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The Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (referred to as BCZT) ceramic powders were synthesized by the sol–gel method followed by calcining, and then the ceramics were obtained by sintering at different temperatures varied from 1200 to 1350 °C. The effects of sintering temperature on the microstructure, impedance spectroscopy, dielectric, and ferroelectric properties for BCZT ceramics have been thoroughly investigated. The pure perovskite structure and homogenous microstructure with high relative density (> 90%) for all BCZT ceramics are identified by XRD analysis and SEM measurement, and the stability is identified by the variable-temperature dielectric characterization. The impedance spectroscopy and well-defined polarization–electric field hysteresis loops for BCZT samples were detected at room temperature. In particular, the BCZT ceramic sintered at 1300 °C resulted the highest dielectric constant (er ~ 2170), the lowest dielectric loss (tan δ ~ 0.027), and the highest grain boundary resistance (Rgb ~ 8.9 × 107 Ω cm).

Annexin A1 (AnxA1, also known as lipocortin-1), is a calcium-dependent phospholipid binding protein with diverse functions. Previous studies have indicated that AnxA1 is associated with age-related β-cell dysfunction and aging, which lead to decreased β-cell proliferation capacity. However, it has been uncertain whether AnxA1 affects the proliferation of pancreatic beta (β) cells. In the present study, we reduced AnxA1 expression in the MIN6 islet β-cell line using small interfering RNA (AnxA1-siRNA), then measured cell cycle distribution and cellular proliferation. We also measured the expression levels of cell cycle-related proteins such as cyclin D1, cyclin E, and cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) by Western blot analysis. We investigated the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/ serine/threonine protein kinase B (Akt)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway to explore the potential mechanism underlying the observed effects. Knockdown of AnxA1 expression using siRNA reduced the rates of MIN6 cell proliferation. The proportions of cells in S and G2/M phases also decreased upon inhibition of AnxA1. Moreover, AnxA1 protein expression in MIN6 cells was positively related to the protein levels of cyclin D1, cyclin E, and CDK2. Activation of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway by AnxA1 may be involved in the signaling cascade to regulate cell proliferation. This study identified a positive correlation between AnxA1 protein and pancreatic β-cell proliferation. AnxA1 protein expression might affect the proliferation of MIN6 cells via regulation of cyclin D1, cyclin E, and CDK2 proteins, as well as the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway.

For a hydropower station with multiple units per penstock, how to get the head loss of penstock has usually been a difficult problem, which the core issue is that it is hard to obtain the flow of each branch pipe. For power stations that have installed flow measurement devices for all units, or have undergone absolute turbine efficiency tests, the head measurement is relatively simple, but if the flow measuring device is not installed for each unit in advance, the head loss measurement will be difficult. This paper proposes an optimized measurement method performed in a hydropower station in Pakistan, which is to arrange an ultrasonic flowmeter on the main penstock, and then use the Winter-Kennedy method and flow rate measured by Ultrasonic flow meter to calibrate the Winter-Kennedy coefficients of unit one by one. Finally, by running three units at the same time and adjusting them with the same flow rate, the total loss of the penstock is calculated. At the same time, the flow rate measured by the Winter-Kennedy coefficient and that measured by the ultrasonic method has been checked and compared. The result proves that the accuracy of the result is high, and the result has a good consistency, which can fully meet the requirements of penstock head loss calculation and evaluation. The method has a certain practical value and can be referred to by other power station which has similar measurement.

新型冠状病毒肺炎（简称新冠肺炎）疫情在全国和全球范围内暴发流行，疫情期间，华中科技大学同济医学院附属同济医院神经外科及时成立疫情应急指挥小组，加强科内防控，执行"关、停、并、转"的诊疗决策，制定专科手术防护策略。疫情后期通过病房功能分区，隔离排查新冠肺炎患者，平、急诊手术分级防护等措施保障了本科安全有序地恢复正常诊疗秩序。通过科室管理层面和临床诊疗层面优化防控策略，临床诊疗工作安全平稳恢复，全体医护无一人感染，住院患者亦无人感染。.

