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Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether matrine can affect the phenotypes and functional maturation of dendritic cells (DC), and to secrete many cytokines, as well as the cytotoxic T lymophocyte (CTL) specific killing effect induced by gastric carcinoma dendritic cells vaccine in vitro. Materials and methods: The experimental groups consisted of three concentrations of matrine (0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 mg/mL). The DC maturation was detected by flow cytometry. The proliferation of T cells was detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) method. The secretions of cytokines by CTLs were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The specific killing capacity of CTLs to target MKN45 gastric cancer cells was detected by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assay. Results: The results showed that matrine could increase the expressions of CD86 and CD83 in a dose-dependent manner. Matrine could promote T cell proliferation (P). Moreover, matrine also significantly increased the levels of interferon-γ (IFN-γ), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-12p70 (IL-12p70), respectively (P). The therapeutic vaccination with DCs vaccine treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) plus matrine resulted in improved killing effect as compared to that observed with DCs treated with LPS alone (P). Conclusion: These findings define matrine as an immune adjuvant that enhances the DC activation and demonstrate a new pharmacological approach to improve the therapeutic effect of autogenous DC vaccines.

BACKGROUND: Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS: We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS: Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, -1.8 percentage points; 95% CI, -4.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others; ISCHEMIA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01471522.).

INTRODUCTION Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains the leading cause of mortality in China. The treatment strategies, especially for patients with ischemic angina pectoris, are still far from satisfactory. Hence, this study was carried out to evaluate the long-term potential of nicorandil in Chinese patients with CHD. METHODS Adult patients with CHD were reviewed retrospectively from three hospitals in Central China to obtain relevant data. The primary outcome was the rate of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) which is the composite outcome of stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), and mortality at 3 years while the secondary outcomes included rates of MACE, stroke, MI, and mortality at 1 and 2 years. The rates of MACE were estimated using Kaplan-Meir survival curves and compared by log-rank test. The association between various treatment regimens and hazards of MACE was estimated using Cox proportional hazards model. All analyses were carried out using SAS 9.4. RESULTS A total of 5504, 1674, and 3923 patients treated with the nicorandil-trimetazidine combination, nicorandil, and trimetazidine were included in the study, respectively. At 3-year follow-up, the rate of MACE [hazard ratio (HR) 0.85; 95% CI 0.74-0.97; P = 0.017] and stroke (HR 0.58, 95% CI 0.48-0.71; P

Yue-Rong Zhang,1 Hui Wang,2 Ning Zhou,2 Yao-Di Zhang,1,2 Yan Lin,1,2 Li-Yang Wu,1,2 Shi-Fang Wei,2 Yan-Yun Ma,2,3 Chun-Xia Wang3 1Department of Gastroenterology, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Infectious Diseases, The First People’s Hospital of Lanzhou, Gansu, 730050, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Laboratory, The First People’s Hospital of Lanzhou, Gansu, 730050, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yue-Rong ZhangDepartment of Gastroenterology, University-Town Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 55 University Town Middle Road, Shapingba District, Chongqing, 401331, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 102365714142Email zhang_yue_rong@163.comObjective: To explore the feasibility of treating cirrhosis using a multidisciplinary team approach (MDT) and to pinpoint the key factors influencing its implementation.Methods: The data of 307 patients with decompensated cirrhosis were studied retrospectively. Patients who received more than two treatment measures were assigned to the MDT group (n=228), and patients who received symptomatic medical drug treatment only were assigned to the traditional treatment group (n=79). The follow-up period ranged from 4 to 10 years, and the average follow-up period was 5.7 years. The results of the biochemical tests for hepatitis B virus deoxyribonucleic acid, hepatitis C virus ribonucleic acid, and autoantibodies to liver disease were analyzed.Results: The differences in gender and Child–Pugh grade of liver function between the two groups were not statistically significant. The MDT group had obvious advantages over the traditional treatment group in occupational composition, etiology composition, 5-year survival rate and annual hospitalization times. The leading causes of death in the MDT group, in descending order, were liver cancer, infection, mesenteric thrombosis, and non-hepatic disease, and, in the medical treatment group, they were liver failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, infection, and liver cancer. There was a significant statistical difference between the two groups (p < 0.05). In the multidisciplinary treatment, etiological treatment was the most widely used treatment, accounting for 79.8%, followed by endoscopic treatment (33.3%), peritoneal drainage and ascites reinfusion (25%), splenectomy combined with devascularization (11.4%) and stem cell transplantation and liver transplantation (1.8%).Conclusion: An MDT can improve the efficacy and prognosis of patients with cirrhosis and improve patient compliance. After multi-disciplinary intervention, the mortality spectrum of long-term survival patients with cirrhosis changes, and the mortality rate of liver cancer and non-liver disease increases.Keywords: liver cirrhosis, decompensated period, multidisciplinary team mode, traditional treatment, retrospective study

Lingyi Zhang,1,&ast; Zhuoling Zheng,2,&ast; Wudi Ma,1 Shuyu Zhang,3,4 Faling Xue,1 Haini Wang,5 Yongqi He,6 Fang Ye,1 Shouning Zhou,6 Yongzi Wen,3,4 Xiaoyan Li,2 Wenqi Huang,1 Min Huang,3,4 Jiali Li,3,4,&ast; Zhongxing Wang1,&ast; 1Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pharmacy, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 4Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of New Drug Design and Evaluation, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Pharmacy, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zhongxing WangDepartment of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, 58 Zhongshan Road 2, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-20-87755766Email wzhxing@mail.sysu.edu.cnJiali LiInstitute of Clinical Pharmacology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, 132 Waihuan Dong Road, University City, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-20-39943034Email lijiali5@mail.sysu.edu.cnPurpose: Propofol is one of the most commonly used intravenous sedatives in general anesthesia, while the individual variations of propofol are apparent. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of genetic variations in GABAergic neurons and glutamatergic neurons on time to loss of consciousness (LOC) and the incidence of hypotension during anesthesia induction.Patients and Methods: A total of 140 Chinese patients undergoing thyroid surgery or breast surgery were recruited. Genotyping of candidate genes was carried out using the Agena Bioscience MassARRAY system. Anesthesia induction was initiated with a propofol target plasma concentration (Cp) of 4.0 μg mL− 1. The LOC latency, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure were documented.Results: We found that GABRA2 rs35496835, GABRB1 rs1372496, GABRG2 rs11135176, GABRG2 rs209358, GAD1 rs3791878, SLC1A3 rs1049522 and gender were significant determinants of the patient’s LOC latency following propofol administration. GABRA2 rs11503014 was highly correlated with blood pressure reduction during anesthesia induction. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that GABRB1 rs1372496, GABRG2 rs11135176, and SLC1A3 rs1049522 accounted for 35.3% variations in LOC latency following propofol administration.Conclusion: Our findings indicate that genetic variants of GABRA2, GABRB1, GABRG2, GAD1 and SLC1A3 may have influence on propofol susceptibility, which would be an important guidance towards building clinical models that can precisely predict the efficacy of propofol with various populations before surgery.Keywords: propofol, anesthesia, GABRB1, LOC latency

