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Time series forecasting has attracted wide attention in recent decades. However, some time series are imbalanced and show different patterns between special and normal periods, leading to the prediction accuracy degradation of special periods. In this paper, we aim to develop a unified model to alleviate the imbalance and thus improving the prediction accuracy for special periods. This task is challenging because of two reasons: (1) the temporal dependency of series, and (2) the tradeoff between mining similar patterns and distinguishing different distributions between different periods. To tackle these issues, we propose a self-attention-based time-varying prediction model with a two-stage training strategy. First, we use an encoder-decoder module with the multi-head self-attention mechanism to extract common patterns of time series. Then, we propose a time-varying optimization module to optimize the results of special periods and eliminate the imbalance. Moreover, we propose reverse distance attention in place of traditional dot attention to highlight the importance of similar historical values to forecast results. Finally, extensive experiments show that our model performs better than other baselines in terms of mean absolute error and mean absolute percentage error.

PURPOSE: To describe the results of a relifting flap enhancement procedure for correction of residual refractive error after primary lenticule intrastromal keratoplasty (LIKE). METHODS: Case report. RESULTS: One year after a LIKE procedure in the left eye, the patient (uncorrected distance visual acuity [UDVA]: 20/25; corrected distance visual acuity [CDVA]: 20/20; manifest refraction: −1.00 +1.00 × 105°) underwent flap relifting. The WaveLight EX500 excimer laser platform (Alcon Laboratories, Inc) was used for the topography-guided enhancement procedure to correct the residual refractive error and corneal irregularities. During the 1-year follow-up period, the cornea remained clear, the UDVA increased to 20/20 (reaching the level of preoperative CDVA), and manifest refraction was −0.25 +0.75 × 90°. CONCLUSIONS: The enhancement procedure described in this case report was effective for correction of residual refractive error and improvement of visual acuity following the LIKE procedure. The enhancement was stable for at least 15 months after the procedure. [ J Refract Surg . 2021;37(10):715–719.]

BackgroundThe liver is an important organ that undertakes the metabolic function of the human body. Liver cancer has become one of the cancers with the highest mortality. In clinic, it is an important work to extract the liver region accurately before the diagnosis and treatment of liver lesions. However, manual liver segmentation is a time-consuming and boring process. Not only that, but the segmentation results usually varies from person to person due to different work experience. In order to assist in clinical automatic liver segmentation, this paper proposes a U-shaped network with multi-scale attention mechanism for liver organ segmentation in CT images, which is called MSA-UNet. Our method makes a new design of U-Net encoder, decoder, skip connection, and context transition structure. These structures greatly enhance the feature extraction ability of encoder and the efficiency of decoder to recover spatial location information. We have designed many experiments on publicly available datasets to show the effectiveness of MSA-UNet. Compared with some other advanced segmentation methods, MSA-UNet finally achieved the best segmentation effect, reaching 98.00% dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and 96.08% intersection over union (IOU).

In recent years, as a flexible electrode material, melamine foam has attracted more and more attention from researchers in the field of wearable energy storage devices. In addition, certain components are loaded on it to improve electrochemical performance and further promote its advantages. Here, we first carbonized commercial melamine foam in N2 atmosphere to form in situ doping and then used a simple hydro-thermal reaction to uniformly load MnO2 nanosheet arrays on its three-dimensional framework. For the resulting electrode material, the specific capacitance was as high as 230.3 F/g under the current density of 1 A/g. With the voltage window of 0–2.2 V, the energy density of the assembled quasi-solid supercapacitor reached 29.73 Wh/kg with the power density of 1636.9 W/kg, showing great electrochemistry performance and application prospects.

The point of this review is mainly focusing on the safety and practicability of solid-state lithium ion battery. And this review emphatically discusses and analyzes these practical manufacturing methods and strategies by illustrating some novel and excellent reported examples instead of barely collecting and classifying these new materials over the years. Based on the current industrial technology and market requirements, we summarize four types of most practical solid-state electrolytes (polymer gel, PEO-based, garnet-type and sulfide-type electrolyte) whose potential of application, strategy of improvement and possibility of mass production are all analyzed in this review. Li ion transport mechanisms in different electrolytes, which are commonly accepted in recent years, are summarized and stated as well. Besides, the key interfacial problems of electrolytes and electrodes for solid batteries is emphatically discussed and we also sort out some useful methods for actual production. And there are some interesting and novel content in this paper, which is that the lithium metal is not considered as an anode material because we think that is not realistic and economical for industrial manufacture in recent years and the polymer gel is analyzed to be a great transition electrolyte from liquid electrolyte batteries to all-solid-state batteries.

BACKGROUND To investigate the predictive value of the age, creatinine, and ejection fraction (ACEF) score for cardiac death in patients aged ≥75 years diagnosed with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) at 1 month and 1 year after emergency percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). METHODS A total of 360 patients with STEMI undergoing emergency PCI in the Department of Cardiology of Anhui Provincial Hospital from January 2013 to April 2018 were consecutively recruited. The primary endpoint event was cardiac death at postoperative 1 month and 1 year. The ROC curve was utilized to evaluate ACEF scoring system and predict cardiac death rate. RESULTS According to ACEF score upon admission, 360 patients were divided into low-to-intermediate risk group (n=80) with ACEF score of 0.99-1.27 (1.18±0.07) and high-risk group (n=280) with ACEF score of 1.28-4.14 (1.83±0.51). The age, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), heart rate and the proportion of complete revascularization in the high-risk group were significantly higher than those in low-to-intermediate risk group (all P

Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury (MIRI) results in increased myocardial infarct size and leads to poor clinical outcomes. Hypoxia-inducible factor 2-alpha (HIF2α) exerts myocardial protective effects during MIRI through as yet unclear mechanisms. Here, we show that knockdown of HIF2α with cardiotropic recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (rAAV9) in mouse hearts significantly increased the infarct sizes during myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (MI/R). In addition, HIF2α transcriptionally regulated the expression of interleukin 6 (IL-6) in cardiomyocytes to elicit cardioprotection. Likewise, IL-6 deficiency aggravated MIRI, while treatment with recombinant IL-6 had cardioprotective effects and rescued the mice with HIF2α knockdown. Furthermore, IL-6 treatment significantly activated the PI3K/Akt and STAT3 signaling pathways in the myocardium during MI/R, and the specific inhibitors wortmannin (specific phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor) and Stattic (specific STAT3 inhibitor) substantially abolished HIF2α/IL-6-induced cardioprotection. These studies suggest that HIF2α transcription regulates the expression of IL-6 in cardiomyocytes and plays a protective role during MI/R.

