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As a new generation of manufacturing technology, laser welding is widely applied in the fields of automobile, aerospace, etc. with its compelling advantages of high flexibility, quality, and energy density. However, the environmental performance of the laser welding process is not clear so far. There is a lack of systematic analysis of the laser welding process that takes all the energy sources and material consumption into consideration to reflect the actual environmental impact and evaluate the process parameter for decision-making. In this study, a parameterized model linking the carbon emissions and laser welding parameters is established. Based on this, a carbon efficiency evaluation approach is proposed to reveal the trade-off between carbon emissions and the added manufacturing value for decision-making on the premise of ensuring the welding quality. To verify the effectiveness of this approach, the carbon efficiency of the laser butt joint welding process is analyzed as an illustration. The results show that the parametric carbon emission models offer a feasible evaluation of carbon emissions of the laser welding process, with an accuracy of approximately 93.6%. The carbon emissions of the cooling system are 1.78 times that of laser devices. Thus, it dominates the carbon emissions of the laser welding process rather than laser devices. While ensuring the processing quality, increasing the welding speed is the most key way to improve carbon efficiency. The reason for it is that the carbon emissions of auxiliary facilities, e.g., cooling system can be reduced significantly as the reduced welding time. Furthermore, the standby time used, e.g., clamping and taking-off of workpieces, etc., is another key factor affecting the carbon efficiency. Thus, shortening the standby time can also improve the carbon efficiency of the laser welding process.

Early risk assessments and interventions for metabolic syndrome (MetS) are limited because of a lack of effective biomarkers. In the present study, several candidate genes were selected as a blood-based transcriptomic signature for MetS. We collected so far the largest MetS-associated peripheral blood high-throughput transcriptomics data and put forward a novel feature selection strategy by combining weighted gene co-expression network analysis, protein-protein interaction network analysis, LASSO regression and random forest approaches. Two gene modules and 51 hub genes as well as a 9-hub-gene signature associated with metabolic syndrome were identified. Then, based on this 9-hub-gene signature, we performed logistic analysis and subsequently established a web nomogram calculator for metabolic syndrome risk (https://xjtulgz.shinyapps.io/DynNomapp/). This 9-hub-gene signature showed excellent classification and calibration performance (AUC = 0.968 in training set, AUC = 0.883 in internal validation set, AUC = 0.861 in external validation set) as well as ideal potential clinical benefit.

BACKGROUND Bainbridge-Ropers syndrome (BRPS) is a severe disorder characterized by failure to thrive, facial dysmorphism, and severe developmental delay. BRPS is caused by a heterozygous loss-of-function mutation in the ASXL3 gene. Due to limited knowledge of the disease and lack of specific features, clinical diagnosis of this syndrome is challenging. With the use of trio-based whole exome sequencing, we identified a novel ASXL3 mutation in a Chinese boy with BRPS and performed a literature review. CASE SUMMARY A 3-year-old Chinese boy was referred to our hospital due to progressive postnatal microcephaly and intellectual disability with severe speech impairment for 2 years. His other remarkable clinical features were shown as follows: Facial dysmorphism, feeding difficulties, poor growth, motor delay, and abnormal behavior. For the proband, regular laboratory tests, blood tandem mass spectrometry, urine gas chromatographic mass spectrometry, karyotype, hearing screening, and brain magnetic resonance imaging were performed, with negative results. Therefore, for the proband and his unaffected parents, trio-based whole exome sequencing and subsequent validation by Sanger sequencing were performed. A novel nonsense variant in exon 11 of the ASXL3 gene (c.1795G>T; p.E599*) was detected, present in the patient but absent from his parents. Taking into account the concordant phenotypic features of our patient with reported BRPS patients and the detected truncated variant located in the known mutational cluster region, we confirmed a diagnosis of BRPS for this proband. The rehabilitation treatment seemed to have a mild effect. CONCLUSION In this case, a novel nonsense mutation (c.1795G>T, p.E599*) in ASXL3 gene was identified in a Chinese boy with BRPS. This finding not only contributed to better genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis for this family but also expanded the pathogenic mutation spectrum of ASXL3 gene and provided key information for clinical diagnosis of BRPS.

Globally, liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) has a high mortality and recurrence rate, leading to poor prognosis. The recurrence of LIHC is closely related to two aspects: degree of immune infiltration and content of tumor stem cells. Hence, this study aimed to used RNA-seq and clinical data of LIHC from The Cancer Genome Atlas, Estimation of Stromal and Immune cells in Malignant Tumours, mRNA stemness index score, and weighted gene correlation network analysis methods to find genes significantly linked to the aforementioned two aspects. Key genes and clinical factors were used as input. Lasso regression and multivariate Cox regression were conducted to build an effective prognostic model for patients with liver cancer. Finally, four key genes (KLHL30, PLN, LYVE1, and TIMD4) and four clinical factors (Asian, age, grade, and bilirubin) were included in the prognostic model, namely Immunity and Cancer-stem-cell Related Prognosis (ICRP) score. The ICRP score achieved a great performance in test set. The area under the curve value of the ICRP score in test set for 1, 3, and 5 years was 0.708, 0.723, and 0.765, respectively, which was better than that of other prognostic prediction methods for LIHC. The C-index evaluation method also reached the same conclusion.

Although the NaV1.7 sodium channel is a promising drug target for pain, traditional screening strategies for discovery of NaV1.7 inhibitors are very painstaking and time-consuming. Herein, we aimed to build machine learning models for screening and design of potent and effective NaV1.7 sodium channel inhibitors. We customized the imbalanced data set from ChEMBL and BindingDB to train and filter the best classification model. Then, the whole-cell voltage-clamp was employed to validate the inhibitors. We assembled a molecular group optimization method by combining the Grammar Variational Autoencoder, classification model, and simulated annealing. We found that the RF-CDK model (random forest + CDK fingerprint) performs best in the imbalanced data set. Of the three compounds that may have inhibitory effects, nortriptyline has been experimentally verified. In the molecule optimization process, 40 molecules located in the applicability domain of RF-CDK were used as a starting point, among which 34 molecules evolved to molecules with greater molecular scores (MS). The molecule with the highest MS was derived from CHEMBL2325245. The model and method we developed for NaV1.7 inhibitors are also applicable to other targets.

