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Nanoparticle-based disease detection, prevention and therapies have gained increased interests in biomedical applications, owing to their significant advantages in therapeutic efficacy and safety. Nonetheless, suffering from the challenges including fast recognition and clearance of foreign nanoparticles by innate immune system before arriving at diseased regions, clinical applications of nanoparticles are usually intercepted. Among various strategies for reducing non-specific phagocytosis and enhancing disease-targeting efficiency of nanoparticles, membrane coating nanotechnology exhibits great potential in the disease diagnosis and therapeutics due to both the structural and functional preservation of membrane proteins from source cells. Benefiting the inherited immune-regulation capacities, this review mainly summarized the latest development of such biomimetic nanoparticles for immunotherapy in treating immune-related diseases including microbial infections, inflammation, tumor and autoimmune diseases.

Objective. Myocardial ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury (MIRI) refers to the more serious myocardial injury after blood flow recovery, which seriously affects the prognosis of patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy. This study explored the new targets for MIRI treatment by investigating the effects of miR-190-5p and its downstream target on the structure and function of myocardial cells. Methods. We injected agomir miR-190-5p into the tail vein of rats to increase the expression of miR-190-5p in rat myocardial cells and made an I/R rat model by coronary artery occlusion. We used 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride staining, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) detection, echocardiography, and hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining to determine the degree of myocardial injury in I/R rats. In addition, we detected the expression of inflammatory factors and apoptosis-related molecules in rat serum and myocardial tissue to determine the level of inflammation and apoptosis in rat myocardium. Finally, we determined the downstream target of miR-190-5p by Targetscan system and dual luciferase reporter assay. Results. The expression of miR-190-5p in an I/R rat myocardium was significantly lower than that in normal rats. After treatment of I/R rats with agomir miR-190-5p, the ischemic area of rat myocardium and the concentration of LDH decreased. The results of echocardiography and HE staining also found that overexpression of miR-190-5p improved the structure and function of rat myocardium. miR-190-5p was also found to improve the viability of H9c2 cells in vitro and reduce the level of apoptosis of H9c2 cells. The results of Targetscan system and dual luciferase reporter assay found that miR-190-5p targeted to inhibit pleckstrin homology domain leucine-rich repeat protein phosphatase 1 (PHLPP1). In addition, inhibition of PHLPP1 was found to improve the viability of H9c2 cells. Conclusion. Therefore, miR-190-5p can reduce the inflammation and apoptosis of myocardium by targeting PHLPP1, thereby alleviating MIRI.

To exploit massive amounts of data generated at mobile edge networks, federated learning (FL) has been proposed as an attractive substitute for centralized machine learning (ML). By collaboratively training a shared learning model at edge devices, FL avoids direct data transmission and thus overcomes high communication latency and privacy issues as compared to centralized ML. To improve the communication efficiency in FL model aggregation, over-the-air computation has been introduced to support a large number of simultaneous local model uploading by exploiting the inherent superposition property of wireless channels. However, due to the heterogeneity of communication capacities among edge devices, over-the-air FL suffers from the straggler issue in which the device with the weakest channel acts as a bottleneck of the model aggregation performance. This issue can be alleviated by device selection to some extent, but the latter still suffers from a tradeoff between data exploitation and model communication. In this paper, we leverage the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology to relieve the straggler issue in over-the-air FL. Specifically, we develop a learning analysis framework to quantitatively characterize the impact of device selection and model aggregation error on the convergence of over-the-air FL. Then, we formulate a unified communication-learning optimization problem to jointly optimize device selection, over-the-air transceiver design, and RIS configuration. Numerical experiments show that the proposed design achieves substantial learning accuracy improvement compared with the state-of-the-art approaches, especially when channel conditions vary dramatically across edge devices., Comment: Simulation codes are available at https://github.com/liuhang1994/RIS-FL. This work has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible

Background: The pathogenesis of life-threatening cardiopulmonary diseases such as pulmonary hypertension (PH) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) originates from a complex interplay of environmental factors and genetic predispositions that is not fully understood. Likewise, little is known about developmental abnormalities or epigenetic dysregulations that might predispose for PH or COPD in adult individuals. Methods: To identify pathology-associated epigenetic alteration in diseased lung tissues, we screened a cohort of human patients with PH and COPD for changes of histone modifications by immunofluorescence staining. To analyze the function of H4K20me2/3 in lung pathogenesis, we developed a series of Suv4-20h1 knockout mouse lines targeting cardiopulmonary progenitor cells and different heart and lung cell types, followed by hemodynamic studies and morphometric assessment of tissue samples. Molecular, cellular, and biochemical techniques were applied to analyze the function of Suv4-20h1–dependent epigenetic processes in cardiopulmonary progenitor cells and their derivatives. Results: We discovered a strong reduction of the histone modifications of H4K20me2/3 in human patients with COPD but not patients with PH that depend on the activity of the H4K20 di-methyltransferase SUV4-20H1. Loss of Suv4-20h1 in cardiopulmonary progenitor cells caused a COPD-like/PH phenotype in mice including the formation of perivascular tertiary lymphoid tissue and goblet cell hyperplasia, hyperproliferation of smooth muscle cells/myofibroblasts, impaired alveolarization and maturation defects of the microvasculature leading to massive right ventricular dilatation and premature death. Mechanistically, SUV4-20H1 binds directly to the 5′-upstream regulatory element of the superoxide dismutase 3 ( Sod3 ) gene to repress its expression. Increased levels of the extracellular SOD3 enzyme in Suv4-20h1 mutants increases hydrogen peroxide concentrations, causing vascular defects and impairing alveolarization. Conclusions: Our findings reveal a pivotal role of the histone modifier SUV4-20H1 in cardiopulmonary codevelopment and uncover the developmental origins of cardiopulmonary diseases. We assume that the study will facilitate the understanding of pathogenic events causing PH and COPD and aid the development of epigenetic drugs for the treatment of cardiopulmonary diseases.

