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Based on the function and performance testing requirements of Internet of Vehicles, a design scheme for automatic simulation test and verification platform for the Internet of Vehicles based on cellular networks and real network in-loop is proposed. First, the overall structure of the simulation test platform and the specific function of each component are presented. The main and functional components of the real cellular network simulation subsystem are then discussed. Finally, two typical application test scenarios are designed and presented; namely, vehicle remote-startup delay test based on a cloud platform and Internet of Vehicles local performance test of different frequency cell switching in a dynamic scenario. Experimental results verify that the simulation test platform can meet the test verification, performance evaluation, and troubleshooting requirements of the Internet of Vehicles function. It is important to improve the application experience of intelligent connected vehicles and the Internet of Vehicles.

Cultivation and grazing since the mid-nineteenth century in Texas has caused dramatic changes in grassland vegetation. Among these changes is the encroachment of native and introduced brush species. The distribution and quantity of brush can affect livestock production and water holding capacity of soil. Still, at the same time, brush can improve carbon sequestration and enhance agritourism and real estate value. The accurate identification of brush species and their distribution over large land tracts are important in developing brush management plans which may include herbicide application decisions. Near-real-time imaging and analyses of brush using an Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) is a powerful tool to achieve such tasks. The use of multispectral imagery collected by a UAS to estimate the efficacy of herbicide treatment on noxious brush has not been evaluated previously. There has been no previous comparison of band combinations and pixel- and object-based methods to determine the best methodology for discrimination and classification of noxious brush species with Random Forest (RF) classification. In this study, two rangelands in southern Texas with encroachment of huisache (Vachellia farnesianna [L.] Wight & Arn.) and honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa Torr. var. glandulosa) were studied. Two study sites were flown with an eBee X fixed-wing to collect UAS images with four bands (Green, Red, Red-Edge, and Near-infrared) and ground truth data points pre- and post-herbicide application to study the herbicide effect on brush. Post-herbicide data were collected one year after herbicide application. Pixel-based and object-based RF classifications were used to identify brush in orthomosaic images generated from UAS images. The classification had an overall accuracy in the range 83–96%, and object-based classification had better results than pixel-based classification since object-based classification had the highest overall accuracy in both sites at 96%. The UAS image was useful for assessing herbicide efficacy by calculating canopy change after herbicide treatment. Different effects of herbicides and application rates on brush defoliation were measured by comparing canopy change in herbicide treatment zones. UAS-derived multispectral imagery can be used to identify brush species in rangelands and aid in objectively assessing the herbicide effect on brush encroachment.

Background. With the development of sequencing technology, an increasing number of biomarkers has been identified in endometrial carcinoma (EC). However, there have been few comprehensive analyses of the KIF4A gene in patients with EC. Methods. Based on raw data in public databases, the KIF4A gene and protein expression in EC were validated. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the correlations between clinical characteristics and the KIF4A expression. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to explore the difference in survival in clinical subgroups. Meanwhile, we used meta-analysis in multiple datasets to investigate the prognostic value of KIF4A. In addition, Cox regression analysis was used to confirm the independent prognostic value of KIF4A, and we constructed a nomogram based on KIF4A expression. Subsequently, we used ESTIMATE and ssGSEA algorithms to excavate the correlation between KIF4A, tumour-infiltrating immune cells, and related gene markers of immune cells. Moreover, the potential biological functions of KIF4A were investigated by gene function annotation. Finally, we identified the hub genes interacting with KIF4A by constructing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and screening differential genes (DEGs). Results. In the pan-cancer analysis, KIF4A was upregulated in most tumors (21/33). Similarly, the overexpression of KIF4A in EC patients was confirmed in the TCGA cohort, the GEO cohort, and immunohistochemistry. In addition, upregulated KIF4A is associated with age, survival status, grade, FIGO stage, histological type, tumour invasion, and TCGA molecular subtypes ( p < 0.05 ). KIF4A overexpression was correlated with the grade, histological type, and pathological stage according to logistic regression analysis ( p < 0.05 ). Meanwhile, survival analysis and meta-analysis revealed that KIF4A was associated with a poor prognosis and acted as an independent prognostic marker in EC patients ( p < 0.05 ). KIF4A is associated to immune response and may have a function in controlling immune cell infiltration in EC (20/24, p < 0.05 ). This is noteworthy given that gene enrichment analysis suggested KIF4A may be involved in the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway, etc. Finally, we identified transcription factors which have a potential interaction with KIF4A. Conclusion. We provided robust evidences that KIF4A is an indicator of poor prognosis and a potential target for immunotherapy in patients with EC.

