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New buckling optimal solutions for curved composite panels are presented in terms of principle of virtual work and sequential permutation search (SPS) algorithm. By utilizing the principle of virtual displacements, the buckling load is calculated and the accuracy of the derived buckling solutions is verified by comparison with experimental data and numerical results. SPS utilizes the inherent mechanical properties of composite laminates in which the bending stiffness of the outer layers is more sensitive than those close to the mid-surface. Curved composite panels exhibit a variety of length-to-arc ratios and radius-to-length ratios, under axial compression, pure shear, and combined loadings, are optimized. Some of the results are compared with the global optima obtained by enumeration method, and SPS shows good robustness in locating the global optima. In addition, the buckling load carrying capacity of optimized curved composite panels can be improved by as much as twice over cross-ply laminates. Low computational costs of SPS algorithm imply its potential for solving high-dimensional discrete variable optimization problems of composite structures.

Buckling problem of composite plates is of importance since it is commonly encountered in thin-walled structural components in engineering. Buckling resistance design of composite plates involves the design of laminate stacking sequence exhibiting high dimensional discrete variables owing to the combination and permutation of ply orientations of layers. In this work, a sequential permutation search (SPS) optimization algorithm is presented for the stacking sequence design of composite rectangular plates accounting for the inherent physical-mechanical behavior of composite laminates. Owing to that the governing equation for buckling of composite rectangular plates is a linear homogeneous equation on bending stiffness parameters, the convexity of flexural lamination parameters and sensitivity of bending stiffness are utilized to construct sensitive detection techniques and linear search procedures. Moreover, to increase the robustness of SPS, a sign optimization algorithm (SOA) is coupled in SPS to regulate bending-twisting coupling effects. The SPS algorithm is applied to the buckling resistance design of composite rectangular plates exhibiting various boundaries under axial compression, where the Rayleigh-Ritz method is developed to perform the buckling analysis. Optimal results of SPS are compared against layerwise optimization approach (LOA) and genetic algorithm (GA), illustrating its reliability and efficiency.

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignancy in China with high mortality. Understanding pathogenesis and identifying early diagnosis biomarkers can significantly improve the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer. Exosomes are small vesicular structures containing a variety of components (including DNA, RNA, and proteins) mediating cell-to-cell material exchange and signal communication. Growing evidences have shown that exosomes and its components are involved in growth, metastasis and angiogenesis in cancer, and could also be used as diagnostic and prognostic markers. In this review, we summarized recent progress to elucidate the significance of exosomes in the esophageal cancer progression, microenvironment remodeling, therapeutic resistance, and immunosuppression. We also discuss the utility of exosomes as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic tool in esophageal cancer.

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused major public panic in China. Pregnant women may be more vulnerable to stress, which may cause them to have psychological problems. AIM To explore the effects of perceived family support on psychological distress in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS A total of 2232 subjects were recruited from three cities in China. Through the online surveys, information on demographic data and health status during pregnancy were collected. Insomnia severity index, generalized anxiety disorder 7-item scale, patient health questionnaire-9, somatization subscale of the symptom check list 90 scale, and posttraumatic stress disorder checklist were used to assess the psychological distress. RESULTS A total of 1015 (45.4%) women reported having at least one psychological distress. The women who reported having inadequate family support were more likely to suffer from multiple psychological distress (≥ 2 psychological distress) than women who received adequate family support. Among the women who reported less family support, 41.8% reported depression, 31.1% reported anxiety, 8.2% reported insomnia, 13.3% reported somatization and 8.9% reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which were significantly higher than those who received strong family support. Perceived family support level was negatively correlated with depressive symptoms (r = -0.118, P < 0.001), anxiety symptoms (r = -0.111, P < 0.001), and PTSD symptoms (r = -0.155, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Family support plays an important part on pregnant women’s mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Better family support can help improve the mental health of pregnant women.

To observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture plus medicine in treating laryngopharyngeal reflux due to liverqi stagnation and spleen deficiency. A total of 70 patients were divided into a control group and an observation group by the random number table method, with 35 cases in each group. Both groups were treated with conventional medications, and the observation group was treated with additional acupuncture therapy. The reflux symptom index (RSI) and reflux finding score (RFS) were evaluated. Esophageal motility indicators such as lower esophageal sphincter pressure (LESP) and upper esophageal sphincter pressure (UESP), and salivary pepsin level were measured. The clinical efficacy was also compared. The total effective rate of the observation group was higher than that of the control group (P 0.05), while LESP and UESP in the observation group increased significantly (both P

Background: A novel method to detect the text region from the natural image using the discriminative deep feature of text regions is presented with deep learning concept in this manuscript. Objective: Curve Text Detection (CTD) from the natural image is generally based on two different tasks: learning of text data and text region detection. In the learning of text data, the goal is to train the system with a sample of letters and natural images, while, in the text region detection, the aim is to confirm whether the detected regions are text region or not. The emphasis of this research is on the development of deep learning algorithm. Methods: A novel approach has been proposed to detect the text region from natural images which simultaneously tackles three combined challenges: 1) pre-processing of the image without losing text region; 2) appropriate segmentation of text region using their strokes, and 3) training of data. In pre-processing, image enhancement and binarization are done then morphological operations are defined with the Maximally Stable Extremal Region (MSER) based segmentation technique which operates on the basis of stroke region of text and then finds out the (Speed Up Robust Feature) SURF key point from those regions. Results: Based on the SURF feature, text region is detected from the images using a trained structure of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) which is based on deep learning mechanism. Conclusion: CTW-1500 dataset is used to simulate the proposed work and the parameters like Precision, Recall, F-Measure (H-mean), Execution time, Accuracy and Error Rate are computed and are compared with the existing work to depict the effectiveness of the work.

BackgroundTo report the long-term outcomes of a phase III trial designed to test two hypotheses: (1) elective nodal irradiation (ENI) is superior to conventional field irradiation (CFI), and (2) chemoradiotherapy plus erlotinib is superior to chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced oesophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC).MethodsPatients with locally advanced ESCC were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1 ratio) to one of the four groups: A: radiotherapy adoption of ENI with two cycles of concurrent TP chemotherapy (paclitaxel and cisplatin) plus erlotinib; B: radiotherapy adoption of ENI with two cycles of concurrent TP; C: radiotherapy adoption of CFI with two cycles of concurrent TP plus erlotinib and D: radiotherapy adoption of CFI with two cycles of concurrent TP. A total of 60 Gy of radiation doses was delivered over 30 fractions. We explored the impact of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression on the efficacy of erlotinib plus chemoradiotherapy.ResultsA total of 352 patients (88 assigned to each treatment group) were enrolled. The 5-year survival rates were 44.9%, 34.8%, 33.8% and 19.6% in groups A, B, C and D, respectively (P = 0.013). ENI significantly improved OS compared with standard CFI (median, 38.5 vs 22.6 months; HR, 0.74;P = 0.018). The addition of erlotinib significantly improved OS (median, 39.4 vs 27.4 months; HR, 0.75;P = 0.025). Patients with overexpressing EGFR treated with erlotinib had a better OS and PFS than those without erlotinib.ConclusionsConcurrent chemoradiotherapy with ENI and/or erlotinib improved long-term survival in locally advanced ESCC.Clinical trial registrationTrial registration: NCT00686114.

Automatic screening systems play an increasingly important role in the diagnosis of pathologists. Image measurement and classification are the key techniques of automatic screening systems, which directly determine the performance. The distortion in grey and texture after overlapping nuclei segmentation seriously degrades the DNA content measurement and nuclei classification. In order to solve this problem, this paper presents a new method to reconstruct the pixels in overlapping regions based on the GMM-UBM (Gaussian mixture model–universal background model). In this method, a large amount of data are first used to train a GMM (named UBM). Then, the GMM of each nucleus is derived by maximizing a posteriori adaptation with the UBM and the normal grey value of this nucleus. The grey values are randomly generated by the GMM and filled to the overlapping region, with the offset to fine-tuning the Gaussian components. Finally, the image inpainting algorithm is used to repair the connected region. Experimental results show that this method can effectively recover the nucleus features, such as texture, grey and optical density, and improve the accuracy of nucleus measurement and classification.