Bending fatigue tests of carburized gear in high cycle fatigue life regime were performed under stress ratio of 0.04. All the crack sources of the broken teeth are originated from the stress concentration on the surface of teeth root. By considering the effects of surface residual stress, notch effect, stress gradient and crack size, the predicted initiation life model of carburized gear is established by dislocation energy method. Meanwhile, based on the Paris Equation, the crack length a corresponding to fracture toughness and real crack propagation path, the predicted growth life model of carburized gear can be established. Finally, based on the behaviors of crack initiation and propagation, the whole life prediction model of carburized gear can be constructed, and the prediction accuracy of the model is within three times of the test life, which can be used to predict the bending fatigue life of carburized gear.

With the development and popularization of smart products, the technological differences of products are decreasing, and the phenomenon of product homogeneity is becoming more and more obvious. It is necessary for the smart product manufacturing firms have the capability to analyze customer requirement deeply and adapt to the dynamically changing market quickly. Therefore, the traditional technology-oriented product development model is no longer suitable for manufacturers to obtain a competitive advantage. Based on this, this paper proposed a method to evaluate the importance of customer demands based on online comments and quantitative Kano model. First, the Python crawler tool is used to obtain online customer reviews of relevant products and the word segmentation processing is performed to obtain the product features and frequency that customers are mainly concerned about, and then the initial importance of demand can be calculated. Furthermore, use the quantitative Kano model to determine the customer satisfaction and revise the initial importance of the requirements to obtain a more reasonable ranking of the importance of user needs. Finally, a case study is carried out with the smart bracelet as an example to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the model proposed in this paper.

Evacuation shelters provide shelter and basic living facilities for affected people after disasters. They are an essential part of the urban disaster emergency response system. In this study, a spatialization distribution model of the population in Kumamoto City was constructed using land use data. The P-median model was used to analyze the service areas and the supply and demand of evacuation shelters, the distance of demand points to the corresponding shelters. The results show that the ratio of shelters that met the demand in Kumamoto City is only 41.2%, which is less than half. This ratio increased more in the Urbanization Area. In the Residential Promotion Area and the Urbanization Function Promotion Area with higher population density, the ratio of evacuation shelters with insufficient capacity is higher than that in the Urbanization Area. Among the 15 local hubs in the Urbanization Function Promotion Area, only three shelters have a supply-demand ratio greater than 1. About half of the people can reach the shelter within a distance of 0-1000 meters in terms of evacuation distance. The spatial population estimation model using land use data constructed in this study can simulate the spatial distribution of demand points in evacuation. The supply and demand of shelters were evaluated concerning their capacity. It can be used as a reference for the optimal allocation of evacuation shelters in Kumamoto City and future disaster prevention planning in the Kumamoto compact city.

Continuous monitoring of wind turbine health conditions using anomaly detection methods can improve the reliability and reduce maintenance costs during operation of wind turbine. Anomaly detection aims at identifying the root causes leading to unexpected changes of product performance. Most existing methods make less use of temporal order of the data and are poor at extracting features from these data. To address these problems, a method based on long short-term memory (LSTM) and auto-encoder (AE) neural network is introduced to assess sequential condition monitoring data of the wind turbine. First, a performance assessment model is constructed using LSTM neural units and AE networks to calculate the performance indices for evaluation of the degree of anomalies in wind turbine performance. Then, an adaptive threshold estimation method based on support vector regression model is developed to identify the abnormal data instances. The mutual information theory is subsequently explored to analyze the relationships between various monitoring parameters and performance abnormal instances to identify critical condition monitoring parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified by a case study using real-world wind turbine condition monitoring (CM) data.

Waveform control of three kinds of chirped pulses (i.e. βt, βt 2 and βt 3) to produce harmonic spectra and attosecond pulses has been investigated. It is found that by properly choosing the chirps, the chirp delays and the other laser parameters, not only the instantaneous frequency of some specific half profiles can be decreased, but also its intensity can be increased. As a result, the free electron can receive more energy when it accelerates in these regions, thus leading to the extension of the harmonic cutoff and harmonic plateau. Finally, through the Fourier transformation of the harmonic spectra and by superposing some harmonics, three single attosecond pulses with the durations of 30 as, 33 as and 39 as can be obtained.

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of hyperuricemia on clinical outcomes of renal transplant recipients (RTRs). Methods: A literature search of PubMed, Cochrane, Embase was conducted up to March 20, 2020. The primary outcome was the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The second outcomes were the risk of graft loss, death, cardiovascular event and the level of triglyceride. The following search terms were utilized: ((Hyperuricemic group) OR (Hyperuricaemia) OR (Hyperuric) OR (Urea acid) OR (Uric acid) OR (Acid urate) OR (Urate) OR (Gout)) and ((Transplantation) OR (Transplantations) OR (Transplant) OR (Transplants) OR (Graft)). Results: 28 studies with 18224 patients were eligible for inclusion. There was no significant difference in eGFR (

A 60 GHz fully-integrated 8-way combined power amplifier (PA) is developed in a standard 0.18 $\mu \text{m}$ SiGe BiCMOS technology. The 8-way power splitter and combiner are co-optimized with transformer based baluns inside the eight differential PA cells, and hence resulting in minimum loss and high gain, linearity and efficiency. The measurement shows that the PA can achieve a gain of 22.2 dB around 60 GHz and 3-dB bandwidth from 53.5 GHz to 66.5 GHz, which covers all the channels specified in IEEE 802.11ad standard. It also attains a 1-dB power compression point (P1dB) of 21.8 dBm and saturated output power (PSAT) of 22.6 dBm, with power-added-efficiency of 10.7% and 12%, respectively.

A datacenter that consists of hundreds or thousands of servers can provide virtualized environments to a large number of cloud applications and jobs that value the requirement of reliability very differently. Checkpointing a virtual machine (VM) is a proven technique to improve reliability. However, existing checkpoint scheduling techniques for enhancing reliability of distributed systems fails to achieve satisfactory results, either because they tend to offer the same, fixed reliability to all jobs, or because their solutions are tied up to specific applications and rely on centralized checkpoint control mechanisms. In this work, we first show that reliability can be significantly improved through contention-free scheduling of checkpoints. Then, inspired by the Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) protocol in wireless congestion control, we propose a novel framework for distributed and contention-free scheduling of VM checkpointing to provide reliability as a transparent, elastic service. We quantify reliability in closed form by studying system stationary behaviours, and maximize job reliability through utility optimization. Our design is validated via a proof-of-concept prototype that leverages readily available implementations in Xen hypervisors. The proposed checkpoint scheduling is shown to significantly reduce checkpointing interference and improve reliability by as much as one order of magnitude over contention-oblivious checkpoint schemes.

