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Objective To summarize the practice experience of establishing a stable abdominal heart transplantation model combined with tail vein injection in mice. Methods In the preliminary experiment, 50 pairs of donor and recipient Kunming mice received isotransplantation, 40 pairs of donor and recipient C57BL/6J mice underwent isotransplantation. In the formal experiment, 10 pairs of donor and recipient C57BL/6J mice received isotransplantation, 30 pairs of Balb/c mice as the donor and C57BL/6J mice as the recipient received allotransplantation. The time of each step of the heart transplantation (including harvesting and dressing of the donor heart, vascular anastomosis of the recipient, etc.) was recorded. The duration of transplanted heart beat and the survival time of the recipient was observed daily after operation. The time required for tail vein injection in the transplanted mice was recorded. Pathological examination of the transplanted heart was performed at 30 d after isotransplantation (n=5) and 7 d after allotransplantation (n=5). Results In the formal experiment, the success rate of heart transplantation was 90%. The harvesting and dressing time of donor heart was (13.9±0.6) min. The cold ischemia time of the recipient was (14.2±1.2) min. The vascular anastomosis time was (34.2±3.1) min. The total operation time was (86.6±5.4) min. Postoperatively, the transplanted heart of the mice undergoing isotransplantation survived longer than 100 d. Pathological examination at postoperative 30 d demonstrated only a slight amount of inflammatory cell infiltration. The survival time of the mice receiving allotransplantation was (7.2±0.5) d due to rejection reaction. At postoperative 7 d, pathological examination showed a large quantity of inflammatory cells infiltrating into the myocardium, manifested with acute cellular rejection. The success rate reached 90% after over 200 times of tail vein injection. Conclusions In this study, a stable mouse abdominal heart transplantation model is successfully established. The mouse models in the preliminary experiment can be utilized for tail vein injection.

Two new coordination compounds, [Zn(pytzipa)2(H2O)4]·2H2O (1) and [Zn2(dtzpda)(H2O)5]·3H2O (2) have been synthesized by solvothermal reactions of Zn(NO3)2·6H2O with Hpytzipa or H4dtzpda, respectively (Hpytzipa = 5-(3-pyridyl)tetrazole-2-isoproponaic acid, H4dtzpda = 3,3-di(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)pentanedioic acid). The X-ray diffraction results reveal that compound 1 is a linear chain in which pytzipa acts as a bidentate ligand to bridge adjacent Zn2+ ions by the nitrogen atom of the pyridine ring and the oxygen atom of the carboxylate group. In compound 2, dtzpda4− acts as a hepta-dentate ligand to bridge adjacent Zn2+ ions by the nitrogen atoms of the tetrazole rings and the oxygen atoms of the carboxylate in a chelating mode. Furthermore, nanoparticles (NPs) of the two compounds were prepared by co-precipitation with PEG-5000 ( poly(ethyleneglycol-5000) ) . Both two NPs show considerable cytotoxicity towards HeLa cells but Hpytzipa and H4dtzpda are non-toxic in nature. The results show that coordination Zn(II) with Hpytzipa or H4dtzpda can improve the toxicity of the NPs significantly and the NPs of the compounds are potential candidates for treatment of cancer cells.

Vascular remodeling is a critical event following a stroke. It is a well known fact that C1q is the first molecule in the complement classical pathway. However, its role in the neovascularization that ocurs after a stroke, remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the effects of C1q on post-stroke angiogeneis in pMCAO rats. We found that increased C1q levels in IBZ enhanced angiogenesis in rats with pMCAO. C1q promoted viability and angiogenic function of RBMECs and HBMECs. Upregualtion of VEGF expression and secretion by C1q was also observed in RBMECs, HBMECs and in IBZ in pMCAO rats. Furthermore, we demonstrated that C1q enhanced angiogenic function of RBMECs through its receptor, LAIR1. The results show that administration of C1q enhanced neovascularization and reduced brain edema after pMCAO in rats. On the basis of these findings, we suggest that C1q plays an important role in post-stroke angiogenesis at least through LAIR- HIF1α-VEGF axis. C1q shows promise as a potential therapeutic candidate for stroke treatment.

Charge density wave (CDW) strongly affects the electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials and can be tuned by phase engineering. Among 2D transitional metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), VTe2 was predicted to require small energy for its phase transition and shows unexpected CDW states in its T-phase. However, the CDW state of H-VTe2 has been barely reported. Here, we investigate the CDW states in monolayer (ML) H-VTe2, induced by phase-engineering from T-phase VTe2. The phase transition between T- and H-VTe2 is revealed with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) measurements. For H-VTe2, scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) results show a robust 2 3 × 2 3 CDW superlattice with a transition temperature above 450 K. Our findings provide a promising way for manipulating the CDWs in 2D materials and show great potential in its application of nanoelectronics.

