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Well-designed second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorophores are promising in optical diagnosis and therapy of tumors. In this work, we synthesized a donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) NIR-II fluorophore named BBTD-BET with dithienylethene as an electron donor and benzobisthiadiazole as an electron acceptor. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of using dithienylethene, a typical photochromic molecule, as a building block for NIR-II fluorophores. We studied the geometrical configuration, electronic state, and optical properties of BBTD-BET by both theoretical and experimental means. BBTD-BET had absorption and emission in the NIR-I and NIR-II spectral ranges, respectively. Using PEGylated BBTD-BET as a theranostic agent, we achieved NIR-II fluorescence/photoacoustic (PA) dual-modal imaging and attained high imaging resolution, desired signal-to-noise ratio, and excellent photothermal therapy (PTT) efficacy. After one PTT treatment, the tumors established in mice were eradicated. This work provides a novel organic conjugated molecule integrating NIR-II/PA dual-modal imaging and PTT functionalities that is very promising in the theranostic of tumors.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that builds an artificial system with certain intelligence and uses computer software and hardware to simulate intelligent human behavior. When combined with drug research and development, AI can considerably shorten this cycle, improve research efficiency, and minimize costs. The use of machine learning to discover novel materials and predict material properties has become a new research direction. On the basis of the current status of worldwide research on the combination of AI and crystal form and cocrystal, this mini-review analyzes and explores the application of AI in polymorphism prediction, crystal structure analysis, crystal property prediction, cocrystal former (CCF) screening, cocrystal composition prediction, and cocrystal formation prediction. This study provides insights into the future applications of AI in related fields.

Epidemiological evidence suggests that patients with hypertension infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are at increased risk of acute lung injury. However, it is still not clear whether this increased risk is related to the usage of renin-angiotensin system (RAS) blockers. We collected medical records of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients from the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (Hangzhou, China), and evaluated the potential impact of an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients with hypertension. A total of 30 hypertensive COVID-19 patients were enrolled, of which 17 were classified as non-ARB group and the remaining 13 as ARB group based on the antihypertensive therapies they received. Compared with the non-ARB group, patients in the ARB group had a lower proportion of severe cases and intensive care unit (ICU) admission as well as shortened length of hospital stay, and manifested favorable results in most of the laboratory testing. Viral loads in the ARB group were lower than those in the non-ARB group throughout the disease course. No significant difference in the time of seroconversion or antibody levels was observed between the two groups. The median levels of soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (sACE2) in serum and urine samples were similar in both groups, and there were no significant correlations between serum sACE2 and biomarkers of disease severity. Transcriptional analysis showed 125 differentially expressed genes which mainly were enriched in oxygen transport, bicarbonate transport, and blood coagulation. Our results suggest that ARB usage is not associated with aggravation of COVID-19. These findings support the maintenance of ARB treatment in hypertensive patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

Generally, a few-shot distribution shift will lead to a poor generalization. Furthermore, while the number of instances of each class in the real world may significantly different, the existing few-shot classification methods are based on the assumption that the number of samples in each class is equal, which causes the trained classifier invalid. Moreover, through ResNet and WRN (Wide Residual Network) have achieved great success in the image processing field, the depth and width of CNNs constrain the conventional convolution layer performance. Thus, to overcome the above problems, the model of this paper proposes a novel few-shot classification model that uses learning balance variables to decide how much to learn from the imbalance dataset, which dynamically generates the convolution kernel based on each input. In our model, to extend the decision boundaries and enhance the class representations, this paper uses embedding propagation as a regularizer for manifold smoothing. Manifold smoothing can effectively solve the above problems of transductive learning. The interpolations between neural network features based on similarity graphs are used by embedding propagation. Experiments show that embedding propagation can produce a better embedding manifold and our model in standard few-shot datasets, such as miniImagenet, tieredImagenet, CUB has state-of-the-art results. It significantly outperforms the existing few-shot approaches, which consistently improves the accuracy of the models by about 11%.

Highlights • The detection rate of hock-a-loogie saliva was higher than nasopharyngeal swabs. • Hock-a-loogie saliva sample had a higher viral load than throat swab. • Hock-a-loogie saliva sampling for SARS-CoV-2 detection is reliable., To clarify the effect of different respiratory sample types on SARS-CoV-2 detection, we collected throat swabs, nasal swabs and hock-a-loogie saliva or sputum, and compared their detection rates and viral loads. The detection rates of sputum (95.65%, 22/23) and hock-a-loogie saliva (88.09%, 37/42) were significantly higher than those in throat swabs (41.54%, 27/65) and nasal swabs (72.31%, 47/65) (P

Objective To investigate the application of oncoplastic surgery in breast-conserving surgery. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 103 breast cancer patients who underwent breast-conserving surgery in the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University. All the patients were female whose tumor volume-to-breast volume ratio was greater than 20%. Fifty-two patients were treated with oncoplastic breast-conversing surgery (observation group), and 51 patients were treated with traditional breast-conserving surgery (control group). The volume of resected tissue, subjective satisfaction with breast shape, objective score of breast shape, and follow-up were compared between the two groups. Results In the observation group, the weight of resected breast tissue was 64.2–172.1 g, with a median of 98.7 g. In the control group, the weight of resected breast tissue was 67.5–175.7 g, with a median of 102.3 g. After 12 months of follow-up, the subjective satisfaction rate and objective score of breast shape in the observation group were significantly better than those in the traditional breast-conserving surgery group (P 0.05). Conclusion Oncoplastic breast-conserving surgery leads to better cosmetic results and a more satisfactory clinical results.

The total coal consumption in China is on the rise. The characteristics of CO2 and SO2 emissions in the whole process of coal processing and utilization in China are worthy of study. Based on the five links of the whole process of coal production and utilization, including coal production, raw coal processing, logistics and transportation, conversion and utilization and resource utilization, this paper summarized and analyzed the energy consumption and pollutant emission sources of these five links, combined with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s AP-42 method and IPCC method, to calculate total pollutant discharge and emission factors, where the emission factors were corrected by conversion efficiency. At the same time, uncertainty analysis is performed about CO2 and SO2 emissions. The results showed that CO2 emissions were 3.657 billion tons, and emission reductions were 61 million tons, and SO2 emissions were 4,844,500 tons, and emission reductions were 10.3595 million tons in 2015.