We report a Tm-doped noise-like mode-locked (NLML) pulsed fiber laser with a compact linear cavity which consists of dual nonlinear optical loop mirrors (NOLMs). The design of dual-NOLM shows both exceptional compactness in construction and distinct flexibility. In this laser, mode-locking can be realized through the nonlinear optical loop mirror technique. Stable noise-like mode-locked pulses with spectral bandwidth of 29.18 nm and pulse energy of 46 nJ are generated at a central wavelength of 1 999.7 nm. Our results indicate that such a simple and inexpensive structure can pave the way for the development of generating supercontinuum with desirable performance.

In this article, the design of a power amplifier (PA) using a simple but effective architecture, namely, load-modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA), is presented. Using this architecture for PA design, it can achieve not only a relatively high saturated output power but also an excellent efficiency enhancement at the power back-off (PBO) region. To prove that the presented approach is feasible in practice, a PA is designed in a 1- $\mu \text{m}$ gallium arsenide (GaAs) HBT process. Operating under a 5-V power supply, the PA can deliver more than 31-dBm saturated output power with 36% collector efficiency (CE) at 5 GHz. Moreover, it also achieves 1.2 and 1.23 times CE enhancement over an idealistic Class-B PA at 6- and 9-dB PBO levels, respectively. Finally, the designed PA supports 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) with 80 Msys/s at 22-dBm average output power while still maintaining an error vector magnitude (EVM) and adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) better than −29.5 dB and −29.4 dBc, respectively.

Integrated energy systems and multi‐energy micro‐grids are complex multi‐agent collaborative optimization projects. According to the operating structure and characteristics of the multi‐energy system, considering the externality, economy and other factors, a scientific and effective comprehensive evaluation are important decision supports to ensure its implementation and promote its development. Therefore, this paper proposes a comprehensive benefit evaluation model of a multi‐energy micro‐grid based on the matter‐element extension model. With the research trends and practical requirements of multi‐energy micro‐grid benefit evaluation, an evaluation index system covering energy efficiency indicators, economic indicators, reliability indicators, and renewable energy consumption indicators has been constructed, and uncertainties have been resolved in cloud model and fuzzy set theory. Based on the advantages of the performance evaluation information, the system operation scenarios in the process of planning scheme formation are fully considered, and then a matter‐element‐extensible multi‐attribute decision‐making model is proposed to evaluate the comprehensive benefits of multi‐energy micro‐grids. Finally, the feasibility of the above method is verified by comparing the comprehensive benefit evaluation results of the multi‐energy micro‐grid under different planning scenarios. In addition, a certain decision‐making reference is provided for the formation of a multi‐energy micro‐grid configuration scheme.

Aim. The protection against ischemia/reperfusion injury mediated by remote limb ischemic postconditioning (RIPC) shows great clinical value in ischemic stroke therapy, but the particular mechanism of RIPC remains unclear. Methods. We carried out middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) surgery on C57BL/6 male mice. RIPC was generated by 10-minute occlusion followed by the same period of reperfusion of the bilateral hind limb femoral artery and repeated for 3 cycles. Infarct size and neurological score were performed to assess stroke outcomes. Ly6Chi monocytes were quantified in the blood and brain by flow cytometry. Real-time PCR, ELISA, and immunofluorescence were utilized to detect phenotype of proinflammatory M1 and anti-inflammatory M2 microglia/macrophage. Nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) levels were detected using Western blot. Results. At 24 and 72 h after MCAO, RIPC drastically attenuated infarct size and ameliorated the neurological deficits of mice and facilitated transmigration of Ly6Chi monocytes to the brain postischemia reperfusion. Furthermore, RIPC contributed to increased M2 and reduced M1 microglia/macrophage through inhibiting NF-κB and promoting PPARγ activation. Conclusion. Our results reveal pharmacological effect of RIPC in promoting microglia/macrophage transferring from M1 to M2 phenotype after MCAO/R in mice, which provides theoretical support for the therapeutic effect of RIPC in ischemic stroke.

Improving the utilization efficiency of renewable energy sources (RES) is an important task for the development of an integrated energy system (IES). To address this challenge, this paper proposes a novel multi-objective interval optimization framework for the energy hub (EH) planning problem from the perspective of the source load synergy, while considering the impacts of both supply- and demand-side uncertainties. For this aim, based on an in-depth analysis of the adjustable characteristics of various loads in EH and their effect on RES absorption, an interval model is first established to describe the responsiveness of users’ load demand to real-time energy price variations and its associated uncertainties. In view of the natural contradiction between the system’s economic and environmental benefits, a multi-objective interval optimization model for the EH planning problem is developed, wherein the minimization of the system’s economic costs and the maximization of the RES utilization rate are considered as the dual objectives to be optimized simultaneously. Moreover, this study takes into account the uncertainties of RES availability and demand-side behaviors by using interval numbers and properly considering their impacts in the context of long-term planning. According to the features of the proposed model, the interval order relation and possible degree method are jointly used to transform the model into a deterministic optimization problem first, and then an improved non-dominant sorting genetic algorithm is used to derive the optimal solution to the problem. The results show that the proposed method can effectively improve the economy of EH and the utilization efficiency of RES and flexibly meet different planning requirements, giving better engineering practicability.

Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text., Ischemic stroke is the leading cause of globe death and permanent disability, but its therapeutic strategies are limited. Over the past decades, multiprotein complexes called inflammasomes have been shown as promising targets in ischemic stroke. Here, we examined vinpocetine (Vinp), a synthetic drug, playing a neuroprotective role against ischemic stroke in mice through regulating NOD-like receptor family pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation. Middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) was applied to mimic ischemic stroke in vivo. Vinp was administrated by intraperitoneal injection with different dose (5 or 10 mg/kg) 1 hour after reperfusion. Then, neurological assessment and infarct size were performed, and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18 levels were evaluated using ELISA. The levels of NLRP3 inflammasome components and its upstream nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) were determined using real-time PCR or Western blot. The experimental results indicated that posttreatment with Vinp decreased cerebral infarct size, improved behavior recover, reduced NLRP3 inflammasome expression, and suppressed the transfer of NF-κB to nucleus and proinflammatory cytokine release in middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion mice. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that Vinp alleviates ischemic stroke by regulating levels of NLRP3 inflammasome, NF-κB, and proinflammatory cytokines in vivo, offering an alternative medication for ischemic stroke associated with inflammation.

