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Purpose: To assess the clinical efficacy of converting partial articular supraspinatus tendon avulsion (PASTA) lesions to full-thickness tears through a small local incision of the bursal-side supraspinatus tendon followed by repair. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 41 patients with Ellman grade 3 PASTA lesions and an average age of (54.7 ± 11.4) years from March 2013 to July 2017. Patients without regular conservative treatment and concomitant with other shoulder pathologies or previous shoulder surgery were excluded from the study. The tears were confirmed via arthroscopy, and a polydioxanone suture was placed to indicate the position of each tear. A small incision of approximately 6 mm was made using a plasma scalpel on the bursal-side supraspinatus tendon around the positioned suture to convert the partial tear into a full-thickness tear. The torn rotator cuff was sutured through the full thickness using a suture passer after inserting a 4.5-mm double-loaded suture anchor. Data were analyzed using a paired Student’s t-test with statistical significance defined as p

Obesity is a major epigenetic cause for colorectal cancer (CRC). Leptin is implicated in obesity-associated CRC, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. The current study identified over-expression of metallopanstimulin-1 (MPS-1) in CRC patients through microarray and histological analysis, especially in obese CRC patients. MPS-1 was correlated with advanced tumor stage, suggesting its association with CRC progression. In addition, MPS-1 over-expression was associated with poor overall survival (OS) in obese CRC patients, but not in their non-obese counterparts, suggesting its potential as a prognostic marker of obese CRC patients. MPS-1 expression was positively associated with circulating leptin levels in CRC patients, especially in obese cases. Functional experiments demonstrated that MPS-1 silencing inhibited tumor proliferation and colony formation, and induced apoptosis of CRC cells in vitro. Converse results were obtained from the experiments with MPS-1 over-expression. Mechanistically, MPS-1 executed its action through induction of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)/c-Jun pathway. Moreover, the promotion effect of MPS-1 on CRC progression was modulated by leptin. In vivo studies demonstrated that MPS-1 silencing suppressed tumor growth of CRC via inhibiting JNK/c-Jun signaling. Collectively, this study indicates that MPS-1 promotes leptin-induced CRC via activating JNK/c-Jun pathway. MPS-1 might represent a potent candidate for the treatment and prognostic prediction of obesity-associated CRC.

Background This study aims to investigate the clinical characterization and causative genetic defect of a four-generation Chinese family with autosomal dominant aniridia. Methods The recruited family members underwent comprehensive routine and ophthalmic examinations, and Sanger sequencing was performed to screen the mutation in PAX6. Results A novel heterozygous PAX6 deletion c.435_445delTAGCGAAAAGC (p.Ser146ThrfsX9) in exon 7 was identified in all affected individuals, but this was absent in any of the unaffected family members and in the 200 unrelated controls. Conclusion A novel deletion in the PAX6 gene was identified in a Chinese family associated with aniridia, which expands the spectrum of the PAX6 mutation and its associated phenotype.

The most commonly used method for detecting hydrogen damage is ultrasound. Ultrasonic testing through the detection of ultrasonic wave changes in metal materials to know the location of material defects and the change of wave velocity, and then get the material mechanical properties of the change. This chapter mainly uses the method of ultrasonic detection to detect the change of ultrasonic wave form and the change of wave velocity of 2.25Cr1Mo0.25V steel base metal and weld under different hydrogen charging time, so as to obtain the change of elastic modulus of the material.

We propose ridge-furrow detection for row-crop farms using DeepLab, which can be trained by RGB color information. Detected images are post-processed as intermediate information that facilitates furrow detection and ridge localization. Using the proposed model, the resultant prediction accuracy is about 84.65%. We deploy the transferred, learned model in a mobile base that navigates along detected furrows of a glycine max farm video. We use row-crop detection information to estimate navigation trajectories and generate line velocity and angular velocity parameters for the mobile base. During navigation of the mobile base, the derived information can be fused for use in extended agricultural tasks such as weeding and other farm labor.

A large‐scale survey study was conducted to assess trauma, burnout, posttraumatic growth, and associated factors for nurses in the COVID‐19 pandemic. The Trauma Screening Questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Posttraumatic Growth Inventory‐Short Form were utilized. Factors associated with trauma, burnout, and posttraumatic growth were analysed using logistic and multiple regressions. In total, 12 596 completed the survey, and 52.3% worked in COVID‐19 designated hospitals. At the survey’s conclusion in April, 13.3% reported trauma (Trauma ≥ 6), there were moderate degrees of emotional exhaustion, and 4,949 (39.3%) experienced posttraumatic growth. Traumatic response and emotional exhaustion were greater among (i) women (odds ratio [OR]: 1.48, 95% CI 1.12–1.97 P = 0.006; emotional exhaustion OR: 1.30, 95% CI 1.09–1.54, P = 0.003), (ii) critical care units (OR: 1.20, 95% CI 1.06–1.35, P = 0.004; emotional exhaustion OR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.12–1.33, P

The synthesis of wavelength-tunable broadband chaotic signals is experimentally demonstrated by using a weak-resonant-cavity Fabry-Perot laser diode (WRC-FPLD) subject to filtered feedback. To perform the broadband tunability from 1544 to 1556 nm, a tunable optical filter is used for providing filtered feedback to drive the laser into chaos. With adjusting the central wavelength of the filter, about 20 longitudinal modes of the WRC-FPLD can individually realize the chaotic output within the tunable range of the filter. Moreover, by suitably selecting the feedback power, the chaos signal with a flat power spectrum and broad bandwidth up to ~30.0 GHz can be achieved.

