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Le Zhang,1,&ast; Runfeng Ni,1,&ast; Jiani Li,2,&ast; Liwei Fan,1 Yanqi Song,1 Haijin Wang,1 Aidi Wang,1 Baoshan Liu1 1Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300052, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gynecology, Xiyuan Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100091, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Baoshan Liu; Aidi Wang, Department of traditional Chinese medicine, General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300052, People’s Republic of China, Email liubaoshanzyy@163.com; wangadtj@126.comBackground: Aplastic anemia (AA), a disease of bone marrow failure, is caused by CD8+T mediated apoptosis of hematopoietic cells. However, traditional immunosuppressive therapy (IST) has severe liver and kidney toxicity and even cannot achieve the expected therapeutic effect in some patients.Purpose: Our study is aimed to investigate the effect and mechanism of dioscin (DNS) for treating AA.Methods: Briefly, we established and evaluated the AA mouse model, DNS and positive control drugs were used for intervention treatment. After 14 days of intervention, femoral bone marrow pathology, bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMCs) apoptosis rate, bone marrow CD34+ cell surface Fas (CD95) expression and Fas signaling pathway key proteins were detected.Results: After the establishment of the AA mouse model, the number of peripheral blood cells including granulocytes, erythrocytes, hemoglobin, platelets and reticulocytes in the AA group model was significantly decreased compared with the group control (P < 0.01). The degree of bone marrow hyperplasia in the sternum and femur is extremely low. After different drug interventions, compared with the group model, the number of peripheral blood cells in the AA mice rebounded significantly in group DNS (P < 0.01). Not only that the apoptosis rate of BM-MCs decreased (P < 0.01), meanwhile, the CD95 molecule expressed on the CD34+ bone marrow cells had a significant decline (P < 0.01), and the expression level of the key proteins of Fas signaling pathway was also significantly decreased (P < 0.01).Conclusion: DNS recovered the peripheral pancytopenia and bone marrow failure in AA mice. DNS reduced the key protein of Fas signaling pathway level to inhibit apoptosis of bone marrow cells to treat AA.Keywords: dioscin, aplastic anemia, apoptosis, mice, Fas/FasL

The application of roadway formed automatically by roof cutting (RFARC) technology in the working face under the goaf of close distance coal seam greatly improves the mining rate of resources. However, the existence of overlying remained coal pillar (ORCP) makes the stress environment more complex and greatly increases the difficulty of stability control of RFARC. Hence, the 9101 Working face of Xiashanmao Coal Mine was taking as engineering background. In accordance with the principle of RFARC, the process of crossing the ORCP is introduced, and the calculation formula of the bending deformation of roof is proposed. Through numerical analysis and field test, the stress evolution law of stope and RFARC in the process of crossing ORCP is analyzed. The results show that in the process of crossing the ORCP, the peak stress value of the solid coal side of the RFARC increases continuously, whereas, the stress values of the roof and floor and the gob-side are small. The stress value and caving step distance of roof cutting side of working face are less than those without roof cutting. The stress of stope and RFARC tends to be stable when the working face is lagged 80 m. The combined supporting measures composed of constant resistance and large deformation (CRLD) anchor cable, hydraulic prop and unit support can effectively control the deformation of RFARC. This work provides an effective and economical method to non-pillar mining affected by ORCP in close distance coal seam.

To achieve China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, conducting systematic research on the energy, economy, and emission factors that affect the sustainable development of society is of great significance. This paper first uses the vector error correction model (VECM)-based Granger causality test to analyze the joint causal relations and feedback correction mechanisms among energy consumption, economic growth, and CO

BackgroundGenetic factors and muscle strength both contribute to the risk of major depressive disorder (MDD), but whether high muscle strength can offset the risk of MDD with different genetic risk is unknown. This study aims to examine whether a higher muscle strength is associated with lower risk of MDD regardless of genetic risk among middle-aged and older adults.MethodsThis cohort study obtained data from the UK Biobank, which includes 345,621 individuals aged 40–69 years (mean (standard deviation): 56.7 (7.99) years) without baseline MDD. Polygenic risk score for MDD was categorised as low, intermediate or high. The mean of the right- and left-hand grip strength values was used in the analysis and was divided into three categories.Results9,753 individuals developed MDD within 2,752,461 person-years of follow-up. The multivariable adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) (95% confidence intervals (CIs)) of MDD across increased grip strength categories were 1.00, 0.72 (0.68–0.75) and 0.56 (0.53–0.59) (P for trend ConclusionsBoth muscle strength and genetic risk were significantly associated with incident MDD. A higher muscle strength was associated with a lower MDD risk among individuals with a high genetic risk. Improving muscle strength should be encouraged for all individuals, including individuals with high genetic risk for MDD.

ContextThyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), as the most sensitive and specific marker of thyroid status, is associated with multiple health outcomes, including mortality. However, whether TSH levels are causally associated with the risk of mortality remains unclear.ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the causal association between TSH levels and all-cause mortality using Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses.MethodsMR analyses using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with TSH levels (P < 5 × 10−8) as instruments. Mortality data were obtained from the UK Biobank, including 384 344 participants who were recruited from 22 assessment centers across the UK taken between 2006 and 2010. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the association of the TSH genetic risk score (GRS) with all-cause and cause-specific mortality.Results15 557 individuals died during a median of 9.00 years of follow-up in the UK Biobank. A total of 70 SNPs were included in the MR analysis. The main MR analyses showed that 1 SD increase in TSH was associated with a decreased risk of all-cause mortality (OR 0.972, 95% CI 0.948-0.996), which may be largely attributed to respiratory disease mortality (OR 0.881, 95% CI 0.805-0.963). The multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) (95% CI) of all-cause mortality across 3 TSH GRS categories were 1.00 (reference), 0.976 (0.940-1.014), and 0.947 (0.911-0.985), respectively (P for trend < .01). Moreover, except digestive diseases mortality, genetically predicted TSH levels were negatively associated with mortality from CVD, cancer, noncancer diseases causes, and dementia, although not statistically significant.ConclusionHigher TSH levels were causally associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality, which may be largely attributed to respiratory disease mortality.

The present work investigated the differences in the composition and internal microstructure of four types gypsum rock—fiber gypsum, transparent gypsum, alabaster, and ordinary gypsum by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope and Brazilian split test, and analyzed its effects on the tensile strength and fracture characteristics of gypsum rock. For alabaster, fiber gypsum, transparent gypsum, and ordinary gypsum, CaSO4·2H2O is the main component with 72.78%, 72.72%, 72.57%, and 71.51% content, and tensile strength of 1.79, 2.22, 3.22, and 4.35 MPa, respectively. In addition, the fracture line is arc-shaped, vertical, and zigzag for fiber gypsum, ordinary and transparent gypsums, and alabaster, respectively. On the microscopic level, fiber gypsum has an evident striated structure while the gradual increased pore development for alabaster, transparent gypsum, and ordinary gypsum. Gypsum rock has an obvious layered crystal structure with the increase of CaSO4·2H2O, contributing to the phenomenon with a larger grain size and lower tensile strength. In addition, the number of particles for alabaster, transparent gypsum, and ordinary gypsum increased in turn, while their particle size decreased uniformly, indicating that the lower CaSO4·2H2O content, the more sufficient energy accumulation and release. This paper can provide a theoretical basis for the analysis of the mechanical properties of rocks with different mineral composition and contribute to the design for different ore grades mining.

The support system of “the top protection layer and remained pillar” left by gypsum mine easily loses its bearing capacity due to the water-weakening effect, contributing to the geological disasters. In this paper, uniaxial compression tests are carried out to estimate the evolution of mechanical properties with the change of immersion time for gypsum rock. The results show that the uniaxial compressive strength and tensile strength decrease gradually with the increase of immersion time. After that, the energy evolution law of gypsum rock with different immersion time under one-dimensional loading is explored, proving that the input energy, elastic energy, and dissipative energy decrease totally with the immersion time. A damage constitutive model based on the energy dissipation is used to describe the damage characteristics of gypsum rock subjected to the water-weakening effect and uniaxial loading, and the model is verified to be in good agreement with the experiment results. The influence of water immersion on the failure of gypsum rock is discussed from the mesoscopic and macroscopic perspectives, which shows that the meso defects in the rock develop gradually; however, the macro failure has a transition process of “shear to split, and finally to the mix of shear and split”. It can be reached a conjecture by the analysis of experiment results and of previous studies that the water–rock weakening mechanism of gypsum rock may include the special hydrophilic effect of calcium sulfate dihydrate molecular structure, the micro-dynamic response caused by the change of pore water content, and the swelling effect of water-absorbing minerals. This paper has specific research and reference value to understand the damage evolution characteristics of rock under water–rock interaction.

