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A simulation study of a current‐mode direct current (DC)‐DC buck converter is presented in this paper. The converter, with a fully integrated power module, is implemented by using sense method metal‐oxide‐semiconductor field‐effect transistor (MOSFET) and bipolar complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology. When the MOSFET is used in a current sensor, the sensed inductor current with an internal ramp signal can be used for feedback control. In addition, the BiCMOS technology is applied in the converter for an accurate current sensing and a low power consumption. The DC‐DC converter is designed using the standard 0.35 μm CMOS process. An off‐chip LC filter is designed with an inductance of 1 mH and a capacitance of 12.5 nF. The simulation results show that the error be‐ tween the sensing signal and the inductor current can be controlled to be within 3%. The characteristics of the error amplification and output ripple are much improved, as compared to converters using conventional CMOS circuits.

A coal slurry mixing tank is a key piece of equipment in the preparation of coal slurry for direct coal liquefaction. It is a gas-liquid-solid three-phase mixing device. Based on the performance of the existing coal slurry mixing equipment, a type of test equipment for horizontal continuous coal slurry preparation was developed, but to this point has limited research results. The test equipment consists of a mixing cylinder, mixer, stirring impeller and other components. Slurry mixing experiments were undertaken using the prototype, testing the performance of the device. A mathematical model was proposed specifically for the operation of a coal slurry mixing tank that is horizontally operated with high slurry concentration and rotary flow. The flow field in the horizontal coal mixing tank was simulated with the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method. The experimental results match well with the CFD simulation results. Results show that the test device of a coal slurry mixing tank can be used to model the mixing of pulverized coal and the solvent oil. A strong correlation was obtained.

Objective To explore the clinical effectiveness of bedside handover sheet and verbal handover note in hepatobiliary surgery. Methods A comparative study was conducted between the bedside handover sheet designed for patients in department of hepatobiliary surgery and verbal handover note. N-A handovers from January to June in 2017 in the Department of First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University were included into the controlled group and N-A handovers from July to December were into the observation group. Handover time, unclear handovers, handover omission and adverse events in the two groups were observed and recorded. Results N-A handover duration in the observation group was 28.1±3.57s and no unclear handover was observed. The occurrence of handover omission and adverse events in the observation group was much lower than that of the controlled group (P

The pigment gland is an important character of the Gossypium plant. With the aim of identifying genes involved in pigment gland morphogenesis in cotton, gene expression during pigment gland morphogenesis in Chuan 2802, which is glanded both in seed and plant, and a glandless line N5 was profiled using Affymetrix Cotton microarray. The results showed that there were 564 differentially expressed genes greater than twofold during gland morphogenesis. About 60.2% of these genes shares similarity with known genes on GenBank and about 39.8% with no functional description in the database. These described genes may play roles in defense response, response to oxidative stress, peroxidase activity, and the other metabolic pathways. The KEGG Orthology-Based Annotation System indicated that these above twofold expressed genes involved seven biochemical pathways on KEGG. These findings suggest that a complicated regulation is associated with pigment gland morphogenesis and the associated defense response including gossypol biosynthesis in cotton.

Let A be an expansive dilation. We define weakly strongly singular integral kernels and study the action of the operators induced by these kernels on anisotropic Hardy spaces associated with A.

It is significant to develop methods of patterning materials and clipping molecules on nanometer scale according to people's needs. The development of scanning probe lithography provided a simple and useful method to construct nanostructures onto substrates. In this article, bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanostructures with controllable shapes and sizes were constructed by using scanning probe lithography. The influence of tip-substrate contact time and tip-substrate distance on nanostructure was investigated. Longer contact time of tip-substrate and shorter tip-substrate distance towards substrate can deposit more BSA molecules from atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip to surface. The oriented and controlled patterns of nanostructures on suitable substrate can provide the prospect of building functional nanodevices.