Objective: To identify the predictors of prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) less than 3 months. Methods: From June 2017 to May 2020, a total of 165 infants less than 3 months old with CHD admitted to the Children's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University for CPB were enrolled in this study. The following data were collected including gender, age, weight, Risk Adjustment in Congenital Heart Surgery-1 (RACHS-1) score, preoperative levels of thyroid hormones, CPB time, aortic cross-clamping (ACC) time, mechanical ventilation time, ICU mortality and infection. The PMV was defined as the ventilator assisted time > 72h. PMV prediction was assessed by multivariate binary logistic regression analysis. Results: Compared with non-PMV group, PMV group was younger (44.74 ± 25.27 days vs. 35.44 ± 26.91 days, P= 0.001), and most were newborns (41/93 vs. 10/57, P=0.000), with a higher proportion of RACHS-1 (29/93 vs.6/57, P=0.000) and more cases of infection (47/93 vs. 17/57,P= 0.004).PMV group had significantly lower weight than non-PMV group (3.79 ± 0.83Kg vs. 4.28 ± 1.01Kg, P=0.001). In PMV group, CPB (133.74 ± 89.65 vs. 72.30 ± 44.82, P =0.000) and ACC time (52.02 ± 24.80 vs. 36.98 ± 16.63, P =0.000) were both longer. FT4 and TT4 were higher while FT3, TT3 and TSH were lower in PMV group, but only FT3 (4.99 ± 1.67 vs. 5.29 ± 1.23, P =0.017) and TT3 (1.91 ± 0.59 vs. 1.96 ± 0.49, P =0.050) showed significant differences between PMV group and non-PMV group. Conclusion: Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that weight, infection, FT3 and CPB time were independent predictors of PMV after CPB in infants with CHD.

Learning and memory impairment is a common clinical symptom of aging and nervous system injuries, and seriously affects quality of life. Memory impairment is associated with increased oxidative stress (OS) and inflammatory response. β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) is a water-soluble endogenous small-molecule ketone body that easily crosses the blood-brain barrier and has shown neuroprotection activities. In this study, we investigated the effects and mechanisms of BHBA on D-galactose (D-gal)-induced memory impairment in mice by in vitro and in vivo experiments. BHBA was administered intragastrically to D-gal-injured C57BL/6 mice for 42 days. Water maze performance, the morphology of the hippocampus with Nissl staining, the ACh content, OS, and inflammation status were examined. To further investigate the mechanism, hippocampal neuronal cells (HT22) were treated with BHBA with or without the SIRT1 inhibitor or small interfering RNAs against sirt1 (si-SIRT1) before incubation with D-gal. BHBA significantly improved water maze performance; increased the ACh content, SOD activity, and SIRT1 expression; and decreased AChE and LDH activity, ROS, MDA, IL-1β, TNF-α contents, and NLRP3 expression. Further studies with the SIRT inhibitor or siRNAs against sirt1 reversed the above effects of BHBA. Collectively, BHBA inhibited hippocampal OS and the inflammation process to alleviate learning and memory impairment through activating the SIRT1 pathway in D-gal-injured mice, suggesting that BHBA could be a potential option for drug development of learning and memory impairment induced by nervous system injuries.

Since the ratio of glazing and opaque areas on building facade has significant impact on the indoor visual and thermal comforts as well as energy consumption, the optimal Window-to-Wall Ratio is necessary to be explored for the rural residences with a large quantity in China. Due to the traditional dwellings has been representative of housing samples among rural residences, Sizhai traditional dwellings situated in Zhejiang Province were chosen as the study buildings in this paper. The building model is rotated to 20° increments clockwise to create 18 building orientation intervals. Furthermore, the Window-to-Wall Ratio of front facade for the building model was divided into 8 intervals at increments of 0.1, from [0.1–0.2] to [0.8–0.9]. Through indoor environment simulation, the daylight factor, air temperature and air velocity were computed for the test scenarios with different building orientation and Window-to-Wall Ratio combinations. Three optimal intervals of Window-to-Wall Ratios at a series of building orientations corresponding to the daylight factor, mean maximum indoor temperature and mean indoor air velocity are determined respectively, based on the criteria of national codes and thermal comfort ranges. The intersection interval of the three subsets is the optimal interval of Window-to-Wall Ratio for the study building. In addition, for verifying the accuracy of research results, two validation techniques (i.e., comparison of experimental measurement data, and comparison of computational results from other simulation tools) were adopted in this paper.

High performance, low cost and sustainable photocatalytic evolution of hydrogen is a promising energy supply alternative for modern society to resolve the depletion crisis of fossil fuel. The design of multi-heterojunction visible-light photocatalysts combined with electrochemical means is considered one of the most attractive options in recent years. In this work, a photoanode composed of top-opened ZnO/CdS/PbS nanotube arrays (ZnO/CdS/PbS ONTs) with multi-heterojunctions was synthesized via a three-step process, i.e. hydrothermal treatment, chemical bath deposition and successive ionic layer adsorption reaction (SILAR). This as-prepared photoanode exhibited remarkable photoelectrochemical activity under visible light irradiation. The photocurrent density and photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution efficiency of the optimized ZnO/CdS/PbS ONTs reached up to 14.2 mA cm−2 and 5.5 mL cm−2 h−1 at 0.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl, respectively. The efficiency was 3.1 times that of top-closed ZnO/CdS nanotubes (1.8 mL cm−2 h−1). The experimental results suggest that the high photoelectrochemical activity can be ascribed to the inherent advantages of the structural and successive energy level relays design: on the one hand, the top-opened nanotube structure significantly enlarges surface area of the nanostructure, which facilitates efficient light absorption and rapid mass transport; on the other hand, the well-matched band energy edge of the multi-heterojunction interfaces literally build efficient electron highways to deliver electrons to reaction sites and reduce the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers.

BackgroundViral nucleic acid detection is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, unsuitable sample types and laboratory detection kits/methods lead to misdiagnosis, which delays the prevention and control of the pandemic.MethodsWe compared four nucleic acid detection methods [two kinds of reverse transcription polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR A: ORF1ab and N testing; RT-PCRB: only ORF1ab testing), reverse transcription recombinase aided amplification (RT-RAA) and droplet digital RT-PCR (dd-RT-PCR)] using 404 samples of 72 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, including oropharyngeal swab (OPS), nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) and saliva after deep cough, to evaluate the best sample type and method for SARS-CoV-2 detection.ResultsAmong the four methods, dd-RT-PCR exhibited the highest positivity rate (93.0%), followed by RT-PCR B (91.2%) and RT-RAA (91.2%), while the positivity rate of RT-PCR A was only 71.9%. The viral load in OPS [24.90 copies/test (IQR 15.58-129.85)] was significantly lower than that in saliva [292.30 copies/test (IQR 20.20-8628.55)] and NPS [274.40 copies/test (IQR 33.10-2836.45)]. In addition, if OPS samples were tested alone by RT-PCR A, only 21.4% of the COVID-19 patients would be considered positive. The accuracy of all methods reached nearly 100% when saliva and NPS samples from the same patient were tested simultaneously.ConclusionsSARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection methods should be fully evaluated before use. High-positivity rate methods such as RT-RAA and dd-RT-PCR should be considered when possible. Furthermore, saliva after deep cough and NPS can greatly improve the accuracy of the diagnosis, and testing OPS alone is not recommended.