Nanoscale materials have an irreplaceable advantage in solar energy utilization because of their perfect match with visible light wavelength on the length scale. Charge transfer (CT) between a meta...

After decades of unprecedented development, modern networks have evolved far beyond expectations in terms of scale and complexity. In many cases, traditional traffic engineering (TE) approaches fail to address the quality of service (QoS) requirements of modern networks. In recent years, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has proved to be a feasible and effective solution for autonomously controlling and managing complex systems. Massive growth in the use of DRL applications in various domains is beginning to benefit the communications industry. In this paper, we firstly provide a comprehensive overview of DRL-based TE. Then, we present a detailed literature review on applications of DRL for TE including three fundamental issues: routing optimization, congestion control, and resource management. Finally, we discuss our insights into the challenges and future research perspectives of DRL-based TE.

PURPOSE: To describe the visual outcomes of correcting moderate to high hyperopia after two different surgical procedures of lenticular implantation. METHODS: This prospective small case series study used epikeratophakia combined with transepithelial phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK-EP) and femtosecond laser–assisted lenticule intrastromal keratoplasty (LIKE) using myopic small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE)–derived refractive lenticule for correcting hyperopia ranging from +3.00 to +10.00 diopters (D). The implanted refractive lenticule was matched with the recipient's manifest refraction. The visual, refractive, corneal tomographic, and epithelial thickness outcomes were analyzed after surgery. RESULTS: Four eyes underwent PTK-EP and 6 eyes underwent LIKE. At the last postoperative visit, 6 of 10 eyes had uncorrected distance visual acuity equal to or better than the preoperative corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA). No eyes lost one line or more of CDVA postoperatively. Postoperative spherical equivalent was within ±0.50 D of the target for 9 of 10 eyes. Posterior corneal curvature slightly steepened for PTK-EP and LIKE. Postoperative epithelial thickness demonstrated the expected doughnut pattern in both groups characterized by epithelium in the central zone (5 mm) thinner than that in the peripheral zone (5 to 7 mm). CONCLUSIONS: Visual outcomes, refraction, posterior corneal surface changes, and epithelial remodeling after PTKEP or LIKE show a potentially useful modality for correcting moderate to high hyperopia. [ J Refract Surg . 2020;36(11):772–779.]

Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is adversely affecting sleep quality and mental health, especially in individuals with chronic disease such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Methods We conducted a quantitative study, which included 119 Chinese PD patients who had been treated in an outpatient neurology clinic in Wuhan and 169 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The questionnaire survey focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sleep, mental status, symptoms, and daily life and medical treatment of PD patients. Results Compared to healthy controls, PD patients had significantly higher scores in both the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (8.13 vs 5.36, p 5 points (68.9% vs 44.4%, p, Highlights • Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) experience mental health and sleep disturbance during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Anxiety, lack of medical consultation and exacerbation of symptoms affects the sleep health of PD patients profoundly. • The exacerbation of PD related symptoms, was independently and closely associated with sleep quality. • The sleep and mental health of female PD patient need more consideration and treatment. • Special attention should be paid to the difficulty in seeking medical treatment for PD patients during the epidemic.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a serious ischemic heart disease. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) participate in AMI. This article aims to investigate the mechanism of action of Tregs in AMI. We constructed AMI mouse model. Then, AMI mouse and mouse macrophages (RAW264.7) were treated with Tregs or Treg-derived exosomes. The cardiac function of mice was detected. Triphenyl-tetrazolium chloride and TdT-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling staining were performed to detect the myocardial infarct size or apoptosis. The proportions of macrophages were analyzed by flow cytometry. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay and quantitative real-time PCR was performed to estimate the levels of cytokines and genes. We found that Tregs ameliorated cardiac function, reduced myocardial infarct size and inhibited apoptosis of myocardial cells in AMI mice. Moreover, Treg-derived exosomes reduced myocardial infarct size and repressed apoptosis of myocardial cells in AMI mice. Furthermore, Treg-derived exosomes suppressed the expression of M1 macrophage markers, and promoted the expression of M2 macrophage markers in myocardial tissues of AMI mice and RAW264.7 cells. In conclusion, our work demonstrates that exosomes derived from Tregs ameliorate AMI by promoting macrophage M2 polarization. Thus, Tregs may be an essential cell for AMI treatment.

In this paper, a novel graphene hybrid surface plasmon waveguide structure is designed. Based on the finite element method, the mode characteristics, the quality factor, and the gain threshold of the waveguide structure are analyzed. The results show that the optical field constraint of the designed waveguide can reach a better level of deep sub-wavelength under the optimal parameters of 1550-nm working wavelength. The structure is applied to a laser, and the high quality factor, the low energy loss, the low threshold limit, and the ultra-small effective mode field area are obtained by adjusting waveguide design parameters. Compared with the common waveguide structure, this structure has stronger optical field limiting ability and microcavity binding ability. It provides theoretical and technical support for the development of new high-efficiency nano-laser devices and is expected to be applied to fields such as on-chip interconnects, photonic integrated circuits, optical storage, and optical signal processing.

Background An optimal treatment regimen is sought for symptomatic isolated mesenteric artery dissection (IMAD) on the basis of its clinical staging. Methods From January 2011 to December 2018, 120 patients with symptomatic IMAD from two institutions were collected retrospectively. We reviewed the clinical features, risk factors, computed tomography images, treatment modalities, and follow-up results to propose a new management strategy based on the clinical stages of the disease. Results A total of 120 patients were collected in this study; 77 patients (69 men, 8 women; median age, 52.53 years; range, 39-73 years) who had undergone successful conservative management with antithrombotic agents were included in group A. The remaining 43 patients (34 men, 9 women; median age, 52.63 years; range, 26-66 years) who underwent invasive therapy were included in group B. Significant differences were observed between the two groups with respect to dissection length (50.72±27.72 mm vs 62±24.3 mm; p=0.02), true lumen residual diameter (TLRD) (3.31±1.05 mm vs 2.83±2.05 mm; p=0.01) and branch involvement (8 and 19, respectively; p＜0.001). Success was achieved in 76.24% (77/101) of patients treated by conservative management with antithrombotic agents in the acute stage; 43 patients underwent invasive interventional therapy in different stages of symptomatic IMAD. In group A, 6 patients had recurrent abdominal pain, three of whom underwent invasive intervention, and the remaining patients improved after conservative treatment. Positive remodeling was observed in 80.33% (49/61) of patients treated with conservative management alone versus 19.67% (12/61) of patients who experienced negative remodeling. Endovascular intervention in group B, CT angiography or mesenteric angiography yielded complete remodeling in 23 (76.67%, 23/30) patients and evidence of stent restenosis in 7 (23.33%, 7/30) patients. Among the surgical patients, 7 patients showed improvement in the luminal diameter. However, 3 patients with short bowel syndrome require long-term parenteral nutrition. Conclusion Conservative management with antithrombotic agents should be a first-line regimen for symptomatic IMAD in the acute stage. If symptoms persist, endovascular intervention is a safe and feasible treatment in the subacute or chronic stage. When peritonitis is present, surgical treatment should be promptly performed, regardless of the disease stage.