A simulation study of a 10-bit two-stage DAC was done by using a conventional current switch cell. The DAC adopts the segmented architecture in order to reduce the circuit complexity and the die area. The 10-bit CMOS DAC was designed in 2 blocks, a unary cell matrix for 6 MSBs and a binary weighted array for 4 LSBs, for fabrication in a 0.35-µm CMOS process. To cancel the accumulation of errors in each current cell, a symmetrical switching sequence is applied in the unary cell matrix for 6 MSBs. To ensure high-speed operation, a decoding circuit with one stage latch and a cascode current source were developed. Simulations show that the maximum power consumption of the 10-bit DAC is 74 mW with a sampling frequency of 100 MHz .

The nonlinear constitutive relations of the cellular materials are presented in this paper based on the large deformation analysis of elastic beams in plane. The relations reflect the dependences of equivalent stress, equivalent Young’s modulus, equivalent Poisson’s ratio, and equivalent shear modulus on the deformation. It is found that the modified factors of the linear constitutive relations are associated with the shape and deformation of a considered cellularmaterialandindependentoftheratioofthefacethicknessttolengthl(t=l)ofthematerial.Sotheconstitutive relations can describe the mechanical properties of the cellular materials with the same shape.

A Bronsted-acidic task-specific ionic liquid, 1-methyl-3-propane sulfonic-imidazolium hydrosulfate ([MIMPS]HSO 4 ), was employed as a catalyst for the synthesis of 14-alkyl- or aryl-14 H -dibenzo[ a , j ]xanthenes via the one-pot condensation of β-naphthol with aliphatic or aromatic aldehydes. Various aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes were used in the reaction and in all cases the desired products were synthesized successfully. The novel synthesis method offers the advantages of high yields, short reaction times, simplicity and easy workup compared to the conventional method of syntheses. The catalyst could be recycled and reused five times without a noticeably decrease in its activity.

Environmental protection and legislative pressure to eliminate the use of solvents in the adhesive industry have inspired the search for safer alternatives. In the area of contact adhesives, the wa...

The morphology and the mass change of the AZ91D alloys matrix after pretreatment, the morphology and the phase composition of chemical conversion coatings formed by phosphate and stannate were studied using scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction and the mass loss method. The corrosion resistance of the coatings were studied by salt spay test and damp heat test. The results show that the phase composition of matrix before and after pretreatment is almost changeless and the mass diminishes a litter, the deep micro flaw appears near between α-Mg and β phase during acidic pickling. The phosphate chemical conversion coating is mainly composed of Mg, MgO and some amorphous phase, and the stannate conversion coating is crystal structure and mainly composed of Mg, Al12Mg17 and MgSnO3•3H2O. Results from salt spay test and damp heat test indicate that the two coatings also can provide good protection for the magnesium alloy matrix, and stannate is better than phosphate.

In this paper, a class of anisotropic Herz-type Hardy spaces associated with a non-isotropic dilation on ℝn are introduced, and the central atomic and molecular decomposition characterizations of those spaces are established. As some applications of the decomposition theory, the authors study the interpolation problem and the boundedness of the central δ-Calderon-Zygmund operators on the anisotropic Herz-type Hardy spaces.

The uptake capacities, and the adsorption kinetics, of copper, Cu(II), nickel, Ni(II), and cadmium, Cd(II), on peat have been studied under static conditions. The results show that the adsorption rates are rapid: equilibrium is reached in twenty minutes. The adsorption of copper, nickel and cadmium is pH dependent over the pH range from 2 to 6. The adsorption kinetics can be excellently described by the Elovich kinetic equation. The adsorption isotherm fits a Langmuir model very well. The adsorption capacities follow the order Cu2+ > Ni2+ > Cd2+ in single-component systems and the competitive adsorption capacities fall in the decreasing order Cu2+ > Ni2+ > Cd2+ in multi-component systems. The adsorption capacities of these three heavy metal ions on peat are consistent with their observed competitive adsorption capacities.

