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To assess the effect of long-term nursing intervention on the quality of life and social support of patients after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).A randomised controlled trial was designed. A total of 60 patients with coronary heart disease treated with PCI were randomly divided into the control group and the intervention group. The patients in the control group received routine nursing care, while the patients in the intervention group received long-term nursing intervention. The Simplified Quality of Life Scale-Quality of Life Scale, the Coronary Heart Disease Self-Management Scale, and the Social Support Rating Scale were used to collect and analyse the data.After the intervention, the scores for quality of life, social support and self-management in the intervention group were higher than those in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (p 0.05).Long-term nursing intervention can improve the quality of life and sense of social support of patients with coronary heart disease after PCI.

DLEU2 has been proved to act as an oncogene in a variety of cancers, but its role in cardiovascular diseases is dearth of research. Thus, this study mainly discussed the effect and possible mechanism of DLEU2 on platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB)-triggered vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) injury. To obtain authentic results, the expressions of target genes in atherosclerosis serum were determined by reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and the protein levels were evaluated by Western blot. PDGF-BB was used to simply simulate the biological characteristics of VSMCs in vitro. The effect of DLEU2 on the biological behavior of PDGF-BB-induced VSMCs was analyzed by gain- and loss-of-function assays. Bioinformatics analysis, dual luciferase reporter assay, and Pearson correlation method were conducted to determine the relationship between target genes. The role of DLEU2/miR-212-5p/ YWHAZ (tyrosine 3-monooxygenase/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein zeta) axis in PDGF-BB-induced VSMCs was verified by rescue experiments. As a result, DLEU2 and YWHAZ were up-regulated, and miR-212-5p was down-regulated in atherosclerosis serum. Overexpressed DLEU2 facilitated the biological behavior of PDGF-BB-induced VSMCs, whilst siDLEU2 did the opposite. Moreover, overexpressed DLEU2 promoted proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) expression but repressed α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and Calponin expressions, while it also enhanced YWHAZ expression via suppressing miR-212-5p. MiR-212-5p mimic and siYWHAZ reversed the effects of overexpressed DLEU2 on above biological characteristics and protein expressions in PDGF-BB-induced VSMCs, while the regulatory effect of miR-212-5p mimic was partially offset by overexpressed YWHAZ. Collectively, DLEU2 modulates PDGF-BB-induced VSMC injury via miR-212-5p/YWHAZ axis in atherosclerosis.

The aorta contains various cell types that are involved in the development of vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis. However, the cellular atlas of heterogeneous aorta cells, cellular responses, and intercellular communication has not been investigated in the background of a high-fat diet (HFD) and treatment with integrin beta 3-modified mesenchymal stem cells (MSC_ITGB3). In this study, 33,782 individual cells from mouse aortas under HFD with or without MSC_ITGB3 treatment were subjected to single-cell RNA sequencing as an unbiased analysis strategy. We generated a compendium of 30 different clusters, mainly smooth muscle cells (SMCs), endothelial cells, and immune cells. The proportion of the different cell types was considerably influenced by HFD and MSC_ITGB3. In the HFD group, genes associated with proliferation, migration, and collagen were highly expressed in the major SMC subpopulations. However, the expression of contraction-related genes in SMC subpopulations was significantly higher in the MSC_ITGB3 group than in the HFD group. After HFD consumption, subpopulations of ECs with active PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, and contraction-related genes were significantly enriched. In the MSC_ITGB3 group, the number of dendritic cells (DCs), which are positively correlated with atherosclerotic lesion progression and contribute to lipid accumulation, and levels of inflammatory factors notably decreased. Our findings provide data on the composition, signaling pathways, and cellular communication of the aorta cells following stem cell treatment as well as on the evolution and progression of atherosclerotic disease. The findings may help in improving the treatment of atherosclerosis.

