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The prognostic value of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) needs to be clarified. In this retrospective study, COVID-19 patients treated at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 7 to February 8, 2020 with measurements of serum IL-6 levels within 1 week after admission were included. Data regarding demographics, clinical characteristics, laboratory tests, complications, and outcomes were collected and analyzed. Sixty-six patients diagnosed with COVID-19 were included in this study (31 patients were females). They were divided into a normal group (serum IL-6

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the heavy health burdens worldwide. Aberrant proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) contributes to the occurrence and development of CAD. This study aimed at exploring differentially expressed microRNAs (miRNAs) and their regulatory mechanisms in the development of CAD.The miRNA expression profile of GSE28858 was obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) between CAD and healthy control samples were analyzed using limma package in R. Target genes of DEmiRNAs were predicted, and a miRNA-target gene network was constructed. The relationship between miR-665 and transforming growth factor beta receptor 1 (TGFBR1) was selected for further analysis. The interaction between miR-665 and TGFBR1 was confirmed by dual luciferase reporter assay. Effects of miR-665 on cell viability and apoptosis of VSMCs were evaluated by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Besides, western blot assays for BCL2L11 and caspase 3 were also conducted.A total of 38 upregulated miRNAs and 28 downregulated miRNAs were identified. The expression level of miR-665 was significantly downregulated in patients with CAD. TGFBR1 was proved to be a target gene of miR-665. Besides, ectopic expression of miR-665 obviously inhibited VSMC growth and promoted VSMC apoptosis. TGFBR1 overexpression in VSMCs transfected with miR-665 mimic could restore the effect of miR-665 on the proliferation and apoptosis of VSMCs.MiR-665 might participate in the proliferation and apoptosis of VSMCs by targeting TGFBR1.

Background: Up to 50% of patients with proximal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) will develop the postthrombotic syndrome characterized by limb swelling and discomfort, hyperpigmentation, skin ulcers, and impaired quality of life. Although catheter-based interventions enabling the restoration of blood flow (RBF) have demonstrated little benefit on postthrombotic syndrome, the impact on the acuity of the thrombus and mechanisms underlying this finding remain obscure. In experimental and clinical studies, we examined whether RBF has a restricted time window for improving DVT resolution. Methods: First, experimental stasis DVT was generated in C57/BL6 mice (n=291) by inferior vena cava ligation. To promote RBF, mice underwent mechanical deligation with or without intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator administered 2 days after deligation. RBF was assessed over time by ultrasonography and intravital microscopy. Resected thrombosed inferior vena cava specimens underwent thrombus and vein wall histological and gene expression assays. Next, in a clinical study, we conducted a post hoc analysis of the ATTRACT (Acute Venous Thrombosis: Thrombus Removal with Adjunctive Catheter-Directed Thrombolysis) pharmacomechanical catheter-directed thrombolysis (PCDT) trial (NCT00790335) to assess the effects of PCDT on Venous Insufficiency Epidemiological and Economic Study quality-of-life and Villalta scores for specific symptom-onset-to-randomization timeframes. Results: Mice that developed RBF by day 4, but not later, exhibited reduced day 8 thrombus burden parameters and reduced day 8 vein wall fibrosis and inflammation, compared with controls. In mice without RBF, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator administered at day 4, but not later, reduced day 8 thrombus burden and vein wall fibrosis. It is notable that, in mice already exhibiting RBF by day 4, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator administration did not further reduce thrombus burden or vein wall fibrosis. In the ATTRACT trial, patients receiving PCDT in an intermediate symptom-onset-to-randomization timeframe of 4 to 8 days demonstrated maximal benefits in Venous Insufficiency Epidemiological and Economic Study quality-of-life and Villalta scores (between-group difference=8.41 and 1.68, respectively, P 8 days. Conclusions: Taken together, these data illustrate that, within a restricted therapeutic window, RBF improves DVT resolution, and PCDT may improve clinical outcomes. Further studies are warranted to examine the value of time-restricted RBF strategies to reduce postthrombotic syndrome in patients with DVT.

BACKGROUND The prognostic value of coagulation disorder in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients should be demonstrated. AIM To investigate the abnormalities of coagulation parameters in the patients with COVID-19 and their prognostic values. METHODS Consecutive patients admitted in the isolation ward of Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from January 31 to February 5, 2020 with confirmed COVID-19 were included. The primary outcomes were death and survival as of March 11. Demographics, vital signs, comorbidities and laboratory tests were collected and compared between those who died and survivors. Logistic regression analysis for prognostic factors was performed. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to compare the estimated survival rate between patients with prolonged prothrombin time and normal prothrombin time. RESULTS The total number of patients with confirmed COVID-19 who were enrolled was 213. The median age was 62 years, and 95 patients (44.6%) were men. Fifty-one patients were critical (23.9%), 79 patients were severe (37.1%) and 83 patients were moderate (39%). As of March 11, 2020, 99 patients were discharged (46.5%), 79 patients (37.1%) stayed in the hospital and 35 patients (16.2%) died. Median time to death was 6 (4-8) d, while median hospital stay was 32 (22-36) d in survivors (P < 0.001). More men (P = 0.002) and elderly patients (P < 0.001) were found in the group of those who died. The respiration rate at admission was higher in the group of those who died (P < 0.001). The incidences of hypertension (P = 0.028), cerebrovascular disease (P < 0.001), chronic kidney disease (P = 0.02) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (P < 0.001) were higher in the group of those who died. Platelet count was decreased in the group of those who died (P = 0.002) whereas prothrombin time (P < 0.001), activated partial thromboplastin time (P = 0.033), concentration of D-dimer (P < 0.001) and fibrin degradation products (P < 0.001) were increased in the group of those who died. Prothrombin time [odds ratio (OR): 2.19, P = 0.004], respiration rate (OR: 1.223, P < 0.001), age (OR: 1.074, P < 0.001) and fibrin degradation products concentration (OR: 1.02, P = 0.014) were predictors of death. The survival rate was significantly lower in patients with prolonged prothrombin time compare to those with normal prothrombin time (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION Prothrombin time, concentration of fibrin degradation products, respiration rate and age were predictive factors for clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients.