We investigate experimentally the state bistability driven by current or feedback in a 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (1550 nm-VCSEL) with negative optoelectronic feedback (NOEF). The results show that through continuously varying the controlled parameters such as the bias current or the feedback strength along different routes, under a set of given system parameters, there may exist two kinds of output states, i.e., state bistability, which are critically dependent on the history of how the controlled parameters are varied to reach the given values. Within the varied range of bias current or feedback strength, the state bistability is shown via the time series, power spectrum, and phase portrait of the output signal, and the physical mechanisms for the state bistability appearing in the NOEF 1550 nm-VCSEL are analyzed. Furthermore, the complexities of the corresponding states are evaluated by calculating the characteristic value of the normalized permutation entropy of the output from the NOEF 1550 nm-VCSEL. Additionally, by revealing the evolution of the dynamical states under the increase and decrease in the controlled parameters, the ranges of the parameters required for generating current-induced or feedback-induced state bistability can be specified to certain degree.

The polarization bistability (PB) features in a 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (1550 nm-VCSEL) subject to variable polarization optical injection (VPOI) are experimentally investigated. We have investigated the influence of polarization angle $\theta _{p}$ of optical injection on PBs induced by scanning the power (power-induced PB) and the frequency of injected light (frequency-induced PB) along with different routes. The experimental results show that, for the fixed frequency of the injection laser and by scanning the injection power within a certain region, there exists a determined range of $\theta _{p}$ in which power-induced PB in the 1550 nm-VCSEL subject to VPOI can be observed. For VPOI with $\theta _{p}$ located within the determined range, the power-induced PB possesses larger hysteresis width, as compared with orthogonally polarized optical injection. The hysteresis width will be larger for a smaller value of $\theta _{p}$ . Under the condition of fixed injection power and continuously varying the frequency of the injection laser, two frequency-induced hysteresis cycles can be observed, of which one is located at negative frequency detuning, and the other is located at positive frequency detuning. The variations of the two hysteresis width with $\theta _{p}$ exhibit different trends. Also, when the bias current of the 1550 nm-VCSEL increases, the hysteresis width can be further broadened for the power-induced PB, and the broadening effect is relatively weak for the frequency-induced PB.

Background: Robot-assisted surgical techniques have been introduced in recent years as an alternative minimally invasive approach for colorectal surgery. In practice, we found that the mon...

Based on the spin-flip model, the polarization switching (PS) characteristics of two polarization outputs in a 1550-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (1550-nm VCSEL) subject to double polarization pulsed injection (DPPI) are investigated theoretically, and the obtained results are compared with the case, in which the 1550-nm VCSEL is simultaneously injected by the pulses of orthogonal polarized light and a continuous wave (CW) parallel polarized light, which is called double optical injection with pulsed orthogonal polarization (DIPOP). The simulated results show that, compared with the DIPOP, the DPPI method is beneficial to improving the PS performance under suitable parameters. The influences of the timing difference (Δt) in the switching of two injection pulses on the PS performance of 1550-nm VCSEL subject to DPPI are analyzed, and the optimized values of At under different bias currents are determined. Furthermore, for optimized At, the dependences of the switching times on the amplitudes of two polarization pulses and the frequency detuning are given.

Edge cracks are commonly observed in steel strip in cold rolling, which may cause deterioration of quality and productivity of products. The edge defect is one of the important factors that lead to edge cracks in cold rolling. In this paper, the GTN damage model coupled with shear damage mechanism proposed by Nahshon and Hutchinson (2008) was employed to analyze the ductile damage and failure behavior of steel sheet with edge defects under multi-pass cold rolling. Cold rolling experiments of silicon steel with edge notches were performed on an experimental rolling mill to verify the accuracy of the numerical results. The simulation results show that two cracks appeared in the notch tip after five passes rolling and extended toward the direction with an angle around 45° and 135° to the rolling direction, which was in good agreement with the experimental data. The influences of notch shape and size on the onset of cracks around the notch tip are investigated and some significant conclusions are drawn.

Narrowband and high-transmission optical filters are extensively used in color display technology, optical information processing, and high-sensitive sensing. Because of large ohmic losses in metallic nanostructures, metallic filters usually exhibit low transmittances and broad bandwidths. By employing both strong field enhancements in metallic nano-slits and the Wood’s anomaly in a periodic metallic grating, an extra-narrowband and high-transmission metallic filter is numerically predicted in an ultrathin single-layer metallic grating. Simulation results show that the Wood’s anomaly in the ultrathin (thickness H = 60 nm) single-layer metallic grating results in large field enhancements in the substrate and low losses in the metallic grating. As a result, the transmission bandwidth (transmittance T > 60%) at λ = 1200 nm is as small as Δλ FWHM = 1.6 nm, which is smaller than 4% of that in the previous thin dielectric and metallic filters. The corresponding quality factor is as high as Q = λ/Δλ FWHM = 750, which is 40 times greater than that in the previous reports. Moreover, the thickness of our metallic filter (H = 60 nm) is smaller than 40% of that in the previous reports, and its maximum transmittance can reach up to 80%. In experiments, a narrowband metallic filter with a bandwidth of about Δλ FWHM = 10 nm, which is smaller than 25% of that in the previous metallic filters, is demonstrated.

