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AimBibliometric and data visualization methods were used to identify the current status, key areas, and emerging frontiers in ropivacaine research.MethodsWe conducted a comprehensive search of the Web of Science database for publications related to ropivacaine published from 2000 to 2023. The publication types were limited to original articles and reviews. We utilized CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and the online bibliometric platform1 to visualize and analyze the collected data.ResultsA total of 4,147 publications related to ropivacaine were identified, with a consistent growth in annual publications over time. The United States emerged as the most influential country in the field of ropivacaine research, and ranked first in the annual number of publications until 2014. China surpassed the United States in the number of publications for the first time in 2015 and has remained in first place ever since. Of all the research institutions in the field of ropivacaine, University of Copenhagen in Denmark exhibited the highest impact. Brian M. Ilfeld and Casati A were identified as the most influential authors. The leading researchers in this field primarily focused their publications on continuous nerve blocks for postoperative analgesia and ultrasound-guided nerve block techniques. An analysis of reference co-citation clustering revealed 18 distinct research clusters, with current hotspots including erector spinae plane block, dexmedetomidine, quadratus lumborum block, labor analgesia, and mitochondrial respiration. Additionally, keywords analysis indicated that “dexmedetomidine as an adjuvant in nerve blocks” currently represents a research hotspot in the field of ropivacaine.ConclusionThis bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the research landscape in ropivacaine. It reveals research trends in this field and emerging areas for future investigations. Notably, the application of ropivacaine in nerve blocks is a prominent focus in current research, with a particular emphasis on its combination with dexmedetomidine.

Summary: Background: Excessive use of antibiotics is a widespread problem. We aim to evaluate the efficacy of a multifaceted intervention for reducing antibiotic use in patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Methods: In this two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial, we enrolled patients aged 18+ with symptomatic RTIs at 40 township health centers (THCs) selected from 10 counties in Anhui, China. The THCs were randomized using an online tool (‘Sealed Envelope’) to intervention or usual care (1:1 ratio), stratified by baseline antibiotic prescribing and with random block sizes (4 or 6). The intervention had five components: a half-day clinician training, a WeChat-based peer support group, a decision aid, a poster commitment letter and a patient leaflet. The primary outcome was whether antibiotics were prescribed at the index consultation. Secondary measures included defined daily dose (DDD), illness recovery rate, re-visits to other care-givers or retail pharmacies and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). These measures were analyzed using generalized linear mixed modeling controlling for clustering. The study was registered as ISRCTN30652037. Findings: Between December 2021 and September 2022, 1053 patients were recruited (intervention, 21 THCs, n = 552; control, 19 THCs, n = 501), using consecutive sampling. Antibiotic prescribing rate was 55.25% and 66.67% in the intervention and control arms (Odds ratio 0.52, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.27, 0.98; p = 0.044). The intervention group also had lower, significant or non-significant, differences for other markers of antibiotic use: DDD (1.57 vs 2.75); prescriptions of two or more types of antibiotics (9.78% vs 11.58%); obtaining antibiotics from retail pharmacies (3.68% vs 5.78) or from other clinics (2.70% vs 4.05%). The intervention resulted in a cost reduction of 9.265 RMB (1.471 USD) per consultation episode and an ICER of −7769.98 RMB or −1233.33 USD/QALYs. The intervention did not encounter any major adverse event. Interpretation: The intervention package was effective and cost-effective in reducing antibiotics prescribing without adverse effects. Funding: The trial was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81861138049) and United Kingdom Research Innovation (No. MR/S013717/1).

When the coal mine passes through the overlying coal pillars in close proximity to the coal seam, the superposition of dynamic and static loads induces strong mining pressure, leading to deformation and instability of the coal pillars in the section, resulting in casualties and equipment damage. In order to explore the real-time monitoring of deformation and development characteristics of coal pillars in sections based on fiber Bragg grating, and analyze the mechanism of rock pressure manifestation in the stage of entering and exiting residual coal pillars, the optical measurement methods of FBG and grating stress meters are combined with on-site measurement to study the spatial distribution law of coal pillar strain and the time-domain response characteristics of internal strain of coal pillars in front of the working face during the mining process, Feasibility study on verifying the optical measurement method for observing the strain level of coal bodies. The results indicate that during the process of mining the overlying coal pillars, the roof of the section coal pillars is affected by concentrated stress, and the upper rock block is broken and rotated, resulting in an increase in the load on the coal pillars. As the working face advances, the overlying rock fracture further propagates upwards, and the key layer fracture recurs, causing pressure on the working face. The overlying rock rotates downward, ultimately leading to deformation and instability of the section coal pillars. Based on the amplitude of on-site grating strain increment, the severity of local deformation inside the coal pillar is determined. Under the influence of concentrated stress, the maximum strength that occurs during the deformation of the section coal pillar is 650 με on the left and right sides, the concentrated stress in the overlying strata causes the peak horizontal strain of the coal pillar to be located at the 11.5 m position of the coal pillar width. The strain along the width direction of the coal pillar shows a trend of first increasing, then decreasing, and then stabilizing. The internal strain field has an impact range of about 5 m during the mining process. A comprehensive study is conducted on the characteristics and laws of deformation and instability of coal pillars in the section caused by strain when the mining face passes through the overlying coal pillars. Combined with changes in strain level and physical and mechanical properties of the coal pillars, the precursor characteristics of coal pillar failure are obtained. Before reaching the peak deformation under external force, safety measures are taken to relieve pressure and protect the coal pillars before lifting them.

Abstract The characteristics of floor failure and stress changes during the mining process of protective layers are crucial for determining the effectiveness of pressure relief. Three boreholes were designed in the 21104 fully mechanized mining face of Hulusu Coal Mine to implant optical fibers into the floor of the working face. A fiber optic monitoring system was established to monitor the dynamic evolution of stress in the floor rock mass at different mining distances. Based on the information entropy in information theory, the monitoring results in the fiber optic monitoring system are calculated to obtain the stress information entropy at different mining distances. A quantitative dynamic analysis is conducted on the stress change process of the mining floor rock layer, and the stress change law of the protective layer after mining is verified through numerical calculation and similar simulation experiments. The results indicate that the evolution of stress information entropy can be divided into four stages, namely the original rock stress stage, stress concentration stage, stress release stage, and stress recovery stage. The stress information entropy shows a fluctuating upward trend, indicating that coal seam mining leads to a decrease in the orderliness of the overlying rock system and an increase in disorder. In different spatial evolution processes, there are also significant differences in stress information entropy. In the vertical direction, the entropy value of shallow rock layers changes greatly, while the entropy value of deep rock layers changes slightly. Mining leads to a decrease in the orderliness of the entire overlying rock system, an increase in stress information entropy, and a fluctuating upward trend in stress information entropy. The information entropy of overlying rock deformation and re compaction increases, but the degree of change of the former is greater than that of the latter. The Brillouin fiber optic sensing technology provides a new method for monitoring the stress changes in the protective layer mining floor, achieving quantitative analysis of floor rock failure.

