Search

Miao Li,1,2 Jiazhao Zhang,3 Chenguang Jiang,2,4 Jun Wang,2 Ruhong Sun,5 Shayu Jin,5 Ning Zhang,1,* Zhenhe Zhou2,* 1Department of Psychology, Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Wuxi Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, Wuxi Central Rehabilitation Hospital, Wuxi, People’s Republic of China; 3Grade 2019 Class 6, Basic Medicine College of Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Psychiatry, Nanjing Medical University Graduate School, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ning Zhang, Department of Psychology, Nanjing Brain Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13601588630, Email zn6360@126.com Zhenhe Zhou, Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Wuxi Mental Health Center of Jiangnan University, Wuxi Central Rehabilitation Hospital, Wuxi, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-13358118986, Email zhouzh@njmu.edu.cnPurpose: Deficits in facial emotional intensity recognition have been associated with social cognition in patients with major depression. The study examined multiple event-related potential (ERP) components in patients with major depression and investigated the relationships between ERPs, social cognition, and clinical features.Participants and Methods: Thirty-one patients met DSM-IV diagnosis of depression and 31 healthy participants completed the emotion intensity recognition task (EIRT), while ERPs were recorded. Data on ERP components (P100, N170, P200, and P300) were analyzed.Results: The behavioral results showed that patients with major depression performed worse on EIRT, including all six categories of emotions (sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise, anger, and fear), compared to healthy participants. The ERP results showed that patients with major depression exhibited higher P100 amplitudes for sad and happy faces than healthy participants; P300 amplitudes induced by sad and surprise faces were also higher than in healthy participants, mainly in the central and temporal lobes. A positive correlation was found between sadness intensity scores and P100 amplitudes in patients with major depression.Conclusion: Patients with major depression are biased in their identification of facial expressions indicating emotional intensity. Specifically, they have emotional biases in the early and late stages of cognitive processing, mainly in the form of sensitivity to sad stimuli. It may lead to a persistent rumination of sadness that is detrimental to the remission of depression. Additionally, patients with major depression devote different amounts of cognitive resources for different intensities of sad faces during the preconscious stage of cognitive processing. The more intense their perception of sadness, the more cognitive resources they devote. Therefore, the assessment of the intensity of facial expressions is an important research topic, with clinical implications on social cognitive function in patients with major depression.Keywords: major depression, event-related potentials, emotional intensity recognition, social cognition, emotional tasks

Motivated by the potential of objective neurophysiological markers to index thalamocortical function in patients with severe psychiatric illnesses, we comprehensively characterized key NREM sleep parameters across multiple domains, their interdependencies, and their relationship to waking event-related potentials and symptom severity. In 130 schizophrenia (SCZ) patients and controls, we confirmed a marked reduction in sleep spindle density in SCZ and extended these findings to show that only slow spindles predicted symptom severity, and that fast and slow spindle properties were largely uncorrelated. We also describe a novel measure of slow oscillation and spindle interaction that was attenuated in SCZ. The main sleep findings were replicated in a demographically distinct sample, and a joint model, based on multiple NREM components, predicted disease status in the replication cohort. Although also altered in patients, auditory event-related potentials elicited during wake were unrelated to NREM metrics. Consistent with a growing literature implicating thalamocortical dysfunction in SCZ, our characterization identifies independent NREM and wake EEG biomarkers that may index distinct aspects of SCZ pathophysiology and point to multiple neural mechanisms underlying disease heterogeneity. This study lays the groundwork for evaluating these neurophysiological markers, individually or in combination, to guide efforts at treatment and prevention as well as identifying individuals most likely to benefit from specific interventions.

