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This work aimed at investigating the crucial factor in building and maintaining the combustion front during in-situ combustion (ISC), oxidized coke and pyrolyzed coke. The surface morphologies, elemental contents, and non-isothermal mass losses of the oxidized and pyrolyzed cokes were thoroughly examined. The results indicated that the oxidized coke could be combusted at a lower temperature compared to the pyrolyzed coke due primarily to their differences in the molecular polarity and microstructure. Kinetic triplets of coke combustion were determined using iso-conversional models and one advanced integral master plots method. The activation energy values of the oxidized and pyrolyzed cokes varied in the range of 130–153 kJ/mol and 95–120 kJ/mol, respectively. The most appropriate reaction model of combustion of the oxidized and pyrolyzed cokes followed three-dimensional diffusion model (D3) and random nucleation and subsequent growth model (F1), respectively. These observations assisted in building the numerical model of these two types of cokes to simulate the ISC process.

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP1), a DNA repair gene, is the crucial player in the maintenance of genome integrity. T2285C polymorphism in coding region of PARP1 has been reported to be associated with susceptibility to tumours. We explored the relationship and mechanism of T2285C polymorphism of PARP1 to its expression and activity along with risk and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). mRNA expression was measured using quantitative RT–PCR assay or collected from TCGA dataset. Protein expression was examined with immunoblotting assay. Genotypes were determined by PCR-RFLP and sequencing approaches. PARP1 activity was determined with enzyme activity assay. Regulation of SIRT7 to PARP1 was determined by overexpression and small interference experiment. Association of PARP1 T2285C polymorphism with NSCLC risk was evaluated via multiple logistic regression analysis. Comparison of treatment response and progression-free survival (PFS) of NSCLC patients among different genotypes or regimens was made by chi-square test. Results indicated that mRNA and protein expression of PARP1 dramatically increased in NSCLC tissues in comparison with paired para-carcinoma tissues (P < 0.05). TC/CC mutant genotypes were associated with markedly enhanced PARP1 mRNA level compared with TT genotype (P = 0.011). No significant difference was discovered in PARP1 protein expression among TT, TC or CC genotypes (P > 0.05). Subjects with variant allele C had higher risk of NSCLC in comparison with allele T carriers [odds ratio = 1.560; P = 0.000]. NSCLC patients carrying mutational TC or CC genotypes were correlated with unfavourable response to platinum-based chemotherapy (TT vs. TC vs. CC, P = 0.010), and shorter PFS compared with TT genotype (TT vs. TC vs. CC, P = 0.009). T2285C mutation of PARP1 resulted in the enhancement of its mRNA, but the decrease of enzyme activity in tumour cell. Overexpression of SIRT7 attenuated PARP1 expression and activity. These findings suggest the variant allele C of T2285C polymorphism of PARP1 linked to an increase of NSCLC risk, and unfavourable efficacy and prognosis of NSCLC patients with platinum-based chemotherapy, which might be associated with enhancement of its mRNA expression and the diminishment of activity. Identification of PARP1 T2285C polymorphism and mRNA expression may be the promising way for the individualised treatment of NSCLC.

PURPOSE To describe and evaluate the application of a new 3-D printing-assisted personalized macular buckle for patients with myopic foveoschisis (MFS). METHODS Twelve eyes of 12 patients with MFS were included in this study. Preoperative MRI images were subsequently measured after marker implantation and imported into the MIMICS software for the 3-D reconstruction of a virtual model of an eyeball and a marker. The virtual eyeball model was designed according to the degree of retinoschisis, which was measured using optical coherence tomography preoperatively. A macular buckle was designed using a titanium stent, assisted by 3-D printing; furthermore, it was surgically placed in combination with pars plana vitrectomy. Visual acuity, axial length and anatomic outcomes were analysed pre- and postoperatively. RESULTS Macular schisis in all patients was completely resolved after the surgery without any postoperative complications. The mean postoperative best corrected visual acuity (LogMAR) improved significantly from 1.21 to 0.92 during the 6-month follow-up period (p