Integrating personal thermoregulation technologies into wearable textiles has enabled extensive and profound technological breakthroughs in energy savings, thermal comfort, wearable electronics, intelligent fabrics, and so forth. Nevertheless, previous studies have suffered from long-standing issues such as limited working temperature, poor comfort, and weak reliability of the textiles. Here, we demonstrate a skin-friendly personal insulation textile and a thermoregulation textile that can perform both passive heating and cooling using the same piece of textile with zero energy input. The insulation textile material is composed of biomaterial microstructured fibers that exhibit good thermal insulation, low thermal emissivity, and good dyeability. By filling these microstructure fibers with biocompatible phase-change materials and coating them with polydimethylsiloxane, the insulation textile becomes a thermoregulation textile that shows good water hydrophobicity, high mechanical robustness, and high working stability. The proposed thermoregulation textile exhibits slow heating/cooling rates with improved thermal comfort, offering feasible and adaptive options for personal cooling/heating scenarios and enabling scalable manufacturing for practical applications.

Background Several studies have used CD157 in white blood cells with or without proaerolysin (fluorescein-labeled proaerolysin [FLAER])-based flow cytometry assays in the diagnosis of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Methods We designed a seven-color CD marker panel comprising FLAER, CD15, CD64, CD24, CD14, CD157, and CD45 to verify CD157's clinical applicability and diagnostic performance in a clinical setting. Results A total of 356 samples were tested. These included 43 PNH-positive samples and 313 PNH-negative samples. PNH clones confirmed by the CD157/FLAER combination were almost identical in size to the clones detected by the CD24/CD14/FLAER combination, and the accuracy of the CD157/FLAER combination was 100% in granulocytes and 99.7% in monocytes. Substitution of FLAER with CD157 resulted in 1.9% and 3.5% false-positives in granulocytes and monocytes, respectively. The accuracy was 98.3% and 96.9% in granulocytes and monocytes, respectively. Moreover, the loss of CD157 expression in granulocytes and monocytes was commonly observed in non-PNH patients. Some monocytes in non-PNH patients had weak expression of CD14 but normal expression of FLAER. In this study, PNH clones in granulocytes were always lower than those in matched monocytes. Conclusions We performed the first prospective exploration of the clinical usefulness of FLAER and CD157 in simultaneously recognizing PNH clones in granulocytes and monocytes and verified the applicability of CD157 in substitute for both CD14 and CD24. In the conditions where FLAER is not available, substitution of FLAER with CD157 is acceptable for the identification of PNH clones under the premise of giving full attention to the potential for false-positives.

Objective:. A sequencing panel consisting of 50 genes was customized to reveal the potential molecular land-scapes of essential thrombocytosis, polycythemia vera, and primary myelofibrosis in Chinese patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN). Methods:. Sixty-five MPN patients (38 with essential thrombocytosis, 21 with polycythemia vera, and 6 with primary myelofibrosis), including 12 triple-negative patients, were recruited and were screened for their mutational spectrum using next-generation sequencing technology in this retrospective observational study. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Changhai Hospital, Naval Military Medical University, China. Results:. In addition to the typical driver mutations in JAK2, CALR, and MPL, pathogenic mutations in 15 other genes were frequently detected among the 65 patients with MPN. The 15 mutated genes were TET2, EZH2, ASXL1, MIR662, MLH1, MLH3, SF3B1, MSH6, BARD1, DNMT3A, KIT, MSH2, RUNX1, TP53, and NRAS in this order according to the mutational frequency detected. The average number of mutated genes was 1.2 genes per patient, while in the 12 triple-negative patients with MPN (ie, patients that lack the JAK2, CALR, or MPL mutations), at least one of the 15 pathogenic mutations was detected for each patient. Interestingly, 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs4858647, rs9376092, rs58270997, rs621940) that might be correlated to individual susceptibility to myeloproliferative neoplasm were identified among the 65 patients. We also found that single nucleotide polymorphism and/or single nucleotide variation mutations occurred in multiple loci of mismatch repair-related genes, which might contribute to the development of MPN. Conclusion:. Our study confirms the importance of the previously known MPN relative genes and, more importantly, provides some new and potentially valuable information about mutations associated with MPNs.

Image dehazing on a hazy image aims to remove the haze and make the image scene clear, which attracts more and more research interests in recent years. Most existing image dehazing methods use a classic atmospheric scattering model and natural image priors to remove the image haze. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end image dehazing model termed as DRHNet (Deep Residual Haze Network), which restores the haze-free image by subtracting the learned negative residual map from the hazy image. Specifically, DRHNet proposes a context-aware feature extraction module to aggregate the contextual information effectively. Furthermore, it proposes a novel nonlinear activation function termed as RPReLU (Reverse Parametric Rectified Linear Unit) to improve its representation ability and to accelerate its convergence. Extensive experiments demonstrate that DRHNet outperforms state-of-the-art methods both quantitatively and qualitatively. In addition, experiments on image deraining task show that DRHNet can also serve for image deraining.

