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Background: Microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 B (LC3B) serves as a key component of autophagy, which is associated with the progression of carcinoma. Yet, it is still unclear whether LC3B is also an independent risk factor for predicting the progression of resectable intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC). We aim to explore the values of LC3B on risk and prognosis of ICC, and to establish a novel and available nomogram incorporating clinical factors and LC3B expression to predict recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) for these patients after radical hepatectomy. Methods: From August 2004 to March 2017, 105 ICC patients were eligibly enrolled in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. Preoperative clinical information of enrolled patients was collected. Expression LC3B in the ICC specimen was detected by immunohistochemistry. Cox regression analysis was used to screen the independent risk factors, which were integrated to establish prognostic nomograms to predict OS and RFS. Findings: The 5-year RFS and OS in this cohort were 15.7% and 29.6%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, independent factors for 5-year OS were CA-125, microvascular invasion (MVI), LC3B expression and lymph node metastasis (LNM). Except for the above 4 factors, NLR and tumor differentiation were independent factors for 5-year RFS. The AUC of nomograms for OS and RFS were 0.820 and 0.747, respectively. Interpretation: The nomograms based on LC3B can be considered as effective models to predict postoperative survival for ICC patients. Funding Statement: Natural Science Foundation of China (81570593, 81770648), Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (2015A030312013), Sci-tech Research Development Program of Guangdong Province (2017A020215023), Sci-tech Research Development Program of Guangzhou City (158100076), Sun Yat-Sen University Clinical Research 5010 Program (2014006), Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou City (201508020262, 201400000001-3). Declaration of Interests: All authors in the present study declare that the research was conducted without any potential conflict of interest. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethic Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, and all patients signed the informed consent to participate in this study.

Objectives Transfusion of umbilical cord‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC‐MSCs) is a novel strategy for treatment of various liver diseases. However, the therapeutic effect of UC‐MSCs is limited because only a few UC‐MSCs migrate towards the damaged regions. In this study, we observed the effects of autophagy on the migration of UC‐MSCs in vitro and in a model of liver ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Materials and Methods We investigated the effects of autophagy on the status of the cell, release of anti‐inflammatory factors and migration of UC‐MSCs in vitro. The therapeutic effects and in vivo migration of rapamycin‐preconditioned UC‐MSCs were observed in a C57/B6 mouse model of liver I/R injury. Results Induction of autophagy by rapamycin enhanced the ability of UC‐MSCs to migrate and release anti‐inflammatory cytokines as well as increased expression of CXCR4 without affecting cell viability. Inhibition of CXCR4 activation markedly decreased migration of these cells. In a mouse model of liver I/R injury, we found significantly upregulated expression of CXCR12 in the damaged liver. More rapamycin‐preconditioned UC‐MSCs migrated towards the ischaemic regions than 3‐methyladenine‐preconditioned or non‐preconditioned UC‐MSCs, leading to improvement in hepatic performance, pathological changes and levels of inflammatory cytokines. These effects were abolished by AMD3100. Conclusions Preconditioning of UC‐MSCs by rapamycin afforded increased protection against liver I/R injury by enhancing immunosuppression and strengthening the homing and migratory capacity of these cells via the CXCR4/CXCL12 axis.