The surface ocean current’s imprint on the wind stress (known as the current feedback) has a significant influence on the wind power input to the ocean. In this study, we investigate the effect of the current feedback on mesoscale eddy energetics in the Kuroshio extension region using a high-resolution (9 km) coupled regional climate model. We perform three sets of simulations: one calculates the wind stress without the surface current, one includes only the mesoscale eddy’s current and another includes the entire current in the computation. In this way, the mesoscale eddy’s current feedback can be isolated and its contribution to the entire current feedback can be assessed. The simulation results show that the mesoscale eddy’s current feedback results in negative wind power input to mesoscale eddies and reduces the surface eddy kinetic energy (EKE) by ~ 20% in the Kuroshio extension region. This negative wind power is compensated primarily by the enhanced conversion from mean flow kinetic energy (MKE) and eddy potential energy (EPE) to EKE and secondarily by the reduced pressure flux divergence and horizontal dissipation. Compared to the mesoscale eddy’s current feedback, the entire current feedback has a similar impact on EKE and the wind power on mesoscale eddies, while it affects the EKE budget differently. It weakens the MKE to EKE conversion partly due to the reduced kinetic energy input to background flows by wind. Correspondingly, the negative wind power on mesoscale eddies is primarily compensated by the enhanced EPE to EKE conversion.

In the operation of a nuclear plant system, a distorted inflow of a reactor coolant pump appears owing to the steam generator channel head and multi-bend, leading to the deterioration of pump performance and stability. In the present study, three-dimensional numerical calculations of three model geometries are carried out using block grid technology, with RNG k-ε and DDES model applied in the steady and transient simulation. The simulation results are validated with an experiment testing the pump with a short inlet pipe. As for the results, under the distorted inflow condition, the pump head and efficiency are reduced by 4% and 5.2% respectively at the nominal flow rate. Additionally, when the pump is coupled with upstream structures, the inlet flow becomes distorted and more chaotic, and the swirl and radial flow are produced by asymmetric pressure difference. Meanwhile, a pair of local vortices appears in the inlet section, forming re-distributed mass flow rates. As the distorted flow enters the pump, the blade inlet pressure and flow rate are unevenly distributed. Moreover, the evolution process of the vortex is accompanied with strong non-uniformity in the impeller channel, and thus asymmetric tangential force is imposed on the blades, increasing the risk of the fatigue breakdown of the impeller.

Based on the theories of corporate knowledge, competence and innovation, a conceptual model of the impact of employees’ knowledge management competence on the innovation performance is proposed from both individual and team levels. The multiple linear regression and cross-level linear analysis have been made for the impact of employees’ knowledge management competence and team innovation atmosphere on innovation performance, which proves that knowledge management competence will positively impact innovation performance. The study also found that team innovation atmosphere has a direct effect, instead of regulating effect, on the innovation performance. As a result, the cultivation of knowledge management competence at individual level and the creation of innovation atmosphere at team level should be emphasized, with knowledge management as an effective method, innovation competence as a driving force and innovation atmosphere as a background, so as to exert a lasting impact on innovation performance in a cross-level coordinated manner.

Although concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is recommended as standard of care in patients with locally advanced, unresectable, stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), many patients who refuse or are not eligible for chemotherapy received radiotherapy (RT) alone with 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of about 5–6%. Immune-checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated objective antitumor responses in patients with advanced NSCLC, but it is unclear how these agents can be used in the curative therapy with concurrent radiation. We report three cases of stage III unresectable NSCLC patients who refused chemotherapy received radiation and pembrolizumab immunotherapy. All patients had no local-regional recurrence with acceptable tolerance.