A basic functionalized ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazolium hydroxide ([bmim]OH), catalyzed three-component condensation reaction of aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile and α- or β-naphthol proceeded rapidly in water at reflux to afford corresponding 2-amino-2-chromenes in high yields. The greener protocol was found to be fairly general and the aqueous reaction media was reused in subsequent reactions with consistent activity.

Three-component Mannich-type reaction of cyclohexanone, aromatic aldehydes, and aromatic amines was catalyzed by a basic functionalized ionic liquid, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydroxide ([bmim][OH]), at room temperature to give various β-amino carbonyl compounds in high yields. The ionic liquid, which is environmentally friendly, can be recycled at least 5 times without significant loss of activity.

Acrylate latex modified by vinyl triisopropoxy silane (C-1706) was synthesized by seeded emulsion polymerization with anionic emulsifier sodium dodecyl sulphonate(SDS) and nonionic emulsifier OP-10 as the multiple emulsifiers at (78±2)°C. The effects of different factors, such as the emulsifier, C-1706 monomer and its feeding manner on the properties of acrylate latex modified by C-1706 were investigated. The particle size distribution and the structure, the configuration, the weather durability and stain resistance of copolymer latex were characterized by particle size analyzer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscope(TEM), scanning electron microscope(SEM) and ultraviolet aging instrument respectively. The results show that SDS to OP-10 as multiple emulsifiers can lead to coordinated efficiency, the optimal emulsifier dosage is 2.4%–3.2% (mass fraction), and the mass ratio of SDS to OP-10 is 1:1–1:2. The seeded emulsion polymerization can effectively introduce a organic-siloxane bonding in a macromolecule inter polymer, and the obtained acrylate latex modified by organic-siloxane possesses narrow distribution of particle size with mean diameter of 51.8–76.6 nm and has the excellent properties in weather durability and stain-resistance especially.

To evaluate the effects of H5 subtype avian influenza DNA vaccine with HA gene and expressive vector optimization, groups of 3-week-old specific pathogen free (SPF) chickens were inoculated intramuscularly with a single dose of 100 μg or 10 μg of pCIHA5, pCAGGHA5, pCIoptiHA5 or pCAGGoptiHA5 in 200 μl volume. Another group of chickens was injected with 200 μl phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as controls. Sera were collected every week after vaccination to detect the HI and agar-gel precipitin (AGP) antibodies. Four weeks after the single vaccination, all chickens were challenged with 100LD50 of the highly pathogenic A/Goose/GuangDong/1/96(H5N1) [Gs/GD/1/96(H5N1)]. Oropharyngeal and cloacal swab specimens were collected from all chickens 3, 5 and 7 days after inoculation for titration of virus in eggs. Chickens were observed daily for 2 weeks for signs of disease and death. Results showed that in the groups vaccinated with 100 μg pCAGGoptiHA5 and pCAGGHA5 chickens were completely protected from virus challenge (no disease signs, no virus shedding and no deaths), while only partial protection occurred in chickens vaccinated with 100 μg pCIoptiHA5 (75%) and pCIHA5 (50%). In groups vaccinated with 10 μg pCAGGoptiHA5 and pCAGGHA5 chickens were protected from virus challenge (no disease signs and no deaths). In the group vaccinated with 10 μg pCIoptiHA5 the protection ratio was 75%, while chickens vaccinated with 10 μg pCIHA5 all died after challenge. Results indicated that codon usage optimization of the HA gene and β-actin promoter enhanced the protection efficiency of H5 subtype avian influenza DNA vaccine and the construction pCAGGoptiHA5 could protect chickens from lethal H5N1 virus challenge even at the low dose of 10 μg, implying the possibility for the commercialization of an avian influenza DNA vaccine in the near future.

Two new steroidal alkaloids (I) and (II) are isolated from the root and rhizoma of Veratrum maackii together with five known compounds.