Systematic administration of anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin 4 (IL-4) has been shown to improve recovery after cerebral ischemic stroke. However, whether IL-4 affects neuronal excitability and how IL-4 improves ischemic injury remain largely unknown. Here we report the neuroprotective role of endogenous IL-4 in focal cerebral ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury. In multi-electrode array (MEA) recordings, IL-4 reduces spontaneous firings and network activities of mouse primary cortical neurons. IL-4 mRNA and protein expressions are upregulated after I/R injury. Genetic deletion of Il-4 gene aggravates I/R injury in vivo and exacerbates oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) injury in cortical neurons. Conversely, supplemental IL-4 protects Il-4−/− cortical neurons against OGD injury. Mechanistically, cortical pyramidal and stellate neurons common for ischemic penumbra after I/R injury exhibit intrinsic hyperexcitability and enhanced excitatory synaptic transmissions in Il-4−/− mice. Furthermore, upregulation of Nav1.1 channel, and downregulations of KCa3.1 channel and α6 subunit of GABAA receptors are detected in the cortical tissues and primary cortical neurons from Il-4−/− mice. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that IL-4 deficiency results in neural hyperexcitability and aggravates I/R injury, thus activation of IL-4 signaling may protect the brain against the development of permanent damage and help recover from ischemic injury after stroke., Graphical abstract This study reveals a previously unknown mechanism by which IL-4 deficiency causes neural hyperexcitability and enhances neuronal excitatory transmissions. Supplementing IL-4 might be beneficial for improvement of functional recovery after brain ischemia injury.Image 1

Itch (pruritus), specifically chronic itch associated with disease conditions, significantly impairs the patient’s quality of life. At present, the mechanisms underlying this aversive experience are still unclear, and the effective treatment of itch is largely unmet. Here, we report that intragastrical administration of bulleyaconitine A (BLA), which has been used for treating chronic pain for 30 years in China, inhibited itch-like behaviors induced by intradermal injection of histamine and chloroquine in mice and rats, dose-dependently. We found that a single application of the pruritic agents at the skin region innervated by the sural nerve induced long-term potentiation (LTP) of C-fiber field potentials evoked by the stimulation of the same nerve in the spinal dorsal horn of rats. The spinal LTP was remarkably reversed by the spinal application of either BLA or gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) antagonist (PD176252). The effect of PD176252 was completely occluded by BLA, while the effect of BLA was only partially occluded by PD176252. Repetitive injection (daily, for four days) of either histamine or chloroquine in the back of the neck enhanced scratching behaviors progressively, and the itch sensitization persisted for at least one week after the discontinuation of the injections. The behavioral change was accompanied with the potentiation of C-fiber synaptic transmission in the dorsal horn. Both the itch sensitization and synaptic potentiation were substantially attenuated by intragastrical BLA. Together, BLA was effective in inhibiting histamine-dependent and histamine-independent itches, and the mechanisms underlying these effects were involved but not limited to the inhibition of gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP)–GRPR signaling in the spinal dorsal horn.

Background HIF-1α is relevant to inflammation and fibrosis in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related liver diseases. Thus, we designed a predictive model for decompensated cirrhosis. Methods Peripheral plasma HIF-1α levels were measured in 52 subjects, including 20 patients with HBV-related-compensated-cirrhosis (HBV-CC), 20 patients with HBV-related-decompensated-cirrhosis (HBV-DC) that underwent transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS), and 12 healthy controls (HC). Portal plasma HIF-1α levels were detected in HBV-DC patients. The correlation between clinical data and HIF-1α levels was assessed, logistic regression and nomogram were used to develop prediction model. Results Plasma HIF-1α levels were significantly higher in HBV-DC patients than that in HBV-CC patients and healthy controls (DC: 656.34±417.96, CC: 294.23±138.03, HC: 194.63±54.14, pg/ml; P = 0.0004). Plasma HIF-1α levels were positively correlated with total bile acid, total bilirubin, APRI, FIB-4, and MELD scores, and negatively correlated with albumin and platelets. Multivariate logistic regression manifested that total bilirubin (OR = 19.439; 95% CI: 1.486–254.320, P = 0.024), spleen thickness (OR = 75.144; 95% CI: 4.157–1358.440, P = 0.003) and HIF-1α concentrations above 341.78 pg/ml (OR = 23.580; 95% CI: 1.842–301.781, P = 0.015) were markedly associated with HBV-DC and thus included in the nomogram. The terrific cut-off value for the probability of HBV-DC was > 45%, and area under the curve was 0.954 (P < 0.001), with 95% sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions HIF-1α is related to biochemical liver parameters, cirrhosis grade, and progression to HBV-DC. Our model has preferable predictive value for HBV-DC.

Aim The prevalence of sleep apnoea (SA) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) varies greatly across preceding studies. The aim of our study was to provide a summary of the prevalence of SA among non-dialysis CKD patients. Method Medline, Embase, Web of Science, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database, VIP Chinese scientific journal database (VIP) and Wanfang Digital Periodical Full-text database were searched up to September 2018 to identify publications related to the prevalence of SA in non-dialysis CKD patients assessed by sleep questionnaires or sleep respiration monitoring. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate pooled prevalence of SA. And subgroup analysis and meta-regression were conducted as well. Results The pooled prevalence of SA in the included 26 studies was 38% (95% confidence interval [CI], 21-70%). In subgroup analyses, the pooled prevalence of SA varied using different diagnostic tools. The pooled prevalence of questionnaire-based SA for CKD was 10% (95% CI, 3-27%), while the prevalence of sleep monitoring-based SA was 56% (95% CI, 49-66%). Also, advanced CKD patients had a greater chance to suffer from moderate-to-severe SA than early stage CKD patients. Male patients were more likely to be affected by moderate-to-severe SA than female patients (47% vs 30%, P = 0.018). Conclusion Sleep apnoea is commonly seen in both early and advanced non-dialysis CKD patients. Sleep related scales provided lower prevalence than instrumental sleep monitoring, therefore, underestimated the presence of SA. The prevalence of SA increases in advanced CKD. And male patients are more likely to be affected by SA than female patients.

Background The main symptoms of congenital chloride diarrhea (CCD) main symptoms are watery diarrhea, hypochloremia, and hypokalemic metabolic alkalosis. Silver–Russell syndrome (SRS) is a heterogeneous imprinting disorder characterized by severe intrauterine retardation, poor postnatal growth, and facial dysmorphism. Methods Parent‐offspring trio whole‐exome sequencing was used to identify the causal variants. Sequencing reads were mapped to the reference of human genome version hg19. Sanger sequencing was performed as a confirmatory experiment. Results The proband was a patient with SRS caused by maternal uniparental disomy 7. The CCD of the proband was caused by homozygous variant c.1515–1 (IVS13) G>A; both mutated alleles were inherited from her mother. Conclusion We report the first clinical case of CCD and SRS occurring together. Patients with milder phenotypes may be difficult to diagnose in early stage, but close monitoring of potential complications is important for identification., We report the first case of a female child presenting with CCD accompanied by maternal segmental UPD of chromosome 7 confirmed by molecular diagnosis. The proband was the only patient in the family and harbored a SLC26A3 variant (NM_000111.3:c.1515‐1G>A). The mother of the patient was heterozygous, whereas the father was wild‐type. After treatment of CCD, the patient still failed to thrive and had a typical dysmorphic feature. In the second genetic analysis, we found that at least 86.51 Mb of genome 7q11q36 (chr7: 65446986–151960086) was maternal uniparental disomy. We revised the diagnosis to CCD combined with SRS.

