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Platelets exert important roles in burn wound healing and involving in inflammatory regulation and tissue repair. Platelet distribution width (PDW) is an indicator representing platelet morphology and activation. In this study, we try to evaluate the value of PDW in predicting short-term prognosis and cost of paediatrics with partial-thickness thermal burns. This retrospective study enrolled 73 children with partial-thickness thermal burns. The Ability of PDW to predict wound healing was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. All 73 patients were assigned into high and low PDW group according to optimal cut-off value from ROC curve. Associations between PDW and 2-weeks healing rate, time to wound healing, in-hospital cost and length of stay were evaluated. Furthermore, Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to furtherly evaluate the significance of PDW in wound healing. We found that all baseline characteristics between groups were comparable (all P .05). High PDW group had a significant higher 2-weeks wound healing rate than those with a low PDW (66.7% versus 32.6%, P .01). Moreover, the mean time to wound healing of high PDW was obviously shorter than that of low PDW group (15.4 ± 10.1 vs 20.7 ± 10.9, P = .04). Univariate (OR: 0.24, 95%CI: 0.09-0.65, P .01) and multivariate (OR: 0.15, 95CI%:0.05-0.52, P .01) analysis confirmed PDW as an independent marker for wound healing. Patients in high PDW group had a significant lower medical burden than low PDW group, including in-hospital cost (13.7 ± 10.6 vs 21.9 ± 16.7, ×103RMB, P = .02) and length of stay (12.2 ± 8.8 vs 19.0 ± 10.8 days, P .01). In conclusion, PDW can sever as a potential indictor to predict the short-term prognosis of paediatrics with partial thickness thermal burns.

In this paper, we introduce an invariant-region-preserving (IRP) limiter for the p-system and the corresponding viscous p-system, both of which share the same invariant region. Rigorous analysis is presented to show that for smooth solutions the order of approximation accuracy is not destroyed by the IRP limiter, provided the cell average stays away from the boundary of the invariant region. Moreover, this limiter is explicit, and easy for computer implementation. A generic algorithm incorporating the IRP limiter is presented for high order finite volume type schemes as long as the evolved cell average of the underlying scheme stays strictly within the invariant region. For any high order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) scheme to the p-system, sufficient conditions are obtained for cell averages to stay in the invariant region. For the viscous p-system, we design both second and third order IRP DG schemes. Numerical experiments are provided to test the proven properties of the IRP limiter and the performance of IRP DG schemes., 28 pages, 3 figures, 9 tables, accepted for publication in Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, 2018

This paper is concerned with superconvergence properties of the direct discontinuous Galerkin (DDG) method for one-dimensional linear convection-diffusion equations. We prove, under some suitable choice of numerical fluxes and initial discretization, a 2k-th and ( k + 2 ) -th order superconvergence rate of the DDG approximation at nodes and Lobatto points, respectively, and a ( k + 1 ) -th order of the derivative approximation at Gauss points, where k is the polynomial degree. Moreover, we also prove that the DDG solution is superconvergent with an order k + 2 to a particular projection of the exact solution. Numerical experiments are presented to validate the theoretical results. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 33: 290–317, 2017

Tothebestofourknowledge,however,spectroscopicprooforany other indication for the existence of formyl azide (3a)isstill missing. There may be two reasons why 3ahas not beengenerated experimentally. Quantum chemical calculationspredicted activation energies for the process 3a!4a thatwere significantly lower than those of the Curtius rearrange-ment reactions of acetyl or benzoyl azide (differences of 3.4–4.9 and 6.5–10.5 kcalmol

Eight novel oxdiazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine nucleoside derivatives (I-VIII) were synthesized to investigate their anti-tumor effects and possible mechanisms. Four human cancer cell lines including Hela, ECA109, HepG2 and A459 cells were used. Compounds VI and VIII showed significant inhibition on cancer cell proliferation by MTT assay and IC50 values were around 30-70 micromol l(-1). Both compounds could release nitric oxide (NO), led to a significant intracellular free Ca2+ overloading and resulted in mitochondrial dysfunction, showing a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential in HepG2 cells in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, compound VIII induced obvious DNA damage on HepG2 cells. These data indicate that compounds VI and VIII are two active antitumor compounds, and both DNA damage and mitochondrial dysfunction are involved in the mechanisms underlying oxadiazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine nucleoside derivative-induced cancer cell death, which might also be related to the released NO.

