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Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (including MRSA) in the clinic pose a growing threat to public health, and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have great potential as efficient treatment alternatives. Houseflies have evolved over long periods in complex, dirty environments, developing a special immune system to overcome challenges in harmful environments. AMPs are key innate immune molecules. Herein, two differentially expressed AMPs, Phormicins A and B, were identified by screening transcriptomic changes in response to microbial stimulation. Structural mimic assays indicated that these AMPs exhibited functional divergence due to their C-terminal features. Expression analysis showed that they had different expression patterns. Phormicin B had higher constitutive expression than Phormicin A. However, Phormicin B was sharply downregulated, whereas Phormicin A was highly upregulated, after microbial stimulation. The MIC, MBC and time-growth curves showed the antibacterial spectrum of these peptides. Crystal violet staining and SEM showed that Phormicin D inhibited MRSA biofilm formation. TEM suggested that Phormicin D disrupted the MRSA cell membrane. Furthermore, Phormicin D inhibited biofilm formation by downregulating the expression of biofilm-related genes, including altE and embp. Therefore, housefly Phormicins were functionally characterized as having differential expression patterns and antibacterialantibiofilm activities. This study provides a new potential peptide for clinical MRSA therapy.

In this paper, tunable optical bistability that denotes the relationship between input intensity and output intensity is numerically investigated in the microwave frequency region based on the one-dimensional (1D) sandwich photonic structure consisting of a Kerr-type nonlinear material slab and two magnetized cold plasma layers. Results show that, in the case of TM-polarized electromagnetic wave, width and switching thresholds of the bistability loops are dependent on the working frequency, initial incidence angle, layer thickness, plasma density, and external magnetic field, which should be judiciously selected to obtain a required bistability behavior. Compared to the case of switch-down threshold, the switch-up threshold in the bistability loop is more sensitive to the changes of parameters. Through this study, the suggested 1D sandwich photonic structure is beneficial to the all-optical signal processing.

A neuromuscular junction (NMJ) (or myoneural junction) is a chemical synapse between a motor neuron (MN) and a muscle fiber. Although numerous articles have been published, no such analyses on trend or prediction of citations in NMJ were characterized using the temporal bar graph (TBG). This study is to identify the most dominant entities in the 100 top-cited articles in NMJ (T100MNJ for short) since 2001; to verify the improved TBG that is viable for trend analysis; and to investigate whether medical subject headings (MeSH terms) can be used to predict article citations.We downloaded T100MNJ from the PubMed database by searching the string ("NMJ" [MeSH Major Topic] AND ("2001" [Date - Modification]: "2021" [Date - Modification])) and matching citations to each article. Cluster analysis of citations was performed to select the most cited entities (e.g., authors, research institutes, affiliated countries, journals, and MeSH terms) in T100MNJ using social network analysis. The trend analysis was displayed using TBG with two major features of burst spot and trend development. Next, we examined the MeSH prediction effect on article citations using its correlation coefficients (CC) when the mean citations in MeSH terms were collected in 100 top-cited articles related to NMJ (T100NMJs).The most dominant entities (i.e., country, journal, MesH term, and article in T100NMJ) in citations were the US (with impact factor [IF] = 142.2 = 10237/72), neuron (with IF = 151.3 = 3630/24), metabolism (with IF = 133.02), and article authored by Wagh et al from Germany in 2006 (with 342 citing articles). The improved TBG was demonstrated to highlight the citation evolution using burst spots, trend development, and line-chart plots. MeSH terms were evident in the prediction power on the number of article citations (CC = 0.40, t = 4.34).Two major breakthroughs were made by developing the improved TBG applied to bibliographical studies and the prediction of article citations using the impact factor of MeSH terms in T100NMJ. These visualizations of improved TBG and scatter plots in trend, and prediction analyses are recommended for future academic pursuits and applications in other disciplines.

