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Parcel lockers offer a service for last-mile delivery in urban logistics. To price this service, we identified its values to consignees not at receiving sites and to couriers when delivering parcels to lockers instead of consignees. A travel salesman problem (TSP) model is built to analyze the cost change of last-mile delivery corresponding to the availability of consignees at designated receiving sites. Based on cost evaluation, fees that consignees and couriers should pay respectively are determined based on beneficiary-pay principle. The results of our empirical analyses show that the value of the locker service varies with the terms of express delivery and the availability uncertainty of whether consignees are present at the designated receiving sites, which provides a fundamental pricing basis for locker service providers to charge the couriers or the consignees.

Remifentanil combined with sevoflurane is a standard protocol for obstetric general anesthesia (GA).In this study, we performed a randomized clinical trial to evaluate whether remifentanil has an effect on the median effective concentration (EC50) of sevoflurane and compare anesthetic outcomes of them in cesarean section with Supreme™ laryngeal mask airway (SLMA) under narcotrend monitoring. Ninety parturients with singleton births undergoing elective cesarean delivery (CD) with initial inhaled 1.0 minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) sevoflurane for anesthesia maintenance were assigned to three groups randomly and evenly: Group A (0.05 µg·kg-1·min-1 remifentanil combined with sevoflurane), Group B (0.1 µg·kg-1·min-1 remifentanil combined with sevoflurane), and Group C (normal saline combined with sevoflurane). Narcotrend was used to monitor the depth of anesthesia during the operation, with the level of anesthesia depth controlled within the D-E stage. The EC50 of sevoflurane was determined by Dixon's sequential method. The Narcotrend index, amount of bleeding, neonatal Apgar score, and corresponding treatment measures in the three groups were recorded.The results showed that the estimated EC50 of sevoflurane for obstetric GA was 0.80 MAC (95% CI: 0.63-0.95 MAC) in group A, 0.82 MAC (95% CI: 0.63-0.96 MAC) in group B, and 0.80 MAC (95% CI: 0.63-0.95 MAC) in group C. There was no statistically significant difference in the estimated EC50 of sevoflurane, time to wakefulness, Apgar score, amount of intraoperative bleeding, and postoperative bleeding within 24 hours between the three groups (all P0.05).The addition of remifentanil at 0.05-0.1 µg·kg-1·min-1 did not change the EC50 of sevoflurane and anesthetic quality. The concentration of inhaled anesthetics can be minimized with Narcotrend monitoring.Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000034512.

The present study is concerned with the buckling, vibration and sound transmission characteristics of the simply supported sandwich plate with trapezoidal corrugated core in thermal environment bas...

To compete with online e-commerce, traditional retailing is implementing a new retail mode that combines online sales with physical stores, which may change the channel, transport mode and logistics cost of retail commodities from manufacturers to end consumers. In this context, it is necessary for physical retailers to relocate their shopping centers in order to maximize profits. This paper develops a location optimization model for physical shopping centers based on consumer shopping choices (platform choices and store choices), carbon tax policy and the economic scale of transport under the new retail mode. This model is applied to optimize the number and scale of physical shopping centers and corresponding locations with the objective of maximizing the retail profit under the new retail mode. The results show that under the new retail mode, the number of shopping centers, the scale of an individual physical store and the total retail logistics cost decrease, while the retail profit increases. This work lays a theoretical basis for retailers to build online and offline retail systems and rationally determines the spatial distribution of shopping centers in a city.

Background Although abnormal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein can be used to predict the outcome of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and diagnose TBM, normal CSF protein remains a concern in patients with TBM. This retrospective study aimed to assess the clinical characteristics associated with normal CSF protein, to resolve the dilemma of CSF protein in the management of childhood TBM. Methods Between January 2006 and December 2019, consecutive child patients (≤15 years old, a diagnosis of TBM, and tested for CSF protein) were included for analysis. CSF protein was tested on a chemistry analyzer using the pyrogallol red-molybdate method. Abnormal CSF protein was defined as >450 mg/L. Patient characteristics were collected from the electronic medical records. Then, characteristics associated with normal CSF protein were estimated in the study, using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 125 children who met the criteria were enrolled during the study period. Twenty-nine patients had a normal CSF protein and 96 had an abnormal CSF protein. Multivariate analysis (Hosmer–Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test: χ2=2.486, df = 8, p = .962) revealed that vomiting (age- and sex-adjusted OR = 0.253, 95% CI: 0.091, 0.701; p = .008) and serum glucose (>5.08 mmol/L; age- and sex-adjusted OR = 0.119, 95% CI: 0.032, 0.443; p = .002) were associated with the normal CSF protein in childhood TBM. Conclusion In suspected childhood TBM, patients without vomiting or having low serum glucose are easy to present with normal CSF protein. Hence, when interpreting the level of CSF protein in children with such characteristics, a careful clinical assessment is required.KEY MESSAGESIn suspected childhood tuberculous meningitis, patients without vomiting or having low serum glucose are easy to present with normal CSF protein. Hence, when interpreting the level of CSF protein in children with such characteristics, a careful clinical assessment is required.

