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Improper layout of drainage structures and inadequate insulation measures in high-altitude cold areas have resulted in varying degrees of frost damage in numerous tunnels during operation. To address this issue and propose a viable drainage structure layout scheme, this paper analyzes and studies the temperature field distribution characteristics of the lower surrounding rock and drainage structure around high-altitude cold tunnels, as well as the layout of the central drainage ditch and anti-cold water leakage hole. Based on physical model test results of cold area tunnels, the distribution characteristics of the temperature field around the tunnel drainage structure under different insulation conditions are obtained, and a control equation of temperature change along the depth direction is proposed. By comparing and analyzing the differences in temperature field and water flow characteristics of drainage structures under different insulation methods, the setting conditions of different drainage structures are determined. Furthermore, the function relationship between the freezing depth of the lower surrounding rock of the tunnel arch and the air temperature inside the tunnel is established, and the curve of the on-site tunnel freezing depth change is predicted. This study provides valuable insights into the design and construction of drainage structures and insulation measures for high-altitude cold tunnels, ultimately contributing to the prevention of frost damage and ensuring safe and efficient tunnel operation.

Yuan Peng,1 Xuelan Zhang,2 Jiehua Li,1 Xiaolong Zhang,1 Hao He,1 Xin Li,1 Kun Fang,3 Liancun Zheng,2 Chang Shu1,3 1Department of Vascular Surgery, Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410011, People’s Republic of China; 2School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Vascular Surgery, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100037, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Chang Shu Tel +86-731-85295832Email shuchang@csu.edu.cnBackground: Recent study has revealed that enlarged diameters of the ascending aorta and proximal aortic arch enhance the probability of ATBAD. However, little is understood about the relation to ATBAD.Objective: This study explored the differences in proximal aortic segment (PAS) morphology in patients with acute type B aortic dissection (ATBAD), and performed hemodynamic simulations to provide proof of principle.Materials and Methods: The morphological characteristics of PAS in the ATBAD group (n = 163) and corresponding segment in the control group (n = 120) were retrospectively measured. The morphological parameters were analyzed using comprehensive statistical approaches. Ridge regression analysis was also performed to determine the association between independent variable and dependent variable. P < 0.01 was considered significant. Idealized aortic models were established based on variables of statistical significance, and hemodynamic simulations were performed to evaluate blood flow changes caused by morphology.Results: Diameters at landmarks of PAS were significantly larger in the ATBAD group. The lumen volume (VPAS) of PAS in the ATBAD group was significantly enlarged than that of the control group (124,659.07 ± 34,089.27 mm3 vs 89,796.65 ± 30,334.40 mm3; P < 0.001). Furthermore, the VPAS was positively correlated to diameters. As the VPAS increased, the fluid kinetic energy in PAS enhanced linearly, and time-averaged wall shear stress and oscillatory shear index at the distal area of the left subclavian artery increased significantly.Conclusion: In the ATBAD group, the enlarged VPAS and increased diameters of PAS are positively correlated. Meanwhile, the enlarged VPAS leads to more aggressive hemodynamic parameters at the distal area of the left subclavian artery, which may create a contributory condition for ATBAD.Keywords: aortic dissection, aortic morphology, hemodynamics, ridge regression, kinetic energy

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus is dried and mature fruit of Ligubtrum lucidum Ait., which has the effects of nourishing liver and kidney. Herein, an accurate and sensitive method was established for separation and identification of the absorbed constituents and metabolites of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus in rat plasma based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Q-Exactive Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 73 prototype constituents and 148 metabolites were identified or characterized in administered plasma, and the possible metabolic pathways of constituents mainly involved hydroxylation, sulfation, demethylation, and glucuronidation. Besides, the network pharmacology was further investigated to illuminate its potential mechanism of treatment for liver injury by the biological targets regulating related pathways. Network pharmacological analysis showed that target components through 399 targets regulating 220 pathways. The docking results showed that 36 key target components were closely related to liver injury. Overall, the study clearly presented the metabolic processes of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus and gave a comprehensive metabolic profile of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus in vivo firstly. Combining with network pharmacology and molecular docking discovered potential drug targets and disclose the biological processes of Ligustri Lucidi Fructus, which will be a viable step toward uncovering the secret mask of study for traditional Chinese medicine. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

