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Chronic skin ulcers are a primary global health problem. Velvet antler polypeptide (VAP) regulates endothelial cell migration and angiogenic sprout. Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are reported to make pivotal impacts upon wound healing. This study aimed to explore the role of VAP combined with ADSCs in wound healing of chronic skin ulcers. The effect of VAP on phenotypes of ADSCs, and VAP (PLGA microspheres) combining with ADSCs on wound healing of chronic skin ulcers in vivo was evaluated. VAP generally promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of ADSCs, and ADSC-induced angiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) through PI3K/Akt/HIF-1α pathway. VAP-PLGA (PLGA microspheres) enhanced the promoting effect of ADSCs on wound healing, pathological changes, and angiogenesis in chronic skin ulcers in vivo. VAP-PLGA intensified the effect of ADSCs on up-regulating the levels of p-PI3K/PI3K, p-Akt/Akt, HIF-1α, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), angiopoietin-4 (Ang-4), VEGF receptor (VEGFR), and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and down-regulating the levels of interleukin-1 β (IL-1β), IL-18 and IL-6 in wound tissues in chronic skin ulcers in vivo. Collectively, VAP promoted the growth, migration, invasion, and angiogenesis of ADSCs through activating PI3K/Akt/HIF-1α pathway, and VAP-PLGA enhanced the function of ADSCs in promoting wound healing in vivo, which was associated with angiogenesis, inflammation inhibition, and dermal collagen synthesis.

This paper proposes a hierarchical sizing method and a power distribution strategy of a hybrid energy storage system for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), aiming to reduce both the energy consumption and battery degradation cost. As the optimal size matching is significant to multi-energy systems like PHEV with both battery and supercapacitor (SC), this hybrid system is adopted herein. First, the hierarchical optimization is conducted, when the optimal power of the internal combustion engine is calculated based on dynamic programming, and a wavelet transformer is introduced to distribute the power between the battery and the SC. Then, the fuel economy and battery degradation are evaluated to return feedback value to each sizing point within the hybrid energy storage system sizing space, obtaining the optimal sizes for the battery and the SC by comparing all the values in the whole sizing space. Finally, an all-hardware test platform is established with a fully active power conversion topology, on which the real-time control capability of the wavelet transformer method and the size matching between the battery and the SC are verified in both short and long time spans.

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) have become the cutting-edge technology for the next generation of industrial applications, and are rapidly developing and inspiring numerous application areas. This article presents an optimal forward-looking distributed CPS application for the safety-following driving control of connected and automated vehicles (CAV) in the intelligent transportation. The relevant components and required technologies of the CPS concept in intelligent transportation systems are introduced firstly. Under this framework, each CAV is considered as an independent CPS. In the safe driving of vehicles, historical data is used to build vehicle behavior prediction models and dynamic driving system models. At the same time, a new range strategy considering the probability of merging behavior is proposed and applied to the CAV’s safe cruise control. The results show that through the application framework of CPS, the proposed range strategy can improve the following safety of the vehicle.

A development of overlying strata fractures and an unknown distribution of the two zones, which results from a strong shock tendency roof short-distance coal seam group mining, are the main problems faced by Xiashijie Coal Mine. Consequently, an experiment has been conducted; here are the steps: designing an underlying strata development law and the two-zone distribution physical similarity simulation test under the short-distance coal seam group combined mining, using the BT-AE to comonitor the fracture development law and the distribution characteristics of the caving zone and the water-conducting fractured zone, and combining with 3DEC comparative analysis. The results show that after the coal seam mining is over, the number of overlying fractures increases with depth, controlled by the mining stress field in the direction of 115° west from north to west. The direction of overlying fracture is mainly concentrated in the area of 300° ~30°; the overlying fracture angles eventually develop to 81° and 74°, increasing by 15.7% and 8.8%, and the caving ratio and cracking ratio are 4.87 and 17.75. After comparing with the numerical calculation results, the reliability of the two zones obtained by the physical similarity simulation test is verified. The AE analysis results show that the “release-accumulate-release” energy evolution process of overlying rock fracture under mining conditions has a phased relationship with fracture expansion. The energy positioning results are consistent with the distribution of BT observation cracks, and the large energy events are mostly concentrated in the collapse zone, indicating that AE has the practicality of disaster warning. The results of this study provide scientific guidance for water-preserving mining under the combined mining of coal seams with a strong impact tendency roof in Xiashijie Coal Mine.

To develop next-generation electronic devices, novel semiconductive materials are urgently required. The transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) hold the promise of next generation of semiconductor materials for emerging electronic applications. As a member of the group-10 TMDs, PdS2 has a notable layer-number-dependent band structure and tremendously high carrier mobility at room temperature. Here, we demonstrate the experimental realization of centimeter-scale synthesis of the few-layer PdS2 by the combination of physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods. For the first time, the optical anisotropic properties of the few-layer PdS2 were investigated through angle-resolved polarized Raman spectroscopy. Also, the evolution of Raman spectra was studied depending on the temperature in the range of 12-300 K. To further understand the electronic properties of the few-layer PdS2, the field-effect transistor (FET) devices were fabricated and investigated. The electronic measurements of such FET devices reveal that the PdS2 materials exhibit a tunable ambipolar transport mechanism with field-effect mobility of up to ∼388 cm2 V-1 s-1 and the on/off ratio of ∼800, which were not reported before in the literature. To well understand the experimental results, the electronic structure of PdS2 was determined using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. These excellent physical properties are very helpful in developing high-performance opto-electronic applications.

Adjacent obstacles are difficult to be distinguished, and remote obstacle is easily detected as multiple targets. Besides, occluded obstacles are difficult to track, and tracking velocity of the obstacles in rapid acceleration or deceleration converges slowly in the urban environment. In view of this, an obstacle detection and tracking method based on multi‐lidar is proposed. Firstly, based on the vehicle kinematics model, motion compensation is adopted to solve the space‐time synchronization problem among lidars after road segmentation, and data level fusion is completed. Next, the obstacles are detected by combining adaptive voxel grid DBSCAN (AVG‐DBSCAN) algorithm and Region Growing (RG) algorithm. Then, the Breadth First Search (BFS) algorithm and KD tree are adopted to improve the Evolutionary Hungarian algorithm for the fast association of obstacles. Finally, the occlusion rate and dynamic region selection are used to track obstacles accurately, based on the Kalman Filter of uniform acceleration model. The experimental results on the authors' extracted urban dataset show that the proposed method can effectively fuse multi‐lidar data and outperforms other methods in obstacle detection and tracking. Its average accuracy for detection is 97.53% and its average accuracy for tracking is 95.1%. The average duration of the entire process is only 30 ms.