Diabetic nephropathy (DN), characterized by the chronic loss of kidney function during diabetes, is a long‐term kidney disease that affects millions of populations. However, the etiology of DN remains unclear. DN cell model was established by treating HK‐2 cells with high glucose (HG) in vitro. Expression of metastasis‐associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript‐1 (MALAT1), miR‐30c, nucleotide binding and oligomerization domain‐like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3), caspase‐1, IL‐1β, and IL‐18 in treated HK‐2 cells were tested by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. HK‐2 cell pyroptosis was assessed using flow cytometry analysis. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity was examined with a LDH assay kit. Correlation among MALAT1, miR‐30c, and NLRP3 was examined via dual‐luciferase reporter assay. Here, we revealed that MALAT1 was upregulated, but miR‐30c was downregulated in HG‐treated HK‐2 cells, leading to upregulation of NLRP3 expression and cell pyroptosis. Knockdown of MALAT1 or overexpression of miR‐30c protected HK‐2 cells from HG‐induced pyroptosis. Meanwhile, we found that MALAT1 promoted NLRP3 expression by sponging miR‐30c through dual‐luciferase reporter assay. Moreover, the co‐transfection of sh‐MALAT1 and miR‐30c inhibitor could reverse the protective effects of the sh‐MALAT1 on the HG‐induced pyroptosis. These results confirmed that MALAT1 regulated HK‐2 cell pyroptosis by inhibiting miR‐30c targeting for NLRP3, contributing to a better understanding of DN pathogenesis and help to find out the effective treatment for DN.

Metal–organic coordination polymers (CPs) have emerged as attractive functional nanomaterials because of their flexible composition and diverse architecture. Herein, we designed and synthesized a luminescent sensing nucleotide/Tb3+ CP, utilizing the self-assembly of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as a biomolecule, Tb3+ as a luminescent ion, and 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen) as a cofactor ligand. The switched-on luminescence of ATP-Tb with Phen as a sensitizer was due to the removal of coordinating water molecules and the concomitant Phen-to-Tb3+ energy transfer. Employing Phen as a recognition unit with a high affinity to Fe2+, the configured ATP-Tb-Phen CP exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity to Fe2+. The decrease of luminescence intensity was linearly correlated with the Fe2+ concentration in the range of 20 nM to 1.5 μM, with a detection limit of 20 nM. More importantly, a long luminescence lifetime of the ATP-Tb-Phen CP allowed time-resolved fluorimetric detection of Fe2+ ions in human serum, and can highly enhance its sensitivity by eliminating the background signal. Thus, our results indicate that metal–organic CPs are well suited for designing smart sensing materials, and feature unique advantages for the sensing of certain analytes.

This study analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of existing animal models in China and abroad and their goodness of fit based on the clinical characteristics and diagnostic criteria of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) and western medicine, followed by the collation and summarization of model evaluation methodologies. The results showed that the existing animal models of stable COPD were mainly modeled via smoke exposure or the combination of multiple methods like smoke exposure plus lipopolysaccharide or protease or bacterial infection. These animal models generally failed to simulate the clinical characteristics of TCM, and their goodness of fit in western medicine was higher than that in TCM. There is a lack of research on the animal models of stable COPD and the disease-syndrome combination models. Although the modeling is guided by the pathogenesis or mechanism of diseased humans, the established models were still not identical with the actual clinical situations. In-depth research is needed to develop quantitative standards for stable COPD models.

This study investigates a visual object detection technology in order to help doctors diagnose bladder lesions with endoscopy. A new object detection approach based on deep learning is presented, which derived from the cascade R-CNN and extended the ability of network for adapting insufficient endoscopic lesions samples when training a deep neural network. We propose a feature adaptive fusion model to increase the network's mobility and reduce the possibility of overfitting problems, and use task adaptation meta-learning approach to train the feature fusion process of the entire model and the target network update process in order to complete the task-adaptive classification and detection. The new model has been evaluated on the challenging object detection data set Pascal VOC and its converted format of Microsoft COCO, and the results show that the performance of our proposed method is superior to the original method. Therefore, we apply the proposed method to a custom bladder lesions data set to solve the auxiliary detection problem in the intelligent diagnosis of bladder lesions and demonstrated the effectiveness.