Prostate involvement by IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a rarely described organ manifestation and knowledge regarding its frequency and clinical features is limited.From a single-center cohort, 168 male patients were examined who satisfied the 2019 ACR/EULAR classification criteria or 2012 consensus histopathologic criteria for IgG4-RD.Prostate involvement were identified in 25 (15%) of these cases. The majority of patients with IgG4-RD involving the prostate gland (80%) were symptomatic at presentation with incomplete voiding (64%), urinary frequency (52%), and urinary hesitancy (48%) being the most common complaints. The radiologic presentation of prostate disease is most often a focal abnormality suggesting inflammation rather than a mass lesion. While most patients with IgG4-related prostate disease (89%) experienced recurrence after or during glucocorticoid tapering, patients treated with B cell targeted therapy in this series experienced clinical improvement and were tapered off of glucocorticoids. Additionally, patients with IgG4-RD involving the pancreas (p = 0.001) were more likely to have prostate involvement than were those with other types of organ involvement.This report provides the first comprehensive clinical description of IgG4-RD involving the prostate gland and links this manifestation with pancreatic involvement.

Fuel oil, the most important strategic resource, has been widely used in industrial applications. However, the sulfur-containing compounds in fuel oil also present humanity with huge environmental issues and health concerns due to the hazardous combustion waste. To address this problem, the low vulcanization of fuel production technology has been intensively explored. Compared with traditional hydrodesulfurization technology, the newly emerged photocatalytic desulfurization has the advantages of milder operating conditions, lower energy consumption, and higher efficiency, holding great prospect to achieve deep desulfurization. Though great efforts have been made, the desulfurization catalysts still suffer from inferior light absorption, fast recombination of photocarriers, and poor structure modification. This Review summarizes recent development of photocatalytic desulfurization, including the desulfurization principle, current desulfurization challenges, and corresponding solutions. Particularly, the roles of defect engineering, hybrid coupling, and structure modifications in the enhancement of photocatalytic performance are emphasized. In addition, the photocatalytic desulfurization mechanism is also introduced with the . OH and . O2 - radicals as main active species. Finally, some perspectives on the photocatalytic desulfurization are provided, which can further optimize the desulfurization efficiency and guide future photocatalyst design.

After acute ischemic stroke (AIS), peripheral monocytes infiltrate into the lesion site within 24 h, peak at 3 to 7 days, and then differentiate into macrophages. Traditionally, monocytes/macrophages (MMs) are thought to play a deleterious role in AIS. Depletion of MMs in the acute phase can alleviate brain injury induced by ischemia. However, several studies have shown that MMs have anti-inflammatory functions, participate in angiogenesis, phagocytose necrotic neurons, and promote neurovascular repair. Therefore, MMs play dual roles in ischemic stroke, depending mainly upon the MM microenvironment and the window of time post-stroke. Because activated microglia and MMs are similar in morphology and function, previous studies have often investigated them together. However, recent studies have used special methods to distinguish MMs from microglia and have found that MMs have properties which differ from microglia. Here, we review the unique role of MMs and the interaction between MMs and neurovascular units, including neurons, astrocytes, microglia, and microvessels. Future therapeutics targeting MMs should regulate the polarization and subset transformation of the MMs at different stages of AIS rather than comprehensively suppressing MM infiltration and differentiation. In addition, more studies are needed to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms of MM subsets and polarization during ischemic stroke.

Tumor blood vessels are chaotic and abundantly distributed, owing to their heterogeneity. Therefore, imaging techniques which reveal abnormalities of tumor vasculature play significant roles in both mechanistic and clinical diagnostic tumor studies. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging uses the intrinsic characteristics of hemoglobin, to acquire tumor hemodynamic information, while ultrasound (US) imaging provides information about tumoral vessel structures and blood flow. To improve the imaging contrast performance, hydrogel-based microdroplets were designed for both US blood flow and PA imaging in this study. The microdroplets served as carriers for PA contrast agent solution in the innermost part while oil and hydrogel formed the inner and outer layers of the droplets. In vitro experiments firstly demonstrated the dual modality contrast effects of the microdroplets on US flow determination and PA imaging. In vivo experiments were then carried out in both healthy nude mice and nude mice with subcutaneous tumor to validate the contrast effects and to monitor the duration of contrast effects in animals. Using the dual-modality microdroplets, we were able to obtain distinct edges of tumor and blood flow mapping of the tumor microvascular with improved sensitivity up to 11.09 dB for PA and 6.69 dB for US flow. Besides, the in vivo evaluation with microdroplets showed US flow enhancement for more than 60 min. Therefore, the microdroplets are able to provide the contrast effects for both US flow and PA in a relative long duration and have potential to be applied in the tumor related diagnoses and studies.

NOD-like receptor family CARD domain containing 3 (NLRC3) plays an important role in both innate and adaptive immunity. This study was to explore the function and related mechanisms of NLRC3 in a hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R)-induced inflammatory response in RAW264.7 cells.Liver ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) model in mice and H/R model in RAW264.7 cells were constructed. Western blotting was used to determine the protein expression level of NLRC3 in liver tissue and NLRC3, TRAF6, p-p65, p65, IκB-α, and the K63-linked ubiquitination level of TRAF6 in cells. The immunofluorescence assay was performed to evaluate the nuclear level of the NF-κB (p65). ELISA was conducted to measure the content of IL-1β in serum and cell supernatant. The interaction between NLRC3 and TRAF6 in cells was analyzed by the Co-IP assay.The NLRC3 protein level in liver tissue was decreased with the prolongation of reperfusion time (P 0.05). The expression of NLRC3 and IκB-α protein in RAW264.7 was decreased gradually, while the expression of p-p65 and TRAF6 proteins and K63-linked ubiquitination of TRAF6 were increased gradually with the prolongation of reoxgenation time (P 0.05). The Co-IP assay revealed that NLRC3 and TRAF6 can bind to each other directly. However, NLRC3 had no effect on the expression of TRAF6 protein. The ubiquitination test results showed that the K63-linked ubiquitination level of TRAF6 in H/R + Lv-NLRC3 group was significantly lower than that in the H/R + negative control (NC) group (P 0.05). Moreover, the activation of NF-κB in H/R + Lv-NLRC3 group was inhibited compared with that in the H/R + NC group, and the level of the inflammatory factor IL-1β in the cell culture supernatant was also decreased accordingly (P 0.05).NLRC3 might alleviate H/R-induced inflammation in RAW264.7 cells by inhibiting K63-linked ubiquitination of TRAF6.