Medicinal plants are popular and widely used as a major source of herbal drugs and pharmaceutical compounds. Ever-growing demands make medicinal plants faced to several problems including efficacy and safety to meet business requirements, conservation, and artificially assisted breeding. As a powerful molecular tool, microsatellites offer the great potentials for various purposes in plants. This review provides a scenario of microsatellites in medicinal plants including development from genomic or expressed sequence tag libraries, cross-species transferability, genotyping, and potential applications. We emphasized on the authentication of medicinal plants by microsatellite markers.

To characterize blood glucose fluctuation during hemodialysis in patients with end stage diabetic nephropathy (ESDN) by a continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS), and aim to improve blood glucose control in this patient population.Forty-six patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), receiving hemodialysis, were recruited in this study. Thirty-six patients had end stage diabetic nephropathy (ESDN group), the other ten patients had end stage renal disease without diabetes (ESRD group). A continuous glucose monitoring system (CGMS) was employed to monitor glycemic fluctuation for 72 hours. Blood samples were collected and analyzed.Mean, standard deviation (SD), maximum, and mean amplitude glycemic excursion (MAGE) of blood glucose and the ratio of blood glucose readings that was greater than 13.9 mmol/L of ESDN group, were significantly greater than those of ESRD group (p0.01 for all) during 72 hours of observation. The mean blood glucose was significantly lower, while SD and MAGE were significantly higher in ESDN group on hemodialysis day than on days off hemodialysis (p0.05), while these were not been observed in ESRD group. Though mean, SD, and MAGE of blood glucose during hemodialysis were significantly lower than those of peri-hemodialysis in both groups (p0.01 or p0.05, respectively), they were significantly higher in ESDN group than that in ESRD group (p0.05). The mean blood glucose value calculated from HbA1c did not reflect the actual mean blood glucose measured by CGM in both groups, and gave an inaccurate impression of a significantly lower mean glucose.ESDN patients had larger glycemic fluctuations as compared with ESRD patients. Hemodialysis caused reduction in mean, SD, and MAGE, which in turn caused bigger glycemic fluctuations on hemodialysis day. The HbA1c in ESDN patients gave an inaccurate value, which did not truly reflect blood glucose status for a prolonged period.

We have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a novel approach to stabilize the photonic microwave generated by the period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamics of an optically injected semiconductor laser by introducing external subharmonic microwave modulation technique. External optical injection first drives a semiconductor laser into single sideband (SSB) P1 nonlinear dynamics whose frequency can be tuned by varying the optical injection strength, and then an external subharmonic microwave modulation is applied to the laser for stabilizing the frequency of the P1 oscillation. The experimental results show that after adopting 1/3 and 1/4 subharmonic microwave modulation, significant reduction up to more than three orders of magnitude of generated microwave linewidth can be achieved. Furthermore, we have analyzed the linewidth narrowing effects under subharmonic modulation with different powers and frequencies, and mapped the subharmonic microwave locking region in the parameter space of the power and frequency of the external subharmonic microwave.

In this paper the characterization of the edge crack in the strip steel are studied by using numerical simulation method. The developments of the stress and strain near the crack tip are obtained and the value of the J-integral of edge crack under the rolling process is then examined. FE simulation result shows that the J-integral is not always path independent in the whole rolling process. When the crack is far away from the roller, the J-integral is path independent. When the crack enters the cold rolling region, the unload phenomena will occur near the crack tip which cause the incremental theory of plasticity failed and the conservation of the J-integral is not valid any more. The J-integral failure region is then determined by a series of FE simulations.

Experimental and numerical investigations have been carried out to study the effect of processing parameters on edge cracks in cold rolling process of silicon steels. The onset of edge cracks has been simulated by using finite element method (FEM) based on the Gurson–Tvergaard–Needleman damage model. Factorial design and Taguchi experimental design methods have been proposed to analyze the effects of reduction ratio, tension, work roll diameter, and friction coefficient on the formation of edge cracks. Parametric studies indicated that with the increasing of reduction ratio, friction coefficient, and tension, the crack length increases. A bigger work roll is beneficial to restrict the edge crack growth as well. The rank according to the impact degrees on the crack initiation from high to low is reduction ratio, tension, work roll diameter, and friction coefficient. Meanwhile, the combined effect curve of reduction ratio and tension on crack length was obtained which was validated by the experimental resul...

To characterize the degradation of material at low triaxiality, the shear modified GTN damage model proposed by Nahshon and Hutchinson (2008) was introduced in this study. The details of the numericalimplementation and validation of the model was conducted. And the shear modified parameter was determined by the comparisons of experimental and simulation results of the shear test. Then, the damage model was employed to simulate the cold rolling process, and the results showed that the shear modified GTN model can reveal the damage behavior and predict edge crackingof ductile materials in cold rolling.

