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Neurological diseases associated with dysfunctions of neural circuits, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), depression and epilepsy, have been increasingly prevalent. To tackle these issues, artificial stimulation or regulation of specific neural circuits and nuclei are employed to alleviate or cure certain neurological diseases. In particular, ultrasound neuromodulation has been an emerging interdisciplinary approach, which integrates medicine and engineering methodologies in the treatment. With the development of medicine and engineering, ultrasound neuromodulation has gradually been applied in the treatment of central nervous system diseases. In this review, we aimed to summarize the mechanism of ultrasound neuromodulation and the advances of focused ultrasound (FUS) in neuromodulation in recent years, with a special emphasis on its application in central nervous system disease treatment. FUS showed great feasibility in the treatment of epilepsy, tremor, AD, depression, and brain trauma. We also suggested future directions of ultrasound neuromodulation in clinical settings, with a focus on its fusion with genetic engineering or nanotechnology.

Vasculopathy is an important complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), which is closely related to oxidative stress and inflammation. Haptoglobin (Hp), an acute-phase protein, binds to hemoglobin (Hb) and prevents haeme-iron oxidative damage. To investigate the distribution of the frequencies of Hp genotypes and to analyse the association between Hp gene polymorphisms and vascular complications in diabetes patients. The study included 171 patients with T2DM without vascular complications and 797 patients with T2DM with vascular complications. The clinical characteristics of the studied population were recorded. Hp genotyping was performed using polymerase chain reaction–sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP). Our results showed that the frequencies of Hp genotypes in all 968 T2DM patients were as follows: Hp1-1, 4.98%; Hp2-1, 38.07%; and Hp2-2, 56.95%. Although there was no significant difference in the Hp allele or genotype frequencies among individuals with vascular complications in the T2DM groups and controls regardless of gender, we found that the distribution of the Hp2-2 genotype and allele frequency was higher in males with diabetic retinopathy than in the control group (p

In this paper, a novel high dynamic range (HDR) image zero-watermarking algorithm against the tone mapping attack is proposed. In order to extract stable and invariant features for robust zero-watermarking, the shift-invariant shearlet transform (SIST) is used to transform the HDR image. Firstly, the HDR image is converted to CIELAB color space, and the L component is selected to perform SIST for obtaining the low-frequency subband containing the robust structure information of the image. Secondly, the low-frequency subband is divided into nonoverlapping blocks, which are transformed by using discrete cosine transform (DCT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) to obtain the maximum singular values for constructing a binary feature image. To increase the watermarking security, a hybrid chaotic mapping (HCM) is employed to get the scrambled watermark. Finally, an exclusive-or operation is performed between the binary feature image and the scrambled watermark to compute robust zero-watermark. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a good capability of resisting tone mapping and other image processing attacks.

Bacterial therapy is an emerging method of tumor treatment. By utilizing wild-type bacteria or engineered bacteria to treat solid tumors, bacterial therapy has recently attracted attention due to its high therapeutic specificity. Although many bacterial strains have been tested in animal models or have even advanced to clinical trials, the efficacy of bacterial therapy remains undesirable. The lack of efficient control methods could cause side effects as well as insufficient therapeutic efficiency, both of which are urgent problems for bacterial therapy. Therefore, some studies have constructed bacteria with inducible plasmid or adsorption with responsive nanoparticles, which improved controllability and specificity during bacterial therapy. Herein, we introduce the unique advantages of bacteria in cancer treatment and highlight the issues associated with the application of bacterial therapy, focusing on the incorporation of various methodologies in the advancement of some controllable strategies in bacterial therapy.

Face recognition is a kind of biometric technology that recognizes identities through human faces. At first, the speed of machine recognition of human faces was slow and the accuracy was lower than manual recognition. With the rapid development of deep learning and the application of Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) in the field of face recognition, the accuracy of face recognition has greatly improved. FaceNet is a deep learning framework commonly used in face recognition in recent years. FaceNet uses the deep learning model GoogLeNet, which has a high accuracy in face recognition. However, its network structure is too large, which causes the FaceNet to run at a low speed. Therefore, to improve the running speed without affecting the recognition accuracy of FaceNet, this paper proposes a lightweight FaceNet model based on MobileNet. This article mainly does the following works: Based on the analysis of the low running speed of FaceNet and the principle of MobileNet, a lightweight FaceNet model based on MobileNet is proposed. The model would reduce the overall calculation of the network by using deep separable convolutions. In this paper, the model is trained on the CASIA-WebFace and VGGFace2 datasets, and tested on the LFW dataset. Experimental results show that the model reduces the network parameters to a large extent while ensuring the accuracy and hence an increase in system computing speed. The model can also perform face recognition on a specific person in the video.

Competitive sports data visualization is an increasingly important research direction in the field of information visualization. It is also an important basis for studying human behavioral pattern and activity habits. In this paper, we provide a taxonomy of sports data visualization and summarize the state-of-the-art research from four aspects of data types, main tasks and visualization techniques and visual analysis. Specifically, we first put sports data into two categories: spatiotemporal information and statistical information. Then, we propose three main tasks for competitive sports data visualization: feature presentation, feature comparison and feature prediction. Furthermore, we classify competitive sports data visualization techniques based on data characteristics into five categories: high-dimensional data visualization, time-series visualization, graph (network) visualization, glyph visualization and other visualization, and we analyze the relationship between major tasks and visualization techniques. We also introduce visual analysis research work of competitive sports, propose the features and limitations of competitive sports data, summarize multimedia visualization in competitive sports and finally discuss visual analysis evaluation. In this survey, we attempt to help readers to find appropriate techniques for different data types and different tasks. Our paper also intends to provide guidelines and references for future researchers when they study human behavior and moving patterns.

