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For the 2D laser-based tasks, e.g., people detection and people tracking, leg detection is usually the first step. Thus, it carries great weight in determining the performance of people detection and people tracking. However, many leg detectors ignore the inevitable noise and the multiscale characteristics of the laser scan, which makes them sensitive to the unreliable features of point cloud and further degrades the performance of the leg detector. In this paper, we propose a multiscale adaptive-switch Random Forest (MARF) to overcome these two challenges. Firstly, the adaptive-switch decision tree is designed to use noisesensitive features to conduct weighted classification and noiseinvariant features to conduct binary classification, which makes our detector perform more robust to noise. Secondly, considering the multiscale property that the sparsity of the 2D point cloud is proportional to the length of laser beams, we design a multiscale random forest structure to detect legs at different distances. Moreover, the proposed approach allows us to discover a sparser human leg from point clouds than others. Consequently, our method shows an improved performance compared to other state-of-the-art leg detectors on the challenging Moving Legs dataset and retains the whole pipeline at a speed of 60+ FPS on lowcomputational laptops. Moreover, we further apply the proposed MARF to the people detection and tracking system, achieving a considerable gain in all metrics., Comment: Accepted by Transactions on Cybernetics (TCYB)

Successful catch-up is an important channel to achieve sustainable development for emerging economies; however, it is a great challenge to catch up in complex products and systems (CoPS). Studies show limited evidence on how successful catch-up occurred in CoPS for emerging economies. This study holds the view that CoPS catch-up means a narrower gap in the innovation ecosystem between latecomers and leaders. This study disentangles the CoPS innovation ecosystem and uses China’s high-speed railway (HSR) as a longitudinal case with abundant data to explore how successful catch-up in CoPS is achieved. The results show that the CoPS innovation ecosystem presents a dynamic evolution in the technology innovation subsystem, the value creation subsystem, and the habitat. Four types of forces from the innovation ecosystem mix together to drive CoPS catch-up. Finally, this study proposes a CoPS catch-up process model following the basic logic of start point, activities, and performance, and CoPS industrial standards are used to measure CoPS catch-up performance. The study on CoPS catch-up from an innovation ecosystem perspective provides new insights and useful implications for governments and entities in CoPS of emerging economies.

We sequenced and analyzed the complete chloroplast genomes of Lilium amoenum, Lilium souliei, and Nomocharis forrestii in detail, including the first sequence and structural comparison of Nomocharis forrestii. We found that the lengths and nucleotide composition of the three chloroplast genes showed little variation. The chloroplast genomes of the three Lilium species contain 87 protein coding genes (PCGs), 38 tRNAs, and 8 rRNA genes. The only difference is that Nomocharis forrestii had an additional infA pseudogene. In the sequence analysis of the Lilium chloroplast genomes, 216 SSRs, 143 pairs of long repeats, 571 SNPs, and 202 indels were detected. In addition, we identified seven hypervariable regions that can be used as potential molecular markers and DNA barcodes of Lilium through complete sequence alignment. The phylogenetic tree was constructed from the three chloroplast genome sequences of Lilium obtained here and 40 chloroplast genome sequences from the NCBI database (including 35 Lilium species, 4 Fritillaria species, and one species of Smilax). The analysis showed that the species clustering of the genus Lilium essentially conformed to the classical morphological classification system of Comber, but differences in the classification of individual species remained. In our report, we support the reclassification of Lilium henryi and Lilium rosthorniiy in the genus Lilium. In general, this study not only provides genome data for three Lilium species, but also provides a comparative analysis of the Lilium chloroplast genomes. These advances will help to identify Lilium species, clarify the phylogenetic analysis of the Lilium genus, and help to solve and improve the disputes and deficiencies in the traditional morphological classification.

Farmers are still the foundation of China’s current “small, scattered, and weak” agricultural production pattern. As such, increasing guidance for reduction response behavior is central to reducing agricultural pesticide use. Following this pesticide reduction logic, four of the most widely promoted pesticide reduction technologies, including light trapping, biopesticide application, healthy crop growth, and insect-proof net technologies, were selected, and a theoretical analysis framework of farmers’ willingness to adopt these technologies was constructed based on the theories of value perception and planned behavior. An ordered logistic regression model is used to explore key factors behind current pesticide reduction technology perceptions, technology response willingness, and behavioral decisions of farmers in China, with survey data from 516 farmers in Henan Province. The results show that among the four pesticide reduction technologies, healthy crop growth technology is the most-appealing one for farmers, followed by insect-proof net technology and biopesticide application technology. The least-appealing one for farmers is the light trapping technology. Farmers’ perceived degree of income improvement from technology adoption is the main determinant of their willingness, which is positively significant at a 1% confidence level in all four models. In addition, farmers’ willingness to respond to technologies is also significantly influenced by farmers’ perception of technical operational ability, perception of risk from adopting technology, government-related subsidies, government technical training guidance, trust in government promotion of technology, and perception of the government’s role in improving the external environment for adopting technology.