Purpose Hypervirulent klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) is responsible for various invasive diseases and associated with high mortality. However, the clinical and microbiological factors of hvKP infection that influence prognosis have not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic factors for in-hospital mortality of patients with hvKP infections, mainly focusing on clinical and microbiological characteristics. Methods A retrospective study was conducted in hvKP strains which positive for iucA and string test. According to the clinical outcomes during hospitalization, hvKP-infected patients were divided into non-survivor and survivor groups. The clinical characteristics, capsule types, multi-locus sequence types (MLST), virulence genes and antimicrobial susceptibility were compared between those of the two groups. Results A total of 135 patients were demonstrated to be with hvKP infections, with a prevalence rate of 22% among all the klebsiella pneumoniae infected cases. Sixteen of these patients died during hospitalization, with an in-hospital mortality rate of 11.9%. Univariate analysis confirmed that admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) (p=0.008), antimicrobial resistance of hvKP to ampicillin/sulbactam (p=0.028), cefepime (p=0.033), aztreonam (p=0.049) and harboring iroN gene (p=0.023) were associated with in-hospital mortality. On the contrary, the rmpA gene showed an inverse association with in-hospital mortality (p=0.017). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that ICU admission (odds ratio [OR]=3.452, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.052-11.329; P=0.041) and iroN carriage (OR=9.278, 95% CI=1.654-52.035; P=0.011) were independent prognostic factors for the in-hospital mortality of patients with hvKP infections. Conclusion Emerging hvKP infection may lead to relatively high in-hospital mortality. ICU admission and iroN carriage were independent prognostic factors for the in-hospital mortality of patients with hvKP infections.

What is known and objective Pneumocystis jiroveci (P jiroveci) is an important opportunistic fungus and causes pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PJP) in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs). By using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, the objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of PJP prophylaxis clinical practice guidelines (CPGs), and to help develop, update or improve guideline. Methods A search was conducted for PJP prophylaxis CPGs using PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), WanFang data, VIP Database, Google and guideline websites (until 18 January 2020). Data extraction and quality assessment were independently assessed by two appraisers, and the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess interrater reliability. The specific recommendations were evaluated based on the quality results. Results and discussion A total of 6 CPGs were included. The highest median scores were in the clarity of presentation domain (92%), and the lowest median scores were in the applicability domain (25%). The Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) and Renal Association (RA)/British Transplantation Society (BTS) CPGs were strongly recommended. The specific recommendations were inconsistent, such as the dose, frequency and duration. What is new and conclusion The KDIGO and RA/BTS CPGs were strongly recommended. Not only the quality of the PJP prophylaxis CPGs needs to be improved during the development progress, but also the specific recommendations should be further refined.

The individuation and diversity of customer demands motivates enterprises to compete in various aspects of services, such as product categories, cost, performance, marketing and after-sales service. Among them, product optimization design is the most important link, which determines whether an enterprise can achieve sustainable development in the market of fierce competition. For this reason, enterprises must implement various competitive strategies in terms of product diversity and characteristics. To solve this challenge, optimizing innovative product design is the key to help enterprises gain competitive advantage in the market. This paper presents a product optimization design based on online review and orthogonal experiment under the background of big data to meet customer needs. First, the big data of online reviews are collected from the web platform through the data collector, and the original data are processed by the apriori algorithm. Secondly, the fuzzy clustering was used to analyze the processed online reviews data to obtain customer needs. Finally, the product is optimized by orthogonal test based on customer needs. This paper analyzes the case of Huawei Honor 9 mobile phone, and obtains that the product appearance is the most concerned and dissatisfied product attribute of customers, and then optimizes the design of product appearance to improve customer satisfaction. Through this method, enterprises can improve the design of products according to the needs of customers in time, effectively overcome the defects of products, and help enterprises to establish a good relationship with customers, so as to promote the sustainable development of enterprises in the competitive market.

Background To systematically review the epidemiologic relationship between periodontitis and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods Four electronic databases were searched up until December 2018. The manual search included the reference lists of the included studies and relevant journals. Observational studies evaluating the relationship between T2DM and periodontitis were included. Meta-analyses were conducted using STATA. Results A total of 53 observational studies were included. The Adjusted T2DM prevalence was significantly higher in periodontitis patients (OR = 4.04, p = 0.000), and vice versa (OR = 1.58, p = 0.000). T2DM patients had significantly worse periodontal status, as reflected in a 0.61 mm deeper periodontal pocket, a 0.89 mm higher attachment loss and approximately 2 more lost teeth (all p = 0.000), than those without T2DM. The results of the cohort studies found that T2DM could elevate the risk of developing periodontitis by 34% (p = 0.002). The glycemic control of T2DM patients might result in different periodontitis outcomes. Severe periodontitis increased the incidence of T2DM by 53% (p = 0.000), and this result was stable. In contrast, the impact of mild periodontitis on T2DM incidence (RR = 1.28, p = 0.007) was less robust. Conclusions There is an evident bidirectional relationship between T2DM and periodontitis. Further well-designed cohort studies are needed to confirm this finding. Our results suggest that both dentists and physicians need to be aware of the strong connection between periodontitis and T2DM. Controlling these two diseases might help prevent each other’s incidence.

Missing values are a common occurrence in condition monitoring datasets. To effectively improve the integrity of data, many data imputation methods have been developed to replace the missing values with the estimated values. However, these methods do not always perform well in datasets containing different types of missing values. Three types of missing data are defined, namely isolated missing value, continuous missing variable, and continuous missing sample. A three-step data imputation method is proposed to sequentially impute these missing values following the principle from easy to difficult. The original time series data is first to split into different segments according to the positions of continuous missing samples. Then, interpolation and space-based methods are applied to sequentially estimate isolated missing values and continuous missing variables in each segment. Finally, a stepwise extrapolation prediction model based on the long short-term memory network is established to repair continuous missing samples between each segment. Two application examples are implemented on different dissolved gas analysis datasets and load datasets. Compared with state-of-the-art techniques, the proposed three-step data imputation method is general and can be applied to many scenarios because it establishes a rational data recovery sequence to accurately repair both stationary and non-stationary condition monitoring data.