Cancer is a common cause of mortality in the world. For cancer treatment modalities such as chemotherapy, photothermal therapy and immunotherapy, the concentration of therapeutic agents in tumor tissue is the key factor which determines therapeutic efficiency. In view of this, developing targeted drug delivery systems are of great significance in selectively delivering drugs to tumor regions. Various types of nanomaterials have been widely used as drug carriers. However, the low tumor-targeting ability of nanomaterials limits their clinical application. It is difficult for nanomaterials to penetrate the tumor tissue through passive diffusion due to the elevated tumoral interstitial fluid pressure. As a biological carrier, bacteria can specifically colonize and proliferate inside tumors and inhibit tumor growth, making it an ideal candidate as delivery vehicles. In addition, synthetic biology techniques have been applied to enable bacteria to controllably express various functional proteins and achieve targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. Nanobiohybrids constructed by the combination of bacteria and nanomaterials have an abundance of advantages, including tumor targeting ability, genetic modifiability, programmed product synthesis, and multimodal therapy. Nowadays, many different types of bacteria-based nanobiohybrids have been used in multiple targeted tumor therapies. In this review, firstly we summarized the development of nanomaterial-mediated cancer therapy. The mechanism and advantages of the bacteria in tumor therapy are described. Especially, we will focus on introducing different therapeutic strategies of nanobiohybrid systems which combine bacteria with nanomaterials in cancer therapy. It is demonstrated that the bacteria-based nanobiohybrids have the potential to provide a targeted and effective approach for cancer treatment.

Three bump sizes, six pressures and five placement angles of bump were used in this paper to conduct enveloping stiffness experiments. The experimental tire displacement-load curves showed that the enveloping stiffness of the tire under the same pressure did not change with changes of the bump size. And the enveloping stiffness of the tire were changed with changes of pressures and placement angles; Models consider pressure and placement angle of bump were established respectively, and established a model consider pressure and placement angle simultaneously by least squares, those models can be used to estimate enveloping stiffness force without experiments. Abaqus finite element software simulations showed that the stress distribution in the tread is H-shaped and the deformation distribution in the tread is oval; By analyzing the force distribution of the ply found that the distribution of force changes with the change of placement angles. The lateral displacement(U1) of the belts increases linearly with increasing angle. The end of cord is prone to failure at 0° and 45°, and the cord near middle of ply is also prone to failure at all angles.

Applying nanosized ultrasound contrast agents (nUCAs) in molecular imaging has received considerable attention. nUCAs have been instrumental in ultrasound molecular imaging to enhance sensitivity, identification, and quantification. nUCAs can achieve high performance in molecular imaging, which was influenced by synthetic formulations and size. This review presents an overview of nUCAs from different synthetic formulations with a discussion on imaging and detection technology. Then we also review the progress of nUCAs in preclinical application and highlight the recent challenges of nUCAs.

Bacteria-based tumor therapy has recently attracted wide attentions due to its unique capability in targeting tumors and preferentially colonizing the core area of the tumor. Various therapeutic genes were also harbored into these engineering bacteria to enhance their anti-tumor efficacy. However, it is difficult to spatiotemporally control the expression of these inserted genes in the tumor site. Here, we engineered an ultrasound-responsive bacterium (URB) which can induce the expression of exogenous genes in an ultrasound-controllable manner. Owing to the advantage of ultrasound in the tissue penetration, energy focusing into heating, an acoustic remote control of bacterial gene expression can be realized by designing a temperature-actuated genetic switch. Cytokine interferon-γ (IFN-γ), an important immune regulatory molecule that plays a significant role in tumor immunotherapy, was used to test the system. Our results showed a brief hyperthermia by focused ultrasound successfully induced the expression of IFN-γ gene, significantly improving anti-tumor efficacy of URB in vitro and in vivo. Our study provided a novel strategy for bacteria-mediated tumor immunotherapy.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can support clinical decisions and provide quality assurance for images. Although ultrasonography is commonly used in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, the use of AI is still in a stage of infancy. Nevertheless, in repetitive ultrasound examinations, such as those involving automatic positioning and identification of fetal structures, prediction of gestational age (GA), and real-time image quality assurance, AI has great potential. To realize its application, it is necessary to promote interdisciplinary communication between AI developers and sonographers. In this review, we outlined the benefits of AI technology in obstetric ultrasound diagnosis by optimizing image acquisition, quantification, segmentation, and location identification, which can be helpful for obstetric ultrasound diagnosis in different periods of pregnancy.

Ultrasound is one of the most important examinations for clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases. The speed of image movements driven by the frequency of the beating heart is faster than that of other organs. This particularity of echocardiography poses a challenge for sonographers to diagnose accurately. However, artificial intelligence for detection, functional evaluation, and disease diagnosis has gradually become an alternative for accurate diagnosis and treatment using echocardiography. This work discusses the current application of artificial intelligence in echocardiography technology, its limitations, and future development directions., Highlights 1. Application of artificial intelligence (AI) in echocardiography is now widely studied, and AI technique has the potential to optimize the diagnostic potential of echocardiography. 2. Application of artificial intelligence in echocardiography is important in the following aspects: recognizing the standard section, cardiac cavity automatic segmentation, functional left ventricle assessment, and cardiac disease diagnosis. 3. Standardized data collection and image annotation are essential for artificial intelligence in echocardiography.

The proportion of acute symptomatic lacunar infarction lesions that undergo cavitation and the factors influencing cavity formation are yet unclear, particularly in the Chinese population. Hence, we investigated changes in the diameter of acute lacunar infarction lesions and identified the risk factors for the progression of these lesions. A total of 160 patients (mean age 66 years) with acute symptomatic lacunar infarction lesions underwent two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examinations: diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) at onset (lesion diameter < 20 mm) and T2-weighted imaging/fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences at follow-up (median follow-up time 389 days). Lacunar infarction lesion progression was categorized as complete cavitation (lacune), partial cavitation, white matter lesion (WML), or disappearance of the lesion. The risk factors for cavity formation were evaluated. Upon follow-up MRI, lesions had changed to lacunes in 20 (12.5%) patients, partial cavitation in 23 (14.4%), WMLs in 97 (60.6%), and had disappeared in 20 (12.5%). Lacune formation was related to hypertension (P = 0.026); cavity (lacune and partial cavitation) formation was related to diabetes (P = 0.009) and diameter change (P = 0.015). Approximately a quarter of the acute symptomatic lacunar infarction lesions observed with follow-up MRI were cavitated. Hypertension was negatively associated with lacune formation; diabetes and diameter change were negatively associated with cavity formation.