In order to explore the influence of water content on the mechanical properties and failure characteristics of tuff, uniaxial compression experiments are conducted for tuff with different drying times. The tuff samples are divided into three groups by different drying time named group #, group H and group G, with the drying time increasing in turn. The change rate of water content (WCR) in group H increases linearly with drying time, while that in group G increases steeply first and then slowly, and finally tends to be stable with the mean of WCR at 2.58%. The WCR of tuff is negatively correlated with the mechanical parameters such as the uniaxial compressive strength, and is directly proportional to the coefficient CV of the discreteness in mechanical parameters for each group samples, which means that the lower the WCR, the higher the tuff strength, and the smaller the discreteness in mechanical parameters of same group rock samples. The coincident degree of the stress–strain curves of rock samples in group # and group H is high at the fracture compaction stage, while the difference is obvious in the curves of tuff sample for group G. The rock samples of group # are affected by the pore water pressure, and the microscopic tensile failure characteristics are significant. The specimens of group # show a “shear-tension” mixed failure, and the samples in group H and group G are affected by the localized defects to appear shear failure.

Inflammation plays a crucial role in the formation of benign breast disease. Given the limited study to explore the association between leukocyte as an indicator of immune system and benign breast disease, we used data from a large cross-sectional study to investigate association between leukocyte and its subtypes and benign breast disease among women in the general population. The data were derived from baseline data of the Tianjin chronic low-grade systemic inflammation and health (TCLSIH) cohort study during 2014 and 2016. Breast thickness and nodules status were assessed by using ultrasonography. Leukocyte and its subtype counts were carried out using the automated hematology analyzer. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between leukocyte and its subtypes and prevalence of benign breast disease. In the present study, the prevalence of benign breast disease was 20.9%. After adjustments for potentially confounding factors, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for benign breast disease across lymphocyte quintiles were as follows: 1.00 (reference), 0.99 (0.82, 1.2), 0.85 (0.69, 1.04), 0.84 (0.68, 1.02), and 0.75 (0.61, 0.92) (P for trend = 0.002). An inverse association between lymphocyte counts and benign breast disease was found, but leukocyte and other subtypes have nothing to do with benign breast disease. Further prospective studies are needed to determine the findings.

In this study, to explore the effects of the loading rate and sample sizes on the mechanical properties of rock, uniaxial compression experiments are conducted for mudstone with two different sample sizes and loading rates to obtain its mechanical properties and failure characteristics. Results show that mechanical parameters such as the compressive strength and elastic modulus obtained at a loading rate of 0.01 mm/s are higher than those obtained at a loading rate of 0.001 mm/s. Moreover, the mechanical parameters of rock samples in group A (Φ50 × 100 mm2) are higher than those in group B (Φ25 × 50 mm2) at the loading rate of 0.01 mm/s, whereas it is the opposite at the 0.001 mm/s loading rate. At the same loading rate, the strain of rock samples in group A is slightly higher than that of group B in the fracture compaction stage, while the difference is trivial for rock samples with the same size under different loading rates. The dispersion degree of the stress–strain curve under the 0.001 mm/s loading rate is greater than that under the 0.01 mm/s loading rate for both groups, and the local failure characteristics can be observed from the pre-peak curve. A positive and logarithmic relationship is observed between the pre-peak strain energy and compressive strength. Under the 0.01 mm/s loading rate, the rock samples show only shear failure, whereas the mixed shear-splitting failure is observed under the 0.001 mm/s loading rate with extensive fracture development and multiple failure surfaces, indicating that the internal energy release is more stable and completed.

Background As a recognized risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), hyperlipidemia (HLP) has developed into a high incidence disease that seriously threatens human health. Finding a new target for effective treatment of HLP will be a powerful way to reduce the incidence of CVD. The purpose of this study was to find potential biomarkers in urine of HLP patients and analyze their metabolic pathways to study the pathogenesis of HLP. Methods An UPLC-Q-TOF/MS technology was used to detect the metabolites in urine of 60 HLP patients and 60 normal controls. Based on PLS-DA pattern recognition, potential biomarkers related to HLP were screened out. Results 22 potential biomarkers related to HLP were identified, which involved amino acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, steroid hormone metabolism and intestinal flora metabolism, and their possible pathogenesis was found to be related to inflammatory reaction and oxidative stress. Conclusion The non-targeted metabolomic method based on UPLC-Q-TOF/MS technology can effectively identify potential biomarkers in the urine of HLP patients and explore the possible pathogenesis. Our research will lay a foundation for finding new targets for the treatment of HLP and provide a basis for clinical research on the treatment of HLP.