Background Diabetics has become a serious public health burden in China. Multiple complications appear with the progression of diabetics pose a serious threat to the quality of human life and health. We can prevent the progression of prediabetics to diabetics and delay the progression to diabetics by early identification of diabetics and prediabetics and timely intervention, which have positive significance for improving public health. Objective Using machine learning techniques, we establish the noninvasive diabetics risk prediction model based on tongue features fusion and predict the risk of prediabetics and diabetics. Methods Applying the type TFDA-1 Tongue Diagnosis Instrument, we collect tongue images, extract tongue features including color and texture features using TDAS, and extract the advanced tongue features with ResNet-50, achieve the fusion of the two features with GA_XGBT, finally establish the noninvasive diabetics risk prediction model and evaluate the performance of testing effectiveness. Results Cross-validation suggests the best performance of GA_XGBT model with fusion features, whose average CA is 0.821, the average AUROC is 0.924, the average AUPRC is 0.856, the average Precision is 0.834, the average Recall is 0.822, the average F1-score is 0.813. Test set suggests the best testing performance of GA_XGBT model, whose average CA is 0.81, the average AUROC is 0.918, the average AUPRC is 0.839, the average Precision is 0.821, the average Recall is 0.81, the average F1-score is 0.796. When we test prediabetics with GA_XGBT model, we find that the AUROC is 0.914, the Precision is 0.69, the Recall is 0.952, the F1-score is 0.8. When we test diabetics with GA_XGBT model, we find that the AUROC is 0.984, the Precision is 0.929, the Recall is 0.951, the F1-score is 0.94. Conclusions Based on tongue features, the study uses classical machine learning algorithm and deep learning algorithm to maximum the respective advantages. We combine the prior knowledge and potential features together, establish the noninvasive diabetics risk prediction model with features fusion algorithm, and detect prediabetics and diabetics noninvasively. Our study presents a feasible method for establishing the association between diabetics and the tongue image information and prove that tongue image information is a potential marker which facilitates effective early diagnosis of prediabetics and diabetics.

Benzylidene piperidones (CZ-PD, TPA-PD, and PTZ-PD) with conjugated structure were synthesized by the aldol condensation of aromatic aldehyde and N-benzyl piperidone. These D-π-A-π-D dyes showed good visible light absorption and photosensitizing properties to iodonium salts in visible light-emitting diode (LED) photopolymerization. The photophysical properties of the synthesized structure were investigated via UV–vis spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. The mechanisms of structure-sensitized iodonium salts were explored through steady-state photolysis experiments. Polymerization experiments proved that these dyes with iodonium salt were an effective photoinitiating system for radical photopolymerization under visible LED light source and showed the ability to initiate deep curing.

Background Several studies have investigated miR-4293 rs12220909 polymorphisms and cancer susceptibility and yielded different results. Because of this controversy, we designed a meta-analysis to assess comprehensively the association of the rs12220909 polymorphism with cancer risk. Methods Relevant articles were collected by searching the databases of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and WanFang. Data on rs12220909 in cancer patients and controls were extracted. Sensitivity analyses and publication bias assessments were performed. Results Five studies with 3820 cases and 4574 controls were included in our meta-analysis. Pooled analyses showed that the rs12220909 polymorphism was not associated with cancer risk in any genetic model. (C vs G: odds ratio [OR] = 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.74-1.07; GC vs GG: OR = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.67-1.03; CC vs GG: OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 0.82-1.36; CC+GC vs GG: OR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.69-1.03; CC vs GC+GG: OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.85-1.40). Conclusions Our results indicate that rs12220909 is not associated with cancer risk. Larger, well-designed multicenter studies are needed to further explore the association of miR-4293 rs12220909 polymorphism with cancer risk.

To further expand the applications of flavonol dyes (3HFs) in photopolymerization, six flavonol dyes with different substituents were prepared by using the Algar–Flynn–Oyamada method. The steady-state photolysis and fluorescence quenching of 3HFs under the 385 nm LED light source showed that the proton transfer reaction preceded the charge transfer reaction between 3HFs and triethanolamine (TEOA) or iodonium salts (ONI), and groups with different electron properties could affect the photochemistry of 3HFs. The influence of substituents on the free radical polymerization efficiencies of 3HFs/TEOA and 3HFs/ONI was evaluated. Results showed that charge transfer occurred in the oxidation or reduction processes between 3HFs and TEOA or ONI. The possible mechanism was speculated, and the thermal feasibility of charge transfer between 3HFs and TEOA or ONI was calculated on the basis of the free energy changes of photoinduced electron transfer.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been reported to exert therapeutic effects on immunoregulation, tissue repair, and regeneration from the bench to the bedside. Increasing evidence demonstrates that extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from MSCs could contribute to these effects and are considered as a potential replacement for stem cell-based therapies. However, the efficacy and underlying mechanisms of EV-based treatment in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) remain unclear. Here, we demonstrated that human umbilical cord MSC-EVs (huc-MSC-EVs) could protect against IRI-induced hepatic apoptosis by reducing the infiltration of neutrophils and alleviating oxidative stress in hepatic tissue in vivo. Meanwhile, huc-MSC-EVs reduced the respiratory burst of neutrophils and prevented hepatocytes from oxidative stress-induced cell death in vitro. Interestingly, we found that the mitochondria-located antioxidant enzyme, manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), was encapsulated in huc-MSC-EVs and reduced oxidative stress in the hepatic IRI model. Knockdown of MnSOD in huc-MSCs decreased the level of MnSOD in huc-MSC-EVs and attenuated the antiapoptotic and antioxidant capacities of huc-MSC-EVs, which could be partially rescued by MnSOD mimetic manganese (III) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (4-benzoic acid) porphyrin (MnTBAP). In summary, these findings provide new clues to reveal the therapeutic effects of huc-MSC-EVs on hepatic IRI and evaluate their preclinical application.-Yao, J., Zheng, J., Cai, J., Zeng, K., Zhou, C., Zhang, J., Li, S., Li, H., Chen, L., He, L., Chen, H., Fu, H., Zhang, Q., Chen, G., Yang, Y., Zhang, Y. Extracellular vesicles derived from human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells alleviate rat hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury by suppressing oxidative stress and neutrophil inflammatory response.

