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Purpose Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually leads to memory impairment, cognitive decline and dementia. Previous studies have reported that plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene polymorphisms play important roles in cardiovascular diseases, obesity, inflammation and other diseases. However, the role of PAI-1 in the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease has not been reported so far. Methods This study was a case-control study. This study included 131 PD patients and 97 healthy volunteers. polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was used to analyze the polymorphic loci of five different regions in PAI-1 gene (rs2227631, rs1799889, rs6092, rs2227694 and rs7242). 60 PD patients and 60 healthy volunteers were selected to detect the plasma PAI-1 concentration. The allele and genotype frequencies of SNPs were assessed using the SHEsis program. Results We found that GG genotype frequency and G allele frequency of rs2227631 was significantly higher in the PD patients. Statistically significant difference for rs1799889 could be observed in overdominant model. In subgroup analysis, a significant difference in genotype frequency distribution and allele frequency was found for rs2227631 and rs1799889 between early-onset PD group and the control group. For cognitive dysfunction, the subcomponent showed that GG genotype frequency and G allele frequency of rs2227631 was significantly higher in normal cognition group. The codominant model of rs1799889 was significantly different between the cognitive impairment group and the control group. In addition, the expression of PAI-1 in plasma of PD patients was significantly higher than that of controls, and further analysis showed that the expression of PAI-1 in patients with cognitive impairment was significantly higher than that in patients with cognitive normal. Conclusion Our results indicate that the PAI-1 gene rs2227631 and rs1799889 polymorphisms were significantly associated with PD susceptibility in the Chinese Han population. PAI-1 has the potential to become a new therapeutic target and diagnostic marker.

Colorectal cancer is one of the common malignant tumors. Relevant epidemiology and a large number of experimental studies have proved that chronic inflammation is highly correlated with the occurrence and development of colorectal cancer. And inflammatory bowel disease has been proven to be an independent risk factor for colorectal cancer. Various inflammatory cells participate in the establishment of the chronic inflammatory intestinal microenvironment required for the onset of colorectal cancer. The abnormal signal pathways mediated by various inflammatory factors and inflammatory mediators promote the occurrence of tumors, which are related to colorectal cancer and pathogenesis-related inflammation mechanisms. At the gene level, miRNAs can also affect the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer by regulating mesenchymal epithelial transformation. This article reviews the relationship between inflammation and colorectal cancer as well as the related inflammatory mechanisms.

Introduction A new scale, named the Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis (CASE), has recently been developed for rating the severity of autoimmune encephalitis (AE) with a high level of clinimetric properties. In this study, our primary objective was to validate the performance of CASE through a multicenter study in China. Methods Between July 2014 and December 2019, 143 consecutive patients with definite neuronal surface antibody-associated AE from three tertiary hospitals were enrolled in the study. We validated the reliability, internal consistency, and validity of CASE. We further compared CASE with the modified Rankin scale (mRS) among different subtypes of AE in terms of its sensitivity to disease dynamics. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism and R software. Results Our analyses showed that CASE had good inter- and intraobserver reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient 0.96/0.98) and internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.847) at disease onset. The scores of CASE and mRS remained well correlated in patients at admission and at discharge (both r = 0.80, p

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers of the gastrointestinal tract and ranks third in cancer-related deaths worldwide. This study was conducted to identify novel biomarkers related to the pathogenesis of CRC based upon a bioinformatics analysis, and further verify the biomarkers in clinical tumor samples and CRC cell lines. Methods A series of bioinformatics analyses were performed using datasets from NCBI-GEO and constructed a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network. This analysis enabled the identification of Hub genes, for which the mRNA expression and overall survival of CRC patients data distribution was explored in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) colon cancer and rectal cancer (COADREAD) database. Furthermore, the differential expression of HCAR3 and INLS5 was validated in clinical tumor samples by Real-time quantitative PCR analysis, western blotting analysis, and immunohistochemistry analysis. Finally, CRC cells over-expressing INSL5 were constructed and used for CCK8, cell cycle, and cell apoptosis validation assays in vitro. Results A total of 286 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened, including 64 genes with increased expression and 143 genes with decreased expression in 2 CRC database, from which 10 key genes were identified: CXCL1, HCAR3, CXCL6, CXCL8, CXCL2, CXCL5, PPY, SST, INSL5, and NPY1R. Among these genes, HCAR3 and INSL5 had not previously been explored and were further verified in vitro. Conclusions HCAR3 expression was higher in CRC tissues and associated with better overall survival of CRC patients. INSL5 expression in normal tissue was higher than that in tumor tissue and its high expression was associated with a better prognosis for CRC. The overexpression of INSL5 significantly inhibited the proliferation and promoted the shearing of PARP of CRC cells. This integrated bioinformatics study presented 10 key hub genes associated with CRC. HCAR3 and INSL5 were expressed in tumor tissue and these were associated with poor survival and warrant further studies as potential therapeutic targets.

