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Broadband near-infrared (NIR) emitting materials are in great demand as next-generation smart NIR light sources. In this work, a Cr3+-substituted phosphor capable of efficiently converting visible to NIR light is developed through the solid solution, Ga2-xInxO3:Cr3+ (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5). The compounds were prepared using high-temperature solid-state synthesis, and the crystal and electronic structure, morphology, site preference, and photoluminescence properties are studied. The photoluminescence results demonstrate a high quantum yield (88%) and impressive absorption efficiency (50%) when x = 0.4. The NIR emission is tunable across a wide range (713-820 nm) depending on the value of x. Moreover, fabricating a prototype of a phosphor-converted NIR light-emitting diode (LED) device using 450 nm LED and the [(Ga1.57Cr0.03)In0.4]O3 phosphor showed an output power that reached 40.4 mW with a photoelectric conversion efficiency of 25% driven by a current of 60 mA, while the resulting device was able to identify damaged produce that was undetectable using visible light. These results demonstrate the outstanding potential of this phosphor for NIR LED imaging applications.

Luminescent materials are continually sought for application in solid-state LED-based lighting and display applications. This has traditionally required extensive experimental effort. More recently, the employment of data-driven approaches in materials science has provided an alternative avenue to accelerate the discovery and development of luminescent materials. In this Perspective, we give an overview of luminescent materials used for lighting and display applications with a specific focus on inorganic phosphors, quantum dots, and organic light-emitting diodes. We discuss recent progress using data-driven approaches to discover new compounds, predict optical properties, and optimize synthesis, among other topics for each type of material. We then highlight future research directions focusing on using artificial intelligence (AI) to advance these fields and address some cross-cutting challenges limiting the current application of AI techniques in luminescence-related research.

The dual emission produced from Mn2+ when codoped with rare earth ions like Eu2+ or Ce3+ in inorganic compounds makes these materials attractive as efficient, color-tunable phosphors for warm-white...

Complex alkaline earth silicates have been extensively studied as rare-earth substituted phosphor hosts for use in solid-state lighting. One of the biggest challenges facing the development of new phosphors is understanding the relationship between the observed optical properties and the crystal structure. Fortunately, recent improvements in characterization techniques combined with advances in computational methodologies provide the research tools necessary to conduct a comprehensive analysis of these systems. In this work, a new Ce3+ substituted phosphor is developed using Ba5Si8O21 as the host crystal structure. The compound is evaluated using a combination of experimental and computational methods and shows Ba5Si8O21:Ce3+ adopts a monoclinic crystal structure that was confirmed through Rietveld refinement of high-resolution synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction data. Photoluminescence spectroscopy reveals a broad-band blue emission centered at ∼440 nm with an absolute quantum yield of ∼45% under ultraviolet light excitation (λex = 340 nm). This phosphor also shows a minimal chromaticity-drift but with moderate thermal quenching of the emission peak at elevated temperatures. The modest optical response of this phase is believed to stem from a combination of intrinsic structural complexity and the formation of defects because of the aliovalent rare-earth substitution. Finally, computational modeling provides essential insight into the site preference and energy level distribution of Ce3+ in this compound. These results highlight the importance of using experiment and computation in tandem to interpret the relationship between observed optical properties and the crystal structures of all rare-earth substituted complex phosphors.

There is a significant need to identify cyan-emitting phosphors capable of filling the “cyan-gap” (480–520 nm) in full-visible-spectrum phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-wLEDs). Here, a new broadband cyan-emitting phosphor that enables addressing of this challenge is reported. The compound, Ba2CaB2Si4O14:Ce3+, presents a bright cyan emission peaking at 478 nm with a large full width at half maximum of 142 nm (6053 cm−1), and minimal thermal quenching. The photoluminescence properties originate from Ce3+ residing at two different crystallographic sites, a [BaO9] distorted elongated square pyramid and a [CaO6] trigonal prism. This combination results in an efficient, broad emission covering the blue to green region of the visible spectrum. Fabricating a simple dichromatic ultraviolet (λex = 370 nm) pumped pc-wLED using Ba2CaB2Si4O14:Ce3+ along with a commercially available red phosphor demonstrates full-visible-spectrum white light with high color rendering index (Ra > 90) and tunable correlated color temperature, showing the potential of this material for achieving high-quality LED-based lighting.

The photoluminescence spectrum generated by an ordinary phosphor-converted white light-emitting diode (pc-wLED) that combines a blue LED chip with a yellow phosphor or a near-UV LED with red, green...