BackgroundPrimary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterised by aberrant B cell hyperactivation, whose mechanism is partially understood.MethodsWe performed whole transcriptome sequencing of B cells from three pSS patients and three matched healthy controls (HC). Differentially expression genes (DEGs) were confirmed with B cells from 40 pSS patients and 40 HC by quantitative PCR and western blot. We measured the proliferation potential and immunoglobulins production of siRNA-transfected or plasmid-transfected B cells stimulated with cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) or anti-IgM. We also explored Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) signalling to reveal the potential mechanism of B cell hyperactivation in pSS.ResultsWe identified 77 upregulated and 32 downregulated DEGs in pSS B cells. We confirmed that epithelial stromal interaction (EPST1) expression in pSS B cells was significantly higher than that from HCs. EPSTI1-silencing B cells stimulated with CpG were less proliferated and produced lower level of IgG and IgM comparing with control B cells. EPSTI1-silencing B cells expressed lower level of p-p65 and higher level of IκBα, and B cells with overexpressed EPSTI1 showed higher level of p-p65 and lower level of IκBα. Finally, IκBα degradation inhibitor Dehydrocostus Lactone treatment attenuated p65 phosphorylation promoted by EPSTI1.ConclusionElevated EPSTI1 expression in pSS B cells promoted TLR9 signalling activation and contributed to the abnormal B cell activation, which was promoted by facilitating p65 phosphorylation and activation of NF-κB signalling via promoting IκBα degradation. EPSTI1 might be implicated in pSS pathogenesis and was a potential therapeutic target of pSS.

To clarify the role of e-commerce during urbanization, the shopping activities before and after students have relocated to a remote campus are surveyed. Under the assumption that the quality of life (QOL), the total amount of purchased commodities, and the generalized shopping cost remain unchanged, the substitution effects of online shopping on in-store shopping and its implications for urbanization are analyzed. The results show that one occasion of online shopping will replace 0.329 occasions of in-store shopping. Students who have migrated to a remote campus can maintain their QOL by efficiently using online shopping. Well-developed e-commerce may positively encourage urbanization in China and can reduce governments’ subsidies for relocating institutes and universities.

Dysregulation of microRNA (miRNA) is a frequent event in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but little is known whether it is a bystander or an actual player on residual HCC metastasis during liver microenvironment remodeling initiated by hepatectomy. Methods: The differently expressed miRNAs and mRNAs were identified from RNA-seq data. Western blot, qRT-PCR, fluorescence in situ hybridization, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemical were used to detect the expression of miRNA and mRNA in cell lines and patient tissues. The biological functions were investigated in vitro and in vivo. Chromatin immunoprecipitation, proximity ligation and luciferase reporter assay were used to explore the specific binding of target genes. The expression of HGF/ERBB3 signaling was detected by Western blot. Results: In this study, HGF induced by hepatectomy was shown to promote metastasis of residual HCC cells. miR-17-5p and miR-20a-5p were confirmed to play inhibitory roles on HCC metastasis. And ERBB3 was found to be the common target of miR-17-5p and miR-20a-5p. HCC cells with lower levels of miR-17-5p and miR-20a-5p or higher level of ERBB3 were often more sensitive to response HGF stimuli and to facilitate metastatic colonization both in vitro and in vivo experimental systems. Furthermore, HGF reinforced ERBB3 expression by NF-κB transcriptional activity in a positive feedback loop. Of particular importance, HCC patients with lower levels of miR-17-5p and miR-20a-5p or higher level of ERBB3 had significantly shorter OS and PFS survivals after surgical resection. Conclusion: miR-17-5p and miR-20a-5p could suppress postoperative metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma via blocking HGF/ERBB3-NF-κB positive feedback loop and offer a new probable strategy for metastasis prevention after HCC resection.

Background Propofol (PPF) ameliorates ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in multiple organs by reducing apoptosis and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This study aims to explore the mechanism of PPF in attenuating myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI). Materials and Methods Rat MIRI model was established, and PPF pre-treatment was performed 10 min before I/R. H9c2 cardiomyocytes treated with hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) were used to establish an in vitro model. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to evaluate HOTAIR and miR-17-5p expression levels. Flow cytometry was employed to detect the apoptosis of H9c2 cells. The interaction between HOTAIR and miR-17-5p was determined by bioinformatics analysis, luciferase reporter gene analysis, and RNA immunoprecipitation experiments. STAT3 and p-STAT3 expressions were detected by Western blot. Results PPF pre-treatment significantly reduced creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB) and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in the serum of the rats with MIRI. PPF pre-treatment remarkably up-regulated HOTAIR expression and down-regulated miR-17-5p expression in both in vivo and in vitro models. HOTAIR adsorbed miR-17-5p to repress the expression of miR-17-5p. PPF pre-treatment markedly inhibited cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by I/R or H/R. HOTAIR knockdown could partially reverse the protective effects of PPF on MIRI. HOTAIR could activate STAT3 signaling via repressing miR-17-5p expression. Conclusion PPF protects the MIRI by modulating the HOTAIR/miR-17-5p/STAT3 axis.

Port integration in a region with multiport gateways (R-MPG) is studied in the case when port supply surpasses shipping demand. First, the feasible paths for ports with overcapacity to transform and upgrade their industry are analyzed. Second, a method for determining the optimal scale of port clusters is put forth based on a continuous approximation approach. Then, a multi-period integration decision model and port integration method is proposed. Finally, two typical R-MPGs in China are used for empirical studies.

