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Recently, several clinical studies have evaluated the first-line use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) combined with platinum-doublet chemotherapy in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), however, the differences in safety and efficacy between the various types of ICIs still require investigation. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of the first-line use of ICIs combined with platinum-doublet chemotherapy in patients with non-squamous NSCLC by meta-analysis and indirect comparison.Literature searches were performed using PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database, and Wanfang Data to identify all relevant randomized clinical trials for non-squamous NSCLC after 2010. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and adverse effects (AEs) were pooled for meta-analysis and indirect comparison. Subgroup analyses were conducted to examine the factors associated with PFS.The meta-analysis showed that the additional use of ICIs could significantly improve PFS and OS. The indirect comparison showed no significant difference in pembrolizumab + chemotherapy and atezolizumab + chemotherapy in the reducing of disease progression, while a significant difference in restricted mean survival time (RMST) was found between pembrolizumab + chemotherapy compared with atezolizumab + chemotherapy. A significant increase in grade ≥3 AEs was observed with the additional use of atezolizumab combined with chemotherapy. Subgroups including PD-1 status [high (50%), intermediate (1-49%), and negative (1%) expression], sex (male and female), smoking status (current or former smoker, and never smoked), liver metastases (with and without), age (65 and ≤65) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score (ECOG=0 and ECOG=1) were all associated with better PFS.This meta-analysis confirmed the treatment effects of ICIs combined with chemotherapy for non-squamous NSCLC. The pembrolizumab combination group had a greater RMST benefit compared with the atezolizumab combination group. Furthermore, our study also demonstrated a PFS advantage for non-squamous NSCLC using ICIs combined with chemotherapy irrespective of programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression level, smoking status, liver metastasis status, sex, age and ECOG score. Due to the significant increase in AEs (grade 3), more attention should be paid to the additional use of atezolizumab.

Objectives Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion (ex20 ins) mutations are generally associated with de novo resistance to first- or second-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the real efficacy of osimertinib for this subset remains elusive. We performed this study to investigate the real efficacy of osimertinib for Chinese advanced NSCLC patients harboring EGFR ex20 ins mutations. Materials and methods We retrospectively collected data of metastatic NSCLC patients with EGFR ex20 ins mutations who were treated with osimertinib 80 mg or 160 mg once daily in our center from June 2017 to May 2020. Progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were assessed. Results A total of 62 cases with EGFR ex20 ins mutations were included, and the major insertion variant was D770_N771insSVD and V769_D770insASV (45.1 %). Concurrent TP53 mutation was most commonly observed (59.7 %). Four patients showed partial response, 29 cases with stable disease and 29 showed progressive disease as best response to osimertinib (ORR: 6.5 %, DCR: 53.2 %). The median PFS (mPFS) in total patients was 2.3 (95 %CI, 1.5–3.1) months. Patients harboring A763_Y764insFQEA/D770delinsGY variants showed numerically longer mPFS than those with other variants (4.2 vs. 2.2 months, P = 0.164). Patients who failed to osimertinib and occurred extracranial progression showed similar mPFS to those with intracranial progression (2.3 vs. 1.9 months, P = 0.142). Median PFS was not significantly different between patients who received osimertinib 80mg or 160mg once daily (2.5 vs. 1.3 months, P = 0.161), either with no significance when it used in fist-line setteing or bove (3.0 vs. 2.2 months, P = 0.639). Conclusion The unique insertion variant A763_Y764insFQEA and D770delinsGY might better respond to osimertinib than other ex20 ins subtypes. Osimertinib either 80 mg or 160 mg once daily showed less activity in Chinese NSCLC patients harboring diverse EGFR ex20 ins mutations.

Food safety and quality issues are becoming increasingly important and attract much attention, requiring the development of better analytical platforms. For example, high-resolution (especially Orbitrap) mass spectrometry simultaneously offers versatile functions such as targeted/non-targeted screening while providing qualitative and quantitative information on an almost unlimited number of analytes to facilitate routine analysis and even allows for official surveillance in the food field. This review covers the current state of Orbitrap mass spectrometry (OMS) usage in food analysis based on research reported in 2012-2019, particularly highlighting the technical aspects of OMS application and the achievement of OMS-based screening and quantitative analysis in the food field. The gained insights enhance our understanding of state-of-the-art high-resolution mass spectrometry and highlight the challenges and directions of future research.

Flavonoids, among the major bioactive ingredients in many traditional Chinese medicines, have been widely considered due to their pharmacological and biochemical effects: antioxidant, anti-vascular...