The eutrophication of coastal water has been a critical environmental problem in China’s offshore areas. How to effectively assess the status of coastal waters is key for pollution treatment and environmental protection. In recent years, eutrophication-symptom-based and multi-indicator methods, termed “phase II” methods, have been gradually adopted to assess the eutrophication status in some coastal waters in China and have achieved success. The cumulative quantile is typically selected to determine the characteristic value of an indicator in “phase II” methods. The influence of small-scale damaged water bodies on eutrophication assessment may be exaggerated, which often leads to the overassessment of the eutrophication status. In this study, the area ratio method was integrated into the assessment of the estuarine trophic status (ASSETS) method in order to assess the eutrophication status of Xiamen Bay in 2016. The results indicated that, in 2016, the eutrophication status of Xiamen Bay coastal waters was moderate and exhibited spatiotemporal variation. The area ratio method can effectively reduce the effect of small-scale coastal waters with extremely high eutrophication on the overassessment of eutrophication at the broader scale, allowing the eutrophication status to be better reflected, even with limited observation data. The centralized distribution of pollution sources and poor hydrodynamic conditions are the main reasons for the aforementioned phenomenon. Controlling the pollution discharge from the Jiulong River in flood seasons is key to reducing eutrophication in Xiamen coastal waters.

Two monomers, a second-order nonlinear optical azo chromophore C containing a tricyanofuran electron acceptor and a dihydroxyethyl nitrogen electron donor, and a bisphenol AF-type diether dianhydride (BPAFDA), were designed and synthesized. Fluorinated polyurethaneimide (PUI) electro-optic (EO) waveguide materials were prepared using the synthesized monomers polymerized with 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI). The structures of the synthesized chromophore C, BPAFDA, and polymers of PUI were characterized by 1HNMR and FTIR, and the thermal properties of the polymers were characterized by DSC and TGA. The prepared PUI exhibited good film-forming properties with glass transition temperatures (Tg) between 160–169°C and over 300°C at 5% thermal weight loss in a nitrogen atmosphere. The experimental results showed that the fluorinated PUIs possessed an EO coefficient of 56–60 p.m./V at 1550 nm and the optical propagation loss of the polymer waveguide was between 1.3–1.4 dB/cm at 1550 nm. Using PUI as the core material of the waveguides, EO modulators with Mach-Zehnder (MZ) structure were designed and prepared, showing good EO modulation performance at 1550 nm.

Purpose: Prediction models for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are useful, but have considerable inaccuracy and imprecision. No current model includes covariates related to immune cells in the AML microenvironment. Here, an immune risk score was explored to predict the survival of patients with AML. Experimental Design: We evaluated the predictive accuracy of several in silico algorithms for immune composition in AML based on a reference of multi-parameter flow cytometry. CIBERSORTx was chosen to enumerate immune cells from public datasets and develop an immune risk score for survival in a training cohort using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator Cox regression model. Results: Six flow cytometry–validated immune cell features were informative. The model had high predictive accuracy in the training and four external validation cohorts. Subjects in the training cohort with low scores had prolonged survival compared with subjects with high scores, with 5-year survival rates of 46% versus 19% (P < 0.001). Parallel survival rates in validation cohorts-1, -2, -3, and -4 were 46% versus 6% (P < 0.001), 44% versus 18% (P = 0.041), 44% versus 24% (P = 0.004), and 62% versus 32% (P < 0.001). Gene set enrichment analysis indicated significant enrichment of immune relation pathways in the low-score cohort. In multivariable analyses, high-risk score independently predicted shorter survival with HRs of 1.45 (P = 0.005), 2.12 (P = 0.004), 2.02 (P = 0.034), 1.66 (P = 0.019), and 1.59 (P = 0.001) in the training and validation cohorts, respectively. Conclusions: Our immune risk score complements current AML prediction models.

A series of novel 1-(1-benzoylpiperidin-4-yl) methanamine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for the serotonin reuptake inhibitory abilities and binding affinities to the 5-HT

Fullerene dimers have attracted extensive attention due to their unique structures and fascinating properties. Here, fullerene dimer derivatives with four to six carbon atoms in the esters are designed and synthesized. The property differences that caused by the carbon number in the esters of the fullerene dimers are investigated by performing their electrochemical, optical, and photoelectric measurements. As the carbon atom numbers in the esters increase from four to five and six, the absorption intensities increase to 1.6- and 4.4-folds. The intensities of the fluorescence spectra increase to 1.8- and 5.2-folds. Their photocurrent increases to 2- and 7-folds under the irradiation of a 405-nm laser. The LUMO energy levels move downward slightly from −3.89 to −3.90 and −3.92 eV, respectively. Our results indicate that as the carbon number increases, the carbon chain lengths in the ester structures increase, very slight effects produced on the energy levels of the fullerene dimers, but strongly contribute to their chemical activities and thus the photoelectronic efficiencies.