Background: Gut microbiota, which plays a crucial role in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), might have therapeutic benefits for ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Targeting gut microbiota represents a new treatment strategy for IBD patients. Rhein is one of the main components of rhubarb and exhibits poor oral bioavailability but still exerts anti-inflammatory effects in some diseases. Therefore, we investigated the effect of rhein on colitis and studied its possible mechanisms. Methods: The chronic mouse colitis model was induced by four rounds of 2% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) treatment. The mice were treated with 50 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg rhein daily, body weight, colon length, histological score, inflammatory cytokines in serum or intestine, and fecal lipocalin 2 concentration were determined. Th17 cell, Th1 cell and Th2 cell infiltration in the mesenteric lymph node were analyzed by flow cytometry. Metabolic profiles were collected by non-targeted metabolomics and key metabolic pathways were identified using MetaboAnalyst 4.0. We also assessed intestinal barrier permeability and performed 16s rDNA sequencing. Lactobacillus sp. was cultured, and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was employed to evaluate the contribution of gut microbiota. Results: Rhein could significantly alleviate DSS-induced chronic colitis. Uric acid was identified as a crucial modulator of colitis and rhein treatment led to decreased uric acid levels. We determined that rhein changed purine metabolism indirectly, while the probiotic Lactobacillus was involved in the regulation of host metabolism. Uric acid resulted in a worsened intestinal barrier, which could be rescued by rhein. We further confirmed that rhein-treated gut microbiota was sufficient to relieve DSS-induced colitis by FMT. Conclusion: We showed that rhein could modulate gut microbiota, which indirectly changed purine metabolism in the intestine and subsequently alleviated colitis. Our study has identified a new approach to the clinical treatment of colitis.

The radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies, which have been widely adopted in different Internet of Things (IoT) applications, are the fundamental building block for achieving smart factories, smart logistics, smart stores, etc. Besides knowing the ID of tags, the relative location information of different tags is of great importance since it contains the spatial relationship among different tags, which is essential for many object localization applications beyond the capacity of absolute localization approaches. In this article, we propose TagSort , an RFID-based sorting system that exploits the physical layer information, i.e., the phase of RFID wireless signals to achieve the relative localization of different tags. Several novel filtering and peak detection algorithms are proposed to achieve accurate and robust detection of the order of tags. Extensive evaluation shows promising results (over 95% accuracy) and make TagSort a promising system for future RFID sorting systems, thus enabling a variety of IoT applications and services.

People are prone to developing opioid dependence and other health problems due to regular non-medical use, prolonged use, misuse, and use without medical supervision. In this paper, opioid-related healthcare data from Froedtert Health Medical System in Wisconsin are analyzed and machine learning models are proposed to predict the length of stay (LOS) of opioid overdose admitted patients. We also determine important features that impact the LOS. To explore the factors that significantly influence the LOS, we implement machine learning algorithms, namely, Random Forest and XGBoost, to select important features from the data. Predictive models such as Random Forest regressor, Gradient Boost regressor, Support Vector Machine and k-Neighbors regressor are conducted and trained on the top-50, 100, 300, 650, and 1000 important features. We propose to evaluate the regression models using Mean Squared Error (MSE) and R-squared.

According to emerging studies, the excessive activation of microglia and the subsequent release of pro-inflammatory cytokines play important roles in the pathogenesis and progression of Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the exact mechanisms governing chronic neuroinflammation remain elusive. Findings demonstrate an elevated level of NLRP3 inflammasome in activated microglia in the substantia nigra of PD patients. Activated NLRP3 inflammasome aggravates the pathology and accelerates the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Abnormal protein aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn), a pathologically relevant protein of PD, were reported to activate the NLRP3 inflammasome of microglia through interaction with toll-like receptors (TLRs). This eventually releases pro-inflammatory cytokines through the translocation of nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) and causes an impairment of mitochondria, thus damaging the dopaminergic neurons. Currently, therapeutic drugs for PD are primarily aimed at providing relief from its clinical symptoms, and there are no well-established strategies to halt or reverse this disease. In this review, we aimed to update existing knowledge on the role of the α-syn/TLRs/NF-κB/NLRP3 inflammasome axis and microglial activation in PD. In addition, this review summarizes recent progress on the α-syn/TLRs/NF-κB/NLRP3 inflammasome axis of microglia as a potential target for PD treatment by inhibiting microglial activation.

GitHub is one of the largest hosting service platforms for software development, which contains more than 40 million users and 100 million software repositories. GitHub provides a trending page to help software developers discover potential repositories during a period of time. Also, GitHub introduces a feature named “topic” to label repositories. However, GitHub does not explicitly provide user preference information. It is difficult for software developers to find personalized GitHub trending repositories satisfying their preferences. In this paper, we propose a service named GHTRec to recommend personalized GitHub trending repositories for software developers. First, we use a deep-learning method to predict topics for GitHub repositories. Next, we leverage the historical repositories committed by software developers to make recommendation of GitHub trending repositories. Then we evaluate our topic prediction model and recommendation service, and results show that our GHTRec service could recommend trending repositories satisfying developers' topic preferences.

Cloud computing and network function virtualization (NFV) are emerging as key technologies to meet different service requirements of users. With NFV, service providers can flexibly deploy network services on clouds, significantly improving user experience and network scalability. Due to the flow fluctuation and demand dynamic of users, most existing resource allocation methods are reactive and may lead to high delay and resource consumption. In this paper, we propose an adaptive NFV resource allocation approach with proactive traffic prediction. First, a prediction model based on Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is designed to predict user demands. Next, with predicted demands, we construct a cost minimization model of virtual network function (VNF) scaling and flow routing, and design a proactive VNF scaling method combining horizontal scaling and vertical scaling. Then we utilize Markov approximation method to approximate VNF scaling problem, and design a polynomial algorithm based on Markov chain to find the near-optimal solution. The simulation shows that the proposed approach is more efficient and save up to 29% of cost with the better convergence.

In this paper, we propose a novel entropy minimization based semi-supervised method for semantic segmentation. Entropy minimization has proven to be an effective semi-supervised method for realizing the cluster assumption, where the decision boundary should lie in low-density regions. Inspired by the existing consistency training semi-supervised segmentation networks with encoder-decoder architecture, we found that there tend to be more large gradient values at the object edges than other positions in the feature map of the encoder, and therefore propose a feature gradient map regularization to enlarge inter-class distance in the feature space for low-entropy of segmentation prediction. Additionally, we introduce an adaptive sharpening scheme with aleatoric uncertainty, and a class consistency constraint regularization, to alleviate the interference of noise with pseudo labels. Extensive experiments on PASCAL VOC, PASCAL-Context, and Leukocyte datasets show that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art semi-supervised semantic segmentation performance without almost additional calculations and network structures.