The mining face under the close coal seam group is affected by the superposition of the concentrated stress of the overlying residual diagonally intersecting coal pillar and the mining stress, which can easily cause the instability and damage of the section coal pillars during the process of mining back to the downward face. Additionally, the traditional methods of monitoring such as numerical simulation, drilling peeping, and acoustic emission fail to realize the real-time and accurate deformation monitoring of the internal deformation of the section coal pillars. The introduction of the drill-hole-implanted fiber-optic grating monitoring method can realize real-time deformation monitoring for the whole area inside the coal pillar, which solves the short board problem of coal pillar deformation monitoring. However, fiber-optic monitoring is easily disturbed by the external environment, which is especially sensitive to the background noise of the complex underground mining environment. Therefore, taking the live chicken and rabbit well of Shaanxi Daliuta Coal Mine as the engineering background, the ensemble empirical modal decomposition (EEMD) is introduced for primary noise reduction and signal reconstruction by the threshold determination (DE) algorithm, and then the singular matrix decomposition (SVD) is introduced for secondary noise reduction. Finally, a machine learning algorithm is combined with the noise reduction algorithm for the prediction of the fiber grating strain signals of coal pillar in a zone, and DBO-LSTM-BP is constructed as the prediction model. The experimental results demonstrate that compared with the other two noise reduction prediction models, the SNR of the EEMD-DE-SVD-DBO-LSTM-BP model is improved by 0.8–2.3 dB on average, and the prediction accuracy is in the range of 88–99%, which realizes the over-advanced prediction of the deformation state of the coal column in the section.

Abstract In this paper, we present a channel estimation approach based on deep learning to solve the problem that the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system channel estimation algorithm cannot accurately obtain the channel state information in the complex environment of the mine, resulting in system performance degradation. First, LS channel estimation matrix is considered as a low-resolution image and the actual channel state information is considered as a high-resolution image. Then the optimization of the LS channel estimation matrix is achieved by the FSRCNN image super-resolution algorithm. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by conducting experiments in different channel environments, different number of pilots, and mismatched signal-to-noise ratio scenarios. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme is much better than the traditional LS channel estimation method and the DFT-LS channel estimation method, and the accuracy of the proposed scheme approaches that of the MMSE channel estimation method when the number of pilots is low.

Abstract The Baijigou Coal Mine in Helan mountain mining area is alpine gully landform, and the double key stratums are cut by the gully. A two-dimensional physical similarity model under this condition was established in the laboratory. The strain field, deformation field and pressure field of the model are jointly and accurately monitored by BOTDA, DIC and pressure sensors. The rock behavior in shallow coal seam mining under bedrock gullies are studied. In the mining stage under the gully, the deformation of overburden is intense because overburden is thin, and the surface is easy to form a depression basin. In the mining stage far away from the gully, the deformed rock mass lacks horizontal support in the process of deflecting to the lower goaf, and the movement rock is in a multilateral block. The multilateral block rock periodically deflects and rotates, resulting in the periodic deformation and break of the inferior key stratum. At the mining stage of away from the gully, nine times of roof weighting occurred. And there are large and small periodic weighting phenomenon with the average roof pressure concentration coefficient is 1.37. The distance between the peak point of advance abutment pressure and the coal wall is 6–18 cm, and the influence distance decreases with the advancing of the working face. The inferior key stratum has a significant impact on the weighting process and the weighting strength. In the mining stage under the mountaintop, large downward inclined tension crack is prone to produce in the slope on the side of the stope line, and the roof weighting is the most severe. In the mining stage close to the gully, the overburden falls in layers from bottom to top, and the overburden at the slope toe is prone to slip. At the mining stage under the mountaintop and close to the gully, five times of roof weighting occurred. And the roof weighting concentration coefficient is 1.46 on average. The distance between the peak point of advance abutment pressure and the coal wall is always kept at 6–16 cm, and the influence distance is 33–41 cm. The study can provide a reference for mining design and ensures safe and efficient mining in this condition.

High-quality, chromosome-scale genomes are essential for genomic analyses. Analyses, including 3D genomics, epigenetics, and comparative genomics rely on a high-quality genome assembly, which is often accomplished with the assistance of Hi-C data. Curation of genomes reveal that current Hi-C-assisted scaffolding algorithms either generate ordering and orientation errors or fail to assemble high-quality chromosome-level scaffolds. Here, we offer the software Puzzle Hi-C, which uses Hi-C reads to accurately assign contigs or scaffolds to chromosomes. Puzzle Hi-C uses the triangle region instead of the square region to count interactions in a Hi-C heatmap. This strategy dramatically diminishes scaffolding interference caused by long-range interactions. This software also introduces a dynamic, triangle window strategy during assembly. Initially small, the window expands with interactions to produce more effective clustering. Puzzle Hi-C outperforms available scaffolding tools.

The thickness of top coal is the main factor affecting the stability of the large cross section open-off cut under the goaf. The 1-2 lower 203 cross section open-off cut of the Huojitu Coal Mine was used as the background to investigate the top coal rational thickness of the large cross section open-off cut under the goaf in slicing mining. The top coal above the cut was simplified into a beam model to calculate its plastic zone range with the elastoplastic theory under the influence of the upper slicing mining and the lower slicing cut excavating. The deformation law of the top coal of the large cross section open-off cut under different top coal thicknesses was studied with both a simulation experiment and numerical simulation. The displacement, stress, and top coal structure of the surrounding rock of the cut were observed in situ using several observation methods. The results show that the plastic zone of the floor in the upper slicing face and the influence of the cut excavation are 2.02 m and 1.43 m, and the maximum plastic zone of the top coal is 3.45 m. A top coal thickness of more than 3.45 m is conducive to maintaining the stability of the large cross section open-off cut. The top coal of the cut can be divided into the roof-fall hazard zone and roof-fall warning zone according to the results monitored by distributed optical fiber. When the top coal thickness is 3.0 m, 3.5 m, and 4.0 m, the deformation law changes from an exponential deformation to a linear and then to a logarithmic relationship in the roof-fall hazard zone and from a linear to a logarithmic relationship in the roof-fall warning zone. When the thickness of top coal is 3.5 m and 4.0 m, the subsidence trend of the top coal visibly decreases, and the subsidence is only 56% and 39% of the subsidence of that of a thickness of 3 m. The deformation law of top coal measured using the DIC (Digital Image Correlation, DIC) is consistent with that of distributed optical fiber. The average thickness of the top coal reserved in the 1-2 lower 203 large cross section open-off cut is 4.0 m. The maximum surface subsidence of the top coal cut hole is 12 mm in the field monitoring. The maximum internal subsidence is 6 mm, and the maximum shed beam strain is –416 με. The deformation of the top coal is slight, indicating that the top coal thickness of 3.5–4.0 m is reasonable.