A high crop yield with the minimum possible cost to the environment is generally desirable. However, the complicated relationships among crop production, nitrogen (N) use efficiency and environmental impacts must be clearly assessed. We conducted a series of on-farm N application rate experiments to establish the linkage between crop yield and N2O emissions in the Guanzhong Plain in Northwest China. We also examined crop yield, partial factor productivity of applied N (PFPN) and reactive N (Nr) losses through a survey of 1 529 and 1 497 smallholder farms that grow wheat and maize, respectively, in the region. The optimum N rates were 175 and 214 kg ha–1 for winter wheat and summer maize, respectively, thereby achieving the yields of 6 799 and 7 518 kg ha–1, correspondingly, with low N2O emissions based on on-farm N rate experiments. Among the smallholder farms, the average N application rates were 215 and 294 kg ha–1 season–1, thus producing 6 490 and 6 220 kg ha–1 of wheat and maize, respectively. The corresponding PFPN values for the two crops were 36.8 and 21.2 kg N kg–1, and the total N2O emissions were 1.50 and 3.88 kg ha–1, respectively. High N balance, large Nr losses and elevated N2O emissions could be explained by the overdoses of N application and low grain yields under the current farming practice. The crop yields, N application rates, PFPN and total N2O for wheat and maize were 18 and 24% higher, 42 and 37% less, 75 and 116% higher, and 42 and 47% less, correspondingly, in the high-yield and high-PFPN group than in the average smallholder farms. In conclusion, closing the PFPN gap between the current average and the value for the high-yield and high-PFPN group would increase crop production and reduce Nr losses or the total N2O emissions for the investigated cropping system in Northwest China.

Although an increase in the number of dockless shared-bicycle services improves convenience for users, the disorderly parking of bicycles has seriously invaded public space in many cities....

Background Delay in diagnosis and treatment worsens the disease and clinical outcomes, which further enhances the transmission of tuberculosis (TB) in the community. Therefore, this study aims to assess treatment delay and its associated factors among childhood pleural TB patients in China. Methods Between January 2006 and December 2019, consecutive patients aged ≤15 years with definite or possible pleural TB were included for analysis. Treatment delay duration was defined as the time interval from the onset of symptoms to treatment initiation and was stratified into two categories: Results A total of 154 children with pleural TB were included, with a mean age of 12.4 ± 3.3 years. The median treatment delay was 30 days (interquartile range, 10–60 days) and 51.3% (n = 79) of patients underwent a treatment delay. Multivariate analysis revealed that heart rate (≤92 beats/min, age-adjusted OR = 2.503, 95% CI: 1.215, 5.155) and coefficient of variation of red cell distribution width (RDW-CV, ≥12.9%, age-adjusted OR = 4.705, 95% CI: 2.048, 10.811) were significant risk factors for treatment delays in childhood pleural TB. Conclusion Our findings suggested that a significant treatment delay occurs among children with pleural TB in China. Patients with a low heart rate or a high RDW-CV experienced delays in the initiation of anti-TB therapy. Therefore, well awareness of the associations between clinical characteristics and treatment delay may improve the management of children with pleural TB and enable us to develop preventive strategies to reduce the treatment delay.

The mitotic checkpoint gene (CHFR) (Checkpoint with Forkhead-associated and Ring finger domains is a G2 phase/mitosis checkpoint and tumor-suppressor gene. Recent studies have reported the relationship of CHFR promoter methylation with clinicopathological significance of gastric cancer. However, the results remain unclear due to small size of sample. We pooled 15 studies including 827 gastric cancer patients and conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the clinicopathological significance of CHFR promoter methylation in gastric cancer. Our data revealed that the frequency of CHFR promoter methylation was higher in gastric cancer than in normal gastric tissue, Odd Ratio (OR) was 10.12 with 95% CI 5.17–19.79, p < 0.00001. Additionally, the rate of CHFR promoter methylation was significantly increased in high grade of gastric cancer compared to low grade, OR was 1.64 with 95% CI 1.00–2.68, p = 0.05. CHFR methylation was significantly associated with the positive lymph node metastasis, OR was 1.56 with 95% CI 1.05–2.32, p = 0.03. We concluded that CHFR could serve as a biomarker for diagnosis of gastric cancer, and a drug target for development of gene therapy in gastric cancer. CHFR promoter methylation is associated with tumor poor differentiation and lymph node metastasis.

To optimize the container liner shipping scheme between China and Europe as the possibility of Arctic shipping opens up, the operational behaviors of liner shipping companies are considered and potential shipping scheme are proposed. Fulfilling known port container OD flows, a model is built to optimize the liner shipping network corresponding to each proposed shipping scheme, where a single fleet or two fleets pass the Arctic or the Suez Canal. The profits of the liner company in the next 20 years under different schemes are compared. It is found that it is uneconomic to sail the Arctic for liner shipping between China and Europe and the Suez Canal Route is a better choice at present and far into the future.

This paper presents an image denoising method based on bilateral filtering and non-local means. The non-local region texture or structure of the image has the characteristics of repetition, which can be used to effectively preserve the edge and detail of the image. And compared with classical methods, bilateral filtering method has a better performance in denosing for the reason that the weight includes the geometric closeness factor and the intensity similarity factor. We combine the geometric closeness factor with the weight of non-local means, and construct a new weight. Experimental results show that the modified algorithm can achieve better performance. And it can protect the image detail and structure information better.