Background: Previous studies showed neurography and tractography of the greater occipital nerve (GON). The purpose of this study was determining diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters of bilateral GONs and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) in unilateral cervicogenic headache as well as the grading value of DTI for severe headache. The correlation between DTI parameters and clinical characteristics was evaluated. Methods: The fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in bilateral GONs and cervical DRG (C2 and C3) were measured. Grading values for headache severity was calculated using a receiver operating characteristics curve. The correlation was analyzed with Pearson’s coefficient. Results: The FA values of the symptomatic side of GON and cervical DRG (C2 and C3) were significantly lower than that of the asymptomatic side (all the P < 0.001), while the ADC values were significantly higher (P = 0.003, P < 0.001, and P = 0.003, respectively). The FA value of 0.205 in C2 DRG was considered the grading parameter for headache severity with sensitivity of 0.743 and specificity of 0.999 (P < 0.001). A negative correlation and a positive correlation between the FA and ADC value of the GON and headache index (HI; r = -0.420, P = 0.037 and r = 0.531, P = 0.006, respectively) was found. Conclusions: DTI parameters in the symptomatic side of the C2 and C3 DRG and GON were significantly changed. The FA value of the C2 DRG can grade headache severity. DTI parameters of the GON significantly correlated with HI.

Cloning user's identity is always a thorny problem for an information system, especially for an anonymous system. With the development of big data applications, clone behaviors sometimes even become attacks on these systems. But until now, there has been no very satisfactory anti-clone scheme in the anonymous system. After analyzing the problems in existing anti-clone schemes, without any assumptions about physical security, we provide a practical solution to the clone problem in anonymous authentication system. In our scheme, the authentication is not only related to user's private key, but also related to user's current state, which is constantly updated by the system. Therefore, the authentication trajectories of user and clone will inevitably overlap, and it results in information leakage so as to indentify clone behaviors and revoke clone user's credential. Meanwhile, we prove that honest users are truly anonymous and their login behaviors are unlinkable with complete security proofs. According to the analysis of the system function and the system efficiency, our scheme is much more efficient and has the best anti-clone properties comparing with the existing schemes.

All solid-state quantum dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) have become increasingly attractive owing to their ability to solve the issues of package difficulty and poor long-term stability. However, the commonly used colloidal lead sulfide (PbS) quantum dots (QDs) suffer from having a complicated synthesis with the use of high-temperature, harmful organic solvents and a protective atmosphere. In this work, the synchronous deposition of PbS and CdS QDs, realized through a facile successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR), was proposed to construct efficient and stable solid-state QDSCs. This design concept affords two benefits: (1) the synchronous deposition of two sulfides suppresses the excessive growth of PbS QDs in the mesopores of films, thereby ensuring the efficient electron injection from PbS to TiO2; (2) the intimate interpenetration of two sulfides allows superior passivation of high-density defects on the surface of PbS QDs, which reduces the severe interfacial charge recombination. As a result, the solid-state (Pb,Cd)S QD-sensitized TiO2 solar cell achieved more than 5 times efficiency enhancement in contrast to the conventional PbS/CdS pattern based device. This work highlights the design of novel QD schemes for high performance solid-state solar cells.

Purpose As affordable equipment, electronic portal imaging devices (EPIDs) are wildly used in radiation therapy departments to verify patients' positions for accurate radiotherapy. However, these devices tend to produce visually ambiguous and low-contrast planar digital radiographs under megavoltage x ray (MV-DRs), which poses a tremendous challenge for clinicians to perform multimodal registration between the MV-DRs and the kilovoltage digital reconstructed radiographs (KV-DRRs) developed from the planning computed tomography. Furthermore, the existent of strong appearance variations also makes accurate registration beyond the reach of current automatic algorithms. Methods We propose a novel modality conversion approach to this task that first synthesizes KV images from MV-DRs, and then registers the synthesized and real KV-DRRs. We focus on the synthesis technique and develop a conditional generative adversarial network with information bottleneck extension (IB-cGAN) that takes MV-DRs and nonaligned KV-DRRs as inputs and outputs synthesized KV images. IB-cGAN is designed to address two main challenges in deep-learning-based synthesis: (a) training with a roughly aligned dataset suffering from noisy correspondences; (b) making synthesized images have real clinical meanings that faithfully reflects MV-DRs rather than nonaligned KV-DRRs. Accordingly, IB-cGAN employs (a) an adversarial loss to provide training supervision at semantic level rather than the imprecise pixel level; (b) an IB to constrain the information from the nonaligned KV-DRRs. Results We collected 2698 patient scans to train the model and 208 scans to test its performance. The qualitative results demonstrate realistic KV images can be synthesized allowing clinicians to perform the visual registration. The quantitative results show it significantly outperforms current nonmodality conversion methods by 22.37% (P = 0.0401) in terms of registration accuracy. Conclusions The modality conversion approach facilitates the downstream MV-KV registration for both clinicians and off-the-shelf registration algorithms. With this approach, it is possible to benefit the developing countries where inexpensive EPIDs are widely used for the image-guided radiation therapy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of hormonal contraceptives and infertility drugs with the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular disease. The Taiwan National Health Institute Research Database was searched for women who had taken hormonal contraceptives or infertility medications from 2000 to 2010. The two groups were age and index date matched with controls (1:4 ratios). Cox regression analysis was used to examine the risks of VTE, DTE, PE, ischemic stroke, and cardiovascular disease. A total of 32,067 women were included in the hormonal contraceptives group and 4710 in the infertility medications group (matched controls: 127,872 and 18,840, respectively). After adjustment for age, comorbidities, and other confounders, the contraceptives group had a higher risk of VTE (adjusted HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.004 to 1.30) and cardiovascular disease (adjusted HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.26 to 1.34), and lower risk of ischemic stroke (adjusted HR 0.90, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.95). The infertility medications group had a higher risk of VTE (adjusted HR 1.996, 95% CI 1.41 to 2.72) and DVT (adjusted HR 1.86, 95% CI 1.31 to 2.63), and lower risk of ischemic stroke (adjusted HR 0.82, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.99) and cardiovascular disease (adjusted HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.94). Hormonal contraceptives and infertility medications appear to lower the risk of ischemic stroke and increase the risk of VTE; however, their effect on the risk of other types of cardiovascular events varies.

In this work, an obvious enhancement of pyroelectrically-driven catalytic activity is found in BaTiO3@ZnO heterostructures synthesized hydrothermally and then calcined. The pure BaTiO3 is able to decompose up to 45% of the RhB dye in aqueous solution (5 mg/L) under 30–54 °C cold-hot cycle. As the ZnO content coating on the surface of the BaTiO3 nanofibers is increased from 0 to 5 wt%, the decomposition ratio of the BaTiO3@ZnO heterostructures for RhB dye in aqueous solution first increases and then decreases, giving a maximum value of 97% at 2.5 wt%. The kinetic rate constant (K = 0.06384 cycle−1) of the catalytic reaction for BaTiO3 @2.5%ZnO is 4 times higher than that of pure BaTiO3. The enhancement of catalytic activity of BaTiO3@ZnO may be due to the formation of a semiconductor junction in which the electric field effectively separating the pyro-induced electron-hole pairs and further accelerates carrier migration. The ferroelectric heterostructures of BaTiO3@ZnO show pyroelectrically-driven-catalysis and may hold potential for use in decomposing dye wastewater through harvesting cold-hot alternation thermal-energy.

