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Background Brahma-related gene 1 (BRG1) is essential for embryogenesis and cellular metabolism. A deficiency of BRG1 in vivo decreases lipid droplets, but the molecular mechanism underlying its role in lipid metabolism associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains unknown. Aims We aimed to determine the role of BRG1 in lipid metabolism in HCC. Methods We assessed the differential expression of BRG1 in HCC and adjacent non-tumorous tissues using tissue microarrays. We stained lipid droplets in HCC cells with Bodipy fluorescence and Oil Red O, and verified BRG1 binding to the promoter region of glycosylated lysosomal membrane protein (GLMP) using chromatin immunoprecipitation. Results The expression of GLMP, a potential lipid metabolism regulator, was suppressed by BRG1 via transcriptional activity. Knockdown of BRG1 decreased lipid droplets, increased GLMP expression and altered the phosphoinositide-3-kinase adaptor protein 1 (PIK3AP1)/phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) pathway in HCC, which further GLMP knockdown partially restored. Thus, GLMP knockdown increased lipid droplets and differentially altered the PI3K/AKT pathway. Conclusions Downregulating BRG1 decreased lipid droplet deposition in HCC cells by upregulating GLMP and altering the PI3K/AKT pathway. Both BRG1 and GLMP might serve as therapeutic targets for disorders associated with dysregulated lipid metabolism, such as NAFLD and NAFLD-associated HCC.

Outdoor images are significantly degraded by bad weather conditions, such as fog and dust, which seriously limits efficient information extraction by computer vision applications. Most existing weather-degraded hazy image enhancement methods ignore the wavelength dependence of the scattering coefficient and therefore cannot well handle the colorized haze in which the medium transmission varies in different color channels. In this work, we propose a fish retina-inspired method to solve this problem. Fish have special retinal mechanisms for extracting useful information from underwater environments where photons are scattered and absorbed spatially introducing wavelength-dependent degradation of visibility. Due to the similarity between suspensions in water and aerosols in the air, these mechanisms should also be suitable for processing hazy scenes. The proposed method imitates bipolar cells with scene-dependent center-surround receptive fields to eliminate redundant information, ganglion cells with nonlinear processing to boost contrast, and the centrifugal pathway from amacrine cells to the horizontal cells to adaptively protect visual information from excessive lateral suppression. Compared with state-of-the-art methods on various images degraded by fog, haze, or dust, the proposed method shows quite competitive performance both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and Child–Turcotte–Pugh (CTP) class B liver function after stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR). Materials and Methods: This retrospective study evaluated patients with HCC and impaired liver function who underwent SABR between December 2007 and August 2016. All patients had CTP class B liver function before treatment. Local control (LC) rate, overall survival (OS) rate, prognostic factors, and radiation-related toxicity were evaluated. Results: This study included 34 patients. The majority had a CTP score of B7 (52.9%) and advanced HCC (91.2%). The median survival time was 4.8 months, and the 1-year OS rate was 21.4%. Only the tumor number (multiple vs. single) was identified as an independent predictor of survival. The 1-year LC rate was 95.8%. Eight patients (23.5%) developed the radiation-induced liver disease, and 15 (44.1%) had a CTP score decline of ≥2 within 3 months. Other toxicities were generally tolerable. Conclusion: SABR may be considered as an alternative option for patients with HCC and CTP class B liver function, particularly for those with a single lesion.

BackgroundTumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are closely related to unfavorable prognosis of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). However, the important molecules in the interaction between ccRCC and TAMs are unclear.MethodsTCGA-KIRC gene expression data of tumor tissues and normal tissues adjacent to tumor were compared to identify differentially expressed genes in ccRCC. TAMs related genes were discovered by analyzing the correlation between these differentially expressed genes and common macrophage biomarkers. Gene set enrichment analysis was performed to predict functions of TAMs related gene. The findings were further validated using RNA sequencing data obtained from the CheckMate 025 study and immunohistochemical analysis of samples from 350 patients with ccRCC. Kaplan–Meier survival curve, Cox regression analysis and Harrell’s concordance index analysis were used to determine the prognostic significance.ResultsIn this study, we applied bioinformatic analysis to explore TAMs related differentially expressed genes in ccRCC and identified 5 genes strongly correlated with all selected macrophage biomarkers:STAC3,LGALS9,TREM2,FCER1G, andPILRA. Among them,FCER1Gwas abundantly expressed in tumor tissues and showed prognostic importance in patients with ccRCC who received treatment with Nivolumab; however, it did not exhibit prognostic value in those treated with Everolimus. We also discovered that high expression levels ofFCER1Gare related to T cell suppression. Moreover, combination ofFCER1Gand macrophage biomarkerCD68can improve the prognostic stratification of patients with ccRCC from TCGA-KIRC. Based on the immunohistochemical analysis of samples from patients with ccRCC, we further validated that FCER1G and CD68 are both highly expressed in tumor tissue and correlate with each other. Higher expression of CD68 or FCER1G in ccRCC tissue indicates shorter overall survival and progression-free survival; patients with high expression of both CD68 and FCER1G have the worst outcome. Combining CD68 and FCER1G facilitates the screening of patients with a worse prognosis from the same TNM stage group.ConclusionsHigh expression ofFCER1Gin ccRCC is closely related to TAMs infiltration and suppression of T cell activation and proliferation. Combining the expression levels of FCER1G and macrophage biomarker CD68 may be a promising postoperative prognostic index for patients with ccRCC.

18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) imaging is used to detect cardiac inflammation and predict functional outcome in acute myocardial infarction (MI). However, data on the correlation of post-MI acute cardiac inflammation evaluated by 18F-FDG imaging and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) are limited. Therefore, we sought to explore the prognostic value of cardiac 18F-FDG imaging in patients with acute ST-segment elevation MI (STEMI). Thirty-six patients with STEMI underwent 18F-FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) 5 days after primary percutaneous coronary intervention. 18F-FDG activity in infarcted and remote regions, as well as peri-coronary adipose tissue (PCAT), were measured and expressed as the maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). Patients were followed to determine the occurrence of MACE. The infarcted myocardium had a higher 18F-FDG intensity than the remote area. Moreover, the PCAT of culprit coronary arteries showed a higher 18F-FDG uptake than that of non-culprit arteries. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that increased SUVmax of PCAT [HR 5.198; 95% CI (1.058, 25.537), P = .042] was independently associated with a higher risk of MACE. Enhanced PCAT activity after acute MI is related to the occurrence of MACE, and 18F-FDG PET/CT plays a promising role in providing prognostic information in patients with STEMI.

The aim of this study was to explore the association of cardiac fibroblast activation with clinical parameters and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging parameters in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Thirteen CTEPH patients were prospectively enrolled. All of the patients underwent cardiac 68Gallium-labelled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (68 Ga-FAPI-04)-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), right heart catheterisation, and echocardiography, and 11 of them additionally underwent CMR. Thirteen control subjects were selected to establish the normal range of cardiac 68 Ga-FAPI-04 uptake. Cardiac 68 Ga-FAPI-04 uptake higher than that in the blood pool was defined as abnormal. The global and segmental maximum standardised uptake values (SUVmax) of the right ventricle (RV) were measured and further expressed as target-to-background ratio (TBRRV) with left ventricular lateral wall activity as background. Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was visually evaluated, and native-T1 times, enhanced-T1 times, and extracellular volume (ECV) were quantitatively measured. Ten CTEPH patients (77%) had abnormal 68 Ga-FAPI-04 uptake in RV, mainly located in the free wall, which was significantly higher than that in controls (TBRRV: 2.4 ± 0.9 vs 1.0 ± 0.1, P

Background: Predictors of outcomes following endovascular treatment (ET) for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) are not well-defined. Identifying them would be beneficial in determining which patients might benefit from ET. Objective: To identify the predictive factors for poor outcomes following ET for aSAH. Methods: 120 patients with ruptured cerebral aneurysms underwent endovascular embolization between January 2017 and December 2018. Blood pressure variability was examined using the standard deviation of the 24-hour systolic blood pressure (24hSSD) and 24-hour diastolic blood pressure (24hDSD). Predictors were identified through univariate and multivariate regression analysis. All patients were followed up for three months. Results: At follow-up, 86 patients (71.7%) had good outcomes and 34 (28.3%) had poor outcomes. Patients with poor outcomes had significantly higher 24hSSD than those with good outcomes (19.3 ± 5.5 vs 14.1 ± 4.8 mmHg; P < 0.001). The 24hDSD did not differ significantly between patients with good outcomes and those with poor outcomes (9.5 ± 2.3 vs 9.9 ± 3.5 mmHg; P = 0.464). The following were significant risk factors for poor outcomes after endovascular embolization: age ≥ 65 years (odds ratio [OR] = 23.0; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.0-175.9; P = 0.002); Hunt-Hess grade 3-4 (OR = 6.8; 95% CI: 1.1-33.7; P = 0.039); Fisher grade 3-4 (OR = 47.1; 95% CI: 3.8-586.5; P = 0.003); postoperative complications (OR = 6.1; 95% CI: 1.1-34.8; P = 0.042); and 24hSSD ≥ 15 mmHg (OR = 14.9; 95% CI: 4.0-55.2; P < 0.001). Conclusion: Elevated 24hSSD is a possibly treatable predictive factor for poor outcomes after ET for aSAH. RESUMO Antecedentes: Fatores preditores de resultados após tratamento endovascular (TE) para hemorragia subaracnóide aneurismática (HSA) não estão bem definidos. Identificá-los seria útil para determinar quais pacientes podem se beneficiar de TE. Objetivo: Identificar os fatores preditivos de resultados ruins após TE para HSA. Métodos: 120 pacientes com aneurismas cerebrais rompidos foram submetidos à embolização endovascular entre janeiro de 2017 e dezembro de 2018. A variabilidade da pressão arterial foi examinada usando-se o desvio padrão da PA sistólica de 24 horas (DPPAS- 24h) e da PA diastólica de 24 horas (DPPAD-24h). Os fatores preditores foram identificados por meio de análises de regressão univariada e multivariada. Todos os pacientes foram acompanhados por três meses. Resultados: No acompanhamento, 86 pacientes (71,7%) tiveram bons resultados e 34 (28,3%) tiveram resultados ruins. Pacientes com resultados ruins apresentaram DPPAS-24h significativamente maior do que aqueles com bons resultados (19,3 ± 5,5 vs 14,1 ± 4,8 mmHg; P

Spatial structures, represented by reticulated domes, have developed rapidly in the last several decades due to their reasonable mechanical properties and beautiful structural shape. However, several spatial structure collapses have occurred during the recent frequent earthquakes in China, especially the 2013 Lushan earthquake. These collapses have altered the traditional understanding that the spatial structure has good seismic performance. Real seismic damage cases reveal that a spatial structure in a severe earthquake zone with unreasonable seismic design cannot maintain its functional characteristics; therefore, there is an urgent need for improvements to enhance the seismic performance of spatial structures. This paper proposes a new three-dimensional isolation spring support (TISS). To study the mechanical properties of this support, corresponding experiments were performed, and the constitutive relation of this support was investigated. A simplified finite element model of the new TISS was defined in ABAQUS to conduct a seismic isolation study of single-layer reticulated domes. And then the influence of different parameters on the seismic isolation performance of the TISS was analysed. The parameter analysis results indicated that friction plays an important role in the mechanical properties of the support and thus causes different seismic isolation effects under small earthquakes and severe earthquakes. At the same time, because of the design concept of the support, a non-linear relation exists between the seismic isolation effect and stiffness such that under severe earthquakes. On the other hand, the TISS also has preferable isolation performance on the defective reticulated domes. Therefore, the three-dimensional isolation support presented in this paper has preferable application prospects and potential economic benefits that could be applied extensively in the three-dimensional isolation area of spatial structures. In addition, the numerical analysis procedure based on ABAQUS can be used to accurately analyse the isolation property and to lay the foundation for the practical function of isolation supports and the seismic design of structures.

The aim of our study was to compare the efficacy of two dosages of hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) combined with HBV vaccine (HBVac) to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of hepatitis B in HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive mother. We enrolled 331 mother-infant pairs with HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive maternal state from the Women's Hospital School of Medicine of Zhejiang University. Newborns were randomly distributed into two groups according to the dosages of HBIG injection: 100 IU and 200 IU. Newborns from both groups were injected with HBVac in the same doses. We compared the immune outcomes between the two groups and explore the influencing factors of immune outcomes through regression analysis. There was no statistically significant relationship between HBsAg serological transmission of newborns and dosages of HBIG in HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive mother (p > .05). The Logistic regression showed that high DNA load is a risk factor for passive-active immunoprophylaxis failure for both 100 IU and 200 IU group, but higher-dosage HBIG is not necessary for higher-viral-load pregnant women with HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive. In conclusion, combined application of HBVac and a single dose of 100 IU HBIG can achieve the ideal MTCT interruption results for HBsAg- and HBeAg-positive pregnant women.IMPACT STATEMENTWhat is already known on this subject? Passive-active immunoprophylaxis is proved to be effective in preventing mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B. Hepatitis B vaccine combined with 100 IU or 200 IU immunoglobulin is mostly recommended in China.What do the results of this study add? At present, there is still a lack scientific basis for improving existing strategies and measures to prevent mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B in China.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? 100 IU and 200 IU immunoglobulin show equivalent blocking effect, and combined use of hepatitis B vaccine and 100 IU immunoglobulin is more cost-effective.

A motor imagery EEG (MI-EEG) signal is often selected as the driving signal in an active brain computer interface (BCI) system, and it has been a popular field to recognize MI-EEG images via convolutional neural network (CNN), which poses a potential problem for maintaining the integrity of the time-frequency-space information in MI-EEG images and exploring the feature fusion mechanism in the CNN. However, information is excessively compressed in the present MI-EEG image, and the sequential CNN is unfavorable for the comprehensive utilization of local features. In this paper, a multidimensional MI-EEG imaging method is proposed, which is based on time-frequency analysis and the Clough-Tocher (CT) interpolation algorithm. The time-frequency matrix of each electrode is generated via continuous wavelet transform (WT), and the relevant section of frequency is extracted and divided into nine submatrices, the longitudinal sums and lengths of which are calculated along the directions of frequency and time successively to produce a 3 × 3 feature matrix for each electrode. Then, feature matrix of each electrode is interpolated to coincide with their corresponding coordinates, thereby yielding a WT-based multidimensional image, called WTMI. Meanwhile, a multilevel and multiscale feature fusion convolutional neural network (MLMSFFCNN) is designed for WTMI, which has dense information, low signal-to-noise ratio, and strong spatial distribution. Extensive experiments are conducted on the BCI Competition IV 2a and 2b datasets, and accuracies of 92.95% and 97.03% are yielded based on 10-fold cross-validation, respectively, which exceed those of the state-of-the-art imaging methods. The kappa values and p values demonstrate that our method has lower class skew and error costs. The experimental results demonstrate that WTMI can fully represent the time-frequency-space features of MI-EEG and that MLMSFFCNN is beneficial for improving the collection of multiscale features and the fusion recognition of general and abstract features for WTMI.

Background and aims HBV-pgRNA (pregenomic RNA) has been proposed for predicting the response of nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) treatment, guiding discontinuation of NA therapy and monitoring the emergence of viral mutations. However, the contributions of HBV-pgRNA to HCC remain open for study. Approach and results Double-center cohorts of serum samples with undetectable serum HBV-DNA (below the lower limit of detection) were obtained from long-term NA-treated (≥48 weeks) HBV-related HCC patients. The correlation between serum pgRNA concentration and the prognosis of HCC were analyzed. The role pgRNA played in HCC development was assessed both in vitro and in vivo. Our findings revealed that for patients who underwent long-term NA therapy with undetectable serum HBV-DNA, patients with high serum pgRNA expression had a poorer overall survival rate and higher cumulative recurrence rate after hepatectomy. Experiments demonstrated that pgRNA promotes proliferation, stemness, and tumorigenicity of HCC cells. Mechanistically, we found that pgRNA could up-regulate the expression of insulin-like growth factor 2 mRNA-binding protein 3 (IGF2BP3), a well-proven oncoprotein, at the posttranscriptional level. Furthermore, interferon (IFN)-α-2a could degrade the stability of pgRNA through increasing its N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA modification. Collectively, our findings uncover that serum pgRNA could serve as a potential biomarker for predicting the prognosis and recurrence of HCC in patients who received long-term NA therapy with undetectable serum HBV-DNA; and the pgRNA-IGF2BP3 axis plays an important role in the development of HBV-related HCC. Moreover, IFN-α-2a could reduce the stability of pgRNA by increasing its m6A RNA modification level, thereby suppressing the development of HBV-related HCC. Conclusions In conclusion, our studies reveal a significance and mechanism of HBV-pgRNA in increasing stemness features and offer a potential prognostic marker and a therapeutic target for HBV-related HCC.

Effects of chitosan oligosaccharide (COS) and hyriopsis cumingii polysaccharide (HCP) on the quality of wheat flour and corresponding extruded flour products were investigated in this work. The results showed that both COS and HCP are conducive to the improvement of dough quality. Moreover, compared to control group samples, the moisture content, expansion ratio and oil absorption rate of the samples were increased and the hardness were decreased with the addition of COS. These phenomena indicate the quality of extruded flour products became better in the presence of COS as well. However, HCP has little or no effect on the quality of extruded flour products may be due to its degradation under high temperature and pressure extrusion. COS with higher stability exhibited better improvement effects on the quality of extruded flour products and showed a promising prospect for application in extruded food industry. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text]

Wuping Bao,1,* Xue Zhang,1,* Yubiao Jin,2,* Huijuan Hao,1 Fu Yang,3 Dongning Yin,1 Xi Chen,3 Yishu Xue,1 Lei Han,1 Min Zhang1 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Pathology, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Min ZhangDepartment of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 100, Haining Road, Shanghai, 200080, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail maggie_zhangmin@163.comBackground: Whether COVID-19 comorbidities and risk factors such as old age, male gender, smoking, obesity, eosinophils and blood types have direct contact with expression of ACE2 and pro-inflammation cytokines in human lung tissues were still unclear.Patients and Methods: Sixty-four patients with normal FEV1 and FEV1/FVC underwent thoracotomy for pulmonary nodules were included. Blinded histological assessments were performed by two pathologists. Clinical features and results of the immunohistochemical staining of ACE2 were collected and analyzed.Results: ACE2 expressed in alveolar macrophages (most obvious), alveolar epithelia and vascular endothelia, but not in small-airway epithelia. ACE2 expressions are positively related to age (r =0.26, P =0.040), weight (r =0.43, P< 0.001), as well as BMI (r = 0.38, P =0.002), and male patients show higher expressions of ACE2 in lungs (P < 0.05). ACE2 expressions are negatively related to peripheral eosinophils (r = − 0.30, P =0.017). There was no correlation between ABO blood types and ACE2 expression in normal lung tissues (P > 0.05). IL-13 and IL-6R expression in lung tissue increased with age (r =0.26, P < 0.05, for both).Conclusion: Our pathological evidences showed that the alveolar epithelia, vascular endothelia, and alveolar macrophages are susceptible in human lungs for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The risk factors such as high body weight/BMI, old age, male gender, and eosinopenia may be related to ACE2 expression in human lungs, and associated with more chance to develop the severe cases. IL-6R expression in lung tissue also increased with age. Therefore, weight control and smoking cessation are essential to reduce the susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 infection, especially in obesity, old or male patients. Peripheral eosinophils monitor is also quite necessary to detect severe tendency in COVID-19 patients.Keywords: ACE2, risk factor, BMI, age, sex, eosinophils

The present study demonstrates that the down-regulation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα) results in chronic low ambient temperature (LT) exposure-induced cardiac dysfunction and remodeling, emphasizing the therapeutic potential of PPARα activation strategies (e.g. fenofibrate treatment) in LT-associated cardiac injury. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40779-021-00347-y.

Herbicide resistance has become one of the foremost problems in crop production worldwide. New herbicides are required to manage weeds that have evolved resistance to the existing herbicides. However, relatively few herbicides with new modes of action (MOAs) have been discovered in the past two decades. Therefore, the discovery of new herbicides (i.e., new chemical classes or MOAs) remains a primary but ongoing strategy to overcome herbicide resistance and ensure crop production. In this mini-review, starting with the inherent characteristics of the target proteins and the inhibitor structures, we propose two strategies for the rational design of new herbicides and one computational method for the risk evaluation of target mutation-conferred herbicide resistance. The information presented here may improve the utilization of known targets and inspire the discovery of herbicides with new targets. We believe that these strategies may trigger the sustainable development of herbicides in the future. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

PURPOSE The objective of this study was to determine whether pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) could predict survival outcomes and liver toxicity in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients treated with stereotactic ablative radiation therapy (SABR). METHODS AND MATERIALS In this retrospective study we collected pretreatment NLR of HCC patients treated with SABR between December 2007 and August 2018 and determined its association with overall survival (OS), progression-free survival, and radiation-related liver toxicity defined as an increase in the Child-Turcotte-Pugh score by ≥2 within 3 months after SABR in the absence of disease progression. RESULTS A total of 153 patients with a median follow-up of 13.3 months were included. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis found that an NLR ≥2.4 was optimum (area under the curve, 0.762; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.682-0.841, P < .001) for predicting poor 1-year OS (38.2% vs 83.6%, P < .001). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that NLR was significantly associated with OS, both as a continuous (P = .006) and a binary variable (NLR set at 2.4; P = .003). Multiple tumors (P = .003), macrovascular invasion (P = .024), extrahepatic spread (P = .002), and albumin-bilirubin score (P = .020) were also significant predictors of OS. Elevated NLR independently prognosticated poor progression-free survival (P = .016). Liver toxicity was seen in 22 evaluable patients (15.4%). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis found NLR ≥4.0 was optimum at predicting liver toxicity (31.4% vs 10.2%, P = .005). A higher NLR (P = .049) and albumin-bilirubin score (P = .002) were independent risk factors for liver toxicity. CONCLUSIONS NLR is an objective and ubiquitous inflammatory marker that can predict OS and liver toxicity in HCC patients undergoing SABR. NLR could be a useful biomarker for patient risk stratification and therapeutic decision-making.

A double layer distribution can be observed in Cu2SnZnSe4 (CZTSe) thin films prepared via the selenization of metallic precursors. The double layer structure may cause the back contact of Mo substrates with absorber layers to degrade, thereby suppressing the performance of solar cells. Hence, to eliminate the problematic structure, we reduced the loss of SnSex during the selenization of precursors by modifying the laminated structures of the precursors formed by the deposition of CuxSe and ZnxSn1−x. In addition, the effects of different laminated structures on the thin-film properties of CZTSe were studied through X-ray diffraction analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, secondary-ion mass spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that the changes in the laminated structures help in reducing the loss of SnSex and in promoting the reactions between ZnSe and Cu–Sn–Se. As a result, the drawbacks of CZTSe thin films, such as the double layer distribution and existence of air holes, can be addressed. Furthermore, changes in the crystal structures are also noted. Photoluminescence results reveal that signals indicative of ZnSe-related defects were weakened and the band-tail effects became insignificant. Moreover, the internal resistance and quality of the interface in CZTSe solar cells were investigated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results prove that the improvement of the double-layer distribution of absorber layers leads to high photoelectric conversion efficiency. Therefore, we modified the laminated structures of precursors to eliminate the distribution of absorber layers, which considerably improved the photoelectric conversion efficiency (from 2.9% to 5.67%).

The optical fiber image inverters are the key components which applied in low-light level night vision device, and the optical fiber image inverters with large aperture can achieve the detection of wide field of view, large view and further visual range. However, the existing twisting operation process cannot produce the qualified products. The twisting operation process with rotation differential velocity combined with double internal furnace heating design was adopted, and finally the large-aperture optical fiber image inverters with required performance indexes were prepared. The test results show that the angle concentration amount in twisting region is decreased to 5.98 °/mm, which significantly improves the edge resolution of the large-aperture optical fiber image inverters.

Deep neural network is a promising method to recognize motor imagery electroencephalography (MI-EEG), which is often used as the source signal of a rehabilitation system; and the core issues are the data representation and the matched neural networks. MI-EEG images is one of the main expressions, however, all the measured data of a trial are usually integrated into one image, causing information loss, especially in the time dimension; and the neural network architecture might not fully extract the features over the $\alpha $ and $\beta $ frequency bands, which are closely related to MI. In this paper, we propose a key band imaging method (KBIM). A short time Fourier transform is applied to each electrode of the MI-EEG signal to generate a time-frequency image, and the parts corresponding to the $\alpha $ and $\beta $ bands are intercepted, fused, and further arranged into the EEG electrode map by the nearest neighbor interpolation method, forming two key band image sequences. In addition, a hybrid deep neural network named the parallel multimodule convolutional neural network and long short-term memory network (PMMCL) is designed for the extraction and fusion of the spatial-spectral and temporal features of two key band image sequences to realize automatic classification of MI-EEG signals. Extensive experiments are conducted on two public datasets, and the accuracies after 10-fold cross-validation are 97.42% and 77.33%, respectively. Statistical analysis shows the superb discrimination ability for multiclass MI-EEG too. The results demonstrate that KBIM can preserve the integrity of the feature information, and they well match with PMMCL.

Rotating machinery fault diagnosis is vital to enhance the reliability and safety of modern equipment. Recently, deep learning (DL) models have achieved breakthrough achievements in fault diagnosis. However, most of DL models are restricted to the time-consuming training task caused by a huge number of connecting parameters in the deep architecture. Besides, most of DL models require an entire retraining process if new architecture hyper-parameters are chosen, which means to obtain a good diagnosis model, a great deal of time is wasted to train useless models with inapposite hyper-parameters. These problems affect the efficiency of diagnosis tasks badly. Therefore, this article proposes an adaptive broad learning system (ABLS) for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. In the proposed ABLS, the original vibration signals are transformed into feature nodes and enhancement nodes, and all hidden nodes are directly connected to fault labels. Then, two adaptive incremental learning strategies are developed to fast adjust the network architecture without the entire retraining task. Finally, three case studies are implemented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed ABLS. The results demonstrate that the proposed ABLS offers a high-efficiency solution for rotating machinery fault diagnosis.

Deep learning has achieved remarkable results in various fields, such as image recognition and classification. However, in the recognition of radio modulation methods, deep learning for different modulation methods of radio signal recognition results are not satisfactory. In this paper, we propose to use densely connected convolutional networks combined with bidirectional recurrent neural networks to identify the radios of 11 different modulation methods. The final results show that our method is more accurate than the traditional convolution neural network in modulation recognition.

Aim Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are associated with greater risk of a variety of cancers. However, the association between gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and risk of cancer has so far not been well addressed. This study aimed to summarize the epidemiological evidence of the association between GDM and subsequent risk of cancer. Methods PubMed and Embase databases were searched for relevant studies, and a random-effects model was used to calculate the summary relative risks (RRs) along with the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results A total of 17 observational studies were selected, comprising 7 case–control and 10 cohort studies. Pooled effect estimates retrieved from these 17 studies showed that GDM was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in Asia (pooled RR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.01–1.70), but not in other regions, and also with thyroid cancer (RR: 1.28, 95% CI: 1.16–1.42), stomach cancer (RR: 1.43, 95% CI: 1.02–2.00) and liver cancer (RR: 1.27, 95% CI: 1.03–1.55). However, GDM was not associated with any increased risk of colon (RR: 1.41, 95% CI: 0.90–2.21), colorectal (RR: 1.16, 95% CI: 0.95–1.41), ovarian (RR: 1.14, 95% CI: 0.90–1.44), cervical (RR: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.81–1.29), pancreatic (RR: 3.49, 95% CI: 0.80–15.23), brain and nervous system (RR: 1.26, 95% CI: 0.80–1.97), blood (leukaemia, RR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.45–1.30), endometrial (RR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.20–2.98), skin (RR: 1.13, 95% CI: 0.81–1.59) or urological (RR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.73–1.31) cancers. Conclusion GDM is associated with a greater risk of cancer in women, including breast, thyroid, stomach and liver cancers. However, further investigation is nonetheless warranted.

Semiconductor manufacturing is on the cusp of a revolution: the Internet of Things (IoT). With IoT we can connect all the equipment and feed information back to the factory so that quality issues can be detected. In this situation, more and more edge devices are used in wafer inspection equipment. This edge device must have the ability to quickly detect defects. Therefore, how to develop a high-efficiency architecture for automatic defect classification to be suitable for edge devices is the primary task. In this paper, we present a novel architecture that can perform defect classification in a more efficient way. The first function is self-proliferation, using a series of linear transformations to generate more feature maps at a cheaper cost. The second function is self-attention, capturing the long-range dependencies of feature map by the channel-wise and spatial-wise attention mechanism. We named this method as self-proliferation-and-attention neural network. This method has been successfully applied to various defect pattern classification tasks. Compared with other latest methods, SP&A-Net has higher accuracy and lower computation cost in many defect inspection tasks.

Objective Our study aimed to explore the association between trimethylamine N-oxide and frailty in older adults with cardiovascular disease. Patients and Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed a total of 451 people aged 65 years or older who underwent comprehensive geriatric assessments. Frailty status was determined using a frailty index constructed with 48 variables according to the cumulative deficits model. Physical frailty and cognitive frailty were also assessed in detail. Fasting plasma TMAO was measured by mass spectrometry. Results The proportion of frail subjects was 29.9% (135/451). Plasma TMAO levels were significantly higher in frail patients than in nonfrail individuals (4.04 [2.84-7.01] vs 3.21 [2.13-5.03] µM; p

Aims To explore the value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in the detection of active pulmonary artery (PA) lesions in patients with Takayasu’s arteritis (TA). Methods and results Consecutive TA patients with PA involvement were prospectively recruited. Clinical activity was assessed according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria. CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) or magnetic resonance pulmonary angiography was performed for evaluation of vascular structural characteristics, and mural thickening was considered as radiologically active. A vascular segment with 18F-FDG uptake ≥ liver was considered as PET-active. A total of 38 18F-FDG PET/CT scans were performed in 29 patients. In terms of disease activity, the sensitivity of 18F-FDG PET/CT did not significantly differ from radiological imaging (71.4% vs. 92.9%, P = 0.250), but 18F-FDG PET/CT had higher specificity (91.7% vs. 37.5%, P = 0.001) and accuracy (84.2% vs. 57.9%, P = 0.022). Although the majority of PET-active PA segments (54.9%) showed mural thickening, 14 PA segments with normal structure were also PET-active. 18F-FDG activity did not significantly differ between the PA and aorta in clinically active patients. In addition, 18F-FDG activity of the PA was positively correlated with inflammatory markers. Changes in 18F-FDG activity in PA during follow-up reflected therapeutic effects. Conclusion 18F-FDG PET/CT can effectively evaluate PA activity in TA patients, and its diagnostic performance is superior to radiological imaging. The 18F-FDG activity of PA shows a good correlation with clinical disease status and inflammatory markers and can be used to monitor therapeutic effects.

Concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) is a composite structure consisting of a steel tube filled with concrete. The steel tube and its concrete core work together to carry external loads applied to the structure. Due to the interaction between the two kinds of materials, i.e., the confinement effect of steel tube on the core concrete, CFST structures can effectively delay/avoid the local buckling of the steel tube and the brittle failure of the concrete core. The superior structural properties of CFST include high strength and stiffness, good ductility, excellent seismic and fire performances, and easy construction. Therefore, CFST structures have been extensively used in large-scale constructions including industrial plants, subway stations, transmission towers, high-rise buildings, and bridges, etc. CFST structures have also offered substantial benefits on architectural appearance and engineering economy. The confinement effect in CFST throughout its service-life essentially contributes to the structural advantages, whilst it has, at the same time, brought about enormous complexities in the corresponding load-resisting mechanisms. Firstly, an in-depth understanding and accurate characterization of the confinement effect, and the development of some feasible constitutive models for the core concrete that facilitate the analysis and design of major infrastructures, becomes the key issue to be addressed. The salient loading factors in the service-life of CFST structures need to be considered in the constitutive models, such as long-term sustained load, low-cycle cyclic load and full-range fire. Secondly, the establishment of damage mechanism analysis and strength prediction models for CFST structures considering long-term sustained load, complex loading conditions, earthquake and fire becomes another key issue that needs to be resolved for the safety design of major CFST constructions. Life-cycle based damage mechanism and analytical theory of concrete-filled steel tubular structures have been investigated and established based on nearly 20 years of persistent and systematic study. The design methods for the ultimate loading capacity of CFST structures were further proposed. The major research outcomes can be summarized in the following three aspects: (1) The interaction between the steel tube and its core concrete as well as the passive confinement mechanism in CFST were revealed. A general constitutive model for the confined core concrete under various stress/action conditions was established with the “confinement factor” as an essential variable. The considered actions include long-term sustained stress, cyclic load and elevated temperature. (2) Theoretical models were established to account for the damage mechanism of CFST structures under long-term sustained load and complex loading conditions. The ultimate strength of CFST members under various loading conditions was analysed, including compression, tension, bending, shear, torsion, and the combinations of different loads and load paths. The creep and shrinkage of concrete as well as the deformation of CFST under long-term sustained load were accurately simulated. (3) Theoretical models were established to simulate the damage mechanism of CFST under earthquake and full-range fire. The hysteretic properties and ductility of CFST members under low-cycle cyclic loading were revealed. The model for calculating the fire resistance of CFST columns was proposed, in which the coupling effects of loads and full-range fire were taken into account. This paper briefly reviews the development of CFST structures and outlines the life-cycle based analytical theory for CFST structures. Finally, the potential development trends of the CFST structures are discussed.

The impact of pesticides on insect pollinators has caused worldwide concern. Both global bee decline and stopping the use of pesticides may have serious consequences for food security. Automated and accurate prediction of chemical poisoning of honey bees is a challenging task owing to a lack of understanding of chemical toxicity and introspection. Deep learning (DL) shows potential utility for general and highly variable tasks across fields. Here, we developed a new DL model of deep graph attention convolutional neural networks (GACNN) with the combination of undirected graph (UG) and attention convolutional neural networks (ACNN) to accurately classify chemical poisoning of honey bees. We used a training dataset of 720 pesticides and an external validation dataset of 90 pesticides, which is one order of magnitude larger than the previous datasets. We tested its performance in two ways: poisonous versus non-poisonous and GACNN versus other frequently-used machine learning models. The first case represents the accuracy in identifying bee poisonous chemicals. The second represents performance advantages. The GACNN achieved ~6% higher performance for predicting toxic samples and more stable with ~7% Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) higher compared to all tested models, demonstrating GACNN is capable of accurately classifying chemicals and has considerable potential in practical applications. In addition, we also summarized and evaluated the mechanisms underlying the response of honey bees to chemical exposure based on the mapping of molecular similarity. Moreover, our cloud platform ( http://beetox.cn ) of this model provides low-cost universal access to information, which could vitally enhance environmental risk assessment.

Background Prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains poor despite significant recent improvement in therapy. Recent studies have reported that transglutaminase 3 (TGM3) plays an important role in several human cancer types. However, the role of TGM3 in HCC have not been previously elucidated. Methods We evaluated the role of TGM3 in regulating HCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. We also investigated the prognostic significance of TGM3 in an HCC cohort. Finally, we explored the signalling pathways that TGM3 regulates in HCC. Results We identified TGM3 to be overexpressed in HCC compared to normal tissues. Higher expression of TGM3 predicts poor prognosis in HCC patients. TGM3 knockdown led to decreased HCC cell proliferation, invasion, and xenograft tumour growth. TGM3 depletion inhibited AKT, extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK), p65, and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β)/β-catenin activation, but promoted levels of cleaved caspase 3. Moreover, TGM3 knockdown cells had increased E-cadherin levels and decreased vimentin levels, suggesting that TGM3 contributes to epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in HCC. Conclusion Our results suggest that TGM3 controls multiple oncogenic pathways in HCC, thereby contributing to increased cell proliferation and EMT, and TGM3 potentially enhances HCC metastasis. TGM3 may serve as a novel therapeutic target in HCC.

The Micro-Encapsulated Phase Change Materials (MEPCMs) with the melting point temperature of 28 °C was used as an energy storage medium to control the thermal behaviour of a heat exchanger. The NEPCM particles were mixed with Expanded Graphite (EG) microparticles to improve the heat transfer rate in the heat exchanger. The MEPCM particles are made of paraffin cores with a particle average size of 45 μm. The paraffin core of the particles can undergo a solid/liquid phase change and store a tremendous amount of thermal energy due to the latent heat of phase change. The heat exchanger is a copper pipe radiator with aluminium fins confined in either a bed of MEPCMs or a composite mixture of MEPCMs + Expanded Graphite (EG) microparticles. The thermophysical properties of MEPCMs and MEPCM + EG were measured. The outcomes show 132% enhancement in thermal conductivity and a 28% decrease in the sensible specific heat of the MEPCM + EG composite with the weight ratio of 70% MEPCM and 30% EG compared to pure MEPCM. The charging and discharging behaviour of heat exchanger for various flow rates and two cases of MEPCM and MEPCM + EG were studied experimentally. The results reveal that using EG notably enhances the heat transfer and capability of the heat exchanger during the charging and discharging process. Using MEPCM + EG reduces the temperature drop at the heat exchanger outlet about 15 °C compared to the case of pure MEPCM.

A new composite nanostructure, placing two circle Ag nanoparticles (NPs) on the surface of a SiO2 ellipsoid nanoparticle (abbreviated as AgNPs@SE), was established to analyze the extinction spectra using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. We would show that the new constructed AgNPs@SE nanostructure had exhibited better extinction performance as compared to an isolated NP. Furthermore, we would optimize the performance by tuning structural parameters of the constructed AgNPs@SE nanostructure, including the angle of Ag NPs and aspect ratios of SiO2 ellipsoid NP. We could prove that the constructed nanostructure with the end-to-end orientation model of the AgNPs@SE nanostructure had existed exciting hot spot. Moreover, the array of multimer was also constructed for further investigation. This work could helpful for the design of the AgNPs@SE multimer nanostructure, which can be used to assist photo-catalysis and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).

In this study, two-dimensional ZnO nanoflower photoelectrodes were prepared using a chemical solution method and applied to dye-sensitised solar cells. By growing ZnO nanoflowers with different lengths on the photoelectrodes, the effects of the ZnO nanoflowers on the omnidirectional light-harvesting and broadband of dye-sensitised solar cells were investigated. According to the field emission scanning electron microscope and UV–Vis-NIR measurements of the prepared ZnO nanoflowers at different lengths, it can be determined that the amount of dye adsorption and degree of light scattering are affected by the lengths of the nanoflowers. A finite difference time-domain simulation was used to verify whether the degree of light scattering was affected by the lengths of the ZnO nanoflowers. In addition, the prepared ZnO nanoflower photoelectrodes of different lengths were applied to dye-sensitised solar cells. The photoelectric element efficiency, carrier life cycle, and element characteristics under wide-angle measurements were investigated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the monochromic incident photon-to-electronic conversion efficiency, and a solar simulator. At high angles, the difference in efficiency of multi-directional incident light was reduced from 46% to 12%, which effectively improved the capturing characteristics of the multi-directional incident light during light scattering.

Fragment-based drug design (FBDD) is a promising methodology to find quality drug leads. It is important in the curriculum of a drug design course due to its impact on drug discovery. However, teaching FBDD and its use by students remain challenging in most cases. A web-based laboratory class to teach FBDD in the form of our copyrighted workshops is described. The students’ feedback and a quantitative evaluation of the results show that the web-based laboratory class is popular with students and facilitates students’ learning of FBDD for design of possible drug-like molecules.

Background/Purpose: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has become a worldwide health problem, leading to high morbidity and mortality, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered a risk factor for CKD. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) and the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and identify possible risk factors related to the NFS among Taiwanese subjects. Methods: Subjects were enrolled from the database of the Department of Preventive Medicine of Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital. The eGFR was calculated according to the Taiwanese Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (TMDRD) equation, and the NFS was employed to evaluate the fibrotic level. Results: In total, 11,376 subjects were enrolled in this study, with a mean age of 52.0 ± 6.81 years, including 4529 (39.8%) males. A fasting sugar level ≥100 mg/dL (OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.52–1.87) and an abnormal waist circumference (OR = 1.81, 95% CI = 1.65–1.99) were significant factors associated with NFS (p

This paper presents a thorough investigation over characteristics and device performance of Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) thin films and CZTSe solar cells prepared on Mo substrate, and on transparent oxide layers including SnO2:F (FTO) layer, and In2O3:Sn (ITO) layer. The resultant CZTSe thin film is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and photoluminescence (PL), and is subsequently fabricated into CZTSe solar cell. The characterization measurements have unveiled that, different substrate material can affect the diffusion of sodium and zinc, hence alters the distribution of ZnSe, surface morphology and crystalline structure of the CZTSe thin film. In comparison, FTO shows superior stability among Mo substrate and ITO substrate during high temperature fabrication process for CZTSe thin film solar cells. For weatherability test of the three CZTSe solar cells with different substrates, all of the three devices have also been exposed to damp heat damage. Test results shows the least efficiency decline on the CZTSe solar cell with FTO substrate after damp heat damage, suggesting that the CZTSe solar cell with FTO substrate is the most resistive to damp heat weathering. The CZTSe solar cell with Mo substrate can be deteriorated at Mo substrate layer and shows more drastic efficiency decrease. The comparison reflects a high potential in CZTSe solar cell for the next generation photovoltaic applications, such as see-through solar cells and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV).

We theoretically proposed an ultra-broadband infrared light absorber and demonstrated that a high absorption could be obtained in the range of ultra-broadband infrared light using the iron thin layers. The simulation results showed that the proposed absorber could achieve a close-to-unity absorption rate across a wide infrared spectral range, and that the average absorption rate would reach 90.6% over the range of 1.4-11.4μm. The high absorption rate resulted from the excitation of strong localized surface plasmon resonance in the iron layers and the superposition of different resonance frequencies. Numerical analysis results demonstrated that our proposed absorber had a broader efficient absorption range than most previously reported broadband infrared light absorbers.

Image enhancement is an important pre-processing step for many computer vision applications especially regarding the scenes in poor visibility conditions. In this work, we develop a unified two-pathway model inspired by the biological vision, especially the early visual mechanisms, which contributes to image enhancement tasks including low dynamic range (LDR) image enhancement and high dynamic range (HDR) image tone mapping. Firstly, the input image is separated and sent into two visual pathways: structure-pathway and detail-pathway, corresponding to the M- and P-pathway in the early visual system, which code the low- and high-frequency visual information, respectively. In the structure-pathway, an extended biological normalization model is used to integrate the global and local luminance adaptation, which can handle the visual scenes with varying illuminations. On the other hand, the detail enhancement and local noise suppression are achieved in the detail-pathway based on local energy weighting. Finally, the outputs of structure-and detail-pathway are integrated to achieve the low-light image enhancement. In addition, the proposed model can also be used for tone mapping of HDR images with some fine-tuning steps. Extensive experiments on three datasets (two LDR image datasets and one HDR scene dataset) show that the proposed model can handle the visual enhancement tasks mentioned above efficiently and outperform the related state-of-the-art methods.

Background: The features and risk analysis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in a community-based setting remain elusive. The predictors between obese and lean subjects need further clarification. We aimed to assess the characteristics of NAFLD during a community screening. The associated metabolic abnormalities and cardiovascular risk assessment were also analyzed. Methods: A total of 2483 subjects receiving multi-purpose health screening at 10 primary care centers were recruited. They received clinical assessment, including demographic data, laboratory examination, and abdominal sonography. Results: The prevalence of NAFLD and metabolic syndrome were 44.5%, and 15.8%, respectively. Among those NAFLD subjects, 1212 (48.8%) subjects were obese (BMI≥ 24 kg/m2). There was an increasing trend of NAFLD according to age, ranging from 25.8% of those aged 27 kg/m2 (P for trend< 0.0001). Conclusion: IR is predictive of NAFLD irrespective of BMI. The cardiovascular risk may exist in lean NAFLD subjects. Keywords: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Metabolic syndrome, Insulin resistance, Risk assessment, Community screening

Intrauterine adhesions caused by damage to the basal layer of the endometrium have a serious impact on women's fertility. Currently, there is no effective treatment to promote the regeneration of the endometrium. Urinary bladder matrix (UBM) is a derivative extracellular matrix biomaterial that has a complete basement membrane and provides a basis for the body to achieve complete self-functional repair. In this study, UBM was transplanted into the uterine horns of intrauterine adhesions in Sprague-Dawley rats to test whether UBM could improve endometrial regeneration in rats with intrauterine adhesions. Thicker endometria, increased numbers of glands, fewer fibrotic areas and increased proliferation of cells and blood vessels were found in the UBM group compared to the injury group. Transplantation of UBM reduced the mRNA levels of proinflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor α) and increased those of anti-inflammatory cytokines (basic fibroblast growth factor) compared to the injury group. In the UBM group, the mRNA expression of endometrial receptivity factors (leukemia inhibitory factor and integrin αVβ3) was higher than that in the injury group, but it was lower than that in the normal group and the sham-operated group. More embryos were seen in the UBM group than in the injury group, although the UBM group had fewer embryos than the normal and sham-operated groups. Therefore, UBM may contribute to endometrial regeneration and may improve endometrial receptivity and fertility.

Since readmission rate is an important clinical index to determine the quality of inpatient care and hospital performance, the aim of this study was to explain the causes and predictors of readmission following transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) at short-term and mid-term follow-up.A systematic review and meta-analysis of all published articles from Embase, Pubmed/MEDLINE, and Ovid was carried out. In all, 10 studies including 52,702 patients were identified. The pooled estimate for the overall event rate was 0.15, and cardiovascular causes were the main reason for 30-day readmission (0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.39-0.45). In addition, the pooled incidence of 1‑year readmission was 0.31, and cardiovascular events were still the main cause (0.41, 95% CI: 0.33-0.48). Patients with major and life-threatening bleeding, new permanent pacemaker implantation, and clinical heart failure were associated with a high risk for early readmission after TAVI. Moreover, an advanced (≥3) New York Heart Association classification, acute kidney injury, paravalvular leak, mitral regurgitation (≥ moderate), and major bleeding predicted unfavorable outcome to 1‑year readmission. Female gender and transfemoral TAVI was associated with a lower risk for unplanned rehospitalization.This meta-analysis found cardiovascular factors to be the main causes for both 30-day and 1‑year rehospitalization. Heart failure represented the most common cardiovascular event at both short-term and mid-term follow-up. Several baseline characteristics and procedure-related factors were deemed unfavorable predictors of readmission. Importantly, transfemoral access and female gender were associated with a lower risk of readmission.HINTERGRUND: Die Wiederaufnahmerate ist eine wichtige klinische Kennzahl, um die Qualität der stationären Versorgung und der in der Klinik erbrachten Leistung zu bestimmen. Daher war das Ziel der vorliegenden Studie, die Ursachen und Prädiktoren der Wiederaufnahme nach Transkatheter-Aortenklappenimplantation (TAVI) im kurz- und mittelfristigen Follow-up zu ermitteln.Es erfolgte eine systematische Übersicht und Metaanalyse aller in Embase, PubMed/MEDLINE und Ovid veröffentlichten Beiträge. Insgesamt 10 Studien mit 52.702 eingeschlossenen Patienten wurden identifiziert. Die gepoolte Schätzung der Gesamtereignisrate betrug 0,15; kardiovaskuläre Ursachen waren der Hauptgrund für 30-Tages-Wiederaufnahmen (0,42; 95%-Konfidenzintervall [KI] 0,39–0,45). Zudem lag die gepoolte Inzidenz der 1‑Jahres-Wiederaufnahme bei 0,31; kardiovaskuläre Ereignisse waren weiterhin die Hauptursache (0,41; 95%-KI 0,33–0,48). Patienten mit starker und lebensbedrohender Blutung, neuer permanenter Schrittmacherimplantation und klinischer Herzinsuffizienz waren mit einem hohen Risiko der frühen Wiederaufnahme nach TAVI assoziiert. Darüber hinaus waren ein fortgeschrittenes New-York-Heart-Association-Stadium (≥3), eine akute Nierenschädigung, paravalvuläre Leckage, Mitralinsuffizienz (≥ mäßiggradig) und schwere Blutung Prädiktoren eines ungünstigen Outcomes bezüglich der 1‑Jahres-Wiederaufnahme. Weibliches Geschlecht und eine transfemorale TAVI waren mit einem geringeren Risiko der ungeplanten Rehospitalisierung assoziiert.In dieser Metaanalyse erwiesen sich kardiovaskuläre Faktoren als die Hauptursachen sowohl für die 30-Tages- als auch für die 1‑Jahres-Rehospitalisierung. Herzinsuffizienz stellte im kurzfristigen wie auch mittelfristigen Follow-up das häufigste kardiovaskuläre Ereignis dar. Mehrere Eigenschaften zu Studienbeginn und verfahrensbezogene Faktoren zeigten sich als ungünstige Prädiktoren der Wiederaufnahme. Wichtig ist, dass der transfemorale Zugang und weibliches Geschlecht mit einem geringeren Risiko der Wiederaufnahme assoziiert waren.

Objectives To survey the difference of frailty prevalence in elderly inpatients amongdifferent wards; to compare the diagnostic performance of five frailty measurements (Clinical Frailty Scale [CFS], FRAIL, Fried, Edmonton, Frailty Index [FI]) in identifying frailty; and to explore the risk factors of frailty in elderly inpatients. Participants and methods This was a cross-sectional study including 1000 inpatients (mean age 75.2±6.7 years, 51.5% male; 542, 229, and 229 patients from cardiology, non-surgical, and surgical wards, respectively) in a tertiary hospital from September 2018 to February 2019. We applied the combined index to integrate the five frailty measurements mentioned above as the gold standard of frailty diagnosis. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the independent risk factors of frailty. Results Frailty prevalence was 32.3% (Fried), 36.2% (CFS), 19.2% (FRAIL), 25.2% (Edmonton), 35.1% (FI) in all patients. The frailty was more common in non-surgical wards, regardless of the frailty assessment tools used (non-surgical wards: 27.5% to 51.5%; cardiology ward: 14.9% to 29.3%; surgical wards: 18.8% to 41.9%). CFS≥5 showed a sensitivity of 94.1% and a specificity of 85.2% for all patients. FI≥0.25 showed a sensitivity of 94.8% and a specificity of 87.0% for all patients. Age [odds ratio (OR) = 1.089, P

In order to suppress the effect of the temperature variation on the wavefront of the laser communication terminal, the secondary mirror support with flexure hinges is designed. The series-wound straight-circle flexure hinge is designed to achieve the maximal variation range of the flexibility or stiffness with the limit of flexure hinges geometrical size. The position and quantity of the flexure hinges are determined to control the deformation direction of the secondary mirror. In order to search the direction in which the wavefront aberration is minimum, the flexure hinges parameters are optimized with the system wavefront aberration as the optimization objective. The prototype of the laser communication terminal is constructed and the value of the wavefront aberration is measured under the condition of 20 ± 2°C. Experimental results show that the value of the wavefront aberration root mean square (RMS) is reduced from 0.066λ to 0.042λ, meeting the requirement of RMS less than 1/20λ (λ=632.8 nm). The athermal design method presented in this paper provides a novel way for the athermal design of the small aperture mirror support in off-axis optical systems.

Objective: To identify the role of FUBP1 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression, invasion and metastasis. Methods: The expression and clinical significance of FUBP1 in HCC was analyzed by university of California santa cruz (UCSC) Xena online bioinformatics analysis tool and TMA from 451 HCC patients who underwent surgery that removed the primary tumor. CD45-EpCam circulating tumor cell was analyzed by CellSearchTM system. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function studies for FUBP1 were performed by implementing lentivirus infection system. HCC cell proliferation, migration and long term survival were measured by CCK-8, transwell assay and clone formation test respectively. The effect of tumor cell growth in vivo was measured by using tumor xenograft mice. Results: mRNA expression level of FUBP1 is higher in HCC tumors compared to adjacent normal liver tissue. Statistical analysis shows that higher expression of FUBP1 is related with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection background and often with microvascular invasion. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed significantly shorter median TTR (Time to Recurrence) and overall survival (OS) in patients with high FUBP1 compared with those patients with low FUBP1. The 2-year and 5-year recurrence rate is higher, corresponding with lower OS, in patients with high FUBP1 expression than low FUBP1. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that FUBP expression level was an independent indicator for both TTR and OS. In addition, FUBP1 expression in tumors positively correlated with the percentage of CD45-EpCam circulating tumor cell in blood before operation. Overexpression of FUBP1 enhances HCC proliferation, invasion and metastasis. By using shRNAs to deplete FUBP1 expression, HCC cells displayed decreased cell proliferation, soft-agar growth and invasion. In contrast, FUBP1 overexpression promotes primary tumor growth and lung metastasis. qPCR and Western Blot confirmed that the FUBP1 overexpression induces upregulation of N-cadherin and Vimentin whereas inhibiting E-cadherin, important epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers. By performing gene expression profiling, we identified that FUBP1 activates the TGF-β/smad pathway through promoting the expression of THBS1 (Thrombospondin-1, TSP-1). LSKL (Peptide antagonist of Thrombospondin-1) could inhibit HCC proliferation and invasion in vitro and vivo through blocking activation of TGF-β/smad pathway mediated by THBS1. Conclusions: High level of FUBP1 in HCC predicts poor prognosis after surgery. Overexpression of FUBP1 promotes HCC proliferation, invasion and metastasis, at least partially through enriching the generation of CTCs by activates TGF-I²/smad pathway and enhancing EMT in vitro and vivo. LSKL could inhibit HCC proliferation and invasion in vitro and vivo through blocking activation of TGF-β/smad pathway mediated by THBS1. Funding: National Science and Technology Major Project (2013ZX10002011-004, 2018ZX10203204-006-002). National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC0902400), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81572823, 81572884). Declaration of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. Ethical Approval: This study was approved by the Clinical Trail Ethics Committee of Zhongshan Hospital and all other four clinical centers. Approval for research protocol and use of human subjects was obtained from the research ethics committee of Zhongshan Hospital. Informed consent was obtained from each patient.

Background This study aimed to compare the clinical outcomes of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) and conventionally fractionated radiotherapy (CFRT) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein invasion (PVI). Methods HCC patients with PVI treated with radiotherapy from 2007 to 2016 were analysed. CFRT was administered at a median dose of 51.5 Gy (interquartile range, 45–54 Gy) with 1.8–3 Gy per fraction. SABR was administered at a median dose of 45 Gy (interquartile range, 40–48 Gy) with 6–12.5 Gy per fraction. Treatment efficacy, toxicity, and associated predictors were assessed. Results Among the 104 evaluable patients (45 in the SABR group and 59 in the CFRT group), the overall response rate (ORR, complete and partial response) was significantly higher in the SABR group than the CFRT group (62.2% vs. 33.8%, p = 0.003). The 1-year overall survival (OS) rate (34.9% vs. 15.3%, p = 0.012) and in-field progression-free survival (IFPS) rate (69.6% vs. 32.2%, p = 0.007) were also significantly higher in the SABR vs. CFRT group. All 3 rates remained higher in the SABR group after propensity score matching. Multivariable analysis identified SABR and a biologically effective dose ≥65 Gy as favourable predicators of OS. There was no difference between treatment groups in the incidence of radiation-induced liver disease or increase of Child-Pugh score ≥ 2 within 3 months of radiotherapy. Conclusions SABR was superior to CFRT in terms of ORR, OS, and IFPS. We suggest that SABR should be the preferred technique for HCC patients with PVI.

This study compared the local control and overall survival (OS) between stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in medium-sized (3-8 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).From January 2008 to October 2017, 188 patients with medium-sized HCC underwent either TACE (n = 142) or SBRT (n = 46). We adjusted for imbalances in treatment assignment using propensity score matching. Infield control (IFC) and OS were analyzed retrospectively.The median follow-up time was 17.1 months for all patients and 26.6 months for surviving patients. The 3-year IFC was 63.0% for the TACE group and 73.3% for the SBRT group. Multivariable analysis identified the independent predictors for IFC as treatment modality (SBRT vs TACE), sex (female vs male), and recurrence status (recurrence vs new diagnosis). The 3-year OS was 22.9% for the TACE group and 47.4% for the SBRT group. Multivariable analysis identified the independent predictors of OS as number of tumors, treatment modality (SBRT vs TACE), albumin-bilirubin grade, tumor volume, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group status, and recurrence status. Propensity score matching analysis revealed that the SBRT group had better IFC (3-year IFC of 77.5% vs 55.6%; P = .007) and OS (3-year OS of 55.0% vs 13.0%; P.001) than the TACE group. For recurrent HCC, the SBRT group exhibited superior IFC (3-year IFC of 75% vs 57.5%; P = .022) and OS (3-year OS of 58.3% vs 5.9%; P.001) compared with the TACE group. However, there was no difference in IFC or OS between TACE and SBRT for patients with newly diagnosed HCC.SBRT has better IFC and OS rates than TACE in patients with medium-sized HCC, particularly for recurrent cases, which warrants prospective randomized controlled trials of TACE and SBRT.

In 1965, Gordon E. Moore, the co-founder of Intel stated that numbers of transistors on a chip will double every 18 months and his theory called the Moore's Law. The law had been the guiding principle of chip design over 50 years. The technology dimension is scaling very aggressively in IC foundry. For example, TSMC announced their 5nm Fin Field-Effect Transistor (FinFET) process technology is optimized for both mobile and high performance computing applications. It is scheduled to start risk production in the second half of 2019.[1] To overview the semiconductor supply chain included IC foundry, wafer bumping, IC carrier, PCB (Printed circuit board) and OSAT (oversea assembly and testing)… etc., the IC carrier and PCB technology dimension scaling are far behind than the IC foundry since many reasons for the traditional industry. The industry needs different kinds of breakthrough approaches for the scaling of via and strip line in next generation interconnection. Traditional organic substrates faces many challenges of warpage, surface roughness and material dimension stability issues for manufacturing and high density I/Os with very fine line interconnections. To breakthrough these challenges, the materials of glass carrier, new photo-imagable dielectric (PID) and advanced equipment were evaluated for the fine line and fine via interconnection. In the papers, there are many PID and non-PID materials were surveyed and compared for fine via (< 10μm) interconnection or low loss of high frequency application. The first candidate was chosen for redistribution layers (RDL) fabrication by using 370mm × 470mm glass panels. Semi additive process (SAP) was used for direct metallization on glass panel with different build-up dielectric materials to form daisy chain test vehicles. The process, fabrication integration and electrical measurement results of daisy chain showed good continuity and electric resistance in the glass panel substrate. The reliability of the thermal cycling test (TCT) and highly accelerated stress test (HAST) were evaluated as well in this study.

This paper describes the experimental and numerical study on the axial compressive behaviour of circular-in-circular concrete-filled double-skin steel tube (CFDST) stub columns with large void ratio. Nine specimens with various void ratio (Rv), diameter-to-thickness ratio of outer tube (Do/to) and compressive strength of concrete (fcu) were tested under axial compression. The failure patterns, load versus displacement (strain) relationship, ultimate capacity and elastic composite stiffness of the specimens were investigated. The experimental results show that all specimens have good structural performance. The typical failure patterns of this new type of columns include local buckling of outer or inner tubes and crushing of concrete infill at the primary buckling locations of both tubes. It is observed from the tests that, there are three key stages in the load versus displacement (strain) relationship, namely: approximative elastic, elastoplastic and nonlinear post-peak, and with the augment of Rv and Do/to and the reduce of fcu, the ultimate capacity and elastic composite stiffness of the specimens decrease. Apart from tests, a finite element (FE) model was developed to further study the axial compressive behaviour of circular-in-circular CFDST stub columns with large void ratio, and the model was validated against the experimental results. Finally, a simplified analytical model to predict the ultimate capacity of circular-in-circular CFDST stub columns with large void ratio was developed, and the accuracy of the model was verified by the available experimental results. It can be used by the practising engineers in the future design of this type of columns.