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Background: Obesity is a recognized risk factor for heart failure. People with similar weights may have different metabolic health. Notably, insulin resistance is a hallmark of obesity and a feature of heart failure. We aimed to evaluate the effects of obesity and metabolic health status on subclinical left cardiac function. We also investigated whether insulin resistance (TyG index) plays a role in BMI-linked subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Methods: The study involved 403 volunteers. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess associations between obesity, metabolic health, and overall subclinical left cardiac function .Mediating analysis was used to explore the role of the TyG index in the association between BMI and left cardiac function. Finally, ROC analysis was performed to explore the predictive value of the TyG index in subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Results: The correlation analysis showed that metabolic unhealth increased the risk of subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction; obesity was associated with an increased risk of global left cardiac dysfunction regardless of metabolic health status. The TyG index mediated 25% of the associations between BMI and Left atrial (LA) function. ROC analysis exhibited that the TyG index can be used as a predictor of LA dysfunction (AUC = 0.63), and the optimal cut-off point for the TyG index is 9.33. Conclusions: Even a "non-obese metabolically unhealthy" is a detrimental state of early LV function; obesity remains a major risk factor for global subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Using the TyG index could allow early identification of individuals at high risk of subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Registration number：ChiCTR2200057991；Date of registration: 2022-03-25 URL:http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=162316

Background: Obesity is a recognized risk factor for heart failure. People with similar weights may have different metabolic health. Notably, insulin resistance is a hallmark of obesity and a feature of heart failure. We aimed to evaluate the effects of obesity and metabolic health status on subclinical left cardiac function. We also investigated whether insulin resistance (TyG index) plays a role in BMI-linked subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Methods: The study involved 403 volunteers. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess associations between obesity, metabolic health, and overall subclinical left cardiac function .Mediating analysis was used to explore the role of the TyG index in the association between BMI and left cardiac function. Finally, ROC analysis was performed to explore the predictive value of the TyG index in subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Results: The correlation analysis showed that metabolic unhealth increased the risk of subclinical left ventricular (LV) dysfunction; obesity was associated with an increased risk of global left cardiac dysfunction regardless of metabolic health status. The TyG index mediated 25% of the associations between BMI and Left atrial (LA) function. ROC analysis exhibited that the TyG index can be used as a predictor of LA dysfunction (AUC = 0.63), and the optimal cut-off point for the TyG index is 9.33. Conclusions: Even a "non-obese metabolically unhealthy" is a detrimental state of early LV function; obesity remains a major risk factor for global subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Using the TyG index could allow early identification of individuals at high risk of subclinical left cardiac dysfunction. Registration number：ChiCTR2200057991；Date of registration: 2022-03-25 URL:http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=162316

In the application scenario of the smart factory, the computing tasks of smart devices are intensive and the tasks are sensitive to delay. The smart device needs to offload the task to the edge server for execution. However, the computing resources of edge servers are limited and there will be workload imbalance among multiple edge servers. To solve these problems, we propose a joint optimization scheme of task caching and offloading based on task scene awareness, which decouples the joint optimization problem of task caching and offloading into two subproblems: task caching and task offloading. For the task caching subproblem, a bilateral auction task caching algorithm based on task scene awareness is proposed. For the task offloading subproblem, a task offloading algorithm based on task scenario offloading preferences is proposed. The experimental results show that the optimization scheme proposed in this paper has obvious performance advantages when the number of tasks is large and the number of intelligent devices is large. This scheme also achieves workload balancing among multiple edge servers.

Maintenance strategies aim at reduction of the operation and maintenance cost of wind turbines. An opportunistic maintenance strategy offers cost advantages over the traditional preventive replacement maintenance strategy by considering cost dependency among maintenance activities. A new opportunistic maintenance strategy of wind turbines is proposed here. First, the proposed strategy includes two sets of reliability thresholds to handle subassemblies those are in operational and failed wind turbines. Using the reliability thresholds, ten maintenance modes and their service conditions are presented. Second, the Weibull distribution with an age reduction factor is introduced to describe reliability variation of subassemblies under imperfect maintenance. Third, the maintenance cost in each maintenance mode is expressed by a reliability variation‐based function that is dependent on the stage of maintenance activities. Fourth, due to the randomness of failures, the expected total maintenance cost is determined with Monte Carlo simulation. The proposed approach has been validated with the data provided by a wind farm located in Northern China.