The aim of this study was to observe the regulatory effects of micro ribonucleic acid (miR)-223 on thromboangiitis obliterans (TAO) rats, and to explore the potential regulatory mechanism.Online database TargetScan was used to predict the downstream regulatory targets of miR-223. A total of 45 Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into three groups, including sham operation group (Sham group), Model group, and miR-223 agonist group (miR-223 mimic group). TAO model was successfully established in rats through the injection of lauric acid via the femoral artery. The content of serum thromboxane B2 (TXB2) and endothelin (ET) was measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The pathological changes in the left hind limb were detected via hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining. Moreover, the expressions of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1β in the tissues of the rat left hind limb were determined via immunohistochemistry. In addition, the protein expression of Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) in tissues was determined using Western blotting.TargetScan database predicted that NLRP3 was the downstream target gene of miR-223. Compared with the Sham group, Model group exerted significantly higher content of serum TXB2 and ET, severe lesions in the rat left hind limb, as well as significantly increased expressions of IL-6 and IL-1β and protein expression of NLRP3 in tissues of the rat left hind limb (p0.05). Besides, compared with the Model group, miR-223 mimic group showed remarkably lower content of serum TXB2 and ET, improved lesions in the rat left hind limb, as well as decreased expressions of IL-6 and IL-1β and protein expression of NLRP3 in the tissues of the rat left hind limb (p0.05).MiR-223 agonist can alleviate thrombus and inflammatory response in TAO rats. The possible underlying mechanism may be related to targeted regulation on NLRP3 inflammasome expression.

In this Letter, a new error-resilient router design for network-on-chips (NoCs) is proposed to effectively address various transient errors considering power efficiency and implementation complexity. To cope with the most probable error conditions, a selective error correction code (ECC) is embraced in router design, which combines an optimised double-bit error-correcting Bose–Chaudhuri–Hocquenghem (BCH) code and a single-bit error-correcting Hamming code. To reduce the inherent delay overhead of the BCH code, the parallel BCH coding scheme is designed and implemented into the proposed router. Furthermore, the associated ECC controller is designed for switching into an appropriate ECC mode without an additional delay at runtime. The proposed router is synthesised using 28 nm CMOS technology. Experimental results with a variety of common error conditions show that the proposed method improves the average latency by up to 13.8% and achieves up to 11.5% power reduction with the area increase of 5.7%, when compared to the conventional error correction scheme.

This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of ulinastatin combined with creatine phosphate sodium and ribavirin combined with creatine phosphate sodium in the treatment of pediatric viral myocarditis.155 children with viral myocarditis in the Xuzhou Children's Hospital, were retrospectively analyzed. 80 of them received ulinastatin combined with creatine phosphate sodium, and were regarded as observation group; other 75 patients received ribavirin combined with creatine phosphate sodium and were regarded as the control group. The therapeutic efficacy of the two groups was observed, the improved condition of myocardial enzyme indicator and myocardial troponin I (cTn I) in the two groups were compared before and after the treatment.The total effective rates of the patients in the observation group and the control group were 93.75% and 76.00%, respectively. The clinical efficacy of the observation group was better than that of the control group (p0.05). The electrocardiogram improvement condition of the observation group was better than that of the control group (p0.05); after the treatment, the expression levels of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Creatine Kinase (CK-MB), and cTn I in the observation group were (313.37±9.42) U/L, (29.38±4.97) U/L, (23.67±2.89) U/L, (0.12±0.02) μg/L, respectively. The expression levels of LDH, AST, CK-MB, and cTn I in the control group were (322.43±12.32) U/L, (33.43±5.14) U/L, (26.22±3.37) U/L, (0.24±0.04) μg/L. The levels of myocardial enzyme and cTn I in the observation group and the control group after the treatment were lower than that before the treatment (p0.05), while the level of myocardial enzyme and cTn I in the observation group after the treatment was significantly lower than that in the control group (p0.05).The results indicated that, compared with ribavirin combined with creatine phosphate sodium, ulinastatin combined with creatine phosphate sodium had better clinical efficacy in the treatment of pediatric viral myocarditis. It could significantly improve the level of myocardial enzyme indicator and cTn I, and had certain clinical and promotional values and application values.