Finding novel photoinitiators with photobleaching properties suitable for long-wavelength LED light sources is important for their potential use in the photocuring ceramic suspensions containing acrylate resin. Two D-π-A-π-D conjugated benzylidene ketones with visible light absorption (TPAK and CZK) were synthesized and evaluated as photoinitiators in the photocuring of acrylate resin and ceramic suspension under blue (460 nm)/green (520 nm) LED sources. Results showed that the two photoinitiators have high photoinitiating activity and can effectively produce thick-layer curing in acrylate resin and ceramic suspension due to their quick photobleaching properties under 460 nm and 520 nm LED light sources. The curing depth of the ceramic suspensions was measured as a function of the concentration of TPAK and CZK and the energy level of the LED light source. Jacob's equation was used to determine the critical energy Ec and depth sensitivity Dp of every suspension with different concentrations of benzylidene ketones.

In order to study on uniaxial mechanical properties of silty-mudstone under impact of temperature and humidity, a series of uniaxial mechanical tests were carried out. According to these tests, uniaxial mechanical indexes (compressive strength, elastic modulus, splitting strength) of silty-mudstone under different temperature and humidity conditions were obtained, and based on which, its change rule was analyzed. The test results indicate that when considering temperature shift only, uniaxial mechanical indexes of silty mudstone exponential decrease with the increase of cyclic times under same mode of temperature shift, decrease with temperature difference under same cyclic times and direction of temperature shift. After soaking, expansion rate and water content of silty-mudstone increases rapidly at the early stage and tends to be gentle at the later stage, uniaxial mechanical indexes exponential decrease with the increase of water content. After simultaneous variation of temperature and humidity, uniaxial mechanical indexes increase with the increase of temperature difference under negative direction of temperature shift, decrease with the increase of temperature difference under positive direction of temperature shift. Under same conditions, compare influence on mechanical properties: simultaneous variation of temperature and humidity> humidity shift only> temperature shift only.

Physicochemical Problems of Mineral Processing; ISSN 2084-4735

Density criterion for base materials is the most common practice in quality control and quality assurance for pavement construction. However, cases in which the base material has met the density requirement but turned out to be the cause of a premature failure exist. It means meeting the density requirements would not prevent the premature failures from occurring. Field studies indicated that these base materials are found to be either too weak to provide sufficient base support or too brittle, which causes cracks in base layers which in turn leads to secondary damage in other pavement layers. This paper documents the pavement layer moduli obtained from eight forensic investigations spanning 10 years. Falling-weight deflectometer and dynamic cone penetration tests were conducted to determine the layer moduli on sections that were either too weak or too brittle. In some cases, laboratory tests were performed to evaluate the base materials’ reactions to the stabilizers (lime or cement) and base susceptibili...