Face detection is playing a pivotal role for crowd counting and abnormal events detection. However, it is vulnerable to face presentation attacks by printed photos, videos, and 3D masks of real human faces. Although numerous detection techniques based on deep learning have been employed to address the problem of face presentation attacks, there are still several weaknesses in these approaches, such as high algorithm complexity and a lack of detection ability. To overcome these weaknesses, a method based on a multilevel fusion network with Laplacian embedding (MFNet‐LE) for the detection of face presentation attacks is proposed. First, a shallow network that contains just three layers was developed, which makes the model faster. Then, an optimised multilevel fusion strategy was developed to combine the input with the output of all previous layers to improve the detection ability of the method. Finally, a Laplacian embedding algorithm is introduced to maintain the inter‐class discrimination and penalise the intra‐class distance. Under the joint supervision of Laplacian loss and softmax loss, the proposed approach can obtain more discriminative features, which enhance the accuracy of attack detection. Experiments were conducted with three public databases for face presentation attacks: CASIA FASD, Idiap Replay Attack database and MSU USSA. The results demonstrate that the MFNet‐LE model can outperform the state‐of‐the‐art methods.

Lithium–sulfur battery with high theoretical capacity becomes the subject of recent attention. Its commercial progress is impeded by its poor electrical conductivity and high dissolubility of intermediate products in organic electrolyte. In the present work, we report a novel three-dimensional graphene-wrapped porous carbon (3D-G) to accommodate sulfur, which consists of outside highly stable interconnected graphene-like sheets and inner activated porous carbon. The 3D-G was synthesized from cheap polyacrylic acid cation-exchange resin, which introduces nickel ions as catalysts in the carbonization process, as a cost effective, facile and simple method. This 3D-G showed hierarchical pores: 0.7 nm micropores and macropores, providing a large specific surface area of 1375.08 m2 g−1. Benefiting from this unique structure, the 3D-G performed well as host materials to achieve a high sulfur content (75.4 wt%). Such a 3D-G@S composite exhibits capacity-fading rate as low as 0.28% per cycle over 100 cycles at 0.1 C, and good cyclability at various cycling rates (0.1–1 C).

We present a new quantitative method for detecting changes in 3D medical images. The dissimilarity between shapes is quantified as a measure of the effort it takes to deform one 3D region into another. Our main tool is an assessment of conformal and isometric distortions of mappings between volumes. Unlike most existing techniques for shape comparison, our algorithm operates both on triangular and tetrahedral meshes, and therefore can be applied both for closed simply connected surfaces, as well as for volumetric domains homeomorphic to a ball, with geometrically complicated boundaries. Furthermore we extend our main geometric distortion measure to higher dimensions, in a manner that allows for the dealing with spatial data at the maximal, as well as at all the lower dimensions.

Biometric applications have been used globally in everyday life. However, conventional biometrics is created and optimized for high-security scenarios. Being used in daily life by ordinary untrained people is a new challenge. Facing this challenge, designing a biometric system with prior constraints of ergonomics, we propose ergonomic biometrics design model, which attains the physiological factors, the psychological factors, and the conventional security characteristics. With this model, a novel hand-based biometric system, door knob hand recognition system (DKHRS), is proposed. DKHRS has the identical appearance of a conventional door knob, which is an optimum solution in both physiological factors and psychological factors. In this system, a hand image is captured by door knob imaging scheme, which is a tailored omnivision imaging structure and is optimized for this predetermined door knob appearance. Then features are extracted by local Gabor binary pattern histogram sequence method and classified by projective dictionary pair learning. In the experiment on a large data set including 12 000 images from 200 people, the proposed system achieves competitive recognition performance comparing with conventional biometrics like face and fingerprint recognition systems, with an equal error rate of 0.091%. This paper shows that a biometric system could be built with a reliable recognition performance under the ergonomic constraints.

Biometric recognition systems have been widely used globally. However, one effective and highly accurate biometric authentication method, palmprint recognition, has not been popularly applied as it should have been, which could be due to the lack of small, flexible and user-friendly acquisition systems. To expand the use of palmprint biometrics, we propose a novel palmprint acquisition system based on the line-scan image sensor. The proposed system consists of a customized and highly integrated line-scan sensor, a self-adaptive synchronizing unit, and a field-programmable gate array controller with a cross-platform interface. The volume of the proposed system is over 94% smaller than the volume of existing palmprint systems, without compromising its verification performance. The verification performance of the proposed system was tested on a database of 8000 samples collected from 250 people, and the equal error rate is 0.048%, which is comparable to the best area camera-based systems.

