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Background Kawasaki Disease (KD), which is mainly characterized by systemic small and medium vasculitis in children, can lead to coronary artery lesions (CALs). Our previous study identified that STAT3 signaling plays essential roles during the acute phase of KD patients. However, whether its interacted protein MDM2 (Murine double minute 2), which functions as an E3 ligase is likewise involved in KD pathogenesis still unknown and remains to be investigated. Methods The role of MDM2 was investigated using the whole-blood samples from KD patients with CALs before and after IVIG treatment. The plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were respectively isolated and collected. Meanwhile, a Candida albicans cell wall extracts (CAWS)‑induced KD mouse model was used to analyze the in vivo functions of MDM2. Real-time PCR, western blotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent methods were used respectively in the HCAECs or other cells to investigate the molecular mechanism of MDM2 involved in KD. Results MDM2 levels were downregulated, and STAT3 and VEGFA levels were upregulated in clinical blood samples from KD patients with CAL in the acute stage and in the mouse model. In the mouse model and HCAECs, MDM2 co-located with STAT3 . In vitro, the endogenous STAT3 protein level in HCAECs was upregulated after MDM2knockdown. Overexpression of MDM2 increased STAT3 ubiquitination and endogenous STAT3 and VEGFA levels decreased significantly. Additionally, the E3 ubiquitin ligase MDM2 can target its endogenous substrate STAT3 for ubiquitination. Conclusions Decreased MDM2 levels can reduce STAT3 ubiquitination, leading to STAT3 activation and the induction of VEGFA transcription, which is involved in the vascular endothelial inflammatory injury process of KD.

Traditional camouflage pattern painting is not effective enough due to development of the high-tech reconnaissance. The recently proposed digital pattern painting, a new form of camouflage pattern painting, which has better performance in countering reconnaissance. In this study, we present a novel design and evaluation of digital camouflage pattern based on spot combination. Firstly, we compared three clustering algorithms to extract dominant colors. At the meantime, on the basis of spot database, a spot combination algorithm is proposed to generate camouflage spot pattern. Finally, we evaluate its camouflage effect using saliency map based on human visual perception mechanism, as well as detection time. The herein proposed digital camouflage pattern can effectively blend with surrounding background, significantly prolong the detection time, and thus has a good camouflage effect.

Learning motivation is a significant factor that ensures quality in medical education, and might affect the academic performance and well-being of medical students. This study aimed to explore the status of achievement goal orientations among medical students in China and to further identify the association among academic performance, academic well-being, and achievement goal orientations. Data were collected through a cross-sectional, anonymous survey conducted with 3,511 respondents (effective response rate = 81.7%), from four medical universities in China, and demographic factors, achievement goal orientations, academic performance, and academic well-being were assessed. The average score of achievement goal orientations of Chinese medical students suggested a difference in demographic factors, including sex, year of study, experience of leadership cadre, and family income. Both mastery and performance-avoidance goals were associated with academic performance, subjective academic stress, subjective learning adaptability, subjective sleep quality, and subjective well-being. Performance-approach goals were related to academic performance, subjective academic stress, and subjective learning adaptability. The achievement goal orientations of the medical students in this study were at a middle level. The findings emphasize the importance of mastery goals for promoting the academic performance and well-being of medical students. More care and attention toward achievement goal orientations can be beneficial for the improvement of the academic performance and well-being among medical students.

Optical vortex, typically characterized by a helical phase front, results in a possession of orbital angular momentum. In recent years, teleportation of the vortex mode using novel beams with peculiar features has gained great interest. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the propagation dynamics for a new class of the auto-focusing vortex circular Pearcey beam (VCPB), which is theoretically described by delivering the coaxial or off-axial spiral phases into the circular Pearcey beam (CPB), forming the crescent or bottle-like focal structure with self-rotation. Notably, such a hybrid beam with various types is experimentally obtained through a digital micromirror device (DMD) with the binary amplitude holography, and this DMD-based modulation scheme combined with controllable vortex modes enables dynamic switching among the VCPBs. We also measure the topological phase by interferometry and we explain the beam property on the basis of Poynting vector, showing a good agreement with the simulations. Further, the number, location and mode of embedded vortices could offer multiple dimensions of flexibility for target beam modulation, thus the experimentally controllable VCPBs will bring potential to high-speed optical communications and particle manipulations that require dynamic shaping.