Pinus massoniana is a pioneer reforestation tree species in China. It is crucial to evaluate the seedling vigor of Pinus massoniana for reforestation work, and leaf moisture and nitrogen content are key factors used to achieve it. In this paper, we proposed a non-destructive testing method based on the multi-scale short cut convolutional neural network (MS-SC-CNN) to measure moisture and nitrogen content in leaves of Pinus massoniana seedlings. By designing a reasonable short cut structure, the method realized the transmission of loss function gradient across the multi-layer structure in the network and reduced the information loss caused by the multi-layer transmission in the forward propagation. Meanwhile, in the back propagation stage, the loss caused by the multi-layer transmission of gradient was reduced. Thus, the gradient vanishing problem in training was avoided. Since the method realized cross-layer transmission error, the convolutional layer could be increased appropriately to obtain higher measurement accuracy. To verify the performance of the proposed MS-SC-CNN non-destructive measurement method, the near-infrared hyperspectral data of sample leaves of 219 Pinus massoniana seedlings were collected from the Huangping Forest Farm in Guizhou Province. The correlation coefficient between the measured and real values of the prediction was as high as 0.977 and the root mean square error was 0.242 for the moisture content of Pinus massoniana seedling leaves. For the nitrogen content of Pinus massoniana seedling leaves, the correlation coefficient between the measured and real values of the prediction was 0.906 and the root-mean-square error was 0.061. The results showed that the non-destructive testing method based on MS-SC-CNN that we proposed can accurately measure the moisture and nitrogen content in leaves of Pinus massoniana seedlings.

Background: Metabolic syndrome is a common and complicated metabolic disorder and defined as a clustering of metabolic risk factors such as insulin resistance or diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. However, its early diagnosis is limited because the lack of definitive clinical diagnostic biomarkers. In present study, we aim to select several candidate gene as a blood-based clinically applicable transcriptomics signature for metabolic syndrome. Method: We collected so far the largest MetS-associated peripheral blood high-throughput transcriptomics data and put forward a novel feature selection strategy by combining weighted gene co-expression network analysis, protein-protein interaction network analysis, LASSO regression and random forest approaches. Then, based on selected hub gene signature, we performed logistic regression analysis and subsequently established a web nomogram calculator for metabolic syndrome risk to detect the diagnostic value of this hub gene signature. Finally, Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analysis, calibration curve analysis, Hosmer-Lemeshow good of fit test and decision curve analysis showed the classification and calibration performance as well as potential clinical benefit of this hub gene signature. Results: Through weighted gene co-expression network analysis, protein-protein interaction network analysis, we identified 2 gene modules and 51 hub genes associated with metabolic syndrome. Then, we subsequently performed further feature selection via LASSO regression and random forest method. Finally, a 9-hub-gene signature with high diagnostic value and a web nomogram calculator for metabolic syndrome risk (https://xjtulgz.shinyapps.io/DynNomapp/) were developed. This 9-hub-gene signature showed excellent classification and calibration performance (AUC= 0.968 in training set, AUC= 0.883 in internal validation set, AUC= 0.861 in external validation set) as well as ideal potential clinical benefit. Conclusions: The blood-based 9-hub-gene signature identified in present study and the web nomogram calculator for metabolic syndrome risk are possible to accurately achieve the noninvasive screening or diagnosis of MetS considering the excellent classification ability, calibration and potential clinical benefits.

Chronic stress is one of the most critical factors in the onset of depressive disorders; hence, environmental factors such as psychosocial stress are commonly used to induce depressive-​like traits in animal models of depression. Ventral CA1 (vCA1) in hippocampus and basal lateral amygdala (BLA) are critical sites during chronic stress-induced alterations in depressive subjects; however, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear. Here we employed chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) to model depression in mice and found that the activity of the posterior BLA to vCA1 (pBLA-vCA1) innervation was markedly reduced. Mice subjected to CUMS showed reduction in dendritic complexity, spine density, and synaptosomal AMPA receptors (AMPARs). Stimulation of pBLA-vCA1 innervation via chemogenetics or administration of cannabidiol (CBD) could reverse CUMS-induced synaptosomal AMPAR decrease and efficiently alleviate depressive-like behaviors in mice. These findings demonstrate a critical role for AMPARs and CBD modulation of pBLA-vCA1 innervation in CUMS-induced depressive-like behaviors.

Major disruptions, often caused by locked m/n = 2/1 modes (m/n is the poloidal/toroidal mode number), are great threat to a tokamak fusion reactor and should be mitigated or avoided. The locked 2/1 modes have been unlocked by electrode biasing (EB) for the first time in J-TEXT tokamak experiments. The application of a sufficiently negative EB voltage in plasma edge region quickly changes the phase and amplitude of the locked 2/1 mode and drives the mode to rotate in about 10–30 ms. For a larger EB current or a smaller locked mode amplitude, the mode is more easily to be unlocked, revealing a new method for mode unlocking and avoiding plasma disruptions.

Drug discovery focused on target proteins has been a successful strategy, but many diseases and biological processes lack obvious targets to enable such approaches. Here, to overcome this challenge, we describe a deep learning-based efficacy prediction system (DLEPS) that identifies drug candidates using a change in the gene expression profile in the diseased state as input. DLEPS was trained using chemically induced changes in transcriptional profiles from the L1000 project. We found that the changes in transcriptional profiles for previously unexamined molecules were predicted with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.74. We examined three disorders and experimentally tested the top drug candidates in mouse disease models. Validation showed that perillen, chikusetsusaponin IV and trametinib confer disease-relevant impacts against obesity, hyperuricemia and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, respectively. DLEPS can generate insights into pathogenic mechanisms, and we demonstrate that the MEK-ERK signaling pathway is a target for developing agents against nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Our findings suggest that DLEPS is an effective tool for drug repurposing and discovery.