A series of mesoporous Hβ zeolites with low crystallinity and various Si/Al ratios were prepared using different Si/Al ratios in the reactants. Then, NiMoC/Hβ-x catalysts (x = 15, 18, 23, 27 and 30) were prepared using a co-impregnation method followed by temperature-programmed reduction under a H2/CH4 atmosphere. The effects of the initial Si/Al molar ratio on the chemical compositions, textural properties, acidities and morphologies of these materials were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), N2 adsorption–desorption, temperature-programmed ammonia desorption (NH3-TPD), FTIR spectroscopy of adsorbed pyridine (Py-FTIR), H2-temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The catalytic performance towards the hydrogenation of naphthalene was tested with and without quinoline in a fixed-bed reactor, and then evaluated by hydrogenation of aromatics from low temperature coal tar (LTCT). The results showed that the total acidity, the number of Bronsted acid sites and Lewis acid sites, and the molar ratio of Bronsted to Lewis acid sites (B/L) decreased with increasing initial Si/Al ratio for the pure Hβ-x zeolites and their corresponding supported NiMoC catalysts. The NiMoC/Hβ-18 catalyst had the best catalytic activity among the prepared catalysts and a strong tolerance to heteroatom compounds in the hydrogenation of aromatic compounds. It could be concluded that the total acidity of the catalyst and the dispersion of the active metal served as crucial factors that determined the catalytic performance toward aromatics hydrogenation.

Background: Individuals’ information processing includes automatic and effortful processes and the latter require sustained concentration or attention and larger amounts of cognitive “capacity.” Event-related potentials (ERPs) reflect all neural activities that are related to a certain stimulus. Investigating ERP characteristics of effortful cognitive processing in people with schizophrenia would be helpful in further understanding the neural mechanism of schizophrenia.Methods: Both schizophrenia patients (SCZ, n = 33) and health controls (HC, n = 33) completed ERP measurements during the performance of the basic facial emotion identification test (BFEIT) and the face-vignette task (FVT). Data of ERP components (N100, P200, and N250), BFEIT and FVT performances were analyzed.Results: Schizophrenia patients’ accuracies of face emotion detection in the BFEIT and vignette emotion detection in the FVT were both significantly worse than the performance of the HC group. Repeated-measures ANOVAs performed on mean amplitudes and latencies revealed that the interaction effect for group × experiment × site (prefrontal, frontal, central, parietal, and occipital site) was significant for N250 amplitude. In FVT experiment, N250 amplitudes at prefrontal and frontal sites in schizophrenia group were larger than those of HC group; the maximum N250 amplitude was present at the prefrontal site in both the groups. For N250 latency, the interaction effect for group × experiment was significant; N250 latencies in the schizophrenia group were longer than those of the HC group.Conclusion: Schizophrenia patients present effortful cognitive processing dysfunctions which reflect in abnormal ERP components, especially N250 at prefrontal cortex and frontal cortex sites. These findings have important implications for further clarifying the neural mechanism of effortful cognitive processing deficits in schizophrenia.

Alcohol dependence (AD) presents cognitive control deficits. Event-related potential (ERP) P300 reflects cognitive control-related processing. The aim of this study was to investigate whether cognitive control deficits are a trait biomarker or a state biomarker in AD. Participants included 30 AD patients and 30 healthy controls (HCs). All participants were measured with P300 evoked by a three-stimulus auditory oddball paradigm at a normal state (time 1, i.e., just after the last alcohol intake) and abstinence (time 2, i.e., just after a 4-week abstinence). The results showed that for P3a and P3b amplitude, the interaction effect for group × time point was significant, the simple effect for group at time 1 level and time 2 level was significant, and the simple effect for time point at AD group level was significant; however, the simple effect for time point at HC group level was not significant. Above results indicated that compared to HCs, AD patients present reductions of P3a/3b amplitude, and after 4-week alcohol abstinence, although P3a/3b amplitudes were improved, they were still lower than those of HCs. For P3a and P3b latencies, no significant differences were observed. These findings conclude that AD patients present cognitive control deficits that are reflected by P3a/3b and that cognitive control deficits in AD are trait- and state-dependent. The implication of these findings is helpful to understand the psychological and neural processes for AD, and these findings suggest that improving the cognitive control function may impact the treatment effect for AD.