This paper first considers over-the horizon radar (OTHR) target tracking in the unknown ionospheric heights case, and a new scheme for joint multipath data association, ionospheric heights identification and state estimation (JMAHE) is developed based on distributed expectation conditional maximization (ECM) framework. The proposed JMAHE scheme casts the OTHR multipath tracking problem as sensor network collaborative tracking, and has a two-level processing structure. The local level performs the local measurement selection, state estimation and ionospheric heights identification jointly based on ECM algorithm. Then, the global level fuses these local estimates by using the consensus strategy.

Increasing evidence indicates that the hepatitis B virus (HBV) replicates in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), but at a low level. The present study aimed to establish a reliable and sensitive method that effectively detects HBV viral products for monitoring antiviral therapy, organ transplantation screening, and diagnosing occult HBV infection. In the present study, PBMCs (obtained from six healthy volunteers) were inoculated with HBV, and cultured with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and interleukin‑2 (IL‑2) to stimulate cell proliferation. PBMCs were harvested, and quantitative detection of HBV DNA in cell suspension and intracellular hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) was conducted on days 0, 1, 6 and 12, respectively. In situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction (RT‑PCR) were performed to analyze the HBV infection. The results demonstrated that HBV DNA increased concurrently with proliferation of PBMCs isolated from three of six healthy volunteers, and the mean number of PBMCs on day 12 was 13.61 times higher than the initially seeded cell number (P

Background: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is widely used in the treatment of coronary artery disease. A multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled clinical trial was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Huxin Formula post CABG. Patients and Methods: 270 inpatients with coronary heart disease participated in this study. CABG patients in the control group were treated with placebo, while patients in the experimental group were treated with Huxin Formula 1 week after the surgery. All patients were treated for 6 months and followed up for another 6 months. The main outcomes (death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization, and readmission) were assessed 360 days after treatment, and secondary outcomes (frequency and scores of angina pectoris, etc.) were assessed 0, 90, 180, 270, and 360 days after treatment. Results: Our results showed no significant difference between the 2 groups for the primary endpoints. In patients with cardiac function class II (New York Heart Association), the score of angina pectoris was significantly lower (3.88 ± 3.86 vs. 5.45 ± 3.59) and the frequency of angina pectoris attacks was less (0.96 ± 1.01 vs. 1.36 ± 0.94) after 90 days of treatment with Huxin Formula compared to placebo (p < 0.05). In patients with 3 coronary vessel lesions, the cardiac function class (1.14 ± 0.35 vs. 1.05 ± 0.21) after 360 days was significantly higher in the control group compared to the treatment group (p < 0.05). There were no obvious adverse reactions. Conclusion: Huxin Formula may improve cardiac function of patients with 3 coronary vessel lesions and relieve symptoms of patients with cardiac function class II but failed to show superiority in primary outcomes.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to examine the diagnostic accuracy of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in patients with renal insufficiency, since this population has a high incidence of non-AMI elevations of hs-cTnT. METHODS In this prospective study, we enrolled 2249 consecutive patients presenting with chest pain in the emergency department (ED), of whom 19.5% had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)cys of

BACKGROUND In clinical work, patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) often have high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) levels that surpass the 99th percentile of the normal reference population, a cutoff used to screen patients for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, a large proportion of these patients prove not to have AMI and are frequently misdiagnosed and overtreated. We analyzed whether the cutoff value of hs-cTnT for diagnosing AMI in AECOPD patients should be adjusted. METHODS This was a prospective study of 873 consecutive patients with AECOPD who presented at the emergency department of West China Hospital of Sichuan University from January 2010 to December 2013. Conventional cardiac troponin (cTnT) was measured in patients' blood samples taken at presentation, and values were compared with their final diagnoses. RESULTS Among patients with a final diagnosis other than AMI, 64.64% had a plasma hs-cTnT concentration above the 99th percentile of a normal reference population (14 ng/L). The median level of hs-cTnT in AECOPD patients without AMI was 16 ng/L. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) of hs-cTnT for diagnosis of AMI was 0.92 (0.85 - 0.99, p < 0.001) with a cutoff value of 60.5 ng/L. CONCLUSIONS The baseline levels of hs-cTnT were relatively high in AECOPD patients, and the optimal cutoff value of hs-cTnT for AMI diagnosis (60.5 ng/L) was also higher than that for non-AECOPD patients.