BuPiHeWei (BPHW) decoction, a classic Traditional Chinese Medicinal (TCM) prescription, has been widely used in clinical practice to relieve digestive symptoms caused by chemotherapy, such as diarrhea and vomiting. The present study aimed to investigate whether BPHW decoction exerted a protective role in the 5-Fu-induced intestinal mucosal injury in the rats by regulating the mechanisms of TLR-4/NF-κB signaling pathway. There were 35 Sprague Dawley rats randomly divided into four groups: normal control group, 5-Fu group, 5-Fu + BPHW decoction group (10.5 g/kg, for five continuous days), and 5-Fu + Bacillus licheniformis capsule group (0.2 g/kg, for five continuous days). Animal models were established by intraperitoneal injection of 5-Fu (30 mg/Kg, for five consecutive days). At the end of the treatment period, body weight, diarrhea score, and histological examination were examined. Furthermore, the expression of TLR-4/NF-κB pathway was detected to reveal its mechanism. The results showed that BPHW decoction effectively reduced diarrhea score and increased body weight and height of villi after 5-Fu chemotherapy. In addition, BPHW decoction could significantly inhibit the expression of TLR-4, NF-κB, and inflammatory factors (including TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6) in the intestine, and the efficacy was significantly higher than that of Bacillus licheniformis capsule. In summary, BPHW decoction might be considered an effective drug to alleviate intestinal mucosal injury in the rats induced by 5-Fu.

Background: Neuropathic pain (NP), a severe and disruptive symptom following many diseases, normally restricts patients' physical functions and leads to anxiety and depression. As an economical and effective therapy, exercise may be helpful in NP management. However, few guidelines and reviews focused on exercise therapy for NP associated with specific diseases. The study aimed to summarize the effectiveness and efficacy of exercise for various diseases with NP supported by evidence, describe expert recommendations for NP from different causes, and inform policymakers of the guidelines.Design: A systematic review and expert consensus.Methods: A systematic search was conducted in PubMed. We included systematic review and meta-analysis, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which assessed patients with NP. Studies involved exercise intervention and outcome included pain intensity at least. Physiotherapy Evidence Database and the Assessment of Multiple Systematic reviews tool were used to grade the quality assessment of the included RCTs and systematic reviews, respectively. The final grades of recommendation were based on strength of evidence and a consensus discussion of results of Delphi rounds by the Delphi consensus panel including 21 experts from the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine.Results: Eight systematic reviews and 21 RCTs fulfilled all of the inclusion criteria and were included, which were used to create the 10 evidence-based consensus statements. The 10 expert recommendations regarding exercise for NP symptoms were relevant to the following 10 different diseases: spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, cervical radiculopathy, sciatica, diabetic neuropathy, chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, HIV/AIDS, and surgery, respectively. The exercise recommended in the expert consensus involved but was not limited to muscle stretching, strengthening/resistance exercise, aerobic exercise, motor control/stabilization training and mind-body exercise (Tai Chi and yoga).Conclusions: Based on the available evidence, exercise is helpful to alleviate NP intensity. Therefore, these expert consensuses recommend that proper exercise programs can be considered as an effective alternative treatment or complementary therapy for most patients with NP. The expert consensus provided medical staff and policymakers with applicable recommendations for the formulation of exercise prescription for NP. This consensus statement will require regular updates after five–ten years.

There are few studies on the mechanism of pituitary adenoma (PA) destroying bone. The current study aimed to investigate the role of MEG8/miR-454-3p/TNF-α in bone-invasive pituitary adenomas (BIPAs). In this study, we report that lncRNA MEG8 and TNF-α are upregulated in BIPA tissues while miR-454-3p is downregulated, which is associated with poor progression-free survival (PFS). Functional assays revealed the role of up-regulated MEG8 and down-regulated miR-454-3p in promoting bone destruction. Mechanistically, MEG8 promotes TNF-α expression by sponging miR-454-3p, which ultimately leads to the occurrence of bone destruction. The mechanism is confirmed in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, our data illustrated a new regulatory mechanism of MEG8/miR-454-3p/TNF-α in BIPAs. It may provide a useful strategy for diagnosis and treatment for BIPA patients.