Herein, we synthesized an oxygen- and nitrogen-containing carbonaceous structure (ONCS). This ONCS possessed exceptional light-harvesting ranging from the visible to NIR light region. Characterization results confirmed that the ONCS was an n-type semiconductor. The ONCS can efficiently catalyze hydrogen photosynthesis and benzyl alcohol oxidation under visible light, even under NIR light irradiation.

Background Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) may precede clinically overt coronary artery disease (CAD). Overall and central obesity (CO) are major risk factors for CAD. This study sought to investigate the subclinical significance of body adiposity patterns based on the CMD risk. Methods A total of 128 patients with non-obstructive CAD were prospectively enrolled. Patients were categorized into 4 anthropometric groups: normal weight and non-CO (NWNCO, n = 41), normal weight and CO (NWCO, n = 20), excess weight and non-CO (EWNCO, n = 26), and excess weight and CO (EWCO, n = 41). Patients underwent rest/stress electrocardiography-gated 13N-ammonia positron emission tomography to measure absolute myocardial blood flow (MBF), myocardial flow reserve (MFR), hemodynamic parameters, and cardiac function. Results Resting MBF did not differ between groups (P = .36). Compared with the NWNCO group, hyperemic MBF and MFR were significantly lower in the NWCO and EWCO groups. Notably, patients with NWCO presented the lowest hyperemic MBF and MFR and the highest incidence of CMD. Waist circumference was an independent risk factor for CMD (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.10, P = .02). Conclusion In patients with non-obstructive CAD, CO may be associated with an increased risk of CMD to better fit the study findings which did not assess management or monitoring of MBF and MFR.

In China, owing to the methane concentration being below 0.75%, the coal ventilation air methane (CVAM) is usually emitted directly into the atmosphere, rather than utilized, which not only causes huge waste of energy but also exerts potential hazards to the greenhouse effect. It is important and practicable to save costs of development and investment by simulating enrichment and separation of CVAM with an aim to improve the efficiency and recovery of adsorption separation. Above all, it will have important practical significance to the development of adsorption separation. In this paper, the experiment of the pressure swing adsorption process was carried out on double towers built by our laboratory, and the Aspen Adsorption was used to simulate the process. The effect of the operation parameters on the desorbed methane concentration was studied by altering the feed concentration, the adsorbed pressure, and adsorbed and desorbed time. The results of simulation and experiment are basically consistent. The ratio of methane was decreased following the increasing concentration of the feed. The optimum adsorption pressure and time were found to be 210 kPa and 120 s, respectively. The optimum desorption times of experiment and simulation were 150 s and 120 s, respectively. Because there was a man-made 30 s time lag between the experiment and simulation to protect the vacuum pump, the results show that the simulation and experiment were matched well. Therefore, we can make use of Aspen Adsorption to design separation and enrichment of CVAM, providing theoretical and practical guidance for the gas separation and saving resources and energy.

There has been increased interest in applying artificial intelligence (AI) in various settings to inform decision-making and facilitate predictive analytics. In recent times, there have also been attempts to utilize blockchain (a peer-to-peer distributed system) to facilitate AI applications, for example, in secure data sharing (for model training), preserving data privacy, and supporting trusted AI decision and decentralized AI. Hence, in this paper, we perform a comprehensive review of how blockchain can benefit AI from these four aspects. Our analysis of 27 English-language articles published between 2018 and 2021 identifies a number of research challenges and opportunities.

Background Radiotherapy is regarded as a milestone for the cure of cervical cancer. However, clinical outcome heavily be hindered by radioresistance. So, exploring the underlying mechanism of radioresistance, and find potential target, well deserve fully emphasis. Methods In this study, we developed two novel radiation resistance cervical cancer cell lines, which could mimic clinical radioresistance. In order to find new potential targets, RNA-Seq, database analysis, streptavidin-agarose and LC/MS were used. Pull-down, luciferase and rescue assays were conducted to explore the regulatory mechanisms. To further evaluate the correlation between therapeutic responses and HMGB3/hTERT expression, 172 cervical cancer patients were recruited. Results Knockdown of HMGB3 significantly inhibit the DNA damage repair and induced more γH2AX foci, leading to enhanced chemo- and radio-sensitivity in vitro and in vivo, whereas HMGB3 overexpression has the opposite effects. HMGB3 promotes cell growth and radioresistance by transcriptionally up-regulating hTERT via the specifical binding of HMGB3 at the hTERT promoter region from − 902 to − 321. HMGB3 knockdown-mediated radiosensitization could be reversed by the overexpressed hTERT in both cervical cancer cell lines and xenograft tumor mouse model. Furthermore, clinical data from 172 cervical cancer patients proved that there was a positive correlation between HMGB3 and hTERT expression, and high expression of HMGB3/hTERT predicted poor response to radiotherapy, worse TNM stages and shorter survival time. Conclusion Here, we have identified HMGB3/hTERT signaling axis as a new target for cervical cancer radioresistance. Our results provide new insights into the mechanism of cervical cancer radioresistance and indicate that targeting the HMGB3/hTERT signaling axis may benefit cervical cancer patients.

Here we used a meta-analysis of several clinical trials to determine whether anti-Helicobacter pylori therapy has any positive effect on IBS patients. Here we compared the effective clinical remission rates between IBS patients treated with anti-H. pylori therapy and those who were not. This data would provide more clinical evidence regarding the efficacy of novel treatments and intervention points for IBS patients. Relevant studies were identified using keyword searches on various electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CNKI, and CBM. Keywords included “helicobacter pylori” and “irritable bowel syndrome” among others. The literature was screened using relatively strict inclusion and exclusion criteria and RevMan 5.3.5 and Stata 15.1 software were used for meta-analysis and to assess publication bias and sensitivity. A total of ten studies met all of the inclusion criteria; these included 655 IBS patients with H. pylori infection, of these, 385 patients were in the experimental group and 270 patients were in the control group. A random-effects model was used to pool the odds ratios (ORs) with a 95% confidence interval (CIs) and the combined OR was 2.87 (95% CI: 1.74-4.72), p

We are developing the Delta framework that aims to tackle big-data challenges specific to fusion energy sciences. Delta can be used to connect fusion experiments to remote supercomputers. Streaming measurements to distributed compute resources allows to automatically perform high-dimensional data analysis on a cadence that exceeds experimental schedules. Making data analysis results available before the next experiments allows scientists to make more informed decisions about configuration of upcoming experiments. Here we describe how Delta uses database and virtualization facilities, as well as high-performance computing, at the National Energy Research Compute Center to offer a vertically integrated near real-time data analysis and visualization. We also report on ongoing efforts to port the data analysis part of Delta to graphical processing units, which show a reduction of the analysis wall-time for a benchmark workflow by about 35% when compared to a serial implementation.

