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PURPOSE To quantitatively analyze the impact of intrahepatic venovenous shunt (IHVS) on hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement. MATERIALS AND METHODS From 2015 to 2019, 222 HVPG measurements performed during transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation were eligible for this study. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) software color-coded each pixel of a two-dimensional DSA series by time-intensity curve to classify IHVS. Different degrees of IHVS were found in 36.5% of patients (81/222). Mild IHVS was found in 10.8% of patients (24/222), moderate IHVS was found in 10.8% of patients (24/222), and severe IVHS was found in 14.9% of patients (33/222). RESULTS Mean wedged hepatic vein pressure (WHVP) and HVPG were significantly lower in patients with IHVS compared with patients without IHVS (WHVP: 17.78 mm Hg ± 7.00 vs 24.89 mm Hg ± 8.69, P = .001; HVPG: 11.93 mm Hg ± 5.76 vs 18.6 mm Hg ± 6.85, P < .001). Mild IHVS had little effect on WHVP and HVPG. Mean WHVP and HVPG were 11 mm Hg lower in patients with moderate IHVS (WHVP: 20.38 mm Hg ± 8.38 vs 31.5 mm Hg ± 9.39, P = .026; HVPG: 13.88 mm Hg ± 6.33 vs 25.00 mm Hg ± 9.81, P < .001) and 15 mm Hg lower in patients with severe IHVS (WHVP: 13.45 mm Hg ± 5.28 vs 28.64 mm Hg ± 6.38, P = .017; HVPG: 8.27 mm Hg ± 3.85 vs 23.45 mm Hg ± 6.95, P < .001) than mean portal vein pressure and portal vein gradient. CONCLUSIONS For patients with moderate or severe IHVS, HVPG might greatly underestimate the actual value of portal vein pressure, and the portal vein should be catheterized to measure portal pressure.

Objectives The study aimed to examine the anti-diabetic effects of Gynura divaricata (GD) and the underlying mechanism. Methods Information about the chemical compositions of GD was obtained from extensive literature reports. Potential target genes were predicted using PharmMapper and analyzed using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO). To validate the results from bioinformatics analyses, an aqueous extract of GD was administered to type 2 diabetic rats established by feeding a high-fat and high-sugar diet followed by STZ injection. Key proteins of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and fatty acid metabolism signaling pathway were investigated by immunoblotting. Results The blood glucose of the rats in the GD treatment group was significantly reduced compared with the model group without treatment. GD also showed activities in reducing the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), and creatinine (CREA). The levels of urine sugar (U-GLU) and urine creatinine (U-CREA) were also lowered after treatment with GD. Bioinformatics analysis showed that some pathways including metabolic pathways, insulin resistance, insulin signaling pathway, PPAR signaling pathway, bile secretion, purine metabolism, etc. may be regulated by GD. Furthermore, GD significantly increased the protein expression levels of PKM1/2, p-AKT, PI3K p85, and GLUT4 in the rat liver. In addition, the expression levels of key proteins in the fatty acid metabolism signaling pathway including AMPK, p-AMPK, PPARα, and CPT1α were significantly upregulated. The anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2/BAX expression ratio in rats was significantly upregulated after GD intervention. These results were consistent with the bioinformatics analysis results. Conclusions Our study suggests that GD can exert hypoglycemic effects in vivo by regulating the genes at the key nodes of the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and fatty acid metabolism signaling pathway.

Recently, convolutional neural network (CNN) has been the core ingredient of modern models, triggering the surge of deep learning in super-resolution (SR). Despite the great success of these CNN-based methods which are prone to be deeper and heavier, it is impracticable to directly apply these methods for some low-budget devices due to the superfluous computational overhead. To alleviate this problem, a novel lightweight SR network named progressive feature fusion network (PFFN) is developed to seek for better balance between performance and running efficiency. Specifically, to fully exploit the feature maps, a novel progressive attention block (PAB) is proposed as the main building block of PFFN. The proposed PAB adopts several parallel but connected paths with pixel attention, which could significantly increase the receptive field of each layer, distill useful information and finally learn more discriminative feature representations. In PAB, a powerful dual attention module (DAM) is further incorporated to provide the channel and spatial attention mechanism in fairly lightweight manner. Besides, we construct a pretty concise and effective upsampling module with the help of multi-scale pixel attention, named MPAU. All of the above modules ensure the network can benefit from attention mechanism while still being lightweight enough. Furthermore, a novel training strategy following the cosine annealing learning scheme is proposed to maximize the representation ability of the model. Comprehensive experiments show that our PFFN achieves the best performance against all existing lightweight state-of-the-art SR methods with less number of parameters and even performs comparably to computationally expensive networks.

Simultaneous removal of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) is an important research field in air pollution control. The combination application of red mud (RM) with coal mine d...

After decades of extensive research, the field of 2D face recognition is fruitful. However, 2D face recognition is sensitive to changes in pose, facial expression and illumination. 3D face recognition has great potential due to the inherent invariance of pose and illumination changes, but these 3D face images are still difficult to acquire due to several issues such as cost and accessibility. In contrast, RGB-D images captured by low-cost depth sensors such as Kinect are relatively easy to acquire, and research on such low-quality inputs is still limited. In this thesis, an end-to-end multimodal fusion method based on spatial and channel attention is proposed to effectively fuse two image modalities, RGB and depth, to enhance RGB-D face recognition. Our work is specified as follows: firstly, three branches combined with the spatial and channel attention modules are established on the basis of ResNet18, so that the features of three modalities (RGB, depth map, and their fusion modalities, respectively) are obtained. The features under these three modalities are then fused, fed into a shared layer, and the fused features are further learned for deeper discriminative features and passed through a spatial attention vectorization module at the end. The method achieves good results on the Intellifusion RGBD dataset, while we perform ablation trials, which well reveal the contribution of each component of our method to the final performance.