Background This study investigated a comfortable suture angle (CSA) with optimized trocar position for closing the defect during renorrhaphy in retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN). The feasibility, usefulness, and safety of achieving the CSA with modified trocar position were determined for different tumor types. Methods Two optimized trocar positions were introduced for different tumor types. A suture angle was based on the tumor plane of the superficial parenchyma defect and the line formed by the needle holder. Preliminary surgical simulations determined a CSA that combined the least suture time with the greatest ease of performance. Achieving the CSA was attempted during renorrhaphy of 106 enrolled patients undergoing retroperitoneal LPN. Patients' characteristics, operative features, and follow-up information were collected and analyzed. Results For 89 (83.96%) patients, a CSA was successfully reached and parenchyma recovered. The remaining 17 patients were successfully sutured, but the attempt to achieve a CSA failed. For the CSA group, the suture, clamping, and overall operative times were significantly less than that of the non-CSA patients. The groups were similar regarding estimated blood loss, positive surgical margin, and rates of glomerular filtration reduction and complications. Univariable analyses determined that tumor location, growth pattern, and R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry score (RNS) may influence the success of this approach. Multivariable analyses indicated that only tumor location and RNS were independent factors affecting successful achievement of the CSA. Conclusions Through different kidney position changes, the CSA could be used to ease the suture process. It is feasible and safe to perform a CSA with optimized trocar position during LPN. Tumor location and RNS may influence the approach to get a CSA.

Bi-prediction is a fundamental module of inter prediction in the blocked-based hybrid video coding framework. Block-based motion estimation(ME) and motion compensation(MC) with simple models are adopted in bi-prediction process. Unfortunately, this MEMC-based scheme can't guarantee the prediction performance when it comes to video with complicated motions. In this paper, a novel inter prediction scheme based on deep frame prediction network (DFP-net) is proposed to enhance bi-prediction accuracy especially in complicate scenes. Specifically, the proposed DFP-net is composed of multi-scale motion alignment, fusion of temporal and spatial correlation and frame synthesis module. The DFP-net can precisely extract and fuse motion features in various scales and completely exploit temporal and spatial correlation to generate the prediction frame in a data-driven manner. Moreover, the DFP-net is integrated into VTM-6.2 to provide an additional prediction frame for biprediction. Since the prediction generated by DFP-net is more similar with to-be-coded frame in the sense of temporal distance and texture, it can be added to reference list to improve the diversity of references. In this manner, the proposed bi-prediction scheme has surpassed VTM-6.2 on average 1.8% BD-rate saving.

Cysts serve as a seed source for the initiation and recurrence of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) caused by dinoflagellates. And the influence of calcium on cyst formation has been relatively understudied. In the present study, we investigated the effects of calcium (Ca2+) on the growth and encystment of Scrippsiella trochoidea. We incubated S. trochoidea in modified f/2 media in flasks which were divided into five groups and treated with different Ca2+ concentrations (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8 g·L−1). We revealed that cell density increased with increasing Ca2+ concentrations; however, cell density was reduced when Ca2+ concentrations exceeded 0.2 g·mL−1. Additionally, the number of cysts and the cyst formation rate similarly increased as Ca2+ concentrations increased, but these were reduced when Ca2+ concentrations exceeded 0.4 g·mL−1. Lastly, S. trochoidea absorbed Ca2+ from the water when cysts were formed and under high Ca2+ concentrations, more calcareous thorn cysts formed.

The low frequency power loss of two 1200V planar gate field-stop insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) devices with different power rating is measured with double pulse test method. The switching loss and saturation loss with various collector current values are analyzed. The results show that power loss is strongly correlated with the device area and collector current. Device temperature is 6.6K lower for large area device when operating with collector current at 10A. The saturation power loss and turn-off trailing loss are discussed as well. Finally, the methods for power loss reduction are discussed from the standpoint of device structural design, layout optimization and manufacturing process.

Traditional video coding standards, such as HEVC and VVC, have achieved significant compression performance. To further improve the coding efficiency, a post-processing network is proposed to enhance the compressed frames in this paper. Specifically, the proposed network, namely DIA_Net, contains multiple inception blocks, attention mechanism and dense residual structure. The DIA_Net can efficiently extract information of multiple scale and fully exploit the extracted feature to improve image quality. In addition, the DIA_Net is integrated into the latest test model of VVC (VTM-8.0) to post-process the reconstructed frames of the decoder for better compression performance. The proposed scheme has achieved the best performance in the sense of PSNR at the similar bitrate in the validation sets of challenge on learned image compression (CLIC), which demonstrates the superiority of our approach.

The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) H19 has been demonstrated to play a crucial role in carcinogenesis, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, the impact of genetic variations in H19 gene on RCC has not been investigated before. In the present study, we sought to evaluate whether genetic polymorphisms in H19 are related to the susceptibility and mortality of RCC. We genotyped four widely studied polymorphisms in H19 and assessed their relationship with susceptibility and prognosis of RCC in a case-control study compromising 1,027 cases and 1,094 controls. The functionality of the important polymorphism was further investigated by real-time polymerase chain reaction and luciferase reporter assay. We found that H19 rs2839698 was significantly associated with risk and prognosis of RCC. Compared with the H19 rs2839698 CC genotype, the variant genotypes (CT/TT) were significantly associated with increased risk of RCC (P = 0.023, OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.03–1.45). Besides, patients with variant genotypes (CT/TT) were more likely to develop large tumor (P = 0.003, OR = 1.47; 95% CI = 1.16–1.85) and advanced disease (P = 0.010, OR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.12–2.26); and had a significantly unfavorable overall survival than those with the rs2839698 CC genotype (CT/TT vs. CC: Log-rank P = 0.026, HR = 2.25, 95%CI = 1.07–4.75). Furthermore, the CT/TT genotypes were associated with significantly increased expression of H19 in renal tissue. The luciferase reporter assays revealed the potential effect of rs2839698 variant on the binding of microRNAs to H19. Our results suggest that the H19 rs2839698 variant may be a genetic predictor of susceptibility and mortality of RCC. The risk effects and the functional impact of the variant on H19 still need further validation.