A novel braid-reinforced (BR) poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) hollow fiber membrane was fabricated via dry-wet spinning process. The mixtures of PVC polymer solutions were uniformly coated on the tubular braid which contained polyester (PET) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers. The influences of braid composition on structure and performance of BR PVC hollow fiber membranes were investigated. The results showed that the prepared BR PVC hollow fiber membranes were composed of two layers which contained separation layer and tubular braid supported layer when the PET and PET/PAN hybrid tubular braids were used as the reinforcement. But the sandwich structure appeared when the PAN tubular braid was used as the reinforcement, which revealed outer separation layer, tubular braid supported layer and the inner polymer layer. The BR PVC hollow fiber membranes that prepared by PET/PAN hybrid tubular braid had favorable interfacial bonding state compared with the membrane prepared by pure PET or PAN tubular braid. The pure water flux of the BR PVC hollow fiber membranes that prepared by the PET/PAN hybrid tubular braid were lower than that prepared by pure PET or PAN tubular braid, but the rejection of Bovine serum albumin was opposite. The tensile strength of prepared BR PVC hollow fiber membrane was higher than 50 MPa. Both of the tensile strength and elongation at break decreased with the increase of the PAN filaments in the PET/PAN hybrid tubular braid. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45068.

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and polyester (PET) braided hollow tube that used as a special reinforcement are braided from their filaments via two-dimensional weaving techniques. PAN braided tube reinforced homogeneous PAN hollow fiber membranes and PET braided tube reinforced heterogeneous PAN hollow fiber membranes are prepared by concentric circles squeezed-coated spinning method. As for PAN hollow fiber membrane, the effects of PAN concentration on the performance of the prepared hollow fiber membranes are investigated in terms of pure water flux, protein rejection, mechanical strength, and morphology observations by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The interfacial bonding state of the braided tube reinforced PAN hollow fiber membranes is studied by constant speed stretching method. Results show that the breaking strength of two-dimensional braided tube reinforced PAN hollow fiber membranes is higher than 80 MPa. The structure of separation surface is similar to the structure of an asymmetric membrane. With the increase of polymer concentration, the membrane flux decreases while the retention rate of BSA increase. The membrane porosity and maximum pore size have the same decreasing tendency as the increase of PAN concentration. The results also show that the interfacial bonding state of the PAN two-dimensional braided tube reinforced homogeneous PAN hollow fiber membranes is better than that of the PET two-dimensional braided tube reinforced heterogeneous PAN hollow fiber membranes. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41795.

This research focused on a novel 7-azaisoindigo derivative [namely N1-(n-butyl)-7-azaisoindigo, 7-AI-b], and investigated its molecular antitumor mechanism by exploring the means of cell death and the effects on mitochondrial function. 7-AI-b inhibited cancer cell proliferation in a dose- and time-dependent way. The morphological and nuclei changes in H2B-GFP-labeled HeLa cells were observed using a live cell system. The results suggested that cell death induced by 7-AI-b is closely related to apoptosis. 7-AI-b induced release of cytochrome C from mitochondria to cytosol and activation of caspase-3, showing that the apoptosis is mediated by the mitochondrial pathway. Furthermore, our data indicated that 7-AI-b triggers apoptosis through reactive oxygen species (ROS): cellular ROS levels were increased after 3 h exposure of 7-AI-b, which was reversed by the ROS scavenger N-acetyl-l-cysteine. As a consequence, 7-AI-b-mediated cell death, mitochondrial transmembrane potential collapse and ATP level were partly blocked by N-acetyl-l-cysteine. Further study showed that 7-AI-b could induce mitochondrial dysfunction: collapse of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential and reduction of intracellular ATP level. In summary, the novel synthesized 7-AI-b was demonstrated to be effective in killing cancer cells via an ROS-promoted and mitochondria- and caspase-dependent apoptotic pathway. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.