Current cancer therapies have encountered adverse response due to poor therapeutic efficiency, severe side effects and acquired resistance to multiple drugs. Thus, there are urgent needs for finding new cancer-targeted pharmacological strategies. In this review, we summarized the current understanding with THZ1, a covalent inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinase 7 (CDK7), which demonstrated promising anti-tumor activity against different cancer types. By introducing the anti-tumor behaviors and the potential targets for different cancers, this review aims to provide more effective approaches to CDK7 inhibitor-based therapeutic agents and deeper insight into the diverse tumor proliferation mechanisms. Keywords: THZ1, Cyclin-dependent kinase 7, Cancer therapy, Transcription, Super-enhancer

A sign optimization algorithm (SOA) is proposed to design the “±” signs in composite laminates to control the bending-twisting coupling effects. Owing to that the bending-twisting coupling stiffness are cubic on thickness, the innovation is to design the signs of ply orientations from the mid-plane to the outermost sequentially and iteratively. In this manner, the nondimensional anisotropic coefficients are controlled to the target values. Numerical examples are adopted to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of SOA. First, the signs of symmetric laminates [θ32]s are optimized with various boundaries, load ratios, and aspect ratios to show the bending-twisting coupling effects on bending, buckling, and vibration responses of composite plates. Second, the bending-twisting coupling effects are minimized since they may cause large errors in buckling load prediction when using closed-form solution after neglecting them. Third, the optimal sequences obtained from heuristic algorithms are employed for sign optimization. Results show that the bending-twisting coupling effects cannot be neglected; moreover, the buckling and vibration performances can be further improved by redesigning “±” signs in composite laminates. This research aims to provide a design technique to minimize the error induced by bending-twisting coupling and increase the probability to find the global optimum.

Background Evaluating clinical outcome prior to concurrent chemoradiotherapy remains challenging for oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) as traditional prognostic markers are assessed at the completion of treatment. Herein, we investigated the potential of using sub-region radiomics as a novel tumour biomarker in predicting overall survival of OSCC patients treated by concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Methods Independent patient cohorts from two hospitals were included for training (n = 87) and validation (n = 46). Radiomics features were extracted from sub-regions clustered from patients' tumour regions using K-means method. The LASSO regression for ‘Cox’ method was used for feature selection. The survival prediction model was constructed based on the sub-region radiomics features using the Cox proportional hazards model. The clinical and biological significance of radiomics features were assessed by correlation analysis of clinical characteristics and copy number alterations(CNAs) in the validation dataset. Findings The overall survival prediction model combining with seven sub-regional radiomics features was constructed. The C-indexes of the proposed model were 0.729 (0.656–0.801, 95% CI) and 0.705 (0.628–0.782, 95%CI) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. The 3-year survival receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed an area under the ROC curve of 0.811 (0.670–0.952, 95%CI) in training and 0.805 (0.638–0.973, 95%CI) in validation. The correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between radiomics features and CNAs. Interpretation The proposed sub-regional radiomics model could predict the overall survival risk for patients with OSCC treated by definitive concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Fund This work was supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Foundation for Natural Sciences, National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) have become a standard therapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with sensitive mutations. However, acquired resistance inevitably emerges after a median of 6-12 months. It has been demonstrated that autophagy plays an important role in EGFR-TKI resistance. 20(S)-ginsenoside Rg3 (Rg3) is proposed to sensitize the cancer cells to chemotherapy by inhibiting autophagy. We examined the ability of Rg3 to inhibit autophagy and increase the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to icotinib. We show that the induction of autophagy in response to icotinib contributes to the development of icotinib resistance. Rg3 is capable of inhibiting autophagic flux and enhancing the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to icotinib. The resistance to icotinib could also be reversed through Rg3-induced autophagy inhibition. Autophagy inhibition by Rg3 increases the therapeutic response in both icotinib-sensitive and icotinib-resistant NSCLC cells with an EGFR-activating mutation and may be an effective new treatment strategy for this disease.