A three-dimensional element-free Galerkin method (EFG) based on the Strain-Rotation (S-R) decomposition theorem, named 3D-SR-EFG, is developed to investigate the nonlinear bending behavior of functionally graded carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) plates. Due to its overcoming the deficiencies of classic finite deformation theories, S-R decomposition theorem can provide a reliable theoretical support for the geometrically nonlinear simulation. The incremental variational formulation based on the S-R decomposition theorem for three-dimensional static large deformation problems is derived from the updated co-moving coordinate formulation and principle of potential energy rate. Global weak-form EFG is adopted to obtain the discrete form of the formulation. Convergence and comparison studies are conducted to validate the numerical stability and accuracy of the proposed 3D-SR-EFG. The influences of volume fraction and distributions of CNTs, plate’s aspect ratio and width-to-thickness ratio, boundary conditions on the nonlinear bending response of the CNTRC plates are numerically analyzed and discussed in parametric studies. Results demonstrate that the 3D-SR-EFG can effectively predict the nonlinear bending behavior of the CNTRC plates. This work also further extends the applications of the S-R decomposition theorem.

There is an obvious impact effect of on-site blasting on the slope coal mass of open-pit mines, so it is of great significance to study the dynamic mechanical response characteristics of coal rock for slope stability control. In this paper, first, the mineral composition and microstructure of lignite from open-pit mine are analyzed, and it is found that the content of non-organic minerals in lignite such as clay accounts for more than 24.40%; meanwhile, the rock sample has obvious horizontal bedding characteristics and mainly micro pores and transition pores inside; further, there are obvious banded areas with high water content in the rock, which has the same extending direction as the beddings. Based on the SHPB test system, the dynamic compression tests of lignite with different impact velocities are carried out. The results show that there is a significant hardening effect caused by the increase of strain rate on the dynamic mechanical parameters of rock samples, and the stress–strain curve has obvious “double peak” characteristics; meanwhile, the macroscopic crack of the rock appears at the first stress peak and disappears after further compression until the interlayer fracture occurs; further, the fracture fractal dimension of lignite increases linearly with the impact velocity, revealing that the fragmentation of rock samples increases gradually. In addition, with the increase of impact velocity, the input energy and dissipated energy of rock samples increase linearly, while the elastic property increases slowly and at a low level. The bedding characteristics of lignite and the wave impedance difference between the layers cause the high-reflection phenomenon in the process of stress-wave propagation, and then produce the obvious tensile stress wave in the rock sample, which finally results in the interlayer fracture failure of the rock.

Graphical abstract Carbon emissions from tourism are an important indicator to measure the impact of tourism on environmental quality. As the world’s largest industry, tourism has many related industries and is a strong driver of energy consumption. The emission reductions it can achieve will directly determine whether China’s overall carbon emission reduction target can be met. This paper analyzes the drivers of the evolution of carbon emissions from the tourism industry in China over the period 2000–2017 as a research sample using the Generalized Dividing Index Method (GDIM), and on this basis, it uses scenario analysis and Monte Carlo simulation to predict the carbon peak in tourism for the first time. The research results show that the scale of industry and energy consumption are the key factors leading to increased tourism carbon emissions, and the carbon intensity of tourism industry, energy consumption carbon intensity, investment efficiency, and energy intensity are the main factors leading to reduced carbon emissions from tourism. The scale of investment and the carbon intensity of investment have a dual effect; the scenario analysis and Monte Carlo simulation used to predict peak carbon in China’s tourism industry show that the peak carbon will occur approximately in 2030. The government needs to further guide and encourage the tourism industry to increase investment activities targeting energy conservation and emission reduction. Under the conditions of strictly implementing energy conservation and emission reduction measures and vigorous promotion of the transformation and upgrading of tourism development methods, the tourism industry will have considerable potential to reduce carbon emissions.

Traffic classification has been widely used in network security and network management. Previous research has focused on mapping network traffic to different non­-encrypted applications, However, there are few researches on network traffic classification of encryption applications, especially the underlying traffic of encryption application. In order to solve the above problems, this paper proposes a network encrypted traffic classification model which combines attention mechanism with spatial and temporal characteristics. The model first uses LSTM (Long Short­Term Memory) to analyze the time series of the continuous network flows and find out the time characteristics between the network flows. Secondly, CNN(Convolutional Neural Network) is used to extract the high­-order spatial features of the network flow, and then the high-­order spatial features are weighted and redistributed through the SE(Squeeze­ and­ Excitation)module to obtain the key spatial features of encrypted traffic. Finally, through the two-­stage training and learning , fast classification of network flow is achieved. The main advantages of this model are as follows: 1) the mapping relationship between network flow and corresponding labels is constructed end­-to­-end without manual extraction of network flow characteristics; 2)It has a powerful generalization ability which is able to be compatible with different types of data sets; 3) there is still a high recognition rate for encryption application and the underlying traffic of encryption application. The experimental results show that this model can be well qualified for the classification of non­-encrypted and encrypted application, moreover, greatly improves the classification accuracy of the underlying traffic of encryption application.