Mucus hypersecretion is a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is associated with increasing sputum production and declining pulmonary function. Therefore, reducing mucus secretion can be a new therapeutic opportunity for preventing COPD. The Guifu Dihuang pill (GFDHP) is a classical Chinese medicine and has been used as an immunoregulator for treatment of kidney yang deficiency syndrome, including hypothyroidism, adrenocortical hypofunction, chronic bronchitis, and COPD, for more than 2000 years. However, the protective effects and mechanisms of GFDHP against mucus hypersecretion in COPD remain obscure. The aim of the present study was to explore the inhibitory effects of GFDHP on lipopolysaccharide/cigarette smoke- (LPS/CS-) induced Mucin5ac (Muc5ac) overproduction and airway goblet cell hyperplasia in mice. The mice were randomly assigned into 6 groups: control, model, GFDHP-L, GFDHP-M, GFDHP-H, and dexamethasone. The mice were given LPS twice through intranasal inhalation and then exposed to CS daily for 6 weeks. Three doses of GFDHP were orally administered daily during the last 3 weeks of the experiment. Pulmonary function was examined with an EMKA pulmonary system, and pulmonary hyperpermeability and lung damage were evaluated with an in vivo imaging system. Inflammatory cells and cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were detected with a cell count analyzer and though ELISA analysis, respectively. Lung pathological changes and airway goblet cell hyperplasia were analyzed with hematoxylin and eosin and Alcian blue periodic acid Schiff staining. The protein expression levels of Muc5ac and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK)-specificity protein1 (SP1) signaling pathway were measured with Western blot and immunohistochemistry. The results demonstrated that GFDHP improved pulmonary function and suppressed mouse pulmonary hyperpermeability and edema. GFDHP suppressed inflammatory cell infiltration and cytokine release in BALF, thereby elevating pulmonary function. It ameliorated lung pathological changes and airway goblet cell hyperplasia, and suppressed expression levels of Muc5ac mRNA and protein and phospho-ERK and SP1 levels in the lung tissues of the COPD mice. In conclusion, GFDHP inhibited mucus hypersecretion induced by LPS/CS by suppressing the activation of the ERK-SP1 pathway.

Video super-resolution (VSR) has drawn much attention in research community recently. As the typical three-dimensional (3D) signals, how to exploit spatio-temporal features in videos effectively and efficiently is critical for VSR. Most methods explore spatio-temporal feature through optical flow estimation and motion compensation. Although promising, these methods suffer from the trade-off between model performance and complexity. In this paper, we present a novel efficient spatio-temporal network (denoted as “ESTN") for VSR, which is designed to separately encode spatial and temporal video frames through two parallel streams. In particular, several 2D and 3D convolutions are utilized to encode on the central frame and consecutive frames for feature extraction. Besides, for the better ability of adaptive alignment at the feature level, instead of direct addition, we propose to learn a gate module consisting of deformable convolution to fuse the spatial and temporal features from the two streams. Such design enables efficient spatio-temporal exploration and maintains a lightweight model. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed ESTN achieves competitive or even better performance than its competitors with similar parameters.

Background: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is widely used in palliative therapy of malignant cancers. Several studies have shown its applicability and safety for locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). The objective of this study was to modify the current regimen to improve its therapeutic effect. Methods: Immune cell subtypes and related cytokines were quantified to uncover the immune pattern changes post-RFA treatment. Then, high-throughput proteome analysis was performed to identify differentially expressed proteins associated with RFA, which were further validated in in vitro and in vivo experiments. Finally, a combined therapy was tested in a murine model to observe its therapeutic effect. Results: In preclinical murine models of RFA treatment, no significant therapeutic benefit was observed following RFA treatment. However, the proportion of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells was significantly increased, whereas that of regulatory T cells (Tregs) was decreased post-RFA treatment, which indicated a beneficial anti-tumor environment. To identify the mechanism, high-throughput mass spectrum was obtained that identified heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) as the top differentially expressed protein. HSP70 expression in residual cancer cells was significantly increased post-RFA treatment, which notably promoted pancreatic cancer growth. Elevated HSP70 promoted cell proliferation by activating AKT–mTOR signaling. Finally, RFA treatment combined with an mTOR inhibitor exerted a synergetic repressive effect on tumor growth in the preclinical murine cancer model. Conclusions: RFA treatment in combination with mTOR signaling blockade can not only promote tumor immune response, but also restrain residual cancer cell proliferation. Such a combination may be a promising and effective therapeutic strategy for LAPC patients.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of an iodine-125 (125I) seed strand combined with a metal stent compared with a metal stent for treatment of obstructive jaundice caused by pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Methods and Materials A retrospective analysis was carried out of patients who were referred to Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University with a diagnosis of PDAC between January 1, 2010 and January 31, 2019. A total of 110 consecutive patients with obstructive jaundice caused by PDAC were divided into the iodine-125 seed strand combined with a metal stent group (Group A = 48) and the metal stent group (Group B = 62). The primary outcome was stent obstruction–free survival time, and secondary outcomes were overall survival and complications. Results The median stent obstruction–free survival time was 133.0 (95% confidence interval (CI): 166.093–149.907) days, and the median overall survival was 212.0 (95% CI: 187.183–236.817) days in all patients. Median stent obstruction–free survival time was 175 days (95% CI 103.165–246.835 days) in Group A versus 120 days (95% CI 87.475–152.525 days) in Group B (p = 0.035). A lower Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score (p = 0. 000) and iodine-125 seed strand combined with metal stent implantation (p = 0.008) were associated with a longer stent obstruction–free survival time. Obstruction length (p = 0.083), ECOG score (p = 0.000), and iodine-125 seeds (p = 0.037) might have potential impact on stent obstruction–free survival time and were included for multivariable analysis using the Cox proportional hazards model. Stent restenosis was observed in 18.8% (9/48) of patients in Group A and 54.8% (34/62) in Group B, respectively. There was no significant difference in median survival between Group A and Group B (p = 0.409). The median survival in Group A was 209 days (95% CI 150.750–267.250) and 202 days (95% CI 190.624–233.376) in Group B. The median survival of patients with a lower ECOG score was better than that of patients with a higher ECOG score (267 days vs 132 days, p = 0.000). The Grade 3 or 4 complications occurred in 4 (8.3%) of the 48 patients in Group A (one case of hemobilia, one case of liver abscess, two cases of choleperitonitis) and in 5 (8.1%) of the 62 patients in Group B (one case of hemobilia, two cases of liver abscess, two cases of choleperitonitis) (p = 0.972). Conclusions Implantation of an iodine-125 seed strand combined with a metal stent provides longer obstruction-free survival time compared with a metal stent in patients with obstructive jaundice caused by PDAC. It seems reasonable to choose an iodine-125 seed strand combined with a metal stent as a treatment for these patients.

Background Radiation therapy is the primary method of treatment for glioblastoma (GBM). Therefore, the suppression of radioresistance in GBM cells is of enormous significance. Ribophorin II (RPN2), a protein component of an N-oligosaccharyl transferase complex, has been associated with chemotherapy drug resistance in multiple cancers, including GBM. However, it remains unclear whether this also plays a role in radiation therapy resistance in GBM. Methods We conducted a bioinformatic analysis of RPN2 expression using the UCSC Cancer Genomics Browser and GEPIA database and performed an immunohistochemical assessment of RPN2 expression in biopsy specimens from 34 GBM patients who had received radiation-based therapy. We also studied the expression and function of RPN2 in radiation-resistant GBM cells. Results We found that RPN2 expression was upregulated in GBM tumors and correlated with poor survival. The expression of RPN2 was also higher in GBM patients with tumor recurrence, who were classified to be resistant to radiation therapy. In the radiation-resistant GBM cells, the expression of RPN2 was also higher than in the parental cells. Depletion of RPN2 in resistant cells can sensitize these cells to radiation-induced apoptosis, and overexpression of RPN2 had the reverse effect. Myeloid cell leukemia 1 (MCL1) was found to be the downstream target of RPN2, and contributed to radiation resistance in GBM cells. Furthermore, STAT3 was found to be the regulator of MCL1, which can be activated by RPN2 dysregulation. Conclusion Our study has revealed a novel function of RPN2 in radiation-resistant GBM, and has shown that MCL1 depletion or suppression could be a promising method of therapy to overcome the resistance promoted by RPN2 dysregulation.