Background: Although the use of extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been rapidly increasing, the benefit of ECMO in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains unclear. Our objective was to investigate the effect of venovenous ECMO (VV-ECMO) on adult patients with severe ARDS. Methods: We conducted a multi-center, retrospective, cohort study in the intensive care units (ICUs) of six teaching hospitals between January 2013 and December 2018. Patients with severe ARDS who received VV-ECMO support were included. The detailed demographic data and physiologic data were used to match ARDS patients without ECMO. The primary endpoint was the 28-day mortality. Results: Ninety-nine patients with severe ARDS supported by VV-ECMO and 72 patients without ECMO were included in this study. The acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II score was 23.1 ± 6.3 in the ECMO group and 24.8 ± 8.5 in the control group (P = 0.1195). The sequential organ failure assessment score was 12.8 ± 3.4 in the ECMO group and 13.7 ± 3.5 in the control group (P = 0.0848). The 28-day mortality of patients with ECMO support was 39.4%, and that of the control group was 55.6%. The survival analysis curve showed that the 28-day mortality in the ECMO group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P = 0.0097). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the independent predictors of the 28-day mortality were the requirement of vasopressors before ECMO (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.006; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.001–1.013; P = 0.030) and duration of mechanical ventilation before ECMO (HR: 3.299; 95% CI: 1.264–8.609; P = 0.034). Conclusions: This study showed that ECMO improved the survival of patients with severe ARDS. The duration of mechanical ventilation and the requirement of vasopressors before ECMO might be associated with an increased risk of death. Key words: Acute respiratory distress syndrome; Extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation; Mortality; Multi-center; Mechanical ventilation

Objective The aim of this study was to examine the seasonal distribution in clinical onset of autoimmune encephalitis (AE) in a multi-center cohort in China. Methods This retrospective study consecutively recruited patients with new-onset definite neuronal surface antibody-associated AE between January 2015 and December 2020 from 3 tertiary hospitals. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants were comprehensively collected. Statistical analyses were performed using R. Results Of the 184 patients of AE in our database, 149 (81.0%) were included in the final analysis. The median age of onset was 40.0 years, and 66 (44.3%) patients were female. AE predominantly started in autumn (47, 31.5%) and summer (43, 28.9%) months. Summer-autumn predominance of the clinical onsets was also present in the anti-N-methyl- d -aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis group (54, 60.0%) and anti-leucine-rich glioma inactivated 1 (LGI1) encephalitis group (20, 76.9%). No obvious seasonal variations were observed among gender, onset age, disease duration, prodromal symptoms, clinical type of initial symptoms, and disease severity by the time of admission. Conclusion This study suggested summer-autumn predominance of the clinical onsets in patients with AE, especially anti-NMDAR and anti-LGI1 encephalitis. Therefore, clinicians should have a high index of suspicion for AE in encephalopathy patients in summer and autumn period.