Purpose There is no optimal prognostic model for T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL). Here, we discussed the predictive value of total metabolic tumor volume (TMTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) measured on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) in T-LBL.Materials and Methods Thirty-seven treatment naïve T-LBL patients with PET-CT scans were enrolled. TMTV was obtained using the 41% maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) threshold method, and TLG was measured as metabolic tumor volume multiplied by the mean SUV. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier curves and compared by the log-rank test.Results The optimal cutoff values for SUVmax, TMTV, and TLG were 12.7, 302 cm3, and 890, respectively. A high SUVmax, TMTV, and TLG indicated a shorten PFS and OS. On multivariable analysis, TMTV ≥ 302 cm3, and central nervous system (CNS) involvement predicted inferior PFS, while high SUVmax, TLG and CNS involvement were associated with worse OS. Subsequently, we generated a risk model comprising high SUVmax, TMTV or TLG and CNS involvement, which stratified the population into three risk groups, which had significantly different median PFS of not reached, 14 months, and 7 months for low-risk group, mediate-risk group, and high-risk group, respectively (p < 0.001). Median OS were not reached, 27 months, and 13 months, respectively (p < 0.001).Conclusion Baseline SUVmax, TMTV, and TLG measured on PET-CT are strong predictors of worse outcome in T-LBL. A risk model integrating these three parameters with CNS involvement identifies patients at high risk of disease progression.

In this paper, a modified microfiber-assisted open- cavity (MMA-OC) structure is proposed by introducing two pieces of multimode fiber and a novel sub-millimeter in-line Mach-Zehnder interferometer is theoretically and experimentally completed. The cavity-length dependence of MMA-OC on axial strain sensing is characterized and the comprehensive strain tests are conducted under an optimal waist diameter. The experimental results show that the selective intensity-/wavelength- modulated strain response can be achieved by varying the cavity length. For a shorter cavity length, MMA-OC presents more than 20-dB intensity variation and near-zero wavelength drift. But an apparent and flat red-shift of fringes occurs in the structure with >1000-μm cavity length. Moreover, due to inverse feature of temperature response, the calculated cross-sensitivity is merely 0.106 μϵ/°C. And the detection resolution up to ∼0.2 μϵ is gained when the cavity length is equal to 503 μm, with the measurement error of ±0.021 μϵ. Our sensor with the merits of compactness, low-cost and ease of fabrication is very promising for high-precision engineering monitoring and sensing.

Objective: To analyze the effects of twirling reinforcing and reducing manipulations on protein expression in parietal cortex of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs), and elucidate the main mechanisms and differences between two manipulations in hypertension treatment. Methods: Rats were randomly divided into the control, model, twirling reinforcing manipulation (TRFM), and twirling reducing manipulation (TRDM) groups. The control and model groups received catch and fixation stimulations once a day for 14 days. The TRFM and TRDM groups were intervened once a day for 20 min for 14 days. On days 0, 2, 6, 10, and 14 after acupuncture, rat systolic blood pressures (SBPs) were measured. Differential protein (DP) expression in the rat parietal cortices was detected. Thereafter, GO functional significance and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses were performed. Results: Compared with the model group, SBP of rats in the TRDM and TRFM groups decreased on days 6 and 10 of acupuncture, respectively (P = .009; P

With people paying more attention to marine resources, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been extended to underwater, promoting the development of the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). Various compelling IoUT applications bring a new age to maritime activities. However, some mis-sion-critical maritime activities, including ocean earthquake forecasting, underwater navigation, and so on, pose a substantial challenge on existing IoUT architectures and relevant techniques. Therefore, in this article, to empower these implacable maritime activities, we conceive the concept of mission-critical IoUT and highlight its key features and challenges. Furthermore, to satisfy the stringent requirements of mission-critical IoUT, we propose a future maritime network architecture and machine-learning-aided key techniques in terms of information sensing, transmission, and processing. Moreover, we present our recent research on reliable and low-latency underwater information transmission. Finally, we provide the open issues and potential research trends for future mission-critical IoUT.

Self-driving technology has made great advancements with the help of artificial intelligence and intelligent transportation system. Recent studies have shown that traffic efficiency and safety of autonomous vehicles can be further improved by autonomous platooning based on vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). However, hybrid traffic where autonomous platoons (APs) and individual human driven-vehicles (HDVs) co-exists is seldom considered. Wireless Access in the Vehicular Environment (WAVE) is the de facto wireless protocol for VANETs. WAVE has provided one control channel (CCH) and six service channels (SCHs). The multi-channel access scheme should be jointly designed along with the CCH communication protocol. To design a reliable and efficient communication protocol for hybrid traffic, we propose a platoon-centric multi-channel access scheme based on the reliable broadcast. The reliable broadcast scheme utilizes an enhanced RTS/CTS mechanism designed for multicast communications. A broadcast frequency control mechanism is proposed to balance CCH access intervals. Our scheme can improve the reliability of CCH communication and increase SCH utilization with minimal overhead. Analysis and simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed mechanism.

Extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphoma (NKTL) is a rare non-Hodgkin lymphoma that rarely arise exclusively in or metastasizes to the central nervous system (CNS). Globally, CNS involvement of NKTL heralds a serious prognosis and there is no standard treatment. 19 of 414 patients (4.59%) with ENKL followed were diagnosed with CNS involvement between 2006 and 2020. Two patients had primary CNS (PCNS) NKTL, and 17 patients had secondary CNS (SCNS) invasion. A total of 9 patients survived and 10 patients died. The median overall survival time was 55 months, and the median survival time after CNS invasion was 17 months. The 5-year cumulative survival probability was 45.7%. In conclusion, CNS risk evaluation and prophylaxis treatment can be carried out for patients with NK/T-cell lymphoma prognostic index risk group III/IV. In terms of treatment, systemic therapy based on methotrexate combined with radiotherapy and intrathecal chemotherapy can be selected.

