Search

The DC bus voltage of the unified power flow controller (UPFC) is closely related to the active power balance between the series and the shunt sides. In this study, a highly reliable modular multilevel converter (MMC)-UPFC DC bus voltage control strategy is proposed to ensure the continuous and stable operation of the MMC-UPFC. The DC voltage coordinated control strategy of dual converters in the shunt side, which combines the constant DC voltage control, droop control and margin control, is based on the topology configuration of the main converter and the standby converter. The DC voltage coordinated control strategy is adopted for different control targets under conditions of small-range adjustment of active power flow, wide-range adjustment, and the shunt-side converter failure, to achieve reliable and stable operation of UPFC under different operating conditions. Finally, a simulation model was established under the MATLAB/Simulink environment to verify the feasibility of this control strategy.

Renal fibrosis is a common characteristic of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and it can lead to end-stage renal disease. It has been reported that silibinin or lisinopril (MK-521) can inhibit the progression of renal fibrosis. However, the effect of combination of silibinin with MK-521 on renal fibrosis remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the combination of silibinin with MK-521 on renal fibrosis in vitro and in vivo. The cell viability of HK-2 was detected by CCK-8. The gene and protein expression in HK-2 cells were detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Moreover, HFD-induced renal fibrosis mouse model was established to investigate the effect of silibinin in combination with MK-521 on renal fibrosis in vivo. The expressions of collagen I, α-SMA, Smad2 and Smad3 in TGF-β-treated HK-2 cells were notably decreased by MK-521, which was further inhibited in the presence of silibinin. In addition, we found that silibinin significantly enhanced anti-fibrotic effect of MK-521 on HFD-induced renal fibrosis mice. These findings demonstrated that silibinin could significantly increase anti-fibrotic effect of MK-521 in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, the combination of silibinin with MK-521 may serve as a potential strategy for the treatment of renal fibrosis.

Objective: From the health care and societal perspectives, this study aimed to evaluate the clinical and economic effects of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy for patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment (MMT).Methods: We conducted a parallel-arm RCT in China in 2019. Patients were included who met the diagnostic criteria and receive MMT for more than 30 days. Patients were randomly assigned to the exposed group (acupuncture plus MMT) or control group (MMT) at a 1:1 ratio. Daily methadone dosage, drug cravings using the VAS score, and insomnia using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were chosen as the effectiveness indexes, and the quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) was chosen as the utility index.Results: Overall, 123 patients were included. The exposed group was significantly (P < 0.05) better than the control group in the improvement of daily methadone dosage (17.68 vs. 1.07), VAS (38.27 vs. 2.64), and PSQI (2.18 vs. 0.30). The QALY was 0.0784 (95%CI: 0.0761–0.0808) for the exposed group and 0.0762 (95%CI: 0.0738–0.0787) for the control group. The total cost of the exposed group (2869.50 CNY) was higher than the control group (2186.04 CNY). The ICER of daily methadone dosage (41.15), VAS (17.86), and PSQI (313.51) were shown to be economically efficient. While ICUR (310,663.64 CNY/QYLY) was higher than the cost suggested by WHO.Conclusion: Acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy for MMT patients realizes its cost-effectiveness by reducing the dosage of methadone, improving drug cravings, and alleviating insomnia. It helps to improve quality of life, but since its cost exceeds what society is willing to pay, further study is needed.

Our niche method independently estimates hourly commuter rail station-to-station origin-destination (OD) matrix data each day from ticket sales and activation data from four sales channels (paper/mobile tickets, mail order, and onboard sales) by extending well-established transportation modelling methodologies. This algorithm’s features include: (1) handles multi-pack pay-per-ride fare instruments not requiring electronic validation, like ten-trip paper tickets “punched” onboard by railroad conductors; (2) correctly infers directionality for direction-agnostic ticket-types; (3) estimates unlimited ride ticket utilization patterns sufficiently precisely to inform vehicle assignment/scheduling; (4) provides integer outputs without allowing rounding to affect control totals nor introduce artifacts; (5) deals gracefully with cliff-edge changes in demand, like the COVID19 related lockdown; and (6) allocates hourly traffic to each train-start based on passenger choice. Our core idea is that the time of ticket usage is ultimately a function of the time of sale and ticket type, and mutual transformation is made via probability density functions (“patterns”) given sufficient distribution data. We generated pre-COVID daily OD matrices and will eventually extend this work to post-COVID inputs. Results were provided to operations planners using visual and tabular interfaces. These matrices represent data never previously available by any method; prior OD surveys required 100,000 respondents, and even then could neither provide daily nor hourly levels of detail, and could not monitor special event ridership nor specific seasonal travel such as summer Friday afternoons.