In this study, the research on the nonlinear dynamics of semiconductor quantum dot laser with two time-delayed optical feedbacks is numerically investigated. Results show that the nonlinear dynamics behaviors of the laser are very sensitive to the rich system parameters in which both feedback strength and bias current are easily controlled to significantly influence the nonlinear dynamics including the periodic state and chaotic state. By judiciously adjusting the bias current of the laser or the feedback strength in the external cavity, period one, period doubling, quasi-period, and chaos are achieved. The feedback level-related bifurcation diagrams are analyzed in detail while fixing another feedback level at a constant or varying the bias current. In addition, the translation variables of the 0–1 test method that are clearly bounded for regular behavior and exhibit the Brownian motion for irregular phenomenon are adopted to further evaluate the periodic state and the chaotic state. These results can give insight into the quantum dot laser–based applications in various optical technologies.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neuro developmental disorder that affects children and adolescents. It is estimated that the prevalence of ADHD is 7.2% throughout the world. There have been a number of articles published in the literature related to ADHD. However, it remains unclear which countries, journals, subject categories, and articles have the greatest influence. The purpose of this study was to display influential entities in 100 top-cited ADHD-related articles (T100ADHD) on an alluvial plot and apply alluvial to better understand the network characteristics of T100ADHD across entities.Using the PubMed and Web of Science (WoS) databases, T100ADHD data since 2011 were downloaded. The dominant entities were compared using alluvial plots based on citation analysis. Based on medical subject headings (MeSH terms) and research areas extracted from PubMed and WoS, social network analysis (SNA) was performed to classify subject categories. To examine the difference in article citations among subject categories and the predictive power of MeSH terms on article citations in T100ADHD, one-way analysis of variance and regression analysis were used.The top 3 countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) accounted for 75% of T100ADHD. The most citations per article were earned by Brazil (=415.33). The overall impact factor (IF = citations per 100) of the T100ADHD series is 188.24. The most cited article was written by Polanczyk et al from Brazil, with 772 citations since 2014. The majority of the articles were published and cited in Biol Psychiatry (13%; IF = 174.15). The SNA was used to categorize 6 subject areas. On the alluvial plots, T100ADHD's network characteristics were successfully displayed. There was no difference in article citations among subject categories (F = 1.19, P = .320). The most frequently occurring MeSH terms were physiopathology, diagnosis, and epidemiology. A significant correlation was observed between MeSH terms and the number of article citations (F = 25.36; P .001).Drawing the alluvial plot to display network characteristics in T100ADHD was a breakthrough. Article subject categories can be classified using MeSH terms to predict T100ADHD citations. Bibliometric analyses of 100 top-cited articles can be conducted in the future.

We saw a steady increase in the number of bibliographic studies published over the years. The reason for this rise is attributed to the better accessibility of bibliographic data and software packages that specialize in bibliographic analyses. Any difference in citation achievements between bibliographic and meta-analysis studies observed so far need to be verified. In this study, we aimed to identify the frequently observed MeSH terms in these 2 types of study and investigate whether the highlighted MeSH terms are strongly associated with one of the study types.By searching the PubMed Central database, 5121 articles relevant to bibliometric and meta-analysis studies were downloaded since 2011. Social network analysis was applied to highlight the major MeSH terms of quantitative and statistical methods in these 2 types of studies. MeSH terms were then individually tested for any differences in event counts over the years between study types using odds of 95% confidence intervals for comparison.In these 2 studies, we found that the most productive countries were the United States (19.9%), followed by the United Kingdom (8.8%) and China (8.7%); the most number of articles were published in PLoS One (2.9%), Stat Med (2.5%), and Res Synth (2.4%); and the most frequently observed MeSH terms were statistics and numerical data in bibliographic studies and methods in meta-analysis. Differences were found when compared to the event counts and the citation achievements in these 2 study types.The breakthrough was made by developing a dashboard using forest plots to display the difference in event counts. The visualization of the observed MeSH terms could be replicated for future academic pursuits and applications in other disciplines using the odds of 95% confidence intervals.