Li Wang,1 Nie Hu,1 Zhongjun Jiang,1 Ping Luo,1 Nian Yi,1 Yanhua Chen,2 Ning Zhou,2 Longfei Liu2 1Department of Breast Surgery, Nanhua Hospital, Nanhua University, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, 421002, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of General Surgery, Nanhua Hospital, Nanhua University, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, 421002, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Longfei LiuDepartment of General Surgery, Nanhua Hospital, Nanhua University, No. 336, Dongfeng South Road, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, 421002, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 0734-8399028Email liulongfei1977@aliyun.comBackground: Patients with cancer have a higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). We aimed to evaluate the relationship between serum human epididymal protein 4 (HE4) levels and cardiovascular events in obese patients with breast cancer.Methods: Serum HE4 levels in 316 obese patients with breast cancer were measured at baseline and then prospectively followed up for approximately 36 months. The prognostic value of serum HE4 for predicting cardiovascular events was analyzed by the Cox proportional hazard model.Results: Serum HE4 was significantly associated with CVD history after adjustment for confounding factors (OR= 1.50; 95% CI 1.23– 3.43; P= 0.038) using multivariable logistic regression analysis. The multivariable Cox proportional hazard analysis suggested that serum HE4 had an independent prognostic value for predicting cardiovascular events in patients with breast cancer (HR=2.21, 95% CI 1.60– 5.13, P< 0.001). Additionally, sensitivity analysis showed that the independent association still existed. Stratified analysis showed that this relationship was not affected by chemoradiotherapy.Conclusion: Serum HE4 is significantly related to cardiovascular events and poses good prognostic value for predicting cardiovascular events in obese patients with breast cancer. Serum HE4 may be a valuable indicator for the early detection of cardiovascular complications in obese patients with breast cancer.Keywords: human epididymis protein 4, radiotherapy, breast cancer, cardiovascular events, prognostic value, obese

By placing a single Au nanoparticle on the surface of a cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanowire, we demonstrate strong coupling of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) modes in the nanoparticle and whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in the nanowire. For a 50-nm-diameter Au-nanosphere particle, strong coupling occurs when the nanowire diameter is between 300 and 600 nm, with a mode splitting up to 80 meV. Using a temperature-induced spectral shift of the resonance wavelength, we also observe the anticrossing behavior in the strongly coupled system. In addition, since the Au nanosphere has spherical symmetry, the supported LSPR mode can be selectively coupled with transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) WGMs in the nanowire. The ultracompact strong-coupling system shown here may provide a versatile platform for studying hybrid “photon–plasmon” nanolasers, nonlinear optical devices, and nanosensors.

Objective. To investigate the association of serum uric acid levels with in-hospital heart failure (HF) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) who are undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods. Two hundred sixteen patients with AMI who were treated with PCI were enrolled in our study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the associations between uric acid levels and the risk of in-hospital HF in AMI patients. Analyses of the areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were performed to determine the accuracy of uric acid levels in predicting in-hospital HF. Results. A dose-response relationship was found for the incidence of in-hospital HF and levels of uric acid, showing increased HF from the lowest to the highest tertile of uric acid. Compared with subjects in the bottom tertile, the adjusted odds ratio for in-hospital HF was 1.92 (95% CI 0.70–5.24) and 3.33 (95% CI 1.18-9.46) in the second tertile group and the third tertile group, respectively. Every 1 mg/dl increase in the serum uric acid level was associated with a 1.60-fold increased risk of incident in-hospital HF (OR, 1.60; 95% CI 1.22–2.11; P = 0.001 ). ROC curve analysis showed that the optimal cut-off value of uric acid to predict in-hospital HF was 5.75 mg/dl with a sensitivity of 69.2% and specificity of 56.3%. Conclusions. Our study showed that the serum uric acid level on admission is an independent predictor of in-hospital heart failure in patients with AMI.

The steady-state security region of the integrated energy system (IES) is a useful tool for rapid security assessment and security evaluation of the integrated energy system. A complete characterization of the IES steady-state security region is derived. The derivation is under the nonlinear and non-convex AC power flow model, the gas flow model, and the uncertainty of renewable energy without any linear simplification. Then a novel and robust computation scheme to compute the IES steady-state security region is proposed and shown to eliminate the estimation errors of the existing methods. It is shown that the IES steady-state security region is non-convex and composed of several disjoint components. Numerical studies are conducted to show that the IES steady-state security regions obtained from the existing methods can be inaccurate, while the proposed characterization gives an exact estimation of the IES steady-state security region that significantly improves the previously proposed methods.

In this paper, the effect of strip spacing on the aerodynamic performance of a high-speed pantograph with a double-strip is numerically studied using a shear stress transport turbulence model. Seve...

Background The prevalence of lung adenocarcinomas (LUADs) has dramatically increased in recent decades. Ferroptosis is a process of iron‐dependent regulatory cell death. It is still unclear whether the expression of ferroptosis‐related genes (FRGs) is involved in the pathogenesis and survival of patients with LUAD. Methods We retrieved LUAD data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases and used LASSO Cox regression analysis to select the gene signature suitable for modeling. The risk score was calculated according to the model, and the patients were divided into high‐ and low‐risk groups according to the median risk score. Functional enrichment analysis was carried out by this group, and a model for predicting clinical prognosis was established by combining this group with clinical factors. Results Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and single‐sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) analysis showed that there were several immune‐related pathways and immune infiltration differences between high‐ and low‐risk groups. A prognostic model integrating 10 ferroptosis‐related genes (FR‐DEGs), and clinical factors were constructed and validated in an external cohort. Conclusions The FR‐DEGs signature was related to immune infiltration, and a model based on FR‐DEGs and clinical factors was established to predict the prognosis of patients with LUAD., FR‐DEGs signature has a high correlation with the clinical characteristics and immune microenvironment of lung adenocarcinoma patients. The prognosis prediction model of LUAD patients based on FR‐DEGs and clinical characteristics can accurately predict the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients.

