its ability to maintain cerebral hypothermia. METHODS Fifteen pigs were subjected to 120 minutes of HCA alone (HCA group, n = 5), HCA + RCP at perfusion pressures of 23 to 29 mmHg (RCP-low group, n = 5), or at perfusion pressures of 34-40 mmHg (RCP-high group, n = 5) at 15 degrees C, followed by 60 minutes of normothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). After brain temperature reached 15 degrees C, HCA was initiated with or without RCP. Temperatures in the brain, esophagus, and perfusate/blood were monitored continuously. Brain tissue blood flow was measured continuously using a laser flowmeter. Brain oxygen extraction was calculated from the oxygen contents in arterial and venous blood samples. RESULTS During cooling and rewarming, the change in temperature was slower in the brain than in the esophagus. A similar degree of spontaneous rewarming (from 15 degrees C to 17/18 degrees C) occurred in the brain during HCA and RCP. This indicates that RCP does not provide better maintenance of cerebral hypothermia during circulatory arrest than HCA alone. The esophageal temperature rose more slowly during RCP than during HCA alone, indicating that RCP maintains better hypothermia in the body. During RCP, the brain extracted oxygen continuously from the blood, indicating that RCP may provide nutrient flow to the brain. CONCLUSION In an acute pig model, maintenance of cerebral hypothermia does not appear to be the principal mechanism by which RCP provides better brain protection than HCA alone. Retrograde cerebral perfusion provides nutrient flow/oxygen to brain tissue, leading to better brain protection than HCA alone.

The control of planetary rovers, which are high performance mobile robots that move on deformable rough terrain, is a challenging problem. Taking lateral skid into account, this paper presents a rough terrain model and nonholonomic kinematics model for planetary rovers. An approach is proposed in which the reference path is generated according to the planned path by combining look-ahead distance and path updating distance on the basis of the carrot following method. A path-following strategy for wheeled planetary exploration robots incorporating slip compensation is designed. Simulation results of a four-wheeled robot on deformable rough terrain verify that it can be controlled to follow a planned path with good precision, despite the fact that the wheels will obviously skid and slip.

Small fish communities were compared between the vegetated and vegetation-free regions of the Liangzi Lake, a shallow lake along the middle reach of the Yangtze River, China. Fish were sampled using 10 x 10 m(2) block nets and poisoning. Three samples were taken from either the near shore area or lake centre of each region. A total of 19 fish species were collected; all species occurred in the vegetated region but only 12 occurred in the vegetation-free region. The dominant small fish were Carassius auratus auratus in the vegetated region and Ctenogobius giurinus in the vegetation-free region. Diversity, density and biomass of small fishes were significantly higher in the vegetated region than in the vegetation-free region in both near shore and lake centre areas. In the vegetated region, density and biomass of small fishes was significantly higher, while species diversity significantly lower in the near shore area than in the lake centre. In the vegetation-free region, density of small fishes was significantly higher in the near shore area than in the lake centre area, but species diversity or biomass was unaffected by location.

Functional neural connectivity is drawing increasing attention in neuroscience research. To infer functional connectivity from observed neural signals, various methods have been proposed. Among them, phase synchronization analysis is an important and effective one which examines the relationship of instantaneous phase between neural signals but neglecting the influence of their amplitudes. In this paper, we review the advances in methodologies of phase synchronization analysis. In particular, we discuss the definitions of instantaneous phase, the indexes of phase synchronization and their significance test, the issues that may affect the detection of phase synchronization and the extensions of phase synchronization analysis. In practice, phase synchronization analysis may be affected by observational noise, insufficient samples of the signals, volume conduction, and reference in recording neural signals. We make comments and suggestions on these issues so as to better apply phase synchronization analysis to inferring functional connectivity from neural signals.

Based on the measured data and characteristics of sea ice temperature distribution in space and time, this study is intended to consider a parabolic partial differential equation of the thermodynamic field of sea ice (coupled by snow, ice, and sea water layers) with a time-dependent domain and its parameter identification problem. An optimal model with state constraints is presented with the thicknesses of snow and sea ice as parametric variables and the deviation between the calculated and measured sea ice temperatures as the performance criterion. The unique existence of the weak solution of the thermodynamic system is proved. The properties of the identification problem and the existence of the optimal parameter are discussed, and the one-order necessary condition is derived. Finally, based on the nonoverlapping domain decomposition method and semi-implicit difference scheme, an optimization algorithm is proposed for the numerical simulation. Results show that the simulated temperature of sea ice fit well with the measured data, and the better fit is corresponding to the deeper sea ice.