The purification effect of a biological aerated filter (BAF) mainly comes from the microorganisms in the reactor. Understanding the correlation between microbial community characteristics and environmental factors along the filter has great significance for maintaining good operation and improving the removal efficiency of the filter. A two-stage BAF was employed to treat domestic sewage under organic loads of 1.02 and 1.55 kg/m3&middot, d for 15 days each. 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing technology and redundancy analysis were applied to explore the correlation between microbial community characteristics and environmental variables. The results showed that: (1) the crucial organic-degrading bacteria in the A-stage filter were of the genus Novosphingobium, which had a significant increase in terms of relative abundance at sampling outlet A3 (135 cm of the filling height) after the increase of organic load, (2) the microbial communities at different positions in the B-stage filter were similarly affected by environmental factors, and the main bacteria associated with nitrogen removal in the B-stage filter were Zoogloea and Rhodocyclus, and (3) to improve the pollutant removal performance of this two-stage biological aerated filter, a strategy of adding an internal circulation in the B-stage filter can be adopted.

With the popularization of smartphones, the technology of moving human behavior recognition utilizing smartphones has drawn wide attention of scholars. However, due to the limited computing power of smartphones, it is difficult for them to stably run recognition systems with highly complex. In addition, when a behavior switches, the transitional action is also difficult to recognize. To address these defects, this paper first proposes a feature extraction method using gait periodicity to extract characteristics of moving human behavior quickly and effectively. Secondly, a recognition framework combining SVM and the D-S evidence theory is proposed to recognize transitional action. A series of experiments and their results show that the both proposed methods can improve accuracy rate of moving human behavior recognition to 95.5%.

Author(s): Godoy, WF; Podhorszki, N; Wang, R; Atkins, C; Eisenhauer, G; Gu, J; Davis, P; Choi, J; Germaschewski, K; Huck, K; Huebl, A; Kim, M; Kress, J; Kurc, T; Liu, Q; Logan, J; Mehta, K; Ostrouchov, G; Parashar, M; Poeschel, F; Pugmire, D; Suchyta, E; Takahashi, K; Thompson, N; Tsutsumi, S; Wan, L; Wolf, M; Wu, K; Klasky, S | Abstract: We present ADIOS 2, the latest version of the Adaptable Input Output (I/O) System. ADIOS 2 addresses scientific data management needs ranging from scalable I/O in supercomputers, to data analysis in personal computer and cloud systems. Version 2 introduces a unified application programming interface (API) that enables seamless data movement through files, wide-area-networks, and direct memory access, as well as high-level APIs for data analysis. The internal architecture provides a set of reusable and extendable components for managing data presentation and transport mechanisms for new applications. ADIOS 2 bindings are available in C++11, C, Fortran, Python, and Matlab and are currently used across different scientific communities. ADIOS 2 provides a communal framework to tackle data management challenges as we approach the exascale era of supercomputing.

Purpose: We found in previous study that metformin could treat sepsis myocarditis in a mouse model. We employed the zebrafish model organism to investigate the effect of metformin on sepsis myocarditis. Methods and Results: Wild-type zebrafish was used to establish a sepsis myocarditis model and combined with image software analysis and cytokine detection, the protective dose of metformin was determined. The results showed that immersion with Escherichia coli could cause 75% mortality in zebrafish and make larvae appear as characteristics of severe sepsis myocarditis. Pretreatment with 10 mM metformin for 3 hours could effectively reduce heart congestion and swelling in zebrafish with sepsis myocarditis and increased the heart rate. It could reduce the mortality and prolong the survival time of zebrafish with sepsis myocarditis; Tg(mpx: EGFP) transgenic zebrafish were adopted to explore the number of neutrophils in zebrafish heart before and after metformin protection, and metformin could maintain the number of neutrophils in zebrafish heart; quantitative real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction showed that metformin could reduce the expression of pro-inflammatory factors, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin (IL)-6, and could promote the anti-inflammatory factor, transforming growth factor-β and IL-10 expression. Conclusion: We established a zebrafish sepsis myocarditis model and applied metformin in advance to provide a protective effect on the zebrafish heart.

Objectives: To explore the incidence of diabetes under different indicator and interaction between metabolic index and liver enzyme index for diabetes mellitus. Methods: This study based on the Jinchang cohort, which is a prospective cohort included 48,001 subjects at baseline. To compare the incidence of diabetes under different metabolic indexes and liver enzyme indexes; Cox proportional hazard model was used to analysis the risk of diabetes with different metabolic indexes and liver enzymes indexes; The multiplicative model was used to analyze the interaction between different metabolic indexes and liver enzymes indexes for diabetes. Results: With the increase of TC, TG, ALT and AST, the incidence of diabetes gradually increased(p Conclusion: TC, TG, LDL-C,ALT, AST and GGT were risk factors for the incidence of diabetes, and HDL-C was a protective factor for the incidence of diabetes. In the male population, the interaction of TC and TG, TC and ALT, TG and ALT, ALT and GGT were all positively multiplied. In the female population, TC and TG, ALT and GGT were positively multiplied by the interaction. Disclosure P. Huang: None. J. Yang: None. W. Huang: None. N. Liu: None. R. Wang: None. R. Zhang: None. Z. Bai: None. Y. Bai: None. N. Cheng: None. M. Wang: None. S. Zheng: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (1R01ES02908201A1); Lanzhou University (2018LDBRZD008)