Objectives.To investigate the role of the IGF-1R by which lactoferrin induces osteoblast growth.Methods.Osteoblast received 5 d lactoferrin intervention at a concentration of 0.1, 1, 10, 100, and 1000 μg/mL, and the IGF-1 and IGF-1R were detected using RT-PCR and western blot. The osteoblast into the control, 100 μg/mL lactoferrin, Neo-scramble (NS, empty vector), NS + 100 μg/mL lactoferrin, shIGF-1R and shIGF-1R + 100 μg/mL lactoferrin group. We test the apoptosis and proliferation and the level of PI3K and RAS in osteoblasts after 5 d intervention.Results.(1) 1, 10, 100, and 1000 μg/mL lactoferrin induced the expression of IGF-1 mRNA and protein. 10 μg/mL and 100 μg/mL lactoferrin induced the expression of IGF-1R mRNA and protein. (2) Lactoferrin (100 μg/mL) induced osteoblast proliferation while inhibiting apoptosis. Osteoblasts with silenced IGF-1R exhibited decreased proliferation but increased apoptosis. MMT staining and flow cytometry both indicated that there was no significant difference between the shIGF-1R group and the shIGF-1R + 100 μg/mL lactoferrin group. (3) Lactoferrin (100 μg/mL) induced PI3K and RAS phosphorylation and silence of IGF-1R resulted in decreased p-PI3K and p-RAS expression. Lactoferrin-treated shIGF-1R cells showed significantly higher level of p-PI3K and p-RAS when compared with shIGF-1R.Conclusion.Lactoferrin induced IGF-1/IGF-1R in a concentration-dependent manner. Lactoferrin promoted osteoblast proliferation while inhibiting apoptosis through IGF-1R. Lactoferrin activated PI3K and RAS phosphorylation via an IGF-1R independent pathway.

To establish a cell line with a permanent suppression of hLRH-1 in this study, a stable RNAi vector (pSineohLRH-1) targeting hLRH-1 was constructed and introduced into hepatocellular carcinoma cell, BEL-7402. By semiquantitative RT-PCR analysis, the expression of hLRH-1 in BEL-7402 cells carrying pSineohLRH-1 was shown to be significantly suppressed by up to approximately 60%. In addition, microarray analysis was carried out to assess the extent of altered gene expression in BEL-7402 cells with stable knockdown of hLRH-1. Direct comparison of gene-expression profiles of more than 18,000 genes showed that 405 of the expressed genes in hLRH-1-knockdown cells differed dramatically in expression levels from those in controls, which suggested the even extensive biological functions of hLRH-1. Interestingly, among those differentially expressed genes, some are cancer-associated such as Gadd45beta and PTEN, and their expressions were further validated. Although the identification of the exact relationship between these genes and hLRH-1 awaits intensive investigation, the findings of this study provide new insights into the mechanism by which hLRH-1 is involved in tumorigenesis.

This paper describes a research method called two-stage design consisting of the determination of the efficiency for each quick-service restaurant of chained enterprise at the first stage by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), and then proposes an approach of Recruitment and Allocation (RA) plan for supporting the everlasting running of the enterprise in the second stage. The technical efficiency, the scale efficiency, the production efficiency, and the return to scale are conducted in the first stage of this two-stage research design. In addition, this study also proposes the potentially improved value to promote the relative efficiency of each chained restaurant through the improvement of inputs or outputs items. Besides, the RA plan is proposed in the second stage of the two-stage design. The RA plan is an efficiency-based quantitative approach to recruit employees as well as to determine the allocation of those recruited employees. This study indeed provides a constructive and quantitative approach of solving the dilemma issue “how to reasonably recruit and allocate employees” for decision makers with profound insight in the quick-service enterprise.