Lead halide perovskites have been promising materials for lasing applications. Despite that a series of perovskite microlasers have been reported, their lasing modes are confined by either the as-grown morphology or the etched boundary. The first one is quite random and incompatible with integration, whereas the latter one strongly spoils the laser performances. Herein, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a robust and generic mechanism to realize well-controlled perovskite microlasers without the etching process. By patterning a one-dimensional polymer grating onto a perovskite film, we show that the symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum (BICs) can be formed in it. The intriguing properties of BICs including a widely spread mode profile and high Q factor, associated with the exceptional gain of perovskite, produce single-mode microlasers with high repeatability, controllability, directionality, and a polarization vortex. This mechanism can also be extended to two-dimensional nanostructures, enabling BIC lasers with different topological charges.

Objective The present study aimed to establish a normative database of neck strength and endurance while exploring personal and work-related factors that can significantly influence neck strength and endurance. Background A normative database combining both neck strength and endurance and delineating how they are affected by personal and work-related factors is currently lacking. It is needed for the development of tools and guidelines for designing work requiring head-neck exertions to contain the risk of occupational neck pain. Methods Forty healthy participants (20 males and 20 females) performed sustained-till-exhaustion head-neck exertions, while seated, at 50% and 100% of their maximal efforts in anterior, anterior-superior, and posterior-superior directions in neutral, 40° extended, and 40° flexed neck postures. Exertion force and endurance time data from 38 participants were recorded and analyzed using regression models. Results Overall, multiple regression analyses of the neck strength and endurance database revealed that head-neck posture is the most significant determinant of both neck strength and endurance. The time of day significantly influenced neck endurance. Among the personal factors, a significant sex effect on neck strength and significant age and body mass index (BMI) effects on neck endurance were identified. Conclusion The work-related factors play a more significant role in shaping both neck strength and endurance than personal factors and therefore are more important modifiable factors in meeting the physical demands of work. Application The study findings can aid in work design as well as in pre-employment screening to reduce the incidence of neck pain in the workplace.

Amplitude versus offset (AVO) attribute inversion can help to constrain lithologies and interpret oil and gas accumulations. In this paper, we simulate four different gas hydrate and free gas configurations through AVO forward modeling. When there is no free gas under gas hydrate, the AVO attribute characteristics of gas hydrate are only related to the saturation of gas hydrate. When there is free gas under gas hydrate, if the gas hydrate saturation is high, the AVO attribute characteristics [such as the product of intercept (P) and gradient (G)] are not sensitive to identify gas hydrate. Otherwise, the AVO attribute characteristics are sensitive for identifying gas hydrate, but greatly affected by free gas. The results of this paper constrain the distribution of gas hydrate in the Shenhu area and provide a basis for future gas hydrate exploration.

In this paper, a novel in-fiber modal interferometer for liquid level sensing is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the cascaded quasi-microfiber and double-cladding fiber (QM-DCF) structure. The QM is utilized to monitor the change of liquid level with intensity modulation and the part of DCF is always immersed into the liquid and serves to sense the variation of ambient temperature. Then the comprehensive tests are performed and the experimental results show that, due to the massive loss of evanescent field in the area of taper waist, a competitive liquid-level response up to −0.972 dB/mm with high linearity is gained and the calculated detection limit reaches $\sim 10 ~\mu \text{m}$ . Moreover, this cascaded structure is almost immune to the varied refractive index (RI) of liquid especially in the range of 1.33-1.357 RIU and its temperature sensitivity is 0.164 nm/°C but with a fluctuation of < 0.1 dB. Thus, high intensity-sensitive liquid-level measurement is achieved with near-zero crosstalk in terms of RI and temperature. Besides our sensor with the merits of practicality, low-cost, ease of fabrication is very promising and potential for simultaneous high-discrimination measurement of multi-parameter.

Fe3O4 nanodisks with plate and layered hierarchical nanostructure were successfully synthesized by the reduction of the layered α-Fe2O3 nanodisk. The microwave absorb ability could be well modulated by mainly tuning the nanostructure of the Fe3O4 nanodisks. The minimum reflection loss (RL) of layered Fe3O4 nanodisks reaches − 14.8 dB at an extremely low mass fraction (about 10%), which is better than − 10.0 dB obtained using plate Fe3O4 nanodisks. The dielectric loss plays a critical role in the structure-dependent RL ability, caused by the enhanced multiple reflections in the absorber and an increase of the dipoles, interfacial polarization, and the associated relaxation. Such layered Fe3O4 nanodisks open a new avenue to exploit new microwave devices.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the acute effect of ambient temperature on hospitalization due to acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD), stroke, and myocardial infarction (MI) in Shenyang, China. We used the distributed delayed nonlinear model to evaluate the impact of ambient temperature on respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The study population was divided into four groups: < 65 group and ≥ 65 age groups, female and male groups. The < 65 age group of AECOPD patients was more likely to be affected by high ambient temperature, while the ≥ 65 age group of AECOPD patients was more sensitive to low ambient temperature. The hospitalization risk of MI admission increased in the ≥ 65 age group at 1–8 days delay under low ambient temperature conditions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-020-11934-2.

Indoor scene understanding is an active research topic that has recently gained increasing attention in both computer graphics and computer vision community. This paper presents a novel automatic point cloud instance abstraction and segmentation of indoor scenes using learned pairwise planar patch relations. Planar patches have sufficient representative power to abstract the semantics in mostly man-made 3D indoor scenes. To exploit the planar patch relationships, a new indoor point clouds dataset is automatically derived from the public dataset ScanNet, which can be adopted for training a pairwise patch relation classifier. Given the pre-processed indoor scene point clouds, a set of planar patches are generated to provide robust and compact representation of indoor objects and parts. For each extracted planar patch, a feature descriptor in view of its geometric properties and appearance is calculated. Owing to the proposed feature descriptors, the relations of pairwise planar patch are measured and can be fed into the pre-trained patch relation classifier. To yield the instance segmentation of indoor scenes, a robust graph-based algorithm is adopted to group these planar patches which incorporate the learned patch relations. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach can produce instance semantic segmentation of various cluttered indoor scenes robustly and efficiently.