Convolutional neural network has witnessed remarkable progress in compressed video quality enhancement in high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard. But most existing methods focus on single frame quality enhancement where copious temporal and spatial information is neglected. In this paper, we propose a spatial-temporal fusion convolutional neural network (STEF-CNN) to employ spatial and temporal information to improve the performance of in-loop filter in HEVC. Specifically, the STEF-CNN adopts a pre-denoising network which in advance processes the compressed videos frame by frame. The pre-denoising operation alleviates the impact of noise and blocking artifacts. Then the denoised frames are sent to temporal-spatial fusion module which picks out valuable temporal and spatial information. The fused frames are eventually fed to quality enhancement network which is based on residual learning and dense network. The STEF-CNN is capable of capturing abundant information from consecutive neighboring frames. Extensive experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The STEF-CNN achieves 11.53% BD-BR reduction in all-intra (AI) configuration and 10.20% BD-BR reduction in random-access (RA) configuration.

The resource utilization of iron tailings is of great significance for all countries in the world. Considering the particle composition and physicochemical characteristics of iron tailings, fiber and lime were used to modify iron tailings. The fiber content was 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1%, and the lime content was 0%, 2%, 4%, 8%, and 10%, respectively. Through a direct shear test, the shear stress displacement (τ-δ) curves and shear strength of modified iron tailings, under the action of a 0 freeze-thaw cycle and 1 freeze-thaw cycle, were tested. As statistics have shown that there are uncertainty factors associated with direct shear tests, the shear strength index cohesion c and internal friction angle φ of the modified iron tailings were analyzed using the Monte Carlo method. The results show that the τ-δ curve of the fiber-modified iron tailings is a hardening-type curve and that of the lime-modified iron tailings is a softening-type curve. In the direct shear tests, the main uncertain factors are the specimen diameter, vertical force, and horizontal force. The diameter of the sample obeys a normal distribution, and the vertical and horizontal forces obey a uniform distribution. The results of the Monte Carlo simulation show that both c and φ obey a normal distribution. Under a 95% confidence condition, the effect of fiber on the cohesion on iron tailings is obvious, but the effect on the internal friction angle is not obvious. However, the values of c and φ of the iron tailings are clearly improved by lime. Additionally, the iron tailings modified by a fiber content of 1% and those modified by a lime content of 8% have the best frost resistance.

The impacts of shallow trench isolation (STI) indium implantation on gate oxide and device characteristics are studied in this work. The stress modulation effect is confirmed in this research work. An enhanced gate oxide oxidation rate is observed due to the enhanced tensile stress, and the thickness gap is around 5%. Wafers with and without STI indium implantation are manufactured using the 150-nm silicon on insulator (SOI) process. The ramped voltage stress and time to breakdown capability of the gate oxide are researched. No early failure is observed for both wafers the first time the voltage is ramped up. However, a time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) test shows more obvious evidence that the gate oxide quality is weakened by the STI indium implantation. Meanwhile, the device characteristics are compared, and the difference between two devices is consistent with the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) gap.

Chronic migraines (CM) are the third most common disease and are refractory to medical treatment in 15% of patients. Currently, temporary relief is achieved with steroid blocks or pulsed radiofrequency ablation, which have short-term benefits. Our project aims to develop a non-invasive treatment for medically refractory chronic migraine, which does not require a permanent implant. This project investigates the safety and effectiveness of pulsed focused ultrasound (FUS) in a validated rodent headache model of cutaneous allodynia associated with chronic migraine (CM) as compared to sumatriptan and ablative lesioning. We demonstrate a significant reduction in mechanical thresholds as measured through Von Frey filaments in CM in the forepaw and periorbital region (p 0.001). Sumatriptan and pulsed FUS both significantly improve thresholds at day 3 after treatment in the periorbital region. Ablative lesioning has no effect. This study provides initial evidence that FUS may provide an important therapeutic option for patients suffering from CM.

Convolutional neural network (CNN) has recently been applied into single image super-resolution (SISR) task. But the applied CNN models are increasingly cumbersome which will cause heavy memory and computational burden when deploying in realistic applications. Besides, existing CNNs for SISR have trouble in handling different scales information with same kernel size. In this paper, we propose a compact deep neural network (CDNN) to (1) reduce the amount of model parameters (2) decrease computational operations and (3) process different scales information. We devise two kinds of channel-wise scoring units (CSU), including adaptive channel-wise scoring unit (ACSU) and constant channel-wise scoring unit (CCSU), which act as judges to score for different channels. With further sparsity regularization imposed on CSUs and ensuing pruning of low-score channels, we can achieve considerable storage saving and computation simplification. In addition, the CDNN contains a dense inception structure, the convolutional kernels of which are in different sizes. This enables the CDNN to cope with different scales information in one natural image. We demonstrate the effectiveness of CSUs, dense inception on benchmarks and the proposed CDNN has superior performance over other methods.