An accurate call traffic forecasting can help the call center to schedule and manage its employees more scientifically. Meanwhile, to meet the needs that some tasks in the call center require the prediction of call traffic in different time buckets for a future long term, it is necessary to forecast the call traffic in a long-term and multi-step way. However, existing forecasting methods cannot solve this problem as (1) Most existing methods merely focus on short-term forecasting for the next hour or the next day. (2) The temporal features of call traffic are ignored, which leads to a lower accuracy in long-term forecasting. Hence, in this paper, we propose a holistic solution for forecasting long-term multi-step ahead call traffic. In our method, we give a categorized way for temporal features by studying the call traffic data. After data preprocessing, we develop an extraction method for temporal features extraction for training the forecasting model. We propose two forecasting strategies based on taking different types of features as input. Experimental results on the real-world call traffic dataset show the effectiveness of our solution, including data preprocessing, temporal features mining, and the forecasting model.

Wireless rechargeable sensor networks (WRSN) have attracted considerable attention in recent years due to the constant energy supply for battery-powered sensor nodes. However, current technologies only enable the mobile charger to replenish energy for one single node at a time. This method has poor scalability and is not suitable for large-scale WRSNs. Recently, wireless energy transfer technology based on multi-hop energy transfer has made great progress. It provides fundamental support to alleviate the scalability problem. In this paper, the node energy replenishment problem is formulated into an optimization problem. The optimization objective is to minimize the number of non-functional nodes. We propose the uneven cluster-based mobile charging (UCMC) algorithm for WRSNs. An uneven clustering scheme and a novel charging path planning scheme are incorporated in the UCMC algorithm. The simulation results verify that the proposed algorithm can achieve energy balance, reduce the number of dead nodes, and prolong the network lifetime.

This paper examines the diverse patterns and driving forces of the changing distribution of pollution-intensive industries (PIIs) in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China from 1999 to 2015. The results find the co-existence of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH) and the Porter Hypothesis (PH) at an industrial level. PIIs, especially the labor-intensive PIIs, become geographically more dispersed to the peripheral YRD, while capital-, tax- and technology-intensive PIIs are still highly concentrated in the core YRD. Uneven environmental regulations (ERs), such as pollutant emission controls and government supervision, have directly reshaped the spatial patterns of PIIs. The modelling results also suggest that regional differences in factor endowment, ecosystem, and upgrading and innovation milieu play an important role in PIIs (re)distribution, and PIIs with diverse industrial characteristics respond differently to the changes in ERs and other place-specific attributes. Relatively loose ERs, low production cost, and high environmental bearing-capacity can promote the formation of “pollution havens” for labor-intensive or low-end PIIs. However, local assets such as innovation milieu may heighten the effects of the PH on capital-intensive or high-tech PIIs. This study provides China's evidences about the co-existence of the PHH and the PH, and can advance our understanding of the restructuring process and mechanism of PIIs at finer geographical scales.

Atherosclerosis is the main pathological basis of ischemic cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and has attracted more attention in recent years. Multiple studies have demonstrated that the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) plays essential roles in the process of atherosclerosis. Moreover, aberrant STAT3 activation has been shown to contribute to the occurrence and development of atherosclerosis. Therefore, the study of STAT3 inhibitors has gradually become a focal research topic. In this review, we describe the crucial roles of STAT3 in endothelial cell dysfunction, macrophage polarization, inflammation, and immunity during atherosclerosis. STAT3 in mitochondria is mentioned as well. Then, we present a summary and classification of STAT3 inhibitors, which could offer potential treatment strategies for atherosclerosis. Furthermore, we enumerate some of the problems that have interfered with the development of mature therapies utilizing STAT3 inhibitors to treat atherosclerosis. Finally, we propose ideas that may help to solve these problems to some extent. Collectively, this review may be useful for developing future STAT3 inhibitor therapies for atherosclerosis.

Background Age-related cognitive decline is a pervasive problem in the ageing population. Baduanjin training is a mind-body exercise with the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine, and increasing numbers of studies have reported its usefulness in modulating the cognitive performance of various populations. However, no systematic review has evaluated the effect of Baduanjin training on cognition in middle-aged and older adults. Objective To systematically evaluate the effects of Baduanjin on the global cognitive function and specific cognitive domains of middle-aged and elderly people. Methods Four literature databases (PubMed, Cochrane library, EMBASE, and Web of Science) and four Chinese databases (Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical and China Biology Medicine) were searched from inception through May 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining the effect of Baduanjin exercise on the cognitive function of middle-aged and elderly people were included. Assessment of the risk of bias for the included studies and data synthesis were conducted using the software Review Manager 5.3 based on the methods given in the Cochrane Handbook. Results Baduanjin training showed significant benefit for global cognitive function and parts of specific domains of cognition, including general memory and its sub-domains (i.e., immediate memory and delayed memory), executive function, and processing speed, but no significant difference was found in attention function, visual-spatial ability or long-term memory (a sub-domain of memory). No related adverse events were reported in the included studies. Conclusions The findings of this review suggest that Baduanjin is safe and effective in enhancing global cognitive function and memory in middle-aged and older adults and potentially beneficial to parts of the other specific domains of cognition, including executive function and processing speed. However, additional trials with larger sample sizes and a more rigorous design are needed before more definitive conclusions can be drawn.

This paper presented the detailed results of surface profiles of tungsten-based electrodes (W-Ni-Fe and W-Cu) under 100-kA level repetitive pulsed arcs for 10,000 times. Focusing on the surface morphology, a series of statistical parameters (surface roughness, etc.) were adopted to quantitatively characterize the features of electrode surface. Meanwhile, the evolution of those parameters in the aging process was summarized and analyzed systematically. The results indicated that the contour of the electrode changed in both general shape and micro-structure. For the macroscopic contour, the characteristic diameter of the electrode tip decayed from ~21 mm to less than 18 mm after the test. As for the micro-fluctuations (μm level), various erosion patterns were found in anode and cathode, or in W-Ni-Fe and W-Cu electrodes. Then, possible mechanisms of those phenomena were discussed. Finally, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) method was adopted to study the spatial pseudo-periodicity of the electrode profiles. The four materials had a rank on erosion resistance, namely, 97WNiFe>93WNiFe&90WNiFe>90WCu.

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at high risk of HIV infection. Non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway is the main way of double-stranded DNA break (DSB) repair in the higher eukaryotes, and can repair the DSB timely at any time in cell cycle. The objective of this study was to investigate the association of SNPs of the NHEJ pathway genes with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression among MSM residing in northern China.Results: In the present study, a total of 481 HIV-1 seropositive men and 493 HIV-1 seronegative men were included. And genotyping of 22 SNPs in NHEJ pathway genes was performed using the SNPscanTM Kit. Our results disclosed significant associations of XRCC6 rs132770 and XRCC4 rs1056503 genotypes with susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. The generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) analysis found a significant SNP-SNP interaction between the XRCC6 and XRCC4 variants in the risk of HIV-1 infection. In stratified analysis, the positive effects of XRCC5 rs16855458 and LIG4 rs1805388 on the CD4+ T cell count and clinical phase of disease were validated.Conclusions: Our results confirmed that the NHEJ gene polymorphisms played an important role in HIV-1 infection and AIDS progression in the northern Chinese MSM population.

