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Background: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy and the fastest growing cancer worldwide. Thyroid cancer has the largest genetic component of all cancers. Previous genome-wide association studies indicated that genetic polymorphism in PCNXL2 is related to thyroid cancer susceptibility in European populations. This study aims to determine the influence of PCNXL2 polymorphisms on thyroid cancer risk in Chinese individuals. Methods: This case–control study identified four polymorphisms in PCNXL2 among 510 thyroid cancer cases and 509 healthy controls. The associations of PCNXL2 polymorphisms with thyroid cancer susceptibility were detected by calculating odds ratios. Multifactor dimensionality reduction was performed to detect the impact of SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism)–SNP interactions on the risk of thyroid cancer. Results: The study showed that rs10910660 in PCNXL2 was related to thyroid cancer susceptibility. Rs12129938 played a protective role in thyroid cancer susceptibility. Stratification analysis indicated that rs10910660 increased thyroid cancer risk at age >45 years. Rs12129938 enhanced susceptibility to thyroid cancer at age >45 years, while this SNP decreased thyroid cancer risk at age ≤45 years. Rs4649295 was associated with lower susceptibility to thyroid cancer at age ≤45 years. An association was observed between rs6424270 and rs12129938 with decreased susceptibility to thyroid cancer in women. Rs10910660 was related to thyroid cancer risk in men. The combination of rs6424270, rs10910660, rs12129938 and rs4649295 was the best model to predict thyroid cancer. Conclusion: This study suggests that PCNXL2 polymorphisms are risk factors for thyroid cancer in the Chinese population.

Nanobubbles (NBs) have recently gained interest in cancer imaging and therapy due to the fact that nanoparticles with the size range of 1-1000 nm can extravasate into permeable tumor types through the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect. However, the therapeutic study of NBs was only limited to drug delivery or cavitation. Herein, we developed ultrasound-evoked massive NB explosion to strikingly damage the surrounding cancer. The dual-function agent allows synergistic mechanical impact and photodynamic therapy of the tumors and enhances imaging contrast. Moreover, the mechanical explosion improved the light delivery efficiency in biological tissue to promote the effect of photodynamic therapy. Under ultrasound/photoacoustic imaging guidance, we induced on-the-spot bubble explosion and photodynamic therapy of tumors at a depth of centimeters in vivo. The mechanical impact of the explosion can enhance delivery of the photosensitizers. Ultrasound explicitly revealed the cancer morphology and exhibited fast NB perfusion. Generated mechanical damage and release of mixture agents demonstrated remarkable synergetic anticancer effects on deep tumors. This finding also offers a new approach and insight into treating cancers.

The evidence for the association between metabolic score for insulin resistance (METS-IR) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is limited. We aimed to explore the association of METS-IR and its 6-year change with risk of incident T2DM in a rural Chinese population.We analyzed data for 12 107 participants (mean age 50.48 years). A Cox proportional-hazard model was used to estimate the association of METS-IR with incident T2DM by using hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs); a logistic regression model was used to assess the association of 6-year METS-IR change with incident T2DM by using odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs. We used subgroup analyses of the association of METS-IR and its 6-year change with incident T2DM by sex, age, and baseline fasting plasma glucose (FPG) level as well as restricted cubic splines to describe the dose-response association.The association of METS-IR and 6-year METS-IR change with incident T2DM was significant (per SD unit increase: HR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.60-2.02 for METS-IR, OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.28-1.57 and OR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.44-1.76 for relative and absolute METS-IR change). The significant association remained on subgroup analyses by sex, age, and baseline FPG level. Dose-response analysis demonstrated that the probability of incident T2DM was significantly increased with increasing METS-IR and 6-year METS-IR change.Increased METS-IR and 6-year METS-IR change were positively associated with risk of incident T2DM in a rural Chinese population. METS-IR may be a vital indicator for identifying T2DM.背景: 关于胰岛素抵抗代谢评分(Metabolic score for insulin resistance, METS-IR)与2型糖尿病(Type 2 diabetes mellitus, T2DM)之间关系的证据有限。我们的目的是在中国农村人群中探讨METS-IR及其6年变化与T2DM发病风险的关系。 方法: 我们分析了12107名参与者的数据(平均年龄50.48岁)。Cox比例风险回归模型通过风险比(Hazard ratio, HR)和95%置信区间(Confidence interval, CI)估计METS-IR与T2DM发病的关系；采用logistic回归模型通过比值比(Odds ratio, OR)和95% CI评估METS-IR的6年变化与T2DM发病的关系。我们通过性别、年龄和基线空腹血糖(Fasting plasma glucose, FPG)水平对METS-IR及其6年变化与T2DM发病的关系进行了亚组分析, 并使用限制性立方样条曲线探讨两者的剂量-反应关系。 结果: METS-IR及其6年变化与T2DM发生的关系显著(METS-IR每增加一个标准差的单位:HR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.60-2.02；METS-IR的6年相对和绝对变化量每增加一个标准差的单位:OR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.28-1.57和OR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.44-1.76)。METS-IR及其6年变化与T2DM发生关系在按性别、年龄和基线FPG水平进行的亚组分析中仍存在显著关联。剂量-反应分析结果显示, 随着METS-IR及其6年改变量的增加, T2DM的发病风险显著增加。 结论: 在中国农村人群中, METS-IR及其6年变化量的增加与T2DM发生的风险呈正相关, METS-IR可能是诊断T2DM的重要指标。.

Objective: To examine the influence of exclusive breastfeeding on infant development among 3-month-old infants in a Chinese population. Methods: Mothers and their 3-month-old infants were recruited...