Activated autophagy has been intensively observed in cerebrovascular diseases, including focal cerebral ischemia injury, but its molecular mechanisms remain unclear. TOM7, which is a component of the protein translocase of the outer mitochondrial membrane (TOM) complex, may modulate assembly of the TOM complex. However, an understanding of how TOM7 affects cerebral ischemia injury is limited. In this study, we demonstrate that the expression of TOM7 is up-regulated after a photothrombotic cerebral ischemic model in rats, peaking at 3 days. In addition, TOM7 knockdown may aggravate cerebral ischemic injury and inhibit autophagy after ischemic stroke. Mechanically, TOM7 may regulate autophagy through the PINK1/Beclin1 pathway after cerebral ischemia injury. These results demonstrate that TOM7 silencing may aggravate cerebral ischemia injury through inhibiting PINK1/Beclin1 pathway- mediated autophagy.

Background Biallelic variants in HSD3B7 cause 3β-hydroxy-Δ5-C27-steroid oxidoreductase (HSD3B7) deficiency, a life-threatening but treatable liver disease. The goal of this study was to obtain detailed information on the correlation between the genotype and phenotype of HSD3B7 deficiency and to report on responses to primary bile acid therapy. Methods The medical records of a cohort of 39 unrelated patients with genetically and biochemically confirmed HSD3B7 deficiency were examined to determine whether there exist genotype-phenotype relationships in this bile acid synthesis disorder. Results In all, 34 of the 44 variants identified in HSD3B7 were novel. A total of 32 patients presented early with neonatal cholestasis, and 7 presented after 1-year of age with liver failure (n = 1), liver cirrhosis (n = 3), cholestasis (n = 1), renal cysts and abnormal liver biochemistries (n = 1), and coagulopathy from vitamin K1 deficiency and abnormal liver biochemistries (n = 1). Renal lesions, including renal cysts, renal stones, calcium deposition and renal enlargement were observed in 10 of 35 patients. Thirty-three patients were treated with oral chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) resulting in normalization of liver biochemistries in 24, while 2 showed a significant clinical improvement, and 7 underwent liver transplantation or died. Remarkably, renal lesions in 6 patients resolved after CDCA treatment, or liver transplantation. There were no significant correlations between genotype and clinical outcomes. Conclusions In what is the largest cohort of patients with HSD3B7 deficiency thus far studied, renal lesions were a notable clinical feature of HSD3B7 deficiency and these were resolved with suppression of atypical bile acids by oral CDCA administration.

The study is to investigate the roles of group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) in different courses of tuberculosis (TB). Serum and PBMCs were respectively isolated from the TST negative, LTBI (latent TB infection), ATB (active TB) and RTB (recurrent TB) patients. Flow cytometry was used to detect Th1, Th2 and ILC2s in the peripheral blood. The mRNA and protein levels of GATA3, RORα, CRTH2, Hes1, Notch1, NF-κB, and ID2 were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blotting. ILC2 cells from ATB and RTB patients were stimulated with rJagged2 or DAPT in vitro, and co-cultured with CD4+ T cells from TST negative group. ELISA was used to detect cytokine levels. The results showed that compared with the TST negative or LTBI group, Th2 cells and serum IL-4 in ATB group increased dramatically, accompanied by an increase of Th2/Th1 ratio in ATB patients, especially in RTB group. However, ILC2s in the ATB and RTB group increased significantly, along with increased GATA3, RORα, and CRTH2 levels. After rJagged2 stimulation in vitro, the levels of Hes1, Notch1, NF-κB, RORα, GATA3 and ID2 and those of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 were significantly increased. These effects were abrogated by DAPT treatment. Then, ILC2s, especially those from RTB patients, induced Th2-type immune response after co-culturing with CD4+ T cells. In conclusion, our results suggest that ILC2s may promote Th2-type immune response in different stages of TB via the Notch-GATA3 pathway.

This paper describes the communication technology used in the smart home energy monitoring system from two aspects. On the one hand, users can realize two-way interaction of electricity through the company communication network; On the other hand, the real-time monitoring of smart home can be realized through the telecom operator network and the home domain ZigBee network. This paper focuses on the technical characteristics of ZigBee and networking application of Internet of things in home domain.

