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To explore the clinical effects on primary dysmenorrhea treated with moxibustion at Shenque (CV 8) and warm needling at Guanyuan (CV 4) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6).A total of 120 patients with primary dysmenorrhea were randomized into an observation group and a control group, 60 cases in each one. In the control group, the warm needling technique was used at Guanyuan (CV 4) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6). In the observation group, besides the same treatment as the control group, moxibustion was added at Shenque (CV 8). The treatment was given for 4 menstrual cycles consecutively. Before and after treatment, the score of the severity and the score of the total frequency in the retrospective scale of dysmenorrhea symptoms as well as the score of the visual analog scale (VAS) were recorded and compared in the patients between the two groups. Additionally, the safety of the two therapeutic methods was evaluated.After treatment, the score of severity and the score of total frequency as well as VAS score of menstrual pain were all reduced as compared with those before treatment in the patients of the two groups (allThe combined treatment of moxibustion at Shenque (CV 8) with the warm needling technique at Guanyuan (CV 4) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6) achieves the better clinical effects on primary dysmenorrhea as compared with the simple application of the warm needling technique at Guanyuan (CV 4) and Sanyinjiao (SP 6). This therapy is safety in clinical practice.

The present report showed the green synthesis of Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Mulberry leaf extract via an environment friendly approach and investigated to know the probable ameliorative effect via biochemical assessment on retinopathy of rats that are maternally subjected to Al intoxication and diabetes. Mulberry leaf extract biomolecules act as capping and reducing agent for fabrication of AgNPs. Later, the fabricated AgNPs were characterized by using spectroscopic and microscopic instrumental techniques such as HR-TEM, UV–Vis, XRD and FT-IR. EDS, XRD and TEM have confirmed the synthesis of AgNPs. HRTEM results exhibited that the formed AgNPs are polydispersed and spherical in nature with mean particle size of 35 nm. Microscopic observation of retina in Al-intoxicated and diabetic mother rats showed abnormal changes in retinal cell layers. Yet, the retina of rats that are maternally received AgNPs plus diabetes or Al-intoxicated exhibited noticeable amelioration. However, lower ameliorations were found in rat's retina that are maternally undergone for combined exposure. Additionally, biochemical assessment revealed that the application of AgNPs caused the amelioration of the changes in Al concentration and maternal serum glucose. The present study revealed that AgNPs are active against diabetic and Aluminium-persuaded developmental retinopathy.

Chronic exposure to fluoride is a public health problem worldwide. We explored the relationship between fluoride exposure, orthopedic injuries and bone formation markers alkaline phosphatase (ALP), bone Gla protein (BGP) in participants with coal-burning fluorosis in Hehua Village (coal-burning fluorosis endemic area) in Zhijin County of Guizhou Province and Zhangguan Village (non-fluoride contaminated area) in Anshun City of Guizhou Province. Environmental samples were collected and fluoride contents were examined using a fluoride ion-selective electrode. Dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis of 295 participants from Hehua Village and 85 participants from Zhangguan Village were diagnosed with informed consent. Urinary samples and peripheral blood samples were collected from the participants to determine urinary fluoride (UF), ALP acti-vity, and BGP content. The results showed that fluoride contents in rice, pepper, corn, drinking water, clay, vegetable-grown soil, coal and indoor and outdoor air were significantly higher than those in the control area, but lower than the previously reported values. With the increases of UF concentration, the ALP activity and BGP content significantly increased, the severity of skeletal fluorosis was greater, but with no significant changes in dental fluorosis. There was positive correlation between the severity of skeletal fluorosis and ALP activity, BGP content. These results indicated that low fluoride exposure could cause orthopedic injuries. ALP and BGP could be used to eva-luate the bone turnover in patients with skeletal fluorosis, which would be useful in the auxiliary diagnosis and therapeutic evaluation of skeletal fluorosis.慢性氟暴露是世界范围内的公共卫生问题之一.为研究燃煤污染型氟中毒患者中氟暴露、骨相损伤程度与骨形成标志物血清碱性磷酸酶(ALP)、骨钙素(BGP)之间的相关关系,以贵州省织金县荷花村(燃煤污染型地方性氟中毒病区)和安顺市张官村(非氟暴露村)为调查点,采集环境样品,采用氟离子选择电极法测定环境介质及食物中的氟含量.在知情同意的原则下,对295例氟暴露和85例非氟暴露调查对象进行氟斑牙、氟骨症诊断;收集其尿液及外周血,测定尿氟(UF)浓度、ALP活性和BGP含量.结果表明: 病区环境中大米、辣椒、玉米、饮水、黏土、菜土、煤以及室内外空气氟含量均明显高于对照区,但较以往报道数据降低;随着尿氟浓度的升高,ALP活性、BGP含量显著升高,氟骨症病情差异有统计学意义,氟斑牙病情差异无统计学意义;氟骨症病情与ALP活性、BGP含量呈正相关.表明燃煤污染型低氟暴露可引起人群的骨相损害,且ALP、BGP可用于评估氟骨症患者骨转换情况,在氟骨症的辅助诊断、疗效评估中有着一定的应用价值.

Background Previous data, although scant, indicated that the incidence of HIV in China has increased over the past decade. There is a growing concern about the impact of the HIV epidemic on blood safety. Methods and materials We used donation data from five geographically-disperse blood centers in 2013-2016 participating in the Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III (REDS-III) China program to estimate HIV prevalence and incidence among blood donors. Multivariable logistic regression model was used to examine factors associated with HIV infection in Chinese blood donors. Results The overall HIV prevalence among first-time donors from 2013 through 2016 was 68.04 per 100,000 donors (95% CI 61.68-74.40). The HIV incidence rate was estimated to be 37.93 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI 30.62-46.97) among first-time donors and 20.55 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI 16.95-24.91) among repeat donors. There was substantial variation in HIV prevalence and incidence rates across blood centers. Multivariable logistic regression results showed that among first-time donors, being male, older than 25 years, minority ethnicity, less than college education, and certain occupations (commercial services, factory workers, retired, unemployed, or self-employed) were associated with positive HIV confirmatory testing results. Conclusion HIV prevalence and incidence among blood donors remain low in the selected five regions in China; however, an increasing trend is observed at some blood centers. It is important to monitor HIV epidemiology in Chinese blood donors on a continuous basis, especially among populations and regions of higher risk.