Background: Acquired resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) has been the major bottleneck that limits the long-term clinical efficacy. Therefore, the exploration of novel strategies for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is urgent. Sijunzi Tang (SJZ) has been usually used as a complementary therapy for cancer patients that can prolong their overall life. Nevertheless, its underlying mechanism when combined with EGFR-TKIs is not clear. Methods: Here, the anti-tumor activity was evaluated by determining cell viability by using the Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8). A high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) method was established to simultaneously quantify nine metabolites in the glutamine metabolic pathway, such as glutamine, glutamate, αketoglutaric acid, fumarate, succinate, citrate, cis-aconitate, alanine, and malate in PC-9/GR cells. Results: The results showed that SJZ could enhance the sensitivity of lung cancer cells to gefitinib. The content of glutamine and glutamate in the SJZ/gefitinib group was significantly lower than that in the gefitinib group, while the concentration of other metabolites did not change significantly. Conclusion: In summary, SJZ can reverse gefitinib resistance by modulating glutamine metabolism. Our results suggested that SJZ might be a potential resistance reversal herbal medicine and combined with gefitinib might be a promising strategy for the therapy of lung cancer. Also, the research will provide novel insights for the study of the mechanisms on Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescriptions-reversed resistance of EGFR-TKIs, and scientific basis for the combined treatment of lung cancer with TCM and EGFR-TKIs.

Thalidomide induces γ-globin expression in erythroid progenitor cells, but its efficacy on patients with transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia (TDT) remains unclear. In this phase 2, multi-center, randomized, double-blind clinical trial, we aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of thalidomide in TDT patients. A hundred patients of 14 years or older were randomly assigned to receive placebo or thalidomide for 12 weeks, followed by an extension phase of at least 36 weeks. The primary endpoint was the change of hemoglobin (Hb) level in the patients. The secondary endpoints included the red blood cell (RBC) units transfused and adverse effects. In the placebo-controlled period, Hb concentrations in patients treated with thalidomide achieved a median elevation of 14.0 (range, 2.5 to 37.5) g/L, whereas Hb in patients treated with placebo did not significantly change. Within the 12 weeks, the mean RBC transfusion volume for patients treated with thalidomide and placebo was 5.4 ± 5.0 U and 10.3 ± 6.4 U, respectively (P β0/β0 and HBS1L-MYB (rs9399137 C/T, C/C; rs4895441 A/G, G/G) genotypes. These results demonstrated that thalidomide is effective in patients with TDT.

Lung cancer ranks as a leading cause of death. Although targeted therapies usually trigger profound initial patient responses, these effects are transient due to drug resistance and severe side effects. Xihuang Pill (XHW) is a popular Chinese medicine formula that might benefit cancer patients when used as a complementary therapy. However, its underlying mechanism when combined with anticancer drugs is not clearly understood. Here, we used an integrated strategy to reveal the regulatory properties of XHW in increasing the antitumor activity of anlotinib in lung cancer. We evaluated the anti-lung cancer effect of XHW combined with anlotinib in mice bearing Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC). We applied untargeted metabolomics to identify the differences metabolism and found that XHW improved the effects of anlotinib on lung cancer. The components and targets related to the effects of XHW treatment on lung cancer were obtained through network pharmacology. Then, by integrating the biologically active components of XHW and anlotinib as well as the treatment-responsive metabolites and their related targets, an interaction network was constructed to evaluate the combination therapy. Finally, important protein candidates for this response were verified by immunohistochemistry of tumor tissues. The results showed that XHW significantly improved the inhibitory effect of anlotinib on tumor growth in LLC-bearing mice. Additionally, 12 differentially-abundant metabolites were identified by untargeted metabolomics in the XHW/anlotinib group compared with the XHW or anlotinib groups, and they were mainly enriched in fatty acid metabolism, lipid metabolism and amino acid metabolism pathways. Anlotinib, 23 components in Shexiang, 2 components in Niuhuang, 30 components in Ruxiang and 60 components in Moyao work together to act on 30 targets to regulate hexadecanoic acid (also named palmitic acid), linoleic acid, lactosylceramide, adrenaline, arachidonic acid and lysoPC(18:1(9Z)). The results of immunohistochemistry showed that XHW combined with anlotinib reduced the expression of PDGFRA in tumors. Overall, the key metabolites of XHW that enhances the efficacy of anlotinib were regulated by a multicomponent and multitarget interaction network. Our results suggested that anlotinib combined with XHW may be a promising strategy for the treatment of lung cancer.