Background: Effortful cognition processing is an intentionally initiated sequence of cognitive activities, which may supply top-down and goal-oriented reassessment of specific stimuli to regulate specific state-driven responses contextually, whereas automatic cognitive processing is a sequence of cognitive activities that is automatically initiated in response to an input configuration. The effortful–automatic perspective has implications for understanding the nature of the clinical features of major depressions. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of problem solving therapy (PST) on effortful cognition in major depression (MD).Methods: The participants included an antidepressant treatment (AT) group (n = 31) or the combined antidepressant treatment and PST (CATP) group (n = 32) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 30). Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD, 17-item version) and the face–vignette task (FVT) were measured for AT group and CATP group at baseline (before the first intervention) and after 12 weeks of interventions. The HC group was assessed with the FVT only once. At baseline, both patients and HCs were required to complete the basic facial emotion identification test (BFEIT).Results: The emotion identification accuracy of the HC group was higher than that of the patient group when they performed BFEIT; patients with MD present poor FVT performances; compared to the antidepressant treatment, PST plus antidepressant treatment decreased HAMD scores and improved FVT performances in patients with MD.Conclusions: Patients with MD present effortful cognition dysfunction, and PST can improve effortful cognitive dysfunction. These findings suggest that the measurement of effortful cognition might be one of the indexes for the therapeutic effect of PST in MD.

Cognitive dysfunction may be a critical aspect of addictive disorders. This study aimed to examine whether individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have similar neurocognitive dysfunctions and social cognitive impairments as methamphetamine dependence (MD) patients. The participants included 30 individuals with IGD, 30 MD patients and 30 normal controls (NCs). All participants completed the digit span task, Iowa gambling task (IGT), WCST and the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15). The results showed that the IGD and MD groups had lower forwards and backwards scores, choices of advantageous minus disadvantageous decks, mean amount of money earned, number of categories completed, percentage of conceptual level responses, and IPT-15 total and factor scores compared with the NC group. Forwards and backwards scores, number of categories completed, percentage of conceptual level responses, choices from advantageous minus disadvantageous decks and mean amount of money earned were lower in the IGD group than in the MD group. The number of cards chosen from decks A, B, C, and D, total response errors, perseverative errors and failure to maintain set were higher in the IGD and MD groups than in NCs. Total response errors, perseverative errors and failure to maintain set were higher in the IGD than the MD group. The results revealed that neurocognitive deficits and social cognitive dysfunction in IGD are similar to those in MD. From a cognitive perspective, these results supported IGD as an addictive spectrum disorder and might lead to a better assessment of therapeutic efficacy.Las disfunciones cognitivas pueden ser una parte esencial de trastornos de adicción. El objetivo de este estudio fue examinar si las personas con trastorno de juego en Internet (TJI) tienen deficiencias cognitivas y disfunciones sociocognitivas similares a los pacientes con dependencia de la metanfetamina (DM). Los participantes incluyeron 30 personas con TJI, 30 pacientes con DM, y 30 Controles Normales (CN). Todos los participantes completaron la tarea de dígitos, Iowa gambling task (IGT), WCST e Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15). Los resultados mostraron que los grupos de TJI y DM obtuvieron puntuaciones más bajas en dígitos directos e inversos, elecciones de barajas favorables menos barajas desfavorables, cuantía media de ganancia monetaria, número de categorías completadas, porcentaje de respuestas a nivel conceptual, y puntuaciones totales y factoriales del IPT-15, comparado con el grupo CN. Las puntuaciones en dígitos directos e inversos, número de categorías completadas, porcentaje de respuestas a nivel conceptual, elecciones de barajas favorables menos barajas desfavorables, y cuantía media de ganancia monetaria eran más bajas en el grupo TJI que en el grupo DM. El número de cartas elegidas de las barajas A, B, C, y D, total de respuestas erróneas, errores perseverativos, e incapacidad para mantenimiento de sets eran más elevados en los grupos TJI y DM que en el grupo CN. El total de respuestas erróneas, errores perseverativos, e incapacidad para mantener los sets eran más elevados en el grupo TJI que en el grupo DM. Los resultados mostraron que las deficiencias neurocognitivas y disfunciones sociocognitivas son similares en los grupos TJI y DM. Desde una perspectiva cognitiva, dichos resultados apoyan la hipótesis del TJI como trastorno del espectro de las adicciones, y podría llevar a una mejor valoración de la eficacia del tratamiento.