Background: Saussurea lappa is a traditionally well-known plant appreciated for its biological activities and medicinal uses. Objective: In the present study, the recovery of antioxidants from Saussurea lappa was optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The efficiency of a newly-patented Infrared (IR) technology, Ired-Irrad®, was compared to that of the emerging ultrasound method (US) and the conventional solid liquid Water Bath (WB) extraction. Methods: The effects of time (t) and Temperature (T), mostly known to affect the extraction process, were tested on maximizing the Total Phenolic compounds Concentration (TPC) and the radical scavenging activity (AA). Response surface methodology was used for the optimization process. Results: A multiple response optimization of both time (t) and Temperature (T) was conducted, showing the best extraction conditions to be for WB: t= 43.86 min, T=33.79°C, for US: t= 65.47 min, T= 57.97°C and for IR: t= 42.5 min, T=34.19°C. The quantity of the optimally extracted polyphenols by WB, US and IR; as well as many of their bioactivities were compared. IR extraction gave the highest yield of TPC (15.3 mg GAE/g DM) followed by US (14.8 mg GAE/g DM) and lastly WB (13.9 mg GAE/g DM). The highest antioxidant and antiradical activities were also obtained by the IR treatment. The optimal IR extract inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli up to 65 and 35%, respectively. Moreover, all Saussurea lappa extracts (WB, US and IR) inhibited up to 96% the production of Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) by Aspergillus flavus. Conclusion: Our findings on the extraction of antioxidants from Saussurea lappa demonstrated that IR technology is an efficient novel method that can be used to extract the maximum yield of polyphenols, with the highest antioxidant, antiradical and antibacterial activities.

Fulminant myocarditis (FM) is a form of acute myocardial inflammation leading to rapid-onset hemodynamic instability due to cardiogenic shock or life-threatening arrhythmias. As highlighted by recent registries, FM is associated with high rates of death and heart transplantation, regardless of the underlying histology. Because of a paucity of evidence-based management strategies exists for this disease, an International workshop on FM was held in Wuhan, China, in October 2019, in order to share knowledge on the disease and identify areas of consensus. The present report highlights both agreements and controversies in FM management across the world, focusing the attention on areas of opportunity, FM definition, the use of endomyocardial biopsy and viral identification on heart specimens, treatment algorithms including immunosuppression and the timing of circulatory support escalation. This report incorporates the most recent recommendations from national and international professional societies. Main areas of interest and aims of future prospective observational registries and randomized controlled trials were finally identified and suggested.

Valosin-containing protein (VCP/p97) is a member of the conserved type II AAA+ (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) family of proteins with multiple biological functions, especially in protein homeostasis. Mutations in VCP/p97 are reportedly related to unique autosomal dominant diseases, which may worsen cardiac function. Although the structure of VCP/p97 has been clearly characterized, with reports of high abundance in the heart, research focusing on the molecular mechanisms underpinning the roles of VCP/p97 in the cardiovascular system has been recently undertaken over the past decades. Recent studies have shown that VCP/p97 deficiency affects myocardial fibers and induces heart failure, while overexpression of VCP/p97 eliminates ischemia/reperfusion injury and relieves pathological cardiac hypertrophy caused by cardiac pressure overload, which is related to changes in the mitochondria and calcium overload. However, certain studies have drawn opposing conclusions, including the mitigation of ischemia/reperfusion injury via inhibition of VCP/p97 ATPase activity. Nevertheless, these emerging studies shed light on the role of VCP/p97 and its therapeutic potential in cardiovascular diseases. In other words, VCP/p97 may be involved in the development of cardiovascular disease, and is anticipated to be a new therapeutic target. This review summarizes current findings regarding VCP/p97 in the cardiovascular system for the first time, and discusses the role of VCP/p97 in cardiovascular disease.

Purpose To determine the association between low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) use and mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Methods We conducted a retrospective study of patients consecutively enrolled from two major academic hospitals exclusively for COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, from January 26, 2020, to March 26, 2020. The primary outcome was adjusted in-hospital mortality in the LMWH group compared with the non-LMWH group using the propensity score. Results Overall, 525 patients with COVID-19 enrolled with a median age of 64 years (IQR 19), and 49.33% men. Among these, 120 (22.86%) were treated with LMWH. Compared with the non-LMWH group, the LMWH group was more likely to be older and male; had a history of hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease (CHD), or stroke; and had more severe COVID-19 parameters such as higher inflammatory cytokines or D-dimer. Compared with non-LMWH group, LMWH group had a higher unadjusted in-hospital mortality rate (21.70% vs. 11.10%; p = 0.004), but a lower adjusted mortality risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 0.20; 95% CI, 0.09–0.46). A propensity score-weighting analysis demonstrated similar findings (adjusted OR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.10–0.30). Subgroup analysis showed a significant survival benefit among those who were severely (adjusted OR, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.02–0.23) and critically ill (adjusted OR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.15–0.65), as well as among the elderly patients’ age > 65, IL-6 > 10 times upper limit level, and D-dimer > 5 times upper limit level. Conclusions Among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, LMWH use was associated with lower all-cause in-hospital mortality than non-LMWH users. The survival benefit was particularly significant among more severely ill patients.

Energy storage is essential for balancing the generation and load in power systems. Building a battery energy storage system (BESS) with retired battery packs from electric vehicles (EVs) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) is one possible way to subsidize the price of EV/PHEV batteries, and at the same time mitigating forecast error introduced by load and renewable energy sources in power systems. This paper proposes a detailed framework to evaluate end-of-life (EOL) EV/PHEV batteries in BESS application. The framework consists of three parts. A generalized model for battery degradation is first introduced. It is followed by modeling the battery retirement process in its first life. Two vehicle types - EV and PHEV - as well as two retirement modes - nominal and realistic modes - are considered. Finally, the application of the second-life BESS in power systems is modeled in a detailed economic dispatch (ED) problem. This is how second-life BESS's performance translates into cost savings on power generation. An optimization problem is formulated to maximize total cost savings in power generation over the battery's second life. This is done by striking a balance between short-term benefit (daily cost savings) and long-term benefit (cost savings through service years). Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework/models. They show that battery usage and retirement criterion in its first life directly affect the performance in its second life application. In our case study, EV battery packs possess larger EOL energy capacities and consequently generate more cost savings in the second life. However, the BESS built from retired PHEV batteries has higher cost savings per MWh. It is because, with the proposed degradation model, battery health is better preserved in PHEV applications. Compared to nominal retirement mode, realistic retirement mode results in extra cost savings due to the reduced first-life service years. Energy Market Authority (EMA) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This work was supported in part by the Energy Market Authority and the National Research Foundation Singapore under Grant NRF2017EWT-EP003-038, in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2019YFB1505400, and in part by the Foundation of Shenzhen Science and Technology Committee under Grant GJHZ20180928160212241 and Grant JCYJ20190808165201648.