Background Mycophenolate has been shown to be effective in glomerular disease. However, the role of mycophenolate in the first-line treatment of adult-onset idiopathic minimal change disease (MCD) has not been systematically studied in a randomized fashion. Aim To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of enteric-coated mycophenolate sodium combined with low-dose corticosteroid as first-line treatment for MCNS. Design A prospective, open-label, randomized clinical trial. Methods Twenty adult patients with biopsy proven MCD were recruited and randomly assigned to receive either enteric-coated Mycophenolate Sodium (EC-MPS) plus low-dose prednisolone (Group 1: Prednisolone 0.25 mg/kg/day, n = 10) or standard-dose prednisolone (Group 2: Prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day, n = 10). Results After 24 weeks of therapy, eight patients in Group 1 vs. seven of patients in Group 2 achieved complete remission (P = 0.606). Both groups showed a significant reduction of urine protein excretion (P < 0.05) and increased serum albumin (P < 0.001) vs. baseline levels. However, no significant between-group differences were demonstrated. The relapse rate was also similar in both groups. Both treatment regimens were well tolerated but there were more patient reported adverse effects in the standard-dose prednisolone group. Conclusion EC-MPS plus low-dose prednisolone is non-inferior to standard-dose prednisolone therapy in inducing clinical remission and preventing relapse in adult-onset idiopathic MCD and is associated with better tolerability and less adverse effects. This trial is registered with the ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT01185197.

Pulsed laser-induced shock wave (PLISW) is the key effect on the laser micro-and nano-structure processing. However, thus far, the effect of changing the laser parameters on the evolution of the PLISW is not clear. In this work, a two-dimensional numerical calculation model is established to analyze the PLISW based on the interaction between the ns laser and aluminum target. The results show that the laser parameters, such as energy density, spot size, and evolutionary time, can affect the evolution of the PLISW. The overpressure and wavefront velocity of the PLISW increase rapidly after ns laser processing. At a laser energy density of 3.4 J/cm2 at approximately 13 ns, the overpressure reaches the peak value of 110 MPa. When the time is approximately 70 ns, the velocity peak value appears, and afterward, it gradually attenuates. At laser energy density of 4.3 J/cm2, the peak value of the overpressure is instantaneously enhanced and reached 167 MPa. These results are consistent with the experimental results obtained by Porneala C in 2009. Furthermore, under fixed laser power, the shock wave becomes more uneven in the axial and radial directions as the laser spot increases. In the initial stage of the formation of the shock waves, the radial radius of the shock waves induced by a large laser spot is large. With the evolution of the shock wave, the shape of the wavefront gradually becomes consistent. For asymmetric double Gaussian laser spot, the shock wave effect is significantly amplified. Additionally, the superimposed influence of pressure waves leads to the decrease in the peak value of the overpressure, and the attenuation trend of the overpressure becomes slow.

Stainless steel fiber felt is a class of unique porous metal materials. This study investigates the effect of pre-annealing on the sintering of stainless steel fiber felt through quantitative characterization of sintered joints based on synchrotron radiation experiments. The sintered joint size was found to follow a marked normal distribution in fiber felt samples sintered with and without pre-annealing. However, pre-annealing prior to sintering led to a significant reduction in the total number of sintered joints as well as a reduction in the percentage of large sintered joints. Consequently, fiber felt samples sintered with pre-annealing achieved less than half the tensile strength of those sintered without pre-annealing. Delamination through fracture of sintered joints was pronounced in fiber felt samples sintered with pre-annealing, while failure occurred mainly through fracture of individual fibers in those sintered without pre-annealing. It was concluded that sintering without pre-annealing is necessary for the fabrication of high-strength fiber felt products and the reasons are briefly discussed.