BackgroundChoroidal metastasis in patients with gastric cancer is extremely rare. Furthermore, orbital and intraocular metastasis are generally associated with a bad prognosis. Here, we retrospectively report a patient with gastric carcinoma and choroidal metastasis.Case presentationA 59-year-old man with a history of gastric cancer was admitted to the Ophthalmology Department of our hospital due to a one-week history of eye pain; It was only eight months since the gastric cancer was diagnosed. The patient was diagnosed with gastric cancer at a local hospital two years previously, but had then spread to the left femur. The patient then received systemic chemotherapy at the local hospital. However, scans of his eyes in our hospital revealed a choroidal tumor in his left eye. The histopathological and immunohistochemical features of the removed eyeball suggested metastatic carcinoma, most likely originating in the gastrointestinal tract, and were consistent with a moderately well-differentiated gastric cancer.ConclusionsChoroidal metastasis can masquerade as glaucoma. Consequently, choroid metastasis of gastric cancer should be a consideration when a patient with a history of gastric cancer presents with eye pain, impaired vision, or high intraocular pressure.

Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a widely used flame retardant that has increasingly been found as contaminant in aquatic environments. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the pollution level of TBBPA at six locations around Qingdao and assess its biotoxicity through a two-generation toxicity study looking at a copepod species. In the chemical monitoring, the concentration of TBBPA in seawater samples ranged from nd to 1.8 μg/L. Next, the biological indicator monitoring used 1.8 μg/L as the middle exposure concentration to perform quantitative evaluations of the influence of TBBPA on the demographic traits of Pseudodiaptomus inopinus . The results showed that copepods became more sensitive to TBBPA exposure even in environmental concentration (1.8 μg/L) as the generations developed. The detrimental effects of TBBPA further increased naupliar mortality and impaired copepodite development to adulthood. This study demonstrated that the water pollution condition of TBBPA was measured at all 6 sampling locations of Qingdao. Therefore, the present results call for a decreased discharge of TBBPA into the marine environment to avoid impairing copepod reproduction and development.

Hyperspectral imaging technology can make detailed division of data in both spatial and imaging bands. At the same time, due to the existence of noise factors, the data formed by imaging will have some redundancy. In order to explore the data redundancy and its impact on the subsequent analysis process, this paper analyzes the mechanism of data redundancy formation, including spatial correlation and inter-spectral correlation of hyperspectral images. At the same time, the process of data dimensionality reduction is discussed. In order to reduce the long-distance interference factors, the noise analysis of the forest image of close-range imaging was carried out during the experiment, and the model was used to reduce the dimension. The results show that the processed data dimension is greatly reduced, and the quality improvement is more obvious. Hyperspectral image dimensionality reduction can provide effective support for further computational analysis.

A bidirectional transmission and massive MIMO enabled radio over multicore fiber system with centralized optical carrier delivery is experimentally investigated. Optical carriers for upstream are delivered from the central office (CO) to the remote antenna unit (RAU) via the inner core for the coreless implementation. As one of the 5G waveform candidates, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing using offset quadrature amplitude modulation (OFDM/OQAM) is adopted in both uplink and downlinks. The experimental results show that bidirectional transmission of 4.46 Gb/s 2×2 MIMO-OFDM/16-OQAM could be achieved over 20 km 7-core fiber and 0.4 m wireless link. The proposed scheme proves multicore fiber can realize the transparent transmission of bidirectional radio signals and simplify the infrastructures of future 5G cellular systems.