Objective The treatment of missed Monteggia fracture remains a challenge, despite the various surgical methods described. The purpose of this study was to explore a new surgical technique utilizing external fixator-assisted ulnar osteotomy and to assess the surgical results in a case series. Methods Thirteen patients with missed Monteggia fractures were treated at our institution using this new surgical technique from August 2012 to January 2016. Our series included 11 boys and 2 girls. The left elbow was involved in 6 patients and the right elbow was involved in 7 patients. According to the Bado classification, 10 fractures were classified as Bado type I with anterior radial head dislocation and 3 were classified as Bado type III with anterolateral dislocation. The average age at the time of surgery was 5 years 8 months (range, 2 years 2 months-10 years). The mean trauma-to-surgery interval was 12 months (range, 2-36 months). All patients underwent ulnar osteotomy with angulation and lengthening using a temporary external fixator, plate fixation of the osteotomy, and open reduction of the radial head dislocation without annular ligament reconstruction. Results The average follow-up was 27 months (range, 16-44 months). The average operation time was 175 min (range, 140-215 min). The average length of distraction was 0.7 cm (range, 0.5-1.2 cm) and the average angulation was 28° (range, 20°-30°) at the ulnar osteotomy site intraoperatively. The elbow performance score (Kim's) was excellent in 10 cases and good in 3 cases. No neurovascular complications, compartment syndrome or implant breakage occurred. No pain in the distal radioulnar joint or limited range of motion of the wrist occurred in any patient. The radial head remained reduced in all patients with no subluxation or redislocation. However, delayed ulnar union occurred in 3 cases, all of which were successfully treated with plaster cast immobilization within approximately 6 months postoperatively. One patient presented with cubitus valgus postoperatively with a carrying angle of 30°, which was 10° greater than the contralateral carrying angle. Conclusions External fixator-assisted ulnar osteotomy offers substantial flexibility for achieving the optimal positioning of the transected ulna to reduce the radial head prior to the final ulnar osteotomy fixation with a plate, thereby facilitating an effective operative performance. Our procedure is a safe and effective method to treat missed pediatric Monteggia fractures.

MicroRNA-mediated gene therapy is emerging as a promising method for the treatment of ovarian cancer, but the development of miRNA mimic delivery vectors is still in its infancy, where the safety and efficacy of miR-34a-mimic remain unknown. Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) can be an effective and minimally invasive tool for the delivery of miR-34a-mimic in vitro and in vivo. Here, we describe a high-efficiency gene delivery strategy by using miR-34a-mimic loaded folate modified microbubbles (miR-34a-FM) with a portable ultrasonic irradiation system. Ultrasonic parameters, including acoustic intensity (AI), exposure time (ET) and duty cycle (DC), were optimized and the optimal acoustic condition (1.0 W/cm2, 20 s, and 15% DC) was used to deliver miRNA-34a into cells in vitro. MiR-34a mimic was successfully introduced into the cytoplasm and was found to inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of SK-OV-3 cells. Next, miR-34a-mimic was delivered to tumor tissue via UTMD, inhibiting tumor growth and prolonging the survival time of mice. In summary, UTMD-mediated miR-34a-mimic delivery has potential application in the clinical treatment of ovarian cancer.

Ultrasound (US) takes advantage of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs) to further increase the sensitivity and specificity of monitoring at the cellular level, which has had a considerable effect on the modern molecular imaging field. Gas-filled microbubbles (MBs) as UCAs in the bloodstream generate resonant volumetric oscillations in response to rapid variations in acoustic pressure, which are related to both the acoustic parameters of applied ultrasound and the physicochemical properties of the contrast agents. Nanoscale UCAs have been developed and have attracted much attention due to their utility in detecting extravascular lesions. Ultrasound molecular assessment is achieved by binding disease-specific ligands to the surface of UCAs, which have been designed to target tissue biomarkers in the area of interest, such as blood vessels, inflammation, or thrombosis. Additionally, the development of multimodal imaging technology is conducive for integration of the advantages of various imaging techniques to acquire additional diagnostic information. In this review paper, the present status and the critical issues for developing ultrasound contrast agents and multimodal imaging applications are described. Conventional MB UCAs are first introduced, including their research material, diagnostic applications, and intrinsic limitations. Then, recent progress in developing targeted UCAs and phase-inversion contrast agents for diagnostic purposes is discussed. Finally, we review the present status and the critical issues for developing ultrasound-based multimodal imaging applications and summarize the existing challenges and future prospects.

Background Eating quality is the main factor affecting the commodity value of commercial rice. However, its determination relies on sensory evaluations, which require large samples, are easily influenced by subjective factors and are time consuming. In order to make the determination of eating quality more efficient, a set of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) obtained from the hybridization of indica and japonica rice was used as the test material to analyze the relationship between starch characteristics and the eating quality (EQ) score, from sensory evaluation. An implementation protocol was proposed for starch assisted-selection of eating quality. Results Among the RILs, the values of the measured parameters for amylose content (AC), trough viscosity (TV), final viscosity (FV), breakdown (BD) and setback (SB) were significantly correlated with the EQ values ​​obtained by sensory evaluation. The RILs with higher EQ scores, generally had low AC, TV, FV and SB, but high BD. By normalizing and summing the AC, TV, FV, SB and BD indicators, a comprehensive indicator—viz., the starch properties quality (SPQ)—was established, to assess starch quality. The SPQ value was better correlated with EQ than any of the individually measured parameters, suggesting that the model is valid. This method requires much smaller rice samples than sensory evaluations, i.e., three grams of milled rice flour. Conclusions Therefore, the SPQ indicator is a rapid, objective and convenient technique for the rapid assessment of rice eating quality in a large number of crossbreeding progeny, especially early-generation progeny, from which only small samples of rice grains are available.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented crisis to the global health sector1. When recovering COVID-19 patients are discharged in accordance with throat or nasal swab protocols using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), the potential risk of re-introducing the infection source to humans and the environment must be resolved 2,3,4. Here we show that 20% of COVID-19 patients, who were ready for a hospital discharge based on current guidelines, had SARS-CoV-2 in their exhaled breath (~105 RNA copies/m3). They were estimated to emit about 1400 RNA copies into the air per minute. Although fewer surface swabs (1.3%, N=318) tested positive, medical equipment frequently contacted by healthcare workers and the work shift floor were contaminated by SARS-CoV-2 in four hospitals in Wuhan. All air samples (N=44) appeared negative likely due to the dilution or inactivation through natural ventilation (1.6-3.3 m/s) and applied disinfection. Despite the low risk of cross environmental contamination in the studied hospitals, there is a critical need for strengthening the hospital discharge standards in preventing re-emergence of COVID-19 spread.