In recent years, using metabolomics technology to study hypertension has made some progress. However, in actual clinical studies, there are few studies on hypertension related metabonomics with human urine as samples. In this study, the urine samples of patients with essential hypertension (EH) were studied by comparing with healthy people to explore the changes of urine metabolites between hypertensive patients and healthy people in order to find potential biomarkers and metabolic pathways.An ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) technology was used to analyze the urine metabolites of 75 cases of essential hypertension group (EH) and 75 cases of healthy control group (HC).According to the PLS-DA pattern recognition analysis, substances with significant differences (P .05) between the EH group and the HC group were screened out, including 10 potential biomarkers such as L-methionine. The metabolic pathways involved were amino acid metabolism, fatty acid metabolism steroid hormone, biosynthesis and oxidative stress.The non-targeted metabolomics based on UPLC-Q-TOF/MS technology can effectively identify the differential metabolites of potential biomarkers in the urine of essential hypertensive patients and provide a theoretical basis for the treatment of clinical hypertension.

Dynamic model was theoretically established for the two parallel-connected constant-resistance-large-deformation (CRLD) bolts, and the theoretical results were experimentally verified with impact tensile tests on the CRLD bolts samples. The dynamic responses of the double CRLD bolts were investigated under the impact loads with different intensities. The theoretical analyses showed that (1) under relatively small loading the CRLD bolts deform elastically and the deformation finally returns to zero and (2) under the high impact load, including the stable impact load and unstable impact load, the CRLD bolts export structural deformation after the initial elastic deformation. The deformation of the bolts eventually stabilizes at a certain amount of the elongation caused by the relative sliding of the sleeves and rebars. The essential difference between the stable impact load and unstable impact load is that, under the stable impact load, no structural deformation will occur after the impact load ends; under the unstable impact load, the structural deformation will still occur after the impact load ends. The obtained results are of theoretical implications for rock support design with CRLD bolts under the dynamical loading condition.

Evidence suggests long-term chronic inflammation, as the pathological basis of formation and development, plays an important part in atherosclerosis. Immunoglobulins (Igs) provided key information on the humoral immune status. However, few studies have evaluated the correlation between Igs and hypertension and blood pressure (BP) in a general population. We designed a cross-sectional study to evaluate whether serum Ig levels are related to BP and the prevalence of hypertension. About 12,373 participants in Tianjin, China were recruited for this study. Hypertension was diagnosed according to the criteria of the JNC 7 and serum levels of Igs were determined by the immunonephelometric technique. Multiple logistic regression analysis and analysis of covariance were used to assess relationships between serum Ig concentrations and the prevalence of hypertension and BP. The overall prevalence of hypertension was 35.5%. The means (standard deviation) of immunoglobulins [immunoglobulin G (IgG), immunoglobulin E (IgE), immunoglobulin M (IgM), and immunoglobulin A (IgA)] were 1206.0 (249.0) mg/dL, 93.8 (235.4) IU/mL, 105.3 (56.8) mg/dL, and 236.7 (98.1) mg/dL, respectively. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of hypertension for the highest immunoglobulins (IgG, IgE, IgM, and IgA) quintile, when compared to the lowest quintile were 1.10 (0.96-1.26), 1.04 (0.91-1.19), 0.83 (0.72-0.96), and 1.32 (1.15-1.51), respectively. Decreased IgM and increased IgG and IgA were related to a higher prevalence of hypertension. IgM was negatively correlated with BP, while IgG and IgA were positively correlated with BP.

To investigate the association between red cell distribution width (RDW) and elevation of glucose/glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c).An analysis was conducted using data from a prospective cohort study of adults. People without prediabetes or diabetes (n=7,795) were followed for a mean of 2.90years (range: 1-7years, 95% confidence interval: 2.86-2.94years). Glucose elevation is defined as fasting glucose levels exceeding 5.6mmol/l, or 2-hour glucose values in the oral glucose tolerance test exceeding 7.8mmol/l. HbA1c elevation is defined as a HbA1c value exceeding a normal limit of 39mmol/mol (5.7%). Adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to assess the association between RDW quartiles and elevation of HbA1c/glucose.The multiple-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of HbA1c elevation for increased quartiles of RDW were 1.00 (reference), 1.08 (0.89, 1.30), 1.28 (1.07, 1.54), and 1.54 (1.29, 1.85) (P for trend0.0001). However, no significant association was observed between RDW and blood glucose (fasting and postprandial).Elevated RDW is independently related to future HbA1c elevation, but not to glucose elevation. This suggests that RDW may associate with HbA1c through a non-glycemic way, which should be taken into consideration when using HbA1c as a diagnostic criterion of prediabetes or diabetes.