N-acetyl-seryl-aspartyl-lysyl-proline (Ac-SDKP) is a natural tetrapeptide that is released from thymosin β4 by prolyl oligopeptides. It is hydrolyzed by the key enzyme of the renin-angiotensin system, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). The aim of the present study was to investigate the alterations in Ac-SDKP and the ACE/angiotensin II (Ang II)/angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) receptor axis and its impact on the pathogenesis and development of silicotic fibrosis. For in vivo studies, a HOPE MED 8050 exposure control apparatus was used to establish different stages of silicosis in a rat model treated with Ac-SDKP. For in vitro studies, cultured primary lung fibroblasts were induced to differentiate into myofibroblasts by Ang II, and were pretreated with Ac-SDKP and valsartan. The results of the present study revealed that, during silicosis development, ACE/Ang II/AT1 expression in local lung tissues increased, whereas that of Ac-SDKP decreased. Ac-SDKP and the ACE/AT1/Ang II axis were inversely altered in the development of silicotic fibrosis. Ac-SDKP treatment had an anti-fibrotic effect in vivo. Compared with the silicosis group, the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), Collagen (Col) I, Fibronectin (Fn) and AT1 were significantly downregulated, whereas matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) expression and the MMP-1/tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases-1 (TIMP-1) ratio was increased in the Ac-SDKP treatment group. In vitro, pre-treatment with Ac-SDKP or valsartan attenuated the expression of α-SMA, Col I, Fn and AT1 in Ang II-induced fibroblasts. In addition, MMP-1 expression and the MMP-1/TIMP-1 ratio were significantly higher in Ac-SDKP and valsartan pre-treatment groups compared with the Ang II group. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggest that an imbalance between Ac-SDKP and ACE/Ang II/AT1 molecules promotes the development of silicosis and that Ac-SDKP protects against silicotic fibrosis by inhibiting Ang II-induced myofibroblast differentiation and extracellular matrix production.

Color of the image is affected by the atmospheric light curtain and results in the decrease of color contrast on high optical reconnaissance to collect images. Depending on the physical reason that far distance air curtain brightness has an effect on the image color, we propose that by compensating for radiation attenuation and removing the effects of atmospheric light curtains in the XYZ color space to achieve the restoration of the loss of image color information. The color difference between the image color and the natural scene color indicates the effect of color recovery, the experimental results show that the algorithm proposed is more realistic for the image color and is helpful for further image feature extraction.

Radar-scattering characteristic which is an important aspect in stealth technology plays a key role in radar detection. Based on shape technique, this work studied the influence of geometric parameter on radar-scattering characteristic for a tank turret by establishing a scaled model as well as calculating the radar cross section (RCS) of this model. The results show that the tank turret can obtain better radar-scattering characteristic with much lower RCS by optimizing its shape and the dihedral angles between the tank turret and the tank body.

Based on multi-layer film interference theory and optimization calculation, a film structure that can satisfy both visible and 1064nm laser camouflage requirements were put forward. The light transmission property of the structure was analyzed systematically and the thickness and refractivity of different layers were obtained.

With the rapid development of information technology, using computers to assist English teaching has become an important method. The advanced network technology can optimize English teaching mode, improve English teaching quality, meet the personalized requirements of English learners and improve students’ English application ability. This article introduces the system structure of English network teaching. On the basis of this structure, the optimization principles and methods of English teaching under network environment are analyzed. The optimization principles mainly include the most optimization principle, the compatibility principle, the personalized teaching principle, the autonomous learning principle and the interactivity principle. The optimization methods include the optimization of teachers and students.