To analyze the clinical effect of nursing cooperation in transsphenoidal approach microscopic hypophysectomy. From January 2017 to January 2020, 80 patients who underwent transsphenoidal microscopic hypophysectomy in our hospital were selected to participate in the analysis and study. They were divided into two groups according to the randomized allocation, namely the observation group and the control group. Among them, 40 patients in the observation group and 40 patients in the control group were given routine nursing care for the patients in the control group, and comprehensive nursing intervention was adopted for the patients in the observation group, and the overall nursing effect of the two groups of patients was compared. After taking different nursing methods, the condition of patients in both groups was effectively controlled, and the effective rate of patients in the observation group with comprehensive nursing intervention was significantly better than that of patients in the control group with conventional nursing methods, and the difference had certain statistical significance (P < 0.05); The satisfaction degree of patients in the study group was significantly better than that of patients in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). The degree of negative emotions of patients in the study group was significantly better than that of patients in the control group after receiving comprehensive nursing intervention, and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05), and the difference in the incidence of adverse events between the two groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05); The scores of each index of SF-36 questionnaire of patients in both groups were higher than those before nursing, and the scores of each index of patients in observation group were higher than those of patients in control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P > 0.05). With adequate preoperative preparation and mastery of the use of mechanical equipment, comprehensive nursing intervention can effectively improve the treatment effect of patients, make patients more satisfied with the nursing work, and can soothe patients’ negative psychological mood, eliminate panic, improve patients' life confidence, enhance intraoperative cooperation, and ensure that the operation can be completed smoothly.

Proteins in Jumonji family function as histone demethylases and participate in cardiac development. Jumonji domain containing 5 (JMJD5) is responsible for the embryonic development through removing methyl moieties from H3K36me2 histone, and has pro‐proliferative effect on heart and eye development. However, the protective role of JMJD5 against oxygen–glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R)‐induced injury in cardiomyocytes has not been fully understood. Firstly, myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) rat model was established by ligation of left coronary artery. OGD/R was performed in non‐transfected H9C2 or H9C2 transfected with pcDNA‐JMJD5 plasmid to induce cell cytotoxicity. Data from qRT‐PCR and western blot showed that JMJD5 was reduced in the heart tissues of myocardial I/R rat model and OGD/R‐induced H9C2. Secondly, JMJD5 over‐expression attenuated OGD/R‐induced decrease in cell viability and increase in lactate dehydrogenase secretion and cell apoptosis in H9C2. Mitophagy was promoted by pcDNA‐mediated over‐expression of JMJD5 with enhanced protein expression of LC3‐I, LC3‐II, Atg5, and Beclin 1. Thirdly, knockdown of JMJD5 aggravated OGD/R‐induced decrease in hypoxia‐inducible factor‐1α (HIF‐1α), whereas JMJD5 over‐expression enhanced BNIP3 (Bcl‐2/adenovirus E1B 19‐kDa interacting protein) through upregulation of HIF‐1α. Lastly, BNIP3 silencing promoted cell apoptosis, suppressed mitophagy, and attenuated the protective effects of JMJD5 over‐expression against OGD/R‐induced injury in H9C2. In conclusion, JMJD5 exerted protective effects against OGD/R‐induced injury in cardiomyocytes through upregulation of HIF‐1α‐BNIP3.

Hypoxia induces a series of cellular adaptive responses that enable promotion of inflammation and cancer development. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is involved in the hypoxia response and cancer promotion, and it accumulates in hypoxia and is degraded under normoxic conditions. Here we identify prostate cancer associated transcript-1 (PCAT-1) as a hypoxia-inducible long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that regulates HIF-1α stability, crucial for cancer progression. Extensive analyses of clinical data indicate that PCAT-1 is elevated in breast cancer patients and is associated with pathological grade, tumor size, and poor clinical outcomes. Through gain- and loss-of-function experiments, we find that PCAT-1 promotes hypoxia-associated breast cancer progression including growth, migration, invasion, colony formation, and metabolic regulation. Mechanistically, PCAT-1 directly interacts with the receptor of activated protein C kinase-1 (RACK1) protein and prevents RACK1 from binding to HIF-1α, thus protecting HIF-1α from RACK1-induced oxygen-independent degradation. These findings provide new insight into lncRNA-mediated mechanisms for HIF-1α stability and suggest a novel role of PCAT-1 as a potential therapeutic target for breast cancer., Graphical abstract, Hypoxia induces a series of cellular adaptive responses that enable promotion of inflammation and cancer development. Liu and colleagues reveal that PCAT-1 is critical for maintaining the stability of HIF-1α in hypoxic breast cancer cells, which is related to advanced disease progression and poor prognosis.