Renewable energy is in critical need throughout the world. The use of solar energy therefore represents one of the most important ways for seeking green, renewable energy. The use of solar energy is either through a solar photovoltaic or thermal system. In this chapter, we present and discuss a key component in the solar thermal system, namely Solar Selective Absorber Coatings. Solar selective absorber coatings play an important role in not only absorbing the sunlight but also conserving the thermal energy. To meet this purpose, an ideal solar selective absorber is required to exhibit high solar absorptance (α) in the solar spectrum range and low thermal emittance (e) in the infrared (IR) range. Moreover, the increasing demand for pumping up the conversion efficiency pushes the working temperatures higher than before; thus, high temperature stability of solar selective absorber is becoming a critical challenge. Herein, we will first introduce solar thermal system and the optical properties of solar selective absorber coatings. This is followed by the categorization of the solar selective absorber coatings, including conventional and state-of-the-art materials. Finally, we report high temperature (≥ 650°C) absorber coatings.

Kidney fibrosis is associated with an increased lymphangiogenesis, characterized by the formation and expansion of new lymphatic vessels. However, the trigger and underlying mechanism responsible for the growth of lymphatic vessels in diseased kidney remain poorly defined. Here, we report that tubule-derived sonic hedgehog (Shh) ligand is a novel lymphangiogenic factor that plays a crucial role in mediating lymphatic endothelial cell proliferation and expansion. Shh was induced in renal tubular epithelium in various models of fibrotic chronic kidney disease, and this was accompanied by an expansion of lymphatic vessels in adjacent areas. In vitro, Shh selectively promoted the proliferation of human dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLECs) but not human umbilical vein endothelial cells, as assessed by cell counting, MTT assay, and bromodeoxyuridine incorporation. Shh also induced the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-3, cyclin D1, and proliferating cell nuclear antigen in HDLECs. Shh did not affect the expression of Gli1, the downstream target and readout of canonical hedgehog signaling, but activated ERK-1/2 in HDLECs. Inhibition of Smoothened with small-molecule inhibitor or blockade of ERK-1/2 activation abolished the lymphatic endothelial cell proliferation induced by Shh. In vivo, inhibition of Smoothened also repressed lymphangiogenesis and attenuated renal fibrosis. This study identifies Shh as a novel mitogen that selectively promotes lymphatic, but not vascular, endothelial cell proliferation and suggests that tubule-derived Shh plays an essential role in mediating lymphangiogenesis after kidney injury.

The chemical structures of Ru (II) complexes are known to affect their cellular behavior and toxicity. In this study, three new luminescent Ru (II) complexes, [Ru(bpy)2(HIPMP)](ClO4)2 (Ru1, bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine, HIPMP = 2-(1H-imidazo-[4,5-f] [1,10] phenanthrolin-2-yl)-4-methylphenol), [Ru(phen)2(HIPMP)](ClO4)2 (Ru2, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), [Ru(dmb)2(HIPMP)](ClO4)2 (Ru3, dmb = 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine), were synthesized, and their anticancer activities were examined. All three complexes displayed anticancer activities against various cancer cells, with Ru2 exhibiting the highest cytotoxic activities. Ru2 was shown to accumulate specifically in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and induce ER stress-mediated apoptosis. In addition, Ru2 could generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) and trigger mitochondrial membrane potential depolarization. These results demonstrated that Ru2 induced apoptosis in HeLa cells through ER stress and ROS production.

This study analyzed the optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) macular parameters in primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) patients after acute primary angle closure (APAC) episodes. Thirty-three patients with 33 APAC eyes and 33 primary angle closure suspect (PACS) eyes and 33 age-matched normal subjects (controls) were enrolled. Macular vessel density (VD) in central, inner, outer and full regions and foveal avascular zone (FAZ) parameters (area, perimeter and circularity index) were compared between APAC, PACS, and control eyes. For resolved APAC eyes, the VD in each macular region was significantly lower than that in control eyes, with less central and inner macular VD than PACS eyes. The central macular VD was significantly lower in PACS eyes than in controls. There was no difference in FAZ area and perimeter between APAC, PACS, and control eyes. FAZ circularity was highest in control eyes, followed by PACS eyes, and lowest in APAC eyes. The AUC, sensitivity and specificity of FAZ circularity were 0.944, 93.9% and 84.8%, respectively, in APAC eyes and 0.881, 84.8% and 81.8%, respectively, in PACS eyes. Therefore, FAZ circularity had the best discrimination capability for detecting both APAC and PACS eyes. Macular assessment with OCTA could provide an accurate early-stage diagnostic tool for PACG.