Aims Prediabetes has received public attention owing to the increasing prevalence worldwide. Mounting evidence has indicated that inflammation directly contributed to the etiology of glucose metabolism disorders. Although immunoglobulins play a crucial role in immune responses, little research has been done on the link between immunoglobulins and prediabetes in adults. Hence, the aim of the present study was to explore the associations between immunoglobulins levels and prevalence of prediabetes in a general adult population. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 8856 adults (mean ± standard deviation age: 48.4 ± 10.7 years) in Tianjin, China. The serum immunoglobulins concentrations were measured by the immunonephelometric technique. Prediabetes was diagnosed using the following parameters in accordance with the American Diabetes Association: fasting plasma glucose, postprandial glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin. The associations between concentrations of immunoglobulins and the prevalence of prediabetes were assessed using multiple logistic regression models. Results Overall, the prevalence of prediabetes was 37.4% (3311/8856). After controlling for confounders, compared with the lowest quintile, the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of prediabetes for the highest quintile of immunoglobulins (immunoglobulin G, immunoglobulin E, immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin A) were as follows: 1.06 (0.91–1.23), 1.31 (1.13–1.52), 0.86 (0.74–1.01), and 1.19 (1.03–1.38) (P for trend were 0.35, Conclusions Elevated immunoglobulin E and immunoglobulin A levels were independently and positively associated with prediabetes prevalence. There was also a trending association between immunoglobulin M concentrations and prediabetes prevalence. Further studies are necessary to clarify if there is a causal association of immunoglobulins in prediabetes or if they reflect early immunologic disturbances in these patients.

Previous studies have supported the theory that there is a positive association between ferritin and carotid atherosclerosis in Western people. Diet plays an important role in determining serum ferritin concentration. Asian dietary patterns are different from Western dietary patterns, implying that there may be a difference in the association of ferritin with carotid atherosclerosis between Asian and Western people. However, few studies focus on the association between ferritin and carotid atherosclerosis among Asians. The aim of this study was to investigate how serum ferritin levels are associated with carotid atherosclerosis in an Asian adult population. A cross-sectional assessment was performed in 8302 adults in Tianjin, China. Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and plaques were assessed using ultrasonography, and serum ferritin was measured using the protein chip-chemiluminescence method. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between quartiles of serum ferritin concentration and carotid atherosclerosis. In the present study, the overall prevalence of IMT and carotid plaques in participants is 29·2 and 22·7 %, respectively. In women, after adjustments for potentially confounding factors, the OR of IMT and carotid plaques by increasing serum ferritin quartiles were 1·00, 1·39 (95 % CI 0·98–1·99), 1·39 (95 % CI 0·99–1·97), 1·81 (95 % CI 1·30–2·55) (Pfor trendPfor trend

Coronary heart disease (CHD) threatens human health. The discovery and assessment of potential biometabolic markers for different syndrome types of CHD may contribute to decipher pathophysiological mechanisms and identify new targets for diagnosis and treatment. On the basis of UPLC-Q-TOF/MS metabolomics technology, urine samples of 1072 participants from nine centers, including normal control, phlegm and blood stasis (PBS) syndrome and Qi and Yin deficiency (QYD) syndrome, and other syndromes of CHD, were conducted to find biomarkers. Among them, the discovery set ( n = 125) and the test set ( n = 337) were used to identify and validate biomarkers, and the validation set ( n = 610) was used for the application and evaluation of the support vector machine (SVM) prediction model. We discovered 15 CHD-PBS syndrome biomarkers and 12 CHD-QYD syndrome biomarkers, and the receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) area-under-the-curve (AUC) values of them were 0.963 and 0.990. The established SVM model has a good diagnostic ability and can well distinguish the two syndromes of CHD with a high predicted accuracy98.0%. The discovery of biomarkers and metabolic pathways in different syndrome types of CHD provides a basis for the diagnosis and evaluation of CHD, thereby improving the accurate diagnosis and precise treatment level of Chinese medicine.