In this paper, we are concerned with the master-slave synchronization problem of fractional-order three-neuron bidirectional associative memory (BAM) neural networks with multiple time delays. The linear feedback controller is designed to ensure the global synchronization of the master-slave systems. Based on the Lyapunov functionals and fractional-order comparison theory, the corresponding synchronization conditions are derived. In the end, an example is given to further demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained results.

A convenient and practical synthetic route was here developed for the preparation of the cis isomer of cariprazine (2), a dopamine D3-preferring D3-D2 receptor partial agonist for the treatment of schizophrenia. The key step is the concise preparation of 2-(4-(3,3-dimethylureido)cyclohexyl)acetic acid in the cis configuration via a recrystallization separation tactic. The entire synthetic procedure was performed under mild conditions avoiding any need for expensive material, hazardous conditions, ultralow temperatures or tedious purification processes. The cis configuration of 2 confirmed via X-ray crystallography.

The crosslinkable electro-optic (EO) polymers polyurethane-imides (PUI) were designed and synthesized with monomers azo chromophore, phenyl diisocyanate and aromatic dianhydrides. Molecular structure characteristics for the polymers were evidenced by nuclear magnetic resonance (1HNMR) and fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. PUI as cladding, the strip long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LRSPPs) waveguides were designed and fabricated. The LRSPPs waveguiding along 18-nm-thin and 8-µm-wide gold stripes buried in EO PUI polymers were characterized at the light wavelength of 1310 nm and 1550 nm. The results indicated that the PUI can be used as preparation surface plasmon polaritons EO polymer optical waveguide materials, due to the merits of crosslinkable property, thermal stability, good film-forming ability, high processability and low optical waveguide propagation loss in near-infrared wave band.

As a hot topic of association rule mining, high average utility itemset mining (HAUIM) provides a scientific measurement of an itemset’s utility, thus it can be adopted to find out the rules that are critically useful to the real applications. However, there is a prominent deficiencty in existing algorithms for HAUIM, a huge number of memory consumption are needed during the generation of high average utility itemset. Hence, an efficient algorithm called BAUL-Miner is proposed to solve the memory problem, in which a buffered average utility list with a more compact upper bound and two pruning strategies are introduced to reduce the searching space. Finally, detail experiments in synthetic and industrial datasets verify the effectiveness of BAUL-Miner, it outperforms traditional HAUIM algorithms in runtimes, memory consumption and scalability.

In this study, a series of trans-4-(2-(1,2,4,5-tetrahydro-3H-benzo[d]azepin-3-yl)ethyl)cyclohexan-1-amine derivatives as potential antipsychotics were synthesized and biologically evaluated to discover potential antipsychotics with good drug target selectivity. The preliminary structure-activity relationship was discussed, and optimal compound 12a showed both nanomolar affinity for D2/D3/5-HT1A/5-HT2A receptors and weak α1 and H1 receptor binding affinity. In addition, 12a was metabolically stable in vitro, displayed micromolar affinity for the hERG channel, and exhibited antipsychotic efficacy in the animal model of locomotor-stimulating effects of phencyclidine.

In this study, optical bistability and multistability phenomena are numerically investigated in the terahertz frequency domain based on the quasiperiodic photonic metamaterial multilayers, in which both the regular positive index and special negative index materials are artificially arranged, according to the interesting Fibonacci sequence structure. In order to obtain the tunable bistability and multibistability behaviors, the Kerr-type nonlinear dielectric layer and graphene sheet are sandwiched between two Fibonacci quasiperiodic one-dimensional photonic crystals. Results show that the intensity-dependent hysteresis curves including bistability and multistability are thoroughly discussed by judiciously changing the systematical parameters such as the frequency of incident wave, thickness of each layer, incident angle, as well as the chemical potential of graphene which can produce strong influences on the switch-up/down threshold values and widths of hysteresis loops.