Background Ovarian cancer is one of the most lethal gynecological cancers,and is in the top five cancer types associated with death in women. Immune infiltration of ovarian cancer is a critical factor in determining patient's prognosis. In addition to immune infiltration, key mutations also have a greater impact on the development and prognosis of OV.Methods Using data from TCGA and GTEx database combined with WGCNA and ESTIMATE methods, genes related to OV occurrence and immune infiltration were identified. Lasso and multivariate Cox regression were applied to define a prognostic score (IGCI score) based on immune genes and clinical information. The IGCI score has been verified by K-M curves, ROC curves, C-index on test set. Based on mutation data from TCGA, we identified key mutations related to immune infiltration by Chi-squared tests and we also did survival analysis of these mutations.Results In this section, we found 46 genes related to disease occurrence and immune infiltration, IGCI score was established based on six factors: Age, White, Pharmaceutical, FGF7, CCR1 and CD14. In test set, IGCI score (C-index = 0.630) is significantly better than AJCC stage (C-index = 0.541, P P P P P P Conclusion Based on immune-related genes and clinical information, we have established an ovarian cancer prognosis score that is superior to other methods. At the same time, RB1 and CSMD3 gene mutations are considered to be closely related to ovarian cancer immunity and prognosis.

Morphine is frequently used for the treatment of chronic pain, while long-term use of the drug leads to analgesic tolerance. At present, the prevention of the side effect remains a big challenge. Bulleyaconitine A, a diterpenoid alkaloid from Aconitum bulleyanum plants, has been used to treat chronic pain in China for more than 30 years. In the present study, we tested the effect of bulleyaconitine A on analgesic tolerance induced by morphine injections (10 mg/kg s.c., b.i.d.) in the lumbar 5 spinal nerve ligation model of neuropathic pain. We found that intragastrical application of bulleyaconitine A (0.4 mg/kg) 30 min before each morphine injection substantially inhibited the decrease in morphine’s inhibitory effect on mechanical allodynia and thermal hyperalgesia. Mechanistically, morphine injections further potentiated the lumbar 5 spinal nerve ligation induced long-term potentiation at C-fiber synapses in the spinal dorsal horn, a synaptic model of chronic pain. This effect was completely blocked by intragastrical bulleyaconitine A. It has been well established that activation of protein kinase C gamma and of glial cells in the spinal dorsal horn are critical for the development of opioid tolerance and neuropathic pain. We found that morphine injections exacerbated the upregulation of phospho-protein kinase C gamma (an active form of protein kinase C gamma), and the activation of microglia and astrocytes in the spinal dorsal horn induced by lumbar 5 spinal nerve ligation, and the effects were considerably prohibited by intragastrical bulleyaconitine A. Thus, spinal long-term potentiation at C-fiber synapses may underlie morphine tolerance. Oral administration of bulleyaconitine A may be a novel and simple approach for treating of opioid tolerance.

Antineoplastic drugs such as oxaliplatin (OXA) often induce memory and emotional deficits. At present, the mechanisms underlying these side-effects are not fully understood, and no effective treatment is available. Here, we show that the short-term memory deficits and anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors induced by intraperitoneal injections of OXA (4 mg/kg per day for 5 consecutive days) were accompanied by synaptic dysfunction and downregulation of the NR2B subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the hippocampus, which is critically involved in memory and emotion. The OXA-induced behavioral and synaptic changes were prevented by chronic oral administration of magnesium-L-threonate (L-TAMS, 604 mg/kg per day, from 2 days before until the end of experiments). We found that OXA injections significantly reduced the free Mg(2+) in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (from ~ 0.8 mmol/L to ~ 0.6 mmol/L). The Mg(2+) deficiency (0.6 mmol/L) upregulated tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and phospho-p65 (p-p65), an active form of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB), and downregulated the NR2B subunit in cultured hippocampal slices. Oral L-TAMS prevented the OXA-induced upregulation of TNF-α and p-p65, as well as microglial activation in the hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex. Finally, similar to oral L-TAMS, intracerebroventricular injection of PDTC, an NF-κB inhibitor, also prevented the OXA-induced memory/emotional deficits and the changes in TNF-α, p-p65, and microglia. Taken together, the activation of TNF–α/NF–κB signaling resulting from reduced brain Mg(2+) is responsible for the memory/emotional deficits induced by OXA. Chronic oral L-TAMS may be a novel approach to treating chemotherapy-induced memory/emotional deficits. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12264-020-00563-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Histone deacetylases 6 (HDAC6) has been reported to be involved in the pathogenesis of cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (AKI). Selective inhibition of HDAC6 might be a potential treatment for AKI. In our previous study, a highly selective HDAC6 inhibitor (HDAC6i) 23BB effectively protected against rhabdomyolysis-induced AKI with good safety. However, whether 23BB possessed favorable renoprotection against cisplatin-induced AKI and the involved mechanisms remained unknown. In the study, cisplatin-injected mice developed severe AKI symptom as indicated by acute kidney dysfunction and pathological changes, companied by the overexpression of HDAC6 in tubular epithelial cells. Pharmacological inhibition of HDAC6 by the treatment of 23BB significantly attenuated sCr, BUN and renal tubular damage. Mechanistically, 23BB enhanced the acetylation of histone H3 to reduce the HDAC6 activity. Cisplatin-induced AKI triggered multiple signal mediators of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress including PERK, ATF6 and IRE1 pathway, as well as CHOP, GRP78, p-JNK and caspase 12 proteins. Oral administration of our HDAC6i 23BB at a dose of 40 mg/kg/d for 3 days notably improved above-mentioned responses in the injured kidney tissues. HDAC6 inhibition also reduced the number of TUNEL-positive tubular cells and regulated apoptosis-related protein expression. Overall, these data highlighted that HDAC6 inhibitor 23BB modulated apoptosis via the inhibition of ER stress in the tubular epithelial cells of cisplatin-induced AKI.

”Justice is the last line to maintain social fairness and justice”. Student right for life, body and health can only be guaranteed through judicial channels. Once the school sports injury cases happen, the results are serious, which seriously affects the students’ academic completion, and brings heavy economics and psychological burden to the related families. Therefore, from the perspective of big data analysis, this paper collects and sorts out the data reports of China judgement online, and finds problems from the data statistics of school sports injury cases. By using SPSS and other sports statistics related software to analyze the variables involved in the case, the paper truthfully reflects the current situation and problems of the case. Finally, the paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions to prevent and solve the school sports injuries in Jiangxi Province, in order to provide theoretical reference for the construction of school sports law in China.