Cognitive dysfunction may be a critical aspect of addictive disorders. This study aimed to examine whether individuals with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) have similar neurocognitive dysfunctions and social cognitive impairments as methamphetamine dependence (MD) patients. The participants included 30 individuals with IGD, 30 MD patients and 30 normal controls (NCs). All participants completed the digit span task, Iowa gambling task (IGT), WCST and the Interpersonal Perception Task-15 (IPT-15). The results showed that the IGD and MD groups had lower forwards and backwards scores, choices of advantageous minus disadvantageous decks, mean amount of money earned, number of categories completed, percentage of conceptual level responses, and IPT-15 total and factor scores compared with the NC group. Forwards and backwards scores, number of categories completed, percentage of conceptual level responses, choices from advantageous minus disadvantageous decks and mean amount of money earned were lower in the IGD group than in the MD group. The number of cards chosen from decks A, B, C, and D, total response errors, perseverative errors and failure to maintain set were higher in the IGD and MD groups than in NCs. Total response errors, perseverative errors and failure to maintain set were higher in the IGD than the MD group. The results revealed that neurocognitive deficits and social cognitive dysfunction in IGD are similar to those in MD. From a cognitive perspective, these results supported IGD as an addictive spectrum disorder and might lead to a better assessment of therapeutic efficacy.

This paper proposes a solar power-assisted electric vehicle battery balancing system. There are three operation modes of the system: solar-balancing, storage-balancing, and charge balancing. The solar-balancing mode charges the battery module with the lowest state of charge (SOC) using the solar power during vehicle driving; the charge-balancing mode is operated when the vehicle is parked and being charged by the conventional charger. Under this mode, the balancing circuit discharges the battery module with the highest SOC by transferring the energy to an additional storage cell while the solar panel also charges the storage cell independently at the same time if solar power is available. When the solar power is low, the storage-balancing mode will be selected to charge the battery module with the lowest SOC using energy stored in the storage cell. This system eliminates the energy loss that would otherwise happen in conventional active and passive balancing schemes by equalizing the battery using solar/stored energy in the storage cell. A 48-V battery pack with four 12-V battery modules system is simulated and tested. A prototype system is developed to prove the concept. The simulation and experimental results verify that the proposed system not only achieves the same balancing performance as conventional balancing circuits, but also effectively increases the overall usable battery energy by 2.1%–3.3% every 13.2 km.

Jumping disturbances and large noises in input voltage sources to a power converter can cause substantial excursion of its output voltage even under a well-designed feedback controller. Predictive compensation can achieve improved disturbance rejection and tracking performance in such scenarios, resulting in a two-degree-of-freedom design. While the feedback controller has embedded robustness, designing feedforward controllers, which are open-loop compensators, is challenging due to the fact that converter internal parameters change from aging and variations in operating conditions, and loads themselves are part of the converter dynamics. When converter dynamics change, system performance deteriorates significantly, making adaptation mandatory. By integrating system identification with the feedforward compensator, an adaptive feedforward compensation design is proposed in this brief. Working on a boost dc–dc converter as a typical platform, combined feedback and adaptive feedforward design is explored. The results show that the two-degree-of-freedom adaptive design results in much improved performance in rejecting disturbances from input power sources.

Using different molecular weight of PDADMAC as template, Hβ zeolites and NiMoC/Hβ-Mx catalysts were successfully prepared. The textural properties, acidity and active metal dispersion of samples were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption and desorption, NH3-TPD, Py-FTIR, H2-TPR, XPS, HRTEM characterizations, to have a better understanding of the importance of PDADMAC molecular weight role. Hydrogenation of model compounds, including naphthalene and quinoline, and real oils were performed on a fixed bed to evaluate the NiMoC/Hβ-Mx catalysts aromatics hydrogenation performance. By analyzing the collected liquid and gas products, it was found that the NMCH-M3 catalyst with PDADMAC molecular weight of 400,000–500,000 exhibited excellent hydrogenation performance in both model compounds and real oils. The mesopore diameter of NiMoC/Hβ-Mx catalysts has great effect on hydrogenation of real oils where the larger pore size is favorable for the hydrogenation reaction. Meanwhile, the B/L ratio of total acid sites and strong acid sites have great effect on aromatics hydrogenation.