Background Radiosensitivity is limited in cervical cancer (CC) patients due to acquired radiation resistance. In our previous studies, we found that immediate-early response 5 (IER5) is upregulated in CC cells upon radiation exposure and decreases cell survival by promoting apoptosis. The details on the transcriptional regulation of radiation-induced IER5 expression are unknown. Studies in recent years have suggested that Pol II-associated factor 1 (PAF1) is a pivotal transcription factor for certain genes “induced” during tumor progression. In this study, we investigated the role of PAF1 in regulating IER5 expression during CC radiotherapy. Methods PAF1 expression in CC cells was measured by western blotting, immunohistochemistry, and qRT-PCR, and the localization of PAF1 and IER5 was determined by immunofluorescence. The effect of PAF1 and IER5 knockdown by siRNA in Siha and Hela cells was studied by western blotting, qRT-PCR, CCK-8 assay, and flow cytometry. The physical interaction of PAF1 with the IER5 promoter and enhancers was confirmed using chromatin immunoprecipitation and qPCR with or without enhancers knockout by CRISPR/Cas9. Results We confirmed that PAF1 was highly expressed in CC cells and that relatively low expression of IER5 was observed in cells with highly expressed PAF1 in the nucleus. PAF1 knockdown in Siha and Hela cells was associated with increased expression of IER5, reduced cell viability and higher apoptosis rate in response to radiation exposure, while simultaneous PAF1 and IER5 knockdown had little effect on the proportion of apoptotic cells. We also found that PAF1 hindered the transcription of IER5 by promoting Pol II pausing at the promoter-proximal region, which was primarily due to the binding of PAF1 at the enhancers. Conclusions PAF1 reduces CC radiosensitivity by inhibiting IER5 transcription, at least in part by regulating its enhancers. PAF1 might be a potential therapeutic target for overcoming radiation resistance in CC patients.

The flow pattern is one of the most significant parameters in modeling the oil–water two-phase system. How to extract efficient and objective features to precisely identify the oil–water two-phase flow patterns is still a significant issue. Inspired by the deep learning hierarchically feature extraction way, we, in this paper, employ convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to identify oil–water two-phase flow patterns. First, we carry out oil–water two-phase flow experiment and collect different oil–water flow pattern images. Then, we propose an image segment algorithm based on the minimum gray level to obtain the interest region that reflects the flow pattern characteristics. Finally, we employ three frequently used CNNs, LeNet-5, AlexNet, and VGG-16 net, to extract the image features and identify typical oil–water two-phase flow patterns. The results show that networks with more deep structures preserve relatively high flow pattern recognition accuracy. This paper provides a novel application of the deep learning method for the oil–water two-phase flow identification.

To attain attractive ultrasound-responsive gene delivery, a new kind of echogenic chitosan nanodroplets (CND) was developed to explore the potential to deliver genes in a spatiotemporally controlled manner. Self-assembled amphiphilic chitosan micelles of nanoscale size were fabricated to encapsulate hydrophobic perfluoropentane into the inner cores. The resulting CND presented a positive surface charge, enabling the formation of nano-complexes with genetic cargo through electrostatic interactions. Agarose-gel electrophoresis further confirmed the ability of CND to bind DNA. CND was also observed to protect DNA from degradation by nucleases. A temperature-dependent droplet-to-bubble conversion was also demonstrated. More importantly, our study revealed that CND in combination with ultrasound could significantly enhance gene delivery. In conclusion, our study demonstrated a novel carrier with great potential for efficient ultrasound-mediated gene delivery to specific tissues in a spatiotemporally controlled manner.

Gut dysbiosis and dysregulation of gut–brain communication have been identified in hypertensive patients and animal models. Previous studies have shown that probiotic or prebiotic treatments exert positive effects on the pathophysiology of hypertension. This study aimed to examine the hypothesis that the microbiota-gut-brain axis is involved in the antihypertensive effects of curcumin, a potential prebiotic obtained from Curcuma longa. Male 8- to 10-week-old spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) and Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were divided into four groups: WKY rats and SHRs treated with vehicle and SHRs treated with curcumin in dosage of 100 or 300 mg/kg/day for 12 weeks. Our results show that the elevated blood pressure of SHRs was markedly decreased in both curcumin-treated groups. Curcumin treatment also altered the gut microbial composition and improved intestinal pathology and integrity. These factors were associated with reduced neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in the hypothalamus paraventricular nucleus (PVN). Moreover, curcumin treatment increased butyrate levels in the plasma, which may be the result of increased butyrate-producing gut microorganisms. In addition, curcumin treatment also activated G protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR 43) in the PVN. These results indicate that curcumin reshapes the composition of the gut microbiota and ameliorates the dysregulation of the gut-brain communication to induce antihypertensive effects.

A scientific and systematical evaluation of animations will be able to reflect the integrated strength of animations. Based on the popularity of animations in the market and the quality of animations, and following the principles of index selection, we propose an animations evaluation system (AES) by using multiple social research methods. We establish and analyze a mathematical model based on analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. We then treat the missing data of the market repercussion index and the professional evaluation index by using hot deck imputation and mean imputation. Finally, with sample test to the data extracted from Chinese market, experimental results show that AES and the mathematical model is feasible and the missing data treatment is reasonable. Furthermore, we prove that social values and artistic values of animations, which are both part and parcel of the integrated strength of animations, can be objectively reflected by AES.