Introduction Acupoint stimulation (AS) is used in treating patients with cancer for a variety of indications and may affect the body's immune function. This systematic review aimed to investigate the effects of clinical AS on T-lymphocyte subsets and natural killer (NK) cells in patients with malignant tumors. Methods A search was conducted for randomized controlled trials (RCT) published between 1.1.1990 and 10.2. 2020 in English, Chinese, Korean and Japanese databases. RCTs were included if the studies had: more than 30 participants, the control was placebo/usual care, AS was the primary intervention and a primary outcome of T-cell subgroup percentage or NK cell percentage was measured by peripheral blood flow cytometry. A random-effects model was applied where I2≥50%, as heterogeneity was high. For other cases, the fixed-effects model was applied. Results A total of 18 studies with 980 patients were included in the systematic review. The results showed that AS could significantly increase the number of CD4+ cells in the peripheral blood of all patients with cancer (chemotherapy group: mean difference (MD): 2.58; 95% CI: 0.09–5.08, I2 = 77%; and non-chemotherapy group: MD: 6.46; 95% CI: 2.12–10.80, I2 = 90%). In the non-chemotherapy group, AS could increase the number of CD3+ cells (MD: 9.34; 95% CI: 5.26–13.41, I2 = 84%), and NK cells (MD: 5.88; 95% CI: 0.90–10.86, I2 = 94%) in the peripheral blood. In addition, acupuncture could increase the number of CD3+ (MD: 12.21; 95% CI: 3.79 to 20.64, I2 = 91%), CD4+ (MD: 7.68; 95% CI: 0.31 to 15.04, I2= 88%) and CD8+ (MD: 2.55; 95% CI: 0.55 to 4.55, I2 = 0%) cells., while warm acupuncture could significantly increase the number of NK cells (MD: 2.58; 95% CI: 1.20–3.96, I2 = 0%). However, the incomplete record of the adverse effects, the difference in frequency and duration of AS and the low evidence level limited our conclusion. Conclusion AS increased the number of CD4+ cells in the peripheral blood and moderated other immune cells benefiting the immune system of patients with cancer. (PROSPERO ID is CRD42020167842).

A comprehensive understanding of the relationships among carbon emissions, the industrial structure and economic growth holds great significance for China’s transition to a low-carbon economy, industrial structure optimization, and achievement of energy conservation and emission reduction targets. We selected six major industrial sectors (agriculture, industry, construction, transportation, retail and accommodation and other industries) as research objects, introduced the extended STIRPAT decomposition model, Tapio decoupling model and the grey relation analysis to discuss the relationship among the three. Results showed that (i) since 2000, the proportions of value added of agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation are negatively correlated with carbon emissions, while those of construction, retail and accommodation, and other industries are positively correlated with carbon emissions. (ii) The overall economic growth and carbon emissions of these six major industries have experienced the process of decoupling-coupling-decoupling-coupling-decoupling. (iii) The relevance of these six industries to GDP is ranked as follows: transportation > manufacturing > retail andaccommodation > agriculture > construction > other industries. Additionally, accelerating the achievement of a clean energy structure, strengthening the strength and speed of industrial structure adjustment and reducing the dependence on fossil energy are the key steps for China to reach carbon emissions peak goal.

Background: Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) angina pectoris are in critical condition, which can cause sudden death, myocardial infarction, and other adverse events, and bring serious burden to families and society. Timely treatment should be given to improve the condition. Western medicine treatment of angina pectoris failed to meet the demand of angina symptom control. Objective: It is hoped that the research method with higher evidential value will be adopted to compare the short-term, medium-term, and long-term effects of Chinese patent medicine combined with conventional western medicine and conventional western medicine alone in the treatment of CHD angina pectoris, so as to tap the clinical efficacy advantages of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and provide reliable data support for its clinical application. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted among patients with CHD angina pectoris who were treated with oral Chinese patent medicine and conventional western medicine. The patients were divided into exposed group and nonexposed group according to whether or not the patients with CHD angina pectoris were treated with Chinese patent medicine. The exposed group was treated with TCM combined with conventional western medicine, while the nonexposed group was treated with conventional western medicine alone. Patients need to be hospitalized for 2 weeks as the introduction period and whether to enter the group is determined according to the treatment and medication conditions of the patients. The follow-up time points were 0th, 4th, 12th, 24th, and 48th weeks. The main events and secondary events were used as the evaluation criteria for clinical efficacy of CHD angina pectoris. In the experimental study, we will use strict indicators to detect standard operation procedure for multinomics and bacterial flora detection. Conclusion: This study will provide evidence for the clinical efficacy advantages of Chinese patent medicine and reliable support for its clinical application through test data.