The prepared Co(OH)2@Ti3C2Tx composite shows good gas sensing performance for ammonia at room temperature, making it a promising candidate for a practical detector for NH3.

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a form of RNAs that lack coding potential. The role of such circRNAs in dental pulp stem cell (DPSC) osteo/odontogenic differentiation remains to be determined. In this study, circRNA expression profiles in DPSC osteo/odontogenic differentiation process were analyzed by RNA-seq. qRT-PCR was used to confirm the differential expression of

Ammonia (NH

The association among plasma trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), FMO3 polymorphisms, and chronic heart failure (CHF) remains to be elucidated. TMAO is a microbiota-dependent metabolite from dietary choline and carnitine. A prospective study was performed including 955 consecutively diagnosed CHF patients with reduced ejection fraction, with the longest follow-up of 7 years. The concentrations of plasma TMAO and its precursors, namely, choline and carnitine, were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the FMO3 E158K polymorphisms (rs2266782) were genotyped. The top tertile of plasma TMAO was associated with a significant increment in hazard ratio (HR) for the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart transplantation (HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.13-1.91, P = 0.004) compared with the lowest tertile. After adjustments of the potential confounders, higher TMAO could still be used to predict the risk of the primary endpoint (adjusted HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.01-1.74, P = 0.039). This result was also obtained after further adjustment for carnitine (adjusted HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.01-1.74, P = 0.039). The FMO3 rs2266782 polymorphism was associated with the plasma TMAO concentrations in our cohort, and lower TMAO levels were found in the AA-genotype. Thus, higher plasma TMAO levels indicated increased risk of the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart transplantation independent of potential confounders, and the FMO3 AA-genotype in rs2266782 was related to lower plasma TMAO levels.

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological malignancy, but the mechanisms of ovarian cancer progression and cisplatin resistance remain unclear. Emerging evidence suggested that ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme E2C (UBE2C) was highly expressed in a variety of tumors and acted as an oncogene. In our study, we demonstrated that UBE2C was overexpressed in ovarian cancer by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database analysis. It was also found that high levels of UBE2C expression predicted worse clinical outcomes in ovarian cancer. After knocking down UBE2C, SKOV3 and A2780 cells showed inhibitory cell proliferation, increased apoptosis by blocking G2/M transition in vitro and in vivo. Besides, the downregulation of UBE2C reversed the cisplatin resistance states of SKOV3/DDP and A2780/DDP cells. Interestingly, CDK1 expression was also downregulated in UBE2C depleted ovarian cancer cells. Furthermore, we found that UBE2C expression was highly correlated with CDK1 expression in ovarian cancer tissues and cell lines, indicating that UBE2C might cooperate with CDK1 in ovarian tumorigenesis. Collectively, our findings strongly supported UBE2C as a candidate oncogene and a potential target for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Nutrient management is vital for food, feed, fiber, and fuel production. However, excessive application and loss (volatilization, leaching, run-off, etc.) of inorganic and organic sources of nutrients have detrimental environmental impacts, while increasing prices for petroleum-based and mined fertilizers further limit opportunities for their utilization in developing nations. This study evaluated a novel, alternative type of nutrient source through pretreatment processes of torrefaction and pyrolysis by converting high-biomass feedstocks into renewable soil amendments. Napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach., [cv. Merkeron]) and pearl millet—napiergrass (Pennisetum glaucum [L.] R. Br. × P. purpureum Schumach.) (PMN) were converted under atmospheric pressure with minimal oxygen at 250°C and 400°C, ground to 1 millimeter (mm) and 2 mm particle sizes, and compared to urea in a full-season field trial and short-season nursery trial growing maize (Zea mays L.) and PMN for fertility response. When compared to urea in the field trial, the torrefied biomass amendment (TBA) and biochar had similar responses despite lower nitrogen (N) application rates. The nursery trial also produced equivalent responses from urea and TBA regardless of lower N application with the exception being phosphorus (P). Finally, maize and PMN had higher P uptake with the TBA in both trials.