To determine the necessity of circumferential decompression and fusion in patients with severe multilevel cervical spondylotic myelopathy with circumferential cord compression.This prospective study involved 51 patients with severe multilevel circumferential cervical myelopathy underwent two-stage circumferential procedure between July 2008 and June 2010. VAS scores, satisfaction surveys and JOA scores and imaging studies were obtained. Twenty-three patients (45.1%) underwent two-stage surgery (group A); the other 28 patients (54.9%) were satisfied with the outcomes after first-stage surgery, and the second-stage surgery was avoided (group B). Age, sex and symptom duration did not differ between the groups.Patients were followed up for 3-5 years (mean, 42.5 months). In group A, VAS and JOA scores significantly improved from 63.3 and 7.9 to 38.3 and 10.4, respectively, at 3 months after the first-stage operation and 10.2 and 12.7, respectively, at 3 months after the second-stage operation. In group B, the VAS and JOA scores significantly improved from 62.7 and 7.9 to 31.1 and 11.2 respectively, at 3 months and 18.2 and 12.4, respectively at 6 months. Patient satisfaction rate significantly increased from 43.5% after the first-stage operation to 82.6% after the second-stage operation in group A. In group B, this rate was 89.3%. In group A, cervical spine lordosis increased from 12.8° preoperatively to 18.5° (p .0001) and 19.1° (p .05) at 3 months after the first-stage and second-stage operations, respectively. In group B, lordosis significantly increased from 12.5° preoperatively to 18.8° at 3 months. The total complication rate did not significantly differ from the rates after a single surgery (either anterior or posterior).Only 45.1% patients required surgery via both approaches. Therefore, a two-stage procedure is a rational choice and safe procedure. If outcomes are unsatisfactory after the first-stage operation, a second-stage operation can be performed.

This paper present a novel distributed compressed sensing based joint detection and tracking approach for multi-static radar system, which reduces the computational load largely, in a centralized fusion framework.In this paper, we consider reconstructing the sparse vector representing the target state space directly.A novel DGSSMP algorithm is proposed to reconstruct the sparse grid reflection vector in distributed compressed sensing, under a general condition when each individual sensing matrix is different and with high coherence.The outputs of the DGSSMP algorithm (the states of all potential targets), are directly fed as instantaneous measurements to the TBD tracker, which avoids the use of a nonlinear measurement model in classical TBD algorithm. In this paper, we present a novel distributed compressed sensing based joint detection and tracking algorithm for multistatic radar system, which significantly reduces the computational load in a centralized fusion framework. For different receivers in the multistatic radar system, their corresponding sparse vectors, which are represented in state space, share the same locations of nonzero reflection coefficients. This fits the joint sparsity model 2 (JSM-2) in distributed compressed sensing. In this paper, a novel algorithm, named distributed general similar sensing matrix pursuit (DGSSMP) algorithm, is proposed to tackle the generalized JSM-2 model when each individual sensing matrix is different and with high coherence. In contrast to the classical greedy algorithms dealing with single subspace, the proposed DGSSMP algorithm has to tackle a union of different subspaces, with each subspace corresponding to a different sensing matrix for each individual receiver. The simulation results show that in the proposed distributed compressed sensing based joint detection and tracking framework, the proposed DGSSMP algorithm together with the track before detect (TBD) scheme can effectively distinguish true targets from clutter based on the information from multiple scans.

Recently, a novel neural network called CapsNet has attracted the attention of many researchers. It is a great attempt to overcome the drawback of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and achieves state-of-the-art performance on some simple datasets like MNIST. However, this network architecture is built specifically for MNIST and gets a poor performance on more complex datasets like CIFAR-10. To address this problem, aiming at complex data, we propose a new CapsNet architecture called Fractionally-Strided Convolutional Capsule Network (FSC-CapsNet). We modify both network structures of the encoder and decoder of CapsNet. For the purpose of extracting better features, we increase the number of convolutional layers before capsule layer in the encoder and improve the reconstruction performance by adopting two fractionally-strided convolutional layers in the decoder. In addition, no pooling layers are used in our architecture. To assess the performance of our proposed network on complex data, we conduct experiments with a single model without using any ensembled methods and data augmentation techniques on five real-world datasets, which are of higher dimensionality and larger size than MNIST. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method achieves better performance and improves the reconstruction performance compared with the normal CapsNet.

To identify important druggable targets and immunological determinants associated with the overall survival (OS) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, we interrogated 279 Chinese HCC samples, mostly in early stage, with the NanoString platform assessing the expression of 1,173 genes involved in cell-growth signaling pathways, cellular machineries and tumor immunity. A prognostic model was constructed using 17 genes with bootstrap-corrected C-index of 0.81 for the OS. Among the genes associated with worse OS, cell-growth related druggable targets CHK1 and EZH2 were selected for in vitro and in vivo tumor growth studies. HCC cell line clonogenic assays and mice xenograft models demonstrated that the combinatorial application of CHK1 inhibitor and EZH2 inhibitor resulted in significant suppression of HCC tumor growth. On the tumor immunity front, we discovered that genes enriched in regulating CD8+ T cells and activating NK cells contributed to prolonged OS. Our findings provide potential rationale for investigating combinatorial targeted therapies and immunotherapies in specific subsets of early-stage HCC with distinct gene expression characteristics. Funding: This work was supported by National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant numbers: No.81672330; No. 81871916; No. 81472218), Talent Development Program of Zhongshan Hospital (2015ZSYXGG), and by Genentech Inc., a member of the Roche Group. Declaration of Interest: Chun Sun, Bonnie Liu, Kwame Okrah, Xu Cao, Jian-Jun Guo, Shi-Jing Fu, Su-Chun Li, Hang-jun Dai, Mark R. Lackner, Astrid Kiermaier, Shih-Min A. Huang and Gang Cheng are employees of F. Hoffmann-La Roche/Genentech Inc. All other authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethical Approval: This study was approved, and the collection of written informed consent forms was waived, by the institutional review board of SZH under the condition that all samples were anonymized in this study.

