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Deep learning (DL) approaches have been increasingly adopted to design antenna autonomously. For obtaining geometry of the broadband quasi-Yagi antenna from its physic response images directly, we propose an inverse design approach based on the optimized bidirectional symmetry GoogLeNet, which can extract the required bandwidth information to redesign the geometric parameters of antenna without changing its physical structure. It demonstrates that the bandwidth of a reference quasi-Yagi antenna is improved from 0.6 GHz to 1.15 GHz through the proposed inverse design DL approach, and the measured bandwidth value of this redesigned quasi-Yagi antenna achieves 1.16 GHz, which is improved 93% actually. The numerical and measured results indicate that the proposed DL approach could significantly improve the performance of the existed quasi-Yagi antenna and present a new attempt to apply the image processing techniques in resolving physical problem.

Vascular endothelial cells (ECs), derived from the mesoderm, form a single layer of squamous cells that covers the inner surface of blood vessels. In addition to being regulated by chemical signals from the extracellular matrix (ECM) and blood, ECs are directly confronted to complex hemodynamic environment. These physical inputs are translated into biochemical signals, dictating multiple aspects of cell behaviour and destination, including growth, differentiation, migration, adhesion, death and survival. Mechanosensors are initial responders to changes in mechanical environments, and the overwhelming majority of them are located on the plasma membrane. Physical forces affect plasma membrane fluidity and change of protein complexes on plasma membrane, accompanied by altering intercellular connections, cell-ECM adhesion, deformation of the cytoskeleton, and consequently, transcriptional responses in shaping specific phenotypes. Among the diverse forces exerted on ECs, shear stress (SS), defined as tangential friction force exerted by blood flow, has been extensively studied, from mechanosensing to mechanotransduction, as well as corresponding phenotypes. However, the precise mechanosensors and signalling pathways that determine atheroprone and atheroprotective phenotypes of arteries remain unclear. Moreover, it is worth to mention that some established mechanosensors of atheroprotective SS, endothelial glycocalyx, for example, might be dismantled by atheroprone SS. Therefore, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on mechanosensors in ECs for SS signals. We emphasize how these ECs coordinate or differentially participate in phenotype regulation induced by atheroprone and atheroprotective SS.

Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is a metabolically active organ which generates inflammatory cytokines. Thickness of EAT is associated with onset and development of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, it is still unclear the specific mechanisms and pharmacological targets on EAT induced inflammation in HFpEF. A two-hit protocol with western diet and N

To measure the testicular volume and testicular fat deposition of middle-aged overweight men and to assess the utility of testicular fat deposition and testicular volume in determining and monitoring testicular infertility. Pelvic MRI with thin slice T2WI, T1WI and mDIXON Quant was performed on 30 middle-aged overweight patients in the treatment group and 30 middle-aged overweight men in the control group. Testicular volume and testicular fat deposition were measured separately based on thin slice T2WI and the fat fraction (FF) map of mDIXON Quant, and the testicular fat deposition observed with T1WI was used as a reference for qualitative diagnosis. Testicular volume and testicular fat deposition in middle-aged overweight individuals were compared using a t test with Bonferroni correction and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The testicular volumes (10.6–17.9 cm3) of individuals in the treatment group were smaller than those (12.6–19.0 cm3) of individuals in the control group (p

Diaporthe sp. fungi is one of the important sources of active natural products. Polyketides, alkaloids, terpenes, anthraquinones and other types of novel metabolic products are found from this genus, and many of them have significant anti-tumor, antibacterial, anti-hyperlipidemia, inhibition of pulmonary fibrosis, antioxidant and other biological activities. This paper reviewed source, structure and biological activity of natural products from Diaporthe sp. in the past two decades, and provided a reference for in-depth study of natural product of this genus fungus and innovative drug development.

Daytime radiative cooling has attracted considerable attention recently due to its tremendous potential for passively exploiting the coldness of the universe as clean and renewable energy. Many advanced materials with novel photonic micro/nanostructures have already been developed to enable highly efficient daytime radiative coolers, among which the flexible hierarchical porous coatings (HPCs) are a more distinguished category. However, it is still hard to precisely control the size distribution of the randomized pores within the HPCs, usually resulting in a deficient solar reflection at the near-infrared optical regime under diverse fabrication conditions of the coatings. We report here a three-phase (i.e., air pore-phase, microsphere-phase, and polymer-phase) self-assembled hybrid porous composite coating, which dramatically increases the average solar reflectance and yields remarkable temperature drops of ∼10 and ∼ 30 °C compared to the ambient circumstance and black paint, respectively, according to the rooftop measurements. Mie theory and Monte Carlo simulations reveal the origin of the low reflectivity of as-prepared two-phase porous HPCs, and the optical cooling improvement of the three-phase porous composite coatings is attributed to the newly generated interfaces possessing the high scattering efficiency between the hierarchical pores and silica microspheres hybridized with appropriate mass fractions. As a result, the hybrid porous composite approach enhances the whole performance of the coatings, which provides a promising alternative to the flexible daytime radiative cooler.

