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Numerous studies have shown that over-nutritional obesity may lead to pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes and cognitive decline. As the degree of metabolic disorders increases, the cognitive decline is getting worse. However, the cellular events that cause this cognitive dysfunction is yet to be clarified. We used a high-fat diet (HFD) consumption-induced obesity mouse model to test the effects of metformin on the hippocampal neurogenesis and learning and memory abilities of obese mice. 5-Bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) labelling and retrovirus labeling were applied to detect hippocampal newborn neurons. Behavioral experiments were used to detect learning and memory abilities of mice. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed to detect the composition of gut microbiota. The positron emission tomography (PET) was conducted to detect the energy metabolism activity of different mouse brain regions. Our results reveal that metformin restores the impairment of neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus and finally prevents the cognitive decline of the obese mice. Moreover, the therapeutic effects of metformin are achieved by regulating the composition of gut microbiota of mice, which may inhibit microglia activation and neuroinflammation in the brain of obese mice. This study suggests that metformin may be taken as a promising candidate for the intervention of cognitive decline related to imbalance of gut microbiota caused by obesity.

Background Pleomorphic liposarcoma is the least common but most aggressive subtype of liposarcoma. Very few studies have presented data on pleomorphic liposarcoma specifically, often including a limited number of cases and short-term follow-up. As a result, the survivorship and prognostic characteristics of this tumor remain incompletely identified. Study design and setting Cross-sectional analysis of the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database (1996–2015). Results Overall survival for the entire series was 54% (95% confidence interval [CI], 49–58%) and 40% (95% CI, 35–45%) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Disease-specific survival for the entire series was 60% (95% CI, 56–65%) and 53% (95% CI, 48–58%) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Patients who survived 10 years or more were more likely to die of events unrelated to pleomorphic liposarcoma. Univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated that not receiving cancer-directed surgery was an independent poor prognostic factor. Older age (≥ 65 years old) was associated with worse overall survival but not disease-specific survival. Tumor stage and radiotherapy showed different impact on survival depending on tumor size. In comparison to localized staged tumors, regional stage only predicts poor survival in patients with tumor size less than 5 cm, while distant stage is an independent worse prognosis factor. Radiotherapy only benefits patients with tumor size larger than 10 cm. These results were confirmed in competing risk analysis. Conclusion Survival rates of patients with pleomorphic liposarcoma has not changed over the past 20 years. Patients with distant stage have poor prognosis; regional stage indicates worse survival in patients with tumor size less than 5 cm. Receiving surgery could prolong the survival, while radiotherapy only benefits patients with large tumor size (> 10 cm). Older age is associated with poor overall survival but not disease-specific survival. Routine patient surveillance following initial diagnosis should at least be 10 years for pleomorphic liposarcoma.

This study aimed to perform an updated meta-analysis to explore the clinical, diagnostic, and prognostic values of circRNAs in osteosarcoma.: PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were systematically searched up to December 15, 2020. Eligible studies regarding the relationship between circRNAs levels and clinicopathological, diagnostic, and prognostic values in osteosarcoma were included for study.31 studies involving 1979 osteosarcoma patients were enrolled, with 22 studies on clinicopathological parameters, eleven on diagnosis, and 23 on prognosis. For clinical parameters, overexpression of oncogenic circRNAs was intimately correlated with larger tumor size, advanced Enneking stage, poor differentiation, and distant metastasis (DM). In contrast, the downregulated circRNAs showed negative correlation with Enneking stage and DM. For the diagnostic values, the summary area under the curve of circRNA for the discriminative efficacy between osteosarcoma patients and non-cancer counterparts was estimated to be 0.87, with a weighted sensitivity of 0.79, specificity of 0.81, respectively. For the prognostic significance, oncogenic circRNAs had poor overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival, while elevated expression of tumor-suppressor circRNAs were closely related to longer OS.This study showed that aberrantly expressed circRNA signatures could serve as potential biomarkers in diagnosis and prognosis in osteosarcoma.

The 1D confinement of silicon in the form of a nanowire revives its newness with the emergence of new optical and electronic properties. However, the development of a production process for silicon nanowires (SiNWs) having a high quality crystalline core and exhibiting good stability in solution with effective outer-shell defect passivation is still a challenge. In this work, SiNWs are prepared from a silicon wafer using solution processing steps, and importantly outer-shell-defect passivation is achieved by in situ grafting of organic molecules based on thin films. Defect passivation and the high quality of the SiNWs are confirmed with thin films on glass and flexible plastic substrates. A dramatic enhancement in both the fluorescence lifetime and infrared photoluminescence is observed. The in situ organic passivation of SiNWs has potential application in all low-dimensional silicon devices including infrared detectors, solar cells and lithium-ion battery anodes.