Rare-earth substituted inorganic phosphors are critical for solid state lighting. New phosphors are traditionally identified through chemical intuition or trial and error synthesis, inhibiting the discovery of potential high-performance materials. Here, we merge a support vector machine regression model to predict a phosphor host crystal structure’s Debye temperature, which is a proxy for photoluminescent quantum yield, with high-throughput density functional theory calculations to evaluate the band gap. This platform allows the identification of phosphors that may have otherwise been overlooked. Among the compounds with the highest Debye temperature and largest band gap, NaBaB9O15 shows outstanding potential. Following its synthesis and structural characterization, the structural rigidity is confirmed to stem from a unique corner sharing [B3O7]5– polyanionic backbone. Substituting this material with Eu2+ yields UV excitation bands and a narrow violet emission at 416 nm with a full-width at half-maximum of 34.5 nm. More importantly, NaBaB9O15:Eu2+ possesses a quantum yield of 95% and excellent thermal stability., Identifying phosphors with good thermal stability and quantum efficiency is a prerequisite to improve the performance of white LED light sources. Here, a combined machine learning and density functional theory method is introduced to identify next generation inorganic phosphors.

Depression is concomitantly presented in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected patients (HB). However, there is still no objective method to diagnose HBV-infected patients with depression (dHB). Therefore, in this study, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based metabolomic approach was employed to profile urine samples from 59 dHB and 52 HB (the training set) in order to identify urinary metabolite biomarkers for dHB. Then, 41 dHB and 35 HB (the testing set) were used to independently validate the diagnostic generalizability of these biomarkers. In total, 13 differential metabolites responsible for the discrimination between dHB and HB were identified. These differential urinary metabolites belonged mainly to Lipid metabolism and Amino acid metabolism. A panel consisting of six urinary metabolite biomarkers (ethanolamine, azelaic acid, histidine, threitol, 2,4-dihydroxypyrimidine and levulinic acid) was identified. This panel was capable of distinguishing dHB from HB with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.986 in the training set. Moreover, this panel could classify blinded samples from the testing set with an AUC of 0.933. These findings indicated that the GC-MS-based metabolomics approach could be a useful tool in the clinical diagnosis of dHB, and the identified biomarkers were helpful for future developing an objective diagnostic method for dHB.

Highly efficient, thermally stable, narrow-band phosphors that can be excited by a blue LED chip are crucial for energy-efficient light bulbs and display lighting. Here, a rare narrow-band, green-emitting phosphor based on the compound NaBaB9O15:Eu2+ is demonstrated. The emission peak is centered at 515 nm with a full-width at half-maximum (fwhm) of 61 nm (2294 cm−1), and a photoluminescence quantum yield of >80% using blue or near-UV LED excitation. This borate’s remarkable green emission stems from Eu2+ substituting on the smaller [NaO6] polyhedron instead of the larger and more favorable [BaO9] polyhedron. The phosphor also exhibits negligible thermal quenching up to 650 K owing to the wide band gap, high connectivity of the rigid NaBaB9O15 crystal structure, and the depopulation of trap-states. This combination of optical properties and its straightforward synthesis conditions makes NaBaB9O15:Eu2+ an ideal green phosphor for next-generation LED-based lighting or display systems.

A machine-learning model is developed that can accurately predict the band gap of inorganic solids based only on composition. This method uses support vector classification to first separate metals from nonmetals, followed by quantitatively predicting the band gap of the nonmetals using support vector regression. The superb accuracy of the regression model is obtained by using a training set composed entirely of experimentally measured band gaps and utilizing only compositional descriptors. In fact, because of the unique training set of experimental data, the machine learning predicted band gaps are significantly closer to the experimentally reported values than DFT (PBE-level) calculated band gaps. Not only does this resulting tool provide the ability to accurately predict the band gap for any composition but also the versatility and speed of the prediction based only on composition will make this a great resource to screen inorganic phase space and direct the development of functional inorganic materials.

Objective We aimed to explore the effect of a new health education model on continuous nursing care in elderly patients with diabetes mellitus who had undergone an operation for fracture. Methods Convenience sampling was used to select 59 elderly patients with diabetes mellitus and fracture. New health education methods were used, and patient parameters were evaluated before and after the intervention. Results Evaluation of medication, reasonable diet, regular exercise, blood glucose monitoring, and regular follow-up compliance were significantly improved in the experimental group compared to the control group (P < 0.05). There were also significant differences between groups in fasting blood glucose, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose, triglyceride, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein levels (P < 0.05); however, the differences between groups in terms of glycosylated hemoglobin and total cholesterol levels were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Finally, the functional recovery and mental health of the experimental group were significantly better than those of the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusions The implementation of a menu of voluntary services in community-based continuous nursing provided standardized nursing care for elderly patients with fracture and diabetes mellitus and improved their quality of life.