To explore the inhibitions of human nuclear receptor hLRH-1 via RNA interference, siRNAs expressing vectors pShLRH-1.1 and pShLRH-1.2, and targeting hLRH-1 were designed and constructed. The recombinants were introduced into hepatocellular carcinoma cells, BEL-7402, mediated by lipofectaminTM. RT-PCR was carried out to examine the inhibition ratio of hLRH-1 expression. The same method was also applied to analyze the expression of farnesyl pyrophosphate synthetase (FPPS) gene. Our results demonstrated that after transient transfection, both pShLRH-1.1 and pShLRH-1.2 could trigger the efficient inhibition of hLRH-1 in cultured cells, BEL-7402. The inhibition ratios were up to 80%. By comparing with non-transfection and vector-transfection control, the expression of FPPS in cells with inhibition of hLRH-1 was up-regulated significantly. Thus, the inhibition of expression of hLRH-1 in cultured cells was achieved via RNA interference in this study. Our results also suggested that hLRH-1 acts as a negative regulator in FPPS expression.

In this paper, the authors consider a class of maximal multilinear singular integral operators and maximal multilinear oscillatory singular integral operators with standard Calderon–Zygmund kernels, and obtain their boundedness on L p (ℝ n ) for 1 < p < ∞.

The integration of multimedia services into wireless communication networks is a major source of future technological advances. One of the main challenging issues in this endeavor is the resource optimization strategy. This paper addresses this issue from the perspective of minimizing the total power consumption of a mobile terminal while maintaining a guaranteed quality-of-service (QoS). For many years, the management strategy has dealt primarily with bandwidth allocation, network capacity, and QoS. However, due to the integration of multimedia services, the increasing energy consumption of a mobile unit is also becoming a dominant factor in the design of communication systems. In this paper, we describe two technologies that can make a wireless multimedia communication system more energy-efficient while ensuring QoS. These technologies consist of an energy-efficient communication protocol for the uplink channel and a low-complexity multirate transmission scheme. We also provide a video transmission example using the H.263 standard in the proposed system to demonstrate the importance of our total power optimization strategy. The simulation results show that a savings of 10-32% is achieved in the total energy consumption of the mobile unit.

Future consumer terminals will be more and more based on programmable platforms instead of only dedicated hardware. Novel scalable video algorithm (SVA) software modules trade off resource usage against quality of the output signal. SVAs together with a strategy manager and a quality-of-service resource manager (QoS-RM) aim for flexible, robust, and cost-effective media processing in software on programmable architectures. We developed some SVAs including MPEG-2 decoding and image enhancement algorithms and the basic QoS control software to illustrate the power of the overall system. The resource limited hardware is a currently available DSP board with a single dedicated media processor1. The system supports two inputs and several modes for main and picture-in-picture (PiP) window applications, along with background recording.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection causes severe public health problem. There are estimated 250 million people being chronically infected by HBV and are at an increased risk of developing end-stage liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. It is well recognized that the chronicity of HBV infection is due to the impaired immune responses to HBV and thus not able to eliminate HBV from the infected hepatocytes. However, the immune mechanisms that lead to immune tolerance and HBV persistence have not been understood. A challenging question for HBV studies is lack of appropriate animal models due to the narrow host range of HBV. To address this challenge, we created a chronic HBV infection model in immunocompetent mice by transduction of adeno-associated virus serotype 8 (AAV8) vector which carries and these mice was transduced with carrying a replication-defective HBV genome with two point mutations in the polymerase(AAV/HBVp−). We showed that mice transduced with AAV/HBVp− produced HBV RNA and proteins, including serum HBV surface antigen and HBV e antigen as well as HBV core protein. The high levels of HBV RNA and proteins sustained for at least 1 year post AAV transduction. Viral transcripts and proteins were detected in the livers of the AAV-injected mice but not in other organs. DNA immunization of these AAV/HBVp− transduced mice failed to induce HBV-specific humoral and cellular immune responses, suggesting these mice developed immune tolerance toward HBV. Thus, the AAV/HBVp− transduced mouse model recapitulates many virological and immunological characteristics of chronic HBV in humans. This animal model could be useful for the development of new treatments and immune-based therapies for chronic HBV infections.