For the past 20 years, many hypertension guidelines have strongly recommended the practical use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) to the diagnosis and management of hypertension. However, whether different sleep conditions during ABPM will affect blood pressure (BP) fluctuations and lead to inaccurate measurement results is a concern of clinicians.This was a prospective cohort study in the real-world setting. The participants were recruited between June 2018 and June 2019 in Hebei Province, China. There are three types of sleep during ABPM: undisturbed sleep, disturbed sleep and severely disturbed sleep. The people were divided into three groups according to their sleep types during ABPM. The primary outcome is 24-h mean BP, circadian rhythm of BP and variation coefficient of 24-h BP. Comparisons between groups are tested by Kruskal-Wallis H test.In total 1154 people completed the study. There was no significant difference in 24-h mean BP and circadian rhythm of BP among the three groups. There are statistically significant differences among the three groups in the variation coefficient of 24-h BP for the general population and noninsomnia population. There was no significant difference in mean BP, circadian rhythm of BP and variation coefficient of BP among the three groups for the insomnia people.Regardless of the insomniac or noninsomniac population, sleep conditions during ABPM do not affect BP value and BP rhythm. For noninsomniac people, the sleep situation during ABPM may affect the BP variation coefficient.

OBJECTIVE: On evaluating the guidelines from previous studies, we found no randomized controlled trials on the use of beta-blockers for heart failure (HF) that employed as evidence for heart rate targets of 60 or 70 beats/min. In this study, we aimed to assess the target heart rate in patients with HF treated with beta-blockers. METHODS: We used the keywords, “heart failure” and “beta-blocker” to search PubMed, Ovid, EMBASE, and Cochrane from 1966 to June 2021. Two authors independently reviewed the results of the search strategy and selected all the studies that reported the effect of beta-blockers on all-cause mortality in patients with HFrEF. We conducted analyses using Review Manager, version 5.0 and Stata version 12.0. Risk of bias was assessed regarding randomization, allocation sequence concealment, blinding, incomplete outcome data, and other biases. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to compare the results of fixed effect model with the results of random effect. RESULTS: No clinical trial supported the optimal heart rate of 60 beats/min. Risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were 0.77 (0.71, 0.83) and 0.86 (0.76, 0.97) in the subgroup with a baseline heart rate >80 beats/min and subgroup with baseline of ≤80 beats/min, respectively. RR and 95% CI were 0.92 (0.82, 1.02) and 0.77 (0.65, 0.92) in 2 subgroups with heart rate controlled ≥70 beats/min and 60–70 beats/min, respectively. Accumulated to MOCHA 1 trial (heart rate controlled 70 beats/min), there was no significant difference in mortality between the experimental group and the control group (RR=0.91, 95% CI 0.82–1.02). Accumulated to SENIORS trial (heart rate controlled 68.8 beats/min), there was a difference in mortality between the experimental and the control groups (RR=0.90, 95% CI 0.82–0.99). CONCLUSION: The main effect of beta-blockers in the treatment of HF is achieved by lowering heart rate. The use of beta-blockers did not benefit in people with HFrEF whose heart rate was 77 beats/min before they started the treatment regimen. In patients with HFrEF, the purpose of beta-blockers is to control the heart rate to 65–70 beats min.