When we use laser to measure the focal ratio degradation of astronomical fibers, we have to reduce the speckle contrast to fit the output spot to a 2-D Gaussian-like function. The origin speckle contrast is near to 100%. The simple average method doesn’t work because the speckle patterns are stable. We tried several ways to disturb randomly the transmission phase of the light modes inside the fiber to be tested. Both non-contact fiber-disturb-mode device (NCFDMD) and contact fiber-disturb-mode device (CFDMD) were established and tested. The NCFDMD is to set a vibrating phase plate against the output end of the tested fiber. The CFDMD is to set the vibrating device in the middle of the fiber. Under different vibration frequency we compared the contrast of speckle patterns. We set different exposure time of the CCD camera to check the effects. For NCFDMD, the exposure time should be long enough, for example 30 ms, to guarantee enough different patterns could be collected to suppress the contrast of the speckle and get good Gauss-like pattern. For CFDMD, we compared three kinds of fibers with different core-diameters. We found that 65-70 Hz is the optimized vibration frequency for all fibers and 30 ms is the best exposure time. The introduction of the phase modulation could dramatically suppress the speckle under coherent illumination. The measurement accuracy could be enhanced according to the speckle suppression

This paper is devoted to a study of nonlinear stability of general linear methods for the numerical solution of delay differential equations in Hilbert spaces. New stability concepts are further introduced. The stability properties of (k,p,q)-algebraically stable general linear methods with piecewise constant or linear interpolation procedure are investigated. We also discuss stability of linear multistep methods viewed as a special subset of the class of general linear methods.

This paper is concerned with the numerical solution of delay differential equations (DDEs). We focus on the error behaviour of general linear methods for stiff DDEs. A restricted type of interpolation procedure is considered for general linear methods. D -convergence properties of general linear methods with this interpolation procedure are investigated. Some extant results are unified.

The main purpose of the present paper is to examine the asymptotic states of general linear methods for initial value problems of ordinary differential equations, and to extend the existing relevant results of Runge–Kutta methods, linear multistep methods by Humphries (1993) and Stuart and Humphries (1994). In particular, the existence of spurious steady solutions and period-2 solutions in the time step is studied, and the concepts of (strong and weak) R [1] -regularity and (weak) R [2] -regularity of general linear methods are introduced and studied. Some sufficient conditions for (strong and weak) R [1] -regularity and (weak) R [2] -regularity of such methods applied to initial value problems of ordinary differential equations with a globally Lipschitz condition or contractive or monotone condition are given.

By using the concept of multigraphs, the difference graphs of a class of alternating block Crank-Nicolson methods are defined and described, which extends the results on difference graphs of parallel computing for the finite difference method.

The theory of temporal average with a moving diffuser for suppressing speckle is realized by the experiment used a rigid PVC sheet and a treated K9 glass controlled by an external motor. By controlling the mechanical vibration of moving diffuser, a good speckle contrast can be achieved without loss of detailed information. The images about the speckle suppression and detailed information can be directly collected by a CCD and processed the digital images by MATLAB. By calculating the velocity of the moving diffusers, speckle contrast can be obtained. The results show that the speckle contrast after the dispose of the rigid PVC sheet and the treated K9 glass can be respectively reduced from 44.09% and 72.44% to 16.88% and 27.20% separately and the method is feasible and effective.

An integrated model based on ANP method was developed in this paper to optimize the decision-making process of urban regeneration projects. In this model, a nonlinear programming and DEMATEL methods were adopted to improve the processes of traditional ANP, a Zero-one Programming method was used to find out the optimal combination with the constraints of the total budget. Nine alternative urban regeneration projects in downtown Chongqing were adopted to test the developed model. It was proved that the improved model was feasible and effective to solve the problem of optimizing the decision-making process of urban regeneration projects.

Proceedings of the GeoHunan International Conference II: Emerging Technologies for Design, Construction, Rehabilitation, and Inspection of Transportation Infrastructure, held in Hunan, China, June 9-11, 2011. This Geotechnical Special Publication contains 24 papers addressing contemporary geotechnical topics. These papers focus on condition, reliability, and resilience assessments of tunnels and bridges and offer field investigations, laboratory experiments, and theoretical studies from China, the United States, and Africa. Topics include: bridge monitoring; tunnel issues; and laboratory tests.