To study the potential applications of liquid lithium (Li) as plasma facing material, the third generation of flowing liquid Li (FLiLi) limiter has been designed and successfully tested in EAST tokamak H-mode discharges in the 2018 run campaign. The stability of liquid Li on FLiLi surface, and Li splashing and its effect on the plasma performance are investigated in detail. Li splashing was observed in L-mode and H-mode discharges due to Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability, resulting from electromagnetic forces J → × B → . Li splashing in low-parameter plasma decreased both core and edge electron temperatures, resulting in the degradation of plasma energy confinement and even H-L back transition, however, it almost did not influence plasma confinement performance in high-parameter plasma. These findings indicate that high-parameter plasma has higher tolerance to Li impurities than low-parameter plasma. By contrast, tungsten splashing from the melted layer on the upper divertor was also induced by the R-T instability but generally resulted in plasma disruption, which suggests lower tolerance to tungsten impurities in EAST tokamak.

Curcumin has been reported to possess cardioprotective effects. However, the potential molecular mechanism of curcumin is still not clear. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of curcumin in regulating autophagy and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling in isoproterenol-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in the rat.Rats model of cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis was induced by isoprenaline (5 mg/kg/day, subcutaneous injection), which were treated with or without curcumin (200 mg/kg/day, intragastric administration). Masson's trichrome staining was performed to investigate the effect of curcumin on fibrosis of cardiac hypertrophy rat. The expression of hypertrophic and fibrosis markers was determined by RT-qPCR. The protein expression of autophagic markers, mTOR, and phosphorylated-mTOR (p-mTOR) was performed by Western blotting.Isoprenaline treatment significantly up-regulated the mRNA expression of hypertrophic (ANP and MYH7) and fibrotic (procollagen I and III) markers in the hearts from rats. All of these markers were reversed by curcumin treatment in isoproterenol-treated rats. Histological analysis showed that curcumin attenuated the interstitial fibrosis of heart triggered by isoproterenol. Moreover, isoproterenol significantly reduced the mRNA levels of mTOR and the protein expression of p-mTOR. However, isoprenaline caused a significant induction of the mRNA levels of LC3 and Beclin-1 and the protein expression of LC3-II and Beclin-1, as well as LC3-II/I ratio. Curcumin abolished these isoprenaline-mediated changes in mTOR/autophagy signaling pathway.Our data demonstrated that curcumin targeted mTOR/autophagy axis could attenuate cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in a rat model.

To investigate the expression characteristics of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) ZFAS1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to further investigate the role and mechanism of ZFAS1 in the occurrence and development of NPC.76 surgical excision samples from newly diagnosed NPC patients and 76 cases of paracancerous tissues were selected. The expression of ZFAS1 was detected by qRT-PCR (quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction), and the relationship between the expression of ZFAS1 and the clinical prognosis of patients with NPC was analyzed. After the knockdown, the expression of ZFAS1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line CNE-1 by small interfering RNA, the effect of ZFAS1 on the biological function of NPC cells was analyzed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK8), colony formation assay, flow cytometry and apoptosis assay. The effect of ZFAS1 on the Wnt/β-catenin pathway was analyzed by Western blot.After analyzing the clinical data of enrolled patients, we found that ZFAS1 was overexpressed in NPC patients, which was closely correlated with tumor size and lymph node metastasis of NPC. Moreover, ZFAS1 was negatively correlated to the survival of NPC patients. After interfering with the expression of ZFAS1, the proliferation of NPC cells was significantly decreased, the cell cycle was inhibited and the apoptosis rate was increased. Western Blot showed that ZFAS1 promoted the occurrence of NPC by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway.ZFAS1 was overexpressed in NPC and was significantly related to tumor size, lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis of NPC. ZFAS1 could promote NPC by activating Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