In this paper our group proposes and designs a lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) for detecting facial emotions in real-time and in bulk to achieve a better classification effect. We verify whether our model is effective by creating a real-time vision system. This system employs multi-task cascaded convolutional networks (MTCNN) to complete face detection and transmit the obtained face coordinates to the facial emotions classification model we designed firstly. Then it accomplishes the task of emotion classification. Multi-task cascaded convolutional networks have a cascade detection feature, one of which can be used alone, thereby reducing the occupation of memory resources. Our expression classification model employs Global Average Pooling to replace the fully connected layer in the traditional deep convolution neural network model. Each channel of the feature map is associated with the corresponding category, eliminating the black box characteristics of the fully connected layer to a certain extent. At the same time, our model marries the residual modules and depth-wise separable convolutions, reducing large quantities of parameters and making the model more portable. Finally, our model is tested on the FER-2013 dataset. It only takes 3.1% of the 16GB memory, that is, only 0.496GB memory is needed to complete the task of classifying facial expressions. Not only can our model be stored in an 872.9 kilobytes file, but also its accuracy has reached 67% on the FER-2013 dataset. And it has good detection and recognition effects on those figures which are out of the dataset.

Over the years, probabilistic nature of renewable energy sources (RES) and its influence on power system adequacy have been well studied. However, rather less attention has been paid to the impact of RES unit itself’s and its power conversion system’s (PCS’) reliability, as well as their various connection topologies. This paper devises a comprehensive sensitivity study on how each of these elements can affect overall generating system reliability. given the plethora of RES configurations and components, it is of import to identify the most vulnerable element in RES. In this work, component importance is extended, for the first time, to generating capacity adequacy assessment (HLI). Measurement index is the centerpiece in reliability importance. New indices have to be introduced to facilitate the study. While the physical meaning of previously developed indices is lost, in this study indices are proposed based on traditional importance measures, of which the physical meaning are strictly retained and consistent with the definitions. With the proposed assessment technique, components in various RES configuration can be ranked according to their reliability importance. It is found in the numerical study that different importance measures (such as risk-achievement based measures and risk-reduction based measures) can result in different rankings. Studies on contributing factors of the reliability importance are also performed. As more and more RES gaining foothold in generating systems, the proposed technique assist to achieve targeted reliability level of the system, by easily identifying and prioritizing reliability improvement tasks among various units/components in the increasing complex system. Energy Market Authority (EMA) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This work was supported in part by the Energy Market Authority and National Research Foundation Singapore underGrant NRF2017EWT-EP003-038, and in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China underGrant 2019YFB1505400.

Backgrounds The Gustave Roussy Immune score (GRIm-Score) emerges as a novel prognostic scoring system for patient selection in phase I trials testing targeted immunotherapy for advanced-stage cancer. We tried to assess potential prognostic roles of preoperative GRIm-Score in patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy for stage I-II non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by propensity score-matching (PSM) analysis. Methods This PSM-based analysis was performed on our single-center prospectively-maintained database between January 2014 and October 2015. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis using the log-rank test was used to distinguish differences in both overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) between the patients stratified by preoperative GRIm-Score. Multivariable Cox-proportional hazards regression analysis and PSM analysis were both carried out to determine the final independent prognostic parameters. Results There were 405 patients with surgically resectable stage I-II NSCLC included. Both OS and DFS were significantly shortened along with each number increase in the GRIm-Score group, showing a step-wise fashion. Such strong correlations between preoperative GRIm-Score estimated by a modified 3-category risk scale and survival outcomes still remained validated after PSM analysis. In addition, this GRIm-Score held the superior discriminatory power for predicting both OS and DFS to the other peripheral blood biomarkers. Multivariable analyses on the entire cohort and the PSM cohort demonstrated that GRIm-Score based on a 3-category risk assessment scale could be independently predictive of both OS and DFS. Conclusions The GRIm-Score tool can also serve as an effective and noninvasive marker to optimize prognostic prediction for surgically resectable stage I-II NSCLC.

CD36, also known as the scavenger receptor B2, is a multifunctional receptor widely expressed in various organs. CD36 plays a crucial role in the uptake of long-chain fatty acids, the main metabolic substrate in myocardial tissue. The maturation and transportation of CD36 is regulated by post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, glycosylation, and palmitoylation. CD36 is decreased in pathological cardiac hypertrophy caused by ischaemia–reperfusion and pressure overload, and increased in diabetic cardiomyopathy and atherosclerosis. Deficiency of CD36 alleviates diabetic cardiomyopathy and atherosclerosis, while overexpression of CD36 eliminates ischaemia–reperfusion damage, together suggesting that CD36 is closely associated with the progression of cardiovascular diseases and may be a new therapeutic target. This review summarizes the regulation and post-translational modifications of CD36 and evaluates its role in cardiovascular diseases and its potential as a therapeutic target.

Background Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a kind of diffuse interstitial lung disease, the pathogenesis of which is unclear, and there is currently a lack of good treatment to improve the survival rate. Human menstrual blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MenSCs) have shown great potential in regenerative medicine. This study aimed to explore the therapeutic potential of MenSCs for bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Methods We investigated the transplantation of MenSCs in a pulmonary fibrosis mouse model induced by BLM. Mouse was divided into three groups: control group, BLM group, MenSC group. Twenty-one days after MenSC transplantation, we examined collagen content, pathological, fibrosis area in the lung tissue, and the level of inflammatory factors of serum. RNA sequence was used to examine the differential expressed gene between three groups. Transwell coculture experiments were further used to examine the function of MenSCs to MLE-12 cells and mouse lung fibroblasts (MLFs) in vitro. Results We observed that transplantation of MenSCs significantly improves pulmonary fibrosis mouse through evaluations of pathological lesions, collagen deposition, and inflammation. Transwell coculturing experiments showed that MenSCs suppress the proliferation and the differentiation of MLFs and inhibit the apoptosis of MLE-12 cells. Furthermore, antibody array results demonstrated that MenSCs inhibit the apoptosis of MLE-12 cells by suppressing the expression of inflammatory-related cytokines, including RANTES, Eotaxin, GM-CSF, MIP-1γ, MCP-5, CCL1, and GITR. Conclusions Collectively, our results suggested MenSCs have a great potential in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, and cytokines revealed in antibody array are expected to become the target of future therapy of MenSCs in clinical treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.

