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Background and aims: there remains a need to develop a non-invasive, accurate and easy-to-use tool to identify patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Successful clinical and preclinical applications demonstrate the ability of quantitative ultrasound (QUS) techniques to improve medical diagnostics. We aimed to develop and validate a diagnostic tool, based on QUS analysis, for identifying NASH.Methods: a total of 259 Chinese individuals with biopsy-proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) were enrolled in the study. The histological spectrum of NAFLD was classified according to the NASH clinical research network scoring system. Radiofrequency (RF) data, raw data of iLivTouch, was acquired for further QUS analysis. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) method was used to select the most useful predictive features.Results: eighteen candidate RF parameters were reduced to two significant parameters by shrinking the regression coefficients with the LASSO method. We built a novel QUS score based on these two parameters, and this QUS score showed good discriminatory capacity and calibration for identifying NASH both in the training set (area under the ROC curve [AUROC]: 0.798, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.731-0.865; Hosmer-Lemeshow test, P = .755) and in the validation set (AUROC: 0.816, 95% CI 0.725-0.906; Hosmer-Lemeshow test, P = .397). Subgroup analysis showed that the QUS score performed well in different subgroups.Conclusions: the QUS score, which was developed from QUS, provides a novel, non-invasive and practical way for identifying NASH.

In this paper the experiment research of fluoride removal was based on coagulating sedimentation method, and the defluorination effect of coagulant’s kinds and dosage、parameters of rotational speed and coagulant aid’s dosage was studied and optimized, which could provide crafts parameters of efficient-whirling clarifier for engineering application . In this experiment, five coagulants was compared, which including aluminum sulfate (Al2(SO4)3)、potassium alum(KAl(SO4)2)、ferric sulphate（Fe2(SO4)3）、ferric chloride（FeCl3）and polyaluminium chloride（PAC）. Parameters of rotational speed applied in this experiment were simulated from the G state of efficient-whirling clarifier, while polyacrylamide was employed as the coagulant aid. The experiment results showed that: First, the defluorination effect of polyaluminium chloride was better than that of other coagulants. Second, the optimum parameters of rotational speed was that mixing at the speed of 400 r/min for 60 seconds，the first stage of coagulation at the speed of 160r/min for 7minutes、the second stage of coagulation at the speed of 90r/min for 8 minutes and sedimentation for 15minutes. Third, PAM was helpful for the defluorination effect of PAC. The fourth, when fluoride concentration in raw water respectively were 2.0mg/L、5.0mg/L、10mg/L, the dosages of PAC respectively were 400 mg/L、500mg/L、1300mg/L and the dosage of PAM respectively were that of PAM was 0.09mg/L、0.12mg/L、0.09mg/L, which could make the outlet of fluoride concentration achieved the national drinking water standard (GB5749-2006).

This article explores the function of trade credit in coordinating supply chain under both symmetric and bilateral asymmetric information. The financing function and positive externality of trade credit are also illustrated in this article. In a supply chain composed of a manufacturer and a budget constraint retailer, the manufacturer can use trade credit to finance the retailer and thus increases the retailer's order size up to the supply chain's optimal lot size. The benefit of coordination is allocated randomly among the parties by setting the length of the trade credit. When the retailer sells multiple products, trade credit's positive externality, that is one supplier's trade credit can increase the other supplier's profit, is demonstrated. When both the retailer and the manufacturer have private information, we use double auction model to derive the length of the credit. Numerical example is conducted to demonstrate the theoretical results.

The oxoprotoberberine alkaloids 1a–d have been synthesized efficiently from the enamide derivatives 2a–d by a radical-initiated cyclization reaction utilizing n-Bu3SnH/AIBN and CuCl. The enamide derivatives 2a–d were prepared from phenylethylamine analogues 5a–b, followed by acylation with acetic anhydride, Bischler–Napieralski cyclization with POCl3 and benzoylation with the corresponding bromobenzoyl chloride, respectively.

Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (HT) is the most common cause of hypothyroidism in areas of the world where iodine levels are sufficient. However, the pathogenesis of HT has not been completely elucidated. The first functional human TSHβ splice variant was supposed to be involved in the pathology of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The question remains as to which kind of intrathyroid cells expresses functional TSHβ splice variant and whether there are expression variations of functional TSHβ splice variant in the injured thyroid of patient with HT. For the answer to this question, immune-injured thyroids were obtained from 30 patients with HT. Localization study of functional TSHβ splice variant in injured thyroid was done by immunofluorescence double staining. Transcription and translation level of functional TSHβ splice variant were detected by using qRT-PCR and semi-quantitative immunohistochemistry method, respectively. The correlation between expression level of functional TSHβ splice variant and degree of thyroid follicles damage was assessed. It was firstly identified that functional TSHβ splice variant was predominately expressed by plasma cells infiltrated around follicles and germinal center in injured thyroid of patient with HT. Of particular interest, the TSHβ splice variant was expressed at significantly higher levels in the thyroid tissues of patients with HT than that in the normal thyroid tissues, furthermore, expression level of TSHβ splice variant was positive related with the degree of follicles damage in thyroid of patient with HT. These findings defined the immune-derived functional TSHβ splice variant that resided in the thyroid of patient with HT, which exerted the unique effects on the pathogenesis of HT, meanwhile, we considered these findings to have significant implications for understanding immune-endocrine interactions in a number of ways.

We prove a unified convergence theorem, which presents, in four equivalent forms, the famous Antosik–Mikusinski theorems. In particular, we show that Swartz’ three uniform convergence principles are all equivalent to the Antosik–Mikusinski theorems.

The oxoprotoberberine alkaloids 1a–d have been synthesized efficiently from the enamide derivatives 2a–d by a radical-initiated cyclization reaction utilizing n-Bu3SnH/AIBN and CuCl. The enamide derivatives 2a–d were prepared from phenylethylamine analogues 5a–b, followed by acylation with acetic anhydride, Bischler–Napieralski cyclization with POCl3 and benzoylation with the corresponding bromobenzoyl chloride, respectively.

We propose the concept of simple perturbation of fuzzy sets, we estimate the upper and lower bounds of output error affected by perturbation parameters of input in many fuzzy reasoning schemes. Additionally, we illustrate that some fuzzy reasoning schemes are short of stability.