As influenza A viruses remain a major threat to human health worldwide, the discovery of broadly neutralizing monoclonal antibodies that recognize conserved epitopes would facilitate the development of antibody-based therapeutic strategies. In this study, we show that a novel VH4-4-encoded human mAb named 3E1 could neutralize H1 and H5 subtype viruses in vitro and protect mice against the H1N1 and H5N6 viruses by inhibiting the low pH-induced conformational rearrangement of hemagglutinin (HA), hence blocking membrane fusion. The crystal structures of 3E1 Fab in complex with HA of two H1N1 strains reveal that 3E1, with both heavy and light chains, binds to a novel epitope of the conserved HA stem region, comprising parts of the fusion peptide, the F subdomain and the outermost β-strand preceding helix A. Together, these data suggest the potential of 3E1 as a therapeutic drug and new strategies for the development of antiviral drugs and universal vaccines against H1 and H5 subtype viruses.

Ribosomal protein S6 (rpS6) has long been regarded as one of the primary r-proteins that functions in the early stage of 40S subunit assembly, but its actual role is still obscure. The correct forming of 18S rRNA is a key step in the nuclear synthesis of 40S subunit. In this study, we demonstrate that rpS6 participates in the processing of 30S pre-rRNA to 18S rRNA only when its C-terminal five serines are phosphorylated, however, the process of entering the nucleus and then targeting the nucleolus does not dependent its phosphorylation. Remarkably, we also find that the aggregation of rpS6 at the nucleolus correlates to the phasing of cell cycle, beginning to concentrate in the nucleolus at later S phase and disaggregate at M phase. J. Cell. Biochem. 117: 1649-1657, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this paper we consider the problem of distributed, joint, state estimation and identification for a class of stochastic systems with unknown inputs (UI). A distributed Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is presented to estimate the local state at each sensor node by using the local observations in the E-step, and three different consensus schemes are proposed to diffuse the local state estimate to each sensor's neighbours and to derive the global state estimate at each node. In the M-step, each sensor identifies the local unknown inputs by using the global state estimate. A numerical example of target tracking in distributed sensor network is given to verify the three different distributed EM algorithms compared with the centralized EM based measurement-level and track-level fusion. © 2014 IEEE.

To monitor the current HIV prevalence, related risk behaviors and factors for HIV infection among the elderly male clients of the commercial female sex-workers (CFSW)in Guangxi.Face to face interview on male clients aged ≥40 years old was carried out in April to July, 2012. Information on demography, awareness of HIV prevention, related risk behaviors, history on HIV testing etc. were collected, with 3-5 ml full blood collected for testing on HIV. Data was analyzed by SPSS 18.0 software.4260 clients were surveyed at 14 surveillance sites in which 82.1% had received secondary or lower education, 72.0% experienced commercial sex in places with low-class sex trade. HIV awareness rate of clients was 74.2% in which the rate of clients who were HIV positive was 65.8%. Among all the clients, 73 were detected as HIV positive, with the HIV positive rate as 1.40% . Samples from voluntary counseling and testing sites showed higher risk to HIV infection than from other sources (OR = 23.672, 95%CI:4.984-112.434). Samples from middle class population showed lower risk to HIV infection than those at low class (OR = 0.410, 95%CI:0.190-0.885). Among those who were syphilis negative (OR = 0.255, 95%CI: 0.132-0.491) or hepatitis C virus (HCV)negative (OR = 0.154, 95% CI:0.059-0.401), the risk of getting HIV infected seemed to be low. Rate on condom use was low for clients among all of the sex-related behaviors regardless of the marriage status. In those lower-class sex trade places, lower rate on the condom use was seen. Rate for previous HIV testing for clients was only 4.6% . Among 41 clients who had received CD4 testing, 80.5% of them showed CD4 under 350 cell/µl, 61.0% were under 200 cell/µl.The HIV positive rate for elderly male clients of the CFSWs was high in Guangxi. Unprotective sexual contact with low class sex workers was the most important risk factor for HIV infection.