Objective Optimal approaches to patients with local recurrence of rectal cancer are unclear in China. This study aimed to evaluaty -30te the clinical outcomes and toxicity associated with different treatment regimens for patients with local recurrence of rectal cancer. Methods A retrospective chart review of patients with local recurrence of rectal cancer and previous radical surgical treatment between March 2010 and December 2017 with curative intent was performed. Disease-related endpoints included treatment progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) using the Kaplan-Meier method. Toxicities were assessed using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 5.0, and complications were scored according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Results A total of 71 patients met the inclusion criteria in this study. The recurrence sites were mainly local recurrence in the pelvic cavity and regional lymph node metastasis. Twenty patients received chemoradiotherapy combined with surgery, 10 underwent surgery alone, and others received chemoradiotherapy-alone (n = 27) and chemotherapy-alone (n = 14) treatment. A clear difference was found in PFS between surgery/chemoradiotherapy with surgery and chemoradiotherapy/chemotherapy groups (26.6 months vs 14.1 months, P = 0.033). The PFS of patients in the surgery combined with chemoradiotherapy, surgery alone, and chemotherapy/chemoradiotherapy groups was 65.2 months, 20.2 months, and 14.2 months, respectively (P = 0.042). The multivariate analysis of PFS demonstrated that surgery was an independent factor. The proportion of patients with distant metastases after chemoradiotherapy/chemotherapy was higher than that of patients undergoing surgery (36.6% vs 21.4%, P = 0.179). The OS of patients in the surgery combined with chemoradiotherapy, surgery alone, and chemotherapy/chemoradiotherapy groups was 89.4 months, 66.0 months, and 62.8 months, respectively (P = 0.189). Radiation treatment and surgery did not increase extra severe toxicities. Conclusion Surgery combined with chemoradiotherapy was a beneficial treatment mode for managing patients with locally recurrent, nonmetastatic rectal cancer. It was associated with better local disease control, no increase in toxicity, and prolonged survival among patients with locally recurrent rectal cancer.

We propose the multilayer filter fusion network (MFFN) to address the problem of visual object tracking. In MFFN, the convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to extract the multilayer spatial features and then the convolutional long short-term memory (LSTM) to extract the temporal features of images. The object image centered at the target is cropped and fed into MFFN to obtain the correlation filter and the feature map to discriminate the target from background. The correlation filter is convolved with the corresponding feature map for the same layer to produce the probability map, which is then used to estimate the target position by searching its maximum value. The correlation filter corresponds to the tracked object image that is fed into MFFN and thus contains the appearance changes of target. In our multilayer filter fusion tracking (MFFT) framework, we use two MFFNs with different inputs to track the target via coarse-to-fine location approach. The first one is used to estimate the target position from the entire image and the second one to locate the target from the estimated target position. After the networks are trained off-line they do not require online learning during tracking. Experimental results on the CVPR2013 benchmark demonstrate that our tracking algorithm achieves competitive results compared with other tracking methods.

Washery reject is a by-product discharged during coal preparation, in which there are still certain amount of valuable combustibles. The recovery of clean coal from washery rejects is of great sign...

Background Cardiac injury, as measured by troponin elevation, has been reported among hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and portends a poor prognosis. However, how the dynamics of troponin elevation interplay with inflammation and coagulation biomarkers over time is unknown. We assessed longitudinal follow-up of cardiac injury, inflammation and coagulation markers in relation to disease severity and outcome. Methods We retrospectively assessed 2068 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between January 29 and April 1, 2020 at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China. We defined cardiac injury as an increase in high sensitivity cardiac troponin-I (hs-cTnI) above the 99th of the upper reference limit. We explored the dynamics of elevation in hs-cTnI and the relationship with inflammation (interleukin [IL]-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-2 receptor, tumor necrosis factor-α, C-reactive protein) and coagulation (d-dimer, fibrinogen, international normalized ratio) markers in non-critically ill versus critically ill patients longitudinally and further correlated these markers to survivors and non-survivors. Results Median age was 63 years (first to third quartile 51–70 years), 51.4% of whom were women. When compared to non-critically ill patients (N = 1592, 77.0%), critically ill (defined as requiring mechanical ventilation, in shock or multiorgan failure) patients (N = 476, 23.0%), had more frequent cardiac injury on admission (30.3% vs. 2.3%, p, Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • In COVID-19 patients increased levels of hs-cTnI beyond day 3 since admission portend a poor prognosis. • A consistent positive correlation of hs-cTnI with IL-6 and d-dimer could suggest nonspecific cytokine-mediated cardiotoxicity. • The risk for cardiac arrest and rhythm disturbances in patients with elevated hs-cTnI suggest an arrhythmogenic nature.

Highlights • Novaferon considered as a potential antiviral drug for COVID-19. • Novaferon inhibited viral replication and protected cells from SARS-CoV-2 attack. • Antiviral effects of Novaferon for COVID-19 patients observed in randomized trial. • Inhalation of Novaferon for COVID-19 treatment was safe., Background The anti-viral effects of Novaferon, a potent antiviral protein drug on COVID-19 was evaluated in laboratory, and in a randomized, open-label, parallel group trial. Methods In laboratory, the inhibition of Novaferon on viral replication in cells infected with SARS-CoV-2, and on prevention of SARS-CoV-2 entry into healthy cells was determined. Antiviral effects of Novaferon in COVID-19 patients with treatment of Novaferon, Novaferon plus Lopinavir/Ritonavir, or Lopinavir/Ritonavir were evaluated. The primary endpoint was the SARS-CoV-2 clearance rates on day 6 of treatment, and the secondary endpoint was the time to SARS-CoV-2 clearance. Results Novaferon inhibited the viral replication (EC50 = 1.02 ng/ml), and prevented viral infection (EC50 = 0.10 ng/ml). Results from the 89 enrolled COVID-19 patients showed that both Novaferon and Novaferon plus Lopinavir/Ritonavir groups had significantly higher viral clearance rates on day 6than Lopinavir/Ritonavir group (50.0% vs.24.1%, p = 0.0400, and 60.0% vs.24.1%, p = 0.0053). Median time to viral clearance were 6 days, 6 days, and 9 days for three groups respectively, a 3-dayreductionin both Novaferon and Novaferon plus Lopinavir/Ritonavir groups compared with Lopinavir/Ritonavir group. Conclusions Novaferon exhibited anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects in vitro and in COVID-19 patients. These data justified the further evaluation of Novaferon. Trial registration number number ChiCTR2000029496at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn/).

