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A high smoking-independent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prevalence is observed in lung cancer patients. However, the underlying connection between these two diseases still remains unclear. Cigarette smoking and ambient air pollution are common risk factors for COPD and lung cancer. In this study, we established rat COPD model through exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) or motor vehicle exhaust (MVE). The model rats developed COPD-like phenotypes, manifested as lung functions decline, lung inflammation, emphysema-like alveolar enlargement and airway remodeling. The programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), a factor contributing to immune escape of tumor cells, was overexpressed in lungs from COPD model rats, though more severe COPD phenotypes did not bring with further PD-L1 overexpression in lung. The upregulations of proinflammatory cytokines and PD-L1 were also observed in cultured human bronchial epithelial cells BEAS-2B upon treatment with cigarette smoke extract (CSE) or diesel-related particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5, SEM1650b). The inflammatory cytokines produced in BEAS-2B cells reflected the PD-L1 levels. Furthermore, ERK1/2, a kinase mediating PD-L1 upregulation in premalignant bronchial cells or NSCLC cells, and STAT1/3, which was reportedly associated with PD-L1 expression in lung tumors, were activated in COPD rats’ lungs or in BEAS-2B cells treated with CSE or PM2.5. Therefore, we proposed that inflammation associated PD-L1 overexpression in airway epithelial cells could be the underlying factor facilitating lung cancer incidence in COPD.

As a valuable method for quantifying irregularity and randomness, multivariate multiscale permutation entropy (MMPE) has found widespread application in feature extraction and complexity analysis of synchronized multi-channel data. Nonetheless, MMPE fails to consider the amplitude information of the data, and its coarse-graining process possesses inherent flaws, resulting in inaccuracies in evaluating entropy values. To address these issues, a novel nonlinear dynamic characteristic evaluation index, named refined composite multivariate multiscale weighted permutation entropy (RCMMWPE), has been developed. This index aims to comprehensively rectify the shortcomings of disregarding amplitude characteristics and incomplete coarse-graining analysis in MMPE, thereby preserving crucial information present in the original time series data. Through the analysis and comparison of multi-channel synthetic signals, the efficacy and superiority of RCMMWPE in assessing the complexity of synchronized multi-channel data have been confirmed. Subsequently, an intelligent fault detection framework is introduced, leveraging RCMMWPE, multicluster feature selection (MCFS), and kernel extreme learning machine optimized by the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO-KELM). The proposed fault detection scheme is then applied to test gearbox fault data and extensively benchmarked against other fault detection schemes. The results demonstrate that the proposed gearbox fault detection scheme excels in accurately and consistently identifying fault categories, outperforming the comparison schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tumour microenvironment harbours diverse stress factors that affect the progression of multiple myeloma (MM), and the survival of MM cells heavily relies on crucial stress pathways. However, the impact of cellular stress on clinical prognosis of MM patients remains largely unknown. This study aimed to provide a cell stress‐related model for survival and treatment prediction in MM. We incorporated five cell stress patterns including heat, oxidative, hypoxic, genotoxic, and endoplasmic reticulum stresses, to develop a comprehensive cellular stress index (CSI). Then we systematically analysed the effects of CSI on survival outcomes, clinical characteristics, immune microenvironment, and treatment sensitivity in MM. Molecular subtypes were identified using consensus clustering analysis based on CSI gene profiles. Moreover, a prognostic nomogram incorporating CSI was constructed and validated to aid in personalised risk stratification. After screening from five stress models, a CSI signature containing nine genes was established by Cox regression analyses and validated in three independent datasets. High CSI was significantly correlated with cell division pathways and poor clinical prognosis. Two distinct MM subtypes were identified through unsupervised clustering, showing significant differences in prognostic outcomes. The nomogram that combined CSI with clinical features exhibited good predictive performances in both training and validation cohorts. Meanwhile, CSI was closely associated with immune cell infiltration level and immune checkpoint gene expression. Therapeutically, patients with high CSI were more sensitive to bortezomib and antimitotic agents, while their response to immunotherapy was less favourable. Furthermore, in vitro experiments using cell lines and clinical samples verified the expression and function of key genes from CSI. The CSI signature could be a clinically applicable indicator of disease evaluation, demonstrating potential in predicting prognosis and guiding therapy for patients with MM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Π-type steel-concrete composite girder, a commonly used bridge deck composed of an upper concrete slab and two lower lateral I-side steel girders, often suffers from severe vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs). Herein, the VIV response and triggering mechanism of a Π-type girder are systematically investigated, by adopting 1:50 scale section model wind tunnel tests and flow-field numerical simulations. Afterward, several aerodynamic measures were designed to mitigate the significant VIVs present in the original section, and an effective measure composed of the G-shaped apron and lower central stabilizer plate was found. Numerical simulation results show that the Π-type girder's upper and lower surfaces both exhibit severe vortex shedding, and both contribute significantly to the occurrence of VIVs. Consequently, the aerodynamic measures introduced for the Π-type girder must be able to simultaneously improve the flowing bypassing situation around the upper and lower surfaces of the section, and the G-shaped apron and the lower central stabilizer plate could both accomplish this simultaneously. The results show that the VIV suppression effect of this G-shaped apron combination measure is greatly affected by the height of the G-shaped apron's vertical plate and the height of the lower central stabilizer plate. Only both of them to a certain height, this measure can entirely prevent the Π-type girder from VIVs. After shape optimization, a G-shaped apron combination aerodynamic measure that can eliminate completely the Π-type girder's VIVs at low damping ratios of about 0.5% is proposed, of which the vibration-suppressing effect was verified by wind tunnel testing of 1:20 section model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Purpose/significance] Through the analysis of the conference information in the field of library and information science, this research analyses the current situation and distribution characteristics of academic conferences in the field of library and information science, and reveal the development of LIS. [Method/process] This research discovers the development of the conference by collecting the information of the “meetings of LIS” from August 31, 2019 to August 31, 2020, the basic information and the communication of the conference. Used quantitative research methods to analyze the meeting time, location, organizer, etc.; explored the difference in attention between domestic and foreign and different platform meetings; conducted text mining on the theme and background of the meeting to reveal features of academic conferences in the new era. [Result/conclusion] The research found that offline academic conferences for LIS are mainly held on weekends, and there is no fixed time for online conferences. The venues are mainly concentrated on universities or cities with rich resources in the subject of LIS, such as Wuhan, Beijing and Shanghai. Scholars pay more attention on foreign conferences than domestic conferences. The conference was held around the innovation, wisdom, integration and openness, and the content of meetings has become increasingly rich.

The usability of virtual reality (VR) training applications is crucial for their success, but examining the usability in the early development stages remains challenging. A realistic and plausible solution would be revisiting and reconciling Heuristics Evaluation (HE) methods among the most widely used usability inspection methods in the human-computer interaction (HCI) domain. While research on studying and using HE methods is growing within the VR domain, few studies have considered the novel VR environment challenges new requirements for fitting HE methods to the context and applying them effectively. To this end, we conducted a user study with 14 evaluators using the standard HE methods to complete two HE sessions for a VR training application. We identified five critical challenges that evaluators encountered in the HE process by observing and interviewing them. Based on our findings, we discuss the importance of considering an easy-to-use heuristic set, how we can facilitate the HE procedures in the VR context, and the opportunities for developing HE-supporting tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]