As presented and discussed in this paper, a series of experiments were conducted on cement concrete plates to study the fracture mechanism and failure behavior of cement concrete pavements. Various boundary conditions including a simple support, hinged support at both ends, and one fixed end only were considered. Accordingly, the fracture response and behavioral characteristics of the cement concrete pavement under these different support conditions were comparatively evaluated and the findings are discussed in this paper. From the study results, the corresponding linear fit-functions between the vertical displacements and the rupture loads under different support conditions were formulated.

Consolidation settlement induced by dissipation of the excess pore water pressure due to pilling in soft clay and negative skin friction caused by it were analyzed. Piling or the pile driving process usually induces excess pore water pressure in the surrounding soil. When this excess water pressure dissipates later on after the pile driving process is complete, settlement of the surrounding soil occurs and a negative skin resistance along the pile shaft develops, which is undesirable. In this paper, three-dimensional Biot’s consolidation theory was introduced into FEM analysis to take into account the nonlinear consolidation behavior of the soil. The pile-driving process was defined and analyzed in terms of the expansion in a cylindrical cavity. In general, the results based on the FEM method and 3D Biot’s theory were consistent with the actual field measurements on site; with an even better accuracy than the results computed based on Tergazhi’s theory. Therefore, the method proposed in this paper is rational and exhibits greater promising potential for application in engineering designs.

This study is a project which calculates ecological footprint of Guilin in the past decade by theory of ecological footprint. The results showed that: from 1999 to 2008, per-capita biological capacity was stable, per-capita ecological footprint grew from 1.3434 hm2/cap to 2.0499hm2/cap, per-capita ecological deficit increased in study period. Ecological footprint per ten-thousand GDP declined by almost 50%. According to the results we can find ecosystem of Guilin was in a unsustainable state. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate economic growth mode transformation, develop ecological industries and advance biological capacity in Guilin.

Rigid concrete pavement slab under various supporting conditions was analyzed by elasto-plastic nonlinear three-dimensional finite element technique. The influences of void size on the stress, and deflection of concrete pavement slabs were investigated and are presented in this study. This research shows that the stress peak value of a loaded slab is approximately two times higher than at the across corner slab. Due to stress concentration, the void area boundary of PCC slabs becomes a fracture boundary, because it eventually ends up as a corner crack. The deflections of loaded slabs grow rapidly when the tire load approaches the center of the slab. As expected, the highest deflection occurred at the location directly below where the tire load was applied. In addition, the deflections increase directly with increases in the void size. ASCE Subject Headings

It is the purpose of this paper to consider some semilinear evolution systems of partial differential equations, which are found in physics, chemical reactions and biology. The existence, uniqueness and regularity of solutions for periodic boundary problems in global are proved for following degenerate parabolic and hyperbolic systems of higher order ∂ u ∂ t = ∑ m - 1 M ( - 1 ) m + 1 A m ( x ) ∂ 2 m u ∂ x 2 m + ∑ r = 0 R B r ( t ) ∂ 2 r + 1 u ∂ x 2 r + 1 + f ( u ) , where the matrices A(t), m = 1, …, M are nonnegative definite and the matrices B(t), r = 1 · ·, M are symmetric. One can show that the nonlinear Schrodinger equation or system, which may be treated as a real degenerate parabolic system, the Sine-Gordon equation, Klein-Gordon equation, some simultaneous equations of Schrodinger equation and wave equation etc. may be changed into the above type.

In 1995, a new approach was presented to overcome the drawbacks of existing convergence theory for stiff initial value problems by Auzinger et al. (BIT 36 (4) (1996) 635–652), and illustrated by means of a convergence argument for the implicit Euler scheme. In the present paper, our intention is to obtain extending quantitive convergence results of BDF methods for a class of nonlinear strongly stiff problems and to illustrate further this new approach. Some numerical examples confirm our results.

This paper is concerned with the numerical solution of delay dierential equations (DDEs). We focus on the stability behaviour and error analysis of one-leg methods with respect to nonlinear DDEs. The new concepts of GR-stability, GAR-stability and weak GAR-stability are introduced. It is proved that a strongly A-stable one-leg method with linear interpolation is GAR-stable, and that an A-stable one-leg method with linear interpolation is GR-stable, weakly GAR-stable and D-convergent of order s, if it is consistent of order s in the classical sense. c 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. AMS classication: 65L06; 65L20