Purpose: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging focal treatment modality for prostate cancer. However, the efficacy, safety, and functional outcomes of PDT are not clear. We performed a meta-analysis of available single-arm studies and control trials which used PDT for prostate cancer. Materials and methods: We searched Pubmed, Embase, Ovid and the Cochrane library (until March,2018) for studies about PDT in patients with prostate cancer. The negative biopsy rate after PDT, PSA decreasing rate, pooled rate of functional outcome (IPSS or IIEF-5), and adverse events were analyzed. Results: 14 studies containing 654 patients were included. Nine of the 14 included studies had evaluated a negative biopsy rate after PDT. The pooled rate was 55.0% (95.0% CI: 0.44–0.66, I2 = 85.7%). Twelve of the 14 included studies which evaluated PSA decreasing rate with the pooled rate of 35.0% (95.0% CI: 0.24–0.47, I2 = 88.7%). Six of the included studies evaluated IPSS with decreasing rate of 29.1% (95.0 % CI: 2.7%–55.5%, I2 = 96.9%). Five of the included studies evaluated IIEF-5 with decreasing rate of 14.9% (95.0% CI: 6.8%–23.0%, I2 = 44.2%). The most common adverse events were haematuria (28.1%, 95.0% CI: 17.1%–39.2%, I2 = 79.8%), erectile dysfunction (23.1%, 95.0% CI: 9.7%–36.5%, I2 = 87.7%), and dysuria (18.6%, 95.0% CI: 12.1%–25.0 %, I2 = 53.4 %). Conclusions: The meta-analysis results shows that PDT for patients with prostate cancer can be considered as effective based on single-arm clinical trials. Meanwhile, this study reveals that there are not only low levels of side effect rates but also insignificant effect on both urinary and erectile function. However, more high-quality RCTs are needed to evaluate the comparative efficacy, safety, and functional outcomes of PDT for patients with prostate cancer. Keywords: Meta-analysis, Photochemotherapy, Prostatic neoplasms

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, of which the occurrence and development involve a variety of pathophysiological processes, such as liver fibrosis, hepatocellular malignant proliferation, metastasis, and tumor angiogenesis. Some important cytokines, such as TGF-β, PI3K, protein kinase B (Akt), VEGF and NF-κB, can regulate the growth, proliferation, diffusion, metastasis, and apoptosis of HCC cells by acting on the corresponding signaling pathways. Besides, many studies have shown that the formation of HCC is closely related to the main components of renin-angiotensin system (RAS), such as Ang II, ACE, ACE2, MasR, AT1R, and AT2R. Therefore, this review focused on liver fibrosis, HCC cell proliferation, metastasis, tumor angiogenesis, and corresponding protective measures. ACE-Ang II-AT1 axis and ACE2-Ang-(1−7)-MasR axis were taken as the main lines to introduce the mechanism of RAS in the occurrence and development of HCC, so as to provide references for future clinical work and scientific research.

Background: Patients infected with a virus usually lack vitamin C. High-dose vitamin C has an antiviral effect, and has been used by several researchers to treat COVID-19 by intravenous infusion, achieving good results. However, the efficacy and safety of vitamin C in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 remain unclear. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of high-dose vitamin C infusion in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Methods: Electronic databases were searched, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure database, Chinese Wanfang database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature database. The aim was to collect randomized controlled trials of high-dose vitamin C infusion in the treatment of patients with COVID-19, with the retrieval time being from the establishment of the database to March 2021. In accordance with the pre-designed inclusion/exclusion criteria, all data were extracted independently by 2 researchers. To assess the risk bias in the studies, the Cochrane collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias was used to assess the risk bias in the studies, while meta-analysis was performed using Revman 5.3 software. Results: In the present study, a high-quality comprehensive evaluation is provided of high-dose vitamin C infusion in the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Conclusion: Further convincing evidence for the clinical treatment of COVID-19 is provided, in addition to evidence-based guidance for clinical practice. PROSPERO Registration Number: CRD42021246342.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most commonly reported mental health consequences, followed by disasters and traumatic events, either natural or man-made. At present, there are no unified results for the prevalence rate of PTSD in patients suffering from acute trauma and related influencing factors. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the existing literatures, thus obtaining a comprehensive estimation of the combined prevalence rate of PTSD and related factors in trauma patients, so as to provide evidence support for clinical disease prediction models and intervention strategies. Methods: Published articles will be retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Science and Technology Journal Database, and Wanfang Database. Research reports will be searched in March 2021. STATA 14.0 software will be applied for data analysis. Mantel–Haenszel fixed effect model or DerSimonian–Laird random effect model will be selected to estimate the pooled prevalence of PTSD in patients with acute trauma and associated factors. Results: We will disseminate the findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis via publications in peer-reviewed journals. Conclusions: The results of this analysis can be used to establish a risk prediction model of PTSD in patients experiencing acute trauma, so as to provide intervention strategies. OSF Registration Number: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/Z275U.

In the context of the new era, the concept of smart transportation has appeared in people’s lives. Detecting vehicles and pedestrians has become a popular application research direction in the field of target detection. Aiming at the problem that traditional methods have low accuracy in vehicle detection in the actual environment, a vehicle detection method based on the CenterNet model in deep learning is proposed. When constructing the model, this paper regards the target as a point— the center point of the target BBox. The detector uses key point estimation to find the center point and returns to other target attributes, such as size, 3D position, direction, and even pose. This paper uses Peking University/Baidu_Autonomous Driving dataset for training and testing. The experimental results show that compared with Inception-ResNet-V2 and Efficient-Det, the method proposed in this paper has significantly improved the average detection accuracy. It has a good detection effect for vehicles in actual scenes, and the network has certain robustness.