Time irreversibility is one of the most important properties of nonstationary time series. Complex time series often demonstrate even multiscale time irreversibility, such that not only the original but also coarse-grained time series are asymmetric over a wide range of scales. We study the multiscale time irreversibility of time series. In this paper, we develop a method called multiscale multifractal time irreversibility analysis (MMRA), which allows us to extend the description of time irreversibility to include the dependence on the segment size and statistical moments. We test the effectiveness of MMRA in detecting multifractality and time irreversibility of time series generated from delayed Henon map and binomial multifractal model. Then we employ our method to the time irreversibility analysis of stock markets in different regions. We find that the emerging market has higher multifractality degree and time irreversibility compared with developed markets. In this sense, the MMRA method may provide new angles in assessing the evolution stage of stock markets.

It is expected that wide-bandgap devices like silicon-carbide MOSFETs and gallium-nitride HEMTs could replace Si devices in power electronics converters to reach higher system efficiency. This paper adopts the conventional half-bridge LLC topology to realize a 10-kW all-SiC bidirectional charger used in electric vehicles. Though it is a well-known topology for the unidirectional charger, it has not been comprehensively explored for the bidirectional energy flow yet. A double-pulse-test (DPT) platform is utilized to provide accurate power losses. A state-space model is built to obtain accurate switching current waveforms, which is eventually combined with the DPT results to accurately predict the system efficiency. Based on this model, to further enhance the system efficiency, the dc-bus voltage is varied with LLC dc/dc converter running at the resonant frequency through the whole power range. Experimental results validated that the proposed approach could realize the bidirectional power flow. By varying the dc-bus voltage, the V2G and G2V modes reach $\sim 96$ % wall-to-battery efficiency.

This paper proposed a novel four-level rectifier with only nine power switches, called by nine-switch Detroit rectifier. Compared with the existing four-level rectifiers, the quantity of components and the voltage stresses across components are both reduced. Four output levels are achieved with small component voltage stress in the proposed four-level rectifier, which is suitable for medium voltage (

A new nonisolated three-level bidirectional dc-dc converter (TLBDC) is introduced in the paper. Compared with the existing TLBDCs, the proposed TLBDC shows superior performance, including a large conversion ratio, small voltage stresses across all components, common ground for input and output terminals, and automatic current balancing function for inductor currents. A closed control strategy including a voltage loop and a voltage balance loop is also developed. Experimental results confirm the validity of the proposed converter and the closed loop control strategy.

This paper presents a circuit to enable phase-to-phase SOC balancing for cascaded multilevel battery inverters that have separate battery modules for each phase. The balancing circuit called six-switch energy-level balancing circuit can help achieve a uniform three-phase SOC operation of the battery units in the entire system among all the phases. The balancing operation by transferring energy among different phases can be carried out without interrupting the whole system and the uniform SOC can be continuously maintained. Moreover, the three-phase balancing circuit can be a part of the cascaded multilevel inverters to increase the system power/energy capacity if needed. Since the uniform SOC operation is achieved for the entire battery energy storage system (BESS), the utilization and reliability of the batteries are increased. Simulation results have been carried out to verify the performance of the proposed three-phase SOC balancing circuit.

