Search

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

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

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

Deteriorated nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)/sirtuins (SIRTs) metabolism in adipose tissue is implicated in diet-induced obesity, while calorie restriction (CR)-induced beneficial effects require sufficient NAD+ biosynthesis. Mechanistic links have not been defined. This study aims to identify changes of specific components of NAD+/SIRTs system in white adipose tissue (WAT) and brown adipose tissue (BAT) of mice upon energy imbalance, focusing on key enzymes in NAD+ salvage (Nampt, Nmnat1, Nrk1), clearance (Nnmt, Aox1, Cyp2e1) and consumption pathways (Sirt1, Sirt2, Sirt3, Sirt6, Parp1). Male C57BL/6J mice were fed ad libitum with the standard laboratory chow diet, high-fat diet (HFD) or 40% CR diet, respectively. The epididymal and inguinal WAT (eWAT and iWAT) and interscapular BAT (iBAT) were harvested for histological, NAD+ assay, gene and protein expression analysis after 16 weeks of dietary regimen. HFD decreased, while CR increased, the NAD+ and NADH levels in eWAT, iWAT and iBAT. NAD+ content negatively correlated with plasma cholesterol, TNF-α levels and calorie intake, while it positively correlated with plasma adiponectin level. The change trend of SIRT1 is quite the same as that of NAD+/NADH ratio. Nmnat1 gene is sensitive to energy imbalance in WAT but not in BAT. Nrk1 gene expression was decreased in eWAT and iWAT but increased in iBAT of HFD mice. Nnmt mRNA and protein abundance was increased in iWAT of HFD mice. Nampt, Cyp2e1 and Sirt3 were the most robust genes responding to energy imbalance. In summary, adipose tissue responds to long-term energy excess or shortage with depot-specific transcriptional activation or repression of NAD+/SIRTs metabolic components.

The grid contains many negative sequence components under unbalanced conditions, which affect the safe operation of MMC-UPFC. To achieve highly reliable operation control for MMC-UPFC under unbalanced conditions, this paper proposes a decoupling control strategy that introduces the separation of positive and negative sequences. First, the working principles and mathematical model of MMC-UPFC are analyzed. Second, the instantaneous symmetric component method is introduced to separate the positive and negative sequence components of the grid. After that step, dq decoupling control strategies under positive and negative sequences are designed for the shunt side and series side, respectively, which can realize negative sequence compensation and highly reliable operation of MMC-UPFC. Simulation results are presented to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed control strategy.

Non-nutritive sweeteners have been considered to promote diet healthfulness by delivering a pleasant sweet taste without calories. We investigated the effects of long term supplementation with drinks containing saccharin on body weight and possible mechanisms of the effects in post-weanling rats. Our results showed that saccharin solution intake increased food intake and energy intake in male rats. In males, saccharin solution intake increased TIR3 mRNA expression in the taste buds and ghrelin receptor mRNA expression both in the taste buds and hypothalamus, whereas no effects were observed in females. These results suggest the effects of saccharin solution exposure on food intake and body weight gain may be different in developmental males and females. In males, peripheral sweet taste receptors and both peripheral and central ghrelin receptors may be involved in the effect of saccharin solution intake to promote food intake and weight gain.

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

Ghrelin is a potent orexigenic hormone that acts in the central nervous system to stimulate food intake via the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) that is abundantly expressed in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Not only does ghrelin modulate feeding behavior via a homeostatic mechanism, but numerous studies have identified ghrelin as a key regulator of reward-based hedonic feeding behaviors. Nutritional states influence ghrelin and GHSR expression as well as the behavioral sensitivity to reward-inducing stimuli. In the current study, we examined the role of ghrelin at the VTA level in food intake in two different nutritional states, satiety and hunger, by using a restricted feeding model. In this model, rats were conditioned to a daily 3-h (h) feeding session on standard chow for 10days and a high-fat diet (HFD) was supplied either in the third hour after 2h of chow diet intake, or at the beginning of a daily meal on the test day. We found that intra-VTA microinjection of 1, 2, and 4μg of ghrelin, induced a dose-related increase of 1h of reward-based feeding on HFD in sated rats, as well as a 24-h body weight gain. The overconsumption stimulated by ghrelin could be attenuated by 10μg of direct infusion of the ghrelin receptor antagonist D-Lys3-GHRP-6 into the VTA. Moreover, our data showed that the injection of 1, 2, and 4μg of ghrelin in the VTA, enhanced fasting-induced hyperphagia on HFD in a dose-related manner following a 21-h food restriction as well as a 24-h body weight gain. Conversely, hyperphagia on HFD that is potentiated by ghrelin could be blocked by pretreatment with a 10-μg D-Lys3-GHRP-6 intra-VTA microinjection. Collectively, these data demonstrate that ghrelin signaling at the VTA level mediates both reward-based eating and fasting-induced hyperphagia and provides a primary target for the control of the intake of rewarding food.

Nicotinamide N-methyltransferase (Nnmt) methylates nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, to produce N(1)-methylnicotinamide (MNAM). Nnmt has emerged as a metabolic regulator in adipocytes, but its role in the liver, the tissue with the strongest Nnmt expression, is not known. In spite of its overall high expression, here we find that hepatic expression of Nnmt is highly variable and correlates with multiple metabolic parameters in mice and humans. Further, we find that suppression of hepatic Nnmt expression in vivo alters glucose and cholesterol metabolism and that the metabolic effects of Nnmt in the liver are mediated by its product MNAM. Supplementation of high-fat diet with MNAM decreases serum and liver cholesterol and liver triglycerides levels in mice. Mechanistically, increasing Nnmt expression or MNAM levels stabilizes sirtuin 1 protein, an effect that is required for their metabolic benefits. In summary, we describe here a novel regulatory pathway for vitamin B3 that could provide a new opportunity for metabolic disease therapy.

Environmental variation in moisture directly influences plant litter decomposition through effects on microbial activity, and indirectly via plant species traits. Whether the effects of moisture and plant species traits are mutually reinforcing or counteracting during decomposition are unknown. To disentangle the effects of moisture from the effects of species traits that vary with moisture, we decomposed leaf litter from 12 plant species in the willow family (Salicaceae) with different native habitat moisture preferences in paired mesic and wetland plots. We fit litter mass loss data to an exponential decomposition model and estimated the decay rate of the rapidly cycling litter fraction and size of the remaining fraction that decays at a rate approaching zero. Litter traits that covaried with moisture in the species' native habitat significantly influenced the decomposition rate of the rapidly cycling litter fraction, but moisture in the decomposition environment did not. In contrast, for the slowly cycling litter fraction, litter traits that did not covary with moisture in the species' native habitat and moisture in the decomposition environment were significant. Overall, the effects of moisture and plant species traits on litter decomposition were somewhat reinforcing along a hydrologic gradient that spanned mesic upland to wetland (but not permanently surface-saturated) plots. In this system, plant trait and moisture effects may lead to greater in situ decomposition rates of wetland species compared to upland species; however, plant traits that do not covary with moisture will also influence decomposition of the slowest cycling litter fraction.

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

Bid evaluation is the core in the bidding process. At present, a wide range of bid evaluation methods are adopted in the bidding process. On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of various bid evaluation methods, this paper established a new bid evaluation model. The model made some improvements and perfection in some important links, such as the establishment of the evaluation index system, the weight of the evaluation indexes and evaluating mathematical models. The whole process of bid evaluation was objectively described and the essence of the bid evaluation problem was factually reflected. It is conducive for the bidder to select the best bidding corporation through comprehensively evaluating the economic strength, technical strength and corporation reputation along with market behavior of the bidding corporations.

The genes coding for wheat ATG4 and ATG8 were cloned and their roles in autophagy were verified. Implications of ATG4/ATG8 in wheat responses to stresses were suggested by expression profiling. Autophagy-related proteins ATG4 and ATG8 are crucial for autophagy biogenesis. ATG4 processes ATG8 precursor to expose its C-terminal glycine for phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE) lipidation. ATG8, in the form of ATG8-PE adduct, functions in the organization dynamics of autophagic membranes. Here, we report the identification of two/nine members of the ATG4/ATG8 family from common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Expression of each wheat ATG4/ATG8 could complement the autophagy activity of yeast atg4/atg8 mutant cells. GFP fusion proteins of ATG8s, especially of ATG8s with innate C-terminal-exposed glycines, localized to punctate autophagic membranes. Both of purified ATG4s could cleave ATG8s in vitro, but they had different activities and different preferences for ATG8 substrates. Two times of transcript accumulation, an early one and a late one, of ATG4s/ATG8s were detected in the early phases of the Pm21- and Pm3f-triggered wheat incompatible reactions to the powdery mildew causal fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici (Bgt), and fluorescence microscopy also revealed a Bgt-induced enhanced wheat autophagy level in the Pm21-triggered incompatible reaction. Only one time of Bgt-induced transcript accumulation of ATG4s/ATG8s, corresponding to but much higher than the late one in incompatible reactions, was detected in a susceptible line isogenic to the Pm21 resistance line. These results suggested positive roles of ATG4/ATG8-associated autophagy process in the early stage and possible negative roles in the late stage of wheat immunity response to Bgt. In addition, expression of wheat ATG4s/ATG8s was also found to be upregulated by abiotic stress factors and distinctively regulated by different phytohormones.

Wei, X., 2018. Risk assessment model of vessel collision based on fuzzy decision. In: Liu, Z.L. and Mi, C. (eds.), Advances in Sustainable Port and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 83, pp. 916–920. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. It is needed to study the assessment model of vessel collision for vessel wrecks casualties and environment pollution, great economic loss. The current method has the problem of serious economic loss, and thus a method of risk assessment model of vessel collision based on fuzzy decision is put forward. The method first analyses the basic theory of collision risk assessment, computes the risk assessment model of vessel collision with fuzzy decision, takes choosing the degree of occurrence, severity and detectability as the risk evaluation index of vessel collision ,decides the weight of evaluation indexes with entropy method, and arranges failure modes to complete the analysis of risk assessment model of vessel collision. The expe...

Environmental filtering is an important community assembly process influencing species distributions. Contrasting species abundance patterns along environmental gradients are commonly used to provide evidence for environmental filtering. However, the same abundance patterns may result from alternative or concurrent assembly processes. Experimental tests are an important means to decipher whether species fitness varies with environment, in the absence of dispersal constraints and biotic interactions, and to draw conclusions about the importance of environmental filtering in community assembly. We performed an experimental test of environmental filtering in 14 closely related willow and poplar species (family Salicaceae) by transplanting cuttings of each species into 40 common gardens established along a natural hydrologic gradient in the field, where competition was minimized and herbivory was controlled. We analyzed species fitness responses to the hydrologic environment based on cumulative growth and survival over two years using aster fitness models. We also examined variation in nine drought and flooding tolerance traits expected to contribute to performance based on a priori understanding of plant function in relation to water availability and stress. We found substantial evidence that environmental filtering along the hydrologic gradient played a critical role in determining species distributions. Fitness variation of each species in the field experiment was used to model their water table depth optima. These optima predicted 68% of the variation in species realized hydrologic niches based on peak abundance in naturally assembled communities in the surrounding region. Multiple traits associated with water transport efficiency and water stress tolerance were correlated with species hydrologic niches, but they did not necessarily covary with each other. As a consequence, species occupying similar hydrologic niches had different combinations of trait values. Moreover, individual traits were less phylogenetically conserved than species hydrologic niches and integrated water stress tolerance as determined by multiple traits. We conclude that differential fitness among species along the hydrologic gradient was the consequence of multiple traits associated with water transport and water stress tolerance, expressed in different combinations by different species. Varying environmental tolerance, in turn, played a critical role in driving niche segregation among close relatives along the hydrologic gradient.

Opioid mechanisms are involved in the control of water and NaCl intake and opioid receptors (ORs) are present in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA), a site of important facilitatory mechanisms related to the control of sodium appetite. Therefore, in the present study we investigated the effects of the activation of μ-ORs in the CeA on 0.3 M NaCl and water intake in rats. Male Sprague–Dawley rats with stainless steel cannulas implanted bilaterally in the CeA were used. In rats submitted to water deprivation–partial rehydration, bilateral injections of the selective μ-OR agonist [D-Ala 2 , N-Me-Phe 4 , Gly 5 -ol]-enkephalin (DAMGO) in the doses of 1, 2, and 4 nmol into the CeA induced a dose-related increase of 0.3 M NaCl intake and water intake, and bilateral injections of the selective μ-OR antagonist D-Phe-Cys-Trp-Arg-Thr-Pen-Thr-NH 2 (CTAP) in the doses of 0.5, 1, and 2 nmol into the CeA produced a dose-related decrease of 0.3 M NaCl and water intake induced by DAMGO 2 nmol into the same site. In rats treated with the diuretic furosemide (10 mg/kg b.w.) combined with the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril (5 mg/kg b.w.) injected subcutaneously, bilateral injections of DAMGO 2 nmol into the CeA increased 0.3 M NaCl intake and water intake and the blockade of μ-ORs with CTAP 1 nmol injected into the CeA reduced the increase in 0.3 M NaCl intake and water intake induced by DAMGO 2 nmol into the same site. Bilateral injections of DAMGO into the CeA did not change urinary volume, sodium urinary excretion and mean arterial pressure, but increased activity. Thus stimulating μ-ORs in the CeA increases hypertonic sodium intake, whereas antagonizing these sites inhibits hypertonic sodium intake. Together, our results implicate μ-ORs in the CeA in a positive regulation of sodium intake.

To investigate the role of N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA)-type glutamate receptors in the central nucleus of the amygdale (CeA) in food and water intake.Male Sprague-Dawley rats with stainless steel cannulae implanted unilaterally into the CeA were used. The prototypic NMDA receptor agonist NMDA, or the selective NMDA receptor antagonist D(-)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (D-AP-5) was microinjected into the CeA of satiated and euhydrated rats.Intra-CeA injection of 8.50, 17.00, or 34.00 nmol NMDA did not alter food intake but significantly increased water intake 0-1 h after the injection (F(3,32)=3.191, P=0.037) independent of food intake. Without affecting the food intake, injection of 6.34, 12.70, or 25.40 nmol D-AP-5 into the CeA significantly decreased water intake 0-1 h after the injection (F(3,28)=3.118, P=0.042) independent of food intake.NMDA receptors in the CeA may participate in the control of water intake rather than food intake.

In this paper, a new method is proposed to obtain the interval weights from interval reciprocal comparison matrices. Firstly, some basic theorems about consistent interval reciprocal comparison matrix are presented. Then, based on the theorems, an algorithm is proposed to approximate a column of approximated intervals which contains all of the consistent information. Furthermore, another algorithm is presented to obtain the interval weights based on the column of intervals. Finally, two examples are provided to illustrate the validity and practicality of the proposed method.

The aim of this study was to set up a simple and efficient method for detecting gene copy number, based on heteroduplex products from single-tube PCR/DHPLC. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the α-globin gene and chromosome 21 were used as examples. And the formula for quantitative calculation of gene copy number was deduced—based on the peak heights of homoduplexes and heteroduplexes on the DHPLC pattern. 27 samples (14 normal DNA and 13 cases of trisomy-21) were assessed with this method, and 160 samples (48 normal DNA and 112 α-thalassemia samples) were assessed with this method combined with a duplex PCR/DHPLC. Results for 184 of 187 cases were concordant with the known genotypes; three cases of trisomy-21 could not be detected because the target SNPs were homozygous. In conclusion, quantitative assessment of heteroduplex products from single-tube PCR/DHPLC is simple and rapid, and can be used to detect α-thalassemia gene deletions (α− 3.7, α− 4.2) and trisomy-21.

To reflect the uncertainties of a hydrological model in simulating and forecasting observed discharges according to rainfall inputs, the estimated result for each time step should not be just a point estimate (a single numerical value), but should be expressed as a prediction interval, i.e. a band defined by the prediction bounds of a particular confidence level a. How best to assess the quality of the prediction bounds thus becomes very important for understanding the modelling uncertainty in a comprehensive and objective way. This paper focuses on seven indices for characterizing the prediction bounds from different perspectives. For the three case-study catchments presented, these indices are calculated for the prediction bounds generated by the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) method for various threshold values. In addition, the relationships among these indices are investigated, particularly that of the containing ratio (CR) to the other indices. In this context, three main findings are obtained for the prediction bounds estimated by GLUE. Firstly, both the average band-width and the average relative band-width are seen to have very strong linear correlations with the CR index. Secondly, a high CR value, a narrow band-width, and a high degree of symmetry with respect to the observed hydrograph, all of which are clearly desirable properties of the prediction bounds estimated by the uncertainty assessment methods, cannot all be achieved simultaneously. Thirdly, for the prediction bounds considered, the higher CR values and the higher degrees of symmetry with respect to the observed hydrograph are found to be associated with both the larger band-widths and the larger deviation amplitudes. It is recommended that a set of different indices, such as those considered in this study, be employed for assessing and comparing the prediction bounds in a more comprehensive and objective way.