As one of severe plastic deformation (SPD) methods, multi-directional forging (MDF) technology is an effective way to refine grains. The microstructure, texture evolution and mechanical properties of homogenized Mg–13Gd–4Y–2Zn–0.5Zr (wt. %) alloy during isothermal MDF process were synthetically investigated in the paper. The results showed that the mean grain size of the alloy decreased gradually with the MDF passes increased. After 4 passes, the average grain size of the alloy was refined to 2.7 μm, and the microstructure distribution was uniform. On the one hand, with the increasing of the MDF passes, the massive intergranular LPSO phases are gradually broken up and formed a deformation zone. The plate-like Mg5(Gd,Y) precipitates were located interior the grains. On the other hand, the spherical Mg5(Gd,Y) phases were randomly distributed with the increasing of MDF passes. In addition, the maximum texture intensity of the MDFed alloy on (0001) basal plane gradually was weaken from 15.993 of the 1MDFed alloy to 4.245 of the 4MDFed alloy, which was attributed to the increasing of volume fraction of dynamic recrystallized (DRXed) grains via MDF method. And the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) mechanisms were continuous DRX (CDRX), discontinuous DRX (DDRX), particle stimulated nucleation (PSN) and kink induced DRX. The maximum ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and tensile yield strength (TYS) after 4 passes were 385 MPa and 360 MPa respectively. The excellent mechanical properties of the alloy were owing to the grain boundary strengthening, dislocation strengthening, texture strengthening and precipitation strengthening. In addition, the second phase particles such as lamellar LPSO phases, broken block-shaped LPSO phases, spherical Mg5(Gd,Y) phases and plate-like Mg5(Gd,Y) phases were demonstrated to be the strengthening phases.

Abstract The reserved thickness of top coal has an important influence on the stability of a large section open-off cut under gob in the thick seams slicing mining. The destabilization extremum conditions of the open-off cut top coal were derived from by elastic–plastic theory, and the optical fibre sensing technology was utilized to monitor the top coal deformation law with different thicknesses (3, 3.5, and 4 m) in the physical similar simulation experiment in the paper. The results show that the top coal thickness is greater than 3.4 m without tension cracks. In the vertical direction, the top coal of the large open-off cut is divided into mining and excavation disturbance zones under the influence of the upper slice coal mining and the excavation disturbance. In the direction of the span of the top coal can be divided into the roof fall risk zone and the warning zone. The deformation changes from exponential to linear to logarithmic in the roof fall risk zone, and it changes from linear to logarithmic in the roof fall warning zone as the number of excavations increases. The sinking amount in the two zones is smaller as the thickness of the top coal becomes larger. It is comprehensively determined that the thickness of the top coal of open-off cut is set as 3.5 m, the stability is moderate, and the field application shows that the integrity of the top coal is good after support, and the maximum off-layer value is 6 mm, which can satisfy the production requirements.

This study aimed to evaluate the immunogenicity non-inferiority and safety of the quadrivalent inactivated split-virion influenza vaccine in participants ≥ 3 years old. A total of 3,328 participants were enrolled. Participants 3–8 years old were administered one or two doses of the investigational vaccine or one dose of the control vaccine, whereas the other participants were administered only one dose of the investigational or control vaccine. The immunogenicity and occurrence of adverse events (AEs) after 30 days of full-course vaccination and serious adverse events (SAEs) within 6 months after full-course vaccination were assessed. The sero-conversion rates (SCRs) of anti-H1N1, H3N2, B(Y), and B(V) antibodies in the test group were 74.64%, 87.40%, 82.66%, and 78.89%, respectively, and their geometric mean titers were 1:250.13, 1:394.54, 1:200.84, and 1:94.91, respectively, which were non-inferior to those in the control group. The SCRs and sero-protection rates in the two-dose group of participants 3–8 years old were greater than those in the one-dose group. The incidences of total AEs and adverse reactions in the test group were 31.6% and 21.7%, respectively, which were close to those in the control group. In the two-dose group, the incidence of adverse reactions was considerably lower in the second dose (5.5%) than in the first dose (14.7%). Most AEs were grade 1 in severity, and no SAEs were recorded. The investigational vaccine had immunogenicity non-inferior to the control vaccine, and two doses were more effective than one dose in participants 3–8 years old, with a good overall safety. Trial registration: CTR20200715.

BackgroundCrohn’s disease (CD) has an increasing incidence and prevalence worldwide. It is currently believed that both the onset and progression of the disease are closely related to immune system imbalance and the infiltration of immune cells. The aim of this study was to investigate the molecular immune mechanisms associated with CD and its fibrosis through bioinformatics analysis.MethodsThree datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus data base (GEO) were downloaded for data analysis and validation. Single sample gene enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) was used to evaluate the infiltration of immune cells in CD samples. Immune cell types with significant differences were identified by Wilcoxon test and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression analysis. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened and then subjected to Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) functional correlation analysis, as well as protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. The cytoHubba program and the GSE75214 dataset were used to screen for hub genes and plot Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curves to screen for possible biomarkers of CD based on diagnostic efficacy. The hub genes of CD were correlated with five significantly different immune cells. In addition, validation was performed by real time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) experiments in colonic tissue of CD intestinal fibrosis rats to further identify hub genes that are more related to CD intestinal fibrosis.ResultsThe DEGs were analyzed separately by 10 algorithms and narrowed down to 9 DEGs after taking the intersection. 4 hub genes were further screened by the GSE75214 validation set, namely COL1A1, CXCL10, MMP2 and FGF2. COL1A1 has the highest specificity and sensitivity for the diagnosis of CD and is considered to have the potential to diagnose CD. Five immune cells with significant differences were screened between CD and health controls (HC). Through the correlation analysis between five kinds of immune cells and four biomarkers, it was found that CXCL10 was positively correlated with activated dendritic cells, effector memory CD8+ T cells. MMP2 was positively correlated with activated dendritic cells, gamma delta T cells (γδ T) and mast cells. MMP2 and COL1A1 were significantly increased in colon tissue of CD fibrosis rats.ConclusionMMP2, COL1A1, CXCL10 and FGF2 can be used as hub genes for CD. Among them, COL1A1 can be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of CD. MMP2 and CXCL10 may be involved in the development and progression of CD by regulating activated dendritic cell, effector memory CD8+ T cell, γδ T cell and mast cell. In addition, MMP2 and COL1A1 may be more closely related to CD intestinal fibrosis.

There are various health issues associated with the different stages of long-distance pipeline transportation. These issues pose potential risks to environmental pollution, resource waste, and the safety of human life and property. It is essential to have real-time knowledge of the overall health status of pipelines throughout their entire lifecycle. This article investigates various health-monitoring technologies for long-distance pipelines, providing references for addressing potential safety issues that may arise during long-term transportation. This review summarizes the factors and characteristics that affect pipeline health from the perspective of pipeline structure health. It introduces the principles of major pipeline health-monitoring technologies and their respective advantages and disadvantages. The review also focuses on the application of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology, specifically time and space continuous monitoring technology, in the field of pipeline structure health monitoring. This paper discusses the process of commercialization development of DAS technology, the main research progress in the experimental field, and the open research issues. DAS technology has broad application prospects in the field of long-distance transportation pipeline health monitoring.