The long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) H19 has been demonstrated to play a crucial role in carcinogenesis, including renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, the impact of genetic variations in H19 gene on RCC has not been investigated before. In the present study, we sought to evaluate whether genetic polymorphisms in H19 are related to the susceptibility and mortality of RCC. We genotyped four widely studied polymorphisms in H19 and assessed their relationship with susceptibility and prognosis of RCC in a case-control study compromising 1,027 cases and 1,094 controls. The functionality of the important polymorphism was further investigated by real-time polymerase chain reaction and luciferase reporter assay. We found that H19 rs2839698 was significantly associated with risk and prognosis of RCC. Compared with the H19 rs2839698 CC genotype, the variant genotypes (CT/TT) were significantly associated with increased risk of RCC (P = 0.023, OR = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.03–1.45). Besides, patients with variant genotypes (CT/TT) were more likely to develop large tumor (P = 0.003, OR = 1.47; 95% CI = 1.16–1.85) and advanced disease (P = 0.010, OR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.12–2.26); and had a significantly unfavorable overall survival than those with the rs2839698 CC genotype (CT/TT vs. CC: Log-rank P = 0.026, HR = 2.25, 95%CI = 1.07–4.75). Furthermore, the CT/TT genotypes were associated with significantly increased expression of H19 in renal tissue. The luciferase reporter assays revealed the potential effect of rs2839698 variant on the binding of microRNAs to H19. Our results suggest that the H19 rs2839698 variant may be a genetic predictor of susceptibility and mortality of RCC. The risk effects and the functional impact of the variant on H19 still need further validation.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is a rare ischemic cerebrovascular disease. The aim of this retrospective observational study was to investigate the risk factors for complication of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis by seizures and to explore the impact of such seizures on clinical outcomes. Patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis with or without epileptic seizures were retrospectively analyzed and compared in terms of clinical variables, causative factors, clinical presentation, and imaging data. In all, 69 patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis were enrolled in this study, 32 (46.38%) of whom had experienced secondary seizures. Compared with those with no seizures, significantly more patients with secondary seizures had hemiplegia (37.50 vs. 15.63%; P = 0.020), bleeding (29.40 vs. 10.81%; P = 0.047), lesions involving the frontal (31.25 vs. 10.81%; P = 0.023) and temporal lobe (43.75 vs. 8.11%; P = 0.005), and thrombosis in the superior sagittal sinus (65.63 vs. 40.54%; P = 0.036). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed focal neurological deficits (P = 0.004, odds ratio = 5.16, 95% CI 1.99–15.76) and thrombosis of the superior sagittal sinus (P = 0.039, odds ratio = 0.13, 95% CI 0.04–0.37) were independent risk factors for secondary seizures in patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. In addition, mortality rate (9.38 vs. 5.41%; P = 0.469) and 90-day excellent prognosis rate (81.25 vs. 86.47%; P = 0.793) did not differ significantly between patients with and without epileptic seizures. The presence of focal neurological deficits and thrombosis of the superior sagittal sinus are independent risk factors for secondary seizures in patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, whereas mortality and 90-day prognosis have no correlation with secondary seizures.

Oxidative stress is a leading cause to liver injury. Rac2 is a Ras-associated guanosine triphosphatase, an important molecule modulating a large number of cells and involved in the regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). For the study described here, we supposed that Rac2 knockout protects mice against CCl4-induced acute liver injury. We found that Rac2 expressed highly in CCl4-induced liver tissues. CCl4-treated Rac2 knockout (Rac2-/-) mice had reduced CD24 levels and steatosis. In addition, CCl4-induced high expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokine were reversed by Rac2 deficiency compared to CCl4-treated wild type (WT) mice. We also found that fibrosis-related signals of MMP-9, MMP-2 and TGF-β1 were also down-regulated in Rac2 knockout mice induced by CCl4. Significantly, oxidative stress induced by CCl4 was also suppressed owing to the lack of Rac2, evidenced by enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, superoxide radical, H2O2, xanthine oxidase (XO), xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) and XO/XDH ratio. Moreover, c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase mitogen-activated protein kinases (JNK MAPK) was activated by CCl4, which was reversed in the liver of Rac2-/- mice through western blot and immunohistochemical analysis. In vitro, endotoxin (LPS) was treated to hepatocytes isolated from WT mice and Rac2-/- mice. The data further confirmed the role of Rac2 deficiency suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokine, as well as fibrosis-related signals. Of note, production of ROS induced by LPS was reduced in Rac2-/- cells, accompanied with enhanced SOD1, SOD2 and reduced XO and phosphorylated-JNK expressions. Our results indicated that Rac2 played an essential role in acute liver injury induced by CCl4, providing the compelling information of the effects of Rac2 on liver injury, and revealing a novel regulatory mechanism for acute liver injury.

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the crack behavior of beams constructed with Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA). This experimental program consisted of 16 beams. The test parameters for this study include RCA replacement ratio and longitudinal reinforcement ratio. The flexural properties and crack behaviors of the beams were evaluated based on present design codes. It is found that the use of RCA does not cause an observable change in the progression of flexural strength and crack pattern. However, results of these statistical tests show that the RCA beams possess a larger crack width compares with the conventional beams.