To explore the associated factors on loss to follow-up among men who have sex with men (MSM) in a prospective cohort study.We recruited eligible HIV-negative MSM at baseline in eight cities from June to October 2009. Interviewer-administrated questionnaire and blood testings for HIV, syphilis and human simplex virus type 2, were accomplished upon enrollment, 6-month and 12-month follow-up visits in the program. Loss to follow-up was recorded at each visit in this cohort. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis were conducted to examine the associated factors on loss to follow-up.A total of 3196 eligible MSM were enrolled at the baseline study. During one year of follow-up, 894 (28.0%) of them dropped out thoroughly while 2302 (72.1%) showed up at least on one visit. Factors as MSM who were at age 25 or younger, resided locally less than 1 year, being unemployed, self-recognized as heterosexuality or bisexuality, never taking HIV testing in the past year, having had sex with women in the past 6 months etc., were more likely to withdraw from the follow-up visits. Conclusion Age, length of residency, sex orientation and history of HIV testing were associated with the loss of follow-up among MSM cohort in our study. These factors should be considered in this kind of study design in the future.

To study clinical effects of double plates fixation for the treatment of acromion base fracutres.From January 2010 to May 2012, 7 patients with acromion base fractures were treated with double plates ORIF surgical treatment. There were 5 males and 2 females, with an average age of 36.3 years old (ranged, 24 to 62 years old). All fractures were acuted and closed injuries. The duration from injury to surgery was 4.6 days (ranged, 2 to 10 days). Hardegger functional criterion, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and complications of the patients were documented analysis.All the patients were followed up,and the duration ranged from 4 to 13 months (averaged 8.9 months). The healing duration of fractures ranged from 8 to 14 weeks without any infection, shoulder instability, subacromial impingement syndrome, nonunion and failure of internal fixation. At the latest follow-up, the VAS ranged from 0 to 5. According to Hardegger criterion, 2 patients got an excellent result, 4 good and 1 poor.Double plates ORIF plays a positive role in the treatment of acromion base fractures, which reduces complications and maximally restore the function of shoulder.

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of lactoferrin (LF) in primary fetal rat osteoblasts proliferation and differentiation and investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms. Primary rat osteoblasts were obtained from the calvarias of neonatal rats. Osteoblasts were treated with LF (0.1-1000 μg/mL), or OSI-906 [a selective inhibitor of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) receptor and insulin receptor]. The IGF-1 was then knocked down by small hairpin RNA (shRNA) technology and then was treated with recombinant human IGF-1 or LF. Cell proliferation and differentiation were measured by MTT assay and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) assay, respectively. The expression of IGF-1 and IGF binding protein 2 (IGFBP2) mRNA were analyzed using real-time PCR. LF promotes the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts in a certain range (1-100 μg/mL) in time- and dose-dependent manner. The mRNA level of IGF-1 was significantly increased, while the expression of IGFBP2 was suppressed by LF treatment. Knockdown of IGF-1 by shRNA in primary rat osteoblast dramatically decreased the abilities of proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts and blocked the proliferation and differentiation effect of LF in osteoblasts. OSI906 (5 μM) blocked the mitogenic and differentiation of LF in osteoblasts. Proliferation and differentiation of primary rat osteoblasts in response to LF are mediated in part by stimulating of IGF-1 gene expression and alterations in the gene expression of IGFBP2.