The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) adlay has been used as a dietary supplement to promote health and treat various ailments for thousands of years. The effective and safe ingredients of TCM could be used as sources for developing new drugs. This paper reviews the main research and application of adlay seed in medicinal field in the following aspects: botanical resource, ethnopharmacological function, chemical constituents, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, safety evaluation and toxicity, and clinical application. We hope that the review could help researchers mine the scientific values of adlay seed, innovative drug design, provide the guidance for the application in clinical therapy, and enhance the academic level and clinical efficacy of adlay seed.

A three-layer-core single-mode large-mode-area fiber with low bending loss is investigated in this paper. The three-layer structure in the core which is comprised of core-index layer, cladding-index layer and depression-index layer, can achieve large-effective-area Aeff while maintaining low-bending-loss without deteriorating cutoff behaviors. The large-mode-area of 100–330 μm2 can be achieved in the fiber. The effective area Aeff can be further enlarged by adjusting the layer parameters. Furthermore, the bending property can be improved in this three-layer-core structure. The bending loss can decrease by 2–4 orders of magnitude compared with the bending loss of the conventional step-index fiber with the same Aeff. These characteristics of three-layer-core fiber suggest that it can be used in large-mode-area wide-bandwidth high-capacity transmission, or high-power optical fiber laser and amplifier in the optical communications, which can be conducive to studying the basic physical layer structure of big data storage, reading, calculation and transmission applications and so on.

Objective To study the effect of bentysrepinine (Y101) metabolites on improving binding affinity of HBV DNA polymerase. Methods The binding mode of Y101 and its metabolites with DNA polymerase has been driven by hydrophobic interaction. Results Two compounds, T2 and T4, exhibited the improvement of the binding affinity to HBV DNA polymerase protein, which suggests that the inhibitory activity against HBV DNA polymerase protein can be enhanced. Conclusion The variant docking poses of T2 and T4 might imply the novel recognition of inhibitory effects of T2 and T4, in comparison with Y101.

Background Mutations in reverse transcriptase (RT) of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) are demonstrated to be strongly associated with nucleos(t)ide analog resistance, which is supposed to be the biggest obstacle during the long-term anti-viral treatment of chronic hepatitis B. However, the presence of RT mutations in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B patients and its clinical significance are not well known. Objectives To investigate the significance of mutations in reverse transcriptase of the hepatitis B virus in treatment-naive Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B. Material and methods In this study, 288 treatment-naive chronic HBV patients were recruited and the RT region was sequenced. The results showed that 71 patients (24.65%) were found with RT mutations, within which there were no well-defined primary nucleotide analog-resistant mutations. Results There were a total of 28 mutant sites, which formed three dominant mutant clusters: rt124-139, rt191-212 and rt225-229. Among these 71 patients, 63.38% (45/71) of patients had a single mutation while 19.72% (14/71), 12.68% (9/71) and 4.23% (3/71) of patients had 2, 3 or 4 mutations, respectively. Patients with RT mutations showed significantly decreased serum baseline HBV DNA loads (p = 0.0363) and blood platelet count (p = 0.0181) than patients without RT mutations. Patients with multiple mutant sites (≥ 2) had significantly decreased baseline HBV DNA loads (p = 0.0004) and blood platelet count (p = 0.0011) than patients with single mutant site. Moreover, the number of RT mutant sites is significantly associated with severity of liver fibrosis (p = 0.0128). Conclusions This study demonstrated that there was a prevalence of RT mutations in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B patients, which reflects a tougher liver environment for the virus and deeper liver injury for the host. Accumulation of RT mutations was associated with liver disease severity in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B patients.