Background With the development of sequencing technology, an increasing number of biomarkers has been identified in endometrial carcinoma (EC). However, there have been few comprehensive analyses of the KIF4A gene in patients with EC. Methods Based on raw data in public databases, the KIF4A gene and protein expression in EC were validated. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the correlations between clinical characteristics and the KIF4A expression. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to explore the difference in survival in clinical subgroups. Meanwhile, we used meta-analysis in multiple datasets to investigate the prognostic value of KIF4A. In addition, Cox regression analysis was used to confirm the independent prognostic value of KIF4A, and we constructed a nomogram based on KIF4A expression. Subsequently, we used ESTIMATE and ssGSEA algorithms to excavate the correlation between KIF4A, tumour-infiltrating immune cells, and related gene markers of immune cells. Moreover, the potential biological functions of KIF4A were investigated by gene function annotation. Finally, we identified the hub genes interacting with KIF4A by constructing a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network and screening differential genes (DEGs). Results In the pan-cancer analysis, KIF4A was upregulated in most tumors (21/33). Similarly, the overexpression of KIF4A in EC patients was confirmed in the TCGA cohort, the GEO cohort, and immunohistochemistry. In addition, upregulated KIF4A is associated with age, survival status, grade, FIGO stage, histological type, tumour invasion, and TCGA molecular subtypes (p < 0.05). KIF4A overexpression was correlated with the grade, histological type, and pathological stage according to logistic regression analysis (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, survival analysis and meta-analysis revealed that KIF4A was associated with a poor prognosis and acted as an independent prognostic marker in EC patients (p < 0.05). KIF4A is associated to immune response and may have a function in controlling immune cell infiltration in EC (20/24, p < 0.05). This is noteworthy given that gene enrichment analysis suggested KIF4A may be involved in the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway, etc. Finally, we identified transcription factors which have a potential interaction with KIF4A. Conclusion We provided robust evidences that KIF4A is an indicator of poor prognosis and a potential target for immunotherapy in patients with EC.

Background: Cardiac sialylation is involved in a variety of physiological processes in the heart. Altered sialylation has been implicated in heart failure (HF) mice. However, its role in patients with HF is unclear, and the potential effect of modulation of cardiac sialylation is worth exploring. Methods: We first assessed the association between plasma N-acetylneuraminic acid levels and the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with HF over a median follow-up period of 2 years. Next, immunoblot analysis and lectin histochemistry were performed in cardiac tissue to determine the expression levels of neuraminidases and the extent of cardiac desialylation. Finally, the therapeutic impact of a neuraminidase inhibitor was evaluated in animal models of HF. Results: Among 1699 patients with HF, 464 (27%) died of cardiovascular-related deaths or underwent heart transplantation. We found that the elevated plasma N-acetylneuraminic acid level was independently associated with a higher risk of incident cardiovascular death and heart transplantation (third tertile adjusted hazard ratio, 2.11 [95% CI, 1.67–2.66], P Conclusions: This study uncovered a significant association between elevated plasma N-acetylneuraminic acid level and an increased risk of a poor clinical outcome in patients with HF. Our data support the notion that desialylation represents an important contributor to the progression of HF, and neuraminidase inhibition may be a potential therapeutic strategy for HF.