Tspan8 (tetraspanin 8) plays critical roles in cell adhesion and motility. Recently, Tspan8 overexpression has been found in various tumors. However, its expression status and prognostic significance in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unknown. The objective of the present study was to assess the expression of Tspan8 and its correlation with clinicopathological features in ccRCC.Tspan8 expression was detected in 150 cases of ccRCC and matched paracancerous tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and its relevance with prognosis was analyzed.Our data showed that the high-expression rate of Tspan8 in ccRCC tissues was 74.0%, which was significantly higher than those in paracancerous kidney tissues (43.3%,Tspan8 is overexpressed in ccRCC and indicates poor prognosis, suggesting potential roles of Tspan8 in prognostication and targeted therapy.

Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a highly infectious pathogen that can cause severe diseases in pigs and result in enormous economic losses in the worldwide swine industry. Previous studies revealed that PEDV exhibits an obvious capacity for modulating interferon (IFN) signaling or expression. The newly discovered type III IFN, which plays a crucial role in antiviral immunity, has strong antiviral activity against PEDV proliferation in IPEC-J2 cells. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of PEDV nucleocapsid (N) protein on type III IFN-λ. We found that the N proteins of ten PEDV strains isolated between 2013 and 2017 from different local farms shared high nucleotide identities, while the N protein of the CV777 vaccine strain formed a monophyletic branch in the phylogenetic tree. The N protein of the epidemic strain could antagonize type III IFN, but not type I or type II IFN expression induced by polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly(I:C)) in IPEC-J2 cells. Subsequently, we demonstrated that the inhibition of poly(I:C)-induced IFN-λ3 production by PEDV N protein was dependent on the blocking of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) nuclear translocation. These findings might help increase understanding of the pathogenesis of PEDV and its mechanisms for evading the host immune response.

AKI is a devastating condition with high morbidity and mortality. The pathologic features of AKI are characterized by tubular injury, inflammation, and vascular impairment. Whether fibroblasts in the renal interstitium have a role in the pathogenesis of AKI is unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of fibroblast-specific β-catenin signaling in dictating the outcome of AKI, using conditional knockout mice in which β-catenin was specifically ablated in fibroblasts (Gli1-β-cat-/-). After ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), Gli1-β-cat-/- mice had lower serum creatinine levels and less morphologic injury than Gli1-β-cat+/+ littermate controls. Moreover, we detected fewer apoptotic cells, as well as decreased cytochrome C release; reduced expression of Bax, FasL, and p53; and increased phosphorylation of Akt, in the Gli1-β-cat-/- kidneys. Gli1-β-cat-/- kidneys also exhibited upregulated expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and Ki-67, which are markers of cell proliferation. Furthermore, Gli1-β-cat-/- kidneys displayed suppressed NF-κB signaling and cytokine expression and reduced infiltration of inflammatory cells. Notably, loss of β-catenin in fibroblasts induced renal expression of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and augmented the tyrosine phosphorylation of c-met receptor after IRI. In vitro, treatment with Wnt ligands or ectopic expression of active β-catenin inhibited HGF mRNA and protein expression and repressed HGF promoter activity. Collectively, these results suggest that fibroblast-specific β-catenin signaling can control tubular injury and repair in AKI by modulating HGF expression. Our studies uncover a previously unrecognized role for interstitial fibroblasts in the pathogenesis of AKI.

In the process of signal decomposition by wavelet theory, the wavelet basis function is artificially selected based on experience, and the method based on empirical mode decomposition is decomposed according to the time scale of the signal itself. The article uses two methods to decompose a certain segmented frequency conversion signal to obtain the intrinsic modal component matrix and the wavelet decomposition coefficient matrix, then calculates the Hilbert time spectrum of the two decomposition matrices. cThe calculations shows that the false information generated by the empirical mode decomposition signal is obviouly more less. Therefore, the empirical mode decomposition method is used to decompose the bearing vibration signal, and the stationary natural mode function obtained is very suitable for establishing an autoregressive AR model to extract the power spectrum of each component for analysis. Finally, the characteristic frequencies of different states of rolling bearings are extracted, which provides support for data-driven fault diagnosis.