We aimed to investigate the heart rate variability in children with myocarditis presenting with ventricular arrhythmias.The study compared the characteristics of heart rate variability (HRV) among 67 children with viral myocarditis (VMC), presenting with (n=35) and without (n=32) ventricular arrhythmias and a control group of 30 healthy children.Compared with the control group, the HRV time-domain indicators of children with VMC were significantly lower (p0.05); also, the indicators of children with ventricular arrhythmias were significantly lower than those of children without ventricular arrhythmias (p0.05). Equally, during both the lucid and sleep periods, the time-domain indicators of HRV were significantly lower in patients with VMC and arrhythmias than in either the control group (p0.05) or the group with VMC but no ventricular arrhythmias (p0.05).We conclude that the HRV of children with VMC probably decreased because of impaired vagal nerve function, with ventricular arrhythmias developing only when the decrease was most significant. Thus, HRV can be a useful predictive indicator for ventricular arrhythmias in children with VMC.

Stainless steel fiber felts are important porous stainless steel products for a variety of industry applications. A systematic study of the sintering of 28-µm stainless steel fibers has been conducted for the first time, assisted with synchrotron radiation experiments to understand the evolution of the sintered joints. The critical sintering conditions for the formation of bamboo-like grain structures in the fiber ligaments were identified. The evolution of the number density of the sintered joints and the average sintered neck radius during sintering was assessed based on synchrotron radiation experiments. The optimum sintering condition for the fabrication of high strength and ductile 28-µm-diameter stainless steel fiber felts was determined to be sintering at 1000°C for 900 s. Sintering under this optimum condition increased the tensile strength of the as-sintered stainless steel fiber felts by 50% compared to conventional sintering (1200°C for 7200 s), in addition to much reduced sintering cycle and energy consumption.

Pattern mining has been widely used to uncover interesting patterns from data. However, one of its main problems is that it produces too many patterns and many of them are redundant. To reduce the number of redundant patterns and retain overlapping ones, delta-closed pattern pruning was introduced, yet it can only prune subpatterns if they are covered by superpatterns. Such unduly superpatterns need to be pruned. Furthermore, in order to improve the management and interpretation of patterns, pattern summarization is proposed. It renders a small number of patterns that retain the most crucial information. RuleCover algorithm was one of such algorithms. However, it tends to produce over trivial patterns, whereas more interesting and revealing ones may be pruned. To overcome these problems, this paper presents a new algorithm which integrates delta-closed, and RuleCover methods with our other two new algorithms: 1) statistically induced pattern pruning for pruning statistically induced superpatterns by strong subpatterns and 2) AreaCover algorithm for pruning overlapping patterns but retain higher order and high quality patterns with large coverage of the data “area.” Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms produce very compact yet comprehensive knowledge from patterns discovered from relational data sets.

Poplar-cotton agro-ecosystems are the main agricultural planting modes of cotton fields in China. With increasing acres devoted to transgenic insect-resistant poplar and transgenic insect-resistant cotton, studies examining the effects of transgenic plants on target and non-target insects become increasingly important. We systematically surveyed populations of both target pests and non-target insects for 4 different combinations of poplar-cotton eco-systems over 3 years. Transgenic Bt cotton strongly resisted the target insects Fall webworm moth [Hyphantria cunea (Drury)], Sylepta derogata Fabrieius, and American bollworm (Heliothis armigera), but no clear impact on non-target insect cotton aphids (Aphis gossypii). Importantly, intercrops containing transgenic Pb29 poplar significantly increased the inhibitory effects of Bt cotton on Fall webworm moth in ecosystem IV. Highly resistant Pb29 poplar reduced populations of the target pests Grnsonoma minutara Hubner and non-target insect poplar leaf aphid (Chaitophorus po-pulialbae), while Fall webworm moth populations were unaffected. We determined the effects of Bt toxin from transgenic poplar and cotton on target and non-target pests in different ecosystems of cotton-poplar intercrops and identified the synergistic effects of such combinations toward both target and non-target insects.