Network toxicology that is an important branch of the network pharmacology emerges on the basis of network biology. It refers to study on the toxicological features of a constructed network model which is used to analyze toxic substances and their interaction and regulation in biological systems, particularly investigate the toxic effects of drugs and/or compatibility of medicines on body, and clarify the mechanism of toxicity. Network toxicology currently develops rapidly in safety prediction of Chinese materia medica (CMM). The application of network toxicology to safety and toxicology study on CMM is extremely beneficial to identify the toxic components and potential incompatibility of CMM. Since CMM is a complex system with multi-components, multi-targets, and multi-interactions, the network toxicology in safety prediction of CMM faces three great challenges, including integration studies of bioinformatics, innovation of methods, and tools and risk assessment in future development of the network toxicology in CMM research. In this paper, relevant database, approaches and tools that network toxicology utilized in the safety study of CMM were carefully reviewed. Based on the progress made, the scientific development and modernization of CMM will be greatly enhanced.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the immune memory response 13-18 years after an hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine by performing a specific in vitro stimulation experiment. Thirty healthy volunteers who had been inoculated 13-18 years ago with the HBV vaccine were collected from the physical examination center. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were stimulated with 50 ng/mL recombinant HBsAg. An ELISA kit was used for the detection of antibodies that were produced by these cells in vitro. It was found that even 13-18 years after inoculation with the HBV vaccine, an anamnestic antibody response still existed, and was not correlated with the serum antibody levels (r = -0.177, P = 0.377). In conclusion, our data showed that the individuals after inoculation, including those with anti-HBs

Objective To describe an endoscopic perspective of the surgical anatomy of the trigeminal nerve. Methods Nine adult cadaveric heads were dissected endoscopically. Results Opening the pterygopalatine fossa is important because many key anatomical structures (V2, pterygopalatine ganglion, vidian nerve) can be identified and traced to other areas of the trigeminal nerve. From the pterygopalatine ganglion, the maxillary nerve and vidian nerve can be identified, and they can be traced to the gasserian ganglion and internal carotid artery. An anteromedial maxillectomy increases the angle of approach from the contralateral nares due to an increase in diameter of the piriform aperture, and provides excellent access to the mandibular nerve, the petrous carotid, and the cochlea. Conclusions Identification of key anatomical structures in the pterygopalatine fossa can be used to identify other areas of the trigeminal nerve, and an anteromedial maxillectomy is necessary to expose the ipsilateral mandibular nerve and contralateral cranial level of the trigeminal nerve.

We have studied the dispersion curves of the thickness-modulated one-dimensional (1D) periodic phononic crystal. The dispersion curves of acoustic wave propagating perpendicular to the surfaces of the models are calculated based on the plane wave expansion (PWE) method. By compared the band gaps in thickness-modulated structure with the simple periodic structure, we have found that the band gaps in simple periodic model split into many sub-band gaps when the thickness of media layer is modulated periodically. This can be explained that the thickness-modulated structure can be considered to be made up of many periodic structures with different lattice spacing. It provides flexible choices for real engineering requirement.

The aim of this study is to provide reasonable guidelines for type II diabetes patients with proteinuria to recover their metabolic parameters. A cross-sectional study was conducted in selected groups of type 2 diabetic patients. Hypoglycemic and antihypertensive drug use was recorded. Certain physical examinations were conducted including routine urine test, urinary albumin/creatinine ratio, metabolic parameters of blood glucose and lipid, and other biochemical indicators. Medication and metabolic indicators were compared between the groups based on the seriousness of the proteinuria. A total of 923 cases were selected for this study, with an average age of 63 years. Based on the proteinuria contents, the cases were divided into three groups of proteinuria negative, microalbuminuria, and clinical proteinuria. The recovery rates of the blood pressure control for the groups were 44.2, 35.3, and 36.3 %, respectively. The glycated hemoglobin control recovery rates were 22.2, 18.5, and 15.2 % in the groups. The groups' triglyceride control satisfaction rates were 44.4, 43.3, and 39.8 %. The satisfaction rates of total cholesterol control were 34.5, 26.8, and 25.7 %, respectively and the satisfaction rates of LDL-c control of the three groups were 30.6, 23.8, and 22.1 %. This indicated an unregulated use of hypoglycemic agents, antihypertensives, and lipid-lowering drugs and low recovery rates for metabolic indicators of the cases. Among the 923 cases, 397 had microalbuminuria or clinical proteinuria, and only 22 patients took angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) as antihypertensive drugs. The use of antihypertensive drugs is not standardized, and only a small portion of patients were treated with ACEI or ARB drugs. Therefore, the proteinuria in diabetic patients should be timely screened and evaluated, as well as renal and metabolic function comprehensively regulated and antihypertensives and lipid-lowering drugs rationally used.