To determine the safety and efficacy of percutaneous intraductal radiofrequency ablation (RFA) combined with biliary metal stent placement for patients with unresectable malignant biliary obstruction. From a cohort of 70 patients with unresectable malignant biliary obstruction, 28 patients received percutaneous intraductal RFA combined with biliary stent placement (group A) and the remaining 42 were treated with biliary metal stent placement only (group B). Stent patency, overall survival (OS), alleviation of jaundice, and postoperative complications were assessed. The technical success rate for both groups was 100%. No severe complications (e.g., biliary bleeding, perforation) occurred. In both groups, jaundice was relieved and the decrease of the total and direct bilirubin concentration was significant (p

Podocytes are a special type of differentiated epithelial cells that maintain the glomerular filtration barrier in the kidney. Injury or damages in podocytes can cause kidney-related disorders, like CKD. The injury or dysfunction of podocytes can occur by different metabolic disorders. Due to the severity and complexity of podocyte injuries, this state is considered as a serious health issue worldwide. Here, we examined and addressed the efficacy of an alternative Chinese medicine, Shen Qi Wan (SQW), on podocyte-related kidney injury. We evaluated the role and mechanism of action of SQW in podocyte injury. We observed that SQW significantly reduced 24-hour urinary protein and blood urea nitrogen levels and alleviated the pathological damage caused by adenine. Moreover, SQW significantly decreased the expression of nephrin and increased the expression of WT1 and AQP1 in the kidney of mice treated with adenine. We observed that SQW did not effectively reduce the high level of proteinuria in AQP1−/− mice indicating the prominent role of AQP1 in the SQW-ameliorating pathway. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated the food processes effacement in AQP1−/− mice were not lessened by SQW. In conclusion, podocyte injury could alter the pathological nature of the kidney, and SQW administration relieves the nature of pathogenesis by activating AQP1.

Pancreatic cancer is amongst the most lethal malignancies with increasing incidence and mortality worldwide. Distant metastases, especially intrahepatic metastases, is the leading cause of death for pancreatic cancer. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are neoplastic cells released from the primary tumor into circulation, and play critical roles in metastases of various types of cancers. Though clinical studies showed that detection of CTCs in peripheral circulation was associated with worse prognosis in patients with breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, detection CTCs in peripheral blood of pancreatic cancer was still challenging due to hepatic filtration and technical limitations. Previous studies have demonstrated that CTCs could be detected in portal vein circulation in patients with pancreaticobiliary carcinoma. In the present study, taking advantage of ultrasonography-guided transhepatic puncture, we analysis CTCs in portal vein blood obtained from patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. CTCs were detected in all 29-portal vein blood of samples, and absolute numbers of circulating pancreatic cancer cells in portal vein was significantly higher than that in peripheral circulation. Furthermore, we found that CTC counts in portal vein was highly associated with intrahepatic metastases and indicated poorer prognosis in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Short-term expansion and in vitro drug sensitivity assay showed that CTCs derived from portal vein blood were highly resistant to several chemotherapy regimens. In summary, detection of CTCs in portal vein could be a powerful tool to stratify the risk of intrahepatic metastases of pancreatic cancer, and provided new insight into the biological feature of pancreatic cancer metastases and drug resistance.

A spare representation classification method for tobacco leaves based on near-infrared spectroscopy and deep learning algorithm is reported in this paper. All training samples were used to make up ...

The existing white light-emitting diodes (WLEDs) are mostly fabricated with downshifting phosphors and ultraviolet (UV) or blue light LED chips. To achieve unconventional upconversion white-light-emitting phosphors, a novel strategy by encapsulating upconversion nanoparticles and organic dyes into metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) at room temperature is put forward. Herein, lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (NaYF4:Yb,Tm@NaYF4 core–shell UCNPs), dye 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(p-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran (DCM) and dye Coumarin 6 (C6) with blue, red and green light emission, respectively, are encapsulated together into ZIF-8 through a facile one-pot solid-confinement conversion process. Owing to their appropriate spectral overlaps and efficient energy transfer processes between two pairs of UCNPs/DCM and UCNPs/C6 within ZIF-8, the optimized UCNP/DCM/C6@ZIF-8 thin film exhibits high-quality white-light emission upon a commercial 980 nm LED chip with ideal CIE coordinates of (0.33, 0.33), high color rendering index (CRI) value of 93 and moderate correlated color temperature (CCT) value of 5567 K. This strategy paves the way for other upconversion phosphorous nanoparticles and fluorescent molecules for WLEDs applications excited by near infrared light.

Atmospheric oxygen (O2) is one of the predominant features that enable Earth as a habitable planet for active and diverse biology. However, observations since the late 1980s indicate that O2 content in the atmosphere is falling steadily at part-per-million level. Although a scientific consensus has emerged that the current decline is generally attributed to the combustion of fossil fuel, a quantitative assessment of the anthropogenic impact on the O2 cycle on both global and regional scale is currently lacking. This paper quantifies the anthropogenic and biological O2 flux over land and provides a quantitative and dynamic description of land O2 budget under impacts of human activities on grid scale. It is found that total anthropogenic O2 flux over land has risen from 35.6 Gt/yr in 2000 to 46.0 Gt/yr in 2013, while the compensation from land (11.5 Gt/yr averaged from 2000 to 2013) displays a faint increase during the same period. High anthropogenic fluxes mainly occur in Eastern Asia, India, North America and Europe caused by fossil fuel combustion and in Central Africa caused by wildfire. Due to strong heterotrophic soil respiration under higher temperature conditions, the positive O2 flux in the tropics is not significant. Instead, boreal forest and Tibetan plateau become the most important sources of atmospheric O2 in the Anthropocene. The anthropogenic oxygen consumption data are publicly available online at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.899167.

As a new-style solar cell, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell owns excellent characteristics of solar energy absorption, and it is one of the widely used thin-film solar cells. This paper mainly focuses on the research progress of this type of solar cell. Firstly, its theoretical principles are briefly described. Then, its cell materials, configuration and fabrication procedure are introduced. Subsequently, the remarkable research work about CIGS solar cell are reviewed. Finally, its commercial status is illustrated, followed by the critical issues and future perspectives.