Multi-view learning attempts to generate a model with a better performance by exploiting information among multi-view data. Most existing approaches only focus on either consistency or complementarity principle, and learn representations (or features) of the multi-view data. In this paper, to utilize both complementarity and consistency simultaneously, and explore the potential of deep learning in multi-view learning, we propose a novel supervised multi-view learning algorithm, called multi-view capsule network (MVCapsNet), which extracts a feature matrix of all views by a group of encoders, and obtains a classification matrix fusing common and special information of multiple views. Extensive experiments conducted on eight real-world datasets have demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed method, and show its superiority over several state-of-the-art baseline methods.

Rationale Cronkhite-Canada syndrome (CCS) is a rare non-familial polyposis syndrome characterized by multiple gastrointestinal polyps with the ectodermal triad. To date, many complications of CCS have been reported in the literature, but perianal condyloma acuminatum with malignant transformation has not been included. Patient concerns This report presents the case of a 52-year-old Chinese man who presented with diarrhea, loss of appetite, and weight loss. He developed skin pigmentation and atrophy of the fingernails and toenails. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, colonoscopy, capsule endoscopy, and enteroscopy revealed diffuse polyps along the entire digestive tract. Histopathological examination revealed polyps of different pathological types dominated by hamartoma. Physical examination revealed a crissum cauliflower-like neoplasm (2.5 × 2.0 cm). After perianal tumor resection, pathology suggested that this was a perianal condylomatous lesion with malignant transformation, as well as well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Diagnoses These clinical features and endoscopic findings were consistent with CCS which associated with perianal condyloma acuminatum with malignant transformation. Intervention Clinical remission was achieved with glucocorticoid, azathioprine, and nutritional support. Outcome At the 4-year follow-up, the patient had no diarrhea or loss of appetite, had gained 13 kg in weight, and the perianal tumor had not recurred. Lessons No previous report has described CCS in a patient with perianal condyloma acuminatum with malignant transformation. As both conditions are related to immune disorders, their occurrence may be correlated.

We prospectively compared posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) used in adult isthmic spondylolisthesis (IS) after surgical reduction with pedicle screws. Between January 2009 and December 2010, 66 adult patients with single-level IS were randomly assigned to two groups treated using the PLIF technique (PLIF group, n = 34) and the TLIF technique (TLIF group, n = 32). Both groups were followed up for an average of 30.5 months (range 24–48 months). Clinical outcomes were assessed using the visual analog scale (VAS), Oswestry disability index (ODI) and Japanese orthopedic association (JOA) scores. Radiographic outcomes included percentage of vertebral slippage, focal lordosis and disk height. Clinical and radiographic outcomes were compared between the two groups. The average operative time and blood loss during surgery were significantly more in PLIF group than in TLIF group. Spondylolisthesis, disk height and focal lordosis were significantly improved postoperatively in both groups. There was no obvious difference in clinical outcomes, as assessed using the VAS, ODI and JOA scores, and radiographic outcomes. In PLIF group, there were two cases of neuropathic pain after surgery. After instrumented reduction of adult IS, either PLIF or TLIF can provide good clinical and radiological outcomes. With a single cage, TLIF was superior to PLIF in terms of surgical time and blood loss, but these differences may not be clinically relevant.

The sensitivity of the pass-through ratio of the added costs due to the enforced sulfur emission cap of liner shipping as extra fare for shippers and rail operation frequency on the competitiveness of China-Europe railway express (CER-express) and liner shipping for cargo transportation between China and Europe is analyzed. The objective is to lay a theoretical basis for liner companies to optimize the pass-through ratio for maximizing shipping profit, for CER-express to determine an expected operation frequency and for IMO to understand the effects of the enforced sulfur emission cap when CER-express is available.

The aim of this study was to explore the role of combined pretreatment serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as potential prognostic factors in metastatic pancreatic cancer patients. We investigated pretreatment serum CA19-9 and NLR in 59 metastatic pancreatic cancer patients, determined the patients’ thresholds by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, and assessed their prognostic values by Kaplan–Meier curve and Cox regression models. Results of multivariate analysis showed high CA19-9, high NLR, and high score (the scoring system of CA19-9 and NLR) were significantly correlated with overall survival. Area under the curve of the scoring system was higher than that of CA19-9 or NLR. Combined pretreatment serum CA19-9 and NLR is a better prognostic biomarker of metastatic pancreatic cancer patients than CA19-9 or NLR alone.