Background While large-scale genomic analyses symbolize a precious attempt to decipher the molecular foundation of uterine leiomyosarcoma (ULMS), bioinformatics results associated with the occurrence of ULMS based totally on WGCNA and CIBERSORT have not yet been reported. This study aimed to screen the hub genes and the immune cell infiltration pattern in ULMS by bioinformatics methods. Methods Firstly, the GSE67463 dataset, including 25 ULMS tissues and 29 normal myometrium (NL) tissues, was downloaded from the public database. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened by the ‘limma’ package and hub modules were identified by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). Subsequently, gene function annotations were performed to investigate the biological role of the genes from the intersection of two groups (hub module and DEGs). The above genes were calculated in the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network to select the hub genes further. The hub genes were validated using external data (GSE764 and GSE68295). In addition, the differential immune cell infiltration between UL and ULMS tissues was investigated using the CIBERSORT algorithm. Finally, we used western blot to preliminarily detect the hub genes in cell lines. Results WGCNA analysis revealed a green-yellow module possessed the highest correlation with ULMS, including 1063 genes. A total of 172 DEGs were selected by thresholds set in the ‘limma’ package. The above two groups of genes were intersected to obtain 72 genes for functional annotation analysis. Interestingly, it indicated that 72 genes were mainly involved in immune processes and the Neddylation pathway. We found a higher infiltration of five types of cells (memory B cells, M0-type macrophages, mast cells activated, M1-type macrophages, and T cells follicular helper) in ULMS tissues than NL tissues, while the infiltration of two types of cells (NK cells activated and mast cells resting) was lower than in NL tissues. In addition, a total of five genes (KDR, CCL21, SELP, DPT, and DCN) were identified as the hub genes. Internal and external validation demonstrated that the five genes were over-expressed in NL tissues compared with USML tissues. Finally, the correlation analysis results indicate that NK cells activated and mast cells activated positively correlated with the hub genes. However, M1-type macrophages had a negative correlation with the hub genes. Moreover, only the DCN may be associated with the Neddylation pathway. Conclusion A series of evidence confirm that the five hub genes and the infiltration of seven types of immune cells are related to USML occurrence. These hub genes may affect the occurrence of USML through immune-related and Neddylation pathways, providing molecular evidence for the treatment of USML in the future.

Objectives. To investigate potential genetic biomarkers of peri-implantitis and target genes for the therapy of peri-implantitis by bioinformatics analysis of publicly available data. Methods. The GSE33774 microarray dataset was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between peri-implantitis and healthy gingival tissues were identified using the GEO2R tool. GO enrichment analysis and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed using the DAVID database and the Metascape tool, and the results were expressed as a bubble diagram. The protein-protein interaction network of DEGs was constructed using the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes (STRING) and visualized using Cytoscape. The hub genes were screened by the cytoHubba plugin of Cytoscape. The potential target genes associated with peri-implantitis were obtained from the DisGeNET database and the Open Targets Platform. The intersecting genes were identified using the Venn diagram web tool. Results. Between the peri-implantitis group and the healthy group, 205 DEGs were investigated including 140 upregulated genes and 65 downregulated genes. These DEGs were mainly enriched in functions such as the immune response, inflammatory response, cell adhesion, receptor activity, and protease binding. The results of KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that DEGs were mainly involved in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, pathways in cancer, and the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. The intersecting genes, including IL6, TLR4, FN1, IL1β, CXCL8, MMP9, and SPP1, were revealed as potential genetic biomarkers and target genes of peri-implantitis. Conclusions. This study provides supportive evidence that IL6, TLR4, FN1, IL1β, CXCL8, MMP9, and SPP1 might be used as potential target biomarkers for peri-implantitis which may provide further therapeutic potentials for peri-implantitis.