Addressing the issue of low filling efficiency in gangue slurry backfilling due to unclear evolution characteristics of voids in the overlying collapsed rock mass during mining, this study utilizes fiber optic sensing technology to monitor real-time strain changes within the rock mass. It proposes a void zoning method based on fiber optic sensing for mining the overlying rock and, in combination with physical model experiments, systematically investigates the dimensions, distribution, and deformation characteristics of rock mass voids. By analyzing fiber optic sensing data, the correlation between the rate of void expansion and the stress state of the rock mass is revealed. The research results demonstrate that as mining progresses, the internal voids of the rock mass gradually expand, exhibiting complex spatial distribution patterns. During the mining process, the expansion of voids within the overlying collapsed rock mass is closely related to the stress state of the rock mass. The rate of void expansion is influenced by changes in stress, making stress regulation a key factor in preventing void expansion and rock mass instability. The application of fiber optic sensing technology allows for more accurate monitoring of changes in rock mass voids, enabling precise zoning of voids in the overlying collapsed rock mass during mining. This zoning method has been validated against traditional theoretical calculations and experimental results. This research expands our understanding of the evolution characteristics of voids in overlying collapsed rock mass and provides valuable reference for backfilling engineering practices and backfilling parameter optimization.

The probability of an El Niño in the winter after large tropical volcanic eruptions increases. When this happens, summer monsoon precipitation over East Asia is enhanced, overwhelming thermodynamic precipitation reduction from volcanic cooling.

Abstract To overcome the limitation of the virtual extensometer method in measuring the crack opening displacement (COD) in the process of complex multi-crack propagation of rock, the measurement error of Digital Image Correlation (DIC) local deformation is theoretically analyzed. An improved virtual extensometer method for measuring the COD is proposed, which considers the temporal and spatial characteristics of crack development in the process of complex crack propagation. The accuracy of the proposed method is verified by the strain localization band numerical simulation test and indoor single crack simulation test. Furthermore, the method is applied to the two-dimensional similarity simulation test of simulating complex multi-fractures in rock stratum. The COD obtained by the traditional and improved methods is compared with the measured COD. The results show that in the case of multiple complex cracks, to obtain the COD accurately, the relative distance between the virtual extensometer measuring point and the crack should be greater than half of the sum of the width of the crack strain localization zone and the subset size. With the development of the crack, the relative distance between the virtual extensometer measuring point and the crack should increase with the increase of the width of the crack strain localization zone. The error of the COD measured by the traditional method increases with fracture development, and the maximum is 21.20%. The maximum relative error between the COD measured by the improved method and the measured crack opening is 3.61%. The research results improve the accuracy of the virtual extensometer in measuring the COD under complex multi-crack conditions.

In order to study the mountain deflection characteristics and the pressure law of the working face after the mining of a shallow coal seam under the valley terrain, a geometric size of 5.0 × 0.2 × 1.33 m is used in the physical similarity model. Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) technology is applied to a similar physical model experiment to monitor the internal strain of the overlying rock. In this paper, the strain law of the horizontal optical fiber at different stages of the instability of the mountain structure is analyzed. Combined with the measurement of the strain field on the surface of the model via digital image correlation (DIC) technology, the optical fiber strain characteristics of the precursor of mountain instability are given. The optical fiber characterization method of working face pressure is proposed, and the working face pressures at different mining stages in gully terrain are characterized. Finally, the relationship between the deflection instability of the mountain and the strong ground pressure on the working face is discussed. The sudden increase in the strain peak point of the horizontally distributed optical fiber strain curve can be used to distinguish the strong ground pressure. At the same time, this conclusion is verified by comparing the measured underground ground pressure values. The research results can promote the application of optical fiber sensing technology in the field of mine engineering.

In this study, we sought to evaluate the inter-batch consistency and safety of the CTN-1 V human rabies vaccine (Vero cells). A total of 594 healthy participants aged 10–60 years were enrolled from Mianzhu, Sichuan Province, and randomized into three batch groups to receive vaccination via the Essen Regimen, that is, a single dose on days 0, 3, 7, 14, and 28 in the deltoid muscle of the upper arm. The serum antibody geometric mean concentration (GMC) and positive conversion rate of each group were determined using a rapid fluorescence focus inhibition test (RFFIT) before the first-dose immunization, 14 d after the first-dose immunization, and 14 d and 12 mo after full immunization. Adverse events (AEs) 30 min and 30 d after immunization were observed in each group. There were 322 cases of AEs during the observation period, with an overall incidence of 54.4%. The incidences of AEs in groups A, B, and C were 57.4%, 51.5%, and 54.3%, respectively. There were no significant differences among the groups (P > .05). Moreover, there were no significant differences (P > .05) in the serum GMC or antibody-positive conversion rate between any two groups at any time point. The bilateral 95% confidence interval of the GMC ratio between any two groups 14 d after the first-dose immunization was within the range of 0.67–1.50. This study shows that the CTN-1 V human rabies vaccine (Vero cells) has reliable safety and stable immunogenicity between batches.

As an important part of urban public infrastructure, urban green space plays an indispensable role in urban development and public physical, mental, and emotional health. By collecting open data such as POI, OSM, and ASTER GDEM and using spatial analysis software such as ARCGIS, QGIS, and Global Mapper, this study conducted thermal analysis of crowd activities, service pressure analysis, and demand evaluation for the layout of park green space in the central urban area of Yuxi City. The results show that there are great differences in the area and spatial layout of the thermal classes of crowd activity. Class II occupies the largest area, accounting for 60.73%, while class V occupies the least area, accounting for 2.04%. The thermal classes of crowd activity decrease from the center of the city to the periphery, and their area increases with the decrease of the thermal classes. With the increase in the level of green space service pressure, the proportion of the area decreased, among which the proportion of grade I was as high as 53.20%, while that of grade V was only 1.89%, which was mainly affected by the spatial location. The demand level and the area of park green space are obviously different, mainly concentrated in the first level, accounting for 69.68% of the total demand, and the large area is scattered in the periphery of the central urban area, followed by the fourth level, accounting for 10.46%. The area of other levels, especially the high level of demand, is less. Comprehensive analysis shows that the service level, type of green space, service pressure, and demand of green space have a strong correlation with the geographical location. In future planning, Yuxi City should combine the population distribution density and land development intensity and carry out reasonable layout and planning of park green space by reducing the low-demand area, increasing the green space area of high-demand area, improving public transportation, and improving accessibility.

Objective: In this paper, we aim to show that the immunogenicity of the lyophilized human rabies vaccine (Vero cells) (investigational vaccine) developed by Dalian Aleph Biomedical Co., Ltd. in healthy participants aged 10–60 years old is non-inferior to the lyophilized PVRV (positive control) manufactured by Liaoning Chengda Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Shenyang, China), and that its safety is clinically acceptable. Method: A total of 2776 participants were enrolled in this study and divided into four groups: a five-dose test group, a five-dose control group, a four-dose test group, and a four-dose control group. The patients in the four-dose groups (Zagreb) were vaccinated on Days 0 (two doses), 7 (one dose), and 21 (one dose), and those in the five-dose groups (Essen) were vaccinated on Days 0, 3, 7, 14, and 28 (one dose each). The rabies-virus-neutralizing antibody assay with the RFFIT was used to assess the immunogenicity, and the adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) were identified and collated. Results: The positive seroconversion rate was up to 100% on Days 14 and 35/42 after vaccination following any procedures in pre-immunization antibody-negative participants, and the positive seroconversion rate and geometric mean concentration (GMC) of the test groups (Zagreb and Essen vaccination procedures) was not inferior to that of the control groups. On Day 7 after vaccination, the immunogenicity of the Zagreb procedure with two doses of the vaccine on Day 0 was superior to the Essen procedure with one dose of vaccine, that is, the former had a higher seroconversion rate and RVNA titer. The non-inferiority criterion of immunogenicity was met for the whole population, the population aged 10–18 years and ≥18 years, and the pre-immunization antibody-positive population. The incidences of all AEs, solicited AEs, and unsolicited AEs in both groups were not statistically significant, and no vaccination-related SAEs were observed. Conclusion: The investigated vaccine is safe, its immunogenicity is non-inferior to that of the control vaccine, and the efficacy of the Zagreb procedure is superior to that of the Essen procedure 7 days after the first dose.