Ovarian cancer stem cells (OCSCs) that are a subpopulation within bulk tumor survive chemotherapy and conduce to chemo-resistance and tumor relapse. However, conventional gene delivery is unsuitable for the on-demand content release, which limits OCSCs therapeutic utility. Here, we reported ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD)-triggerable poly(ethylene glycol)-disulfide bond-polyethylenimine loaded microbubble (PSP@MB). Taking advantage of glutathione (GSH) responsiveness, ultrasound triggering and spatiotemporally controlled release manner, PSP@MB is expected to realize local gene delivery for OCSCs treatment. But the biophysical mechanisms of gene delivery via PSP@MB and ultrasound remain unknown. The aim of this study is to determine the potential of gene delivery to OCSCs via ultrasonic synergistic biophysical effects and GSH-sensitive PSP@MB. The GSH-sensitive disulfide bond cleavable properties of PSP@MB were confirmed by 1H NMR spectra and infrared spectroscopy. The biophysical mechanisms between PSP@MB and cells were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) to optimize the ultrasonic gene delivery system. The gene transfection via ultrasound and PSP@MB was closely related to the biophysical mechanisms (sonoporation, enhanced-endocytosis, sonoprinting, and endosomal escape). Ultrasound combined with PSP@MB successfully delivered aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 (ALDH1) short hairpin RNA (shRNA) plasmid to OCSCs and promoted apoptosis of OCSCs. The gene transfection rate and apoptosis rate were (18.41 ± 2.41)% and (32.62 ± 2.36)% analyzed by flow cytometry separately. This study showed that ultrasound triggering and GSH responsive PSP@MB might provide a novel strategy for OCSCs treatment via sonoporation and enhanced-endocytosis.

The hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) plays crucial roles in central cardiovascular regulation. Increasing evidence in humans and rodents shows that vitamin D intake is important for achieving optimal cardiovascular function. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether calcitriol, an active form of vitamin D, improves autonomic and cardiovascular function in hypertensive rats and whether PVN oxidative stress and inflammation are involved in these beneficial effects. Male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and normotensive control Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were treated with either calcitriol (40 ng/day) or vehicle (0.11 μL/h) through chronic PVN infusion for 4 weeks. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded continuously by radiotelemetry. PVN tissue, heart and plasma were collected for molecular and histological analysis. Compared to WKY rats, SHR exhibited increased systolic blood pressure, sympathetic drive, and cardiac hypertrophy and remodeling. These were associated with higher mRNA and protein expression levels of high mobility box 1 (HMGB1), receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), proinflammatory cytokines, NADPH oxidase subunit in the PVN. In addition, increased norepinephrine in plasma, elevated reactive oxygen species levels and activation of microglia in the PVN were also observed in SHR. Chronic calcitriol treatment ameliorated these changes but not in WKY rats. Our results demonstrate that chronic infusion of calcitriol in the PVN ameliorates hypertensive responses, sympathoexcitation and retains cardiovascular function in SHR. Reduced inflammation and oxidative stress within the PVN are involved in these calcitriol-induced effects.

All-solid Z-scheme Bi–BiOCl/AgCl heterojunction microspheres are successfully prepared via hydrothermal, NaBH4 reduction and chemical deposition strategy. They are tested by various characterization methods, and they show that metal Bi is present after reduction and AgCl nanoparticles are successfully compounded onto BiOCl. Bi plays the role of a bridge connecting the two semiconductors of BiOCl and AgCl. All-solid Z-scheme heterojunction structures are formed successfully. The narrow band gap of the Z-scheme Bi–BiOCl/AgCl heterojunction microspheres is about 2.17 eV, which can expand the optical response range. Moreover, the photocatalytic hydrogen production rate still reaches 198.2 μmol h–1 g–1, extends the electron transport life, inhibits the recombination of electron hole pairs, and improves the photocatalytic activity.

The efficiency of natural killer (NK) cells, adoptively transferred, for treatment against solid tumors is hindered by their difficulty to enter tumors from the blood circulation as well as their inability to prolong viability in the absence of IL-2. Among different sources of NK cells, we used genetically modified NK-92MI cells, a suitable candidate which can release IL-2 to maintain their viability and overcome undesirable side effects caused by systemic administration of exogenous IL-2. In this study, we evaluated whether the combination of focused ultrasound (FUS) and microbubbles can improve adoptively NK-92MI cell infiltration into ovarian tumors through biodistribution, immunofluorescence, and flow cytometry. The treatment effects of using this strategy twice a week were explored. The potential molecular mechanism of FUS assisting NK cell therapy was also initially explored through evaluating the expression of ICAM1 and CX3CL1 by qRT-PCR. Our results indicated that FUS and microbubbles can improve NK-92MI cells' infiltration into tumors, and the combination of FUS and NK-92MI cells had a better treatment effect compared to the PBS group, but not compared to the NK-92MI group. The qRT-PCR results also showed that CX3CL1 may be involved in the process of FUS-assisted NK cell infiltration. These results indicate that further optimization of the FUS-assisted strategy is still needed to achieve therapeutic benefit.

A portable measuring instrument based on micro-controller is designed in this paper. An impedance conversion chip AD5933 featured as high precision is considered to be the measuring sensor. A switch array consisting of micro-relays and high-precision resistors is devised to carry out system calibrating and range switching automatically by proposed adaptive feedback calibration approach. The test results show that the system presents satisfied accuracy and good stability with SNR 72.8 dB within $1\sim 100kHz$ and lower relative measurement error to 0.54% o within $ 0.02\sim 200k\Omega$. The measuring results of a complex circuit is verified to be coincide with the ideal curve. This paper provides an innovative method for fast and stable impedance measurement.

Electrical Impedance Tomography is a non-invasive imaging technique based on a feature that the tissues or organs have different conductivities in different physiological and pathological conditions. The study mainly aimed to propose a three-dimensional electrical impedance circuit model and verify its feasibility by three scientific evaluation indexes. Based on conjugate gradient algorithm, using MATLAB software, the data is processed to achieve the images measured by a lab–made three-dimensional electrical impedance tomography data acquisition system. The reconstructed images verifies the feasibility of the proposed circuit model. A serial of image reconstruction experimentations are carried on to analyze the stability and the accuracy of the circuit model. The results show that the proposed circuit model features as good performances and can be used as a physical platform to carry on researches related to EIT algorithm or modelling.