Background Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is defined as a splitting of the coronary artery wall exclusive of iatrogenesis or trauma. Since the last decades, our knowledge of the diagnosis and prognosis and therapy for SCAD has advanced; however, its causes remain unknown. Objectives This study sought to identify genes associated with SCAD development in the Chinese Han population. Methods Between November 2011 and January 2018, the authors enrolled 85 SCAD cases and 296 non-SCAD controls from the Chinese Han population. All 381 subjects enrolled underwent detection with whole exome sequencing, followed by Sanger sequencing for confirmation. Principle component analysis was used to evaluate the structure of the population. Haploview was used to analyze the linkage disequilibrium statistics of the variants. The author used 2 gene-based association tests, optimal sequence kernel association test and mixed effects score test, to identify the causal genes or variants of SCAD. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of TSR1 in coronary artery tissues. Results Four genes with a suggestive association with SCAD (p Conclusions This study describes the clinical characteristics of the Chinese Han population with SCAD and identified TSR1 as a potential causal gene, which might bring about a further progress in diagnosis and treatment of the disorder.

Ovarian malignancies are commonly diagnosed cancers of the female reproductive system. Recent studies have revealed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can regulate a variety of oncological processes. In the present study, ovarian cancer expression datasets were searched in the GEO database using the GPL570 platform. Differential lncRNA expression between normal ovarian tissues and ovarian tumors were analyzed using the R package 'limma', and patient prognosis was accessed using the package 'survival'. Four databases, GSE14001, GSE18520, GSE38666 and GSE40595, were used for the analysis. A total of 64 lncRNAs were highly expressed and 4 were downregulated within these four databases. Prognostic analysis of the 68 lncRNAs in the four databases was performed, and revealed that the expression of long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 1627 (LINC01627) was negatively associated with patient prognosis in GSE19829 and GSE62193; there was no association between LINC01627 expression and patient's prognosis in GSE18520 or GSE63885. To investigate the proposed association between LINC01627 and patient prognosis, meta-analysis revealed that the total hazard ratio was 1.38 and the 95% confidence interval was between 1.04 and 1.83. Subgroup analysis revealed that LINC01627 may predict patient prognosis in high-grade, advanced and serous epithelial ovarian cancer, which was a risk factor for prognosis. Further assessment was performed in clinical samples and ovarian cancer cells, where the knockdown of LINC01627 inhibited the proliferative and migratory capacities of HO8910 and HEY cells. Collectively, the present results suggested that lncRNA LINC01627 may serve an oncogenic role in the development of epithelial ovarian tumors.

Background: Organizing pneumonia (OP) is a secondary process in many diseases. Due to low incidence and indistinct symptoms, there is limited information about OP associated with hematologic malignancies. To discuss the characteristics and prognosis of OP associated with hematologic malignancies, we conducted this study.Methods: We observed and analyzed pathologically confirmed OP cases associated with hematologic malignancies in hospital records database, and excluded OP cases with other related reasons, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy, transplantation and infection. Result: There were 5 patients with OP underlying only hematologic malignancies, including one case of myelodysplastic syndrome, one case of acute myelogenous leukemia, one case of multiple myeloma case, one case of aplastic anemia, and one T cell lymphoma. Radiological findings did not show a distinct pattern, and two cases mimicked pulmonary aspergillosis. The diagnosis of OP was confirmed by minimally invasive biopsy. Although all patients developed into severe cases, steroids produced favorable outcomes. Conclusion: This study supports that hematologic malignancies might be a cause of OP and that minimally biopsy may be an effective and safe method to confirm the diagnosis. Although OP associated with hematologic malignancies might more frequently develop into severe cases, the OP lesions were steroid-responsive during follow-up.

Motion detection has been widely applied as the fundamental step of video analysis. In this paper, we present a technique for extracting the moving objects from video sequences, which is based on the off-the-shelf visual background extractor (ViBe) method. In order to improve the performance of ViBe, a series of modifications are introduced. First, inspired by the saliency detection model, the differences between the pixels of the coming frame and all its corresponding background samples are accumulated and the motion saliency map is generated, by which it can suppress the inaccuracy of the background model in that it takes all the samples into consideration instead of parts of them. Second, based on the above saliency maps, the modified fuzzy growing method is applied to extract the foreground mask. Experiments on a variety of visual surveillance databases validate the improvements of the proposed modifications. Especially in a scenario where the moving objects stop for a short while, our method can greatly suppress the diffusion of false negatives.

The association among plasma trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), FMO3 polymorphisms, and chronic heart failure (CHF) remains to be elucidated. TMAO is a microbiota-dependent metabolite from dietary choline and carnitine. A prospective study was performed including 955 consecutively diagnosed CHF patients with reduced ejection fraction, with the longest follow-up of 7 years. The concentrations of plasma TMAO and its precursors, namely, choline and carnitine, were determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and the FMO3 E158K polymorphisms (rs2266782) were genotyped. The top tertile of plasma TMAO was associated with a significant increment in hazard ratio (HR) for the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart transplantation (HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.13-1.91, P = 0.004) compared with the lowest tertile. After adjustments of the potential confounders, higher TMAO could still be used to predict the risk of the primary endpoint (adjusted HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.01-1.74, P = 0.039). This result was also obtained after further adjustment for carnitine (adjusted HR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.01-1.74, P = 0.039). The FMO3 rs2266782 polymorphism was associated with the plasma TMAO concentrations in our cohort, and lower TMAO levels were found in the AA-genotype. Thus, higher plasma TMAO levels indicated increased risk of the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or heart transplantation independent of potential confounders, and the FMO3 AA-genotype in rs2266782 was related to lower plasma TMAO levels.

Poly (adenosine diphosphate ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors benefit a small percentage of ovarian cancer patients with homologous recombination (HR) deficiency (HRD), which greatly limits the applications of PARP inhibitors. Given the function of CDK9 in homologous recombination repair (HRR), here, we show how to extend the utility of PARP inhibitors in BRCA1-proficient ovarian cancer by targeting CDK9. We found that high CDK9 expression is associated with a higher tumor stage in epithelial ovarian cancer patients, and CDK9 is co-expressed with BRCA1 by analyzing a public database. By using a CDK9 inhibitor CDKI-73, we found that its combination with the PARP inhibitor olaparib significantly suppressed cell viability and colony formation and induced apoptosis in BRCA1-proficient ovarian cancer cells. Consistently, the combination treatment remarkably reduced the tumor growth in mouse xenograft models. We demonstrated that CDKI-73 could downregulate BRCA1 expression, resulting in hypersensitivity to olaparib in BRCA1-proficient ovarian cancer. Taken together, our results show a synergetic effect of CDKI-73 combined with olaparib in BRCA1-proficient ovarian cancer, facilitating the clinical use of CDK9 as a predictive biomarker to exploit PARP inhibitors.

Al2O3-SiO2 composite nanofibers were fabricated by calcining the precursor fibers obtained through sol–gel processing and electrospinning technique. Thermogravity-differential scanning calorimeter, powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence analysis, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and thermal conductivity instrument were employed to characterize the fibers. Upon calcining the precursor fibers at 1300°C, continuous Al2O3-SiO2 composite nanofibers with diameter of about 300 nm can be obtained. The calcined fibers had low thermal conductivity, which might favor their application in high-temperature insulation areas.

// Lifen Liu 1 , Xin Chen 1 , Ying Zhang 1 , Yanrong Hu 1 , Xiaoqing Shen 1 and Weipei Zhu 1 1 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou 215004, Jiangsu, China Correspondence to: Weipei Zhu, email: zwp333xx_suzhou@126.com Keywords: lincRNA, endometrial cancer Received: October 20, 2016 Accepted: January 24, 2017 Published: February 22, 2017 ABSTRACT It is generally known that the human genome makes a large amount of noncoding RNAs compared with coding genes. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) which composed of more than 200 nucleotides have been described as the largest subclass of the non-coding transcriptome in human noncoding RNAs. Existing research shows that lncRNAs exerted biological functions in various tumors via participating in both oncogenic and tumor suppressing pathways. The previous studies indicated that lncRNA taurine upregulated 1 (TUG1) play important roles in the initiation and progression of malignancies. In this study,based on previous research, we investigated the expression and biological role of the lncRNA-TUG1. We analyzed the relationship between lncRNA-TUG1and endometrial carcinoma (EC) in a total 104 EC carcinoma specimens, compared with that in normal tissues. We found that lncRNA-TUG1 expression in cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues. Through a series of experiments, the results demonstrated that lncRNA-TUG1 enhances the evolution and progression of EC through inhibiting miR-299 and miR-34a-5p.