In the present work, we propose a one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals composed of alternatively stacked dispersive metamaterial layers including double-negative (electric permittivity e 0), and mu-negative material (μ 0) within some frequency ranges. Various types of photonic band gaps including Bragg gaps, zero-permittivity gap, zero-permeability gap, and a special band gap are, respectively, presented and discussed against the periodic number, thickness of dielectric layer, and incident angle. In the case of normal incidence, the band width, position, and transmittance for the Bragg and special band gaps are related to the thickness of each layer and periodic number. Under the oblique incidence (incident angle 0°

In this paper, dual-mode semiconductor laser is presented and demonstrated experimentally based on multimode Fabry–Perot laser diode with a built-in cavity. The spacing of both emission modes can be tuned by adjusting the bias current and operating temperature of active region. The generated dual-mode resonance can give rise to terahertz (THz) photonic signal with more than 300 GHz frequency. Under an external injection mode launched into the two-color semiconductor laser condition, it is possible to simultaneously generate photonic signals with various frequencies, ranging from less than 10 GHz to several THz, by selecting a proper resonance mode as the reference mode of injection beam. In this study, photonic signal including microwave (MW), millimeter-wave (mm-wave), and THz wave whose frequency range is from a few gigahertz to more than 0.5 THz are given, and the corresponding optical spectrum and electrical spectrum for low-frequency MW signal as well as simulated electrical spectrum for high-frequency mm-wave and THz wave signal are presented and discussed in detail.

In this paper, broadly tunable dual-mode lasing system is presented and demonstrated based on single-mode Fabry-Perot laser diode subject to the feedback of one side mode amplified by an erbium-doped fiber amplifier in the external feedback cavity. The spacing between two resonance modes in output lasing spectrum is broadly tuned by introducing differently amplified side mode into the single-mode laser via the external cavity consisted of amplifier, filter, and polarization controller so that two difference frequencies of 1 THz and 0.6 THz are given to display the tunable behavior of dual-mode emission in this work. Therefore, under an external injection mode into the laser condition, the power dependent injection locking and optical bistability of generated dual-mode emission are discussed in detail. At different wavelength detunings, the emitted two resonance modes including the dominant and feedback modes are switched to on- or off-state by selecting proper high-low power level of the external injection mode. As a consequence, the maximum value of achieved dual-mode on-off ratio is as high as up to 45 dB.

A series of novel alkoxy-piperidine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their serotonin reuptake inhibitory and binding affinities for 5-HT

In this numerical work, a Mach–Zehnder interferometer device with sample and reference arms composed of microstructured chalcogenide optical fibres with AsSe2 core and As2S5 cladding is presented to generate single and double pulses. An unchirped hyperbolic secant-shaped pulse with enough high peak power centered at 1958 nm wavelength and a continuous wave with a very weak power level at 2070 nm wavelength are simultaneously introduced into the sample arm, in which stimulated Raman scattering and strong cross-phase modulation induced by two co-propagating waves give rise to a significant phase shift for a continuous wave. In the reference arm, the continuous wave directly passes through the fibre, where the transmitted wave has a slight phase shift due to the influence of self-phase modulation. Therefore, at the output port of the configuration, the re-combined optical fields at 2070 nm wavelength have a significant phase difference. As a result, both single and double pulses caused by the optical interference at the output port are achieved by judiciously adjusting the phase difference which is mainly controlled by the peak power and temporal width of the input optical pulse, as well as the length of a microstructured optical fibre. In addition, both widths of the single pulse and spacing of the double pulses are directly dependent on the temporal width of the input pulse and the fibre length of the arm.

A variety of deactivated arenes were nitrated to their corresponding nitro derivatives in excellent yields under high-speed ball milling condition using Fe(NO3)3·9H2O/P2O5 as nitrating reagent. A radical involved mechanism was proposed for this facial, eco-friendly, safe, and effective nitration reaction.

We report one-dimensional ternary photonic crystals containing a single defect layer, whose photonic band-gap properties including the bandwidth and defect mode are analysed by changing the thickness and position of the defect layer, the number of unit cell repetitions in photonic crystals and the initial incidence angle. The results obtained show that the defect layer thickness can strongly affect the transmittance and the number of defect modes. The defect mode can disappear by increasing the number of periodic layers. The position of the defect layer in the photonic crystals can change the wavelength and transmittance of the defect mode. In addition, both the bandwidth and the defect mode properties of TE and TM waves are strongly dependent on the incidence angle.