Background Coronary artery calcification (CAC) is an important risk factor for cardiovascular events and has been shown to be correlated with serum adiponectin levels. However, it remains unknown whether C1 tumor necrosis factor-related protein 3 (CTRP3) (homologous to adiponectin) is associated with CAC, and whether CTRP3 affects the osteoblastic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells. Here, we analyzed the association between CTRP3 expression and CAC. Methods A case-control study was conducted involving 119 patients with coronary heart disease to identify the predictive value of CTRP3 for CAC. Additionally, mouse aortic smooth muscle cells transfected for β-catenin overexpression were subjected to treatment with CTRP3 and the β-catenin inhibitor JW74. The calcium content in smooth muscle cells was determined. Western blotting was performed to measure the expression levels of different osteoblastogenic proteins in vascular smooth muscle cells obtained from different treatment groups. Results The serum CTRP3 levels were significantly lower in patients with CAC than in those without CAC, and even lower in patients with both CAC and diabetes mellitus. CTRP3 played roles as a protective factor and potential predictor in CAC. CTRP3 inhibited the osteogenic differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells induced under high glucose and lipid conditions by inhibiting the nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Conclusions CTRP3 may serve as a valuable screening biomarker and a novel therapeutic target in CAC, particularly in diabetes patients.

We characterized the structure of prepared citrus pectin oligosaccharides (POS) and investigated the immunometabolism-modulating effects of POS and their microbial metabolites on human macrophages. Both POS and metabolites activated immune responses and exhibited anti-inflammatory properties in the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) via regulating expressions of inflammatory cytokines and nuclear factor-kappa B. Cholesterol efflux was also facilitated via increased gene expressions of the liver X receptor-α-adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporter (ABC) A1/ABCG1 pathway and suppressed cholesterol synthesis via suppressing expressions of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. Microbial degradation prevented POS from attenuating palmitoyl-3-cysteine-serine-lysine-4-induced inflammation and promoting M2 polarization, but it is capable of inhibiting cholesterol uptake-related genes CD36 and SR-A. These findings indicate that immunometabolism-modulating effects of POS are not solely microbiota-dependent effects. Both POS and their microbial metabolites are potential immunometabolism modulators via different mechanisms.

We investigated the regulatory effects of citrus pectin oligosaccharides (POS) from an innovative, chemically controllable degradation process on cholesterol metabolism and the gut microbial composition. The modulatory role of the intestinal flora was explored. Four-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were fed either a standard diet; a high-fat (HF) diet; or a HF diet with 0.15, 0.45, and 0.9 g/kg body weight POS for 30 days. POS reduced serum total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) in a dose-dependent manner. The relative abundances of specific bacterial groups in the feces and the concentrations of their metabolites were higher in the POS groups. There were significant correlations among Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Bacteroides and short-chain fatty acids, as well as among serum TC, LDL-C, fecal bile acids, and liver cholesterol 7-α-hydroxylase and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. These findings indicate that the prepared POS exhibited hypocholesterolemic effects and that the potential regulatory mechanisms of citrus POS on cholesterol metabolism are modulated by specific bacterial groups together with their metabolites.

Background: Platelet activation occurs upon ischemia/reperfusion and is related to the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during this process. Vitamin C (VC) is a powerful antioxidant. VC scavenges ROS, reduces platelet activation, and attenuates reperfusion injury. However, the effects of VC on platelets undergoing hypoxia/reoxygenation (H/R) remain unclear. Objectives: Herein, we evaluated the effects of VC on platelets in vitro following H/R and the related mechanisms. Method: Fresh platelets were collected from 67 volunteers at the Blood Center of Hebei Province. Platelets were diluted with saline to a concentration of 2.00 × 1011/L. Aggregation and the curve slope were evaluated within 4 h with a whole-blood impedance analyzer. To determine the optimal experimental time, platelets were treated with hypoxia or reoxygenation for different times, and impedance aggregometry was carried out by measuring changes in electrical impedance induced by arachidonic acid (0.5 mM) and adenosine diphosphate (10 µM), thereby establishing the H/R model. Three antioxidants (VC, melatonin, and probucol) were used to treat platelets after H/R, and impedance aggregometry was used to determine their effects on platelet aggregation. The influence of VC on apoptosis-related indicators was detected. ROS and the mitochondrial membrane potential were observed by inverted fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry, respectively. Related protein levels were detected by Western blotting. Results: ROS scavengers inhibited platelet activation and aggregation in a concentration-dependent manner. VC post-conditioning scavenged ROS, downregulated cytochrome C, Bax, and caspase-9 proteins, and upregulated Bcl-2 protein. These effects collectively blocked platelet apoptosis and inhibited platelet aggregation. Conclusions: VC inhibited platelet aggregation by blocking apoptosis. Thus, VC may have applications in the treatment of platelet-related diseases.