Subwavelength diameter micro/nanofiber (MNF) provides excellent platform for many applications. In this work, we fabricate subwavelength diameter MNFs with ultra-long waist and analyze the propagation loss origin for such fibers. Transmittance as high as 99.4% is measured for MNF with a waist length of 10 cm and diameter of $1.2\mu \text{m}$ , and the loss is mainly resulted from the modal leakage of the taper. However, when the MNF is getting longer and thinner, the intrinsic surface roughness induced during the fabrication process overrides the modal leakage and plays a major role in the propagation loss. Our study reveals existence of an ultimate transmission limitation for ultra-long MNFs.

In this article, we develop attitude tracking control methods for spacecraft as rigid bodies against model uncertainties, external disturbances, subsystem faults/failures, and limited resources. A new intelligent control algorithm is proposed using approximations based on radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) and adopting the tunable parameter-based variable structure (TPVS) control techniques. By choosing different adaptation parameters elaborately, a series of control strategies are constructed to handle the challenging effects due to actuator faults/failures and input saturations. With the help of the Lyapunov theory, we show that our proposed methods guarantee both finite-time convergence and fault-tolerance capability of the closed-loop systems. Finally, benefits of the proposed control methods are illustrated through five numerical examples.

Our previous studies showed that treatment with alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR) agonist nicotine could alleviate systemic inflammation and reduce neuronal loss in the hippocampus and seizure severity in eclampsia. In this study, we further investigated whether there is also neuronal damage in the cortex after eclamptic seizure, elucidated the potential mechanisms underlying the neuroprotective roles of nicotine in eclampsia. Retrospective analysis of MRI data of severe preeclampsia (SPE) patients was conducted. A preeclampsia model was established by lipopolysaccharide injection (PE group), and pentylenetetrazol was used to induce eclamptic seizure (E group). α7nAChR agonist nicotine and its antagonist (α-BGT) and PI3K inhibitor wortmannin were used for drug administration. Neuronal damage was detected by Nissl staining, and changes in neuroinflammation, neuronal apoptosis, α7nAChR expression, and PI3K-AKT signaling on cortical neurons were detected by immunohistochemistry and western blotting. MRI images showed that most abnormal signals from the brain of SPE patients were located in the cortex. The neuron survival ratio was lower in the cortex than in the hippocampus within the E group; such ratios in the cortex were significantly lower in the E and PE groups compared with those of the control group. Nicotine markedly decreased the production of inflammatory cytokines and microglial activation in the cortex of the E group. Moreover, nicotine increased p-AKT levels and decreased cleaved caspase-3 levels in cortical neurons. Treatment with α-BGT reversed effects of nicotine. Wortmannin also blocked the anti-neuronal apoptosis action of nicotine. Our results suggest that nicotine protects against neuronal injury in the cortex following eclampsia possibly by inhibiting neuroinflammation and activating neuronal PI3K-AKT pathway.

Aims We aimed to investigate the functional alterations, diagnostic utilization, and prognostic implication of carotid arterial deformations in subjects with cardiovascular risk factors and heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Methods and results Among 251 prospectively participants (mean age 66.0 ± 9.8 years, 65.7% female) in a single centre between December 2011 and September 2014, carotid artery deformations including circumferential strain (CCS)/strain rate and radial strain were analysed by two‐dimensional speckle tracking. We further related these carotid artery deformation indices to HF biomarkers and cardiac structure and function by echocardiography and explored their prognostic values. Significant reductions of CCS, circumferential strain rate, and circumferential radial strain were observed across control (n = 52), high risk (n = 147), and HFpEF (n = 52) (trend P ≤ 0.001). Aging, hypertension, HFpEF, and higher pulse rate showed independent associations with reduced CCS by stepwise multivariate regressions (all P

Extreme events can extensively damage power systems, causing customers to experience long-lasting outages. During such events, an electric vehicle (EV) can be used to directly power a house, i.e., vehicle-to-home (V2H). Specifically, the EV serves as a mobile energy storage system—running errands to “transport” energy from other places. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) further allows cooperation among houses. It enables EV fleets to take turns running the errands so that sustained power supply is possible. Moreover, autonomous driving technology can also benefit system adequacy because the charging errands of EVs can be scheduled flexibly without being bonded to human activities. An emergency power supply strategy featuring scheduled EV charging errands as introduced above is proposed. It answers the questions whether and to what extent a system can survive an extended period of outage with the use of EVs only. An optimization problem is formulated with the purpose of maximizing the supply adequacy of the isolated system during the outage period. Both V2H and V2G scenarios are considered in the problem formulation, as well as self-driving capability. The complex optimization problems are solved with genetic algorithm. It is significant to find from the case study that the proposed strategy is able to fully restoring an islanded system when V2G and self-driving EVs are implemented.

Highlights • A considerable number of medical staff suffered from depressive symptoms and PTSD. • Male staff were more likely to have depressive symptoms and PTSD than female staff. • Gender, age, years working, daily work time, and social support affect mental health. • Psychological interventions for medical staff warrant immediate implementation. • Special attention should be paid to local medical staff in Hubei., Background The emergency department is considered to be a high-risk area, as it is often the first stop for febrile patients who are subsequently diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019. This study, which employed a cross-sectional design, aimed to assess the mental health of emergency department medical staff during the epidemic in China. Methods Demographic data and mental health measurements were collected by electronic questionnaires from February 28, 2020 to March 18, 2020. Outcomes A total of 14,825 doctors and nurses in 31 provinces of mainland China completed the survey. The prevalence rates of depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were 25.2% and 9.1%, respectively. Men were more likely to have depressive symptoms and PTSD than women. Those who were middle aged, worked for fewer years, had longer daily work time, and had lower levels of social support were at a higher risk of developing depressive symptoms and PTSD. Working in the Hubei province was associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms, while those working in the Hubei province but residing in another province had a lower risk of depressive symptoms and PTSD. Being a nurse was associated with a higher risk of PTSD. Interpretation The findings suggest that targeted psychological interventions to promote the mental health of medical staff with psychological problems need to be immediately implemented. Special attention should be paid to local medical staff in Hubei.