Anti-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor (AMPAR) encephalitis, a rare subtype of autoimmune encephalitis, was first reported by Lai et al. The AMPAR antibodies target against extracellular epitopes of the GluA1 or GluA2 subunits of the receptor. AMPARs are expressed throughout the central nervous system, especially in the hippocampus and other limbic regions. Anti-AMPAR encephalitis was more common in middle-aged women and most patients had an acute or subacute onset. Limbic encephalitis, a classic syndrome of anti-AMPAR encephalitis, was clinically characterized by a subacute disturbance of short-term memory loss, confusion, abnormal behavior and seizure. Magnetic resonance imaging often showed T2/fluid-attenuated inversion-recovery hyperintensities in the bilateral medial temporal lobe. For suspected patients, paired serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing with cell-based assay were recommended. CSF specimen was preferred given its higher sensitivity. Most patients with anti-AMPAR encephalitis were complicated with tumors, such as thymoma, small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. First-line treatments included high-dose steroids, intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange. Second-line treatments, including rituximab and cyclophosphamide, can be initiated in patients who were non-reactive to first-line treatment. Most patients with anti-AMPAR encephalitis showed a partial neurologic response to immunotherapy.

Introduction The efficacy of the most commonly used interventions for clavicle fractures remains controversial. These interventions are: open reduction and plate fixation (ORPF), non-surgical intervention (NSI), and use of an intramedullary nail (IMN). In adult patients with clavicle fractures, choosing which intervention might be best is challenging. Materials and methods PubMed, Journals@Ovid Full Text, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Ovid MEDLINE, and Embase were performed to search English-language studies from the inception to February 2020. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing any of these three interventions were included. Patient and baseline characteristics, nonunion, major complications, Constant-Murley score (CMS), and Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score (DASH) were extracted. Then, we evaluated the functional outcomes and adverse effects after use of these three interventions for the management of displaced midshaft clavicle fractures in a Bayesian network meta-analysis. Results A Bayesian random-effects model was conducted, and nonunion and major complications were evaluated with: risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidential interval (CI); while CMS and DASH were evaluated with mean differences (MD) and the corresponding 95% confidential interval CI. The rank probability of each endpoint was assessed on the basis of the surface area under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA). Discussion ORPF is most likely to be successful in achieving objective functional outcomes as captured by the CMS, and IMN demonstrates significant efficacy for subjective functional outcomes, as captured by DASH scores. Compared with the other interventions examined, IMN was associated with decreased risk for adverse effects. Levels of evidence I; meta-analysis.

Background: A considerable number of patients with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody–associated disease (MOGAD) will experience a relapse, but the effect of maintenance therapies on re-attack rates is currently unknown. Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of immunosuppressive therapy for preventing disease relapses in patients with MOGAD, including rituximab (RTX), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), and azathioprine (AZA). Methods: English-language studies published prior to August 31, 2020, were searched in the NCBI (PubMed), ISI Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases. Patient characteristics, treatment regimens, outcome measures, and adverse effects were retrieved. Results: We enrolled 11 studies in the final meta-analysis, including 346 patients with MOGAD. RTX therapy was demonstrated to result in reduced mean annualized relapse rate (ARR) by 1.35 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.85–1.85) and reduced mean Expanded Disability Status Scale score by 0.80 (95% CI: 0.53–1.08) in patients with MOGAD. MMF therapy was associated with the mean ARR decreasing by 0.83 (95% CI: 0.31–1.35), and AZA was related to the mean ARR decreasing by 1.71 (95% CI: 0.83–2.58). The reported discontinuation rates of RTX, MMF, and AZA therapy due to adverse effects were 3/197 (1.52%), 3/39 (7.69%), and 4/37 (10.81%), respectively. Conclusion: The study provided evidence to support the efficacy of RTX, MMF, and AZA on the preventive treatment in patients with MOGAD. However, large randomized controlled trials are still needed in the future.

Recently, a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWASs) has identified 38 novel independent loci associated with risk of Parkinson's disease (PD) in European populations. We sought to investigate whether these genetic susceptibility variants could be replicated in the Chinese Han population.We genotyped 38 independent loci in 495 Chinese sporadic PD patients and 470 unrelated controls and performed allelic and genotypic association test using chi-square tests or Armitage test for trend. Polygenic risk score (PRS) models were built to evaluate the cumulative effects of the selected SNPs.We found that the rs11610045 of FBRSL1 (p = 0.02, OR = 0.63, allele model), rs76116224 of KCNS3 (p 0.01, OR = 0.09, allele model), and the rs2248244 of DYRK1A (p = 0.02, OR = 1.35, allele model) were significantly associated with PD. The PRS model of cumulative effects of the SNPs associated with PD in our study had the area under the curve (AUC) of 0.61.Our study revealed that rs11610045 of FBRSL1, rs76116224 of KCNS3 and rs2248244 of DYRK1A showed an impact on the risk of PD, and the GWAS-derived PRS models we built had predictive value for PD risk in the Chinese population. Further studies are needed to explore the pathogenesis of these potentially risk-associated variants.