In 2017, the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) updated the Guideline of Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Management and Management of High Blood Pressure (HBP) in Adults. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the potential impact of the 2017ACC/AHA HBP guideline on hypertension prevalence, awareness, and control rates. The data were collected from Physical Examination Center of the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University from January 2012 to December 2017 (N = 66 977), including demographic information and risk factors of hypertension. The hypertension prevalence, awareness, and control rates of people were evaluated according to the new guideline. Additionally, the factors related to hypertension prevalence were also assessed. According to previous HBP guideline, hypertension prevalence, awareness, and control rate were 30.54%, 44.33%, and 13.04%, respectively. However, when the 2017 ACC/AHA HBP guideline was introduced, the population with hypertension increased from 20 453 to 34 460, the hypertension prevalence rate increased from 30.54% to 51.45%, the awareness rate decreased from 44.33% to 26.31%, and the control rate declined from 13.04% to 2.72%. The most newly diagnosed hypertension patients were from the low‐risk population with young age and without the above histories. The 2017ACC/AHA HBP guideline indicated that high hypertension prevalence rate still existed with a substantial increase, while the awareness and control rates were relatively lowered.

NF-κB-mediated inflammatory phenotypic switching of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) plays a central role in atherosclerosis and neointimal formation. However, little is known about the roles of circRNAs in the regulation of NF-κB signaling. Here, we identify the involvement of circ-Sirt1 that was one of transcripts of SIRT1 host gene in VSMC inflammatory response and neointimal hyperplasia. First, in the cytoplasm, circ-Sirt1 directly interacts with and sequesters NF-κB p65 from nuclear translocation induced by TNF-α in a sequence-dependent manner. The inhibitory complex of circ-Sirt1-NF-κB p65 is not dependent on IκBα. Second, circ-Sirt1 binds to miR-132/212 that interferes with SIRT1 mRNA, and facilitates the expression of host gene SIRT1. Increased SIRT1 results in deacetylation and inactivation of the nuclear NF-κB p65. These findings illustrate that circ-Sirt1 is a novel non-coding RNA regulator of VSMC phenotype.

Graph-based two-stage algorithms have widely developed and achieved good performance to detect salient objects. For these algorithms, choosing the proper seeds using for saliency propagation is quite crucial and difficult. In this paper, we consider using background/foreground probability values of candidate background/foreground seeds as the estimation of the reliable seeds, not considering the refinement of candidate seeds. Moreover, these probability values are integrated into the proposed saliency models, which can avoid hard filtering for candidate seeds as well as simplify the procedure of the algorithm. In addition, considering the manifold structure of an image, we fuse the manifold-preserving term into the saliency models. Especially, reconstruction matrix $A$ is determined based on the deep features extracted from FCN-32s, which can further improve detection performance of salient objects. The results of experiments in which the proposed SBFMP algorithm is applied to four datasets demonstrate SBFMP algorithm is prior to some existing state-of-the-art algorithms in terms of the different metrics.

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) remains a significant health concern worldwide. Dyslipidemia has been identified as one of the principal risk factors for the development of CAD...

Background Several factors may affect students going to school toilets, but a few studies have analyzed the reasons for students using toilets. This study aimed to use a structural equation model to understand the factors that impacted children’s toilet behavior. Methods This study was performed in 12 rural nonboarding primary schools (6 schools in the northern and 6 schools in the southern regions of China). All students of the third and sixth grades (761 students) were examined. A questionnaire on students’ toilet behavior was used. The questionnaire included 33 perceptual items based on 5 factors: toilet facilities, cleanliness, hygiene practices, peer relationship, and experience. The questionnaire also covered the frequency of voiding and defecating by themselves. The exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and pathway analysis were used to analyze the causes of students’ toilet behavior. Results A statistically significant correlation coefficient of 0.300 indicated that cleanliness impacted the toilet frequency of students. The visual experience of the overall cleanliness of the toilet had the most significant impact on students’ toilet behavior (path coefficient, 0.81). Washing facilities and convenient handwashing had the least impact on toilet use (path coefficient, 0.52). Conclusion Cleanliness was the primary consideration for students’ toilet use on campus. The visual experience of the overall cleanliness of toilets had the most significant impact when students used toilets. No pre-survey was conducted to test the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Using self-reported data might be associated with potential recall errors.

Additional file 1. Questionnaire.

To assess the reliability and validity of SF-36 scale in measuring quality of life of Tuva adults in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.A total of 437 Tuva adults were selected by multistage sampling method, in Tuva families lived in Baihaba Village Habahe county and Kanasi and Hemu Villages Buerjin County in Artay Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2016, including 100 males and 50 females, the three age groups 18-29, 30-49, 50 and above accounted for 30. 66%, 54. 00% and 15. 33% respectively. SF-36 scale was be used to measure the quality of life. The scaleapos;s reliability was assessed by internal consistency reliability and half-fold reliability, and the validity was assessed by set validity, discriminate validity and structural validity.The Cronbachapos;s α coefficient of the SF-36 scale was 0. 838, and all of the Cronbachapos;s α coefficients were more than 0. 750 after corresponding dimensions were deleted. The Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0. 828. The achievement ratio of aggregation tests and discrimination tests were 100% and 99. 59%, respectively. Thirty-five items were included in EFA. Seven common factors were extracted through maximum balanced rotation method, and the cumulative contribution rate was 68. 97%. Eight-dimensional data were included in EFA, and two common factors were extracted with a cumulative contribution rate of 66. 44%. The fitting degree of confirmatory factor analysis model is invalid.SF-36 has showed a good reliability, set validity and discrimination validity in evaluating the quality of life of Tuva adults in Xinjiang, but its structural validity needs to be improved.

Background. Hypertension contributes to the progression of cardiac remodeling and renal damage. In turn, renal sympathetic hyperactivation showed elevated sympathetic nervous system activity and led to blood pressure increase in certain patients. The purpose of this study was to observe the effect of renal nerve denervation on blood pressure and target organ changes in two hypertensive rat models. Methods. Hypertensive rats were randomly divided into a renal denervation (RDN) group and sham operation group. Wistar–Kyoto (WKY) rats of the same age were set as the baseline control group. In the secondary hypertension model, SD rats were randomly divided into five groups. Blood pressure and bodyweight were measured every week until they were euthanized. Results. The two rat models underwent RDN at key timepoints. At these timepoints, the hearts and kidneys were collected for norepinephrine and angiotensin II measurements and histological analysis. Conclusion. RDN performed before development of hypertension showed a significant antihypertensive effect on the secondary hypertension model.

Let {Zn, n ⩾ 0} be a supercritical branching process in an independent and identically distributed random environment. We prove Cramer moderate deviations and Berry-Esseen bounds for log( $$\left( {{Z_{n + {n_0}}}/{Z_{{n_0}}}} \right)$$ ) uniformly in n0 ∈ ℕ, which extend the corresponding results by I. Grama, Q. Liu, and M. Miqueu [Stochastic Process. Appl., 2017, 127: 1255–1281] established for n0 = 0. The extension is interesting in theory, and is motivated by applications. A new method is developed for the proofs; some conditions of Grama et al. are relaxed in our present setting. An example of application is given in constructing confidence intervals to estimate the criticality parameter in terms of log( $$\left( {{Z_{n + {n_0}}}/{Z_{{n_0}}}} \right)$$ ) and n.