The present study aimed to evaluate the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the anti-diabetic effect of berberine in Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rats. A urinary metabolomics analysis was performed with ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization synapt high-definition mass spectrometry. Pattern recognition approaches were integrated to discover differentiating metabolites. We identified 29 ions (13 in negative mode and 16 in positive mode) as 'differentiating metabolites' with this metabolomic approach. A functional pathway analysis revealed that the alterations were mainly associated with glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, pentose and glucuronate interconversions and sphingolipid metabolism. These results indicated that the dysfunctions of glycometabolism and lipometabolism are involved in the pathological process of T2DM. Berberine could decrease the serum levels of glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol and triglyceride and increase the secretion of insulin. The urinary metabolomics analysis showed that berberine could reduce the concentrations of citric acid, tetrahydrocortisol, ribothymidine and sphinganine to a near-normal state. These results suggested that the anti-diabetic effect of berberine occurred mainly via its regulation of glycometabolism and lipometabolism and activation of adenosine 5'-monophosphate-activated protein kinase. Our work not only provides a better understanding of the anti-diabetic effect of berberine in ZDF rats but also supplies a useful database for further study in humans and for investigating the pharmacological actions of drugs. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper, we demonstrate the enhanced photodegradation of rhodamine B on polarized ferroelectric KNbO3 (KNO) particles. High-quality KNO samples were prepared using a solid-state reaction and polarized under different electric fields. The variation of XRD and piezoelectric coefficient (d33) suggest an increased intensity of the ferroelectric polarization in the polarized samples. In contrast to the slow photodegradation rate of unpolarized KNO, the normalized photodegradation reaction rate constant was remarkably increased to 0.317 min−1 by the polarized KNO. The longer photoluminescence lifetime indicates that the enhancement of photocatalytic activity in polarized ferroelectric KNO powder is mainly attributed to the enhanced internal field. We believe this work may open up new avenues in photocatalysis using polarized ferroelectric materials.

Smart devices without an interactive UI (e.g., a smart bulb) typically rely on specific provisioning schemes to connect to wireless networks. Among all the provisioning schemes, SmartCfg is a popular technology to configure the connection between smart devices and wireless routers. Although the SmartCfg technology facilitates the Wi-Fi configuration, existing solutions seldom take into serious consideration the protection of credentials and therefore introduce security threats against Wi-Fi credentials. This paper conducts a security analysis against eight SmartCfg based Wi-Fi provisioning solutions designed by different wireless module manufacturers. Our analysis demonstrates that six manufacturers provide flawed SmartCfg implementations that directly lead to the exposure of Wi-Fi credentials: attackers could exploit these flaws to obtain important credentials without any substantial efforts on brute-force password cracking. Furthermore, we keep track of the smart devices that adopt such Wi-Fi provisioning solutions to investigate the influence of the security flaws on real world products. Through reversely analyzing the corresponding apps of those smart devices we conclude that the flawed SmartCfg implementations constitute a wide potential impact on the security of smart home ecosystems.

The concept of Smart Home drives the upgrade of home devices from traditional mode to an Internet-connected version. Instead of developing the smart devices from scratch, manufacturers often utilize existing smart home solutions released by large IT companies (e.g., Amazon, Google) to help build the smart home network. A smart home solution provides components such as software development kit (SDK) and relevant management system to boost the development and deployment of smart home devices. Nonetheless, the participating of third-party SDKs and management systems complicates the workflow of such devices. If not meticulously assessed, the complex workflow often leads to the violation of privacy and security to both the consumer and the manufacturer. In this paper, we illustrate how the security and privacy of smart home devices are affected by JoyLink, a widely used smart home solution. We demonstrate a concrete analysis combined with network traffic interception, source code audit, and binary code reverse engineering to evince that the design of smart home solution is error-prone. We argue that if the security and privacy issues are not considered, devices using the solution are inevitably vulnerable and thus the privacy and security of smart home are seriously threatened.

Emerging evidence suggests that activated astrocytes play important roles in AD, and β-asarone, a major component of Acorus tatarinowii Schott, was shown to be a potential therapeutic candidate for AD. While our previous study found that β-asarone could improve the cognitive function of rats hippocampally injected with Aβ, the effects of β-asarone on astrocytes remain unclear, and this study aimed to investigate these effects. A rat model of Aβ1–42 (10 μg) was established, and the rats were intragastrically treated with β-asarone at doses of 10, 20, and 30 mg/kg or donepezil at a dose of 0.75 mg/kg. The sham and model groups were intragastrically injected with an equal volume of saline. Animals were sacrificed on the 28th day after administration of the drugs. In addition, a cellular model of Aβ1–42 (1.1 μM, 6 h) was established, and cells were treated with β-asarone at doses of 0, 2.06, 6.17, 18.5, 55.6, and 166.7 μg/mL. β-Asarone improved cognitive impairment, alleviated Aβ deposition and hippocampal damage, and inhibited GFAP, AQP4, IL-1β, and TNF-α expression. These results suggested that β-asarone could alleviate the symptoms of AD by protecting astrocytes, possibly by inhibiting TNF-α and IL-1β secretion and then downregulating AQP4 expression.

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) refers to the transition of epithelial cells into mesenchymal cells. Emerging evidence suggests that EMT is a key point in renal interstitial fibrosis (RIF). Traditional Chinese Medicine Shenqiwan (SQW) is widely used in clinical treatment of chronic kidney disease, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of SQW on renal fibrosis and its association with TGF-β1/Smads signaling pathway. A rat model of adenine (150 mg/kg) was established and intragastrically treated with various concentrations of SQW at dose of 1.5 g/kg, 3 g/kg, and 6 g/kg. Control group and model group were given the same volume of saline. Meanwhile, the positive control group was treated with Enalapril (4 mg/kg). Animals were sacrificed on 21st day after administration. The results showed that SQW could significantly relieve renal pathological damage caused by adenine, increase gene and protein expression of E-cadherin, and decrease the expression of Vimentin in kidney samples. In addition, SQW efficiently inhibited the mRNA and protein expression of p-Smad2/3 by upregulating Smad7. These results suggest that SQW could slow down the progression of renal fibrosis, possibly by inhibiting TGF-β1/Smads signaling pathway.