Frequent emergency room (ER) visits occur for acute symptoms of hypertension or related complications in Beijing, China. Among the meteorological variables, atmospheric pressure directly relates to weather conditions and is hardly affected by artificial factors. In the studies of weather conditions and hypertension-related risks, atmospheric pressure is rarely found in literatures. Based on records of ER visit related to hypertension from three major hospitals in Beijing, from 2008 to 2012, the daily maximum (Pmax) and minimum (Pmin) atmospheric pressures were investigated in this study to identify the influences of air pressure on ER visits. Advanced time series models were utilized in quantifying their associations. In addition, major air pollutants and other meteorological variables including temperature, solar duration, and humidity were incorporated in the multivariate models to reveal the independent association between atmospheric pressure and ER visits. The results indicated the following: 1. The number of ER visits positively correlates with all atmospheric pressure metrics in both bivariate and partial correlation analyses. 2. The estimated relative risk (RR) corresponding to 1 hPa change in Pmax indicated a significant effect (Pmax = 1029 hPa, RR = 1.107, 95% CIs: 1.034-1.185) from high Pmax on short lag terms. RR for males and the elders grew prominently at lag 1 d, whereas females responded to Pmax at lag 4 d. 3. The middle-aged group (45–65 years) was threatened by extremely low Pmin with one day lag. 4. As for young (< 45 years) hypertensive patients, no effect from atmospheric pressure was identified. This study may provide new evidence that extreme atmospheric pressure is an independent inducer of hypertension-related symptoms or complications.

Recalcitrant bladder neck contracture (BNC) is a common complication after transurethral resection of the prostate. Our aim was to show the outcomes of a modified cystoscopy-assisted laparoscopic Y-V plasty for BNC treatments.We retrospectively evaluated a series of 27 patients who underwent a modified cystoscopy-assisted laparoscopic Y-V plasty for recalcitrant BNC from January 2017 to September 2019. Urinary flow rate, international prostate symptom score (IPSS), international index of erectile function-5 (IIEF-5) and bladder urethral examination by cystoscopy were performed preoperatively and postoperatively, respectively.All patients underwent the procedure successfully and no serious complication occurred. The median surgery time was 68.6 min without massive bleeding. The median follow-up time was 14.2 months and no patients had urinary incontinence. The maximum urine flow rate 3 months after surgery was significantly higher than prior to surgery (17.7 ± 2.1 ml/s vs. 8.2 ± 1.2 ml/s,The modified cystoscopy-assisted laparoscopic Y-V plasty is a feasible and effective technique for recalcitrant BNC treatment.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic which has caused numerous deaths worldwide. The present study investigated the roles of hypoproteinemia in the clinical outcome and liver dysfunction of COVID-19 patients. In this retrospective study, we extracted data from 2,623 clinically confirmed adult COVID-19 patients (>18 years old) between January 29, 2020 and March 6, 2020 in Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China. The patients were divided into three groups—non-critically ill, critically ill, and death groups—in accordance with the Chinese Clinical Guideline for COVID-19. Serum albumin, low-density lipoproteins cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoproteins cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations and inflammatory cytokines levels were measured and compared among these three groups. The median age of these 2,623 patients was 64 years old (interquartile range (IQR), 52–71). Among the patients enrolled in the study, 2,008 (76.6%) were diagnosed as non-critically ill and 615 (23.4%) were critically ill patients, including 383 (14.6%) critically ill survivors and 232 (8.8%) critically ill deaths in the hospital. Marked hypoalbuminemia occurred in 38.2%, 71.2%, and 82.4% patients in non-critically ill, critically ill, and death groups, respectively, on admission and 45.9%, 77.7%, and 95.6% of these three groups, respectively, during hospitalization. We also discovered that serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and HDL levels were significantly lower in critically ill and death groups compared to non-critically ill group. Meanwhile, the patients displayed dramatically elevated levels of serum inflammatory factors, while a markedly prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) in critically ill patients reflected coagulopathy. This study suggests that COVID-19-induced cytokine storm causes hepatotoxicity and subsequently critical hypoalbuminemia, which are associated with exacerbation of disease-associated inflammatory responses and progression of the disease and ultimately leads to death for some critically ill patients. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at 10.1007/s11427-020-1733-4 and is accessible for authorized users.

A complete track-vehicle-pantograph-catenary (TVPC) coupling dynamics model is presented and several elaborate simulation cases are set to analyse the effect of vehicle body vibration on the pantog...

Reverse cyclic lateral testing was undertaken to investigate the seismic behavior of 1/4 scale steel-plate concrete (SC) composite walls. The experimental program involved seven SC wall pier specimens. A new chamber structure is proposed, using steel diaphragms to connect the two steel faceplates to each other and to divide the SC wall pier into two parts. Conventional wall specimens failed mainly by tensile fracture of the concrete at the junction of the wall side and wall base, crushing of the concrete at the toe of the wall, or buckling of the steel faceplate. Tearing of the welded joints at the steel faceplates and steel diaphragm, buckling of steel, steel diaphragms being pulled out, tensile fracture and crushing of the concrete were the main failure modes of the chamber structure walls. A parametric numerical analysis in ABAQUS was developed to investigate the effects of the stiffening rib, steel web amount, material strength, shear-span ratio, and axial compression ratio on the seismic response of SC walls. The chamber structure of the SC wall piers can improve the peak load, ductility, and energy-dissipating capacity. The steel faceplate thickness and stiffening ribs can improve the behavior of SC wall piers.

This article investigates the attitude stabilization problem of a rigid spacecraft with actuator saturation and failures. Two neural network-based control schemes are proposed using anti-saturation adaptive strategies. To satisfy the input constraint, we design two controllers in a saturation function structure. Taking into account the modeling uncertainties, external disturbances, and adverse effects from actuator faults and failures, the first anti-saturation adaptive controller is implemented based on radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) with a fixed-time terminal sliding mode (FTTSM) containing a tunable parameter. Then, we upgrade the proposed controller to a fully adaptive-gain anti-saturation version, in order to strengthen the robustness and adaptivity with respect to actuator faults and failures, unknown mass properties, and external disturbances. In the two schemes, all of the designed adaptive parameters are scalars, thus they only require light computational load and can avoid the redesign process of the controller during spacecraft operation. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed methods is illustrated via two numerical examples.