In this paper the behavior of crack propagation of the strip steel is investigated by using the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) damage model. The damage parameters used in the damage model are determined by tension experiments and SEM observation. With the aid of finite element method the influences of rolling ruduction and tension on crack propagation are systematically analyzed. The numerical results show that the GTN damage model is available to prediction the initiation and propagation of edge cracks during rolling forming process and the simulation results agrees well with the experimental results.

Edge cracking is a commonly observed phenomenon during the cold rolling process of silicon steel, which may cause the rupture of strips in the rolling mill. In this paper the initiation and propagation of edge cracks under the tandem cold rolling condition were investigated by using the Gurson–Tvergaard–Needleman damage model. The damage parameters were obtained from the tensile tests data and the SEM analyses. Different cold rolling experiments were carried out by a non-reversing two-high rolling mill and the experimental results agreed well with the finite element calculation results. Parametric studies were carried out and revealed that the crack propagation increases with the increasing of total reduction, friction coefficient, and unit tension. A bigger work roll is beneficial to reduce the edge crack growth as well.

Aimed at the deficiency in the existing cell-elctrofusion devices such as high fusion voltage and so on, a low voltage cell fusion system based on micro system technology is developed. This system is composed by cell fusion chip and low voltage signal generator, and locating cells by precisely designed microstructure and signal. In this chip, small distance between one pair of microelectrodes reduced required voltage. It has advantages of low energy consuming, small bulk and operation safety and easily compared with the existence apparatus. The experiment shows the system can generate cell fusion signal to meet the need for fusing. It can be popularized.

Based on an optically injected semiconductor laser (OISL) operating at period-one (P1) nonlinear dynamical state, high-purity millimeter-wave generation at 60 GHz band is experimentally demonstrated via 1/4 and 1/9 subharmonic microwave modulation (the order of subharmonic is with respect to the frequency fc of the acquired 60 GHz band millimeter-wave but not the fundamental frequency f0 of P1 oscillation). Optical injection is firstly used to drive a semiconductor laser into P1 state. For the OISL operates at P1 state with a fundamental frequency f0 = 49.43 GHz, by introducing 1/4 subharmonic modulation with a modulation frequency of fm = 15.32 GHz, a 60 GHz band millimeter-wave with central frequency fc = 61.28 GHz ( = 4fm) is experimentally generated, whose linewidth is below 1.6 kHz and SSB phase noise at offset frequency 10 kHz is about −96 dBc/Hz. For fm is varied between 13.58 GHz and 16.49 GHz, fc can be tuned from 54.32 GHz to 65.96 GHz under matched modulation power Pm. Moreover, for the OISL operates at P1 state with f0 = 45.02 GHz, a higher order subharmonic modulation (1/9) is introduced into the OISL for obtaining high-purity 60 GHz band microwave signal. With (fm, Pm) = (7.23 GHz, 13.00 dBm), a microwave signal at 65.07 GHz ( = 9fm) with a linewidth below 1.6 kHz and a SSB phase noise less than −98 dBc/Hz is experimentally generated. Also, the central frequency fc can be tuned in a certain range through adjusting fm and selecting matched Pm.

Using two mutually coupled semiconductor lasers (MC-SLs) outputs as chaotic entropy sources, a scheme for generating Tbits/s ultra-fast physical random bit (PRB) is demonstrated and analyzed experimentally. Firstly, two entropy sources originating from two chaotic outputs of MC-SLs are obtained in parallel. Secondly, by adopting multiple optimized post-processing methods, two PRB streams with the generation rate of 0.56 Tbits/s are extracted from the two entropy sources and their randomness are verified by using NIST Special Publication 800-22 statistical tests. Through merging the two sets of 0.56 Tbits/s PRB streams by an interleaving operation, a third set of 1.12 Tbits/s PRB stream, which meets all the quality criteria of NIST statistical tests, can be further acquired. Finally, after additionally taking into account the restriction of the min-entropy, the generation rate of two sets of PRB stream from the two entropy sources can still attain 0.48 Tbits/s, and then a third set of merging PRB stream is 0.96 Tbits/s. Moreover, for the sequence length of the order of 10 Gbits, the statistical bias and serial correlation coefficient of three sets of PRB streams are also analyzed.

The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST, also called the Guo Shou Jing Telescope) is a special reflecting Schmidt telescope. LAMOST's special design allows both a large aperture (effective aperture of 3.6 m–4.9 m) and a wide field of view (FOV) (5°). It has an innovative active reflecting Schmidt configuration which continuously changes the mirror's surface that adjusts during the observation process and combines thin deformable mirror active optics with segmented active optics. Its primary mirror (6.67 m × 6.05 m) and active Schmidt mirror (5.74m × 4.40m) are both segmented, and composed of 37 and 24 hexagonal sub-mirrors respectively. By using a parallel controllable fiber positioning technique, the focal surface of 1.75 m in diameter can accommodate 4000 optical fibers. Also, LAMOST has 16 spectrographs with 32 CCD cameras. LAMOST will be the telescope with the highest rate of spectral acquisition. As a national large scientific project, the LAMOST project was formally proposed in 1996, and approved by the Chinese government in 1997. The construction started in 2001, was completed in 2008 and passed the official acceptance in June 2009. The LAMOST pilot survey was started in October 2011 and the spectroscopic survey will launch in September 2012. Up to now, LAMOST has released more than 480000 spectra of objects. LAMOST will make an important contribution to the study of the large-scale structure of the Universe, structure and evolution of the Galaxy, and cross-identification of multi-waveband properties in celestial objects.