The efficacy of nanoradiosensitizers in cancer therapy has been primarily impeded by their limited accessibility to radioresistant cancer cells residing deep inside tumor tissues. The failure to report tumor response to radiotherapy generally delays adjustment of the treatment schedule and sets up another substantial obstacle to clinical success. Here, we develop a nanopomegranate (RNP) platform that not only visualizes the cancer radiosensitivities but also potentiates deep tissue cancer radiotherapy via elevated passive diffusion and active transcytosis. The RNPs are engineered through the programmed self-assembly of a tumor environment-targeting polymeric matrix and modular building blocks of ultrasmall gold nanoparticles (Au5). Once RNPs reach the tumors, the environmental acidity triggers the splitting and surface cationization of Au5. The small dimension of Au5 allows its passive diffusion, while positive surface charge enables its active transcytosis to cross the tumor interstitium. Meanwhile, the reporter element monitors the feedback of favorable radiotherapy responsiveness by detecting the activated apoptosis after radiation. The pivotal role of RNPs in improving and identifying radiotherapeutic outcomes is demonstrated in various tumor bearing mouse models with different radiosensitivities. In summary, our strategy offers a promising paradigm for deep tissue drug delivery as well as individualized precision radiotherapy.

The resistive switching behavior in resistive random access memories (RRAMs) using atomic-layer-deposited Ga2O3/ZnO composite film as the dielectric was investigated. By alternatively atomic-layer-depositing Ga2O3 and ZnO with different thickness, we can accurately control the oxygen vacancy concentration. When regulating ZnO to ∼31%, the RRAMs exhibit a forming-free property as well as outstanding performance, including the ratio of a high resistance state to the low resistance state of 1000, retention time of more than 1 × 104 s, and the endurance of 100. By preparing RRAMs of different Zn concentration, we carried out a comparative study and explored the physical origin for the forming-free property as well as good performance. Finally, a unified model is proposed to account for the resistive switching and the current conduction mechanism, providing meaningful insights in the development of high-quality and forming-free RRAMs for future memory and neuromorphic applications.

The discriminative correlation filter (DCF) method is widely used in target tracking due to its real-time performance. However, the computational efficiency of DCF results in boundary effect, which reduces the tracking accuracy in fast motion scene. Besides, background noise is always required to be carefully handled for they will cause trouble in scenes such as background clutter, occlusion, deformation etc. To address the two issues, this study proposes masked discriminative correlation filter, which uses mask to process DCF filter as well as target samples so as to suppress boundary effect and background noise. Experimental results on benchmark datasets show that the proposed tracker performs better than a series of benchmark trackers, and is superior to them in almost various scenes.

Background Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are entering the hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment landscape in Hong Kong, prompting the need for cost–effectiveness evaluations of these interventions to enable optimal use of healthcare resources. Aims This study aimed to compare the cost–effectiveness of DAAs to standard-of-care pegylated interferon plus ribavirin (RBV) in treatment-naïve patients without significant liver fibrosis and to compare different DAAs in patients who are treatment-experienced and/or have advanced liver disease. Methods A Markov model was constructed to evaluate cost–effectiveness over a lifetime time horizon from the payer perspective. The target population was treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced HCV genotype 1 patients, stratified by degree of liver fibrosis. The model consists of 16 health states encompassing METAVIR fibrosis score (F0–F4), treatment success or failure, decompensated cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver transplant, and liver-related death. The proportions of patients achieving sustained virologic response were obtained from clinical trials. Other inputs were obtained from published and local data. The primary outcome was incremental cost–utility ratio for each DAA versus pegylated interferon + ribavirin and among different DAAs. Results In treatment-naïve F0–2 HCV patients, all DAAs were cost-effective in genotype 1a and daclatasvir + asunaprevir, elbasvir/grazoprevir, ledipasvir/sofosbuvir, and glecaprevir/pibrentasvir were cost-effective compared to pegylated interferon + ribavirin in genotype 1b. In genotypes 1a and 1b, treatment-experienced patients, and F3–4 patients, elbasvir/grazoprevir was the least costly DAA and economically dominant over most other DAAs. Conclusions DAAs can be a cost-effective option for the treatment of genotype 1 HCV patients in Hong Kong, and elbasvir/grazoprevir is cost-effective.

During the process in which a vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) switches off the shunt reactor (SR), an overvoltage with high amplitude and high frequency (HF) will occur because of current chopping and multireignition. To reproduce this switching overvoltage faithfully, the voltage and current characteristics of the VCB were analyzed in this work, based on the field test data from a 220-kV substation in Chongqing, China. Then, typical parameters of three basic factors mentioned in Helmer's VCB model, chopping current value, dielectric dynamic insulation strength, and HF current quenching capability, were selected after statistical analysis and an arc reignition model of VCB was established. Based on this presented model, the influences of the surge arrester, the resistor–capacitor (RC) snubber, and the installation positions and quantities of these protective devices on overvoltage suppression performance were studied in simulation. In addition, the field test using the surge arrester and the RC snubber as the suppression measures was performed again in the same substation. Finally, we derived the conclusion that the most suitable suppression scheme for overvoltage caused by VCB switching off 10-kV SR is installing two 12/32.4 kV surge arresters at the terminals of the cables for the SR and the substation transformer (ST).

Since its invention in the 1960s, one of the most significant evolutions of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOS-FETs) would be the three dimensionalized version that makes the semiconducting channel vertically wrapped by conformal gate electrodes, also recognized as FinFET. During the past decades, the width of fin (W\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${}_{{\rm{fin}}}$$\end{document}fin) in FinFETs has shrunk from about 150 nm to a few nanometers. However, W\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${}_{{\rm{fin}}}$$\end{document}fin seems to have been levelling off in recent years, owing to the limitation of lithography precision. Here, we show that by adapting a template-growth method, different types of mono-layered two-dimensional crystals are isolated in a vertical manner. Based on this, FinFETs with one atomic layer fin are obtained, with on/off ratios reaching \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\sim\!\! 10^{7}$$\end{document}~107. Our findings push the FinFET to the sub 1 nm fin-width limit, and may shed light on the next generation nanoelectronics for higher integration and lower power consumption., FinFETs are an evolution of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) featuring a semiconducting channel vertically wrapped by conformal gate electrodes. Here, the authors use a two-dimensional semiconductor to push the FinFET width to sub-nm whilst achieving a 107 ON/OFF ratio.