After the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir (TGR), the hydrological situation of the reservoir has changed greatly. The concentration and distribution of typical persistent organic pollutants in water and sediment have also changed accordingly. In this study, the concentration, distribution and potential sources of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 6 phthalic acid esters (PAEs) during the water drawdown and impoundment periods were investigated in water and sediment from the TGR. According to our results, PAHs and PAEs showed temporal and spatial variations. The mean ΣPAH and ΣPAE concentrations in water and sediment were both higher during the water impoundment period than during the water drawdown period. The water samples from the main stream showed larger ΣPAH concentration fluctuations than those from tributaries. Both the PAH and PAE concentrations meet the Chinese national water environmental quality standard (GB 3838-2002). PAH monomers with 2-3 rings and 4 rings were dominant in water, and 4-ring and 5-6-ring PAHs were dominant in sediment. Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) and di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) were the dominant PAE pollutants in the TGR. DBP and DEHP had the highest concentrations in water and sediment, respectively. The main source of PAHs in water from the TGR was petroleum and emissions from coal and biomass combustion, whereas the main sources of PAHs in sediments included coal and biomass combustion, petroleum, and petroleum combustion. The main source of PAEs in water was domestic waste, and the plastics and heavy chemical industries were the main sources of PAEs in sediment.

Background/Aims: The genetics of human height is a frequently studied and complex issue. However, there is limited genetic research of short stature. To uncover the subgroup of patients to have higher yield and to propose a simplified diagnostic algorithm in the next generation era. Methods: This study included 114 Chinese children with height SDS ≤ -2.5 and unknown etiology from 2014 to 2015. Target/whole exome sequencing (referred as NGS) and chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) were performed on the enrolled patients sequentially to identify potential genetic etiologies. The samples solved by NGS and CMA were retrospectively studied to evaluate the clinical pathway of the patients following a standard diagnostic algorithm. Results: In total, a potential genetic etiology was identified in 41 (36%) patients: 38 by NGS (33.3%), two by CMA (1.8%), and an additional one by both (0.9%). There were 46 different variants in 29 genes and 2 pathogenic CNVs identified. The diagnostic yield was significantly higher in patients with facial dysmorphism or skeletal abnormalities than those without the corresponding phenotype (P=0.006 and P=0.009, respectively, Pearson’s χ2 test). Retrospectively study the cohort indicate 83.3% patients eventually would be evaluated by NGS/CMA. Conclusion: This study confirms the utility of high-throughput molecular detection techniques for the etiological diagnosis of undiagnosed short stature and suggests that NGS could be used as a primary diagnostic strategy. Patients with facial dysmorphism and/or skeletal abnormalities are more likely to have a known genetic etiology. Moving NGS forward would simplified the diagnostic algorithm.

Summary Background/aim The balance of blood CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28− T cells has been verified to be vital for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), but their role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remains unknown. This investigation aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the balance in predicting the active stage in IBD patients. Methods Fifty-three IBD subjects, including 31 UC and 22 Crohn's disease (CD) patients, were enrolled, and their peripheral blood CD8+CD28+ and CD8+CD28− T cell levels were tested using flow cytometry. The risk factors related to prognosis were compared between UC and CD patients. A 1-year follow-up was performed for all the IBD patients, and the CD8+ T cells and their ratio were compared at the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th months during follow-up. The sensitivity and specificity of the CD8+ T cell level and balance were analyzed through receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves. The cumulative remission lasting rates (CRLRs) under the different factors were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Results Higher prescription rates of immunosuppressants, steroids, probiotics, and biological agents (BAs) were found in CD subjects in comparison to UC subjects (P = 0.005, 0.024, 0.034, and 0.001), as was a higher active rate during follow-up (95.5% of CD patients vs 67.7% of UC patients, P = 0.035). The CD8+CD28+ T cell level and the CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28− T cell ratio were significantly higher in UC patients than in CD patients, but the reverse was true for CD8+CD28− T cells during follow-up at the 9th and 12th month (all P Conclusion The CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28− T cell balance, expected to be a novel immunologic marker, presented a satisfactory efficiency with high sensitivity and specificity in predicting the active stage in UC and CD patients, and the balance was closely related to the use of BAs and surgery.

The diagnosis of intellectual disability/developmental delay (ID/DD) benefits from the clinical application of target/exome sequencing. The yield in Mendelian diseases varies from 25% to 68%. The aim of the present study was to identify the genetic causes of 33 ID/DD patients using target/exome sequencing. Recent studies have demonstrated that reanalyzing undiagnosed exomes could yield additional diagnosis. Therefore, in addition to the normal data analysis, in this study, re-evaluation was performed prior to manuscript preparation after updating OMIM annotations, calling copy number variations (CNVs) and reviewing the current literature. Molecular diagnosis was obtained for 19/33 patients in the first round of analysis. Notably, five patients were diagnosed during the re-evaluation of the geno/phenotypic data. This study confirmed the utility of exome sequencing in the diagnosis of ID/DD. Furthermore, re-evaluation leads to a 15% improvement in diagnostic yield. Thus, to maximize the diagnostic yield of next-generation sequencing (NGS), periodical re-evaluation of the geno/phenotypic data of undiagnosed individuals is recommended by updating the OMIM annotation, applying new algorithms, reviewing the literature, sharing pheno/genotypic data, and re-contacting patients.

Risperidone has been used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia and to reduce its relapse. However, the responses to treatment show great variability among patients. The potassium channel has been reported as an effective target for antipsychotics. KCNH7, a member of the voltage-gated K+ channel Kv11 family, is primarily expressed in the brain. Here, we assessed the genetic association of KCNH7 with risperidone responses in 393 schizophrenia patients. The patients were treated with risperidone for 6 weeks. The reduction rates of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores were determined to quantify drug response. We also examined the associations between six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of KCNH7 and the risperidone responses for a total of 6 weeks. The SNP rs77699177 (C > T) in the KCNH7 gene intron was significantly associated with the treatment response reflected by the PANSS reduction rate (CC, 55.8 ± 23.0; TC, 70.9 ± 20.3, P = 0.000110), indicating that patients with the TC genotype have better efficacy for antipsychotic therapy. The rs2241240 SNP also showed a significant association with treatment responses after 6 weeks of treatment (P = 0.00256). The findings indicate that the voltage-gated K+ channel KCNH7 is a potential functional marker for the identification of the response to risperidone treatment in schizophrenia patients.Note: The study was registered under clinical trial number ChiCTR-RNC-09000522 (http://www.chictr.org/).