Intelligent traffic has demand for massive data environment and high performance processing, which needs cloud computing platform to process massive data and applying distributed parallel guidance algorithms to improve system efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes an improved scheme based on clouding computing ACS algorithm. It first adopts MapReduce to parallelise traditional ACS, to process the solving problem with distributed parallel mode and to improve the defects in ACS. The improved ACS applies map function to parallelise the part which has the most time consuming, that is, the independent solving process of each ant. Then reduce function is used to describe the processes of pheromone updating and obtaining better solutions. Simultaneously, for the defects of ACS on long searching time and premature convergence to a non-optimal solution, we integrate simulated annealing algorithm to ACS and provide corresponding realisation process. The experiments construct Hadoop cloud computing platform and the improved algorithm is operated and tested on this platform. By the analysis on experimental results, we find the parallel ACS designed by us has improved the query efficiency of the shortest path, which also has advantage on the performance of running time and speedup ratio compared to classic algorithms.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Fuzi (lateral root of Aconitum carmichaeli ) is a popular traditional Chinese medicine well known for its both therapeutic and high-toxic activities. Its toxic alkaloid ingredients, mainly aconitine, mesaconitine, and hypaconitine, are responsible for the high toxicity. However, to date, no detoxication strategy is available to completely eliminate Fuzi' s toxicity, and, whether Fuzi' s efficacy could be kept after detoxication, remain unknown and debatable. Materials and methods The purpose of this study was to establish and validate a complete-detoxication strategy for Fuzi via acute toxicity test, to clarify the detoxication mechanism by HPLC and titrimetric analyses, and to evaluate the therapeutic effect of detoxicated Fuzi on adjuvant arthritis (AA). Three processed Fuzi ( Bai-fu-pian ) with 30-min, 60-min, and 120-min decoctions, respectively, named d Bfp -30, d Bfp -60, and d Bfp -120, were prepared for this study. For the acute toxicity test, their oral doses to male and female Kunming mice were up to 70–190 g/kg body weight, and their toxicological profiles were evaluated by median lethal dose (LD 50 ), maximal tolerance dose (MTD), minimal lethal dose (MLD), no-observed-adverse-effect-level (NOAEL), and time–concentration–mortality (TCM) modeling methods using a 14-day schedule with up to five doses. The HPLC analysis was performed to determine the detoxication-induced changes in composition and amount of aconitine, mesaconitine and hypaconitine in Fuzi , whilst the titrimetric method was adopted to estimate the amount changes of Fuzi' s total alkaloids. AA model was established by incomplete Freund's adjuvant injection in Wistar rats, and the animal's physiological (body weight, food intake, etc.), clinical (hind paw volume), and immunological (IL-1 and TNF-α) parameters were assessed as markers of inflammation and arthritis. Results With increasing decoction time, the acute toxicity of detoxicated Fuzi became decreased in the following order: d Bfp -30 (LD 50 of 145.1 g/kg; MTD of 70 g/kg; MLD of 100 g/kg; NOAEL of 70 g/kg) >d Bfp -60 (too large LD 50 ; MTD of 160 g/kg; MLD of 190 g/kg; NOAEL of 100 g/kg) >d Bfp -120 (no LD 50 ; unlimited MTD; unlimited MLD; NOAEL of 130 g/kg). d Bfp -30 and d Bfp -60 displayed the toxicity at a dose-dependent manner with maximum mortalities reaching 100% and 50% respectively, whereas no mortality or signs of intoxication was induced by d Bfp -120. The chemical analyses revealed a dramatic reduction of the toxic alkaloids as well as total alkaloids in Fuzi after the detoxication, from which no level of aconitine and only minimum residual of mesaconitine (0.56±0.02 μg/g) and hypaconitine (8.73±0.13 μg/g) were detected in d Bfp -120. However, no significant difference of total alkaloid amount was found among d Bfp -30, d Bfp -60, and d Bfp -120 ( P >0.05), suggesting an equivalent conversion from toxic alkaloids to its non-toxic derivants in d Bfp -120. Further, also no significant differences were seen among d Bfp -30, d Bfp -60, and d Bfp -120 for the therapeutic effects on physiological, clinical, and immunological parameters in AA rat, indicating that d Bfp -120 is of non-toxicity and efficacy. Conclusions A complete-detoxication strategy has been developed successfully for ensuring the safe and effective use of Fuzi . The detoxication mechanism associated with elimination of toxic alkaloids has kept Fuzi' s efficacy, indicating a non-interdependent relationship between its efficacy and toxicity. This is the first report on such an optimal detoxication strategy and on the application of detoxicated Fuzi in AA. It may provide in depth understanding to the toxicological and pharmacological profiles of Fuzi and further benefit the herbal drug development with safety and efficacy for disease especially RA therapy.

The renewable PUF was prepared by the alcoholysis of the used polyurethane foam composite and the polyurethane foam composite was also prepared by alkali lignin and renewable PUF. The renewable PUF was examined by GC-MS, the results showed the renewable PUF mainly consists of glycol, propanol and 1, 2-Benzenedicarboxylic acid, which can directly be used as the raw material of polyurethane foam composite. The dose of glycol impacts on the performances of renewable PUF, the viscosity of renewable PUF decreased with the increase of the dose glycol. The prepared polyurethane foam composite was also tested. Thermal stability as well as compression property was studied. It was obtained from the TG curve and the DTG curve that the initial decomposition temperatures of polyurethane foam composites with 10% renewable PUF and without renewable PUF were 286.75°C and300.63 °C, respectively, which showed the renewable PUF affected the thermal stability of the polyurethane foam composite. The compressive strength (� 10) was from 203kPa to 125 kPa, which were affected by the dose of renewable PUF.

Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization (TACE) is the first line of treatment in inoperable hepatocellular carcinoma. Magnetic affinity beads can be used to extract peptides from un-fractionated serum samples. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) can detect the presence and the molecular mass of peptides. In this study, we used a highly optimized ClinProt-matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF-MS) to screen hepatocellular carcinoma markers for TACE. 40 sera from 20 patients, including before and after TACE to explore those biomarkers, might be related with therapy efficiency, and some of the patients who received another therapy were analyzed as well. The spectra were analyzed statistically using FlexAnalysis™ and Clin-Prot™ bioinformatic software. The seven most significant differential peaks (p < 0.0.5) were selected out by ClinProTool software to identify hepatocellular carcinoma markers for TACE therapy. Furthermore, the differential peptide of 3883Da was identified as plasma serine protease inhibitor precursor (Protein C inhibitor). This study provides a direct link between peptide marker profiles and TACE therapy, and the markers may have clinical utility for monitoring efficiency of therapy.