A 12-V motor drive system using an onboard battery is promising in vehicle applications, e.g., to rotate an air pump to adjust its air delivery to the burner, thereby providing autonomous exhaust temperature control for the conventional diesel engine vehicle. The 12-V/1-kW motor drive system proposed in this paper consists of a series-resonant LLC MOSFET full-bridge converter, which provides high-efficiency power transfer by implementing zero voltage switching and boosts the dc bus to ~300 V, and an insulated-gate bipolar transistor inverter, which provides the high-side phase currents to a 1-kW/6000-r/min brushless dc motor (BLDC). This design secures the high efficiency, low cost, and low volume. Meanwhile, with the variable output voltage of this dc/dc converter, this paper realizes a commutation torque-ripple reduction method, which will minimize the mechanical vibration. Experimental results on this prototype system demonstrate that: 1) the LLC dc/dc part efficiency is 97.6% with 92% of the inverter efficiency; and 2) the motor commutation torque ripple is reduced close to zero.

It is expected that wide-bandgap devices like silicon carbide MOSFETs and gallium nitride HEMTs could replace Si devices in power electronics converters to reach higher system efficiency, e.g., a 3-phase 380VAC bidirectional battery charger for electric vehicles. This paper uses the conventional half-bridge LLC topology to build a 10kW all-SiC bidirectional charger. As a well-known topology for the unidirectional charger, it has not been comprehensively explored for the usage of the bidirectional energy flow, which falls into the scope of this paper. A double-pulse-test platform is utilized to provide the accurate power losses, which, combined with the state-space model deriving the accurate switching current waveforms eventually accurately, estimates the system efficiency. Based on this model, to further enhance the system efficiency the DC-bus voltage is varied while keeping the LLC DC/DC converter running at the resonant frequency through the whole power range. Experimental results validated our proposed approach that such topology could realize the bidirectional power flow with zero-voltage-switching turn on. With varying the DC-bus voltage, the V2G and G2V modes reach ∼96% wall-to-battery efficiency.

This paper presents a Hierarchal Cascaded Multilevel Converter (HCMC) for continuous uniform SOC operation. The proposed HCMC has a hybrid structure of half-bridge converters and H-bridge converters and the voltage can be cascaded to reach a high level at two hierarchical levels: the half-bridge level and H-bridge level. The converter has the features of high voltage and high power application capability and modular design for cost reduction and reliability improvement. Continuous uniform SOC operation can be achieved via the proposed converter without adding additional balancing circuits. Simulation studies have been carried out to verify the performance of the proposed converter.

Three new flavanes and eight known flavonoids were isolated from the fruits of Livistona chinensis. The structure of the new flavanes were established as 2S,3S-3,5,7,3',5'-pentahydroxyflavane (1), 2R,3R-3,5,6,7,8,4'-hexahydroxyflavane (2) and 2R,3R-3,5,6,7,8,3',5'-heptahydroxyflavane (3), respectively, on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic data. The antiproliferative activity against four human tumor cell lines (HL-60, Mata, HepG2 and CNE-1) was evaluated. 1 had significantly antiproliferative effects against HL-60 and CNE-1 with the IC(50) of 0.2 ± 0.01 and 1.0 ± 0.1 μM, respectively, overpowering the reference compound in the assay (cisplatin). Most compounds also exhibited potent antioxidant activity.

Objective To assess the efficacy and safety of Nuanxin capsule for patients with heart failure (HF). Methods A systematic literature search was performed in 6 databases: PubMed, EMBASE, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan-fang Data Information Site, Chinese BioMedical Database (CBM), VIP Chinese Science and Technique Journals Database from the date of its inception up to November 2016. Review Manager 5.2 software was used for assessment of risk of bias, data synthesis and subgroup analysis. Begg and Egger tests were used for assessing symmetries of funnel plot by software Stata 12.0. We conducted the GRADE system to assess the quality of evidence. Results 12 trials involving 1418 participants were eligible. Compared with western medicine (WM) alone, Nuanxin capsule plus WM showed statistical significance in total effective rate (RR 1.18, 95% condidence interval [CI] 1.13–1.25). According to subgroup analysis, the 6-months group and the 12-months group have better effect than the 3-month group. As for 6-minute walking distance (6MWT), Nuanxin capsule plus WM compared with WM has significantly increased walking distance (weighted mean difference [WMD] 42.56, 95% CI 34.27–50.85). Nuanxin capsule plus WM has significantly decreased in mortality (RR 0.29, 95% CI 0.18–0.46) and re-admission rate (RR 0.48, 95% CI 0.39–0.60) compared with WM. Nuanxin capsule plus WM was beneficial for B-type natriuretic peptide (−240.47, 95% CI −332.45–148.49). gger's and Begg's test showed that there was no publication bias exist (P = .937). Influence analysis showed that no single study affected the overall result. The GRADE quality of the evidence was very low to Moderate across the different outcomes. Conclusions Despite of the apparently positive findings, we cannot draw a sound conclusion that Nuanxin capsule has positive effect in patients with HF, because of the insufficient evidence.