Background Malignant fibrous histiocytoma of bone (MFH-B) is an extremely rare type of bone tumor. We aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics of MFH-B and establish nomograms that predict the prognosis of patients with MFH-B based on prognostic factors. Methods A total of 250 patients diagnosed with MFH-B were included from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were conducted. Potential prognostic factors were identified using univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Nomograms that predict 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were further developed and internally validated. Results The multivariate analysis suggested that OS of patients was associated with age ≥57 years [hazard ratio (HR), 1.916; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.329–2.761; P

The organic passivated carbon nanotube (CNT)/silicon (Si) solar cell is a new type of low‐cost, high‐efficiency solar cell, with challenges concerning the stability of the organic layer used for passivation. In this work, the stability of the organic layer is studied with respect to the internal and external (humidity) water content and additionally long‐term stability for low moisture environments. It is found that the organic passivated CNT/Si complex interface is not stable, despite both the organic passivation layer and CNTs being stable on their own and is due to the CNTs providing an additional path for water molecules to the interface. With the use of a simple encapsulation, a record power conversion efficiency of 22% is achieved and a stable photovoltaic performance is demonstrated. This work provides a new direction for the development of high‐performance/low‐cost photovoltaics in the future and will stimulate the use of nanotubes materials for solar cells applications., A new type of solar cell, based on the conductive passivating contacts being consisted of a CNT:Nafion mixed system, provides a promising new avenue for low‐cost, high‐efficiency photovoltaic devices. Compared with the current best a‐Si:H(i/p+) passivating contact cells (silicon heterojunction), parts of heavy vacuum equipment are omitted while a stability trend and record high efficiency of >22% are still retained.

Pleomorphic liposarcoma is the least common but most aggressive subtype of liposarcoma. Very few studies have presented data on pleomorphic liposarcoma specifically, often including a limited number of cases and short-term follow-up. As a result, the survivorship and prognostic characteristics of this tumor remain incompletely identified.Cross-sectional analysis of the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database (1996-2015).Overall survival for the entire series was 54% (95% confidence interval [CI], 49-58%) and 40% (95% CI, 35-45%) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Disease-specific survival for the entire series was 60% (95% CI, 56-65%) and 53% (95% CI, 48-58%) at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Patients who survived 10 years or more were more likely to die of events unrelated to pleomorphic liposarcoma. Univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated that not receiving cancer-directed surgery was an independent poor prognostic factor. Older age (≥ 65 years old) was associated with worse overall survival but not disease-specific survival. Tumor stage and radiotherapy showed different impact on survival depending on tumor size. In comparison to localized staged tumors, regional stage only predicts poor survival in patients with tumor size less than 5 cm, while distant stage is an independent worse prognosis factor. Radiotherapy only benefits patients with tumor size larger than 10 cm. These results were confirmed in competing risk analysis.Survival rates of patients with pleomorphic liposarcoma has not changed over the past 20 years. Patients with distant stage have poor prognosis; regional stage indicates worse survival in patients with tumor size less than 5 cm. Receiving surgery could prolong the survival, while radiotherapy only benefits patients with large tumor size (10 cm). Older age is associated with poor overall survival but not disease-specific survival. Routine patient surveillance following initial diagnosis should at least be 10 years for pleomorphic liposarcoma.

RNA modifications have emerged as key regulators of transcript expression in diverse physiological and pathological processes. As one of the most prevalent types of RNA modifications, N6-methyladenosine (m6A) has become the highlight in modulation of various diseases through interfering RNA splicing, translation, nuclear export, and decay. In many cases, the detailed functions of m6A in cellular processes and diseases remain unclear. Notably, recent studies have determined the relationship between m6A modification and musculoskeletal disorders containing osteosarcoma, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, etc. Herein, this review comprehensively summarizes the recent advances of m6A modification in pathogenesis and progression of musculoskeletal diseases. Specifically, the underlying molecular mechanisms, detection technologies, regulatory functions, clinical implications, and future perspectives of m6A in musculoskeletal disorders are discussed, with the aim to provide a novel insight into their association.

BACKGROUND Incidence of extraskeletal osteosarcoma (ESOS) is extremely low and the prognosis remains unclear. We conducted this study to explore prognostic factors and the role of chemotherapy in ESOS. MATERIAL AND METHODS We screened data from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database (1975-2016). Three hundred ten patients with ESOS were included and 49.4% (107/310) of them underwent chemotherapy. We performed logistic regression analysis to investigate potential factors determining selection of chemotherapy. An inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) and propensity score matching (PSM)-adjusted Kaplan-Meier curve was created and log-rank test and Cox regression analysis were performed to compare overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients treated with and without chemotherapy. Subgroup analysis also was conducted based on age, tumor site, stage, size, and surgery. RESULTS Chemotherapy in ESOS was not associated with improved OS in the unmatched cohort (HR, 0.764; 95% CI, 0.555-1.051; p=0.098). The insignificant treatment effect of chemotherapy was also noted in IPTW-adjusted (HR, 0.737; 95% CI, 0.533-1.021; p=0.066) and PSM-adjusted (HR, 0.804; 95% CI, 0.552-1.172; p=0.257) Cox regression analysis. The insignificant treatment effect was consistent across all subgroups and there was no significant heterogeneity of chemotherapy effect (all p for interaction >0.05). CONCLUSIONS The study suggested that chemotherapy has no significant benefit on prognosis of patients with ESOS. These findings should be considered when making treatment decisions about patients with ESOS.