A large number of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have high mobility but a small battery capacity; thus, these vehicles urgently need to make charging and discharging decisions in real time. This paper proposes a new architecture based on fog computing for an Internet of Vehicles energy trading system, which we call a vehicle-mounted energy fog. This architecture includes a fog computing energy center (FCEC), which manages local energy trading and reduces the peak load energy trading for an external public energy company. We model the optimization problems for energy trading under two different types of FCECs: 1) a nonprofit-driven FCEC whose goal is solely to benefit the PHEV charging and discharging operations and 2) a profit-driven FCEC whose goal is to maximize its own profits while still guaranteeing that each PHEV achieves a non-negative utility. We also propose efficient algorithms for these two types of FCECs to seek optimal pricing and make supply demand decisions. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithms are superior to existing algorithms in terms of the convergence rate, the final objective value and the evenness of the Pareto solution set. Specifically, the evenness of the Pareto solution set is improved by 23% compared to the results of the existing algorithm. Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities Scopus

Identifying the nature and extent of atmospheric PM2.5-bound toxic organic pollutants is beneficial to evaluate human health risks of air pollution. Seasonal observations of PM2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nitro-PAHs (NPAHs) in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) were investigated, along with criteria air pollutants and meteorological parameters. With the elevated PM2.5 level, the percentage of 4-ring PAHs and typical NPAH including 3-Nitrobiphenyl (3-NBP) and 2-Nitrofluoranthene (2-NFLT) increased by 19-40%. PM2.5-bound 2-NFLT was positively correlated with O3 and NO2, suggesting the contribution of atmospheric oxidation capacity to enhance the secondary formation of NPAHs in the atmosphere. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis indicated that traffic emissions (44.9-48.7%), coal and biomass combustion (27.6-36.0%) and natural gas and volatilization (15.3-27.5%) were major sources of PAHs, and secondary formation (39.8-53.8%) was a predominant contributor to total NPAH concentrations. Backward trajectory analysis showed that air masses from North China transported to the YRD region increased PAH and NPAH concentrations. Compare to clean days, the BaP equivalent concentrations of total PAHs and NPAHs during haze pollution days were enhanced by 10-25 and 2-6 times, respectively. The Incremental Lifetime Cancer Risks (ILCRs) of PAHs by inhalation exposure also indicated high potential health risks in the YRD region. The results implied that the health risks of PM2.5-bound PAHs and NPAHs could be sharply enhanced with the increase of PM2.5 concentrations.

In this paper, for solving a class of complex linear systems from the Helmholtz equation efficiently, a new splitting preconditioner is established and a real-valued preconditioned iterative method is presented. Spectral properties of the preconditioned matrix are discussed and bound on the eigenvalues of the preconditioned matrix is given. Theorem which provides the dimension of the Krylov subspace methods for the preconditioned iteration method is obtained. The implementation of the preconditioned method is given and the optimal choice of the accelerated parameter is derived. In particular, a more practical way to choose the accelerated parameter is also proposed. Numerical experiments arising from the Helmholtz equation are used to illustrate the performance of the preconditioner, which show the effectiveness and robustness of the new preconditioned GMRES method and demonstrate meshsize-independent and wave number-insensitive convergence behavior.

Background Potential effects of resveratrol consumption on cardiovascular disease risk factors and body weight in overweight/obese adults have not been fully elucidated. Our present analysis was to evaluate the effects of resveratrol consumption on risk markers related to cardiovascular health in overweight/obese Individuals. Methods Multiple literature databases were systematically searched, and 21 studies were included. Effect sizes were expressed as weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI), and heterogeneity was assessed with the I2 test. Publication bias and subgroup analyses were also performed. Results There were variations in reporting quality of included studies. Resveratrol intervention significantly lowered total cholesterol (WMD, –0.19 mmol/L; 95% CI, –0.32 to –0.06; P = 0.004), systolic blood pressure (WMD, –2.26 mmHg; 95% CI, –4.82 to –0.49; P = 0.02), and fasting glucose (WMD, –0.22 mmol/L; 95% CI, –0.42 to –0.03; P = 0.03). Heterogeneity was noted for these outcomes (35.6%, 38.7% and 71.4%, respectively). Our subgroup analysis showed significant reductions in total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, glucose, and insulin in subjects ingesting higher dose of resveratrol (≥300 mg/day). Conclusion Our finding provides evidence that daily resveratrol consumption might be a candidate as an adjunct to pharmacological management to better prevent and control cardiovascular disease in overweight/obese individuals.

The solubility of limonin in the binary solvent mixtures (methanol + water) and (acetone + water) with various initial mole fractions of methanol or acetone was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) at different temperatures ranging from 283.2 K to 318.2 K. The solubility of limonin increased with increasing initial mole fraction of methanol in (methanol + water) mixtures, whereas it had a maximum point at 0.9 mol fraction of acetone in (acetone + water) mixtures. The solubility of limonin increased with increasing temperature in the two binary solvent mixtures. The solubility of limonin was correlated with temperature by the van’t Hoff model and the modified Apelblat model, and the fitting results showed that the modified Apelblat model had better correlation. The CNIBS/Redlich–Kister model and the simplified CNIBS/Redlich–Kister model were used to correlate the solubility data with the initial solvent composition, the results show that the CNIBS/Redlich–Kister model reveals better agreement with the experimental values. Furthermore, to illustrate the effects of both temperature and initial solvent composition on the changes in the solubility of limonin, the solubility values were fitted by the Jouyban–Acree, van’t Hoff–Jouyban–Acree, modified Apelblat–Jouyban–Acree, Ma and Sun models. Among the five models, the Jouyban–Acree model give the best correlation results for (methanol + water) binary solvent mixtures, while the experimental solubility in the (acetone + water) system was most accurately correlated by the van’t Hoff–Jouyban–Acree model.

Substantial amount of apple pomace (AP) is produced in apple processing industries and is often discarded as waste which becomes a source of polluting the environment. However, the by-product constitutes a promising bioresource of ursolic acid with various biological activities. Therefore, this particular research study was aimed to develop a novel and facile method to separate ursolic acid from AP. First, AP was extracted with ultrasound assistance using methanol as extraction solvent, 2.86% with 10:1 (mL g−1) of liquid–solid ratio, 300 W of ultrasonic power, 50°C of extraction temperature, and 90 min of ultrasonic time. Meanwhile, the disruption effect of ultrasound on AP was observed by scanning electron microscope. Second, a novel and facile method was applied to separation of ursolic acid, then a perfect colorless needle crystal of ursolic acid was obtained with the yield of about 1.34% of dry AP.

Datacenter virtualization technologies have attracted a lot of attention to enable various cloud computing services and to facilitate virtual machine (VM) migration. VM migration can help service providers to achieve the goals of saving energy, enhancing resource efficiency and quality of service (QoS). In order to ensure the QoS, the migration time and the downtime of VM should be considered while implementing the VM migration. Most researches focus on the issue of single VM migration by using the post-copy migration strategy or pre-copy migration strategy. However, there is few research that focuses on the problem of live migration for multiple VMs. Therefore, in this paper, we first propose an improved serial migration strategy and introduce the post-copy migration scheme into it. We then propose the m mixed migration strategy that is based on the improved serial migration strategy and the parallel migration strategy. Furthermore, we develop queuing models (i.e., the M/M/C/C and the M/M/C queuing models) to quantify performance metrics, such as the blocking ratio and average waiting time of each migration request. We evaluate the performance of the proposed migration strategy by conducting mathematical analysis, the numerical results show that our proposed strategy outperforms the existing approach. We propose an improved serial migration strategy for migrating multiple VMs.We present the m mixed migration strategy for improving the time efficiency.For a given tolerable downtime, we calculate m to minimize the migration time.We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by using queuing models.