Objective: To study the association of triglycerides(TG), uric acid and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM), evaluate whether there would be an additive interaction between two factors. Methods: Based on the follow-up population of Jinchang cohort, an ongoing occupational-based prospective cohort study of 48,001 participants at baseline, the nested-case control study was used to explore the relationship of TG, uric acid and incidence of T2DM, and calculate the odds ratio(OR) and 95% confidence intervals(CI). The interaction additive model was used to evaluate whether there would be an additive interaction between two factors. Results: Among 18,195 participants with normal fasting plasma glucose(FPG) at baseline, there were 267 incident diabetes cases during a median of 2.2 years of follow-up. With the increase of serum TG and uric acid, the cumulative incidences of diabetes in people with normal FPG at baseline were all rising (P for trend Conclusion: Increased triglycerides and uric acid were strong risk factors of diabetes. Furthermore, there was a positive additive interaction between hypertriglyceridemia and hyperuricemia on the development of diabetes from normal fasting plasma glucose. Disclosure W. Huang: None. J. Yang: None. N. Liu: None. P. Huang: None. R. Zhang: None. R. Wang: None. Z. Bai: None. N. Cheng: None. M. Wang: None. S. Zheng: None. Y. Bai: None. Funding National Institutes of Health (1R01ES02908201A1); Lanzhou University (2018LDBRZD008)

Sepsis is a major cause of patient mortality and morbidity from bacterial infections. Although neutrophils are known to be important in the development of sepsis, how distinctive neutrophil subtypes regulate inflammatory processes involved in septicemia remains unclear. Preconditioning protects organisms against subsequent higher-dose exposures to the same, or even different, stimuli. Several studies have reported various effects of preconditioning on immune cells. However, the detailed mechanisms underlying neutrophil-mediated protection through preconditioning in sepsis remain unknown. Methods: Flow cytometry was conducted to sort the mice peritoneal lavage cells and the blood samples from patients with sepsis. Western blotting and ELISA were carried out to elucidate the expression of TLR9 signal transduction pathway proteins. Histological analysis was used to assess the effect of InP on intestine and liver structure in tlr9-/- and cav-1-/- mice. Fluorescence microscopy, Co-IP, and FRET were carried out to determine the association of TLR9 with Cav-1. Results: We show that membrane toll-like receptor-9 positive (mTLR9+) neutrophils exert a protective effect against fatal bacterial infections through the process of inflammatory preconditioning (InP). InP, which occurs in the setting of a low-dose bacterial challenge, active ingredient is Monophosphoryl lipid A (MPLA), triggers the membrane translocation of TLR9 from the neutrophil cytosol, where it binds to Cav-1. Our findings showed that InP enables TLR9 to facilitate MyD88-mediated TRAF3 and IRF3 signal transduction. Depletion of either TLR9 or Cav-1 largely eliminates the neutrophil-mediated InP effect in sepsis models in vitro and in vivo. Further, examination of clinical samples from patients with sepsis showed that clinical outcomes and likelihood of recovery are closely correlated with mTLR9 and Cav-1 expression in circulating neutrophils. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the TLR9-Cav-1 axis is a critical signaling pathway involved in the regulation of neutrophil-dependent MPLA mediated InP, and the presence of mTLR9+ neutrophils could be an attractive indicator of clinical outcomes in bacterial sepsis that could be further explored as a potential therapeutic target.

ObjectiveTo evaluate viral loads at different stages of disease progression in patients infected with the 2019 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the first four months of the epidemic in Zhejiang province, China.DesignRetrospective cohort study.SettingA designated hospital for patients with covid-19 in Zhejiang province, China.Participants96 consecutively admitted patients with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection: 22 with mild disease and 74 with severe disease. Data were collected from 19 January 2020 to 20 March 2020.Main outcome measuresRibonucleic acid (RNA) viral load measured in respiratory, stool, serum, and urine samples. Cycle threshold values, a measure of nucleic acid concentration, were plotted onto the standard curve constructed on the basis of the standard product. Epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory characteristics and treatment and outcomes data were obtained through data collection forms from electronic medical records, and the relation between clinical data and disease severity was analysed.Results3497 respiratory, stool, serum, and urine samples were collected from patients after admission and evaluated for SARS-CoV-2 RNA viral load. Infection was confirmed in all patients by testing sputum and saliva samples. RNA was detected in the stool of 55 (59%) patients and in the serum of 39 (41%) patients. The urine sample from one patient was positive for SARS-CoV-2. The median duration of virus in stool (22 days, interquartile range 17-31 days) was significantly longer than in respiratory (18 days, 13-29 days; P=0.02) and serum samples (16 days, 11-21 days; PConclusionThe duration of SARS-CoV-2 is significantly longer in stool samples than in respiratory and serum samples, highlighting the need to strengthen the management of stool samples in the prevention and control of the epidemic, and the virus persists longer with higher load and peaks later in the respiratory tissue of patients with severe disease.

Background. Recently, a large-scale novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) outbreak swept China. As of Feb. 9, 2020, a total of 40,260 patients have been diagnosed with NCP, and 23,589 patients were suspected to have infected by the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which puts forward a great challenge for public health and clinical treatment in China. Until now, we are in the high-incidence season of NCP. Thus, the analysis of the transmissibility change of NCP and its potential factors may provide a reliable reference for establishing effective prevention and control strategies. Method. By means of the method of calculating the instantaneous basic reproduction number R0t proposed by Cori et al. (2013), we use R0t to describe the transmissibility change of COVID-19 in China, 2019-2020. In addition, the Baidu Index (BDI) and Baidu Migration Scale (BMS) were selected to measure the public awareness and the effect of Wuhan lockdown (restricted persons in Wuhan outflow from the epidemic area) strategy, respectively. The Granger causality test (GCT) was carried out to explore the association between public awareness, the effect of the Wuhan lockdown strategy, and the transmissibility of COVID-19. Results. The estimated averaged basic reproduction number of NCP in China was 3.44 with 95% CI (2.87, 4.0) during Dec. 8, 2019, to Feb. 9, 2020. The instantaneous basic reproduction numbers (R0t) have two waves and reaching peaks on Jan. 8 and Jan. 27, respectively. After reaching a peak on Jan. 27, R0t showed a continuous decline trend. On Feb. 9, R0t has fallen to 1.68 (95% CI: 1.66, 1.7), but it is still larger than 1. We find a significantly negative association between public awareness and the transmissibility change of COVID-19, with one unit increase in cumulative BDI leading to a decrease of 0.0295% (95% CI: 0.0077, 0.051) R0t. We also find a significantly negative association between the effect of the Wuhan lockdown strategy and the transmissibility change of COVID-19, and a one unit decrease in BMS may lead to a drop of 2.7% (95% CI: 0.382, 4.97) R0t. Conclusion. The current prevention and control measures have effectively reduced the transmissibility of COVID-19; however, R0t is still larger than the threshold 1. The results show that the government adopting the Wuhan lockdown strategy plays an important role in restricting the potential infected persons in Wuhan outflow from the epidemic area and avoiding a nationwide spread by quickly controlling the potential infection in Wuhan. Meanwhile, since Jan. 18, 2020, the people successively accessed COVID-19-related information via the Internet, which may help to effectively implement the government’s prevention and control strategy and contribute to reducing the transmissibility of NCP. Therefore, ongoing travel restriction and public health awareness remain essential to provide a foundation for controlling the outbreak of COVID-19.