Background and Purpose— Early diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is currently a major clinical challenge. We proposed a novel magnetic resonance black-blood thrombus imaging technique (MRBTI) for detection and quantification of CVT. Methods— MRBTI was performed on 23 patients with proven CVT and 24 patients with negative CVT confirmed by conventional imaging techniques. Patients were divided into 2 groups based on the duration of clinical onset: ≤7 days (group 1) and between 7 and 30 days (group 2). Signal/noise ratio was calculated for the detected thrombus, and contrast/noise ratio was measured between thrombus and lumen and also between thrombus and brain tissue. The feasibility of using MRBTI for thrombus volume measurement was explored, and total thrombus volume was calculated for each patient. Results— In 23 patients with proven CVT, MRBTI correctly identified 113 of 116 segments with a sensitivity of 97.4%. Thrombus signal/noise ratio was 153±57 and 261±95 for group 1 (n=10) and group 2 (n=13), respectively ( P P Conclusions— The current findings support that with effectively suppressed blood signal, MRBTI allows selective visualization of thrombus as opposed to indirect detection of venous flow perturbation and can be used as a promising first-line diagnostic imaging tool.

Background Cs2K4Na [SiW9Nb3O40] (POM93) is a novel broad-spectrum antiviral agent with high activity, high stability, and low toxicity in vitro. Most toxicity studies for POM93 have been performed in cultured cell lines rather than in animals. Like other POMs, there is a lack of evidence for in vivo toxicity limits, oral bioavailability, and therapeutic applications. Methods The toxic properties of POM93 were evaluated comprehensively in vivo, including the acute and subchronic oral toxicity studies and genotoxicity tests. Results The acute toxicity study showed no abnormal changes or mortality in rats treated with POM93 even at the single high dose of 5000 mg/kg body weight. In the subchronic toxicity study, regardless of the body weight, the organ weight, and the hematological parameters, similar results were observed between the control group and the experimental groups. POM93 produced mild changes in rare hematological parameters in the liver and kidneys, but did not induce the clinical symptoms of liver or kidneys injury in rats as confirmed by histopathological analysis. Moreover, neither mutagenicity nor clastogenicity was caused by POM93 treatment in vitro and in vivo. Conclusions The present study demonstrates that the oral administration of POM93 is presumed safe and poses a low risk of potential health risks. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40360-017-0133-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Supporting information for POM93 characterization (Figures S1-S2) and subchronic toxicity (Table S1-S2). (DOCX 54Â kb)

The Accession Numbers of OMPs of Brucella spp. in NCBI Protein database. (DOC 32Â kb)

IELISA assay analysis of serum samples in negative controls, healthy individuals and patients with other bacterial infection. (DOC 1403Â kb)

Specimen characteristics of positive and negative. (DOC 30Â kb)

Isotype specific reactivity positive results from the sera of brucellosis patients(146 samples) and controls(102 samples) in ELISA. (DOC 30Â kb)

Background In epidemic regions of the world, brucellosis is a reemerging zoonosis with minimal mortality but is a serious public hygiene problem. Currently, there are various methods for brucellosis diagnosis, however few of them are available to be used to diagnose, especially for serious cross-reaction with other bacteria. Method To overcome this disadvantage, we explored a novel multi-epitope recombinant protein as human brucellosis diagnostic antigen. We established an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on this recombinant protein. 248 sera obtained from three different groups including patients with brucellosis (146 samples), non-brucellosis patients (82 samples), and healthy individuals (20 samples) were tested by indirect ELISA. To evaluate the assay, a receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and immunoblotting were carried out using these characterized serum samples. Results For this test, the area under the ROC curve was 0.9409 (95 % confidence interval, 0.9108 to 0.9709), and a sensitivity of 88.89 % and a specificity of 85.54 % was given with a cutoff value of 0.3865 from this ROC analysis. The Western blot results indicate that it is feasible to differentiate human brucellosis and non-brucellosis with the newly established method based on this recombinant protein. Conclusion Our results obtained high diagnostic accuracy of the ELISA assay which encourage the use of this novel recombinant protein as diagnostic antigen to implement serological diagnosis of brucellosis. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-016-1552-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The power emergency data transmission and collection need to grasp the overall data and the interdepartmental data. Research on emergency data exchange technology is important for electricity emergency projects. This paper in-depth studies the power emergency data exchange technology. The author propose a vertical through the overall architecture of the power company headquarters emergency information platform and the provincial power company emergency command information platform for data exchange, and also propose the concept of data transmission, which based on data exchange platform and data center. And this paper also proposes the method of direct data exchange between the power company headquarters emergency information platform and provincial power company emergency information platform using the data exchange platform. Finally, the paper describes the transmission of formatted data and non-formatted data, also analyzes the exchange process of custom data. Keywords-power emergency;command information platform;data exchange platform;data center;architecture