Fibrosis can occur in many organs, and severe cases leading to organ failure and death. No specific treatment for fibrosis so far. In recent years, microRNA-34a (miR-34a) has been found to play a role in fibrotic diseases. MiR-34a is involved in the apoptosis, autophagy and cellular senescence, also regulates TGF-β1/Smad signal pathway, and negatively regulates the expression of multiple target genes to affect the deposition of extracellular matrix and regulate the process of fibrosis. Some studies have explored the efficacy of miR-34a-targeted therapies for fibrotic diseases. Therefore, miR-34a has specific potential for the treatment of fibrosis. This article reviews the important roles of miR-34a in fibrosis and provides the possibility for miR-34a as a novel therapeutic target in fibrosis.

Abstract Background This paper tries to describe prevalence and patterns of antibiotics prescription and bacteria detection and sensitivity to antibiotics in rural China and implications for future antibiotic stewardship. Methods The study was implemented in one village clinic and one township health center in each of four rural residential areas in Anhui Province, China. It used mixed-methods comprising non-participative observations, exit-survey and microbiological study. Observations were conducted to record clinical diagnosis and antibiotic prescription. Semi-structured questionnaire survey was used to collect patient’s sociodemographic information and symptoms. Sputum and throat swabs were collected for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing. Results A total of 1068 (51.0% male vs 49.0% female) patients completed the study with diagnosis of respiratory tract infection (326,30.5%), bronchitis/tracheitis (249,23.3%), pharyngitis (119,11.1%) and others (374, 35.0%). They provided 683 sputum and 385 throat swab specimens. Antibiotics were prescribed for 88% of the RTI patients. Of all the specimens tested, 329 (31%) were isolated with bacteria. The most frequently detected bacteria were K. pneumonia (24% in all specimens), H. influenza (16%), H. parainfluenzae (15%), P. aeruginosa (6%), S.aureus (5%), M. catarrhalis (3%) and S. pneumoniae (2%). Conclusions The study establishes the feasibility of conducting microbiological testing outside Tier 2 and 3 hospitals in rural China. It reveals that prescription of antibiotics, especially broad-spectrum and combined antibiotics, is still very common and there is a clear need for stewardship programs aimed at both reducing the number of prescriptions and promoting single and narrow-spectrum antibiotics.

Background: Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are important health problems with high incidence and consequent economic costs. The study aimed to analyze trajectories of experienced RTI symptoms and use of healthcare and antibiotics. Method: The study adopted a cross-sectional design and face-face interview using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised: a) social demographics; b) last episode of symptomatic RTIs; c) responses to the RTIs; d) antibiotics obtained from clinics and medicine shops for the RTIs. The study subjects were residents in randomly selected villages in Anhui, China. The study settings were the residents households. Descriptive analyses were conducted to draw symptoms trajectory and identify relationship between healthcare seeking and symptoms and common sociodemographic variables. Result: A total 91.1% (1968) of 2160 eligible residents completed the interview who reported 1.83 episodes of RTIs in the pass year on average. Over half (54.8%) of these RTI episodes had led to visit to clinics for professional care and 51.9%, to use of antibiotics. The trajectories of common RTI symptoms featured a sharp increase and peak followed by a long tail along the days after onset of the infection. Over 60.5% of healthcare-seeking happened between two days before and one day after the symptoms peak. The study also revealed interesting pattern in the timing of different type of treatment following, e.g., taking leftover medicine and antibiotics happened the earliest and seeking professional help and getting antibiotics from clinics, the latest. Conclusion: RTIs incur a large volume of healthcare-seeking and antibiotics use and there is an urgent need for effective education measures on proper service especially antibiotics use. Patients’ reported RTI symptoms manifest peculiar trajectories and their retrospective recall of the course of prior RTI episodes and associated actions may guide their future responses to similar infections. Knowledge of these may help inform doctors about patient expectations, enabling them better manage shared decision- making around antibiotic treatment.

Abstract Bolt is an important connection in underground construction and monitoring its stress characteristics is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of bolt. The strain information collected along a rock bolt reveals the long‐term movement characteristics of rock mass, which greatly helps toward disaster prevention and risk warning. Grooving on the surface of a bolt and embedding an optical fiber is one of the main methods for monitoring the anchorage performance and stress distribution around the bolt in underground engineering. In this study, Pulse Pre‐Pumped Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (PPP‐BOTDA) technology is used to evaluate the stress, axial force, and shear stress distribution of the bolt under tensile load for different types (grooved and nongrooved) of bolts embedded in concrete with resin as anchoring agent. The results show that the PPP‐BOTDA sensor can be used to monitor the stress state of the bolt embedded in concrete with resin as anchoring agent when the bolt is subjected to a tensile force. However, the apparent stress value measured in this way is not the actual stress value of the bolt, but is an increased value caused due to the groove. The closer to the exposed end of the bolt, the greater is the deviation between the apparent stress value and the actual stress value of the bolt. Based on the monitoring results from this experimental study, a stress reduction calculation method is proposed, which can change the measured value into the actual stress of the bolt.

Objective. Esophageal dysmotility is a common and neglected complication of systemic sclerosis (SSc) associated with poor prognosis, while the assessment remains a challenge. We aimed to develop a diagnostic model for esophageal dysmotility in SSc patients that provides individualized risk estimates. Methods. Seventy-five SSc patients who underwent high-resolution manometry (HRM) were included in the study. Esophageal widest diameter (WED) was measured on a chest CT scan. Esophageal parameters between patients with and without esophageal dysmotility were compared. Multivariate logistic regression analysis and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression were used to fit the model. The diagnostic model was evaluated by discrimination and calibration. Internal validation was estimated using the enhanced bootstrap method with 1000 repetitions. Results. Sixty-one systemic sclerosis patients (81.3%) were diagnosed with esophageal dysmotility according to the Chicago Classification v 3.0. The diagnostic model for evaluating the probability of esophageal dysmotility integrated clinical and imaging features, including disease duration, ILD, and WED. The model displayed good discrimination with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.923 (95% CI: 0.837–1.000), a Brier score of 0.083, and good calibration. A high AUC value of 0.911 could still be achieved in the internal validation. Conclusion. The diagnostic model, which combines the disease duration, ILD, and imaging feature (WED), is an effective and noninvasive method for predicting esophageal dysmotility in SSc patients.

A large amount of data transmission is one of the challenges faced by communication systems. In this paper, we revisit the intelligent receiver consisting of a neural network, and we find that the intelligent receiver can reduce the data at the transmitting end while improving the decoding accuracy. Specifically, we first construct a smart receiver model, and then design two ways to reduce the data at the transmitter side, namely, end-of-transmitter data trimming and equal-interval data trimming, to investigate the decoding performance of the receiver under the different trimming methods. The simulation results show that the receiver still has an accurate decoding performance with a small amount of trimming at the end of the transmitter data, while the decoding performance of the smart receiver is better than that of the conventional receiver with complete data when the data is trimmed at equal intervals. Moreover, the receiver with equally-spaced data cropping has a lower BER when the data at the transmitter side is reduced by the same data length. This paper provides a new solution to reduce the amount of data at the transmitter side.