Fe therapy can be effective in heart failure patients both with and without anaemia. However, the role of Fe therapy in such patients is still uncertain. In this review, the aim was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Fe therapy in adult patients with heart failure who have reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Multiple databases (PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and Clinical Trials) were searched up to December 2017 and the reference lists of relevant articles obtained from the search were reviewed. Data extracted from randomised control trials (RCT) selected for the review were pooled using a fixed effects model or a random effects model, according to heterogeneity between trials. Nine RCT were included in this meta-analysis which included a total of 789 patients who received Fe therapy and who in turn were compared with 585 controls. There was significant improvement in the 6-min walk test (19·05 m, 95 % CI 10·48, 27·62) and peak VO2/kg (0·93 ml/kg per min, 95 % CI 0·16, 1·69) in the Fe supplementation arm. With Fe therapy, fewer patients were hospitalised for heart failure (OR: 0·42, 95 % CI 0·27, 0·65), but no relationship was found for total re-hospitalisation (OR: 0·70, 95 % CI 0·32, 1·51) or mortality (OR: 0·70, 95 % CI 0·38, 1·28). Fe therapy has the potential to improve exercise tolerance, reduce re-hospitalisations for patients with HFrEF having Fe deficiency. In addition, Fe supplementation was found to be safe, with no increased rate of adverse events.

In recent years, many scholars have paid more attention to the service-oriented computing for Internet of Things (IoT). With the increasing smart devices are deployed in IoT, it has become a challenging problem that how to quickly combine the services provided by IoT components into a comprehensive composite service to balance energy and quality of service (QoS). In this article, a fast energy-centered and QoS-aware service composition approach (FSCA-EQ) is proposed for IoT service composition. The FSCA-EQ employs the idea of hierarchical optimization. First, the compromise ratio method (CRM) is used to pre-select services satisfying user’s QoS requirements. Then, to reduce the energy consumption and extend the lifetime of IoT devices, the concept of relative dominance is applied to select the optimal service as the final composite service. The relative dominance of the service depends on its energy profile, QoS attributes, and user’s preferences. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs better in terms of selection time, energy consumption, and optimality.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented crisis to the global health sector. When discharging COVID-19 patients in accordance with throat or nasal swab protocols using RT-PCR, the potential risk of reintroducing the infection source to humans and the environment must be resolved. Here, 14 patients including 10 COVID-19 subjects were recruited; exhaled breath condensate (EBC), air samples and surface swabs were collected and analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in four hospitals with applied natural ventilation and disinfection practices in Wuhan. Here we discovered that 22.2% of COVID-19 patients (n = 9), who were ready for hospital discharge based on current guidelines, had SARS-CoV-2 in their exhaled breath (~105 RNA copies/m3). Although fewer surface swabs (3.1%, n = 318) tested positive, medical equipment such as face shield frequently contacted/used by healthcare workers and the work shift floor were contaminated by SARS-CoV-2 (3–8 viruses/cm2). Three of the air samples (n = 44) including those collected using a robot-assisted sampler were detected positive by a digital PCR with a concentration level of 9–219 viruses/m3. RT-PCR diagnosis using throat swab specimens had a failure rate of more than 22% in safely discharging COVID-19 patients who were otherwise still exhaling the SARS-CoV-2 by a rate of estimated ~1400 RNA copies per minute into the air. Direct surface contact might not represent a major transmission route, and lower positive rate of air sample (6.8%) was likely due to natural ventilation (1.6–3.3 m/s) and regular disinfection practices. While there is a critical need for strengthening hospital discharge standards in preventing re-emergence of COVID-19 spread, use of breath sample as a supplement specimen could further guard the hospital discharge to ensure the safety of the public and minimize the pandemic re-emergence risk., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • Recovering COVID-19 patients (22.2%) still exhale thousands of SARS-CoV-2 per minute. • Hospital air (6.8%) was shown to have SARS-CoV-2 levels of 9–219 COVID-19 viruses/m3. • Surface swabs had a level of 3–8 viruses/cm2 with a SARS-CoV-2 positive rate of 3.1%.

Analytical study is carried out on the dynamic characteristics of a laminated plate under temperature gradient. Theoretical formulations are derived with the first order shear deformation theory and von Karman nonlinear strain displacement relationship considering the effect of temperature gradient. Semi-analytical solutions of vibration and acoustic responses are obtained for different temperature gradients. The correctness of the theoretical method is demonstrated by comparing with the experimental result and numerical simulation. The present work theoretically explains why the lowest point (buckling occurring) of the experimental curve of resonant frequencies for thermal structure is shifting up away from the horizontal axis. It also means that initial thermal deformation and thermal stress have to be considered together in simulation of the dynamical response for thermal structure. Research results show that with increasing temperature gradients, the resonant frequency increases, the critical mid-plane temperature at which resonant frequency drops to the lowest decreases, and the response peaks move toward higher frequency.

The grounding performance of tires under different tire pressure and load was tested by using the five rigid test machine and the TireScan pressure distribution measurement system, the test results show that the tire pressure and load have obvious influence on the grounding performance of the tire. At the same time, using ABAQUS software to simulate the relationship between different sinking amount and belt layer angle and tire grounding performance, the analysis results show that the sinking amount and the belt layer angle are closely related to the grounding performance of the tire.

The dual plasmons (Bi, Ag)-based direct Z-scheme Bi3O4Cl/AgCl heterojunction ultrathin nanosheets are successfully synthesized by hydrothermal combined with solid-state reduction strategy. The plasmons Ag and Bi are formed during solid-state reduction process, which are firmly anchored on surface of Bi3O4Cl and AgCl, respectively, and favors the charge transfer obviously. Experiments results confirm the formation of heterojunction ultrathin nanosheets with the main size of 200∼300 nm and the thickness of

CCR2 has been proven to play an important role in diabetes. However, the role of CCR2 in diabetic cardiomyopathy has not been examined. In this study, we investigated the effects of cardiac CCR2 on diabetic cardiomyopathy. We created a model of streptozotocin (STZ)–induced diabetic cardiomyopathy. Expression of CCR2 was upregulated in the hearts of STZ-induced diabetic mice. CCR2 knockout significantly improved STZ-induced cardiac dysfunction and fibrosis. Moreover, deletion of CCR2 inhibited STZ-induced apoptosis and the production of STZ-induced reactive oxygen species in the heart. CCR2 knockout resulted in M2 polarization in hearts of STZ-treated mice. Treatment with a CCR2 inhibitor reversed hyperglycemia-induced cardiac dysfunction in db/db mice. These results suggest that CCR2-induced inflammation and oxidative stress in the heart are involved in the development of diabetic cardiomyopathy and that CCR2 could be a novel target for therapy.