BACKGROUND: Currently, the thoracic endovascular aortic repair is the recommended clinical treatment for type B aortic dissections. Unfortunately, malperfusion or ischemia of the kidneys is a major complication of type B aortic dissections. Despite this, few studies have focused on the effects of thoracic endovascular aortic repair on blood flow in renal arteries and parenchyma. This current investigation used novel real-time imaging software to quantitatively analyze the hemodynamic changes in renal artery blood flow and perfusion before and after stent graft placement. METHODS: A total of 51 patients with type B aortic dissection undergoing thoracic endovascular aortic repair between April 2017 and September 2019 were retrospectively recruited. The pre-and post-procedural digital subtraction angiography images were converted into color-coded maps using syngo iFlow for quantitative comparison. Time-intensity curves and related parameters, including the average peak ratio (avg.Pr), average delayed time to peak (avg.dTTP), and average area under the curve ratio (avg.AUCr) of the renal arteries and renal cortex were obtained and analyzed. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare iFlow parameters before and after endovascular repair. Spearman correlation analyses were performed to study iFlow parameters and renal function parameters and the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN). RESULTS: A total of 102 images including 51 pre-operative and 51 post-operative image datasets were successfully post-processed. Following endovascular repair, syngo iFlow showed a significant 33.0% increase in avg.Pr (P

The effect of supports (SiO2, ZnO, ZrO2 and Al2O3) on the hydrogenation and water-tolerance of copper catalysts were studied at reaction condition containing water. The copper catalysts with different supports showed different hydrogenation and water-tolerance performances. The result of XRD, BET, Raman, TPR, XPS, N2O titration and TEM confirmed the interactions between copper and supports, and the formation of Cu–MxOy (M = Zn, Zr, and Al) interfaces had great effects on the catalytic activity and water-tolerance performance. In particular, too strong interactions suppressed the reduction of copper oxides, resulting in a low catalytic activity. Nevertheless, the formation of Cu–MxOy could provide more active sites, which provided more chances for the reactants to touch the active sites. By this method, the loss of active sites due to competitive adsorption between water and ethyl acetate could be made up, so that the water-tolerance of copper catalysts was improved.

Diffusion in narrow curved channels with dead-ends as in extracellular space in the biological tissues, e.g., brain, tumors, muscles, etc. is a geometrically induced complex diffusion and is relevant to different kinds of biological, physical, and chemical systems. In this paper, we study the effects of geometry and confinement on the diffusion process in an elliptical comb-like structure and analyze its statistical properties. The ellipse domain whose boundary has the polar equation ρ ( θ ) = b 1 − e 2 cos 2 θ with 0 < e < 1, θ ∈ [0,2π], and b as a constant, can be obtained through stretched radius r such that Υ = r ρ (θ) with r ∈ [0,1]. We suppose that, for fixed radius r = R, an elliptical motion takes place and is interspersed with a radial motion inward and outward of the ellipse. The probability distribution function (PDF) in the structure and the marginal PDF and mean square displacement (MSD) along the backbone are obtained numerically. The results show that a transient sub-diffusion behavior dominates the process for a time followed by a saturating state. The sub-diffusion regime and saturation threshold are affected by the length of the elliptical channel lateral branch and its curvature.