Extranodal natural killer/T‐cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL) is a rare peripheral T‐cell lymphoma that predominantly occurs in Asian and South American populations. The treatment of ENKL has been a challenge for a long time. This study was conducted to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of cisplatin, dexamethasone, gemcitabine, and pegaspargase (DDGP) and methotrexate, dexamethasone, ifosfamide, L‐asparaginase, and etoposide (SMILE) regimens for relapsed/refractory ENKL and explore the prognostic factors. From October 2014 to July 2019, 54 patients with relapsed/refractory ENKL who received DDGP or SMILE chemotherapy were retrospectively assessed in this study. Thirty‐one patients received DDGP chemotherapy and 23 patients received SMILE chemotherapy. A higher complete response rate was observed in patients treated with DDGP regimen (61.3% vs. 30.4%, P = 0.025). The DDGP group (95% confidence interval (CI) of 5‐year progression‐free survival (PFS): 24.6–66.2%; 95% CI of 5‐year overall survival (OS): 8.5–91.7%) was also significantly associated with longer 5‐year PFS and 5‐year OS (P = 0.008 for 5‐year PFS, P = 0.023 for 5‐year OS). More serious leucopenia (P = 0.021), neutropenia (P = 0.041), and allergy (P = 0.040) were observed in the SMILE group. Post‐treatment Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)‐DNA status (P = 0.001 for PFS, P = 0.018 for OS) was identified as a significant prognostic factor for PFS and OS in multivariate analysis. The present research suggested that compared with SMILE chemotherapy, DDGP chemotherapy can significantly improve the response and survival of relapsed/refractory ENKL with better tolerance. Post‐treatment EBV‐DNA status was identified as a significant prognostic factor for PFS and OS in relapsed/refractory ENKL.

We previously reported that transplantation of menstrual blood-derived stromal cells (MenSCs) significantly improved fertility restoration in intrauterine adhesion (IUA). However, it is difficult to obtain menstrual blood samples in some severe IUA patients who have amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea. Thus, a safe and effective stem cell replacement therapy is necessary to promote endometrial regeneration. Recent studies demonstrated that the effects of MenSCs are partly mediated in a paracrine manner via small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). To explore this possibility, we performed a pre-clinical study to investigate whether concentrated MenSC-derived sEVs (MenSCs-sEVs) are sufficient to repair IUA and the mechanisms underlying their action. Rat IUA models were established by mechanical injury, followed by the administration of MenSCs or MenSCs-sEVs through intrauterine transplantation. Consistent with the efficacy of MenSCs, MenSCs-sEVs effectively recovered the morphology, promoted regeneration of the glands and angiogenesis, and reversed endometrial fibrosis in the IUA uterus. The endometrial receptivity and pregnancy outcome significantly improved after repeated MenSCs-sEVs transplantations. In addition, all rats in the MenSCs-sEVs group had no hematological or biochemical abnormalities. Three-dimensional fluorescence imaging suggested that MenSCs tended to migrate through the bloodstream, whereas MenSCs-sEVs had a better localized therapeutic effect. Moreover, MenSCs and MenSCs-sEVs inhibited the TGFβ1/SMAD3 pathway in the IUA endometrium, while promoting the phosphorylation of SMAD1/5/8 and ERK 1/2 and upregulating the expression of BMP7. Thus, MenSCs-sEVs safely and effectively enhanced endometrial restoration, suggesting a promising non-cellular therapy for endometrial regeneration and a key role in MenSC-mediated IUA treatment.

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is the most common malignancy of the biliary tract, with a dismal 5-year survival of 5%. Recently, ARRB1, as a molecular scaffold, has been proposed to participate in the progression of multiple malignancies. However, the effect and regulatory mechanisms of ARRB1 in GBC have not been investigated. Our study aimed to explore the biological functional status and the possible molecular mechanisms of ARRB1 with respect to GBC progression. The survey showed that human GBC tissues exhibited increased levels of ARRB1 compared with normal tissues, and the high expression of ARRB1 was associated with poor prognosis of GBC patients. A series of in vitro and in vivo functional experiments based on knockdown of ARRB1 uncovered that ARRB1 enhanced GBC cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Furthermore, we reported that TAK1, a component of the TNF /MAPK pathway, is a vital downstream effector of ARRB1. In addition, siTAK1 could abolish the functional changes between ARRB1 overexpression GBC cells and control ones. Our data revealed that ARRB1 facilitated the carcinogenesis and development of GBC through TNF/TAK1/MAPK axis, suggesting that ARRB1 may be a promising biomarker and treatment target for GBC patients.

Cardiovascular-related diseases continue to be a leading cause of death globally. Among ischemic-induced cardiac diseases, myocardial infarction (MI) is reported to be of an alarming value. Despite numerous improvements in the medical intrusions, still this armamentarium fails to be effective in managing the illness without setbacks. Ferruginol (FGL) is a major polyphenols and terpenoids with numerous pharmacological activities including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Following, this work was aimed to explore the cardio protective effect of FGL (50 mg/kg) in isoprenaline hydrochloride (ISO)-induced MI in experimental rats. After treatment with FGL in ISO-induced MI in rats, noticeable changes were observed in the experimental rats. Injection of ISO to rats resulted in the augmented cardiac weight, serum cardiac markers (creatine kinase, creatine kinase-MB, cardiac troponin T, and Cardiac troponin I), lipid peroxidation end products (thiobarbituric acid-reactive substance and lipid hydroperoxides), reduced endogenous antioxidants (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione), reduced ATPase activity, and escalated pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and nuclear factor-κB) levels. Interestingly, the FGL supplementation to the ISO-treated rats revealed the diminished heart weight, reduced cardiac markers, and lipid peroxidation. FGL also possessed the improved antioxidants status and diminished pro-inflammatory mediator levels. The outcomes of histological analysis also evidenced the cardio protective role of FGL. Treatment with FGL reduced the cardiac damage biomarkers maintained to near normal levels in ISO-induced rats. These study findings disclose the prospective capability of FGL in the treatment of MI in the future.

Prior research on citizen perceptions of police has taken a wide-angle lens approach to the topic, with only a few studies investigating public perceptions of particular types of citizen–police encounters. In the current study, we make use of archival data on police traffic stops drawn from four waves of the BJS police–public contact surveys (PPCS) conducted in 2005, 2008, 2011, and again in 2015. In addition to employing conventional logistic regression, we make use of random forest classification to analyze survey data from a machine learning perspective. We use conventional logistic regression as a tool of explanation and random forest classification as a tool of prediction. We compare the findings generated by these two distinct analytical approaches. Substantive findings are quite similar for the explanatory and forecasting approaches. Driver’s belief that a traffic stop is legitimate is a major factor in how he or she evaluates police behavior in traffic stops, and whether the police use or threaten force during traffic stops may be the second most important factor. We draw out the implications of our work for our understanding of traffic stop dynamics, for the theory of procedural justice, for the theory of negativity bias, and for the enhanced use of machine learning in criminal justice.