Porcine β-defensin-2 (pBD2) is a cationic antimicrobial peptide that has therapeutic potential. The amount of pBD2 in nature is limited, and the expression of pBD2 in Escherichia coli is low, probably because a different gene codon is used by prokaryotic organisms to that used by eukaryotes. Codon preference optimization is one of the ways to increase heterologous expression of pBD2. To achieve high expression of pBD2, the pBD2 gene was redesigned according to the preferred codon in E. coli without altering the amino acid sequence. The optimized gene was inserted into expression vector pET-30a and transformed into E. coli BL21 (DE3) plysS. Our results showed that pBD2 was expressed as His-Tag fusion protein at a level that was approximately 4-6 times greater than from the native gene, based on total protein expression. Expressed fusion pBD2 showed antimicrobial activity against both E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, pBD2 showed weak hemolytic activity and strong heat resistance. These results indicate that fusion pBD2 is functional and has similar properties to those of pBD2 from the native gene. Our current study demonstrated that codon optimization could enhance pBD2 expression in E. coli without altering its function. Therefore, the expression of pBD2 after codon optimization in heterologous host cells might be useful and is worthy of further research.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the control of blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and its influencing factors, in elderly type 2 diabetic mellitus (T2DM) patients undergoing comprehensive management. After years of comprehensive prevention of and control measures for diabetes, elderly T2DM patients who were receiving long-term health care were comprehensively evaluated through an annual physical examination. In addition to routine health examination, the patients were required to undergo HbA1c measurement. Among 688 patients, 652 were men and 36 were women, with a mean age of 78.2 ± 9.1 years. The average HbA1c was 6.6 ± 0.9%. A total of 50.6% of the patients had HbA1c

Poplar-cotton agro-ecosystems are the main agricultural planting modes of plain cotton fields in China. Here, we performed a systematic survey of the diversity and population of arthropod communities in four different combination of poplar-cotton eco-systems, including I) non-transgenic poplar and non-transgenic cotton fields; II) non-transgenic poplar and transgenic cotton fields [Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton]; III) Bt transgenic poplar (high insect resistant strain Pb29) and non-transgenic cotton; and IV) transgenic poplar and transgenic cotton fields, over a period of 3 years. Based on the statistical methods used to investigate community ecology, the effects of transgenic ecosystems on the whole structure of the arthropod community, on the structure of arthropods in the nutritive layer, and on the similarity of arthropod communities were evaluated. The main results were as follows: the transgenic poplar-cotton ecosystem has a stronger inhibitory effect on insect pests and has no impact on the structure of the arthropod community, and therefore, maintains the diversity of the arthropod community. The character index of the community indicated that the structure of the arthropod community of the transgenic poplar-cotton ecosystem was better than that of the poplar-cotton ecosystem, and that system IV had the best structure. As for the abundance of nutritional classes, the transgenic poplar-cotton ecosystem was also better than that of the non-transgenic poplar-cotton ecosystem. The cluster analysis and similarity of arthropod communities between the four different transgenic poplar-cotton ecosystems illustrated that the structure of the arthropod community excelled in the small sample of the transgenic poplar-cotton ecosystems.

Porcine β-defensin 2 (pBD2) is an antimicrobial peptide in pigs that plays an important role in the immune system by preventing bacterial invasion. To produce an anti-pBD2 antibody, which is not commercially available, we expressed and purified a soluble, his-tagged version of pBD2 (his-pBD2). Purified pBD2 was injected into New Zealand white rabbits to generate polyclonal antiserum. Anti-pBD2 antibodies were purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation, followed by diethylaminoethyl cellulose ion-exchange chromatography. The purified polyclonal antibody showed high sensitivity, with a titer as high as 204,800 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and it also showed high specificity for both his-pBD2 and native pBD2, as assessed by western blotting. Furthermore, immunohistochemistry analysis using the purified antibody revealed that pBD2 protein is distributed in the tongue, liver, kidney, small intestine, and large intestine of pigs. These results indicate that the prepared polyclonal antibody will be a useful tool for further studies of the function and mechanism of pBD2.