A CdS sensitized hydrogenated TiO2 nanorod arrays (CdS@HTNRs) film was developed for the selective visible-light-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing of Cu2+ ion. The sensitive determination was based on extremely high PEC activity of the as-prepared CdS@HTNRs, i.e, the photocurrent density of the as-prepared CdS@HTNRs electrode could reach up to 10.1 mA cm−2, which was 33.7 times higher than that of the pure HTNRs film. Dramatic photocurrent quenching was observed upon immersion of the CdS@HTNRs electrode into Cu2+ solution. The analytical principle is based on significant quenching of photocurrent, i.e, the formation of CuS and subsequent CuxS (x = 1, 2) produced on the electrode surface under illumination reduces the absorption of light and boosts the electron-hole recombination, respectively. Due to the large photocurrent density of the as-prepared CdS@HTNRs and the high selectivity of chemical recognition reaction between CdS and Cu2+, the photocurrent quenching of CuxS, is proposed to be sensitive and selective in detecting Cu2+ ion. The linear detection range could be 0.8 nM to 82.0 μM with the detection limit of 0.3 nM via controlling recognition reaction time to be 7 min. The sensor was also successfully applied in the detecting Cu2+ ion in real samples such as tap water, lake water and urine.

A simple and facile two-step method, including electrophoretic deposition and chemical bath deposition strategies, has been used to fabricate a novel interlocking g-C3N4/CdS photoanode on conductive substrate. Integrating a large area of intercontact g-C3N4/CdS heterojunction with an intimate connection between the photocatalysts and the substrate, the separation and migration of the photogenerated carriers by g-C3N4 and CdS are significantly improved, and the internal resistance of the photoanode is effectively reduced. The optimal g-C3N4/CdS photoanode exhibits an excellent visible light photocurrent density of 5.4 mA cm-2 at 0.0 V bias (vs. Ag/AgCl) and the photoelectrochemical H2 production rate reaches 81.1 μmol h-1 cm-2. Moreover, the stability of this interlocking g-C3N4/CdS photoanode not only reflects in a 9-hour long time recycling photoelectrochemical H2 production test, but also in an outstanding steady structure which even be stabilized in an ultrasonic treatment. The present study provides a practical and convenient technique to develop such an earth abound and low-cost CdS/C3N4 photoanode which can be used for high efficiency and stable photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion.

In recent years, Chinese governments began exploring centralized residence of rural households, with a view to protecting farming land through the incorporation and reduction of rural construction land, building new countryside, and solving the problem of insufficient construction land quotas for urban development. In the centralized residence process, it is important to study the willingness of rural households and factors influencing their willingness. This empirical study used Panshan County and Jiangshan City as representatives of pure and nonpure farming areas, respectively. Three logistic regression models were applied, to explore differences between pure and nonpure farming areas and the factors influencing rural households' willingness to accept centralized residence according to five aspects: households individual characteristics, family economy, policy perception, housing conditions, and social environment. The results showed that, for nonpure farming areas, such as Jiangshan City, when there is more trust in the village collective, less arable area, increased satisfaction with infrastructure and higher non-agricultural income, the more willing rural households are to accept centralized residence. In pure farming areas, such as Panshan County, when there are greater expectations of policy, the safer environments and higher non-agricultural income, the more willing rural households are to accept centralized residence. By comparison, rural households in nonpure farming areas are more concerned with fairness future quality of life, while those in pure farming areas are more concerned with implementation and guaranteed compensation. China's centralized residence policy should focus on the objective conditions of each region, and appropriately differentiate based on different areas and categories.

With the completion of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (Action Plan) in the Guanzhong Basin (GZB), the wintertime fine particulate matters (PM2.5) concentration has decreased by 50.0 μg m−3 (33.4%) from 2013 to 2017. Considering the significant impacts of meteorological conditions on particulate pollution, the effectiveness of anthropogenic emissions abatement on the PM2.5 reduction in the GZB remain unclear. In this study, the WRF-Chem model was used to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of emissions mitigation on the particulate pollution in the GZB in December from 2013 to 2017. The model typically showed an affordable consistence with observations and simulation in meteorological parameters, atmospheric pollutants, and aerosol components. Sensitivity results revealed that emissions reduction decreases PM2.5 concentrations by around 17% in the GZB, about half of the observed PM2.5 decreased in December from 2013 to 2017, showing significant role of meteorological conditions in modulating particulate pollution. Emissions mitigation also decreased SO2, CO and O3 concentrations by around 55%, 17%, and 7%, respectively, but increased NO2 concentrations by 27%. Additionally, the PM2.5 decrease in the GZB is mainly contributed by the reduction of sulfate and primary organic aerosols, caused by implementation of stringent SO2 mitigation measures and reduced coal use. However, the mitigation of elemental carbon, dust and nitrate aerosols are not significant, particularly with regarding to nitrate aerosols, which is influenced by increase of NO2 and decrease of sulfate. Specified emissions mitigation strategies need to be designed to further lower the PM2.5 level in the GZB.

Although the activation of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the striatum had been found in smoking cue induced craving task, whether and how the functional interactions and white matter integrity between these brain regions contribute to craving processing during smoking cue exposure remains unknown. Twenty-five young male smokers and 26 age- and gender-matched nonsmokers participated in the smoking cue-reactivity task. Craving related brain activation was extracted and psychophysiological interactions (PPI) analysis was used to specify the PFC-efferent pathways contributed to smoking cue-induced craving. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and probabilistic tractography was used to explore whether the fiber connectivity strength facilitated functional coupling of the circuit with the smoking cue-induced craving. The PPI analysis revealed the negative functional coupling of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the caudate during smoking cue induced craving task, which positively correlated with the craving score. Neither significant activation nor functional connectivity in smoking cue exposure task was detected in nonsmokers. DTI analyses revealed that fiber tract integrity negatively correlated with functional coupling in the DLPFC-caudate pathway and activation of the caudate induced by smoking cue in smokers. Moreover, the relationship between the fiber connectivity integrity of the left DLPFC-caudate and smoking cue induced caudate activation can be fully mediated by functional coupling strength of this circuit in smokers. The present study highlighted the left DLPFC-caudate pathway in smoking cue-induced craving in smokers, which may reflect top-down prefrontal modulation of striatal reward processing in smoking cue induced craving processing. Hum Brain Mapp 38:4644-4656, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic is currently spreading across the world A better knowledge of viral loads at different stages of disease progression would