Text classification is a typical problem in NLP, which is to classify a given text into a certain category. In this article, we propose a classification-based training method, which is mainly based on the input text adaptive masking, and then further pre-training and fine-tuning training. This training method makes it easier to obtain the semantic features of the text, and thus can improve the semantic learning ability of the model, and thus can improve the classification effect. Experiments show that compared with other classic methods, this method can now improve the classification performance.

Purpose Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) of the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) is rare, thus the preoperative diagnosis is still a challenge.Methods We searched the database at our institution and performed a search of English literature in PubMed and Google Scholar. Keywords used were as follows: “primary central nervous system lymphoma”; “cerebellopontine angle”; “lymphoma”. Only cases in the English language that were located in the CPA and contained adequate clinical information pertinent to the analysis were included.Results 297 cases of pathologically confirmed PCNSLs were recorded between January 2009 and October 2020 at our institution. 6 cases were located in the CPA, accounting for 2.0% of all PCNSLs. 26 cases meeting the above criteria were found in the literature. Including ours, a total of 32 patients were analyzed. Females were more frequently affected (F/M ratio, 2.2:1). There was a preponderance of left-sided lesions in the PCNSLs of the CPA (L/R ratio, 1.5:1). On CT, 80.0% of them presented as hyperdense lesions. On T1-weighted image, 66.7% appeared isointense. While on T2-weighted image (T2WI), 68.4% appeared isointense/hypointense. After contrast administration, 86.2% presented intense homogeneous enhancement.Conclusion PCNSL of the CPA is extremely rare, accounting for 2.0% of all PCNSLs in our study. There is a preponderance of females and left-sided lesions in this disease. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging with T2WI is very helpful in the preoperative diagnosis of the CPA PCNSL. Although rare, lymphoma should be included in the differential diagnosis of CPA lesions.

Incorporating passive radiative cooling structures into personal thermal management technologies could effectively defend humans against intensifying global climate change. We show that large-scale woven metafabrics can provide high emissivity (94.5%) in the atmospheric window and high reflectivity (92.4%) in the solar spectrum because of the hierarchical-morphology design of the randomly dispersed scatterers throughout the metafabric. Through scalable industrial textile manufacturing routes, our metafabrics exhibit desirable mechanical strength, waterproofness, and breathability for commercial clothing while maintaining efficient radiative cooling ability. Practical application tests demonstrated that a human body covered by our metafabric could be cooled ~4.8°C lower than one covered by commercial cotton fabric. The cost-effectiveness and high performance of our metafabrics present substantial advantages for intelligent garments, smart textiles, and passive radiative cooling applications.

A novel perovskite hybrid surface plasmon waveguide structure is designed. Established its physical model and introduced its theoretical basis in detail. Based on the finite element method, the mode characteristics, quality factor, and gain threshold of the waveguide structure are analyzed with geometric parameters. The results show that the optical field constraint of the waveguide can reach a good deep sub-wavelength level under the optimal operating wavelength of 1550nm. By adjusting the waveguide design parameters, the high quality factor, low energy loss, low threshold limit and ultra small effective mode field area are obtained. Compared with the hybrid waveguide structure proposed in the current research results, this structure has stronger optical field limiting ability and microcavity binding ability. The waveguide structure can provide theoretical and technical support for the development of new efficient nano laser devices, and has a good application prospect.

Objective: Pediatric diffuse gliomas (pDGs) are relatively rare and molecularly distinct from pediatric pilocytic astrocytoma and adult DGs. Immunotherapy is a promising therapeutic strategy, requiring a deep understanding of tumor immune profiles. The spatial locations of brain tumors might be related to the molecular profiles. We aimed to analyze the relationship between the immune checkpoint molecules with the locations of DGs comparing pediatric with adult patients.Method: We studied 20 pDGs patients (age ≤ 21 years old), and 20 paired adult patients according to gender and histological types selected from 641 adult patients with DGs. Immune checkpoint molecules including B7-H3, CD47, and PD-L1, as well as tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), were manifested by immunohistochemical staining. Expression difference analyses and Spearman's correlation were performed. MRI data were voxel-wise normalized, segmented, and analyzed by Fisher's exact test to construct the tumor frequency and p value heatmaps. Survival analyses were conducted by Log-rank tests.Result: The median age of pediatric patients was 16 years. 55% and 30% of patients were WHO II and III grades, respectively. The left frontal lobe and right cerebellum were the statistically significant locations for pDGs, while the anterior horn of ventricles for adult DGs. A potential association between the expression of PD-L1 and TAMs was found in pDGs (p = 0.002, R = 0.670). The right posterior external capsule and the lateral side of the anterior horn of the left ventricle were predominant locations for the adult patients with high expression of B7-H3 and low expression of PD-L1 compared to pediatric ones, respectively. Pediatric patients showed significantly improved overall survival compared with adults. The prognostic roles of immune checkpoint molecules and TILs/TAMs were not significantly different between the two groups.Conclusion: Immune checkpoint-associated locations of diffuse gliomas comparing pediatric with adult patients could be helpful for the immunotherapy decisions and design of clinical trials.

Background Tai chi is considered a safe and low-cost treatment for improving balance ability among an older population. However, there is no existing evidence on the optimal exercise parameters of tai chi for improving balance in older adults. Objectives To investigate the optimal parameters of a tai chi intervention to improve balance performance of older adults. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Setting PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical and China Biology Medicine were searched from inception until November 30, 2020. Participants Adults aged 60 years and over. Measurements Two reviewers independently extracted the data and assessed the quality of the included studies according to the Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale. Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were conducted to elucidate the impact of tai chi training programs on balance measures. Results Twenty-six eligible RCTs were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled results showed that tai chi has moderate effects for improving proactive balance (weighted mean standardized mean differences [SMDwm ] = 0.61, 95% CI 0.33-0.89) and static steady-state balance (SMDwm = 0.62, 95% CI 0.30-0.95) and small effects for improving dynamic steady-state balance (SMDwm = 0.38, 95% CI 0.03-0.73) and balance test batteries (SMDwm = 0.47, 95% CI 0.13-0.81) in adults over 60 years of age. The practice frequency could predict the effects of tai chi on static steady-state balance, and the 24-form simplified Yang style tai chi (45-60 min/session, more than four sessions per week and at least 8 weeks) was the most optimal. Conclusions Tai chi is effective at improving the balance ability of adults over 60 years of age. A medium duration and high frequency of 24-form tai chi may be the optimal program for improving balance, but this evidence should be recommended with caution due to limitations of the methodology and small sample sizes.

BACKGROUND: There has been a long-standing controversy about diastasis recti diagnostic criteria and its relation to pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD). This study aimed to establish ultrasound diagnostic criteria for diastasis recti and investigate the correlation between it and PFD in early postpartum females. METHODS: The inter-rectus distance (IRD) was measured at 3 locations in 116 healthy nulliparous females and 108 postpartum females. At the same time, they remained relaxed and then maintained a head-lift posture. The measurement for the 90th percentile was used to define the normal IRD in the nulliparous group. Afterward, the 108 postpartum females underwent an ultrasonographic examination of pelvic floor function. The correlations of these values with the IRD were then examined. RESULTS: We established the following ultrasonographic diagnostic criteria for diastasis recti: an IRD of >2 mm at 3 cm below the umbilicus, >20 mm at the umbilicus, and >14 mm at 3 cm above the umbilicus. The IRD was positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) in the nulliparous group (r=0.286, P

Additive manufacturing (AM) has been widely adopted in the product development stage, and in some specific industry sections such as hearing-aids, orthodontics, and rapid prototyping, AM has become the main manufacturing techniques in their toolkit. The number of industrial AM application has been increasing considerably during the last decade, and AM enabled sustainable manufacturing method is becoming more promising. The major industry giants and academic institutions are investing a significant amount of resources and time on AM and its related fields to expend the AM application portfolio in a real industry production environment. I will introduce a serial of articles about the topic: the design exploration and design exploitation for Additive Manufacturing. A systematic hierarchical research architecture is adopted in this project and is divided into three parts: macro-level design, meso-level design, and micro-level design. The level of analysis structure spreads the research topic into different categories. A list of design principles will unfold Macro-level design research. The meso-design will execute the main techniques for innovative design techniques, and the final micro design research will be mainly focused on the micro-level of design contribution. Along with the development of understanding for DfAM, a multi-disciplinary study will also be conducted in the research involving computational design and simulation, virtual prototyping, machine learning, cost analysis, and practical operations related to AM software and hardware. The content includes the theoretical analysis, various case study and my personal research and development experience. The primary research will be around the center of rethinking the DfAM. The contents will include a background introduction for current (DfAM) Design for Additive Manufacturing status, the importance for the AM industry development, and the current constraints of DfAM.

The number of axles of the vehicle and the type of tires can reflect the information of the vehicle to a certain extent, and the load capacity can be calculated according to the number of axles of the truck and the type of axles. Therefore, the identification of the axle is of great significance for judging whether the truck is overweight. At present, the method of calculating the axles is carried out by the method of Laser Radar or grating for axle counting. In the prior art, the method of axle counting is complicated to deploy and the cost is high. Some computer vision-based axle statistics methods have emerged in recent years, but complete vehicle sideways pictures are required. However, due to the long body of the truck and the limited space factor, it is difficult to obtain the complete vehicle in an original image. Although image stitching can solve this problem, the current video image stitching methods have a relatively high time cost. To solve this issue, we propose an object detection and tracking method based on YOLOv5s for axle counting and tire type identification. Experimental results show that the proposed method has extremely high accuracy and can meet real-time requirements even without GPU.

The infratentorial regions are vulnerable to develop brain metastases (BMs). However, the associations between the infratentorial localization of BMs and clinical characteristics remained unclear. We retrospectively studied 1102 patients with 4365 BM lesions. Voxel-wise mapping of MRI was applied to construct the tumor frequency heatmaps after normalization and segmentation. The analysis of differential involvement (ADIFFI) was further used to obtain statistically significant clusters. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression were used to analyze the prognosis. The parietal, insular and left occipital lobes, and cerebellum were vulnerable to BMs with high relative metastatic risks. Infratentorial areas were site-specifically affected by the lung, breast, and colorectal cancer BMs, but inversely avoided by melanoma BMs. Significant infratentorial clusters were associated with young age, male sex, lung neuroendocrine and squamous cell carcinomas, high expression of Ki-67 of primaries and BMs, and patients with poorer prognosis. Inferior OS was observed in patients with &ge, 3 BMs and those who received whole-brain radiotherapy alone. Infratentorial involvement of BMs was an independent risk factor of poor prognosis for patients who received surgery (p = 0.023, hazard ratio = 1.473, 95% confidence interval = 1.055&ndash, 2.058). The current study may add valuable clinical recognition of BMs and provide references for BMs diagnosis, treatment evaluation, and prognostic prediction.

Ischemia reperfusion (IR) can lead to acute kidney injury and can be complicated by acute lung injury, which is one of the leading causes of acute kidney injury-related death. Peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 (PAD4) is a member of the PAD enzyme family and plays a critical role in inflammatory reactions and neutrophil extracellular trap formation in a variety of pathological conditions. It has been reported that PAD4 inhibition can protect certain organs from ischemic injury. In this study, we aimed to understand the mode of action of PAD4 in renal ischemia-reperfusion-mediated acute lung injury. Bilateral renal pedicle occlusion was induced for 30 min followed by reperfusion for 24 h. A specific inhibitor of PAD4, GSK484, was delivered via intraperitoneal injection to alter the PAD4 activity. The pulmonary PAD4 expression, pulmonary impairment, neutrophil infiltration, Cit-H3 expression, neutrophil extracellular trap formation, inflammatory cytokine secretion, and pulmonary apoptosis were analyzed. We found that renal ischemia reperfusion was associated with pulmonary pathological changes and increases in neutrophil infiltration, neutrophil extracellular trap formation, and inflammatory cytokine secretion in the lungs of the recipient animals. Suppression of PAD4 by GSK484 reduced remote lung injury by mitigating neutrophil infiltration, neutrophil extracellular trap formation, apoptosis, and inflammatory factor secretion. Our findings demonstrate that specific PAD4 inhibition by GSK484 may be an effective strategy to attenuate distant lung injury complicating renal ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Myocardial injury has been deemed as a major cause of heart diseases including myocarditis and coronary heart disease, which have brought multiple mortalities globally. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are widely recognized in diverse diseases. However, the role of circular RNA HIPK2 (circ-HIPK2) remains unclear in myocardial injury induced by H2O2. We attempted to investigate the probable role of circ-HIPK2 in myocardial injury induced by H2O2. This study discovered that the treatment of H2O2 inhibited cell proliferation but boosted cell apoptosis and autophagy. ATG101 was upregulated in primary mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes under H2O2 treatment. ATG101 knockdown promoted proliferation and limited apoptosis by attenuating autophagy in H2O2-injured mouse neonatal cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, miR-485-5p was validated to combine with ATG101 and circ-HIPK2, and circ-HIPK2 positively regulated ATG101 expression by sponging miR-485-5p. At last, silenced circ-HIPK2 mediated the promotion of cell proliferation, and repression of cell apoptosis was restored by ATG101 amplification. In a word, circ-HIPK2 facilitates autophagy to accelerate cell apoptosis and cell death in H2O2-caused myocardial oxidative injury through the miR-485-5p/ATG101 pathway, indicating a novel therapeutic target point for patients with myocardial injury.

Quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) is an important branch of quantum communication that transmits confidential messages directly in a quantum channel without utilizing encryption and decryption. It not only prevents eavesdropping during transmission, but also eliminates the security loophole associated with key storage and management. Recently measurement-device-independent (MDI) QSDC protocols in which the measurement is performed by an untrusted party using imperfect measurement devices have been constructed, and MDI-QSDC eliminates the security loopholes originating from the imperfections in measurement devices so that enable applications of QSDC with current technology. In this paper, we complete the quantitative security analysis of the MDI-QSDC protocols, one based on EPR pairs and one based on single photons. In passing, a security loophole in one of the MDI-QSDC protocols (Niu et al. in Sci Bull 63(20):1345–1350, 2018) is fixed. The security capacity is derived, and its lower bound is given. It is found that the MDI-QSDC secrecy capacity is only slightly lower than that of QSDC utilizing perfect measurement devices. Therefore, QSDC is possible with current measurement devices by sacrificing a small amount in the capacity.

Background: The safety of anthraquinone laxatives has been controversial. Previously, a few scattered studies have revealed that anthraquinones can cause the damage to the structure of colonic epithelial tissue, and long-term intake of anthraquinone laxatives increase the colorectal cancer risks. In this study, we focused on sennoside A, a primary purgative component in anthraquinone laxatives, and investigated the effects of sennoside A on intestinal inflammation, host metabolism, and whether it can exacerbate the colitis-associated colon cancer in the AOM/DSS mouse model. Results: Initially, sennoside A disrupted the mucus layer and mechanical barrier of the colon. The dynamic effects of sennoside A on the community structure of gut microbiota were futher anlyazed. We found sennoside A significantly promoted the dominant growth of Akkermansia muciniphila after continuous treatment for 56 days, which was independent of the prototype of sennoside A and its metabolites, including the main host metabolite rhein and bacteria metabolites. Interestingly, sennoside A suppressed the growth of butyrate-producing bacteria, thereby decreasing the butyrate levels. Besides, sennoside A directly inhibited the growth of Clostridium tyrobutyrate and Clostridium butyricum, which was not caused by the prototype of sennoside A , but the direct bacteriostatic effect produced from its metaboliterhein. Lastly, supplement with butyrate prevented sennoside A-induced gut dysbiosis and mucus barrier impairment. Conclusions: our work reveals that sennoside A can impair the integrity of the intestinal mucosal barrier, which is closely related to the disruption of the structural balance between mucus-degrading bacteria and exogenous fibro-degrading bacteria, inducing long term low-grade inflammation, metabolic disorders associated with tumorigenesis, and consequently promoting the progression of colonic carcinogenesis in the AOM/DSS mouse model.

Objective: Meningiomas presented preferred intracranial distribution, which may reflect potential biological natures. This study aimed to analyze the preferred locations of meningioma according to different biological characteristics. Method: A total of 1,107 patients pathologically diagnosed with meningiomas between January 2012 and December 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Preoperative MRI were normalized, and lesions were semiautomatically segmented. The stereospecific frequency and p value heatmaps were constructed to compare two biological phenotypes using two-tailed Fisher's exact test. Age, sex, WHO grades, extent of resection (EOR), recurrence, and immunohistochemical markers including p53, Ki67, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), progesterone receptor (PR), and CD34 were statistically analyzed. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) were analyzed by Kaplan–Meier method. Result: Of 1,107 cases, convexity (20.8%), parasagittal (16.1%), and falx (11.4%) were the most predominant loci of meningiomas. The p-value heatmap suggested lesion predominance in the left frontal and occipital convexity among older patients while in the left sphenoid wing, and right falx, parasellar/cavernous sinus, and middle fossa among younger patients. Lesions located at anterior fossa and frontal structures were more frequently seen in the male while left parietal falx and tentorial regions, and right cerebellopontine angle in the female. Grades II and III lesions presented predominance in the frontal structures compared with grade I ones. Meningiomas at the left parasagittal sinus and falx, tentorium, intraventricular regions, and skull-base structures were significantly to receive subtotal resection. Lesions with p53 positivity were statistically located at the left frontal regions and parasellar/cavernous sinus, higher Ki67 index at the left frontal and bilateral parietal convexity and right parasellar/cavernous sinus, EMA negativity at the right olfactory groove and left middle fossa, and CD34 positivity at the sellar regions and right sphenoid wing. Tumor recurrence rates for grades I, II, and III were 2.8, 7.9, and 53.8%, respectively. Inferior RFS, higher Ki67 index, grades II and III, and a larger preoperative volume were observed in older patients. Recurrent meningiomas were more frequently found at the occipital convexity, tentorium, sellar regions, parasagittal sinus, and left sphenoid wing. Conclusion: The preferred locations of meningioma could be observed according to different biological characteristics, which might be helpful for clinical decisions.

Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are a special kind of metastable complex metallic alloys with important potential applications. The ability of plastic deformation is of vital importance for the industrial application of BGMs, which can be improved by pulse current. In order to study the electroplastic effect in BMGs and prevent its crystallization caused by the high temperature in experiment, we design a power supply system with the function of real time adaptive adjustment of pulse current amplitude through feedback control to achieve precise temperature control of the specimen. It is proved by experiments that system has a high temperature control accuracy and meets the requirements of experiment for BMGs.