Researchers in criminology and criminal justice have been making increasing use of the machine learning approach to investigate questions involving large amounts of digital data. We make use here o...

Purpose Pathological complete response (pCR) to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is associated with favourable outcomes of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, a proportion of TNBC patients with the residual disease do not relapse and achieve long-term survival. The aim of this study was to identify biomarkers that predict clinical outcomes in these patients. Patients and Methods A retrospective series of 10 TNBC patients who displayed non-pCR to NACT were included in the discovery cohort. Total RNA from pre-NACT core biopsies and paired surgical specimens were subjected to the Affymetrix Human Transcriptome Array. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to identify signal pathways and gene signatures associated with metastasis. The Cox proportional hazard model and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were employed to assess the prognostic value of the identified signature in two independent TNBC datasets included in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). Results The epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway was markedly more enriched in pre- (NES = 1.92; p.adjust = 0.019) and post-NACT samples (NES = 2.02; p.adjust = 0.010) from patients who developed metastasis after NACT. A subset of 6 EMT genes including LUM, SFRP4, COL6A3, MMP2, CXCL12, and HTRA1 were expressed constantly at higher levels in samples from patients who progressed to metastatic disease. The potential of the 6-EMT gene signature to predict TNBC metastasis after NACT was validated with a GEO dataset (HR=0.36, p=0.0008, 95% CI: 0.200-0.658). Moreover, the signature appeared of predictive value in another GEO dataset of TNBC patients who received surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (HR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.225-0.937). Conclusion Expression analysis of the 6-EMT gene signature at diagnosis may be of predictive value for metastasis in TNCB patients who did not achieve pCR to NACT and for patients treated with surgery in combination with adjuvant therapy.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the potential in delivering Internet-of-Things (IoT) services from a great height, creating an airborne domain of the IoT. In this article, we address the problem of autonomous UAV navigation in large-scale complex environments by formulating it as a Markov decision process with sparse rewards and propose an algorithm named deep reinforcement learning (RL) with nonexpert helpers (LwH). In contrast to prior RL-based methods that put huge efforts into reward shaping, we adopt the sparse reward scheme, i.e., a UAV will be rewarded if and only if it completes navigation tasks. Using the sparse reward scheme ensures that the solution is not biased toward potentially suboptimal directions. However, having no intermediate rewards hinders the agent from efficient learning since informative states are rarely encountered. To handle the challenge, we assume that a prior policy (nonexpert helper) that might be of poor performance is available to the learning agent. The prior policy plays the role of guiding the agent in exploring the state space by reshaping the behavior policy used for environmental interaction. It also assists the agent in achieving goals by setting dynamic learning objectives with increasing difficulty. To evaluate our proposed method, we construct a simulator for UAV navigation in large-scale complex environments and compare our algorithm with several baselines. Experimental results demonstrate that LwH significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms handling sparse rewards and yields impressive navigation policies comparable to those learned in the environment with dense rewards.

This study aimed to obtain the first national estimate of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Chinese children. We targeted the population of 6 to 12-year-old children for this prevalence study by multistage convenient cluster sampling. The Modified Chinese Autism Spectrum Rating Scale was used for the screening process. Of the target population of 142,086 children, 88.5% (n = 125,806) participated in the study. A total of 363 children were confirmed as having ASD. The observed ASD prevalence rate was 0.29% (95% CI: 0.26%–0.32%) for the overall population. After adjustment for response rates, the estimated number of ASD cases was 867 in the target population sample, thereby achieving an estimated prevalence of 0.70% (95% CI: 0.64%–0.74%). The prevalence was significantly higher in boys than in girls (0.95%; 95% CI: 0.87%–1.02% versus 0.30%; 95% CI: 0.26%–0.34%; P

Neck injuries are significant causes of morbidity and mortality, and their chronic forms due to repetitive or sustained physical acts (e.g., prolonged use of mobile phone with a dropped head) are becoming increasingly more prevalent. Many injuries are preventable but the prevention and control requires a clear basic understanding of the neck biomechanics. In this paper, we describe a first-of-its-kind study that integrates a gamut of state-of-the-art imaging modalities (dynamic radiography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) and biodynamic measurements (motion capture, electromyography (EMG), force sensing), thereby investigating holistically the in vivo responses of the neck and its various interconnected musculoskeletal components during functional activities. We present a sample of findings to illustrate how the integrations at multiple levels can enable creating truly subject-specific neck musculoskeletal models and attaining novel insights that otherwise would be unattainable by a singular or subset of approaches.

Eco-approach and departure (EAD) systems in connected vehicles are capable of providing the speed recommendations to drivers so that vehicles can pass through successive intersections at the appropriate instants to save time and energy. However, most of existing control strategies and global optimization algorithms for EAD systems have extremely high requirements for computational resources, which make EAD systems not easy to popularize and apply to real vehicles. To overcome this problem, this paper designs a traffic flow prediction model based on deep learning regression machine, and establishes a dynamic effective red-light duration model based on traffic flow queuing effect. To facilitate real-time update of the optimal speed, a constrained optimization model is proposed as an approximation approach, which can obtain similar optimal results to that of the pseudo-spectral method while greatly reducing calculating time. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm for EAD system on passing intersections and energy saving has been validated on the real vehicle under real-world traffic environment. Compared with the uninformed driver, the proposed EAD system saves 2% time and 4.6% energy on average in case that driver is informed and 8% time and 12.1% energy in case of autonomous driving.

The problem of fossil energy shortage and pollution has become increasingly prominent. In China, government-led electric energy substitution projects are being carried out in nationwide, aiming at the end of energy consumption links, using electricity instead of coal-fired and oil-fired energy consumption, in order to optimize the energy structure and achieve the goal of energy conservation and emission reduction. Aiming at the planning and benefit sharing of electric energy substitution project, this research first designs the planning mechanism of electric energy substitution for productive users, analyses distribution network planning, transformation subsidy and so on, and puts forward three schemes. Secondly, based on the cooperative game theory, the benefit allocation model of electric energy substitution project is established. Finally, we take the flue-cured tobacco project about replacing coal with electricity in three areas of Yunnan province as an example to analyze, optimize the game strategy, and put forward three indicators to measure the benefits of the participants in the project. The pollution reduction situation that can not be converted into economic benefits is counted. The modeling results show that the density of users geographically will directly affect the cost of the distribution network transformation. The coal flue-cured tobacco heat loss and serious pollution, after optimization, power grid enterprises can quickly recover investment.