In this work, a superparamagnetic Fe 3 O 4 -graphene oxide (MGO) nanocomposite was prepared by one-step chemical co-precipitation method, and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman spectroscopy and nitrogen adsorption–desorption curve. The as-prepared MGO was used to adsorb nuciferine, and the adsorption kinetic, isotherm and reusability of MGO were also investigated. The results showed that the adsorption of nuciferine on MGO reached its equilibrium very quickly (within 10 min) due to the two-dimensional carbon nanostructure of GO. In comparison with MGO, five conventional sorbents, i.e., macroporous resin D-101, silica gel, reverse phase silica gel (RP-C18) and cation exchange resin and polyamide, were also used to evaluate their adsorption capabilities. Therefore, MGO combined the advantages of both superparamagnetic particle and GO, i.e., easy separation and high absorption capacity. Finally, MGO was successfully applied to enrichment and separation of nuciferine in the extract of Nelumbinis Folium (Lotus leaf).

The solubilities of genistin in the binary solvent mixtures ethanol + water and acetone + water with various initial mole fractions were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) at different temperatures ranging from 278.2 to 313.2 K. An interesting phenomenon was observed, namely, a synergistic effect of the binary solvent mixtures on solubility. In this synergistic effect, the solubility of genistin reached a maximum and was higher than its solubility in the separate solvents when the initial mole fraction of ethanol or acetone was 0.5 throughout the whole range of temperatures studied. The solubility of genistin in the mixtures increased with temperature. A simplified thermodynamic model, the modified Apelblat model, and the λh model were used to correlate the solubility data of genistin with temperature. Among the three models, the modified Apelblat model showed the best correlation in describing the dependence of the solubility on temperature. Furthermore, to illustrate the effects o...

Hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD). Excessive uric acid (UA) level in the blood leads to hyperuricemic nephropathy (HN), which is characterized by glomerular hypertension, arteriolosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) is a potential mediator of inflammatory responses which contributes to renal interstitial fibrosis. However, the roles of FABP4 in HN remains unknown. In the study, a mouse model of HN induced by feeding a mixture of adenine and potassium oxonate, severe kidney injury and interstitial fibrosis, as well as the increased kidney-expressed FABP4 protein level were evident, accompanied by the activation of inflammatory responses. Oral administration of BMS309403, a highly selective FABP4 inhibitor, improved renal dysfunction, inhibited the mRNA level of KIM-1 and NGAL, as well as reduced the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and fibrotic proteins in the injured kidneys. BMS309403 treatment also inhibited the FABP4 activity and further suppressed the activation of JAK2-STAT3 and NF-kB P65 signaling pathways in the hyperuricemia-injured kidneys and UA-stimulated human tubular epithelial (HK-2) cells, respectively. In summary, our study for the first time demonstrated that FABP4 played a crucial role in kidney inflammation and fibrosis via the regulation of JAK2-STAT3 and NF-kB P65 pathways in HN mice. The results suggested that FABP4 inhibition might be a promising therapeutic strategy for HN.

Background : Rotavirus (RV) is the primary causative agent for viral gastroenteritis among infants and young children worldwide. Currently, no clinically approved and effective antiviral drug for the treatment of RV infection is available. Purpose : We investigated the potential anti-RV activity of resveratrol and underlying mechanisms by which resveratrol acted against RV. Methods : The anti-RV activity of resveratrol in vitro was evaluated using plaque reduction assays. The effects of resveratrol on yield of virion progeny, viral polyprotein expression and genomic RNA synthesis were respectively investigated using Enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays, western blotting and qRT-PCR assays. Further, we also measured the antiviral effect of resveratrol by evaluation of antigen clearance and assessment of changes in proinflammatory cytokines/chemokines in RV-infected neonatal mouse model. Results : Our results indicated that 20 μM of resveratrol significantly inhibited RV replication in Caco-2 cell line by suppressing RV RNA synthesis, protein expression, viroplasm plaque formation, progeny virion production, and RV-induced cytopathy independent of the different strains and cell lines of RV that we used. Analysis of the effect of time post-addition of resveratrol indicated that its application inhibited early processes in the RV replication cycle. Further study of the underlying mechanism of anti-RV activity indicated that resveratrol inhibited RV replication by suppressing expression of heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90) mRNA and protein, and that the effect occurred in a dose-dependent manner. Overexpression of HSP90 was found to have attenuated the inhibitory effect of resveratrol on RV replication. Interestingly, the application of resveratrol were found to down-regulate the level of inhibition of RV-mediated MEK1/2 and ERK phosphorylation. Using a RV-infected suckling mice model, we found that application of resveratrol significantly lessened the severity of diarrhea, decreased viral titers, and relieved associated symptoms. Levels of mRNA expression of interleukin-2, interleukin-10, tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, macrophage inflammatory protein 1, and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 were all found to have been sharply reduced in intestinal tissue from mice which had been treated with resveratrol (10 or 20 mg/kg) after RV infection (P Conclusion : These findings implied that resveratrol exhibits antiviral activity and could be a promising treatment for rotavirus infection.

The functional groups on the surface of Ti3C2 can be tailored by alkalization treatment to design novel electrode materials. However, the restacking of Ti3C2 greatly hinders its practical application. To address this limitation, a facile self-assembling method was developed to engineer a novel type of heterostructure (Ti3C2/MOF). The structure alk-Ti3C2/N-PC was prepared by combining MOF-5-NH2-derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon (N-PC) with alk-Ti3C2 prepared by the acid etching and alkaline intercalation treatment of Ti3C2. This strategy could effectively prevent Ti3C2 sheets from restacking and enable the sensing of benzenediol through hydrogen-bond interaction, brought about by the abundant OH functional groups on the alk-Ti3C2 and numerous C N bonds on N PC. Because of the advantages of the excellent electrical conductivity of alk-Ti3C2 and the large surface area of N PC, hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CT) could be detected on the basis of their benzenediol/benzoquinone redox reactions. Under optimized conditions, a wide linear range of 0.5―150 μM with low detection limits of 4.8 nM (S/N = 3) and 3.1 nM (S/N = 3) for HQ and CT, respectively, were obtained. The alk-Ti3C2/N PC electrochemical sensor was applied to detect HQ and CT in industrial wastewater, and acceptable recoveries were achieved. Hence, the decoration of alk-Ti3C2 with N PC is an innovative method to engineer various alk-Ti3C2-based composites for the detection of phenolic isomers and environmental analyses.