By using gray theory model, the problem with less data and poor information is easy to be solved. Thus, the grey theory and the reliability assessment method were connected to analyze the mechanism motion. At first, the concept and model of mechanism’s grey movement reliability were presented. And then, from the limit state equations of a mechanism’s moving function and kinematic accuracy, the gray reliability calculation formulas were deduced. Finally, combined with two examples the method was applied to the actual reliability analysis. The results show that the method is feasible and efficient, so it is practical to apply the grey reliability model in mechanism reliability analysis.

The present paper demonstrates a study of the impact of cutting condition on turning high strength steel 34CrNiMo6. Based on Taguchi method, a plan of experiments was performed with ceramic cutting insert. The first and second cutting force equations are developed through the response surface methodology (RSM) to investigate the effect of input cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed rate and depth) on cutting force. In term of input parameters, the cutting force contours are showed and the analysis of the predicted models is performed with aid of the statistical software package. In addition, the separate influence of individual cutting parameter and the interaction between these factors are also discussed in this study. In general, the results obtained from the mathematical model agree well with the experimental data.

In order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of automatic counting of microscopic cells, the method based on the Hough transform has been proposed. And the standard Hough transform has been improved using image gradient information. Compared with the traditional counting methods based on mathematical morphology and boundary tracking tags, the accuracy of the counting accuracy has been greatly improved. The results show the accuracy and efficiency of counting of the microscopic cells based on grads Hough transform is improved.

Spherical swashplate type axial piston pump slipping shoe hole shape and reasonable position design is key points for pump working. Current calculation method which adapted average parameters as final size is not accurate in theory. In this paper ,according to the relationship between geometry and motion of piston pump, coordinate transformation is used three times to deduce motion trajectory equation,and drive motion trajectory curve. The method discussed is precise ，it can be used to provide reference for slipping shoe hole design.

As the representative of 3G dynamic reactive compensation technology, the chain SVG voltage has advantages of high-grade and high compensation capacity which mainly owe to the structure that each phase of conversion chain consists of a plurality of H-bridges in cascade. Although the DC side capacitor is not the core device in H-bridge, it has the job of providing DC voltage source during H-bridge circuit conversion. DC side capacitance affect not only the operation reliability of chain SVG, but also equipment cost and operation loss, so it should be selected reasonably. This paper introduces the role DC side capacitor plays in H-BRIDGE. PSCAD is used for simulated contrast analysis of chain SVG with different capacitances, and raises the criteria for DC side capacitance selection. Finally, the correctness of the criteria is verified based on the actual operation data of the field equipment.

Although there are still some unresolved aspects, current research has revealed that vascular cell proliferation probably plays an important part in the pathological formation process of cerebral vasospasm. Using a "two-hemorrhage" model of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), this study investigated the function of ERK1/2 and vascular wall cell proliferation in pathological development of cerebral vasospasm.Fifty rabbits were randomly divided into five groups: (1) SAH day 1, (2) SAH day 3, (3) SAH day 7, (4) SAH + DMSO (dimethyl sufoxide) solution, (5) SAH + PD98059 (a mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor) dissolved in DMSO solution. In the SAH + PD98059/DMSO group and SAH + DMSO control group, PD98059 in DMSO (2 mmol/l) or an equal quantity of DMSO, respectively, was injected into the cisterna magna, once a day from SAH day 1 to day 3. Western protein blotting was used to detect the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) in each group's basilar arteries. Light microscopy and electron microscopy were used for dynamic histological detection at each observation point of the SAH vascular wall under the effects of SAH and the mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitor. Another 18 rabbits were randomly divided into three groups: SAH, SAH + DMSO and SAH + PD98059/DMSO; cerebral angiograpathy was conducted on SAH days 1 and 7, and the progression of angiographic vasospasm evaluated.Compared with the control group, the extent of vasospasm after SAH increased with time. PD98059 significantly reduced angiographic and morphological vasospasm. In cerebral vasospasm, the expression of T-ERK1/2 showed no significant change. However, expression of p-ERK1/2 and PCNA began to increase significantly on day 3, and achieved a peak on day 7. PD98059 significantly inhibited the expression of p-ERK1/2 and PCNA (p0.05).Cell proliferation on the vascular wall plays an important part in the pathological formation process of cerebral vasospasm. ERK1/2 phosphorylation, as an important signaling pathway, taking part in the process of vascular-wall pathological proliferation of cerebral vasospasm.