Background The profiles of liver function abnormalities in COVID‐19 patients need to be clarified. Methods In this retrospective study, consecutive COVID‐19 patients over 60 years old in Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University from Jan 1 to Feb 6 were included. Data of demographics, clinical characteristics, comorbidities, laboratory tests, medications and outcomes were collected and analyzed. Sequential alterations of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were monitored. Results 330 patients were included and classified into two groups with normal (n=234) or elevated ALT (n=96). There were fewer females (40.6% vs 54.7%, P=0.020) and more critical cases (30.2% vs. 19.2%, P=0.026) in patients with elevated ALT compared to the normal group. Higher levels of bacterial infection indices (e.g. white blood cell count, neutrophil count, C‐reactive protein and procalcitonin) were observed in the elevated group. Spearman correlation showed that both ALT and AST levels were positively correlated with those indices of bacterial infection. No obvious effects of medications on ALT abnormalities were found. In patients with elevated ALT, most ALT elevations were mild and transient. 59.4% of the patients had ALT concentrations of 41–100 U/L, while only a few patients (5.2%) had high serum ALT concentrations above 300 U/L. ALT elevations occurred at 13 (10–17) days and recovered at 28 (18–35) days from disease onset. For most patients, the elevation of serum ALT levels occurred at 6–20 days after disease onset and reached their peak values within a similar time frame. The recovery of serum ALT levels to normal frequently occurred at 16–20 days or 31–35 days after disease onset. Conclusions Liver function abnormalities were observed in 29.1% of the elderly COVID‐19 patients, which were slightly and transient in most cases. Liver function abnormalities in COVID‐19 may be correlated with bacterial infection.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a process for making complex parts that were once difficult to machine using traditional manufacturing processes such as forging, casting, and welding. As a new and promising processing technology, AM is being increasingly applied to the manufacturing of high temperature turbine parts. However, before the widespread application of AM can become feasible, the influence of such processes on the performance of turbine hot ends — especially during the film cooling flow heat transfer — requires further study. This paper focuses a large eddy simulation study done in order to understand the physical phenomena involved in the random roughness caused by the AM of fan-shaped film holes. This paper proposes a set of workflows to connect the AM, CFD simulation, Computed Tomography (CT) and reverse modeling, so that the effect of AM on the flow and heat transfer of film cooling can be studied. The results of this preliminary workflow reveal several observations. First, that the film cooling effectiveness (η) of AM fan-shaped holes decreases. The area averaged η of the ideal hole is 0.32, while the area averaged cooling effectiveness of the AM hole is 0.29. As such, the η of the AM fan-shaped hole has a significant bifurcation phenomenon. This is because the separation bubble in-tube moves forward, and blocks the flow channel, which bifrucates the flow in-tube. Second, a pressure gradient towards the trailing edge generated at a random rough surface near the leading edge squeezes the fluid. The combined effect of these two mechanisms causes the fluid to flow out of the air film pores mainly from the leading edge with a smaller lateral expansion.

Background and aim Our previous study found carotid baroreceptor stimulation (CBS) reduces body weight and white adipose tissue (WAT) weight, restores abnormal secretion of adipocytokines and inflammation factors, decreases systolic blood pressure (SBP) by inhibiting activation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in obese rats. In this study, we explore effects of CBS on aortic remodeling in obese rats. Methods and results Rats were fed high-fat diet (HFD) for 16 weeks to induce obesity and underwent either CBS device implantation and stimulation or sham operation at 8 weeks. BP and body weight were measured weekly. RAS activity of WAT, histological, biochemical and functional profiles of aortas were detected after 16 weeks. CBS effectively decreased BP in obese rats, downregulated mRNA expression of angiotensinogen (AGT) and renin in WAT, concentrations of AGT, renin, angiotensin II (Ang II), protein levels of Ang II receptor 1 (AT1R) and Ang II receptor 2 (AT2R) in WAT were declined. CBS inhibited reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, inflammatory response and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in aortas of obese rats, restrained vascular wall thickening and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) phenotypic switching, increased nitric oxide (NO) synthesis, promoted endothelium-dependent vasodilatation by decreasing protein expression of AT1R and leptin receptor (LepR), increasing protein expression of adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) in aortic VSMCs. Conclusion CBS reduced BP and reversed aortic remodeling in obese rats, the underlying mechanism might be related to the suppressed SNS activity, restored adipocytokine secretion and restrained RAS activity of WAT.

Most of the previous image stitching methods only perform well on standard datasets. These methods assume that the images are collected under ideal conditions such as sufficient light and low noise. However, these methods can't be applied well to more complex practical scenarios. This paper proposes a multi-scenes image stitching method for autonomous driving, which uses autoencoder networks to extract feature points. The feature point extraction network includes a dimensionality-reduced feature extraction path and a precisely located symmetrical decoding path. The proposed method can provide a stable wide field of view for autonomous vehicles under different weather and different lighting conditions. Multiple experimental data show the effectiveness of the method.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of protecting the facial nerve and reducing the scar visibility using a modified tragus edge and transmasseteric anteroparotid approach compared to classic preauricular approach for intracapsular and condylar neck fractures. This retrospective study included 64 patients (78 sides) who underwent surgical treatment for intracapsular or condylar neck fractures from January 2014 to June 2018. Patients were divided into the experimental group (treated via a modified tragus edge and transmasseteric anteroparotid approach), and the control group (treated via the classical preauricular approach). Therapeutic outcome assessment parameters included facial nerve injury, salivary fistulae, wound infection, restricted mouth opening, postoperative occlusion disorders, and scar visibility. In the control group, there were 3 cases of facial nerve injuries and 2 cases of salivary fistulae. One case of temporary facial nerve injury occurred in the experimental group, with complete recovery within 1 month. The scars were less visible in the experimental group than in the control group. These results suggest that a modified tragus edge and transmasseteric anteroparotid approach reduced the incidences of facial nerve injuries, minimized the scar visibility, improved exposure of the operative site and fixation of titanium screws or plates, and did not increase the frequency of other complications.

To reduce the energy consumption and emissions of a hydraulic excavator (HE), an electric motor (EM) is employed to replace the internal combustion engine (ICE) that powers the hydraulic pumps. Owing to the excellent control characteristics and high efficiency of the EM, a two-level idle speed control system with a hydraulic accumulator (HA) for a HE is proposed to reduce energy consumption and improve the control performance of the actuator when the idle speed control (ISC) is switched off. A mathematical model is established and key parameters are analyzed and optimized. A simulation is performed using AMESim, and a control strategy for the two-level idle speed control is developed by using a co-simulation between AMESim and Simulink. A test rig is built based on the optimized parameters and simulation results. Experimental results show that the EM speed can be automatically switched between the first idle speed, second idle speed, and normal operating speed. Although the idle speed of the EM in the novel ISC system can be reduced more than that in a conventional ISC system, the proposed ISC system can still build actuator pressure more quickly in a working mode when the ISC is switched off. Compared to a system without idle speed control, the energy saving of the proposed system is approximately 36.06%. The proposed two-level idle speed control system with a HA can achieve high energy efficiency and excellent control performance, and it can be also applied to engine-driven construction machinery.