In this work, a novel freestanding flexible reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite membrane was prepared, using polystyrene microspheres as the spacer to decrease the GO sheet self-stacking, silane coupling agents as the cross-linker to enhance the toughness, and treatment with ammonia followed by hydrochloric acid to partially reduce GO and increase the adsorption capacity. The morphologies and structures of the materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The adsorption capacity toward genistein of the rGO composite membrane was 367.5 μmol g−1, which was much higher than other adsorbents under similar conditions in literature. Moreover, the rGO composite membrane had much higher adsorption capacity toward genistein and daidzein than the other three isoflavones (genistin, daidzein, and puerarin) due to hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bond. Separated only once by the rGO composite membrane, the mass purity of daidzein and genistein in the purified extract was 31.31 % and 5.89 %, respectively, which was about 6 times of their mass purity in the crude extract of Radix Pueraria lobata.

A novel electrochemical sensor based on zinc oxide/nitrogen doped porous carbons (ZnO/NPC) modified electrode has been constructed for detecting 4-aminophenol (4-AP). The ZnO/NPC material was synthesized by one-step carbonization of MOF-5-NH2. The modified glassy carbon electrode (ZnO/NPC/GCE) holds excellent electrocatalytic activity toward 4-AP, with a sensitivity of about 31.02 μA/μM/cm2. Under optimal conditions, its oxidation peak current increases linearly with the increasing concentration of 4-AP (from 5 to 120 μmol/L), and the detection limits is 0.014 μmol/L (S/N = 3). Furthermore, favorable selectivity, superior reproducibility and outstanding stability have been achieved. The ZnO/NPC/GCE has been applied in detecting 4-AP in industrial waste water and achieved positive results with the recovery of 4-AP ranging from 94.02% to 107.7%, which confirms that this sensor is a reliable platform for the detection of 4-AP in waste water.

Haohai Huang,1 Dan Liao,2 Rong Pu,3 Yejia Cui3 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Dongguan Third People’s Hospital, Affiliated Dongguan Shilong People’s Hospital of Southern Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China; 2Department of Gynaecology, Dongguan Third People’s Hospital, Affiliated Dongguan Shilong People’s Hospital of Southern Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China; 3Department of Clinical Laboratory, Dongguan Third People’s Hospital, Affiliated Dongguan Shilong People’s Hospital of Southern Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China Purpose: Spirulina is generally used as a nutraceutical food supplement due to its nutrient profile, lack of toxicity, and therapeutic effects. Clinical trials have investigated the influence of spirulina on metabolic-related risk factors but have yielded conflicting results in humans. Here, we summarize the evidence of the effects of spirulina on serum lipid profile, glucose management, BP, and body weight by conducting a meta-analysis.Materials and methods: Relevant studies were retrieved by systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus databases, and reference lists of relevant original studies from inception to July 2018. Data were extracted following a standardized protocol. Two investigators independently extracted study characteristics, outcomes measures, and appraised methodological quality. Effect sizes were performed using a random-effects model, with weighted mean differences (WMDs) and 95% CIs between the means for the spirulina intervention and control arms. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore the possible influences of study characteristics. Publication bias and sensitivity analysis were also performed.Results: A total of 1,868 records were identified of which 12 trials with 14 arms were eligible. The amount of spirulina ranged from 1 to 19 g/d, and intervention durations ranged from 2 to 48 weeks. Overall, data synthesis showed that spirulina supplements significantly lowered total cholesterol (WMD = –36.60 mg/dL; 95% CI: −51.87 to –21.33; P=0.0001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (WMD = –33.16 mg/dL; 95% CI: −50.52 to –15.75; P=0.0002), triglycerides (WMD = –39.20 mg/dL; 95% CI: −52.71 to –25.69; P=0.0001), very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (WMD = –8.02 mg/dL; 95% CI: −8.77 to –7.26; P=0.0001), fasting blood glucose (WMD = –5.01 mg/dL; 95% CI: −9.78 to –0.24; P=0.04), and DBP (WMD = –7.17 mmHg; 95% CI: −8.57 to –5.78; P=0.001). These findings remained stable in the sensitivity analysis, and no obvious publication bias was detected.Conclusion: Our findings provide substantial evidence that spirulina supplementation has favorable effect on select cardiovascular and metabolic biomarkers in humans, including lipid, glucose, and DBP management. Keywords: blood pressure, body weight, blood glucose, CVD, lipid, spirulina

Understanding the difference between malignant and benign pancreatic masses is critical in terms of diagnosis, although this is difficult to determine in clinical practice. The contrast-enhanced harmonic endoscopic ultrasound (CH-EUS) technique was introduced in 2010, although, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there has been no systematic review or meta-analysis to date evaluating its diagnostic performance for the differentiation of pancreatic masses. The aim of the present study was to systematically evaluate the diagnostic performance of CH-EUS for the differentiation of pancreatic masses. Search key words and inclusion and exclusion criteria were initially presented. Two independent authors read and extracted the relevant information from the included studies. Disagreements were resolved through discussion with another two experienced authors. Metadisc and Stata software were used for the meta-analysis and the evaluation of bias. A total of 16 studies comprising 1,325 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of CH-EUS were used to distinguish between malignant and benign tumors, and the values obtained were 93% [95% confidence interval (CI): 91-94%], 84% (95% CI: 80-87%), 5.58 (95% CI: 3.90-7.97), 0.09 (95% CI: 0.07-0.11) and 72.56 (95% CI: 48.93-107.60), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was determined to be 0.96. No publication bias was identified in this meta-analysis. Taken together, these results confirm that CH-EUS has a high accuracy rate for distinguishing between benign and malignant pancreatic space-occupying lesions, and it may therefore be used as an effective diagnostic tool for pancreatic masses.