The preference for land urbanization of local governments promotes urban sprawl, which leads to the dilemma of land finance dependence (LFD) of local governments and the negative constraints on the ecosystem of urban areas in China. However, how the urban growth boundary (UGB) policy corrects local governments’ reliance on land finance has not been discussed in depth. In July 2014, the UGB policy began to be piloted in fourteen cities in China, providing a setting to further reveal the effectiveness of the UGB policy. By constructing an evolutionary game simulation model to clarify the behavioral strategies that local governments tend to adopt in the context of the UGB policy implementation, this study proves that the effective implementation of the UGB policy, by controlling the urban land capacity, can help solve local governments’ LFD dilemma in China. The UGB policy consists of a set of technical means and policy tools that controls urban sprawl. It breaks the “unlimited land capacity” situation faced by local governments in China by limiting the urban land capacity within a given period of time, and has become a new solution to the dilemma of LFD. The implementation of the UGB policy highlighted the shortage of urban land, which has led to the increasing cost of land finance for local governments and constraints on local governments’ LFD behavior. The shortage has also forced local governments to adjust and optimize their fiscal revenue structure. The UGB policy induced ongoing evolution in the benefit distribution among relevant entities in land finance, motivated local governments and other entities to adjust their primary strategies, and made it possible to address the dilemma of LFD in China.

How to realize the sustainable use of land resources is extremely important for environmental protection and sustainable development in ecologically fragile regions. Nevertheless, the logic of achieving sustainable land use (SLU) in ecologically fragile regions and the corrective mechanisms for the implementation of land use efficiency systems are not fully revealed in theory. The Yellow River Basin is an important ecological barrier in China, and it holds an important position in China’s economic and social development, as well as for ecological safety. However, the basin is also ecologically vulnerable. Therefore, investigating eight central cities in the Yellow River Basin of China and using municipal-level panel data from 2009 to 2018, this paper constructs a multidimensional index system and is dedicated to carrying out a comprehensive evaluation of SLU and the diagnosis of obstacle factors in ecologically fragile regions. The study found the following: (1) From 2009 to 2018, the SLU level in the central cities of the Yellow River Basin evolved from the “Unsustainable Level” to the “Initial Sustainable Level” and then to the “Basic Sustainable Level”. The overall development trend was positive, and the level of SLU also rose. (2) From 2009 to 2018, there was significant geographical variation in spatial disparities in SLU in the central cities of the Yellow River Basin. In 2018, the average comprehensive score of SLU showed a pattern of downstream > upstream > midstream. (3) The obstacle factors of SLU in the Yellow River Basin of these cities in 2009 were concentrated on resource and environmental sustainability, while those in 2018 were concentrated on social acceptability. (4) In terms of the transfer process of land use types in these Yellow River Basin cities, the transfer from cultivated land to other types of land use played a major role, while construction land showed a significant expansion over the past ten years.

The strategy of reducing carbohydrate digestibility by controlling the activity of two hydrolyzing enzymes (α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase) to control postprandial hyperglycemia is considered as a viable prophylactic treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Thus, the consumption of foods rich in hydrolyzing enzyme inhibitors is recommended for diet therapy of diabetes. Whole cereal products have gained increasing interests for plasma glucose‐reducing effects. However, the mechanisms for whole cereal benefits in relation to T2DM are not yet fully understood, but most likely involve bioactive components. Cereal‐derived phenolic compounds, peptides, nonstarch polysaccharides, and lipids have been shown to inhibit α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase activities. These hydrolyzing enzyme inhibitors seem to make whole cereals become nutritional strategies in managing postmeal glucose for T2DM. This review presents an updated overview on the effects provided by cereal‐derived ingredients on carbohydrate digestibility. It suggests that there is some evidence for whole cereal intake to be beneficial in amelioration of T2DM through inhibiting α‐glucosidase and α‐amylase activities., The cereal‐derived α‐amylase and/or α‐glucosidase inhibitor could be targeted for developing valuable whole cereal foods in T2DM dietary managements.

In the financial economics literature debt contracts provide optimal solutions for addressing managerial moral hazard problems. We analyze a model with multiple projects where the manager obtains private information about their quality after the contract with investors is agreed. The likelihood of success of each project depends on both its quality and the level of effort exerted on it by the manager. We find distributions of the quality shock such that the optimal financial contract requires the investor to hold an equity claim. Our model addresses issues that are relevant for financial intermediation and corporate governance .

Whole barley (WB) consumption is the subject of renewed interest because of its health benefits. However, there are still controversies regarding the mechanisms of the anti-obesity effects of WB. The gut microbiota has recently become a focus of research into obesity-related disorders. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of the gut microbiota to the anti-obesity effects of WB. Germ-free (GF) C57BL/6J mice underwent gastric inoculation with human feces to obtain human flora-associated (HFA) mice, and then both the GF and HFA mice were fed a high fat diet (HFD) containing 46% WB or refined barley for 9 weeks. Features of obesity and dyslipidemia were compared between the GF and HFA mice and the cecal microbiota was analyzed using next-generation sequencing of microbial 16S rRNA. WB prevents obesity and hypercholesterolemia in the GF and HFA mice. The mechanism may include the inhibition of cholesterol synthesis, because sterol regulatory element-binding protein-1c (SREBP-1c) and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA) expression was downregulated, and a reduction in cholesterol accumulation, because cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) expression was upregulated, independent of the gut microbiota. Furthermore, WB intake enriched a variety of bacterial genera that are negatively associated with obesity, including Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, and Clostridium cluster XIVa, suggesting that WB counteracted gut dysbiosis in obese mice. Thus, WB helps prevent obesity and dyslipidemia via both gut microbiota-dependent and independent mechanisms.

Objective: Endoscopic therapy can reduce the risks of rebleeding, continued bleeding, need for surgery, and mortality. The objective of this systematic review was to compare the different modalities of endoscopic therapy for GI bleeding. Methods: Studies were identified by searching electronic databases MEDLINE. We selected all available clinical studies published after 2000 that assessed efficacy and/or safety of different endoscopic hemostatic techniques in treating GI bleeding. The outcomes evaluated included initial hemostasis, rebleeding rate, and 30-day all-cause mortality. Network meta-analyses were performed to summarize the treatment effects. Results: Total 20 studies involving 1845 patients were evaluated. Ten different treatment categories including mechanic, ablative, injection, and combined therapy were compared in our analysis in terms of their efficacy in stopping bleeding and complications. Band ligation [rate: 0.757; 95% Credible Interval (0.565, 0.887)] and injection therapy [rate: 0.891; 95% CI (0.791, 0.944)] had inferior efficacy in attaining initial hemostasis compared to others. Combined therapy of band ligation and HPC and hemoclip may represent the best options for preventing rebleeding and mortality respectively. No significant difference was found among other treatments in terms of complications. Conclusions: We recommend the application of hemoclips in treating GI bleeding due to its high hemostasis efficacy and low risk of 30-day mortality. How to cite this:Wang TX, Zhang J, Cui LH, Tian JJ Wei R. Efficacy of Therapeutic Endoscopy for Gastrointestinal Lesion (GI): A network meta-analysis. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(2):561-568. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.2.636 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Gastric carcinoma is a common type of gastrointestinal tumor with high morbidity and mortality rates. IL-17 is a newly discovered cytokine that has been reported to serve an important role in the development of gastric carcinoma. The potential effect of apatinib on IL-17 expression levels in the development of gastric carcinoma has been rarely reported. The present study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism of IL-17 and apatinib in the development of gastric carcinoma. A total of 30 tumor and para-carcinoma tissues were collected from 30 patients with gastric carcinoma between January 2019 and December 2019 and the expression levels of IL-17 in the tissues were analyzed by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting. An in vitro model of gastric carcinoma was also established using the HGC-27 cell line, in which the cells were divided into control, IL-17, IL-17-apatinib and apatinib groups. The expression levels of IL-17, Bax, Bcl-2 and caspase-3 were analyzed using reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting. An MTT assay and flow cytometry were used to analyze the proliferation and apoptosis of HGC-27 cells, respectively, and a Transwell assay was used to analyze the invasive ability of HGC-27 cells. The results revealed that the expression levels of IL-17 were significantly upregulated in the gastric carcinoma tissues compared with the para-carcinoma tissues. In vitro, IL-17 treatment promoted the proliferation and invasive ability of HGC-27 cells, but inhibited the apoptosis with the significantly downregulated expression levels of Bax and caspase-3 and the upregulated expression levels of Bcl-2 than control group. Conversely, apatinib treatment significantly inhibited the proliferative and invasive abilities of HGC-27 cells, but promoted cell apoptosis in the IL-17 and IL-17-apatinib groups.. Collectively, the present results suggested that the upregulation of IL-17 may be associated with the occurrence and development of gastric carcinoma. The findings indicated that apatinib may inhibit gastric carcinoma development by regulating IL-17 expression via the Bax/Bcl-2 signaling pathway. Therefore, the present findings may enhance the current knowledge of the effect of apatinib on gastric carcinoma cells.

When designing schemes to help SMEs survive crises, the government typically faces asymmetric information, so that it cannot target the SMEs most worth saving. We show that the government can exploit the information in the borrower loan demand to improve policy targets compared with existing programmes. If the aim is employment protection, optimal policy should fully subsidise the funding cost of only those SMEs whose loan size is below a threshold. If the aim is economic efficiency, the government should target SMEs whose loan size is above a threshold. In general, public policy should utilise private sectors' information and expertise.

This paper shows that monetary policy produces real effects in the steady state by impacting banks' liquidity constraint, in the absence of frictions that have been used to generate non-neutrality, such as nominal rigidity and search frictions. Moreover, the effects for different types of banks are different, even opposite. In the model, each bank sees a fraction of money that it lends out circulates into other banks. This fraction defines its type. The greater the outflow fraction, the tighter the liquidity constraint. Lastly, if technological advancement eliminates depositor withdrawals, fiat money stops circulating and a bullion standard probably returns.

Background: Pathological neovascularization in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. Increasing evidence shows that cells of myeloid lineage play important roles in controlling pathological endothelium formation. Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) pathway has been linked to neovascularization. Methods: We utilised a laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) mouse model to investigate the neovascular aspect of human AMD. In several cell lineage reporter mice, bone marrow chimeric mice and Socs3 loss-of-function (knockout) and gain-of-function (overexpression) mice, immunohistochemistry, confocal, and choroidal explant co-culture with bone marrow-derived macrophage medium were used to study the mechanisms underlying pathological CNV formation via myeloid SOCS3. Findings: SOCS3 was significantly induced in myeloid lineage cells, which were recruited into the CNV lesion area. Myeloid Socs3 overexpression inhibited laser-induced CNV, reduced myeloid lineage-derived macrophage/microglia recruitment onsite, and attenuated pro-inflammatory factor expression. Moreover, SOCS3 in myeloid regulated vascular sprouting ex vivo in choroid explants and SOCS3 agonist reduced in vivo CNV. Interpretation: These findings suggest that myeloid lineage cells contributed to pathological CNV formation regulated by SOCS3. Funding: This project was funded by NIH/NEI (R01EY030140, R01EY029238), BrightFocus Foundation, American Health Assistance Foundation (AHAF), and Boston Children's Hospital Ophthalmology Foundation for YS and the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (U01HL098166) for PZ.

Background: Nomocharis is a genus that is closely related to Lilium in the Liliaceae family. It’s useful to study the influence of the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on plants and their biological diversity. Nomocharis is a genus of such plants, and research on this genus will be especially informative, considering the genetic diversity of flowers. However, the genetic information of Nomocharis has not been fully elucidated. Results: To obtain a complete Nomocharis reference genome, the paper first performed a general survey. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) was utilized to perform de novo sequencing of the entire Nomocharis forrestii genome. In this study, the sequencing process yielded approximately 137.4 Gb of high-quality data, the total sequencing depth was approximately 63X, and the Q30 ratio was 91.95%; the estimated genome size was approximately 2.17 Gb; the repetitive sequence content was approximately 84.7%, the heterozygosity rate was 3.99%, and the estimated GC content of the genome was 43%. Furthermore, an annotated circular chloroplast gene map was generated, and a preliminary evolutionary analysis was performed. In addition, a total of 78,045 high-quality SSR markers were developed. Conclusion: Nomocharis forrestii has a 2.17 Gb heterozygous genome, its SSR markers are predominantly dinucleotides, and its chloroplast genome shows that Nomocharis forrestii and Lilium bakerianum have the highest homology followed by Lilium distichum. To the best of our knowledge, this report describes the first de novo whole-genome sequencing and assembly process to be performed for Nomocharis. The results of this study may provide new resources for the future genetic analysis and molecular breeding of Nomocharis.

Neovascularization is the leading cause of vision loss in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). Inflammation and myeloid cells are involved in retinal angiogenesis. However, the underlying mechanisms of how myeloid cells control neovascularization in ROP remain unknown. We and others previously reported that suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is induced in retinopathy. To investigate whether myeloid cells regulate retinal angiogenesis via SOCS3 in ROP, we used myeloid lineage specific SOCS3 loss-of-function (conditional knockout, cKO) mice and gain-of-function (conditional overexpression, cOE) mice and generated ROP mouse model - mice with oxygen induced retinopathy (OIR) by exposing mice to 75% oxygen from postnatal day (P)7 to P12 for 5 days, and then returned to normal air until P17. Retinas were collected for analysis including quantification of retinal neovascularization, gene expression, immune cell profiling and single cell sequencing. Our results showed that mice with myeloid SOCS3 deficiency had a substantial increase in pathological retinal neovascularization, whereas overexpression of SOCS3 in myeloid cells prevented pathological retinal neovascularization in response to OIR. Our single-cell sequencing data showed that population of myeloid lineage cells including microglia, macrophages and neutrophils was changed in mice with OIR and controlled by SOCS3. Therefore, myeloid cells are involved in retinal neovascularization via SOCS3 in ROP. Manipulating SOCS3 expression in myeloid cells may provide a new way to cure neovascularization in retinas. Supported by grants from NIH (R01EY030140, R01EY029238) and from BrightFocus Foundation

This paper studies non-neutrality of monetary policy incorporating three facts: The majority of media of exchange is not fiat money but bank liability; fiat money is largely used by banks to meet liquidity demand; and banks extensively use government bonds for liquidity management. It finds that monetary policy produces real effects by changing the tightness of banks' liquidity constraint; its effect for liquidity unconstrained banks is the opposite of that for the maximally constrained; expansion of digital ways of payment increases price levels by reducing the withdrawal probability; and if this probability becomes zero fiat money stops circulation.

We consider how funding from informed investors such as banks certifies the quality of the recipient firms to investors uninformed of it. We show that informed finance leads to full separation of firms’ quality types, with a larger quantity of it certifying a better quality. Moreover, the increase in the market value of the recipient firm is a convex, increasing function of the quantity of informed finance that it obtains. Lastly, firms with attribute X derive a greater value from the certification service of informed finance than those without it if the distribution of firms’ quality conditional on X is second‐order stochastically dominated by that conditional on its absence. The informed finance could be commercial bank loans or the purchase of a firm's equity preceding its IPO by renowned investment banks.

By calcining ferric acetylacetonate (Fe(ACAC)3), Fe(NO3)3·9H2O and FeCl3·6H2O in air at 300 °C for 5 h, maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) nanoparticles, hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanoparticles and α-Fe2O3 nanoflakes were synthesized, respectively. The γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles demonstrated far stronger magnetism (remanent magnetization (Mr) = 9.9 emu/g) than α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (Mr = 0.06 emu/g) and nanoflakes (Mr = 0.13 emu/g) at room temperature. For photocatalytic reduction of aqueous Cr(VI) in the presence of visible-light and citric acid, the performance of different Fe2O3 samples was found to be in the order of α-Fe2O3 from FeCl3·6H2O > γ-Fe2O3 from Fe(ACAC)3 > hydrothermally synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanorods > α-Fe2O3 from Fe(NO3)3·9H2O > hydrothermally synthesized α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. This work reveals the decisive role of precursors in the phase, magnetic and photocatalytic properties of low temperature calcination-synthesized Fe2O3. The phase-tunable synthesis of nano Fe2O3 by low temperature calcination of easily available precursors is simple, cost-effective and practical for large scale industrial production.

Retinal blood vessels provide the necessary energy, nutrients and oxygen in order to support visual function and remove harmful particles from blood, thus acting to protect neuronal cells. The homeostasis of the retinal vessels is important for the maintenance of retinal visual function. Neovascularization is the most common cause of blindness in patients with retinopathy. Previous studies have shown that inflammatory mediators are known key regulators in retinopathy, but their causal link has been elusive. Although inflammation is often thought to arise from inflammatory cells like macrophages, neutrophils, and resident microglia, retinal neurons have also been reported to contribute to inflammation, through inflammatory signals, which mediate blood vessel growth. Therefore, it is important to explore the detailed mechanisms of neuroinflammation's effects on retinal neovascularization. This review looks to summarize current research on the relationship between retinal angiogenesis and neuroinflammation in retinopathy, as well as the potential effects of neuroinflammation on retinal neovascularization in different animal models.

Background: MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is one of the oncogenic miRNAs which may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We systematically searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus from inception to August 15, 2018, and reference lists of identified primary studies. Two independent investigators extracted patient and study characteristics. The sensitivity and specificity of microRNA-21 for HCC detection and were analyzed with a random effect model. The area under summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to estimate overall test performance. Results: A total of 515 HCC patients, and 338 healthy or chronic hepatitis controls from six published studies were enrolled in this meta-analysis. All articles were published in English with moderate-to-high quality. The overall pooled sensitivity and specificity were 85.2% (73.3% to 88.4%) and 79.2% (68.4% to 87.0%), respectively. The AUC area was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.85-0.91). The studies had moderate heterogeneity (I2=70.11%). None of the subgroups investigated—ethnicity, controls, sample source—could account for the heterogeneity. Conclusion: MiR-21 is a helpful biomarker for early diagnosis of HCC. Nevertheless, the results of the test must be interpreted carefully in the context of medical history, erological tests and imaging examinations for HCC surveillance.

Background: MicroRNA-21 (miR-21) is one of the oncogenic miRNAs which may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: We systematically searched Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library, ISI Web of Knowledge, Scopus from inception to August 15, 2018, and reference lists of identified primary studies. Two independent investigators extracted patient and study characteristics. The sensitivity and specificity of microRNA-21 for HCC detection and were analyzed with a random effect model. The area under summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to estimate overall test performance. Results: A total of 515 HCC patients, and 338 healthy or chronic hepatitis controls from six published studies were enrolled in this meta-analysis. All articles were published in English with moderate-to-high quality. The overall pooled sensitivity and specificity were 85.2% (73.3% to 88.4%) and 79.2% (68.4% to 87.0%), respectively. The AUC area was 0.89 (95% CI: 0.85-0.91). The studies had moderate heterogeneity (I2=70.11%). None of the subgroups investigated-ethnicity, controls, sample source-could account for the heterogeneity. Conclusion: MiR-21 is a helpful biomarker for early diagnosis of HCC. Nevertheless, the results of the test must be interpreted carefully in the context of medical history, erological tests and imaging examinations for HCC surveillance. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.5.685 How to cite this:Qu J, Yang J, Chen M, Cui L, Wang T, Gao W, et al. MicroRNA-21 as a diagnostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(5):1466-1471. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.5.685 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A thorough green route (which adopts common and nontoxic reactants, and generates no by-product) was developed for the synthesis of AlOOH nanoflakes. AlOOH nanoflakes were synthesized conveniently through hydrothermal treatment of Al 2 O 3 powder in deionized water at 190 °C for 12–24 h, without the use of any extra additive or template. The characterization results from X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy confirmed the preparation of AlOOH nanoflakes, which were deficient in oxygen. Furthermore, the room temperature photoluminescence properties of the as-synthesized products were tested. It was found that all the as-synthesized products exhibited a strong emission peak centering at around 583 nm upon 291 nm excitation at room temperature, so they had potential application as a photoluminescent material.

A key feature of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is that they increase the size of the market – or the “scale of operation” – for workers in some occupations. We model the scale of operation as the limit up to which the production technology displays increasing returns to scale. We then explore the implications of this feature of ICT for the income distribution within affected occupations, as well as for individuals' occupational choices. Within occupations, an increase in the scale of operation intensifies competition between workers and increases inequality. It also drives the lowest-ability workers out of the occupation while reducing the earnings of the next lowest-ability workers when the substitutability between the output of the affected occupations and that of the rest of the economy is low.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) offer great potential as biomarkers for the early detection and prognosis of cancer, and the discovery of miRNAs associated with gastric cancer is required. In the present study, the differences in the plasma expression levels of miR-141 between patients with gastric cancer and healthy controls, and the role of miR-141 in gastric cancer cell oncogenesis were investigated. A follow-up study of 164 patients with gastric cancer who underwent tumor resection was conducted, and comparisons with healthy control subjects were drawn. To investigate the biological functions of miR-141, a series of in vitro and in vivo assays were conducted, including proliferation, wound-healing and Transwell assays, and a xenograft tumor model. The results demonstrated that miR-141 expression was significantly decreased in tumor tissues compared with in healthy tissues (P

Damage to pancreatic β‑cells is closely associated with diabetes. However, the mechanism underlying injury to pancreatic β‑cells remains unclear, although hypoxia is considered as one of the leading causes. Appoptosin is a mitochondrial protein that promotes neuronal apoptosis. Studies conducted on appoptosin thus far have primarily focused on Alzheimer's disease, and have demonstrated that the expression of appoptosin is significantly increased in ischemic‑reperfused rat brains, which indicates its close association with hypoxia. However, the role of appoptosin in pancreatic β‑cells, which are sensitive to hypoxia, remains unknown. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the function of appoptosin in pancreatic β‑cells in a hypoxic environment. Cobalt chloride (CoCl2) was used to mimic the hypoxic status of the cells. The results of a terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick‑end labeling assay demonstrated that CoCl2 promoted apoptosis in MIN6 mouse insulinoma cells, and western blotting and reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction results demonstrated that the activation of appoptosin was induced, promoting mitochondrial damage and caspase 3 activation. Silencing of appoptosin using short hairpin RNA significantly reduced CoCl2‑induced apoptosis in MIN6 cells. In conclusion, CoCl2 increased the expression of appoptosin, which aggravated mitochondrial damage in MIN6 cells. Therefore, inhibiting the expression of appoptosin may benefit pancreatic β-cells survival during islet transplantation.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by destruction of the pancreatic β‑cells and, to date, no cure has been developed. Promoting the survival of pancreatic β‑cells may be beneficial for patients with type 1 diabetes. Puerarin is an estrogen analogue that been demonstrated in previous studies to be able to decreased blood glucose in patients with type 1 diabetes. Similar results were demonstrated in previous studies which additionally demonstrated that puerarin was able to decreased blood glucose in type 1 diabetic mice by protecting pancreatic β‑cells. However, the mechanism underlying the function of puerarin in pancreatic β‑cells remains unclear. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the detailed function of puerarin in pancreatic β‑cells. In the present study, H2O2 was used to induce apoptosis. It was observed that puerarin significantly decreased H2O2‑induced apoptosis in mouse insulinoma MIN6 cells. It was additionally observed that puerarin decreased the levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial superoxide in MIN6 cells. The protective effect of puerarin was markedly decreased by 6‑aminonicotinamide, an inhibitor of glucose‑6‑phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that puerarin may increase the activity of G6PD, decreased the level of oxidative stress in MIN6 cells, protect mitochondria and promote MIN6 cell survival. Investigating the mechanism underlying the effect of puerarin in MIN6 cells may provide a novel approach for development of a cure for type 1 diabetes.

This paper considers the issue of "Too Connected to Fail" (TCTF) for a system of banks endogenously interconnected with both credit and insurance claims. The interbank credit network results from the circulation of banks' liabilities as a means of payment. By tracking their circulation, this paper considers the general equilibrium effect of bank lending for households' incomes and deposits. Thereby, we find that the network of banks interconnected with credit claims alone, while of a star structure, has no issue of TCTF. If the interbank insurance is introduced, the bank at the center becomes the sole provider of insurance to all the other banks. It then becomes systemically important. In some contingencies, it fails and that triggers bank run to almost all the other banks. There exists early warning for this event of system meltdown. Lastly, we show that the effect of the interbank interest rate for banks' lending depends on their positions in the network; and that the premium of the insurance is negatively related to the interbank interest rate and can be so low as to generate losses to the insurer.

A magnetic sensor based on a hybrid long-period fiber grating (HLPFG) and an ester-based Fe3O4 magnetic fluid (MF) has been proposed and experimentally investigated. The Fe3O4 MF and HLPFG are encapsulated in a capillary tube using paraffin. The sensor is sensitive to a vertical magnetic field and environmental temperature, while it is not very sensitive to an axial magnetic field. Due to the hybrid structure of HLPFG, the transmission spectrum of the sensor has two groups of resonance dips that have different sensitivities to vertical magnetic field intensity and temperature. This sensor can be used for the simultaneous measurement of temperature and vertical magnetic field intensity, which is desirable to resolve the temperature cross sensitivity issue. The sensor is also advantageous in its ease of fabrication, compactness, and wide linear measurement range.

Lipopolysaccharide/d-Galactosamine (LPS/d-Gal)-induced acute liver injury is characterized by significant inflammatory responses including TNF-α and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and is a widely applied experimental model for inflammation research. TNF-α is critical in the progression of LPS/d-Gal-induced liver injury. However, the role of IL-6 in this model is still unknown. In the present study, we aim to elucidate the involvement of IL-6 in the pathogenesis of acute liver injury induced by LPS/d-Gal in mice and its underlying mechanism. To induce acute liver injury, LPS (50μg/kg body weight) and d-Gal (400mg/kg body weight) were injected intraperitoneally in the C57BL/6 mice. The vehicle (saline) or a single dose of recombinant IL-6 (200μg/kg body weight) was administered 2h prior to LPS/d-Gal injection. Mice were sacrificed 2h and 6h after LPS/d-Gal injection. The results indicated that IL-6 treatment could protect mice from LPS/d-Gal-induced tissue damage, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) elevation, as well as hepatocyte apoptosis and inflammation. Furthermore, in vitro study showed that IL-6 treatment could significantly suppress LPS-triggered expression of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, TNF-α, RANTES and MCP-1 in macrophages while promoting the expression of M2 markers, such as Arg-1 and Mrc-1 in macrophages. Taken together, these findings revealed a novel and unexpected role of IL-6 in ameliorating LPS/d-Gal-induced acute liver injury via regulating inflammatory responses in hepatic macrophages.

Banks are special in that their liabilities are widely accepted as a means of payment, thereby often needed by real sectors to obtain resources. This paper studies this interaction between the banking sector and real sectors on competitive markets and the policy response of the central bank to market inefficiency, which is determined by the aggregate wealth of banks. In the circumstance of a credit crunch, the central bank improves efficiency by allowing banks to borrow its fiat money at zero interest up to a limit. This policy bears the flavor of quantitative easing policies (QE). It produces real effects in the absence of surprises and nominal rigidity. The mechanism in which it works depends on a difference in nature between bank-created money and fiat money. Furthermore, this policy, while expanding the money supply, induces deflation under the positive productivity shock. Lastly, this paper explains when interest rate policy and capital adequacy regulation are among the optimal policies within a unified model.

This paper presents a new approach to endogenize interbank credit networks, based on banks' specialty that their liabilities are accepted as a means of payment. This approach takes into account how borrowing on banks' asset side affects depositing on their liability side in general equilibrium. This approach is applied to endogenize a star structured interbank network with the aim of studying the issue of too connected to fail (TCTF) and systemic risk. In the model the banking system melts down on equilibrium path. Moreover, (1) the resources are inefficiently concentrated at the center of the network, and more so if the interbank rate is higher; (2) interbank credit claims alone are insufficient to drive the issue of TCTF, which, however, arises if interbank insurance is introduced; (3) early news matters more for systemic stability than late one; and (4) there is a zone of news based on which the event of system meltdown is likely to happen, but has not happened yet. This type of news provides an early warning of the event.

An in-line Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with a magnetic fluid-filled multimode photonic crystal fiber (PCF) fusion spliced into two standard optical fibers was proposed. The interference is induced by the two core mode LP01 and LP11 due to the special air hole structure of PCF, which is insensitive to bending and the surrounding refractive index (SRI). High strain sensitivity of 3.7 pm/µe at 1290 nm is achieved. The temperature sensitivity (7.6 pm/°C) is even lower than fiber Bragg grating (FBG). In addition, interference intensity of MZI is sensitive to magnetic field intensity. This structure provides a property for simultaneous measurement of strain and magnetic field and avoiding cross sensitivity on temperature and SRI with a simple process and low cost. Cascading other sensing element such as FBG, LPFG, it also provides a property for simultaneous measurement of multiparameters. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:1720–1724, 2014

This study examines the causal effects of bank size on banks' survival, asset quality and leverage. Two forces drive these effects: increasing returns to scale derived from banks' expertise and competition. The first enables bigger banks to survive competition better, have higher asset quality and be more leveraged. It drives banks into a race for expansion. This race toughens competition between banks, which edges out small banks and may worsen all banks' asset quality. Consequently, the banking industry will be dominated by a small number of highly leveraged banks. In this study, financial intermediation arises endogenously and co-exists with direct finance.

MoS 2 nanoflake clusters were synthesized via hydrothermal treatment of an air-stable, easily obtained single-source molecular precursor (molybdenum diethyldithiocarbamate oxide, Mo((C 2 H 5 ) 2 NCS 2 ) 2 O 2 ) in deionized water at 200 °C for 24 h; and orthorhombic phase MoO 3 (α-MoO 3 ) nanoplate clusters were obtained by heating MoS 2 nanoflake clusters in air at 350 °C for 5 h. The obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and field emission scanning electronic microscopy. Besides, the comparative synthesis experiment by direct pyrolysis of ammonium peramolybdate suggested that MoS 2 nanoflake clusters might play a template role in the formation of α-MoO 3 nanoplate clusters.

The effects of wheat bran feruloylated oligosaccharides (FOs) on the gut microbiota were studied. Furthermore, xylo-oligosaccharides (XOs) and ferulic acid (FA) as the two major moieties were used to demonstrate the structural influence of FOs on microbiota modulation effects. FOs promoted the phylum Firmicutes and Actinobacteria and decreased the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. FA significantly increased the phylum Bacteroidetes. At the genus level, FOs promoted beneficial microorganism such as Bifidobacterium and Faecalibacterium, and inhibit the growth of disease-related bacteria such as Alistipes, Bilophila, Dorea, Enterobacteriaceae, and Oscillopira. FA significantly increased Bacteroides, Dialister and decreased Coprococcus, Enterobacteriaceae, Megamonas, Oscillospira. In terms of metabolites, FOs and XOs increased the content of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) but inhibited the production of branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs). However, FA inhibited the production of both SCFAs and BCFAs. In conclusion, wheat bran FOs showed the prebiotic effects and further promoted the production of SCFAs due to the combined actions of oligosaccharides and FA moieties. Our findings highlighted that composition and structure should be taken into consideration for selecting FOs as prebiotics.

This paper offers a new approach, based on risk sharing, to endogenize the leverage of financial intermediaries. It endogenizes debt as the optimal contract for external financing, thereby capturing two features of leverage: debt serves to boost the return on equity, and equity provides “safety net” for debt. The paper derives a novel prediction that when the asset-side risk rises, the leverage ratio is reduced, but the profit margin of leveraging is actually widened.

A sensitive and selective fluorescent probe for histidine has been designed by taking the advantages of the click chemistry reaction (copper(I)-catalyzed azides and alkynes cycloaddition) and the inhibition of copper(II)-induced ascorbate oxidation by histidine. The fluorescence intensity decreases with the increasing of histidine concentration, and the value of F₀/F shows a good linear relationship with the concentration of histidine over the range of 0.5-100 μM with a detection limit of 76 nM, which is lower than those of many other fluorescent sensors. Moreover, the sensor has high specificity for histidine compared to some potential interferents, such as other amino acids and metal ions. In addition, the proposed sensor has been applied to determine histidine in cellular homogenate and ovalbumin samples with satisfactory results. The preferable simplicity, sensitivity and specificity for the detection of histidine indicate that the proposed sensor have potential prospect in environmental and biomedical analysis.

In this paper, a wafer-level package for a microwave transmission system has been implemented and tested. Three monolithic microwave integrated circuits packaged in one microwave system are first proposed. The packaged system consists of an up-converter, a drive amplifier and a power amplifier. All the modules are embedded in the cavities pre-etched in a low-resistivity silicon substrate. Benzocyclobutene layers are coated on the components and silicon substrate, serving as interlayer dielectrics. Gold bumps are used as electric interconnections between different layers. Gold micro-strip lines are employed as transmission lines. The electrical properties of the packaging structure are investigated. The design procedure is proposed and the simulation regarding transmission line has been done. The thermal property of the packaged system is simulated and detailed discussion is presented. The measured transmission characteristics of the packaged system shows that the modules can work at very wide band, at the range of 6–18 GHz (X/Ku band) and its gain agrees well with the theoretical results.

SnS 2 /TiO 2 nanocomposites with adjustable TiO 2 contents were prepared via solvothermal treatment of different amounts of tetrabutyl titanate in the presence of SnS 2 nanoparticles in the mixed solvents of ethanol and acetic acid at 180 °C for 12 h. The structures, compositions, BET specific surface areas and optical properties of the as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, N 2 adsorption and UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectra, and their photocatalytic properties were tested by the reduction of aqueous Cr(VI) under visible light ( λ > 420 nm) irradiation. It was found that the photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared SnS 2 /TiO 2 nanocomposites depended on their compositions, and SnS 2 /TiO 2 -B containing 25.5 mass% TiO 2 not only displayed the highest photocatalytic activity, but also exhibited a good photocatalytic stability. Meanwhile, the reasons accounting for the photocatalytic results were also discussed. Besides, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis revealed that Cr(VI) was reduced to Cr(III) after the photocatalytic reactions over SnS 2 /TiO 2 -B.