MOOC is a typical representative of education informatization, which has caused fundamental changes in the educational model. Online and offline blended teaching is gradually emerging in colleges and universities as a product of teaching applications in the information age. On the basis of clarifying the evolution of the concept of blended teaching, this paper proposes a method of blended teaching design based on MOOC. The article mainly elaborates on the selection of blended forms, the determination of course content and the implementation of blended teaching, which will provide a certain reference and reference for the innovative reform of blended teaching.

This letter to the editor has made several comments regarding possible statistical issues in recent article by Wang et al. determining the risk factors of continuous renal replacement treatment after emergency surgery for type A acute aortic dissection, which is published in Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery. 2020; 15(1):100. Our comments were involved in the issues of using the propensity score matched cohorts to adjust the covariates that can potentially confound the primary outcomes, process of establishing multivariate model and application of Kaplan-Meier curve analysis in this retrospective study. We would like to remind readers to pay special attention to these issues and invite the authors to comment on these.

Introductionobserve the polarization of microglia in response to heat-induced early nerve injury and to explore its possible mechanism of action.Material and methods18 dogs were divided into control (group A) and experimental groups (group B, C and D) ，Western blot analysis was used to detect the expression of microglia-specific markers CD45, iNOS, Arginase, and CD206 in normal and heat-damaged brain tissues at different time points (1 h, 6 h, 24 h).ResultsCD45 and iNOS were detected in group A. The two protein markers in group B were significantly higher than those in group A (P < 0.05), and in group C were still higher than those in group A (P < 0.05). Arginase and CD206 were also detected in group A. they in group B were higher than those in group A (P < 0.05), and in group C were even higher than those in group A (P < 0.05). Immunofluorescence co-localization of CD45 and Arginase showed significantly increased fluorescence density at 6 h and 24 h after thermal injury (P < 0.001).ConclusionsAfter heat-induced disease, microglia were found active in the brain tissues of dogs. The microglia activated in the early 1-6 h of central nervous system injury were mainly the M1 type, which were then converted to the M2 type after 6 h. The 24 h M2 type was dominant. The relationship between M1/M2 polarization trends and early brain injury in heat-induced disease may be a key to understanding central nervous system injury in heat-induced disease.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of moxifloxacin on the pharmacokinetics of enalapril. Single administration experiment: 12 Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups on average. Control group: enalapril (15mg/kg)+ normal saline combined group: enalapril (15mg/kg)+ moxifloxacin (80mg/kg), intragastric administration. Blood samples were measured by LC-MS/MS. Multiple administration experiment: 12 Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups on average. The control group was given normal saline (day1-7)+ enalapril (day8,15mg/kg), and the combination group was given moxifloxacin (day1-7, 80mg/kg)+ enalapril (day8,15mg/kg) by intra-gastric administration. The treatments were the same as above. Pharmacokinetics parameters were calculated using Winnonlin 6.1 software and the two groups were compared using SPSS18.0 software. In single administration experiment compared with the control group, the AUC(0-t) and Cmax of enalapril were decreased by 31.99%（P

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a newly emerged coronavirus, and has been pandemic since March 2020 and led to many fatalities. Vaccines represent the most efficient means to control and stop the pandemic of COVID-19. However, currently there is no effective COVID-19 vaccine approved to use worldwide except for two human adenovirus vector vaccines, three inactivated vaccines, and one peptide vaccine for early or limited use in China and Russia. Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 are in urgent need. Researchers around the world are developing 213 COVID-19 candidate vaccines, among which 44 are in human trials. In this review, we summarize and analyze vaccine progress against SARS-CoV, Middle-East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and SARS-CoV-2, including inactivated vaccines, live attenuated vaccines, subunit vaccines, virus like particles, nucleic acid vaccines, and viral vector vaccines. As SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV share the common genus, Betacoronavirus, this review of the major research progress will provide a reference and new insights into the COVID-19 vaccine design and development.