Increasing evidence demonstrated that alternative splicing (AS) plays a vital role in tumorigenesis and clinical outcome of patient. However, systematical analysis of AS in lung squamous cell carcinoma (LUSC) is lacking and greatly necessary. Thus, this study was to systematically estimate the function of AS events served as prognostic indicators in LUSC. Among 31,345 mRNA AS events in 9633 genes, we detected 1996 AS in 1409 genes which have significant connection with overall survival (OS) of LUSC patients. Then, prognostic model based on seven types of AS events was established and we further constructed a combined prognostic model. The Kaplan–Meier curve results suggested that seven types of AS signatures and the combined prognostic model could exhibit robust performance in predicting prognosis. Patients in the high-risk group had significantly shorter OS than those in the low-risk group. The ROC showed all prognostic models had high accuracy and powerful predictive performance with different AUC ranging from 0.837 to 0.978. Moreover, the combined prognostic model had highest performance in risk stratification and predictive accuracy than single prognostic models and had higher accuracy than other mRNA model. Finally, a significant correlation network between survival-related AS genes and prognostic splicing factors (SFs) was established. In conclusion, our study provided several potential prognostic AS models and constructed splicing network between AS and SFs in LUSC, which could be used as potential indicators and treatment targets for LUSC patients. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12032-021-01490-1.

Several secure image encryption systems have been researched and formed by chaotic mechanisms in current decades. This work recommends an innovative quantum color image encryption method focused on the Lucas series-based substitution box to enhance the competence of encryption. The suggested encryption technique has more excellent key space and significant confidentiality. The chaotic system, along with the substitution box, exhibits additional complicated dynamical behavior, sufficient arbitrariness, and uncertainty than all others focused on just chaotic models. Theoretical and simulation assessments show that the offered image encryption performs admirably, its traditional equivalents in terms by efficiency in terms of statistical analysis.

Background To investigate the reference value of blood gas analysis and related factors in healthy adults in Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province. Methods From August 24, 2018 to August 11, 2020, healthy people between the ages of 18 and 70 years were observed at the Physical Examination Center of People's Hospital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province. Participant information and clinical characteristics were collected. Blood gas analyzer was used to measure PH value, arterial partial oxygen pressure (PaO2), arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2), arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2), acidity (pH), actual bicarbonate (AB) and residual base (BE). The participants' basic and blood gas indicator data were analyzed, and the blood gas reference values and related factors were analyzed using chi-squared tests, Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon Test, and Spearman's correlation analysis. Results A total of 1,218 eligible health examination participants were included. They had an average age of 40 [31-47] years, and males accounted for 51.0%. In terms of blood gas reference values, the average pH value was moderate, and the values of PaO2, SaO2, PaCO2, AB, and BE were low. PaO2 was basically matched with the estimated value of the domestic model formula. These indexes were found to be correlated with social demographic characteristics such as sex, age, and smoking history. Conclusions The correlations between the indexes and social demographic characteristics may be helpful in the prediction of blood gas analysis results in clinical practice. For men, middle-aged and elderly people, or adults with a history of active smoking/biofuel exposure, blood gas PaO2 and PaCO2 should be monitored to facilitate the early intervention of respiratory failure. The PaO2 data basically matched the estimated values of the domestic model formula, suggesting that other regions in the Prefecture could use comprehensive epidemiological data and model methods to guide clinical work.

In recent years, with an increasing number of oncology patients and continuous introduction of new antitumor drugs in China, the demand for oncology clinical pharmacy services is growing rapidly, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for clinical pharmacists. However, there have not been many reports about different types of oncology clinical pharmacy services in China. In this report, we have summarized different oncology clinical pharmacy services commonly practiced in Chinese hospitals based on our review of the literature and current practice in our hospital. We are reporting the training programs and the certification process for oncology clinical pharmacists, basic and advanced patient services, pharmacist-driven and pharmacist-participated guidelines/expert consensuses/books on oncology pharmacotherapy, as well as professional and public health education performed by pharmacists. Based on what we have observed, oncology clinical pharmacy services in China are relatively comprehensive, however, there are needs for expanding certain advanced pharmacy services. Increasing the time spent on clinical services, improving pharmacists’ competency, and optimizing clinical pharmacy workflow and evaluation mechanisms are important for enhancing the value of oncology clinical pharmacists in China. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PurposePaclitaxel liposome (Lipusu) is the first commercialized liposomal formulation of paclitaxel. There has been little data collected on the pharmacokinetics (PK) of paclitaxel liposome, especially in relation to patient use. This study aimed to build a population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) model and further explore the exposure–safety relationship for paclitaxel liposome in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).MethodsData from 45 patients with a total of 349 plasma concentrations were analyzed. The PopPK model was built using the non-linear mixed effect modeling technique.ResultsThe PK of paclitaxel liposome were well described by a three-compartment model with first-order elimination. For a dose of 175 mg m–2, the estimated clearance of total plasma paclitaxel was 21.55 L h–1. Age, sex, body weight, total bilirubin, albumin, serum creatinine, and creatinine clearance did not influence the paclitaxel PK. Exposure to paclitaxel had no significant change in the presence of the traditional Chinese medicine, aidi injection. The exploratory exposure–safety relationship was well described by a generalized linear regression model. Higher probabilities of grade >1 neutropenia were observed in patients with higher exposure to paclitaxel.ConclusionThis PopPK model adequately described the PK of paclitaxel liposome in patients with NSCLC. Predicted exposure of paclitaxel did not change in the presence of the traditional Chinese medicine, aidi injection. The exposure–safety analysis suggested that a higher risk of neutropenia was correlated with higher exposure to paclitaxel.

