Search

Background: The quality of life(QoL) of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome(PSS) is affected by a variety of symptoms, and it is important to comprehensively assess the factors affecting patients' QoL.The PSS-QoL is a specific tool for the assessment of patients' QoL in the PSS. The purpose of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the PSS-QoL for the Chinese language,to establish a QoL assessment tool for PSS patients in Chinese culture and to test the reliability and validity of the PSS-QoL. Methods: Our study period was from January 17, 2024 to June 15, 2024. The study was designed as a two-stage observational study. Double forward and backward translations of the PSS-QoL were performed for cultural adaptation to the Chinese language,and the specific steps included forward and backward translations, coordination, expert correspondence, small-sample surveys, and corrections to form the final draft of the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL. From January 29, 2024 to June 15, 2024,for the evaluation of psychometric properties, 135 patients with PSS completed the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL,Short Form-12(SF-12) and EULAR Sjögren's Syndrome Patient Reported Index (ESSPRI).After 2 to 4 weeks,15 patients with PSS completed the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL for the second time.We used SPSS 26.0 software to statistically analyze the data, including item analysis and reliability and validity tests. Results: The Chinese version of the PSS-QoL consists of 25 questions and can be divided into two main categories: physical (discomfort and dryness) and psychosocial. The mean score on the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL was 40.46±15.00. Among the 135 patients with PSS,92.60% were female, the mean (±SD) age was 52.76±12.74 years, and the disease duration was 5 (1.5, 9) years. There was good differentiation between the individual items and the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL,as the decision value of all the items ranged from -3.223 to -12.234 (p < 0.05), the correlation coefficient between the individual items and the whole questionnaire ranged from 0.315 to 0.730 (p < 0.05), the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL had good reliability and validity,as Cronbach's α = 0.886, the Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0.782,the reliability of the individual items was 0.89,and the values of the I-CVI and S-CVI/AVE were all 1, indicating good psychometric properties. The construct validity between the Chinese version of the PSS-QoL and the ESSPRI was excellent (p = 0.506 ~0.687), and that between the PSS-QoL and the SF-12 was good(p = -0.464 ~ -0.673). Conclusion: The Chinese version of the PSS-QoL possesses good reliability and validity, and all the indicies meet the metrics and satisfy the psychometrically acceptable range;therefore, it can be used as a reliable instrument for assessing the QoL of patients with PSS in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a new binder, polyurethane (PU) is used to overcome the poor durability of porous pavement. This study focuses on the fatigue performance of a porous polyurethane mixture (PPM) under immersion conditions and compares it with a porous asphalt mixture (PAM). The results showed that under the immersion conditions, the initial stiffness of the PPM decreased by approximately 50%. However, the initial stiffness of the PAM was almost unaffected by the immersion conditions. In addition, the PPM exhibited a longer fatigue life under immersion conditions. In comparison, the fatigue life of the PAM decreased. The cracking propagation rate of the PPM decreased under immersion conditions, while the cracking propagation rate of the PAM increased. The fatigue termination condition for the PPM was set to S1 = 0.45S0 (S0 is the initial stiffness, and S1 is the termination stiffness), and that of the PAM was set to S1 = 0.4S0. Compared to the Weibull function, the Chaboche function provides a more accurate description of fatigue damage in the PPM and PAM. From the obtained data, it can be inferred that the fatigue performance of the PPM is far superior to that of the PAM. Therefore, polyurethane has broad application prospects in long-life permeable pavements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence indicates that macrophages play an important role in the immune system. Therefore, research involving inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in macrophages is of great significance. Many factors contribute to inflammation and oxidative stress, including Salmonella. We investigated the effect of the miR-139-5p/TRAF6 axis on the inflammatory and oxidative stress responses of Salmonella -infected macrophages. Our findings revealed that miR-139-5p decreased IL-1β and TNF-α levels to inhibit Salmonella -induced inflammatory responses in the RAW264.7 macrophage cell line. Furthermore, miR-139-5p inhibited Salmonella -induced oxidative stress by strengthening SOD, CAT and GSH-PX activity, as well as lowering the malondialdehyde level in the RAW264.7 macrophages cell line. Subsequently, it was verified that TRAF6 was a downstream target of miR-139-5p in RAW264.7 cells. Rescue assays indicated that the over-expression of miR-139-5p inhibits the effects of TRAF6 on inflammatory and oxidative stress responses including Salmonella infection in RAW264.7 cells. To our knowledge, this study is the first to verify that miR-139-5p inhibits inflammatory and oxidative stress responses of Salmonella -infected macrophages through regulating TRAF6. This discovery may offer new insights on inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in macrophages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of sludge waste from wastewater treatment plants into functional materials is an attractive prospect. Herein, the successful synthesis of mesoporous heteroatom‐doped carbon‐supported NiFe phosphide (FeNi2P@HDC) from Ni‐coagulated iron sludge by forming a biogenic precursor via incubation of the sludge with Shewanella oneidensis MR‐1, followed by a simple pyrolysis process, is reported. The incubation results in the formation of a solid chemical bonding between bacteria and the surface of the newly formed mineral, which is beneficial for producing a desirable microstructure and chemical composition. The as‐synthesized FeNi2P@HDC shows a superior oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance, evident from the data, including a low overpotential of 280 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and a small Tafel slope of 56 mV dec−1 under alkaline conditions, which is comparable with that of the majority of the reported Ni and/or Fe phosphide catalysts in the literature and better than the state‐of‐the‐art RuO2 catalyst. Such a good performance seems to be the result of the synergistic effect of the intrinsic activity of FeNi2P nanoparticles and the strong interaction between FeNi2P and heteroatom‐doped graphene‐like carbon support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a novel DC-centric architecture of telecommunication networks for next generation Internet. Data flow become the major traffic in existing telecommunication networks. Traditional computer networks and telecom networks meet many challenges in high-quality service, innovation, evolution, and management. Based on analysis existing telecom networks’ challenges, a DC-centric telecom network architecture with splitting the data plane from the control plane is proposed. The DC-centric telecom network is a widely-distributed data center network (DCN), which is composed of thousands of public or private DCs. Each DC not only plays the role of storage and computing, but also is a network node of data aggregation, switching, and routing. We also design an optical switching, which is evaluated by experiment.