Docker containers have been increasingly adopted on various computing platforms to provide a lightweight virtualized execution environment. Compared to virtual machines, this technology can often reduce the launch time from a few minutes to less than 10 seconds, assuming the Docker image has been locally available. However, Docker images are highly customizable, and are mostly built at runtime from a remote base image by running instructions in a script (the Dockerfile). During the instruction execution, a large number of input files may have to be retrieved via the Internet. The image building may be an iterative process as one may need to repeatedly modify the Dockerfile until a desired image composition is received. In the process, every input file required by an instruction has to be remotely retrieved, even if it has been recently downloaded. This can make the process of building of an image and launching of a container unexpectedly slow. To address the issue, we propose a technique, named FastBuild, that maintains a local file cache to minimize the expensive file downloading. By non-intrusively intercepting remote file requests, and supplying files locally, FastBuild enables file caching in a manner transparent to image building. To further accelerate the image building, FastBuild overlaps operations of instructions' execution and writing intermediate image layers to the disk. We have implemented FastBuild. And experiments with images and Dockerfiles obtained from Docker Hub show that the system can improve building speed by up to 10 times, and reduce downloaded data by 72%.

With the deepening of natural gas exploitation, the problem of sand production in gas wells is becoming more and more serious, especially in high-yield gas wells. The solid particles in natural gas are very likely to cause erosion and wear of downstream pipelines and throttling manifolds, which makes the pipeline ineffective. Once the pipeline is damaged, the natural gas leaks, which may cause serious catastrophic accidents. In this paper, the impact of sand particles on the pipeline wall is predicted by the analysis of the research on bent and continuous pipeline combined with particle collision model. The parameters of different particles (particle shape factor, particle velocity, and particle diameter), different bent parameters (angle, diameter, and curvature-to-diameter ratio), and the influence of different continuous pipeline parameters (assembly spacing and angle) are explored on the erosion and wear mechanism of curved pipeline. The results show that the shape of the particles has a great influence on the wear of the curved pipeline. As the shape factor of the particles decreases, the wear tends to decrease. The bent area is subject to erosion changes as the particle parameters and piping parameters. The increase in pipeline diameter is beneficial to reduce the maximum and the average erosion wear rate. When the bent angle of the pipeline is less than 90 deg, the maximum erosion wear rate is basically the same. But when it is greater than 90 deg, it decreases with the increase in the bent angle. When the assembly angle of double curved pipeline is between 0 deg and 60 deg, the elbow is subject to severe erosion wear. At the same time, increasing the assembly spacing is beneficial to reduce the erosion wear rate. The research can provide a theoretical support for subsequent engineering applications.

The development of a nanofluidic energy harvesting system plays a fundamental role in harvesting osmotic power from Gibbs free energy within the salt concentration gradient, which is considered to be a clean and renewable energy source for the future. In this study, a silica-nanochannel based nanofluidic energy harvesting system was fabricated and the output power density reached 705 W m-2 under suitable KCl concentration bias which exceeded-by almost two orders of magnitude-the results obtained by previous work. The enhancement of energy harvesting was mainly ascribed to the appropriate length of nanochannel that provides a good balance between the desirable ion selectivity and the unfavorable large resistance from the nanochannel. This high-performance nanofluidic energy device could be used in a variety of applications, including to power tiny biomedical devices or for constructing future clean-energy recovery plants.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has a rising prevalence and diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major complication of T2DM. Metabolomics could provide novel insights into the pathogenesis, so we aimed to explore serum metabolomic profiles from DN to T2DM. Serum samples were collected from 14 biopsy-proven DNs, 14 age/gender-matched T2DMs without renal diseases (DM), 14 age/gender-matched healthy controls (CTRL) and household contacts of DM group (HH). Serum metabolomics was analyzed by untargeted liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS) assays. There were a total of 1470 metabolites identified from all serum samples. 45 metabolites with significantly different intensity were found between DN and DM, e.g., biliverdin and taurine were reduced while L-arginine was increased in DN comparing to DM. DN could be distinguished from age/gender matched DM patients by L-arginine (AUC = 0.824) or taurine levels (AUC = 0.789). The metabolic pathways affected by metabolite distinctions between DN and DM also existed, among which taurine and hypotaurine metabolism exhibited the highest pathway impact. L-Methionine, deethylatrazine, L-tryptophan and fumaric acid were reduced in DM comparing with those of CTRL, but had no different intensity in DM and HH groups. The changes were demonstrated in the metabolomic profiles of biopsy-proven DN compared to DM. Biopsy-proven DN patients could be distinguished from age/gender matched DM by L-arginine or taurine levels in serum metabolomic profiles. Taurine and hypotaurine metabolism pathway had the highest impact in pathway set enrichment analysis, which potentially affected the pathogenesis of DN from T2DM.

This paper develops textual sentiment measures for China's stock market by extracting the textual tone of 60 million messages posted on a major online investor forum in China from 2008 to 2018. We conduct sentiment extraction by using both conventional dictionary methods based on customized word lists and supervised machine-learning methods (support vector machine and convolutional neural network). The market-level textual sentiment index is constructed as the average of message-level sentiment scores, and the textual disagreement index is constructed as their dispersion. These textual measures allow us to test a range of predictions of classical behavioral asset-pricing models within a unified empirical setting. We find that textual sentiment can significantly predict market return, exhibiting a salient underreaction-overreaction pattern on a time scale of several months. This effect is more pronounced for small and growth stocks, and is stronger under higher investor attention and during more volatile periods. We also find that textual sentiment exerts a significant and asymmetric impact on future volatility. Finally, we show that trading volume will be higher when textual sentiment is unusually high or low and when there are more differences of opinion, as measured by our textual disagreement. Based on a massive textual dataset, our analysis provides support for the noise-trading theory and the limits-to-arbitrage argument, as well as predictions from limited-attention and disagreement models.

The credit reporting system plays an important role in a credit economy, alleviating information asymmetry and reducing transaction costs. This article reviews the historical developments and describes the current structure of China’s government-oriented personal credit reporting system. The article summarizes the rapid development of Internet finance since 2013, and analyzes the challenges and opportunities for the next generation of China’s personal credit reporting system.