Growing evidence indicates that the glutamatergic system, especially the abnormalities of glutamate and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors contribute to the pathophysiology and possibly the pathogenesis of major depressive disorders. This study is to evaluate the effect of gan mai da zao (GMDZ) decoction on glutamate and NMDA receptor in unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) rats.Sucrose preference test and open field test were used to estimate the depressive-like behaviors of UCMS rats. Glutamate levels and NMDA receptor subunits (NR1, NR2A and NR2B) in the frontal cortex and hippocampus were determined by HPLC-FLD and by western-blot respectively.32 days UCMS induced depressive-like behaviors, increased glutamate concentration and decreased NMDA receptor subunits NR2A and NR2B in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of rats. However, NR1 expression remained constant in stressed rats compared with normal. The GMDZ decoction alleviated the depressive-like behavior, decreased glutamate level, and increased expression of NMDA receptor subunit NR2A and NR2B in the frontal cortex and hippocampus of stressed rats.These results suggest that GMDZ treatment reversed chronic unpredictable stress-induced depressive-like behaviors in UCMS rats, possibly via reducing glutamate levels and increasing the NMDA receptor subunits NR2A and NR2B in frontal cortex and hippocampus.

Evaluate the impact of an intensive insulin therapy and conventional glucose control protocol during staying in neurological intensive care unit (NICU) on infection rate, days in NICU, in-hospital mortality and long-term neurological outcome in severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients.A total of 240 patients with severe TBI (GCS score 3-8) admitted to NICU were prospectively enrolled and randomly assigned either to conventional insulin therapy or to intensive insulin therapy. Patients in intensive glucose control group (n=121) received continuous insulin infusion to maintain glucose levels between 4.4 m mol/l (80 mg/dl) and 6.1 m mol/l (110 mg/dl). Patients in the conventional treatment group (n=119) were not given insulin unless glucose levels were greater than 11.1 m mol/l (200mg/dl). Both groups were treated with insulin infusion to maintain normoglycemia after leaving NICU. Comparison was made against conventional insulin therapy using a randomized trial design. The primary outcomes is the mortality rate at 6 months follow-up. The second outcomes including ICU infection rate, duration of ICU stay, in-hospital mortality rate and neurologic outcome at 6 months follow-up.There was no significant difference in gender (66% vs. 67% male), age (46+/-11 years vs. 45+/-10 years), APACHE II score (30 vs. 29), TISS-28 score (47 vs. 46), and Glasgow Coma Score (GCS, 5.3 vs. 5.3) between the two groups. Overall mortality rates at 6 months follow-up were similar in the 2 groups (61 of 117, 52.1% vs. 62 of 116, 53.4%; P=0.8). The infection rate during the study was significantly higher in patients who received conventional insulin therapy than that in patients who received intensive insulin therapy (46.2% vs. 31.4%; P0.05). The days stay in NICU was shorter in intensive insulin control group than that in conventional therapy group [4.2 days vs. 5.6 days (medians) P0.05]. The in-hospital mortality during the study was similar in conventional and intensive therapy groups (34 of 119, 28.6% vs. 35 of 121, 28.9% in the conventional and intensive insulin therapy groups; P=0.85). The neurologic outcome according to Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS) at 6 months (GOS 5 and 4) was better in the intensive insulin therapy group (34 of 117, 29.1%) than that in the conventional therapy group (26 of 116, 22.4%, P0.05).Mortality rates at 6 months follow-up are not affected by intensive glucose control in patients with severe TBI. Intensive insulin therapy decreases infection rate and days in NICU and improves the neurological outcome at 6 months follow-up, while has no obvious influence on in-hospital mortality of severe TBI patients.

Taken Shenyang North subway station as an example, the simulation method of successive event was used to analyze the influence of traffic congestion in subway internal environment. First, the crowd evacuation simulation model in subway station was built. Second, the bottleneck positions and blocking reasons in the process of subway evacuation was analyzed based on the simulation model. At last, the potential safety hazard was eliminated by optimizing the service level and changing the number of service facilities, which can reduce travel time-cost to improve the service quality for passengers.

Background and aims Quantification of the association between consumption of fruit and vegetables and risk of gastric cancer (GC) is controversial. We aimed to conduct a meta-analysis of cohort studies to evaluate the associations. Methods Eligible studies published up to 31st August 2013 were retrieved via both computer searches of PubMed and EMBASE and a manual review of references. Random-effects models were used to calculate summary relative risk (SRR). Heterogeneity among studies was assessed using Cochran’s Q and I 2 statistics. Results A total of 17 articles (24 studies), were included in this meta-analysis. There were >2.4 million individuals (6632 GC events) with a median follow-up of 10 years. Based on the high versus low analysis, consumption of fruit, but not vegetables, may reduce risk of gastric cancer (fruit: SRR = 0.90, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.83–0.98, P heterogeneity = 0.450; vegetable: SRR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.88–1.06, P heterogeneity = 0.150). Meta regression analysis suggested that outcome (incidence versus mortality) and study quality (high versus low) contributed significantly to heterogeneity. The same results were also shown in the linear dose–response analysis (per 100-g/day) (fruit: SRR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.91–0.99; vegetable: SRR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.91–1.01). Significant inverse associations emerged in non-linear models for consumption of fruit ( P non-linearity = 0.04), but not for consumption of vegetables ( P non-linearity = 0.551). Conclusions Findings from this meta-analysis indicate a significant protective effect for the consumption of fruit on GC risk, but not for the consumption of vegetables.

Aim: To investigate the association of Osteopontin (OPN) gene polymorphism and serum thrombin-cleaved OPN level with the susceptibility to ischemic stroke (IS) and its prognosis. Methods: A total of 377 patients with IS and 551 healthy individuals were recruited. The OPN gene polymorphisms at -156 G>GG, -443 C>T and -66 T>G were genotyped. Serum full-length and the thrombin-cleaved OPN were determined. Results: We found that only the -443 C>T polymorphism was significantly associated with the susceptibility to IS. The -443 CC represented a near 2 time higher risk for IS incidence than TT carriers. Also, the -443 CC genotype had significantly poorer outcome and they significantly had higher occurrence for bad recovery as determined by modified Rankin Scale (mRS) (OR=2.18, p=0.043) and Barthel Index (BI) (OR=2.12, p=0.05). The mean serum thrombin-cleaved OPN level in IS group were significantly higher than that in control group. ROC analysis showed that the thrombin-cleaved OPN level (cut-off value, 166.8 ng/ml) can discriminate IS patients from controls with a specificity of 86.3% and a sensitivity of 57.7%. The serum thrombin-cleaved OPN was significantly associated with the clinical outcome at 12 months after discharge from hospital. Conclusion: These results suggest that the -443 C>T polymorphism of OPN gene and serum thrombin-cleaved OPN can be used as a biomarker for the susceptibility and prognosis of IS patients.