Limited evidence is available on the association of mean arterial pressure and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) among Chinese people. We aimed to investigate the association between MAP and risk of T2DM in rural Chinese adults.We performed a cohort study of 12,284 eligible participants (4668 men and 7616 women) without T2DM at baseline. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association of MAP with risk of T2DM. Restricted cubic spline models were used to evaluate the dose-response association between MAP and risk of T2DM.During a median of 6.01 years follow-up (73,403.52 person-years), T2DM developed in 847 participants (318 men and 529 women). In the multivariable-adjusted models, risk of T2DM was significantly higher for women with the third (90-100mmHg) and fourth MAP categories (≥100mmHg) than the first category (80mmHg) after adjusting for confounders (HR=1.74 [95% CI 1.14-2.68] and 1.84 [1.20-2.83]). Restricted cubic spline analysis revealed increased risk of T2DM with increasing MAP for women.High MAP was related to high incident T2DM among women in China.

AIM: To explore the apoptosis of ARPE-19 cells after the treatment with different doses of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). METHODS: ARPE-19 cells were used in the in-vitro experiment. Flow cytometry assay was employed to evaluate the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and apoptosis. The effects of ATRA (concentrations from 2.5 to 20 µmol/L) on the expression of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) markers in vitro were evaluated by Western blot and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays. The contribution of ROS and ERS-induced apoptosis in vitro was determined by using N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) and Salubrinal, an antagonist of NAC and ERS, respectively. RESULTS: Flow cytometry showed that ATRA significantly increased ARPE-19 cell apoptosis and ROS levels in each group (F=86.39, P

Background and aims The alcohol–hypertension relation has been well documented, but whether women have protective effect or race and type of beverage consumed affect the association remain unclear. To quantify the relation between total or beverage-specific alcohol consumption and incident hypertension by considering the effect of sex and race. Methods and results Articles were identified in PubMed and Embase databases with no restriction on publication date. Pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by random effects models. Restricted cubic splines were used to model the dose–response association. This study involved 22 articles (31 studies) and included 414,477 participants. The hypertension risk was different among liquor, wine, and beer at 5.1–10 g/d of ethanol consumption (P-across subgroups = 0.002). The hypertension risk differed between men (RR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.20) and women (RR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.89, 1.06) at 10 g/d (P-across subgroups = 0.005). We found a linear alcohol–hypertension association among white (P-linearity = 0.017), black people (P-linearity = 0.035), and Asians (P-linearity Conclusion Sex modifies the alcohol–hypertension association at low level of alcohol consumption and we did not find evidence of a protective effect of alcohol consumption among women. Black people may have higher hypertension risk than Asians and white people at the same ethanol consumption.

Although consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) has increasingly been linked with obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and all-cause mortality, evidence remains conflicted and dose–response meta-analyses of the associations are lacking. We conducted an updated meta-analysis to synthesize the knowledge about their associations and to explore their dose–response relations. We comprehensively searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Open Grey up to September 2019 for prospective cohort studies investigating the associations in adults. Summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated for the dose–response association. Restricted cubic splines were used to evaluate linear/non-linear relations. We included 39 articles in the meta-analysis. For each 250-mL/d increase in SSB and ASB intake, the risk increased by 12% (RR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.05–1.19, I2 = 67.7%) and 21% (RR = 1.21, 95% CI 1.09–1.35, I2 = 47.2%) for obesity, 19% (RR = 1.19, 95% CI 1.13–1.25, I2 = 82.4%) and 15% (RR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.05–1.26, I2 = 92.6%) for T2DM, 10% (RR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.06–1.14, I2 = 58.4%) and 8% (RR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.06–1.10, I2 = 24.3%) for hypertension, and 4% (RR = 1.04, 95% CI 1.01–1.07, I2 = 58.0%) and 6% (RR = 1.06, 95% CI 1.02–1.10, I2 = 80.8%) for all-cause mortality. For SSBs, restricted cubic splines showed linear associations with risk of obesity (Pnon-linearity = 0.359), T2DM (Pnon-linearity = 0.706), hypertension (Pnon-linearity = 0.510) and all-cause mortality (Pnon-linearity = 0.259). For ASBs, we found linear associations with risk of obesity (Pnon-linearity = 0.299) and T2DM (Pnon-linearity = 0.847) and non-linear associations with hypertension (Pnon-linearity = 0.019) and all-cause mortality (Pnon-linearity = 0.048). Increased consumption of SSBs and ASBs is associated with risk of obesity, T2DM, hypertension, and all-cause mortality. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously because the present analyses were based on only cohort but not intervention studies.

The association between sleep duration and general and abdominal obesity in adults, especially in the rural Chinese population, remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted this study to evaluate the association between sleep duration and general and abdominal obesity in rural Chinese adults.We included 12,446 adults aged 18-75 years old who completed a baseline examination during 2007-2008 and follow-up during 2013-2014. We prospectively investigated the sleep-obesity association over an average of six-year follow-up. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the probability of new-onset general and abdominal obesity, estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).As compared with sleep duration 6.5-7.5 h, short sleep duration (6.5 h) was significantly associated with increased probability of abdominal obesity in men (OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.05-2.45) after controlling for multiple covariates. A similar association was found in men aged60 years but not in women or in men ≤60 years. We found no significant association between sleep duration and general obesity. The results were consistent when restricting the analysis to participants without cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus or cancer at baseline.Short sleep duration was significantly associated with abdominal obesity in rural Chinese adults, and the association varied by sex and age.

The triglyceride to high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (TG/HDL-C) ratio is considered a simple surrogate of insulin resistance. The aim of this study was to explore the association of the TG/HDL-C ratio with the risk of incident hypertension and whether the TG/HDL-C ratio mediates the obesity–incident hypertension association. The study analyzed 9679 participants from a rural Chinese population. Demographic and anthropometric and laboratory data were collected at baseline (2007–2008) and follow-up (2013–2014) examinations. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze the association of the TG/HDL-C ratio with incident hypertension, estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Mediation analysis was performed to examine the contribution of the TG/HDL-C ratio to obesity-related incident hypertension. During a median follow-up of 6.00 years, hypertension developed in 1880/9679 participants (19.42%). The risk of incident hypertension was higher in the highest TG/HDL-C ratio quartile than in the lowest quartile (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.02–1.42). Subgroup analyses showed that the risk of incident hypertension was increased by 30%, 36%, and 33% among women, participants