Highlights • This is the study with relatively large sample size that mainly focused on the duration of viral shedding and relevant factors in patients with COVID-19 outside of Wuhan, China. • The median duration of viral shedding in patients with COVID-19 outside of Wuhan in the current study was 17 days. • The highest temperature at admission, time from symptoms onset to admission and hospital length of stay were risk factors for prolonged duration of viral shedding., Objectives To investigate factors associated with the duration of viral shedding in patients with COVID-19 outside of Wuhan. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in Changsha, China were included. Clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, treatment and outcome were retrieved. Univariable and multivariable analysis were performed to explore potential factors. Results Totally 147 patients with COVID-19 were included. The median duration of viral shedding (the number of days from symptoms onset till the successive negative detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA) was 17 days (interquartile range [IQR], 12 to 21). Multivariable Logistic regression analysis indicated that the highest temperature at admission (odds ratio [OR], 5.200; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.190-22.726; p = 0.028) and time from symptom onset to admission (OR, 1.740; 95% CI: 1.296-2.337; p

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disease for which there are limited therapeutic strategies. Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) activity is decreased in AD brains, which promotes the hyperphosphorylation of Tau and APP, thus participate in the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and β-amyloid (Aβ) overproduction. In this study, the effect of synthetic tricyclic sulfonamide PP2A activators (aka SMAPs) on reducing AD-like pathogenesis was evaluated in AD cell models and AD-like hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) rat models. SMAPs effectively increased PP2A activity, and decreased tau phosphorylation and Aβ(40/42) levels in AD cell models. In HHcy-AD rat models, cognitive impairments induced by HHcy were rescued by SMAP administration. HHcy-induced tau hyperphosphorylation and Aβ overproduction were ameliorated through increasing PP2A activity on compound treatment. Importantly, SMAP therapy also prevented neuronal cell spine loss and neuronal synapse impairment in the hippocampus of HHcy-AD rats. In summary, our data reveal that pharmacological PP2A reactivation may be a novel therapeutic strategy for AD treatment, and that the tricyclic sulfonamides constitute a novel candidate class of AD therapeutic. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s13311-020-00841-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Positron emission tomography (PET) scanners with new features, such as open structure, compact size, and adaptive field of view (FOV), have attracted significant attention. Among these novel designs, panel PET has the potential to combine the open structure and variable FOV into a compact form. In this paper, we would like to further exploit these structural advantages by proposing a modified version, called the panel PET with window (PPW). A PPW is a panel PET with a rectangular opening in the center of one detector panel, which inherts the advantages of the compact size and adjustable FOV of the panel PET. Meanwhile, it utilizes fewer detector modules and offers additional flexibility and convenience in practical applications. We quantitatively evaluated the imaging performance of the PPW based on Monte Carlo simulations and real data experiments using a prototype system. The results show that the PPW system sensitivity, spatial resolution, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) deteriorate, and the effective FOV narrows down. However, the deterioration is not linear to the increase of window size. In our extreme case with 69.4% of detectors removed from a panel, the degradation of SNR, CNR, and spatial resolution are 42.4%, 43.1%, and 25.0%, respectively. Meanwhile, the contrast recovery coefficient of PPW remains almost constant.

BACKGROUND: Regional lymph node involvement is thought to be rare in patients with chondrosarcoma, but its actual prevalence is unclear. Additionally, it is often not considered when prognostic factors are analyzed in patients with chondrosarcoma. However, it has been well established that lymph node involvement is a poor prognostic marker in patients with many types of bone and soft tissue sarcoma, including rhabdomyosarcoma, osteosarcoma, and Ewing’s sarcoma. Although lymph node metastases are rare among all sarcoma types, it is important to consider whether lymph node metastases should be assessed in patients with chondrosarcoma because these metastases may impact survival. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: (1) What is the reported prevalence of regional lymph node involvement in patients with chondrosarcoma? (2) Do patients who have chondrosarcomas with regional lymph node involvement have different clinicopathologic presentations and survival than patients without regional lymph node involvement? (3) Is regional lymph node involvement independently associated with prognosis in patients with chondrosarcoma? METHODS: The data of patients with chondrosarcoma registered in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database (SEER) (1988-2015) were analyzed for the reported prevalence of regional lymph node involvement and its relationship with clinicopathologic features and the 5-year overall survival rate. From 1988 to 2015, 5528 patients with chondrosarcoma were registered in the SEER database. After screening by the inclusion criterion—chondrosarcoma as the first primary tumor, diagnosis with histology confirmation, patients with active followup and available information about regional node status—3374 patients met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed. Demographics and clinicopathologic data were compared using chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests. Logistic regression analysis was used to assess the adjusted odds ratio. The overall survival rate was estimated with Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests. Univariate and multivariate analyses of overall survival were performed with Cox proportional hazard models. In addition, a series of sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the robustness of the final Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS: Forty-four patients (1.3%) were recorded in the database as having regional lymph node involvement at the time of the primary diagnosis. Lymph node metastases were more likely to be reported in an extraskeletal primary site (3% [13 of 426] versus 1% [31 of 2948], adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.9, 95% CI, 1.5–5.8; p = 0.003) for bone primary sites and tumors with maximum diameter ≥ 8 cm (2% [26 of 1045] versus 1% [10 of 1075], adjusted OR = 2.9, 95% CI, 1.3–6.3; p = 0.008) and poorer differentiation (4% [24 of 608] versus 1% [14 of 2308], adjusted OR = 4.0, 95% CI, 2.0–8.2; p < 0.001), and in those with distant metastases (7% [14 of 203] versus 1% [30 of 3148], adjusted OR = 3.5, 95% CI, 1.7–7.1, p = 0.001). The 5-year overall survival rates of patients with and without regional lymph node involvement were 28% (95% CI, 15–42%) and 77% (95% CI, 75–78%), respectively (p < 0.001). After controlling for age, sex, race, grade, metastatic status, size, and histologic subtype, the presence of regional lymph node involvement was associated with poorer survival (hazard ratio, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.50–3.24; p < 0.001); this finding was confirmed in several sensitivity analyses. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of regional lymph node involvement in patients with chondrosarcoma was 1.3% in the SEER database. Although chondrosarcomas are rare, patients with chondrosarcomas who have regional node metastases have a poorer prognosis than those who have not reported to have them. This may underrepresent the true proportion of patients with lymph node metastases given the inaccuracies of reporting in this database, but we believe these findings indicate that clinicians should examine patients more carefully for chondrosarcoma with lymph node metastases. Future studies are needed to assess potential treatment strategies to improve the prognosis of these patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, prognostic study.