Chronic iron overload is a serious condition that develops as a consequence of long-term accumulation of iron, eventually overwhelming iron storage systems and causing oxidative stress and subsequent organ damage. Current pharmaceuticals used to treat iron overload typically suffer from toxicities leading to relatively high rates of adverse events. To address this need, we designed a new class of nonabsorbable iron binding polymers (IBPs) that bind and sequester iron within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. IBPs were synthesized by cross-linking polyallylamine containing various amounts of conjugated 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA). In vitro studies indicated that IBPs possessed high affinity, substantial binding capacity, and excellent selectivity toward iron. Moreover, in vivo studies demonstrated that IBPs showed no signs of side effects in mice and increased fecal iron excretion when compared to a similar dose of cross-linked polyallylamine. IBPs are a novel, nonabsorbed oral therapeutic agent that may ultimately prevent iron absorption as a safe alternative to iron chelation therapies for patients with hemochromatosis or other iron overload diseases.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of holmium laser enucleation of prostate (HoLEP) for treating urinary retention in patients with advanced prostate cancer. Thirty-eight cases of advanced prostate cancer with urinary retention were enrolled in this retrospective study. All the 38 patients were treated with CAB as a basis. Among them, 21 cases chose HoLEP additionally (HoLEP group). Seventeen cases stuck to CAB alone (CAB group). Serum PSA level, International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life score (QoLs), maximal flow rate (Qmax), and post-void residual volume (PVR) at 3, 6, 12, and 18 months after treatment were comparatively analyzed. The perioperative and postoperative parameters of HoLEP were assessed. Both groups demonstrated significant improvement in IPSS, QoLs, Qmax, and PVR during follow-up. But these parameters of HoLEP group improved more rapidly, significantly, and durably than CAB group. No serious complications were observed during and after HoLEP. PSA level of patients in both groups declined dramatically after surgery. But PSA in HoLEP group showed more dramatic and continuous drop. Besides, 1 of 21 patients in HoLEP group transferred into castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) at 18th month of follow-up. While in CAB group, 5 of 17 patients developed into CRPC at 12th month of follow-up (P = 0.02 < 0.05). HoLEP was minimally invasive, safe, and effective, and could serve as a palliative approach to rapidly restore the patients' urine and play a cytoreductive role in advanced PCa to improve the oncological prognosis.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as critical regulators of ischemic stroke, a condition that affects neuronal survival. However, the precise role of miRNAs in regulating neuronal injury during ischemic stroke remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the potential role of miR-152-3p in regulating oxygen-glucose-deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R)-induced neuronal injury in vitro. We found that OGD/R-exposed neurons expressed less miR-152-3p. Functional analysis revealed that miR-152-3p overexpression increased the viability and reduced the apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production of OGD/R-exposed neurons. By contrast, miR-152-3p inhibition exacerbated OGD/R-induced injury. Notably, we identified postsynaptic density protein-93 (PSD-93), an important regulator of neuroprotection during ischemic stroke, as a miR-152-3p target gene. PSD-93 inhibition by small interfering RNA (siRNA) or miR-152-3p reinforced the activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant response element (ARE) antioxidant signaling in OGD/R-exposed neurons. However, PSD-93 overexpression or Nrf2 silencing partially reversed miR-152-3p-mediated neuroprotection in OGD/R-exposed neurons. Overall, these results demonstrated that miR-152-3p protected neurons from OGD/R-induced apoptosis and ROS production by reinforcing Nrf2/ARE antioxidant signaling through targeting and inhibiting PSD-93, findings that suggest miR-152-3p is a potential target for neuroprotection during ischemic stroke.

Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) with segmental renal artery clamping has become an important method to minimize the warm ischemia of the kidney during the surgery. In the present study, we adopted a new model of calculating surgery-related kidney volume loss (SKVL), which was derived from the imaging technology to predict the outcomes of LPN with segmental renal artery clamping. A total of 111 consecutive patients underwent LPN with available pre- and post-operation computed tomography (CT) scanning data were retrospectively analyzed. The SKVL was calculated using the parameter derived from the CT scan. The correlation between the SKVL and the perioperative outcomes as well as the renal function loss was estimated by the logistic regression analyses. The mean SKVL was 8.99 cm3; kidney volume and tumor volume was 147.48 cm3 and 25.87 cm3, respectively. The SKVL was associated with maximum diameter of tumor (P = 0.001), tumor volume (P

Objective To investigate factors that may predict successful precise segmental artery clamping during retroperitoneal laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN) for treatment of T1 kidney tumor. Patients and Methods Patients with clinical T1 tumors (n = 248) who received retroperitoneal LPN from June 2012 through February 2018 were reviewed, including demographics and clinical features. However, only 225 cases (90.7%) were available to analyze. Precise segmental artery clamping was the first clamping method selected during the LPN. If unsuccessful, conversion to main renal artery clamping was conducted. The perioperative features and functional outcomes of the 2 clamping types were compared. Results Of the 225 patients, 190 procedures were effectively performed using segmental artery clamping, while 35 (15.6%) were converted to main renal artery clamping. None were converted to open surgery. Clamping the main renal artery was associated with longer operative time, less estimated blood loss, and higher glomerular filtration rate reduction, compared with successful segmental artery clamping. Univariable analyses determined that the following features affected the feasibility of segmental artery clamping: gender; hypertension; tumor location, growth pattern, and targeted artery number; R.E.N.A.L. nephrometry score (RNS); and Mayo adhesive probability (MAP) score. The multivariable analyses indicated that male gender, high RNS, and elevated MAP score were independent factors lowering the viability of segmental artery clamping. Conclusion LPN with segmental artery clamping is generally safe for removing T1 kidney tumors. Extra cognizance may be required in men and cases with high RNS or MAP score.