BackgroundThe specific mechanism of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular vasculopathy in the context of end-stage renal disease has not been elucidated. In the present study, we investigated the clinical impact of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) on hemodialysis patients and their mechanism of action.MethodsMDSCs were tested among 104 patients undergoing hemodialysis and their association with overall survival (OS) and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events was determined.ResultsHemodialysis patients presented a significantly higher level of monocytic MDSCs (M-MDSCs) compared to healthy controls. M-MDSC were tested 3 months after first testing among 103 hemodialysis patients, with one patient not retested due to early death. The repeated results of M-MDSC levels were consistent with the initial results. Patients with persistent high level of M-MDSCs presented decreased OS, as well as increased stroke and acute heart failure events. As illustrated by multivariate Cox regression, M-MDSC was an independent predictor for OS and stroke events of hemodialysis patients. T cell proliferations were significantly abrogated by hemodialysis-related M-MDSCs in a dose-dependent manner. Besides, M-MDSCs presented higher levels of CXCR4 and VLA-4 compared to monocytes, which indicated their enhanced capability to be recruited to atherosclerotic lesions. The expression of arginase I and activity of arginase was also significantly raised in hemodialysis-related M-MDSCs. Human coronary arterial endothelial cells (HCAECs) presented increased capability to migration by coculture with M-MDSCs, compared with monocyte group. Arginase inhibitor and L-arginine abrogated the immune suppressive function and induction of HCAECs migration of hemodialysis related M-MDSC. Plasma IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-6 were elevated in hemodialysis patients compared with healthy control. M-MDSC level was positively related to IL-6 level among hemodialysis patients. The plasma of hemodialysis patients induced M-MDSCs significantly compared with plasma from health donors. Besides, IL-6 neutralizing antibody significantly abrogated the induction. Neutralizing antibody of IFN-γ and TNF-α partially decreased the generation of arginase of the induced M-MDSC.ConclusionsM-MDSCs were elevated in ESRD patients under hemodialysis, and they exhibited a strong association with the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Hemodialysis related M-MDSC presented enhanced recruitment to atherosclerotic lesions, promoted the migration of endothelial cells through exhaustion of local L-arginine.

The prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients remains unclear, and a better understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms is urgently required. Jumonji-C (JmjC) domain-containing protein 5 (JMJD5), renamed KDM8, has been implicated in tumorigenesis, circadian rhythm modulation, embryological development, and osteoclastogenesis. In the present study, we found that JMJD5 was over-expressed in patients with OSCC by real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR), western blot and immunohistochemical assays. When knockdown using small interfering RNA (siRNA) in OSCCs, JMJD5 was exhibited to be important for sustaining cell migration and invasion. JMJD5-knockdown increased E-cadherin expressions, and decreased N-cadherin and Vimentin expression levels in OSCC cells. Further, apoptosis was induced by JMJD5-silence through both the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways, as evidenced by the increased cleavage of Caspase-8/-9/-3 and PARP. Meanwhile, p53 expression levels were also up-regulated by JMJD5-knockdown. Suppressing p53 expressions with its inhibitor, PFTα, blocked apoptotic response in JMJD5-silenced cells. JMJD5 inhibition-induced decrease of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) was rescued by pifithrin-α (PFTα) pre-treatment. Consistently, over-expressing JMJD5 decreased p53, cleaved Caspase-3 and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1), whereas increased nuclear NF-κB expressions in OSCC cell lines. More importantly, targeting JMJD5 reduced xenograft tumor growth in vivo through the same molecular mechanisms evidenced in vitro. Thus, the data supplied mechanistic insights into the effects of JMJD5 on the modulation of OSCC development, illustrating that JMJD5 might be an essential prognostic indicator and therapeutic target against OSCC progression.

Congenital supravalvular aortic stenosis (SAS), characterized by congenital narrow of the ascending aorta, occurs sporadically and has an incidence of 1 in 20000 newborns...