The anchoring quality of bolts is related to roadway safety and the surrounding rock stability. Due to the limitations of conventional monitoring methods in capturing strain, there still exists a gap in the real-time perception of the mechanical properties of bolts at the micro-scale. This paper proposes a new approach to detecting bolts’ anchoring qualities based on the fiber Bragg grating sensing principle. Moreover, it studies the strain transmission mechanism between the surface-bonded fiber Bragg grating and the bolt. A fiber-optic monitoring test platform of anchor bolt anchoring quality is built. The full-length anchor bolt’s strain evolution law and axial force distribution characteristics are studied during the pull-out test. The study results have shown that the theoretical value of the fiber strain transfer coefficient can be used to calculate the strain of the bolt. The bolt pull-out test verified the accuracy of using the fiber Bragg grating bolt axial force characterization equation to estimate the bolt stress. On the other hand, the correlation between the bolt axial force and the fiber Bragg grating monitoring value follows an exponential pattern. This study provides an important basis for improving the understanding of a bolt anchoring mechanism and the stability control of a roadway’s surrounding rock.

The field performance of three different crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) module technologies in Pingshan, China (BSk climate based on the Köppen–Geiger climate classification) is analyzed and compared, including p-type multicrytalline silicon (multi-Si), p-type monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) and n-type mono-Si modules. Both p-type multi-Si and mono-Si solar cells are of the conventional type with back-surface field, whereas the n-type device is of the heterojunction (HET) type. From January 2017 to December 2018, the n-type HET modules showed the best field performance (in terms of kWh/kWp) with an average daily energy yield of 3.9 kWh/kWp. The p-type multi-Si and mono-Si modules performed similarly with an average daily energy yield of 3.7 kWh/kWp (marginally better for multi-Si modules). On-site measurements also showed that the location has a ‘blue-rich’ and ‘red-rich’ spectrum in the summer and winter, respectively. In general, the spectral effect is positive in the summer, and negative in the winter, for all three investigated c-Si PV technologies. Besides, the spectral effect slightly favors the HET technology in the summer, but the opposite is true for mono-Si and multi-Si devices in the winter. Keywords: Photovoltaics, Crystalline silicon, Field performance, Spectral mismatch, Energy yield

The common carp is derived from recent whole genome duplication and represents a model for polyploid genome evolution, rare in vertebrates. Here, the authors generate and analyse chromosome-level reference genomes for common carp, and describe subgenome gene expression changes.

The monitoring of mine pressure, division of vertical zoning of the overburden, discrimination of key stratum structure of the overburden and monitoring of advanced abutment pressure are still the main research problems in the field of coal mining. Therefore, the promotion of development of a monitoring technology of mining-induced rock mass deformation has important research value in the mining field. There are many problems to be solved in the application of optical fiber sensing (OFS) to deformation monitoring, such as the corresponding relationship between actual deformation and optical parameters, the coupling relationship between the optical fiber and rock mass and the reasonable division of vertical zoning of the overburden. In this study, a quantitative index of coupling action between the mining rock mass and optical fiber is put forward, and the coupling coefficient of different vertical zonings is quantitatively analyzed and discussed. Based on this, five different media in contact with optical fiber are proposed. The relationship between the strain curve form, the development height of the fracture zone and the activity of key stratum is established. It is of great academic value and research significance to establish a characterization system of displacement, deformation and structural evolution of overlying strata based on optical fiber sensing technology.

The impact ground pressure in coal mining is closely related to the fault structure, and the fault activation pattern is different when the working face advances along the upper and lower plates of the fault, respectively. In this paper, the F16 positive fault in the southern part of Yima coalfield is used as a prototype to carry out the physical similar model test simulating the process of the working face advancing from the upper and lower plates of the fault, and PPP-BOTDA optical fiber sensing technique is used to study the overburden deformation law and fault activation law when the working face is located in the upper and lower plates of the fault, respectively. The study shows that the key stratum breakage is closely related to the fault movement, and the shear stress concentration range occurs within the key stratum. The additional shear stress concentration at the fault surface caused by the working face advancing in the lower plate is much larger than that at the upper plate, which is the reason for the serious fault destabilization phenomenon at the lower plate. The upper rock layer on the fault face is affected by the mining action of the working face before the lower one, and the working face is affected by the fault in a larger range when advances in the lower plate than that in the upper plate, and the risk of fault activation instability occurs earlier when the working face advances in the lower plate than that in the upper plate. The distributed optical fiber sensing technology is used to verify the basic conclusions that the impact of the working face advancing from the lower plate is much greater than that from the upper plate, which is more likely to cause fault activation. The preferential placement of the working face in the upper plate in the fault area will be beneficial to mine pressure control. The results of the study provide an experimental basis for the application of distributed optical fiber sensing technology to the study of fault activation law.

Overburden deformation is an important concern for the safe and green mining of coal resources. Similarity simulation testing is the main approach used to study the deformation characteristics of the overburden in coal mining. In the application of Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) in similarity simulation tests, the capability of distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) to detect the characteristics of the overburden deformation and the evolution is a key factor affecting the testing accuracy. In this study, the relationships between DOFS and overburden deformation and the face impact pressure under geological conditions in short-distance coal seam mining were explored. The results show that DOFS can be used to monitor the strain conditions of the overburden during the entire mining process and can provide the peak positions of the advance support pressure on the face. A DOFS characterization model for investigating the spatial and temporal evolutions of overburden deformation was established. A new method of characterizing the face impact pressure based on the fiber frequency shift variation was developed. The method was demonstrated to be effective through comparison of monitored results of impact pressure counts detected using pressure sensors. The characteristics of the face impact pressure in short-distance coal seam mining were obtained. The results of this study provide valuable guidance for the development of similarity simulation testing and intelligent mining engineering techniques.

A new type of similar material considering water characteristics is developed through orthogonal experiments. The similar material is composed of river sand, barite powder, cement, gypsum, and water. We determine the best test development process. First, the proportion test scheme is designed based on the orthogonal test. Then, the effects of the moisture content, mass ratio of aggregate to binder and other components on the density, uniaxial compressive strength, elastic model, and Poisson’s ratio of similar materials are analyzed by range analysis. Finally, the multiple linear regression equation between the parameters and the composition of similar materials is obtained, and the optimal composition ratio is determined according to the relationship between the test’s influencing factors and the mechanical properties of similar materials. The results show that the selected raw materials and their proportioning method are feasible. The content of barite powder plays a major role in controlling the density and Poisson’s ratio of similar materials. The mass ratio of aggregate to binder is the main factor that affects the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of similar materials, while the moisture content has the second largest effect on the density, uniaxial compressive strength, elastic modulus, and Poisson’s ratio of similar materials. When the residual moisture content increased from 0 to 4%, the uniaxial compressive strength and elastic modulus of similar materials decrease by 49.5% and 53.3%, respectively, and Poisson’s ratio increases by 54.8%. Determining the residual moisture content that matches the design of similar material model tests is critical to improving the test accuracy and provides a reference to prepare similar materials with different requirements.