Background Delayed bowel function recovery and postoperative ileus are relatively serious complications of laparoscopic radical cystectomy (LRC). Our study aimed to determine whether performing pelvic re-peritonealization reduces the incidence of these complications. Methods Clinical data of 78 patients who had undergone LRC with pelvic re-peritonealization from August 2015 to December 2017 were retrospectively collected and compared with those of 92 patients who had undergone LRC alone between January 2013 and July 2015 in our institution. Differences in duration of surgery, estimated blood loss, time to recovery of bowel function, the complications of intestinal and blood vessel injury, and incidence of postoperative ileus between the two groups were analyzed. Results Baseline characteristics such as age, sex and BMI were balanced between the two groups. There were no significant differences in duration of surgery (P = 0.072), estimated blood loss (P = 0.717), or incidence of intestinal obstruction (P = 0.225) between the two groups. Interestingly, patients who had undergone pelvic re-peritonealization recovered bowel function more rapidly than those had not (2.79 d vs. 3.72 d, P = 0.001). Additionally, hospitalization stay was significantly shorter for patients with re-peritonealization than for those without (5.46 d vs. 6.68 d, P = 0.029). Conclusions Compared with LRC alone, LRC with pelvic re-peritonealization as described in the present study had comparable perioperative complications, but was associated with more rapid gastrointestinal recovery and shorter hospitalization stay.

Controlling drug release kinetics within a desired therapeutic window is the central task when designing polymeric drug delivery systems. Complex polymer chemistries have often been explored to control water penetration, polymer degradation rate, or the mesh network size of delivery systems. Here, a simple parameter for controlling the release rate and duration of nondegradable hydrophobic polymers is discovered. A systematic study involving 59 polymers and multiple drugs demonstrates that the glass transition temperature, Tg , is a critical factor that dictates drug release kinetics from nondegradable hydrophobic polymers. Drug release rate exhibits a unique and simple linear correlation of (T - Tg )0.5 despite variability of polymer structure and type. An empirical model established based on the special correlation can accurately simulate and predict drug release kinetics from polymers saving substantial time typically required to test long-acting drug delivery systems.

Seawater quality degradation is caused by diverse, non-linearly interacting factors, knowledge of which is essential for understanding and predicting water quality trends. Currently, most water-quality research has been based on certain assumptions to employ linear approaches for solving simplified problems, such as numerical simulations or cumulative impact assessments. To improve the accuracy and ease of prediction, the random forest method has been increasingly employed as a good alternative to traditional prediction methods. In the present study, the random forest method was adopted to construct a model of the water quality response of Xincun Lagoon to anthropogenic nutrient inputs based on a limited amount of sample data, aiming to (a) identify the critical sources of nutrient inputs that affect the meeting of water quality objectives so as to minimize the socioeconomic impact on secondary stakeholders; and (b) predict the impact of a reduction of anthropogenic nutrient inputs on water quality improvement. It can be seen from the results that the intensity of stressors generated by different human activities presents an obvious non-linear superposition pattern, and the random forest method is one of the feasible solutions to this phenomenon; in addition, the impact on the lagoon ecosystem is not directly related to the intensity of the pressure source, for example, coastal aquaculture is more important than shallow sea cage aquaculture. Therefore, the method established in this paper can be used to identify the key pressure sources during the restoration of the lagoon environment, so as to achieve the unity of economy and effectiveness.

Herein, epoxy resins for composite liquid oxygen (LOX) fuel tanks are modified with phosphorous flame retardant (DOPO) and brominated epoxy resin (EX48). With the incorporation of DOPO and EX48, the processing properties requirements for the hot-melt prepreg are contented with the significantly enhanced viscosity of the modified epoxy resin. At the same time, the tensile performance, flexural performance and fracture toughness of epoxy resin at room temperature and 90 K are improved with the introduction of DOPO and EX48. In addition, the epoxy resin of EP/P7.7/Br40 offers a highest limited oxygen index of 33.5% and a lowest LOX impact sensitivity of 5% with the eliminated LOX incompatible reactions including explosion and combustion. Consideration of the excellent cryogenic mechanical properties and LOX compatibility, combined with ideal viscosity for hot-melt prepreg preparation, the epoxy resin modified with DOPO and EX48 simultaneously is attractive as the polymer matrix for composite LOX fuel tanks.

// Yiyang Liu 1, * , Jian Qian 1, * , Xiao Li 1, * , Wei Chen 1 , Aiming Xu 1 , Kai Zhao 1 , Yibo Hua 1 , Zhengkai Huang 1 , Jianzhong Zhang 1 , Chao Liang 1 , Shifeng Su 1 , Pu Li 1 , Pengfei Shao 1 , Jie Li 1 , Chao Qin 1 , Zengjun Wang 1 1 Department of Urology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Zengjun Wang, email: zengjunwang@njmu.edu.cn Chao Qin, email: qinchao@njmu.edu.cn Keywords: lncRNA BX357664, long noncoding RNA (LncRNA), epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, TGF-beta 1/p38/HSP27 signaling, renal cell carcinoma Received: December 06, 2015 Accepted: September 12, 2016 Published: October 27, 2016 ABSTRACT Antisense long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are reported to play a regulating role in carcinogenesis of various human malignancies. However, the function of lncRNAs and their underlying mechanism in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is still unknown. The aims of this study are to investigate the expression of lncRNA BX357664 in RCC and to explore its function in RCC cell lines. As a result, BX357664 was downregulated in RCC according to previous microarray analysis and qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. After the upregulation of BX357664, reduced migration, invasion, and proliferation capabilities in RCC cells were detected. Furthermore, Western blot analysis was conducted to identify the influence of BX357664 on epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, matrix metalloproteinase 2, matrix metalloproteinase 9, and transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGF-β1)/p38/HSP27 signaling pathway in RCC. Subsequently, upregulating the protein level of TGF-β1 in the presence of BX357664 could rescue the suppression of the malignant behavior mediated by BX357664, indicating that BX357664 attributed its inhibitory role to the suppression of TGF-β1. Therefore, we investigated a novel lncRNA BX357664, which might exhibit its inhibitory role in RCC metastasis and progression by blocking the TGF-β1/p38/HSP27 pathway.

To assess the feasibility and safety of a modified retroperitoneoscopic technique in supine position for the primary tumors located below the level of renal pedicle.In this retrospective study, 27 patients with primary retroperitoneal tumors located below the level of renal pedicle were recruited from January 2009 till now. The mean age of patients was 49.0 years (36-66 years). The average body mass index was 21.1 ± 1.4 kg/m(2). The retroperitoneoscopic resections were performed in supine position for all patients. The perioperative outcomes were collected and analyzed.All cases were performed by the modified technique without converting to open surgery. The mean operation time was 98.3 ± 12.8 min, with a mean estimated blood loss of 94.4 ± 42.5 mL. There were four patients suffering from intraoperative complications, one with the inferior vena cava (IVC) injury, one with the lumbar vein injury, and other two with the peritoneum breach. Postoperatively, the median bowel recovery time was 2 days (range: 1-3 days), and the mean length of stay after operation was 2.9 ± 1.0 days. Additionally, compared with the tumors located around the aorta (region B), a longer operation time was needed with tumors located around the IVC (region A) (A vs B: 105.8 ± 10.2 vs 91.2 ± 14.4, p = 0.02). Histopathology confirmed paraganglioma in 5 cases, schwannoma in 10 cases, and ganglioneuroma in 12 cases. After follow-up of 12-72 months, no recurrences have been identified.Our modified retroperitoneoscopic technique in supine position was proven to be safe and effective for the treatment of primary retroperitoneal tumors, especially suitable for the tumors located below the level of the renal pedicle.

The superplasticity of Al-6Mg-0.4Mn-0.25Sc-0.12Zr and Al-6Mg-0.4Mn-0.25Er-0.12Zr (mass fraction, %) alloys sheet was investigated, and the effect of Sc and Er was discussed. The results show that the superplastic ductilities of Al-Mg-Mn-Sc-Zr alloy was higher than that of Al-Mg-Mn-Er-Zr alloy at a wide temperature range of 400-540 °C and high strain rate range of 1.67×10-4-1.67×10-1 s-1. A maximum elongation 673% is obtained at 520 °C and 1.67×10-3 s-1 in the Sc-containing alloy; while the Er-containing alloy only gets a maximum elongation 253% at 520 °C and 1.67×10-3 s-1. Moreover, the average stress exponent of Sc-containing alloy is about 2.84, which is smaller than that of Er-containing alloy (3.64). Besides, the activation energies of the Sc-containing and Er-containing alloy are 84.8 kJ/mol and 87.2 kJ/mol, respectively. It is indicated that grain boundary sliding is the dominant mechanism during tensile deformation. According to microstructure examination, the better superplasticity of Sc-containing alloy may be attributed to the presence of Al3(Sc, Zr) dispersoids, which can inhibit recrystallization and grain growth effectively.

Complexes 1–3 with general formula [Ln(tmphen) 2 (DMF) 2 Mo(CN) 8 ] ∞ (Ln = Ho(1), Er(2) and Tm(3)) have been prepared by reaction of Cs 3 [Mo(CN) 8 ]·4H 2 O and Ln(NO 3 ) 3 ·6H 2 O in the presence of the tmphen blocking ligand (tmphen = 3,4,7,8-tetramethyl-1,10-phenanthroline), and characterized by IR, elemental analysis, single crystal X-ray diffraction and magnetic measurements. The structural determination reveals that complexes 1–3 consist of 1D chains, in which [Ln III (tmphen) 2 (DMF) 2 ] 3+ and [Mo V (CN) 8 ] 3− ions are linked in an alternating fashion. Furthermore, two adjacent 1D chain are linked by π–π interaction between the benzene and pyridine rings and hydrogen bonds to form a supramolecular three-dimensional framework. Investigation of the magnetic properties of complexes 1–3 reveals antiferromagnetic coupling interaction exists between heavy Ln III (Ho III , Er III and Tm III ) and Mo V ions.

A new Al-5.8%Mg-0.4%Mn-0.25%Sc-0.10%Zr (wt.%) alloy was successfully welded by tungsten inert gas (TIG) and friction stir welding (FSW) techniques, respectively. The mechanical properties and microstructure of the welded joints were investigated by microhardness measurements, tensile tests, and microscopy methods. The results show that the ultimate tensile strength, yield strength, and elongation to failure are 358, 234 MPa, and 27.6% for TIG welded joint, and 376, 245 MPa and 31.9% for FSW joint, respectively, showing high strength and superior ductility. The TIG welded joint fails in the heat-affected zone and the fracture of FSW joint is located in stirred zone. Al-Mg-Mn-Sc-Zr alloy is characterized by lots of dislocation tangles and secondary coherent Al3(Sc,Zr) particles. The superior mechanical properties of the TIG and FSW joints are mainly derived from the Orowan strengthening and grain boundary strengthening caused by secondary coherent Al3(Sc,Zr) nano-particles (20-40 nm). For new Al-Mg-Mn-Sc-Zr alloy, the positive effect from secondary Al3(Sc, Zr) particles in the base metal can be better preserved in FSW joint than in TIG welded joint.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in the urinary system, whose molecular mechanism is still not clear. ALPK2 is a member of alpha protein kinase family, and its relationship with RCC is never reported. In this study, expression of ALPK2 in tumor tissues or cells of RCC was detected by qPCR, western blotting and immunohistochemical analysis. The effects of ALPK2 knockdown on cell proliferation, colony formation, cell migration and apoptosis were assessed by MTT, colony formation assay, wound-healing assay, Transwell assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The influence of ALPK2 knockdown on tumor growth in vivo was evaluated by mice xenograft models. The results demonstrated that ALPK2 was upregulated in tumor tissues of RCC and its high expression was significantly associated with advanced stage and poor prognosis. Knockdown of ALPK2 could inhibited cell proliferation, colony formation and cell migration of RCC cells, while promoting cell apoptosis. The suppression of tumor growth in vivo by ALPK2 knockdown was also showed by using mice xenograft models. Moreover, the regulation of RCC by ALPK2 may involve Akt, CDK6, Cyclin D1 and PIK3CA signaling. Therefore, our studies suggested that ALPK2 may act as a tumor promotor in the development and progression of RCC, and could be considered as a novel therapeutic target for RCC treatment.

To investigate the role of ultrasound-targeted microbubbles in the homing effect of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and in the therapeutic efficacy of BMSCs on the ischemic stroke. A middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model was induced by plug wire preparation. Seventy-two hours after MCAO, the treatment of BMSCs with ultrasound-targeted microbubble was assessed via modified neurological severity score (mNSS), infarct volumes, and cerebral edema. In addition, immunofluorescence was performed to analyze the homing effect of BMSCs with ultrasound-targeted microbubble. We find that BMSCs with ultrasound-targeted microbubble (BMMSCs with ultrasound-targeted microbubble [USMM] group) could significantly ameliorate mNSS, infarct volumes, and cerebral edema of MCAO compared with phosphate buffer saline group, BMSCs alone group (BMSC group), and BMSCs with Ultrasound group (Ultrasound group). Immunofluorescence analysis demonstrated that ultrasound-targeted microbubbles promoted the accumulation of BMSCs in rat MCAO brains. Our findings demonstrated that ultrasound-targeted microbubble could be an effective approach for the accumulation of BMSCs on ischemic stroke, and further improved the therapeutic efficacy of BMSCs on MCAO.

Energy piles are piles equipped with heat exchange pipes through which a heat-carrying fluid circulates and exchanges heat with the ground. This technology couples the structural role of classical pile foundations with the energy supply of heat exchangers. During heating and cooling processes, the temperature of the energy pile and the ground will change seasonally. Due to the thermal displacement incompatibility between the pile and the soil, the load transfer mechanism of energy piles is different to that of conventional piles which are only subjected to mechanical loadings. In order to improve the understanding of the long-term performance of energy piles in sands, a series of coupled thermal-stress finite element analyses were carried out. In the analyses, the bounding surface plasticity model was used to describe the nonlinear behavior of sands under monotonic and cyclic loadings. The thermally induced displacement and axial force in the pile, the thermally induced change in the soil stress, and the ultimate pile resistance after thermal cycles were discussed. The numerical results indicated that the soils around the energy pile were subjected to cyclic mechanical loadings caused by repeated temperature variations. The accumulation of plastic strains resulted in a significant increase in the pile head settlement for the free head pile and a significant decrease in the pile head reaction force for the restrained head pile. During the reloading stage, the thermally induced decrease in the shaft resistance was compensated by the soil dilatancy, the ultimate pile resistance after thermal cycles did not change remarkably.