Crohn disease (CD) with complications such as penetrating, stricturing, and perianal disease is called complicated CD. The aim of this study is to test the efficiency with which the CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28– cell balance can predict a subsequent active stage in patients with newly diagnosed complicated CD. Seventeen patients with complicated CD and 48 CD patients with no complications were enrolled. Blood CD8+ T cells were tested from all of the 65 newly diagnosed CD patients upon enrollment. The potential risk factors were compared between the 2 groups. A 30-week follow-up was performed, and the efficiency of the CD8+ cell balance at predicting active CD was analyzed using receiver-operating characteristic curves. The cumulative remission lasting rates (CRLRs) were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Compared with the control CD group, patients with complicated CD were predominantly male and younger in age; they also had lower body mass indices (BMIs), higher Crohn disease activity indices (CDAIs), higher immunosuppressant and steroid prescription rates, and significantly higher surgical rates. The CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28– balance was associated with BMI, CDAI, steroids, and surgery. The CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28– ratios were significantly lower at week 0 and on the 6th, 22nd, and 30th week during follow-up with a shorter lasting time of remission for the complicated CD patients. The CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28– ratio could accurately predict the active stage for the patients with complicated CD, and the highest sensitivity (89.2%) and specificity (85.3%) were found when the ratio was 1.03. Treatment with steroids and surgery, along with a significantly lower CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28– ratio and lower CRLRs, was closely related to a worse outcome for the patients with complicated CD. Patients requiring steroids and surgery experience more severe disease activity and thus a disequilibrated immunological balance, which could be the main reason for a decreased CD8+CD28+/CD8+CD28– ratio. This ratio can sensitively predict the active stage for patients with complicated CD, and more care should be taken when this ratio is

Epilepsy is the second largest disease after headache in the neurology department of the hospital. Previous studies have shown that Xiao Chai Hu Tang (XCHT) has a certain therapeutic effect on epilepsy. We used the gene expression array data of epilepsy patients, and the relevant data of the Chinese medicine components in the TCMSP database and DrugBank database, combined with bioinformatics analysis methods, to construct herbs-compounds-targets (HCT) network and protein-protein interaction (PPI) core network of XCHT. The result suggests that Caveolin 1 (CAV1) may be a key target in the treatment of epilepsy, and β-carotene may have potential antiepileptic activity. In addition, the PPI core function network is enriched in the process of transcription factor regulation, and the related protein is located on the nuclear chromosome and closely related to the immune process, which provides a reference for other researchers.

e16637 Background: Current guidelines lack definitive evidences about the predictive capability of clinical parameters for transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). The aim of this study was to comprehensively investigate the predictive factor among stage I-IV liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC) patients after TACE. Methods: We investigated the clinical features of 211 stage I-IV patients with LIHC in discover group and 341 patients in validation group. Overall survival (OS) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. Results: Univariate Cox regression revealed that Monocyte count, TNM stage and AST-to-APOA ratio (AAR) were associated with unfavorable OS. AAR was identified as an independent predictor of OS using multivariate analysis. Kaplan-Meier curve demonstrated that patients with AAR < 50 displayed better prognosis. The median follow-up time was 17.1 (95%CI, 14.4 to 19.3) months, 3-year overall survival was 55.9% in the low AAR group versus 28.6% in the high AAR group, and there was significant difference in OS (Hazard ratio [HR] 0.47, 95%CI 0.33 to 0.67, P < 0.001). The AAR showed predictive ability for OS (12-month, AUC = 0.707). These findings were successfully validated in validation group (HR 0.62, 95%CI 0.46 to 0.84, P = 0.002; 12-month AUC = 0.636). Conclusions: AAR was an independent predictor among LIHC patients after TACE. Patients with lower AAR were optimal candidates for TACE.

In view of the pollution problem of rain and sewage overflow in old urban area, the pollution characteristics and the pollution load are calculated and analysed, and then it is proposed that the initial rainwater storage technology be used to deal with the rainwater and sewage overflow. Based on the rainfall datas of years in Wuhan, and balance rainfall field controlling rate, annual runoff controlling rate and storage area to determine the initial rainfall storage standard. Then, the benefits of storage and disposal are forecasted. Finally, suggestions for further solving the problem of rain and sewage overflow pollution in the old city are put forward.

After 20 years of rapid growth, the asset management industry in China has reached total assets under management of $2.8 trillion—and more than $6.12 trillion when trust and bank wealth-management products are included. In its early development years, the industry experienced much growing pain. With the joint efforts of regulators and market participants over the past 20 years, China’s asset management industry has substantially improved. In this article, the authors review the industry’s historical development, composition, competition among various sub-industries, and key players, as well as its institutional and regulatory environment. It would be difficult to understand the past, present, or future of this industry without knowing the political economy as well as the ideological background of China’s economy in general and its capital market in particular. The authors review the background of the political economy to aid readers in understanding the mindset and perspectives of regulators, policymakers, and key players in this space. The authors also discuss future opportunities in the asset management industry, as the massive household wealth created during China’s 30 years of fast economic growth continues to look for reliable vehicles for investment. Outbound investment from China is a growing trend.

The Gibbs free energy released during the mixing of river and sea water has been illustrated as a promising source of clean and renewable energy. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is one major strategy to gain electrical power from this natural salinity, and recently by utilizing nanochannels a novel mode of this approach has shown improved power density and energy converting efficiency. In this work, we carry out an electrokinetic analysis of the work extracted from RED in the nanochannels. First, we outline the exclusion potential effect induced by the inhomogeneous distribution of extra-counterions along the channel axis. This effect is unique in nanochannel RED and how to optimize it for energy harvesting is the central topic of this work. We then discuss two important indexes of performance, which are the output power density and the energy converting efficiency, and their dependence on the nanochannel parameters such as channel material and geometry. In order to yield maximized output electrical power, we propose a device design by stepwise usage of the saline bias, and the lengths of the nanochannels are optimized to achieve the best trade-off between the input thermal power and the energy converting efficiency.

Background Effects of simvastatin on serum level of adiponectin, a protein conferring benefits in both cardiovascular and metabolic system, are not fully determined. Methods A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed. Studies were identified by searching of Pubmed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases. Heterogeneity among the RCTs was determined by Cochrane’s Q test and I2 statistics. Meta-analysis was performed with random-effect model or fixed-effect model according to the heterogeneity. Meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to analyze the source of heterogeneity. Results Twelve RCTs with 16 comparisons and 1042 patients were included. Overall, serum adiponectin was not significantly affected by simvastatin (WMD: 0.42 μg/mL; 95% CI, -0.66–1.50 μg/mL). However, significant heterogeneity was detected (Cochrane’s Q test: p

Background Mucopolysaccharidosis IIIB (MPS IIIB) is a genetic disease characterized by mutations in the NAGLU gene, deficiency of α-N-acetylglucosaminidase, multiple congenital malformations and an increased susceptibility to malignancy. Because of the slow progressive nature of this disease and its atypical symptoms, the misdiagnosis of MPS IIIB is not rare in clinical practice. This misdiagnosis could be avoided by using next-generation sequencing (NGS) techniques, which have been shown to have superior performance for detecting mutations underlying rare inherited disorders in previous studies. Case presentation Whole exome sequencing (WES) was conducted and the putative pathogenic variants were validated by Sanger sequencing. The activity of MPS IIIB related enzyme in the patient's blood serum was assayed. A heterozygous, non-synonymous mutation (c.1562C>T, p.P521L) as well as a novel mutation (c.1705C>A, p.Q569K) were found in the NAGLU gene of the patient. The two mutations were validated by Sanger sequencing. Our data showed that this patient's c.1562C>T, p.P521L mutation in the NAGLU gene was inherited from his father and c.1705C>A, p.Q569K was from his mother. The diagnosis was further confirmed by an enzymatic activity assay after patient recall and follow-up. Conclusions Our results describe an atypical form of MPS IIIB and illustrate the diagnostic potential of targeted WES in Mendelian disease with unknown etiology. WES could become a powerful tool for molecular diagnosis of MPS IIIB in clinical setting.