Liver biopsy is the "gold standard" for evaluating liver disorders, but controversies over the potential risk of complications and patient discomfort still exist. Using a 21G fine needle, we developed a new biopsy procedure, fine needle aspirating and cutting (FNAC). Our procedure obtains enough tissue for pathological examination and meanwhile, reduces the risk of biopsy complications. The present study was to determine the safety and efficiency of 21G FNAC compared with 18G Tru-cut core needle (TCN) in liver tumor biopsies.Ninety-four patients with unresectable malignant tumors were included in this study. Patients were divided into 2 groups: 18G TCN and 21G FNAC. The total positive rate (TPR) and safety of both groups were compared.TPR was not different between the two groups. Liver puncture track subcapsular hemorrhage and arteriovenous shunt were reported with 18G TCN but not with 21G FNAC. The incidence of pain caused by biopsy was higher for the 18G TCN group compared to the 21G FNAC group (P0.05). About 82.6% of the patients in the 18G TCN group had a sample length0.5 cm, but 52.1% in the 21G FNAC group (P0.05). More than 50% of patients in both groups had sufficient tissue for immunohistochemical examination.TPR is not different between the 21G FNAC and 18G TCN biopsy procedures, but the safety of 21G FNAC is superior to that of 18G TCN. Tissues obtained by either of these two procedures are sufficient for a pathological diagnosis.

The present study was carried out to investigate the prognostic factors in patients who received intra-arterial infusion for advanced pancreatic cancer. In addition, the detailed procedure of intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy was described. A total of 354 patients with advanced unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma were recruited from January 2012, to April 2015, at Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Demographic and clinic characteristics of the patients were extracted from electronic medical records. Restricted cubic spline was used to assess the nonliner regression between baseline CA19-9 value and overall survival. Kaplan–Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the association between overall survival and clinical characteristics. Of all 354 included patients, 230 (65%) were male (male/female ratio = 1.8), and 72 (20%) patients were diagnosed with detectable distant metastases. Pretreatment CA19-9 value of patients with metastases was significantly higher as compared to those with locally advanced cancer (median: 922.30 vs 357.00 U/mL, P = 0.0090). Totally 274 patients completed 1 cycle of intra-arterial infusion, whereas 80 patients received 2 or more cycles of the chemotherapy. For all the 354 patients, median OS was 7.0 months (95% CI: 6.0, 8.0 months) with a 6-, 12-, and 18-month survival rate of 0.48, 0.28, and 0.18, respectively. The median OS of patients, who received 1 cycle of intra-arterial infusion therapy, was 6.0 months (95% CI: 5.0, 8.0 months), which was similar to 7.0 months (95% CI: 6.0, 9.0 months) in patients who received 2 or more cycles. Restricted cubic spline revealed the nonline association between baseline CA19-9 and prognosis. The Cox proportional hazard model showed that age, CA19-9 baseline, CA19-9 value, and tumor location were significantly associated with the OS. In conclusion, the gemcitabine-based RIAC presented a potential treatment method for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Young age, pretreatment CA19-9 value

A dural tear is a common complication after acute laceration spinal cord injury (ALSCI). An unrepaired dural tear is associated with poor locomotor functional recovery. Spinal duraplasty with biomaterials may promote functional recovery in ALSCI. However, an ideal dural substitute has not yet been found. In this work, we investigated the possibility of using a denuded human amniotic membrane (DHAM) or DHAM seeded on bone marrow stromal cells (DHAM-BMSCs) as duraplasty biomaterials. We patched broken dura with the two novel substitutes in an ALSCI rat model. At the end of the eighth week, we observed that the neural motor function was recovered according to the Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan scale, and the neural loop was successfully reestablished between the ends of the lesions by motor-evoked potentials in the duraplasty groups. Moreover, the DHAM-BMSCs repaired the dura and resulted in a significant reduction in the total lesion and cystic volumes by nearly 10-fold versus the control group (p < 0.01). The levels of neurotrophic factors and NF-200-positive fibers were also improved in the duraplasty groups, compared to the control group. Our data suggest that the two novel substitutes may be promising grafts for patching dural defects to improve locomotor function after ALSCI.

Objective We aimed to investigate whether an innovative growth factor-laden scaffold composed of acellular sciatic nerve (ASN) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) could promote axonal regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI). Methods Following complete transection at the thoracic level (T9), we immediately transplanted the grafts between the stumps of the severed spinal cords. We evaluated the functional recovery of the hindlimbs of the operated rats using the BBB locomotor rating scale system every week. Eight weeks after surgery, axonal regeneration was examined using the fluorogold (FG) retrograde tracing method. Electrophysiological analysis was carried out to evaluate the improvement in the neuronal circuits. Immunohistochemistry was employed to identify local injuries and recovery. Results The results of the Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) scale indicated that there was no significant difference between the individual groups. The FG retrograde tracing and electrophysiological analyses indicated that the transplantation of ASN-BDNF provided a permissive environment to support neuron regeneration. Conclusion The ASN-BDNF transplantation provided a promising therapeutic approach to promote axonal regeneration and recovery after SCI, and can be used as part of a combinatory treatment strategy for SCI management.

Teaching team and the construction of high-level teachers team is a key construction project in the college undergraduate teaching quality engineering, and it is an important guarantee to strengthen the teaching team construction, which will enhance the reform of higher education and improve the quality of undergraduate education. College English teaching team construction is conducive to promote college English teaching reform and improve the quality of teaching. Our college English teaching team is aimed at building up the team construction model “two centers, three teaching sections for support, exquisite course construction as the platform, second classrooms for practice bases” so as to achieve such goals as “first-class teachers team, first-class teaching contents, first-class teaching methods, first-class textbooks, first-class teaching management, first-class autonomous learning experimental base for students”. College English teaching team construction will contribute to make the goal of college English as national elaborate course, enhance students’ comprehensive English language abilities, and promote school college English teaching reform.