In this paper, highly nondegenerate four-wave mixing (NDFWM) resulting from external dual-mode injection (pump-probe structure) in the single-mode Fabry-Perot laser diode (SMFP-LD) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. To cause the effective NDFWM process, both pump and probe beams with enough power levels should, respectively, be close to various resonance modes in the active region, whose detuning frequency can be discontinuously varied from more than 100 GHz to up to 800 GHz. Normalized conversion efficiency (NCE) and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of newly generated conjugate signals are strongly dependent on external injection power, wavelength detuning, and detuning frequency. In addition, the NDFWM process exhibits injection probe power-related hysteresis behaviors, whereas the input power and wavelength for pump beam are, respectively, fixed at some special constants.

Distribution line reliability under typhoon weather is studied in the paper. Firstly, the probability density of wire and concrete pole bending strength is studied. Then, a distribution line reliability model with consideration of typhoon wind speed and wind direction is established. When wind speed and wind direction under typhoon weather are known, the load reliability of wire and pole is obtained according to wire tensile strength probability density function and pole bending strength probability density function. Line is equivalent to component series model for obtaining overhead distribution line reliability. The line load risk level is reflected.

In this paper, the spectral properties of temporal double pulses centred at the same central wavelength and two different central wavelengths are numerically presented based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon core optical fibre. In order to characterise the output spectra of double pulses, the group velocity dispersion and various nonlinear processes including self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, two-photon absorption, free carrier absorption and free carrier dispersion are considered in the theoretical model. Numerical results show that, under fixed fibre length condition, the widths of the outcome spectra are strongly dependent on the delay times, peak powers and initial chirps of input double pulses, i.e. widths of the output spectra are proportional to the launched peak powers, and the delay times control the separation between two pulses, resulting in the spectral change within a proper delay time, and the spectral widths are compressed or extended by judiciously adjusting the initial chirps imposed on the input pulses.

A series of novel alkoxy-piperidine derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their serotonin reuptake inhibitory and binding affinities for 5-HT1A/5-HT7 receptors. In vivo antidepressant activities of the selective compounds were explored using the forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) in mice. The results showed that compounds 7a (reuptake inhibition (RUI), IC50 = 177 nM; 5-HT1A, Ki = 12 nM; 5-HT7, Ki = 25 nM) and 15g (RUI, IC50 = 85 nM; 5-HT1A, Ki = 17 nM; 5-HT7, Ki = 35 nM) were potential antidepressant agents in animal behavioral models with high 5-HT1A/5-HT7 receptor affinities and moderate serotonin reuptake inhibition, and good metabolic stability in vitro.

In this paper, nonlinear porous silicon based all-optical modulator is proposed and investigated by utilizing an asymmetrical Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) configuration consisted of two couplers with equal splitting ratio, and two unbalance arms, in which a porous silicon (PS) waveguide as the nonlinear element is only placed in one arm of MZI, and another arm is short fiber delay line. Results show that both a pulsed pump and continuous probe wave are simultaneously launched into the input port with the result that an outcome signal with ~14.10 dB modulation depth at probe wavelength is obtained at the end of the device under the conditions of an initial pulsed pump with 47.07 dB m peak, 10.88 extinction ratio and 100 ps duration, continuous probe wave of 0 dB m power, and 3-mm long PS waveguide. Extinction ratio and eye opening ratio of eye diagram are observed for various operation speeds.

AIM To optimize the hepatobiliary phase delay time (HBP-DT) of Gd-EOB-DTPA-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (GED-MRI) for more efficient identification of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) occurring in different degrees of cirrhosis assessed by Child-Pugh (CP) score. METHODS The liver parenchyma signal intensity (LPSI), the liver parenchyma (LP)/HCC signal ratios, and the visibility of HCC at HBP-DT of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 min (i.e., DT-5, DT-10, DT-15, DT-20, and DT-25 ) after injection of Gd-EOB-DTPA were collected and analyzed in 73 patients with cirrhosis of different degrees of severity (including 42 patients suffering from HCC) and 18 healthy adult controls. RESULTS The LPSI increased with HBP-DT more significantly in the healthy group than in the cirrhosis group (F = 17.361, P < 0.001). The LP/HCC signal ratios had a significant difference (F = 12.453, P < 0.001) among various HBP-DT points, as well as between CP-A and CP-B/C subgroups (F = 9.761, P < 0.001). The constituent ratios of HCC foci identified as obvious hypointensity (+++), moderate hypointensity (++), and mild hypointensity or isointensity (+/-) kept stable from DT-10 to DT-25: 90.6%, 9.4%, and 0.0% in the CP-A subgroup; 50.0%, 50.0%, and 0.0% in the CP-B subgroup; and 0.0%, 0.0%, and 100.0% in the CP-C subgroup, respectively. CONCLUSION The severity of liver cirrhosis has significant negative influence on the HCC visualization by GED-MRI. DT-10 is more efficient and practical than other HBP-DT points to identify most of HCC foci emerging in CP-A cirrhosis, as well as in CP-B cirrhosis; but an HBP-DT of 15 min or longer seems more appropriate than DT-10 for visualization of HCC in patients with CP-C cirrhosis.