To compare the outcome of biliary atresia (BA) patients with and without hilar cyst on preoperative ultrasound.A single center retrospective review of patients of BA with (n = 27) and without hilar cyst (n = 27) over a 5 y period was done. The patients were analyzed using propensity score matching to reduce selection bias. All patients were diagnosed as type III BA by histologic examination and cholangiograms. Clinicopathological characteristics and survival outcomes were compared between the two groups.There were no significant intergroup differences between baseline characteristics and outcomes after Kasai portoenterostomy surgery in two groups. BA with hilar cyst group showed comparable survival outcomes to the BA without cyst group (cumulative 1-y, 2-y and 5-y overall survival rates with native liver 61.4% vs. 65.8%, P = 0.041; 45.0% vs. 49.0%, P = 0.57; 45.0% vs. 49.0%, P = 0.57). And the Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed no significant difference in cumulative survival with native liver between the two groups (P = 0.58).Type III BA with hilar cyst had no better prognosis compared with Type III BA without cyst.

Background Biliary atresia (BA) with a hilar cyst is an uncommon variant of BA that may be misunderstood to have a relatively favorable prognosis. Methods A single-center retrospective review of patients that matched BA with a hilar cyst (n=27) with BA without a cyst (n=27) over a 5-years period was done. All patients were diagnosed as type III BA by histologic examination and cholangiograms. Results There were no significant intergroup differences between baseline characteristics and outcomes after Kasai portoenterostomy surgery in two groups. The Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed no significant difference in cumulative native liver survival rate of the two groups (p = 0.584). Of the 27 BA patients with a hilar cyst, 8 were showed the cyst communicated with the gallbladder on cholangiograms, and Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that the cumulative native liver survival rate was significantly shorter (P=0.045) in them than those who the cyst was not communicated with the gallbladder. Conclusions Type III BA with a hilar cyst had no better prognosis compared with Type III BA without a cyst. A cyst communicated with the gallbladder may be associated with a poor eventual outcome for Type III BA with a hilar cyst.

Heat removal has become an increasingly crucial issue for microelectronic chips due to increasingly high speed and high performance. One solution is to increase the thermal conductivity of the corresponding dielectrics. However, traditional approach to adding solid heat conductive nanoparticles to polymer dielectrics led to a significant weight increase. Here we propose a dielectric polymer filled with heat conductive hollow nanoparticles to mitigate the weight gain. Our mesoscale simulation of heat conduction through this dielectric polymer composite microstructure using the phase-field spectral iterative perturbation method demonstrates the simultaneous achievement of enhanced effective thermal conductivity and the low density. It is shown that additional heat conductivity enhancement can be achieved by wrapping the hollow nanoparticles with graphene layers. The underlying mesoscale mechanism of such a microstructure design and the quantitative effect of interfacial thermal resistance will be discussed. This work is expected to stimulate future efforts to develop light-weight thermal conductive polymer nanocomposites.

Five kinds of lightweight refractory castables were prepared by using lightweight corundum-spinel aggregates (LCSA), pre-synthesized spinel (PSS), magnesia and corundum powders as raw materials. Effects of the PSS contents on the microstructures and mechanical properties of the refractory castables were studied by means of X-ray diffractometer (XRD), elastic modulus tester and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc. It is found that with the PPS content increase from 0 to 15.3 wt %, the permanent linear change (PLC) of castables sintered at 1600 °C decreases from 1.02% to -0.56%; the bulk density (BD) and apparent porosity (AP) are in the range of 29.6 %~27.8 % and 2.71~2.79 g/cm3, respectively, changing a little; the cold compressive strength (CCS) decreases from 106.0 MPa to 94.4 MPa; the thermal shock resistance improves; the hot modulus of rupture (HMOR) decreases from 6.7 MPa to 4.3 MPa. Considering these aspects, sample with 7.6 wt% PPS (LA7.6) has the best performance.

Corrosion of five porous ceramics with near apparent porosities (26%~29%) and different spinel contents by cement clinker was conducted, and the effect of the spinel content on the reaction between porous periclase-spinel ceramics and cement clinker was investigated by SEM, EDS, and FactSage® thermo-chemical software, etc. It can be found that : (1) The dissolution rate of periclase into cement clinker is slow whereas that of spinel into cement clinker is fast; (2) The more the spinel content in the porous ceramics, the higher the dissolution rate of porous ceramics into cement clinker, then the higher corrosion index; the dissolution of spinel into cement clinker changes the composition of the penetrated slag and made the viscosity increases; (3) For the specimens with similar pore size and low viscosity of penetrated liquid phase, the more the liquid content, the higher the penetration degree of liquid to specimens; the further penetration will be stopped with an increase of liquid viscosity, then the contact area between refractory and cement clinker decreases, in the result, the corrosion index decreases. When spinel contents is 0~10mol%, porous periclase-spinel ceramics possess higher penetration resistance and corrosion resistance.