Dendritic cell (DC)-based antitumor immunotherapy is a promising cancer therapy. We have previously shown that tumor-derived TGF-β limits the efficacy of the DC/tumor fusion vaccine in mice. In the current study we investigated the effect of neutralizing tumor-derived TGF-β on the efficacy of the DC/tumor fusion vaccine. An adenovirus encoding human TGF-β receptor type II fused to the Fc region of human IgM (Adv-TGF-β-R) or a control adenovirus encoding LacZ (Adv-LacZ) was used to express a soluble form of the neutralizing TGF-β receptor (TGF-β-R). Murine breast carcinoma cells, 4T1, but not bone marrow-derived DCs, were successfully transfected with Adv-TGF-β-R (4T1+Adv-TGF-β-R) using a multiplicity of infection of 300. Immunization with irradiated 4T1+Adv-TGF-β-R tumor cells conferred enhanced antitumor immunity compared with immunization with irradiated 4T1+Adv-LacZ tumor cells. The DC/4T1+Adv-TGF-β-R fusion vaccine offered enhanced protective and therapeutic efficacy compared with the DC/4T1-Adv-LacZ fusion vaccine. Because TGF-β is known to induce regulatory T cells (Tregs), we further showed that the DC/4T1+Adv-TGF-β-R fusion vaccine induced fewer CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs than the DC/4T1+Adv-LacZ fusion vaccine in vitro and in vivo. The suppressive role of splenic CD4+CD25+ Tregs isolated from mice immunized with DC/4T1+Adv-LacZ was demonstrated using a CTL killing assay. Similar enhanced therapeutic efficacy was observed in murine renal cell carcinoma, RenCa, which expresses a high level of TGF-β. We conclude that the blockade of tumor-derived TGF-β reduces Treg induction by the DC/tumor fusion vaccine and enhances antitumor immunity. This may be an effective strategy to enhance human DC-based antitumor vaccines.

Aim: This study aimed to improve diagnostic efficacy of syncope in children by analyzing the aetiology and clinical characteristics of syncope in Chinese children. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the causes of syncope and diagnostic workup in 154 consecutive children seen in the Department of Pediatrics, Peking University First Hospital, China, because of a syncope-related event. Results: In all patients with transient loss of consciousness (TLOC), there were 136 (88.31%) patients attributing to syncope, and 18 (11.69%) belonging to nonsyncopal cases. Neurally mediated syncope (NMS) was the most common cause of syncope (99 cases; 64.3%), with cardiac causes ranking second (10 cases; 6.5%). Other nonsyncopal causes included psychiatric problems and neurological and metabolic disorders. In 25 cases (16.2%), the cause was uncertain. Cases of NMS often had clear inducement of syncope and prodromes. Children with cardiac syncope often had a history of cardiac disease, were often younger than those with NMS, and showed exercise-related syncope, syncope spells in any body position or at an early age, or sudden death in family members but no prodromes. Neurological disorder was suspected in cases of TLOC with seizures, TLOC spells in any position, postictal phase of disorientation or abnormal neurological signs. A metabolic cause is suspected with a history of metabolic disease, prolonged anger, or violent vomiting and diarrhoea. Children with psychiatric disorders were adolescent girls, with prolonged TLOC spells, who had more frequent TLOC. Although many tests were used in diagnosis, most were not goal directed. Now, electrocardiography is recommended in almost all children with syncope. Neurological testing, including electroencephalography and computed tomography were rarely helpful unless with evidence of neurological signs and symptoms. Head-up tilt test (HUTT) was most useful in children with recurrent syncope in whom heart disease was not suspected. Conclusion: NMS was the most common cause of syncope. We recommended HUTT as the important basis of the TLOC workup.

Quan Bian,1,* Jian-Jun Chen,2,* Jun-Ping Gu,1 Jing Xu3 1Department of General Surgery, Tianjin Hospital, Tianjin, 2Department of General Surgery, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Beijing, 3Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Medical Center of Tianjin, Nankai University Affiliated Hospital, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to the study Abstract: MicroRNA-27a (miR-27a) is deemed as an oncogene in malignancies including colorectal cancer (CRC), and rs895819 within pre-miR-27a may affect its secondary structure, leading to its aberrant expression and dysfunction of its targeted gene. We investigated genotype and allele frequencies of the locus in 412 I–III stage CRC cases and 412 age- and sex-matched healthy individuals to explore the possible association between them in the north of Chinese population. The results showed that frequencies of alleles A and G and genotypes GG, AG, and AA of the locus were 65.7%, 34.3%, 17.0%, 34.7%, and 48.3% in cases and 69.9%, 30.1%, 9.9%, 40.2%, and 49.8% in controls, respectively. GG genotype of the locus was positively associated with an increased risk of CRC in codominant (P=0.01, adjusted odds ratio =1.541, 95% confidence interval =1.110–2.239 for genotype GG vs AA) and recessive (P=0.003, adjusted odds ratio =1.855, 95% confidence interval =1.221–2.786 for genotype GG vs AA/GA) models, indicating that GG genotype of the locus might increase susceptibility to CRC. Moreover, genotypes AG and GG and allele G were significantly associated with III stage (P

This paper is designed for the filtering algorithms of taxi GPS data, as well as vehicle trajectory statistics and prediction algorithm which based on the theory of spatial-temporal data mining algorithm. On the basis of these algorithms, we developed intelligent taxi forecasting system based on mobile cloud computing. Through advanced intelligent algorithms and useful data of vehicle GPS which were got by cloud-based platform and service, we can determine the densest area of the empty taxi where is closest to the user and show it on a mobile device. Thus it can provide a reference for the user.