Harmaline (HAR), a natural occurrence β-carboline alkaloid, was isolated from the seeds of Peganum harmala and exhibited potent antitumor effect. In this study, the anti-gastric tumor effects of HAR were firstly investigated in vitro and in vivo. The results strongly showed that HAR could inhibit tumor cell proliferation and induce G2/M cell cycle arrest accompanied by an increase in apoptotic cell death in SGC-7901 cancer cells. HAR could up-regulate the expressions of cell cycle-related proteins of p-Cdc2, p21, p-p53, Cyclin B and down-regulate the expression of p-Cdc25C. In addition, HAR could up-regulate the expressions of Fas/FasL, activated Caspase-8 and Caspase-3. Moreover, blocking Fas/FasL signaling could markedly inhibit the apoptosis caused by HAR, suggesting that Fas/FasL mediated pathways were involved in HAR-induced apoptosis. Interestingly, HAR could also exert on antitumor activity with a dose of 15 mg/kg/day in vivo, which was also related with cell cycle arrest. These new findings provided a framework for further exploration of HAR which possess the potential antitumor activity by inducing cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

Ground subsidence is classified into artificial and natural ground subsidence. The natural ground subsidence is a normal phenomenon, which is caused by gravity. Generally the development of natural ground subsidence is rather slow, and its subsidence level is 1mm~2mm per year. Artificial ground subsidence is a geologic disaster, and its inducement is the excessive exploitation of underground liquids (groundwater, petroleum and natural gas etc.) and the subsidence of ground empty areas from mining. In addition, the subsidence of karst is an important factor causing ground subsidence (of course, the non-human factor). People's awareness and research on ground subsidence trace roughly to the 1920s, and people still have various opinions and understandings on the matter of ground subsidence. The rules and exact inducement of ground subsidence is a very complex scientific subject, and people conceive many misunderstandings and ambiguous recognition. With the help of Precision Level Monitoring technology and GPS technology, tens of year's Field Monitoring, the article brings forth the opinion that ground subsidence is recoverable to a certain extent, and concludes the scope of the subsidence threshold value of ground subsidence recoverability based on the systematic analysis on Field Monitoring data. It depicts the proper method and monitoring essentials of the Field Monitoring on ground subsidence.

Since the early evolution of land plants from primitive green algae, flavonoids have played an important role as UV protective pigments in plants. Flavonoids occur in liverworts and mosses, and the first committed step in the flavonoid biosynthesis is catalyzed by chalcone synthase (CHS). Although higher plant CHSs have been extensively studied, little information is available on the enzymes from bryophytes. Here we report the cloning and characterization of CHS from the moss, Physcomitrella patens. Taking advantage of the available P. patens EST sequences, a CHS (PpCHS) was cloned from the gametophores of P. patens, and heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli. PpCHS exhibited similar kinetic properties and substrate preference profile to those of higher plant CHS. p-Coumaroyl-CoA was the most preferred substrate, suggesting that PpCHS is a naringenin chalcone producing CHS. Consistent with the evolutionary position of the moss, phylogenetic analysis placed PpCHS at the base of the plant CHS clade, next to the microorganism CHS-like gene products. Therefore, PpCHS likely represents a modern day version of one of the oldest CHSs that appeared on earth. Further, sequence analysis of the P. patens EST and genome databases revealed the presence of a CHS multigene family in the moss as well as the 3'-end heterogeneity of a CHS gene. Of the 19 putative CHS genes, 10 genes are expressed and have corresponding ESTs in the databases. A possibility of the functional divergence of the multiple CHS genes in the moss is discussed.