The mechanisms by which truncating mutations in MYBPC3 (encoding cardiac myosin binding protein-C; cMyBPC) or myosin missense mutations cause hyper-contractility and poor relaxation in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are incompletely understood. Using genetic and biochemical approaches we explored how depletion of cMyBPC altered sarcomere function. We demonstrate that stepwise loss of cMyBPC resulted in reciprocal augmentation of myosin contractility. Direct attenuation of myosin function, via a damaging missense variant (F764L) that causes dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) normalized the increased contractility from cMyBPC depletion. Depletion of cMyBPC also altered dynamic myosin conformations during relaxation - enhancing the myosin state that enables ATP hydrolysis and thin filament interactions while reducing the super relaxed conformation associated with energy conservation. MYK-461, a pharmacologic inhibitor of myosin ATPase, rescued relaxation deficits and restored normal contractility in mouse and human cardiomyocytes with MYBPC3 mutations. These data define dosage-dependent effects of cMyBPC on myosin that occur across all phases of the cardiac cycle as the pathophysiologic mechanisms by which MYBPC3 truncations cause HCM. Therapeutic strategies to attenuate cMyBPC activity may rescue depressed cardiac contractility in DCM patients, while inhibiting myosin by MYK-461 should benefit the substantial proportion of HCM patients with MYBPC3 mutations.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS)- induced trophoblast apoptosis in the development of intrahepatic cholestasis during pregnancy (ICP). METHODS: Twenty pregnant women with ICP and 20 normal pregnant women undergoing cesarean section were enrolled in this study. The number of placenta syncytial knots in these women was determined using HE staining. The mRNA expressions of GRP78, CHOP, caspase-3, and caspase-7 were detected using RT-PCR in the placental tissues of the women and also in HTR-8/SVneo cells treated with different doses of deoxycholic acid (DCA). Caspase-3 and caspase-7 activities were also detected in DCA-treated HTR-8/SVneo cells using commercial assay kits, and the presence of apoptotic bodies in the cells were detected with electron microscopy. RESULTS: Compared with normal placental tissues, the placenta from women with ICP showed significantly increased syncytial knots (P < 0.01) and obviously enhanced mRNA expressions of GRP78, CHOP, caspase-3, and caspase-7 (P < 0.05). In HTR-8/SVneo cells treated with different doses of DCA (0, 10, 50, and 100 μmol/L), the mRNA expressions of GRP78, CHOP, caspase-3 and caspase-7 were significantly increased in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05) and the protein levels of GRP78 and CHOP were also increased dosedependently. Treatment with DCA at 50 μmol/L for 24 h significantly upregulated caspase-3 and caspase-7 activity in the cells (P < 0.05), and the cells treated with 50 μmol/L DCA for 12 h showed the presence of apoptotic bodies. CONCLUSIONS: The activation of ERS and enhanced apoptosis of the trophoblasts occur in the placenta of women with ICP. DCA can significantly increase the expressions of ERS markers and thus lead to trophoblast apoptosis, suggesting that ERS-induced trophoblasts apoptosis may play a key role in the development of ICP.

The mechanisms by which truncating mutations in MYBPC3 (encoding cardiac myosin binding protein-C; cMyBPC) or myosin missense mutations cause hyper-contractility and poor relaxation in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) are incompletely understood. Using genetic and biochemical approaches we explored how depletion of cMyBPC altered sarcomere function. We demonstrate that stepwise loss of cMyBPC resulted in reciprocal augmentation of myosin contractility. Direct attenuation of myosin function, via a damaging missense variant (F764L) that causes dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) normalized the increased contractility from cMyBPC depletion. Depletion of cMyBPC also altered dynamic myosin conformations during relaxation - enhancing the myosin state that enables ATP hydrolysis and thin filament interactions while reducing the super relaxed conformation associated with energy conservation. MYK-461, a pharmacologic inhibitor of myosin ATPase, rescued relaxation deficits and restored normal contractility in mouse and human cardiomyocytes with MYBPC3 mutations. These data define dosage-dependent effects of cMyBPC on myosin that occur across all phases of the cardiac cycle as the pathophysiologic mechanisms by which MYBPC3 truncations cause HCM. Therapeutic strategies to attenuate cMyBPC activity may rescue depressed cardiac contractility in DCM patients, while inhibiting myosin by MYK-461 should benefit the substantial proportion of HCM patients with MYBPC3 mutations.One Sentence SummaryAnalyses of cardiomyocytes with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations in MYBPC3 reveal that these directly activate myosin contraction by disrupting myosin states of relaxation, and that genetic or pharmacological manipulation of myosin therapeutically abates the effects of MYBPC3 mutations.

Coupling crystal-facet engineering with selective interfacial modification has been demonstrated to be an effective strategy to enhance the photocatalytic performance of semiconductor photocatalysts. For instance, BiVO4 exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity when Pt cocatalyst was selectively modified on the (010) facet of BiVO4 single-crystal photocatalyst with exposed (010) and (110) facets. In view of the high cost and rarity of metallic Pt, it was desirable to discover low-cost electron cocatalysts that show comparable activity with Pt. In the study, Ag2O-Ag as a novel and highly efficient electron cocatalyst was selectively modified on the (010) facet of single-crystal BiVO4 photocatalyst via facile photodeposition of metallic Ag and its subsequent partial oxidation to Ag2O via low-temperature calcination (100-400 °C). In detail, Ag was selectively modified on the electron-rich (010) facet of BiVO4 single crystal, while Ag2O was selectively formed on the Ag surface, resulting in the formation of Ag2O-Ag/BiVO4 photocatalyst. As a result, Ag2O-Ag/BiVO4 exhibited nearly comparable activity with Pt/BiVO4, but clearly higher activity than Ag/BiVO4 or BiVO4 alone. The enhanced performance was ascribed to the synergistic effect of crystal-facet engineering of BiVO4 and selective modification of Ag2O-Ag electron cocatalyst. In detail, the single crystal structure of BiVO4 results in the orientation transport of photogenerated carriers, while metallic Ag effectively transfers photogenerated electrons of BiVO4 and then, Ag2O as the active site accelerates the reduction of dissolved oxygen. Considering that our present synthetic strategy is facile, controllable and economical, this study provides insight into the design and synthesis of highly efficient semiconductor photocatalysts.

This paper focuses on the routing algorithm for the communications between vehicles and places in urban vehicular ad hoc networks. As one of the basic transportation facilities in an urban setting, buses periodically run along their fixed routes and cover many city streets. The trajectory of bus lines can be seen as a submap of a city. Based on the characters of bus networks, we propose a bus-trajectory-based street-centric (BTSC) routing algorithm, which uses buses as the main relay to deliver messages. In BTSC, we build a routing graph based on the trajectories of bus lines by analyzing the probability of bus appearing on every street. We propose two novel concepts, i.e., the probability of street consistency and the probability of path consistency, which are used as metrics to determine routing paths for message delivery. This aims to choose the best path with higher density of busses and lower probability of transmission direction deviating from the routing path. In order to improve the bus forwarding opportunity, we design a bus-based forwarding strategy with ant colony optimization to find a reliable and a steady multihop link between two relay buses in order to decrease the end-to-end delay. The BTSC makes improvements in the selection of routing paths and a strategy of message forwarding. Simulation results show that our proposed routing algorithm has a better performance in terms of the transmission ratio, transmission delay, and adaptability to different networks.