This article studies a contemporary treatment approach toward both diabetes and depression management by vanadium-enrichedCordyceps sinensis(VECS). Streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemic rats were used in the study. After the rats were administered with VECS, a significant reduction in blood glucose levels was seen (P< .05) and the levels of serum insulin increased significantly (P< .05). At the same time, the study revealed a significant decrease in immobility with a corresponding increase in the swimming and climbing behavior in hyperglycemic rats following VECS treatment. The results described herein demonstrate that VECS is a contemporary treatment approach that advocates an aggressive stance toward both diabetes and depression management.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the feasibility of developing brain-targeted nasal delivery system of scutellarin by the passage between nase and brain in nasal olfactory area. METHOD The samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood were prepared by cranial puncture and femoral artery catheterization methods respectively according to the certain sampling time after drug administered. The scuteIlarin concentration of samples were determined by 125 marked method. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by trapezoidal rule. The brain-targeted trendence were evaluated by the value of the index AUC(brain)/AUC(plasma). RESULT The distribution of scutellarin in brain following intranasal administration was different between tissues. Drug concentration in olfactory bulb achieved to peak at 5-15 min after intranasal administration, while in brain tissue was 30-60 min. Above all, peak concentration in olfactory bulb and olfactory region respectively were (574.8 +/- 205.), (323.4 +/- 128.3) ng x g(-10, both are higher than CSF, which is (123.2 +/- 29.3) ng x g(-1). Moreover, the distribution of scutellarin given by intranasally in brain was: olfactory bulb (OB) >> olfactory region (OR) > cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) > cerebellum(CB) > medulla oblongata (MO) > cerebrum (CR); AUC(0-240) of olfactory bulb, olfactory region and CSF after scutellarin intranasal administration were 5.54, 5.07 and 5.51 times of that after intravenous injection, respectively. And the AUC(0-240) of other brain tissues after intranasal administration were also higher than that after intravenous injection. AUC(brain tissue)/ AUC(plasma) of every brain tissues by intranasally are all higher than that by intravenously remarkably. For instance, 5 min after intranasal administration, the value of AUC(CSF)/ AUC(plasma), AUC(OB)/AUC(plasma), and AUC(CR)/AUC(plasma) were 30.34, 56.93, and 6.14 times of that by intravenously. CONCLUSION Part of scutellarin could be straightly transported into brain by the intranasal administration. Its absorption pathway was: the molecule of Scutellarin throughed olfactory mucosa in nasal cavity into olfactory bulb in arachno-hypostegal cavity, and then entered into olfactory region, CSF, cerebrum and cerebellum gradually. It showed that olfactory bulb was the only way for drug molecule to go through nasal cavity into brain. It had a significant trendence of brain-targeted when compared to oral administration and intravenous injection, which indicated a certain feasibility to develop a brain-targeted nasal delivery system for scutellarin.

It is a strategic decision-making process to select suppliers in supply chain management. Under the circumstance of incomplete market information separating equilibrium and pooling equilibrium are worked out and analyzed, which proves independent third-party certification (TPC) agency play an important role in supplier selection. Due to TPC the efficient supplier certified shall be selected by the buyer and the speculative supplier has to give up for the prohibitive costs.

Recent clinical trails reported that adjunctive cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibition with celecoxib is beneficial in treating depression. However, another clinical study showed celecoxib did not have inhibitory effect of COX-2 in human brain when given at a therapeutic dose. Therefore, whether celecoxib is exerting its influence through COX inhibition or by some other mechanism remains unclear. The present study further investigated the effect of celecoxib on COX-2 expression, prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2), a major COX-2-mediated inflammatory mediator) concentration and the depressive-like behaviors in rats. Celecoxib was administrated by oral gavage to naive rats (16 mg/kg) or stressed rats (2, 8, 16 mg/kg, respectively) for 21 days, or to stressed rats for a single dose (16 mg/kg). The results showed that 21 days chronic unpredictable stress induced depressive-like behaviors and increased the COX-2 expression and PGE(2) concentration in rat brain. Chronic treatments with celecoxib alleviated the depressive-like behavior and reversed the levels of COX-2 expression and PGE2 concentration in stressed rat in a dose-dependent manner. Celecoxib also improved the emotional state and decreased COX-2 expression and PGE(2) concentration in naive rats. In addition, a single dose of celecoxib treatment reversed COX-2 expression and PGE(2) concentration. but didn't alter the depressive-like behavior in stressed rat. These results suggest that COX-2 enzyme might play a key role in pathophysiology of depression. Furthermore, these data indicate that chronic celecoxib treatment reverse chronic unpredictable stress-induced depressive-like behavior might via reducing COX-2 enzyme in brain, and the selective COX-2 inhibitors could be developed as potential remedies for the management of depression. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Background Ginsenoside Rg3 is a low toxic inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which is implicated in angiogenesis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This single-centre, open-label, randomised, controlled trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of ginsenoside Rg3 plus transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) in patients with advanced HCC. Methods Advanced HCC patients (Child-Pugh A) who had no prior systemic therapy were randomly assigned (2:1 ratio) to receive 20 mg twice daily orally (n = 152) combined with TACE or TACE alone (n = 76). The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Secondary endpoints included time to progression (TTP), time to untreatable progression (TTUP), disease control rate (DCR) based on modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, and safety. Results Median overall survival was 13.2 months (95% confidence interval (CI) 11.15–15.26) in the TACE + Rg3 group compared with 10.1 months (95% CI 9.14–11.06) for those receiving TACE alone (hazard ratio (HR) 0.63 [95% CI 0.46–0.85], p = 0.002). Median TTP was 4.3 months (95% CI 3.32–5.28) in the TACE + Rg3 group compared with 3.2 months (95% CI 2.51–3.89) in the TACE group (HR 0.82 [95% CI 0.62–1.08], p = 0.151). Patients in the TACE + Rg3 group had longer median TTUP (8.3 months [95% CI 7.05–9.55]) than in the TACE group (7.3 months [95% CI 6.40–8.20]; HR 0.76 [95% CI 0.57–1.02], p = 0.063). The most frequently reported Rg3-related grade 3–4 adverse events in 152 patients were constipation (two [1.3%]) and hypertension (six [3.9%]). The incidence of ascites was lower in the TACE + Rg3 group than in the TACE group (23.7% versus 48.7%, p = 0.002), as was the incidence of anorexia [12.5% versus 44.7%, p = 0.000], fatigue (9.9% versus 50.0% p = 0.000), anaemia (36.8% versus 51.3%, p = 0.037), leukopenia (46.7% versus 76.3%, p = 0.000), thrombocytopenia (32.9% versus 50.0%, p = 0.012), and hyperbilirubinaemia (17.8% versus 34.2%, p = 0.028). Interpretation In patients with advanced HCC and sufficient liver function, median survival was nearly 3 months longer for patients treated with TACE and ginsenoside Rg3 than for those who received TACE only.

The paper expatiates on the progressing complete digitization process of university education resources along with the rapid development of E-Business. The process led to two aspects of immense influence: the first is the influence of CIO mechanism on the university management mechanism where full-time president assistant will be appointed CIO in order to plan informational development strategies and make corresponding manpower & financial support report for the decision-making tier; the second is the influence of E-Learning based on digitization study under the context of E-Business on traditional teaching in order that the teacher-centered teaching mode will be replaced by the new student-centered teaching mode.

To investigate the relationship between hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and levels of endothelin (ET) and nitric oxide (NO), and to provide an experimental basis for prevention and treatment of hypertensive LVH. Fifty eight hypertensive patients and 14 healthy controls were studied. All patients were examined by echocardiography. Left ventricular mass (LVM) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) were calculated using Devereux RB formula. Hypertensive patients were divided into a LVH (+) group (n=21) and a LVH (-) group (n=37), and the levels of endothelin and nitric oxide in the peripheral venous blood were measured. The mean ET level was significantly higher in the LVH (+) group than in LVH (-) group (p