ObjectiveTo assess the safety and effect on elevated blood lipid levels of Baduanjin exercises in middle-aged and elderly individuals.MethodsA systematic literature search for articles up to March 2017 will be conducted using seven databases: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodicals Database, Chinese BioMedical Database and Wanfang Data. Inclusion criteria are randomised controlled trials of Baduanjin exercises that examine blood lipid levels in middle-aged and elderly individuals. The primary outcome measures will be total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Stata V.13.0 software will be used for data synthesis, sensitivity analysis, metaregression, subgroup analysis and risk of bias assessment. A funnel plot will be developed to evaluate reporting bias and Begg and Egger tests will be used to assess funnel plot symmetries. We will use the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system to assess the quality of evidence.Ethics and disseminationThis systematic review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. Our findings will provide information about the safety of Baduanjin exercises for middle-aged and elderly individuals and their effect on elevated blood lipid levels.Trial registration numberPROSPERO CRD 42017060613.

For the conventional vehicle, an efficient and effective heat source that provides autonomous exhaust temperature control is of interest, and one solution is a diesel burner which needs to adjust its air delivery based on transient operating conditions through a three-phase motor drive system powered by a 12V lead-acid battery. The system proposed in this paper consists of a series-resonant LLC MOSFET full-bridge converter, which provides high-efficiency energy transfer through implementing Zero Voltage Switching, and an IGBT inverter which provides the high-side phase currents to a 1kW brushless DC motor. Experimental results on this prototype system demonstrate the LLC DC/DC part efficiency is 97.6% and the inverter efficiency is 92%.

This paper proposed a battery state of charge (SOC) estimation methodology utilizing the Extended Kalman Filter. First, Extended Kalman Filter for Li-ion battery SOC was mathematically designed. Next, simulation models were developed in MATLAB/Simulink, which indicated that the battery SOC estimation with Extended Kalman filter is much more accurate than that from Coulomb Counting method. This is coincident with the mathematical analysis. At the end, a test bench with Lithium-Ion batteries was set up to experimentally verify the theoretical analysis and simulation. Experimental results showed that the average SOC estimation error using Extended Kalman Filter is

This paper proposes a design and development of a wireless power transfer system to charge the battery in the Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles. A Parallel-Parallel topology is adopted to realize 15 cm-distance power transfer using resonance theory. Finite Element Method is used to extract the coil parameters. The advantages of the proposed design compared to the previous similar research are 1) low operational frequency (42 kHz) to avoid the electromagnetic interference to on-board automotive electronics equipment, and 2) low electrical stress to the semiconductor switches through using zero-voltage-switching technique. A 2 kW prototype to charge 200 V battery was built to experimentally verify the theoretical analysis. The overall system efficiency is ~86%.

This study investigated the antioxidant and cytotoxic activity of the phenolics isolated from the fruits of Livistona chinensis. Four new compounds, 1-{ω-isoferul[6- (4-hydroxybutyl)pentadecanoic acid]}-glycerol (1), E-[6′-(5″-hydroxypentyl)tricosyl]-4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamate (2), 2-(3′-hydroxy-5′-methoxyphenyl)-3-hydroxylmethyl-7-methoxy-2,3-dihydrobenzofuran-5- carboxylic acid (3), 7-hydroxy-5,4′-dimethoxy-2-arylbenzofuran (4), together with eleven known phenolics (5–15), were isolated and identified. Among these compounds, 1–4, 5-O-caffeoylshikimic acid (5), caffeic acid (7), and 3-O-caffeoylshikimic acid (8) showed potent antioxidant activity. 1–5, and 8 showed potent antiproliferative activities with IC50 values among 5–150 μM against HepG2 human liver cancer, HL-60 human myeloid leukemia, K562 human myeloid leukemia, and CNE-1 human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell lines. On the basis of these findings, it could be proposed that the fruits of L. chinensis may serve as attractive mines of powerful anticancer and antioxidant agents for various purposes.