To investigate the relationship between 24 h systolic blood pressure variability (SBPV) and target organ damage in elderly patients with essential hypertension.180 elderly patients (≥ 80 y) with hypertension admitted to our hospital from January 2015 to January 2017 were selected as hypertension group and divided into high blood pressure variability (BPV) group and low BPV group according to the 50th percentile (P50) of 24 h SBPV, while 90 elderly non-hypertension patients admitted during the same period were enrolled as control group. 24 h ambulatory blood pressure values of patients in the three groups were recorded. The total cholesterol (TC), left ventricular mass index (LVMI), carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), 24 h microalbuminuria (MA) and complications with cardiovascular disease in patients of the three groups were compared and analyzed. Logistic analysis was conducted with MA, IMT and LVMI as the dependent variables and the remaining risk factors as the independent variables.24 h SBPV and daytime SBPV (d SBPV) in patients of the hypertension group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p0.01); the incidences of coronary heart disease and atherosclerotic plaque as well as IMT, LVMI and MA were higher in the high BPV group than those in the low BPV group (p0.05 or p0.01). The multivariate results showed that 24 h SBPV was associated with IMT, LVMI and MA.BPV can serve as an important indicator to predict target organ damage in elderly patients with essential hypertension. 24 h SBPV can reflect the degree of target organ damage in elderly hypertensive patients.

The metal-insulator transition temperature Tc in VO2 is experimentally shown to be almost the same as a magnetic transition temperature Tm characterized by an abrupt decrease in susceptibility, suggesting the evidence of the same underlying origin for both transitions. The measurement of susceptibility shows that it weakly increases on cooling for temperature range of T > Tm, sharply decreases near Tm and then unusually increases on further cooling. A theoretical approach for such unusual observations in susceptibility near Tm or below is performed by modeling electrons from each two adjacent V4+ ions distributed along V-chains as a two-electron system, which indicates that the spin exchange between electrons could cause a level splitting into a singlet (S = 0) level of lower energy and a triplet (S = 1) level of higher energy. The observed abrupt decrease in susceptibility near Tm is explained to be due to that the sample enters the singlet state in which two electrons from adjacent V4+ ions are paired into dimers in spin antiparallel. By considering paramagnetic contribution of unpaired electrons created by the thermal activation from singlet to triplet levels, an expression for susceptibility is proposed to quantitatively explain the unusual temperature-dependent susceptibility observed at low temperatures. Based on the approach to magnetic features, the observed metal-insulator transition is explained to be due to a transition from high-temperature Pauli paramagnetic metallic state of V4+ions to low-temperature dimerized state of strong electronic localization.

As part of ongoing work to develop a method of cytokine delivery for use as an intratumoral depot, we noted that HEK293 cells, encapsulated in alginate, died within 24–48 h after in vivo, intratumoral implantation. We hypothesized that the highly hypoxic and acidic conditions found inside the tumor was the cause of the cells' premature demise. Therefore, we set out to develop a cell line, derived from HEK293, that would survive these hostile conditions. The HEK293 line was selected in 0.3–0.5% oxygen conditions over several weeks, followed by a further 6-week period of culture in alternating hypoxic and normoxic conditions. The most rapidly growing clones were selected and grown in normoxic conditions for several weeks to ensure their stability. The clones were then compared to the original line in terms of cell proliferation in normoxia and hypoxia, colony-forming efficiency, and morphological characteristics. The resulting line was able to proliferate in the harshest of conditions and continues to release its biological payload after alginate microencapsulation.

We analyzed the relationship between Mink-S27 gene polymorphism and children with cardiac insufficiency.From April 2013 to April 2015, we enrolled 73 cases of children with cardiac insufficiency for this study, and all 73 were placed in the observation group. 76 normal cases were selected for the control group. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used to make polymorphism analysis of the Mink-S27.Our results showed no significant differences in Mink-S27 genotype and allele distribution in both observation and control groups (p0.05). In lesion samples collected from children with cardiac insufficiency, we detected significant difference in AA, CC genotype frequency and allele frequency between the observation group and the control group (p0.05) (X2 = 15.43, p0.05; X2 = 16.27, p0.05). Further studies on samples obtained from both groups revealed certain differences of AA, CC, AC genotype frequency and allele frequency in the observation group. The proportion of homozygote (AA, CC) in children with severe cardiac insufficiency was relatively high.GNAS2 gene polymorphism was associated with the prevalence of cardiac insufficiency in children. And also the patients' condition was correlated to the frequency of different genotypes and alleles.