Effects of weak magnetostatic interaction among adjacent cells on the array quality factor (AQF) of a conventional single particle MRAM array are analyzed by the mean-field theory. Inaccuracy of the theory at modest interaction is discussed, and attributed to the emergence of stripe pattern. A numerical method is also described, for quantifying the effect of magnetostatic interaction on a write margin test. This methods allows write margins on common test patterns and on the actual data file (which is substantially random) to be compared

To assess the clinicopathologic characteristics of cervical glandular intraepithelial neoplasia (CGIN) and to evaluate the usefulness of EnVision immunohistochemistry of various markers in identifying early invasive cervical adenocarcinoma (ICA) and its precursor lesions.Clinical and pathological characteristics of 80 cases of high grade CGIN (HCGIN), 20 ICA, and 20 cervicitis were reviewed along with immunohistochemical studies of p16, Ki-67, CEA, CA125 and bcl-2.The clinical features of HCGIN were similar to those of high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Fourty four cases (55.0%) accompanied with CIN and 9 cases (11.3%) accompanied with early cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The positive rates of p16, CEA and Ki-67 in 80 cases of HCGIN were 100.0%, 63.8% and 73.8%, respectively. The positive rates of p16, CEA and Ki-67 in 20 ICA were 18/20, 16/20 and 20/20, respectively. The positive rates of p16, CEA and Ki-67 in 20 cervicitis were 1/20, 1/20 and 3/20, respectively. There was a significantly increased expression of p16, CEA and Ki-67 in ICA and HCGIN compared with cervicitis (P0.01). Ki-67 expression increased in ICA compared to HCGIN (P0.05). There was no statistical difference in CEA expression between ICA and HCGIN (P0.05). CA125 showed strong but nonspecific expression. Bcl-2 was negative or occasionally positive in each groups.HCGIN is frequently accompanied with CIN and SCC. The combined staining of p16, CEA and Ki-67 provides additional aid in the diagnosis of early stage cervical adenocarcinoma and its precursor lesions. The sensitivity of p16 and Ki-67 markers for HCGIN is higher than that of CEA. CA125 and bcl-2 immunostains offer no helpful in identifying HCGIN.

We present a fast algorithm that reduced the computation of the linear complexity of the upv -periodic 1 sequence under gcd (u, p) = 1 to the computation of maximum of some linear complexities of pv -periodic sequences over F p . After combining with the Berlekamp-Massy algorithm or generalized Games-Chan algorithm, we could efficiently compute the linear complexity of pv -periodic sequence. Thus we present an efficient and attractive algorithm for calculating the linear complexity of upv -periodic sequences.

The behaviour of a meniscus in a slider-disk interface is analyzed in three cases. In a quasi-steady state, normal force due to the meniscus pressure and surface tension are compared. Bimodal distribution of the fly/stiction is explained by the availability of a wick. In the absence of slider-disk movement, the tendency of meniscus growth is studied. A constant volume is sustainable only in a concave gap. In the onset of slider-disk motion, the change in stiction is analyzed. A meniscus is more resilient against a steady force than against a short pulse.

A debris causing serious wear and spacing deviation is often attached to, or slipping slowly on the slider. Its motion is dominated by contact forces, especially by the angle of the contact force with respect to the slider surface. The contact forces can be high if the debris is compressed as it slips. This occurs most often when the pitch (or wall-angle) is about 10/spl deg/. The debris may be dislodged when the angles of contact forces change, especially due to skew. A simple model is developed to predict the tendency of debris motion, given the coefficient of friction, the skew, and the pitch angle. The model is programmed in Excel spreadsheet. The results are verified by experiments.

The suitability of a dual-stripe magnetoresistive (DSMR) head for near-contact recording is investigated. Common mode rejection of thermally induced pulses is derived by a model incorporating manufacturing tolerance, and verified experimentally. The rejection ratio is at least 20 dB. Experiments also indicated that a DSMR can survive near-contact conditions without premature degradation.

In the design of a magnetic recording disk file, pitch moment exerted by the flexure on the slider is usually treated as a product of flexure pitch static attitude and pitch-stiffness (kp), both measured in the absence of preload (gram-load). However, a slider operates in the presence of preload, which permits a large dimple friction to exist. We shall show by elementary beam theory that the pitch moment due to dimple friction is appreciable. The lever-arm of dimple friction is proportional to the bow height, and is independent of the slope of the flexure. To minimize the pitch moment associated with dimple friction, hence improving fly-height distribution, the flexure must bow toward the disk. These results are confirmed by optical fly-height tests.