Huber regression is a robust linear regression, which can learn appropriate model on the noisy data scenario. In the era of big data, the training data contains many normal data. In order to solve the Huber regression model in large-scale data, we transform the Huber regression problem into a global consensus problem and a sharing problem. Two different parallel solutions to the Huber regression problem are implemented based on Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) algorithm in Spark distributed computing framework. The experimental results show that the Huber regression can be solved quickly and maintain high precision by choosing appropriate parallelism.

As a non-invasive and real-time diagnostic technique, ultrasound has provided a novel strategy for targeted treatment. With the rapid development of ultrasonic technique and ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), spatiotemporally controllable application of ultrasound with or without UCAs makes it possible for site-specific delivery of therapeutic agents and targeted modulation with minimal side effects, which indicated a promising therapy in clinical use. This review will describe the main mechanism of targeted therapy induced by ultrasound briefly, then focus on the current application of ultrasound mediated targeted therapy in various fields including tumour, cardiovascular disease, central nervous system, skeletal muscle system diseases and stem cells therapy. In addition, ongoing challenges of ultrasound-mediated targeted therapy for further research and its clinical use are reviewed.

Background:Ultrasound has been widely used in clinical diagnosis because it is noninvasive, inexpensive, simple, and reproducible. With the development of molecular imaging, material science, and ultrasound contrast agents, ultrasound-targeted delivery technology has emerged. The interaction of ultrasound and molecular probes can be exploited to change the structures of cells and tissues in order to promote the targeted release of therapeutic substances to local tumors. The targeted delivery of drugs, genes, and gases would not only improve the efficacy of tumor treatment but also avoid the systemic toxicity and side effects caused by antitumor treatments. This technology was recently applied in clinical trials and showed enormous potential for clinical application.Objective:This article briefly introduces the characteristics of the tumor microenvironment and the principle of ultrasound-targeted delivery technology. To present recent progress in this field, this review focuses on the application of ultrasound-targeted delivery technology in tumor-targeted therapy, including drug delivery, gene transfection, and gas treatment.Results:The results of this study show that ultrasound-targeted delivery technology is a promising therapeutic strategy for tumor treatment.Conclusion:Ultrasound-targeted delivery technology shows promise with regard to cancer treatment.

Studies on augmenting visualization with sound are typically based on the assumption that sound can be complementary and assist in data analysis tasks. While sound promotes a different sense of engagement than vision, we conjecture that by augmenting non-speech audio to a visualization can not only help enhance the users' perception of the data but also increase their engagement with the data exploration process. We have designed a preliminary user study to test users' performance and engagement while exploring in a data visualization system under two different settings: visual-only and audiovisual. For our study, we used basketball player movement data in a game and created an interactive visualization system with three linked views. We supplemented sound to the visualization to enhance the users' understanding of a team's offensive/defensive behavior. The results of our study suggest that we need to better understand the effect of sound choice and encoding before considering engagement. We also find that sound can be useful to draw novice users' attention to patterns or anomalies in the data. Finally, we propose follow-up studies with designs informed by the findings from this study.

Numerous investigations on procalcitonin (PCT) have been carried out, although few with large sample size. To deal with the complexity of sepsis, an understanding of PCT in heterogeneous clinical conditions is required.Hospitalized patients aged 10-79 years were included in this retrospective and cross-sectional study. PCT tests were assayed within 2 days of blood culture.A total of 2952 cases (from 2538 patients) were enrolled in this study, including 440 cases in the 'positive BC' group, 123 cases in the 'positive body fluid culture' group, and 2389 cases in the 'negative all culture' group. Median PCT values were 4.53 ng/ml, 2.95 ng/ml, and 0.49 ng/ml, respectively. Median PCT values in the gram-negative BC group and gram-positive BC group, respectively, were 6.99 ng/ml and 2.96 ng/ml. Median PCT values in the 'positive hydrothorax culture' group, 'positive ascites culture' group, 'positive bile culture' group, and 'positive cerebrospinal fluid culture' group, respectively, were 1.39 ng/ml, 8.32 ng/ml, 5.98 ng/ml, and 0.46 ng/ml. In all, 357 cases were classified into the 'sepsis' group, 150 of them were classified into the 'severe sepsis' group. Median PCT values were 5.63 ng/ml and 11.06 ng/ml, respectively.PCT could be used in clinical algorithms to diagnose positive infections and sepsis. Different PCT levels could be related to different kinds of microbemia, different infection sites, and differing severity of sepsis.

Background/Aims: Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is a treatment for acute kidney injury (AKI) patients. It has become a controversy about whether patients with liver dysfunction should perform CRRT with regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA). Methods: This retrospective observational study enrolled 145 AKI patients (275 CRRT sessions) who received CRRT with RCA and had no history of chronic liver disease. Circuit survival time, blood pressure, trans-membrane pressure (TMP), acid-base and electrolyte status were recorded and analyzed. The severity of liver dysfunction was determined by total bilirubin (TBil) and international normalized ratio (INR), while the accumulation degree of citrates was quantified by total/ ionized calcium (tCa/iCa) raito. Results: Our results showed that there was no correlation of tCa/iCa ratio with TBil or INR. And tCa/iCa ratio was not related to the disturbances of pH, lactates, sodium, magnesium, blood pressure or TMP despite that high tCa/iCa ratios might be related to the decrease of circuit survival time. TBil did not correlate with the above indexes, except for lactates levels. INR did not correlate with the above indexes except for lactates levels and blood pressure. In addition, neither was TBil, INR, nor tCa/iCa ratio, related with fatal outcomes (22.76% of the patients). Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that, with proper monitoring and adjustment of citrates and calcium infusion, applying RCA in CRRT is reasonably safe for AKI patients with acute liver dysfunction, as long as circuit time stays below roughly 50 hours.