To analyze the links between NFATC1 gene polymorphism and congenital heart disease in children.In the present study, we selected 85 children patients with congenital heart disease who were hospitalized from February 2013 to February 2015 as research subjects (observation group), and 92 healthy subjects as control group. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) was used for analysis of NFATC1 gene in samples from each group.The distribution of NFATC1 genotype and allele between the observation group (children with congenital heart disease) and the control group showed no significant difference (p0.05), but AA, GG genotypes, and allele frequency between pathological samples of children with congenital heart disease and the control group displayed significant difference (p0.05) (X2 = 16.04, p0.05; X2 = 16.29, p0.05). Further analyses showed that AA, GG, AG genotype and allele frequency among children with congenital heart disease in observation group also showed a difference, i.e., homozygote (AA, GG) ratio in children with severe congenital heart disease is relatively high.There is a correlation between NFATC1 genes and the incidence of congenital heart disease in children, and a correlation between different genotypes and allele frequency and the incidence of the disease.

This study aimed to investigate the expression and clinical significances of long noncoding RNA-ATB (lncRNA-ATB) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and to explore the roles of lncRNA-ATB in PTC cell proliferation and migration.The expression of lncRNA-ATB in 64 PTC tissues and paired adjacent noncancerous thyroid tissues was measured. The association between lncRNA-ATB expression and clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed by Pearson X2. The diagnostic value of lncRNA-ATB was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analyses. The effects of lncRNA-ATB on PTC cell proliferation were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 assays and Ethynyl deoxyuridine incorporation assays. The effects of lncRNA-ATB on PTC cell migration were evaluated by transwell assays.LncRNA-ATB is upregulated in PTC tissues compared with noncancerous tissues. LncRNA-ATB is also increased in PTC cell lines compared with normal thyroid follicular epithelial cell line. High-expression of lncRNA-ATB is associated with large tumor size and lymph node metastasis. ROC analyses revealed that lncRNA-ATB could sensitively discriminate PTCs from noncancerous tissues, as well as discriminating PTCs with lymph node metastasis from those without lymph node metastasis. Functional experiments showed that depletion of lncRNA-ATB significantly inhibits PTC cell proliferation and migration.LncRNA-ATB is upregulated and functions as an oncogene in PTC. Furthermore, lncRNA-ATB may serve as a diagnostic biomarker and therapeutic target for PTC.

To analyze the correlation between chronic viral myocarditis (CVMC) in children, complicated with arrhythmia and thyroid hormone level.60 patients with CVMC complicated with arrhythmia were continuously selected (course of disease3 months) and they are were diagnosed with arrhythmia by the routine 18-lead electrocardiogram and 24-hour Holter; the average follow-up time is about 2 years, during which the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), the occurrence rate of malignant arrhythmia events, immune state of T cell and thyroid hormone level (FT3, FT4, TSH, TGAb and TPOAb) were compared.Among the selected 60 patients, 18 patients (30.0%) who were suffering from malignant arrhythmia have been taken as the observation group. When compared with the control group, the standard deviation normal to normal intervals (SDNN), LVEF, CD4 and CD4/CD8 were reduced and LVEDd and CD8 were increased in the observation group; the difference has statistical significance (p0.05). When compared with the control group, FT3 and FT4 are significantly reduced and TSH, thyroglobulin antibody TGAB and thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb) are significantly increased; the difference has statistical significance (p0.05). According to the logistic regression analysis, we can conclude that: SDNN, FT3, FT4, TSH, TGAb and TPOAb are the independent risk factors of malignant arrhythmia (p0.05).Thyroid hormones and antibody level are helpful to the prognosis of malignant arrhythmia resulting from children chronic VMC complicated with arrhythmia complications.