In general, herbal medicines have been considered as safe by the general public, since they are naturally occurring and have been applied in treatment for over thousands of years. As the use of herbal medicine is rapidly increasing globally, the potential toxicity of herbal drugs, in particular drug-induced liver injury (DILI), has now become a serious medical issue. According to the literature, the authors analyzed and discussed the hepatotoxicity problem of Chinese herbal medicines (CHM), including global overview on herbal-induced liver injury (HILI), current research progress on toxic CHM, diagnosis and treatment of HILI, and modern approaches and technologies of study of hepatotoxicity. As to promote the recognition of HILI and tackle the issue, a guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of HILI has recently been drafted by Chinese scientists. As suggested by the guideline, the hepatotoxicity issue of CHM, as a matter of fact, is overestimated. Up to date, the investigation of hepatotoxicity of CHM is now booming with worldwide application of CHM. This review therefore provides useful information for investigating hepatotoxicity of herbal medicine and characterizing DILI caused by CHM. In addition, authors describe in which way further efforts should be made to study the rationale of CHM and liver injury.

We present a comparative study on band-gap structures of Lamb waves propagating in one-dimensional quasi-periodic composite thin plates, which are composed of different quasi-periodic models such as Cantor, Fibonacci, Thue-Morse, and Double periodic sequences, respectively. The transmitted power spectra (TPS) of the transient Lamb waves propagating in composite plates is calculated numerically by employing the finite element method. By comparing among TPS in different plates with the different ratios of the plate thickness to the lattice spacing, it is found that different quasi-periodic models present different behavior of the split-up of band gaps. Our works are significant not only for understanding intrinsic physical property of the quasi-periodic sequences, but also for designing the special structures of quasi-periodic arrays to adjust the width of band gaps and the frequency ranges of phononic crystals in applications.

Background and Aim: As a newly identified subset of T helper cells, T-helper 17 cells (Th17) are major mediators of inflammation-associated disease. Some reports have revealed significantly increased Th17 cells in hepatitis B virus-infected patients, and a recent study has demonstrated that hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific Th17 cells can be induced in vitro and regulated by transforming growth factor-β. This study attempted to characterize the role of Th17 cells in the disease progression of chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Methods: The current study enrolled 53 patients with CHC and 23 healthy controls, in which the circulating and liver-infiltrating Th17 cells were monitored. Results: We found that CHC patients had increased proportions of both circulating and liver-infiltrating Th17 cells compared to healthy individuals, and both measures of Th17 cells were correlated with severity of liver inflammation. We further demonstrated that the HCV-specific Th17 cells were correlated with liver damage but not HCV viral replication. Conclusions: Such a correlation between the severity of liver damage of CHC and Th17 cells illustrated in this study sheds some light on the understanding of the pathogenesis of CHC.

Background/Aims: Age-associated and stress-induced involution of the thymus is accompanied by reduced numbers of thymic epithelial cells (TECs) and severe reduction in peripheral T cell repertoire specificities. These events seriously affect immune function, but the mechanisms involved are unclear. Our preliminary findings showed that doxycycline (Dox) could drive the proliferation of a TEC line (MTEC1 cells) partially via the MAPK signaling pathway. Dox can also up-regulate IL-6 and GM-CSF expression via the NF-κB and MAPK/ERK pathways. Herein, we investigate the effects and mechanisms used by Dox that protect against mitomycin C (MMC)-induced MTEC1 cell apoptosis. Methods: MTEC1 cells were treated with Dox, MMC, and Dox plus MMC for different amounts of time. The expression of Trx2, NF-κB, Bcl-2, and Bax proteins were then detected by western blotting. Results: Our findings show that Dox protects MTEC1 cells from MMC-induced apoptosis. Dox up-regulated the expression of Trx2 and promoted NF-κB phosphorylation. Meanwhile, Dox also increased the expression of Bcl-2, partially reduced the expression of Bax, and normalized the ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax. Conclusion: Dox exerts an anti-apoptosis function via the NF-κB-Bcl-2/Bax and Trx2-ASK1/JNK pathways in vitro. Therefore, Dox may represent a drug that could be used to attenuate thymic senescence, rescue thymic function, and promote T cell reconstitution.

Radio frequency (RF) front-end nonidealities in multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) systems are more serious than in single-input and single-output systems and must be calibrated. According to the effects of RF power and in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) imbalance, calibration methods for multi-input and multi-output-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMC-OFDM) systems in transmitter and interference in receiver are improved, respectively, in this article. Furthermore, a calibration scheme including I/Q imbalance errors and amplitude variations is proposed and implemented in the B3G/4G time division duplex communication system. Simulation results show that the calibration algorithms are feasible, and the bit error rate (BER) performances for MIMO-OFDM systems are improved after calibrations.