With the deep integration of blockchain, cloud computing and 5G technology, the business model of the Internet is also undergoing subversive changes. Based on the current development trends of the industry, this article illustrates the application prospects of blockchain technology in cloud-network collaboration For users to purchase network services, blockchain technology and consensus accounting are adopted to effectively avoid uploading user data to the Internet company's cloud server, thereby protecting user privacy from threats. This article provides a solution that uses blockchain technology in cloud-network collaboration to ensure transaction security. At the same time, it analyzes the consensus mechanism for the actual application scenario, and selects a consensus mechanism which is suitable for the cloud-network collaborative application scenario.

This work discusses the effect of the placement of the thermal release mechanism with temperature sensing element on the actuation time of the fire rolling shutter. The fire rolling shutter is one of the most important devices that can prevent the spread of the fire and smoke by automatically falling when there is a fire in the building. The reliability of the fire rolling shutters can directly affect the fire safety level of the buildings. The thermal release mechanism with temperature sensing element is independent of the linkage control system and is an effective measure to ensure the landing of the fire rolling shutters when other control measures fail. Different fire models are established to simulate the temperature distribution by considering three location factors, including the distance between the release mechanism and the fire, the ceiling and the side wall. Suggestions are proposed based on the numerical simulation results. The thermal release mechanism with temperature sensing element should be installed in the locations that near the fire load and the ceiling, but be far away from the corner and the side wall. The proper placement can improve the efficiency and reliability of the release mechanisms.

This paper presents a simplified superconducting magnetic energy exchange (SMEE) model for the potential use in the parameter design and performance evaluation of superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) devices prior to their practical developments and applications in modern power system. In this model, the targeted power system applications are transformed into equivalent energy exchange demands for the SMES coils in a simplified DC power network without conventional DC-AC power devices. Both the steady-power and dynamic-power energy exchange simulations are carried out to clarify the feasibility of the proposed SMEE model for the design, optimization and evaluation of a practical SMES device.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease resulted from airflow obstructions, and there is a driving requirement for novel and effective preventive and therapeutic agents of COPD. Nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) has been regarded to be a promising therapeutic target for COPD. Resveratrol is a natural Nrf2 activator with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, however, its application is limited by its relative low efficiency and poor bioavailability. Herein, based on the skeleton of resveratrol, trans-4,4'-dihydroxystilbene (DHS) has been firstly identified to be an Nrf2 activator, which is more potent than the well-known sulforaphane (SF) and resveratrol. Our results indicate that DHS blocks Nrf2 ubiquitylation through specifically reacting with Cys151 cysteine in Keap1 protein to activate Nrf2-regulated defensive response, and thus enhances intracellular antioxidant capability. Furthermore, DHS relieves lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated inflammatory response via inhibition of NF-κB. Importantly, DHS significantly ameliorates pathological alterations (e.g. infiltration of leukocytes and fibrosis), downregulates the levels of oxidant biomarkers malondialdehyde (MDA) and 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosin (8-oxo-dG), and inhibits the overproductions of inflammatory mediators [e.g. tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9)] in a cigarette smoke (CS)-induced pulmonary impairment mice model. Taken together, this study demonstrates that DHS attenuates the CS-induced pulmonary impairments through inhibitions of oxidative stress and inflammatory response targeting Nrf2 and NF-κB in vitro and in vivo, and could be developed into a preventive agent against pulmonary impairments induced by CS.

Hadoop is a big-data processing framework which is widely used for data storage and processing. Now-a-days security is one of the major concerns in the digital world. Any system is only considered reliable when it provides proper measures to secure the valuable data of an organization. In this paper we discuss the security hadoop offers for data stored in it. Map-Reduce (MR) was introduced by Google as a batch processing implementation in their Google File System (GFS). Hadoop provides its own Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) for storage and it used MR at its core to process the data stored in the HDFS. The early Hadoop project established a security stance that the entire cluster of machines and all of the users accessing it are part of a trusted network. Hadoop framework has a lot of components in it and in the earlier versions it only offered unix based POSIX security for the data, it did not include authentication and authorization between clients and services. In the recent years many security solutions were offered by different enterprises in the form of open-source tools and distributions for Hadoop that had security integrated in them. The solutions for Hadoop security are evolving day by day and a-lot of man power is being invested by academia, open-source community and enterprises to further improve these solutions. Because of the work of the community, the Hadoop can now be deployed in production with sufficient security controls.

Recently, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has attracted considerable attention for their application in food analysis. The use of supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2), as a mobile phase for SFC, with its low viscosity and high molecular diffusiveness, results in shorter analysis time and lower consumption of organic solvents as compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In addition, with recent improvements in its detection system, SFC has shown satisfactory selectivity and sensitivity. Thus, although the composition of food is complex, SFC remains a powerful tool in food analysis with some simple sample pretreatment techniques, such as liquid-liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction, and QuEChERS. Here, we summarize the applications of SFC in food quality and safety from 2012 to 2018, and mainly focus on sample pretreatment strategies and analysis conditions.

Many medical centers in the United States have implemented pharmacogenomics (PGx) programs to integrate PGx into clinical practice. The roles of pharmacists in optimizing medication use based on genetic testing results are emergently evolving. A literature search was conducted to assess pharmacists’ roles in pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics or precision/personalized medicine programs. Fifteen PGx pharmacy practice models implemented in eleven hospitals and one community pharmacy in the U.S. were selected for evaluation. Pharmacists perform results interpretation, genotype-guided medication selection and adjustment, medication acquisition, adverse reactions monitoring, and patient education. Institutions that are interested in implementing a PGx program should plan the strategies to overcome the challenges, such as educational knowledge gaps, informatics, and reimbursement issues. Strong institutional support, well-defined goals, standardized procedures, and strategies to educate clinicians and patients are the prerequisites to comprehensively deliver genomic data for individualized drug therapy.

In this paper, a compact quarter-mode substrate integrated waveguide bandpass filter with extremely wide stopband based on a novel integrated face-to-face complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs) is studied and developed. A combination of complementary split ring resonator and quarter-mode substrate integrated waveguide (QMSIW) is used in this development. Equivalent circuit model simulations from ADS Momentum are in good agreement with HFSS electromagnetic analysis for the QMSIW filter unit, demonstrating the feasibility of QMSIW resonators. The center frequency of the designed filter is 1.54GHz with return loss better than 19dB and insertion loss less than 0.6dB. Its first spurious appears at about 16.8GHz (about 10.9 times the central frequency) with high rejection level of 20dB, providing an ultra wide out-of-band rejection performance. The QMSIW filter was fabricated and the measured results agree very well with simulated ones.

Aim. To explore the associations between adverse events and pharmacotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Methods. 16,527 patients with non-small cell lung cancer admitted to the Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2016, were included in the study. Their medication and laboratory examinations data were extracted from the medical records. Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Version 4.03 were utilized for adverse events reporting. A new association algorithm was developed based on Apriori algorithm and used to investigate the associations between drugs and adverse events. In addition, a statistical comparison was conducted to compare the modified Apriori algorithm with the conventional Apriori algorithm. Results. Different types and levels of adverse events were identified from the abnormal laboratory findings. The three most common adverse events were hypocalcemia, elevated creatine phosphokinase, and hypertriglyceridemia. In addition, using the modified Apriori algorithm, 380 association rules were found between adverse events and chemotherapy. Moreover, the statistical comparison of the two methods demonstrated that the modified Apriori algorithm was more advantageous in analyzing the correlation between drugs and adverse events than the conventional Apriori algorithm. Conclusions. The modified Apriori algorithm can be used to more efficiently associate pharmacotherapy with adverse events. Based on the modified Apriori algorithm, meaningful association rules between drugs and adverse events were found, demonstrating a promising way to reveal the risk factors of adverse events during cancer treatment.

A novel triple-band filter using triple-mode substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) resonator is presented in this paper. The proposed resonator consists of a square cavity with two additional metallic vias that split the first pair of degenerate modes (TE201 and TE102) at the diagonal of the cavity. Triple-band response is achieved by TE101 ,T E201 and TE102. The center frequencies of the first band and the third band can be controlled by appropriately adjusting the location of perturbation vias, while the second band keeps almost unchanged. A two-pole triple-band filter with two transmission zeros utilizing the coupled triple mode cavity resonators is designed and fabricated. The measured results agree very well with the simulated ones.

A novel dual-band substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) filter with multiple transmission zeros and good out-of-band rejection performance is presented in this paper. For this purpose, an orthogonal input/output (I/O) feeding structure directly connected to the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity is designed to split the resonant frequencies of the degenerate pair of mode. The filter can be modeled with a multi-path circuit formed by three modes (TE101 ,T E201 and TE102 modes) and weak cross coupling between I/O ports, thereby producing three transmission zeros which make the dual-band high selectivity. The offset of the input/output ports shifts the second transmission zero to a lower frequency from the upper passband. Several filter prototypes are designed and fabricated for demonstration, and the measured results validate the new structure for high selectivity applications.

In order to intensively study the stability influencing factors of rockfill dam slope in tailing pond, it was simplified to the common rock slope. And the data of 45 groups of circular failure slope was collected, based on the discrete normalization, the condition attributes of influencing stability were reduced by Rough Set theory (RS), at the same time, the stability influencing factors were simplified by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Combining the two results through the above two methods, the main affecting factors of the rockfill dam slope’s stability are: rock density, slope angle and the angle of internal friction. The study conclusion can provide the decision-making basis for the rockfill dam design and safety management, and also be used as the foundation for other intelligent algorithm to predict the dam safety coefficient.

Ethnopharmacological relevance The calyxes and fruits of Physalis alkekengi L. var. franchetii (Mast.) Makino (Physalis Calyx seu Fructus), have been widely used in traditional and indigenous Chinese medicines for the therapy of cough, excessive phlegm, pharyngitis, sore throat, dysuria, pemphigus, eczema, and jaundice with a long history. Aim of the review The present review aims to achieve a comprehensive and up-to-date investigation in ethnomedical uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicity of P. alkekengi var. franchetii, particularly its calyxes and fruits. Through analysis of these findings, evidences supporting their applications in ethnomedicines are illustrated. Possible perspectives and opportunities for the future research are analyzed to highlight the gaps in our knowledge that deserves further investigation. Material and Methods Information on P. alkekengi var. franchetii was collected via electronic search of major scientific databases (e.g. Web of Science, SciFinder, Google Scholar, Pubmed, Elsevier, SpringerLink, Wiley online and China Knowledge Resource Integrated) for publications on this medicinal plant. Information was also obtained from local classic herbal literature on ethnopharmacology. Results About 124 chemical ingredients have been characterized from different parts of this plant. Steroids (particularly physalins) and flavonoids are the major characteristic and bioactive constituents. The crude extracts and the isolated compounds have demonstrated various in vitro and in vivo pharmacological functions, such as anti-inflammation, inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, antimicrobial activity, diuretic effect, anti-diabetes, anti-asthma, immunomodulation, and anti-oxidation. Conclusions P. alkekengi var. franchetii is an important medicinal plant for the ethnomedical therapy of microbial infection, inflammation, and respiratory diseases (e.g. cough, excessive phlegm, pharyngitis). Phytochemical and pharmacological investigations of this plant definitely increased in the past half century. The chemical profiles, including ingredients and structures, have been adequately verified. Modern pharmacological studies supported its uses in the traditional and folk medicines, however, the molecular mechanisms of purified compounds remained unclear and were worth of further exploration. Therefore, the researchers should be paid more attention to a better utilization of this plant.

Bit-level and pixel-level methods are two classifications for image encryption, which describe the smallest processing elements manipulated in diffusion and permutation respectively. Most pixel-level permutation methods merely alter the positions of pixels, resulting in similar histograms for the original and permuted images. Bit-level permutation methods, however, have the ability to change the histogram of the image, but are usually not preferred due to their time-consuming nature, which is owed to bit-level computation, unlike that of other permutation techniques. In this paper, we introduce a new image encryption algorithm which uses binary bit-plane scrambling and an SPD diffusion technique for the bit-planes of a plain image, based on a card game trick. Integer values of the hexadecimal key SHA-512 are also used, along with the adaptive block-based modular addition of pixels to encrypt the images. To prove the first-rate encryption performance of our proposed algorithm, security analyses are provided in this paper. Simulations and other results confirmed the robustness of the proposed image encryption algorithm against many well-known attacks, in particular, brute-force attacks, known/chosen plain text attacks, occlusion attacks, differential attacks, and gray value difference attacks, among others.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a traditional Chinese medicine, Fufang Xuelian Burn Ointment (FXBO), to treat superficial and deep second-degree burn wounds. A four-center, randomized, controlled, and prospective study was conducted. Overall, 240 patients with either superficial or deep second-degree burn wounds were enrolled consecutively in this study. Patients who were randomly assigned to the control group (superficial: 72, deep: 48) underwent common burn wound therapy, whereas those randomized to the treatment group (superficial: 72, deep: 48) received common burn wound therapy plus topical FXBO. The healing rate, healing time, effective rate, and safety data were compared between the two groups. The baseline characteristics were comparable for the two groups. The healing rate was 94.79(±7.50) in the control group and 98.60(±5.69) in the FXBO group after 14 days for patients with superficial second-degree burn wounds (P = 0.000), and 95.17(±9.68) versus 97.44(±9.81) at 28 for deep second-degree burn wounds (P = 0.025). The median healing time in the FXBO group were 9 and 21 days for superficial and deep second-degree burns, respectively, compared to 10.5 and 22.5 days, respectively, in control group (P(superficial) = 0.000 and P(deep) = 0.009). The results of the effective rate showed that comprehensive efficacy of the FXBO group was improved compared to the control group for either superficial or deep second-degree burns (P(superficial) = 0.035 and P deep = 0.003). There were no reported drug-related adverse events in both groups. Therefore, FXBO was well tolerated and more effective than control group for treating superficial and deep second-degree burn wounds.

A hybrid optimization method that synthesizes coupling matrices for cross-coupled microwave filters is presented. This method consists of a general solvopt algorithm and fmincon algorithm, respectively. To avoid divergence from the coupling matrix, two cost functions are built, where the first one is constructed from the eigenvalues of the coupling matrix and its principal sub- matrices, while another one is dependent on the determinant of the coupling matrix and one of its cofactors. The values of non-zero elements of the coupling matrix serve as the independent variables to minimize the cost functions by using solvopt and fmincon. Although the stochastic initial values are not sufficiently close to the global optimum, the hybrid optimization procedure is still robust to find multiple coupling matrices to overcome the initial problem. It is significant that the suitable coupling matrix can be chosen from the multiple solutions to meet the given requirements in practice. For demonstrating the proposed hybrid optimization algorithm, some extraordinary prototype topologies are provided which validate the efficiency of the proposed synthesis procedure.

This paper presents a novel Dempster-Shafer evidence construction approach for aircraft aim recognition. The prior-probability of the properties of aircraft was used for establishing a probabilistic argumentation system. Dempster-Shafer evidence was constructed by assumption-based reasoning. Therefore, additional information could be provided to the classification of the data fusion system. Experiments on artificial and real data demonstrated that the proposed method could improve the classification results.

To observe the effect of geniposide on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and discuss the mechanism of geniposide for NAFLD from the aspect of free fatty acid, forty healthy Wistar male rats were randomly divided into normal group, model group, geniposide and Xuezhikang group. The rats in normal group were fed with normal diets, and the rats in other 3 groups were given with high-fat diet for 8 weeks to induce the NAFLD models. From the week 5 to end of week 8, the rats in geniposide and Xuezhikang group were intervened with corresponding medicines. The body weight, liver wet weight, and fat weight of the rats were recorded. Visual and pathological changes in hepatic tissues were observed with HE staining. The contents of TG, FFA, FAS, AMPK, ACCase and Malonyl-CoA in hepatic tissue, contents of CHO and LDL-C in serum and activities of AST and ALT in serum were detected by using corresponding methods. The results showed that the body weight, liver wet weight, and fat weight of the rats, CHO, LDL-C, ALT and AST levels in serum, TG, FFA, FAS, ACCase and Malonyl-CoA levels in hepatic tissues of the rats in model group were significantly higher than those in normal group (P

Ethnopharmacological relevance The resinous exudates of the Commiphora species, known as ‘myrrh’, are used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of trauma, arthritis, fractures and diseases caused by blood stagnation. Myrrh has also been used in the Ayurvedic medical system because of its therapeutic effects against inflammatory diseases, coronary artery diseases, gynecological disease, obesity, etc. Aim of the review Based on a comprehensive review of traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacological and toxicological data on the genus Commiphora , opportunities for the future research and development as well as the genus’ therapeutic potential are analyzed. Methods Information on the Commiphora species was collected via electronic search (using Pubmed, SciFinder, Scirus, Google Scholar and Web of Science) and a library search for articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Furthermore, information also was obtained from some local books on ethnopharmacology. This paper covers the literature, primarily pharmacological, from 2000 to the end of December 2011. Results The resinous exudates from the bark of plants of the genus Commiphora are important indigenous medicines, and have a long medicinal application for arthritis, hyperlipidemia, pain, wounds, fractures, blood stagnation, in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and other indigenous medical systems. Phytochemical investigation of this genus has resulted in identification of more than 300 secondary metabolites. The isolated metabolites and crude extract have exhibited a wide of in vitro and in vivo pharmacological effects, including antiproliferative, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial. The bioactive steroids guggulsterones have attracted most attention for their potent hypolipidemic effect targeting farnesoid X receptor, as well as their potent inhibitory effects on tumor cells and anti-inflammatory efficiency. Conclusions The resins of Commiphora species have emerged as a good source of the traditional medicines for the treatment of inflammation, arthritis, obesity, microbial infection, wound, pain, fractures, tumor and gastrointestinal diseases. The resin of C. mukul in India and that of C. molmol in Egypt have been developed as anti-hyperlipidemia and antischistosomal agents. Pharmacological results have validated the use of this genus in the traditional medicines. Some bioassays are difficult to reproduce because the plant materials used have not been well identified, therefore analytical protocol and standardization of extracts should be established prior to biological evaluation. Stem, bark and leaf of this genus should receive more attention. Expansion of research materials would provide more opportunities for the discovery of new bioactive principles from the genus Commiphora .

In this paper the developments of gear—manufacturing machine tool in our country and the features of the PLC control system are introduced. Furthermore giving some example are illustrated the PLC’s control system applied in gear—manufacturing machine tool’s electric control.

It explained that the quenching crack distribution characteristics and formation mechanism of the vehicle hub axles. Quenching crack of the vehicle hub axles was always the longitudinal crack and distributes in the inner wall .The crack was thin and long with the phenomena of crack cross and associated. The results of finite element simulation show that the internal stress value of the vehicle hub axles is up to 300Kgf / mm2 with the common action of the structure stress and heat stress, it is far more than 40MnBH steel tensile limit. This is the main reason of quenching crack. So for controlling quenching crack, it is need control raw materials, optimization of the quenching process and quenching medium replacement and so on.

Utilizing the basic theory of heat transfer and computational fluid dynamics and considering the coupling influence of air in the channel and tunnel surrounding rock, the paper deduced control equation of hydrokinetics, calculated the formulas and made secondary development program applying UDF language on ANSYS FLUENT as a basis. Based on materials of Fenghuo Mountain tunnel, the paper analysis for coupled problem of heat transfer of surrounding rock and heat convection between air in cold region tunnel and surrounding rock, and comparative analysis of the annual average temperature between the calculation result and the actual observation records in 2004. The results demonstrated: in the laminar flow condition, the annual average temperature of the cross-section of tunnel entrance and exit is the same as or higher than the tunnel inside. In the turbulence fluid condition, the annual average temperature diminishes from entrance to exit, and there exists mutation between the cross-section of entrance and exit and other cross-section. When air flow state is assumed to be laminar inside Fenghuo Mountain tunnel, the calculation result and the actual observation records are the same. Assumed to be turbulent, both of result are different. Therefore, the calculation depend on the actual corresponding air flow state in tunnels in cold regions designs. The paper results will be providing the theory base and reference of design, construction and study of tunnels in cold regions.

Objective To investigate the effects of Zhi Zi (Fructus Gardeniae) on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) induced by a high-fat diet in the rat. Methods A rat model of NAFLD was established using a high-fat diet. Twenty one rats were randomly divided into a normal group, a model group and a Zhi Zi treatment group, 7 rats per group. Drinking water and the drug were intragastrically administrated for 5 weeks. Samples were then taken to observe pathological changes of the liver tissue (HE staining); changes in the fat metabolism pathway e. g. triglyceride (TG) and free fatty acid (FFA) content; alterations in liver function, i.e. serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) activity; and differences in tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and P-lkB protein expression in the liver tissue. Results Fatty degeneration and vacuole-like changes of different degrees occurred in hepatic cells of the model group. Markers for fat metabolism, serum ALT and AST activities, and expression of TNF-α and P-lkB proteins in liver tissue significantly increased. Fat metabolism in the Zhi Zi group significantly reduced, as shown by a drop in marker levels. Serum ALT and AST activities, and expression of TNF-α, P-lkB proteins in liver tissue were also significantly decreased in this group. Conclusion Zhi Zi has a very strong inhibitory action on lipidosis and inflammatory injury in the rat model of NAFLD. This mechanism may possibly be related to the inhibition of the free fatty acid metabolism pathway.

A narrowband dual-band bandpass filter based on step impedance resonator (SIR) is proposed in this paper to realize high performance with a compact size. The center frequencies of the designed filter are 2.4 and 5.8GHz, where it is suitable for wireless communication system. The absolute bandwidth approaches 200MHz with 8.3% fractional bandwidth at -3dB, and the simulations show that the return loss of the first and the second band is lower than -20dB. Between the two passbands, there is a transmission zero which can achieve a high out-band isolation. For demonstration, the filter has been fabricated and the measurement results show the excellent agreement with the theoretical simulation results

Human vision system exploits this fact by visual selective attention mechanisms towards important and informative regions. A computational model of combination both bottom-up and top-down simulating human vision system for machine vision inspection is proposed. In this model, top-down knowledge-based information is highlighted to integrate into bottom-up stimulus-based process of vision attention. The model is tested on inspecting contaminants in cotton images. Experiment result shows that the proposed model is feasible and effective in visual inspection. And it is available and quasi-equivalent to human vision attention.