Background and aims International guidelines recommend ticagrelor over clopidogrel as preferred antiplatelet agent in patients following coronary stenting. However, no large real-life evidence is available in East Asians in general, and Chinese in particular, with regard to associated clinical outcomes. The present study aimed to assess the early and delayed outcomes after ticagrelor versus clopidogrel in post stenting Chinese patients. Methods We conducted the pre-specified interim analysis of C omparison O f Efficacy and S afety Between TI cagrelor and C lopidogrel In Chinese (COSTIC), the ongoing prospective, observational, single-center trial. Primary outcomes include first occurrence of myocardial infarction, stroke, vascular death and Bleeding Academic Research Consortium (BARC) scale bleeding event. Propensity score matching (PSM) was carried out to adjust for differences in baseline characteristics between treatment arms. Results In total, 4,465 patients were enrolled. After PSM, the patients prescribed with ticagrelor had a lower incidence of primary efficacy endpoint relative to those with clopidogrel (0.6% vs. 1.4%, HR = 0.44, 95%CI: 0.22–0.89, p = 0.019) at 1 month, but similar at 7 days, 6 months and 12 months. Further analysis indicated that the difference only exists in the subgroup of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. With regard to safety, ticagrelor consistently increased the risk of BARC type 2 bleeding compared to clopidogrel at 1 month, 6 months and 12 months. Conclusions These preliminary data indicate that ticagrelor is superior to clopidogrel with regard to major vascular thrombotic outcomes at 1 month, especially in the AMI population, but both groups are similar at 7 days, 6 months and 12 months. Ticagrelor consistently caused significantly more BARC type 2 bleeding.

To meet the needs of tunable EVM digital signal generator in the bit error rate measurements, an analytical relation between SNR and EVM is derived in theory. A system based on digital signal generator and White Gaussian noise generator is proposed. The output of the system test results show that the difference between the theory and the measured is no more than 4% relatively with a range of EVM from 1% to 10%, and the repeatability of the output is excellent with maximum standard deviation of 0.022%.

This article aims at proposing a design of an intelligent switching system for vehicle headlights based on Support Vector Machine (SVM) due to the fact that the improper use of the vehicle headlights leads to some of the traffic accidents. Firstly, the system uses the AR0130 image sensor to capture road images. Second, the system classifies the image to identify whether there is a streetlight, whether there is an oncoming vehicle and whether it is too close to the front vehicle in the absence of a streetlight with the application of Raspberry Pi 3 based on SVM. Then the corresponding correct indication of the headlights switching is given by the control of relays, reducing the driver's distraction greatly. Experimental results prove that the system has high practicality and accuracy for the switching of vehicle headlights.

The application of biochar amendments to soil has been proposed as a strategy for mitigating global carbon (C) emissions and soil organic carbon (SOC) loss. Biochar can provide additional agronomic benefits to cropping systems, including improved crop yield, soil water holding capacity, seed germination, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and soil pH. To maximize the beneficial effects of biochar amendments towards the inventory, increase, and management of SOC pools, nondestructive analytical methods such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) are needed to identify and quantify belowground C. The use of GPR has been well characterized across geological, archaeological, engineering, and military applications. While GPR has been predominantly utilized to detect relatively large objects such as rocks, tree roots, land mines, and peat soils, the objective of this study was to quantify comparatively smaller, particulate sources of SOC. This research used three materials as C sources: biochar, graphite, and activated C. The C sources were mixed with sand—12 treatments in total—and scanned under three moisture levels: 0%, 10%, and 20% to simulate different soil conditions. GPR attribute analyses and Naïve Bayes predictive models were utilized in lieu of visualization methods because of the minute size of the C particles. Significant correlations between GPR attributes and both C content and moisture levels were detected. The accuracy of two predictive models using a Naïve Bayes classifier for C content was trivial but the accuracy for C structure was 56%. The analyses confirmed the ability of GPR to identify differences in both C content and C structure. Beneficial future applications could focus on applying GPR across more diverse soil conditions.

The standard core protocol of Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IOT) was approved by the RAN plenary session in June 16, 2016. Global operators have a standardized IOT proprietary protocol. The successful completion of the standardization work also marks that the NB-IOT has entered the commercial stage. Modern wireless communication equipment must accommodate high power transmitter and high sensitivity receiver. To ensure the well work of the receiver, the narrow-band pass filter should be equipped before the low noise amplifier in the front end of the receiver. The accurate measurement of the noise figure of the low noise system is directly related to the gain and the measurement configuration under narrow-band condition. This paper presents a narrow-band measurement scheme, and analyzes the influence of gain error during the measurement of low noise figure.

To solve the problem of the deviation of the demodulation threshold which is caused by quoting demodulation loss from the specification, a measuring method based on relationship between E b /N 0 and Bit error rate (BER) in theory is proposed. Utilizing the inverse-function of BER and the BER measured actually, the Eb/N0 in theory corresponding to the measured BER can be calculated. After multi times of measuring and calculating in different bit rate, a serial average data is obtained. And the difference of E b /N 0 between the transmitter and the average which is got from receiver is the demodulation loss, so a curve of demodulation loss versus bit rate can be build. 3 digital baseband equipment were tested, the demodulation loss is different from each other, and the maximum deviation is 1.4dB from the specification. The result proves that using the method discussed above is more accurate than quoting the specification and better for reflecting the individual characteristics.

This paper examines the determinants of carbon price in Hubei carbon market using VECM model. Six factors from three dimensions (international carbon price, energy price and exchange rate) are taken into account, both cointegration test and impulse response analysis are conducted to examine the long-run relationship and dynamic reaction of chosen variables. The result shows that long-run equilibrium exists among carbon price, energy price and dollar exchange rate. Innovations from EUAs, coal, natural gas and dollar exchange rate have negative influence on carbon price in the short-run, while innovations from crude and CERs will lead to positive responses.

The genetic diversity of 39 garlic accessions was investigated using eight simple sequence repeat (SSR) primer combinations and 17 inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primer combinations. A total of 109 polymorphic loci were detected among these accessions, with an average of 4.63 polymorphic loci per SSR primer combination and 4.29 polymorphic loci per ISSR primer combination. The mean effective number of alleles, the mean Nei's genetic diversity, and the mean Shannon's information index for SSR were 1.4799, 0.2870, and 0.4378, respectively; and those for ISSR were 1.4847, 0.2898 and 0.4415, respectively. Cluster analysis, using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) based on the allele frequency data, classified the accessions into three groups. The results of principal component analysis (PCA) were consistent with those of the cluster analysis. PCA showed that each of these three groups exhibited significant variation in agro-morphological traits. These findings suggest that the eight SSR and 17 ISSR primers identified could define valuable markers for genetic diversity for use by plant breeders.

Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) film with a band gap of 3.6 eV was prepared on In2O3:Sn (ITO) coated glass, and then an amorphous silicon (a-Si) film with a narrow band gap of 1.8 eV was deposited on the PZT/ITO/glass. The short-circuit current of Ag/a-Si/PZT/ITO/glass sample is 2.56 mA cm−2, about 50 times greater than that of Pt/PZT/ITO/glass sample. The energy level of the a-Si film is well matched with that of PZT film, which is beneficial to the transport of UV-visible light-induced charges in the Ag/a-Si/PZT/ITO/glass sample. The photovoltaic output can be tuned by changing the dopant type of the a-Si film, and the maximum photoelectric conversion efficiency is measured to be up to 1.25% in the PZT film with an n-type a-Si film (phosphorus doped).