Global illumination is the core part of photo-realistic rendering. The photon mapping algorithm is an effective method for computing global illumination with its obvious advantage of caustic and color bleeding rendering. It is an active research field that has been developed over the past two decades. The deficiency of precise details and efficient rendering are still the main challenges of photon mapping. This report reviews recent work and classifies it into a set of categories including radiance estimation, photon relaxation, photon tracing, progressive photon mapping, and parallel methods. The goals of our report are giving readers an overall introduction to photon mapping and motivating further research to address the limitations of existing methods.

Traditional silicon solar cells extract holes and achieve interface passivation with the use of a boron dopant and dielectric thin films such as silicon oxide or hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Without these two key components, few technologies have realized power conversion efficiencies above 20%. Here, a carbon nanotube ink is spin coated directly onto a silicon wafer to serve simultaneously as a hole extraction layer, but also to passivate interfacial defects. This enables a low‐cost fabrication process that is absent of vacuum equipment and high‐temperatures. Power conversion efficiencies of 21.4% on an device area of 4.8 cm$^{2}$ and 20% on an industrial size (245.71 cm$^{2}$) wafer are obtained. Additionally, the high quality of this passivated carrier selective contact affords a fill factor of 82%, which is a record for silicon solar cells with dopant‐free contacts. The combination of low‐dimensional materials with an organic passivation is a new strategy to high performance photovoltaics.

Objective: To investigate the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of ICU nurses in relation to incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) in patients with urinary and bowel incontinence. Following this, to identify and analyse any influencing factors to provide a basis for the formulation of standard preventative procedures and preventative nursing strategies for IAD. Methods: Convenience sampling was used to survey ICU nurses' knowledge, attitude and behaviour towards IAD. Between September and October 2019, a questionnaire designed by the researchers, that also gathered demographic data on the ICU nurses surveyed, was disseminated by the organisation's information technology processes to 508 ICU nurses. Data were statistically analysed by SPSS22.0 software. Results: The total score obtainable within the questionnaire of staff knowledge, attitude and behaviour was (73.03+-7.18). This score matrix was comprised of the following sub scores: knowledge (7.23+-1.40), attitude (22.53+-3.21), and behaviour (43.27+-5.20). The working years of clinical nurses was the main factor influencing the knowledge, attitude and behaviour scores of ICU nurses' understanding and management of IAD (p Conclusion: ICU nurses' knowledge of IAD improved. Similarly, ICU nurses' attitudes towards IAD was better; however, there were differences between attitudes and practices of IAD. Managers in ICU should be more cognisant of the aetiology of IAD and ensure ICU nurses are educated in associated pathophysiology, risk factors, prevalence and incidence monitoring and root cause analysis of instances of IAD. Further, managers should promote the use of standard prevention and nursing management processes to reduce the incidence of IAD.

Alpha rhythm (8 to 12 Hz) observed in EEG over human posterior cortex is prominent during eyes-closed (EC) resting and attenuates during eyes-open (EO) resting. Research shows that the degree of EC-to-EO alpha blocking or alpha desynchronization, termed alpha reactivity here, is a neural marker of cognitive health. We tested the role of acetylcholine in EC-to-EO alpha reactivity by applying a multimodal neuroimaging approach to a cohort of young adults and a cohort of older adults. In the young cohort, simultaneous EEG-fMRI was recorded from twenty-one young adults during both EO and EC resting. In the older cohort, functional MRI was recorded from forty older adults during EO and EC resting, along with FLAIR and diffusion MRI. For a subset of twenty older adults, EEG was recorded during EO and EC resting in a separate session. In both young and older adults, functional connectivity between the basal nucleus of Meynert (BNM), the major source of cortical acetylcholine, and the visual cortex increased from EC to EO, and this connectivity increase was positively associated with alpha reactivity; namely, the stronger the BNM-visual cortex functional connectivity increase from EC to EO, the larger the EC-to-EO alpha desynchronization. In older adults, lesions of the fiber tracts linking BNM and visual cortex quantified by leukoaraiosis volume, associated with reduced alpha reactivity. These findings support a role of acetylcholine and particularly cholinergic pathways in mediating EC-to-EO alpha reactivity and suggest that impaired alpha reactivity could serve as a marker of the integrity of the cholinergic system.

Firstly, this paper starts with the changes of the current social sectors in the Big Data era, and outlined the concept of Big Data. This paper focuses on the processing technology and processing tools about Big Data, mainly elaborate from four aspects, including the data preprocessing, data storage and management, data analysis and privacy protection. Finally, on the basis of the previous analysis, the trends of Big Data processing technology are given, which provides a reference for the research of Big Data processing technology.

In the case, the system proposed a simple solar powered weather information gathering module, which can be mounted on mobile vehicles, using green energy, Global Positioning System (GPS) and information and communications technology (ICT). When parking in the outdoor, the system operate and the sensor switch too. All the measurement data, not only can provide the real-time local temperature and humidity information to the stranger, who will go to here, because it will detect than the automatic observation station more accurate and more instant. According to the GPS data, it will be uploaded to public homepage, or the cloud database computing parameters, all as an effort to make contribution in the search of new energy resources. Overall the weather information gathering mode uses Android App software, integrated with the image capture function of smart phone and GPS function. Through this system the spindle in the "real-time video transmission system" and "Journey Log"combine to provide more information to integrally analyze and instantly display the weather information of various regions.

Dual-head PET system suffers from poor resolution in the dimension perpendicular to the detector heads and vastly increased computations required by the accurate estimation of the system response matrix (SRM). The problem of poor x-axis resolution is caused by missing data owing to the intrinsic geometry flaws of the dual-head PET, which leads to high SRM similarity between the adjacent voxels along the x-axis. To compensate for this problem, our dual-head PET system prototype incorporates a [Formula: see text]-rotating mechanism. In addition, the cubic field of view (FOV) and cubic voxels are adopted to achieve a better geometrical symmetry, which avoids the re-estimation of SRM after rotation. The spatial resolution, sensitivity, noise equivalent count rate, scatter fraction and pileup fraction under different head separation distances were evaluated by a series of simulations, and the results were compared with those of the non-rotation system. The SRM was estimated using the Monte Carlo method and the three-dimensional images were reconstructed using the ordered subsets expectation maximization algorithm. Experimental results reveal a significantly improved x-axis resolution via the proposed rotation mechanism. Our system can achieve x-axis spatial resolution of 0.79 mm, 0.74 mm and 0.72 mm at the center of FOV under the head separation distance of 5 cm, 10 cm and 15 cm, respectively.

Missed abortion is a special form of spontaneous abortion and its incidence shows a rising trend. Immunological factor is one of the most common reasons. Tumor suppressor gene programmed cell death 4 ( PDCD4) also participates in some immune-mediated inflammation, such as atherosclerosis, and so on, but the role of PDCD4 in missed abortion remains unclear. Here, the expression of PDCD4 was detected in decidual and chorionic tissues, as well as peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with missed abortion and healthy controls using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), Western blot, and immunohistochemistry. The expression of cytokines was also detected in decidual tissues using qRT-PCR. The levels of serum estradiol and progesterone were measured by radioimmunoassay. In addition, the correlations of PDCD4 expression with cytokines and hormones were analyzed. The results demonstrated that PDCD4 expression was reduced in decidual tissues from the missed abortion group compared with the control group. The levels of tumor necrosis factor α were significantly higher in decidual tissues of missed abortion patients than those in normal controls. We also found serum estradiol and progesterone levels were significantly lower in the missed abortion group than those in the control group, and serum progesterone level was inversely related to PDCD4 messenger RNA level. The data suggested that reduced PDCD4 expression may be involved in the occurrence of missed abortion. This may facilitate the potential development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for the treatment of missed abortion.

Background Missed abortion is a common occurrence for otherwise healthy women. Immunological factor is one of the most important reasons. Tumor necrosis factor-α-induced protein-8 like-2 (TIPE2) is a novel negative immune regulator related to several human diseases. However, the expression level and clinical significance of TIPE2 in missed abortion remain unclear. Methods The expression of TIPE2 mRNA and protein in decidua and chorion from 36 missed abortion patients and 36 healthy controls was detected using quantitative real-time PCR, western blot and immunohistochemistry. In addition, serum TNF-ɑ and IL-10 levels were measured using flow cytometry. Serum estradiol and progesterone levels were measured by radioimmunoassay test. The correlations of TIPE2 protein levels with TNF-ɑ, IL-10, estradiol and progesterone were further analyzed. Results TIPE2 protein levels were significantly lower in decidual tissues of missed abortion patients than those in healthy controls. The patients with missed abortion had significantly higher levels of serum TNF-ɑ, and lower levels of serum IL-10, estradiol and progesterone compared with healthy controls. The TIPE2 protein levels were positively related to serum IL-10 levels. Conclusion Our data indicate TIPE2 could play important roles in maintaining the maternal-fetal tolerance and decreased TIPE2 expression in the decidua may be related to the development of missed abortion.

As a new type of vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicles, four-rotor unmanned aircraft has strong load capacity, simple structure, flexible operation Characteristics, so it is the preferred method of execution the air, and is widely used in military and civil field. Based on four-rotor aircraft structure and movement theory, this paper designs the aircaft control system based on ARM. Based on upper machine, the design of PID control algorithm was tested in this paper. From the results, the stability of the controller is good, and its speed control is superior to the single closed-loop.

This paper studied commercial space of the Shanghai Railway Station. It summed up construction and development of history railway and railway passenger transportation. It clarified commercial activities of major railway terminal. It summarized appropriate scale and location of different business activities by the tightness of characteristics different commercial activities as well as problems and deficiencies of existing large passenger commercial space. It identified the source of the problem by several field researches on Shanghai Railway Station. This paper summarized different layout features of the passenger terminal commercial space design history and analyzed the differences and reasons. Finally this paper presented specific strategies and ideas of a large railway passenger commercial space design combined with their views of trends for railway passenger comprehensive development.

This paper provided an overview that the city should be designed from the functional, connectivity, accessibility and other aspects of the city considering the current situation of obsolete facility and out of order around the Shanghai West Railway Station. It emphasized that the resources of Shanghai West Railway Station’s Zhenru area shall be integrated while the Zhenru center of Shanghai in Caoyang-street and the railway cargo terminal should be built. It proposed that the city should put emphasize on the development of modern logistics industry along with the construction of business office area, large-scale logistics enterprises gather, hotel service area and low density of cultural facilities.

This study aimed to determine the association between different lymphocyte subsets and cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection status in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We performed a retrospective study among SLE patients with CMV infection and collected patient socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, as well as their recorded circulating lymphocyte subsets. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses examined the relationship between CMV infection status and lymphocyte subset counts. We included 125 hospitalized patients with SLE, consisting of 88 with documented CMV infection and 37 without any evidence of CMV or other infections. Among the 88 CMV-infected patients, 65 (73.8%) patients developed CMV disease and 23 (26.2%) presented as CMV viremia. Compared to uninfected patients (1520 ± 101 cells/μL), lymphocytes remained stable among those with CMV viremia (1305 ± 272 cells/μL, P = .995). However, compared to their uninfected counterparts, there was a marked decrease in lymphocytes among patients with CMV disease (680 ± 513 cells/μL, P

A novel integrated optical electric field sensor employing the asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer especial for electromagnetic pulse measurement is analyzed and optimized design utilizing the multi-physics coupling model. Tapered antenna for the sensor is analyzed in CST software. The multi-physics equation and model are analyzed. Antenna structure and size are optimized using CST. Meanwhile the asymmetric waveguides including 3 dB coupler are optimized based on the operating point adjustment range over 90°. In the simulation model, the measurement range of the sensor can reach to 90 kV/m. R2 of the fitting curve of the measurement range is 0.986. Simulation results of the time domain response of the antenna in CST and waveguide in COMSOL are combined when analyzing the frequency response. The results shows that the frequency response ranges from 1 GHz to 10 GHz with less than 3 dB deviation.

A novel integrated optical electric field sensor especial for sub-nanosecond intense electromagnetic pulse measurement is designed and analyzed considering multi-physics coupling condition in COMSOL software. Sensor element combined tapered antenna and electrode is analyzed in XFDTD software. The model is verified by setting maximum mesh size based on the restriction in electromagnetic wave vector. The multi-physics coupling method is proposed. Simulation results verify the sensor measurement range can reach 1000kV/m with good linearity. R-square of the fitting curve of the 1000 kV/m measurement range is 0.9946. Frequency response is analyzed utilizing the time domain response result of the element in XFDTD and waveguide in COMSOL. The frequency response of the sensor ranges from 1 GHz to 20 GHz with less than 3 dB deviation.

Chun-Xiao Zhang,* Shu-Yi Wang,* Shuang-Qian Chen, Shuai-Long Yang, Lu Wan, Bin Xiong Department of Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Hubei Key Laboratory of Tumor Biological Behaviors and Hubei Cancer Clinical Study Center, Wuhan, Hubei, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally tothis work Background: Glasgow prognostic score (GPS) is widely known as a systemic inflammatory-based marker. The relationship between pretreatment GPS and gastric cancer (GC) survival and clinicopathological features remains controversial. The aim of the study was to conduct a meta-analysis of published studies to evaluate the association between pretreatment GPS and survival and clinicopathological features in GC patients. Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, and BioMed databases for relevant studies. Combined analyses were used to assess the association between pretreatment GPS and overall survival, disease-free survival, and clinicopathological parameters by Stata Version 12.0. Results: A total of 14 studies were included in this meta-analysis, including 5,579 GC patients. The results indicated that pretreatment high GPS (HGPS) predicted poor overall survival (hazard ratio =1.51, 95% CI: 1.37–1.66, P

Modern logic optimization tools tend to optimize circuits in a balanced way so that all primary outputs (POs) have the similar delay close to the cycle time. However, in reality, certain POs will be exercised more frequently than the rest. Among the critical POs, some may be stabilized very quickly by input vectors, even if their topological delays from primary inputs are very long. Knowing the dynamic behavior of a circuit can help optimize the most commonly activated paths and help engineers understand how resilient a PO is against dynamic environmental variations such as voltage fluctuations. In this paper, we describe a tool to analyze the dynamic behavior of a digital circuit utilizing probabilistic information. The techniques exploit the use of timed ternary decision diagrams (tTDD) to encode stabilization conditions for POs. To compute probabilities based on a tTDD, we propose false assignment pruning and random variable compaction to preserve probability calculation accuracy. To deal with the scalability issue, this paper proposes a new circuit partitioning heuristic to reduce the inaccuracy introduced by partitioning. Compared to the timed simulation results, on average our tool has a mean absolute error of 1.7% and a root mean square error of 3.9% for MCNC benchmarks and a mean absolute error of 2.2% and a root mean square error of 4.8% for ISCAS benchmarks. Compared to a state-of-the-art dynamic behavior analysis tool, our tool is 15t faster on average for MCNC benchmarks and 65× faster on average for ISCAS benchmarks, and can also handle circuits that the previous tool cannot. This dynamic behavior analyzer would enable fast and effective circuit optimizations for better-than-worst-case design.

To investigate the effect of intensive blood glucose control in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nursing and analyze its clinical significance. From August 2018 to August 2019, 94 severe patients treated with ICU in our hospital were divided into two groups according to the random digital table method. 47 cases in the control group received routine nursing, and 47 cases in the observation group were treated with blood glucose control and routine nursing management. The sequential organ failure score (SOFA), acute physiological and chronic health status score (APACHE II), hospitalization time in ICU and total hospitalization time were compared between the two groups. After nursing, the APACHE Ⅱ score and SOFA score of the patients in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05); The total hospitalization time of ICU in the observation group was significantly shorter than that in the control group (P < 0.05). Enhanced glycemic control in ICU intensive nursing can improve the clinical therapeutic effect and shorten the rehabilitation time. In addition, tight glycemic control can also optimize the prognosis and shorten hospital stay time. The intensive blood glucose control is worthy to be popularized in ICU.

The silicon nanoparticle have been grown by radio-frequency plasmas-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique and the photoluminescence(PL)of the silicon suspension have been studied by both steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence spectra.The steady-state PL spectra of the silicon suspension show that a blue PL band around 440 nm is found for the as-prepared silicon suspension emits.An increase of the intensity for the blue band around 440 nm followed by a red photoluminescence centered at 750 nm after storing the suspension for two months.The steady-state PL spectra excited by different wavelength and time-resolved PL spectra of the samples demonstrate that the blue PL band with a delaytime of nanosecond order is caused by the band-to-band recombination in Si nanocrystals.The oxidation of the silicon nanoparticle causes the decaytime increasing.The red PL band originates from radiation recombination of carries via defect/surface-related states and the delay-time of which is on the order of microsecond.

In this paper, we present a low-power architectural synthesis system (LOPASS) for field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) designs with interconnect power estimation and optimization. LOPASS includes three major components: 1) a flexible high-level power estimator for FPGAs considering the power consumption of various FPGA logic components and interconnects; 2) a simulated-annealing optimization engine that carries out resource selection and allocation, scheduling, functional unit binding, register binding, and interconnection estimation simultaneously to reduce power effectively; and 3) a k-cofamily-based register binding algorithm and an efficient port assignment algorithm that reduce interconnections in the data path through multiplexer optimization. The experimental results show that LOPASS produces promising results on latency optimization compared to an academic high-level synthesis tool SPARK. Compared to an early commercial high-level synthesis tool, namely, Synopsys Behavioral Compiler, LOPASS is 61.6% better on power consumption and 10.6% better on clock period on average. Compared to a current commercial tool, namely, Impulse C, LOPASS is 31.1% better on power reduction with an 11.8% penalty on clock period.

Objective To investigate the effect of emodin on lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced corneal injury in rats. Methods Three parallel incisions on the central surface of corneal epithelium were made and LPS was applied on them to induce corneal injury in Wistar rats. All rats were randomly divided into emodin group ( n =40) and keratitis group ( n =40). Rats in the emodin group received subconjunctival injection of emodin and rats in the keratitis group received its vehicle 30 minutes before LPS exposure. At different time points—1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours after LPS exposure, the symptoms of all rats were observed and the severity of their ocular inflammation was examined with a slit lamp microscope, then 8 rats in each group were killed through cervical dislocation and their eyes were enucleated and prepared to observe pathological changes of corneal tissue under a light microscope. The activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) under different conditions was determined by Western blot. Immunocytochemistry staining with an antibody against intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) was performed to identify positive cells in corneal tissues. Results The model of acute keratitis was successfully established in Wistar rats. LPS could induce a typical corneal inflammatory response, such as hyperemia, corneal edema and opacity, which were observed in model rats. Compared with keratitis group, both ocular behaviors and damages of the corneal structure were improved in emodin group. Furthermore, the activation of NF-κB and the expression of ICAM-1 induced by LPS were markedly inhibited in emodin group. Conclusion Emodin can inhibit the activation of NF-κB and the expression of ICAM-1 induced by LPS in corneas, protect against acute corneal injury, and improve symptoms in rats.

An important challenge in positron emission tomography (PET) is the development of dedicated small-animal PET (muPET) systems having high sensitivity. In this paper, we investigate the use of an opposing pair of large-area detectors having high detection efficiency and moderate depth-of-interaction resolution in a compact scanner geometry for achieving a high system sensitivity. Substantial resolution degradations created by this hardware configuration, on the other hand, are corrected for by applying model-based image reconstruction. We have developed a prototype scanner adopting this design and evaluated its performance properties. Our results show that the prototype can achieve a central sensitivity of ~28.2% when using an energy window (EW) of 250-750 keV and a coincidence time window (CW) of 10 ns. When decreasing the EW to 400-750 keV, the central sensitivity still remains high at ~14.4%. Over the typical ranges of radioactivity used in PET rodent imaging with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), the prototype provides noise-equivalent count rates (NECRs) that are considerably higher than other muPET systems. For a mouse/rat-sized cylinder, we obtain a peak NECR of ~ 1.86/1.2 Mcps at ~32/40 MBq when using a 250/350-750 keV EW and a 6 ns CW. Using a resolution phantom, we obtain an average FWHM (full width at the half-maximum) of 1.79 mm for 1.35 mm-diameter rod sources when the axis of the phantom is vertical to the detectors of the prototype. This is consistent with the 1.2 mm FWHM image resolution previously obtained by using simulation data. The prototype also generates FDG rat images having good visual quality.