Objective To compare the safety of procedure in patients receiving right internal mammary artery (RIMA) versus radial artery (RA) as the second arterial graft during left internal mammary artery bypass surgery. Methods A literature search was performed, and observational studies comparing RA and RIMA as a second arterial conduit were included. The end points included in-hospital mortality, sternal wound infection (SWI), myocardial infarction (MI), reoperation for bleeding, stroke and low cardiac output syndrome. Sensitivity analysis was performed, and publication bias was assessed. Results Analysis of nine studies comprising 1,738 RIMA patients and 1,906 RA patients showed a similar risk of in-hospital mortality (relative risk [RR] 1.13, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.64 to 1.98) between two groups. The risk of SWI in RIMA patients was significantly higher than that in RA patients (RR 3.19, 95% CI 1.64 to 6.20). The risk of the rest end points did not differ. Conclusions The postoperative risk seems to be similar between RIMA group and RA group, except the higher risk of SWI in RIMA patients. The surgeon relies on his own experience with these two arterial grafts and assessment of the patient profile to decide the choice of the second arterial conduit.

In order to satisfy the orientation measuring requirements of rigid-body such as work piece, cutting tool in industry, the paper presents a binocular vision detection technique based on spatial position information of markers to extract rigid-body pose information and analyzes the pose accuracy of rigid-body using the principal component analysis (PCA) when spatial position error of markers exist. The simulation experiment demonstrates the maximum angle error of orientation is about 0.59 degree when the position error of markers satisfy the Gaussian distribution with the mean is zero and the standard deviation is 0~3mm. The experimental results verify this method can robustly solve the orientation of rigid body using the position information of markers with position errors, and it provides a theoretical and experimental basis for orientation measurement of rigid body.

As the device size shrinks beyond 45nm technology node, logic BEOL (back end of line) started adopting Cu/Ultra low k (ULK) to reduce RC delay. With the introduction of low k material, IMD TDDB is notably degraded as numerous publications reported. The impact of ULK material deposition process, barrier layer deposition process on TDDB performance were investigated and discussed in-depth in this paper. In ULK material deposition process, the flow rate of Si-O and hydrocarbon containing precursors and RF power parameters significantly impact RC delay and TDDB performance. Barrier layer thickness, DC power and AC power parameters impact TDDB performance in barrier deposition process. In addition, one simple method of comparison and prediction of IMD TDDB is proposed through the analysis of leakage current and breakdown voltage (Vbd).

In this paper, a 3-D electromagnetic-thermal coupling analysis model of cable was established. Through the simulation, surface temperature of the cable has been gotten. Using the principle of statistics, this paper analyzes the temperature of the cable surface and draws the probability density curve. Under two different circumstances (normal and eccentric), the probability density curve present one peak and two peaks respectively. Further study indicates that there is a certain relation between the parameter of the probability density curve and the eccentric degree. Finally, this paper sets up an experimental platform to measure the surface temperature of the cable. The experimental result agrees with the simulation results, which verifies the accuracy of the model.

In this research, differences in composition, texture characteristics and sensory features of twenty kinds of rice from Heilongjiang China were studied. Experimental results showed significant differences in content of fat, amylose and protein however those differences were not extended to perceived taste evaluation by sensory evaluation. Hardness was measured from 363.6 gs to 1120.3 gs by TPA from 6103.7 g to 11641.1 g adhesiveness, springiness was from 0.4 to 0.6, gumminess was from 2538.9 to 6373.9 and resilience was from 0.2 to 0.3. According to correlate analysis between the chemical composition and taste of rice, we derived that more fat led to more springiness, more protein led to lower viscosity but better hardness and springiness, higher amylose content resulted lower viscosity and taste but higher springiness as well as higher carbohydrate content resulted higher viscosity but lower hardness and springiness. After correlate analysis between chemical composition and the texture characteristic of rice, it was concluded that moisture content was negatively correlated with hardness, gumminess and adhesion, while significantly correlated with resilience; the content of protein was negatively correlated with adhesion but positively correlated with hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and significantly positively correlated with resilience; the content of ash and adhesion were negatively correlated. The adhesiveness of texture characteristic and the viscosity of taste showed significant positive correlation, and the cohesiveness and resilience of texture characteristic were positively correlated with the softness of taste index.

Objective. To explore the safety and efficacy of transpseudarthrosis osteotomy with interbody fusion in the treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) patients with kyphotic spinal pseudarthrosis by a single posterior approach. Methods. Twelve consecutive patients with spinal pseudarthrosis underwent transpseudarthrosis osteotomy and interbody fusion with a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) cage by a single posterior approach. The operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and complications were recorded. Radiographic and clinical results were assessed preoperatively and at the final follow-up. Results. The average operative time was 201.9 min and the mean blood loss was 817.5 ml. The visual analogue scale (VAS) improved significantly from 6.7 preoperatively to 1.1 at the final follow-up. The average correction of the segmental kyphosis at the level of the pseudarthrosis was 22.3°. Bony fusion was achieved in all patients, and there was no obvious loss of correction at follow-up. Conclusion. Transpseudarthrosis osteotomy at the level of the pseudarthrosis can be safely performed and surgical repair of pseudarthrosis with interbody fusion by a single posterior approach was feasible.

Steel Reinforce Concrete Beam (SRCB) has a better flexural strength and excellent performances of ductility and seismic resistance in contrast to reinforce concrete beam.Six SRCB have been done with different compressive strength of concrete,rebar ratio,rebar cover thickness and steel cover thickness. The paper analyses the character of deflection and crack development process in following aspects: the development of maximum width and average width of crack, the law between strain of rebar and steel with the width of crack and the crack closing character. Experimental study indicates that the deflection and crack development can be devided into three stages. SRCB with reasonable rebar and H-section steel arrangement manner has excellent serviceable performance,such as deflection, resistance to crack, crack width and crack closing performance.