The magnetic diagnostic of Mirnov probe arrays has been upgraded on the J-TEXT tokamak to measure the magnetohydrodynamic instabilities with higher spatial resolution and better amplitude-frequency characteristics. The upgraded Mirnov probe array contains one poloidal array with 48 probe modules and two toroidal arrays with 25 probe modules. Each probe module contains two probes which measure both the poloidal and the radial magnetic fields (Bp and Br). To ensure that the Mirnov probe possess better amplitude-frequency characteristics, a novel kind of Mirnov probe made of low temperature co-fired ceramics is utilized. The parameters and frequency response of the probe are measured and can meet the experiment requirement. The new Mirnov arrays have been normally applied for a round of experiments, including the observation of tearing modes and their coupling as well as high frequency magnetic perturbation due to the Alfven eigenmode. In order to extract useful information from raw signals, visualization processing methods based on singular value decomposition and cross-power spectrum are applied to decompose the coupled modes and to determine the mode number.

Introduction/Background Alberta Infant Motor Scale is an assessment tool to evaluate the gross motor development of the infant between birth until independent walking. It is a clinical practical assessment tool to be used and has been used broadly. The aim of this study was to examine the concurrent validity of Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) in Chinese with gross motor scale of Peabody Developmental Motor Scale II (PDMS-II) when used in high-risk infants. Material and Method One hundred and eighteen high-risk infants with the average age of 7.76 ± 3.93 months (from 2 to 17 months) were recruited to this study. Three investigators experienced in AIMS and PDMS-II participated in this study. Each investigator administered the AIMS and PDMS-II to the infants within one week and recorded the assessment results. The raw scores of AIMS and PDMS-II-GM for each infant were analyzed for the concurrent validity. Results The Pearson correlation coefficient of AIMS with PDMS-II was 0.97. For the 0∼4 month group, the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.94. For the 4∼8 month group, Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.95. For the 8∼12 month group, Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.94. For the >12 month group, Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.91. Conclusion The AIMS in Chinese had high concurrent validity with PDMS-II when used in high-risk infants at very early age.

The Gibbs free energy released during the mixing of river and sea water has been illustrated as a promising source of clean and renewable energy. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) is one major strategy to gain electrical power from this natural salinity, and recently by utilizing nanochannels a novel mode of this approach has shown improved power density and energy converting efficiency. In this work, we carry out an electrokinetic analysis of the work extracted from RED in the nanochannels. First, we outline the exclusion potential effect induced by the inhomogeneous distribution of extra-counterions along the channel axis. We then discuss two important indexes of performance, which are the output power density and the energy converting efficiency, and their dependence on the nanochannel parameters such as ion species and salt concentration gradient. This study demonstrates electrokinetic understanding of RED in nanochannels and offers insights on actual energy accessible for utilization through salinity gradients.

This paper proposes a property transformation perspective to examine the mechanisms of wealth accumulation and wealth inequality creation during China's post-1978 transformation. It examines how enterprise ownership restructuring, marketization and state politics have resulted in greater wealth inequality between cadres and ordinary workers, between public sectors/organizations and private sectors/organizations. Mainly drawing on data from the Chinese Household Income Project conducted in 1995 and 2002, we find that the property transformation process has created greater wealth disparity among different occupational groups and among those working in different work organizations since the mid-1990s. However, it is inconclusive whether non-housing wealth or total household wealth are increasing at the same pace across different occupations and work organizations with the growing market penetration and the spread of privatization.

Application of continuum structural topology optimization methods to the layout design of bracing systems for multistory steel frame buildings under earthquake loads is explored in this work. A weighted average strain energy sensitivity of element is formulated to be served as the element removal criterion in the optimization process, and then an ESO-based continuum structural topology optimization method for the layout design of multistory steel frame bracing systems subjected to earthquake-induced ground motions is presented. In each iterative design, an approximate reanalysis technique named CA method is adopted to reduce the computational effort. Finally, a design example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented optimization method for the optimal layout design of steel frame bracing systems under earthquake loads.

Introduction/Background According to the variable clinical manifestations, the phenotypes of dystrophinopathy were classified as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD). The aim of this study was to summarize the characteristics of genotypes and the expression of dystrohpin in patients with dystrophinopathy, to investigate the relationships between them and phenotypes. Material and method Two hundred and four male patients with dystrophinopathy who presented to the Peking University First Hospital between August 2013 and August 2017 were enrolled. Their diagnosis were confirmed by gene tests, and the out-of-frame mutations were analyzed by means of the Leiden Dystrophin genetic database. Muscle biopsies were performed in 78 patients, and the levels of expression of dystrohpin were assigned by a 0–5 scale. All the values were calculated and processed using the SPSS 17.0 statistical package. Descriptive statistics were carried out when appropriate. The rank sum test was used to make difference analysis of the expression of dystrohpin between DMD and BMD. P Results In all the patients, 181 were DMD and 23 were BMD. Genetic analysis revealed that 162 (79.4%) were deletions, 23 (11.3%) were duplications and 19 (9.3%) were small mutations. Among the 185 deltion/duplication mutations, 89.1% patients were in coincidence with the reading-frame hypothesis. With immumohistochemical staining, the median scores of the expression of dystrophin-N, R and C were 0, 2 and 1 respectively in DMD, while they were 3, 4 and 4 respectively in BMD. The difference of the scores between DMD and BMD is statistically significant, with N (P = 0.010), R (P = 0.031), C (P = 0.000) and the total scores (P = 0.001) respectively. Conclusion The genotypes overlapped between different phenotypes of dystrophinopathy. There were significant differences between the expressions of dystrophin of DMD and BMD. These findings may be beneficial for the selection of therapeutic regimens and rehabilitation therapy of patients with dystrophinopathy.