Although we have found that protease-treated royal jelly (pRJ) benefit for the skeletal muscle mass and strength in the aged animals, the potential beneficial effects have not been evaluated in humans. The aim of this study was to determine whether pRJ intake had beneficial effects on muscle strength in elderly nursing home residents. One hundred and ninety-four subjects enrolled into this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Subjects received either placebo(Group 1), pRJ 1.2 g/d(Group 2), or 4.8 g/d(Group 3). Data through 1 year are reported for 163 subjects. The primary outcome measure is handgrip strength. Secondary outcomes include several physical performance tests (six-minute walk test, timed up and go test, and standing on one leg with eyes closed). The dropout rate was 16.0%. The means (95% confidence interval) of change in handgrip strength for placebo, low-dose, and high-dose groups are −0.98(−2.04,0.08), 0.50(−0.65,1.65) and 1.03(−0.37,2.44) kg (P = 0.06, P for trend = 0.02), respectively. No significant effects of the interventions were observed for physical performances. These findings suggest that pRJ treatment might not improve, but rather attenuate the progression of decrease in muscle strength in elderly people. In addition, we have not found that pRJ intervention can achieve improvement or attenuating the decrease in physical performance.

In pH 4.2–5.2 HOAc-NaOAc buffer solution, Ag+ reacted with dihalogenated fluorescein (DHF) dyes to form a 1:2 anionic complex. This anionic complex could further react with hyoscine butylbromide (HBB) to form 1:1 ion-association complex, which resulted in the significant enhancement of resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) intensity. Therefore, a novel method for the determination of HBB by resonance Rayleigh scattering (RRS) coupled with flow injection analysis (FIA) technique has been established. The present method had been applied to determine HBB in capsules and the results were in good agreement with those obtained by the literature method.

In 0.1 molL(-1) (pH 1.0) HCl medium, 12-tungstophosphoric acid (TP) reacted with malachite green (MG) to form an ion-association complex. As a result, the new spectra of RRS, SOS and FDS appeared and their intensities were enhanced greatly. The maximum wavelengths of RRS, SOS and FDS were located at 334 nm, 586 nm and 330 nm, and the scattering intensities were proportional to the concentration of MG. Based on it a new method for the determination of MG has been established. The detection limits (3σ) of these methods were in the range of 3.7-27 ng mL(-1). The RRS, SOS, and FDS characteristics, absorption spectrum characteristics and optimum reaction conditions of the system were discussed. Effects of coexistent substances were tested, and the results demonstrated that this method had good selectivity. It has been applied to the determination of malachite green residues in fish flesh with satisfactory results. The reaction mechanism and reasons of RRS enhancement are discussed.

In pH 1.0 HCl medium, 12-tungstophosphoric acid (TP) reacted with promethazine hydrochloride (PMZ) and chlorpromazine hydrochloride (CPZ) to form ion-association complexes, which led to a great enhancement of the resonance nonlinear scattering such as second-order scattering (SOS) and frequency doubling scattering (FDS). Their maximum SOS and FDS peaks were located at 585 nm (TP-PMZ), 584 nm (TP-CPZ) and 388 nm (TP-PMZ), 329 nm (TP-CPZ), respectively. These results provided some indication for the determination of PMZ and CPZ by SOS and FDS methods. The linear range of TP-PMZ and TP-CPZ systems were 0.0069-2.5 microg mL(-1), 0.102-5.0 microg mL(-1) (SOS) and 0.079-6.0 microg mL(-1), 0.0133-5.0 microg mL(-1) (FDS), respectively. The detection limits (3sigma) of PMZ and CPZ were 2.08 ng mL(-1), 3.07 ng mL(-1) (SOS) and 2.22 ng mL(-1), 3.98 ng mL(-1) (FDS), respectively. In this work, the optimum reaction conditions, the influences of coexisting substances and ionic strength and analytical application have been investigated. The methods have been successfully applied to the determination of PMZ and CPZ in tablets. In addition, the composition of ion-association complexes and the reaction mechanism are also discussed.

Observations in the field demonstrate that there exist discrepancies between the differential movements predicted from theory and those experienced in practice. From the point of view of structural damage, such discrepancies should be eliminated in order to decrease subsidence damage associated with mining. Using non-linear geometrical field theory, the deformation factors are modified and the limitation of linear elastic theory is established. Only when the rotation angles are smaller than 4° is the application of conventional theory reasonable. A new deformation index, the mean rotation angle, is proposed. The study shows that there exists a relation between the mean rotation angle and the surface cracks. Incompatibility of rotation can initiate cracking. The outcome of the work presented will be helpful in improving the calculation accuracy of predicted differential movements, especially for steeper coal seam extraction, extraction under mountains, ‘top coal caving’ of thick seams, and mining in high relief areas.

(1) State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, No.30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China; (2) School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, No.30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100083, China