Polyoxometalates are non-nucleoside analogs that have been proven to exhibit broad-spectrum antiviral activity. In particular, Cs2K4Na[SiW9Nb3O40].H2O 1 shows low toxicity and high activity against HBV. The preclinical pharmacokinetics of Compound 1 in rats were characterized by establishing and applying inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry method to determine the concentration of W in plasma, urine, feces, bile and organ samples. The quantitative ICP-MS method demonstrated good sensitivity and application in the pharmacokinetics study of polyoxometalates. The pharmacokinetic behavior of Compound 1 after intravenous or oral administration fit a two-compartment model. Tmax ranges from 0.1 h to 3 h and the T1/2 of Compound 1 is between 20 h and 30 h. The absolute bioavailability of Compound 1 at 45, 180 and 720 mg/kg groups were 23.68%, 14.67% and 11.93%, respectively. The rates of plasma protein binding of Compound 1 at 9, 18 and 36 mg/ml of Compound 1 are 62.13±9.41%, 71.20±24.98% and 49.00±25.59%, respectively. Compound 1 was widely distributed throughout the body, and high levels of compound 1 were found in the kidney and liver. The level of Compound 1 in excretion was lower: 30% for urine, 0.28% for feces and 0.42% for bile, respectively. For elaborate pharmacokinetic characteristics to be fully understood, the metabolism of Compound 1 needs to be studied further.

Human hand back skin texture (HBST) is often consistent for a person and distinctive from person to person. In this paper, we study the HBST pattern recognition problem with applications to personal identification and gender classification. A specially designed system is developed to capture HBST images, and an HBST image database was established, which consists of 1,920 images from 80 persons (160 hands). An efficient texton learning based method is then presented to classify the HBST patterns. First, textons are learned in the space of filter bank responses from a set of training images using the l(1) -minimization based sparse representation (SR) technique. Then, under the SR framework, we represent the feature vector at each pixel over the learned dictionary to construct a representation coefficient histogram. Finally, the coefficient histogram is used as skin texture feature for classification. Experiments on personal identification and gender classification are performed by using the established HBST database. The results show that HBST can be used to assist human identification and gender classification.

Brucella spp. are facultative intracellular bacteria that cause zoonotic disease of brucellosis worldwide. Traditional methods for detection of Brucella spp. take 48–72 h that does not meet the need of rapid detection. Herein, a new rapid detection method of Brucella was developed based on polyclonal antibody-conjugating quantum dots and antibody-modified magnetic beads. First, polyclonal antibodies IgG and IgY were prepared and then the antibody conjugated with quantum dots (QDs) and immunomagnetic beads (IMB), respectively, which were activated by N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N’-ethylcar-bodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) to form probes. We used the IMB probe to separate the Brucella and labeled by the QD probe, and then detected the fluorescence intensity with a fluorescence spectrometer. The detection method takes 105 min with a limit of detection of 103 CFU/mL and ranges from 10 to 105 CFU/mL (R 2 = 0.9983), and it can be well used in real samples.

Background Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a disorder potentially leading to devastating disability and even death if not timely diagnosed and treated. While TOF MR venography is most commonly used for diagnosis, the accuracy can be compromised by the flow voids caused by a slow or complex flow pattern and in-plane flow saturation. Several other MR techniques, relying on characteristic image contrast of CVT, may also underor over-estimate the thrombus due to the signals from venous flow and other structures. High-spatial resolution dark-blood CMR could address the above issues, but, to our knowledge, has not been attempted. In this work, a fast dark-blood CMR technique was developed and validated in CVT patients.