Background Syncope is common in children and adolescents,with 15% estimated to have had at least one syncopal episode by age 18.In recent years,an increasing number of children,especially girls at their school age,have developed unexplained syncope.The mechanism of an unexplained syncope exhibited by children is incompletely studied;the association between different hemodynamic patterns and clinical features is also not clear.The aim of the study was to investigate the hemodynamic patterns of children with unexplained syncope and to examine the clinical relevance.Methods Two hundred and eight children [87 boys,121 girls,aged 3-19 years,mean(11.66±2.72) years] were selectively recruited from May 2000 to April 2006 when they presented syncope as their main complaint at the Multi-center Network for Childhood Syncope in Beijing,Hunan Province,Hubei Province,and Shanghai of China.All of the patients underwent head-up tilt tests;data were analyzed using SPSS version 10.0 for Windows.Continuous variables were expressed as the mean±standard deviation.Dichotomous variables were compared through a χ2 test.A value of P0.05(two sided) was regarded as statistically significant.Results The age distribution of children with syncope was approximately normal.Head-up tilt tests was positive in 155 children,and the incidence of positive response of the baseline head-up tilt test for diagnosing unexplained syncope was 50.48%.The sensitivity value and diagnostic value of sublingual nitroglycerin head-up tilt test were both 74.52%.The hemodynamic pattern was normal in 53 children.The 155 children,who were positive in head-up tilt tests,showed signs of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome(60,28.8%),the vasoinhibitory pattern(72,34.6%),the cardioinhibitory pattern(5,2.4%),and the mixed pattern(18,8.7%).The gender distribution between the two age groups(age 12 years vs age ≥ 12 years) was not different(P0.05).The distribution of hemodynamic patterns between the children of the two age groups(age 12 years vs age ≥ 12 years),and the children with different complaints(dizziness vs syncope) was significantly different(P0.05),while the distribution between the children of different sexes and different lasting time of syncope(≤ 5 minutes vs 5 minutes) was not significantly different(P0.05).Different hemodynamic patterns were differentiated by differing syncope inducements,presymptoms,and complicated symptoms during and after syncope.Conclusion The tested girls were more prone when compared with the boys to have unexplained syncope,and the peak age was around twelve years old.The incidence of positive response of head-up tilt tests was also relatively higher for the girls.The distribution of hemodynamic patterns for different ages was different.For children with unexplained syncope,we should use head-up tilttests to distinguish the hemodynamic patterns in order to adopt rational therapeutic measures.

Dendritic cell (DC)-based tumor vaccine is a promising therapy for malignancies. Recent studies showed greater potency with DC/tumor fusion vaccines against acute myeloid leukemia and melanoma compared with lysate-pulsed DC vaccines. We compared these two vaccine strategies against murine colon cancer and investigated whether DC/tumor fusion cells continue to produce tumor antigens following fusion as a possible explanation for their increased potency. Using a mouse colon cancer model, CT26, we first showed that the DC/CT26 fusion vaccine is more effective in preventing tumor implantation than CT26 lysate-pulsed DC vaccine. Next, CT26 made to constitutively produce bioactive TGF-β, a surrogate of tumor-derived products, was fused to DCs and found to produce bioactive TGF-β 72 h after fusion. Our results suggest the DC/tumor fusion vaccine is more potent against colon cancer than the lysate-pulsed DC vaccine. These fusion cells have the distinct advantage of prolonged interaction with tumor antigens in vivo.

Based on multi-point forming (MPF) technology, a novel digital manufacturing method of cranial titanium plates for the repair of skull defects is developed in this paper. First, a 3D triangular mesh model of the skull is constructed from a CT data set. Then, a non-uniform rational B-splines-format (NURBS-format) patch surface is obtained by surface interpolation based on the skull polygon model. Finally, the patch surface model is input to MPF CAD/CAM software and the cranial titanium prosthesis is deformed by an MPF press. The method has many new features compared with other means. Implementing medical image processing and MPF technology, the method can remarkably shorten the production cycle of titanium cranioplasty, as well as offer improved fitting precision. About 20 practical applications have been finished, which prove the feasibility and efficiency of the method.

Weldbonding is a new joining technique that combines the spot welding with the adhesive bonding. It has found more and more applications in recent years because of its unique advantages. However, researches on the new technique are few especially on the long-term stress and strength of weldbonded structures. In the present paper, three-dimensional viscoplastic finite element analyses (FEA) of a single-lap weldbonded joint are conducted to investigate the stress redistribution. The results show that stresses increase obviously near the interface between the adhesive and the weld spot with the creep of adhesive. The adhesive tends to distribute its stresses more uniformly and transfer some loads to the weld spot. The stress concentration factor of weldbonded joint is significantly lower than that of the direct spot-weld in connection. The simulations illustrate that increasing of creep parameter will enhance the maximum stress level in the weld spot.

ZnO thin film, as a promising piezoelectric material, possesses unique electrical, acoustical, and optical properties. In this paper, Al/ZnO thin film was deposited on Si wafer by magnetron sputtering. Highly oriented, dense, and fine-grain polycrystalline ZnO films with excellent surface flatness and high resistivities have been obtained, when the sputtered gas pressure was 0.9 Pa, the temperature was 200 °C and the Ar-to-O2 ratio was 1:3. A 780MHz surface acoustic wave filter (SAWF) has been successfully fabricated using the Al/ZnO film on silicon wafer.