The development of floating reactors needs to take into account the marine ecological environment. The recycling of waste in floating nuclear power plant is different from the onshore nuclear power because of its limited space and resources. The purifying resin of primary circuit has a high radioactivity and accounts for a large proportion of floating solid waste, and the production of other radioactive waste generated during resin unloading is worthy of attention. In order to minimize the waste production during emission of radioactive resin, this paper uses the fluid dynamics theory of fluidized bed to calculate and analyze the waste production and emission effect in different media for transportation, and propose a reasonable resin emission program, which can provides a powerful design input for the waste treatment.

Chinese universities use the multi-outgoing exports to solve the problem of the traffic of bandwidth to the Internet for the campus network, but the world wide web servers in the campus network might still be accessed very slowly by some users outside the campus network (from the public network). We discuss and analyze the reasons for slowly accessing to the campus network form the public networks and a novel solution for high-speed accessing to the campus network for the local client in public network is put forward. We first introduce an NAT (Network Address Translation) traversal approach based on reverse TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connection, which has the advantage of not requiring any intermediary server. We test our NAT traversal approach in real network environment and the results show that it is effective. Meanwhile, we also test the network performance between the campus network and the local public network after the NAT Router between them has been traversed by our approach and the results show that the network performance by the second export accessing to the campus network is much better than by the campus network export.

Calcium sulfate is an important inorganic chemical products which is widely used in construction, pharmaceutical and food industries. Especially, calcium sulfate whisker with fibrous structure developed in recent years is further used in rubber, coating, plastic, adhesives, textile, papermaking, and many other industries due to its superior performance and characteristics of environmental protection and nontoxic.The paper reviewed the preparation technology of calcium sulfate according to the different raw materials, especially for industrial waste (by-product).

Objectives To determine the levels of carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA125) and tissue polypeptide-specific antigen (TPS) in saliva of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and patients with nonneoplastic disease of the oral cavity, and to investigate their diagnostic value and their relationship with pathological grade and clinical stage. Methods A total of 97 hospitalized patients with OSCC, 36 patients with nonneoplastic disease of the oral cavity and 50 healthy individuals were included in this investigation. Mixed saliva was collected from these patients and the healthy controls before treatment. Saliva samples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results The saliva CA125 and TPS concentrations were significantly higher in patients with OSCC than in patients with nonneoplastic disease and healthy controls, but not significantly different between patients with nonneoplastic disease and controls. Neither the saliva CA125 nor the TPS level was correlated with pathological grade and clinical stage. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of saliva CA125 and TPS for the diagnosis of OSCC were 80.0%, 66.0%, 75.7%, and 82.1%, 74.0%, 79.3%, respectively. When CA125 and TPS were analyzed independently, there was no significant difference in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy between the two markers. When CA125 and TPS were analyzed in combination, there was no significant difference in sensitivity, specificity and accuracy between independent detection and combined detection. Conclusions The saliva CA125 and TPS concentrations were elevated in patients with OSCC. CA125 and TPS may prove to be useful tumor markers in OSCC.

The output power of the photovoltaic battery array of a solar parking garage is affected by two factors of arranging form and external conditions. Firstly, a solar parking garage in Qingdao is taken as an example. A simulation model of its solar panel square is established based on Matlab/S-Fcn/Simulink. The GX-120 solar panel with the size of 1250mm×808mm is taken as an example. And the normal external conditions and the principle of maximum output power in one year are also considered. Simulation results based on Matlab/S-Fcn/Simulink demonstrate that solar panels should be put on the dip angle of 30，with the span of 1605mm between two row. 28 solar panels can be arranged on the top of the parking space. Secondly, an experiment setup is established in order to simulate the electricity generating process by solar panels and parking process. Two GX-120 solar panels are employed as power generation device, while two 12V, 195AH storage batteries are employed as energy storage device. A direct 24V electromotor with hydromantic pressure 18MPa device is applied as simulation load, which can demonstrate the ascending and descending process in the parking space. The experiment studies the performance of the solar panels under different weather conditions. Results show that generating capacity of two pieces of panels can make a parking unit work eleven times, five times, one time and six times separately under four kinds of weather conditions (sunny, cloudy, rainy, and foggy day). The energy matching principle is that the parking lot only can provide 6.85 kilowatt for electric vehicles one day in the condition that each parking space parks cars four times every day in order to meet the continuous use of the parking garage. The rest of electricity must be storied in the battery.

Background NK 2 homeobox 5 (Nkx2‐5) is a cardiac homeobox transcription factor that is expressed in a broad range of cardiac sublineages. Embryos lacking Nkx2‐5 are nonviable attributed to growth retardation and gross abnormalities of the heart. However, the role of Nkx2‐5 in atherosclerosis remains elusive. This study aims to elucidate the specific functions of Nkx2‐5 during atherogenesis and in established atherosclerotic plaques. Methods and Results Two types of atherosclerotic lesions were created in ApoE −/− mice through 2 different dietary manipulations. Mice fed a standard chow diet were sacrificed at 20 weeks old, a time point at which mice developed early‐stage atherosclerotic lesions. The other half of mice were fed a western diet from 6 to 22 weeks old and then sacrificed. These mice demonstrated advanced atherosclerosis. No Nkx2‐5 was detected in normal arteries; however, it was abundantly present in the intima of atherosclerotic lesions and localized in macrophages and smooth muscle cells. Adenovirus gene transfer of Nkx2‐5 markedly ameliorated and stabilized the atherosclerotic plaques, and knockdown of Nkx2‐5 significantly exacerbated the disease. Molecular studies indicated that expression of specific members of matrix metalloproteinases and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases, which play a crucial role in the progression of atherosclerosis, were directly regulated by Nkx2‐5. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the compromised endothelial function, which was considered as a hallmark of early atherosclerosis, could be improved by Nkx2‐5 gene transfer. Conclusions Nkx2‐5 exerts antiatherogenic effects, which may partly be attributed to regulation on matrix metalloproteinases and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases, thus stabilizing atherosclerotic plaque; besides, it improves endothelial function by inhibiting leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium.