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Qigong is an umbrella term for a group of traditional exercises originated from China. Lung- Strengthening Qigong (LSQ) is one of these techniques enabling practitioners to maintain and improve their physical and mental wellbeing. We recruited 170 practitioners and 42 non- practitioner/control samples to investigate the impacts of LSQ practice on body, mind, thoughts, and feelings. We requested completion of a questionnaire regularly from both of the practitioner and control group, fill in an online diary and end of study survey (EOS) only from the practitioners. Statistical analysis was conducted on the questionnaires, whereas qualitative thematic- and quantitative machine learning-based analyses were applied to the free-text diary entries. We evaluated all different data resources together and observed that (a) there was a significant improvement in physical and mental wellbeing (increase in sleep quality, feeling life, coping with life, feeling life energy and a decline in stress amount) of the practitioners, which were not observed in the control group, (b) four different groups (non, low, moderate, high-level) of benefits were emanated among the practitioners, (c) numerical evaluation of questionnaires and EOS, as well as the qualitative and quantitative analyses of the diary entries were all found to be consistent, and (d) majority of the participants (84%) reported a striking improvement in their well-being, (e) majority of the positively impacted practitioners had no or some little prior experience with LSQ. This study is novel in various aspects including (i) increasing the sample size radically compared to other conventional studies as well as considering a control group for comparisons, (ii) providing regular live LSQ sessions to the practitioners, (iii) incorporating both qualitative and quantitative type of analyses to understand the impacts of Qigong.

Circular mitochondrial translation optimization 1 homologue (circMTO1) has been reported to regulate the tumorigenesis of different types of cancer; however, the role of circMTO1 in gallbladder cancer (GBC) remains unknown. The present study aimed to identify the potential miRNAs and target genes of circMTO1 during GBC progression, and clarify the regulatory mechanism between circMTO1 and miRNAs or target genes. The present study performed MTT and Transwell assays, and Annexin V staining to assess cell viability, migration and apoptosis, respectively. In addition, a lymphatic vessel formation assay was performed to assess tube formation of human dermal lymphatic endothelial cells (HDLECs), and GBC-SD and NOZ cells. The results demonstrated that circMTO1 knockdown significantly attenuated the viability and migration of GBC cells and tube formation of HDLECs, and promoted apoptosis, indicating a tumor-promoting role of circMTO1. In addition, transfection with microRNA (miRNA/miR)-219a-5p inhibitor rescued short hairpin RNA-circMTO1-inhibited tumorigenesis of GBC cells, suggesting that miR-219a-5p acts as a downstream effector for circMTO1. Mechanistically, transfection with miR-219a-5p mimic suppressed the expression levels of Smad2/4 and epidermal growth factor receptor. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas datasets revealed that circMTO1 expression was associated with overall survival and the stage of patients with GBC. Taken together, the results of the present study provide novel insight for the role of circMTO1-induced GBC tumorigenesis via regulation of miR-219a-5p expression.

In low-voltage AC microgrid, the different distance between distributed generation units (DGs) and common bus leads to the mismatch of feeder impedance, which results in the error of output power sharing. In order to realize the accurate power sharing and maintain the stability of the AC bus voltage, this paper proposes an improved resistive droop control strategy based on adaptive virtual impedance, which introduces dynamic dominant resistance and negative inductance to diminish the impact caused by different feeder impedance. Furthermore, a voltage compensation stage is added to maintain the bus voltage at a satisfactory value by mitigating the voltage drop caused by the virtual impedance. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy has been demonstrated by various simulation cases. The results show that the proposed control strategy can deal with conditions of dynamic and nonlinear load without the information of accurate feeder parameters.

Machine learning, as a significant component of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), has been widely applied in many fields. The continuously generated data from the various sensors are collected and stored, this is also known as a data stream. However, the non-stationary phenomenon in data stream, concept drift, is important to be detected immediately for the operation of the IoT system. Therefore, the detection method for concept drift is needed to alert the requirement to maintain or replace some components in advance, so as to avoid or mitigate the risk of malfunction of the IoT system. The majority of existing literature focuses on concept drift detection on binary classification. To fill this gap, here we propose an algorithm to detect multi-class. Moreover to improve the performance of detection, we also introduce an algorithm which integrates the existing error rate which is widely used with our newly proposed False Positive rate. The new method is called Drift Detection Method with False Positive rate for multi-label classification (DDM-FP-M). The DDM-FP-M firstly defines the false positive rate calculation method in multi-label classification, then integrates it with Drift Detection method with False positive rate (DDM-FP). The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through Intel Lab data and is found to outperform the Drift Detection method(DDM) over 50% cases.

This paper investigates the retailer's trade credit strategy and ordering policy in a two-echelon supply chain consisting of one supplier and one retailer. The retailer accepts upstream trade credit from the supplier while offers downstream trade credit to consumers, and the relationship between the upstream and downstream credit period is uncertain. The market demand depends on both the downstream trade credit and the random initial demand rate, and granting downstream trade credit increases not only sales but also default risk. This paper tries to find the retailer's optimal decisions on credit period, replenishment cycle, and order quantity so as to maximize the retailer's profit. It is shown that there exists a unique decision for the retailer. Some numerical examples are given to verify our results and provide more managerial insights. It is found that the retailer is more willing to provide trade credit under higher marginal profit, and that providing downstream trade credit is beneficial to both the retailer and supplier.

In this work, it has firstly found that carbon-doped boron nitride (BCN) material has high affinity for proton and can be used as pH-responsive material to selectively recover protonated dyes neutral red (NR) and malachite green (MG) from dye wastewater. The maximum adsorption capacities of BCN for NR and MG are 747.10 mg·g−1 and 682.46 mg·g−1 which is obviously larger than that of methyl orange (MO 61.27 mg·g−1) and methylene blue (MB 119.38 mg·g−1). The adsorbed protonated dyes are easily released through pH changeing and the maximum recovery amounts of NR and MG are 704.94 mg·g−1 and 631.54 mg·g−1, respectively. The effects of inorganic ions (Cl−, SO42− and NO3−) and cationic surfactant on the adsorption performance of BCN to NR and MG can be negligible. By the adding of anionic surfactant, the adsorption and release performance of BCN to NR and MG is a little decrease. BCN can still selectively recover NR (or MG) from the mixed dye solutions. In two mixed dye solutions, the maximum recovery of BCN for NR (or MG) is above 90.93%. In ternary system, the maximum recovery of BCN for protonated dye is above 79.21%. In NR-MG-MB-MO quaternary system, the recovery of BCN for NR and MG is above 87.57%. Therefore, BCN has a good potential that is used to selectively recover the protonated dyes from dye wastewater.

Semiconductor photocatalysis is as a promising method for water pollution remediation. However, the recycling and light capture of powder photocatalysts in traditional suspension systems are bottlenecks for their practical application in photocatalysis. Moreover, the large-scale application of traditional immobilized photocatalytic systems immersed in solution is limited due to the electron-hole recombination and slow reaction rate. Herein, we have successfully prepared superhydrophobic self-floating TiO2-silicone composite aerogels by condensation polymerization of γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (KH570) modified anatase TiO2 and methyltriethoxysilane (MTES). The air–liquid-solid triphase photocatalytic system was constructed using the air layer formed by the superhydrophobic self-floating composite aerogel and the solution interface, which solved the above-mentioned limitation. The floating characteristics of the system effectively avoided the absorption of light by the solution, thereby significantly enhancing the light utilization of the catalyst. The air–liquid-solid interface allows oxygen to be quickly transported from the air to the reaction interface, and oxygen, which is a natural electron scavenger, can effectively remove photoelectrons from the catalyst surface and the recombination of electron-holes is minimized. The new self-floating photocatalyst with triphase catalytic system presented high practical application value for the degradation of suspended pollutants in a natural environment.

Background: Star GK valves were widely used in China, and we studied the clinical follow-up results of patients with Star GK valve implants for more than one year. Methods: Clinical data were collected from those patients who had Star GK valve implants for over one year. Patients were divided into three groups: (1) AVR group: received aortic valve replacement surgery. Based on the valve model this group was further sub-divided into two groups: 21A group, and 23A group; (2) MVR group: received mitral valve replacement surgery. Based on the valve model this group was further sub-divided into three groups: 25M group, 27M group, and 29M group; (3) DVR group: received combined replacement surgeries including AVR + MVR. According to postoperative follow-up time these patients were divided into two groups: 1-year group and 3-year group. Follow-up data were collected by telephone, outpatient visits, or correspondence. Clinical data were aggregated by professional data scientists to conduct independent analyses. Results: 959 patients were included in the study following Star GK valve implant. Follow-up after 1 year found that thrombosis occurred in 4 cases, hemorrhage in 15 cases, left heart failure in 13 cases, paravalvular leakage in 5 cases, and death due to cardiac causes in 2 cases. Conclusion: The long-term efficacy of Star GK valve implants was satisfactory with low incidence of valve-related complications, and following Star GK valve implant, valve and blood were highly compatible and blood component damage was minor. Very low incidence rate of thrombosis was observed following Star GK valve implant, however, attention should be paid to adjust the anticoagulation intensity.