In this paper, an in-fiber composite modal interferometer (CMI) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on cascaded no-cladding fiber (NCF) and thin-core fiber (TCF) structure, which respectively corresponds to multimode interferometer (MMI) and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). The self-image effect of MMI is deeply analyzed and the interference fringes distribution of CMI is accurately designed by the selective the length of NCF and TCF. The comprehensive tests are then conducted and the experimental results show that interference fringes present similar temperature response but the apparent differences in strain and refractive index (RI) tests owing to the asymmetrical structure. MMI has a near-zero intensity sensitivity of strain and red-shifts with the increased RI. But MZI has the sensitivity of −19.3nm/RIU and a 4.94 dB increment in the range of 300– $1100~\mu \varepsilon $ . Thus high-discrimination simultaneous triple-parameter measurement is achieved by means of joint wavelength and intensity demodulation. The proposed CMI has the merits of high sensitivity, low cost and ease of fabrication, and is very promising and potential for the engineering monitoring and sensing applications.

Purpose Treatment options for relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (RR DLBCL) represent an unmet medical need. Apatinib is a new oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor mainly targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) to inhibit tumour angiogenesis. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of apatinib for patients with RR DLBCL. Patients and methods In this phase II, open-label, single-arm, prospective study, we enrolled patients aged 14-70 years with treatment failure of at least two chemotherapeutic regimens using Simon's two-stage design. All patients were administered apatinib at an initial dose of 500 mg on a 4-week cycle at home and visited the outpatient clinic every two cycles to evaluate efficacy and to record adverse events. We considered objective response rate (ORR) as the primary end point, and progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) plus duration of response (DoR) as the secondary end point. (This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03376958.). Results From January 2017 to February 2019, we screened 35 patients and enrolled 32 eligible patients. At the cutoff point (April 2019), we noted 2 (6.3%) complete responses, 12 (37.5%) partial responses, and 9 (28.1%) stable diseases, attributing to an ORR of 43.8% and a disease control rate of 71.9%. The median PFS and OS were 6.9 (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.8-7.9) and 7.9 months (95% CI, 7.0-8.7), respectively. The median DoR was 5.0 months (95% CI, 3.5-6.5) for patients who achieved PR. The most common grade 3-4 adverse events (AE) were hypertension (12.6%), hand-foot syndrome (9.4%), and leucopenia (6.3%). No apatinib-related deaths were noted. Conclusion Home administration of apatinib shows promising efficacy and manageable AEs in patients with RR DLBCL.

Statins are used in clinical practice to prevent from complications such as cerebral vasospasm (CVS) after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). However, the efficacy and safety of statins are still controversial due to insufficient evidence from randomized controlled trials and inconsistent results of the existing studies. This meta-analysis aimed to systematically review the latest evidence on the time window and complications of statins in aSAH. The randomized controlled trials in the databases of The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CNKI, and Wanfang from January 2005 to April 2021 were searched and analyzed systematically. Data analysis was performed using Stata version 16.0. The fixed-effects model (M-H method) with effect size risk ratio (RR) was used for subgroups with homogeneity, and the random-effects model (D-L method) with effect size odds ratio (OR) was used for subgroups with heterogeneity. The primary outcomes were poor neurological prognosis and all-cause mortality, and the secondary outcomes were cerebral vasospasm (CVS) and statin-related complications. This study was registered with PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews; CRD42021247376). Nine studies comprising 1,464 patients were included. The Jadad score of the patients was 5–7. Meta-analysis showed that poor neurological prognosis was reduced in patients who took oral statins for 14 days (RR, 0.73 [0.55–0.97]; I2 = 0%). Surprisingly, the continuous use of statins for 21 days had no significant effect on neurological prognosis (RR, 1.04 [0.89–1.23]; I2 = 17%). Statins reduced CVS (OR, 0.51 [0.36–0.71]; I2 = 0%) but increased bacteremia (OR, 1.38 [1.01–1.89]; I2 = 0%). In conclusion, a short treatment course of statins over 2 weeks may improve neurological prognosis. Statins were associated with reduced CVS. Based on the pathophysiological characteristics of CVS and the evaluation of prognosis, 2 weeks could be the optimal time window for statin treatment in aSAH, although bacteremia may increase.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and feasibility of the rituximab, fotemustine, pemetrexed, and dexamethasone (R-FPD) regimen followed by whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL). Methods: A prospective, single-center phase II clinical trial was conducted. Patients with PCNSL newly diagnosed at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University between July 2018 and July 2020 were studied. The R-FPD regimen consisted of rituximab (375 mg/m2 i.v. on D0), fotemustine (100 mg/m2 i.v. on D1), pemetrexed (600 mg/m2 i.v. on D1), and dexamethasone (40 mg i.v. on D1-5). Patients 60 years or younger who showed a complete response (CR) were treated with 23.4 Gy of WBRT after the end of chemotherapy; those older than 60 years with CR were treated with a wait-and-see approach; and those who did not show CR after the 4th cycle of chemotherapy were given salvage WBRT 30 Gy + local tumor field irradiation up to 45 Gy, regardless of age. Results: A total of 30 patients were included. After 2 cycles, the objective response rate (ORR) was 96.5% (28/29, 1 CR, 27 PR, 0 SD, and 1 PD). After 4 cycles, the ORR was 73.1% (19/26, 11 CR, 8 PR, 4 SD, and 3 PD). After WBRT, the ORR was 90.9% (10/11, 7 CR, 3 PR, and 1 SD). The grade III and IV toxicity responses were mainly leukopenia (20.0%), thrombocytopenia (23.3%), and anemia (10.0%). Conclusions: Fotemustine-based therapy in combination with rituximab chemotherapy followed by WBRT can improve outcomes, providing ORR benefits and favorable tolerability in patients newly diagnosed with PCNSL.

Object tracking is an important computer vision task that has drawn increasing attention because of its academic and commercial potential. Although several trackers based on convolutional neural network (CNN) have shown strong performance in single object tracking and multiple object tracking, it remains challenging to perform real-time object tracking on videos with frame rate over 30 frame per second. For real-world applications, one of the necessary requirements is the trackers need to estimate the bounding boxes with a rate higher or equal to the video frame rate to avoid latency. In this study, we propose a hybrid tracker combining the high accuracy of CNN-based trackers and the superior processing speed of particle filtering algorithm to achieve real-time tracking. The experimental results indicate our tracker achieves a state-of-the-art performance on the benchmark multi-object tracking datasets with competitive accuracy.

In multi-agent deep reinforcement learning, extracting sufficient and compact information of other agents is critical to attain efficient convergence and scalability of an algorithm. In canonical frameworks, distilling of such information is often done in an implicit and uninterpretable manner, or explicitly with cost functions not able to reflect the relationship between information compression and utility in representation. In this paper, we present Information-Bottleneck-based Other agents' behavior Representation learning for Multi-agent reinforcement learning (IBORM) to explicitly seek low-dimensional mapping encoder through which a compact and informative representation relevant to other agents' behaviors is established. IBORM leverages the information bottleneck principle to compress observation information, while retaining sufficient information relevant to other agents' behaviors used for cooperation decision. Empirical results have demonstrated that IBORM delivers the fastest convergence rate and the best performance of the learned policies, as compared with implicit behavior representation learning and explicit behavior representation learning without explicitly considering information compression and utility.

BackgroundWith the development of embryo freezing and warming technology, frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) has been widely utilized. However, studies investigating the association between cryopreservation duration and FET outcomes are limited and controversial, and previous studies did not conduct stratification analyses based on demographic or clinical characteristics.MethodsThis multicenter retrospective study included 17,826 women who underwent their first FET following the freeze-all strategy during the period from January 2014 to December 2018. Duration of cryopreservation was categorized into five groups: 3–8 weeks, 8–12 weeks, 12–26 weeks, 26–52 weeks, and >52 weeks. Modified Poisson regression and multivariate logistic regression were used to assess the association between cryostorage time of vitrified embryos and transfer outcomes. Moreover, further stratification analyses were performed according to variables with p <0.05 in multivariate models.ResultsIn this large multicenter study, we observed that storage duration was inversely associated with the possibility of pregnancy and live birth (p <0.001), but not with the risk of ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage. Stratification analyses based on maternal age, the number of oocytes retrieved, and condition of embryo transferred indicated that the inverse correlation was significant in the subpopulation with characteristics: (1) less than 40 years old, (2) more than 3 oocytes retrieved, and (3) only high-quality blastocysts transferred.ConclusionThe results of this large, multicenter, retrospective study suggested that prolonged cryopreservation was inversely associated with the probability of pregnancy and live birth. Therefore, for patients who adopt a freeze-all strategy, early FET might achieve a better outcome.

Natural killer/T cell lymphoma (NKTCL) most frequently affects the nasal cavity and upper aerodigestive tract (UAT) and is often mistaken for reactive disease processes, such as chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Recently, alterations of the nasal resident microbiota have been found in CRS. However, nasal microbial features in NKTCL have never been reported. This case-control study collected 46 NKTCL patients, 25 CRS patients and 24 matched healthy controls (HCs) to analyze nasal microbial profiles via 16S rRNA sequencing technology to improve our understanding of changes in the nasal microbiota in NKTCL. We found that alpha diversity was significantly decreased, while beta diversity was significantly increased in NKTCL compared with those in CRS and HCs. The genus Corynebacterium was significantly depleted in CRS and NKTCL versus that in HCs, while genus Staphylococcus was the most abundant in the NKTCL compared to that in the other two groups. The nasal microbial community was significantly different between UAT-NKTCL and non-UAT NKTCL patients. Importantly, based on a panel of taxa, excellent classification power with an AUC of 0.875 between UAT-NKTCL and CRS was achieved. Furthermore, the alpha diversity of the nasal microbiota was associated with several clinical covariates of NKTCL. Finally, PICRUSt analysis implicated an array of distinct functions in NKTCL that might be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. In conclusion, the nasal microbial profile was unique in NKTCL. The nose-microbiota-UAT NKTCL axis represents a panel of promising biomarkers for clinical practice and contributes to revealing the potential pathogenesis of this malignancy.

Maize is the most important crop worldwide in terms of production and yield, but every year a considerable amount of yield is lost due to drought. The foreseen increase in the number of drought spells due to climate change raises the question whether the ability to recover quickly after a water pulse may be a relevant trait for overall drought resistance. We here address the following hypotheses: (i) different maize hybrids exhibit distinct physiological adaptive responses to drought stress and (ii) these responses affect the ability to recover from the stress. (iii) The relative biomass production of maize hybrids, which show severe drought symptoms but are able to recover quickly after a water pulse, is comparable to those hybrids, which invest more energy into tolerance mechanisms. The physiological responses of eight maize hybrids to repeated drought were elucidated employing physiological parameters such as electrolyte leakage, osmolality, relative water content, growth rate and gas-exchange measurements. Only one hybrid was able to maintain biomass production under drought conditions. Amongst the others, two hybrids with similar growth inhibition but contrasting physiological responses were identified by a PCA analysis. Both strategies, i.e. stabilization of leaf water content via resistance mechanisms versus high recovery potential were equally effective in maintaining aboveground biomass production in the scenario of a long drought intermitted by a water-pulse. However, each strategy might be advantageous under different drought stress scenarios. Overall, the recovery potential is underestimated in drought resistance under natural conditions, which includes periodic cycles of drought and rewatering, and should be considered in screening trials.

There is some evidence supporting an association between Bromodomain containing 4 (BRD4) and cancer, but no research using pan-cancer analysis has been conducted previously. We therefore investigated the oncogenic role of BRD4 in 33 tumors from the Gene Expression Omnibus and The Cancer Genome Atlas databases. BRD4 is highly expressed in many tumors, and the prognosis of certain cancers is vitally linked with BRD4 expression. BRD4 expression is associated with CD8+ T-cell infiltration levels in testicular germ cell tumors and head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, and we observed a positive relationship between BRD4 and Tcm (T central memory) and Th(T helper) cells, and a negative relationship pDC (plasmacytoid DC). BRD4 had negative associations with marophages, iDC, Treg, cytotoxic cells, and Th17 cells in multiple tumors. The top 100 genes that are most strongly related to BRD4 were identified, and enrichment analysis indicated that the biological process with the closest relationship was chromatin modifying enzymes, related pathways included the signaling pathways of intracellular receptor, cytokine Signaling in Immune system and regulation of TP53 activity through acetylation. BRD4 is related to biological cell behaviors such as DNA-templated transcription, regulation of histone modification, protein modification by small protein removal and mitotic sister chromatid segregation. As the first study to perform a pan-cancer analysis of BRD4, the present findings will improve the understanding of the oncogenic role of BRD4 in different tumors.