Background: An outbreak of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that began in Wuhan, has spread rapidly to more than 26 countries False negative diagnosis of respi

Thyroid cancer is the most common type of endocrine malignancy, and its incidence is increasing. Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), referring to undifferentiated subtypes, is considered to be aggressive and associated with poor prognosis. Conventional therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy and radioiodine therapy, have been used for ATC, but these do not provide any significant reduction of the overall mortality rate. The tumorigenesis, development, dedifferentiation and metastasis of ATC are closely associated with the activation of various tyrosine cascades and inactivation of tumor suppressor genes, including B-Raf proto-oncogene, serine/threonine kinase(V600E), phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate 3-kinase catalytic subunit α,tumor protein 53 mutations and telomerase reverse transcriptase mutation. These pathways exert their functions individually or through a complex network. Identification of these mutations may provide a deeper understanding of ATC. A variety of tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been successfully employed for controlling ATC growth in vitro and in xenografts. Certain novel compounds are still in clinical trials. Multi-kinase inhibitors provide a novel approach with great potential. This systematic review determined the prevalence of the major genetic alterations and their inhibitors in ATC.

Acute diarrhea is an important public health issue. Here, we focused on the differences of enteropathogens in acute diarrhea between urban and rural areas in southeast China. Laboratory- and sentinel-based surveillance of acute diarrhea (≥ 3 loose or liquid stools/24 hours) was conducted at 16 hospitals. Fecal specimens were tested for bacterial (Aeromonas sp., Campylobacter sp., diarrheagenic Escherichia coli, Plesiomonas shigelloides, non-typhoidal Salmonella, Shigella sp., Vibrio sp., and Yersinia sp.) and viral (adenovirus, astrovirus, Norovirus, Rotavirus, and Sapovirus) pathogens. Descriptive statistics were used. Between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2014, 4,548 outpatients with acute diarrhea were enrolled (urban, n = 3,220; rural, n = 1,328). Pathogens were identified in 2,074 (45.6%) patients. Norovirus (25.7%), Vibrio parahaemolyticus (10.2%), enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) (8.8%), group A Rotavirus (7.0%), and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) (5.6%) were the most common pathogens. Enteropathogens were less common in urban than in rural areas (42.0% versus 54.4%, P < 0.001). In urban areas, EAEC and ETEC were more common in high-income than in middle-income regions. Interventions targeting the most common enteropathogens can substantially reduce the burden of acute diarrhea in southeast China.

Up to now, the storage technology of electric energy is not advanced enough, resulting in the excessive electricity usually to be wasted. Conversely, power off could emerge during the peak hours of electricity use, due to inadequate electric generation in the power plant. Therefore, the mathematical models, used to predict the heating and cooling loads in buildings, are necessary to be created. However, there is a considerable amount of energy consumed in the China’s residential buildings, whose heating and cooling loads are characterized by climate sensitivity. In this work, the residential buildings situated in China were regarded as the study buildings. The principal research contents are shown as follows: (1) by creating a digital meshing system for China, the hierarchy system of residential building area at country scale was established; (2) via inputting air temperature data into the digital meshing system, the hierarchy system of air temperature was created; (3) the quantitative correlation between air temperature and thermal load intensity of the residential building was explored, to construct the hierarchy system of thermal load intensity; (4) Combining the above three hierarchy systems, the mesh-based mathematical models for predicting the total day-round heating and cooling load in the near future at country scale was created. The mesh-based mathematical models is expected to perform a scientific evaluation for the heating and cooling load of the residential buildings, aiming at reducing energy waste by planning and preparing the right amount of energy supply in advance.

In recent years, with the continuous development of network technology, our daily life has been inseparable from the Internet. The increasing popularity of various terminal devices has brought about a variety of system and screen sizes. How to maintain the consistency of user experience among a large number of device terminals has attracted more and more attention. As a bridge between human beings and Internet products, whether the interface design is satisfactory to users fundamentally affects the use of products, which is also a hot research topic at home and abroad. Based on the research of multi-screen interactive design, combined with the consistency theory and the construction method of consistent experience, this paper proposes to construct multi-screen interactive consistent experience by seeking commonness from the micro level and emphasizing the use of scenes from the macro level.

Recently, a full-scale data processing workflow of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Phase 1 was successfully executed on the world's fastest supercomputer Summit, proving that scientists have the expertise, software tools and computing resources to process the SKA data. The SKA-Summit experiment shows the importance of multidisciplinary cooperation between astronomy, computer science and others communities. The SKA science cannot be achieved without the joint efforts of talents from multiple fields., Comment: Published in Science Bulletin

Vertical facades of buildings bear a great potential of solar exposures, especially for congested urban areas with numerous high-rise buildings. Previous studies on the sun-tracking shading devices strayed into the trade-off between energy consumption and glare protection. Here we first built the integrated models which couple window with sun-tracking shading panels for the southerly oriented window. Secondly, the control methods of one-direction-automatic-rotation (1-DAR) and two-direction-automatic-rotation (2-DAR) with sun-tracking function were mathematically proven to be not able to achieve either the minimum energy consumption or the completely non-glare daylighting, under the reasonable assumptions. Then, we have proposed an optimum rotation control method of perpendicular sun-tracking three-direction-automatic-rotation (3-DAR), and demonstrated that the 3-DAR combined with perpendicular sun-tracking method could realize the afore-mentioned goals. Based on the energy saving and glare protection, the movement trajectories and rotation orders of the shading panels throughout the year were explored. Research results show that the annual electricity use in a study office room located in Hangzhou (China), integrated with shading panels under 3-DAR control, is lower than the alternatives under 2- or 3-DAR control. Furthermore, the proposed 3-DAR incorporated with the perpendicular sun-tracking control method reveals a better protection against the sun-glare, and is also applicable to the horizontal windows (i.e., clerestory), by proposing the rotation orders and deriving the equations of movement trajectories in a similar way.