Optical Flow is useful to calculate object movement in computer vision field. It is difficult to realize the optical flow system because of huge data needed to be processed for dynamic images. DSP and FPGA chips are used to solve this problem. The hardware of system is designed by using DSP TMS320C6713 and FPGA XC3S400AN. The L-K algorithm is realized in the system. The experimental result shows that system can work with high accuracy and anti-jamming ability. Therefore it is useful to improve the performance of computer vision computing.

To improve the Internet public opinion monitoring for colleges, this paper designs an efficient Internet public opinion system for college students. The system uses distributed web crawler to collect the structuring information from the news websites, social networking sites, BBS and blogs, which are widely visited by college students. To speed up the text clustering process, the Single-Pass algorithm is parallelized with Spark. The parallel Single-Pass algorithm is used to find hot topics from collected texts. The algorithm improved the clustering efficiency significantly through distributed processing. Simulation results reveal that the proposed system can achieve timely and accurately public opinion monitoring.

Pancreatic glandular necrosis is rapid inflammation of the pancreas and contributes to severe acute pancreatitis in humans. The pathogenesis of pancreatic tissue inflammation during acute pancreatitis is still largely unknown. Recent studies suggest that 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX) is an essential mediator in modulating cell death pathways in human diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effects of a 5-LOX inhibitor, zileuton, on tissue apoptosis and neutrophils activation in pancreatic tissues during acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) in a rat model. In this present study, both mRNA and protein levels of 5-LOX are upregulated during ANP and zileuton treatment is shown to repress ANP-induced upregulation of 5-LOX levels. In addition, zileuton treatment is found to repress blood biomarkers of neutrophils activation such as soluble intercellular adhesive molecular 1 (ICAM-1), soluble E-selectin (E-selectin), soluble P-selectin (P-selectin), leukotriene B4 (LTB4), and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Also, zileuton treatment attenuates pancreatic tissue pathology, upregulates caspase-3, downregulates B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), and activates tissue apoptosis evaluated by TUNEL staining. Our results show that 5-LOX plays an important role in activating apoptosis and repressing neutrophils activation during ANP. The current study suggests that 5-LOX can be used as a potential target for the treatment of ANP.

The mechanisms by which truncating mutations in

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018. Network function virtualization (NFV) is a promising technique aimed at reducing capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenditures (OPEX), and improving the flexibility and scalability of an entire network. However, this emerging technique has some challenges. A major problem is reliability, which involves ensuring the availability of deployed SFCs, namely, the probability of successfully chaining a series of big-data-based virtual network functions (VNFs) while considering both the feasibility and the specific requirements of clients, because the substrate network remains vulnerable to earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. Based on the premise of users’ demands for SFC requirements, we present an Ensure Reliability Cost Saving (ER_CS) algorithm to reduce the CAPEX and OPEX of telecommunication service providers (TSPs) by reducing the reliability of the SFC deployments. We employ big-data-based arbitrary topologies as the substrate network. The results of extensive experiments indicate that the proposed algorithms perform efficiently in terms of the blocking ratio, resource consumption and time consumption.

Current communication and network infrastructures have created billions of petabytes of data on the network every second. This imposes challenging traffic demands as a major research problem. This paper proposes a scheme for Cloud-of-Things and Edge Computing (CoTEC) traffic management in multi-domain networks. In order to direct the traffic flows through the service nodes in multi-domain networks, we assign the critical egress point for each traffic flow in the CoTEC network with multiple egress routers to optimize CoTEC traffic flows known as Egress-Topology (ET). Therefore, the proposed ET topology incorporates traditional Multi-Topology Routing (MTR) in the CoTEC network to address the inconsistencies between service overlay routing and the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) policies. Furthermore, the proposed ET introduces a number of programmable nodes which can be configured to ease of ongoing traffic on the network, and re-align services among the other nodes in multi-domain networks. Results show that our optimization algorithm has lower execution time and better QoS than without using optimization algorithm, thus allowing us to meet the demand of flexibility and efficiency of multi-domain networks in comparisons to justify our research contributions.

Purpose: Aspirin has recently been reported to reduce both the incidence and the risk of metastasis in colon cancer. However, there is no evidence at the cellular levels or in the animal models for such an effect of aspirin on cancer metastasis. Experimental Design: MTT assay, colony formation assay, and apoptosis assay were employed to analyze the effects of aspirin on the osteosarcoma cell viability in vitro. The NF-κB activity was measured by the NF-κB p65 luciferase reporter. Western blotting was used to analyze the proteins in cells. The migration and invasion abilities of osteosarcoma cells in vitro were measured by the Transwell assay. Xenograft-bearing mice were used to assess the roles of aspirin in both tumor growth and metastasis of osteosarcoma in vivo (n = 5–8 mice/group). An unpaired Student t test or ANOVA with the Bonferroni post hoc test were used for the statistical comparisons. Results: Aspirin reduced cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner in osteosarcoma cell lines, and aspirin synergistically sensitized osteosarcoma cells to cisplatin (DDP) in vitro and in vivo (P < 0.001). Moreover, aspirin markedly repressed the migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells in vitro (P < 0.001), and dramatically diminished the occurrence of osteosarcoma xenograft metastases to the lungs in vivo (P < 0.001). Mechanistically, aspirin diminishes osteosarcoma migration, invasion, and metastasis through the NF-κB pathway. Conclusions: Aspirin suppresses both the growth and metastasis of osteosarcoma through the NF-κB pathway at the cellular level and in the animal models. Clin Cancer Res; 21(23); 5349–59. ©2015 AACR.

No previous study has investigated dietary pattern in association with obesity risk in a middle-aged Chinese population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations between dietary patterns and the risk of obesity in the city of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province, east China. In this cross-sectional study of 2560 subjects aged 45–60 years, dietary intakes were evaluated using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). All anthropometric measurements were obtained using standardized procedures. The partial correlation analysis was performed to assess the associations between dietary patterns and body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist to hip ratio (WHR). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations between dietary patterns and obesity, with adjustment for potential confounders. Four major dietary patterns were extracted by means of factor analysis: animal food, traditional Chinese, western fast-food, and high-salt patterns. The animal food pattern was positively associated with BMI (r = 0.082, 0.144, respectively, p &lt, 0.05) and WC (r = 0.102, 0.132, respectively, p &lt, 0.01), and the traditional Chinese pattern was inversely associated with BMI (r = −0.047, −0.116, respectively, p &lt, 0.05) and WC (r = −0.067, −0.113, respectively, p &lt, 0.05) in both genders. After controlling for potential confounders, subjects in the highest quartile of animal food pattern scores had a greater odds ratio for abdominal obesity (odds ratio (OR) = 1.67, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.188–2.340, p &lt, 0.01), in comparison to those from the lowest quartile. Compared with the lowest quartile of the traditional Chinese pattern, the highest quartile had a lower odds ratio for abdominal obesity (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.441–0.901, p &lt, 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings indicated that the animal food pattern was associated with a higher risk of abdominal obesity, while the traditional Chinese pattern was associated with a lower risk of abdominal obesity. Further prospective studies are warranted to confirm these findings.