ObjectiveThe prognosis for patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (R/R-DLBCL) after second-line treatment failure is extremely poor. This study prospectively observed the efficacy and safety of decitabine with a modified cisplatin, cytarabine, and dexamethasone (DHAP) regimen in R/R-DLBCL patients who failed second-line treatment.MethodsTwenty-one R/R-DLBCL patients were enrolled and treated with decitabine and a modified DHAP regimen. The primary endpoints were overall response rate (ORR) and safety. The secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).ResultsORR reached 50% (complete response rate, 35%), five patients (25%) had stable disease (SD) with disease control rate (DCR) of 75%. Subgroup analysis revealed patients over fifty years old had a higher complete response rate compared to younger patients (P = 0.005), and relapsed patients had a better complete response rate than refractory patients (P = 0.031). Median PFS was 7 months (95% confidence interval, 5.1-8.9 months). Median OS was not achieved. One-year OS was 59.0% (95% CI, 35.5%-82.5%), and two-year OS was 51.6% (95% confidence interval, 26.9%-76.3%). The main adverse events (AEs) were grade 3/4 hematologic toxicities such as neutropenia (90%), anemia (50%), and thrombocytopenia (70%). Other main non-hematologic AEs were grade 1/2 nausea/vomiting (40%) and infection (50%). No renal toxicity or treatment-related death occurred.ConclusionDecitabine with a modified DHAP regimen can improve the treatment response and prognosis of R/R-DLBCL patients with good tolerance to AEs, suggesting this regimen has potential as a possible new treatment option for R/R-DLBCL patients after second-line treatment failure.Clinical Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03579082.

Background and AimsPrediction of pathological complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for breast cancer is critical for surgical planning and evaluation of NAC efficacy. The purpose of this project was to assess the efficiency of a novel nomogram based on ultrasound and clinicopathological features for predicting pCR after NAC.MethodsThis retrospective study included 282 patients with advanced breast cancer treated with NAC from two centers. Patients received breast ultrasound before NAC and after two cycles of NAC; and the ultrasound, clinicopathological features and feature changes after two cycles of NAC were recorded. A multivariate logistic regression model was combined with bootstrapping screened for informative features associated with pCR. Then, we constructed two nomograms: an initial-baseline nomogram and a two-cycle response nomogram. Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) were analyzed. The C-index was used to evaluate predictive accuracy.ResultsSixty (60/282, 21.28%) patients achieved pCR. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and HER2-amplified types were more likely to obtain pCR. Size shrinkage, posterior acoustic pattern, and elasticity score were identified as independent factors by multivariate logistic regression. In the validation cohort, the two-cycle response nomogram showed better discrimination than the initial-baseline nomogram, with the C-index reaching 0.79. The sensitivity, specificity, and NPV of the two-cycle response nomogram were 0.77, 0.77, and 0.92, respectively.ConclusionThe two-cycle response nomogram exhibited satisfactory efficiency, which means that the nomogram was a reliable method to predict pCR after NAC. Size shrinkage after two cycles of NAC was an important in dependent factor in predicting pCR.

Intelligent service robot is a challenging area of research that is rapidly expanding in our daily life. To meet robot’s object detection requirements in a messy surrounding, this paper provides a visual object detection method based on color and shape features. Firstly, a color hierarchical model and a multi-size filter are built to obtain initial object regions from scene image. Then a straight line-corner-arc strategy is presented to detect shape features. After comparing color and shape features with known-objects’ features stored in database, the detection scope is narrowed. So speeded up robust features algorithm is used to quickly match object features. The proposed method is tested by mobile robot in a semi-structured indoor environment. Finally, combined with the above steps, the total detection accuracy achieves 88.5% that confirms the feasibility of the proposed method.

Given the contribution of sustained neck exertion in non-neutral postures to the prevalence of neck pain in the workplace, the sex-specific fatigability rates of neck muscles were investigated using an integrated analysis of electromyography (EMG) median frequency (MF) and EMG Amplitude-Force ratio. The EMG MF and EMG Amplitude-Force ratio data of 18 males and 19 females were analyzed using piecewise linear regression models. The results showed that the time- and sex-specific fatigability rates are task- and muscle-dependent, with tasks relying primarily on the smaller muscles in the force production incurred a more significant amount of muscle fatigue for males than females.

Background Orexin can facilitate emergence after general anaesthesia via multiple neural pathways. Dopaminergic neurones in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) participate in behavioural arousal from anaesthesia. We investigated the regulation of dopaminergic VTA neurones by orexinergic neurones during emergence from general anaesthesia. Methods Orexins were microinjected into the VTA to determine the effects on isoflurane anaesthesia induction, emergence, and maintenance. Orexin receptors and dopaminergic neurones in the VTA were identified using immunofluorescence. Orexinergic terminals in the VTA were optogenetically regulated to detect the endogenous orexin-mediated regulation of dopaminergic neurones during anaesthesia in Hcrtcre rats. Results Injection of orexin-A (100 pmol) into the VTA reduced emergence time [from 949 (118) to 727 (101) s; P=0.0058] and reduced the electroencephalographic burst–suppression ratio (BSR) (26.6 [10.2]% vs 44.3 [6.8]%; P=0.0027) during isoflurane anaesthesia. The percentage of dopaminergic neurones that expressed either orexin-1 receptor or orexin-2 receptor was 73.4 (5.0)% and 74.4 (62.4)%, respectively. Optogenetic activation of orexinergic projections to the VTA reduced the BSR (from 40.5 [2.7]% to 22.4 [11.8]%; P=0.0019) and facilitated emergence (915 [89] vs 685 [68] s; P=0.0026), whereas optical inhibition prolonged the time to wakefulness (from 941 [92] to 1279 [250] s; P=0.011). Dopaminergic neurones in the VTA showed increased firing frequency (387 [78]% of control, P=0.005) after bath application of orexin-A. Conclusions Orexin promotes emergence from isoflurane anaesthesia through activation of dopaminergic neurones in the VTA.