Water-saving and drought-resistant rice (WDR) is a new type of rice varieties. It plays an important role in responding to drought with high yield and has been widely planted in central China at present. High photosynthetic production potential caused by high mesophyll conductance (gm) is the main factor promoted high yield formation in drought for WDR. But little is known about physiological and molecular mechanisms regulated gm in drought for WDR. Therefore, WDR cultivar HY73 and drought-sensitive cultivar HLY898 were used for comparative studies with three irrigation regimes before applying severe drought treatment at heading to create different differential individuals of photosynthetic potential and gm. The results showed that cultivar HY73 had lower up-regulation different expression genes (DEGs) than cultivar HLY898 in drought at transcriptional level. Conversely, DEGs of down-regulation was higher in cultivar HY73 than cultivar HLY898. In addition, 3071 DEGs were clustered in 3 modules named Midnightblue (734 DEGs), Blue (921 DEGs), and Turquoise (1416 DEGs) in severe drought merged three irrigation regimes and both cultivars, which the modules had significant correlational relationship with gm based on weighted gene co-expression network analysis (Pgm (Pgm and energy distribution in PSI and PSII systems could synergistic effect photosynthetic production potential in severe drought for rice plants. In the modules, the 18 most highly connected hub genes were screened using co-expression networks method. RT-PCR analysis indicated that CSP41B, PGLP1A, LHCA5, and GSTU6 genes had a similar variation trend with gm among treatments for both cultivar. LHCA5 and CSP41B genes were significantly up-regulated in HY73 compared with HLY898 in drought (PLHCA5 and CSP41B genes could be key genes to synergistically manage gm and energy distribution in photosystems. Our results provide some new physiological and molecular mechanisms regulated gm in severe drought for WDR.

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) has been considered as a complicated multi-criteria decision-making problem for the uncertain context and related criteria. To select an optimal MSWM scenario, this paper provides a comprehensive MCDM framework for decision makers under 2-dimension uncertain linguistic (2-DUL) environment. Distinguished from traditional approaches, this framework not only guarantees the consistency of comparison matrix but improves effectiveness and efficiency in the decision process. Moreover, it accurately solves the cardinal and ordinal information of MSWM scenarios. Firstly, due to ambiguous and uncertain decision context, the 2-DUL set, characterized by I class of the linguistic evaluation information and II class of the reliability of the assessment results, is adopted to describe decision-makers’ preference. An expectation reduced-dimension is developed to effectively handle 2-DUL set. Secondly, to guarantee consistency and reduce numerical pairwise comparisons, a best-worst-method (BWM)-based analytic network process (ANP) is utilized to form the local priority vectors of the main criteria and sub-criteria. Main criteria weights and sub-criteria weights are then obtained by aggregating all local priority vectors. Thirdly, an extended QUALIFLEX approach is employed to rank all alternative MSWM scenarios by comparing the weighted concordance/discordance index among overall possible permutations of all alternative scenarios. Finally, the developed framework is applied in a case study to determine an optimal MSWM scenario in Beijing. Additionally, a comparison analysis is complemented. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is feasible, efficient and superior in MSWM scenarios selection.

In this paper, we use machine learning techniques to form a cancer cell model that displays the growth and promotion of synaptic and electrical signals. Here, such a technique can be applied directly to the spiking neural network of cancer cell synapses. The results show that machine learning techniques for the spiked network of cancer cell synapses have the powerful function of neuron models and potential supervisors for different implementations. The changes in the neural activity of tumor microenvironment caused by synaptic and electrical signals are described. It can be used to cancer cells and tumor training processes of neural networks to reproduce complex spatiotemporal dynamics and to mechanize the association of excitatory synaptic structures which are between tumors and neurons in the brain with complex human health behaviors.

A comprehensive evaluation of therapeutic effects of magnetic nanoparticle therapy for patient-specific atherosclerosis is presented in terms of targeted delivery efficiency (η) and plaque injury. Eulerian-Lagrangian technique is adopted, and an innovative model is first introduced for simulating targeted delivery drug-loaded particles to plaque, in which the shape and size of particles are taken into account in the drag coefficient CD. The impacts of particle shape, size and magnetic field intensity on η and plaque injury characterized by temporal-spatial averaged shear stress ( TAWSS ¯ ) are investigated. The results signify that, among drug delivery using the transport particles of different shapes, the sequences of η and TAWSS ¯ are platelet>cylinder>blade>sphere>brick, which indicates that the particle with higher drug targeting ability may induce greater plaque injury. Moreover, it is found that increasing the particle size from 300 to 500 nm or the current from 5E4 to 2E5 A enhances η by nearly 9.3% or 18.1%, respectively, but behind this are greater damage to plaque itself. Along with this, the injury discrepancy of plaque induced by particles with different shapes is also amplified. Results obtained can potentially serve as the guideline to optimize the design of transport particle and magnetic field for targeted therapy to atherosclerosis.

Context Sibiricose A5 (A5), sibiricose A6 (A6), 3,6′-disinapoyl sucrose (DSS), tenuifoliside A (TFSA) and 3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamic acid (TMCA) are the main active components of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. (Polygalaceae) (PT) that are active against Alzheimer's disease. Objective To compare the pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of five active components in the roots of raw PT (RPT), liquorice-boiled PT (LPT) and honey-stir-baked PT (HPT). Materials and methods The median lethal dose (LD50) was evaluated through acute toxicity test. The pharmacokinetics of five components after oral administration of extracts of RPT, LPT, HPT (all equivalent to 1.9 g/kg of RPT extract for one dose) and 0.5% CMC-Na solution (control group) were investigated, respectively, in Sprague-Dawley rats (four groups, n = 6) using UHPLC-MS/MS. In addition, the absolute bioavailability of A5, A6, DSS, TFSA and TMCA after oral administration (7.40, 11.60, 16.00, 50.00 and 3.11 mg/kg, respectively) and intravenous injection (1/10 of the corresponding oral dose) in rats (n = 6) was studied. Results The LD50 of RPT, LPT and HPT was 7.79, 14.55 and 15.99 g/kg, respectively. AUC0-t of RPT, LPT and HPT were as follows: A5 (433.18 ± 65.48, 680.40 ± 89.21, 552.02 ± 31.10 ng h/mL), A6 (314.55 ± 62.73, 545.76 ± 123.16, 570.06 ± 178.93 ng h/mL) and DSS (100.30 ± 62.44, 232.00 ± 66.08, 197.58 ± 57.37 ng h/mL). The absolute bioavailability of A5, A6, DSS, TFSA and TMCA was 3.25, 2.95, 2.36, 1.17 and 42.91%, respectively. Discussion and conclusions The pharmacokinetic and bioavailability parameters of each compound can facilitate future clinical studies.

Nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery is recognized as a promising option for targeted treatment of atherosclerosis. In this paper, the Eulerian-Lagrangian technique is adopted to simulate the delivery of drug-loaded nanoparticles to patient-specific atherosclerotic plaque with the aid of an external magnetic field. Plaques and vascular walls are introduced as porous media formulated by the Darcy-Forchheimer model in this targeted transport process. The results demonstrate that the delivery efficiency of particles to atherosclerosis depends on the external magnetic field, such as configuration and intensity, in which the configuration angle of the current wire is a key factor and the double current wires have advantages over the single current wire. Meanwhile, the delivery efficiency gradually decreases as the distance between the plaque cap and the current wire increases. Further, although augmenting the current or magnetic susceptibility can generally improve the delivery efficiency of nanoparticles, this increase is not apparent when small-sized nanoparticles are employed as drug transport particles. The results obtained can potentially serve as the guideline to optimize regimens for the targeted therapy of atherosclerosis.

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (LLF), the dry and ripe fruit of Ligustrum lucidum W. T. Aiton (Oleaceae), is a traditional Chinese medicine for nourishing the liver and kidney in clinics for thousands of years. Wine-steamed Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (WLL) can alleviate coolness and smoothness of LLF and enhance the function of nourishing the liver and kidney, so ancient and modern medicine usually used it in clinics. First of all, we prepared the extracts of different polar fractions of WLL to explore the effective fractions and potential mechanisms of WLL in the treatment of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Then, HPLC method was used to determine the contents of 12 active components in WLL and its different polar components. Finally, the potential relationship between 12 active components and physicochemical parameters of DN rats was explored. The pharmacological experiments showed that WLL, ethyl acetate (EtOAc), and n-butanol (n-BuOH) extracts not only significantly alleviated the clinical symptoms and kidney damage of DN rats but also had obvious anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. In addition, the results of HPLC analysis showed that the 12 active components of WLL mainly existed in the extracts of EtOAc and n-BuOH. The Pearson correlation analysis showed 12 active components and physicochemical parameters had different degrees of correlation. In conclusion, we proved that the extracts of EtOAc and n-BuOH were the effective fractions of WLL in treating DN in rats, and they could regulate the levels of inflammatory cytokines and decrease oxidation stress, which provides a basis for further research on the mechanism of WLL in treating DN and provides a pharmacological and chemical foundation for the development of new anti-DN drugs.

This study focuses on the critical issue: whether uncertainties in parameters make a difference to transient characteristics. To solve this problem, a mathematical model is established for a multi-parallel hydropower system in the successive load rejection. It is validated against the operation data from Shitouxia Hydropower station located at the west of China. Moreover, we show how parametric uncertainty strongly affects the system output and how the closure law of the guide vane affects water hammer pressure, surge, and rotational speed in the successive load rejection. Results showed that there are nine parameters corresponding to the main effect and total effect exceeding other parameters, and effect level to main effect and total effect are same. In addition, the effect of the keen point on the water hammer pressure, surge, and rotational speed are investigated. Finally, all of these results provide a guidance in analyzing the stability of hydropower system with different layouts of hydraulic subsystems.

CuNiAl hydrotalcites supported BiOCl were prepared by one-step synthesis for the selective oxidation of glycerol to glyceraldehyde with H2O2 as oxidant. The prepared catalysts were found to be efficient due to the synergetic catalysis of surface oxygen vacancies, active Cu2+ ions in the HT-lattice and abundant surface –OH groups of catalysts. The optimal glycerol conversion could reach 75.4% with 82.4% of the selectivity to glyceraldehyde. Moreover, the catalyst could be reused at least 6 times, and a possible reaction mechanism was also proposed. Inexpensive and environmentally friendly BiOCl/CuNiAl-HTs were synthesized by one-step for the highly selective oxidation of glycerol to glyceraldehyde. The glycerol conversion could reach 75.4% with 82.4% selectivity to GLAD. Such a highly efficient catalytic performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect of oxygen vacancies and the coordination of glycerol on Bi3+ in the supported BiOCl catalyst.

In order to test the effects of irrigation depth on winter wheat photosynthesis, four treatments were applied in a field experiment using PVC growth tubes (identical amounts of water were applied on the land surface, and at 60, 75, and 90% of the depth for the winter wheat root distribution, denoted as D0, D60, D75, and D90, respectively). Compared to the surface irrigation treatment D0, the leaf area index, chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, and intercellular CO2 concentration increased with irrigation depths. The values of these indicators obtained by the underground irrigation treatment D75 were higher than those of D60 and D90, and thus D75 was found to be the optimum irrigation depth. Furthermore, a positive but not significant correlation (r = 0.62) between carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) and grain yield was found. This study improves our understanding of the mechanism of underground water distribution control with depth, and the efficiency of water-saving irrigation for winter wheat.

The root of Polygala tenuifolia Willd. (Polygalaceae) (PT) has been listed as a nootropic, anti-inflammatory, and antipsychotic medicine that can cure insomnia. Raw PT (RPT) is toxic and must be processed before clinical use. Licorice-simmered PT (LPT) is one of the most common processed products. We conducted this study in order to investigate the differences in chemical components and gastrointestinal function between RPT and LPT. We used principal component analysis (PCA) and quantitative analysis to study the differences in the chemical components. Animal experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of PT on the gastrointestinal function of rats before and after simmering. Pathological sections of gastrointestinal tissues, serum hormone levels, and inflammatory cytokines were observed. The PCA results demonstrated that obvious separation was achieved between the RPT and LPT samples. Tenuifoliside B (TFSB), 3,6’-disinapoyl sucrose (DSS), tenuifoliose A (TFOA), tenuifoliose H (TFOH), onjisaponin B (OJB), onjisaponin Z (OJZ), and total saponins levels were decreased after licorice processing, while glomeratose A (GA) and 3,4,5-trimethoxycinnamic acid (TMCA) levels were markedly increased. Compared to the control group, the RPT groups exhibited dramatically lower levels of gastrin (GAS), motilin (MTL), and substance P (SP) and markedly higher levels of vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) and somatostatin (SS), but the LPT groups exhibited no significant differences in the above indexes. The levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in gastrointestinal tissue were markedly increased in the low RPT (L-RPT), high RPT (H-RPT), and H-LPT groups, showing a certain inflammatory effect, but the inflammatory effect in the L-LPT group was relatively weak. Licorice simmering can effectively reduce the inhibitory effect of RPT on gastrointestinal function in rats and reduce damage to gastrointestinal tissue. This study provides a scientific basis for research on the processing mechanism and clinical application of PT.

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (LLF), the dry and ripe fruit of Ligustrum lucidum W. T. Aiton (Oleaceae), is a traditional Chinese medicine for nourishing the liver and kidney in clinics for thousands of years. Wine-steamed Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (WLL) can alleviate coolness and smoothness of LLF and enhance the function of nourishing the liver and kidney, so ancient and modern medicine usually used it in clinics. First of all, we prepared the extracts of different polar fractions of WLL to explore the effective fractions and potential mechanisms of WLL in the treatment of diabetic nephropathy (DN). Then, HPLC method was used to determine the contents of 12 active components in WLL and its different polar components. Finally, the potential relationship between 12 active components and physicochemical parameters of DN rats was explored. The pharmacological experiments showed that WLL, ethyl acetate (EtOAc), and n-butanol (n-BuOH) extracts not only significantly alleviated the clinical symptoms and kidney damage of DN rats but also had obvious anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. In addition, the results of HPLC analysis showed that the 12 active components of WLL mainly existed in the extracts of EtOAc and n-BuOH. The Pearson correlation analysis showed 12 active components and physicochemical parameters had different degrees of correlation. In conclusion, we proved that the extracts of EtOAc and n-BuOH were the effective fractions of WLL in treating DN in rats, and they could regulate the levels of inflammatory cytokines and decrease oxidation stress, which provides a basis for further research on the mechanism of WLL in treating DN and provides a pharmacological and chemical foundation for the development of new anti-DN drugs.

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (LLF) is the dried and mature fruit of Ligubtrum lucidum Ait., which has the effect of nourishing the liver and kidney, brightening the eyes and promoting the growth of black hair. Wine-processed LLF is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine; however, the processing mechanisms are still unclear. Herein, a system data acquisition and mining strategy was designed to investigate the chemical profile differences between the raw and wine-processed LLF, based on high-performance liquid chromatography-Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry coupled with multivariate statistical analysis including principal component analysis and partial least square analysis. Afterwars, a total of 55 components were found to be the main contributors to the significant difference between raw and wine-processed LLF by comparison with chromatographic behaviors, intact precursor ions, and characteristic MS fragmentation patterns. In addition, 10 main constituents of raw and wine-processed LLF were simultaneously determined by UHPLC-MS/MS for analyzing the content variations. Some structural transformation mechanisms during wine processing were deduced from the results. The results may provide a scientific foundation for deeply elucidating the wine-processing mechanism of LLF.