Fourteen selected parameters of the reactor response were used to train a multi-connected Support Vector Machines (SVM) model. With proper optimization, the SVM model demonstrated accurate prediction for hot-leg break LOCA, cold-leg break LOCA, and SGTR, and their break sizes. The prediction accuracy is higher in the early phase (

Antioxidants play an early intervention role in the pathogenesis of kidney injury by alleviating oxidative damage to the injured kidney. The development of safe and effective reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers for acute kidney injury (AKI) treatment is still worth exploring. Here, we presented tetrahedral framework nucleic acids (tFNAs) as a therapeutic drug for the treatment of rhabdomyolysis (RM)-AKI. tFNAs exhibited protective effects of cells mainly by relieving oxidative stress and inhibiting apoptosis. The features of tFNAs greatly facilitated kidney enrichment and decreased kidney injuries after injection in AKI models. Our findings showed that tFNAs constituted a novel class of antioxidative nanomaterials for AKI treatment with excellent antioxidant efficiency, superior structure stability, preferential kidney accumulation and good biocompatibility.

Vector quantization (VQ) has been successfully used in data compression and feature extraction areas. Codebook design is the essential step of VQ. The K-means algorithm is a famous data clustering technique which is also an efficient codebook design scheme. The main disadvantages of K-means algorithm lie in that the initial cluster centroids greatly affect the convergence speed and the final clustering performance. In the past two decades, many codebook initialization techniques have been proposed. However, most of these techniques do not make full use of the features of the training vectors, and some techniques require high extra computational load. This paper presents an efficient and simple technique for the conventional K-means algorithm based on feature classification and grouping. Firstly, all training vectors are classified into sixteen categories based on a two-level classifier including an edge classifier and a contrast classifier. Then, the training vectors in each category are sorted based on their norm values and divided into groups. Each group has the same size, and the centroid vector of each group is calculated as an initial codeword. Experimental results show that, compared with several typical initialization techniques, our technique can obtain a better codebook along with a faster convergence speed in a shorter time.

The combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) system with thermal energy storage (TES) driven by micro turbine is studied in this paper, which are used in the restaurant and commercial building. The impact of the introduction of TES on the energy and economic performance of CCHP system has been analyzed. The result shows that the CCHP systems with TES had higher capital cost and less energy consumption and operation cost, compared with that without TES. And the annualized life cycle cost of CCHP system with TES was slightly lower than that without TES. Additionally, the economic benefit of CCHP system with TES is worse than the conventional separate production (SP) system, although the primary energy consumption of it is significantly lower than the SP system.

In this paper, we investigate the layout of LED to optimize SNR by selecting communicating LEDs (C-LEDs) in indoor visible light communication (VLC) system. Due to the inter-symbol interference (ISI) caused by the different arrival time of different optical rays, the SNR for any user is not optimal if a simple layout is adopted. It is interesting to investigate the LEDs layout for achieving optimal SNR in indoor VLC system. For a single user, LED signal is divided into the positive and negative components, they provide the power of desired signal and the power of ISI respectively. We introduce the concept of valid ratio (VR) which refers to the value of positive component over the negative component. Then we propose a VR threshold-based LED selection scheme which chooses C-LEDs by their VRs. For downlink broadcast VLC with multiple users, the SNRs of all users are different in a layout of C-LEDs. It is difficult to find a proper layout of C-LEDs to guarantee the BER of all users. To solve this problem, we propose an evolutionary algorithm (EA)-based scheme to optimize the SNR. The simulation results show that it is an effective method to improve SNR by selecting C-LEDs.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients complicated with infections experience severe vitamin D deficiency. High-dose vitamin D is applied to the treatment of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by some researchers, and good results have been achieved. However, the efficacy of vitamin D in the treatment of infections in COVID-19 patients with diabetes remains unclarified. This study aims to explore the effect of oral high-dose vitamin D in the treatment of diabetic patients with COVID-19. METHODS: Randomized controlled trials about the application of high-dose vitamin D in the treatment of diabetic patients with COVID-19 will be retrieved from such electronic databases as Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure database, Chinese Wanfang database and Chinese Biomedical Literature database. The retrieval time is from their inception to December 2020. According to the pre-designed inclusion/exclusion criteria, the data will be extracted independently by two researchers. The risk of bias of the included studies will be assessed by the Cochrane collaboration's tool. Meta-analysis will be conducted by using Revman 5.3 software. RESULTS: A high-quality and comprehensive evaluation of oral high-dose vitamin D for the treatment of diabetic patients with COVID-19 will be made. CONCLUSION: The article will provide more convincing evidence and evidence-based guidance for clinical practice. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The private information of individuals will not be made public, and this systematic evaluation will also not infringe on the rights of participants. Ethical approval is not required. Research results may be published in a peer-reviewed journal or disseminated in relevant conferences. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020214284.

RATIONALE Crouzon syndrome is a craniofacial malformation caused by premature fusion of fibrous sutures in infants. It is one of the most common craniosynostosis syndromes, and surgery is the only effective treatment for correcting it. Postoperative complications such as encephalocele, infections, hematoma have been reported. We herein report a case of a 62-month-old boy with Crouzon syndrome who underwent fronto-orbital advancing osteotomy, cranial vault remolding, and extensive osteotomy and subsequently developed left proptosis and severe chemosis, these complications are rare and we believe it will be of use to clinicians, physicians, and researchers alike. PATIENT CONCERNS The patient's skull had been malformed since birth, and he had been experiencing paroxysmal headaches coupled with vomiting for 4 months. Having never received prior treatment, he underwent fronto-orbital advancement at our clinic; afterward, left proptosis and severe chemosis occurred. DIAGNOSIS The patient was diagnosed with Crouzon syndrome, and the complications included left proptosis and severe chemosis, confirmed by the clinical manifestations, physical examination, and computed tomography (CT). INTERVENTION We carried out cranial vault remodeling and fronto-orbital advancement. We applied ophthalmic chlortetracycline ointment on the conjunctivae, elevated the patient's head, evacuated the hematoma, and carried out a left blepharorrhaphy. OUTCOMES The proptosis and chemosis resolved with no recurrence. No other complications occurred during the follow-up period (12 months), and CT scans revealed that the hematoma had disappeared. The calvarial vault reshaping was satisfactorily performed, and the patient's vision was not impaired. LESSONS Severe proptosis and chemosis are rare complications that can occur after fronto-orbital advancement for Crouzon syndrome. A detailed preoperative examination (including magnetic resonance imaging and CT) is essential for diagnosis. Complete hemostasis, evacuation of hematoma, and placement of a periorbital drainage tube during surgery all contribute to an effective treatment plan. An ophthalmic ointment should be administered, and the patient's head should be elevated during the procedure. Evacuation of retrobulbar epidural hematoma and blepharorrhaphy could also help relieve proptosis and chemosis. Our report describes 2 rare complications associated with the treatment for Crouzon syndrome, and we believe it will be of use to clinicians, physicians, and researchers alike.

Here, by using the first-principles method, magnetic and electronic properties of (6, 0) boron nitride nanotubes fluorinated with single fluorine atom (SF-BNNT) or double fluorine atoms (DF-BNNTs) have been investigated. The numerical results show that the non-magnetic and semiconducting BNNT turns to be ferromagnetic and half metallic after a single fluorine atom adsorption. For DF-BNNTs, all the adsorption configurations show ferromagnetic features. However, the electronic properties of DF-BNNTs are closely dependent on adsorption sites of the F adatoms for DF-BNNTs. With different adsorption configurations, DF-BNNTs can be semiconductors, half metals or even conductors. The spin-dependent current-voltage curves of two-probe devices constructed by SF-BNNT or DF-BNNTs indicate that some of the devices manifest high spin filtering efficiency, which can be attributed to the overlap change for the spin-resolved energy bands of two electrodes. This work is helpful for applications of the BNNT in molecular spintronics.

Long term evolution standard employs the discontinuous reception (DRX) technology to help user equipment (UE) in energy saving. After the UE received nothing from the base station for a predefined time span, it turns off the radio frequency module to enter sleep mode for energy saving. An UE may fail to handover or lost connection for late handover in case it enters sleep mode before handover and missed the optimal handover timing, therefore results in data loss. This paper proposes an energy saving mechanism with a prediction based intra-handover which predicts the next target handover base station and the optimal handover time according to the historical path data kept in a database. The UE would check whether the next sleep mode outlast the handover time point before entering sleep mode to reduce power consumption for handover failure caused by the long DRX cycle and base station reselection. Simulation results show that the DRX mechanism helps reduce power consumption of UE by 90---95 % over the conventional one more than 7 % handover failures. The energy saving mechanism combined with route prediction leads to 22 % more energy saving while cutting handover failures to 5 %.

A location-adaptive transmission scheme for indoor visible light communication (VLC) system is proposed in this paper. In this scheme, the symbol error rate (SER) of less than 10-3 should be guaranteed. And the scheme is realized by the variable multilevel pulse-position modulation (MPPM), where the transmitters adaptively adjust the number of time slots n in the MPPM symbol according to the position of the receiver. The purpose of our scheme is to achieve the best data rate in the indoor different locations. The results show that the location-adaptive transmission scheme based on the variable MPPM is superior in the indoor VLC system.

Background: Patients with the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) often see their respiratory, physical, and psychological functions impaired to varying degrees, especially for the elderly patients. Timely respiratory rehabilitation intervention for such patients may improve their prognoses. However, its relative effectiveness has not been proved. Therefore, this study is purposed to determine the effect of respiratory rehabilitation on elderly patients with COVID-19. Methods: This study will search the following electronic databases: Embase, MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, China national knowledge infrastructure database, Wan Fang database, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, with the retrieval period running from their inception to August 2020. All randomized controlled trials of respiratory rehabilitation training on elderly patients with COVID-19 are collected, and the data are selected and extracted independently according to the pre-designed inclusion/exclusion criteria. Cochrane bias risk assessment tool is used to evaluate the method quality and bias risk. All data analyses will be implemented by using Revman5.3 and Stata14 software. Results: This study will make a high-quality and comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of respiratory rehabilitation training on elderly patients with COVID-19. Conclusion: The conclusions of this systematic review will deliver more convincing evidence. Ethics and dissemination: The private information collected from individuals will not be published. And this systematic review will also not involve impairing the participants’ rights. Ethical approval is not required. The results may be published in a peer-reviewed journal or disseminated in relevant conferences.

The idea of replacing traditional silicon-based electronic components with the ones assembled by organic molecules to further scale down the electric circuits has been attracting extensive research focuses. Among the molecularly assembled components, the design of molecular logic gates with simple structure and high Boolean computing speed remains a great challenge. Here, by using the state-of-the-art nonequilibrium Green’s function theory in conjugation with first-principles method, the spin transport properties of single-molecule junctions comprised of two serially connected transition metal dibenzotetraaza[14]annulenes (TM(DBTAA), TM = Fe, Co) sandwiched between two single-walled carbon nanotube electrodes are theoretically investigated. The numerical results show a close dependence of the spin-resolved current-voltage characteristics on spin configurations between the left and right molecular kernels and the kind of TM atom in TM(DBTAA) molecule. By taking advantage of spin degree of freedom of electrons, NOR or XNOR Boolean logic gates can be realized in Fe(DBTAA) and Co(DBTAA) junctions depending on the definitions of input and output signals. This work proposes a new kind of molecular logic gates and hence is helpful for further miniaturization of the electric circuits.

In this paper, YSZ-based mixed potential SO2 sensor with ZnGa2O4 and Pt electrodes was developed and the effect of the continuous testing and aging process on the sensing characteristics was discussed. The results showed that with this process the response of the sensor to SO2 performed an opposite direction to that in the sensor’s initial state. The reason might be that the PtS produced at the Pt electrode increased the electrochemical catalytic activity of the Pt electrode, leading to the mixed potential of the Pt electrode higher than that of the ZnGa2O4 electrode. XPS and EDS results proved that a lot of Pt2+ and S2− were produced at Pt electrode after this process. Moreover, vulcanized sensor also performed similar sensing properties to the above aging sensor, which indicated that the produced PtS should be the reason that the sensor performed reverse deflection on sensing properties. In addition, the sensor after sulfuration can detect 0.05−500 ppm SO2 with the sensitivity being 5 mV/decade to 0.05−1 ppm and 41 mV/decade to 1−500 ppm. The sensor also had a reliable stability during the continuous measurement.

Monolayer (ML) graphdiyne, a two-dimensional semiconductor with appropriate band gap and high carrier mobility, is a promising candidate for channel material in field effect transistors (FETs). Using density functional theory combined with non-equilibrium Green's function method, we systematically investigate the contact and transport properties of graphdiyne FETs with various electrodes, including metals (Cu, Au, Ni, Al and Ag) and MXenes (Cr2C, Ta2C and V2C). Strong interaction can be found between ML graphdiyne and the Cu, Ni and MXenes electrodes with indistinguishable band structure of ML graphdiyne, while weak or medium interaction exists in the contacts of ML graphdiyne and the Au, Al and Ag electrodes where the band structure of ML graphdiyne remains intact. Despite the different contact interactions, Ohmic contacts are generated with all considered electrode materials owing to the weak Fermi level pinning of graphdiyne. The linear I-V characteristic curve verifies the Ohmic contact between Au electrode and graphdiyne ultimately. The theoretically calculated Schottky barrier heights of graphdiyne with Cu electrode are consistent with the available experimental data. Our calculation suggests that graphdiyne is an excellent channel material of FETs forming desired Ohmic contacts with wide-ranging electrodes and thus is promising to fabricate high performance FETs.