Objective. This research attempted to explore the neuroprotective effect of choline and establish evidence for future dietary recommendations and nutritional interventions to maintain a proper cognitive function among elders aged >60 years in the US. Method. This cross-sectional study retrieved data of 2,393 eligible elderly participants from the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Combining dietary and supplement choline intake, total choline intake was evaluated using the 24-hour dietary recall method and the dietary supplement questionnaire. Total choline intake was categorized into tertiles, which ranged at 399.50 mg/day (T3). The Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease (CERAD) Word Learning subtest, Animal Fluency (AF) test, and Digit Symbol Substitution test (DSST) was used to measure cognitive function. Participants who scored the lowest 25th percentile in each cognitive test were classified in the low cognitive function (LC) group. Logistic regression models were implemented to examine the association between total choline intake and the incidence of LC. Results. In the CERAD test, the risk of LC was significantly lower in T2 than T1 (OR: 0.668, 95% CI: 0.493-0.904, and P = 0.006 ) when adjusted for age, gender, BMI, alcohol consumption, and hypertension. Similarly, T2 was associated with a significantly lower risk of LC when assessed by the AF test (OR: 0.606, 95% CI: 0.580-0.724, and P < 0.001 ) and DSST (0.584, 95% CI: 0.515-0.661, and P < 0.001 ). In all three cognitive measures, the T3 of the total choline intake was not associated with cognitive function compared to T1. Conclusion. Total choline intake at 187.06-399.50 mg/day reduces the risk of LC by approximately 50% compared to intake at

Intestinal anatomosis is a complex and multicellular process that involving three overlapped phases: exudative phase, proliferative phase, and reparative phase. Undisturbed anastomotic healings are crucial for the recovery of patients after operations but unsuccessful healings are linked with a considerable mortality. This time, we concentrate on the immunologic changes during different phases of intestinal anastomotic healing and select several major immune cells and cytokines of each phase to get a better understanding of these immunologic changes in different phases, which will be significant for more precise therapy strategies in anastomoses.

This paper develops a novel short-term load forecasting model that hybridizes several machine learning methods, such as support vector regression (SVR), grey catastrophe (GC (1,1)), and random forest (RF) modeling. The modeling process is based on the minimization of both SVR and risk. GC is used to process and extract catastrophe points in the long term to reduce randomness. RF is used to optimize forecasting performance by exploiting its superior optimization capability. The proposed SVR-GC-RF model has higher forecasting accuracy (MAPE values are 6.35% and 6.21%, respectively) using electric loads from Australian-Energy-Market-Operator; it can provide analytical support to forecast electricity consumption accurately.

The transmission loss (TL) of membrane-type acoustic metamaterials consisting of small mass and rubber membrane was studied. By establishing a mass-spring equivalent model of metamaterial structural unit, which regards rubber membrane as having the dual role of damping force and spring force, we demonstrated that effective mass density of this membrane-type acoustic metamaterial was negative in the band gap range by theoretical analysis. Based on the theory of plane wave propagation, we studied the sound insulation of this membrane-type acoustic metamaterial. The result showed that membrane-type metamaterial was based on the principle of dipole resonance, which made the membrane-type acoustic metamaterial appear high reflection and low transmission phenomenon so as to achieve the aim of reducing noise. By optimal design, the sound attenuation frequency range of this membrane-type acoustic metamaterial was reduced to 20Hz-100Hz, greatly enhancing the ability of this metamaterial in terms of low-frequency sound insulation. We obtained the distribution of sound intensity at the optimum transmission frequency and the best reflection frequency by coupled acoustic-structural analysis. The best sound insulation frequency was matched with the second order and the third order eigenfrequency of this membrane-type acoustic metamaterial unit, and the strain energy was concentrated at the joint of small mass and the membrane. The total sound insulation of acoustic metamaterial plate was better than the single metamaterial unit.