To explore the effect of arsenic trioxide combined with itraconazole on proliferation and apoptosis of KG1a cells and its potential mechanism.The cell morphology was observed with Wrighe-Giemsa staining; cell survival rate was examined by CCK-8; and colony formation capacity was measured by methylcellulose colony formation test; the flow cytometry was used to analyse the cell apoptosis rate and cell cycle; the protein expressions of BCL-2,caspase-3,BAX,SMO,Gli1 and Gli2 were detected by Western-blot.The arsenic trioxide and itraconazole alone both could inhibit the KG1a cell proliferation in dose-and time-dependent manner. In comparison between single and combined drug-treatment group, both the cell survival rate and the colony number of the single drug-treatment group were significantly lower(P0.05), and the apoptosis rate was higher in the combined drug-treatment group. In the combined-treatment group, the protein expression of Caspase-3 and BAX was upregulated, while the protein expression of BCL-2,SMO,Gli1 and Gli2 was downregulated.Arsenic trioxide combined with itraconazole can inhibit the KG1a cell proliferation and induce apoptosis, which may be related with the inhibition of Hh signaling pathway and upregulation of both Caspase-3 and BAX protein expression, and provided experimental data of arsenic trioxide combined with itraconazole for the treatment of refractory AML.

Aiming at the group decision making problem of multi-person and multi-decision matrix, a multi-attribute group decision making method based on evidence theory has been proposed. In this method, firstly, the expert is regard as source of evidence to construct mass function of scheme, use expert weight coefficient to weight evidence, and to get the group decision making matrix. Secondly, according to the group decision making matrix, the attribute was regard as sources of evidence, to weight the evidence by measuring the dispersion degree of attribute based on grey correlation degree, and to obtain the belief function of each scheme based on weighted evidence composition principle. Lastly all the schemes will be ordered based on the value of belief function. By analysis a numerical example, the effectiveness of the method in this paper is verified.

A dynamic simulation method of thermal environment was presented to evaluate the thermal performance of solar greenhouse. Solar greenhouse was firstly simplified into several components according to characteristics of its structure and materials, and then each component was divided into several temperature elements. For each element, heat balance equation was respectively built and integrated into a lumped model which was used to describe the thermal system of solar greenhouse. Consequently, a dynamic simulation based on state-space method was developed to calculate indoor temperature variations under the ambient conditions and structures of solar greenhouse. Experimental results show the presented method can simulate the long-term changes of indoor temperature, and are beneficial to evaluate and predict the thermal performance of solar greenhouses.

This paper presents a simulation and investigation about the nonlinear interplay between an optical pulse and GaAs waveguide. The results obtained show that the nonlinear processes including self-phase modulation, 2-photon absorption, and free carrier related effects will have significant influences on the temporal shape and frequency spectrum of a propagating pulse in the GaAs waveguide with the result that 2-photon absorption can extend the pulse duration that can be again compressed by the free carrier absorption. The outcome spectrum is also asymmetrical due to the free carrier related effects, which takes on a complicated oscillation structure resulting from the interference. In addition, an interesting phenomenon is that the input pulse will eventually evolve into a double pulse along the GaAs waveguide by means of judiciously adjusting the intensity, waveform, and time duration of the input pulse, i.e. when the time duration of the input pulse is larger than the carrier lifetime, the input pulse with high enough intensity can develop into a double pulse at the end of the waveguide.