Non-axisymmetric endwall contouring in axial turbines are becoming popular to improve the passage aerodynamic performance or the endwall heat transfer characteristics. Meanwhile, endwall contouring changes the film cooling performance on the endwall surface by modifying the secondary flow fields and the endwall surface shapes, thus impacting the turbine efficiency and durability. Better understandings of the non-axisymmetric contoured endwall film cooling performances are in great need. In this study, adiabatic film cooling effectiveness (η) of discrete film cooling hole injections at different axial locations on an non-axisymmetric contoured endwall and a baseline endwall with different density ratios and matched averaged blowing ratios to the engine conditions are studied experimentally using Pressure Sensitivity Paint (PSP) technique. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are also carried out to look into the local flow fields. The results show that the differences in endwall η distributions between the contoured endwall and the baseline endwall are dominated by the streamwise pressure gradients, i.e. at locations with smaller streamwise pressure gradient values on the contoured endwall than those on the flat endwall, the local η values on the contoured endwall are smaller than those on the flat endwall, and vice versa.

OBJECTIVES: Our purpose was to examine the associations of female genital infections and certain comorbidities with infertility. METHODS: The Taiwan National Health Research Database was searched for women with a new diagnosis of infertility between 2000 and 2013. Women without a diagnosis of infertility served as a control group and were matched with the infertility cases by age (±3 years) and index year. They were divided into two groups: ≤40 years old and >40 years old. Univariate and multivariate conditional logistic regression models were employed to identify the risk factors associated with infertility. RESULTS: A total of 18,276 women with a new diagnosis of infertility and 73,104 matched controls (mean cohort age, 31±6.2 years) were included. According to the adjusted multivariate analysis, pelvic inflammatory disease involving the ovary, fallopian tube, pelvic cellular tissue, peritoneum (odds ratio (OR)=4.823), and uterus (OR=3.050) and cervical, vaginal, and vulvar inflammation (OR=7.788) were associated with an increased risk of infertility in women aged ≤40 years. In women aged >40 years, pelvic inflammatory disease of the ovary, fallopian tube, pelvic cellular tissue, and peritoneum (OR=6.028) and cervical, vaginal, and vulvar inflammation (OR=6.648) were associated with infertility. Obesity, lipid metabolism disorders, dysthyroidism, abortion (spontaneous or induced), bacterial vaginosis, endometritis, and tubo-ovarian abscess were associated with an increased risk of infertility according to the univariate analysis but not the multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Female genital tract infections, but not the comorbidities studied here, are associated with an increased risk of infertility.

Background: Despite anticoagulation therapy, up to 50% of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) patients still develop the post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), a condition that arises from thrombus obstruction and vein wall damage, leading to venous hypertension. While catheter-based intervention may reduce PTS, the CaVenT and ATTRACT trials demonstrated little clinical benefit of intentional restoration of blood flow (RBF) for reducing PTS. However, these trials have not explored the time-dependence of RBF, a key factor as aging VT are associated with greater vein wall injury. Methods: To investigate the temporal effects of intentional RBF following VT, we modified a classic complete ligation inferior vena cava (IVC) stasis VT protocol in C57BL/6 mice by de-ligating the day 0 ligature at day 2 to allow RBF. Compared to intravital microscopy, the sensitivity and specificity of noninvasive ultrasound (US) to detect RBF was 82.1% and 94.4%, respectively. Serial US was then performed on mice. Mice were classified as early RBF (RBF by day 4), late RBF (RBF after day 4), no RBF, or sham de-ligation groups. Follow day 8 sacrifice, thrombus burden (mg/cm) and vein wall scarring (VWS) were measured. Kruskal-Wallis followed by Dunn’s test was used to compare statistical significance between groups. Results: After de-ligation, RBF through VT increased gradually over time (Fig. A). The early RBF group exhibited significant reductions in VT burden (N=9) and VWS (N=5) at day 8 ( p Conclusions: Intentional early RBF reduces venous thrombus burden and VWS, factors that drive PTS. Mechanistic studies to address these findings are going. The overall results suggest that anti-PTS benefits of catheter-based intervention may be enhanced in subjects receiving early RBF.

Changkun Huang,* Zhichao Huang,* Xiaokun Zhao, Yinhuai Wang, Hongqing Zhao, Zhaohui Zhong, Lang Wang Department of Urology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Background: High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), a versatile protein with intranuclear and extracellular functions, plays an important role in a variety of human cancers. However, the clinical/prognostic significance of HMGB1 expression in human bladder urothelial carcinoma (BUC) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the HMGB1 expression in human BUC with regard to its clinical and prognostic significance.Patients and methods: HMGB1 mRNA and protein expressions in tumor and paired normal bladder tissues were detected in 20 BUC cases by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot. HMGB1 protein expression in 165 primary BUC tissues was evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC), and its correlations with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were also analyzed. Student’s t-test, χ2 test, Kaplan–Meier plots, and Cox proportional hazard regression model were performed to analyze the data. Results: By using qRT-PCR and Western blot, the upregulated expression of HMGB1 mRNA and protein was detected in BUC, compared with paired normal tissue (P

Purpose: To compare the treatment efficacy of percutaneous catheter drainage alone to catheter drainage combined with ozone in the management of pyogenic liver abscess (PLA). Material and methods: This prospective study included 85 patients diagnosed with PLA. All patients were randomly divided into two groups: catheter drainage alone (Group I); catheter drainage combined with ozone (Group II). Drainage was considered successful when: 1) the abscess cavities were completely drained, and 2) clinical symptoms were resolved. Kruskall-Wallis nonparametric test was used to compare the success rates, length of stay (LOS), and need of further surgery. A value of p < 0.05 was considered significant for all statistical analyses. Results: In all the patients’ percutaneous catheters were placed successfully under the guidance of computed tomography. All of the patients in Group I (43; 50.6%) were treated with percutaneous catheter drainage alone, while the patients in Group II (42; 49.4%) were treated with PCD combined with ozone. The success rates of Group I and II were 81% and 94%, respectively (p < 0.05). The duration of fever as well as LOS was longer for Group I when compared with Group II (p