The damage and degradation are the main influence factors of the instability of rock mass engineering. In this paper, the damage and deformation characteristics of the rock-like samples are investigated under the uniaxial compression test, and the advanced digital image correlation (DIC) device is devoted to full-field deformation data acquisition on the sample surface. Based on the full-field deformation data, a new damage variable is proposed by the principal strain standard deviation to characterize the uniaxial compression damage process of the rock-like samples. The results show that the newly presented damage variable can be utilized for the quantitative characterization of the sample damage. According to the characteristics of the damage variable, the damage evolution process of the rock-like specimens under uniaxial compression can be divided into four stages: initial damage closure stage, linear elastic damage stage, elastic-plastic damage stage, and plastic damage stage. From the stress-strain curve, the cut-off point from elastic to plastic deformation of the rock-like specimen is also the turning point from micro to macro damage; after the point, the apparent initial damage starts to occur on the sample surface; furthermore, the damage of the specimen is accelerated in the plastic damage stage. When the overall damage variable reaches 0.5 or the damage variable of strain localization zone reaches 0.8, the macro crack forms, and the bearing capacity of the rock-like specimen decreases rapidly. The findings are of great significance to the prediction of the damage process of rock mass engineering by digital image correlation.

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems suffer from high BER in the mining environment. In this paper, the mine MIMO depth receiver model is proposed. The model uses densely connected convolutional networks for feature extraction and constructs multiple binary classifiers to recover the original information. Compared with conventional MIMO receivers, the model has no error accumulation caused by processes such as decoding and demodulation. The experimental results show that the model has better performance than conventional decoding methods under different modulation codes and variations in the number of transmitting terminals. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the model can still achieve effective decoding and recover the original information with some data loss at the receiver.

Mining activities under the circumstances of huge-thick stratum occurrence commonly result in dynamic response of the working face. It is crucial to understand the rock failure and movement of the huge-thick stratum in order to prevent dynamic hazards. This paper introduces distributed optical fiber sensor (DOFS) monitoring into a large-scale model test to investigate the deformation pattern and movement law of the huge-thick conglomerate (HTC); the monitoring results are verified by numerical simulation. The results indicate that DOFS monitoring captures the spatiotemporal evolution of zoning development in the overburden deformation. The deformation field of HTC is illustrated, and there exists a strain basin that can be used to estimate the movement law of HTC. The average strain variability Ex, a new homogenization index for characterizing the overburden deformation, is proposed to describe the broken rules of the HTC. The numerical simulation proves the feasibility of the DOFS monitoring method and the correctness of the deformation pattern and movement law. This study provides efficient methods for DOFS monitoring utilization to investigate mining engineering problems and could be beneficial for unearthing the mechanisms of deep ground rock deformation.

Encoded Library Technology (ELT) has streamlined the identification of chemical ligands for protein targets in drug discovery. Here, the authors optimize the ELT approach to screen multiple proteins in parallel and identify promising targets and antibacterial compounds forS. aureus, A. baumannii and M. tuberculosis.

Introduction This study aims to investigate patterns of antibiotic treatment-seeking, describe current levels of and drivers for antibiotic use for common infections (respiratory tract and urinary tract infections) and test the feasibility of determining the prevalence and epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in rural areas of Anhui province, in order to identify potential interventions to promote antibiotic stewardship and reduce the burden of AMR in China.Methods and analysis We will conduct direct observations, structured and semistructured interviews in retail pharmacies, village clinics and township health centres to investigate treatment-seeking and antibiotic use. Clinical isolates from 1550 sputum, throat swab and urine samples taken from consenting patients at village and township health centres will be analysed to identify bacterial pathogens and ascertain antibiotic susceptibilities. Healthcare records will be surveyed for a subsample of those recruited to the study to assess their completeness and accuracy.Ethics and dissemination The full research protocol has been reviewed and approved by the Biomedical Ethics Committee of Anhui Medical University (reference number: 20170271). Participation of patients and doctors is voluntary and written informed consent is sought from all participants. Findings from the study will be disseminated through academic routes including peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations, via tailored research summaries for health professionals, health service managers and policymakers and through an end of project impact workshop with local and regional stakeholders to identify key messages and priorities for action.

ObjectiveTo document the factors, and their pathways, that influence healthcare and antibiotics use following reported gastrointestinal illnesses in Anhui province, China.Study designThis study uses cross-sectional design, descriptive statistical analysis, pathway mapping and multivariate logistic regression modelling.SettingHouseholds in 12 villages in Anhui province, China.ParticipantsA total of 3659 residents who: (1) held a registered rural residence and were actually living in the sampled villages when this study was conducted; (2) were aged 18 years and older and (3) were willing to participate and able to answer the survey questions.Outcome measuresPlanned and measured variables included the occurrence of gastrointestinal illness, professional care seeking and antibiotic use due to the illness and factors influencing these measures.ResultsOf the 3659 informants, 29.0% reported gastrointestinal illness episodes in the past year. Of these episodes, 50.2% led to professional care seeking and 65.4% of antibiotic use. Multivariate logistic modelling identifies that: (1) reported gastrointestinal illnesses were more frequent in north compared with middle (OR 0.569, 95% CI 0.472 to 0.686) and south (OR 0.588, 95% CI 0.492 to 0.702) Anhui, and were positively associated with age (B=0.123, p

The evolution of overburden deformation is crucial for safety and environmental efficiency and its monitoring is becoming a key scientific issue. The use of an optical fiber sensor (OFS) for mining engineering is now receiving praise by virtue of its distinct abilities of distribution, high accuracy, and anti-interference measurement. Nevertheless, the dynamic response of OFS monitoring on overburden deformation still needs to be characterized in detail. This paper analyzed the characterization pattern of overburden deformation based on distributed optical fiber sensing (DOFS) by means of an analogue model test. Then, we discuss the influence of rules of optical fiber embedding on a model test in a numerical simulation. The results show that the DOFS monitoring demonstrates the time-space evolution of overburden deformation and the development of three horizontal areas and three vertical zones. A standardization DOFS characterization model is proposed to expound the characterization mechanism of the overburden structure zoning process; the influence of optical fiber embedding on rock displacement in the model test is revealed, and it is found that the displacement error will increase sharply when the fiber diameter is larger than 2 mm. These findings could provide an effective solution for a monitoring method in intelligent mining from the perspective of a theoretical basis and technological system.