Autophagy is a highly conserved degradative process that has been associated with a number of neurological diseases. Autophagy-related protein 5 (ATG5) is one of the key genes for the regulation of the autophagy pathway. In this study, we investigated the potential relationship between ATG5 gene polymorphisms and epilepsy in Han Chinese population. We enrolled 112 patients with epilepsy and 100 healthy controls and detected the genotypic and allelic data of 6 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ATG5 (rs2245214, rs510432, rs548234, rs573775, rs6568431 and rs6937876). The associations of 6 SNPs and epilepsy were evaluated. The results revealed the genotypes of overdominant of rs510432 between controls and patients showed significant differences (Poverdominant = 0.003). Subgroup analysis showed a highly significant association of rs510432 with late-onset epilepsy (Poverdominant = 0.006), and rs548234 were associated with the susceptibility to temporal lobe epilepsy (Pcodominant = 0.002, Poverdominant = 0.006). Furthermore, ATG5 was not linked to either early-onset epilepsy or drug-resistant epilepsy (p > 0.0083). These results demonstrated an association of an ATG5 gene variant with epilepsy, and stronger associations with several subgroups of epilepsy were identified. Our study may provide novel evidence for the role of ATG5 in epilepsy, and contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of this chronic neurological disease.

Purpose: Anti-gamma-aminobutyric acid B (anti-GABAB) receptor encephalitis is a newly described type of autoimmune encephalitis. We report a case series of patients diagnosed with anti-GABAB receptor encephalitis in China, focusing on their presentations, laboratory and imaging results, and outcomes, as well as the treatment strategies which were employed. Methods: Data from patients diagnosed with anti-GABAB receptor encephalitis in the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, from January 2014 to June 2015 were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Based on specific diagnostic criteria, seven cases were included. Results: Six of the seven patients were males, and a median age at presentation of 56 years (range: 4–71 years). Seizures were the most common initial symptom, and all patients developed symptoms of typical limbic encephalitis during their disease course. Additional types of autoantibodies were identified in four patients. After presentation, three patients were fo...

Background: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to comprehensively collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the clinical efficacy of intrathecal morphine (ITM) versus local infiltration analgesia (LIA) in the treatment of total knee and hip arthroplasty patients. Methods: Relevant studies were identified from the Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Wanfang, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases. We also reviewed the references of all identified articles to identify additional studies. For each study, we assessed the risk ratio (RR), weighted mean difference (WMD), and corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI) to synthesize outcomes. Meta-analysis was performed with Stata 12.0 software. Results: We included 13 studies with 942 patients for meta-analysis. LIA significantly decreased the pain value with rest or mobilization until 72 hours (P

The uncertainties of various parameters, including casting temperature, rolling velocity and roll gap are investigated in twin-roll continuous strip casting process for S304 stainless steel. A sample-based stochastic model based on Latin hypercube sampling is established to evaluate the influence of various uncertain parameters on the height of Kiss Point and the cast-rolling force. A polynomial mathematical model combined with numerical simulation is built with full factorial design approach. The convergence of variance is used to represent the variability of the input parameters, and Inter Quartile Range (IQR) is adopted to qualify the uncertainty of output parameters. The IQR analysis shows that casting temperature is the most dominant factor among all output parameters including roll gap and rolling velocity.

The current study presents the case of a 68-year-old female patient who received biological intensity-modulated radiotherapy (BIMRT) and neoadjuvant chemotherapy for multiple peritoneal metastases of ovarian cancer. The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics disease stage was IIIc. In addition, the patient presented with urination and defecation difficulties. The result of tumor marker detection showed a carcinoembryonic antigen level of 348.2ng/ml, a cancer antigen 125 level of 2,091 U/ml and a cancer antigen 19-9 level of 113 U/ml. Computed tomography (CT) indicated and ovarian cystic or solid package, enlargement of multiple abdominal and retroperitoneal lymph nodes and abdominal cavity effusion. Positron emission tomography/CT indicated multiple internal organ metastases. The center of the ovarian cystic or solid package was considered to be a malignant tumor. A large amount of ascites were detected, as well as abdominal and retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis. The patient was treated with BIMRT at a total dose of 48 Gy, administered as a single 4.0-Gy dose 12 times. In addition, 100 mg cisplatin was administered as a peritoneal perfusion, followed by two cycles of 180 mg Taxol and 100 mg cisplatin. Furthermore, the enlargement of the lymph nodes was reduced and the tumor in the region of the ovary had decreased in size by 90%. The ascites had disappeared and the abdominal pain was greatly improved. At the time of writing this manuscript, the patient was well and without relapse. Therefore, modern radiotherapy techniques, such as BIMRT, may be considered as a beneficial treatment option for ovarian cancer patients with multiple peritoneal metastases in whom surgery is not suitable.

The cable grading perforating technology is a segmental perforation technology used in oil and gas wells, particularly suitable for the perforation development of shale gas horizontal wells. The cable grading perforating technology takes use of multi-level gun string structure, perforating in the three-core cable conveying way, connected the ground monitoring instrumentation, perforating gun and graded perforation initiation control device by cables, to achieve the purpose of grading perforation. This technology has practically applied in Daqing Oilfield, after several times onsite tests, obtained the success of application of the cable grading perforating technology.

Due to limited area and power budget in NoC design, DAMQ buffer is usually used to decrease buffer requirements, especially in NoC with multiple virtual channels. DAMQ-PF, a novel dynamically shared buffer schematic is proposed. In DAMQ-PF, multiple virtual channels dynamically share the same data buffer, and a small prefetching buffer is added and associated to the DAMQ to ensure high frequency and continuously buffer access. A dynamically credit based flow control strategy is also provided to ensure fair buffer allocation among all virtual channels, avoiding one virtual channel use up all the shared buffer without loss of high buffer utilization. Analyses and tests show that DAMQ-PF achieves high frequency, high throughput and high buffer utilization in NoC with less buffer resource, which meets the requirement of NoC very well.

An approximated linear model of unsteady open-channel flow is necessary to design the water-level controller for irrigation open channels. Toward this end, this paper presents the matrix approach to derive the linear model of open-channel system in analytical form mainly according to the Saint Venant equations and the backwater profile at the steady state of open channel. The hydraulic model of the check structure at the downstream end of open channel is also incorporated into the linear model. A practical example indicates that the frequency response of the open-channel system can be accurately analyzed with the linear model. The simulation results in the time domain show that the dynamic behavior of the linear model approximates to that of the nonlinear model of the open-channel system. Finally, the limitations of the linear model are discussed.

In order to fabricate micro/meso structures, a novel micro-stereolithography (SL) system with dynamic pattern generator using digital micro-mirror device (DMD) has been investigated. The micro-stereolithography system solidifies photo-sensitive resin with image mask generated by dynamic pattern generator. The micro-stereolithography system is made up of dynamic pattern generator, recoating system and control system. The dynamic pattern generator consists of parabolic concentrator, UV lamp, collimating lens, shutter, DMD and its control, lens and computer. UV light intensity distribution in the imaging plane is investigated. Uniformity UV light intensity distribution is obtained in the imaging plane with changing small area’s gray-scale, and the difference between maximum and minimum value of UV light intensity is 0.4µW/cm2. Small size parts with intricate microstructures have been fabricated with the novel SL system. Compared with laser scanning SL system, the advantage of the novel micro-SL system is that the new SL system can build small objects having micro-structures with low cost in shorter time. The novel micro-SL system provides a solution to the problem that has hampered the progress of SL process into high resolution with low cost.

Pigs are designed to remove residual impurities in fluid medium pipelines, so as to increase the transport efficiency and to decrease the corrosion of pipeline. The motion attitude and the friction of pigs have a great influence on the effect of pigging. So it's significant to do the friction assessment and motion attitude analysis after pigging is done. This paper analyzed the motion attitude of pigs during pigging in gas pipeline, and calculated the actual friction between the polyurethane pig and pipeline. This paper also discussed the method to keep the pig revolving on its own axis and the theory to control the pig's rotation angular velocity.

This paper develops an effective randomized on-demand QoS routing algorithm on networks with inaccurate link-state information. Several new techniques are proposed in the algorithm. First, the maximum safety rate and the minimum delay for each node in the network are pre-computed, which simplify the network complexity and provide the routing process with useful information. The routing process is dynamically directed by the safety rate and delay of the partial routing path developed so far and by the maximum safety rate and the minimum delay of the next node. Randomness is used at the link level and depends dynamically on the routing configuration. This provides great flexibility for the routing process, prevents the routing process from overusing certain fixed routing paths, and adequately balances the safety rate and delay of the routing path. A network testing environment has been established and five parameters are introduced to measure the performance of QoS routing algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate that in terms of the proposed parameters, the algorithm outperforms existing QoS algorithms appearing in the literature.

To investigate the effect of FK506 on apoptosis of facial motor neurons in rats and its possible mechanism. A total of 48 Wistar rats were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. Facial nerve injury model was established by transection of facial nerve at stylomastoid foramen. Rats in experimental group and control group were provided with FK506 and normal saline by intraperitoneal injection, respectively. The morphology of facial neurons was observed under light microscope at different time points after injury. Apoptotic facial motor neurons were detected by TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick and labeling (TUNEL) staining, and expression of bcl-2 and bax was evaluated by immunohistochemistry. After facial nerve transection, the apoptotic cells in experimental group significantly decreased compared to control group (P < 0.05), with higher expression of bcl-2 and lower expression of bax in experimental group. FK506 could inhibit apoptosis of facial motor neurons after facial nerve transection, possibly via up-regulation of bcl-2 expression and down-regulation of bax expression.

In the Internet, a group of replicated servers is commonly used in order to improve the scalability of network service. Anycast service is a new network service that can improve network load distribution and simplify certain applications. In this paper, the authors described a simple anycast service model in the Internet without significant affecting the routing and protocol processing infrastructure that was already in place, and proposed an anycast QoS routing algorithm for this model. The algorithm used randomized method to balance network load and improve its performance. Several new techniques are proposed in the algorithm, first, theminimum hops for each node are used in the algorithm, which are used as metric for computing the probability of possible out-links. The metric is pre-computed for each node in the network, which can simplify the network complexity and provide the routing process with useful information. Second, randomness is used at the link level and depends dynamically on the routing configuration. This provides great flexibility for the routing process, prevents the routing process from overusing certain fixed routing paths, and adequately balances the delay of the routing path. the authors assess the quality of QoS algorithm in terms of the acceptance ratio on anycast QoS requests, and the simulation results on a variety of network topologies and on various parameters show that the algorithm has good performances and can balance network load effectively.

Several studies explored the application of Discriminant analysis on Grassmann manifolds to tackle the image sets matching. But these methods suffer from not considering the local structure of the data. In this paper, a new method of face recognition which based on a graph embedding framework and geometric distance perturbation has been proposed. By introducing similarity graphs and maximal linear patch, the geometrical structure between images and image sets can be exploited. Experiments on several face image datasets demonstrate the effective of this method.

In library, the management of books is very complication and timing costing. The location of books could be altered by librarian, students, teachers and any one around the library. Therefore, allocating a book is not an easy task in big library. Indoor positioning is an important technology to help storage management and customer services providing. RFID provides a good wireless platform to facilitate indoor positioning. However, duo to the small width of each book spine, adopting positioning based RFID alone is not enough to locate books in a library. In this work, we combine image matching with L-GEM based RBFNN to enhance the accuracy and robustness of the book locating system. We apply this new method in a library environment to position the certain books. Experimental results show that the proposed method is highly accurate and robust to white noise of RFID signals.

A feasible way to stimulate cooperation in the selfish ad hoc networks is to reimburse the forwarding service providers for their cost. However, to get more payments and maximize their utility, selfish nodes may lie about their cost. This poses the requirement of truth protocol. Up to now, the VCG mechanism is the only truthful mechanism for the least cost path (LCP) problem. But the dynamic topology of mobile ad hoc network makes it very difficulty to apply VCG mechanism. We propose a novel and efficient method to gather the topology information of selfish ad hoc networks. Based on this method, we propose a low overhead truthful energy-efficient routing protocol called LOTER. In LOTER, the node collects its neighbors' information. The destination selects several RREP paths. The node on the RREP paths sends its collected information to the source node. Based on such information, the source constructs a subgraph, finds the LCP to the destination and calculates the VCG payments. Simulation results show that LOTER provides better performance than LSTOP (Wang and Singhal, 2006), LOTTO (Wang and Singhal, 2007) and ad hoc-VCG (Anderegg and Eidenbenz, 2003). Furthermore, we evaluate the successful route discovery ratios of LOTER as well as the other three protocols in the simulation. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to introduce the successful route discovery ratio in selfish wireless mobile ad hoc networks and evaluate this ratio by means of simulation.

Because of their simplicity and low expense, the study of stateless fair bandwidth allocation algorithm became a hot spot among various AQM algorithms. However, among current stateless fair bandwidth allocation algorithms, the UDP flow's bandwidth is still far from the theoretic fair bandwidth, the protection for TCP flows and the throughput stability are insufficient. A stateless fair bandwidth allocation algorithm using stochastic control -P-CHOKe algorithm was proposed. This scheme selects multiple packets from the queue, the more packets have the same flow ID with the incoming packet means the larger sending speed these flows have. Packet is dropped with probability according to the packet proportion. Simulation results show that compared to M-CHOKe and rubbish bin algorithm, this algorithm can achieve fairer bandwidth allocation, and have better ability to identify UDP flow. It can effectively reduce TCP packet dropping rate. In the mean time, this algorithm has high throughput stability and it can achieve smooth throughput of the flows.

The quality of network services is directly affected by QoS routing algorithms, and QoS routing algorithms rely heavily on network state information specifying the resource availability at network nodes and links. In practice, the network state information is not always accurate because it does not update in time. This paper proposes a randomized QoS routing algorithm on networks with inaccurate link-state information, and develops a simulation environment. Our algorithm reduces computational cost and protocol overhead. Experimental tests demonstrate that our algorithm performs very well in practice.

Introduction Prone positioning (PP) has been reported to improve the survival of patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, it is uncertain whether the beneficial effects of PP are associated with positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) levels and long durations of PP. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to evaluate whether the effects of PP on mortality could be affected by PEEP level and PP duration and to identify which patients might benefit the most from PP. Methods Publications describing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which investigators have compared prone and supine ventilation were retrieved by searching the following electronic databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, the Web of Science and Elsevier Science (inception to May 2013). Two investigators independently selected RCTs and assessed their quality. The data extracted from the RCTs were combined in a cumulative meta-analysis and analyzed using methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration. Results A total of nine RCTs with an aggregate of 2,242 patients were included. All of the studies received scores of up to three points using the methods recommended by Jadad et al. One trial did not conceal allocation. This meta-analysis revealed that, compared with supine positioning, PP decreased the 28- to 30-day mortality of ARDS patients with a ratio of partial pressure of arterial oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen ≤100 mmHg (n = 508, risk ratio (RR) = 0.71, 95 confidence interval (CI) = 0.57 to 0.89; P = 0.003). PP was shown to reduce both 60-day mortality (n = 518, RR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.68 to 0.99; P = 0.04) and 90-day mortality (n = 516, RR = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.43 to 0.75; P 12 h/day (n = 1,067, RR = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.54 to 0.99; P = 0.04). Conclusions PP reduced mortality among patients with severe ARDS and patients receiving relatively high PEEP levels. Moreover, long-term PP improved the survival of ARDS patients.

With the method of JOnes matrix, formulas for intensity of transmitted light through the optical analyzer of various composition of electro-optical effect with magneto-optical effect are derived. The results show that the output beam from the analyzer carriers information on current, voltage, active power and apparent power. We can use the electric filter circuit to pick out this information for measuring active power, apparent power etc. The paper discusses what quantities measured when the analyzer set on certain definite values, and points out the optimum selection for various measurements.

The paper presents tow kinds of new optical methods for measuring electric power. They are respectively called indirect optical method for measuring electric power and direct optical method for measuring electric power. The principles and signal processing technique of the two kinds of methods are discussed comprehensively and systematically. The study shows that the two kinds of methods can be used to measure the electric power when the current is large and/or the voltage is high.© (1996) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.