This paper presents a game theoretic approach to analyze the public goods (PGs) allocation in peer-to-peer (p2p) networks. In order to reduce the free-riders and promote the cooperation among peers, we propose an incentive mechanism with cooperation-based game theory. In this paper, we regarded the contributed resources by cooperators as public goods (PGs). We also build the PGs allocation in P2P networks to be the optimization problem, and the optimal solution of PGs allocation satisfies the Bowen- Lindahl-Samuelson equilibrium. Firstly, based on the subscriber mechanism, we analyze the feasibility and prove the validity, which can achieve Nash equilibrium. However, this strategy cannot meet to Bowen-Lindahl-Samuelson equilibrium as the free-riders do not pay with their private goods for consuming the PGs. Secondly, based on the Walker mechanism, we analyze the feasibility and prove the validity for the same allocation problem, which meets to Bowen-Lindahl-Samuelson equilibrium and achieves Pareto efficiency within cooperative game. Simulations show that the proposed walker mechanism can significantly improve the network performance of throughout, and effectively alleviate free-riding problem in P2P networks.

Plants and their root-associated microbes play important roles in the remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in the sediments of contaminated coastal wetlands. The detailed information about the effects of PAHs on root-associated bacterial communities could help to isolate PAH-degrading bacteria and optimize the process of phytoremediation. The community structures of rhizospheric (RB) and endophytic bacteria (EB) of salt marsh plant (Spartina alterniflora) grown in phenanthrene (PHE)- and pyrene (PYR)-contaminated sediments (for 70 days) were investigated using the barcoded Illumina paired-end sequencing technique. The diversity and community structure of EB and RB were more sensitive to PHE and PYR contamination as compared to those in the sediments. All samples were strongly clustered according to EB, RB, and sediments, suggesting the niche-specific influence of PAHs on bacterial communities. Potential PAH-degrading bacteria (Pseudomonas sp., Paenibacillus sp., and Flavobacterium sp.) in EB and RB were stimulated by PAH contamination. The results revealed an increase prevalence of specific bacteria which may be responsible for PAH degradation. PHE contamination increased the abundance of Proteobacteria in EB but decreased the number of Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Chloroflexi. The numbers of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes in EB were enhanced by PYR treatment. However, both PHE and PYR treatment showed similar effects on the bacterial communities in RB. The results suggested that PAH pollution could alter root-associated bacterial communities of S. alterniflora, whose EB might play an important role in the phytoremediation of PAH-contaminated sediments.

A cloud computing paradigm enables users to access services, applications, and infrastructure resources by using thin clients anywhere and at any time. In this paradigm, multiple users can share cloud infrastructure resources. The application or service requests from a user can be abstracted as a virtual network (VN) request and can be submitted to the cloud-based data centers. How to map a VN onto the cloud infrastructure network is a challenging issue in cloud resource provisioning. Thus, efficient mapping techniques that intelligently use the resources of cloud infrastructure are important and necessary. Current research on VN mapping and design focuses on resource-efficient VN mapping or cost-efficient VN mapping. However, there is another important issue in cloud-based data centers that we must pay attention to, i.e., the amount of power or energy that is consumed by a data center. The power consumption in data centers can be a significant percentage of the total power consumption, and it not only leads to a higher data center operating cost but also contributes to carbon emissions and the greenhouse effect. In this paper, we propose a power-efficient resource provisioning technique in cloud-based data centers while complying with service level agreements. We first model a power-efficient VN provisioning problem as a mathematical optimization problem, with the objective of minimizing the power consumption by employing mixed-integer programming. We then propose a heuristic algorithm to efficiently solve this model since this optimization problem is NP-hard. We validate and evaluate our framework and algorithm by conducting extensive simulations on different cloud infrastructure networks under various scenarios. The simulation results show that our approach performs well.

Evidence from animal and observational studies has supported the beneficial effects of beta-glucan intake on glycemic control, but intervention studies in hypercholesterolemic crowd have generated mixed results and have not been systematically examined. In the present study, we aimed to quantitatively evaluate the relation between beta-glucan consumption from oats or barley on glycemic control in hypercholesterolemic individuals. A systematic literature review was conducted for relevant published randomized controlled trials studies (RCTs) in electronic databases through July 2014. Twelve trials with a total of 603 subjects were included in the meta-analysis. Beta-glucan consumption did not significantly affect measures of glycemic control. Summary estimates of weighted mean differences (WMD) and 95% confidence interval was 0.05 mmol/L (-0.11, 0.02) for fasting glucose concentration and 0.75 pmol/L (-1.82, 3.32) for fasting insulin concentrations. In conclusion, there was not a significant overall effect of beta-glucan intake on improvements of fasting glucose and insulin concentrations in hypercholesterolemic subjects.

Rotavirus (RV) is the primary cause of severe dehydrating gastroenteritis and acute diarrheal disease in infants and young children. Previous studies have revealed that genistein can inhibit the infectivity of enveloped or nonenveloped viruses. Although the biological properties of genistein are well studied, the mechanisms of action underlying their anti-rotavirus properties have not been fully elucidated. Here, we report that genistein significantly inhibits RV-Wa replication in vitro by repressing viral RNA transcripts, and possibly viral protein synthesis. Interestingly, we also found that aquaporin 4 (AQP4) mRNA and protein expression, which was downregulated in RV-infected Caco-2 cells, can be upregulated by genistein in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Further experiments confirmed that genistein triggers CREB phosphorylation through PKA activation and subsequently promotes AQP4 gene transcription. These findings suggest that the pathophysiological mechanism of RV infection involves decreased expression of AQP4 and that genistein may be a useful candidate for developing a new anti-RV strategy by inhibiting rotavirus replication and upregulating AQP4 expression via the cAMP/PKA/CREB signaling pathway. Further studies on the effect of genistein on RV-induced diarrhea are warranted.

Recently, Krukier et al. (2014) and Dou et al. (2014) have studied the generalized skew-Hermitian triangular splitting (GSTS) iteration method for nonsingular and singular saddle point problems, respectively. In this paper, we further extend the GSTS method to a parameterized GSTS (PGSTS) method for solving non-Hermitian nonsingular and singular saddle point problems. By singular value decomposition technique, we derive conditions of the new iterative method for guaranteeing the convergence for non-Hermitian nonsingular saddle point problems and its semi-convergence for singular saddle point problems, respectively. In addition, the choice of the acceleration parameters in a practical manner is studied. Numerical experiments are provided, which further confirm our theoretical results and show the new method is feasible and effective for non-Hermitian nonsingular or singular saddle point problems.