Nitrite is one of the most common carcinogens in daily food. Its simple, rapid, inexpensive, and in-field measurement is important for food safety, based on the requirements of the standard from Codex Alimentarius Commission and China. Using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and thin layer silica gel (SG), p-aminophenylcyclic acid (SA) and naphthalene ethylenediamine hydrochloride (NEH), as carriers and chromogenic agents, respectively, PAN-NSS as nitrite color sensor is proposed. After fixing and protecting of SA and NEH with layer-upon-layer PAN, the validity period of the test paper can be prolonged from 7 days to more than 30 days. The reproducibility of PAN-NSS preparation is ensured by electrospinning. Combined with PAN-NSS, deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) and APP as a visual monitoring platform, which has the functions of rapid sampling, data processing and transmission, intuitive feedback, etc., and provides a fully integrated detection system for field detection.

Autophagy is a critical survival pathway for cancer cells under conditions of stress. Thus, induction of autophagy has emerged as a drug resistance mechanism. This study is to determine whether autophagy is activated by a novel multikinase inhibitor linifanib, thereby impairing the sensitivity of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells to this targeted therapy. Here, we found that linifanib induced a high level of autophagy in HCC cells, which was accompanied by suppression of phosphorylation of PDGFR-β and its downstream Akt/mTOR and Mek/Erk signaling pathways. Cell death induced by linifanib was greatly enhanced after autophagy inhibition by the pharmacological inhibitors or siRNAs against autophagy related genes, ATG5 and ATG7, in vitro. Moreover, HCQ, an FDA-approved drug used to inhibit autophagy, could significantly augment the anti-HCC effect of linifanib in a mouse xenograft model. In conclusion, linifanib can induce cytoprotective autophagy by suppression of PDGFR-β activities in HCC cells. Thus, autophagy inhibition represents a promising approach to improve the efficacy of linifanib in the treatment of HCC patients.

Background: Although concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) was recommend as standard of care in patients with stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), many patients refused or were not eligible for chemotherapy in clinical practice. These patients often receive RT alone with 5-year OS rate of about 5-6%. This addressed a common clinical challenge of treating these patients. Immune-checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated objective antitumor responses in patients with advanced NSCLC, but it is unclear how these agents can be used in the curative therapy with concurrent radiation. Case presentation: Here we described, the case series, the effect of stage III unresectable NSCLC patients who refused chemotherapy received radiation and anti-PD-1 immunotherapy. Three patients with stage III unresectable NSCLC were treated with radiotherapy concurrently with anti-PD-1 agent (pembrolizumab) between May 2018 and August 2018 in our hospital. Two patients experienced partial response and one patient experienced stable disease. One patient developed the liver metastasis 4 months after the treatment. All patients had no local-regional recurrence. No patient experienced ≥ grade 3 adverse event (AE), and no patient discontinued treatment because of an AE. Conclusions: Concurrent treatment with radiation and pembrolizumab for unresectable stage III NSCLC patients who refused chemotherapy demonstrated its efficacy and acceptable tolerance. Further investigations are warranted to determine its role in the management of these patients.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Background: The existing evidence on the relationship between Helicobacter pylori infection and the risk of colorectal cancer is inconsistent. We conducted a systematic review with a meta-analysis to explore this relationship and to determine whether the relationship varies according to the study characteristics. Methods: We searched the PubMed, OVID, EMBASE database, and the reference lists of pertinent articles published up to October 2019 by 2 researchers independently. Summary odds ratios (OR) with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using a random-effects model. Results: Forty seven studies including 17,416 cases of colorectal cancer (CRC) and 55,811 cases of control were included. Overall, H. pylori infection was associated with an increased risk of CRC (OR = 1.70 95% CI 1.64–1.76, I2 = 97%), although there was significant heterogeneity among the studies. Subgroup analysis revealed that the positive correlation might vary by the design of study conducted. Conclusion: This meta-analysis demonstrates a positive association between H. pylori infection and the risk of colorectal cancer.