Following the pioneering works of Rudin, Osher and Fatemi on total variation (TV) and of Buades, Coll and Morel on non-local means (NL-means), the last decade has seen a large number of denoising methods mixing these two approaches, starting with the nonlocal total variation (NLTV) model. The present article proposes an analysis of the NLTV model for image denoising as well as a number of improvements, the most important of which being to apply the denoising both in the space domain and in the Fourier domain, in order to exploit the complementarity of the representation of image data in both domains. A local version obtained by a regionwise implementation followed by an aggregation process, called Local Spatial-Frequency NLTV (L- SFNLTV) model, is finally proposed as a new reference algorithm for image denoising among the family of approaches mixing TV and NL operators. The experiments show the great performance of L-SFNLTV, both in terms of image quality and of computational speed, comparing with other recently proposed NLTV-related methods., 36 pages, 17 figures

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a commonly encountered heart arrhythmia and a risk factor for cardiovascular system. The purpose of the present study was to explore the role of long non-coding RNA myocardial infarction-associated transcript (MIAT) in AF and AF-induced myocardial fibrosis and the possible mechanisms involved in this process. We successfully induced an AF rat model. Expression of MIAT presented a dramatic increase, while microRNA (miR)-133a-3p presented a dramatic decrease in atrium tissues of rats with AF induction. In addition, we also found that MIAT was highly expressed and miR-133a-3p was significantly reduced in peripheral blood leukocyte of AF patients. For biological function exploration of MIAT/miR-133a-3p axis, MIAT was knocked down using small hairpin RNA (shRNA) lentivirus injection and the rescue experiments were performed simultaneously by inhibiting miR-133a-3p using anti-miR-133a-3p lentivirus injection in rats with AF. MIAT downregulation significantly alleviated AF, increased atrial effective refractory period (AERP), and reduced the duration of AF as well as cardiomyocytes apoptosis. Whereas these effects of MIAT downregulation on AF were reversed by anti-miR-133a-3p administration. Luciferase reporter revealed that miR-133a-3p was directly regulated by MIAT. Moreover, MIAT knockdown effectively reduced AF-induced atrial fibrosis by detecting reduced collagen in the right atria and inhibited expression of fibrosis-related gene expression of collagen I, collagen III, connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in rats with AF, these findings were in contrast with the findings for rats with inhibition of miR-133a-3p. In conclusion, our study demonstrated the role of MIAT downregulation in alleviating AF and AF-induced myocardial fibrosis, and the functional regulatory pathway of MIAT targeting miR-133a-3p.

Scope The prebiotic regulation of the gut microbiota is a promising strategy to induce protective humoral and mucosal immune responses. The potential immune-improving effects of pectin oligosaccharides (POS) in healthy mice and the potential mechanism mediated by specific intestinal bacteria are investigated. Methods and results POS is prepared using a hydrogen-peroxide-assisted degradation. Mice that consumed diets containing POS are tested for microbial community shifts, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and immunoglobulin (Ig) production using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, gas chromatography, and ELISA kits. Pearson's correlation analyses are performed between Ig production and specific intestinal bacteria or SCFAs. POS treatment significantly improves the growth of healthy mice. Moreover, 4-week POS administration results in a profound change in intestinal microbial composition and a significantly higher fecal concentration of acetate, which leads to substantial increases of the levels of fecal secretory immunoglobulin A and serum IgG. Conclusions The results suggest that the inclusion of POS in a diet can increase Ig production and optimize the composition of the gut microbiota. A significant correlation is observed between changes in Ig production and specific intestinal bacteria or acetate, providing insight into the mechanism of POS as a potential immune-enhancing supplement.

We establish some limit theorems for the elephant random walk (ERW), including Berry–Esseen’s bounds, Cramér moderate deviations and local limit theorems. These limit theorems can be regarded as refinements of the central limit theorem for the ERW. Moreover, by these limit theorems, we conclude that the convergence rate of normal approximations and the domain of attraction of normal distribution mainly depend on a memory parameter p which lies between 0 and 3/4.

Jidong Zhang, Yan Wang, Haijuan Hu, Xiaohong Yang, Zejun Tian, Demin Liu, Guoqiang Gu, Hongmei Zheng, Ruiqin Xie, Wei Cui Department of Cardiology, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, People’s Republic of China Background: Nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system (GITS) is used to treat angina and hypertension. The authors aimed to study the early intervention impact on arterial stiffness and pulse wave velocity (PWV) independent of its blood-pressure-(BP) lowering effect in mild hypertensive patients.Methods: This single-center, single-arm, open-label, prospective, Phase IV study recruited patients with mild hypertension and increased PWV from December 2013 to December 2014 (N=138; age, 18–75 years; systolic blood pressure, 140–160 mmHg; diastolic BP, 90–100 mmHg; increased brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity [baPWV, ≥12 m/s]). Nifedipine GITS (30 mg/d) was administered for 24 weeks to achieve target BP of 0.05). There were no other drug-related serious adverse events.Conclusion: Nifedipine GITS was considerably effective in reducing baPWV and BP, indicating improvement in arterial stiffness as early as 4 weeks. Keywords: nifedipine, gastrointestinal therapeutic system, calcium channel blockers, brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity, hypertension

This paper focuses on analyzing courtroom questioning as a dynamic process of adaptation to the psychological motivations, which is complicated by the constantly changing communicative context. By analyzing the data collected from the Chinese courtroom trials, such strategies as repetition, reformulation and juxtaposition are found in the process of questioners’ making adaptation to their psychological motivations. By carefully choosing the strategies catering to different psychological motivations, questioners can successfully realize adaptation so as to achieve their specific communicative goals.

Objective The study was established to inquire into the protective effect of the HIF-1α (Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α)/ BNIP3(Bcl-2/adenovirus E1B 19-kDa interacting protein) signal path-induced-autophagy during myocardial ischemia/ reperfusion (I/R) and oxygen–glucose deprivation/recovery (OGD/R) injury in heart-derived H9C2 cells as well as its potential underlying mechanism. Methods Immediate myocardial I/R in SD (Spraque Dawley) rats and cytotoxicity of OGD/R injury on H9C2 cells with and without inhibitors or agonists of HIF-1α and BNIP3 were evaluated. Expression of mitochondrial autophagic protein were detected by Western blot and immunofluorescence. And the mitochondrial autophagosome were detected using Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Results I/R and OGD/R injury increased the expression level of HIF-1α, activated the downstream BNIP3 and subsequently triggered mitochondria-dependent autophagy. Up-regulation the expression of HIF-1α and BNIP3 may promote the cardiac myocytes of SD rats of I/R injure and OGD/R injury-induced autophagy of H9C2 cells. Moreover, down-regulation the expression of HIF-1α or BNIP3-siRNA decreased H9C2 cells autophagy under OGD/R injury. Conclusions Together, our studies indicated that HIF-1α synchronization regulate BNIP3 during OGD/R injury-induced autophagy in H9C2 cells, though BNIP3-induced autophagy acting as a survival mechanism.

Patch-based low-rank minimization for image processing attracts much attention in recent years. The minimization of the matrix rank coupled with the Frobenius norm data fidelity can be solved by the hard thresholding filter with principle component analysis (PCA) or singular value decomposition (SVD). Based on this idea, we propose a patch-based low-rank minimization method for image denoising. The main denoising process is stated in three equivalent way: PCA, SVD and low-rank minimization. Compared to recent patch-based sparse representation methods, experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is rather rapid, and it is effective for a variety of natural grayscale images and color images, especially for texture parts in images. Further improvements of this method are also given. In addition, due to the simplicity of this method, we could provide an explanation of the choice of the threshold parameter, estimation of PSNR values, and give other insights into this method., 4pages (two columns)

Objective: Culturing aortic valve interstitial cells is a useful way to investigate the physiology and pathology of the aortic valve at the cellular level. The culture methods of the cells have been established in many species. However, the previous methods need some improvements. Methods: We evaluated various techniques with regard to the isolation of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat aortic valve interstitial cells and established suitable conditions about the culture and passage of the primary cells. The specimens from the aortic valve were processed by tissue explant methods before seeding them onto the dishes. Results: The cells obtained emerged from the explants after 2 to 3 days and stained positive for a-SMA and vimentin protein. Moreover, transmission electron microscopy images showed that the cells had abundant mitochondria, prominent rough endoplasmic reticulum, and plentiful myofilaments. Conclusion: In the present study, we provided reliable and efficient methods for the isolation and culture of rat aortic valve interstitial cells that could serve for in vitro studies on aortic valve physiology and pathophysiology.