Micro-sized aluminum (Al) reinforced silicone rubber composites were prepared, and the thermal properties of the composites were investigated in term of composition, shape, and surface modification of Al particles. The results demonstrated that the incorporation of Al particles into the composites improved the peak vulcanization temperature, and decreased the thermal stability behavior of the rubber; furthermore, the shape, concentration, surface treatment of Al particles and temperature had an effect on the thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity increased obviously with a rise of Al particles concentration, as well as with a surface modification of filler. The flaky Al particles reinforced rubber showed a distinct higher thermal conductivity as compared to the spherical Al particles.

The outpatient departments of hospitals in large cities have become more and more congested in recent years. Patients often spend excessively long time waiting during the whole outpatient procedure, which lowers the degree of patient satisfaction and increases patient complains about the outpatient service. This Paper utilizes the simulation-based Six Sigma DMAIC method to identify the defects of existing procedure in outpatient department of a general hospital in Tianjin and to propose solutions to ameliorate the outpatient procedure. Using software package named iGrafx IDEF0 2011 and relevant data, the existing outpatient procedure simulation model is constructed and validated. After analysis, defects behind the long waiting time are identified and several improvement scenarios are proposed. The improved simulation model which has implemented these scenarios shows that new outpatient procedure significantly reduces overall waiting time compared with the original one.

To explore the expression and significance of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin(NGAL)in renal interstitial fibrosis (RIF) in rats.A total of 60 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 3 groups of sham operation (SOR), unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI). The serum concentrations of NGAL and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). And the expressions of NGAL, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) were observed by immunohistochemistry.(1) The levels of serum NGAL and TNF-α in UUO group obviously increased as compared to those in ACEI and SOR groups (NGAL: (69.2 ± 5.6) vs (41.0 ± 10.4), (10.8 ± 3.8) pg/ml; TNF-α: (116.2 ± 9.2) vs (99.8 ± 14.0), (29.2 ± 5.7) ng/ml; all P0.05). (2) The expressions of NGAL, TGF-β1 and MMP-9 in renal tubular epithelial cells of UUO group increased as compared to those in SOR group. The expression of TGF-β1 in ACEI group was apparently less than that in UUO group. The protein levels of NGAL and MMP-9 in ACEI group were obviously lower than those in UUO group within Day 14 post-operation and significantly higher than those in UUO group at Days 21 and 28. (3) In UUO group, the level of NGAL was positively correlated with the serum levels of TNF-α and serum creatinine (r = 0.910, 0.673, P0.01). The expression of NGAL had a highly positive correlation with MMP-9 (r = 0.913, P0.01) and the index of interstitial damage and the degrees of TGF-β1 at Days 3-7 post-operation(r = 0.937, 0.847, P0.01). And the expression of NGAL was negatively correlated with the index of interstitial damage and the degrees of TGF-β1 at Days 14-28 post-operation (r = -0.945, -0.944, P0.01).The expression of NGAL significantly increases in UUO modal of rats. And it is closely correlated with MMP-9, TNF-α and TGF-β1. ACEI may influence the biological effects of NGAL by suppressing inflammatory responses, down-regulating the expression of TGF-β1 and regulating the expression and the activity of MMP-9.

To investigate the role of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy induced by hypertension.Using immunofluorescent labeling, confocal microscopy and Western blotting, the expression and subcellular localization of FAK in the cardiac myocytes of left ventricle were determined in 2, 6, 12, and 18 month-old rats with spontaneously hypertensive heart failure (SHHF) along with age-matched control Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats.There was no significant difference of FAK expression between 2 month-old SHHF and WKY rats (50.5+/-6.9 vs. 49.8+/-5.0, n=6, P0.05). In contrast with the control groups, the expression of FAK significantly increased in 6, 12 and 18 month-old SHHF rats (130.6+/-3.0 vs. 47.3+/-1.3, 144.7+/-5.4 vs. 46.4+/-3.1, 141.4+/-9.8 vs. 48.5+/-2.2, each groups n=6, P0.05) with FAK protein primarily cumulated in the intercalated disks and nuclei.FAK may play a role in the cell signaling transduction leading to cardiac hypertrophy, presumably through regulations of hypertrophic gene transcription and RNA processing.