Accumulating evidence has suggested that the human leucocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) 14 bp ins/del polymorphism might be related to cancer susceptibility. However, epidemiologic findings have been inconsistent. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis of case–control study to derive a more precise estimation of this association. Electronic databases were searched to identify all eligible studies of HLA-G 14 bp ins/del polymorphism and cancer risk. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the strength of the association in fixed-effects model or random-effects model according to heterogeneity. Publication bias, sensitivity analysis and subgroup analyses based on cancer type, ethnicity, source of controls and sample size were also performed. A total of 14 case–control studies, involving 2,757 cases and 3,972 controls, were included in the present meta-analysis. The pooled analysis showed that there is no significant relationship between the HLA-G 14 bp ins/del polymorphism and cancer susceptibility under the genetic models (for the allele model del vs. ins: OR 1.13, 95 % CI 1.00–1.27; for the homozygote comparison model del/del vs. ins/ins: OR 1.22, 95 % CI 0.95–1.56; for the dominant model del/del + ins/del vs. ins/ins: OR 1.15, 95 % CI 0.94–1.42; for recessive model del/del vs. ins/del + ins/ins: OR 1.13, 95 % CI 0.96–1.34; respectively). Subgroup analyses indicated significant association among breast cancer, population based control and the large sample size group in some genetic models. Our investigations demonstrate that genotypes for the HLA-G 14 bp ins/del polymorphism may be not associated with overall cancer risk. In a subgroup meta-analysis, however, HLA-G 14-bp ins/del polymorphism might contribute to breast cancer susceptibility.

These pot experiments aimed to investigate the effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on plant uptake, rhizophere, endophytic bacteria, and phytoremediation potentials of contaminated sediments. Salt marsh plant Spartina alterniflora was selected and cultivated in phenanthrene (PHE)- and pyrene (PYR)-contaminated sediments (for 70 days). The results indicated that the amount of PHE removed from the sediments ranged from 13 to 36 %, while PYR ranged from 11 to 30 %. In rhizophere sediment, dehydrogenase activities were significantly (P < 0.05) enhanced by higher concentration of PHE treatments, while polyphenol oxidase activities were prohibited more than 10 % in non-rhizophere sediment. Compared with the control, PHE treatments had also significantly (P < 0.05) lower total microbial biomass; especially for gram-negative bacteria, this decrease was more than 24 %. However, the PYR treatments had little effect on the dehydrogenase, polyphenol oxidase, and total phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) biomass. The greatest abundance of PAH-ring hydroxylating dioxygenases isolated from gram-negative bacteria (PAH-RHDα-GN) of rhizoplane and endophyte in roots were found at high concentration of PHE treatments and increased by more than 100- and 3-fold, respectively. These results suggested that PAH pollution would result in the comprehensive effect on S. alterniflora, whose endophytic bacteria might play important roles in the phytoremediation potential of PAH-contaminated sediments.

Aims Considering the phenotypical consequences and association of C4 copy number variation (CNV) with various autoimmune diseases, we aimed to examine C4 CNVs for 1027 patients with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada (VKH) syndrome and 2083 controls. Methods C4 CNVs were examined by real-time PCR for 1027 patients with VKH and 2083 controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were prepared from venous blood by Ficoll-Hypaque density-gradient centrifugation for cell culture. Cytokine production was examined by ELISA. Results The expression of total C4 in serum was significantly decreased in patients with VKH as compared with controls (p=0.0010). A significant positive association between C4 expression with C4 CNVs was found (p=0.0023, r 2 =0.92). CNV analysis identified significantly decreased frequencies of more than two copies of C4A or more than four copies of total C4 in patients with VKH (Pc=1.42×10 −3 to 3.56×10 −4 , OR=0.67 to 0.70). Linkage analysis showed the independent association of C4 with VKH syndrome from human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-DR4. No significant association was observed concerning type 1 T helper cell (Th1) cytokines and Th17 cytokine production by stimulated PBMCs and C4A copy number. Conclusions Our findings indicate a decreased expression of serum C4 and a decreased frequency of high C4 gene copy number in patients with VKH. Trial registration number Chinese Clinical Trial Registration Number: ChiCTR-CCC-12002184.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer-associated mortalities worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) serve important roles in tumor development, progression and metastasis. miR-221 has been reported to modulate proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle distribution and cell migration in a variety of cancers. However, the function of miR-221 in the autophagy of cancer is unclear. In the present study, the role of miR-221 in the autophagy of CRC cells was investigated and its associated target was identified. Survival analysis using The Cancer Genome Atlas data suggested that a higher expression of miR-221 was associated with poor survival in patients with CRC. A Cell Counting kit-8 assay revealed that miR-221 promoted CRC cell proliferation. Autophagy flux analyzed by microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3) turnover indicated that miR-221 reduced autophagy in CRC cells using different protease inhibitors (E64d and pepstatin A; Bafilomycin A1) in nutrient-rich medium or under starvation conditions. Tumor protein 53-induced nuclear protein 1 (TP53INP1) was identified as a potential novel target of miR-221 by bioinformative prediction. The protein expression of TP53INP1 was inversely regulated by miR-221 in CRC cells. Furthermore, luciferase activity assays were performed and indicated that miR-221 may regulate the luciferase activity of wild-type TP53INP1 without interfering with the activity of mutant TP53INP1. These data suggested that miR-221 may promote the cell proliferation of CRC via the inhibition of autophagy and targeted TP53INP1.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) in differentiating osteomyelitis from acute neuropathic arthropathy in the diabetic foot. This prospective study was carried out on 30 diabetic foot patients, with a mean age of 51 years. The patients all underwent clinical examinations, laboratory examinations and DCE-MRI. The DCE-MRI parameters (Ktrans, Kep and Ve) of the regions of acute neuropathic arthropathy and osteomyelitis were calculated. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) were used to identify the DCE-MRI parameters that showed the highest accuracy in differentiating the acute neuropathic arthropathy from the osteomyelitic regions. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to assess the correlations among the DCE-MRI parameters, the level of C-reactive protein (CRP) and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). The Ktrans, Kep and Ve values of the osteomyelitic regions were higher than those of the acute neuropathic arthropathy regions, and significant differences were found between the two groups (P = 0.000, P = 0.000, P = 0.000). The ROC analysis showed that Ktrans and Ve performed best in differentiating osteomyelitis from acute neuropathic arthropathy, both with an area under the curve of 0.938. The Pearson correlation coefficients showed that the DCE-MRI parameters correlated significantly with the level of CRP and ESR (P = 0.000, P = 0.014, P = 0.000; P = 0.000, P = 0.000, P = 0.013). Our results showed that DCE-MRI may provide reproducible parameters that can reliably differentiate osteomyelitis from acute neuropathic arthropathy.