Two experimental areas in a highway soft soil ground treatment project in Guangdong Province were designed to investigate the improvement mechanism of geogrid-reinforced and pile-supported embankment(GRPS).The experimental results showed: In End-bearing Pile Area,the differential settlement between pile and soil was bigger than that of Floating Pile Area,so the bearing capacity of soil was exerted to a certain extent in Floating Pile Area. The bearing efficacy of soil below the pile cap was little, so the replacement ratio of composite foundation could be calculated according to the pile cap dimension. The load transfer efficacy of the geogrid was better than that of the soil arch. Five kinds of methods were used to evaluate the soil arch in the fill and it was indicated that the results calculated by the BS8006 method and Carlsson method was close to the experimental data which was smaller than results calculated by Hewlett method and Terzaghi method, bigger than Guido method. Through the analysis of the pile-soil stress ratio, the improvement mechanism of the two types of GRPS were revealed.

The paper takes the twisted blades of fluorine plastic centrifugal pump as the research object. It used the flow field calculation software Fluent based on average N-S equations and standard k-ε turbulent model, and adopted the method of SIMPLEC algorithms, it conducted the numerical simulation on uncompressed flow of fluorine plastic centrifugal pump of twisted blades in different conditions. The results show that the relationship between the lift,shaft power,efficiency and flow, are compared with experimental ones, and it shows that the predicted performance coincides with the experimental one well, the simulation provides theoretical basis for the optimizing design.

Current diagnosis with computed tomography (CT) imaging relies heavily on doctors’ clinical experience and it is difficult to accurately identify and localize lesions from thousands of CT images. Therefore, computer-aided diagnosis with automatic lesion extraction will be helpful for doctors in the diagnosis of liver diseases. In this paper, we proposed a new method for automatic liver lesion extraction from CT images by combining DRLSE (distance regularized level set evolution) and region growing. The method was applied in abdominal CT images with a single liver cancerous lesion and multiple hemangioma lesions at different locations. The results demonstrated the feasibility of our method for automatic lesion extraction with improved diagnostic accuracy and time efficiency.

The failure of hydraulic pump as a power unit in hydraulic systems affects directly the proper performance of the systems. Therefore, the monitoring of the pump performance and diagnosis of pump faults are urgent problems in want of solution. The principle of RBF algorithm is described. Study on fault diagnosis based on RBF for hydraulic pump. The test and analysis results indicate that the method is simple and efficient.

In early research, capture and manipulation of particles were mainly achieved by means of light, electricity and plasma in micro-fabrication and micro-assembly. A new method is proposed using micro-water jet to form water tweezers to capture solid particles and implement position control of micro-particles. This paper analyzes the basic principle of water tweezers, and the discrete element method and smoothed particle hydrodynamics method are employed to establish a solid-liquid coupling model used in analyzing the trapping mechanism. A flow field model is set up to simulate dynamic characteristic of water tweezers based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Selection of boundary conditions, initial guess, solver control and convergence strategies of the model are discussed. Velocity and pressure of streamline are predicted and discussed under certain input conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that it is an efficiently theoretical method to eventually trap solid particles by water tweezers.

In view of the present that this defect of water heater shower valve of the water temperature does not direct the user to the water temperature and can't maintain a constant outlet water temperature for long time, innovating a new type of water temperature control device. The adjusting device used the system of single chip microcomputer STC89C52 as the core, real-time water temperature and hot and cold water temperature were collected by digital temperature sensor DS18B20, adjusted with PID control method, drive motor drive the angle of opening and closing of the blade in mechanism device, to change the water volume of the hot and cold water. the purpose of keeping water temperature gain on the users required temperature and keeping constant temperature, through data experiment shows that the adjustment system structure is simple, running accurate effective and adjusting the steady and fast.

Ice accretion has been a huge threat for the stable operation of transmission line. Icing monitoring devices used presently are active sensors with low working stability. Signals are transmitted in the electrical form, which are easily affected by the electromagnetic interference. In this paper, an online icing monitoring device of transmission line based on fiber bragg grating (FBG) sensor is designed, and is operated as a pilot unit on the 44# tower of 110kV Zhenzou line. Experimental results show that the online icing monitoring device operates stably, and the designed fiber bragg grating sensor has high linearity, good sensitivity and high accuracy.

The rapid updates of messages and users’ information in social networks make it very difficult to efficiently identify unauthorized users and further hard to protect messages. Existing mechanisms for security protection usually have high overhead. In this paper, a multi-dimensional vector based access control model is used to solve these problems. Firstly, multi-dimensional vector for each user is constructed. Then based on a novel access control model proposed in this paper, the vector in social networks is utilized to judge whether an access request is permitted. At last, we give some examples to verify our methods.