Aiming at the problem of poor effect of preaching and instilling teaching in the comprehensive wiring course teaching, this article proposes a “situation + problem” integrated teaching method. The core idea of this pedagogy is based on the problem as the main line, designing the teaching context that maps to the problem, including “context construction→problem raising, context exploration→problem discussion, context practice→problem verification, context reflection→problem summary” 4 Implementation links. This article also takes the integrated wiring course as an example to conduct a practical exploration. Practice has proved that this method can effectively arouse the enthusiasm of students, improve students' engineering practice ability and independent learning ability, and has certain guiding and reference significance for the innovation of higher education engineering curriculum teaching methods.

According to the requirements of the eight-way transponder, two different implementation methods are designed. One is realized by integrated chip CD4511 and peripheral circuits, and designs the schematic diagram and PCB diagram, as well as the actual works. The second is realized by PLC control, The ladder diagram of the PLC control of the eight-way transponder and the acrual works are designed. Both methods have been successful and can be used directly in practice, or can be slightly modified and extended to other multiplex transponders.

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare the rate of first attempt success of endotracheal intubation performed by ambulance nurses in patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 3 using video laryngoscopy versus direct laryngoscopy. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted in a single, independent ambulance service. Twenty of a total of 65 nurse-staffed ambulances were equipped with a video laryngoscope; a classic direct laryngoscope (Macintosh) was available on all 65 ambulances. The primary outcome was first attempt success of the intubation. Secondary outcomes were overall success, time needed for intubation, adverse events, technical or environmental issues encountered, and return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). Ambulance nurses were asked if the intubation device had affected the outcome of the intubation. Results The first attempt success rate in the video laryngoscopy group [53 of 93 attempts (57%)] did not differ from that in the direct laryngoscopy group [61 of 126 (48%); p = 0.221]. However, the second attempt success rate was higher in the video laryngoscopy group [77/93 (83%) versus 80/126 (63%), p = 0.002]. The median time needed for the intubation (53 versus 56 s) was similar in both groups. Ambulance nurses more often expected a positive effect when performing endotracheal intubation with a video laryngoscope (n = 72, 81%) compared with a direct laryngoscope (n = 49, 52%; p

Publisher's version (útgefin grein), Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. A small proportion of HF cases are attributable to monogenic cardiomyopathies and existing genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have yielded only limited insights, leaving the observed heritability of HF largely unexplained. We report results from a GWAS meta-analysis of HF comprising 47,309 cases and 930,014 controls. Twelve independent variants at 11 genomic loci are associated with HF, all of which demonstrate one or more associations with coronary artery disease (CAD), atrial fibrillation, or reduced left ventricular function, suggesting shared genetic aetiology. Functional analysis of non-CAD-associated loci implicate genes involved in cardiac development (MYOZ1, SYNPO2L), protein homoeostasis (BAG3), and cellular senescence (CDKN1A). Mendelian randomisation analysis supports causal roles for several HF risk factors, and demonstrates CAD-independent effects for atrial fibrillation, body mass index, and hypertension. These findings extend our knowledge of the pathways underlying HF and may inform new therapeutic strategies., We acknowledge the contribution from the EchoGen Consortium.

With the advancement of information technology, the traffic and scale of airborne networks, especially the military airborne networks, are growing rapidly. How to efficiently schedule the airborne network traffic to improve the bandwidth utilization and meet the quality of service (QoS) needs of different services have become an urgent issue to be addressed. Software-defined networking (SDN) is a new network paradigm, which completely separates the network control plane and data plane, and controls the network logically. With these new features, it is possible for SDN to control network flows with higher efficiency and flexibility. However, existing airborne network equipment does not support the SDN technology, and it is difficult to upgrade the equipment in a short period. Therefore, it becomes necessary to study the traffic scheduling method considering a heterogeneous scenario with the coexistence of SDN airborne nodes and traditional IP-based airborne nodes. This paper puts forward a dynamic traffic scheduling algorithm for heterogeneous software-defined airborne network, which can improve the bandwidth utilization and network transmission efficiency of airborne networks.