Abstract Background The financial burden of cancers has profound effects and there is a clear need to explore the issue from different perspectives and for different population groups. This study aimed at investigating inpatient cancer care (ICC) burden in Anhui, a typical inland province of China. Methods The study collected data through a household survey conducted during April to November, 2014 using cluster-randomized sampling and a structured questionnaire administered face-to-face by trained interviewers. Results The survey covered 60,678 urban and rural residents and 318 person-times of ICC during the past year. Age-adjusted annual person-times and days of ICC per thousand population added up to 4.24 and 76.78 respectively and urban residents showed significantly greater admission rates and length of stay than that of rural ones. Total ICC expenditures accounted for 13.30 % of all that of inpatient care for the whole population. Per-case direct and indirect costs of all types of cancers were estimated as 10365.1 and 929.9 RMB. Per-case total cost on ICC at township hospitals was 2142.3 RMB and at province level hospitals, 17133.0 RMB. Significant variations in per-case ICC expenditures also existed between patients with different household income and type of medical insurance systems, but patients suffering from different types of cancers. Out-of-pocket payment due to ICC turned out to be catastrophic for 20.6 % of all cancer patients and 65.2 % for other medical insurance, 45.6 % for enrollees of urban and rural medical insurance, 43.2 % for the 65 to 74 years old. Multi regression revealed statistically significant association between ICC costs and education, reimbursement ratio, household income and level of hospital. Conclusions Cancers characterize low incidence, moderate service use and high expenses. There exist substantial differences between subgroups and part of these variations cannot be explained by pathological factors. ICC expenses are catastrophic in nature to a large part of patients. There is a clear need for more effectively regulating cancer-related medical practices and service seeking behaviors.

Polyploidization occurs widely in eukaryotes, and especially in plants. Polyploid plants and some fishes have been commercialized. Typically, severe genomic perturbations immediately follow polyploidization and little is known about how polyploid offspring survives the genetic and epigenetic changes. Investigations into this require the identification of genes related to polyploidization and the discrimination of dosage-balance from paternal and maternal copies, and regardless of the mechanism being either autopolyploidization or allopolyploidization. New approaches and technologies may discern the mosaic of novel gene functions gained through the recombination of paternal and maternal genes in allopolyploidization. Modifications of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) with CRISPR-associated system (Cas) protein 9 (CRISPR/Cas9) have been employed in studies of polyploidization of plants. However, the approach has seldom been applied to polyploidization in vertebrates. Herein, we use CRISPR/Cas9 to trace gene-fate in tetraploid goldfish, and specifically to identify the functional differentiation of two divergent copies of fgf20a, which are expressed differently throughout embryonic development. We expect this gene editing system will be applicable to studies of polyploids and the genetic improvement of polyploid livestock.

To meet the need of a large quantity of hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (CM) for pre-clinical and clinical studies, a robust and scalable differentiation system for CM production is essential. With a human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC) aggregate suspension culture system we established previously, we developed a matrix-free, scalable, and GMP-compliant process for directing hPSC differentiation to CM in suspension culture by modulating Wnt pathways with small molecules. By optimizing critical process parameters including: cell aggregate size, small molecule concentrations, induction timing, and agitation rate, we were able to consistently differentiate hPSCs to >90% CM purity with an average yield of 1.5 to 2 × 109 CM/L at scales up to 1 L spinner flasks. CM generated from the suspension culture displayed typical genetic, morphological, and electrophysiological cardiac cell characteristics. This suspension culture system allows seamless transition from hPSC expansion to CM differentiation in a continuous suspension culture. It not only provides a cost and labor effective scalable process for large scale CM production, but also provides a bioreactor prototype for automation of cell manufacturing, which will accelerate the advance of hPSC research towards therapeutic applications.

Background: Urinary Trypsin Inhibitor (UTI) is involved in various aspects of tissue repair, regeneration and development. However, the potential role of UTI in protection against acute lung injury (ALI) remains largely unknown. In the present study, we demonstrated that UTI treatment could ameliorate ALI induced by oleic acid (OA) treatment in rabbit model. Methods: Intravenous application of UTI (10000 U/kg/d) significantly improved the pathologies associated with OA-induced ALI. The lungs were stained with hematoxylin and eosin to scored the lung injury. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated by density gradient centrifugation with Ficoll-Plaque Plus. The proliferation and ability of tube structure formation of EPCs were observed and the level of phosphorylated Akt protein expression and eNOS protein expression were assayed. Results: Consistent with pathological scores, UTI treatment significantly reduced wet/dry ratio of OA injured lungs. A quantification of capillary density revealed that UTI treatment led to about 2 fold increase over uninjured control and about 1.5 fold increase over PBS treatment. The capacity for tube formation of EPCs on ECM gel was significantly reduced in the ALI group and recovered with UTI treatment. Quantification of western blot bands was summarized and showed that UTI treatment activates Akt/eNOS signaling. NO production could contribute to the improvement of EPCs function by UTI treatment. Conclusions: UTI-induced phosphorylation/activation of eNOS and Akt, increases the intracellular level of NO, thereby improving tube formation and proliferation function of EPCs. EPCs function is crucial for re-endothelialization after denuding injuries of arteries.

VennPainter is a program for depicting unique and shared sets of genes lists and generating Venn diagrams, by using the Qt C++ framework. The software produces Classic Venn, Edwards' Venn and Nested Venn diagrams and allows for eight sets in a graph mode and 31 sets in data processing mode only. In comparison, previous programs produce Classic Venn and Edwards' Venn diagrams and allow for a maximum of six sets. The software incorporates user-friendly features and works in Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Its graphical interface does not require a user to have programing skills. Users can modify diagram content for up to eight datasets because of the Scalable Vector Graphics output. VennPainter can provide output results in vertical, horizontal and matrix formats, which facilitates sharing datasets as required for further identification of candidate genes. Users can obtain gene lists from shared sets by clicking the numbers on the diagram. Thus, VennPainter is an easy-to-use, highly efficient, cross-platform and powerful program that provides a more comprehensive tool for identifying candidate genes and visualizing the relationships among genes or gene families in comparative analysis.

Background: China is experiencing growing epidemics of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Programmes to train physicians in China on HIV and STI knowledge, diagnosis, treatment, and risk reduction counselling can potentially reduce HIV and STI risk among high-risk patients. We aimed to assess a knowledge-based and skills-based programme for physicians in China to reduce patients' STI risk. Methods: In this cluster randomised trial, we block randomised counties in two provinces in eastern China to intervention or control groups. In the intervention group, physicians from county general hospitals participated in a structured HIV and STI training programme and received opportunities to enhance their clinical and counselling skills, whereas in the control group, physicians from county hospitals received the training after the intervention group completed final assessments. We recruited STI patients from physicians in both groups, treated baseline gonorrhoea and chlamydia infections, and assessed 9-month gonorrhoea and chlamydia reinfection as the primary outcome. Statistical comparisons between intervention and delayed-control patients used multilevel analyses to account for cluster effects at county and physician levels. Analysis was by intention to treat. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00644150. Findings: Between April 1, 2007, and Sept 1, 2008, 51 counties were randomly assigned; 27 to receive immediate intervention and 24 to receive delayed intervention. 249 physicians from the 51 county-level hospitals were enrolled, 121 physicians in the intervention group and 128 in the control group. From these physicians, we enrolled 633 and 491 patients, respectively, of whom 508 (80%) and 402 (82%) were available for reassessment at 9 months. Intervention patients at follow-up had significantly lower odds of combined gonorrhoea or chlamydia reinfection than did control patients (58/508 [11%] vs 123/402 [31%]; adjusted odds ratio 0·62 [95% CI 0·46–0·84]). Interpretation: Integrating HIV and STI training into medical education in China could be an effective strategy to reduce the country's growing HIV risk and STI epidemics. Funding: US National Institutes of Health.