Anaemia is the most common complication of myeloma and is associated with worse clinical outcomes. Although marrow replacement with myeloma cells is widely considered a mechanistic rationale for anaemia, the exact process has not been fully understood. Our large cohort of 1363 myeloma patients had more than 50% of patients with moderate or severe anaemia at the time of diagnosis. Anaemia positively correlated with myeloma cell infiltration in the bone marrow (BM) and worse patient outcomes. The quantity and erythroid differentiation of HSPCs were affected by myeloma cell infiltration in the BM. The master regulators of erythropoiesis, GATA1 and KLF1, were obviously downregulated in myeloma HSPCs. However, the gene encoding the chemokine CCL3 showed significantly upregulated expression. Elevated CCL3 in the BM plasma of myeloma further inhibited the erythropoiesis of HSPCs via activation of CCL3/CCR1/p38 signalling and suppressed GATA1 expression. Treatment with a CCR1 antagonist effectively recovered GATA1 expression and rescued erythropoiesis in HSPCs. Myeloma cell infiltration causes elevated expression of CCL3 in BM, which suppresses the erythropoiesis of HSPCs and results in anaemia by downregulating the level of GATA1 in HSPCs. Thus, our study indicates that targeting CCL3 would be a potential strategy against anaemia and improve the survival of myeloma patients.

Background: Some studies have shown that CXCL1 expression in gastric cancer (GC) is associated with survival and clinicopathological characteristics. However, the evidence remains inconclusive. Thus, we aim to further explore the clinicopathological significance and potential prognostic role of CXCL1 expression in GC.Methods: Databases of EMBASE, PubMed Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched for the eligible studies from their establishment to July 16, 2020, which reported the association between CXCL1 expression and survival in GC. The quantitative meta-analysis was carried out with Stata SE12.0 software. Results: A total of 1474 patients from 9 eligible studies were included in the present meta-analysis. Our results demonstrated that elevated expression level of CXCL1 was significantly associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR=1.68; 95%CI: 1.26-2.24, PConclusions: CXCL1 may serve as a potential biomarker to predict prognosis and clinicopathological features in GC.

Trim47 is a member of the tripartite motif (TRIM) family that participates in many pathophysiological processes. However, the expression pattern and biological functions of Trim47 in gastric cancer (GC) remain unclear. The present study aimed to further explore the clinicopathological significance and potential prognostic role of Trim47 expression in GC. Therefore, in this study, Trim47 mRNA level was investigated in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Oncomine database in GC. We detected Trim47 mRNA and protein expression levels in GC and paired adjacent normal tissues. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard regression models were performed to analyze the survival of patients and prognostic factors. A gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was performed to determine the mechanism of Trim47 in GC. Our results indicated that Trim47 mRNA expression in GC tissues was significantly higher than adjacent normal tissues, as was Trim47 protein expression. Trim47 overexpression in GC tissues was significantly associated with tumor differentiation, T stage, N stage, M stage, and TNM stage. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that high Trim47 expression was associated with worse overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in GC patients. Multivariate analysis confirmed that Trim47 expression was an independent prognostic factor for GC patients. Bioinformatics analysis and western blot indicated Trim47 might regulate GC through NF-κB, EMT, hypoxia, and apoptosis signaling pathway in GC. Our results show that Trim47 has the potential to serve as a novel prognostic biomarker in GC patients.

Multiple myeloma remains incurable due to the persistence of a minor population of multiple myeloma cells that exhibit drug resistance, which leads to relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma. Elucidating the mechanism underlying drug resistance and developing an effective treatment are critical for clinical management of multiple myeloma. Here we showed that promoting expression of the gene for polycomb-like protein 3 (PHF19) induced multiple myeloma cell growth and multidrug resistance in vitro and in vivo. PHF19 was overexpressed in high-risk and drug-resistant primary cells from patients. High levels of PHF19 were correlated with inferior survival of patients with multiple myeloma, in the Total Therapy 2 cohort and in the Intergroup Francophone du Myeloma (IFM) cohort. Enhancing PHF19 expression levels increased Bcl-xL, Mcl-1, and HIF-1a expression in multiple myeloma cells. PHF19 also bound directly with EZH2 and promoted the phosphorylation of EZH2 through PDK1/AKT signaling. miR-15a is a small noncoding RNA that targeted the 3′UTR of PHF19. We found that downregulation of miR-15a led to high levels of PHF19 in multiple myeloma cells. These findings revealed that PHF19 served a crucial role in multiple myeloma proliferation and drug resistance and suggested that the miR-15a/PHF19/EZH2 pathway made a pivotal contribution to multiple myeloma pathogenesis, offering a promising approach to multiple myeloma treatment. Implications: Our findings identify that PHF19 mediates EZH2 phosphorylation as a mechanism of myeloma cell drug resistance, providing a rationale to explore therapeutic potential of targeting PHF19 in relapsed or refractory patients with multiple myeloma.