This paper describes slide-bending formation of thin metal sheet by using an industrial robot. The formation of parts made of very thin sheets has become increasingly important following the miniaturization of industrial products. The thinning of sheet thickness causes several problems on the formability and accuracy of the products. In order to solve such problems in bending, one of the authors proposed a new method called a slide bending formation. However, in order to form more precise products, it is necessary to construct a system which can be controlled more precisely. The authors have made an automatic slide-bending formation system which consists of a force sensor, a CCD camera and an industrial robot. The slide-bending forming tool was mounted on the top of the robot. The reactive forces in the normal and the horizontal direction were measured by the force sensor attached on the wrist. The trajectory of the robot was controlled so that the reactive force was kept constant. The bending angle of the sheet was measured by the CCD camera. From the results of the experiment, it is shown that the larger the reactive force, the larger the bending angle of the thin metal sheet.

Background: Depression is concomitantly presented in Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)-infected patients and decreases these patients’ quality of life. However, there are no laboratory-based methods to objectively diagnose this disorder. Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the alteration of urinary metabolites in depressed HBV-infected patients. Patients and Methods: In this study, 81 depressed HBV-infected patients, 68 non-depressed HBV-infected patients and 64 Healthy Controls (HC) were recruited. A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based urinary metabonomic method was used to characterize the urinary metabolic profiling of depressed and non-depressed subjects. Results: Seventeen differential urinary metabolites responsible for discriminating depressed HBV-infected patients from non-depressed HBV-infected patients and HC were identified. Among these metabolites, pyruvate, isobutyrate, N-methylnicotinamide, α-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate and malonate were identified as potential biomarkers for diagnosing depression in HBV-infected patients. A combined panel of these potential biomarkers could effectively discriminate depressed HBV-infected patients from non-depressed HBV-infected patients and HC, with an average accuracy of 89.6% in the training set and a predictive accuracy of 86.4% in the test set. Conclusions: These findings suggest that NMR-based urinary metabonomics approach might be a useful tool for the clinical diagnosis of depression in HBV-infected patients and the six potential biomarkers could be helpful for developing an objective diagnostic method. Limited by the number of recruited subjects, future studies are required to validate our conclusions.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disease characterized by cartilage destruction, subchondral bone sclerosis, and osteophyte formation. Subchondral bone stiffness has been proposed to initiate and/or contribute to cartilage deterioration in OA. The purpose of this study was to characterize subchondral bone remodeling, cartilage damage, and osteophytosis during the disease progression in two models of surgically induced OA. Rat knee joints were subjected either to anterior cruciate ligament transection (ACLT) alone or in combination with resection of medial menisci (ACLT + MMx). Histopathological changes in the surgical joints were compared with sham at 1, 2, 4, 6, and 10 weeks post-surgery. Using a modified Mankin scoring system, we demonstrate that articular cartilage damage occurs within 2 weeks post-surgery in both surgical models. Detectable cartilage surface damage and proteoglycan loss were observed as early as 1 week post-surgery. These were followed by the increases in vascular invasion into cartilage, in loss of chondrocyte number and in cell clustering. Histomorphometric analysis revealed subchondral bone loss in both models within 2 weeks post-surgery followed by significant increases in subchondral bone volume relative to sham up to 10 weeks post-surgery. Incidence of osteophyte formation was optimally observed in ACLT joints at 10 weeks and in ACLT + MMx joints at 6 weeks post-surgery. In summary, the two surgically induced rat OA models share many characteristics seen in human and other animal models of OA, including progressive articular cartilage degradation, subchondral bone sclerosis, and osteophyte formation. Moreover, increased subchondral bone resorption is associated with early development of cartilage lesions, which precedes significant cartilage thinning and subchondral bone sclerosis. Together, these findings support a role for bone remodeling in OA pathogenesis and suggest that these rat models are suitable for evaluating bone resorption inhibitors as potential disease-modifying pharmaco-therapies.

Unbalanced agricultural production decision becomes the great block that influences the effective distribution of social resources, national grain security, social stability and economic development. This paper took the game theory as an analyzed tool to describe the interactional processes among the peasants, and set up the game theory model of independent decision and joint decision by peasants. It was shown that the government＇s positive guide and the market environment macroscopically controlled by the government could effectively increased the peasants＇ income

A 29-year-old male patient presented with a 2-year historyof severe frontalheadache,nasalobstruction,and visual defects in April 2004, along with increased prolactin level (16 808 ng/ml) and decreased cortisol level (8.3 g/L). Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Figure 1, A–C) showed that a giant invasive prolactinoma and odontoid processexceededchamberlain lineover1.3cmandthebrainstem at an angle of 36.5° (Figure 1B). A computed tomography scan (Figure 2, A–D) showed that the clivus and occipitalwereseriouslydestroyed.Thepatientwas treatedwith bromocriptine (BRC), which was gradually increased to 15 mg/d, and no side effect was observed. The serum prolactin level also returned to normal in November 2006. Ten months after BRC treatment, MRI (Figure 1, D–F) revealed that the size of the prolactinoma was significantly reduced and that the bone of total clivus had disappeared and the brainstem crawled over the bulgy odontoid process (the angle of brainstem was 61.1°; Figure 1E). Similar magnetic resonance images were found in January 2012 (Figure 1, G–I). Some complications associated with dopamine agonist treatment for prolactinomas, such as cerebrospinal rhinorrhea(1),emptysella turcica (2),andopticchiasmaherniation (3), have been reported. To the best of our knowledge, we first report here that a male patient with invasive prolactinoma developed the brainstem angulation, which crawls over the bulgy odontoid process, after BRC treatment. Studies show that occipito-cervical fusion is necessary for the cranio-cervical joint instability due to skull base bone destruction (4,5).However, theworseangulationofbrainstem and symptoms were not observed after BRC and cortisol replacement therapy in the follow-up period without the occipito-cervical fusion.

AIM: To investigate the expression of leukemia related protein 16 (LRP16), and the possible relationship between LRP16 expression and clinicopathological indices in 336 gastric carcinoma patients. METHODS: Immunohistochemistry was used to detect LRP16 expression in 336 cases of paraffin-embedded gastric carcinoma tissues and 60 cases of distal normal mucosa. The relationships between LRP16 expression and patients’ age, tumor size, histological grade, clinical stage, metastatic status and prognosis were analysed. RESULTS: The expression of LRP16 was 58.6% (197/336) in gastric carcinoma and 31.7% (19/60) in distal normal gastric mucosa. The expression of LRP16 in carcinoma was significantly higher than that in normal mucosa tissues (χ2 = 14.929, P = 0.001). LRP16 protein expression was found in 44.1% (63/143) carcinomas at stage I and II, and 69.4% (134/193) carcinomas at stage III and IV (χ2 = 21.804, P = 0.001), and in 56.9% (182/320) of cancers without metastasis but 93.8% (15/16) of those with metastasis (χ2 = 8.543, P = 0.003). The expression of LRP16 was correlated with tumor size, infiltrative depth, clinical stage, lymphatic invasion and distant metastasis (all P < 0.05). Follow-up data showed that there was a significant difference in median survival time between cancer patients with expression of LRP16 (27.0 mo) and those without (48.0 mo, Log rank =31.644, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The expression of LRP16 may be associated with invasion, metastasis and prognosis of gastric cancer.

We evaluated micro (mi) RNA-mediated regulation of BAFF expression in fibroblasts using two concomitant models: (i) synovial fibroblasts (FLS) isolated from healthy controls (N) or Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients; (ii) human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) isolated from healthy controls (N) or Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) patients. Using RT-qPCR and ELISA, we first showed that SScHDF synthesized and released BAFF in response to Poly(I:C) or IFN-γ treatment, as previously observed in RAFLS, whereas NHDF released BAFF preferentially in response to IFN-γ. Next, we demonstrated that miR-30a-3p expression was down regulated in RAFLS and SScHDF stimulated with Poly(I:C) or IFN-γ. Moreover, we demonstrated that transfecting miR-30a-3p mimic in Poly(I:C)- and IFN-γ-activated RAFLS and SScHDF showed a strong decrease on BAFF synthesis and release and thus B cells survival in our model. Interestingly, FLS and HDF isolated from healthy subjects express higher levels of miR-30a-3p and lower levels of BAFF than RAFLS and SScHDF. Transfection of miR-30a-3p antisense in Poly(I:C)- and IFN-γ-activated NFLS and NHDF upregulated BAFF secretion, confirming that this microRNA is a basal repressors of BAFF expression in cells from healthy donors. Our data suggest a critical role of miR-30a-3p in the regulation of BAFF expression, which could have a major impact in the regulation of the autoimmune responses occurring in RA and SSc. Prof. Jean Sibilia's work was supported by grants from Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche, Pfizer, Courtin Foundation and CAMPLP. Sébastien Pfeffer's work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC-StG-260767) and Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (labex netRNA, ANR-10-LABX-36). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.