Background context Surgical reduction and posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) is commonly used to recover segmental imbalance in degenerative spondylolisthesis. However, whether intentional reduction of the slipped vertebra during PLIF is essential in aged patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis remains controversial. Purpose We compared the outcomes of surgical reduction and fusion in situ among aged patients who underwent PLIF for degenerative spondylolisthesis. Study design A prospective randomized clinical trial on the surgical treatment of degenerative spondylolisthesis patients aged older than 70 years. Patient sample Between January 2006 and December 2009, 73 patients aged 70 years or older with single-level degenerative spondylolisthesis requiring surgical treatment were included in this study. Outcome measures Clinical outcomes were assessed using the visual analog scale, Oswestry Disability Index, and Japanese Orthopedic Association scores. Radiographic outcomes included percentage of vertebral slippage, focal lordosis, and disc height. Methods The 73 patients were randomly assigned to two groups treated using surgical reduction (Group A, n=36) and fusion in situ (Group B, n=37). Both groups were followed up for an average of 33.2 months (range, 24–54 months). The clinical and radiographic outcomes were compared between the two groups. Results Surgical complications were similar in the two groups. The average operative time and blood loss during surgery did not insignificantly differ (p>.05) between the two groups. Spondylolisthesis, disc height, and focal lordosis were significantly improved postoperatively in both groups. There was no obvious difference in clinical outcomes, as assessed using the visual analog scale, Oswestry Disability Index, and Japanese Orthopedic Association scores, although the radiographic outcomes were considerably better in Group A than in Group B. Conclusions Posterior lumbar interbody fusion with pedicle screws fixation, with or without intraoperative reduction, provides good outcomes in the surgical treatment of aged patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis. Better radiological outcomes by intentional reduction do not necessarily indicate better clinical outcomes.

STUDY DESIGN A retrospective study of clinical cases. PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy of continuous irrigation and drainage for early postoperative deep wound infection after posterior instrumented spinal fusion. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Aggressive debridement and irrigation has been recommended to treat postoperative wound infections after instrumented spinal fusion. However, this method of management, indicating repeating visits to the operating room until the wound is clean enough for closure, often results in prolonged hospitalization, increased cost, and sometimes compromise of the desired outcome. We hypothesize that repeat visits to the operating room for debridements can be avoided by aggressive debridements and primary closure with continuous irrigation and drainage for postoperative wound infections. METHODS From 2004 to 2009, 23 patients with early postoperative deep wound infections after spinal fusion with instrumentation were surgically treated with thorough debridement and primary closure with continuous irrigation and drainage. All patients were followed up for 30.6 months (range, 24-54 mo). RESULTS The mean duration of irrigation was 12.0 days (range, 7-16 d). In 21 patients (91.3%), the wound healed after continuous irrigation. The removal of the instrumentation or cages was not required in any case. Spinal fusion was achieved in all cases, except 1, where the patient developed a pseudoarthrosis at the L4-L5 level after L4-S1 fusion. The mean ODI for these 23 patients improved significantly from 53.4±18.7 preoperatively to 18.3±11.2 at the final follow-up visit (P

Ti6Al4V has great affinity with tool material in machining process, which easily leads to tool diffusion wear. Turning experiments were carried out to study cutting temperature and pressure at tool-chip/workpiece. Based on the analysis, a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) was used to analyze tool wear morphology. The affinity of tool and workpiece material using the Ti-W, Ti-Co diagram was also studied to elaborate the diffusion mechanism in this present study. The results shows that the cutting temperature is very high and the temperature increases with the increase of cutting speeds in machining Ti6Al4V. At the contact area, the highest temperature is located in tool rake face near to tool tip. The resilience of workpiece results in serious attrition between tool flank face and the machined surface. The highest pressure is located in tool flank face near to tool tip and the pressure in tool-workpiece interface is much higher than that in tool-chip interface. Under the high cutting temperature and high pressure at tool-chip/workpiece interface, diffusion occurred both at tool rake an flank face in machining Ti6Al4V. Because of the higher temperature at tool rake face diffusion at tool rake face ia more sever than that at tool flank face.

Based on the PLC control technique and WinCC configuration technology,the control system for the liquid level of the tank was designed. After receiving liquid level signal that transferred from radar tester,the PLC process it ,and then output related control signal to the actuator.The actuator is composed of two AC motors,one is for the main pump ,and another for the auxiliary pump.The function of human-machine interface is achieved with the help of Smart700 touch screen of Siemens.Communication functions between the WinCC project and the PLC site and pictures of the control process which enabals real-time monitoring of the entire system are finished by designing configuration.Finally,the validity of the system and the feasibility of the design have been proved by debugging and the use of enterprises.

Background The advantageous survival outcome of bilateral internal mammary artery grafting (BIMA) has been well established. However, this meta-analysis aims to make clear whether BIMA grafting increases the risk of sternal wound infection (SWI) when compared with single internal mammary artery grafting (SIMA). Methods A literature search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The observational studies reporting a comparison between SIMA and BIMA were included. The outcome of interest was the risk of SWI. Literature search, data extraction, and quality assessment were performed. Sensitivity and publication bias were also assessed in this research. Results We identified 4,701 titles and included 32 studies finally. The meta-analysis showed that the risk of SWI in the BIMA group was higher (relative risk [RR] 0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.55 to 0.71) than that in the SIMA group. Moreover, BIMA grafting was also associated with a higher risk of SWI in diabetic patients (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.81) as well as elderly patients (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.62). When skeletonization technique was adopted, the risk of SWI in BIMA patients was just a little higher than that in SIMA patients, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (RR 0.84, 95% CI 0.54 to 1.31). Conclusions The BIMA grafting increases the risk of SWI when compared with SIMA grafting. This adverse effect further extends to diabetic and elderly patients. As regarding the method of procurement, skeletonized BIMA is safe and effective, thus it should be the procedure recommended.