Objective. This study was designed to compare the effects of catheter drainage alone and combined with ozone in the management of multiloculated pyogenic liver abscess (PLA). Methods. The prospective study included 60 patients diagnosed with multiloculated PLA. All patients were randomly divided into two groups: catheter drainage alone (group I) and catheter drainage combined with ozone (group II). Drainage was considered successful when (1) the abscess cavity was drained and (2) clinical symptoms were resolved. Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test was used to compare the success rates, length of stay (LOS), and need for further surgery of the two groups. P<0.05 indicates significant difference. Results. All patients’ catheters were successfully placed under CT guidance. Group I was treated with catheters alone and group II was treated with catheters and ozone. The success rates of groups I and II were 86% and 96%, respectively (P<0.05). And compared with group II, the duration of fever in group I was longer (P<0.05), and the LOS was also longer (P<0.05). Conclusion. Catheter drainage combined with ozone is an effective and safe treatment in multiloculated PLA. The Clinical Registration Number is ChiCTR1800014865.

The key techniques in indoor positioning based on visible light communication and the state of the art of this research were surveyed. First, the significance of indoor positioning based on visible light communication from two aspects of the limitations of current indoor positioning technology and the advantages of visible light communication was discussed; And then, the main four technology of indoor positioning based on visible light communication were summarized and the triangulation of RSS method and the principle of image positioning were introduced in detail; Next, the performance characteristics of various typical algorithms were compared and analyzed; In the end, several suggestions on future research of indoor positioning based on visible light communication were given.

This review provides a comprehensive summary of the most recent developments of various aspects (i.e., production, purification, structure, and bioactivity) of the exopolysaccharides (EPSs) from Paenibacillus spp. For the production, in particular, squid pen waste was first utilized successfully to produce a high yield of inexpensive EPSs from Paenibacillus sp. TKU023 and P. macerans TKU029. In addition, this technology for EPS production is prevailing because it is more environmentally friendly. The Paenibacillus spp. EPSs reported from various references constitute a structurally diverse class of biological macromolecules with different applications in the broad fields of pharmacy, cosmetics and bioremediation. The EPS produced by P. macerans TKU029 can increase in vivo skin hydration and may be a new source of natural moisturizers with potential value in cosmetics. However, the relationships between the structures and activities of these EPSs in many studies are not well established. The contents and data in this review will serve as useful references for further investigation, production, structure and application of Paenibacillus spp. EPSs in various fields.

This paper presents activity selection-based single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) uplink scheduling, which takes into account both co-tier and cross-tier interferences as well as the SC-FDMA contaminants of continuous resource allocation and robust modulation and coding scheme. Optimized frequency resource allocation is formulated as an activity selection problem that can be solved using a greedy method. Simulation results demonstrate the ability of the proposed method in reducing the average blocking rate, compared with round-robin, recursive maximum expansion, adaptive resource allocation and allocate as granted-robust SC-FDMA uplink scheduling schemes, thereby enhancing the average satisfaction rate, average data rate, and fairness index. To enhance the signal quality, co-tier interference is avoided through the application of a femtocell grouping scheme, while cross-tier interference is reduced through dedicated channel deployment. Simulation results to evaluate the proposed scheme demonstrated an improvement of between 3 and 61 % in overall throughput, compared with full channel reuse, conventional graph coloring and dedicated channel deployment schemes.

IEEE 802.16j spreads out the coverage of WiMAX networks and strengthens wireless signal transmission using relay technology. To take advantage of relaying in IEEE 802.16j networks, an efficient scheduling schedule with quality of service (QoS) provision for multiple link transmissions is necessary, especially when link interference exists. In this paper, we propose an uplink scheduling mechanism in the transparent mode of IEEE 802.16j, which enables multiple devices to transmit without interference. The maximum latency of each connection has been considered in order to optimize the violation and transmission rate. An interference detection task is first carried out, and then a resource allocation algorithm and a dynamic frame adjustment method are developed. Two simulation experiments were conducted with different interference levels. The results demonstrate that under a fixed QoS type of connection, when the total number of connections goes up to 360 and 420 and the maximum latency violation rate approac...

In the present article, natural resource production in China during 2000–2011 was investigated on the basis of exergy as a unified indicator to demonstrate the structural and regional variation of this country's resource supply. Using exergy, different types of resources may be added and compared. The major natural resources produced in China were divided into five categories: energy resources, agricultural products, forest products, fishery and rangeland products and mineral products. After calculating the exergy content of each resource, the total quantity and structure of resource production as well as its variations were analyzed at the country and province levels. Subsequently, cluster analysis was used to classify 30 provinces on the basis of their characteristics in resource production. These results showed that the total amount of China's resource production had increased. The main resource-producing provinces had changed from the eastern regions to the western regions and from the southern regions to the northern regions. For most types of resources, the main resource-producing provinces had changed significantly.

This paper calculates energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of household energy utilization in rural China. Provincial energy efficiencies and exergy efficiencies for space heating sector, cooking sector and hot water sector are calculated and analyzed. Result shows that national energy efficiencies in space heating, cooking and hot water sector are 27.43, 15.32 and 13.11%, respectively. Exergy efficiencies are 1.63, 4.42 and 1.16%, respectively. Energy efficiencies in Xinjiang, Tianjin, Beijing and Shanxi are higher than other provinces because of the wide utilization of coal. In eastern China like Shanghai, Jiangssu, Fujian, the proportion of biomass is quite large which results in a low efficiency. Furthermore, exergy efficiencies in southern China are much higher than those of northern China because of the climate differences.

In this paper, with the help of the finite element software ADINA, an actual composite soil nailed wall was solved. The dynamic response of the composite soil nailed wall is analyzed and discussed under the EL-Centro and man-made Lanzhou accelerogram. And the variation principles of the soil nailed wall which subjected to the earthquake, and the earthquake coupled with pore pressure, are demonstrated respectively. The results of the FEM dynamic analysis can be a useful reference for engineers of the design and construction of the composite soil nailed wall.

A function-reconfigurable double-helix printed antenna, inspired by DNA structures, is proposed. The antenna, consisting of two metal strips printed on a substrate, was designed, optimized, and fabricated. It was more stable than a metal-wire antenna. The antenna was demonstrated to have a remarkable functional reconfigurability with different lumped elements between the two helices. When the element is chosen as a capacitor, the antenna works as a broadband and high-gain antenna. When the element is an inductor, the antenna operates as a frequency-tunable antenna with a wide tuning range. While the antennas with both elements are circularly polarized, good performance of these antennas is exhibited.