Brachial pulse pressure (PP) was used as a measure of arterial stiffness, and we investigated whether PP was associated with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a rural Chinese population. A total of 13,223 participants were enrolled in the Rural Chinese Cohort Study during 2007-2008 and followed up in 2013-2014. Data were collected by questionnaire interview, anthropometric, and laboratory measurements. A multivariate Cox proportional-hazard model was used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of PP (increased by 1 standard deviation) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Subgroup analyses were conducted by sex and age. During a mean follow-up of 5.96 years, the all-cause mortality was 78.61/10000 person-years. The association of PP with all-cause and other causes of mortality was significant, and the adjusted HRs (95% CIs) were 1.16 (1.06-1.28), and 1.18 (1.00-1.40), respectively. On subgroup analyses, PP was positively associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in participants

This meta-analysis was performed to quantitatively evaluate the dose-response association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched up to 12 December 2018 for articles that assessed the OSA-T2DM association. Random effects models were used to analyze the quantitative association between OSA and risk of T2DM. Restricted cubic splines were used to model the dose-response association between apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), used to assess the severity of OSA according to events/h, and risk of T2DM.We included 16 cohort studies in our meta-analysis. During a median follow-up of 10.5 years (range: 3.0-22.0), 19 355 T2DM cases were reported among 338 912 study participants. The pooled relative risk of T2DM was 1.40 (95% CI, 1.32-1.48) for OSA in the binary meta-analysis and 1.08 (1.01-1.14) for each 5-event/h increase in AHI value. We found a positive linear association between OSA and T2DM risk.Our dose-response meta-analysis revealed a linear association between OSA and T2DM.背景: 该研究对阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停综合征(obstructive sleep apnea, OSA)和2型糖尿病发病风险的关系进行定量评价, 并探索其潜在的剂量-反应关系。 方法: 检索PubMed、Embase和 Web of Science数据库中2018年12月12日前发表的关于OSA和2型糖尿病的相关性研究。采用随机效应模型定量分析OSA和2型糖尿病发病风险的关系。通过限制性立方样条模型评估呼吸暂停低通气指数(基于次数/小时评价OSA严重程度的指标)和2型糖尿病发病风险的剂量-反应关系。 结果: 本研究共纳入16个队列研究, 包括研究对象 338,912人, 随访时间为中位数10.5年(范围为3.0-22.0年), 随访期间19,355名研究对象确诊2型糖尿病。二元meta分析显示OSA使2型糖尿病的发病相对风险度为1.40 ( 95%CI:1.32-1.48), 呼吸暂停低通气指数每增加5次/小时, 2型糖尿病的发病相对风险度为1.08(95%CI:1.01-1.14)。OSA与2型糖尿病的发病风险成线性正相关。 结论: OSA的严重程度和2型糖尿病的发病风险有关, 且存在线性剂量-反应关系。.

Objective We aimed to evaluate whether hypertriglyceridemic waist-to-height ratio (HWHtR) and its dynamic status was associated with hypertension (HTN). Methods We examined data for 10 312 nonhypertensive participants aged at least 18 years from the Rural Chinese Cohort Study at the baseline examination who were followed until 2014 with a median follow-up of 6 years. HWHtR was defined by combined triglyceride level and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). Multiple logistic regression models were used to examine the probability of incident HTN according to HWHtR and its transformation, estimating odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results A total of 127 men and 225 women with high triglyceride level and high WHtR (HTHWH) had incident HTN during follow-up. After adjusting for potential confounders, the probability of HTN was increased with HTHWH for men [OR 1.49 (95% CI 1.01-2.20)] but this association was not significant for women [1.21 (0.88-1.66)]. The results of the sensitivity analyses were robust for men and women. The ORs were generally consistent on subgroup analysis by age,BMI, SBP and DBP for men. As compared with persistent normal triglyceride level and normal WHtR (NTNWH), the transformation from baseline NTNWH to follow-up HTHWH was associated with increased probability of HTN for men [OR 4.16 (95% CI 2.21-7.84)]. However, for women, the association of changed HWHtR from baseline to follow-up with probability of HTN was not significant for almost all transformation groups. Conclusion HWHtR and its dynamic status was associated with incident HTN for rural Chinese men. From this cohort study, HWHtR may be an indicator for interventions aiming to reduce HTN among these men.

Background and aims We aimed to evaluate the sex-specific association of height and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in rural Chinese adults. Methods and results A total of 17,263 participants (10,448 women) ≥18 years old were randomly enrolled during 2007–2008 and followed up during 2013–2014. Sex-specific hazard ratios (HRs) for the height–mortality association, assessed in quintiles or 5 cm increments, were calculated by Cox proportional-hazards models. For both men and women, tall participants showed a baseline prevalence of high levels of socioeconomic factors including income and education but low systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol level. During a median of 6.01 years of follow-up, 620 men (in 39,993.45 person-years) and 490 women (in 61,590.10 person-years) died. With increasing height, the risk of all-cause mortality decreased in a curvilinear trend after adjustment for baseline age, socioeconomic and behavioral factors, and anthropometric and laboratory measurements. For men, height was inversely associated with all-cause mortality (HR per 5 cm increase: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.83–0.96) and cardiovascular mortality (HR per 5 cm increase: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.72–0.91). For women, height was inversely associated with all-cause mortality (HR per 5 cm increase: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.81–0.96) and other mortality (HR per 5 cm increase: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.71–0.96). Conclusions Our study demonstrated a sex-specific inverse effect of height on mortality from different major causes in rural Chinese adults.

PURPOSE To explore the normal morphological features of the retinal periarteral capillary free zone (paCFZ) and the changes associated with severe non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) by optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). METHODS A total of 148 normal subjects and 115 patients with severe NPDR were enrolled. Spectral-domain OCTA was used to acquire the image with a Cirrus prototype. Diameter and area of each paCFZ quadrant and adjacent large artery diameter was estimated. RESULTS In healthy subjects, the maximum width of paCFZ in the temporal quadrant (169.38 ± 19.26 μm) was smaller than the other three quadrants (all P

Static analysis tools, automatically detecting potential source code defects at an early phase during the software development process, are diffusely applied in safety-critical software fields. However, alarms reported by the tools need to be inspected manually by developers, which is inevitable and costly, whereas a large proportion of them are found to be false positives. Aiming at automatically classifying the reported alarms into true defects and false positives, we propose a defect identification model based on machine learning. We design a set of novel features at variable level, called variable characteristics, for building the classification model, which is more fine-grained than the existing traditional features. We select 13 base classifiers and two ensemble learning methods for model building based on our proposed approach, and the reported alarms classified as unactionable (false positives) are pruned for the purpose of mitigating the effort of manual inspection. In this paper, we firstly evaluate the approach on four open-source C projects, and the classification results show that the proposed model achieves high performance and reliability in practice. Then, we conduct a baseline experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed model in contrast to traditional features, indicating that features at variable level improve the performance significantly in defect identification. Additionally, we use machine learning techniques to rank the variable characteristics in order to identify the contribution of each feature to our proposed model.

Elevated resting heart rate (RHR) is associated with risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the association of change in RHR (ΔRHR) and incident T2DM is not fully elucidated. We aimed to assess the dose-response association between 6-year ΔRHR and T2DM.A total of 12155 non-T2DM participants ≥18 years old were enrolled during 2007-2008 and followed up during 2013-2014. ΔRHR was calculated by subtracting the baseline RHR from the RHR value at 6-year follow-up. Age-, sex-, and RHR-specific relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the effect of ΔRHR on incident T2DM were calculated by using modified Poisson regression models. As compared with ΔRHR of 0 beats/min, the adjusted risk of T2DM was significantly increased with RHR increment and reduced with RHR reduction. ΔRHR was positively associated with future risk of T2DM [RR per unit increase: 1.03 (1.03-1.04)]. As compared with stable change in RHR group (-5ΔRHR5 beats/min), for ΔRHR ≤ -10 beats/min, -10ΔRHR ≤ -5 beats/min, 5≤ΔRHR10 beats/min, and ΔRHR ≥10 beats/min groups, the pooled adjusted RR (95% CI) of T2DM was 0.69 (0.55-0.86), 0.90 (0.73-1.11), 1.31 (1.07-1.61), and 1.90 (1.59-2.26), respectively. This significant association still existed on subgroup analyses based on age, sex, and baseline RHR and sensitivity analyses.Dynamic RHR change was significantly associated with incident T2DM. Our study suggests that RHR may be a non-invasive clinical indicator for interventions aiming to reduce incident T2DM in the general population.

BACKGROUND: Previous meta‐analysis showed an inverse association between coffee consumption and all‐cause mortality. However, the relationship between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption and all‐cause mortality is inconsistent. We aimed to identify and review the published evidence updating the association between coffee consumption and all‐cause mortality and, furthermore, to investigate the association of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption and all‐cause mortality. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed and Web of Science for studies published up to 9 November 2017. Cohort studies in which authors reported relative risks (RRs) of all‐cause mortality for at least three levels of coffee consumption were eligible. Random‐effects models were used to estimate the pooled RR of all‐cause mortality with coffee consumption. Restricted cubic splines were used to model the dose–response association. RESULTS: We included 21 cohort study articles (10 103 115 study participants and 240 303 deaths). We found a nonlinear association between coffee consumption and all‐cause mortality (Pₙₒₙₗᵢₙₑₐᵣᵢₜy

Task scheduling in cloud environment is a hot topic in current research. Effective scheduling of massive tasks submitted by users in cloud environment is of great practical significance for increasing the core competitiveness of companies and enterprises and improving their economic benefits. Faced with the urgent need for an efficient scheduling strategy in the real world, this paper analyzed the process of cloud task scheduling, and proposed a particle swarm optimization genetic hybrid algorithm based on phagocytosis PSO_PGA. Firstly, each generation of particle swarm is divided, and the position of the particles in the sub population is changed by using phagocytosis mechanism and crossover mutation of genetic algorithm, so as to expand the search range of the solution space. Then the sub populations are merged, which ensures the diversity of particles in the population and reduces the probability of the algorithm falling into the local optimal solution. Finally, the feedback mechanism is used to feed back the flight experience of the particle itself and the flight experience of the companion to the next generation particle population, so as to ensure that the particle population can always move towards the direction of excellent solution. Through simulation experiments, the proposed algorithm is compared with several other existing algorithms, and the results show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the overall completion time of cloud tasks, and has higher convergence accuracy. It shows the effectiveness of the algorithm in cloud task scheduling.

Background: Novel coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)has a large population base of infection, and only worsening cases required hospitalization. A hospitalization risk score of COVID-19(HRS-COVID-19) to identify and treat worsening patients early thus seems crucial.Method: We conducted a multicenter nested case-control study with 200 cases enrolling confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 patients from four designated hospitals before worsened. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator(LASSO), Directed Acyclic Graph(DAG)and Change-in-Estimate(CIE) screened out independent risk factors for HRS-COVID-19 from demographic, clinical and imaging data of the cases. The HRS-COVID-19 was evaluated by the area under curve(AUC), calibration curve, decision curve and clinical impact curve; internal validation by the bootstrap-resampling(boot=1000); and through a nomogram and a network calculator to show.Results: In the nested case cohort, 50 patients reached the compound endpoint(requiring hospitalization) and 150 patients were able to avoid hospitalization. Dyspnea, incubation period, age, lymphocyte count, C-reactive protein and semi-quantitative CT scores were included in HRS-COVID-19. The HRS-COVID-19 has good fitting(Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness,P=0.45); high discrimination(AUC 0.980,95%CI, 0.965-0.996); with excellent calibration and clinical benefits. We make a free online risk calculator (https://hospitalization-risk-score-of-covid-19.shinyapps.io/DynNomapp/).Conclusion: In the study, the HRS-COVID-19 based on the clinical characteristics at admission is helpful for early identification and active treatment of aggravated high-risk COVID-19 patients.

To evaluate the efficacy of a sensitive, real-time tool for identification and protection for parathyroid glands during thyroidectomy. Near-infrared (NIR) auto-fluorescence was measured intraoperatively from 20 patients undergoing thyroidectomy. Spectra were measured from suspicious parathyroid glands and surrounding neck tissues during the operation with a NIR fluorescence system. Fast frozen sections were performed on the suspicious parathyroid glands. Accuracy was evaluated by comparison with histology and NIR identification. Data were attracted for Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis. The auto-fluorescence intensity of parathyroid was significantly higher than that of thyroid, fat and lymph node. The peak intensity of auto-fluorescence from parathyroid was 5.55 times of that from thyroid at the corresponding wave number. Of the 20 patients, the parathyroid was accurately detected and identified in 19 patients by NIR system, compared with their histologic results. One suspicious parathyroid did not exhibit typical spectra, and was proved to be fat tissue by histology. The NIR auto-fluorescence method had a 100% sensitivity of parathyroid glands identification and a high accuracy of 95%. The positive predictive value was 95%. The parathyroid gland have specific auto-fluorescence spectrum and can be separated from the other three samples through the Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis. NIR auto-fluorescence spectroscopy can accurately identify normal parathyroid gland during thyroidectomy. The Fisher’s linear discriminant analysis demonstrated the specificity of the NIR auto-fluorescence of parathyroid tissue and its efficacy in parathyroid discrimination.

The purpose of this study is to achieve an accurate classification of medical images of pneumonia using transfer learning. Pulmonary radiographs can provide physicians with an excellent aid in the diagnosis of pneumonia, and this paper collects images from patients with common bacterial pneumonia, COVID-19 disease, and normal incidents pulmonary x-rays are used as a dataset for transfer learning. The deep convolutional neural network framework proposed in recent years can be used to extract features from the dataset and classify them to obtain models with high accuracy. The transfer learning-based approach can not only reduce the dependence of the network model on the dataset but also significantly reduce the time and hardware costs, and the trained models usually produce significant results as well. A total of 4,500 x-ray images are collected in this paper, including 1,500 confirmed images of confirmed COVID-19 disease, 1,500 images of confirmed bacterial pneumonia, and 1,500 images of normal conditions. This paper, VGG19, ResNet-50, and GoogLeNet are used as the basis for transfer learning. The results show that using transfer learning can effectively extract advanced features of pneumonia and construct a pneumonia medical image recognizer, which is trained to recognize the models. The accuracy rates is 93.67%, 91.73%, and 90.80%, respectively, and the model shows excellent generalization ability. According to the results, this study can assist medical professionals in the diagnosis of pneumonia condition and effectively shorten the diagnosis time.

Recent studies have reported conflicting associations of fried-food consumption and risk of overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension, and a meta-analysis is not available. We aimed to explore the association between fried-food consumption and risk of overweight/obesity, T2DM and hypertension in adults through a meta-analysis. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science for studies published up to 17 June 2020. Pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated by random-effects models. In comparing the highest to lowest fried-food intake, the pooled RRs (95% CIs) were 1.16 (1.07-1.25; I2 = 71.0%, Pheterogeneity < 0.001) for overweight/obesity (cohort: 1.19 [0.97-1.47], n = 2; cross-sectional: 1.14 [1.03-1.27], n = 9), 1.07 (0.90-1.27; 84.7%) for T2DM (cohort: 1.01 [0.89-1.15], n = 9; case-control: 2.33 [1.80-3.01], n = 1), and 1.20 (1.05-1.38; I2=91.8%) for hypertension (cohort: 1.06 [0.98-1.15], n = 8; cross-sectional: 2.16 [0.59-7.87], n = 3). Our meta-analysis indicates fried-food consumption is associated with increased risk of overweight/obesity and hypertension but not T2DM in adults, but the findings should be interpreted with caution due to high heterogeneity and unstable subgroup analyses of this meta-analysis. More studies are warranted to investigate the total fried-food consumption and these health outcomes.

X-ray radioactive rays are widely used with the continuous development of radioactive medicine and nuclear technology applications, as well as lead shielding material pollutions new no lead shielding material was needed. In this paper, the main properties of metal tungsten and bismuth as X-ray shielding materials were studied for the protection people avoid the 150 kV X-rays by the Monte Carlo method is used to study. According to simulation with 2 kg/m2, results show that performance of single metal material tungsten iron is superior to that of bismuth material. Tungsten-bismuth better than bismuth-tungsten with the case of equal-quality double-layer metal. The protection performance is better when the metal-mixed tungsten-bismuth ratio is 0.5: 0.5 or the tungsten ratio is large. The research provides effective support for the development of textile radiation protection materials.

Background We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis from published cohort studies to examine the association of adult height and all-cause mortality and to further explore the dose–response association. Methods PubMed, The Cochrane Library, The Ovid, CNKI, CQVIP and Wanfang databases were searched for articles published from database inception to 6 February 2018. We used the DerSimonian–Laird random-effects model to estimate the quantitative association between adult height and all-cause mortality and the restricted cubic splines to model the dose–response association. Results We included 15 articles, with 1 533 438 death events and 2 854 543 study participants. For each 5-cm height increase below the average, the risk of all-cause mortality was reduced by 7% [relative risk (RR) = 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89–0.97] for men and 5% (RR = 0.95, 95% CI, 0.90–0.99) for women. All-cause mortality had a U-shaped association with adult height, the lowest risk occurring at 174 cm for men and 158 cm for women (both Pnonlinearity Conclusions Our study suggests that the relation between adult height and all-cause mortality is approximately U-shaped in both men and women.

Aiming at the problem of weak signal and a lot of noise in non-contact vital signs detection, a band-pass filter is designed to effectively extract the breathing signal and heart signal, and the heart signal is classified by LSTM network to identify the patients with atrial fibrillation (AFib) disease. Firstly, the vital signs obtained by millimeter wave radar is processed by range FFT, then perform phase extraction and phase unwrapping on the range-bin, then the breathing signal and heart signal are extracted by using the cascaded second-order filter. Finally, the filtered peak information of the heart signal is used to generate Gaussian pulse to simulate the ECG signal, and the LSTM network trained by the instantaneous frequency and spectral entropy features extracted from the 2017 PhysioNet/CinC challenge data is used to classify signals. The experimental results show that the detection algorithm can effectively detect the breath and heartbeat of human body, and recognize the AFib signal.

Wheelset is a crucial part of the operation and braking part of railway wagons, and its failure will affect the operation safety of the entire railway system. And fault diagnosis is an important basis for realizing railway scientific maintenance decisions. Learn the method of deep belief network (DBN) to process and diagnose fault data of freighters. The paper uses dynamic factors to optimize the update mechanism of particle velocity, proposes an active factor controlled particle swarm algorithm (APSO), and uses the APSO algorithm to optimize the selection of DBN weights to form a round-pair fault detection algorithm (APSO-DBN) This speeds up DBN training and improves the overall performance of the diagnostic model. The experimental steps and the effectiveness of the method are verified by experiments.

This paper demonstrated a domestic liquid helium free dc programmable Josephson voltage standard (PJVS) operating on a cryocooler. Critical current and margin measurement results of a NIST-fabricated two volt Programmable Josephson junction array (PJJA) are presented. The chip was shown to operate successfully in the cryopakage and the system was able to perform calibration of a 1.018 volt Zener reference.

This paper describes the application of a microvolt Josephson voltage standard based on a dual-channel Josephson junction array developed at NIM. Using the microvolt Josephson voltage standard, DC voltage measurements ranging from $1\ \mu \mathrm{V}$ to $20\ \ \mu \mathrm{V}$ have been realized. And two different types of nanovoltmeters have been calibrated for non-linearity on $6\ \mu \mathrm{V}$ and $20\ \mu \mathrm{V}$ ranges. Results have demonstrated that the latest developed microvolt Josephson voltage standard is practical and can meet the requirement of low-level DC measurements.

BACKGROUND The evidence of the association between Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is limited. We explored the association of CVAI with T2DM and directly compared with the predictive power of CVAI with other visceral obesity indices (visceral adiposity index, waist to height ratio, waist circumference and body mass index) based on a large prospective study. METHODS We conducted a population-based study of 12 237 Chinese participants. Cox proportional-hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between CVAI and T2DM. RESULTS During follow-up (median: 6.01 years), the incidence of T2DM was 3.29, 7.34, 12.37 and 23.72 per 1000 person-years for quartiles 1, 2, 3 and 4 of CVAI, respectively. The risk of T2DM was increased with quartiles 2, 3 and 4 vs quartile 1 of CVAI (HR 2.12 [95% CI 1.50-3.00], 2.94 [2.10-4.13] and 5.01 [3.57-7.04], Ptrend

Acute respiratory distress syndrome virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, which causes global public health emergencies, has sped widely for more than 5 months and has the risk of long-term transmission. No effective treatment has been discovered to date. In the cases we report, the patient continued to deteriorate even after administration of antiviral drugs such as lopinavir/ritonavir, interferon-α, and ribavirin, as well as intravenous injection of meropenem, methylprednisolone, and immunoglobulin. So, we infused the patient with convalescent plasma (CP), and the absolute lymphocyte count increased the next day and returned to normal on the fourth day. Followed by intravenous infusion of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), bilateral infiltrates were absorbed and the pulmonary function was significantly improved. We note that the intravenous infusion of CP and MSCs for the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients may have synergistic characteristics in inhibiting cytokine storm, promoting the repair of lung injury, and recovering pulmonary function. We hope to provide a reference for the research direction of COVID-19 clinical strategies.

Background Thyroid cancer is a major endocrine tumor and represents an emerging health problem worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been addressed to be associated with the pathogenesis and progression of thyroid cancer. However, it remains largely unknown what functions miR-30d may exert on thyroid cancer. This study herein aimed to identify the functional significance and mechanism of miR-30d in the progression of thyroid cancer. Methods The expression of miR-30d and ubiquitin-specific protease 22 (USP22) in cancerous tissues of patients with thyroid cancer was measured using RT-qPCR and Western blot analysis. In response to the gain- or loss-of-function of miR-30d and USP22, cell apoptosis was evaluated by flow cytometry and TUNEL staining in combination with the measurement of apoptosis-related proteins. The interactions among miR-30d, USP22, SIRT1, FOXO3a and PUMA were explored using a series of assays, including dual-luciferase reporter gene assay, Co-IP and ChIP assay. The effects of miR-30d and USP22 on thyroid tumorigenesis were finally validated in vivo. Results MiR-30b presented aberrant low expression in thyroid cancer tissues and this low expression correlated with poor prognosis of thyroid cancer patients. miR-30d promoted apoptosis of thyroid cancer cells through targeting USP22, an up-regulated gene in thyroid cancer. USP22 could enhance the stability of SIRT1 by inducing deubiquitination which consequently contributed to FOXO3a deacetylation-induced PUMA repression. It was verified that this regulatory mechanism was responsible for the pro-apoptotic effect of miR-30d by the in vivo tumorigenicity assay. Conclusion To conclude, the progression of thyroid cancer can be suppressed by miR-30d-mediated inhibition of USP22, provides a promising therapeutic target for thyroid cancer treatment.

Software reliability assessment has become an important means to evaluate software failure behaviors and ensure the software reliability. With the continuous development of automation technology, considerably number of reliability assessment tools have been developed for software reliability analysis, estimation and prediction. In this paper, most popular software reliability assessment tools are reviewed. Five of them, SFRAT, SRATS, RSRAT, PHSRM and SMERFS, are selected for comprehensively comparative analysis. We also construct the evaluation index system of software reliability assessment tools, and analyze the differences in software reliability estimation and prediction ability of these tools through experimental studies. In the end, we summarize the characteristics and potential application scenarios of each tool, and further discuss the development trends and future research directions.

Objective This study aimed to explore the association between age at menarche and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and whether the association is mediated by adiposity and insulin resistance (IR) in rural Chinese women. Methods This cross-sectional study analyzed data for 7,460 women (median age 56 y) from a rural Chinese area from 2013 to 2014. Data were collected by standardized interviews and anthropometric and laboratory measurements. Adiposity was measured by body mass index (BMI), and IR was measured by the homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR) index. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence limits (CLs) for the association between age at menarche and T2DM. Mediation analysis was performed to explore the contribution of BMI and HOMA-IR to the association between age at menarche and T2DM. Results Among 7,460 women, 840 (11.26%) had T2DM. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the odds of T2DM with the latest age at menarche 18 years or older versus 13 years was reduced (OR = 0.65, 95% CL: 0.47, 0.91), and age at menarche was negatively associated with T2DM (per additional year of menarche, OR = 0.95, 95% CL: 0.91, 0.99). BMI and HOMA-IR completely mediated the association between age at menarche and T2DM (total indirect effect: OR = 0.973, 95% CL: 0.961, 0.986; direct effect: OR = 0.974, 95% CL: 0.930, 1.021). Conclusions Late menarche may be negatively associated with T2DM. The potential mechanism is adiposity and IR completely mediating the association between age at menarche and T2DM.

Aims To evaluate the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in a prospective study with hypertriglyceridemic waist-to-height ratio (HWHtR) and its dynamic status. Methods We collected data for 12,248 participants ≥18 years in this study. Cox’s proportional-hazards regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for T2DM risk by baseline HWHtR. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs for T2DM risk by transformation in HWHtR. Results We identified 839 T2DM cases during a median follow-up of 5.92 years. Compared with normal TG level and normal WHtR, T2DM risk was increased with high TG level and high WHtR (aHR 2.04, 95% CI 1.49–2.79). Similar results were observed in subgroup analyses by sex and age. During follow-up, T2DM risk was increased with stable high TG level and high WHtR (aOR 4.45, 95% CI 2.76–7.17) compared with stable normal TG level and normal WHtR. The results above were robust in sensitivity analyses. Conclusions HWHtR phenotype and its dynamic status were associated with risk of T2DM. Our study suggests that primary prevention and avoiding the appearance of the HWHtR phenotype in the rural Chinese population may reduce the T2DM risk.

Background High triglyceride (TG) and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels are traditional risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This study evaluated the dose-response relationship between the TG/HDL-C ratio and T2DM risk. Methods The study included 11 946 adults without baseline diabetes from the Rural Chinese Cohort Study. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to investigate the association between the TG/HDL-C ratio and T2DM. The dose-response relationship was evaluated by restricted cubic spline analysis. In addition, pooled odds ratios (OR) were calculated with a random-effects model in a meta-analysis including the present study and another three eligible articles. Results During 2007-14, 618 patients with T2DM were identified (9.68/1000 person-years). People in the highest TG/HDL-C ratio quartile had a higher T2DM risk than those in the lowest quartile (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 2.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.55-2.86); however, the association between the TG/HDL-C ratio and T2DM was stronger in females than males (aHR 1.27 [95% CI 1.16-1.39; and 1.19 [95% CI 1.04-1.37], respectively). In body mass index-specific analysis, the association was stronger in normal weight than overweight/obese people. The dose-response meta-analysis showed that a 1-unit increment in the TG/HDL-C ratio increased the T2DM risk by 28% (95% CI 20%-36%), with a positive linear relationship (Plinear = 0.326). Conclusions The TG/HDL-C ratio was an independent risk factor of T2DM, especially in females, and linearly increased the risk of T2DM; thus, it may be a useful indicator to identify future T2DM.

Background Epidemiological studies reported an inconsistent association between stage 1 hypertension (SBP 130-139 mmHg or DBP 80-89 mmHg) defined by the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association hypertension guidelines and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. In addition, the proportion of CVD events that could be prevented with effective control of stage 1 hypertension is unknown. Objectives To assess the association between stage 1 hypertension and CVD events and estimate the population etiologic fraction. Methods PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched from 1 January 2017 to 22 September 2019. Normal BP was considered SBP less than 120 mmHg and DBP less than 80 mmHg. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were pooled by using a random-effects model. Results We included 11 articles (16 studies including 3 212 447 participants and 65 945 events) in the analysis. Risk of CVD events was increased with stage 1 hypertension versus normal BP (hazard ratio 1.38, 95% CI 1.28-1.49). On subgroup analyses, stage 1 hypertension was associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) (hazard ratio 1.30, 95% CI 1.20-1.41), stroke (1.39, 1.27-1.52), CVD morbidity (1.42, 1.32-1.53), and CVD mortality (1.34, 1.05-1.71). The population etiologic fraction for the association of CVD events, CHD, stroke, CVD morbidity, and CVD mortality with stage 1 hypertension was 12.90, 10.48, 12.71, 14.03, and 11.69%, respectively. Conclusion Stage 1 hypertension is associated with CVD events, CVD morbidity, CVD mortality, CHD, and stroke. Effective control of stage 1 hypertension could prevent more than 10% of CVD events.

Attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder and is thought to be associated with circadian system.We performed a pathway-based study to test individual single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the overall evidence of genetic polymorphisms involved in the circadian pathway in association with children ADHD susceptibility among a Chinese population. A community-based case-control study was conducted among Chinese children, and 168 ADHD patients and 233 controls were recruited using a combination diagnosis based on the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders iv (DSM-IV) ADHD rating scale, Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham rating scale (SNAP-IV) rating scale, and semi-structured clinical interview.The results of single-loci analyses identified that PER1 rs2518023 and ARNTL2 rs2306074 were nominally association with ADHD susceptibility (P 0.05). Next, we applied multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR), and classification and regression tree (CART) analyses to explore high-order gene-gene interactions among the functional SNPs to ADHD risks. The results indicated that interactions among the PER1 rs2518023, ARNTL2 rs2306074 and NR1D1 rs939347 were associated with the risk of ADHD in children. Individuals carrying the combination genotypes of the PER1 rs2518023 GG or GT, ARNTL2 rs2306074 TC or TT and NR1D1 rs939347 GA or AA displayed a significantly higher risk for ADHD than who carry the PER1 rs2518023 TT and CRY2 rs2292910 CA/CC genotypes (adjusted OR = 4.37, 95% CI = 2.16-8.85, P 0.001).These findings revealed the importance of genetic variations related to the circadian clock system to the susceptibility of children ADHD.

Background To compare the accuracy of different obesity indexes, including waist circumference (WC), weight-to-height ratio (WHtR), body mass index (BMI), and lipid accumulation product (LAP), in predicting metabolic syndrome (MetS) and to estimate the optimal cutoffs of these indexes in a rural Chinese adult population. Methods This prospective cohort involved 8468 participants who were followed up for 6 years. MetS was defined by the International Diabetes Federation, American Heart Association, and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute criteria. The power of the 4 indexes for predicting MetS was estimated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and optimal cutoffs were determined by the maximum of Youden’s index. Results As compared with WHtR, BMI, and LAP, WC had the largest area under the ROC curve (AUC) for predicting MetS after adjusting for age, smoking, drinking, physical activity, and education level. The AUCs (95% CIs) for WC, WHtR, BMI, and LAP for men and women were 0.862 (0.851–0.873) and 0.806 (0.794–0.817), 0.832 (0.820–0.843) and 0.789 (0.777–0.801), 0.824 (0.812–0.835) and 0.790 (0.778–0.802), and 0.798 (0.785–0.810) and 0.771 (0.759–0.784), respectively. The optimal cutoffs of WC for men and women were 83.30 and 76.80 cm. Those of WHtR, BMI, and LAP were approximately 0.51 and 0.50, 23.90 and 23.00 kg/m2, and 19.23 and 20.48 cm.mmol/L, respectively. Conclusions WC as a preferred index over WHtR, BMI, and LAP for predicting MetS in rural Chinese adults of both genders; the optimal cutoffs for men and women were 83.30 and 76.80 cm.

This study compared the ability of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), conicity index, and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) to predict incident hypertension and to identify the cutoffs of obesity indices for predicting hypertension in rural Chinese adults. This prospective cohort study recruited 9905 participants aged 18–70 years during a median follow-up of 6 years in rural China. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to assess the association, predictive ability, and optimal cutoffs (in terms of hypertension risk factors) of the four obesity indices: BMI, WC, conicity index, and WHtR. The 6-year cumulative incidence of hypertension was 19.89% for men and 18.68% for women, with a significant upward trend of increased incident hypertension with increasing BMI, WC, conicity index, and WHtR (P for trend

As an important part of urban big data, traffic flow data play a critical role in traffic management and emergency response. Traffic flow data contain multi-mode characteristics, which need to be deeply mined. To make full use of multi-mode characteristics, we use a 3-order tensor to represent the traffic flow data, considering “temporal-spatial-periodic” characteristics. To recover the missing data of traffic flow, we propose the Missing Data Completion Algorithm Based on Residual Value Tensor Decomposition (MDCA-RVTD), which combines linear regression, univariate spline, and CP decomposition. Then, we predict the future traffic flow data by using the proposed Traffic Flow Prediction Algorithm Based on Data Completion Strategy (TFPA-DCS). The experimental results show that recovering the missing data is helpful in improving the prediction accuracy. Additionally, the prediction accuracy of the proposed Algorithm is better than gray model and traditional tensor CP decomposition method.

Researches on associations between phthalates exposure and child attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are inconsistent. This study aimed to evaluate the associations of urinary phthalates with ADHD, co-occurring oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), related symptoms and behavior problems among Chinese children. We enrolled 225 ADHD cases and 225 healthy controls aged 6-13 years old in Liuzhou, China. Each child provided repeated urine samples at 4 visits. Eight phthalate metabolites were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. Child ADHD symptoms and related behaviors were assessed using Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Version IV scale and child behavior checklist. Higher urinary concentrations of mono(2-ethyl-5-hydroxyhexyl) phthalate (MEHHP), mono(2-ethyl-5-oxohexyl) phthalate (MEOHP), mono-(2-ethyl)-hexyl phthalate (MEHP) were dose-dependently associated with ADHD [odds ratios (ORs) ranged from 2.35 to 3.04 for the highest vs. the lowest tertile] and co-occurring ODD (ORs ranged from 3.27 to 4.44 for the highest vs. the lowest tertile) in the multivariable logistic regression models (all p for trend ≤ 0.01), which were consistent with positive trends of increased scores of inattention domain, hyperactive domain and ODD symptoms (all p for trend ≤ 0.01). Besides, the monomethyl phthalate (MMP) concentration was associated with higher scores of inattention domain and ODD symptoms (both p

AIM: To investigate the effect of dopamine on bone morphogenesis protein-2 (BMP-2) expression in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells in vitro. METHODS: ARPE-19 cells as a human RPE cell line were cultured with dopamine for different times (2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 and 24h) or with different concentrations (0.1, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 100 μg/mL) in vitro. BMP-2 mRNA expression level in ARPE-19 cells was analyzed with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and BMP-2 protein level was measured with Western blot analysis. The active form of BMP-2 in the culture medium was measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: The expression level of BMP-2 increased significantly cultured with 20 μg/mL dopamine, at different time points (P

Software usage model can be used as a guide when generate reliability test cases and it helps to evaluate the reliability of the software. Recent researches of deriving Markov Chain usage model from UML Model are mostly based on the UML sequence diagram and UML component diagram. But there are some problems with the existing methods: for some large software systems, there are many kinds of users who use the software in different ways, while a general usage model is not targeted and not suitable for all users. For this reason,this paper puts forward a new method to construct user-based software usage model. The method constructs usage model according to the UML activity diagram and UML use-case diagram, the model constructed by this method is user-based: the model describes, for every kind of users, the specific interacting process between the user and the system. What’s more, the model can be used to guide test cases generation.