Inferior soft-tissue contrast resolution is a major limitation of current CT scanners. The aim of the study is to improve the contrast resolution of CT scanners using dual-energy acquisition. Based on dual-energy material decomposition, the proposed method starts with extracting the outgoing energy spectrum by polychromatic forward projecting the material-selective images. The extracted spectrum is then reweighted to boost the soft-tissue contrast. A simulated water cylinder phantom with inserts that contain a series of six solutions of varying iodine concentration (range, 0-20 mg/mL) is used to evaluate the proposed method. Results show the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean energy difference between the extracted energy spectrum and the spectrum acquired using an energy-resolved photon counting detector(PCD), are 0.044 and 0.01 keV, respectively. Compared to the method using the standard energy-integrating detectors, dose normalized contrast-to-noise ratio (CNRD) for the proposed method are improved from 1 to 2.15 and from 1 to 1.88 for the 8 mg/mL and 16 mg/mL iodine concentration inserts, respectively. The results show CT image reconstructed using the proposed method is superior to the image reconstructed using the standard method that using an energy-integrating detector., 4 pages, 4 figures in The 2015 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record

This paper describes a microwave coupler using liquid crystals as a medium for microstrip line structure. In this design, a layer of liquid crystals is added to the ground and the substrate, and using the characteristics of anisotropy nematic liquid crystals, that is the dielectric anisotropy changes when without the bias and bias voltage is applied, to achieve the goal of continuous tunable coupler center frequency. In this paper, the design of the coupler not only has a wide bandwidth, but also the isolation (|S41|) and return loss(|S11|) are relatively excellent, especially in the center frequency, which are all better than 45dB. When the permittivity of the liquid crystals is changed from 2.4 to 3.4, the center frequency of the coupler is changed from 2.85GHz to 2.75GHz; the tunable range of up to 100MHz has been realized.

With high specificity of tumor necrosis, hypoxia tissues and subclinical lesions, PET may have great potential for tumor surgery guidance. PET images in surgery will tell us how tissues change during the operation and whether the lesion has been cleared. We did research on panel PET guided therapy, and we have developed 3-dimensional reconstruction methods for panel PET systems. However we meet the requirement of a larger open space for operation, because a body covered with two enclosed panels could barely be operated in most tumor surgeries. And the weak performance of images perpendicular to panels leads to invalid guidance in some applications such as radiotherapy guidance. In order to apply the better images to guidance, we designed a panel PET with window for tumor surgery guidance, and it showed good performance of the images parallel to the panels. It is surprising that we took 12 seconds for scanning and acquired images parallel to the panels with good performance in the actual system experiment.

Nat. Med. 23, 439–449 (2017); published online 20 February 2017; corrected after print 26 July 2017 In the version of this article initially published, the authors inadvertently left out information in the Online Methods section regarding a second injection of AAV8-CFLAR(S1) 7 weeks after the first injection in the monkey experiments to ensure stable expression of CFLAR(S1) in the livers of the monkeys that received the injections.

As digital signal has abilities like immunity for transmit distortion and feasibility to calibrate, digital architecture that samples the event waveform at the earliest possible stage shows promising potential for building next generation PET system. Multi-voltage threshold (MVT) is a digital sampling method that take time samples when pulses cross predefined thresholds and extracts event information by analyzing the resulting samples. Previously we have prototyped an FPGA-only implementation of the MVT digitizer and developed a PET detector module using the FPGA-only MVT digitizer. In this work, we report our development of a 36-channel FPGA-only MVT digitizer and a fully-functional demonstrator system based on using such digitizers in combination with SiPMs-based PET detector blocks which consists of a 6×6 LYSO matrix and a 6×6 SiPM array with 1∶1 coupling, yielding a total of 36 output signals. The demonstrator system has a ring with 93mm diameter and 25mm axial length which consists of 12 PET detector modules. Our initial measurements show an energy and coincidence timing resolution of 16.6% at 511 keV and 668 ps (FWHM), respectively. We have also successfully imaged an image-quality phantom and the initial result indicates the system can support a spatial resolution of ∼2 mm.

Multi-voltage threshold (MVT) is an amplitude-based sampling method. It takes timing samples when the event pulse crosses the user-defined thresholds. Only a few comparators and TDCs are required when implementing such digitizer. Previously, we have demonstrated an FPGA-only MVT digitizer based on this method. The FPGA-only MVT digitizer employs the differential I/Os in an FPGA as the required comparators and FPGA based TDCs. The implementation of this digitizer is entirely based on the FPGA. We have demonstrated that it is possible to implement a significant number of MVT digitizers by using a single FPGA. It is also flexible, as it allows us to readily modify, or add functions to, the implementation without requiring costly hardware changes. Currently, we are developing a PET detector module using the FPGA-only MVT digitizer. In this paper we describe the design and implementation of the detector module and report its performance properties. The detector module has a total detection sensitive area of 50mm × 50mm, an overall energy resolution of 15.1% FWHM at 511keV, and a module-level coincidence timing resolution of 684ps FWHM. In addition, our preliminary imaging with such detector module successfully resolves 1.6mm-diameter rods separated by 3.2mm.

Economic development usually leads to increased energy consumption, which in turn will result in an increase in carbon emissions. To break the relationship between economic development and carbon emissions, scholars have turned their attention to the phenomenon of decoupling. In this paper, we studied the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth of the equipment manufacturing industry in China from 2000 to 2014. We adapted the LMDI decomposition method, and we used the Tapio decoupling evaluation model to analyze our data. We found that the decoupling relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth of China’s equipment manufacturing industry is weak, which indicates the industry is experiencing faster economic growth than carbon emission growth. We found the economic output is the factor that has the strongest influence on the industry’s carbon emission, and energy consumption intensity has the strongest relationship with the decoupling of economic growth and carbon emission. The indicators of the industry’s decoupling-effort are all less than 1.0, which indicates that the industry is in the state of weak decoupling, and we also observed an annual decreasing trend in the industry’s indicators. Toward the end of this paper, we used the Grey forecasting model to predict the decoupling relationship between carbon emission and economic growth for 2015–2024, and we discussed the implications of our research.