Functionally graded coating (FGC) has been widely used in severe conditions for its excellent mechanical characteristics compared with pure coating material. The graded component in the FGC can be described by specified local volume fraction rules of coating material. In this paper an inhomogeneous finite element method is used to investigate the crack behavior in FGC at elevated temperature with the powerlaw constitutive equation. The path‐ independent integral value C* characterizes amplitude of the crack tip stress fields at steady stage. Different volume fractions of coating material, creep coefficients and creep indices are analyzed by systematic computation to obtain the effects of these factors on crack growth and obtain the knowledge to minimize crack damage in the FGC. In addition, strain energy density rate factor, ?, is proposed as a material parameter for measuring crack resistance capability in creep conditions. The preliminary analysis with ? is also applied in FGC and the numerical...

Two different exchange-correlation functionals with van der Waals correction are employed to investigate the electronic properties of 2D heterostructure with a special configuration of Moire pattern. It is found that, for both PBE and HSE06 functional, the new van der Waals heterostructure that consists of monolayer and 2D lepidocrocite-type exhibits a type-II band alignment between the and layers, and the electronic structures of monolayer and 2D are well retained in their respective layers due to a weak interlaminar coupling, which indicates that the new heterostructure may have potential applications in many fields such as photocatalysis, photoelectric devices, solar cells, etc. Furthermore, a novel design scheme based on the new 2D van der Waals heterostructure is proposed for a solar cell, and the corresponding power conversion efficiency is estimated to be about 8%.

Polarization dynamics in a 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (1550 nm VCSEL) under parallel optical injection (POI) is investigated experimentally, and we experimentally observe the state bistability (SB) between pure- and mixed-mode states by scanning the injection power along different routes. Such a SB occurs only when the frequency of injection light is lower than that of the excited mode of a free-running 1550 nm VCSEL. Moreover, the effect of frequency detuning on the hysteresis loop width is analyzed.

Nonlinear dynamics associated with polarization switching (PS) in a 1550 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) with orthogonal optical injection is investigated theoretically by scanning the injected power. The results show that, adjusting injected powers may induce complex variation of dynamical state of each polarization mode and PS. When the PS happens, its dynamical states can be located at an injection locking state or not, which depends on the frequency detuning between the injected field and the VCSEL. Detailed mappings of polarization-resolved nonlinear dynamical states are calculated to unveil a rich variety of dynamical scenarios for different scanning routes of injected power in the parameter space of injected power and frequency detuning, and show that the dynamical states and PS are critically dependent on the scanning routes of the injected power under the case of larger current.

LAMOST is a 4m reflecting Schmidt telescope special designed for conducting multifiber spectroscopic survey with 4000 fibers. Fiber position errors greatly impact spectral data SNR. There are three groups of sources that contribute to fiber position errors: errors orthogonal to the optical axis of telescope, errors parallel to the optical axis, and the fiber tilt from the telescope optical axis. It is difficult to measure these errors, especially during the observation. In this poster, we propose an indirect method to calculate the total and systematic position errors for each individual fiber from spectra data by constructing a model of magnitude loss due to the fiber position error for the point source.

The large sky area multi-object fiber spectroscopic telescope (LAMOST) is an innovative reflecting schmidt telescope, promising a very high spectrum acquiring rate of several ten-thousands of spectra per night. By using the parallel controllable fiber positioning technique, LAMOST makes reconfiguration of fibers accurately according to the positions of objects in minutes and fine adjusting the fibers. During telescope observation period, each optical fiber unit positional accuracy directly determines the quality of subsequent spectrum acqusition, yet for real-time optical fiber positional accuracy, there only exists an internal information feedback which focus on the corresponding stepper motor driving conditions, however, this available information is not comprehensive, it can not offer the actual positional information for each fiber unit. Considering the LAMOST on-site environment, a novel real-time optical fiber positional accuracy detection system which can be integrated in the existing observation and control system need to be developed to solve this problem. During the observation interval, this system can offer a comprehensive and effective information feedback about the focal optical fiber positional accuracy. Based on this feedback, the observation assistants can properly adjust the observation strategies to ensure the effectiveness and accuracy of acquired spectrum. Furthermore, this fiber positional accuracy feedback can provide prior spectral quality information to the spectral processing personnel and optimal the spectrum processing efficiency.

Precise fiber positioning is crucial to a wide field, multi-fiber spectroscopic survey like LAMOST. Nowadays, most position error measurements are based on CCD photographic and imaging processing techniques. Those methods only work for measuring errors orthogonal to the telescope optical axis, while there also lies errors parallel to the telescope optical axis, like defocusing, and error caused by the existing deviation angle between optical axes of a fiber and the telescope. Directly measuring two latter types of position errors is difficult for individual fiber, especially during observation. Possible sources of fiber position errors are discussed in brief for LAMOST. By constructing a model of magnitude loss due to the fiber position error for a point source, we propose an indirect method to calculate the total and systematic position errors for each individual fiber from spectra data. Restrictions and applications of this method are also discussed., 9 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics