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In this paper, we consider the joint angle-range estimation in monostatic FDA-MIMO radar. The transmit subarrays are first utilized to expand the range ambiguity, and the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm is first proposed to improve the estimation performance. The range ambiguity is a serious problem in monostatic FDA-MIMO radar, which can reduce the detection range of targets. To extend the unambiguous range, we propose to divide the transmitting array into subarrays. Then, within the unambiguous range, the maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm is proposed to estimate the angle and range with high accuracy and high resolution. In the ML algorithm, the joint angle-range estimation problem becomes a high-dimensional search problem; thus, it is computationally expensive. To reduce the computation load, the alternating projection ML (AP-ML) algorithm is proposed by transforming the high-dimensional search into a series of one-dimensional search iteratively. With the proposed AP-ML algorithm, the angle and range are automatically paired. Simulation results show that transmitting subarray can extend the range ambiguity of monostatic FDA-MIMO radar and obtain a lower cramer-rao low bound (CRLB) for range estimation. Moreover, the proposed AP-ML algorithm is superior over the traditional estimation algorithms in terms of the estimation accuracy and resolution.

The large-scale development and utilization of coal resources have brought great challenges to the ecological environment of coal-mining areas. Therefore, this paper has used scientific and effective methods to monitor and evaluate whether changes in ecological environment quality in coal-mining areas are helpful to alleviate the contradiction between human and nature and realize the sustainable development of such coal-mining areas. Firstly, in order to quantify the degree of coal dust pollution in coal-mining areas, an index-based coal dust index (ICDI) is proposed. Secondly, based on the pressure-state-response (PSR) framework, a new coal-mine ecological index (CMEI) was established by using the principal component analysis (PCA) method. Finally, the coal-mine ecological index (CMEI) was used to evaluate and detect the temporal and spatial changes of the ecological environment quality of the Ningwu Coalfield from 1987 to 2021. The research shows that ICDI has a strong ability to extract coal dust with an overall accuracy of over 96% and a Kappa coefficient of over 0.9. As a normalized difference index, ICDI can better quantify the pollution degree of coal dust. The effectiveness of CMEI was evaluated by four methods: sample image-based, classification-based, correlation-based, and distance-based. From 1987 to 2021, the ecological environment quality of Ningwu Coalfield was improved, and the mean of CMEI increased by 0.1189. The percentages of improvement and degradation of ecological environment quality were 71.85% and 27.01%, respectively. The areas with obvious degradation were mainly concentrated in coal-mining areas and built-up areas. The ecological environment quality of Pingshuo Coal Mine, Shuonan Coal Mine, Xuangang Coal Mine, and Lanxian Coal Mine also showed improvement. The results of Moran’s Index show that CMEI has a strong positive spatial correlation, and its spatial distribution is clustered rather than random. Coal-mining areas and built-up areas showed low–low clustering (LL), while other areas showed high–high clustering (HH). The utilization and popularization of CMEI provides an important reference for decision makers to formulate ecological protection policies and implement regional coordinated development strategies.

(1) Background: Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE) has been widely used to treat central nervous system and cardiovascular diseases. Accumulating evidence has revealed the therapeutic potential of GBE against Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, no systematic evaluation has been performed; (2) Methods: a total of 17 preclinical studies and 20 clinical trials assessing the therapeutic effects of GBE against AD were identified from electronic databases. The data in the reports were extracted to conduct a meta-analysis of the AD-related pathological features or symptoms; (3) Results: For the preclinical reports, 45 animals treated with GBE, in six studies, were subjected to cognitive function assessments by the Morris water maze. GBE was shown to reduce the escape latencies in several studies, in both rats and mice (I2 > 70%, p < 0.005). For the clinical trials, eight trials, including 2100 individuals, were conducted. The results show that GBE improved the SKT and ADAS-Cog scores in early-stage AD patients after high doses and long-term administration; (4) Conclusions: GBE displayed generally consistent anti-AD effects in animal experiments, and it might improve AD symptoms in early-stage AD patients after high doses and long-term administration. A lack of sample size calculations and the poor quality of the methods are two obvious limitations of the studies. Nevertheless, the preclinical and clinical data suggest that further large-scale clinical trials may be needed in order to examine the effects of long-term GEB administration on early-stage AD.

The bacterial genus Vagococcus has been described to include eight recognized species: Vagococcus fluvialis, Vagococcus fessus, Vagococcus salmoninarum, Vagococcus lutrae, Vagococcus elongates, Vagococcus penaei, Vagococcus acidifermentans and Vagococcus carniphilus. In this study, V. carniphilus was isolated from the myocardium, liver, spleen and kidney tissues of diseased crucian carps. After isolation, biochemical, 16S rDNA gene sequence and phylogenetic analysis was performed. Next, the phenotypic and genomic characteristics were analysed using different biochemical tests and antibiotic susceptibility testing. The bacterial isolate was gram-positive. The biochemical testing results indicated that a positive reaction occurred in the tubes containing glycerol, galactose, mannitol, sucrose sorbitol and d-ribose, and a negative reaction with α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase and hydrogen sulphide. A DNA product (∼1500 base pairs) was amplified from 16S rDNA. BLAST analysis revealed that V. carniphilus from crucian carps was highly similar to V. carniphilus isolated from other sources and showed the highest similarity (95%) with reference strains. Additionally, pathological analysis revealed that infected crucian carp tissues (myocardium, liver, spleen and kidney) and mouse tissues (myocardium, lung, liver, spleen and kidney) were severely damaged. In summary, we isolated V. carniphilus from diseased crucian carp, and this isolate induced pathological changes in crucian carp and mice.

Objective: A cross-sectional community prevalence survey was conducted to investigate the sero-epidemiological features of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection among children aged 1–14 years in Guangdong Province in 2013, and to provide baseline data for the evaluation of HBV disease burden and the impacts of HBV control. Methods: A total of 2765 children aged 1–14 years from 16 villages/streets of eight cities in Guangdong Province were recruited as subjects. A blood sample was obtained from each subject. A chemiluminescence microparticle immunoassay (CMIA) was used to detect hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), antibody to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAb), and antibody to hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAb). Results: The prevalence rates of HBsAg, HBsAb, and HBcAb among children aged 1–14 years were 1.16%, 61.63%, and 2.35%, respectively. The prevalence of HBsAg and HBcAb increased with increasing age, and the prevalence was lowest in the 1–4 years age group (0.97% for HBsAg and 1.45% for HBcAb). In contrast, the prevalence of HBsAb decreased with increasing age; however the prevalence was also highest in the 1–4 years age group (76.48%). Eastern Guangdong had the highest prevalence of HBsAg and HBcAb, and the lowest prevalence of HBsAb. The prevalence of HBsAg was under 1% in the Pearl River Delta and western Guangdong regions. Children who had received three or more doses of vaccine had a lower prevalence of HBsAg and HBcAb and a higher prevalence of HBsAb compared to those who had received fewer than three doses of vaccine. Conclusions: The prevalence of HBsAg among children aged 1–14 years in Guangdong in 2013 was 1.2%, showing a dramatic decrease compared to the 1992 provincial-level cross-sectional survey (19.9%). Children aged 1–4 years and children from the Pearl River Delta had the lowest prevalence of HBsAg positivity. High vaccination coverage among children and timely vaccination of newborns has played an important role in reducing the prevalence of HBsAg.

Background/Aims: Renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) is a common consequence of acute kidney injury. Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), which is derived from the pentose phosphate pathway, is essential for the proper functioning of essential redox and antioxidant defense systems. Previous studies have indicated that NADPH is responsible for protecting the brain from ischemic injury. The goal of this study was to analyze the protective function of NADPH in renal IRI. Methods: The IRI animal model was generated through a midline laparotomy surgery that clamped both sides of the renal pedicles for 40 min to induce renal ischemia. The in vitro model was generated by removing oxygen and glucose from human kidney epithelial cells (HK-2 cells), followed by reoxygenation to imitate IRI. Renal function and histopathological changes were observed and evaluated. Additionally, malondialdehyde and glutathione levels were determined in renal tissue homogenate as indicators of oxidative stress. ROS production in cells was determined by DHE staining. Protein biomarker expression was evaluated by western blot, apoptosis was analyzed by TUNEL staining, and p65 nuclear translocation was visualized by immunofluorescence. Results: Our data indicated that NADPH safeguarded the kidneys from histological and functional damage, and significantly reduce cell injury along with preventing potential increases in blood urea nitrogen and creatinine levels. Furthermore, we observed that NADPH increased glutathione levels, while reducing levels of malondialdehyde and reactive oxygen species. Additionally, our results suggested that NADPH treatment may alleviate IRI-induced apoptosis and inflammation. Conclusion: NADPH treatment may protect against renal IRI and should be further developed as a new treatment for acute kidney injury.

Abstract Background Schizophrenia is a clinical syndrome, and its causes have not been well determined. The objective of this study was to investigate the alteration of brain functional connectivity between schizophrenia and healthy control, and present a practical solution for accurately identifying schizophrenia at single-subject level. Methods 24 schizophrenia patients and 21 matched healthy subjects were recruited to undergo the resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scanning. First, we constructed the brain network by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient between each pair of the brain regions. Then, this study proposed a novel non-negative discriminant functional connectivity selection method, i.e. non-negative elastic-net based method (N2EN), to extract the alteration of brain functional connectivity between schizophrenia and healthy control. It ranks the significance of the connectivity with a uniform criterion by introducing the non-negative constraint. Finally, kernel discriminant analysis (KDA) is exploited to classify the subjects with the selected discriminant brain connectivity features. Results The proposed method is applied into schizophrenia classification, and achieves the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of 100, 90.48 and 95.56%, respectively. Our findings also indicate the alteration of functional network can be used as the biomarks for guiding the schizophrenia diagnosis. The regions of cuneus, superior frontal gyrus, medial, paracentral lobule, calcarine fissure, surrounding cortex, etc. are highly relevant to schizophrenia. Conclusions This study provides a method for accurately identifying schizophrenia, which outperforms several state-of-the-art methods, including conventional brain network classification, multi-threshold brain network based classification, frequent sub-graph based brain network classification and support vector machine. Our investigation suggested that the selected discriminant resting-state functional connectivities are meaningful features for classifying schizophrenia and healthy control.

Abstract Near infrared (NIR)-emitting persistent luminescent nanoparticles have been developed as potential agents for bioimaging. However, synthesizing uniform nanoparticles with long afterglow for long-term imaging is lacking. Here, we demonstrated the synthesis of spinel structured Zn3Ga2Ge2O10:Cr3+ (ZGGO:Cr3+) and Zn3Ga2Ge2O10:Cr3+,Eu3+ (ZGGO:Cr3+,Eu3+) nanoparticles by a sol-gel method in combination with a subsequent reducing atmosphere-free calcination. The samples were investigated via detailed characterizations by combined techniques of XRD, TEM, STEM, selected area electron diffraction, photoluminescence excitation (PLE)/photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and temperature-dependent PL analysis. The single-crystalline nanoparticles are homogeneous solid solution, possessing uniform cubic shape and lateral size of ~ 80–100 nm. Upon UV excitation at 273 nm, ZGGO:Cr3+,Eu3+ exhibited a NIR emission band at 697 nm (2E → 4A2 transition of distorted Cr3+ ions in gallogermanate), in the absence of Eu3+ emission. NIR persistent luminescence of the sample can last longer than 7200 s and still hold intense intensity. Eu3+ incorporation increased the persistent luminescence intensity and the afterglow time of ZGGO:Cr3+, but it did not significantly affect the thermal stability. The obtained ZGGO:Cr3+,Eu3+-NH2 nanoparticles possessed an excellent imaging capacity for cells in vitro.

The scarcity of spectrum turns the next generation wireless network increasingly heterogeneous. Recently, much attention has been focused on exploiting the unlicensed spectrum to leverage traffic burden from the cellular network. Specified in 3GPP Release 13, long term evolution (LTE) wireless local area networks (WLAN) aggregation (LWA) promises an effective approach for the LTE WLAN interworking and unlicensed spectrum utilization. The LWA could improve the data rate by the licensed and unlicensed carriers aggregation. In contrast to the previous studies, where the LWA is always chosen to boost the peak data rate without considering the user payment, we jointly consider the LWA with Wi-Fi offloading in this paper, aiming to strike the balance between user payment and quality of service (QoS) requirement. We formulate the multi-slot modes selection as a finite-horizon Markov decision problem and propose a Delay-Aware LTE WLAN Aggregation (DLWA) algorithm to obtain the optimal transmission modes strategy. Due to the computational complexity of sequential decision problem, we exhibit the threshold structure of LTE usage and develop a low complexity algorithm based on this structure. Moreover, imperfection in LWA backhaul is considered and analyzed in this paper. Simulation results show the DLWA algorithm and threshold-based DLWA algorithm could guarantee the QoS requirement with lower user payment compared with current LTE WLAN interworking schemes.

This paper proposes a simple and low-cost brightness and color control method for a wireless light emitting diode (LED) system. Since the open circuit voltage of the LED in the secondary side is approximately constant, the average current flowing through the LED reflects the average power received from the proposed wireless power transfer system. The brightness of the LED is adjusted by using a pulse width modulation (PWM) average power control method from the primary side directly. The same inductively coupled channel is utilized to establish a wireless communication channel to control the LED color based on a time-division multiplexing method. A wireless communication protocol is defined, and the worst-case condition for designing the primary PWM modulator identified to avoid the misinterpretation by the secondary demodulator between the power regulation and signal transfer. Experimental results have demonstrated the whole dimming capability of the proposed system with full range duty cycle regulation, and a three digit wireless communication channel developed in this paper can effectively control the selection of eight colors.

A functional brain network has attracted much attention due to its capability of characterizing the functional connectivity patterns of the brain. The existing methods for network construction usually rely on the conventional measures such as Pearson correlation to determine the pairwise similarity between each pair of brain regions, thus ignoring the global structure relationship and the information communication flow among different brain regions. To this end, this paper proposes a directional brain network construction method based on effective distance. Specifically, the effective distance can capture the hidden relevance pattern among all the brain regions and provide a directional functional network reflecting information propagation paths among the functional brain areas simultaneously. When estimating the probability of the direction and the strength of the connectivity between two regions, the structure information characterized by their neighbors is also considered in our method. The functional brain network produced by our method is more flexible in uncovering physiological mechanisms of the brain compared with the conventional undirected network. The experiments on two fMRI data analysis tasks, i.e., disease diagnosis and cognitive state detection, show that our method outperforms the conventional functional brain network approaches, including Pearson correlation, structural equation modeling, and sparse representation-based method.

More mobile devices are now being charged wirelessly due to the convenience, ease of use, and competitive power efficiency of wireless power transfer. However, traditional wireless power transfer systems are not applicable if the mobile devices need to be charged while moving. This paper focused on an omnidirectional wireless power transfer system, which has the potential to transfer power to a movable device. And two different maximum power delivery methods are proposed for applications with intermittently and frequently moving devices. By analyzing the relationship between the input power of the system and the load power, the communication link between the transmitter and the receiver is eliminated. Both methods satisfied the need of dynamic charging for the movable device. The parameter identification method is more suitable for the device which moves intermittently, while the gradient descent method aims at charging the frequently moving devices. Based on the circuit model of the omnidirectional WPT system, the two methods have been mathematically modeled, and the corresponding algorithms for maximum power transfer are proposed. Then, a prototype is implemented to validate the proposed methods. Experimental results have shown that both the methods can be used to achieve maximum output power during the movement of power pickups. At steady-state, a maximum power of 37.08W at 70.39% efficiency has been achieved using the parameter identification method; while 36.48W at 69.90% has been achieved using the gradient descent method.

ABSTRACT: Determining the interfacial properties of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is imperative for their durability evaluation and further improvements. A ceramic coating (topcoat) and a NiCoCrALY bondcoat were atmospheric-plasma-sprayed (APS) on a stainless steel substrate. A modified three-point bending test was adopted to initiate and propagate the topcoat/bondcoat (TC/BC) interfacial crack. After a complete delamination, the fracture surfaces were examined by an optical microscope, which shows that the cracking plane was merely on the TC/BC interface. Based on the experimental results of load–displacement and crack length–displacement, the strain energy release rate G for crack propagation was calculated, and the averaged magnitude was 77.1 J/m2. Repeatable results have indicated that the method can be used for the evaluation of interfacial fracture toughness in thermal barrier coatings and other multi-layer structures. Keywords: Thermal barrier coatings, Three-point bending, Interfacial fracture toughness

Background/Aims: Recent studies have demonstrated that the manipulation of the gut microbiome represents a promising treatment for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We previously identified micro integral membrane protein (MIMP) as the smallest domain of surface layer protein from Lactobacillus Plantarum. However, the therapeutic relevance of MIMP in IBD remains unknown. Methods: We initially employed a dextran sodium sulphate (DSS)-induced colitis model and evaluated the effect of MIMP on the inflammation response, intestinal barrier and gut microbiota using histological examination, Fluorescein isothiocyanate-Dextran detection and pyrosequencing analysis respectively. We then established peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and an epithelial CaCO-2 co-culture model to investigate the regulatory role of MIMP in inflammatory cytokines. The level changes of inflammatory cytokines were detected using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent and real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. The involved regulatory mechanisms were investigated mainly using dual luciferase reporter and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. Results: In the DSS-induced colitis model, we observed that MIMP intervention effectively improved the body weight loss, increased the colon length and decreased disease activity index. Consistently, the inflammation scores in the MIMP treatment group were significantly lower than those in the DSS treatment group. Furthermore, MIMP intervention was found to successfully neutralize DSS treatment by decreasing the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-17 and IL-23) and increasing the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4 and IL-10). Notably, the permeability assay demonstrated that the MIMP treatment group was remarkably lower than that in the DSS treatment group. We also showed that MIMP improved gut microbiota dysbiosis caused by DSS-induced inflammation. Additionally, in PBMCs and the CaCO-2 co-culture model, MIMP showed an obvious suppressive effect on lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, we revealed that MIMP could modulate inflammatory cytokine expression through the toll-like receptor 4 pathway and histone acetylation. Conclusions: Our results suggested that MIMP showed a significant anti-inflammatory effect through regulating the gut barrier, microbiota and inflammatory cytokines. MIMP may have translational relevance as clinically relevant therapy for IBD patients.

Hexagonal (Gd0.95RE0.05)PO4·nH2O nanowires ~300 nm in length and ~10 nm in diameter have been converted from (Gd0.95RE0.05)2(OH)5NO3·nH2O nanosheets (RE = Eu, Tb) in the presence of monoammonium phosphate (NH4H2PO4) and ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA). They were characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetry, electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared and photoluminescence spectroscopies. It is shown that EDTA played an essential role in the morphology development of the nanowires. The hydrothermal products obtained up to 180 °C are of a pure hexagonal phase, while monoclinic phosphate evolved as an impurity at 200 °C. The nanowires undergo hexagonal→monoclinic phase transformation upon calcination at ≥600 °C to yield a pure monoclinic phase at ~900 °C. The effects of calcination on morphology, excitation/emission, and fluorescence decay kinetics were investigated in detail with (Gd0.95Eu0.05)PO4 as example. The abnormally strong 5D0→7F4 electric dipole Eu3+ emission in the hexagonal phosphates was ascribed to site distortion. The process of energy migration was also discussed for the optically active Gd3+ and Eu3+/Tb3+ ions.

Hydrothermal reaction of Ln nitrate and Na2WO4 at pH=8 and 200 °C for 24 hours, in the absence of any additive, has directly produced the scheelite-type sodium lanthanide tungstate of NaLn(WO4)2 for the larger Ln3+ of Ln=La-Dy (including Y, Group I) and an unknown compound that can be transformed into NaLn(WO4)2 by calcination at the low temperature of 600 °C for the smaller Ln3+ of Ln=Ho-Lu (Group II). With the successful synthesis of NaLn(WO4)2 for the full spectrum of Ln, the effects of lanthanide contraction on the structural features, crystal morphology, and IR responses of the compounds were clarified. The temperature- and time-course phase/morphology evolutions and the phase conversion upon calcination were thoroughly studied for the Group I and Group II compounds with Ln=La and Lu for example, respectively. Unknown intermediates were characterized by elemental analysis, IR absorption, thermogravimetry, and differential scanning calorimetry to better understand their chemical composition and coordination. The photoluminescence properties of NaEu(WO4)2 and NaTb(WO4)2, including excitation, emission, fluorescence decay, and quantum efficiency of luminescence, were also comparatively studied for the as-synthesized and calcination products.

Recent studies have confirmed that the combined use of anti-cancer drugs with ionizing radiation (IR) could improve the sensitivity of osteosarcoma (OS) cells. Therefore, it is necessary to identify potential effective drugs for the enhancement of IR-radiosensitivity. In the current study, we found that 20, 10, 5, and 1 μM of ginseng polysaccharide (GPS) significantly suppressed MG-63 cell viability with or without γ-ray radiation in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Strikingly, 20 μM of GPS combined with 5 Gy treatment suppressed colony formation capacity by nearly 13.75∼fold compared with IR treatment alone. Our results showed that GPS could markedly induce early apoptosis and autophagy in MG-63 cells. A higher drug concentration and a greater exposure dose were directly associated with more apoptosis and autophagy in cells. Western blot analysis showed that GPS decreased the phosphorylation of p38 and AKT as well as the protein expression of Bax and cleaved-caspase3. In summary, GPS inhibited proliferation and increased apoptosis and autophagic death in OS cells, indicating that GPS may be a potential effective auxiliary drug for improving the IR sensitivity of OS patients.

Over the last few years, under the combined effects of climate change and human factors, the ecological environment of coal mining areas has undergone tremendous changes. Therefore, the rapid and accurate quantitative assessments of the temporal and spatial evolution of the ecological environment quality is of great significance for the ecological restoration and development planning of coal mining areas. This study applied the ecological environment index after topographic correction to improve the remote sensing ecological index (RSEI). Based on a series of Landsat images, the ecological environment quality of Yangquan Coal Mine in Shanxi Province from 1987 to 2020 was monitored and evaluated by an improved remote sensing ecological index. The results show that after topographic correction, the topographic effect of the remote sensing ecological index was greatly reduced, and its practicability was improved. From 1987 to 2020, the ecological environment quality of Yangquan Coal Mine was improved, and the mean of the RSEI increased from 0.4294 to 0.6379. The ecological environment quality of the six coal mines in the study area was improved. Among the six coal gangue dumps, the ecological environmental quality of D1, D2, D3, and D4 has improved, and the ecological environment quality of D5 and D6 worsened. The percentages of improved, unchanged, and degraded ecological environment quality in the entire coal mining area were 77.08%, 0.99%, and 21.93%, respectively. The global Moran’s index was between 0.7929 and 0.9057, and it was shown that there was a strong positive correlation between the ecological environmental qualities of the study area, and that its spatial distribution was clustered rather than random. The LISA cluster map showed that the aggregation and dispersion degree of ecological environment quality was mainly high–high clustering and low–low clustering over the whole stage. During the study period, temperature and precipitation had limited impacts on the ecological environment quality of Yangquan Coal Mine, while the coal mining activities and urbanization construction seriously affected the local ecological environment quality and the implementation of ecological restoration policies, regulations, and measures was the main reason for the improvement of the ecological environment quality.

The accumulation and aggregation of α-synuclein (α-syn) is the main pathologic event in Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. α-Syn-seeded fibril formation and its induced toxicity occupy a major role in PD pathogenesis. Thus, assessing compounds that inhibit this seeding process is considered a key towards the therapeutics of synucleinopathies. Using biophysical and biochemical techniques and seeding-dependent cell viability assays, we screened a total of nine natural compounds of alkaloid origin extracted from Chinese medicinal herbs. Of these compounds, synephrine, trigonelline, cytisine, harmine, koumine, peimisine, and hupehenine exhibited in vitro inhibition of α-syn-seeded fibril formation. Furthermore, using cell viability assays, six of these compounds inhibited α-syn-seeding-dependent toxicity. These six potent inhibitors of amyloid fibril formation and toxicity caused by the seeding process represent a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of PD and other synucleinopathies.

In this paper, to maximize the energy efficiency (EE) in the two-hop multi-relay cooperative decoding and forwarding (DF) system for simultaneous wireless information and power transmission (SWIPT), an optimal power allocation algorithm is proposed, in which the relay energy harvesting (EH) adopts a nonlinear model. Under the constraints, including energy causality, the minimum transmission quality of information and the total transmission power at the relays, an optimization problem is constructed to jointly optimize the transmit power and power-splitting (PS) ratios of multiple relays. Although this problem is a nonlinear fractional programming problem, an iterative algorithm is developed to obtain the optimal power allocation. In particular, the joint power allocation at multiple relays is first decoupled into a single relay power allocation, and then single-relay power allocation is performed by the Dinkelbach iteration algorithm, which can be proven that it is a convex programming problem. Its closed form solutions for different polylines of EH models are obtained by using mathematical methods, such as monotonicity, Lagrange multipliers, the KKT condition and the Cardan formula. The simulation results show the superiority of the power allocation algorithm proposed in this paper in terms of EE.

Abstract This review article compiles the recent achievements made in layered rare-earth (RE) hydroxide (LRH), including controlled crystallization, structural and morphological features, anion exchange, nanosheet exfoliation, and application in the field of luminescence for both the Ln2(OH)5(A x−)1/x ·nH2O (251-LRH) and Ln2(OH)4(A x−)2/x ·nH2O (241-LRH) phases. The luminescent properties of the LRHs themselves, the oxide, oxysulfate, and oxysulfide phosphors derived from the LRHs via controlled calcination, and the highly oriented transparent phosphor films of enhanced luminescence and/or novel emission features are summarized.

Abstract Phase-pure (La0.97RE0.01Yb0.02)2O2S upconversion (UC) nanophosphors (average crystallite size ~ 45 nm; RE=Ho, Er) were annealed from their hydrothermally crystallized layered hydroxyl sulfate precursors in flowing hydrogen at 1200 °C for 1 h, with water vapor as the only exhaust. Under 978-nm laser excitation (up to 2.0 W), the Ho3+-doped phosphor exhibited green (medium), red (weak), and near-infrared (strong) emissions at ~ 546 (5F4 → 5I8), 658 (5F7 → 5I8), and 763 nm (5F4 → 5I7), respectively, and has the stable chromaticity coordinates of about (0.30, 0.66) in the visible-light region (400–700 nm). The Er3+-doped UC phosphor, on the other hand, showed weak green (~ 527/549 nm, 2H11/2,4S3/2 → 4I15/2), weak red (~668/672 nm, 4F9/2 → 4I15/2), and strong near-infrared (~ 807/58 nm, 4I9/2 → 4I15/2) luminescence, whose emission color in the visible region drifted from yellowish-green [(0.36, 0.61)] to green [(0.32, 0.64)] with increasing excitation power. Analysis of the power-dependent UC luminescence found three- and two-photon processes for RE=Ho and Er, respectively, and the possible UC mechanisms were proposed.

Brain functional connectivity network (BFCN) analysis has been widely used in the diagnosis of mental disorders, such as schizophrenia. In BFCN methods, brain network construction is one of the core tasks due to its great influence on the diagnosis result. Most of the existing BFCN construction methods only consider the first-order relationship existing in each pair of brain regions and ignore the useful high-order information, including multi-region correlation in the whole brain. Some early schizophrenia patients have subtle changes in brain function networks, which cannot be detected in conventional BFCN construction methods. It is well-known that the high-order method is usually more sensitive to the subtle changes in signal than the low-order method. To exploit high-order information among brain regions, we define the triplet correlation among three brain regions, and derive the second-order brain network based on the connectivity difference and ordinal information in each triplet. For making full use of the complementary information in different brain networks, we proposed a hybrid approach to fuse the first- and second-order brain networks. The proposed method is applied to identify the biomarkers of schizophrenia. The experimental results on six schizophrenia datasets (totally including 439 patients and 426 controls) show that the proposed method outperforms the existing brain network methods in the diagnosis of schizophrenia.

In recent years, self-paced learning (SPL) has attracted much attention due to its improvement to nonconvex optimization based machine learning algorithms. As a methodology introduced from human learning, SPL dynamically evaluates the learning difficulty of each sample and provides the weighted learning model against the negative effects from hard-learning samples. In this study, we proposed a cognitive driven SPL method, i.e., retrospective robust self-paced learning (R2SPL), which is inspired by the following two issues in human learning process: the misclassified samples are more impressive in upcoming learning, and the model of the follow-up learning process based on large number of samples can be used to reduce the risk of poor generalization in initial learning phase. We simultaneously estimated the degrees of learning-difficulty and misclassified in each step of SPL and proposed a framework to construct multilevel SPL for improving the robustness of the initial learning phase of SPL. The proposed method can be viewed as a multilayer model and the output of the previous layer can guide constructing robust initialization model of the next layer. The experimental results show that the R2SPL outperforms the conventional self-paced learning models in classification task.

The characteristics of distribution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with agranulocytosis and fever in 12 hospitals in Shanghai from 2012 to 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. WHONET 5.6 software was used to analyze the results of drug sensitivity test. Data from different diseases, different sample sources, and drug sensitivity tests were statistically analyzed to investigate the clinical distribution characteristics and drug resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patients with agranulocytosis and fever in Shanghai, China. This study revealed that, among these 109 strains of P. aeruginosa , they were mainly found in patients with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML; 48 strains, 44.04%) and patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL; 36 strains, 33.03%). The specimen sources were mainly respiratory tract secretions (58 strains, 53.21%) and blood (21 strains, 19.26%). The P. aeruginosa isolates from neutropenic sepsis patients showed high sensitivity to the following antibiotics: piperacillin/tazobactam, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, and amikacin with 91.1%, 89%, 89%, 87.9%, and 85.7% of isolates being sensitive, respectively. Furthermore, for P. aeruginosa isolates from the AML group of patients, the lowest antibiotic resistance rates were seen for ciprofloxacin (0%), cefoperazone/sulbactam (2.1%), and cefepime (7.1%), while for the ALL group the lowest antibiotic resistance rates were seen for piperacillin (2.8%), ceftazidime (2.8%), and cefepime (2.8%). Isolates from AML patients (21.3%) were significantly more likely to be piperacillin resistant than those from the ALL patients (2.8%). Therefore, P. aeruginosa infection is relatively common in patients with agranulocytosis and fever. The strains had a certain degree of resistance to commonly used antibiotics.

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of protein aggregates (namely Lewy bodies) in dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra region of the brain. Alpha-synuclein (α-syn) is the major component of Lewy bodies in PD patients, and impairment of the ubiquitin-proteasome system has been linked to its accumulation. In this work, we developed a tetracycline–inducible expression system, with simultaneous induced expression of α-syn-EGFP and a bright red fluorescent protein marker (mCherry) to screen for potential compounds for degrading α-syn. We identified canthin-6-one as an α-syn lowering compound which promoted both wild type and mutants α-syn degradation in an ubiquitin-proteasome-system (UPS) dependent manner. By CRISPR/Cas9 genome-wide screening technology, we identified RPN2/PSMD1, the 26S proteasome non-ATPase regulatory subunit 1, as the targeting gene for pharmacological activity of canthin-6-one. Finally, we showed that canthin-6-one up-regulates PSMD1 and enhances UPS function by activating PKA.

Lactobacillus supplementation is beneficial to the barrier function of the intestinal physical barrier in piglets. However, the mechanisms underlying this beneficial function remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with Lactobacillus acidophilus on the performance, intestinal physical barrier functioning, and NOD-like receptors (NLRs) expression in weaned piglets. Sixteen weaned piglets were randomly allocated to two groups. The control group received a corn-soybean basal diet, while the treatment group received the same diet adding 0.1% L. acidophilus, for 14 days. As a result, dietary L. acidophilus supplementation was found to increase the average daily gain (ADG) (P

In recent years, cache-enabled vehicles have been introduced to improve the efficiency of content delivery in vehicular networks. However, because of the high dynamic of network topology, it is a big challenge to increase the success probability of content delivery. In this paper, we propose a relay strategy based on cluster’s prediction trajectory for the situation of no cache near the request vehicles. In our strategy, the roadside unit (RSU) divides vehicles into clusters by their prediction trajectory, and then proactively caches contents at a cluster that will be about to meet the request vehicle. In order to decrease the probability of unsuccessful content delivery caused by communication duration that is too short between the request vehicle and content source vehicle, RSU caches content chunks at multiple vehicles in a cluster. By letting the request vehicle communicate with vehicle-caching content chunks one by one, our strategy enlarges the communication duration and increases the success probability. Our strategy also maximizes the success probability by optimizing the number of vehicles selected to cache content chunks. Besides, based on statistical characteristics of vehicles’ speed, we derive the formula of success probability of content delivery. The simulation results show that our strategy can increase the success probability of content delivery, as well as decrease time delay, for example. For example, we increase the success probability by about 20%. Since the trajectory prediction-based cluster-dividing mechanism can improve clusters’ stability at intersections, this method is well suited for urban road scenarios.

We numerically investigate the multipolar plasmonic resonances of Aluminum nanoantenna tuned by a monolayer graphene from ultraviolet (UV) to visible regime. It is shown that the absorbance of the plasmonic odd modes (l = 1 and l = 3) of graphene–Al nanoribbon structure is enhanced while the absorption at the plasmonic even modes (l = 2) is suppressed, compared to the pure Al nanoribbon structure. With the presence of the monolayer graphene, a change in the resonance strength of the multipolar plasmonic modes results from the near field interactions of the monolayer graphene with the electric fields of the multipolar plasmonic resonances of the Al resonator. In particular, a clear absorption peak with a high quality (Q)-factor of 27 of the plasmonic third-order mode (l = 3) is realized in the graphene–Al nanoribbon structure. The sensitivity and figure of merit of the plasmonic third-order mode of the proposed Graphene–Al nanoribbon structure can reach 25 nm/RIU and 3, respectively, providing potential applications in optical refractive-index sensing.

In the field of ultrasonic nondestructive testing (NDT), robust and accurate detection of defects is a challenging task because of the attenuation and noising of the ultrasonic wave from the structure. For determining the reflection characteristics representing the position and amplitude of ultrasonic detection signals, sparse blind deconvolution methods have been implemented to separate overlapping echoes when the ultrasonic transducer impulse response is unknown. This letter introduces the ℓ1/ℓ2 ratio regularization function to model the deconvolution as a nonconvex optimization problem. The initialization influences the accuracy of estimation and, for this purpose, the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) combined with blind gain calibration is used to find the initial approximation to the real solution, given multiple observations in a joint sparsity case. The proximal alternating linearized minimization (PALM) algorithm is embedded in the iterate solution, in which the majorize-minimize (MM) approach accelerates convergence. Compared with conventional blind deconvolution algorithms, the proposed methods demonstrate the robustness and capability of separating overlapping echoes in the context of synthetic experiments.

Abstract Tripartite Motif Containing 25 (TRIM25), a member of TRIM proteins, has been found abnormally expressed in cancers of female reproductive system. Here, TRIM25 was conspicuously expressed in human gastric cancer (GC) tissues in which its higher expression generally correlated with the poor prognosis of patients. Small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown of TRIM25 expression in MGC-803 and AGS cells had no effects on cell proliferation, whereas reduced cell migration and invasion. Gene set enrichment analysis on The Cancer Genome Atlas stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD) dataset revealed that several signaling pathways, including the migration, E-cadherin and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) pathways, were enriched in TRIM25 higher expression patients. Moreover, ectopic expression of TRIM25 in a GC cell line with lower expression of TRIM25 significantly promoted the migration and invasion. Further experiments with TGF-β inhibitor suggested that TRIM25 may exert its function through TGF-β pathway. In summary, our results indicate that TRIM25 acts as an oncogene in GC and thus presents a novel target for the detection and treatment of GC.

In this paper, an analysis method of wideband loaded-stub phase shifters and a fast designing procedure is presented. These kinds of phase shifters use a transmission line loaded with one or two open stubs and a reference line to achieve up to 135° phase shift. Analysis results shows that lower than -10dB return loss and precise phase shift can be achieved over a 100% bandwidth employing the ideal open stubs. To approach the ideal impedance value of the open stubs, an arrow-shaped stub and several means to control its impedance is proposed. As verification of the analysis method, a 90° two-stub loaded phase shifter is easily designed and fabricated. Measured results show the design achieves better than ±4° phase ripple, less than 0.5dB insertion loss, and better than 10dB return loss over an 85% wideband.

The synthesis of nanostructured surfaces and thin films has potential applications in the field of plasmonics, including plasmon sensors, plasmon-enhanced molecular spectroscopy (PEMS), plasmon-mediated chemical reactions (PMCRs), and so on. In this article, we review various nanostructured surfaces and thin films obtained by the combination of nanosphere lithography (NSL) and physical vapor deposition. Plasmonic nanostructured surfaces and thin films can be fabricated by controlling the deposition process, etching time, transfer, fabrication routes, and their combination steps, which manipulate the formation, distribution, and evolution of hotspots. Based on these hotspots, PEMS and PMCRs can be achieved. This is especially significant for the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) based on surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and controlling the growth locations of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) in nanostructured surfaces and thin films, which is expected to enhance the optical and sensing performance.

In mobile communication systems, device-to-device (D2D) communication and nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) are effective ways to improve spectrum efficiency and system throughput. In the NOMA-based D2D system, social relationship among D2D users is introduced to form D2D clusters, and NOMA is used for many-to-one communication in each D2D cluster. This paper proposes a joint channel allocation and power control algorithm which decomposes the resource allocation problem into two subproblems: channel allocation and power control. Matching theory is utilized to allocate channels for D2D clusters and sequential convex programming is applied to transform the optimization target to a convex problem before solving it via genetic algorithm. Simulation results indicate the superiority of our algorithm in improving the system throughput on the basis of meeting users’ needs for files.

In this work, we consider interference performance under direct data transmission in a heterogeneous network. The heterogeneous network consists of K-tier base stations and users, whose locations follow independent Poisson point processes (PPPs). Packet arrivals of users follow independent Bernoulli processes. Two different scheduling policies, round-robin (RR) and random scheduling (RS), are employed to all the Base Stations (BS). The universal frequency reuse mode is adopted to reveal actual spectrum reuse. By leveraging stochastic geometry and queueing theory, the interference interactions of the proposed network are accurately modelled. Accurate expressions for the mean packet throughputs of the network under universal frequency reuse mode are derived. The simulation results explore the optical bias factors in heterogeneous networks to maximize the mean packet throughput. Under a given user density, by changing BS densities, we achieved a certain mean packet throughput level.

Previous studies have found that LMX1B rs10733682 polymorphism is associated with Body Mass Index (BMI) in European and American Indian adults. In this study, the association of rs10733682 polymorphism with obesity-related indicators, and its interaction with macronutrients and dietary patterns (DPs) were explored in Chinese children (n = 798). The rs10733682 polymorphism was genotyped by improved Multiple Ligase Detection Reaction (iMLDR). Four DPs were identified by factor analysis. The AA genotype had a higher incidence of overweight/obesity than GG+GA genotypes (P = 0.010) in girls (n = 398), but no difference in boys. The AA genotype in girls could interact with intake of energy, fat and carbohydrate, causing an increased triglyceride (TG), (P = 0.021, 0.003, 0.002, respectively), and also could interact with energy from protein, causing an elevated BMI (P = 0.023) and waist (P = 0.019). Girls inclining to the HED (high-energy density)-DP were associated with increased TG (P = 0.033), and girls inclining to the VEF (vegetables, eggs, and fishes based)-DP were associated with decreased total cholesterol (TC, P = 0.045) and decreased low density lipoprotein cholesterin (LDL, P = 0.016). The findings indicated that the AA genotype of rs10733682 and the HED-DP are potential risk factors of obesity in Chinese girls.

The increasing resistance of rice sheath blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani highlights the need for highly effective and environmentally benign agents. Natural β-carboline alkaloids were simplified to obtain a series of indole derivatives, and their fungicidal activity and preliminary mode of action against R. solani were also evaluated. The initial hit indole (7) displayed significant fungicidal activity with an EC50 value of 25.56 μg/mL, and was selected for further optimization. Importantly, compound 55, the most active compound, had an EC50 value of 0.62 μg/mL, and approximately 300-fold more potent than validamycin A (EC50 = 183.00 μg/mL). In vivo bioassay also demonstrated that compound 55 showed better fungicidal activities than validamycin A. Moreover, the mechanism studies revealed that compound 55 not only caused remarkable morphological and structural alterations of R. solani hyphae, but also induced the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential and interfered with DNA synthesis. Therefore, compound 55 showed superior fungicidal activity against R. solani, and the elucidated mode of action supported the potential application of compound 55 against rice sheath blight.

Mobile edge computing (MEC) can use a wireless access network to serve smart devices nearby so as to improve the service experience of users. In this paper, a joint optimization method based on the Genetic Algorithm (GA) for task offloading proportion, channel bandwidth, and mobile edge servers’ (MES) computing resources is proposed in the scenario where some computing tasks can be partly offloaded to the MES. Under the limitation of wireless transmission resources and MESs’ processing resources, GA was used to solve the optimization problem of minimizing user task completion time, and the optimal offloading task strategy and resource allocation scheme were obtained. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively reduce the task completion time and ensure the fairness of users’ completion times.

In this paper, we focus on the performance analysis of device-to-device (D2D) underlay communication in cellular networks. First, we develop a spatiotemporal traffic model to model a retransmission mechanism for D2D underlay communication. The D2D users in backlogged statuses are modeled as a thinned Poisson point process (PPP). To capture the characteristics of sporadic wireless data generation and limited buffer, we adopt queuing theory to analyze the performance of dynamic traffic. Furthermore, a feedback queuing model is adopted to analyze the performance with retransmission strategy. With the consideration of interference and channel fading, the service probability of the queue departure process is determined by the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). Then, the embedded Markov chain is employed to depict the queuing status in the D2D user buffer. We compute its steady-state distribution and derive the closed-form expressions of performance metrics, namely the average queue length, average throughput, average delay, and dropping probability. Simulation results show the validity and rationality of the theoretical analysis with different channel parameters and D2D densities. In addition, the simulation explores the dropping probability of a D2D user with and without the retransmission strategy for different D2D links in the system. When the arrival rate is comparatively high, the optimal throughput is reached after fewer retransmission attempts as a result of the limited buffer.

Owing to its potential application prospect in novel accident tolerant fuel, molybdenum alloys and their welding technologies have gained great importance in recent years. The challenges of welding molybdenum alloys come from two aspects: one is related to its powder metallurgy manufacturing process, and the other is its inherent characteristics of refractory metal. The welding of powder metallurgy materials has been associated with issues such as porosity, contamination, and inclusions, at levels which tend to degrade the service performances of a welded joint. Refractory metals usually present poor weldability due to embrittlement of the fusion zone as a result of impurities segregation and the grain coarsening in the heat-affected zone. A critical review of the current state of the art of welding Mo alloys components is presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the various methods, i.e., electron-beam welding (EBW), tungsten-arc inert gas (TIG) welding, laser welding (LW), electric resistance welding (ERW), and brazing and friction welding (FW) in joining Mo and Mo alloys, are discussed with a view to imagine future directions. This review suggests that more attention should be paid to high energy density laser welding and the mechanism and technology of welding Mo alloys under hyperbaric environment.

Uniformly dispersed luminescent probes with a high brightness and high resolution are desired in bio imaging fields. Here, ~100 nm sized and well-dispersed spheres of RE3+ doped α-NaYF4 (rare earth (RE) = Eu, Tb, Ce, Er, and Tm) have been facile synthesized through hydrothermal processing in the absence of a template, followed by a proper annealing. The processing window of the cubic structured spheres is wide, because the hydrothermal products are independent of the processing conditions, including reaction time and temperature. The original morphology and crystal structure can be well retained with a calcination temperature up to 600 °C. However, calcination gives rise to a reduction of particle sizes, as a result of the crystallite growth and densification. Under ultraviolet radiation, α-NaYF4:RE3+ spheres show characteristic f-f emissions of RE3+ (RE = Eu, Tb, Ce, Er, and Tm), and exhibit orange red, green, ultraviolet (UV), blue green, and blue emissions, respectively. Mainly because of the near-infrared emission at ~697 nm (5D0→7F4 transitions of Eu3+), the successful imaging of macrophages was achieved by NH2-NaYF4:Eu3+ probes, indicating their excellent imaging capacity for cells in vitro.

This paper describes an imaging method for near-field defect detection in aluminum plates based on Green’s function recovery and application of instantaneous phase coherence weighting factors. The directly acquired acoustic information of near-field defects is usually obscured by the nonlinear effects due to the physical limitation of the acquisition system. Using the diffuse field to recover the Green’s function can effectively retrieve the early time information. However, averaging operations of finite number in this process produces an imperfect imaging result. In order to improve the image quality, two kinds of instantaneous phased coherence weighting factors are used to weight the Green’s function to reduce the background noise and improve the signal-to-noise ratio: the instantaneous phase coherence factor (IPCF), and the instantaneous phase weighting factor (IPWF). Experiments are conducted on two aluminum plates with two and four near-field defects, respectively. As a result, the background noise of amplitude images weighted by IPCF and IPWF is less than that of the conventional total focusing method (TFM). In addition, the IPCF image achieves a better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than that of IPWF, and the phase discontinuity in an IPWF image is suppressed through the IPCF.

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a progressive disease that occurs in the liver. As the number of people with NASH has increased, effective prevention and treatment strategies are needed. Agaricus brasiliensis KA21 (AGA) is a mushroom native to Brazil and is considered a healthy food because of its purported health benefits, including its antioxidant properties. In this study, we focused on the oxidative stress that accompanies the onset of NASH and examined whether AGA can prevent NASH development through its antioxidant activity. We used a mouse model of NASH in which pathogenesis was promoted by dietary induction. Supplementation with AGA attenuated the development of hepatic fibrosis, which is a characteristic feature of late-stage NASH. This effect appeared to be mechanistically linked to an AGA-promoted reduction in hepatic oxidative stress. These results demonstrate a novel role for AGA in NASH prevention.

Metaphor is a bridge for understanding abstract concepts (the target domain) from concrete concepts (the source domain). This study, with two experiments, aimed to investigate the cultural differences of the horizontal spatial metaphors for morality between two groups of students: Han Chinese, the ethnic majority, and Hui Chinese, an ethnic minority in China. Experiment 1 adopted a spatial Stroop task. It showed that neither Hui nor Han students exhibited horizontal spatial metaphors for morality. Experiment 2 adopted a modified implicit association test paradigm to enhance the association between the moral concepts and the horizontal spatial positions. In Experiment 2, we found horizontal spatial metaphors for morality in Hui students, but not in Han students. These results indicated that the differences of horizontal spatial metaphors between Hui and Han participants were influenced by the different cultures they live in. Moreover, this study also found that the association between the source domain and the target domain was an important factor for metaphor formations.

Objective. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between dietary patterns and precocious puberty among Shanghai children. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among Shanghai children by multistage stratified cluster random sampling in June 2014. Diet was assessed using a simplified food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Height, weight, and Tanner stages of breast development, pubic hair growth, and testicular volume were carefully measured. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns, and logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between dietary patterns and precocious puberty. Results. Three distinct dietary patterns, “traditional diet,” “unhealthy diet,” and “protein diet,” were established. Neither the “traditional diet” pattern nor the “protein diet” pattern showed any association with precocious puberty, taking gender, BMI, and adjustment factors into consideration. The “unhealthy diet” pattern was significantly positively associated with precocious puberty in both boys (OR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.02–1.51) and girls (OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.10–1.56). The relationship remained positive only for girls (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.04–1.49) after adjustment for age and BMI but statistically nonsignificant after further adjustment for socioeconomic factors in both boys and girls. Conclusions. Dietary patterns were found to be related to precocious puberty among Shanghai children.

Autonomous vehicles are considered to have great potentials in improving transportation safety and efficiency. Autonomous follow driving is one of the highly probable application forms of autonomous vehicles in the near future. In this article, we aim at the basic autonomous following form with one follower and one leader. Proper longitudinal regulation of the follower vehicle is essential for the driving quality of the two-vehicle platoon. Focusing on this problem, a novel longitudinal control method composing of a learning-based acceleration decision phase and an internal model–based acceleration tracking phase is proposed for the follower vehicle. In the acceleration decision phase, proper acceleration commands of the follower that adjusts the following distance converging to the target value are determined by a near-optimal acceleration policy which is obtained through an online reinforcement learning algorithm named neural dynamic programming. In the acceleration tracking phase, throttle and brake control commands that drive the vehicle as the decided acceleration are derived by an internal model control structure. The performance of our proposed method is verified by simulation experiments conducted with CarSim, an industry recognized vehicle dynamic simulator.

AIM: To assess the levels of CD18 on the surface of granulocytes infiltrating the vitreous fluid in patients with diabetic retinopathy (DR).METHODS:Vitreous samples from twelve patients with non-proliferative DR with significant macula edema (group A), 33 patients with proliferative DR (grade 3 as group B, n=14, and, grade 4 as group C, n=19) were obtained during pars plana vitrectomy. Vitreous samples from 12 patients with macular hole as controls (group D) were analyzed together. The infiltrating of granulocytes and its surface level of CD18 were measured by flow cytometry. The level of CD18 was presented as the mean channel fluorescence (MCF) on a logarithmic scale.RESULTS: Granulocytes were detected in 6 of 12 vitreous samples from group A, 9 of 14 from group B, 15 of 19 from group C, and none of 12 from group D. MCF of CD18 on granulocytes from groups A, B, and C were 2.978±1.446, 3.201±0.692, and 4.072±0.837, respectively. The difference was significant (F=4.354, P=0.021). Subjects with more severe DR were more likely to have a higher level of CD18 MCF (trend test, c2=7.351, P=0.007). CD18 MCF was significantly associated with the development of DR (r=0.46, P=0.005 and β=0.147, P=0.035).CONCLUSION:Our results confirm the presence of granulocytes and the elevated levels of CD18 on the surface of them in the vitreous fluid from DR patients. These results may provide indirect evidence shown that granulocytes activation also has occurred in the retinal local compared to non-DR control.

There is growing recognition of the impact of Clostridum difficile infection (CDI) on patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Clostridium difficile infection causes greater morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of C. difficile on surgical risk among ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. We searched the following databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ACP Journal Club, DARE, CMR, and HTA. Studies were included if fulfilled the following criteria: (1) Cohort or case–control studies, which involved a comparison group that lacked CDI, (2) Patients were given a primary diagnosis of UC, (3) Comorbidity of CDI was evaluated by enzyme immunoassay of stool for C. difficile toxin A and B or C. difficile stool culture, (4) Studies evaluated surgical rate, and (5) Studies reported an estimate of odds ratio, accompanied by a corresponding measure of uncertainty. Five studies with 2380 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Overall, meta-analysis showed that UC with CDI patients had a significant higher surgical rate than patients with UC alone. (OR=1.76, 95% CI=1.36–2.28). C. difficile infection increased the surgical rate in UC patients. However, results should be interpreted with caution, given the limitations of this stud.