Background : Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), acupuncture has been widely used in the treatment of COVID-19. The research community has responded rapidly and have already been published many research articles about this topic. Methods : We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library as well as CNKI, Wanfang and VIP from 1 January 2020 to 31 July 2021. The dates of publication, language of publication, methodological characteristics and the key findings were analyzed separately. The data were presented by bar graphs, structured tables and figures. Results : In this scoping review, 16 research articles were included: 7 case reports, 6 observational studies, 1 review, 1 RCT and 1 nonrandomized clinical trial. The majority of the articles (81.3%) were published by Chinese scholars whereas 12.5% articles were from scholars in United States and 6.3% articles were from scholars in Iran. Included studies uncovered that acupuncture can alleviate the symptoms of COVID-19 patients, shorten the hospitalization days, and is effective for the elderly. There are no side effects reported. The most frequently acupoints were used are LI4, PC6, ST36 and KI3. Finally, there are many obstacles in implementing acupuncture therapy in treating COVID-19 patients. Conclusion : Acupuncture has a good effect in the treatment of COVID-19, but still lacks high-quality evidence support. Coupled with the difficulties that acupuncturists faced in the process of treatment, the promotion of acupuncture treatment of COVID-19 still faces many obstacles.

Background: Anemia is the most common complication of myeloma, and is associated with worse clinical outcomes including diminished quality of life, and increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Bone marrow (BM) is the main location of the growth and differentiation of HSPCs. Although marrow replacement by myeloma cell is widely considered a mechanistic rationale for myeloma-related anemia, however the molecular mechanism has not been fully understood. Methods: The clinical characteristics and the prognostic impact of myeloma-related anemia were investigated in patients with multiple myeloma. The erythroid differentiation defects of HSPCs were examined by flow cytometry and colony-formation assay. RNA-seq were conducted to clarify the different gene expression and the signaling pathway in HSPCs. Relative protein levels were determined by immunoblotting and relative gene levels were determined by quantitative real-time PCR. 5TGM1 murine myeloma mouse model was utilized. Results: The data of our large cohort of 1,363 myeloma patients demonstrated that 84.4% of patients had anemia (Hgb Conclusions: myeloma cell infiltration causes the elevation of CCL3 in microenvironment that suppresses the erythropoiesis of HSPCs and results in anemia by downregulating the level of GATA1 of HSPCs. Thus, our study indicates targeting CCL3 would be a potential strategy against anemia and improvement the survival of myeloma patient. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

For this enterprise geographic information system (GIS), Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company adopted the concept of operations (ConOps) process to define goals and objectives, inventory existing GIS assets, analyze data gaps, determine “as is” and “to be” business processes, define staffing and resource requirements and project initiatives, and provide a road map for a comprehensive, companywide GIS deployment. In contrast to the top-down approach typically employed in total enterprise asset management (TEAM) planning, Metro-North used a dynamic grassroots approach, holding 14 workshops, which were attended by 92 employees and were designed to collect GIS goals and objectives. The 122 goals generated from this process were distilled into eight companywide goals. These goals included increased efficiency, data sharing, and decision support. Initiatives were developed for five critical business areas that had the potential for demonstrating how enterprise GIS could help Metro-North accomplish its companywide and broader organizational goals. These pilot applications included visualizing straight-line diagrams, integrating property boundary data, retrieving drawings from the capital programs plan room, visualizing train tracking and delays, and visualizing ridership and demographics. This paper shows how a ConOps process could be used in railroad environments to think through GIS-related issues and to define concrete technology projects that provide tangible benefits to user departments and allow them to manage their assets and business issues. Although the focus of this study was on non-asset-related operations within the railroad, the ConOps process offers a user-centric systems planning approach that could be applied to TEAM efforts within the railroad industry or to the planning of corporate initiatives in any business environment.

Firstly, the general evaluating method for computer network system reliability is introduced. Taking the statistical fault data over the years of a certain computer network system as example, a comprehensive evaluating index system for the computer network system reliability is set up, and the comprehensive evaluating model for the reliability is built by the hierarchical structure model. Then, the reliability comprehensive evaluating result in the computer network system is obtained by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The different network faults on the influence degree of reliability comprehensive evaluation in the computer network system are analyzed so as to provide guidance for the network managers to understand the main factors that affect the network reliability and the network reliability improvement plan.

Quantitative analysis of the risk for reservoir real-time operation is a hard task owing to the difficulty of accurate description of inflow uncertainties. The ensemble-based hydrologic forecasts directly depict the inflows not only the marginal distributions but also their persistence via scenarios. This motivates us to analyze the reservoir real-time operating risk with ensemble-based hydrologic forecasts as inputs. A method is developed by using the forecast horizon point to divide the future time into two stages, the forecast lead-time and the unpredicted time. The risk within the forecast lead-time is computed based on counting the failure number of forecast scenarios, and the risk in the unpredicted time is estimated using the reservoir routing with the design flood hydrographs. As a result, a two-stage risk analysis method is set up to quantify the entire flood risks by defining the ratio of the number of failure scenarios (excessive the critical value) to the total scenarios number. The China’s Three Gorges Reservoir is selected as a case study, where the parameter and precipitation uncertainties are conducted to produce ensemble-based hydrologic forecasts. Two reservoir operation schemes, the historical operated and scenario optimization, are evaluated with the flood risks and hydropower profits analysis. The derived risk, which units with yearly scale, associates with the flood protection standards (described with return periods) that can be used as the acceptable level to operate reservoir. With the 2010 flood, it is found that the proposed method can greatly improve the hydropower generation with acceptable flood risks.