This study aims to evaluate (1) the probability to achieve normal pelvic radiographs in children with developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) treated by closed reduction and (2) the amount of time needed to achieve normal pelvic radiographs and to assess what factors influence both probability and time to achieve normal radiographic parameters following CR and spica cast immobilization for DDH. We retrospectively reviewed 436 patients (393 girls, 43 boys; 507 hips) with DDH treated by closed reduction (CR). Tonnis grade, AVN, acetabular index (AI), centre-edge angle (CEA), and Severin radiographic grade were evaluated on plain radiographs. Criteria to rate pelvis radiographs as normal were established. Cox regression was used to evaluate the factors influencing the probability and the time to achieve normal radiographs. According to our criteria, 167 hips (32.9%) achieved normal radiographic parameters during follow-up. The overall amount of time to achieve normal pelvis radiographs was 36.1 ± 15.5 months. Patients older than 24 months of age at the time of CR needed longer time to achieve normal radiographic parameters (55.2 ± 28 months) compared with other age groups. Cox regression analysis suggested the overall cumulative probability of recovery increased by 46% at five years following CR, then it tended to plateau with an annual increase less than 5%. Age older than 24 months, bilateral dislocation, pre-operative AI greater than 40°, and AVN were risk factors for reduced probability of achieving normal radiographic parameters. The cumulative probability of achieving normal pelvis radiographs increases linearly during the first five years following CR, then it tends to plateau. Age older than 24 months and Tonnis grade III and IV are associated with longer time to achieve normal radiographic parameters. Age older than 24 months, bilateral dislocation, pre-operative AI greater than 40°, and AVN are risk factors for reduced probability of achieving normal radiographic parameters in children with DDH treated by closed means.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality among the patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Arterial stiffness is a well-accepted predictor of cardiovascular mortality in general population and ESRD patients. The aim of this study was to compare the change of arterial stiffness in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) and ESRD patients, and further investigate the impact of kidney transplantation (KT) on arterial stiffness. A total of 138 maintenance hemodialysis patients, 198 KTRs and 75 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. The carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) and carotid-radial PWV (CR-PWV) were determined, and the correlations of PWV with biochemical parameters were analyzed. CF-PWV was highest in the maintenance hemodialysis patients, but similar between KTRs and healthy volunteers. Bivariate correlation analysis among KTRs demonstrated that CF-PWV was positively correlated with high level of peripheral diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, mean artery pressure, BUN and HDL, but negatively correlated with albumin. Univariate polytomous logistic regression analysis showed that age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, length of KT and BUN were associated with the increase of CF-PWV value. Aortic stiffness could be improved after KT. Meanwhile, age, BMI, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, length of KT and BUN were independent predictors of the increase of CF-PWV in KTRs.

The laser interferometer is one of the most important key technologies for the space gravitational wave detection. A laser interferometer prototype with pico-meter measurement precision for Taiji mission in China is presented in the paper. The results showed that the path-length measurement precision reached 5 pm/√Hz within the frequency range of 10 mHz – 1 Hz by improving the temperature fluctuation noise and electronic readout noise of the laser interferometer, which meets the requirement of Taiji Pathfinder mission inside the frequency range of 1 mHz – 1 Hz under the weak-light condition. It would be a fine experimental platform for the key technologies demonstration including the laser pointing modulation and the laser phase-locking control to improve the precision for the low measurement noise.

To understand the behavior of cells in natural environment, 3D scaffolds are needed to provide biomimetic environment for routine cell growth in vitro. Electrohydrodynamic jet (EHDJ) printing, one of the emerging 3D printing techniques, is capable of fabricating 3D scaffolds with oriented fibers and customized microscale structures. However, most of the EHDJ-printed scaffolds lack of hierarchical structures such as nanotopographies present in native tissues. In this study, we propose a novel approach that combine EHDJ printing of poly(e-caprolactone) (PCL)/gliadin composite inks to produce scaffolds with oriented microfibers. The nanoscale pores and flaws (fiber nanotopography) could be generated on the printed fibers by simply leaching the gliadin phase from the printed PCL/gliadin scaffolds. The density and size of nanotopographical features could be controlled by adjusting the gliadin ratio. Furthermore, by seeding mouse embryonic fibroblasts (NIH/3T3) cells, it clearly manifested that such scaffolds are favorable to cell adhesion, migration and proliferation efficiently. Thus, the newly designed PCL scaffolds with both micro- and nano-scale topographies can be a promising 3D cell culture platform with improved cell-scaffold interactions.

Aim: The dose of digoxin is often difficult to be determined precisely. The aim of this study was to retrospectively investigate the effect of blood biochemical indexes on the serum concentration of digoxin. Materials & methods: We collected the data of hospitalized patients treated orally with digoxin in Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital (Nanjing, China) from 2016 to 2018. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the patients’ comprehensive condition. Results: A total of 425 patients were included in the study. Through analysis, nine factors were included in the regression model of the serum concentration of digoxin, and this regression model showed good predictive performance (r2 = 0.83138; p

High-quality condition monitoring data can provide vital information on power equipment condition assessment and fault diagnosis. However, data quality is difficult to guarantee because valid and invalid anomalies, and different normal data patterns inevitably occur in datasets. This study presents a method for anomaly detection based on auxiliary feature vector and density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN). The auxiliary feature vectors of each condition variable are constructed for clustering to recognise normal data patterns and different types of anomalies. Furthermore, a heuristic method based on the ‘number of clusters–Eps’ curve is proposed for the parameter selection of DBSCAN in an unsupervised setting. Different application examples are implemented on data of dissolved gas content in transformer oil. Compared with state-of-the-art anomaly detection techniques, the proposed method shows an ability to identify and distinguish normal data patterns and valid and invalid anomalies accurately, provided that the condition monitoring data satisfy the assumption of stationarity.

The operation of current biological sewage treatment processes is mainly based on the bio-oxidation principle with the input of substantial amount of energy for oxidation of sewage COD and ammonia. Meanwhile, an extremely large quantity of waste sludge is inevitably produced through biological conversion of soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) to biomass. With tightened effluent discharge standards worldwide, upgrading of the current mainstream biological process with advanced treatment units appears necessary, while making the whole system highly complicated and costly with enlarged footprint. In such a situation, the sewage treatment philosophy has been seriously challenged by its environmental sustainability. Therefore, this article proposes that A-B process enabling direct capture of wastewater chemical energy should be considered as a feasible option toward energy self-sufficient sewage reclamation with minimized sludge production. Furthermore, a conceptual integrated anaerobic membrane bioreactor with reverse osmosis system is elucidated for reclaiming sewage to NEWater-like product water, and it may offer a new avenue to overcome the challenges faced in the current sewage treatment plants.

A system approach for a power-scalable analog baseband (ABB) design is presented in this article. Using this approach, the energy efficiency of an ABB can be maximized without compromising any other important specifications. To fulfill the feasibility study, a switchable-order $g_{m}$ -C lowpass filter (LPF) along with a voltage-controlled programmable-gain amplifier (VC-PGA) is designed. The selectivity of the LPF can be linearly scaled with power consumption. In addition, the power consumption of VC-PGA has a binary-weighted manner. In contrast to conventional PGAs, the gain step of the designed PGA can be continuously tuned by a control voltage. To prove the concept, the ABB is implemented in 65-nm CMOS technology. The measurements show that the frequency responses of the ABB can be configured as either fifth or seventh order with 16 gain steps. The bandwidth is approximately 50 MHz for all cases, and the gain step can be continuously tuned between 0 and 3 dB. At the high-gain mode, the output third-order intercept point and the input-referred noise of the LPF and PGA are approximate to be 8 dBm and 5 nV/sqrt Hz, respectively. The maximum power consumption of the ABB, excluding the output buffer, is approximately 19.8 mW with a 1.2-V supply voltage. The die area, excluding the pads, is only 0.18 mm2.

Aim: We investigated whether S100A4 level is associated with pathophysiology of unstable angina pectoris (UAP), and its potential prognostic value for subsequent cardiovascular events. Methods: We compared plasma levels of S100A4 and a set of clinical markers in three groups (59 with UAP, 32 with stable angina pectoris and 30 healthy controls). Results: S100A4 levels in patients with UAP were significantly elevated. In UAP group, baseline S100A4 levels were significantly higher in patients with subsequent cardiovascular events than those without, a positive correlation was identified between the risk of subsequent cardiovascular events and the plasma levels of S100A4. Conclusion: Elevated S100A4 levels may be involved in the pathogenesis of UAP, and may be a marker predictive of post-treatment cardiovascular events.

Purpose: In the present study, we mainly aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose ([18F]F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) in lymphoblastic lymphoma (LBL) patients using Deauville Scores (DS). Materials and Methods: A total of 63 LBL patients who benefited from 18F-FDG PET-CT after allo-SCT in our institution between April 2010 and August 2020 were enrolled in this retrospective study. These above-mentioned patients were divided into two groups based on the Deauville criteria. Diagnostic efficiency of 18F-FDG PET/CT and integrated CT in detecting lymphoma were calculated. Consistencies were evaluated by comparing 18F-FDG PET/CT and integrated CT results through kappa coefficient. Kaplan-Meier method was used in survival analysis, and the log-rank method was adopted in comparisons. Prognostic factor analysis was performed by the Cox regression model. Results: The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, accuracy of post-SCT 18F-FDG PET-CT were 100%(12/12), 92.2%(47/51), 75.0%(12/16), 100%(47/47) and 93.7%(59/63). The consistency of 18F-FDG PET-CT and integrated CT was moderate(Kappa = .702，P

Transformer-based deep learning models have become a ubiquitous vehicle to drive a variety of Natural Language Processing (NLP) related tasks beyond their accuracy ceiling. However, these models also suffer from two pronounced challenges, that is, gigantic model size and prolonged turnaround time. To this end, we introduce ET. that rE-thinks self-attention computation for Transformer models on GPUs with the following contributions: First, we introduce a novel self-attention architecture, which encompasses two tailored self-attention operators with corresponding sequence length-aware optimizations, and operation reordering optimizations. Second, we present an attention-aware pruning design which judiciously uses various pruning algorithms to reduce more computations hence achieves significantly shorter turnaround time. For the pruning algorithms, we not only revamp the existing pruning algorithms, but also tailor new ones for transformer models. Taken together, we evaluate E.T. across a variety of benchmarks for Transformer, BERTBASE and DistilBERT, where E.T. presents superior performance over the mainstream projects, including the popular Nvidia Enterprise solutions, i.e., TensorRT and FasterTransformer.

Purpose To evaluate the clinical effects of concentrated growth factors (CGFs) combined with bone substitutes for alveolar ridge preservation (ARP) in the maxillary molar area. Methods Thirty-six patients who underwent extraction of the upper molars were recruited and randomly divided into three groups: 1. Grafted with CGFs combined with deproteinized bovine bone mineral (DBBM) and covered with CGFs membrane (CGFs/DBBM group), 2. Grafted with DBBM alone and covered with collagen membrane (DBBM group), 3. Control group spontaneous healing. The area of the alveolar bone in center (C-), mesial (M-) and distal (D-) section was compared with preoperative in radiography. Bone cores were obtained for histopathology observation and comparison. Results In C-, M- and D-section, the alveolar ridge area in all three groups was significantly reduced at 8 months postoperatively compared to the baseline (P 2, M-14.69 ± 2.82 mm2, D-16.95 ± 4.17 mm2) and DBBM group (C-14.08 ± 2.51 mm2, M-15.42 ± 3.47 mm2, D-16.09 ± 3.97 mm2) were non-significant differences. They were significantly less than the decline in the control group (C-45.04 ± 8.38 mm2 M-31.98 ± 8.34 mm2, D-31.85 ± 8.52 mm2) (P P P Conclusion Combined application of CGFs and DBBM effectively reduced the resorption of alveolar ridge and resulted in more newly formed bone than the use of DBBM with collagen membranes.