Primary insomnia (PI) is associated with deteriorating attention, memory, physical and mood complaints. Based on the extensive literature demonstrating the critical roles of the thalamus in sleep regulation, we hypothesized that insomnia would be associated with functional and structural changes of the thalamus. This information is needed to better understand the neural mechanisms of insomnia, and would be useful for informing future attempts to alleviate or treat insomnia symptoms. Twenty-seven PI patients and 39 matched healthy controls were included in the present study. Subcortical volume and resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) of thalamus were compared between groups, and the relationships between neuroimaging differences and clinical features, including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Insomnia Severity Index Scale (ISI), the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), also be explored. Compared with the control group, the PI group showed significantly reduced volume of thalamus. In addition, several brain regions showed reduced RSFC with thalamus in PI patients, such as anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), orbitofrontal cortex, hippocampus, caudate and putamen. Correlation analyses revealed that, several of these RSFC patterns were negatively correlated with PSQI score among PI patients, including thalamic connections with the putamen, caudate, hippocampus. Negative correlation was also observed between the RSFC strength of right thalamus–right ACC and SDS score in PI patients. This work demonstrates the structural and functional abnormalities of the thalamus in PI patients that were associated with key clinical features of insomnia. These data further highlight the important role of the thalamus in sleep and PI.

One of the core issues across computer and computational science today is adapting to, managing, and learning from the influx of "Big Data". In the commercial space, this problem has led to a huge investment in new technologies and capabilities that are well adapted to dealing with the sorts of human-generated logs, videos, texts, and other large-data artifacts that are processed and resulted in an explosion of useful platforms and languages (Hadoop, Spark, Pandas, etc.). However, translating this work from the enterprise space to the computational science and HPC community has proven somewhat difficult, in part because of some of the fundamental differences in type and scale of data and timescales surrounding its generation and use. We describe a forward-looking research and development plan which centers around the concept of making Input/Output (I/O) intelligent for users in the scientific community, whether they are accessing scalable storage or performing in situ workflow tasks. Much of our work is based on our experience with the Adaptable I/O System (ADIOS 1.X), and our next generation version of the software ADIOS 2.X [1].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) coronary uptake compared to coronary intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) in patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease. 18F-NaF PET enables the assessment of vascular osteogenesis by interaction with surface hydroxyapatite, while IVUS enables both identification and quantification of intra-plaque components. Forty-four patients with symptomatic coronary artery disease were included in this prospective controlled trial, 32 of them (30 patients with unstable angina and 2 patients with stable angina), representing the final study cohort, got additional IVUS. All patients underwent cardiac 18F-NaF PET/CT and IVUS within 2 days. 18F-NaF maximum tissue-to-blood ratios (TBRmax) were calculated for 69 coronary plaques and correlated with IVUS plaque classification. Significantly increased 18F-NaF uptake ratios were observed in fibrocalcific lesions (meanTBRmax = 1.42 ± 0.28), thin-cap atheroma with spotty calcifications (meanTBRmax = 1.32 ± 0.23), and thick-cap mixed atheroma (meanTBRmax = 1.28 ± 0.38), while fibrotic plaques showed no increased uptake (meanTBRmax = 0.96 ± 0.18). The 18F-NaF uptake ratio was consistently higher in atherosclerotic lesions with severe calcification (meanTBRmax = 1.34 ± 0.22). The regional 18F-NaF uptake was most likely localized in the border region of intensive calcification. Coronary lesions with positive 18F-NaF uptake showed some increased high-risk anatomical features on IVUS in comparison to 18F-NaF negative plaques. It included a significant severe plaque burden (70.1 ± 13.8 vs. 61.0 ± 13.8, p = 0.01) and positive remodeling index (1.03 ± 0.08 vs. 0.99 ± 0.07, p = 0.05), as well as a higher percentage of necrotic tissue (37.6 ± 13.3 vs. 29.3 ± 15.7, p = 0.02) in positive 18F-NaF lesions. 18F-NaF coronary uptake may provide a molecular insight for the characterization of coronary atherosclerotic lesions. Specific regional uptake is needed to be determined by histology.

Dysfunctions in frontostriatal circuits have been associated with craving and cognitive control in smokers. However, the relevance of white matter (WM) diffusion properties of the ventral and dorsal frontostriatal tracts for behaviors associated with smoking remains relatively unknown, especially in young adulthood, a critical time period for the development and maintenance of addiction. Here, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and probabilistic tractography were used to investigate the WM tracts of the ventral and dorsal frontostriatal circuits in two independent studies (Study1: 36 male smokers (21.3 ± 1.3 years) vs. 35 male nonsmokers (21.2 ± 1.3 years); Study2: 29 male smokers (21.4 ± 1.1 years) vs. 25 male nonsmokers (21.0 ± 1.4 years)). Subjective craving was measured by the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges (QSU) and cognitive control ability was assessed with the Stroop task. In both studies, smokers committed more response errors than nonsmokers during the incongruent condition of the Stroop task. Relative to controls, smokers showed lower fractional anisotropy (FA) and higher radial diffusivity in left medial orbitofrontal cortex-to-nucleus accumbens fiber tracts (ventral frontostriatal path) and also lower FA in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex-to-caudate fiber tracts (dorsal frontostriatal path). The FA values of the right dorsal fibers were negatively correlated with incongruent response Stroop errors in smokers, whereas the mean diffusivity values of the left ventral fibers were positively correlated with craving in smokers. Thus, WM diffusion properties of the dorsal and ventral frontostriatal tracts were associated with cognitive control and craving, respectively, in young male tobacco smokers. These data highlight the importance of studying WM in relation to neuropsychological changes underlying smoking.

The Doppler frequency shift can do great harm to the performance of OFDM systems, so how to design the OFDM receiver under mobile environment is an important topic. An efiective Doppler diversity receiving technology for OFDM was proposed by Kim B C, which can achieve much better Bit Error Rate (BER) performance than the conventional OFDM receiver. In this article, we make research on the performance of the Doppler diversity receiving technology when using difierent combining methods, including the Orthogonality Restoring Combining (ORC) method, the Equal Gain Combining (EGC) method, the Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) method and the Minimum Mean Square Error Combining (MMSEC) method. The research and simulation results show that in the Doppler diversity receiver, the BER performance of the ORC method is worse than that of the method without diversity, while the BER performance of the EGC method, the MMSEC method and the MRC method are better than that of the method without diversity. Moreover, the MRC method can achieve the best BER performance among the four combining methods mentioned above.

This paper deals with the fault detection and estimation scheme for a class of nonlinear systems. An adaptive observer is designed where the unknown nonlinear term can be approximated and the fault is estimated based on radial basis function (RBF) neural network, respectively. The stability of the designed observer is also proved. Finally, simulation results based on an aircraft are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed observer and the effectiveness of the fault estimation.