A three-phase pulse-width modulation (PWM) rectifier can usually maintain operation when open-circuit faults occur in insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), which will lead the system to be unstable and unsafe. Aiming at this problem, based on random forests with transient synthetic features, a data-driven online fault diagnosis method is proposed to locate the open-circuit faults of IGBTs timely and effectively in this study. Firstly, by analysing the open-circuit fault features of IGBTs in the three-phase PWM rectifier, it is found that the occurrence of the fault features is related to the fault location and time, and the fault features do not always appear immediately with the occurrence of the fault. Secondly, different data-driven fault diagnosis methods are compared and evaluated, the performance of random forests algorithm is better than that of support vector machine or artificial neural networks. Meanwhile, the accuracy of fault diagnosis classifier trained by transient synthetic features is higher than that trained by original features. Also, the random forests fault diagnosis classifier trained by multiplicative features is the best with fault diagnosis accuracy can reach 98.32%. Finally, the online fault diagnosis experiments are carried out and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which can accurately locate the open-circuit faults in IGBTs while ensuring system safety., Comment: IET Power Electronics

Fourier ptychographic diffraction tomography (FPDT) is a recently developed label-free computational microscopy technique that retrieves high-resolution and large-field 3D tomograms by synthesizing a set of low-resolution intensity images obtained with a low numerical aperture (NA) objective. However, in order to ensure sufficient overlap of Ewald spheres in 3D Fourier space, conventional FPDT requires thousands of intensity measurements and consumes a significant amount of time for stable convergence of the iterative algorithm. Herein, we present accelerated Fourier ptychographic diffraction tomography (aFPDT), which combines sparse annular LED illuminations and multiplexing illumination to significantly decrease data amount and achieve computational acceleration of 3D RI tomography. Compared with existing FPDT technique, the equivalent high-resolution 3D RI results are obtained using aFPDT with reducing data requirement by more than 40 times. The validity of the proposed method is experimentally demonstrated on control samples and various biological cells, including polystyrene beads, unicellular algae, and clustered HeLa cells in a large field of view. With the capability for high-resolution and high-throughput 3D imaging using small amounts of data, aFPDT has the potential to further advance its widespread applications in biomedicine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

We present a 3D label-free refractive index (RI) imaging technique based on single-exposure intensity diffraction tomography (sIDT) utilizing a color-multiplexed illumination scheme. In our method, the chromatic LEDs corresponding R/G/B channels in an annular programmable array provide oblique illumination geometry which matches the numerical aperture of the objective precisely to maximize the spectrum coverage. A color intensity image encoding the scattering field of the specimen from different directions is captured, and monochromatic intensity images with respect to three color channels were separated and then used to recover the 3D RI distribution of the object following the process of IDT. In addition, the axial chromatic dispersion of focal lengths at different wavelengths introduced by the chromatic aberration of the objective lens and the spatial position misalignment of the ring LED source in the imaging system’s transfer functions modeling are both corrected to significantly reduce the artifacts in slice-based deconvolution procedure for the reconstruction of 3D RI distribution. Experimental results on MCF-7, Spirulina algae, and live C. elegans samples demonstrate the solid performance of the sIDT method in label-free, high-throughput, and real-time (∼ 24 fps) 3D volumetric biological imaging applications.

With the development of the Internet of Things, communication between diverse devices has become a common practice. The huge growth of IoT devices and the different characteristics of IoT traffic patterns have attracted attention to traffic classification solutions to solve the problems that arise in IoT applications. This paper proposed an IoT traffic classification system using deep learning method. The main work of our framework, Focal_Attention_LSTM, is as follows: (1) Apply the LDA feature processing algorithm. (2) Adapted the well-performed attention mechanism to the IoT traffic classification area (3) Modified focal loss is used to address common traffic category unbalances and hard example learning problems. We evaluate our system with IoT dataset BoT-IoT. The experimental results show that our system achieves 3.6% improvements compared to traditional feature processing methods and deep learning models, and has effectively solved the traffic category unbalance problem.

Background. Numerous studies have highlighted that long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) can indirectly regulate the expression of mRNAs by binding to microRNA (miRNA). LncRNA-associated ceRNA networks play a vital role in the initiation and progression of several pathological mechanisms. However, the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network in endothelial cells under cyclic stretch is seldom studied. Methods. The miRNA, mRNA, and lncRNA expression profiles of 6 human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) under circumferential stress were obtained by next-generation sequencing (NGS). We identified the differential expression of miRNAs, mRNAs, and lncRNAs using the R software package GDCRNATools. Cytoscape was adopted to construct a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA ceRNA network. In addition, through GO and KEGG pathway annotations, we analyzed gene functions and their related pathways. We also adopted ELISA and TUNEL to investigate the effect of si-NEAT1 on endothelial inflammation and apoptosis. Results. We recognized a total of 32978 lncRNAs, 1046 miRNAs, and 31958 mRNAs in 6 samples; among them, 155 different expressed lncRNAs, 74 different expressed miRNAs, and 960 different mRNAs were adopted. Based on the established theory, the ceRNA network was composed of 13 lncRNAs, 44 miRNAs, and 115 mRNAs. We constructed and visualized a lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network, and the top 20 nodes are identified after calculating their degrees. The nodes with most degrees in three kinds of RNAs are hsa-miR-4739, NEAT1, and MAP3K2. Functional analysis showed that different biological processes enriched in biological regulation, response to stimulus and cell communication. Pathway analysis was mainly enriched in longevity regulating, cell cycle, mTOR, and FoxO signaling pathway. Circumferential stress can significantly downregulate NEAT1, and after transducing si-NEAT1 for 24 h, inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and MCP-1 were significantly increased; furthermore, fewer TUNEL-positive cells were found in the si-NEAT1 treated group. Conclusions. The establishing of a ceRNA network can help further understand the mechanism of vein graft failure. Our data demonstrated that NEAT1 may be a core factor among the mechanical stress factors and that cyclic stress can significantly reduce expression of NEAT1, give rise to inflammation in the early stage of endothelial dysfunction, and promote EC apoptosis, which may play an essential role in vein graft failure.

Background Serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade E, member 1 (SERPINE1) has been investigated as an oncogene and potential biomarker in several cancers, including gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to investigate SERPINE1 expression and its diagnostic and prognostic value by analyzing data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) databases. Methods A meta-analysis was performed to investigate SERPINE1 expression levels in GC tissues and adjacent normal tissues. Gene set enrichment, multi experiment matrix (MEM), and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analyses were performed to identify the most enriched signaling pathways and SERPINE1-related module genes. A Cox regression model was used to develop a nomogram that was able to predict the overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) of individual patients. Results Meta-analyses revealed an elevated trend in SERPINE1 expression levels in TCGA [standard mean difference (SMD) =0.95; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.53–1.36; P